Major northeastern snowstorms expected to continue with climate change







Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 25, 2019





Even though climate change is expected to reduce the total amount of U.S. snowfall this century, it's unlikely to significantly rein in the most powerful nor'easters that pummel the East Coast, new research indicates. The study finds that smaller snowstorms that drop a few inches will diminish greatly in number by late century. But the most damaging types of storms along the Eastern Seaboard, which strike every few years or so and cause widespread disruption, will remain about as frequent in a war ... read moreGovernor will join TRS, condemns Congress

Hyderabad, Jan 27 (INN): The Congress party has strongly condemned Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan for directly praising ruling party in Telangana in his Republic Day speech.



"The Governor has made multiple references in praise of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and ruling party in his Republic Day speech. He sounded more like a TRS leader than the Constitutional Head of the State, said Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy in a media statement on Sunday.



Gudur Narayana Reddy said that the Governor's speech lacked any vision and it was full of extracts from his own speech made in the Telangana Legislature on January 19. He made specific reference on TRS victory in recent elections twice without taking its name. "Though it is common for the Governors to appreciate a few good things being done by the State Government, but Narasimhan has decided his entire speech to KCR and his team. It appeared that Narasimhan read out a speech written by PRO of TRS party and not by the Raj Bhavan officials. In an apparent bid to please KCR, the Governor certified Telangana as the best welfare State in the country. He even gave wrong figures of spending by the State Government on various schemes. There was not a single reference to issues or challenges concerning common man in Telangana. It will be remembered in history as one of the worst speeches by a Governor," he said.



The Congress leader alleged that Narasimhan has been lobbying hard to get another extension in his term which will expire in June this year. "Narasimhan is already among the longest serving Governors in India. He was appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in December 2009 by the then UPA regime. After the bifurcation, he became the Governor of both the Telugu States. Narasimhan's inclination towards TRS clearly shows that either he is seeking extension of another term or planning to join TRS party immediately after retirement," he said.



Gudur Narayana Reddy said Narasimhan has brought disrespect to his post by not doing his job honestly. "He remained a mute spectator to the open violation of Constitution by the TRS when it engineered defection by 25 opposition MLAs. He never reacted on a single out of hundreds of petition submitted to him by the opposition parties on major issues. He never cross-checked the figures supplied to him by the State Government for his speeches on various occasions. He simply followed the dictats of KCR and never entertained anything against the ruling party," he said.



The Congress leader advised Narasimhan to do a serious introspection on his behaviour and perform his duties as per the Constitution during the last few months left in his term. "He must realise that he represents Raj Bhavan and not TRS Bhavan. Therefore, he must sound and act in a completely impartial manner, he said.









News Posted: 27 January, 2019







Record breaking floods hit north Australia



Cairns, Australia, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



Communities were cut off, farmers stranded and cows washed offshore as heavy rain pelted northeast Australia Sunday, with one major river breaking 118-year-old floodwater records.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Queensland's Daintree River rose to 12.60 meters -- a level not seen in over a century -- and local authorities warned that some residents in remote areas could be cut off for days.

The heritage listed Daintree Rainforest received more than 300 millimetres of rain in just 24 hours and Northern Queensland is bracing for monsoonal conditions for the rest of the week.

Residents in this tropical region of Australia are used to a heavy wet season, but the recent deluge has cut off a ferry line that is the only means of accessing some areas.

Port Douglas Shire Council Mayor, Julia Leu, told AFP those who are still in their homes could be cut off for two days, with no power or phone service.

Meanwhile the conditions have caused havoc for farmers and livestock.

One family of four were stranded on the farm they manage, with live power lines falling into floodwaters.

Local paper Newsport Daily reported the caretakers of the "Tranquility" farm were stuck with their two children for 16 hours until the State Emergency Services helicopter could rescue them.

Residents rushed to a downstream beach to help a handful of livestock washed away by floodwaters.

A number of cows could be seen out at sea or struggling to find their feet on the soft sand of the coastline.

While much of the country has been experiencing a brutal heatwave with record temperatures, the Bureau of Meteorology said the monsoonal conditions will not be easing anytime soon, with thunderstorms and rain forecast for the rest of the week.Letter to the Editor

The efforts been renewed to bond for a new school. . Let me state the problem Everybody, including me, wants a new school, nobody wants to ...AC/DC's former drummer Phil Rudd has sold his Tauranga home to an Auckland businessman who dabbles in music.

The buyer planned to transform part of the ground floor into a recording and rehearsing studio for his own band, says real estate agent Cameron Macneil.

"He's really into his music, so I think he's quite chuffed with the place's history," he says.

The six bedroom, five bathroom apartment with harbour views and five garages sold in the ballpark of its $4.1million asking price.

Cameron, who owns boutique estate agency Oliver Road, said the sale went unconditional on Friday, after the buyer's offer was made in late December. He said the buyer wished to remain anonymous.

Its listing had more than 135,000 views on Trademe  Cameron says it was the site's "most popular property listing ever"  and was added to about 1,700 watchlists.

Slightly more than a dozen potential buyers had been through the 586 square metre house on Harbour Dr, Otumoetai.

"Some were hyper local and just admired the house, but there were definitely some nosey ones," says Cameron.

He says viewers were vetted before setting foot on the property to reduce the number of "tyre kickers just interested in checking out Phil's house".

"We got some unusual requests, like 'could Phil please sign the wall?'"

The house, technically two apartments, had been owned and occupied by Phil for the past nine years.

It was also where Phil served eight months home detention in 2015 after pleading guilty to charges of drug possession and threatening to kill.

The 64-year-old has become a Tauranga local, having lived in the Bay of Plenty since the early 1980s. He would stay in the region, but is looking to downsize a bit, says Cameron.

Cameron says Phil was "definitely the most famous person" he'd sold a house for and "really easy to deal with".

"Every now and then you'd have to not pinch yourself, but sort of go 'wow  this guy's in one of the world's top five rock bands of all time'."

In 2014, it was reported that property records suggested Phil's New Zealand portfolio and fleet of luxury vehicles alone are worth at least $8-10million.

Settlement for the Tauranga property was "in a few months' time", says Cameron.

Its new owner had family in Tauranga and wanted to semi-retire there with his wife.

-Stuff.co.nz/Amanda Saxton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.President Trump might want to pay attention to the approaching anniversary of the mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which falls the day before he might shut down the government again if he doesnt get his wall. More Americans were killed in Parkland, Florida that day inside our borders by an American citizen than were killed all year by alleged hordes of foreign terrorists invading our country from Mexico. Perhaps Trumps wall is just one more fake issue to distract the public from the real danger of mass shootings inside our borders.As a native of Broward and someone who feels this project had a lot of merit when it was first presented, Im deeply disappointed in the lack of receptivity shown by AHF in building a strong base of local support, alliance president and CEO Bob Swindell said in a statement. Im confident that friends and neighbors in Rio Vista could have gotten behind supporting this project if they had been provided accurate information from the start and if they had been properly consulted at the beginning.Cops say Siwiak left his Far Rockaway, Queens, apartment that night and took the A train to Brooklyn. He was supposed to meet a contact from the employment agency that helped him land the East Flatbush job, but Siwiak instead wound up nearly 4 miles away in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He exited at the Utica Ave. station and made his way to Albany Ave., where he turned right instead of left.This little one was lost in the woods for days in the freezing temperatures, rain, dark nights and wind, the fundraising campaign reads. He told us that his best friend the bear was with him to keep him safe. Thanks to Gods mercy he came home to us alive and well.Koch said the new meetings are only for parents and guardians of students in specific grades. No one else will be allowed to attend, Koch said, and identification will be required for admission. She said the intent is to have School Board Member Lori Alhadeff attend as many meetings as possible.The collaboration of building this temple will help to reduce feelings of isolation that may have cropped up [since the shooting], said Julia Andrews, executive director of the Coral Springs Museum of Art. We are hopeful it will give them the means to express their grief, or their sadness or their anger. This is how we are looking at the power of art to heal.Yes, funds are currently in the legal defense fund. We have attained money and will expect the funding to continue to be raised, Kuehne told the Miami Herald on Saturday. The names and contribution amounts are not public at this time, but fighting the state of Florida and defending the sheriffs suspension is likely to be an expensive proposition.A couple times each week well post a Quick Smoke: not quite a full review, just our brief verdict on a single cigar of buy, hold, or sell.

Introduced at the 2018 IPCPR Trade Show, Legend is the newest line extension from General Cigars non-Cuban Partagas brand. The cigar features a Connecticut Broadleaf wrapper around a Honduran Olancho San Agustin binder and Dominican Piloto Cubano filler. The medium- to full-bodied cigar features woodsy flavors with black coffee and leather notes. Combustion is flawless, and while it isnt my favorite non-Cuban Partagas, its worth checking out.

Verdict = Buy.

Patrick S

photo credit: Stogie GuysAshtabula, OH (44004)

Today

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 63F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Kremlin denies reports Russia mercenaries protecting Maduro



Moscow, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



The Kremlin on Sunday denied news reports that Russian private military contractors were in Venezuela to protect embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Several Russian and international media outlets have reported about Russian mercenaries sent to Venezuela to help Maduro who is under international pressure to hold elections.

Asked on television about whether there were "400 of our fighters protecting Maduro" in Venezuela, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded: "No of course not."

The Russian ambassador to Caracas also dismissed reports of Russian mercenaries in Venezuela.

On Friday, a self-proclaimed Cossack leader close to army veterans said a private military contractors group recently returned from Gabon had "urgently" got together "400 people" to send to Caracas via Cuba.

Yevgeny Shabayev, leader of a local chapter of a paramilitary group of Cossacks, said he had been contacted by relatives of the men because the objectives of the mission to Venezuela were "not clear".

Maduro is under pressure to hold elections after the United States, Canada and some South American governments recognised opposition rival Juan Guaido as acting president.Near IS holdout, Syrian fighters face women suicide bombers



Baghouz, Syria, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



Driving towards the frontline of what remains of the Islamic State group's self-declared "caliphate" in eastern Syria, US-backed fighters pass huge craters from air strikes and buildings reduced to rubble.

Backed by air strikes of the US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are battling to expel IS from a few hamlets in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

But cornered in a final remote pocket of territory near the Iraqi border, the jihadists are staging a fierce fightback, hiding in tunnels and deploying suicide bombers -- including women.

Listening to Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum, SDF fighters drive along a desert road towards a string of villages retaken in recent weeks from the jihadists.

"The Islamic State has surrendered," reads graffiti scrawled across the wall of a small house at the entrance to the deserted village of Shaafa.

Nearby, a cart once used to sell fruit and vegetables lies abandoned.

The armoured car continues southwards, to where the Kurdish-led SDF is battling to secure the last patch of the village of Baghouz from the jihadists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights this week said the village had been retaken, but SDF commanders on the ground say some IS fighters still remain, and are fighting back hard.

"Two women blew themselves up near our position," an SDF official tells AFP.

"We saw them come towards us dressed in black. They cried 'God is greatest' and then blew themselves up," he says, giving his name as Damat.



- 'Cornered' -



Aram Jaweesh, a commander in the SDF, says five women blew themselves up in various parts of Baghouz on Saturday, killing one SDF member and wounding three others.

IS suicide bombers are usually men, but some women have carried out such operations in Iraq.

From a rooftop, Jaweesh oversees operations, issuing instructions to his fighters in Kurdish through a walkie-talkie that never leaves his side.

A few streets away, armoured cars from the international coalition rumble by.

SDF advances in recent weeks have whittled away at the last pocket of Syrian territory the group controls, and Jaweesh says the noose is tightening around IS.

"They're cornered between the Iraqi border on one side and the SDF on the other," he says.

Late Saturday, four more suicide bombers killed 11 SDF fighters, according to the Britain-based Observatory, while a further 19 jihadists lost their lives in air strikes.

Coalition war planes zip across the skies above Baghouz.

A blast resonates, then a mushroom cloud of smoke rises above its houses.



- Civilian exodus -



On the roof, an SDF fighter points to another spot in the village.

"Look, civilians are coming out," he says.

Thousands of people, mostly relatives of IS fighters, have fled the ever-shrinking IS pocket in recent weeks.

When they reach SDF-held territory, those who are suspected of being fighters are detained for questioning, while relatives are ferried north to Kurdish-run camps.

IS swept across large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, declaring a "caliphate" there and ruling it with a brutal version of Islamic law.

It has since lost almost all of it to various offensives.

Earlier this week, the SDF's commander-in-chief told AFP that his forces would have flushed out the last shreds of the quasi-state within a month.

Leaving Baghouz, the armoured car drives into the dark, cold desert, traditional Kurdish songs now blasting from its speakers.

Jaweesh says the battle has yet to be won -- the jihadists may be encircled in a small area, but they are still launching rockets and drones.

"Every time our forces lead an assault, they emerge from tunnels and blow themselves up," he says.Boko Haram attacks military bases in northeast Nigeria



Kano, Nigeria, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



Boko Haram jihadists attacked two military bases in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, injuring six soldiers, two military sources told AFP on Sunday.

The attacks were the latest against military targets in the region with security becoming a major campaign issue ahead of presidential and legislative elections next month.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 on a pledge to end the Islamist insurgency, is seeking re-election in the February 16 polls.

Early on Sunday, troops fought off an attack by fighters believed to be from the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram in the town of Pulka along the border with Cameroon.

"The terrorists attacked around 1:15 am (0015 GMT) and soldiers engaged them in a 30-minute fight, forcing them to withdraw," a military officer said in an account confirmed by another officer.

The fighters' intention was to attack and loot the town after overrunning the base, said the officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Late on Saturday fighters from the same faction attacked another base in Logomani village near the town of Gamboru, leading to a fight that left six soldiers injured.

"Troops came under attack by Boko Haram terrorists who came in four gun trucks around 6:30 pm (1730 GMT)," the second officer told AFP.

"Six soldiers were wounded from bomb fragments," he said.

Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in the region over several months.

On Wednesday and Thursday the jihadists attacked three bases in Borno and neighbouring Yobe states, stealing weapons and burning the bases.

Boko Haram's jihadist insurgency in northeast Nigeria has claimed 27,000 lives since 2009.

More than two million people have also been forced to flee their homes, triggering a humanitarian crisis in the region.Baghdad to summon Turkey envoy over death of Kurdish protester



Baghdad, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



Iraq on Sunday said it would summon the Turkish ambassador over the death of a Kurdish protester after Turkish troops opened fire on demonstrators in the country's northwest.

On Saturday night, Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region of northwestern Iraq to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment.

Witnesses said Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators, causing casualties and damage.

Iraq's foreign ministry on Sunday denounced the incident, saying one person was killed and several others wounded when Turkish forces "opened fire on citizens in the Shiladzeh area".

"The foreign ministry will summon the Turkish ambassador to hand a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated," it added.

Turkish forces are deployed in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region and often carry out raids and air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a "terrorist" group by Ankara.

On Saturday, the Kurdish regional government said it was "saddened" by the casualties and material damage at Shiladzeh but only referred to an "incident" without mentioning Turkey or the protest.

Footage distributed by activists appeared to show protesters setting Turkish military vehicles on fire.

Turkey's defence ministry said one of its bases was attacked after "provocation by a PKK terror group," resulting in some damage to vehicles and other equipment.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, but also operates bases in the Qandil mountain area of Iraq's Kurdish region.

In December, Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's "repeated" air strikes as a "violation of its sovereignty".

Turkey has pressed Iraq to play a bigger role in fighting the PKK, and last month announced deeper bilateral cooperation on the matter.Tens of thousands protest in France, Belgium over climate crisis



Paris, Jan 27 (AFP) Jan 27, 2019



Tens of thousands of people marched across France and in Belgium on Sunday to protest the lack of state action to halt climate change.

Organisers said more than 80,000 people demonstrated in French towns and cities, while police in Brussels said 70,000 turned out in the Belgian capital.

The demonstrations were organised by an alliance of campaigning groups set up last year who have set a goal of monthly demonstrations on the issue.

Sunday's marches were smaller than previous rallies, which in the past three months have mustered 100,000 people across France.

But an online petition they set up on the issue -- at laffairedusiecle.net -- has already gathered more than 2.1 million signatures and organisers want to hit three million

"Onions, not concrete", "Less consumption, more butterflies" were among the messages on placards at a demonstration in central Paris.

"It's a movement that is taking root and diversifying," Francois Dubreuil of the United for the Climate collective told France Inter radio.

As well as individual campaigners, many families attended the marches, AFP journalists noted.

"I'm here to try to slow down climate warming and to ensure that my daughter and my baby have the best planet possible," said Charlotte, from the eastern city of Strasbourg.

"There's still time," she added, as she marched with her 15-month baby, while pregnant with her second child.

In Brussels, police estimated that around 70,000 people marched from the city's Gare du Nord to the European Parliament.

People from across Belgium braved cold, rainy conditions to attend the march in the capital, and extra trains had to be laid on to bring them in, the Belgian news agency reported.

So many people were arriving for the Brussels climate march Sunday that it had to start half an hour early

Sunday's turnout was larger than the 65,000 who attended the last such march in Brussels on December 2.

On Thursday, a march by school and university students brought 35,000 people out on to the streets of the Belgian capital.

"All disaster movies start with the government ignoring a scientist" read one placard at the Brussels demonstration.

burs-lc-ram/jj/bocHomestead, FL (33030)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms developing late. Low 79F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated thunderstorms developing late. Low 79F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.All that she wants is another baby

For the Week of January 28, 2019

Katie assured Thorne he wasn't going to lose his "baby," and Hope couldn't get past losing hers. But Steffy had babies on the brain so much, she made it easy for Reese to go with the Flo! Line the bassinet with Two Scoops' Mike!

Has your week been bold and beautiful? Did you plant the seeds of your own marital destruction? Did you let everyone know they had gone to the dogs? Did you find out your creditors were about to foreclose on your daughter? These and more situations faced the Forrester-Logan-Spencer-Spectra-Buckingham clan this week!

I wanna be your baby, Scoopers! At least that's what Steffy thinks "Phoebe" is telling her, as Steffy jumps in to inadvertently adopt Hope's "stillborn" infant. Many of you don't seem to be "baby on board" with this story, but I'm still curious to see how it plays out. Characters do seem to be aware of how fast this tale is moving. But does Reese's get-rich-quick-scheme-on-steroids track? Let's Scoop about it!

I'M YOUR BABY TONIGHT

Even though Hope had already apologized for blowing up at Sally over bringing her a consolation puppy and forgiven Sally for being so doggone thoughtful, Sally was still beating herself up by the time she got home with Wyatt. Sally does that, doesn't she! Wyatt comforted the redhead, emphasizing how impressed he was with her gesture. Wyatt should be impressed with Sally-Sal for more than that!

After all, it wasn't long ago that Sally and Hope seemed ready to dogfight, first over Liam, then over Sally's place in a company where Hope didn't feel Sally belonged. So, that Sally even thought to try to help Hope heal, and that Hope even offered mea culpas for ripping Sally a new one, is kind of a big deal. Anyway, it didn't matter, because Wyatt had the solution that would make Sally forget all about it: his chest!

Now who's the lucky dog? I guess that would be us, as Wyatt gave us a long, leisurely look at his pecs. Not to be outdone, across town, Thorne also showed us the goods as he chatted with Katie in bed...about Bill. Guess that would make him Buzzkill Bill! Katie empathized that Bill's reemergence into their lives couldn't be easy on Thorne. But Thorne, who's used to playing second class in the basement, shrugged.

Thorne was just glad everyone was getting along, mostly for Will's sake, though he wondered if Bill's "one-eighty" was for real. Katie couldn't be sure. Thorne then let us in a bit, noting that totally opening your heart to someone was dangerous -- because of the way he had lost Darla and then Aly. I'm glad the show is having Thorne talk about his double tragedy. He's moving on, but that's going to color him forever.

Katie assured Thorne he wasn't going to lose her, and Thorne said his love for Katie would never change. That is Soaptalk for ish is gonna hit the fan soon! With Ingo Rademacher leaving B&B, it's not likely Katie will simply find her husband with a different face one day. Hints have been dropped for Batie: Part III, and I hope I'm misreading it. Katie deserves way more than serial cheater Bill!

ICE ICE BABY

Do any of you remember the second season of the original Dynasty, where Krystle was inconsolable for months because of losing Blake's baby? That's who Hope is reminding me of right now. She's withdrawing inward, increasingly blaming herself for the stillbirth, and getting pissy with anyone who tries to comfort her. Not that any of that isn't understandable! But after just three weeks, it's getting a little old.

If we think it's hard to watch Hope grieve day after day, think how Annika Noelle must feel acting that out for us; she's a real trouper. Liam gently reminded Hope they had to let people in and that he would never pretend to know what she was going through, which should easily earn him a nom for Husband of the Year. Because Liam is grieving, too, yet shelving that to keep Hope from falling into the emotional hole.

Though Liam tried to put a more positive spin on Hope wondering if this was just who they were now, Hope read it as Liam asking her to let Beth go, which she wasn't about to do. "Am I not forgetting fast enough for you?" Hope snapped. Mama Brooke didn't fare much better with Hope, and I figured out why. Everyone keeps offering Hope food! I don't know if that's clunky writing or just a natural tendency in times of strife.

Brooke tried to convince Hope the pain would subside, but once again said nothing about her own miscarriages; surely seeing that Brooke had survived them would give Hope something to hold onto. Thankfully, Wyatt and Hope acknowledged losing their own baby last week, and this week, Hope bitterly brought up having lost two of them. Then Hope asked the $64,000 Question: what if she hadn't passed out?

Doesn't that make sense? Everything was fine, if challenging, during Hope's labor, but when Hope came to, her baby was gone. Which brings us to what doesn't make sense -- the fact that Hope has not been back to see Dr. Phillips. I said this last column; Hope wants answers, and her usual doc would probably be able to tell right away that Hope didn't have a placental abruption. Instead, Hope sulks.

LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY

But don't worry: Hope went AWOL the rest of the week while others decided the fate of her baby. Reese somehow got himself a fake birth certificate for Beth (is there an app for that?) while newcomer Florence felt like Reese was faking her out. Ah, so it seems Flo was one of Reese's lady friends in Las Vegas and a casino dealer who cashed more than Reese's chips. Flo did not like that Reese was crushing on Taylor.

I thought Reese came straight to L.A. from London? Maybe that was his cover story for Zoe, because clearly what happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas. Flo was torqued and felt that Reese was just using her, and she wouldn't go a step further in this scheme until Reese told her exactly why they were doing all this.

Gotta give it to Flo: for a woman who is ready to commit crimes for the man she loves, she also has her head screwed on straighter than most of her new acquaintances. Reese filled in some blanks about that infamous night in Catalina: the rest of the clinic's staff was stuck on the other side of the island because downed trees were blocking the road, which left him alone to treat an in-labor mother.

And that mother wasn't Hope! It seemed pretty obvious to me that Reese's patient before Hope would be the woman who lost a baby, but there have been so many details since then that that bit of foreshadowing could have fallen through the cracks for some people. As Reese told Flo about Hope's labor, we got an another-piece-of-the-puzzle flashback in which Reese clearly had delivered Hope's baby alive!

With Hope out, Reese realized that two babies in one clinic meant he might be able to turn a profit to protect Zoe from his loan sharks, even if it meant putting the dead baby in Hope's arms. "You switched the babies?!" Flo exclaimed. Ah, shades of Sheila admitting her own Genoa City swap to Mike back in 1995. Again, with both Sheila and Reese connected to Il Giardino, it's too bad Sheila couldn't have directly inspired him.

Reese hated what he did, but not as much as Flo! She was decidedly pro-Hope as she bitched Reese out, declaring his ordeal "couldn't be any worse than what you did to that poor mother!" Reese took solace in the fact that his baby and Hope's baby would be safe, prompting Flo to come back with, "What about the mother who thinks her baby is dead? Where's her safety?" Huh! I think I like Florence.

BABY ONE MORE TIME

In Malibu, Steffy was goo-goo eyed, not wanting to get ahead of herself while imagining the new baby and Kelly in matching outfits. Outfits treated with BeLieF, I hope. Neither Steffy nor Taylor could "BeLieF" it -- it was all meant to be! Let's get that phrase out of the way now, because the mother-daughter team couldn't stop repeating it, and that goes for Liam and Wyatt, too. One of B&B's worst habits.

Who else thinks it's funny that Steffy didn't talk about Phoebe for ten years, and now Phoebe comes up all the time? Steffy couldn't stop thinking about her. Too bad she did stop thinking about how she took up with Phoebe's man (Rick) before Phoebe's body was even cold. But I digress. I was genuinely moved that Steffy was worried about how adopting "Phoebe" might be a hurtful, constant reminder for Hope.

Taylor and Steffy were surprised when Reese's "right now" offer for Steffy to meet the baby turned into "later," yet they registered shock when Reese then scheduled it for "this afternoon." Is all this baby talk addling these ladies' brains? Taylor wanted Amelia to put Kelly in the jumper with the elephants on it, because they were good luck. Where did Taylor pick that up? When she was a princess in Morocco?

The success of the whole scheme now fell to Flo, who had to meet Steffy and Taylor by herself. Flo was dubious: what if Reese split for London and stuck Flo with a baby? Sounds like Reese has pulled this stuff on Flo before. But Flo entered on cue, feeding Steffy her B.S. about the baby daddy who bailed. The one true thing Flo said was that "love does make us do things we never thought we would." Preach, sister.

Steffy then told Flo about her own life, smiling that she got to pick her own hours at Forrester. You know that's right! When was the last time any of these people were at work? Okay, Hope gets a pass, and so does Liam, even though he showed up at the office later that day. But who's running Forrester, the interns who are more interested in auditioning for some TV talent show? Talk about a shutdown.

Steffy wasn't sure what to think about Florence; the woman's lack of curiosity bothered her. Likewise, Taylor, a psychiatrist, should have pinged, especially having experienced her own baby brouhaha, like not telling Ridge that Thomas was his son right away. But once Florence brought "her" baby in, all logic left as Steffy and Taylor turned into big piles of mush and "goo-goo-ga-ga, I must have this baby now!"

Maybe it really is meant to be -- Beth will be raised with a different name by Steffy, who was temporarily raised with a different name (Stacey) by Morgan, who had kidnapped Steffy and let Ridge and Taylor think Steffy had died! See why Taylor should see through this? Taylor is also incredibly normal, considering her sanity just made waves at Christmas. Sweeping Bill's shooting under the rug again, are we?

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER

Zoe was surprised by the spontaneous lunch invite she got from her father. Despite having been humiliated getting his credit turned down there, and having been confronted by goons there, Reese still picked Il Giardino. Is this the only restaurant in L.A.? Man, that garlic bread must be to die for. Obvi, because Zoe stood closer to that as a new goon stood watching her and Reese lunching.

Wait, was this Thigpen's original goon furloughed? Guess the uniforms come from the same place, because the new guy was also all in black. Why not just give him a Snidely Whiplash mustache to complete the stereotype? Nyah-ah-ahhhh! Zoe must have left her brain in the UK, because Reese has dropped so many hints, between suggesting German Shepherds and the constant I-love-yous, that Zoe should be catching on.

Okay, to be fair, maybe she is. Reese inexplicably asked her to get up and look for their waiter (like servers in a highfalutin Beverly Hills eatery wouldn't be hovering over you every second) so Reese could try to shoo away his latest bad guy shoo-fly. More realistically, Zoe came back in the middle of that convo -- waiter-free, but enough to know that "something feels off." Reese pooh-poohed it, but Zoe is woke.

So is Wyatt, because he visited Liam, only to suggest that Steffy finding a baby to adopt faster than you can find a hookup on Tinder wasn't passing the smell test for him. Man, I love me some Liam/Wyatt brotherly love. But Wyatt was even more concerned what would happen when Hope found out about the adoption, and he looked pained talking about Hope's loss -- natural when you remember Wyatt's loss with her.

That Wyatt and Liam are BFFs after both having been married to the same women is more of a miracle to me than Liam, etc., keeps saying this new arrival is. By the way, how did Hope handle her first miscarriage? Liam's lucky Hope doesn't split for a European locale; I have to wonder if Hope moped around Milan for weeks, too. Not that I'm saying Hope isn't entitled to grieve. I just can't help thinking back to that.

BABY DID A BAD BAD THING

Flo seemed super jazzed about her solo meeting with Steffy and Taylor as she gave Reese a report about it; Flo even jumped on the it's-meant-to-be bandwagon. Reese thought it was meant to be that he'd end up with a pile of cash, which he told Taylor was the only method of payment. I'll have to chalk this up to Taylor still not being fully in control, because there's no way she shouldn't red-flag this black market sale.

Imagine Taylor standing at an ATM, pulling out that $50,000 down payment with cash flying everywhere -- a sight Reese would be used to. It was all good to Taylor, who handed over her bag of Benjamins and said she'd do anything for her daughter. Hmm...you mean like shooting Bill? I think on some level, Taylor's motivation is to give back what she thinks Bill took from Steffy. And where's Ridge in all this?

Taylor did find it odd that there was no paperwork to fill out but laughed when Reese offered to give her a receipt for the baby. Would it come with a coupon for 40% off her next purchase? The second Taylor closed his door, Reese jumped on his phone and told the Men in Black (make your neck work!) that he had his first big chunk of change for them. Well, tough titties, Reese was told! Too late! Click!

Reese immediately called Zoe, who was at -- get this -- an audition for one of those "reality" talent shows. (Don't get me started. A pox on that genre!) First off, why would successful model Zoe need to go the Star Search route? She probably has enough cred to cut a record on her own at this point. And since when does she sing -- or show an interest in it? Will Intimates now feature her lullabying the lingerie?

But it gets better. Zoe had formed a singing group with teen intern Tiffany...and Emma! You heard it right -- these girls who hated each other a few months ago because of their mutual interest in Xander are now two-thirds of this millennial version of the Supremes. Not that their harmonies aren't kick-ass! It's just that this makes even less sense than some people say Beth's baby switch does.

Reese had Zoe text him the audition location...and was somehow let in to skulk around in the background. That would never happen. For that matter, how did Bad Guy #2 manage to get in? Whatever; Bad Guy put on his black gloves, which of course means something was about to go down. This while Zoe and the Pussycats inexplicably rehearsed their act for their fellow competitors to hear!

Here's the thing: Reese promised the thugs their dough before New Year's, and they should have done something to Zoe by now. Not that I want anything to happen to her, but how about kidnapping her, and then Reese switches babies? He'd be more sympathetic that way, right? Hell, these baddies could have kidnapped Zoe's cat Harry, who got killed off so his presence wouldn't have to be mentioned.

BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY

Flo snarked to Reese that Kelly and her soon-to-be sister were babies, so how much bonding could happen? But Flo played her mother-giving-up-child role to the hilt (maybe she did some shows back in Vegas?) when she stopped over per Steffy's request to introduce the infants, who were probably too busy drooling to have a convo about their favorite toys.

"Mama" Flo, on the other hand, oohed and aahed about Malibu and the view and the luxury. Seems like every poor person on this show (or is it all soaps and I never noticed?) is always envious of the Forresters and their riches. I know when I get my millions, I won't want Ferraris, a seven-digit mansion, etc. Anyway, for some reason, Flo didn't want to stick around for Liam's arrival, citing a desire to sightsee.

It was probably that Flo didn't want to meet another extra person she could slip up in front of. As for Steffy, she'd invited Liam to meet the baby because she didn't want him to feel excluded. What about Hope? Steffy's been so compassionate to Hope, considering their history, yet we haven't yet seen Steffy come over and comfort Hope as a woman who also lost a baby of Liam's.

When Liam arrived, Steffy was super mysterioso about the reason she'd summoned him. Didn't she already ask him before if he was willing to come and meet Kelly's potential sister? "It's not much of a surprise," Liam actually said when Steffy finally told him of her infant guest. Steffy hoped it wasn't an insensitive time, given Liam's loss of Beth; as Steffy retrieved the child, Liam's expression was pure "holy $#!%."

Liam then took a lingering glance at the giant Sears Portrait Studio pic of him and Steffy mounted on her wall. I hope that doesn't mean Liam is tiring of Hope's misery and is thinking of teaming up with Steffy, Kelly, and this new kid. Of course, she's not just any kid...as evidenced by Liam's reaction when Steffy put her in his arms! Like Steffy, Liam felt an immediate connection. It was a miracle. It was meant to be!

Fully reminds me of when Liam had amnesia and thought he was Adam -- and how he basically put together a collage that resembled Steffy because he felt such a pull to her. Hey, I'm all for mystical connections, and maybe even it only being Liam who's feeling it, because he was holding his own daughter. But Steffy? I wonder what will happen if Hope ever has the opportunity.

"She even looks a little like Kelly!" Liam exclaimed. This is my nose, and this is these declarations being too on it. "It makes me miss Beth...but there's something more...it's like she belongs here with you and Kelly...and maybe even to me!" I wish we'd held off longer on knowing the baby is actually Beth...and longer still on this convenient it's-like-I've-always-known-her stuff. Call me old school!

What do you think, Scoopers? Is Hope carrying her bereaved mother role too far? Should someone be smelling a rat with this "heaven sent" adoption? And how long do you think it will be before Reese and Flo get caught? Let us know in the Comments section below or on the Soap Central message boards, or simply click here to submit feedback. Your comments could wind up in a future column! Like these!

"This was so contrived to fit what may be. No one questioning anything is not plausible. It is a despicable storyline." -- Sunni

"The other girl could not have lost a full term baby. If she had just delivered a baby she wouldn't have been leaving the hospital so soon. It must have been an early miscarriage or very bad writing." -- Colleen

"The baby stealing plot is cheap and tawdry and has so many plot holes...[Dr. Phillips] approved of [Hope] taking a helicopter to Catalina while knowing that she was having cramps earlier in her pregnancy? ...Most airlines won't let pregnant passengers on board after the 36-week mark. Catalina has no hospital? Only a stinking unmanned clinic? In fact it does have a hospital. How did Dr Reese get the baby back to LA without anyone noticing? How did he conceal a crying baby in a tiny clinic without anyone hearing a baby? How did he care for a baby while also caring for an unconscious Hope with no nurse to assist? ...Only a...monster could kidnap a baby and fool the mother into thinking the baby was dead. Yet, as this is B&B, we can be sure that Reese will never be punished for his horrendous crimes." -- "Portage"

The baby switch is in full swing, so keep watching, be alert, and most of all, be bold. And remember: no matter color, creed, religion, gender identity, orientation, or nationality, we're all beautiful.South Africa: Untapped opportunities remain between SA, India

While the partnership between South Africa continues to yield good results many unexplored opportunities remain, says President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Speaking at the South Africa - India Business Forum held in Delhi, India, President Ramaphosa said the two countries have worked to transform their relationship forged in struggle into a partnership for peace and economic prosperity, but more needs to be done.

The President arrived in the South Asian country on a State visit on Friday.

He said that currently the two countries cooperate in multilateral formations such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa), G20 and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation.

He urged the two countries to strive to forge a developmental path paved with pragmatism and a renewed sense of purpose as the challenges now faced by both countries have become greater and more complex.

The two countries continued to face high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, particularly among women and the youth.

The two countries, he said, need to increase their production capacity while taking into account the changing and increasingly unstable nature of the international trading environment.

However, while these rapid changes create challenges, we must not be blinded to the opportunities that lie behind and in the midst of such difficulties. There remain many unexplored opportunities that can propel us to a better tomorrow, he said.

The two countries also have complementarities and comparative advantages which can be exploited for mutual benefit, especially in trade, investment, technical exchanges in information and communications technology, and skills development.

Trade relations

Meanwhile, India is an important destination for South African exports and is the fifth largest global market for goods.

The President said he is pleased with the steady increase in trade between the respective countries which has grown from R80 billion to R107 billion over a five-year period from 2013 to 2017.

He attributed this progress to the broadening of economic space for bilateral trade, increased competitiveness in the two States respective industries, as well as the strategic cooperation in fora such as BRICS, which have targeted programmes for increasing trade and investment.

He also welcomed the current initiatives by respective ministers of trade to increase bilateral trade. The two countries are seeking to explore sector-specific collaboration to boost manufacturing and trade relations with an emphasis on increasing trade in value added goods and services.

Investment relationship

South Africas investment relationship with India has also deepened, with more than 150 Indian firms like Tata, Cipla and Mahindra operating in South Africa.

We recognise and appreciate Vedanta Resources investment of $1.6 billion in the Gamsberg Zinc mine in the Northern Cape province, of which $400 million has already been spent. This investment by Vedanta has triggered a new wave of industrial and economic development in that part of our country.

Untapped opportunities

President Ramaphosa said untapped opportunities still remain in sectors such as agriculture and agro-processing, automotive, pharmaceutical, aerospace and defence industries, infrastructure, energy, ICT, electronics, metals and mining, creative industries and the oceans economy.

He said the South African government is cognisant of the need to intensify efforts to create an enabling environment for business to thrive.

India-Africa Forum

We are taking policy certainty and consistency very seriously and we act decisively and with speed whenever concerns are raised about these, he said, adding that South Africa remains committed to attain the goals set out in Africas socio-economic developmental blue print, Agenda 2063.

Africa is a continent of opportunity. We are therefore encouraged by Indias commitment to the development of the African continent though the India-Africa Forum.

This forum, he said, must embolden Indian companies to form partnerships with South Africas financial institutions and the private sector to jointly collaborate on projects that can build Africas productive capacity and infrastructure.

SA companies in India

South Africa is also appreciative of the reforms undertaken by India on improving the investment environment, which will encourage more South African companies to enter the Indian market.

Currently there are 29 South African companies invested in India and South Africa wishes to see them double in number in the coming years.

South African firms with a presence in India include Sanlam, Life Healthcare, Momentum, Airports Company of South Africa, First Rand Bank, Old Mutual, and Naspers, among others.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Statement of Senator Joel Villanueva on the Bombing of Jolo Cathedral on Sunday, January 27, 2019

The bombing of Jolo Cathedral on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning is a despicable act that seeks to terrorize residents of the city. This crime against the people of Jolo must not go unpunished. We hope our law enforcement units and military personnel bring justice to those who perished in this senseless act against our people.

Lubos po akong nakikiramay sa mga naulilang pamilya ng mga biktima. May the good Lord extend his saving grace to the innocent ones who were only saying prayers at the time of the attack.

We laud the gallantry of the first responders who answered to the call of duty in rushing towards the incident area. Their response prevented more civilians from becoming victims, but it entailed sacrificing their own. We commiserate with the families of the fallen soldiers whose bravery will never be forgotten.

Nawa'y matigil na po ang ganitong klaseng pag-atake sa mga sagradong pook tulad ng mga simbahan. Places of worship should be spared from senseless violence.ALLOCATE MORE FUNDS FOR NORTHERN MINDANAO MEDICAL CENTER, POE ASKS DOH

Sen. Grace Poe has asked the Department of Health (DOH) for a special funding boost for the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) in Cagayan de Oro City for the improvement of facilities and purchase of medical supplies.

Poe paid a visit to the state-owned hospital on Saturday, January 26 to witness how the hospital operates more than 100 years after it was established in 1917.

"Nananawagan tayo sa DOH para mabigyan ng pondo itong ospital para mas marami pang maserbisyuhan," said Poe, adding that initially she was eyeing an additional P20 million--P10 million each for facilities and medical supplies.

For one, the hospital has been using improvised wooden incubators for preterm newborn babies that require special care.

Poe was in Cagayan de Oro City and held a Senate hearing on transport modernization, effects of the tax reform law in utilities, various franchises and Land Transportation Office bills.

Poe supported the passage of Republic Act No. 10677 increasing the bed capacity of NMMC from 300 to 600.

The hospital serves patients from Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental where it is located and nearby provinces of Bukidnon, Camiguin, Misamis Occidental, Lanao Norte, Zamboanga del Norte and the Agusan Provinces.

A staunch advocate of healthcare and nutrition, the senator advocates for efficient public hospitals staffed with enough doctors, nurses, and midwives, and with all the necessary equipment and supplies. She also authored laws on the First 1,000 Days and feeding program for schoolchildren.SUSPEND ORDER IMPOSING HEFTIER FINES VS PUVs--POE

CAGAYAN DE ORO--Sen. Grace Poe on Saturday called on the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to suspend further implementation of an order imposing stiffer fines for violations of rules and laws governing land transportation.

Poe, who chairs the Senate public services committee, said a mere administrative order--Joint Administrative Order (JAO) 2014-01 by the then Department of Transportation and Communications, Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board and Land Transportation Office--cannot override a law passed by Congress.

"Unang-una ay kailangan talagang kausapin 'yung LTFRB [Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board] na suspendihin ang Joint Administrative Order ng mga penalties dito sa mga public utility vehicles na ii-impound. Ito ay iligal sapagkat hindi ito ang batas, ito ay Joint Administrative Order lamang noong dating DOTC na hanggang ngayon ay ipinapatupad so kailangan nating ayusin ito dahil hindi na po ito makatao, mapang-api na ang ganitong klaseng administrative order," said Poe in an interview after her panel's hearing in this city on Saturday, January 26.

At the hearing held at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Poe's panel was told that the JAO was arbitrarily implemented and anti-poor especially for small-time drivers and operators as it effectively raised the penalties imposed by Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.

Poe earlier filed Senate Resolution No. 910 directing the Senate to investigate the "unjustly harsh" fines and penalties for land transport violations.

For her part, Poe said the JAO usurps the power of Congress to increase penalties.

"Batas lang ang puwedeng magtaas ng penalty. Kaya yung JAO ay against the law. Iligal 'yan," Poe asserted.

A case had been filed in 2014 at the Supreme Court assailing the constitutionality of the joint order.Statement of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on Sulu bombing

We condole with the loved ones of those killed and wounded. We condemn the bomb attacks at a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sulu that killed at least 19 persons and wounded dozens.

We trust that proper attention is being given to the victims and that the authorities are now on the hunt for the perpetrators of this dastardly act.

The attack comes at the heels of a successful plebiscite that affirmed the Moro people's desire to have a new Bangsamoro region that they will govern.

Let us not be distracted and defeated by warmongers and violent elements in our midst. An immediate arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators will give justice to the victims and send a strong message that this government will not allow the rule of violence to triumph.

This incident is also a challenge for the government to show what martial law in Mindanao can do to address these attacks.

We have come such a long way in our quest to realize the peace we have long desired for Muslim Mindanao. Let's not allow it to be derailed this time.Press Release

January 27, 2019 De Lima appeals to Senate leadership to pass 4Ps bill Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has appealed to her colleagues in the Senate to pass the measure institutionalizing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to ensure financial assistance for qualified and deserving indigent Filipino families. De Lima, who chairs the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, said she hopes that her fellow senators will give priority to Senate Bill (SB) No. 2117 which is now on the period of plenary debate. "I am pleased that Senate Bill No. 2117, which seeks to institutionalize the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) as one of the anti-poverty programs of the national government, is now in the final stages of getting enacted into law, and I therefore urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass it without delay," she said. Deemed as a national poverty reduction strategy and a human capital investment program, the 4Ps provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years, to improve their health, nutrition and access to education. Apart from De Lima, SB 2117 was also authored by Senators Franklin Drilon, Loren Legarda, Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Juan Eduardo Angara, Paolo Benigno Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Cynthia Villar, and Nancy Binay. The measure was sponsored on the floor by Sen. Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV who was designated by Sen. De Lima as the Committee's Vice Chair for purposes of tackling several bills. Last Jan. 21, some members of the Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Pamilyang Pantawid (SNPP) trooped to the Senate to call on the senators to pass SB No. 2117 as they also thanked De Lima for pushing for the swift passage of the measure. Susana Noche, a member of SNPP and beneficiary of 4Ps from Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, shared how the 4Ps allowed her to send her children to school and in turn give her kids a brighter future. "Malaking bagay po sa aming mahihirap ang Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program sapagkat ito po ay nakakatulong mabago ang antas ng buhay naming mahihirap," Noche said. Under SB No. 2117, conditional cash transfer grant per child enrolled in day care and elementary programs shall not be lower than P300 a month for each child while the cash grant per child enrolled in junior high school shall not be lower than P500 a month for each child, both for a maximum of 10 months for each year. In addition, the conditional cash transfer grant for each child enrolled in senior high school shall not be lower than P700 a month for each child for a maximum of 10 months for each year. Teresa Mangulabnan, another 4Ps beneficiary from Paco Manila, said she hopes that majority of the senators would now prioritize the immediate passage into law of this pro-poor measure. "Gusto ko lang pong iparating kay Senator Leila de Lima ang aming pasasalamat sa pagsuporta niya sa isinusulong namin na 4Ps bill. Sana po mas marami pa po yung sumuporta sa amin na senador na tulad niya," Mangulabnan shared. The lady Senator from Bicol said the benefit of 4Ps is clear: "Ang pagputol sa siklo ng kahirapan ng mga maralita nating kababayan, at pagbibigay sa kanila ng kakayahang umunlad ang buhay kasabay sa pagpapaunlad ng ating bayan." She pointed out that senators are expected to ensure that laws are in place to help the poor to be self-sufficient through sustained income and livelihood opportunities. "While the task of eradicating poverty is indeed a Herculean task, it is however our personal and collective obligation as duly-elected officials to contribute in ensuring that indigent Filipino families are given top priority in benefiting from whatever meager resources our national government has," she said. "Kaya naman muli po akong nananawagan sa ating mga kasamahan dito sa Senado, sa aking mga kapwa mambabatas: Ipasa na po natin ang batas na pagtitibayin hindi lamang ang 4Ps, kundi maging ang magandang kinabukasan ng sambayanang Pilipino," she added. Last year, the SNPP submitted to Senate Committee more than 500,000 signatures endorsing the 4Ps bill.Press Release

January 26, 2019 BOL ratification first step to fulfilling economic promise of Mindanao--Koko "A pivotal and historic milestone in Mindanao's quest for a just and lasting peace." This was the response of Senate Trade and Commerce Committee Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III to the Commission on Election's proclamation that the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) had been ratified with 1,540,017 residents voting in favor of ratification and only 198,750 voting to reject the BOL. "The Comelec, sitting en banc as the National Plebiscite Board of Canvassers hereby proclaims... the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao as deemed ratified," announced Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman Sheriff Abas Friday evening. Pimentel, who was the co-author of the BOL in the Senate, said that the law's proper implementation "is one of the keys to unlocking the economic potential of the region, and a critical step to fulfilling the promise of Mindanao, which has been held back by decades of armed conflict." "Regional peace and stability and complementary national measures like the Ease of Doing Business Law will fuel economic development and attract the investments Mindanao needs. Hindi lang Mindanao makikinabang, kundi buong bansa," said the Mindanao-born legislator. Pimentel noted that the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was cited as the country's fifth fastest growing region in 2017, with a growth rate of 7.3% that year boosted by the recovery of the area's agriculture sector. "The country is benefiting from its seventh consecutive year of sustained economic growth. Spurring development in Mindanao will serve to ensure that this upward trajectory continues," explained the senator. According to Pimentel, the government's mission "goes beyond the ratification of the BOL." "We know from recent history that laying the groundwork for peace must be followed by a sustained effort at keeping the peace. Dito kailangan natin magkaisa at magtulungan--kailangan kumilos agad para ang BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) at ang Mindanao ay tunay na umunlad." The new region will be composed of the five provinces currently comprising the ARMM, as well as Cotabato City. A second round of the plebiscite on February 6 will determine whether the BARMM would still be expanded. The BOL under Republic Act No. 11054 provides for the establishment of an autonomous political entity known as the BARMM, which will replace the 29-year-old ARMM. Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on July 26, 2018, the BOL is the product of years of negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The BARMM will have its own executive, legislature and fiscal powers. The Bangsamoro government will be headed by a chief minister and two deputy ministers to be elected from the parliament, 50% of which will be composed of political party representatives, 40% parliamentary district representatives, and 10% sectoral representatives and reserved seats for non-Moro indigenous peoples and settler communities. All parliament members will serve for a term of three years and for a maximum of three consecutive terms. The parliament is empowered to enact its own laws. Under the law, the BARMM will be granted 5% of the national internal revenue amounting to at least 60 billion to 70 billion pesos a year, which will be released to the region automatically, apart from the power to impose some taxes currently being levied by the national government. The BARMM's share of taxes collected by the national government from the region will increase to 75%, compared to the 70% the ARMM currently receives.The move follows the plans of the Saudi Ports Authority - SPA, or Mawani, as it is better known after its branding in 2016 - to privatise the kingdoms ports, and could prove particularly attractive to Gulf-based shipping operators.

Although SPA was launched in 1976 to oversee four ports, it currently boasts nine commercial and industrial ports with 252 berths, and an annual cargo-handling capacity of 615m tonnes. Container-handling capacity to the tune of 15m teu has been created, though the current throughput is 6.5m teu.

Saudis port privatisation initiatives were launched in the 1990s, and matured in 1997 with the acceptance of the international principle that the owner of the land does not operate the terminals on it, says Mawanis president, Eng Saad Abdulaziz Alkhaib.

So the idea of privatisation is not new to Saudi, but it was restricted to concession agreements. Most of those concession agreements are expiring between now and 2021. We are restructuring those agreements with the help of transactional, legal and financial advisors to encourage operators to bring in more business and to invest in business-enhancing operational technologies.

Major expansion

Saudi Arabias network of nine ports is currently undergoing major expansion. The government is undertaking a multitude of large investments in transportation infrastructure, with new projects such as the Saudi Rail-Roads Expansion, as well as substantial investments from the private sector such as the upgrade of Jeddah Islamic Port and Dammam Port, and the new economic cities.

Mawanis port privatisation plans are part of 14 public-private partnership investment initiatives announced in April 2018, with a view to improving efficiency and running the ports on a commercial basis. These initiatives are worth up to SAR28bn ($7.46bn), and could create 12,000 jobs and generate up to SAR40bn ($11bn) in non-oil revenue.

In addition, tariffs are being restructured to make Saudis ports more attractive to international shipping lines to make direct calls, instead of using feeders from some other ports in the Arabian Gulf, says Alkhaib.

Apart from the meteoric rise of the privately owned King Abdullah Port, which has earned for itself the 78th spot among the worlds top 80 ports, Yanbu Commercial Port grew by 45% in 2018, handling a total of 3.97m tonnes of cargo, up from 2.72m tonnes during 2017.

Also performing well was Jubail Commercial Port on Saudi Arabias Gulf Coast. The port handled a total of 14.26m tonnes in 2018, compared with 11.83m tonnes over the equivalent period in 2017, an increase of more than 20%. Jubails container business has grown by over 10%, to 720,000 teu in 2018, compared to 655,000 teu in 2017.

Change in licenses to attract foreign investment

Mawani also has plans to effect a change in shipping licences, to attract foreign investment. These have not yet been widely publicised, but the first licences for foreign-owned shipping agencies could be issued some time this year.

A directive from the Kingdoms Ministry of Commerce and Investment to Mawani in August 2018 stated there is now no legal objection to granting foreign investors shipping agency licences, says Alkhaib.

Foreign investors are being encouraged to come into Saudi Arabia and take over the operations of its ports and agency services. Ship agency services have been freed from the restriction of being handled only by 100% Saudi owned companies or by a Saudi national. The only things that foreigners cannot apply for are Customs clearance (due to security reasons) and supplying fuel to vessels.

International companies could now have their own independent licences, says Alkhaib. At the moment, a few companies have a monopoly in the Kingdom; that will potentially change.

With over $10bn being invested on beefing up the roads, rail and port infrastructure over the next decade, and several Saudi ports in the process of being privatised, there is bound to be substantial international investment and a big improvement in cargo throughput by the terminal year of the Vision 2030 plan.Two names stand out from the long list of winners at the Sawiris Cultural Awards; director-turned-author Nadia Kamel and professor of American literature at Cairo University Sahar El-Mougy.

Nadia Kamel and Sahar El-Mougy both won the award for best novel by an established writer, winning an EGP 150,000 award split between the two.

Kamel won for her outstanding book Al-Maowloda (The Newborn), published by El-Karma, and El-Mougy won for her novel Mesk El-Tal (The Musk of the Hill), published by Dar El-Shorouk.

The awards were announced on 25 January during a ceremony at the Cairo Opera House's main hall.

Kamel's book is based on the life of her mother, and takes place in the first half of the 20th century "in an Egypt that doesn't exist anymore," before the exodus of the Jewish community from the country.

Her mother and the protagonist of the novel, Naela, was originally born Mary Ely Rosenthal to a Jewish Egyptian father and an Italian Christian mother. Her parents met in the 1920s in Cairo, where she was born. The book tracks Mary's life and struggles and the hard choices she had to make.

Kamel expressed to Ahram Online her delight at winning the award, especially since the book is the story of my parents, who led a great life without knowing that their story would be told and loved.

Kamel dedicated the award to everyone who fights desperation.

Al-Maowloda is a book that documents the lives of my parents. I told the story of people who really lived and I didnt invent anything or write down anything beyond my memory, information and how I saw them.

Nadia was and still is a director, producing and directing the documentary Salata Balady (Local Salad). She has also worked as an assistant to many renowned directors, including Attiyat Abnoudi, Youssef Chahine and Yousry Nasrallah.

The writer of Mesk El-Tal, Sahar El-Mougy is best known for her novels Daryah (1991) and Noon (2008).

Her novel Musk of the Hill is about three iconic characters; Amina, the fictional submissive mother from a trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, Catherine Earnshaw, the protagonist of Emile Brontes Wuthering Heights, and Mariam, a clinically depressed psychiatrist.

El-Mougy expressed her happiness for winning the prize, adding that she is proud to be sharing it "with a beautiful woman artist such as Nadia Kamel."

"A hundred years ago, women struggled to open doors for other women to create art. I believe we are the heirs of this legacy. When I write, I do not do it for a reward, but just to maybe see/know that a reader may think and question his or her life because of the book," she said.

"When a prize does come, I feel like Ive received a pat on the back and I know the book will reach more readers who may be thinking or questioning their lives and choices. It thrills me to nudge people a little into realising that they do have choices."

For More about the authors and the winning novels check our interviews with both writers conducted by Dina Ezzat here:

Al-Mawloudah: The life of a woman who lived with her own contradictions

INTERVIEW: Sahar El-Mougy talks about her recent novel 'The Hills Musk'

Short link:

Military cant afford to deny climate change

Re The awkward dance between Trump and the military over climate change (Jan. 23): Thank you to Michael Smolens and the Union-Tribune for his column about the military response to climate change.

Its members are no tree-huggers, but our military knows a problem when it sees one, and it knows how to respond: get to work on solutions. It is partnering with local governments and scientists here in San Diego and elsewhere to find and implement those solutions.

What we need is for Washington, D.C., to join this great task. A good dance gets everyone out on the floor, but so far our federal government is sitting this one out. Write to Congress and tell members you want effective action on climate change. Pricing carbon emissions would be a great start, and there is growing bipartisan support for this approach. All of us need to join this dance.

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Carl Yaeckel

San Diego

Smolens column injects a healthy dose of reality into the conversation about climate change. The military lives in a world where facts matter.

One of the less-appreciated dangers of climate change is that it affects whole regions and multiple countries all at once, rather than impacting one or two countries at a time. Widespread drought can occur abruptly, in just a few years.

Imagine the military implications of 25 failed states in Africa all at once  Im sure the U.S. military is planning for this.

Jeff Severinghaus

Professor of geosciences

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Unlike this president, our military must address reality, like sea-level rise, frequent and intense resource wars, famines and forced migrations due to climate change. The past director of Pentagon planning said logistics costs, including attacks on supplies not including deaths, are about $3,100 per gallon of fuel moved to a forward location and represent real tactical vulnerability.

Should we avoid new solar cell technology at forward positions because this makes a speech-maker look bad? How would our services feel that political face-saving for the presidents ego would mean letting the nation be more vulnerable? Planners know climate change is not just real, but here now. Just like our adversaries know.

James Ferguson

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San Diego

Laws of nature dont change for politics

We have always known that physics does not negotiate, not even a little bit. So whether or not our president believes his administrations reports on climate change does not affect the changing climate. It does affect the countrys and the worlds willingness to make the changes to deal with it. The military, especially the Navy, has been an early adapter. Most Navy bases are at the sea level after all.

The kingpin of the response would be to put a steadily increasing fee on carbon dioxide pollution and allocate all the revenue to the American people (not the government).

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Fortunately such a bill has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. It is a serious climate bill and deserves our support. Our very own Rep. Scott Peters is an original co-sponsor. We should thank him.

Marshall Saunders

Coronado

Dont assume carbon fee would pencil out

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Recently, several writers urged a carbon tax, with rebates to citizens, as a good way to fight climate change. The idea is more complex than it seems. A companys only source of money is customers. Most manufacturers use carbon-based energy. With the tax, they will need more accounting, compliance and tax staffing to follow the law. The prices for everything will have to rise by more than the tax, maybe much more.

The government will need a new bureaucracy to administer the tax and to write and enforce regulations. All these added staff require wages, pensions and benefits, leaving very little to be refunded to citizens. Citizens may need to prove how much tax they paid before getting any refund. The record-keeping will be detailed and expensive. The government may return the money preferentially to low-income folks, thus converting the program to wealth re-distribution. Bye-bye jobs.

Barry McElmurry

Vista

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Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.Two years after President Trump signed orders to hire 15,000 new border agents and immigration officers, the administration has spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort  but has thousands more vacancies than when it began.

In a sign of the difficulties, Customs and Border Protection allocated $60.7 million to Accenture Federal Services, a management consulting firm, as part of a $297-million contract to recruit, vet and hire 7,500 border officers over five years, but the company has produced only 33 new hires so far.

The presidents promised hiring surge steadily lost ground even as he publicly hammered away at the need for stiffer border security, warned of a looming migrant invasion and shut down parts of the government for five weeks over his demands for $5.7 billion from Congress for a border wall.

The Border Patrol gained a total of 120 agents in 2018, the first net gain in five years.

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But the agency has come nowhere close to adding more than 2,700 agents annually, the rate that Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, has said is necessary to meet Trumps mandated 26,370 border agents by the end of 2021.

The hiring surge has not begun, the inspector generals office at the Department of Homeland Security concluded last November.

We have had ongoing difficulties with regards to hiring levels to meet our operational needs, a Homeland Security official told The Times on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity. He described the Border Patrols gain last year as a a huge improvement.

Border security agencies long have faced challenges with recruitment and retention of front-line federal law enforcement  in particular Border Patrol agents  much less swiftly hiring 15,000 more.

In March 2017, McAleenan said Customs and Border Protection normally loses about 1,380 agents a year as agents retire, quit for better-paying jobs or move. Just filling that hole each year has strained resources.

Beyond that, given historically low illegal immigration on the southern border, even the Homeland Security inspector general has questioned the need for the surge.

But administration officials argue an immigration system designed for single, adult Mexican men has become woefully outdated.

The number of families and children we are apprehending at the border is at record-breaking levels, another Homeland Security official said. Its having a dramatic impact on Border Patrols border security mission.

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Since 2015, CBP officers have been required to work overtime and sent on temporary assignments to critically understaffed points on the southwest border, Tony Reardon, president of the union representing about 30,000 CBP officers, told the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday.

After fighting for years for higher pay, staff and a better hiring process, Reardon said the agency needs to hire more officers for the 328 ports of entry.

All of this contributes to a stronger border, he said.

On Jan. 25, 2017, five days after Trump was inaugurated, he signed executive orders to hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, vowing to beef up border security and crack down on illegal immigration.

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Today the United States of America gets back control of its borders, Trump said as he signed the orders.

Today, Customs and Border Protection  the Border Patrols parent agency  has more than 3,000 job vacancies, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosis office.

Thats about 2,000 more than when Trump signed the orders, according to a Government Accountability Office report on CBPs hiring challenges.

Border Patrol staffing remains below the 21,360 agents mandated by Congress in 2016, which is itself 5,000 less than Trumps order, according to the latest available data.

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The CBP contract with Accenture, awarded in November 2017, has drawn special scrutiny for its high cost and limited results.

CBP officials told the House Homeland Security Committee in November that only 33 new officers had been hired. Under the terms of the contract, the company is paid about $40,000 for each one.

An entry-level Border Patrol agent is paid $52,583 a year.

In December, the Homeland Security inspector generals office said Accenture and CBP were nowhere near filling the presidents hiring order.

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It warned that if problems in the hastily approved contract are not addressed, CBP risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

CBP subsequently scaled back the Accenture contract from $297 million to $83 million and issued a partial stop-work order. Officials said the agency will decide in March whether to cancel the rest of the contract.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the problem-plagued contract reinforces my doubts about CBP leadership.

CBP cannot simply farm out its hiring and spend hundreds of millions without addressing systemic problems at the agency, Thompson said.

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Deirdre Blackwood, Accentures spokeswoman, told The Times, We remain focused on fulfilling our clients expectations under our contract.

The first Homeland Security offical defended the contract. Youve got to be willing to innovate and try things.  In no way, shape or form was there fraud, waste or abuse.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement canceled a solicitation for a hiring contract with a similar pay structure to Accentures last May, citing delays in its hiring timeline and limited funding from Congress.

ICE said at the time it would restart the contracting process by the end of 2018 to help it meet Trumps hiring order. It has yet to do so.

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Homeland Security officials declined to say how much has been spent or how many people have been hired since Trumps executive orders, saying the partial government shutdown prevented them from accessing the data.

The hiring surge foundered from the start.

In July 2017, six months after Trump signed his executive orders, the Homeland Security inspector generals office said the agencies were facing significant challenges and could not justify the hiring surge.

Officials could not provide complete data to support the operational need or deployment strategies for the additional 15,000 additional agents and officers they were directed to hire, the inspector generals office wrote.

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On Friday, Trump signed a bill to reopen the government until Feb. 15, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Tens of thousands of Border Patrol agents and CBP officers, among others, worked without pay.

Experts warned that previous attempts at a hiring surge led to greater corruption, a perennial problem for law enforcement on the border.

Drug cartels and other criminal groups target Border Patrol agents, offering bribes or even sexual favors to allow migrants, drugs and other contraband to cross the border.

To help fight corruption, the Border Patrol set strict vetting requirements, but those measures have slowed the hiring process.

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Border Patrol applicants must pass cognitive, fitness and medical exams. They also must provide financial disclosure, undergo drug tests and pass a law enforcement background check and a polygraph test.

ICE doesnt require the lie detector test, pays its agents more and places most of them in cities, not at isolated posts along the border.

Supporters of the CBP requirements call them necessary safeguards to prevent the scandals of past hiring surges. Critics view them as an impediment to putting more boots on the border.

CBPs rigorous hiring requirements, including the polygraph test, were put in place by Congress in 2010 after the agency had doubled in size and Border Patrol notched an increase in corruption and a spate of deadly incidents.

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The FBI still leads 22 border corruption task forces and working groups nationwide.

In recent years, some lawmakers tried to help CBP get rid of the polygraph test. In 2017, the agency got the green light to waive the requirement for certain military veterans and began to test a version that improved pass rates.

Partly as a result, CBP has increased hiring of frontline personnel by nearly 15% and increased its applicant pool by 40% in the last three years, according to a Homeland Security 2019 budget document.

The agency has also cut the time it takes to hire from roughly 400 days to about 270 days. The governments goal for hiring is 80 days, but CBP has said thats not feasible.

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Part of the problem stems from the Trump administrations funding disputes with Congress over border security.

We have to hire to the money that were appropriated, at the end of the day, the first Homeland Security official said.

After Trump signed his executive orders in 2017, ICE requested $830 million to hire about 3,000 new officers and build capacity to ultimately bring on 10,000, according to a Government and Accountability Office report.

Instead, Congress last year gave ICE $15.7 million for 65 new agents plus 70 attorneys and support staff.

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Over the past two years, ICE has brought on 1,325 investigators and deportation officers, according to the agency. The agency typically loses nearly 800 law enforcement officers each year, so it has not kept pace and remains far behind the presidents order.

For its part, CBP requested $330 million to hire 1,250 Border Patrol agents and build capacity to ultimately hire 5,000, according to the GAO report.

Congress gave CBP about $65 million in 2017 to improve hiring practices and to offer incentives for agents to transfer to understaffed sites. In 2018, it provided $20 million more than the agency sought for recruitment and retention.

CBP faced high attrition rates even before the Trump administration made it a polarizing organization, said Thompson, the House Homeland Security chairman.President Donald Trump is again considering invoking emergency powers to build his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval, roiling the latest bipartisan negotiations over immigration with the renewed threat of unilateral executive action and further dividing Republicans already reeling from the fallout of the shutdown.

The presidents commitment is to defend the nation, and he will do it either with or without Congress, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday.

The partial shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history, ended Friday with Trump agreeing to temporarily reopen the government without any money for a wall.

Inside the West Wing over the weekend, Trump told advisers that declaring a national emergency may be his best option now as he scrambles to assert himself in a divided government and to secure wall funding, according to four people involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

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One White House official described Trumps decision to reopen the government as clearing the deck for executive action rather than a retreat. And a longtime confidant said Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by news coverage of his concession to Democrats and has been encouraged by conservative allies to escalate the fight.

A bipartisan, bicameral congressional committee has been charged with brokering an agreement on border security as part of a deal to keep the government open past Feb. 15, and a stalemate could trigger another shutdown.

Trumps consideration of such action comes as conservative commentators have lashed out at Trump and said he gave in to top Democrats on Friday, and as special counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election has moved deeper into Trumps inner circle, raising questions about the future of his presidency.

Some Republicans on Sunday waved Trump off potentially signing a declaration after 35 days of enduring criticism as he held firm. Public opinion polls show that the public blames Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the prospect of a national-emergency declaration a terrible idea, reflecting widespread conservative unease about using executive powers in sweeping ways to achieve political ends, a tactic they have long criticized Democratic presidents of employing.

Its just not a good precedent to set in terms of action. It doesnt mean that I dont want border security. I do. I just think thats the wrong way to achieve it, Rubio said on NBCs Meet the Press.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., agreed. I happen to agree with the president on barriers at the border and border security as an important first step, but there might be a future president that I dont agree with that thinks something else is an emergency, Blunt said on Fox News Sunday, adding that he hopes the president doesnt have to go there.

Other Republicans said the GOP appetite for using emergency powers was stronger than the remarks of lawmakers on television suggested, because of widespread thought that the partys base would applaud Trump for being bold.

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Hes certainly going to have Democratic opposition for partisan reasons and Republicans opposed based on the precedent it sets, former White House legislative director Marc Short said in an interview. But there is one thing some Republicans say to the media, and then there is what they say quietly to each other when the camera is not on: I sure wish hed do it. 

Several White House officials said privately on Sunday that Trump has argued that a national-emergency declaration in the coming weeks could pressure Congress to include wall funding as part of a broader legislative package next month and could signal to the GOPs core voters that the president is going to extremes to secure funding for his campaigns biggest pledge.

Mulvaney said that if the legislation Congress sends to the presidents desk is unsatisfactory, Trump could veto it. He said on CBS Face the Nation that Trump may be prepared to bring about a shutdown next month.

After Trump agreed to reopen the government, a committee was charged with negotiating an agreement on border security as part of a new spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

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Republican leaders appointed to the committee include Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with GOP Sens. Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and John Hoeven of North Dakota. Democratic leaders tapped Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Jon Tester of Montana.

The White House Counsels Office, led by Pat Cipollone, has prepared drafts of declarations, and Trump spent much of Thursday night reviewing them in the White House residence as he watched TV coverage of the shutdown, according to two White House officials familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Angry with Democrats refusal to bend to his demands, in particular with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Trump pressed Cipollone for guidance about the potential legal repercussions and called friends, such as Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, to hear their views about the negotiations, the two officials said.

In the end, Trump backed off on Friday after being briefed by aides on mounting anxiety among Republican lawmakers over the shutdown and federal flight delays. Trump was wary of the prospect of a shutdown showdown and court challenges over emergency powers unfolding at the same time, the officials added.

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Ultimately hell be judged by what happens at the end of this process, not by what happened this week, Mulvaney said on Fox.

The White House declined to comment about the internal deliberations or the presidents calls.

There are tensions in the White House about the political cost of using emergency powers. Senior adviser Jared Kushner has reservations and is hopeful that Democrats may eventually agree to work with the administration on a bipartisan immigration deal, while others, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, have talked up a national emergency as a way of prompting a reckoning on the issue, according to the four people familiar with the discussions.

Some Trump allies have urged the president to act, stoking his own instincts about using emergency powers, White House officials said.

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Come February the 15th, if the Democrats still say: Go to hell on the wall, you get a dollar, thats it, they basically tell Trump, Im not going to do with you what I did with Bush and Obama, then I hope he will go the emergency route, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News on Friday.

The Trump administration has spent weeks casting the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as a security and humanitarian crisis that may necessitate the declaration of a national emergency, laying the groundwork in congressional briefings, news conferences and Trumps address to the nation this month.

Trump argued on Sunday that illegal immigration was costing the country tens of billions of dollars a month, although it was not clear on what data he was basing his estimate.

We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168, he tweeted. Cost Friday was $603,331,392.

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Trump has previously claimed that the cost of illegal immigration is more than $200 billion a year, without providing any evidence for those claims.

About 11 million people are estimated to be living in the United States without documentation. But on Sunday, Trump challenged that number, tweeting that there are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS

Asked on Face the Nation about that number, Mulvaney said he did not know where Trump was getting his information. But he argued that the figure has to be larger than 11 million because of the numbers of migrants who continue to cross into the United States each month.

I think that number was accurate a couple of years ago. We know that its going up, Mulvaney said.

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As the negotiations begin anew, lawmakers from both parties stuck to their positions on Sunday. Some Republicans, however, cautioned against another government shutdown over the wall.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on Face the Nation that absolutely nothing was accomplished by partially shutting down the government.

Shutdowns are never good policy, ever, she said. They are never to be used as a means to achieve any kind of goal, no matter how important that goal may seem to be.

The Washington Posts Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.A man armed with a stick and driving a stolen vehicle held up two neighborhood convenience stores in Normal Heights and City Heights before he was confronted by officers and subdued with a stun gun Saturday afternoon, police said.

An officer sustained a minor injury in the tussle but did not need to be taken to a hospital, San Diego police Officer Frank Cali said. The suspect was hospitalized, though police did not say how severe his injuries were.

It all happened around 2:30 p.m. when the suspect, described as a man in his early 20s, pulled up in a stolen vehicle front of a home on Monroe Avenue near 33rd Street in Normal Heights, Cali said. He got out, walked into the nearby Pola Market convenience store and demanded money while holding a stick.

He made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, Cali said.

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The suspect left in the stolen vehicle and drove about half a mile south to the Cost Mart liquor and grocery store on El Cajon Boulevard and Felton Street, Cali said. The man again entered the City Heights minimart holding the stick, demanded money and received an undisclosed amount of cash.

The suspect fled the scene and was located by officers on University Avenue, where he was subdued with a stun gun and taken into custody, Cali said in a statement.

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins

(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.comLast July, Forbes website posted an essay by economist Panos Mourdoukoutas. The title: Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.

Cyberspace went nuclear. Within two hours, the post had attracted more than 7,500 Tweets, most of them hostile.

Typical response: no it shouldnt you moron.

Reaction was so fierce, Forbes surrendered within hours. Libraries play an important role in our society, read the magazines apology. This article was outside of this contributors specific area of expertise, and has since been removed.

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Migell Acosta, the San Diego County Library director, noted a surprising fact about this kerfuffle: Mourdoukoutas most vociferous critics were patrons, not librarians.

On the Twitterverse, Acosta said, it was all our customers collectively shouting it down.

Public libraries are among the oldest American institutions, dating back to 1711 when Bostonians were able to browse a book collection in the Old State House. In the 21st century, new challenges have spurred these cathedrals of knowledge to re-invent themselves, becoming far more than hushed, dusty storehouses of ink-on-paper products.

Books to me are a very small part of our story, said Misty Jones, director of the San Diego city library system. Were that place for exposure to different cultures, and different ideas, and even the use of different technologies.

Gaining new audiences and adopting new missions without losing core supporters is a balancing act. Yet there are signs of libraries continued popularity. For Saturdays opening of the $21 million Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox Library, organizers had sought volunteers to hand-pass the last books from the branchs old location to its new home, seven blocks away.

Nearly 2,000 volunteers answered the call.

Similar hoopla is expected this summer, when San Ysidro christens a $13.5-million library, a 14,000-square-foot facility, nearly five times the size of the cramped 1942 outpost it will replace.

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San Ysidro and Mission Hills-Hillcrest are two of the 35 branches that, anchored by downtowns central facility, make up the citys library system. This enterprise enjoys broad support, both public  the city council approved this years $55.2 million budget  and private.

Last October, more than 400 people paid $500 each to attend the annual San Diego Public Library Foundation gala. Then they opened their wallets further at the events auction, in which there were no prizes other than the satisfaction of giving to this civic enterprise.

The night netted more than $500,000.

The county library system  33 branches, two bookmobiles, four kiosks, a $46.6 million annual budget  is also enjoying boom times. New libraries recently opened in Alpine (2016), Imperial Beach (2017) and, last December, Borrego Springs.

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Even in this era of bitterly divided electorates, libraries are endorsed by voters across the political spectrum.

Ive had letters of appreciation from people, most recently from Borrego Springs, thanking me, said Ron Roberts, who wrapped up a 24-year stint on the county board of supervisors this month. That voice had been a lot louder than any voice saying dont build libraries.

Still, libraries face serious questions:

Could these public institutions be run more efficiently by the private sector? Last year, Maryland-based Library Systems & Services added the Escondido library to the list of 80-plus libraries it operates across the nation.

Has the Internet and e-publishing eliminated the need for taxpayer-funded libraries?

Is circulation in free fall? Five years ago, the average San Diegan annually checked out 5.1 more than five items from the citys libraries. Today, the average is 3.7.

Similar developments across the Atlantic prompted Tim Worstall, a fellow at a British free-market think tank, to predict that libraries will soon go the way of the dodo.

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Any PC, tablet or smartphone has access to tens of thousands of free titles, Worstall wrote for Londons Adam Smith Institute last August. It simply becomes less necessary to have that publicly funded service.

Leslie Devaney thinks otherwise. The city attorney for Del Mar and Murrieta, Devaney co-chaired the library foundations gala last October. She said that the events site inside the central library helped ensure its success.

Once you go there, she said of the nine-story central library, you kind of get it. Its not just books. Its so much more than that.

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Downward Dog, Baby

What is a librarys purpose? Some advocates maintain that a key role is to act as a unifying and neutral hub for our increasingly splintered communities.

Its a place where everyone can come together, Devaney said. Rich or poor, regardless of your political orientation.

New libraries still devote plenty of acreage to bookshelves, but the latest designs also include spacious meeting rooms. In facilities across the country, these rooms are offered on a first-come, first-served basis to reputable community organizations.

For instance, the Drag Queen Story Hour.

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Starting in San Francisco in 2015, this loosely organized movement sponsors drag queens in full regalia who read to children. Theyve appeared in places you might expect, like the libraries of New York City and Los Angeles, but also in less likely spots.

When the Putnam County, Tenn., library hosted Drag Queen Story this month, 300 protesters and counter-protesters faced off in the parking lot. Library director Phil Schaller did not attend the event  I was outside, trying to do crowd control, he said  but heard that the reading of standard kids fare (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Alexandra Penfolds All Are Welcome) was uneventful.

The library didnt sponsor the event, but its policies mean the facility can be used by variety of organizations  77 in 2018.

We have the normal gamut, Schaller said. We have the Girl Scouts, say, and we have a biblically centered story hour.

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In San Diego County, library meeting rooms are in constant use. Encinitas hilltop library, for instance, hosts jazz concerts; conversational French, Spanish and English instruction; hands-on lessons in 3-D printing; and Red Cross blood drives.

Some of these offerings  toddler yoga classes?  may not have been familiar to Melville Dewey, the pioneering American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal System. But Gina Bravo insists that the public librarys underlying mission hasnt altered.

Our model has always been to be open and listen to the community, said Bravo, director of the new Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox branch. Our model is to be a reflection of our community.

At this branch, that means theres a section of LGBTQ literature; a Hobbit-themed childrens section; and ongoing efforts to expose students to professions in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math).

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Were pairing with UC San Diego and leading companies, building a program for high schoolers to learn different levels of skills, Bravo said. There will be internships that could lead to some sort of certification or letters of recommendation for jobs.

At virtually every branch, theres after-school tutoring for students of all ages. The county system even runs library high school for adults. Last year, 16 men and women graduated with accredited high school degrees. The program is free.

We even pay for the diploma, Acosta said.

In this fake news era, libraries stand out for their ability to reach a broad audience. A 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that 40 percent of Americans place a lot of trust in libraries as a source of information, and another 38 percent expressed some trust.

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The combined 78 percent topped every other institution, except health care providers, who scored a total of 83 percent

And millennials are even more positive, with 87 percent agreeing that libraries help them find information that is trustworthy and reliable.

Privatizing: A Mixed Record

If you look at other agencies, public libraries are relatively inexpensive. San Diegos police departments budget is more than eight times larger than the city library budget. Even parks ($150.6 million for the current fiscal year) far outstrip libraries ($55.2 million) as a drain on municipal coffers.

Looking strictly at the bottom line, though, these systems are not cheap. In 2017, the Escondido City Council voted 4-1 to outsource the operations of its library, arguing that this would save taxpayers money.

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This contract is performance driven with very strong accountability measures, then-Mayor Sam Abed said during an October 2017 meeting, and it also protects the citys control and public interest.

In January 2018, Library Systems & Services assumed control of the Escondido library. Its unclear whether this experiment is working  calls to city librarian Patricia Crosby went unanswered, as did inquiries at the offices of LSS.

Escondidos Roy and Mary Garrett sued the city, arguing that the councils vote violated laws requiring any changes in day-to-day operations to be approved by the librarys board of trustees.

And the board had voted 5-0 against awarding a final contract to LSS, said Alan Geraci, the Garretts lawyer.

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The librarys fate became an issue in last years election, which saw Abeds defeat and a new council winning office.

LSS has a mixed track record. The Santa Clarita library system dropped the company last year, citing declining patronage and difficulty in attracting new staffers. In Oregon, the Jackson County system plans to cancel its contract with LSS this June.

But the companys website touts its experience elsewhere, such as Redding, where visits have increased by 503 percent and circulation by 73 percent since it assumed operations in 2007.

Still, former supervisor Ron Roberts doubts that outsourcing library services will become a popular model across the county.

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I dont remember there being any significant argument of that sort, he said, anybody testifying to that.

Libraries, though, must evolve to survive. If you just sit there and say Im going to be a traditional library, you are going to die, he said.

The Equalizer

While San Diego city library has seen circulation of traditional books declining, director Misty Jones said that has been offset by rising levels of e-book and audio book borrowing. In the last four years, e-circulation has almost doubled.

We continue to see that go up, Jones said.

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Also rising: total visitorship and attendance at programs. And while the use of the systems in-house desktop computers is falling, Jones argues that this is because more visitors arrive with their own laptops or other devices capable of accessing the Internet.

Our in-house WiFi use, she said, has shot through the roof.

Branches are also trying to strengthen ties with the surrounding communities, especially in traditionally under-served areas. At the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park, for instance, there are computer classes and a maker lab for teens.

When you talk about science and tech jobs and how minorities and women are under-represented in those fields, Jones said, it is not because they are not interested, it is because they are not exposed. We are trying to be that safe environment where people can be exposed to that.

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Branches that give to its local residents often find the residents give back. The new San Ysidro library was approved only after a long lobbying campaign by residents, who sometimes showed up to city council meetings by the busload.

When the library foundation organized a campaign to drum up donations for the branch, they figured a reasonable goal was $50,000.

They ended up raising $525,000.

I was so moved by the pride and camaraderie people here shown toward their library, said the foundations Ingrid De Llamas. They really see it as an equalizer between the haves and the have nots.

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That was the story of her father, Lloyd De Llamas. Now a Los Angeles-area developer, he grew up in San Ysidro. In the 1950s, he spent many afternoons studying in the San Ysidro branch.

He always credited the library with helping him on his educational path, Ingrid De Llamas said. My dad felt he wanted to create an opportunity for kids like he had received, to lift themselves out of poverty.

The familys $1.5 million donation was a factor in the San Diego City Councils decision to approve the new San Ysidro branch. Similar, the Mission Hills-Hillcrest/Knox branch was also fueled by numerous small gifts and two large donations, $5 milllion from the Hervey Family Fund and another $5 million from the Harvey and Bessie Knox Memorial Fund (both of these funds are held at the San Diego Foundation).

In the Information Age, books and other resources are not contained solely in buildings, no matter how appealing or welcoming. You can order books through Amazon, stream movies on Netflix, review magazine articles online.

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You can do all that, if you have the money.

With the library, said San Ysidro branch manager Adolfo Ocampo, you have reliable information  and its free. All the people need is a library card.Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 50 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said that at least 19 people died and 48 were wounded. Police and military reports said the casualties included both troops and civilians.

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga City.

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I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worship and public places at once, and initiate proactive security measures to thwart hostile plans, said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead. Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it. The province is home to a rival rebel faction thats opposed to the deal as well as the Abu Sayyaf group, which is not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact. They worry that small numbers of Islamic State-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.Emily Howe is still new at her job, but shes on familiar ground as the new executive director of Think Dignity, a San Diego organization that provides services for people living on the street.

Ive always been motivated by public interest, having a heart for underrepresented groups and vulnerable populations, said Howe, who took over the helm of the nonprofit last month.

She replaced Anne Rios, who left in November to work for Al Otro Lado, a binational legal services organization serving refugees and asylum-seekers in Tijuana and San Diego.

Howe, who earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 2011, also has advocated for refugees and said that as a South Korean who grew up in the northeast United States, she had identified with underrepresented groups much of her life.

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It wasnt until I moved to San Diego that I saw people who looked like me, she said.

The nonprofit Think Dignity, which began in 2006 as Girls Think Tank, operates several services for homeless people in San Diego, including a storage center for their belongings, mobile showers, a legal clinic for homeless youth, a Street Boutique for women and a mobile Street Cafe that provides nutritious food.

Howe has dedicated much of her life to working for social causes, a motivation she said may be in her blood.

My whole family has served in some type of service, she said.

Adopted as a baby from South Korea, Howe said her father was an attorney and her mothers family roots can be traced back to the American Revolution.

Looking into her familys roots, Howe also discovered that her great aunt served in the Army during World War II and was a Red Cross staff member, a grandfather was a prisoner of war in World War II, an uncle served in Vietnam and a great-great gradfather was a police chief in Massachusetts.

It was so interesting because it almost felt like some universal sense of purpose to why Ive had some experiences, she said.

Howes interest in public service was sparked in 1998 as a high school intern for Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat who represents a congressional district in Massachusetts.

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He had raised awareness about human rights issues in El Salvador, and I really gained an interest in human rights advocacy, she said.

Partly inspired by her familys history of service, Howe joined the Peace Corps after college and served as a health program manager in Benin, West Africa, from 2005 to 2007.

While abroad, she took the Law School Admission Test and was accepted at a school back home. Once returning to the cold Northeastern winter, however, Howe said, she began to have second thoughts.

She headed west and began a masters program in public administration at Middlebury Institute in Monterey. While there, she became involved with Global Majority, an international conflict-resolution organization created by one of her professors.

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She put her masters pursuit on hold after less than a year in the program after earning a scholarship and being accepted at USD.

While at the university, Howe also worked on the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace, helping bring the Dalai Lama and a representative of the United Nations General Assembly to campus.

After earning her degree, Howe worked for a law firm and for a legal assistance program in City Heights. She also was active in the campaign to lift the cap on the number of taxi permits in the city and the campaign to provide earned sick leave for part-time workers.

In a cause that felt closer to home, Howe most recently worked as an advocate for people born in foreign lands who were adopted by American parents.

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Some adult adoptees in that situation are at risk of being deported because they never acquired citizenship, she said.

Its one of those things that should be such a simple fix, she said. If children of U.S. citizen parents are not protected, then how is anyone protected?

Looking ahead, Howe she is excited about working with the Think Dignity staff, which includes several new faces, as well as newly elected officials on the San Diego City Council and county Board of Supervisors.

She only recently discovered some of the programs at Think Dignity, which in April will introduce a new career fair.

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I love the mission of Think Dignity, she said. To inspire, empower and organize our San Diego community to advance basic dignity for those living on the streets. Each of us have basic dignity and basic human needs. All of our clientele have stories and sorrows and hearts and aspirations.

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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

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

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760-529-4939Residents living in San Diegos portside neighborhoods, from Barrio Logan to National City, have for years breathed some of the most polluted air in California. These low-income communities have pleaded for relief, suffering severe risks for asthma and cancer.

However, theres been disagreement about whats causing that pollution.

While community members and their advocates have pointed to the shipbuilding industry, freight operations and other activities at the Port of San Diego, businesses have argued that freeway pollution is the primary threat to nearby communities.

Both sides now see an opportunity to get clarity on the situation and rein in toxic emissions  whether from diesel-powered cranes, cargo ships and freight trucks or the heavily trafficked Interstate 5.

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Millions of dollars in state funding have started to flow from Sacramento to the San Diego region as part of a statewide effort to clean up disadvantaged communities, dubbed the Community Air Protection Program.

This is the biggest thing to happen for air quality, I think, in 20 years, said Jack Monger, CEO of the Industrial Environmental Association, a prominent industry trade group. Finally, were going to have some scientific data to look at.

The California Air Resources Board has targeted 10 communities around the state to be part of an initial air monitoring and cleanup effort, from Richmond in the Bay Area to East Los Angeles to the port neighborhoods of San Diego.

Our communities have been neglected by regulatory agencies for decades, said Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition, who was recently appointed to the air board. The Community Air Protection Program is a significant step in the right direction.

Barrio Logan residents, such as Philomena Marino, are also supporting the effort. She said that for the first time, shes optimistic her lifelong neighborhood could be a healthy place to breathe the air.

If you would have asked me that three years ago, I would have said no, said Marino, 49, but now, Im hopeful it will get cleaned up.

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, residents in Barrio Logan experience asthma at more than twice the national average, and the risk of cancer is in the 80th to 90th percentile.

Marino said her parents and many other members of her family have suffered from asthma.

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I notice the difference especially when Im in cleaner air, she said. Were living in a Petri dish with all this pollution. Just blow your nose after a few hours of visiting Barrio Logan.

Industry at the Port of San Diego abuts Cesar Chavez Park in Barrio Logan. (staff / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The program was mandated by the state legislature in 2017 under Assembly Bill 617 and is largely funded by the states cap-and-trade program. Regional air pollution control districts oversee the process, which is guided by a steering committee of industry officials, health experts, community members and environmental justice advocates.

The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District said it has received about $3.75 million from the state last year to roll out its program and expects to pull in another $2.5 million by spring.

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The steering committee is preparing to deploy air monitors in Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights and west National City. The devices are expected to be providing data on pollution by July. Monthly meetings of the steering committee started in October and are open to the public. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. in Perkins Elementary School, located at 1770 Main St.

I notice the difference especially when Im in cleaner air. Were living in a petri dish with all this pollution. Philomena Marino, Barrio Logan resident

While the process has been a model of collaboration so far, the harder work will begin once the data comes in this summer. Thats when the group will likely be faced with addressing specific sources of pollution, from vehicle fleets to individual businesses.

In the meantime, some efforts are already underway. The San Diego County air district has started considering grant applications for projects that, for example, electrify port operations or replace older boat and truck engines.

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And the Port of San Diego struck a deal with the Environmental Health Coalition in 2016 to green up certain operations as part of a more than $32 million expansion of its Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal.

While the Port ramps up its cargo throughput from roughly a million metric tons a year to 4.7 million by 2035, it has agreed to invest in low-emissions freight equipment. Its also planning to purchase a roughly $8 million bonnet to capture smokestack emissions from ships that cannot plug into the electric shore-power system while docked. The system, which is used at the Port of Long Beach, captures diesel emissions directly from a ships main exhaust port and then vacuums it into a machine that can trap more than 90 percent of the pollution, including particulate matter, as well as sulfur and nitrogen oxides.

We very much have a desire to electrify the terminal, said Job Nelson, assistant vice president of government and civic relations for the Port. We all want to get to the same place. Its just a question of where the technology is.

Last summer, port tenants rolled out several large electric trucks and forklifts secured in a $5.9 million grant from the California Energy Commission. The battery-powered vehicles went to the Dole Fresh Fruit Company, Marine Group Boat Works, Pasha Automotive Group, Terminalift and continental Maritime.

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However, even the Port admits theres much it could do to electrify its equipment. At a recent meeting of the San Diego Association of Government Freight Stakeholders Working Group, Aimee Heim, manager of grants and policy with the Port, said the group has missed out on grant funding to electrify operations because it lacked some long-range planning.

One of the things weve really been challenged with in the past is that this money has come up, its been ready, but we havent been ready to execute it, she said. The air board has a program that looks at fully electrifying freight or warehouse facilities. We would love to take advantage of that. But it requires a full comprehensive plan for how you electrify a terminal or warehouse facility, and we at the Port dont have that plan in place yet.

In the long run, one of the toughest and perhaps most important challenges will be limiting emissions from freight truck fleets.

The city of San Diego has taken steps to protect residents in Barrio Logan by expanding the number of streets that freight trucks are restricted from using, unless they are making a delivery. Its also rolling out new signage directing truckers along predetermined routes.

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The San Diego County air district has also ramped up efforts to assist state regulators in conducting freight-truck inspections to ensure that fleets are in compliance with clean-air rules.

While such efforts can help reduce diesel emissions near homes and schools, most environmental advocates would like to see cargo-truck fleets eventually converted to battery power. Its unclear how much air districts can do right now to force industry to do so given the current state of technology and charging infrastructure.

Still, a community in San Bernardino, also selected under Community Air Protection Program, has been calling for aggressive action. Theyre grappling with pollution from the huge number of freight trucks servicing warehouses that popped with the boom in Amazon-style delivery services.

The community wants to see more than just air monitoring, said Andrea Vidaurre, an advocate with the Riverside-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Were interested in solutions and not just band-aid measures.

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To that end, the South Coast Air Quality Management District is developing rules to regulate emissions from mobile sources associated with the warehouse industry. The move has been controversial and the districts board rejected a similar proposal for the ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Traditionally the state air board regulates mobile emissions, such as from cars and trucks, while the regional air districts are responsible for tracking stationary sources of pollution.

Even getting to the point where theyre thinking about pursuing rules took months and months of meetings, said Meredith Hankins, a fellow at UCLA School of Laws Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, who has been following the regulatory process.

Obviously these warehouses are a huge economic driver in the Inland Empire, but reducing those emissions could really help a lot of people, she added. Communities are faced with unbelievable toxic emission from these diesel trucks going out to these warehouses.

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Even some environmental advocates have admitted that freight operators have a limited number of financially viable options when it comes to ditching dirty diesel fuel.

What wed like to see here is the entire internal-combustion truck fleet go away in favor of zero-emission trucks. But thats going to take a long time, said David Pettit, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. If were lucky, in a couple years there will be those trucks that are market ready.

Air district officials in San Diego said they are open to the idea of regulating truck emissions as an extension of port operations. However, such a move would need to be approved by its governing body, which is the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

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Twitter: @jemersmith

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Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comAn Egyptian archaeological mission has uncovered the third section of a Greaco-Roman

winery and its store galleries surrounded by a mud brick wall at Abu Al-Matameer archaeological site in Beheira governorate.

Adjacent is a residential settlement that was once used by the winery employees.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that the galleries of the winery have a distinct architectural design, with thick mud brick walls of different sizes. Some of the walls bear in their mortar small blocks of limestone that appear to have been inserted randomly.

These blocks may have been used to acieve the temperature needed to preserve the wine, Waziri suggested, adding that the wine produced in this area was of high quality and well-known in many parts of the world at the time.

Ashraf Ashmawi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department, explains that the mission has also unearthed a collection of ovens and instruments including clay pots dating to both the Ptolemaic and Islamic periods. Among those objects are also handles of amphora and fragments of iron.

Ashmawi pointed out that the discovery highlights the strong relationship between Egypt and Greece over the span of history, as some of the artefacts bear stamps from both Greece and Egypt.

Short link:

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said he wants to pour $500 million more into child care and other programs for Californias youngest children so that more children and families can afford to use them.

Yet a look at statistics on child care reveals San Diego County doesnt even use all the money it already receives for state-funded child care subsidies.

The reasons point to how badly reforms are needed, child and family advocates say. Many families who need help paying for child care in San Diego County make too much income to qualify, and families who do qualify often get stuck on waiting lists to receive child care vouchers or to find an open spot at a licensed facility.

It will likely take more than just money to fix Californias system of child care and preschool, which is one of the most expensive in the nation, some parents and advocates say.

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Theres just a real lack of capacity to serve kids that need care, said Kim McDougal, executive director of the YMCA San Diego Countys Childcare Resource Service.

If youre a mom of an infant or toddler and youre pulled off the wait list, its going to be hard to find a licensed place to use that (child care) voucher. You cant find one because theyre all full. Im personally on multiple wait lists for my toddlers.

A 2018 report by University of San Diego researchers showed that there are so few licensed child care spots in San Diego County that the county sends back unused state child care subsidies, despite the fact that there are thousands of families at any one time who are on a waiting list for one.

Two years ago, child care providers in San Diego County returned more than $11 million of unused child care subsidy funds to the state, or 16 percent of the funds it had received. That was equal to about 272,000 days that a child could have been enrolled in subsidized child care, according to the USD report.

On top of that, parents can wait years for a subsidy for child care or preschool.

La Mesa parent Amber Valentine, a single mom of three, says she was put on a waiting list for a child care subsidy for her oldest daughter in 2005 but never got one. That daughter is now in college.

More recently, when Valentine tried finding child care for her 2-year-old daughter, Adison, most places she found either had a list of past safety violations or were so expensive that it almost made more sense for her to stay home. The few that met Valentines standards had waiting lists more than a year long.

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I have a migraine just thinking about it. Ive been running around trying to find anything, Valentine said. Its literally trusting a complete stranger with your child.

Valentine settled on a preschool in San Carlos that costs up to $1,285 a month.

Ive had to downsize on everything, she said, even food. Its not affordable, but its safe.

The USD researchers outlined several reasons why it is hard to get child care and preschool in San Diego County.

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First, there are not enough child care or preschool spots at licensed providers in the county to meet potential demand.

In 2017 there were 65,000 more kids, ages 0 to 5, than there were available spots in licensed child care centers. That means there was only enough room for 44 percent of the children of working parents, according to the report.

Whats more, most families need full-time child care or preschool, but most child care is part-time. Half the subsidized child care available in the county is part-time only, but 83 percent of families requesting child care need it full-time, according to the USD report.

Quality child care is costly. California regularly ranks among the least affordable states for child care, according to Child Care Aware, a national resource and referral network.

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A married couple earning Californias median income could spend nearly a fifth of their pay on infant care and up to 13 percent to put a 4-year-old in a child care center or preschool, according to a 2018 Child Care Aware report.

In San Diego County, the typical cost of an infant care center ranges between $300 and $450 a week, and the cost of preschool often ranges from $200 and $300 a week, according to the YMCA of San Diego County, which provides child care referrals.

Many San Diego families likely need a state subsidy for child care but cant get it. The areas high cost of living means some families struggling to afford to live here likely earn too much to qualify for a state child care subsidy.

A family of four had to make at least $77,223 in 2017 to make ends meet in San Diego County, according to the California Budget and Policy Center. But to qualify for a state child care subsidy, that family would have had to make at least 24 percent less than that, according to the USD report.

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Quality child care coupled with early learning can help close achievement gaps among historically disadvantaged children, such as those living in low-income households.

Educators frequently say that achievement gaps in school start years before kindergarten. By age 3, children of college-educated parents, for instance, have vocabularies that are two to three times the size of those whose parents did not finish high school, according to Harvard University.

Studies show that every dollar invested in early learning for low-income children reaps $4-$9 in economic returns later.

Yet three quarters of the families who qualify for a child care subsidy do not enroll in child care. In addition to a lack of seating capacity, thats partly because there are not enough state subsidy funds to meet demand.

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Earlier this month, about 2,100 families were waiting for a child care subsidy, according to the YMCA. Before last year, the list often had 4,000 families on it at a time, McDougal said.

Even when families reach the top of a wait list and get a voucher, theres no guarantee they will have a place to use it. To fix issues of access, experts say the cost of providing child care needs to be lowered.

McDougal said the rate at which the state reimburses providers is too low, particularly considering the high cost of operating a child center in San Diego County.

Its not really a viable business model, because its really, really expensive to provide child care, McDougal said. The entire system is built upon this payment model in which its supposed to be supported by what parents can pay. Yet what parents can pay is not enough to support the true cost of care.

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In his budget released this month, Newsom proposed funding universal, full-time preschool for income-eligible children, to be rolled out over a three-year period, and $500 million to build up child care infrastructure, including training for child care workers.

Kristen Taketa

Email: kristen.taketa@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @Kristen_TaketaWith a business partner and his family missing  gone from their Fallbrook home without trace or explanation  Charles Chase Merritt sat down to talk to San Diego County Sheriffs detectives.

The audio-taped conversation came on Feb. 17, 2010  some 13 days since anyone had heard from Joseph McStay, 40, or wife Summer McStay, 43.

Joseph McStay sold indoor water fountains, and often hired Merritt to craft them.

I dont know of anybody that has anything to gain by Joseph being gone, Merritt told investigators. Everybody I know has everything to lose. This business centers solely around Joseph.

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He told investigators, McStay was his best friend.

Merritt was the last person known to have seen McStay on Feb. 4, 2010. He was also among the first to raise the alarm that the couple and their two young boys were missing.

And years later, after the family was found in shallow desert graves in San Bernardino County, Merritt would be charged in their deaths.

Last week, jurors in San Bernardino Superior Court listened to audio of the interview. Prosecutors played it during the third week of trial for the 61-year-old Riverside County man.

The McStay family, from left: Summer, Joey Jr, Gianni, and Joseph. (Courtesy photo)

The McStay family disappeared in February 2010, less than three months after they had moved to Fallbrook. Days later, their car was found abandoned in a San Ysidro parking lot.

After years of investigation, authorities came to suspect they had intentionally gone to Mexico

Then in November 2013, the remains of the couple and their sons  Gianni was 4, and Joey, Jr. was 3  were found buried near Victorville.

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Merritt  who had long ties to the Victor Valley  was arrested a year later. Prosecutors say he siphoned money from McStays business accounts around the time the family vanished.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has monitored the trial by watching livestream coverage from Law & Crime, a website specializing in live trial coverage. Last week, jurors heard Merritts audiotaped interview with the San Diego County sheriffs detectives initially assigned to the case.

Near the start of the questioning, Merritt acknowledged that he had an outstanding arrest warrant, but said he agreed to talk to the investigators because the warrant is a lot less important than Joseph and his family.

Joseph was one of my best friends  not just a business associate, Merritt told the detectives.

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Prosecutors have seized on Merritts use of the past tense was one of my best friends  when he talked to detectives about McStay. The family had been missing less than two weeks. It would be years before they would be found dead.

Merritt also spoke of his close relationship with McStay.

Up until the fourth (of February 2010), I cant remember a day that I havent talked to him, Merritt told investigators on Feb. 17, 2010. Almost every day, 10 to 15 times (a day). Been going on for at least two years.

Merritt said his work was responsible for about 75 percent of McStays income, and that they were working so damn close together.

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But, Merritt said, with McStay missing, his own prospects would suffer.

During the first portion of the conversation, he also told investigators that McStay had been unhappy with another business associate, a man who handled the website for McStays business, Earth Inspired Products, and was trying to buy him out. Merritts attorneys have pointed the finger at that associate.

Other testimony that jurors heard last week addressed the discovery of the familys remains.

The panel heard from the man who was riding a dirt bike in the desert west of Interstate 15 near Stoddard Wells Road when he came across part of a childs skull and called 911.

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The partial skull belonged to Joey Jr., who authorities said had been buried with his father. Summer McStay and son Gianni were together in a grave about 20 feet away.

Forensic anthroplogist Alexis Gray testified about the familys remains. According to her, Summer McStays jaw had been broken in two places by a single blow that came around the time of her death.

Investigators believe the family had been bludgeoned to death using a three-pound sledgehammer found in one of the graves.

Trial proceedings generally take place Mondays through Thursdays, and could run through April or beyond.

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To watch the livestream, or to learn about other platforms to see coverage, go to lawandcrime.com.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

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Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTLike a lot of people, mayoral candidates Barbara Bry and Todd Gloria say San Diego needs to create affordable housing in a big way. But theyre not embracing incumbent Kevin Faulconers plan to do it, at least not yet.

Both were cautious in assessing the mayors proposals without further details, though Gloria credited Faulconer for making bold proposals that have energized the discussion about how get the kind of housing the region needs.

I appreciate the comments that he made, said Gloria, a state assemblyman and former San Diego City Council member who has made housing a central legislative and political focus. From where I stand, this is the biggest issue for our community.

He said the affordable housing shortage has led to poverty and misery and that homelessness is a symptom of all that.

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Bry, a current member of the City Council, said in an interview Wednesday that building housing that is affordable to working San Diego families is very important.

Asked on KUSI earlier in the day about the mayors housing proposals, Bry was rather dismissive about his overall address.

I think his speech was more of the same, she said, and this city has the potential to be bold and innovative, but we have major issues.

She went on to mention what she saw as some of the citys shortcomings, especially what she said was the lack of a long-term plan to deal with homelessness. We dont even know all the money were spending, she said.

Faulconer, who will be termed out of office after next year, used his State of the City address on Jan. 15 to unveil a handful of proposals aimed at making housing more affordable and getting homeless people off the street.

He wants to remove height limits, reduce parking requirements and allow unlimited housing density for projects that include affordable housing. This would be focused on areas within a half-mile of major transit lines. One exception on waiving the height limit would be in the coastal zone, where voter-approved restrictions could only be undone at the ballot box.

He is pushing automatic by right approval for projects that comply with updated community plans, which would limit lawsuits and avoid protracted public hearings.

Attorney Cory Briggs, a frequent critic of Faulconer, called the entire package a boon for developers and maintained it will not lower housing prices or do much of anything for the average San Diegan. When no elected officials denounced the plan, he decided to run for mayor himself.

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Im dismayed no one spoke up, Briggs said.

The height limit proposal has attracted much of the attention, and Bry is wary of it.

I think that each neighborhood is unique and there should be no blanket policy like that citywide, she said.

She said loosening or doing away with parking requirements makes sense in areas where theres a market for people who dont want or need cars and are happy taking public transportation. Its not one size fits all, she said.

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Thats essentially her take on all of Faulconers sweeping proposals, including unlimited density bonuses for affordable housing. She wants to look at public-private housing partnerships, saying, The private sector cannot build us out of this situation by itself.

She said there could be more state funding but also noted that theres a local fund for affordable housing, which comes from fees developers pay as an alternative to designating a percentage of affordable units in their projects.

City officials are considering mandating the affordable units be included and doing away with the fee, which has not provided enough funds for housing thats needed. Bry believes the process must be changed but said the fee alternative  which she said needs to be higher  should not be eliminated entirely.

Shes a believer in by right approvals and other efforts to streamline the process that can save money and time. Its important, she said, that community plans are developed by consensus with public input to minimize surprises later. Bry said both residents and developers need and deserve consistency moving forward.

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That doesnt mean conflict will disappear. I see it on the City Council all the time, she said. I can never make everybody happy.

Gloria also wants expedited approvals, while guaranteeing public input. He said the important thing is helping residents understand and adjust to how their communities will be transformed.

This work that I do, and hope to continue, is really about managing change, he said.

Hes game to discuss height limits, parking restrictions and incentives to boost density. But with the caveat that the devil is in the details, hell await specific proposals. For one thing, he said defining what a transit area is will be crucial  how frequent are the trolleys and buses?

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Streamlining, allowing for more density and reducing parking could, in theory, bring down the cost of housing. But many question whether that will actually happen.

Count me as one of the skeptics, Gloria said. Thats why I want the job.

He said development agreements that include a certain percentage of affordable units or appropriate fees could accomplish that. But he cautioned that the city must be careful not to go too far.

What we dont want to do is to have projects that dont pencil out and nothing gets done, he said.

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The Housing Commission is sitting on a big pot of money for eventual housing, and Gloria said he plans to press the agency to spend it more quickly.

Gloria said new policies must encourage developers to build affordable housing rather than focus on luxury developments. Though their costs would be trimmed, developers may have to accept admittedly smaller profits, Gloria said.

Housing policies being developed locally and in the state Legislature tend to focus density in urban neighborhoods along transit lines. That has generated growing criticism that wealthier communities wont feel the impacts.

Gloria cant change the coastal zone height limit, but he said there are other ways to bring affordable housing to coastal communities.

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Its imperative to me that what we do is comprehensive  every community must do its part, he said.

Addressing real or perceived inequities may be a key in creating the amount and type of housing that advocates say is needed.

Tweet of the Week

Goes to Stan Sundel (@StanSundel), former journalist with CNN, CBS and Fox News.

State Department cancels border security conference due to shutdown over border security via @CNNCITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council met in special closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. The council was also scheduled to meet Thursday with other commissions and boards for two hours of mandatory ethics training and education.

ESCONDIDO

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The Escondido City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation and property negotiations. In open session, the council reviewed the 2017-2018 Council Action Plan and asked staff to revise the way items were presented. The council approved, 3-2, a resolution to oppose offshore oil drilling in southern California coastal waters. The 2019 budget process was discussed and staff was instructed to consider ideas for the public to have access and give information.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the council approved a request for staff to put together a plan for a short-term vacation rental program. The council heard a five-year financial forecast, and approved hiring a consulting assistant for the Oceanside Police Departments Crimes of Violence unit.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos City Council met Tuesday and reviewed its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30. The council approved a resolution authorizing foreclosure on property owners who are delinquent in paying Community Facilities District special taxes. Several resolutions annexing property to various community facilities districts were approved. The council introduced an ordinance amending the regulations governing tobacco and smoking; cannabis use by persons under 21 years of age and social host obligations; and alcohol sales, service and delivery training. The council held a hearing and approved amending the El Dorado Specific Plan to reduce the affordable apartments from 120 to 84; reduce the commercial square footage from 7,000 to 1,970; and to allow .56 acres of community open space. The mixed-use development is on the west side of Pleasant Way, between Mission Road and Richmar Avenue.

SOLANA BEACH

The Solana Beach City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the board reviewed the citys comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The council introduced an ordinance amending the city code to include an insignia for the Solana Energy Alliance. Appointments were made to commissions: Jeff Lyle, Ed Murphy and Jolene Koester to the Budget and Finance Commission; Patricia Larchet, Peter Zahn, Chester Koblinsky.and Judy Hegenauer to the Climate Action Commission; Sagary Krulce to the Parks and Recreation Commission; Deborah Sweet, Public Arts Commission; and Jill Morris, Dean Pasko and Matthew Cohen to the View Assessment Commission. Spots are still available on several commissions. Applications are being accepted through 5 p.m. Feb. 15. Find applications at https://www.ci.solana-beach.ca.us/commissions or at City Hall. Call (858) 720-2400.

VISTA

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The Vista City Council met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the council held a hearing and adopted regulations for sidewalk vendors. The council held a hearing and approved a filing and processing fee of $9,368 for applications for medical cannabis dispensary business permits. The council held a hearing and approved extending a moratorium on marijuana-related uses other than those permitted by Measure Z. A request for a zoning change at the southwest corner of Hacienda and La Tortuga drives was approved. The change would allow a self-storage facility to be located there.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad Unified School District board met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation and property negotiations. In regular session, Phase 1 projects financed through Measure HH were presented for feedback. The district plans a 15-year construction program that will, among other things, modernize Magnolia, Hope and Kelly schools, improve safety and security, energy efficiency and sustainability, and address the need for STEAM labs. Preconstruction services agreements were approved for work at several schools. The board approved amended bylaws for its Independent Citizens Bond Oversight Committee and also heard a midyear report on the Local Control and Accountability Plan.

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DEL MAR

The Del Mar Union School District board met in closed session Wednesday to discuss labor negotiations and property negotiations. In regular session, the board heard several reports, including on District Design 2022, the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee selection process, and the School of the Future Design Challenge. The board also heard and accepted its annual audit report for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

FALLBROOK

The Fallbrook Union Elementary School District board met Tuesday in closed session to discuss personnel. In regular session, the board heard its annual and five-year developer fees report, and a report on the California Dashboard, which contains reports that show the performance of school districts, schools, and student groups on a set of state and local measures. The board also met Thursday to discuss draft maps for the transition to by-district trustee elections. Map 103 was chosen. The map will be posted for at least seven days and on Feb. 4, the board is scheduled to adopt a resolution to use the map starting with the 2020 election.

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OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside Unified School District board met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation, personnel, student discipline and labor negotiations. In regular session, the board heard a report from the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee and received its Independent Audit Report for 2017-18.

RAMONA

The Ramona Unified School District board met in closed session Thursday to discuss labor negotiations and litigation. In regular session, the board will hear a report on its Local Control and Accountability Plan. An item on revised job descriptions was moved to the next meeting (Feb. 21), as were several items dealing with revisions to board policies on sexual harassment, athletic competition, and suspension and expulsion/due process.BRUMADINHO, Brazil (AP)  Brazilian officials on Sunday resumed the search for hundreds of missing people in the wake of a massive dam collapse, with firefighter crews returning to mud-covered areas after a several-hour suspension over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach.

Authorities evacuated several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon, civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.

Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable.

"Get out searching!" a woman yelled at firefighters near a refuge set up in the center of Brumadinho. "They could be out there in the bush."

On Sunday, authorities lowered the confirmed death toll to 37 from 40, giving no explanation, though that number was expected to increase as rescue and recovery teams got to the hardest hit areas.

Even before the half-day suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Friday's dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died.

There was also mounting anger at Vale and questions about an apparent lack of an alarm system on Friday.

Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens on Sunday, but no such alert came on Friday, when the first dam collapsed.

"I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren," she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for.

Several others made similar complaints when interviewed by The Associated Press. An email to Vale asking for comment was not immediately answered.

"I'm angry. There is no way I can stay calm," said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. "My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if it's bad."

Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometers (miles) and burying much in its path.

She was one of scores of relatives in Brumadinho who desperately awaited word on their loved ones. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.

Some residents barely escaped with their lives.

"I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise," said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, 5 miles (8 kilometers) from where the dam collapsed.

Pedrosa, 45, and her parents dashed to their car and drove to the highest point in the neighborhood.

"If we had gone down the other direction, we would have died," Pedrosa said.

"I cannot get that noise out of my head," she said. "It's a trauma ... I'll never forget."

In addition to the dead, 23 people were hospitalized, according to the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive.

For many, hope was evaporating.

"I don't think he is alive," said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. "Right now, I can only hope for a miracle."

Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as "distressing, maddening."

"Time is passing," she said. "It's been 24 hours already. ... I just don't want to think that he is under the mud."

The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.

According to Vale's website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals."

Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims.

Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate it, saying "someone is definitely at fault." Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who hadn't heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company.

"Vale destroyed Mariana and now they've destroyed Brumadinho," she said.

The Folia de S.Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that the dam's mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to "decreased risk." Conservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful.

On Twitter, new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to "prevent more tragedies" like Mariana and now Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazil's economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation.

Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and presidential candidate, toured the area on Sunday. She said such tragedies should be deemed "heinous crimes," and that Congress should bear part of the blame for not toughening regulations and enforcement.

"All the warnings have been given. We are repeating history with this tragedy," she told The Associated Press. "Brazil can't become a specialist in rescuing victims and consoling widows. Measures need to be taken to avoid prevent this from happening again."DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  A military base deep inside Saudi Arabia appears to be testing and possibly manufacturing ballistic missiles, experts and satellite images suggest, evidence of the type of weapons program it has long criticized its archrival Iran for possessing.

Further raising the stakes for any such program are comments by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said last year the kingdom wouldn't hesitate to develop nuclear weapons if Iran does. Ballistic missiles can carry nuclear warheads to targets thousands of kilometers (miles) away.

Officials in Riyadh and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Having such a program could further strain relations with the U.S., the kingdom's longtime security partner, at a time when ties already are being tested by the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, said heavy investment in missiles often correlates with an interest in nuclear weapons. "I would be a little worried that we're underestimating the Saudis' ambitions here," said Lewis, who has studied the satellite images.

The images, first reported by The Washington Post, focus on a military base near the town of al-Dawadmi, some 230 kilometers (145 miles) west of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Jane's Defence Weekly first identified the base in 2013, suggesting its two launch pads appear oriented to target Israel and Iran with ballistic missiles the kingdom previously bought from China.

The November satellite images show what appear to be structures big enough to build and fuel ballistic missiles. An apparent rocket-engine test stand can be seen in a corner of the base  the type on which a rocket is positioned on its side and test-fired in place. Such testing is key for countries attempting to manufacture working missiles, experts say.

Michael Elleman, the senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, also reviewed the satellite photos and said they appear to show a ballistic missile program.

The question remains where Saudi Arabia gained the technical know-how to build such a facility. Lewis said the Saudi stand closely resembles a design used by China, though it is smaller.

Chinese military support to the kingdom would not come as a surprise. The Chinese have increasingly sold armed drones to Saudi Arabia and other Mideast nations, even as the U.S. blocks sales of its own to allies over proliferation concerns. Beijing also sold Riyadh variants of its Dongfeng ballistic missiles, the only ones the kingdom was previously believed to have in its arsenal.

Asked by The Associated Press on Friday about the base, China's Defense Ministry declined immediately to comment.

"I have never heard of such a thing as China helping Saudi Arabia to build a missile base," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Neither Saudi Arabia nor China are members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a 30-year-old agreement aimed at limiting the proliferation of rockets capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear bombs.

Saudi Arabia, along with Israel and the United States, have long criticized Iran's ballistic missile program, viewing it as a regional threat.

Iran, whose nuclear program for now remains limited by its 2015 deal with world powers, insists its atomic program is peaceful. But Western powers have long feared it was pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a civilian program, allegations denied by Tehran.

Iran has relied on its ballistic missiles as its own air force is largely made up of pre-1979 fighter jets. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has a fleet of modern F-15s, Typhoons and Tornadoes  which raises the question of why the Saudis would choose to develop the missiles.

Elleman, the defense expert, said that while Saudi pilots are skilled, the kingdom still needs American help with logistics.

"Today, they rely heavily on direct American support. There is no absolute guarantee that U.S. forces and supporting functions will aid a Saudi attack on Iranian targets," Elleman told the AP. "Ballistic missiles are a reasonable hedge against those concerns."

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has been targeted by ballistic missiles fired from neighboring Yemen by the Houthi rebels, some of which have reached Riyadh. Researchers, Western nations and U.N. experts say Iran supplied those missiles to the rebels, something Tehran and the rebels deny.

Saudi Arabia is pursuing its own nuclear program, and Prince Mohammed, the 33-year-old son of King Salman who is next in line for the throne, said it would race for an atomic weapon if Iran were to develop one.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview aired last March.

A Saudi program would only complicate efforts by the U.S. and its Western allies to limit Iran's ballistic missile program, said STRATFOR, the Austin, Texas-based private intelligence firm.

STRATFOR said that "should Saudi Arabia move into a test-launch phase, the United States will be pressured to take action with sanctions," as it has done with Iran.

Congress has grown increasingly critical of Saudi Arabia since the Oct. 2 assassination of Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, allegedly carried out by members of Prince Mohammed's entourage. The kingdom's yearslong war in Yemen also has angered lawmakers.

If the Saudis produce "medium-range systems inherently capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the response will be much more robust, though likely out of public view," Elleman said. "Congress, on the other hand, may lash out, as this will be seen as another affront to the U.S. and regional stability."The flying of Chinese flags at the site of various projects it is funding has become controversial after it was raised by Member of Parliament, Olo Fonoti Vaai. The Government defended China and the flying of its flags at project sites. Our reporter Yolanda Lavatai and photographer Misiona Simo talk to members of the public to hear their views.

Ruta Opetaia, Tuaefu, 30

Samoa has benefit so much, thanks to the grants and money we have received from China. The money they have donated to assist Tuanaimato gym was to help Samoa prepare for the upcoming games. We are blessed to have Chinas funds.

Faletusitala Sagote, Vailima, 21

First we have to take into consideration that without Chinas grants to aid Samoa, Samoa would not be as modern and beautiful like it is now. China has given job opportunities here in Samoa and helped improved the services here in Samoa especially with the new buildings. Life is tough as it is with costly living and our nation needs the help.

Savelio Mareko, Vaitele Fou, 34

I am not the only one who is concerned about Samoas relation to China. If the Parliament Member does not even know that the funds are aid from China and not a loan  that only goes to add how confused people really are  even those who are in the Government. We need to know the honest truth on where these funds come from, and whether or not they are really aid or another loan added to the debts. But personally if the funds from China is really to aid Samoa infrastructure, then I have nothing against their flag raised for those projects. Its just a matter of clarity on the matter.

Lavilavi Peseti, Faleasiu, 54

Whether it is aid from China or a loan  it is not necessary to raise their flag here in Samoa. We already have so many debts the Government owes China. With that staining our minds, we worry about even the slightest recognition to them in Samoa because some day in the future China will take over. Our national flag should be the only flag raised and permitting our skies.

Milo Tupua, Palisi, 18

I believe everyone has a right to their own opinion, depending on how they look at it. Although we are in debt, China still continues to help Samoa by providing grants for projects. How else are people to know that China is helping Samoa. Also I dont see why people should be upset about Chinas flag being flown.

Amutala Ieroma, Laulii, 42

 For what I know is that we have received so much help from China and other foreign countries. There is nothing wrong in proclaiming that by allowing their flag to stand next to ours. It just tells that we acknowledge the fellowship between the nations. We are grateful for the aid.



Members of the public have responded to the appeal from the Tupua Tamasese Meaole (TTM) National Hospital for blood donation.

But the hospitals blood bank is unable to store extra bags for future use, due to the high demand from the patients and hospital staff.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, laboratory technician Makai Muaulu said they received a lot of blood donations last week but it was not enough.

Donor bleeding or blood donations can be done at the TTM hospitals laboratory and pathology office at the Primary Health Care building (old Labour Ward opposite Sefos rental buildings or by Samoa Red Cross Society).

Ms. Muaulu said the procedure is done manually but there is a process to follow before the donation is done.

First we need to test for their blood type, we interview them for any permanent conditions, check blood percentage if they have enough and then we do the tests for any blood transmissible diseases.

Some of the questions that may be asked are, whether or not the donor has donated before, is taking any pills or if they have gotten a tattoo lately,

If the donor is female, we ask if shes menstruating, breastfeeding or has a child from five years or under as these may be factors obstructing the donor from giving blood, she added.

She also clarified that if a donor wanted to donate again, he or she has a recovery time between donations of three months.

One blood bag donation can save up to three lives, she added and can help patients who are suffering from life-threatening conditions, support complex medical and surgical procedures, and is critical in maternal and child care as well as emergencies during man-made and natural disasters.

First time donors, teenagers and women have a high risk of a reaction, but most of these reactions are minor. These include bruising of the arm from needle insertion, but for patients exposed to iron overload, a blood donation can prevent the accumulation of deadly quantities of iron in the body.The Ministry of Revenue has every right to decline or deem invalid any tax forms that are developed by a taxpayer without the approval of the Commissioner.

So says the C.E.O., Matafeo Avalisa Fatuaalii, who was responding to an email by the Sunday Samoan on the reintroduction of weekly pay processing in SmoothPay.

Matafeo is encouraging taxpayers to register with their Samoa-Electronic-Tax (S.E.T.)  which allows taxpayers a much efficient alternative method of filing and paying their tax returns online  view their tax statements and receive regular tax advises.

SmoothPay is a private business, which develops P.A.Y.E. tax forms and probably sell or charge clients to use their forms, but the Ministrys statutory tax forms are free and must be used at all times by our taxpayers.

We have the legislative right to decline or deem invalid any tax forms that are developed by the taxpayer without the approval of the Commissioner as we already have approved tax forms.

S.E.T. was introduced in 2014 and has all three templates or tax periods of weekly, fortnightly and monthly.A village mayor has praised the Samoa Solidarity International Group (SSIG) for leading protests against the Asian Development Bank over land alienation concerns.

Nofoalii village mayor, Otemai Liu Ausage, claims his village has been a victim of the Governments illegal land possession  after it took 180 acres of land  and they are currently talking to a lawyer to consider potential legal proceedings.

We had it investigated and discussed with our lawyer and we found out that theyve put these lands on rent, which couldve been a village plantation by now, he said.

Mr. Ausage and residents from his village stood with the SSIG in their protest two weeks ago.

SSIG had been to our village and we have only discussed about the effect of our lands by ADB, which encouraged us to fight for our lands but Im saying this again, he said.

The disgruntled villagers took up the matter with the Land Transport Authority (LTA), but are yet to get an official response on what happened to their land.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi recently criticised village mayors and warned them not to accept money from parties trying to win their influence. But Mr. Ausage, in response, said all they did was listen to the SSIG.

We did not receive any lafo (money) from the S.S.I.G nor anyone else. All we did was to listen to SSIG proposal and we accepted because we wanted to secure and bring back our lost lands, he said.

Comment is has been sought from the LTA management.Egypts overpopulation problem is no secret. The countrys population increases annually by 2.5 per cent and is expected to reach 151 million people by 2050.

The population reached 96.3 million in early 2018, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi has described overpopulation as one of the biggest threats facing Egypt, alongside terrorism.

Various steps have been taken to address the problem.

A national strategy for population and development (2015-2030) was launched in 2014, and an article was introduced into the new Egyptian constitution that stipulates the states commitment to implementing a population programme for the first time in constitutional history.

Yet, despite these efforts little has been achieved on the ground, largely because of the absence of an appropriate and effective institutional framework to address the problem.

Former deputy minister of health and population Maisa Shawki said that responsibility for the National Population Council (NPC) had been transferred from one agency to another, resulting in delays in the implementation of population plans.

It had also caused mistrust domestically and externally because of failures to commit to various pledges, she said in comments made during a seminar organised by the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies (ECES), a think tank, in Cairo last week.

Maged Osman, CEO of the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research (Baseera), said that Egypts population had increased rapidly during the last six years.

He said that the number of births in Egypt in 2027 would be equivalent to that of nine European countries combined on current projections and that this would put a huge burden on education, healthcare and other services.

He added that Egypts population was expected to reach some 151 million people in 2050.

Solving the population problem, he said, would require collective responsibility that involved civil society, the private sector, and government.

He added that political will was also needed. Though President Al-Sisi has regularly spoken of the need to tackle the population problem, too little has been achieved on the ground.

Effective follow-up and accountability, sufficient funds, media awareness and womens empowerment were also needed to solve the problem, Osman said.

He added that an action plan should prioritise defining an efficient institutional framework and database.

Executive Director of the ECES Abla Abdel-Latif shed light on some of the actions that should be taken to address the overpopulation problem in Egypt.

She said the country needed an efficient institutional framework that could formulate and implement population objectives and follow up on them.

She said that a lead agency should take the helm, represented by the NPC.

However, this should not only be affiliated to one ministry, namely the Health Ministry, but should work with other ministries in carrying out population plans.

She stressed the importance of the NPCs having a technical committee that would study proposals and translate them into concrete programmes to which executive agencies would abide.

These executive agencies should include the relevant ministries, including the ministries of education, religious endowments, manpower, youth, social solidarity, international cooperation and communication, among others, Abdel-Latif said.

She added that civil society should also play a role in implementing population programmes.

Besides implementation, there should be effective follow-up and measurement of the key objectives of the programmes implemented by the NPC, a role that could be given to CAPMAS, Abdel-Latif said.

This could follow up on key objectives and report back to the NPC. Reports should also be sent to parliament in order to guarantee accountability. The president should also be responsible for accountability as head of state, Abdel-Latif said.

Other steps she recommended included exempting family planning instruments from taxes, allocating funds exclusively for the population issue in the Health Ministry budget, resuming the activities of mobile clinics, building an accurate database, and formulating media campaigns that take into account cultural, educational and geographical differences.

Abdel-Latif said that greater awareness could help achieve up to 50 per cent of targets. But for these steps to be effective, an efficient institutional system would need to be in place, she added.

Launched in 2014, the national population strategy aims to achieve a balance between Egypts population and its natural resources.

It seeks to improve the quality of life of all Egyptians by focusing on family planning and reproductive health, fostering young peoples health and civic engagement, advancing womens economic empowerment and strengthening girls education.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Addressing overpopulation

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The London Missionary Society recently donated $50,000 to the Congregation Christian Church of Samoa.

The funding is for the upgrading of the LeulumoegaFou and Maluafou Colleges and their libraries, in line with a request received from the Congregation Christian Church of Samoa.

We felt that we needed to get the society back on track for the reason that it has conquered the church for decades now, Apisaloma Apisaloma said.

Pastor Vavatau Taufao, who is also the secretary of the church, said he is overwhelmed by the donation.

To me personally, I am very happy and Im thankful towards members of the London Missionary Society  not only for the gift  but also for a new beginning in terms of the libraries, he said.

The members of the London Missionary Society represented the four different branches in Samoa, American Samoa, Wellington and Auckland. They contributed $10,000 each to reach the total of $50,000 with Mr. Apisaloma saying the goal is to improve the level of education of the students, as they believe in the future of the children.

The presentation was witnessed by members of the London Missionary Society and representatives from the Congregation Christian Church of Samoa.

The London Missionary Society donated $20,000 for the commissioning of a sanctuary at the Malua Theological College in 2017.

Mr. Apisaloma added that giving some of the donation to Congregation Christian Church of Samoa in American Samoa is an ongoing program.

The London Missionary Society and the Congregation Christian Church of Samoa were previously one congregation church but have since separated and become independent church entities.Member of Parliament, Sulamanaia Tauiliili Tuivasa, has accused the Cabinet of interfering with the Public Service Commissions recruitment process for Chief Executive Officers.

But the charge was strongly rejected by the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi.

The M.P. made the comments in Parliament last week, when the leaders discussed a bill to amend the Ministry of Health Act 2006 and repeal the National Health Services Act 2014.

He noted that under the proposed legislation, functions overseeing human resources management and development, will come under the umbrella of the Public Service Commission.

Its also good to hear that Public Service Commission will soon focus on the training aspect of the Government workforce. One of their mandates is the interview process for Chief Executive Officers  and in completion of the interview process  the Public Service Commission has finalise their decision and they are ready to appoint their recommended candidate.

However, Cabinet turns around and change the recommended candidate and so it is a total waste of time. May as well just announce the vacancy and the candidates appear before Cabinet and let them decide, he said during the debate.

But the Prime Minister, in response, said he had to correct the M.P.

This must be corrected as it is wrong. There is a panel of three that conducts the interview and the process is not always perfect and waiting for the decisions are 13 Cabinet Ministers.

According to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers have experience in hiring people.

Some have been C.E.O.s themselves while others use to own businesses and they have hiring experiences.

Tuilaepa said that 95 per cent of the decisions by the Public Service Commission are honored by the Cabinet.

The five per cent are decisions the Cabinet knows is not quite right  and also the 13 Ministers know much more than the three panelists  conducting the interview process.

Also the proverb we hear, the older you become the wiser you are and all the Cabinet Ministers as you can see are very wise, the Prime Minister added.WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump was feeling the heat.

Week after week, Trump had demanded that the government stay partially shuttered until Democrats agreed to pay for his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Surrounded by a shrinking cast of advisers, he watched as federal workers went unpaid and basic services were frozen. His poll numbers were slipping. His arguments were landing with a thud with the public.

A pair of Senate votes on Thursday, and a round of telephone calls from frustrated Republicans, made clear he had no way out. A president who never admits defeat then began a rapid retreat.

The story of how Trump reversed himself, ending the country's longest shutdown with little to show for it, is largely one of acceptance. Over 35 days and a critical final 24 hours, Trump finally came to see what many allies had known for weeks about his strategy: His only option was to climb down, at least for now.

So Trump did what he does best, ending one campaign and beginning the next. As soon as this shutdown was about to close, he promised everyone a new fight would begin  and another shutdown could soon follow.

Trump's GOP allies in the Senate had been more than eager to help him get to "yes" on ending Round One. The critical first step was showing that Democrats were not going to buckle.

The White House had maintained there were untold numbers of Democrats ready to bolt from their leaders and back his demand for $5.7 billion in wall money. Yet for weeks, few such Democrats had emerged. Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had stayed on the sidelines as Trump battled with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, agreed to put the theory to a vote.

There would be votes on two plans to reopen the government. The first was backed by Trump; the second by Democrats. The Democrats' bill won more votes than the GOP bill, even though Republicans control the Senate.

It was a harsh, indisputable reality for the president. He recognized something had to give, according to eight people familiar with his thinking who, like others interviewed for this account, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.

"He knew that it was a lost cause," Schumer said Friday.

Even before the second vote was gaveled shut, McConnell told others he was preparing to reach out to Schumer to talk about what was next. The two met in the majority leader's stately office off the Senate floor. McConnell discussed the offer the White House had proposed: a short-term bill to reopen government that included a "down payment" Trump wanted for the wall.

Pelosi, however, had already waved off the idea, and Schumer said Democrats would not support it, according to a senior Democratic aide. Pelosi had kept her boisterous caucus of Democrats surprisingly united throughout the standoff. She persuaded many that the fight was bigger than any wall.

"That is part of the design, to undo the role of government," she told Democrats on Wednesday, imploring them to hold tough, according to an aide in the room. "There is a plan. It is working for us."

Schumer answered McConnell with the proposal that eventually would be accepted: a three-week measure to reopen the government and then a plan for House and Senate negotiators to discuss border security.

McConnell took the Schumer proposal to the White House. Overnight and into Friday, several Republican senators ramped up the pressure. They called Trump and urged him to end the shutdown and take up border security through the regular legislative process, according to a person familiar with the private conversations.

The White House was ready to consider proposals from Capitol Hill.

Vice President Mike Pence had endured a contentious lunch with Republican senators on Thursday, absorbing criticism for having no plan for a way forward.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said senators described the "discomfort" of a shutdown and "how fruitless many of us  I'd put myself in that category  think it is."

While the vice president "asked for unity" before the upcoming Senate vote on Trump's plan, he also acknowledged the "need to reach a conclusion," she said.

Stories about federal workers in dire straits due to missed paychecks were weighing heavily, too, on Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

"There's a parade of horribles of how people are having to cope with not getting paid and it's not good," Cornyn said. "There was a lot of frustration expressed about the situation we find ourselves in."

White House aides acknowledged they were running out of options that might minimize the impact of the lengthy shutdown as complaints intensified from government employees and people who depend on federal aid and services. By Friday morning, with airports reporting increased shutdown-related flight delays and more workers recounting their personal financial crises, Schumer and McConnell were on the phone talking details.

At that point, it wasn't hard to persuade Trump.

Pence, senior adviser Jared Kushner and others on his team were seen as supporting an exit strategy. But those close to the White House insisted that Trump viewed this not as a capitulation but rather as one more chance at the deal he wants. Aides said the president believes there are Democrats willing to work on border security and that the bipartisan negotiators on Capitol Hill will draw in a more diverse range of views.

"Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in," Trump tweeted Saturday, publicly confident of an outcome that has eluded him: "We will build the Wall!Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi yesterday maintained his Governments rejection of allegations of corruption leveled against his administration in Parliament last week.

The allegation was made by Salega East Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, on Wednesday when Parliament discussed the Supplementary Budget 2018/1019.

We have so much government funds going to waste and this is because the government is being reckless, greedy and abusive, Olo said.

When I consider all these actions, it is corrupt, that is whats happening in the Government.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa immediately objected on Wednesday. He not only denied the allegation, he demanded proof from the Member of Parliament.

Yesterday evening, his Press Secretary released a copy of an interview with the Prime Minister where he said he had questioned Olo about the allegation.

I did question him on his allegation, Tuilaepa is quoted as saying.

And his only response was that many positions in Government service are occasionally provided for in the budget but are never filled during the Governments financial year.

Tuilaepa said he explained to Olo that the budgetary process allowed for justified staff positions in Ministries to be filled during the fiscal year.

It is not uncommon that following advertisements, the applicants were not qualified and so this explained why some of these vacancies were not filled, Tuilaepa said.

During supplementary budgets preparations, the savings from these unfilled positions are subsequently reallocated. You know of course that these debates are broadcast live and so our people listening understand immediately the governments stance.

Tuilaepa also revisited the issue of Chinese flags, raised at the site of the gymnasium built under Chinese assistance for the Pacific Games.

That is another load of garbage from the same Member of Parliament who also appeared in an article in the Observer Newspaper which focused on a photo of the Chinese flag but omitted reference to 5 other flags flying together including our own national flag  a misinformation/misrepresentation perpetrated by the Observer editor deliberately, Tuilaepa said.

Japan is also building a major bridge at Vaisigano in the centre of Apia city for every Tom, Dick and Harry to see the Japanese flag also flying to indicate the source of funding and to forewarn potential thieves that the works in progress are under camera."

These are all senseless allegations from people with evil intentions and tolerated in a Christian country where love of neighbour through service is supposed to reign supreme.

Olo was not immediately available for a comment yesterday.The United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day celebrated today, 27 January annually, offers many lessons for today.

Thats the opinion of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (U.N.E.S.C.O.) Director, Ms Nisha.

Drawing on the broad context of the Pacific and its role in the Second World War, Ms Nisha said Holocaust commemorations are largely not prioritised in Samoa, or in the Pacific.

This part of the world was pulled into the world wars but it was not a party to it, she explained.

Therefore the anti-Semitism or the Nazism that affected the rest of Europe, and many parts of the world, those were not experiences in the Pacific so its not necessarily seen as history of the Pacific.

Around the world, national commemorations in line with a U.N. resolution from 2005 are taking place to remember the lives of six million Jews persecuted and killed by the anti-Semitic Nazi party of 1930s Germany.

In total, 17 million people were victims to the Nazis, including Roma, ethnic Poles and Slavs, Soviet citizens, gay people and Jehovahs Witness.

This year marks 75 years since the beginning of the end of the Holocaust, the liberation of concentration camps by allied forces in 1945.

Today, the lessons of the Holocaust are many, Ms Nisha said, especially the reminder that genocide, and hate crimes do not happen overnight.

She said genocide, or the discrimination that enables it can occur in a society of any kind, and that there is always a need for awareness of how that happens.

Genocide doesnt happen by announcing itself. Small things build up and turn into something big, she said. You know, all of us are capable of love and hate.

In line with honouring the victims of the Holocaust, Ms Nisha said U.N.E.S.C.O. is encouraging all member states of the U.N. to ratify the convention on prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa announced Samoa would be ratifying the Convention in 2019, joining 149 states.

To date, three countries have been before the International Criminal Court relating to breaches of the convention; Iraq, Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia. A case relating to Sudan is currently pending.

In 1951, the U.N. was presented with a petition by the Civil Rights Congress of the USA arguing America was responsible for genocidal abuses of Black Americans.

Here in Samoa, while the Holocaust may not directly touch peoples lives, the lessons of Samoas colonial past can teach similar lessons of tolerance, bias and intercultural understanding.

Novembers exhibition at the Museum of Samoa about the first indentured labourers from China was a good example of how the othering takes place, Ms Nisha said

Thats a very good reminder of who we see today as the other, are very much part of us.

It was a good exhibition to show how the Samoans and that indentured labour came together and became one, not only integrated to become completely absorbed into society but to make it rich, economically, socially.

I think the Pacific may not have had the Holocaust but there are enough examples if a society wants to draw lessons. All they need to do is turn the leaf in the book and go a few decades back, and see.Salary and wage income (pay as you earn income) of employees is legally required in the legislation to be taxed in a fortnightly tax period, not weekly or monthly.

This is according to the Ministry of Revenues C.E.O. Matafeo Avalisa Fatuaalii, who said this is why the Ministry is pushing to cancel weekly and monthly tax rates.

Matafeo said the weekly and monthly rates were developed by the Inland Revenue Services (I.R.S.) back in the early 1990's, to accommodate the requests from large companies, who have weekly paid casual employees and monthly paid management employees.

Also it was done at that time as to assist the employers comply with the new PAYE tax requirements at the time. The final PAYE tax was newly introduced and applied from 1990, she told the Sunday Samoan.

So, its been 29 years since this PAYE system was introduced and we thought our employers should be well versed by now with the calculation of PAYE tax using fortnightly tax rates. Understandably, some people are always negative about changes and always put up obstructions against changes."

However, our Samoa-electronic-tax (SET) has all the three templates or tax periods of weekly, fortnightly and monthly as this was originally developed in 2014 when S.E.T. was first introduced.

Matafeo said when they changed the P.A.Y.E. tax rates in 2017 which came into effect on January 1, 2018  they tried to apply the legal requirement of the fortnightly tax period.

However, when some taxpayers complained, we decided to maintain the electronic forms only on the SET of the three tax periods and use it as an incentive  to encourage the employers/taxpayers to register online to use the SET PAYE forms  and therefore qualify to use the appropriate form for his/her business needs."

Our tax legislations require all taxpayers to use statutory tax forms  that have been specifically developed for tax returns  for ease and consistency of application and administration by the tax administrations. These forms are free of charge and can be downloaded from our website or uplift from I.R.S. office.

The Ministry has information on how to register on their SET service, and once you have registered it allows you to file and also pay your tax returns on line, including viewing your tax statements.On Thursday this week, Prime Minister Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, refused the opportunity to be questioned by Samoa Observer Reporter, Sapeer Mayron.

It happened during his weekly media programme aired live on Radio 2AP, where he had usually allowed time after the programme for the Samoa Observer to ask questions.

He told Ms. Mayron to send questions to the Ministry of Prime Ministers Press Secretary, Nanai Laveitiga Tuiletufuga.

In doing so, Tuilaepa accused the Editors of the Samoa Observer of changing his comments. He did not say which comments he was referring to.

Can you please send your questions because I cannot speak to you after the programme, he said, adding that he will read them and answer in writing.

Also I need evidence of what I am saying because - and it's not you - your editors are changing what I say.

Asked for a comment, Editor Mataafa Keni Lesa rejected the claim by Prime Minister Tuilaepa, saying the Samoa Observer does not change what the Prime Minister says.

The Editor said the Prime Minister should be specific when he makes his claims.

We run a daily newspaper and he is the Prime Minister of the country, Mataafa said.

He is probably the most photographed and the most quoted person in Samoa and in any given edition of the newspaper, there are several stories where he is quoted whether its his usual political rants or whether hes opening a project or whatever."

So which stories is he referring to where we have changed his comments?

Mataafa added all he knows is that the Samoa Observer has been reporting a lot of stories from Parliament during the past few days involving allegations about corruption and an exchange where Tuilaepa threatened to use an atomic bomb to blow up petitions against the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018.

Mataafa stood by the stories and their accuracy. He said the reporters have audio if the Prime Minister wanted to dispute it.

For the information of our readers, audio from these particular exchanges in Parliament, in Samoan, will be uploaded onto the Samoa Observers website, www.samoaobserver.ws.The family of a 73-year-old man who was robbed and assaulted a fortnight ago want the perpetrators brought to justice.

Graham Upton suffered injuries to his head and bruises to his body as a result of an attack that occurred inside the Accident Compensation Corporation building on January 12 this year.

His wife, Mary, said her husband was picking up his medication, and diverted to meet with a friend at the Alley Cafe Bar in the A.C.C. building. The attack occurred when he went to use the restroom, which is located outside the cafe, but within the A.C.C. building.

I was told that when Graham went to the restroom  thats when he was struck  he fell and the culprits proceeded to kick him and then took off with his wallet. The wallet had $400 cash, credit cards and identification cards."

I got the call and I rushed to the hospital, and he had a big hole on the back of his head and he was in pain all over his body. This is a 73-year-old man, a great grandfather and he wouldnt hurt a fly, yet he was an easy target to these people, she said.

Mrs. Upton told the Sunday Samoan that the Police arrived on the same day to get more details of the attack.

I referred the Police to an eye witness  who was my husbands friend  to explain what happened. And before the Police left, they said for my husband to come down to the Police station, to file a complaint and to make a statement."

I knew with the condition that my husband was in, it was impossible for him to be released from the hospital, so I told the Police to come back the next day to take his statement of the robbery and assault."

When the Police did not show up, I contacted my three sons living overseas ti come to Samoa to help with their father and get some answers from the Police, she added.

Police Commissioner, Fuiavailiili Egon Keil, has not responded to an email sent by the Sunday Samoan seeking his comments on the issue. The same email was copied to the Deputy Commissioner Papalii Monalisa Tiai-Keti.

Alley Cafe Bar staff, Serafina Tanielu, confirmed the incident when contacted yesterday by the Sunday Samoan.

We are aware of what occurred to one of our customers, outside of the restroom which is not located inside the bar. We have cameras and to date the Police have not been to the bar to inquire about the footage or question the staff working that night, she said.

William Upton and his two brothers arrived recently in Samoa and called into the Ministry of Police, only to be told that there is no formal investigation into their fathers assault.

The lack of action by the Police has confused him, as his father is a Samoan citizen who has lived here for over 20 years.

I dont understand why the Police are not investigating the attack of my father, a citizen of Samoa who has lived here for more than 20 years.

A contributing member of society, a tax payer and the Police are not lifting a finger to look for the culprits to attack my father.

This is not the Samoa I use to know, I am Samoan and to see my father assaulted and robbed, the cowardice act should not be tolerated, he added.

According to Mr. Upton, the matter was listed under Police help category and the Police are waiting for his father to file a complaint before they can proceed with an investigation.

Mary Monks, Grams New Zealand-based sister who flew in to check on her brother, expressed disappointment with the Police lack of action and fears Samoa is no longer a safe place.

My brother is an elderly man  yet was robbed and assaultedI am very scared to go anywhere in Samoa alone. I never used to be scared but considering what occurred to my brother, who again is an elderly man, I dont think this is a safe place.

Due to the attack on Mr. Upton, the owner of Alley Cafe Bar is reviewing its security arrangements. Attempts to get comments from the A.C.C. building management on the incident were unsuccessful.Editor Mataafa Keni Lesa, and Reporter, Sapeer Mayron, contributed to this editorial

Now listen up folks. Lets talk about our Prime Minister, Dr. Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, and why hes screaming all the time, even though there is really nothing of real consequence, to scream about.

And if you really want to know, every time he accuses the Samoa Observer of being a piece of rag thats being put together by idiots and fools the mind winches, and then it refuses to think.

Since at that very moment, we remember the Chinese man name Jin Jipei who arrived in Samoa illegally in May 1997, and was therefore jailed at Tafaigata Prison.

As a result, Jin Jipei had become the centre of attention so that during a visit, the warden explained: Jipei is not doing well. He is deteriorating both physically and mentally.

In the next edition of the Samoa Observer, an editorial comment titled: This passport scandal will just not go away, was published.

And then it asked: Did Jin Jipei envision being jailed here after he had spent thousands of dollars buying his passport, his so-called ticket to a new life?

We doubt it. He was most likely thinking the most pleasant thoughts instead, in anticipation of a new life of peace and Freedom in Paradise.

He must be regretting all that now, as hes screaming inside: Thank you Samoa for your hospitality! Thank you for the dream!

It is something for the PM and his immigration people to think about.

On 11 May 1997, another story titled Concern over Jipeis health shown was written; this time it was published on the front page of the Sunday Samoan.

It said that concerned over Jipeis health members of the public have asked that he be released on humanitarian grounds.

Over the following weeks the public response was intense. Letters to the editor urging that Jin Jipei be released were published. Under the headline: Set Jin Jipei free, one writer wrote: Jin Jipei should not be in prison because of corrupt government officials who cared only about making easy money.

This will make another scar on Samoas reputation in the eyes of the international community. Looking forward to a fair and corrupt-free Samoa.

And Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi showed up. He attacked the Samoa Observer for publishing the Kim Quang-I1-Jin Jipei story, and he told Parliament: Such things should have never been made public. The problem is that the Samoa Observer is being run by idiots and fools.

In response, the Member of Parliament, Tuala Falenaoti Malietoa, stood up in the House, and told the Speaker: But what is happening is that the Samoa Observer has been publishing the truth.

Then she sat down.

Now 22 years later, in January 2019, a new threat had shown up.

This time though, its the Atomic Bomb, and the joker whos threatening to use it, is none other than the Atomic Bomb maker himself, the Prime Minister of the Independent State of Samoa, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi.

Indeed, he told Parliament on 25 January 2019, he would use an Atomic Bomb to blow up the petitions that were being made, against the Governments Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018.

Why?

He did not say.

Nor would he explain why hed chosen the Atomic Bomb to get the job done, from all the Bombs that are readily available, in the market today.

The last time weve heard, both the Middle East and Russia were loaded with Bombs they were apparently quite eager to get rid of, so why doesnt our Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, take a quick trip over and get himself a couple of Atomic Bombs to blow up those petitioners who have been giving a hard time.

But never mind.

Promised Dr. Tuilaepa: The time will come when I will address the three steps the government took to make major amendments to resolve this matter for all eternity.

Weve been independent for nearly sixty years now, and yet this matter of some constituencies having two, three, four reps in Parliament is always brought up.

He said that this time, the Electoral Constituencies Bill 2018 is a move by his administration to address this once and for all.

Lets wait and see.

Still, it was around that time that Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, declined to be asked questions by the Samoa Observer Reporter, Sapeer Mayron.

During his weekly media programme in his office, Tuilaepa told Ms. Mayron to send her questions to the Ministry of Prime Ministers Press Secretary, Nanai Laveitiga Tuiletufuga.

He did not explain why.

Later though he accused the Editors of the Samoa Observer of changing his comments, but then he did not say which comments he was referring to.

All hed told Ms. Mayron was: Can you please send your questions (to Nanai) because I cannot speak to you after the programme?

He then told Ms Mayron he would read her stories and he would answer in writing.

Explained Tuilaepa: Also I need evidence of what I am saying because - and its not you - your editors are changing what I say.

So you can send your questions to Lave and we will answer them?

The exchange took place before Tuilaepas weekly programme which was aired live on Radio 2AP.

In the past, the Samoa Observer had been allowed to sit in on the Radio 2AP programme, and afterwards she had been allowed to ask questions.

Ms. Mayron wanted to seek comments from Prime Minister Tuilaepa, on the developments of the Parliamentary proceedings during the week, as well as how the bills on the agenda would impact members of the public.

In addition, she wanted to ask the Prime Minister if he could elaborate on the latest developments that the national airline, Samoa Airways, has been making so far, and well as whether the Government was planning to fund the acquisition of a new aircraft.

And lastly, the Samoa Observer reporter, Sapeer Mayron, wanted to ask Prime Minister, Dr Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who is the Chairman of the Samoa Rugby Union, if he could comment on the death of Vaimoso rugby player, Faiva Tagatauli, who had died from head injuries hed sustained during a game, in the previous weekend.

The reporters request was denied.

This is not the first time, Prime Minister Tuilaepa, has refused to be asked questions by Samoa Observer reporters, at his weekly conferences.

Questions about the issues highlighted  among others  were emailed to Governments Press Secretary, Laveitiga, that night.By SA Commercial Prop News

Bagatelle - Mall of Mauritius being developed by Atterbury Property Group



Mauritiuss first regional shopping centre is being developed by leading South African property investment and development company Atterbury, bringing a superb mix of world-class international, South African and local Mauritian retail to Africas top-rated country in the World Banks Doing Business 2010 report.

Bagatelle - Mall of Mauritius, is Atterburys first major offshore development, and has received strong support from retailers wishing to access this unique market. Scheduled to open on 29 September 2011, this 40,000sqm island mall is already 85% let.

CEO of Atterbury Group Louis van der Watt explains that the Bagatelle precinct will ultimately include Mall of Mauritius, a motor city, 100-room business hotel, offices, light industrial and a residential area, all interlinked with strong synergy in a vibrant mixed-use environment.

Bagatelle  Mall of Mauritius meets Atterburys strategic criteria of investing in a stable offshore economy, whilst partnering with well established local partners, says van der Watt. This multi-use development is a collaboration with ENL Group, an established and reputable Mauritian group.

Atterbury Property Group was founded in 1994 and has built a sound reputation for delivering exceptional real estate developments, across all commercial property sectors, through innovation, creativity and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

Atterbury harnesses A-Grade business and commercial nodes for its leading developments and redevelopments and provides asset management with a dedicated team of experienced and reputable managers.

Retailer and consumer demand, together with a budding local economy, an excellent location and superb access are all factors driving this development, notes van der Watt.

Featuring an extensive mix of some 140 stores, the mall will provide a diverse and comprehensive overall retail experience. It will also include six cinema theatres and a food court with an exciting mix of contemporary restaurants, a childrens play area and a skate park.

Cobus van Heerden, Director of Retail from Atterbury Property Developments confirms that South African-based retail giants Pick n Pay, Woolworths and Food Lovers Market have been confirmed at Bagatelle  Mall of Mauritius.

A compelling variety of well-known international retailers such as Hugo Boss, Guess, Quicksilver, Aldo and Nike have already committed to the mall.

Leading fashion retailers Truworths, Nine West, Bata and Identity as well as popular restaurants such as Ocean Basket, Nando's, KFC, Mugg & Bean, Debonairs, Steers and Fishaways will all be represented in the mall.

Ensuring local flair Bagatelle  Mall of Mauritius will boast a significant number of well-known local Mauritian retailers including Kaddy Plus, Courts, Galaxy, Mozouzou, Zea, Book Court, Citi Sport, All Sport, Baobab, Feng Shui, Caunhye Bijoux, Ripcurl, Cash & Carry, DCL Communication, Fresh Step, Olive & Salad Bar and Taste of Asia.

In addition to the local retailers, the mall has also been designed in a Mauritian architectural style to reflect and deliver an authentic island experience, with strong integration to its setting.

One of South Africas leading architectural firms, Boogertman+Partners Architects have designed the shopping centre in association with local partners.

The latest design principles have been incorporated for this enclosed single-storey, fully air-conditioned shopping centre, which includes ample, convenient on grade parking, explains van Heerden.

The generous parking is supported by excellent ease of access from a new offramp via the Bagatelle Bridge, directly to Bagatelle - Mall of Mauritius from all directions of travel on the M1 Motorway. It is also well-served by public transport.

Bagatelle  Mall of Mauritius is situated at the heart of the island between the capital Port Louis and emerging Cyber City growth zone.

Mauritius was recently rated among the Top 25 global offshore platforms, with a local population of some 1.4 million and a growing number of tourist arrivals already around one-million each year.

The development of Bagatelle  Mall of Mauritius is on schedule and is set to serve both local and tourist markets, as well as the many business people based on the island as a result of the 2,500 new global companies which have been attracted to Mauritiuss growing economy over the past 10 years, says van Heerden.An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture went up early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 37 with hundreds more feared dead, firefighters and the mining company said.

The alert, warning of dangerously high water levels at a dam that is part of the Corrego do Feijao mining complex in southeastern Brazil, went off at 5:30 am (0730 GMT), a statement by the mining company Vale said.

A dam at the same mining site burst Friday, spewing millions of tons of treacherous sludge and engulfing buildings, vehicles and roads.

Firefighters said they immediately began evacuating communities near the dam.

"Attention, general area evacuation!" blared a warning through loudspeakers in Brumadinho, population 39,000. "Find the highest point in the city," the warning said.

Vale's CEO Fabio Schvartsman and Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema earlier warned that the death toll from the Friday rupture could rise.

"From now, the odds are minimal (to find more people alive) and it is most likely we will recover only bodies," Zema told reporters late Friday.

In Rio, Schvartsman spoke of a "human tragedy."

Search and rescue operations, suspended overnight because of rain, resumed at 4 am (0600 GMT).

Dozens of helicopters were set to be deployed because the thick mud was treacherous for ground rescuers to venture into.

On Sunday firefighters said the death toll rose to 37 -- up from 34 the day before -- with 192 people rescued. There was no update on the number of missing people.

Twenty-three of the survivors were hospitalized with injuries, officials said.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flew over the devastated zone on Saturday, later tweeting that it was "difficult to not be emotional before this scene."

All was being done to care for survivors and "determine the facts, to demand justice and prevent new tragedies," he added.

The military said it deployed 1,000 soldiers, including sniffer dogs, to the disaster zone.

Separately, an Israeli team of 130 soldiers equipped with cellular location equipment, drones and naval sonars is set to reach the area Sunday to help search for survivors and bodies, an Israeli military spokesman said. The team is expected to stay for one week.

The disaster was the first big emergency faced by Bolsonaro and his government since he took office in early January, and may be one of the deadliest disasters in Brazil's history.

- Vale shares plunge -

Vale has been shaken by the disaster, the second in three years it has suffered in the same state.

Workers at its mine had been at lunch in an administrative area Friday when they were suddenly swamped by millions of tons of muddy trailings -- a waste byproduct of the iron-ore mining operations.

The ruptured dam, 42 years old and 282 feet (86 meters) high, had been in the process of being decommissioned. Vale said it had recently passed structural safety tests.

After overflowing a second dam, the muddy mass barreled down toward Brumadinho but only glanced along the town before roaring through vegetation and farmland, smashing houses and swallowing tractors and roads in its path.

Vale shares plummeted on the New York stock exchange Friday, closing eight percent lower.

Brazil's environmental protection agency hit Vale with an initial $66.5 million fine over the disaster.

Minas Gerais state authorities said they were about to levy another penalty. They have already obtained a court order blocking $270 million of Vale funds in bank accounts with a view to using the money for victim relief.

The mining company, one of the world's biggest, was involved in a 2015 mine collapse elsewhere in Minas Gerais that claimed 19 lives and is regarded as the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.

- 'Lessons not learned' -

Would-be rescue volunteers were urged to stay away because of the slippery, perilous mud. Media were pressed not to use drones to avoid collisions with rescue helicopters.

"There used to be people here, houses. I'm just floored by this tragedy," Rosilene Aganetti, a 57-year-old resident in one of the affected villages, told AFP, pointing to an expanse of mud.

"Several of my friends who were in the Vale cafeteria are missing," she said, holding back sobs.

Another woman, Suely de Olivera Costa, desperately trying to find her husband who worked at the mine, accused Vale of "destroying Brumadinho and nobody is doing anything -- what will be the next town?"

The Brazil office of environmental group Greenpeace said the dam break was "a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies."

Such incidents "are not accidents but environmental crimes that must be investigated, punished and repaired," it added.

In 2008, a moving mass of mud and rocks from an illegal iron ore mine slammed into the Chinese town of Taoshi, in northern Shanxi province, killing 262 people.

A mine collapse at a gold mine in Merriespruit, South Africa caused 17 deaths in 1994.



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Brazilian environmental agency Ibama said Saturday that it fined miner Vale SA (VALE) 250 million reais or $66 million for violations related to a tailings dam that burst at its Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine on Friday.

Damage to the environment resulting from the rupture of the dam's Corrego do Feijao mine has resulted in five infraction notices in the amount of R$ 50 million each, the maximum set forth in the Environmental Crimes Law, Ibama said.

Reports said Saturday that Brazilian rescue workers halted searches for the night on Saturday for hundreds of people missing and feared dead under a sea of mud after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale, killing at least 34 people.

Vale Friday confirmed there was a breach of Dam 1 of the Feijao Mine in Brumadinho (MG). The company deeply regrets the accident and was making every effort to provide relief and support to those affected.

Vale noted that tailings have reached the administrative area where employees were working, indicating the still unconfirmed possibility of victims. Part of the Vila Ferteco community has also been affected. Rescue and care of the wounded is being carried out on site by the Fire Department and Civil Defense. There is still no confirmation as to the cause of the accident.

Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, said it is investigating potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Vale S.A. resulting from allegations that Vale may have issued materially misleading information to the investing public.

On January 25, 2019, Reuters reported that a tailings dam burst at Vale's Feijao iron ore mine in Brazil, leaving hundreds of people missing. According to the article, the mine was in the process of being decommissioned.

Then, on January 26, 2019, Reuters reported that Brazil's National Mining Agency had ordered Vale to suspend operations at its Feijao mine. Prosecutors have requested that over $1.3 billion in Vale's accounts be frozen to pay for damages, with the expectation that more funds would be frozen in the future.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsBoko Haram jihadists attacked two military bases in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, injuring six soldiers, two military sources told AFP on Sunday.

The attacks were the latest against military targets in the region with security becoming a major campaign issue ahead of presidential and legislative elections next month.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 on a pledge to end the Islamist insurgency, is seeking re-election in the February 16 polls.

Early on Sunday, troops fought off an attack by fighters believed to be from the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram in the town of Pulka along the border with Cameroon.

"The terrorists attacked around 1:15 am (0015 GMT) and soldiers engaged them in a 30-minute fight, forcing them to withdraw," a military officer said in an account confirmed by another officer.

The fighters' intention was to attack and loot the town after overrunning the base, said the officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Late on Saturday fighters from the same faction attacked another base in Logomani village near the town of Gamboru, leading to a fight that left six soldiers injured.

"Troops came under attack by Boko Haram terrorists who came in four gun trucks around 6:30 pm (1730 GMT)," the second officer told AFP.

"Six soldiers were wounded from bomb fragments," he said.

Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in the region over several months.

On Wednesday and Thursday the jihadists attacked three bases in Borno and neighbouring Yobe states, stealing weapons and burning the bases.

Boko Haram's jihadist insurgency in northeast Nigeria has claimed 27,000 lives since 2009.

More than two million people have also been forced to flee their homes, triggering a humanitarian crisis in the region.



Short link:

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.Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, arrested more than 14 months ago in a crackdown on corruption, has been released from detention in Saudi Arabia, two Saudi sources and Ethiopian state television said on Sunday.

"He was released today and is heading to Jeddah," one of the sources told Reuters.

Ethiopian Television cited Arega Yirdaw, chief executive of Al Amoudi's MIDROC Technology Group, as its source.

Amoudi, who is in his 70s, invested heavily in construction, agriculture and mining in Ethiopia, where he was born. He later purchased oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden.

Reuters could not reach him, and the Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Short link:

South Africa: Team SA returns home from Davos, India

President Cyril Ramaphosa and a delegation of Ministers are set to return home today following a round trip to Switzerland and India.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has concluded an extended international itinerary on which the President participated in the launch of the International Labour Organisations (ILO) global Report on the Future of Work, the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum [WEF] and Indias 70th Republic Day celebrations, said the Presidency.

Having begun his international programme on Monday, 21 January 2019, President Ramaphosa and his delegation are due following the Presidents first State Visit to the Republic of India where the President was designated Chief Guest at Indias independence celebrations on Saturday.

ILO Global Commission on the Future Work

On the first leg, President Ramaphosa visited the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland, in his capacity as Co-Chair of the ILO Global Commission on the Future Work - a role he shared with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

The ILO launched the Global Commissions Report on the Future of Work that focuses on increasing investment in peoples capabilities; increased investment in the institutions of work, and increased investment in decent and sustainable work.



World Economic Forum

From Geneva, the President proceeded to Davos where he led Team South Africa to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The Forum enabled South Africa to contribute to global dialogue on key issues facing humanity and to engage on key opportunities that are emerging.

The Forum also presented the President and Team South Africa to impress on the global community the path of renewal and growth on which the country has embarked and to showcase the diverse opportunities for investment and trade partnership across various sectors of the economy.

India State visit



Following Davos President Ramaphosa visited New Delhi in the Republic of India, at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Fridays visit to India was in the context of strengthening political, economic and cultural bilateral relations between the two countries.



Prime Minister Modi bestowed on the President the honour of Chief Guest for the celebrations, an honour that was granted to former President Nelson Mandela in 1995 when India celebrated its 46th Republic Day celebrations.

At the commencement of the State Visit, President Ramaphosa was honoured with a welcome ceremony where he paid homage to the late Mahatma Gandhi by laying a wreath at the Gandhi memorial site.

During the visit, South Africa and India entered into a Three-Year Strategic Programme of Cooperation (2019-2021) that aims to further enhance the bilateral strategic partnership.

IBSA Forum's Gandhi-Mandela Memorial Freedom Lecture

The President also delivered the Inaugural India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Forum's Gandhi-Mandela Memorial Freedom Lecture. This year marks the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi that follows former President Nelson Mandela's centenary celebrations.



In paying tribute to the two leaders, President Ramaphosa said "their legacies go far beyond their stature as the founding fathers of our two great independent nations, India and South Africa.

India-South Africa Business Forum

During the State visit, President Ramaphosa and Prime Minister Modi jointly addressed the India-South Africa Business Forum. At the forum President Ramaphosa said the two countries have complementarities and comparative advantages which can be exploited for mutual benefit, particularly in trade, investment and technical exchanges in information and communications technology, among others.

The President utilised the forum to encourage Indian companies to form partnerships with South Africas financial institutions and the private sector to jointly collaborate on projects that can build Africas productive capacity and infrastructure.



He also noted the steady increase in trade between South Africa and India from R80 billion to R107 billion over a five-year period from 2013 to 2017.

President Ramaphosa was accompanied by Ministers Lindiwe Sisulu, Rob Davies, Pravin Gordhan, Jeff Radebe, Gwede Mantashe, Naledi Pandor, Senzeni Zokwana, Derek Hanekom and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. - SAnews.gov.za



This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.WASHINGTON - Nancy Pelosi's first showdown with President Donald Trump began with him publicly questioning her political viability. It ended with the House speaker winning an unmitigated victory and reviving her reputation as a legislative savant.

Trump's capitulation - agreeing to reopen the federal government after a 35-day standoff without funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall - generated rave reviews for Pelosi from fellow Democrats and grudging respect from Republicans who watched as she kept an unruly party caucus united in the face of GOP divide-and-conquer tactics.

Pelosi, D-Calif., emerges from the shutdown as a stronger leader of her party - and more popular with the public, by early measures - as Democrats eye aggressive efforts to counter Trump's agenda through ambitious legislation and tough oversight. That suggests the shutdown might have been a strategic misstep for Trump, in addition to a tactical error.

"He's used to hand-to-hand combat," said former senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a longtime Pelosi friend and partner in politics. "With Nancy, it's hand-to-hand combat with a velvet glove, and he's not used to it."

Even before the shutdown began, it became a clash between Trump, 72 - the political outsider, a New Yorker born to privilege and accustomed to getting his way - and Pelosi, 78 - the oft-caricatured San Francisco liberal who was actually steeped in the street politics of her Baltimore youth and years of hardball on Capitol Hill.

When the two met in the Oval Office on Dec. 11 Trump suggested she was constrained by the fact she had not yet been formally elected speaker: "Nancy's in a situation where it's not easy for her to talk right now."

Pelosi shot back: "Mr. President, please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting."

In retrospect, the remark was more a warning than a retort. Throughout the past seven weeks, according to interviews with dozens of lawmakers and congressional aides from both parties, Trump and White House officials appeared to fundamentally misjudge Pelosi's support among Democrats and her resolve to hold firm against border wall funding.

As recently as Thursday, Republicans indicated that they thought they might be able to break Democrats apart by painting Pelosi as intransigent and unwilling to negotiate on the wall. "I think it's time for the Democratic Party to have an intervention with the speaker," Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the Republican Conference chairwoman, told reporters.

Indeed, not all Democrats share Pelosi's view that the wall is an "immorality," but she kept fractious Democrats focused on a simple message: There would be no negotiations on the wall as long as the government remained closed.

"We can't set a precedent for holding the federal workers hostage, holding anyone hostage, and using them as a bargaining tool for a policy discussion," said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., one of many freshmen who beat a suburban Republican by running on a moderate platform. "People have different views on the right way to get [border security] done, and there's legitimate policy differences there, but let's have that discussion after we get our federal workers back to work."

Tweeting late Friday, Trump vowed to keep fighting for his wall, saying the reopening of government "was in no way a concession."

"It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it's off to the races!" he said.

But there appears to be little appetite on Capitol Hill for a reprise of the draining shutdown. Trump's Plan B - declaring a national emergency and tapping military construction accounts to fund the wall - has unnerved many Republicans and spurred Democrats to prepare for litigation that might not be settled before Trump's term is up.

"I think he's finally met his match," said Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. "The speaker always presents herself in public and in private with the utmost respect. But she's firm, and she's strong, and she understands how to wield that power."

Throughout the standoff, Pelosi followed her own advice: Don't get in the gutter with Trump - or, as she put it colorfully last month, don't engage in a "tinkle contest with a skunk." The episode was also influenced by her respect for the presidency, if not for the president himself, aides said.

In a central episode in the shutdown ordeal, Pelosi effectively blocked Trump from delivering the State of the Union address that they had mutually scheduled for Jan. 29. But Pelosi's initial message to Trump did not cancel the invitation outright - instead, she suggested "that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has reopened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing."

Her decision puzzled observers on Capitol Hill and in the White House - including the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who declared in a television interview moments after the announcement that the speech had been canceled outright, a step Pelosi had carefully avoided.

Several Pelosi allies said the nuance in her letter to Trump was a sign of respect, not weakness.

"There was no way on earth that he was ever going to get in that chamber if the government was shut down," Boxer said. "But she did it in the right way. . . . Another guy might have said in a macho battle with Trump, 'Forget it. It's not happening. We're canceling it.' I think it took him off his track for a little while. It threw him back."

Trump did not get the hint. A day later, Trump retaliated by canceling a military flight that was set to ferry Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers on a trip that would include a visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Then this week, after Trump indicated that he had no interest in rescheduling the speech, Pelosi informed Trump that she had no intention of calling the traditional joint session as long as the government remained closed.

Finally Trump, in late night tweets, acknowledged that the speech would have to wait.

Speaking to a group of opinion journalists Friday, Pelosi explained the strategy: "You only start with a feather until you get to the sledgehammer."

Though Trump's legislative director, Shahira Knight, kept Pelosi's chief of staff, Danny Weiss, abreast of developments, Pelosi and Trump had no direct interactions after Trump walked out of a Jan. 9 meeting in the White House Situation Room.

There, Pelosi had insisted that any short-term funding extension would not compel Democrats to agree to wall funding. Pelosi stuck to that position throughout the fight.

"Have I not been clear on the wall?" she said Friday when asked if her position had changed after the agreement to reopen the government was reached. "No, I have been very clear on the wall. I have been very clear."

As the confrontation played out, the House moved bill after bill to reopen government agencies. Meanwhile, in the Republican-controlled Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to move on them without Trump's assent - creating an imbalance of action that helped cement a perception that it was Trump and Republicans, not Pelosi and Democrats, who were keeping the government closed.

On Friday, after Trump agreed to sign the bill reopening the government, Democrats showered Pelosi with praise.

In one tweet, Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., said Pelosi "should give the State of the Union since she's obviously the one running the country." Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., referred to the reported physical problem that disqualified Trump from the Vietnam-era draft: "@POTUS has bone spurs. @SpeakerPelosi has a backbone." And the rapper Cardi B suggested that Pelosi had treated Trump like a pet dog.

One tweet also underscored Pelosi's ability to unify her diverse caucus, from moderates in Trump districts to the party's far left.

"I will tell you something most of the country probably already knows: @SpeakerPelosi does not mess around," wrote freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a dominant voice in the party's liberal wing.

Said Pelosi on Friday: "Our unity is our power, and that is what, maybe, the president underestimated."

A CBS News poll released this week pegged Pelosi's approval number at 39 percent, a figure higher than Trump's and McConnell's - and appreciably higher than seen during last year's midterm campaign, when Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars on ads attacking Pelosi as a symbol of dysfunctional governance. Fourteen percent of Republicans surveyed said Pelosi had outnegotiated Trump during the shutdown, vs. 6 percent of Democrats who saw Trump outmaneuvering Pelosi.

Among Pelosi's recent fans are some of the Democrats who wanted to oust her as speaker, arguing that the party needed a fresher face at the helm.

Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, said he was "more than pleased" that Pelosi had held the line against the wall. He represents a border district centered on Brownsville, where a coast-to-coast wall is widely viewed as folly.

"Those of us who represent these border districts who just think that the wall is just a total waste of money are grateful to Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer for the battle that they waged," he said.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who ran against Pelosi for House Democratic leader in 2016 and tried to recruit an alternative speaker after the 2018 midterms, said, "I don't think anyone's ever denied her ability to negotiate, to be very tough and smart in these scenarios. The irony of the whole thing is, Trump was able to run over all of the Republicans and get them to cower with every demand he had . . . and he ran into a buzz saw."

"People are seeing her as responsible in the face of gross irresponsibility and chaos," Ryan added. "You don't know who else would have been better. But she's definitely up to the task."Happy Sunday everyone, its game day  sort of. The Eagles wont be taking the field, but a few players from the Birds' roster will be playing in Florida for todays Pro Bowl. While you wait for kickoff, dont miss our conversation with modern life reporter Cassie Owens. She walks us through new research on how often court reporters fail to accurately transcribe black dialect and how those mistakes affect the publics trust in our justice system.

Reading this online? Sign up here to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox every morning.

 Ray Boyd, Tauhid Chappell (morningnewsletter@philly.com)

The week ahead

This weeks most popular stories

Behind the story with Cassie Owens

Each week we go behind the scenes with one of our reporters or editors to discuss their work and the challenges they face along the way. This week we chat with modern life reporter Cassie Owens, who pored over a forthcoming study which evaluated how well Philadelphia court reporters transcribe dialect. When it comes to transcribing black dialect specifically, the study shows that court reporters arent faring very well.

What brought the issue of inaccurate court reporting of black dialect in Philadelphia courtrooms to your attention?

I write about language from time to time. A linguist tipped me that he was working on a study on court reporters. The research was so juicy. He didnt have to tell me twice.

Were you surprised by the degree to which the study found mistakes in how black peoples words were being interpreted in Philly courts?

Yes and no. I identify as a speaker of both mainstream American English and African American English, and use both while working. I know that feeling that somethings getting lost in translation, even between two Englishes. I also follow issues in digital culture, so I was aware that social media users were identifying racial impersonators through taking note of grammatical mistakes in African American English.

It hadnt occurred to me, however, to consider how misinterpretation may happen in a legal context and what that might mean for our court records.

What are some of the implications of the findings that people should be aware of?

The legal experts who we spoke to were all concerned about the accuracy of court records more broadly: If its not accurate, that can raise questions of mistrust towards the justice system and its proceedings.

Theres also concerns around how errors may persist through the progression of a case. Court reporters take down preliminary hearings too in Philly. Attorneys turn to those transcripts as a reference while preparing for trial, plus they can quote transcripts during trial, in some cases.

And legal experts considered this an issue that impairs equal access to justice. If thats the case, we currently have no mechanism to address this. While witnesses who speak foreign languages may get translators in court, people who testify in African American English do not.

What are some steps that can be taken to reduce the levels of reporting inaccuracies? Is anyone doing anything about this?

There are some people arguing in favor of translators after learning the studys findings. The studys researchers have strong objections to involving translators and would prefer that African American English be added to the court reporter certification requirements.

Court reporters participating in the study expressed desires to sharpen their language skills, and thats the reaction that were seeing so far among lawyers and judges, too. Well have to see how calls for more training manifest.

Contact Cassie Owens on Twitter @cassieowens or email her at cowens@phillynews.com.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

Instagrammer @tlbtb went out to The Budd Plant to capture its spirit before changes come to the plant. It was recently bought by a New York developer.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and well pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

#CuriousPhilly: Have a question about your community? Ask us!

Have you submitted a question to Curious Philly yet? Try us. Were listening to our readers and doing our best to find answers to the things youre curious about.

Our readers latest question: Who was Dexter, the Navys last working horse?

The answer: Dexter was originally an Army horse, before he was transferred to the Navy to haul a trash cart around the Naval Home. He was beloved by the men who took care of him.

What were

Comment of the week

Its outrageous something like this, can ever happen in a City of the First Class like Philadelphia. Its the Citys responsibility to prevent a house from being stolen. To also read where the individual stealing the properties is doing it from behind prison walls again should fall under the citys responsibilities for not preventing such an event from occurring. Since the city opens electronic transferring of deeds and paperwork surrounding a transferring of the property theres no doubt that there are probably hundreds if not thousands of other properties stolen over the course of a year. The vetting process for an electronic transferring of a deed should be ten times the normal vetting process. The identity of walk ins doing transfers down at City Hall should be increased, more than just signing in at an unattended sign-in book, and then the checking of a photo ID at the teller window and taking a photograph of the process. Fake IDs are a dime a dozen these days and with tellers that do not know the difference. Total incompetence by city management and their subordinates.  Foxchase, on thieves and forgers stealing homes from deceased owners in Phillys hot neighborhoods.

Your Daily Dose of | Remembrance

Since the 1970s the iconic, loud-clacking, flipboard has graced Philadelphias 30th Street Station. Philadelphians said goodbye to the board when it was removed this weekend. It will be replaced by a new digital screen.Buoyed by Mendelssohns fairy music and perhaps a flute or two of champagne, supporters of the Academy of Music gathered Saturday night at the hall to celebrate its birthday.

Helen Mirren was the special guest for the Academy of Music 162nd Anniversary Concert. This years iteration of the benefit, to which tickets cost from $350 to $1,950 for the concert, dinner, and ball, featured Mirren as host, narrator of excerpts from A Midsummer Nights Dream  and, she joked, as adopted Philadelphian.

The words she has already learned you needed to know to pass as a local, she told the crowd, were anything but Shakespeare: hoagie, jawn, and Double Doink.

Mirren also spoke passionately about the importance of arts education, the audience of tomorrow, and future generations of Academy supporters. Addressing the audience way up high in the Academy, which she took to be populated with a younger crowd, she said: We believe in you, we have faith in you, help us out.

Many already have. This year, 1,800 tickets were sold for the concert and 1,400 for the dinner and ball at the Bellevue, a spokesperson said, a little under last years 2,100 tickets to the concert and 1,500 for the dinner and ball.

The event raised $2.2 million gross (before expenses), slightly more than last year's $2 million. Net proceeds will be split between the orchestra and academy restoration projects.

The next bit of ambition for the hall, which opened in 1857, is sealing and weatherproofing the exterior  including the vast roof, a cupola with badly deteriorated paint, the elaborate cornice at the top of the building, and elements of the facade showing their age.

A cost estimate on that job is expected this spring, but it will clearly outstrip the income from a single ball.

Still, the goal of this anniversary fete goes beyond money. It's also a chance to connect or reconnect with the building.

Among those attending Saturday night were Mayor Jim Kenney; State Rep. Marcy Toepel; State Sen. Larry Farnese; John B. J.B. Kelly, president of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundations U.S. chapter (and cousin of H.S.H. Prince Albert); Sun Hong, president of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra; and Ma Chengcheng, president of Shanghai Media Group.

It was Yannick Nezet-Seguins seventh time conducting the Academy Anniversary Concert  it would have been his eighth had Winter Storm Jonas not made a special guest appearance in 2016 and snowed out the 159th anniversary event  and the orchestras music director is always a sunny presence.

Especially so in a shiny, golden Dolce & Gabbana jacket. He engaged in banter with Mirren, and from the moment the Academy chandelier lifted toward the ceiling to the Pomp and Circumstance exit music, he was a smooth host.

How amazing that after 162 years, the Grand Old Lady of Locust Street is not a museum, but a muse, he told the audience.

To drive the point home, Academy leaders programmed a little opera. Soprano Aida Garifullina, who is about to make her Metropolitan Opera debut, performed a crystalline Je veux vivre from Gounods Romeo and Juliet. Dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet performed excerpts from The Nutcracker.

It all led to Mirren, who performed parts from A Midsummer Nights Dream interspersed with the orchestras excerpts from Mendelssohns incidental music to the play. In a couple of spots, Mirren made Shakespeares words  her voice endowed with desperation or longing  elide just so with the emotion of the music.

She quoted Oscar Wilde, argued for the Academys continued care, and spoke of the buildings artistic ghosts and rich history.

Its cornerstone, she said, was laid by President Franklin Pierce, and he would have done so earlier except for the fact that the government was shut down.

Pierce said he would build the Academy, Mirren told the crowd, but hed make New Jersey pay for it.A New York-based real estate investment firm is under contract to buy the Burlington Center Mall and is reportedly planning to redevelop the moribund Burlington Township retail property into a mostly industrial enclave.

An affiliate of Clarion Partners LLC, owner of the Burlington Industrial Park on the South Jersey townships Delaware River waterfront, was moving forward with plans to buy the property as of Jan. 16, according to a notice of settlement recorded for the property with the Burlington County Clerks Office.

Clarion representatives have told township officials they envision a redevelopment plan for the property that would be dominated by warehouses, the Burlington County Times reported on its website last week.

Weve seen plans, but theres nothing that we find to be a good fit, Burlington Mayor Brian Carlin told the paper. Theyve had too much warehouse and not enough retail to make it feasible.

Clarion is set to buy the mall property from a unit of Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC of Las Vegas, which bought the mall for $4.4 million in 2012, and AA Storage LLC of Franklin Lakes, N.J., owner of the malls former Sears store, according to the notice of settlement, which did not indicate a purchase price.

The once-bustling mall, which launched in 1982, has been vacant since its Sears closed in September, about nine months after the rest of the mall was shuttered due to damage from burst pipes. AA Storage bought the Sears property for $1.7 million from a unit of the troubled Chicago-area retail chain in October, according to clerks office records.

Moonbeam officials have said as recently as December that they were still planning to follow through with their long-discussed turnaround plan for the property, which called for spending $230 million to update the mall into an open-air shopping plaza.

Carlin told the Burlington County Times that he now accepts that such a plan is unrealistic.

We had a mall that was well thought of, but our community and the surrounding area could not sustain it," he said. It makes it a hard sell.

Messages left by the Inquirer on Saturday with Clarion, Moonbeam, and Burlington Township were not immediately returned.ROME (AP)  Three United Nations agencies appealed Saturday to Italy to allow 47 migrants off a private rescue ship after a week in cold weather and decried a "'boat-by-boat" approach that keeps vulnerable asylum-seekers at sea while European nations squabble.

Sea-Watch 3, operated by a German aid group, could be seen about a mile offshore from Syracuse, Sicily as fishermen, priests and others turned out for a solidarity rally in support of the stranded passengers.

The ship rescued the migrants on Jan.19, but Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has refused to let private rescue boats into the country's ports. Salvini has argued the vessels' presence on the Mediterranean encourages human traffickers.

Italian authorities said the people on the Sea-Watch 3 were picked up in an area that is within Libya's search-and-rescue jurisdiction. They allowed the ship to shelter in Italy's territorial waters Thursday as the weather worsened farther out.

The mayors of Naples and Palermo have offered their ports, but national authorities hold jurisdiction. Germany aid group Sea-Watch has said several migrants were spending cold nights above deck due to space constraints and at risk of being swamped overboard by waves.

The passengers include 13 unaccompanied minors aboard, according to the U.N. agencies. A juvenile court judge in Catania urged the government Friday to grant the rescue ship permission to disembark them.

Sea-Watch spokeswoman Giorgia Linardi said the cramped conditions in the 20-square-meter (200 square feet) space below deck reminded some passengers of the detention facilities in Libya where they awaited an opportunity to embark for Europe in smugglers' rubber dinghies and wooden fishing boats.

Aboard Sea-Watch 3, "they are amassed in a cold room, a mile from the coast" of Italy, Linardi said.

The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration, refugee agency UNHCR and UNICEF, which is concerned with children's welfare, expressed "grave concern" and said that "this situation can't drag on for long, above all in a difficult period like winter."

"The absolute priority remains that of saving human lives and guaranteeing a port of safe disembarkation and adequate assistance to those who have already risked life aboard flimsy vessels," the three agencies said in a joint statement Saturday.

Italy has equipped the Libyan coast guard to better intercept trafficked migrants. U.N. officials and human rights advocates say returning rescued migrants to largely lawless Libya will expose them again to torture, rape, overcrowding and scanty rations.

Maritime law specifies that boats are supposed to bring rescued people to the nearest safe port, and human rights advocates have argued that Libya isn't safe for detained migrants.

In a statement on Twitter, Linardi said a 24-year-old Gambian man on Sea-Watch 3 bears a scar from forehead to chin. She said he was slashed in Libyan detention, where his hands were tied to a ceiling, according to a video sent to his relatives.

Rescued migrants have told Italian authorities that smugglers often call migrants' families to hear screams of pain in hopes they'll send more money to the traffickers.

"Until Libya is considered a safe port, all European states should finally show a sense of responsibility and solidarity," the U.N. statement said.

The agencies called for "the current 'boat-by-boat' approach" to be replaced with a "mechanism for safe and orderly disembarkation in the central Mediterranean."

___

Frances DEmilio is on twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilioA British newspaper apologized to first lady Melania Trump and agreed to pay "substantial damages" after publishing a story that it says made false statements about her family and modeling career.

In a three-paragraph apology Saturday, the Telegraph retracted several claims that were published last week in the paper's magazine publication. "The mystery of Melania," which is no longer online, reported that Trump was struggling in her modeling career before she met her future husband, Donald Trump, and that her career advanced only after his assistance. That was false, the paper said.

"We accept that Mrs. Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modeling work without his assistance," the paper said, adding later: "We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations."

The Washington Post reported last year that Trump was a "working model" who was initially not widely known in the highly competitive New York fashion world and that her association with Donald Trump, whom she began dating in 1998, raised her profile.

The Telegraph's magazine cover story, which was published on Jan. 19, was an excerpt from the book "The Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump's Women," by journalist Nina Burleigh. It was published in October.

Burleigh didn't respond to a request for comment from The Post on Saturday.

In a comment to the Daily Beast, Burleigh suggested that the retraction was over fears of "Gawker slayer Charles Harder," the California lawyer who represented the first lady in a defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail, another British publication, and is representing the president in lawsuits against adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Harder is best known for helping a Silicon Valley billionaire successfully sue the gossip website Gawker, leading to its demise.

"The book has been out since October, and excerpted widely by various U.S. publications without a peep of objection. I stand by my reporting," Burleigh told the Daily Beast.

Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Saturday that the first lady "often refers to opportunists out to advance themselves" by destroying her name and image. She said media outlets have lied and made false assertions "in a race for ratings or to sell tabloid headlines."

The story in question also reported that Trump's father, Viktor Knavs, was a fearsome presence who controlled the family, and that the first lady left a university in Slovenia, where she was studying design and architecture, because of an exam. The paper said those assertions were false, and that Trump left to pursue a modeling career.

The Telegraph's apology further said that Melania and Donald Trump met in New York in 1998, not in 1996, as the story stated. The article also stated that Melania Trump's father and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings the president owned and that the first lady cried on the night of the 2016 presidential election. Those statements, too, were false, the Telegraph said.

This is not the first time the first lady has received an apology and damages from publications over stories about her career.

In April 2017, the British tabloid the Daily Mail apologized for an article that alleged "she provided services beyond simply modeling," according to a statement released at that time. Melania Trump filed and later settled defamation lawsuits, with the Daily Mail agreeing to pay an unspecified amount of damages.

The first lady also sued a Maryland blogger who reported about unfounded rumors that she once worked as a high-end escort. Trump settled in February 2017, and the blogger, Webster Tarpley, agreed to apologize and pay her a "substantial sum."

- - -

The Washington Posts Dan Morse, Mary Jordan, Beth Reinhard and Emma Brown contributed to this report.Volunteers who set out across the city Wednesday bearing snacks, toiletries, and socks had prepared for a long night. The annual effort to find and survey every homeless person in Philadelphia typically runs into the wee hours.

But those assigned to the Kensington community knew they would be at it longer than anyone else. Much of the citys homeless population now lives in the neighborhood at the heart of the nations worst big-city opioid crisis.

First in a misty chill, then in an early-morning downpour, they drove the avenues and walked through playgrounds and back alleys, looking for people whose addictions left them in the streets.

The annual count is how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development determines how much it will give the city for various outreach programs, and it helps the city see where to direct its efforts to get people into shelters and even apartments. But in Kensington especially, it has also become a measure of how opioids have gripped the community.

A city count in July found 703 people were sleeping on the streets on a given night in the neighborhood, more than double the previous years summer count. In fact, more than half of the citys homeless were in Kensington, and were in addiction.

Wednesday nights count wont be released until it is added to counts of people sleeping in emergency and temporary shelters. Still, officials were cautiously optimistic that it would be lower than last years count of 1,020 people experiencing homelessness citywide.

The general impression, with no data, was that people felt that the numbers were lower [this year], said Liz Hersh, the head of the citys Office of Homeless Services.

Whatever the tally, Wednesdays exercise confirmed something long suspected: Even as three major Kensington encampments of homeless drug users have been cleared -- and many residents sent to treatment or shelters -- some have scattered through the neighborhood, not to find housing, and other people in addiction, new to living rough, have joined them.

On Thursday, the city will clear the fourth and final large encampment, at Emerald Street, where dozens of people have been sleeping for years.

Its also where many people evicted during the previous three clearings have moved, after declining a shelter bed or other services from the city. (Every resident of the camps has been guaranteed a bed in a low-barrier respite shelter that doesnt require sobriety to enter.)

Tim Sheahan, director of homeless services for the citys Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, has led teams into the camp every day, offering treatment, wound care and other services, to prepare for Thursdays eviction. He said he counted 85 people sleeping in 34 tents on Emerald Street Wednesday night.

Our outreach data indicate that the primary drug of choice [for the homeless population] across the city is still alcohol. But when you look in Kensington, its 95 percent opioids. Its brought in a younger population, a newly homeless population, a highly transient population, Sheahan said. A lot of the folks we see, we only see one time.

Thats because some of the people Sheahans team sees do have somewhere to stay. But they flock to Kensington not only to buy drugs, but also for the relative security of using around others. Now that virtually all of the heroin supply is tainted with far more powerful fentanyl, many users carry the reversal drug Narcan to revive others who overdose.

The distinction may not mean much to permanent residents of the neighborhood dealing with open drug use and drug sales. But its information the city needs to best serve homeless residents. (Sheahan said that his team offers addiction services to both the homeless and people who have homes but are in Kensington to buy and use drugs.)

Hersh agreed that she couldnt be sure that all of the 703 people counted in the neighborhood last summer were actually homeless. By now, though, outreach workers are familiar with the population.

What was really clear [Wednesday] night was that because of all the work weve been doing ... they were really able to distinguish between the truly homeless and people who were out there for other reasons, she said.

Thats what Silvana Mazzella and her team of outreach workers tried to do during last weeks count, patrolling the blocks north of Allegheny Avenue, where the El station on Kensington Avenue is now the scene of newer encampments. By day, Mazzella is the associate executive director of Prevention Point, the citys only needle exchange. Wednesday night, she recognized several clients -- and recruited several new ones.

We will look out for you -- come by and ask for help, she told a man she met behind a Dunkin' Donuts. On another block, a man waved at her from his apartment window. He was a Prevention Point client who now has a home.

Evan Figueroa-Vargas, a volunteer and social-work student, drove Mazzella and a few others down the narrow streets. He grew up in the neighborhood and lost a brother to an overdose. Then, after a motorcycle accident, he got prescription painkillers that started him on a years-long heroin addiction. He paused during the count and looked down the street.

A little over 20 years ago, he said matter-of-factly, I was shot at that stop sign.

He parked the van at the El stop, where the crew surveyed 25 people in under half an hour. They told the outreach workers familiar stories of addiction, of coming to Kensington, of getting stuck. A man named Ricky said hed come up from Baltimore in August after hearing of Philadelphias cheap, pure heroin, and got into a world of trouble. A young man from New Jersey named Shaun marveled at how a week in Kensington had turned into months and then a year.

A woman named Kay told outreach workers shed spent a year on the streets, enduring bitterly cold nights. She wanted to be indoors, and said she wished the city would do more to help people outside Kensingtons major encampments. But she was afraid, still, to enter treatment: I would fear to face reality, she said. My parents are dead -- I have a fear of having no one to call when I have the urge [to use]."

By 4 a.m., the volunteers were headed back with their tally sheets and completed surveys. The count is not an exact science, said David Holloman, the chief of staff at the Office of Homeless Services, who rode with one of the Kensington teams. But it helps us understand what we need to focus our resources on.

The subjects of the count said it was encouraging for them as well: It means a lot. It means Im not forgotten, said Ricky. It means Hey, Rick, you have a chance. 

Editors Note: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect title for Tim Sheahan. He is director of homeless services for the citys Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.West Philadelphia BYOB destination Marigold Kitchen, beset by the financial problems stemming from the recent failure of its partners' TALK bistro in Center City, will close for good on Jan. 31, said Andrew Kochan, who owns the restaurant with chef Tim Lanza.

The restaurant, set in a century-old Victorian house at 45th Street and Larchwood Avenue, was hitting its stride in its avant-garde food served as five- and 11-course tasting menus, Kochan said, citing chef Eric Leveillee and sous chefs Kieran OSullivan and Kevin McWilliams. They are killing it, he said.

It also is an abject lesson in the frail economics of small BYOB restaurants, which dont have the alcohol sales to prop up their bottom line. They tend to feel every bump in the road, including rising food and labor costs. In Marigolds case, TALK presented us financial implications," Kochan said.

TALK, their ambitious bar-restaurant with a moody, noir-ish interior, opened in the height of the slow summer season at 2121 Walnut St. after substantial delays. It was met with tepid reviews and closed in November.

Marigold Kitchens impending closing seems to have caught staff by surprise. As word spread Saturday through the rumor mill and through social media, Leveillee said he might have several options already. With the current restaurant boom, good employees are in demand.

Meanwhile, patrons have but a few days to present gift certificates. Kochan said he would try to make good on them. He said the restaurants phone number (215-222-3699) would remain operational shortly after the closing, and the email (marigold.kitchen.byob@gmail.com) will remain active.

Theres been a Marigold restaurant on the site since the 1930s, when it was known as Marigold Tea Room. In 1959, the Rastelli family of Havertown bought it. Bette and Matthew Rastelli ran it for decades. (Their son John owns the building now.) In the late 90s, Bette began leasing Marigold and it became Marigold Dining Room. Inquirer archives say it then was operated as a Vietnamese and then a comfort-food specialist.

In 2004, Marigold Kitchen was founded by chef Steve Cook, who a year later had the good sense to hire his chef and future business partner, Michael Solomonov. At the opening of their Zahav in 2008, they handed it off to sous chef Erin OShea, who turned the menu Southern.

A year later, Cook and Solomonov sold Marigold and moved OShea to Percy Street, their barbecue restaurant then on South Street.

Chef Robert Halpern took over Marigold in 2009, launching the ambitious fixed-price tasting menus. In 2014, Halperns sous chefs Tim Lanza, Andrew Kochan, and Keith Krajewski, took over. Krajewski is now at Middle Child.

Rastelli, the building owner, did not return a message seeking comment.An Ottawa firefighter gets hosed down by a colleague outside a tent after they responded to the Steacie Building for Chemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa after reports of smoke coming from the building on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangAn agreement with Turkey on Syria's Idlib province has not been fully implemented, raising concerns in Moscow and Damascus, Interfax news agency quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying on Sunday.

Moscow and Ankara have tried to create a de-escalation zone in the region.

Russia said last week that the situation there was rapidly deteriorating and that it was almost under the full control of Nusra militants.

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Actor John Dumelo has sent a message of caution to politicians and their followers to spot victimizing celebrities just because they endorse certain political parties.



According to him, Ghana practices democracy and therefore celebrities who do not support the party ideology and believes of opponents should not be victimized as it has happened in his case.



John Dumelo made this statement when he appeared on Dining with cooks and braggarts hosted by Yvonne Okoro.



He indicated that because of he believes and support for the National Democratic Congress, he has suffered several cases of abuse; something he thinks should not be the case.



John Dumelo who has been tipped to run for Parliamentary elections in 2020 mentioned that it is high time politicians and their followers realize that there is freedom of association and therefore if a celebrity does not support them, he has a right to his/her choices.



He mentioned that he will on any day defend any other celebrity supporting another political party if he/she is being manhandled by another party member.



It would be recalled that John Dumelo was subjected to national disgrace when the New Patriotic Party(NPP) government took a V8 which was believed to have been stolen from the government from him.

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Featured VideoDisclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.The Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper has backed a section of the public who claim the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong was not responsible for the death of Ahmed Suale, an investigative journalist and a partner of Anas Aremeyaw Anas.



Some people are asking the police to arrest Kennedy Agyapong because they believe he was behind the murder of Ahmed Suale.



The minority in Parliament says the maverick politician should be arrested and prosecuted.



Adding his voice to the debate during a panel discussion on Radio Golds Alhaji and Alhaji, Kwesi Pratt said even though his actions can be described as reckless and unguarded, he did not kill Ahmed Suale.



If he wanted to commit murder, he must be extremely stupid to announce it; but I dont think he is stupidwhat he did was reckless, unguarded, an affront to the law but we cannot conclude that he was the one behind pulling of the trigger. He put up the picture; advocating for the use of violence that was clearly unlawful. Nothing was dont about it.we all went to sleep; failed in our civic duty he indicated.



According to him, Ghana is in a state of heightened insecurity and it is the responsibility of those we have been elected to help us have some peace

Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









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Featured VideoAlban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin,Second Deputy Speaker has congratulated the people of Dagbon for returning to a path of peace after 17 years of conflict and strife.



In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra,the longstanding Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo, said the resolution of the bloody monarchical dispute that cost Dagbon so much in human lives, was a mark of maturity.



There is a common saying that the true worth of a man is not measured in what he is able to do when all is well, but in how he is able to stand up again after a fall. Dagbon fell 17 years ago, and Dagbon has stood up again, this is the stuff of heroes, Mr Bagbin said.



He also heaped praises on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll and the Committee of Eminent Chiefs which worked tirelessly in the 17- year period to broker peace.



Nananom, you are our elders and you have rightly carried out your duty as the responsible brokers of peace in times of conflict. It was difficult, but after 17 years we are finally here, thank you, Mr Bagbin said.



His praise comes in the wake of the successful coronation of Naa Abukari Mahama as the 44th Ya-Na of Dagbon. The colourful ceremony which took place at the old Gbewaa Palace was a crown of success to the efforts of the Committee of Eminent Chiefs, which was set up in 2002 to negotiate peace after violence that killed so many including; the late Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani



Those gloomy days were unfortunate, which is more the reason congratulations are in order, Mr Bagbin said.

The Legislator prayed that the new Ya-Na, Abukari Mahama, would safeguard and cultivate the peace that had been achieved.



According to him, all claimants to royal authority from both the Abudu and Andani sides deserve commendations, because I know it took so many compromises on both sides in order to achieve a peace to the end of the unfortunate conflict. I congratulate you all for your maturity, Mr Bagbin said



He however said, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll deserved special mention and praise for his fortitude and tenacity as the Chairman of the Committee of Eminent chiefs. In 17 years of negotiations and intermittent outbreak of conflict, many would have given up in frustration, but Otumfuo never gave up. This is why He and indeed all the members of the Committee deserve special praise for the new era in Dagbon, Mr Bagbin said.









Source: GNA









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Featured VideoDagbon was founded by a warrior called Tohazie (Red Hunter) who hailed from Zamfara in Northern Nigeria from the 1400s to 1600s.



Tohazie was a very brave hunter who mastered the art of archery. On arrival in the Mali Empire, he settled in a village in the middle of a drought. The only source of water for the people was a river that was taken over by a wild bush cow that terrorised and killed the people.



Tohazie led the people to kill the wild beast, making the river accessible. He also organised the people and successfully waged war on rival villagers.



For his bravery and assistance to the people, Tohazie was rewarded with a Malian princess, Pagawubga, for a wife and fathered a son, Kpogon-umbo.



Kpogon-umbo



After serving briefly in Mali, Kpogon-umbo and his followers came into conflict with the rising Songai Empire in western Africa and reprisal attacks from the Songhai compelled Kpogon-umbo and his followers southward.



Kpogon-umbo later seized power and ruled over Biun in Gurma. His son, Naa Gbewaa (or Bawa) left Biun with some of his followers to settle at Pusiga in the north-eastern part of Ghana where he ruled until he died.



Three brothers, three kingdoms



In Pusiga, the chieftaincy of the Kingdom of Greater Dagbon became known as Nam, which was the preserve of the male children of Naa Gbewaah.



His son, Zirili, succeeded him, but succession disputes among three of Zirili's younger brothers - Tohagu, Mantambo and Sitobu - led to the kingdom's demise.



The three moved southwards from Pusiga with their followers. Tohagu founded the Mamprusi Kingdom, Mantambo the Nanung Kingdom and Sitobu the modern Dagbon Kingdom.



This is the reason why the people of Mamprugu, Nanung and Dagbon consider one another as brothers because they share the same ancestry in Naa Gbewaah.



A daughter of Naa Gbewaah, Yentuagri, married a Grumah and together, they established the Moshi Kingdom.



Sitobu subsequently settled briefly at Gambaga before moving south to Namburugu, near Karaga, where he founded the modern Dagbon state.



Sitobu's son, Naa Nyagsi (1416-1432) who succeeded him, embarked on a war of expansion and established his capital at Yani Dabari in Diyali near Tamale where he developed a stable political organisation by enskinning his sons, brothers and uncles as rulers over his subjects.



18th century and Second Kingdom (17001888)



In about 1700, the capital was relocated from Yani Dabari to a new city also known as Yani (Yendi) in the east because of incessant wars with neighbours.



Naa Nyagsi was later succeeded by many chiefs, including Naa Zangina who in 1713, defeated his neighbours at Sang near Yendi.



Not only is Naa Zangina reputed to be the first Muslim ruler of Dagbon, but is also credited with encouraging trade with neighbours.



With the relocation of the capital to Yani and the return of peace, a Muslim community emerged at the Yaa Naas palace at Yendi. A group of Mande origin, led by Sabali-Yarla, and some Hausa Muslims, led by Kamshe Naa, propagated Islam in the kingdom by becoming the Yaa Naas Mallams who led him in prayers. Titles were given to the various Muslim clerics at the palace such as the WalguNaa, the Nayil Liman and the Yidan Kambala.



The extension of trade with the Dyula, and later with the Hausa, linked the Dagbon state with neighbouring kingdoms such as the Fezzan of Egypt and the Bight of Benin. And by 1788, Yendi had established one of the biggest markets in West Africa.



Because of its closeness in culture with other Sahelian neighbours such as the Mossi Kingdom, the Mali and Songhai Empires and the Hausa Bakwai in Nigeria, Dagbon became a major trading partner in salt, kola nuts and slaves.



Colonisation (18881957)



In 1888, Dagbon became part of a neutral zone stretching from Yeji to Yendi, that was established to forestall conflict between the Germans and the British. The area was later partitioned between the two powers, and Yendi came under German control, thus separating the Yaa Naa from his people in the west.



In 1896, the Germans clashed with the Dagombas at the Battle of Adigbo and the latter, who could not withstand the sophisticated weapons of the Germans, were defeated.



Split kingdom



In 1899, the British and the Germans split Dagbon between German Togoland and the Gold Coast.



Following World War I, eastern Dagbon became part of the British-administered mandated territories established by the League of Nations and reunited with the west, allowing the Yaa Naa to resume control of his people.



The British implemented indirect rule, in which Dagomba chiefs were made to administer local government structures and this policy perpetuated Dagomba dominance over minority tribes. The British largely neglected the economic development of Dagbon. To pay the head tax the British imposed, the people had to migrate to southern Gold Coast to work in mines and on cocoa plantations.



The Kingdom of Dagbon enjoyed a distinct constitutional position before it became part of the Ashanti Kingdom and British Togoland.



Dagbon today



Today, the Gbewaa Palace remains at Yendi. The kingdom is divided into territorial chiefdoms, categorised into divisional and village chieftaincies. There are three major Nam Gates reserved for the sons of former Yaa Naas. They are Karaga, Savelugu and Mion, which occupancy qualifies one to contest for the Namship, or head chiefdom, at Yendi.



Succession to the Namship used to rotate among three Royal Houses but has now been reduced to two: Abudu and Andani.



Lesser chieftaincies are reserved for grandsons.



However, over the past century, Dagbon has gone through protracted succession disputes and conflicts.

Source: Alhassan Zakaria & Samuel Duodu









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoMs. Diana Acconcia, the European Union Ambassador to Ghana has said maritime governance is needed to improve the blue economy as well as coordination of efforts to fight maritime insecurity and its associated threat.



She said this would protect human activities at sea and natural resources around the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).



Ms Acconcia said this in a speech read on her behalf at the closing ceremony for the first Gulf of Guinea Inter-regional Network (GoGIN) In-Crisis Communication Course for English speaking countries, held at the Regional Maritime University (RMU), Accra.



The 10-day Course, organized by the Inter-Regional Coordination Centre (ICC) based in Yaounde Cameroon, and funded by the European Union and the Kingdom of Denmark through the GoGIN project, was facilitated by trainers from Expertise France.



It brought together 14 participants from five coastal countries in the GoG - Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Cameroon and Sierra Leone.



The participants were drawn from the Ghana Navy, Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Maritime Authority, Gambia Maritime Administration, Gambia Ports Authority, and Liberia Maritime Authority.



Others also came from Cameroon Military Intelligence Centre, Ministry of Transports (Maritime Affairs) of Cameroon, Liberia National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, the Sierra Leone Armed ForcesMaritime Wing, and the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration.



The objective of the In-Crisis Communication Course was to prepare Stakeholders in charge of crisis management and their Public Relations Officers to be able to communicate effectively to the media in crisis situation at sea.



The participants were taken through characteristics of a media statement, organizing press conferences and presentation skills in answering questions during crisis.



Others were studio works and simulation exercise with seasoned journalists who interviewed them on potential crisis such as piracy and armed robbery, illicit, uncontrolled, unreported fisheries, shipwrecks, drug traffic and maritime spills.



Ms Acconcia said the challenges faced at sea needed more capable people with wider skills, strengthened experience, and networking capacities.



Some of the challenges she enumerated included illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, illicit dumping of waste and piracy as well as armed robbery at sea, amongst others.



She said there was also cultural barriers to effective interagency cooperation within a country and cross-border adding that but given the various threats prevalent in the region, States are today compelled to address maritime security more than ever.



Ms Acconcia said maritime transport represented the largest volume of the world trade stating that 90 per cent of Europes global trade is transported by sea.



She said the objective of GoGIN was aimed at helping countries in the region to build human capacities, critical for effective and concrete actions, adding that GoGIN was working with the ICC to promote regional learning by connecting African maritime universities.



Commander Derrick Attachie, the Head of Training, ICC expressed gratitude to the European Union Commission for the technical, logistics and financial support to the efforts of the countries in the region, as well as the RMU for facilitating the capacity building of maritime professionals in West and Central Africa.



He reminded all on the need to cooperate and collaborate among national stakeholders and between regional partners in the GoG as spelt out in the Yaounde code of conduct.



"To achieve the regional objective to drastically reduce maritime crimes in the GoG begins from individual contributions to the agency, national and regional initiatives.



I therefore urge you to maintain the close relationships developed over the course period as this would be the basis for greater collaboration at the national and regional levels", he said.



Mr Eric Glotin, Regional Coordinator for West Africa, Regional Maritime Security called on the participants to use the knowledge gained for the intended purpose to reinforce maritime safety and security efforts in the region.



Professor Elvis Kofi Nyarko, the Vice Chancellor of RMU commended the resource persons and all the participants for the time and effort invested for a successful completion of the course.



He expressed optimism that the In-Crisis Communication Course would be included in the catalogue of courses being run by the Maritime Safety and Security center of the University.



Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (ASI) Gifty Amgborme on behalf of her colleagues lauded the organizers of the course, which had empowered them for their various fields of operations.



Certificates were presented to the participants.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoFake artefacts dealers operating around the vicinity of the Accra Art Centre, Ghanas biggest craft market is threatening the existence of the art village as they flood the area with substandard goods.



The fake artefacts dealers stand at vantage points around the Art Centre and along the Professor John Evans Atta Mills High Street persuading tourists to buy their cheap wares at cheap prices thereby preventing them from entering the art market.



Other fake art work dealers have also pitched camp at some Markets with the substandard goods.



Scores of traders at the Accra Art Centre complained to the Ghana News Agency in Accra during a tour of the Art Village.



Madam Ruth Alabi (Aunty Mee) of Mama Heritage Shop at the Art Centre told the GNA that patronage at the centre has dropped tremendously over the years as a result of the fake dealers.



The Fake Dealers infiltrate the Art Centre take pictures of paintings, craft works, African print designs, beads, bags and other art works and send it to China to produce similar ones with inferior material which are brought back to markets to sell at cheaper prices, Madam Alabi stated.



She called on the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Government to assist in protecting our local products for instance an African print in the art market is sold between GHC70.00 to about GHC50.00 whiles fake dealers sell the substandard ones between GHC20.00 and GHC30.00.



Madam Alabi said local Ghanaian beads is sold at the Art Centre between GHC10.00 and GHC40.00 but the counterfeit ones are sold between GHC1.00 and GHC5.00.



Madam Alabi called for measures to protect the Art Centre, which has become a tourist attraction.



She cautioned people who patronize these products mainly based the price to be careful.



She however commended President Akufo-Addo for consistently using Ghanaian wear. We also encourage host of other workers, public servants, bank officials and others who have now developed taste for local products. They must however come to the Art Centre for authentic goods.



Nii Ardey Ankrah, Public Relation Officer of the Centre said the marine drive project has impaired the development of the centre because most of the traders have been informed about a relocation exercise to be conducted soon.



He said these art works are mainly patronage of by foreigners who visit during festive seasons such as Christmas, Easter and other festive occasions.



Mr Lawrence Delali Awuah, Manager of the Centre complained about the activities of Kiri boys guys who serve as intermediaries between customers and the centre selling artefacts at exorbitant prices creating the impression that things are expensive at the centre.



He dismissed suggestions that some of the artefacts possess spiritual or super natural powers, stressing these thoughts are expressions of arts in wood even though some traditional worshippers use such images as symbols and mediums of worship.



Mr Awuah blamed the misconception on the movie industry in Ghana and Nigeria, where art works are portrayed to possess spiritual powers.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoThe latest report on inventory of assets and property by the Receiver of the five banks merged into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd. has shown that over GH5billion of loans advanced by the banks were given to cronies and related parties, often without following due process.



The report shows that loans advanced by some of the banks had no documentation to back them and/or were authorised with just a simple email.



Others did not have their collaterals perfected, meaning the banks have no legal right to seize and sell them to recover debts owed them.



For example, in the case of Unibank, out of the GH4.5billion (gross) loans advanced, GH1.93billion was advanced to related and connected parties, out of which only 0.01 percent is considered performing, the report shows.



It adds that most of the significant number of facilities advanced to related and connected parties had incomplete or no loan origination documents. What is more, most of the facilities were solely approved by the executive, with approved amounts far exceeding the authorised limits.



Again, only 6 percent of Unibanks net (GH46million) related party [family, friends and other institutions related to the bank] loans had perfected collaterals, with market and forced sale values estimated at GH13million and GH10million respectively.



What this means is that collaterals from related parties which were registered in Unibanks name, and gives it the legal right to sell such a property in the event of default, are valued at GH23million  meaning the remaining GH22.5million has no collaterals backing it.



When it comes to loans advanced to third parties, a total (gross) of GH2.6billion was disbursed; of which GH300 million is classified as performing or retrievable, meaning 88.5 percent of the total loans disbursed has to be written-off as bad or non-performing debt.



In the case of Beige Bank, out of GH872million loans (gross) advanced, GH274million  representing 31 percent of total loans  was advanced to known related parties; GH206million to third parties (corporate); GH162million to third parties (SMEs); and GH230 million to third parties (individuals).



Also included in other assets of the bank are amounts totalling GH437million that had been advanced to shareholders, related and connected parties, with a substantial part of it assessed as irrecoverable.



The report indicates that a number of loan files  estimated to be about 2,400  could not be located; and many facilities were only supported by email instructions from the erstwhile executive, while some loans granted to related parties were also transferred to The Beige Group Limited after disbursements.



The report further states that as at August 1, 2018, GH174million of related party loans, representing 64 percent of loans due from related parties, had long gone past their final repayment dates.



For Royal Bank, the report shows that a total GH1.14billion (gross) was advanced, with a net figure of GH200million. Out of this, the value of third-party loans (gross) was GH14.6million, of which 24 percent had the collaterals not registered in the name of the bank (not perfected).



The Construction Bank also advanced loans to the tune of GH626,000  which were all term loans given to nine employees of the bank for mortgage and personal purposes. Mortgages made up 63 percent while personal loans formed 37 percent of the loan book.



It is only the Sovereign Bank that had no connected parties in its GH135million (gross) loans advanced to corporates and individuals.

Source: B&FT









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Featured VideoAt least four policemen were killed and 11 wounded by two roadside bombs that targeted police convoys in separate attacks in northern Iraq on Sunday, the service and medical sources said.

Two died and eight were wounded when a bomb hit a bus carrying police on their way to work near the town of Shirqat, its police chief colonel Majeed Ghatran said.

Another bomb struck a second group of officers that was heading to the location of the first explosion, killing two and wounding three, he said.

No organisation claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Islamic State militants have carried out guerrilla-style attacks in the area since their military defeat in Iraq in December 2017.

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The Bank of Ghana has named the immediate past Country Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ghana, Mr. Felix E. Addo as Advisor for National Investment Bank (NIB).



In a press release issued Friday, the bank of Ghana defined Mr. Addos role as to help restructure NIB through governance and management reforms as well as streamlining its business model to help refocus it as a bank to industrialisation. He will stay in the bank until otherwise advised by the Bank of Ghana and will furnish the Bank of Ghana with a status report on the bank as frequently as the Bank of Ghana may require".





Below is the full statement by the BoG



Appointment of advisor for National Investment Bank (NIB)



The Bank of Ghana per its press statement dated 4th January, 2019 indicated that an Advisor had been appointed for NIB to advise management of the bank with a view to helping improve the affairs of the bank. The purpose of this press release is to provide further particulars on the appointment.



Pursuant to section 101 (1) of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act of 2016 (Act 930), the Bank of Ghana has appointed Mr. Felix E. Addo as Advisor to NIB.



Mr. Addo is the immediate past Country Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ghana and a former member of the PwC Africa Governance Board. Mr. Addo has more than 30 years of practice and consulting experience in restructuring and insolvency, corporate/project finance and recovery, financial and forensic auditing, arbitration, corporate governance, organisational restructuring and performance improvement engagements in both developed and developing economies.



He currently chairs the Board of Directors of Guinness Ghana Limited, and serves on other boards.



He is the president of the Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency Advisors (GARIA) and belongs to other professional bodies including the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA), Ghana, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).



Mr. Addo holds a B.Sc. (Hons) Administration from the University of Ghana, Legon and an MA in Professional Accounting from Loyola College of Maryland, USA. He was honoured with a D.Sc (h.c) in July 2018 by the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa.



He is expected to help restructure NIB through governance and management reforms as well as streamlining its business model to help refocus it as a bank to industrialisation. He will stay in the bank until otherwise advised by the Bank of Ghana and will furnish the Bank of Ghana with a status report on the bank as frequently as the Bank of Ghana may require.



It is important to note that an Advisor does not take over the powers, responsibilities, and duties of the banks shareholders, directors, or management. Under Act 930, the Advisor may attend meetings of the Board of Directors without voting at such meetings.



The Bank of Ghana takes this opportunity to assure depositors and customers of NIB that the bank remains open for business under the control of the banks own management, and that customers deposits are safe.



The Bank of Ghana remains committed to promoting a strong and resilient banking sector that retains the trust and confidence of the general public.

Source: Graphic.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoTraders at Ashaiman markets are optimistic of the fall in the prices of staple foods in February this year.



A Ghana News Agency weekly market survey revealed that commodity prices were unchanged at Ashaiman market.



Madam Akua Marfo told the GNA that yam is currently expensive because it is out of season adding that, the time will come when the prices will fall.



She however added that, the price of a yam was between GHC5.00 and GHC10.00 depending on its size instead of the previous price of GHC4.00; an Olonka of Gari which used to be sold at GHC7.00 has dropped to GHC5.00.



Hajia Zalifa Mohammed, a cereal and grain trader told GNA that, I fear the prices might increase any moment due to the change in the economic front which has affected the conveying of goods from the hinterlands.



A bag of onions which used to be sold at GHC250.00 is now GHC300.00 and GHC350.00 depending on their sizes whilst a paint rubber size of big onions is sold at GHC20.00 and the smaller onions sold at GHC10.00.



A sack of millet is sold between GHC300.00 to GHC350.00 whereas an Olonka is GHC7.00; a sack of beans goes for GHC350.00 and GHC10.00 per Olonka; Maize is sold at GHC270.00 per sack and GHC5.00 per Olonka; and local rice is sold at GHC150.00 per sack whereas perfume rice is sold between GHC250.00 and GHC300.00 per sack.



Miss Daina Ayeta, a trader at the Ashaiman market said, some customers complain about the increase in prices in maize and cassava dough.



A sack of cassava dough has increased to GHC65.00 instead of the previous price of GHC60.00 whereas an Olonka is sold at GHC5.00.



She said groundnut paste which was sold at GHC60.00 per bucket is now sold at GHC70.00.



Madam Mary Ampofo, a plantain trader however stated that, plantain is in abundance and less expensive due to the harmattan season and noted that there have been no complaints from customers about the price of plantain.



She added that, one can buy bunch of plantain at GHC50.00, and ten fingers for GHC5.00.



Other markets visited includes; the Tudu, Tema Station, Dansoman, Odorkor, Achimota, Madina, Nungua, Tuesday Market, Kaneshie, Adabraka, Agbogbloshie, Kantamanto, Makola, and CMB





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoU.S. Veteran Held In Iran Has Cancer, His Mother Says

01/27/19

Source: RFE/RL

The mother of a U.S. Navy veteran held in Iran believes he has a recurrence of life-threatening cancer and she is calling for his immediate release to seek treatment, a spokesman says. Michael White, 46, has been held since July, and is the first known American to have been detained in Iran since Donald Trump became president two years ago.



Michael White with his Iranian girlfriend

(undated photo)

Joanne White based her belief that White, 46, has cancer on "firsthand evidence provided to her by Iranian nationals who were incarcerated with Michael," spokesman Jonathan Franks said in a statement on January 25.



"She respectfully calls on the regime to release him immediately so he may get the care he needs. In the interim it is critical that the Iranian regime afford Michael the unfettered, regular consular access and contact with his family consistent with Iran's international and bilateral obligations," the statement added.



An Iranian prosecutor has said that White was detained in connection to a "private complaint."



Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency on January 25 quoted prosecutor Gholamali Sadeghi as saying the case was still "under investigation," without elaborating. He did not confirm reports that the man faces security charges.



Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi earlier this month confirmed White's arrest which had been first reported by The New York Times on January 7, but did not specify when it had happened or what crime he was accused of.



The newspaper quoted Joanne White as saying her son had visited Iran "five or six times" to see an Iranian woman she described as his girlfriend.



White's detainment was also reported on January 7 by Iran Wire, an online news service run by Iranian expatriates.



Iran in the past has detained Westerners and dual nationals to use them as leverage in negotiations.



Several of them have been accused of spying.



The statement on behalf of Joanne White said that his son is not a spy and that he was visiting his girlfriend.



"To be clear, Michael is not now, nor has he ever been a spy and we reject the notion he committed some sort of crime against the State. He was visiting his girlfriend. He has no part in the ongoing geopolitical conflict between Iran and the United States and Joanne respectfully pleads for the Iranian Government for Michael's release so that he may get the urgent medical care she believes he needs," the statement said.



Tensions have been high since Trump pulled Washington out of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed crippling economic sanctions against Tehran last year.



With reporting by AP and MehrNo Standard Heating For 136,000 Classrooms: Iran's Deputy Education Minister

01/27/19

Source: Radio Farda

The heating systems in 136,000 classrooms across Iran do not have the required standards, the Islamic Republic's Deputy Minister of Education has said. "As most of these classrooms are located in the province of Sistan & Baluchestan and other regions with no gas pipelines, it is impossible to upgrade their heating system for the moment," Mehrollah Rakhshani Mehr asserted on Saturday, January 26.



Fire at a school in Zahedan in Southeast of Iran

killed three children on Tuesday December 18, 2018.

According to Rakhshani Mehr, a possible way to make classrooms safe is replacing kerosene with diesel fuel for the heaters, but, providing it in some of the provinces, including the border areas, is unfeasible.



Scores of Iranian schoolchildren have died or badly burnt in recent years in classrooms heated with substandard and unsafe kerosene stoves.



Iranian media reported on Tuesday, December 18, 2018, that a school fire killed three girls in the country's impoverished mainly Sunni populated Province of Sistan & Baluchestan.



Immediately after the blaze, Deputy Chairman of Majlis' (parliament) Education and Research Commission, Qassem Ahmadi said that two-thirds of schools in Iran either needed renovation or essential repair.



artwork by Laleh Ziaei, Iranian daily Ghanoon

The Deputy Education Minister who is also the head of Iran Schools Renovation Organization (ISRO) said that if a new parliamentary motion is approved, the share of ISRO from the increased price of natural gas would rise from 20% to 50%. This would enable financing for changing the heating systems to safer fuels.



Earlier, when it was reported that eighty schools were totally demolished in November 2017's 7-3 magnitude earthquake in Kermanshah, western Iran, the Minister of Education, Mohammad Bat'haei declared that one-third of school buildings across Iran are unsafe, needing renovation or retrofitting.



Furthermore, the director of the renovation of Tehran Schools, Dariush Varnaseri announced on December 10, 2017, that there are more than one thousand unsafe educational sites across Tehran province.Paducah, KY (42003)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 89F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some passing clouds. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.Militia violence reared its head in Libya again last week in the southern outskirts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, while the Libyan National Army has launched a military campaign aimed to assert control over southern and central Libya.

The renewed violence and the consequent aggravation of social tensions have raised concerns over the prospects of the comprehensive National Conference that had been planned for this month with the aim of forging a consensus on a roadmap to end the Libyan crisis.

On Wednesday, 16 January, clashes broke out in the suburbs of Tripoli between the 7th Infantry Brigade and the Tripoli Cartel, which is also known as the Tripoli Protection Force (TPF).

By last Sunday, according to the Libyan Health Ministry, the fighting had claimed 11 dead, including a freelance photographer who contributed to The Associated Press, and 43 wounded.

A delegation headed by the social council of the Warfalla tribes arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to help mediate in order to restore calm in and around the capital.

This is the first time since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 that the Warfalla, the largest tribal confederation in the country, stepped in as a mediator between warring groups in the country.

The delegation hopes to re-consolidate the frayed truce between the 7th Infantry Brigade, which is based in the town Tarhuna where it is known as the Kaniyat Brigade, and the Tripoli Protection Force (TPF), which consists of four main militia groups: the Special Deterrence Force (SDF), the Tripoli Revolutionaries Battalion (TRB), the Nawasi Battalion and the Abu Slim unit of the Central Security apparatus.

In September 2018, the two sides, meeting in the southeast town of Zawiya, signed a UN-brokered ceasefire that initiated a range of security arrangements.

The Interior Ministrys attempts to implement these have since stirred tensions between it and the TPF.

The clashes in the south of Tripoli were reportedly sparked by a mysterious incident involving the abduction of three members of the 7th Brigade by an unidentified group said to come from Tarhuna.

This abduction occurred after militia groups in Tripoli refused to carry out Interior Ministry instructions to secure the environs of Tripoli International Airport, signalling a breakdown in the implementation of one of the arrangements agreed to in the UN-brokered truce signed in Zawiya.

Aguila Al-Jamal, who heads the Warfalla social council, announced over the weekend that the two sides to the dispute in Tripoli agreed, in principle, to a halt in the fighting and to restore calm.

His delegation had been mandated by Tarhuna elders to represent them in talks with elders and dignitaries from Tripoli on how to restore calm.

The talks have yielded a proposal for a new ceasefire that the delegation will be taking back to the elders in Tarhuna and that is expected to obtain considerable support there.

The proposal calls for a ceasefire in the areas south of the capital, the release of detainees on both sides, the withdrawal of the 7th Brigade to the administrative boundaries of Tarhuna and an official apology to the inhabitants of Tripoli for damage caused by the conflict that flared in September 2018 and flared once again in January 2019.

Tensions have also surfaced between Fathi Bashagha, interior minister of the Government of National Accord, and TPF contingents which oppose his internationally supported efforts to end the militia groups control over the capital.

Bashagha has accused TPF leaders of refusing to carry out the agreed upon security arrangement calling for the transfer of responsibility for the security of government buildings and vital facilities from the militias to official security forces.

Al-Ahram Weekly has learned that a US delegation headed by Peter Bodde, the charge daffaires of the US embassy in Libya, which is currently operating out of Tunis, is to meet with Bashagha in Misrata, rather than in the Interior Ministry building in Tripoli.

This is seen as a strong signal of US support for Bashaghas efforts to free Tripoli and sovereign government institutions from the grip of the militias.

Contingents of the TPF, in turn, have been asserting intensive pressure on Fayez Al-Sarraj, chairman of the Presidency Council, to replace the current interior minister with Major General Diaaeddin Al-Amrouni who currently serves as commander of the Presidential Guard.

It is noteworthy that the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) did actively intervene in the recent outbreak of conflict between the TPF and 7th Brigade, in contrast to the mediating it played during the spiralling violence between them in September last year.

On this occasion, UNSMIL organised a meeting between representatives of the diplomatic community and Libya with Bashagha and security officials as a means to rally international support for Bashaghas efforts to implement the security plan for the capital.

In another development that casts a shadow over the prospects for stability and peace in the country, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander-general of the Libyan National Army (LNA), has launched a military operation that stated purposes of which are to regain control over Fezzan region and protect its inhabitants from terrorists and criminal gangs, to secure control over crucial oil and gas fields and to protect the artificial river system, to safeguard local and foreign petroleum companies and the agricultural projects in the area, to reopen and secure all routes connecting the south to the north, and to bring fuel, medical supplies, food and other essential goods and services to the people of the south.

However, the UN Special Envoy to Libya and head of UNSMIL, Ghassan Salame, has warned that the amassment of forces in the south could precipitate an immanent dispute between the tribes in the area because of tensions that have prevailed between them since 2011.

He urged all parties to exert the utmost self-restraint.

It is noteworthy that a video broadcast by the LNA press bureau showed Jordanian-made Al-Wahsh armoured vehicles among the military reinforcements being sent into Jezzan to take part in the operation to purge southern Libya of terrorism.

The mine and ballistics-resistant MRAP Al-Wahsh was specifically designed to help armed forces carry out operations against militia organisations such as the Islamic State (IS) group which routinely uses mines and other explosive devices to halt the advance of armed forces.

On last Friday, LNA spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Mismari announced, the terrorist Abdel-Moneim Al-Hasnawi AKA Abu Talha, the terrorist Al-Mahdi Dengo and the terrorist Al-Masri Abdallah Al-Dessouki were killed in a major operation carried out at dawn today by a special operations group drawn from the Martyrs of Al-Zawiya Brigade and the Tarek bin Ziyad Brigade in the area of Wadi Al-Shati, which is located 60 kilometres north of Sabha.

These individuals had been the subject of warrants of arrest because of their affiliation with IS at the time it controlled Sirte two years ago. Al-Mismari confirmed that the three men had been involved in several terrorist attacks, most notably the massacre of Egyptian Copts in Sirte in February 2015.

The forces that the LNA command has sent into Jufra and Tamanhent airbase north of Sabha are said to consist primarily of Madkhalist brigades.

Madkhalism is a strain of Salafism that opposes other Salafi and radical Islamist movements.

It is feared that this ideological factor could further aggravate rising tensions between the tribes and cause them to spiral out of control, especially given their instance on retaining their private arsenals of heavy weapons.

Against the backdrop of militia violence around the capital and combat in the south, UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salame, in his briefing to the UN Security Council Friday, warned, the various gains I described are fragile and reversible.

In this political environment, they will eventually break. Given the delicacy of the current situation, he said, it is vital that the National Conference is held under the right conditions, with the right people, and that it is capable of concluding with an outcome that is agreeable to the broad majority.

Previously, Salame had planned to hold this conference in the opening weeks of 2019. However, his remarks to the Security Council suggest a postponement.

We are working night and day to pull together these various elements to ensure the most productive event.

Once the essential ingredients for a new consensus on a national agenda to rebuild a capable and united Libyan civil state have been agreed upon by the major players, we will be ready to state the exact date and venue.

At the same time, he warned, without the concerted support of the international community, spoilers will sabotage the political advancement and undo any progress made. If this were to be allowed, Libyas progress will be set back years and almost certainly open the door to those who believe there is only a martial solution to Libyas woes.

The latter appears to be a pointed reference to last weeks resurgence of violence in western and southern Libya which the head of UNSMIL fears will jeopardise the plans for the National Conference and, accordingly, the prospects of holding general elections in the middle of this year and hopes for a peaceful resolution to the Libyan crisis.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Libya tensions heighten

Short link:

As of Friday, that segment of the parade has been restored, with Phillip (on foot) battling Maleficent, who occasionally roars on the roll and belches out flames that are choreographed to music piped in along the Magic Kingdom route. Also back on duty: a trio of fairies and colorful ravens (a.k.a. stilt performers).This morning, at the crack of dawn, 29 FBI agents arrived at my home with 17 vehicles, with their lights flashing, when they could simply have contacted my attorneys and I would have been more than willing to surrender voluntarily," Stone said at the courthouse.On Saturday, deputies detained the couple's other son Grant Amato, 29, as a person of interest in the triple homicide case. He was found at a hotel in Orange County and taken into investigative detention without incident.Flagler deputies said Moore currently has an active warrant for an assault and battery charge in Virginia. The victim in the separate incident of an armed robbery in Virginia was left tied up when her car was stolen, according to the Sheriffs Office.We are deeply saddened by the loss of Emile Griffith, a member of our flight attendant ohana for over 31 years who passed away while working on our flight between Honolulu and New York last night. We are forever grateful for Emiles colleagues and good Samaritans on board who stayed by his side and provided extensive medical help, Ann Botticelli, senior vice president of corporate communications at Hawaiian Airlines said in a statement.Authorities said earlier that Keith Theriot survived the shooting long enough to let them know who shot him. According to Webre, officials got a "dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act."Pospisil then dismembered his body inside the trailer and took "significant steps" to cover up the crime and the decomposing remains she left behind, according to the sheriff's office. Then on Friday, Sumter County detectives worked with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office to conduct surveillance on the home they believed was Pospisil's. When she walked out of her home, deputies arrested her.The sketch skewered Tucker Carlson (Alex Moffat) and Fox News Channel, which saw a big win for Trump in the end to the government shutdown. Cecily Strong roared through Jeanine Pirro impersonation. Kate McKinnon added to her repertoire by playing Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross with impish nastiness. Ross suggested furloughed government workers could have liquidated their stocks or sold a painting to survive not being paid. We all have to make sacrifices in times of hardship, he said.Five day-long Bharat Parv begins at Red Fort: Statue of Unity replica and Gandhi Gram catch the eye







The Director General , Ministry of Tourism, Shri Satyajeet Rajan inaugurating the Bharat Parv,

as part of the Republic Day 2019 celebrations, at Red Fort



Bharat Parv event showcasing the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat began on January 26 at Red Fort as part of the Republic Day 2019 Celebrations. Shri Satyajeet Rajan, Director General, Ministry of Tourism inaugurated the event today. The 4th edition of the Parv from 26th to 31st January 2019 is being organised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with other central Ministries and State Governments.

Bharat Parv will be open for public from 12 Noon to 10 PM every day, from 26th to 31st January, 2019. The entry will be free. However, identity proof is to be carried for entry to the event. The major highlights of this year are the replica of the Statue of Unity created by sculptor Shri. Ram Vanji Suttar and a Gandhi Gram in which 10 painting artists will create paintings on the theme of 'Ideology of Mahatma Gandhi'.





January,Suttar

Organised by the Ministry of Tourism, other highlights of this year are the Display of Republic Day Parade Tableaux, Performances by the Armed Forces Bands (Static as well as dynamic), and Photo Exhibition by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP). The event will also include IRCTC promotions on special tourist trains, Jago Grahak Jago Consumer Awareness campaign, the exhibition-cum-sale of crafts items. The Parv is also hosting Theme State Pavilions where each State showcases its strength along with its tourism products. The other attractions are a Multi-Cuisine Food Court and, Crafts Mela, Cultural Performances from different regions of the country. The Food Court will also have stalls set up by the States / UTs, National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) showcasing street food from different regions. A live Cookery Demonstration Area has been set up in the food court to promote cuisines of different States of India. Uttarakhand food demonstration will be showcased on 27th January 2019. In addition to these, the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC) will be conducting daily Cultural Performances from different regions of the country.It has been six weeks since the Stockholm agreement, but little real progress has been made according to the deals timeline regarding working on a prisoner exchange, ending the siege of Taiz, and while the truce in Hodeida is violated by Houthi militias.

Battles outside Hodeida continue after Houthis carried out a drone attack on Al-Anad Airbase that killed the chief of intelligence and several soldiers during a military parade.

The Arab coalition supporting the legitimate government in Yemen responded with several counterattacks on military positions in Sanaa, which means the military path continues parallel to the faltering negotiations path.

Baleegh Al-Mekhlafi, chairman of the media committee of the government delegation to Stockholm, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Houthis want to undermine the deal by violating their obligations and obstructing the committees formed at the Stockholm talks in December 2018.

Al-Mekhlafi doubts that the Houthis have a real peace plan, based on the expectations of the world community and responsiveness of the legitimate government and Arab coalition.

Rana Ghanem, member of the governments negotiating team and assistant secretary-general of the Yemeni Nasserist Party, said the delegation made many concessions under international pressure to reposition Houthis on the political scene as a party on the same footing as the government, and not as a rebel group.

However, the Houthis did not reciprocate, as seen in the subcommittees where they procrastinate and refuse to review prisoner lists, for example, presented by the government even though the government made the concession to exchange civilians for military prisoners.

They are also manoeuvring on the Hodeida issue, continued Ghanem, by interpreting the Stockholm text as redeployment instead of withdrawal and accordingly restructured their military and security forces in the port city to comply with this interpretation.

In Taiz, Houthi militias refused to open the Houban corridor to end the siege ahead of relief work.

Discussing the recent military escalation by the Arab coalition believed to be in response to the Al-Anad attack, Yemeni political analyst Abdel-Aziz Al-Majidi told the Weekly these attacks put the military option back on the table.

A new variable is that the coalition can be an incentive to subdue the militias if, for example, ground troops are sent to invade Sanaa.

Pro-government media reported that the coalition will likely send excess troops in the ongoing battle for Hodeida to other locations around Sanaa and continue moving onto Saada, the militias stronghold.

The government supports this outlook, especially after the appointment of new military leaders on the outskirts of Sanaa to improve military action on the fronts of Naham, Sirwah and others around Sanaa in preparation for isolating the capital and blocking supplies and communication between these fronts to put the militia under siege and submission and restore pre-21 September 2014 conditions when the Houthis revolted.

Battling parties are trying to impose a new balance of power in preparation for the gradual settlement phase by the UN, which has compartmentalised issues and is dealing with them separately and gradually.

This will increase the duration of each phase until the balance of power is consistent with each party.

Mutual escalation indicates that both sides are preparing new rules of engagement.

The coalition and government front are relying on the military option to pressure Houthis in negotiations, after it became obvious that military might is not enough to resolve the conflict due to international restrictions that prevent military operations similar to those in Operation Golden Victory in Hodeida.

There are also logistical restrictions due to the topographical and demographic composition of Sanaa.

The rebel Houthi front operates with Iranian support to shore up its military position, especially since the Hodeida deal provided them a respite to redeploy and organise ranks.

It is likely that both sides will rely on military escalation in parallel to negotiations, while realising that a move to strategic issues will not happen without accomplishing the requisites of round one.

Keeping negotiations alive is in line with the position of the UN of upholding the deal despite setbacks, and responding diplomatically to violations while ignoring military altercations.

For example, Houthis demanded condemnation of recent coalition strikes, but the UN remained silent, especially since both sides focus on legitimate military targets.

Houthis believe the Al-Anad attack was a legitimate military target and the coalition responded by bombing legitimate Houthi targets.

It is likely settlement talks will continue despite stumbling blocks since the UN is persistent in moving forward no matter the level of procrastination or obstacles to implementation.

This was evident when the prisoner exchange committee met in Jordan despite the Houthi attack on Al-Anad.

At the same time, Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Yamani announced the first meeting of the committee on ending the siege of Taiz.

When Houthis attacked the motorcade of UN committee chairman Patrick Cammaert in Hodeida, he moved the meeting overseas.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 24 January, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Yemens Stockholm test

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Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has said that Sudan shares a joint destiny with Egypt, asserting that Egyptian-Sudanese relations have improved since President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi assumed power.

In a joint press conference with El-Sisi during a one-day visit to Cairo, Al-Bashir praised Egypt's role in the security and stability of Sudan, adding that there are parties "exaggerating what is happening in Sudan through the press and social media.

The Sudanese presidents visit comes as his country continues to face political turmoil after the repeated eruption of protests since mid-December over a government decision to raise the price of bread. The demonstrations have called for Al-Bashir's resignation.

Al-Bashir also said that the issue of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is "vital" given the importance of the Nile to both Egypt and Sudan.

"We coordinate our stances with Egypt and Ethiopia to preserve the rights of Egypt and Sudan," he said.

Egypt fears that the filling of the GERD reservoir could reduce its share of Nile Water. Ethiopia has repeatedly insisted that the dam will have no such impact.

The talks between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have repeatedly reached deadlock, with officials failing to reach a satisfactory agreement.

The Sudanese president said that there are currently projects underway to link electricity grids and railways between Egypt and Sudan, and that there is ongoing coordination between the two countries when it comes to security on the Red Sea.

There will be more successful agreements between the two countries, he said.

Al-Bashir also praised a recent visit to Sudan by a high-level Egyptian delegation, which he said sent an important message of support from the Egyptian government.

During the press conference, El-Sisi praised the "historic ties" between the two countries, the nature of which he described as "rare."

History proves that the relations, bonds, and unity between Egypt and Sudan are eternal and cannot be broken, El-Sisi said.

El-Sisi added that he and Al-Bashir agreed on the importance of continuing to work to reach an agreement concerning the filling and operating of Ethiopia's dam.

El-Sisi also said that they discussed the latest developments in the Horn of Africa as well as means of supporting the peace agreement in South Sudan.

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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.My dinner companion said he was angry with the man because the Germans had come and taken the children born in 1928 to a better camp where they would study as well as work.When we first started sending constituent advocates to Capitol Hill [in 2010], said Daniel Richter, vice president for government affairs at the Citizens Climate Lobby, there were lots of Republican offices that would push back on the scientific consensus, questioning whether climate change was happening and, if so, whether human activity was responsible. Lately, we've encountered very few offices that question the science. The debate has now moved to the question of what we should do about climate change.In addition to the 40 bodies recovered, 23 more have been hospitalized, said fire department officials. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive. But the company issued a statement that more than 200 workers were still missing, while fire officials estimated the number closer to 300.While the President pleased few of his supporters, if any, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the radical Dems (are) taking victory laps within minutes of the Presidents 18-minute announcement, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said as he ripped into Trump during the Friday night broadcast of his show.Other than a measure passed last year to take firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, the package is the first dealing with gun control that will pass the Legislature since 2013, when Gov. Cuomo pushed through the SAFE Act in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Ct.Those statistics came from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said in a Friday memo that his office is working with the Secretary of State to investigate 95,000 voters who were flagged in its system as having previously provided the Texas Department of Public Safety with documentation including a work visa or green card that showed they were not a citizen.So many of them had come to us and say, you know what, we think you might be right on this barrier thing but we just cannot negotiate with you during a shutdown. We don't like the fact that a president might use a shutdown as a negotiating tool so if you open the government up we'll negotiate with you on good faith - in good faith on a border barrier, Mulvaney said.The idea that a 29-member SWAT team in full tactical gear with assault weapons would surround my house, 17 vehicles in my front yard, including two armored vehicles, a helicopter overhead, amphibious vehicles in the back where my house backs onto a canal and I would open the door looking down the barrel of assault weapons, that I would be frog-marched out front barefooted and handcuffed he said.Im not exactly sure where the President got that number this morning, but I think what you see him trying to do is point out how silly this debate is, Mulvaney saidEgyptian MPs were keen to issue statements Sunday to welcome the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Luxor and Cairo Sunday and Monday.

Macron is expected to arrive in Luxor Sunday evening and then begin an official visit to Cairo where he will meet with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi Monday.

MPs said the visit is expected to usher in a new strategic relationship between Paris and Cairo in political, military and economic terms.

Talaat El-Sewedy, head of parliaments energy and environment committee, said Macrons visit will have a very positive impact on economic relations between France and Egypt.

In economic terms, the commercial exchange between Egypt and France has reached 2.7 billion euros, not to mention that as many as 162 French companies are now operating in Cairo with 4.2 billion euros in investments and employing 33,000 workers, said El-Sewedy, adding: Macrons visit will also see the signing of 30 agreements and memorandums of understanding between Paris and Cairo in sectors including health, energy, transport, infrastructure, and education."

El-Sewedy said key economic ministers and members of the Egyptian-French Businessmen Association will hold a meeting Sunday evening to prepare the economic agenda between Egypt and France in the coming period. This is a very important meeting because French investments in Egypt are increasing all the time, said El-Sewedy.

El-Sewedy said France is investing in 458 projects in Egypt in the sectors of agriculture, industry, tourism, information technology, construction, services and military equipment. Not to mention that a number of French companies are currently implementing the third line of Cairos underground metro, and building the Kasr El-Aini Hospital in Downtown Cairo, said El-Sewedy.

Soliman Wahdan, deputy parliament speaker, also said in a statement that President El-Sisi and French President Macron have developed a close and personal relationship that had had a positive impact on the two countries.

Since he came to office in 2014, President El-Sisi has been keen to strengthen relations with France, particularly in military terms, and in return France showed a positive response, said Wahdan, adding: France has become a major supplier of arms to Egypt as President El-Sisi was eager not to depend on one source of armament. Wahdan continued: Egypt under El-Sisi concluded many military deals with France, mainly focused on importing Rafal fighters, Mistra warships, and those reflected a landmark development in relations between the two countries.

France and Egypt have one political agenda; that is fighting terrorist movements and illegal migration in the Mediterranean basin and the African continent, Wahdan said.

Wahdan added that Egypt will be the chair of the African Union in 2019 and this is very important to France. France has close relations with African countries and is keen to coordinate with Egypt on African affairs, said Wahdan.

Amr Sedki, head of parliaments tourism committee, said President Macrons visit sends a positive message to the world, and Europe in particular, that Egypt has recovered as a major tourist destination in the Middle East.

Egypt is exerting tremendous efforts to recover European tourism, and the visit of President Macron should be used by the Egyptian government and Minister of Tourism Rania El-Mashat to turn Egypt again to a major tourist destination for Europeans in all seasons, said Sedki.

Sedki said strong relations between Egypt and France have extended to include the cultural and parliamentary fields.

The year 2019 will be a year of culture between Egypt and France and the two countries are expected to see the holding of many cultural events in Cairo and Paris, Sedki said, adding that, The year 2019 will mark the 120th anniversary of Napoleon Bonapartes French expedition to Egypt (1899).

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Then on Thursday, she said a man who identified himself as a city Homeless Services worker said she and her five children would have to leave that day, but no one showed up or called her back. On Friday, she said she was told she and the children were being moved Monday.Do I look into the spaceship? a wizened-looking McKinnon asked as her glasses dominated her face. When asked if he and other Trump cabinet members were out of touch with middle-class Americans who suffered amid the 35-day government shutdown, she offered some helpful advice."We realize this will have a deep emotional impact on many of your students," Stiles wrote in a letter to the community. "In order to assist them during this difficult time we are arranging to have experienced professional counselors available at the affected campuses next week to help students deal with this tragedy."Investigators determined Davis, who had been assigned to a work detail, hid inside a trailer used to haul furniture while he was working in the prison furniture plant and used a piece of furniture to conceal himself, Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton wrote in a statement. He said the trailer left around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for another prison industries facility in Montgomery.Williams, 23, had left daughter, Wynter Parker, with the girls father when she went out Feb. 2, 2108. But when she returned home two hours later to the Akron home, she found the little girl frozen on the porch, said authorities.The woman was left in an unresponsive state after an incident where she nearly drowned, and could not have vocalized she was pregnant. She would not have been able to consent to sex or defend herself from an assault.Sheriff Bobby Webre said Elizabeth and Keith were still alive when they arrived on the scene. He added officers were able to interview one of the victims before they were transported to Baton Rogue hospital, where they both later died. Thats how officials were able to identify Theriot as the prime suspect in the case.The suspected killer showed up at the home while deputies were there. Theriot was pointing a gun out of the car window when he arrived on the scene and the officers took cover, according to CNN, but he dropped the weapon on their orders.A 92-year old woman died Saturday of injuries she suffered in a car accident in Queens, police said. Gwendolyn Booklan, a Bayside resident, was injured in a crash at 10:55 a.m. Friday when she was in the front passenger seat of a Nissan Altima driven by her 59-year-old son Ron. (Marcus Santos/New York Daily News)The New York City protest started in Central Park, but Schwedock and several others decided to finish the event at Rockefeller Plaza, said his father, Scott Schwedock, who attended the protest.Egypts army has killed two major terrorist organisation leaders in an air strike in North Sinai, a statement by the armed forces said Sunday.

Egyptian armed forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said the two men were "eliminated" after a concentrated air strike on a terrorist hideout.

According to the statement, the strike came upon confirmed intelligence of terrorist elements gathering in the hideout.

El-Refaie did not disclose the names of those killed.

The armed forces continue with efforts to uproot terrorism and secure state apparatuses and the armed forces efforts in developing Sinai Peninsula, the statement added.

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Detectives are zeroing in on the masked man responsible for the Mission: Impossible-style heist, who fled in a cab after the break-in  and foolishly looked directly into the cars surveillance camera, cops said Saturday.The officers brought the 22-month-old boy, his mother and his grandmother into the back of their squad car and took off for Elmhurst Hospital Center. Rodriguez performed CPR on the unconscious child in the back of the car while Richards drove. The father followed behind in his car.Arce said he has blood on the side of his brain and would need reconstructive surgery on his orbital bone. He said he must chew on one side of his mouth, only soft food, and be careful when he sneezes because he will bleed from the nose.My lifes about to change again, she said. Theres just a lot of phases to this. Telling one person that I was sexually abused was a big step. Telling the public was a big step. And now, having the opportunity to go into a court of law to hold folks accountable  its putting myself out there on a whole new level.Anticipated by art enthusiasts, educators, students, professionals and collectors, the traveling exhibition and sale of contemporary paintings, sculpture and photography is known for its wide range of African diaspora artists, such as veteran Jamaican artist Michael Escoffery, whose warm artwork Loungin  will be one of his contributions to the show.Inmate learning has been an issue in city jails since 1996 when 11 students filed a class action suit against the DOE and DOC for not providing the education mandated by state and federal law. The case, which is still ongoing, has been through two federal monitors of the Rikers education system. After Oct. 1, when the city moved all inmates under 18 off the island after passage of the Raise the Age law, the city lawyers tried to end the litigation, claiming the issue and largely been resolved.The fast pace of communication is so exciting today that success seems within reach. Although you may be confident enough to take a risk at work if you see a chance to get ahead, the results of your impulsive actions may not live up to your expectations. In fact, you could be overwhelmed with so much new information that you're at a loss to do anything with it. Thankfully, a fortunate outcome is likely if you avoid speaking off the cuff about your future endeavors. Make a plan and conserve your energy so you can finish what you start.Gekyumes name is derived from a word X created prior to his passing, which means a different state or next universe of thought, the statement read. XXXTentacion specifically chose this name for his firstborn son; his family is honored to fulfill his wish and shower baby Gekyume with love.Rome, GA (30161)

Today

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 76F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.Sudans President Omar Al-Bashir is set to land in Cairo for a one day visit to meet Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, a statement by the Egyptian presidency said Sunday.

In an official statement, presidency spokesman Bassam Rady said Al-Bashirs visit to Egypt comes under the two leaders commitment to bolster bilateral ties between the two brotherly countries. and build on the outcomes of the second session of the Egyptian-Sudanese Higher Committee (ESHC) which convened in October.

The two leaders will also discuss regional and international issues of common interest. They are set to hold a press conference at the Presidential Palace after concluding their talks.

The Sudanese presidents visit comes as his country continues to plunge into political turmoil with tens of protesters reported dead since rallies erupted mid-December following a governmental decision to raise the price of bread.

The demonstrations have called for Al-Bashir's resignation.

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Rome, GA (30161)

Today

Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. High around 75F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.Cedartown, GA (30125)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.La Fayette, GA (30728)

Today

Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says the federal government will not accept foreign int...





Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, says the federal government will not accept foreign interference in the nations affairs.





Shehu said this hours after the US, UK and EU reacted to the suspension of Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) by President Muhammadu Buhari.





In separate statements, the countries said the action of Buhari could have effect on the general election.





Shehu said the Buhari administration is against actions capable of creating apprehension, distrust among citizens or undermining the transparency and acceptability of outcomes of the nations electoral process. ButShehu said the Buhari administration is against actions capable of creating apprehension, distrust among citizens or undermining the transparency and acceptability of outcomes of the nations electoral process.

Nigeria reserves the right to be insulated from suggestions and or interference with respect to wholly internal affairs and commends international laws, customs and norms that mandate and require nations and the comity to respect this prerogative to all, he said.





Nigeria is confident of its electoral processes and her preparation for the imminent elections and the federal government has supported the independent electoral umpire in both its independence and resources needed to accomplish our desire and insistence on free and fair elections.





Shehu said the federal government welcomes the prevailing keen interest and partnerships for successful elections and a peaceful Nigeria.





He added that the government had ensured the independence of all organs, institutions and arms of government to perform their functions in a manner that is transparent, and not lacking in integrity whether institutionally or by persons within such institutions or organs.





Although the question of foreign interference, whether state sponsored, promoted or otherwise has dominated recent elections and outcomes globally, the federal government assures citizens and the global community that it will fiercely and assiduously promote the will and the right of Nigerians to choose and elect their leaders without pressure or assistance from persons or entities that are not constitutionally empowered to participate in the process, he said.



The endorsement of Atiku Abubakar by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as its choice presidential candidate has been described as a huge lie. Sp...





The endorsement of Atiku Abubakar by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as its choice presidential candidate has been described as a huge lie.





Speaking with reporters in Awka on Sunday, the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Barr Uche Okwukwu said that there was never a meeting of Ime-Obi Ohanaeze where the body endorsed a candidate for Ndigbo.





He said, The Ohanaeze Ndigbo never held a meeting of the Ime-Obi where we endorsed any candidate for the 2019 presidential election.





Secondly, If we organize the Ime- Obi meeting, we inform members before hand and in the meeting, we also set up a communique committee that drafts the resolution or communique arising from the meeting which will be presented before the general house for ratification.

No such thing was done and anybody purporting to have had any Imo-Obi meeting where Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was endorsed as our Presidential candidate is on his own.





Okwukwu further contended that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as a body will soon hold the Ime-Obi meeting where it would discuss which presidential candidate it will endorse.





If we choose to endorse anybody we shall do so when we organize the Ime-Obi meeting and that will be in no distant time, he said.





Okwukwu, however, announced that it would be in the interest of Ndigbo to support President Muhammadu Buhari for his second term in office.





When we meet at the Ime-Obi meeting we shall choose a candidate and you know that we have Igbo sons and daughters who are contesting the election but we are not limiting it to Igbo candidates.





But in the interest of Ndigbo, we should support President Muhammadu Buhari for the second term and that is the only way to get to our promised Land, he said.





Meanwhile, a group under the aeges of the Igbo Integrity Forum, led by Ndukwe Nwamkpa has called for the suspension of the Ohanaeze President, Chief John Nwodo.





In a statement from the body, it alleged that Nwodo compromised the wishes and aspirations of Ndigbo, adding that for him to have acted on his own without recourse to the Apex organization, is a betrayal of Ndigbo.



Most colleagues of Ibrahim Muhammad, acting chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), were absent when he inaugurated members of the election tr...





Most colleagues of Ibrahim Muhammad, acting chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), were absent when he inaugurated members of the election tribunal in Abuja on Saturday.





Of the 15 supreme court judges, only Sidi Bage and Muhammad were at the swearing-in ceremony.





That was the first official assignment of Muhammad who was sworn in by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday following the suspension of Walter Onnoghen.





Buhari had suspended Onnoghen over allegations of false assets declaration.

The president cited an order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), where a six-count charge was filed against Onnoghen.





The suspension of the former CJN has sparked outrage, with critics of the Buhari administration describing it as anti-democratic.





In separate statements, the US, UK and EU said the action could have effect on the general election.





The criticisms were still pouring in as of the time this report was filed.





At the occasion, Muhammad said the judiciary is in trying times, asking members of the bar and bench to stand, protect and uphold the integrity of this arm of government.





I encourage you to uphold and enhance the honour and standing of the judiciary and I pray that the Almighty God will bestow upon you strength, good health and wisdom in the performance of your duties, he said.



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, to quit the off...





The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, to quit the office without delay.





In a statement signed by the partys spokeman, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Saturday, PDP described Justice Muhammeds swearing in of members of the 2019 election petition tribunals on Saturday as illegal and complete nullity.





Ologbondiyan also insisted that Justice Muhammed cannot function as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) as there is no vacancy in that office.





The statement further said, It is also imperative for Justice Tanko to agree that, having allowed himself to be used to desecrate the hallowed temple of justice, his oath of office and oath of allegiance, the only option left for him is to quit the bench.





The PDP reminds Justice Tanko of his membership of the panel set up by the National Judicial Council (NJC), which on March 14, 2018, forced Justice Obisike Orji to quit the bench and go on a compulsory retirement, for allowing himself to be sworn in as the Acting Chief Judge of Abia State without the statutory recommendation of the NJC.





From Justice Tankos first illegal assignment, which is the swearing-in of election tribunal Justices for the forthcoming elections, Nigerians can now see the raison detre for his illegal appointment.





This action is in itself a nullity and we caution the said justices to be reminded of the popular maxim that something cannot be built on nothing.





Nigerians can recall that the PDP had always alerted that President Buhari is bent on removing Justice Onnoghen so as to replace him with a pliable CJN that would help him uphold his rigging plots and achieve his self-succession bid, having realized that he cannot win in any free and fair electoral contest.





The PDP invites the world to note that when Nigerians were in the trenches for this democracy, General Muhammadu Buhari, as he was then known, was in cahoots with the last dictator against the will the people. It is therefore not strange that today, President Buhari, once again, wants to subdue our democracy and subvert the rule of law.



* Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Friday (January 25) that the country has full confidence and capability to keep economic growth rate within an appropriate range in 2019 despite challenges.

* The Philippine government said on January 25 its troops captured a base of a terrorist group in Lanao del Sur province of the southern Mindanao island and killed three terrorists.

* The Russian central bank said Friday it decided to recommence from February 1 the foreign currency purchases in the domestic market that were postponed in 2018 as part of fiscal rule implementation.

* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 25 congratulated Greece on its parliamentary ratification of a deal with Macedonia on changing the latter's name. Earlier of the day, Greek lawmakers ratified the deal with 153 votes in the 300-member parliament, two more than needed. On January 11, Macedonian lawmakers approved constitutional changes to rename the country North Macedonia, fulfilling its part of the agreement.

* Politicians from China and Japan had an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations at an event held in Osaka Friday, calling for sound and stable development of relations between the two countries.

* A new Palestinian unity government will be formed soon to replace the current consensus government headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Palestinian sources said Friday.

* Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Libya Maria Ribeiro and Libyan Minister of Local Governance Milad Taher held a meeting on January 25 to discuss the launch of a humanitarian response plan.

* The Russian Foreign Ministry on January 25 urged the United States to abandon plans of placing weapons in outer space and thus prevent a new arms race.

* A safe zone into northern Syria should be established within months and controlled by Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday. Otherwise Turkey will realize it on its own, Erdogan said, adding that his country rejects any alternative proposals.

* Two Sri Lankan army personnel who were deployed for peacekeeping in Mali were killed on January 25 morning when their armoured vehicle came under attack, a statement from the Sri Lankan army said.

* Four people were confirmed dead and 20 others sustained injuries as a blast targeted a volleyball ground in Tala-o-Barfak district of the northern Baghlan province, Afghanistan, on January 25, district governor Abdul Ahad Barfaki said on January 26.South Africa: Close to 20 000 voters collect ID cards

Close to 20 000 people collected their smart ID cards from Home Affairs offices across the country on day one of the Independent Electoral Commissions (IEC) final voter registration weekend.

The Department of Home Affairs received a notable response from voters who visited its offices on day one of voter registration to collect smart ID cards and green ID books. On Saturday 26 January 2019, 19 428 smart ID cards were collected from Home Affairs offices across the country, said the Department of Home Affairs.

In its statement on Sunday, the department said a total of 3 339 green ID books and 1 188 temporary identification certificates were issued.

In the bigger scheme of things, many more citizens are still expected, and are encouraged, to collect their IDs. With the resources mobilised for this purpose, including officials who were requested to work over the weekend, citizens should seize this opportunity the better to fulfil their civic duties and to exercise their right to vote, said the department.

With the second and last day to register to vote in the upcoming elections in full swing, about 258 668 smart ID cards were still to be collected.

The department earlier announced that its offices will open from 8am to 5pm this weekend on (Saturday and Sunday) to assist citizens who need to collect IDs, apply for temporary identification certificates or reapply for IDs.

This as voting stations across the country are open between 8am and 5pm to facilitate voter registration and those wanting to check their details ahead of the national and provincial elections.

The department reminded citizens that their offices will remain open for them to collect their IDs, apply for temporary identification certificates and access other home affairs services.

The first day of the voter registration drive saw the youth come out in their numbers to register to vote.

Many young people interviewed by SAnews, said that the casting of ones ballot is an important factor in determining the course of the countrys future.

IEC briefing

Meanwhile, the Commission is due to brief media on the outcome of the final registration weekend for 2019 on Tuesday.

To be held in Cape Town, the briefing will follow on Saturdays media briefing at which the Commission confirmed that approximately 99% of the 22 925 voting stations across the country opened on time during the final voter registration weekend.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Alhaji Balarabe Musa has said that the country does not have the condition for a free and fair election and that only money will deter...





Alhaji Balarabe Musa has said that the country does not have the condition for a free and fair election and that only money will determine winners of the 2019 general elections.





In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, the former governor of old Kaduna state also said the support Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was giving to Atiku Abubakar was because he was afraid of what President Muhammadu Buhari will do to him.





Musa said even though attempt will be made to conduct a free and fair election, it will still be rigged by the ruling All Progressives Congress and the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party.





He said: Anything can happen in Nigeria, but one thing is that people should not fool themselves that the election will be free, fair and transparent and lead to a legitimate government in Nigeria. The conditions for such do not exist. However, an attempt will be made, yes, but there will not be free, fair and transparent election leading to a legitimate government. The election will be manipulated; it will be rigged in favour of those who have money, because the deciding factor in politics and election in Nigeria now is money power. In particular, stolen money power.





Conservatively, you cannot even have a chance of winning a governorship election in Nigeria unless you can spend at least half a billion Naira. In the case of presidential election, you have to spend anything from N3 billion to N5 billion. In fact, for the 2019 elections, at this level of degeneration in Nigeria, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidates will spend up to N500 billion to win the Presidency. They will virtually buy the votes and those who will manage to organise the campaign, they will also buy them.





Votes never count in Nigeria, except marginally. The votes have never counted in the history of Nigeria, though some were better than the others. Well, it was relatively free. It was the nearest to a free election in the history of Nigeria. It wasnt really free, but it was free under the Nigerian condition. We have never had an election near what you can call free and fair election.





Musa also accused Obasanjo of acting like an imperial authority saying his support for Atiku is because of his fear for Buhari.





He said: "You can see how the power mongers in the country are rallying behind the former Vice-President, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. Look at how they are rallying behind the PDP. Look at how [former] President Olusegun Obasanjo used the influence he had to seek the removal of the ban placed on Atiku from entering America. You know until a few weeks ago, every Nigerian believed that Atiku was banned from traveling to America because of the corruption charges. But two or three weeks ago, Obasanjo went to America and solved the problem for him. Now, Atiku has gone to America and he went to America because of the influence of Obasanjo. So, you should now assume that white imperialism is now in control in Nigeria through PDP with the major role of Obasanjo behind the whole thing.



Olu Falae, national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has asked Nigerians to join hands to kick out President Muhammadu Bu...





Olu Falae, national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has asked Nigerians to join hands to kick out President Muhammadu Buhari.





Falae said this when Titi Abubakar, wife of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), visited the leaders of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, to solicit support for her husband.





He said it was clear that many Nigerians do not want the government of Buhari to return.





All hands must be on deck by to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari does not come back for the second term, he said.





We have to find ways to do it, this government must not come back, for the sake of all of us, even for the sake of the man (Buhari) himself.





He does not have the clue of what is going on again, I dont think he is well, he should just go home and rest. Some characters are hiding behind him to do evil.





Falae said he is on the same page with Atiku, asking PDP leaders to work together in order to achieve results.





I wish him (Atiku) well, we are on the same page, we are aiming the same result, no one wants this government to come back because the government has failed, he said.





Things that have not been happening before are now happening in the country, herdsmen now kidnap people as eagle picks chicken in Yoruba land. You have to talk to your (PDP) leaders, in the field; we must cooperate so that we get the right result.





I want to assure you that we are on the same page we want the same result for this country. The reign of terror in this land must end.



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that there are moves by certain agents to bribe senators of the All Progressives Cong...





The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that there are moves by certain agents to bribe senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to protect President Muhammadu Buhari from imminent parliamentary sanctions for constitutional breaches.





In a statement, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesman of PDP, said in a move against possible sanction on his handling of the Walter Onnoghen case, Buhari has summoned a clandestine meeting on Monday ahead of senate resumption.





The party alleged that the APC senators have been bribed with huge sums of money to disrupt the session when the matter is raised.





Intelligence available to the PDP shows that this is the reason the jittery Presidency summoned all APC senators to the presidential villa to a clandestine meeting on Monday night, ahead of the senates resumption on Tuesday, the statement read.





The PDP has been informed of how the Buhari Presidency has been unsettled following national and international outcry over his constitutional breaches, particularly the assault on the judiciary in his attempt to forcefully remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen and impose a pliable CJN to do his bidding.





President Buhari is not only apprehensive that the senate might sanction him for violating the constitution and usurping its statutory duties regarding the handling of issues related to a CJN, the parliament might also open an inquest into how President Buhari, who parades as Mr. Integrity, allegedly procured an order from the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) upon which he announced the illegal suspension of the CJN.





There are reports that the said order is suspicious and subject to investigation, being not argued or issued in the open court; following which a distressed Buhari Presidency now seeks to corrupt and undermine the Senate.





The PDP said it raised the alarm to protect Nigerias democracy as against being partisan.



Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities may end this week. ...

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities may end this week.





The minister disclosed this during a briefing with reporters on the proliferation of illegal institutions in the country, at the weekend in Abuja.





The ASUU have been on strike since November 4th, 2018.





Malam Adamu said: Perhaps by next week I hope the ASUU strike will be over.

But when contacted, the ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, in a text message, said the union was still consulting on whether to end the strike or not.





According to him, the union wants to take stock of what government have promised.





He said: All I can say, for now, is that we are still consulting. We need to take stock of governments promises in terms of aspects that have been fulfilled and what is left.





The feedback and assessment of our members will guide our response in subsequent engagements with government. We hope the expectations of our membership would be met in the new week. The feedback and assessment of our members will guide our response in subsequent engagements with government. We hope the expectations of our membership would be met in the new week.





On whether the universities have accessed the N15.89 billion released by the federal government, he said: We are cross-checking with the concerned universities. Until we confirm that all the universities have received the money, I cannot confirm.





And please note that ASUU does not collect money from government, financial releases are made directly to universities. Thats why we need confirmation.





The government has been meeting the university lecturers since the strike began.





However, one major issue that keeps dragging the negotiations back and forth is the revitalisation of universities.





At present, the government is yet to release the N1.1 trillion it agreed to release as part of the funds for the revitalization project.





The 2013 MoU stipulated that public universities needed N1.3 trillion for a modest revitalisation.





The fund was to be released in tranches of N200billion in 2013, N220billion 2014, N220billion 2015, 220billion in 2016, N220billion in 2017 and N220billion in 2018.



The Zamfara Chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has endorsed the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candid...





The Zamfara Chapter of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has endorsed the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 16 presidential election.





The Governorship Candidate of APGA in the state, Alhaji Abdullahi Sani, disclosed this during the partys flag-off campaign in Gusau on Saturday, NAN reports.





Sani said the partys decision was taken following its satisfaction with the President Buharis anti-corruption fight, solving the security challenges, job creation and agricultural policy.





He said these policies tallied with APGA action plans to change the state of nations socio-economic condition.

Earlier in his remarks, the National Chairman of APGA, Dr Victor Ikechukwu, who was represented by the National Treasurer, Alhaji Ibrahim Kyafo, commended the orderly behaviour of the party faithful.



Phrank Shaibu, special assistant on communication to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party ...





Phrank Shaibu, special assistant on communication to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says President Muhammadu Buhari will lose the forthcoming presidential poll because Nigerians are hungry and jobless.





In a statement on Sunday, Shaibu said over a hundred million Nigerians can not afford a decent meal per day.





He said there is no where in the world that a president with this appalling record would be reelected.





The truth is that, there is no country in the world where a president with this appalling record could ever be re-elected, he said.

Over 100 million Nigerians cannot afford even one decent meal a day, yet their president is seeking reelection. The world powers as well as Nigerians also have intelligence that Buhari will decisively lose the elections since the people are angry because they are hungry and have no jobs.





Shuaibu said no amount of rigging that would keep Buhari in office.





There is no level of rigging that this vile government could ever do to overturn the millions of Nigerians who will turn up at the polls to vote him out, he said.





But all those who lost their jobs and whose relations lost their jobs and businesses to his maladministration to please come out in large numbers to elect Atiku Abubabar who is a harbinger of job creation. We ask our dearest young population who got a job under Buhari in the last four years, to vote for Buhari.But all those who lost their jobs and whose relations lost their jobs and businesses to his maladministration to please come out in large numbers to elect Atiku Abubabar who is a harbinger of job creation.





The aide said the inner circle of the president are unhappy with the concerns the US, UK and EU raised over the suspension of Walter Onnoghen as chief justice of Nigeria (CJN).





to re-route their latest and most technologically sophisticated spy sattelites including the NAOL-47 satellite to provide comprehensive coverage over Nigeria on February 16, he said. Buharis cabal is unhappy with the statements from the US, the British and the EU because they know that these world powers have agreedto re-route their latest and most technologically sophisticated spy sattelites including the NAOL-47 satellite to provide comprehensive coverage over Nigeria on February 16, he said.





The photographs these satellites will deliver can not only show someone reading a newspaper but also which newspaper they are reading.



The situation in Venezuela has become even more complicated in recent days. In the capital city of Caracas, the streets are flooded with demonstrations organised by both supporters of the Government and the opposition side. On January 23, Juan Guaido, Chairman of the opposition side controlled National Assembly, declared to take over the country as Venezuela's interim president", not recognising President Maduro's new term that took office on January 10. He accused Maduro of seizing power through an election that was considered illegal, showing a lack of freedom and transparency. Guaido said he would set up a transitional government and organise a free election.

However, Venezuelas Supreme Court has declared all acts of the National Assembly null and void. Currently, the legislature with supreme power in Venezuela is the Constitutional National Assembly elected in 2017. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez also announced that the Venezuelan armed forces do not recognise any "self-declared president", or any move to gain power for "dark benefits". Padrino said that the Venezuelan armed forces will protect the Constitution and national sovereignty.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called on Venezuelan counterpart N. Maduro to resign, creating conditions for Guaido to come to power. The head of the White House said it would use US diplomatic and economic power to help restore democracy in Venezuela, calling on countries to recognise Venezuela's interim president Guaido. A number of US allies and partners in the region, such as Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia immediately supported Trump's statement to recognise Guaido as Venezuela's "interim president". Secretary General of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro issued a statement recognising the president of the National Assembly controlled by the Venezuelan opposition as the head of the interim government in the South American country. The European Union also called on Caracas to conduct a free and reliable election.

Trump's statement on Venezuela's situation marked a tense escalation between Washington and Caracas, contributing to increasing the political crisis in Venezuela. Venezuelan President Maduro announced to cut diplomatic relations with the US, shortly after the Washington administration recognised the opposition leader as Venezuela's "interim president", and at the same time requested that all US personnel, diplomats and consulates leave Venezuela within 72 hours. In response, the US Department of State issued a statement stating that the US does not recognise the administration of President Maduro, so Maduro has no authority to cut ties with the US.

The US actions went against the stance shared by many countries, in that all Venezuelan interventions were in violation of the basic provisions of international law. Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, Russia and Turkey affirmed their support for President Maduro's legitimate government, and condemned the coup attempt in Venezuela. Uruguay, Spain and Portugal called for dialogues to find a political escape for the situation in Venezuela. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also called on the Venezuelan political factions to refrain from escalating violence and to pursue measures to prevent conflict. The head of the world's largest multilateral organisation stressed that stakeholders need comprehensive and credible political dialogue commitments to resolve the crisis, fully respecting the principles of international law to avoid escalating conflict.

In the context of complicated developments, the government of President Maduro prioritises dialogues to address domestic difficulties, both politically and economically. Venezuela's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that President Maduro is willing to take part in dialogues to seek solutions to preserve peace and stability for the country and the region. However, Caracas also warns that forces intending to intervene in Venezuela's internal affairs or seeking to impose unconstitutional changes in Venezuela will not be welcome to join the dialogue process.

The majority of Venezuelans expect the Government of President Maduro to continue to be steadfast to bring the country out of both inside and outside challenges. The international community calls for full respect for the principles of law, without interfering with the internal affairs of the countries, as well as respect for national sovereignty and peoples' self-determination, and supporting and promoting peaceful solutions to conflicts.Cameron Montemayor can be reached at cameron.montemayor@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowMontemayor.She was elected as the first woman president of Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA). Ms Ahdeya received 71 votes while her only competitor in the biennial election Youssef Albinkhalil, the editor-in-Chief of Al Watan, got 67.

The fraternity also elected the eight members of the board of the association established in 2001 for all journalists based in Bahrain regardless of their nationality. His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier and Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of His Majesty the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women, sent cables of congratulations to Ms Ahdeya on the remarkable achievement.

Among the dignitaries and senior government officials who congratulated the new BJA president were House Speaker Fawzia Zainal, Information Minister Ali Al Romaihi and Shura Council Chairman Ali Al Saleh.

A post-graduate in mass communication from the University of Leicester, Ms Ahdeya began her journalistic career with Gulf Daily News in the year 1991. She also worked for Bahrain Television and Bahrain Tribune before taking up her role as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune.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 12 destinations on the shortlist are chosen based on an analysis of cities that have seen the highest growth in millennial interest on the Culture Trip site and app and a survey of 300 of the companys local creators, who are based around the globe.

Ranked fourth, Ho Chi Minh City is described as an affordable destination with a buzzing cultural scene to match, making it perfect for cash-strapped millennial travellers. A booming economy has brought a roaring energy to the city, palpable as soon as you leave the airport, and that energy increases as soon as you try ca phe da (iced Vietnamese coffee), a jolt of caffeine and sugar like no other, the site wrote.

It also recommended travellers meander around the citys neighbourhoods and hidden alleyways in search of street food and displays of public art.

The first three places on the list were Oaxaca City (Mexico), Porto (Portugal), and Austin (US).

Following HCM City are Cape Town (South Africa), Lima (Peru), Tokyo (Japan), Istanbul (Turkey), Budapest (Hungary), and Marrakech (Morocco).

Formerly Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam. It welcomed over 7 million foreign visitors in 2018. The local tourism sector has been growing at around 15% each year over recent years.

The city set a target to expand tourism growth of between 15-20% and serve about 8-8.5 million foreign holiday makers in 2019.Arctic grayling is one of several species of fish found in Moose Creek and Piledriver Slough that are now catch and release only due to PFAS contamination.Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Cloudy this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 52F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.(Newser)  The 21-year-old man suspected of killing his parents and three other peopleincluding a girl he was datingwas arrested Sunday when he drove up with a gun to his grandmother's house in Virginia, a sheriff said. On Saturday, Dakota Theriot shot and killed three peoplethe woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and fatherin Louisiana's Livingston Parish before taking her father's truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents, according to authorities. Theriot's grandmother in Warsaw, Virginia, had checked into a hotel Saturday night, fearing he might show up there, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B. Smith said in a phone interview with the AP.

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The woman asked authorities to check her house Sunday morning to make sure it was safe before she returned. While deputies were there, Smith said, Theriot drove up with a firearm pointed out the window of a pickup truck. A sheriff's statement said deputies sought cover and challenged Theriot, who then dropped the gun and was arrested without incident. He said the pickup Theriot drove to his grandmother's house apparently was the one taken in Louisiana. Theriot will be brought back to Ascension Parish to be booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons, said a statement by Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre and Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard. (Read more on the victims here.)(Newser) 

About 50 survivors of Auschwitz have marked the 74th anniversary of the Soviet army's liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp. It's an event now observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which also acknowledges the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and 40 years since the end of genocide in Cambodia, reports the AP. Poland's prime minister and the ambassadors of Israel and Russia attended Sunday's official ceremonies at site of the former camp, where several survivors gave testimony from years of terror at Auschwitz. One recalled the smell of burning flesh upon arrival at the camp.

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Some 6 million Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler's forces during the Nazi occupation of Europe, but a poll of more than 2,000 British adults released Sunday found that nearly two-thirds either did not know how many Jews had been murdered in World War II or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust. One in 20 adults do not believe the Holocaust took place. The survey was carried out by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, whose CEO called "such widespread ignorance and even denial ... shocking." Meanwhile, Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs says 2018 saw a record number of worldwide anti-Semitic attacks: 13 Jews were murdered in fatal attacks in 2018, the highest number since the wave of attacks on Argentinian Jews in the 1990s.

(Read more Auschwitz stories.)(Newser)  Two bombs tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 20 people and wounding 111 others during Sunday Mass. Witnesses said the first blast inside the Jolo cathedral sent churchgoers, some wounded, to stampede out the main door. Army troops and police posted outside were rushing in when the second bomb went off about a minute later near the main entrance, causing more deaths and injuries. The military was checking a report that the second explosive device may have been attached to a parked motorcycle. The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the main hall and blasted window glass panels, and the AP reports that the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

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The fatalities included 15 civilians and five troops. Among the wounded were 17 troops, two police, two coast guard members, and 90 civilians. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church. "I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. "We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy," the office of President Rodrigo Duterte said, promising to "crush these godless criminals." Jolo island has long been troubled by Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the US and the Philippines as a terrorist organization.

(Read more Abu Sayyaf stories.)(Newser)  Canada's (now former) ambassador to China lost the job amid the ongoing extradition case involving Huawei exec Meng Wanzhou. The US says Wanzhou, the Chinese telecoms giant's CFO, violated sanctions against Iran and is seeking her extradition; she was arrested in Canada in December, at the request of the US, and Canada's involvement in the situation has hurt its relationship with China. On Tuesday, the then-ambassador, John McCallum, said the US extradition request was seriously flawed, per the BBC. He apologized the next day, saying he "misspoke," but on Friday he said it would be "great for Canada" if the US decided not to make the request, the Guardian reports. On Saturday, Canada PM Justin Trudeau said that the night prior he "asked for and accepted" McCallum's resignation, thanking him for his service but not giving a reason for his termination. (See the background on the case here.)(Newser)  Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that US diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt. Maduro gave US diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn't obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop US Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire, reports the AP.

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But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro's government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with US officials about setting up a "US interests office" in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States. The US and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island. Earlier Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the UN Security Council: "Let me be 100% clearPresident Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people." (Read much more on the situation here.)The 48-kilometre motorway runs from the Yen My exit of the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway in Hung Yen province to the Liem Tuyen exit of the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway in Ha Nam province.

The VND3 trillion (US$129 million) project consists of two road sections in Hung Yen and Ha Nam provinces and the 2.1-kilometre long Hung Ha Bridge, which crosses the Red River and links the two neighbouring provinces.

The motorway is designed to enhance the capacity of the two major expressways in northern Vietnam and reduce the traffic pressure on Hanoi as vehicles will be able to bypass the capital city when travelling from one expressway to the other.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, PM Phuc underlined the importance of the project to the Northern Key Economic Region.

He said that the project not only creates an important link between Hung Yen and Ha Nam provinces but will also bring localities in the economic region closer together and enhance the productivity of the region.

The government leader highly praised the contributions of the local residents in Hung Yen and Ha Nam provinces where 6,000 households were relocated to provide land for the motorway.

The PM also commended the authorities of the two provinces, the Ministry of Transport and the contractors for completing the projects five months ahead of schedule.

Construction of the highway began in May 2016 and was scheduled for completion after 36 months of construction.

Hung Ha Bridge (Photo: Ha Noi Moi)(Newser)  Canada's national archive has acquired what may be the blueprint for a Holocaust that never happenedthe one in North America, the Guardian reports. Bought from an American bookseller for $4,500, Statistics, Media, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada by German researcher Heinz Kloss meticulously lists US and Canadian Jews, along with their ethnic backgrounds, spoken languages, and cities of residence. "How would a report like this have been used had the Nazis won the war and taken administrative control of North America?" archive curator Michael Kent asks the Globe & Mail. "This information would have been the building blocks to a rolling out of the final solution in Canada, allowing perpetrators of the Holocaust to know what cities to go to to find Jewish people, and how many Jews to round up."

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While many Holocaust museums won't buy Nazi memorabiliapreferring not to risk glorifying the perpetratorsKent says the 1944 book, likely taken from Hitler's personal collection, is an important reminder of the past. It also comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Canada, where publishers of a Holocaust-denying newspaper were found guilty Thursday of promoting hatred against Jews and women, per the Toronto Star. "I'm still fighting Nazis and white supremacists in ways that I never dreamed I'd be doing in retirement," says a Canadian activist. "When I go into schools I see young people who have not been taught the lessons of the past." The book went on display Saturday to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Holocaust photos that went unnoticed for decades have been found.)How Chris Harrison Went From Apologizing to Leaving

Resignations Are Up, and

a 'Massive Shift' Is Expected

in case you missed itPOLICE have launched a manhunt for at least 27 MDC-Alliance officials and activists, including their civil society partners, for allegedly organising the so-called stay-away that degenerated into an orgy of looting, vandalism and lawlessness.



Some of the suspects linked to the looting, incitement of violence and destruction of property that occurred during the recent violent demonstrations instigated by the opposition party have since fled the country and are reportedly holed up in South Africa.



The suspects on the police wanted list include Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Mr Peter Gift Mutasa, activist Mr Promise Mkhwananzi, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) chairperson Mr Rashid Mahiya, Kuwadzana East MP Charlton Hwende and party spokesperson Mr Jacob Mafume.



The other MDC-Alliance functionaries being sought are party Youth Assembly secretary-general Mr Lovemore Chinoputsa, former Harare South legislator Mr Shadreck Mashayamombe, Mr Munyaradzi Shoko, Ms Christine Magorimbo alias Mai Chiutsi, Mr Ishmael Kauzani, Mr Simbarashe Bernard alias Juma, Mr Denford Ngadziore (35), Mr Talent Nyakuneungwa (30), Mr Pride Mukono (28) Mr Happymore Chidziva (36) Mr Shakespeare Mukoyi (42), Ms Lovejoy Mutongwiza (26), Mr Paul Gorekore (34), Mr Elvis Mugare (26), Mr Stanley Manyenya, Mr James Chidhakwa, Mr Goodrich Chimbaira, Mr Tineyi Munetsi, Mr Godfrey Sithole Karakadzai, Mr Hamuna Madzungaira, Mr Cornelius Kureva and Mr Mathias Nerwande.







Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday said they wanted to interview the above mentioned people with regards to the violent disturbances.





As police we are keen to interview 27 suspects in connection with rampant looting, incitement on social media and destruction of property, which occurred between January 14 and 16 this year. Anyone with information on their whereabouts should contact any nearest police station, he said.





Violence instigated by MDC-Alliance and its associates in the non-governmental sector left a trail of destruction in most cities and towns including Harare and Bulawayo.





The organisers also used social media to threaten people who intended to go to work.

During the violent protests, hooligans barricaded roads, burnt cars and stormed schools where they beat up teachers.





They also looted supermarkets, stoned or torched police stations and private vehicles and buses and engaged in violent skirmishes with police officers trying to maintain law and order.

The pre-planned demonstrations, which were supported by foreign-funded non-governmental organisations and social groups such as #Tajamuka and #This Flag, left six people, including a police officer, dead. Property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.





The fugitive civil society leaders who include Mr Thabani Moyo, the director of Media Institute of Southern Africa, MDC Alliance MP for Harare North Joana Mamombe, Calvin Kobiri of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights and director of Combined Harare Residents Association Mr Mfundo Mlilo among others are reportedly being hosted in the neighbouring country by Amnesty International, an anti-Government entity.





Others who fled the arrests include Tineyi Mukwena of Abameli Lawyers for Human Rights Network, Conrad Munyaradzi-Gweru who is the Advocacy Officer for Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Tendai Chabvuta formerly with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum and Pride Mukono of Generational Consensus.





They are reportedly hiding in Melville, Johannesburg. HeraldThe objective of the Integrated Employment Assistance Programme for Self-reliance is to assist able-bodied Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients in joining the workforce, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said today.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Cheung noted the programme will be operated by non-governmental organisations and social workers will assist CSSA recipients aged 60 to 64 in a compassionate manner, helping them to join the workforce, but not forcing them to find jobs.

He made it clear the Government will continue to offer CSSA to these recipients and their payments will not be deducted even if they are unable to find work.

On his meeting with members of the Legislative Councils pan-democratic camp, Mr Cheung said they had a candid dialogue to clarify misunderstandings on the eligible age for elderly CSSA being adjusted to 65.

The lawmakers had requested a meeting with the Chief Executive, which he promised to relay to her.Secretary for Development Michael Wong (centre) visits the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Leadership Institute, formerly the Fanling Magistracy, during a visit to North District.

Secretary for Development Michael Wong today visited a leadership institute in North District.

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Leadership Institute was formerly the Fanling Magistracy and is one of the projects under Batch III of the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme.

Mr Wong toured its facilities including former courtrooms and prison cells which have been converted into meeting rooms and multi-function rooms.

He was briefed by young cultural ambassadors on the history and architectural merits of the building.

The institute, which provides leadership training for young people, will officially open in March.

Mr Wong also met District Council members.Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau (second left) attends the World Trade Organization Informal Ministerial Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau today attended a gathering in Davos, Switzerland, where he urged World Trade Organization (WTO) members to lift the blockage to the Appellate Body appointment.

Speaking at the WTO Informal Ministerial Gathering, Mr Yau said the blockage should be lifted to preserve a well-functioning WTO.

The WTOs dispute settlement mechanism that keeps the multilateral trading system going will stall by the end of the year if new Appellate Members are not appointed in coming months.

Hong Kong stands ready to discuss the WTOs imperfections and appreciates the good intentions of all the WTO reform proposals for improving the dispute settlement mechanism, Mr Yau said.

He added that attempts to negotiate new rules on e-commerce, domestic regulations and fisheries subsidies should move forward in parallel.

The gathering provided an opportunity for ministers to discuss ways to advance the trade agenda and to preserve the relevance and credibility of the multilateral trading system.

Ahead of the gathering, Mr Yau attended the Informal Ministerial Meeting on Electronic Commerce.

At the meeting, he said it is important that negotiations cover all essential elements for building a predictable and conducive e-commerce environment for global trade.

Mr Yau also said the outcome should lead to a set of trade rules which give both suppliers and consumers the confidence they need to engage in and reap the benefits of e-commerce.The Government today welcomed the Heritage Foundations recognition of Hong Kong as the world's freest economy for the 25th consecutive year.

Hong Kongs overall score in the 2019 Index of Economic Freedom report was 90.2, the only economy with an overall score of more than 90.

It achieved high scores of 90 or above in eight of 12 components measured in the report.

The foundation recognised Hong Kongs economic resilience, high-quality legal framework, low tolerance for corruption, high degree of government transparency, efficient regulatory framework and openness to global commerce.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan said: This achievement reaffirms the Governments steadfast commitment in upholding the free market principles over the years.

The Government will continue to uphold Hong Kongs fine tradition of the rule of law, maintain a simple and low tax system, improve government efficiency, safeguard the open and free trade regime and build a level playing field for all.Chief Executive Carrie Lam (second left) meets Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (left) with Financial Secretary Paul Chan (second right) and Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau in Davos, Switzerland.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam met senior government officials and leaders of institutions from different countries in Davos, Switzerland.

Mrs Lam met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and said she was pleased the Hong Kong/Netherlands Working Holiday Scheme began this year. She believes it will boost ties between the two places.

The Chief Executive also proposed to explore further collaboration on financial development with the Netherlands.

Mrs Lam also met UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and the Lord Mayor of London Peter Estlin.

She told Mr Hammond that with the joint statement issued in March last year, both sides can forge broader and deeper collaboration on a number of priority areas, in particular finance and innovation and technology. She added distinguished UK universities are welcome to participate in the research clusters which are being proactively established in Hong Kong.

At the meeting with Mr Estlin, Mrs Lam congratulated him on assuming the office of Lord Mayor of London in November last year.

She invited him to attend the 4th Belt & Road Summit to be held in Hong Kong in September and welcomed his visit to the city next month to meet members of the financial sector.

Mrs Lam also met the senior management of two enterprises from the US.

She updated Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan on Hong Kongs position as an international financial centre with well-developed financial infrastructure, a simple tax regime and a deep talent pool, including plenty of experts well versed in the Mainland market.

In a meeting with AT&T Chief Executive Officer John Donovan and Senior Vice President Karim Lesina, Mrs Lam said Hong Kong is developing the 5G network to advance its smart city development.

Mrs Lam later attended the Hong Kong Night co-organised by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited, and introduced Hong Kongs advantages and future opportunities to guests from around the world.Addressing the debate, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Head of Vietnams Permanent Mission to the UN, shared other countries opinions that impacts from climate change-related disasters sow the seeds of instability and even conflicts in some places in the world.

He said the world is suffering from increasingly serious impacts of climate change with various kinds of extreme weather, such as displacement of people and threats to food security, water resource, and even the existence of island countries.

The diplomat shared the challenges faced by Vietnam as a country among the top 10 countries hardest hit by climate change in the past 20 years and the top six worst affected in the past four years. He noted that the sea level rise has influenced the livelihoods of tens of millions of people in the Mekong Delta, a major rice bowl of the country, thus threatening food security of not only Vietnam but also many foreign nations because 90 percent of Vietnamese rice export come from the delta.

Quy stressed that it is necessary to set up mechanisms to share information and experience in the fields, and enhance discussions on the relations between climate change and security.

The debate was attended by ministers, deputy ministers and ambassadors from 76 UN member states along with leaders of UN agencies.

According to Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peace-building Affairs, to address climate-related security risks, it is a must to develop stronger risk analysis capacity, pool good risk management and prevention practice and reinforce partnerships to leverage existing capacities within and outside the UN system.

Meanwhile, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Achim Steiner said that the UNDP and the UNs Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Environment Programme are working to develop a climate-related security mechanism to raise public awareness of climate changes threat to global security, and a mechanism to evaluate climate change risks and improve existing capacities.

Besides calling on the UN Security Council to take practical actions, participants at the debate laid stress on the necessity of technical support and mechanisms to manage risks and give early warning of natural calamities among countries and organisations.

They said that relevant international commitments like Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction must be strictly implemented.Eva Chan studied for a Diploma in Bakery, Pastry & Confectionery at the institute and was a prize winner at a regional competition.

International Culinary Institute Principal Winnie Ngan says students can learn cuisines from different parts of the world to support the development of Hong Kongs catering industry.

The multi-tiered demonstration kitchens can be used for international competitions and demonstrations.

The campus houses purpose-built teaching facilities tailored for students in different programmes, including training kitchens and a training cafe.

The new buildings design concept was inspired by the shape of a salt crystal.

Hong Kong is home to more than 15,000 restaurants serving up cuisines from all corners of the globe, making it a world-renowned gourmet paradise. To nurture quality manpower in international cuisine, the Vocational Training Councils International Culinary Institute has been offering a variety of culinary arts training since 2014.

Its new campus was opened in Pok Fu Lam in September last year, where students are trained up for a career in the fast growing and internationalised catering industry.

Gastronomical inspiration

The buildings design concept was inspired by the shape of a salt crystal.

Salt is the universal ingredient of all cuisine types and it can also bring out the best flavours in our food. Just like vocational and professional education and training, we bring out the best in our students, International Culinary Institute Principal Winnie Ngan explained.

We aim to train up a new generation of chefs who are creative and passionate, and we hope to uphold Hong Kongs leadership position as Asias gourmet paradise.

The campus houses a comprehensive array of facilities including training kitchens, a training cafe, a wine forum, a hall of gastronomy for event training, a sensory lab for food science education and much more.

Students can choose from a range of programmes at different qualification levels, including the Higher Diploma in Baking & Pastry Arts which was introduced in the current academic year. While the Diploma in International Culinary Arts will be offered in the next academic year to provide training in different regional cuisines.

The institute provides world-class culinary training for more than 2,000 students covering European, Mediterranean, American, Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines.

In our Diploma programme, students will be able to learn cuisines from these different parts of the world, supporting the development of the catering industry in Hong Kong, added Ms Ngan.

Success story

Eva Chan is a culinary institute graduate. After finishing secondary school, the 20-year-old aspiring baker joined the Diploma in Bakery, Pastry & Confectionery programme.

When I was small, I often watched my mother making cakes at home. That sparked my interest and I began to learn how to cook. My brother and grandfather are also chefs, so my family background influenced me a lot. I love to cook, she said.

Miss Chan even won a prize in the patisserie and confectionery trade section at a regional competition last year. She will also represent Hong Kong at the WorldSkills Kazan in Russia this August.

She is now receiving intensive training for the competition at the institute while working part-time as a baker in a five-star hotel to gain more experience.

I treasure this opportunity to compete in an international competition. My target is to finish the tasks on time and achieve excellent results.

Her next goal is to secure full-time employment and to run a cafe in the future.Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 68F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.According to statistics of the Vietnamese trade office in South Africa, Vietnam shipped US$724.3 million worth of goods to South Africa, down 3.7% year on year, but its imports from the country surged 59.5% to US$386.4 million.

The offices head Dao Manh Duc attributed the drop in Vietnams exports to falling shipments and value of mobile phones and parts by foreign-invested enterprises in the country. As the biggest staple in Vietnams exports to South Africa, those products brought home only US$227 million in 2018, down 22.2%.

Footwear and computer-electronic goods are two other main items in Vietnams export to South Africa, earning US$108.8 million and US$96.2 million, respectively, last year.

It is noteworthy that coffee shipment value saw an impressive increase of 108.4% last year to US$17.3 million. However, pepper suffered a decrease of 37% to US$9.2 million.

The big increase in Vietnams imports from South Africa was driven by a 46.9% growth in fruit and vegetables and a 35.5% rise in wood and wood products.

Meanwhile, metal, the main item in Vietnams imports from South Africa, saw a drop of 3.3% in value to US$89.7 million.

Vietnams purchase of metal, machinery-tools and steel products fell significantly, with decreases of 88.2% and 40%, respectively.

Following South Africa, Egypt is the second largest trade partner of Vietnam in Africa, with bilateral trade going up 36.6% in 2018 to US$439 million.

Vietnams trade with 53 out of 55 African countries was estimated at US$6.6 billion in 2018, with export value approximating US$3 billion, up 10% year on year, according to statistics of the Department of Asian-African Markets under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.By PTI

OAKLAND: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she's the kind of leader who can unify the country and would fight for the needs of all Americans.

The first-term California senator, who announced her candidacy on Monday, planned a speech at a rally in Oakland, her hometown, later Sunday, as she outlines her campaign and introduces herself to the nation.

"I'm running for president because I love my country. I'm running to be a president by the people. Of the people. For all the people," according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

The appearance at a plaza outside City hall was intended to portray her candidacy as the latest chapter in a lifetime of advocating for all people and to promote a message of unity.

ALSO READ: CNN anchor apologises for birther tweet on Kamala Harris

She began her career as a prosecutor in Oakland and later became California's attorney general.

"My whole life, I've only had one client: The people," Harris says in her prepared remarks, echoing the words she has used in courtrooms and has adopted as her campaign's slogan.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, has drawn deeply from symbolism as she has rolled out her campaign.

She entered the race on Martin Luther King Jr.Day.

Campaign aides say she has drawn inspiration from Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first black woman to run for president from a major party.

If Harris were to win the White House, she would be the first African-American woman and first person of Asian descent to be president.

ALSO READ: Tapping into sorority network, Kamala Harris returns to South Carolina

Her first news conference as a candidate was on the campus of Howard University, the historically black college in the nation's capital that she attended as an undergraduate.

On Friday, she was in South Carolina to speak to members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, of which she is a member.

Harris' campaign is expected to highlight her career as a prosecutor as part of her rationale for seeking the presidency.

Harris was the first black woman elected district attorney in California, as well as the first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American to hold that job.

Some of her tenure as attorney general, particularly relating to criminal justice, has come under early scrutiny.

Harris is among the first major Democrats to jump into what is expected to be a crowded 2020 presidential contest.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have announced exploratory committees.

Former Maryland Rep.John Delaney and Julian Castro, federal housing chief under President Barack Obama and a former San Antonio mayor, already are in the race.

Sens.Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont may also run.

In her Oakland speech, Harris says she sees this year as an "inflection point" in American history and that she is best positioned to unite a divided country.

"Even though we have powerful forces trying to sow hate and division, the truth is that, as Americans, we have much more in common than what separates us," according to her prepared remarks.

After the rally, Harris planned to her first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate.

In the weeks before last November's elections, Harris travelled to the leadoff caucus state to campaign on behalf of Democrats, and also visited other early-voting states.

Harris's campaign will be based in Baltimore and led by Juan Rodriguez who managed her 2016 Senate campaign.

Aides say the campaign will have a second office in Oakland.By PTI

LAHORE: A three-member delegation, headed by Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah, will be visiting India on Sunday to inspect the Pakal Dul dam and Lower Kalnai hydel power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said.

After the bilateral talks on the Indus Waters Treaty in August last year in Lahore, India rejected Pakistan's objections on the construction of the 1,000MW Pakal Dul dam and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydropower projects on the Chenab river and invited Pakistani experts to visit the sites to address their concern.

"We are going to India on Sunday (today) via Wahga border," Shah was quoted as saying in the Dawn.

The Pakistani delegation's visit came after India's Commissioner for Indus Waters Pradeep Kumar Saxena gave a nod for inspection of Indian hydro-power projects on Chenab basin from January 28 to January 31, earlier this month, it said.

India had scheduled inspection of the projects by Pakistani experts first in September and then in October.

But, the visit was postponed due the Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir and then winter session of Indian Parliament, the report said.

The delegation would return to Pakistan on February 1, it added.

India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.

The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects' sites and critical river headworks.

Under the provisions of the Treaty, waters of the eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas and Ravi - had ben allocated to India and the western rivers - the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - to Pakistan, except for certain non-consumptive uses for India.

The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers.

However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty.By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

He made the remarks on Saturday night during an informal interaction with the media personnel invited to attend the reception to celebrate the 70th Republic Day of India.

Bisaria said India had consented to the basic points about the Kartarpur corridor except for its zero-point (crossing point).

He said both the countries were in contact over Kartarpur corridor.

ALSO READ | Kartarpur Corridor: Punjab villagers apprehensive over being uprooted

"So many meetings have taken place on this matter (Kartarpur corridor)," he said.

But he ruled out any quick resumption of talks due to upcoming election in India.

"Because of (upcoming) elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now," he said.

He went on to say that trust-building was important before resuming political dialogue between the two countries.

India last week shared with Pakistan the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan.

Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara.

ALSO READ | Pakistan bid to limit pilgrims to Kartarpur unfair: Captain Amarinder Singh

The much-awaited corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur - the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev - with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur.

The corridor was a long-pending demand of the Sikh community.

Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later on November 28, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor at Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.

Bisaria said that 2019 was important for India as it marks 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The reception was attended by politicians, parliamentarians, diplomats, media persons, businessmen and civil society representatives.By IANS

HYDERABAD: Popular Telugu actor and politician Pawan Kalyan on Saturday met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and his son and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Working President KT Rama Rao.

The Jana Sena leader talked with KCR and KTR during an At Home hosted by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on the occasion of Republic Day.

The meeting triggered speculation in the political circles in view of the ensuing elections to the Andhra Pradesh assembly and the Lok Sabha.

The development is significant in the wake of KCR's plans to play a key role in Andhra Pradesh politics to damage the prospects of ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) by isolating it.

READ HERE: Chandrasekhar Rao is a performer, Chandrababu Naidu a non-performer: KT Rama Rao

Following landslide victory of TRS in Telangana Assembly elections in December, KCR had declared that he will 'return the gift' to TDP President and Andhra Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. He was referring to Naidu's active campaigning in Telangana, where TDP had an alliance with Congress and two other parties.

The meeting took place few days after KTR called on YSR Congress Party President YS Jaganmohan Reddy to seek his support for Federal Front proposed by TRS chief as an alternative to BJP and Congress. It was also announced that Chandrashekhar Rao will visit Andhra Pradesh to hold further talks with Reddy in this regard.

Pawan Kalyan, who had welcomed KCR's proposal to form the Federal Front, planning to contest at all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh elections in alliance with the Left parties. He has already ruled out an alliance with TDP.By Express News Service

VELLORE/TIRUVANNAMALAI: The striking teachers and government employees, sounding the war bugle, have seemingly locked horns with Tamil Nadu government as both sides have decided to take on one another. However, Monday's developments will be crucial for both the protesters and the government.

The State government has come out with a statement, widely propagated, explaining its position regarding the demands made by the teachers and government employees. It has also made clear the demand for revoking contributing pension scheme and reverting to the old pension scheme is not viable.

12 leaders suspended

It has further hardened its stand by arresting frontline leaders of the Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTTO-GEO) and subsequently placing them under suspension.

In Vellore, six teachers, who are top leaders of JACTTO-GEO, were suspended from service while 8 teachers leading from the front in neighbouring Tiruvannamalai district were subjected to the same action.

This apart, around 12,000 teachers, on strike since January 22, have been served notices in both the districts, besides warning them of inviting action under section 17 (b) of TNCS (D&A) Rules.

Sounding war bugle

Yet, the teachers and government employees look unrelenting and asserted that they cannot be cowed down by intimidation tactics.

We cannot be cowed down by intimidation tactics adopted by the State government. We are focused on achieving what we have been demanding for long. We will continue the road roko on Monday as well, SN Janardhanan, state executive committee member of JACTTO-GEO, told reporters here on Sunday.

He pointed out that the teachers and government employees are demanding Tamil Nadu government only to implement what late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had promised before the 2016 Assembly elections.

Janardhanan also questioned the rationale behind the government's purported move to merging 3500 schools and closing down another 5000 schools across the State.

He wanted the government to clarify on the deposit of pension amount collected from the teachers and government employees.

We want to know to where the money collected from us did go? Why aren't they allowing us availing of loans from the pension fund? he questioned.

Since the government is believably preparing to intensify the crackdown against the strike, second rung leaders of JACTTO-GEO have been keeping themselves aloof to escape arrest.

Temporary teachers

The authorities of the School Education department have been scrutinising the applications received for recruitment of temporary teachers.

In Tiruvannamalai district, we have received 3,750 applications so far. They are being scrutinised to choose the eligible hands, Chief Education Officer (CEO) V Jayakumar said on Sunday.

The officials are working overtime in Vellore perusing the applications that have been piling up.

Monday crucial

Depending upon the turnout of teachers on Monday, further action will be taken to recruit temporary teachers.

We will see how many teachers are returning to work on Monday. Depending upon that further action will be initiated against the absentees as we have already issued them show cause notices, Vellore CEO S Mars stated.

Meanwhile, sources said that the striking teachers and government employees may have to face hard action from the side of the Police.

Those who are courting arrest may be remanded to judicial custody, the sources added.

The outcome of a case regarding the strike coming up for hearing before the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court is also going to be crucial.

The State level leaders of JACTTO-GEO will weigh the outcome of the case as soon as it is pronounced and take a call on future course of action.Lalitha Ranjani By

Express News Service

MADURAI: Ailing from a humble background, this 67-year-old woman from Pilluseri village was awarded the Padma Shri this year for empowering lakhs of rural women against usury through her community banking movement Kalanjiyam Iyakkam.

P Chinnapillai is the youngest of four children born to agricultural labourers. She was married off to Perumal, also an agricultural labourer, when she was just a child. Our family was poverty-stricken. Most families of farmers, at the time, were trapped in the evil clutches of usurers and no bank was willing to extend loans to women whose families were already sinking in debt, recalled Chinnapillai.

With the help of the Madurai-based NGO, Development of Humane Action (DHAN) Foundation, in 1990 Chinnapillai started the first micro-credit or community banking movement called Kalanjiyam Iyakkam with 15 members who contributed Rs 10 to 20 each. The amount they managed to pool together was given as loan to whichever member of the group was most in need of the money. The loan was repayable in instalments at an interest. The group maintained records and accounts which helped Kalanjiyam Iyakkam obtain bank loans when there was a need for a huge sum of money.

READ: Here is the complete list of Padma awardees 2019

Kalanjiyam refers to granary where we store the grains harvested after months of toil in the fields. We called the first Kalanjiyam Pillu Kalanjiyam, after our village, she said.

Despite initial apprehension from rural women, the initiative soon took off, mainly due to Chinnapillais untiring efforts in popularising the effort. She coaxed several hundreds of rural women into the micro-credit system which improved their social and economic status and boosted their self-confidence.

Today, Kalanjiyam Iyakkam has a presence in 16 states with over 55,000 Kalanjiyam groups, the sexagenarian smiles. In 1999, Chinnapillai shot to fame when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee touched her feet as a sign of respect for her social service, while awarding her the Mata Jijabai Stree Shakti Puraskar.

The mother of two sons, was elated at having been awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India. The journey does not stop here. A lot more has to be done to reach out to women living in inaccessible hilly and tribal areas and I wish to strive for their empowerment in the small way I can, through Kalanjiyam, she said.

Now the advisor of Kalanjiyam Iyakkam, Chinnapillai said her fight for total prohibition would continue. Alcoholism has destroyed families and continues to do so even today, she said. Last June, she was the proud recipient of Tamil Nadus Avvaiyar Award. She donates half of the prize money she receives

with the awards to the Kalanjiyam Iyakkam.

CM, Stalin commend awardees

Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and DMK president MK Stalin have congratulated the eight Padma awardees of Tamil Nadu and former President Pranab Mukherjee, the Bharat Ratna awardee. In his greetings, Palaniswami said: On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu and myself, I congratulate the Padma Shri award winners. Stalin said the Padma awardees have established the pride of Tamils not only in the country, but also in the international landscapeBy Express News Service

MADURAI: Amid political speculations ahead of Parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday laid the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to be built in Thoppur, Madurai at an event held at Mandela Nagar here on Sunday.

The Prime Minister who arrived at Madurai on a special flight on Sunday forenoon was received by the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, at the airport, after which he proceeded to the venue on road.

About four years after the announcement for the ambitious AIIMS project in Tamil Nadu was made by the Centre, Modi, during an event organised at Mandela Nagar here, laid the foundation stone for the premier institute that is to be built within 45 months at an allocated budget of Rs. 1,264 crores.

During the event, Narendra Modi also inaugurated the Super Speciality blocks of government medical college hospitals in Madurai, Tirunelveli and Thanjuvar built at a total cost of Rs.450 crores contributed by the Centre and Rs. 85 crores contributed by the State. Also, the Prime Minister dedicated 12 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) in Tamil Nadu to the public.

Narendra Modi who addressed the gathering here stated that the AIIMS in New Delhi has created a brand name in the healthcare sector and that the brand has now reached all corners of the country with the premier facility coming up in many States.

He told that the AIIMS to be built in Thoppur would benefit the entire population of Tamil Nadu. He then added that 89,000 beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Yojana or Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) have been covered in Tamil Nadu, at a cost of about Rs. 200 crores since its launch over three months ago. Modi who said that the Centre which is committed to strengthen the healthcare sector has opened 1,320 health and wellness centres in Tamil Nadu.

The Prime Minister also stated that during the NDA rule in the last four-and-a-half years, MBBS seats have been increased by 30 percent.

Speaking during the function, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami placed a request to the Prime Minister on the formation of a government medical college in Ramanathapuram district.

The Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai, Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K Raju, Minister for Revenue R B Udhayakumar and Union Minister of State for Shipping and Finance Pon Radhakrishnan also took part in the foundation stone laying ceremony at Mandela Nagar.

AIIMS in Tamil Nadu was first announced in February 2015 during the budgetary speech by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Following this announcement, the state government drew up a list of five possible locations namely Chengalpet in Kancheepuram district, Pudukkottai city in Pudukkottai district, Sengipatti in Thanjavur district, Perundhurai in Erode district and Thoppur in Madurai district. Ending the three-year-long speculation that was in rife on finalising the AIIMS site in the State, the Centre on June 19 zeroed in on Thoppur in Madurai for establishing the institution at 262.62 acres of land.

The RTI response received by Express from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by Express in August revealed that Madurai district scored 82 of the total 90 marks, as evaluated by the selection committee that was appointed by the Centre to decide the location of AIIMS site in Tamil Nadu.

To be built under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), the ambitious project received Cabinet approval on December 17 last year.

The 750-bedded premier institute will have 15-20 super speciality departments and is to house a medical college, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, guest house, hostels and residential facilities.The institute will pave way for the creation of 100 MBBS seats and 60 B Sc Nursing seats.

The facility in Madurai is expected to cater to around 1,500 outpatients a day and 1,000 inpatients a month. The hospital will include Emergency/Trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds, ICU Speaciality and Superspeciality beds.

MDMK stages protest against Modi; many detained

Led by party chief Vaiko, MDMK cadres Sunday staged a black flag demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly before he arrived here, accusing him of betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Police said the protesters were detained. Releasing black baloons, the protesting party cadres raised slogans against Modi alleging that he betrayed the interests of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and other issues.

The protest was held near the Periyar bus stand in the city, away from the venue of the AIIMS site. In a counter move, BJP youth wing supporters put up posters sarcastically "welcoming Vaiko".

The MDMK cadres claimed that the centre had accorded "permission to projects like neutrino and hydrocarbon extraction" which, according to them, would have an adverse impact on the livelihood of the farmers and also affect the common people.

On the Cauvery issue, they alleged that the Centre was supportive of Karnataka's bid to build a dam at Mekedatu across the river by giving permission for preparing a detailed project report.

The MDMK cadres, however, said the protest was not against the AIIMS. Slogans like "go back Modi," and counter hashtags "Madurai thanks Modi," and "TN welcomes Modi" trended on micro blogging site Twitter.

Tamil Nadu unit BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan and Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan strongly condemned MDMK for staging the protest ahead of the prime minister laying the foundation for a big project beneficial to the state.

(With agency inputs)Vinodh Arulappan By

Express News Service

MADURAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked those opposing the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in the general category. Addressing a BJP party rally in Madurai, Modi asked people of the State to remain vigilant against such negative forces.

Virtually sounding the poll bugle for the Lok Sabha elections from Madurai, the Prime Minister said: Its unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu (over the EWS quota issue) to serve their own selfish interest. Any political thought that is against the poor will not be beneficial for anyone.

Modi claimed the decision for the EWS quota was taken in such a way that it did not infringe on the rights of Dalits, tribals and other backward communities.

He said the Centre was trying to make Tamil Nadu the hub for aerospace and defence industry in the country. He lauded Tamil Nadu for being one of the most industrially-progressive States in the country.

The Prime Minister was referring largely to the DMK, which had moved the High Court against the quota.

Attacking the opposition further, Modi said the Centres efforts against corruption have created a stir from Chennai to Delhi.

All those used to making bills in government contracts are now facing the music. That is why they are coming together, he said in a snide reference to the alliance talks among the opposition parties.

They say that keeping aside all other considerations, they must unite to remove this watchman. However big a group they form out of fear and negativity, Narendra Modi will stand firmly with the poor, he said.

Any person who has cheated or looted the country shall be brought to justice. This is regardless of whether he is in India or abroad, Modi said.By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Billed as the first and only student body of engineering undergraduates in the country that has indigenously developed a sounding rocket launch vehicle, the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) at Burla in Sambalpur has hit the headlines once again.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded the feat of the students of VSSUTs Space Research and Development Programme during his monthly radio talk Mann-Ki-Baat.

The students are known for their innovative works in developing, launching and recovering indigenously developed reusable satellites and rockets.

Our space program has been possible due to innumerable young scientists of the country. We take pride in the fact that the satellites developed by our students and sounding rockets have reached space. The sounding rockets made by Odisha university students have created many records, the PM said.

Stating that the country has also created a world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft, Modi hoped that India would soon register its presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign.

READ: Military satellite Microsat-R, student-made Kalamsat named after Abdul Kalam take off

The students led by a team of mentors have so far accomplished three missions successfully by launching sounding rocket launch vehicle -VSSUT Satellite Launch Vehicle (VSLV) several times at different altitudes.

VSLV is the first student rocket initiative in Asia. It has been designed and developed by students of electrical, mechanical and civil engineering departments of VSSUT.

Last year, the VSSUT had entered the Limca Book of Records as the first and only student body in India which have developed and launched a sounding rocket. The team also holds an India Book of record for the same feat.

The 30-member students team also have developed a Can Satellite (CanSat) to monitor the real-time scenario of Hirakud dam. Siltation, unscientific water distribution system, flood control, irrigation and hydel power generation can be monitored through the mini satellite.

While the VSLV rocket and satellite team was awarded the first prize at the Aerospace Expo organized by ISRO in 2017, the Hirakud Dam Monitoring Project has won the Create the Future Popular Design Award by NASA Techbrief.Hemant Kumar Rout By

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that there was a tacit understanding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Delivering a Town Hall talk hosted by Odia daily The Samaja here on Friday, Rahul said Modi has leverage over Naveen because of corruption cases and the latter tacitly supports the former on various issues including GST, demonetisation and different bills in the Parliament. Both leaders believe in bureaucratic dictatorship and centralisation of power but thats not the end of similarities between the two, he said.

The BJDs model to develop Odisha is similar to that of BJPs Gujarat model. Naveen is a version of Modi. My target is to take Odisha out of the one-man bureaucratic regime and hand it over to people of the State, the Gandhi scion said.

However, though Naveen is autocratic and centralises power, he is not filled with hate as Modi. Unlike the Congress which has a dynamic process and always listens to people, Modi thinks he knows everything, and hence, doesnt take anyones feedback. This is the basic difference between Congress and BJP. When we run a State, we listen to people. That is not how Modi or Naveen think, he said.

Coming down heavily on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Rahul said the outfit, which is the mother ship of BJP, wants to control all the institutions in the country. But, Congress always respects institutions, be it the educational, judiciary or election commission, and their individuality. We are completely against the assault on institutions taking place today, he said.

Rahul emphasised on job creation over growth of the economy. Modi has failed to deliver on his promises. What is the meaning of growth when youth struggle to get jobs? he asked.

He termed demonetisation as a crime and said the move destroyed small and medium businesses. Small and medium enterprises generate jobs, but not big business houses, he said. Everybody is forgetting agriculture. A huge number of jobs can come from agriculture if there is a transformation in the system, Rahul said.

The Congress chief said the best thing that happened to him as a politician and human being is the trolling at the hands of BJP and RSS. When Modi abuses me, I feel like giving him a hug. He is upset with the Congress party. But we have no animosity towards him. Thats our nature, we dont hate people. Indias culture is not to abuse someone, he said.

On what made Priyanka Gandhi to take the plunge in politics, he said the decision was not instant, it was taken years back. She sought time as her children were very young. Though everybody thinks we come from an illustrious family and everything is easy for us, it is actually not. My grandmother and father were assassinated. We faced many hard situations and that brought us close together. Priyankas primary job will be to help the idea of Congress revive in UP, he said while describing the relationship he shares with his sister.

Confident of an opposition win in the 2019 elections, Rahul said, Now we are at a point when the opposition is so united that it is practically impossible for BJP to win the election.

BJP, BJD hit back at Congress president

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD and BJP came down heavily on Congress president Rahul Gandhi after he criticised the Centre and State Government for neglecting farmers and not fulfilling promises. Alleging that misrule of Congress has kept Odisha backward, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said Rahul should clarify on the summons from Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police to president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik. Pradhan said Congress is the root cause behind growing unemployment and poverty in the State. Stating that Congress has done injustice to Odisha when it was in power at the Centre, he alleged that Rahul is now shedding crocodile tears for development of the State.

The BJD also hit back at Gandhi for accusing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for running an autocratic Government and ignoring farmers. People of Odisha have not forgotten the golden rule of Congress when the growth rate of Odisha was restricted to three per cent. From there on, the growth rate under BJD regime has reached 10 per cent which is higher than the national average, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said. Stating that Odisha was earlier dependent on other States for its quota of rice, Patra said the State has not only reached self-sufficiency in rice production but also became rice surplus in 2011 and now the third highest contributor of rice to the PDS system.VASEP said the shrimp sector would make a breakthrough in exporting to 28 European Union countries as the nation will enjoy low import tariffs once the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement takes effect for an estimated export value of US$1 billion.

According to VASEP, 2018 ended with shrimp exports failing to meet the business targets. They reached US$3.55 billion, down 7.8% from the previous year.

The shrimp industry targeted to gain an export value of US$4.8 billion in 2018 due to the many advantages of exports promotion. These advantages from existing mechanism and policies include a programme on sustainable development of the fisheries economy during 2016-2020.

However, shrimp demand of large markets such as the US and Canada decreased due to weather and high inventory volume in Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EU. Domestic prices in the second quarter fell by between 20% and 30%, affecting the local market and export value.

At the end of last year, world shrimp prices fell. The supply from shrimp-producing countries such as India, Thailand and Indonesia increased, while inventory in the US was high, meaning Vietnam could not boost exports to this market.

Inventories in India, Ecuador and Indonesia also increased after China tightened the export of shrimp via informal cross-border gates.

In 2018, Vietnams shrimp exports to its four main markets declined from the previous year. The value of exports to China dropped by 28%; Japan fell by 9.2%. Exports to the EU and the US were down by 2.8% and 3.3%, respectively. The exports to the Republic of Korea and Canada saw slight increases of 1% and 3.5%, respectively.

The EU was still the largest market for exported Vietnamese shrimp, accounting for 23.6% of exports with a value of US$838.3 million.

White-leg shrimp continued to occupy a key position in the market, accounting for 68.7% of shrimp exports, while tiger shrimp accounted for 23% and other types of shrimp 8.3%.By IANS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the government announced Padma Bhushan for former ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan, T.P. Senkumar, a former state police chief who was tipped to probe spy charges involving Narayanan, slammed the decision, saying the award came at a time when a Supreme Court committee was looking into the ISRO spy case.

"If this is the yardstick for a Padma award, then people like Govinda Chami, Ameerul Islam (both accused in the killing of two women) and Mariam Rasheeda (an accused along with Narayanan in the ISRO spy case), would get a Padma award next year. The government should have waited," said Senkumar.

ALSO READ | Glad my work finally recognised, says ex-ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan

"Narayanan is a below average scientist... ask any ISRO scientist who is still working there about his contributions," said Senkumar.

The ISRO spy case surfaced in 1994 when Narayanan along with another top official of ISRO, two Maldivian women and a businessman was arrested on espionage charges.

The CBI cleared Narayanan in 1995 and since then he has been fighting a legal battle against Siby Mathews, the then Inspector General of Police who had probed the case, and two other police officers.

Last year the Supreme Court directed the Kerala government to give him compensation of Rs 50 lakh for his travails.

Senkumar was asked by the then E.K. Nayanar government (1996-2001) to relook into the ISRO spy case, but it failed to materialize as by then, the apex court had cleared Narayanan.

Responding to Senkumar's, remarks, Narayanan said that in his petition for compensation, Senkumar was named as one of the parties.

"What Senkumar said today is immaterial and irrelevant and does not require to be answered. What he has said is probably because he wants to mislead the Supreme Court. I do not know if he has an agenda. He is speaking foolish things," said Narayanan.

Senkumar was removed as the state police chief, the day current Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office in may 2016. After a long-drawn court battle, the Supreme Court directed that he be reinstated in May 2017. He retired from service in June 2017.

Since then political grapevine has it that he might be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as a candidate of ABDJS, a BJP ally.

Joining the issue, state Culture Minister A.K. Balan said Senkumar's remarks were unacceptable. "State BJP chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai should respond to such statements by Senkumar," said Balan.Ashwini M Sripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: 107-year-old Saalumarada Thimmakka, this years Padma Shri award winner, is happy with the national recognition. But she is upset with the state government for not recognising her green crusade. Though the state government has given her many awards and named a few green schemes after her, Thimmakka is provided with just Rs 500 per month from the government as old-age pension.

The state government had also assured to give her Rs 2 crore cash and a piece of land for her livelihood, but she has not got them till now. Thimmakka is disappointed by the attitude of the state government and stopped taking the pension for the last one year, Umesh, her adopted son, said. They are managing with the cash awards she gets from private organisations who felicitate her at various events.

Despite her conservation efforts, she has been living a life of near penury. Thimmakka laments that her frequent pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Her house is filled with mementos and little else. When contacted on Saturday, she said, I cannot eat mementos.

READ: Here is the complete list of Padma awardees 2019

Priyank Kharge, Social Welfare Minister, told TNSE that he would take up the issue with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. We will take a call on what facilities can be extended to improve the livelihood of the Padma Shri award winner, he added.

Fondly referred to as Tree Woman, Thimmakkas love for trees dates back to several decades. When they remained childless even after many years of marriage, Thimmakka and her husband Chikkaiah started planting banyan saplings and nurtured them as their own children. The duo would walk this stretch to water the plants during summer, a practice Thimmakka continued after her husbands death in 1991. Today there are 385 banyan trees on a 4km stretch between Hulikal and Kudur in Magadi taluk of Ramanagara district, thanks to Thimmakkas efforts.

Thimmakka is known globally too. In 2016, BBC included her name in one of the most influential and inspirational women of the world. A US environmental organisation named its centre at Los Angeles and Oakland as Thimmakka Resources for Environmental Education.Devaraj B Hirehalli By

Express News Service

TUMAKURU: An Indian Army Naik hailing from Tumakuru, who has gunned down seven militants in his 15-year service, most of it in Jammu and Kashmir region, has won the Sena Medal for gallantry this year. Mohammed Sadik (34) of the 1st Rashtriya Rifles, the armys elite counter-insurgency unit, had eliminated three terrorists in a fierce gunbattle at Kulgam in July 2018. He was involved in a major operation at Arwani in 2017 where he came face to face with a terrorist and had gunned him down.

I joined the army with a great passion. Desh seva is Esha seva (serving the country is serving the god) for me, said a proud Sadik when contacted over phone. Sadiks mother Shirajunnisa, wife Rahamath Unnisa and two-and-half-year-old son Ayman were beaming with pride and joy at the Mahatma Gandhi stadium here on Saturday. They had been invited for a felicitation by the district administration on the occasion of the 70th Republic Day celebrations. Flexes with his pictures were put up at many places in the city to inspire youths.

His father late Mohamed Salim used to hawk popsicles in different villages besides doing small seasonal businesses. Theirs was an economically backward family, recalled Dandina Thimme Gowda, a local resident.

SADIK joined the army as a jawan on January 21, 2004, and served in J&K region for eight years, in Sudan as part of the UN peacekeeping force for a year, and for two years with the elite NSG in New Delhi.

He dreamed of joining the army even while he was studying in Class 3 at a government school at Bhovi Colony in Tiptur town.

After his primary education, Sadik completed his middle-schooling at the government school at Dandinashivara village and three years of higher secondary education at Digvijaya High School at Ammasandra in Turuvekere taluk of the district. After completing his SSLC board examination in his first attempt, he got selected for the army in at a recruitment rally held at Madras Engineering Group (MEG) at Bengaluru. He later did his Bachelors of Arts (BA) through distance education.

Impressed by PM Modis Beti Bachao, Beti Padao slogan, Sadik brought his adopted sisters daughter Shifa Annum to his household so that she can pursue her education. He also dreams of her becoming an army officer. His mother Shirajunnisa, wife Rahamath Unnisa and two-and-half-year-old son Ayman live in a small rented house at the Poor House Colony area in Tumakuru.

We knew the risk involved in the army, that too in J&K. We are proud of him as he has been serving the motherland, said the proud mother and wife. He is the only son of his parents.KV Ramana By

Express News Service

GUNTUR: Chilli farmers and traders are a worried lot as prices of different varieties of the commodity has dipped by Rs 1,500 per quintal in the last two weeks at Asias biggest chilli yard. Price of the Teja variety at NTR Mirchi Yard in Guntur has come down to Rs 7,300 a quintal from Rs 8,800; similarly, the cost of Badegi variety, which was earlier sold at over Rs 10,000 per quintal, has crashed to Rs 8,900 per quintal. Similar is the case with other chilli varieties available at the yard.

According to the available data, arrival of the produce from September to December last year was 40,000-50,000 bags a day. Between April and the first week of January, 84,51,648 bags arrived at the market yard.As such, the reeling farmers demanded the government to intervene and provide a fair price for their produce.

N Venkata Narasaiah, a farmer from Prathipadu who invested Rs 1 lakh per acre for cultivation, said chilli yields fell down to 8-10 quintals per acre from 20 quintals. I and other farmers of my area will not be able to recover the investment we made on the crop. In 2017-18, we received Rs 11,000 per quintal of the Teja variety. He and other farmers said the crop was cultivated in 40 per cent less farmlands as compared to last year.

Chilli trader Y Venkateswara Rao said demand for the commodity decreased as its quality reduced due to deficit rains; a viral infection in the crop also had a major contribution in this.

However, farmers in Kurnool and Kadapa are getting good prices for their produce as they used water from borewells for irrigation.

Agriculture Market Committees selection grade secretary M Venkateswara Reddy explained the reason behind the steep decline in chilli prices. The price depends on the quality of the produce. Further, cost of chilli varieties have decreased in the international market as well. The crop was grown in 77,000 hectares of farmlands in Guntur last year. More than 1 lakh tikkies of the produce arrive at the NTR Mirchi Yard daily in January.Shankkar Aiyar By

How have the five budgets presented by the BJP-led NDA government fared? The anxieties around the 2019 exercise illustrate the saga of unfinished agenda. As always, context is criticalagri distress, middle-class angst and the forthcoming polls haunt the regime. The buzz is about big-tag sops. The question is: where is the money, and who will pay for it?

By definition spending power is determined by earnings and efficiency in expenditure. The 2014-15 Budget said the Government is committed to the principle of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance, and appointed the Expenditure Management Commission (EMC) headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan for it. Inexplicably, the report was not made public and little is known about implementation. Parliament was informed in 2016 that the EMCs recommendations under 15 heads have been shared with the concerned ministries/departments for necessary action. The picture of savings achieved is fuzzy. Ironically, the government has now tasked a committee under Jalan with determining how much money RBI can transfer from its reserves to the government.

Among the domains covered by the EMC was Central Public Sector Enterprises. The state of the public sector is best illustrated by Air India and public sector banksthe total market value of all the PSBs is Rs 4.83 lakh crore, while that of HDFC Bank is Rs 5.69 lakh crore. Budget 2015-16 promised disinvestment in loss-making units, and some strategic disinvestment. In 2017, the government chose 24 entities for strategic disinvestment. Only oneHPCL, which was bought by public sector ONGCwent through. Meanwhile, 82 CPSEs are making losses. The total loss of CPSEs, between 2007-08 and 2016-17, was Rs 223,859 crorejuxtapose this reality with funding an income support scheme.

The BJP had charged the UPA government with unleashing tax terrorism during the campaign and promised change. Following up on the words, Budget 2015-16 assured improved and non-adversarial tax administration. In 2014-15, tax demands of over Rs 4 lakh crore were in dispute in courts and appellate authorities. The number of cases pending is over 4.69 lakh. The tax amount stuck as per Budget 2018 is Rs 7.38 lakh croreroughly half of the tax expected this year and a whopping 4.45 per cent of GDP. Do the math to get a fix on the consequence of adversarial conduct on the economyboth revenues and growth have stalled.

The missed opportunities span policies in expenditure management and in propulsion of growth. That urbanisation is a growth multiplier is well established. The most alluring aspect of the 2014 campaign was the promise of 100 new smart cities. Budget 2014-15 stated: The prime minister has a vision of developing 100 smart cities, and made an initial allocation of Rs 7,060 crore. The promise of new cities was binned and in execution the idea of smart cities was dumbed down. Four years later, in July 2018, the Parliamentary Standing Committee observed that among flagship schemes, utilisation for smart cities was the lowest at 1.83 per cent, i.e, Rs 182.62 crore of the released Rs 9,943.22 crore. The updated data shows that while Rs 10,504 crore was released, certified utilization was only Rs 931 crore.

The quest in 2019 is to assuage farmers. Distress in agriculture is not new. The huge disparity in rural and urban per capita incomes is evidence enough. Political parties tend to treat agriculture as a charity case whereas agriculture, as this column has repeated, needs to be liberated and provided with access to markets and credit (http://bit.ly/24uW8bm). The institution of e-NAM or Amul II could help, but governmentalized structures daunt the most vulnerablefarmers dealing in perishables are expected to classify/certify moisture levels. Opening up contract farming can bridge capacity issues, but the model law on contract farming promised in February 2017 is yet to be adopted by states.

The need to improve living conditions and provide human resources to run panchayats and municipalities could be leveraged to create employment and growth, and the challenge is an opportunity. Indeed, the 2014 manifesto listed empowering panchayats with funds and functions as a goal. Three years later, Budget 2017 said panchayat raj institutions lacked human resources to implement schemes, and announced a programme of human resource reforms for results for this purpose. What should have been a priority is yet policy in the works.

There is much applause for maintaining fiscal discipline. It is equally true that there is a silent crisis of dues owed but yet to be paid by the government. There is also the parking of debt and therefore deficit in the books of parastatals like FCI, and monetising of assets of the Peter-buys-PSU-pays-Paul kind ((http://bit.ly/27PSUs). The saga of bad loans is well-documented, and some of the aggravation in the real economy stems from poor tactics. The question is not what other governments did, but if tactics are being confused with strategy.

The dilemma faced by the government, to be seen as pro-poor by voters and yet not appear profligate to markets, amidst dimmed expectations, represents the consequence of errors and omissions through the five years.

Shankkar Aiyar

Author of Aadhaar: A Biometric History of Indias 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India

shankkar.aiyar@gmail.comPrabhu Chawla By

The political genome of the Indian National Congress is marked with the Nehru-Gandhi imprint. Just like business families survive and thrive through the genetic engineering of P&L(Profit & Loss), so does the Congress genus that thrives in the sap stream of Indias most famous family tree.

Never before has a single clan dominated the pan-Indian political jungle, or any other part of the world, for a century. Only the Gandhis hold such a privileged record. In 1919, Pandit Motilal Nehru presided over the Congress session held in Amritsar, six months after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The Nehru patriarch hogged the headlines for his presidential address, which called for non-cooperation with the British. One hundred years later, in 2019, his 47-year-old fourth generation descendant, Priyanka Gandhi, grabbed national attention on 500-odd national and regional news channels plus over 5,000 publications.

ALSO SEE | Q&A with Prabhu Chawla: Is Priyanka Gandhi's arrival a game changer?

However, unlike Motilal, silence is PriGas weapon for now. She has abstained from declaring war against her rivals. She joined the list of half a dozen other Congress general secretaries as just another addition. However, it fooled no one. Officially she is in charge of 38 Lok Sabha constituencies in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Unofficially, she is the new Congress cartographer.

Everything is in a name when it comes to the Congress party, since designations and geographical limitations are merely cosmetic proprieties for the Gandhis, who have been running the outfit as their personal principality for over five decades. Just Priyanka does not matter. Priyanka Gandhi does. Sonia and Rajiv Gandhis daughter is an integral part of the continuing ecosystem of one-family rule.

Brand Gandhi is the only political product to survive the savageries of historys turbulence, tenaciously thriving in spite of the hyphenated triumphs of their foes and adversaries. In no other democracy has a single dynasty been able to retain the mandate for long. Even the charismatic Kennedys and boisterous Bushes have lost their mojo.

But in India, the Gandhis have retained their minimum political market share and visibility in spite of massive electoral setbacks. Unlike many other national leaders, they do not have caste or regional emojis attached to their personas. Children of perennial privilege anointed with triumphs and tortured by tragedies, they stay in the national eye as part of the great Indian political mythos. They have never allowed a successor from outside their own family to helm the party.

Or let an interloper grow powerful enough in a big state to become a contender for the gilded chair on Akbar Road. Therefore, Priyankas formal induction as just another office-bearer is a mere formality to provide her constitutional legitimacy in the party and consolidate control officially over the 130-year-old organisation.

No newbie, PriGa is like every other Nehru or Gandhian active participant in all crucial parleys to resolve thorny and complex organizational issues. She played an important role in the selection of the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Since 1998, when Sonia took over as Congress chief, both RaGa and PriGa have been her in-house advisors.

Unlike other political leaders, the Gandhis are both reclusive and exclusive, who do not let an outsider into their inner circle. Their prioritiespolitical and social are clear: their India was parented and patented by Motilal Nehru in the 1930s at Anand Bhavan, the family seat in Allahabad. Handing over a part of Uttar Pradesh to his great-great-granddaughter is a well thought out strategy to recapture Indias largest state, whose 80 Lok Sabha MPs could make or break the government in New Delhi.

Ever since H N Bahuguna, and afterwards V P Singh, rebelled against the Gandhis, the family has been very careful in their choice of leader to head the UP Congress, settling on insignificant politicians who would be in no position to win their seats by themselves. Expect Priyanka to confidently use her official status to formally connect with not only workers but also other like-minded parties.

In spite of the varied opinions of their opponents about their relevance, the Gandhi Parivar vis-a-vis the Sangh Parivar has politically perpetuated itself as an institutionalized individual brand and not an ideology. While the BJP is a cadre-based outfit, the Congress derives strength from its mass base. Even after its worst ever performance in 2014, one can find at least a couple of Congress workers in every Indian village who swear by the Gandhi family.

The reason: Congress is basically a meal ticket party. Gandhi is the password to swing open the doors of power. During the past seven decades, a Nehru or a Gandhi has led the country with comparatively brief exceptions. Motilal presided over the Congress plenary session twice, in 1919 and 1928.

His only son, Jawaharlal Nehru, was picked to deliver his first presidential address to the AICC in 1929 in Lahore, with his adoring father in the audience. Nehru Jr. was elected president again in 1936, 1946, 1951 and 1954a clear sign Motilal was not immune to the patriarchal Hindu tradition of choosing his son over his daughter, Vijayalaxmi Pandit. However, Jawaharlals only offspring, Indira, happened to be a girl. She was the one who set the trend of marrying outside the chromosome connection: she wed Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi, just as her son would marry the Italian, Sonia Maino, later. Nehru catapulted Indira to the Congress presidentship when she was just 42, in 1959. After his death, Indira struggled to stay on in politics.

But the genes do not take No for an answer: after a brief stint as Lal Bahadur Shastris Minister for Information and Broadcasting, she won the backing of the Syndicate and became the prime minister in 1966. The seniors soon discovered that the goongi gudiya was an instinctive politician, who split the party and created her own Congress while her mentor-turned-foes fell around her like ninepins. In the mid-1970s, reeling under political and judicial pressure, she turned to younger son Sanjay, after whose death she brought in Rajiv Gandhi to help run the party.

Following the familial footsteps, he too became the Congress chief and subsequently prime minister. The Congress temporarily slipped out of Gandhi control after his assassination in 1991. But the two non-Gandhis  P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri-- did not survive the internecine battle unleashed by Gandhi loyalists. Both were unceremoniously ousted to pave the path for Sonia Gandhi in 1998. She ran the Congress by herself for about five years and finally drafted Rahul in 2004, encouraging him to contest the Lok Sabha election from Amethi.

After holding the post for a record 19 years, she formally chose her son and not daughter to replace her as party boss. Two years later, Rahul has chosen his sister to be his trustworthy partner in the political battle to carry forward the family legacy. The numbers speak for themselves: of the 18 Congress presidents since 1950, five were Nehru/Gandhi family members who reigned for 35 years, while 13 outsiders were at the helm for 34 years.

What gives the Gandhis the courage and right to lord over their organisation is their track record of winning elections. Of the 16 Lok Sabha polls since 1952, nine were won by the Congress under the leadership of a Nehru or a Gandhi.

Two were lost by non-Gandhi prime ministers or Congress presidents. The Congress lost only three general elections under the leadership of a Gandhithe first in 1977, when India Gandhi was party president, and twice under Sonia, in 1999 and 2014. The 2019 Lok Sabha votefest will be the first election to be led by a Gandhi brother-and-sister tag team. Rahul has 15 years of political experience with varied reputations and results.

The Congress has reached into the legerdemain of its past and fashioned a reincarnation. Priyanka is being projected as both a Gandhi and the female face of the party. After Indira Gandhi, the GOP couldnt rally women voters completely behind videshi bahu Sonia.

As the copyrighted desi Gandhi beti, the party hopes PriGa will be nationally perceived as the new Indira Gandhi. It is confident that with no other woman leader enjoying such all-India charisma present in the BJP or regional parties, the supremacy of the Gandhi Parivar over the healthy and wealthy Modi-led Sangh Parivar is a given. The Congress has always been and will remain a party of Gandhis, by the Gandhis, for the Gandhis.

Prabhu Chawla

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com

Follow him on Twitter @PrabhuChawlaBy PTI

THRISSUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday lashed out at the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala and said the Sabarimala issue had shown to the people of the country how the communist government was trying to disrespect the culture of the state.

He said the opposition parties could abuse him as much as they wanted but should not mislead farmers. The Prime Minister said the opposition should not create hurdles in opportunities for the youth.

READ| Atmosphere of suspicion being created over general quota to serve own interest: PM Modi in Tamil Nadu

"Sabarimala got the attention of the entire nation. The people of India have seen how the communist government was trying to disrespect the culture of Kerala. Why is the government undermining the culture of the state? Unfortunately, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack. It's been done by a party which is governing the state," Modi told a huge gathering at a Yuva Morcha meet here.

Modi said his government had made efforts to make all kitchens in the country smoke-free.

"When we came to power, we made efforts to make all kitchens smoke free. At that time, only 55 per cent of houses had gas connections. But today we have achieved 90 per cent," he said.

The Prime Minister also termed as the 'biggest joke,' the Congress and Left parties talking about democracy.By PTI

PUNE: A ward boy of a reputed hospital in Pune was arrested for allegedly filming a woman changing her clothes for an MRI procedure, police said Sunday.

Police said Lakesh Lahu Uttekar (25) was caught after the woman Saturday night found a mobile phone in the changing room and found a clip in it of her undressing.

"The woman was admitted in the hospital on January 23 for abdominal pain and she was advised to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan on Saturday. The ward boy asked her to change in a room other than the one designated for the purpose," a Koregaon Park police station official said.

The woman found a phone in the room and alerted her husband, and on checking the device the couple found a clip of her undressing, the official said.

A complaint was filed at Koregaon Park police station and Uttekar was held after he gave vague answers during the probe, the official added.

He has been charged under section 354 (watching or capturing the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed) of the Indian Penal Code.By PTI

NEW DELHI: A Pakistani delegation arrived in India on Sunday to visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, sources said.

Pakistan's Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah arrived in Amritsar along with his two advisers, sources said.

"This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years," a senior official said.

Since signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken. The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014, respectively.

No tour could be held in the current five years block, which ends in March 2020. This tour will be followed by a visit of India's Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date, the official added.

This tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three Indus tributaries -- the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi -- have been allotted to India, while the Chenab, the Jhelum and the Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan.By PTI

SEONI: A 13-year-old tigress, popularly known as "Collarwali" from Madhya Pradesh's Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), has given birth to four cubs, making her the mother of 29 cubs born in different litters in the last ten years, which forest officials feel could be a rare record.

Tourists Sunday spotted the Royal Bengal tigress 'T-15' with four cubs in the PTR, field director Vikram Singh Parihar told PTI Sunday confirming the births.

The tigress hit headlines in April 2017 for expanding her litters by giving birth to four cubs. Responding to a query on whether 'Collarwali' has now become the first such tigress in the world to have given birth to so many cubs in its life-span, Parihar said he has not come across such a feline, and that he is checking it out.

Talking about the latest births, Parihar said this was the eighth litter of the "Collarwali". "(Earlier) It had given births to 25 cubs in seven different litters," Parihar said, adding that the tigress is a prolific breeder and a cub-raiser. He said 21 of 25 cubs of the tigress born earlier, are currently wandering in the reserve.

"The tigress is very beautiful, no doubt about it. Its eyes and walk sway all. At the (current) age of 14, this big cat has given birth, which itself is the most pleasant surprise," the field director said.

He said the average life span of a tiger is 14-15 years.

"'Collarwali' looks young, and going by her beauty and robust health, she might create another record hopefully by living beyond 20 years. Look at the feline, it seems that she might survive 22 years," the forester said.

The tigress was born in September 2005, he said citing official data. The big cat brings in huge revenue for the PTR as hundreds of tourists drawn from different parts of India, besides foreigners, turn up to catch a glimpse of the majestic beast.

"Department of Post had issued a special cover envelope of 'Collarwali' on World Sparrow Day on March 20, 2015. Besides, New Zealand and Canada too issued personalised stamps on the tigress in that year," a forest official said.

According to wildlife activist Sanjay Tiwari, 'Collarwali' was born to tiger T-1, also known as 'Charger', and tigress 'Badimata'. Remarkably, the big cat had successfully reared her five cubs in 2010, he added.

As per the last tiger count in 2014, the population of the striped animals in the PTR, spread over 1169 sq kms in Seoni and Chhindwara districts, stood between 35 and 49.

'Collarwali' is as famous as feline 'Machhli' of Ranthambore in Rajasthan, who died in August 2016, Tiwari said, adding that 'Machhli', who was born in 1996, was considered the world's oldest big cat. The feline, who lived for 20 years, had given birth to 11 cubs.Richa Sharma By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A holy dip in the Ganga during Kumbh Mela could be unsafe, as real-time monitoring data from the Central government show that the rivers water at Allahabad is not fit for drinking and bathing.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitors the Gangas water quality in real time at various stations across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

According to the boards parameters, whether or not the water is fit for drinking and bathing depends on the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), and acidity.

READ | Priyanka may begin political innings with Kumbh holy dip on February 4

Data from Allahabad show that the biochemical oxygen demand is in the red category  over 10 miligram per litre (mg/l) above the permissible limit. For river water to be fit for drinking and bathing, the BOD would have to be less than 3 mg/l.

Allahabad is hosting Kumbh till March 5, and is expected to receive 12 crore visitors, including many high-profile personalities, political leaders and foreign delegates. Many of these people are likely to take a dip in Sangam  the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.By IANS

DERA BABA NANAK: While the central and Punjab governments have been blaming each other for the delay in executing the work related to the Katarpur Corridor project on the Indian side, residents of villages whose land will be acquired for the religiously significant project are apprehensive about their fate at being uprooted from the land where they have lived for decades.

While the villagers clearly welcome the Kartarpur Corridor project and are quite willing to offer their land for the project, their apprehension is about the compensation they will receive and whether it be adequate to rehabilitate themselves in another area.

The villagers have formed a committee of four villages in which the land is proposed to be acquired, as per the land acquisition notice issued by the government in the past one week, to put forward their common demand on compensation and rehabilitation.

READ| India shares with Pakistan coordinates of crossing point of the Kartarpur corridor

At a meeting of the committee, in which local farmers, residents and even functionaries of farmers' organisations participated earlier this week in the presence of a visiting IANS correspondent, it was pointed out that over 200 families will be uprooted in the next three months as the government goes ahead with land acquisition and implementation of the corridor project.

The international border (IB) is just a new hundred metres from the area where the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed the highway for the corridor project right up to the IB. Red flags have been put up in the agricultural fields by NHAI officials to mark the proposed highway.

"As per the rough estimates, nearly 300 acres of land will be acquired for the corridor project. Out of this, 54 acres will be required for the highway alone," Gurpreet Singh, a farmer and resident of Pakhoke village on the outskirts of Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) town, told IANS.

The most-affected villages are Pakhoke, Chandu Nangal, Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) and Jodiyan Khurd.

Farmers say that the DBN belt is well-known for cauliflower farming and the land acquisition will leave farmers without their basic livelihood.

"The farmers welcome the Kartarpur Corridor project. This is a very big thing happening and has matured after a very long time and lot of efforts. We don't want to stop the acquisition process. Our concern is how will the government compensate and rehabilitate us," another farmer, Suba Singh, pointed out.

The committee of farmers is scheduled to meet the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner on Monday (Jan 28) on the land acquisition.

"Each farmer makes around Rs 2 lakh per year from growing cauliflower. This income will go once the land is acquired. The government should compensate the farmers not only for the market price of the land but also for the loss of income from agriculture," farmer Joginder Singh said.

Most farmers in the area have small land holdings of two to five acres and survive on growing different crops, including cauliflower.

With the central and Punjab governments under pressure to complete the corridor project in Punjab before November, when the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev take place, the whole DBN area is all set for a major transformation.

The first batch of pilgrims from India for the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life and is his final resting place, is likely to cross the IB into Pakistan in November this year as both countries work out the travel modalities.

The gurdwara, which is significant for Sikh religious history and is visible from the India side on a clear day, is located around 4.5 km from the IB.Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: In the first high profile arrest, former Senior Superintendent of Police Charanjit Sharma was arrested from his house in Hoshiarpur today early morning in connection with the police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters on October 14, 2015 at Behbal Kalan of Faridkot district in which two Sikh youth were killed.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) inquiring into the incidents arrested him during the early morning raid at the former police officers residence around 2.30 am. He tried to escape by jumping over the wall but was nabbed.

Sources said that said his custodial questioning was required as the SIT had collected substantial evidence related to his actions that are believed to have led to the police firing in which two youth were killed.

Confirming the arrest, Inspector General of Police and Member of SIT, Kunwar Vijay Partap said, "We have arrested Charanjit Sharma early this morning, Singh said. It is the first arrest made by the SIT in the case since the case was registered in October 2015.

He was earlier suspended and then compulsorily retired from service. Sharma along with three other police officials, had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection from prosecution. The court turned down their request on January 24, asking them to join the investigation.

The SIT was just waiting for the High Court to vacate the stay in proceedings against five police officers including former SSP of Moga Charanjit Singh Sharma and former Superintendent of Police of Fazilka Bikramjit Singh.

The SIT is investigating these incidents which took place at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura had already recorded the statements of over two hundred people in the past four months. Sharma was leading a

police party that allegedly opened fire at the anti-sacrilege protesters at Behbal Kalan.

On the recommendations of the Justice Ranjit Singh (Retd) commission the Punjab Police on August 11, 2018 had added names of Charanjit Sharma, Bikramjit Singh now posted as assistant commandant, 4th

Commando Battalion at Mohali, along with inspector Pardip Singh and sub-inspector Amarjit Singh in the case registered on October 21, 2015, against unidentified policemen on charges of murder, attempt to murder, acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention and the Arms Act at the Bajakhana police station.

After this, the state was brought to a standstill as the radical Sikhs and others blocked highways and other roads for days.By PTI

RAIPUR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to arrive in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur Monday to address a convention of farmers.

During his day-long visit, Gandhi will take part in a programme, titled 'Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan', to be held at Rajyotsav Mela ground in Naya Raipur at 2 pm, said a party spokesperson here Sunday.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and AICC in-charge of Chhattisgarh P L Punia Sunday took stock of the preparation for the function meant to express gratitude to people and farmers for voting the party to power in the state, he said.

This will be the Congress chief's first visit to Chhattisgarh after his party formed the government last month. The Congress had posted a massive victory in the November assembly polls, winning 68 of the total 90 seats and ending the 15-year-old BJP rule.

During the function, beneficiary farmers will be distributed loan waiver certificates, the spokesperson added. A large number of farmers from across the state, including the Naxal-affected Bastar division, will participate in the event, he claimed.

Gandhi had assured to waive farm loans if his party was voted to power while campaigning for the assembly polls and the promise was fulfilled within three hours of the formation of the Congress government, the spokesperson added.

Loans to the tune of over Rs 6,100 crore of 16.60 lakh farmers have been written off, he said.

Implementing another pre-poll promise, the paddy is being procured at a rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal from farmers in the state, the spokesperson added.

Besides, the Congress government has waived outstanding irrigation tax amounting to Rs 207 crore of 15 lakh farmers, he added.Manish Anand By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With about a month to go for the Election Commission to announce the dates for the Lok Sabha elections, the Narendra Modi government is set to unveil a targeted income support scheme for farmers soon.

Having solicited inputs from various quarters, the Union cabinet is expected to discuss the package on Monday to help farmers buy agricultural inputs and avoid moneylenders.

Sources said the government is considering a direct transfer of cash to farmers who possess less than five acres of land and the amount will be equivalent to 50 per cent of the basic input cost on seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.

The scheme will not be universal but targeted and will aim to cover marginal and small farmers, possibly with less than five acre land holdings, the sources said.

The proposal is also in line with Modis stated position to double farmers income by 2022 by linking it with procurement of inputs, including better quality of seeds, fertilisers and machinery.

READ HERE: Out-of-the-box NITI Aayog idea for agriculture: 'Replace MSP with crop auction at reserve price'

The scheme is likely to be a wholesome package for the farmers. It will free them of accessing loan at a high cost from informal sources, besides helping improve productivity, the sources said.

Why its different

According to sources, this proposal targets only small farmers while Telanganas agriculture income support scheme offers Rs 4,000 per acre per season without any cap on landholding.

A BJP-linked think tank, after consultations with officials of the NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Agriculture, leaders of farm organisations and farm sector experts, has already submitted a comprehensive report to the Prime Ministers Office.

The think tank, the sources said, has sought regular income support to a certain section of farmers who are vulnerable by capping landholding size to five acres. A member of the think-tank said the NITI Aayog has separately shared inputs with the PMO wherein it has recommended that 50 per cent of the Central funds being currently utilised for various farm sector subsidy programmes be given directly to the farmers through direct benefit transfer.

The think-tanks reasoning is that such a move would plug leakage of farm subsidies, currently about 2 lakh crore annually, besides helping initiate the process of unbundling of government dole out through subsidised programmes run through private and public sector companies.

The NITI Aayog has been advocating radical reforms in the agricultural sector, including moving away from the minimum support price (MSP) regime, which according to the think-tank has led farmers to excessively focus on crops which are already in surplus.By Online Desk

Bollywood actress Isha Koppikar on Sunday joined the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in Mumbai. Koppikar was appointed as the Working President of BJP Women Transport Wing, reported ANI.

Earlier there were speculations over veteran actress Madhuri joining the ruling party, which she later denied.

Earlier this month, on January 2, another Bollywood actress Moushmi Chatterjee joined BJP.

Isha began her film journey in 1998 with a Tamil movie and jumped on the Bollywood bandwagon with the film 'Fiza' in 2000.Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Criminal-turned-politician Anant Singh on Sunday attended a Congress roadshow in Patna along with the partys senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh, asserting that he (Anant) would be the partys candidate from Munger Lok Sabha seat despite resistance from ally RJD.

The road show was organised to mobilise public support for the proposed Jan Akanksha Rally of Congress in Patnas historic Gandhi Maidan on February 3. Congress president Rahul Gandhi would address this rally, which is going to be the partys first major rally in Bihar in the past 28 years. State Congress leaders said more than five lakh people would attend the event.

Anant Singh, currently an independent MLA from Mokama who was previously close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said at the road show that he would be the Opposition Grand Alliance candidate in Munger. When he had praised RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and said he wanted to join RJD last month, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had rebuffed him. There is no place for bad elements in RJD, he had said.

We thank Anant Singh on behalf of the entire Congress party. We are out together to destroy the regime of Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar with this rally, said Akhilesh Prasad Singh at the road show. On the question of Anant joining Congress, he said: Where does that doubt arise now that we are together and have the same goal?

Sources said the influential upper-caste leadership in the state Congress has already given the green signal to Anant, a three-term MLA who won the 2015 Assembly polls from inside the jail. Known as Chhote Sarkar in central Bihar, he faces 16 criminal cases including murder and abduction. He was arrested in June 2015 in connection with an abduction-cum-murder case. He is currently out on bail. Both he and Akhilesh hail from the Bhumihar upper caste.

Talks have been finalised about my contesting on a Congress ticket in Munger. My only aim is to dethrone Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar from power, said Anant.

Lovely Anand, the wife of jailed don-turned-politician and ex-MP Anand Mohan, formally joined Congress on Friday, underlining the partys alacrity to shore up its upper-caste support base in Bihar in time for the Lok Sabha polls.

Only the party high command will decide who gets to join the party and gets a ticket. There is no problem in anyone seeking support for Rahul Gandhis rally, said state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha, evading a direct answer on Annat Singhs candidature from Munger.By PTI

KOLKATA: The CID of West Bengal Police has arrested two top officials of a beverage-manufacturing company for their alleged involvement with a Pakistan-based racket that conned people with fake lottery schemes, a senior officer of the agency said Sunday.

Acting on a suo motu case registered at Egra police station in East Midnapore district on January 13, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) found that the racket had been duping people in the state as well in other parts of the country, he said.

Two officials of Bangladesh-based Pran Beverages (India) Private Ltd - director Rajesh Ghosh and sales administration manager Bidhan Kirtaniya - were arrested Saturday night after they were found to have received money from the racket, he told PTI.

The duo were produced at Contai court, which remanded them to police custody, the officer said. "The officials were apprehended under several relevant sections of the IPC and section 66 (D) of the IT Act. Necessary searches have been conducted and documents seized from the residential premises of the two accused and the head office of the beverage company at Chinar Park, New Town," he said.

Sharing the modus operandi of the racket, the CID officer said that the money collected from people were sent to Pakistan through hawala channels.

"The racketeers would call up people via phone or Whatsapp from numbers starting with +92 or 0092 to tell them that they have won a huge amount of money in the lottery, which would be transferred to them on payment of processing fees.

"Once the fees were deposited in the bank account, it was withdrawn by agents here in India. They then sent the money to Pakistan after routing it through Dubai," he explained.

As of now, the department was trying to find out more about the operations of the racket, the officer said.

"Several accounts were opened against fictitious names in different states and whenever a deposit was made the money was withdrawn as quickly as possible. These two have siphoned off more over Rs 55 lakh through hawala," he said.

"Such cheating of money was so far done by Nigerians and we had no clue that there could be Pakistani links to this particular case. It seems to be quite a big racket. We are trying to find out which other states they have (racketeers) been operating from and who all are involved in the process," he added.

Talking more about their investigation, the senior CID officer said, "Name of these two persons surfaced after grilling Muhammad Umar who was arrested from New Delhi last month in connection with a bank-fraud case."

Information about the case and requisite investigation has have been shared with Central detective agencies, the IPS officer added.Ejaz Kaiser By

Express News Service

RAIPUR: The Panama Papers leak is back to hog the political discourse in Chhattisgarh, as Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, in an apparent snide reference to his predecessor Raman Singhs son, has said that the Nawaj Sharif of Chhattisgarh is roaming free even as the former Pakistan PM is languishing in jail.

In its 2013 expose on leaked privileged documents pertaining to offshore assets held by some wealthy people, including individuals who held public office, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) cited the name Abhishak Singh in the Panama Papers. The same was allegedly taken to be a reference to the former CMs son Abhishek Singh, a BJP Lok Sabha member from Rajnandgaon constituency in Chhattisgarh.

According to the ICIJ, Abhishak Singh holds an offshore account in British Virgin Islands.

As the state Congress president before eventually bringing an end to Raman Raj in the recent state polls, Baghel had sought the resignation of the Rajnandgaon MP and his father and a probe into the alleged offshore dealings by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

After being voted to power, the Congress government had vowed a probe into every major corruption case. Weve only removed the dust from the files and Raman Singh and his party are already spending anxious days. There are many files that would be examined closely. Several conspiracies lie hidden in them, Baghel said.

However, Abhishek has strongly denied any link to the Panama Papers scandal saying he neither holds any offshore account nor has invested in any company abroad. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue while holding rallies in the state.By PTI

KOLKATA: Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan feels the 21st century is the "worst" time for humanity, a phase in which people are killing each other on account of religion.

"We need peace in the world, but unfortunately politics is now based on religion, politicians plays around with religion for selfish interests. So that is the unfortunate part, not only in India but all over the world," the 'Padma Vibhushan' said.

Khan was speaking on the sidelines of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet here.

"The 21st century should have been very peaceful, successful. But, it has turned to be the worst time all over the world. People are afraid to travel and there is no security," he said.

Recalling the words of his father Masoom Ali Khan that "all of us have a common God and we are a common race", the 73-year-old maestro said, "I wish this message was given by priests of every religion."

Khan said every human being has to make efforts to maintain peace and harmony in the world.

Without elaborating, he pointed out that there had been instances of "radicalisation of research scholars" and said it shows education has not created compassion and kindness in humans.

During a discussion at the literary meet, Khan said to a question about the role of tradition and convention in arts, "If you want to do something (different), if God is kind, you might come up with something new within the tradition.

"If your composition is beautiful, the raga becomes more interesting. It is important for any young musician to give more importance to composition." To another question, he recalled having recorded a 'Tribute To Tagore' album with late Rabindra Sangeet exponent Suchitra Mitra.

"I had travelled with Mitra in Bengal (during the recording of the album), and I realised how Tagore took liberty in his ragas and how beautifully it came out. I thought only a genius can take such liberty," Khan said.G Parthasarathy By

Over the past two decades, India has sought to promote the growth of trade, investment and connectivity in an area extending from Kabul to Bangkok, through SAARC and BIMSTEC. SAARC extends across the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, from Kabul to Dhaka. BIMSTEC comprises littoral and landlocked states across the Bay of Bengal: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. Indias Free Trade and Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea complement these networks.

The one stumbling block in this effort has been Pakistan, which has not implemented the SAARC Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2006. This agreement was part of a larger vision to make SAARC a Customs Union and then an Economic Union by 2020. Pakistan rendered this virtually unattainable by retaining barriers to trade with India. On the other hand, BIMSTEC, comprising our eastern Bay of Bengal neighbours, is moving ahead in promoting cooperation in many spheres. BIMSTEC leaders were specially invited by India to the BRICS Summit in Goa in 2017.

Given Pakistans continued support for terrorism and its complicity in backing extremist and terrorist groups in Bangladesh, India joined Bangladesh after the 2016 Uri attack in boycotting the SAARC Summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016. This decision was accompanied by a withdrawal of Afghanistan from the Islamabad Summit due to increased levels of violence and fighting as a result of terrorism imposed on Afghanistan by Pakistan. Bhutan followed suit, declaring that recent escalation of terrorism in the region has seriously compromised the environment for a successful summit. Maldives, then ruled by President Abdulla Yameen, said that the atmosphere was not conducive for a meet. Sri Lanka and Nepal did likewise, with Nepal asking member countries to ensure that their respective territories are not used by terrorists for cross-border terrorism.

Given the pro-Chinese propensities of Nepals present Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, it remains to be seen how Nepal will react to calls by Pakistan, for soon hosting the next SAARC Summit in Islamabad. During the recent meeting of SAARC Foreign Ministers in Kathmandu, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj condemned the constant threat of cross-border terrorism that India and Afghanistan faced. With India now engrossed in general elections scheduled for April-May this year, there is little prospect for any progress in resolving the SAARC impasse.

Unlike in SAARC, there is readiness to cooperate on terrorism in the BIMSTEC grouping especially given the cooperation India receives from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, with whom it shares land borders. Thailand and Sri Lanka are also very cooperative. Going even further, the army chiefs of BIMSTEC countries met recently in Pune, setting the stage for greater military cooperation. In these circumstances, we need not hurry to revive SAARC, given continuing Pakistans intransigence on economic integration and terrorism.

G Parthasarathy

Former diplomat

dadpartha@gmail.comAnand Neelakantan By

The government has five major responsibilities towards its citizenslaw and order, defence, education, transport and healthcare. We find there is a disturbing trend when we analyse how our governments, both Central and state, have fared in the last 70 years in all these sectors. Take law and order, for example. The middle class has almost given up on depending on the government for its security. Most of us live in an urban oasis in a sea of squalor, depending on security guards provided by private agencies. Even the resident associations in the smaller towns employ private security guards who man the streets. Small vendors, markets, shopping malls, officesall employ private security guards. It has become so common that we have stopped thinking about the failure of our governments in providing law and order.

The middle class has given up on the hope of getting uninterrupted electric supply, unless the distribution is done by a private company at an exorbitant rate. Every home has at least an invertor, if not a polluting diesel generator. We feel sanctimonious by bursting a few crackers less during Diwali or playing a dry Holi and claim we have contributed in lessening pollution, but no one talks about these dark fume-spewing monsters that growl from each shop front in countless lanes of our towns. The government has abdicated the responsibility of providing uninterrupted energy to its citizens.

Take public transport and roads. Only roads that are worth travelling are national highways in some stretches. All these highways are manned by private toll companies. The toll charges are exorbitant, irrespective of the condition of the road. We have been drilled through clever propaganda that we have to pay through our nose for good roads. What they have made us forget is that we have been paying a huge tax on fuel, both petrol and diesel. We also have forgotten there is a road and infra cess on fuel. If that is not enough, we pay 15 years advance tax on our vehicles. Despite all these, we must pay a huge toll tax for every kilometre we travel to private companies. We are being robbed to make a few rich for providing a basic facility like roads. But since we are drunk on propaganda and most of us have become swooning devotees, we shall continue to produce a handful of billionaires whose combined wealth is more than that of the 50 percent of our population. Meanwhile, we are made to dream about bullet trains that costs double our health sector allocation.

The health sector is in tatters. When was the last time a reader of this article had gone to a government hospital? The government has conveniently given up its responsibility. The total Union Budget allocation for health last year was Rs 52,800 crore and adding this to total allocations of all state governments, the figure was Rs 2,00,000 crore. To put things in perspective, if the national health policy objective must be met by 2025, the total allocation should have been Rs 8,00,000 crore. This is the amount required to reach bare minimum standards. We have the lowest hospital bed to per thousand people ratio in the world. We have the largest number of people suffering from malnutrition. Despite Keralas stellar performance, we are the worst performer among middle-income countries in the health sector. Our performance is poorer than neighbouring Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and China. We, the middle class, dont care, for we can afford to get treated at private hospitals. So, our governments, both state and Central, can get away. They only need to dangle some glitzy one-odd hospital in some state capital to make our devoted hearts swell with nationalistic pride and make us flood the social media with unabashed and often embarrassing jingoism.

We have long since given up on depending on the government for education. Except for a few centres of excellence such as the IIMs and IITs, the primary and secondary education has gone into private hands. There are hardly a few public schools of excellence. The result is that the middle class strives hard to put their wards in private schools charging exorbitant fee, with an aim to squeeze out those who can afford such education from the subsidised professional education in a handful of premium public colleges. The government also knows we dont care about the state of public education in the country, as we have formed our oasis in private institutions and tuition centres.

In a country that has the maximum population of under 25 years in the world, a country that is supposed to become an economic powerhouse riding on its youth power and ironically, a country that has the largest number of illiterates in the world, the allocation for education increased from Rs 81,869 crore to Rs 85,010 crore, an increase of Rs 3,141 crore or a paltry 3.84 percent only in the last budget. That is lesser than what one would spend for building world record-breaking statues. This is at a time when the total revenue receipts increased from Rs 15.05 lakh crore (2017-18) to Rs 17.25 lakh crore (2018-19), an increase of 14.63 percent.

Now, as far as their responsibilities are concerned, state governments have abdicated all their responsibilities to private concerns. The Union government has thankfully the defence sector left in its kitty, though it has abdicated all other responsibilities to its citizens and private sector. Ironically, both the Union and state governments are involved in producing things from condoms to scooters through its loss-making PSUs when they are not fulfilling their fundamental duties of providing health, education, law and order, transport and defence to its citizens. At least in the next elections, it is time for us to remind all political parties about their duties to us.

Anand Neelakantan

Author, columnist, speaker

mail@asura.co.inSandip Hor By

Express News Service

Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily (Europe) and Tunisia (North Africa), Malta is an archipelago of three main inhabited islandsGojo, Comino and Malta. A total land area of 316 sq km makes it one of the 10 smallest countries on the planet.

The capital city of Valletta and other tourist quarters such as Mdina, Rabat, the Three CitiesVittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicuaand the fishing town of Marsaxlokk are all located in Malta Island while much smaller islands of Gozo and Comino are a short ferry ride from its shores. Owing to its size, its easy to travel the entire country with no corner more than a two-hour drive away.

Spanning across 7,000 years, its history is very intensive. After the Neolithic era, the land in succession was ruled by the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs and the Normans who were replaced in the 16th century by the Knights of St. John. They were followed by the French and the British from whom Malta received independence in 1964. A 45-minute audio-visual show at Valletta titled Malta Experience is the best way to learn about Maltese history.

Other than some prehistoric temples and necropolises like the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ggantija Temples in Gozo, most of the architecture was built by the Knights during their 268-year reign. This includes forts, palaces, cathedrals, gates and mansions, some expressing the best of baroque design in the world. Two top examples are St. Johns Co-Cathedral in Valletta and St Pauls Cathedral in Mdina which is dedicated to apostle St Paul who introduced Christianity in Malta in 60AD.

While Valletta is famous for its stunning waterbodies and church dome-dominated skyline, modest townships of former capital Mdina, next door Rabat and the Three Cities are characterised by golden yellow limestone architecture flanking narrow cobblestone alleyways opening to piazzas. This is where kings fought, nobles socialised and soldiers paraded in the past. However now, films are shot here. Like at the Mesquita Square in Mdina, or at the Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa, where scenes from the popular television series Game of Thrones were filmed. Local tour operators take movie-buffs through various locations to bring alive their cinematic memories.

Though there is no shortage of contemporary elementsgood hotels, trendy restaurants, shopping malls and wi-fiin modern Malta, the landscape still displays a medieval character making it a favourite location for filmmakers. Fort St Elmo in Valletta doubled for Marseille in The Count of Monte Cristo, as a Turkish prison in Midnight Express among other movies. Similarly, Fort Ricasoli, commanding entrance to Maltas grand harbour, served as historic Rome for Russell Crowes Gladiator and as ancient Greece in Troy. Most recently Salman Khans Bharat has been shot at these locations. Like any versatile actor, Malta can fit into many diverse roles.

Medha Dutta Yadav By

Express News Service

The basic morning cuppa has been infused with many changes over the recent years. At the

Tea and Food Festival organised this month in Delhi, there were more than 250 types of teas available under one roof. Entrepreneur Amit Dutta, who hosted the festival, says, Our aim was to bring the much-loved beverage in original and contemporary form to the audience. From mind-boggling varieties to an exploration of diverse tea cultures, and new food pairings across an array of innovative flavours, the festival was a tribute to the humble chai. The event, which hopes to go annual, will be headed to Chandigarh and Jaipur for its next leg.

Presented by Harvest Gold, the festival held tea workshops for consumers from brands such as Tea Monk, 24Seven, Divyajal, AO Smith, Goodtimes, GreenFit, Brewhouse, The Red Kettle, Tsa & Co, TE-A-ME, Namhah Tea, Chai Peeni Hai, Dharamsala Tea, Goodricke Tea, and more. The focus was on speciality teas, health benefits and the art of brewing. What wowed many attendees was the sheer range of the concoctionfrom the humble chai, to the elitist white tea, living room for favourites such as Oolong and Earl Grey, and the flavour of mountain warmth such as the Kashmiri Kahwa.

A lesser-known fact about the drink is that the character of the tea alters at the slightest change in humidity, altitude, weather, light and temperature, and thus it produces its own distinct flavour. From the delicate first flush tea to blending it with innovative ingredients, and the robust late bloom aromasevery tea lover has his or her own favourite. While some may frown at blending tea with dried fruit, flowers, herbs, and spices, there are those who enjoy the calming effect of roses, marigolds, apples, and strawberries, in their cup. The world of tea is constantly on the boil, literally. Here are some of the flavours that promise to refill countless tea cups this season.

Bold flavours

As palates around the world shift to healthier alternatives, its tea such as rooibos with a distinct rum and honey flavour that is set to take centrestage. Free from alcohol, it is nonetheless enriched with a warm mix of cinnamon, apple, liquorice and star aniseperfect for balmy winter evenings.

Veggie revolution

The rising demand for plant-based foods and interest in all things vegan have opened opportunities for vegetables to inch their way into the morning cuppa. One can now find products as varied as tomato, potato, rosehip, apple, onion, basil, cinnamon, and passionflower taking a dip into the teapot.

Power tea

Everything today is about added nutrientsso why leave tea behind? Traditional tea brands are increasingly promoting a holistic lifestyle with added vitamin C and superfoods such as turmeric, aromatic lemon verbena, basil and ginger. People are looking for quick-fix solutions to wellbeing, and tea is one of the best options.

Cheese tea

An import from Taiwan, cheese tea is set to go mainstream this year. It is basically green or black tea sipped through a generous dollop of cream cheese blended with cream or condensed milk. This concoction, definitely not for the purists, can be either sweet or slightly salty. Apparently, Meyer lemon and mascarpone is a hit in American shores where it is finding quite a few takers.

Ready to Drink

Just like instant coffee flooded the market at one point, it is now the age of instant tea. Available in sachets, it has everything you need in a tea, except of course, hot water.

Dessert tea

Flavours such as red velvet cake, blueberry cheesecake, banana dulce are not just acquainted with desserts anymore. Believe it or faint, these are only a few of the dessert teas that are out there to bring your dinner experience to that perfect dreamy end.

Bubble tea

Traditionally, bubble tea is made only with black tea, but to capture the Indian palate it has taken green tea and even the traditional milk tea in its stride. From tapioca pearls to juice bubbles and juice jellies, this is one new form of tea that is here to stay.

By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Three were killed on the spot and 3 more were injured after the car they were in collided head on with a truck near Kodurupadu village of Bapulapadu mandal on Friday.

According to Veeravalli police, the victims were on their way to Vijayawada from Rajamahendravaram when the accident occurred in the wee hours of the day. The deceased were identified as Venkateswara Rao (27)--who was driving the four-wheeler, Sangameshwar (59) and Ram Babu (21).

The police said the driver, who was dizzy at the time, lost control over the car and hit a road divider first, later crashing into the heavy vehicle. The injured were rushed to Vijayawada General Government Hospital by villagers who witnessed the accident. The police, however, ruled out any possibility of the driver being drunk. It is for sure that the driver was not drunk at the time of the mishap. All three bodies have been sent for postmortem and their respective families have been informed. Meanwhile, a case under section 304A of IPC has been registered.

Newborns body found

Guntur: Body of a newborn was found in a garbage dump in Sangadigunta of Guntur. Lalpuram Circle Inspector T Murali Krishna said they were informed about the incident by the locals. It was suspected that the infant might have died shortly after taking birthBy Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police team probing attack on officers, including Nedumangadu Sub-Inspector Sunil Gopi, on the day of the hartal organised by BJP-backed Sabarimala Karma Samithi, has nabbed an RSS worker from Tamil Nadu for harbouring one of the prime accused in the case.

Manikandan, a 37-year-old RSS worker from Udiyanparavilai near Chemponvilai in Kalkulam taluk of Kanyakumari, was apprehended by a team led by Crime Branch DySP D Asokan. The police said Manikandan, an active RSS worker, was the brother-in-law of Mahesh, an RSS leader and one of the prime accused in the case involving attack on policemen.

Mahesh is a resident of Pandavapuram near Aanad and has been on the run since the incident. Manikandan has been accused of arranging safe hiding place for Mahesh as well as providing him with new SIM card.

Nedumangadu had witnessed large-scale violence on the hartal day. A couple of country-made bomb explosions were also reported from the area. The police officers were attacked by BJP-RSS workers when the former tried to prevent them from forcefully closing down the branch of a bank at Aanad. Angered by the police interference, they attacked policemen and vandalised police van.

When one of the persons involved in the attack were taken to Nedumangadu station, the RSS workers assembled and detonated country-made bombs outside the station.The man who had hurled the bombs was later identified as RSS pracharak Praveen, a native of Nooranadu in Alappuzha. The hunt for Praveen is still on.By PTI

KOCHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said the NDA government has taken "decisive steps" to bring down crude oil import by 10 percent and save precious foreign exchange for the country.

Towards this end, Modi said, 11 oil PSUs have adopted the modern 'lignocellulosic' route for establishing twelve 2G ethnol plants in 11 states of the country.

"To cut down on import of Crude oil, government has taken decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10 per cent and saving precious foreign exchange," Modi said after dedicating to the nation an integrated refinery expansion complex of the public sector Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at the Kochi Refinery here. Six MoUs have already been signed in this direction," he said.

ALSO READ | India should reduce or stop crude oil import from Iran: Moody's

To overcome environment pollution, he said the Centre was promoting the use of environment-friendly transport fuel--CNG-- by expanding the coverage of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in the country.

After the successful completion of 10th CGD bidding Round, more than 400 districts of the country would be connected for providing piped gas supply, Modi said.

Referring to the National Gas Grid or Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project, he said it has also been created to have a gas-based economy and enhance the share of gas in the energy basket.

"The government has thought of developing additional 15,000 kilometers of gas pipeline network," he said.

ALSO READ | PM Modi declares over 5 lakh villages open defecation free

Earlier, Modi laid the foundation stone for a petrochemical complex at the refinery and a skill development institute at Ettumanoor besides inaugurating a mounded storage vessel at the LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited here.

The Prime Minister, during his address after inaugurating the Kochi refinery expansion complex, dwelt at length on the petrochemical sector in the country.

"India, which is second largest oil refiner in Asia, is emerging as a refinery hub with refining more than its demand," he said adding the country's refinery capacity currently stood at more than 247 MMTPA.

He said the government had provided nearly six crore LPG connections to the poor people under the Ujjwala Yojana scheme since May, 2016 when it was launched.

He noted that over 23 crore LPG consumers had joined the PAHAL (the Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG) scheme that has helped in identifying ghost, multiple and inactive accounts.

Modi said PAHAL had entered into the Guinness book of World record, being the largest direct benefit transfer scheme.

Recalling his childhood and youth when he had seen many mothers struggling with the fire-wood stove in the kitchen, Modi said ever since, he had always thought of improving their situation and providing healthy kitchens to the mothers and sisters of India.

"The Ujjwala scheme of the Government of India is a way to realize this dream," he said.

Modi said the Indian refinery industry has done well in establishing itself as a major player globally.

By doubling the LPG production with the help of recent expansion, Kochi Refinery is making a great contribution towards Ujjwala, he said.

The Prime Minister said the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project was also a strategic move of Bharat Petroleum to diversify into non-fuel sector.

Observing that petro-chemicals are a grade of chemicals which we dont speak much about, the Prime Minister said "they exist invisibly and touch many aspects of our daily life.

" This includes building materials, plastics and paints,foot-wear,clothing and other fabrics or auto-motive parts, cosmetics and medicines, he said.

Noting that most of these chemicals are imported from other countries, the Prime Minister said, "it is our endeavour to see that these petro-chemicals are manufactured in India itself.

" "I am happy that using the capability of Kochi Refinery to produce propylene after the execution of IREP, BPCL has gone ahead with putting up three world-class plants to manufacture acrylic acid acrylates and oxo alcohol under Make In India.

These petro-chemicals will find use in paints, inks, coating, detergent,and in many other articles," he said.

Reaching out to the labourers who worked day and night during construction of the complex, he said, "I am told that at the peak of the project, over 20,000 labourers were working at the site.

In many ways, they are the Real Heroes of the Project.

" The integrated refinery dedicated by Modi is a modern expansion complex and is expected to transform the Kochi Refinery as the largest PSU refinery in the country with world class standards.

It is equipped with the technology to produce cleaner fuel, besides, being able to double the production of LPG and diesel.

Petrochemical complex at the BPCL Kochi refinery is a 'Make in India' initiative aimed at reducing dependence on imports.

The skill development institute at Ettumanoor in Kottayam district, backed by the Ministry of Petrochemical and Natural Gas, would provide vocational training and enhance employability and entrepreneurship for deserving youth both in oil & gas and other industries.

This world class institute was being set up at an eight acre campus allocated by the state government and would have a capacity to skill around 1,000 youths annually in 20 different skills.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The majestic display of Indias military might and the show of its soft power got additional sheen courtesy women soldiers and officers, who marched down Delhis Rajpath on Saturday to script history on 70th Republic Day.

Crowds cheered each time military, paramilitary and police contingents smartly went past the podium where President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Guest Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, along with the First Lady Tshepo Motsepe were seated.

President Ram Nath Kovind

and Prime Minister Narendra

Modi welcome South African

President Cyril Ramaphosa

during the 70th Republic

Day celebrations in New

Delhi on Saturday.

The celebrations highlighted

the past, present and future of

Indias journey as the young

and the old took part in the

annual spectacle | photos by

shekhar yadav

More than 20 tableaux of the states and central government and colourful cultural performances by children showcased the cultural diversity of India.

The South Africa president along with the First Lady was seen enjoying the march pasts and the acrobatics performed by aircraft.

For the first time, Indian National Army (INA) veterans Parmanand, Lalti Ram, Hira Singh and Bhagmal, all nonagenarians, participated in the annual parade.

This years Republic Day parade saw woman power at its best. An all-women Assam Rifles contingent in the lead and a woman officer being a part of the Armys Daredevil team performing bike stunts were the highlights. The Contingents of the Army Services Corps, a unit of the Corps of Signals and the Navy were led by women officers.

The indigenously developed self propelled artillery gun K-9 Vajra and the US made artillery gun system M777 Ultra-Light Howitzer made its debut on Rajpath. Made-in-India Akash Weapon System and Main Battle Tank T-90 were also part a of the arms display.

Police, paramilitary and Army personnel kept a hawk eye on Rajpath, where the countrys whos who descended to witness the annual event. Present on the occasion were most of the central ministers and opposition leaders.

Former prime ministers Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh also attended the parade. Multi-layer security kept guard as two suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives were arrested on Thursday. About 25,000 policemen were deployed on security duty.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Government suspended nearly 420 school teachers across the State late on Saturday, five days after teachers joined the indefinite strike by Joint Action Council of Tamil Nadu Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTTO-GEO), a highly placed source in the School Education Department said.

While only about 10 teachers were suspended in Chennai, several of their counterparts were suspended in the Cauvery Delta, where the protests were the most intensified. The suspension was inevitable. The teachers were arrested and came out on bail. We cannot allow them to work when they have an FIR that involves them, the official said. The suspension comes after the School Education Department on Friday evening gave teachers the option of avoiding disciplinary action against them by attending Republic Day celebrations.

READ: Government tightening screws on striking teachers: 12 JACTTO-GEO leaders placed under suspension in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai

Thiruvalar Selvi, Chief Educational Officer, Chennai, said teachers would be penalised under no work no pay policy but can avoid disciplinary action if they reported for work on Saturday and Monday.

However, the protests intensified across the State on Saturday, leading to more arrests.The suspension has been made based on the data given to us by police officers. Most teachers who were arrested in Chennai worked at Corporation schools. We have instructed the corporation to take required action, she said.

The protest will continue on Monday, said R Das, a state coordinator of the association, adding that it would take an emotional turn.SV Krishna Chaitanya By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Born in the remote Kothaneri village in Virudhanagar in Tamil Nadu, this son of a farmer and freedom fighter was instrumental in popularising plastic surgery and hand trauma care in India, giving millions of people, whose arms got severed in various accidents, hope.

Dr Ramaswami Venkataswami, who is one among the 94 Padma Shri awardees, is the founding father of Institute for Research and Rehabilitation of hand and Department of Plastic Surgery at Government Stanley Medical College and Hospital, which on an average performs 10,000 hand surgeries annually.

Incidentally, the department was inaugurated exactly 48 years ago on the same day  January 26  in 1971 with 20 beds. Recalling the initial days, 86-year-old Venkataswami, who resides in Purasawakkam in Chennai, told Express that due to paucity of space, two small corridors were blocked and converted into an operation theatre and sterile dressing room.

READ: Here is the complete list of Padma awardees 2019

I felt the need for introducing a hand trauma care centre as hundreds of people from North Chennai industrial and port complex come with hand injuries or ripped-off fingers and were badly mismanaged at the outpatient level. In the first year itself, over 3,000 cases of injuries to the hand were treated. In five years, this corridor theatre measuring 9ft by 21 ft, catered for 30,000 hand injuries, he said with a sense of pride. Venkataswami is also credited for launching the countrys first microsurgical centre in Stanley, starting the first certificate course in hand surgery and founding the Indian Society for Reconstructive Micro Surgery.

In two decades between 1971-91, Venkataswami was able to gift normal life to over 2 lakh patients, who otherwise might have lost their limbs. He says the most heartening moment is when he sees the full function of the arm restored. He vividly recollects a young trainee from a star hotel who in a hurry jammed his hand in the lift door.

The thumb was gone and there was nothing but the bones on that hand. All muscles, blood vessels, and nerves were gone. We immediately sutured up the skeleton of the thumb to the rest of the hand and a series of grafts from the toe, gave the young man full function of the hand. He was back at his job.

Expressing his elation, J Radhakrishnan, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, told Express that Venkataswami richly deserves the Padma award and he continues to remain a guiding force for development of the department.Manoj Sharma By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Commuters along Bannerghatta Road will soon be relieved as the ongoing road-widening project has picked up pace with state governments top official stepping in to assist Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). This was after the horticulture department agreed to surrender half acre land to the BBMP without an immediate demand for compensation.

The Chief Secretary of Karnataka, T M Vijay Bhaskar, has instructed the horticulture department to immediately hand over the land to BBMP. The road-widening work between Jedimara Junction and Koli Farm junction, that passes beneath NICE Road, running to a length of 7.4 km was started in early 2018. One of the major portions of land belonged to the horticulture department. BBMPs effort to acquire the land had gone futile as the department demanded land of equal value in some other part of the city.

According to BBMP, of the total 7.4 km-stretch where widening is taking place, the BBMP has land for about 3 km already. About 60 per cent of the land required for the remaining stretch has also been acquired.

N Manjunatha Prasad, BBMP Commissioner said, We must thank the Chief Secretary for helping us getting the required land for the infrastructure project. A procedure that would have taken years together was done within a few coordination committee meetings held by him. We can complete the proposed work at least six months early, he said. BBMP has currently taken possession of the land and will soon start the asphalt work. The BBMP is also contemplating to construct other civic utilities at the place, he said.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Nandesh J R, Executive Engineer, Road Widening said, The BBMP has already taken possession of the land and the work will begin soon. We have already widened the road on various packets of land along the stretch and we expect that the project will see 80 per cent of completion by March 2020. The long pending procedure to acquire the required land is over, and the work has picked up pace, he said.

The project will cost `150 crore that involves 298 private properties to be acquired, 117 vacant sites and 11 temples. The BBMP had earlier faced opposition by property owners and local residents along the stretch for axing more than 80 trees.New Castle, PA (16103)

Today

Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly late. A few storms may be severe. Low 64F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly late. A few storms may be severe. Low 64F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Republicans have proposed a bill offering tax credits to businesses that start family and medical leave accounts and another that helps pay employees student loans.

The proposals have been referred to the General Assemblys joint committee on Finance, Revenue and Bonding where they will likely get a public hearing, said ranking committee member and co-sponsor Rep. Chris Davis, R-Ellington.

For both Democrats and Republicans, family and medical leave is a serious issue, Davis said. We have different ideas on how we can achieve goals so people can have benefits when they need it.

Although the details are not complete, the bill would allow employees to voluntarily contribute to the program using pre-tax dollars and provide incentives to employers. There would be certain minimum standards to get the tax credit, said state Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford.

This would incentivize private businesses to offer family and medical leave benefits on a voluntary basis, said Candelora, who represents a part of Wallingford. We know there has been a lot of iterations that have been put out there. People have been asking for medical leave and government is not in a position to pay for it.

Republicans have criticized proposals for paid family medical leave by Democrats, saying they mandated employee participation and placed too costly a burden on employers.

Davis feels bipartisan negotiations on the issue will continue.

This encourages you to save for the unexpected moments or unexpected moment, Davis said.

Another bill from GOP lawmakers would issue tax-credits to employers who help pay down the costs of employees student loans.

We hear time and time again Connecticut is struggling with student loans, Davis said. Businesses can help pay down the massive debt by getting a tax credit for the amount they contribute. This can attract more young people to Connecticut and prevent them from leaving.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association backs both bills but recognizes details need to be ironed out.

We like incentives instead of mandating, said Eric Gjede, CBIAs vice president of government affairs.

CBIA has reported that prior family and medical leave proposals would require 120 new state employees, $13.6 million in start-up costs and $18.6 million in annual expenses.

The Connecticut Working Families Party has placed family and medical leave legislation among its top priorities in the first 100 days of the legislative session.

The party, which endorsed progressive Democrats in the 2018 election, wants universal coverage and job protection, progressive wage replacement and administration by the state Department of Labor. A party spokesman couldnt be reached for comment Friday.

Rep. Hilda Santiago, D-Meriden, is open to the proposals.

Right now the concept is good, but the fiscal analysis and research has to be done on those bills, said Santiago, who is a member of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.

The student debt proposal is a good idea if its going to help businesses bring in students, Santiago added, but the details need to be developed.

How are you going to retain these employees once you repay the debt? Santiago said. But the concept is a good one.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @CconnbizSOUTHINGTON  John Disantis pulled close. He was polite but serious. He gestured to a small table, simply set. The chair is empty.

Please take a look, he said. Its important.

The table is covered by a white table cloth, and set with a turned over glass, a plate with a lemon slice and some grains of salt, a fork, spoon, and knife. A red rose rests in a white vase with a red ribbon.

A black cloth adorned with the POW-MIA logo and motto is draped over the back of the chair: You are not forgotten.

Its the table reserved for those soldiers that never made it back. The lemon and the salt refer to the captive soldiers bitter fate. A turned over glass gestures to a meal never eaten. The red rose is a nod toward the hope that the missing may someday return.

Saturday evenings dinner at the Southington Elks Lodge honoring local veterans was festive, but thoughts of those who made the ultimate sacrifice are never far away.

For the eighth consecutive year the Southington Elks Lodge 1669 hosted the dinner. Plainville resident Denise Johnson started the event in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Twenty vets showed up to the initial dinner. Close to 80 were in attendance Saturday evening.

We want to show our military members how much we appreciate them, Johnson said. Without them, we wouldnt be able to do what we do.

Disantis, past commander of American Legion Post 72, served in the Air Force in Vietnam from 1961 to 1967.

This is a tribute that well never forget. (The fallen) are always with us in our hearts, in our souls, and in our prayers, he said.

Southington Town Councilor John N. Barry pointed out that everyone knows a veteran in some way.

Veterans really make the town of Southington a better place. They are a vital part of the fabric of what America is, Barry told the assembly.

The armed forces not only provide peace and security. They can also provide for some people a path to a better life. Mary Jane Dumais and Ellen Ciak are two of those people.

Dumais, a Plainville resident, served in the Womens Army Corps from 1960 to 1962. She didn't have a high school diploma and by the age of 18 decided the sort of work available to her was not going to make her happy.

I wanted to better myself, she said.

So, Dumais joined up. After basic training, she was assigned to serve as a key punch operator, which led to a long career in that field. She got her high school diploma and also met her husband. The service was certainly a boon to her life, Dumais said.

Southington resident Ciak joined the Army in 1966. There were only 10,000 women in the service at that time, she said. She was assigned to work as a stenographer for a colonel in the Womens Army Corps  a far cry from what she really wanted to do, which was serve as military police.

The rules of the time prohibited her from attaining that goal, but she hung around with the MPs, got a sense for what it took to do the job.

It was a positive experience, Ciak said.

And, when she got home, what did she do?

I ended up being a police officer, she said.

newsroom@record-journal.comMERIDEN  The citys Community Health Center is using part of a state grant to launch a six-month pilot program for a community health worker position.

Community Health Center, which has more than 200 locations statewide, will run the six-month pilot program at its Meriden location, 134 State St., through June, according to CHC project manager Adriana Rojas, who is leading the pilot program.

The $900,000 grant for all the centers was awarded through the state Office of Health Strategys State Innovation Model, a federally funded healthcare reform program. In 2014, the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation Initiative awarded Connecticut $45 million to implement its healthcare innovation plan, which, in part, has sought to address health disparities in underserved populations with evidence-based policies and strategies, including community health workers.

Community health workers are lay members of a local community who work as liaisons between clinicians and patients, particularly those in underserved communities. The health workers help patients overcome language barriers and other access issues, like finances and transportation.

The pilot program is being offered to patients with Type 2 diabetes. CHC in Meriden currently has one community health worker hired for the program and may add more in the future, Rojas said.

We recognize that the majority of patients lives happen outside of the clinical walls, Rojas said. ...When providers only have 20, 30 minutes with a patient, thats not an adequate amount of time to get to know every detail...what challenges they might be facing.

Rojas said community health workers help patients achieve goals. For example, a worker may help a Type 2 diabetes reach their goal of losing 20 pounds by connecting them with resources, such as the local YMCA.

Leonora Ortiz, the community health worker hired by CHC for the program in Meriden, said long-term treatment for an issue like diabetes can be especially difficult for those unfamiliar with the medical system.

I know how it feels to be somebody looking for help, Ortiz said. A lot of people dont trust anyone, they dont feel like they want to go to the clinic, they dont want to pay attention to their health. They dont have enough information. They dont know there are resources they can use. This will give me the opportunity to work with people face to face.

She will exclusively work with patients in Meriden, Rojas said.

A 2010 study performed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania indicated community health workers can help improve health outcomes, lower health care costs, and reduce hospitalizations.

The problem that many providers face, however, is that services provided by community health workers are not covered by insurance companies.

The problem is many community health worker positions are grant-funded, so when the grant money goes away the positions do also, Rojas said.

Currently there is no formal certification process for community health workers in Connecticut, meaning insurance companies wont cover the cost.

The state has looked at ways to establish a certification process. A 20-member Community Health Worker Advisory Committee submitted a report to the legislature last year that recommended two pathways to certification through the Department of Public Health, one with standardized education and training and one that takes into account previous work experience.

Victoria Veltri, executive director of the state Office of Health Strategy, said a certification process would create a sustainable source of funding for the positions, recognize the value of the work, and grow an adequate workforce.

Veltris office has used the $45 million from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to award several grants targeted at community health workers. Veltri hopes programs such as the one being launched in Meriden will demonstrate the value of community health workers and encourage providers to embrace integrating them.

We already know that the community health workers have a lot of value but this adds to that, Veltri said.

Information from the Connecticut Mirror was used in this report.

mzabierek@record-journal.com

203-317-2279

Twitter: @MatthewZabierekSouth Africa: Make use of final hours of registration

With the countdown on to the end of the Electoral Commissions (IEC) final voter registration drive in full swing, the Commission has called on all eligible voters to take advantage of the remaining hours to register and update their address details.

The Commission is currently carrying out the last day of voter registration weekend which allows citizens to register and update their address details so that they are able to participate in the upcoming national and provincial elections.

Voting stations across the country opened their doors at 8am and will continue to facilitate registration for voters until 5pm.

Following todays 5pm deadline, voters will only be able to register at their local IEC office during working hours  and only for a brief period until the elections are proclaimed.

Once proclaimed, the voters roll for the 2019 national and provincial elections is closed.

In its statement issued shortly after midday on Sunday, the Commission stated that almost all voting stations across the country were reported open and operational at 11am today.

In all but a handful of incidents which had affected registration operations yesterday morning were resolved and stations either opened during the course of the day or this morning.

In addition, in the few areas where community protests were still preventing voting stations from opening this morning, electoral staff supported by the South African Police Service (SAPS) personnel were liaising with community leaders to ensure stations would open as soon as possible.

The Commission thanked community leaders, various local government representatives, traditional leaders and other stakeholders for their support in ensuring voter registration activities could continue unimpeded on Sunday.

The IEC also expressed its appreciation to the security agencies including the SAPS and various metropolitan police departments for their assistance in ensuring the safety of voters and electoral staff over the weekend.

At a media briefing on Saturday, the Commission said some of the challenges experienced by registration officials included dealing with inclement weather conditions in a number of provinces which had affected access to voting stations especially due to flooding or impassable roads.

It said that voting stations located in tents were affected by strong winds and heavy rains in the eastern Free State, parts of Gauteng, the coastal regions of KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Limpopo.

Earlier in the week, the South African Weather Service urged those who will register to vote for the upcoming elections this weekend to practice caution as stormy weather can be expected in five of the countrys provinces.

The affected provinces were the north-eastern Free State, western KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, said the weather service.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Lansdale, PA (19446)

Today

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.When the world shut down just over a year ago, I had no idea what my photo team would work on in the future. I was just over two months into my new job as multimedia editor, and though the future was uncertain, we still had a job to do.Turkeys actions should not threaten Syrias territorial integrity  Kremlin

Turkeys actions should not threaten Syrias territorial integrity  Kremlin

Although the Turkish military have the right to be in Syria according to a 1998 treaty, their activity should not lead to emergence of any quasi-autonomous territorial entities and threaten Syrias territorial integrity, Russian president spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. Turkish troops have been operating in the north of the country since 2016, fighting ISIS and the US-backed Kurdish YPG, who they consider terrorists. Ankara is allowed to conduct near-border operations in Syria, according to the 1998 Adana agreement, against the PKK, a Kurdish organization deemed terrorist by Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he expects to establish a 20-mile-deep safe zone in Syria along the border in a few months as the US pulls its troops out of the conflict-torn country, AFP reports.Source : RT - Daily newsProgressive godfather Bernie Sanders is rumored to be ready to announce a run for the presidency in 2020. Hes the most popular senator in the US, but according to one columnist, hes also an agent of Putin. Yes, really.

Senator Bernie Sanders didnt run in 2016 to push his bold platform of economic and social justice on America. No, instead his campaign was orchestrated by the Kremlin to divide the left and help Donald Trump take the presidency. At least thats according to former New York Times columnist, and current Wired editor and Los Angeles Times writer, Virginia Heffernan.

Many of his 2016 supporters, she tweeted on Saturday, were Kremlin minions. For evidence, Heffernan relies on indictments against the Russian Internet Research Agency troll farm  claims that have never, and will never be proven in court.

Proving whether a social media account is a Russian bot or not is an inexact science, and some organizations have played fast and loose with the rules before. The Hamilton68 dashboard  a bot-hunting database frequently cited by Russiagate types  doesnt reveal its methodology, and PropOrNot  another outfit that sees Russian agents everywhere  has declared that anyone using the term establishment is a Kremlin stooge. Ben Nimmo, bot-hunter in chief at NATO-sponsored think tank the Atlantic Council, has also claimed that bad grammar is a dead giveaway of paid Russian trolls.

But wait, Heffernan has more connections to make. Sanders 2016 strategist Tad Devine once worked with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort in Ukraine, where Manafort was lobbying for pro-Russian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. Rather than business as usual in the Washington DC swamp, Heffernan sees more collusion.

Did Paul Manaforts onetime Ukraine colleague, Tad Devine, Bernies chief strategist, help him run to split the vote against Trump? she asked. And did Devine and Sanders work with their Kremlin helpersbotnets & trollfarmswittingly or unwittingly to defeat Hillary Clinton?

I mean, the Bernie bots and bros  even the ones who believed they were acting on principle  certainly gave Trump and the Kremlin a mighty assist, she continued.

Better not tell Heffernan that Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, Clinton strategist Mark Penn, and John McCains 2008 campaign manager Steve Schmidt also lobbied for Yanukovych in the late 2000s.

Better not tell her too that some Americans disagreed with Hillary Clintons brand of watery, focus-grouped centrism in 2016. That might be too much for a writer who once described Clinton as an epochal heroine who cannot be faulted, criticized, or analyzed for even one more second.

In reality, even with the Democratic National Convention secretly rooting for her, Clinton couldnt match Sanders popularity by the end of the 2016 primary campaign. Clinton trailed the socialist Senator in favorability by 14 points, days before she was declared presumptive nominee in June. Indeed, as the DNC got underway and prepared to make her candidacy official, Clintons public image was at its lowest point in two decades. These polls were conducted by Gallup, via telephone interviews with real American voters, not Russian bots.

Also on rt.com Party at war with itself: DNC facing insurgency from its progressive base

Threats to the establishment

But whats really going on here? Has the Democrat/media establishment really consumed so much Russiagate poison over the last two years that theyre seeing reds under the bed and hearing the Soviet anthem as they fall asleep? Or are they scared?

The Democratic Party has been pushed to the left in recent years, a change evident in the popularity of Sanders and the meteoric rise of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both self-described socialists and champions of universal healthcare, a raised minimum wage, and redistributive taxes on the wealthy. While these policies have rapidly become mainstream ones, some Democrats are resisting the change.

Heffernans Bernie is a Russian agent tweetstorm kicked off with a video interview with Clinton herself, who blasted Sanders supporters for not switching teams and declaring Im with her after she took the Democratic nomination in 2016. Displaying her trademark lack of self-awareness, Clinton accused them of sexism and misogyny.

And its kicking off again. Clinton called recently announced 2020 candidate and California Senator Kamala Harris one of my favorite Democrats, and accused Sanders and his supporters of doing the same thing by criticizing her. If you dont want to support Democrats, she said, then go somewhere else.

Harris announced her 2020 bid with a generic pledge to fight for the best of who we are. She has previously expressed support for Sanders universal healthcare bill and for a federally mandated $15 minimum wage, but is in most other respects a traditional, suit-and-tie Democrat.

Harris was instantly declared a frontrunner by the media, described by the New York Times as having history-making potential, and ranked six places above Sanders in CNNs opaque power rankings.

Progressive opposition to Harris has mostly focused on her support for foreign conflicts and her history as a career prosecutor accused of fighting tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions. However, her opponents have already been labeled by Russiagate types as doing Putins work.

Also on rt.com Hamstringing Bernie: Sanders accused of ignoring sexual harassment in campaign as 2020 looms

The same smears have been deployed against Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran whose 2020 campaign has focused on ending interventionist wars abroad. Critics pounded on Gabbard for meeting with Syrian leader Bashar Assad in 2017, and opposing American involvement in Syrias civil war. Despite calling Assad a brutal dictator, Gabbard has been branded an Assad sympathizer, and a darling of Putin, the alt-right, and the Republican party.

With mainstream journalists pushing what Glenn Greenwald called Alex-Jones-level conspiracy derangement, and gatekeeping who is and isnt a respectable Democrat, it looks like if Russian bots exist, they wont have to lift a finger to divide the Democratic party heading into the coming election battle.

Graham Dockery

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you.Signing a peace treaty, not giving or getting anything, is the reason Russia continues its dialogue with Japan, the Kremlin said amid lingering talks over the four Kuril Islands.

Our major objective not to give or get anything, but to sign a peace treaty [with Japan], Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Rossiya-1 on Sunday. Currently, Moscow and Tokyo are stuck in uneasy talks over the simmering territorial dispute.

Japan, a close US ally, is sticking to the sanctions imposed by Washington, which makes dialogue even more challenging, Peskov said. They support the sanctions regime and this is one of the issues and situations that hamper signing the peace treaty.

Other stumbling blocks include Japans attempts to involve its ally, the US, in the talks. Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the idea outrageous, raising the issue with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Moscow is keen to see a peace treaty signed. Later this month, he will hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to continue discussions on the proposed peace deal. Last year, Putin proposed a deal without any pre-conditions, but Abe later called the idea unacceptable.

Moscow and Tokyo ended World War II hostilities without a formal peace treaty. Known in Japan as Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai, the islands in the Sea of Okhotsk were handed over to the USSR under the 1945 Potsdam Declaration. Since then, Tokyo has tried to claim the four Russian Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.

Japan has actively discussed the prospect of regaining sovereignty over the southernmost part of the archipelago, which includes Shikotan Island and Habomai. In November of last year, Putin and Abe said they would work on a peace deal based on the 1956 declaration signed by Japan and the USSR.

The document envisages the prospects of a sovereignty handover, though the wording is vague. Still, the declaration says the move would be possible only after the two sides sign a peace treaty. Tokyo, however, maintains that the territorial dispute should be resolved first.

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media wont tell you.An anonymous buyer in Snyder County paid $3,000 for a KKK robe and hood, far exceeding the auctioneers expectations. But the sale made many locals unhappy, with some comparing it to buying bricks from Auschwitz.

We dont mean to offend anyone, auctioneer Dawn Miller said after bringing out the authentic white outfit from the mid-1920s during bidding at the Beaver Springs Auction Center on Saturday. Such robes were used by white supremacists to conceal their identity as they harassed black people and Jews.

The item already caused controversy before the auction, with several people, including a respected local pastor, complaining about it. So the crowd of more than 100 people became visibly excited.

Also on rt.com Parents outraged after children hit the stage in KKK costumes in Arizona

Dawn and her husband Frank Miller told local media that with all the outcry and media attention, they expected the garment to fetch at least $750. Their expectations were, however, exceeded by four times.

The robe was gone in just two minutes for $3,000, with Frank saying he was totally surprised by the final price. Two people from the audience, five telephone bidders and one person who submitted his offer in advance fought over the item.

A Pennsylvania collector, whose identity the auctioneers refused to disclose, came out as the winner in the end, but there werent many in Snyder Country who applauded his success.

A local man told WNEP-TV that its just something that should not be sold. The Ku Klux Klan hood and robe spread the message of hatred and I wouldnt want anybody to make any profit off of it, he said.

The buyer of the KKK garment has to be someone with more money than brains. Who would want it and for what reason? Its like having a brick from Auschwitz. I wouldnt want it, another Snyder County resident said.

But Dawn Miller, who has four decades of auctioneering experience, said she didnt call off the sale because the robe is a historical item.

She was backed by one of the unlucky bidders who said he came especially for the KKK outfit, but could only offer $2,900 for it.

READ MORE: Parents sickened after chocolate treat for children contains KKK surprise

Its rare to see around here, the man explained, asking for his name not to be mentioned. Its a part of history. You cant erase it, he said he would have likely given the robe to a museum hosting white supremacy artefacts if he had won.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!German military is plagued by various blunders these days, and there is one more  it emerged that only half of potential recruits are suitable for service, Bild revealed. Others are reportedly unfit or have no German passport.

Bad news about the imperfect state of the Bundeswehr are coming regularly, but this one seems to be even worse, according to Bild am Sonntag tabloid. Citing internal army papers, outlet writes that only half of the 760,000-strong pool of potential recruits is eligible to serve.

The rest of young candidates have no German citizenship, fail to meet minimum fitness standards or reject the idea of military service at all. Meanwhile, the army themselves refused to acknowledge the problem, telling Bild: We are on the right path.

The reality, however, looks murky as around 25,000 army jobs are up for grabs due to the lack of available personnel. In addition, every fifth civilian position in the Bundeswehr remains vacant.

IT professionals or doctors are most wanted in the Bundeswehr, but there is a shortage of other specialists such as combat swimmers. That said, shortage of personnel is so dire that the military are recruiting almost everyone who meets their minimum criteria.

Bild cited a strategy paper by Boston Consulting Group compiled for Defense Ministry, which said that only one in four applicants was hired in 2015. Two years later, every second applicant was deemed robust enough to serve.

The Bundeswehr has significantly reduced its manpower since the Cold War, especially after conscription was abolished in 2011. Since that time, the Defense Ministry has been struggling to fill the army as German citizens were reluctant to join the army of their own free will.

Also on rt.com German Army to be fully equipped for combat  in 13 years  Defense Chief

Shortage of available Germans prompted Berlins military strategists to look at foreigners. The Bundeswehr is now considering recruitment of EU nationals for certain posts as an option  and the unconventional idea seems workable for some German politicians.

An estimated 530,000 EU citizens currently live in Germany, and they could make up a sizeable recruitment pool for the German Army. However, the plan was met with little praise by other EU nations, particularly in Eastern Europe.

Bulgaria said it was concerned with the prospect of its educated youth being lured into joining the Bundeswehr, while Polands Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz also criticized Berlins plans by saying that any military service is traditionally closely related to nationality.

READ MORE: German army admits most of its newly acquired military hardware is faulty & unfit for service

That aside, Bundeswehr is also struggling with major problems regarding its weaponry. In November of 2018, the military admitted that out of nearly 100 pieces of equipment delivered to it that year, only 38 were fully operational.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!Canadas ambassador to China has been sacked after claiming that Huaweis CFO has a strong case against being extradited to the US, and suggesting that Ottawa will be better off releasing the Chinese national.

Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallums resignation as Canadas Ambassador to China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Saturday, without providing the reason behind the dismissal of the diplomat. Deputy head of diplomatic mission in Beijing will take over until a new ambassador is appointed.

Also on rt.com China insists detained Canadians without a doubt broke security laws

The dismissal of ambassador McCallum, who served Canadians honorably and with distinction, follows his statements, seemingly defending the Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou who was arrested on December 1 in Vancouver at the request of the United States over her alleged violations of Washingtons sanctions on Iran.

From Canadas point of view, if drops the extradition request, that would be great for Canada, McCallum told the StarMetro Vancouver on Friday, reiterating his position he expressed at the start of the week.

Also on rt.com US tells Canada to prepare for extradition of Huawei CFO

I think Ms. Meng has quite a strong case, the diplomat told the Chinese-language media on Tuesday. One, political involvement by comments from [US President] Donald Trump in her case. Two, theres an extraterritorial aspect to her case, and three, theres the issue of Iran sanctions which are involved in her case, and Canada does not sign on to these Iran sanctions.

Meng, who was granted bail last month but remains under house arrest with strict conditions, is due to start arguing her case next month in a legal battle that could drag for months. Earlier this week, the US informed Canada that it will start formal extradition proceedings. In the United States, the 46-year-old business executive faces accusations of defrauding multiple financial institutions in breach of US-imposed bans on dealing with Iran.

Also on rt.com Chinese tech companies pose mortal danger & cant be allowed to dominate  George Soros

Beijing has repeatedly called on Canadian authorities to release the Chinese national or face serious consequences. China believes that her arrest is part of US attempt to diminish the Chinese tech companies stake on the global market amid the ongoing trade war. In the meantime, in what some believe to be retaliation, Beijing arrested two Canadians  Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a prominent consultant on North Korean business issues  on accusations of harming national security.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!A wedding in the Peruvian city of Abancay has ended in tragedy after a wall of a hotel hosting some 100 guests collapsed, killing at least 15 people and injuring 29 others.

The celebrations at the Alhambra Hotel gathered more than a hundred guests, with around 50 people situated close to the wall when it went down.

Rescue crews are currently searching through the rubble in search of survivors, the local media reported.

There were periods of heavy rains in the area in recent days, with the authorities saying the collapse of the wall may have been caused by a landslide.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!But is dumping Trump a high-risk strategy or is it a no-brainer? As so much in presidential politics, history offers some tantalizing clues. Not every elected incumbent runs for a second term. Six have demurred  James Polk, James Buchanan and Rutherford B. Hayes as well as Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, the latter three having filled a partial term of their predecessor as well as getting elected to a single term of their own.In an upcoming paper from Review of Economics and Statistics, economists Nir Jaimovich of the University of Zurich and Henry Siu of the University of British Columbia found that 88 percent of job loss in routine occupations occurs within 12 months of a recession. In the 1990-1991, 2001 and 2008-2009 recessions, routine jobs accounted for "essentially all" of the jobs lost. They regained almost no ground during the subsequent recoveries.Dubai Stock Market Faces Potential Bullish Reversal

DFMGI

Potential inverse head & shoulders bullish reversal setup in the daily chart for the Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI). (Exposure can also be accessed via iShares MSCI UAE ETF (UAE), traded in the U.S. Although average volume is relatively low.)

Pattern occurs off December 2,429.12 low, which completed a 34% 14-month decline from the October 2017 swing high.

Bullish 14-day RSI divergence.

Breakout triggered on decisive move above 2,561.

Minimum target objective of approximately 2,716.80 as derived from the head & shoulders pattern (previously support zone from October 2018 & in area of 1.618 Fibonacci projection).

Other potential targets are highlighted on the below chart and derived from prior price and Fibonacci confluence levels.

Current pattern is invalid on a daily close below the right shoulder at 2,479.37.

iShares MSCI UAE ETF (UAE)

Potential head & shoulders bottom setting up.

Breakout occurs on decisive rally above the most recent swing high of $14.30.

Minimum target objective from the pattern of $15.16.

UAE ETF includes a mix of UAE stocks, not just Dubai exchange traded, but also Abu Dhabi & UK exchanges.

Pattern is invalid on a daily close below the right shoulder of $13.76.

Bruce Powers, CMT

Chief Technical Analyst

http://www.marketstoday.net/

 2018 Copyright Bruce Powers- All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



IMF Proposes a 10% Wealth Tax on NET WORTH

Theyre coming for your money.

The Everything Bubble has burst and the debt markets are in distress. Weve already seen yields rise above their long-term downtrend, suggesting that higher debt costs are now a reality.

Because any real structural solution to this (cutting social programs/ defaulting on debts) means political suicide, the political elite are desperate for capital to continue funding the bloated government budget.

Already Oxfam is proposing a 1% tax wealth tax to solve the crisis.

If you think thats bad, consider that the IMF has proposed a 10% wealth tax on total net worth.

And we are seeing Presidential hopefuls such as Elizabeth Warren calling for a 2% tax on wealth for those worth more than $50 million.

All of this is being sold as making things fair or battling inequality but the reality is that none of these organizations or people really care about that stuff. If they did care they would be proposing solutions that had a chance of possibly working (even a lifetime 100% wealth tax on anyone worth more than $1 million wouldnt cover the US deficit for more than a year or two).

What they care about is finding money to continue funding Big Government.

If you think this will stop at those with net worth in the eight figures, youre mistaken. Nebulous financial concepts such as fairness are ALWAYS moving goalposts in the hands of socialists.

Indeed, already legislation is in place to use savings deposits to prop up any systemically important financial institution during the next crisis.

Im not talking about savings deposits over $1 million Im talking about savings deposits PERIOD.

This is just the beginning. Weve uncovered a secret document outlining how the Fed plans to both seize and STEAL savings.

We detail this paper and outline three investment strategies you can implement right now to protect your capital from the Feds sinister plan in our Special Report The Great Global Wealth Grab.

We are making just 100 copies available for FREE the general public.

You can pick up a FREE copy at:

http://phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/GWG.html

Best Regards

Graham Summers

Phoenix Capital Research

http://www.phoenixcapitalmarketing.com

Graham also writes Private Wealth Advisory, a monthly investment advisory focusing on the most lucrative investment opportunities the financial markets have to offer. Graham understands the big picture from both a macro-economic and capital in/outflow perspective. He translates his understanding into finding trends and unde74rvalued investment opportunities months before the markets catch on: the Private Wealth Advisory portfolio has outperformed the S&P 500 three of the last five years, including a 7% return in 2008 vs. a 37% loss for the S&P 500.

Previously, Graham worked as a Senior Financial Analyst covering global markets for several investment firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. Hes lived and performed research in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States.

 2018 Copyright Graham Summers - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Graham Summers Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



TONY FOULDS Get's US Bomber Crash Memorial Fly Over on 22nd Feb (BBC)

2019 will mark the 75th anniversary of the crash of a US B17 Flying Fortress bomber in Endcliffe Park, Sheffield on the 22nd of February 1944 costing the lives of the 10 member crew of the "Mi Amigo". Pensioner Tony Foulds aged 82 regularly tends the memorial site after witnessing the plane crash as a child, and states that he owes his life to the airmen who avoided children in the park.

Tony after bumping into the BBC Presenter Dan Walker managed to arrange a multi-air craft fly over on the 22nd of February 2019 (weather permitting). This is the BBC news report when Dan Walker breaks the news to Tony Foulds live on BBC Breakfast News that he has got his fly by, with tears and smiles.

Whilst here's a vide of what the Memorial site in Endcliffe Park, Sheffield looks like:

If you enjoyed this video then subscribe to our youtube channel for new videos about Sheffield during 2019 and visit http://www.walayatfamily.com for even more.

By N Walayat

http://www.walayatfamily.com

Copyright  2005-2019 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



Ricky Wilmes (in red) is cooled with fans by his teammates as he pedals during a Pedal Past Poverty fundraiser in 2016 at the Mankato Family YMCA. A tax law change could've led to a decrease in donations for nonprofits like the YMCA, but local organizations reported minimal impact from it in 2018. File photoMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  The United Kingdom (UK) has warned its citizens about travelling to western and central Mindanao, as well as the Sulu archipelago, due to "terrorist activity and clashes between the military and insurgent groups."

In an advisory posted Sunday, UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) specifically advised British nationals to avoid travelling to Mindanao--excluding Camiguin, Dinagat and Siargao Islands--as well as the south of Cebu--including the municipalities of Dalaguete and Badian--because of a "threat of terrorism."

The FCO cited the bombing attacks in a Catholic church in Jolo, Sulu that killed at least 18 people and injured over 100 others. The incident happened days after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and amid the implementation of martial law in the region.

READ: Death toll in Jolo blasts lowered to 18

It urged its citizens to "remain vigilant at all times and report anything suspicious to the local authorities."

"Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in the Philippines, including in Manila. Terrorist groups continue to plan attacks and have the capacity and the intent to carry out attacks at any time and anywhere in the country, including in places visited by foreigners, like airports, shopping malls, public transport, including the metro system, and places of worship," it said.

The FCO also called on British nationals to follow the advice of loacl authorities as the Philippines gears up for the upcoming elections.

"Its not uncommon to see increases in election related violence in the run up to elections. You should keep up to date with local activity and avoid demonstrations or large gatherings of people," it said.Malibu, CA (90265)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High around 70F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low around 60F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.Fuccillo Automotive Group surprised the Harry Chapin Food Bank with a $100,000 donation Tuesday night to help fight hunger.

We made everyone happy last night, said Billy Fuccillo, CEO of the Fuccillo Automotive Group.

The donation was made because they knew the food bank was short of hitting its goal, he said.

I read a couple of articles pertaining to children. When I think about a child not being able to eat and so many kids homeless, it doesnt set so good with me. It was a proper time to make a donation, Fuccillo said. It makes me feel really good. Its a necessity. I think about children in a time of being helpless.

The $100,000 donation helped push the Harry Chapin Food Bank exceed its fundraising goal of $300,000 for the 11th annual WINK Feeds Families Hunger Walk. The walk was held at Miromar Outlets on Saturday, Jan. 19.

The donation will help the food bank provide nearly 28,000 individuals and families it serves from Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee Counties each week. For each $1 donated, the food bank can distribute $8 worth of food and grocery items.

Twenty-four million pounds of food, valued at $41.5 million, was provided during the fiscal year 2017-2018, to more than 150 partner agencies. Approximately 20 million meals were provided for people in need.

Fuccillo said he was told that the $100,000 donation would allow the food bank to buy $800,000 in food, which he described as tremendous.

That really made me feel good. I love to give back to the community that we do business in, especially the community that supports us like Cape Coral, he said of having the Kia dealership in Cape Coral for seven years. Its a win-win situation for the community and for us.

The donation also comes at a time when people are hurting due to the government being shut down, Fuccillo said.

I know the food bank is helping the people that are working for the government and are not getting paid, he said.For weeks now, Capt. Ghassan Ghani and his team of workers, cranes and long-bed trucks have stripped away what has been a fixture of this city since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion: the 12-foot concrete barriers lining Baghdads major roads and buildings as protection from suicide car bomb attacks.

Ghani, a member of Baghdad Operations Command, supervised one Tuesday evening as a crane lifted one of the slabs, known as T-walls, that had long hulked over a road in the Iraqi capitals downtown. As the T-wall swung away, a shock of green emerged  an unkempt swath of palm trees adorning the corner of a government building.

Its time to do this, said Ghani, so that the old Baghdad can finally be seen again.

Since late last year, about 12,000 T-walls have been carted away to a disused airport in central Baghdad, a temporary stop until theyre installed beyond the citys outskirts.

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Its another sign of a city shuffling off the vestiges of 15 blood-soaked years that made Baghdads name a byword for death, and that culminated last year in the destruction of the militant group Islamic States self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq.

Yet for many, the flush of that victory has given way to the realization that Baghdad, once a jewel among Arab capitals and now on the cusp of achieving mega-city status, is barely functional.

Teams of Iraqi soldiers have been removing the concrete barriers known as t-walls from around the city. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

The daily reality for more than 9 million Baghdadis is bumper-to-bumper traffic jams on roads unrepaired since before the U.S.-led invasion, and hours-long electricity cuts that turn broiling summers lethal. People are desperate for jobs, with almost a quarter of the working-age population unemployed or underutilized, according to the World Bank.

Those same problems afflict much of Iraq; last year, they spurred violent protests in the southern city of Basra.

The demonstrations felled hopes of a second term for then-Prime Minister Haider Abadi, the leader credited with saving the country from Islamic State but who couldnt deliver the economic and political reforms needed to jump-start the economy.

His successor, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, has so far done little better. Eight months after last years elections, the independent with few allies in parliament has yet to form a government or pass a federal budget.

Theres nothing the prime minister can do other than removing concrete barriers. Hes the prime minister of T-walls, political commentator Abdul Rahman Jebouri said.

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Its become so bad that even removing cement blocks is an accomplishment.

Still, its hard to dispute that the capital is safer.

There were no car bombings in 2018, said Lt. Gen. Jalil Rubaie, head of Baghdad Operations Command. Thats a remarkable contrast with previous years, when Islamic State and its precursors carried out hundreds of attacks, often multiple bombings on the same day.

The car bombs killed hundreds and forced the government to balkanize Baghdad with T-walls and dozens of checkpoints. The city became a labyrinth, its roads inexplicably cut off and its green-lined boulevards obscured by a T-wall crust of drab concrete.

Advertisement

 Times staff writer Nabih Bulos reports from the streets of Baghdad.

Other incidents, such as shootings, robberies and attacks with smaller roadside bombs and hand grenades were also down 40% compared with 2017, said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who collects U.S. government and Iraqi open-source data on violence in the country.

That, along with a 2015 lifting of a midnight curfew, has resulted in a resurgence of Baghdads legendary nightlife. Street cafes teem with young men sporting gravity-defying mohawks or gel-slicked pompadours. Musicians, theaters and comedy shows are popular, and Mansour Mall, Baghdads biggest, was packed in December with families posing in front of a Christmas tree installation.

Later in the evenings, dedicated drinkers materialize before rows of liquor stores, tombola joints and super nightclubs (essentially strip clubs) on Abu Nuwas Street.

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In addition to removing T-walls, authorities have loosened other security measures, mostly to improve conditions for drivers of the 1.8 million cars registered in Baghdad. (Hundreds of thousands more enter the city from all over the country every day.) Over the last year, 35 checkpoints have been removed, said Rubaie.

Last month, to mark the first anniversary of the governments victory against Islamic State, Abdul Mahdi ordered the partial opening of the 14th of July Bridge, a major thoroughfare linking Baghdads banks across the Tigris River that has been closed since the start of the war in 2003.

The move cuts the hourlong journey across the river to five minutes by allowing motorists to cross through the reviled Green Zone, a 4-square-mile area of lawns and wide, pristine boulevards that housed late leader Saddam Husseins palaces and, after the invasion, the headquarters of U.S. civilian and military authorities, international diplomats and aid offices. It also houses the parliament building, the seat of the new Iraqi government.

Feeding the seagulls hanging out near the Ahrar bridge is a popular afternoon activity in Baghdad. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

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Its usually closed to most Iraqis, save for their politicians, who insulate themselves from the privations the rest of the population endure every day. (Traffic lights here are unaffected by the intermittent electricity.)

But for many, access to the bridge is hardly a point in the governments favor.

Youre like someone whose jacket was taken. Youre cold. Years later, they give it back to you and expect you to say thank you? said Hussam Mahdawi, an unemployed 45-year-old man visiting Mutanabi Street, the heart of Baghdads book-selling district.

Mahdawis thoughts echoed those of Mohammad Ali Agha, an out-of-work anthropologist out with his wife and three children one Friday evening at the Zawra amusement park.

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Electricity, water, basic schooling. Its shameful we have to think of such basic things. A rich country like ours, we should be talking about human rights and higher education, said Agha, adding that his children were packed in classrooms with 60 other students.

And the politicians who put us in this mess never go away, he said. I want someone with different ideas, someone who would separate religion from the state and bring something new.

Zawra Park, which opened in 1971 and which includes a 200-acre zoo, is the story of Baghdad in miniature: a once beautiful area that has fallen in disrepair because of neglect, conflict and corruption.

The problem isnt even the buildings that were destroyed after the U.S. invasion. Its the people themselves who are now destroyed. Salem Aseel, 56-year-old Baghdadi

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A comedian exhorts passers-by to attend a show. Baghdad is known for its theaters. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

Other monuments, such as a gargantuan pair of crossed swords  held by hands modeled after those of Hussein  that loom above Grand Festivities Square or the 673-foot Baghdad TV tower, have also faded.

At least Hussein built something, said Salem Aseel, an unemployed 56-year-old.

No matter what these politicians do, it wont compensate for what they did these 15 years, said Aseel. He spoke of buildings raised around the time of the birth of the Iraqi Republic, after Iraqs monarchy was toppled in a 1958 military coup. It was a golden era.

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But, he added, the problem isnt even the buildings that were destroyed after the U.S. invasion. Its the people themselves who are now destroyed.

Before it can tackle grandiose projects, Iraq now faces the formidable challenge of rebuilding a country ravaged after more than four years of battling Islamic State. The government estimates that will cost more than $88 billion.

Yet the 2019 budget, which amounts to more than $110 billion in total spending, has 75% set aside for operational costs, experts and politicians say, with relatively meager allocations for reconstruction in areas clawed back from the extremists.

(Los Angeles Times)

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Electricity, a long-standing issue, will get 8% of the budget.

But the government will need to rehabilitate a grid that produces an average of 15,000 megawatts, although peak demand reaches 22,000 megawatts, said Electricity Minister Luay Khatteeb. Islamic States looting of power lines has reduced power generation by at least 4,500 megawatts, he said.

Job creation is also a major demand, but political blocs have chosen to fatten an already bloated public sector instead of growing the private sector.

And all this relies on oil prices holding steady as well as the U.S. granting a waiver for Iraq to ignore sanctions on Iran  both questionable scenarios.

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Much also depends on keeping Islamic State at bay. Knights, the Iraq expert, said that authorities had succeeded in making Baghdad safer than it has been in years, but thats also because [Islamic State] had put the majority of its power defending cities it controlled.

But with those areas no longer under its grip, the extremist group has returned to its guerrilla warfare roots.

Last month, Islamic State struck the northwestern city of Tall Afar with a car bomb that killed three people and wounded 13 others. Many believe its only a matter of time before it will hit Baghdad.

Its a choice by the enemy, and that can be reversed, said Knights.

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Ghani, who supervised the removal of the T-walls, said some Baghdad residents were nervous about them coming down.

Some people objected, and said they were afraid of attacks. Thats why we removed the ones in front of the Defense Ministry first, Ghani said.

We figured once people saw us doing it they couldnt say anything.

Knights said the Iraqi government plans to redeploy the T-walls on Baghdads perimeter, funneling traffic through certain roads and using air surveillance and better intelligence to facilitate movement.

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Islamic State still maintains a presence in various pockets on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border, taking advantage of lack of coordination among the various forces in the area to hide and regroup.

Agha, the unemployed anthropologist, however, proposed a solution for that too.

Why dont we do like Trump? he said, giving a rueful smile.

Lets just put all those concrete barriers on the border, and make a wall with Syria, he deadpanned. That should stop everything.

AdvertisementVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, while visiting military installations in the state of Carabobo on Sunday, urged government forces to remain united as a way to destroy what he called a current attempt at a coup detat.

Our armed forces are prepared and ready to defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity before attempts to harm our sacred fatherland, Maduro said in a tweet issued from the Ft. Paramacay army base in Naguanagua, Carabobo state.

Meanwhile, Maduros main opponent, Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly who last week declared himself the countrys interim president, also reached out to members of the military.

Soldiers, I give you an order: Dont shoot at the Venezuelan people. Do not repress peaceful demonstrations and dont massacre our youths, Guaido said after attending a Roman Catholic Mass at the Chacao church in eastern Caracas, the capital. In Miraflores [presidential palace] they believe torturing our people will stop the protests. We will not tire nor be intimidated.

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The appeals to the military by the two rivals were among the latest moves to determine whether authoritarian Maduro will hold on to power and continue to run the country, which suffers from myriad problems including extreme poverty, or whether Guaido and his supporters will succeed in removing the president.

Several countries, including the United States, have stated their support of Guaido. The U.S. on Saturday urged the U.N. Security Council to recognize Guaido as Maduros replacement.

After attending the Mass, dedicated to political prisoners and victims of government repression, Guaido called on the United Nations to investigate attacks on his supporters and human rights violations. Venezuelans are experiencing a grave crisis, he said.

Guaido declared himself president during a mass protest in the capital on Wednesday after describing Maduro as a dictator. The socialist leader won reelection to a second six-year term in voting last May and has rejected the idea of new elections.

Guaido supporters on Sunday printed copies of his proposed amnesty law and delivered it to police stations and armed forces bases in several cities. If passed, police and soldiers who work for the restitution of constitutionality would be exonerated from any alleged crimes, a move that analysts describe as a means of encouraging authorities to resist Maduro.

The impact of such a law is questionable since the National Assembly that Guaido heads has seen its power neutered by several Maduro moves, including a newly created constitutional assembly that critics at home and abroad have described as dictatorial. The supreme court declared all assembly laws to be null and void.

Today we have extended a hand to police and soldiers. The amnesty is to generate governability and an advance in [the process of] political change, Guaido told reporters. Neighbors and friends have approached police and military bases and have said to the functionaries, We know you receive orders but we are waiting for you to join the protests against Maduro, he said.

In the central Caracas neighborhood where the presidential palace is located, streets leading to the palace were barricaded and guarded by armed soldiers who in some places crouched behind sandbags and barbed-wire barriers.

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The Maduro government late Saturday relented on its demand that U.S. Embassy personnel leave the country by Sunday. In a statement, Maduros Foreign Ministry said there was a 30-day grace period during which the U.S. and Venezuela would negotiate a new, downgraded diplomatic relationship involving interest offices.

U.S. national security advisor John Bolton on Sunday posted a social media message threatening a significant response if Venezuelan authorities harmed or intimidated U.S. personnel.

Also on Sunday, Pope Francis, at an appearance at a Roman Catholic youth conference in Panama, called for a just and peaceful solution to the Venezuelan crisis. Francis has attempted to mediate a resolution between the two sides in the past but the efforts have failed to sustain a dialogue.

Roman Catholic bishops in Venezuela said in a statement this month prior to his inauguration Jan. 10 that Maduros new presidential term is morally unacceptable because his government has caused a human and social deterioration in people and in the wealth of the nation.

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We can only imagine the suffering the people will have to experience in a new term of the Maduro government if it does not implement the necessary corrections to make for an integral change in politics and political actors, said Msgr. Jose Luis Azuaje, president of the Venezuelan bishops conference.

Venezuelans are suffering from hyperinflation, food shortages, shrinking economic output and disappearing industry and jobs. At least 2 million citizens have fled the country in search of better lives since the socialist government took hold in 1999.

Guaido said another mass demonstration was planned to demand that the Maduro government allow the entry of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, which so far the president has blocked.

Mogollon is a special correspondent.The first new Roman Catholic church to be completed in Cuba since the countrys 1959 socialist revolution was inaugurated Saturday with the aid of a Florida congregation, in a ceremony that observers called a hopeful sign amid international tensions.

The Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the western town of Sandino is one of three Catholic churches authorized by Cuba as part of a warming between the Vatican and the islands communist government.

It is the first to be finished, thanks in large part to financial aid from the members of St. Lawrence Church in Tampa, Fla. Tensions between Cuba and the U.S. have risen in recent weeks as the Trump administration has threatened new sanctions on Cuba and its ally Venezuela.

This is a bridge between Tampa and Cuba, said the Rev. Ramon Hernandez, a Cuban-born priest who lives in Tampa and returned for the ceremony.

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The Cuban state and the Catholic Church clashed in the first decades after the revolution, when many priests worked against the new communist-ruled state and were expelled by the government, which also took over many churches.

President Fidel Castro began easing restrictions on religion in the 1990s. Popes John Paul II, Benedict and Francis have all visited the island since then.

A new church in Havana is also being used for worship but remains structurally incomplete. A third sanctuary in Santiago has yet to begin significant construction.

The opening of the new church in Sandino was particularly significant because the town is home to families relocated from Cubas Escambray region, where residents fought the communist government in the first years after the revolution.

This is a historic event for the church, said church member Juan Hidalberto Hernandez. Many families and their descendants left their saints behind and didnt have a church to pray in.

The Tampa congregation donated about $95,000 for the new building, which holds some 200 worshipers and was built on land granted by the state.Brazilian officials on Sunday resumed the search for hundreds of missing people after a massive dam collapse, with firefighter crews returning to mud-covered areas after a several-hour suspension over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach.

The Civil Defense office in Minais Gerais state raised the confirmed death toll to 58, with up to 300 people still missing after the avalanche of iron ore waste from a mine Friday.

Authorities earlier Sunday had stopped the search and evacuated several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the second B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon, civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.

Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable.

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Get out searching! a woman yelled at firefighters near a refuge set up in the center of Brumadinho. They could be out there in the bush.

Authorities had lowered the confirmed death toll to 37 from 40, giving no explanation, though that number was expected to increase as rescue and recovery teams got to the hardest-hit areas.

Even before the brief suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Fridays dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds missing had died.

There was also mounting anger at Vale and questions about an apparent lack of an alarm system on Friday.

Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens Sunday, but no such alert came Friday, when the first dam collapsed.

I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren, she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for.

Several others made similar complaints when interviewed by the Associated Press. An email to Vale asking for comment was not immediately answered.

Im angry. There is no way I can stay calm, said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if its bad.

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The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.

According to Vales website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is nontoxic. However, a United Nations report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $1.5 billion in Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how it would help the victims.

Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Atty. Gen. Raquel Dodge promised to investigate it, saying someone is definitely at fault. Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

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On Twitter, new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to prevent more tragedies like Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Seven Senate hopefuls favor the legalization of divorce, they said during CNN Philippines' second Senatorial Forum on Sunday.

Former Interior Secretaries Raffy Alunan and Mar Roxas, former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, former Reps. Neri Colmenares and Erin Tanada, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay and Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc all said they are in favor of divorce.

The senatorial candidates were asked the question during a portion of a program where they indicate their stand on an issue by raising a card printed with "Yes" or one with "No."

Yes or No: Should divorce be legal on grounds of abuse or irreconcilable differences? | #TheFilipinoVotes https://t.co/YuEX8968An pic.twitter.com/O4tmCIcDyi  CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) January 27, 2019

In the first CNN Philippines Senatorial Forum in December, Senator JV Ejercito, former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Sergio Osmena III, former Philippine National Police chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa and De La Salle University College of Law Dean Chel Diokno said they are in favor of legalizing divorce.

Meanwhile, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano and former presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino said they are not in favor of the measure.

While President Rodrigo Duterte himself is against legalizing divorce, the House of Representatives passed in March 2018 a bill which allows for absolute divorce  a judicial declaration which severs legal marriage bonds and allows former spouses to marry again.

It took nearly a year before a counterpart measure was filed in the Senate, with Senator Risa Hontiveros only filing Senate Bill No. 2134 or "Divorce Act of 2018" last January 17.

The bill still needs to be tackled at the committee level, before it gets debated on in plenary and passed on second and third reading. Should there be any disagreeing provisions in the versions passed by the House and the Senate, they would have to reconcile these in a bicameral conference committee before the final bill gets sent to Duterte for his signature.

Congress has only until February 8 to tackle bills before it goes on a three-month break in time for the elections. The legislature resumes work for three weeks before it closes to give way for the newly-elected Congress.

A survey conducted in early 2018 showed that half of adult Filipinos believe divorce for spouses who are irreconcilably separated should be legalized.

The Philippines and the Vatican are the only two states in the world with no divorce law.Maiden voyages are catnip for ship enthusiasts and cruise-line loyalists. Of the 2,093 passengers aboard the Nieuw Statendam on its December maiden voyage, only 178 had never sailed with Holland America.

The rest of us were repeat passengers whom the cruise line calls Mariners. The Nieuw Statendam can carry 2,666, but this voyage was underbooked in case of vessel-related teething problems, which turned out to be few.

Holland Americas demographic trends older and more traditional. Because my wife, Laurel, and I know the line well, especially the Konigsdam, Nieuw Statendams sister ship, we expected the familiar, but we discovered new features as well.

Besides the thrill of a maiden voyage, a bonus was the presence for three days of Orlando Ashford, Holland Americas 48-year-old president. When he joined the now 145-year-old line in 2014, he had never been on a ship.

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His presentation to passengers left no doubt that this was not our grandparents Holland America Line.

I avoid focusing on demographics, Ashford said, preferring psychographics, matching the brand personality with the personality of our guests.

He also identified what he called the lines swim lanes: catering to music and food lovers as well as modern explorers. For the better part of two weeks on the voyage from Civitavecchia, Romes port, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., we would see how well the Nieuw Statendam and its crew performed.

Music for all

In a lounge that doubled as B.B. Kings Blues Club, Lincoln Center Stage hosted an engaging string quintet performing multiple sets  ranging from Bach to Bernstein to Brubeck  most days. (Karl Zimmermann)

Our goal is to have the best live music at sea, Ashford said. The anchor is Music Walk, with live performance venues: B.B. Kings Blues Club, the Lincoln Center Stage (sharing the same space) and Billboard Onboard.

All were introduced on the Konigsdam and are being added to most of the 15-ship HAL fleet. The Rolling Stone Rock Room, a classic rock club, is new to the Nieuw Statendam.

We caught most of the Lincoln Center performances, its programs set and musicians selected by New York Citys Lincoln Center. We heard a quintet, made up of a string quartet called Atlys and a pianist, that played programs such as Masterworks by Brahms, Movie Classics and A Night at the Ballet.

We also liked Billboard Onboard, which featured a young married couple playing dueling pianos. Any song that charted was eligible, and themes included One Hit Wonders and British Invasion.

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Our crossing also featured the Netherlands-based Tiny Little Bigband: vocalist Franklin Brown backed by an excellent jazz trio. Also marvelous was vocalist and stride pianist Judy Carmichael, whose two shows in the World Stage we wouldnt have missed. And the Rock Room and Blues Club certainly had their enthusiastic followers.

Dining report

This area, with its retractable roof, was home to the Dive-In for hamburgers and hot dogs and also New York Deli and Pizza. A Holland America commercial looped on the screen that at night showed movies. (Karl Zimmermann)

Our group of nine chose the second sitting in the dining room (open seating was also available), and we tried four of the five specialty restaurants.

Maiden-voyage glitches were minimal, because 85% of the crew had come from HAL ships, half from the Konigsdam alone.

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The food was good to great, and the presentation was sophisticated: Soups were always poured from pitcher to bowl at table, and the logo china was gone in favor of unadorned pieces suitable for the meals selected.

The dining room has introduced upselling, with a $20 charge for a broiled whole Maine lobster and $75 for a 36-ounce, bone-in rib eye.

The specialty restaurants carry a surcharge of $15 to $35, with some discounts available for members of the Mariners loyalty club and others.

Our favorite was the Asian-fusion Tamarind, which shares space with a la carte Nami Sushi (the one specialty restaurant we did not try). Canaletto, with an Italian accent, is an evening venue carved out of the Lido Market, as the buffet is now called.

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Pinnacle Grill, featuring Pacific Northwest cuisine, seafood and steaks, is the longest-running Holland America specialty restaurant and better than ever. Rudis Sel de Mer, an intimate brasserie conceived by master chef Rudi Sodamin, is heavy on dramatic flourishes and, because it is fully a la carte, pricey.

Neptune and Pinnacle Suite passengers (or others paying a daily $50 per person fee) can choose the intimate Club Orange, new with this ship, featuring the regular dining room menu with a few additions such as surf and turf and Delmonico steak, and enjoy some other perks such as priority check-in and dedicated lines at guest services and shore excursions desk.

At Blend, passengers can create their own wine styles, and at Notes, sample fine whiskeys.

For breakfast and lunch, we patronized the Lido Market, well organized and a cut above average. For our morning cappuccino, we usually chose the Grand Dutch Cafe, a pretty Delft jewel box that nods to the lines heritage with its menu, decor and Dutch staff.

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Shore excursions

Madeira is spiderwebbed with centuries-old open canals called levadas, and many like this one, which our group followed to a spectacular lookout are bordered by pathways. (Karl Zimmermann)

The Crows Nest was our other coffee spot. Repurposed on New Statendam, its now a place for drinking, viewing or borrowing a book from the skimpy library.

Its also home to Explorations Central, dubbed Exc, the shore excursions department that is focusing on smaller-group on-shore experiences geared to special interests such as food, wine, art or history.

This is a good direction, because it distributes passengers through a port and mitigates their effect to a certain extent.

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We also prefer to explore on our own, and by docking downtown at all three ports, the Nieuw Statendam made this easy.

In Cartegena, Spain, we visited the Spanish Civil War Museum in an excavated shelter and Casa Romana de la Fortuna, depicting family life in the Roman period. In Malaga, Spain, we went to Picassos birthplace.

Best of all was a van we hired at the port of Funchal to take us into the mountains for a walk along one of the islands many levadas, small, open canals.

The spacious veranda of our portside cabin was a sunny retreat for reading, dozing, or just staring at the sea. (Karl Zimmermann)

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Among the other highlights of our journey: Calm seas and perfect weather for basking on our portside cabins spacious veranda; two performances by the Step One Dance Company, making spectacular use of background videos that washed across the 270-degree video screen; and the circular Promenade Deck, which made exercise inviting.

All were ingredients in a crossing that was always satisfying and mostly splendid.

If you go

Holland America, (855) 932-1711. HALs 15 ships call at 450 ports worldwide. The Nieuw Statendam will sail from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to the Caribbean through April 21, when it repositions to Amsterdam for Baltic and Norway cruises. In September, it cruises the Mediterranean from Civitavecchia and on Oct. 27 leaves that port for Fort Lauderdale on a crossing similar to the one we took.

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travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelFor more than a half-century, California officials have been required to provide public access to their records unless theres a good reason to do otherwise. But its the process that allows some records to be kept secret that one state legislator says is long overdue for a change.

A proposal soon to be introduced in the Legislature would create the job of public records ombudsman  a transparency referee, of sorts, to determine whether the government was justified to keep things secret.

We should err on the side of transparency, Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield) said. We just want to make sure theres a process for review.

With a ballot fight looming, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggests dealmaking to revamp Californias tax system 

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At issue is what happens when a government agency refuses a request filed under the California Public Records Act. The person who filed the request is generally left only with the option of filing a lawsuit, a time-consuming and expensive route that very few citizens can take.

Fong is one of the Legislatures most ardent critics of recent problems at the California Department of Motor Vehicles, beset with complaints about long customer lines and concerns about how it has handled the transition to creating drivers licenses compliant with the federal Real ID law. Since last spring, the DMV has also struggled with the implementation of Californias new voter registration law, admitting to errors that included wrong political party choices and mistakenly registering some legal residents who arent U.S. citizens.

Last fall, The Times filed requests for DMV records pertaining to the rollout of the states new motor voter program to better understand how those mistakes were made. Several weeks later, officials responded that some of the documents  specifically, memos by Jean Shiomoto, the former DMV director  would not be released because they reflect the internal deliberations of the department.

So who made the final DMV decision? It was Shiomoto herself, unilaterally shielding her own correspondence from the public.

We dont have a process where an independent review can take place, Fong said last week of such refusals to release documents. How do you hold a state government accountable if you dont know whats happening?

Fongs proposal will be a work in progress and would ultimately need significant buy-in from a variety of stakeholders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, legislative Democrats and open-government advocates. His idea is to create the ombudsman position within the California Bureau of State Audits, and to at least give that person as much power as inspectors general in other government agencies have.

The proposal will have to address some key questions. The 1968 state law that set rules for public access to government documents covers local officials, too. (It does not, though, extend to the California Legislature.) Should denials there also be subject to review? Nor is it clear whether Fongs proposal will have an enforcement mechanism in the event the review process concludes the state agency was wrong. Who, if anyone other than a judge, could compel officials to hand over documents?

Workload could be a factor, too. Last month, the California Department of Justice provided to The Times a sampling of how many record requests it received in 2018. In January of last year, there were more than 200 requests with scores more in the months that followed. Most were for records the department said it didnt have. But for each denied records request, under Fongs plan, a citizen could ask a second opinion.

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Still, the intent of the legislative effort is clear. Millions of lives and billions of taxpayer dollars depend on decisions made by California government agencies. If those same officials get to decide whats revealed and whats not, perhaps an independent set of eyes should take a second look.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics PodcastAt first glance, President Trumps decision to recognize an upstart opposition leader as president of Venezuela looks like an abrupt and risky break from diplomatic norms  vintage Trump, in other words.

But it may be the most traditional foreign policy move this president has ever made.

Not merely because Trump is seeking regime change in a Latin American country; the United States has done that for more than a century.

And not because the intervention was aimed at a leftist government allied with Cuba, long a target of hawkish Republicans.

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The surprisingly normal thing was how downright multilateral the Trump administration was acting  as if the president hadnt spent two years denouncing alliances as obstacles to his doctrine of America First.

Before the United States declared Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro illegitimate, State Department diplomats carefully marshaled support from other governments in Latin America and beyond.

They allowed the 14-nation Lima Group, which doesnt include the United States, to take the lead in building the case against Maduros regime.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo went to the Organization of American States, the Western Hemispheres hoary multilateral talk-shop, to ask for a resolution of support. He didnt get a majority, but at least he tried.

Pompeo asked the United Nations Security Council for support, too. A White House official even praised the European Union for helping. That would be the same EU Trump has repeatedly denounced as a plot against the U.S. economy.

This could actually be a case where the administration has gotten something right, said John D. Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama who has been an acerbic critic of Trumps diplomacy. It hurts to say that, but its true.

The main reason our instinctively unilateral president has suddenly resorted to traditional diplomacy is simple: Few other options are available.

From his first days in office, Trump and his aides identified Venezuelas leftist regime as a threat to U.S. interests. Maduro is allied closely with Cuba, Russia and China. His government controls the worlds largest proven oil reserves, larger even than Saudi Arabias.

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Yet economic mismanagement, corruption and skyrocketing crime under Maduro have brought the country to its knees. Millions of Venezuelans have fled to neighboring countries, creating a genuine refugee crisis.

When Trump got his first White House briefings on Venezuela, he asked whether U.S. military intervention would solve the problem. Worried aides told him an invasion would be disastrous.

DOD [the Defense Department] said they were fighting enough wars already, one told me.

U.S. officials then held a series of clandestine meetings with dissident Venezuelan military officers. But it wasnt clear if they were capable of launching a coup detat  and, in any case, the officers were soon arrested.

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That left diplomacy and economic pressure.

State Department officials encouraged the Lima Group to organize multilateral pressure against the Maduro regime. It was important that other countries took the lead to avoid making the effort look like U.S. imperialism.

The Colombians and the Canadians were the ones who drove the process, Feeley, who now works for Univision, the Spanish-language television network, told me.

A turning point came Jan. 4, when 13 of the 14 Lima Group countries jointly declared Maduro illegitimate. That opened the way for the head of Venezuelas legislature, Juan Guaido, to declare himself interim president.

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Now the U.S. Treasury Department is preparing an innovative new economic sanction: an effort to divert the cash Venezuela earns from oil exports away from Maduro to Guaidos alternative government. The goal is to divide the regime, including its military, and bring about its collapse.

Theres no guarantee the plan will work. The oil revenue scheme could be blocked by lawsuits. Maduros forces could turn U.S. diplomats in Caracas into hostages. The regime could prove more resilient than expected.

But the nimble diplomacy of the United States and its allies has created a better chance of ousting Maduro without violence than before.

And it won the Trump administration praise from unexpected quarters; Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, both endorsed the move.

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It may even have a chance of teaching Trump a larger lesson: When the United States cant get its way through unilateral action, old-fashioned alliances and multilateral organizations still come in handy.

That principle helped much of the world stay peaceful since the end of World War II. It should come in especially handy in an era when U.S. military and economic power is less dominant than before.

Or maybe not. On Thursday, Trumps national security advisor, John R. Bolton, was asked by a reporter why the United States was intervening in Venezuela and not against other authoritarian regimes.

Bolton gave a brief nod to multilateralism, citing support for the U.S. position from Latin America and Europe. Then he offered another rationale perhaps the oldest unilateralist principle in U.S. foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine of 1823.

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The fact is Venezuela is in our hemisphere, Bolton said. I think we have a special responsibility here.When Kamala Harris formally kicks off her presidential campaign at a rally Sunday, she plans to portray herself as a unifying antidote to the current toxic political climate, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks.

The first-term Democratic U.S. senator from California will give her speech in Oakland, her hometown, as she caps off her first full week as a 2020 contender. Central to her pitch to voters is a pledge to heal a deeply polarized country, a division she blames on President Trump.

People in power are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other. But that is not our story. That is not who we are, the excerpts read.

That doesnt preclude her from taking jabs at Trump, as she asserts that American democracy is under attack and on the line like never before.

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We are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question, she is expected to say. Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So, lets answer that question. America, we are better than this.

The speech will also hit on her key policy planks, including her support for a Medicare-for-all program and a tax credit for the working poor and middle class. Harris platform reflects the Democratic bases leftward shift in recent years.

Her appeals to the people are a refrain throughout the remarks. Harris campaign slogan is For the People  a play on how she introduced herself in the courtroom when she worked as county prosecutor. The rally is being held blocks away from the Alameda County courthouse where Harris once worked.

My whole life, Ive had only one client: The People, she will say.Kamala Harris formally launched her Democratic bid for president Sunday with a blunt-force assault on President Trump and a promise to unify a country deeply riven along social, cultural and political lines.

Speaking from the steps of Oaklands flag-bedecked City Hall plaza, to a crowd that spilled over several downtown blocks, Harris depicted her candidacy as a fight against those trying to sow hate and division.

We are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question, Harris said. Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So lets answer that question, America. We are better than this.

Though Harris never mentioned Trump by name, it was abundantly clear she was painting a damning portrayal of the president and his actions.

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When we have leaders who bully and attack a free press and undermine our democratic institutions, thats not our America, said Harris, stabbing a finger in the air for emphasis. When white supremacists march and murder in Charlottesville, or murder innocent worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue, thats not our America.

In one of her harshest attacks, she pointed to Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and an ongoing probe into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and its leaders. We have foreign powers infecting the White House like malware, she said to a roar from the partisan crowd.

It was just one in a litany of accusations delivered over 35 minutes, like a lawyer laying out her prosecutorial brief.

Harris condemned an economy that, she asserted, was stacked against working people. She assailed a criminal justice system that, she suggested, locks away too many poor, black and brown people. She promised to expand access to healthcare  a fundamental right  and make college more affordable.

The speech on a bright, sunny afternoon in Harris liberal-leaning hometown came nearly a week after Californias junior senator acknowledged what had long been evident, jumping into a crowded field by declaring her presidential candidacy in a symbolic move on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Barely two years into her freshman Senate term, the 54-year-old lawmaker is bidding to make history as the nations first black female president.

Harris delivered her remarks just a few blocks from the Alameda County courthouse where she began her career as a deputy district attorney. On hand were at least a dozen state and local lawmakers, including Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who helped introduce Harris and delivered a fervent endorsement.

Harris embraced her hometown roots, declaring at the start of her speech she was proud to be a daughter of Oakland, California. She attributed her drive for public service to her upbringing, particularly her Jamaican father and Indian mother, both immigrants, who met as graduate students at UC Berkeley and were active in the civil rights movement.

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My mother used to say, Dont sit around and complain about things. Do something. Basically I think she was saying, youve got to get up, stand up and dont give up the fight, Harris said, quoting reggae icon Bob Marley. She also made reference to Frederick Douglass and Robert F. Kennedy.

The tightly choreographed event drew a sprawling crowd that police estimated at more than 20,000 people. The scale fed into the perception that Harris was a top-tier candidate out of the gate.

But the senator warned of a rocky road ahead full of naysaying doubters.

Theyll say its not your time. Theyll say wait your turn. Theyll say the odds are long. Theyll say it cant be done, she said. But Americas story has always been written by people who can see what can be, unburdened by what has been.

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Among the onlookers were more than a few shoppers curious to hear Harris before committing.

Leslie Brueckner, an attorney in Oakland, said she was driven by her violent hatred of Donald Trump and my passionate desire to see a progressive candidate who can sweep him and the GOP out of office.

However, though very excited by Harris bid, Brueckner said she needed to delve more into her record as a prosecutor. I want someone who puts their money where their mouth is, Brueckner said. I think weve had enough of moderate Democrats.

Indeed, while Harris legal background will be central to her campaign  the leitmotif is the words for the people, taken from her courtroom salutation  her career in law enforcement has been met with skepticism from some on the Democratic left. Critics accuse her of being too timid in reforming the criminal justice system and remedying its harsh application to people of color.

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That puts Harris in the delicate position of trumpeting her legal work while also acknowledging the deep suspicion that some in the Democratic base have of law enforcement.

I knew our criminal justice system was deeply flawed, but I also knew the profound impact law enforcement has on peoples lives, and its responsibility to give them safety and dignity, Harris said of her decision to become a prosecutor.

The remarks also signaled a central theme of Harris pitch: that she will be an honest broker, vowing to seek truth, speak truth and fight for the truth. Her speech included some blunt talk on the uglier realities of American society.

Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia are real in this country, Harris said. And they are age-old forms of hate with new fuel. We need to speak that truth so we can deal with it.

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The fact that Harris, a woman of color, could face some of those prejudices remains on the minds of the senators supporters and other Democrats looking to back the most viable candidate.

Zach Garelik, a 21-year-old tech worker from San Francisco, said he was impressed by Harris ambition. But he said shell have to appeal to the rest of the country and worries her home state may work against her.

Theres an implicit bias in the rest of the nation against California politicians, Garelik said.To the editor: Those like historian Joseph J. Ellis who call for ending the electoral college or suggest end runs around it overlook the highly negative consequences of their position.

If we had direct election of the president, candidates would only have to win in enough of the largest metropolitan areas to win a majority of nationwide votes. This pattern would strengthen as urbanization continues.

Ellis is correct that no other nation in the world has adopted an electoral college. Well, no other nation shares our combination of traits. We consist of a very large geographic area with great variety of natural resources and local economies; a very large, non-homogeneous population; and a system in which governing powers are distributed between the federal government and 50 states.

The electoral college forces presidential candidates to appeal to a broad swath of the country. Without it, the urban-rural divide would grow even larger.

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Patricia Hart, Aliso Viejo

..

To the editor: I agree with Ellis that we need to get around the electoral college. The concept of one person, one vote is shattered by the way we elect presidents.

States can cooperate to fix the problem. They have complete power over how their electors are allocated. Currently, most states assign electors to the candidate winning the most votes in that state, effectively disenfranchising those who voted for someone else.

By joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a state agrees to allocate its electors to the candidate getting the most votes nationwide. Once enough states have joined to cross the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win an election, the compact will have achieved its goal.

Currently, 12 states possessing 172 electoral votes have joined. When the compact reaches its goal, every vote in every state and the District of Columbia will count equally.

Carole Bradley, Altadena

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To the editor: President Trump won the cumulative popular vote of 49 states by 1.4 million votes over Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, Clinton carried California by more than 4.2 million votes, resulting in a nationwide margin of 2.8 million in her favor.

Without the electoral college, the largest state would have decided the 2016 election. Small states fear of such dominating influence of the large states led to the constitutional creation of the Senate and the electoral college.

Without those two bodies, some states would indeed have the power of certain California counties that have as many or more people than they do.

Darrill Andries, Lake Elsinore

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookOn Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted review of a case involving the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The case challenges a New York City law that prohibits transporting handguns, even licensed and unloaded ones, to places outside of the city, including to a second home or a shooting range.

For the last decade, the high court has been missing in action on the 2nd Amendment. In 2008, the court found, for the first time, that the 2nd Amendment recognizes an individual right to bear arms (District of Columbia vs. Heller). Two years later it ruled in McDonald vs. City of Chicago that the 2nd Amendment applied to city and state laws, not just federal ones.

Ever since, there has been deafening silence. Until this week, the Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to hear another gun control case, and liberal state and local governments have taken advantage of this judicial neglect to methodically chip away at gun rights.

That is not how the court normally operates. Once it clarifies a constitutional right, the court usually hears a stream of cases to guide lower court implementation. After Brown vs. Board of Education struck down racial segregation in public schools, for example, it took three decades for the court to finish applying the decision to other institutions and to articulate principles to guide remedial plans. The lower courts and resistant states took years to get the message.

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The courts should not be allowed to delete parts of the Constitution they dont like through creative judicial editing.

The courts reluctance to protect the 2nd Amendment beyond its first, halting steps, may stem from its own tentative reasoning. The constitutional text declares: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Liberals have long argued that this language only protects the right of a state to create a militia, not an individual right to own and use firearms. In Heller, however, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, concluded that the 2nd Amendment recognized an individual natural right of self-defense that preexisted the Constitution.

Heller sparked claims that conservative judicial activists had invented a right to bear arms that went beyond the Constitutions text. So the court must now ground the right more securely in the constitutional firmament. The Roberts court  expected to be more conservative with the replacement of the unpredictable Anthony M. Kennedy with Brett M. Kavanaugh  can achieve this by further rooting the 2nd Amendments text in the broader framework of natural rights.

The founding generation believed in natural law and natural rights, and the Constitution is steeped in that belief. As the Declaration of Independence declared, all men, as rational beings created by God, possessed certain inalienable rights. One of these rights, many of the great political philosophers of the day noted, was the right to self-defense. The 2nd Amendment incorporates an understanding of the breadth and scope of that natural right.

With its overdue decision to hear another 2nd Amendment case, the court can finally elevate the right to keep and bear arms to the same level as the others in the Bill of Rights. Often, the Supreme Court provides in its rulings a test lower courts can apply to determine whether a constitutional right has been infringed.

Up to now, the court has failed to articulate any test to protect gun rights, allowing lower courts to do as they please. So they have upheld 10-day waiting periods before a firearm purchase, bans on semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity magazines, and prohibitions on carrying a firearm, either openly, concealed, or both. Hence, courts have allowed governments to trample gun rights with only superficial justification, in ways inconceivable if the right at issue was speech or privacy. And for the last decade, the Supreme Court has only looked the other way.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute 

To ensure the equal treatment of constitutional rights, the court should establish a test fully rooted in the original understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This would require examining firearms regulations around the time of the enactment of the 2nd Amendment. This would also require adopting a natural rights framework that presumptively allows the exercise of the right to bear arms until it infringes on anothers equal rights, or causes physical harm to a person or property. The Constitution, for example, would not allow the 2nd Amendment to justify shooting a person or damaging property except in self-defense.

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Resolving the conflict between reasonable regulations and the constitutional right to bear arms, when brought forward in cases with real facts, will allow the Roberts Court to finally construct a framework for the protection of the 2nd Amendment, and compel the lower courts and state governments to follow it.

Far too often for too long, the 2nd Amendment has been a second-class right, banished to the back of the constitutional bus. If the American people want to ban guns to curb criminal violence, they can. But they must first amend the Constitution. The courts should not be allowed to delete parts of the Constitution they dont like through creative judicial editing. That is what led to one of the Supreme Courts greatest sins: allowing racial segregation for so long.

Until the people decide otherwise, the courts constitutional duty is to keep enforcing the right to keep and bear arms just as it would any other constitutional right. The Constitution does not elevate some rights over others, and neither should the court.

James Phillips is a nonresident fellow with Stanford Law Schools Constitutional Law Center and an attorney in private practice. John Yoo is a law professor at UC Berkeley, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.With a business partner and his family missing, Charles Chase Merritt sat down to talk to San Diego County sheriffs detectives on Feb. 17, 2010.

It had been 13 days since anyone had heard from Joseph McStay, 40; his wife, Summer McStay, 43; and their two young boys, Gianni, 4, and Joey Jr., 3.

Joseph McStay sold indoor water fountains, and often hired Merritt to build them.

I dont know of anybody that has anything to gain by Joseph being gone, Merritt told investigators, according to an audiotape of the interview. Everybody I know has everything to lose. This business centers solely around Joseph.

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He told investigators McStay was his best friend.

Merritt was the last person known to have seen McStay on Feb. 4, 2010. He was also among the first to raise the alarm that the couple and their sons were missing.

Years later, after their bodies were found in shallow graves in the San Bernardino County desert, Merritt would be charged in their deaths. Investigators believe the family had been bludgeoned with a three-pound sledgehammer found in one of the graves. Merritt has pleaded not guilty.

Last week, jurors in San Bernardino Superior Court listened to audio of the interview between Merritt and sheriffs detectives. Prosecutors played it during the third week of the trial for the 61-year-old Riverside County man.

The McStay family disappeared in February 2010, less than three months after they had moved to Fallbrook in northern San Diego County. Days later, their car was found abandoned in a San Ysidro parking lot.

After years of investigation, authorities came to suspect they had intentionally gone to Mexico.

Then in November 2013, the remains of the couple and their sons were found buried near Victorville.

Merritt  who had long ties to the Victor Valley  was arrested a year later. Prosecutors say he siphoned money from McStays business accounts around the time the family vanished.

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The San Diego Union-Tribune has monitored the trial by watching livestream coverage from Law & Crime, a website specializing in live trial coverage. Last week, jurors heard Merritts audiotaped interview with the San Diego County sheriffs detectives initially assigned to the case.

Near the start of the questioning, Merritt acknowledged that he had an outstanding arrest warrant, but said he agreed to talk to the investigators because the warrant is a lot less important than Joseph and his family.

Joseph was one of my best friends  not just a business associate, Merritt told the detectives.

Prosecutors have seized on Merritts use of the past tense  was one of my best friends  when he talked to detectives about McStay. The family had been missing less than two weeks. It would be years before they would be found dead.

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Merritt also spoke of his close relationship with McStay.

Up until the fourth [of February 2010], I cant remember a day that I havent talked to him, Merritt told investigators on Feb. 17, 2010. Almost every day, 10 to 15 times [a day]. Been going on for at least two years.

Merritt said his work was responsible for about 75% of McStays income, and that they were working so damn close together.

But, Merritt said, with McStay missing, his own prospects would suffer.

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During the first portion of the conversation, he also told investigators that McStay had been unhappy with another business associate, a man who handled the website for McStays business, Earth Inspired Products, and was trying to buy him out. Merritts attorneys have pointed the finger at that associate.

Other testimony that jurors heard last week addressed the discovery of the familys remains.

The panel heard from the man who was riding a dirt bike in the desert west of Interstate 15 near Stoddard Wells Road when he came across part of a childs skull and called 911.

The partial skull belonged to Joey Jr., who authorities said had been buried with his father. Summer McStay and son Gianni were together in a grave about 20 feet away.

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Forensic anthropologist Alexis Gray testified about the familys remains. According to her, Summer McStays jaw had been broken in two places by a single blow that came around the time of her death.

Figueroa is a staff writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.comHow do you raise the flag on the mast of a ship that has no mast?

It wasnt the biggest problem the Michael Monsoor had faced in years of planning, construction and setbacks. But the ultra-powerful destroyer required a flag-raising for its commissioning Saturday at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado.

So the Navy constructed a temporary mast atop the ship. Dignitaries spoke before an estimated 5,000 people, the American flag was raised, and its crew called on board.

And thats how the Monsoor officially entered service as the second of three high-tech  and expensive  Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers.

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The Monsoors unconventional blocky, low-profile outline  which made the mast improvisation necessary  has inspired jokes comparing it to a Transformer.

Civil War buffs might notice that the Monsoors silhouette hugging the water strongly resembles that of the ship Virginia, the terrifying Confederate ironclad that in 1862 opposed the Unions Monitor in the Battle of Hampton Roads.

Like the ironclads, the Monsoor represents a new kind of vessel, which has endured snafus common with development of new technology. The $4.6-billion ship has also endured delays, including the replacement of its engine.

But while the ironclads were slow, clumsy and barely seaworthy, the Zumwalt class destroyers are sleek, speedy and designed to hit targets many miles away.

The class is named after Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., chief of naval operations from 1970 to 1974. The first ship was named after Zumwalt himself. The third and last is named for President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The naming of this particular ship for the late Navy SEAL Monsoor was apt, said speakers led by Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego). Zumwalt was dedicated to the entire Navy, making a point of eradicating any racial or sectarian differences among sailors. Monsoor made the ultimate sacrifice to save his fellows in SEAL Team 3.

When an enemy grenade was thrown into their position in the battle for Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006, Monsoor leaped onto it, taking the blast to save the others.

In so doing, Monsoor lived his faith, Peters said. He was a devoted Catholic who attended Mass daily, even in the theater [of war].

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Monsoor, Peters noted, was named after St. Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of warriors. That history is symbolized in the ships crest, which bears a winged arm wielding a sword.

And it was on the Feast Day of St. Michael, Sept. 29, when Monsoor threw himself on that grenade.

Monsoors mother, Sally Monsoor, is the ships sponsor. She christened it in 2016 in Bath, Maine, where it was built.

On Saturday, she gave the commissioning order, kept short for the audiences comfort, she said, because of the hot sun.

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This is the fun part, she said. Officers and crew of the USS Michael Monsoor, man our ship and bring her to life.

The audience roared.

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.comThey didnt write the lesson plan or instruct Cristopher Bautistas ninth-grade English class. But members of United Teachers Los Angeles were a powerful presence in the classroom where he works at Oakland Technical High School.

UTLA had taken to the streets 370 miles south, striking for smaller classes, a living wage and more help for their mostly low-income students. Bautista was teaching Cannery Row, John Steinbecks classic tale of Central Coast haves and have-nots.

Ive been teaching about the [Los Angeles] strike to my kids, Bautista said on Day 5 of the UTLA walkout, which ended last week with the union making incremental gains in wages, classroom sizes and support staff. Bautista sees thematic overlap between Steinbecks book and the L.A. work stoppage, which drew international attention. Its about class struggles, what people need to get by, low pay. There are parallels.

The six-day UTLA labor action already has had an impact beyond Southern California, one that is only expected to grow. It has intensified a critical public conversation about how education is paid for, highlighted the effect that charter schools have had on struggling districts and likely will put pressure on Sacramento to funnel more funds to the states schools.

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The Los Angeles strike also has heightened the possibility that voters could roll back parts of Proposition 13, the landmark 1978 state law curbing property tax increases. A measure to end Proposition 13s protections for commercial and industrial properties has qualified for the November 2020 ballot.

Its backers predict the strike could improve the new measures chances, because the protest underscored the threadbare conditions and overcrowded classrooms in the Los Angeles Unified School District and the widespread public support for teachers and students.

Other school districts are watching too  particularly Oakland Unified, where teachers staged a one-day sickout Jan. 18 in preparation for a possible February strike. They too want smaller classes, fewer charters and wages that will allow them to live in their pricey region without having to drive for Uber or pull espresso shots to pay the bills.

Bautista was part of that wildcat strike. He teaches English and history five days a week and works 15 hours every weekend at a Starbucks in Fremont, Calif. During his lunch breaks Saturdays and Sundays, he corrects papers and plans lessons. During the rally, he wore his green barista apron as he marched with several hundred chanting teachers, parents and young people.

His picket sign said: Why should I need a second job? This Oakland teacher is #strikeready.

Cristopher Bautista, a ninth-grade teacher at Oakland Technical High School, participates in a one-day sickout wearing the Starbucks apron he dons during weekend shifts. (Maria L. La Ganga / Los Angeles Times)

Bautista tells his students that the unions struggle is not just a local or state issue: This is a national matter. This is a turning point in education. You are witnesses. Some of you are participating. This is a big deal.

In fact, on the same day the Los Angeles walkout ended, the Denver Classroom Teachers Assn. announced that its members had voted to approve their first strike since 1994. And the Fremont Unified District Teachers Assn. in Northern California has reached an impasse in its 2018-19 contract negotiations.

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Winner and loser are difficult concepts to assess in a strike  and resolution  as complicated as the one that roiled the 1,240 schools in the second-biggest district in the nation. UTLA officials wanted limits placed on charter schools; what they got was a little more input regarding shared campuses. Teachers asked for a 6.5% raise; they got 6%.

But L.A. Unified also promised at least some level of class-size reduction, said it will hire 300 nurses and 82 teacher-librarians over the next two years and will add enough counselors to push the student-counselor ratio close to 500:1  which doesnt sound like much progress, except that caseloads currently hover between 690 and 890 students per counselor, depending on the school.

The union, however, succeeded in shaping the message that blasted off the picket lines. Part of that message was in sync with the nationwide Red-for-Ed movement, which in 2018 swept across West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona; underscored how abysmally teachers are paid; and revealed that in conservative strongholds there is broad public support for education and the people who make it possible.

The Los Angeles mobilization  and Oakland too  are starting off a slightly different public dialogue than what was caused by the red-state mobilizations, said John Rogers, professor of education at UCLA.

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Yes, teachers in Los Angeles talked about the need for better pay, Rogers said, but the UTLA strike brought forth how young people are experiencing education and how we as a society need to develop new structures to ensure that young people have the support they need.

What surprised Rogers was not just how strongly the union message came across, he said, but how ineffective the school district was in trying to persuade the public that it just doesnt have the money to fix what ails L.A. Unified.

The district leadership invested hugely in their public relations campaign, Rogers said. They brought in additional employees, they engaged with civic leaders, they had regular email chains.

I didnt see that from UTLA, but because their message had an underlying resonance, theres been a connection that was sustained throughout the strike with the public, he said. Its breathtaking how different this conversation is than a decade ago during the recession, when the conversations were so focused on bad teachers.

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The Los Angeles strike also raised the volume on complaints about charter schools, at a time when teachers unions see a sliver of hope that state government might be more receptive to their concerns. Unions believe charter schools have bled important state funding from traditional public campuses.

As with many issues, from immigration to climate change, California is poised to continue setting the terms for a national dialogue about education as a social justice issue. So in recent years the state has become something of an educational battlefield pitting unions and their allies against champions of charters.

Before regaining Californias highest office in 2010, former Gov. Jerry Brown founded two charter schools himself  Oakland Military Institute and Oakland School for the Arts  and he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to keep them going. As governor, he vetoed multiple bills that would have placed stricter controls on charters.

The power struggle over charter schools has continued to escalate. The California Charter Schools Assn. gave $23 million to the gubernatorial campaign of Antonio Villaraigosa, Gov. Gavin Newsoms rival in the 2018 primary. Jed Wallace, the groups former CEO, said before Newsoms victory that if Gavin becomes governor, we will face a threat the likes of which weve never seen before.

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California has more charter schools and more students enrolled in them than any other state. Twenty percent of the students who live within L.A. Unifieds boundaries attend the citys 249 charter schools, according to the California Charter Schools Assn. Oakland Unified School District has 83 public schools and has authorized 37 charters, said Keith Brown, president of the Oakland Education Assn.

The proliferation of charter schools in Oakland has had an impact on student enrollment in our traditional public schools, Brown said. Its put a financial drain on our district. I think the teachers of L.A., by putting the issue of charter schools in their contract demands, really highlight the need for better charter accountability.

Myrna Castrejon, president of the California Charter Schools Assn., rejects the union analysis and notes that magnet schools have also proliferated in recent years. State law protects charters, she said, and parents deserve to put their children in the schools they believe will suit them best.

That said, the UTLA strike has raised the profile of education as a worthwhile investment, Castrejon said. Now begins the conversation about what are the best ways to do it. Its not time to say, The strike is over. The issues are resolved. Its an important and significant start to the conversation.

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The question, of course, is where the money will come from to invest in education. Throughout the Los Angeles strike, schools Supt. Austin Beutner cried poverty, arguing that L.A. Unified was spending more money than it was bringing in.

That is where the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act comes in.

Proposition 13 limits property taxes for homes and businesses to 1% of their taxable value. It also prohibits that taxable value from rising more than 2% each year, no matter how much a propertys market value rises. The longer a person or business owns a piece of property, the less they pay in taxes compared with market value.

What the new ballot measure would do is strip that protection from commercial and industrial properties while leaving residential properties untouched. Its proponents estimate that the measure would bring in $11 billion each year to be split among K-12 education, community colleges and local government bodies.

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How much would that bring in to primary and secondary schools in Los Angeles County? An estimated $1.375 billion each year.

Veronica Carrizales is policy and campaign director for California Calls, a statewide alliance of community organizations that is pushing for the new measure, which is also known as split-roll. Like many analysts, she argues that the origins of the recently ended strike go back to Proposition 13.

The 1978 measure caused massive disinvestment of local government and public education, she said. It did this by creating a loophole for large commercial and industrial corporations that have essentially avoided paying their fair share.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., calls that an urban myth. His organization is behind Proposition 13 and plans an expensive and vigorous campaign to beat back any changes to it.

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If the ballot measure passes, Coupal said, citizen taxpayers  will end up paying more for the goods and services they buy, and L.A. Unified will be no better off.

This school district is the nations poster child for mismanagement, he said.

Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said the $5 billion or so that will flow toward education if the new ballot measure passes is a significant amount of money.

But I dont think its enough money, he said. I think other things will have to be done to move California and LAUSD into one of the top states in the nation in terms of per-pupil spending and class size.

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It is, however, a start. Getting the measure passed will be a big lift, but the public response to the UTLA strike is a hopeful sign, he said.

I think parents have, by their solidarity and their vocal support for UTLA, shown they want to see lower class size, want to see art and music restored for every school, want to see a nurse in every school, he said. I think this is a very helpful first step.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  President Rodrigo Duterte is set to visit Jolo, Sulu on Monday, following the twin explosions in a Catholic church in the town on Sunday.

Two explosions in the Jolo's Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel killed 18 people--12 civilians and 6 soldiers--and left 82 others--65 civilians and 17 soldiers--injured.

The Western Mindanao Command said two improvised explosive devices were set off during a mass at around 8:28 am. One of the bombs detonated inside the church while the other was at the cathedral's parking lot.

Malacanang has condemned the attacks and assured the public that the culprits will be severely punished.

"We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

The bombings came after the Commission on Elections announced the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law on Friday, following a plebiscite where all provinces under the ARMM voted for its approval. Sulu was among the provinces that had voted to reject the BOL. The attacks also occurred amid the implementation of martial law in Mindanao.Times film critic Justin Chang is keeping a regular diary over the course of a week at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. He will be writing about the movies hes seeing, the trends hes observing and what it all means for an event that officially kicks off the year in new independent cinema.

A busy shooting schedule kept Emma Thompson from attending the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Late Night, a smart, crowd-pleasing comedy in which she plays a smart, not-so-crowd-pleasing comedian. The actress was sorely missed, but maybe it was just as well. In the movie, written by and co-starring Mindy Kaling, Thompson tosses off her every line with such acid-tipped aplomb, she might have found herself to be her own toughest act to follow.

In any event, her absence couldnt help but reinforce the notion that we had just spent almost two hours in a giddy parallel-universe version of Hollywood, one that reflects the biases and blind spots of the industry at large but is at least progressive enough to feature a late-night talk show hosted by a woman. That host is the acerbic, high-minded Katherine Newbury (Thompson), whos facing sagging ratings and a steady downward slide into pop-cultural irrelevance.

Not long before the network head (a sharp Amy Ryan) informs Katherine that this season will be her last, the host decides its time to change things up and finally bring a woman into her all-white, all-male writers room. In comes the bright, chipper Molly Patel (Kaling), a chemical plant worker and comedy enthusiast who, being the only female applicant, lands the job. But while she may be a blatant diversity hire (the fact that shes a woman of color is a bonus), Molly brings with her some strong ideas, an overdeveloped knack for constructive criticism (she used to work in quality assurance) and a willingness to push back against white male privilege.

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Mindy Kaling in the movie Late Night. (Emily Aragones / Sundance Institute)

She has a lot of hurdles  and a lot of initially contemptuous, ultimately endearing colleagues  to overcome. (The fine ensemble cast includes Denis OHare, Reid Scott, Max Casella, Paul Walter Hauser and Hugh Dancy.) But Katherine, too, has a lot to learn about compromise in a field that would prefer she dispense with the erudite guests and cram her show with light-hearted sketches and YouTube celebrities. Theres a pleasingly layered quality to the satire in Late Night, which targets Katherines pop-cultural cluelessness even as it bows before her intelligence, and which allows Molly to be savvy and naive, idealistic and cynical, tough and vulnerable all at once.

Smoothly directed by Nisha Ganatra, Late Night at times achieves the dexterous fluidity of a great 40s workplace comedy, with Thompson in sublimely withering form as a boss lady just a few shades cuddlier than Miranda Priestly. Whether the movies portrait of a TV writers room meets anyones standard of verisimilitude is debatable and possibly beside the point, though I do wish the industry-centric jabs were sharper, and that Katherines show actually got better when it was supposed to; the numerous cutaways to audience laughter arent always convincing.

Audiences beyond Sundance, however, are likely to give Late Night a solid embrace. The morning after the movies premiere, news broke that Amazon Studios had purchased U.S. rights for $13 million after an all-night bidding war. Thats an even heftier sum than the $12.5 million it paid here two years ago for The Big Sick, a very different movie but a similarly deft weave of effervescent comedy and barbed politics. Not the worst outcome for a movie that, as Kaling noted during the post-screening Q&A, had been something of a gamble, insofar as she had written the screenplay specifically for Thompson.

Its the stupidest thing you can do, Kaling said. Thankfully, she said yes. Its hard not to share in her gratitude.

READ MORE: Justin Changs 2019 Sundance Film Festival diary 

Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore in the movie After the Wedding. (Julio Macat)

After the Wedding and Native Son, two adaptations with a twist

Everything old is almost new again in After the Wedding and Native Son, two of the first narrative movies Ive seen here in Park City. Each one is a curious adaptation of well-regarded material  surprisingly faithful in some respects, and just as surprisingly divergent in others. Both pictures have their flaws and their fascinations, especially if youre familiar with their antecedents.

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In Bart Freundlichs gently tear-streaked family melodrama After the Wedding, Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams play Theresa and Isabel, two women brought together by a business opportunity and an unexpectedly tangled history. Theresa, a successful New York entrepreneur, has three children with her sculptor husband, Oscar (Billy Crudup), including a daughter, Grace (Abby Quinn), who is about to tie the knot. Into the celebration comes Isabel, a frowning free spirit seeking a donation for the orphanage she runs in India, unaware that she is about to get much, much more than she bargained for.

The story, with its explosive secrets and tentative stabs at reconciliation, largely mirrors that of Susanne Biers 2006 Danish film of the same title, with one crucial change: In that movie, the two leads were men, played by Mads Mikkelsen and Rolf Lassgard. But the more significant difference may have less to do with gender than with form: Biers movie, loosely influenced by the aesthetics of the Dogme movement, achieved a jagged immediacy with its jittery handheld cameras. Freundlichs remake is stately, composed and even glossy by comparison, which makes some of the storys violently contrived twists seem even more jarring in context.

The remake feels at pains to acknowledge its characters privilege, even as it piles on the gorgeous surfaces, the expensive meals and the multimillion-dollar real estate. (The wedding looks as though it cost a fortune.) The trickiest character is Isabel, whose love for India and the children shes left there is dramatized in blandly touristic fashion, but Williams is extraordinary: Simply by casting a glance or tightening her features, she can make you feel Isabels anger, her grief and the weight of demons that have tormented her for years. Well after After the Wedding has ended, its her presence that haunts you.

Ashton Sanders in the movie Native Son. (Matthew Libatique / Sundance Institute)

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Something similar can be said of Ashton Sanders, the mesmerizing 23-year-old actor at the center of Native Son. This debut feature from the visual artist Rashid Johnson is the third screen adaptation of Richard Wrights landmark 1940 novel about Bigger Big Thomas, a young black man from Chicagos South Side whose life of desperate poverty and privation takes a cruelly violent turn.

It is the first adaptation, however, to update its story for the present, a choice that, conceptually, requires both boldness and subtlety. Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, this Native Son means to trace a direct line from the systemic injustices and persecutions experienced by African Americans in the 20th century to those they continue to endure in the present. The result is a strangely potent but muddled brew: Its urban realism with a boldly anachronistic streak, a sly comedy that tilts into tense, brooding tragedy.

Sanders, so memorable as the teenage Chiron in Barry Jenkins Moonlight, similarly magnetizes the cameras gaze as Big, a skeletally thin young man who lives with his mother (Sanaa Lathan) and two sisters in a poor and comically rodent-infested Chicago apartment. Bigs very look is a calculated provocation: dyed-green hair, dark glasses and a black leather jacket with the words Or Am I Freaking Out scrawled all over it. His identity, while still slippery and unformed, has clearly been shaped to his detriment by a society where black men are expected to know their place.

An opportunity arises when he gets a job as a chauffeur for the Daltons, a white family living in a tonier part of town, and gets to know their teenage daughter, Mary (Margaret Qualley). Their scenes together  especially on the town, where the reckless, Mary brings Big into her circle of hard-partying friends  are written and played with darkly satirical verve. But after a grisly, intensely harrowing set-piece midway through, the storys narrative and thematic possibilities feel increasingly limited by its faithfulness to its source material. We know from the outset that tragedy is inescapable, but even still, the movie seems to be narrowing just as it should be getting more expansive.

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The largely appreciative reception to Native Son got its own twist early in the festival: HBO Films announced that it had acquired the movie from A24, meaning it will air on the premium cable channel and bypass theaters. Thats too bad, insofar as the picture is more than anything a triumph of atmosphere, beautifully framed by the versatile cinematographer Matthew Libatique (a current Oscar nominee for A Star Is Born) and moodily scored by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. All the more reason to be grateful it played at Sundance, even if we come to this festival hoping to see narratives on the big screen for the first time, not the last.

justin.chang@latimes.comLyn Kienholz, a fierce advocate for California artists and the founder of the California/International Arts Foundation, has died. She was 88.

Her death at her Hollywood Hills home on Friday afternoon came after she had fallen ill and been hospitalized with congestive heart failure, her sister Melinda Maddock confirmed to The Times.

She had said for years, I love this place that I live in and I want to go out feet first  and she did, Maddock said. She loved Los Angeles. She loved her home. And she loved her friends.

Kienholz was well-known within the art world for her commitment to raising the profile of California artists abroad  not to mention her lively dinner parties that connected artists, writers, politicians and tastemakers from all over the world.

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Shes been a formative influence in a lot of things that have happened in L.A.  particularly in the contemporary arts scene, said longtime friend Thomas Rhoads, who founded the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 1988. And she loved to meet people. The ones she liked would invariably get invited to the house for dinner. I kind of think of her as a downtown Buffy Chandler: you wouldnt get filet mignon, you might get meatloaf and lots of wine, and you could smoke as much marijuana as you like. Meanwhile, shed be out probably feeding the coyotes.

Kienholzs most recent celebration of the Golden States artistic contributions were chronicled in the book L.A. Rising: SoCal Artists Before 1980. Released in 2010, the encyclopedic volume paid homage to the Los Angeles art scene between 1940 and 1980  spotlighting nearly 500 artists who exhibited in a museum, gallery or public space in Southern California. And with Henry Hopkins, the former San Francisco Museum of Modern Art director, she helped spark the idea for a showcase spotlighting L.A. artists that would become Pacific Standard Time, a popular multi-venue arts initiative funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Lyn Kienholz entertaining at her Hollywood Hills home in 2006. (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

She leaves behind a legacy that came about almost by accident.

Born Marilyn Shearer on Sept. 16, 1930, in Chicago, she grew up in the suburbs of Evanston and Lombard along with her two sisters and a brother. Her father was an executive at a printing company; her mother was a homemaker. Her college years were spent at Sullins in Virginia and Maryland College for Women, but she did not finish her education.

She moved to Los Angeles from Washington in 1961 and took a day job as a gallery sitter at Ferus Gallery, located on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, to support her theater and film aspirations. She acted in several plays and had ambitions of becoming a producer, but found that path in Hollywood to be unwelcoming toward women. Her attention shifted to the nascent L.A. art world.

I had been in a museum exactly once until I left home, she told The Times in 2006.

During her first year working at Ferus, the gallery gave Andy Warhol his first solo show. One of the exhibits she assembled, Roxys, which took viewers through the rooms of a brothel-like space populated by mannequins, prompted a visit by police. It was also during this time that she was rooming with painter Marcia Hafif  and their shared cooking skills made their West Hollywood home a social hot spot for L.A.s art luminaries.

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Kienholzs proximity to the art world got even closer during her marriage to Los Angeles sculptor and assemblage artist Ed Kienholz, from 1966 to 1973. She served as his office manager and studio assistant, often traveling abroad with him for his exhibitions  forming her own connections with tastemakers of the art world in the process. (Ed Kienholz died in 1994.)

Living with Ed was tough and I was vulnerable, she shared in Richard Hertzs book The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the L.A. Art World. He was always right. He was totally manipulative, all of that bad stuff.  Nevertheless, it was a great life and wouldnt be doing what I am today, if I hadnt married him. He taught me to fish, but also taught me how to see.

In 1974, she was hired by Pontus Hulten, founding director of the Pompidou Center in Paris, to establish a foundation to procure American artworks for the museum. It spurred the idea to create her foundation.

Using money she received from selling Ed Kienholzs controversial 1964 assemblage Back Seat Dodge 38 to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art  which she had purchased after selling some family stock  she founded the California/International Arts Foundation in 1981. Her vision for the nonprofit was to organize exhibitions that would increase the visibility of L.A. artists around the world.

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The foundations early events included The California Sculpture Show during the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles  it toured five countries  and an early solo show for the architect Frank Gehry that toured Europe in the early 90s. In the years since, the foundation has organized more than 100 SoCal-centric art shows with for an international audience.

Her advocacy hadnt slowed in recent years. Joan Weinstein, the acting director of the Getty Foundation, recalled the meeting with Kienholz and Hopkins where they expressed concern that the history of Los Angeles art was being lost. The Getty supported her to conduct a survey of all the archives  that would go on to serve as the inspiration for Pacific Standard Time.

Lyn was a force of nature, Weinstein said. She was an unrelenting advocate for Los Angeles art.

Kienholz had spent her later years focused on bringing attention to sometimes overlooked African American artists in L.A, such as John Outterbridge. It had been her hope to put together an exhibition of black artists work to showcase at Venice Biennale. But it ultimately didnt come together, partly because of her deteriorating health.

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She valued creative risk-taking that is often necessary for artists to do new things, to carve out new paths, to approach things differently, said artist Dominique Moody, who had collaborated with Kienholz on the stalled Venice Biennale project. That was her lifes work of art support. And there was something special about the way she would invite people to her home; those dinners did more than just introduce artists to each other, it created a community.

Beyond her mark in the arts world, friends and family recall Kienholz as a great travel partner particularly because she was willing to sit in the middle seat and didnt mind sharing her canape sandwiches.

She taught me all about things like eating vegetables that were fresh; as opposed to in a can; she taught me about entertaining and she had more energy than you and me and three other people combined, Maddock reflected. But more than anything, she was always saying how lucky she was to be doing something through the years that she passionately loved. She loved art and artists and showcasing California artists, specifically.

Kieinholz is survived by two stepchildren, Noah Kienholz and Jenny Kienholz, as well as her siblings, Melinda, Mitchell and Lizbeth.

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yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealySamyang Foods' hit instant noodle Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen



By Nam Hyun-woo





Samyang Foods Chairman Jeon In-jang, left, and his wife Samyang Foods President Kim Jung-sooKT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu, right, poses for a photo with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jan. 22. / Courtesy of KT



By Jun Ji-hye



Korea is leading in fifth-generation (5G) networks as the country possesses better 5G technology and infrastructure than the United States and China, according to KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu.



KT said Sunday that Hwang made the remarks during a meeting of the International Business Council (IBC), which took place on Jan. 22 on the occasion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.



"Compared to the United States and China, Korea has better technology, services and infrastructure," Hwang said during the meeting.



The WEF, simply known as the Davos Forum, was held in the Swiss city from Jan. 21 to 25, bringing together thousands of leaders from business, government and various other sectors. The theme for the 2019 meeting was "Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."



KT said Executive Chairman of the WEF Klaus Schwab invited Hwang to be a guest at the IBC, an interactive community of 100 influential chief executives from all industries to discuss globally relevant business issues.



This marked the first time a Korean enterprise has been invited to the IBC.



Hwang emphasized the superiority of Korea's 5G technology, according to KT.



The firm said global CEOs initially thought that the United States or China would become the center of 5G, considering the two countries' disputes over a Chinese IT company, Huawei. But the CEOs recognized Korea's 5G leadership after listening to Hwang's explanation.



Huawei, representing China, has claimed it was seeking to lead 5G, but Hwang pointed out that the company is an equipment company not dealing with intelligence platforms.



Hwang said KT successfully provided the world's first 5G trial services during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February 2018 and sent the first 5G signal on Dec. 1.



He noted the company is set to offer full-scale commercial 5G services within the first half of the year, stressing that the super-fast networks will play a role as intelligence platforms and will contribute to resolving various social problems.



"5G's ultra-connectivity and ultra-low latency characteristics will contribute to promoting welfare for human beings," he said. "For example, ultra-low latency will help realize self-driving cars and remote medical treatment system, which will make lives safer and more convenient."



Meanwhile, Hwang met with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the sidelines of the Davos forum.



As Hwang said Apple also needs to prepare for 5G, Cook said he would visit Korea to see the nation's 5G infrastructure firsthand.

Netflix, Google pressed to follow suit



By Jun Ji-hye



Facebook has agreed with SK Broadband to pay for using the latter's internet networks to offer data traffic-heavy services to users in Korea, officials from the two companies said Sunday.





SK Broadband CEO Park Jung-ho

The agreement ended their dispute over how to share data traffic costs, which has lasted for about two years.



It marked the first time for the U.S. social networking giant to agree on cost-sharing with SK Broadband, an affiliate of the nation's top mobile carrier SK Telecom, to maintain its services since it entered the Korean market in 2010.



Facebook has paid network use fees to KT only, not to SK Broadband and LG Uplus.



Details of the contract such as period and how much Facebook will pay are unknown.



An official from SK Broadband said the two companies signed a confidentiality agreement.



An official from Facebook also refused to disclose any details.





Facebook Korea CEO Jung Ki-hyunSeen is Yujin Robot's booth installed at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas from Jan. 8 to 11. / Courtesy of Yujin Robot



Yujin Robot CEO says industry faces China challenge



By Baek Byung-yeul





Yujin Robot Chairman and CEO Shin Kyung-chul / Courtesy of Yujin Robot

The government should introduce a wider range of policies to support the robotics industry; otherwise, local players will fall behind Chinese and other competitors in the global market, according to the head of local robotics firm Yujin Robot.



"With more people using robots, the government is expanding its efforts to foster the robotics industry. To make it happen, creating an environment where robots can be easily utilized is essential," Shin Kyung-chul, chairman and CEO of Yujin Robot, said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.



"When the government is setting up a new plan to support the industry, it tries to refer to cases in other countries. But it is important to take the initiative in robotics. Launching a test field so that companies can test their robots in various environments such as homes, buildings, streets and even cities," he said.



Shin, who also serves as vice chairman of the Korea Association of Robot Industries (KAR), added that offering funding or tax benefits to companies that are in the robotics business could be other ways to nurture the industry.



China emerges as new robotics powerhouse



Widely known for its robot vacuum brand iClebo, Yujin Robot took part in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from Jan. 8 to 11 to show off its cutting-edge robot technologies and products.



At the world's largest tech fair, featuring about 4,500 companies from 155 nations, Shin said he could witness how China has grown into a powerhouse in the robotics industry.



"China is the country that business officials in the robotics industry need to keep their eyes on. Though the country entered the robotics business late, Chinese firms have been accelerating their product development because they have the world's largest market for robots," the chairman said.



Compared to the Chinese firms, Korean firms are relatively slow at commercializing products because of slow payback periods, Shin said.



"Backed by the huge domestic market, Chinese firms can achieve a fast payback and the reduced payback periods accelerate them to create a virtuous circulation in the industry. They can hire more people, produce more samples and then commercialize their products much faster than Korean companies."



China's strength in the robotics industry can also be seen from the Chinese government's top-down approach to the sector, he said.



"Even though robot products are not perfect, domestic firms purchase those products as the Chinese government tells them to do so. This also boosts market capacity," Shin said.



"For example, I saw a serving robot for restaurant purposes made by a Chinese firm at the CES. From my point of view, the company needs more time to develop its robot, but it said the restaurant-serving robots are already commercialized in China."



Not only robotics firms from the United States, Japan and China but also big companies in Korea showed off their products and shared visions during the CES fair.



Samsung Electronics came up with its new robotics platform Samsung Bot. LG Electronics announced an agreement with internet firm Naver to cooperate for joint robot development.



As an industry expert, Shin said it is a welcoming move as the efforts of big companies can help grow the overall industry pie.



"The large companies are taking the robotics business as their future growth engines. What we need to do is focus on what we have done so far. As there are so many applications for robots, we are taking a different path from them," he said.



'Worker shortage, brain drain need to be solved'



Shin also pointed out small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the robotics industry here are suffering from a worker shortage and a brain drain.



"Korea has one of the most advanced robotics industries along with the U.S., Japan, Europe  especially France and Germany  and China. However compared to the other four that I mentioned, Korea's robot technology is less advanced," the chairman said, calling on the government to develop plans to foster skilled personnel.



"With the rise of artificial intelligence and internet of things (IoT) technology, key sectors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, many SMEs are short of talented individuals in control and software engineering. This is because qualified individuals in these sectors receive attractive offers from big companies," Shin said.



"In response, Yujin Robot had to come up with the best alternative plan  nurturing talented individuals through our training programs. But what is worse is some of them who get trained here move to another firm who pays more than us.



"It would be helpful if the government can set up support policies that can help SMEs secure more workers with the right skillset," he said.





Yujin Robot's GoCart logistics robot is displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from Jan. 8 to 11. / Courtesy of Yujin RobotGangwon Province, circa 1930-1940.



By Robert Neff





"Through the Gate of the Violet Glow"

In the late summer of 1891, articles describing the seven great wonders of Korea appeared in newspapers in the United States  obviously gleaned from the English-language newspapers in China and Japan. The most wonderful of these wonders was a floating stone.



According to the articles, this stone  described as "an irregular cube of great bulk"  was in front of a palace that had been specifically built for it. The stone floated just barely off the ground but "two men at opposite ends of a rope may pass it under the stone without encountering any obstacle whatever." Unfortunately, the palace was not identified in the article.



This wasn't the only magical stone among these wonders. Supposedly, there was a great stone of heat that rested on top of a high hill and radiated heat from its surface. The origins of the stone were unknown but it was claimed that the stone had been there glowing since the "remote ages." Again, the location of the hill was not given.



It is easy to dismiss these accounts as "fake news" because, other than being unbelievable, they are so vague and give no source. But not all accounts of magical stones are anonymous.



In the early 1890s, a Canadian visitor to Seoul wrote:



"On the mountain slopes, just outside the city wall, and at no great distance from the West Gate, is a peculiar rock, which the action of the weather has worn out into the shape of a gigantic tooth. Whence comes its name of Tooth-stone. There would be nothing wonderful about this, if it were not for the fact that a visit to this freak of nature has, according to Corean accounts, the property of curing the worst of tooth-aches."





Gangwon Province, circa 1930-1940



One afternoon, desiring "to witness the pilgrimage that takes place every day to this miraculous spot," he trekked to the stone's location. There he found "a little altar [standing] at the foot of the huge tooth, and numberless tablets, certifying to cures, erected by thankful noble visitors and others, are fixed against the rock, with the name, date and year when the cures were effected."



Crowds of men and women with swollen cheeks and in excruciating pain made their way to the altar and, after giving an offering of money to the altar-keeper, rubbed their faces while praying for relief. For some, there was relief, but for others the pain persisted. Instead of finding sympathy, they were berated by the keeper for not being generous with their donation and ordered to return for more money  it was the only way that the spirit residing within the stone would grant them relief. The Canadian noted that many did return and sagely opined that people with toothaches would do anything to rid themselves of the pain.



Bu-am Dong in northern Seoul also gets its name from a magical stone. According to Samuel Alexander Denny Jr. and Jihoon Suk (authors of "Through the Gate of the Violet Glow"), Bu-am literally means "Sticky Rock" and was named after a large rock formation that was characterized by the numerous pits and furrows on the surface of the stone, giving it a peculiar look.





Gangwon Province, circa 1930-1940Political neutrality is must for election commission member



President Moon Jae-in's appointment of a controversial figure as a commissioner of the National Election Commission (NEC) has deepened the political confrontation between the ruling and opposition camps. The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) has boycotted all National Assembly sessions, while staging a "relay" hunger strike to protest the appointment of an "unfit" official.



The row erupted after Moon nominated Cho Hae-ju, a Kookmin University political science professor and former NEC official, as one of the latter's commissioners last month. The National Assembly, however, failed to hold a confirmation hearing by the Jan. 19 deadline as the LKP and other opposition parties refused to participate, calling Cho's qualifications into question.



Finally, Moon appointed Cho last Thursday. Cheong Wa Dae said there was no problem with the appointment which was made in accordance with the Constitution and laws. The presidential office laid the blame on the opposition parties for blocking the hearing.



Regrettably, Cho has become the first minister-level official named by the President without undergoing a hearing. Moon has so far named seven ministers without the Assembly adopting confirmation reports even after holding hearings. This means that the chief executive has not been active in obtaining parliamentary approval or consent for his appointees.



Regarding Cho, the presidential office and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) should have worked harder to persuade the opposition parties to open a hearing to check if the nominee was qualified for the NEC post. But they did little to seek cooperation with the opposition. So Moon deserves criticism for reneging on his campaign promise to realize "cooperative politics" by working with the opposition.



The President should also have tried to grasp why opposition lawmakers were against the hearing. This was because they claimed Cho was unqualified as he served as a special adviser to the Moon camp in the lead-up to the May 2017 presidential election. They also said Cho's name was listed on the DPK's election white paper, something the party refuted by saying he was put on it by mistake.



In this situation, hastily appointing Cho was inappropriate even though there were no legal or procedural flaws. More to the point, the President should have been more careful because any NEC commissioner must operate with political neutrality to ensure a fair election. It would be better, though belated, for Moon to reconsider Cho's appointment in order to reach out to the opposition, play fair and advocate democratic values.





The time has come for the Venezuelans to free themselves. They have just begun a hopefully irreversible process that must end with the departure of the illegitimate and discredited Nicolas Maduro.



Juan Guaido, president of the opposition National Assembly, declared himself interim president and was sworn in on Wednesday under the constitution of Venezuela. His courageous act should mark the beginning of the end for dictator Maduro and set the course for a return to democracy.



It's time, now or never. That's why the international community must support Guaido, head of the only democratically elected body in Venezuela. Above all, they must support the Venezuelans who took to the streets as part of the nation's reinvigorated opposition movement.



President Trump's quick recognition of the interim president is an important step to increasing international pressure on Maduro. Wednesday, the White House was joined in its denouncement of Maduro by Brazil, Canada and the rest of the countries of the Lima Group: Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Peru. Mexico remained silent, unfortunately, walking that suspect middle line of neutrality.



It is a pity that Mexico's new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is using the pretext of noninterference in other countries' internal affairs, while failing to defend democratic values in the region. It's a different response from the decisiveness on display by other leaders in the region who did not hesitate to throw their support behind Venezuela's flailing democracy.



There is no doubt that Maduro is isolated internationally, and it is clear that the millions of Venezuelans who on Wednesday spilled into the streets  and were seen across the world  want change.



Maduro leads a regime marked by corruption, accusations of drug trafficking, manipulation of elections, as well as persecuting, imprisoning and torturing opposition leaders. It is not surprising that the Supreme Court, filled with Maduro sycophants, threatened to arrest Guaido. Imprisonment remains a distinct possibility for this opposition leader.



Venezuela is going through one of the most intractable economic crises in its history. It has spurred a humanitarian crisis that so far has sent more than 2.5 million Venezuelans in search of a better future in neighboring countries.



The late Hugo Chavez's promise of well-being  his supposed "21st-century revolution" that persuaded millions to support him  was a fraud. And with his brutality, his gross mismanagement and his willingness to starve Venezuelans, Maduro, Chavez's political heir, has simply affirmed the chavista movement's stunning failure.



What happens in Venezuela has impact beyond its borders, mainly Colombia where thousands have fled, and also here in South Florida, where the number of Venezuelans refugees continues to grow, especially in Miami-Dade County.



That is why it is worth noting the tireless leadership of Florida's senior Sen. Marco Rubio, who has long denounced the Maduro regime's inhumanity and successfully pushed the Trump administration to impose sanctions against dozens of Venezuelan officials close to Maduro, including the dictator's wife. Trump's almost-immediate acceptance of Guaido as interim president represents one more sign of the muscle Rubio flexes as a champion of the Venezuelan people and Maduro's steadfast foe.



It sends a clear and crucial message: Venezuelans are not alone. They have important allies to force an illegitimate president out and get the government they want. As reported by Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer, Guaido wants, first and foremost, to call free elections in his debilitated nation. This is absolutely the best first step.



However, Maduro still lurks. He has not exited the stage. Guaido  and all who support him  must have the unwavering support of the region's democratic leaders.



Trump, who said if the will of the people is not enough, all options "are on the table." He warned that Maduro must seek a peaceful solution to the crisis, because otherwise he "would have no future." Last year, Trump even suggested U.S. military action. However, it's an option that both Americans and Venezuelans should reject.



Venezuelans must take the lead here. It's clear they want Maduro to go. Whether he will, remains to be seen. So far, he's been a bully in denial.





The above editorial appeared in the Miami Herald. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.



By Javier Solana





MADRID  In March 2018, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had himself filmed as he drove his car through the rubble-filled streets of Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus.







At that time, seven years after the start of Syria's civil war, Assad's forces were gaining ground from rebel groups who had been under siege there for half a decade. The images, showing the triumphant return of an apparently relaxed Assad, were clearly propaganda. However, they also summarized these tragic years of conflict: Syria has been devastated, but Assad is still there.







Numbers alone cannot capture the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster, but they provide necessary perspective. In 2011, when the war began, Syria had 21 million inhabitants.







Nearly eight years later, approximately half a million of them had died from violence (caused mainly by pro-Assad forces), more than 5.5 million have been registered as refugees, and more than six million are internally displaced. These numbers reflect the failure of an "international community" that, in Syria and so many other contexts, has proved unworthy of its name.







Profound divisions in the United Nations Security Council have prevented a concerted response to the Syrian crisis. To a large degree, these are the result of NATO's military intervention in Libya, which was authorized by the Security Council  with Russia and China abstaining  just when hostilities in Syria were beginning.







The intervention in Libya exceeded its humanitarian mandate and became fixated on removing the country's leader, Moammar Qadhafi, who was brutally murdered shortly after rebels captured him.







That episode has made Russia and China even more distrustful, if that were possible, of any military intervention in the name of the "responsibility to protect," a doctrine invoked in response to Qadhafi's excesses. Vetoes in the Security Council have been increasing, with Russia having so far blocked 12 resolutions concerning Syria.







China, which has used its veto power in the Security Council on only 11 occasions, has also blocked six of these resolutions. One of the joint vetoes by China and Russia prevented the case of Syria from being referred to the International Criminal Court, in contrast to an earlier unanimous Security Council resolution that had approved a referral in the case of Libya.







With multilateralism paralyzed, the course of the war in Syria has been shaped by the geopolitical interests of the major international powers. Any semblance of humanitarianism has been limited to relatively minor and fairly unproductive resolutions, specific agreements such as that concluded by the United States and Russia to destroy the Syrian regime's chemical weapons, and questionable bombings intended to punish flagrant violations of the latter agreement.







The only consensus that has proven to be moderately robust  and fruitful  has led to the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which has left the organization badly damaged, though not yet defeated.







Given these difficulties, diplomacy in Syria was obviously never going to be smooth sailing. In fact, the incessant dribble of accusations between the great powers was one reason why Kofi Annan renounced his position as Special Envoy of the U.N. and the Arab League to Syria. Yet the failure of negotiations was not  and still is not  inevitable. Failure has stemmed not only from important contextual factors, but also from a series of strategic mistakes that the West has made, either by action or by omission.







For starters, although the U.S. has been reluctant to intervene directly in Syria, it has not disguised its zeal to oust Assad. Shortly after the start of the war, the Obama administration explicitly declared that its objective was regime change (as did the European Union), undermining the diplomatic efforts led by Annan.







And, as the late Patrick Seale, one of the most renowned chroniclers of Syria, observed, an obsession with regime change "is no plan for peace." In fact, this approach served only to put Assad on the defensive and inspire unrealistic expectations among an extremely fragmented opposition. Having missed the opportunity presented by the first Geneva peace conference, convened by Annan in 2012, diplomatic efforts fell into a spiral of setbacks.







The EU, meanwhile, has been excessively passive in the face of a conflict affecting a country that participates in the European Neighborhood Policy. Remember, it was the war in Syria that led to the terrible refugee crisis that in 2015 shook the foundations of the EU and  above all  caused immense human suffering. Despite this, the EU and its member countries have dragged their feet, applying patches (such as the agreement with Turkey on refugees) instead of resolutely addressing the problem at its root.







Today, Western disorientation regarding Syria is absolute. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, in particular, is presenting a disgraceful spectacle with its chaotic messages regarding the withdrawal of the few American troops on the ground.







It is still a mystery how the U.S. intends to counterbalance Iran's influence in Syria, and what guarantees will be offered to the Kurds, who have contributed so much to combating ISIS. What is clear is that the West is colliding with reality: as the dust raised by ISIS settles, it turns out that the Syria that is emerging is not all that different, in political terms, from its pre-war version.







This doesn't mean that Assad has come through the war completely unscathed, able to impose his will without restraint. But in the absence of viable alternatives, and despite the brutal crimes he has committed with the direct support of Russia and Iran, he will necessarily have a role to play in Syria's immediate future.







Clearly, the more time and resources are invested in the wrong policy, such as regime change, the harder it becomes to abandon that policy. But there is no other choice. The West must pierce its illusions and sit down to negotiate more seriously  and at all levels  about Syria.







)





Javier Solana, a former EU high representative for foreign and security policy, secretary-general of NATO, and foreign minister of Spain, is currently president of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Europe. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate ( www.project-syndicate.orgMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  All seven senatorial candidates in the CNN Philippines' forum on Sunday favor the legalization of medical marijuana.

Former Interior Secretaries Raffy Alunan and Mar Roxas, former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, former Congressmen Neri Colmenares and Erin Tanada, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, and former Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc all raised their "yes" cards when asked the question: "Should marijuana be legalized for ailments such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, seizures, and serious chronic pain?"

Yes or No: Should medical marijuana be legalized for serious ailments? | #TheFilipinoVotes https://t.co/YuEX8968An pic.twitter.com/vakBGgOpuI  CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) January 27, 2019

House Bill No. 6517 or the proposed Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act was approved on second reading at the lower chamber last January 23. Some of its authors hope it would be passed before the end of the 17th Congress this year.

READ: House approves medical marijuana bill on 2nd reading

Malacanang earlier said President Rodrigo Duterte favored the use of medical marijuana and would support any legislative measure consistent with his stand. His ally, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, vouched for the effectiveness of medical marijuana, saying it relieved her neck pain whenever she was in a country where it is legal.

Medical marijuana is legal in some countries including Uruguay, Canada, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Ireland, and some states in the U.S.. It is also allowed with prescription in the United Kingdom.

Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, has said, however, that such a law is unnecessary because Republic Act No. 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 already permits it medical marijuana. A provision under the act states that patients can apply for a "compassionate special permit" from the Food and Drug Administration to allow unregistered drugs in the country to be used for medication.

In the first of CNN Philippines' series of senatorial fora last December, Senator JV Ejercito, former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Sergio Osmena III, and De La Salle University College of Law Dean Chel Diokno also said they were in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.

Senator Bam Aquino, Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, former Philippine National Police chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa and former presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino said they were against the proposed measure.President Moon Jae-in presides over the first meeting of the Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC) at Cheong Wa Dae, last Nov. 28. The Korean Confederation Trade Union opted out of the organization at the time, but it will vote today on whether to join the government-led consultative body. Korea Times file



By Jung Hae-myoung



The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the nation's two major umbrella unions will hold a delegate conference Monday to decide whether to join a government-led consultative body.



The meeting is seen as a critical turning point for the Moon Jae-in administration, given that the KCTU's participation in the Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC) will get government-led social dialogue on resolving labor issues back on track.



The KCTU would be an important part of the ESLC, as its members are from unions in the automobile, shipbuilding and steel sectors.



In order to vote on whether to join the government body, more than half of the KCTU's 1,300 representatives have to attend the meeting and a majority of those in attendance must approve of the measure. The union expects more than 900 will attend Monday's meeting.



Last October, it failed to hold a vote due to the lack of a quorum. At the time, the KCTU also did not attend an ESLC conference, citing the Moon administration's "biased" labor policy.



The representative unions are mixed on joining the ESLC.



KCTU Chairman Kim Myung-hwan and leading officials have encouraged delegates to participate in the ESLC, but Kim Ho-gyu, the chairman of the Korean Metal Workers Union, is against it.



If the KCTU fails to join the ESLC, the government's labor policy may lose momentum, which was why President Moon invited its leader to Cheong Wa Dae, Friday, urging him to engage more actively.



Kim Ju-young, the president of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) also joined the meeting. The FKTU has already participated in the ESLC.



Some authorities say ESCL may face new challenges even if the KCTU joins the body. If the KCTU makes the ESLC a place to fight for its own benefit and becomes uncooperative, communication could become even more difficult.



"The ESLC is a place to mediate between groups, not a place to fight," said Moon Sung-hyun, the chairman of the ESLC.



"With that attitude in mind, it would be better if it does not join," he added.



During the Friday meeting, President Moon also agreed to ratify core conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).



Korea became a member of the ILO in 1991, but has only passed votes on four out of eight core conventions, regarding the freedom of association and abolition of forced labor.

The Seoul city government said it spent more than 530 million won ($479,000) to purify the contaminated water under a subway station and Camp Kim, adjacent to the old U.S. Yongsan base. Yonhap



The Seoul metropolitan government again has won a lawsuit seeking state compensation for the money it spent to clean up polluted underground water in areas near the old U.S. Forces Korea headquarters in Yongsan, court officials said Sunday.

The Seoul Central District Court has recently ordered the state to pay some 538 million won (US$479,928) in the lawsuit filed by the local government, the officials said.

The city government filed the lawsuit in September last year, demanding the state compensation for the money it spent purifying the contaminated water under a subway station and Camp Kim, adjacent to the old U.S. Yongsan base.

"It is recognized that oil had been constantly spilled from an underground oil storage tank inside a U.S. Army base, which had been managed by the U.S. troops in Korea since 2001, contaminating nearby land owned by the Seoul city government, and that the government has spent its own funds to conduct surveys on the contamination and the purification work," the court said in the verdict.

"Since the Seoul metropolitan government suffered losses from paying expenses to inspect and clean up the contamination caused by negligence or defects in the preservation and management of facilities in the U.S. Forces Korea, the state is responsible for compensating it for the damages under Article 2 of the civil law for the U.S. Forces Korea."

The Special Civil Act on the Enforcement of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) governing the status of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea, which was legislated in 2009, stipulates that the Korean government should provide compensation for the damages caused by members or employees of the USFK to third parties other than the government.

Including the latest one, the local government has won all 10 lawsuits it lodged against the central government to recover all the money it spent inspecting and cleaning up polluted underground water near the Yongsan base. (Yonhap)



Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo speaks on his visit to the Naval Operations Command in Busan, Saturday. / YonhapRhyu Si-min, center, speaks with Jung Tae-ho, left, the senior secretary for job creation of the presidential office during Rhyu's Youtube talk show "Alileo" on Jan. 19. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



Rhyu Si-min, a future presidential hopeful in the ruling camp, stressed again he will not work for the presidential office amid speculation about a 2022 presidential bid.



Rhyu, the chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, said Saturday during his newly launched Youtube talk show he would "never go to Cheong Wa Dae" because he has "bad teeth."



His response came after Jung Tae-ho, the senior secretary for job creation at the presidential office, complained that Cheong Wa Dae had a poor work environment claiming people there lost their teeth because they worked so hard. Jung was invited there to promote the government's job creation performance.



The politician-turned-writer has been considered a leading prospective presidential candidate along with Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon in the ruling party, but does not want to be listed in polls, claiming he has retired from politics.



Recently, he asked the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission to take his name off future surveys for prospective presidential candidates but it didn't do so.



In a previous episode of his talk show, Rhyu said, "I don't want to run for election." However, his announcement that he would not run went viral and drew people's attention over whether he would run or not.



Critics say that his public appearances on various media outlets such as TV and Youtube are largely aimed at gaining popularity before running for president as it is key to be seen by the public.



Some say his moves are aimed to position him as a supporter of the Moon Jae-in administration, which is being criticized for the sluggish economy, as he invites current politicians working for Moon onto his show to promote their policies. They add he may later look for a chance to get a government post near the end of Moon's presidency.



Analysts say, as a politician with presidential ambition, now is a bit early to promote himself as it gives the public more time to examine him. Many former presidents generally started their campaigns about one year before the election.



Some analysts say his pledge not to enter politics is intended to make himself more popular.



Yoon Tae-gon, an analyst of The Moa, a political think tank, said, "A figure will have more scarcity value like Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo who said in the past they would not to take part in politics."



"Every politician's goal is to become president. He may position himself as a supporter now and look for an opportunity to run later as Lee Nak-yon is doing," a political analyst said.

Thae Yong-ho / Korea Times file

By Kim Bo-eun



North Korea's new working-level nuclear negotiator Kim Hyok-chol is a "competent strategist," according to high-level North Korean defector Thae Yong-ho.



Kim Hyok-chol, who accompanied North Korea's top official Kim Yong-chol at the high-level meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington earlier this month, is set to replace Choe Son-hui, who had led working-level denuclearization talks with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun.



In a post on his website thaeyongho.com, Thae, who claimed he worked with Kim for many years at the North's foreign ministry, said the North's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan "cultivated" Kim, who served previously as North Korea's ambassador to Spain.



The blog post said Kim was born into a family of high-level diplomats, majored in French at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies and began working at the foreign ministry in the early 2000s, where he was placed in the division for drawing up foreign policy.



Kim Hyok-chol was a speech writer for Kim Kye-gwan when the latter was the North's chief envoy for the six-party talks back in 2005, the post said.



It said Kim Hyok-chol became the first to be promoted to vice director general level in his 30s in 2009, based on his contributions to the six party talks and dealing with the North's first nuclear test in 2006. He was promoted again to a vice minister-level position in 2012, which was also the first for a diplomat in his 30s.



Kim was appointed to serve as the first North Korean ambassador in Spain in late 2014.



Kim returned to Pyongyang after Spain expelled him in 2017 due to North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations at that time.



"The fact that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Kim Hyok-chol to the U.S. with Kim Yong-chol shows he placed that much importance on Kim Yong-chol's visit to the U.S.," Thae said.



Thae, who was deputy ambassador to the U.K., came to the South in 2016. He is known to be among the highest-level North Korean officials to have defected.

A serial rapist has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Korea Times file



A serial rapist has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for 10 sex crimes, including one he committed 15 years ago, court officials in the southeastern city of Gwangju said Sunday.

The Gwangju District Court also ordered the convict, surnamed Kim, to wear an electronic location-tracking device and receive an 80-hour educational program against sex crimes while banning institutions involving children from hiring him for a certain period.

The 53-year-old was charged with sexually assaulting women after breaking into their homes in Gwangju and Daejeon in 10 incidents between July 2003 and November 2006.

"Kim perpetrated the robbery and sex crimes without a sense of guilt, and thus the crimes are extremely bad. On top of that, he failed to get forgiveness from the victims," the court said in its ruling.

"It is inevitable for a heavy sentence to be meted out to him in consideration of the victims' psychological shock, which is hard to recover from, and their pain," it added.

Police initially had difficulty identifying the criminal although their analysis of DNA from crime scenes indicated that one person committed the crimes targeting women living alone.

But last February, Kim was caught sexually harassing clients of a fortunetelling shop where he worked. Police sent his DNA to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office for analysis and found he committed the past crimes.

He already served time in prison for a separate sex crime in the early 1990s. (Yonhap)Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the situation in Japan is not serious and people don't have to worry too much about influenza spreading here. / Courtesy of Gettyimagesbank



By Kim Jae-heun



Concern is growing here over an influenza outbreak in Japan that has been spreading at an alarming rate a week ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, during which a large number of Koreans are expected to visit the neighboring country.



According to Japanese media outlets, the number of flu patients was estimated at 5.41 million as of Sunday following an increase of 2.13 million last week.



During last year's Lunar New Year holiday, nearly 940,000 people traveled overseas, and over 24 percent of them visited Japan, according to the country's largest tour agency Hana Tour. A similar number of Koreans is expected to travel to various regions in Japan this year.



As a result, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is reviewing whether to designate Japan as a travel-alert area if the outbreak worsens.



Japan issues an alert and recognizes an outbreak as an epidemic when the average number of patients per hospital nationwide reaches 30.



The average number of flu patients is currently 52.65 per institution in Tokyo and 46.09 in Osaka, the two most popular tourist cities in Japan.



Nearly 6,280 nurseries and public schools have been closed due to the spread of influenza among children.



However, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said Sunday that the situation was not serious and people didn't have to worry too much about influenza spreading here.



"The trend in Japan is not at a particularly dangerous level. Japan saw a flu outbreak a little later than we did, and it's only the number of infected persons that has reached a peak," a KCDC official said.



"Usually five to 10 percent of the country's population get flu and Japan happens to have a larger number of patients because their population is bigger. What we see happening in Japan is a common occurrence."



However, the KCDC did urge people to get vaccinated as the country is also suffering from an influenza outbreak. In addition Korea is also witnessing a growing number of measles patients of late.



Senior citizens aged over 65 can get vaccinated for free at any health care center in the country regardless of their address.



Children from six months to one year old can visit designated medical institutions or health centers nearby their home for vaccination until April 30.



The KCDC recommends washing hands frequently in running water for more than 30 seconds with soap, and to cover the mouth with a napkin or sleeve when coughing.



"We recommend people to visit a hospital if they have a temperature over 38 degrees and are suffering from a fever and coughs or other suspected flu symptoms such as a sore throat," the KCDC said.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton walks on the driveway of the White House after an interview in Washington, Jan. 26 (KST). AP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



The United States wants North Korea to provide a list of its secret uranium enrichment facilities as a key prerequisite in exchange for possibly easing of economic sanctions, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday.



"Washington wants a list of Pyongyang's uranium enrichment facilities and secret nuclear weapons sites during the upcoming second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un," the official said.



The request follows the ongoing working-level talks between the two at which the U.S. is said to have asked the North to dismantle its nuclear research facility at Yongbyon and place its inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in Chinese custody.



"Washington wants Pyongyang to follow three steps in dismantling its nuclear program  to give a report, allow verification and announce a dismantlement timeline  because it wants to check on previous nuclear tests by North Korea and get details on the country's uranium enrichment facilities," the official said.



The request was "something that the North won't easily accept without trust building between Washington and Pyongyang," according to the official.



He added that President Moon Jae-in was on seeking to mediate and facilitate processes to keep the talks on dismantling the North's nuclear program alive ahead of the much-anticipated second meeting between Trump and Kim.



If the request is accepted and the U.S. offers reciprocal measures such as establishing a liaison office in Pyongyang and granting sanctions exemptions on halted inter-Korean economic projects, Trump's meeting with Kim could produce "substantial results" in terms of the North ending its nuclear program within the next couple years.





U.S. President Donald Trump meets President Moon Jae-in (unseen) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, as U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton looks on, May 22, 2018. AP-YonhapNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un receives reports on the result of the recent U.S. visit by North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Yong-chul, at an office in Pyongyang, in this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on Thursday. / Yonhap



Possible 'big deal' should include actual verification of NK's nuclear capability



By Lee Min-hyung



With the highly-anticipated second meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a month away, attention is growing over whether they can sign a possible "big deal" for denuclearization.



The pre-summit atmosphere does not look bad considering the series of positive signals from the two sides. By engaging in "letter" diplomacy this year, Trump and Kim exchanged their willingness for the meeting, raising hopes for fresh momentum in their denuclearization talks.



Washington and Pyongyang also held working- and high-level talks this month ahead of the summit to fine-tune the agenda and their differences for the summit.



U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said "real progress" has been made between the two, while the regime's young leader said Thursday he got a great letter from Trump and will wait "with patience and good faith."



Trump and Kim held their first historic meeting in June last year, but at that time, no specific agreements were made in their ongoing talks on denuclearization of the peninsula.



For this reason, calls have grown for the two sides to sign a specific and big deal in a way to move the North's denuclearization forward in a verifiable way.



Experts said the possible big deal can be realized only when both sides reach an agreement in a way to allow the U.S. to carry out "actual verification" on the North's nuclear capabilities.



"The worst-case scenario is that the U.S. begins easing economic sanctions on the North without verifying its nuclear capability in detail," Shin Beom-chul, senior director of the research unit at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said.



"My view is that any deal, which includes agreements on verification, is a big deal," he said.



In May last year, North Korea demolished its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the presence of outside observers, in a show of its willingness for denuclearization. But critics argued that the event was nothing more than a political show, as no actual verification was conducted.



In an apparent move to reflect on the suspicions of international society, Kim pledged to dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility with verification by outside experts during the inter-Korean summit in September.



But the promise has yet to be realized, as Kim urged Washington to take a corresponding step beforehand in exchange for a string of the regime's denuclearization steps, such as the dismantling of Punggye-ri.



To speed up the deadlocked momentum for denuclearization, the U.S. and North Korea are engaging in secret talks before the second summit tentatively scheduled for late next month.



"Both sides hold a set of bargaining chips to exchange during their upcoming summit to seek a breakthrough for the resumption of their denuclearization talks," Shin said.



"The North is likely to offer to not just dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear facility, but scrap its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)," Shin said.



In recent weeks, the U.S. media has raised the possibility that Washington may sign the so-called "ICBM deal" with the North, as part of a short-term approach before complete denuclearization.



This is because the U.S. has viewed the North's ICBMs as one of the most threatening weapons, as they are capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.





North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Yong-chol gives a letter from his regime's leader Kim Jong-un to U.S. President Donald Trump on a visit to the White House in Washington D.C. Jan. 18 (local time). / Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho







The price of bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, is still overvalued and "will go to zero" eventually, according to Jeff Schumacher, founder of BCG Digital Ventures.





"I do believe it will go to zero. I think it's a great technology but I don't believe it's a currency. It's not based on anything," the prominent crypto investor said during a discussion in Davos, Switzerland,

reported last week.





Glenn Hutchins, chairman of North Island, said bitcoin's role in the future may be focused on being a store of value.





"It might be that the role of bitcoin in the system could be to bring value back, to hold your value there while you have other tokens you aren't using at the moment," Hutchins said.





"I am much less interested in investing around bitcoin as a currency unit or a currency equivalent, or even the blockchain as an accounting ledger. I am thinking much more about the protocols. In other words, what is the underlying protocol going to do as a consequence of which, which tokens are valuable or not."





The comments underscored investors' growing skepticism about cryptocurrencies.





According to Coin Market Cap, a popular data source for price changes in crypto assets, the bitcoin price peaked at $19,310 per coin on Dec. 17, 2017, but crashed to $4,100 per coin as of Dec. 1, 2018. It was worth $3,606 per coin Jan. 27.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Why lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) at all when one has to be at least 18 years old to vote and drink?

This was what former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said during CNN Philippines' second Senatorial Forum on Sunday when he was asked whether he was in favor of lowering the MACR.

"Eighteen years old ang age of majority. Bakit natin paparusahan, bakit natin ikukulong ang mga kabataan sa mas murang edad na 12 or nine?" Roxas said.

[Translation: 18 years old is the age of majority. Why would we punish, why would we jail our children at a much younger age at 12 or nine?]

The House of Representatives passed on second reading last Wednesday House Bill No. 8858 which seeks to hold children as young as 12 years old responsible for crimes. This was a last minute amendment to the bill which originally proposed lowering the MACR to nine, which drew criticism from rights groups and some lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Senate Justice panel chair Richard "Dick" Gordon, who voted in 2006 to increase the MACR from nine to 15, said his panel would recommend to lower the MACR to 12.

Former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said he favors this proposal, but is against lowering the MACR to nine.

"As a professor of international law, the [UN] Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)  has recommended that the minimum age should be 12, it should not be below 12," Roque said during the forum.

The UN CRC's General Comment No. 10 said it is not "internationally acceptable" for the MACR to be below 12 years old. But it encouraged state parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, like the Philippines, to "increase their lower MACR to the age of 12 years as the absolute minimum age and to continue to increase it to a higher age level."

For his part, former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan said age should not be the main consideration in the debates surrounding the proposal to lower the MACR.

"The most essential part of the problem here which is prevention," Alunan said. "The important thing is for the parents to be very much involved in protecting the young and making sure that they don't get into trouble. I think whether the age limit is lowered to 12 or nine, I think the parents should be held accountable."

Under the House proposal, any adult who would induce or coerce children to commit crimes would be punished with a jail term of up to 40 years.

Parents of children who run in conflict with the law who fail to attend mandatory counselling programs may also be jailed for up to six years.

President Rodrigo Duterte has long been pushing for the lowering of the MACR, having repeatedly criticized the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act for creating a "generation" of criminals.

Duterte said he is fine with lowering the MACR to 12.The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) opened its Cheongju branch last December. The MMCA Cheongju serves as a gallery, and storage and restoration laboratory space. Courtesy of MMCA

First Hockney exhibit in Korea to open in March



By Kwon Mee-yoo



Last year, the Korean art market enjoyed a boom  for the first time, over 200 billion won ($180 million) was siphoned into art auctions. The vitality in the market is likely to expand to the art field in general as museums and galleries are packed with exhibitions of Korean and international artists, coinciding with historic occasions.





Argentine artist Leandro Erlich's "Batiment" will be on view at the Seoul Museum of Art in November. Courtesy of SeMA



International big names



The most anticipated exhibition in Korea in 2019 would be the most expensive living artist's first-ever solo exhibition here. Hockney is known for his paintings of swimming pools suburban Californian homes in high-keyed colors and his 1972 painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" fetched a whopping $90.3 million at Christie's in November 2018, showcasing the British Pop artist's iconic style.



The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) will hold the Hockney retrospective slated for March 22 in collaboration with Tate Modern in London. The exhibit will feature some 130 works by Hockney, including "A Bigger Splash" (1967) and the "Hotel Acatlan" series (1984-85).



The SeMA also invited Argentine artist Leandro Erlich for a solo exhibition at its branch Buk-Seoul Museum of Art from Nov. 26, featuring Erlich's installations employing optical illusion such as "Batiment."



The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) commissioned American neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer for permanent installation of a stone sculpture at its Gwacheon branch along with LED sculptures at Seoul branch in November.



Works of the late Danish artist Asger Jorn, known for his CoBrA group activities, will meet Korean visitors at the MMCA Seoul in April.



Kukje Gallery will introduce artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset's whimsical works in March and Swiss-born artist Ugo Rondinone's large-scale sculptures in May.



Tomas Saraceno, who presented "Our Interplanetary Bodies" at the Asia Culture Center in southern city of Gwangju in 2017, will hold a solo exhibition at Gallery Hyundai in October.





"Ecriture No. 011107" by of "Dansaekhwa" (Korean monochrome painting) artist Park Seo-bo, who will hold an exhibition at the MMCA in May. Courtesy of MMCA



Modern Korean masters



Gallery Hyundai sheds light on Korean ink-and-wash painting masters Yi Sang-beom (1897-1972) and Pyon Kwan-sik (1899-1976). The gallery said it is part of their continued effort on promoting the importance of Korean traditional art, following a major "minhwa" (Korean folk painting) exhibition in 2018.



International art community's attention on "Dansaekhwa," or Korean monochrome painting, continues in 2019.



The MMCA hosts an exhibition of Park Seo-bo, a founding member of the Dansaekhwa movement, in May at its Seoul branch, featuring his iconic "Ecriture" series. Kukje Gallery will present a Ha Chong-hyun show at its newly opened Busan branch in May.



Minjung art movement painter Min Joung-ki, who recently brought into spotlight as his work "Bukhansan Mountain" was hung behind North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, holds a solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery, starting Tuesday.



The MMCA opened its Cheongju branch, which doubles as the museum's storage as well as gallery space, last December. At the new branch, the museum will present more visitor-friendly works in its visible storages. Currently, "A Day for Counting Stars: The Story of You & Me" is on view.





The Seoul Museum of Art will present the first solo exhibition of David Hockney, the most expensive living artist, in March, featuring his famous 1967 painting "A Bigger Splash." Courtesy of SeMA.Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Partly cloudy. High near 90F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low near 70F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.The public got a sneak peak at the new Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin Kenosha Clinic during an open house Saturday.

The clinic, featuring expanded services, an urgent care unit and a child advocacy center, officially opens Feb. 4.

The 30,000-square-foot clinic located at 6809 122nd Ave., just off Interstate 94, consolidates specialty and primary care services with an on-site laboratory, imaging and community services into one multi-purpose location. It will have a staff of 40 medical professionals and support staff.

Suzanne Fischer, executive director of primary care services, said its a one-stop medical facility that was developed as a component of the Childrens Hospital of Wisconsins strategy of providing care close to home.

Our goal is to have a one-stop facility that provides easy access to pediatric care, she said.

Fischer said the strategy is to place clinics in areas that are convenient for families.

The Kenosha location was selected because it is in a rapidly growing area, and there is easy access on I-94.

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With this facility, families do not have to travel to Milwaukee to access care for their children, Fischer said.Pakistan Oilfields Ltd Medical Jobs 2019 in Attock

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Company Address: Pakistan Oilfields Limited POL House, Morgah, Rawalpindi

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.Headquarters Quetta Logistic Area Quetta Cantt Job 2019

Latest Pakistan Army Army jobs Posts Quetta 2021 Pakistan Army Headquarters Quetta Logistic Area required qualified, educated and experienced person for the position of Stenographer in Quetta Cantt Balochistan 2019.

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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.GINUM Cancer Hospital Jobs 2019 in Gujranwala

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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.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  The water sources of at least three establishments along Manila Bay were cut off after being found violating environmental laws.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) issued cease and desist orders Sunday to Aristocrat Restaurant along Roxas Boulevard, Gloria Maris Shark's Fin Restaurant within the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex, and San Miguel by the Bay at the Esplanade for discharging wastewater directly to the Manila Bay.

Deparment of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu and Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano led the delivery of the cease and desist orders for closure of water supply.

However, the DENR said no one was stopping the businesses from operating.

LLDA General Manager Jaime Medina said the owners of the establishments could lose their mayor's permit and environmental compliance certificate should they fail to correct their violations.

There was also no deadline given for them to do so.

Meanwhile, a crew member of the Aristocrat Restaurant told CNN Philippines they are still open for business.

Cimatu said the government will exert all efforts to win what he called "The Battle of Manila Bay" and restore it to its "former glory."

In an earlier statement, Cimatu said, "This is a battle that will be won not with force or arms but with the firm resolve to bring Manila Bay back to life... With the commitment and determination of every Filipino to do his share in this rehabilitation effort, we have already won the battle for Manila Bay."

The DENR earlier said 47 billion will be alloted for the bay's cleanup.

The budget will also be used to look for relocation sites of affected families living near the bay.

Along with the ceremonial launch, simultaneous cleanup activities will be held in parts of Las Pinas and Navotas, and towns in Bulacan, Bataan and Pampanga.

In a speech on January 9, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to close down restaurants near the Manila Bay without proper water treatment systems, following his order to rehabilitate the polluted body of water.

On January 22, the Manila Zoo  another Manila landmark  was ordered temporarily closed by city authorities pending improvements in line with the Manila Bay rehabilitation.

Manila City Hall Administrator Ericson Alcovendaz said Mayor Joseph "Erap" Estrada issued the order to give way for the construction of sewer lines for zoo waste. He said it will be closed until the construction is finished.

CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.Nigerias minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has said that those criticising the suspension of Walter Onnoghen, the Chief justice of Nigeria are insincere.

The minister said this on Saturday, while speaking with journalists in Kwara state. Mr Mohammed also reacted reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suspended its presidential campaign in protest for the CJNs suspension.

According to the Minister, there has to more to the relationship between the opposition party and Onnoghen, that they would suspend their campaign because of his suspension.

He however took a swipe at the PDP saying the suspension of their campaign means nothing because the partys campaign was already over.

In his words words:

Which Campaign? Their campaign was over a long time ago. There is nothing to suspend. We said it that their campaign had floundered.

And in any event, lets ask this question: Is there something that they know that we dont know? Is there something between them and the suspended CJN? Otherwise, we did not see why they should suspend their campaign anyway, but I can understand that their campaign was bound to end this way.

For anybody who read Mr. Presidents address yesterday, two things stood out. The first is that additional evidence has just been revealed that the suspended CJN refused to declare millions of dollars in his possession.

More worrisome is the fact that when the suspended CJN was confronted with the petition that he failed to declare his assets, he added that it was a mistake, that he forgot.

Now, I would have been a happier person if the same people who are now crying tyranny and dictatorship could really address the issue raised by the President, in his address on Friday, that addition investigations have revealed that several millions of dollars were found in the CJNs account.

And when the CJN was confronted with the original allegation, he admitted that he forgot to make full declaration, and that it was a mistake.

The critics are being hypocritical and insincere to say that it is right for a CJN to be in possession of millions of dollars unaccounted for and not declared as required by law.Former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose and former presidential aide, Reno Omokri have reacted to a statement credited to Garba Shehu, president Muhammadu Buharis senior special assistant on media and publicity.

According to the statement, Nigeria will not appreciate foreign interference in its affairs. The statement reads thus:

Nigeria reserves the right to be insulated from suggestions and or interference with respect to wholly internal affairs and commends international laws, customs and norms that mandate and require nations and the comity to respect this prerogative to all.

Nigeria is confident of its electoral processes and her preparation for the imminent elections and the Federal Government has supported the independent electoral umpire in both its independence and resources needed to accomplish our desire and insistence on free and fair elections.

Although, the question of foreign interference, whether state-sponsored, promoted or otherwise has dominated recent elections and outcomes globally, the Federal Government assures citizens and the global community that it will fiercely and assiduously promote the will and the right of Nigerians to choose and elect their leaders without pressure or assistance from persons or entities that are not constitutionally empowered to participate in the process.

In their reactions, Fayose and Omokri said that Buhari, who goes abroad for medical treatment, is now warning. The same country to mind their business.

Fayose

When a President who has been going to UK for medicare since 1971 is now kicking against foreign interference in the affairs of Nigeria, one can only relax and watch as the end beckons.

May God free Nigeria from this Hitler.

When a President who has been going to UK for medicare since 1971 is now kicking against foreign interference in the affairs of Nigeria, one can only relax and watch as the end beckons. May God free Nigeria from this Hitler.  Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) January 27, 2019

Omokri

I read President @MBuharis threat to the US/UK/EU. This is a man who depends on them for his healthcare. Without foreign healthcare, Buhari may have died. To Buhari I quote Madison If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemyVanguard

Three weeks to the 2019 general elections, the gloves are off for the two leading presidential candidates. To President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, his main rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,

ThisDay

His passion could be mistaken for an unusual aggression whenever he wanted to respond to a question or an assertion that he felt was not accurate.

The Sun

The Presidency has said that the Buhari administration will not bend the rules in regard to its fight against corruption, adding that it will not tolerate interference from international community in Nigerias internal affairs.

Guardian

Daily Times

Youths from Ijaw speaking part of the country have described the suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen, as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, by President Muhammadu Buhari, as apt, timely and a welcome development. The youth group, while declaring a persona non grata on the embattled CJN, said people from south south region were not thieves.

Daily Trust

President Muhammadu Buharis decision on Friday evening to suspend Chief Justice of Nigeria [CJN] Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen based on the order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, with three weeks to go before presidential and general elections, is a tragedy.

Tribune

As the controversy over the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari festers, the jurist appointed in acting capacity to replace him, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed, is facing a serious backlash among his colleagues at the Supreme Court, Sunday Tribune has learnt.

The Nation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.The speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, said Saturday that he is ready to meet with officials of the Nicolas Maduro government in order to end what he considers the usurping of the presidency by the Chavista leader, though without confirming any such meeting had occurred.

Were ready to meet with all the officials, to come together to end the usurpation, establish a transition government and hold free elections, Guaido told hundreds of people at an open town council meeting in Caracas.

Guaido would not say if he had met or not with specific officials, not only civil servants...but also from other branches, in order to keep them safe.

He said the information would be released at the right time out of respect for the lives of the officials who are willing to accept the law of amnesty.

On Friday, Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez showed proof of a supposed meeting between Guaido and the head of the Chavista National Constituent Assembly (ANC), Diosdado Cabello.

Rodriguez presented a video taken from security cameras showing a man wearing a hooded sweater and with a cap covering his face, walking in a hotel followed by attorney Roberto Marrero - linked to the opposition - and Chavista leaders Diosdado Cabello and Freddy Bernal.

According to Rodriguez, the hooded man is Guaido heading for a meeting with the Chavistas, whom he supposedly told that he was being pressured by the United States and by the leader of his party - Voluntad Popular - the imprisoned Leopoldo Lopez.

Guaido did not confirm the truth of that account, while telling the Chavistas to release whatever you want.

That same day, Cabello said he would reveal exactly what was discussed at that meeting if Guaido continues to deny it ever happened.

Guaido designated himself this Wednesday as interim president of Venezuela, a step the United States was the first country to accept since it considers Maduros reelection illegitimate.

After the US, other governments on the continent like Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile also recognized Guaido, while Mexico, Cuba and Bolivia maintained their support of Maduro, as did Russia, China and Turkey.Jakarta: Australia's very particular and peculiar love affair with the Indonesian island of Bali is well-established, to the point where some even joke the island could be our seventh state. (Sorry New Zealand, but this story aint about you.)

Bali can be a crazy rite of passage for some Australians, a luxury escape for others, while for some it will be about as exotic and foreign as they will ever get in an overseas trip.

But on a recent visit with my young family to Bali's beach side suburb of Seminyak, for a week of post-Christmas rest and relaxation, I was struck by just how different Bali seemed when arriving from Jakarta, rather than Canberra (my most recent home in Australia).

Like so many Aussies, I had visited Bali a couple of times before moving to Indonesia in March last 2018 and loved it.Three men have been charged over a shooting at a Port Kennedy house on the Australia Day long weekend.

The Bounty Court home was shot at about 3am on Sunday, January 27, with the shot going through the front window of the property.

None of the home's occupants were injured.

WA Police executed two search warrants in relation to the incident and took several people into custody on Monday.

A 27-year-old man and 37-year old man from Port Kennedy, and a 29-year old Spearwood man have been charged with criminal damage, unlawful act or omission with intent to harm, possessing unlicensed firearm, and possessing firearm with circumstances of aggravation.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  The Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) said the bombing of a Catholic church in Jolo, Sulu on Sunday has killed 18 people, lowering the earlier death toll announced by the police.

In its 6 pm update, the Westmincom said 18 people12 civilians and 6 soldierswere killed in the two explosions that rocked the town's Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Police Regional Office of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) earlier put the number of casualties at 20.

Meanwhile, the Westmincom said 82 others65 civilians and 17 soldierswere injured following the incident. Among them, were two members of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), who sustained wounds and burns. One of them is currently in critical condition and will be moved to Zamboanga City to seek immediate medical treatment, the PCG said.

Lt. Col. Gerry Besana, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Western Mindanao Command spokesperson, said two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were set off during a mass, around 8:28 am, Sunday. One of the bombs detonated inside the church while the other was in the cathedral's parking lot.

Besana added that most of the casualties were from the Philippine Army's 35th Battalion, tasked to secure Jolo town proper.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana condemned the bombing and ordered troops to secure all public places and "places of worship." He assured the public that the explosion area is already secured and the injured were transported to available medical facilities.

Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chair Senator Richard Gordon called for all chapters to be on full alert status. Two teams from the Zamboanga City chapter are also on standby to provide emergency assistance, the PRC post on Facebook said.

"We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

The explosion comes after the Commission on Elections announced the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) on Friday, following a plebiscite where all provinces under the ARMM voted for its approval. Sulu was among the provinces that voted to reject the BOL.

National Security Adviser Jun Esperon noted the timing of the events, however, maintained that the ratification of the BOL will end conflict in Mindanao.

"We have yet to establish if the 2 explosion are related to the all - important BOL. THe BOL ends the secssionist narrative. The BOL signifies the end of war for secession. It stands for peace in Mindanao," Esperon said.

He added that the attacks will not deter the government's push for peace and order.

"The perpetrators are mass murderers. They are extremist criminals. We will not allow them to spoil the preference of the people for peace," the secretary added.

This is a developing story.

CNN Philippines Digital Producer Janine Peralta contributed to this report.Up for debate:

Live legislation tracker

Check out the latest developments on bills pending before state lawmakers in four key topics.Trusted local news has never been more important, but providing the information you need, information that can change sometimes minute-by-minute, requires a partnership with you, our readers. Please consider making a contribution today to support this vital resource that you and countless others depend on.Humanitarian aid is the center of our policy, and we are working on the logistics, Guaido said. We believe this will be a new dilemma for the regime and the armed forces. Theyll have to decide if theyre on the side of the people and want to heal the country, or if they will ignore it. I believe were going to achieve it. Theyre going to let it in.But Attorney General Andre Mendonca placed blame squarely on the company and said the government needs to take steps to ensure that this type of disaster doesnt happen again. He said he was weighing criminal and civil charges against the company.In one of the worst incidents, as many as 39 civilians were alleged to have been killed in Baghuz earlier this month when vehicles in which they were trying to flee were struck by coalition warplanes. In a separate incident, the United States said Friday that it had launched an investigation into the death of a mother and the injury of two of her children when their car was allegedly hit by an airstrike.Britain will be glued to Parliament TV again this week for the next episode of the hit dramedy known as Brexit. The BBCs public-service television channel has become such a ratings smash that it briefly bested MTV, purveyor of Teen Mom. The star of it all is Bercow, 56, a pint-size disciplinarian and champion shade-thrower who is the 157th person to wield the ceremonial mace, but who is the most theatrical, sharp-tongued and proactive speaker in modern time.Analysts say, however, that the attacks bear the hallmark of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has long been active in Jolo and is known to have its base of operations in the province. The militant group has been listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Various abductions, bombings and killings have been attributed to it, including the 2001 kidnapping of three American citizens.Hes certainly going to have Democratic opposition for partisan reasons and Republicans opposed based on the precedent it sets, former White House legislative director Marc Short said in an interview. But there is one thing some Republicans say to the media, and then there is what they say quietly to each other when the camera is not on: I sure wish hed do it. I think there is some theory under which you could include them in such a conspiracy, and I wonder why not, said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney. Is it that they dont think the evidence goes that far? Is it that they think this conduct does not amount to a conspiracy to defraud the United States and it is instead dirty, political tricks?Thats a question that Id have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion, the longtime Republican operative and friend of President Trump told ABCs This Week on Sunday. If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I didnt know about  which I know of none  but if there is, I would certainly testify honestly.En una noche que podria ser de mucha nostalgia, por el recuerdo del legendario Hector Macho Camacho y la ultima pelea del gran campeon mexicano, Julio Cesar Chavez (107-6-2, 85 KOs) enfrentara a Hector Camacho Jr. (59-7-1, 33 KOs), en un duelo de exhibicion que se celebrara en el Estadio Jalisco este sabado, 19 de junio.Police say woman hid dismembered body for months: Officials say a Florida woman killed her boyfriend, dismembered his body in a camper trailer and drove it two hours away, covering up the crime for months. Sumter County sheriff's deputies arrested Penny Rebecca Pospisil, 47, on Friday on charges of second-degree murder and mutilation of a dead body. Authorities say Anthony Mitchell, 55, died of blunt force trauma in August after he started living with Pospisil in Lake Panasoffkee. In September, Pospisil drove the camper trailer to Melbourne. Police discovered Mitchell's body Dec. 30.Another recent probe found former Metro employees owe the agency nearly $340,000 for pay they received while they were no longer working there. According to the audit, Metro failed to take actions such as notifying the human resources and payroll departments and deactivating the employees direct deposits after they had departed. The claims date as far back as 2008. (For comparison, Metro estimated it lost $400,000 a day during the federal government shutdown.)His attorney, David Booth, said he had advised Garcia-Gaona not to speak  because of the appeal, and because the hearing was not the time to restate the position they had taken at trial: that Garcia-Gaona knew about the planned killings before and after they happened, but did not take part in them. Our case is what we put forth at trial, Booth said. We thought the victims families had been through enough.I fully appreciate the federalism component of this debate, but as a general proposition, eligibility issues have been delegated to the states, said Feldman, a former Department of Justice attorney. Attorney General Frosh has not been shy about weighing in on these issues. To the extent there is any legal question raised about any bill, we will clarify them.Higher wages are among the issues Pedersen and other educators from throughout Virginia plan to trumpet when they converge Monday in Richmond for a march to the Capitol. The rally, organized by the grass-roots group Virginia Educators United, is expected to mark the latest example of educators taking to the streets to protest a lack of money for public schools.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Breslin and Hamill opens in late 1984 as Jimmy Breslin, then a columnist at the New York Daily News, takes the morally correct but certainly minority opinion about Bernhard Goetz, a white, 44-year-old electrical engineer who shot four black teenagers on a New York subway car after they demanded cash. We see Breslin in his full-blown, trademark bombast and righteousness, making the rounds on TV (Donahue, back then), happy to tell people how wrong they are. Despite popular support for Goetzs vigilantism at first, Breslin files column after column against the tide, repeatedly noting how many of the kids were shot in the back, while fleeing.It is all part of a broader effort to relieve traffic in congested cities as the company seeks to usher in a future of safe, low-stress mobility in cities and regions around the world, Boeing NeXt General Manager Steve Nordlund said in the companys announcement.Holocaust victims remembered in Rome 74 years after Auschwitz liberation.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2019 is being marked in Rome with dozens of memorial events until 1 February.

The Settimana della Memoria events are based mainly at the Casa della Memoria e della Storia, in Trastevere, which presents a free programme of films, documentaries, exhibitions, interviews, lectures, readings and book presentations.

Established in 2005 by the United Nations to commemorate the day in 1945 that the survivors of Auschwitz were liberated by the Russian army, the initiative honours the memory of the millions of Jews  but also homosexuals, Romany people and others  who suffered persecution, deportation, imprisonment and genocide.

Each January since 2010 Rome has installed a number of brass cobblestone-sized memorials commemorating victims of the Holocaust. Known as stolpersteine in German, or literally translated stumbling stones, the memorials are the work of Berlin artist Gunter Demnig.

The plaques are installed outside the last chosen place of residence of victims of the Holocaust, detailing their first and last names, date of birth, date and place of deportation, and date of death in a Nazi extermination camp.

On 15 and 16 January 2019 Rome installed 26 new brass cobblestone memorials to Jewish victims of the Holocaust at various locations throughout the capital, from the historic centre to the suburbs.

Among those honoured was Dario Funaro, a 13-year-old boy who joined the partisans in their fight against advancing German troops at Porta S. Paolo on 10 September 1943.

Just over one month later, on 16 October 1943, Dario was among the 1,023 Roman Jews rounded up and deported to Auschwitz where he perished alongside his parents and seven-year-old brother.

Four memorial stones in honour of Dario and his family were installed outside their former home on Via Maiella.

Rome also replaced the 20 stolpersteine stolen from a street in Rome's central Monti district in December.

Cover photo LaPresse.Shutdown blues

I thank you for publishing the letters of J.R. Chapman and Randy Broussard. This unnecessary government shutdown has hurt so many people, not only federal workers going without pay but our broader economy.

Dont Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Texas Republicans, realize the majority of citizens in Texas and across the country do not want this wall? I recently approached Republican Congressman Bill Flores, who represents Waco, to let him know my thoughts and that I was not in favor of using my tax money to pay for it! (Trib opinion editor Bill Whitaker chronicled this personal encounter in his Jan. 13 column, When the buck stops nowhere.) The congressman did not agree with my opinion.

Federal workers may try to find other jobs and our government will be left with no one to do the job in a dependable and functional manner. The president has professionally been bankrupt several times. With actions such as this shutdown (which could commence again in three weeks), he is on track to ruin our economy. Does anyone still think Donald Trump is a savvy businessman  or a clown who cares only about himself?

Sharon Chandler, Hewitt

***Considering how easily businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump outmaneuvered U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in combative primary elections to win the Republican nomination for president in 2016, one might have hoped Trump studied more closely the senators earlier political failures so he could smartly avoid them himself. By now its pretty clear he didnt scrutinize the astonishment if not anger that many Capitol Hill Republicans had when in 2013 tea party Republican Cruz briefly shut down the federal government over Affordable Care Act funding without a political exit strategy. In the end, the Republican Party got blamed for the mess. And Republicans in turn blamed Cruzs self-indulgence and ego.

Lets hope our president has proven a more apt pupil this time around, given hes just been given a blistering course in political brinkmanship and constitutional checks and balances. First lesson: If you plan to initiate a government shutdown, dont be too quick to own it, and on national TV with members of the loyal opposition present, on the chance everything goes south. For 35 days, Trump never could wiggle out of responsibility for this stupid declaration made in anger to Democratic leadership: I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down  Im not going to blame you for it!The heart of any school is the teacher. The only way to ensure that every Texas child receives a quality education is to place a well-educated, well-prepared teacher in every classroom. That truth will never change.

The attractiveness of teaching, however, continues to decline. The results are tragic. Labor Department statistics reveal public educators are leaving the profession at the highest rate in 20 years. Low pay and disrespect are key factors in this alarming decline.

The 86th Texas Legislature has the job of remedying the states public school finance system. As historians of education, we think some background is helpful.

The last time Texas overhauled public school finance was immediately following World War II. The need for change was great. Many young Texans had been denied the opportunity to serve during the war because of their poor level of education.Back in the day, small rural airports had textile windsocks, simple and empty things that indicated which way the wind was blowing. The ubiquitous Sen. Lindsey Graham has become a political windsock, and as such he  more than the sturdy, substantial elephant  is emblematic of his party today.

When in 1994, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, first ran for Congress, he promised to be one less vote for an agenda that makes you want to throw up. A quarter of a century later, Graham himself is a gastrointestinal challenge. In the last three years he had a road-to-Damascus conversion.

In 2015, he said Donald Trump is a jackass. In February 2016, he said: Im not going to try to get into the mind of Donald Trump, because I dont think theres a whole lot of space there. I think hes a kook, I think hes crazy, I think hes unfit for office. And: Im a Republican and hes not. Hes not a conservative Republican. Hes an opportunist. Today, Graham, paladin of conservatism and scourge of opportunism, says building the border wall is an existential matter for the GOP: If we undercut the president, thats the end of his presidency and the end of our party. Well.Plumb said soldiers didnt always take things seriously, such as the time two women were caught trying to destroy communication wires. Some of the soliders laughed about it.

When he got into that first firefight and cut his forehead, thats when he realized how serious it was. It helped me realize I could be killed, Plumb said. I knew the war was serious, but I had never killed a human being before. But if you want to go home, its either them or you.

Plumb said even the children were involved in the war and could be quite dangerous. Children as young as 10, 11 and 12 would carry machine guns and rifles and knew how to use them. Once, tragically, when soldiers were transporting ammo, they came across a child in a tree with an AK-47, shooting at the them. They had no choice but to fire back.

Life doesnt mean to them what it means to us, Plumb said. Its like you went 100 years back in time.

That included the lifestyle. Many times, Plumb said, the locals would take anything a GI would throw out and make some astounding things with it, such as a beer can house. It was amazing to see the stuff they did with what you threw out, he said.Africas population is predicted to double in size by 2050. In Finland, we have the opposite problem - our birth rate is in steady decline. The number of births this year is the lowest is has been in a hundred years. As the population continues to age, the questions we must ask are whether we will have enough qualified people to look after children, the elderly and the sick in the future? And what should be done about this?

ITS A QUESTION that has also been considered in Parliament. As lawmakers, it is our responsibility to encourage young couples in Finland to start families. Are there any societal barriers preventing people from having children, and if so, what should be done about them?

One solution is to reform the parental leave system. Parliamentary parties and unions have already presented their own models for the reform. One thing they have in common is a proposition to allocate more of the paid parental leave to fathers.

I am personally not enthusiastic about this proposal. I understand that there are certain, slightly old-fashioned, male-dominated fields of work where it is seen as odd that men would like to stay at home to look after their children. The suggested parental leave model proposes that a third of the parental leave is used by each of the parents, with the remaining third to be distributed according to the parents wishes. In my opinion, this model sounds inflexible. The results of the recent survey published by the Family Federation of Finland reflect my opinion.

According to the families in the survey, they have the most expertise when it comes to deciding which of the parents stay at home and for how long. Usually the parent with the highest salary remains at work. There are many reasons for this, one of them being that men and women are still interested in different fields. For example, in many entrepreneur families the father may continue to work while the mother stays at home even after the discontinuation of aid. In these cases, the reform would worsen rather than improve the situation for the family. I dont want to be involved with any kind of parental leave reform that in reality is simply a savings operation masked as an improvement for families.

My four children were born in slightly different periods of my life. In some cases, the child has brought a much-needed break between different jobs. When you have a larger family and many young children at the same time, you are forced to learn to become organised. Its a useful skill that can be implemented into any kind of work.

Its also important to be flexible when combining work and family so that part-time work and different positions of responsibility can be combined with parental leave. No one has to work full-time from their twenties until they retire. If one does part-time work or projects, they are able to remain part of working life, even if they havent returned to work full-time. This is something that is also appreciated by employers.

Parenthood shouldnt be made into something that is overly problematic. We can also talk about children in a positive light. For example, we can talk about the things we are able to do despite, and maybe even thanks to, the fact that we have children.

We are exposed to many voices in the media that tell us that once we have children, everything else in our life must be placed aside. This isnt the case. I personally wouldve become an even more insufferable leader and politician without my children. Now an uptight over-achiever like myself has been able to find some degree of relaxation and patience. With children things dont always go as planned, and sometimes they can go even better than expected.

Besides, children dont remain children forever. If by the time they reach adulthood, and children are happy to visit their parents and spend time with them, parents can finally breathe a sigh of relief: perhaps the balance between work, family and other aspects of life has been found after all. We should make it easier for people to choose their path themselves.

Pia Kauma, MP National Coalition Party

Translation: Maria TimkoHe became proficient in English, French, Spanish, German and Hebrew, according to the historical association. He started a newspaper in Kingston, Jamaica, went to New Orleans in 1836 and visited the Republic of Texas after the Battle of San Jacinto. He later served in the Texas Legislature and owned a successful land agency.

De Cordova was known to give speeches in the Northeast, persuading residents there to move to Texas.

Alfred Solano, president and CEO of the Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the painting of de Cordova is the perfect addition to the chambers building on La Salle Avenue.

One of the key elements of this chamber is to promote diversity and representation, Solano said. And this shows you that the roots of this community, the basis of this community, is that type of person. Thats our part of this.

De Romero, Solano and Monica Shannon, the executive director of Texas Fine Artists, mused this week about why de Cordova seems to be a forgotten figure in history, at least in their own informal surveys with Waco residents today.

Did his diverse heritage disqualify him from greater accomplishments? Has he just not been honored properly for his contributions to Central Texas?Its really fun and rewarding to see a group of people who have clear priorities, that are clear eyed and moving forward and building out, I think, what could be a really unique space in our city, Meek said.

Meek and others are rummaging through the toolbox of economic mechanisms that could formally shape the area.

The creation of an overlay zoning district, which would set design standards for new developments, is absolutely on the table, he said. It would require approval from the city planning department, the Waco City Plan Commission and city council.

Another option is to explore the formation of a public improvement district, or PID, in which business owners within the district pay an assessment that funds neighborhood assets such as security guards and lampposts. Waco has three such districts, the most active one being in the central business district.

Meek said the city will also roll out new models for economic development incentives this year. These grants, which he declined to specify, will likely target businesses outside of the downtown Tax Increment Financing Zone, which has helped fund redevelopment between 12th Street and the Elm Avenue corridor.Hugo Madrid has opened The Humble Fork restaurant in the historic Pampell's building downtown at the corner of Water and Sidney Baker streets, serving "Southern comfort" food at both lunch and dinner as of this week. He described the menu as created in a "scratch kitchen" as patrons order meals.UPDATE:

Troopers say Patricia Pope, 74, of Petersburg, Tennessee was pronounced dead at the site of the wreck. She was driving a 2010 Toyota Camry with two children in the car when her car collided with a 2009 GMC Sierra driven by a 18-year-old New Market man. The two children and driver of the GMC Sierra were transported to the hospital for their injuries.

Alabama State Troopers said three other people in the car (above) were taken to the hospital for their injuries. Alabama State Troopers said three other people in the car (above) were taken to the hospital for their injuries.

Troopers are still investigating.

A woman died Saturday afternoon after Alabama State Troopers said she was part of a two-vehicle wreck in New Market.

Troopers told WAAY 31 that around 12:35 p.m., as a car was pulling away from a stop sign at the intersection of Buddy Williamson Road and Butler Road, it was hit by a truck.

Three of the people in the car that was struck were taken to the hospital with injuries. The driver of the truck was also transported to the hospital to be checked out, according to officials at the scene.

WAAY 31 spoke with the Madison County Coroner's Office who said they are not releasing the name of the woman who was killed since they are still working on notifying any extended family.

Investigators haven't determined if any charges will be filed in relation to the accident.

Neighbors in the area told WAAY31 that wrecks are common in this intersection.

"Its kind of a blindspot. Its got a rise in the road it needs a flashing light or some kind of speed bumps or something," said Tim Hall.

District 1 County Commissioner Roger Jones said next week officials will be taking a look at the intersection.

"I'm going to meet with the county engineer to see if he can make some recommendations to make it safer," said Jones.Photo: Big Beach Films/Courtesy of Sundance Institute

This review was originally published during 2019s Sundance Film Festival. We are republishing the piece as the film hits theaters this weekend.

Chinese people have a saying: When people get cancer, they die. These are the words of wisdom imparted to Brooklyn twentysomething Billi (Awkwafina) by her mother while delivering the news of her beloved grandma Nai Nais lung cancer diagnosis. Theyre clearly little comfort, but also prove to be anything but reliable in the turn of events that follows.

The Farewell, based on writer-director Lulu Wangs own stranger-than-fiction true family story, was previously featured on the 2016 This American Life episode In Defense of Ignorance. But no podcast could have prepared anyone for the sophistication of Wangs talents as a filmmaker, and in this, her second feature, she transcends the hooky premise with confidence and subtlety. The little dramas and themes that emerge during the reunion of the films far-flung brood become, like a family, more than the sum of its individual parts, and an incredibly satisfying meal of a film.

The film opens with a phone conversation that spans half the globe and all the living generations of a family. Billi walks the bustling streets of Manhattan chatting with Nai Nai (the charmingly zingy Shuzhen Zhou), who waits at the doctors office for an MRI. Shes accompanied by her sister Little Nai Nai (Lu Hong) who gets the news of the diagnosis first. Since Chinese law doesnt require doctors to disclose diagnoses to patients, Little Nai Nai doesnt tell her sister, the matriarch of the family, that she has inoperable stage four lung cancer. (Its a move we are told isnt all that uncommon in Chinese families.) Instead, she tells the rest of the family, and soon a wedding has been orchestrated between Billis cousin Hao Hao (Han Chen) and his Japanese girlfriend Aiko (Aoi Mizuhara) as a means of getting the entire family back to Changchun.

Billis parents (played by the excellent Diana Lin and Tzi Ma) assure her she doesnt need to make the trip  that shes too American and emotionally transparent, and wont be able to keep up the familywide ruse. But weve already seen Billi on the phone with her grandmother, and we know they have a bond, if a somewhat abstract, long-distance one. With her professional prospects in New York faltering, she makes the trip back to the town she spent her early childhood in.

Going back to a homeland that doesnt quite feel like home is the foundational melancholy of The Farewell. The neighborhood Billi grew up in is demolished and unrecognizable, replaced by rows of identical apartment towers; she and the rest of her family stay in a slightly dodgy hotel. Billi isnt the only other foreigner in the family; her uncle and cousin moved to Japan so long ago that Hao Hao barely speaks Chinese anymore. His bride-to-be Aiko speaks none, and doesnt seem to know exactly why shes marrying her boyfriend of three months, something the Wang gets a lot of wry comic mileage out of.

The fact that The Farewell is such a frequently and easily funny film, on top of the heavy stuff its dealing with, is what makes it feel so miraculous. Awkwafinas comic timing comes in handy, Wang using it in just the right moments to emphasize her unmistakable American-ness. But The Farewell is also just about how being a part of a family is inherently funny, and not in a Meet The Fockers way  that humans are weird without trying to be and youre most likely to get a glimpse of that when youre related to them. Billis family arent exactly bickerers, but theyre all trying to figure each other out, having spent so much time apart. Wang counterpoints conversations over action with graceful intuition; theres always something going on in the background that adds a new shade to whatever is being said. Cinematographer Anna Solanos soft palette guides us through the layers of human interaction, whether in a tiny cramped living room or a sprawling banquet hall.

The narrative and visual thread that runs through The Farewell is collectivism, a particularly eastern concept that immigrant kids tend to have to relearn at some point in their lives. You think ones life belongs to ones self, Billis uncle says when she hits a breaking point with the big lie. Over and over again, everyone in the film realizes the satisfaction that comes from being part of a shared consciousness, and the pain of being cut out of it. As the film reaches its third-act centerpiece, the much-anticipated wedding itself, its clear that one big lie allowed some larger truths the space to show themselves. Wangs ability to bring it all together feels both like the work of a seasoned auteur some 40 films into her career, and a very exciting arrival.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Sundance Film Festival has now gotten about 25 percent less political, whether you like it or not. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that bright young congresswoman from the Bronx whos very good for TV ratings, has backed out of appearing at the festivals premiere of Knock Down the House, a documentary shes featured in that chronicles four ordinary women who ran for political office with varying degrees of success. For almost two years, a mom followed several women as we run for Congress. I was one of them, she tweeted Saturday afternoon. Due to complications from the government shutdown, Im sad to say Ill miss @jubileefilms premiere of Knock Down the House. This film was made, with love, for people.

For almost two years, a mom followed several women as we ran for Congress. I was one of them.



Due to complications from the gov shutdown, Im sad to say Ill miss @jubileefilms premiere of Knock Down the House.



This film was made, with love, for people: https://t.co/dLnurOR3ss  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 26, 2019

In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, the three other women featured in the documentary with congressional aspirations include a coal miners daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada, and a registered nurse in Missouri. The premiere will proceed as scheduled for Sunday afternoon. We highly recommend watching Ocasio-Cortezs Late Show appearance to fill the void!Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro rejected international demands to call new elections Sunday, as the political crisis in his country deepens days after the opposition leader declared himself interim president.

In an interview with CNN Turk aired Sunday, Maduro rejected an ultimatum given to him by a number of European countries - to hold elections within eight days or else they would recognize 35-year-old opposition leader Juan Guaido as president.

"They should withdraw this ultimatum. No one can give us an ultimatum," Maduro said in the interview dubbed into Turkish from Spanish.

Venezuela held presidential elections on May 20, 2018. Many voters boycotted, saying the polls were neither free nor fair. Several opposition members also were prevented from running.

Venezuela's self-declared interim leader Juan Guai Venezuela's self-declared interim leader Juan Guaido speaks to supporters in a public plaza in Las Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 26, 2019. Venezuela's self-declared interim leader Juan Guaido speaks to supporters in a public plaza in Las Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 26, 2019.

The United States Sunday warned there would be a "significant response" to anyone who threatened or intimidated Guiado or U.S. diplomats.

"Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuelas democratic leader, Juan Guiado, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response," Bolton wrote on Twitter.

Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuelas democratic leader, Juan Guiado, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response. 2/2  John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) January 27, 2019

On January 23, the democratically elected National Assembly, which is controlled by the opposition, declared Maduros rule illegitimate. Invoking constitutional provisions, National Assembly leader Guaido declared himself interim president until there are new elections.

The United States called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Saturday, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged international leaders to "pick a side" on the issue.

Pompeo Urges International Support for Venezuelan Opposition Leader U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro.Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side, Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. No more delays, no more games. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro.Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side, Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. No more delays, no more games.

Pompeo called the Maduro regime an illegitimate mafia state and criticized countries including Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for supporting him.

The United States has already recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's president.

Earlier this week, Maduro accused Washington of instigating a coup detat and told U.S. diplomats they had until this weekend to leave the country. Maduro has since backed down and has agreed to 30 days to finalize the diplomats' roles in Venezuela.

Speaking from Panama, the Pope called for a just and peaceful solution to the conflict.

"Faced with the grave situation it is going through, I ask the Lord that a just and peaceful solution is sought and achieved in order to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights [and] the good of all the people of the country," he said.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.January 27 is the day the international community observes Holocaust Remembrance Day by recalling the horrors committed during World War II by Nazi Germany.

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma, people with disabilities, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is also a time to remember the bravery of those who risked their lives to save persecuted Jews and others from the Nazi death camps.

January 27 is also the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where on Sunday former Auschwitz prisoners, wearing striped scarves that recalled their death camp uniforms, placed flowers at an execution wall at the camp.

A survivor is seen at the former Nazi German conce A survivor is seen at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz, as he attends ceremonies marking the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, in Oswiecim, Poland, Jan. 27, 2019. A survivor is seen at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz, as he attends ceremonies marking the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, in Oswiecim, Poland, Jan. 27, 2019.

Another ceremony at Auschwitz Sunday near the gas chambers is designed to honor and remember the 1.1 million people killed there and all Holocaust victims.

Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day Trust says a recent survey revealed that five percent of U.K. adults do not believe the Holocaust really happened. The poll found that eight percent believed the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated.

The survey of more than 2,000 people showed that 64 percent did not know how many Jews were murdered or grossly underestimated the number -- 45 percent said they did not know how many people were killed; 19 percent believed fewer than two million Jews were murdered.

However, 83 percent of the respondents said it is important to know about the Holocaust.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, Holocaust Memorial Trust chief executive, said "The Holocaust threatened the fabric of civilization and has implications for us all. Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking. Without a basic understanding of this recent history, we are in danger of failing to learn where a lack of respect for difference and hostility to others can ultimately lead."Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.WASHINGTON - The Saudi government has released Sheikh Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, an Ethiopian-born billionaire who was arrested in November 2017, in an anti-corruption sweep.

Ethiopias Office of the Prime Minister confirmed the news.

The Reuters news agency, citing Ethiopian state television and two Saudi sources, also confirmed the release and reported that al-Amoudi was in transit to Jeddah, a Saudi city on the Red Sea.

The high-profile sweep in 2017 netted hundreds of top Saudi officials and influential business people and consolidated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans power in the Kingdom, and beyond.

The Saudi government has remained tight-lipped about the charges brought against those arrested and the impact of the detentions on their vast wealth.

Months in the making

Reports of al-Amoudis possible release first emerged in May, when newly appointed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met with bin Salman in Riyadh to discuss mutual interests, including development partnerships and Ethiopian citizens detained in the Kingdom.

In March, The New York Times reported that Saudi officials had released many detainees in the months after the sweep, including al-Amoudis cousin, property developer Mohammed Aboud al-Amoudi.

At least one person died and more than a dozen others required medical attention during the round-up, The Times reported. Saudi officials have denied the allegations.

General view of the closed main gate of the Ritz C FILE - General view of the closed main gate of The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 5, 2017. Dozens of elite detainees reportedly were initially being held in a well-guarded ballroom of the hotel as part of a sweeping corruption probe. FILE - General view of the closed main gate of The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 5, 2017. Dozens of elite detainees reportedly were initially being held in a well-guarded ballroom of the hotel as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

Al-Amoudis whereabouts were unknown after he was moved from The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh, where many of the arrested officials were first detained in a round-up that drew international headlines, and false rumors of his death began to circulate.

In an email to VOA shortly after the arrest, Tim Pendry, al-Amoudis London-based spokesman, downplayed any impact on al-Amoudis business interests.

This is an internal matter for the Kingdom, Pendry wrote. We have no further comment to make other than to say that the overseas businesses owned by the Sheikh remain unaffected by this development.

Ethiopian roots

Born in 1946 to an Ethiopian mother in the north-central part of the country, al-Amoudi immigrated to Saudi Arabia, his fathers country of birth, in the mid-1960s, when he began building his international business empire.

By the 1980s, he had become a billionaire, and today his interests span from Europe and the Middle East back to Ethiopia, where his mining company, Derba MIDROC, has been accused of exploiting local communities in the Oromia region, the hotbed of protests that led to former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegns sudden resignation in early 2018 and the ascension of Abiy.

Shortly after al-Amoudis arrest, Henok Gabisa, a professor of practice at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, told VOA that most of the billionaires wealth came from the Lega Dembi gold mine, in the heart of the Oromia region.

Ethiopian born Saudi business tycoon Mohammed Alamoudi has been released from prison in Saudi Arabia. It is to be recalled that earlier in 2018, PM Abiy Ahmed traveled to Saudi Arabia & discussed a number of issues with Saudi Crown Price Mohammad Bin Salman. (1) pic.twitter.com/TGSDj7iYUF  Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) January 27, 2019

In May, Ethiopian authorities suspended Derba MIDROCs license after intense protests. Months later, in September, the government revoked MIDROCs land lease.

As a Saudi citizen, the legality of al-Amoudis ownership of extractive businesses in Ethiopia is murky. Ethiopian law restricts how foreign citizens can invest in the country. But with both roots, and decades of involvement, in the country, al-Amoudi may have operated within a loophole.

Now, despite his freedom, al-Amoudis future is unclear. The political landscape in Ethiopia has shifted significantly since his arrest, and both the charges against him, and the impact of his detainment on his wealth and businesses, remain obscure.Pakistan's military said Sunday that 95 percent of the tribal people in North Waziristan displaced by military operations against militants had returned to their homes in the region bordering Afghanistan, which once served as Taliban headquarters.



Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor made the claim in the town of Miran Shah, where the military took journalists on a tour, giving them access to residents who demanded better health and education facilities.



Ghafoor was hugged by youths and tribal elders in a sign of respect as he visited the town's main bazaar with reporters.



North Waziristan was a "no-go area" for ordinary Pakistanis and even military personnel because of the strong presence of militants before 2013, when the military launched operations there, clearing out militants but also displacing about 1 million people.



Ghafoor said the Pakistani Taliban now operate in neighboring Afghanistan after the military evicted or killed them in North Waziristan. He said thousands of security forces and civilians were killed in the fighting.



As Ghafoor spoke, some youths nearby shouted, "Long live Pakistan, and Long Live the Pakistan army."



"Normalcy is back, smiles are back on the faces people but it was not without a cost," Ghafoor said.



Residents say they are happy about the return of peace.



"Taliban are gone and we pray that they don't come back," said Tahseen Ullah, a local resident who sells cooked rice in the Miran Shah bazaar.



Another shop owner, Khadim Hussain, complained that residents still face lengthy power outages during the day and at night.



"We demand that mobile phone service be provided to North Waziristan," resident Bakhat Zaman told Ghafoor.



To Zaman's surprise, Ghafoor said cell phone service will be available in March. ``We will do whatever is possible to make your life easier,'' he said.



Ghafoor said the Pakistani Taliban used religion to spread violence and that now a young Pashtun leader, Manzoor Pashteen, was "misguiding and inciting youths against the army."



Ghafoor said the military is fencing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure peace on both sides and that he hoped that Kabul will not allow Afghan soil to be used as a staging ground for attacks against Pakistan.



Afghanistan does not recognize the boundary, known as the Durand Line, which was drawn by British rulers in 1896. Ghafoor took the journalists to the main Ghulam Khan border where fencing has been completed. He said the military in 2017 planned to fence 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) of the border and about 800 kilometers (500 miles) has already been completed.WASHINGTON - Roger Stone, a long-time friend and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, said Sunday he would consider cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and discuss his conversations with the U.S. leader.

Stone, charged last week with lying, obstruction and witness tampering in connection with Trump's campaign, told ABC's "This Week" show, the extent of his cooperation with Mueller's 20-month probe would be something he would "have to determine after my attorneys have some discussions."

He added, "If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is, I would certainly testify honestly.

The 66-year-old Stone, arrested in a pre-dawn FBI raid Friday on his Florida home, has denied wrongdoing, saying hours after his apprehension, "I will plead not guilty to these charges, I will defeat them in court. I believe this is a politically motivated investigation."

Roger Stone, Former Trump Campaign Adviser, Arrested Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, was released on a $250,000 bond Friday, hours after being arrested on several criminal charges stemming from the special counsel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. national election.Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there? Donald J. Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, was released on a $250,000 bond Friday, hours after being arrested on several criminal charges stemming from the special counsel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. national election.Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION! Border Coyotes, Drug Dealers and Human Traffickers are treated better. Who alerted CNN to be there? Donald J.

As he left court Friday after posting a $250,000 bond to secure his freedom pending trial, Stone said, "I have made it clear that I will not testify against the president, because I would have to bear false witness against him."

Stone told ABC that if he cooperates with Mueller, "Id also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. Its true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, theyre benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.

Stone said he never discussed cooperation with Russia with Trump.

"Everything that I did... is constitutionally protected free speech. That is what I engaged in - it is called politics," Stone said.

Who Is Roger Stone? Roger Stone, the Republican political operative indicted Friday by the grand jury investigating Russian election interference, is a longtime friend and confidante of President Donald Trump who helped pave the way for the real estate moguls unforeseen ascent to the White House.A self-described dirty trickster with a taste for loud suits and colorful language, Stone, 66, has known Trump since the late 1970s when Stone, a young veteran of Richard Nixons 1972 re-election team, was campaigning for Roger Stone, the Republican political operative indicted Friday by the grand jury investigating Russian election interference, is a longtime friend and confidante of President Donald Trump who helped pave the way for the real estate moguls unforeseen ascent to the White House.A self-described dirty trickster with a taste for loud suits and colorful language, Stone, 66, has known Trump since the late 1970s when Stone, a young veteran of Richard Nixons 1972 re-election team, was campaigning for

Stone is the sixth key figure in Trump's orbit to be accused of criminal offenses as a result of the Mueller investigation. Five men - former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign aide Rick Gates, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn and former personal attorney Michael Cohen  have pled guilty or been convicted of various offenses.

Papadopoulos served a short jail term, while Cohen has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to turn himself in in early March. Manafort, Gates and Flynn are awaiting sentencing.

After Stone's arrest, Trump sought to distance himself from his one-time aide, saying on Twitter, "Roger Stone didnt even work for me anywhere near the Election!"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!LONDON - The date Britain leaves the European Union could be pushed back by a couple of weeks to give time for legislation to be approved by lawmakers, the leader of Britain's lower house of Parliament said Saturday, the most senior figure to make such a suggestion.

Britain, the world's fifth-largest economy, is due to leave the EU March 29 but Prime Minister Theresa May's negotiated exit deal was rejected by lawmakers, leaving open the possibility of a disorderly Brexit.

Parliament will now vote on a series of amendments on Tuesday with the United Kingdom facing its deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973.

"We can get the legislation through and I think we do, in spite of everything, have a very strong relationship with our EU friends and neighbors, and I am absolutely certain that if we needed a couple of extra weeks or something, then that would be feasible," Andrea Leadsom told the BBC.

Responding to the idea that this would mean extending the two-year Article 50 negotiation period, Leadsom, who is the organizer of government business in the lower house of Parliament, told the BBC: "It doesn't necessarily mean that. I think we would want to think carefully about it. But as things stand I do feel that we can get, with the support of both Houses  the House of Commons and the House of Lords  with goodwill and a determination we can still get the legislation through in good time."

No change, PM's office says

A spokeswoman at May's No. 10 Downing Street office said the government's position had not changed: "We are not considering an extension to Article 50 and are committed to doing whatever it takes to have the statute books ready for when we leave the EU on March 29th this year."

But Brexit continues to divide Britain's ruling Conservatives.

Leadsom told The Sunday Times that "taking no-deal off the table has been used as a thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit."

However, junior Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood said a no-deal

outcome must be ruled out.

"It is wrong for government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world," he was quoted as saying.MANAGUA, NICARAGUA - A European Parliament delegation on Saturday urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to release political prisoners, permit the return of banned human rights groups and restart dialogue with the opposition to end a

months-long political crisis.

The delegation led by European Member of Parliament (MEP) Ramon Jauregui, a Socialist from Spain, told a news conference it would ask the European Parliament to issue a new resolution on the crisis.

For months, Nicaragua has been convulsed by some of its worst political tension since a civil war in the 1980s. An initial standoff between protesters and the government in April over planned welfare cuts quickly descended into deadly clashes.

By the time the Ortega administration had clamped down on the protesters, more than 300 people had been killed and over 500 incarcerated, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, a group the government has blacklisted.

Ortega sees coup attempt

Rights groups say four radio stations and one TV station have closed, and dozens of journalists have been beaten. The Ortega government says there is freedom of expression and has accused the opposition of seeking to mount a coup to oust him.

"We don't believe the government's story of a coup d'etat," Javier Nart, a Spanish Liberal MEP who as a journalist covered the Nicaraguan revolution that led to the 1979 ouster of dictator Anastasio Somoza by Ortega's Sandinistas, said at the news conference.

"The repression of protests was excessive. The population is demanding more freedom and democracy. Nicaragua is going through a major crisis of democracy and the rule of law," he added.

The Nicaraguan government did not respond to a request from Reuters on the allegations made by the delegation.

The European Parliament members said the Ortega government allowed them to hold meetings with all sectors of society, including political prisoners. But they noted that several opposition leaders suffered persecution after they had taken part in the meetings.LONDON - The World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, that wrapped up Friday, had some notable absentees, including U.S. President Donald Trump.

With a backlash against a perceived ruling elite gaining ground in many countries, analysts say some leaders steered clear of a gathering often seen as an inaccessible club for the worlds super-rich. Others argue it is vital they get together to discuss urgent issues like climate change and world trade.

On the surface, though, it was business as usual: On a sealed off, snowbound mountaintop, world leaders rubbed shoulders with global executives, lobbyists and pressure groups. It remains a vital gathering of global decision-makers, said Leslie Vinjamuri, head of the U.S. and the Americas Program at policy group Chatham House.

Theyre there to do business, theyre there to engage in an exchange of ideas. And so I think its still tremendously important.

Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of th Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she addressed the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2019. Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she addressed the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 23, 2019.

President Trump stayed away because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, which ended Friday. Chinas President Xi Jinping wasnt there, neither was Britains Theresa May, nor Frances President Emmanuel Macron.

Theyre tremendously preoccupied with the troubles they face at home, which isnt a good sign for globalism. The criticism and the critique that surrounds Davos is extraordinary. People say, 'You know, its where all those people go to have dinner with each other, it has nothing to do with the rest of us. And, of course, its about a lot more than that, but the optics are tremendously negative at this point in time, Vinjamuri said.

Behind the heavily guarded security perimeter, delegates were well aware of a growing global backlash beyond.

David Gergen of the Harvard Kennedy School echoed the concerns of many at Davos during a debate at the summit.

It's worth remembering we've just had the longest bull run in our stock market in history. We've had good economic times. Incomes have gone up in a number of countries and yet the discontent is deep and it's threatening our democracies. And there's something that's not working here that we need to figure out, Gergen told an audience Wednesday.

Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest outsi Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest outside the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2019. Demonstrators hold a banner during a protest outside the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2019.

The absence of many big players means others have stolen the limelight. Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has been widely praised for making peace with Eritrea. Speaking at the forum, he said African countries must deepen their ties.

We believe integration must be viewed not just as an economic project but also as crucial to securing peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa, Ali said.

Other issues also rose up the Davos agenda, notably climate change. New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged action.

This is about being on the right side of history. Do you want to be a leader that you look back in time and say that you were on the wrong side of the argument when the world was crying out for a solution? And it's as simple as that I think, Ardern said.

The Davos 2019 will likely be remembered, however, for the lack of global leadership, according to Vinjamuri of Chatham House.

That space has been vacated and nobody necessarily even wants to take things forward at the level of providing a vision, Vinjamuri said.

The lack of such a vision at a time of profound global change sent a chill far beyond the confines of this winter resort.BOSSANGOA, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - While Sudan hosted a new round of Central African Republic (C.A.R.) peace talks this week (Thursday, Jan. 24), Cameroon's military was announcing new troop deployments to contain spillover from fighting inside C.A.R.'s border.

In Bossangoa, the capital of Ouham, more than 200 people came to hear Gaston Guella, an official of the Bossangoa council in the Ouham prefecture in western C.A.R., assure them in the Sango language that forces of the Multi-Dimensional United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Central Africa (MINUSCA) would track down a group of armed men that attacked their city Friday night.

Bossangoa Mayor Pierre Denamge said Fridays attack, which residents said left six people wounded and caused many to flee their homes for safety, indicates the population and peacekeeping forces should remain on high alert. The town has not had an attack in the past six weeks, and Denamge credited Cameroonian troops, who constitute the bulk of the U.N. peacekeeping force, saying they are doing a good job.

CameroonA troops at the U.N. MINUSCA base in Bossa Cameroon troops at the U.N. MINUSCA base in Bossangoa, Central African Republic, Dec. 27, 2018. Cameroon has announced new troop deployments to keep fighting in C.A.R. from spilling across the border. Cameroon troops at the U.N. MINUSCA base in Bossangoa, Central African Republic, Dec. 27, 2018. Cameroon has announced new troop deployments to keep fighting in C.A.R. from spilling across the border.

He says the people of C.A.R. are satisfied with the work done by the Cameroon military, especially as villagers can continue farming, fishing and hunting without fear of harassment, and traders can go to their shops because they know they have protection from the troops under the U.N. peacekeeping mission. He said everyone is happy that peace is returning and chaos is being reduced.

However, 40-year-old cattle rancher Ahmed Mahmoudou said the magnitude of the attack indicates the armed rebels are not ready to lay down their weapons.

He says the population was helpless and running in all directions when indiscriminate and heavy shooting began at the villages Catholic church. He says members of his self-defense group decided to withdraw and alert the military because they could tell the attackers were more heavily armed.

Many people have fled the area since 2013, and deserted streets and burned roofs are a stark reminder of the violence the Central African town had witnessed before the arrival of the U.N. troops.

Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.'s deputy special represent Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.'s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA in Bangui, C.A.R., Dec. 27, 2018, said that if the stability of the last year holds, displaced persons can return to the western part of the country. Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.'s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA in Bangui, C.A.R., Dec. 27, 2018, said that if the stability of the last year holds, displaced persons can return to the western part of the country.

U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck, the U.N.'s deputy special representative and deputy head of MINUSCA, says if the stability that has been established since last year continues, refugees and internally displaced persons can start to return to the western part of the country.

This is exactly the part the country where we have seen the greatest progress toward peace and stability, and in great part because of the efforts of the Cameroonian soldiers and officers and policemen, Gluck said. We see in the west of the country a real progress toward stabilization, which should allow during 2019 the gradual return of refugees and displaced persons.

Since 2013, thousands have been killed in C.A.R., and a quarter of the population of 4.5 million people has fled their homes.

Peace talks in Khartoum

Last Thursday, peace talks to end chronic violence in the Central African Republic began in Khartoum, with representatives of the government and 14 armed groups in attendance, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the C.A.R.

The U.N. peace mission is made up of more than 13,000 troops and police, and Cameroon contributes more than 1,000 troops.

Other pockets around the country are held by militias who say they are defenders of a particular community or religious group, but they often fight over mineral wealth.

The conflict began in 2013 when a mainly Muslim rebel movement called the Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize, a Christian. That move triggered the rise of a predominantly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka.

Border deployment

Cameroon's military sings as it also deploys to Garoua Boulay, the border town with C.A.R. The soldiers say that besides fighting to bring peace to C.A.R., they also must fight to stop the spillover of the crisis from neighboring countries, including the robberies and kidnappings that are on the rise. Armed groups from the C.A.R. have been stealing supplies and taking dozens of people hostage for ransom.

Cameroon also is mobilizing troops along the countrys northern border with Nigeria to fight Boko Haram terrorists, and in the western English-speaking regions where separatists have been fighting to create an English-speaking state. The military has not given any official announcement, but it is believed both their resources and military are already stretched.YAOUNDE - Cameroon says its police shot and wounded seven people and arrested 117 in several towns where protests of what organizers call an "electoral hold up" were organized on Saturday. The demonstrations were led by Maurice Kamto, the man who claims he won the October 7 presidential poll in Cameroon.

Sixty people, a majority of them youths, shout as they march through the streets of Cameroon political capital Yaounde, banging spoons and dishes and calling for the unconditional release of everyone arrested during Saturday's demonstrations.

Cameroon's minister of communication and government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says the economic capital Douala, the capital Yaounde, and the western town of Mbounda were the scene of protests organized by Maurice Kamto and his Cameroon Renaissance Movement party.

"The CRM intended as usual to push our compatriots at home and abroad to defy the republican order with slogans of rebellion and insurgency against legal and legitimate institutions," he said. "The government strongly condemns this unacceptable maneuver to destabilize Cameroon under the false pretext of an alleged electoral hold up."

Incumbent President Paul Biya was declared the winner of the October 7 presidential election by Cameroon's constitutional council after the results giving him a landslide victory were challenged by Kamto. Kamto then announced what he called a national resistance program until Biya steps down. The first protests organized by the CRM in late October were put down by police and the party said 42 people, including some of its officials, had been arrested and detained. They were later freed.

Michele Ndoki, a lawyer who defended Kamto at the constitutional council, where they alleged massive fraud and ballot-stuffing in favor of Biyas ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM), was one of those arrested during the October 27 and 28 protests. In this Saturday's demonstration Ndoki was shot in the leg, one of seven wounded, including Celestin Djamen another CRM official. Ndoki says police used live bullets against the protesters.

Cameroon minister of territorial administration Paul Atanga Nji says riot police did their jobs professionally after they were provoked by the demonstrators. He says Kamto defied a ban on the protest because he wants to destabilize Cameroon.

"The forces of law and order did not use any firearms to maintain peace and order. Any contrary information is fake news," he said. "The CRM political party and their leaders should not take the leniency of the government as a sign of weakness. As from now henceforth, they will taste the bitterness of our laws which will be applied scrupulously."

Atanga Nji said similar protests took place in Cameroon embassies abroad.

In a telephone interview with VOA, Sylvester Onana, spokesperson for the Cameroon Embassy in Paris, says they had to call in the police after the protest went violent.

He says they are still evaluating the damage, but everything in the embassy was completely ransacked by a group of about a hundred Cameroonians singing anti-Cameroon government slogans. He says the French police had to intervene to stop the youths from further destruction.

Maurice Kamto says he will continue with the demonstrations against what he says is election fraud, as well as against the governments failure to resolve the separatist crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country until Biya leaves office and a solution is found.

Biya has been in power for 36 years and is now the second-oldest president in sub-Saharan Africa after his neighbor Theodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. When his new term is finished, he will be 93 years old.SYDNEY - Beijing says it is investigating a Chinese-Australian writer for alleged involvement in criminal activities endangering national security. In Australia, a prominent government MP is demanding that author Yang Hengjun be freed immediately.

Yang was arrested a week ago after arriving in China from the United States, where he is a visiting scholar at Columbia University. Officials in Beijing say the Australian national is being questioned on suspicion of espionage.

He is being held in residential detention by Chinese state security. Previously dissidents held in similar conditions have been interrogated around the clock. Rights groups allege the process involves torture, a claim denied by China.

Defense minister's visit

Australia Defense Minister Christopher Pyne arrived Thursday in Beijing for unrelated talks.

Pyne said he would raise the case with his Chinese counterpart

The Australian government is obviously concerned with the residential surveillance of Mr. Yang, Pyne said. He is an Australian citizen, and we are seeking to provide him with consular assistance and support to ensure that he is treated fairly and transparently, and I will be raising with General Wei that very requirement on behalf of the Australian government that he be given access to consular support.

Australian diplomats were allowed to see the detained blogger and former diplomat a week after his arrest.

MP calls for release

In Australia, government MP Andrew Hastie has made a scathing assessment of Chinas actions, insisting the detention of Yang was arbitrary and he called for his immediate release.

Analysts believe the arrest could be Beijings way of warning the Chinese diaspora not to openly talk about politics. Yang previously has been a critic of Chinas Communist Party, but not in recent times.

For Australian officials, delicate diplomacy is needed. China is Australias biggest trading partner, but observers believe Canberra must manage carefully what has been a fractious relationship with the Chinese.

In December, Australia for the first time explicitly blamed China for cyber espionage and directly accused the Chinese state of approving a global campaign of the theft of trade secrets and confidential business information.SYDNEY - Indigenous groups are renewing their efforts to change the date of Australia Day.

The national holiday, celebrated Jan. 26, commemorates the arrival of European settlers to Australia more than 230 years ago. But many Aboriginal people believe it marks a time when their lands were stolen and their communities pushed into poverty and disadvantage that persist to this day.

Australia Day stirs a heated debate about cultural identity and history. Many Indigenous people refer to Jan. 26 as Invasion Day when, in 1788, the first fleet of British ships arrived in Sydney harbor.

There is a campaign to change the date. One suggestion is May 9, to acknowledge when Australias Federal Parliament first sat in 1901.

People demonstrate during Australia Day in Sydney, People demonstrate during Australia Day in Sydney, Jan. 26, 2019. People demonstrate during Australia Day in Sydney, Jan. 26, 2019.

?A difficult day

Brooke Boney, the first Indigenous TV presenter on Australias popular Today program, believes the current date is insensitive.

I cannot separate the 26th of January from the fact that my brothers are more likely to go to jail than they are to go to school, or that my little sisters or my mum are more likely to be beaten and raped than anyone elses sisters or mum and that started from that day, Boney said.

So for me it is a difficult day, and I do not want to celebrate it because that is the day that it changed for us, you know. That is the sort of beginning of what some people would say is the end, that is the turning point, she added.

Holiday to honor Aboriginal culture

Despite a vocal campaign, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said he has no plans to change the date of Australia Day. However, he has said there could be another national holiday to recognize Aboriginal culture.

Australia day is the 26th January, he said. That was the day that Australias course changed forever. It was 60,000 years of Indigenous history before that, and modern Australia effectively started on that day. You cannot change that. That is just what happened. That is just a fact, and I want Australia Day to be even more so a day when all Australians can come together, and so I am open to a chat with the Australian people about how we can better acknowledge indigenous Australians and our Indigenous peoples.

Day of celebration

For many Australians their national day is a time to celebrate their modern history with barbecues, concerts and camel races.

More than half of all Australians participate in events organized by state governments, local councils and community groups. More than 16,000 migrants become citizens on Australia Day.

It has been celebrated since 1935.WASHINGTON - The release of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the former governor of Jakarta, after serving most of a two-year sentence for blasphemy, is focusing attention on the law that brought down the popular politician best known as Ahok.

Ahok, an ethnic Chinese Christian in a Muslim-majority nation, was found guilty of blasphemy by the North Jakarta District Court, May 9, 2017, a month after he lost his re-election bid to Anies Baswedan, who espouses a strict interpretation of Islam.

The governorship of Jakarta is widely seen as a steppingstone to higher, nationwide office. The current president, Joko Widodo, served as governor before Ahok. That Ahoks campaign became a flash point in the blasphemy debate highlighted the religious tension in the worlds most populous Muslim nation, as does Widodos selection of a cleric, Maruf Amin, as his running mate in his re-election bid. Widodos opponent, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, is stressing his ties to Islamists in the run-up to the April 8-17 vote.

Former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, kn Former Jakarta Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok, signed some documents before being released from military prison in Depok, Indonesia, Jan. 24, 2019. Former Jakarta Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as Ahok, signed some documents before being released from military prison in Depok, Indonesia, Jan. 24, 2019.

Beginning of trouble

Ahoks troubles began on a campaign stop, Sept. 27, 2016, when he said people should not vote for a candidate based on religious beliefs, a criticism of the notion that Muslims cannot have a leader who is not also Muslim. A video of his remarks appeared on social media, edited to suggest Ahok was insulting the Quran, triggering violent street protests by fundamentalists.

Ahok lost the April 2017 vote to Baswedan. After a high-profile trial, Ahok was convicted May 9, 2017, and later that year, on Nov. 14, a district court in West Java found Buni Yani guilty of editing Ahoks remarks and sentenced him to 1 years in prison. He has yet to serve his time and is working on Subiantos election campaign, according to The Washington Post.

Indonesias 1945 constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion, as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a party, according to a 2018 Human Rights Watch (HRW) article.

However, the Indonesian government has long enacted, and in recent years strengthened, legislation and regulations that have subjected minority religions to official discrimination. This has made minority groups extremely vulnerable to members of the majority community who take the law into their own hands, the article said.

Supporters of Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja P FILE - Supporters of Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama who is imprisoned for blaspheming Islam shout slogans during a protest outside the High Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 16, 2017. FILE - Supporters of Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama who is imprisoned for blaspheming Islam shout slogans during a protest outside the High Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 16, 2017.

?Blasphemy law

Blasphemy is defined in Article 156a of Indonesias 1965 criminal code as abusing or staining a religion adhered to in Indonesia when the act is committed with the intention to prevent a person to adhere to any religion based on belief of the almighty God, according to Rafiqa Qurrata Ayun, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia writing in Inside Indonesia.

In short, going outside the central tenets of Indonesias six officially recognized religions  Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Protestantism and Islam  can mean five years in prison. Virtually all the blasphemy cases involve Islam.

Meiliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese Buddhist, s Meiliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese Buddhist, sits in a courtroom for blasphemy charges, in Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia, Aug. 21, 2018. Meiliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese Buddhist, sits in a courtroom for blasphemy charges, in Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia, Aug. 21, 2018.

Among those minorities, other than Ahok, the person who has attracted the most attention is Meiliana, a 44-year-old Chinese Buddhist, who was found guilty of insulting Islam after asking her neighborhood mosque in 2016 to lower the volume of its sound system used in the call to prayer. She said it hurt her ears.

The mobs responding to Meilianas request for a quieter azan ransacked at least 14 Buddhist temples in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, as ethnic Chinese fled the area. She was jailed for 18 months.

Other cases included the dismissal in July by the Supreme Court of a challenge to the blasphemy law by nine members of the Ahmadiyya religious minority who who sought the laws abolition on the basis that it fuels discrimination and abuse of religious minorities, according to HRW.

The Ahmadiyya sect was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad more than a century ago in what is today the Indian part of Punjab. He claimed to be the incarnation of a Messiah promised in Islamic holy texts. That challenged the mainstream Muslim belief that Muhammad is Islams last and final prophet.

Early last year, the Jayapura Churches Association, in the capital of Indonesias Papua province, issued a stark ultimatum to municipal authorities: Dismantle the minaret of the citys al-Aqsa Mosque within 14 days or the group would take their own action. The group took no action, however, after the two weeks passed.

On May 19, 2018, militant Islamists attacked and damaged eight Ahmadiyya houses on Lombok Island, forcing 24 people from seven families to seek refuge at the East Lombok police precinct, according to HRW.

?Cases reported

Based on research done by Jakartas Setara Institute, which tracks religious freedom in Indonesia, from 1965 to 2017 there were 97 cases of blasphemy, 88 of those since 1998. Of those, 22 have occurred since Widodo took office, according to HRW.

Melissa Crouch, an associate professor at the law school at the University of New South Wales in Australia, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the blasphemy law had been weaponized.

Its called the Ahok effect, the use of the blasphemy law to target political opponents, said Crouch, who is an expert on Indonesias blasphemy laws.

The U.S. State Departments Annual Report on Religious Freedom from 2017 referred to the problem of conviction for blasphemy and defamation of religion, and the HRW Annual Report for 2018 described Indonesias blasphemy law as dangerously ambiguous.

The senior HRW researcher in Indonesia, Andreas Harsono, told VOA that he regretted that Widodo did not use the enormous political support he had to overcome intolerance.

Harsono added, It is necessary to continue public education so that everyone is aware of the existence of controversial laws such as the blasphemy law.

Former Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purn Former Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama poses with his relatives after being released from prison in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 24, 2019. Former Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama poses with his relatives after being released from prison in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 24, 2019.

Anthropologist and founder of SEA Junction in Bangkok, Dr. Rosalia Sciortino Sumaryono, echoed Harsono's remarks. She said that in many cases, where minorities are victims because of the politicization of religion or ethnic distrust fueled by nationalism, too many people in the majority keep quiet out of fear.

We may be afraid to face a war of ideas, but it is time to speak out and claim our public spaces, she said. This is an urgent need, because otherwise such behavior will continue to spread and eventually we will be cornered. Many victims will fall.Click here to log in and see all of our other subscription options for the Mesabi Tribune, including online only & auto-renewal subscriptions.This bra was discovered hidden in a vault at Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol and is thought to date back to the 15th century.

Lingerie from late Middle Age that was found during renovation works at Lemberg Castle in Austria.

A pair of knickers found in Lengberg Castle.

Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol, Austria, where the amazing haul was unearthed during restoration work.

The bra and panty set were discovered hidden in a vault at Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol, Austria in 2012 and is thought to date back to the 15th century, a much earlier time period for these types of garments than previously believed.We didnt believe it ourselves, Beatrix Nutz, the archaeologist responsible for the discovery, told The Associated Press. From what we knew, there was no such thing as bra-like garments in the 15th century.Four linen bras were found, one that looks like a modern bra, one that is similar but has fabric for the rib cage to be laced up, and two that look like shirts with bags. Other garments were also found, including panty-like underwear, but it is unclear if these were worn by men or women.So now, for the first time, we have proof that women in the Middle Ages were wearing bras. And not only that, but they were sexy ones decorated with lace.Before this discovery, it was thought that the bras that appeared in the 1800s were predated only by corsets (the modern bra was patented in 1914 by Mary Phelps Jacob, a socialite in New York). But now we have actual evidence that ladies wore the undergarments even before they began cinching up their waistlines with whale bone.Lengberg Castle is a medieval castle in Nikolsdorf, East Tyrol, Austria, about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of Lienz. The castle was built by the earls of Lechsgemunde beginning in the late 12th century, and came under the control of the Archbishop of Salzburg in the 13th century.During the 15th century, a second storey was added to the structure by Austrian noble Virgil von Graben from the Meinhardiner family. In 1485, the castles chapel was completely rebuilt, and was consecrated by the Bishop of Caorle, Pietro Carlo, in October of that year. Both the addition of the second storey and the chapel construction were recorded by Paolo Santonino, an Italian humanist known for his travel diaries. The area was ceded to the Kingdom of Bavaria during the Napoleonic Wars and was returned to Austrian control after the Congress of Vienna.Lengberg Castle passed into private ownership beginning in 1821. It was used as a hospital during an 1831 cholera epidemic. Purchased by a Dutch businessman in the early 20th century, it was extensively renovated to return it to an inhabitable state.A reconstruction project in 2008 uncovered a hidden vault on the second floor  likely built during the addition of the upper level  containing debris from the 15th century. Professor Harald Stadler of the University of Innsbruck led an archaeological investigation of the material in the vault. Discoveries include shirts, shoes, and undergarments. The London Museums fashion curator Hilary Davidson has described the discovery as "kind of a missing link in the history of women's underwear, because fashion historians have long believed that functional bras were invented only about 100 years ago.

TuffSkin Surface Protection will showcase its proprietary stone laminate featured on kitchen and bathroom marble and stone designs Jan. 27-31, 2019 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Jan. 31 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the World Market Centers Las Vegas Design Center.

The World Market Center is located at 475 S. Grand Central Parkway in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Design Center will host hundreds of designer showrooms presenting a wide array of product lines including TuffSkin in the Kitchen & Bath Resource Center (suite 110, building A).

Representatives from TuffSkin will meet attendees and educate how to protect marble, onyx and travertine surfaces. TuffSkin Surface Protection solves the marble etching and staining challenges in the hospitality industry and the commercial and residential markets.

During the World Market Centers Winter Las Vegas Market, attendees will see firsthand how TuffSkin protects surfaces.

Frank Friedlander, TuffSkin principal, says, The Market gives our unique etch and stain solution a much bigger and broader audience to tell our story to designers around the country.

For the next two years, TuffSkin will be a featured vendor inside the showroom to showcase its materials in the World Market Centers Las Vegas Design Center during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Appointments are needed to visit the showroom. All Winter Exposition attendees have full access to the showroom.Speaking after the Angelus on the last day of World Youth in Panama City, Pope Francis decried a deadly twin bomb attack on a Catholic Church in the Philippines, before turning his attention to other issues that are currently in the news.

By Linda Bordoni

Expressing his "firmest reproach" for a terrorist attack perpetrated on the Cathedral of Jolo in the Philippines while the Eucharist was being celebrated, Pope Francis prayed the Lord to convert the hearts of the violent and grant the inhabitants of that region a peaceful coexistence.

The Pope, who was speaking in Panama on the last day of World Youth Day 2019, said he entrusts the 20 victims of the attack to Christ and to the Virgin, and he noted that it brings new mourning to this Christian community.

The bombings took place on Jolo island, where Muslim extremists are active.

Tragedies in Brazil and in Mexico

Pope Francis went on to offer prayers and solidarity for the victims of the Brazilian dam collapse in which at least 40 people are confirmed dead and some 250 are missing, and for the 114 people killed in a pipeline explosion in Mexico.

I commend to God's mercy all the victims and, at the same time, I pray for the wounded and express my affection and my spiritual closeness to their families and to the whole population, he said.



Venezuela

Turning his thoughts to the Venezuelan crisis, the Pope said: Here in Panama, I have thought a lot about the Venezuelan people to whom I feel particularly united in these days.

In the face of the serious ongoing situation, I ask you to pray that a just and peaceful solution may be reached, with respect for human rights and seeking only the good of all the inhabitants of the country, he said.



Colombia terrorist attack

Then the Pope prayed for the 21 young police cadets killed by a car bombing in Bogota. He read aloud the names of each of the cadets who were killed on 17 January, saying they had been murdered by the hatred of terrorists.

The National Liberation Army (ELN) claimed responsibility for the car bombing, saying that the attack against a military installation was a legitimate response to the armed forces' bombing of a guerrilla camp during a recent unilateral ceasefire.

International Day of Commemoration in Memory of Victims of the Holocaust

Pope Francis did not neglect to recall the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, saying We need to keep alive the memory of the past and learn from the black pages of history so that we never make the same mistakes again.

He issued an appeal to continue to work tirelessly to cultivate justice, increase harmony and sustain integration, to be instruments of peace and builders of a better world.

The International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust , or Remembrance Day, is observed on 27 January each year, marking the date when Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland.On the sidelines of WYD in Panama, 28-year-old Thoba says the reality in Swaziland is that young people are afraid of following their calling, and he wants to help.

By Francesca Merlo

Im Thoba from Swaziland, now known as eSwatini, since the king has changed the name.

It took Thoba and another 6 fellow pilgrims three days and four flights to reach Panama. Heres their itinerary: Swaziland to South Africa, then to Kenya, from there to New York, an onward connection to Colombia, and from there to Panama.

Listen

Thoba says 18 pilgrims from his country attended WYD in Poland in 2016. This year only 7 of them could come because, as he explains, Panama is too far. But mostly the problem was finances, he says. People in Swaziland are not financially stable. Those of us who are able to come to such events are lucky, and we thank God for that.

From Panama to parish

In my parish, they are waiting for me, says Thoba. They want to hear everything that has been happening here in Panama. This World Youth Day teaches us unity, he explains, and he wants his parish and whole diocese to be a part of that, too.

He says he has learnt a lot, studiously taking notes during the sessions of catechesis. But he was struck most by what Pope Francis said about what the people in the Church are doing for young people: how they can help our youth grow spiritually.

Follow your calling

Thoba explains why these words of the Pope stood out to him.

Some of our parents, at home, dont support the youth, he says. So, he continues, I will tell them: the Pope is saying you have to support the youth in order for them to grow spiritually.

A Bishop from Australia, who presented one of the catecheses, taught us that we must follow our callings, he adds. This is what Thoba wants to help others understand. Because, the majority of young people, especially in my country, he says, run away from priesthood, from becoming nuns: they have to listen to what God is saying to us.

What Pope Francis said

Thoba describes his own calling: to help other young people follow their vocation and grow spiritually, and to be a leader to them. He is already a leader in his parish at home. When the young people from his parish look at him, he says, they see someone who is a brother to them, a role model.

So, even if no one else wants to support young people, Thoba, encouraged by the words of Pope Francis, says he will.Vatican News speaks to two of the young people who lunched with Pope Francis on Saturday. They give scarce details of the menu, but plenty of impressions of the Pope.

By Sean-Patrick Lovett

They couldnt actually remember what they ate for lunch. Clearly it wasnt that important. All they really cared about was the fact they were having lunch with Pope Francis himself.

Listen to Bedwin and Dennis

Bedwin from India

Bedwin Taitus is from Kerala, India. He thinks the food they ate was typically Panamanian, and he knows that it was really tasty. But thats all he remembers about the meal itself. The food was secondary, he says, we were too busy concentrating on talking to the Pope!.

It seems the conversation turned naturally to the question of if and when Pope Francis will make a pastoral visit to India. Bedwin was encouraged when the Pope told him he is trying to come to India, and was particularly excited to discover the Pope knew about his home state of Kerala.

Dennis from Australia

Dennis Montano Galdamez is from Melbourne, Australia. He remembers they were offered wine to drink, but he felt it was safer to stick to water. He too was curious to know if and when the Pope might make a trip down under. As usual, Pope Francis did not commit himself, but did confirm that he wants to visit Oceania, Indonesia, and countries in Asia. So Dennis remains hopeful.

First and last impressions

Both young men are well aware that, having met the Pope, they will at the centre of attention when they return home. So they have already started practising what they will say when people ask them to describe Pope Francis.

For Bedwin , the Pope is: very humble, someone to look up to at any second of your life, and someone who reminds us of Gods love.

For Dennis he is someone who really wants to get into the problems of young peoples lives, but also the problems of humanitys struggle, against loneliness, corruption. He is also someone who is very gentle, very humble.Opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in as Congo's president Thursday, marking the country's first peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium nearly 60 years ago, and immediately announced plans for the release of all political prisoners.

(AP) - Kinshasa, Congo

The 55-year-old Tshisekedi succeeds Joseph Kabila, who governed the Central African country for 18 years before stepping down under pressure.

An extraordinary scene of peaceful transfer of power

"We are committed to building a modern, peaceful, democratic and caring state for every citizen," the new president said, "a state that will guarantee the happiness of all." He called on the troubled nation to engage in a new battle, one for "the well-being for each citizen of this beautiful country." Outgoing President Kabila watched as the extraordinary scene of an opposition figure becoming president unfolded.

Tshisekedi also called for national reconciliation in the wake of the disputed 30 December election. The election was marked by allegations of fraud and suspicions of a backroom deal by Kabila to install Tshisekedi over the declared runner-up Martin Fayulu. According to leaked electoral data, Fayulu was the real winner. However, many Congolese appeared satisfied just to see Kabila go and relieved to witness a peaceful change of power in a country with a history of violent coups.

New president promises national unity and freedom for political prisoners

The new president declared that Congo would not be a nation of "division, hate or tribalism" and spoke of "fundamental rights." He vowed to take on corruption, asserting that $16 billion to $20 billion is lost each year to graft, and that he would rid the country of its dozens of rebel groups. And he surprised observers by announcing his government will free all political prisoners. It is unclear how many political prisoners are held in Congo. "

The largely untested Tshisekedi has inherited much goodwill from his father, the late opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, who pursued the presidency for decades. In his inaugural address, Tshisekedi referred to his father as "president" to wild cheers. Tshisekedi's charismatic father had posed such a challenge to Kabila that after he died in Belgium in 2017, Congo's government did not allow his body to be brought home. His son's spokesman has said that will be corrected soon.

Legislature dominated by Kabilas party

Many Congolese hope Tshisekedi will bring change after Kabila, who in his final address on Wednesday night urged the country to unite and support the new leader. Tshisekedi faces the challenge of working with a legislature dominated by members of Kabila's ruling coalition. That could hurt efforts to bring about dramatic reforms in Congo, a mineral-rich country of more than 80 million people.

Few had expected an opposition victory in Congo, where Kabila had hung on for more than two turbulent years of election delays. Declared runner-up Martin Fayulu mounted a court challenge to Tshisekedi's win, alleging widespread rigging and demanding a recount. The Constitutional Court on Sunday rejected it.

New president salutes Fayulu

Outside court, Fayulu accused Kabila of making a deal with Tshisekedi as it became clear the ruling party's candidate did poorly at the polls. Observers have said Fayulu, a businessman outspoken about cleaning up corruption, posed a bigger threat to Kabila and his allies.

The new president saluted Fayulu in his speech as a "veritable soldier of the people." Just one African head of state, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, was seen at the inauguration after the African Union and others in the international community expressed reservations about the election. The United States and others have said they will work with the new leader but have not offered congratulations.

Congo gained independence in 1960. Its first leader, Patrice Lumumba, was removed in a military coup and assassinated in 1961. Mobutu Sese Seko ruled for more than three decades before he was overthrown in 1997 by rebel leader Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001. Kabila's son, Joseph, then took over at age 29.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  Former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque thumbed down the reimposition of death penalty for drug-related offenses  a measure which he previously said is a "priority" of the Duterte administration.

Roque was among the seven senatorial candidates who were asked to raise a card indicating whether they are in favor or against an issue. The former mouthpiece of President Rodrigo Duterte said "no" when asked if he is in favor of reimposing death penalty for drug-related crimes.

As Duterte's spokesperson, Roque said reinstating death penalty in the Catholic-majority country is still a priority of the Duterte administration, even as the move faces stiff opposition at the Senate.

Roque made this statement after Pope Francis changed Catholic doctrine on capital punishment, declaring it "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." The Vatican has committed to work for its worldwide abolition.

Roque had previously opposed the reimposition of death penalty when he was Kabayan party-list representative and voted against the bill in the House.

Of the seven candidates present during the forum, only former Interior Secretary Raffy Alunan said he favors reinstating death penalty for drug-related crimes.

"I would like to impose the death penalty for drug-related crimes, especially against the syndicates who undermine the society and undermine our government," Alunan said later in the forum.

Aside from Roque, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, former Representatives Neri Colmenares and Erin Tanada, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, and former Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc are also not in favor of reimposing death penalty for drug-related crimes.

Tanada authored Republic Act 9346, which abolished death penalty in 2006, after it was reinstated during the presidency of Fidel Ramos.

Death penalty was first abolished by the 1987 Constitution, which provides that death penalty would not be imposed "unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress hereafter provides for it."

In the first CNN Philippines Senatorial Forum last December, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, former Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Sergio Osmena III, and De La Salle University College of Law Dean Chel Diokno thumbed down the proposal.

But Senator JV Ejercito, former Philippine National Police Chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa and former Presidential Political Adviser Francis Tolentino said they are in favor of legalizing death penalty for drug-related offenses.South Africa: Climate change efforts must be scaled up

South Africa believes that efforts in the fight against climate change need to be scaled up within a multilateral regime that protects the development gains of developing countries.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) open debate on addressing the impact of climate related disasters on international peace and security, South Africas permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Jerry Matjila, said the country has with great concern noted the erratic nature and veracity of natural calamities.

These erratic weather patterns including hurricanes, tsunamis and devastating wildfires among others had affected countries in the Caribbean and Africa, Australia as well as the United States of America (USA), among others.

It is clear to us that climate change is a global sustainable development challenge that can only realistically be addressed if we do so collectively, and through a rules-based multilateral regime that is based on science, equity as well as differentiation of action and support between countries with very different national circumstances.

Climate action needs to be dramatically scaled up, while protecting and furthering the development gains of developing countries and eradicating poverty, he said at the debate on Friday.

He said these catastrophes destroyed the livelihoods of millions of people around the globe while also displacing hundreds more.

The African continent, in addition is particularly vulnerable to climate change, as the single greatest threat to its development and prosperity.

South Africa has in recent years experienced some of the worst drought patterns it has seen in decades.

Africa therefore stands in full solidarity with other regions similarly affected by natural disasters, such as those highlighted in the concept note prepared by the Dominican Republic. We remain firmly committed to addressing climate change and responding to natural disasters at a national, regional and international level, said the ambassador.

The Dominican Republic alongside South Africa, is one of the five countries that joined the UNSC to serve for a two year period that got underway in January.

The Ambassador said the UNSC already has strong foundations for this multilateral solution already in the form of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, reinforced by regional development programmes, such as the African Unions Agenda 2063.

We look to the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] its Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement for policy direction and leadership on climate change and also refer to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Valdosta, GA (31601)

Today

Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.TALLINN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2019) About 10,000 soldiers from NATO countries will be take part in the Spring Storm military drills that will start in Estonia on April 29, the Estonian Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday.

"This year, the Spring Storm drills will take place in Estonia's northeast.

Almost 10,000 soldiers, including military units of the United Kingdom and Belgium from NATO's international battalion stationed in Estonia as well as soldiers from the Estonian Defense Forces, will participate [in the exercise]," the statement read.

The participation of soldiers from other NATO countries is being clarified and the end date of the drills has not been set yet, the statement added.

The latest Spring Storm drills that took place in 2017 involved almost 9,000 servicemen from Estonia and 14 other NATO countries. (@ChaudhryMAli88)

LATAKIA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2019) Russian military has held two humanitarian actions in southwestern Syria, delivering warm clothes and school stationery to Eastern Ghouta and also providing the residents of the Daraa Province with 500 food sets, Eduard Titov, a representative of the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation, said on Sunday.

"Today, we have carried out a humanitarian action in Daraa Province's Sheikh Maskin settlement, where we delivered warm clothes and school stationary  a total of 1,000 sets. We have also delivered 500 food sets to the residents of Arbin [town located in Eastern Ghouta]," Titov told reporters.

He specified that the Russian Chechen Republic's Akhmad Kadyrov Foundation had contributed to the humanitarian action in Sheikh Maskin.

Apart from warm clothes, towels and blankets have been distributed.

Ziyad Sabsabi, the representative of the Chechen Republic in Russia's Federation Council, voiced belief that this action was a proof that Russia favored peace in Syria "like no one else."

"As well as the Syrian government, we want people to live in peace instead of learning what the horror of war is," Sabsabi, who is currently in Sheikh Maskin, told reporters.

Ilias Nemy, a senior priest at a church in Arbin, told Sputnik that now that Eastern Ghouta was freed from terrorists, Christians were repatriating actively.

Russia has been long assisting Syria, which has been engulfed in a state of civil war since 2011, being a guarantor of the ceasefire, assisting terrorism fight, and providing humanitarian aid to civilians.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2019) Peru is against the intra-Venezuelan dialogue and calls for holding free and fair elections in Venezuela, Peru's Ambassador to the United Nations Gustavo Meza-Cuadra told Sputnik on Saturday.

"What we believe right now is that there have been several attempts to have a dialogue and that is because the government has not been open to dialogue," Meza-Cuadra said. "They failed numerous attempts. ... You heard the Dominican Republic offered the possibility, but the government used this dialogue only to gain time and the internal situation has been deteriorating. So that's the reason we now oppose this kind of dialogue. What we need now is fair elections to again install democracy in Venezuela."

Earlier on Saturday, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council that all efforts should be made to launch an intra-Venezuelan dialogue, adding that Russia is ready to contribute to such an effort.

On Tuesday, the situation in Venezuela escalated when the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared that President Nicolas Maduro had usurped power. Opposition leader Jose Guaido proclaimed himself an interim president the following day. The United States, along with its allies and some Latin American countries, recognized Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela.

Russia, China, Mexico, Uruguay and other countries have expressed support for the Maduro government as being the legitimate authority in Venezuela.ZAGREB, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2019 ) :Umag, Belisce, Vrlika and Obrovac are the only towns in Croatia offering free kindergartens for all children, a survey shows.

The survey was conducted by gradonacelnik.hr, a news website reporting on the activities of mayors and local government across the country, and covered 124 of 128 towns.

It shows that the monthly cost of daycare for children is the lowest in Komiza on the southern island of Korcula - HRK 270, followed by Cabar, Nin and Otocac where the cost of a place in a kindergarten for the first child is HRK 300.

The cost of daycare is below HRK 500 in another ten towns, while elsewhere it ranges from HRK 500 to 900 for the first child.

Costs for the second and third child, if attending the same kindergarten, are mostly lower, by up to 50 percent for the second child. Free daycare for the third child is offered by 61 towns. Opatija is the only town to offer a free place in a kindergarten for the second child.

About 60 towns also co-fund daycare services provided by privately-owned kindergartens and registered childminders.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2019) The fifth Arab League Economic and Social Development Summit will place in four years in Mauritania, Arab League's Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki said on Sunday.

"We, who gathered today at the economic and social development summit of the Arab League in Beirut, made a decision to hold the fifth summit in Mauritania in four years," Zaki said during his address to the summit.

The Arab League summit began in Beirut on Thursday with a session of a committee of specialized delegations, and is expected to conclude on Sunday. Almost all leaders of the league member-states, except for the Mauritanian president and the Qatari emir, refused to participate in the event, sending other high-level representatives instead.The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), the oldest opposition party in Algeria, is set to boycott the presidential elections slated for April 18, local media reported on Saturday

ALGIERS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Jan, 2019 ) :The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), the oldest opposition party in Algeria, is set to boycott the presidential elections slated for April 18, local media reported on Saturday.

El Khabar newspaper quoted a statement of the party as saying that the boycott decision was made during the meeting of its National Council.

The source noted that FFS has announced that it will neither present a candidate nor support a candidate for the upcoming poll.

FFS justified its boycott decision by the fact that "conditions of democratic, free and fair election are still not met," urging for "active, massive and peaceful boycott of the election.

"According to the latest figures of the Interior Ministry, as many as 92 potential candidates have submitted their applications to take part in the election, involving 12 political parties, pending approval.

Still, whether President Abdelaziz Bouteflika would run for the fifth term is not decided, while deadline for candidacy submission is set for midnight of March 3.Milledgeville, GA (31061)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic we have maintained that Gov. Chris Sununu handled the emergency superbly. That is why New Hampshire weathered the crisis well relative to most other states. It is also why the voters overwhelmingly returned the young governor to office last November.Emily Lord manages the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests online and social media presence. Forest Journal runs every other week in the New Hampshire Sunday News. Reach Emily at elord@forestsociety.org or on Instagram/Facebook @forestsociety.Beyond the Stigma, a series exploring solutions to the states addiction and mental health challenges, is sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, NAMI New Hampshire and private individuals. Contact reporter Shawne K. Wickham at swickham@unionleader.com. To read previous stories in this series, visit: unionleader.com/stigma.At 95 years old, Francis Smith had the chance of a lifetime  to take part in a World War II Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. Only problem was, he couldnt walk the 100 yards required to go on the trip.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.Not everybody is willing to empty their 401(k) to jet off to Atlanta to see the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl (again).Amelia Elacqua can be reached at amelia.elacqua@mclane.com.

Know the Law is a biweekly column sponsored by McLane Middleton, Professional Association. We invite your questions about business law. Questions or ideas for future columns should be addressed to: McLane Middleton, 900 Elm St., Manchester, NH 03101 or emailed to knowthelaw@mclane.com. Know the Law provides general legal information, not legal advice. We recommend that you consult a lawyer for guidance specific to your particular situation.For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe.

Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime.Susannah Chance is vice president of human resources at Work Opportunities Unlimited and chair of BIAs HR/Health Care/Workforce Development Policy Committee. The BIA, New Hampshires statewide chamber of commerce, produces this column monthly, exclusively for the Sunday News.Authorities say flights were not disrupted, while a perpetrator remains in custody.

Security officials at Ben Gurion airport detained a Russian national after he was discovered operating a drone at the airfield over the weekend.

The 46-year-old tourist was handed over to police, who arrested him. His remand was extended by a day, police said in a statement on Sunday, according to Time of Israel.

Airport authorities said the drone did not cause any disruption to travelers, and takeoffs and landings continued as usual throughout the incident.

Last Tuesday, flight arrivals at New Jerseys Newark Airport were briefly suspended after a drone was spotted over another nearby airport, officials said.

Read alsoNATO looks to hi-tech startups to tackle emerging threats

Londons Heathrow Airport briefly halted departing flights earlier this month following a reported drone sighting  just three weeks after multiple reports of drone sightings caused travel chaos at nearby Gatwick Airport.

The prospect of a deadly collision between what police described as industrial-grade drones and an airliner led authorities to stop all flights in and out of Gatwick Airport for over 36 hours.

The Daily Mail reported that the British Army used the Israeli-made Drone Dome to bring down the UAV after police failed for hours to do so with a commercial anti-drone system. But according to the BBC, the British government is still awaiting delivery of the Israeli technology and utilized a different system at Gatwick.Mass protests in Belgrade began on December 8 after an opposition figure was brutally assaulted in the country's south on November 23.

Several thousand protesters took to Belgrade streets on Saturday, January 26, urging Serbian President Alexander Vucic to step down.

Addressing the rally, former Supreme Court Judge Zoran Ivosevic said that Vucic must file for resignation so that Serbia could become a legal state again, according to Deutsche Welle.

Also, Ivosevic accused the president of violating the principle of balance of powers.

The protesters marched through the center of Belgrade toward the government headquarters and that of the pro-government state television channel RTS.

Read alsoBeset by protests, Serb leader stages lavish reception for Putin  Reuters

Mass protests in Belgrade began on December 8 after a group of people wearing black shirts brutally assaulted opposition's Left Party leader Borko Stefanovic of November in the city of Krusevac in the country's south. The politician was beaten with an iron bar and left severely injured.

Suspects in the attack were soon detained, but then released shortly before Christmas due to lack of evidence.

Vucic condemned the incident, but the opposition says it is hos rhetoric and defamation of critics and opposition figures that has created a climate of intolerance across the country.

They also claim that the Serbia's ruling Progressive Party was behind the beating.The plane crash-landed at the airfield in Olenegorsk, Murmansk region, on January 22.

A video has leaked online of the recent crash of the Russian Tu-22M3 (NATO name Backfire-C) bomber.

The footage, uploaded on the Military Informant Telegram-channel, shows the plane breaking as the major gear touches down hard on a snowy runway and immediately catching fire.

As previously reported, the Tu-22M3 bomber crashed when landing at the airfield in Olenegorsk, Murmansk region, on January 22.

According to preliminary data, the accident was caused by a piloting error in poor weather conditions.

Two crew members were killed on the spot, while another pilot died later.The OSCE SMM first recorded a mine warning sign in Russian, installed some two meters off the road.

Russian proxy forces in Donbas continue to brazenly mine the territories near the line of contact, thus endangering Donbas civilians, according to the Ukrainian side to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of ceasefire (JSCC).

According to the OSCE SMM report published on January 26, about three kilometers north of the village of Lysoe (southeast of Luhansk), the patrol team for the first time spotted a mine warning sign in Russian, which was installed approximately two meters off the road.

The soldiers of Ukraine Armed Forces, officers of the State Emergencies Service, and representatives of civil and military administrations of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are working hard to bring Donbas back to peaceful life. To this end, they systemically identify, seize, and destroy explosive objects, including artillery shells, mortar shells, grenades, in the area near the line of demarcation of the sides," reads the statement published in the Joint Forces Operation website.

Read alsoDonbas invaders violate ceasefire, suffer losses Joint Forces HQ

Unfortunately, the JCCC notes, it's only the Ukrainan side that puts forward peace initiatives in this direction, while the occupation administration and the armed forces of the Russian Federation are only interested in further aggravating the conflict and worsening the humanitarian situation in Donbas.

The Ukrainian side to the JCCC further urges the occupation administration and the armed forces of the Russian Federation to stop ignoring the interests of civilians on both sides of the demarcation line, as well as the environmental security issues in the region and those related to the restoration of civilian infrastructure in the region.According to intelligence data, on January 26, four occupiers were killed and two were injured.

On January 26, Russian occupation forces violated ceasefire ten times in eastern Ukraine's warzone, including two times with the use of weapons banned by Minsk agreements.

In the Skhid [East] Tactical Grouping's operation zone The enemy attacked Ukraine military positions from automatic grenade launchers and small arms in the area of Vodiane; from grenade launchers, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms  near the village of Shyrokyne; from large-caliber machine guns  outside Nevelske; and from grenade launchers  near the village of Novoselivka Druha.

Read alsoRussian proxies in Donbas threaten to shoot down OSCE SMM's UAVs

In the Pivnich [North] Tactical Group operation zone, the enemy fired at the positions of the Joint Forces twice from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns and small arms near the village of Krymske; twice from 82 mm mortars, grenade launchers, and large-caliber machine guns  near the settlement of Yekaterynivka; from grenade launchers  near Stariy Aidar; and from automatic grenade launchers  outside Luhanske.

According to intelligence data, on January 26, four occupiers were killed and two were injured.

From day-start on Sunday, militants didn't open fire.

"Our defenders continue monitoring the enemy along the contact line while adhering to the terms of the ceasefire," the statement reads.The president noted that the tragedy of the Holocaust showed what intolerance and hatred could lead to.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on Sunday addressed the Ukrainians on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is marked annually on January 27.

"Today, along with the entire civilized world, Ukraine honors the memory of the victims of the Holocaust  a monstrous crime of the Nazis, which has become one of the biggest disasters in human history," the head of state wrote on Facebook.

Read alsoKyiv mayor pledges to create Babyn Yar memorial complex

With sadness in our hearts, we remember those millions killed by the totalitarian Nazi regime. These painful reflections are a warning to us and to future generations of what a policy of intolerance and hatred could lead to, Poroshenko added.

We remember and will never allow the mistakes of the past repeating, the president stressed.Russia is focused on destroying confidence in government agencies and "atomizing" Ukrainian society.

Russia has applied against Ukraine terrorist tactics of petty provocations in an attempt to intimidate the Ukrainians, according to deputy director of Ukrainian Institute for Extremism Research, Bohdan Petrenko.

The expert believes this tactic suits Russia much better than a major terrorist attack, which would mobilize the society in the wake of an atrocious act, Obozrevatel reports.

Meanwhile, the tactic applied by the Kremlin "leads to a firm idea being formed among Ukrainians that their country is in danger."

Read alsoPoroshenko says Moscow pursues provocations against autocephaly of Ukrainian church

It is about "forming a sense of insecurity and lack of government guarantees," explained Petrenko.

According to the expert, today Moscow is focused on destroying the credibility of Ukrainian government agencies and "atomizing" Ukrainian society, to make people seek protection from organizations that, on the one hand, are believed to be "capable" of providing it, but on the other hand, are not affiliated with government, like private security firms or radical political organizations.Russia wants to return Ukraine to its orbit, and for this purpose it has three scenarios for the development of events in 2019, Head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service Yehor Bozhok has said in an interview with Ukrinform.

"All Russian special services have a specific task of 'closing the Ukrainian question' in 2019. 'Closing' means returning Ukraine to the orbit of the Russian Federation and doing it so reliably that 'no color revolutions' could happen in Ukraine ever again," he said.

According to Bozhok, for this purpose, the Kremlin has already worked out three scenarios for the development of events in Ukraine.

"The first one concerns revenge by pro-Russian forces following presidential or parliamentary elections," he said.

"In the event of the failure of pro-Russian forces or those suiting Russia in the presidential election, a second scenario will be used, namely internal destabilization or so-called 'controlled chaos' to make Ukraine accept the conditions imposed by the Kremlin," he added.

The third scenario is a military operation.

"If it is impossible to apply the first two scenarios, the Kremlin does not rule out open military aggression against Ukraine," Bozhok said.

The probability that any of these scenarios can be realized is high, he said.

"Nobody knows what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin plans, apart from Putin himself. The main task of the Foreign Intelligence Service this year is to prevent the Russian Federation from interfering in domestic political processes in Ukraine," Bozhok said.

The presidential election campaign began in Ukraine on December 31, 2018. The presidential election should take place on March 31, 2019. The election of people's deputies of the Verkhovna Rada is scheduled for October 27 this year.A Samoan national accused of 18 counts of human trafficking and slavery says he intends to deny all the charges.

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Viliamu Samu, also known as Joe Matamata, appeared in the Napier High Court this morning.

The 64-year-old orchard worker from Camberly in Hastings is accused of using 10 people as slaves in Hawke's Bay between 1994 and 2017 and also eight charges of arranging entry of people from Samoa to New Zealand by deceiving them between 2003 and 2017.

The victims allege Samu did not pay them for work completed, took their passports and were physically and verbally abused.

His defence lawyer, Roger Phillip, told Justice Peter Churchman in court that Samu intends to plead not guilty to the charges.

It is the first time someone in New Zealand has faced both human trafficking and slavery charges together and comes after a two-year joint investigation by immigration and police officers.

Each human trafficking charge faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison or a $500,000 fine. For a charge of slavery, the penalty can reach up to 14 years in prison.As quickly as it started, it looks to be over.

Friday, Public Utilities Minister -- Marvin Gonzales met with the management of WASA.Business innovation also happens when a problem transforms itself into a solution. My company, like many others, has struggled to find qualified welders in northeast Oklahoma. We determined that the problem could be solved by investing in an apprenticeship program. Said programs have been shown to benefit not only the apprentice, but also those in the mentoring role. We created the Pelco Registered Apprenticeship Program; working with community partners such as the Oklahoma Works Center, Northeast Technology Center and the Cherokee Nation, we have bolstered Oklahomas economy by creating a sustainable talent pipeline for in-demand jobs, like welding, at Pelco. Through this experience, we have learned that problems can become solutions with the right partnerships and the right mindset.Low-skilled immigrants make it easier to raise kids by providing cheap child-care services. High-skilled immigrants earn more and pay a lot of taxes, while using few government services themselves, meaning that their fiscal contribution is enormously positive.

But low-skilled immigration to the U.S. has declined, meaning that more expensive child care is on the horizon. And high-skilled immigration may soon taper off, as President Donald Trumps policies and rhetoric make the country less hospitable for the worlds best and brightest.

In other words, the U.S. may soon find itself without its two big long-term population boosters, and wind up as a graying, shrinking nation, with young people burdened with supporting ever-more old people, and the elderly themselves forced to work long into what used to be the golden years.

In this, the U.S. will be following in the footsteps of Japan. Japan has had low fertility for much longer than the U.S., and until recently had little immigration. Even now, although immigration has been increased, its mostly of the low-skilled variety  with uncompetitive low salaries and an ossified corporate culture, Japan has had great difficulty attracting high-skilled foreigners.When the Gilcrease Museum project was first pitched, much was made of the potential structural changes the facility might see. Those changes are still coming, but what they will look like have yet to be determined.

The city is expected to have an architect selected in the next four to five months. It will take another 14 to 20 months to complete the redesign, city officials said. The construction timeline wont be known until detailed plans are available.

Gallagher credits Neal with having the foresight to know that museums are designed from the inside out and that until Gilcrease officials re-examined the museums collection and the stories it could tell, it made no sense to rush forward with building designs.

That mistake happens often in museums, where everybody gets excited and runs off and creates something architectural and then forgets that visitors arent there necessarily to see the architecture, Gallagher said. They are there to experience the ideas of the institution and experience the collections.

University of Tulsa President Gerard Clancy praised the partnership the school has had with the city and the museum to maintain the legacy of Thomas Gilcrease.

I can think of no better way to enter our second decade of collaboration than with the launching of this historic project and am excited that TU students and scholars will have increased access to this cultural destination in their own backyard, Clancy said. We look forward to all of the new discoveries on the history of the Americas ahead of us.

Kevin Canfield 918-645-5452 kevin.canfield@tulsaworld.com Twitter: @aWorldofKC

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.Yes, lawmakers work for us. They know it. They know you are entitled to be angry. Or shout. Or criticize.

But if you really want to have a good relationship, remember this: Lawmakers are people. They have emotions, just like you and me; and they might not be interested in a future conversation with someone who is disrespectful. Thats just human nature.

One person offered this good reminder about the importance of discussing issues and avoiding personal attacks or anger: Its never about the person. Its always about the issue. It shouldnt be about the person.

How to contact them

What is the best way to reach you?

Ask your lawmaker that question, said Jeannie McDaniel, who represented a midtown Tulsa district until she reached her 12-year term limit in 2016. Different people have different answers. McDaniels preferred way brings us to the next point.

Meet in person

This might have been the most common piece of advice: Face-to-face conversations can make lasting impressions.Supporting the assertion of black community mistrust of white institutions, the Citivoice Index poll found that only 4 percent of black residents trust Tulsas city leaders a lot. When it comes to law enforcement, 18 percent of black residents trust police a lot.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan said the polls results arent surprising and bear out on a national level. He said he wants the department to do much better in future surveys, which is going to be my commitment.

He pointed to the 2018 Tulsa Equality Indicators to say most metrics in the report are about poverty, not race. Jordan said the majority of crime is committed in poverty-stricken areas, not by a specific race.

Weve got to establish trust, because when you get numbers like (the poll) its very easy to take them and just run with them and say its because of police bias, Jordan said. If you know cops and you trust some cops, its a lot harder to make that jump; its easier to see some of the other side of it.

This is going to be really important for us over the next two or three years, especially, to start re-establishing trust.

Johnson, who also is a consultant on diversity and cultural competence, orchestrates the Mayors Police and Community Coalition.The Tulsa Christian Ministers Alliance needs help to make an ambitious jump to providing more food and utilities assistance to needy families in 2019.

The Rev. W.R. Casey said the organization is looking for partners to support giving away food and utilities assistance twice a month. Previously, CMA has hosted giveaways for Easter, back to school, Thanksgiving and Christmas, Casey said.

Although the plan is ambitious, Casey said the organization wants to better serve the community.

We see a growing need in the community, Casey said. The timeline would be sometime in the next 30 to 45 days if we can get partners to help us.

Casey said the effort is still in the planning stage as the organization finds backers, but said he hopes the plans become reality in the near future.

CMA will also kick off its 51st anniversary celebration Saturday at the DoubleTree hotel in downtown Tulsa. Tulsa Community College President Leigh Goodson will speak and CMA will honor former first lady of Oklahoma Kim Henry.

Tickets for the event are $100. Contact the Rev. W.R. Casey at 918-902-1374 for more information.

Stetson Payne 918-732-8135 stetson.payne@tulsaworld.com Twitter: @stetson__payneThe Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has dismissed claims that Raila Odinga fainted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and was rushed to hospital.

The party's communications director who doubles as Raila's Personal Assistant (PA), Dennis Onyango, clarified his boss is doing fine in Dar es Salaam.

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READ ALSO: Wetang'ula badly trolled for equating former AG Charles Njonjo to Mugabe

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party denied reports Raila Odinga fainted in Dar es Salaam Ttanzania where he had gone to watch Sportpesa's supercup. Photo: Standard.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kirinyaga boy goes missing, leaves 2 chilling letters asking for mother's forgiveness

In a brief statement issued on Sunday, January 27, evening shortly after the said rumours started circulating on social media, Onyango said the ODM party leader only stepped on a podium that was falling off and that it had nothing to do with his health.

"Hon Raila Odinga is fine in Dar. Images of security people holding him emerged from a step on the podium that was falling off and not anything to do with health. Thanks though to everyone who has expressed concern," he clarified.

READ ALSO: Chaos erupt in Siaya town as two groups of youth clash over 2022 polls, 3 arrested

Onyang'o sentiments were echoed by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino who also said the ODM party leader is in perfect health contrary to reports he had been rushed to hospital.

TUKO.co.ke understands the former prime minister had gone to Tanzania to watch the Sportpesa SuperCup.

Reports had emerged he collapsed on podium while handing over a trophy to the cup winners Kariobangi Sharks.

READ ALSO: Reprieve for ODM MP as court stops his arrest over Kawangware chaos

Kariobangi Sharks FC beat Bandari FC 1-0 in the Sportpesa Cup final, which was held at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, to bag the coveted trophy.

The champions pocketed KSh 3 million for the victory and also secured a chance to host the Premier League (EPL) side Everton.

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.

Angry Kenyan Sends Message to President Uhuru Kenyatta - On Tuko TV

Source: Kenyan Breaking News- The IG appealed to Kenyans to refrain from profiling anyone even as they support security agencies in fighting crime

- Boinnet noted investigation is underway to identify those who may have been involved in the Latema explosion

- He urged members of the public to provide any information that may help in the ongoing investigation

- The IG also clarified the two people who suffered injuries in the Latema blast had since been treated and discharged

The National Police Service (NPS) led by the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Joseph Boinnet, has issued a stern warning against profiling of certain individuals or any community in the ongoing war on terror.

The IG equally called on members of the public to continue cooperating with the security agencies in the ongoing fight against terrorism and other criminal activities.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Latema explosion: Hotel operators advised to stay extra alert following explosion at Odeon Cinema

The Inspector General (IG) of Police Joseph Boinnet on Sunday appealed to members of the public to refrain from profiling a community in the fight against terrorism. Photo: National Police Service.

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Update: Explosion in Nairobi CBD, 2 people injured

In a statement issued on Sunday, January 27, in reaction to the Latema Junction explosion, Boinnet also noted the security agencies are already in the process of identifying those who may have been involved in the Odeon Cinema incident and urged Kenyans provide any information that may help in the investigations.

"Whilst we appeal to the public to support the security agencies to deal with these threats by providing information, we equally request that we refrain from profiling any sections of our population," he said.

READ ALSO: DusitD2: Brave GSU officer killed during terror attack laid to rest in Taita-Taveta

According to the IG, the two individuals of suffered minor injuries in the Latema explosion had since been treated and discharged.

"We wish to clarify that the two victims who got injured during the incident sustained very slight injuries, were treated at a local dispensary and discharged. We call upon Kenyans to continue reporting promptly to the Police or other security agencies should they see anything of security concern for quick attention," he said.

READ ALSO: El Adde truth finally comes out including number of DEAD and captured KDF soldiers

The NPS had issued a separate statement earlier urging hotel and public service vehicle (PSV) operators to be extra vigilant after a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated at Latema Junction, Odeon Cinema in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD) on Saturday evening.

The police advised the citizens to step up their levels of alertness regarding their surroundings and contact the relevant authorities immediately whenever they notice anything unusual.

"We advise PSV operators to monitor the behaviour of their passengers and be wary of persons who may board with luggage and thereafter attempt to alight without the baggage," read the statement seen by TUKO.co.ke on Sunday.

READ ALSO: Terror as al-Shabaab open fire on passenger bus

Those operating shopping malls and ushers at all places of worship, education institutions and any other public place where people gather have equally been advised to put in place extra security measures to ensure persons vising the premises are safe.

"Frisk all persons entering the premises and promptly notify the police should there be anything unusual. We also wish to inform the public that whilst we have stepped up alertness on our highways, all Police Commanders have been instructed to apply to a court of law for forfeiture of any vehicle found with illegal immigrants and any form of contraband," the NPS advised.

The intensified security comes in the wake of attacks that have so far claimed 21 lives and left at least 30 others nursing injuries including the two Latema explosion victims.

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.

CBD Blast Leaves Two Injured - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko KenyaTodays Labour Day is the second to be observed under conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year, imposition of a 19-hour curfew as part of the current state of emergency makes for even greater stringency against public activity.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.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.Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has come under fire from Guyana for his comments on the Russian Sputnik Covid-19 vaccine.

Guyanas adviser to the Health Ministry Dr Leslie Ramsammy as well as The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) issued statements chiding Rowley for insulting the people of Guyana.Canton, GA (30114)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.gspannu7@gmail.com

Singapore, January 27

A memorial service was held on Sunday for a Singaporean actor and soldier who died from injuries at a military exercise, a case that has renewed scrutiny of the tiny Southeast Asian nations system of mandatory conscription.

Reservist Aloysius Pang, 28, was taking part in military training in New Zealand last weekend when he was crushed while repairing an artillery vehicle. He died Thursday after several surgeries.

With a population of just 5.6 million people, Singapore sees conscription as a key element of its national security strategy.

It requires most men from after the age 18 to serve full-time in its armed forces, police force or civil defense force for two years and after that take part in training obligations for another 10 years.

Those who dodge their service are arrested and jailed.

Pang is the fourth conscript to die from training since August 2017, leading to calls for more protections for soldiers and greater accountability on the part of the military.

Christina Goh was waiting in line to pay her respects Saturday at memorial that was attended by Pangs family members, politicians and dozens of celebrities before it was opened to thousands of members of the public.

She said Pangs case makes her worry about her own 21-year-old son, who is done with his full-time service but will still be called up for the reserves.

A few army boys already have this problem. They will say we will be careful, we will take action, she said of the military. Its too late.

A memorial service for Pang was broadcast online Sunday, with hundreds of thousands of viewers, and a military funeral and cremation were scheduled for later in the day.

Pang had completed his full-time service and was an armament technician whose rank was corporal first class. He was known to the public for his roles on Mandarin-language television dramas for which he won several local awards.

Pangs death has brought painful memories flooding back for Jasmine Yeo, whose 19-year-old son, Dave Lee, died after collapsing from heat stroke during a march last April.

One by one, this is something that I really did not wish to see. Rest in peace, son of Singapore! she wrote on Facebook.

An independent committee convened by the military found that those who first attended to Lee didnt do enough to cool him down. They were also slow in sending him to the camps medical centre.

It also found Lees platoon had slightly less than the standard seven hours of rest the night before. This was due to unauthorised punishment from higher ups, which included leopard crawls, push-ups and sprints.

Lees captain has been charged with causing death by a rash act. If found guilty, he faces a maximum punishment of five years in jail and a fine. The next hearing is scheduled in February. Six other servicemen also face a military investigation.

Yeo said she was still coming to terms with the loss.

I really do not think any of us parents who lost a son would ever have closure, she told The Associated Press.

In September 2017, a full-time conscript died after a vehicular accident at a training area in Australia. An inquiry found safety lapses but no negligence or misconduct. The death of another full-time conscript in a vehicle accident during training last November is still being investigated.  APpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Kabul/Peshawar, Pakistan, January 27

Taliban officials said US negotiators on Saturday agreed on a draft peace pact setting out the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan within 18 months, potentially ending the United States longest war.

The details of the draft were given to Reuters by Taliban sources at the end of six days of talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar aimed at ending the war, more than 17 years since American-led forces invaded Afghanistan.

It stipulates that troops would leave within 18 months of the agreement being signed.

While no joint statement was issued, Khalilzad tweeted later that the talks had made significant progress and would resume shortly, adding that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to meet government officials.

Meetings here (in Qatar) were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues, he wrote, adding that numerous issues still needed work.

Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and everything must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire, he wrote in the tweets.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday wrote on Twitter that he had received encouraging news from Khalilzad about the talks.

The US is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home, Pompeo tweeted. He did not give a timetable for the potential withdrawal of US forces.

A Taliban statement issued later also noted progress on troop withdrawal and other issues but said more negotiations and internal consultations were required.

The policy of the Islamic Emirate during talks was very clearuntil the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using another name the group calls itself.

It was not clear whether the draft described by the Taliban sources was acceptable to both sides or when it could be completed and signed.

Main enemy

According to the sources, the hard-line Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its alliesa key early demand of Washington.

They said the deal included a ceasefire provision but they had yet to confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives once a truce was implemented.

Up until now, the Taliban has repeatedly rejected the Afghan governments offer of holding talks, preferring instead to talk directly to the US side, which it regards as its main enemy.

In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and ceasefire is implemented, then other aspects of the peace process can be put into action, a Taliban source said, quoting from a portion of the draft.

More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital Doha, the Taliban sources said.

They expect their side to be led by new political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movements co-founder and a former military commander who was released from prison in Pakistan last year.

While they said his appointment had boosted momentum for a deal, it was unclear if he had joined the talks.

Near-daily attacks

News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces.

Despite the presence of US-led foreign forces training, advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts 17 years after the US-led an invasion to drive them from power, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said last week that 45,000 members of the countrys security forces had been killed since he took office in 2014.

The United States has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led mission, known as Resolute Support, as well as a US counterterrorism mission directed at groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Despite reports last month that the United States was considering pulling out almost half of its forces, a White House spokesman said US President Donald Trump had not issued orders to withdraw the troops. However, the administration has not denied the reports, which have prompted fears of a fresh refugee crisis.

The Taliban sources said other clauses in the draft include an agreement over the exchange and release of prisoners, the removal of an international travel ban on several Taliban leaders by Washington and the prospect of an interim Afghan government after the ceasefire is struck.

The suggestion to appoint an interim government in Afghanistan comes as top politicians including Ghani have filed their nominations for the presidential polls in July. Ghani has repeatedly rejected the offer to agree to the formation of an interim government.

The Taliban sources also confirmed provisions in the draft that have broader implications for Afghanistans ties with its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, India and China.

They said the deal included provisions that separatist militants from Balochistan, a resource-rich southwestern Pakistani province, will not be allowed to use Afghan soil to target Pakistan. Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

London, January 27

The date Britain leaves the EU could be pushed back by a couple of weeks to give time for legislation to be approved by lawmakers, the leader of Britains lower house of parliament said, the most senior figure to make such a suggestion.

Britain, the worlds fifth largest economy, is due to leave the European Union on March 29 but Prime Minister Theresa Mays negotiated exit deal was rejected by lawmakers, leaving open the possibility of a disorderly Brexit.

Parliament will now vote on a series of amendments on Tuesday with the United Kingdom facing its deepest political crisis in half a century as it grapples with how, or even whether, to exit the European project it joined in 1973.

We can get the legislation through and I think we do, in spite of everything, have a very strong relationship with our EU friends and neighbours and I am absolutely certain that if we needed a couple of extra weeks or something then that would be feasible, Andrea Leadsom told the BBC.

Responding to the idea that this would mean extending the two-year Article 50 negotiation period, Leadsom, who is the organiser of government business in the lower house of parliament, told the BBC:

It doesnt necessarily mean that. I think we would want to think carefully about it. But as things stand I do feel that we can get, with the support of both Houses - the House of Commons and the House of Lords - with goodwill and a determination we can still get the legislation through in good time. A spokeswoman at Mays No. 10 Downing Street office said the governments position had not changed.

We are not considering an extension to article 50 and are committed to doing whatever it takes to have the statute books ready for when we leave the EU on March 29th this year. But Brexit continues to divide Britains ruling Conservatives.

Leadsom told The Sunday Times that taking no deal off the table has been used as a thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit. However, junior defence minister Tobias Ellwood said a no-deal outcome must be ruled out.

It is wrong for government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world, he was quoted as saying. Reutersamansharma@tribunemail.com

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 27

Thousands of Punjabis living in Canada as permanent residents will benefit from the Canadian Parents and Grandparents (PGP-2019) Programme launched by the government under which their parents and grandparents will be able to join them in that country.

The PGP programme accords the Canadians and permanent residents an opportunity to call their parents and grandparents to Canada for living with them permanently under its family reunification scheme.

The programme will help thousands of those Punjabis and other immigrants who have got settled in Canada as permanent residents, but whose parents or grandparents were still living in their native countries. They face difficulties for they were too busy in their work or study to take care of their small children -a job which was easily handled by their parents and grandparents.

The interest to sponsor parents and grandparents form will be available to potential sponsors from January 28 onwards under the new programme, which has been launched by the Government of Canada after listening to and addressing concerns of those permanent residents who had applied or availed the facility under the previous intake process, Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen has said.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will accept interest to sponsor submissions or forms for a limited time. After this it will invite potential sponsors to submit a complete application. The cap of the number of applications has been fixed at 20,000 - a straight four-time intake increase as compared to applications accepted in 2015. The sharp increase was made possible by an over an 80 per cent reduction of the application backlog and processing times that have got cut from a long seven to eight years to just about two years.

The programme has been launched with a view to provide a first-in-first-served approach for 2019 with a view to keep the application process fair for all via an easy-to-access electronic method for the applicants.

The potential sponsors of their parents and grandparents will be encouraged to familiarise themselves with the new improved intake process for 2019. The improvements include a requirement for potential sponsors to upload a copy of their status document in Canada while submitting their interest to sponsor form.

The interest to sponsor form has been modified in such a so as to enable the IRCC to detect duplicate submissions and to keep any potential frauds at bay.

The ministry has advised all potential sponsors to submit an interest to sponsor form as soon as possible once it was available online and after confirming that they were meeting the necessary minimum income requirements. The onus is on potential sponsors to ensure they are eligible before submitting an interest to sponsor form.

The potential sponsors have also been advised against submitting their application forms until they were invited to do so for the 2019 PGP programme, otherwise their application forms would be sent back to them.

Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen has said family reunification was an immigration priority for the Government of Canada as it supported the country's economic prosperity and strengthened communities further.

The parents and grandparents often extend their help for caring for children and thus, increasing their parents' ability to study and work and making a meaningful contribution to the communities and the country.

Upon having invited by the IRCC, potential sponsors will have 60 calendar days from the date of their invitation to ensure that the IRCC received their complete application for sponsorship.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Washington, January 27

A rally by Sikh separatists outside the Indian Embassy in Washington on the Republic Day turned out to be a flop show. The rally was attended by around 15-20 people, who were outnumbered by Indian-Americans waving flags.

Organised by the New York-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the protesters raised Khalistan zindabaad slogans and tried to burn the Indian Flag in the presence of a battery of reporters from the local Pakistani media, a move slammed by the local Sikh community.

However, the SFJ supporters were outnumbered by Indian-Americans raising Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogans with Indian flags flying high in their hand.

Around 2.30 pm on Saturday, the members of the SFJ  in front of a group of Pakistani reporters and cameramen  tried to burn the Indian Flag. They ended up burning a green flag that had S written on it.

With passions running high between Indian-Americans and protesters, the local law enforcement officials had warned against any attempt to burn the Indian Flag. In fact, they sought additional security personnel as the standoff continued. A group of mounted police were seen standing a few blocks away.

It was some tense moments for the local law enforcement officials as the two groups were standing face-to-face in a park just across the road from the Indian embassy in Washington. The standoff lasted for about two hours, after which the protestors were forced by the local police to move across the road.

This demonstrates the hollow claim of SFJ that they enjoy wide support. They are a fringe group backed by Pakistan clearly bringing out the nefarious design of Pakistan to stir up trouble. In fact, most of the demonstrators were Pakistanis, said sources.

Officials also point out that SFJs claim on its website of burning an Indian Flag outside the Embassy in Washington is completely false as evident through available photos and videos.

No such thing took place, the claim is intended to cover up for their flop show, added sources.

Indian Ambassador Harsh Shringla in fact interacted with diaspora members, including Sikhs, on the streets on the occasion of 26th January celebrations.

The local Sikh community slammed the SFJ for the protest.

Such theatrical protests like flag burning are detrimental to the peace-loving and harmony-enhancing Sikh community everywhere, Jasse Singh and Kamaljit Singh Soni, the chairman and the president, respectively, of the Sikhs of America said in a joint statement.

I am disturbed and concerned that a chosen few can build a narrative about the Sikh community in USA which will be viewed by the whole world, said Puneet Ahluwalia, an Indian American leader from Virginia.

I will not stand for these forces to develop a misguided narrative with US leadership and public, besides polarising the already sensitivities towards minorities in India, he said.

In a statement, American Hindu Coalition (AHC) expressed deep dismay at the SFJ attempt to burn the Indian flag.

The intent of flag burning is also an immense affront to the largest democracy on the earth and causing huge grief to the American Hindus, said Harsh Sethi, the AHC president who himself has a Sikh inheritance.

Ravi Batra, an Indian-American attorney from New York, said, What SFJ, an American-born and accredited entity is seeking to do, however, is to burn the flag of another nation  and here is the critical part  as part of a campaign, allegedly, as an unregistered foreign agent engaging in terrorist activities in India.

Meanwhile, the twitter account of the SFJ has been suspended by the social media company.

Account suspended, said the twitter page of @SikhsforJustice Saturday. Twitter did not gave any reason for it except for providing links to its rules. Twitter suspends accounts which violates the Twitter Rules. It is understood that twitter suspended the account of the SFJ for running hate campaign against India. With PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Islamabad, January 27

Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact over the Kartarpur corridor and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

He made the remarks on Saturday night during an informal interaction with the media personnel invited to attend the reception to celebrate the 70th Republic Day of India.

Bisaria said India had consented to the basic points about the Kartarpur corridor except for its zero-point (crossing point).

He said both the countries were in contact over Kartarpur corridor.

So many meetings have taken place on this matter (Kartarpur corridor), he said.

But he ruled out any quick resumption of talks due to upcoming election in India.

Because of (upcoming) elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now, he said.

He went on to say that trust-building was important before resuming political dialogue between the two countries.

India last week shared with Pakistan the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan.

Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara.

The much-awaited corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur  the final resting place of Sikh faiths founder Guru Nanak Dev with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur.

The corridor was a long-pending demand of the Sikh community. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later on November 28, Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor at Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.

Bisaria said that 2019 was important for India as it marks 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The reception was attended by politicians, parliamentarians, diplomats, media persons, businessmen and civil society representatives. PTIshriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Patiala, January 27

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has favoured the setting up of open jails for the female prisoners in the state to ease their rehabilitation after release, an official said on Sunday.

The first-of-its-kind prison will allow the female inmates to work outside the inner prison premises, the official said, adding that Singh has sought a proposal from the Department of Prisons.

The chief minister had on Saturday inaugurated the newly constructed waiting hall for the families of the inmates during his visit to the Patiala Central Jail.

He was informed by the Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Rohit Chaudhary that an open jail for male inmates already existed in Nabha and there was a proposal to set up more such jails in Bathinda, SBS Nagar and Kapurthala.

According to the official, the waiting hall would be beneficial for the families of inmates coming from distant places, who earlier had to wait in the open or makeshift sheds.

"These waiting halls are well equipped with facilities like washrooms, water coolers, television etc. Utility stores have also been set up in these waiting halls from where the families can buy items of daily need and give them to their inmate relatives," an official release said.

The halls are constructed in Central Jail Patiala, Ludhiana and Kapurthala, and work is in progress in Central Jail Ferozpur, Hoshiarpur, New Jail Nabha and Distrcit Jail Sangrur, it added.

Chaudhary also told the chief minister that the government had already approved a fund of Rs 60 crores to purchase security equipment, weapons, building infrastructure and modernisation of prisons, and also for purchase of vehicles for the Prison Department to further strengthen the existing infrastructure in the state jails.

Further, all the prisons were declared polythene free and the carry bags used in canteens will be made from waste newspapers, he added.

On the occasion, Singh also launched 'e-purse system' to facilitate prisoners to buy items of daily needs inside the jail.

The system has also been introduced in 15 prisons across the state, where all the financial transactions would be conducted through computer software with the help of smart cards.

The chief minister also inaugurated a solar power plant installed in the local Central Jail, in order to make the jail eco-friendly.

Chaudhary also informed Singh that such solar plants were also being set up in 19 prisons across the state.

Later, Singh also visited the high-security zone of Central Jail Patiala, where hardcore criminals were lodged, and reviewed the security.  PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Ravi S Singh



Tribune News Service



New Delhi, January 27

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged young voters to cast their ballot in the forthcoming General Election, as his government gets ready to face its biggest challenge yet.

In his first Mann ki Baat address of 2019, Modi lauded the role of Election Commission of India and state election commissions in facilitating elections across the country, even in areas that are remote and hard to access.

Modi asked first-time-voters to exercise their voting rights with a sense of responsibility and hoped they would register themselves in large numbers.

His Mann ki Baat this time had him pay tributes to several people, including Rabindra Nath Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Shivakumara Swamithe Lingayat spiritual leader who died earlier this week at 111.

About the Lingayat leaderthe head of Karnatakas Sidhganga Mathhe said: We received a sad piece of news this month. Shivakumara Swami ji left us for his heavenly abode. He dedicated his entire life for the service of society. He spent the 111 years of his life working for the social, educational welfare of thousands of people.

Among the Lingayat leaders list of disciples are some his own party BJPs leaders, prominent among them former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.

Paying a tribute to Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, he referred to the recent inauguration of a museum commemorating him and the INA in the Red Fort.

Netaji fired up peoples spirits to struggle for country's Independence, he said.

Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore and his eclectic works and the upcoming birth anniversary of Guru Ravidas also found mention in his speech.

Also mentioned in his speech was Indias ambitious space programme, which he said should be expanded to be used in peoples everyday lives.

General elections are due to be held in April-May this year.amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, January 27

The mementos gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go under the hammer at a two-day auction starting on Sunday.

The funds raised through the auction, held at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi, will go to the government's flagship project 'Namami Gange'.

A dedicated site -- http://pmmementos.gov.in"pmmementos.gov.in - has been set up to display and e-auction the mementos that are priced between Rs 100 and Rs 30,000. Visitors to the site can search through the mementos on the basis of price range.

One can also filter through the mementos on the basis of material -- brass, ceramic, cloth, glass, gold, metallic item etc. Each product has been listed with a short description, including its dimensions, weight and who gifted the memento to the prime minister.

The only gold-plated memento on auction is an idol of Radha and Krishna, the base price for which has been set at Rs 20,000. The 4.76-kg idol was gifted to the prime minister by the Mandvi Nagar Palika in Surat.

A 2.22-kg silver plate, gifted to the prime minister by former BJP MP C Narasimhan, priced at Rs 30,000, is the most expensive memento in the catalogue with a blue brocade shawl with tassels being the least expensive at Rs 200.

Among other items going under the hammer is memento presented to the PM while attending the 85th Annual Conference of Srimanta Sankaradeva Sangha at Sibsagar, Assam, on February 5, 2016. A replica of Golden Temple, Amritsar, presented to PM Modi on March 23, 2015 has also been put up for auction.

Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma earlier said 1,900 gifts received nationally and internationally by the Prime Minister will be on auction. - PTI/TNSuttara@tribuneindia.com

Yash Goyal

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, January 27

Its going to be a triangular contest in Ramgarh assembly segment in Mondays election. Although there are 21 candidates in the fray, its most likely a close contest between Congresss Safia Khan, Bharatiya Janata Party's Sukhawant Singh and Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Jagat Singha two-time MLA and the son of former tainted external affairs minister Natwar Singh.

Singh is banking on SC/ST and Mewat-Muslims votestraditionally a Congress's vote bank. His party BSP is optimistic of its chancesit won four of six assembly seats in Alwar and Bharatpur districts in last months assembly elections. Singh is a popular Jat face in politics. Previously a Congressman who won Laxmangarh assembly segment from Alwar in 2003, Singh was expelled from the party over allegations in the Iraq oil-for-food scama scandal that also led to his union minister fathers suspension from the party.

He contested, and won, as a BJP candidate from Kaman assembly seat in Bharatpur in 2013 assembly elections, but was refused a ticket this time.

While the rest of the state went to polls on December 7 last year, election for the segment was postponed after BSP candidate Laxman Choudhary died on November 29, 2018.

The segment has an electorate of 2.34 lakh voters.

Worried about the threat from BSP, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot have held public meetings in the constituency until the very end of campaigning in an attempt to keep a hold on their vote base.

State BSP Sitaram Meghwal, however, claimed it wasnt triangular contest but a two-party race between his own party against the Congresss Gehlot governmenthe claimed his partys supposed support from 60 per cent of areas SC/ST voters, Mewat minority and some 20,000 Jats would tip the scales in their favour.

Former Union Minister Natwar Singh has already announced his support to BSP supremo Mayawati for the next prime minister.

In his election rally, state BJP President Madan Lal Saini has called this election a litmus test for Congresss new government. His partys hopes ride on the new 10 per cent EWS quota that the BJPs central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced last month. Saini hopes the quota could consolidate Hindu votes in the areathe Rajputs, the Malis as well as general trading community.

Cow vigilantism

Given the areas proximity to Haryanas Mewat and the close cultural ties, cow vigilantism and rise in violence against dalits and minorities is likely to play large on their minds.

Ramgarh has always been known as a troubled constituency for any governmentrecent times especially have seen a rise cow vigilantism and related violence. Cow vigilantism allegations in fact forced the BJP to sideline Gyan Deo Ahuja, a three-time former MLA and the vice-president of the partys Rajasthan unit, from the elections.

Given the rise in communal tensions in the area, both Congress and the BSP have accused the BJP of polarising voters in an attempt to win.

Results for Mondays elections will be announced on January 30.

Currently, of the 199 seats in the assembly, Congress has 99; BJP 73; BSP 6; RLP 3; CPI-M 2; RLD 1; and others 15.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Meerut (UP), January 27

The official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradeshs Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the house of the man who allegedly shot him, officials said on Sunday.

The recovery comes nearly two months after the incident in Bulandshahrs Siana area where on December 3, a mob fought pitched battles with police, apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village.

Inspector Subodh Kumars phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones on Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said.

Natt, who had allegedly shot the Inspector during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is in jail.

We had got information from sources that Inspector Subodh Kumars mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natts house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place, Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said.

The CUG mobile phone of the Inspector was recovered from Natts house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records, he told reporters.

However, the pistol that was used to open fire on the inspector is still missing, and the ASP said a search is on for it.

Natt, 26, a resident of Chingrawathi village, would work part-time as a driver in Delhi and nearby areas, and other times worked locally as a labourer, according to the police.

During the violence, a 20-year-old Chingrawathi resident Sumit Kumar was also killed of gunshot. An FIR was lodged at the Siyana police station against at least 80 people for murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damaging public property, among other charges. Twenty-seven were named.

So far, 38 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence case, Siyana Circle Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI Sunday.

Those arrested include Bajrang Dals Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh Raj, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morchas Siyana unit head Shikhar Agarwal, Army jawan Jeetender Malik, and Kalua, who first attacked the Inspector, surrounded by five to six men.

A separate FIR for cow slaughter was filed on December 3 in which six accused have been arrested.

Three of them, Azhar Khan, Mehboob Ali and Nadeem Khan, were on January 14 booked under the National Security Act (NSA) by the Bulandshahr administration, which said their release may disrupt public order. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 27

Maharashtra's Anti-Terror Squad has arrested a 24-year-old youth from the suburb of Mumbra in Thane district in connection with a plot to carry out a mass-poisoning attack, police said here on Sunday.

The youth was part of nine others, including a 17-year-old, who were arrested in connection earlier this month, according to officials here. According to police officials here, all 10 were part of a group called Popular Front from Kerala which aimed to carry out terror attacks.

The group was planning to hold a meeting in Aurangabad and the 10 who were arrested were planning to participate in the event, according to police officials.

Following the arrest of the youth on Saturday night, a laptop, a tablet computer, pen drives and mobile phones were recovered from him.

According to the police, the 10 called themselves 'Ummat-e Mohammadiya' and were in touch with supporters of ISIS in foreign countries.

Meanwhile, the police have released the names of some the arrested persons as Mohammed Taqi, Mazhar Shaikh, Mohammed Sarafaraz, Mohammed Mushahid, Salman Khan, Fahad Ansari, Zaman Nawab Khuteupad and one Mohsin apart from the minor. While some of them were picked up from Aurangabad, the rest were arrested from Mumbra.shriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Mumbai, January 27

Actress Amrita Rao says she does not feel comfortable in doing love-making scenes on screen.

In an interview to IANS, Amrita spoke about her return on big screen after a long time with the film 'Thackeray' and why she does not like to be a part of "love-making" scenes anymore.

She said: "As the cinema is changing, on-screen kissing, love-making scenes are becoming part of the narrative.

"I am not saying it is wrong, because it is the reflection of how our society has changed and become comfortable with it. But I am uncomfortable performing it on screen. Love-making is so personal to me that if I do it on screen, it is like I am leaving a part of my soul. I cannot do that."

According to her, it is not about "right or wrong, it is just about a choice that we all make." Having started her career in 2002 in Bollywood with 'Ab Ke Baras', Amrita later appeared in films like 'Ishq Vishq', 'Main Hoon Na', 'Vivah' and 'Welcome to Sajjanpur'.

Her performance and on-screen chemistry with actor Shahid Kapoor in 'Ishq Vishq' and 'Vivah' was highly appreciated.

When asked if she would like to act with him again, Amrita said: "Well after 'Vivah', we should have done more films together but I really do not know why it did not happen." "The good thing is that there is still an audience waiting for us to come together and do a film. Like audience, even I am looking forward to such an occasion to happen." Amrita also said that she would like to work with actor Ayushmann Khurrana in because she "enjoys watching him on screen a lot."  IANSshriaya.dutt@tribuneindia.com

Mumbai, January 27

Actress Sonam Kapoor says that clothes should be gender neutral.

During the launch of designer Kunal Rawal's flagship store here on Friday, Sonam, who was present along with father-actor Anil Kapoor, talked about the importance of gender neutrality in fashion.

She said: "I believe a lot in gender fluidity. I think clothes should be gender neutral, in general. For me, it is very exciting to wear clothes people perceive as menswear and when I see men wear clothes, which people perceive as womenswear, I think it is very cool. It is edgy and not in your face and for me, it is more rebellious than louder" The 33-year-old actress, who is considered as one of the popular fashion icons, also spoke about her love for menswear.

She said: "I think comination of menswear and womenswear look amazing and I cannot wait for Kunal to start a womenswear line. I like menswear; I have worn Kunal's menswear two-three times for promotions, shoots, and shows." Sonam also praised her friend Kunal for designing "subtle and cool" clothes.

"Kunal is one of my best friends, one of my oldest friend, I like his clothes, they are really cool. In this era of over-embellishment, when you are subtle, it screams louder than when you're overdressed or over-done. So I love the class and his clothes." On the work front, Sonam is all set for the release of her forthcoming film "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga".

As the movie revolves around the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community, Sonam "hopes" that people understand the film.

"I am really excited. I am eagerly waiting for my film to be received well by the audience. And I hope people understand and love the film and embrace it," added Sonam.

Also featuring actors Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, RajKummar Rao, "Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga" is scheduled to release on February 1. IANSStay up to date on COVID-19

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Sponsored By: Dorsett AutomotiveMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  At least two senatorial candidates, including President Rodrigo Duterte's former spokesman, said Congress should not have to compel him to release his medical records.

At CNN Philippines' second senatorial forum on Sunday, former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and former Interior and Local Government Secretary Rafael Alunan III said "no" when asked the question, "Should Congress compel President Duterte to make his medical records public whether or not it is a serious illness as the Constitution says?

All the rest of the senatorial aspirants present during the second of a series of fora say Congress should urge the President to finally make his health records public. They are former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, former Congressmen Neri Colmenares and Erin Tanada, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, and former Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc.

In an interview after the forum, Roque and Alunan clarified their votes, saying it is the Presidents obligation to disclose his health records and that Congress does not have the power to force him to do so.The provision in the Constitution is that the President has an obligation to make public his health if it is a serious illness, Roque said.

The matter of implementing the Constitution is not a function of Congress, it is a function of the judiciary. So it is the judiciary who should compel the President and it requires a citizen to file a case in court to do that.

The Constitution states, "In case of serious illness of the President, the public shall be informed of the state of his health."Alunan, likewise said, The President is under obligation to reveal his medical records to the people. Let it come from him. Dont let another branch compel. He added that Congress, out of respect, can only request or persuade the President.

Roque and Duterte's health

Concerns over the 73-year-old Duterte's health grew late last year when in a speech, he himself alluded to possibly having cancer. He later said his tests turned our negative, but critics continue to call for transparency regarding his health.Roque almost quit his post after being kept "in the dark" on Duterte's whereabouts, including a hospital visit in October 2017 for some tests.

Roque said Duterte was "fine" and just took the day off, but the President himself later confirmed having a one-hour visit to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

He also said he had undergone colonoscopy, an examination of the colon, and endoscopy, a procedure to check the digestive tract.Duterte even said, "I will tell you if it's cancer, it's cancer. And if it's third stage, no more treatment. I will not prolong my agony in this office or anywhere."Roque admitted he too was "taken aback" by the President's revelation and repeatedly assured the public he did not lie.

He also said he would ask the President to finally clear the air about the state of his health, but added that the President's constitutional obligation is to disclose the state of his health only in cases of serious illness.In his previous speeches, the President said he also suffered from migraines, nausea, pain due to a spinal injury, and Buerger's disease or a disorder affecting blood vessels.

CNN Philippines' Eimor Santos and Chad de Guzman contributed to this report.Hot Jobs Right Here, Right Now

Hot Jobs is a monthly series in The Tribune-Democrat  produced in conjunction with PA CareerLink and Johnstown Area Regional Industries  that spotlights employment areas in the Cambria-Somerset region for those looking for work  including whos hiring, job duties, training needs and potential salaries.

 Next month: Childcare workers.

 For additional career opportunities, contact JARI at 814-262-8366 or PA CareerLink Cambria County 814-534-2500.

Nursing assistants

Nursing assistants, sometimes called nursing aides, help provide basic care for patients in hospitals and residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes.

Average starting salary: $27,520 (May 2017)

Training requirements:

 Must complete a state-approved education program and must pass their states competency exam to become certified.

Licensed practical nurses

Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) provide basic nursing care. They work under the direction of registered nurses and doctors.

Average starting salary: $45,030 (May 2017)

Training requirements:

 Must complete a state-approved educational program, which typically takes about 1 year to complete. They must be licensed.

Registered nurses

Registered nurses (RNs) provide and coordinate patient care, educate patients and the public about various health conditions, and provide advice and emotional support to patients and their family members.

Average starting salary: $70,000 (May 2017)

Training requirements:

 Usually take one of three education paths: Bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN); associates degree in nursing (ADN); or diploma from an approved nursing program.

 Registered nurses must be licensed.Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@trentonian.com, facebook.com/jeffreyedelstein and @jeffedelstein on Twitter.Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes officially kick-starts his re-election campaign during his 2019 State of the County address on Jan. 24, 2019, according to this news release posted on the county government website.Kansas City Paid $35-MILLION Upfront For These Standard Looking Rooms

Loews Hotels CEO Tisch offers details on KC hotel [RENDERINGS] - Kansas City Business Journal Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch offers more information on what the Loews Kansas City Convention Center Hotel will look like - and what local touches the $325 million project will include. Plus, the company provided its first renderings of a model room.

3rd District Gunfire Aftermath

Man shot in leg near 73rd, Prospect Saturday Allison Hill/KMBC SOURCE: Allison Hill/KMBC Kansas City police are investigating after a man was shot late Saturday morning near 73rd Street and Prospect Avenue. Police said officers were called at 11:02 a.m. to the area after someone reported hearing gunfire. Before police arrived, the victim, a man in his 40s, was taken to a hospital by private vehicle, authorities said.

Urban Core Burns Today

Fire damages apartment building in northeast KC Saturday A fire damaged a storefront apartment building Saturday in northeast Kansas City. Firefighters were called at 12:18 p.m. to the 100 block of Askew Avenue. Crews reported fire showing from the building when they arrived. There are three storefronts on the ground floor with six apartments above.

Saturday Runaround Capture

Man wanted by US Marshals arrested in KC following chase that crossed state lines JOHNSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) - A man was arrested in KC on an active U.S. Marshals warrant overnight. On Friday around 11:30 p.m., Johnson County deputies and Warrensburg officers initiated a felony traffic stop on a box truck in the 500 block of N. Maguire.

Kansas City Life Lessons

Kansas City Chiefs: Hopefully Chiefs have been paying attention The New England Patriots have won consistently good for almost two decades now in part because they consistently win the long term offseason. Rarely does New England jump into big contracts or feel the need to spend big money on a bunch of players.

The Fanboy Gathering

Fanfest underway at Kansas City Convention Center KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Thousands of fans are expected to fill the Kansas City Convention Center today for the annual Kansas City Royals Fanfest.

Slight KC Temp Uptick

First Alert: A bit warmer Sunday, more arctic air on the way Temperatures will climb into the 40s for your Sunday. Another round of arctic air is on the way.

Quick grab of the most important news from today concerning the Head Of State . . .Closer to home, here are the news links from around the metro that matter for today . . .And this is thefor right now . . .Biz Of Fashion: How Victoria's Secret Can Save Itself

Kansas City Toy Tradition Moving

Golden Ghetto Po-Po Tribute

OPPD marks 34th anniversary of Officer Deanna Rose's killing KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Overland Park police marked the 34th anniversary of Officer Deanna Rose's death in the line of duty Saturday with a customary remembrance for all units that was read by dispatch.

Crash Report Last Night

Five-car serious injury accident closes I-70 eastbound A five-vehicle serious injury wreck has shut down Interstate 70 eastbound near Noland Road in Independence, Missouri.

Kangaroo Gives Back

Alumnus Focuses on Giving Back | University of Missouri - Kansas City As a trial lawyer specializing in medical malpractice, Kavanaugh has represented seriously injured clients for more than 30 years. As co-founder of the Kavanaugh Charitable Trust, started with his wife Debbie (B.S.P. '85), he has funded elementary schools in Cambodia, donated wheelchairs to the underserved and created a scholarship for UMKC Law students.

Local Social Media Love

A simple tweet helped a man provide gifts for teens in foster care A Kansas man who works with teens in foster care is speaking out about the power of a tweet.

Kansas City Remembers

Special Exhibition Opens Tuesday At National WWI Museum And Memorial The 1903 edition of Cassell's New French Dictionary defines souvenir as remembrance, recollection, memory, reminder, keepsake.

Kansas City Creates New Traditions

A Chef Returns To Her Roots At The New Waldo Thai Place In the back of Waldo Thai Place on Wornall Road, behind a metal gray door, oil sizzles with the aroma of frying meat. Near the back of the kitchen and taking command over a line of large, hot woks is executive chef Pam Liberda.

Sage advice for the world's foremost purveyor of panties . . .Closer to home, there are the news links worth checking for this Sunday morning . . . Dan Bremnes - "Wherever I Go" is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 66F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 66F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.Kabul, Afghanistan

The United States and the Taliban are closing in on a deal to end America's longest war after six days of some of the most serious Afghan peace negotiations to date wrapped up Saturday.

The talks in Doha, Qatar, lasted much longer than planned and longer than any previous attempt to end the 17-year conflict, and both sides publicly reported progress. The chief American negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Twitter that the talks were "more productive than they have been in the past" and he hoped they would resume shortly.

He also said he was flying to the Afghan capital, Kabul, for consultations with the government.

"We have a number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and 'everything' must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive cease-fire," he said.

Khalilzad's comments suggested that the key sticking points were the terms of a Taliban cease-fire and getting the insurgents to give up their long-standing refusal to speak to the Afghan government, which they deride as an American puppet.

Still, this is the first time in nine years of intermittent peace efforts that all sides seem serious about reaching a deal that would exchange a Taliban cease-fire for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces. The Taliban would also pledge not to allow international terror groups to use Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks against the United States.

Then the Afghans and the Taliban would need to detail exactly what the peace will look like in terms of the Taliban sharing power in government and how that might affect other issues, such as the status of women.

"Since the United States started to engage the Taliban, this by far is the closest to a deal," said Hekmat Khalil Karzai, a former Afghan deputy foreign minister who leads the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies and has been involved in the peace efforts for years.

"On both sides I sense there is seriousness, I sense there is commitment, and I feel there is resolve," he said.

Karzai said the American side had shown that seriousness by beginning an effort that includes not only extensive meetings with the Taliban, but also outreach to all regional actors and stakeholders, such as Pakistan, Russia and China, to cooperate.

"I also see the resolve on the part of the Taliban," he said. "I see that they are moving beyond the standard rhetoric, that they are not only engaging but seem committed to a political settlement."

The Taliban signaled their own belief in the importance of the talks by appointing one of their most powerful officials, Abdul Ghani Baradar, as the chief peace negotiator, on the fourth day. As the talks stretched on, Khalilzad was said to have repeatedly delayed his flight to Kabul, where he was expected to explain the deal to President Ashraf Ghani, whose government has so far been excluded.

Late Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid reiterated the insurgents' long-standing position. "Until the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon," he said, "progress in other issues is impossible."

But Mujahid said progress was made on a withdrawal, and he emphasized that the insurgents still wanted to negotiate.

The basic outlines of the emerging deal have leaked out through Taliban sources, though Western diplomats tacitly confirmed those outlines.

The Americans would promise to withdraw their 14,000 troops, and the Taliban would agree to never again allow their territory to be used by extremists like al-Qaida, the terrorist network that staged the 2001 attacks on the U.S. from Afghanistan and set off the start of the war.New York

Long term, lawyers and activists battling to ensure that transgender people can serve openly in the U.S. military are convinced they will prevail. Short term, they are braced for anguishing consequences if the Trump administration proceeds with its plan to sharply restrict such service.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote Tuesday, gave the administration the green light to put the policy into effect even as legal challenges continue.

"I'm absolutely optimistic with respect to the long-term prospects," said Sharon McGowan, legal director of the LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, which is pressing one of the lawsuits. "The question is: How long is the long term?"

McGowan and other activists see parallels between the battle and the 17-year saga involving the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces. After prolonged controversy and litigation  as well as the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel  Congress repealed the Clinton-era policy in 2010, and gay service members were able to serve openly beginning in 2011.

LGBT rights activist Andy Blevins, who served in the Navy from 2007 to 2011, said he underwent three investigations related to "don't ask" before he was finally discharged on medical grounds. He is now executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents LGBT personnel in the military and is engaged in the litigation against the Trump plan.

Blevins grows emotional in describing the "daily struggle" to keep his sexual orientation a secret before repeal of "don't ask," yet he suggested that currently serving transgender people face even tougher circumstances. They were told in 2016, in the waning months of the Obama administration, that they would be able to serve openly, then were jolted in 2017 when President Donald Trump tweeted his intention to ban all transgender people from the military.

"They were told it's OK to be transgender ... then the rug is pulled out from under these dedicated service members," Blevins said.

Yet he said activists have made major progress in convincing politicians and the public that the Trump plan is based on misinformation and prejudice.

"We have optimism that we're going to win the war," he said. "This is just a setback, a speed bump."

OutServe-SLDN's legal director, Peter Perkowski, is teaming with Lambda Legal lawyers on one of four lawsuits challenging Trump's plan. Though he shares Blevins' long-term optimism, he is wary of the outcome if any of the lawsuits reach the Supreme Court, now with a solidified conservative majority thanks to the addition of Trump appointees Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

"There's a certain segment of the court that's kind of hostile to our issues in the LGBTQ community," Perkowski said. "Beyond that, I don't make any predictions."

Meanwhile, Perkowski said, transgender people seeking to enlist are frustrated by legal uncertainties, while currently serving trans personnel are worried about their job security.

"They just want to continue to do their jobs without this cloud hanging over them, without being tagged as inadequate," he said.

Among those active-duty trans service members is Megan Winters, 30, a plaintiff in the Lambda-Outserve lawsuit who has been in the Navy almost six years. She formerly served with the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington and now is assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush, based in Norfolk, Virginia.

"I do my job to the best of my ability every single day and will do that as long as I'm able to," she said in a telephone interview. "I recall how I felt the first time I put on the uniform. I genuinely wish that upon any American who wishes to serve."

Asked if Tuesday's Supreme Court vote made her apprehensive, Winters paused before saying it was hard to answer.

"I want to tell you I stand steadfast and hold my head up high  but it is a little difficult," she said. "The president of the United States is my commander in chief. If they called for the end of transgender service, if it's a lawful order I would have to obey it. But I truly want to continue serving my country."

According to a report issued by the Pentagon last year, there were 8,980 service members who identify as transgender.

Details of how the Trump plan might be implemented remain unclear; some currently serving trans personnel  perhaps including Winters  might be able to remain in the military.

However, the court vote clears the way for the Pentagon to bar enlistment by people who have undergone a gender transition. It also would allow the administration to require that military personnel serve in accordance with their biological gender unless they began a gender transition under the Obama-era rules.

Activists doubt the current Republican-controlled Senate would move to block the transgender ban. And it would face a potential Trump veto if it did so.

However, Aaron Belkin of the California-based Palm Center, which studies LGBT-related military issues, said public opinion now favors transgender military service, and added, "The Democrats will reinstate an inclusive policy on the first day they're back in power."

Supporters of Trump's efforts include Tony Perkins, a Marine veteran who is president of the conservative Family Research Council. He says the courts should not interfere with the ability of the U.S. president as commander in chief to set military policy.

"The Pentagon isn't in the business of equality," Perkins said recently. "Either the military's priority is protecting America  or it's helping people on the path to self-actualization. It can't do both."

But Lambda Legal's McGowan said top military commanders have said there were minimal problems related to the Obama administration's moves to allow transgender service. The Trump policy, she said, "has nothing to do with national security or unit cohesion  it's about throwing red meat to a portion of Trump's political base."

McGowan evoked Katie Schmid, a South Korea-based Army staff sergeant who is a plaintiff in Lambda's lawsuit.

"They're telling Katie, you're unfit to die for this country," McGowan said. "I can't think of a more offensive thing to say to someone willing to put their life on the line."

For LGBT rights leaders, Trump's proposed ban is only one of several attacks on transgender Americans. They also cite a Justice Department memo concluding that civil rights laws don't protect transgender people from workplace discrimination and the scrapping of Obama-era guidance encouraging school officials to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice.Could it be? Yes it could

Something's coming, somethin' good

If I can wait!

Something's coming

I don't know what it is

But it is

Gonna be great!

 Lyrics from

"Something's Coming"

ALBANY  Stephen Sondheim's words, written more than 60 years ago for a song in "West Side Story," sum up the optimistic if not fully formed attitude at the Palace Theatre today as the historic venue looks toward launching, for the second time, its ambitious plan to renovate the theater.

Here are a new number and a new date to put in your head when thinking about the future of the Palace: $35 million and sometime in 2020. But first some history.

In July 2016, the Palace unveiled a massive project that would have wholly remade not only the theater but its entire block. In addition to renovating and expanding the theater, the plan called for a new, state-of-the-art, 600-seat theater on North Pearl Street just north of the 2,800-seat original, a former RKO movie house that opened in 1931. Even more astonishing than the $65 million price tag was, to many industry observers, the fact that the Palace didn't have any publicly announced funding for the project  not a dime.

The general metric in the arts world, experts say, is to have commitments for 50 to 80 percent of the goal before a project is launched. The Palace, when it announced the $65 million plan, had nothing. At the time, the Palace Performing Arts Center Inc., the official name of the not-for-profit entity that has operated the theater since 1984, didn't even own the building. It still belonged to the city of Albany, which leased it to the nonprofit for $1 a year.

The lack of ownership was a key sticking point for the renovation, because donors would be less inclined to fund it, and the city was not eligible for grants for which the nonprofit would qualify if it owned the real estate.

A bitter battle over the disposal of the building ensued, with some members of the city's Common Council feeling that the terms eventually approved  $750,000, paid at $25,000 a year for 30 years  represented a bad deal for the city. The purchase finally was completed on the last business day of 2017.

Meanwhile, the Palace went through a leadership change: Holly Brown, who had been its executive director since 2012, left in late 2017, replaced by Susan Rosko Fogarty, who worked in the record industry for many years and later in banking and as senior vice president of the local YWCA. There was significant turnover elsewhere in the Palace staff, including the departure last summer of Owen Smith as managing director after six years. (In a job-sharing arrangement, Smith also ran Park Playhouse while working for the Palace; he is now full time at Park Playhouse, which has expanded to a year-round schedule.)

Finally, Alan Goldberg, the Palace board chairman of nearly 20 years, stepped down at the end of last year. His replacement, WNYT Newschannel 13 General Manager Steve Baboulis, who has been on the board for many years, led his first meeting as chair last week.

Mindful of the hype and expectations created by the 2016 announcement, Fogarty and Baboulis have been more circumspect about the revised renovation plan for the Palace. They won't go so far as to say the $65 million proposal was too big in scope or announced prematurely  "It was visionary," Fogarty said  but they want to reframe the public's understanding of what's happening at the Palace.

The new project costs $35 million. There may be a future phase, but, for now, the price tag is $35 million. According to a letter sent to potential donors and other stakeholders that was obtained by the Times Union, the cost is broken down into about $19 million for renovation of existing space, including new seats that would boost capacity to 3,100 and an elevator that would allow handicapped access to basement and mezzanine levels; and $13 million for new spaces, including an expanded lobby and loading dock.

"We've been very prudent in talking about what we're doing next," Fogarty said during a joint interview with Baboulis at the Palace late last week. "But there's a lot that's happened, and it really was catalyzed by the ownership of the building."

The project has been awarded a little less than $2.9 million in Regional Economic Development Council grants from the state, Baboulis and Fogarty said. Further, they said, consultants have estimated that the Palace's renovation will qualify on the federal level for $7 million in historic tax credits and $5 million in New Market Tax Credits, the latter for investment in low-income neighborhoods.

Though the grants and tax credits wouldn't be disbursed until the project is essentially paid for, their promise has started to loosen up taps for private funding. Baboulis and Fogarty acknowledged the Palace has received a "seven-figure gift" from "an anonymous individual." (Several sources put it at $1 million from a member of the board.) Baboulis and Fogarty also said additional private commitments have come in, though they declined to specify numbers or amounts.

With all of that in place, they said, the Palace has hired a national construction-management firm with an Albany office, Gilbane Building Co.; Phinney Design Group of Saratoga Springs, which has team members who have worked on past Palace projects; and DLR Group, a global company with many theater designs to its credit.

"We very specifically hired a team that has a very strong breadth and depth of theater experience," Fogarty said.

The project is aimed at making the theater more comfortable and accommodating for patrons as well as performers. Final designs have not been completed, Fogarty cautioned, and renovating a historic building is a complex process often rich with surprises and changes, but for now attendees can expect larger and more lobby space, at least one elevator, new theater seats, additional handicapped seating, more and better restrooms and additional amenities including concessions stands, bars and a VIP lounge.

Backstage, a proper loading dock is planned, as the current one is only a third as wide and a third as tall as industry standards; additional storage, rigging and high-tech capabilities will be added; and the dressing rooms, now almost comically retro in their size and facilities  wardrobe cases have to be hauled up by a winch, for example  will be improved.

The planned changes would make the theater more appealing to patrons for obvious reasons, Fogarty said, and to visiting performers as well: "Sesame Street Live" had to skip a Palace stop one year because its set was too large, and some other shows haven't been able use all of their sets; The Big Wheel prop used in "The Price is Right Live" shows would no longer have to be disassembled, as it does to be brought through the current loading dock; and artists and promoters would appreciate the extra revenue possible with 300 more seats to be sold.

There are no plans to expand the stagehouse to accommodate big touring musicals.

"We're not doing Broadway. We aren't," said Fogarty, referring to Proctors in Schenectady when she added, "There's already a theater doing that very well in the Capital Region."

Nor is a second theater planned, though the Palace controls almost all of the land on its side of North Pearl from Clinton Avenue north to Wilson Street, where the new 600-seat theater was originally designated to go. And a state-of-the-art video post-production facility that would have been the only one of its kind between Manhattan and Montreal, called for in the 2016 proposal, has been scrapped. Again, at least for now.

To outside observers, the Palace seems to be taking the rights steps this time.

"The items being addressed ... (are) exactly what I would expect to see for a historic theater desiring to remain relevant," said Ken Stein, president and CEO of the League of Historic American Theatres, which represents more than 380 venues and organizations nationwide.

Stein, who told the Times Union in 2016 that he was surprised the original announcement was made before any money had been committed, said last week that Palace management's more cautious approach this time was prudent.

Referring to the feasibility study and preliminary conversations with the local philanthropy community that the Palace is now conducting, Stein said, "All of this is done during what would be considered a 'quiet phase' of the campaign, giving the organization time to digest the feedback and make changes if needed."

Philip Morris, CEO of Proctors, said, "The Palace is a critical piece of the performing-arts scene locally. There are a lot of different pieces that they need to address, and ... it sounds like they're doing the work that is necessary. I hope they're successful at it."

Depending on the pace and results of the feasibility study and initial fundraising efforts, the Palace hopes to announce a formal capital campaign to pay for renovations later this year, Fogarty and Baboulis said  which is to say, after at least half of the $35 million has been committed. (Conventional wisdom says donors are more motivated to contribute when a campaign is on the downward slope, not pushing hard up the initial hill.)

Construction wouldn't begin before the second half of 2020. The Palace had hoped to start earlier, initially telling outside promoters and regular presenting partners, including the Albany Symphony, that the venue might not be available in winter and spring of next year, but those dates have again been opened up for booking, Fogarty said. There are no projections yet for a completion date or grand reopening.

While that work for the future goes on behind the scenes, the Palace's 20-member staff is looking forward to a big winter and spring performance calendar, with appearances by comics including Dane Cooke, Larry the Cable Guy and Jim Gaffigan and concerts as varied as The Monkees and Judas Priest. The venue hosts about 180 events annually, about 85 percent of which have paid attendance. (The rest are community events.) Its full annual budget is about $5 million, although half of that is essentially "pass-through money" that goes to Ticketmaster; the yearly operating budget for the Palace Performing Arts Center is $2.5 million, Fogarty said, and projections for the current year's income already show the theater on track to be 14 percent ahead of last year.

"There's always been aspiration to do something bigger, better, different, revitalizing," said Baboulis. "Sometimes it just takes time to figure out how to get that done right."

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping  @Tablehopping  facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCriticALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed two landmark LGBTQ rights bills into law on Friday, one protecting transgender individuals from discrimination and another banning conversion therapy in minors.

The enactment of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and the conversion therapy ban, referring to the scientifically discredited practice of attempting to change someone's sexual orientation, signify a major victory for the LGBTQ community.

The long-stalled bills overwhelmingly passed the Legislature last week, a result due to Democrats seizing control of the Senate in November's election.

"By signing into law GENDA and a ban on the fraudulent practice of conversion therapy, we are taking another giant step forward in advancing equal justice for every New Yorker," Cuomo said in a statement. "We are once again sending a clear and proud message that there is no place for hate in our state, and anyone who engages in bigotry and discrimination will be held accountable."

The fight for transgender equality in New York spans at least 17 years. Trans activists were dismayed when gender identity and expression were omitted from the 2002 Senate Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, and were disappointed when funds for the Empire State Pride Agenda dried up after the 2011 passage of marriage equality.

The GOP-controlled Senate had not allowed any LGBTQ-oriented bills to the floor since then. GENDA, which specifically prohibits discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of gender identity and expression, passed the Democratic Assembly for 11 consecutive years, but stalled in the upper house.

That frustration spawned new trans advocacy groups, like Long Island Transgender Advocacy Coalition, headed by Juli Grey-Owens, that built out an educational campaign focused solely on GENDA and transgender rights in New York. Many of those civil rights activist were at the Capitol last week to witness the extraordinary event.

"The Trump administration's attack on the rights of transgender people, as well as taking steps to literally erase our existence in federal guidelines and legislation, has made the passage of a state transgender civil rights bill imperative," Grey-Owens said.

Cuomo took executive action to interpret human rights law to include trans and gender non-conforming individuals in 2015. But without the protections codified in state law, the protections could be subject to judicial interpretation or scaled back by a future governor.

The conversion therapy bill also languished in the former Republican-controlled Senate for years.

Sen. George Amedore, a Republican from Rotterdam, voted against the bill banning conversion therapy.

"I think that it is a practice that licensed professionals have used in the past and if someone wants to go through something like that and a child wants it, the bill is literally taking away the ability to have that offering," he said Friday. "I don't like the concept of the government limiting the types of therapy if someone is struggling with identity or psychological issues."

Mental health professionals have long recognized that therapies intended to change a person's sexual orientation pose serious health risks.

The legislation treats engaging in conversion therapy with a patient under 18 as professional malpractice.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have banned the practice on minors. Numerous cities and counties recently enacted local bans, including the city and county of Albany, which banned conversion therapy last year.

"These victories show what we can do when we come together in support of one another, and what's possible for the road ahead," said Glennda Testone, executive director of New York City's LGBT Community Center.ALBANY - Proposals in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's 2020 budget to make the state Legislature and government agencies more transparent could face opposition from lawmakers and labor unions, while good government advocates are hoping for even greater access to public information.

The reforms unveiled in the budget earlier this month would require the proactive disclosure of information by state agencies, allow for 911 calls to be made public, increase the threshold for withholding records of companies doing business with the state and enable public scrutiny of collectively bargained contracts before they're ratified.

But the biggest stumbling block for negotiations with legislative leaders could revolve around Cuomo's push to expand the types of records the state Legislature must make public, essentially making them subject to the same Freedom of Information Law requirements that government agencies must follow.

Reluctant lawmakers



Neither house of the Legislature has warmed to similar proposals in the past, but the governor appears poised to spend political capital on an issue that he has complained about for years.

"I'm not going to pass a budget without ethics reform and I'm not going to allow cherry picking of the budget where we pass just the easy bills and not the hard bills," Cuomo said earlier this month.

A spokesman confirmed that the governor plans on approving "a budget that includes his ethics and transparency proposals."

Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie remains opposed to opening up his chamber to additional disclosure rules, but the new Democratic majority in the state Senate may be receptive to the proposal.

"I'm supportive of it - and I always have been - and the conference will discuss it in the coming weeks," said Sen. James Skoufis, an Orange County Democrat and chair of the Senate's government operations committee.

Disclosure laws apply narrowly to the legislative branch, which only needs to make public a specific list of records to the exclusion of everything else. The applicable records covered under the governor's budget would include a legislator's public schedule, attendance records for staff members and certain correspondence, according to state Committee on Open Government Director Robert Freeman.

Still, the Assembly has voluntarily adopted rules emphasizing their "intent" to follow the same disclosure rules as government agencies, but the chamber retains the ability to withhold records if it chooses. The state Senate, while under Republican control, adhered strictly to the provisions of FOIL that limited disclosure of records, and their communications office would release information beyond the scope of the law at its discretion.

Freeman has been pushing for years to make the Legislature subject to more transparency.

"I don't know if it's as critical as some people believe, but it's probably a good thing to create the same standard across the board," he said.

The tepid endorsement from good government groups for the proposal may be a result of wider public interest in the records of executive agencies than of the Legislature.

A review of the issue from 2014 by Reinvent Albany, a good government group, found that the handful of states with a comparable records disclosure law each generated less than 28 requests per year for the records of state lawmakers. That trend was also exemplified by the New York City Council, which had 70 requests for records in 2013, while city agencies received about 50,000.

While supportive of the expansion, Reinvent Albany Executive Director John Kaehny said New Yorkers "just don't care about legislative FOIL."

Wish List

The governor's proposal for proactive disclosure of records that the public regularly requests apparently addresses the issue of waiting times for the records of state agencies, which process thousands annually.

Due to the abundance of requests, Kaehny said courts have repeatedly decided that delayed agency responses are acceptable. "Obviously, something is not right with FOIL in New York," he said, highlighting relatively simple requests that may take a year or more to fulfill.

The delays may stem from a lack of resources to address the requests, according to Freeman. He said that aspect may also eventually be the basis for a lawsuit.

The state Department of Health, which receives about 450 requests a month, has a records access office that includes 11 employees processing requests, two administrative staffers and a director. Since 2016, the department reports that it completed 16,290 requests for information, with more than 300 requests outstanding.

When asked about the delay for a specific request from the Times Union, the department described a "time consuming" process that includes a "diligent search" and "review" of records.

The New York State Police, which has six full-time employees and three part-time employees handling about 3,250 requests each year, reports having 594 outstanding requests from last year.

The agency noted that some requests take a "substantial amount of time to complete" because they can produce hundreds of responsive documents and are subject to a more rigorous scrutiny because of "law enforcement -sensitive considerations." In one instance, though, a request by the Times Union for a copy of a single email and attachment has been pending for about seven months with the State Police.

New York has also taken steps to improve and modernize FOIL in recent years, including the creation of a single website last year that could receive information requests to many of the state's agencies and authorities. The portal has received more than 12,000 requests since it went live.

In 2017, the state Legislature and Cuomo approved legislation requiring judges to award attorneys' fees to litigants who "substantially prevail" in Freedom of Information Law cases. The law was designed to discourage government agencies from deliberately withholding public records or delaying responses unnecessarily.

"We are firmly committed to increasing transparency across all branches of government in New York state," Cuomo spokesman Jason Conwall said. "We will continue supporting efforts that make it easier for anyone - media and average New Yorker alike - to request documents from state government."

Labor concerns

Public-sector unions are expected to uniformly oppose Cuomo's proposal making the terms of a potential collective bargaining agreement open to public scrutiny once it is presented to employees for approval.

The measure would apply to various levels of government in New York and the state's 733 school districts.

"Nothing is disclosed now until the deed is done," Freeman said. "The public has no way of know what the agreement involves" until it's approved.

Matt Hamilton, a spokesman for the state's teachers' union, described the change as a "solution in search of a problem."

"The ability to negotiate in private preserves the right of all parties to fully and fairly represent their views," Hamilton said. "In the case of collective bargaining agreements in public schools, the duly elected members of local school boards represent their constituents, which is exactly how it should work."

The union representing faculty at state colleges and universities stressed that the proposal members receive is only tentative and could be rejected, which would prompt negotiations to begin again.

David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87SCHENECTADY  For a few hours Friday, city officials and residents of the city's Stockade watched and hoped the rising Mohawk River would not send water pouring into the neighborhood.

The river, swelled by Thursday's rain and the rapid melting of ice and snow upstream, rose through the morning and nearly hit flood stage. The extra water and swift moving ice chunks fueled fear the river would be blocked at a nearby train bridge or Freenman's BridgeDetroit

U.S. shoppers are still paying more for organic food, but the price premium is falling as organic options multiply.

Last year, organic food and beverages cost an average of 24 cents more per unit than conventional food, or about 7.5 percent more, according to Nielsen. That was down from a 27 cent, or 9 percent, premium in 2014.

There's a lot of variation within those numbers. The average price for a gallon of organic milk  $4.76  is 88 percent higher than the $2.53 shoppers pay for a gallon of regular milk. Organic eggs have an 86 percent premium. At $4.89 per loaf, organic bread is double the cost of regular bread.

Parents buying organic baby food, on the other hand, pay just 3 percent more than they would for conventional baby food. In mid-January, a bunch of organic kale was 5 percent more than organic kale, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some organic products  like artichokes, soy milk and Granny Smith apples  may even cost less than their conventional counterparts.

There are many shifting factors behind the prices for organic foods. Premiums for milk and eggs tend to be much higher, for example, because the government has very specific rules for what "organic" means. For example, cows producing organic milk must be allowed to graze for at least one-third of their food intake, says Jeremy Moghtader, the manager of the campus farm at the University of Michigan.

The rules "have real benefits to the animal, the consumer and environment, but they do increase the price of production," Moghtader said.

Organic and conventional vegetables are grown similarly, so the price difference tends to be lower. Organic farmers save money by not using pesticides, but they may have to pay more for workers to pull weeds or control bugs, Moghtader said.

One reason organic premiums are falling is the increase in products on the shelves. Organics used to be confined to health food stores and high-end groceries like Whole Foods, but mainstream stores are increasingly offering them. Kroger, one of the nation's largest grocery chains, says it stocks 9,000 organic items in its stores and notched $1 billion in organic produce sales in 2017.

On a recent weekday, Kroger was selling Simple Truth organic orange juice  its in-house brand  for $3.49 for 52 fluid ounces. That was $1 more than the same size of conventional Kroger-brand orange juice, or 49 cents more than conventional Tropicana-brand orange juice.

Costco's Kirkland Signature store brand introduced organic eggs in 2007 and organic beef in 2012. Walmart's Great Value store brand sells a 15-ounce can of organic pumpkin for $1.88; that's just 10 cents more than conventional Libby's brand canned pumpkin.

Consumer demand also impacts prices. Right now, demand for organics is outpacing supply in many categories. U.S. sales of fast-moving consumer goods  a category that includes food, beverages and toiletries  were flat last year, but sales of organic goods jumped 9 percent, Nielsen said.

Millennial households are leading the way, as they stock up on organic milk and baby food for their children. But other generations are also buying more organic products  88 percent of American households have bought organic food or beverages.

"Consumers are more focused on products that have some benefit to them," said Sarah Schmansky, a vice president of growth and strategy at Nielsen.

In some cases, organics are breathing life back into dusty grocery aisles. Sales of conventional lunchmeat and cheese at the deli counter had been weakening, since consumers didn't want to wait for them to be sliced. But buyers seeking fresh, organic options are returning to the deli. Sale of organic deli lunchmeat have risen an average of 18 percent annually over the last four years, while organic deli cheese sales are up 26 percent.

Schmansky said food scares  like E. coli outbreaks traced to lettuce  are also leading some consumers to organic labels because they trust them.

While price premiums may continue to drop, it's difficult to say if they'll ever go away entirely, says Ryan Koory, a senior economist at Mercaris, a data firm that tracks organic agriculture. Looser government policies and crop insurance programs better tailored to small organic farms could help lower those premiums, Koory said. A recession could also lower consumer demand for organics, and therefore their price premiums. But if the last recession is any guide, those premiums could bounce back quickly.TROY  It was much quieter Saturday for the Captain JP III after Friday's adventure on the Hudson River wreaked havoc along the waterway and affected various modes of transportation.

The 600-passenger cruise ship remained secured Saturday afternoon on Front Street between State Street and Congress Street with a state Marine Highway vessel.

At some point, the ship will be moved to a New York City shipyard for repairs.

The vessel sustained the damage after breaking away from its mooring and striking the Congress Street bridge.

The cruise ship then continued downriver.

At some point, two of its smokestacks were knocked down.

A man on board who identified himself as the owner's son said Saturday afternoon that his father was too busy to comment on the situation.

The rapid thaw after the mercury vaulted to nearly 50-degrees is being blamed for the ice melt and the subsequent problems the craziness on the river caused for Amtrakwhen the bridge trains routinely cross was struckand motorists on roads near the riverfront.

One person said the tugboat that initially broke free upriver crashed into the Captain JP III, ripping it from its moorings.

Three moored barges were torn loose from the Clemente docks south of the Congress Street Bridge.

The vessels began to slowly float away.

Some boats were stopped along the eastern bank between the Congress Street and Troy-Menands bridges. They broke free again, heading down to the Livingston Avenue Bridge.

As the boats moved downstream, police closed a series of bridges between the Congress Street span and the Dunn Memorial Bridge.

All of the other vessels made it through, either running aground or being stopped before they hit any other bridges.

Cars were stuck in traffic on both shores of the river.CUMBERLAND  Memorial services for Linda S. Lewis, who died Oct. 20, 2020, is planned for Thursday, June 24, 2021, at 11 a.m. at LaVale Baptist Church, LaVale. The family will receive friends one-half hour before services. Linda was born in 1945 to Jennie and John T. Morris Sr. and was the sTifton, GA (31794)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Ferguson plc distributes plumbing and heating products in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Central Europe. It offers plumbing and heating solutions to customers in the residential, municipal, civil and industrial markets, and commercial sectors for repair, maintenance, and improvement (RMI), as well as new construction markets. The company also distributes pipes, valves, fittings, hydrants, meters, and related water management products, as well as offers related services, such as water line tapping and pipe fusion services. In addition, it distributes heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration equipment, and parts and supplies to specialist contractors in the residential and commercial markets for repair and replacement; and PVF products to industrial customers. Further, the company fabricates and supplies fire protection systems and bespoke fabrication services to commercial contractors for new construction and renovation projects, as well as offers products, services, and solutions to enable maintenance of facilities across various RMI markets. Additionally, it offers supply chain management solutions for PVF; and industrial maintenance, repair, and operations specializing in delivering automation, instrumentation, engineered products, and turn-key solutions. The company also sells its home improvement products directly to consumers, as well as through a network of online stores. In addition, it operates its B2B business primarily under the Ferguson brand; and B2C business under the Build.com brand. Further, the company provides products and services for maintenance of multi-family properties, government agencies, hospitality, education, healthcare, and other facilities. It operates a network of 2,194 branches and 19 distribution centers. Ferguson plc was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Wokingham, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreAd Resource Stock Digest 1,885 Interested This Week

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Nominees Ltd, Lloyds Bank Subsidiaries Ltd, Lloyds Bank Trustee Services Ltd, Lloyds Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Ltd, Lloyds Capital GP Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Properties Ltd, Lloyds Commercial Property Investments Ltd, Lloyds Corporate Services (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Ltd, Lloyds Engine Capital (No.1) U.S LLC, Lloyds Far East S.A.R.L., Lloyds General Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Group Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Holdings (Jersey) Ltd, Lloyds Hypotheken B.V., Lloyds Industrial Leasing Ltd, Lloyds International Pty Ltd, Lloyds Investment Bonds Ltd, Lloyds Investment Fund Managers Ltd, Lloyds Investment Securities No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Leasing (North Sea Transport) Ltd1, Lloyds Leasing Developments Ltd, Lloyds Nominees (Guernsey) Ltd, Lloyds Offshore Global Services Private Ltd, Lloyds Plant Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Portfolio Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Premises Investments Ltd, Lloyds Project Leasing Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 3 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No. 4 Ltd, Lloyds Property Investment Company No.5 Ltd, Lloyds Secretaries Ltd, Lloyds Securities Inc., Lloyds TSB Pacific Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Asset Rentals Ltd, Lloyds UDT Hiring Ltd, Lloyds UDT Leasing Ltd, Lloyds UDT Ltd, Lloyds Your Tomorrow Trustee Ltd, Loans.co.uk Ltd, London Taxi Finance Ltd, London Uberior (L.A.S. Group) Nominees Ltd, Lotus Finance Ltd, MBNA, MBNA Direct Ltd, MBNA Europe Finance Ltd, MBNA Europe Holdings Ltd, MBNA General Foundation, MBNA Global Services Ltd, MBNA Indian Services Private Ltd, MBNA Ltd, MBNA R & L S.A.R.L., MBNA Receivables Ltd, Mainsearch Company Ltd, Maritime Leasing (No. 19) Ltd, Membership Services Finance Ltd, Mitre Street Funding S.A.R.L., Molineux RMBS 2016-1 plc, Molineux RMBS Holdings Ltd, Moor Lane Holdings Ltd, NFU Mutual Finance Ltd, NWS Trust Ltd, Nominees (Jersey) Ltd, Nordic Leasing Ltd, Ocean Leasing (July) Ltd, Oystercatcher Nominees Ltd, Oystercatcher Residential Ltd, PIPS Asset Investments Ltd, Pacific Leasing Ltd, Penarth Asset Securitisation Holdings Ltd, Penarth Funding 1 Ltd, Penarth Funding 2 Ltd, Penarth Master Issuer plc, Penarth Receivables Trustee Ltd, Pensions Management (S.W.F.) Ltd, Peony Eastern Leasing Ltd, Peony Leasing Ltd, Peony Western Leasing Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 1) Ltd, Permanent Funding (No. 2) Ltd, Permanent Holdings Ltd, Permanent Master Issuer plc, Permanent Mortgages Trustee Ltd, Permanent PECOH Holdings Ltd, Permanent PECOH Ltd, Perry Nominees Ltd, Prestonfield Investments Ltd, Proton Finance Ltd, R.F. Spencer And Company Ltd, Ranelagh Nominees Ltd, Retail Revival (Burgess Hill) Investments Ltd, SARL Coliseum, SARL Hiram, SAS Compagnie Fonciere De France, SCI Astoria Invest, SCI De LHorloge, SCI Equinoxe, SCI Rambuteau CFF, SW Funding plc, SW No.1 Ltd, SWAMF (GP) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (1) Ltd, SWAMF Nominee (2) Ltd, Saint Michel Holding Company No1, Saint Michel Investment Property, Saint Witz 2 Holding Company No1, Saint Witz 2 Investment Property, Salisbury II Securities 2016 Ltd, Salisbury II-A Securities 2017 Ltd, Salisbury III Securities 2019 DAC, Salisbury Securities 2015 Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 Holdings Ltd, Sandown 2012-2 plc, Sandown Gold 2012-1 Holdings Ltd, Sandown Gold 2012-1 plc, Savban Leasing Ltd, Scotland International Finance B.V., Scottish Widows Administration Services (Nominees) Ltd, Scottish Widows Administration Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Annuities Ltd, Scottish Widows Auto Enrolment Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Europe, Scottish Widows Financial Services Holdings, Scottish Widows Group Ltd, Scottish Widows Industrial Properties Europe B.V., Scottish Widows Ltd, Scottish Widows Pension Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Property Management Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth (ACD) Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Personal Wealth Ltd, Scottish Widows Schroder Wealth Holdings Ltd, Scottish Widows Services Ltd, Scottish Widows Trustees Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Funds Ltd, Scottish Widows Unit Trust Managers Ltd, Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society, Seabreeze Leasing Ltd, Seaspirit Leasing Ltd, Share Dealing Nominees Ltd, Shogun Finance Ltd, Silentdale Ltd, St Andrews Group Ltd, St Andrews Insurance plc, St Andrews Life Assurance plc, St. Marys Court Investments, Standard Property Investment (1987) Ltd, Standard Property Investment Ltd, Sussex County Homes Ltd, Suzuki Financial Services Ltd, Swan Funding 2 Ltd, Syon Securities 2019 DAC, The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation Plc, The British Linen Company Ltd, The Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, The Mortgage Business plc, Thistle Financing Holdings Ltd, Thistle Investments (AMC) Ltd, Thistle Investments (ERM) Ltd, Thistle Leasing, Three Copthall Avenue Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (10) Ltd, Tower Hill Property Investments (7) Ltd, Tranquility Leasing Ltd, Trinity Financing plc, UDT Budget Leasing Ltd, UDT Sales Finance Ltd, Uberior (Moorfield) Ltd, Uberior Co-Investments Ltd, Uberior ENA Ltd, Uberior Equity Ltd, Uberior Europe Ltd, Uberior Fund Investments Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments (No.2) Ltd, Uberior Infrastructure Investments Ltd, Uberior Investments Ltd, Uberior Nominees Ltd, Uberior Trading Ltd, Uberior Trustees Ltd, Uberior Ventures Australia Pty Ltd, Uberior Ventures Ltd, United Dominions Leasing Ltd, United Dominions Trust Ltd, Universe The CMI Global Network Fund, Upsaala Ltd, Vine Street IX LP, WCS Ltd, Ward Nominees (Abingdon) Ltd, Ward Nominees (Birmingham) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees (Bristol) Ltd 1, Ward Nominees Ltd 1, Waverley  Fund II Investor LLC, Waverley  Fund III Investor LLC, Waymark Asset Investments Ltd, West Craigs Ltd, Wetherby II Securities 2018 DAC, Wetherby III Securities 2019 DAC, Wetherby Securities 2017 Ltd, Wood Street Leasing Ltd, and Zurich Insurance Group - UK Workplace Pensions and Savings Business.I have long held the view that Britains 2billion-a-year funerals market is not fit for purpose  and is in desperate need of a root and branch overhaul.

Thankfully, I am not a lone voice. The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) now thinks so too, as does Ian Strang, who with his funeral comparison website Beyond, has put the proverbial cat among the industrys fattened pigeons.

A bete noire in the eyes of some funeral firms, Strang is a breath of fresh air for consumers.

Non-disclosure of prices on funeral directors websites is commonplace, leaving the bereaved vulnerable to exploitation

Of course, some independent funeral directors do a splendid job. For example, my fathers funeral 20 months ago was organised sensitively by Lilies, a firm based in Sutton Coldfield, where Mum and Dad lived together for more than half a century.

From the day we walked into the Lilies office to make the arrangements, nothing was too much trouble. Even Mum was impressed  and believe me that takes some doing.

Yet sadly, Lilies is not the norm. The industry is woefully regulated, its handling of complaints is patchy at best, and there is a terrifying chasm between the very best and worst firms.

Stories of bodies being left to decompose may not be everyday news but they pop up far too often for comfort, reminding us that rogues still plague the industry.

The sector is dominated by Dignity, a company listed on the stock market, which aggressively defends its territory like a capercaillie bird (just watch the David Attenborough video on YouTube) in pursuit of profits.

Left unchecked, it would hoover up rivals like an industrial vacuum cleaner. As for transparency, many in the industry are as open on the prices they charge as some retail companies are on their use of sweatshop labour.

Non-disclosure of prices on funeral directors websites is commonplace, leaving the bereaved vulnerable to exploitation. And according to Strang, no company is more secretive when it comes to prices than Dignity.

The CMA says that families could save more than 1,000 by comparing prices charged by local funeral directors

Hence the current spat between Beyond and Dignity, with the latter accusing Strang of using misleading prices for its services on his comparison website.

Strang says the prices are based on those quoted by actually going to Dignity branches up and down the country. These flying visits would not have to be made if Dignity was more transparent.

Although some of Beyonds marketing is, to say the least, a little unconventional  bikini-clad women carrying coffins rather than surfboards  the website is trying to empower consumers.

In stark contrast, Dignity is desperately defending its patch. I know whose side I am on. Consumers first. Always.

One final thought. The CMA says that families could save more than 1,000 by comparing prices charged by local funeral directors. I rest my case.Those who tip over the annual limit face a tax charge set at the savers highest income tax rate

Savers who fear a hefty tax penalty from overshooting their annual or lifetime pension allowances could lose out more in the long run if they halt contributions.

Experts liken the knee-jerk response to refusing a pay rise simply because their income tax bill will be higher. Les Cameron, pensions expert at insurer Prudential, says: Tax is only bad if the net benefit is not worth it.

The Government sets limits individuals can save into a pension and also what can subsequently be withdrawn. Exceed the allowances and the Government hits savers with a tax charge  removing the tax perk received.

Insurer Royal London says opting out can mean giving up valuable benefits such as free employer contributions and death-in-service cash  a lump sum paid out to relatives when a scheme member dies.

Pension saving rules

ANYONE saving into a pension receives generous top-ups from the Government at their highest income tax rate  whether 20 per cent, 40 per cent or 45 per cent.

The maximum most people are permitted to save into a defined contribution pension  where the final pot is based on the total value of contributions  without a tax charge is 40,000 a year.

This includes contributions from an employer. The sums are done differently for those in defined benefit schemes where the final pension is based on a mix of salary and length of service.

But this 40,000 allowance can be reduced on a sliding scale to as little as 10,000 for those with taxable incomes over 110,000. If income  whether from work, pensions, investments or property  is over 110,000 the value of pension savings (by both individual and employer) is added in. This gives an adjusted income where for every 2 over 150,000, 1 of the annual allowance is lost, leaving 10,000 for those on an adjusted income of 210,000 or more.

For a saver who has already started taking benefits from a personal pension under the new pension freedom rules, but then wants to start topping up the pot again, the annual allowance for money purchase contributions is restricted to 4,000. Breach the limits and savers are hit with a tax penalty.

Those who tip over the annual limit face a tax charge set at the savers highest income tax rate. In effect they lose the tax relief. If the amount of tax due is over 2,000, they may be able to elect for the pension scheme to pay the penalty on their behalf.

Savers may decide they have a sufficient pension in the pipeline once they have reached their lifetime limit. But they would be wise to do the sums first

Over a lifetime the maximum allowed in a pot without a tax penalty is 1.03 million. Exceed the limit and a saver can be taxed at 55 per cent on the excess. The penalty is only applied when someone starts taking benefits. For those taking it as a lump sum the bill is 55 per cent whereas those taking an income either by drawing out sums or purchasing an annuity that pays an income for life, face a tax charge of 25 per cent  plus income tax.

A challenge for members of defined benefit schemes is working out the value of their annual savings. In many cases the information to calculate the contributions will not be known until after the end of the tax year.

It is not just wealthy savers who risk penalties. Those who have been members of defined benefit workplace schemes, such as teachers, are increasingly being caught out.

But financial advisers believe too many pension savers are needlessly obsessed about these tax charges  and should continue saving rather than stop.

Reasons to stay or go

THERE are both advantages and disadvantages from carrying on contributing. Savers may decide they have a sufficient pension in the pipeline once they have reached their lifetime limit. But they would be wise to do the sums first. Clare Moffat of insurer Royal London, says: Savers could miss out on sizeable contributions that would boost their retirement income.

Les Cameron, pensions expert at Prudential, believes giving up on a defined benefit pension is an especially big decision. He says: Savers could miss out on levels of income that they would not be able to match outside pensions.

Take someone on a 60,000 salary making 10 per cent contributions into a defined benefit scheme that will give them a pension equivalent to a 60th of final salary for each year they work. Let us also assume they have reached the lifetime limit allowance of 1.03 million.

One years future contribution will accrue 1,000 of annual pension. The lifetime allowance tax charge on this income would be 5,000  one quarter of the annual pension times 20. The scheme would pay this amount and then reduce the annual pension perhaps by 250. But the 6,000 contribution attracts tax relief, making the net cost 3,600. So for a cost of 3,600, the saver still accrues 750 of annual pension (taxable) that will be paid until they die.

Stopping pension contributions puts other benefits at risk such as death in service  sometimes up to four times salary and paid if you die while still working for the company. Savers who are determined to stop pension contributions can negotiate with employers to retain certain benefits. Some companies even offer those who are close to their lifetime limit a pay rise if they feel the need to stop contributing.

In all cases it is vital to seek professional advice. Royal London has published a booklet, Why Paying A Tax Charge On Your Pension Might Not Be A Bad Idea. Available on its website.

Protecting lifetime allowance

THERE are ways to avoid exceeding the lifetime limit. The options are fixed protection 2016 which provides a lifetime allowance of 1.25 million. Savers can only apply for this if no contributions have been made since April 5, 2016.

Alternatively, individual protection 2016 gives someone a lifetime allowance equal to the value of their pot as at April 5, 2016. The fund would have had to be worth 1 million or more at that time and the protection is capped at 1.25 million. Savers can still make contributions but are likely to face tax charges.

Ray Black, a chartered financial planner at adviser Money Minder, says: The important thing is to maximise contributions into your pension when you can.The rumour swirling in the City is that AIM-listed gas producer Victoria Oil & Gas is on the hunt for more funds.

The word on the street is that the company  which operates as Gaz du Cameroun in the Francophone West African state of Cameroon  has been tapping up shareholders for a new share placing to raise cash.

All of this might not come as too much of a surprise to those who monitor the companys activities.

Cash-flow: Victoria Oil & Gas warned at the end of September that it was keeping a close eye on cash levels, which stood at just $3.2 million (2.4 million)

The firm is known to have a large following of private investors.

Victoria Oil & Gas warned at the end of September that it was keeping a close eye on cash levels, which stood at just $3.2 million (2.4 million) at the end of June, after burning through $3.8 million in six months. It seems the well has at last run dry.

The shares have been on the slide in 2019, leaving it with a market value of just over 20 million.

Even an update on its increasing gas production levels last week failed to lift the share price.

A spokesman for the company, which is led by Kevin Foo, said it did not comment on market speculation regarding capital raisings.

Going: BT's chief executive Gavin Patterson

Gavin Pattersons last day as BT chief executive on Thursday will coincide with the telecoms giants third-quarter results.

The 51-year-old will hope he can go out on a high before passing the reins to Philip Jansen, former boss of payments firm Worldpay.

Analysts are expecting revenues to slide 2.3 per cent from last year to 5.93 billion, with underlying earnings around the same level at 1.82 billion.

BTs largest shareholder Deutsche Telekom, long rumoured to be a potential suitor, will certainly be watching closely. Its three-year lock-up deal preventing it making a bid for BT expires on Tuesday.

AS MANY as ten Aim-listed companies could be suspended from trading next Friday. Thats unless they find a replacement nominated adviser or nomad  required under Aim rules to oversee statements made to investors.

After the merger between Northland Capital and SP Angel, the Northland brand will disappear and its clients will need to find a new nomad by February 1. If they cant, trading in shares in companies such as gas-to-energy firm EQTEC and Management Resource Solutions will be suspended.

And if they still cant find a replacement by March 4, the shares will be cancelled altogether, leaving thousands of investors with stock they cant offload. The clock is ticking.

WONDERING whether to buy Apple shares before Tuesdays first-quarter results? Morgan Stanley thinks you should.

The Wall Street bank sent out a note to clients saying the bad news is already factored into the iPhone giants share price, which has dived more than 30 per cent in the past three months.

Apple slashed revenue guidance earlier this month when it warned about slowing sales in China. But Morgan Stanley thinks the shares have fallen far enough.

All eyes will be on forecasts for the next quarter. The bank predicts $58 billion (44 billion) for revenues and 38 per cent for gross margins, which could boost the share price.Metro Bank has revealed ambitious plans to sign up 400,000 new business banking customers as it recovers from an accountancy error that decimated its share price.

Almost 40 per cent, or 800 million, was wiped off the FTSE 250 banks shares on Wednesday after it revealed a blunder in the way it classified its loan book and issued a profit warning.

The challenger bank, which has 66 branches, told The Mail on Sunday it wants at least to quadruple its share of the business banking market to 9 per cent in the short term.

Ambition: The challenger bank, which has 66 branches, told The Mail on Sunday it wants at least to quadruple its share of the business banking market to 9 per cent in the short term

It currently has 2 per cent of the estimated 5.7 million business current accounts in the UK, or just over 100,000 customers.

If successful, its move deeper into business banking would catapult Metro ahead of other competitors to the Big Four banks  HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS  in what is emerging as a major battleground.

More than a dozen challenger banks including TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Virgin Money owner CYBG and Starling Bank are plotting to take advantage of a shake-up at RBS and make aggressive expansions into the small business current accounts market this year.

To meet a condition of its bailout during the financial crisis ten years ago, RBS is being forced to send 120,000 business customers to rival banks as well as paying 775 million in grants and incentives to these other firms to improve competition in the sector.

The scramble for customers is likely to provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity for small firms to get better rates and service after years of suffering abject treatment at the hands of large banks.

The largest grant being handed out to challenger banks is worth 120 million.

Several firms have submitted their business plans to an independent committee for consideration.

Grants for challenger banks: Larger banks such as HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds are not allowed to compete for the cash

Larger banks such as HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds are not allowed to compete for the cash. Santander pulled out last week.

TSB has revealed that if it wins a 120 million grant it will aim to boost its market share from 100,000 customers to nearer 300,000.

CYBG has around 200,000 business customers, or 3.5 per cent of the market, while Starling only launched its business current account last year and has 27,000 customers.

The battle will begin properly on February 25, when the 120,000 RBS customers will be asked to choose a different bank on a dedicated new price comparison website.

A number of challengers said they were preparing attractive new accounts and services to woo switchers. Some are expected to offer incentives such as cash rewards.

Paul Riseborough, chief commercial officer at Metro Bank, said it wanted to increase its market share rapidly from 2 per cent to 9 per cent once the RBS scheme goes live.

The bank, which is growing its business current accounts by 31 per cent a year, will focus on providing branch services as well as innovations on its app, such as prompts to tell firms when they do not have enough cash to meet upcoming loan payments.

Riseborough said bigger banks often forced small firms to use phone or online services and actively discouraged them from visiting branches.

Businesses with up to 5 million in annual turnover have been underserved because they have been perceived as high-cost and low-value to the bigger banks, Riseborough added.

Starling is another firm with particularly aggressive plans.

Anne Boden, its chief executive, told The Mail on Sunday she wanted to reach 500,000 business customers in the medium to long-term and promised to inject 1 billion of lending into the market. She said: We need more competition in business banking because the only difference between RBS, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and Santander is the colour of the carpet in the branch.

The money [from the RBS scheme] should be used to benefit customers, and we are committing to make sure any funding goes back into the pocket of our customers.

Starling is hiring 500 new staff and creating 56 new products.

CYBG has invested 12 million in a support team and hired 50 relationship managers. TSB has hired 30 new staff and is on a second recruitment round.

Nationwides first ever business account is due to be launched by the end of the year. Its research suggests four in ten of Britains smallest businesses run their finances via personal current accounts.A website promising fixed returns of up to 14 per cent a year for protected investments, which vanished from view last year, reappeared last week  only to disappear once more.

The Safe Secure Investments website originally went offline last year after The Mail on Sunday warned investors about its overblown claims.

The website promoted investments that are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Ordinary people in search of better savings rates are often persuaded to put money into unsuitable schemes like this.

In some instances, they lose every penny and are unable to seek redress from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the company goes bust.

Risk: The Safe Secure Investments website originally went offline last year after The Mail on Sunday warned investors about its overblown claims

Nor do they have a right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The products are seldom illegal but provide savers with no protection and can be run by amateurs. Promotional material fails to point this out.

Offers previously sent to people who signed up with Safe Secure Investments  or its twin website Direct Property Investments, which is still live  included a bond provided by MJS Capital.

The company, now known as Colarb Capital, was co-founded by Lord Razzall, a Liberal Democrat politician.

These deals were for sophisticated investors, though it was easy for average customers to invest. Literature promoting the bond, which was sent to prospective investors early last year, claimed annual returns up to 14 per cent.

MJS said client funds would be handled by a regulated payment services provider and overseen by an independent regulated trustee. These assurances were presented in bold type. But some investors are now struggling to withdraw their money.

One person who invested after receiving information from Direct Property Investments says she has been waiting for her money since last April. She believed the bond was regulated and felt reassured because of Lord Razzalls involvement.

Anthony Morrow, chief executive of online advice and investment platform evestor, says: Unregulated investments are a blight on the financial services industry.

Using the label sophisticated investor can imply a sense of allure, but they are not suitable for the vast majority of investors.

He adds: Regulated advice and regulated investments will meet the needs of most investors.

To ensure a company is regulated, check via register.fca.org.uk. To find a reputable financial adviser use websites such as unbiased or VouchedFor.

Sheila Willshere, of Direct Property, says the Safe Secure website is again under maintenance. She says investors are accountable for truthfully declaring eligibility.Over the years I have worked with some splendid people who have campaigned tirelessly for a fairer personal finance world.

Sadly, their efforts have not always resulted in financial justice or the right outcome.

For example, throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Derek French  a former NatWest banker and founder of the Campaign for Community Banking Services  had a great idea that, if backed by the big banks, would have ensured no town today would be bankless.

All of Britain's big banks have closed branches in the past decade

His vision was for every town to have a community bank branch  with running costs shared between the major high street banks. Instead of three banks on one high street, one branch for all.

It all made commonsense, but despite backing from charities such as Age Concern (Age UK as it is now known), the Federation of Small Businesses and vigorous campaigning from The Mail on Sunday, his idea was ridden out of town.

The banks were more interested in protecting their own self-interests.

While French, as caring an individual as you will ever meet, has now retired and the Campaign for Community Banking Services has long been put out to grass, the big bad banks have now turned many towns into bankless zones  bar the odd cash machine, often independently operated.

Some communities have been left devastated, disadvantaging those who have no desire to bank online and local businesses which rely upon a physical branch to bank their takings.

Derek French  a former NatWest banker - founded the Campaign for Community Banking Services

Last week, Santander became the latest bank to take a bloody axe to its branch network by announcing the culling of 140 of its 754-strong network.

This follows the closure last year of 774 branches by the top eight banks. Should Santander be vilified for its actions? Of course. It woefully underinvested in its network, turning some branches into dreary outlets. About as welcoming as an Arctic wind.

Communities are losing their last bank branch all the time. For example, Westbury in Wiltshire (famous for the nearby Bratton White Horse) will lose its sole remaining branch next month when Lloyds Banking Group shuts up shop. Just a cash machine in the local Morrisons store will provide the community with access to cash. Politicians should be ashamed of themselves for standing idly by and allowing the banks to desert the high street.

If only they had listened to Derek French  rather than allow the banks to ride roughshod over them and communities countrywide.

Sad passing of a pensions linchpin

Alison and Andrew Parr - pictured at the High Court in London

Talking of strident personal finance campaigners, it is sad to learn of the death of 74-year-old Andrew Parr.

In the early 2000s, Andrew was one of the linchpins behind the formation of the Pensions Action Group, a fantastic band of individuals who campaigned long and hard for pensions justice.

Without their tireless efforts we would not today have in place the Pension Protection Fund that ensures no one can now lose their right to a hard-earned company pension if their employer goes bust.

Backed by a loving wife, Parr was one of the bricks behind PAG, always articulate and willing to take a call from a journalist on deadline (usually me) keen to get a quote.

Thousands of people today are in receipt of a pension (care of the PPF) because of Parrs hard work and that of others who helped turn PAGs cogs. They should be grateful. Very grateful to Andrew Parr.

Tax stragglers in final countdown

This Thursday is the last opportunity for more than 3.5 million stragglers to file their tax return before the taxman starts fining them. So if this arduous task remains on your to-do list, please try to find time in the next couple of days.

If the return is late, a 100 fine is triggered  even if thats your only misdemeanour. A fine will still come your way, even if you owe the taxman the square root of zero.

Hundreds of thousands of people failed to meet the deadline last year  and penalties, unlike good wine, get worse the longer the task goes undone.

After three months, penalties ramp up to 10 a day for every day the return is late, up to a maximum 900. Worse follows but lets not go there.

So please get the return in on time. Supportive videos and webinars can be found at gov.uk/guidance/help-and-support-for-self-assessment. Or call the self-assessment helpline on 0300 200 3310.

Get it done and then reward yourself with a drop of the good stuff. In the process, raise a glass to Andrew Parr. I will.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Lucknow, Jan 27 (PTI) A police constable and a notorious criminal died during an encounter in Amroha on Sunday, a senior UP government official said.

The incident took place in Indrapur village which comes under the jurisdiction of Bachhraaun police station.

"The constable was identified as Harsh Chaudhary, a resident of Hathras district. In the encounter, the criminal -- Shiv Avtar alias Shivia -- was also killed," the official said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced a compensation of Rs 40 lakh for the wife of the constable and Rs 10 lakh for his parents as well as extraordinary pension for his wife and service for one dependent in his family, he added. PTI NAV SNE

SNEJammu, Jan 27 (PTI) In a major relief to stranded passengers, the authorities Sunday allowed Srinagar-bound light motor vehicles (LMV) to ply from here as the strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway was reopened partially for traffic after six days of closure, a senior police officer said.

A fresh landslide struck the highway near Anokhi fall Sunday morning but men and machinery are on the ground and hopefully the traffic which was allowed from Jammu to Srinagar will be cleared, Inspector General of police, Traffic, Alok Kumar told PTI.

The 270-km highway, the only all weather road linking Kashmir with rest of the country, was closed on January 21 following heavy snowfall in the Jawahar Tunnel area -- the gateway to Kashmir -- and multiple landslides triggered by the incessant rains between Banihal and Ramban over the past week.

A massive avalanche had also struck the highway on Tuesday last, blocking both tubes of the Jawahar Tunnel on Qazigund side but the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), which maintains the stretch of the highway, cleared the road for traffic, Kumar said.

Inclement weather hampered the early reopening of the road, leaving hundreds of vehicles, mostly trucks, stranded.

The stranded passengers held demonstrations in Jammu and Udhampur over the past couple of days against the administration for its alleged failure to make necessary arrangements for their stay and were demanding their airlifting to Srinagar as was the practice in the past during such situations.

"After reviewing the situation on the ground, the LMVs were cleared from Jammu to Srinagar Sunday morning," the IGP traffic said.

He said efforts are on to clear the debris at the scene of the landslide to allow smooth passage of the LMVs and also to make it traffic worthy for heavy vehicles as well.

Meanwhile, the night temperature in most parts of the Jammu division marked an improvement with the city recording a low of 4.1 degrees Celsius compared to the previous night's 3.7 degrees Celsius.

The snow-bound Bhaderwah town in Doda district was the coldest recorded place in the region with a low of minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, a spokesman of the MET department said.

He said the night temperature appreciated by over three degrees in Banihal town, which recorded a low of minus 2.5 degrees Celsius compared to previous night's minus 6.2 degrees Celsius.

Katra, the base camp for pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine, recorded a low of 3.8 degrees Celsius, the spokesman said. PTI TAS AQS\R New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) A 30-year-old man was bludgeoned to death allegedly by his mother and her live-in partner after he objected to their illicit relationship in east Delhi's New Ashok Nagar, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place on Saturday night.

Investigations revealed that Ravinder Pathak, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Basti, had recently moved in with his mother.

He stayed with his mother and her friend Ajeet in a rented flat in New Ashok Nagar area, a senior police officer said.

Pathak worked as a driver in Noida. When he reached home after duty on Saturday night, he saw his mother and Ajeet in an objectionable position that led to an altercation among them, the officer said.

The argument turned violent and the woman and her live-in partner hit Pathak on the head with a brick, resulting in his death, he added.

Later, Ajeet called up ambulance service. When the ambulance driver reached the spot, he saw Pathak lying in a pool of blood following which he informed police, the officer said.

However, the woman managed to take Pathak's body to her daughter's house in Azadpur for cremation. Her daughter suspected foul play and forced her to return with the body to New Ashok Vihar.

When the woman returned, she was nabbed by police, he said, adding her live-in partner has also been arrested. PTI AMP GVSModi slams Cong, Left parties, says they have no respect for

EC or other institutions

Thrissur, Jan 27 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday

slammed the Congress and the Left parties, saying they had no

respect for institutions, including the Election Commission

and that their talk about democracy was the "biggest joke".

Modi, who was addressing a huge Yuva Morcha rally here,

also referred to the political killings in Kerala and equated

it with those in Maharashtra

He said the mindset of the Emergency still lived in the

minds of many Congress leaders.

"Congress and communists talking about democracy is the

biggest joke. What is happening in some parts of Kerala..

political workers are killed just because their ideology is

different from the communists," he said.

The prime minister this culture has now spread to Madhya

Pradesh, where BJP workers were being attacked.

He said the Congress was even questioning the election

commission.

"Be it Congress or communists, they have zero regard for

any institution. For them every institution, the armed forces,

police, CBI, the CAG, everybody is wrong, but they are right."

He also referred to the recent hacker's press meet in

London over the alleged hacking of EVMs in the 2014 Lok Sabha

elections.

"And who was participating in the press conference? A

top-most Congress leader.

Is this your respect to our institutions and our

democracy? Is this what our politics have come to right now?

Whoever has gone to foreign soil to undermine the mandate of

the people of India will have to answer to the people of

India," Modi said.

The Prime Minister, who was in Kerala for the second time

this month, once again raked up the Sabarimala issue and

alleged that the cultural ethos of the state was under attack

from the ruling communist party in the state.

He said that the state government has been disrespecting

all aspects of Kerala's culture.

"Unfortunately, today, the cultural ethos of Kerala is

under attack. And this attack is being made by the party

governing the state.

The issue of the Sabarimala temple had caught the

attention of the entire nation.

The people of India are seeing the manner in which the

communist government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects

of Kerala's culture

The UDF too is just like the Communists," Modi said.

The Prime Minister also said that the opposition parties

had only one agenda and that was to abuse him.

"All they (opposition) have is hatred towards Modi.

Their day begins with abusing Modi and ends with abusing

Modi."

He said they could abuse him as much as they wanted, but

should not 'mislead' farmers, put hurdles in creating

opportunities for the youth, 'harm' the poor or put barriers

in India's progress.

"Abuse me as much as you want but don't abuse our great

nation," Modi said. PTI RRT UD APR TVS

APR APRDecisive steps being taken to reduce crude oil import by 10

per cent: PM

Kochi, Jan 27 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday

said the NDA government has taken "decisive steps" to bring

down crude oil import by 10 percent and save precious foreign

exchange for the country.

Towards this end, Modi said, 11 oil PSUs have adopted the

modern 'lignocellulosic' route for establishing twelve 2G

ethnol plants in 11 states of the country.

"To cut down on import of Crude oil, government has taken

decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10 per cent and

saving precious foreign exchange," Modi said after dedicating

to the nation an integrated refinery expansion complex of the

public sector Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd at the Kochi

Refinery here.

Six MoUs have already been signed in this direction, he

said.

To overcome environment pollution, he said the Centre was

promoting the use of environment-friendly transport

fuel--CNG-- by expanding the coverage of City Gas Distribution

(CGD) network in the country.

After the successful completion of 10th CGD bidding

Round, more than 400 districts of the country would be

connected for providing piped gas supply, Modi said.

Referring to the National Gas Grid or Pradhan Mantri Urja

Ganga project, he said it has also been created to have a

gas-based economy and enhance the share of gas in the energy

basket.

"The government has thought of developing additional

15,000 kilometers of gas pipeline network," he said.

Earlier, Modi laid the foundation stone for a

petrochemical complex at the refinery and a skill development

institute at Ettumanoor besides inaugurating a mounded storage

vessel at the LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation

Limited here.

The Prime Minister, during his address after inaugurating

the Kochi refinery expansion complex, dwelt at length on the

petrochemical sector in the country.

"India, which is second largest oil refiner in Asia, is

emerging as a refinery hub with refining more than its

demand," he said adding the country's refinery capacity

currently stood at more than 247 MMTPA.

He said the government had provided nearly six crore LPG

connections to the poor people under the Ujjwala Yojana scheme

since May, 2016 when it was launched.

He noted that over 23 crore LPG consumers had joined the

PAHAL (the Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG) scheme that has

helped in identifying ghost, multiple and inactive accounts.

Modi said PAHAL had entered into the Guinness book of

World record, being the largest direct benefit transfer

scheme.

Recalling his childhood and youth when he had seen many

mothers struggling with the fire-wood stove in the kitchen,

Modi said ever since, he had always thought of improving their

situation and providing healthy kitchens to the mothers and

sisters of India.

"The Ujjwala scheme of the Government of India is a way

to realize this dream," he said.

Modi said the Indian refinery industry has done well in

establishing itself as a major player globally.

By doubling the LPG production with the help of recent

expansion, Kochi Refinery is making a great contribution

towards Ujjwala, he said.

The Prime Minister said the Integrated Refinery Expansion

Project was also a strategic move of Bharat Petroleum to

diversify into non-fuel sector.

Observing that petro-chemicals are a grade of chemicals

which we dont speak much about, the Prime Minister said "they

exist invisibly and touch many aspects of our daily life."

This includes building materials, plastics and

paints,foot-wear,clothing and other fabrics or auto-motive

parts, cosmetics and medicines, he said.

Noting that most of these chemicals are imported from

other countries, the Prime Minister said, "it is our endeavour

to see that these petro-chemicals are manufactured in India

itself."

"I am happy that using the capability of Kochi Refinery

to produce propylene after the execution of IREP, BPCL has

gone ahead with putting up three world-class plants to

manufacture acrylic acid acrylates and oxo alcohol under Make

In India.

These petro-chemicals will find use in paints, inks,

coating, detergent,and in many other articles," he said.

Reaching out to the labourers who worked day and night

during construction of the complex, he said, "I am told that

at the peak of the project, over 20,000 labourers were working

at the site. In many ways, they are the Real Heroes of the

Project."

The integrated refinery dedicated by Modi is a modern

expansion complex and is expected to transform the Kochi

Refinery as the largest PSU refinery in the country with world

class standards.

It is equipped with the technology to produce cleaner

fuel, besides, being able to double the production of LPG and

diesel.

Petrochemical complex at the BPCL Kochi refinery is a

'Make in India' initiative aimed at reducing dependence on

imports.

The skill development institute at Ettumanoor in Kottayam

district, backed by the Ministry of Petrochemical and Natural

Gas, would provide vocational training and enhance

employability and entrepreneurship for deserving youth both in

oil & gas and other industries.

This world class institute was being set up at an eight

acre campus allocated by the state government and would have a

capacity to skill around 1,000 youths annually in 20 different

skills. PTI TGB ROH TVS

ROH ROHKolkata, Jan 27 (PTI) Chinese Consul General to Kolkata Zha Liyou on Sunday said that confidence building measures between five eastern Indian states, including West Bengal, and Chinese provinces was one of his topmost priorities.

"Our leadership attaches great importance to state-province level ties, which is called sub-national level relationship," said Liyou, who became the new Chinese Consul to Kolkata this month.

He said culture, education, sports, youth, media, academics and film are some of the areas the two sides can work on as part of the state-province relationship.

The Chinese diplomat said, "We need to make Bengal and Yunnan sister states, and Kolkata and Kunming as twin cities to boost ties at various levels."

"The West Bengal capital and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, can reach at consensus on many areas including culture and tourism," he said.

On the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit, to be held in February, Liyou said, "For many years we have tried to convince the Chinese provincial leaders to come to the summit. A a very high-level delegation from Yunnan province would be sent to the summit."

The vice-chairman of the Provincial People's Congress will head the delegation, he told reporters here.

Informing reporters that an expo will be held in Yunnan in June, the consul-general said, "I will extend invitation to the chief ministers from five states."

Stating that Chinese President Xi Jinping had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi four times in 2018, Liyou said, "To put in practice what our president agreed with your prime minister, our foreign minister can tour India in the end of this year." PTI SUS NSD

NSD(Eds: Updates arrests, adds details of other cases)

Lucknow/Noida, Jan 27 (PTI) With the arrest of nine people from Agra, Mathura and Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task force (STF) on Sunday busted three gangs which were allegedly assisting candidates in recruitment exam for police constable, officials said.

These gangs, one of which was using gadgets like bluetooth earphones and web cameras, provided fraud candidates who wrote the offline recruitment exam 2018 for UP Police and PAC for aspirants, the officials said.

They would charge the aspirants between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement issued here.

One of the gangs, which allegedly assisted constable recruitment exam aspirants to use unfair means, was busted and its members were arrested in Agra, it said.

Shivkumar and Bhuwanesh from Mathura and Satyam Katiyar from Kanpur Dehat were arrested. Two fake admit cards and cash were recovered from them, it said.

They also admitted that they used to charge Rs 6-8 lakh from people to prepare fake exam-related documents, the STF said.

The kingpin along with two of his gang members was held from Mathura by the Noida field unit of the STF.

Pawan Singh and his aides Jeevan Singh and Rajkumar Singh, all three hailing from Aligarh district, were arrested, it said.

"Four sim card-based electronic communication devices, 22 bluetooth earphones, one web camera, marksheets and admit cards of 11 exam candidates and Rs 15,000 were seized from their possession," an STF officer said.

An SUV which was used by them was also impounded, the officer said. "The candidates sitting for the exam would read out the questions that would be transmitted through the devices fixed in their amulets to gang members outside the exam centres who would then feed them with correct answers," the STF said. According to the officials, the third gang was busted in Lucknow by the STF, which was carrying out an operation to target exam frauds on specific inputs about their involvement in police recruitment exams.

Nishant Prabhakar, Santosh Tiwari, both residents of Lucknow, and Santosh Paswan from Nalanda in Bihar, were arrested, the agency said.

"They used to send fake candidates by tampering admit cards and would charge aspirants anywhere from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement.

The agency said legal proceedings against the accused men were underway and they were being interrogated to elicit details about their nexus, which could help check such exam frauds. PTI NAV/KIS ANB SNE

SNENew Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) A Pakistani delegation arrived in India on Sunday to visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, sources said.

Pakistan's Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah arrived in Amritsar along with his two advisers, sources said.

"This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years," a senior official said.

Since signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken.

The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014, respectively. No tour could be held in the current five years block, which ends in March 2020.

This tour will be followed by a visit of India's Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date, the official added.

This tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three Indus tributaries -- the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi -- have been allotted to India, while the Chenab, the Jhelum and the Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan. PTI PR SOM

SOMNew Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) India has relaxed a key condition to allow members of the Surinami-Hindustani community living in Europe to get Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card, according to an official statement.

Earlier, there was a limitation that OCI could be issued only to four generations of the original forefathers of the community who had migrated from India to Suriname, a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America.

Consequently, many young members of the Surinami-Hindustani community belonging to fifth and subsequent generations could not avail of this benefit.

As a result of persistent efforts by the Embassy of Netherlands, the government of India has decided that, henceforth, descendants up to sixth generation of the original Indian immigrants who had arrived in Suriname and later migrated to the Netherlands may be considered for OCI, the statement said.

An announcement in this regard was made by India's Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony during the Indian Republic Day celebrations in the Netherlands on Saturday.

He invited all members of Surinami-Hindustani community who do not have an OCI card to apply for the same at the earliest.

Rajamony also announced that because mandatory conscription was in force in the Netherlands prior to 1996, those members of the Surinami-Hindustani Community who were excluded from the OCI scheme can now apply for it, the statement issued by the Indian Embassy in The Hague said.

This (Indian government's decision) will help integrate the largest Indian community in Europe even more closely with India, Rajamony told PTI.

The Netherlands has the largest population of overseas Indians in mainland Europe,majority belonging to the 2,00,000 strong Surinami-Hindustani community whose ancestors were taken as indentured labour from India to Suriname 145 years ago. PTI AKV



ANB

ANBBagaha (Bihar), Jan 27 (PTI) Two home guards were hacked to death by suspected poachers in Valmiki Nagar Tiger Reserve sanctuary area close to the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar's West Champaran district, an official said on Sunday.

District Forest Officer, West Champaran, Gaurav Ojha said Arjun Yadav and Hira Lal Kushwaha were attacked in Narangiya Don forest area in the early hours of Sunday by about a dozen people.

The two home guards were part of a patrol party which had caught hold of a poacher and was taking him along, but was ambushed by his associates en route, Ojha said.

Yadav and Kushwaha were attacked with sharp-edged weapons while the other home guards ran for their safety. The attackers escaped upon securing the release of their associate, he said, adding a search was on for the killers. PTI CORR NAC RG NSD

NSDGuwahati, Jan 27 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Sunday said the Citizenship Bill was a national policy and once it becomes an act, the burden of new citizens would be borne by the entire country.

Attempts are being made to confuse people but the state government which has come to power with a popular mandate would do nothing to harm the interests of the local people, Sonowal said.

Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Nalbari Medical College and Hospital at Borigaon, Sonowal said the bill can never threaten the existence of the indigenous people of Assam which has a legacy of great personalities like Srimanta Sankardev, Azan Fakir, Lachit Borphukan, Bagh Hazarika and other.

The chief minister also urged the All Assam Students Union (AASU) to extend full cooperation in successful implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord for ensuring constitutional, administrative and legislative safeguard for the indigenous people.

He asked the intelligentsia to present the true picture of the bill before the people of the state, while criticising the previous Congress government for neglecting development in the region as well as the interests of the local people.

The previous Congress governments imposed IMDT Act in the state to protect illegal immigrants and made no significant efforts to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Sonowal said.

The NRC updation process received a major shot in the arm with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to power at the Centre, he said.

After the final publication of the NRC, people of state would get a clear picture about the genuine citizens and illegal immigrants, Sonowal added.

The Nalbari Medical college will be constructed with a financial outlay of Rs 398.31 crore and will provide academic opportunities for 100 students per year.

Minister of Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government had already sanctioned an amount of Rs 350 crore for the construction of the college which would give a new dimension to healthcare delivery service in the district.

He also informed that a 100-bed Cancer Hospital would also be setup in the same campus at a cost of Rs 19 crore.

The meeting was also addressed by Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Mangaldoi MP Ramen Deka and Nalbari MLA Ashok Sarma. PTI DG RG RHLGandhinagar, Jan 27 (PTI) Men have a key role to play in the fight for gender equality, Supreme Court Judge D Y Chandrachud Sunday said as he called for the need to de-construct the stereotype of gender roles.

Justice Chandrachud, who was part of the five-judge bench that allowed women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, said violence and discrimination faced by females were compounded by people's "insensitivity to women's rights and issues".

He was addressing graduating students at the convocation ceremony of the Gujarat National Law University here in the presence of his colleague from the Supreme Court, Justice A K Sikri.

"Women have to deal with shocking gender wage gaps, forms of violence and harassments, forced adherence to feminine, impossible standards of beauty, compounded by what I think might be the worst of all-- insensitivity to women's rights and issues," Chandrachud said.

"The fight for gender equality cannot be fought by women alone. Men have a key role to play in demanding and supporting this societal shift by being a part of conversation and of the movement," he added.

Chandrachud called for the need to de-construct the stereotypes of gender roles, an exercise that "must be practised every passing days".

The country is faced with "disturbing inequalities and disparities in access to opportunities, including access to eduction," the SC judge said and exhorted the law students to use their privilege to "try and change injustices of society".

"The same values which grant privilege to some rob others of their humanity. There is, hence, an urgent need to address this.

"And if you choose to remain a beneficiary and do nothing, you are complicit in furthering a grave injustice," he told the audience.

The judge said instances of a child being denied basic education because of his parents' financial status, a person being denied housing because of religion, a woman not getting access to public spaces because of her menstrual status, or a Dalit subjected to indignity present "glaring examples of the inability of our society to grant a citizen an equal and humane existence".

"The Constitution envisions an egalitarian society, but it is you the citizens, and particularly students of younger generation who can make this Constitutional vision a reality for the morrow," Chandrachud said.

Addressing the gathering, Justice Sikri called for the need to "uphold the law and Constitution and save democracy" at a time when its values were "at stake" the world over.

He said judges have to perform "a vital role" at a time when the world is "undergoing transformation of a different kind", and when there is "backsliding of democratic values".

Sikri called for bridging the gap between the law and the society and added that students joining judicial fraternity will have to perform these roles "in challenging days".

He told the students that while they should look to earn money in this "lucrative profession," they should also ensure the marginalised sections of the society get "social justice".

"The thing which can be admired about this profession is that you can earn a lot of money by maintaining moral, ethical values, which in some of the other professions one has to sacrifice," Sikri said.

He advised the budding judicial professionals to keep their "humane aspect" at the heart of their career.

"That is what we have to do when we are taking up social causes," Sikri said.

A total of 462 students graduated at the 9th convocation ceremony of the law university. PTI KA RSY RHLBJP believed in a hacker's false claims against me: Khadse

Mumbai, Jan 27 (PTI) Senior BJP leader and former

Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse Sunday wondered over his

party's stand of not believing in any EVM hacking claims, but

taking seriously a computer hacker's allegations against him.

In 2016, "ethical" hacker Manish Bhangale had accused

Khadse of receiving calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's

Karachi residence.

Khadse had stoutly denied the charge and Bhangale was

arrested in March 2017 for allegedly creating a fake phone

bill to establish his allegation.

"How come my party trusted hacker Manish Bhangale's

claims and without any substantial evidence let one's life get

devastated. Who has given you right to affect one's life based

on some news which had no substantial evidence," he said.

Khadse was speaking at a public rally in Jalgaon, his

home district in North Maharashtra.

The former minister, in his speech, made a reference

to the BJP's official stand of not relying on any claims made

by a cyber expert based in London last week.

The expert, Syed Shuja, had claimed electronic voting

machines (EVMs) can be hacked. He had claimed the 2014 general

election was "rigged" through EVMs, a charge rubbished by the

BJP and also the Election Commission.

Shuja had also sought to link alleged EVM tampering

with the fatal road accident of senior BJP leader and Union

minister Gopinath Munde just after the BJP won the 2014 Lok

Sabha elections.

From time to time, Khadse, who was once seen as No. 2

in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet, has been expressing his

disappointment with the BJP leadership on being sidelined in

the party.

Khadse, who held several key portfolios, resigned in

June 2016 after facing a string of allegations, including

irregularities in a land deal. PTI ND

RSY RSYCaracas, Jan 27 (AP) Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked on an order that gave US Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, defusing tensions between the countries just hours after their top diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special UN Security Council meeting to address the South American country's crisis.

Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, a move the embattled socialist described as a "vile" coup attempt.

Maduro gave American diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration refused to obey his order, arguing that the leftist leader was no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a potentially violent showdown at the hilltop Embassy compound on Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Maduro government had opened a 30-day window to negotiate with the Trump administration the establishment of a "US interests office" in Venezuela, and a similar office for Venezuela in the United States.

A similar arrangement governed bilateral relations between the US and Cuba for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not immediately confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister faced off against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a special UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela's situation.

During the debate -- which was convened by the US -- Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" against President Nicolas Maduro - a reflection of the world's deep divisions over the crisis in the South American country.

Pompeo told the UN Security Council that it's beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state" and support Guaido. The young opposition leader has declared himself the country's interim president, arguing that Maduro's re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security and accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation", including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the US will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next."

What has played out in Venezuela and the world's media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the UN's most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions.

The Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations - France and Britain - joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro Saturday, saying they would follow the US and others in recognising Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said if there is no announcement of new elections in the next days the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership".

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline. "Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."

Arreaza said Venezuela "will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order" and demanded that someone show him where in the country's constitution it states that an individual can proclaim himself president.

As for possible military action to oust Maduro, Arreaza said, "we will not allow any government or any country to violate our sovereignty, and give a pretext for Donald Trump to start a war."

The opposition to Guaido was also reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The United States barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine "yes" votes from the council's six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting "no" while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying "to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits ... in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years".

But he saved his sharpest attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain "the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people".

He said Cuba has sent "security and intelligence thugs" to sustain Maduro's "illegitimate rule".

"Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

China's UN Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said his government "firmly opposed" the US accusations and doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. "We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself," Ma told the council.

Cuba's UN Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez went further, rejecting "the deliberate" and "fake news" cast on the country not only by Pompeo but by Elliot Abrams, the new chief of US policy on Venezuela who sat in the council after the secretary of state left.

The Security Council meeting came a day after Guaido vowed to remain on the streets until his country has a transitional government, while Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.

In rival press conferences, Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his call for dialogue.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

Guaido took a symbolic oath of office Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation's constitutional leader on grounds that Maduro's re-election last year was fraudulent - an allegation supported by the US, the European Union and many other nations.

Directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the government's sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Guaido's move is the most direct challenge to Maduro's rule despite years of protests at home and international efforts to isolate the regime amid a growing humanitarian crisis fuelled by falling oil prices and government mismanagement.

Maduro is accusing the opposition of working with the US to overthrow him. Though over a dozen nations are recognising Guaido as president, Maduro still has the support of the military and powerful, longtime allies like Russia and China.

He said he is still willing to talk with the opposition. Both sides attempted dialogue last year, but it fell apart as Maduro pushed forward with an early election that Venezuela's most popular opposition leaders were barred from running in. (AP)

HMBUnited Nations, Jan 27 (AFP) The United States pressed all nations to "stand with the forces of freedom" in Venezuela, encouraged by a tougher European line as Russia stood in the minority in backing embattled leader Nicolas Maduro.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a forceful case at a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, where he described Maduro as part of an "illegitimate mafia state" responsible for Venezuela's economic collapse.

With mounting protests over Venezuela's crisis in which more than two million have fled shortages of basic food and medicine, Pompeo asked all nations to follow the US in recognising opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo said. He also urged all countries to end financial transactions with Maduro's government, which has struggled to pay bills despite the country's oil wealth.

Pompeo denounced Russia and China, which have stood by Maduro, saying that they were "propping up a failed regime in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years".

Russia has denounced the United States for interference and attempted to block the Security Council meeting, but it was voted down with nine of the 15 members agreeing to go forward. But Russia blocked a draft Security Council statement seen by AFP that would have offered full support to Guaido and called the National Assembly that he heads "Venezuela's only democratically elected institution".

"Venezuela does not pose any threat to peace and security. The intention of the United States is to orchestrate a coup d'etat," said the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.

He accused the United States of continuing to treat Latin America as a "backyard where you can do anything you want" and, in a shot at the Europeans, said Russia would not raise France's populist Yellow Vest protests at the Security Council.

President Donald Trump's recognition of Guaido has been supported by many Latin American powers including Brazil, Colombia and Argentina -- but not all. European powers, after cautious initial statements, on Saturday warned that they will recognise Guaido unless Maduro calls elections within eight days.

"If within eight days there are no fair, free and transparent elections called in Venezuela, Spain will recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president" so that he himself can call the vote, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised announcement.

Britain, France, and Germany followed suit, with French President Emmanuel Macron tweeting: "The Venezuelan people must be able to freely decide on their future."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza rejected the ultimatum, accusing the Europeans of "putting themselves at the tail" of Trump. "From where do you get the power to issue deadlines or ultimatums to a sovereign people?" he told the Security Council.

The 28-member European Union is not united on Venezuela, with Greece's ruling left-wing Syriza party voicing "full support and solidarity" for Maduro.

Maduro's re-election last year was contested by the opposition and rejected by the US, EU and UN as a sham -- but he has until now retained the loyalty of the powerful military.

Guaido, who has managed to galvanize a previously divided opposition, this week attempted to attract military support by offering an amnesty to anyone who disavows Maduro -- and suggested amnesty for Maduro himself -- but with no luck so far.

He scored a symbolic victory when Venezuela's military attache to Washington, Colonel Jose Luis Silva, announced Saturday he was breaking with Maduro and called on his colleagues in the armed forces to follow suit.

But Guaido was also forced to admit he had held a meeting with Maduro's number two Diosdado Cabello after the government published a video of the rendezvous.

Guaido had previously rejected an offer of talks, saying he won't attend a "fake dialogue" on a crisis that has left 26 dead in clashes this week between anti-Maduro activists and security forces.

He downplayed the significance of the talks, telling supporters at a rally Saturday: "We are willing to meet with all the officials for the cessation of the usurpation and for free elections."

More than 350 people have also been detained this week in the protests, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Friday. Both Guaido and Maduro have called for demonstrations next week, raising fears of further violence.

Maduro has given US diplomats until late Saturday to leave Venezuela. The United States said it was ignoring the order as it no longer considers Maduro the president -- but withdrew non-essential staff and argued that Maduro still bore responsibility for diplomats' safety. (AFP)

HMBNew Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) Following are the top foreign stories at 2000 hours:



FGN11 PAK-INDIA-LD KARTARPUR

India, Pak in contact on Kartarpur corridor issue: Bisaria

Islamabad: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose. By Sajjad Hussain



FGN6 US-AFGHAN

'Significant progress' on talks with Taliban, says US envoy

Washington: The US has made "significant progress" in its peace talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan, a top Trump Administration official has said. By Lalit K Jha



FGN10 CANADA-ENVOY-LD SACKED

Canada's prime minister fires his ambassador to China

Toronto: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired Canada's ambassador to China after the envoy said it would be "great" if the US dropped its extradition request for a Chinese tech executive arrested in Canada. (AP)



FGN13 PHILIPPINES-3RDLD BOMBING

20 dead as bombs target Sunday Mass in Philippine cathedral

Jolo (Philippines): Two bombs minutes apart tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 20 people and wounding 111 others during a Sunday Mass, officials said. (AP)



FGN14 BRAZIL-DAM-2NDLD WARNING

New alert as hundreds feared dead in Brazil dam disaster

Brumadinho (Brazil): An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture went up early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 37 with hundreds more feared dead, firefighters and the mining company said.(AFP)



FGN12 VENEZUELA-LD DIPLOMATS

Venezuela allows US diplomats to stay, defusing showdown

Caracas: Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis. (AP)



FGN16 PERU-MUDSLIDE

At least 15 dead in mudslide at hotel in Peru: Mayor

Lima: An avalanche of mud and rocks crashed into a hotel during a wedding celebration in southeastern Peru, killing at least 15 people, authorities said Sunday. (AFP)

RUP

RUPLima, Jan 27 (AFP) An avalanche of mud and rocks crashed into a hotel during a wedding celebration in southeastern Peru, killing at least 15 people, authorities said Sunday.

"The avalanche broke through the walls of the hotel, entering into it with force," the mayor of the city of Abancay, where the hotel is located, told RPP radio.

The mayor, Evaristo Ramos, said about 100 guests had been invited to the wedding party and "there are 15 dead and 34 injured." (AFP) SCY

SCYCaracas, Jan 27 (AP) Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt.

Maduro gave US diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn't obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop US Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro's government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with US officials about setting up a "US interests office" in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States.

The US and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, critics and supporters of Maduro's government faced off at the UN Security Council, reflecting the world's deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country.

During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support Guaido.

"Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying "to engineer a coup" against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security, and he accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government.

Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesise on what the U.S. will do next."

Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuela's opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region.

The Security Council, the UN most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Council's five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations  France and Britain  joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership." Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.

"Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike." Arreaza asked that someone show him where in Venezuela's constitution it says an individual can proclaim himself president.

Guaido says he is acting in accordance with two articles of the constitution that give the National Assembly president the right to hold power temporarily and call new elections.

While the council debated, a man identifying himself as Venezuela's military attache in Washington posted a video saying he had broken with Maduro and now would report to Guaido. (AP) AMS

AMSColombo, Jan 27 (PTI) Sri Lanka's Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government lacks political capability and does not have adequate support in Parliament to pass the new Constitution, which he claimed that if introduced will divide the country.

He also reiterated his demand for a fresh poll in the island nation.

"The current government lacks political capability to enact the proposed new Constitution. They have no support in parliament to pass that," Rajapaksa told reporters on Saturday.

"This is a Constitution which aims to divide the country," he said, adding that the government has failed to deliver their promises made in elections and made it unpopular.

"We want a general election," he said.

Sri Lanka's former strongman, who attempted to overthrow Wickremesinghe with the help of President Maithripala Sirisena last year, has been attacking the prime minister's move to introduce a new Constitution after a report prepared by the Panel of Experts for the Steering Committee was presented in Parliament early this month.

During a debate in the House, Rajapaksa said the effort must now be abandoned and there must be a fresh parliamentary poll.

The Rajapaksa camp claims that the report is the new draft of the Constitution and it aims to dilute the unitary state of the island nation, degrading the upmost position granted to the majority Sinhala Buddhist religion in the current Constitution.

Speaking in Jaffna on Saturday, a senior member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M A Sumanthiran said that the proposed Constitution would ensure the island's unitary character.

"Misinformation was being spread by the Rajapaksa-led Opposition that the new Constitution will formulate a federal structure for Sri Lanka despite repeated explanations that the unitary state and the position of Buddhism will not be harmed," he said.

The TNA opposed the October 26 stand off when Rajapaksa was appointed as the prime minister by Sirisena in violation of the Constitution.

They voted against Rajapaksa as the new prime minister and demanded the restoration of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Rajapaksa camp now alleges Wickremesinghe of relying on the TNA support to prove his majority in Parliament to continue the government.

Wickremesinghe, therefore, is under TNA's obligation to deliver a new constitution to appease them, they alleged. PTI CORR SMJ

SMJLahore, Jan 27 (PTI) A three-member delegation, headed by Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah, will be visiting India on Sunday to inspect the Pakal Dul dam and Lower Kalnai hydel power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said.

After the bilateral talks on the Indus Waters Treaty in August last year in Lahore, India rejected Pakistan's objections on the construction of the 1,000MW Pakal Dul dam and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydropower projects on the Chenab river and invited Pakistani experts to visit the sites to address their concern.

"We are going to India on Sunday (today) via Wahga border," Shah was quoted as saying in the Dawn.

The Pakistani delegation's visit came after India's Commissioner for Indus Waters Pradeep Kumar Saxena gave a nod for inspection of Indian hydro-power projects on Chenab basin from January 28 to January 31, earlier this month, it said.

India had scheduled inspection of the projects by Pakistani experts first in September and then in October. But, the visit was postponed due the Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir and then winter session of Indian Parliament, the report said.

The delegation would return to Pakistan on February 1, it added.

India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.

The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects' sites and critical river headworks.

Under the provisions of the Treaty, waters of the eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas and Ravi - had ben allocated to India and the western rivers - the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - to Pakistan, except for certain non-consumptive uses for India.

The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers. However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty. PTI SMJ SMJ

SMJ(Eds: Updating with news of Monday's Cabinet meet deferment)

New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) The Union Cabinet is expected to soon approve a relief package for farmers grappling with falling prices of their crops and to tackle distress in the farm sector, according to sources.

The likely relief package is seen as an attempt to assuage the farming community's discontent ahead of the general elections.

"...the agriculture ministry's proposal on addressing income deficit syndrome of small and marginal farmers is on the agenda (at the Cabinet meeting)," a source said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has deferred its meeting which was scheduled for Monday, as per sources.

The agriculture ministry has recommended several options to provide both short and long-term solutions to address agrarian distress. However, a final call will be taken in the Cabinet meeting as a huge cost is involved, they said.

One of the options proposed is waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time, costing an additional Rs 15,000 crore to the exchequer.

There is also a proposal to completely waive premium for taking insurance policy for food crops. The Centre is also evaluating the scheme followed by the Telangana and Odisha governments wherein a fixed amount is transferred directly into the bank account of farmers, the sources further said.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had recently indicated that the government would announce an agriculture package before the 2019-20 budget. The NDA government will present an interim budget on February 1.

Experts said the government has less time to implement any new scheme. The measure has to be such that it can be implemented faster to reap the political gains during the elections.

It may be noted that the central government has taken farmers' issues seriously after the ruling BJP was defeated in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the recent state polls, where rural distress was a key factor.

Farmers are in distress owing to fall in prices of most crops in view of bumper crop. PTI LUX ANS MKJNew Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday slammed the CBI for "indiscriminately targeting" some of the bankers, saying the agency has received "ultimate certificate" on its action from Union minister Arun Jaitley, who had criticised it.

In a series of tweets, the former finance and home minister said he was glad that Jaitley's conscience and legal acumen have finally stirred to condemn the "indiscriminate targeting of eminent bankers", in cases where the allegations are about thousands of crores of rupees.

"The CBI has received the ultimate certificate from the one who has the best ring-side seat, the Finance Minister (on leave): 'Adventurism and megalomania have overtaken investigators'!," he said.

Chidambaram said the government was in slumber when there was "indiscriminate targeting" of distinguished IAS officers and others, in cases where the allegations are about small sums of money, in an apparent reference to the Aircel-Maxis case in which a number of IAS officers have been named in the chargesheet.

Chidambaram has also been named as accused by the CBI in the case.

"'What cause are we serving or actually hurting?' asks the FM. He knows the answer. The cause of justice," he said.

The CBI is also probing the alleged role of Chidambaram as finance minister in INX media case and had last week sought the sanction of the central government to prosecute him.

Jaitley has criticised the CBI for planning to question eminent bankers like K V Kamath in the Chanda Kochhar case of alleged cheating and fraud in the ICICI-Videocon loan case.

Jaitley, in a write-up on Facebook, had slammed the CBI for naming the "who's who of the banking industry" without concentrating on the "bull's eye" in the case.

He had written a day after the agency filed an FIR against Kochhar and others in the ICICI case: "There is a fundamental difference between investigative adventurism and professional investigation."

Jaitley, who was holding the charge of finance ministry but is now on leave as he is away in the US for treatment, had said while adventurism leads to media leaks, ruins reputations and eventually invites strictures and not convictions, professional investigation targets the real accused on the basis of actual and admissible evidence and rules out fanciful presumptions.

"One of the reasons why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtake our investigators and professionalism takes the back seat," Jaitley wrote.

On Thursday, the CBI filed an FIR against former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and industrialist V N Dhoot in a Rs 3,250-crore loan involving the Videocon Group and the ICICI Bank. PTI ACB ABH

ABHNew Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) The cabinet on Monday is likely to approve a package for farmers to boost their income and address distress in the farm sector, sources said, adding that the move will come ahead of the general elections.

"The cabinet meeting is scheduled tomorrow (Monday) and the agriculture ministry's proposal on addressing income deficit syndrome of small and marginal farmers is on the agenda," a highly placed source said.

The agriculture ministry has recommended several options to provide both short and long term solutions to address agrarian distress. However, a final call will be taken in the cabinet meeting as a huge cost is involved, the sources said.

One of the options proposed is waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time, costing an additional 15,000 crore to the exchequer, the sources stated.

There is also a proposal to completely waive premium for taking insurance policy for food crops. The centre is also evaluating the scheme followed by the Telangana and Odisha governments wherein a fixed amount is transferred directly into the bank account of farmers, the sources added.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had recently indicated that the government would announce an agriculture package before the 2019-20 Budget, to be presented on February 1.

Experts said the government has less time to implement any new scheme. The measure has to be such that it can be implemented faster to reap the political gains during the election.

It may be noted that the central government has taken farmers' issues seriously after the ruling BJP was defeated in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the recent state polls, where rural distress was a key factor.

Farmers are in distress owing to fall in prices of most crops in view of bumper crop. PTI LUX

ANSIt was a day of protests on the ground and hashtag wars on social media in Tamil Nadu as Prime minister Narendra Modi landed in Madurai to lay the foundation stone for the All India Medical Sciences Institute (AIIMS).

While the MDMK cadres led by their leader Vaiko was on the ground holding black flags and hoardings in protest, Twitteratti were busy trending four hashtags for and against Modi. The MDMK cadres raised slogans against the prime minister, saying, Go Back Modi. Apart from the MDMK, other Tamil Nationalist movements made known their protest. The protesters were seen raising slogans against Modi for betraying the interests of the state.

Meanwhile four hashtags#GoBackModi, #GoBackSaddistModi, #MaduraiThanksModi and #TNWelcomesModi were seen trending on Twitter. It is for the second time, in the last one year, the state is throwing its anger and protests against Modi and the BJP. The anger seems to have stemmed out of the Centre's alleged inefficiency in extending help during the Gaja cyclone, during the killings in Thoothukudi in a police firing when people protested against Sterlite smelter, and during protests against the construction of a dam across Mekadattu in Karnataka.

Gaja had wreaked major havoc in Tamil Nadu in November last year and the state demanded over Rs 14,000 crores to restore and rehabilitate the affected districts. However, the Centre extended only around Rs 1,200 crores which was insufficient to help more than 3 lakh people rendered homeless.

Modi on Sunday laid the foundation for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and also inaugurated the super specialty blocks of Rajaji Medical College (Madurai), Thanjavur Medical College (Thanjavur) and Tirunelveli Medical College (Tirunelveli) as a part of upgradation projects of government medical colleges.

Modi's visit has sparked war on Twitter. Meanwhile welcoming Modi, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palansami said Tamil Nadu stands ahead in healthcare.A village in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, which has witnessed a string of farmer suicides over years, has resolved to boycott upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly polls unless various demands of locals, including compensation to agriculturists for low crop yield, are met by the government.

A resolution to this effect was adopted during a Gram Sabha meeting by residents of Wagda Izara village in Mahagaon tehsil on Republic Day.

The resolution copy has already been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a local leader said Sunday.

The main demands included direct credit of PM's Crop Insurance Scheme amount into bank accounts of farmers, and setting up fodder store rooms for cattle in view of drought, said farmer leader Manish Jadhav.

The villagers also demanded formation of a separate Vidarbha state comprising various districts in the east Maharashtra region.

"The gram sabha also proposed that farmers who have recorded lesser soybean and cotton crop yields due to scanty rainfall, be paid a compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare," he said.

The meeting, held under village sarpanch Chhaya Khandare, also extended its support to the proposed stir of farmers to be launched from Punatamba village in western Maharashtra's Ahmadnagar district.

"We have been facing an acute drinking water crisis every year. We want it resolved permanently through the Centrally-sponsored water supply schemes," the Sarpanch said.

She also demanded a complete crop loan waiver and fresh credit for farmers.

The meeting was attended by a large number of villagers wherein it was resolved that the future polls will be boycotted if our demands are not met, Jadhav said.

The village, with population of around 1500, falls under Umarkhed (SC) assembly constituency, currently represented by the ruling BJP. It falls under Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency, represented by the Congress.The CBI has transferred the investigating officer in the ICICI Bank case as its "discreet inquiry" suggested his role in leaking information related to searches, officials said Sunday.

Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra was transferred to Ranchi, a day after filing an FIR in the case against former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group MD Venugopal Dhoot on January 22, they said.

The agency had carried out searches at multiple locations after the charge of the case was given to new investigating officer Mohit Gupta, they said.

Justifying the transfer, the CBI pinned the blame on Mishra for keeping the preliminary enquiry pending without any reasons, they said.

The CBI did not issue any formal statement in this regard.

"ICICI Bank case is one of the very important cases that was pending without progress," one of the officials said.

The official said after review some time ago, the preliminary enquiry wad sped up and was converted into a regular case.

Immediately after the registration of the case, the searches were proposed to be conducted, they said.

"However, it was suspected that there was a possibility of information regarding searches being leaked," the official claimed.

"A discreet inquiry was conducted and role of Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra was strongly suspected. Hence he has been transferred pending detailed inquiry in the matter, being serious," he said.

The officials alleged role of Mishra and others, if any, in "keeping the PE pending" is also being looked into.

Meanwhile, the agency did not respond to question if Mishra was suspected of leaking the information why was he allowed to file the FIR when agency knew that he was delaying the preliminary enquiry.

The agency also did not respond to question which officer had cleared the FIR.

The agency had carried out searches at the offices of Videocon Group in Mumbai and Nupower Renewables and Supreme Powers, both controlled by Chanda Kochhar's husband, on January 24.

It is alleged that during the tenure of Chanda Kochhar six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore were cleared for Videocon Group and its associated companies in which in two cases she herself was on the sanctioning committees.

In its FIR, the CBI has also named several top honchos of banking industry including the present CEO of ICICI Bank Sandeep Baxi alleging that they were also members of the sanctioning committees whose role needs investigation.

Banking doyen and Chairman of New Development Bank K V Kamath,Goldman Sachs India chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee, Standard Chartered Bank CEO Zarin Daruwala, Tata Capital head Rajiv Sabharwal and Tata Capital senior advisor Homi Khusrokhan need to be investigated, according to the FIR.

Their names were included by the agency in the text of the FIR after a year-long preliminary enquiry.

The action attract strong comments from former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who advised the agency against "adventurism".

"Sitting thousands of kilometres away, when I read the list of potential targets in the ICICI case, the thought that crossed my mind was again the same - instead of focusing primarily on the target, is a journey to nowhere (or everywhere) being undertaken? If we include the entire who's who of the banking industry with or without evidence what cause are we serving or actually hurting."

Jaitley, who was finance minister of India till last week and had to temporarily hand over the charge to his fellow minister Piyush Goyal for the duration of his indisposition, advised the investigators "Follow the advice of Arjun in the Mahabharat Just concentrate on the bull's eye."Much has been written about the high cost of building a wall along our southern boarder. I put the was in quotes because it does not necessarily mean a concrete structure, but could be a metal barrier, fence, electronic device, etc.  just something which is a barrier to unauthorized entry. President Trump has requested $5.7 billion for such a barrier.

Trump was elected largely on two promises: that he would improve our economy, which he did; and that he would erect a barrier on our southern boarder to stem the influx of illegal immigrants. Most of his supporters still want to see such a barrier, but maybe we should look at the cost of NOT constructing it.VANCOUVEROn a chilly January afternoon, Mugsy zipped across a green lawn like a whitish-brown arrow playing catch.

Her owner, Sam Taylor, a resident of Burnaby, B.C., threw a brown, stuffed hedgehog and the seven-month-old pup chased it, tail wagging, just like any other dog would.

But Mugsy is not like any other dog.

She looks like Voldemort but has the heart of Harry Potter and his friends, said Taylor with a laugh, as she cuddled the pup.

On Feb. 12, Mugsy will undergo the third surgery of her tiny life to repair damage from acid that was thrown onto her.

This surgery, to take place in Vancouver, will create nostril openings and use the tip of her ear to replace the melted bone and skin on the top of her nose, Taylor said.

The dog will be temporarily blind as the ear is folded over her face and attached over her nose so a blood supply forms from the ear onto the nose, she said, adding that the ear acts as a graft.

The next surgery will attach stents in place of nostrils and unfold the ear, she said.

The two surgeries are expected to cost up to $7,000.

Its no guarantee but (the doctor) seemed optimistic, Taylor said, smoothing the dogs left ear, which will be used to create the bridge of her nose.

Mugsy was born in Iran, and when she was 40 days old somebody threw acidic cleaner on her face as she played outside. Most of the pups face was melted  including her lip, right eye and right ear. Although her Iranian family loved her, they could not afford all the treatment that Mugsy would need, so they decided to put her down.

But at veterinarians office in Iran, a volunteer from Persian Paws Rescue and Loved At Last Dog Rescue intervened. She also offered to pay for the Maltese-Japanese spitz mixs eye removal, which was causing the pup the most pain.

The volunteer was worried about an infection in the dogs nasal cavity and decided that the best chance for her survival would be if she was adopted by someone in North America who could afford the care, Taylor said.

Last fall, Taylor, who works as a lab assistant at a hospital in downtown Vancouver, was browsing Loved At Last Dog Rescue, which finds homes for local and international stray dogs.

She was looking to make a donation on the site when she saw a blurred-out image that read, graphic injury.

I thought it cant be that bad, she said.

She clicked.

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It was very, very graphic. I read her story and just and felt, Oh I really want to help this dog.

She thought it over for about an hour  just a donation wouldnt help because the dog needed surgery not available in Tehran  and then asked her roommate, who agreed to having a dog in the house.

And I showed her a picture, and she said, Whoa, OK.

After filling out an application in late October, Taylor waited for about two months for Mugsy. A family visiting Vancouver brought Mugsy over with them, she said, noting that they had brought over other dogs before.

When Mugsy arrived she was very scared, Taylor said. She barked and howled and didnt come out of her travelling kennel for about an hour.

And even after she came out, she didnt eat or drink much.

But now shes very spoiled, Taylor said, holding Mugsy close. She gets squash and brown rice and sweet potato in her food. Shes pretty well-loved.

Mugsy was called Hapoochi in Iran, which means tiny puppy, but Taylor said she wasnt pronouncing the name right so her roommate came up with the name Mugsy.

She does have the mug for it, she said, with a chuckle.

Asked why she adopted a dog from another country when there a lot of dogs in Canada that need help, Taylor said it is incidental that Mugsy is from Iran.

Once she saw Mugsy on the website, she said she couldnt stop thinking about her.

I dont think animals have boundaries and borders. They dont have a nationality, Taylor said. I can understand if people think its a bit corny.

Read more about:Canada unlikely U.S. ally in backing Venezuela coup: Walkom, Jan. 25

Excellent article. Why does Canada have to get involved?

The U.S. has created instability, chaos and destruction in this region and the Middle East. We did not learn a lesson from the U.S. and the West from illegal wars in Iraq, Lybia and Syria resulting in the destruction, millions killed, refugees the U.S. doesnt want to accept.

We should have never involved ourselves in Venezuelans internal affairs, except to help its people economically.

Rafat Khan, Mississauga

Read more about:Anyone wanting to support Eskasoni, Nova Scotia, as it deals with the tragic suicide crisis may be interested to know that like cities, towns and most Indigenous communities, Eskasoni is a qualified donee under the Income Tax Act.

Donations made to it are eligible for a tax receipt the same as gifts made to registered charities.

The band office address is 63 Mini Mall Dr., Eskasoni, N.S., B0A 1J0. Other communities can be supported directly as well.

Richard Bridge, Pentz, N.S.

Read more about:The long-awaited revitalization of Ontario Place doesnt have to start with the roar of bulldozers demolishing whats already there.

In fact, it most decidedly shouldnt.

Instead, the rejuvenation of the once-bustling lakeside park should start with a plan that first and foremost preserves the newly renovated Cinesphere and iconic pavilion pods.

They are after all, the heart of the site designed by famed architect Eberhard Zeidler.

Mayor John Tory, urban planners, architects and many Torontonians are united in that view. But it seems that preserving the landmark structures has already been ruled out by the Ford government, not surprisingly without any public consultation.

Indeed, Tourism Minister Michael Tibollos recent call to developers for proposals to renew Ontario Place specifically includes the pods and Cinesphere as sites open for redevelopment.

Says Toronto architect Michael McClelland: Its like developing Niagara Falls and saying, You dont have to keep the falls.

Its important to realize that the buildings are architecturally significant, even if theyre not as old as those in the Distillery District or as historically important as Old City Hall or Queens Park.

Cinesphere, for example, was the first permanent IMAX theatre in the world. And the iconic pavilion pods were futuristically designed to look as if theyre floating over the site. Theyre part of our history.

True, the park has been shamefully neglected in recent years. Much of it is rundown and needs a lot of work.

But it shouldnt be treated simply as a demolition site.

Sadly, though, it sounds like that could well happen. While Ontario Place is identified under the Ontario Heritage Act as a provincially significant heritage property, its not clear that would stop the Ford government from allowing the buildings to be torn down.

Alarm bells have been ringing since Jim Ginou, a friend of Premier Doug Ford who is the newly named chair of the board of Ontario Place, said nothing on the site can be saved.

He added, rather ominously, that that means Ontario Place can be rebuilt in any way that Ford wants it to be rebuilt.

And what is the premiers vision? So far it seems pretty much on track with the Disneyland-ish one he envisioned for the Port Lands back in 2011 when he was a city councillor. That called for the worlds biggest Ferris wheel, a megamall and casino.

Now, to almost no ones surprise, the call for new proposals suggests shopping venues  which sounds an awful lot like code for Fords megamall idea.

And, although city council voted against the idea of a waterfront gambling venue in 2013, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli recently said the government wont close the door on the possibility of putting a casino on the site.

Further, if anyone thought Ginou was speaking out of turn, that notion died after QP Briefing reported this week on a closed-door meeting Tibollo held with tourism industry representatives. He echoed Ginous remarks and resurrected another of Fords old ideas for the Port Lands: building a monorail.

That raises fears that the province is prepared to deep-six the long-planned Waterfront LRT that will serve several burgeoning neighbourhoods like Liberty Village and Cityplace.

What can the city do? Apparently nothing. The lands are provincially owned.

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This is all part of a disturbing trend coming from the PC government. They dont appear to believe its necessary to consult with the public before giving the go-ahead to whatever Ford dreams up with developers. Up until now, says city councillor Joe Cressy, the conversation reeks of a backroom deal.

Ontario Place used to be a vital part of Torontos waterfront. In their heyday, the Cinesphere and pods helped to attract three million visitors a year to the park.

Its good the province wants to breathe new life into the site. But the last thing it should do is to start by trashing whats already there.

Read more about:Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 27)  With the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) ratified after the January plebiscite, the February plebiscite will officially decide which regions will fall under its purview.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that they expect the February 6 plebiscite to be peaceful.

"We look forward to another orderly plebiscite in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato on February 6 even as we await with enthusiasm a favourable result," Panelo said.

He added that President Rodrigo Duterte hopes that the ratified BOL "will commence the process of correcting the historical injustices committed against the Bangsamoro people."

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure the formal establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

"The Office of the President has yet to receive the formal declaration from the Commission on Elections, but once it does it will start the process of constituting the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority that will oversee the interim government of the BARMM. This development requires all of us to work collectively for the success of the new Bangsamoro autonomous government," Galvez said.

Meanwhile, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman congratulated the Bangsamoro people for the peaceful plebiscite conducted last Monday.

"The ARMM leadership believes this is not the end of our quest for self-rule and, therefore, the new Bangsamoro government will live up to its promise of a genuine autonomy. We would like to see the kind of autonomy that makes full use of good governance and will make a positive impact on the lives of the regions constituents," he said.

While Cotabato City and Isabela City had already voted on whether or not they wish to be included in the BARMM last Monday, more regions have yet to weigh in.

READ: Comelec announces ratification of Bangsamoro law

On February 6, the people of Lanao del Norte and several barangays in North Cotabato will vote on their inclusion in the BARMM.KAKE, Alaska - Authorities are searching for a man who is thought to have lived in a home that burned down early Saturday.

KINY News of the North in Juneau reports that a home in the village of Kake was hit by fire about 5 a.m. KINY says firefighters put out the blaze in an hour, but the second floor had collapsed onto the ground floor, making the home inaccessible.

Kake Tribal President Joel Jackson tells KINY that authorities are searching for Loren Jackson Jr., who lives in the home.

Its a sad time right now, Jackson said. Were hoping above hope that he turns up.

Jackson tells KINY that the State Fire Marshal and Alaska State Troopers are investigating the blaze.

Kake is a village of about 500 people in the southeast part of the state.BELGRADE, Serbia - Several thousand people have marched through snow-covered streets in Serbias capital to protest the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic for an eighth week.

The protesters accuse Vucic of stifling hard-won democratic freedoms in the Balkan country that was involved in a series of wars during the 1990s. He denies the accusation.

Braving freezing temperatures, the presidents critics blocked traffic in the centre of Belgrade as they marched by the state TV building and toward the government headquarters on Saturday.

The organizers want Vucic to ease what they say is a tight grip on Serbian media. He is a former extreme nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the European Union.

The protests started after thugs beat up an opposition politician in November.MANILA, Philippines - Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 50 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said that at least 19 people died and 48 were wounded. Police and military reports said the casualties included both troops and civilians.

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armoured carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans, said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead. Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it. The province is home to a rival rebel faction thats opposed to the deal as well as smaller militant cells that not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact. They worry that small numbers of Islamic State-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.

This bomb attack was done in a place of peace and worship, and it comes at a time when we are preparing for another stage of the peace process in Mindanao, said Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Human lives are irreplaceable, he added, calling on Jolo residents to co-operate with authorities to find the perpetrators of this atrocity.

Security officials were looking at different threat groups and they still cant say if this has something to do with the just concluded plebiscite, Albayalde, the national police chief, told ABS-CBN TV network.

Aside from the small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group, other militant groups in Sulu include a small band of young jihadis aligned with the Islamic State group, which has also carried out assaults, including ransom kidnappings and beheadings.

Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding at least five hostages  a Dutch national, two Malaysians, an Indonesian and a Filipino  in their jungle bases mostly near Sulus Patikul town, not far from Jolo.

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Government forces have pressed on sporadic offensives to crush the militants, including those in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people. A few thousand Catholics live mostly in the capital of Jolo.

The cathedral is located in Jolo town centre in front of a square and near a budget hotel, a bank and commercial stores as well as a public market.CARACAS, Venezuela - Nicolas Maduros government backtracked Saturday from its order for U.S. Embassy personnel to leave Venezuela, moving to defuse tensions with Washington just hours after international diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special U.N. Security Council meeting on the South American countrys crisis.

The socialist president broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuelas interim president, a move that Maduro called a vile coup attempt.

His order gave U.S. diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldnt obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuelas legitimate president. That set the stage for a potential showdown at the hilltop U.S. Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuelas capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduros government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with the Trump administration on setting up a U.S. interests office in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States. The U.S. and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan governments account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

That is true diplomacy, Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, critics and supporters of Maduros government faced off at the U.N. Security Council, reflecting the worlds deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country.

During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuelas nightmare and support Guaido. He told the council it is time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduros illegitimate mafia state.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying to engineer a coup against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesnt threaten international peace and security, and he accused extremist opponents of Maduros legitimate government of choosing maximum confrontation, including the artificial creation of a parallel government.

Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next.

Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduros predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuelas opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuelas opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region.

The Security Council, the U.N.s most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Councils five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations  France and Britain  joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days.

The European Unions foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the countrys leadership.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.

Europe is giving us eight days? he asked the council. Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. Its almost childlike.

Arreaza said Venezuela will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order and demanded that someone show him where in Venezuelas constitution says an individual can proclaim himself president.

Guaido says he is acting in accordance with two articles of the constitution that give the National Assembly president the right to hold power temporarily and call new elections.

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While the council debated, a man identifying himself as Venezuelas military attache in Washington posted a video saying he had broken with Maduro and now would report to Guaido.

The armed forces have a fundamental role to play in the restoration of democracy, Col. Jose Luis Silva said in the video, which he said was shot at his office in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, sitting in front of the nations red, blue and yellow flag.

He called on other members of the military to join him in supporting Guaido, saying they need to avoid attacking protesters whose only aim is to feed themselves.

Guaido celebrated Silvas decision to defect.

We welcome him and everyone who with honesty want to follow the constitution and the will of the Venezuelan people, he said on social media after attending a small assembly in Caracas to discuss the oppositions next moves.

Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for U.S. National Security Council, encouraged others to follow Silvas lead to protect constitutional order, not to sustain dictators and repress its own people.

Venezuelas top commanders have pledged loyalty to Maduros government in the days since Guaido declared himself interim leader on grounds that Maduros re-election last year was fraudulent  an allegation supported by the U.S., the European Union and many Latin American nations.

But support for Maduros rule is weaker among the militarys rank and file, whose households are suffering from widespread food shortages and hyperinflation like their civilian counterparts. Last week, a small National Guard unit stole a stockpile of weapons in what it said was an attempt to oust Maduro. The uprising was quelled and 25 guardsmen arrested.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

It also threatens to worsen the countrys economic crisis, as directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the governments sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

___

Associated Press writer Manuel Rueda reported this story in Caracas and AP writer Edith M. Lederer reported from the United Nations.GONZALES, LA.A 21-year-old man suspected of killing his parents and three other people  including a girl he was dating  was arrested Sunday when he drove up with a gun to his grandmothers house in Virginia, a sheriff said.

On Saturday, Dakota Theriot shot and killed three people  the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father  in Louisianas Livingston Parish before taking her fathers pickup truck, driving to neighbouring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents, according to authorities.

Theriots grandmother in Warsaw, Virginia, had checked into a hotel Saturday night, fearing he might show up there, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B. Smith said in a phone interview. The woman asked authorities to check her house Sunday morning to ensure it was safe before she returned.

While deputies were there, Smith said, Theriot drove up with a firearm pointed out the window of a pickup. A sheriffs statement said deputies sought cover and challenged Theriot, who then dropped the gun and was arrested without incident. Smith said the pickup Theriot drove apparently was the one taken in Louisiana.

In Louisiana, at a trailer where the suspects parents lived, drops of blood trailed out to the front steps from the bedroom where Keith and Elizabeth Theriot were shot. In the bedroom, blood-soaked pillows were strewn on a bed, and patches of what appeared to be dried blood were on the floor. Dozens of stuffed animals decorated the room.

Read more:

Search on for Louisiana man suspected in 5 deaths

Suspect at large after Louisiana shooting leaves five dead

Kim Mincks and Jacob Chastant also lived in the trailer and were friends with the Theriots. Mincks said she was in the house at the opposite end of the trailer when the shooting happened but added she didnt hear anything. Law enforcement officers came into her room Saturday morning and woke her.

They said something terrible happened here. Get up, get dressed and walk outside,  she recalled them saying.

Mincks and Chastant said Dakota Theriot had struggled with drugs over the years, had violent outbursts, and had recently been kicked out of the trailer.

We know he had a drug problem. He got kicked out last Monday because of the drug problem. His dad kicked him out of here. He did have a violent streak, Mincks said.

Theriot will be brought back to Ascension Parish to be booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons, said a statement by Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre and Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard.

Authorities have identified the victims in Livingston Parish as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20. Ard said Summer Ernest and Dakota Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family for a few weeks.

Authorities said earlier that Keith Theriot survived the shooting long enough to let them know who shot him. According to Webre, officials got a dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act.

Mincks and Chastant only returned to the trailer Sunday morning, worried Dakota Theriot might come back.

Mincks said shed known Keith and Elizabeth Theriot for about two years and described them as wonderful people. Keith Theriot was a disabled veteran who played a wicked guitar, and Elizabeth Theriot worked at a nearby Dollar General Store, they said. Keith Theriot had four children, all boys, they said.

Give you the shirt off their back. They loved everybody. Never met a stranger. Loved each other. Just a happy couple, she said.

But the relationship between Dakota Theriot and his parents, especially his father, was troubled. She and Chastant described an incident in which Chastant had to pull Dakota Theriot off his parents during a physical altercation.

Minks said Dakota Theriot and his mother seemed much closer. Theyd laugh and joke and tell each other I love you. But even that relationship had problems. Mincks and Chastant said at one point Dakota Theriot pulled a gun on his mother who called Chastant for help.

I think just the drugs took over, Mincks said.

Chastant and Mincks said Dakota Theriot had just met Summer Ernest about three weeks ago at Chastants sisters funeral. Summer Ernest was there as a friend to Jacob Chastants 20-year-old daughter, Sierra.

Sierra said she warned her friend to stay away from Dakota, calling him trouble. But she never expected anything like what unfolded Saturday.

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Summer Ernest had an outgoing personality and was planning to return soon to college, Sierra said.

She was bubbly, always friendly ... Shes just a great person, she said.

If you asked me what his motive was ... I dont know what it would be, she said. Its just unbelievable.WARSAW, POLANDThe world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

As survivors of Auschwitz marked the 74th anniversary of the notorious Nazi death camps liberation, a far-right activist who served time in prison for burning an effigy of a Jew placed a wreath there with about 50 other Polish nationalists to protest the official observances.

Piotr Rybak said the group opposes the annual ceremony at Auschwitz to mark the camps liberation by the Soviet army, the event that gave rise to the international Jan. 27 remembrance. Rybak claimed it glorifies the 1 million Jewish victims killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death complex and discounts the 70,000 Poles killed there.

Its time to fight against Jewry and free Poland from them! Rybak said as he marched to the site, according to a report by Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza on its website.

Rybaks claim is incorrect. The ceremony at the state-run memorial site paid homage Sunday, as it does every year, to all of the camps victims, both Jews and gentiles, while Christian and Jewish religious leaders recited a prayer in unison together. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also stressed that the Third Reich targeted Poles as well as Jews.

Read more:

Opinion | My history surviving the Holocaust is a legacy for future generations

Opinion | Complexities of being Jewish in our times

Since last years observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that todays threats do not come solely from the fringe.

In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are travelling the road to authoritarianism, said Ira Forman, the groups senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust.

Former Auschwitz prisoners placed flowers early Sunday at an execution wall at Auschwitz, paying homage before the arrival of the nationalists at the same spot. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter P, the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

Early in the Second World War, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces. Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in an op-ed in the weekly Welt am Sonntag that across Europe populists are propagating nationalism and far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust.

We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy, Maas wrote.

Over the past year, Germany has seen a rising number of often violent attacks against Jews carried out by neo-Nazis and Muslims, prompting the government to appoint a commissioner against anti-Semitism and to start funding a national registration office for anti-Semitic hate crimes.

The appearance by nationalists at Auschwitz comes amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

However recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during the Second World War is declining generally.

A new study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52 per cent of millennials in Canada cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62 per cent of millennials did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Its findings were similar to a similar study carried out a year before in the United States.

In Britain, a new poll by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place.

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The poll of more than 2,000 people released Sunday also found that nearly two-thirds of those polled either did not know how many Jews had been murdered or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust.

Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking, chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said.

Israels Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said in its Global anti-Semitism Report released Sunday that 13 Jews were murdered in fatal attacks in 2018, marking the highest number of Jews murdered since a wave of attacks on Argentinian Jews in the 1990s.

The report found that around 70 per cent of anti-Jewish attacks were anti-Israel in nature and that most of the attacks were led by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

The United Nations recognized Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.

Czarek Sokolowski in Oswiecim, Poland, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Gregory Katz in London and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Read more about:Toronto police are searching for three suspects after a food delivery driver was robbed and carjacked at gunpoint on Saturday night in the Fairbank area.

Const. David Hopkinson said officers responded to a call after 10:30 p.m. in the area of Rogers and Caledonia Rds. for reports of a carjacking.

The driver was robbed by three suspects carrying at least one firearm, said Hopkinson. The driver was not injured during the robbery.

It is alleged that the suspects took cash, a portable debit/credit terminal and the vehicle, which police described as a blue 2006 Honda Accord sedan.

Officers searched the neighbourhood to locate the vehicle.OTTAWADenna Weston was among the first on the scene of a school bus collision that killed her 11-year-old son in Alberta 19 years ago.

It was a Friday in October. Jared, a Grade 6 student, was waiting for his turn to be dropped off. The bus passed right by his family home along Highway 22X, just east of Calgary, to drop off some other students before it was Jareds turn.

But a pickup truck collided into the side of the bus with Jared and two other children aboard. When Weston and her neighbours arrived on the scene, one boy was partially out one of the side windows, a girl had exited the bus and her son was still inside.

The mother and her neighbours administered CPR until an air ambulance arrived, but Jared died on route to the hospital. The other two children survived their injuries.

It was a long haul. And every time something happens, even the (Humboldt) Broncos accident, everything comes back, Weston said in an interview this week.

Theres not a day that you dont think about it.

Weston has since acquired the complete RCMP accident reconstruction  a document she says she shouldnt have, but that she needed to see to fully understand and cope with the devastating loss of her child.

It clearly stated: had Jared been wearing a seatbelt, he would have lived, Weston said.

Weston is among many parents, as well as bus drivers and other concerned citizens, calling for the federal government to make seatbelts mandatory in Canadian school buses.

They were hoping  and, indeed, many were expecting  to hear Transport Minister Marc Garneau announce this would finally happen last week when he addressed the media on the subject of school buses during a meeting of provincial transport ministers in Montreal.

Instead, he announced a task force to look at the possibility of retrofitting school buses with seatbelts. It will bring together provinces, territories, school boards and school bus manufacturers to look at the implications of mandating the compulsory wearing of seatbelts, Garneau said Jan. 21.

The task force will look at vehicle standards and operations, both inside and outside the bus, with an emphasis on seatbelts, Simon Rivet, a senior media adviser with Transport Canada said in a statement.

This work involves expanding our evidence base, such as looking at fleet composition across Canada.

Pilot projects will also be explored as a way to help Transport Canada develop guidelines to assist school bus operators across Canada to make sure that seatbelts, when installed on school buses, are always worn properly by all occupants, Rivet added.

But the idea of installing seatbelts in school buses has been met with some opposition.

Alex Bugeya of the Ontario School Bus Association says his organization welcomes the work of the task force, but has written to Garneau to stress that industry should be part of the discussions.

Its a very complex issue, Bugeya said.

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In Ontario, a driver is responsible for ensuring anyone under age 16 is wearing a seatbelt if one is present.

How does that dynamic work when were dealing with a 72-passenger vehicle? Are we looking at the need for bus monitors? Bugeya said, adding that evacuation procedures, loading times and route procedures are also important to consider.

And then theres cost. Retrofitting older buses with seatbelts could require new seats, new anchorage requirements and other expensive structural adjustments.

Its not something were opposed to exploring. I think its a discussion that should take place, but it is something that has to happen in conjunction with a decision to mandate seatbelts.

But Gary Lillico, a school bus driver in British Columbia, believes there have been enough studies done on this issue, and that more action is needed.

He pointed to a 2010 report, uncovered by a CBC investigation in October 2018, in which a researcher at Transport Canada concluded current compartmentalization safety features on buses are not enough to stop injuries, particularly in side impacts and rollovers.

Lillico has started a petition on Change.org calling for mandatory school bus seatbelts. It now has more than 50,000 signatures.

But he worries nothing will happen due to governments and school boards concerned about retrofit costs.

What is the price of a life? he said.

In Alberta, where she has to drive by the intersection where her son was killed every day, Weston says she is upset this issue has been raised for many years, and yet still school buses dont have seatbelts.

Its frustrating that nothing has been done. And how many kids have died since?

Read more about:Will Simu Liu be Hollywoods next romantic leading man?

The Canadian star of Kims Convenience is certainly talented. And it doesnt hurt that he is blessed with an abundance of self-confidence, including a propensity to take his shirt off in selfies, endearing him to his fan base. But the odds are against him.

Asian men specifically have not been portrayed as the leading man or as the sex symbol, and thats absurd, Liu says in an interview.

Absurd yes. But the reality is that nerds like Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles has cast a long shadow. For South Asians, the Simpsons character Apu was the leading Indian on television for decades. Asian males have been portrayed as Kung Fu assassins, lovable losers, effeminate idiots, but rarely the leading man.

The impact has been real. A recent Columbia University study estimates that if you took two males, one Asian and one white of equal handsomeness the Asian male would have to earn $247,000 more (about $330,000 Canadian or about a Ferrari per year) to equal the white male in attractiveness. Other studies have shown that Black females and Asian males are deemed the most unattractive partners on dating sites.

And a USC Annenberg study found that of the 100 highest grossing films of 2014, Asians represented 5.3 per cent of speaking characters and that Asian men were the least sexualized of all races.

Much of this has to do with how media shape our perceptions. Asian females are portrayed as demure, attentive and sexualized in film and television, so they are deemed attractive. Asian males have historically  think Han Lee from 2 Broke Girls or Mr. Chow from The Hangover movies  been portrayed as something far less than masculine.

But in a post-Crazy Rich Asians world, could this year be a tipping point?

Its easy to internalize all this and say, Well, Im s--t, says Liu bluntly. But I think its OK to embrace your inner greatness. None of that should affect your self-worth. But I think this is the year things change. You have (Crazy Rich Asians star) Henry Golding on the cover of GQ or playing Blake Livelys husband in A Simple Favor. Race in this day and age shouldnt be a detriment.

Thats true. Whats also true is that progress is never a straight line. When I interviewed Korean-American actor John Cho at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2014, he was cast in an ABC sitcom called Selfie, a kind of modern day remake of Pygmalion in which he played the romantic lead. I asked him what he thought of an Asian male in that role.

I would call this revolutionary, he said, still taking in the occasion. Its certainly a personal revolution for me.

The sitcom didnt get renewed for a second season. And it would take another four years before Cho would be cast in another leading role in the Sony thriller Searching. His face would also become part of a social movement with the hashtag #StarringJohnCho photoshopped on movie posters asking why more Asian men werent being represented in media.

But the failure of Selfie may have led indirectly to Kelvin Yu playing an unfamiliar role for an Asian in television: that of the hunk in Aziz Ansaris Master of None, which debuted in 2015.

If youre Channing Tatum there are five roles for you in every film, he told me in Los Angeles. But for people of colour there are far less. You have to make those roles  this is the first time Ive been given a part by a Taiwanese American writer for a Taiwanese American actor  series co-creator Alan Yang, who picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Writing along with Ansari.

So progress has been choppy. But John Cho led to Kelvin Yu, which led to Henry Golding and now perhaps to Simu Liu.

Some honourable mentions along the way should include Steven Yeun as a zombie fighter and fully formed husband in The Walking Dead, and Daniel Wus heroic performance in Into The Badlands.

Apart from Ansari (who is now toxic as romantic leading man material after an epic bad date story) there is also a glaring lack of any meaningful South Asian representation  although comic Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act) deserves a starring vehicle.

If things are to change, it will come with the next generation of actors such as Liu, who is already on the Hollywood radar.

Or perhaps it is, as Hawaii Five-0s Daniel Dae Kim once told me, for people of colour to create their own stories so we dont perpetuate the cycle or become victims in our own industry.

Liu, meanwhile, took the traditional route of many Asians, studying finance at the University of Western Ontario and getting a job in finance on Bay Street. He was eventually laid off, which gave him the push to pursue acting.

We come from a generation where it wasnt acceptable to pursue a career in arts, says Liu. It took getting laid off to even dare to dream.

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Culturally, Asians are taught that the nail that stands out gets hammered down. In other words, dont brag. But a little self-promotional swagger  something that Liu has in spades  doesnt hurt in the TV business. In fact, taking off his shirt ends up becoming a kind of political statement in itself.

Growing up I never saw my race as a detriment, says Liu, who was born in Harbin, China, but immigrated to Canada at the age of 5.

Its such a weird place to be in right now. When I go to the mall, you might get this flash of recognition or a giggle or two. And thats refreshing, especially happening to someone who looks like me. So I know things are changing. I feel it personally. Media is changing. The world is changing.TORONTO - When Uber chose Toronto for the global debut of its Eats service in December 2015, Faye Pang recalls the tech giant had just 10 employees taking up a small space in the ride-hailing companys office.

As the delivery service progressed from its initial offering of a handful of local lunch specials to a vast array of dishes around the globe, the growing headcount forced it to hold meetings in movie theatres and eventually move out of Ubers headquarters into its own office in Scotiabank Plaza in the citys financial district.

According to some of the most influential members of the now 150-strong Uber Eats Canada team, that growth has no end in sight.

Delivery in general is really underpenetrated in Canada, relative to other countries globally, said Pang, Uber Eats Canadas head of restaurant operations, in an interview. As big as we think Uber Eats is today, there is still a lot of room to grow.

The data appears to support her outlook. According to Ipsos Foodservice Monitor research, delivery accounted for eight per cent of sales for quick service restaurants and six per cent of full-service restaurants sales in Canada for the first quarter of 2018.

Its not just stats like those Uber Eats has to contend with on its path to growth. Hostile city councils, fee-averse mom-and-pop restaurants, far-flung suburban markets and fierce competition from rivals including Foodora and SkipTheDishes present formidable obstacles, even for a high-profile brand such as Uber.

And Uber Eats has still yet to push into potentially lucrative food offerings beyond restaurants, such as meal kits, restaurant supplies, catering and groceries.

Despite a sprinkling of job postings for roles in its new Toronto grocery team, theres been no launch yet and the brand has said little about what that service might look like.

It has revealed a few hints in job postings. The team will build a brand new product offering, which will fundamentally evolve how people purchase their groceries and chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi has said that it would be magical to deliver food in 30 minutes or less and that grocery is an adjacency.

The head of Uber Eats Canada, Dan Park, said its too early to say if it is looking for a grocery chain to partner with or plans to source and sell its own food.

Like on-demand prepared food, grocery is a huge business and there is huge potential there, he said. We envision Uber Eats being a platform where you can get everything and anything you want at a touch of a button, when it comes to eating.

He admitted his team has looked at the potential for subscription services for customers repeatedly making Uber Eats orders, but wouldnt share more around the possibility of such an offering coming to the platform.

Have your say

For now, Park, Pang and Uber Eats Canada sales manager Kristy Bates are content with focusing on how to get more restaurants and customers on the platform and to get existing partners to use it even more.

Bates said the biggest difficulty is educating restaurants about how the service works and convincing them that the 30 per cent fee is worth it when many are already being squeezed by minimum wage increases, lower margins and higher food costs. Some have complained they cant use the platform and still be profitable.

To ease their concerns, Uber Eats points to statistics about incremental sales from the 10,000 restaurants that have engaged the service.

Uber is already seeing restaurants use the data in innovative ways that go beyond figuring out what menu items are most popular.

There was a restaurant in North America that was getting some feedback on their risotto from our restaurant management tool (that shares data with restaurants) and realized that the declining ratings were because the chef had changed the arborio rice that they were using without letting the owner now, said Pang.

In Canada, we had a virtual restaurant on the platform, French Takos, that actually ended up switching to brick-and-mortar because it was so much more successful.

On the consumer side, Park said there are still suburban markets to serve and customers who havent downloaded the app.

Plus, Uber Eats in Canada is dealing with a market that is still relatively new to food delivery.

In most peoples minds, delivery is something that people do on a Friday night when they dont want to cook, he said.

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But Park said the company is seeing more orders for breakfast, lunch or dinner or late night snacks, as well as deliveries to hockey arenas, parks, birthday parties and schools.

I think there is room to grow everywhere, he said. This business is only three years old and we are just starting out.

Follow @Tara_Deschamps on Twitter.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version included erroneous take-out statistics.TORONTO - Remind.com is claiming a partial victory after waging a social media campaign designed to persuade Rogers and Bell to reverse a fee increase that indirectly affected a free two-way texting service for teachers, students and parents.

The San Franciso-based company had warned it wouldnt be able to provide the free texting version of its service to its Canadian users who have wireless plans with Rogers, Bell, or their respective subsidiaries.

Remind said Friday in an email and on Twitter that Bell Canada had informed the company that it will reverse the fee increase but Rogers Communications Inc. hadnt done so.

A spokesman for Bell said in an email to The Canadian Press that it has agreed to an extension of the old fees while the carrier works towards a longer-term business arrangement with Remind.

Rogers didnt immediately comment on the situation.

All the companies have acknowledged that the Remind service can be accessed over a cellular data service, but those may incur carrier fees.

Reminds app has a variety of uses including notifying groups about class assignments, schedules of emergencies as well as two-way communications between individual teachers, students and parents.

Rogers and Bell have said previously they dont have a direct contractual relationship with Remind  which accesses their networks indirectly through two intermediary companies  but they were willing to discuss a compromise.

None of the companies representatives would disclose the per-message fees involved.

But Remind chief executive Brian Grey said in an interview its annual costs would jump from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars and the increase is unsustainable for the company at this stage of its development.

Grey said Remind doesnt use its platform as a method for distributing advertising and its revenue comes from the sale of a large-scale version of the service to schools and districts, a practice launched in January 2017 in the United States.

Longer term, our plan would be to bring that to Canada and other markets. But were just not there yet, Grey said.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:BCE)Firefighters struggle to contain blaze at old Phuket bus station

PHUKET: Firefighters took three hours to ensure that a blaze posed no further threat to nearby buildings in the densely built-up area at the old bus station in Phuket Town this morning (Jan 27).



By Eakkapop Thongtub

Sunday 27 January 2019, 03:41PM

Despite their efforts, some parts of adjoining buildings suffered damaged from the flames. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Firefighters took three hours to contain the blaze this morning (Jan 27). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Firefighters took three hours to contain the blaze this morning (Jan 27). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Firefighters took three hours to contain the blaze this morning (Jan 27). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Firefighters took three hours to contain the blaze this morning (Jan 27). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Fire teams were called to the scene at 8:30am. Arriving soon after to oversee their efforts were Phuket Vice Governor Prakob Wongmaneerung, Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwannaphapana, Maj Manat Wongkeaw of the Phuket City Police along wit Pongsak Siritab, Chief of the Phuket City Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) office.

Firefighters first targeted the second floor, then focused on the surrounding areas to contain the blaze, which was fuelled by flammable materials including thinners and wood stain as the building was used to make hotel furntiure.

Strong winds blowing into the building also hampered firefighters efforts to prevent the fire from spreading.

After three hours of dousing the building, the firefighters continued to soak the site to prevent the fire from flaring back up.

Despite their efforts, some parts of adjoining buildings suffered damaged from the flames.

One of the occupants of the building, Wichai Thongdee, 35, from Chiang Mai, told police that the building was used to make furniture to be installed at a hotel in the Karon area.

He was sleeping on the second floor along with two other men when he woke to someone raising the alarm by shouting, Fire!

He and his co-workers wasted no time and fled the building without taking any property, he said.

The men along with help from their neighbours attempted to put out the fire themselves, but failed and called the fire department.

Lt Col Rachan Panwai of the Phuket City Police said officers were still investigating the scene to determine what started the fire.Students across Oakland County will be staying home on Monday, with schools closed due to the winter weather advisory and expected all-day snoIn this May 23, 2018 file photo, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiles during a picture with guests attending the "Tech for Good" Summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Zuckerbergs latest attempt to explain Facebooks data-sharing practices is notable for its omissions as well as what it plays up and plays down. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, titled The Facts About Facebook, the CEO doubles down on previous talking points while leaving out, for example, a Federal Trade Commission investigation over its privacy practices.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.Pedestrians walk along a snow-covered street Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. Blizzard-like conditions have closed highways and delayed air travel as a winter storm moves through the Midwest. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Central Michigan University art history faculty member Scott de Brestian, along with a group of students, spend five weeks each summer in a small Spanish town to work with artifacts.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. 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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, January 27, 2019 13:09 874 ab327006fac3d4a4e8af45a51b0212f0 1 News health-minister,traditional-healthcare,#health,health,airlangga-university,university Free

The Health Ministry is in full support of a prospective bachelors degree program on traditional health professions at Airlangga University (Unair) in Surabaya, East Java.

As stated by the ministrys traditional health services director, Ina Rosalina Dadan, during a recent visit to Unair, it supported the program given the need for alternative forms of public healthcare services.

For traditional medicine, the university currently has three-year and four-year associate degree programs that were introduced in 2005 and 2014 respectively.

Read also: Tourism and health ministries to develop medical tourism in Indonesia

Additionally, Ina said Unair was ready to offer the program as it already had integrated services at the State University Hospital.

The integrated services provided by Unair Hospital are very good. Hopefully a service that is integrated with traditional health care will make it more popular among the public, Ina said as quoted by kompas.com.

Unair rector Moh. Nasih welcomed the ministrys support and stated that the university would conduct further studies regarding the plan.

We will prepare. If it is a real need among the public, why not [provide it?]. We should also look into the interest level among the students to see whether there are many who are interested in it or not, he said.

Nasih added that it would first establish a study center on the subject prior to forming the program. We will establish a study center for traditional health care. If all is ready, whether this year or next, we will be able to operate the program on traditional health professions. (kes)After seven books in the span of more than a decade, travel blogger Trinity is bidding farewell to The Naked Traveler series with an eighth book.

Since starting her travel blog, naked-traveler.com (a pun on the Indonesian word nekad), in 2005, Trinitys journeys around the world have attracted a loyal following keen to read up on her tell-it-like-it-is stories that were not all that common back in the day.

Now, after The Naked Traveler hasgrown with both writer and readers, Trinity feels ready to move on to the next journey in her life.

Ive been asked the reason [behind ending The Naked Traveler] by a lot of people, and the answer is that because I want to grow, Trinity told members of the media during the launch of The Naked Traveler 8: The Farewell on Jan. 11, coincidentally the same day as Trinitys birthday.

According to Trinity, she would like a fresh start as a writer, even enrolling in writing classes last year, as she felt that she had become complacent after being in her comfort zone for so long.

Another factor is that the industry is not doing so well these days. Bookshops are becoming less common, and the readership is also in decline even though it was not that high to begin with, Trinity explained, citing several projects to gain more readers, such as a movie adaptation starring Maudy Ayunda and millennial-oriented books such as 69 Cara Traveling Gratis (69 Ways to Travel for Free).

After this book [...] I need to take some time to assess which direction I want to go, and truthfully I dont know yet where I want to go.

However, Trinitys fans need not fear, as she promised to keep her blog up and provide constant updates.

Its the origins of The Naked Traveler, and I wouldnt want it to be a betrayal to my longtime readers, Trinity said, adding that she considered the last book in the series to be a see you rather than a goodbye.

In terms of writing, it is quite clear that The Naked Traveler 8: The Farewell feels much more grown up compared to its prequels, covering topics such as trying out online dating in Europe as well as the many travel annoyances one encounters even before boarding a flight.

Im not young anymore, and I dont travel the way I used to, like hitchhiking on a truck or sleeping rough somewhere. People tend to question why my traveling style has changed, so if I wanted to write a new series it would be for a different segment, Trinity said.

A chapter in the book even describes Trinitys trip in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she had to use a walking cane because of a knee problem. Trinity titled the chapter Berkat Luar Biasa (Extraordinary Blessing) as she details an experience she describes as one of the nicest interactions she has had with a stranger throughout all of her travels.

I met an Indonesian family in an airport in Kazakhstan, a country that isnt known to be disabled-friendly. We chatted for a bit, and they even bought me food. When it was time for us to board the plane, the son, who is in his 20s, said to me that I should sit in his place instead, Trinity recalled, noting that her books reminded readers that good people still existed whenever they went solo traveling.

It turned out that his seat was in business class. I declined, but he insisted, saying that I needed the seat more so it wouldnt put too much of a strain on my knees. He ended up taking my place in economy.

After 11 years, Trinity acknowledged the effect The Naked Traveler hashad on its longtime readers, many of whom have been inspired by the series.

It was one of the hardest things Ive had to consider when I decided to end The Naked Traveler series. Many have told me they became bloggers, writers, or even solo travelers, she said.

True to this, The Naked Traveler 8: The Farewell includes a short chapter containing two reader submitted stories, which were selected from an open call from Trinitys blog.

One fan even tagged me on her Instagram Story, which said Mbak, I grew up with your book, from when I was a virgin up until my second marriage, Trinity recalled, noting that she still received fan mail through emails and comments on her social media to this day.

One moment Trinity still remembered vividly was during a meet-and-greet session with a paralyzed fan.

The mother gave him The Naked Traveler books to read, and it was through my books that he knew about the world. The mother even thanked me profusely for it, she said.

When asked about her next plans, Trinity said that her hibernating plans had been put on hold to promote her book, as well as to work on her next book based on her two months writers residency in Peru and Bolivia last year.

As far as traveling goes, I havent made any plans to go anywhere, but I still have my old target of visiting one new country each year. (hdt)The Environment Ministry plans to attract more foreign tourists to visit national parks in fiscal 2019 by arranging wild animal watching tours in cooperation with tourist agencies and other entities. In addition to its focus on nature conservation in the parks, the ministry also intends to enhance tourism from now on.

For that purpose, it will take advantage of about 5 billion in revenue from the International Tourist Tax, which was introduced this month.

The number of foreign visitors to the parks has been increasing year by year. The ministry aims at doubling its figures from around 4.9 million in 2015 to 10 million by 2020.

In the area around Shiretoko National Park in Hokkaido, the number of passengers on sightseeing ships from which they can enjoy watching Stellers sea eagles has increased by eight times to nearly 30,000 in the last 10 years. The birds are very popular among birdwatchers in the United States and Europe. The ships have carried many foreign tourists, so the ministry intends to arrange observation tours featuring birdwatching.

Read also: Japan sees record 30 million-plus foreign visitors in 2018

In the parks, tours focusing on wildlife observation have been limited in number so far. If such tours are realized for observing tancho Japanese cranes in Hokkaidos Kushiro Shitsugen National Park, or Asian black bears in Joshinetsu Kogen National Park, which straddles the borders of Gunma, Niigata and Nagano prefectures, the number of visitors to the parks can be expected to rise.

The ministry plans to improve information boards to introduce the attractions of parks in English, Chinese and other languages. It is also considering setting up virtual reality facilities where visitors can experience simulations of the lives of wild animals or scenery.

However, it is possible that such tours could be a burden on wild animals. [The ministry] should make rules to prevent harmful impact on wild animals before launching tours, said Prof. Futoshi Nakamura of Hokkaido University, who specializes in ecosystem management.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, January 28 2019

Experts praised Indonesias decision to abstain during an emergency meeting on Venezuela, saying the archipelago had stayed true to its vow as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement while showing sympathy during a democratic upheaval.



Along with Cote dIvoire, Indonesia chose not to vote at the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday in New York, the United States, as requested by the US but rejected by Russia.



Moscow failed to stop the meeting as only four of the 15 UNSC members had voted against it: China, Equatorial Guinea, Russia, and South Africa. Nine  the US, Belgium, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and the United Kingdom  voted in favor of the meeting.



Indonesian Ambassador to the UN Dian Triansyah Djani expressed concerns over Venezuelas current situation during the meeting.



The fact that millio...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, January 27, 2019 18:53 874 ab327006fac3d4a4e8af45a51b02b9a3 4 Business Garuda-Indonesia,ticket,discount,anniversary Free

To celebrate its 70th anniversary, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is offering discounts of up to 70 percent on several routes as well as on tickets for flights with Sriwijaya Air, whose operation is now under its supervision.

For Garuda Indonesia flights, the 70-percent discounts are only for Jakarta-Surabaya, Jakarta-Yogyakarta and Jakarta-Padang for one-way tickets and return tickets, according to a press release received on Sunday. The discounted tickets, however are not valid for those traveling in groups.

Meanwhile, 50-percent discounts are offered for all routes both domestically and internationally, except for flights to countries in the Middle East.

The Garuda Indonesia Group also offers 222 additional discount offers through its partners  BNI, BRI, BTN Citibank, Bank Manditi and UOB.

Sriwijaya Air commercial director Joseph Tendean said recently that the discounts for the airline were available from Jan 26 to Feb 1. Passengers who purchase tickets through sriwijayaiar.co.id and the Sriwijaya Air mobile application will have a chance to receive a discount as high as 70 percent, he said.

We hope it helps passengers who will be traveling during the period, he said as quoted by kompas.com.

The routes for the discounted tickets include Surabaya-Denpasar, which starts from Rp 225,000 (US$16), Jakarta-Jogjakarta, from Rp 280,000, and Kualanamu-Penang, from Rp 392,000.

Besides to celebrate Garuda Indonesias anniversary, the program was created to help the government attract as many tourists as possible to visit many destinations in Indonesia, he added. (ayu/bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, January 27, 2019 13:49 874 ab327006fac3d4a4e8af45a51b021d2e 1 City fishing-boat,capsize,Thousand-Islands-regency,sea-accident,Fire-and-Rescue-Agency Free

A fishing boat reportedly sunk in waters off Karang Bongkok Island in Thousand Islands regency on Saturday. No casualties were reported.

Thousand Islands Public Order Agency officer Yakub said that a faulty engine had caused an accident that capsized the boat.

"Based on reports, the engine died and when there were winds heading northwest, the boat then hit coral and sunk," Yakub told Kompas.com on Saturday.

Yakub said there had been no casualties as the three people on board, Riki, Sadikun and Rian, had jumped off moments before the boat started sinking.

Nearby residents reported the incident to the Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency (PKP).

PKP head Jakut Satriadi Gunawan said six officers and a rescue boat had been sent to rescue the three fishermen.

"The captain and the crew have returned to their homes on Panggang Island," Satriadi said. (mai)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, January 27, 2019 17:19 874 ab327006fac3d4a4e8af45a51b0275d7 1 City fire-accidents,firefighters,Fire-and-Rescue-Agency,jakarta Free

JAKARTA: A firefighter from the Fire and Rescue Agency fell through a roof while attempting to put out a blaze in Senen, Central Jakarta, on Saturday.

Firefighter Audi Pratama, 32, was extinguishing a burning roof when it collapsed under him, making him fall 3 meters to the ground.

"Audi climbed onto the roof of a house that was made out of asbestos. The roof was not strong enough and caused Audi to fall through it, Central Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency official Achmad Syaiful Kaffi told kompas.com on Saturday.

Kaffi added that Audi was currently conscious but would only need minor medical treatment for his legs.

He is currently being treated at the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Central Jakarta. (mai)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 26 2019

The latest survey by Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia shows that split-ticket voting will color the upcoming simultaneous presidential and legislative elections.



Split-ticket voting is defined in the study, which polled 1,220 eligible voters across 34 provinces between Dec. 16 and 26, as a phenomenon where voters elect a presidential candidate pair whose election bid is not supported by political parties that voters prefer.



The respondents were asked to participate in a simulated election, during which they cast their vote for one of 16 political parties participating in an election and for a presidential candidate pair.



Of the respondents, 56.2 percent voted for nine political parties grouped under the coalition that backs Joko Jokowi Widodo and Maruf Amin, while 26.2 percent voted for five parties in the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Markus Makur and Dyaning Pangestika (The Jakarta Post) Flores and Jakarta  Sun, January 27, 2019 09:18 874 ab327006fac3d4a4e8af45a51b00d1ab 1 National Komodo-Island,komodo-dragons,NTT,tourism Free

Tour operators around East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) have opposed the provincial administrations plan to temporarily close Komodo National Park to visitors.

The chairman of the West Manggarai chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA West Manggarai), Donatur Matur, said the association, as well as tour operators around the province, firmly rejected the governments plan to temporarily close the national park for improvements.

A leader should think about what he says in public. Although its still being discussed, the media has already circulated this information, Donatur told The Jakarta Post on Friday, referring to the statement made by NTT Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat announcing the closure plan.

The governor said the intended temporary closure was aimed at renovating park facilities and to boost the population of Komodo dragons and deer as well as improving the animals habitat.

According to Donatur, the announcement led to many tourists canceling their visits to the national park this year.

He also explained that the association was concerned about Viktors points regarding NTTs tourism sector, such as a ban on budget hotel construction.

I hope the governor will come to Labuan Bajo to discuss his plan with tour operators as well as the public and the Manggarai regency administration itself. The governor should hear what we have to say before arranging such plans, Donatur said.

Concurring with Donaturs concerns, West Manggarai Regent Agustinus Ch Dulla also said that he hoped the governor could coordinate with the regional administration before implementing his plans.

We have to admit that the governor has good intentions. However, it would be better if he also invited the regional administration to discuss the matter, he said.

Viktor said the parks closure would last for a year.

Our administration will make arrangements for the Komodo National Park, he said as quoted by tempo.co on Friday. However, Viktor did not announce when the shutdown would start.

Located between Sumbawa and Flores islands, Komodo National Park is home to approximately 2,762 Komodo dragons as well as 3,900 deer. The park, an official UNESCO World Heritage, is also a popular destination for tourists, especially from overseas. The ministry recorded a significant increase in international tourists from 125,069 in 2017 to 159,217 in 2018.

The influx has triggered a number of environmental problems, including fires, that have affected the parks landscape, prompting the NTT administration to consider some options as a solution.

Prior to the announcement, Viktor said that his administration would forbid the construction of budget hotels in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, arguing that budget hotels would hamper the growth of existing local businesses that provide accommodation.

The administration was also reportedly planning to raise the Komodo National Parks entrance fee to at least US$500 as part of efforts to boost the conservation areas prestige.

Responding to the planned closure, the Environment and Forestry Ministry asked the governor to reconsider his plan as it could significantly affect the communitys tourist economy.

Speaking of the Komodo National Park, the governor needs to draft a thorough plan as it could significantly affect the areas social and economic conditions, said the ministrys director general of natural resources and ecosystem conservation, Wiratno, in a written statement received by the Post on Saturday.

In the statement, he added that it was possible to close down a national park for a variety of reasons such as scientific projects or natural disasters like a volcanic eruption, extreme weather or habitat disruption.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Manggarai  Sat, January 26 2019

A highway that connects Ruteng and Reo districts in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), has been cut off following a flood that brought traffic to a complete halt, an official said on Thursday.



Manggarai Police spokesperson Daniel Djihu told The Jakarta Post that the police in Reo had inspected the road and cordoned it off.



The police have inspected the entire area. The road that has been cut off is located in the western part of the Wae Pesi River, he said.



Djihu added that a severe downpour had hit Manggarai Raya prior to the incident, causing the river to overflow.



Furthermore, the flood has also led to a delay in fuel supply deliveries from the Pertamina oil plant in Reo to several areas in Manggarai Raya.



Manggarai Regent Deno Kamelus said he had instructed the Manggarai Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD Manggarai) to dispatch a t...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, January 26 2019

The banking industry needs to adopt digital technology and ease lending procedures to increase its credit reach to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a creative agency official says.



Many small enterprises are in need of bank loans, but less than half of them fail to secure loans because of insufficient collateral.



I think digital credibility can replace collateral, Fadjar Hutomo, deputy head for credit access at the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), told dozens of entrepreneurs in Jakarta recently.



He used the term digital credibility in reference to an MSMEs digital track record, such as its online transaction history, social media activity and active email account, while collateral referred to an MSMEs immovable assets such as land and buildings.



Fadjar, a former venture capitalist, was essentially suggesting that a trac...A basic bathroom stool could help people naturally relieve their bowels and improve the quality of their stool by helping put their bodies in the most natural position: squatting.

Simply placing both feet on a stool while using the toilet can mimic a squat, raising a persons knees above their hips. Products like the Squatty Potty, scientifically known as defecation postural modification devices (DMPD), have gained popular attention for helping people relieve their bowels without the need for any laxatives or herbal medicines.

As reported by TIME, curious scientists set out to see how much a DPMD really made a persons poop better.

As a gastroenterologist, when youre at a party or youre with your family, people bring this up, said study co-author Dr Peter Stanich, assistant professor of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine.

To conclude with a satisfying answer, he and his colleagues decided to conduct the first study on the benefits of Squatty Potties.

Read also: Squat thrust: Japan on Olympic drive to get rid of 'squat' toilets

The report published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology had 52 medical residents at Ohio State and their partners, whose average ages were 29, take an initial survey about their bowel movements and bathroom habits and provide a detailed log of every bowel movement they had for two weeks.

The results showed them to be fairly healthy. However, there were many who had issues including straining, blood in their stool and "incomplete emptying" -- the feeling that often goes along with constipation.

After two weeks, each person was equipped with their own Squatty Potty. People tracked their poop experiences for another two weeks and answered a survey about their time on the toilet.

The researchers sorted through descriptions of more than 1,000 bowel movements, finding that 90 percent of people who used a Squatty Potty strained less and 71 percent had faster bowel movements. Fewer users also reported feeling like they still had to go after using the bathroom.

Mens bowel movements showed a particular improvement with the Squatty Potty, along with others who had claimed toilet-related issues in the studys outset. Two thirds of the group were satisfied with the device and planned to continue use.

The conclusions of the study show that squatting is the ideal position for pooping, as it straightens out the digestive tract.

From the rectum into the anus, theres kind of a bend, and squatting helps to straighten it out  unlike Western toilets, which position the body at a 90-degree angle.

The Squatty Potty gets us closer to how were supposed to have bowel movements, Stanich said.

Devices like the Squatty Potty, or just a simple bathroom stool, have proved to be worthwhile for healthy people, as well as those with persistent issues like chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. The risk of straining related problems like haemorrhoids is also reduced when the body is in a natural squatting position.

However, those with chronic conditions and gastrointestinal issues should not hesitate to consult a doctor to rule out serious medical problems. (geo/kes)The idea of retiring seems enticing; ending years upon years of long weeks at work to spend your days doing whatever you want.

If youre counting down the years until your retirement age of 65, one physician said that you might want to reconsider.

As reported by Readers Digest, a Japanese doctor urged people to never clock out of the workforce. Yes, you read that right. Never.

In an interview with The Japan Times two years ago, Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, who was "one of the worlds longest-serving physicians and educators" and had since 1941 worked as a doctor and teacher at St. Lukes International Hospital in Tokyo and St. Lukes College of Nursing, respectively (and served as chairman of both organizations board of trustees), said not retiring was one of his secrets to living a long, healthy life.

"There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65," said Hinohara, who has penned around 150 books, including the best-selling Living Long, Living Good.

"The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago when the average life expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years, we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100," he added

Read also: How much do you need for a comfortable retirement?

Keeping busy throughout the senior years can help give elderly people a sense of purpose and accomplishment. These are key traits to keeping the brain healthy and switched on as the body ages, he said.

Hinohara practiced what he preached. He lived until the age of 105, treating patients and working up to 18 hours a day up until a few months before his death in 2017. (geo/kes)The body that hands out the Oscars on Friday sought to distance itself from a furor over the Academy Award nomination of a film about two boys who murdered a British toddler in 1993.

Detainment, a 30-minute film about the death of two-year-old James Bulger, made headlines in Britain after it was nominated for an Oscar on Tuesday in the short film category.

The case, in which two 10-year-old boys lured Bulger from a northern English shopping mall and tortured him to death, is one of Britain's most notorious criminal cases. An online petition asking for the film to be withdrawn from Oscar contention has attracted more than 130,000 signatures and support from Bulger's parents.

In its first comment on the controversy, the Academy said it was "deeply moved and saddened" by the loss endured by Bulger's family but made clear the nomination would not be rescinded.

"The Academy does not in any way influence the voting process," it said in a statement.

'Detainment was voted on by Academy members. When making their choices, each individual applies their own judgment regarding the films creative, artistic and technical merits. We understand that this will not alleviate the pain experienced by the family; however we hope it clarifies the Academys neutral role in the voting process," the statement added.

Detainment, directed by Vincent Lambe, uses transcripts of police interviews, official records, security camera footage and actors to recreate the arrest and questioning of the two convicted boys.

Lambe said in a statement on Thursday he never intended to bring further anguish to Bulger's family but added; "While it is a painfully difficult case to understand, I believe we have a responsibility to try and make sense of what happened."

The Oscar winners will be announced at a ceremony in Hollywood on Feb. 24As the world prepares to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, Hungarian Jews find themselves divided in a bitter dispute over the long-delayed opening of a new Holocaust museum in Budapest.

The "House of Fates" complex, located on the run-down fringe of the city center, is fronted by two 15-meter high towers of stacked cattle wagons connected by a giant, floodlit metal bridge in the shape of the Jewish Star of David.

The 24-million-euro ($27 million) revamp of the sprawling site, a former railway station where Jews were deported to Nazi German death camps, was largely finished by 2015.

But it has remained shuttered ever since, its exhibition space empty save for furniture in dusty bubble wrap, amid wrangles over its concept, suspicions from many Jews of official attempts to whitewash history, and political connections in its development.

Some 600,000 Hungarian Jews perished during the Holocaust, most of them deported in the space of a few months in 1944 with the assistance of the Hungarian authorities.

Last September the government suddenly announced that it was handing ownership of the museum to EMIH (the United Hungarian Jewish Congregation).

The group, affiliated with the international orthodox Chabad movement, was also tasked with finalizing the exhibition with a historian, Maria Schmidt, who is close to Hungary's nationalist-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"A Holocaust museum should grab attention and stir emotion, and provide moral direction, not just information," Slomo Koves, chief rabbi of EMIH, told AFP last week.

Koves says the museum -- not likely to open before next year -- will focus on personal stories of young people and aims to draw more than 100,000 high school students annually.

"Kids these days are ignorant about the Holocaust, even Jewish kids, they need to be shaken out of their apathy," said Koves, 39, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

Read also: New museum honors Poles killed for helping Jews in Holocaust

'Not credible'

But the largest and longest-established Jewish organisation Mazsihisz worries that EMIH lacks the necessary expertise and that Schmidt has a reputation for glossing over the Holocaust.

"She is not considered by experts as credible, no one knows what the museum's historical message will be," Mazsihisz leader Andras Heisler told AFP.

Schmidt's previous concept for the House of Fates covered just the years between 1938 and 1948, omitting rising anti-Semitism and the introduction of the first anti-Jewish law in post-World War I Europe under Hungary's interwar leader Miklos Horthy.

Mazsihisz and international academics -- including from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem -- resigned from an advisory board over the distorted concept, leading to the deadlock.

Orban's government vehemently insists on its good faith towards the Jewish community, which at around 100,000 is the largest in central Europe.

It introduced Holocaust education in schools, has supported another Holocaust museum in Budapest, and the renovation of several synagogues.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also lauded Orban for his proclamation of "zero tolerance" of anti-Semitism.

Read also: Claude Lanzmann, director of Holocaust film 'Shoah', dies at 92

'Double game'

But many Jews regard Orban's track record on Jewish issues as chequered.

An official memorial erected in 2014 that portrayed Hungary as an innocent victim of Nazi Germany incensed many Holocaust survivors.

At a ceremony last week at the Grand Synagogue in Budapest -- Europe's largest -- to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto in 1945, some in the audience were unimpressed by a speech from a government official.

"He talked about Jewish-Christian European culture but outside a synagogue the government only ever speaks about Christian culture," Eva, 85, a Holocaust survivor, told AFP.

Still others have accused the government of exploiting anti-Semitic tropes in its ferocious propaganda campaign against George Soros, the US-Hungarian billionaire of Jewish descent, whom Orban accuses of fomenting migration flows to Europe.

Last November, on the same day as the government announced funding for an anti-Semitism watchdog to be run by EMIH, a magazine owned by Schmidt depicted Jewish leader Andras Heisler surrounded by swirling banknotes.

Orban plays a "double game" with the Jewish community, according to historian and author Krisztian Ungvary.

"He is a populist trying to maximize votes, and that leads to sending signals toward the extreme right," Ungvary told AFP.

As for the row over the museum, Ungvary says: "It would have been better to improve the existing albeit poorly run and designed Holocaust museum, the city does not need two".

Koves insisted to AFP that the House of Fates exhibition is being reworked with international experts involved, and that it will tell the full story of the Holocaust.

"Usually it is better to try work with the powers-that-be and make progress rather than protest and get nowhere," he said.The success of Roma, which garnered 10 Oscar nominations this week, has made a star out of one of the movie's key protagonists: the Mexico City neighborhood that gave it its name.

Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, who sumptuously shot it in black and white, the movie is set in the 1970s in the Mexico City neighborhood where he grew up, La Roma -- today a magnet for film-buff tourists seeking the modern-day, full-color version.

The neighborhood Cuaron depicts as an upper-middle-class bastion of spacious art-deco houses and fancy chrome-clad cars fell on hard times when it was devastated by a 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people in Mexico City.

But its central location and leafy streets helped bring it back, and today it is a hipster paradise of trendy bars, cafes, restaurants and shops.

One of those streets in particular has drawn an unprecedented flow of tourists since Roma came out, according to residents: Tepeji street, where Cuaron grew up and meticulously recreated his boyhood home for the film.

Outside number 22 Tepeji, a newly installed metal plaque informs visitors: "This is where Roma was filmed, 2016-2017."

"We loved the movie. It captivated us from the first moment. We decided to come see the house in person," said Esteban Alvarez, 27, a musician from Costa Rica who was making the pilgrimage with his girlfriend.

They have joined a stream of tourists and journalists hunting for the locations where the highly autobiographical film was shot -- Tlaxcala street, the busy intersection of Insurgentes and Baja California, the kindergarten where Cuaron went to school.

"It was like, 'Oh, look! We saw that place in the movie! Is it really the same one?" Alvarez told AFP.

There is even a guidebook for people trying to retrace the film's steps, while Conde Nast Traveler published an article this week to help tourists find "Mexico City Airbnbs that Could Have Been in Roma."

Read also: 'Roma,' 'The Favourite' lead Oscars 2019 nominations with 10 each

Art imitating life

Roma is an intimate portrait of the two women who raised Cuaron: his nanny, played by breakout indigenous star Yalitza Aparicio, and his mother, played by actress Marina de Tavira -- both up for Oscars.

Die-hard fans will be keen to know that number 22 Tepeji is not in fact the house where Cuaron grew up. His family lived across the street, in number 21.

The identical buildings were constructed in the 1930s. But Cuaron's house was remodeled by subsequent owners, so he opted for the one opposite.

Cuaron has said that production designer Eugenio Caballero did such a good job recreating his childhood home that his family felt like they were inside the real thing when they visited the set.

As visitors gathered outside number 22 one recent afternoon, Paulina Cruz slipped outside number 21 to walk the dog.

Cruz is a domestic worker employed by the family that lives in Cuaron's old house.

"I'm the nanny for the kids who live here now," she said with a smile.

With her dark sunglasses and jeans, she looked little like Cleo, the meek nanny in Roma. But she said she loved the movie.

"I was happy to see them give an important role to the domestic workers," she said.

"Just like in the movie, we really do grow very close to the families we work for, especially the children. Spending every day with them, they start to feel like family."

Living in the house where Cuaron grew up, she added, "is very cool."

Read also: Oscar winner Cuaron pays personal tribute in new film 'Roma'

'A party'

The owner of the house where the film was shot is Gloria Monreal, who said with a grin that turning her home over to the production team for several months was "a party".

Far from resenting the stream of tourists outside her front door, she said she was "very happy" to chat with them and pose for pictures. She even invites them to sign a guest book.

"I thought it would be nice to have all these lovely people write about what the film meant to them and give it to Alfonso as a gift," said Monreal, who knew Cuaron as a boy.

Nearby is Tlaxcala street, where Cuaron attended the Condesa kindergarten as a child.

"I have such fond memories of it I want it to be in my movie," the director told teacher Victoria Pantoja, the granddaughter of the school's founder, when he visited.

The production team spent more than a month recreating the red facade of the 1970s, the slide and the rest of the playground.

Pantoja, 32, hopes Cuaron will visit again. When he came to shoot the movie, the teachers were so star-struck that "nobody remembered to ask for a picture with him," she said with a laugh.A mural by British street artist Banksy on a fire-exit door at Paris' Bataclan theater, where Islamist militants killed 90 people three years ago, has been stolen, the venue said on Saturday.

The work, one of a series of murals painted last June in the French capital and attributed to Banksy, showed a veiled female figure in a mournful pose.

"We are today filled with a deep sense of indignation. The work of Banksy, a symbol of contemplation belonging to all - residents, Parisians and citizens of the world - has been taken from us," the Bataclan said in a Twitter post.

Thieves with a van had stolen the door on which the mural was painted the previous night, a police source told Reuters.

Read also: Tokyo graffiti stirs debate on whether it's a Banksy piece

The Bataclan theater was stormed by militants during a rock concert in November 2015, as part of coordinated attacks in and around Paris that caused killed 130 people.

Some of Banksy's works in Paris, which also addressed issues like immigration, were vandalized soon after they were put up, while others were protected by screens.

The murals of Banksy, who keeps his real name secret, have become prized attractions for collectors. A work created last month in an industrial town in Wales, depicting a child enjoying snow that is in fact pollution, was sold for over 100,000 pounds ($132,000).Gettysburg, PA (17325)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 67F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 67F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.It turns out that the worlds biggest sinkhole in Belize is no stranger to plastic bottles and pollution.

The discovery was made at the end of last year, when British entrepreneur and billionaire Richard Branson led a diving expedition into The Great Blue Hole and found plastic at the bottom of the giant abyss.

Branson was part of the first-ever submersible dive to the bottom of the Great Blue Hole, accompanied by Fabien Costeau, who is grandson of French explorer Jacques Cousteau, and National Geographic explorer Erika Bergman.

Newsweek reported that Branson said the discovery of plastic bottles in the giant sinkhole showed the great need to get rid of single-use plastic, adding that it had become the scourge of the ocean, according to one of his blogs recounting the trip.

The Great Blue Hole, located just 100 kilometers off the coast of Belize, is almost 300 meters across and 125 m deep.

The massive underwater sinkhole was made famous when Jacques Cousteau explored it in 1971, declaring it one of the top five scuba diving sites in the world. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site -- the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BBRRS).

According to Newsweek, the Great Blue Hole formed as a limestone cave hundreds of thousands of years ago, when sea levels were far lower. At the end of the last ice age, sea levels rose by around 100 m, submerging the cave to become the natural wonder it is today.

Throughout the dive, Branson broadcasted the journey on the Discovery Channel while keeping a blog. He described the Giant Blue Holes massive wall of giant stalactites as breathtakingly beautiful.

Read also: Fighting plastic pollution through small steps

The Blue Hole is made of a complex system of caves that once formed on dry land. It is proof how oceans can rise quickly and catastrophically.

At 300 feet down, you could see the change in the rock where it used to be land and turned into sea. It was one of the starkest reminders of the danger of climate change Ive ever seen, wrote Branson.

He also described the thick layer of hydrogen sulphide that the three divers eventually reached on their dive. Further down, there was a pile of creatures that had fallen into the hole and died due to lack of oxygen.

As for the mythical monsters of the deep? Well, the real monsters facing the ocean are climate change -- and plastic. Sadly, we saw plastic bottles at the bottom of the hole, which is a real scourge of the ocean.

We all have to get rid of single-use plastic, he said, expressing his concern for the sustainability of the future.

Branson is working alongside a scientific team to produce a 3D view of the Great Blue Hole. The team is also part of Ocean Unite, a conservation group working towards protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030. (geo/wng)URBANA (AP)  Don Uchtmann served in the Coast Guard, started law school while in the service and became a professor at the University of Illinois.

Lt. Uchtmann, now 72, grew up in Sparta, not far from the Mississippi River.

But hes mostly a landlubber.

In the Coast Guard, I learned to sail a desk quite well and to respect the seamanship skills of others, he said.

Uchtmann values his experience during the Vietnam era, crediting it with building teamwork skills.

He flies the flag every day in his front yard.

Uchtmann had earned a bachelors degree in agricultural science at the UI in June 1968.

But President Lyndon Johnson had eliminated most graduate school deferments only months before.

The future professor had already been accepted at the UI College of Law and for a masters program in economics at the University of Leeds in England.

When he realized there was a nearly zero percent chance of attending graduate school in the fall of 1968, the Coast Guard came to mind and became my preferred choice for fulfilling my military obligation.

He applied to Officer Candidate School and was accepted.

Officer Candidate School candidates were either college grads or Coast Guard enlisted personnel who had been selected as strong candidates for a commission. Those who successfully completed the school received a commission as ensigns.

Uchtmann did temporary duty at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama, for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare Defense School, the only Coast Guard officer in a class of mostly Navy guys.

The skills could turn out to be vital.

During military exercises, for example, I would create maps based on current weather data, showing the probable drift of radiation if Cleveland were hit by a nuclear weapon. Fortunately, such an attack never came, Uchtmann said.

He was also the range officer for the 9th Coast Guard Small Arms Training Program for two summers.

Small arms training was important in his branch of service for reasons dating back to the War of 1812.

Under the treaty that ended the war of 1812, the Great Lakes were demilitarized.

Armaments on naval vessels of both the U.S. and Great Britain (later Canada) with home ports on the Great Lakes would be limited  no heavy weapons, only small arms, Uchtmann explained.

Uchtmann was a military aide for two years for Coast Guard admirals, successive commanders of the 9th Coast Guard District, with his duties generally limited to ceremonial occasions.

It was very good experience for someone who might become a career officer in the Coast Guard, but that did not become my path, he said.

Uchtmann was able to attend law school at night for two of his three years on active duty.

He worked very hard, 100 percent to the Coast Guard during the week, and nearly 100 percent to study law on nights and weekends.

He completed law school at Cleveland State University in 1974, three months early.

Had I continued in the Coast Guard for my career, I probably would have been assigned to a Coast Guard legal office, but that was not my path, he said.

That year, he returned to Urbana as a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics, combining his studies of law, economics and agriculture.

Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned from my Coast Guard experience was that life often does not unfold exactly as we have planned, that we need to adapt and make the best of the unexpected circumstances we encounter, that doing ones best in whatever endeavor we find ourselves is probably a wise strategy, that working with good people is a real blessing and that a fair share of luck along the way is very welcome, Uchtmann said.Illinoisans ages 18 to 25 are not children anymore, but many are not quite grown up either.

Now researchers are examining how the state can better help these emerging adults in the criminal justice system.

A report released Thursday by the Justice Lab at Columbia University says emerging adults still are experiencing brain development, which makes them more prone to peer influence, risk taking and impulsive behavior.

Report co-author Vincent Schiraldi, co-director of the Justice Lab, says this age group also is more responsive than older adults to rehabilitation and interventions.

However, he adds that emerging adults in Illinois are automatically prosecuted and sentenced in the adult system.

Theyre kind of getting eaten alive in those facilities and theyre coming out and having terrible outcomes: 78 percent recidivism rate, the highest of any population, he points out. So were basically sending them to gladiator schools, schools for crime. Its not good for them and its not good for us.

Illinois has been experimenting with alternative interventions for justice-involved youth, efforts to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction to 21 and age-appropriate, community-based programs such as Redeploy Illinois.

And research says the state could build upon this work and provide more tailored, development-appropriate responses for emerging youths as well.

According to the report, emerging adults in Illinois are imprisoned at twice the rate of adults age 25 and older, and the majority are imprisoned for nonviolent offenses.

Schiraldi adds that emerging adults encounter significant barriers upon release, including higher rates of trauma, substance-use disorders and homelessness.

Its not like they committed murders and horrible crimes, he stresses. These are exactly the kinds of people you could divert into alternatives, treatment and community programs so that you dont set them down a path of having a permanent record before theyve even had a chance to graduate from college.

The research also notes racial disparities. Illinois has one of the highest incarceration rates of African-American emerging adults in the U.S.

Schiraldi says its higher than both California and New York.

The over-representation of people of color in Americas criminal justice system and in Illinois justice system is sort of legendary, he said. But its even worse when you look at the young adults. Theyre even more over-represented than the overall general population.

Researchers and criminal justice professionals will discuss the report findings at a summit Thursday in Chicago.CARROLLTON  A Carrollton man who tried to use surreptitious recordings to prove his point in a civil lawsuit is now facing a fourth-degree felony over them.

Eric B. McFain, 46, of Carrollton is accused of unlawful videotaping or audio recording in a residence. His case is scheduled for an April 8 jury trial.

Although its not an unheard of charge, it is not that common for violations of the Illinois Wiretapping Law  among the strictest in the nation  to make it to the courtroom.

The law basically says anyone making an audio recording of a conversation must have the consent of everyone involved in the conversation. Things almost changed after state courts struck down the law in 2014, but then-Gov. Pat Quinn and legislators made minor revisions and put it back in place.

When McFain introduced video recordings of a conversation with a neighbor during a hearing about a dispute over tearing down a portion of a fence between the two properties, neighbor Michael Snyder said he was unaware of the taping.

When the civil case ended  McFain was ordered to remove a portion of fence that was on the neighbors property Snyder pressed charges over the recording under eavesdropping laws, which prohibit recording a conversation without the consent of all parties when there is an expectation of privacy, according to the Digital Media Law Project.

Snyder told authorities he did not know the recording was being made and did not consent.

According to charging documents, McFain knowingly made a video recording of a conversation [he] had with Michael Snyder, in the residence of Michael Snyder, without the consent of Michael Snyder.

Sheriff Rob McMillen said Snyder didnt find out about the reported recording until late last year.

During the civil case concerning the property line dispute, the neighbor learned he was videotaped, McMillen said.

McFain has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and has requested a speedy trial.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.It didnt make sense to invest capital there at that point because we didnt have the volume of trains, Williams said.

If the line was double-tracked the trains would not stop en route from Alliance to Lincoln. Instead, a bottleneck has been created between northbound and southbound trains as coal volumes have picked up in the last year.

You have a situation where trains are meeting and passing at that specific location, Williams said.

A train heading in one direction might have to stop at the North Road crossing for 30 minutes to an hour and a half while another train heading in the opposite direction passes, he said.

Another reason for a train to stop is because federal law dictates how long an engineer conductor can be in the cab of a train.

If a train crew runs out of time of service for whatever reason, they have to stop there and we have to send out a new crew. So the train would be sitting there while that happens, Williams said.

During the period that Shepardson tracked the amount of time trains blocked the North Road crossing, there were locomotive troubles and the train sat there for hours, Williams said. Bad weather also impacted operations during that time span.Fourteen members of GFWC/NFWC Caring Women met for their monthly meeting Jan. 7 at First Christian Church.

Cheryl Tickner with Orphan Grain Train was the guest speaker. Becky Otto served as hostess and Linda Sander coordinated the program and provided the Thought for the Day.

Thank-you notes were received from Hope Harbor for items donated as well as Country House for the lap robes. Feb. 2 is national Wear Red Day.

Becky Otto attended the bed giveaway at Slumberland Furniture Store. The local Caring Women chapter donated 50 sheet sets for the beds.

The Sophomore Pilgrimage event will be on April 3 in Lincoln. The group plans to have a salad supper on Aug. 12 at First Christian Church, followed by an auction that includes desserts, purses and gift bags.

JoAnn Oseka plans to take pillowcases to Hope Harbor. Barb Gillham and Otto will be taking birthday supplies to the Crisis Center.

The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at First Christian Church. Sandy Kendall will coordinate the program from Central Nebraska Council on Alcohol and Addictions.In Monday, Monday by Elizabeth Crook (Fic Cro), we follow the lives of three students who become involved in the University of Texas Clock Tower Shooting. Jeanne suggests it because, this story follows people who witnessed and were hurt by the shooting as they mature and are forever haunted by the actions of a deranged individual. The effects of the tragedy influence the main characters for the rest of their lives in expected and unexpected ways.

For fans of fantasy, we have staff suggestions for you, as well. Nicci suggests Elantris by Brian Sanderson (Fic San) because Sanderson creates such an amazing world. Elantris was built on magic and it thrived; then as the magic faded, Elantris declined. Now, Elantris and its citizens must reunite, regain their lost magic, and lead a rebellion against the imperial zealots, intent on dominating the civilization.

If you like fantasy-adventure, Andrew suggests Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi (Y Ueh). In Moribito the warrior Balsa hired to protect Prince Chagum from a monster and the princes father, the Mikado. Andrew says it is, one of the best fantasy-adventure books I have ever read. It eliminates traditional stereotypes that are found in other fantasy novels.This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Dan Rose, VP, partnerships at Facebook, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, attend the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 12, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Zuckerberg to Merge WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger: Reports

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has plans to combine the infrastructure of Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp and add the option of end to end encryption for users, according to a report from the New York Times published on Jan. 25.

The three platforms will continue to exist as stand alone apps but users will be able to send messages to each other regardless of which platform they are using.

Encryption will prevent anyone outside the conversation from seeing the messages. However, the technology is said to not always conceal meta-data and who is engaged in a conversation.

According to the report from the New York Times, one point of concern arising from the merge would be if user data was to be shared between the different platforms.

WhatsApp currently needs the users phone number to create an account whereas Facebook Messenger requires a user to provide their identity. Matching user data to phone number between accounts could be viewed as problematic for users who prefer to keep apps independent.

One reason for combining the platforms is that Facebook might face anti-trust problems moving forward for its monopoly on messaging services. In this scenario, Facebook could then say they are actually one service.

If the apps are combined into one infrastructure, the utility of Facebook would increase and keep users more engaged, and less likely to use competing services offered by companies such as Google, Apple, and Tencent. It could also increase potential for advertising revenue, by reaching more customers and offering more comprehensive and expensive user data to advertising clients.

Facebook Controversy

Campaigns to delete Facebook recently appeared after allegations surfaced that the company allows Netflix and Spotify to access the private messages of Facebook users and allows Microsofts Bing search engine to see the names of every Facebook users friends without consent.

In a Dec. 18 report, it was revealed that Facebook had shared more personal user data with 150 other technology companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Facebook also had to face the outcome of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which resulted in Zuckerberg assuring lawmakers that the firm would tighten data policies.

In December, a British parliamentary committee released internal Facebook emails that disclosed the company had debated whether it would allow app developers who had advertised with them more access to user data. In other cases, the emails debated if Facebook would shut off companies it saw as competition.

A major concern is the security of Facebooks data. Recently a data breach occurred that affected more than 50 million accounts.

The data breach involved hackers that exploited a Facebook code that affected the View As feature.

Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit on Dec. 19 against Facebook for failing to protect user data. The suit pointed out that Facebooks loose data policies enabled companies and other third-party applications to collect data, making reference to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The number of privacy breaches has damaged Facebooks share price and sparked official investigations into the company.

According to Bloombergs Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg lost more than $20 billion last year, ending up at a net worth of $49.7 billion after starting the year with a total net worth of $72.8 billion.

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September last year, more than 1 in 4 Americans have deleted the Facebook app from their mobile phones. 81 percent of users said they had little or no confidence in the company to protect their data and privacy, according to a survey done by Business Insider.

The Pew survey revealed that over half of Facebook users 18 years old and up have changed their privacy settings in the past 12 months, indicating the importance of digital privacy to users.

Facebook has recently faced criticisms for marking nonpolitical advertisements as political content and censoring conservative voices.

Bowen Xiao contributed to this report.

From NTD NewsThe Vodafone logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Feb. 28, 2018. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)

Vodafone Holds Off Deploying Huawei in Core Network Due to Security Row

Vodafone, the worlds second-largest mobile operator, said it was pausing the deployment of Huawei equipment in its core networks until Western governments give the Chinese firm full security clearance.

The United States and some allies, including Australia and New Zealand, have banned Huawei from 5G networks because of alleged ties to the Chinese government, while the firm has denied that its technology could be used by Beijing for spying.

Vodafones Chief Executive Nick Read said on Jan. 25 after reporting third-quarter results that the debate was playing out at a too simplistic level, adding that Huawei was an important player in an equipment market which it dominates along with Swedens Ericsson and Finlands Nokia.

We have decided to pause further Huawei in our core whilst we engage with the various agencies and governments and Huawei just to finalize the situation, of which I feel Huawei is really open and working hard, Read said.

Poland is set to exclude Huawei from 5G after it arrested a Huawei executive earlier this month on spying allegations. Huawei fired the man, who has denied wrongdoing.

Europes mobile industry would face higher costs and delays to faster networks if authorities imposed a blanket ban on Huawei equipment, particularly the radio technology deployed on mobile towers, Read said.

Operators in Europe such as BT and Orange have already removed Huaweis equipment or taken steps to limit its future use.

Read said Huaweis equipment was used in Vodafones corewhich he described as the intelligent part of the networkin Spain and some other smaller markets.

European governments and security agencies had not pressurized Vodafone into taking the step, but the noise level had increased, and the debate now needed more facts, Read said, adding that governments in Africa and the Middle East, where Vodafone also uses Huawei, had not raised concerns.

A spokesman for Huawei, which become the worlds biggest telecoms equipment maker earlier this decade despite being shut out of the U.S. market, said it had been a long-term strategic partner to Vodafone since 2007.

Huawei is focused on supporting Vodafones 5G network rollouts, of which the core is a small proportion. We are grateful to Vodafone for its support of Huawei and we will endeavor to live up to the trust placed in us, he said.

However, Read said that Vodafone had already agreed terms with a range of 5G suppliers, so moving away from Huawei in parts of the roll-out would not incur additional costs.

By Paul SandleIt's difficult to know these days what is real or fake online. Technology advances might help consumers discern fact from fiction. (Raw Pixel/Unsplash)

Using Technology to Separate Fact From Fiction in Online Media

Commentary

In the rush to exploit todays social-media data, people are finding it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction.

The lack of hard, verifiable truths in social-media data can be scary at times. For example, many in the mainstream media, and others online, are more interested in skewing numbers than pointing out authenticity. For instance, what if you reported that your social-media post achieved 50-percent reach (a measure of its overall impact), but failed to note that you only have two customers to actually reach?

Information shared on the internet can have real-life consequences. Consider the Pizzagate conspiracy that trended on social media and on certain news sites, which falsely alleged that former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was involved in a human trafficking and child sex scandal. This conspiracy theory led to a man with a gun showing up to a pizza shop in Washington, where the alleged trafficking was supposedly centralized.

Wynne Davis of NPR suggested a process, or checklist, for verifying web data, including social-media posts, that could help to avoid situations like this. The process involved checking that content has multiple sources, investigating the reputation of the sources, trying to find verifiable citations for the content, including images, video, or audio, and getting past headlines.

Use of Data

Verifying data on the web is becoming increasingly important, since in todays world, what you post on social media can be used against you in court. For example, in 2012, a prosecutor in Butler County, Ohio, used photos and Facebook posts to demonstrate to a jury in a murder case against a teenager that the suspect enjoyed violence, according to his likes and posts.

There are plenty of other examples of social-media data being used, such as to demonstrate in a slip-and-fall insurance case that the supposedly injured plaintiff was seen dancing in an internet video, ruining the injury argument and helping to rule in favor of the insurance provider. In another example, a New England Patriots cheerleader was dismissed after appearing in a Facebook photo alongside an unconscious man covered in Nazi graffiti. And there are many more.

In a study posted on the website Forensic Focus, almost 700 state and federal court cases over a two-year period involved data from social media to support the case, bringing to light that what you post on the internet is foreverand can be used for or against you in court.

The American Bar Association calls this era Litigation 2.0, and suggests that social media is critical pre-litigation intelligence and cross-examination material.

Besides verifiability, peoples reputations are also being evaluated using data on social media and, increasingly, on multimedia.

This was apparent earlier this year, as different sides of the political spectrum tried to evaluate students from Covington Catholic High School and their encounter with veteran and Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

To some, the video clearly showed disrespect from students wearing Make America Great Again hats and a lack of deference to a military veteran there to march in support of indigenous people. To others, with different perspectives of the video not originally shown, the students were peacefully reacting to a potentially dangerous situation, in which an unshown original set of actors were hurling insults at the students (and others) at the Memorial, and the students decided (with chaperone approval) to perform their school chant to drown out the insults before the military veteran approached the students and began drumming in their faces.

How does the everyday person rectify these vastly different accounts? And even scarier, how does someone deal with this knowing that images, videos, and audio can be easily doctored with so-called deep fake technology?

Retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger suggested that courts need to find ways to deal with emerging technology, particularly with the ability to doctor photos and create fake accounts on some social-networking platforms, according to the Ohio Journal-News.

Considering that multiple phones and other devices may belong to the same person, its increasingly difficult to authenticate not just the content, but who is posting it.

Response to the Problems

Deep fake videosvideos in which artificial intelligence takes an existing video and superimposes different speech, faces, or other attributions onto it seamlessly and in a way nearly undetectable by humanswere raised as a big concern during Senate committee testimony of Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter.

Also raised were efforts by foreign nations to exploit this difficulty in attributing social media and other web data to influence United States and other elections.

Facebooks answer to these concerns was to hire more human curators, and also to use artificial intelligence to automatically classify potentially unscrupulous posts and accounts. Twitter had a similar responseidentifying that there were more than 50,258 automated accounts across the platform.

Concerns exist, though, in the human portions of curation, and also that Facebook and Twitter have too much power to control what is leveraged on their powerful platforms.

In particular, political conservatives in the United States and abroad have suggested they are being profiled or shadow banneda process in which the reach of an account is minimized by not broadly sharing its posts to followers. Conservatives have also complained that prominent social-media accounts are suspended incorrectly, indicating bias.

Tech Available

The technology used to create deep fakes is broadly available, including the FaceSwap technology on Github that anyone can download, along with NVIDIAs Vid2Vid technology. Both require a few clicks, some technical reading, and some videos and images, allowing the user to begin rapidly creating these deep fakes, such as the famous deep fake video of President Obama making a speech he never made.

The Defense Department, and, in particular, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has several programs working to develop technology to combat deep fakes and also to provide clarity and confidence to data from social media and the web. In particular, the DARPA Media Forensics (MediFor) program is working to provide attribution to videos, images, and audio that would allow users to discern their authenticity.

In addition, DARPAs Deep Exploration and Filtering of Text and Active Interpretation of Disparate Alternatives programs are working to compare conflicting facts from different media types on the internet and to provide an indication of confidence so people can determine how much belief to have in them.

These capabilities cant come soon enough, as people wade through the internet and social media trying to separate fact from fictionand to determine if videos or images are even real.

Chris Mattmann is a principal data scientist and associate chief technology and innovation officer in the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.A migrant camp situated 16 kilometres from the U.S. border, fills up with Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, on Dec. 2, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

US Starts Sending Asylum-Seekers Back to Mexico to Wait Out Claims

New Homeland Security policy pushes humanitarian issue south for now, but could be blocked by a judge

WASHINGTONA new effort by the Trump administration to deter thousands of Central American migrants from traveling north to seek asylum in the United States was enacted on Jan. 24for now, only at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

The effort, called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), is an attempt to rein in meritless asylum claims and stop thousands of illegal immigrants from being released into the country, never to be seen again.

We have implemented an unprecedented action that will address the urgent humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement on Jan. 24. This humanitarian approach will help to end the exploitation of our generous immigration laws.

Under MPP, many asylum-seekers entering the United Statesillegally or without proper documentationmay be returned to Mexico to wait out their case. Mexico will provide all the appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay, according to DHS.

This will allow DHS to more effectively assist legitimate asylum-seekers and individuals fleeing persecution, as migrants with non-meritorious or even fraudulent claims will no longer have an incentive for making the journey, Nielsen said.

Nielsen first unveiled the program in December, then-called the Remain in Mexico policy, but details were scarce until now.

So far, the policy is only active for those who enter the San Ysidro border crossing legally and present themselves for asylum. As of late-2018, Customs and Border Protection was accepting at most 100 asylum seekers per day at San Ysidro.

Unaccompanied minors are exempt from the policy. In October and November 2018, more than 10,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended by Border Patrol entering the United States illegally.

System Overwhelmed

Legal loopholes in the asylum system are bogging down the immigration court system, which has around 800,000 pending cases and no end in sight to the backlog. The administration says the system is being gamed by illegal immigrants who are using it to gain access into the United States without any intention of turning up in court for their case ruling.

If an illegal alien is apprehended at the border and claims a fear of returning to their home country, an initial screening gives them an 89 percent chance of being released into the United States. The chances are higher if an adult brings a child. The largest group of asylum-seekers are from Central America, yet only 9 percent of those who then formally apply for asylum are granted such protections by a federal immigration judge, according to the Justice Department.

In fiscal 2017, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 94,285 family units from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador at the southern border. Of those, 99 percent remain in the country today.

In the first two months of this fiscal year, almost 50,000 family units were apprehended by Border Patrol after crossing illegally. Another 9,160 presented themselves at ports of entry to claim asylum.

We do not have the necessary space or resources to detain, house, vet, screen, and safely process this tremendous influx of people, President Donald Trump said on Jan. 24. In short, we do not have control over who is entering our country, where they come from, who they are, or why they are coming.

The MPP doesnt yet apply to all asylum-seekers who cross the nearly 2,000-mile southern border, where most are entering the United States. The Rio Grande Valley in Texas deals with almost half of all illegal crossings along the border.

DHS is implementing the MPP under Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which states, in part, in the case of an alien  who is arriving on land (whether or not at a designated port of arrival) from a foreign territory contiguous to the United States, the Attorney General may return the alien to that territory pending a [removal] proceeding under section 240 of the INA.

The MPP is likely to be challenged by a U.S. judge, which would send it through the court system, much like other moves made by the administration to curb illegal immigration, tighten border security, or close the legal gaps that attract illegal immigrants. These include the travel ban, ending DACA, reverting to the original asylum criteria, and making illegal border crossers ineligible for asylum.

Migrants

Several Central American migrants who had been in Tijuana for two months told The Epoch Times that they wont wait in Mexico for months until an asylum claim is adjudicated.

No, were not going to wait that long, Honduran Javier Gamez, 30, said on Dec. 26, 2018, when asked about the new MPP policy. He had been staying at the migrant camp for two months with his wife and had just applied for an asylum number.

We arent going to wait here a long time, were going to jump then [cross illegally]. The most we can bear is two months [longer in Tijuana], he said.

Others arent applying for asylum, but rather, waiting for the opportunity to cross the border illegally.

Guatemalan Mario Rene Alegria Chavez, 62, said he is working a construction job in Tijuana and doesnt intend to claim asylum in the United States.

It seemed really difficult, so thats why I didnt start the process to get my papers, he said. I have two options: I can stay here or I can cross [illegally] into the United States.

Karla Bexaida Membreino, 23, traveled with her husband and his cousin from Honduras. She has applied for asylum, but her husband refused to.

Hes afraid that theyre going to deport him, she said. When we arrived, we werent going to wait for a long time, they were going to open the border. But it didnt happen like we expected .. .we have to wait forever.

Tijuana Reaction

In Tijuana, public safety secretary Marco Antonio Sotomayor said he hopes the Mexican government will secure its southern border with Guatemala and not allow unregistered caravan migrants access into Mexico.

We know that within the group of migrants, there are some hidden Central American criminals coming, who have current orders in their countries or criminal records, Sotomayor told The Epoch Times on Jan. 14. So, that part, from my point of view, is very risky. We are demanding that the federal government not allow access to our national territory without a legal, orderly process.

Sotomayor said it has been challenging and very costly for the city to handle the thousands of caravan members since November.

To date, local Tijuana police have arrested 351 migrants from the November caravan for various crimes, mostly involving drugs.

Sotomayor said the Mexican government isnt happy with the MPP plan.

I have the understanding that the governments position is not to accept them. If they [the United States] want to return them to Mexico, they will not receive them, he said.

Obviously, we condemn that a foreigner who asks for asylum to the United States has to remain in national territory in Tijuana. What we want is if someone asks for political asylum and if a process is opened in the United States, well then, he should be received by the United States. We do not want Tijuana to be in charge of that.

But, he said, its a federal issue between the governments of the two countries.

The U.S. State Department announced a $10.6 billion foreign aid package for southern Mexico and Central America on Dec. 18.US Nears Deal With Taliban to End 17-Year Afghanistan War

Negotiators for the United States agreed to a draft peace deal with the Taliban on Jan. 26, according to Taliban officials, drawing closer than ever to ending the U.S.s longest war.

The deal, which isnt official until agreed to by both sides, calls for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan in 18 months, in exchange for a ceasefire from the Taliban, among other items. Taliban sources provided the draft pact to Reuters.

Details of the draft deal surfaced after U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad conducted six days of talks with Taliban leaders in Qatar. Khalilzad landed in Afghanistan on Jan. 27 to consult with the nations leadership.

Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues, Khalilzad wrote on Twitter as he headed to Afghanistan from Qatar.

Will build on the momentum and resume talks shortly. We have a number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and everything must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire.

1/3 After six days in Doha, Im headed to #Afghanistan for consultations. Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues.  U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) January 26, 2019

Taliban leaders have long refused to negotiate with Afghanistans government, dismissing it as a puppet of the United States. Khalilzads reference to intra-Afghan dialogue underlines that Washington is adamant about bringing the two sides together to reconcile a vision for a post-war Afganistan. The Talibans hard-line Islamist views, especially those on the rights of women, clash with the freedoms protected by Afghanistans constitution.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Jan. 26 that Khalilzad reported significant progress in talks with the Taliban on Afghanistan reconciliation.

The U.S. is serious about pursuing peace, preventing Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home. Working with the Afghan govt & all interested parties, the U.S. seeks to strengthen Afghan sovereignty, independence & prosperity, Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

A Taliban statement issued later also noted progress on troop withdrawal and other issues, but said more negotiations and internal consultations were required. It wasnt clear whether the draft described by the Taliban sources was acceptable to both sides or when it could be completed and signed.

The policy of the Islamic Emirate during talks was very clearuntil the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using another name the group calls itself.

According to the Taliban sources, the hard-line Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan wont be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorists to attack the United States and its alliesa key early demand by Washington. They said the deal included a ceasefire provision but they had yet to confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives once a truce was implemented.

More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital Doha, the Taliban sources said.

They expect their side to be led by new political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movements co-founder and a former military commander who was released from prison in Pakistan last year.

The United States has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Reuters contributed to this report.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Venezuela, at the United Nations in New York on Jan. 26, 2019. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

US Asks World to Pick a Side on Venezuela

The United States called on the world to pick a side over Venezuelas mounting political crisis on Jan. 26 and urged countries to financially sever ties with Nicolas Maduros socialist regime as the embattled dictator rejected an international ultimatum for elections.

During a heated exchange at a United Nations Security Council meeting, Venezuelas regime and Russia accused the United States of attempting a coup. Both Russia and China have invested heavily in the oil-rich country for years.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, the leader of the National Assembly, proclaimed himself acting president on Jan. 23. The United States, Canada, and almost every Latin American country has since recognized Guaido as the countrys rightful leader.

Maduro, who has ruled the country since 2013 and is now in his second term as president, is alleged to have won re-election through illegitimate means. However, he still has the support of the Venezuelan armed forces.

But on Jan. 26, Colonel Jose Luis Silva, Venezuelas defense attache to Washington and a key military official, said he broke with Maduros regime and recognized Guaido as interim president. The exiled chairman of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela, Justice Miguel Angel Martin, told The Epoch Times previously that Maduro is a former president and has called on the Venezuelan military to detain him.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the U.N. meeting called by the United States that Maduros socialist experiment had caused the Venezuelan economy to collapse. The socialist policies introduced by Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, have crippled the nation and driven millions out.

Now, it is time for every other nation to pick a side.  Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or youre in league with Maduro and his mayhem, Pompeo told the council. We call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuelas democratic transition and interim President Guaidos role.

Pompeo called for the international community to disconnect their financial systems from Maduros government. Diplomats said any council action to address the crisis would be blocked by veto-powers Russia and China.

Some countries have publicly taken former President Maduros side. China, Russia, Syria, and Iran are just four of them, Pompeo said. Its not a surprise that those who rule without democracy in their own countries are trying to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits.

At the meeting, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain all said they would recognize Guaido if Maduro failed to call fresh elections within eight days, an ultimatum Russia said was absurd and Maduros foreign minister called childlike.

In the week surrounding Guaido rise to the presidency, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in Caracas and across the country, calling on Maduro to step down.

Caracas reiterated that their government is still open to talks with the Trump administration. Russia has repeatedly warned the United States not to intervene militarily in Venezuela.

Defusing Diplomat Standoff

Late on Jan. 26, Venezuelas regime suspended its demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country within 72 hours. The Trump administration had refused Maduros Jan. 23 order, arguing the dictator had no legal authority.

Venezuelas Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduros government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with U.S. officials about setting up a U.S. interests office in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States.

The State Department didnt confirm the Venezuelan governments account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy, according to the Associated Press.

Let me be 100 percent clear, Pompeo told the told the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 26. President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention.

Reuters contributed to this report.Naomi Knighton, 26, from Derby with her son, son Jvarn, 6 in a picture shared by their family on GoFundMe. Naomi is battling with a last stage cancer and had to tell her son that shell soon die. (Naomis final wishes/GoFundMe)

Single Mother Forced to Tell Her 6-Year-Old Shes Dying of Cancer, Starts Fundraiser for a Headstone

A single 26-year-old mother whos battling with an aggressive form of cancer has been forced to tell her 6-year-old son that shes dying.

Since her teenage years, Naomi Knighton from Derby has suffered from a rare form of leukemia. Despite undergoing two bone marrow transplants, the cancer remained incurable. Doctors have asked her to prepare for the worst and Naomi doesnt know how much longer she is going to live.

Shes fighting with the last stage of her cancer and is living with her son Jvarn and her mother Jean in Allenton, according to the Daily Mail UK.

Naomis sister Kirsty, 32, is a mother of two and is very saddened by Naomis condition. She cant believe that Naomi is losing out in her years of battle with cancer.

It was heartbreaking. We have watched her go through so much and we always assumed she would get through it because she always has managed to get throughand shes so strong.

There have been times that the doctors have been surprised when shes got through it. She always pulls through against the odds, said Kirsty.

Naomi was looking forward to a bright career. She had studied at Derby College to become an adult nurse and last year was offered an opportunity to study at the University of Derby.

In her teenage years, Naomi suffered from colds, throat infections, and coughs, and was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a kind of cancer that attacks white blood cells and gradually grows over many years.

According to the Daily Mail, doctors told her on Jan. 11, that she only had a few weeks to live and that she can stretch her life a bit by following a course of chemotherapy and steroids.

Hard Time for the Family

Jvarn was told that his mother would soon not be there by his side.

Jvarn took it really well on the day she told him. He accepted it. I think, in a way, because shes always been poorly hes used to her being in and out of hospital.

That has sort of helped him, said Kirsty.

Kirsty was there with Naomi when doctors disclosed the sad news to her.

They said she had two choices. She could stop everything that day and let it be. But the doctor said it would be quick as it was very aggressive. He said we would be talking weeks not months.

The option Naomi chose was to buy some more time, Kirsty told the Daily Mail.

The family has set up a page on gofundme to raise money for Naomis funeral. Since it started last week, the page raised over $7,100 (5,400) in 9 days, out of its $3,300 (2,500) goal.

Our aim is to raise money to carry out her final wishes and give her the send of she deserves. Also as a family we would like to raise awareness on becoming a stem cell donor.

Its hard to get cell donors in the UK, as there are not enough people prepared to donate their cells. Naomi has had a donor from Germany previously. So were urging people to look into the Antony Nolan Project and become a stem cell donor. It really can save somebodys life, the familys gofundme page said.

The money raised on gofundme will go toward a white coffin that Naomi requested, a nice headstone for her son to go to, along with a party-style event with music and dancing after her funeral, according to the Daily Mail.Jeff Griffin and Katie Davies at Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26, 2019. (Sophia Zheng/The Epoch Times)

BOSTONDrawing from thousands of years of Chinese civilization, Shen Yun Performing Arts is able to present, through dance, stories that represent the spirit of traditional Chinese culture.

Myles Allpress, creative director at advertising firm MullenLowe U.S., found that the spirit of Chinese culture was inextricably tied to spirituality.

There was themes of Taoism, themes of Buddhism, themes of Chinese culture before Mao [Zedong], Allpress said after watching the performance at Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, on Jan. 26.

The Chinese people have long believed in the divine, and lived their life in accordance with values and virtues that aligned with the will of Heaven. These included propriety, righteousness, respect to parents and elders, and maintaining harmony between man and nature.

Allpress said he saw these themes presented through the art on stage.

I think thats an artistic interpretation of the artistic and unbiased population of China wanting to tell people, through an artistic way, that they arent abiding by [the] Communist regime, he said.

Such traditional customs and beliefs continued to hold sway in China until the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao seized power in 1949. Since then, the party has waged war on traditions and beliefs in numerous political campaigns, culminating in the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. The Cultural Revolution sought to systematically destroy Chinas spiritual heritage and replace it with worship of the communist party, and it almost succeeded.

Shens Yun Performing Artss mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture trough music, dance, and story-telling.

Katie Davies, Vice President, International Solution Development, at Radius Worldwide, a management consultancy, also found the themes portrayed by the stories to be powerful.

The themes in stories are very evocative and historical. So it gives a good picture of the Chinese culture, Davies said.

I think there is an awareness of such beauty that existed before the communist regime, so that its been unleashed and has been revived is very powerful.

Davies noted the universality of the some of these themes, such as the battle between good and evil, that has been played out across different cultures throughout the ages. They were present in ancient stories with kings and gods, and modern ones depicting our contemporary day-to-day. There was both relevance in the content, and Shen Yuns mission to restore the culture, Davies noted.

I think its important to say that it doesnt get forgotten. That we enjoy it today as the centuries before, so its kept alive, Davies said.

She said that she hoped Shen Yuns portrayal of the once-lost spirituality could rekindle the understanding of Chinese culture within the Chinese people too.

Having an understanding of that spirituality  in the souls of people, I think is important, Davies said.

And I think this [performance] brings it out.

The VP said the performance left her with a positive feeling.

Spiritual and elated and happy, she said.

With reporting by Sophia Zheng, Sherry Dong, and Cathy He.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.Casey Hathaway, 3, went missing from his grandmother's home in Ernul, North Carolina on Jan. 22, 2019. He was found on Jan. 24, 2019. (Craven County Sheriff's Office)

Relative Who Cared for Missing Boy Casey Hathaway Speaks Out: Tough Little Fella

A relative for 3-year-old Casey Hathaway, who went missing for several days before he was found, said the boy is a tough little fella.

Julie Toler said the outcome of the two-day search to find her great-grandson is a miracle, WRAL reported. Toler said she lost sight of the child on Tuesday, Jan. 22 while he was playing outside in Craven County, North Carolina.

They play out there all the time. They go back and fourth from my house to my daughters house, Toler said.

She added: Im glad hes fine because it would have been terrible for everybody if something happened to him.

Casey survived freezing temperatures and heavy downpours while he was missing. A Facebook post from a relative said the boy told them that a bear protected him. According to the station, his family doesnt know if thats true but theyre just glad he is safe.

PICTURED: Three-year-old Casey Hathaway recovers in hospital after telling his stunned parents he hung out with a BEAR https://t.co/SaQXvye5Pq  Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 27, 2019

I felt guilty, Toler told WRAL. I didnt want to get warm because I knew he was cold. I didnt want to eat because I knew he was hungry. It was just terrible.

A neighbor walking her dog eventually found the boy on Jan. 24. They heard him crying for his mother.

Officials said he was found about 100 feet into the woods and tangled in thorn bushes.

His rescue, according to Chocowinity EMS Captain Shane Grier, was miraculous.

That was God at work. Shane Grier, Chocowinity EMS Captain, rescued 3-year-old Casey Hathaway, who he found tangled in vegetation. But Grier says there was a greater power helping. The story at 4p #ABC11 pic.twitter.com/3w9FU4lp1I  Gloria Rodriguez (@GloriaABC11) January 25, 2019

He went through some very bad conditions, weather-wise, Grier told 6ABC. We had heavy rain. Everything in there was wet. Everything was wet. Its just not a good situation for anyone. Even a trained professional would have difficulty in that environment.

We immediately at that time got him out because the conditions were really cold, got him out to warm him up, Grier also stated. He became more responsive the further we got him out.

I know that it was a miracle from God, Toler added. Thats the only thing that could have saved the boy out there in that mess.

She said hes still hospitalized in the Carolina East Medical Center in New Bern.

He has been listed as good condition after being treated for cuts.

God bless all responders. Thats what this sign outside Chocowinity Fire & EMS says after Casey Hathaway, 3, was found safe. #ABC11 pic.twitter.com/qsRpLiPu1q  Gloria Rodriguez (@GloriaABC11) January 25, 2019

Im just hoping there are no long term effects on him, added Toler. Hes a tough little fella.

Bear?

Caseys aunt Breanna Hathaway in a Facebook post wrote that her nephew was healthy and talking.

He said he hung out with a bear for two days, she said in the post. God sent him a friend to keep him safe. God is a good God. Miracles do happen.

Sheriff Hughes Explains Rescue EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes chats with Merrilee Moore this morning as 3-year-old Casey Hathaway rests at Carolina East Medical Center in New Bern. Posted by WCTI NewsChannel 12 on Friday, January 25, 2019

A GoFundMe was set up by the toddlers grandmother at the publics request over the weekend and was titled Casey and the Bear.

He didnt say how he was able to survive and all that, Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes told WCTI. He did say he had a friend in the woods that was a bear that was with him.Dariaun Parker, 24, and Tierra Williams, 22, were sentenced to two years and 18 months in prison, respectively, on Jan. 25, 2019, for their roles in their 2-year-old daughter Wynter Parker freezing to death in February 2018. (Akron Police Department)

Parents of 2-Year-Old Who Froze to Death Sentenced to Prison

The parents of a 2-year-old Ohio girl who froze to death after being left out in the cold were sentenced to prison time.

Tierra Williams, 22, and Dariaun Parker, 24, previously pleaded guilty to child endangerment and were sentenced on Jan. 25.

Williams was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Parker was sentenced to two years in prison; they each faced maximum sentences of three years in prison, reported Fox 8.

Wynter Parker, the couples daughter, wandered outside and accidentally locked herself out from their house in Akron. Parker was supposed to be watching her but he fell asleep.

Williams found her daughters body when she returned home several hours later and called 911.

The child died after paramedics rushed her to Akron Childrens Hospital.

Wynter died from severe hypothermia.

Reaction to Sentencing

Williams was incensed when she learned that she and Parker would be going to jail.

That is so [expletive] up, she shouted as she was handcuffed, reported the Akron Beacon Journal.

Angela Williams, her mother, tried to calm her down.

Im so [expletive] mad! Tierra Williams added.

Both Williams and Parker were hoping to avoid jail time as their lawyers highlighted their lack of criminal records. Angela Williams begged the judge to give her daughter probation, noting that it would pull apart the family if she was sentenced to jail.

We need to heal as a family and not be pulled apart with her being gone from her kids and her family, Angela Williams said.

via @SWarsmithABJ: An Akron woman went into a fit of rage after being sentenced to 18 months in prison https://t.co/iNnyXLhaMV  ohiodotcom (@ohiodotcom) January 25, 2019

But Assistant Prosecutor Dan Sallerson said that police officers had been to the couples apartment before because of their children being left outside.

This is a dangerous situation that didnt need to happen, he said. It shouldnt have come to that. We do have a young child who died as a result. We do think prison is the appropriate sentence.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Alison McCarty said that the couple didnt prioritize being parents and said they were responsible for the death.

There can be potential danger everywhere, she said. You two did not have eyes on. Not a lack of love, a lack of attention. Not all of the time, but some of the time, which put both of the children at risk.

She said that she would consider releasing them early.

Hypothermia

Freezing to death is known as hypothermia, or a preventable lowering of the core body temperature to lower than 95 degrees (normal body temperature is around 98.6 degrees), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hypothermia causes approximately 600 deaths each year in the United States.

Exposure to excessive cold (or excessive exposure to cold) slows enzymatic activity throughout the body, leading to potentially fatal rhabdomyolysis, coagulopathy, renal failure, and dysrhythmias. Alcohol intake, activity level, and type of clothing are among the modifiable factors associated with hypothermia, the agency stated.

In the United States, certain populations (e.g., alcoholics; drug users; the elderly, homeless, and chronically ill persons; and those with pre-existing heart disease) are at increased risk for dying from hypothermia, it continued.

The Mayo Clinic notes that hypothermia can be caused by exposure to cold weather but can also happen when someone is immersed in cold water.

When your body temperature drops, your heart, nervous system, and other organs cant work normally. Left untreated, hypothermia can eventually lead to complete failure of your heart and respiratory system and eventually to death, it stated.

The main treatment is using different methods to warm to the body back to a normal temperature, including removing wet clothing and sitting near a fire or heater.

Symptoms include shivering, slurred speech, slow breathing, confusion, bright and red skin, and a weak pulse. People with hypothermia generally arent aware of their condition because the symptoms begin gradually.

From NTD NewsA sign in a market window advertises the acceptance of food stamps on Oct. 7, 2010, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Ohio Father and Son Indicted for Alleged $2.7 Million Food Stamp Fraud

Two Ohio men were indicted on Jan. 22 for an alleged $2.7 million food stamp fraud scheme. The amount of fraud is itself noteworthy, but other aspects of the case are also unusual.

Amin M. Salem, 59, and his son Mohamed Salem, 32, were both indicted on one count of conspiracy to launder money and one count of engaging in real estate transactions using laundered food stamp proceeds.

The elder Salem, a convicted felon, was also charged with the illegal possession of a 12-gauge shotgun and AR-15 long rifle, in addition to operating an unregulated animal slaughterhouse.

For at least two years, Salem slaughtered lambs and goats on his property and sold misbranded and uninspected meat to customers, often in exchange for food stamp benefits, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Ohio.

Salem faces an additional count of making unpermitted discharges into a waterway, for habitually dumping discarded animal blood and body parts into a stream that emptied into the Black River and eventually Lake Erie.

The unsanitary discharges caught the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and an array of state law enforcement agencies.

This case demonstrates that the EPA and its law enforcement partners will pursue those who violate laws designed to protect the health of our communities and the environment, said Jennifer Lynn, special agent in charge of EPAs criminal enforcement program.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Salem secretly owned seven gas stations, and his son Mohamed managed their finances.

Each gas station had point-of-sale terminals to process Electronic Benefits Transaction cards, or EBT, as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

But Salem was prohibited from participating in the USDA Food and Nutrition Services SNAP retailer program due to previous convictions for conspiring to defraud the government, food stamp fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.

However, program rules were evaded by registering the EBT terminals to Mohamed Salem and another individual.

Food Stamp Trafficking

The men are accused of operating a highly lucrative food stamp trafficking fraud ring for six years.

According to the USDA, food stamp trafficking occurs when those issued food stamp EBT cards sell their food benefits to corrupt store vendors for cash.

Since program benefits are preloaded onto cards, which function like bank debit cards, an authorized store retailer can swipe the card on an EBT terminal and give cash back to the cardholder, often at a steep discount and without any actual food changing hands.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service then reimburses the store retailer, who pockets the difference of the amount charged to the EBT card and the lesser amount of cash given to the food stamp cardholder.

The USDAs most recent trafficking report estimates roughly $1.1 billion in annual trafficking fraud, with 11.8 percent of all authorized SNAP retailers engaging in the illegal practice.

The report, which spanned 2012 to 2014, indicated that nearly 40 percent of all food stamp trafficking occurred at gas station convenience stores and small groceries.

In all, the Salems are accused of processing $2.7 million in fraudulent benefits from 2010 to 2016 at Amin Salems seven Cleveland-area gas stations.

Money from the illegal SNAP transactions and meat sales were deposited into gas station banks accounts and forwarded to separate accounts controlled directly by the Salems.

This father and son duo engaged in various illegalities to include stealing from every taxpaying citizen by engaging in food stamp fraud, a program designed to help those in need, said Robert E. Hughes, FBI acting special agent.

U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said Amin Salem will be held accountable for years of disregarding our nations laws and flouting the rules to enrich himself.

Need for Reform

The United Council on Welfare Fraud, a national organization of SNAP investigators, administrators, and other stakeholders, describes food stamp fraud accountability as a Sisyphean effort of pushing an enormous boulder uphill, only to watch it come back down, again and again.

The group proposed a list of 23 reforms to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in May 2018, prior to federal Farm Bill negotiations, which encompasses SNAP funding.

Among them were requests to include states in the authorization of SNAP-approved retailers to overcome the lack of federal background checks, and to update program rules relating to the disqualification of fraudulent retailers.

Both items could potentially have impacted the six-year Ohio alleged fraud scheme, involving the previously convicted and disqualified Amin Salem.

According to UWCOF, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which administers the food stamp program, does not require sufficient information about where SNAP retailer proceeds are deposited. This provides ample opportunities for fraud including business identity theft and straw ownership (where funds are diverted to an account held by a permanently disqualified individual).

The group also asserted that FNS waits too long to remove a store from participation in SNAP after there is highly credible proof of SNAP fraud.

Under program rules, investigations of FNS-approved EBT retailers can only be conducted by federal agents from the USDA Office of the Inspector General, whereas state investigators are tasked with pursuing food stamp recipient fraud. The FNS typically removes approved retailers only after a criminal case is completed.

This failure to act allows untold millions of additional dollars to be spent, said UWCOF member Andrew McClenahan, a Florida regional director.

According to the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative research nonprofit, food stamp participation exploded in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, but without a corresponding increase in state and federal fraud investigatorsa problem that persists.

The number of FNS-approved stores jumped by 50 percent during the period, and at a time when the USDA OIGs investigative staff was at its lowest since 1978.David McCann and his wife Caitlin watched Shen Yun at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Jan. 25. (Jane Gray/The Epoch Times)

EDINBURGH, United KingdomAs the curtain rises and the performance begins, many theatergoers are struck by the beauty of Shen Yuns opening scene.

David McCann, Deputy Editor for The Times Scotland, described what he saw.

When the curtain rose, there was a sort of film of steam or smoke that lay over the dancers. That was quite a stunning start, he said.

He said it was an emotive beginning and was struck by the elegance of the dancers.

McCann watched Shen Yun at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Jan. 25 with his wife, Caitlin, a radio producer at the BBC.

She was stunned by the colors on stage.

Through classical Chinese dance, ethnic costumes, a live orchestra that blends Eastern and Western instruments, and a digital backdrop, Shen Yun takes audiences on a journey from ancient China to the modern day.

Formed in 2006, Shen Yun has a mission of reviving authentic Chinese culture that has almost been lost in China in recent years under communist rule.

One of the stories from the modern day called Goodness in the Face of Evil is about Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted in China under the communist regime since the late 1990s.

In the piece, a girl who practices Falun Dafa is jailed and subjected to forced organ harvesting. But in the end, her goodness triumphs over evil.

I wasnt expecting that. But I find that quite intriguing, I find that interesting, said David.

Dating back thousands of years, classical Chinese dance is one of the most expressive art forms in the world.

After watching the first half of the performance, David said he was particularly moved by the flowing sleeves.

Then the sleeves I mean that was unbelievable. That was really eye-catching, he said. Its been beautiful.

With reporting by Jane Gray.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time and has covered audience reactions since the companys inception in 2006.U.S President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Oval Office of the White House on June 30, 2017 in Washington, DC.(Olivier Douliery - Pool/Getty Images)

NATO Says Trumps Criticisms Helped Add $100 Billion to Alliance

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said President Donald Trumps repeated calls for other countries to increase their financial contributions have made a real impact after member nations agreed to fork out tens of billions of dollars in additional funding to their defense budgets.

Stoltenberg, speaking to Fox News Sunday on Jan. 27, said Trump has made clear his commitment to NATO and his request for allies to invest more. During his 2016 campaign and throughout his presidency, Trump continued to press members to spend more on their own defense rather than rely on U.S. forces and money for protection.

At a July 2018 meeting in Brussels, Trump pressed allies to fulfill their commitment to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

At the summit in July last year, we agreed to do more to step up and now we see the results, Stoltenberg said. By the end of next year, NATO allies will add hundred100 billion extra U.S. dollars toward defense. So we see some real money and some real results.

Turning to Twitter the same day, Trump promoted Stoltenbergs comments and lambasted the fake news media for their claiming Trumps calls for more spending from allies was hurting the alliance.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline, the president wrote. Its called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!

Stoltenberg acknowledged that Trumps comments were putting pressure on NATO but said his critiques were needed to combat Russia.

What hes doing is to help us adapt the alliance, which we need because we live in a more unpredictable world with a more assertive Russia using violence and force against a neighbor, Ukraine, Stoltenberg said. And therefore NATO has to adapt.

The United States on Jan. 24 said Russias display of a secret missile didnt prove that the nuclear-capable weapon is compliant with a 1987 arms treaty between the two nations. Russian military officials unveiled the nuclear-capable Novator 9M729 missile to journalists and foreign military attaches on Jan. 23.

The responsibility to preserve the treaty lies on Russia because Russia is now violating the treaty by developing and deploying new missiles, Stoltenberg said.Media Cant Admit TrumpRussia Sources Are Compromised, Feeding Them Fake News

Commentary

If youve followed the Spygate twists and turns since this whole thing began, youve noticed a recent trend in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) media complex: the number of over-hyped TrumpRussia collusion bombshell stories being published are coming faster and fasterand they quickly blow up and fall apart within just a few days.

As I detailed in recent columns, The Guardian and McClatchy News both had spectacular launches of bombshells that supposedly provided evidence, at long last, that Trump campaign affiliates were involved in WikiLeaks publication of stolen Hillary Clinton and DNC emails during the 2016 election. In both reports, anonymous sources claimed to have seen evidence proving the allegations, but provided nothing to the reporters to back up what they were alleging.

Thats where journalism is today. Reporters dont have to produce any evidence themselves for their stories before they go public with serious accusations against designated targets. In fact, in modern DNC media journalism, its often the case that reporters dont even need to see any of the evidence themselves before publishing a story.

All they need are anonymous sources who make a claim they saw something. The mere claim from a few anonymous sources is now enough to launch stories containing explosive accusations that come to dominate a daily or weekly news cycle  before they are exposed as being fake.

This brings me to just the latest media fiasco that erupted over the past few days: the BuzzFeed fake news report that the special counsel had documentary evidence proving President Donald Trump directed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Written by intrepid BuzzFeed reporters Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, the story quickly took off upon publication and dominated the national news for an entire day.

And then it fell apart.

This BuzzFeed story was so wrong that special counsel Robert Muellers office took the almost unprecedented step of issuing a public statement.

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.

Following the announcement from the special counsels office, many in the media finally stopped loudly promoting the BuzzFeed story and actually began carefully examining it.

It certainly didnt help BuzzFeeds case when the two reporters of the article couldnt even get their stories straight about the supposed evidence upon which their entire bombshell report was based. Leopold went on MSNBC and said during a phone interview that he had seen some of the documents; Cormier went on CNN and in his phone interview said hed seen no documents.

Trying to save the story, Cormier appeared with chief BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith on CNN, during which host Brian Stelter pressed them on the discrepancy. Leopold wasnt there; Smith claimed that he was out working on a story and wasnt available.

When Stelter directly asked the vital question about why Cormier said he hadnt seen any documents, while Leopold said he did, Cormier ludicrously says, I cant really get into, like, the details there. The host then presses Cormier about if hes seen any evidence since BuzzFeed published the story. Cormier states hes received more confirmation, which only means he went back to the anonymous sources who simply told him the same things over again.

He hasnt seen any more evidence because he didnt see any evidence before BuzzFeed hit the publish button on this fake news. Its becoming increasingly clear that Cormier and Leopold published this story based solely on claims made to them by anonymous sources.

Smith says the media outlet has spoken to the leakers again and is standing 100 percent behind its report. Note that Smith hasnt claimed that the leakers showed BuzzFeed any documents. He and Cormier continue to blather about BuzzFeeds awesome vetting process, which apparently doesnt include actually seeing anything that backs up the claims their sources are making.

All thats happened since the story blew up is that the anonymous sources totally pinky-swore they saw the documents they claim they did, and so BuzzFeed is choosing to believe them.

Thats a mistake, and let me explain why.

Compromised Sources

Most people are assuming that if the special counsels office is telling the truth and there really are no documents in that office saying what the sources claim, it means the sources are lying.

In fact, theres another explanation about why Leopolds and Cormiers sources claimed they saw documents that said Trump directed Cohen to lie, while the special counsels office still isnt lying about saying they dont have any such documents in their possession.

Thats because, in this explanation, the documents the leakers viewed actually do say Trump told Cohen to lie; its just that the documents they viewed werent real. They were fakes.

To explain what happened, let me go back to another massive media scandal from last year involving CNN. The network had multiple leakers who were sources for a bombshell report claiming that Donald Trump Jr. got an offer via email to get early access to stolen emails in the possession of WikiLeaks. That Trump Jr. was offered this early access was evident from the date on the email, Sept. 4, 2016.

After CNN published that report, the email was quickly produced, and to the absolute consternation of the entire DNC media complex, somehow, through some miracle, at least two independent leaking sources, who supposedly had looked at that same email, saw the same date on it, and subsequently reported that same date to CNNs reporters, got the date wrong. The actual email had the date of Sept. 14, 2016.

There are only two possibilities here:

1. Both sources saw the real email, both got the date wrong, and both gave the same wrong date to the reporters. This is most unlikely.

2. Both sources saw a fake email with a fake date on it and accurately reported what they saw to the CNN reporters.

Why has the news media refused to entertain that second possibility for even a second? It actually makes far more sense than the first possibility.

They wont entertain it because it means their trusted leaking sources have been compromised. And theyve been compromised for some time.

Its not just the political partisans inside the government playing the strategic leaking game anymore. As I detailed last year, there is a very serious, professional FBI leak-hunting unit at work, and laying traps using fake documents is just one of the things they have been doing.

Most people assume that once you catch a leaker, he or she is immediately arrested and charged. That only happens in some cases. In other cases, the leak hunters leave those people in place and either flip them into double agents or feed them fake information.

Thats right: You have FBI agents and counterintelligence operatives deliberately putting fake documents where leakers, who dont know theyve been spotted, will see them and pass them on to their media contacts.

So why would they leave in place some of these anonymous sources who are leaking to the media? Its so they can keep the media busy doing something useless.

Right now, there are many serious investigations underway beneath the surface that involve massive national-security issues. Not just the Uranium One and the Spygate-related investigations, there are others. There is always the danger that reporters are going to start getting in the way and blowing the cover of these investigations.

So how do you keep inquisitive media investigative reporters out of the way and distracted so they cant thwart anything you are really doing?

Its simple. You map out their leaking network, then you flip some of the leakers or send them new leakers, who are actually disinformation agents. You then keep all these media hacks super-busy doing what they really want to be doingfervently and enthusiastically chasing their Trump/Russia collusion Holy Grail, by having all the leakers you control constantly feeding them Fake News that is almost instantly debunked. And you keep them locked into doing this for months on end.

You turn the constant, relentless need for more TrumpRussia collusion stories against them by feeding them fake news.

It took some timeit didnt happen overnightbut now most of the leaking networks have been mapped out and the leakers who were left in placeeither willingly or nothave been turned into disinformation agents feeding constant fake leaks to the media. And the media is continuing to fall for it.

The DNC media complex is actually accelerating the shredding of any credibility it had left over the past few months. Its launched one quickly debunked TrumpRussia bombshell after another in recent months, and the pace of these absurd stories actually is increasing. This isnt an accident. Its being guided into doing this.

Someone told the media at the very beginning: The leaks are real; the news is fake.

They didnt listen. And theyre still not listening.

Brian Cates is a political pundit and writer based in southern Texas and the author of Nobody Asked For My Opinion  But Here It Is Anyway! He can be reached on Twitter at @drawandstrike

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.The statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square near the White House, on the morning of Dec. 2, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Man Accused of White House Attack Plot to Remain in Custody

ATLANTAA Georgia man accused of plotting to attack the White House with an antitank rocket and explosives must remain in custody while his case moves forward, a judge ruled Thursday, Jan. 24.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, 21, was arrested Jan. 16 in an FBI sting. He had traded his car for an antitank rocket, guns, and explosives and had shared plans to storm the White House with an undercover FBI agent and a confidential FBI source, authorities said.

He was indicted this week and is charged with attempting to damage or destroy a building owned by the United States using fire or an explosive, federal prosecutor Ryan Buchanan said in court.

The judge said Hasher Taheb is potentially dangerous and should remain locked up while his case proceeds Posted by Forsyth County News on Friday, January 25, 2019

Buchanan argued that there was no way to guarantee that Taheb would show up for court and would not be a danger to the community. Vionnette Johnson, a public defender representing Taheb, asked that he be placed under 24-hour lockdown at his mothers home in Cumming.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman denied Tahebs request for bond, saying he couldnt ensure Taheb wouldnt endanger the community.

Local law enforcement reached out to the FBI in March after getting a tip from a community member saying Taheb had adopted radical ideas.

An undercover FBI agent and a confidential FBI source both contacted Taheb after he posted an ad in August to sell his car, Buchanan said. Neither bought his car but both stayed in contact with Taheb, who mentioned traveling overseas and wanting to attack the White House and the Statue of Liberty, the prosecutor said.

During meetings in December, Taheb produced sketches he had made of the White House, described a detailed plan to attack it and ordered specific weapons through the undercover agent, according to Buchanan.

Taheb met up with the undercover agent and FBI source on Jan. 16 to rent a car and trade their vehicles for weapons, with the intention of driving to Washington to carry out the attack, Buchanan said.

But it was a setup. After Taheb loaded the weapons into the rental vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat, agents arrested him, according to a court filing.

The detail and specifics in Tahebs drawings and plans and the fact that he ordered weapons and traded his car for them demonstrated his intent to follow through with the attack, Buchanan said.

Taheb also met with two unidentified people on Dec. 27, and told them hed been kicked out of his mosque and used verses from the Quran to justify a violent attack, Buchanan said. He tried to recruit them to join him and asked them to keep the conversation private, Buchanan said.

I cant state enough the seriousness of this offense, Buchanan said, noting that the White House is a symbol of government and a popular tourist attraction. An attack there involving explosives has the potential for grave, grave damage.

Brian Mendelsohn, another public defender, questioned one of the FBI case agents, seeking to show that it was the undercover agent and FBI source who influenced Taheb and took some of the concrete steps to carry out the plan.

Johnson told the judge Taheb, who was born and raised in Georgia, has a close family, submitting to the court photos of him with his brother, sister, mother, and his father who died when he was 7. He graduated from high school in 2015 and had jobs in restaurants, in retail, and washing cars and had volunteered at his mosque, she said.

Taheb was talking about selling his car so he could travel abroad, and it wasnt until the FBI came along that it became a nonsensical plan to attack the White House, Johnson said. He knew nothing about guns, had no military training and didnt have the means to carry out an attack without the FBI, she said.

But the judge said theres evidence that Taheb actively instigated and planned an attack and basically wanted to create havoc and mayhem and harm as many people as possible.

Taheb is either extremely gullible and susceptible to fantastical plans or is the mastermind of what could have been a very disastrous situation, Baverman said. Either way, the judge said, hes potentially dangerous and should remain locked up while his case proceeds.

Taheb was attentive during the hearing but didnt show any emotion. Wearing an orange prison uniform with his hands and feet chained, Taheb smiled at his crying mother as he was led out of the courtroom.

By Kate BrumbackA Malaysia mass transit train against the backdrop of Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur on December 15, 2016. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Malaysia to Cancel $20 Billion China-Backed Rail Project

KUALA LUMPURMalaysias economics minister said on Jan. 26 the country will cancel its $20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project with contractor China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC).

Mohamed Azmin Ali said at a media event that the projects cost was too great, while also giving an assurance that Malaysia would welcome investment from China on a case by case basis.

The cabinet has made this decision because the cost to develop the ECRL is too big and we dont have (the) financial capacity, said Azmin.

The government was still determining how much to pay CCCC for the project cancellation fee, he said.

The interest on the project alone amounted to half a billion ringgit ($120 million) a year.

We cannot afford to bear this, so this project needs to be terminated without affecting our good relationship with China.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said last August that the rail project would be canceled for now, but the government has since said it was in negotiations with CCCC on the rail lines future.

He also announced in August the cancellation of another China-backed project, a natural gas pipeline in the East Malaysia state of Sabah.

CCCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters by phone and text message.

Since coming into power last May, Mahathir has repeatedly vowed to renegotiate or cancel what he calls unfair Chinese infrastructure deals authorized by his predecessor Najib Razak, whose near-decade long rule ended in electoral defeat amid a massive financial scandal.

The ECRL project was the centerpiece of Chinas infrastructure push in Malaysia but work had been suspended pending discussions over pricing and graft accusations.

Malaysias finance minister said last year that the cost of the ECRL project had been inflated, according to local financial newspaper The Edge.

The ECRL project is one of the biggest China has signed under its signature One Belt, One Road initiative, as well as one of state-owned contractor CCCCs largest railway projects.

In November, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission issued a report ranking the ECRL as the second-largest One Belt, One Road project by estimated cost, behind the $21.4 billion Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway project in Russia.

Reporting by Joseph SipalanPresident Donald Trump makes an announcement to reopen the government until Feb. 15, in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on Jan. 25, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Layoffs at BuzzFeed and HuffPost Are Due to Fake News and Bad Journalism, Trump Says

President Donald Trump said on Jan. 26 that the recent layoffs at BuzzFeed and HuffPost are the result of fake news and bad journalism and suggested that other outlets may suffer the same fate.

Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth! Trump wrote on Twitter.

Ax falls quickly at BuzzFeed and Huffpost! Headline, New York Post. Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2019

BuzzFeed and HuffPost laid off more than 1,000 employees in the week leading up to the presidents message. BuzzFeed laid off 15 percent of its workforce, or about 200 staffers, according to a memo sent to employees obtained by The New York Post. Verizon, HuffPosts parent company, announced a 7 percent workforce cut in its media group, which also contains Yahoo and AOL.

The president frequently criticizes the media for what many perceive as one-sided coverage of his presidency and false reporting. Days before the layoffs were announced at BuzzFeed, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller issued an unprecedented statement disputing a BuzzFeed story on Michael Cohen. HuffPost is known for regular negative coverage of virtually every aspect of the Trump presidency.

Since Trump took office, establishment media has churned out overwhelmingly negative coverage. According to the Media Research Center, the overall tone of coverage on Trump on network television remained at 90 percent negative in 2018, the same level measured in 2017.

In a pair of follow-up messages about the indictment of Roger Stone, Trump pointed to the opposition research dossier, a document paid for by the Clinton campaign and published, without verification, by BuzzFeed.

CBS reports that in the Roger Stone indictment, data was released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton. Oh really! What about the Fake and Unverified Dossier, a total phony con job, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign? the president wrote on Twitter.

CBS reports that in the Roger Stone indictment, data was released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton. Oh really! What about the Fake and Unverified Dossier, a total phony conjob, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign? What  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2019

What about all of the one-sided Fake Media coverage (collusion with Crooked H?) that I had to endure during my very successful presidential campaign. What about the now revealed bias by Facebook and many others. Roger Stone didnt even work for me anywhere near the Election!

The dossier Trump referenced was compiled by a former British spy using second- and third-hand sources with ties to the Kremlin. The former spy, Christopher Steel, admitted in court filings that he was hired to compile the document so that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of [the 2016 presidential] election.

On Jan. 26, British newspaper The Telegraph issued an apology to First Lady Melania Trump for an article about her which contained a number of false statements, which we accept should not have been published. The Telegraph removed the article and noted that the newspaper agreed to pay substantial damages and legal costs.Hope Turns to Anguish After Brazil Dam Collapse; 40 Dead

BRUMADINHO, BrazilHope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from a dam collapse in Brazil was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died.

By Saturday night, Jan. 26, when authorities called off rescue efforts until day break, the death toll stood at 40 dead with up to 300 people estimated to be missing. Throughout the day, helicopters flew low over areas buried by mud and firefighters worked to get to structures by digging.

Im angry. There is no way I can stay calm, said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale mining company for 20 years. My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if its bad.

Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometers and burying much in its path.

Employees of the mining complex owned and operated by Brazilian mining company Vale were eating lunch Friday afternoon when the dam gave way.

Throughout Saturday, scores of families in the city of Brumadinho desperately awaited word on their loved ones as Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais state, said that at this point most recovery efforts would entail pulling out bodies.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. On Saturday, rooftops poked above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads. After the dam collapse, some were evacuated from Brumadinho. Other residents of the affected areas barely escaped with their lives.

I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise, said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from where the dam collapsed.

In addition to the 40 bodies recovered as of Saturday night, 23 people were hospitalized, said authorities with the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive.

Rescuers pulled people out of the mud after a dam holding back mining waste collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil. As many as 200 people are still missing, AP reports pic.twitter.com/bq2UTiGUxI  TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) January 26, 2019

The company said in a statement Saturday, Jan. 26, that while 100 workers were accounted for, more than 200 workers were still missing. Fire officials at one point estimated the total number at close to 300.

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened.

For many, hope was evaporating.

I dont think he is alive, said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. Right now, I can only hope for a miracle of God.

Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as distressing, maddening.

Time is passing, she said. Its been 24 hours already.  I just dont want to think that he is under the mud.

The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread contamination.

Rupture of tailings dam of the Vale mining company occurred today, 25th Jan, resulting in flooding that destroyed many villages, forests and river in Minas Gerais, Brazil.#environment #disaster #brazil pic.twitter.com/fBCAZyWk9V  Bernardo Candido (@candidobm) January 25, 2019

According to Vales website, the waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais ordered the freezing of about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to present a report about how they would help victims.

Brazils Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate, saying someone is definitely at fault. Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Schvartsman said what happened Friday was a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.

Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who hadnt heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company.

Vale destroyed Mariana and now theyve destroyed Brumadinho, she said.

Daily Folha de S.Paulo reported Saturday that the dams mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to decreased risk. Preservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful.

On Twitter, President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to prevent more tragedies like Mariana and now Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored a lack of regulation, and many promised to fight any further deregulation.

Da Silva summed up what many felt by saying the accident was clearly negligence.

This could have been avoided if the company had taken the necessary precautions after the tragedy of Mariana three years ago, she said.

By Marcelo Silva De Sousa and Peter PrengamanA truck passes a 120 km/h (75 mph) speed limit sign on the A27 Autobahn near the northern German city of Bremen in this file photo. (Reuters/Morris Mac Matzen/File Photo)

Germans Favor Speed Limits for Autobahn

BERLINA majority of Germans favor setting maximum speed limits for Germanys famously fast Autobahns, according to a poll published on Jan. 26.

Fifty-two percent of those polled wanted vehicle speeds limited to between 120 kph and 140 kph (75 mph and 87 mph), the poll conducted by the Emnid institute and published by Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed. Forty-six percent opposed such limits.

A government-appointed committee studying the future of transport is looking at ending the no limits sections on motorways as part of a broader proposal to help Germany meet European Union emissions targets.

Not everyone is on board with the plans.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, a conservative from Bavaria, the home state of carmakers Daimler and Audi, a unit of Volkswagen, said he opposed setting speed limits on Germanys decades-old motorway network.

The principle of freedom has proven itself. Whoever wants to drive 120 can drive 120, and those who want to go faster can do that too. Why this constant micromanagement? he told the newspaper.

Scheuer said German highways were the safest in the world, and that imposing a speed limit would cut the countrys overall carbon emissions by less than 0.5 percent.

He said 7,640 km (4,747 miles) of German highwaysabout 30 percent of the totalalready had speed limits, and that he plans to meet with the committee to discuss its proposals, which are to be finalized by the end of March.

The goal is to think about the work theyre doing and to generate results, instead of revisiting old, rejected, and unrealistic demands like speed limits, he said.

The government is torn between the need to protect Germanys crucial car industry, buffeted by a series of costly emissions cheating scandals in recent years, and the need to cut greenhouse gases to meet EU and domestic emissions requirements.Emerson dos Santos stands on the remains of his mother's house in Brumadinho, Brazil, on Jan. 26, 2019. (Leo Correa/AP)

Fears That Second Dam Could Breach in Brazil Prompt Evacuations

BRUMADINHO, BrazilBrazilian officials on Jan. 27, suspended the search for potential survivors of a dam collapse that has killed at least 40 people amid fears that another dam nearby, owned by the same company was also at risk of breaching.

Firefighters called for the evacuation of some 24,000 people from the Brazilian town hit. Authorities were evacuating several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale.

Leave here, this is at risk! police officials told firefighters in a lower-lying area. Within a little while, more mud will fall.

The firefighters had been working to extract a cow found alive in the mud, but they pulled back on the order of police, leaving the animal.

While the ground search was stopped, helicopters continued to fly over the area, possibly so they would not be hit if another collapse happened.

Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens on Sunday, but no such alert came on Friday when the first dam collapsed.

I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren, she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for.

Even before the latest setbacks, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron-ore-mine waste from Fridays dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died.

Company employees at the mining complex were eating lunch Friday afternoon when the first dam gave way. By Saturday night, when authorities called off rescue efforts until daybreak, the dam-break death toll stood at 40 dead with up to 300 people estimated to be missing.

All day Saturday, helicopters flew low over areas encased by a river of mud and mining waste as firefighters dug frantically to get into buried structures.

Im angry. There is no way I can stay calm, said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if its bad.

Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for miles and burying much in its path.

She was one of scores of relatives in Brumadinho who desperately awaited word on their loved ones. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais State, said by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse.

The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.

According to Vales website, the waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

Over the weekend, state courts and the Justice Ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims.

Brazils Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate the mining dam collapse, saying someone is definitely at fault. Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Vale destroyed Mariana and now theyve destroyed Brumadinho, she said.

The Folia de S.Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that the dams mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to decreased risk. Conservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful.

On Twitter, new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to prevent more tragedies like Mariana and now Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation.

By Marcelo Silva De Sousa and Peter PrengamanIn a photo taken Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, Deborah Fuller poses for a photograph for The Associated Press with a pillow showing a photo of her late daughter, Sarah Fuller, left, who passed of a prescription drug overdose, and her during an interview in her home in West Berlin, N.J. The trial of the Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, who accused of scheming to bribe doctors into prescribing a powerful painkiller, is putting a spotlight on the nation's deadly opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Families Hoping for Justice From Prescription Bribes Trial

BOSTONDrug company executives werent satisfied with sales for their powerful painkiller, so they devised a plan, prosecutors say: Offer cash to doctors in exchange for prescriptions. Soon, the highly addictive fentanyl spray was flourishing, and executives were raking in millions.

Now, the companys wealthy founder is heading to trial in a case thats putting a spotlight on the federal governments efforts to go after those it says are responsible for fueling the deadly drug crisis.

It really is a day of reckoning, said Richard Hollawell, an attorney for the parents of a New Jersey woman who died of an overdose in 2016 after she was prescribed Subsys, a drug meant for cancer patients with severe pain.

John Kapoor, the wealthy founder and former chairman of Chandler, Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics Inc., is the highest-ranking pharmaceutical company figure to face trial amid the opioid epidemic thats claiming thousands of lives every year.

The 75-year-old, who resigned from the companys board of directors after his arrest, and the four other former Insys employees being tried alongside him are charged with racketeering conspiracy. Kapoor has said he committed no crimes and believes he will be vindicated at trial, which begins Jan. 18 in Bostons federal court.

In this Oct. 26, 2017 file photo, Insys Therapeutics founder John Kapoor leaves U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Kapoor goes on trial Monday, Jan 28, 2019, in U.S. District Court in Boston, accused of scheming to bribe doctors into writing a large number of prescriptions for the powerful fentanyl-based pain painkiller Subsys. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

But two of his top lieutenants, including the companys former chief executive, are now cooperating with prosecutors and are expected to tell jurors that Kapoor directed the scheme to boost profits.

Massachusetts is one of many states where Insys did business, but the states U.S. attorneys office is known for its success in complex health care cases.

Kapoors arrest in 2017 came the same day Republican President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. And prosecutors have touted the case against Kapoor and other Insys executives as illustrative of their work to fight the drug epidemic.

Kapoors lawyers, meanwhile, have blasted prosecutors for trying to link Insys to the drug crisis, accusing them of trying to poison the jury pool and noting that Subsys makes up a small fraction of the prescription opioid market.

Despite these uncontroverted facts, the government continues to perpetuate a false narrative in its public pronouncements about this case, his lawyers wrote in court documents.

The judge has since prohibited both sides of the case from talking to the news media.

In a photo taken Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, a small memorial in honor of Sarah Fuller, who passed of a prescription drug overdose, is displayed in the yard of her mother Deborah Fullers home in West Berlin, N.J. The trial of the Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, who accused of scheming to bribe doctors into prescribing a powerful painkiller, is putting a spotlight on the nations deadly opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Several Insys employees and doctors have already been convicted in other cases of participating in a kickback scheme. A number of states have sued the company, which also agreed last year to pay $150 million to settle a federal investigation into inappropriate sales.

Prosecutors say Insys targeted doctors across the country known for prescribing large numbers of opioids and paid them bribes and kickbacks that were disguised as speaking fees for events billed as opportunities for physicians to learn about the drug.

Insys staffers also misled insurers about patients medical conditions and posed as doctors office employees in order to get payment approved for the costly drug, prosecutors allege.

Lawsuits filed against the company say patients were given high doses of the potent narcotic even though they didnt have cancer, werent warned of the risks and became addicted before suffering through withdrawal when they were cut off.

These are normal, everyday, hardworking people who go to a pain clinic because they are suffering from chronic pain and they fell into this trap, said Michael Rainboth, a New Hampshire attorney who has brought several cases against Insys.

In a photo taken Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, Barbara Fuller, left, holds a sweatshirt honoring her late sister, Sarah Fuller, as their mother Deborah Fuller, right, looks on from their porch in West Berlin, N.J. The trial of the Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, who accused of scheming to bribe doctors into prescribing a powerful painkiller, is putting a spotlight on the nations deadly opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Sarah Fuller was being treated for fibromyalgia and back pain when an Insys sales representative and her doctor met with her at her doctors New Jersey office to persuade her to begin taking Subsys, according to a lawsuit her parents filed against Insys, Kapoor and others.

In an order to get Fuller approved for the drug, an Insys employee duped the pharmacy benefit manager into believing that the employee worked for the doctors office and that Fuller was suffering from cancer pain, the lawsuit says.

Fuller died of an overdose a little over a year later at age 32.

Sarah didnt have cancer, so there was no reason for her to have been on it, said her mother, Deborah Fuller. There are a lot of things she should have been able to do, but her life was cut short by people who just dont care, she said.

Fullers doctor isnt accused of getting kickbacks and hasnt been criminally charged. But she lost her license after state officials found she was indiscriminately prescribing the drug to patients without cancer.

In a photo taken Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, Deborah Fuller poses for a photograph for The Associated Press with a pillow showing a photo of her late daughter, Sarah Fuller, left, who passed of a prescription drug overdose, and her during an interview in her home in West Berlin, N.J. The trial of a Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder John Kapoor, who accused of scheming to bribe doctors into prescribing a powerful painkiller, is putting a spotlight on the nations deadly opioid crisis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Prosecutors allege the poorly attended speaking events were merely an excuse for doctors and their friends to have a fancy free meal. One New York doctor charged with getting kickbacks is accused of using marijuana and cocaine before and during some of the speaker programs he led.

They do not need to be good speakers, they need to write a lot of  (prescriptions for the fentanyl spray), former Insys sales executive Alec Burlakoff told a colleague, according to court documents. Burlakoff pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against Kapoor during the monthslong trial.

The far-reaching impact of the drug crisis will likely make it a difficult case for Kapoor, said David Schumacher, former deputy chief of the Massachusetts U.S. attorneys offices health care fraud unit.

At the same time, theres typically less evidence incriminating those at the top than lower-level employees who carry out the scheme, said Schumacher, now an attorney at Hooper, Lundy & Bookman.

The higher up you go in these trials, the harder it is, he said.

By Alanna Durkin RicherDakota Theriot, 21. Authorities in Louisiana say a shooting has left five people dead in two parishes.

Dakota Theriot, Wanted in 5 Louisiana Murders, Captured in Virginia

A suspect in five Louisiana shooting deaths has been arrested in Virginia, said officials on Jan. 27.

Dakota Theriot was captured in Richmond County, Virginia, said a statement from Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office and the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office.

Theriot, 21, was taken into custody after a night on the run following his being named as the suspect in the slayings of his girlfriend, his mother, his father, his girlfriends father, and her brother. The shootings took place in two separate incidents near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Update: SUSPECT IN CUSTODYSheriff Bobby Webre of the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office and Sheriff Jason Ard of the Posted by Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office on Sunday, January 27, 2019

Elizabeth and Keith Theriot were at home when the younger Theriot allegedly shot and killed them, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said.

When officials arrived on the scene, his parents, who were still alive, told officials that his son shot them, USA Today reported. His parents would later die at a nearby hospital.

He will be transported back to Ascension Parish at a later date and booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons, the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office said in a statement.

The officials added, Sheriff Webre would like to thank our law enforcement partners at the Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office, Greater Baton Rouge Crime Stoppers, the Louisiana State Police Fugitive Apprehension Task Force, and other agencies who assisted during this investigation.

Dakota lived briefly with his parents, but they told him to leave and not come back, Webre said.

The other three victims were identified as Billy Ernest, 43; his son, Tanner, 17; and daughter Summer, 20, in Livingston Parish, USA Today reported.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said Theriot was in a relationship with Summer Ernest.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, said they had just started dating.

SUSPECT ON THE RUN: Authorities believe a man accused of killing his parents and three others is heading to Mississippi and is considered armed and dangerous. >> http://bit.ly/2Tg3Cyp Posted by WAFB Channel 9 on Saturday, January 26, 2019

My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didnt get good vibes from him, DeYoung was quoted by USA Today as saying. My mom is a good judge of character and she just thought he was not good.

According to CNN, Theriot was also living with the Ernests for several weeks, but they also told him to leave and not return.

Following the shooting, a 7-year-old and 1-year-old child were found in the Ernests home, but they were not harmed. Theyre now with their mother, officials told the news network.

Officials think the shootings stemmed from a boyfriend [and] girlfriend type of dispute, according to WAFB.

This is probably one of the worst domestic violence incidents Ive seen in quite a while, Webre told station. For a young man to walk into a bedroom and kill his mother and his father, and then kill friends in Livingston that he had a connection with.

We do not have a motive, noted Ard, NPR reported. There is no red flags, no sign of anything.

There were no signs that Theriot would commit such an act. He had no other run-ins with the law other than a drug paraphernalia charge, officials said, CNN reported.

Prior to his arrest, Webre warned: I would not approach this vehicle. We feel no doubt that Dakota is going to be armed and dangerous and we need to bring him to justice really quick, reported The Associated Press.

Webre also said they believe the suspect is heading east and that there was no reason to think he was now targeting someone else but warned that because hes armed and dangerous, Anybody he comes into contact with could be a target.California Election Watchdog Hopes to Set Up Town Hall With President Trump

The Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) hopes to set up a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss safeguarding the integrity of the election process.

We believe we need a town hall, said Linda Paine, president of the EIPCa, at a recent meeting with Los Angeles County supporters. Wed like to ask Californians to help us call upon President Trump to hear us.

EIPCa held another public meeting on Jan. 28 in Tustin, California, to discuss the nonprofit organizations recent work, including a major legal victory against the state of California and Los Angeles County in cooperation with Judicial Watch.

Inside Judicial Watch: How JW Won the Battle for Election Integrity in Los Angeles County. JW signed a settlement agreement with California & Los Angeles County under which theyll begin removing up to 1.5 million(!) ineligible voters from the rolls.https://t.co/5AdnrYliGP  Judicial Watch  (@JudicialWatch) January 25, 2019

The ruling required state and county officials to remove as many as 1.5 million inactive registered names from the voter rolls in Los Angeles County alone.

This is far from the only issue discovered by the organization, but the initial success has caught the attention of similar groups elsewhere. Paine said she has received calls from other states asking how the organization was able to win the lawsuit and how they can do the same thing. She hopes a national meeting will help rally people around the country to get more involved in election integrity.

California is one of a number of states where ordinary citizens associated with nonpartisan groups are allowed to observe the entire election process. This has allowed EIPCa to train volunteers to go out and gather information about what they directly observed.

From the time [Trump] started the Commission on Election Integrity and Voter Fraud, we attempted to get our research and report directly to him, said Paine.

The presidents commission was started in May 2017 and disbanded in January 2018, as the Department of Homeland Security took over management of the issue. However, concerns over election fraud have not disappeared.

The recent legalization of a practice dubbed ballot harvesting and other changes to ballot counting were found to have helped flip seven U.S. House races from Republican to Democrat in California.

Ballot harvesting is ripe for fraud. We all have the right to vote but it should be done with integrity and at the polls as was intended. https://t.co/3XtRrVGljC  George Ragsdale (@georgeragsdale) January 19, 2019

Paine said EIPCa was strongly against AB-1921, which legalized ballot harvesting, and the group wrote a position paper opposing the measure because of the potential for vote by mail ballots to be manipulated.

Were very concerned about the law. We think it should be repealed, she said.

In addition, the group is worried about thousands of voters who did not receive their mail-in ballot, mismatches between state and county data regarding poll and mail ballot voters, a huge surge in the use of provisional ballots, and other problems.

This 2018 election made it very clear that something went terribly wrong, said Paine. It has to be fixed soon.

Many of these candidates and tax-raising ballot measures rely on ballot harvesting and other schemes. https://t.co/v7CzK0gKrJ  Omar Navarro for Congress Campaign (@PressGop) January 26, 2019

In November, the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office announced charges against nine individuals for allegedly paying homeless people to sign voter registration forms and ballot petitions. The defendants were accused of engaging in the solicitation of hundreds of false and/or forged signatures, stated a press release.

In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) reported that around 1,500 people including noncitizens were wrongly registered to vote through the states Motor Voter program during a five-month period.

Prior to that, the agency was found in September to have mishandled about 23,000 voters registration information, including giving people the wrong political party preference and sending nonqualified peoples information to the secretary of state.The unidentified woman was taken to London's Guy's Hospital after collapsing at the care home. (Google Street View)

Autistic Woman Diagnosed With HIV After Sexual Assault at Care Facility: Reports

An autistic woman in her 50s was reportedly sexually assaulted and diagnosed with HIV in northern London.

According to the Daily Mail in a report on Jan. 27, the alleged abuse occurred at the London facility and was carried out by a night shift worker.

The details were revealed in a report by the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board. The woman, who was identified only as Cassie in the report, was discovered to have HIV and lost her appetite from around 2007.

After a police investigation, they found the disease was sexually transmitted and added she lacked the mental capacity to consent to sexual activity.

A night shift worker abused the woman at the home in Brent, and another five residents may have been assaulted by the same worker between 2006 and 2016, the Mirror reported.

Cassie, also known as Adult B in the report, had been in the care of services since she was a child.

From around 2007, she began to suffer not only from a loss in appetite but also rashes, bruising, and teeth problems. Eventually, she was taken to Londons Guys Hospital after collapsing at the care home, the Mail reported.

This is a distressing case of a woman who should have been safe but has acquired a serious infection probably as a result of sexual abuse, professor Michael Preston-Shoot, chairman of the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board, was quoted by the Mirror as saying.

The board wishes to express its deep and sincere regret to Adult B and her family, he stated.

The police were not able to collect forensic evidence, meaning that the culprit will likely not be brought to justice.

Awful. She's one of up to six residents infected at the facility Posted by Daily Mail on Sunday, January 27, 2019

The investigation into the case was closed in 2017, said London police officials.

Due to the ten-year period the offense was alleged to have occurred between, no clear suspects could be identified and there were no forensic opportunities available, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service told the Mail. There are no lines of inquiry that require further examination at this time.

The home where the woman was reportedly abused, meanwhile, has been shuttered as a result. Five other residents are at new facilities.

All of the partners on the Safeguarding Adults Board, including the council, have expressed our deep and sincere regret to both Cassie and her family, a representative for Brent Council told the Mail.

We can confirm that Cassie is no longer living in a care home managed by the previous provider and the other five residents who lived there with her have also been moved to other homes with the co-operation of their families, the representative said.

It added that Cassie is now safe and happy.

We continue to monitor her progress regularly as well as maintaining contact with her family. We no longer place any residents in care homes run by this provider, the Brent Council said.

The safeguarding board worked closely with police, the statement said.

The Council takes its responsibilities to vulnerable adults very seriously and is continuously working to improve the support we provide to vulnerable adults in Brent, including setting up a team that specifically focuses on reviewing the quality of care and support for individuals in residential placements, and integrating the health and social care learning disability teams into a single team providing holistic support to adults with a learning disability, it added.

Update in Arizona

The report comes just days after a nurse in Arizona was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman at a long-term health care facility. The woman gave birth to a child in December 2018.

Nathan Sutherland, 36, was arrested three days after police said he was responsible for the crime. He had worked at Hacienda HealthCare since 2012 and his last day on the job was Jan. 20, AZFamily reported.

Police said DNA tests were administered, and Sutherlands DNA positively matched the babys DNA.Autistic Child Was Locked Out of School on Purpose: Family

A Washington state principal was placed on leave as authorities launched an investigation after an autistic student was allegedly locked out of his school on purpose.

Surveillance footage captured the 11-year-old boy wandering outside Springbrook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2018, for about 15 minutes. The video appears to show staff members refuse to let him in, with one teacher escorting him back outside when he tries to go in with a group of students after recess.

At one point, he walks up to a classroom window and looks in, but the teacher closed the blinds.

Every time I watch this video it breaks my heart, Lovine Montgomery, grandmother to the autistic child, told KIRO 7.

Montgomery said the situation started when her grandson asked to use the bathroom. Special needs students are allowed to use the bathroom at any time but the principal allegedly refused to let him. When he tried to pass her, she took a step back, but the child gave up and went out the back door.

Thats when she locked him out, Montgomery said.

During the time the child was locked out, the principal told staff over the PA system to not let him in, family members said. He wandered around to the front door, but that was locked as well.

After about 15 minutes, another student let him in. According to Montgomery and other family members, that student was suspended for two days.

Imagine how my son was feeling? This is bullying, the autistic boys mother Javohn Perry said.

After confirming it had launched an investigation and placed the principal on administrative leave, the Kent School District declined to comment on the situation, reported KIRO 7.

Child with autism locked out of school https://t.co/bM9kmrpLsR  KIRO 7 (@KIRO7Seattle) January 23, 2019

Child With Autism Seen Being Dragged Through School

Video footage posted by a school in Lexington, Kentucky, shows staff members dragging an autistic child through the facility on Sept. 14. The boys mother, however, accused the school of abusing the boy, claiming he had cuts and bruises.

Jo Grayson said that her autistic 11-year-old son, Thatcher, is mostly non-verbal, epileptic, celiac, and has hypermobility, Lex18 reported.

My son was having a meltdown. He refused to get up off the gym floor, and a teacher and a school nurse dragged him down a hallway until they could get him to the resource classroom, Grayson told the station. The teacher had messaged me that they had to pick him off of the gym floor earlier in the day. But she did not say that he was dragged down the hallway, added Grayson.

Grayson said that the video that was provided to her (seen below) appears the boy with his service dog being picked up and dragged down a hallway after refusing to get up. Later, she said that he suffered bruises and cuts.

The Fayette County School System said that an investigation is underway.

Grayson told WSAZ that she felt the response wasnt necessary: Its just made me more mad. How could somebody who works with a person with disabilities lose their cool like that and just be, you know, not thinking about how this is going to not only physically hurt a child but psychologically hurt them as well?

We are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our students and take any and all reports of this nature seriously. While we cannot discuss individual personnel matters, we can say that in a situation involving these types of allegations, we would make a report to the cabinet for health and family services and place the employee involved on administrative leave until the investigation is complete, the school said in a statement.

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department told the outlet that a nurse involved in the incident was placed on administrative leave.

A school health nurse has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation. We continue to work with Fayette County Public Schools to investigate the matter. We cannot comment further at this time, the agency said.

From NTD News

>Auschwitz Survivors Pay Homage as World Remembers Holocaust

WARSAW, PolandThe world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide of Jews, Roma, and others during World War II.

In Poland, which was under Nazi German occupation during the war, a far-right activist who has been imprisoned for burning the effigy of a Jew gathered with other nationalists Sunday outside the former death camp of Auschwitz ahead of official ceremonies remembering the 1.1 million people murdered there.

Since last years observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that todays threats do not come solely from the fringe.

In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are traveling the road to authoritarianism, said Ira Forman, the groups senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust.

The Polish nationalist, Piotr Rybak, said his group was protesting the official observances at Auschwitz, claiming they remember only murdered Jews and not murdered Poles.

That accusation is incorrect. The observances at the state-run memorial site pay homage each Jan. 27 to all of the camps victims, both Jewish and gentile.

Counter-protesters at Auschwitz on Sunday held up a Fascism Stop sign and an Israeli flag, while police kept the two groups apart.

Former Auschwitz prisoners placed flowers Sunday at an execution wall at Auschwitz. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter P, the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

Early in World War II, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces.

Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma, and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in an op-ed in the weekly Welt am Sonntag that across Europe populists are propagating nationalism and far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust.

We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy, Maas wrote.

Over the past year, Germany has seen a rising number of often violent attacks against Jews carried out by neo-Nazis and Muslims, prompting the government to appoint a commissioner against anti-Semitism and fund a national registration office for anti-Semitic hate crimes.

The clashes of views at Auschwitz come amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering by German hands during the war is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

However, recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during World War II is declining generally.

A new study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52 percent of millennials in Canada cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62 percent of millennials did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Its findings were similar to a similar study carried out a year before in the United States.

In Britain, a new poll by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place.

The poll of more than 2,000 people released Sunday also found that nearly two-thirds of those polled either did not know how many Jews had been murdered or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust.

Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking, chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said.

Israels Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said in its Global Antisemitism Report released Sunday that 13 Jews were murdered in fatal attacks in 2018, marking the highest number of Jews murdered since a wave of attacks on Argentinian Jews in the 1990s.

The report found that around 70 percent of anti-Jewish attacks were anti-Israel in nature and that most of the attacks were led by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

The United Nations recognized Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.

By Vanessa GeraArmed forces of the Philippines, a soldier views the site inside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the southern Philippines after two bombs exploded Jan. 27, 2019. (WESMINCOM Armed Forces of the Philippines Via AP)

27 Dead, 77 injured After Twin Bombings in Southern Philippines

MANILA, PhilippinesTwo bombs tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where extremists are active, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 70 during a Sunday Mass, officials said. The blast came six days after a local plebiscite on the formation of a new autonomous region that came out of a peace agreement between the government and Filipino Muslims returned an overwhelming yes vote.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said. The blasts blew away the entrance to the cathedral and ripped through the main hall, shredding to pieces the pews and toppling other doors.

Police said at least 27 people died and 77 were wounded. The dead included 20 civilians and seven soldiers, said Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, police director for ARMM.

Photos showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans, said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy, the office of President Rodrigo Duterte said in Manila.

It said that the enemies of the state boldly challenged the governments capability to secure the safety of citizens in that region. The (Armed Forces of the Philippines) will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf extremists, also known as ISIS-Philippines Province, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings. A Catholic bishop, Benjamin de Jesus, was gunned down by suspected extremists outside the cathedral in 1997.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

It came nearly a week after locals endorsed the formation of the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region to replace ARMM in Mindanao in a plebiscite. The Bangsamoro Organic Law came out of a peace agreement signed between the Duterte government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014 to end nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion in Mindanao that has left 150,000 people dead.

STATEMENT BY ARMM GOVERNOR MUJIV HATAMAN ON THE RATIFICATION OF BANGSAMORO ORGANIC LAW On Friday night, the Commission Posted by ARMM Bureau of Public Information on Saturday, January 26, 2019

While most of the population in the area approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, and Isabela City in Basilan were the only areas to reject it. The province is home to a rival Islamic faction to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front thats opposed to the peace deal as well as smaller terrorist cells that not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact, which Asian geopolitical expert Richard Javad Heydarian said in an article published by Al Jazeera is the Catholic-majority nations first step towards the creation of a Muslim-majority sub-state entity.

What we are witnessing is a major turning point in the long-tortured history of Mindanao. https://t.co/g67MqkhWXS  #AJOpinion, by @Richeydarian  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 25, 2019

However, there are concerns that small numbers of ISIS-linked extremists from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with communist or other insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.

Read More Philippines Duterte Sends Warning to Communists

Communist revolutionists in the New Peoples Army have now been fighting for their own separate state in the Phillipines for decades, reported the Manila Times.

This bomb attack was done in a place of peace and worship, and it comes at a time when we are preparing for another stage of the peace process in Mindanao, said Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

ARMM Gov Mujiv Hataman's Statement on Jolo Cathedral bombingA bomb attack has just killed eight and injured several Posted by ARMM Bureau of Public Information on Saturday, January 26, 2019

Let us continue working for peace in the region. Violence should not deter us from continuing our work to establish a lasting peace in our homeland, he said.

Security officials were looking at different threat groups and they still cant say if this has something to do with the just concluded plebiscite, Albayalde, the national police chief, told ABS-CBN TV network.

Aside from the small Abu Sayyaf group, other extremist groups in Sulu include a small band of young jihadis aligned with the ISIS group, which has also carried out assaults, including ransom kidnappings and beheadings.

Abu Sayyaf extremists are still holding at least five hostagesa Dutch national, two Malaysians, an Indonesian and a Filipinoin their jungle bases mostly near Sulus Patikul town, not far from Jolo.

Government forces have pressed on sporadic offensives to crush the extremists, including those in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people.

Aditional reporting by Epoch Times staff."If we don't get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on Feb. 15, again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency," the president warned on Friday.

There was a time when Republicans and Democrats approached issues from different angles, but with the goal always being what was best for America and the American people. Not any longer. Now Democrats care only for Democrats and Republicans, for Republicans. Let's rephrase that: Democrats in power only care about other Democrats in power and how to keep them there. The same is true for the Republicans, who only worry about staying in power.

Washington has become a cesspool of greed, envy, chicanery, opportunism, cheating, back-stabbing and on and on. To hell with the people back home. We are to be used solely as pawns in the ultimate game of political gotcha.

For 35 days, 800,000 Americans were furloughed as the Democrats in Congress and the Republican president played a game of tag, you're it. No one in Washington truly cared about those Americans facing financial ruin through no fault of their own. If they did, the shutdown would not have happened in the first place. Now, 400,000 Americans who went to work every day without pay will be paid. Another 400,000 American's who stayed home will be paid.John Paul loved to learn...specifically chemistry, advanced mathematics, and nuclear physics. His supervisor told his family that he had just picked up a book on organic chemistry to read in his spare time. He was known for reading books like this just for the challenge. He loved to experiment and to reverse engineer anything, just to see how it worked. Once, at the end of a garage sale for St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, he asked his mother to pick up all of the old computers being thrown away so that he could remove the computer boards and extract gold from them. He was adventurous and impulsive and loved experimenting with new things. To this end, he recently took up blacksmithing and forging. He once saw a Mythbusters episode that said music made plants grow, so he played music for them every day and proved that it worked. He never wanted to waste time since he believed there was always a new challenge or experiment to do. When he came home for Christmas in 2018, the first thing he did was build a heat shield out of several household compounds and chemicals. He then wrapped it around a plastic cup and used a blow torch on it to show that the cup would be protected. It was! He and a friend were trying to develop a new type of more efficient rocket fuel and were discussing starting a company once they retired from the Navy. John Paul never let up. He always gave 100% in whatever he was doing and was determined to do everything right and to be able to improve on any project or challenge.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 26)  The House of Representatives summoned Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno again, this time over the controversial 75-billion worth of additional funds in the proposed 2019 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

In a statement Saturday, Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said the House Appropriations Committee has invited Diokno to appear in the continuation of the hearing on the alleged anomalous insertion in the national budget on Tuesday, January 29.

This despite Diokno "snubbing congressional hearings for three times already." The budget chief in December last year skipped the House probe on the purported "insertions," upon President Rodrigo Duterte's orders.

READ: House panel to subpoena DPWH officials in 'flood control scam' probe

"It is time for Sec. Diokno to explain fully his role in the conspiracy that stalled the congressional deliberations of the 2019 budget," Andaya said in a statement.

"Hindi na puwedeng magtago si Sec. Diokno. Kailangan na niyang ipaliwanag sa mambabatas at sa publiko kung ano ang puno't dulo ng mga insertions sa national budget," he added.

[Translation: Sec. Diokno is no longer allowed to hide. He needs to explain to the lawmakers and the public what's the root cause of the insertions in the national budget.]

READ: Diokno: Keep 75-B adjustment in DPWH budget

READ: Diokno: Budget 'insertion' issue a smokescreen for pork

Andaya said the decision to summon Diokno came after DPWH Secretary Mark Villar confirmed that the budget chief was the brains behind the additional funds. Villar had also said the DPWH was not notified regarding the additional amount and he only knew about the insertion after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the National Expenditure Program.

Andaya added the committee has obtained a copy of Diokno's letter to Villar informing the latter about the decision of DBM to cut the DPWH's proposed budget from 652 million to 480 million, which Diokno said is the "final budget level to be submitted for Congressional review."

The Senate on January 15 removed the 75-billion additional amount.

Other officials of the budget department, as well as representatives from Land Bank of the Philippines and Commission on Audit, were also invited to attend the hearing, Andaya said.

"We are trying to find the last remaining pieces of this multibillion-peso jigzaw puzzle created by Sec. Diokno," the lawmaker said.

The congressional bicameral committee began deliberating a unified House and Senate version of the proposed national budget on Tuesday, January 22. Andaya said the committee "will surely take up this issue" in its succeeding meeting.Wootton said the school has sent out about 20,000 letters of admission, largely through the top 10 percent rule and other A&M automatic admission pools. He said that due in part to the Texas Common Application, many students apply to several schools.

"As we move through the fall, those automatics -- plus those who have come through review and are clearly above our historical norms for acceptance -- we have already offered admission to 20,000 students, and will likely offer to about 2,000 more. Our admissions magicians help us get a sense that to get to 10,500 students, that means about 22,000 offers," Wootton said.

He said that about 4,000 undergraduates-to-be have already accepted an admission offer from A&M, and that others who have been or will be accepted have until May 1 to confirm attendance.

For fall 2014, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune, the school set a goal of increasing its freshman enrollment by about 1,500 to around 9,700. It ended up exceeding that, with about 10,300 freshmen accepting offers of admission that year."I would like to see somebody who is out there doing things, someone like my girl. Someone like her who will carry on," Joy Coalson said.

The amount of the scholarship is still being established, but it will be available for the 2019-2020 academic year. Students can get more information from their school counselor.

As the future educators apply for the scholarship, Joy Coalson said, she wants the seniors to know her daughter was a dedicated teacher.

"Those in the community who remember her will remember her well," she said, even though her daughter's wreck occurred in January of her second year. "I know from the comments and everything, she made a wonderful impression on them. I am happy for that. She just believed in helping young people. She was great at it."

Joy Coalson also was a classroom teacher before moving into counseling, and she observed her daughter teaching.

"She was a better teacher than I could have ever hoped to be. I'm very proud of her and what she accomplished," Joy Coalson said.

Her daughter's influence will continue with other students who have that same dedication to students.

"She just needs to have that legacy behind her. She needs that. She deserves that," Coalson said.

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."She's probably the only one I would come here and act goofy with," Chris Giordano said.

Addison couldn't pick which part of the night she enjoyed most, saying she liked all of it, including the cookie decorating, craft making and dancing. For Chris Giordano, not only was this night fun, but it was also an important opportunity to act as a positive male role model.

"This gives me a good chance to take her out and show her how she should be treated by someone when she's on a date some day," he said.

Dion McInnis, a freelance photographer in Bryan and software developer for Texas A&M, brought his three daughters -- Lillian, 8, Heidi, 5, and Annaliese, 3 -- to Saturday's event. Though he's been to the dance before, this was the first time he could take all three girls.

"It's fun, and we can spend some quality time with our dad," Lillian said. ".... My dad is funny, nice and he's handsome."

"I like dancing, and I like making cookies," Annaliese added.

Lillian said she and her dad share a love for photography. She also likes when her father, an Aggie alumnus, takes the family to Student Bonfire each year. The family also have memberships with the Children's Museum, so they can make visits there together,Take three talented brothers who grew up in Germany's Rhineland, add an exciting young violinist and combine them with the music of Beethoven, Bartok and Brahms, and you have the recipe for a magnificent concert.

That's exactly what we'll have Tuesday night when the Friends of Chamber Music present the Schumann Quartet in a free concert at A&M United Methodist Church, 417 University Drive. Part of the Community Chamber Concerts, the Schumann Quartet will perform at 7 p.m. Best of all, the concert is free.

In addition, there will be free child care and a reception following the concert.

"With no ifs or buts, the Schumanns are among the best quartets in the world," raved Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Harald Eggebrecht wrote in the Suddeutsche Zeitung that, "Fire and energy. The Schumann Quartet plays staggeringly well ... without doubt one of the very best formations among today's abundance of quartets ... with sparkling virtuosity and a willingness to astonish."A College Station man with a history of vehicle burglary charges was arrested early Saturday after authorities say he stole from at least two vehicles along Southwest Parkway.

According to College Station police, officers have been investigating an increase in vehicle burglary reports from apartments and homes along Southwest Parkway. Around 2 a.m. Saturday, authorities noticed Teron Duwand Pratt, 44, leaving an apartment complex in the 500 block of Southwest Parkway. Pratt, who was a person of interest in the burglaries, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for criminal trespass. Authorities searched the area and found two vehicles that had just been burglarized. Authorities said Pratt had with him items that belonged to owners of both those vehicles.

He is charged with two counts of burglary of a vehicle with previous convictions, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in a state jail and $10,000 in fines. He is also charged with criminal trespass. He is being held at the Brazos County Jail on $7,000 bond.

Court records show Pratt was sentenced to six years in prison on five burglary of a vehicle charges in 2010.Authorities are searching for a man accused of impersonating a police officer who is believed to have pulled a car over and left with the victim's driver's license.

According to Bryan police, around 8:45 p.m. Friday, a person called authorities and said a man pretending to be an officer took the victim's driver's license. The victim said they were traveling in the area of Texas 21 and Jackson Street when an unmarked car with red and blue lights stopped them. The driver approached the victim and spoke to them briefly before taking their driver's license and leaving.

The suspect is described as being white, 6'0" and weighing about 230 pounds. He was wearing a long-sleeve black shirt and carrying a gun on his hip. His car is described as an older model white Crown Victoria with red and blue lights positioned by the rearview mirror and a spotlight positioned on the driver's side. The car had no markings, and the wheels had black rims.

Anyone with information is asked to call Bryan police at 361-3888. Police remind citizens that officers performing traffic stops will be driving marked vehicles, wearing uniforms and will identify themselves upon approach.There's currently no timetable for when e-scooters could appear in Bryan, Dunn said, but the city is in discussions with several companies. He said a pilot program, probably for a small area such as Downtown Bryan, would be tested for a short time before a detailed ordinance would be brought back to the City Council for approval.

"We feel like it could be a real positive thing," Dunn said. "We've heard a lot of people are interested in having access to a system, but we know there's a lot of considerations."

One of those is avoiding a conflict with Texas A&M's bike-share program. After splitting with Ofo, the university's new program with VeoRide currently has 7,000 users and 1,200 bikes. A total of 2,500 bikes is expected in the next two weeks. Like College Station, the university also has no plans to allow e-scooters.

According to Texas A&M Transportation Services, "there may come a time in the future when electrified mobility may be offered, but not at this time."

"Safety is our primary concern and secondary is having sufficient infrastructure in place on campus for travel paths, parking locations and access for people employed to collect and charge devices before we would consider a program like this," the department said in a statement.Astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent almost a full year in space living and working on the International Space Station, has written a children's book about his life and his space adventures.

My Journey to the Stars is an easy reading book for children in grades 1-3. It is available in hardcover ($12.95) or paperback ($4.99), published by Random House as part of its Step into Reading series.

Kelly said he was a "terrible student" in school, but the school principal encouraged him not to give up. When Scott read the book The Right Stuff, he said it changed his life. He became determined to be an astronaut. After many years of training, he and his twin brother, Mark, joined NASA in 1996.

Scandal

The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland, a disturbing story of abuse that began in Texas and ended in Iowa, is now available in paperback (Harper, $16.99).

The book, by Dan Barry, tells how a well-intentioned program that put intellectually disabled men to work on a turkey farm in Texas and won a national award in 1968 eventually became the source of a scandal that rocked Iowa and the nation.Two Texas A&M University professors recently were named recipients of the 2019 Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence Award, the most prestigious faculty honor bestowed by Texas A&M University.

The award is conferred upon distinguished faculty by Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young and reflects the recipients' accomplishments in advancing knowledge in the classroom.

The awards went to Paul Busch, professor of marketing and Texas A&M University System Regents Professor, and Rick Giardino, professor of geology and geophysics, water management and hydrological science.

The Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence designation was created in 2003 to recognize educators in perpetuity for their sustained excellence and fundamental contributions to student advancement in independent thinking, creative imagination, lifetime learning and knowledge based on discovery.

Each award carries a one-time, after-tax stipend of $25,000. Award winners bear the designation for the remainder of their career. To be eligible, nominees must be full-time faculty and hold the rank of lecturer, senior lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, professor or distinguished professor.Lauren Loehr and Lindsey Loehr, both of Caldwell, were among 27 students of Victoria College's associate degree nursing program honored during a graduation ceremony on Dec. 13 in Victoria.Click the image to the left and log in to get your exclusive reader perks.Oneonta, NY (13820)

Today

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 58F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 58F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.Towanda, PA (18848)

Today

Showers with the chance of some thunder this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers with the chance of some thunder this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.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.2019 Mazda3 Hatchback and Sedan Preview - Specs, Prices and Options







IRVINE, Calif. (January 23, 2019)  Mazda3 is part of a long line of groundbreaking Mazda vehicles that have helped make it the best-selling Mazda in the world. The 2019 Mazda3 sets a new milestone as the first production model to lead Mazda into a bold new era. Blending beautiful design and exhilarating driving dynamics, Mazda3 was developed to inspire and create an emotional bond with its customers in two very distinct ways. A completely new design approach was taken when styling the sedan and hatchback, each embodying strikingly different personalities.

Mazdas further-evolved KODO design is skillfully applied to the sedans hood, cabin and trunk and evokes an air of elegance and sense of sleekness. The body features a horizontal flow that accentuates the look of a wide and low stance, while presenting a calmness that appeals to a sophisticated audience. In contrast, the hatchback is meant to be sportier and more emotional, featuring aggressive body sides and C-pillars that do away with traditional body lines and adopt constantly shifting reflections. The hatchback design is topped with a roofline that suggests speed and helps express a powerful presence. Exclusive to the Mazda3 hatchback, Polymetal Gray is a newly developed exterior paint option that fuses the hard appearance of metal with the glossy, smoothness of plastic to create an entirely new expression of style.

Mazdas design ethos continues with an all-new interior and cockpit environment that helps drivers experience a perfect fit and connectedness while driving the 2019 Mazda3. The center console has been redesigned with the shift knob, new commander control and armrest moved forward, while the cupholders are repositioned to the front. This new configuration is meant to provide a more natural feeling for any driver. Mazda3 is the first to introduce an all-new 8.8-inch MAZDA CONNECTTMinfotainment screen to the brand, which comes standard on all models. Also standard is an all-new 3-way layout 8-speaker sound system, new steering wheel design featuring illuminated controls and switches, 7-inch TFT reconfigurable gauge cluster display, LED headlights and taillights, Bluetooth phone and audio pairing, HD radio, remote keyless entry, push-button ignition, electronic parking brake, new knee air bags, rearview camera and two USB audio inputs, amongst a long list of other standard features. The 2019 Mazda3 offers two new interior color options. First is a new Greige leatherette interior color that combines the cool tones of gray with the soft feel of beige to create a pleasing sensation of vitality, warmth and sophistication. The new Red leather interior color is exclusive to the Mazda3 hatchback and offers a deep, vivid appearance that helps heighten the emotion of the exterior design.

Mazda3 sedan comes standard with 16-inch alloy wheels, cloth seating surfaces and door trims, power windows with one-touch down/up feature. Mazda3 hatchback is standard with a rear roof spoiler, 18-inch alloy wheels, Apple CarPlayTMand Android AutoTMinfotainment technologies, leatherette seating surfaces and door trims, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, automatic dual-zone climate control, power windows with one-touch driver down/up feature, rain-sensing windshield wipers and Mazda Advanced Keyless Entry. Standard i-ACTIVSENSE safety features in the Mazda3 hatchback includes an all-new, first for the brand Driver Attention Alert that displays an alert and sound when it detects driver fatigue or decreased attentiveness, along with Smart City Brake Support, Smart Brake Support, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning with Lane-Keep Assist, High Beam Control and Mazda Radar Cruise Control.

The 2019 Mazda3 will be introducing new package options meant to appeal to a wide range of customers. In addition to the standard models, Mazda3 sedan will be available in Select, Preferred and Premium packages, while Mazda3 hatchback will be offered in Preferred and Premium packages.

Mazda3 Select package, exclusively for sedan models, will be available with i-ACTIV all-wheel drive. This package incorporates features such as Apple CarPlayTMand Android AutoTMinfotainment technologies, leatherette seating surfaces and door trims, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, automatic dual-zone climate control, 18-inch wheels, automatic on/off headlights, rain-sensing windshield wipers and Mazda Advanced Keyless Entry. Mazda3 Select package i-ACTIVSENSE safety features include new Driver Attention Alert, Smart City Brake Support, Smart Brake Support, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning with Lane-Keep Assist, High Beam Control and Mazda Radar Cruise Control with Stop & Go function.

Building upon the features found in standard models and Mazda3 Select package, the Mazda3 Preferred package is highlighted by a BOSE premium 12-speaker audio system with custom tuning to provide more powerful bass and higher audio quality. Other upgrades to the audio are an aluminum speaker grille, shark fin antenna and SiriusXM satellite radio with a three-month trial subscription. The driver is comforted with 8-way power drivers seat, power lumbar support and 2-position driver memory system, while also including heated front seats. This package also features new memory position door mirrors.

The lineup is topped with the Mazda3 Premium package, which is also available with i-ACTIV all-wheel drive and features windshield-projected Active Driving Display, leather seats, power moonroof, signature front and rear LED lighting and Adaptive Front-lighting System. Mazda3 Premium package sedan includes paddle shifters while Mazda3 Premium hatchback offers 18-inch black finish alloy wheels and paddle shifters when equipped with SKYACTIV-DRIVE six-speed automatic transmission.

As a brand that keeps purist drivers in mind, Mazda continues to champion the manual transmission, offering Mazda3 Premium package front-wheel drive hatchbacks with an available SKYACTIV-MT six-speed manual transmission.

All 2019 Mazda3s come equipped with a SKYACTIV-G 2.5-liter engine that is rated to deliver 186 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 186 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. While front-wheel drive is standard, Mazdas predictive i-ACTIV all-wheel drive is available on the Mazda3 hatchback and Mazda3 sedan option packages. To build upon the fuel efficiency Mazdas SKYACTIV engines are known for, cylinder-deactivation technology is standard on all Mazda3 hatchbacks, Mazda3 Premium package sedans and Mazda3 sedans equipped with i-ACTIV all-wheel drive. Along with G-Vectoring Control Plus vehicle dynamic enhancements standard on all 2019 Mazda3 models, various improvements, such as redesigned seats, retuned body structure and an all-new suspension, absorb road vibrations to help provide a smoother and more enjoyable driving experience.

MSRP[2] for all models is as follows:

TRIM HATCHBACK SEDAN Mazda3 FWD 6AT $23,600 $21,000 Mazda3 Select package FWD 6AT  $22,600 Mazda3 Preferred package FWD 6AT $25,200 $24,200 Mazda3 Premium package FWD 6MT $27,500  Mazda3 Premium package FWD 6AT $27,500 $26,500 Mazda3 AWD 6AT $25,000  Mazda3 Select package AWD 6AT  $24,000 Mazda3 Preferred package AWD 6AT $26,600 $25,600 Mazda3 Premium package AWD 6AT $28,900 $27,900

PREMIUM PAINT COLORS

Soul Red Crystal $595 Machine Gray Metallic $300 Snowflake White Pearl Mica $200

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States and Mexico through nearly 700 dealers. Operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.WASHINGTON-Plan to visit our neighbors to the North or South this year? GEICO reminds you that you may need special auto coverage. Canadian and Mexican laws require drivers to have auto insurance that is valid in their respective countries.

In Mexico , U.S. auto insurance policies are not valid. According to the U.S. Department of State, youll need Mexican auto insurance, which is required for all vehicles as of Jan. 1, 2019. Mexican liability insurance is required as well. Youll also need to apply for a temporary vehicle import permit with Mexican customs or at a Mexican Consulate in the U.S. If you are traveling to Mexico, contact GEICO Insurance Agency to obtain the coverage you need!

, U.S. auto insurance policies are not valid. According to the U.S. Department of State, youll need Mexican auto insurance, which is required for all vehicles as of Jan. 1, 2019. Mexican liability insurance is required as well. Youll also need to apply for a temporary vehicle import permit with Mexican customs or at a Mexican Consulate in the U.S. If you are traveling to Mexico, contact GEICO Insurance Agency to obtain the coverage you need! In Canada, auto insurance coverage in the U.S. does extend to policies and vehicles based in the U.S. and driven in Canada; however, before crossing the border, you will want to confirm that with your auto insurer.

When going to either location, dont forget that youll need to bring the following items:

1. Proof of U.S. citizenship

2. Proof of auto insurance

3. Current vehicle registration

And another helpful tip: Distances and speeds are posted in kilometers per hour (KPM) in Canada and Mexico, not miles per hour (MPH) as in the U.S.! Learn more about car insurance coverage for Mexico, Canada, or any overseas destination, or contact a GEICO licensed agent for additional information.

About GEICO

GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company), the second-largest auto insurer in the U.S., was founded in 1936 and insures more than 27 million vehicles.Berlin: Germany will spend tens of billions of dollars to end its use of coal power within two decades, if a plan agreed to by representatives of the power industry, environmental movement, miners and local interest groups becomes official policy.

The deal, hammered out on Saturday after more than 20 hours of intense, often fractious negotiating among a 28-member commission appointed last year by Chancellor Angela Merkel, would be one of the most significant energy transformations a nation has yet attempted in the face of climate change.

Thirty countries have already set out proposals to cut their carbon emissions by eliminating coal, the dirtiest and cheapest fossil fuel, including Britain, Canada and Sweden. But none of those plans are of the scale laid out in Germany, an industrial giant that currently relies on coal for almost a third of its energy needs.

The commission's plan now requires approval from the leaders of four states affected and the federal government.Paris: Thousands of "yellow vest" demonstrators marched through Paris and other cities on Saturday on the 11th weekend of action against the government, suggesting President Emmanuel Macron has yet to defuse public opposition to some of his policies.

The protests were mostly peaceful but there were sporadic clashes at the end of the Paris march at Bastille square, and incidents elsewhere around France, with a combined 22,000 people attending as of the early afternoon, the interior ministry said.

The protests - named after the fluorescent jackets French motorists are required to carry in their cars - began in mid-November over plans to raise fuel taxes before developing into a broader revolt against the government that mobilised tens of thousands each weekend.

Smoke fills the air as police gather in Republique Square in Paris during a yellow vest protest on Saturday. Credit:AP

Turnout was lower than last Saturday, particularly in Paris. However, in a change of approach, some protesters have also called for an evening gathering, dubbed "Yellow Night", at Republic square, a common venue for demonstrations in Paris.Beijing: Defence Minister Christopher Pyne is expected to use a speech in Singapore on Monday to warn that the world can't afford to be divided into Cold War blocs.

His address to an international security forum coincides with reports the Trump administration is seeking to do just that. Australia was likely the first ally to feel the pressure.

Australian Minister of Defence Christopher Pyne reviewing the PLA guards of honour at the headquarters of Defence Ministry in Beijing last week. Credit:Sanghee Liu

On Sunday, The New York Times published an investigation into Washington's campaign against Chinese telecommunications company Huawei that found US allies were being leaned on to exclude the company from their 5G networks: Poland had been warned that accepting Chinese technology in would result in a deal for a US troop base to be called off.

Germany was told using Huawei would risk the NATO alliance.The high-profile independent candidate challenging Tony Abbott in Warringah has distanced herself from sealing formal preference deals with rival candidates, as the former prime minister digs in to save his position in Parliament.

Four-time Winter Olympian-turned barrister Zali Steggall faces an uphill battle to defeat Mr Abbott at the May federal election and will need to rely on preferences to win the blue-ribbon Sydney seat.

Zali Steggall launches her run for Tony Abbott's seat, Warringah, on Sunday. Credit:Brook Mitchell

Ms Steggall told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age she would welcome preferences from the large field of candidates expected to challenge Mr Abbott but would not tell her supporters how to vote.

"I am a true independent in that I will ask people to vote 1 for me but we are an educated electorate and we would leave it to the public to decide what they do beyond that," she said.Security experts warn Beijing could spread propaganda in the lead-up to the federal election through popular social messaging service WeChat, which is facing less government scrutiny than US tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter.

The International Cyber Policy Institute  part of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute  has warned WeChat's 1.5 million monthly Australian users could be exposed to disinformation, censorship and propaganda on the closely regulated Chinese messaging service.

While security analysts are divided about how serious a threat the Chinese Communist Party will pose come May, they point out WeChat is subject to strict controls from Beijing.

Governments in Europe and North America have argued social media platforms must tackle the spread of fake news aimed at disrupting election campaigns, such as the Kremlin's efforts to undermine the 2016 US presidential election.

"What's particularly concerning about WeChat is that it is subject to Chinese censorship and control," ASPI senior cybersecurity analyst Tom Uren said. "It's not just censorship  sometimes they promote particular issues so it's a way of controlling public debate."Federal Labor is stepping up its environmental pitch to voters, promising a new $200 million fund to restore the health of urban rivers and waterways.

The fund, which would run over five years, is targeted at 'boots on the ground' community and environment action groups already working on river health, but would also be open to local government authorities wanting to undertake larger scale remediation.

The Cooks River near Canterbury. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Announcing the fund on Sunday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it would help reverse the years of damage done by treating urban rivers, creeks and wetlands like "industrial waste drains, ending up polluted, dirty and littered with shopping trolleys rather than being safe spaces for families, kids and school groups".

Projects eligible for funding could include building and restoring wetlands, revegetation and tree-planting, waste capture, and reversing concreting of urban waterways.Victorian state schools are knocking back hundreds of frustrated families as controversial changes to enrolment rules start to bite.

From this year, schools are not entitled to extra portable classrooms if 50 per cent or more of their students do not live locally.

Emma, 8, and Ethan, 10, were rejected from the state school of their choice due to controversial changes to enrolment rules. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

While the move is aimed at restricting the growth of larger schools, and encouraging families to attend their closest school, critics have accused the state government of winding back school choice.

Thomas Mitchell Primary School principal John Hurley said hed been forced to turn away about 30 students this year due to the new rules.Five new subjects including psychology, food and nutrition and design are being offered in Queensland high schools for the first time in 2019.

The changes come as Queensland moves away from the Overall Position (OP) rating system towards the nationally adopted Australian Tertiary Admission Rank system from 2020.

A food and nutrition course is a new subject offered in Queensland state high schools in 2019. Credit:Martinina

The shift prompted a change in the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), which is the formal statement of student achievement in Year 11 and 12 used for higher education and career entry after school.

That in turn prompted a review of Queenslands secondary school curriculum, resulting in five new subjects being offered for Year 11 and 12 students from this year.Rips are the number one threat to life on beaches, says the report, yet 29 per cent surveyed don't know how to look for a rip, 5 per cent said there were no rips on their beach, another 17 per cent said they were too lazy to look and others said they found them hard to identify. Only 11 per cent said they swim between the flags. Loading While drownings from rips exceed all deaths from sharks, floods and cyclones, the report found most people were nearly as scared of sharks and crocodiles (even in southern states where crocodiles are usually found in the zoo) as rips. Not me. Of those who die in a rip, young men account for 86 per cent of fatal drownings, with the average age 36. Most fatalities occurred on summer afternoons. Yet the survey said male beach goers were generally overconfident. Of those who said they could identify a rip, 21 per cent couldn't and 32 per cent got it wrong half the time. Like many of those people who have drowned this year, nearly 60 per cent of those who fatally drowned in a rip lived more than 50 km from the location. And 51 per cent were either swimming on an unpatrolled beach or outside the flags.

Because I am an average swimmer with one saving grace, good floating skills, I know my limits, swimming in the flags and rarely venturing too far out. In a survey, 29 per cent of people said they did not know how to look for a rip. At Queenscliff, Mr Hayes watched as members of the public strolled down the beach to the water's edge, often ignoring the warnings signs and entering the smooth waters that mark a rip. "Many are pool swimmers and are confident in the pool. They see there are no waves, and they think 'happy days' and they think it is safe," Mr Hayes said. "There are no waves because it is deeper and the water is racing out." Only a few weeks ago, Mr Hayes spotted a mother and a child only metres from the shore who were stuck in a rip practically in spitting distance of the shore, a sandbank and the patrolled area.

The woman was immobilised with fear, in waist-deep water, and the child was screaming. Loading "Even a very strong swimmer couldn't swim against (a rip)," said Mr Hayes, who has been rescuing people since he was a boy doing Nippers on the north coast. "People swim against it, they get fatigued, panic sets in, and they lose the ability to think clearly, therefore up goes the heart rate, respiratory rate, and they lose it. The trick is to stay calm and raise your arm - and float and go with it." With 36 coastal drownings already this summer, 12 higher than the 14-year average, I was reluctant when Mr Hayes urged me to experience what I was reporting. Even knowing what to expect, and Mr Hayes an arm's length away, it was hard to stay calm. Within seconds of entering the water, the current carried us about 40 metres out and to the north so quickly and smoothly it was frightening to see how far we travelled in a few seconds. As much as I tried to follow the advice to treat the rip like a ride - which board riders use as an express train beyond the waves - panic set in for a few seconds when the water started churning with sand in deep water. When it was clear that it was pointless to attempt to swim out of it, there was nothing to do but float and wait for it - like the dentist's drill - to be over.

The rip carried us beyond the waves where we could swim back to shore (or call for help if we had needed it). The next day Mr Hayes called me to stress that the rip had been mild by most standards, yet panic could have killed me. Because people are often unaware how quickly a current is carrying them, Surf Life Saving recommends that beach goers check whether they are moving by having a reference point - the flags or a landmark on the shore. Why you shouldn't panic, says Dr Rip Professor Rob Brander - a rip expert often called Dr Rip - says panic is what kills people in rips. Heres why you should keep calm and float it out, says Professor Brander from the

School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at

UNSW:

1. They won't pull you under the water (i.e. they are not undertow); 2. They won't take you across the ocean; 3. They won't take you into shark-infested waters; 4. They are just taking you for a ride; 5. There's a good chance they'll re-circulate you into shallow water in minutes;There seems to be a current fascination with all things Japanese.

Numerous Australians are escaping the summer heat to hit the ski slopes in Japan in a trend that has seen Australian tourism to Japan increase by 170% in the past 5 years.

Open banking has many benefits. Credit:

Marie Kondos tidying techniques have conquered Netflix and a 100-year-old practice of daily financial journaling called Kakeibo is teaching many how to set and stick to financial goals.

As we approach the introduction of open banking, fintech entrepreneur Paul Chapman is betting that the Japanese experience has a lot to teach Australians.Abbe Holmes loved her 25-year-old daughter Suyee but she just couldnt live with her anymore.

I dont think Ive been angrier with anyone in my whole life than I have been with Suyee. She tips me into absolute rage, says Abbe, who is an actor and voice over artist.

"I don't think I've been angrier with anyone in my whole life."

The friction between mother and daughter had been growing for a while, but the pressures that come with buying and moving into a new house pushed their relationship to the brink.

Abbe gave Suyee an ultimatum: move out or attend relationship counselling.A woman in a figure-hugging, fire-engine red dress, pursued by a hungry press pack, is heading to court. The four gripping episodes of the BBC-ABC thriller, The Cry, deal with why she's on trial and has become the target of a media frenzy.

The drama spans two continents and several time periods, its narrative locking together like fragments of a jigsaw puzzle: information about characters and events is revealed gradually, some is strategically withheld.

Asher Keddie in The Cry. Credit:Lachlan Moore

Early on, Joanna (Jenna Coleman), the woman in red, offers a glimpse of what's swirling around in her head behind the impassive expression. To a therapist (Shauna Macdonald), she explains, "Of all of the things that could happen to a person, there's few things that could be worse . . . Everyone just wants to look at you, everyone wants to judge you, stare at you, look for clues, so maybe it won't happen to them. That's when this began: two faces, two Joannas."

Skilfully adapted from Helen Fitzgerald's novel by Jacquelin Perske (Love My Way, Spirited), The Cry is described by producer Claire Mundell as "a psychological thriller", and it's a richly complex mix. About a couple coping with a new baby, a woman struggling with post-natal depression, a custody dispute, a relationship triangle and a missing child."The accuracy wasn't great so I switched it off. It was a few bucks I wasn't getting anything out of."

Before he decided to pull the plug, he opted for the voice-to-text option.

Senior lecturer of Sociology at Monash University Brady Robards says voicemails are an ineffective and awkward means of communicating. Credit:Chris Hopkins

"Honestly, no one ever left messages for me. When they did, it was stuff that could really easily be in a text," says the 33-year-old senior sociology lecturer at Monash University.

The 2016 Deloitte Mobile Consumer survey found that more than one in four Australians were no longer using their smartphones to make "traditional" phone calls, with 27 per cent saying they made fewer than one phone call per week, instead preferring text-based communication and data-rich plans.

"The telephone has evolved to such an extent that for many its original purpose is now defunct," the report said, noting that nearly nine out of 10 Australians regard text messaging as the preferred method of regular communication.

Dr Robards is part of a growing number of people who are discontinuing their voicemail, following the lead of Wall Street's JP Morgan who cut the service for employees in 2015 claiming "hardly anyone uses voicemail any more".

In Australia, voicemail became widely adopted with the launch of Telstra's free MessageBank service in 1994. As our mobile habits changed, so too did voicemail services.

Voice2Text was introduced in 2009, with machine learning promising to pick up Aussie slang and diverse accents. But the service came with a fee starting at $5 per month and inaccurate translations caused users to lose faith.Email marketing provider Campaign Monitor has resurfaced following a period of restructuring, with fresh plans to attack the Australian enterprise market following the acquisition of two rival marketing platforms.

Inside Campaign Monitor's Sydney offices.

The firm, considered one of the nation's most promising tech startups, is preparing a major advertising blitz as it seeks to remind its customers of its Australian roots, and push back against rivals such as Mailchimp who have made inroads into local marketing budgets.

"We now have a series of platforms that can serve every market around the planet," CEO Wellford Dillard said.

"[Australia] has been a focus it hasn't stopped, it's not just the roots and the soul of the business, but we have some unique functionality that is very valuable to the Australian market."Not that long ago, BuzzFeed was considered digital media's great success story. The $US1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) valued, viral content upstart had cracked the internet code and was destined for an IPO that would have captivated the media world.

Now, it is under fire from its critics, shedding jobs, and facing an uncertain future, including in Australia.

Jonah Peretti, founder and chief executive officer of BuzzFeed Inc. Credit:Jonah Peretti

Whatever you think about its content (despite a push into hard news, it's still best known for its lists and quizzes) BuzzFeed is probably the defining media company of the Facebook era.

That's why the news last week that the company would cut 200 jobs, or 15 per cent of its workforce, was highly significant.The newspaper sector may have finally turned a corner, but draconian defamation laws, filter bubbles caused by Twitter and Facebook, and ongoing pressure on business models still pose a risk to the free press and democracy, according to the journalists honoured in this year's Australia Day awards.

Adele Ferguson, decorated investigative journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, who was appointed a member of the Order of Australia, said there were signs that the media industry had found its footing after a tough few years.

Newspapers are critical for democracy Credit:Wolter Peeters

"I think its reached a bit of a tipping point," she said. "Even though there have been all these forces against it in recent years, the business model [collapse], [defamation] litigation, we are seeing some bright spots [including] philanthropists coming forward to support investigative journalism."

Chris Mitchell, the former editor in chief of News Corp's The Australian newspaper, who was also honoured on Australia Day, agreed there were encouraging signs for newspapers. "I was troubled by the collapse in revenue, but advertisers do seem to be finally seeing the value of print," he said.Businesses have been sounding the alarm over Britain's impending departure from the European Union ever since its approval in a 2016 referendum. But this week, with lawmakers unable to agree on any sort of orderly plan as the March deadline for a deal nears, their warnings rang louder - and some decided to act.

Airbus and Bentley called the prospect of Brexit without an agreement a "killer" and a "disgrace." Sony, concerned about Brexit-generated disruptions, said it would move its European headquarters from Surrey to the Netherlands. Other companies are furiously stockpiling supplies, while civil servants are scrambling to prepare for emergency arrangements.

The EU and British flags wave at the demonstrations area near the parliament building in London, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. British lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the European Union on Tuesday, plunging the Brexit process into chaos and triggering a no-confidence vote that could topple her government. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) Credit:FRANK AUGSTEIN

While politicians may yet pull together a deal before March 29, analysts say businesses have run out of time. The precarious state of affairs is already damaging the economy.

"Until the middle of last year, it was a slow burn - we lost about 2 to 3 percent of output," said Amit Kara, head of British macroeconomic research at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. "My feeling is it has gathered a little bit of pace since then."Major banks removed hundreds of ATMs in the latest year, as the industry responded to the scrapping of withdrawal fees and consumers further reduced their use of cash.

In a trend that is tipped to ramp up as digital payments take off, all of the big four have made cuts to their ATM networks in the latest 12 months for which figures are available, with one lender culling one in four machines.

Declining use of cash and the end of ATM fees is causing more cash machines to be removed. Credit:Photographic

The decline of ATMs, which were first rolled out by banks in the 1980s, has been predicted by experts for several years, but it is only fairly recently that numbers have begun to fall meaningfully from their peak of 32,879 machines in late 2016.

Each of the big four banks confirmed its ATM fleet is shrinking, and industry-wide figures from the Australian Payments Network show that in the year to September, the total number of ATMs around the country fell by almost 2000, or 6 per cent, to 30,219.IN: Current Gov. John Bel Edwards (D)

Edwards announced his intent to run for re-election after just six months into his first term in office. The former chairman of the Louisiana House Democratic Caucus beat Republicans David Vitter, Scott Angelle and Jay Dardenne in the fall of 2015.

The only Democratic governor in the Deep South has garnered support from some of the GOP's biggest names, including a former GOP gubernatorial candidate, two top aides to former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and several of the party's A-List donors.

Edwards, a West Point graduate who previously served in the state House but was not widely known outside of the State Capitol before his gubernatorial run, has remained popular in most polls since taking office in January 2016.Governor John Bel Edwards speaks during Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the New Orleans Jazz Market in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. City officials, school marching bands, sororities, fraternities, and more groups, marched from the New Orleans Jazz Market to A.L. Davis Park for "Remember, Celebrate, ActO MLK Day of Play.If you were wondering what gave Democrat John Bel Edwards a fighting chance to become governor of Louisiana, a deeply red state, the answer could be summed up with, hes not Andrew Cuomo.

Last Tuesday, on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the New York governor signed a law allowing late-term abortions up until the babys due date in many cases. Edwards has taken us another way.

Late-term abortions are barbaric, cruel and extremely painful for the unborn child. The Lozier Institute, a pro-life advocacy group, reports "Abortions performed after 20 weeks gestation, are gruesome surgical techniques involving crushing, dismemberment and removal of the babys body from a womans uterus, mere weeks before, or even after, the baby reaches a developmental age of potential viability outside the mother.

When the bill passed, video shows the New York Assembly Chamber erupting into cheers, with politicians and audience members applauding the legislation. Cuomo directed the One World Trade Center and other landmarks in the state to be lit in pink Tuesday to celebrate the passage of "Reproductive Health Act. The hubris of using the word "health" to describe a law that will end the lives of so many innocent babies says a lot of how far our culture has gone when it comes to valuing life.

This legislation steeped in the death culture is not coming from the hard-left of the Democratic Party. Cuomo is considered mainstream among Democrats. Whats tragic is currently there are more black babies who are killed by abortionists annually than are born in New York City each year. This legislation will only make it worse.

Unlike Cuomo, and most other elected Democrats, Edwards has been a courageous champion for the unborn. He recently signed a law that will take effect Monday requiring doctors performing abortions to have permission to use nearby hospitals and have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.

Thanks in part to Edwards leadership on the anti-abortion cause, Louisiana only has three remaining abortion clinics, down from 7 as recently as 2006. The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion rights group based out of, where else, the state of New York, claims upholding the admitting privileges law would result in the closing of more Louisiana abortion clinics. Good. More lives saved. More destinies fulfilled.

Edwards' consistent and steady leadership on protecting the unborn in Louisiana has saved lives. Figures show that 10,322 babies died at the hands of abortionists in Louisiana in 2014. In 2017, the number of babies losing their lives in abortion clinics in our state dropped to 8,706. Still too many.

Edwards has also fought Planned Parenthoods attempt to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. The case is pending currently in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And Edwards recently signed legislation banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The previous ban was 20 weeks. The constitutionality of the law is currently being fought out in the courts.

Louisiana could not be more different from New York when it comes to the issue of protecting the unborn. During the 2018 legislative session, Edwards signed seven anti-abortion bills into law. They were all easily passed by the Legislature.

Pro-abortion rights Louisiana Democrats hid in the shadows when it came to voting on legislation impacting abortion. State Sen. Karen Carter-Peterson, of New Orleans, also current chairwoman of the Democratic Party, missed five of the seven votes on abortion during the 2018 session.

State Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, a Democrat from Baton Rouge, missed seven out of seven votes on abortion in 2018. House Democrats Barbara Norton, Walt Leger, Sam Jenkins and Neil Abramson missed five of the seven abortion-related votes. Since 2010, Abramson has missed 32 of 35 votes on the issue.

Democrat House member Dorothy Hill missed six of the seven votes, and Gary Carter missed all seven this past session. Since first elected in 2016, Carter has missed 23 of 25 votes on abortion legislation.

Louisiana, unlike New York, will end up on the right side of history when it comes to protecting the defenseless, vulnerable and precious babies living in their mothers womb.

Email Dan Fagan at faganshow@gmail.com. Twitter: @FaganShow.Louisiana voters will head to the polls this fall to decide whether Gov. John Bel Edwards will have a second term in office beginning in 2020. But the past week marked a pivotal point in the 2019 race, with campaigns roaring full-steam ahead to Election Day.

The race for Louisiana governor: Tell us what issues are important to you in 2019 Louisiana voters head to the polls in less than a year to decide whether Gov. John Bel Edwards will have a second term in office or if they wa

Edwards launched a three-minute web video making his pitch for a second term. One of his Republican challengers, Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, held meet-and-greet events across south Louisiana. And another, U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, of Alto, held fundraisers in north Louisiana and Baton Rouge.

The campaigns also have begun fully staffing up, with seasoned political operatives taking up posts across all three.

Other candidates could still enter the race  the qualifying period ends in August  but all signs are pointing to Edwards, Rispone and Abraham as the main figures in Louisianas gubernatorial election this cycle with the clock winding down for many others to competitively enter the race.

If anything, Im surprised that it took as long as it did for that to happen, Edwards said in a meeting with The Advocate editorial board this week, when asked about the race fully coming into motion this month.

Several Republicans, including Attorney General Jeff Landry, spent last fall calling for U.S. Sen. John Kennedy to announce whether he would run so that members of the GOP could start to rally around known Republican candidates in the race. Kennedy officially announced the first week of December that he would not run  a move that surprised many observers.

Edwards announced shortly after he won the 2015 race that he would seek a second term, and he has spent the years since building up his campaign war chest.

Louisiana is moving in the right direction, but weve still got lots of work to do, Edwards said in the video that rolled out Tuesday. Serving as your governor has been one of the greatest honors of my life, and with your support, I look forward to four more years of even greater prosperity and opportunities.

Gov. John Bel Edwards makes it official with roll out of re-election campaign pitch video Gov. John Bel Edwards has made his re-election campaign official with the release of a three-minute ad making his case for a second term and u

The three-minute ad doesnt identify Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, as a Democrat. Its timing coincides with the launch of Edwards new campaign website johnbelforlouisiana.com, which prominently highlights his military career, family history in law enforcement and the "bipartisan" effort to stabilize the state budget but, again, doesn't mention his alliance with the Democratic Party.

I realize this campaign wont be easy, Edwards said in the ad, predicting that out-of-state interest groups supporting his opponents will spend millions attacking him.

The election is Oct. 12. A Nov. 16 runoff will take place between the top two vote-getters if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary.

Edwards, who won what was thought to be a long-shot campaign for governor in 2015, has found himself at odds with several Republican officeholders, including Landry and Kennedy, as well as the state House Republican leadership.

Edwards took office facing a significant state budget shortfall that threatened deep cuts to higher education and health care. Seven special sessions and three regular legislative sessions later, the state finished its most recent budget year with a surplus, thanks largely to an increase in the state sales tax that lawmakers approved.

As tough as things are, we still are not Washington, D.C., he told The Advocate. I dont want to become Washington, D.C. because it is incredibly dysfunctional.

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I think weve done a lot of good things in a bipartisan way here."

Gubernatorial campaigns staffing up: Abraham rolls out team, Rispone and Edwards making moves The main candidates that have entered the race for Louisiana governor are quickly staffing up with less than nine months to go until Election Day.

But there are others on the opposing side who say that, although Edwards has positioned himself on the more conservative end of the spectrum, compared with national Democrats, Louisiana needs a Republican governor. Edwards is the only Democrat statewide office holder in Louisiana, and recent statewide elections have largely been blowouts in favor of Republican candidates.

Abraham's campaign quickly struck back at the governor's re-election video.

"Louisiana has seen the largest tax increase in state history, years of out-migration by the thousands, one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, failing grades for fiscal policy, and one of the weakest economies in the U.S. under John Bel Edwards watch," he said. "If he's bragging about those as first term achievements, I'd hate to see what the next four years would look like. Louisiana is clearly on the wrong path, and the only way to correct it is with a new governor."

The Republican Governors Association, which has identified the Louisiana election as a top priority this year, also quickly released a statement striking back at Edwards after his announcement video became public. This year's race for Louisiana governor is expected to draw significant national interest and has already been highlighted as a priority for the GOP nationally.

"John Bel Edwards does not deserve a second term as Louisianas chief executive, association spokesman John Burke said. After three years of John Bel Edwards regressive, anti-growth agenda, its clear that Louisiana needs a fresh start and new leadership in 2019.

Rispone, who has sought to highlight his background as a successful businessman, said during a recent meet-and-greet with Greater Baton Rouge Young Republicans that he has received encouragement from Republican governors in other states who also were in business before deciding to seek public office.

We have a challenge on our hands, he said. Its very difficult to replace an incumbent.

Edwards previously served in the state House as a representative from his hometown in Tangipahoa Parish. He has spent the past three years actively fundraising and announced earlier this month that he had raised $3.8 million in 2018, giving the governor more than $8.3 million cash-on-hand as he makes the case for a second term.

Abraham, who is in his third term in Congress, hasn't revealed how much he has raised ahead of next month's reporting deadline.

Rep. Abraham pledged not to collect his congressional salary -- but now does; here's why Running for Congress in 2014 as a political outsider, Dr. Ralph Abraham made a pledge that resonated with voters in his conservative northeast

Meanwhile, Rispone has said he's committed to devoting millions of his own money to his campaign. Earlier this month, Rispone's team announced that the ISC Constructors co-founder would report $5.5 million cash on hand, about $5 million of which Rispone has put up himself. He raised half a million after establishing a campaign committee in October.

Asked about his opponents, Edwards noted that both had supported Edwards' predecessor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for president while his home-state favorability ratings plunged.

I think if you listen to what they say, it becomes clear that they liked where we were three years ago, Edwards said. Im quite sure that the majority of the people in our state are not going to be going back.A man suspected of killing his parents and three other people -- including a girl he was dating -- has been captured after an intense manhunt spanning several states, authorities in Louisiana said Sunday.

Dakota Theriot, 21, was located in Virginia early Sunday after fleeing the day before, according to a statement by Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre and Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard.

Theriot was arrested by the Richmond County Sheriffs Office at his grandmother's home in the 14000 block of Historyland Highway in Warsaw, Virginia, according to Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B Smith.

Smith said his deputies were at the home checking the property when Theriot arrived there, pointing a firearm out of the window. The deputies sought cover and challenged Theriot, who then dropped the firearm upon their commands and was taken into custody without incident.

Theriot was transported to the Northern Neck Regional Jail. He will be brought back to Ascension Parish to be booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons.

Authorities said Theriot first shot and killed three people -- the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father -- in Livingston Parish before taking her fathers truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents.

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Authorities have identified the victims in Livingston Parish as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20. Ard said Summer Ernest and Dakota Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family for a few weeks.

Authorities earlier identified the other two victims as Theriots parents  Keith, 50, and Elizabeth Theriot, 50, of Gonzales.

They were shot in their trailer on Saturday morning.

The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away, Webre said late Saturday. But before he died, Webre said authorities were able to get a dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act.

+8 Theriot's escape to Virginia: Alleged killer pulls into grandmother's driveway with officials waiting Dakota Theriot drove almost 16 hours through the night Saturday from Louisiana to Virginia, where he sought refuge with his grandmother after 

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.

My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didnt get good vibes from him, DeYoung said. She said she wasnt sure how her niece and Theriot met, but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.Dakota Theriot drove almost 16 hours through the night Saturday from Louisiana to Virginia, where he sought refuge with his grandmother after allegedly killing five people.

Two Richmond County deputies encountered the 21-year-old Theriot in the driveway of his grandmothers home in the 14000 block of Historyland Highway in Warsaw, Virginia, just after 7 a.m. Central Time Sunday, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith said. Theriot had been on the run close to 24 hours.

Smith said Theriot made several statements about the slayings of his parents, Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, his girlfriend, Summer Ernest, 20, and her brother and father, Tanner, 17, and Billy Ernest, 43, when he was taken into custody in the small town of about 1,400 people.

He seemed tired, had a little bit of sleep deprivation, and there were some statements made, but at this time thats part of the investigation, Smith said Sunday morning in a telephone interview with The Advocate.

Dakota Theriot arrested in Virginia after allegedly killing 5 people in south Louisiana A man suspected of killing his parents and three other people -- including a girl he was dating -- has been captured after an intense manhunt 

Theriot did not directly contact the Virginia family as he was traveling to the East Coast, but the family members stayed in a hotel Sunday night in case he was trying to find them, the sheriff said.

The grandmother returned to her home Sunday morning with deputies to check on the house, and while they were there Theriot pulled into the driveway, Smith said.

Theriot pointed a firearm out of the vehicle's window and the Richmond County deputies sought cover but challenged Theriot, according to information on the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office Facebook page. Theriot dropped the firearm upon their commands and was taken into custody.

Authorities allege Theriot killed the Ernest family members in Livingston Parish early Saturday morning, then drove to Ascension Parish, where he killed his parents.

Though some who knew him said they were surprised by the accusations, others painted a portrait of a troubled young man.

Theriot had recently been kicked out of his parents' home due to an ongoing struggle with drugs, Kim Mincks told The Associated Press on Sunday. Mincks and another person, Jacob Chastant, lived in the Ascension Parish trailer with Keith and Elizabeth Theriot.

Mincks was in the house at the opposite end of the trailer when the shooting happened but didn't hear anything. Law enforcement officers came into her room Saturday morning and woke her.

"They said something terrible happened here. 'Get up, get dressed and walk outside,'" she recalled them saying.

Summer Ernest's family members said Theriot moved in with the Ernest family when he was kicked out of his own home. He and Summer Ernest had been dating about two weeks.

Mincks told The Associated Press that Theriot's relationship with his parents, especially his father, was strained. She recalled an incident in which Chastant had to pull Dakota Theriot off his parents during a physical altercation. Another time, she told the AP, Theriot pulled a gun on his mother.

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Two friends of Dakota Theriots said they knew him from when he lived in Richmond County, Virginia. They said they went to middle school and early high school together, before he moved back to Louisiana around 10th grade.

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I still cant process it because its not Dakota, its not the Dakota I was in high school with, Yasmeen Pugh, 22, said in a telephone interview with The Advocate from Virginia. He did get a little lost in life, he did go down the wrong path for a little bit  but it just doesnt add up.  It seems unbelievable.

Pugh said she knew Theriot had used drugs and was in some trouble with the law, and she was aware of some family and personal struggles, but didn't know many details. She said he had always been a good friend to her.

In Livingston Parish, P.J. Hays, a relative of the Ernest family victims, said Saturday that the family knew little about Theriot when he and Summer began dating.

Hed only been in the picture with Summer about two weeks, the family just met him for the first time last weekend at a family birthday party, Hays said.

Hays wasnt at the party so he hadnt met Theriot, but he had heard of the boy his cousin began dating after recently breaking up with a longtime boyfriend.

Hays described the Ernests as a really good Christian family;" the grandmother posts on Facebook each night reminding them all to pray before going to sleep.

For this boy to come in and everyone knows hes kind of off (is hard to imagine,) Hays said. He just came into the picture, what we know of him is what weve seen on his Facebook page since then. Were a close-knit family  we dont have any idea why this happened."

Two children  a 7-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy  were home at the time of the Livingston Parish killings but were able to escape. Hays said Billy Ernest's wife Kacee and another child were not home when the shooting happened.

Smith said that when Theriot was found in Virginia, he was still driving the gray Dodge pickup he stole from Billy Ernests home after the triple shooting.

Authorities are continuing to piece together the timeline of the spree, including interviewing Theriot about his version of events, said Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Lori Steele.

"What happened in between killings and when we were called to the scene is something we hope to detail in the days ahead," she said.

Authorities are beginning extradition proceedings to return Theriot to Louisiana, where he faces five counts of first-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon, and home invasion.

Livingston Parish District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said if Theriot waives extradition, he should be back this week. But if he contests it, the process could take a few weeks, because Louisiana would have to produce a governor's warrant, and Theriot would get a brief hearing in Virginia.

Perrilloux said Theriot will be prosecuted in both Livingston and Ascension parishes, and he will be entitled to a trial in each.

"Its going to require some coordination between the two jurisdictions. But in theory, they could both proceed simultaneously," Perrilloux said.

Perrilloux said it is too soon to say whether this will be a death penalty case.

"Its just crazy. Its just hard to imagine that peoples lives were fairly normal one day and turned upside down a few hours later, Perrilloux said.

Advocate staff reporter Grace Toohey contributed to this report.The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge on Thursday will release the names of its clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors, according to a letter from Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca that was to be read at each Mass in the diocese this weekend.

"I am convinced that bringing more of the facts of this tragedy into the light will be a help to the victims of abuse and the beginning, I hope, of re-establishing trust where it has been lost," Duca wrote.

"I hope that this list will be a help to the victims of abuse who have felt betrayed and unsupported by the unwillingness of the Church to publicly admit to the crimes of these priests and to acknowledge the depth of pain and hurt that was caused by these priests abusive actions," he added.

+2 Baton Rouge Catholic Diocese hires auditors to review clergy abuse files, list to come in 2019 Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca has hired a law firm and an auditing firm to scrutinize clergy files and to help the Catholic Diocese complete

The bishop announced in November that he had hired lawyers and auditors to scrutinize clergy files in anticipation of releasing the list. He said then that the diocese expected to release the names by the end of January. All seven Catholic dioceses in Louisiana have promised to publish similar lists of credibly accused priests.

So far, only New Orleans and Houma-Thibodaux have released them. The New Orleans list included 57 clergy members, while the Houma-Thibodaux list had 14.

The Baton Rouge Diocese reported in 2004, amid the first wave of a worldwide scandal about Catholic clergy sex abuse, that 10 diocesan priests and 13 priests from religious orders who served in Baton Rouge had been accused of sexual abuse. They did not name the 23 clerics.

The diocese also has faced dozens of allegations about priest sexual abuse in lawsuits. The vast majority have been related to Christopher Springer, whom the diocese removed from ministry in 1985 amid abuse allegations that would turn out to stretch back more than a decade. But the diocese also has faced lawsuits related to allegations of sexual abuse concerning former Bishop Joseph Sullivan, former missionary priest John Berube and others.

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When the Archdiocese of New Orleans released names late last year of priests who had been credibly accused of abuse, eight priests on its list had ties to Baton Rouge. And when the Jesuit order also released a list late last year of priests credibly accused of abuse, two more on that list had spent time in Baton Rouge.

8 priests with ties to Baton Rouge area named in New Orleans' list of clergy accused of sex abuse Eight priests who spent time in Baton Rouge-area parishes were named in a ground-breaking list released by the Archdiocese of New Orleans on F

Duca wrote in his new letter that renewal and healing cannot happen until people acknowledge the truths of the past. But he said despite the shame and sadness in the diocese's history, he continues to have hope that light will win over darkness. Duca's motto is "hope in the Lord."

"I know that some would prefer we just stop talking about this and move on," Duca wrote. "The fact that this wound will not heal tells us that we must continue to bring everything into the light."

Duca asked everyone to pray that the release of names will deepen concern for victims of abuse, lead to greater accountability to protect children and renew a desire to become holier in the image of Jesus.

The bishop added that he has listened to some victims share their stories and that he prays releasing the list will be a sign of his encouragement for abuse survivors to come forward "so we can offer help in their healing."Corey Frank is president of the Greater Southwest Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce and is the owner of Spoken Red Pro, which specializes in public relations, planning and photography.

My family is absolutely amazing. Growing up in Opelousas, we were raised to be close-knit, loving and spiritual. My father is a plumber, and my mother is a homemaker. One of the things I learned from both of them is to keep God first and everything will fall into place. It's about discipline and love for people.

One challenge I can remember from early childhood was transitioning from one school to another. I was getting ready to go to the second grade, and my parents decided for us to move. I was just getting used to the previous school. Little did I know the transition helped me to be the man I am today with my career. My second-grade instructor, Georgia Edwards, taught me you don't have to be what everyone else wants to be. Be who you desire to be and be great at it.

I did not graduate from college. I attended a few years and felt it wasn't for me. So I pursued entrepreneurship through internship. After two to three years of internship, my heart's desire grew stronger to pursue my own business.

I began Spoken Red through a God-given vision back in 2007 as I was a blogger early that year. I was hospitalized that summer and, within the vision, God showed me my purpose for my life  helping people. It begun only as an event-planning business, which later transitioned to a photography business. Within a year, I began my annual calendar project to promote character building and began a youth outreach program, Spoken Red Juniors. Here I am 12 years later with a successful brand, Spoken Red PRO, servicing statewide as a professional services group.

Inside info on doing business in Acadiana We'll keep you posted on the Acadiana economy. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

It is truly an adventure serving as president. I just completed my first year in 2018 and now I am in my second year. We have two-year terms in office. When I first became a member in 2014, I started as an intern and over the years gained the leadership roles of membership director, chairman, vice president and now president. Serving as president is truly an honor and privilege, especially for young African American men in leadership. The transition was a difficult task at first, though now it is a rewarding service.

Certifications like DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) and Hudson Initiative for Louisiana have contributed to this growth among minority businesses, but there is room for more growth. We need more individuals to join forces with us and allow us to help them register through the state, complete certifications and secure procurement opportunities. There are too many business owners and entrepreneurs who don't feel the need to maximize their income. It is our duty to change this mindset.

One common issue now facing minority-owned businesses in Louisiana is economic development. Many minority-owned businesses feel competition or lack of support prevents them from being successful. That is not the case. The solution to this is to ensure value to your business with maintaining professional standards and providing room for development. Having a clear, concise vision contributes to economic development.

Our main focus for 2019 is to increase economic development. We have teamed up with the state to produce more hands-on workshops and seminars along with partnerships with employers to increase young adult employment. Our Junior Division program is in its fourth year, and we are introducing a curriculum-based entrepreneurship program free for ages 11-18. It requires an application and selection process, and the rewards are great. Serving Southwest Louisiana requires us to keep our diverse membership growing through seeking more investors and partners to contribute to our membership and community growth.With roughly five weeks left in a "timeout" truce between the U.S. and China in their tariff wars, soybean farmers in Louisiana and elsewhere in the country remain in a holding pattern.

Months after China, which historically buys about 60 percent of Louisiana's soybeans, slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans in July, pricing them out of the market, many farmers are holding on to their stocks of soybeans and waiting to see what happens with prices.

The 90-day timeout on new tariffs began Dec. 1 and runs out on March 1, with farmers hoping something constructive comes at the end.

Before the tariffs hit, the price for soybeans was $10.50 a bushel, "a good, fair price," said Donald Schexnayder, who farms with his two brothers in West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes.

Since then, the price has dropped as low as $8.50, he said.

"We lost 20 percent of the market price that we had," Schexnayder said, adding that prices have recently been in the $9 range.

Area farmers call that a "break-even" price. Hoping for prices to rebound, many of them are storing their soybean crops in commercial grain elevators or in facilities on their own properties  if they had soybeans to bring to market.

In another blow to the state's soybean industry, heavy rains during harvest season this past fall damaged late-maturing varieties of soybeans to the point that some fields were lost to the rain or farmers were able to harvest damaged beans  still useful for the beans' end products  but not drawing the best available price.

With the market across the country slowed to a trickle, commercial grain elevators had less of the good soybeans to blend with damaged ones, leaving those mostly without a place to go.

"Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong" in 2018, said James Guillot, a soybean farmer in Avoyelles Parish.

Bobby Skeen, executive director of the Louisiana Soybean Association, points out that for soybean farmers to receive federal aid in the form of $1.65 per bushel, a stop-gap measure while the tariff issues continue, a farmer is required to harvest the crop and bring it to market.

Abraham introduces bill to help Louisiana soybean farmers U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham introduced a bill that could help more soybean farmers participate in the tariff relief program.

That left some farmers having to decide whether to go to the expense of harvesting rain-ruined crops and bring them to a grain elevator for a rejection letter that would satisfy the aid requirement, Skeen said.

"You may still get $1.65 a bushel, but it doesn't even justify harvesting," he said.

Most consumers aren't familiar in everyday life with Louisiana's largest row crop, the soybean. The round, yellow bean is harvested, not for the kitchen table, but for its oil used in soy milk, tofu and other food products and, to a greater extent, for its meal used in animal feed. The latter use drives most of China's imports.

Diners are more familiar with edamame, the green, immature pod of the soybean plant, a product not produced in Louisiana, said Kyle McCann, associate commodity director and director of national affairs with the Louisiana Farm Bureau.

Louisiana soybean farmers planted approximately 1.3 million acres at the start of the 2018 planting season, McCann said. The state accounts for about 1 percent of total U.S. soybean production, which is concentrated in the Midwest, he said.

But, he said, "locally, it's an extremely important crop."

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Growing conditions last year for soybeans, which are planted during April and May, were ideal.

Schexnayder said 2018 had been shaping up to be "one of those special farming years you don't forget."

Congressman seeking federal assistance for Louisiana soybean farmers amid market disruption with China A north Louisiana congressman is asking for help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide relief to state soybean farmers during the

He and his two brothers saw yields on their 3,000-acre farm, R. Schexnayder and Sons, come in at 72 bushels of soybean per acre, up from an average of 64 bushels.

Having on-site storage facilities with drying equipment helped save the operation's crops despite the rainy weather that began in September and stayed for weeks, he said. But the tariff imposed by China has continued to hurt, he said.

Schexnayder said he supports President Donald Trump's end goal of balanced trade between the U.S. and China, the world's leading buyer of soybeans, but hopes "the president and the administration can start negotiating again."

The stock of U.S. soybeans being stored by farmers from the 2018 harvest, in light of the tariff issue, is at 950 million bushels, compared with 438 million bushels in 2017, said Michael Deliberto, an assistant professor with LSU Agricultural Center's Department of Agricultural Economics.

"With the trade issues, the large inventory in the U.S. and the slowing economic conditions in the world, the soybean price is going to be struggling to improve, even if there's a resolution to the trade issue," said Deliberto, who teaches farm management and agricultural policy.

Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said it's been predicted there will be 10 percent to 15 percent less soybean production across the country in 2019.

"That's between 9 million to 10 million less acreage," Strain said.

"If those prices bump up, though, they'll plant more soybeans," he said. "The farmer is the ultimate optimist."

Soggy weather devastating for Louisiana's soybean crop A run of humid, wet weather is devastating Louisiana's soybean crop and will lead to "countless acres" of farmland going unharvested, LSU AgCe

China has made several soybean purchases in the U.S. during the tariff truce that began in early December, but they haven't come close to China's usual level of imports, close to 33 million tons in 2017, say those in the soybean industry.

"I'm looking at the market every day," Schexnayder said.

Charles Cannatella, who farms with his son in St. Landry Parish, said they were able to get much of their soybean crop into storage bins on their farm last fall and out-maneuver the rain.

"Seventy-five percent of the soybeans we harvested last year, we still have in bins," Cannatella said.

He said he had hoped to start shipping soybeans, but water on the Mississippi River was so high that the grain elevator couldn't offload them.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 please call (208) 542-6777 for help.In brief: The Pentagon deployed drones 11 times throughout the 2018 fiscal year. That's the same number they deployed from 2011 to 2017 combined. The drones varied from civilian drones to military strike aircraft, and they were used for disaster relief, reconnaissance and everything in-between.

New data published by the Pentagon has revealed when drones were used, what they were used for and how long their missions lasted. Over half of the missions fell under the "Defense Support of Civil Authorities," which only became viable this year after the Secretary of Defense removed oversight requirements.

The largest civil use of drones was in monitoring the California wildfires from as early as July, at the request of California's governor. The Governor of Oregon requested the same thing, while the Governor of New York requested assistance in a training exercise. In total, state governors requested five of the drone missions.

Military bases and naval stations comprised the next largest portion of drone deployment, including requests from Kitsap-Bangor Submarine base and Camp Pendleton for "installation support," and Cherry Point Air Station for an air show. South Carolina National Guard deployed a drone to gather data about the floods after Hurricane Florence throughout September.

The last two deployments were to defend the southern border and as part of unspecified counterdrug operations. In total, there were three year-long missions and eight short-term missions which lasted an average of three months each.

The drones deployed varied quite substantially, in terms of size, cost, and armament. The most popular drone was the infamous MQ-9 Reaper, which has a payload of four Hellfire missiles and two laser-guided bombs. Tying for second place were two much less powerful drones: the hand-launched RQ-11B Raven and the civilian DJI Phantom.

The MQ-1C Gray Eagle, a strike drone also equipped with four Hellfire missiles, and the RQ-21 Blackjack, a light reconnaissance drone, were both deployed once each.

While the Pentagon deploys 11,000 drones globally, their domestic deployment has been very confined due to strict regulations that limit usage to training, testing and emergency response. While that isn't going to change, the variety of new uses discovered last year suggests that drone deployment will be more common than ever in 2019.The Winegard FlatWave Amped is one of a series of small, lightweight indoor antennas that Winegard offers. The company has been in the antenna business since the 1950s and knows what its doingsomething I confirmed when I tested this antenna.

In addition to the Amped version, theres an unamplified version and two even smaller versions called the Mini and the Micro.

Martyn Williams/IDG The coax connector on the Winegard FlateWave Amped.

Performance

TechHive tests antennas by performing a number of scans to see how many channels are received. A pattern emerges over the course of the scans and we get to see how well an antenna pulls in the various strong and weak channels on air in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento regions.

The FlatWave Amped did well, pulling in eight digital TV broadcast channels carrying a total of 44 TV stations. That ranks it above our previous indoor antenna pick, the Clearstream Flex, which only managed six broadcast channels at acceptable reception levels.

Additionally, channels received by both antennas were received at a slightly higher signal level on the Winegard FlatWave than the Clearstream Flex, leading us to rank the Winegard antenna our number-one choice at the time of this writing.

Martyn Williams/IDG The Winegard FlatWave Amped antenna (right) and the Clearstream Flex antenna.

Whats even better for consumers is that the Winegard FlatWave Amped is a little smaller, so it will take up less space on your wall or in your window.

The antenna has a built-in amplifier, so that certainly helps reception. Its powered via a supplied USB power adapter, or you can run it from a USB socket on your TV, if it has them.

Martyn Williams/IDG The Winegard FlatWave Amped has an inline amp to help boost signal levels.

TechHive tested the amplified version, the FL-5500A, but there is a non-amplified version that is cheaper, the FL-5500. In general, this latter model should only be considered if youre sure you can receive very strong local signals. The FL-4000 Mini and FL-2000 Micro are smaller still, but your reception may be limited unless you have very strong signals.

For anyone in strong to medium reception areas, go with the amplified version.

For medium to weaker signals, check out our picks for the best attic or roof-mount antennas, as theyll be much more successful. Unsure what you can receive? We have a step-by-step guide to figuring that out.

Parts and installation

The FlatWave Amped is designed to be mounted in a window or on the wall and that should be easy thanks to its lightweight and size. It measures just 12 inches by 13 inches and weighs 0.6 pounds.

Winegard supplies 3M Command strips for mounting. Put it somewhere as high as possible on the side of your house facing your local TV broadcast transmitters.

The FlatWave Amped comes with 15 feet of coaxial cable attached, which means that if you dont need such a long cable run, youll need to hide the extra cable somewhere. Many other antennas come with a separate cable, which can be switched out with a longer or shorter one as needed.

Martyn Williams/IDG The coax cable is affixed to the antenna.

Im not a great fan of the attached cable for the above reason, but it doesnt affect its main job of pulling TV stations from the air. If anything, it might help reception because noise can get into TV signals every time a coaxial cable is joined.

A thoughtful touch was a sticker on the antenna reminding me to run a rescan of my TV once it was all connected. I can only imagine the number of customer-support calls they get from people who forget that step.

Conclusion

The Winegard FlatWave Amped antenna is a great choice for people in or near cities who are restricted from installing an outdoor antenna. The antenna is lightweight, sturdy enough, and easy to install. Reception was good and it pulled in more channels than competitors in our tests.Seminole, FL (33772)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.The longest federal government shutdown in history is over. After nearly 35 days, President Donald Trump agreed to reopen government -- but his key demand for border wall funding was not met. The president gave Congress three weeks to come up with a border security plan, threatening to shut down the government again or invoke a national emergency if he doesnt like it. Trump was widely seen as having caved in to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who would not negotiate with the president until the government reopened and 800,000 federal workers returned to work.

The Russia probe was in the news again, as former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen canceled his testimony in Congress, and campaign adviser Roger Stone was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and giving false statements.

Cartoonists also address a confrontation near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., last Sunday between a group of Kentucky high school students wearing Make America Great Again hats, a Native American man and a group called the Black Israelites. The encounter went viral on social media, with reaction split along political and cultural fault lines.

Cartoons were drawn by Bill Bramhall, Chan Lowe, Dan Wasserman, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey and Joel Pett of Tribune Content Agency; Tim Campbell, Mike Lester, Signe Wilkinson and Jeff Danziger of the Washington Post Writers Group; and Tom Toles of Andrews McMeel Syndication.

More editorial cartoon galleries.We saw both sides of the government transparency coin last week.

Heads: Secrecy in West Genesee

The West Genesee school board agreed to pay ex-Superintendent Christopher Brown $120,000 to disappear, and to take his personal relationship drama with him. The separation agreement will avoid costly litigation, said the board.

Did taxpayers get off cheaply, or should Brown have received nothing at all? Was the popular superintendent rolled under the bus, or was his separation from the district warranted and necessary? Taxpayers, parents, students and staff are in the dark, because the outcome of an investigation into Browns conduct with a subordinate remains a secret.

A social media post by Browns wife alleged he had a relationship with a school principal. Brown denied it. Still, he and the board apparently decided he could not continue in his job. Meanwhile, the principal is on administrative leave; we dont know if she is being paid or not, or what will happen to her next.

The school board claims the investigation is protected by attorney/client privilege and employment law. Those are easy, risk-free excuses to avoid disclosing anything. For good measure, the board and the superintendent handcuffed each other with a non-disparagement clause in their agreement that prevents them from saying anything derogatory about each other.

No doubt, there are personal privacy issues involved here that limit full disclosure of the boards findings. Even so, we believe the district and the ex-superintendent owe the public some measure of transparency.

Rather than default to nondisclosure, wed like to see a governmental body aspire to be fair and transparent. For once, wed like to see an employee separation agreement negotiated with a third party in mind  the taxpayers who will end up paying the bill. As they work out the financial details, they could negotiate language explaining the reason for the settlement. It may not put to rest all the gossip and speculation, but it would be better than nothing, and it would give the public more confidence that the board did its job properly.

Browns separation agreement, and the non-disparagement clause that went with it, continue a troubling trend in the public sector of paying people large sums of money to hush up and go away. (See recent examples at Onondaga Community College and at Upstate Medical University, here, here and here.) The government officials, agencies or boards authorizing the hush payments should have to justify them to the public.

Tails: The councils front-room deal to fill a vacancy

Heres some radical transparency for you: The Syracuse Common Council announced a front-room deal to let the citys Democratic Committee choose the candidate who will fill a vacancy left by the resignation of 3rd District Councilor Susan Boyle to take a job with Onondaga County.

The reason, according to Councilor Steve Thompson, is because the deadline for primary petitions, and the primary itself, recently were moved up in the calendar. The council did not want to appoint one of four candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, only to have the committee select another weeks later. That would set up a divisive, intraparty fight.

The problem in this scenario is that Republicans, third-party and independent candidates wont be considered for the vacancy. Thats anti-democratic, with a small d. It shows the power and peril of lopsided, one-party rule in the city.

The City Charter grants the council the power to fill vacancies, but is silent about how councilors should go about it. In the past, councilors have gone into a back room to pick a candidate. The last time, they conducted an open interview process. Outsourcing the pick to a party committee swings the pendulum in the wrong direction.

Councilor Thompson said this will happen this one unique time. We sure hope so. At least voters can see how the sausage got made, and factor that in the next time they cast a ballot for Syracuse Common Council.

Syracuse.com editorials

Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news coverage. Read our mission statement. Members of the editorial board are Tim Kennedy, Trish LaMonte, Jason Murray and Marie Morelli.

To respond to this editorial: Post a comment below, or submit a letter or commentary to letters@syracuse.com. Read our submission guidelines.

If you have questions about the Opinions & Editorials section, contact Marie Morelli, editorial/opinion leader, at mmorelli@syracuse.comThis feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Elizabeth Lamb

What does "we are family" really mean? We are the family of human beings. We are the earthlings, the family of humanity on planet Earth. Are we all related to each other in our originality? In retrospect, I turn to the Bible and the story of man's creation as explained in Genesis.

"God created man in His image of Himself, in the image of God, He created him, male and female, and he created them. God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, the bird of the sky and every living thing that moves on Earth.'"(Genesis 1:27-29)

When we dig deeper and look to our blood type, we are taken back to one universal donor. Through nutrition and migration, we have involved and continue to grow and change, even our blood. Moving forward together in peace and harmony is a worldwide goal. With God's assistance, we certainly can acheive this goal. The pevious piece of scripture most certainly puts mankind in charge of a great responsibility for planet Earth.

Hence, we have a family unit of nations called the United Nations. On Oct. 20, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously to establish a world week of peace. The first week of February was declared World Interfaith Harmony Week. Jordan's King Abdullah II, a world peace leader, had proposed the idea to the UN. As nations struggle for peace and understanding with each other, so do us as individual communities. This is not always easily achieved. It takes hard work and perseverance. The founding fathers of this wonderful country of ours had perseverance. I am reminded of this on my annual pilgrimage to old historic Williamsburg, Va.

Elizabeth "Betty" Lamb, a former president of Women Transcending Boundaries (2014-2017), is currently president of Syracuse Federation of Women's Clubs. Lamb, who is a mother and grandmother, is retired from careers in education and retail management. She serves on several community boards and has backgrounds in Christianity and Judaism.Do you or someone you know need free medical, dental or vision care? Mark your calendar for May 17-19 for the fourth annual RAM Smyth County clinic at Mountain Empire Airport.

The clinic has helped thousands over the past three years in this area and hundreds of thousands worldwide. Organizers do it with volunteers  medical personnel from near and far, and people just like you who help with time and money.

The call is out for volunteers willing to help with this years clinic, especially strong, young people to help with set-up, take-down and trash detail. Those collecting trash get to ride around in a Kubota as they empty barrels.From the beginning, Trinkle Mansion Bed & Breakfast has been an outstanding facility offering beautiful luxurious accommodations and outstanding service to their customers, she said in an email. When you think about the thousands of B&Bs that exist in the United States, it is an incredible honor for Trinkle Mansion to be recognized in the Top Ten by TripAdvisor and shows how high of a standard that this business is meeting. This honor will certainly bring positive attention to Wytheville and help solidify our position as an enjoyable and sought-after destination in Virginia.

The stately homes history dates back to the early 20th century when prominent Wytheville resident William Trinkle built the mansion for his family. Construction of the classical revival home began in 1910 and was completed two years later. Nearly a century later, the Pizingers purchased the home. Patti Pizinger moved to Wytheville in 2006 to begin the propertys complete renovation. The home was gutted, taken down to the studs and re-built with modern amenities.

Operating a bed and breakfast has been Patti Pizingers dream since she was a little girl and memorized Sam Walter Foss poem The House by the Side of the Road, which includes the line Let me live in a house by the side of the road, and be a friend to man.Click the image above to watch the video

In todays weather forecast we are expecting a fine and hot day with light winds and sea breezes.

Its a one-clothing layer day today with a high of 31 and an overnight low of 20 degrees. Humidity is 79 per cent.

High tide is at 1.20pm and low tide at 7.40pm (Tay St). Theres a sea swell of 0.5m and sea temperature is 20 degrees. Sunset tonight is at 8.28pm.

If youre going fishing the next best fish bite time is between 6.30 and 8.30pm.

On this day in NZ history in 1827 D'Urville sailed through 'French Pass'. In a feat of navigational daring  and after several attempts  the French explorer Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont dUrville sailed the Astrolabe from Tasman Bay through the narrow French Pass into Admiralty Bay in the Marlborough Sounds.

In 1901 Wellington blacksmith William Hardham won the Victoria Cross in South Africa. He served in South Africa with the fourth New Zealand contingent. He was the only New Zealander awarded a Victoria Cross during the South African War.

On this day in 1547 Henry VIII of England died and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son Edward VI.

In 1871 surrounded by Prussian troops and suffering from famine, the French army in Paris surrendered. During the siege, balloons were used to keep contact with the outside world.

In 1921 Albert Einstein startled Berlin by suggesting the possibility of measuring the universe.

In 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded just after liftoff.

Today is the birthday of John Baskerville, inventor of the hot-pressing method of printing. He was born in 1706. Its also the birthday of Jose Marti, Cuban poet and journalist, known as the Apostle of the Cuban Revolution. Born in 1853, he once said Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.

To get involved in activities around the Bay of Plenty, please check out our Whats on page.

Have a great day!Bay of Plenty

You will be learning how to operate the machines and how to maintain them. This will include on site training.We are looking...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzClick the image above to watch the video

Omokoroa resident Janet Barratt, winner of the 2019 Trustpower Photographic Exhibition, was stunned to find herself winning on her first time entering the competition.

It was buzzy! says Janet on her $5,000 win. I never expected to be in the top twenty, so I was absolutely blown away by it.

Janets photograph Trapped was taken while she was on holiday in the United Kingdom and visiting Chester Zoo. The photograph shows a mandrill monkeys face with hand raised.

Many of the finalists, along with Tauranga Mainstreet businesses, sponsors and stakeholders attended the 2019 Trustpower Photographic Awards on Friday night. This is the third year of the regions largest outdoor photographic exhibition.

Held at Our Place in Willow Street, the top three winners were announced, with the exhibition of the twenty finalists opening directly afterwards on The Strand. The top three winners share the $10,000 cash prize pool, and will be featured in The Weekend Sun and UNO. Magazine. Winning photos will also be sent to Taurangas sister city Hitachi, Japan to appear there in a photographic display.

Coming in second and third place were Strictly for the Birds by Chris Taylor and Military Display on Waitangi Day by Joshua Hodgson.

This year we asked photographers from amateur and professional to look beyond the lens of the camera and capture majestic evocative photos that tell stories of finding beauty, says Millie Newitt from Downtown Tauranga.

For the last two years, we had four categories, whereas this year we had the one over-arching theme of finding beauty.

Chris Tayler with Strictly for the Birds.

This years judging panel comprised Carolyn Schofield from Trustpower, Jenny Rudd from UNO. Magazine and Millie Newitt from Downtown Tauranga.

Last year we had 2092 entries, says Millie. This year when we closed on Thursday January 10, we had 3698 entries. Its an amazing number of entries and as judges we were completely blown away not only by the number but by the calibre of the entries.

So many of the images told a beautiful story and captured us emotively.

Twenty winning images were chosen from the 3,698 entries, to represent this years theme of Finding Beauty.

Im a very proud sponsor of this fantastic exhibition, says Jenny. Without Trustpower putting their money behind this initiative, it would not be here. Its such a generous thing to do and it really does feed the soul of our city to allow people to take photos, enter them into a competition, and win real genuine prizes and have them exhibited so we can all enjoy what we enjoy about the local area. We can watch other peoples enjoyment through photos and go and see it with our friends. It really encourages us to enjoy art and to recognise it as an important and powerful part of our life.

We enjoyed every minute of it, looking at the photos. The fairest way to do it was to look at it with an open heart and an open mind and a real love and excitement for our locality, our country and our world.

As we looked at each image, we thought, what does it do? How does it make us feel when we look at it? For finding beauty it doesnt have to be something totally and utterly perfect. What does it mean to that person? Does it tell a bit of a story? Do we look at that image and say I can look at that again and again and find something else there? What will it do for other people? Will it make people ask questions? That was the feeling that we had behind it.

It was amazing to look through the images. It was good fun.

Trustpower is a Tauranga company, says Carolyn. Tauranga is our home and its very important to us to be involved in the communities in which we operate. This exhibition adds something to the local community. It gives an extra element to locals and visitors walking along the Strand in the summer.

And we love the fact that the competition is open to amateurs, professionals and anyone of any age.

The identity of the person is completely invisible to us when we do the judging. We have no idea who the photographer is. The fact that the competition puts a five-year-old on the same playing field as a 50-year-old professional photographer is fantastic and we love being involved because its so much fun and its becoming so quickly so much a part of the community.

Opening it up this year has led to the most diverse collection of photos weve had, and thats been wonderful. Its added a whole other element.

Joshua Hodgson with Military Display on Waitangi Day.

The winning photograph, captured by Janet Barratt, was a stand out for the judges. Her subject, a mandrill, is the largest monkey in the world, well-known for its brightly coloured face.

Of all the photos I looked at, this one made me feel the most intense emotion, says Millie. What a beautiful, honest and authentic image where the photographer has found beauty even in captivity, it is such a raw and true moment.

Janets winning large-scale image, sponsored by Priority One, features alongside the 19 other finalists in the Bays largest outdoor photo exhibition which opened on Friday night on The Strand and acts as a showcase of New Zealands creative talent.

I photographed this at the Chester Zoo in England about 18 months ago, says Janet. He was looking at me through glass and I was thinking hes got the look on his face that says Im the lucky one because Im sitting inside this cage being well-fed and well-cared for and youre out there having to look after yourself and having to fend for yourself, and it must be wild out there.

Asked about what it feels like to win $5000, Janet smiles.

Thats a good amount! I havent even thought about it yet, its still sinking in that Ive won it!

Chris Taylor was surprised to find himself once again in the top twenty. In 2018, he also reached the finals, achieving a Highly Recommended with his photograph Mid-winter plunge.

To find myself in the top twenty again this year was absolutely amazing, says Chris, who works doing credit management nationally for Repco Autoparts.

Chris entered more than one photo into the 2019 competition, and was surprised to find the image that won second place was not his pick of the collection hed entered.

It was very hard because finding beauty leaves it open to very wide interpretation, says Chris. So its quite challenging. I really struggled actually to find something. Probably at least one of the ones I put in I thought was pretty much on the mark of what I wanted. But that one wasnt chosen.

Its just amazing to be in the top twenty and to be part of the display on The Strand.

The second and third place images, Strictly for the Birds by Chris Taylor and Military Display on Waitangi Day by Joshua Hodgson, received exceptional praise from the judges.

I love the energy and movement in Chriss photo, says Carolyn. Many of the images entered were beautiful but static. This image really stands out because of the feeling of energy that it has captured and the story that it tells. Its about the beauty of raw nature.

The gentle humour in Joshuas photo makes his photo stand out. There is lots of visual interest and the composition holds your attention.

The 2019 Trustpower Photographic Exhibition on The Strand.

Rob Duncanson ended up with two images making it into the final top 20.

It was quite humbling, says Rob, who by day works in the air conditioning industry, at HVAC Design.

One of his images, Rural Castle, is a rural scene near Masterton, with five sheep looking out from an old shed at the camera.

I was a long way away and I had taken the wrong road to get to where I needed to be, says Rob. It was a lucky find and the image just really resonated with me, being from a small town in a rural area. So I really love it.

I do air conditioning but Ive been a sneaky photographer for a very long time, he jokes. Maybe Ill branch more into photography as a future retirement business. Who knows?

Now that the judges have chosen, its the turn of the public to make a Peoples Choice. Text CHOICE and the photo code displayed on the photo info panels to 559 and be in to win Dinner for Two in Downtown Tauranga.

The 2019 Trustpower Photographic Exhibition on The Strand.

The exhibition on The Strand will run until April 14, 2019.

This years full list of winners:

First Place:

Janet Barratt - Trapped

Second Place:

Chris Taylor - Strictly for the Birds

Third Place:

Joshua Hodgson - Military Display on Waitangi Day

Highly Commended (in no particular order)

Chris Bold - Unearthing a Hangi

Elijah Tay - Soar

Robyn Hay - Days End

Andrew Ogilvie - Koi Perspective

Jaymie Donovan - Pure Joy

Olga Macagon - Mama I Love You

Andy Belcher - Flower Power

Ilan Wittenberg - Jorja

Werner Kaffl - Whirlpool

Fiona Violich - Caught in a Kete

Sam Murdie - Life of a Dog in Summer

Rob Duncanson - Fading but Still Beautiful

Emma Soffe - Take a Moment

Rob Duncanson - Rural Castle

Jahl Marshall - Pick Me

Kyle Barnes - Innocence

Elijah Nino Mondero - Resting Pigs

The 2019 Trustpower Photographic Exhibition on The Strand.disneyland resort news The Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland, is somewhere that families and loved ones can make memories that will last a lifetime.Russia sent two 12 ton Uran-9 UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) to Syria in 2016 for combat testing. Uran-9 looks like a small tank and is described as equipped to handle a variety of remotely controlled 30mm and 7.62mm machine-guns and various guided missiles and unguided rockets. The Uran-9s sent to Syria for combat zone experience did not get much of that because the remote control system functioned poorly under battlefield conditions. The main problem was that the wireless remote control system, while encrypted, had insufficient bandwidth (amount of data sent and received in real time) to handle what was required to remotely operate the sensors, the vehicle itself and its weapons. As designed (and tested in rather less demanding conditions) the wireless datalink was supposed to operate at up to 2,800 meters. The human controllers are in an armored 6x6 truck, safely out of the way as is the heavy truck that transports the Uran-9 to the battlefield. In Syria, the command truck had to remain within 400 meters of the Uran 9 to maintain the datalink to any degree (of bandwidth). Even then the bandwidth was often insufficient (because of obstacles or other electronic devices operating nearby) to give the operators all the data the sensors were capable of. The thermal and vidcam sensors were capable of spotting people or vehicles out to 6,000 meters in daylight and half of that at night. But because of the bandwidth problems, the sensors were only effective out to about 2,000 meters in daylight and half that at night. And that was only when the datalink was working at all. One problem should have been caught in testing; the sensors were not stabilized. As a result when the vehicle was moving the sensors and weapons, were useless. Worse, when moving the datalink was often lost because of equipment problems or new signal interference.

The inability of the remote operator to see while the vehicle was moving often meant the Uran 9 hit obstacles a human operator would avoid. While tracked vehicles can travel over many obstacles many of those obstacles (tree stumps, large chunks of rubble) put a lot of stress on the track laying system tanks rely on for greater mobility. Tanks often have two people (the driver and commander) checking out the terrain ahead as the vehicle advances. A well-trained tank crew will quickly spot obstacles and know when to remind the driver. By comparison, the Uran 9 driver not only had a less detailed and unreliable vision of the way ahead but would have blurred vision while moving and had to deal with the unpredictable loss of control or vision. So while the Uran 9 was armored against bullets and shell fragments, it was much more vulnerable to crippling damage because it was often driving half (or completely) blind across the cluttered battlefield. The Uran 9 spent a lot of time getting the running gear (tracks, suspension and wheels) repaired.

The two machine-guns in the Uran 9 turret were rarely fired because the vehicle had to stop, confirm that it had a good datalink and then scan the terrain ahead for any targets. When the 30mm autocannon fired the vibrations rendered the remotely controlled sensors usefulness until the firing stopped. That brought out another unpredictable flaw, response delays. The remote operator would transmit a command and it would often not be received and acted on in real time. There were often delays of several seconds or up to a minute. Sometimes the command would seemingly be ignored by the Uran 9. This made use of the other weapons on the Uran 9 impossible. There were four ATGMs on the turret that could hit targets 6,000 meters away. These Ataks missiles were laser guided and required some operator control. This could not be reliably supplied by remote control to the Uran 9. There were also dozen unguided rockets and if you could get one of these to fire you didnt have to worry about guiding them.

By the time details of Uran 9s battlefield performance got back to army headquarters in Russia 22 of them had been bought and delivered. The manufacturer agreed to fix the flaws, or at least try to. At this point, the Russians could understand why the Americans had tried using remotely controlled combat vehicles in a combat zone but had never followed through. Again it was datalink reliability and bandwidth problems. Even operators of UAVs, which fly over the battlefield, encounter the problems of unreliable communications. Satellite datalinks are more reliable but they are not possible for smaller UAVs which rely on flight control software that automatically switches to circle or return home when there are communications problems. Russian UGV developers have a lot to learn about all this and now better appreciate why small UGVs used for dealing with bombs often used a data cable rather than wireless control.

Since 2016 Russian firms have revealed the existence of several armed UGVs. Only one of them appears to have entered service; the five ton Uran-6, which was more successful in part because it was based on the vast combat experience of numerous similar devices. Uran 6 saw action in Syria in an unarmed version for use by combat engineers to deal with landmines, roadside bombs and, most importantly, ensuring that a route was clear of mines and bombs. To accomplish that Uran-6 can be equipped with a number of accessories like a plow, flail (for setting off landmines) or robotic arms. The large size of the Uran-6 enables it to survive close proximity to exploding mines or bombs and keep going. The Uran-6 is battery powered (for up to 16 hours per charge) and remotely controlled from a distance of up to 1,500 meters. Use in Syria seems to be combat testing because engineers have been seeing double checking for mines with more conventional mine detectors after the Uran-6 had already checked a route.

Uran-6 is designed to compete in a mature market for EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) UGVs, a market the United States and Israel have dominated for nearly two decades. Uran-6 is the largest EOD UGV and could find a niche in the EOD market if it proves successful in Syria. Armed UFVs are a more difficult sell but Russia is eager to avoid casualties among its own troops in Syria and armed UGVs are seen as a potential solution.

Armed UGVs are nothing new and one armed with explosives were used by the Germans (as the gasoline-powered Goliath) during World War II. Currently, armed UGVs are most often produced by Israel and South Korea for patrolling long borders that are often threatened by armed intruders. American manufacturers can and have armed their UGVs but find it more profitable to let the Israelis, South Koreans, Russians and Chinese have that market.

UGVs have become more common since the late 1990s and are usually unarmed and useful mainly for recon and surveillance in very dangerous situations. Even though armed UGVs have been developed and remain under remote control by a human operator, many nations resist adopting them, just as they resist armed UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Yet there has never been similar opposition to sea-based unmanned armed weapons or even those that are not even under remote control. An example of this is the naval torpedo, which first appeared in the late 19th century. A century later it became possible to add remote control to high-end torpedo models and these are regularly carried by man submarines.

But for nations under constant threat of attack, the attitudes are different. Since 2001 Israel has developed several generations of armed UGVs. One of the more recent of these is Dogo, a smaller (12 kg/26 pounds), more aware (constant 360 degree camera coverage) and more lethal remotely controlled robot. Dogo showed up in 2016 and was designed with lots of input from soldiers and police who have been using UGVs for over a decade. Dogo is armed with a 9mm pistol loaded with 14 rounds and aimed by cameras dedicated to aiming the pistol accurately at ranges of up to 50 meters. Commandos and SWAT teams can carry one or more battery operated Dogos with them on missions that can benefit from a very mobile (it can climb steps) UGV that has night vision, is quiet and can hear as well as broadcast whatever the operator has to say (like hostage negotiation or demanding surrender). Many of these features have been found in earlier UGVs but never one as small or as capable.

Since 2006 the Israeli military has been moving its UGVs from guard duty to the battlefield. During that time Israeli infantry and several new generations of UGVs have been working together to see exactly what works and what doesnt. The basic idea here is to have UGVs with good enough sensors to successfully move across a battlefield in front of troops and look out for mines, roadside bombs, ambushes or any signs of the enemy at all. This gives the troops following close behind a better idea of what nasty surprises the enemy has for them and an opportunity to avoid lots of casualties and hit harder than the enemy expected. Dogo can do this as well as have its 9mm weapon replaced with pepper spray, a blinding flash or other non-lethal devices to deal with human threats.

Both Israel and the United States have already discovered that armed UGVs are not very successful on their own. But Israel believes that new designs, operating in close cooperation (as an advanced guard while moving into hostile territory) with infantry and manned armored vehicles might work well enough to justify regular use. The new UGVs are similar to the armed four-wheeled vehicles Israel has been successfully using for guard duty along the Gaza and Lebanon borders. The eventual success of these UGVs encouraged trying to use them in combat.

Previous use of armed UGVs in active combat zones showed that these systems were vulnerable to attack and interference, which are the main reasons for not using them. Unless the cameras and other sensors (sound, heat and seismic) can pick up hostiles far enough away, the remotely controlled weapon can be destroyed, along with many of the sensors, thus blinding the operators. By 2009 both the U.S. and Israel had developed smaller armed robots. The American systems are called Swords (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detecting System). This was a 57 kg (125 pound) remotely controlled vehicles that looked like a miniature tank. These were armed with a 5.56mm machine-guns and 350 rounds of ammo. Also known as Talon IIIB, the army spent over a year testing them in the United States before sending some to Iraq in 2008. There they found there were many ways to mess with Swords. Many tricks didn't even damage the equipment; like having a child or woman come out and throw a towel or sheet over it.

Israel has a similar system called Viper that carries a 9mm machine pistol (an Uzi) and can carry explosives, along with the usual video camera and microphones. Both Swords and Viper do have their uses, like entering into very dangerous situations (like a cave or building believed occupied by fanatical gunmen). The droids can also be used for guard duty in dangerous locations (where the enemy might get a shot off, or toss a grenade.) But no matter what you have the battle robots do, the mechanical grunts lack the same degree of situational awareness of a human soldier. This requires much better sensors that have been available so far. The sensors used on droids (mainly visual and acoustic) are getting better, as is the software that can quickly evaluate what the sensors see and hear. But humans can also smell, and feel (on their skin), as well as using superior vision and hearing. Until the sensors get better, the combat robots will always be at a disadvantage. But if used with those disadvantages kept in mind, the robots do have their uses. Dogo is the latest effort to expand that usefulness and more are on the way. Russia, on the other hand, prefers their traditional brute force approach. Thus you have Uran-6 and Uran-9. When used via remote control by nearby operators these can be effective. But only a lot of combat experience will let you know just how effective.So former Councilman Pat Dolan lands a job with the county parks department as a coordinator of youth sports, including disadvantaged youth, for $87,506 a year ("Former council member, his aide now working for county," Jan. 23). His aide is rewarded similarly with a job in the planning department for $49,005 a year. And it must be OK as the article states: It is not uncommon for former council members to land jobs in county government.

There are park professionals who have devoted their lives to gaining the experience and education necessary to make them highly qualified for such a position. What makes Dolan qualified with his experience as a sprinkler fitter and apprentice coordinator for the Missouri AFL-CIO? Was a competitive hiring practice initiated to recruit and hire the best person for the job? Was there even a job description developed and interviews conducted for this newly created position?

County Executive Steve Stenger should stop this unethical and wasteful practice of creating new jobs just to reward the loyalty of politicians after they have left office. Its not OK, taxpayers deserve better, and his credibility continues to deteriorate.

Dennis deJong  WildwoodTypically, other officials attend such meetings not just to be informed and to have multiple eyes and ears to verify what transpired, but also to prevent discrepancies in communication. In Trumps case, the meetings are unsettling because he has remained so supportive of Putin despite the U.S. intelligence communitys confirmation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The presidents interpreter, Marina Gross, now finds herself in an uncomfortable spotlight, since the interpreters role is one of strict neutrality and relative anonymity. But unlike a 2017 meeting in Hamburg, where then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was present along with the interpreter, Julys discussion rendered Gross the sole American witness.

House Democrats should seriously consider the consequences of violating any interpreters political neutrality. Whatever actions the Democrats take today can come back to bite future Democratic presidents, subjecting their private conversations with world leaders to Republican congressional scrutiny.

Communications between heads of state are confidential for understandable reasons. They need to speak frankly and honestly with each other. Exposing the contents of such meetings could permanently damage future chief executives ability to conduct foreign policy.Step inside Sacred Heart Church of Jesus in Sandino, Cuba. It's the first Roman Catholic church built in Cuba since the revolution. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door . (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)

1. Government shutdown

Those 800,000 federal workers impacted by the shutdown are back at work today. But the threat of another shutdown looms. Democrats and Republicans have three weeks to hammer out some kind of deal on border security before funding from the short-term spending legislation runs out. President Trump said if there's no money allocated for his border wall he's willing to endure another shutdown or declare a national emergency so that he could use Defense Department funds to build the wall. Neither option is particularly attractive for the President. After getting nothing in the record-breaking shutdown that just ended, Trump's GOP allies may be less likely to go down that path again. And declaring a national emergency would spark a constitutional battle that could be tied up in the courts for months.Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)Lay it all out there: Educate

It's been more than two years since the Department of National Intelligence issued an unclassified report laying out why and how Russia is attacking our democracy. But the President discounts much of this January 2017 report, which includes the conclusion that Russia preferred Trump as a candidate. He has continuously discounted the intelligence community's assessments on Russia.

If the President was unconflicted, he would ask the DNI for an updated report so that he could keep the American people informed. It's unclear whether the President censors his intelligence community's analysis, discounts it, or simply dislikes what they say, but the American people are not fully aware of what's happening. An unconflicted president would want the American people to know as much as possible so that each and every one of us can be more vigilant, especially as the 2020 election cycle gets into full swing.

Arm your team: Put up a fightDonald Trump ally Roger Stone reacts to special counsel Robert Mueller's charges, slamming the FBI for the manner of his arrest.

After being a person of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller for quite some time, Trump's longtime confidant and informal political adviser Roger Stone has been indicted. In the legal community, we call this a "speaking indictment," given the detailed story it tells of Stone's alleged criminality. This specific indictment, however, doesn't just speak -- it sings.

After a dramatic FBI raid on Friday morning, Stone was arrested. Hours later, he was brought before a magistrate, released on $250,000 bond and addressed a crowd outside the federal courthouse. He said, "I believe this is a politically motivated investigation. ... I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated."

This can only be described as wishful thinking. To be clear, everyone in our legal system is deemed innocent until proven guilty. Stone is entitled to that same presumption. And should he go to trial, any federal judge will go out of his or her way to ensure that Stone gets a fair and impartial jury. That said, if the evidence outlined in the indictment is accurate, Stone is facing almost certain conviction.A new analysis of blood samples from 24,000 Americans taken early last year is the largest study to suggest the coronavirus popped up in the U.S. in December 2019."Fresh off their shutdown victory, House Democrats just a couple hours later were already pivoting," Politico's Rachael Bade said. Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a statement almost immediately after the shutdown ended about Stone's indictment, saying "lying to Congress and witness tampering constitute grave crimes," and asking "what does Putin have on the President, politically, personally, or financially?"

"Pelosi has been very careful in the language she uses when it comes to Russia," Bade said. "Since the election, she's talked a lot about bipartisan bills. That has totally evaporated and is being replaced by a more aggressive tone."

4. Mueller tea leaves

Meanwhile, close Mueller-watchers are asking what the Roger Stone indictment signals about the special counsel's next moves. CNN's Sara Murray says it could be a sign of the probe nearing its end.

"I think people are looking at this indictment, especially if they're members of the resistance, and saying, this is the beginning of indictments that are just going to be raining down, that next up is Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner," Murray said.The timeline has given some members of the pro-Trump media a reason to reserve judgment and urge patience -- a way to say the funding war is far from over.

"If the president goes for amnesty, I'm out. I will be a critic," Mark Levin said on the radio Friday evening. "But if the president is fighting to secure the wall, I'm prepared to wait three weeks and see what happens."

Earlier in the day, Rush Limbaugh ended his radio show with almost a shrug: "We'll see what happens."

Others were less forgiving. Coulter, speaking to a mostly liberal audience on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," said that if they want to "get Trump," focus on the wall: "He promised something for 18 months and he lied about it. That's how you get Trump. It's not this Russia nonsense."

Breitbart.com highlighted those comments and several other critiques on Saturday. One of the site's headlines was a play on "Where's Waldo," asking, "WHERE'S WALL, DOE?" Later in the day, another link on the home page said "PELOSI TRUMPS TRUMP."

The Drudge Report featured a photo of Trump with a banner that called him "WALLED IN."MILLSTADT  The relationship between Julie Walsh and her teenage son took a turn for the worse about two months back.

Where is my dads Bronco? Triston said that day in early December as they pulled up to the house and he noticed the 29-year-old SUV gone from the garage.

Triston, I sold it, Mom told her son, then 15. It needed too much work. Money for Dads old clunker can be used toward getting another vehicle you can actually drive once you get your license in a few months, she said.

Parents should never lie to their children, but thats what Walsh did that day, knowing there would be hell to pay from a brooding teenager. But if everything went just right, it would all be worth it.

He gave me a death stare. A tear fell out of his eye. He said whatever and went upstairs, Walsh said. Communication within the house was limited to text messages.

The Bronco was a link to his dad, Sgt. Nicholas Walsh, killed by sniper fire in Iraq in May 2007. He was 26.

Every time Triston came home, he looked at the Bronco and thought of his dad and what could have been. He would not have father-son driving lessons. But he could someday get behind the wheel of the vehicle his dad cherished and create his own memories. How could his mom do something so cruel?

What Triston did not know and what Walsh successfully kept secret for nearly two months from her teen and his younger brother, Tanner, is that Dads beloved Bronco had not been sold. It had been towed to a local dealership, where thousands of dollars was poured into renovating the SUV.

On Saturday, Triston walked into the Mertz Ford showroom to a crowd of family and friends, cameras and balloons and a color guard presentation. It was a surprise birthday party.

His mom told him they were stopping in to test drive a car that could replace the Bronco. The Bronco that Triston thought was long gone. Instead, it was tucked out of sight, in an area between the service department and the showroom.

It just really warms my heart that you can give a little piece of him back, Julie Walsh, 39, said, her voice breaking, her sons still unsure what was going on.

Then there was the roar of an engine, followed by a roar of applause. Tim Jarrett, one of the technicians who had pulled an all-nighter to get the Bronco ready for the big reveal, slowly drove the SUV through a makeshift butcher paper curtain.

Also in the Bronco were three Marines who served with Sgt. Walsh. There was no hesitation to come into town for the party, they said.

This is an undying brotherhood, said Ben Pollmeier of Ocean City, Md. We always take care of our own. No matter what.

Nick would have done the same for all of us, added Terry Wiese of Lincoln, Neb.

Brian Rasmussen of Salt Lake City said the Marines came after Julie Walsh contacted them through Facebook. She wanted input from her husbands friends on what to do about the Bronco. Soon, she was put in touch with the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation, which helps veterans and their families.

They told me to reach out to a local dealership, Walsh said. Support was immediate, she said.

Don and Debbie Mertz, who own the dealership, said they wanted to help but wanted to make sure the service technicians were willing to take on the Bronco in addition to their other duties.

Im so proud of how they stepped up, said Don Mertz.

Service Manager Ricky Boyer had towed the 1990 Bronco to the dealership. The preliminary assessment: A lot of work lies ahead. The guys in the service bays put in more than 20 man-hours. They resealed the intake manifold, overhauled the rear differential and replaced the tires and wheels.

They also had the red and beige paint buffed to a shiny new reflection. The labor and materials, had they not been donated, would have come to between $8,000 and $9,000, Boyer said.

Basically, we did anything for the safety of a 16-year-old kid to be driving, he said.

Sentimental value

Julie Walsh had returned to her hometown of Millstadt from Southern California, where her husband was stationed at Camp Pendleton. The Marines moved the familys belongings, the Bronco among them.

It had tremendous sentimental value but was in no shape to drive. Julie had suggested to Nick more than once that he get rid of the Bronco. But now it was a reminder of the man she lost.

If he could see this, hed be over the moon, Julie Walsh said as Triston showed off the Bronco to his friends.

The sophomore at Belleville Township West High School wiped away tears as reality sank in. The Bronco had not been sold. It was now his. And it looked great. He smiled for the cameras and tried to express what it means to try out his learners permit with Dads old Bronco.

I mean, all these emotions, Triston said.

His mom said misleading Triston was a risk. It was hard to keep her plan under wraps, especially when she saw the hurt it initially caused.

But on Saturday, Mom and son were all hugs and kind words. Triston leaned over to his mother and apologized.

I was so mean to you. Im so sorry. Im so sorry.

There is nothing to forgive, his mom said. Seeing her son behind the wheel of the Bronco with a smile on his face brought happy tears to hers.

A boy who was 4 when his father died, now anxious to get onto the open road and tap into the same pleasure the Bronco gave to his dad.

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 Gateway Arch reopened Sunday after its closure during a record 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government.

The shutdown ended Friday when President Donald Trump agreed to temporarily reopen the federal government through Feb. 15. The Arch reopened to visitors Sunday morning.

Partners of the Gateway Arch National Park estimated a week ago that they had jointly lost more than $600,000 in revenue and sidelined dozens of workers since the shutdown started Dec. 22.

The park will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The last tram leaves about one hour before closing. The Old Courthouse will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.

A statement from the national park said, Gateway Arch National Parks employees are happy to be back at work, serving the American people and welcoming visitors to their national parks.UPDATED at 7:30 p.m. with victim's name.

A passenger in a car was shot to death in the Glasgow Village area of north St. Louis County late Saturday night.

St. Louis County police responded to a report of a shooting near the intersection of Shepley and Hobkirk drives at 11:40 p.m. Saturday. They found Derion Hamilton, 26, dead in the front passenger seat of a vehicle. He had been shot at least once.

The driver was at the scene and told officers they were at the 100 block of Cameron Road, about a mile to the east toward Riverview Drive, when the shooting occurred. The driver drove away after the shooting.

Hamilton lived in the 10400 block of Gardo Court, a few blocks from where he was pronounced dead.By Andrea Germanos

25 January 2019

(Common Dreams)  Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg just told a group of the elite gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forumas they were seated just feet away from herthat they are among those directly responsible for the climate crisis.

Speaking Thursday before a panel that included U2 frontman Bono, former United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, acclaimed conservationist Jane Goodall, and panel host and billionaire Marc Benioff, Thunberg echoed themes from a video she created to share with Davos-goers.

Some people say that that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is not truebecause if everyone is guilty, then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame, Thunberg said to the people in the room.

Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to make unimaginable amounts of money, and I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.

Her statement was followed silence until Bono began applauding. Other audience members and panelists then followed suit. []

Journalist and climate activist Naomi Klein applauded Thunbergs bravery, writing on Twitter: It takes deep courage to go to Davos and tell the masters-of-the-universe *to their faces* that they knowingly torched the planet in order [to] get filthy rich.

Speaking to CNN Business about the talk, Thunberg said, It was pretty fun.

I think its very insane and weird that people come here in private jets to discuss climate change. Its not reasonable, Thunbergwho arrived at the gathering by train and has been sleeping in a tenttold the outlet. []

On Friday, the last day of the forum, Thunberg continued her criticism of the Davos attendees in an address that demanded action above all else from the worlds so-called leaders. I want you to act as you would in a crisis, she said. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is. [more]

Right To Their Faces, 16-Year-Old Greta Thunberg Tells Davos Elite Climate Crisis Their FaultThe unique structure of PfH allows the state and counties to split the state Medicaid match amount, providing the state more funding for services than traditionally funded Medicaid programs, where specifically, for each $1 spent by the state and counties, Missourians with DD received about $5.34 worth of supports and services, the study found.

The program has served more than 4,000 people, according to the 2017 findings.

Missouris disability service advances can also be traced to its transition from state institutions toward community-based residential programs. About 64 percent of the people accounted for in the original Case for Inclusion report have left Missouris larger facilities.

While the survey commended the state for closing three of its institutions, the report pushes to eliminate them altogether, as 14 other states and the District of Columbia have done.

Nationally, (eliminating institutions) is clearly the goal, but we still find value in them, Huhn said.

Huhn said the state sometimes leans on the facilities as temporary housing for those experiencing crisis placements where someone will be left in a hospital, left in a jail.Today, lets talk about two simple things, both of which can be worth money to you if own index funds or have a brokerage account  or the two together.

Ill show you how if you own an index fund, exercising a little financial discipline will let you make more money (or lose less money) than the index that your fund is based on makes or loses.

Ill also show you how to avoid being lowballed by profit-hungry brokerage houses on the cash that you have in sweep accounts. Those are the accounts where brokerage houses put the proceeds from holdings that you sell or hold cash that you deposit.

Index funds first

The difference between what the index makes or loses and the indexs total return  the indexs performance plus reinvested dividends  makes a serious difference if you hold your fund for the long term. The idea is to let the dividends in your account be reinvested rather than taking them out to get cash.

Rather than just giving you total-return statistics, let me show you real-world examples using Vanguard Admiral shares, the lowest-cost Vanguard shares available to retail investors.The Save Romania Union (USR) doesn't rule out the possibility to support PLUS Chairman Dacian Ciolos as candidate for Romania's presidency, if they make an alliance with this political formation, USR leader Dan Barna pointed out on Sunday.

If no alliance is made for the presidential elections, USR will have an own candidate.

Asked if the USR will support former PM Dacian Ciolos in a candidacy for Romania's presidency, Dan Barna said: "This is a decision that could be made by a political committee at the time, if we reach the situation of that decision."

Barna pointed out that he agrees with Ciolos, who said on Saturday that PLUS must give back "consistency" to the president mandate, not only through the candidate it will propose, but also through the manner in which it sees the restructuring of the state.

"The president institution, its prerogatives must be defined so that it matters and it reflects that the president is the man with the highest democratic legitimacy in the Romanian state," Barna said.

Read also: President Iohannis signs decree decorating some Holocaust survivors

USR also takes into account having an own candidate in the presidential elections, if no electoral alliance is made, says Barna.

USR discussed the strategy for the elections to the EP in Sibiu this weekend, with almost 600 USR members attending the meeting, according to Dan Barna.

AGERPRES .President Klaus Iohannis signed the decree on decorating some Holocaust survivors, the Presidential Administration announced on Sunday.

"In sign of special respect for the affliction suffered during the Second World War, for the high moral sense they have shown throughout their lives, as well as for the efforts made to keep alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust - a tragedy that humanity must never know again, the President of Romania has conferred the following: The National Order "Faithful Service" in the rank of Knight to Mrs. Davidits Rachel, Mrs. Pardau Lea, Mr. Schwartz Paul, Mrs. Segal Sandra, Mr. Shai Meir, Mrs. Szinetar Judita Agneta and Mrs. Vainer Anette," says a press release sent to AGERPRES.

Also, according to the quoted source, the head of state has awarded Andrei Klein with the National Medal "The Faithful Service" 3rd Class.The Holocaust was a living proof that the unimaginable can become a nightmare reality, "it is our duty to reflect on this moment to ensure that such abominable acts will not happen again," Deputy Prime Minister Ana Birchall wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

"At the initiative of the UN General Assembly, on January 27, the international community commemorates those who have lost their lives in one of the darkest episodes in the history of humanity. The Holocaust was a living proof that the unimaginable can become a nightmare reality and that human nature can be not only sublimely good, but also terribly easy to be conquered by evil," Birchall says.

In her opinion, the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust must create a moment of silence in everyone's hearts for the deaths of the 6 million Jews during the Second World War."It is our duty, of all of us, to reflect on this moment to ensure that such abominable acts are not repeated and to better understand our mission today, in a world of freedom, civilization and good co-existence," Birchall points out.She adds that, in such moments, which role is to never forget the horrors of the Second World War, she expresses all her compassion and solidarity with the Jewish people and those who have suffered "following such a gruesome event that left deep injuries in the souls and consciousness of Jews everywhere."King Day weekend is not only the celebration and commemoration of the birth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but it is a time to recommit ourselves to continue his fight for justice.

In the spirit of King, the North Carolina NAACP, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, and more than 200 coalition partners will convene the 13th annual Moral March on Raleigh & H K on J Peoples Assembly on Feb. 9 in Raleigh.

The Statesville Branch NAACP #5454 is planning transportation based on the number of people to sign up. All persons planning to go will need to contact Marlene B. Scott, secretary of the branch. Anyone less than 18 planning to attend will need to complete a permission slip and get it to the secretary before Feb. 5.

If you are interested in participating and going with the Statesville Branch NAACP #5454 to the Moral March on Raleigh H K on J, contact Marlene B. Scott at 704-253-3188.Statesville lost a local icon last week.

Tracy Lay Barnes, one of the founders of the Carolina BalloonFest, died Jan. 20 at 79.

The ballooning community said it has lost much more than an enthusiast for the sport.

AN INDUSTRY VISIONARY

He is a national figure, said David Comer, a producer on a documentary examining Barnes life. He has a reputation across the world in the ballooning community. He is an international hero in ballooning culture. 

Barnes was born Feb. 21, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, according to his obituary. He discovered his love for lighter-than-air flight while serving in the meteorological section of the Army. Barnes built his first hot air balloon out of parachutes and named it Old Lumpy.

He would take his first solo flight in Old Lumpy on Oct. 13, 1961, and reach an altitude of 8,000 feet. A year later he founded the Tracy Barnes Corp., a company focused on building and flying promotional hot air balloons.

In 1973, Barnes came to Statesville to cofound The Balloon Works, which focused on selling sport balloons, his obituary said. The Balloon Works became the largest manufacturer of FAA-certified hot air balloons in the United States in the 1980s.

Also in 1973, Barnes started the National Balloon Rally, now known as the Carolina BalloonFest, with Bill Meadows, according to the festivals website. The festival remains a staple event in Iredell County more than 45 years later.

Barnes sold The Balloon Works in 1982, took a sabbatical and returned to Statesville in 1984 to found The Blimp Works, his obituary said; he served as president of the company until his death.

Kristie Darling, president and owner of Big oh! Balloons in Cool Springs, said she first became familiar with Barnes work while visiting the Renwick Gallery in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

His balloon was part of an exhibit called Craft Multiples, and it was all handcrafted items that were used in everyday life, she said. So there was pottery, there were baskets, there was rugs, there were all these things that were hand crafted.  And Tracys balloons was one the ones that was in that exhibit.

Darling met Barnes in 1979 at the Carolina BalloonFest and later worked in the sales department of The Blimp Works in the 90s. She said that part of his vision was making ballooning accessible.

The thing that he wanted to do was design balloons that were safe (and) that anyone could afford, Darling said. Like you could have a balloon just like your neighbor might have a sailboat. It would be easy to fly, easy to operate, affordable and safe. His designs started a new way of thinking about balloons.

A MAN OF ACHIEVEMENT

People who knew Barnes said he was obsessed with progress.

He was by far the most inventive, forward-looking among all the (ballooning) pioneers, Comer said.

Friends said improving the safety of ballooning as a sport was a primary goal for Barnes.

One of his most famous inventions is the parachute valve, now a standard in hot air balloon design. Comer said the valve functions by letting air escape and return inside the balloon  allowing pilots to adjust their altitude at any moment.

He was awarded the first Wirth Medal by Queen Elizabeth for this design in 1985, according to his obituary.

Darling said Barnes also designed the triangular basket for passenger flight. It has become another industry standard.

In 1964, he set 11 world altitude records in an A-3 size gas balloon that he designed and built. It was the first manned flight of a hydrogen-filled polyethylene balloon and Barnes reached an altitude of 38,650 feet. His record remains unbroken and the balloon with its capsule is on display at the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa.

From April to September 1966, Barnes completed the first transcontinental flight by hot air balloon. The journey took 34 flights beginning in San Diego, California and ending in Cape May, New Jersey.

Barnes career was recognized by his inductions into the National Balloon Museum Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale Ballooning Commission International Hall of Fame in 2017.

HUMBLE ON THE GROUND

Perhaps what keeps Barnes name off the radar for some is his reputation as a hermit, friends said.

Comer said it was because Barnes was primarily driven by his work.

Tracey, by choice, was a recluse, Comer said. He was more preoccupied with the fascinations of his own ideas.

Darling echoed that and said Barnes was never one for public engagement or making headlines, but that he has left a lasting impact on the local and national levels.

His legacy just demands that we continue to keep ballooning alive here (in Statesville), that we continue to share it with people and for the balloon festival, Darling said. I think were mandated to just keep it going and make it bigger and better and just keep it alive.

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.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.The fading white-haired fatherly image has been appealing because it implied lessons had been learned and sentimentality brings a certain level of trust.

But the appeal of the younger faces, whether you voted for them, is the hope that some things will be put away and we can stop grinding our teeth over issues that were relevant only in the 1970s.

My son, employed in banking, recently called. I realized he will remember Obama (young) as the first president he took an interest in, just as Nixon (a grumpy senior) is mine.

We discussed finances and future plans which indicate hes crossed a line and venturing further beyond my protection.

And that is why I, gentle reader, am interested in politics.

Politics is about shaking your fist and voting out the wrinkled geezers that gave away our industrial infrastructure. Or the hoary heads that slept while the banks gave our money away on sleazy unstable mortgages. Or the aged dolts that destroyed public education by dumbing it down then raised tuition prices and now a graduate comes out of college pulling a wagon-load of debt.

A note to old codgers still in office: it aint a public university if the public cant afford to attend. I want my son to live in a stable affordable society.But how quickly would releases occur, and what specific criteria would the state Parole Board use in making its decisions? Considerable uncertainty and disagreement exist on those questions. Lathrop said the law pushes the state hard to speed up prisoner releases, while Frakes emphasized flexibility the law allows the Parole Board.

The state prison system currently is at about 162 percent of capacity, with 5,470 inmates. In addition, the state is housing 110 inmates in county jails.

Frakes listed steps taken by the Ricketts administration since 2015 to boost bed numbers and expand services for inmate re-entry to society. The administration is proposing $49 million in the new two-year budget for 384 high-security beds in Lincoln and aims to further strengthen prisoner transition efforts. That and other construction projects are projected to bring prison capacity below 140 percent, but they would not be completed until 2023.

A degree of tension between the legislative and executive branches over prison policy may be unavoidable. Putting the 2020 deadline into law, for example, was the Legislatures attempt to push the prison system to resolve the overcapacity problem.But his weaknesses were also evident. His opening lines referred to Adlai Stevenson, who died 54 years ago. He seemed at times to not have control over the volume of his own voice, and he meandered so much that at one point he stopped himself to say, "Now I'm beginning to sound like the wonk I hate." He did not mention Trump by name.

He made light of a New York Times story about how he went to Michigan just before the November election and, during a $200,000 paid speech, praised Rep. Fred Upton in remarks that were used to help the Republican incumbent win a tight reelection campaign.

"I read in the New York Times today that one of my problems is, if I were to run for president, is that I like Republicans," he said. Then he crossed himself, adding, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned."

"It's like we've divided the country into pieces," he added. "How can we be one America if we continue down this road? I don't care what your party affiliation is."

Biden is one of the few candidates whose decision could shape the field, at least minimally, and alter the calculus of other prospective presidential candidates. But unlike most any other potential presidential aspirant, he has a lengthy legacy to consider that could be greatly impacted by a presidential campaign.GERING  The public is invited to express appreciation for wildlife by watercolor painting during an upcoming program at the Wildcat Hills Nature Center. Wildlife and Watercolors, the next installment of the centers Wildcat Weekend series of events, will be Saturday, Feb. 9, at 10 a.m.

Amanda Filipi, outdoor education specialist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said the event is designed for all ages and is especially ideal for anyone looking to start a new hobby. She said experienced watercolor painters will help with the event and the first 15 people to register get to take home a 12-by-12-inch canvas of their work.

Well talk about some of the wild animals we might see in this area and give people some ideas of ones they can paint, she said. And well give people the basics of painting with watercolor.

Filipi said many artists have created beautiful wildlife artwork from watercolor and hopes that attendees will be inspired to do the same.

There is a lot of great watercolor wildlife art out there and we hope people will gain a new appreciation for art and nature through this medium, she said.

The event has a $10 fee for supplies and the deadline to register is Feb. 1. To register, call 308-436-3777.LINCOLN - Local libraries reaped the benefits of the energy and creativity of Nebraska young people as they serve as interns in their local public libraries. The Nebraska Library Commission recently awarded Nebraska Library Internship Grants totaling $44,800 to forty-six Nebraska public libraries. A number of western Nebraska libraries; Bayard Public Library, Kimball Public Library, Morrill Public Library, and Sidney Public Library were among those receiving grant money.

These internship grants will support public library interns, who will contribute to the scope and value of the diverse programs and activities in Nebraskas public libraries.

The internships are a great opportunity for students to get involved in library work. Beyond earning money and gaining valuable work experience, the student is exposed to the broad range of library services and programming. Internships provide an opportunity for the student to view the library as a viable and satisfying career choice. In addition, interns bring a fresh perspective and their own unique talents to the library, said Nebraska Library Commission Director Rod Wagner.

Student interns will learn about library work as they shadow staff, assist with day-to-day library operations, and implement special projects. Some of the activities that students will participate in include:SCOTTSBLUFF  The Knights of Columbus came under scrutiny in the U.S. Senate recently, causing many to wonder just what the Knights are about.

Most people think of the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfasts and fish fries during Lent.

When Omaha attorney Brian Buescher was being questioned in the Senate for a nomination to the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, two senators questioned whether Buescher, a Knights of Columbus member, could be impartial given the churchs historic position on the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of life.

Throughout their history, the Knights of Columbus remain non-political and focus on service to the community.

Bob Wolf of Scottsbluff, state warden with the Knights of Columbus Nebraska State Council, said the Knights were formed in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882, where their headquarters are still located.

The purpose of the Knights is to give aid and assistance to the widows and orphans of deceased Catholic men, he said. At the time, most of them were immigrants, usually from Ireland, Italy, Poland and eastern Europe.Former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns remembers the frustration of negotiating with Chinese officials over intellectual property issues, then walking outside in Beijing and seeing cheaper knockoffs of American products sold on the streets.

Thats part of the reason that hes glad to see the Trump administration address trade issues, Johanns said in an interview this week.

But Johanns, now the agriculture chairman for Alliantgroup, also said the agriculture industry is feeling Trumps tariffs.

Its very real, said the former Nebraska governor and senator. It drives prices down, it affects the general psychology of the marketplace.

But he added: Its easy to be critical, but the reality is that these issues have been around for a very long time.

Johanns served as agriculture secretary during the George W. Bush administration. And he, like many other Nebraska Republicans, said he sees good and bad in Trumps trade policy.

The bad is that the agricultural economy in Nebraska and around the country relies on exports. And as Johanns said, for every action theres a reaction. Meaning, when Trump imposes tariffs on other countries products, those countries do the same to American goods.Good idea. Except that the first U.S. presidents 20th-century countrymen had other ideas.

In truth, people loved the old stories, too. Even though they knew they were legends, they still wanted to hear the fables that Parson Weems, his first biographer, had written about him.

Hence, the end result blended scholarship, folklore, boosterism and patriotic pride. And it was a very big deal, which touched virtually every community in the United States of America, including Culpeper.

People everywhere did something, throughout the year. You couldnt avoid it, Stewart said. There were 16,000 events; some were hokey, and some were serious. More than 300,000 trees planted. Some 1,500 articles were published every day in newspapers. Eight hundred thousand individual groups participated.

In Culpeper, schools held patriotic pageants, citizens dressed up in Colonial-style garb, and businessmen promoted the occasion, she said. The Daughters of the American Revolution held a program and planted a commemorative tree on the courthouse grounds. The Culpeper Volunteer Fire Department and the communitys American Legion post took part in a big parade in Alexandria. Others attended the national bicentennial ball held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.Swarthmore, PA (19081)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.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 Y ou might not be able to travel to many places at the moment, but there is somewhere you can easily dive into: the world of history podcasts.

According to Acasts UK content director, Sophie Herdman, history shows are some of the platforms most popular offerings.

History is such a rich and interesting area in podcasting as it naturally allows for plenty of great storytelling. At Acast our history podcasts are among some of our most popular shows  from the likes of established historians such as Dan Snow and many more, she told the Standard.

Here are some of our favourite history podcasts to immerse yourself in. From the tales of Leeds Castle to the darker side of history, theres a whole lot to keep you occupied.

Best history podcasts to download now

Dan Snows History Hit

Dan Snows history podcast is top of the list for history shows. Learn more about some of the most iconic and influential moments in the worlds past.

Episodes cover events such as the Peterloo Massacre in 1800s Manchester, and the Hiroshima attacks with one of the few remaining survivors who speaks English, Hirata San.

Listen to Dan Snows History Hit on Acast and Apple Podcasts

Driving the Green Book

Alvin Hall visiting the The Lifting the Veil of Ignorance Monument, at Tuskegee University in Alabama during his time recording Driving The Green Book

You watched Mahershala Alis Oscar-winning performance in Green Book but do you really understand what it was like for Black Americans to travel around the southern states during the time of Jim Crow and segregation? Broadcaster Alvin Halls new podcast sees him hit the road with activist and social justice trainer Janee Woods Weber to explore what it was really like to use the historic travel guide.

In this living history podcast, Hall interviews former Motown artists, local activists and historians about their personal memories of segregation.

"It was impossible not to see the connection between the interviewees recollections and personal stories about travelling during the time the Green Book was published and widely reported horrific events that African Americans experience on the streets and highways across the US today. The question kept coming up in my mind: Why havent these things changed? Why cant these things change? Where in the American psyche or soul is the resistance to such change? said Hall.

Listen to Driving the Green Book on Apple Podcasts from September 15

Leeds Castle History Highlights

Last year, the 900-year-old Leeds Castle launched its first podcast to celebrate its anniversary. As part of the celebrations, the Kent-based castle and enlisted the help of actor Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet and Downton Abbey) to talk listeners through the castles place in English history.

Episodes will cover Leeds Castle under siege, Henry VII at the Field of Cloth, to the roaring 20s when Gatsby-style parties took over the castle.

Listen to Leeds Castles History Highlights podcast on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher

Lore

Lore

Lore regularly tops the charts for the best history podcast and its no wonder. Each episode looks at the darker side of history so its almost a true-crime podcast, with a side sharing of mysterious creatures and nightmares.

Recent shows cover the depths of the ocean in Anchored and how your tendency to collect things can lead to dire consequences in The Collection.

Listen to Lore on Apple Podcasts and TuneIn

SpyCast

(International Spy Museum ) / International Spy Museum

Hosted by Dr Vince Houghton, historian and curator at the International Spy Museum, each episode of SpyCast takes you deep into the world of espionage.

Youll find interviews from ex-spies, intelligence experts and espionage scholars covering everything from security issues in Korea, to the Cold War, and counter-terrorism.

Listen to SpyCast on AudioBoom and Apple Podcasts

Travels Through Time

If youre looking for a podcast that will help you escape then Travels Through Time is one to check out. Each week, the show interviews a leading historian or writer and asks them which point in history would they most like to visit.

Recent episodes have seen Professor Simon Hall take a trip through the US in 1960 to DR Rebeca Wragg Sykes going back to Neanderthal times. Whilst listening to their episodes you can also think of the specific moment youd travel back to, and what it says about you.

Listen to Travels Through Time on Apple Podcasts and Podbean

The Bowery Boys

The Bowery Boys

Who doesnt dream of living in New York in the 1920s when dancing was all the rage and gangsters ran the streets? Listening to The Bowery Boys makes you feel like you too are a part of this magical citys colourful past.

Presented by two New Yorkers, Greg Young and Tom Meyers, explore the treasured history of Brooklyn, or behind the scenes of New Yorks celebrated comedy scene.

Listen to The Bowery Boys on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher

Witness

This BBC World Service podcast is about specific moments in history by the people who were there.

Whether its the businessman who opened the first call centre in India in the 1990s to the female publisher who opened a feminist publishing company, Virago Press in 1972 to promote womens writing, youre sure to learn something in every episode.T oday is Holocaust Memorial Day. Today is a day to remember. And BBC Two have one of the most important documentaries youre likely to see this year to commemorate the day.

The Last Survivors is a poignant documentary airing the testimonies of several Holocaust survivors, some who have never spoken on camera before.

Holocaust Memorial Day has been held annually on January 27 since 2001, to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, and the day is to remember them, the millions killed under Nazi persecution and victims of further genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The BBC will this year air Arthur Carys film as part of their commemoration of the day. Heres what you should know.

What is The Last Survivors?

Cary followed a handful of survivors for a year  now in their 80s and 90s  as they spoke about their harrowing experiences as a child. Many talk of losing close family as well as describing what they saw.

One survivor, Frank Bright, 90, shares an old school photo, littered with red and blue stickers. He points out himself before explaining that a red sticker means dead. Blue survived. And there are more red.

Testimony: Frank Bright / BBC/Minnow Films Ltd/Richard Ansett

Other survivors include Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a woman who survived Auschwitz because she was picked as a cellist in the Womens Orchestra. She enters into some interesting discussions about becoming a parent after the trauma she experienced. Ms Lasker-Wallfisch told Cary that she hadnt spoken much before because the Holocaust didnt fit into normal conversation and she wanted a normal life. But now is the time to recount her terrifying testimony. Later, she speaks in German parliament.

The film also follows Ivor Perl, now 86, as he visits Auschwitz with his daughter Judy and granddaughter Lia. One of his sentences sticks long after you finish viewing. Im crying in my heart every day.

How can I watch it?A t least 20 people have been killed and more than 80 injured after two bombs detonated outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital during Sunday mass.

A second blast occurred outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Police said the blasts injured 81 people and killed 20, lowering an earlier announced death toll of 27 that officers say was incorrect due to double counting.

Bomb victims receive treatment in Jolo / AP

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past.

Debris inside a Catholic Church where two bombs exploded in Jolo / AFP/Getty Images

Troops sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Later on Sunday Islamic State claimed responsibility, in details released by the militant group's news agency Amaq.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organisation because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

Armed Forces, soldiers and police cordon off the area near the Roman Catholic cathedral / AP

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead.

Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it.

The province is home to a rival rebel faction that is opposed to the deal as well as the Abu Sayyaf group, which is not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact.T he heartbroken family of a toddler who was found dead after falling down a 100-metre borehole in Spain paid a tearful tribute to him today at his funeral.

Father Jose Rosello broke down in tears as he was surrounded by friends and family at the burial of his son Julen at a cemetery in El Palo, Malaga, Spain.

Two-year-old Julen Rosello fell down the narrow borehole on January 13 while his family was preparing Sunday lunch, prompting a complex rescue operation near the southern city of Malaga.

Hundreds of people attending the little boy's burial today.

Hundreds of people attend the burial of Julen Rosello, 2, who died after falling down a borehole / EPA

A judicial commission would follow up with the accident's investigation.

Adding to his familys tragedy, Spanish media had reported that his parents had another young son, three-year-old Oliver, who died of a heart attack in 2017.

The Spanish toddler fell down this 100-meter borehole / AUGC Guardia Civil

The tragedy had gripped Spaniards from day one and the country had followed closely every turn of an extremely complex operation, frequently hampered by layers of hard rock.

The dry waterhole, only 10 inches in diameter, was too narrow for an adult to get into and hardened soil and rock blocked equipment from progressing to the place two-thirds of the way down where the toddler was trapped.

During the nearly two weeks of the ordeal, officials came up with several alternative routes to the toddler.

Parents of two-year-old Julen Rosello / AFP/Getty Images

A series of small explosions set off since Thursday afternoon, including a fourth one late on Friday, helped the crews make their way through a horizontal tunnel to the cavity.

Before that tunnel could be dug some 230 feet underground, a vertical shaft was drilled during days of painstaking engineering to bring miners and rescue experts up and down.

The site where a child fell down a well in Totalan / AFP/Getty Images

The difficulty of the operation had prompted Jorge Martin, a spokesman with the Malaga province Civil Guard, to say: "We have to be very careful, here the mountain is in control."

Only hair that matched Julen's DNA was found in the borehole and no other verbal or visual contact had been established with him. Despite that, officials had refused to speculate over whether the boy could have survived so long.

In one of the few media interviews the child's parents gave before the body was found, his father said the family was "heartbroken" by the long wait but hoping for "a miracle".P resident Donald Trump is prepared for another Government shutdown if he is not satisfied by plans for border security, according to the acting White House chief of staff.

Mick Mulvaney says President Trump is opposed to seeing federal agencies closed again nor does he want to declare a national emergency.

However, he says the US leader is prepared for either should Congress not work with him to secure the southern border to his satisfaction.

This comes less than 48 hours after President Trump announced he had agreed to reopen the government for three weeks to allow further negotiations.

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made the comments on Sunday / REUTERS

Mr Mulvaney says some Democrats agree with Mr Trump's plan to better secure the border.

Despite this, he claims they said they could not work with the White House as long as there was a partial government shutdown.

Mr Mulvaney spoke Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" and "Fox News Sunday.

President Trump confirmed plans to end the partial shutdown outside the White House on Friday.

After ceasing what had been the longest Government shutdown in US history, he said: "I am very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown of federal government."

The deal will left the issue of the president's $5.7 billion request for the US-Mexico border wall open, subject to further talks for three weeks.

It sees the Government funded through to February 15, after the President triggered the shutdown on December 22 with his hard-line wall-funding demand.

President Trump has stood ardently by his wall plans and previously said: "Walls do work.A door decorated with a mural by Banksy has been stolen from Paris' Bataclan theatre where Islamist militants killed 90 people three years ago, representatives of the venue say.

The artwork by the mysterious street artist was one of a series of murals painted last June in the French capital and attributed to Banksy.

It showed a veiled female figure in a mournful pose.

"We are today filled with a deep sense of indignation," the Bataclan said in a Twitter post.

"The work of Banksy, a symbol of contemplation belonging to all - residents, Parisians and citizens of the world - has been taken from us."

Banksy - In pictures 1 /63 Banksy - In pictures AFP via Getty Images A new artwork painted by Banksy during lockdown, which has gone on display in a hospital corridor PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward Stormzy performs on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2019 wearing a vest designed by Banksy EPA Sotheby's employees pose with 'Love is in the Bin' by British artist Banksy during a media preview at Sotheby's auction house Jack Taylor/Getty Images Two men are sitting in front of a famous graffiti of British street artist Banksy, painted on a wall of a gas station in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Getty Images Banksy's homage to Pulp Fiction in East London Rex Features A new Banksy artwork in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter appears to have been vandalised days after it first appeared. The mural depicts two reindeer painted onto a brick wall appearing to pull along a bench PA Sotheby's host the first unauthorized retrospective exhibition of works by Banksy Curated by Steve Lazarides-Banksy's agent in the early years Alex Lentati Graffitti art by the 'guerilla' artist Banksy is seen on May 16, 2006 in Chalk Farm, London. The striking large scale spray-painted image entitled 'Sweeping It Under The Carpet' depicts a maid who cleaned the artist's room in a motel in Los Angeles. The piece commissioned by 'The Independent' newspaper edited on Tuesday by U2's frontman Bono, is intended to represent a metaphor for the west's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa Getty Images Mural: the artwork before it was covered (Photo: PA) PA Banky's Les Mis artwork in Knightsbridge Jeremy Selwyn A piece of urban art by Banksy discovered on the wall of the Poundland store in Wood Green Nigel Howard A woman attacked by seagulls piece by Banksy, during the press view for the artistis biggest show to date, entitled 'Dismaland', at Tropicana in Western-super-Mare, Somerset PA Builders remove a sheet of wood covering a Banksy artwork moments after being told to take it down from the building opposite the French embassy Getty Images Banksy's Barcode Leopard Rex Features A migrant looks at the work by Banksy in the Calais migrant 'jungle' Banksy A blanket covers a mural by elusive street artist Banksy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in a migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais. The piece has gained such popularity that people are being charged for the blanket to be lifted to that they can view it PA An employee holds Banksy's 'Girl and Balloon' which was painted on an Ikea frame at Bonhams auctioneers on March 23, 2012 in London Getty Images Dismal, and not how he meant it: Banksy's Dismaland PA Banksy, Brick Lane Rex Features Banksy - Love is in the Air street art, Soho, London Rex Features A graffiti titled "Art Attack" made by the British, guerrilla, graffiti artist Banksy is seen on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Ramallah Getty Images Sold: This Banksy on the Gaza Strip was bought for just 118 Banksy Banksy's provocative take on an iconic image from the Vietnam war Alex Lentati A stencil image of a Banksy rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwyn Children pose for their photo with an installation of British graffiti artist Banksy's art in New York in 2013 Reuters Art installation by British artist Banksy, a robot and a barcode, is seen on a wall in the Coney Island area of New York City Reuters Mobile Lovers by Banksy on Clement Street, Bristol PA Art Buff created by street artist Banksy in Folkestone, KenT PA Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in the Israeli occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem Getty Images Self-portrait by Banksy PA Grafitti by the illusive artist Banksy adorns a building August 28, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisian Getty Images Vulture Petrol Head Mural by Banksy at Dungeness Susan Pilcher British graffiti artist Banksy's artwork 'No Ball Games' EPA Banksy's Bronx Zoo at Yankee Stadium Reuters Banksy's Eton Posse PA Cardinal Sin by artist Banksy at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool PA A worker holding Banksy's portrait of Kate Moss (2005) at a press preview for the exhibition Banksy: The Unauthorised Retrospective, curated by Steve Lazarides, at S|2 Gallery in London PA A Banksy mural which was painted on the side of one of the classrooms at Bridge Farm Primary in Bristol during half-term PA A stencil image of a rat in Haringey, London Jeremy Selwym A dancer poses with a new installation of art by British graffiti artist Banksy painted on the front door of the Hustler Club in New York Reuters "Flower Girl," a delicate stencil on a massive brick wall by popular street artist Banksy, is displayed in a warehouse in the greater Los Angeles, California AP Brexit mural: The artwork on the side of an abandoned arcade in Dover Reuters Detail from an installation by artist Banksy, entitled Civilian Drone Strike, on display at the Art the Arms Fair art exhibition 2017 PA A man takes a photo of one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA Banksy's lost 'Snorting Copper' at it's original home on Curtain Road in Shoreditch Gareth Richman A woman passes one of two new murals painted by the artist Banksy near the Barbican Centre in London PA The painting 'Devolved Parliament' by the graffiti artist Banksy, which is on show at Bristol Museum PA A Banksy artwork on a bridge in Hull Banksy A man walks past an artwork by street artist Banksy in Paris AFP/Getty Images People gather around fences that have been erected to protect the latest piece of artwork by the underground guerrilla artist Banksy Getty Images A street stall with oil paintings creating an image of a yacht in the Venice canal with a sign reading "Venice in oil", set up by a person purporting to be British artist Banksy, in Venice Reuters A motorboat passes in front of an alleged work of British street artist Banksy 'The shipwrecked child', that appeared on the outer wall of a house overlooking the canal Rio de Ca Foscari in Venice, Italy EPA Banksy created Stormzy's Union Jack stab proof vest worn at Glastonbury in July 2019 @banksy Banksy hits Notting Hill Bronwen Weatherby A shopfront displays a mini exhibition by secretive British artist, Banksy with the sign 'Gross Domestic Product', in Croydon AFP/Getty Images Displays in a homeware store, Gross Domestic Product, that is being launched in South London by the graffiti artist Banksy PA Banksy turned a rough sleeper's bench into Santa's sleigh in a social commentary on homelessness at Christmas Banksy A new work of art on the side of a house on Marsh Lane, Barton Hill, Bristol PA A section of the new work he has created during lockdown, in his bathroom. The artist captioned the post "My wife hates it when I work from home Banksy via PA Banksys Girl With A Pearl Earring modified during Coronavirus @Anth0ny_Ward

According to a police source, thieves with a van had stolen the door on which the mural was painted.

The Bataclan theatre was stormed by militants during a rock concert in November 2015.

This was part of a number a coordinated attack in and around Paris that killed 130 people.

Banksy shredded artwork to go on display - In pictures 1 /3 Banksy shredded artwork to go on display - In pictures Courtesy of Sotheby's AFP/Getty Images Getty Images

Some of Banksy's works in Paris, which also addressed issues like immigration, were vandalised soon after they were put up.

Others were protected by screens.

The murals of Banksy, who keeps his real name secret, have become prized attractions for collectors.O ne in 20 UK adults do not believe the Holocaust took place, a survey suggests, while one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated.

Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) either could not say how many Jews were murdered or "grossly" under-estimated the number, a survey of more than 2,000 people by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) found.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people, including survivors, politicians and members of the public, will gather to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and remember its six million Jewish victims.

More than 11,000 activities are expected to take place, while ceremonies will be held in London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A national commemorative ceremony will take place in Westminster to mark the day, which is also acknowledging the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and 40 years since the end of the genocide in Cambodia.

The gates at Auschwitz I camp / PA

Holocaust survivor Steven Frank, who was one of 93 children who survived the Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia along with his two brothers, said the figures were "terribly worrying".

His father, who helped hide Jews as part of the Dutch Resistance, was arrested in Amsterdam and taken to Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland, where he was gassed on January 21 1943.

Mr Frank, 83, said he was "surprised" that the survey found as many as one in 20 people still did not believe the Holocaust took place.

Holocaust survivor Steven Frank / PA

Mr Frank said: "In my experience, people don't have a solid understanding of what happened during the Holocaust and that's one of the reasons I am so committed to sharing what happened to me.

"At one of my talks, I met someone who said the Holocaust didn't happen. The only way to fight this kind of denial and anti-Semitism is with the truth - I tell people what happened, what I saw and what I experienced.

"Education is so important. If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself."

Visitors walk through the cemetery of the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezin / AP

HMDT chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said: "The Holocaust threatened the fabric of civilisation and has implications for us all. Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking.

"Without a basic understanding of this recent history, we are in danger of failing to learn where a lack of respect for difference and hostility to others can ultimately lead.

"With a rise in reported hate crime in the UK and ongoing international conflicts with a risk of genocide, our world can feel fragile and vulnerable. We cannot be complacent."

Barbed wire and the electric fence surrounding the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial / Getty Images

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "We know that education is vital in the fight against ignorance and hate.

"Whatever the statistics, one person questioning the truth of the Holocaust is one too many and so it is up to us to redouble our efforts to ensure future generations know that it did happen and become witnesses to one of the darkest episodes in our history."

Communities Secretary James Brokenshire, who will be speaking at Sunday's event, said: "It remains essential now as ever to remember the Holocaust, to understand why it happened and to learn the stark lessons it gives.

"We must never forget where hatred and bigotry can lead."T he father of a teenager who took her own life believes new legislation may be needed to police "disturbing content" online.

Ian Russell's call comes after the UK's Health Secretary said social media firms need to "purge" the internet of harmful content that promotes self-harm and suicide.

Matt Hancock wrote to internet giants following the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, telling them they have a duty to act.

Mr Hancock delivered the message after Molly's father said Instagram "helped kill my daughter".

The social media platform has said it is "consulting further with mental health bodies and academics to understand what more we can do to protect and support our community".

Molly Russel's father Ian is raising awareness of harmful content on social media / PA

The Health Secretary said he was "horrified" to learn of Molly's death, and feels "desperately concerned to ensure young people are protected".

In his letter to Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Apple, Google and Facebook - which owns Instagram, he said: "I welcome that you have already taken important steps, and developed some capabilities to remove harmful content. But I know you will agree that more action is urgently needed.

"It is appalling how easy it still is to access this content online and I am in no doubt about the harm this material can cause, especially for young people.

"It is time for internet and social media providers to step up and purge this content once and for all."

Matt Hancock has said social media firms need to "purge" the internet of harmful content / PA

He added that the Government is developing a white paper addressing "online harms", and said it will look at content on suicide and self-harm.

He said: "I want to work with internet and social media providers to ensure the action is as effective as possible. However, let me be clear that we will introduce new legislation where needed."

Molly was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017 after showing "no obvious signs" of severe mental health issues.

Her family later found she had been viewing material on social media linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.

Molly Russell, pictured here in 2007, took her own life when she was 14 years old / PA

Molly's father Ian said: "It is clear to us that despite what the social media companies tell the public about their policies of removing disturbing content that such content is still available for young people to find easily and by finding it they have more and more of it pushed on them by algorithms.

"It is time for tech companies to stand up and take more responsibility for the content available to their young users.

"While many may say it is impossible to 'police the internet' there must be a better and safer way to control what we expose young people to on the internet and to ensure more support is offered to those looking for answers online.

"This is far too important an issue to simply dismiss as being too difficult.

"We are pleased that the Health Secretary has taken action to write to tech companies to ask for the type of content that Molly saw to be removed.

"However, I fear that the tech companies have already shown that they cannot be trusted to police this themselves and that legislation may well be needed.

"I would like to thank the HM Senior Coroner Andrew Walker for all his efforts so far in helping us try to find some answers about the role of social media in the death of our beautiful daughter Molly."

Merry Varney, solicitor from Leigh Day representing the Russell family, said: "From what we've learnt in Molly's case and the examples of how the algorithms push negative material, it surely needs fully investigating whether these platforms, which often allow users from 13 years old, are contributing to suicides and self-harm."

A spokeswoman for Instagram said: "We are undertaking a full review of our enforcement policies and technologies around self-harm, suicide and eating disorders.

"As part of this, we are consulting further with mental health bodies and academics to understand what more we can do to protect and support our community, especially young people.

"While we undertake this review, we are taking measures aimed at preventing people from finding self harm-related content through search and hashtags."

An inquest into Molly's death is expected later this year.B rexit planners are looking at the possibility of imposing martial law in Britain in the event of a no-deal, it has emerged.

Legislation which gives ministers the powers to impose curfews and travel bans, confiscate property and deploy the armed forces is being examined by Whitehall officials, the Sunday Times reports.

Powers available under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 could be used to stop civil disobedience after Britain leaves the EU, according to the newspaper.

A source was quoted as saying: The over-riding them in all the no-deal planning is civil disobedience and the fear that it will lead to death in the event of food and medical shortages.

The move has been described by sources as the civil service "prepping" for all possibilities.

Under pressure on Brexit: Theresa May / PA

The revelation came as further Government splits emerged over whether Britain should quit the EU without an agreement as Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood broke ranks and insisted a no deal scenario must be ruled out.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "Respecting the referendum decision means leaving the EU.

"The PM has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal, but as a responsible Government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared."

In other measures the Government sought to extend working hours for MPs in order to get Brexit legislation through the Commons before the scheduled EU withdrawal date of March 29.

Brexit: Meaningful Vote - In Pictures 1 /29 Brexit: Meaningful Vote - In Pictures A Leaver and a pro-European demonstrator argue during protests opposite the Houses of Parliament in London AP A police officer extinguishes a flag that was set alight by pro-Brexit protestors outside the Houses of Parliament PA An anti-Brexit protester dressed in a Theresa May costume recreates a scene from the 1997 film 'Titanic, EPA Pro Brexit supporters outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA PA John Bercow speaks in the House of Commons Sky News Pro-Brexit protestors outside the Houses of Parliament, London PA Prime Minister Theresa May listens to the Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox, speak in the House of Commons ahead of the Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Pro Brexit supporters outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in London Reuters Effigies of Prime Minister Theresa May, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, current Environment Secretary Michael Gove and former Brexit secretary David Davis, are driven past the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab, Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster, Conservative Peer Lord Lilley and former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis speak to the media during a press conference to offer an alternative Brexit plan Getty Images Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks to the media outside the Palace of Westminster Getty Images Pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Former leader of UKIP Nigel Farage speaks to the media as Pro-Brexit and Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray outside the Houses of Parliament, London PA Pro EU protesters and Pro Leave protesters demonstrate outside Parliament EPA A man dressed to imitate former foreign secretary Boris Johnson holds a fake bank note for 350 million pounds outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images A pro-Brexit 'battle bus' (L) drives past a mix of pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray (left) talks with a Brexiteer outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA A pro-European demonstrator sings during a protest opposite the Houses of Parliament AP Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes leaves 10 Downing Street, London, following a cabinet meeting, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Anti-Brexit and Pro-Brexit protesters fly flags outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Theresa May leaves a cabinet meeting at Downing Street AP A pro remain supporter wears anti brexit badges on his hat, during protests outside of the Parliament EPA Anti and pro Brexit placards are displayed outside of the Parliament EPA Anti-Brexit supporters hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images Anti-Brexit demonstrators hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images Pro-Brexit supporters hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images

Responding to news the Government was looking at the possibility of a martial law scenario, Labour MP and Best for Britain campaign supporter, David Lammy said: "This is a full-blown crisis.

"The Government is recklessly drawing up plans for a colossal act of self-harm.

"Through continuing on the path to Brexit, despite having achieved no consensus on a deal in Parliament, the Government is preparing to declare war on itself.

"The idea that the Government has any mandate for this catastrophic scenario is ludicrous.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood / AFP/Getty Images

"The Leave campaign promised a stable new trading relationship with the EU after Brexit, not total isolation and soldiers in our airports."

Despite Prime Minister Theresa May refusing to take the prospect of a no deal off the table, Mr Ellwood wrote in the Sunday Times: "It is now time to rule out the very possibility of no deal.

"It is wrong for Government and business to invest any more time and money in a no deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world."

Also writing in the Sunday Times, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom branded bids by some backbench MPs to kill no deal as an option via a series of Commons amendments on Tuesday as a "thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit".

In a bid to try and ensure Brexit legislation gets through the Commons and Lords in time for the planned March exit, Parliament's February recess is to be cancelled, and MPs will be made to start earlier and finish later on sitting days.

The move comes after the Commons Leader suggested that leaving the EU might need to be delayed by "a couple of weeks" in order to get all the legislation through.I relands foreign minister dealt another Brexit blow to Theresa May today as he insisted the backstop isnt going to change and that it is already a compromise.

Mrs May sought to gain backing from MPs on her controversial Brexit deal by telling them last week that she would go back to the EU to seek changes to the backstop which is designed to prevent a hard border in Ireland.

But Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told the BBCs Andrew Marr show: The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises.

"It was designed around British red lines.

TODO: define component type apester

"Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced package that isn't going to change."

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney being interviewed by host Andrew Marr / PA

He added that the European Parliament would not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that does not have a backstop in it. Its as simple as that, he said.

His comments came as it emerged that MPs may need to work longer and lose their February break if Brexit is to be delivered on time.

The government is to consult Parliament on the extra hours needed to get Brexit legislation onto the statute book before the leaving date of March 29 this year.

Theresa May plays ball with Blitz the border collie after the Sunday church service in Maidenhead / Rex Features

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom today described plans by MPs to put forward an amendment to the Prime Ministers latest Brexit motion to extend Article 50 and delay Brexit as a thinly veiled attempt to stop it altogether.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Labour MP Yvette Cooper said she was not seeking to "block Brexit" with her amendment that seeks to extend Article 50 to avoid a no-deal exit.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper with host Andrew Marr / PA

The former Treasury minister said she was not yet sure if she had the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, nor of some of the Tory frontbench but Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, earlier said that Labour was willing to do whatever it could to stop a no-deal.

On Mr Corbyn, Ms Cooper said: "I hope he will support it - he obviously needs to make a decision in the normal way.

"I suppose what I would say to him, to the Prime Minister, to the Government ministers who I think also want to make sure that we don't have no deal is in the end we can't... keep waiting for other people to sort this out.

British Health Minister Matt Hancock arrives at the Andrew Marr Show / EPA

"We can't carry on with a kind of game of chicken... That's not a way to make sensible decisions.

"In the end someone has to take some responsibility and say: 'if the Prime Minister runs out of time she may need some more time' - that is not about blocking Brexit, that is about being responsible and making sure you can get a Brexit deal."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the show that he did not agree with her amendment.

Mr Hancock said: "No, because delaying Brexit won't help solve these problems.

"The thing I would say in response to Yvette and all those who feel so strongly against having a no-deal exit is... you can't just vote for delay - that doesn't solve anything - you have got to vote positively for a deal, so let's keep having those conversations about what the Commons can coalesce around."

Mr Hancock also denied that the Irish foreign minister's remarks meant Mrs Mays Brexit deal was dead in the water.

Brexit: Meaningful Vote - In Pictures 1 /29 Brexit: Meaningful Vote - In Pictures A Leaver and a pro-European demonstrator argue during protests opposite the Houses of Parliament in London AP A police officer extinguishes a flag that was set alight by pro-Brexit protestors outside the Houses of Parliament PA An anti-Brexit protester dressed in a Theresa May costume recreates a scene from the 1997 film 'Titanic, EPA Pro Brexit supporters outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA PA John Bercow speaks in the House of Commons Sky News Pro-Brexit protestors outside the Houses of Parliament, London PA Prime Minister Theresa May listens to the Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox, speak in the House of Commons ahead of the Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Pro Brexit supporters outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament in London Reuters Effigies of Prime Minister Theresa May, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, current Environment Secretary Michael Gove and former Brexit secretary David Davis, are driven past the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab, Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster, Conservative Peer Lord Lilley and former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis speak to the media during a press conference to offer an alternative Brexit plan Getty Images Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks to the media outside the Palace of Westminster Getty Images Pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Former leader of UKIP Nigel Farage speaks to the media as Pro-Brexit and Anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament Reuters Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray outside the Houses of Parliament, London PA Pro EU protesters and Pro Leave protesters demonstrate outside Parliament EPA A man dressed to imitate former foreign secretary Boris Johnson holds a fake bank note for 350 million pounds outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images A pro-Brexit 'battle bus' (L) drives past a mix of pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray (left) talks with a Brexiteer outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA A pro-European demonstrator sings during a protest opposite the Houses of Parliament AP Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes leaves 10 Downing Street, London, following a cabinet meeting, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Anti-Brexit and Pro-Brexit protesters fly flags outside the Houses of Parliament, London, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the Prime Minister's Brexit deal PA Theresa May leaves a cabinet meeting at Downing Street AP A pro remain supporter wears anti brexit badges on his hat, during protests outside of the Parliament EPA Anti and pro Brexit placards are displayed outside of the Parliament EPA Anti-Brexit supporters hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images Anti-Brexit demonstrators hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images Pro-Brexit supporters hold up placards outside Parliament AFP/Getty Images

"Not at all," said Mr Hancock. "That's a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think it's also extremely clear from that interview and the tone... is that Ireland doesn't want to have a no-deal Brexit.

"The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

"The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen."

On Tuesday, MPs will vote on the PMs policy stance on Brexit in the Commons but MPs have tabled a series of amendments to the motion which could change the course of Brexit.

Commons Speaker John Bercow is expected to choose up to six amendments for MPs to vote on.

Other amendments are also tabled to rule out a no-deal Brexit and to stage a series of indicative votes to work out which approach to Brexit could gain a majority in the Commons.

The Sunday Times reported today that Mrs Mays husband Philip had been accused by her chief of staff and former MP Gavin Barwell of scuppering plans to offer Labour a permanent customs union with the EU to try and get their backing.

Mr May is said to have continued to encourage his wife to seek a deal that is approved by the DUP and Brexiteer Tories.C ocaine being washed into the River Thames is "another" problem which eels do not need, a wildlife expert said today.

Mike Waller, a conservation ecologist for the London Wildlife Trust, told of his concerns for the freshwater fish's population after reports suggested drugs were making them hyperactive.

Its just another thing on top of the fact that they have really struggled with general population, Mr Waller told the Standard.

This is just one example that grabs attention, if you think about the sheer amount of chemicals that get flushed, thats all mixing up.

The water in the Thames was found to be affected by drugs washing into it / Victoria Jones/PA

He added: People dont give it a second thought. What we would say really is, Think about what youre putting down the toilet.

Mr Waller has urged people to consider how they dispose of items, including non-illegal drugs, as even things such as painkillers can cause problems.

Items put down the toilet can go far and wide and create issues for all wildlife, he said.

Further on the topic of eels, he said the fact that they are out of sight and out of mind means people are less likely to consider their welfare over other animals.

Fish do struggle and people are more likely to care about more charismatic and cuddly animals, added Mr Waller.

Species of eel are really important to the eco system he added, stating that there has been a lot of work to improve water in the Thames and elsewhere to aid them.

However, he conceded more work needs to be done. Its important we try and ensure they dont decline any more," he said.

The International Union for Conversation of Nature lists the population of the European Eel as declining.

Scientists also state that across Europe there number has declined to less than five per cent of the number there was in the 1980s.

Issues related to their migration, pathogens, parasites and climate changes have also been listed as issues for them, according to the Environment Agency.A murder investigation is underway after a man in his 30s was found dead in Acton on Sunday morning.

Scotland Yard was called at 10.15am to a property in Alfred Road to a concern for welfare.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police said: "A man, thought to be aged in his 30s, was found deceased.

"At this early stage, his death is being treated as suspicious.

"The Homicide and Major Crime Command have been informed and detectives are working to establish the man's identity.

"A post-mortem will be carried out in due course."

London Ambulance Service attended the scene alongside police.

Nobody has been arrested and the investigation is ongoing.P olice are looking for a 21-year-old man they believe may have shot his parents and three other people dead in Louisiana.

The five people were killed in two separate incidents and authorities say the suspect is still at large.

The shootings took place in Ascension and Livingston parishes, about 70 miles west of New Orleans.

On Facebook, the Ascension Parish sheriff's office said two people were shot dead in the city of Gonzalez with the victims identified as a husband and wife Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50.

Investigators work the scene of a shooting on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, / AP

Their 21-year-old son, Dakota Theriot, is being sought by authorities on first-degree murder charges, illegal use of weapons and home invasion.

Livingston sheriff Jason Ard confirmed on Facebook that the three deaths happened in his parish on Saturday.

The victims were named as Billy Ernest, 43, Tanner Ernest, 17, and Summer Ernest, 20.

Authorities believe the shootings in the two parishes are connected.

Investigators from both jurisdictions are working together.

The authorities believe the suspect shooter is driving a 2004 Dodge Pick Up, which was grey on top and silver on the bottom.On Thursday night in Manhattan, Sothebys welcomed Young Fellows of The Frick Collection and Sothebys Young Collectors to its 10th-floor gallery to hear from the unlikeliest of fans of Old Masters painting: Victoria Beckham.

The selection of works on display titled The Female Triumphant: Celebrating Fearless and Groundbreaking Women Artists Of the Pre-Modern Era highlight several extraordinary female painters working from the 16th-19th centuries, before their auction on January 30th.

Passionate art fans (and lets face it, probably quite a few fans of Beckham, as well) sipped champagne and toured the galleries.

Calvine Harvey, Xavier F Salomon, Victoria Beckham and Aimee Ng (Vikram Valluri/BFA.com)

Beckham joined The Frick Collection Curator Dr. Aimee Ng, and Calvine Harvey, Vice President, Old Masters Painting Specialist at Sothebys, who both spoke briefly about the female artists represented, highlighting works from the sale.

Laura Webb and Delia Folk (Vikram Valluri/BFA.com)

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Beckham revealed she's a passionate art collector who discovered Frick after a recommendation from a friend. She credits that visit with igniting her interest in Old Masters paintings.

Sothebys then approached Beckham last year for a collaboration that saw several Old Masters paintings from Sothebys put on display in Beckhams flagship on Dover Street in Mayfair.

Angelika Kauffmann's Portrait of Three Children (Vikram Valluri/BFA.com)

After the reception, Beckham and select guests attended a private dinner hosted by Xavier Salomon, Chief Curator of the Frick Collection, that featured toasted pear and candied walnut salad and porcini-dusted beef fillet.

Natalie Lewis, Edward Barsamian and Sarah Creal (Vikram Valluri/BFA.com)

Speaking to the enthusiastic crowd at dinner Beckham thanked the Frick collection [for igniting] my love of Old Masters. Its a new passion, and one that Im truly loving learning about. So to be here tonight, really is just incredible" before joking, "I have to say, its really posh.Today, children who rely on access to healthy meals through the National School Lunch Program and other nutrition programs are at risk. Among the federal departments impacted by the shutdown is the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is tasked with reimbursing schools across the nation for providing nutritious meals to children who might not otherwise be able to afford them.GREENWICH  For the first legislative session in nearly a century, Greenwichs representative delegation to Hartford is split by party.

Since the elections of state Rep. Steven Meskers (D-150) and state Sen. Alex Bergstein (D-36), constituents in town have wondered how the new dynamic will play out in a group traditionally monopolized by Republicans, during a historically partisan period of national politics.

The newly elected officials join longtime incumbent state Reps. Frank Camillo (R-151) and Livvy Floren (R-149) in the Greenwich delegation, and a have found common ground on several issues, including gun safety and environmental protections, even some economic matters.

Its important we acknowledge theres going to be some issues we disagree on, Camillo said during a panel discussion moderated by Hearst Connecticut Media Group Vice President Matt DeRienzo on Sunday at YWCA Greenwich. But I hope we can show you we can discuss the issues and still work together on a lot of things.

Bergstein said shes not a politician only thinking about the next campaign.

I just want to go in look at the system and see where we can make changes to run things better and tackle the biggest issues facing the state, she said. We have to have these hard conversations and really focus on facts in order drive solutions forward.

When asked if they would buck their party on bills that would negatively impact Greenwich, the Democrats said they would do whats in the best interest of the people they represent.

Bergstein cited her stance against proposed bills from Democratic leadership that would increase mill tax rates and regionalize schools.

Those bills would be pretty devastating to our community, she said.

Among the most polarizing issues between the Democratic and Republican lawmakers right now is the prospect of reinstating tolls on the states highways.

Bergstein, who has been targeted by anti-toll protestors because shes already introduced a toll bill, said the issue is an example of the difficult discussions that need to happen to move forward with solutions to state problems).

Meskers reiterated his support for tolls, saying, Someone has to pay for use of roads and right now Im paying for 100 percent of it. We are running a multi-state charity on our highways.

Both Floren and Camillo said there is already enough money for fixing the states transportation infrastructure, and now the newly set lockbox for transportation funding will ensure it is spent only for that purpose.

Now, every dollar we collect going to transportation is going to be spent only on transportation, Floren said. If we implement a 4 cent per-gallon gas tax, that would beyond pay for (needed infrastructure improvements).

Camillo took issue with estimates cited by Bergstein that 30 to 40 percent of Connecticuts highway traffic is from out of state, saying he knows local business owners who would be negatively impacted by the reinstatement of tolls on highways.

On another matter, an upcoming event at Town Hall organized by Carl Higbie, a Trump administration appointee who came under fire for saying racist, xenophobic, sexist and homophobic slurs, has been questioned by some residents who object to his use of the Greenwich government building.

When asked about the Higbie event, Floren said she has no interest in Higbies redemption tour.

I believe people can evolve and change, I just dont think this is a case when thats going to occur, she said. Town Hall has its meeting policies and he met the qualifications. We have to honor his right to free speech. What you dont have to do is attend.

Camillo, who said hes known Higbie for many years, said he was asked to speak at the event and only agreed to give opening remarks about civility, tolerance and respect. He has since pulled out, citing a time conflict with his Hartford duties.

Im a free speech guy, he said. If we as public officials cant have this discussion, who will? We all make mistakes, and if this thing turns into a circus, then Im wrong. But we have to be willing to give someone that chance.

When asked what their hopes are for the current legislative session, Floren said hers is that newly elected Gov. Ned Lamont  her neighbor, constituent and friend  will fulfill his campaign promises.

My hope is hes going to keep his word and really listen to people on both sides of the aisle, she said. I pledge to each one of you I will be an optimist until Im not.

All of the elected officials encouraged their constituents to reach out to them about the issues they care about.

We rely on you, your expertise and your lived experience to inform us on what the issues are, said Bergstein.One of Swarm Technologies' pico satellites. The company wants to operate a constellation of 150 such tiny satellites for Internet of Things services.

WASHINGTON  Swarm Technologies, the startup that ran afoul of the FCC last year for its unauthorized launch, has raised $25 million to continue building and deploying a constellation of 150 very small satellites.

Palo Alto, California-based Swarm said Jan. 24 that it has raised more than $28 million in total since forming in 2017. The new Series A funds will go toward deploying the company's full constellation over the next 18 months, as well as adding new hires and boosting technology development.

Craft Ventures, a SpaceX investor, and Sky Dayton, founder of the internet service providers EarthLink and Boingo, led Swarm's Series A, with NJF Capital, Social Capital and 4DX Ventures participating. [How Swarm Launched 4 Satellites Without FCC Approval]

Swarm recently hired Kalpak Gude, a veteran satellite regulatory affairs expert, shortly after the startup was fined $900,000 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for launching four satellites on an Indian rocket last January without authorization. The company has since gone through the required regulatory processes for another three satellites, which launched in December aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, growing Swarm's constellation to seven low-Earth-orbiting spacecraft.

Swarm's satellites, each one-fourth the size of a single-unit cubesat, are designed to provide two-way communications for Internet-of-Things sensors and devices around the world.

"With 75 billion connected devices coming online around the world over the next six years, viable and affordable network access will be essential," Sara Spangelo, Swarm co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "For this reason, our technology has caught the attention of dozens of companies  from early-stage startups to Fortune 100 enterprises  with whom we have completed successful pilot tests in agriculture, maritime, ground transportation, and text messaging services."

Swarm joins a growing number of companies that are fielding small satellites for Internet-of-Things connectivity. Canadian startup Kepler Communications is deploying a constellation of 140 satellites, Australian startup Fleet is preparing a 100-satellite constellation, and French company Kineis is planning a system of 20 satellites. Additional competitors include Astrocast, Hiber and OQ Technologies.

In a statement, Swarm investor Dayton praised the company as being highly differentiated from other satellite systems.

"Swarm has developed something entirely new: a low-bandwidth, latency-tolerant network that is extremely inexpensive, low-power and very easy to integrate for things that need to be connected anywhere in the world  and Swarm is doing it in a tenth the time of a traditional satellite network build," Dayton said.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.HELSINKI  Chinese private companies OneSpace and iSpace are making progress with plans to attempt their first orbital launches in the first half of 2019.

OneSpace is currently working toward a launch of its OS-M rocket that could come as early as late March, following engine tests for the four stages of the launch vehicle in the second half of 2018.

A OneSpace representative told SpaceNews that the company will soon proceed with comprehensive electrical systems and payload fairing separation tests as next steps toward launch. [China in Space: The Latest Mission News]

The 19-meter-tall, four-stage OS-M will be able to carry a 205-kilogram payload to 300-kilometer low Earth orbit (LEO), and 73 kilograms to 800-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), but the payload for the maiden flight has not yet been disclosed.

Should the OS-M put a satellite in orbit would be the landmark first successful orbital launch for a privately-owned Chinese company. At least 10 such firms have emerged since a Chinese government policy shift in late 2014 to allow private capital into the launch and small satellite sectors.

The first attempt at an orbital launch, by Landspace in October, ended in failure after an issue during the third stage of the Zhuque-1 solid rocket, seeing the small satellite payload fall into the Indian Ocean.

Landspace has however since moved on to secure $43 million in funding, opened an 'intelligent manufacturing base' in Huzhou, and has made progress with tests on gas generators and combustion chambers for the Tianque-12 80-ton-thrust liquid methane and liquid oxygen rocket engine which will power the larger, two-stage Zhuque-2, with the aim of a maiden flight in 2020.

OneSpace in September 2018 carried out its second suborbital mission with the launch of its 9-meter tall, 0.85-meter-diameter OS-X1 solid rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, giving the company experience Landspace did not have going into its launch.

Just two days earlier another firm iSpace, also known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., lofted its own single-stage rocket, the Hypebrola-1Z, marking the first launch of a Chinese commercial company from a national space center and indicating the high level of support from space authorities.

iSpace, established in 2017, has also quietly been making progress toward reaching orbit and in a recent press release stated it would launch three launch vehicles in 2019, with the first of the Hyperbola-1 orbital series to launch in the first half of the year.

The Hyperbola-1, with three solid stages and fourth liquid stage, has a 1.4-meter diameter, a length of 20 meters, a takeoff mass of 31 metric tons and can deliver 150 kilograms of payload to a 700-kilometer-altitude SSO.

In September the company advertised 80 kilograms of capacity still remaining for the launch, which was then stated to take place in April from Jiuquan.

Background activity

While the companies emerging in China's nascent commercial launch sector are being backed by private funds, the firms are also apparently receiving significant support from the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), a government body overseeing the country's space activities.

A national military-civilian integration strategy is also crucial to the progress made, facilitating the transfer of required and sensitive technologies to the startups, as well as opportunities to share facilities and expertise.

Also working in the background are Linkspace, a company formed in 2014 and dedicated to developing an orbital launch vehicle, named NewLine-1, capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL).

Earlier in January Linkspace tested an 8.1-meter-tall, 1.5-metric ton demonstrator powered by five variable thrust engines which successfully carried out hover tests. A new and larger iteration likely analogous to the SpaceX Grasshopper in function will perform a suborbital flight later in 2019, according to the firm, before a maiden launch of NewLine-1 in 2020.

Jiuzhou Yunjian, founded in 2017 and part of a second wave of Chinese launch-related companies up, tested a combustion chamber for a 10-ton thrust methalox engine named 'Lingyun' in December.

Other new firms in this category include Galactic Energy (Chinese), working on a small solid launcher and much larger kerolox rocket, and S-Motor, which is developing an unnamed three-stage solid-propellant small launcher for which it tested an engine in November.

Competition from traditional giants

The main contractor for the Chinese space program, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), is not only assisting some of these new companies but is also developing its own light-lift launchers for the commercial market.

The Long March 11, which had its sixth mission Jan. 21 lifting four small commercial satellites into sun-synchronous orbit, is being prepared for a first sea launch around June, utilizing a converted vessel to provide low inclination launch opportunities.

A Long March 11 launch vehicle undergoing assembly ahead of launch from Jiuquan on Jan. 21. (Image credit: CASC)

Chinarocket Co., Ltd., operating under CASC, is developing the 'Smart Dragon-1' (Jie Long-1) solid micro launcher, designed to be "fast, agile and flexible" and capable of putting 150 kilograms into a 700-kilometer SSO. It could have a test flight in the coming months.

Another series, Tenglong, is under development by Chinarocket and will feature liquid propulsion and VTVL capabilities when its debuts in the next 2-3 years.

Further crowding the field will be the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), the missile maker, defense giant and sister state-owned enterprise to CASC. Through its subsidiary Expace it is expected to launch more of its commercial 20-meter-tall, 1.4-meter-diameter Kuaizhou-1A solid rockets (200 kilograms to 700-kilometer SSO) in 2019, with the larger Kuaizhou-11, which may lift as much as 1,000 kilograms to the same orbit, expected to debut in the next few months.

The launch market is not expected to support all of these various entities and their launch vehicles, but the apparent support across the board for private and traditional state-owned efforts in the commercial sector indicates that this is a national strategy aimed at stimulating innovation in space launch capabilities to benefit China, whichever companies emerge to be successful.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.SPEAK OUT

The Tribune invites readers to express their views in the Voice of the People column and in Viewpoint.

Letters to the Voice of the People are limited to 200 words. Viewpoint columns should be no more than 700 words.

Both Viewpoint and Voice of the People submissions are subject to editing. All submissions must include the writer's full name, which will be printed.

Letters, including e-mail, which do not include the writer's street address and telephone number will not be considered for publication. This information is kept confidential but is necessary for verification purposes.

Letters may be mailed to the Editorial Department, South Bend Tribune, 635 S. Lafayette Blvd., Suite 138, South Bend IN 46601; emailed to vop@sbtinfo.com, faxed to 574-236-1765, or submitted through our online form here.

Due to volume, it is not possible to print all submissions. Except in special circumstances, we do not print poetry or thank-you letters. We do not print letters announcing events to come, extensive quotations from other material, open letters or form letters.Renave Bozarth: I hate to see them go, very nice people.They had items that other hardware stores didnt have stocked. Customers would come from Virginia Beach as far as Richmond. I knew for a fact when spring came, Bill would sell the healthiest tomato plants, cheaper then anyone.I would like to see them relocate (to a) better businesses area. Going to really miss the store and them tomato plants.Jack Colwell

South Bend Tribune

Takeaways from national news media coverage of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigiegs launch of his presidential candidacy are clear.

He is viewed as a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Right after his early-morning-hours disclosure of an exploratory candidacy, news that he was in the race was on morning network news and reported in the major newspapers.

Think you could announce for president and get even two seconds or one sentence of national coverage?

Buttigieg had extensive coverage throughout the day, even live interviews. Coverage continues and certainly will go on during his book tour in February.

A key factor in this is that the mayor won by losing in his 2017 bid to be Democratic national chairman. He wasnt selected but still gained national exposure and stature with his impressive bid for the post.

Also clear from the coverage by the national newspeople is that they arent sure how to pronounce Buttigieg. Heck, even some of his South Bend constituents arent sure. Most of the national stories, TV and print, referred quickly to the way the mayors name is pronounced.

Chuck Todd, host of Meet the Press, talked in his weeknight show about the confusion. Thankfully, Todd said, he goes by Mayor Pete.

Different ways to pronounce the name were offered in the national news media, including boot-ah-judge, a familiar pronunciation in South Bend, and his own offering of BOOT-edge-edge.

There also is consensus in the national news media that Buttigieg, while to be taken seriously as a candidate, has little chance to be elected president in 2020. Stories about his candidacy describe him in such terms as clear underdog, long shot and even rank outsider. There are no descriptions of Buttigieg as a front-runner or top contender.

Questions are raised of whether the 37-year-old mayor could be the first millennial president, the youngest president ever or the first gay president. Questions. Not predictions that it will happen.

Still, possible pathways to the White House are cited in some accounts, including one in Nate Silvers FiveThirtyEight, headlined How Pete Buttigieg Could Win the 2020 Democratic Nomination. That analysis ends with the suggestion that Buttigieg, given the odds against him, could again win by losing  no nomination but more national acclaim for the future.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Republicans in Indiana say Buttigieg would be hard-pressed to win statewide office in Indiana.

A New York Times story also mentions state election chances, questioning why he opted for an underdog presidential campaign, when he has been regarded as a potentially strong candidate for the governorship.

Well, both the Journal and Times observations have some merit. He probably would be a strong candidate for governor but would be hard-pressed to win in the state that was overwhelmingly Trumpiana last November.

Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin describes Buttigieg as at an extreme disadvantage in seeking the presidency. And lets be clear, she adds. Having served in the military and having held public office in which he has been accountable to voters, Buttigieg is already more qualified than Trump was in 2016.

One clear winner in the national stories is South Bend. In telling the story of Buttigieg as mayor, they cite prior descriptions of a dying city and relate the progress in economic development and jobs and population gain during his two terms as mayor.

In his book, going on sale nationally on Feb. 12, Buttigieg tells the story of South Bend as it finally recovered from the decades-long doldrums after the demise of Studebaker automaking.

Coverage of his book tour  also, of course, a campaign tour  will include the positive description of South Bend. Buttigieg hopes the coverage also will include a positive description of its mayor.Ted Booker

South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND  For years, local governments and school districts have tightened their budgets to brace for the so-called fiscal cliff in 2020.

That is when state-mandated property tax caps, which have already resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue, will be fully implemented in the county.

But is the fiscal cliff as gloomy as it sounds?

The term refers to the significant drop in property tax revenue that will be coming next year for several taxing bodies.

It will affect the county government, cities, towns, townships, school districts and libraries. But some will be hit harder financially than others.

What is the cause?

St. Joseph and Lake counties face the same dilemma as a result of a circuit breaker reform bill that was passed in 2008 to cap property taxes and provide relief to taxpayers.

Unlike the states other 90 counties, the bill allowed St. Joseph and Lake to exempt any long-term debt issued before July 2008 from the tax caps. The two counties were provided the temporary debt exemption because of their heavy reliance on property taxes to pay for services.

But in 2020, the exemption will expire. That means any remaining debt from before July 2008 will count toward the caps.

State law caps property taxes at 1 percent of the net assessed value for homesteads, 2 percent for rental homes and agricultural land, and 3 percent for commercial and personal property.

The exemption for old debt, however, has caused caps to be adjusted to higher levels in St. Joseph and Lake counties. The actual cap for a homeowner, for example, has been 1 percent of the property value, plus any amount charged by taxing bodies for old debt.

But starting with tax bills mailed to property owners in 2020 (based on 2019 property assessments), extra charges for old debt will end. Homeowners will be charged no more than 1 percent of net assessed property values.

Although that could translate into tax breaks for many property owners, it will mean sharp losses in revenue for some taxing bodies. Those with old debt will need to figure out how to pay it off while relying less on property taxes.

Since they took effect roughly a decade ago, tax caps have taken a toll each year on taxing bodies across the county.

For taxes billed this year (based on 2018 property assessments), tax caps are expected result in a loss of $35.6 million for South Bend, $9.4 million for the county government and $7 million for Mishawaka.

South Bend Community School Corp., meanwhile, says it expects to lose $10 million this year to the tax caps; and according to the state, the loss is expected to be $2.6 million for Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. and about $1 million for School City of Mishawaka.

For all taxing bodies in St. Joseph County  including county government, cities, towns, townships, schools and libraries  tax caps resulted in a loss of $83.6 million in 2018, up from $78.9 million in 2017. That is according to the state Department of Local Government and Finance, which has not yet estimated the total loss for 2019.

When the fiscal cliff takes effect in 2020, the total loss for all taxing bodies will climb sharply: There is expected to be an additional loss of nearly $20 million as a direct result of old debt no longer being exempted from the tax caps, according to the state Legislative Services Agency.

Coping with losses

The South Bend school district, which is already facing a $10 million loss this year, is expected to face an additional $10 million loss in 2020 because of the tax caps taking full effect.

John Anella, South Bends school board president, said the corporation could ask taxpayers to approve a referendum this year or in 2020. That would allow it to collect additional taxes that would not be subject to the tax caps.

But without such a referendum, Anella said, the district could be forced to close buildings and cut transportation services and administrative positions.

It would be brutal, he said. The whole point is to pass (the referendum) before we have to make these cuts, he said.

Property taxes collected by the St. Joseph County government, meanwhile, are expected to drop by nearly $2 million in 2020 from 2019 as a result of additional revenue lost to tax caps.

But county Auditor Mike Hamann said the county is prepared to deal with it.

In recent years, he said, increases in income tax revenue have helped largely offset losses from tax caps. County departments, meanwhile, have made budget cuts that have helped the county build reserves.

Because those folks made those sacrifices and we havent spent a lot, were able to absorb the loss. And because the economy has been strong, income tax revenue has been steadily increasing, Hamann said.

In 2009, the county collected $22.3 million in income taxes, but that figure has gradually increased; this year, it is expected to be $30.2 million.

South Bend, meanwhile, has estimated that its property tax levy will drop by about $2 million in 2020 from 2019 as a result of old debt no longer being exempted from the tax caps, said Daniel Parker, city controller.

Parker said theres still a lot of work that needs to be done this year to prepare for the loss in 2020, but the city is expected to be ready.

Were diligently working to maximize efficiencies and produce new revenue sources, he said.

Mishawaka is expected to lose $7 million to the tax caps this year and $10 million in 2020, according to Rebecca Miller, the citys controller. But she said its unclear how that will affect the amount of taxes collected next year; it will depend on how much revenue the city takes in.

Miller said the city, however, is prepared to cope with a drop in taxes.

Weve worked really hard to increase cash balances in our funds, especially the general fund, to position us for 2020, she said.Ed Semmler

South Bend Tribune

There are dozens of websites that can provide you with product and price information when purchasing a vehicle.

New or used, you can easily determine what a vehicle should be selling for, as well as its predicted reliability, safety ratings, resale value, fuel economy and much more.

So why is it so difficult to figure out the charge for a medical procedure? A new requirement under federal law for hospitals to post their prices hasnt made the task much easier, experts say.

Just a few years ago, it didnt seemingly matter as employers and their insurance providers handled most of the costs.

But as health-care charges have continued to escalate and more of the cost has shifted to employees, there has been mounting pressure to create more price transparency so consumers can do a better job shopping for services.

To that end, the government began requiring hospitals on Jan. 1 to post their chargemaster lists  an enormous menu of products and services ranging from a single aspirin up to a complicated surgery.

Until the requirement of the Affordable Care Act took effect, the chargemaster list was closely guarded information that was used as a starting point in negotiations with insurance companies.

But the chargemaster is more than just a bargaining ploy early in negotiations with insurers, said Ed Abel, director of health care practice at the accounting and consulting firm Blue & Co. in Indianapolis.

The list also represents an attempt by hospitals to determine the real costs of providing an aspirin or an IV, for example, by trying to figure in the costs of ordering, delivering and administering the product or service.

Though health care experts believe the publishing of the chargemaster list is a step toward transparency, the requirement is tantamount to an automaker listing everything  for example, screws, bolts, fenders, tires, belts, batteries, engines, fluids  that it takes to build a car.

Im supportive of what theyre trying to do, said Abel. But its a very weak attempt to create transparency.

Its also difficult to decipher.

Its mind-boggling for the consumer, said Seth Freedman, who specializes in health economics and health policy at Indiana University Bloomington. Even if you want to look at the list, its incredibly confusing.

The chargemaster for Memorial Hospital in South Bend, for example, includes prices for about 40,000 items and procedures, with technical names and abbreviations that few can understand. The picture is similar at Saint Joseph Health System, Unity Medical and Surgical Hospital in Mishawaka and others in the region.

And the problem with listing every item is that no one can know exactly what items and procedures will be necessary since treatment can vary widely based on the age and health of the patient, according to experts.

If the prices are so hard to decipher, it doesnt seem so helpful or meaningful, Freedman said.

While Saint Joseph Health System referred questions regarding the chargemaster to the Indiana Hospital Association, Beacon Health System  the parent of Memorial and Elkhart General  agreed that the list is confusing.

While the government requirement may be well intended, it falls short of what customers need, Beacon spokeswoman Heidi Prescott said via email.

Chargemaster rates are just a starting point for consumers to predict costs, she added. We understand its complicated and can be frustrating, so Beacon and other health systems are working on a system that makes sense to customers. We also have financial counselors who can walk patients through the process.

Impossible to know

Instead of waiting for the government to implement the chargemaster requirement, Indiana and many other states decided to work on their own methods of listing prices for common procedures and treatments, Abel said.

After about 18 months of development, the Indiana Hospital Association unveiled in 2015 its website, mycareINsight.org, that lists the average price for about 100 common inpatient and 75 outpatient procedures.

Brian Tabor, president of the association, said the database was built by using public information that was filed with the Indiana Department of Health and represents an average charge for a procedure across all demographics.

The data are routinely updated and include information from 125 acute care hospitals in Indiana, as well as quality-of-care indicators collected by the federal government. The site allows visitors to search by region, hospital and procedure.

According to the site, the charge for a non-emergency knee replacement can range from $48,353 at Goshen Health to as much as $99,622 at the physician-owned Unity in Mishawaka, while the estimated charge at most area hospitals falls below the statewide average of $64,489.

The site also says most consumers likely will not pay the amount listed because of insurance coverage and opportunities for financial assistance.

Besides the association website, many hospitals are encouraging consumers to call for estimates or for building online tools aimed at helping people better determine how much a procedure will cost.

Hospitals and associations could see where the tide was going, so they thought they should be part of the solution rather than being blamed for being the problem, Abel said.

Though the governments first step is largely seen as ineffective, most health care experts maintain it was still a step in the right direction and that the public will likely insist on more openness moving forward  especially as co-pays and deductibles continue to rise.

Getting market forces to influence health care could help keep prices in check moving forward, but Abel cautioned that there will always be inherent problems in the idea of creating a price menu for service.

How many times have you taken your car in for an oil change only to be told it needs hundreds of dollars in additional work, Abel wondered. Work on a car might be delayed, but health issues cant be ignored.

Until you understand, diagnose and treat, he said, its almost impossible to know exactly what its going to cost.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."I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren," she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for. Satellite images compare the dam in Brumadinho, Brazil, before and after the collapse. Credit:DigitalGlobe/AP Several others made similar complaints when interviewed by The Associated Press. An email to Vale asking for comment was not immediately answered. "I'm angry. There is no way I can stay calm," said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked at Vale for 20 years. "My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if it's bad." Da Silva said she last spoke to her son before he went to work on Friday, when around midday a dam holding back mine waste collapsed, sending waves of mud for kilometres and burying much in its path.

She was one of scores of relatives in Brumadinho who desperately awaited word on their loved ones. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies. Rescue workers look for victims of the dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, on Sunday. Credit:AP The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads. Some residents barely escaped with their lives. "I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise," said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighbourhood of Parque Cachoeira, eight kilometres from where the dam collapsed.

Pedrosa, 45, and her parents dashed to their car and drove to the highest point in the neighbourhood. "If we had gone down the other direction, we would have died," Pedrosa said. "I cannot get that noise out of my head," she said. "It's a trauma ... I'll never forget." In addition to the dead, 23 people were hospitalised, according to the Minas Gerais fire department. There had been some signs of hope earlier Saturday when authorities found 43 more people alive. For many, hope was evaporating.

"I don't think he is alive," said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. "Right now, I can only hope for a miracle." Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as "distressing, maddening." "Time is passing," she said. "It's been 24 hours already. ... I just don't want to think that he is under the mud." The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation. According to Vale's website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals."

Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $US1.5 billion ($2 billion) from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims. Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Attorney-General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate it, saying "someone is definitely at fault." Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture. Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the same state of Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who hadn't heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company.

"Vale destroyed Mariana and now they've destroyed Brumadinho," she said. The Folia de S.Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that the dam's mining complex was issued an expedited licence to expand in December due to "decreased risk". Conservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful. On Twitter, new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said his government would do everything it could to "prevent more tragedies" like Mariana and now Brumadinho. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazil's economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries. Rescue workers recover the body of a victim after the Vale SA dam burst. Credit:Bloomberg

'We are fed up' Renato Maia, a 44-year-old salesman whose best friend's daughter remained missing, fled his home in panic early Sunday morning. At midday he and his wife waited on the outskirts of town for police to lift a blockade, angry at the situation. "We're all fed up with Vale ... and this is really adding to the tension," he said. "It was a huge tragedy and now we don't know what might come next." Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation. The disaster is now more deadly than a 2015 tailings dam collapse at an iron ore mine less than 100 kilometres to the east near Mariana, belonging to Samarco Mineracao, a Vale joint venture with BHP.

The Samarco dam break spilled five times the mining waste into a more remote region, killing 19 people, burying three small villages and contaminating a major river in Brazil's worst environmental disaster on record. Vale chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman apologised without taking responsibility in an television interview on Saturday. "Apologies to society, apologies to you, apologies to the whole world for what has happened," he said. "I don't know who is responsible, but you can be sure we'll do our part." The cause of the dam burst remained unclear. Recent inspections by a German auditor TUV SUD and Vale did not indicate any problems with the dam, the companies said. Federal prosecutor Jose Adercio Sampaio said on Saturday that state and federal authorities had failed to apply more stringent regulation to the hundreds of tailings dams around the country.

Sampaio said that depending on Vale's culpability in the new disaster, it may change how his task force handles a 155 billion reais ($57 billion) case against Samarco. That case is currently suspended amid negotiations for a potential settlement. "Now an intervening fact has appeared and that may completely change the course of those talks," Sampaio said. Schvartsman said all of Vale's tailings dams were checked after the 2015 disaster and periodic reviews are also carried out. Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and presidential candidate, toured the area on Sunday. She said such tragedies should be deemed "heinous crimes," and that Congress should bear part of the blame for not toughening regulations and enforcement.Those people who do not have a credit score high enough to be offered a no-interest loan would pay interest on the balance. Not many people are willing to take on more debt when they do not know when their next paycheck will arrive.They have documented various falsehoods by Trump advisers that masked efforts by people in his orbit to develop inroads with Russia and leverage that country's hacking of Democratic emails. US Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Credit:Bloomberg The remaining question - for both Mueller's team, as it works on a final investigative report, and for the American people - is why. Did the President's men lie to protect a still-hidden dark secret about the campaign's interaction with Russia, engaging in a broad effort to obstruct the probe - one that included perhaps even Trump? Did they lie to avoid diminishing Trump's victory by acknowledging Russia played a role in his election?

Did they each lie for their own reasons, taking their cue from the President - who has told many whoppers of his own, including about Russia? Trump's former campaign chairman, deputy campaign manager, former national security adviser, personal lawyer and a campaign foreign policy adviser have all been accused of lying to investigators exploring Russia activity. In their new indictment against Stone, prosecutors said he lied to Congress about his efforts to learn about WikiLeaks's plans in 2016 as the group was publishing Democratic emails allegedly stolen by Russian operatives. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2017. Stone says there's no evidence he cooperated with Assange or Wikileaks. Credit:AP Stone falsely told Congress that he never discussed his efforts with the Trump campaign and never asked intermediaries to communicate with WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, Mueller's team alleges.

Loading Stone has denied the charges and promised to fight in court. "Perjury requires both materiality and intent," he said on CNN on Friday night. "There is none." "Secondarily, where's the Russian collusion?" Stone added. "Where is the WikiLeaks collaboration? Where's the evidence that I received anything from WikiLeaks or Julian Assange, and passed it on to Donald Trump or the Trump campaign?" Trump echoed that message himself. "Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country! NO COLLUSION!" the President tweeted after Stone's arrest.

Legal experts noted that the alleged lies are significant in their own right. "Time and time again, elected officials and government officials have exhibited a belief they simply can say what they want in a high-profile investigation, and do so with impunity," said Jacob Frenkel, a former lawyer in the independent counsel's office now in private practice at Dickinson Wright. Some Trump friends said they are confounded by Stone's alleged actions. "If he had told the truth as alleged, there wouldn't have been an underlying crime," said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax. "There would have been no crime. They would have had to try and find other stuff." The Stone indictment does provide new details that nod at one of Mueller's central inquiries: trying to determine whether anyone in Trump's orbit coordinated with Russia or WikiLeaks.

Loading In Friday's filing, prosecutors lay out efforts by both Stone and Trump campaign officials to learn more about what WikiLeaks had in its cache in the summer of 2016 - actions that occurred after Russia had been fingered as a likely culprit behind the theft of the Democratic Party emails that June. Still, the mounting false statements charges collected by Mueller do not speak to the question of criminal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, some analysts noted. "I think there is some theory under which you could include them in such a conspiracy, and I wonder why not," said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney. "Is it that they don't think the evidence goes that far? Is it that they think this conduct does not amount to a conspiracy to defraud the United States and it is instead dirty, political tricks?" Steve Hall, who retired from the CIA in 2015 after 30 years of running and managing Russia operations, said that the substance of the lies and alleged false statements documented by Mueller paint a broad picture with serious implications.

"In my view, those lies - what was lied about and under what condition the lies were told - contribute to a counterintelligence pattern that has begun to emerge pointing to senior members of the Trump team being involved with the Russians," he said. Hall said the country needs to take step back from a narrow conversation about the political and even criminal ramifications of each Mueller indictment. "We've got to be looking beyond who gets a parking ticket or even a few years in prison," he said. "What about the bigger picture? This was Russia, attacking the United States." The deception by Trump advisers that has led to guilty pleas so far does have a common line: much of it centres on their interactions about Russia. Trump's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen admitted lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump real estate project in Moscow during the campaign - at a time when then-candidate Trump claimed he had no business ties to Russia. Cohen also lied about seeking help on the lucrative project from one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest advisers. Trump had said no one in his orbit had contact with the Russian government.

Loading Former national security adviser Michael Flynn admitted he lied - first to Vice President Mike Pence, then to the public and finally to the FBI - about whether he had spoken to a Russian envoy in December 2016 about sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama as punishment for Russia's campaign interference. That lie came as investigators were working to understand why Russia, whose top foreign policy goals include undoing U.S. sanctions, fought so hard to help elect Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has admitted lying about his contacts with a professor who gave him early warning in April 2016 that Russia held thousands of Clinton emails. Prosecutors have said former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has continued to lie even after pleading guilty to two conspiracy charges, which included lying to the Justice Department. His latest lies, they have said, involved details of his campaign interactions with a Russian employee who the FBI has assessed has ties to Russian intelligence.

As they wait for Mueller to finish his investigation, Democrats in Congress are likely to focus on the President himself and what he knew of the lies. On Friday, Democrat Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted: "Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn ... What did the President know and when did he know it? Some legal analysts said the charges do not appear to be building to a criminal case against the President. The lying "certainly alerts you to the possibility of kind of obstructionist conspiracies," said James Trusty, a former Justice Department organised crime chief now in private practice at Ifrah Law. But, he added, "at the end of the day, it looks like people are making independent, individual choices that are landing them in hot water. I think it's the kind of thing that the Mueller probe doesn't want to ignore ... but the indictments themselves aren't moving the case forward." The number of lies documented by the special counsel could also undercut Mueller's efforts to make a broader case by hampering the effort to sort truth from fiction, some longtime Trump associates said.

Loading "In Trump world, everybody lies. Everybody doesn't tell the truth. At the end of the day, they are all lying. I don't know how Mueller can believe anybody," said Louise Sunshine, a longtime executive with the Trump Organisation. Trump allies say the President knows that many of the people around him are not trustworthy - and believes he can use that to his advantage if any of his onetime aides attempt to pin their wrongdoing on him. He has instructed Giuliani and his other lawyers to question the credibility of anyone who attacks him, according to White House aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. After Cohen, Trump's longtime personal attorney, pleaded guilty, the President on Twitter called him a "rat" who "makes up stories." Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide, said he believed that people around Trump lied to investigators because they were trying to make sure their version of events lined up with lies the President was telling to the American people.More than a week after the car crash that left a woman with a broken wrist, the Duke of Edinburgh has written a letter of apology.

The letter was dated January 21, one day after victim Emma Fairweather told the British press that Prince Philip had not reached out to apologise after his Land Rover clattered into her friend's car - with the friend's baby in the vehicle as well.

Letter of apology: Prince Philip reached out to an injured woman several days after the crash. Credit:AP

Im lucky to be alive and he hasnt even said sorry," she told the Sunday Mirror.

It has been such a traumatic and painful time and I would have expected more of the royal family.Jerusalem: As the world commemorated the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, death camp survivor Cipora Feivlovich marked her own personal milestone: she turned 92.

Holocaust survivor Cipora Feivlovich turned 92 on Sunday as the world commemorated the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Credit:AP

Feivlovich has spent her most recent birthdays recounting to audiences in Israel and Germany her harrowing experiences in the camp, where her parents, brother and best friends all perished.

Despite witnessing daily atrocities and fearing that the toxic food and injections she was given would make her infertile, she eventually married her husband Pinchas, a fellow orphaned survivor, and started a new family. Today she has dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

"When we first met after the war he asked me if I thought I could have children after everything I went through in Auschwitz," she recalled from her home in Jerusalem. "And I said 'I don't promise anything. What the Lord gives is what will be.' We understood each other. He always said he was lucky to marry me since I understood him."Manila: At least 21 people have been killed and scores wounded by two bombings at a cathedral in the southern Philippines during mass, according to police and the military.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral on Sunday, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.

The Philippine government said it would "pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators" behind the attacks.

In this photo provided by WESMINCOM Armed Forces of the Philippines, bomb victims receive treatment in a hospital after two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo. Credit:AP

The government will pursue the attackers "until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy."A Taliban statement issued later also noted progress on troop withdrawal and other issues but said more negotiations and internal consultations were required. "The policy of the Islamic Emirate during talks was very clear - until the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using another name the group calls itself. It was not clear if the draft described by the Taliban sources was acceptable to both sides or when it could be completed and signed. The draft agreement could pave the way for the United States to pull out of its longest war. Credit:AP According to the sources, the hardline Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its allies -- a key early demand of Washington.

They said the deal included a ceasefire provision but they had yet to confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives once a truce was implemented. Up until now, the Taliban has repeatedly rejected the Afghan government's offer of holding talks, preferring instead to talk directly to the US side, which it regards as its main enemy. "In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and ceasefire is implemented then other aspects of the peace process can be put into action," a Taliban source said, quoting from a portion of the draft. An Afghan woman walks near the site of an attack in Kabul on January 15. Credit:AP More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital Doha, the Taliban sources said.

They expect their side to be led by new political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movement's co-founder and a former military commander who was released from prison in Pakistan last year. While they said his appointment had boosted momentum for a deal, it was unclear if he joined the talks. News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces. Despite the presence of US-led foreign forces training, advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts 17 years after the US-led an invasion to drive them from power, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said last week that 45,000 members of the country's security forces had been killed since he took office in 2014.

The United States has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led mission, known as Resolute Support, as well as a US counter-terrorism mission directed at groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Despite reports in December last year that the United States was considering pulling out almost half of its forces, a White House spokesman said that US President Donald Trump had not issued orders to withdraw the troops. However, the administration has not denied the reports, which have prompted fears of a fresh refugee crisis. Loading The Taliban sources said other clauses in the draft include an agreement over the exchange and release of prisoners, the removal of an international travel ban on several Taliban leaders by Washington and the prospect of an interim Afghan government after the ceasefire is struck. The suggestion to appoint an interim government in Afghanistan comes as top politicians including Ghani have filed their nominations for the presidential polls in July this year. Ghani has repeatedly rejected the offer to agree to the formation of an interim government.Defence Minister Christopher Pyne says Chinas militarisation of the South China Sea has increased anxiety and suspicion about the rising powers intentions in the region.

Australia is open to conducting drills with other militaries in the disputed territory to send a message that it is international waters, he will say in a keynote address to a security forum in Singapore on Monday.

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne in Beijing last week. Credit:Fairfax Media

Fresh from a visit to China where Australian citizen Yang Hengjun has been mysteriously detained by secret police, Mr Pyne will also warn against a descent into adversarial "Cold War-like blocs" that could harm economies and security.

Mr Pyne will tell the International Institute for Strategic Studies meeting that China has benefited immensely from integration with the global economic system and say there is no interest in, or benefit from, stifling the success of the communist nation.First, however, he might release himself from a news cycle obsession  as in finding a superficially animating issue on a daily basis to fire up a mythical base that exists in the imagination of fervid right-wing commentators  and apply his campaigning attention to the economy. Loading This is the Coalitions last best hope of avoiding an electoral drubbing, which may happen anyway. Put simply, people are fed up with politics as usual characterised by a political version of a cage fight. In this regard, Australian political campaigning is increasingly derivative of American politicking in which Donald Trump managed to exploit his status as a political outsider in a war with the elites exemplified by an elitist Clinton dynasty. Firing up the base becomes an end in itself.

As a member of the political elite himself, Morrison is hardly in a position to make the same pitch. Both the PM and his opponent, Bill Shorten, are political insiders marinaded in their respective partys organisational wings. Since assuming the prime ministership in August, Morrison has been all over the place in his efforts to find a campaigning sweet spot. Not only has he portrayed himself as an everyman, he has also been an everywhere man on almost any issue you care to nominate. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis Credit: On the conservative side of politics, one astute analyst is incredulous over a campaigning diversion deep into the culture wars. Its like an angry man shouting at the clouds, he tells me.

He makes the valid point that when the more rabid cultural warriors on the right seek to exploit so-called culture wars issues  weaponised in the tiresome phrases political correctness, identity politics, and virtue signaling  they are deflecting attention from the economy. Youre competing with yourself. This is only a limited market, he says. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The Coalition focus should be all about tax, tax, tax! In this context, the government is making a mistake in allowing itself to be diverted from Labors tax proposals, including changes to negative gearing, capital gains and imputation credits.

Marketing these revenue-enhancing measures is posing a real challenge for Labors economic spokespeople. My bet is that proposed changes to the rate at which cash-back franking credits are taxed will be refined to ease the burden on the less well-off. In all of this, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg should be given credit for trying to maintain his side of politics focus on an economic narrative. Loading However, despite his best efforts, a well-constructed speech on economic challenges facing the country delivered last week to the Sydney Institute was all but drowned out by diversionary culture wars issues. Leaving aside obligatory politicking in the Frydenberg address in which Labors economic policy was portrayed as a "dark shadow, not a light on the hill", the Treasurer expressed legitimate and constructive concerns about "storm clouds hanging over the global economy".

"Persistent trade tensions, high global debt levels and a contraction in growth in several key economies have changed the global outlook," he said. Chinese growth slowing to its lowest rate since 2009 represents a significant worry against a background of a marked deceleration in Australias own economy, according to the September quarter figures. These showed that gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 0.3 per cent in the three months to September. This is the weakest economic expansion in two years. Frydenberg and Morrison will await the December quarter numbers out before the budget on April 2 with trepidation against a background of weak retail sales, a softening housing market and uncertainties over a slowing Chinas appetite for commodities. Another bad number will cast a "dark shadow" over the governments electoral prospects unless you believe indifferent economic news works to the advantage of the side of politics given greater credit for prudent economic management.She said the Australian Digital Health Agency did not seem to understand the complexity of the scenarios that could arise, such as when a patient had an initial diagnosis that was later reviewed. One of the major selling points of the e-health system, which is supported by the Australian Medical Association, is its potential to give doctors fast and easy access to patient histories, helping prevent medication errors and allergic reactions. "In a case of emergency, they can save your life," Health Minister Greg Hunt has said, citing the situation of an unconscious patient arriving at a hospital. But the chair of the AMA's medical ethics committee, Chris Moy, said doctors would treat My Health Records with "professional skepticism", as they were expected to be just as unreliable as hospital discharge notes  which have a 10 per cent margin of error. Patients have complained anecdotally of discrepancies in hospital medical records, with one woman telling the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age of her battle to correct the file of her elderly father, which had recorded "operations that never happened" while neglecting to list crucial diagnoses.

Dr Moy said the My Health Record was never intended to be a perfect or completely reliable record of a patient's history. Loading "It's basically a secure Dropbox folder  that's all it is," he said. "No, it isn't a perfect record and doctors need to apply the same level of clinical suspicion as they already do. But the bottom line is that it's better than what we have now, which is nothing." Dr Moy said patients could expect pathology results and X-rays to be among the first data to be uploaded to their My Health Records.

Historical information, apart from Medicare and PBS data going back two years, would not appear on the system, he said. Simon Judkins, president of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, said governments needed to invest in "good IT systems", and that there was still much work to be done. "Many places are still relying on handwritten notes and using faxes to communicate medical records," Dr Judkins said. "We'd like to see that progress, because of the benefits for emergency physicians and staff in being able to access people's health records in emergency. "The ability to look at medication, past medical history and investigations they've had when they're incapacitated or unable to give us that history is really important."

He said some hospitals were installing "off-the-shelf" IT systems that were clunky and inefficient. Loading "It needs to be much more user friendly," he said. A spokeswoman for the federal health department said it was not necessary to indemnify GPs, as doctors would have the same duty of care, including the obligation to keep accurate and up-to-date records. Guidelines issued to doctors advise that they "do not have to upload all information on an individual to the person's My Health Record".

"Healthcare providers retain the discretion to determine what should be uploaded to an individual's My Health Record and should decide whether to upload certain information to the individual's record  for example, a diagnosis  in discussion with the patient," the guideline says. "A treating healthcare provider should always combine the information in the My Health Record system with their own observations of the individual." Doctors will also be allowed to access patients' My Health Record data for the purpose of defending medical negligence claims. The department spokeswoman said the task of rolling out the My Health Record system was well underway, with "all Australian states and territories currently uploading clinical content to the system" and more than 2.35 million documents already on the system. She said health departments in all jurisdictions had either implemented, or were working towards, being able to send hospital discharge summaries, pathology and diagnostic imaging reports, and view patient records, by June 2019.Victoria Police has made a confidential payout of more than $500,000 to former officer Yvonne Berry. Credit:Joe Armao

Victoria Police have made a confidential payout of more than $500,000 to settle a case involving an ex-policewoman who was handcuffed, stripped of her underwear, stomped on and kicked by fellow officers in a police station.

The confidential payment was made more than two years after police initially and wrongly declared that there was insufficient evidence to charge police who allegedly assaulted Yvonne Berry.

The payment is one the highest made in Victoria to settle a brutality case, lawyers said, and comes after a policeman was convicted late last year for assaulting Ms Berry.

Since the initial incorrect finding that police had no case to answer was issued in early 2016 by a senior internal affairs officer, Ms Berry's ordeal has served as a case study for those calling for reform of Victorias police complaint system.A man has suffered life-threatening injuries after tumbling from a waterfall in Victoria's high country.

Emergency services rescued the man from the bottom of the Lower Eurobin Falls at Mount Buffalo on Sunday evening before he was flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition.

The falls are about 25 metres high, with water flowing down a steep granite boulder, and it is believed the man slid from the top about 3.50pm.

A witness said the man appeared to be a tourist with a group of companions, mainly young males.

The witness claimed the man climbed over the fence despite nearby warning signs and then "proceeded to slide down the rock-face before it all went wrong".The horror run continues for the Rainbow Serpent dance festival in central Victoria, with a sixth person hospitalised for a suspected drug overdose and a slew of drug-related arrests.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson confirmed a man in his 20s had been taken to Ballarat Base hospital in a serious condition at 10.35am Sunday.

Six festival-goers in total have been treated for suspected drug overdoses so far.

Police using a detection dog search cars at Rainbow Serpent Festival for drugs. Credit:Victoria Police

Paramedics were called to the festival site around 3.24pm on Friday to reports of a man who overdosed. He was taken to Ballarat Base Hospital in a critical condition.An overloaded ute, believed to be carrying up to ten people, rolled prompting eight ambulance crews and two rescue helicopters to be sent to the scene to deal with 10 injured people.

The ute crashed near George Street in Linville, 137 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, about 5.20pm on Sunday while crossing a creek on a rural property.

The overloaded ute rolled in Linville, directly west of Caloundra, requiring a mass emergency services response. Credit:RACQ LifeFlight Rescue

The Queensland Ambulance Service said up to 10 occupants were assessed and treated at the scene.

Two women were flown to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a serious condition by a Toowoomba-based rescue helicopter.Children are at increasing risk of poisoning from unregulated e-cigarette liquids containing nicotine, according to new research from Queensland experts.

The findings, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, warn the risk to children, especially young children, from e-cigarette liquid should not be underestimated.

There are increasing numbers of children ingesting liquid nicotine, a new report has found Credit:Bloomberg

One of the papers authors, Carol Wylie, who is the manager of the Queensland Poisons Information Centre in Brisbane, said just one millilitre of a highly concentrated nicotine solution can be lethal if ingested by a child.

Children have died as a consequence of swallowing these e-cigarette refills, Ms Wylie said.The Caltex oil refinery in Brisbane lost power on Saturday, resulting in flames shooting high into the sky and firefighters called to what turned out to be a false alarm.

Firefighters were called to the refinery on South Street in Lytton just before 8pm.

Firefighters and paramedics during a training exercise at the Lytton Caltex Refinery in 2016. (File Image) Credit:Queensland Ambulance Service

However, a Queensland Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said the crew was not needed.

As part of the refinery's normal procedure when there is a blackout, by-products in the fuel containers were being burnt off and the gas vented, resulting in flames shooting into the sky, according to the QFES spokesman.Holidays warm

The Weather Bureau expects fine and warm to sultry weather for the Australia Day week-end in Sydney. The Railways Department expects about 100,000 people to travel from Sydney to country holiday resorts during the holiday period. More than 300 trains will carry them. During last year's Australia Day holiday period 297 trains carried 90,300 passengers. Special timetables have been arranged for the holiday, full particulars available at booking offices.

Advice To Migrants

Some migrants were being imbued with the idea that it was not necessary to work in Australia, a delegate of the Federal Council of the Graziers' Association, Mr. W. P. A. Wright, told the Australian Citizenship Convention. "I think it should be the function of the department head not to allow migrants to come to Australia thinking that the streets are paved with gold, he said. The convention was called for by the Minister for Immigration.

End to rationing "Opportune"

The time was opportune to end butter rationing in Australia, Mr. E. F. Yoysey, general manager of the Producers' Co-operative Distributing Society, said. He was speaking at the annual meeting of the society in Sydney. Lifting control from butter would not only reduce the cost of distribution but would encourage people to eat more butter. Owing to lean rations over the last 10 years many consumers would have to be re-educated in a wider use of butter.Nine years ago, Sophie Horne overdosed on MDMA, the party drug known as ecstasy, at the Hardcore till I die (HTID) dance festival at Homebush and almost died.

I bought three white pills from my boyfriend  it wasnt the first time I had taken MDMA and I was taking them sparingly when suddenly I couldnt breathe properly, I began profusely sweating, shaking and couldnt walk, the 28-year-old from Baulkham Hills recalls.

Sophie Horne now volunteers with DanceWize NSW to help dance festival patrons. Credit:Louise Kennerley

She asked her boyfriend and her friends to call an ambulance but they didnt  he was scared hed be arrested because hed sold her the drugs and they were too drunk. Eventually she lost consciousness.

I really felt I was dying, as if my life force was leaving when all of a sudden I felt a bang in my chest like a cannon going off and my heart started beating again, Ms Horne said.A landmark decision permitting judges not to impose prison terms on minor drug dealers has altered the legal landscape at a time the government is sharpening its rhetoric on dance party drug suppliers.

Magistrates have revealed their impatience with dealers in sentencing remarks delivered amid a cluster of ecstasy-related deaths but stopped short of imposing prison terms on Tina Phan, who smuggled 394 tablets into a dance party at which a teenager died, and Zachary Currell, who took 14 tablets into a festival at Sydney Olympic Park. There is no suggestion Phan had anything to do with the teenager's death.

Two young people died at the Defqon.1 music festival at Penrith in September. Credit:Jessica Aquilina

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal overturned a 30-year legal principle in November 2017 when it ruled that there were alternatives to full-time custody for drug traffickers, since which time observers have noted an increase in intensive correction orders [ICOs] being imposed.

The shift in the approach by judges to dealers stands in contrast to the uncompromising stance of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who last year introduced a 20-year jail term for drug supply causing death and on-the-spot fines for drug possession, following the deaths of two people at the Defqon.1 music festival in September.In his career, Scott remembered small decisions that had a major impact. He once managed unionized drivers who were all older than him and cagey about getting close with management  he got in their good graces by bringing in bagels to share on pay days. He focused on hiring diversely, leading to a team of people with different backgrounds and different ideas."John Williamson, that most Aussie of icons, kept referring to Captain Cooks arrival when discussing the importance of Australia Day on the ABCs 7.30, writes Rob Cummins of Turramurra. "Methinks he needs a history lesson on the First Fleet."

It gets worse. Tim Harper of Bondi Junction says: "The design competition brief has been released for the new museum at Parramatta. It states: 'In 1788, British explorer Captain James Cook established a settlement in NSW.' Can we expect better from a world-class museum?"

On the continued sparsity of Christmas beetles (C8), Joy Cooksey of Harrington says: "Christmas beetles can't switch on an air-conditioner. This summer many of their babies have died in the overheated earth. For those reaching adulthood, our stressed, water-deprived trees cannot provide the food they rely upon. Their plight, our warning."

And it goes further than the humble Anoplognathus. Lionel Latoszek of Long Jetty says: "Christmas beetles are not common at Long Jetty but the raucous summer sound of thousands of lorikeets above my head at sunset and apparently arriving in the trees in the the main street of The Entrance and elsewhere has not happened this year. And I now realise that they also weren't in our backyards in winter. We want our lorikeets back!"A 17-year-old boy who allegedly had almost 600 drug capsules on him at a dance party in Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday is one of seven teenagers charged with supplying illegal substances at the event.

Police also charged the Castle Hill boy with drug possession and possessing proceeds of crime after finding $2075 cash on him during a search at the Hardcore Till I Die rave, and he was bailed to appear at a childrens court on February 20.

It was one of two police operations where people were charged with drug supply and possession at Sydney music festivals on Australia Day.

There was a large police and security presence at music festivals around Sydney, including Electric Gardens festival at Centennial Park Credit:Brook Mitchell

An 18-year-old Beverley Park man, an 18-year-old Greenacre woman, a 19-year-old Marsden Park woman, and an 18-year-old Matraville man were charged with supplying MDMA at the Olympic Park event and have all been bailed to face a Local Court on various dates.The Yass Valley Council has been trying for years to tackle the problem of clean fill from Canberra's building sites being dumped over the border in NSW, and warned it could hit the region's water supply, roads and environment.

A 2016 report to the council said the capital's development boom had meant a large volume of clean fill was being taken from Canberra and dumped across the border in NSW.

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The report identified four hotspots where large volumes had been dumped, all close to the border: Wallaroo just across the border from Gungahlin, Tallagandra Lane, the Nanima Road and Spring Range Road area, and the Kaveneys Road and Dog Trap Road area. The latter is currently the site of five approved dump sites.

In just over a year to May 2016, the Yass council received 61 reports about the dumping, along with "numerous others" that related to matters already on file.When abortion provider Marie Stopes Australia embarked on new research to try to improve abortion services for women, it thought patients would be most concerned about receiving high quality care.

But Canberra research being conducted with the Australian National University has shown women are most concerned about a compassionate approach to their care.

Associate Professor Bruce Shadbolt, from the ANU Research School of Finance Credit:ANU

Marie Stopes thinks abortion care in Australia and across the world could be revolutionised because of the ongoing research.

Associate Professor Bruce Shadbolt, of the Australian National University Research School of Finance Actuarial Studies and Statistics, is developing the models of care as part of research for a project with Marie Stopes.Former Canberrans will also feature throughout the festival. Sue Healey, who led a dance company, Vis-a-vis Dance Canberra, for several years in the 1990s, and who has since made a career as an award-winning filmmaker, will show a selection of her most recent short films at the National Film and Sound Archive on March 15.

They include selections from En route, a film made as part of a public art installation project for Wynyard railway station in Sydney. En route was shot at various disused stations and railway lines across New South Wales and features several performers with Canberra connections including James Batchelor and Elizabeth Cameron Dalman. The latter will also feature in others of Healeys films including in Weerewa, a collaborative venture with the Taiwanese group Danceology.

Paige Gordon, whose company Paige Gordon and Performance Group was also a significant force in Canberra in the 1990s, will speak at the festival. Her talk goes back to a moving work she made in Canberra called Shed - A place where men can dance. The reaction to this film inspired Gordons current path of working with people across the community and helping them to move and be moved by dance.

A new feature for the 2019 festival, which Lea anticipates will be a permanent feature of future BOLD festivals, is the BOLD lecture in honour of Janis Claxton. Claxton, who died last year, was an Australian who graduated from the Queensland University of Technology, and who went on to make an impact on the contemporary dance world in Britain and elsewhere in Europe and the US.

She was a feisty woman, Lea says. I first saw her work in the 1990s and was impressed by the way she was promoting gender equality and working in non-traditional spaces. She contacted me just before she died and I was moved that she had done that. She was a bold artist and I wanted to honour her.Combining population demographic data from 2006, 2011 and 2016 with characteristics of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, which caused the deaths of 191 Australians, researchers used computer models to predict how an influenza pandemic would spread in Australia in those three years.

Concentration of our populations in major cities and increased international air travel are creating conditions ripe for pandemics to spread faster and infect more people, according to new research from the University of Sydney.

Forget congestion and unaffordable housing, increased urbanisation has a less expected downside: it makes Australia more vulnerable to pandemics.

Researchers found that a simulated influenza pandemic infected more people more quickly in 2016 than 2006. This image is day 46 of the simulation.

They found that the simulated pandemics spread progressively more quickly through the years, and affected more people at their peaks.

In the simulation, a contagion starts at major airports, brought into the country by international travellers. It spreads into the surrounding areas, then to other households and neighbourhoods through work and school networks.

Air travel and Australians growing propensity to live near airports are increasing our populations susceptibility to contagions, which has a significant impact on our health services, crisis response and pandemic preparedness, said Professor Mikhail Prokopenko, director of the University of Sydney Complex Systems Research Group and one of the studys researchers.

According to Professor Prokopenko, this is the first Australian research into infection that simulates movement and interactions on an individual level rather than modelling the population on average.

It calculates the likelihood of households and neighbourhoods being infected according to features such as age, sex, employment status and household size and composition.In last year's HSC, Rebecca Lin topped English extension 2 and got an ATAR of 98.5. So she is smart enough to ignore the eyebrows that have been arching pointedly since she announced she would study primary school teaching.

Madison Brown, with her ATAR of 96.55, and Toby Jones, who topped the state in French beginners, are also standing their ground against the surprised questions that come when students who get top marks in their HSC choose education over degrees such as law.

Toby Jones, who topped the state in French, has chosen to become a teacher. Credit:Brook Mitchell

"There's a real stigma around teaching, like you're throwing in the towel," Mr Jones said. "I think it's a really important job. You've got kids in the formative years of their lives. There's so much good you can do when you're a teacher that cares."

Of the students who topped the state in an HSC course last year, three have decided to teach. All achieved well above the cut-off ATAR for their chosen degree, but have followed their dream rather than choosing a course for which they have no passion.Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, plans to integrate the social network's messaging services - WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger - asserting his control over the company's sprawling divisions at a time when its business has been battered by scandal.

The services will continue to operate as stand-alone apps, but their underlying technical infrastructure will be unified, said four people involved in the effort. That will bring together three of the world's largest messaging networks, which between them have more than 2.6 billion users, allowing people to communicate across the platforms for the first time.

Despite the data privacy concerns, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has continued to sign up more users. Credit:Photo: AP

The move has the potential to redefine how billions of people use the apps to connect with one another while strengthening Facebook's grip on users, raising antitrust, privacy and security questions. It also underscores how Zuckerberg is imposing his authority over units he once vowed to leave alone.

The plan - which is in the early stages, with a goal of completion by the end of this year or early 2020 - requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels, said the people involved in the effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.Shipyard spokesman Duane Bourne said in an email that the shipyard will meet the criteria of the 2016 legislation earlier than required. To continue to make these investments, we have asked for the states support in moving up the start of the grant by two years.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Democratic Rep. Max Rose has officially been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for less than a month, but hes already got three Staten Island Republicans gunning for him.

Welcome to Congress.

GOP Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who has long eyed the seat, has filed with the Federal Election Commission, a necessary first step should she ultimately decide to take the plunge.

Malliotakis also met with GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and spoke with President Donald Trump on the phone during a recent visit to Washington, D.C.

Former GOP Rep. Michael Grimm, looking to reclaim his former spot in Congress, was quick to slam Malliotakis as a potential candidate.

In a Facebook post, he pointed to her outsized loss to Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017, and said Malliotakis had zero legislative achievements to show for her eight years in the Assembly.

Strong words from the guy who gave up the seat after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges, and who later couldnt topple Rep. Dan Donovan in a GOP primary. The same Donovan that unknown Rose had little trouble dispatching in the general election.

Also looking at the seat is GOP City Councilman Joe Borelli, who makes a journey to Washington this week to talk the race over with the White House, National Republican Campaign Committee folks, PAC leaders and former Trump campaign officials.

Washington will have a lot to say about how the race shakes out. Will national GOP leaders believe that the seat is winnable in 2020, when Trump, who won Staten Island in 2016, will be at the top of the ticket? Will they devote the resources necessary, both financial and logistical, to get it done?

Grimm and McCarthy, who has a loud voice in the process, served in the House together, by the way.

More importantly: If the GOP retakes the seat in 2020, can they hold it in 2022?

Trump himself will also cast a long shadow on the race. Malliotakis may have spoken with Trump on the phone, but Borelli has been among the presidents staunchest defenders and explainers on the cable TV circuit. That counts with a White House obsessed with battling back against fake news.

Theres also the potentially troubling fact that Malliotakis backed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in the 2016 presidential primary and later said that she regretted voting for Trump in the general election.

Then again, Donovan voted against Trump on three top agenda items in Congress and the president still endorsed Donovan in the GOP primary. Theres no telling how Trump might swerve.

And could 2020 be the year of the woman for the GOP?

Much has been made of the Staten Island boys club and its political machinations. Malliotakis was denied the House nomination in favor of Donovan when she looked to run in 2015. The newly Democratic House has more women members than ever before. Upstate GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik has warned GOP leaders that the party faces a gender crisis. Could that help spur Republicans both here and in Washington to look to Malliotakis for the Island seat?

It's early, of course. But its late as well. Money has to be raised. Profiles raised. Claims staked. Malliotakis, Borelli and Grimm all want to look like theyre the Republican to beat.

If youre Max Rose, you enjoy the show as three potential rivals rip each other to shreds. Let them do the opposition research for you.

Were already off to the races.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islands Coast Guard community on Saturday said it was cautiously optimistic about its future a day after the president announced a three-week deal to end the partial government shutdown.

President Donald Trump signed a bill Friday to reopen the federal government through Feb. 15 without securing additional funding for a border wall. He said that a bipartisan committee of lawmakers would be formed to consider border spending before the new deadline. The deal includes back pay, which the administration promises to get out as soon as possible.

When the shutdown hit home, members of the Coast Guard community at Fort Wadsworth said they opened a free pantry where local federal employees could pick up food.

Heather Hilliard and Cindi Smith, both wives of Coast Guard employees, said the latest shutdown was at least the second major one they had gone through.

Things cost a lot in New York. And if you arent here in New York, you dont understand, Well, you cant drive to Walmart and pick up a box of diapers cheap. You cant do that. Theres tolls, driving expenses; you cant drive to the other side of Island, because that takes gas, so those are things that people dont think of, Smith said.

Just seven months ago, Rosemary Cohen, her husband and their two young children moved from Charleston, S.C., to Fort Wadsworth. Cohen found a new job about five months ago and was the sole provider for her family once the shutdown started.

But between the move to New York and the shutdown, Cohen said her family has no savings left.

While she is relieved the shutdown is over, she fears it could happen again after Feb. 15.

After that, theres no saying whether its going one way or the other. You try to be optimistic, but at the same time, you know the possibility is there that it could shutdown again, Cohen said.

The families running the food pantry said they plan to keep it open until everyone gets a paycheck, and they plan to keep all the food there until they are certain another shutdown will not occur.

Among those at Fort Wadsworth on Saturday was Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island), who paid a visit to distribute gift cards his office had collected over the past few weeks for the Coast Guard families. He also offered his personal cell phone number to the families, urging them to reach out if they need help.

Thank God its over; Im p***ed off that it took this long. Theres absolutely no reason why we had to put these people through this to reach a conclusion that was eminently foreseeable and logical multiple weeks ago, Rose said. All we did was put these people through a lot of hardship for no good reason, and so Im here today not to play politics, but to truly apologize to these folks on behalf of Congress.

Rose said he is confident that federal employees would be paid soon, but after Feb. 15, he said it is clear that anything is possible.

Unlike other branches of the military, the Coast Guard is not part of the Department of Defense, which operates under a budget that was approved into next year. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security and, therefore, affected by the partial shutdown.

Coast Guard patrol teams can often be seen following ferryboats traveling to and from St. George to Lower Manhattan. Because those patrols fall under national security, those details continued through the government shutdown.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTERSharon, PA (16146)

Today

A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Footage shows survivors of a bomb blast in the Philippines being airlifted into a helicopter after at least 27 people were killed and dozens more injured this morning.



Two bombs exploded outside the Roman Catholic cathedral on Jolo island in the southern Philippine where Muslim militants are active.



As soldiers responded, a second device was detonated in the car park.



Video shows soldiers carrying some of the survivors into a waiting helicopter before they were flown to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.



The attack comes days after a majority-Muslim area in the region voted for greater autonomy in a referendum. No group has so far said it was behind the attack. Jolo has long been a base for militants including those of the Abu Sayyaf group.



The local officials say the first blast happened at 08:45 local time (00:45 GMT) inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past.DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  A military base deep inside Saudi Arabia appears to be testing and possibly manufacturing ballistic missiles, experts and satellite images suggest, evidence of the type of weapons program it has long criticized its archrival Iran for possessing.

Further raising the stakes for any such program are comments by Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said last year the kingdom wouldnt hesitate to develop nuclear weapons if Iran does. Ballistic missiles can carry nuclear warheads to targets thousands of miles away.

Officials in Riyadh and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Having such a program could further strain relations with the U.S., the kingdoms longtime security partner, at a time when ties already are being tested by the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey said heavy investment in missiles often correlates with an interest in nuclear weapons. I would be a little worried that were underestimating the Saudis ambitions here, said Lewis, who has studied the images.

The images, first reported by the Washington Post, focus on a military base near the town of al-Dawadmi. Janes Defence Weekly first identified the base in 2013, suggesting its two launch pads appear oriented to target Israel and Iran with ballistic missiles the kingdom previously bought from China.

The November satellite images show what appear to be structures big enough to build and fuel ballistic missiles. An apparent rocket-engine test stand can be seen in a corner of the base  the type on which a rocket is positioned on its side and test-fired in place. Such testing is key for countries attempting to manufacture working missiles, experts say.

Michael Elleman, the senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, also reviewed the satellite photos and said they appear to show a ballistic missile program.

The question remains where Saudi Arabia gained the technical know-how to build such a facility. Lewis said the Saudi stand closely resembles a design used by China, though it is smaller.

Jon Gambrell is an Associated Press writer.The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, strongly condemned the attack which led to the deaths of two blue helmets from Sri Lanka and injured six others.

Mr Guterres conveyed his deep condolences to the Government of Sri Lanka, and the families of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

A peacekeeper from Burkina Faso was also injured in a separate IED attack against another convoy near the same area, on Thursday.

These cowardly acts will not deter MINUSMAs determination to support the people and Government on Mali in their pursuit of peace and stability, a statement issued by his spokesman read.

Just last Sunday, a terrorist attack against the missions camp in Aguelhok, in the Kidal region, killed ten peacekeepers from Chad.

Recalling that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law, Mr Guterres called on the Malian authorities to spare no effort in identifying the perpetrators of Fridays attack, so that they can be brought to justice as swiftly as possible.

A proliferation of armed groups fighting government forces and their allies in the centre and northern areas of Mali following a failed coup six years ago, have made MINUSMA the most dangerous mission to serve in as a UN blue helmet. The Malian Government has been seeking to restore stability and rebuild following a series of setbacks, since early 2012.

The escalating violence reported by the UN in parts of the Mopti region has led to widespread displacement of a civilian population already vulnerable due to a lack of protection and basic social services provided by the state.

A team of human rights officers serving with MINUSMA travelled at the beginning of January to the region to investigate recent armed attacks in the settlement of Koulogon Peul, in which at least 37 civilians were killed, and a number of houses and granaries were deliberately burnt down.

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences in a statement released on Friday night, and expressed sympathy to the families of the victims, as well as to Sri Lanka and to MINUSMA. Council members wished a speedy and full recovery to those injured and "paid tribute to the peacekeepers who risk their lives."

The 15-member body "called on the Government of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. They underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law."

The Council stressed "that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting attacks against MINUSMA peacekeepers constitutes a basis for sanctions designations pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions."BEIRUT  The head of the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon warned Israel over its continued attacks in Syria, saying a miscalculation could drag the region into a war.

Hassan Nasrallah made the comment late Saturday during a wide-ranging interview with the Al-Mayadeen TV station based in Beirut.

Nasrallah said Iran, Syria and Hezbollah could at any moment decide to deal differently with Israels actions in Syria and hinted that Tel Aviv might be a target.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: Be cautious. Dont continue what you are doing in Syria. Dont miscalculate and dont drag the region into a war or a major confrontation.

Nasrallah said circumstances in the region have changed as Iran and its allies, including his group, expand their influence in the region. This means any war can be fought on more than one front, Nasrallah warned.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the warning, saying Sunday that the Iranian-backed group is in distress.

Israel has recently increased its attacks on suspected Iranian military targets in Syria, confirming such strikes in a shift from its policy of playing down or not commenting on its military activities in the war-torn country.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy and has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iranian troops  who have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces  to maintain a permanent presence in postwar Syria.

In the latest violence, the Israeli military claimed responsibility for a series of air strikes on Iranian targets in Syria last Monday, saying it was responding to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier. The Iranian launch followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near Damascus International Airport.

Nasrallah said Israel has failed to realize what he said are its goals: undermining the Syrian government, forcing Iran from Syria, and preventing Hezbollah from acquiring precision missiles. He also said Netanyahu is the person most disappointed by U.S. plans to withdraw from Syria and cited the pullout as another failure.

Nasrallahs appearance followed news reports in Israel and elsewhere that his health was failing. He dismissed the reports as lies.

The 59-year-old, who has led his group through wars with Israel for nearly three decades, had not appeared since November despite Israeli escalation in Syria and along Lebanons borders.

In December, the Israeli military opened Operation Northern Shield to detect and destroy what it has described as a vast network of Hezbollah tunnels built for militants to sneak across the border into Israel, capture territory and stage attacks.

Sarah El Deeb is an Associated Press writer.BRUMADINHO, Brazil  Brazilian rescue crews returned to mud-covered flats Sunday to resume the search for hundreds of people missing in the wake of a dam collapse after the operation was suspended for several hours over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach.

The Civil Defense office in Minais Gerais state raised the confirmed death toll to 58, with up to 300 people still missing following the avalanche of iron ore waste from a mine Friday.

Earlier Sunday, authorities stopped the search and evacuated several neighborhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the second B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.

Get out searching! a woman yelled at firefighters near a refuge set up in the center of Brumadinho. They could be out there in the bush.

Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable. Late Sunday, more than 100 Israeli soldiers arrived to join rescue and recovery efforts Monday.

Even before the half-day suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Fridays dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died.

There was also mounting anger at Vale and questions about an apparent lack of an alarm system Friday.

Caroline Steifeld, who was evacuated, said she heard warning sirens Sunday, but no such alert came Friday, when the first dam collapsed.

I only heard shouting, people saying to get out. I had to run with my family to get to higher ground, but there was no siren, she said, adding that a cousin was still unaccounted for.

In an email, Vale said the area has eight sirens, but the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops, and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.

In addition to the dead, 23 people were hospitalized, according to the Minas Gerais fire department.

The rivers of mining waste have also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.

Marcelo Silva De Sousa and Peter Prengaman are Associated Press writers.MADRID  Rescue crews in Spain on Saturday found the body of a 2-year-old boy, whose fall into a deep borehole 13 days earlier prompted a complex and heart-wrenching search-and-rescue operation that had the country holding its breath.

Julen Rosello fell down the narrow 360-foot-deep borehole on Jan. 13 while his family was preparing a picnic lunch. Adding to the familys tragedy, Spanish media reported that his parents had another young son who died of a heart attack in 2017.

Julens remains were found in the early hours of Saturday by rescuers digging a tunnel to reach him, said Alfonso Rodriguez, the Spanish governments representative for the southern region of Andalusia. They were accompanied by a member of the Civil Guard, which then took charge of removing the body.

Rodriguez said the results of the boys autopsy would not be disclosed under a judicial commission following up with the accidents investigation. The Civil Guard is investigating if the borehole had been made illegally.

The tragedy had transfixed Spaniards, and the country followed closely every turn of an extremely complex operation, frequently hampered by layers of rock.

Spains King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez both offered their condolences to the family.

The hole, only 10 inches in diameter, was too narrow for an adult to get into, and hardened soil and rock blocked equipment from progressing to the place two-thirds of the way down where the toddler was trapped.

During the nearly two weeks of the ordeal, officials came up with several alternative routes to the toddler. A series of small explosions helped the crews make their way through a horizontal tunnel to the cavity.

Aritz Parra is an Associated Press writer.This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

In this series, NerdWallet interviews new homeowners across the country about their unique homebuying journeys and the financial decisions that helped them along the way. (Do you want to share your first-time homebuying story? Reach out to vlai@nerdwallet.com.)

As San Franciscos cool, hip neighbor, Oakland may offer slightly more affordable home prices, but theyre still jaw-droppingly expensive by most standards. According to Zillow, the median home value is $741,900.

James Edmondson, 31, who runs a type design company, and Sadie Fenton, 35, a restaurant server, experienced the competitive  and often disheartening  housing market while scrambling to buy a home in Oakland last year before their daughter was born.

Edmondson shared the intense ups and downs of their homebuying journey, from exceeding their initial budget by more than $300,000 to finally landing their two-bedroom home in the Glenview area of Oakland. (This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.)

What brought you to Oakland?

Sadie was born in San Francisco, and I was born near San Luis Obispo, California. I moved to San Francisco when I was 19 and eventually transferred to an art school in Oakland.

 MORE: Compare the costs of living in different cities

Why did you decide to buy a home in Oakland?

We had been renting in San Francisco and generally felt that landlords could throw us out at a certain point. That uncertainty and dependence on landlords became less and less attractive. Some people say that renting is like throwing away money, which I dont believe  youre paying for a valuable service  but we were thinking about starting a family and wanted to give homebuying a shot.

We checked out other areas in the East Bay, like San Leandro, El Cerrito and Berkeley, but I really wanted to live in Oakland again.

What were you looking for in a home?

I wanted a garage space, and Sadie wanted a formal dining area. We wanted a good neighborhood and to be close to shops and restaurants. I didnt want to leave the city vibe altogether. We were flexible on the rest because we knew we had incredible competition in this market, especially at the time we were looking.

What was your homebuying journey like?

We called our real estate agent at the beginning of 2018. We didnt search very seriously the first month, but Sadie was pregnant and our due date was May 23, so that was our deadline. It ended up taking us around three months to find a home.

We knew we werent going to get a great deal; the competition was so thick. It didnt seem like we were going to stumble on some bargain. We looked at close to 20 houses in person and spent so much time browsing on Redfin  it took up our whole lives. We put in an offer on one house in San Leandro, but we werent even close to getting it. The same thing happened for another house in San Leandro. We were off by $100K. Losing those two offers was a reality check. We needed to be real with ourselves and understand that this was a ludicrous market.

We ended up finding a two-bedroom in a neighborhood with a school we liked and at a price point we thought we could work with, and moved in on March 20, 2018. I think we were successful with this house and beat out five other offers because we bid almost 40% over the asking price.

How did you know that the home was the one for you?

It wasnt that romantic or obvious. We loved the house, but we loved a lot of the houses we checked out. Our house is busted and disgusting from the outside, but the inside is great. Its a classic, 100-year-old Craftsman with cool details and built-ins. The kitchen is super dated and has an old-school oven range. It feels very cozy and warm; that was important to us.

Whats your approach to finance, and how did you save for the home?

Im a saver. Coming into this, I had a healthy retirement account and started saving when I was 19, but Ive since learned about the FIRE movement, and now my goal is to be mortgage-free in 10 years. I dont care about clothes, cars, eating out or going to bars, so that helped.

Our budget was initially in the mid-$600,000 range, but everything was 10-20% over asking price. We were faced with the reality that wed have to stretch to make it work. It eventually went all the way up to $982,000, which is what we ended up paying. Sadie and I both had savings, but we also had to borrow $55,000 from my older brothers, which ended up being around 18% of the down payment. We put down around $300K, which we had saved up.

 MORE: How much house can you afford?

Were there any surprises or challenges? Would you have done anything differently?

The hardest part was realizing what a full-time job it is to go through the escrow process, secure the mortgage and fill out all the paperwork. It was insanely stressful. If it was just me, theres a strong possibility I would have done a tiny home or moved to a less expensive area. Its not necessary for everyone to go the traditional route of buying a home. But when I consider Sadie and our child, it was the best-case scenario.

What advice would you give to someone considering moving to Oakland?

Keep expenses low by thinking about what truly matters to you. Also have a lot of compassion for yourself. It was easy to feel stupid and stressed out during the process. I thought we were in over our heads. Its healthy to remind yourself that buying a home is something that you will do very few times in your life.

Oakland really varies. There are $4 million houses just a couple streets over from neighborhoods that are really gnarly  where you wouldnt want to walk alone at night.

Advice for first-time home buyers

Deidre Joyner, the real estate agent who helped Edmondson and Fenton purchase their home, shared a few tips for first-time home buyers in Oakland:

Find a local mortgage lender. Joyner says a local mortgage lender can offer more flexibility and help you stand out from other offers. If all things are equal, a locally known real estate agent and mortgage lender can make a difference. They often can work non-banking hours and are easier to reach on a weekend.

Expect to spend a lot Unfortunately, prices have skyrocketed in the last six years. This is a very sought-out community, with its close proximity to San Francisco and good weather, Joyner says. I see people spending between $750,000 and $950,000, and thats not including notoriously expensive Oakland neighborhoods like Rockridge or Crocker Highlands.

but the market may be shifting. Joyner says buyers are gradually being more selective. There was a frenzy of people getting in and buying homes that werent that great, but now my clients are thinking more critically and have a more discriminating mindset. They wont just buy anything, she says.

Valerie Lai is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: vlai@nerdwallet.com.

The article How I Bought a Home in Oakland originally appeared on NerdWallet.Although it is high time to put the recent unprecedented constitutional crisis behind us without brooding over it too much, yet it would be useful to probe into the lessons we can learn as a country from that sad episode. Was it a result of defective legal advice? Did it precipitate due to sheer force of circumstances beyond ones control? Was it triggered by personal vested interest? Or, was it mere fancy and folly? A gloomy 51-day recent drama in our motherland witnessed one of the worst comedy of errors in the history of post-independence national politics.

All of a sudden, wave after wave, the country rose to the shocking news of the deposing of the incumbent Prime Minister and the installation of a new Prime Minister with some ministers taking office at the same time. The media and political commentators jumped at the news and lo and behold, the TV channels and evening late editions of national papers gave the startling event the broadest of headlines it deserved. Many felt this change to be too drastic even if it was thought to have been justified and thus pursued hastily. However, the whole land turned topsy-turvy.

Much of the international world took it with a lot of displeasure, with some even condemning it outright and challenging the government to act always in respect of the Constitution. As a result, gradually over the month, the stock exchange dwindled, the foreign investors suspended their projects, the international monetary agencies ceased releasing aid and funds and the tourism industry just flattened with many airlines and hotel bookings cancelled almost overnight.

Further, the rupee continued its lousy downward trend. Pandemonium reigned in the house of Parliament with sessions disrupted by the most despicable and boorish behaviour ever staged within this sanctuary of democracy by these-called peoples representatives. The unruly and erratic politics of the ensuing weeks ended with the government boycotting the proceedings of the parliament.

For the first time, Sri Lanka entered the Guinness record as the first-ever country in modern times, where the appointed government boycotted parliament and its deliberations with only the opposition sitting and passing resolutions with a majority! It could not but be a hilarious and strange comedy of errors! Is this, we as concerned citizens may ask, the state of our national politics after 70 long years of national independence from colonial rule? Who is running our country, cheating our people, robbing their civic right of franchise, dragging this pearl of the Indian ocean into rack and ruin? Are they genuine Statesmen of the stature of which the nation can be proud of or just a bunch of immature and heartless politicians vying for power drunken with greed looking for the position, vested interests and fringe benefits?

Politics is a service to people

This whole strange and shocking phenomenon of unexpected, radical political change and confusion, however, proves providentially to be an occasion for the enlightenment of the masses, at least for those who are looking for genuine political leadership and clean politics in general. By now, the pseudo-actors have shed their bearings and revealed their real identity. There has been too much bribery and corruption that have invaded the governing ranks staining the image profession of politics, noble as it is. Too many in government have been found blatantly guilty of embezzlement of funds as well as abusing and misappropriating public and state property.

The culture of waste has ruled their erratic way of life and when dealing with situations. We have reached a stage where it is extremely difficult as ordinary citizens to identify clean and honest politicians who take on this profession becoming servants of the people. Few have taken to politics for self-aggrandizement as well. All kinds of scams of small and high magnitude have throttled the country and impoverished it in many ways. Some good and abiding lessons must be learnt from this sad episode that should stand us in good stead for years to come in re-building our future.

The controversial issues surrounding an executive presidency with excessive powers and unclear points in the text of the Constitution opened to multiple interpretations made these issues more complicated and difficult. The scenario that featured presidential decisions and the subsequent appeals made to the judiciary at different levels with the Supreme Court delivering its verdict made up the various contrasting and odd scenes of this national political drama. It was in one simple word a horrible spectacle to behold. The whole constitutional system had created a hornets nest: a bundle of contradictions.

It was a good opportunity providentially for the people of the land at large to see and perceive the chaos that can overtake a country when it is sunk in unstable political conditions in its governance. The chances for disarray are evident in such a tottering system. What now urgently needs to be done to heal this terrible wound and avert similar tragedies in the future are open questions that still beg for satisfactory answers.

Should the solution come from reform in the Constitution itself or should it come from the authentic conversion of politicians to decency and truthfulness in the way they go about their obligations and duties? Or else, do the people en masse need some good enlightenment and conscientization about their political choices instead of being dragged away by rosy pledges of flattering election manifestoes many of which are often not achieved! These are hard questions that need uncompromising answers. The country looks to the governing leadership to search painstakingly for these required answers. It is time that politicians of all hue look at this crisis dispassionately and collaborate in seeking a way out of this mess in a way that will augur well for our dear motherland.

Urgent needs of the hour

1. National Issues

Notwithstanding the bone of contention around the need for a new constitution or the thrust on economic development, there is a complex of issues at bay that has to be faced and sorted out. There looms the decades-old imperative of devolution of power into the provinces in order to solve the national question. The national and international debts running into billions of dollars will continue to be a nauseating burden until we are capable of giving up our begging bowl and are strong enough to rely on our own financial resources. Our economic policies have to look for more and more foreign direct investments which not only would boost our income but also provide opportunities for our large number of unemployed graduates.

The export sector has to look into newer categories of products in addition to embellishing the traditional exports of tea, rubber and coconut, not to mention the new technology needed to enhance production in these spheres. The apparel and textile industries have to be expanded. Being an agricultural country and needing an agro-based project of industries, the farmers need to be given a helping hand to improve their techniques and be assured of the unfailing supply of water and fertilizers. Will some government launch a massive mega-project to manage the immense amount of water that cascade on our land during torrential rains, instead of these waters inundating the paddy fields, destroying life and property, frustrating farmers and eventually flowing into the sea!

What had the successive governments of the last 70-year period of independence done regarding this matter of conservation of water that nature gives us so much in abundance during these torrential rains? What about refurbishing the number of tanks that are already being neglected that will prop up agriculture when the rains cease and the dry season comes along?

2. Political Ethics

The moratorium on taxes forthwith that burden ordinary people and the lowering of the living index can easily be achieved by avoiding waste of excessive and unnecessary expenditure in the state-sector and government. One here raises the simple question of large fringe-benefits to those holding government positions in the ministries, the parliament and those in local government. It concerns vehicles and the exquisite plethora of allowances that can easily be scrapped. Of course, there is the radical need of crying a halt to fraud, bribery and corruption at all levels and an imperative call to all in government to adopt a simple lifestyle.

As a country constantly with the begging bowl at the mercy of international funding agencies on the one hand, and crushed under heavy national and international debts on the other, we just cannot justify them wallowing in such a high lucrative lifestyle. What is required is not aid, but mechanisms at improving our trade and augmenting our reserves! While education must be skill-oriented opening channels for greater employment, the most vicious social evil of the drug trade that menaces our youth has to be arrested forthwith. The kind of national politics in vogue must be to our youth a source of hope instead of frustration and mistrust.

Conclusion

The recent shocking tragedy provides good education also to the masses of our country who are often called to elect their representatives who are not expected to be guilty of breaching public trust. They must realize that the sovereignty of people means that the country belongs to the citizens and politicians are only the caretakers of the motherland and providers of the needs of the people. Their politics must be at the service of the people, of their needs, security, prosperity and peace.

Though multi-party politics is a basic tenet of democracy and a lofty one, it should not be so divisive and deceptive that it leads a land to economic bankruptcy, political instability, unbearable high cost of living for the poor and the most vulnerable, abuse and misuse of national assets, creating social unrest and disunity and finally leading us to the brink of a failed state. As long as the sovereignty of the people and the noble ideals of democracy are maintained, we can be assured of a steady march of the nation towards peace and prosperity.

It is time that all political leaders and the parties they lead rise up to a level of mature and insightful politics in the interest of the common good of the motherland, without fostering disruptive agendas and creating hornets nests that will infallibly deny us, a prosperous and hope-filled journey forward.President Sirisena has over the past few months shown a penchant for pulling surprises on our people during weekends. The first major surprise occurred on Friday, October 26, 2018, when he appointed former President and incumbent MP for Kurunegala District Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister even before he dismissed the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

A somewhat nebulous situation and it resulted in the country having two Prime Ministers at the same time. The situation got even more aggravated when Wickremesinghe rejected the Presidents action, saying he enjoyed the support of the majority in Parliament. When Wickremesinghe proved his majority in Parliament, on Friday, September 9, Sirisena surprised the country once more. He dissolved Parliament by proclamation... which led to his actions being challenged in the highest courts of the land.

The President surprised the nation once again when he vowed on Friday, December 14 that he would never to re-appoint Wickremesinghe as his Prime Minister whatever the outcome was. But on Sunday, December 16, President Sirisena re-appointed Wickremesinghe as Premier!

But he saved his biggest surprise for Friday, January 18, 2019, when during an official visit to the Philippines, the President praised his Filipino counterpart Rodrigo Dutertes brutal war on drugs, which has taken thousands of lives. He referred to it an example to the world. In his speech, President Sirisena indicated he would like to replicate Dutertes deadly manner to crush the growing drug menace in Sri Lanka. He went on to add the drug menace in Sri Lanka was rampant and he felt the best way to tackle the growing menace was to follow the example of his Filipino counterpart.

According to official figures published by the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), between July 2016 and the end of November 2018, a total of 5,050 persons had lost their lives; they were lost mostly at the hands of the Philippines police force.

However, the official toll falls well short of estimates given by Human Rights groups and campaigners for victims, which vary from 12,000 to 20,000 extra-judicial killings. Many of the undocumented killings, the rights groups say, were carried out by death squads and unofficial militia. Chito Gascon, the Chairman of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, was on record saying the toll could be as high as 27,000, though, he emphasised, investigating the deaths was complex because the Police withheld records on anti-drug operations.

Why our Presidents lauding of the brutal tactics of President Rodrigo Duterte is so surprising and unbecoming, is that our President was elected to his present position on a platform to do away with the fear-psychosis, which was gripping our country at that time.

In fact, at the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, our President said with justifiable pride I have given the leadership to usher a new era of social, political and economic transformations in my country. Before I came to power, people in my country were living in fear and suspicion. I could end that period, and lay the foundation for strengthening the rule of law and restoring democratic rights to the people of Sri Lanka to live happily in a free and democratic society...

And why the Presidents cheering on of Dutertes killer squads is even less unstable is that our President is a practising Buddhist in a country, which gives foremost place to Buddhism, whose four noble virtues are Meththa or Loving, Kindness, benevolence, friendliness, amity, goodwill, and active interest in others.

Karuna - Compassion: a fundamental quality in the Bodhisattva ideal of Buddhism. Mudhitha or Empathetic joy is a delight in others happiness or good fortune, it can also mean celebrating the virtues of others. Upekkha - Equanimity: Calmness and composure, especially in difficult situations.

All religions -- be it Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam -- speak of the sacredness of life and all four of these religions are part of the fabric of the Sri Lankan culture. So, how can we recommend the world to follow the example of Duterte in the Philippines, who is waging a war on sections of his own people?

At times we, Sri Lankans tend to thoughtlessly shoot off our mouths i.e. to talk too much in a loud and uncontrolled manner. It is time for all of us -- from our leaders downwards -- to look before we leap and think before we speak.The two Sri Lankan soldiers who were on peacekeeping force under the UN flag had been promoted posthumously, the Army said.

Captain H.W.D Jayawickrama and Corporal S.S. Wijekumara, who were killed in Mali following an attack on the convoy they were travelling in, were posthumously promoted to the rank of Major and Sergeant respectively, Army Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Athapattu said.

He said that in addition to promotion and compensation, the two peacekeepers would also receive compensation from the UN.

Meanwhile, the Brigadier said the bodies of the deceased peacekeepers would be flown to Sri Lanka within three or four days.

Captain Jayawickrama of 11th Sri Lanka Light Infantry from Polonnaruwa and Corporal Wijekumara of First Mechanized Infantry Regiment from Thalakolawewa, Polpithigama of the Sri Lankan Army Contingent in Mali were killed Friday morning following an explosion, while performing their UN Peacekeeping Mission duties in Keerana after their WMZ convoy was attacked by a rebel group using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

Corporal M.G.S Kumarasinghe from Panwilathenna, Lance Corporal K.C Pushpakumara from Kannathota and Lance Corporal C.H.M.S Chandrasekara from Kekunawa in Maho were also injured in the attack.

The Spokesman said Corporal Kumarasinghe had sustained serious injuries and the other two were recovering.(Darshana Sanjeewa)SANTA CRUZ (BCN)



Santa Cruz police are searching for the suspect in two stabbings Friday night stabbing that left separate victims with life-threatening injuries, police said.



The suspect is Dennis Wells, 26, who police say that at about 11:20 p.m. Friday, stabbed two men near the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Maple Street. Both remained hospitalized Saturday night; one suffered an injury to the head, and another injuries to his neck, police said.



The victims were able to tell police whom they believe stabbed them, and a warrant was issued for Wells' arrest on suspicion of attempted murder and of assault with a deadly weapon.



Wells is described as white, 5-feet-11-inches tall, about 190 pounds with blond hair and hazel eyes.



Anyone who sees Wells should not try to contact him, as he is considered armed and dangerous. Instead, call 911, or Santa Cruz police at (831) 420-5820 or, anonymously, at (831) 420-5995.





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.The government intends to complete construction of 4,750 houses within six months for the benefit of the people in the North under its plan to build 10,000 houses in stages, an official said today.

This project has been launched by the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development, Vocational Training, Skills Development and Youth Affairs.

Ministry Secretary V. Sivagnanasothy told the Daily Mirror that work was well under progress and that the houses would be out of bricks and mortar/cement sand block, traditional type houses in the conflict affected areas of the Northern and Eastern Provinces - under an owner-driven modality. He said the priority would be given to internally displaced persons (IDPs), families in welfare camps and refugee returnees.

There would be a special focus on women-led families, the disabled, landmine-affected families, families of missing persons, low income groups, families living in huts with children and families with elderly persons. "The first phase of 4,750 houses is being constructed through the vote on account allocation following the decision of a high-powered steering committee.

The housing programme will be implemented through the district and divisional administration and based on the number of IDPs, families in the welfare camps and refugee returnees. Under the first phase 1,500 houses will be for Jaffna, 670 houses for Kilinochchi, 630 houses for Mullaitivu, 450 houses for Vavuniya, 350 houses for Mannar, 625 houses for Batticaloa, 400 houses Trincomalee and 125 houses for Ampara, he said.MARTINEZ (BCN)



Officials from the city of Martinez and the Union Pacific Railroad will be on hand for a town hall meeting Tuesday night at which issues of trains blocking two key railroad crossings will be discussed.



State law dictates that a train can block a public rail crossing for no more than 10 minutes at a time. But blockages of 20 minutes and longer have been an issue in Martinez for years.



There are two grade crossings where this has been a problem - Ferry Street (the main entrance to Waterfront Park and its trails, marina, bocce courts and ball fields) - and, especially, Berrellesa Street. The trains that usually create the problems are not the frequent Amtrak trains, but rather freight trains switching cars at the east end of the Union Pacific's Ozol freight-staging yard, west of the city along the waterfront.



The meeting has been in the making for many months. The city will make a presentation about the problem, and Union Pacific officials will then discuss rail operations and why there are blockages. A question-and-answer session involving the city, Union Pacific and representatives of U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, will follow.



The town hall meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at Martinez City Hall, 525 Henrietta St.





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 Supervisor Gordon Mar will host a neighborhood town hall in the Sunset District from 10 a.m. to noon this morning to solicit input on how the city should invest $185 million in newly available property tax revenue.



The town hall will include a presentation from the City Controller's Office and open discussion with Mar. Translation for Chinese dialects and childcare services will be provided. It will be held at the Sunset Recreation Center, 2201 Lawton St.



The funds became available as part of a $415 million windfall the city received in November in Educational Revenue Augmentation Funds (ERAF). Most of the amount is allocated to various baselines and rainy day reserves, but roughly $185 million is available to be spent from the city's general fund on city services.





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.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump met last week with a delegation of hard-right activists led by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, listening quietly as members of the group denounced transgender people and women serving in the military, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events.

For 60 minutes Trump sat, saying little but appearing taken aback, the three people said, as the group also accused White House aides of blocking Trump supporters from getting jobs in the administration.

It is unusual for the spouse of a sitting Supreme Court justice to have such a meeting with a president, and some close to Trump said it was inappropriate for Ginni Thomas to have asked to meet with the head of a different branch of government.

A vocal conservative, Thomas has long been close to what had been the Republican Partys fringes, and extremely outspoken against Democrats. Her activism has raised concerns of conflicts of interest for her husband, who is perhaps the most conservative member of the Supreme Court.

A White House spokeswoman declined to comment on the meeting, and Ginni Thomas did not respond to an email seeking comment.

During the meeting Thursday in the Roosevelt Room, which was attended by about a half-dozen White House aides, one woman argued that women should not serve in the military because they had less muscle mass and lung capacity than men did, according to those familiar with the events. At another point, someone said same-sex marriage, which the Supreme Court determined in 2015 was the law of the land, was harming the fabric of the United States. And another attendee was dismissive that sexual assault is pervasive in the military.

The meeting was arranged after months of delay, according to the three people. It came about after the Thomases had dinner with the president and first lady Melania Trump, the people said.

Thomas was an ardent supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during the 2016 presidential primaries. But she shifted her support to Trump when he became the nominee and has forcefully denounced his political critics.

Others at the meeting had also opposed Trumps candidacy at one point.

One of them, Connie Hair, was identified by Thomas group as a conservative columnist when the meeting was being assembled, according to the people. In reality, she is chief of staff to Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. During the campaign, she had posted several comments on Twitter describing Trump as unfit for office, including calling him certifiable and saying he would never be elected president.

In the meeting, Hair described herself as a strong Trump supporter, according to those familiar with the events. Hair did not respond to an email seeking comment.

A central focus for Hair and Thomas was administration appointments that they wanted made and that they accused the presidents aides of blocking. People familiar with the situation indicated that the people Hair and Thomas wanted hired were rejected for a range of reasons, and in at least one case someone was offered a job and declined it because the position was not considered senior enough. Another complaint was that Thomas had not actually shared the full list of people to be hired, said those familiar with the meeting.

Others attending included Frank Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy who has advocated curtailing immigration and has repeatedly denounced Muslims; and Rosemary Jenks, who works for the anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, according to the people familiar with the events.

Thomas  whose group, Groundswell, was formed in 2013 to strategize against Democrats and the political left and meets weekly  joined others in prayer at the start of the meeting. Some members of the group prayed at different moments as the meeting continued. At one point, Trump pulled in his daughter Ivanka, a West Wing adviser, saying she would be beloved if she were serving a liberal president, instead of getting negative news coverage.

One attendee criticized Republican congressional leaders, saying they should be tarred and feathered, a person briefed on the meeting said. Trump defended Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., saying that they had held strong for nearly five weeks of a shutdown, and that it was not clear what else the attendees thought they could be doing.

Thomas, who was said to have opened the meeting by informing the assembled White House staff members that she feared being open because she did not trust the people there, has long been more conservative than her husband, and has often provoked controversy.

In 2011 she formed a government affairs firm called Liberty Consulting, which drew criticism for boasting on its website that Thomas would use her experience and connections to help clients.

More recently, she hired as an assistant a woman fired by the conservative group Turning Point USA for texting a colleague a year earlier that I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. The woman, Crystal Clanton, was on the list of people Thomas group asked to have attend the meeting, the people familiar with the sit-down said.

She has also drawn criticism for sharing social media posts promoting conspiracy theories, including one suggesting that billionaire philanthropist George Soros was working against Trump and that Democrats had committed voter fraud during the 2018 midterm elections. Shortly before the elections, Thomas also shared a misleading post about the caravan of migrants traveling toward the United States.

This article originally appeared in The New York TimesA St. Louis police officer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after officials said he fatally shot another officer during a game of Russian roulette.

Officer Nathaniel Hendren was charged Friday in the death of Katlyn Alix, another officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Hendren had been on duty when he met Alix, who was off duty, at his home Thursday and the two began playing with guns, according to a statement of probable cause.

Hendren produced a revolver, emptied the cylinder and put one round back in, the statement said. He then spun the cylinder, pointed it away and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire, officials said.

Alix took the gun, pointed it at Hendren and compressed the trigger. The gun still did not fire, the statement said.

Hendren then took the gun back, pointed it at her and pulled the trigger. This time, the gun went off. Alix was fatally shot in the chest, officials said.

The shooting of a police officer at the hands of another immediately raised questions about what had happened and drew added attention because officials said Hendren was on duty at the time.

Hendrens partner, who was also there and who was not identified, told officials that he had felt uncomfortable that the others were playing with guns and started to leave before he heard a gunshot, the statement said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the police initially called the shooting accidental and later said the officer had mishandled the weapon.

On Friday, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said her office had evidence to file charges.

We lost a shining star and a dedicated public servant, Gardner said in a statement, adding that an investigation was continuing.

I have said this many times before, she said. I will hold people accountable who violate Missouri law regardless of their profession, public status or station in life. Today, as much as it saddens my staff and me to file these charges, Katlyn and her family deserve accountability and justice.

Court records did not list a lawyer for Hendren. He could not be reached for comment Saturday, and the police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Police Chief John Hayden Jr. said on Twitter that Alix was an enthusiastic and energetic young woman with a bright future ahead of her.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.The Orange County city of Huntington Beach has filed a lawsuit against the state of California, seeking to overturn SB35, a law that went into effect in 2018 that streamlines processes for building new housing developments.

Huntington Beachs lawsuit contends that the states Constitution grants charter cities exclusive authority over local land use and zoning. SB35 requires housing projects to be approved faster if they offer affordable housing and meet certain conditions, such as the use of union labor.

Michael Gates, city attorney for Huntington Beach, said the city views the law as an overreach into city matters, specifically zoning.

Its one thing to have more basic housing laws come out of Sacramento; its another to have Sacramento try to micromanage cities zoning and attempt to approve development projects in spite of the city, he said. Its really nothing more than the city trying to maintain its local control.

In the lawsuit filed Jan. 17 in Orange County Superior Court, Gates argues that the new law allows the state to rezone local land use in a city for its (ill-conceived) political purposes.

Under SB35, the state has mandated that cities that dont meet their housing targets set by the Regional Housing Needs Assessment must approve housing permits for projects that are at least 50 percent affordable.

In doing this, the lawsuit said, SB35 violates the state constitutional authority of charter cities to exclusively legislate over municipal affairs, which include land use and zoning.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who authored the bill, released a statement Sunday emphasizing the lack of housing in California and the need for the state to set standards.

Huntington Beachs dismissive approach to housing  claiming there is no problem and that the state should just mind its own business  is Exhibit A for why we have a crisis in this state, he said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that the state would sue the Orange County city for violating a different housing-related law, AB72  the first lawsuit invoking the law that took effect in 2017. In filing the lawsuit, Newsom accused Huntington Beach of refusing to meet a state mandate to provide new housing for low-income people.

AB72 allows state housing officials to report municipalities to the attorney general for legal action if they do not adequately plan for housing construction.

Ashley McBride is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ashleynmcbA San Francisco software executive has donated more than $62,000 to try to ensure that the cache of firearms that was owned by the gunman in the Las Vegas massacre will be destroyed.

In the aftermath of the 2017 shooting, loved ones of the 58 people who lost their lives in the rampage faced a difficult choice over what to do with the 50 guns and accessories that were owned by the gunman, Stephen Paddock. They could either sell the weapons to raise money or have the guns destroyed in a symbolic renunciation of violence.

Now the families dont have to worry about making that decision  the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has stepped in to cover the funds. His only condition is that the guns are destroyed.

The collection of firearms and equipment was valued at $62,340 in a recent inventory of Paddocks nearly $1.4 million estate by a court-appointed special administrator. As Paddock died without a will, his mother, under Nevada law, became the heir to his assets, which she agreed to give to the families of the dead victims last March.

After reading a New York Times article about the families gun dilemma that was published this month, the California businessman decided to write a check to the families for $62,500. He contacted a reporter at The Times so he could get in touch with the lawyer for the special administrator of the estate.

It was tugging at my heart strings, and it seemed like a horrific situation for the families to deal with this choice, he said in an interview. I wanted to alleviate some of the pain or at least not allow it to get worse.

The executive said he wants the donation to be anonymous because the focus should be on the families.

No credit in the face of pain, he said. This was about heartbreak and wanting to help.

He said he made the donation conditional on the destruction of the firearms  which range from pistols to high-powered long arms  to ensure they do not end up back in circulation.

I think the families would feel better if the weapons are gone, he said.

Alice Denton, the lawyer for the special administrator of the estate, said the FBI, which is in possession of the firearms, had given a verbal commitment it would destroy the weapons if it received a court order to do so. She said she would seek such an order next month from the Las Vegas judge overseeing the estate case. In the meantime, no action to destroy the guns would be taken.

A spokeswoman for the FBIs Las Vegas field office said the bureau was unable to comment.

The executive  who said he favors stronger gun control but does not consider himself an anti-gun activist  said if it turns out that the FBI will not destroy the firearms, he would try to find another way to have it done.

Denton said she received the check last week and was delighted about the donors generosity.

We are so grateful, she said. It shows the compassion that total strangers can have for victims of horrendous crimes, and that, in the face of such evil, there are good people.

Mynda Smith, whose sister was killed in the attack, said the donors gesture and his desire to see the guns destroyed would help relatives like her deal with their sorrow.

His desire to alleviate any more emotional pain for the families of the 58, and all survivors really, is what makes it a beautiful thing, Smith said. Closing this door in this way is the perfect gift for us.

Denton said the check has been deposited in her trust account and would be transferred to the estate once the guns are destroyed.

Nearly half the guns in question  23 rifles and a revolver  were found in the gunmans upper-floor room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, according to the estate inventory.

It was from that perch at the hotel that he opened fire on an outdoor country music festival. Not only were dozens of people slaughtered, hundreds of others were injured in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

The rest of the gunmans firearms were in his two Nevada homes. At his house in Mesquite, seven rifles, seven shotguns and five handguns were collected. The estate recently sold that property to an Oregon couple for $425,000.

And two shotguns and five handguns were found at the gunmans Reno home, which is still listed on the market for $374,900.

Lawyers for some of the victims have said that distributing the money to only the loved ones of the dead meant it could have a far greater impact on their lives than if the large number of people hurt in the attack were also beneficiaries.

If the gunmans estate were to be divided up equally, each of the 58 families would receive about $24,000  with the firearms accounting for close to $1,100 per family. The estate also includes an investment property worth a little more than $90,000 and bank and brokerage accounts totaling $455,758.

One family, who intends to sue the manufacturers of the guns used in the shooting, would like to see those weapons kept intact rather than destroyed.

Through a lawyer, the family of Carrie Parsons, who was killed in the attack, has reached out to Denton.

What we are saying is Please dont destroy these, they are evidence, said one of the familys lawyers, Rick Friedman, who added that he had not yet been able to identify those firearms.

Destroying guns he did not use, I have no problem with, Friedman said.

The anonymous executive said he would not want to stand in the way of a legal action like this.

If there is a delay in destroying some of the guns for legal reasons, I am OK with that, he said. I just dont want them back on the streets.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.AUSTIN, Texas  Texas elections officials say they have identified roughly 95,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls going back to 1996, raising alarms among voting rights activists who called the numbers suspect and feared new efforts to tighten access to the ballot box.

The state has been one of the nations biggest voting rights battlegrounds in recent years and drawn attention over severe punishments in voter fraud cases. In 2017, a Fort Worth jury sentenced a Mexican national who has lived in the U.S. since she was a baby to eight years in prison for illegal voting, after which she faces deportation.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton highlighted that case in a statement Friday about the latest numbers released by state elections officials. Roughly 58,000 of the suspected non-citizens are believed to have voted in at least one Texas election, and Paxton said his office will spare no effort in assisting with these troubling cases.

Nearly 16 million people in Texas are registered to vote. Paxton said his office last year prosecuted 33 people for voter fraud, though it was not immediately clear how many of those cases involved non-citizens.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott praised the findings, which officials said were the result of voter rolls being checked against a state database of Texas residents who are not citizens but legally obtained drivers licenses.

I support prosecution where appropriate. The State will work on legislation to safeguard against these illegal practices, Abbott tweeted.

Sam Taylor, spokesman for the Texas secretary of states office, said they are very confident the citizenship data obtained by the Texas Department of Public Safety was current. But a voting rights group immediately questioned the accuracy of the data and warned that the numbers would likely fuel efforts to tighten voting laws.

Texas Democratic lawmakers also urged caution, including Dallas state Rep. Rafael Anchia, who said because we have consistently seen Texas politicians conjure the specter of voter fraud as pretext to suppress legitimate votes, we are naturally skeptical.

Texas has one of the nations toughest voter ID laws and spent much of this decade defending Republican-drawn voting maps, which lower courts called discriminatory and racially gerrymandered. The Supreme Court, however, largely upheld the maps last summer.

Paul J. Weber is an Associated Press writer.WARSAW, Va.  A Louisiana man suspected of killing his parents and three other people  including a woman he was dating  was arrested Sunday when he showed up at his grandmothers house in Virginia, the sheriff there said.

On Saturday, Dakota Theriot, 21, shot and killed three people  the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father  in Louisianas Livingston Parish before taking her fathers truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish, and shooting his parents, authorities said.

Theriots grandmother, who lives in Warsaw, Va., had checked into a hotel Saturday night because she feared he might show up at her house, said Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith. The woman asked authorities to check her home Sunday morning to make sure it was safe before she returned.

While deputies were there, Smith said, Theriot drove up. He had a gun but he dropped it and was taken into custody without incident, Smith said.

Theriot will be brought back to Ascension Parish to be booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons, according to a statement by Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre and Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard.

Smith said he believes the truck Theriot was driving when he arrived at his grandmothers house was the one taken in Louisiana.

Authorities have identified the victims in Livingston Parish as Billy Ernest, 43, Tanner Ernest, 17, and Summer Ernest, 20. Ard said Summer Ernest and Dakota Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family.

Authorities identified the other two victims as Theriots parents  Keith and Elizabeth Theriot, both 50, of Gonzales.

Before Keith Theriot died, Webre said authorities were able to get a declaration from him that it was his son who shot him.A St. Louis police officer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after officials said he fatally shot another officer during a game of Russian roulette.

Officer Nathaniel Hendren was charged Friday in the death of Katlyn Alix, another officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Hendren had been on duty when he met Alix, who was off duty, at his home Thursday and the two began playing with guns, according to a statement of probable cause.

Hendren produced a revolver, emptied the cylinder and put one round back in, the statement said. He then spun the cylinder, pointed it away and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire, officials said.

Alix took the gun, pointed it at Hendren and compressed the trigger. The gun still did not fire, the statement said.

Hendren then took the gun back, pointed it at her and pulled the trigger. This time, the gun went off. Alix was fatally shot in the chest, officials said.

The shooting of a police officer at the hands of another immediately raised questions about what had happened and drew added attention because officials said Hendren was on duty at the time.

Hendrens partner, who was also present and who was not identified, told officials that he had felt uncomfortable that the others were playing with guns and started to leave before he heard a gunshot, the statement said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the police initially called the shooting accidental and later said the officer had mishandled the weapon.

On Friday, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner said her office had evidence to file charges.

We lost a shining star and a dedicated public servant, Gardner said in a statement, adding that an investigation was continuing.

I will hold people accountable who violate Missouri law regardless of their profession, public status or station in life, she said. Today, as much as it saddens my staff and me to file these charges, Katlyn and her family deserve accountability and justice.

Court records did not list a lawyer for Hendren. He could not be reached for comment Saturday, and the police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sarah Mervosh is a New York Times writer.AVALON, Los Angeles County  U.S. Marines and Navy Seabees are rebuilding the mountaintop runway on storied Santa Catalina Island, a tourist destination off the Southern California coast.

About 100 Marines and sailors began working on the island this month under an agreement with the I Marine Expeditionary Force at Californias Camp Pendleton and the Catalina Island Conservancy. The work on Catalinas Airport in the Sky is paid for by $5 million donated to the nonprofit land trust.NEW ORLEANS  Authorities in Louisiana are searching for an armed and dangerous 21-year-old accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate shootings Saturday.

Dakota Theriot is the prime suspect in the deaths of Keith and Elizabeth Theriot, both 50, of Gonzales, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said.

They were shot in their trailer Saturday morning. Deputies arrived at the scene and were able to interview one of the victims before both died. Webre said that information led authorities to identify the couples son as the suspect.

Dakota Theriot is being sought on first-degree murder and other charges. He was believed to be driving a stolen pickup truck.

The sheriff said three other shooting deaths occurred Saturday in neighboring Livingston Parish, about 70 miles west of New Orleans.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard identified the victims as Tanner Ernest, 17, Summer Ernest, 20, and Billy Ernest, 43. The sheriffs office identified Dakota Theriot as the suspect in those killings.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, said she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest. She said she wasnt sure how her niece and Theriot met, but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.

DeYoung said Theriot doesnt have a vehicle, and shes not sure how he ended up at the Ernest home Saturday, but after the killings, he took off in her brothers truck.

DeYoung said her brother, niece and nephew were good people.

They all had very good hearts. They trusted people too much, she said as she began crying.

Charlenne Bordelon lives near the house where the Ernests were killed. She told the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper that two young children from the house ran to her home. They were uninjured and asked for help after the shooting.

Webre said Dakota had lived with his parents but was asked to leave the residence and not return.

I would not approach this vehicle. We feel no doubt that Dakota is going to be armed and dangerous, and we need to bring him to justice really quick, Webre said.

Chevel Johnson and Rebecca Santana are Associated Press writers.A Florida police chiefs decision not to release the names of some of the five women killed in a bank shooting last week represents the first high-profile test of a law being enacted in several states that pits victim privacy against the publics right to know.

The police chief in Sebring, Fla., declined to release the names of some of the slain women, citing a provision in the Marsys Law amendment to the state Constitution that voters approved in November. Floridas law specifically allows crime victims and their families to prevent the disclosure of information that could be used to locate or harass them.

Is it really necessary for the public to have the names of all five victims to understand whats happening down there and whats going on? said Paul Cassell, a victims rights expert and a professor at the University of Utah who supported the Florida law. I dont think theres a public interest in the specific names of the victims in the immediate aftermath.

But allowing crime victims to determine what information gets released to the public sets a dangerous precedent, said Barbara Petersen of the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation. Petersen maintains that police are misinterpreting the new provisions in a way that could deal a major blow to the publics right to information about its government.

How do we hold law enforcement accountable? Are we going to start having secret trials, crime victims testifying behind curtains? Petersen asked.

She said state legislators need to provide clarity and ensure the amendment does not conflict with Floridas broad public records access laws, and that the privacy provision could end up being challenged in court.

Beyond the concerns of open government advocates, law enforcement officials in some states say Marsys Law could hinder their ability to solve crimes if they cant release some details to the public.

Voters in South Dakota ultimately chose to fix Marsys Law after the original proposal approved in 2016 curtailed the information law enforcement agencies were able to release to the public. The new changes require victims to opt in to many of their rights and specifically allow authorities to share information with the public.

Sean Murphy is an Associated Press writer.BOSTON  Drug company executives werent satisfied with sales for their powerful painkiller, so they devised a plan, prosecutors say: Offer cash to doctors in exchange for prescriptions. Soon, the highly addictive fentanyl spray was flourishing, and executives were raking in millions.

Now, the companys wealthy founder is heading to trial in a case thats putting a spotlight on the federal governments efforts to go after those it says are responsible for fueling the deadly drug crisis.

It really is a day of reckoning, said Richard Hollawell, an attorney for the parents of a New Jersey woman, Sarah Fuller, who died of an overdose in 2016 after she was prescribed Subsys, a drug meant for cancer patients with severe pain.

John Kapoor, the wealthy founder and former chairman of Insys Therapeutics Inc., is the highest-ranking pharmaceutical company figure to face trial amid the opioid epidemic thats claiming thousands of lives every year.

The 75-year-old and the four other former Insys employees being tried alongside him are charged with racketeering conspiracy. Kapoor has said he believes he will be vindicated at trial, which begins Monday in federal court in Boston. But two of his top lieutenants are cooperating with prosecutors and are expected to tell jurors that Kapoor directed the scheme to boost profits.

Several Insys employees and doctors have been convicted in other cases of participating in a kickback scheme. Insys also agreed last year to pay $150 million to settle a federal probe of inappropriate sales.

Lawsuits filed against the company say patients were given high doses of the potent narcotic even though they didnt have cancer and werent warned of the risks.

Fuller was being treated for fibromyalgia and back pain when an Insys sales representative and her doctor met with her at her doctors New Jersey office to persuade her to begin taking Subsys, according to a lawsuit her parents filed.

Sarah didnt have cancer, so there was no reason for her to have been on it, said her mother, Deborah Fuller. There are a lot of things she should have been able to do, but her life was cut short by people who just dont care.

Alanna Durkin Richer is an Associated Press writer.Fatima Ali, an alum and fan favorite of the popular Bravo TV cooking show, "Top Chef," died Friday after battling a rare form of cancer. She was 29.

Her family confirmed the news via Ali's social media account.

"Fatima was at home with us, surrounded by her loved ones and beloved cat Mr. Meow, when she left us in the early hours of the morning," the post read. "When someone as bright and young and vivacious as our Fati passes, the only metaphor that seems to fit is that of a stara beacon in the darkness, a light that guides us, on which to make wishes, from which to weave dreams. For all the comfort and beauty they offer us, stars, too, are impermanent. This morning a great one was snuffed out."

Ali was a contestant on the 15th season of "Top Chef," but before that had left her home country of Pakistan and attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York at the age of 18, People Magazine reported.

READ ALSO: Famous comic calls out a troll, then changes his life

She continued to work in restaurants in the city, and also competed on the Food Network show "Chopped" in 2012  and won. Ali told others she wanted to open her own restaurant following her stint on "Top Chef," where she was voted a fan favorite by viewers.

Ali was first diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma in 2017, a type of cancer that affects the bone and tissue. She underwent surgery to remove a tumor from her left shoulder and announced she was cancer-free in February 2018.

The chef later learned that the cancer had returned, and she was diagnosed with a year left to live, sharing the news in a personal essay published in October in Bon Appetit. The magazine released a new essay Friday from Ali, in which she discussed life after her diagnosis.

"I decided not to spend whatever time I had left (whether it's a year, a month, another ten yearsyou don't know until you're gone) lamenting all the things that weren't right," Ali said. "Instead, I'd make the most of it. I'm using cancer as the excuse I needed to actually go and get things done, and the more people I share those thoughts with, the more I hold myself to them. If I write this intention down, if I have it printed somewhere like I do here, I have to hold myself responsible, because I have people counting on me."

Ali's fellow contestants on "Top Chef" shared their condolences via social media after news of Ali's death spread.

"I had so many laughs with this beautiful young brown woman!" wrote chef Tanya Holland, owner and chef of Oakland's Brown Sugar Kitchen, and "Top Chef" contestant with Ali. "Despite her youth, there was an innate knowing, a maturity, worldliness and sophistication that I deeply appreciated.

"She was compassionate and empathetic," Holland's post continued. "These qualities made her ambition and drive so authentic. We were soul sisters. I will miss you dearly @cheffati Do your work on the other side! Much love to your family! We will all carry on your legacy."

"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi shared her own photos of Ali on social media, writing, "Goodbye lil' sis. One of our brightest stars has fallen from the sky.... I have no words, but here are some of hers: 'I dream of being better. I dream of being myself again, but I know I'll never quite be the same, and that's okay. I know I'll be different, and, despite the worry that settles into me every time I wake up, I look forward to meeting that woman one day.'"

Read Dianne de Guzman's latest stories and send her news tips at ddeguzman@sfchronicle.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.Santa Rosa Police Department

A man on the Santa Rosa Police Departments most wanted list was arrested in Mexico after being on the run for nearly two years, authorities said.

Daryoush Bunyad, a former chiropractor from Petaluma who practiced in Santa Rosa, was on trial in March 2017 after being accused of inappropriately touching his female patients, including patients younger than 18.Never once at the start of my workweek  not in my morning coffee shop line, not in my crowded subway commute, not as I begin my bottomless inbox slog  have I paused, looked to the heavens and whispered: #ThankGodItsMonday.



Apparently, that makes me a traitor to my generation. I learned this during a series of recent visits to WeWork locations in New York, where the throw pillows implore busy tenants to Do what you love. Neon signs demand they Hustle harder, and murals spread the gospel of TGIM. Even the cucumbers in WeWorks water coolers have an agenda. Dont stop when youre tired, someone recently carved into the floating vegetables flesh. Stop when you are done. Kool-Aid drinking metaphors are rarely this literal.



Welcome to hustle culture. It is obsessed with striving, relentlessly positive, devoid of humor and, once you notice it, impossible to escape. Rise and Grind is both the theme of a Nike ad campaign and the title of a book by a Shark Tank shark. New media upstarts like the Hustle, which produces a popular business newsletter and conference series, and One37pm, a content company created by the patron saint of hustling, Gary Vaynerchuk, glorify ambition not as a means to an end but as a lifestyle.



The current state of entrepreneurship is bigger than career, the One37pm About Us page states. Its ambition, grit and hustle. Its a live performance that lights up your creativity ... a sweat session that sends your endorphins coursing ... a visionary who expands your way of thinking. From this point of view, not only does one never stop hustling  one never exits a kind of work rapture, in which the chief purpose of exercising or attending a concert is to get inspiration that leads back to the desk.



Ryan Harwood, the chief executive of One37pms parent company, told me that the sites content is aimed at a younger generation of people who are seeking permission to follow their dreams. They want to know how to own their moment, at any given moment, he said.



Owning ones moment is a clever way to rebrand surviving the rat race. In the new work culture, enduring or even merely liking ones job is not enough. Workers should love what they do and then promote that love on social media, thus fusing their identities to that of their employers. Why else would LinkedIn build its own version of Snapchat Stories?



This is toil glamour, and it is going mainstream. Most visibly, WeWork, which investors recently valued at $47 billion, is on its way to becoming the Starbucks of office culture. It has exported its brand of performative workaholism to 27 countries, with 400,000 tenants, including workers from 30 percent of the Global Fortune 500.



In January, WeWorks founder, Adam Neumann, announced that his startup was rebranding itself as The We Co., to reflect an expansion into residential real estate and education. Describing the shift, Fast Company wrote, Rather than just renting desks, the company aims to encompass all aspects of peoples lives, in both physical and digital worlds. The ideal client, one imagines, is someone so enamored of the WeWork office aesthetic  whip-cracking cucumbers and all  that she sleeps in a WeLive apartment, works out at a Rise by We gym and sends her children to a WeGrow school.



From this vantage, Office Space, the Gen-X slacker paean that came out 20 years ago next month, feels like science fiction from a distant realm. Its almost impossible to imagine a startup worker bee of today confessing, as protagonist Peter Gibbons does: Its not that Im lazy. Its that I just dont care. Workplace indifference just doesnt have a socially acceptable hashtag.



Its Grim and Exploitative



Its not difficult to view hustle culture as a swindle. After all, persuading a generation of workers to beaver away is convenient for those at the top.



The vast majority of people beating the drums of hustle-mania are not the people doing the actual work, said David Heinemeier Hansson, the co-founder of Basecamp, a software company. Theyre the managers, financiers and owners. We spoke in October, as he was promoting his new book, It Doesnt Have to Be Crazy at Work, about creating healthy company cultures.



Heinemeier Hansson said that despite data showing long hours improve neither productivity nor creativity, myths about overwork persist because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies. Its grim and exploitative, he said.



Elon Musk, who stands to reap stock compensation upward of $50 billion if his company, Tesla, meets certain performance levels, is a prime example of extolling work by the many that will primarily benefit him. He tweeted in November that there are easier places to work than Tesla, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. The correct number of hours varies per person, he continued, but is about 80 sustained, peaking about 100 at times. Pain level increases exponentially above 80.



Musk, who has more than 24 million Twitter followers, further noted that if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesnt feel like work. Even he had to soften the lie of TGIM with a parenthetical.

Arguably, the technology industry started this culture of work zeal sometime around the turn of the millennium, when the likes of Google started to feed, massage and even play doctor to its employees. The perks were meant to help companies attract the best talent  and keep employees at their desks longer. It seemed enviable enough: Who wouldnt want an employer that took care of your dirty laundry?



But today, as tech culture infiltrates every corner of the business world, its hymns to the virtues of relentless work remind me of nothing so much as Soviet-era propaganda, which promoted impossible-seeming feats of worker productivity to motivate the labor force. One obvious difference is that those Stakhanovite posters had an anti-capitalist bent, criticizing the fat cats profiting from free enterprise. Todays messages glorify personal profit, even if bosses and investors  not workers  are the ones capturing most of the gains. Wage growth has been essentially stagnant for years.



Perhaps weve all gotten a little hungry for meaning. Participation in organized religion is falling, especially among U.S. millennials. In San Francisco, where I live, Ive noticed that the concept of productivity has taken on an almost spiritual dimension. Techies here have internalized the idea  rooted in the Protestant work ethic  that work is not something you do to get what you want; the work itself is all. Therefore any life hack or company perk that optimizes their day, allowing them to fit in even more work, is not just desirable but inherently good.



Aidan Harper, who created a European workweek-shrinkage campaign called 4 Day Week, argues that this is dehumanizing and toxic. It creates the assumption that the only value we have as human beings is our productivity capability  our ability to work, rather than our humanity, he told me.



Its cultist, Harper added, to persuade workers to buy into their own exploitation with a change-the-world message. Its creating the idea that Elon Musk is your high priest, he said. Youre going into your church every day and worshipping at the altar of work.



Elizabeth City, NC (27909)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.In 2009, the Fleet Week tradition on San Francisco Bay was about to die from disinterest. The Parade of Ships had shrunk to a Parade of Ship, and the U.S. Navy, which sends the Blue Angels, was feeling that maybe it wasnt worth all the expense and effort.

So Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Chief of Protocol Charlotte Shultz turned to the one person who could save the Columbus Day weekend attraction: retired Marine Maj. Gen. Mike Myatt.

Myatt, who at the time was president and CEO of the Marines Memorial Association and co-chairman of the committee to get a World War II monument built outside the Veterans Building, was not looking for more projects. But hes known as a man who responds to a mission  as proved by his time in the first Gulf War, where his mission was to drive the Iraq army out of Kuwait.

His strategy to bring the fleet back to San Francisco Fleet Week was to turn it into an emergency and disaster preparedness exercise on Treasure Island. The drill, to be conducted by the San Francisco Fire Department, would be for the direct benefit of U.S. Navy, Marine and Coast Guard rescue teams, thereby attracting the very units that were put off by the cost and logistical hassles of S.F. Fleet Week.

It worked. One lonely ship carrying six Marines through the Golden Gate in 2009 became 10 ships carrying 2,000 uniformed personnel in 2010.

It was a singular idea, to be sure, but Myatt is not a singular idea type of thinker. Ten years later, the training exercise has evolved into the Center for Humanitarian Assistance, training 100 or more uniformed personnel per year.

The worlds best humanitarian assistance providers are the men and women of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Coast Guard, because they respond to all the crises around the world, says Myatt, who humbly declines accepting credit for being the man who saved S.F. Fleet Week.

Now Playing: 2019 VisionSF Nominee Video: Brian Feulner

But others are happy to give it to him, and that is why he has been nominated as a Chronicle Visionary of the Year by Charlotte and husband George Shultz, who served in four U.S. Cabinet positions. He is one of six finalists for The Chronicles annual recognition of Bay Area leaders whose work improves the world.

About VisionSF This is one of six profiles of finalists for The Chronicle's fifth annual Visionary of the Year award. The honor salutes leaders who strive to make the world a better place and drive social and economic change by employing new, innovative business models and practices. The finalists were selected by a nominating committee that included Daniel Lurie, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Tipping Point Community; John Diaz, editorial page editor of The Chronicle; London Breed, mayor of San Francisco; Sam Liccardo, mayor of San Jose; Libby Schaaf, mayor of Oakland; Charlotte Shultz, chief of protocol for the city and county of San Francisco; and George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state. Chronicle Publisher Bill Nagel, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper and Diaz will select the winner, which will be announced in late March. See More Collapse

Gen. Myatt definitely has brought Fleet Week back by engaging the first responders, Charlotte Shultz says. Fleet Week was always fun, but he has made it into something that is really worthwhile. If we have an earthquake, we will know what to do, with the help of out military and first responders working together. 

Now 78, the general is retired for the third time. He served 32 years in the Marines, six years with Bechtel Corp. and 16 with the Marines Memorial, his first resuscitation job in the city.

The Marines Memorial was decayed when he took it over, and he has brought it back to life, Charlotte Shultz says. He is so respected by the military. When Gen. Myatt speaks, they listen. We all do.

Myatt is in remission from a recurrence of lung cancer and deserving of a stay-at-home break at his house next to Lowell High School in the Outer Sunset. But his wife, Wendy Lee, still gets up at 5:30 in the morning and goes to work so he finds himself compelled to put on his coat and tie and go to work, too. Most often it is to the S.F. Fleet Week Garage, headquarters in a single-car garage of a Victorian home in Noe Valley.

Myatt serves as chairman of the S.F. Fleet Week board. The other chairs in the garage are filled by Executive Director Lewis Loeven, formerly the chief information officer for the city and county of San Francisco, and Diana Bartram, chief of staff. Their involvement allows Myatt to use the only pronoun he is comfortable with in discussing accomplishments: we.

Since we took over, Fleet Week has just taken off, Myatt quips.

To get Myatt to brag, you have to throw him a trick question, like asking him whether S.F. Fleet Week is his greatest accomplishment. It probably is, he says. Its hard to compare.

Compare to what?

Well, I commanded the First Marine Division in Operation Desert Storm, he says, reluctantly. We liberated Kuwait City.

He also did two tours in Vietnam and over the course of his career, the three highest-ranking former military officers in the Trump White House  Gen. Joe Dunford, the 19th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. John Kelly, former White House chief of staff; and Gen. Jim Mattis, former secretary of defense.

If Myatt was a talker, hed have stories to tell and a captive audience at the Bohemian Club, where he is a member; that would be an obvious destination for lunch. But Myatt is loyal to the Marines Memorial around the corner, so he takes his lunch there instead.

The 12th floor restaurant is empty, but the staff is there and thats who he comes to see. They all proudly wear name tags that state the year they started at the Marines Memorial and the country of origin (1997, Guatemala reads one  thats the generals touch).

Now Playing: VisionSF 2019 Nominee Video: San Francisco Chronicle

When it is mentioned that the view at the Marines Memorial would make it a nice place to watch the Blue Angels rehearse, he agrees. But he quickly points out that the air show is a very small part of Fleet Week  even though, he adds, it brings in the people, about a million and a half of them, which is no small feat.

S.F. Fleet Week fans, who often come from outside of the city for all the attractions the week has to offer, are all invited to visit the Humanitarian Village at Crissy Field and the band shell in Golden Gate Park, where they host a high school band contest. The contests prize is $10,000 to support the winning bands school program.

This was Charlotte Shultzs idea, he says, excited to deflect credit.

Another person he wants to credit is Bartram, who worked in emergency management for the city, before going to Fleet Week full time. In 2016, she took part in a Fleet Week exercise involving resource distribution after an earthquake. In 2017, she put all that training to urgent use, setting up distribution points in Santa Rosa after the Nuns Fire.

We had 300 cars an hour coming through checkpoints, Bartram says. Each car got a bucket with gloves, mask and bottled water in it.

Thats just one in a long line of heroics provided by the armed forces, ranging from the 1989 earthquake when the military police came out of the Presidio to secure the Marina district to the 1906 earthquake when the Navy ship Chicago came into the bay and evacuated 23,000 citizens as the city burned.

We try to show the people of San Francisco and the Bay Area the capabilities of the military other than fighting wars, Myatt says. They are the best providers of humanitarian assistance.

San Francisco Fleet Week has now become the model for Fleet Weeks in Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland and San Diego. In 2018, it was introduced in New York City. But the general doesnt mention these; that would be bragging.

By the end of lunch, it is raining hard as he heads out onto Sutter Street. But Marines dont carry umbrellas. He stands there in his suit, rain pounding on his bare head to make one final point:

San Francisco has a political reputation for being anti-military, he says, but Fleet Week, I think, has changed that perception a lot because the people of the city welcome the Marines.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF Instagram: sfchronicle_artCOLUMBIA, S.C.  When California Sen. Kamala Harris took the stage Friday before thousands of South Carolinians packed into the state fairgrounds, the Oakland native seemed right at home.

Just days into the start of her presidential campaign, the Democrat made a quick swing through the early primary state on her way from Washington to Oakland for Sundays official opening rally of her campaign. It was perhaps out of the way of her flight path, but was a clear indication of her broader road to the Democratic nomination.

Harris has been quietly courting Southern voters for more than a year  evidence of the realization that the South is expected to be make-or-break for the Democratic nomination in 2020.

The Palmetto State could play an outsize role for a crowded field of Democrats competing to take on President Trump. The early voting state, with an expected primary on Feb. 29, 2020, is the first state on next years primary calendar with a sizable bloc of African American voters, a demographic that was largely responsible for lifting Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination in 2016 over Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. Winning here could boost a candidates credibility throughout the South and provide momentum heading into what will become a rapid succession of vote-rich primaries.

But executing that strategy will require any candidate to forge a real connection with black voters  something that eluded Sanders last election, but which Harris is well-positioned to do, say many South Carolina Democrats.

No longer are people able to parachute into a fish fry or go to church and think theyre going to win the black vote, said former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, who helped lead Barack Obamas presidential campaign in the state in 2008.

It might not seem that a woman of Jamaican and Indian descent who grew up on the Berkeley-Oakland border and finished high school in Canada would have much in common with a Southern voter. But Harris has spent more than a year building ties.

Her visit Friday was her second trip to South Carolina. Shes been to Georgia three times and Florida twice. In March, she traveled to Alabama to deliver the keynote address at the annual Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast that commemorates Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 when peaceful civil rights activists trying to march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., were brutally beaten by law enforcement officers.

Shes campaigned for African American candidates in the South and in other swing states. Harris was the first nonwhite person and first woman to be elected California attorney general, and she emphasizes the importance of making sure broken barriers stay down.

As she addressed her sorority sisters of Alpha Kappa Alpha at a fundraising gala Friday night, Harris noted the organization stand(s) on the shoulders of women who were leaders who 111 years ago said to us that we must honor sisterhood and we must honor service.

My mother taught us long ago, she would say to me, Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure youre not the last, Harris said, to cries of agreement from the crowd.

Sellers, who so far is not backing any candidate, said its that attitude that could carry Harris far in his home state.

One of the things that individuals have to have when theyre courting the black vote is not only forward-thinking policy, not only the ability to connect to our civil rights background and roots, but continuing connections, Sellers said. Kamala Harris has maintained those connections.

Harris went to Howard University in Washington, a historically black university, where she pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first black sorority in the country.

That organization has nearly 300,000 members worldwide and is a powerful bond in African American communities. It also offers a vast network of influential and prominent backers and potential campaign volunteers.

Those connections I think are enormously important, said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who is also a sorority sister, or soror. Its like a chain, its like a link, its like a sisterhood. ... Were not monolithic, but I can assure you that there will be many, many sorors interested and working hard for her.

And it wont just be her own sorors. Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat who is a member and former president of the black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, said the sense of community between all black sororities and fraternities is strong.

When you join a black sorority, its a lifetime experience, Fudge said. They dont even have to know you  just because they know youre one of theirs makes a difference to them. There is a bond that is almost indescribable, but it is a very, very strong bond. ... Everybody recognizes what that affiliation means, so in our communities its big.

Harris was warmly received at the Pink Ice Gala here of the Gamma Nu Omega Chapter. Attendees crowded in front of the stage to see her speak, and surrounded her for selfies and handshakes as soon as she returned to the floor.

One of the Alpha Kappa Alpha members in the audience was Tammy Perry, 42, a registered nurse from the area. Of course she was excited to see a sorority sister run for president, she said. But Harris doesnt have her vote in the bag  yet.

Any woman, any female, anyone who is challenging our current administration, Im for it, Perry said. Were also open to other candidates and what they have to say, but at this point and juncture in this political climate were living in, we need an alternative. So Im looking forward to it, not just because shes an AKA, because shes an intelligent woman, shes an attorney, shes a senator, shes been in the Senate fighting for equality, fighting for the rights of all Americans.

Perry and her husband, Jamaal, a 43-year-old education professional, emphasized the importance of feeling that a candidate is authentic and seeing them get to the state early and often.

I want to feel that they can relate to me, understand what I need, what I like, my feelings, my family, Jamaal Perry said. If I can relate to you, then that kind of helps me, makes me feel like I can trust you and vote for you.

Many of the South Carolina voters attending the event were just learning about Harris and are still undecided about who to support.

Im looking for someone whos going to be honest, someone whos going to do the best for all people, said Debbie Walker, 60, a college business affairs executive. Another woman said she is looking for a candidate who is for the people, unaware that is Harris campaign slogan.

Harris is getting some unofficial guidance from state Sen. Mia McLeod, a rising Democratic star herself. McLeod was Harris guest at the gala, and said that shes hoping to help the Californian understand the local culture and connect in both the conservative parts of the state and more progressive ones.

McLeod said she watched Harris be warmly welcomed and received when the two were campaigning for Democrats together during the midterm elections.

We can tell when somebody is not being true to who they are, and well be cordial, but they wont have our full attention or support, and she had it from the outset, McLeod said. Shes warm, shes personable, she listens, shes accessible, and thats what people want, they want to feel like, OK, I can talk to her. I know her.

Harris will have competition. Sanders and fellow Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, both of whom are expected to run, also visited South Carolina last week. Booker, who is also African American, has the potential to earn strong support among black voters.

Its that person-to-person interaction that will be key to the state, agreed another South Carolina politician.

You dont have to spend your whole bank account that you raise to reach out to the voters here, but theres a significant population and you can really fine-tune your message and see how it resonates with communities of color, said Jaime Harrison, a member of the Democratic National Committee and former South Carolina party chairman.

Thats hard to do without enthusiastic local help, he said.

If you knock on my grandmothers door and she doesnt know who you are, shes going to ask, Where are you from and who are your people? Harrison said. Its this innate need to build a sense of community.

The pattern will have to be repeated throughout the broader region. Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson joined Harris at a campaign event in his home state of Georgia last year for Stacey Abrams, who was narrowly defeated in November in her bid to become the first black woman governor in the U.S. He said the California senator had no problems connecting.

She has a very natural way of relating to voters, Johnson said. Shes a very likable person, down to earth, and she fits in well with those Southern voters who I saw her interacting with.

Johnson said Southern voters care about the same things as their counterparts across the country  health care, jobs and government accountability. But he said that there is a vast untapped reservoir of potential Democratic voters in the region.

So when a candidate like Kamala Harris comes along and recognizes the potential that exists to turn Southern states blue, increasing the numbers of registered voters and by appealing to those voters, giving them a reason to come out and vote for you, it opens up a whole new ballgame, he said.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopanReactions to the video of the encounter between the Kentucky high school students and the drumming American Indian elder outside the Lincoln Memorial could not have provided a more telling illustration of the depth and the causes of a divided America. Too many were quick to condemn or equally quick to vindicate the actions students in Make America Great Again hats from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky.

Both sides were seeing red, and drawing sweeping conclusions from limited evidence that looked even more limited as more material emerged.

Our stereotypes are obsessing us, devouring us, leaving us highly vulnerable to manipulation. And this is one of the most critical lessons of that moment on the Mall: We were being played, the left and the right.

The left was the first to pounce when a Twitter account with the handle @2020fight posted a minute-long video that seemed to show the Covington students mocking tribal elder Nathan Phillips. It was an ugly scene. One of the MAGA-hatted students, Nick Standmann, was smirk-to-face with the solemn Phillips as the Covington kids offered a supporting chorus of disrespect.

At quick glance, to some it validated the evils given new stature in the Trump era: entitled young white men coming from an antiabortion rally, lording their smug sense of entitlement and superiority. In an interview, Phillips said the students had been chanting, Build the wall, amplifying the irony and arrogance of the confrontation. He was reported to be a Vietnam veteran, compounding the incongruity and disgrace.

Oh, and pounce they did. Celebrities, politicians and journalists condemned Nick and his cohorts in ruthless rants. Social media was filled with vitriol, including suggestions from otherwise peace-pleading friends that someone should smack the smirk off Nicks face. The school and the diocese issued apologies.

However, within a day, more extensive video began to emerge, and the story became more complicated. It suggested that the instigators were not the Covington students, but members of a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites, an obscure sect that came to agitate, and had been heckling the Covington group with homophobic taunts and insulting the tribal traditions. That soon led to a revised narrative, with guidance from a Kentucky public-relations firm, that the Covington students were the attempted peacemakers in the regrettable episode.

The right pounced right back. Fox News went into overdrive in reacting to the reaction. President Trump, of course weighed in, saying the Covington students have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told Trumps No. 1 apologist, Sean Hannity, on Fox, Ive never seen people so happy to destroy a kids life. She later suggested the Covington students could visit the White House when the shutdown ends.

Yet even more reports suggested the exoneration might have been premature. Other video showed the schoolboys letting out war whoops and doing the tomahawk chop in the presence of the American Indians who had gathered for the Indigenous Peoples March. The Covington students said they were doing school spirit chants to counter the Black Hebrew Israelites.

If there was one takeaway from the reactions to the whole mess, it is that too many of us cannot get beyond our prejudices. We instantly conclude that the Covington students are villains or heroes, and no evidence to the contrary will dissuade us.

It is a sad commentary on the state of polarization in this nation.

But there is one other lesson to derive from this. Outside forces are well aware of our weakness, and are all too eager to push our buttons. In this case, it was an account called @2020fight, which has more than 37,000 followers and had been averaging more than 200 posts and likes a day. Its profile showed a California schoolteacher named Talia, with the photo of a Brazilian model.

The explosive video was viewed more than 2.5 million times in the days after its posting by the mysterious account.

Twitter has suspended the account, and the House Intelligence Committee has expressed interest in finding out more about this curious online provocateur. While there was no immediate evidence to link this incident to a foreign actor, the Russians attempt to sow discord in the American electorate in 2016 shows that we need to be on guard.

If it seems too outlandish to be true, hold your outrage. Just ask the celebrities and commentators who were compelled to delete social media posts or apologize for their over-the-top responses to the Covington video.

Or at least include the caveat, if true.

Those words  if true  were wisely prefaced before the flurry of instant reactions from politicians and pundits to the recent BuzzFeed News story that President Trump had directed his longtime lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the 2016 negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. More than a few Democrats and cable news commentators suggested that, if true, such an act would be grounds for impeachment.

Yet that bombshell was challenged the very next day, Jan. 18, in a rare public statement from Special Counsel Robert Muellers office. Trump and his allies wasted no time in claiming exoneration for him and condemnation for the news media. The president tweeted that it was a very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country! BuzzFeed News stood by its story, which it said was based on two law enforcement sources.

It was a distressing moment for journalism. But it may not be the last word on the essence of the allegation: The special counsels statement was written in a legalistic way that could be subject to interpretation as to whether it was challenging the central premise or merely certain elements of the BuzzFeed story.

These stories carried a common peril: Just because something rings true does not mean that it is true. Or, as I like to remind journalism students: Anytime you assume ... assume you are wrong.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@JohnDiazChronThe county sheriff is the problem child among California elected officials. No office is less accountable or more reliable in producing scandal.

Once elected, sheriffs in all 58 counties have power over jails and policing, and act pretty much as they please. Under our states structure, a sheriff in California cant really be fired. Those most liable to complain about a sheriff  inmates and those accused of crimes  have trouble gaining the publics ear, let alone its sympathy. And in the Trump era, some sheriffs, especially in conservative precincts, have flirted with anti-California treason, defying state laws that protect our immigrant families.

The power of sheriffs, historian Andrew Isenberg has written, is inextricably tied up in the concept of a popular justice that is not bound by anything so mundane as the law.

In theory, sheriffs should be accountable precisely because they are elected. The California Constitution requires every county to have an elected sheriff for that reason. But in practice, sheriffs elections are not healthy contests. They draw little media attention, so voters know little about the contenders or the issues.

And when sheriffs draw challengers, they typically come from among the sheriffs own staff. This turns sheriffs elections into departmental civil wars, forcing deputies to choose sides and distracting everyone from protecting the public. Last years nasty fight in Santa Clara County between Sheriff Laurie Smith and her former Undersheriff John Hirokawa focused on which of these two bosses was more responsible for excessive force, racist texts and sexual solicitations among their mutual underlings.

The jobs unaccountable nature is, like our two houses of Congress, a nasty artifact of Americas history as an English colony. Going back to the ninth century, English sheriffs apprehended criminals, but mostly used violence to collect taxes and extort bribes. Thats why we still celebrate Robin Hood and curse the sheriff of Nottingham.

Thats also why England turned the sheriff into a ceremonial position in the 1800s. But California, like other U.S. states, has preserved the problematic power of the sheriff. Last year, Governing magazine criticized the American sheriff as highly susceptible to corruption.

Californians know this all too well. The two most prominent sheriffs of this century  Lee Baca of Los Angeles County and Mike Carona of Orange County  are now convicted felons. In both cases, state and local officials failed to police their corruption, so federal investigations were required to push them out of office.

The fact that the feds are often the only people who can stop such abuses is an unspoken reason so many California sheriffs prioritize the immigration-related whims of federal authorities over fealty to state law.

In Stanislaus County, Sheriff Adam Christianson, just before retiring in January, falsely claimed state law was responsible for the shooting death of a local police officer allegedly by an unauthorized immigrant. (In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had never sought the immigrants deportation, and the sanctuary law was not in effect when the migrant was arrested for DUI.)

Another of President Trumps sycophant, Sacramentos Scott Jones, also has refused to submit to civilian oversight, literally locking out an inspector general investigating excessive force.

To be sure, excesses are not limited to conservative sheriffs. In the November elections, incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell, a distinguished LAPD commander who became sheriff after his predecessors conviction, lost to little-known sheriffs Lt. Alex Villanueva.

Democrats and liberal groups backed Villanueva to punish McDonnell for working to soften the sanctuary state law. But Villanueva also won in part by promising to reverse McDonnells righteous efforts to install more outside oversight of the Sheriffs Department.

In his first few weeks in office, Villanueva removed oversight and sowed chaos by removing 18 high-ranking officials from their posts and re-evaluating the ranks of 500 other commanders. Some deputies say its no longer clear who is in charge.

Questioned about these moves, Villanuevas response was classic California sheriff: The state Constitution lays out that the oversight of the sheriff is the voters. In other words, you must wait four years before you can stop me, no matter what I do.

There is another solution. Voters should change the Constitution  protecting ourselves by writing the elected sheriff out of it.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zocalo Public Square. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at SFChronicle.com/letters.Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill on Tuesday that will offer state-backed interest-free loans to federal workers who arent being paid during the government shutdown. Its a partnership with the private sector -- Mr. Lamont and Webster Bank officials met earlier this month -- and risks very little. Everybody wins, especially those 1,200 federal workers in Connecticut who arent getting paychecks. They are eligible for loans of up to $5,000 a month for three months. Since they will most likely receive all of their back pay, the risk to taxpayers is almost nil.Like thousands of other people who lost homes around Santa Rosa in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, Brad Sherwood spent more than 15 months waiting for answers to some essential questions.

Why did his house burn down? What sparked the fierce firestorm that tore through the forested mountains west of Calistoga, racing into Santa Rosa in the middle of the night and leaving a staggering trail of death and destruction in its wake?

Sherwood wanted to put those questions behind him. But for so long, clarity proved elusive.

Its been this huge cloud of uncertainty, he said.

State investigators seemed to be closing in when in early June they announced the causes of a series of other major fires that burned in Northern California in October 2017. All of them shared a common culprit: power lines controlled by Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

But investigators had nothing conclusive to tell Sherwood and the rest of the Tubbs Fire victims. Summer came and went. So did the first anniversary of the fire, which at the time remained the most destructive in state history. Still nothing.

Then, just after noon on Thursday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection released its long-awaited report. Unlike other blazes from that month, the Tubbs Fire was caused not by PG&E but by private electrical equipment, Cal Fire said, finally concluding its long investigation  and introducing a series of new questions along the way.

Just knowing who or what caused the Tubbs Fire closes a chapter for a lot of us fire survivors, and it provides more certainty so we can move forward with our rebuild, Sherwood said. I think the concern, for a lot of people, is that it brings on a whole new uncertainty for some who were maybe looking at those lawsuit dollars to help them rebuild.

Yet Cal Fires announcement may not be the last word Santa Rosa gets on who is to blame for the Tubbs Fire.

Attorneys representing fire victims, including Sherwood, plan to continue trying to hold PG&E responsible. If the utility follows through on its plan to file for bankruptcy protection, those efforts will probably move to Bankruptcy Court.

Noreen Evans, a Santa Rosa attorney involved in the fire litigation, said she remains very convinced that PG&E is to blame for the Tubbs Fire. Attorneys have their own investigators and would have to prove their case if it goes to trial, when they can also argue that PG&E was negligent in not turning off power in the area because of the extreme weather, she said.

Theres other possible ways to prove that PG&E has some culpability, Evans said. Our own independent investigation shows that Cal Fire is wrong, so theres still a lot more to come.

Local governments have also sued PG&E because of the October 2017 fires, and Santa Rosa and Sonoma County officials said Friday their suits were unchanged by the Cal Fire report. The county Board of Supervisors and the City Council plan to discuss their cases behind closed doors Tuesday, by which point they should also know whether PG&E is filing for bankruptcy protection: The utility told employees this month it would file on or about that date.

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said she met Thursday night with fire survivors from the Santa Rosa neighborhoods of Fountaingrove and Hidden Valley, which she represents. She asked what they thought about the Cal Fire announcement and got a varied response, ranging from relatively unmoved to questioning whether theyd rebuild.

They have had so many challenges, and this was an additional obstacle that people were waiting for, Zane said of the Cal Fire report. I think its an emotional setback. But I dont want them to lose hope, either.

The state report brought little comfort or resolution to some of Santa Rosas most fire-affected areas.

The most vulnerable of them felt the ground shake, suddenly finding real reason to doubt whether a settlement would aid in their costly rebuilding projects. And for the more fortunate, who were designing or breaking ground on houses, it wasnt enough to replace what they had lost.

What are you going to do about it? said Delia Perez, 43, who lost her home in Coffey Park. The fire happened. Once you come back home, its the beginning of real healing. Its moving forward. Thats what Im looking forward to. I dont want to be scared and worried, thinking about the past.

And on Friday, thats what she did: completing the final inspection for her tan home on Hopper Avenue and feeling the rush of hope. Again, finally. A Welcome home banner was nailed above the garage door. As Perez walked through the house, smelling the fresh paint, her voice echoed in the empty rooms.

I am just happy to be back in this really nice neighborhood, she said. I think, especially after the fires, the community of people have come closer. We are a closer neighborhood.

That sense of peace hasnt reached Coffey Park neighbors still trying to rebuild. Pamela van Halsema, 52, hopes that will be soon. Only about 100 homes have risen from the ashes of the 1,400 that were destroyed. But the skeletons of framed houses parallel the streets.

All along, it has always helped me to look forward, van Halsema said. Looking backward is where the hurt happens. I am a doer and a problem solver. Seeing the neighbors move in has brought hope.

Interactive California Fire Tracker This interactive map provides information on wildfires burning across California and lets you explore coverage of past fire seasons.

Mike Holdner, who lost his home on Pacific Heights Drive in the Larkfield community just outside Santa Rosa, is looking forward, too.

Holdner is another of the Tubbs Fire victims who joined in the lawsuit against PG&E. Hes making steady progress on rebuilding his home and thats where his focus remains.

It doesnt change the fact that all our houses burned down, Holdner said of the Cal Fire report. Given that pretty much everybody is underinsured somewhere, Holdner said he and his neighbors were hopeful PG&E could help balance that out had the Cal Fire report come out differently.

But they had told each other not to count on PG&E money, Holdner said. Hes treating the Cal Fire findings as a decisive answer, though hell still hear the lawyers out.

You cant look back. You get yourself in a bad mental situation if you just dwell on the past on this, Holdner said. The PG&E report from Cal Fire  yeah, that gives closure on something in the past, and you just accept that. Theres too many things you cant control in these types of situations.

For now, Holdner has his mind set on whats in store over the next few months, anyway. The exterior of his new house is coming together, and the inside is starting to take shape: cabinets were just delivered Friday.

Soon, hell be home again.

J.D. Morris and Lizzie Johnson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris, @LizzieJohnsonnnThousands of people marched through downtown San Francisco on Saturday to protest abortion as part of the 15th Annual Walk for Life West Coast.

Protesters gripped signs reading, Protect the Innocent, decorated with angel wings, and Abortion is Murder. Before the march, the crowd gathered for a rally at Civic Center Plaza on the heels of the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Courts Jan. 22, 1973, Roe vs. Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide.

Today, the unborn do not have a voice. Today, men do not have a voice. Today, parents do not have a voice, Patricia Sandoval, an antiabortion activist, told the large crowd. Our nation is wounded by abortion. Im not here to take your rights away.

Sandoval, who said she suffered after she had three abortions and temporarily worked for Planned Parenthood in Sacramento, repeated other speakers characterization of abortion as being violent to women and fetuses.

Most marchers raised printed signs proclaiming, I am the pro-life generation while others, like Gabby Lara, created their own.

Lara, 20, joined a number of San Jose State University students from a group called Spartans For Life, each carrying handmade signs calling for an end to abortion in the United States. One of her signs read, I will not stay silent so you can stay comfortable in black letters outlined with pink, blue, purple, yellow and green accents.

Its crucially important to defend the lives of those that cant speak for themselves, Lara said.

We live in a world where women are told that they cant go to school and have a baby, or they cant have an education or work and be a single mom. If women were cheered on, we would live in a better place.

Eva Muntean, one of the two Walk for Life organizers, said the gathering was designed as a sister event to last weekends Washington March for Life, to provide a platform for women affected by abortion and to celebrate solidarity among those affirming human life.

It really is about making people think about the issue, because many people dont give abortion a second thought, Muntean said.

But there are people like us who believe in the sanctity of life, and we come out in big numbers. We love conversation about it, so lets talk about it.

She said organizers estimated about 7,500 antiabortion activists participated in the first march 15 years ago. In recent years, that number has ballooned into the tens of thousands of participants calling for an end to abortion.

Protesters were met on Saturday by dozens of abortion rights advocates  some of whom dressed in red capes and white bonnets in the style of Margaret Atwoods dystopian book, The Handmaids Tale  rallying at Market and Powell streets as marchers made their trek from Civic Center Plaza to the Embarcadero.

Many of the marchers sang America the Beautiful and chanted Pro-women, pro-life.

San Francisco police officers separated the groups with a fence, but some antiabortion protesters propped up graphic photos and illustrations of aborted fetuses.

I oppose these Christian fascists and their aim to not only deprive women of their abortion rights, but even contraception, said Reiko Redmonde, manager of Revolution Books in Berkeley.

In the past 15 years or so, womens rights have been whittled away at by both Democrats and Republicans.

Redmonde said the antiabortion protesters who marched down Market Street were trying to drag women back to the Dark Ages with their calls for Roe vs. Wade to be overturned.

Members of dozens of churches and religious organizations throughout California drove several hours to attend the march, including groups from Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavorThank you for reading!

You have reached your 30-day limit of free access to SentinelSource.com, The Keene Sentinels website. If you would like to read two more articles for free at this time, please register for an account by clicking the sign up button below.

We hope you find The Sentinels coverage of the Monadnock Region valuable. We rely on our subscribers to bring you strong local journalism and hope you will consider supporting our work by taking advantage of this special subscription offer here.An exhibit of Coelhos watercolors, collages and mixed media works are on exhibit now at Clare Gallery in Hartford. Coelho takes quotes from spiritual teachers and other luminaries and interprets them visually as elements of nature and the universe. These images are complemented by imagery resembling Celtic knots, stained glass and Chinese patterned windows.Daniel DeMay / SeattlePI

If you want one last chance to walk the viaduct -- as well as one chance to walk around the new tunnel -- you're in luck, but you have to act fast.

Tickets are limited and almost gone for the grand opening celebration of the State Route 99 tunnel. The weekend of February 2-3 will be marked by a weekend-long celebration, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a festival, bike ride and a fun run through the tunnel and along the viaduct.It's that time of year. Your coworkers and family members are dropping like flies. It can feel like the flu, or that nasty cold going around, is closing in on you from all sides.

In desperation, you chug a few packets of Emergen-C, swap your coffee for cup after cup of tea, and pray you'll be spared.

ALSO: Up to 7 million hit with flu, CDC warns

But in reality, neither of those things is going to keep you from getting sick. In fact, many of those things you've been told to do, either to avoid getting sick or to feel better once you're already in the thick of it, have no basis in science.

Click through the gallery to fact check those home remedies, "natural" cures, and other common misinformation about getting sick.

So what actually works? Wash your hands  a lot  and avoid touching your eyes, mouth and face. Get the flu vaccine to reduce the odds you'll be hit hard by the virus. And when the flu is going around your office, you should also disinfect surfaces you touch regularly, like your keyboard.

And if you do end up getting sick, rest and drink lots of fluids to aid your recovery.

Plus, help your friends out by covering your mouth and nose when you cough. First of all, it's just polite. But secondly, it's also the best way to prevent spreading your germs to the innocent people around you.

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.Were working with the police department, and we believe that if the officers are wrong, justice will be served, said Davis, who noted that an internal police investigation is still going on even though the prosecutors report concluded the shooting was justifiable. We had a good police chief who kept us informed and made us part of law enforcement, and I think the new chief will do the same."WASHINGTON -- If Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, were a conservative, all anyone would be talking about is how uninformed she is. She would be facing trick questions from reporters designed to expose her lack of knowledge, and brutal sketches on "Saturday Night Live" mocking her intelligence and fitness for office. Instead, SNL fawns over her, while CBS's "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert  far from making jokes at her expense  eats ice cream with her and asks how many [expletitive] she gives about her critics.

It's not that there is a lack of material. This week, for example, Ocasio-Cortez declared that "the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change." She has said that $21 trillion in "Pentagon accounting errors" could pay for most of her $32 trillion Medicare-for-all plan  as if there were $21 trillion in unspent tax dollars sitting around in a Pentagon vault. She opined that "just last year we gave the military a $700 billion dollar budget increase, which they didn't even ask for"  unaware, apparently, that the entire Pentagon budget is $716 billion. She wrongly claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is required to fill 34,000 beds with detainees every single night and that number has only been increasing since 2009"  when ICE is required only to have that number of beds available and that number has remained flat. She has declared that "unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs"  which is flat untrue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are only 6 million to 7 million Americans with two jobs and 148 million with just one.Never has there been so much evidence that traditional thinking about early literacy is wrong. Yet, we continue to teach reading the way we did generations ago and somehow expect to get different outcomes.

While 36,000 children under 5 are participating in the program thanks to volunteers, nonprofits, service clubs and donors, theres not enough funding to pay for the remaining 250,000 S.C. children to get a free book once a month. The annual cost per child is $33, including books and postage.

The Palmetto Project estimates the cost to make the program available to all children  only about two-thirds of whom would be expected to enroll  would be approximately $6 million per year. And all that the state would have to do would be to write an annual check. It wouldnt have to hire any other employees or put a burden on state agencies, because the delivery and logistics network is in place.

Expanding the Imagination Library statewide is a reasonable, affordable no-brainer. Its the perfect investment to prepare children, particularly those in low-income families, to learn at the time it is most critical in their development. And if they dont get this intellectual fertilization? They wont be as ready as they could be for school and will start out behind, just like they do today.

North Carolina has committed to $10.5 million per year to fund the Imagination Library. Arkansas is organizing an $8 million foundation to kick it off. Cant South Carolina adopt this practical education strategy to nurture children so they can be ready to learn when they get to school?

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com.At the time it was constructed, the Robinson plant was the largest in the world and the first nuclear plant in the southeastern United States.

Flynn said that at one-time the site also had a coal-fired power plant. Train tracks in the secured area of the plant are leftovers from the days of coal, which arrived by the train-car load.

Power production

The Robinson plant is a pressurized water reactor.

As explained by Pitsley, the emergency planning specialist, the plant uses three loops of water, the first two of which are closed. The first loop of water, used as a reactor coolant, is heated by a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction that begins with a type of uranium. This water is used to heat the second loop of water although they never touch each other. The second loop of water is turned to steam, which turns a turbine that generates around 800 megawatts of power.

The third loop, which pulls some water from Lake Robinson, is used to cool the steam from the second loop back to water so it can be used again.FLORENCE, S.C.  After moving across the country to South Carolina, Francis Marion University junior Ashley Krause found a sense of home in the Palmetto State, which led to her researching peoples sense of place in the South and at FMU.

Krause took a cultural geography honors course that discussed the idea of sense of place, or how a person feels when they interact with a place.

Through learning about the sense of place, Krause said she fell in love with the concept, because she had a greater sense of place in South Carolina than in Kansas, even though it had only been her home since May of 2016.

I started it because I fell in love with the concept, and because I came here and felt a different way when I was in Kansas, Krause said. I was like, OK, How do I feel more at home in a place that Ive only been for two years, but I lived in Kansas for 18 years but felt not at home.

Last year, Krause began the project last year with her mentor, Teresa Herzog, a professor of psychology, designing qualitative and quantitative methods to find if theres a correlation between ones travel experience and their sense of home in the South at FMU, as well as a relationship between sense of place and risky behavior.FLORENCE, S.C.  James Newsome, president and chief executive officer of the South Carolina Ports Authority, will be the guest speaker for the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerces Annual Community Outlook program on March 19 at the Florence Center.

Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. for an opportunity to network. The program will begin at noon.

Newsome was previously president of Hapag-Lloyd (America) Inc., which is part of the worlds fifth-largest ocean shipping company.

More than 500 community and business leaders are expected to attend and listen as Newsome addresses the issue of the impact of the Dillon Inland Port on area business and what it means for growth in the Pee Dee over the next 10 years. He also will discuss how the South Carolina Ports have a $53 billion statewide economic impact.

This will be a very interesting presentation, since so many do not have a complete understanding as to what the Inland Port is all about and why it is so important to the region, said Mike Miller, president of the Greater Florence Chamber.

Tickets to the luncheon event are available by calling 843-665-0515 or visiting flochamber.com and clicking on events.DARLINGTON, S.C.  The Dominos Pizza employee who was shot and killed while making a routine delivery shortly before midnight Saturday has been identified.

The man was Abdul McKenzie, 39, of Darlington, Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee said in a news release. McKenzie was an employee of Domino's Pizza in Darlington for 20 years.

This senseless death has been ruled a homicide, Hardee said in his news release.

The shooting occurred on Rogers Road near Larrys Drive, according to a news release from the Darlington County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies who were dispatched found an individual unconscious in a vehicle.

McKenzie was pronounced dead at the scene, Hardee said.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Forensic Services Division is assisting with the investigation. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, Hardee said.

Anyone who has any information is are asked to contact Darlington County Sheriffs Investigators at 843-398-4501 or Crime Stoppers of the Pee Dee at 1-888-CRIME-SC or visit p3tips.com. You do not have to reveal your identity to leave information.DARLINGTON, S.C.  A Dominos Pizza employee was shot and killed while making a routine delivery shortly before midnight Saturday, according to the Darlington County coroner.

The shooting occurred on Rogers Road near Larrys Drive, according to a news release from the Darlington County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies who were dispatched found an individual unconscious in a vehicle.

The victims name will be released Sunday, said Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee, who

pronounced the victim dead at the scene.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Forensic Services Division is a assisting with the investigation. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, Hardee said.

Anyone who has any information is are asked to contact Darlington County Sheriffs Investigators at 843-398-4501 or Crime Stoppers of the Pee Dee at 1-888-CRIME-SC or visit p3tips.com. You do not have to reveal your identity to leave information.The government of Liberia, in partnership with the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and EcoHealth Alliance, announced the discovery of Ebola virus in a bat in Liberia. This is the first finding of Zaire ebolavirus in a bat in West Africa, adding to other evidence suggesting bats serve as a natural wildlife reservoir for Ebola and other related viruses. Scientists found both genetic material from the virus and ebolavirus antibodies in a Greater Long-fingered bat (Miniopterus inflatus) in Liberia's northeastern Nimba District. CII has been working to identify and characterize novel viruses at the intersection of humans and animals, on a global scale, for more than three decades. This work is a part of the USAID PREDICT project, which aims to better understand the animal reservoirs, seasonality, and transmission of viruses that can cause epidemic diseases.

This is the first identification of Ebola virus in a bat in West Africa. There are six species of Ebola virus and Zaire ebolavirus is the one responsible for causing the West African Ebola epidemic which infected nearly 30,000 people between 2013 and 2016. Researchers at CII are working to determine whether the strain found in the bat is exactly the same one associated with the 2013-2016 outbreak. The evidence so far from about 20 percent of the virus' genome suggests that it is closely related. Zaire ebolavirus is also responsible for the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is now the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

No human cases of Ebola are linked to this discovery and Liberia has remained free of any new human cases since the 2013-2016 outbreak. However, this finding brings us closer to understanding where human Ebola cases come from.

"There have been unanswered questions about the source of Ebola outbreaks. There was speculation that they may have originated from bats, but there was no direct evidence," says Simon Anthony, D.Phil, assistant professor of Epidemiology in the Center for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, who led the laboratory discovery. "A critical element in this discovery, was VirCapSeq-VERT, a tool invented at the CII that improves the sensitivity of next generation sequencing 1,000-fold. It is possible that there are also other bat species that carry Ebola. Going forward, we will be analyzing additional specimens to fill in the picture."

"This discovery is a major step forward in understanding how Ebola outbreaks happen," says EcoHealth Alliance Vice President for Science and Outreach Jonathan Epstein, DVM. Epstein also serves as the lead for USAID-PREDICT in Liberia. "The West African Ebola epidemic was devastating, and it began with a single transmission from an animal to a person. It's critical that we identify which animals naturally carry Ebola and related viruses -- without knowing that, we can't truly understand and reduce the risk of another outbreak occurring in the region."

The search for wildlife hosts for filoviruses like Ebola is a part of USAID's PREDICT project, an international initiative to conduct surveillance and build local capacity to detect novel and known zoonotic viruses in nature so that countries are better prepared to prevent and respond to outbreaks. Partners in the discovery include EcoHealth Alliance; the Society for the Conservation of Nature, Liberia; the National Public Health Institute of Liberia; the Forest Development Authority; the Liberian Ministry of Agriculture; and Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; and the University of California, Davis, which leads the PREDICT Consortium.

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Ebola is a zoonotic disease transmitted from wild animals to humans

Ebola virus belongs to the Filoviridae family which also includes the Marburg and Cueva viruses. Like other zoonotic diseases (SARS, influenza, and rabies), Ebola virus is harbored by a natural animal reservoir, in Ebola's case believed to include one or more species of bat, based on previous scientific studies. Prior Ebola outbreaks in Central Africa have been associated with deforestation and bushmeat hunting, where human cases were linked to contact with and consumption of chimpanzees, gorillas, and duikers that were infected. These animals were also victims of Ebola virus and it's still a mystery as to exactly how they were infected. However, there is substantial evidence that filoviruses, such as Ebola and Marburg virus, are carried by bats. Marburg virus was recently discovered for the first time in Sierra Leone in its known bat reservoir, but it has historically been difficult to identify bats infected with Ebola virus.

Bats play a critical role in ecosystems around the world, by removing pest insect species and pollinating fruiting trees, for example. The finding of Ebola virus in a bat should not be taken as a reason to exterminate, remove or harass bats in their natural environment. In fact, previous work shows that efforts to remove wildlife populations can lead to enhanced disease spread.

"The government of Liberia has been not only a committed partner, but is working proactively to prevent further Ebola infections in the country," says EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak. "When we shared this discovery with them, they mobilized immediately to share these findings with their citizens. For the government to now be able to offer specific guidance so as to protect people's health is critical. Past experience has shown that simply telling people not to eat bats is neither practical nor effective. Helping them live safely with bats is."

Keeping local communities safe

Greater Long-fingered bats are found in parts of West Africa and other regions. They are an agriculturally important species in the area, as they eat insects which do damage to crops. Additionally, they do not tend to roost in homes or buildings, as some bats do. Instead they are found in forests, caves, and mines which makes preventing contact with them easier by avoiding entering caves or mines. The Liberian government is working to engage local communities about this finding to help reduce the possible risk of exposure and educate people about the positive impacts of bat species on pest control and the environment.

Moving forward

Further testing is underway to determine whether or not the virus detected in this bat is the same strain which caused the West African Ebola epidemic. The PREDICT team is also working with partners to understand how commonly these bats or other bat species may be infected with Ebola virus and whether there are any seasonal patterns to infection in bats, all of which helps understand risk to people and will inform public health strategies designed to prevent another Ebola outbreak.

"This discovery is the result of an extraordinarily productive partnership between the government of Liberia, CII, EcoHealth Alliance, and UC Davis," says Ian Lipkin, MD, director of CII. "It builds on years of investment and methods established under the auspices of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases."The incident occurred at about 2 a.m. at Club Vanish, 151 Meadow St., police said. According to police, detectives observed a man brandishing a weapon within a crowd of people during a verbal altercation. Police said they approached the man, identified as Nathaniel Rodriguez, 22, of 133 Sergeant St., Holyoke, Mass., and took him into custody following a brief altercation.George Will: Why do people such as Lindsey Graham come to Congress?SINGAPORE, January 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has joined The Expatland Global Network. The firm will provide migrant banking advice to the Auckland E-Team's clients. BNZ is one of New Zealand's leading full service banks and has been helping people to start a new life in New Zealand since 1861. It offers retail, business and institutional banking. The Expatland Global Network is made up of Expatland Teams ('E-Teams'). Operating at city level, they have essential local knowledge and insight. They cut through complexity and drill down to the issues that are relevant to specific locations. John Marcarian, founder of the Expatland Global Network, says, "Adding a world-renowned brand such as BNZ to the Expatland Global Network shows how far we have come since our launch less than a year ago. We are committed to providing expats with a trusted network of service providers in their new city and BNZ is the perfect banking provider for any expat making the move to Auckland." Evan Veza, Head of International Business Development, BNZ Partners comments, "BNZ has joined the Expatland Global Network to support the development of expats as they integrate into life in New Zealand. We've helped generations of migrants start a new life in New Zealand and we're pleased to be joining forces with the team at Expatland who use their global knowledge, skills, expertise and networks to help expats successfully integrate into New Zealand." 'Expatland' originsA

Expatland began as a book, written in 2015 by John Marcarian, as a result of John's personal expat journey. Its focus was to help expats plan their move overseas. E-Teams around the globeA

The Expatland book was just the start. To solve the problem of lack of support for would-be expats, John has launched the Expatland Global Network in 2018. The Network is expanding rapidly. There are now E-Teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Prague, Budapest, Hong Kong, London and Singapore. With best-in-practice members recognising the importance of this service, many more will follow. Businesses interested in joining an E-Team in their city can get in touch with Expatland: http://www.expatland.com/contact/ Contact:

Lloyd Gofton

lloyd@liberatemedia.com

+44(0)7919-353-484On Sunday said all were in stable conditions or had been discharged from hospital. A teenage boy, Castle Hill, 17, has been found with almost 600 capsules and $2000 cash. Another alleged supplier, aged 25, was allegedly found with 100 MDMA capsules and a knife while a South Australian woman allegedly had 48 ecstasy capsules on her. Police accused seven people of drug supply at the event. A further 16 people are due to face court for drug possession while 30 people were ejected for intoxication. The HTID festival was one of two Australia Day music festivals in Sydney to have extra high-level critical care medical teams and more harm reduction measures.

Emergency Services Minister Troy Grant said there was no doubt the police forces disruption of three large drug operations in the lead up to the festivals had an impact in the quantity of drugs in and around the events. Premier Gladys Berejiklian, whose government footed the bill for the extra protection, said she hoped and prayed people were starting to get the message to not take illicit drugs. Extra safety measures are in place at hip-hop festival Rolling Loud at Sydney Showgrounds on Sunday.Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease that can be fatal in small children, Inslee said in his proclamation Friday. As of Saturday, there were 32 cases of the measles in Clark County, which sits on the states southern border. 21 of them are children between the ages of 1 and 10. Inslees proclamation allows agencies and departments to use state resources and do everything reasonably possible to assist affected areas. The Washington Military Department is organizing resources to assist the DOH and local officials.

Contagious people went to Portland International Airport, as well as to hospitals, schools, stores, churches and restaurants across Washingtons Clark County and the two-state region, county officials said. nitial symptoms include fever, cough, watery eyes, and a runny nose; a blotchy red rash will typically spread to all over the infected individuals body roughly three to five days later. One or two of every 1,000 children who get measles will die from complications, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000. The proportion of children receiving no vaccine increased. However, children should get two doses of MMR vaccine: the first between 12 to 15 months of age and the second between 4 and 6 years old.The Russian Diamond Line, a Moscow international jewellery contest of jewellery design, has been held for a decade already. At the end of the year, the results of the jubilee RDL-2018 contest were summed up, and on December 14, the prizewinners of the year were awarded the diplomas. Irina Slesareva, the Art Director of the Russian Diamond Line, one of the contest initiators and the Editor-in-Chief of the Yuvelirnoye Obozreniye (Jewellery Review) magazine, told the Rough&Polished correspondent about how the contest was set up and what the purpose was, how it has been changing and developing over the years.

At first, this project was meant as a contest within the framework of the Golden Ring of Russia jewellery festival in Kostroma organized by our magazine in 2000-2010, Irina Slesareva says. The International Jewellery Design Excellence Award was launched one year later in Hong Kong where the jewellery pieces - the prizewinners of the national contests held in various countries - took part, and the Grand Prix winner got the Champion of Champions title. In late December, we as the partners of the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show held in March received an offer from Lawrence Ma, the Director of this show and the IJDEA organizing committee Chairman, to invite the RDL prizewinners to this project, and some very interesting jewellery items, including the Bullfinches pendant by Ilgiz Fazulzyanov, were among them. I still remember how we met with our designers and interpreter in the office during the New Year vacations and sat up late filling-in the Application Forms and preparing the booklets for the jewellery pieces in English. In a month, we learnt that it was the Bullfinches pendant by Ilgiz Fazulzyanov that was awarded the Grand Prix - he was in the art competition with the jewellers from Italy, France, Thailand and the USA, and for the first time, the Russian design came into the spotlight at the international level. After that, we introduced amendments to the RDL concept and started to promote our laureates to other foreign contests and to integrate them into the international space. For that to happen, recognized European expert Gedimin Jablonski from Poland and Cynthia Winninayar, the editor-in-chief of the Swiss-US Trends&Colors, were invited to the contest jury. Their experience and solutions  sometimes rather unexpected  allowed us to choose those jewellery items that had chances to become trendsetters in the global jewellery industry.

After that, our designers repeatedly became the IJEDA prizewinners, didnt they?

Yes, they did, the first victory in Hong Kong was followed by the second one  in 2013, the Swan ring by the Estet Jewellery House was awarded in the Distinction Award nomination, and two years later, the Life ring by Almaz-Holding was awarded the Grand-Prix and the Champion of Champions title, this ring was designed by Anna Teplinskaya and Timofei Teplinsky. This jewellery piece also received the Diploma in the Aesthetic Impression nomination  for the first time in the IJDEA practice.

In 2017, our designers took almost all the podium during the award ceremony  five Russian jewellery pieces were among the winners: the Firebirds Feather set by Viktor Moiseikin, the For Form ring by Natalia and Tatiana Tarasova, the Firebird ring created by Alina Andreyeva for the CLUEV company, the Stella Maris bracelet by the Bronnitsky Yuvelir company. At that time, I was already one of the judges at the International Jewellery Design Excellence Award contest, however, as all the pieces were evaluated by the experts on a no-name basis, such outcome came as a surprise even to me. I still remember my feelings when our jewellers podiumed one after another and my foreign colleagues from the jury were amazed and asked: what, are all of them Russians, are these jewellery pieces from Russia?

Similar thing happened last year in China, when the RDL prizewinners Alexandra Neskreba and Nikolay Romanov ranked the first and the third at the Zhaojin Yinlou Cup contest. The organizers invited them to the award ceremony and granted them  in addition to their prizes that were a 100-gram gold bar for each - the tour to Shandong, a gold mining province that is focused on jewellery manufacture. The contest arranged with the assistance of the World Gold Union was oriented towards supporting the Chinese designers, but the result was that the main awards went to Russia. Was not it a success?

Definitely, it was. And how does the Russian Diamond Line differ from other jewellery design contests?

The major difference is that we do not believe that gifted persons would win through on their own, and we keep on promoting our laureates, at least, for the next two years after their participation in the contest, publish their works in our magazines on a regular basis. We send their jewellery pieces to other contests and tell about them at the workshops and masterclasses abroad whenever we take part in them. The RDL prizewinners take prestigious places at the exhibitions held abroad as it was this year in Hong Kong and Las Vegas.

Why is the line a diamond one?

As for polished diamonds, they are the most eye-catching stones, and a Russian-cut diamond has already become an international brand. Polished diamonds blend seamlessly into the concept of our contest.

There is another circumstance  the idea and the concept came under the influence of the Diamond International Award, the polished diamond design contest held by De Beers from 1952 to 2000. We took the same procedure of deciding on the winner used at that very contest, there can be 20 winners maximum and all of them are equal laureates without ranking. Except for the Grand Prix, that is only awarded when some nominee is very prominent.

What do the polished diamonds bring to the jewellery piece? Do these specific features create difficulties to the participants in the contest?

If a designer uses diamonds, it means than he/she knows how to work with them and does not restrain himself/herself from using any creative brainchild and materials. Especially, if a designer creates something innovative and modern-day like the Waltzing Brilliance setting by Viktor Moiseikin that is informally called a Russian one. He was awarded the Russian Diamond Line-2016 Grand Prix for this unique technique of setting the moving diamonds patented in Russia and the USA.

However, we do not require the diamonds to be used in a jewellery, to say nothing of any minimal total value as it was in case of the Diamond International Award. The main thing is the idea, style, individuality. The For Form ring by Natalia and Tatiana Tarasova that was among the awarded jewellery last year was made of pressed paper and amber but this bright piece stroke everybody all of a heap at first in Moscow and later on, in Hong Kong.

How was this jubilee contest organized this year, what was the difference as compared to the previous ones? Who was in the jury?

This year, Ekaterina Helvig, an Italian designer, evaluated all the entries together with me, Gedimin Jablonski and Larisa Poshekhonova, an art expert from the museums of the Moscow Kremlin. As usual, at the first stage, a shortlist of 25 jewellery items was made out of 73 pieces, and then the contest jury decided on the laureates - this time there were 14 pieces. The Microcosm collection by Dmitry Belman was awarded the Grand Prix for the unique innovation in the granulation technique that was the result of the twenty-year efforts, according to the jeweller.

This year, the principal difference was a great number of designer works presented with original solutions on style and the use of alternative materials. The Russian Diamond Line is not a thematic contest, but almost every time, one can trace common themes that inspire the designers  this time, for example, there were a lot of marine motives, cosmos and fantasy. It is of great interest to me, because, for example, quite recently, I have visited the exposition of contest works made by the students of the Trier University, Germany, and I noticed that the jewellers there studied the themes of the environment, violence and gender identity in their creative works.

Do the criteria for choosing the winners change with years? Does anything new appear in the design, technique, in cutting and polishing technology? What skills in the art become trends?

Traditionally, our jury evaluate the jewellery idea and aesthetics, craftsmanship and innovations. I think it a big luck when the designers come to us who really create something new that can be called the design of the 21st century. The contemporary jewellery art does not rest on laurels, designers all over the world develop new techniques, experiment with gamut of coatings, study new materials, mix styles, seek for new forms. One can see this from the results of the international contests.

Any innovation always arouses interest. That was the case with the pearls cut by Viktor Tuzlukov in the Butterflies jewellery set by Ilgiz F that looked in a different way and deserved the prize in Hong Kong in 2013. Viktor Moiseikin successfully introduces his Waltzing Brilliance setting into his collections changing his approach to design. This new setting allows bringing fancy forms to jewellery and increasing the number of stones  still, the jewellery is lightweight.

This year we learnt about the innovation introduced by Dmitry Belman that was implemented in the classical granulation technique, thanks to this innovation, the jewellery gain sculpturesqueness and volume. In the Microcosm collection awarded the Grand-Prix, one can see three applications of this technique  with industrial setting, with polished diamonds, and hot enamel as a background. It is a very modern idea and a very complicated work requiring skills and excellence.

In recent years, while working in the jury in jewellery contests of various formats  the International Jewellery Design Excellence Award in Hong Kong, Artistar in Italy, Zhaojin Yinlou Cup in China, Amber Trip in Lithuania, as well as studying the contest entries and talking to other experts, I noted such advantages of our designers as draughtsmanship, craftsmanship, and workmanship. I got used to hear the compliments from my foreign colleagues about our jewellery just for this  their professional sketches, high quality jewellery manufacturing. That said, our designers still need, to my opinion, fresh air, some influence of the contemporary aesthetics, which is possible through creative brainstorming and integration into the international space. It is necessary that today, in the 21st century, the Russian school would no longer be associated with the Faberge epoch only and would rise to a new level.

What names of the Russian Diamond Line prizewinners can you call brands? What do the RDL laureates receive thanks to their triumph?

Certainly, over a decade there were many bright names - Ilgiz F with his enamels, CLUEV and designer Alina Andreyeva with her fairy stories and unique gems, Almaz-Holding and Anna Teplinskaya, who created the Life ring shape, Anna Dmitriyeva with her Russian Seasons transformer-rings, Nikolay Romanov, the fantastic jeweller from Nizhny Tagil using enamels to create premium class jewellery, Viktor Moiseikin and his collections with moving stones, as light as feathers, Natalia and Tatiana Tarasova with their right understanding of the forms, Alexandra Neskreba and her complex transformers, a kind of pieces of art by Tatiana Khromoseyeva from the Ballet collection, unique Vladimir Markin with his ironic jewellery and sophisticated mechanisms, and many others  . As I have already mentioned, the status of the Russian Diamond Line prizewinner is a pass to the foreign platforms, the possibility to work in the prestigious zones of the top exhibitions, and in spring next year, we also plan to publish our jubilee album where the works of our prizewinners will be collected.I argued in July 2013 that Zimbabwe should work with Russias ALROSA to find more diamond deposits not only in Marange, but across the country.

This was after reports that the Russians were planning to set up ventures in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

ALROSA moved with speed and established a joint venture company with Botswana Diamonds called Sunland Minerals, which operated an exploration programme on PL117 in Orapa.

The JV, which sadly collapsed last year following the exit of ALROSA, carried out detailed ground geophysics programme in the area of anomaly AN117-1 to target drill sites.

The Sunland JV had no instant success, but made progress toward the target of a commercial discovery.

It was also reported in Sept 2014 that ALROSA was set to prospect for diamonds in Zimbabwe with DTZ-OZGEO, a joint venture company between the Development Trust of Zimbabwe and a Russian company, Econedra.

The Russian trade and industry minister was quoted by Reuters as saying then that ALROSA and DTZ-OZGEO would prospect for diamonds throughout Zimbabwe.

ALROSA was said to have dropped the Zimbabwe exploration licences two years ago.

Its partner in the country, DTZ-OZGEO, lost its mining licence following Harares move to consolidate diamond mining operations.

The diamond companies were ordered to stop mining early 2016 after their special grants had expired and also for refusing to support the consolidation plan.

Although, Botswana Diamonds said changes that took place at board and top management level in ALROSA between 2016 and 2017 caused a change in emphasis, it was interesting that the company recently announced plans to return to Zimbabwe.

The impression given was that ALROSA had shelved plans to conduct diamond exploration activities in Botswana and any African country apart from Angola where they have a stake in Catoca.

ALROSA chief executive Sergey Ivanov said details of the companys projects in Zimbabwe would be negotiated in the near future, although reports suggested that the diamond giant would continue exploration with the support of the Zimbabwean government.

Im sure well be able to discuss prospects of our participation in the sphere of geologic exploration activities and development of deposit with a high degree of exploration maturity, Ivanov was quoted as saying by Russia Television.

We are ready to share all of Alrosa's technology when it comes to grading and preparing diamonds for sale, as well as the necessary know-how so that Zimbabwe could get back the position the country had on the global diamond mining market for several years.

The company was said to have set up its subsidiary, ALROSA Zimbabwe last month in Harare and its geologists as well as mining engineers were expected in the country next month to start operations.

Ivanov was impressed by Zimbabwes implementation of a wide range of legislative changes that would allow ALROSA enter the countrys market and negotiate more serious projects with Zimbabwean partners.

Zimbabwe announced its long-awaited new diamond policy late last year, which limited diamond exploration and mining in the country to only four companies.

The state-owned Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) and Murowa Diamonds are the companies, which are currently mining diamonds in the country.

ALROSA and the Chinese partly-owned Anjin were selected by Zimbabwes government as the two foreign companies to partner the state-diamond firm in exploring and mining diamonds.

Mines minister Winston Chitando said Harare settled for only four players for easy monitoring of the mining and selling of diamonds.

Anjin previously mined diamonds in the country until 2015 when former President Robert Mugabes government decided not to renew operating licences of mining companies that operated in Marange, which led to the formation of ZCDC.

Anjin was jointly owned by Chinese companies Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company and Matt Bronze  an investment arm of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

Zimbabwe had a previously history of not respecting property rights and the law.

One hopes that the previous treatment of DTZ-OZGEO was a thing of the past and the Russians would be treated with respect as they return to Zimbabwe and hopefully help the diamond industry sparkle.

As I argued half a decade ago, ALROSAs presence in Zimbabwe can be a boon for the countrys diamond industry, but only if the operating environment was conducive for business to flourish.

The Russians have the technology that Harare needs to look for new diamond deposits and they are the worlds largest diamond producer because they are doing something right.

Angola had been benefiting from ALROSAs technology, let alone expertise.

Zimbabwe, if not controlled by demons of the past, can also grow its diamond output with the help of ALROSA.

The countrys diamond output, which the World Bank projected in 2013 to reach 15,2 million carats a year by 2018 with an investment of $150 million, was only 2.8 million carats last year.

Marange produced 12 million carats at its peak in 2012.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



Weather Alert

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING... The Flash Flood Watch continues for * Portions of central Georgia, east central Georgia, north central Georgia, northeast Georgia, northwest Georgia and west central Georgia, including the following areas, in central Georgia, Baldwin, Bibb, Butts, Crawford, Jasper, Jones, Monroe, Peach and Putnam. In east central Georgia, Greene, Hancock, Taliaferro, Warren and Wilkes. In north central Georgia, Barrow, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Gwinnett, Henry, Morgan, Newton, North Fulton, Rockdale, South Fulton and Walton. In northeast Georgia, Clarke, Jackson, Madison, Oconee and Oglethorpe. In northwest Georgia, Carroll, Haralson, Paulding and Polk. In west central Georgia, Chattahoochee, Coweta, Harris, Heard, Lamar, Macon, Marion, Meriwether, Muscogee, Pike, Schley, Spalding, Stewart, Talbot, Taylor, Troup, Upson and Webster. * Through Sunday evening. * A tropical low pressure system will bring heavy rainfall to portions of Georgia today and Sunday. Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches are expected over the watch area, with higher amounts to 6 inches possible over portions of western and north Georgia. Quickly accumulating rainfall will easily allow for efficient runoff and increase flash flooding potential. * Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks and inundate fields, roads, businesses and other property. Street flooding could also lead to road closures. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued. &&These radical changes in policy rattled allies and friends but were broadly popular with a public. They shared Trumps view that America had paid too high a price to defend the world, at the expense of domestic priorities. This change in Americas outlook will survive Trumps presidency because it reflects a major shift in the way Americans view their national interests in 2019.

Trade relations. Dealing with unfair trade was high on Trumps agenda from his first days in office. Pulling out of TPP dismayed Asian and Pacific nations that supported it, but he argued that it was detrimental to American interests and cost many American jobs. Hillary Clinton too questioned its benefits during the election campaign. Although China was highest on Trumps list of bad actors. Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Mexico were also subjected to administration pressure to improve trading relations with the U.S. China came in for special attention because of its huge trade imbalance with the U.S. Trump imposed modest tariffs on Chinese imports last year but threatens to raise them to 30 percent on March 1 if Beijing doesnt agree to significant changes in trade relations. Despite the pain caused to some exporters and farmers, Trump appears to have public support for his tough policies because free trade with China has harmed many businesses at home and displaced tens of thousands of workers.Today

Sunny. High around 90F. Winds NW 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 near 65F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. High 86F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.WASHINGTON  Back in the day, small rural airports had textile windsocks, simple and empty things that indicated which way the wind was blowing. The ubiquitous Sen. Lindsey Graham has become a political windsock, and as such he  more than the sturdy, substantial elephant  is emblematic of his party today.

When in 1994, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, first ran for Congress, he promised to be one less vote for an agenda that makes you want to throw up. A quarter of a century later, Graham himself is a gastrointestinal challenge. In the last three years he had a road-to-Damascus conversion.

In 2015, he said Donald Trump is a jackass. In February 2016, he said: Im not going to try to get into the mind of Donald Trump, because I dont think theres a whole lot of space there. I think hes a kook, I think hes crazy, I think hes unfit for office. And: Im a Republican and hes not. Hes not a conservative Republican. Hes an opportunist. Today, Graham, paladin of conservatism and scourge of opportunism, says building the border wall is an existential matter for the GOP: If we undercut the president, thats the end of his presidency and the end of our party. Well.To change its future, a community must first face its past.

Forgetting begets repeating, said the Most Rev. Michael Curry, an Episcopal bishop who gained international recognition preaching at a royal wedding last year.

By facing the past, then learning from it, you turn in a new direction. Facing a rising sun as the song would say, he recalled with a smile. Then, you march into a new future.

Looking out over the crowded room before him, Curry added, I see you here building that new future.

Curry, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, spoke Saturday to a packed auditorium of congregants and community members who had come together to shed light on Roanokes history of urban renewal  or urban removal as its remembered by some of the neighborhoods it decimated.

The initiative was billed as a means of improving properties written off as blighted by the powers that be.

But what it led to was the erasure of whole swaths of black-owned homes and businesses.

It was for destruction, more than it was to be progressive, concluded Bruce Burks, 88, a lifelong Roanoker and a business owner who saw it unfold.He said that he didnt start conversation with locals asking, Hey: What do you think of climate change?

Instead he used a more nuanced approach, inquiring what people thought about the effects and potentially having to leave or what could be done to fix it?

He was surprised by some of the responses, particularly from a few Native Americans he met living on the Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana. Van Noy said that the island is home to around 25 families that are slated for resettlement due to the rising sea levels. The only problem is: many of them dont want to leave. He said that fishing is the lifeblood of the small community and they didnt want to give that up regardless of the isles impending doom.

The issue speaks to a profound one for writing about climate change: we get accustomed to a place, and assume it will stay the same. Its hard to reckon with the loss of land. Then theres the emotional attachment to home, he said. Denial is one way to cope. And if the problem of leaving is complex for this small island, it doesnt get any easier for New Orleans or Miami.

Tim Poland, a fellow author and recently retired English professor at RU, read Van Noys book throughout its various stages, providing feedback and offering editorial suggestions along the way.She pays Cox $91.57 per month for television plus internet access. Of that, $37.50 covers what Short called a mid-level channel bundle. Its roughly 78 TV channels, plus about 50 more that are all music, she said. The remainder of her payment covers internet, taxes and fees.

To receive MSNBC, Short told me, shed have to subscribe to a higher-priced channel bundle, which would nearly double her cost for TV.

I would like MSNBC included without having to pay for the next upper bundle.  There are many more channels in the bundle, but almost none worth anything. It almost looks like they are holding [MSNBC] hostage for more money or the powers that be dont want an alternative to Fox available, she wrote.

About a month ago, Short told me, she raised the complaint in a letter addressed to Roanoke City Hall, the franchising authority for Cox in Roanoke. It was a note Short wrote on her Cox bill, to no specific person. (City spokeswoman Melinda Mayo said it has no record of receiving Shorts letter.)

And over the past several months, Short said, shes called Cox with her complaint and written them two or three emails, and sent one letter. Nobody replied, and Short couldnt get a straight answer during the call.

Which is why she turned to me.Coffee giant Starbucks is building some new properties in the Roanoke Valley this year.

The company confirmed it is opening a location at Orange Avenue and Blue Hills Drive in Roanoke. It signed a lease for the site a few weeks ago with plans to open the coffee shop in 2021, according to a company spokeswoman. The store will feature a 2,500-square-foot cafe and a drive-through.

The spokeswoman also said Starbucks is opening a location at 121 Electric Road in Salem, featuring a 3,072-square-foot cafe and a drive-through. That spot is already under construction, with plans to open later this year. It is expected that the Starbucks located next door, which is smaller and doesn't have a drive-through, will move into the new space, which was previously home to a bank.

Starbucks has seven cafes in the Roanoke Valley, with two additional shops in Kroger stores and one inside Target, according to the company website.CHELMSFORD, Mass.  The Army is looking for a few good robots. Not to fight  not yet, at least  but to help the men and women who do.

These robots arent taking up arms, but the companies making them have waged a different kind of battle. At stake is a contract worth almost half a billion dollars for 3,000 backpack-sized robots that can defuse bombs and scout enemy positions. Competition for the work has spilled over into Congress and federal court.

The project and others like it could someday help troops look around the corner, over the next hillside and let the robot be in harms way and let the robot get shot, said Paul Scharre, a military technology expert at the Center for a New American Security.

The big fight over small robots opens a window into the intersection of technology and national defense and shows how fear that China could surpass the U.S. drives even small tech startups to play geopolitics to outmaneuver rivals. It also raises questions about whether defense technology should be sourced solely to American companies to avoid the risk of tampering by foreign adversaries.And so the president who hates to be seen as weak looked weak. Three new polls, including one by his favorite network, Fox News, show his job performance ratings are slipping.

Fox found only 43 percent of voters approve of the job Trump is doing overall, down 3 points from December. He is also under water on border security, immigration, and foreign policy, Fox reported.

TRUMP BLINKS Fox blared in a headline on its website as conservative commentators criticized his State of the Union turnabout.

Bad decision, Laura Ingraham of Fox News said. She said shed give three State of the Union speeches around the country.

But the real question is not where Trump will give the address but when.

Presidents use the prime-time address to lay out their legislative priorities for the coming year. By postponing, Trump all but announced his agenda is going nowhere in Congress during the shutdown and perhaps after that.

Thus Trump is learning even the president has limitations in a country with three equal branches of government. Republican congressional leaders have been afraid to stand up to him, but the Democratic-controlled House has a speaker whos keen to use her power.In 2017, Congress created the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service to review the selective service registration process and to examine and recommend ways to increase participation in military, national, and public service. The commissions final report is due by March 2020. Last week, it issued an interim report summarizing what it has learned to date. The findings are interesting.

Congress asked the commission to review the selective service registration process as it functions today. Currently, all males ages 18 through 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System. In the event of a national crisis requiring a military draft, the registration system would have a ready database of eligible men. However, the report says that far too few young males actually realize what the implications of signing up for selective service entail  that in the unlikely event they were to be drafted, they would be required to serve in the armed forces.

One of the commissions tasks was to determine whether selective service registration should also be required of all females ages 18 through 25. The issue has been the subject of debate since 2015 when the secretary of defense opened all military combat roles to women.ADAMS, Theodore F. Jr., passed away peacefully on January 24, 2019. He spent his final days surrounded by his four sons and visiting with loved ones. Ted was born in Toledo, Ohio on March 10, 1930. He moved to Richmond in 1936 when his father, the Reverend Theodore F. Adams was called to First Baptist Church of Richmond. Ted was a member of the Thomas Jefferson High School class of 1947, and often recalled fond memories of his high school days. After two years at Mars Hill College, he returned to the University of Richmond where he graduated with a B.A. in business administration. While he initially joined C&P Telephone after graduating, he left to serve in the United States Army in the Korean War. Ted's time in the control tower of an Army airfield outside Pusan, South Korea was an important part of his life, and it marked the beginning of a long life of service to others. He returned to Richmond after the war and rejoined C&P, where he faithfully served until his retirement from what became AT&T in 1994. Early in his career, he met the indomitable Colleen Zorn in Roanoke, who was then hosting a cooking show on local television. They married in 1959 and over the next 40 years they raised four sons while moving to numerous locations during his career. Ted and Colleen were utterly devoted to their four sons, but also well known for their hospitality to all. In addition to work and family, Ted had a servant's heart. He served in state and national positions with the Jaycees. A lifelong rotarian, he was president of the Richmond Rotary in 1992. He served on the boards of Richmond Memorial Hospital, Richmond Memorial Hospital Foundation, Memorial Regional Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital. Governor Wilder appointed him to the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park Authority Board in 1994. He was particularly honored to serve on the Board of Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross. He served as President of the Boatwright Society at the University of Richmond. He was a member of the Commonwealth Club. Ted was predeceased by his wife, Colleen Zorn Adams; his parents, the Reverend Theodore F. Adams and Esther Jillson Adams; and his sister, Betsy Adams Thompson. He is survived by his brother, John J. Adams and his wife, Barbara; as well as his four sons and their wives, Tray and Karen, Mark, Brad and Leslie, and John and Lisa Adams; and eight grandchildren, Holden, Adaire, Carter, Chase, Thomas, Daniel, Andrew and Henry. Funeral services will be held at Huguenot Road Baptist Church at 2 p.m. on Thursday, January 31. The services will be followed by a reception in memory of Ted at the Commonwealth Club. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his memory to the American Red Cross.William Tanner, an attorney for Dana William Naylor Jr., filed a motion Tuesday asking an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge to throw out a toxicology test, news outlets reported.

Naylor was indicted on involuntary manslaughter and DUI charges in the Jan. 31 crash outside Charlottesville that killed his co-worker Christopher Foley and injured several other people. The crash occurred at a railroad crossing as the Amtrak train was taking GOP members of Congress to a retreat in West Virginia.

Tanner is requesting a hearing to determine whether a police officer lied in the process to get a search warrant that yields incriminating evidence. Tanner said a statement Naylors wife made to county police was incorrectly used to secure a warrant for the blood test.

The judge did not immediately rule on the motion. Naylors jury trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 25.

Naval officer sentenced to four years in prison for fraud

NORFOLK  A Virginia-based naval officer accused of helping to swindle the government out of $2.7 million to fund a high-stakes poker habit and buy luxury vehicles and a second home has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison.ROANOKE  Roanoke City Council voted unanimously last week to rename the citys courthouse as the Oliver W. Hill Justice Center, in memory of the revered and influential civil rights attorney who spent much of his childhood in Roanoke.

Hill returned to Roanoke to practice law for a time before moving to Richmond.

In 1954, he represented African-American students in a civil rights lawsuit against Virginias Prince Edward County school system that became part of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education that ended school segregation.

Hills legacy is already recognized in Roanoke. His childhood home on Gilmer Avenue in Gainsboro houses the nonprofit Oliver Hill Mentoring Program, and a state historical marker recalling Hills life and career was erected in front of the house in November.

Roanoke is one of four Virginia localities associated with Hill.

Markers also are approved in Richmond, where Hill, who died in 2007 at age 100, practiced for most of his career; in Farmville; and in Norfolk, where he won a key federal case that challenged Virginias system of paying black teachers less than white ones.Morris said that since Jan. 1, 2018, when the tax changes took effect, a total of $13.5 million has been dispersed for K-12 schooling to about 2,300 families. The state-run agency has about 300,000 accounts.

Its a tiny number in the grand scheme of things, Morris said. Most people are using their 529 accounts for the purpose in which it was intended initially and most people, I think, will continue to do that.

The overwhelming majority of the 2,300 families already had Virginia529 accounts and the agency, she said, is keeping its sights on the long term in both marketing and investment strategy, which is focused on college savings so investments have longer to grow.

We think we have the flexibility and the options for families with the lineup that we already have so we didnt add anything or make any changes specifically for K-12, she said.

Morris said she didnt know if the families who are using 529 money for private school were already sending their students to private school rather than making the switch solely because of the changes.

I have to think that that decision was made independent of their ability to use their 529 account for it, she said. Id be surprised if that was a deciding factor for families.MANSFIELD -- The Mansfield Police Department honored dozens of officers and other employees Saturday evening at its annual dinner.

The event recognized the department's officer of the year, supervisor of the year, detective of the year and civilian of the year, among other award winners, and raised more than ever before for a lieutenant's family.

Officer Joe Gladden was selected as the 2018 officer of the year for his self-motivation and willingness to mentor others, especially younger officers.

"This officer has become an informal shift leader among his peers and he requires very little supervision," Capt. Shari Robertson said.

Gladden has also stepped up to serve as a field training officer and taken a role as an ALICE instructor, where he trains citizens and organizations on proper responses to an active shooter.

During 2018, Gladden generated 27 felony warrants, 27 felony arrests,76 misdemeanor arrests, 161 misdemeanor warrants, 7 OVIs, 126 summonses, 88 traffic citations and 342 general offense reports. Further, he's be responsible for recovering nearly $39,000 in stolen property.

The 2018 detective of the year is Ryan Anschutz, who handled 68 long-term, covert investigations that led to numerous federal and felony child exploitation arrests and is responsible for working with local and federal authorities to identify a potential active shooter with information from social media.

"The detective was able to take limited information he was given about the culprit and determined the suspect was in Sweden," Robertson said.

Anschutz worked with the FBI to determine the threat's validity, and the suspect was taken into custody.

"It was learned that the suspect had access to firearms, and he intended to shoot up a school on the anniversary of the Columbine School shootings," Robertson said. "The collaboration of this detective and other authorities may have averted a real tragedy and saved several lives."

Anschutz was recognized with an additional award, along with another detective earlier in the evening for this effort. He also received an award for a discovery that led to a repair of what could have been a costly computer glitch.

Further, in the past year, Anshutz worked to identify eight children who were rescued from sexual exploitation. In the process, he conducted 36 federal search warrants and 45 state and local search warrants. These warrants led to the seizure of computers, cell phones and other devices used to target children.

"In pursuit of these cases, this detective has examined over 27,000 gigabytes of electronic (data)," Robertson said.

Anschutz assisted in an additional 87 case investigations involving child exploitation and has been instrumental to the department's drone team, Robertson said.

Lt. Mike Napier was chosen as supervisor of the year.

"This supervisor has completely engrossed himself in his new assignment and has taken on numerous assignments that require a high level of attention and detail to complete," Robertson said.

She went on to applaud Napier for his "impressive work ethic" and "positive attitude."

Napier also serves as a firearms instructor and is a member of the ASORT/SWAT team.

Hollie McCauley was honored as the civilian of the year.

McCauley works with the MPD on a daily basis and is responsible for tracking department purchases and payroll and providing financial oversight for many grants.

Her willingness to take on projects "without complaint" was noted.

The awards ceremony also named seven "top cops." These were officer Michael Haines, officer Ryan Grimshaw, officer Nick Stevens, detective Ronald Packer, detective Sgt. Matthew Loughman, Sgt. Stacie Garrick and Lt. Chad Brubaker.

Others were recognized for their efforts in tracking down fugitive Shawn Christy, saving lives of suicidal individuals, their attention to details and more.

The dinner raised $1,770 for Lt. Ken Carol's family for some health concerns, Robertson said. It's the most money ever raised at the annual event.

"Several years ago there was a policeman's ball but as attendance started to dwindle, we decided to put together an awards banquet, and make it a little less formal," Robertson said. "Then, at some point, the notion to bring in donations for someone in need was brought up."

The event features several drawings, and the department reaches out to the community for help in raising funds.

"We've been very blessed by the citizens, businesses and organizations in the city that have reached out and donated items to help us in this endeavor, and all the money goes to the Carol family," Robertson said.SHELBY -- St. Mary's School is Shelby kicked off its annual Catholic Schools week celebration Sunday with a Mass and open house.

"We use this as a way to get parents registered for the next year, and we invite new kids in to see the preschool and other classes," said Principal Kim Stover.

Current and prospective students and their families could visit the classrooms, meet with teachers and have lunch in the cafeteria for a donation. Funds were to be given to parishioner Lindsey Gies for medical expenses.

"For many of the students, it's a great way to show their school pride to their parents or grandparents," Stover said. "They show them their art or pictures and get to meet their teachers."

Throughout the rest of the week St. Mary's students will participate in a variety of activities to learn more about their faith and their futures. They will write essays and complete art projects centered around these topics and participate in activities like a community service project, where students are asked to bring in items for military care packages during the week.

Also this week, they will hear from a variety of adults about career options via a panel that including nearby the St. Mary's Church priest.

It comes to a close Friday with the school's first-ever pep rally and a school dance.

"This week is to celebrate and highlight what makes our school different and what makes our staff different," Stover said. "Some people come here just because it's a great school, but we want people to know that our purpose is to bring God to the kids and the kids closer to God."MANSFIELD -- James C. Gorman, Chairman of the Board of Directors, has notified the company that he will not stand for re-election as a Director at the Companys 2019 annual meeting of shareholders scheduled in April, at which time his term as a Director will expire. Gorman, 94, has served as a Director of the Company since 1946 and as Chairman since 1989. That's 73 years, if one is counting.

Following the conclusion of his term, Gorman plans to continue his involvement with the Company in a non-executive officer capacity.

W. Wayne Walston also has notified the Company that he will not stand for re-election as a Director at the companys 2019 annual meeting of shareholders, when his term will expire. Walston, 76, has served as a Director of the Company since 1999.

Other action taken by the Board of Directors of The Gorman-Rupp Company was the announcement of the annual meeting of shareholders scheduled to be held Thursday, April 25, 2019, and the related establishment of the close of business on March 4, 2019 as the record date for shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at the meeting. The meeting will be held at 10 a.m. at the companys corporate headquarters, 600 South Airport Road, Mansfield, Ohio 44903.

The Board of Directors of The Gorman-Rupp Company (NYSE: GRC) has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.135 per share on the common stock of the Company, payable March 8, 2019, to shareholders of record as of February 15, 2019. This will mark the 276th consecutive quarterly dividend paid by The Gorman-Rupp Company.

About The Gorman-Rupp Company

Founded in 1933, The Gorman-Rupp Company is a leading designer, manufacturer and international marketer of pumps and pump systems for use in diverse water, wastewater, construction, dewatering, industrial, petroleum, original equipment, agriculture, fire protection, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), military and other liquid-handling applications.So here it is autumn and anywhere you look it seems as if everything is dying so it ought to be a good time to talk about the end of the world. Thats what they thought in 1844 anywayand they werent just thinking about it and talking about it, they were getting ready to do it. When dawn broke on October 22 it was the beginning of the Last Day on Earth.

People had special outfits made to wear on the last day of historythey wanted to go to Heaven looking their best. Women in Newville wore white robes because they assumed thats the way angels should look. Businessmen in town didnt open their shops that day, farmers didnt bother to harvest their crops, and John Potter at Sand Hill school told his students not to show up because he would be up in the sky somewhere.

There was a small crowd of believers in Newville, about 30 of them, when the preaching and exhorting began, and about double that number by the time the scary, glorious day arrived. They all started their journeys to Heaven as Methodists, Lutherans, and Baptists, but by October 1944, when it was time to have their tickets punched, they were all known as Millerites.

The Reckoning

The ball started rolling some years before in New York when William Miller was studying the scriptures and charting the propheciesadding together years and reignsand came up with a startling total indicating that the Day of Doom was going to hit in 1843.

His book went viral and his preaching engagements all over the northeastern US attracted massive quivering crowds. As the designated time approached his nervous followers insisted he be more specific, so the window of opportunity for the Lords return was nailed down to a period between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.

When that deadline passed without any stir of Apocalypse the Millerites rescheduled a makeup game for October 22. That date was only 11 days before the election and it was a good thing because folks in Newville were pretty sure Henry Clay was going to get the Presidency and if that wasnt the end of the world in itself then the nation was going straight to hell.

Destiny Along the Clear Fork

Newville was no stranger to religious enthusiasm. A number of famous preachers mounted the lecterns of their village churches through the early years, including a man who was shortly thereafter instrumental in launching the Mormon church.

There were those who believed Newville might be the New Jerusalem, so when the End of the World fever started gaining momentum they eagerly watched the skies over Worthington Township. Then the Great Comet of 1843 tore through the night skies in March of 1843 and it was as if the Signs and Portents all agreed with the Millerites.

Reality Check

Before you get your hopes up for the end of this story let me just caution you that history has branded this event in 1844 with a name: it is called The Great Disappointment. So you know in advance there werent any of these elect who really got raptured up out of Newville.

This passionate frenzy was going on all over much of the USpeople getting ready and packing upand the hysteria of it was so out of the ordinary that it was well documented. But around here in Richland County nobody was keeping a journal of the proceedings because they didnt expect there to be any tomorrow. You dont take minutes if there isnt going to be another meeting.

The local newspapers generally ignored the believers, but this notice appeared in the Richland Shield & Banner: Tomorrow is fixed upon by the Millerites for the universal catastrophe. If the day is not fair, the exhibition, we presume, will be postponed.

So how do we know what happened in Newville? Thats the interesting story. The business of predicting the end of the world has been going on for centuries, millennia, and there have been Get Ready prophets in every generation on the planet, ever since John scratched out his Revelations. Drive down Rt. 603 at Rt. 39 today and youll see the message is still being proclaimed the same as it was in Medieval times before they had clocks.

But this time, this particular end of the world in 1844 in Newville Ohio, saw a very special set of circumstances and a most memorable outcome. Because in the months leading up to October 22, while all her neighbors were wrapping up their earthly affairs, Lydia Stone was getting ready to have a baby.

The Advent

Imagine the confusion and consternation that would cause: the world is about to end and life is about to begin. Lydia didnt know whether to knit booties or wings.

So she came up with a very practical approach that satisfied the demands of both possible outcomes: she sewed for her baby a simple small gown that might be suitable for either Baptism at the Newville Church, or equally appropriate for greeting the Lord on High.

Lydia was biting her nails though, hoping and praying that her baby would arrive before Jesus because she didnt really want to face the prospect of ascending when she felt so awkward and uncomfortable.

October 22

When the big day dawned her Newville neighbors were all grinning and changing into their ascension robes. Harley Heck set his chickens free.

They got a wagon ready to cart Lydia up on to the heights above the Clear Fork where they all gathered at the river.

But Lydia never climbed into the wagonmuch as she wanted tothe spirit was willing but the flesh was having a baby.

October 23

Naturally the Newville Millerite adventists were all quite deflated the next day and, naturally, after the merciless ribbing they endured the next few years from local Methodists and Lutherans, they werent much inclined to want to recall the date of their folly.

Lydias little daughter did, though. She celebrated the day every year of her life until it ended in 1936. Her name was Addie, and she generally told her friends that it was short for Adelaide, but her family knew that her real name was Advent. After her childhood she spent her life far from Newville.

When she was 55 Addie had a granddaughter and the parents kindly named the baby Lydia. When her granddaughter was born in 1899 Addie bought the child a doll that was probably as big as the babyactually it was intended to be specifically as big as a baby, because she prepared for the doll a special garment, unique in its personal, familial and historical significance: her 1844 baby ascension robe.

I met Addies granddaughter who told me this story, and I once held the doll that still wears the simple white and angelic robe created in 1844 for an unborn child with one foot in this world and one in the next.EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part II of a series that began last month in a story that can be found at this link.

FREDERICKTOWN -- The price of pioneer progress, in the eyes of the settlers of Knox County, was to remove anything that got in the way of what they wanted to build.

It's easy to criticize that blunt practicality today, but it was deemed necessary in its day. This led to the destruction of much of the ancient history of the region, once very active with Adena mound building activity.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Fredericktown, once a busy local center of the Adena culture thanks to its location near the head of the Kokosing River, the upper reaches of the entire Muskingum River watershed. In an age when rivers were the main highways, the Kokosing was one of the main routes through central Ohio, and the area around Fredericktown flourished.

The Adena culture thrived from about 1,000 B.C. up to roughly 200 B.C. After that, their distinct culture was gradually replaced by the Hopewell culture. The Hopewell culture, however, was less widespread, and there is little evidence of a strong Hopewell presence in Knox County.

Evidence of the Adena, though, was once plentiful, with dozens of mounds, earthen walls, and enclosures dotting the landscape. Even after a century of vigorous development, the Ohio Archaeological Society was still able to indicate the presence of dozens of mounds in the 1915 atlas. Some of these works can still be found today.

The most prominent earthwork in the Fredericktown area, however, is long gone. It stood precisely where the downtown square of the town sits today.

Reporter R.I. Harvey of The Knox County Citizen wrote an article in 1949 stating that the structure, a three to five foot crescent-shaped wall, was recorded as having originally been 275 feet wide and 300 feet long, its open side lying on the west.

Harvey theorized the structure was used for defense, as its closed side faced east, toward the Kokosing River. But the earthwork was flattened by early settlers who decided they wanted to place their village on that very hill. No trace of the earthwork remains today.

On the far side of the river, on the north side of Montgomery Road, is a large mound that is still in existence, known as the Braddock Mound. This large mound was placed atop the bluff overlooking the Kokosing. Since it survived into modern times, the Braddock Mound was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

An undated article from around 1950 found in the archives of the Fredericktown Historical Society gives the dimensions of the Braddock Mound as 75 feet wide at the base and 30 feet tall, surrounded by a trench and breastwork built from the displaced wall. The article then goes on to a spectacular display of racism with the observation:

Whether this thrown-up breast-work (sic) was the work of the mound-builder or the indian (sic) that followed him is a matter open for discussion, but the mound itself is beyond question the work of the moundbuilder as the indians (sic) could not have raised ambition enough to move so big a pile of earth.

DNA studies conducted by the Ohio State University have since indicated that there is a direct line of descent from the Adena to the Hopewell to historical Indian tribes such as the Ojibwa and Kickapoo. The Fort Ancient culture, which followed the Hopewell, represented an influx of new DNA moving into the region, and other historical Indian tribes appear to be their descendants.

While early white pioneers interpreted the native population they discovered as savages incapable of building the impressive mounds found throughout the Ohio Valley, the Fort Ancient culture had prominent earthworks of its own, and was the culture which introduced corn cultivation to this region.

But what the settlers found was a populace that had been devastated first by the environmental chaos caused by the sudden cooling around 1,300 AD known today as the Little Ice Age, followed by the rapid spread of infectious disease after the first contact with Europeans came in the 1500s.

South of the Braddock Mound is (or was) a circular enclosure, and west of that (and south of the structure once on the square in Fredericktown) is the most easily viewable Adena structure in the area, the Rowley Mound, found on the south side of West Mound Street. Fredericktown has grown south to surround the mound, but the original structure survives and thus was added to the National Register in 1975.

Currently covered with a new growth of trees, earlier photographs and accounts indicate that the mound was bare a century ago. A publication by the Fredericktown Historical Society records comments made by the late Merle Grant, who grew up on a farm south of Fredericktown in the 1920s and 30s.

Grant recalled that during family get-togethers, the children would hike west from the farm and turn around atop the Rowley Mound to wave back at family members. He recalled that the mound was completely bare at that time and used as a cattle pasture.

The article by R.I. Harvey says that the surviving mound was somewhat compromised in 1892 when Mr. Rowley, the landowner after whom the mound is now named, dug 100 loads of dirt out of the mound to use as fill in his yard. In the process, Rowley found two skeletons, though the article does not say what became of them.

Harvey states that these four structures were originally connected by earthen walls, leading him to suggest that they worked as a defensive fort. Modern archaeological opinion tends to lean more toward the probability that such sites were ceremonial in nature. Unfortunately, little of the earthen walls remain to testify to the importance the Fredericktown area once held in the local Adena culture.

Note: The Braddock and Rowley Mounds are visible from the road, but are located on private property. Viewers should not approach the structures without permission.Elderly survivors, politicians, and religious leaders have gathered at the former Auschwitz extermination camp as part of commemorations around the world to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day amid an upturn in hate crimes and nationalist politics.

Political leaders used the occasion on January 27 to emphasize that the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis must continue to serve as a warning, especially to younger generations who are witnessing a rise in intolerance.

The commemorations, which took place after dusk following the end of the Jewish Sabbath, marked the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, located in southern Poland, by the Soviet Red Army in 1945.

German Nazis murdered approximately 1.1 million people at the camp. While the victims were mainly Jews, Poles, and Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities were also exterminated at the camp.

The Eurobarometer published yesterday shows that 50 percent of Europeans see anti-Semitism as a problem in their country, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said as he opened the ceremony.

This is unacceptable for us. We must act and react. We must reach out to citizens, in particular, young people. They are the future of Europe. Our schools and universities should not only provide skills and knowledge. They should teach the importance of solidarity, freedom, and respect for human dignity, he added.

The anniversary comes as recent violence against Jews still reverberates around the globe.

In March 2018, Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, was fatally stabbed in an attack in Paris, while in the United States in October, 11 Jews were murdered by a lone gunman in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Todays threats do not come solely from the fringe, Ira Forman, senior adviser for combatting anti-Semitism at Human Rights First, said in a statement.

In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are traveling the road to authoritarianism. As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust. Worse yet, in the case of Hungary, a European government is once again employing dog-whistle anti-Semitism to further its policy goals, he added.

As former prisoners laid flowers at the so-called "Wall of Death" at Auschwitz Memorial's Block 11, against which Nazis executed thousands of prisoners, Polish nationalists protested outside the camp, saying Poles were not being remembered in the services.

They were faced down by counterprotesters who waved Israeli flags and a "Stop Facism sign as police kept the two groups apart. No violence was reported.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote in an opinion piece for the weekly Welt am Sonntag that Europe faces rising nationalism as "far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust."

"We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy," Maas wrote in the article, as well as on Twitter.

Never again fascism, never again Auschwitz, he added.

With reporting by Euronews, Reuters, AP, and AFPU.S. and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to escort two Russian nuclear-capable bombers away from the North American coastline in the Arctic region, military officials say.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on January 26 said two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers were identified entering an area patrolled by the Royal Canadian Air Force on January 25.

It said two U.S. F-22 and two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets flew to the location and escorted the Russian bombers out of the zone. The U.S. jets flew out of a base in the U.S. state of Alaska, the military said.

The reports did not specify the exact location of the encounter. The military monitors air traffic in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, which extends 320 kilometers off Alaska.

Russian state-run TASS news agency on January 27 cited U.S. officials as saying the Russian jets did not enter sovereign territory.

It quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying the two strategic bombers completed a scheduled flight over neutral waters of the Arctic Ocean [and] practiced refueling during a 15-hour flight.

There were no reports of conflict between the Russian and the U.S. and Canadian warplanes.

"NORAD's top priority is defending Canada and the United States, General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, the NORAD commander, said in a statement.

Our ability to protect our nations starts with successfully detecting, tracking, and positively identifying aircraft of interest approaching U.S. and Canadian airspace."

NORAD, a combined U.S.-Canadian command, uses radar, satellites, and aircraft to monitor aircraft entering U.S. or Canadian airspace.

U.S. officials have reported several incidents of U.S. and Canadian jets scrambling to intercept Russian warplanes and escorting them from the region.

In September 2018, the Pentagon issued a protest after U.S. Air Force fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers in international airspace west of Alaska.

In that incident, the jets followed the Russian craft until they left the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.

In April 2017, Russian warplanes flew near Alaska and Canada several times, prompting air defense forces to scramble jets after a two-year lull in such activity.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the incident, saying the bombers were performing "scheduled flights over neutral waters" when they were escorted by the U.S. F-22 warplanes.

Encounters between Russian and NATO warplanes in various parts of the world have increased in recent years as Moscow demonstrates its resurgent military might.

Moscow said it scrambled a jet in June 2017 to intercept a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber it said was flying over the Baltic Sea.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and Fox NewsU.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is consulting with Afghan government officials following six days of talks with the Afghan Taliban in Qatar aimed at ending the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Khalilzad traveled to the Afghan capital, Kabul, on January 27 after the envoy, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Taliban officials hailed progress toward peace.

Reuters, quoting a Qatari Foreign Ministry official, reported the talks were successful enough that the two sides have agreed tentatively to reconvene on February 25.

Highlighting the effort in a series of tweets, Khalilzad said on January 26 that the United States and the Taliban had made "significant progress," adding that the talks in Doha were "more productive than they have been in the past."



He also emphasized that the sides have a number of issues left to work out and that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.



Encouraging news from [Khalilzad], the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.

The top U.S. diplomat also wrote that the United States was serious about pursuing peace, preventing Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing home forces.



Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that while there was "progress" at the meetings, reports of an agreement on a cease-fire were "not true."



Mujahid also said in a statement that talks about "unresolved matters" will continue.



Until the withdrawal of international troops was hammered out, "progress in other issues is impossible," he insisted.



Earlier, unidentified Taliban sources quoted by the Reuters news agency said the two sides had finalized clauses to be included in a draft agreement.



They envisaged foreign forces withdrawing within 18 months of the deal being signed in return for assurances that Al-Qaeda and the extremist group Islamic State (IS) would not be allowed to use Afghanistan as a base to attack the United States and its allies.



The Western-backed government in Kabul has struggled to fend off a resurgent Taliban, as well as IS and Al-Qaeda militants, nearly two decades after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001.



The Taliban has so far refused to hold direct negotiations with the Afghan government officials, whom they dismiss as "puppets."



The militants say they will only begin talks with the government once a firm date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops has been agreed.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan, AFP, and ReutersThousands of Serbs joined antigovernment rallies in Belgrade on January 26. Protesters marched to the headquarters of the daily Politika and the public radio and television broadcaster RTS and affixed the word "Censored" on their entrance doors. The protest organizers believe that both media outlets provide unbalanced reporting in favor of President Aleksandar Vucic. It was the eighth consecutive Saturday that opposition activists demonstrated in the Serbian capital following an assault by thugs on Serbian Left party leader Borko Stefanovic in November.The Russian Army held a parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg. More than 2,500 troops and 100 vehicles took part in the January 27 event. The 872-day blockade of the city by Nazi Germany ended on January 27, 1944, after claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.Russias second-largest city is marking the 75th anniversary of the lifting of Nazi Germanys devastating Siege of Leningrad during World War II in which hundreds of thousands of civilians perished.



President Vladimir Putin presided over ceremonies in the city, now named St. Petersburg, but did not attend a military parade being held on Palace Square on January 27.



The Siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941, until January 27, 1943. It is estimated that 1.2 million civilians died during the blockade, most of starvation or exposure.



Although the estimates vary, experts believe the Soviet Union suffered up to 27 million deaths during World War II.





The military parade in St. Petersburg began with a minute of silence in memory of those who died during the siege, as snow fell and temperatures hovered around minus 18 degrees Celsius.



Colonel General Aleksandr Zhuravlev, the commander of the Western Military District, said that the Russians "bow to the holy memory of those who didnt return from the war and died of wounds and diseases.



The Russian Army will always keep memory about the exploits of our fathers and grandfathers," he added.





More than 2,500 soldiers and cadets of military academies in modern and period uniforms, as well as 80 units of military equipment, participated in the parade, which featured the famed T-34 tank, which played a key role in defeating Nazi Germany, multiple-launch rocket systems, and infantry fighting vehicles.



It also spotlighted the short-range, nuclear-capable Iskander-M missile system, whose deployment in Russias Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad has angered European NATO members.



Ahead of the commemoration, nearly 5,000 people signed a petition calling on officials to cancel plans to hold the parade.



Critics, including some siege survivors, have denounced the event as misplaced saber-rattling and militaristic propaganda.



Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the controversy, saying St. Petersburg was known for its "rich polemic traditions."



An unidentified Defense Ministry official dismissed the petition, telling the AFP news agency: "A military parade is a soldierly ritual."



"We have an order to conduct a parade and we will conduct it," the official added.

Putin, a native of St. Petersburg, marked the anniversary by laying flowers at two monuments commemorating those who died during the Siege of Leningrad -- the Landmark Stone memorial in the Leningrad region and the Motherland monument at Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery.



The Russian president, 66, was born after the war. But his older brother died in childhood during the siege and is buried in a mass grave at Piskaryovskoye.



Peskov said the day was important "for all Russians and personally for President Putin."



We mourn those who fell defending the city and breaking the blockade, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tweeted. We remember those who worked in the besieged city. We bow to our veterans. Their heroic deeds will be in our hearts forever.



Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that Putin had signed an order allocating 150 million rubles ($2.3 million) for creating new exhibits at the state museum dedicated to the siege.



And Germanys Foreign Ministry announced the launch of two projects in St. Petersburg in remembrance of the Siege of Leningrad.



A statement said that the German government was providing a total of 12 million euros for the projects to modernize a hospital for war veterans in the city and establish a center in the city where Germans and Russians, including survivors of the siege, will be able to meet each other to talk and remember the past.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that while the initiative was "important," it "does not mean the closure of the question of the provision of individual payments by the German government to all currently living survivors of the blockade."

Zakharova said in a statement that Germany had paid siege survivors of Jewish origin compensation of 2,500 euros ($2,850) as part of reparations for the Holocaust.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, AP, and TASSWASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed what he called significant progress made by the U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan after six days of talks with the Taliban in Qatar aimed at ending the 17-year conflict.

Encouraging news from [U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad], Pompeo wrote on January 26 on Twitter.

He reports significant progress in talks with the Taliban on Afghanistan reconciliation.

Pompeo also wrote that the United States is serious about pursuing peace, preventing Afghanistan from continue to be a space for international terrorism & bringing home forces.

Washington is working with the Afghan government and all interested parties, he added, and seeks to strengthen Afghan sovereignty, independence & prosperity.

Pompeos optimistic remarks come after Khalilzad, the veteran U.S. diplomat, said progress had been made in six days of discussions with the Taliban in Qatar.

He cautioned on Twitter that no deal had been finalized with the militants, but he said further talks would resume shortly.

He also said that he was flying back to Afghanistan to discuss the talks.

"Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues," Khalilzad said in a tweet.

We have a number of issues left to work out, he said, while adding that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and everything must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive cease-fire.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that while there was "progress" at the meetings, reports of an agreement on a cease-fire and talks with Kabul "are not true."

"Since issues are of critical nature and need comprehensive discussions, therefore it was decided that talks about unresolved matters will resume in similar future meetings," Mujahid said in a statement released on January 26.

The statement added that until the withdrawal of international troops was hammered out, "progress in other issues is impossible."

Earlier, unnamed Taliban sources quoted by Reuters had said the hard-line Islamic group had offered assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by Al-Qaeda and the extremist group Islamic State (IS) to attack the United States and its allies.

"In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and cease-fire is implemented then other aspects of the peace process can be put into action," a Taliban source told Reuters, quoting from the draft.

More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital, Doha, Reuters reported, quoting Taliban sources.

The Taliban has so far refused to hold direct talks with Afghan government officials.

The Kabul government has struggled to fend off a resurgent Taliban, as well as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda militants, nearly two decades after a U.S.-led coalition drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan, AFP, and Reuters

The lawyer for Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi says the Australian-based academic has been released by Tehran, which held her for more than a month on charges of trying to "infiltrate" Iranian institutions.

Hosseini-Chavoshi, a dual Iranian-Australian citizen who works at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, was released by the court a few days ago, her lawyer Mahmoud Behzadi said on January 27, according to the state news agency IRNA.

In mid-December, the hard-line newspaper Kayhan reported the arrest of Hosseini-Chavoshi as one of the "activists...who, under the cover of scientific activities, had infiltrated state bodies.

According to Kayhan, they manipulated statistics and handed sensitive information to Iran's enemies as part of efforts at "cultural and social invasion.

Behzadi did not say whether the charges against Hosseini-Chavoshi, who works for the University of Melbourne at its School of Population and Global Health and has been published widely on Iranian fertility and family-planning policies, had been dropped without a court sitting.

She was in Tehran to speak at a conference on aging populations at the invitation of the Labor and Social Welfare Ministry.

Iran was once considered a success story in population control, having lowered the birth rate to two per woman from seven between the 1980s and 2002, according to World Bank figures.

Hosseini-Chavoshi was arrested while leaving Iran after the conference had finished.

In October, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for greater efforts to combat enemy "infiltration" as tensions escalated with the United States after Washington withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Iran does not recognize dual nationality and does not routinely announce arrests or charges of dual nationals.

Reuters reported in 2017 that Iran had arrested at least 30 dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.

With reporting by Reuters, IRNA, and AFPThe Kremlin has sought to cast doubt on a report that it has sent as many as 400 private military contractors to Venezuela to help embattled socialist President Nicolas Maduro strengthen security amid opposition protests and a competing claim to leadership by opposition head Juan Guaido.

Speaking in a January 27 appearance on a weekly show on state-run Rossia-1 television, Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, was asked, "So are 400 of our fighters guarding Maduro in Venezuela or not?"

He responded with a Russian saying that can be translated as, "Fear has 100 eyes," suggesting reports citing that figure were exaggerated or untrue, but did not answer the question directly.

Peskov was then asked whether the Kremlin would "officially confirm" any such reports and responded, "Of course not."

He was not asked directly whether any Russian military contractors had been sent to Venezuela and did not volunteer that information.

In a January 25 report, the Reuters news agency cited two sources it did not identify as saying that private Russian military contractors had flown to Venezuela in the previous few days to beef up security for Maduro.

The sources told Reuters that the contractors are associated with the so-called Vagner group of mostly former Russian service personnel who have been involved in clandestine operations in foreign countries.

Yevgeny Shabayev, head of the All-Russia Officers Assembly with ties to Russian military contractors, said he had heard the number of Russian contractors in Venezuela could be around 400, although other sources spoke of smaller numbers.

Previously, Peskov's only comment on the Reuters report was that the Kremlin has no such information.

Dmitry Aleshkovsky, a prominent Russian activist and blogger, says he found evidence suggesting that state-owned airline Rossia could have carried out a flight that was mentioned by Reuters to deliver the contractors.

He said an Il-96 with the tail number RA-96019 flew on January 19 from Moscow to Senegal, then on January 23 to Paraguay, and from there on the same day toward Havana until the planes transponder -- used for tracking purposes -- was turned off.

Aleshkovsky said that according to publicly available data, the plane landed twice more  possibly in Havana and in Caracas. After that, the transponder was turned back on and data show the plane landed back in Moscow.

Private Russian military contractors have been reported in other countries, including Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

On January 23, Russia Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that military contractors were operating in Sudan after British press reports stated that they were helping to crack down on protesters in that country, which is an ally of Moscow.

But she denied they had anything to do with Russian state bodies.

Guaido, the president of the opposition-led National Assembly, on January 23 declared himself acting president in Caracas, as tens of thousands of people marched across the country against Maduro. Dozens of protesters have been killed in the unrest.

On January 26, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on all UN members to recognize Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, calling Maduro's government an "illegitimate mafia state" and a "socialist experiment that has caused the economy to collapse.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo said at a January 26 special session of the UN Security Council.

Maduro, who took office in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chavez, has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses and for his handling of Venezuela's economy.

Maduro was sworn in for a second term two weeks ago but has been met by international condemnation.

An estimated 3 million people have fled the country amid shortages of items like medicine and food.

With reporting by Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL's Russian Service, Interfax, RIA Novosti, and TASSAccording to Tajikistan's government, the disbanded Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) is a "terrorist organization" with evolving ties in the global network of extremist groups. The IRPT helped recruit citizens of Tajikistan to go to Syria and Iraq and join the ranks of jihadist groups, and even recently conspired with the militant group Islamic State (IS) to carry out attacks inside Tajikistan, Tajik authorities allege.



Most others view the IRPT differently.



When the Justice Ministry revoked the IRPT's registration as a political party in August 2015 (after years as the only legally registered Islamic political party not just in Tajikistan but across the entire former Soviet space), the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan issued a statement expressing concern about the ban on the IRPT and saying, "International observers believe these actions are politically motivated and intended to eliminate the IRPT -- Tajikistan's last remaining opposition group -- and intimidate its supporters," adding that "it is vitally important to distinguish between peaceful political opposition voices and violent extremist acts."



For its part, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted, "The ruling comes amid a worsening government crackdown on dissent, and after a long and harsh government-orchestrated campaign against the party."



Subsequent attempts by Tajik authorities to convince other governments and international organizations to recognize the IRPT as a terrorist group have largely failed. Interpol withdrew its "red notice" for the IRPT's leader in February 2018, and many IRPT leaders and their families who fled the country have since found asylum in Europe.



However, Tajikistan's government maintains its position that the IRPT is responsible for or involved in wrongdoing on Tajik territory. Tajik officials often make public references to the IRPT, typically branding it a terrorist or extremist group.



Since being banned in Tajikistan in 2015, the IRPT has had limited opportunities to present its side of the story in response to government accusations. (An exception is the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw, which IRPT representatives have regularly attended since 2016.) The government's charges against the IRPT have been well-covered by international media and are referenced in the stories appended as links to this article.



In an effort to provide a fuller picture of the dispute between the Tajik government and the IRPT, Qishloq Ovozi asked the leader of the former Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, Muhiddin Kabiri, to respond to questions about his organization. Kabiri responded in writing during the first half of December to questions from Qishloq Ovozi.



You're welcome to skip ahead to that interview if you like, but here's some useful context.



The IRPT was part of an alliance, called the United Tajik Opposition, that battled the Tajik government during the country's 1992-97 civil war. The June 1997 peace accord -- which was also endorsed by Iran, Russia, and the United Nations -- ended the war and allowed opposition groups to be registered and integrate into Tajikistan's political arena, even guaranteeing them 30 percent of government posts at all levels.

The deal was subsequently regarded by many international experts on conflict resolution as a successful model for resolving other civil wars, including the Afghan war between government and Taliban forces.



Muhiddin Kabiri became the IRPT's leader after the death in August 2006 of Said Abdullo Nuri, a signatory to the 1997 peace accord on behalf of the opposition. Before it was banned by the government, the IRPT was the second-largest political party in Tajikistan, with around 40,000 officially registered members. However, it had steadily been losing prominence: In Tajikistan's March 2015 parliamentary elections, the IRPT lost its last two seats in parliament and its last government posts.



The Tajik government's expulsion of the IRPT from the country began with the revocation of its registration as a legal political party on August 28, 2015. The move was followed in September by a chain of events that concluded with the government branding the IRPT an extremist group.



On September 4, 2015, Tajikistan's government claimed that Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda had launched an attack on a police station in Vahdat, outside Dushanbe. Tajik authorities called Nazarzoda's purported attack an attempted coup and connected the IRPT to Nazarzoda. The IRPT denied links to Nazarzoda. Nazarzoda had been a member of the opposition at the start of the civil war, but he left for Kazakhstan in 1993 and only returned once the war was over, quickly finding a place in the Defense Ministry. There is no public evidence to suggest Nazarzoda was connected to the IRPT after his return to Tajikistan. He was killed in a security operation on September 16, 2015. By the end of September 2015, the Tajik Justice Ministry had declared the IRPT a terrorist organization.



Tajik authorities detained 13 of the IRPT's leaders who were still in the country after the Nazarzoda incident. They were all later convicted. IRPT deputy leaders Saidumar Husaini and Mahmadali (Muhammad) Hayit were sentenced in June 2016 to life imprisonment.



UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye said after the sentencing, "The crackdown on the IRPT over the last year silenced one of the few opposition voices in the country, seriously compromising the prospects for public participation in Tajikistan's political life."

In May 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Hayit's detention violated several articles of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and recommended Hayit's immediate release.



All are still in prison.



In 2017, Tajikistan amended legislation to allow courts to try and sentence suspects in absentia. Kabiri's trial in absentia started in February 2018. In the closed-door proceedings, he reportedly faced 16 charges, including inciting racial, national, regional, or religious hatred and plotting the violent overthrow of the government.

Why would we 'order' a terrorist attack against citizens of European countries when are living in European countries, where they have given us protection, freedom, and shelter?"

Tajikistan's Supreme Court found Kabiri guilty in early October and sentenced him to a lengthy prison term. Information about just how long the prison sentence was, and of what charges Kabiri was found guilty, was not made public.



Here is a slightly edited translation of Kabiri's Russian-language responses to Qishloq Ovozi's questions.



Qishloq Ovozi: You were recently tried in absentia and sentenced to a long prison term. What is your response to the trial process and the charges against you?



Muhuddin Kabiri: Already a year ago, the authorities were forced to introduce amendments to legislation so that they could convict me in absentia, without any lawyers or court proceedings.



Especially after Interpol removed me from the international wanted list and not one country or international organization recognized the charges of the authorities against us, [Tajik authorities] took this step.



I and my representatives not only did not take part in this process, I don't even know what specifically they accused me of. I do not even have a copy of the court decision, which by law must be presented to anyone convicted.



From the very start, the entire process contradicted all laws and logic. Therefore, it has no judicial force and I do not recognize it.



Qishloq Ovozi: Tajikistan's government says the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) is an extremist group and that you worked together with the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist group in planning attacks in Tajikistan, such as the attack on the foreign bicyclists at the end of July. How do you respond to these accusations?



Kabiri: After the attack on the bicyclists, we condemned that terrorist attack and called for the creation of an international commission to investigate this crime. This was an extremely vicious crime that deserved condemnation.



This was a heavy blow not only to Tajikistan but to all Muslims. After all, many [critics] are waiting for such a moment in order to further accuse Islam, Muslims, or those connected with Islamic opposition groups of all sorts of sins. That is what has been done by Tajikistan's authorities.



It is as if they prepared in advance for this incident and quickly, without any preliminary investigation, accused our party. Even after ISIS claimed responsibility, the authorities continued to blame us.



Tajik authorities are speculating on the situation with radicalization and terrorism. The impression is being created that they are interested in the presence of the constant threat of terrorism in the region and in the country. They are doing everything they can so that this topic remains relevant for everyone, the population and the international community. [It's being done] so that people don't think or talk about the economy, social life, free elections, corruption, etc.



Most importantly, they want to show the world that in Tajikistan there never has been and never will be a peaceful opposition, and that any political activity by citizens will turn into radicalism and chaos. This is why [the Tajik authorities] are interested in the constant presence of this threat so that, under the guise of battling terrorism, they can carry out a genuine war on the opposition, those who think differently, and those who do not agree with their policies.



We are convinced that the Tajik authorities chose these tactics for the long haul and do not intend to correct their mistakes. They are counting on the fact that the West, Russia, and China have no other recourse and will all be forced to accept whatever the Tajik authorities do or say.



As concerns the authorities' other absurd accusation -- that we asked [Islamic State] to carry out this terrorist attack -- this is not even worth responding to. IS and other extremist groups consider us to be their ideological opponents, and we consider them as such. We have always been against violence, totalitarianism, and sowing ideology in society -- for whatever reason, religious or secular. One can see we differ from those other groups.

As concerns the reasons why [President Emomali Rahmon] decided to cast us and other genuine opposition forces from the legal political field, this was connected with his plans to ultimately create family rule in the country."

Since the authorities brazenly and maliciously accuse us of cooperation with IS, there are logical and direct questions one can pose. For example, why would we "order" a terrorist attack against citizens of European countries when are living in European countries, where they have given us protection, freedom, and shelter? How is that in our interests? If the Tajik opposition were willing to do such a thing, why against European tourists? Why not against the criminals in government, who are responsible for the deaths, suffering, and humiliation of thousands of the country's citizens?



There are some other important questions that authorities don't answer. Why did they kill all the members of the group [of suspects in the attack on the cyclists] after they were apprehended and left only the leader? Why do [the authorities] persistently not want to connect this crime with IS? Why don't [the authorities] listen to the recommendations and advice of international organizations, experts, and diplomats who year after year tell them to stop putting pressure on the peaceful opposition, rights activists, journalists and those who think differently [from the authorities], insofar as it is fomenting radicalism among the population?



It is impossible to say that [the authorities] don't understand or don't know this. There are people working [in the government] who have academic degrees, who have contact with experts and international organizations. They even have experience working abroad. In fact, they understand very well, but they have strong interests in the situation developing this way. Everything is going according to their plans.



Qishloq Ovozi: The IRPT was banned toward the end of 2015 and declared an extremist group in Tajikistan. You and some others were not in the country at that time, but thousands of IRPT supporters remain there. What can you say about their situation? Are you able to maintain communication with some of them? What about top IRPT officials Hikmatullo Saifullozoda, Mahmadali Hayit, and Buzurgmehr Yorov, the lawyer who agreed to defend IRPT officials in court, for example?



Kabiri: Immediately after the banning of the party, we issued a statement about halting our activities not only in Tajikistan but across the post-Soviet space. We stated that no one has the right to act in the name of our party in these countries until the next decision. That way, we helped thousands of our members and supporters who did not succeed in getting out to avoid investigations and pressure from the authorities.

Later, the authorities themselves declared they would investigate former members of the party if they carried on political activities in our party's name after the ban. But unfortunately, they did not keep their word and more than 100 people were arrested or questioned during this time.



[The Tajik authorities] often detained people and, after receiving a certain sum of money, released them. And the more intractable or influential figures were thrown in prison on the basis of fictitious charges and forced to make statements against the party. Some of those who were investigated had stopped their political activities before the ban on the party.



The most recent example is Naimjon Samiev, the former head of the party's branch in the Sughd region, who left for Russia in 2014 and ceased his activities. In November 2018, they arrested him in Chechnya at the request of Tajik authorities and secretly, without a trial, brought him to Tajikistan.



Many migrants who earlier cooperated with us in Russia were forced to sign a statement at the embassy in Moscow in 2015 that they were ceasing their activities for the party. But this did not save them, and just the other day several people were forced to post video statements in which they said they were not members of our party. This shows that the repressive mechanism is still working.

A path to cooperation can be found even without a coalition, if there is a common goal and general vision of the future. That is what we are doing now with many groups and figures."

Concerning our political prisoners, we receive information about them from relatives and those close to them. Often, when they desperately need something. According to the information we receive, they are kept in inhumane conditions, humiliated and beaten. Under various pretenses the conditions of their incarceration are stiffened. For example, all the political prisoners are put on lists of those "likely to try to escape" and every two hours they are made to go through extremely humiliating procedures like squatting on their hands, or with their hands on their heads, until they fall over, even under heavy rain or [the hot] sun.



Recently, relatives of political prisoners who are outside the country formed a committee for their support and they conducted several rallies. One example is the meeting at the embassy in Berlin near the Bundestag. The UN Committee for Human Rights has already demanded that several political prisoners be freed immediately -- Zayd Saidov, Mahmadali Hayit, and Buzurgmehr Yorov. This committee is looking into the cases of several others, and we hope in the near future there will similar calls, for example, in the cases of Sayfullozoda Husaini and Rahmatullo Rajab.



Qishloq Ovozi: The IRPT was part of Tajikistan's government for 18 years. Can you describe the IRPT's relations with the Tajik government during that time? What do you think was the reason, or the reasons, that Tajik authorities chose to remove you from the political scene in Tajikistan?



Kabiri: We entered the government with the 30 percent quota in 1998 and out of all the opposition groups, 54 people received posts at various levels, including local administrative posts. At the most, there were 10 members of our party and at the most they stayed in these posts until 2005. Therefore, it is impossible to say we were part of the government for 18 years.



As the authorities accumulated power into the hands of [President Emomali Rahmon], he gradually removed all representatives of the opposition from their posts, leaving only those who could not be called opposition figures. So, in fact, he dismantled the peace agreement by 2005, but the status quo was preserved.



As concerns the reasons why he decided to cast us and other genuine opposition forces from the legal political field, this was connected with his plans to ultimately create family rule in the country. He analyzed who and which forces could not resist this, independent of ideology or size.



For example, he understood that even the loyal Communists under the leadership of a person such as [former leader of the Communist Party of Tajikistan Shody] Shabdolov would support his plans without any particular enthusiasm. Already for him, ordinary and silent loyalty was not enough. He demanded complete obedience. We and the Communists always had but two places in parliament, but this turned out to be too much. He threw opponents into prison. Some people were killed in unclear circumstances. Others fled the country.

He oversaw the necessary changes in the constitution that gave him the right to lead the country for life and transfer power to his children, with the political field devastated and without even one voice inside the country to oppose him. Not only in parliament, but throughout the country there was not one public voice against [him or his government]. He got what he wanted, full power, the possibility to transfer this power to his children, and control over the wealth of the country.

But for how long? And it's unclear what kind of scenario he sees for the future for his children and his clan.

Qishloq Ovozi: What are your plans now?



Kabiri: We [base our plans on] the situation in which our region is now in and we do not set tasks that cannot be fulfilled. We have succeeded in surviving the shocking condition we found ourselves in and have adapted to the new realities and made the necessary reorganization. That is very important for any political forces in exile.



We are set to work in several directions. Work with our migrants so they do not fall under the influence of radical groups; build a constructive relationship with all governments and international organizations that are interested in a stable and democratic Tajikistan; set up members and supporters of the party and the National Alliance for a difficult, possibly long battle; and most important, that this battle should always be waged by peaceful means.



One could argue with our plans for uniting all opposition groups of Tajikistan, wondering if this is possible.

It is known we created the National Alliance of Tajikistan that four opposition parties and movements joined. Today, this is the most optimal thing. We set for ourselves the task of uniting all opposition groups to the greatest extent possible. No one, ever, anywhere would be able to unite all the spectrum of opposition in society and to set such a task would be unrealistic.

There is and always will be reasons why political groups cannot enter into a united coalition and this needs to calmly be taken into consideration. That was the way it was with the UTO, where many politicians or groups did not enter. Not joining this or that coalition does not mean groups cannot cooperate. A path to cooperation can be found even without a coalition, if there is a common goal and general vision of the future. That is what we are doing now with many groups and figures.



Qishloq Ovozi: What were the strategic mistakes the party made during these 18 years?



Kabiri: Of course, there were mistakes I made and the party made. For example, after the signing of the peace agreement, our party did not focus attention on strengthening civil society. This was a mistake. We attempted to do something, but it turned out not to be enough. Maybe for this reason, civil society was weak and even our support could not set it on its feet. That was surely the major mistake of the opposition in the past.



However, we did provide help to publications, NGOs, students, athletes, even to state institutions. I remember when the only religious musical orchestra in the country had financial difficulties. They appealed to us, and the leadership of the party paid for their charges and salaries. Naturally, this did not fall into the activities of a political party, but many awaited such help from us.



We need to separate political and religious activities at an early period. We understood this and started an internal process and thought the authorities should also be interested in this. We even hoped for moral support. But it turned out they were just interested in preserving the party in its original form until its closure. That we realized the intentions of the authorities so late was our mistake.



RELATED LINKS HIGHLIGHTING GOVERNMENT STATEMENTS ON KABIRI AND HIS PARTY:

https://www.dw.com/ru/------/a-18751079

https://rus.ozodi.org/a/first-deputy-minister-calls-Islamic-party-terrorists-/29481728.html

https://lenta.ru/news/2015/09/29/pivt/

http://marzbon.tj/?p=3254

https://www.newsru.com/world/05sep2016/interpol.html

https://regnum.ru/news/2370652.html

https://www.rbc.ru/politics/01/08/2018/5b6192cf9a79477adc063e1b

http://sugd.tj/index.php/tj/navid/9465-2018-05-17-07-00-56

https://www.fergananews.com/news/23950

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RLFew outside Tajikistan's firmly entrenched political elite would ever dream of running against powerful incumbent Emomali Rahmon. One state-funded think tank appears to be doing its best to ensure it stays that way.



The sanity of Quvvatali Murodov, a retired doctor with no political affiliations but bold ambitions to challenge Rahmon in 2020, has been questioned after he said he wanted to "end the politics of fear" in Tajikistan and suggested that the authorities drop restrictions that make it difficult to run for the presidency.



Murodov, 69, repeated his determination to join the presidential race, despite negligible chances of success, in a January 18 interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service.



"Everybody is afraid. Dont say this, dont say that. There is no freedom of speech. The media cant write freely," said Murodov, a former member of the now-disbanded People's Front, which fought in the 1992-97 Tajik civil war. "People should be able to speak freely...and demand their rights."



The next day, the Center of the Strategical Studies -- a think tank with official ties to the Tajik president's office -- published what were essentially anonymous opinion pieces directly questioning Murodov's sanity, suggesting he had ulterior business motives and alluding that some seek to return the country to conflict.

"His mental health should be subject to a medical assessment," said one of the pieces, attributed only to M. Akrami.



Another piece argued that there was no climate of fear in Tajikistan and hence there was no need to talk about it. Government matters should not be taken "lightly" and "the election campaign must not be dealt with with irresponsibility and carelessness," it said.



The article, written by a Karim Pirimzoda, went on to attack unnamed enemies who "want to paralyze the governing system" and "plot another devastating war."



The third opinion piece, penned by "Sharifzoda R.E.," claimed that Murodov's presidential ambitions were no more than a bid to settle a personal score after he lost a court case regarding his privatization of a sanatorium in 1997.



In 2004, the court ordered Murodov to return the property to the government, ruling that the privatization was illegal. Murodov unsuccessfully sued authorities for compensation of the money he says he paid to purchase and renovate the building.



Saifullo Safarov, the deputy head of the center, said on January 23 that the articles were sent by ordinary residents of the capital, Dushanbe.



"The very fact that Murodov wants run for president proves that there is not a climate of fear in Tajikistan," Safarov said. "The authorities will provide security to anyone running for parliament and president."



Political Newbie



Murodov first announced his intention to run for office in March, when he called on parliament to drop the requirement that presidential hopefuls present 210,000 signatures in order to register as a candidate.



Murodov proposed that it should be changed to 25,000 instead. In the 2013 election, an opposition candidate was disqualified for failing to gather the required number of signatures.



An anesthesiologist by profession, Murodov was once a member of the Peoples Front, a pro-government paramilitary force that fought against the Islamist-led opposition in Tajikistan's civil war.



Rahmon, who came to power in 1992, has won several elections described by Western monitors as not free and lacking transparency and genuine choice.



In 2015, parliament gave Rahmon the title "Leader of the Nation," giving him the exclusive right to run for president an unlimited number of times. His current seven-year term expires in 2020.



Daler Sharipov, a Dushanbe-based journalist who writes about domestic politics, says Murodov's announcement was unexpected so early ahead of the next election.



"It's important to have such people in society. It changes the monotonic situation of our political scene," Sharipov said.



Sharipov said that despite having little chance to win, "it's good to have genuine contenders" as opposed to "false" candidates selected by authorities to portray the election as democratic.



Abdughani Mahmadazimov, the head of the independent Society of Political Scientists in Dushanbe, said Murodov's effort to run for office "breaks the belief in our society that it's impossible [for ordinary people] to take part in a presidential election."



Unsupportive Family



Murodov told RFE/RL that he is now working on a political program in preparation for the election campaign, which is expected to officially start in the autumn.



Tajikistan holds both parliamentary and presidential elections in 2020, but no date has been set. Campaigns usually begin one year ahead of time.



He said that he is running despite objections from his own family. Murodov says his four children have told him they would vote for Rahmon even if their father gets on the ballot.



"They are telling me not to run, because theyre afraid," Murodov told RFE/RL.



Rahmon and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party are widely expected to win both presidential and general elections by a landslide.



The Central Asian nation has no record of elections described as fair and free by Western observers.Beckley, WV (25801)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 63F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Beckley, WV (25801)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Source:

January 27, 2019 15:08 IST

The official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the residence of the man who allegedly shot him, officials said on Sunday.

The recovery comes nearly two months after the incident in Bulandshahr's Siana area where on December 3 a mob fought pitched battles with police, apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village.

Inspector Subodh Kumar's phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones on Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said.

Natt, who had allegedly shot the inspector during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is in jail.

"We had got information from sources that inspector Subodh Kumar's mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natt's house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place," Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said.

"The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt's house during the search.

"Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records," he told reporters.

However, the pistol that was used to open fire on the inspector is still missing, and the ASP said a 'search is on for it'.

Natt, 26, a resident of Chingrawathi village, would work part-time as a driver in Delhi and nearby areas, and other times worked locally as a labourer, according to the police.

During the violence, a 20-year-old Chingrawathi resident Sumit Kumar was also killed of gunshot.

A first information report was lodged at the Siyana police station against at least 80 people for murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damaging public property, among other charges.Twenty-seven were named.

"So far, 38 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence case," Siyana Circle Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI on Sunday.

Those arrested include Bajrang Dal's Bulandshahr unit convener Yogesh Raj, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Siyana unit head Shikhar Agarwal, Army jawan Jeetender Malik, and Kalua, who first attacked the inspector, surrounded by five to six men.

A separate FIR for cow slaughter was filed on December 3 in which six accused have been arrested.

Three of them, Azhar Khan, Mehboob Ali and Nadeem Khan, were on January 14 booked under the National Security Act (NSA) by the Bulandshahr administration, which said their release may disrupt public order.Source:

January 27, 2019 20:13 IST

The Supreme Court on Sunday cancelled the January 29 hearing in the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case as one member of the five-judge Constitution bench would not be available.

The sitting of the Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi stands cancelled as Justice S A Bobde will not be available on January 29, as per a notice issued by the Supreme Court registry.

"Take notice that due to non availability of Justice S A Bobde on January 29, 2019 (Tuesday), sitting of Constitution bench in Chief Justice's court, comprising the Chief Justice, Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, stands cancelled.

"Therefore, Constitution bench matter will not be taken up for hearing," the notice stated.

The five-judge bench was re-constituted on January 25 as Justice U U Lalit, who was a member of the original bench, had recused himself from hearing the matter.

When the new bench was constituted, Justice N V Ramana was also excluded from the re-constitution bench.

No reason was cited for the exclusion of Justice Ramana in the new Constitution bench.

Besides the CJI, the new bench comprises Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.

In the fresh bench, Justices Bhushan and Nazeer made a come back to hear the matter.

Both of them were part of a earlier bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra (now retired).

It had on September 27, 2018, refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench the reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam.

While Misra and Bhushan had said it has to find out the context in which the five-judge bench had delivered the 1994 judgment, Justice Nazeer had given a minority verdict disagreeing with the two judges.

Nazeer had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering religious belief which requires detailed consideration.

On January 10, Justice Lalit had recused himself after expressing disinclination to participate in the hearing any further as he had appeared as a lawyer for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh in a related matter 'sometime in the year 1997'.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad high court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On January 10, the bench in its order had noted that the apex court registry's secretary general has informed the CJI that in four suits, out of which these appeals have arisen, in all 120 issues have been framed for trial and a total of 88 witnesses were examined.

It had noted that depositions of witnesses run into 13,886 pages and a total of 257 documents exhibited.Source:

Last updated on: January 27, 2019 21:05 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government in Kerala and said the Sabarimala issue had shown to the people of the country how the communist government was trying to disrespect the culture of the state.

He said the opposition parties could abuse him as much as they wanted but should not mislead farmers.

The prime minister said the opposition should not create hurdles in opportunities for the youth.

"Sabarimala got the attention of the entire nation. The people of India are seeing the manner in which the communist government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture The UDF (United Democratic Front) too is just like the Communists.

"Why is the government undermining the culture of the state? Unfortunately, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack. It's been done by a party which is governing the state," Modi told a huge gathering at a Yuva Morcha meet in Thrissur.

Modi said his government had made efforts to make all kitchens in the country smoke free.

"When we came to power, we made efforts to make all kitchens smoke free. At that time, only 55 per cent of houses had gas connections. But today we have achieved 90 per cent," he said.

The prime minister also termed as the 'biggest joke,' the Congress and Left parties talking about democracy.

Modi slammed the Congress and the Left parties, saying they had no respect for institutions, including the Election Commission.

He referred to the political killings in Kerala and equated it with those in Maharashtra

He said the mindset of the Emergency still lived in the minds of many Congress leaders.

"Congress and communists talking about democracy is the biggest joke. What is happening in some parts of Kerala.. political workers are killed just because their ideology is different from the communists," he said.

The prime minister this culture has now spread to Madhya Pradesh, where BJP workers were being attacked.

He said the Congress was even questioning the Election Commission.

"Be it Congress or communists, they have zero regard for any institution. For them every institution, the armed forces, police, CBI, the CAG, everybody is wrong, but they are right."

He also referred to the recent hacker's press meet in London over the alleged hacking of EVMs in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"And who was participating in the press conference? A top-most Congress leader. Is this your respect to our institutions and our democracy?

"Is this what our politics have come to right now? Whoever has gone to foreign soil to undermine the mandate of the people of India will have to answer to the people of India," Modi said.Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Periods of rain, heavy at times early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Periods of rain, heavy at times early. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.Today is the end of our W Trek - Classic tour. After breakfast, we all go our separate ways. Both the London family and we happened to book the same bus to El Calafate, Argentina this morning.

The bus left Puerto Natales at 7:30 am, arrived at the Chile border control about an hour later. We waited ~30 minutes to clear the Chile border, then went to the Argentina border close by, waited another 40 minutes to clear this one. Finally, we arrived at El Calafate, Argentina around 2 pm, slightly ahead of the 2:15 pm scheduled time. So, the whole trip including 2 border crossings took about 6.5 hours (or ~7 hours according to schedule). For some reason the same trip going back is listed as 5 hours (8 am leaving El Calafate, 1 pm arriving Puerto Natales). Do not ever believe that. When we took that bus 3 days later we arrived at Puerto Natales after 2 pm, barely made our next bus connection to Punta Arenas. Anyway, I really regret backtracking from El Calafate to Santiago by buses and plane. It was boring and wasted so much time. We should have flown from El Calafate to Buenos Aires instead.

1. Chile border control.

2. Argentina border control.

3. Encounter traffic :)

4. Lupins at El Calafate, Argentina.

5. Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve.

6. Flamingos at Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve.

7. Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve.

8. Black-faced ibis at Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve.

9. Laguna Nimez Nature Reserve and Lake Argentina.

(To be continued)Traverse City, MI (49684)

Today

Mainly clear skies. Low 53F. ENE winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low 53F. ENE winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.Property details:

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Nearby CaliforniaArriving on campus for the first time as a freshman can be stressful for a multitude of reasons, so keeping yourself busy is key to settling into a healthy routine. In order to get into this new college lifestyle, Virginia Tech provides its students with plenty of opportunities outside the cAt the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, ALA officials announced that Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will serve as honorary chair of National Library Week, April 713, 2019.

We couldnt imagine a more ideal person to serve as National Library Week honorary chair, said American Library Association President (ALA) Loida Garcia-Febo, in a statement. Melinda Gates has been a partner and catalyst for focusing global attention on the essential roles of libraries in providing equitable access to information and learning in the digital age for more than two decades. Her efforts to lift up underserved communities and empower individuals to make a difference in the world mirror the spirit of librarians and library workers, who work to help patrons reach the peak of their potentials.

Indeed, over the last 20 years, Gates has invested more than $1 billion through her foundations Global Libraries initiative to enhance the power of libraries to improve lives.

In addition to providing communities with access to ideas and information, libraries play an important role in our public life by encouraging creativity, promoting equality, and serving as a source of empowerment, Gates said. This week, and every week, library workers deserve our support and our gratitude.

Gates, meanwhile, kicked off the 2019 ALA Midwinter meeting with a stirring keynote that focused on gender equality. And on April 23, Gates will publisher her memoir, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, with Flatiron Books, a Macmillan imprint.

The 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting runs through January 29.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is an annual observance by the American Library Association and libraries across the country each April.In an inspiring opening keynote on January 25, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and author of a highly anticipated memoir, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, spoke passionately about her global campaign for gender equality, as well as her own personal evolution as an advocate. And she opened the 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting with a call to action, urging her audience to recognize their power to create positive change in the world.

The demand for gender equality is growing louder, and it is coming from all over the world, Gates told attendees. In the U.S. women are marching, running for office, breaking through glass ceilings. Around the world governments are starting to recognize that investing in women and girls has to be a priority. In other words, the engines are ignited, the rocket is rumbling, the earth is shaking. But I want to tell you that the moment of lift it is not inevitableits just not. If we want to summon a moment of lift for women and girls, a moment that will lift up all of humanity, we all need to step up, every single one of us in this room.

Over the course of Gates' 45 minute talk30 minutes of which was in conversation with renowned librarian Nancy PearlGates spoke about her own personal journey, from her traditional childhood in Dallas (her mother was a homemaker and her father worked on the Apollo missions), to her education in computer science and business (one of the few women at the time to pursue such degrees) to her time at Microsoft, (where she met a guy at work, and fell in love). Gates also spoke about her family, and her marriage to Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, including their working life together running what is now the largest private foundation in the world.

The heart of Gates talk, however, involved the issue of gender equality, and why, in 2012, the foundation committed significant resources to providing free, voluntary contraception to women in the developing world.

I have to be honest, when we started this foundation work, gender equality wasnt anywhere on my radar screen, Gates told librarians. That is, until one day, while visiting a Gates-supported health facility in India, she met a young mother named Mina.

She was proudly holding this baby boy and telling me about breastfeeding, and how she bonded with this child, and she clearly loved him. But when Gates asked the young mother if she planned to have more children, things took a dark turn. She said, very sad, no I dont want anymore children. I cant have any more children. I cant feed this baby boy when I am finished breastfeeding him. I have no hope for educating this child. My only hope is that you will take him home with you. She didnt know who I was. She didnt know where I was from except for that I was from the United States. And her story crushed me. Absolutely crushed me.

 I believe in the power of a community of individuals to change the world. 

After that experience, Gates said she came home and dug into the data. What I found out was that 200 million women were asking us every single year for contraceptives, she said. And we werent giving them access to the basic tools that we use in the United States. Later, when asked by Pearl, Gates confessed that, as a practicing Catholic, she struggled with the decision to support a global initiative to provide contraception. But she said she came to a simple realization: "I couldn't let these children die."

Helping to lead a coalition to deliver voluntary access to contraceptives turned out to be just the beginning, Gates said.

I quickly realized that to speak out on that topic wasnt nearly enough. There were so many more issues facing women, so many challenges that require our attentionmaternal newborn health, access to education, unpaid work, child marriage, economic opportunity, workplace discriminationthese are the barriers we need to knock down, the doors we need to open and walk through if were really going to achieve womens empowerment.

In conversation with Pearl, Gates sketched out an inclusive vision of achieving gender equality, which, she said, has to happen in the home, in the workplace, in the culture at large, and which includes men embracing feminism, and equality. She also told librarians that writing her memoir made her appreciate more the work that librarians dosomething Gates is intimately familiar with through the Gates Foundation, which over its 20 years, has granted over $1 billion dollars to libraries around the world.

You remind us that facts matter. You challenge our worldviews, you bring communities together and change our minds through dialogue, Gates told librarians. And in this last year, writing a book, Ive been again thinking a lot about libraries and I realize you do even more than that: you are the guardians of our stories. You protect our stories. You cherish our stories. You pass along our stories. And that is incredibly important in society, because its our stories that bind us together. Its our stories that help us reach out and connect and that is how we learn and how we grow.

Toward the end of their conversation, Pearl asked Gates how, with all she's seen, and given the daily barrage of bad news in the media, she remains optimistic.

"If you think short term you can definitely get pretty negative, Gates conceded. When Im out in the developing world, I see a lot of very harsh things, and I write about some of these in the book, including female cutting, early child marriage. And I feel like you have to take it in You have to let the heartbreak in, and feel it, and sit with it for a while and then you have to push back with action.

Gates closed by reciting a favorite quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead: never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

I believe in the power of a community of individuals to change the world, Gates added. Thats why I ask all of you, when you read the book, to think about your role in society.

Gates' memoir, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, is due out in April, from Flatiron Books. The 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting runs through January 29.PSFK Weekly Debrief

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Want to send us an email?Succession Capital Partners, LLC has been selected for the 2018 Best of Norfolk Award in the Investment Firm category by the Norfolk Award Program.

Each year, the Norfolk Award Program identifies companies that have achieved exceptional success in their local community and business category. Only one company per category is selected as the winner.

We are pleased to have been recognized with this award. We work incredibly hard to create optimal environments for our employees and the families that trust us to continue their legacy, while delivering strong financial returns to our investors, said Matt Malone, Managing Partner of Succession Capital Partners. This award is a testament to our teams ability to do that, and help make Norfolk a stronger community.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2018 Norfolk Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Norfolk Award Program and data provided by third parties.

###

About Succession Capital Partners

Succession Capital Partners is the only professional buy-out firm headquartered in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk area. Succession focuses on working with family owned businesses to assist them with the proper succession of their business. The firm invests in operating companies under $50 million in enterprise value and unlike most private equity firms, the partners of Succession Capital run their acquired businesses day to day.

Succession currently owns A-1 Plumbing, Foundation Recovery Systems, Shipyard Staffing, BizWiz Software Management Systems, JES Foundation Repair, Independence Materials Group, Mount Valley Foundation Service, Tar Heel Basement Systems, Indiana Foundation Services, and Groundworks Companies. For more information about Succession Capital Partners please visit http://www.successioncp.com

About Norfolk Award Program

The Norfolk Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Norfolk area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Norfolk Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy.

Media Contact:

Cary McGuckin

Partner, Media Relations

Phone: 877- 537- 9675

Email: cmcguckin@groundworks.co

Website: http://www.successioncp.comBeing a safe driver, having safety devices installed and making smart coverage changes will help you save money on car insurance, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Autocarinsurancetips.com has launched a new blog post that presents 7 ways in which a driver can obtain cheap auto insurance.

Car insurance rates are determined after analyzing multiple factors, including car model, driving history and ZIP code. While some factors, like state legislation, are beyond drivers control, other rating factors can be modified and bring the costs down. Find out how to get better premiums:



Use online car insurance quotes. Brokerage websites are recommended to complete car quotes. Make sure you complete the same information on all the questionnaires. After you received at least three car quotes, start analyzing them in order to find the most advantageous deal. Also, check all available discounts offered by each insurer.

Purchase higher deductibles. Deductibles are the money paid by the policyholder before insurance policy kicks in. By raising deductibles, the policyholder will lower his premium rates.

Keep a clean driving record. A driver with no traffic tickets and no accidents for a number of years is eligible for a safe driver discount. Most insurance companies will lower premium rates after three years of clean driving, while other insurers will wait even five years to provide this discount. Usually, this discount will lower insurance rates by 10%-20%.

Carefully select car model. Factors like the likelihood of theft, costs to repair and safety record, determine the price of the insurance rates. Safety and anti-theft devices also play a significant role in determining the premium of a vehicle

Keep a good credit score. Insurance companies calculate rates based on how good or bad is a persons credit score. Drivers with bad credit scores will pay higher insurance rates. Improve credit score by using balance transfer credit cards of short term loans with a credit union.

Consider dropping full coverage. If the car is worth less than ten times the premium, having full coverage may not be cost effective. Auto dealers and banks can tell you how much your car is worth it.

Pay annually. Drivers can save even 10 percent from their premium, by choosing to pay the whole insurance once. In that way, they will no longer pay monthly administrative fees.

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit http://autocarsinsurancetips.com/

Autocarinsurancetips.com is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

The HOH girls team stirs the pot in NOLA. The grand prize trophy was a huge gumbo pot!

Last week, seventeen athletes from the Head Over Heels girls team traveled to New Orleans, a.k.a The Big Easy, for the Jazz Invitational gymnastics meet. The girls enjoyed training at the host gym Empire Gymnastics on Friday, January 18th, and then performing on Saturday and Sunday. Our HOH ladies did a phenomenal job, with the Level 10 girls winning first place at the meet.

On top of that, the Level 8 girls took second place! Each team needed at least three girls to compete in every level, and since HOH only has two Level 9 girls those ladies werent able to compete as a separate team, but they both did an outstanding job, regardless. The grand prize trophy was a huge gumbo pot! The Jazz Invitational is one of several meets that the HOH Girls Team will need to compete in to be eligible to qualify for state and national competitions.

Living up to its colorful reputation, New Orleans proved to be quite entertaining for the girls team. A Mardi Gras World Tour allowed the girls to visit the warehouse where Mardi Gras floats are stored, and see both floats from years past and also new floats in progress. The girls were able to watch artisans at work on the floats, as well as make their own Mardi Gras masks.

A carriage ride through the French Quarter provided another delightful interval for the ladies, although a sad note throughout the city occurred when the New Orleans Saints lost their shot at the Super Bowl. Of course no trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to the renowned Cafe Du Monde, so the girls consequently enjoyed mouthwatering beignets there in the French Market. All together, the HOH ladies did an amazing job at the Jazz Invitational and had a great time in the Big Easy. Were looking forward to their next success!Kolkata, Jan 27 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday alleged that the Gandhi family did not allow former President Pranab Mukehrjee to become the country's Prime Minister.

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conferring the nation's highest honour Bharat Ratna on Mukherjee, Sushil Modi said throughout his political career, Pranab Babu had never been a BJP leader.

"I would like to thank the Prime Minister for giving the Bharat Ratna to Pranab Babu, (though) Pranab Babu has never been a BJP leader.

"Throughout his life he has been the leader of the Congress. But the Gandhi family did not allow him to be the Prime Minister," he said while addressing a party rally in the neighbouring Howrah district.

Latest updates on Gandhi Jayanti 2019Ghaziabad, Jan 27 : Inspired by movie "A Wednesday", a minor in Ghaziabad threatened to rock the city by planting bombs on January 26, 2019 -- the Republic Day, police said on Sunday.

On January 24 evening and also the next morning, the UP 100 received a threatening call on its internet portal. The person threatened that he would plant bombs at several strategic locations in Kavi Nagar Police Station area and blast them simultaneously, according to the police.

The threat being of grave nature, the police registered a case and initiated an investigation.

During the investigation, it was found that the call had been made from a laptop connected to wifi in Hans Apartments, Radiant School, in RK Puram, falling within Kavi Nagar Police Station limits of Ghaziabad.

The investigation officer, who solved the mystery fast, found that the threat had been issued by a minor. To mislead the police, the accused who issued the threat gave the mobile number of a family friend on the portal.

However, during interrogation, he gave in and confessed to the crime. But, as the local residents collectively requested the police to be lenient, they released the boy with a warning, said Superintendent of Police (City) Shlok Kumar.Shillong, Jan 27 : The Indian Navy divers on Sunday made efforts to retrieve the body of a miner, which was detected on Saturday by an underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) inside a rat-hole coal mine at Ksan village in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills, where 13 more remained trapped for 45 days now.

"The Navy divers are trying to retrieve the second body detected inside the rat-hole mine but due to many obstacles which include exhaust pipes used by the coal miners inside the mine and turbidity of the water, the retrieval has become very difficult," rescue operations spokesperson Reginald Susngi said.

A 15-member team of Navy divers from Visakhapatnam detected the second body with the help of the UROV inside the rat-hole coal mine but through a complex maize of sub rat-hole mines.

The UROV also stumbled on tell-tale signs like spades, a wooden cart and then located the dead miner.

"They (Navy) are making all efforts. Let us hope they will be able to pull out the body soon," he said.

The second body which is yet to be identified was detected from the same rat-hole coal mine where the UROV found the first body of a miner over a month after the miners were trapped inside the coal mine on December 13.New Delhi, Jan 27 : Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, whose "Roma" has been nominated across 10 categories at the Oscars, believes there's immense scope for compatibility when it comes to a film's release in theatres and via the OTT medium.

"Roma" got a limited theatrical release, and it was put out by Netflix for the streaming platform's audience last December. The number of theatres playing the film increased as the gripping drama created a buzz.

Cuaron says he has "deep respect" for Netflix which has created such a wide audience for a film which is black and white, in Spanish, and one without stars.

"I am very grateful about that. I am also grateful that through the platform, the film has had a very healthy theatrical release. Yes, I think the theatrical release has been very healthy... It had a 70 millimeter release as well... I think both the online platform and theatrical release can be compatible. It can be and should be compatible," the Oscar-winning director told IANS over phone from Singapore.

At the Golden Globes this year, Cuaron was irked when a journalist asked him how the combined release between Netflix and theatres could mark the death of independent cinema.

Cuaron had said: "My question to you is, how many theatres did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars - how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release?"

"Why don't you take the list of foreign films this year and compare the theatrical release to those things and for how long they've been playing. See how many are playing in 70 (millimeter)."Yangon, Jan 27 : Hundreds of people cheered on Sunday as rainbow-coloured boats carrying LGBT revellers sailed in the waters of Myanmar's Yangon city in a sign of growing acceptance for the community in a socially conservative country where gay sex remains illegal.

It was the country's first pride boat parade, a part of Myanmar's annual LGBT festival, Yangon Pride, organised by non-profit &PROUD to celebrate the fight for acceptance and against the stigma the community faces, reports Efe news.

The first part of the fifth edition of the festival concluded on Sunday and the second will be held over the next weekend.

Around 300 people enjoyed the three cruises on Saturday, about two hours of journey each way along the Yangon River.

"Every year we make (the festival) bigger and bigger and this year we pushed a lot. Every year, we take a few more steps into the city," said Willem van Rooij, co-director of &PROUD.

Myanmar laws consider sexual activities between people of the same sex illegal which is punishable with up to 10 years in prison .

Nikki Rangoon, a 22-year-old trans woman, told Efe news that the greatest support came from the people despite the government and authorities ignoring the community.

This is the fifth year running for the festival.

&PROUD renamed it Yangon Pride last year to anchor it to the global Pride movement for LGBT people.

This year's festival also featured an exciting line up of award-winning films, live performances, talks and activities to promote greater understanding of the rights and identities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people, according to the organisers.London, Jan 26 : An African practice of "ironing" a girl's chest with a hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the UK to "protect" young girls from unwanted male attention, sexual harassment and rape, the media reported on Saturday.

The Guardian reported that community workers in London, Yorkshire, Essex and the West Midlands informed the newspaper about cases in which pre-teen girls from the diaspora of several African countries were subjected to the painful, abusive and futile practice.

The UN has described the practice as one of five global under-reported crimes relating to gender-based violence.

The perpetrators, usually mothers, consider it a traditional measure which protects girls from unwanted male attention, sexual harassment and rape. Medical experts and victims, however, call it child abuse which could lead to physical and psychological scars, infections, inability to breastfeed, deformities and breast cancer.

One community activist told the daily that she was aware of 15-20 recent cases in South London town of Croydon alone.

"It's usually done in the UK, not abroad like female genital mutilation (FGM)," she said, describing a practice whereby mothers, aunties or grandmothers use a hot stone to massage across the breast repeatedly in order to "break the tissue" and slow its growth.

"Sometimes they do it once a week, or once every two weeks, depending on how it comes back," she added.

Margaret Nyuydzewira, head of the diaspora group the Came Women and Girls Development Organisation (Cawogido), said that at least 1,000 women and girls in the UK had been subjected to the intervention. But there has been no systematic study or formal data collection exercise, the daily said.

British-Somali anti-FGM campaigner and psychotherapist Leyla Hussein told the Guardian that she spoke to five women in her north London clinic who had been victims of breast-ironing.

"They were all British women, all British citizens," Hussein said, adding that one of the women became flat-chested as a result of the practice.

Mary Claire, a church minister in Wolverhampton, said she had spoken to four victims in Leeds, originally from west Africa. "You could see the marks," she said.

The police said they fielded no allegations about breast-ironing in the UK, but suspected that it was happening.

The British government said it was "absolutely committed" to stamping out the practice, but according to activists and social workers, little had been done so far.NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Holtzman's highly praised short story "Paper Dolls of the East" is a finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award, it was recently announced. The festival which debuted 10 years ago on the campus of The University of Arizona, will take place in March 2019.

Holtzman's story, which was already awarded an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train, one of the most respected short-story journals in print, was nominated after competing with a record 693 entries from across the United States.

The story tells the tale of a young Syrian girl, her life "broken into two uneven pieces" by a mountain range that separates Syria and Lebanon, and the persistence of hope and family in such a dire and forgotten place.

Holtzman, Global President of BLJ Worldwide, witnessed first-hand many of the events depicted in the story while volunteering in the refugee camps in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.

I have this dream where I am falling and there is no one to catch me or any solid ground to free me. But I realize now it is the world not me that is falling away, like the collapse of a temporary scaffolding that was built to make me feel tethered to something real and far from death. It is me who is left behind when the world falls. No family. No house. No things. No memories.



-- from Paper Dolls of the East

You can read "Paper Dolls of the East" at https://www.mikeholtzman.com

SOURCE Michael HoltzmanSAN ANTONIO, Jan. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Newswise -- Education Management Solutions, LLC (EMS), a leading innovator of simulation management technologies, today announced a new integrated simulation education platform that removes data sharing barriers between simulation-based learning management systems (LMS) and global higher education and patient safety LMS tools such as Blackboard(r), Canvas(r) and Direct2Learning(r). The new SIMULATIONiQplatform supports seamless single user sign-on, fusing data from hands-on simulation exercises across larger didactic learner performance systems. The integrated platform also merges virtual gaming and online training toolsets with a traditional simulation LMS. It brings the same high level of operational management and performance reporting currently used for hands-on, live standardized patient and mannequin-based simulation training, to virtual and augmented reality simulation programs. In response to the rapidly expanding need for telemedicine training and skilled telemedicine clinicians, the SIMULATIONiQ platform fully facilitates end-to-end live training for telemedicine skills across multiple disciplines.

"One of the drivers for positive education outcomes and increased patient safety is the ability to measure the impact and effectiveness of curricula," says Anurag Singh, EMS President and CEO. "Until now, simulation training has been managed separately from commonly used institute-wide learning management systems. This required educators to review reports and results from separate systems to measure true learner performance. The growth in virtual training has led to great innovation, but not consolidated evaluation tools to measure total learner performance. We wanted to remove data silos for curriculum and learner performance measurement. Telemedicine is a rapidly evolving requirement and we are pleased to offer an end-to-end integrated platform that covers the entire scope of virtual, live, and didactic medical education."

EMS will provide demonstrations of this state-of-the-art integrated training platform at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in San Antonio, TX from January 27-29 in booth #125.

Key New Features Include:

LMS Integration : Single sign-on between LMS (Blackboard (r) , Canvas (r) , and D2L (r) .

: Single sign-on between LMS (Blackboard , Canvas and D2L . Case and Scenario Sharing : Search and import cases/scenarios, instead of building from scratch. Share access across institutions and users.

: Search and import cases/scenarios, instead of building from scratch. Share access across institutions and users. Telemedicine : Support for telemedicine (remote learner or remote standardized patient) cases and OSCE sessions.

: Support for telemedicine (remote learner or remote standardized patient) cases and OSCE sessions. Competency Mapping : Facilitate reporting by assigning checklists and/or questions to standard competencies and sub-competencies.

: Facilitate reporting by assigning checklists and/or questions to standard competencies and sub-competencies. Live Video : Support remote learners with live streaming across all major browsers and mobile devices.

: Support remote learners with live streaming across all major browsers and mobile devices. Deployment Options: Software as a Service (SaaS) or on-premise.

About Education Management Solutions (EMS)

EMS is an industry pioneer in simulation-based solutions for healthcare training environments ranging from clinical simulation management software and hardware, to counselor education, case authoring, and virtual patient training. Working alongside subject matter experts, EMS serves as the driving force behind numerous consumer-centered innovations that continue to move the clinical simulation market forward with breakthrough technologies.

As the leader in simulation management technology since its founding in 1994, EMS offers complete turnkey solutions that include integrated software and hardware, design and planning, engineering, configuration, installation, training, file backup, cloud-based eLearning, and support. Visit www.SIMULATIONiQ.com for more information.

Media contact:

Lynn Welch

Vice President of Business Development and Marketing

[email protected]

610-701-7002 x 318

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE Education Management Solutions

Related Links

http://www.simulationiq.com

LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Milken Institute today released a new report ranking more than 200 universities across the United States for their prowess in developing basic research into new technologies, products and companies  a process known as "technology transfer."

The report "Concept to Commercialization: The Best Universities for Technology Transfer" also carries with it a clear policy recommendation: American research universities are among the nation's most powerful engines for domestic economic growth, and funding to sustain their research brings strong returns in the form of new industries, businesses and jobs.

"American economic vitality is fueled by invention," said Ross DeVol, chief research officer for the Milken Institute, who also authored the original 2006 study on the topic. "As a society, we understand our universities as the training ground for the next generation of leaders and doers, but we often overlook the benefits these institutions impart simply by bringing new ideas to life. Our study shows the impact of university research both locally and nationally is profound, and needs our support."

The report found that university research funding supports the creation of both middle- and high-skill industry jobs through innovation, commercialization and technology transfer, with varied and significant multiplier effects. As such, it makes four key policy recommendations:

Maintain basic scientific research funding. Basic research provides long-term economic benefits by allowing universities to take on research that has a low probability of quick commercial success, but potential to deliver a high reward and to create whole new industries.

Basic research provides long-term economic benefits by allowing universities to take on research that has a low probability of quick commercial success, but potential to deliver a high reward and to create whole new industries. Incentivize technology transfer through a new federal commercialization fund. The federal government should increase research funding under a special commercialization pool. Universities demonstrating greater commercialization success in the market should receive higher funding in this program.

The federal government should increase research funding under a special commercialization pool. Universities demonstrating greater commercialization success in the market should receive higher funding in this program. Increase technology transfer capacity through federal matching grants. The federal government should commence a matching grant program with states to fund an increase in staff and resources in technology transfer offices (TTOs). Higher rates of academic entrepreneurship are essential to reviving declining start-up rates and productivity across the economy.

The federal government should commence a matching grant program with states to fund an increase in staff and resources in technology transfer offices (TTOs). Higher rates of academic entrepreneurship are essential to reviving declining start-up rates and productivity across the economy. Increase technology transfer efficiency by adopting best practices. At the state level, policies should be implemented that incentivize the adoption of best practices in commercialization at public universities, including TTOs. Efficiency gaps between universities outside of the top 25 in our Technology Transfer and Commercialization Index should be narrowed

The top 25 institutions by ranking.

Rank Institution Indexed Score 1 University of Utah 100 2 Columbia University 97.83 3 University of Florida 97.66 4 Brigham Young University 97.58 5 Stanford University 95.6 6 University of Pennsylvania 95.39 7 University of Washington 95.11 8 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 94.33 9 California Institute of Technology 94.11 10 Carnegie Mellon University 93.54 11 New York University 93.41 12 Purdue University 93.02 13 University of Texas System 92.88 14 University of Minnesota 92.75 15 University of California, Los Angeles 92.13 16 University of Michigan 91.58 17 Cornell University 89.49 18 University of Illinois Chicago Urbana 89.37 19 University of South Florida 88.93 20 University of California, San Diego 88.55 21 Arizona State University 88.49 22 University of Central Florida 88.21 23 Northwestern University 87.95 24 University of Pittsburgh 87.75 25 North Carolina State University 87.73

DeVol, along with Milken Institute co-authors Joe Lee and Minoli Ratnatunga, ranked each university based on four standard indicators of technology transfer success: patents issued, licenses issued, licensing income, and start-ups formed, relying on data collected by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) via the AUTM's Annual Licensing Activity Survey.

About The Milken Institute

The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank determined to increase global prosperity by advancing collaborative solutions that widen access to capital, create jobs, and improve health. We do this through independent, data-driven research, action-oriented meetings, and meaningful policy initiatives.

milkeninstitute.org

Contact

Jill Posnick

Executive Director, Communications

(310) 570-4661; [email protected]

Tania Pantoja

(714) 883-6555; [email protected]

SOURCE Milken Institute

Related Links

http://www.milkeninstitute.org

Abby Johnson, who became a national figure because of her dramatic decision in 2009 to leave Planned Parenthood after eight years, stood on the stage with Patricia Sandoval, who also worked for Planned Parenthood. Both women said it was working at Planned Parenthood where they realized the hard facts of abortionand became prolife.

"I aborted three of my own children," said Sandoval, the California born daughter of Mexican immigrants, who blamed aborting her children for a descent into homelessness and drug abuse at a very young age. "It was there working for Planned Parenthood that I saw the truth," Sandoval said, when she asked to see the bag that carried the remains of an abortion. "The first thing I saw was a hand and the fingerprints," Sandoval said. The merciful outreach of a woman who saw her homeless, crying in despair, outside a restaurant and told her Jesus loved her was Sandoval's miracle recounted in her book "Transfigured."

Abby Johnson, who left as director of a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic, and joined 40 Days for Life, is pregnant with her eighth child with husband Doug. The movie "Unplanned" due for release in March tells the story of her two abortions, her rise through the ranks at Planned Parenthood and her sudden decision to leave.

Johnson founded And Then There Were None, devoted to helping abortion clinic workers leave. More than 500 have left, she said. "Our goal is simple, we seek to end abortion from the inside out," Johnson said.

The prolife supporters began their more than two mile walk toward the city's Embarcadero on the words of local preacher Walter Hoye, who got a rousing "Yeah" from the crowd as he asked "Does God love you? Does God love your baby? And will we help them?"

Hoye, with his wife Lori, was one of the original organizers of the Walk for Life which was founded to proclaim that all life is precious, with the slogan "Abortion hurts women." Each year the walk and rally are held on a Saturday close to the anniversary of the January 22, 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

The day began with a special Mass and a papal blessing conveyed at St. Mary's Cathedral by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone who told the approximately 4,000 Catholics crammed into the church that the lie of abortion is part of our society "reaping the fruits of 50 years of cultural revolution."

"If everyone decides for themselves what is true, there is no truth," Archbishop Cordileone said.

For more information, walkforlifewc.com

#walkforlifewc #WalkForLife #WFLWC #babiessavingbabies

SOURCE Walk for Life West Coast

Related Links

http://www.walkforlifewc.com

2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Prince William community has proven resilient. The Prince William 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 Prince William Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.Plattsburgh, NY (12901)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.TRENTON  A state government employee says she was angered and deeply upset New Jersey prosecutors decision not to charge a former state official she accused of sexual assault.

Katie Brennan, chief of staff for the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, said she learned of the decision by the Middlesex County prosecutors office as she was driving to a meeting last week.

I went from numb to angry to crying  wildly crying  on my way to a meeting, Brennan told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. She immediately called her husband, and he cried, she said.

Middlesex County prosecutors cited lack of credible evidence and corroboration that a crime was committed in deciding against bringing charges against Albert Alvarez, who Brennan accused of sexually assaulting her in 2017 when they were both working to get Gov. Phil Murphy elected.

Alvarez left as the Schools Development Authoritys chief of staff last year when Brennans accusation was about to become public.

His attorneys called the prosecutors decision a vindication and said their clients career had been devastated.PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.ADVERTISEMENT

Ahead of the judgment of the Ekiti Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja on Monday, the police on Sunday warned politicians and their followers in the state against unlawful protests.

The police commissioner in the state, Asuquo Amba, gave the warning while speaking with journalists in Ado Ekiti.

The commissioner, who was represented by the police spokesman in the state, Caleb Ikechukwu, said the command would not allow anyone to destabilise the state under the guise of protests at the outcome of the judgment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14, 2018, governorship election, Kolapo Olusola, had challenged the declaration of Governor Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the validly elected governor.

Mr Kolapo , who recorded a total of 178,223 votes in the election, had alleged irregularities in the election, won by Mr Fayemi with a total vote count of 197, 459

Mr Amba said the commands Operation make Ekiti Safe Squad was already on ground to tackle any unlawful assembly.

This squad is a Joint Task Force comprising the police and other sister agencies with about 150 men

They are spread all over the state and being overseen by the police. So, they are on ground to stop any unlawful assembly or stop any protest that could result in violence

Though, people are ready to hold peaceful protest but no one has written to us now to say that they would stage any protest over the judgment

Even if any group would stage a protest, it wont be one that will cause riotous assembly or that can be hijacked by hoodlums

Again, whoever loses in the judgment still has the option of appeal, so violence is not the best option for it wont be tolerated

On our part, we are ready and we assure our people that there is no cause for alarm, he said. (NAN)President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday took his campaign to Oyo and Osun states.

In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the ruling partys chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, used the campaign to attack ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

In Osogbo, the Osun State capital, Mr Buhari said his government has cleared Boko Haram from 17 local governments of Borno and Yobe it occupied.

I want to remind you of how we met this country and what we have achieved in the last three years, the president said. We have cleared Boko Haram from its dominance in 17 local governments of Borno and Yobe, which made them resort to attacking soft targets like young girls, women, market places and places of worship.

Apart from attacking soft targets, however, the Boko Haram have also repeatedly attacked military bases and formations, killing scored of soldiers.

The apparent resurgence of the terrorists in the past year is one the reasons Mr Obasanjo alleged that the Boko Haram is now more powerful than ever.

On Saturday, Mr Buhari also said his government has brought more blessings to the country than the former ruling party, PDP.

He restated his governments commitment to anti-corruption.

We are doing our best to ensure that whoever found guilty of misappropriating public funds would be made to face the full wrath of the law, he said.

Also speaking at the rally, the Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, said the president has brought development to the state. He urged Osun residents to support the APC for a better future.

APC is the party for the future, we must not allow those who have looted the treasury in the past to come back, he said.

A national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, while speaking said: PDP lied to Nigerians for 16 years.

They looted and made it impossible for youths to secure employment. We fought for 15 years to get the mandate of Abiola, until when Buhari addressed the injustice and recognised Abiolas presidential status, which makes him deserve our votes in the South West.

The Osogbo rally was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, two former governors of the state, Bisi Akande and Rauf Aregbesola, and a former deputy governor of the state, Iyiola Omisore.

Earlier on Saturday, Mr Buhari was in Ibadan for the Oyo State rally.

In Ibadan, Mr Oshiomhole criticised former ex-President Obasanjo.

He condemned Mr Obasanjo for supporting Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party for next months presidential election.

Mr Obasanjo had in the past accused Mr Abubakar, who was his vice president, of corruption. Although he supported Mr Buhari for the 2015 election, Mr Obasanjo has now declared support for Mr Abubakar.

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You know in Yorubaland, we respect elders. But, when an elder lies in the morning, afternoon and night, such a person doesnt deserve our respect, because the Yorubas say respect begets respect, Mr Oshiomhole said.

That Baba that called Atiku a thief; he said it in the morning, afternoon and night; he wrote it in a book. Only for him to now say he has forgiven him. Is he equivalent to Nigeria? I think that is very insulting.

For anyone who has been as lucky as that old, chicken farmer, who has governed Nigeria for about eleven and a half years, to say that once he forgives what was stolen, all Nigerians should forgive, is to assume that he is equivalent to Nigeria. That is not the tradition even in Yorubaland. So I ask you to please recognise that it is not over until it is over.

After attacking Mr Obasanjo, the APC chairman urged the electorates to use their permanent voters card to kill the opposition.ADVERTISEMENT

The Edo State police command says a police orderly attached to Eric Osayande, Chairman of Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of the state, has been killed by unknown gunmen.

The states commissioner of police, Hakeem Odumosun, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.

Mr Odumosun said he had visited the family of the slain policeman, adding that efforts were on to arrest the killers.

NAN reports that the slain policeman identified as Oisa Ehigie was allegedly shot dead on Saturday night at Nomayo Junction, along Upper Sokponba road in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed airwomen and female air officers, known as Women of War, for military operations in the North-east.

The female military personnel, according to Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, are actively involved in the on-going counter-insurgency operation with special forces against Boko Haram terrorists and other criminal elements.

Mr Abubakar, an air marshal, told PRNigeria that NAF is a gender-sensitive service that encourages its personnel to explore their potentials without inhibition in the armed forces.

The Air Force Chief said: We call them Women of War as they are well trained to engage in combat and combat support operations for peace, security and national development.

The female personnel like their male counterparts, help in neutralising insurgents during air strike missions, while also providing tactical supports for the ground troops.

Some of our airwomen and female officers are regular combatants who have completed specialised training at home and abroad. Some of them regularly fly Beechcraft, a special fighter plane used for gathering intelligence, carrying out surveillance and reconnaissance.

In the last few months, they courageously flew our aircraft across North-eastern states, especially in Borno and the fringe of Lake Chad to detect and strike at insurgents locations. They fly sometimes between four to six hours on the ISR platform.

The Women of War have continued to showcase their professional capacity as fearless and courageous military personnel as pilots, loadmasters, aircraft maintenance engineers, aerospace engineers, armament specialists, squad leaders, combatants, loadmasters, Military police, and air traffic controllers among others.

NAF female combatants NAF female combatants NAF female combatants

While the NAFs Women of War are productive and adding value to the service in critical specialties, some of them are currently undergoing various studies in combat operations and aircraft maintenance. PRNigeria gathered that a Nigerian female officer is currently undergoing training in the United States of America to become the first female fighter pilot in the history of the NAF and another female officer is undergoing training in South Africa to become the first NAF female helicopter gunship pilot.

By PRNigeriaOn Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen. He immediately swore in Justice Tanko Muhammad as his interim replacement in a development that had precedence in what happened over four decades ago under military rule.

The president said his action followed an order he obtained from the Code of Conduct Tribunal before which Mr Onnoghen is standing trial. The CJN is accused by the presidency through the Code of Conduct Bureau of failure to declare his asset as required of him by law.

However, the suspension is clearly extraneous to the procedure stipulated by the 1999 Constitution for the removal of judicial officers from office.

The Third Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates how a judicial officer may be removed from office. It states:

The National Judicial Council (NJC) shall have power to recommend to the President the removal from office of the judicial officers specified in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph, and to exercise disciplinary control over such officers.

The officers listed therein are the CJN, Justices of the Supreme Court, the President and Justices of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Judges and Judges of the Federal High Court.

Therefore, Mr Buharis brusque suspension of the CJN is illegal, dictatorial, rude and obnoxious. It should be swiftly reversed or stoutly resisted by Nigerians.

Mr Onnoghens trial at the CCT arose from a petition of January 7 filed by a civil society group, Anti-Corruption and Research-Based Data Initiative (ARDI), with the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). In the petition, the group accused Mr Onnoghen of corruption and false declaration of assets.

The CCB swiftly arraigned Mr Onnoghen before the CCT on January 14. But three days later on Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered the Tribunal to stay action, pending the determination of Mr Onnoghens application challenging the power of the CCT to try him. The Court of Appeal then fixed hearing of the application for Wednesday, January 30.

But rather than comply with the order of the appellate court, President Buhari chose to rush into the execution of an order by a lower court which the superior court had ordered to freeze its proceedings.

To be sure, the allegations against Mr Onnoghen are grave. His position at the height of the administration of justice in Nigeria places on him a legal, and no less moral, duty to step aside until the allegations are cleared. This is irrespective of the credible suspicion of the motive of the government behind his trial. That the CJN would not move or even be pushed along that direction questions his moral fibre and casts a stain on the fabric of the Nigerian judiciary which he heads.

Equally disconcerting is the fact that the CJN had earlier presided over the National Judicial Councils decision that judges charged with unacceptable conduct must be suspended from office, while such is being reviewed. However, when it came to his turn, he postponed the scheduled meeting of the NJC indefinitely to stop the Council from applying the same rule and suspending him. It was highly unfortunate that what was good for the goose did not appear good enough for the gander in Onnoghens case. Still, the NJC could have gone ahead in seeking to protect the integrity of the judiciary by proceeding with its meeting, as it only needed five members to do so. Yet, it did not act.

However, Mr Onnoghens disinclination to moral example does not temper Mr Buharis own reckless affront to the Constitution. His utterly condemnable action must not stand, else it hastens a descent down the slippery slope of impunity to anarchy or dictatorship.

First, the speed with which the presidency is pursuing Mr Onnoghens trial. The CCB arraigned Mr Onnoghen at the Tribunal within days of receiving the petition against him. This alacrity is curious of a government notorious for lethargy in all aspects of governance.

Then the timing of the trial. It began only a few weeks to the general elections in which Mr Onnoghens office has a crucial role. His suspension was announced just hours before he was to constitute the various tribunals to sit on petitions arising from the elections. This choice of time for the trial has strengthened the suspicion that its real object is to shackle Mr Onnoghen and keep him far away from playing the role the Constitution assigns his office in elections.

Even as obscene is the mentioned swiftness with which Mr Buhari executed the order of the CCT to suspend the CJN. The Tribunal made the order on January 23. The president put it into effect two days later. This speed of action is uncharacteristic of a government renowned for snail-speed response to important national issues.

Given the attitude of the government to court judgments, its response to the order of the CCT raises even higher the red flag of cynicism. The government has serially flouted court orders for the release of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and of an Islamic cleric, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. Both of them have been in detention since 2015.

We are alarmed that an administration long accused of selectivity in its flagship war on corruption is now moving to choose court judgments to obey. The rule of law demands indiscriminate obedience of court judgments until set aside by a higher court.

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Mr Buharis reckless violation of the Constitution in his suspension of the CJN has pushed the nation to the edge of a constitutional crisis. It has also increased the tension surrounding a crucial general election.

By decapitating the judiciary, as it were, Mr Buhari has taken his war against state institutions to the next level. Last year, agents of the State Security Service (SSS) invaded the National Assembly in an obvious attempt to force a change in the leadership of the first arm of a democratic government.

Even the fourth estate of the realm is feeling the searing heat of government hostility and disregard for the rights of citizens. Early this year, Nigerian soldiers invaded offices of Daily Trust newspaper in Abuja, Kaduna and Maiduguri over a report by the newspapers that annoyed the Army.

There are worrisome, unmistakable signs of a gradual descent to dictatorship in Nigeria, especially in the last few years under the President Buhari administration. Unless urgently checked by the concerted efforts of the Nigerian people and lovers of democracy, the consequences will spread far beyond the shores of the country.

Already failing at addressing serious existential challenges, Nigeria is least prepared to cope with the disaster that may arise from a reversal of its modest democratic gains.

Again, we call on President Buhari to reverse his suspension of the CJN and to stand aside for the due process of law to apply on Mr Onnoghens alleged infractions.

Equally, Mr Onnoghens credibility has been seriously tainted by the revelations of vast sums of money that he conveniently forgot to declare as part of his asset and he cannot continue as CJN. He should save Nigeria the present embarrassing conundrum by resigning his appointment.A vocational training centre in Lagos for the rehabilitation of former Niger Delta militants has been reopened after a looming protest by some of the beneficiaries forced it to shut down.

The Fouzz Fashion Institute in Igando was closed last week following a series of complaints about the lack of training materials and poor living conditions.

A director at the institute, Beril Bunuzigha, told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that the centre was not closed by the Presidential Amnesty Office but by the company to forestall an outbreak of violence.

Its not the Office that shut it down, its we that shut it down after they disturbed the classes of other people, Mr Bunuzigha said.

We had to actually shut down because of their aggressiveness.

Punishment By Expulsion

On December 13, 2018, the special adviser to the president on Amnesty, Charles Dokubo, officially inaugurated the training of 72 beneficiaries of the programme in such skills as tailoring, leatherworks, ICT, and bag-making.

But a few weeks into the training, some of the beneficiaries began to complain about lack of equipment as well as the poor condition of their living environment.

For instance, although the ICT training began around December last year the computers meant for the programme arrived on January 16 this year.

After some of the beneficiaries invited a PREMIUM TIMES journalist to air their grievances, with an additional intention to take their complaints to television stations, the organisers swooped on them with armed police officers.

They were bundled to Abuja, with the aid of soldiers, queried at the Amnesty Office and later expelled from the training.

Confidence Oyile, the spokesperson of the aggrieved group, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that five of them had been told to leave the programme.

He named those affected, in addition to himself, to include James Tamunonegiye, Stephen Roberts, Bright Simeon, and Murphy Bobra.

The reason is because we did an open publication, said Mr Oyile, 30.

He said the condition he was given for his reinstatement was to make another publication commending the founder of the centre for her efforts to put things in place.

Which I disagreed with them because thats nonsense, means I am encouraging evil, he told PREMIUM TIMES.

As an agent of change who believes in the vision of President Buhari that change begins with me, I cant do that. Its as if Im selling myself to them so they use me as they please.

Mr Bobra said he left Lagos immediately he learnt about his expulsion to avoid being harmed.

She (Enetimi Bunuzigha, the owner of the centre) said na me go fight her with journalist, make I comot for her training ground, said Mr Bobra, 39, who arrived in December from Bayelsa State to acquire a skill on leatherworks.

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She said I will not be forgiven.

Aggressive, blackmailers

The operators of the training centre painted a picture of a group of blackmailers who, when their demands were not met, resorted to disruption of activities at the place.

Mr Bunuzigha said when the troublemakers were taken to Abuja, their allies at the training centre began to disrupt the activities there.

So classes were going on and they disrupted the classes, they stopped people from going to classes until those boys come back and they hear from the boys.

Mr Bunuzigha said part of the reasons the ex-militants were not kept in hotels but in a residential building was because of their undue aggression.

With that character, hotels even refuse to collect them, and with the amount the government is paying how much do you want to pay the hotel?

If you have a hotel are you going to put ex-agitators inside your hotel to stop your business? No, because weve done it. And they stopped all the people that weve had dealings with, because of their behaviour they stopped it. So we tried to make that place as conducive as we can.

We have 130 people in that place and there were five people that were expelled and those five people came on the 7th of January and weve been training since November.

Mrs Bunuzigha, who owns Fouzz Fashion Institute, denied that the centre was shut down last week.

She also denied claims by the expelled trainees that she had padded the list of beneficiaries in her centre with ghost names.

There is nothing like that. Im going to the media, Im going to AIT, STV, Vanguard, and all the national newspapers, Mrs Bunuzigha told PREMIUM TIMES.

Those are children who said I should give them six months upfront feeding, if not I will have problems in my centre.

But Messrs Bobra and Oyile denied the allegation, with the latter saying they were expelled so they would not tell the public about the corruption in the centre.

I really want to learn ICT, me and the woman (Mrs Bunuzigha) had several conversations and I never ever demanded for N1, Mr Oyile said.

I said they should change the training facility, send me to the APTECH Computer that the government sent me, and upgrade our living condition. That has been my demand right from time.ADVERTISEMENT

Protesters who gathered outside the Lagos office of Channels Television on Sunday have given the government one week to recalled suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was billed to appear for an interview on Sunday on the stations weekend programme, RubbinMinds,

Mr Osinbajo canceled his planned appearance. According to his spokesperson, Laolu Akande, the cancellation was due to campaign exigences. He, however, promised that the vice presidents team is working with the producers of the programme to reschedule another interview.

The demonstrators numbering about 40 said the government should be ready for more protest if it does not reverse its removal of Mr Onnoghen after the deadline.

Mr Onnoghens removal by President Muhammadu Buhari has sparked outrage across the country with many describing the removal of the countrys top judge as violation of the Nigerian Constitution.

The government of the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union have all condemned the manner the CJN was removed arguing that the removal does not portend well for the impartiality for the forthcoming February 16 presidential election.

The protesters demanded that the Buhari administration reinstate Mr Onnoghen, saying that his actions have returned Nigerians to the dark days of Sani Abacha.

As a professor of law, he should know the law. As a SAN, he should know the law. But he is sitting down there and he is deputizing somebody who is basically flouting the rule of law, said Chidi Okereke, one of the protesters, about Mr Osinbajo.

We are afraid of the precedence, we dont want a future where any president can wake up to fire the CJN with the CCT that is directly under the presidency, this decision will erode the independence of the Judiciary, said Ayobami Adekojo, another protester.

Enough is enough. If Buhari wants to change the Chief Justice of Nigeria, He should follow due process. Buhari cannot just remove him and puts someone he wants to favour him during the coming election. This is what we Nigerians are not going to accept. We can accept other things but this one we are not going to accept. Buhari we are calling you out change your ways. Buhari this is not military but democracy. Buhari change your ways, said another protester who identified himself simply as Andy.

Protest asking for the reinstatement of suspended CJN, Walter Onnoghen Protest asking for the reinstatement of suspended CJN, Walter Onnoghen Protest asking for the reinstatement of suspended CJN, Walter Onnoghen Protest asking for the reinstatement of suspended CJN, Walter OnnoghenADVERTISEMENT

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it made a total sum of N1.3 billion between January 18 and 24, 2019 as revenue.

The huge sum is part of the examination bodys revenue generated through the ongoing registration for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and other sources including sale and use of its electronic facilities.

This was as the examination body suspended nine of its more than 700 Computer-Based Test centres taking part in the ongoing registration exercise over allegations bordering on their engagement in illegal activities. The affected centres include the University of Benin ICT Computer Based Test (CBT) and DA Civic Centre, both in Benin City, Edo State; Mardakem Company Ltd., Oron, Akwa Ibom State; Bintels Global Services LTD, Aguleri, and Noble & Shuaib ICT Ltd, Alor, Anambra State, among others.

JAMB made this disclosure in Volume 1, Number 4 of its JAMBulletin- a weekly publication of the office of its Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede.

According to the examination body, during the week under review, JAMB made N42,457,657 from the use of its electronic facilities; N1,212,800,000 from UTME registration, N13,378,604 as service charges by the CBT centres and N52,657,00 from other sources.

It, however, noted that within the week, it recorded an expenditure of N48.3 million through its expenses on staff claims, legal services, payment for utilities, taxes, travelling, among others.

Meanwhile, the examination body said it suspended the nine CBT centres for engaging in unauthorised use of registration SIM in a manner it claimed is inimical to candidates interest; as well as charging candidates higher than the authorised fee and for engaging in mobile registration.

Other centres suspended are in Plateau, Oyo, Benue and Ondo States including Global ICT Connect Ltd at the Benue State University, Makurdi; Medes ICT Centre, Idepe, Okitipupa, Ondo State; Divine Success All CBT Centre, Iseyin, Oyo State and Riyom ICT Centre, Plateau State.

JAMB said; The Board had spelt out the cost for each service, from the cost of obtaining the e-pins as reduced by the government, to the cost of the reading texts and charges for registering candidates.

Before commencing the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) registration exercise, the Board had convened a meeting of all CBT operators in Lagos, where the guidelines on the exercise was deliberated and laid out for all to adhere to strictly. Earlier, the Board reiterated the directive of the Federal Government for the 2019 e-pins to be sold at N3,500, excluding the cost of the reading text, to ensure absolute compliance. The meeting had also resolved that the cost of registration should not exceed N700. Candidates were also to be guided properly on the assistance is required, without collecting any dime from them.

Unfortunately, findings from the Boards monitoring exercise, revealed that some centres were charging higher than the stipulated figure directed by the Federal Government and equally agreed on at the Lagos meeting for other charges. The Board finds this very disappointing and has therefore suspended such centres caught in this unholy act from the 2019 exercise.

JAMB also added that it is currently monitoring closely activities at about 10 centres in Lagos and Plateau states, saying its management would meet on January 28, to take appropriate action on these centres.

JAMB, which commenced registration for the 2019 UTME on January 10, had registered more than 300,000 candidates within the first week.A group, the Forum for Transparency and Integrity in Leadership, and a lawyer, Samuel Adeniji, have asked the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting elections in internally-displaced persons camps.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to determine whether INEC can allow IDPs to vote without complying with the law on voter registration.

They are also praying the court to determine whether INEC has the power to conduct the 2019 election in IDP camps without compiling and maintaining a register of voters in respect of eligible voters in the local government areas of origin of the IDPs in question.

The plaintiffs want the court to hold that IDPs can only vote when they comply with the provision of the Electoral Act by applying to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the respective states in which the IDP camps are located.

The suit came just as the INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission has developed a framework to enable the IDPs to participate in the election.

We have developed a framework for IDP voting and we validated that framework with full participation of stakeholders, Channels Television quoted Mr Yakubu, a professor, as saying on Saturday.

For those who are displaced in a particular state, and are registered in that state will be able to vote there.

But for citizens of a particular state who are in displaced persons camps in another state, they can only vote in another state because it can manage a national constituency.

But the suit filed in the federal court in Lagos, whose hearing date is yet to be fixed, the plaintiffs sought a declaration that it would be unconstitutional and illegal for INEC to carry out elections in IDP camps without first complying with the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 by compiling and maintaining as part of the national register of voters the names of all persons entitled to vote in each IDP camp.

The plaintiffs, through their lawyer Lekan Idowu of Edgewise Solicitors, further sought a declaration that they are entitled to view and inspect the voters register, if any, which INEC intends to use in the IDP camps.

They also sought for a declaration that it would be unconstitutional and illegal for INEC to conduct elections in IDP camps located in the Niger Republic and the Chad Republic or in any other country or place outside Nigeria.

The plaintiffs sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from conducting any election during the forthcoming general elections in any of the IDP camps without having first complied with the 1999 Constitution as amended and the Electoral Act with regards to having the names of IDPs on the national voters register.

Additionally, they prayed the court for an injunction restraining INEC from allowing any voting in an IDP camp outside Nigeria.

In a supporting affidavit, Mr Adeniji, a lawyer and member of the forum, recalled that INEC recently announced that it would conduct elections in IDP camps in the general elections to be held in February and March.

The deponent said the IDP camps are scattered in different locations in the Northeast and Abuja, adding that he was not aware that INEC has so far enumerated the specific local government areas the IDPs were originally located.

Mr Adeniji said he was also not aware that the individuals who now reside in the IDP camps applied to be registered or to transfer their registration from their original places of abode to their new locations.

I believe that it is in the interest of justice that the reliefs in the originating summons are granted, he prayed.

Last month, Mr Yakubu said persons in neighbouring Niger and Chad who were forced out of their homes in Nigeria by insurgency would not be denied their voting rights.

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The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has described the endorsement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, by the Ohaneze Ndigbo as partisan.

Mr Ngige said what played out was a mere congregation of party men, that hurriedly took a decision without due consultation of the real Ime-Obi Ohaneze Ndigbo.

The Labour and Employment minister made his feeling known in a telephone interview with journalists on Sunday in Awka.

The minister said the meeting was constituted by the President-General of the union with members of the PDP to pass the resolution in favour of Abubakar.

The purported decision of Ohaneze endorsing Atiku Abubakar of the PDP as the Ndigbo choice was a distraction and should be disregarded by well-meaning Igbo sons and daughters.

The decision was ill-conceived and should be ignored by Ndigbo as its a decision propelled by PDP members in Ohaneze Ndigbo, hurriedly taken to drum support for their party members in the coming election, he said.

Mr Ngige expressed disappointment that the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation would degenerate into meddling in partisan politics.

He said that the people of the South-east have spoken in the rallies attended by hundreds of thousands of Igbo citizens in Enugu and Onitsha as to their political choice.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Members of the recently inaugurated election tribunal were constituted by Walter Onnoghen before he was suspended under controversial circumstances as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Muhammed, appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, inaugurated 250 members of the presidential and national assembly elections tribunal on Saturday.

The presidential and the national assembly elections will hold on February 16.

Mr Buhari is seeking re-election for a second term. His main challenger is Atiku Abubakar, a wealthy businessman and former vice president of Nigeria.

Mr Onnoghen, who is facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false declaration of assets, had announced his plan to inaugurate the tribunal. He was suspended a day before the inauguration.

The members of the tribunal are the same, no difference, the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Hadizatu Mustapha, told PREMIUM TIMES Sunday morning, when asked if the names of the inaugurated members were different from the ones constituted by the suspended CJN.

The opposition has accused Mr Buhari of paving way for the rigging of the forthcoming elections, with the suspension of Mr Onnoghen.

Both Mr Onnoghens suspension and the inauguration of the tribunal by the acting CJN, Mr Muhammed, have been rejected by the opposition and several Nigerians who are concerned about the independence of the judiciary and the fate of constitutional democracy in the country.

There have been calls for the impeachment of President Buhari.ADVERTISEMENT

The leadership of the Nigerian Senate is currently making moves to re-open the legislature next week, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

The move is to discuss and take a strong opposition to the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, a senator who spoke with this newspaper Saturday night said.

The lawmaker said he has received a text message to the effect.

I have received a message encouraging lawmakers to come on Tuesday, he said.

The lawmaker, who asked not to be named, noted that the Senate had to adjourn this week due to the absence of his colleagues in recent days.

The Senate resumed for legislative business on January 16 but many lawmakers have been absent in plenaries forcing an adjournment on Thursday.

Provided enough senators yield, top on the agenda of the Senate is to oppose Mr Onnoghens suspension, the senator said.

The idea now is to use the numerical significance of the non-APC senators to oppose the suspension and release a strong statement, the lawmaker said.

When contacted, Yusuph Olaniyonu, the media aide to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said he has no information about the development.

Since announcing Mr Onnoghens suspension, President Muhammadu Buhari has received knocks from lawmakers and other Nigerians who described the move as unconstitutional.

Mr Saraki in a statement on Monday said Nigeria is now being run under a dictator. He urged a reversal of the decision.

One of the options before the lawmakers is the invocation of Section 143 of the Constitution which states the processes of impeachment of a president.

The only time the Senate was close to invoking this section was in April 2018 when the president approved the withdrawal of money from the excess crude oil account for the purchase of Tucano jets from the USA.

Two senators, Matthew Uroghide and Chulwuka Utazi, called for the impeachment process but the Senate leadership directed the issue to its committee on the judiciary for advice.

The committee never submitted a report.The Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Muhammadu Buhari was a key player in the brutal regime of Sani Abacha through whom he allegedly learnt crude approach to due process.

Mr Abubakar in a statement Sunday night said his opposition to the controversial removal of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen is not for personal interest but the larger wellbeing of the nation.

I still completely and unequivocally reject and condemn that action and any other breach of our Constitution, Mr Abubakar said. I am not fighting for Justice Onnoghen. I am fighting for the constitution. Once we open the Pandoras Box of unconstitutionality, we cannot tell where it will end.

Mr Buhari suspended Mr Onnoghen on Friday from office, accusing him of corruption and failing to declare his assets at a time.

Mr Onnoghen admitted forgetting to declare some bank accounts but said he later corrected the error in his last assets disclosure in 2016.

Mr Buharis move, which was unprecedented under a civil rule in Nigeria, sparked nationwide outrage because it was largely deemed as inconsistent with the Nigerian Constitution.

Mr Buhari denied all allegations of constitutional infractions, saying he relied on the order of an auxiliary judicial panel to remove the top judge.

Mr Abubakar, Nigerias vice president between 1999 and 2007, said Mr Buharis action relived the memories of Mr Abacha, whose brutal reign from 1993 to 1998 was widely seen as one of the darkest periods of Nigerias history.

This scenario appears to me like deja vu. Under a particularly brutal military dictatorship, Nigerians witnessed the illegal and arbitrary removal of many innocent people from their positions of authority and many said nothing because they were not from the ethnic group of those affected.

I remember speaking up then that what we know is when the rain begins, but we do not know when it will end. My warnings were ignored by some until they woke up one day and that dictator removed no less a personality than the Sultan of Sokoto.

It is worth pointing out that Muhammadu Buhari was by his side when he did that. He obviously learned very well from his teacher.

If they come for the heads of the legislature and we keep quiet because we are not legislators, if they came for the heads of the media and we keep quiet because we are not journalists, if they came for the head of the judiciary and we keep quiet because he/she is not from our area, there may be no one left to speak up when they come for us, he said.

Mr Abubakar commanded the international community for weighing in on Saturday with a strongly worded statement that seemed to show their disapproval of Mr Buharis action.

The president immediately fired back at the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union for their condemnation of the presidents dismissal of Mr Onnoghen without compliance with the Constitution.

Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu who issued the presidents rejoinder said Nigeria would be ready to raise its armed forces to defend its sovereignty and undue interference from foreign nations.

At this point, let me commend all the Lord Justices of the Supreme Court who have heeded my call and the call of other patriots to remain united. The fact that they did not participate in the swearing-in of election petition tribunals is not lost on true democrats all over the world.

My thanks especially go to the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union for standing shoulder to shoulder with the Nigerian people. This is most appreciated and on behalf of the voiceless, I say thank you.

And to those who accuse these governments of interfering, I remind them that they made no such accusations when they celebrated a statement from the US/UK/EU calling for free and fair elections in 2015, just after the postponement of the 2015 elections to make room for a final assault against Boko Haram. What has changed between then and now, except that they are now in power, Mr Abubakar said.

ADVERTISEMENTSaleh Bayari, a leader of the coalition of Fulani herdsmen groups in Nigeria, has appealed to the federal government to grant unconditional amnesty to their members detained over various crimes allegations in the country.

Mr Bayari made the call at a National Delegates meeting of the coalition of Fulani Associations from 36 states of the federation and the FCT held in Sokoto on Sunday.

He said the federal government should consider amnesty to Fulani people accused of crimes as it was done to agitators in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.

About 3,000 Fulani clans are in detention at different security formations in the country.

Poverty, neglect and poor treatment among fellow Nigerians are mostly causes that forced those accused persons to engage in dastardly acts, Mr Bayari said.

He explained that about 2,500 pastoralists were killed while 3.7 million livestock were either killed or rustled from the headsmen at various states of the federation, the situation that subjected members to untold hardships.

He pointed out that granting them amnesty would allow leaders to unite their fellows and partner with authorities to sanction any member found engaging in any unlawful activities.

In the communique read by Mr Bayari at end of the event, the coalition commended Amnesty International 2018 report that said about 3, 641 persons lost their lives in farmers/headsmen conflicts in Nigeria.

The coalition groups also dissociated themselves from some Fulani unions endorsement of a particular presidential candidate in the forthcoming general elections.

They described the endorsement as dangerous noting that their associations were social, non-political and none partisan aimed at uplifting Fulani interests.

The groups said the endorsement was not in the interest of generality of Fulani herdsmen as neither consultations nor meetings were held prior to the decision.

The associations directed their members to disregard the endorsement and elect any candidate of their choice as guaranteed by the constitution.

It also reminded herdsmen to consider the credibility and suitability of candidates as well as the leader that has regard and concerns for their plights.

According to the groups, about 17 million pastoralists are in Nigeria and that while government disburses subsidy and support to farmers, headsmen obtained nothing in past four years.

The coalition accused the federal government of not doing enough for Fulani herdsmen in recognition that they were marginalised in the present disbursement of Tradermoni scheme initiative and others.

The groups alleged that the present administration had neglected them on agricultural support schemes, concentrating mostly on grain, poultry and fish farming.

The groups further explained that the meeting was organised to exchange thoughts and ideas and possible ways of liberating the Fulani herdsmen to come out to speak with one tongue.

They also said the laws banning cattle grazing were unconstitutional that violated human rights while noting that the moves to establish cattle ranches and colonies were yet to come to reality.

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The coalition further stated that President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar are all Fulani men and urged members to elect who showed concerns on pastoralists plights and their economic development as well as engaged on Ruga to Ruga consultation campaign.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja, has suggested ways Nigeria can avert a constitutional crisis over the controversial suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Buharis appointment of Ibrahim Muhammed as the acting CJN has been condemned and rejected by the opposition and several Nigerians who are concerned about the independence of the judiciary and the fate of constitutional democracy in the country.

The opposition has accused Mr Buhari of paving way for the rigging of the forthcoming general elections, with the suspension of Mr Onnoghen, who is facing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged false declaration of assets.

The president is seeking a second term in office in a crucial election holding on February 16. His main challenger is Atiku Abubakar, a wealthy businessman and former vice president of Nigeria.

Weighing in on the controversy, the CDD said in a statement issued on Sunday that President Buhari should immediately retrace his steps and withdraw the illegal appointment of Tanko Mohammed as Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The CDD also called on Mr Onnoghen to resign his position as the CJN.

Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen has serious charges levelled against him, and it is morally reprehensible for him to continue to stay in office until all matters are judiciously dispensed with, CDD, therefore, call on Justice Onnoghen to immediately step down and convene the National Judicial Council to meet and make a determination on the way forward, the CDD said in the statement signed by its director, Idayat Hassan.

The CDD, which expressed concern about the entrenched culture of corruption and impunity in the country, said, however, that President Buharis actions over the Onnoghen matter were delegitimising the forthcoming elections.

It said the president was aware he has no power to suspend the CJN and therefore found justification by claiming he was obeying a directive from the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The tribunal too, the CDD said, has no such powers to direct the president to suspend the CJN.

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) strongly avers that the President must backtrack from his action as a prerequisite for resolving the predicament we find ourselves in as a country, the statement said.

The statement added, It beholds on the National Judicial Council to ensure justice is not just done but seen to be done in the CJN matter.ADVERTISEMENT

Taofeek Ibrahim, the Vice-Chancellor, Al-Hikmah University, has called on governments and corporate organisations to assist in funding private universities.

Mr Ibrahim, a professor, made the call on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that this would reduce school fees and boost human capital development.

According to him, private universities are charging higher than their public counterparts because it costs a lot to provide qualitative and steady education.

The current school fees are due to the payment of salaries for workers and researchers which are to be operated at high level.

Public schools pay lesser fees because government subsidised costs of infrastructure, pay workers salaries and provision of other materials.

Proprietors of private universities are not making profit; rather they are assisting the government for human capital development.

Were finding it difficult to run private universities due to inadequacy of funds and it is only when we have funds that we can ensure high level of teaching and research.

Once government is able to make inputs in terms of additional funding, it means costs will reduce and it will go a long way to reduce the students school fees.

If we have support from private organisations as their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), it will afford more youths the ability to gain admissions into private universities because the school fees will be highly subsidised,  he said.

The vice-chancellor, therefore, said that extension of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to private tertiary institutions should be highly considered.

It is also important that private universities have access to TETFund because the parents of the students are among the taxpayers.

Governments at all levels invest millions of naira to build laboratories in its institutions but private institutions dont have access to such investments by government.

All that add up to their charges; then you will want to look for the life span of that building. If its 20 years, check the cost of that building for one year; then you add the cost of salaries in one year, he said.

NAN reports that over 1.7 million persons apply for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations yearly.

The applicants write Unified Matriculation Tertiary Examination (UMTE) but about one-third are able to get admission into tertiary institutions in the country.

(NAN)Some opposition political parties have reacted to the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The president on Friday announced the suspension of Mr Onnoghen, citing an order by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

Mr Buhari also announced the appointment of the next most senior judge at the Supreme Court, Tanko Mohammed, as the new acting CJN.

In his speech announcing the suspension, Mr Buhari made reference to false assets declaration charges against the chief justice.

Although the allegations in the petition are grievous enough in themselves, the security agencies have since then traced other suspicious transactions running into millions of dollars to the CJNs personal accounts, all undeclared or improperly declared as required by law, the president said.

But reacting to the action by President Buhari, the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in a statement by its presidential candidate, Tope Fasua, described the suspension as unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.

He said even military governments were careful with their interference in the leadership of our judiciary.

Mr Fasua said the timing of the suspension on the eve of elections and the speed with which the petition against Mr Onnoghen was fast-tracked to culminate in his suspension within two weeks raises doubt about the executives role.

Also the decision tugs at the worn out fabrics of Nigerias unity, what with the fact that many have complained in the past that judicial/security leadership of Nigeria has totally ignored the principle of inclusivity.

I believe strongly that anything that can be done at this moment to strengthen our unity as a nation should be considered.

It is therefore difficult for millions around the world to believe that this act is a genuine tactic in the tired anti-corruption war, but rather an act of political vendetta, and a deliberate blow to the nations democracy which rests on the sanguine principle of separation of powers.

He called on President Buhari to review his position and do the right thing.

The Onnoghen case must not only follow every judicial process, methodically, but must be seen to be totally transparent and just.

Similarly, the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) condemned what it termed as the sudden suspension of the embattled judicial officer few weeks to 2019 presidential elections.

The party in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES stated that Mr Buharis action is not only a flagrant show of disrespect to the Nigerian people and the rule of law but an abuse of power.

The Alliance for New Nigeria further submitted that Buhari has been lining up activities one after the other in order to allow him compromise on the election results if he loses and that Buharis replacement of the Chief Justice of Nigeria was necessary should the election results be challenged at the court so the judge can rule to his favour.

The party accused Mr Buhari of being desperate to win the coming elections by all means, by hook or by crook irrespective of how nefarious and dangerous they are to the lives and properties of Nigerians.

The party called on all stakeholders to reject the new appointment and fight vehemently for the reinstallation of Mr Onnoghen to his position.

ADVERTISEMENTThe Speaker of Nigerias House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of dictatorship in removing the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.

In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Dogara said with the suspension, the world has been served with notice that Nigeria is now a full-blown dictatorship.

Mr Onnoghen was suspended on Friday by Mr Buhari who immediately swore-in the next most senior judge at the Supreme Court, Tanko Mohammed, as the acting CJN.

While it is stated in the Nigerian constitution that a sitting CJN can only be removed from office by the president after at least two-thirds majority members of the Senate support such a move, Mr Buhari drew his power from an order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The suspension has been condemned by many Nigerians including Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Nigerian Bar Association. Foreign governments such as the United States and the European Union have also expressed concerns with the suspension.

In his statement, Mr Dogara said the decision by Mr Buhari did not come as shock.

This did not come as a rude shock except to those that have been blind to the gradual but progressive erosion of democratic values in the polity as President Buharis Government has never hidden its disdain for the rule of law, Mr Dogara said.

Read full statement as obtained by PREMIUM TIMES below:

SUSPENSION OF CJN ONNOGHEN: NIGERIA IS NOW GERMANY IN THE WAKE OF THE 1933 REICHSTAG FIRE

With the unconstitutional suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) by President Muhammadu Buhari, the world has been served with notice that Nigeria is now a full-blown dictatorship. This did not come as a rude shock except to those that have been blind to the gradual but progressive erosion of democratic values in the polity as President Buharis Government has never hidden its disdain for the rule of law.

We have watched in disbelief as the Government recklessly deploys institutional prerogatives; routinely flouts the rule of law; subverts and assaults democratic Institutions; refuses to accept opponents as legitimate; suppresses citizens civil liberties(especially those of opponents) and trample underfoot the media. In short, the Governments tyrannical and authoritarian credentials are loathsomely legendary.

No provision in Sections 157 and 292 of the 1999 Constitution as amended supports the President in purporting to suspend the CJN or swearing in an acting CJN. The whole idea of a limited government is that the presidents powers are limited by law and it is ultra vires his powers to act in the absence of explicit legislative authorization. That is representative democracy at its best which our 1999 Constitution as amended guarantees.

It is instructive to note that our Constitution does not contemplate or presupposes a situation whereby the Judiciary will have a suspended CJN and an acting CJN at the same time. Therefore, it is right to posit, as some have done that the President now has his own Chief Judge to do his bidding while Nigeria has a sitting CJN until he is removed in line with the provisions of the Constitution.

The awfully crude annexation of the judiciary by the President in violation of his oath of office and the Constitution cannot be for any other reason except, as alleged by so many, to prepare the judiciary ahead of time for the purpose of conferring some aura of legitimacy to the contraption that the 2019 general elections may after all become.

I, therefore, call on the President to remember that he has no better legacy to bequeath other than a good name: which cannot be achieved without honour, character and integrity. Honour and integrity demand that he upholds his oath of office by reversing this assault on our Constitution and following the manifestly clear and unambiguous constitutional procedure for the removal of the CJN if he must be removed. Anything short of this demeans all of us.

To our citizens, we must now head the warning of the Irish lawyer cum orator, John Philpot Curran who said, the condition upon which God had given liberty to man is eternal vigilance: which condition if he breaks, servitude is at once the consequences of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt. Despotism can only prosper in Nigeria if good men and women do nothing.

I also call on all lovers of freedom and democracy all over the world to rise to the occasion and demand of this Government and the President to halt the march to anarchy and bedlam: which dictatorship promotes. The world has an experience in this and it must not allow this unmitigated disaster on Nigeria before it acts to restore sanity.

As of today, Nigeria is now Germany in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire. Our democracy is on fire; ignited by the very people who swore to protect and defend it. That this fire must not convert the Chancellor to Fuhrer as it happened in Germany in 1933 depends on our collective response and that of the international community. We must not bow our knees to dictatorship: not now, not ever again.

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

ADVERTISEMENTThe Nigerian government has reacted to the position of both the United States of America and her United Kingdom counterpart on the suspension of the countrys Chief Justice, Walter Onnoghen.

A statement by Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, said as much as Nigeria welcomes interests and partnerships for a successful 2019 general elections, the government would not condone unfair interference in the countrys internal affairs.

Following the controversies generated by the suspension of Mr. Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday and the appointment of a successor in acting capacity, the United States, the United Kingdom and other foreign institutions issued statements advising the government to retrace its steps.

Before their latest statements on the suspension of the chief justice of Nigeria, the US and the UK had earlier on Thursday threatened to ban from entering their countries any Nigerian who instigated violence or engaged in rigging of the forthcoming elections.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) had hailed what they described as the foreign nations timely intervention.

But the Federal Government on Saturday night strongly condemned the comments of the foreign countries on the suspension of the CJN, insisting that as a sovereign country, Nigeria deserves respect and honour.

The government, however, pledged its commitment to ensuring a free, fair, credible and peaceful election, saying the electoral umpire, that is, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been made truly independent and offered the required support.

The government statement came shortly after an Islamic socio-political group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), attacked both the U.S. and the U.K. over their positions on the suspension of the CJN.

MURIC accused the two western countries of being too quick to make statements on the suspension without raising their voices against what it described as the weighty allegations against the CJN.

The statement by Mr. Shehu reads in part; Nigeria reserves the right to be insulated from suggestions and or interference with respect to wholly internal affairs and commends international laws, customs and norms that mandate and require nations and the comity to respect this prerogative to all.

Nigeria is confident of its electoral processes and her preparation for the imminent elections and the federal government has supported the independent electoral umpire in both its independence and resources needed to accomplish our desire and insistence on free and fair elections.

In addition, the Federal government has ensured the independence of all organs, institutions and arms of government to perform their functions in a manner that is transparent and is not lacking in integrity whether institutionally or by persons within such institutions or organs and will continue to do this.

Although the question of foreign interference, whether state-sponsored, promoted or otherwise has dominated recent elections and outcomes globally, the federal government assures citizens and the global community that it will fiercely and assiduously promote the will and the right of Nigerians to choose and elect their leaders without pressure or assistance from persons or entities that are not constitutionally empowered to participate in the process.

The statement urged Nigerian citizens to confidently exercise their franchise in an orderly manner, assuring them of adequate security during and after the electoral process, as well as the readiness of the security forces to confront any plan or attempt to interfere with or disrupt the process whether by elements within or from outside the country.

Meanwhile, MURIC in its own statement, which was signed by its Director, Ishaq Akintola, advised both the U.S. and the U.K. or any other foreign interest not to look at Mr Onnghens suspension in isolation but consider the gravity of the offence allegedly committed by the embattled CJN.

The statement reads in part; Western countries should not just jump to conclusions. They should not just make it look as if the CJN is being suspended to clear the way for some undemocratic practices. Neither the US nor Britain will allow a judge to accumulate wealth illegally because it is dangerous for the judicial system. Heavy cash lodgements in both foreign and local currencies were allegedly found in the former CJNs accounts. No responsible government will ignore that.

While we appreciate the interest of US and UK in evolving healthy democracies around the world, particularly in Nigeria, we will appreciate it more if these countries show equal concern for Nigerias war against corruption, particularly in the judiciary and in the repatriation of Nigerias looted funds in those two countries. Advanced democracies are not under any special obligation to listen only to the opposition and echo its propaganda. They also owe it a moral duty to hear the governments side before making policy statements.

To this end, we expect that both the US and UK will equally show interest in the allegation bordering on corruption made against the former CJN as they have expressed concern over his suspension. This ought to be done against the backdrop of the reputation of Nigeria which a former British prime minister described as fantastically corrupt but which the present regime of President Muhammadu Buhari is trying hard to turn around.

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It is a known fact that no war against corruption can succeed if the judiciary is corrupt. It is the robust judicial system which both the US and UK enjoy today that allows a conducive atmosphere for democratic principles of rule of law, liberty and justice.

We seek no less in our country, Nigeria. We find the alleged involvement of the CJN in financial misdemeanor sickening, repulsive and outrageous. A civil society group who could summon the courage demanded his sack. We no longer have any confidence in his leadership of this countrys judiciary.

MURIC cited the cases of the former Governors of both Delta and Bayelsa States, James Ibori and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha respectively, which it said mesmerized the Nigerian judiciary but was successfully prosecuted abroad.

The statement added; We must ask Britain if it can tolerate what is happening in Nigeria today on her own soil. For instance, the current British Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Thomas, earns 240,000 per annum.

Will Theresa May, the Prime Minister, keep mum if he receives a report that his Lord Chief Justice has five bank accounts with more than $500,000 in each?

Can his American counterpart, the US Chief Judge, John Glover Roberts Jnr, do the same and get away with it under Donald Trumps watch? You show concern for Onnoghens suspension but not for the big sums of money he was practically caught with and which he admitted to. It hurts our sensibilities and you need to make amends.The presidency has reacted to the position of both the United States of America and the European Union on the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, noted that as much as Nigeria welcomes prevailing interests and partnerships for successful 2019 general elections, the government would not condone unfair interference in matters that are wholly internal.

Following the controversies generated by the suspension of Mr Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday and the appointment of a successor in an acting capacity, the United States and the EU issued statements advising the government to retrace her steps.

Before the latest statements on the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the U.S. and the UK had earlier on Thursday threatened to ban from entering their countries any Nigerian found guilty of instigating violence during the election or anyone engaging in rigging the process.

Many stakeholders including the federal government, opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) had hailed what they described as the foreign nations timely intervention.

But the presidency has strongly condemned the latest intervention of the foreign countries on the suspension of the CJN, insisting that as a sovereign country, Nigeria deserves respect and honour. The federal government, however, pledged her commitment to ensuring a free, fair, credible and peaceful election. It said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been made truly independent and offered the required support.

Nigeria reserves the right to be insulated from suggestions and or interference with respect to wholly internal affairs and commends international laws, customs and norms that mandate and require nations and the comity to respect this prerogative to all, Mr Shehu wrote.

Nigeria is confident of its electoral processes and her preparation for the imminent elections and the federal government has supported the independent electoral umpire in both its independence and resources needed to accomplish our desire and insistence on free and fair elections.

In addition, the Federal government has ensured the independence of all organs, institutions and arms of government to perform their functions in a manner that is transparent and is not lacking in integrity whether institutionally or by persons within such institutions or organs and will continue to do this.

Although the question of foreign interference, whether state sponsored, promoted or otherwise has dominated recent elections and outcomes globally, the federal government assures citizens and the global community that it will fiercely and assiduously promote the will and the right of Nigerians to choose and elect their leaders without pressure or assistance from persons or entities that are not constitutionally empowered to participate in the process.

The statement encouraged citizens to confidently exercise their franchise in an orderly manner, assuring them of adequate security during and after the electoral process, as well as the readiness of the security forces to confront any plan or attempt to interfere with or disrupt the process whether by elements within or from outside the country.

In its reaction to the statements by the foreign power, an Islamic organisation, MURIC, in its own statement, which was signed by its Director, Ishaq Akintola, advised both the U.S. and the UK or any other foreign interest not to look at the suspension in isolation but consider the gravity of the offence allegedly committed by the CJN.

Western countries should not just jump to conclusions. They should not just make it look as if the CJN is being suspended to clear the way for some undemocratic practices. Neither the US nor Britain will allow a judge to accumulate wealth illegally because it is dangerous for the judicial system. Heavy cash lodgements in both foreign and local currencies were allegedly found in the former CJNs accounts. No responsible government will ignore that.

While we appreciate the interest of US and UK in evolving healthy democracies around the world, particularly in Nigeria, we will appreciate it more if these countries show equal concern for Nigerias war against corruption, particularly in the judiciary and in the repatriation of Nigerias looted funds in those two countries. Advanced democracies are not under any special obligation to listen only to the opposition and echo its propaganda. They also owe it a moral duty to hear the governments side before making policy statements.

To this end, we expect that both the US and UK will equally show interest in the allegation bordering on corruption made against the former CJN as they have expressed concern over his suspension. This ought to be done against the backdrop of the reputation of Nigeria which a former British prime minister described as fantastically corrupt but which the present regime of President Muhammadu Buhari is trying hard to turn around.

It is a known fact that no war against corruption can succeed if the judiciary is corrupt. It is the robust judicial system which both the US and UK enjoy today that allows a conducive atmosphere for democratic principles of rule of law, liberty and justice.

We seek no less in our country, Nigeria. We find the alleged involvement of the CJN in financial misdemeanour sickening, repulsive and outrageous. A civil society group who could summon the courage demanded his sack. We no longer have any confidence in his leadership of this countrys judiciary.

MURIC cited the cases of the former governors of both Delta and Bayelsa States, James Ononefe Ibori and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha respectively, which it alleged of mesmerising the Nigerian judiciary but successfully prosecuted abroad.

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The statement added: We must ask Britain if it can tolerate what is happening in Nigeria today on her own soil. For instance, the current British Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Thomas, earns 240,000 per annum. Will Theresa May, the Prime Minister, keep mum if he receives a report that his Lord Chief Justice has five bank accounts with more than $500,000 in each? Can his American counterpart, the US Chief Judge, John Glover Roberts Jnr, do the same and get away with it under Donald Trumps watch? You show concern for Onnoghens suspension but not for the big sums of money he was practically caught with and which he admitted to. It hurts our sensibilities and you need to make amends.As the world marks the World Leprosy Day, Nigerians have been urged to stop discrimination against people living with the disease.

Though the number of leprosy cases has steadily declined worldwide, Nigeria reported 522 new cases last year. Five per cent of these were children and 13 per cent were already with disability.

This figure is a quarter of what was reported in 2017. That year, 2,442 new cases were notified by the National Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP). Among these, 184 (7.5 per cent) were children and 361 (15 per cent) had acquired irreversible disabilities due to late presentation of the cases to health care facilities.

Unfortunately, the victims usually have hives on their bodies with severe deformities on their limbs, fingers chopped off, damaged nervous systems and the thin tissue lining of their noses.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), an estimated 200,000 cases are reported yearly with India accounting for more than half.

The last Sunday of January of every year is set aside as the World Leprosy Day to raise awareness about the disease, celebrate the people affected and mobilise support for leprosy control.

This years commemoration marks the 66th and is themed Ending Discrimination, stigma and Prejudices.

The Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, in his speech made available to journalists to mark the day, said it provides an opportunity for the world to focus on this ancient disease that has caused so much misery to humans.

Mr Ehanire said stigma and discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their families remain a major challenge in Nigeria.

He said there are many mistaken beliefs about the disease. For example; people think that it is highly contagious or hereditary or that the disease is divine punishment.

All these misconceptions negatively affects persons with leprosy, even after they are fully cured. Leprosy, therefore, requires a concerted response from all stakeholders.

I would like to recognise all persons affected by leprosy, and let you know the government is with you; and to individuals, agencies and organisations actively working together for a Leprosy free Nigeria, I tell you are doing Gods work, he said.

Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by a slowly multiplying germ, a bacillus called Mycobacterium leprae, whose incubation period is up to 5 years.

The symptoms of the disease can take as long as 20 years to appear and it mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes. Leprosy is transmitted through droplets from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contact with untreated patients.

Untreated leprosy cases eventually cause disabilities which lead to discrimination and stigma.

The good news is that Leprosy is now curable with multidrug therapy (MDT) and the treatment is free. Unfortunately, most patients are not aware of this, leading to late presentation of the disease in the hospitals.

People with the disease are often discriminated against, making them resort to begging even after the disease is cured, because most people do not want to do anything with them. This has made it difficult for most of them to reintegrate into society.

Though the government has been funding leprosy control through NTBLCP, there has been more focus on TB, making one of the tropical neglected diseases to take back seat. The campaign against the disease has majorly been championed by foreign donors.

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Mr Ehanire said the continued presence of undetected leprosy cases in the country is of serious concern to the government, especially when it involves children.

This is because it indicates ongoing transmission within communities just as permanent disability indicates that cases existed unreported in communities for years

Early detection of the disease and complete treatment with MDT remain the fundamental principles of leprosy control.

In addition, newly introduced interventions, like the use of single dose rifampicin (SDR) as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for contacts with leprosy patients, are welcome developments, as we gear up our efforts toward defeating leprosy in the near future, he said.Nigeria Declares Lassa Fever Outbreak

The Nigerian health authorities have declared a Lassa fever outbreak in the country.

This followed the increase in the number of Lassa fever cases reported in states since the beginning of the year, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said.

As at January 13, 60 confirmed cases had been reported in eight states, NCDC said.

In declaring an outbreak, NCDC has activated an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to coordinate a response.

Nigeria signs N2.6 trillion Support Agreement With Global Fund

Stepping up the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the federal government has signed an agreement worth N2.6 trillion ($ 71 billion) in funding support with Global Fund.

Boade Akinola, the director, media and public relations at the Federal Ministry of Health, said the funds would help to control the TB epidemic in 2019 and 2020.

Global Fund is an international financing organisation which fights AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria by attracting, leveraging and investing resources to countries to end the epidemics.

Speaking at the signing, Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of State for Health, said TB now ranks as the ninth leading cause of death and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, ranking above HIV/AIDS (WHO Global TB Report 2018).

Hence, it makes it a threat to any country like ours with high burden of the disease. This trend must not be allowed to continue, he said.

Experts Caution Against Stagnation Of Immunisation

Immunisation experts from across the world have emphasised the importance for African countries to increase domestic investment in disease surveillance and strengthen their routine immunisation for community engagement to drive vaccine deployment during outbreaks.

Over the past five years, immunisation coverage in sub-Saharan Africa has stagnated at 72 per cent, exposing populations to vaccine-preventable diseases and outbreaks.

The experts are attending the biannual Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (RITAG).

Immunization of a child used to illustrate the story. [Photo credit: Lagosmums]

RITAG Chair, Helen Rees, said they have mapped out what can and must be done to secure the future of millions of children on this continent.

In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 31 million children younger than five years suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases every year. More than a half a million of them die for lack of access to the vaccines they needed.

Doctors, Nurses Agree To Work In Harmony

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Healthcare service delivery in Nigeria appears set to improve as doctors and nurses move to settle their squabbles and work in harmony.

President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Francis Faduyile, said this while receiving the report of a 10-member Inter-professional relation committee.

He said patients should expect better service delivery now that the 27-page report made recommendations for removing the causes of disharmony in the health sector

Doctors under the auspices of the NMA and nurses in the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) jointly set up the committee, which after four weeks of work, submitted its report to the presidents of both associations.

Bleaching Can Cause Cancer, Kidney Disease  NAFDAC

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has advised Nigerians against the use of bleaching or whitening chemicals because they could result in cancer and kidney malfunction.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Moji Adeyeye, said her advice became necessary due to the large number of whitening chemicals recently seized by NAFDAC in Lagos.

National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) headquarters

She said NAFDAC was concerned about the use of glutathione because, unknown to its users, it can cause skin cancer as well as kidney dysfunction and failure.

There are many people involved in these whitening chemicals, from glutathione injection to the tablets and other such chemicals, she added.

Pharmacist Advises Nigerians On Amoxicillin

The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), says Amoxicillin is better taken 30 minutes before food or 30 minutes after food for proper absorption in the body.

Sunday Ike, National Publicity Secretary of the association, said food intake will guarantee the efficacy and proper digestion of the drug in the body. He, however, said the purpose of taking the drug would be defeated if Amoxicillin was taken with food or immediately after a meal.

Amoxicillin is an antibiotic drug, often used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections such as ear infection, throat, pneumonia, skin infections, and urinary tract infections among others. The drug should be taken every eight hours, which is three times daily and strictly on doctors prescriptions.

Scientists Discover New Cancer Drug

Scientists have developed a new drug which shows potential to halt cancer cells growth by stunting the cells biological clock.

The findings from scientists at the U.S. University of Southern California (USC), Michelson Centre for Convergent Bioscience and Nagoya Universitys Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules in Japan have advanced a burgeoning area of research  turning the bodys circadian rhythms against cancer.

The study was published in the journal Science Advances. Scientists conducted research on human kidney cancer cells and on acute myeloid leukemia in mice.

As disrupting sleep and other elements of humans circadian rhythm can harm health, the same is true for the circadian clock of cells themselves. By disturbing the circadian clock of cancer cells, they could be potentially hurt or killed, according to the research.

South Sudan Bans Bleaching Products

South Sudans Drugs and Food Control Authority (DFCA) has banned importation and sale of all skin lightening products.

Mawien Atem Mawien, secretary general of DFCA, said the ban seeks to protect the people from exposure to harmful chemicals used in manufacturing skin bleaching cosmetics.

Bleaching cream

All the whitening or bleaching creams are prohibited for import without any approval from DFCA, most especially those that contain mercury and hydroquinone, Mr Mawien told reporters on Tuesday.

The regulatory body ordered all cosmetic dealers in the country to obtain new import licences in an effort to regulate their business.

How Gum Disease Could Lead To Alzheimers

In a new study, researchers have found that a bacterium largely responsible for gum disease also contributes to the development of Alzheimers disease.

The study published in the peer-reviewed journal of Science Advances, suggests that the bacteria porphyromonas gingivalis that destroys gum tissues in the mouth is linked to dementia and Alzheimers.

Gum disease is a widespread problem that can lead to more negative outcomes, from tooth loss to an increased risk of cancer.

Now, emerging evidence suggests that one of the bacteria involved in periodontitis could also contribute to the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain, which scientists have associated with the development of Alzheimers disease.PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 17:21:21

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Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.comEmail: sales@researchreportinsights.com+1-631-721-42016317214201

Technical textiles are class of specialized textiles, application of which is governed primarily by their functionality criteria as against aesthetics. Technical textiles differ from conventional textiles in terms of performance and functionality. For instance, technical textiles tend to exhibit relatively higher tensile strength and modulus, high resistance to heat, flame and to chemical agents. This versatility has been increasing adoption of technical textiles by various end-user industries such as construction, automobile and chemical. The global technical textiles market was pegged at around US$ 155.5 Bn in 2016 and is expected to witness a steady growth, registering a CAGR of 4.6% over the forecast period 2017-2027.Factors influencing the global technical textiles marketThe large number of infrastructure projects being implemented in the Asia Pacific region along with the rising demand from the automotive, healthcare and aerospace industries has been driving the growth of the technical textiles market. Technical textiles manufacturers have recently has been receiving significant support from the various governments across geographical regions to manufacture high end, high value-added products in the technical textiles segment. This has been driving the growth of the technical textile industry.For instance, the Chinese government has been keen to start programs which are intended to enable the growth of the technical textiles industry. The Indian government has recently been endorsing the growth of its technical textiles industry. For instance, the government has been channelizing efforts towards implementation of tax benefits, special economic packages and permitting 100% foreign direct investment, among other things.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114696/Technical-Textiles-Market However, relatively higher prices and manufacturing costs therein are expected to restrain the growth of global technical textiles market, especially in developing regions. Moreover, it has also been observed that there is a lack of awareness about the use of technical textiles among potential consumers, especially in the agriculture sector, in developing countries such as India and China.Global technical textiles market segmentation and forecastThe global technical textiles market is segmented on the basis of application, process type and region. On the basis of application, the global technical textiles market is segmented into Agrotech, Buildtech, Hometech, Indutech, Sportech, Packtech, Mobiltech, Meditech, Clothtech, Geotech, Protech and Oekotech. Based on process type, the global technical textiles is segmented into: nonwoven, composites and others. Key regions covered in the report include: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.Global technical textiles market analysis, by applicationOn the basis of application, Mobiltech segment of the technical textiles market is expected to account for a share of over 20% in the global technical textiles market value by 2026 end, thus expanding at a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period. This growth is attributed, primarily to the growth in demand from the automotive sector.Request Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114696/Technical-Textiles-Market The global automotive production is expected to witness a steady growth, registering a CAGR of around 2.6% in terms of volume during the forecast period.Increasing adoption in automotive light-weighting applications in order to adhere to stringent regulatory standards is expected to further drive growth of this segment during the forecast period. Oekotech segment is expected to register relatively faster growth owing to increasing efforts towards tackling environmental concerns. It is expected to register CAGR of 5.1% in terms of value during the forecast period. Besides the aforementioned segments, sportech, and Buildtech, among other segments are expected to witness steady growth over the forecast period.Key players dominating the global technical textiles marketSome of the players reported in this study on global technical textiles market include Low and Bonar PLC, Ahlstrom Corporation, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 3M Company, Avintiv, Milliken and Company, Arville, Dickson-Constant, Baltex and Freudenberg & Co. KG. Globally, manufacturers have been focusing on offering customized product offerings in order to meet the customers specific requirements in order to sustain and grow in ever-increasing competition in technical textiles market space.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114696/Technical-Textiles-MarketPR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 16:06:00

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Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.comEmail: sales@researchreportinsights.com+1-631-721-42016317214201

According to the latest study conducted by Research Report Insights (RRI) the global market for precision medicine is anticipate grow manifold, reflecting a robust CAGR of over 14% during 2016 to 2024.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114684/Precision-Medicine-Market Rapid augmentation of the medicine industry across the globe will certainly benefit the global market for precision medicine. In addition, factors such as growing infrastructural development, higher investments, streamlined drug approval systems along with companion diagnostics are expected to favor the overall market growth during the assessment period. Cost-effective DNA profiling and increasing prevalence of carcinogenic diseases worldwide are additional factors that are projected to propel the market growth. Moreover, apt storage of genome data is of great significance to the global market for precision medicine as demand for data medicare is on the rise. However, acute data storage capacity, data privacy breach and discrepancies in funding systems and hefty price tag of personalized drugs may deter the market growth in the near future.The global market for precision medicine has been categorized into various parent segments that are further segmented into smaller sub-divisions.On the basis of technology, next-gen sequencing, bioinformatics and drug discovery technology are expected to be the technologies highlighting the expanding the market width in forthcoming years. Based on applications, the oncology segment is expected to witness an overwhelming growth and is estimated to reach US$ 69 Billion over 2024, reflecting a staggering 13.5% CAGR. This is primarily owing to increasing prevalence of tumor-related disease amongst the global geriatric population. On the other hand, increasing cases of arthritis will favor the growth of immunology segment, which is expected to surpass US$ 34 Million in revenues by 2024 end.Request Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114684/Precision-Medicine-Market The popularity of precision medicine has grown significantly across various parts of the world, hence on the basis of region, the markets for precision medicine in Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is set to achieve new figures of growth over the next eight years. Precisely, the market in North America is expected to present new lucrative opportunities, occupying over 35% share of the market during the forecast period. In addition, the region is estimated to surpass a market valuation of over US$ 60 Million by the end of 2024.The US and Canada will be the heavyweights of the global market owing to the existence of well-established medical industries in both the countries. In Europe, the market is expected to witness a steady growth and will increase its revenues charts close to US$ 40 Million, riding on a healthy CAGR of over 13% during the assessment period. This is largely due to the increasing demand for precision medicines in countries such as France, UK, Italy and Germany. The Asia Pacific region is another region which is considered to be full of business potentials. The region is projected to increase at over 14% CAGR to reach approximately US$ 35 Million by 2024 end. The market in APAC will be heavily dominated by Japan, while, India and China will compete for the second spot. Likewise, the in Latin America the market is expected to surge at a pace in terms of revenue over 2024. However, MEA will witness a sluggish growth of the market which is attributed to the lack of initiatives for conductive extensive research and development activities.Vendor NewsKey players operating in the global market for precision medicine include Eli Lilly And Company, Novartis AG, AstraZeneca and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. Most of the companies are implementing market strategies involving mergers, tie-ups and acquisitions. Increasing collaboration between healthcare and IT is expected to deliver fruitful gains to the market, expanding the overall business canvas for the stakeholders in the upcoming years.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114684/Precision-Medicine-MarketPR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 18:01:09

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Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.comEmail: sales@researchreportinsights.com+1-631-721-42016317214201

The pallet industry in India is soaring at a brisk pace. A pallet is designed to endure heavy load, serving as a rigid base for goods during their transportation and are usually handled by pallet jacks and forklifts. Indias rising economy coupled with higher production volumes of goods is potentially generating business opportunities for pallet manufacturers in the country. In order to manage large scale imports and shipments of consumer goods, industries avail smart logistic services. Hence, the demand for pallets from shipping and logistic industry has significantly increased in the country. Due to the lumpy transport infrastructure in Indian sub-continent, usage of pallet during goods delivery and storage becomes more important.Boom in manufacturing sector of the country is fuelling the demand for pallets in the Indian market. Relentless support from the government and a blossoming business environment in the country is unveiling further market opportunities for the manufacturing sector. In addition, implementation of government policies such as Make in India is expected to ensure sustainability of the economic growth in the long run.These economic reforms are expected to bring some good news to the industrial sectors of the country, especially the manufacturing sector. Thus, the thrust to the manufacturing sector has also led to progression of the allied sectors such as hardware, logistics and transport. Off late, the country has witnessed establishment of large warehouses spreading in acres of land, these warehouses need several operational tools, pallets being a primary one.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114704/India-Pallet-Market As production volumes in the country rise higher, it will have a direct impact on the demand for pallets. Moreover, stakeholders and manufacturers are strongly emphasizing on safer modules of transportation of materials and consumer goods, which is translating into the growth of the pallets market in India. The aforementioned factors are likely to drive the pallets market in India in the following years to come.Emergence of Logistics and Warehouse Business in India Responsible for the Bulk of Demand for PalletsNoticeably, several new startups are going into logistics, transportation and delivery service. Though the competition in the market is moderate, companies look forward to improve service offerings. Companies are focusing on developing advanced warehouse facilities with features such as auto temperature control and robotics. For instance, Gati Ltd a supply chain solution provider recently developed its first temperature controlled warehouse infrastructure in New Delhi. The warehouse facility is designed to meet the industry standards and will cater to various industry sectors such as pharmaceutical and food and beverage including dairy.The latest warehouse infrastructures have extended capabilities and robust network ensuring enhanced supply chain solutions. This, in turn, is essentially helping businesses to expand significant levels and likewise supporting the growth of logistics industry in India.Request Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114704/India-Pallet-Market Warehouses provide storage services to a wide range of industries, operational tools such as pallet are important in managing goods and create sections and division between them. In additional, use of pallets allows stress-free movement of goods in bulk amount.TrendsProliferation of large retail or departmental stores in the country has led to a healthy demand for pallet from such outlets. Changing culture of retail business and an evolving market structure is expected to influence the market for pallets in India.ConclusionThe pallet market in India is anticipated to register a healthy growth rate in the coming years. By 2016 end, the pallet market in the country is expected to surpass INR 6,223 Cr, which is close to (US$ 971. Million) by 2024.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114704/India-Pallet-MarketPR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 17:14:41

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Research Report Insights (RRI)42 Joseph StreetPort carling P0B 1J0Muskoka, Ontario1Phone - +1-631-721-4201Website: https://www.researchreportinsights.comEmail: sales@researchreportinsights.com+1-631-721-42016317214201

The demand for individual quick freeze (IQF) fruits is largely influenced by the prominent wellness and health trends in the world. Also, the rising occurrence of pancreatic disorder due to overconsumption of poorly-preserved fruits is expected to stimulate the demand for IQF fruits among consumers globally. In2016, the global market for IQF fruits is anticipated to close in on US$ 8.0 Bn in terms of revenues, surpassing consumption of over 2.3 Mn tonnes of volumes.To asses optimal growth opportunities of the global IQF fruits market, Research Report Insights (RRI) provides key market perceptions in the report titled, Global Market Study on Individual Quick Freeze (IQF) Fruits: Industry Analysis and Forecast 2016-2026. According to the report, the market value of the global IQF fruits market reached US$ 7.4 Bn in 2015, and is expected to grow exponentially in 2016 and beyond.Growing awareness on the health benefits of consuming fruits with nutritional additives is one of the major factor driving the growth of the market. The consumption of natural and organic fruits assorted with artificial ingredients is surging, which has resulted in a positive impact on the demand for quick freeze fruits. However, the growth of the global market will face challenges owing to the lower acceptance of IQF fruits as an alternative for conventional fruit preservation processes.Request For Report Sample: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114688/IQF-Fruits-Market By product type, the global market for IQF fruits is expected to exhibit dominance from strawberry segment. Strawberry additives will account for more than US$ 570 Mn revenues, while blueberry additives will be adopting a y-o-y growth rate of 10% and increase their revenue share by 2016-end. Increasing consumption of berries in preparation of smoothies and other fruit drinks will also influence the product growth in 2016 and beyond.On the basis of the buyers, the groceries and wholesaler outlets will continue to account for substantial share in the global market value. Dairy product manufacturers are also expected to increase their demand for IQF fruits in order to develop new edible and drinkable products. In 2016, cake shops and confectionary outlets will emerge as one of the key contributors for rising consumption of IQF fruits.The global market is further segmented on the basis of geographic regions, wherein North America is estimated to lead as the most lucrative region for the expansion of the global IQF fruits market. In terms of volume, North America shall solely account for consumption of more than 850 thousand tonnes of IQF fruits by the end of 2016, resulting into a y-o-y growth of 5.9% over 2015.Request Report Discount: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114688/IQF-Fruits-Market Western Europe is also expected to join North America as one of the leading regions, procuring market value of US$ 1.3 Bn in 2016.The key fruit suppliers and consumer companies in the global market for individual quick freeze fruits include, Dirafrost Frozen Fruit Industry NV., Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, Uren Food Group Ltd., Danone, Rosemary & Thyme Limited, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Nestle S.A, and Milne Fruit Products Inc., among others.The global IQF fruit market is projected to expand at a 6.5% CAGR in terms of revenues, during the forecast period 2016-2026. The global individual quick freeze fruits market is anticipated to be value at US$ 14.8 Bn by end of the forecast period.Report Analysis: https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114688/IQF-Fruits-MarketResearch Report Insights (RRI) has launched the report titled, Cocoa Market: Global Industry Analysis, size, sales and Forecast by 2026: Research Report Insights.

PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 09:34:24

In terms of value, the global cocoa market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 3.4 % during the forecast period and is expected to account for US$ 14,572 Mn by 2026 end. Demand for dark chocolates is high due to health benefits such as reducing hypertension, reducing symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, protecting against sunburn, promoting heart health etc. Dark chocolate is also a powerful source of antioxidants, which includes polyphenols, flavanols, catechins and others. These properties of dark chocolate is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. The global cocoa market is currently witnessing major opportunity like application of cocoa in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries. As a result of increasing awareness of healthy skin and health benefits of cocoa, application in these industries is expected to witness robust increase over the forecast period. Global cocoa market has been segmented by application which includes confectionery, functional food, bakery items, beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceutical. Among all the application segment confectionery segment is projected to account relatively high CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/sample/230138-Cocoa-Market On the basis of product type, the global cocoa market has been segmented into cocoa powder, cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. Cocoa liquor segment is expected to represent largest share in terms of value. Revenue contribution of this segment to the global cocoa market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.1 % from 2016 to 2026.The global cocoa acid market is further segmented on the basis of process which includes Natural and Dutch. Among both the segments Dutch type was dominant in terms of value and it registered a significant value share of 73.9% in 2016. Awareness among adult consumers regarding the various health benefits associated with dark chocolate has been witnessing a significant rise in the recent past, and is projected to continue to drive revenues of the global cocoa market in future.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/discount/230138-Cocoa-Market On the basis of region, the global cocoa market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, the Middle East & Africa and Japan. Among all the regions, the market in Western Europe recorded highest CAGR of 4.1% in terms of value and in terms of revenue share at 34.8 % in 2016, followed by North America. While APAC also gained normal market share owing to high demand from India and China that accounted for 14.1% market share in 2016 and is expected to grow up to 14.3 % market share by 2026.Key players in the cocoa market includes The Barry Callebaut Group, The Hershey Company, Nestle S.A., Cargill Incorporated, Puratos Group, Cemoi, Mars, Incorporated, Blommer Chocolate Company, Meiji Holdings Company, Ltd. Carlyle Cocoa, Jindal Cocoa and United Cocoa Processor.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/analysis/230138-Cocoa-MarketResearch Report Insights (RRI) has launched the report titled, Air Ships Market: Global Industry Analysis, size, sales and Forecast by 2024: Research Report Insights.

PR-Inside.com: 2019-01-27 08:54:22

Air Ship Market Overview:1.Air Ships are power driven vehicle which navigate above the ground. They are predominantly used as mode of transportation. Freight transportation, defense, research, surveillance and advertisements are other common application of airships.Air Ship Market: DynamicsIncreasing demand towards national security and continuous surveillance, will fuel the demand the demand of the market over the projected period. Further, low operation cost will support the growth of the air ship market significantly. Furthermore, its riding demand in news, weather forecast and advertisement to target huge audience will also attribute to the growth of the market notably, registering a CAGR of 6.5%. Among types of air ship, non-rigid air ship is expected to witness significant growth owing to its increasing demand in commercial and surveillance sector. However, high initial cost of Air Ship is a major factor challenging the growth of the market. global airships market is projected to be worth US$273.2 mn by the end of 2024Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/sample/230130-Air-Ships-Market Air Ship Market Segmentation:On the basis of type, Air Ship market is segmented into:Semi-rigid Air SipRigid-Air ShipNon-rigid Air ShipOn the basis of application, Air Ship market is segmented into:ResearchSurveillanceAdvertisementsCommercial ToursCargo TransportsOthersAir Ship Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, Air Ship market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East Africa, Asia Pacific excluding Japan and Japan. Among all the regions, North America is expected to account for a major market share owing to increased number of manufacturers in United States, also the regions inclination towards technological development leading to rise in research and development investment by private and public sector to overcome certain challenges such as high inflammability of hydrogen gas. Increasing urbanization and tourism in Asia Pacific is expected to increase the demand for air ship, especially in China and India, thereby, flourishing the market for Air Ship. Latin America and Middle East Africa are expected to have a neck-to-neck growth as a result of their developed economies and technological advancements.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/discount/230130-Air-Ships-Market Air Ship Market: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the Air Ship market are:Lockheed Martin CorporationHybrid Air Vehicles LtdAirborne Industries incLindstrand TechnologiesInformation Systems Laboratories Inc.GEFA-FLUG GmbHShanghai Vantage Airship Manufacture Co. Ltd.Skyship Services Inc.Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbHRosAeroSystems s.r.a.Research Methodology:RRI surveys a number of companies in order to estimate the data covered in the report through triangulation methodology. A detailed market understanding and assessment of the drive and application segments covered in the study. The research methodology also includes interviews conducted for various industry leaders by the research experts. This helps the researchers to match their previous findings with the ones confirmed from various resource persons. The report focuses on analyzing the supply-side approaches and keeps a track of that of the demand-side so as to make sure the findings are true. The global market scenario has been derived by consolidation of regional market overviews.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchsolutioninsights.com/report/analysis/230130-Air-Ships-MarketI wrote here about the controversy over what to call the Balkan nation just north of Greece. The dispute has raged for decades  the northern neighbor calling itself Macedonia and Greece objecting to the use of that name, which has strong associations with Alexander the Great and his father, Phillip of Macedonia.

Finally, a compromise was reached whereby the northern neighbor would be North Macedonia. It would make concessions such as no longer using Alexander the Greats name for its airport. Greece, in turn, would drop its objection to North Macedonia joining the EU and NATO.

The deal appears to be popular in North Macedonia. Voters supported it overwhelmingly in a referendum, albeit one with low turnout, and parliament approved it by the required two-thirds majority.

Greece is another matter. Reportedly, public opinion polls show that nearly 70 percent of the population opposes the compromise.

Nonetheless, the Greek parliament narrowly approved the deal this week. The vote was 153 to 146.

In my view, the deal is a sensible solution to a dispute that has gone on for too long. But then, Im not Greek.

This is a clear case of the political elite taking action thats overwhelmingly unpopular with the people politicians are supposed represent. To make matters more problematic, its a case of the Greek political elite doing so at the urging of the European political elite. Its the EU that most wanted the settlement so it could claim a new member (North Macedonia) and achieve a victory of sorts over the nationalism that lies behind the naming dispute.

Ironically, the Greek government that pushed the deal through is a left-wing, supposedly populist entity that came to power promising to stand up to the EU (and the Germans whom they perceive as calling the shots). Over the years, however, the government has fallen more in line with the EU. Now, in one of its last acts (a conservative government will come to power after elections to be held this year), it has rammed through the EUs pet deal  one with little appeal to Greek citizens.

At least the European Council president Donald Tusk was thoughtful enough to send prime minister Alexis Tsipras a shout-out on Twitter.

Its nice to see this dispute settled. Its less nice to see the will of the Greek people blatantly disregarded.

Will Greece benefit concretely from the resolution of this dispute? Tsipras says it will. Very soon [opponents of the deal] will see the benefits for the country from this historic step forward, he has declared.

Maybe. My sense, though, is that the deal will neither benefit nor harm Greece. The dispute was never about much thats concrete, and its resolution probably wont yield many tangible consequences.Jim Obergefell is the successful plaintiff in the case where the Supreme Court invented a constitutional right to same sex marriage. Eric Murphy is a lawyer who, in his capacity as Solicitor General of Ohio, argued against inventing such a right.

President Trump has nominated Murphy for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Sen. Rob Portman, one of Murphys home state Senators, backs the nomination, even though Portman supports same sex marriage.

The Washington Post has published an op-ed by Obergefell blasting Murphy and criticizing Portman for supporting him. The op-ed displays ignorance and arrogance in equal measure.

According to Obergefell, Murphy argued that my marriage in unconstitutional. Murphy made no such argument.

His contention was that the constitution creates no right to same sex marriage. This doesnt mean that same sex marriage is unconstitutional. If the appropriate legislative body had approved of same sex marriage, instead of barring it as Ohio did, the marriage would not have been problematic.

In short, Obergefells marriage was neither mandated nor prohibited by the constitution. And because it wasnt mandated by the constitution, it wasnt unconstitutional for the state not to recognize it. Or so the argument went.

Murphys other sin was using dog whistles such as traditional marriage in his brief. Obergefell doesnt bother to explain what improper signal traditional marriage sends. The term merely indicates that marriage traditionally has been considered to be between a man and a woman. Obergefell might not like this fact, but its indisputable.

Obergefell grudgingly recognizes that Murphy, as Ohios Solicitor General, was required to defend the law against same sex marriage. Thus, he offers Murphy a way to atone for his non-sin of defending that law. He insists that Murphy affirm that the Supreme Court got Obergefells case right and that discrimination against the LGBTQ community would have no place in his court room.

But the legality of same sex marriage has no claim to be a litmus test for court of appeals membership. Four Supreme Court Justices think Obergefell was wrongly decided, as do a number of court of appeals judges  those who ruled the other way before the Court handed down its landmark decision.

Murphy is obligated to follow the law as laid down in Obergefell, but not to agree with the decision. Anyone who doesnt understand this shouldnt be having his op-eds published.

Obergefells demand that discrimination against the LGBTQ community have no place in [Murphys] court room also betrays ignorance. As a judge, Murphys obligation will be to treat all litigants fairly, regardless of sexual preference, etc., and to strike down those discriminatory acts that violate the law. Equally, he will be obliged to uphold actions the LGBTQ community considers discriminatory if the law does not prohibit them.

The gay rights movement has made substantial contributions to America, making us a fairer and more humane nation. However, theres an authoritarian strain to movement as it exists today.

Obergefells op-ed comes from that strain. Its a demand that a judge confess to an error he may not believe he committed and that he ignore his duty to follow the law and instead pledge fealty to a particular movements agenda and party line.

The op-ed is too poorly argued to have merited a place in the op-ed page of a supposedly respectable newspaper. But its placement there has the virtue of highlighting the authoritarianism lurking in the contemporary gay rights movement.What is the difference between Nicolas Maduro, disgraced soon-to-be former President of Venezuela, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC, as she calls herself now)? It isnt their political ideologies. Ocasio-Cortez, like Bernie Sanders and many others in the Democratic Party, is a fervent socialist, just like Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Barack Obama allowed himself to be schooled on history by Chavez; to my knowledge he has not commented on Venezuelas socialist collapse.

But back to Ocasio-Cortez, who unlike Obama is not yesterdays news. How is she different from Maduro, who before long will flee Venezuela and live off his Swiss bank accounts, leaving behind a decimated and devastated nation? Michael Ramirez explains. Click to enlarge:

Yup. The Democrats are choosing their young leaders largely on the basis of looks. Ilhan Omar is in the same category, as is Kamala Harris. Policy? In the Democratic Party, who cares about policy? Many Democrats, it seems, are happy to repeat the failed socialist experiment.Sound Off is a forum to spur dialogue from residents of the communities we serve on topics of interest in those communities. Fair game are comments that raise issues of note or amplify ongoing debates. We will not publish comments that are potentially libelous, slanderous, mean-spirited, vulgar or inappropriate. Publications of Sound Off comments are at the sole discretion of the publisher.Guest column

County Chamber of Business and Industry looks to futureA badly damaged SUV is loaded onto a flatbed truck as police and first responders clear the scene of a two-vehicle crash Thursday afternoon on Route 724.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.Dr. B Speaks!

Selecting the right kinds of books to bridge learning loss is like choosing the right stream when prospecting for gold. You have to be deliber Read moreCOLUMBIA  South Carolina, the first test for Democratic presidential hopefuls wanting to win over African-American voters, is already drawing plenty of attention more than a year before ballots are cast in the state's 2020 primary.

More than 15 White House prospects have swarmed South Carolina ahead of the 2018 election. Now with the field getting set, four of the popular favorites hit this early primary state last week.

"People are breaking the speed limit to get to South Carolina," said Antjuan Seawright, a Columbia political operative.

The Palmetto State primary on Feb. 29, 2020, is key in a race where Democrats see a chance to win back the White House. And with possibly more than 20 candidates in the field, a quick start is vital to building relationships that last until primary day.

One candidate already is running digital ads targeting South Carolina voters.

South Carolina is the last of the early primaries where media attention will be focused just before Super Tuesday when voters in nine states  including California, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia  head to the polls.

Candidates also can see where they stand with African-Americans, who have accounted for roughly 60 percent of voters in South Carolina, more than any of the other early primaries and caucuses.

"People know Iowa and New Hampshire are as white as snow," said Brady Quirk-Garvan, chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party. "South Carolina is a test of how much diversity matters."

'Black folks vote black'

Potential presidential contenders spent time last week in South Carolina wooing black voters and black political and community leaders.

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders of Vermont headlined the S.C. NAACP's MLK Day rally at the Statehouse. Sanders later visited with the S.C. Black Legislative Caucus, students at a historically black Benedict College and about 300 supporters in North Charleston.

After Warren met with nearly 1,000 supporters in Columbia, she appeared on a radio talk show with popular African-American host Cynthia Hardy. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California attended a Columbia gala for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Harris also is getting a head start with Facebook ads aimed at the state, a campaign spokeswoman said.

State Rep. John King, the past chairman of the S.C. Legislative Black Caucus, said he expects Booker and Harris, the two African-Americans expected in the primary, to receive the most attention from black voters.

"Black folks vote black," said King, D-Rock Hill. "It's who you feel more comfortable with."

The success of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in winning the South Carolina primary that catapulted his 2008 presidential campaign showed black Palmetto State voters they can have impact in the race, King said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the dean of South Carolina Democrats and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said many black voters will look at African-American politicians first because they often have not always had a chance to cast a ballot for a black candidate in a national race.

But that does not guarantee a vote for an African-American candidate, he said. Black voters want someone capable of winning.

"Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary on the evening of the Iowa caucuses," Clyburn said. "When he came out of Iowa a winner, black voters saw him as a viable candidate, and they voted for him."

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State Rep. Chandra Dillard, D-Greenville, said African-American women will play a crucial role in the 2020 South Carolina primary. She said black women she knows are worried about jobs, schools, health care and equal pay. And they would like to see Republican President Donald Trump out of the Oval Office.

"That's top of mind, too, because he isn't good for the household," Dillard said.

Dillard, like most major black leaders in the state, does not have a favorite candidate yet.

While much of the focus has been on African-American voters and candidates in South Carolina, Joe Biden, a popular figure among the state's Democrats, is casting a shadow over the primary. The former U.S. senator and vice president has not announced a formal bid but is expected to join the field.

"He enters the race with many political miles on his engine," Seawright said. "And he has the infrastructure that not a lot of people have."

But there are no assurances for Biden. He could find himself in a 2008 reboot of the South Carolina primary where he is in the role of presumed favorite Hillary Clinton, while Harris, with her appeal to white progressives and black women, is Obama, said Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator and a former S.C. state lawmaker.

Still, Sellers said African-American voters seek one job from a candidate despite their race: "We want someone who will beat Trump."

'I saw them once'

The visits by presidential hopefuls more than a year before the election are necessary in early primary states where voters expect to meet the candidates, especially with a larger-than-normal field of Democrats.

"People here want to be able to say, 'I saw them once,'" Bamberg said.

Another reason for the early visits is that Super Tuesday states will have early voting in February, distracting candidates usually focused on the states holding the first primaries.

As the primaries draw closer, South Carolina voters could see more surrogates and more ads than usual, Seawright said: "There will be less physical time."

While Super Tuesday "could kick some of the shine," Clyburn said the "South Carolina primary could have one hell of a Sunday headline" capable of swaying the results in those larger states just three days after polls close in the Palmetto State.

South Carolina's urban areas in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and Rock Hill will get the bulk of attention from candidates because they have strong Democratic voting blocs.

Charleston County's rapidly growing region's changing demographics poses a different challenge to campaigns.

During the 2016 presidential election, Charleston County, home to the state's largest city, was the only county in the state where a majority of Democratic voters were white, Quirk-Garvan said.

And more younger voters from inside and outside the state have arrived with the boom in jobs, he said.

In the Charleston region where a Democrat snatched a surprise win for Congress from a Trump-backed opponent last year, Quirk-Garvan said the biggest issue is beating the president.

"There's a 2-mile gap to where the next top issue is," he said.Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon, left, testifies before a House budget subcommittee on Wednesday, Jan. 16. Cannon is one of several law enforcement officials who wants the state to end its reliance on traffic ticket fines and fees to fund the Criminal Justice Academy. Jamie Lovegrove/StaffEditorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.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.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.Angie Jackson covers crime and breaking news for The Post and Courier. She previously covered the same beat for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com in Michigan. When shes not reporting, Angie enjoys teaching yoga and exploring the outdoors.Even as more people over the past year have called for action on the affordable housing shortage in the Charleston region, typical rents and home prices remain higher than what most workers can pay.

In late 2017, The Post and Courier analyzed local housing trends and salary data, revealing that much of the workforce couldn't afford to live where they worked in the center of the region. As a result, teachers, police officers and hospitality workers were moving farther away into the edges of town for cheaper housing  adding more commuters to an already congested roads system.

A review of updated data showed those trends haven't let up, despite grassroots efforts and some policy changes that have taken root recently to address the problem.

Technology and manufacturing sectors are growing in Berkeley and Dorchester counties, but Charleston County is still by far the largest hub of employment in the region. The medical and hospitality industries are largely based downtown, and the Boeing plant is based in North Charleston.

Yet the majority of the workforce in Charleston County doesn't live there. The latest report from the S.C. Department of Employment & Workforce found only about a quarter work and live in the county. About 41 percent are commuting into Charleston County every day, while 31 percent are commuting to other parts of the region.

Across three counties, the typical household brings in about $57,000-$58,000 a year. That's not enough to buy the typical single-family home or rent the average apartment near the job centers of the Charleston region. In many cases, people end up spending much more of their income on housing than they can really afford to.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says households should spend no more than a third of their income on housing and utility costs. The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University found 48 percent of renters were paying more than that in the Charleston region.

One thing that's changed over the past year is the level of public awareness about the issue. A number of community groups including the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Charleston Area Justice Ministry have begun advocating for affordable housing solutions, lending an alternative perspective in communities that had begun resenting new housing developments.

"We cannot continue to tell people, Drive until you qualify for the house you can afford. Its not a workable housing strategy," said Ian Scott, the chamber's senior vice president of government relations. "Were all sitting in the traffic thats resulted from that approach."

It's hard to gauge how much of a difference it's making.

While one major municipality, the city of Charleston, has been pursuing a number of strategies to address the affordability crisis, the government in the other most expensive housing market  Mount Pleasant  has passed more anti-growth policies that will likely exacerbate the problem.

The cost of living

Households have to earn at least $100,000 to afford a house in Mount Pleasant, the Charleston peninsula, Daniel Island, or any of the beach communities, according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors. It takes slightly less, about $80,000 to $95,000 to buy in most other parts of Charleston County.

The county's rent prices have remained at about $1,800 over the past year, according to Zillow. It's 20 percent cheaper to rent in Dorchester and Berkeley counties, and the price for a typical single-family home is at least $130,000 cheaper than it would be in Charleston County.

The catch is the travel time. Commuter data shows about half of the residents in Berkeley and Dorchester counties have to travel elsewhere for work.

Delia Smith, a server at Peninsula Grill, has worked in Charleston's hospitality industry for more than 25 years. She said she earns a decent living, but she's spending much more to rent a much smaller apartment in West Ashley than where she used to live on James Island a few years ago.

When discussing housing issues with friends and co-workers in the hospitality field, she said almost everyone she talked to was struggling to afford where they live. They didn't want to talk to the newspaper because they were ashamed, she said.

"Theyre working multiple jobs," she said. "They get sick a lot because they dont have time to rest."

The region's booming $7.4 billion hospitality and tourism industry is also one of the lowest-paying, with an average annual wage of $22,152. Its epicenter is on the peninsula, where housing costs are the highest. Inevitably, most workers have to live elsewhere and drive to work.

Smith has been outspoken about at least ensuring workers have access to public transit so they don't have to spend even more of their wages on parking downtown.

While the city and the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority launched a park-and-ride shuttle system particularly for downtown hospitality workers, called the HOP bus, Smith said more solutions are needed to improve the quality of life for most workers.

Its not easy to work in the hospitality industry in Charleston, South Carolina, and be in a good mood, because youre paying a lot for where you live, and youre paying a lot and having to put with a lot just to get to work," she said.

That's ultimately hurting employers' ability to attract and keep good employees, which is a major reason the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce has gotten involved in the issue.

"Every employer thrives on a workforce. Human capital is the predominant factor in the economy," Scott said. "Employers themselves are realizing the role theyll have to play."

Melanie Stith, vice president of human resources with Roper St. Francis Healthcare, is among those employers. She joined the chamber's housing task force about a year ago after realizing how the lack of workforce housing was affecting the hospital's turnover rate.

"A couple of years ago we started really digging into our exit interview trends and why people were choosing to leave the health system," she said. "More and more often, we were hearing that it was not that people did not love working for Roper St. Francis Healthcare. ... They couldnt afford to live close to where they worked."

Now, she frequently attends council meetings around the region to speak in support of policies that would add more housing near the region's job centers.

Government's hand in housing

As a coastal place, the Charleston region has always had a limited amount of land to build on. The problem is, local governments didn't set policies to use that scarce land efficiently as the area grew over the last half-century.

For decades, most local governments in the region have favored one type of housing development: subdivisions with single-family homes on large lots.

That's how most areas such as James Island, West Ashley and Mount Pleasant have grown, so land that's left there now is more scarce and more valuable than ever. Regulations on parking requirements, lot configurations, and height limits often increase the land needed for a project, further driving up the cost.

To offset those expenses, developers over the last few years have built high-end housing such as luxury apartments. So, even though more units are being built, they're often out of reach for average workers.

The region still lacks starter homes  generally those that are priced at or below $200,000  and denser housing types such as cluster homes, duplexes and townhomes.

In suburban communities, it's those types of projects that see the most resistance from residents, who often argue dense housing will exacerbate traffic or ruin the once-quaint character of their neighborhoods. In response, Mount Pleasant has stopped permitting apartment projects and recently cut back on new building permits in general.

"Its going to artificially restrict supply while the demand is still high," said Patrick Arnold, executive director of the Charleston Home Builders Association. "Its going to drive up housing prices."

The median home sale price in Mount Pleasant in 2017 was about $445,000. The typical rent has hovered around $2,400 over the past year, according to Zillow.

Stith said employers can help in those communities by offering a different perspective.

"I think oftentimes our councils and our governments only hear the voice of disgruntled citizens who dont want something in their backyard," she said. "They dont always hear the employer say, But were trying to provide services in that community and we need to have workers ... who can live and work in proximity."

Steps forward, steps back

There are many ways governments can encourage the development of affordable housing options. The city of Charleston is making progress on a number of them.

The city is looking for developers who can build affordable housing on two city-owned properties on the upper peninsula: one on F street near the future Lowcountry Lowline, and another between Nassau, Hanover, Lee and Cooper streets. Combined, they could offer more than 100 units to low-income households.

Through a combination of grants and housing department funds, the city has invested more than $6.5 million to help construct more than 200 new affordable homes since mid-2016. More are on the way.

"Were on track to deliver hundreds of affordable units over the next several years if our efforts are successful," said City Planner Jacob Lindsey.

The city will have more funds available to address the problem later this year, when it will begin issuing bonds to help pay for affordable housing developments. In 2017, city residents overwhelmingly voted for a $20 million affordable housing bond.

These are strategies that have been proven to work, Scott said.

"Itll take some amount of public resources to bridge the gap between what the market can deliver and what the median worker can afford," he said. "Theres already a lot underway, but well have to scale those up really dramatically."

Charleston County has jurisdiction over a smaller footprint of land in the urbanized areas, but it has also committed to encouraging more affordable housing along transit hubs in its updated Comprehensive Plan.

The local interfaith group, Charleston Area Justice Ministry, tried to launch a regional housing trust fund last year to get the large local governments to invest in affordable housing. The approach hasn't gained traction, though the group is still working on the plan and meeting with local officials.

Arnold of the Home Builders Association said the private market could help deliver more affordable price points if governments would speed up the permitting process.

"Weve seen the length of time it takes to complete a project increase, which also increases prices," he said. "Some of it is due to more stringent requirements, and some of it is due to those offices not having the resources to review developments put before them."

The city of Charleston is working on streamlining its process. Lindsey said the city will also be proposing a way for affordable housing projects to be fast-tracked through permitting.

Mount Pleasant has no clear strategy to create affordable housing. Council did exempt affordable housing projects from its permit allocation program, which could help them break ground more quickly than other projects in the town. But without public subsidies or incentives to help make an affordable project work, it's hard to say if any would come forward.

The town also commissioned a housing study, which led to the creation of a new nonprofit, Housing For All. The group will mostly rely on grants and fundraising to deliver affordable housing, according to board member Daniel Brock.

Arnold is skeptical developing housing at lower price-points will ever be feasible in Mount Pleasant.

"I have yet to see a policy in Mount Pleasant in the last four years that was actually going to bring down the cost of construction," he said.

While progress has been spotty and housing prices have generally remained high over the past year, Stith said it's an encouraging sign that more people are aware of the housing shortage and how that impacts their communities.

"People are starting to realize that in order to have central services, this is an issue we have to tackle," she said.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Thunderstorms. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.Gregory Yee covers breaking news and public safety. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine.Get the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.On January 23, the Russian Defense Ministrys official media outlet TV Zvezda reported that the Organization for Security and Cooperation and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraines embattled Donbas region spotted Ukrainian armored vehicles in the area. Specifically, it mentioned three types of armored vehicles -- a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun, a BTR-70 armored personnel carrier, and a BRDM-2 patrol vehicle.

A review of the OSCE SMMs spot reports from January 22-23 appears to confirm this claim, although only the ZU-23 and BRDM-2 are mentioned, not the BTR-70.

This article fits the general tenor of Russian state media coverage of Ukrainian military activity, which regularly accuses the Ukrainian side of violating the Minsk peace agreement and/or preparing to launch offensive operations.TV Zvezda pointed to allegedly serious incidents, citing as sources Russian-controlled or dominated authorities in the region. For example, on January 18 and January 22, TV Zvezda ran two stories claiming that Ukrainian forces fired on the Russian-led militia using tanks. Both stories cite the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics rather than the OSCE.

It should be noted, that the armored vehicles in question belong to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and were on Ukrainian territory. More importantly, it appears none of the vehicles cited by TV Zvezda -- including the BTR-70, which isnt mentioned in the actual OSCE SMM report -- violate the Minsk agreement.

The Minsk agreement governs military movements in the area. The second point in the February 2015 agreement required withdrawal of heavy weapons by both Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces, citing specifically the artillery systems of caliber of 100 and more, a security zone of 70km wide for MLRS and 140km wide for MLRS Tornado-S, Uragan, Smerch and Tactical Missile Systems (Tochka, Tochka U).

The ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun system, which may have been mounted on an MT-LB armored personnel carrier, consists of twin 23mm cannons. While the weapon system is no longer very effective against modern military aircraft, armies and insurgent groups around the world have often used it in ground combat. Here is a video of the weapon being fired by Ukrainian forces from a ground position.



Ukraines military has also mounted the weapon on the Soviet-era MT-LB armored personnel carrier. This configuration is known as the MT-LB-T-23-2.

The BTR-70 is a wheeled armored personnel carrier that the Soviet army began using in the 1970s. It is armed only with a 14.5mm KPV heavy machine gun and a 7.62mm PKT general purpose machine gun.

The BRDM-2 is an armored scout car that carries the same armament as the BTR-70, but it is much smaller.

The Minsk agreement does not ban any of the vehicles cited by TV Zvezda from being located near the line of contact. In addition, these vehicles would not be indicative that a major offensive operation is afoot.

Perhaps more importantly, the TV Zvezda story leaves out information from the same OSCE report concerning Russian military equipment located in Donbas territory not controlled by Kyiv.

For example, the OSCE mission reported on January 23 that two 2S1 Gvozdika 122mm self-propelled howitzers and four towed D-30 Lyagushka 122mm howitzers were located near Bile, 22km west of Luhansk. Based on the caliber and distance from the line of contact, the presence of those could possibly violate the Minsk agreement.

In truth, both sides of the Ukraine conflict have been accused of violating this aspect of the Minsk agreement. However, the Ukrainian government claims higher moral ground. Because Russian personnel and military invaded Ukraine, so-called separatist leaders both military and political were Russian citizens and Russian Army veteran Igor Skelkov Girkin claimed responsibility for launching the conflict, the Ukrainian government argues the Donetsk and Luhansk areas are occupied territory. The U.S. State Department calls the areas controlled by Russia.



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After Trumps friend Roger Stone was arrested on Friday and charged with seven felony counts, he stood at the top of the courthouse steps and declared his innocence. His defiant speech to reporters made it sound like he was arrested on trumped-up charges (no pun intended) and that the prosecutors had no chance of winning.

However, according to the prosecutor who convicted Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice, the case against Stone is almost perfect.

Writing in The Daily Beast, former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said:

Barring a presidential pardon (always the wild-card possibility with a POTUS like Trump) Stone will be convicted and receive a very substantial prison sentence. This is as close to a slam-dunk case as a prosecutor will ever bring.

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Unfortunately for Stone, Zeidenberg says that the government has a mountain of documents it can use to make its case. His indictment set forth in great detail the massive amount of email and text evidence that supports the charges against him. These documents can only be interpreted one way: Stone is guilty.

For example: On the same day that Stone testified before Congress that he had never sent or received emails or text messages from his friend Randy Credico, the two men had exchanged more than 30 text messages. That will be hard for Stones defense lawyers to explain away.

In fact, according to Zeidenberg, there is almost no defense that Stone can make against the charges Mueller has brought against him. He said:

There are several types of defenses that are typically employed when defending a case like this, and none of them are viable here.

In addition, Stones trial will be held in the District of Columbia, where the jury pool hates white-collar criminals almost as much as they hate the current president. And, Zeidenberg says, they will find Stone loathsome.

The former prosecutor also makes clear that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will not even try to flip Stone to get him to cooperate by testifying against Donald Trump. He says that:

A defendant like Stone is far more trouble than he is worth to a prosecutor. Stone is too untrustworthy for a prosecutor to ever rely upon. He has told so many documented lies, and bragged so often about his dirty tricks, that he simply has too much baggage to deal with even if here to want to cooperatewhich seems unlikely in any event.

Zeidenberg says that Mueller wont even attempt to engage in a preliminary debrief with Stone to test the possibility of cooperation, since he knows that Stone would immediately go on Fox News to charge Mueller with unfair Gestapo tactics in his prosecution.

The fact is that Robert Mueller does not need any testimony from Stone to get to anyone higher up in the food chain, such as Donald Trump or his children. Mueller also knows that whatever Stone told him would not be believable, and certainly not useful in a criminal trial.

As Zeidenberg says, Stone has nothing to sell that Mueller would be interested in buying.

Even though Stone talks big, the truth is that Robert Mueller has him dead to rights. All the evidence is against him, he has no viable defense, the jury will be biased against him, and the prosecutors have no incentive to cut a deal to reduce his prison sentence.

In short Roger Stone will soon be going to jail, and he will probably stay there for the rest of his life.

Editors Note: The word likely was added to the title after publication.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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The freshly indicted Roger Stone would not rule out cooperating with Robert Mueller and flipping on Donald Trump.

Transcript via ABCs This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say you wont bear false witness against President Trump, are you prepared to tell the truth about your dealings with him to the Special Counsel, the truth about your dealings with the campaign, any chance youll cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller if he asks?

STONE: You know, thats a question I would have to  I have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is I would certainly testify honestly.

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Id also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. Its true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, theyre benign, and there is  there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.

The presidents right, there is no Russia collusion. I 

STEPHANOPOULOS: And hes never suggested to you in any way, shape or form that he might offer you a pardon?

STONE: Absolutely, positively not. I have never discussed a pardon. The only person that I advocated a pardon for, as we discussed previously, is a posthumous pardon for Marcus Garvey.

And I have written the president as to why I think that should be done.

Video:

JUST IN: @GStephanopoulos: Any chance youll cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller if he asks? Roger Stone: Thats a question Ill have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion  I would certainly testify honestly https://t.co/PAbc4RuByr pic.twitter.com/yTWpkkBq3F  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 27, 2019

Roger Stone is trolling for a pardon

The interview was full of the typical Stone tough talk and bluster, but he is also keeping his options open. Trumps longtime adviser was sending a message to the president. Either pardon me, or I may cooperate with Mueller. Stone might sound like he is protecting Donald Trump, but that one answer reveals that first and foremost, he is going to protect Roger Stone.

Stone is fishing for a pardon. Stone, like Paul Manafort, will likely be sent to prison where they will wait for Trump to pardon them.

The problem with pardon dream is that

Any Trump Russia scandal pardon will trigger impeachment

House Democrats have made it very clear that any Russia scandal related pardon will trigger an impeachment investigation against the president. Abuse of the pardon power to interfere with or obstruct an investigation is an impeachable offense. There is an entire laundry list of offenses that Trump could be impeached for, but at the top would be pardoning any of the convicted felons in the Russia scandal.

The likely endgame is that Trump loses reelection in 2020, and his way out of the White House pardons Stone, Manafort, his kids, himself, and anyone else convicted or in jeopardy of facing charges in the Russia scandal.

Roger Stone clearly wants a pardon, but it may take Trump getting thrown out of office for him to get it.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.1.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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All-time favorite comedian Steve Martin returned to Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night to play newly-indicted adviser to President Donald Trump, Roger Stone.

On Thursday night Stone was charged with suspicion of obstruction, giving false statements and witness tampering. He was arrested by the FBI during a pre-dawn raid on his home in Florida on Friday. Stone is a key player in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election, and the conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Here with his side of the story is a man you look at and instantly think, I trust this guy. Please welcome Roger Stone. #SNL @SteveMartinToGo

"Here with his side of the story is a man you look at and instantly think, I trust this guy. Please welcome Roger Stone." #SNL @SteveMartinToGo pic.twitter.com/qGh2XOcz0j  Saturday Night Live  SNL (@nbcsnl) January 27, 2019

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The SNL version of Fox News Tucker Carlson, played by Alex Moffat, characterized Stone as a man so old and decrepit that hes barely able to post shirtless photos of his jacked body.

Stone appeared to be excited about his predicament and and bragged about all the radio and television appearances he had made after his arrest.

I mean seven felonies  one, two  I cant even count that high, he said. How cool is that?

He said he started a crowdfunding effort based on a phrase people have been shouting at him: Hey Roger, go fund yourself.

He also directed a key set of words, close to Martins own catchphrase of excuse me, at the president: Pardon me!

SNLs Carlson also invited Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to address criticism of his suggestion that workers impacted by the shutdown could take out bank loans.

Ross, a real-life billionaire played on SNL by Kate McKinnon, had more advice for those impacted by the shutdown that ended Friday, saying:

They could have liquidated some of their stocks or sold one of their paintings. I mean even if they sold a lesser Picasso, its still going to get you through a week or two of yacht maintenance.

Next up is Secretary of Commerce and man of the people, Wilbur Ross. #SNL

Next up is Secretary of Commerce and man of the people, Wilbur Ross. #SNL pic.twitter.com/MZmeyAwK8a  Saturday Night Live  SNL (@nbcsnl) January 27, 2019

The Ross character also suggested that those who own horses could have them attend public school.

In the Weekend Update segment the Trump administration was lampooned for its role in a partial government shutdown that was a disaster for Trump and did nothing to help achieve any of his Trumps goals.18.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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Fox News host Sean Hannity may soon find himself in the crosshairs of Robert Muellers investigation into collusion and conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Thursdays indictment of Trumps friend Roger Stone clearly implicated former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who reportedly gave the orders to Stone for him to illegally conspire with WikiLeaks for the release of the emails that had been stolen by Russia from the Democratic National Committee.

And the indictment also may implicate either Donald Trump or Donald Trump Jr. (or both) since someone higher up than Bannon directed him to give the orders to Stone to work with WikiLeaks. In fact, there is a great deal of speculation now that both the president and his son could soon also find themselves the subject of federal indictments obtained by special counsel Mueller.

And the very detailed 24-page Stone indictment also appears to implicate Sean Hannity as it goes into great detail explaining how Stones WikiLeaks contact privately told him to start focusing on Hillary Clintons health during the 2016 campaign.

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Many of us recall how the Trump campaign and right-wing media began making up stories about Clintons failing health in the summer of 2016, although there was no evidence to support these claims.

Nobody in the media or either campaign had ever talked about Hillarys health until Stone and WikiLeaks got involved disseminating false information.

But right after Stones WikiLeaks contact told him to focus on Clintons health, Sean Hannity began also begin focusing heavily on Hillarys health.

According to journalist Kurt Eichenwald:

Hannity appears to have acted on directives from emails between Roger Stone and an intermediary who claimed to have communicated with WikiLeaks.

This new evidence may send Sean Hannity to prison unless he can come up with some plausible alternative explanation for his actions.

What most likely happened is that Roger Stone told Sean Hannity to start talking about Hillarys health because WikiLeaks had told Stone of their plan to leak emails suggesting Clinton was seriously ill.

According to the indictment, Stones contact at WikiLeaks told him via email on August 2, 2016:

Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke, neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus.

Also in the email, Stones WikiLeaks liason told him that Wikileaks president Julian Assange was planning a document dump of Clinton emails in October.

A few days after the email was sent to Stone, Hannity began to focus on Hillarys health, suggesting that she was having seizures and had some sort of neurological problem.

Specifically, Hannity focused on a short video clip where Clinton bobbed her head as someone stuck a microphone in her face.

Are there many seizures like that? Hannity said on the air. This looks like violent, out of control movements on her part.

Eichenwald has argued that Hannity had confidential campaign strategy information that came from WikiLeaks through Stone, and this is supported by language in Muellers indictment of Stone.

This would mean that Sean Hannity was a criminal co-conspirator in a foreign entitys plot to receive and publish stolen goods  which is a felony and something you go to prison for.

To convict Hannity, Mueller must prove that Hannity knew the information he was getting from Roger Stone was coming from WikiLeaks. But that may be easy for the federal prosecutors to do since they already have all of Stones electronic communications.

If documentary evidence shows that Hannity knew that he was participating in the conspiracy to hurt Clinton, hes in serious legal trouble and will likely be indicted. It is possible that Mueller may have in his files copies of incriminating communications between the Fox News host and other co-conspirators in addition to Stone, such as Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Assange, and even members of Russian intelligence.

This is not the first time that Hannitys name has come up as a possible target of the Mueller probe. There are too many coincidences in Hannitys reporting for him to have NOT been part of the conspiracy.

We also dont know what Hannity had going on with his attorney Michael Cohen, who may have already shared information about Hannity with Mueller.

The Stone indictment was not the end of something, it was the beginning. It is a roadmap of where the Mueller probe is going from here. And it appears that the path Mueller is on will soon to lead him to more indictments, including not only the President of the United States but also his pal Sean Hannity.1.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney claimed dozens of Democrats in Congress support Trumps wall. However, none of those Democrats have voted for it.

Transcript via CBSs Face The Nation:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is the President really prepared to shut down the government again in three weeks?

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah. I think he actually is. Keep in mind hes willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border. He does take this very seriously. This is a serious humanitarian and security crisis. And as President of the United States he takes the security of the nation as his highest priority. He doesnt want to shut the government down. Lets make that very clear. He doesnt want to declare a national emergency. What he wants to do is fix this the way that things are supposed to get fixed with our government which is through legislation. One of the reasons he he agreed to open the government this week was to essentially take the Democrats at their word while their leadership have been telling us they were not interested in negotiating and they were sort of taking this do nothing and hope the President gives up approach. There were many, many Democrats, both rank and file and some lower levels of leadership, would come to us and say, look, we we happen to agree with you on border security

MARGARET BRENNAN: Which Democrats?

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MICK MULVANEY: some of them were even very public about it. Well, Dick Durbin publicly said that well have some walls in the future. Jim Clyburn, my former colleague from South Carolina, actually said that if you could convince him that the experts said we needed a border barrier he would vote for that. So theres many, many Democrats, dozens of them have come out over the last couple of weeks to say, you know what, this crisis is real. Lets figure out a way to do it properly but we cant do it with the government closed. I think with what you saw this week was the President take them at their word and say, okay, yall have said you want to do this, Ill lets give it a shot and see over the next three weeks we can do this the right way and pass legislation to fund the government and secure the border.

Video:

None of the Democrats that Mulvaney named support Trumps wall

The Democrats that Mulvaney named didnt vote for Trumps wall. If it is true that dozens of Democrats have come over to support Trumps wall, why did the president cave on the government shutdown? The reality is that Trump doesnt have the votes for his wall. He didnt have the votes for the wall when Republicans controlled the House and the Senate, and she still doesnt have votes for his wall today.

The government shutdown hurt Trump the most so the threat of a new shutdown is like someone breaking into your house and threatening to shoot themselves if you dont give them your money. Democrats dont care politically if Trump shuts the government down again, because the president will be blamed. The conference committee is likely to agree on border security funding that does not include wall money.

Democrats arent going to support Trumps wall, and any new shutdowns are going to be all on Donald Trump.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.4.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

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House Intelligence Committee chair, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is going to turn Donald Trump Jrs testimony transcript over to Mueller for investigation of perjury.

Transcript via ABCs This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Your  your  your colleague on the committee, Jackie Speier  Congresswoman Jackie Speier, told CNN that she believes that Don Jr.  Donald Trump Jr. lied to your committee on at least two occasions. Do you agree?

SCHIFF: Well, Id like the special counsel to have access to Don Jr.s testimony and determine whether it is evidence of  of false statements. I  I think and I greatly appreciate the seriousness with which the special counsel takes lying to Congress. So Ill let Bob Mueller be the judge of that.

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But one of the first acts, if not the first act, of our committee will be to send all of these transcripts of all the witnesses to Bob Mueller so that he can consider whether additional perjury charges are warranted.

Video:

Donald Trump Jr. Lied To Congress About the Trump Tower Meeting

The public knowledge strongly points to Donald Trump Jr. lying to Congress about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. The Special Counsels office will have more evidence than Congress related to what the presidents son knew and if he was telling the truth when he testified before Congress. Donald Trump Jr. and his father cooked up a false story about adoptions to cover up the real purpose of the meeting.

Adam Schiff is about to give Mueller evidence that Republicans wouldnt

When Devin Nunes was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee the majority spent their time trying to discredit and undermine Muellers investigation. Now that Democrats are in charge of the probe, there is a new level of cooperation with the Special Counsels office. The odds that Donald Trump Jr. is charged with a crime went up exponentially when Democrats took back the House, not due to partisan bias, but the fact that a real investigation will now be done.

The hammer is about to fall on the presidents son, and if you think Trump is losing now, wait until the indictment comes against Don Jr.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.Logansport, IN (46947)

Today

Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly late. Low 68F. SW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly late. Low 68F. SW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Arielle S. Hines (231) 439-9358 ashines@petoskeynews.com

The Petoskey News-Review

CHARLEVOIX  The East Jordan Area Chamber of Commerce honored several people at its annual meeting and awards dinner at Castle Farms on Saturday.

Business of the Year

Baris and Cigdem Atmaca of Socks Kick were this years recipients of the Business of the Year award. The business, which sells socks at wholesale and retail, won the 2018 Green Light East Jordan Business Model Competition and took third place in Northern Lakes Economic Alliances regional Grand Event business competition.

Faculak noted Baris Atmaca was introduced to the community in 2005 when he was a Rotary exchange student from Turkey. Chamber president Mary Faculak said the business owner exudes positive energy and unwavering belief, love and commitment in the East Jordan community.

His year-long stay in our community and the many wonderful friendships, experiences and memories caused him to maintain contact with host family members and friends. It was after a visit two years ago that our Business of the Year owner decided to bring warm sucks suitable for the freezing weather to Northern Michigan, Faculak said.

Citizens of the Year

Bob and Sherry Pursel were named East Jordans Citizens of the Year. Faculak noted the couple have been involved in the community in many ways including the East Jordan Lions Club, Lighted Christmas Village, mother/daughter banquet, South Arm Classics, Crossroads Resale Shop, Jordan River Arts Council, Charlevoix Area Humane Society, Lake Charlevoix Association and others.

Faculak also noted the Pursels are fans of the East Jordan Red Devils and community events. She added the couple won the award for their tireless dedication to a wide range of community organizations and projects improving the quality of life for all of us.

This couple sincerely exemplifies what being a member of a community involves and is. They are true leaders and are positive role models for all of us. They are involved and embrace all things East Jordan, Faculak said.

da Vinci Award

Faculak quoted the Renaissance-era painter Leonardo da Vinci, who once said It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

The winner of da Vincis namesake award, Cheri Leach of Raven Hill Discovery Center, lives by that ideal, Faculak said.

This individuals vision, relentless effort no matter how big the obstacle or challenge before her has (helped her to accomplish) projects, goals and dreams like no other, Faculak said.

Faculak noted the Raven Hill Discovery Center has constant programming such as exhibits, workshops and archeological digs. Faculak mentioned the Water/Ways Smithsonian Museum exhibit that was featured at Raven Hill for several weeks. She added the center is located near a nature preserve.

Ambassador of the Year

People involved with the East Jordan Senior Center were named this years Ambassadors of the Year. Faculak noted the people involved with that organization take part in many events such as Scarecrows Across the Breezeway, a pie-eating contest at the annual Pumpkin Festival and a yearly soup cook-off.

When it came time for Shannon (Fender) and I to select this years Ambassador of the Year it was very evident and obvious who deserved this years award. In fact, it was very easy as we looked over the many events we produce, who was always there to lend a hand to help us succeed on an event or activity, Faculak said.

Those involved with the senior center are also involved with several initiatives across the county, including kitting baby hats for newborns at Munson Healthcare Charlevoix Hospital, donating handmade hats to patients of the infusion center at the hospital and making goodie bags for the Meals on Wheels recipients during the holidays.

Renaissance Award

Rick and Rebecca Gotts of Water Street Ventures are this years recipients of the Renaissance Award. Faculak noted the many impacts the venture has made in the community, including helping to reshape the entryway into the community, restoring two historical structures and renovation of a waterfront structure that will house future business ventures.

Faculak said while the couples efforts are not complete, their efforts have already been recognized by both residents and visitors.

The recipients of this award are and will continue to be mindful of hiring and supporting local talent and resources. They believe in history and research and are true members of this community. They are believers that East Jordan is a great place by helping make it a little better, Faculak said.

Spirit Award

This years Spirit Award went to the video production class taught by Matt Hamilton at East Jordan Middle/High School for its Elf on the Shelf project. The elf Alex Schlueter and main cameraman Justin Barnett accepted the award for the class.

The number of likes, share and positive comments seemed endless and brought joy and holiday spirit to all who viewed, Faculak said.

In the video, the elf visited many local businesses during the holiday season. The videos were posted on YouTube and produced by the class, which teaches the basics of video, film and audio production.

Each student has the opportunity to work in a cooperative environment and show leadership skills in managing personalities and talents of all students while working on both group and individual projects. Without a doubt this class under the guidance and teaching of a very dedicated teacher is truly accomplishing these objectives and is achieving success, Faculak said.Arielle S. Hines (231) 439-9358 ashines@petoskeynews.com

The Petoskey News-Review

PETOSKEY  More than 80 people attended a Friday event celebrating the prominent roles which several Northern Michigan lawmakers now fill in Lansing.

The government relations committee of the Petoskey and Charlevoix chambers of commerce hosted a luncheon on Friday at Staffords Bay View Inn to celebrate the fact Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, is the first Michigan House speaker to hail from Emmet County. State Rep. Triston Cole, R-Mancelona, and state Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, were also acknowledged for their influential positions in Lansing.

Carlin Smith, president of the Petoskey chamber, noted Mitch Irwin, a former Democratic state senator from Northern Michigan, initially brought up the idea of hosting an event to honor Emmet Countys first House speaker.

Its a really nice across-the-aisle gesture, Smith said.

In his remarks, Chatfield acknowledged the division in state government, with the executive branch recently shifting to Democractic control while Republicans continue to control the legislature.

Though we will have our disagreements and differences, I think what we need to have defined us is our ability to come together, find consensus to move our state forward, Chatfield said.

Since assuming his role as speaker, Chatfield has spoken at length about the need for bipartisan cooperation. As one example, the first bill introduced during Chatfields tenure would give citizens more protections when it comes to civil asset forfeiture, which allows police to seize property suspected to be part of a crime. The measure has received the support of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and other Democrats.

I love my state far more than I disagree with the other party, and we are going to find ways to come together, Chatfield said.

Chatfield also noted Michigans high car insurance rates and the condition of the states roads.

Anyone who paid attention to the 2018 gubernatorial election knows we need to fix the dang roads, Chatfield said, referring to Gov. Gretchen Whitmers popular campaign slogan.

Chatfield indicated he is eyeing fuel taxes as a way to invest more in the states infrastructure, noting his interest in seeing more of the revenues from these taxes put to use for road needs.

We are in the top percentage of states at what we pay at the pump, but we are at the very bottom in the percentage to what we dedicated to roads from the pump. That needs to be changed, Chatfield said.

Chatfield expressed his support for 2X funding, a formula that allows for the lowest-funded school districts to receive up to twice as much of an increase compared to the higher-funded districts. The lawmaker also spoke about the need for criminal justice reforms.

We need to ensure people who are attempting to re-enter into our society have real opportunities presented to them. We also need to ensure we are not over-criminalizing our citizens, Chatfield said.

Cole serves as the majority floor leader, vice chair of the government operations committee and member of the transportation committee. He spoke on the importance of tourism and outdoor opportunities for Northern Michigans economy, noting much of the Department of Natural Resources budget comes from the selling of hunting and fishing licenses. Fewer people have bought those licenses in recent years, which could have broad effects, Cole said.

Everyone should be concerned about it. The management of our parks, bike trails, rural campgrounds and some of our boat launches are all impacted by hunting and fishing license sales, Cole said. Whatever we can do to turn that around is a good thing for Michigan.

Schmidt is the assistant majority leader and serves as the appropriations subcommittee chair for both transportation and education. Schmidt is one of Michigans longest-serving state legislators currently in office, serving his second term in the Senate after previously spending six years in the state House. He stressed the importance of Northern Michigan chambers, noting peoples livelihoods rely on a healthy economy.

We have been very fortunate to have representation (in Northern Michigan) that punches above its weight, Schmidt said. To have all of us together, working for you is a great thing.Just off the 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles, a billboard urges teachers to read this before spending another $1,000 on union dues. The ad touts teacherfreedom.org, a site sponsored by the Koch-backed California Policy Center that offers instructions on how teachers can leave their union, along with testimonials from people identified as teachers recounting how much freer they felt after leaving their union.

The billboard's message is that the teachers' union is a waste of money, an ineffective means to advance their interests. This is not an isolated opinion. Labor's declining fortunes over the past several decades have given credence to the notion that they are outmoded institutions, and that traditional union tactics like striking no longer work. Recent political defeats like the spread of "right to work" laws and last year's Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME only reinforced that conventional wisdom.

After this week, though, such billboards are less likely to find a receptive audience - and the received wisdom looks increasingly mistaken. That's because 34,000 teachers learned firsthand that unions really can get them what they want.

They did so by using that traditional union tactic: the strike. Acting together, teachers won what the school board had said was impossible: smaller class sizes, more nurses, counselors and librarians - along with community issues that weren't even supposed to be on the bargaining table, such as cutting standardized testing, restricting student searches that many considered racial profiling and increasing green space on school campuses.

Despite school board efforts to keep schools open, virtually no teachers crossed the picket lines. Meanwhile, their union, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), organized four rallies of more than 50,000 people in one week, all while running daily pickets at 900 schools. Parents and community members backed the educators in their fight by marching alongside them, even as local businesses brought food to the lines, and local and national political figures spoke up on behalf of the cause. The mobilization caught school board officials flat-footed, while galvanizing teachers and their supporters.

It wasn't supposed to play out like this. After last summer's Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME, many predicted the downfall of public sector unions. That decision allowed public sector workers to opt out of paying for the costs of negotiating and enforcing union contracts from which they benefited. The ruling was supposed to defund unions by allowing workers to withdraw their financial support while maintaining unions' duty to represent them.

In the wake of the ruling, several anti-union groups organized a concerted nationwide campaign to encourage workers to leave their unions. It includes billboards like the one on the 101 freeway, as well as targeted mail and email messages, and even door-to-door canvassing. "We know there are tens of thousands of educators who chafe under the left-leaning leadership of these unions," said Jami Lund of the Freedom Foundation. "Making sure they know they now have an option will certainly have its effect."

So far, it hasn't. While it is too early to discern long-term effects, initial results suggest that many unions have persuaded more workers to opt in to union membership rather than having more people opt out.

Much of this convincing has been the result of the kind of patient, one-to-one organizing that rarely makes headlines. But victories like the L.A. teachers' strike are a far better recruitment tool. That's because they show workers the power they have when they fight together. As Peg Cagle, a math teacher at Reseda High School, told the Nation of the strike, "After decades of feeling invisible, the fact that you really feel like you are being heard, that your voice is rising above the fold, if you will - you have got a possibility that somehow, somebody, might be listening and somebody might actually pay attention."

Especially in a context where workers' wages have been slipping for decades, and few feel much control over their lives at work, that kind of show of collective strength transcends the narrow self-interest of the anti-union forces' "save your money!" message. You can't put a price on respect.

For unions, the L.A. teachers' victory offers another important lesson: strikes work. Again, this goes against today's conventional wisdom, which holds that corporate consolidation, financialization and restructuring have rendered strikes ineffective. In the L.A. teachers' case, they were not simply up against the school board. They were also taking on wealthy power players like Eli Broad and the Walmart family heirs, who had spent tens of millions of dollars getting their school board candidates elected to create a pro-privatization, pro-charter-school majority on the board.

Demonstrators hold signs during a teachers strike in Los Angeles on Jan. 18, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Scott HeinsBloomberg

The Los Angeles strike dealt a setback to that agenda. It did so by shifting the fight over public education from the boardrooms and the ballot box, where the wealthy could effectively buy the results they wanted, out to the schools and streets of Los Angeles, where they were outnumbered. By going directly to the people, the strike positioned UTLA as a voice for the city's schools and communities, not just a narrow "special interest" looking out for its own members.

This was no accident. It was the result of years of careful planning and deliberate organizing - again, the kind that rarely makes headlines. After taking power in 2014, a reform leadership set about transforming the union and preparing for a strike. They established an organizing department, a political department, a research department and a parent/community division. Working with teachers in every school, they set up Contract Action Teams (CAT) made up of union volunteers and parent representatives. With a 10-to-1 member-to-volunteer ratio, the CATs created a bottom-up infrastructure that could educate and organize the membership, while involving parents and community allies. That's the kind of organization that was necessary to make last week's mobilization possible.

The L.A. teachers' strike shows that with the right planning and organization, strikes can win. Not only that, but they can win things that would otherwise be impossible. Far from an outmoded tactic, they can form the basis for labor's revitalization.

Following L.A.'s example, teachers in Oakland, Denver and Virginia are also gearing up for strikes. They will be building off last year's momentum from the "red state" teacher strike wave, as well as recent private-sector strike wins like that at Marriott hotels.

While these mobilizations provide reason for optimism, it remains important to keep them in perspective. Recently released figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that unions continued their decades-long decline in 2018, dropping to 10.5 percent of the nonagricultural workforce. The recent stirrings have yet to shift labor's fortunes on a broader scale. Additionally, the Janus decision may accelerate membership erosion over time, especially as older union members retire and are replaced by younger workers who have to be convinced to join the union.

But to the extent that a turnaround is possible for labor, the L.A. teachers show the path forward. Methodical workplace organizing, paired with a broad vision and willingness to fight for it, will not win every time. But it's the only way that labor stands a chance.

--

Eidlin, an assistant professor of sociology at McGill University, is the author of Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada.In human anatomy, vestigial organs, like the appendix, are those that have lost their original function and exist without much impact. In the body politic, several government reformers are suggesting that the office of lieutenant governor is much the same.

Recently theres been an increase in calls for dramatically altering or even eliminating the office. Theres legislation to do away with Pennsylvanias lieutenant governor.

Pennsylvania has had a lieutenant governor since ratification of the Constitution of 1873. The Constitution of 1968 made the lieutenant governor, like the governor, eligible to succeed him or herself.

The lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania is a constitutional officer, but the only duties specifically prescribed are presiding over the state Senate, and chairing the Board of Pardons and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council. However, governors typically assign other duties to the lieutenant governor.

Most states have a lieutenant governor, but several do not. The ones that dont are mostly smaller states, and each has some office specifically designated to assume the powers of the governor in case of his or her death, incapacitation, or leaving office.

Unlike those states, Pennsylvania has recent experiences with the lieutenant governor ascending to the governors office.

Twenty-five years ago, my column counterpart, Mark Singel, became acting governor of the commonwealth for more than half a year following the multiple organ transplants of then Gov. Robert P. Casey.

More recently, Mark Schweiker became governor following Tom Ridges resignation to become the nations first director of the Office of Homeland Security.

Many years before, Lt. Gov. John Bell became governor when Gov. Edward Martin was elected to the U.S. Senate. An interesting historical footnote: Bell served as governor for only 19 days. His tenure remains the shortest of any of Pennsylvanias governors.

The possibility of ascendency is one of the strongest arguments in favor of retaining the office.

Pennsylvania is unique among the states with lieutenant governors because we are the only one with a mansion specifically designated for them. Kentucky used to have one, but they turned it into a museum almost 20 years ago.

Built on the wooded grounds of Fort Indiantown Gap, the nearly 2,500-square-foot fieldstone house originally housed the adjutant general of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Several governors have also lived there. Taxpayers shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for its operation.

Whats fascinating about the official residences of Pennsylvanias governor and lieutenant governor is that neither office holder lives in them. Gov. Wolf eschewed sleeping in the Governors Residence and new Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has likewise said hell pass on moving his family into the State House, as the lieutenant governors official residence is known.

Fetterman is the first elected lieutenant governor not to live in the residence in more than half a century. Hes not a typical politician in many respects.

Not difficult to spot in a room, the 6-foot-8-inch Fetterman rarely wears a coat or tie. His forearms are covered with tattoos, his left bearing the numbers 15104, the zip code of Braddock, where he served as mayor, and the right the dates of five murders that occurred there during his tenure.

His distinctive appearance may fool some as it obscures that he holds multiple degrees, including one from Harvard University.

Despite his decidedly left-leaning positions on many issues, even for a guy like me theres not much to dislike about him personally. Hes the quintessential nice guy. And his rhetoric cant be allowed to confuse the fact that under it hes very bright, pragmatic and solutions-oriented.

This week Gov. Wolf asked Fetterman to visit all 67 Pennsylvania counties to discuss the legalization of recreational marijuana, a position advocated by Fetterman.

The tour is tailor-made for Fetterman. It will give him an opportunity to make new friends, gain additional exposure in the media and take the lead on an issue that is gaining public support.

Fetterman is already regularly mentioned, along with Auditor General Eugene DiPasquale, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and state Treasurer Joe Torsella, as the Democrats A Team of potential candidates for governor or U.S. Senate in 2022.

So, keep the office of lieutenant governor, let the house be used for other purposes, and keep your eye on John Fetterman.

--

PennLive Opinion contributor Charlie Gerow is the CEO of Quantum Communications in Harrisburg. His Donkeys & Elephants column appears this week opposite former Pa. Lieutenant Governor Mark S. Singel.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.Ten days before Jordan Witmer committed a killing rampage in State College, he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors related to a drunk-driving crash in Kentucky.

State College police announced after Thursday nights shooting spree that killed three men and wounded one woman that Witmer had a legal carry permit for his gun and did not have any known previous criminal record.

But PennLive discovered Witmers recent convictions by searching Kentucky court records. A police report indicated his blood-alcohol-level was more than twice the legal limit.

Witmer grew up in Bellefonte and had returned in recent weeks but was previously stationed in Fort Campbell as part of the 101st Airborne Division.

Witmer opened fire inside a bar at the Ramada Inn Thursday night about 90 minutes after arriving there with a former girlfriend. Police said Witmer argued with the woman, according to CBS affiliates in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, then killed a father and son from Ohio who tried to intervene. He also shot his former girlfriend and fled into a strangers home where he killed an 82-year-old man. Witmer then killed himself.

The killings were shocking in their level of unprovoked violence and also because of Witmers reputation as a quiet kid with two loving parents and no prior incidents of instability. But the crash in Kentucky revealed at least one instance of trouble prior to the shooting spree.

The convictions also may have posed obstacles for Witmers continued involvement in the Army and his reported desire to pursue a career in law enforcement.

The crash occurred at 7:23 p.m. Oct. 18 about 22 miles away from Fort Campbell. According to court records, Witmer blew through a stop sign at a T-intersection near Elkton, Kentucky in a white pickup truck going about 80 mph, nearly hitting two other vehicles. Witmer then crashed and walked away from the wreckage into the woods.

A bystander tried to check on the driver, but Witmer continued walk away from the wreckage and would not respond to the bystanders questions, according to court records. The bystander called the sheriffs office and a deputy arrived to find an empty pickup truck with military uniforms and military-issued items inside. The deputy tried to find Witmer and instead encountered two men from Witmers unit in a black pickup truck who said Witmer had called them for a ride because he had been involved in a wreck.

The men said they would try to help find Witmer, and they did eventually find him. As they were driving away about 9:15 p.m., the deputy pulled over the black pickup truck and saw a man in the back seat with abrasions and cuts consistent with a car wreck. He also had brush stickers all over his clothing, bloodshot eyes and a strong odor of alcohol.

Witmer admitted to driving the truck that crashed but said somebody ran him off the road, according to the deputys report. Witmer said he had two beers at a Clarksville, Tennessee bar, but that he had not consumed any additional alcohol since leaving the tavern.

When the deputy asked where Witmer was headed when he crashed, Witmer said he was headed to a friends house, who had loaned him the pickup truck. When the deputy asked Witmer where he was at the moment, Witmer said: Im too (expletive) up to know where I am. The deputy asked for clarification and Witmer said he was too drunk to know where I am.

Witmer said he left his friends house to go get a pack of cigarettes, but then must have taken a wrong turn. The location of the crash is about 30 minutes away from Oak Grove, where the friend lived.

The deputy documented in his report how Witmer failed all of the field sobriety tests and could not even tie the laces of his shoe. Witmer agreed to take a preliminary breath test that showed a blood-alcohol-content of .171, more than twice the legal driving limit of .08.

The deputy charged Witmer with DUI with aggravating circumstances, leaving the scene of an accident, and two felony counts of wanton endangerment, for nearly hitting the other vehicles. He was released on $1,000 bail.

Witmer hired an attorney who filed a motion to try to get the charges dropped. The case was continued several times, as the county attorney job was passed through three different people because of the November election.

The case was amended by the newly-elected county attorney on Jan. 14, the date of Witmers preliminary hearing. The DUI charge was reduced to reckless driving and the two felonies of first-degree wanton endangerment were merged and reduced to second-degree misdemeanor endangerment.

The grounds listed on court documents for reducing the DUI charge were that the defendant was arrested sometime later with injuries.

The judge assigned fines of $518 and an online substance abuse course, both of which Witmer was supposed to satisfy by March 19.A Republican State Committee member is seeking the GOP nomination for state Senate.

Trevor Taylor, of Straban Township, announced he is throwing his hat in the ring to run for the 33rd District of the State Senate, which is the seat being vacated with the retirement of Sen. Richard Alloway II.

As an active member of this vital and historic community, I believe there is no greater honor than representing the people of Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and York counties in the Pennsylvania State Senate, Taylor said. As senator, I will always promote the peoples interests and uphold the essential constitutional and conservative values which underpin our individual freedom and prosperity.

Among his pledges, Taylor said he will:

Introduce legislation to eliminate the Inheritance Tax, specifically for family-owned farms and businesses,

Vote against the expansion of natural gas impact fees,

And vote to protect Second Amendment rights and fight proposed bans on common, legal firearms.

Taylor also serves as executive director of the Adams County Republican Club, was elected chairman of Straban Townships Board of Auditors and has worked for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as a policy and procedures subject matter expert. He currently assists the deputy director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

For more information, visit his campaigns Facebook page.George McCormick was shot and killed in his home on his 60th wedding anniversary.

McCormick, 82, was one of the three people killed in State College this week. According to his obituary published Saturday, McCormick, originally from New York, married his wife, Joann, on Jan. 24, 1959. The night of the shooting, police said Joann McCormick locked herself in a room and called 911.

George was always first to help when help was needed, his obituary states.

Plans are underway to honor McCormick and Dean and Steven Beachy, the three men who lost their lives in the rampage.

Those plans include a Monday afternoon vigil in State College. The community group Standing at the Gates for Justice, will pay tribute to the victims at the Penn State Allen Street gate in State College from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Obituaries for McCormick, as well as father and son Dean and Steven Beachy of Ohio, have been posted to announce funeral plans. They also provide insights into the lives of the men killed in a senseless shooting.

Police say 21-year-old Jordan Witmer shot and killed Dean and Steven Beachy in P.J. Harrigans Bar & Grill on South Atherton Street in State College. The two intervened in an argument between Witmer and his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Abrino, according to a report from KDKA-TV Pittsburgh. Police say Witmer killed McCormick in his home before apparently taking his own life.

The shooter didnt know any of the three people he killed, police said.

Witmer also shot and wounded Abrino, 21, at the bar, police said. The condition of Abrino, who was shot in the chest, is unclear, with local police refusing to take media questions Saturday. When she was taken for medical treatment, police said she was in critical condition.

Dean Beachy, 62, died Thursday night, and Steven Beachy died the next day at an Altoona hospital, according to his obituary.

The father and sons obituaries both make note that they were victims of a random shooting. They also list both men as members of the Walnut Creek Mennonite Church in Ohio.

Steven Beachy is described as a horseman, and his father, Dean Beachy, is described as a a renowned auctioneer.

The father and son lived in Millersburg, Ohio, but were reportedly in Pennsylvania to work a horse sale, according to social media posts.

Steven was the youngest of Dean Beachys four sons, and, in addition to his brothers, he is survived by his mother and Deans wife, Linda Beachy.

Others spoke about the father and son in the hours after their deaths, remembering them as the kind of guys who would never let harm come to anyone.

According to police, Witmer fired shots at the bar about 10:17 p.m. Thursday before fleeing the scene in a vehicle, which he crashed near the intersection of Waupelani Drive and Whitehall Road.

From the crash scene, he ran to the nearby Tussey View Estates, where he entered McCormicks home on Tussey Lane. Witmer then shot and killed McCormick, police said.

McCormick, a polio survivor, was a retired foods supervisor and vending manager at Penn State. He owed a lawn care business, according to his obituary.

On Friday, the McCormicks' neighbor, Naomi McNulty remembered the couple as active retirees.

They are very, very nice people, she said. They were always up early. They were not sedate in any way."

A visitation for McCormick will be hosted from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Koch Funeral Home at 2401 S. Atherton St. in State College. And a funeral Mass is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church at 820 Westerly Parkway.

A funeral service for the Beachys also has been scheduled in their home state of Ohio. It is to be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Mt. Hope Event Center in Mt. Hope.

Friends will have a chance to pay their respects at the event center from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, according to their obituaries.

On Saturday, a Centre County emergency dispatcher said State College police would not accept questions about the shooting incident, including Abrinos medical condition. They said new information would be posted to the State College Borough Website.

Attempts to reach Abrinos family and friends were unsuccessful.A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help cover the medical expenses of the 21-year-old woman who survived a shooting in State College Thursday night.

Nicole Abrino was shot in the chest in the shooting spree that left four people, including the accused gunman, dead.

Police said she was in critical condition.

According to the GoFundMe campaign, Abrino was flown to UPMC Pittsburgh and has undergone two surgeries so far, and she may require more. She is now in stable, but sedated, condition, according to the campaign.

The shooting started at P.J. Harrigans Bar & Grill in the Ramada Inn on South Atherton Street around 10:14 p.m. Thursday, State College Police Chief John Gardner said.

Investigators say 21-year-old Jordan Witmer shot and wounded Abrino and shot and killed 62-year-old Dean Beachy, of Millersburg, Ohio, and his 19-year-old son, Steven.

The Beachys were killed when they intervened in an argument between Witmer and his ex-girlfriend, Abrino, according to a report from KDKA-TV Pittsburgh.

As police searched for Witmer, they got a call for a crash at the intersection of Waupelani Drive and Tussey Lane, where they found his vehicle.

Police say Witmer fled the crash and broke into a home on Tussey Lane by shooting through a sliding glass door, then fatally shot homeowner George McCormick, 82. McCormicks wife, Joann, 80, was in the home but was unharmed.

Police said Witmer did not know the McCormicks, and Gardner believes he randomly chose the house after crashing his vehicle.

Witmer was found dead in the home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The case remains under investigation.

Ten days before the shooting, Witmer had pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors related to a drunk-driving crash in Kentucky.

Witmer grew up in Bellefonte and had returned in recent weeks but was previously stationed in Fort Campbell as part of the 101st Airborne Division.

As of Sunday afternoon, the GoFundMe fundraiser for Abrino hit $2,348.It appears a new day is dawning at Pennsylvanias state Capitol when it comes to how allegations of sexual misconduct involving lawmakers are handled.

While allegations in the past were swept under the rug or led to a quiet monetary settlement, legislative leaders now launch investigations and seek resignations, analysts say.

There isnt any doubt that this period in our lives is very much different from 20 and 30 years ago in terms of how sexual assault, unfriendly work environment, hostile work environment claims get treated, said longtime Capitol observer G. Terry Madonna. Its just been a dramatic shift. In the past when I heard rumors almost never did anything come to light.

Over the past week, reports surfaced about two lawmakers  Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Butler County, and Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery County  who are accused of sexual misconduct. Neither have been charged with a crime. But Gov. Tom Wolf has called on both lawmakers to step down, a spokesman said Friday.

The Dauphin County District Attorneys office is investigating Ellis regarding a womans allegation that he sexually assaulted her in 2015. The state Senate Democratic leadership has hired a law firm to investigate a Lehigh County womans 1991 allegation of sexual misconduct involving Leach.

Sources have told PennLive that both women stepped forward after seeing the House GOP seriously address allegations against former Rep. Nick Miccarelli last year. State Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Luzerne County, and a Harrisburg political consultant accused Miccarelli of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Miccarelli, who proclaimed his innocence, was not charged with a crime following a months-long investigation by the Dauphin County District Attorneys office. However, a House Republican investigation into the womens claims found them to be credible.

There was some mishandling of that situation. It was not handled as swiftly and as aggressively as what were seeing with Ellis, said the states Victim Advocate Jennifer Storm. So I think there have been lessons learned.

Storm and others said its no secret that inappropriate behavior has been going on at the state Capitol for years. Its just that now we are finally openly acknowledging it, Storm said.

House Republican leaders on Friday issued a statement pressuring Ellis to step down while the Dauphin County DAs office investigates the sexual assault allegations, just as GOP leaders did with Miccarelli last year. House GOP leaders have also ousted Ellis from his post as chairman of the House Commerce Committee and his other committee assignments. Several attempts to contact Ellis have been unsuccessful.

A woman who works at the Capitol alleges she was sexually assaulted by Ellis after he encountered her at a Harrisburg bar in 2015. The woman has told Storm she was not voluntarily intoxicated at the time of the assault and believes she was drugged. PennLive is not identifying the woman in keeping with policy against naming victims of alleged sexual assaults without their consent.

House GOP leaders have directed Capitol police and House security to provide additional safety and security measures, including putting them at the disposal of the woman making the allegations, Storm said.

Separate from that, the Senate Democratic Caucus launched an internal investigation into a sexual misconduct allegation against Leach. It was sparked by a complaint Lehigh County resident Cara Taylor delivered to dozens of lawmakers offices.

Taylor, who agreed to be publicly identified, alleges Leach coerced her to perform oral sex in 1991 when she was 17 and he was a 30-year-old attorney defending her mother in a criminal case. Leach strenuously denies the claim.

But this isnt the first time Leach has been accused of inappropriate conduct. In December 2017, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported campaign and legislative staffers said the senator crossed the line with them through unwanted physical contact and sexually suggestive humor. Leach subsequently offered a public apology, saying he didnt intend to make anyone uncomfortable or distressed. He vowed to improve his conduct.

Also in December 2017, the Inquirer reported that the state House Democratic Caucus paid out $248,000 to settle a sexual harassment complaint against longtime Berks County Rep. Thomas Caltagirone by a legislative staffer in 2015. Caltagirone denied any wrongdoing.

In all instances where these allegations were raised, Wolf swiftly called for the lawmakers resignations. None of the lawmakers heeded calls to resign, although Miccarelli did not seek re-election last year and Leach withdrew his candidacy from a congressional race.

Former state Rep. Mauree Gingrich from Lebanon County said she is disgusted by the stories she has read about the alleged actions of these lawmakers. But Gingrich, a Republican who served in the House for 14 years, noted this kind of college boys with money behavior at the Capitol has existed for a long time.

Gingrich said she is especially aggravated taxpayers have spent money investigating the claims, defending the accused, and in some instances, settling claims against lawmakers. She said the individuals at the center of those cases should have to pay.

Thats unacceptable, she said. We dont need to defend an individual against something like that. They need to pay their own attorneys. Im totally disgusted with the behavior, at a minimum.

Former state Sen. Pat Vance, a Cumberland County Republican who served in the General Assembly for more than a quarter-century, said, there are good people in the Legislature and they are all tarred by this and shouldnt be.

People inside and outside the Capitol are fed up with this behavior and the former lawmakers applaud the fact that caucus leaders are taking complaints and rumors about sexual misconduct seriously.

I just dont think people are willing to tolerate it anymore, Vance said.

Gingrich is hopeful that the influx of more women in the General Assembly this year will help to change the environment inside the state House. She said she hopes the bigger contingent of women lawmakers will help other women feel safer and more comfortable, so they dont feel so encircled by men in power.

Just seeing how the complaints against Ellis and Leach drew swift and aggressive responses from leadership points to a change, Madonna said.

Storm, too, sees that as forward progress and reason for hope.

I think there are many women known to me and unknown to me that are sitting back and watching how these things are being handled. That will indicate how comfortable they are to come forward, she said.

Madonna doesnt doubt that more victims of incidents involving lawmakers might step forward now that some leaders have shown they have zero tolerance for misconduct.

Given the past, the Legislature is taking it far more serious than they have historically, Madonna said. I dont think theres any doubt about that. Does that mean that this behavior will completely disappear? Id be surprised if it did.

Lawmakers will return to Harrisburg on Monday for their first full three-day session week of the 2019-20 legislative term.President Donald Trump has surrounded himself with lawyers and legal scholars who hold maximalist views on presidential power. William Barr, Trump's nominee to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, continues that trend, believing the president cannot be indicted for any crimes and has almost unlimited decision-making and legal authority. Other scholars claim Barr's definition is far too expansive and could facilitate a dictatorship. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

In June 2018, Barr sent an unsolicited memo to the Trump legal team, arguing special counsel Robert Mueller should not be allowed to investigate the president for criminal obstruction of justice. The New York Times explains this view comes from Barr's longstanding beliefs about presidential power.

Barr has held these beliefs for decades. When Barr took the position as head of the Office of Legal Counsel during George H.W. Bush's administration, he distributed an unsolicited memo to executive branch lawyers, warning them to be on alert for any attempt by Congress to limit the president's authority.

Barr believes it is the responsibility of the Justice Department to protect and maintain the president's authority.

MORE: Barr's Ahistorical View of the Constitution Would Give Trump All the Power

Trump's legal team have been advising him based on this definition of presidential powers, according to the New York Times. They say any of his actions which could be considered obstruction, are actually legal when taken by the chief executive.

Constitutional scholars and historians warn though that an all-powerful chief executive was one of the founding fathers' greatest fears. The Washington Post reports:

Scholars also disagree on whether a president can pardon himself. According to the New York Times, as there have been no previous examples of a president acting in such a way, there is little precedent on which to base this information.

While most legal scholars believe a sitting president can't be indicted for crimes, some note a president's actions while in office can be held against him after he leaves the White House. Per the New York Times:

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Soldiers freed more than 7,000 people who had been held at the camp in Poland by Nazi Germany. They were starved and tortured.

The Soviets also found piles of corpses and piles of clothing, shoes and human hair removed from people who had been executed in the gas chamber.

During World War II by mid-January, the Soviet Army was approaching Auschwitz. The SS - Adolf Hitler's paramilitary organization, Schutzstaffel, began destroying evidence and emptying the concentration camp by forcing 60,000 prisoners - mostly Jews - to march west. Prisoners who fell behind were shot. Fifteen thousand on the death marches.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, thousands of prisoners also were killed in the days prior to the marches.

"It is estimated that at minimum 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million were murdered," according to the museum.

The Holocaust began in 1933 when Hitler came to power. It ended in 1945 when Hitler and the Nazis were defeated.

During the Holocaust, 11 million people died including 1.1 million children. Of those 11 million, 6 million were Jews.

In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designed Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.Another Parker Tube Float is in the books. From the looks of things, it all went a100 years ago

Jan. 27, 1919: Major R.W. Schroeder, formerly of Bloomington, has set a record for flying at high altitude. With two passengers in a Loaning monoplane, he reached 19,500 feet in 31 minutes at Dayton, Ohio. Schroeder still has relatives in Bloomington.

75 years ago

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Jan. 27, 1944: Cropsey-area farmers want to organize a rural fire protection district. The proposed district would cover 32.5 square miles in McLean, Ford and Livingston counties. A Pontiac judge has set a public hearing before the question can be placed on a ballot.

50 years ago

Jan. 27, 1969: An early Saturday morning fire destroyed the home of Gertrude Alsene near Covell. Firemen were on the scene for hours. Her son Fred said his mother had suffered a heart attack a few days ago and wasnt home when the fire struck. He estimates the loss at $25,000.

25 years ago

Jan. 27, 1994: By a 10-8 vote, the Tazewell County Board picked Mary Drexler as interim sheriff  until the November election. Ex-sheriff James Donahue took a job with the state and isnt happy with the boards choice. Donahues wife applied for the job but didnt get it.

Compiled by Jack Keefe; jkeefe@coldwellhomes.com.All of the signals are there that the unicorn of American politics  bipartisan compromise  can appear in the halls of the Capitol any moment and give us reason to hope that we can set aside the childish theater that had become our government.

On Friday, the president and congressional leaders agreed to a three-week lifting of the shutdown, hopefully long enough for both sides to find a legitimate, permanent end to this quagmire.

The deal we propose would see Democrats accept what they already accepted before it became a pet issue for the president  the construction of additional physical barriers along the southern border, as well as more sophisticated technology and resources for security.

In exchange, the president would accept something most Americans already agree is the right thing to do: give extended protection, permanent legal status and a path to citizenship to the Dreamers, the 800,000 young people protected under DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, as well as another 1 million people who are DACA eligible. These young people did not come here under their own agency and deserve protection from our country.

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Trump's opening bid did not go far enough in protecting Dreamers and other DACA-eligible people.

There is plenty of bad blood on this issue, and a lot of it stems from the approach the president took in his campaign and has taken since. This fight is over building more miles of barriers, not stretching a wall across the entire southern border. That forces us to ask whether the president will episodically provoke this fight as long as he has to deal with an opposing party.

But if he would go the extra mile, and Democrats would meet him, we believe the deal would gain broad support from a nation that despite the endless drumbeat of social media extremists is still a place with a core sense of fairness, decency and common sense.

The time for negotiation in legislation is always now. We believe that if both sides set aside the need to be a winner, all sides  and more importantly the country  would be winners.

And to be clear, our view is that a Berlin-style wall isnt a win for this country. Symbolism is playing a big role in this fight, but failing to resolve differences, closing down the government and tossing aside the lives of millions of people who are in legal jeopardy through no fault of their own is not who we are or should be as a people.

What we need most is proof that our elected officials can govern this land in a way that is in keeping with our values. Whether it will is up to the men and women we elected to serve us as a people and not the narrow interests of their parties.

Love 1 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0WASHINGTON, D.C.  Many of you undoubtedly are wondering what you will do with your time now that the State of the Union address is delayed. (Maybe until the snow is gone, the wind chill has climbed over zero and robins are back, but that is wishful thinking.)

SOTU, as Washington whimsically dubs the annual Most Predictably Boring Speech of the Year, is given by POTUS (president of the, well, you know) as mandated by the Constitution. It doesnt have to be in person. It doesnt have to be televised. It just has to be a fanciful wish list from the White House to Congress about what could or should but wont happen in a given year.

It could even be a tweet, but dont count on it.

Not surprisingly, the state of the union almost always is described in ridiculously optimistic terms. Usually, it is sound. That would be difficult to say this year, given the federal shutdown, the standoff over immigration and the near total and completely demoralizing collapse of democracy in the span of the nations capital that runs from the White House to the Capitol.

By now, even kindergarteners know that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, second in line for the presidency, politely disinvited Donald Trump from taking his motorcade to the Capitol to speak to members of the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the press and the nation via TV about Trump Nation.

The speaker said the federal shutdown would put too much of a strain on security personnel, who have not been paid in weeks (as in two missed mortgage or rent payments). In the spirit of reciprocity, POTUS then cancelled Pelosis supposed-to-be-secret, thank-the-troops weekend trip to Afghanistan. He then dispatched FLOTUS (first lady of the, well, you know) to a Florida R&R on one of his planes.

In the spirit of being helpful, given that SOTU gets longer and longer every year, here are some suggestions on how to fill the void.

Binge watch every Netflix series you havent gotten to because you have been busy living your life or reading presidential tweets.

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Start the adoption process for a federal worker and his/her/their family, construct a backyard yurt for said family and make enough lasagna for a month of meals.

Assemble your children and their friends for a re-education session about democracy and how it was supposed to work and still works in some foreign countries where English is not an official language and there are no Republicans or Democrats.

Organize a chain-letter or #listenleader tweet spree to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to explain to him that he heads an independent body of government and as such does not work for nor is beholden to Trump. Note that McConnell constitutionally is permitted to bring non-Trump-endorsed legislation such as budget measures to fund the federal government  to which a majority of senators already had agreed  to the floor for votes.

Go to a pawn shop, sell your excess stuff and donate the proceeds to Coast Guard members who are giving music lessons, holding garage sales (although probably not on the high seas), dog sitting (presumably not while swimming) and baking with nonexistent supplies to pay their expenses.

Ditto for air traffic controllers, border guards, TSA employees, Secret Service agents, park employees and so on.

Call ex-presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on his cell phone (Trump famously sent out the number) to ask if his man crush on POTUS has clouded his vision, destroyed his objectivity, ruined his relations on Capitol Hill and given him a green light to advise the president. Ask how thats working out for him.

Start a rumor that the new beard Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is sporting makes him look like a poor mans Fidel Castro. Remind everyone of (bald) former California senator Alan Cranstons comment that a man has only so many hormones and what he chooses to do with them is up to him.

Organize a Beto is Cute But... party. The likely ORourke presidential candidacy of the losing Democratic candidate to Cruz is best greeted with a sci-fi theme. Or turn it into an Oscars party, where guests take turn being the emcee.

Last resort: Shovel. Snow. Again.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2BLOOMINGTON  Breathing or stuffed, barking or bleating  the animals at The Pantagraphs Fish & Feather Expo all were welcomed by the outdoor enthusiasts who filled the Interstate Center on Saturday.

The weather was a little bit bad (Friday) night, but these hunters and fishers are hardy people, so its really busy today, said Jonell Kehias, the newspapers regional marketing director.

More than 100 vendor booths drew the attention of over 2,000 people in the first two days, in addition to seminar speakers, concessionaires and marketers of handcrafted and innovative products.

The expo continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Highlights include three speakers and a gun dog training demonstration.

Wade Gotters movable turkey decoys were new to the expo this year and caught the attention of several hunters. The patent-pending apparatus for Alive Action Decoys uses a string system to mimic a turkeys strut and to fan the tail feathers.

Frankenstrutter, a taxidermy bird, and Tom Swagger, a plastic decoy, shook their tail feathers all day.

This is just a passion of mine, turkey hunting, and Ive created these decoys to hunt over, said Gotter, of Ancona. Im not very good at turkey calling so I built a decoy (so) that I can actually eat a sandwich and call a turkey in at the same time.

Gotters wife Teresa takes her passion in a different direction. Under the name Vermillion River Calls, she creates handcrafted turkey calls made from the wing bones of the birds Tom Swagger brings into range.

Also new this year is a wall of mounted deer, allowing hunters to have their kills judged. Among the expo's breathing animals, two fawns were happy to pose for pictures as long as they were fed and petted all day.

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The 4-month-old doe and 5-month-old buck are among some of the 30 deer Chad Hunziker has on his Eureka farm. He has been raising deer for 35 years and sells deer scent during hunting season.

Dan Ihrke, head gun dog trainer at Green Acres Sportsmans Club in Roberts, brought a few well-behaved pups to give a training demonstration.

The Green Acres gun dogs are family pets trained in obedience, socialization and the use of their natural instincts.

Part of the program is teaching the dog how to be a good citizen and how to be a good family member in the house, said Ihrke, who has trained flushing, retrieving, and pointing dogs for 17 years.

He uses a reward system to take dogs like 6-month-old Gypsy, a yellow Lab unsure if she wants to stay sitting, to eventually get results like Barkley, a 4-year-old black Lab who found his training duck in a crowd of strangers.

As soon as you come in contact with your dog, youre training them whether you like it or not so you might as well start the right way, Ihrke said.

He went through a demonstration of puppy training using treats, leashes and collars before bringing out older dogs that have already been on hunts.

The Illinois State University Trap and Skeet Club contributed to the canine crowd with a pile of week-old puppies. Their eyes havent opened yet so mom kept close watch when everyone took a turn holding them.

Most of the vendors were local but others, like Tim Hamilton of Rockford, have to make a longer trip.

For the last seven years, Hamilton has sold his handcrafted Bass-ett Baits, soft molded baits for fishing.

I have so many returning customers, so Ive made a lot of friends here, he said.

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.Back in the 19th century when miracle pills, plasters, creams, powders and tonics promised to cure all  from mild indigestion to pancreatic cancer there were few patent medicine entrepreneurs as intriguing as Rebecca Keck.

The fiercely independent Dr. Mrs. Keck (as she was almost always called) promised that her herbal concoctions would eradicate innumerable chronic diseases and conditions, including asthma, consumption (tuberculosis) and even blindness.

By the early 1880s, Kecks sprawling medical practice centered on her Palatial Infirmary for All Chronic Diseases, a converted mansion in the heart of Davenport, Iowa. In addition, she operated branch offices in downstate Illinois communities such as Bloomington, Peoria and Quincy, where she made regularly scheduled stops.

Her medicines are sent all over the country and her name is a household word in families many hundreds of miles away, noted the Bloomington Leader newspaper in 1881. Keck was best known for her remedy for catarrh, a 19th century term encompassing a wide range of respiratory ailments. At its height, her mail-order business was said to reach anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 patients.

Keck considered herself an eclectic physician, or one who emphasized herbal or botanical remedies, which were usually bottled and sold as tonics. As such, she was often at odds with the increasingly powerful and patriarchal allopathic (meaning modern and scientific) medical establishment.

Whats often forgotten today is the promise such eclectic practitioners (and even outright quacks of the snake oil variety) held for sick and long-suffering patients of the 19th century. After all, at this time allopathic physicians often resorted to heroic treatments involving noxious or outright poisonous dosages of lead, mercury and the like. Similarly, surgery was often little more than a crude and ineffective horror show.

Keck got her start in the medical trade as a housewife living in rural southeastern Iowa. When her husbands foundry shop went under during the Panic of 1873, Rebecca, known in her community as an accomplished herbalist, began selling her homemade catarrh remedy to friends, neighbors and nearby town and country folk. Although Kecks education likely didnt go beyond the eighth grade, she proved an adept businesswoman in the rough-and-tumble patent medicine industry. A few short years after the Panic of 1873 she was advertising her catarrh cure in newspapers as far away as Chicago.

Much of what we know about this fascinating and mostly forgotten story comes from Greta Nettleton, a Keck descendant who inherited several trunks and bankers boxes containing correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks and other material from one of Rebeccas daughters, the precocious and independent-minded Cora. Several years ago, Nettleton wrote the award-winning book, "The Quacks Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl." Nettleton is now working on a book on Rebecca Keck herself, and was kind enough to share some of her current research with this author.

In 1877, the Illinois state legislature passed the Medical Practices Act in an attempt to establish some order out of the chaos of 19th century medical education, certification and regulation. The Illinois State Board of Health, led by its secretary, Dr. John H. Rauch, aggressively targeted physicians such as Keck, who he deemed unworthy of the profession because they lacked formal medical education.

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As both an itinerant, eclectic practitioner and a woman, Keck faced a steeper climb than most to gain a semblance of respect and recognition within the wider medical community. Nettleton says that while the drive to professionalize the ranks of doctors eliminated bogus diploma mills, outright frauds, incompetents and traveling medicine shows, it also aimed at seizing control of womens health care by outlawing midwives, marriage counselors, birth control providers and abortionists.

For her part, Keck did not shy away from identifying herself as a medical doctor  and a female one at that! She boasted that her remedies were based on an entirely new principle, and though discovered by a woman and never thought of or applied by professional men  yet has the most essential principles and scientific truths underlying it.

In early 1876, Keck began seeing patients in Bloomington, which back then was a regional center for patent medicine manufacturers. The most successful was Cyrenius Wakefield, whose nationally distributed Blackberry Balsam was used to treat diarrhea and other bowel complaints. Wakefield operated a factory to compound, formulate and package Blackberry Balsam and his many other remedies, as well as a sizable printing operation to churn out hundreds of thousands (and even millions) of promotional giveaways, such as almanacs filled with glowing testimonials as to the curative powers of the Wakefield line of medicines.

Nettletons research tells us that Wakefield was a mentor to Keck, and that the two families were friends. And there is good indication that Wakefield bottled and shipped the bulk of Keck-labeled remedies from Bloomington. The two entrepreneurs, Rebecca Keck and Cyrenius Wakefield, had much in common, observes Nettleton. For instance, both were frontier naturopaths well-versed in herbal lore who felt the sting of contempt from the brotherhood of regular physicians.

In February 1878, an unidentified local physician confronted a visiting Keck at her Bloomington office, demanding to see her state credentials. Keck answered back that her attorney, Winfield Coy of Bloomington, handled all such calls.

The demand being made upon the attorney, he (Coy) replied that when he was compelled by process of law to produce the certificate, it would be forthcoming  until then, never! reported the Bloomington Leader. We expect this is the beginning of a long and tedious litigation between the regulars and the irregulars (that is, allopathic versus alternative practitioners) and the public will await the result with interest.

Indeed, between 1878 and 1889, Keck appeared in court for practicing without a license at least five times in Illinois. But Dr. Mrs. Keck would not be denied. She paid large fines but continued to practice, advertise and sell her remedies, notes Nettleton.

Rebecca Keck passed away in 1904 at the age of 66, having only retired four years earlier.

Say what you will about Kecks miracle cures, her unconquerable spirit was in many ways miracle enough.

While Mrs. Dr. Keck is a very pleasant and genial lady, she has a plucky and indomitable disposition, which is the admiration of all who know her and the terror of all who attack her, declared the Bloomington Leader in 1881. Despite her womanhood, which ought to exempt her from the shafts of masculine malice, she has been the victim of malignant and unjustifiable abuse from the regular male profession. But such prosecution has only fanned the flames of her widening reputation. In all such professional controversies Mrs. Dr. Keck has proved herself more than a match for her enemies.

Bill Kemp is the librarian at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington. He can be reached at BKemp@mchistory.org.

Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0BLOOMINGTON  The local business community came out in force Saturday night to honor winners of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce business excellence awards.

More than 700 people attended the sold-out annual gala at DoubleTree by Hilton.

Honorees were Robert A. Dobski, Legacy of Excellence award; Lil Beaver Brewery, New & Emerging Business Excellence; Chestnut Health Systems, Nonprofit Excellence; Picture This Outdoor Advertising, Micro Business Excellence; Bellas Landscaping, Small Business Excellence; and Epiphany Farms Hospitality Group, Large Business Excellence.

Dobski was honored for his longtime philanthropy and work ethic. He and his wife, Julie, moved to Central Illinois in the late 1980s and are the retired owners of several McDonald's restaurants. He has volunteered and supported organizations such as United Way of McLean County, The Baby Fold, and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and actively supports local businesses.

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Lil Beaver Brewery owner Chad Bevers began home-brewing beer more than 20 years ago and now wins national brewing medals. Bevers opened Lil Beaver Brewery with his partner, Dale Thomas, a year ago and the brewery and taproom has helped breathe life into the neighborhood and attracts new businesses. Lil Beaver supports local nonprofit groups, providing awareness and fundraising opportunities through themed parties and sales through the Helping Handle promotions.

Chestnut Health Systems opened in 1973 with two employees, and now employs 640 at seven locations, offering substance use disorder treatment for adults and adolescents, behavioral health services, primary health care, credit counseling, veterans assistance, and substance use-related research. Chestnut actively participates in the countys mental health initiative to expand services to those with behavioral illness, and with the Safe Passage program to assist those addicted to substances.

Picture This Outdoor Advertising started in 2010 with one employee and one digital billboard on Veterans Parkway. Since then, the company has netted average annual revenue growth of 11 percent and supports community initiatives through discounts for nonprofit organizations to donating more than $20,000 in advertising in 2018.

Bellas Landscaping of Bloomington is a landscape design, build, and maintenance company that serves Central Illinois. Twins Adam and Justin Bellas started their business while in high school, and now have 30 employees. The company donates time, energy and resources to organizations such as Midwest Food Bank and the chamber, and also supports young entrepreneurs.

Epiphany Farms Hospitality Group began in 2009, selling produce at farmers markets, and now is a full-fledged hospitality group with 100 acres of beyond-organic farmland, four restaurants, and six event spaces in McLean County. Epiphany Farms promotes a culture of healthy, sustainable, and regenerative food sourcing, and will open its fifth restaurant in 2019. Their restaurants provided improvements to historically significant structures, like the Central Fire Station and Lancasters building. The company is dedicated to engineering its menus to use as much local product as possible.

Love 1 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 1I moved to Australia some three months ago, yeah not exactly three months ago. Not that I have always lived in my home country Pakistan but this experience is particularly new. It was an immigration; kind of a permanent departure to the homeland embracing a new home. The process was tedious and my new home did not accept me all of a sudden. The paperwork and procedures took ages and I understood these formalities fully. Whenever we are having any guests coming over, we are conscious. Why shouldnt a new country accepting me as a permanent citizen be sure of who I am? Definitely not easy having anyone from a foreign land over to become a part of you! I understood. I still do.

The visa finally came. And yeah, who could wait to land on the land I expected to treasure and blossom my dreams? Perth it was. To be honest, my hopes crashed down a little, bit by bit. Yeah, I was coming from Dubai via Doha. It stood nowhere close to my flashy Middle Eastern airports.

Maybe the city is different, I whispered into my ear.

On my way to the hotel, I continuously kept looking outside the car windows to spot some striking difference. The roads, the houses, the shops, the cafes, the landscape wasnt much different from that of the greener areas of Pakistan. The architecture also seemed somewhat alike. Maybe our colonial brotherhood brought us together. The air was cleaner and smelled better, of course. The people were more disciplined. They also looked different from my countrymen; mostly white and bright. I come from a brown country. However, it was day one and the night had set in.

The morning after I had my friend to pick me from the hotel and show around the city; its river and dolphins. The sunlight showed a much different land and people. While telling me about the best fish n chips place and cheapest groceries, she also told me to beware of them and pointed towards a man who was walking clumsily holding some cigarettes towards a dark gully.

Who are they? I asked.

The Aboriginals! she whispered.

I am good with hints, or at least I like to believe so. So the Aboriginals who are basically the real children of soil are now as good as pickpockets, drug addicts and whatever might follow. One could sense the bitterness and despair in their eyes. They reminded me of the British occupation stories I had heard from my elders and literature. Who likes to be invaded, looted and then declared a stranger on their own land? Who likes to be abducted? Who likes to be mass killed? Who likes the invaders? Find me an answer as I stand clueless on this land of imagined opportunities and fascination.

A country that required months of paperwork before accepting me merely a resident is built on the foundations of invasion. Who knocked the door before entering their home?

As mentioned earlier, this is a completely new culture to me. I had no clue of the upcoming Australia Day. The thought of an extra holiday did excite me, to be honest. The whole city seemed lit up. Fireworks, wines, barbecues and festivities oozing out in the spirit of Australian nationalism seemed joy only until Google told me the history.

Yes, the same day when the first British fleet landed in 1788 on Port Jackson NSW is celebrated as Australia Day. The Aussie spirit takes an up-rise. It is the biggest annual civic event of the year.

But I wonder who the real Australians are. The invaders who chose to capture this land of Pacific ocean and green pastures or the native Aboriginals who after years of oppression have been left not only very small in number but also almost out of the economic activity despite the efforts of the government now who is the real Aussie? What is the true Australian spirit? Is Australia day for all? If all, who all?

Dont these questions haunt the eyes of all those who watch this Foundation day in despair as it reminds them of the day when their home wasnt theirs anymore? Being caged on your own land and then celebrating the day in the spirit of nationalism isnt worth festivities. No amount of apologies can change the course of history.

Hence, the day stands irrelevant. Change the date if not the history, please.A Louisiana man who authorities say killed five people, including his own parents, was caught Sunday following a day-long manhunt that spanned multiple states.

Dakota Theriot, 21, shot and killed his girlfriend, her father and her brother before driving to a neighboring county, where he killed his parents, authorities said. Theriot then drove more than 1,000 miles northeast to Richmond County in Virginia, where he was arrested Sunday morning.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said the rampage began shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, when authorities in Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge, received a 911 call about three victims who had been shot. Those victims were the suspect's girlfriend, Summer Earnest, 20; her father, Billy Earnest, 43; and her younger brother, Tanner Earnest, 17.

Ard said there were two children inside the home, ages 7 and 1. They were not harmed.

Theriot then stole Billy Earnest's 2004 Dodge pickup truck and drove to Ascension Parish, about 30 miles away, and shot his parents, Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, inside their trailer, authorities said.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said the suspect's father was still alive when officers arrived and was able to tell them that his son had shot him.

Dakota Theriot previously lived with his parents before they asked him to leave a couple of weeks ago, authorities said. It's unclear why.

He then moved in with his girlfriend and her family in the Livingston Parish home. Authorities said they had just started dating.

After the shooting, Theriot drove for 16 hours overnight to Warsaw, Virginia, where his grandmother lives, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith told the Advocate newspaper. His grandmother and other family members had moved to a hotel in case Theriot tried to contact them. When he arrived early Sunday morning, two deputies were at the house, Smith said.

Smith, who did not immediately return a call and email from The Washington Post, told the Advocate that Theriot seemed tired and made statements about the slaying of his parents, his girlfriend, and her father and brother.

Authorities said they still do not have a motive in the killings. Theriot had been arrested once for minor drug possession, but he did not have previous encounters with police that would have hinted at the likelihood of violence.

"For someone to do that, someone so young, someone connected to his victims, the fact that the family took him in and this is the end result, it's kind of jarring for all of us," said Lori Steele, spokeswoman for the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office.

Theriot will face five counts of first-degree murder, among other charges.

Steele said officials have no information yet on what specific type of weapon Theriot used or how he obtained it.

-- The Washington PostLast fall, Rep. Margaret Doherty read over the Oregon Constitution as she prepared to give a talk to local high school students about state government.

As she scanned the section detailing the executive branch, something stood out:

In all instances, the governor was referred to with male pronouns.

I counted it up and 13 times the governors duties and succession and so on is referred to as he, and I thought thats not right, said Doherty, a Democrat from Tigard.

So she and Rep. Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, proposed a bill this session referring to voters a measure that would remove gender specific references to the governor and other elected officials. If the bill passes, the ballot measure would go to voters in 2020.

Barbara Roberts was the first women to be elected as Oregon governor. She served from 1991 until 1995. Gov. Kate Brown is the second woman to hold the position.

A former teacher at Milwaukie High School, Doherty said with so many young people interested in government and politics, it makes sense to look at gender references in the Constitution.

Doherty said shes also proposed another bill referring to voters a measure that would allow Oregonians to run for the legislature at 18. Currently, the Constitution says only people 21 or older may run.

This is 2019, she said, adding that her proposals help keep the Constitution up to date. It just doesnt send a good message to kids who want to get involved in their government.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

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@noellecrombie

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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349By Elizabeth Hovde

Early on, President Trump told lawmakers that the government shutdown hes been proud to bring us could last months or even a year. Unacceptable. Even one day would be unacceptable and has been since the 70s when these irresponsible standoffs began.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said of the shutdown in his Jan. 8 rebuttal, We dont govern by temper tantrum. (Except that we sometimes do, I say.) He added, No president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down, hurting millions of Americans who are treated as leverage. Agreed.

The Democrats current rock star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, gave her first speech on the House floor and said, It is not normal to hold 800,000 workers paychecks hostage. It is not normal to shut down the government when we dont get what we want. She continued, "It is not normal for public servants to run away and hide from the public that they serve.

The thing is, even though I didnt support a government shutdown, this felt normal to me.

Change a few words in these Democrats arguments and youd have one I make every time there is a teachers strike or the threat of a strike. When those in charge of basic public services dont get their way, the public often pays the price. Hostages are taken. Vancouver families know that feeling of powerlessness too well. A teachers strike last year delayed the start of school for a week. And just last week, the district narrowly averted a threatened strike by support staff, reaching a tentative agreement for a new contract early Friday morning.

Normal or strange, taxpayers fund government services and are right to be unhappy when Americans lack access to those services. And I hope everyone is bothered that the nations economy suffers in times of government shutdowns. Estimates show 2013s Obama-era,16-day shutdown cost somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion in lost economic output. Its thought that this shutdown will cost our economy even more.

Taxpayers are also the employers of public workers. Its not OK when we fail to pay them in a timely manner, as happened this month.

Yes, federal workers will eventually be paid -- many for not working. Thats part of the reason our economy takes a hit. Still, having ex-post-facto paychecks doesnt work for many Americans budgets.

Its also not OK when public workers refuse to work, as happens in strikes. When public school teachers strike and schools close, many parents are unable to work and earn the money they were counting on. But I dont see similar outrage about individuals and families losing money when that happens, making lawmaker scoldings and media stories about financially affected Americans seem hypocritical and politically opportunistic.

This hostage-taking, no-compromise behavior is a normal tool in the government toolbox when people dont get their way.

Ocasio-Cortez also seems convinced that the shutdown hasnt really been about Trumps demand for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, she said, its been about the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.

This shutdown was most definitely a fight about lawmakers differing opinions concerning border security, as was Americans reaction to the shutdown. The widespread outrage has not primarily been about Trump using a tool other presidents before him have used. Its all about the wall -- and who is proposing it.

Americans arent for or against a government shutdown, theyre for or against Trump. Theyre for or against a physical barrier on the border. (By the way, when it comes to border issues on the north, south, east and west, Im all for whatever people in the trenches -- and by that, I mean border security agents -- say would help them do their jobs.)

Separating government operations from arguments over border security, as Schumer and many other Democrats and Republicans urged, was the right solution.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, has a plan hes been pushing for years that has a shot at ending the federal temper tantrums. His End Government Shutdowns Act, S. 104, would allow government funding to continue automatically at its current level for 120 days in times of disagreement, but it would then offer lawmakers an incentive to get an appropriations bill passed: Agency funding would drop by 1 percent every 90 days until a new spending bill is signed into law.

This measure could bring back the early 70s in a good way, eliminating these costly, unattractive standoffs in which all Americans lose. We need a new kind of normal.

Elizabeth Hovdes column appears on the fourth Sunday of the month.By Jim Akenson

Jim Akenson is a wildlife biologist and conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association.

The fatal cougar attack on a hiker in the Mount Hood National Forest last year was a tragic thing. Evidence indicated that the cougar was a female that was in good health. Is this a surprise? Not really.

Cougar populations are at all-time highs across Oregon. Experts currently estimate a population of about 6,400 cougars compared to an estimate of less than 3,000 in the mid-1990s. Some reasons for the expansion are biological, some are social and much is connected to management capabilities and practices. We need to find a way to return to this socio-biological balance, and looking to the recent past might just be the best bet: Back to when hunting with hounds was a legal and effective management tool in Oregon.

The effects of this population growth are alarming and lead to other changes. Prey animals, specifically deer, relocate to more areas developed by humans to avoid risk, drawing in more cougars searching for the next meal.

Hunters and state wildlife managers report that deer are now less abundant in the mountain, high desert and canyon regions of our state. Meanwhile, Oregon cities are wrestling with the number of deer inhabiting city limits, and cougars are showing up in backyards and schoolyards.

As cougars become more comfortable in human-altered landscapes, the chance of negative encounters with humans, as well as pets and livestock, increases.

So, what is the solution? More intensive cougar management through various hunting techniques.

According to the 2017 Oregon Cougar Management Plan, the success rate for 2016 cougar hunters was 1.9 percent, with 13,879 people reporting they had hunted cougars. Contrast that with 1994 data -- the last year dogs were allowed in conservatively controlled, limited-entry cougar hunting. Those figures showed that 358 people hunted cougars and harvested 144 for a success rate of 40.2 percent.

The bottom line is that hunting with dogs is more efficient and provides wildlife managers a reliable tool for maintaining the cougar population within their objectives.

Oregons cougar management and record-keeping are divided into six zones, each assigned a desired harvest quota to keep the population in balance. Employing the current limited management methods, only one of the six zones has met the harvest quota in recent years.

A criterion for quota establishment is the frequency of complaints. By far, the most cougar complaints are recorded on the west side of the Cascades, where the bulk of Oregonians live. More than 350 cougar complaints per year were received during the last decade in two zones in that area. Unfortunately, this recording system was not initiated until 2001, so we dont have data for the time before the dog ban of 1994.

We do have records for administrative actions connected to human safety and pet conflicts before and after the dog ban of 1994. For eight years before the ban, they averaged four per year. Seven years after the dog ban, complaints increased nearly seven-fold to 27 per year.

Oregon does have a program wherein highly vetted houndsmen are permitted to lethally remove cats to reduce human conflict and bolster deer and elk survival. These agents work closely with Oregn Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists. Even with this program in place, cougars are steadily increasing in Oregon, where hunting them is very impractical without the aid of dogs.

Currently, the law authorizing the agents is up for renewal, and hopefully it will receive legislative support and be applied more broadly to reach zone harvest quotas and to help curb cougars increasing population across the state.

Jim Akenson is also a book author and has invested much of his career in researching the Northwests predators. He lives in Enterprise.The news came to Aaron Cole last month while he was driving a truck for the Canby machine shop where he works.

The $123,000 he had wired to buy his familys dream home? It never arrived. The wiring instructions he received via email had been sent by cyberthieves whod gone to great lengths to impersonate his title agent.

The money had vanished, and it soon became clear it was lost forever -- likely to crooks overseas.

Having sold his old house and now out the proceeds hed planned to use for the new one, Cole was struck by the realization he would soon have nowhere for his wife and young kids to live and no money to buy another home.

The 30-year-old sat in his truck and took a moment to beat the heck out of my steering wheel. Then he told his wife and spent the rest of the day feeling nauseated.

The Coles were victims of a sophisticated form of cybercrime. Hackers impersonate a real estate or title company online, then trick buyers into wiring money to the wrong bank account.

The FBI says the number of cyberthieves targeting real estate transactions exploded by 1,100 percent from 2015 to 2017 with losses as high as $12 million a month. Operating over the internet, the thieves could be anywhere in the world so the money is rarely recovered.

Though the problem has been widely acknowledged within the real estate sector, the industry and its regulators are struggling to come up with a solution.

Insurance rarely covers such thefts, and businesses are wary of putting new restrictions on how homebuyers transfer money, for fear of jeopardizing deals or making the process more cumbersome or expensive.

There is no comprehensive tally of Oregon victims but there were at least three thefts last year involving more than $100,000 apiece. WFG said it had a dozen clients victimized last year. Since the attacks take place online, the crooks could strike anywhere.

Its especially devastating for individual families like the Coles, who can lose their entire life savings while trying to buy what they thought was the safest possible investment  their own home.

The Coles horror story had a surprise ending. His title company, WFG National, agreed to cover their losses. And with the money in hand, the Coles were able to rescue their deal for their dream home in Oregon City.

We realized by having such a hard, corporate approach to thiswe werent taking on the human side of this very well, said Don ONeill, WFGs chief compliance officer.

In exchange, Cole agreed to become a spokesman for WFGs efforts to raise awareness about real estate wire fraud. WFG hopes such a real-world example will raise awareness among homebuyers and help put the entire industry on guard against such fraud.

Wed like to have a broader platform to put this information out to consumers and real estate professionals that, frankly, have been a little bit disinterested, ONeill said.

Online scams are nothing new, of course. Weve all had the emails from Nigeria.

What makes this fraud particularly insidious is that the thieves tailor their attack to an individual, using the names of real estate or title agents to fool homebuyers into trusting them. After hacking into an email account, they lie in wait until a deal is near closure.

Then they swoop in with what appear to be wiring instructions from someone the homebuyer already knows.

Sometimes they will insert themselves right into an email thread with the homebuyers agent, making it seem the instructions were part of an ongoing electronic conversation. Thats what happened last summer when hackers stole $379,000 from a couple buying a home near Lebanon.

That family got most of their money back because the bank was able to recover funds from the fraudulent account before the hackers cleared it out.

In the Coles case, the email with the fake wire instructions appeared to come from a WFG escrow officer.

Please advise if you can wire closing funds today so that I can provide our updated wire instruction and the exact closing figures, one email read.

Another: Leave an email as soon as you confirm that the wire has gone out.

A close reading of the notes show occasional grammatical errors and unusual linguistic choices that suggest the senders first language may not be English. (Americans typically dont Leave an email. We send them.)

But for homebuyers like the Coles, dealing with an unfamiliar process, such lapses may not stand out  especially when the email appears to be from a familiar name and part of an ongoing conversation.

Its not clear who hacked into Aaron Coles email conversation, or how. WFG says it checked its systems and found no evidence of a breach. Cole admits its possible someone got into his account, but again, theres no evidence of that.

Thats the thing about this scam, though. There are millions of real estate transactions every day. Hackers only need access to a few to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The cost of entry to do this from a criminal standpoint is minimal and the return on investment is massive, said Bruce Phillips, WFGs chief information security officer. Why would you go rob a bank when you can send an email and make a lot more money?

Were going to take this up

So, who is going to stop these thefts, and how?

Now that this is becoming such a rampant problem, education is always good. Were doing the best we can, said Jenny Pakula, chief executive of the Oregon Association of Realtors.

And as e-signatures supplant many elements of the homebuying process that people used to do in person, its easier for homebuyers to get confused about who they send money to, and under what circumstances.

There are disclosures and notices provided but lets face it, its a lot of paperwork, Pakula said. And its easy for a homebuyer to overlook a caution about wire transfers in a pile of forms about home inspections, loan terms and title insurance.

There are few regulatory safeguards around wiring money and insurance doesnt usually cover this kind of theft.

Now the scams are just so sophisticated. Theyre using technology and theyre just so sneaky, said Ellen Klem, director of consumer outreach and education for the Oregon Department of Justice. Once you wire this money its virtually impossible to get it back.

Real estate organizations and regulators are cool to the suggestion it may be time for reform. They want to see if raising public awareness, highlighting examples like the Coles experience, may stem the tide.

If that doesnt work, though, Klem and others say they are open to exploring new practices, rules or regulations to fight the thefts.

Im very intrigued by the idea of looking into that issue and seeing if there should be more protections, Klem said.

Voices within the industry remain cautious but allow that it may be time to start exploring other solutions, like wire fraud insurance or requiring extra steps before wiring large sums of money in connection with a home purchase.

Its an interesting topic to explore. I dont know for sure whether its realistic or feasible, said the Realtors Pakula. We want the problem to stop but potential solutions have to be explored.

Dean Owens, acting commissioner of the Oregon agency that licenses real estate brokers, property managers and escrow agents, agreed that caution is needed. We have to think really carefully before we put somebody in a position to oversee the transfer of funds for somebody else, he said.

Asked about the monetary implications of implementing new safeguards, Owens said, it was on our radar. Were going to take a look at it and were going to have a conversation about it.

Consumer protection is what we should be looking to do, and were going to take this up.

As regulators and trade groups ponder the options, Aaron Cole is settling into his new home with his wife and kids, ages 3 and 5.

Its 1,000 square feet bigger than the place he sold last year, with bedrooms for each of the kids and a bathroom and full-size closet in the master bedroom. Chastened by his near miss, Cole said hes hopeful his experience will serve as a cautionary tale.

Dont take anything to be gospel, he said. In the future, I know that I will call on every single transaction and email.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699Insights-as-a-Service Market 2019 By IBM Capgemini Accenture Oracle Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Dell EMC NTT Data Good Data Zephyr Health Smartfocus

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Insights as a service is a type of cloud service that involves providing specific data results. It essentially combines the idea of business intelligence with the concept of vendor-delivered cloud services and analytics.Request a Sample of this Report @This report studies the Insights-as-a-Service market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Insights-as-a-Service market by product type and applications/end industries.The retail and consumer goods vertical has the highest growing CAGR during the forecast period. This vertical is expected to grow rapidly in the insights services adoption as this industry focus on customer experience. Enhancement in customer experience is an important factor to maintain competitiveness, which will provide emerging players in this sector an opportunity to grow faster.North America is expected to have the largest market share in 2018, whereas the APAC region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023 in the Insights-as-a-Service market. High penetration rate into various industry verticals, increasing demand for business flexibility and agility, and a large number of data science companies located in the U.S are some of the major driving factors contributing to the growth of cloud computing in North America. This has led the software organizations to opt for cloud-based solutions.The global Insights-as-a-Service market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Insights-as-a-Service.Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%.Browse the Full Report@This report covers Analysis of GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket Segment by ManufacturersIBMCapgeminiAccentureOracleDeloitte Touche TohmatsuDell EMCNTT DataGood DataZephyr HealthSmartfocusGlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket Segment by regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Make an enquiry before buying this report @GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket Segment by TypePredictive InsightsDescriptive InsightsPrescriptive InsightsGlobal Insights-as-a-Service Market Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBFSIHealthcare and Life SciencesRetail and Consumer GoodsEnergy and UtilitiesManufacturingTelecommunication and ITGovernment and Public SectorOthersSome of the Points cover in GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket Research Report is:Chapter 1: DescribeInsights-as-a-ServiceIndustry Introduction, Product Scope, Market Overview, Market Opportunities, Market Risk, Market Driving ForceChapter 2: To analyze the top manufacturers ofInsights-as-a-ServiceIndustry in 2016 and 2017 Sales Revenue and priceChapter 3: Competitive analysis among the top manufacturers in 2016 and 2017 Sales Revenue and market shareChapter 4: GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket by regions from 2013 to 2018 Sales Revenue and market shareChapter 5, 6, 7 and 8: GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket by key countries in these regions Sales Revenue and market shareChapter 9 and 10: GlobalInsights-as-a-ServiceMarket by type and application from 2013 to 2018 Sales Revenue and market share Growth rateChapter 11:Insights-as-a-ServiceIndustry Market forecast from 2018 to 2023 Regions Type and application with sales and revenueChapter 12 and 13:Insights-as-a-ServiceIndustry Sales channel Distributors Traders and dealers Appendix Data sourceOrbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Global Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery Market 2019-2025 Competitive Analysis By Key Players AbbVie, Amgen, Catalent, Kemwell Bipharma., Pfizer, Novartis, Biocon, Sanofi

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UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2019-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 111 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019-2025.Get Free Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report@Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 2019-2025.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 more information on this report, 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.The report for Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery market industry analysis & forecast 2019-2025 is segmented into Product Segment, Application Segment & Major players.Region-wise Analysis Global Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery Market covers: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The key players covered in this study AbbVie Amgen Catalent Kemwell Bipharma. Pfizer Novartis Biocon Sanofi F. Hoffman-La Roche Novo NordiskGet Free Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of This Report@Market segment by Type, the product can be split into Normally Protein (Antibodies) Nucleic Acids (DNA, RNA Or Oligonucleotides)Market segment by Application, split into Hospital Pharmacy Retail Pharmacy Specialty PharmacyThe Report covers in-depth analysis as follows: Chapter 1 Study Coverage Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Market Size by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Unmodified Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery by Region Chapter 5 Unmodified Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery by Region Chapter 6 Market Size by Type Chapter 7 Market Size by Application Chapter 8 Manufacturers Profiles Chapter 9 Production Forecasts Chapter 10 Consumption Forecast Chapter 11 Upstream, Industry Chain and Downstream Customers Analysis Chapter 12 Opportunities & Challenges, Threat and Affecting Factors Chapter 13 Key Findings Chapter 14 AppendixGrab Best Discount Price @Global Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2019-2025 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.Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Global Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery Market Industry Analysis and Forecast 2019-2025 and its commercial landscape Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations To understand the future outlook and prospects for Biopharmaceutical Oral Drug Delivery market industry analysis and forecast 2019-2025.Customization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:UpMarketResearch () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United StatesCan men get arrested for sporting long hair: Apparently in Pakistan YES!

Pak team to visit Chenab basin in J&K tomorrow

International

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Islamabad, Jan 28: A Pakistani delegation will visit the Chenab river basin in Jammu and Kashmir for inspection from January 28 to 31, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty, sources said.

Pakistan's Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah will arrive in India along with his two advisers, sources said.

"This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the Treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years," a senior official said.

Since signing the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken by the commission.

The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014 respectively. No tour could be held so far in the current five years block which ends in March 2020.

World's highest bridge on river Chenab launched

This tour will be followed by a visit of Indian Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date decided between the two commissioners, the official added.

This tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but later postponed because of local bodies and panchayat polls in J&K.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three of Indus tributaries -- the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi -- have been allotted to India; while the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan.Haryana woman tries to flee to meet her Pakistan boyfriend via Kartarpur corridor, sent back home

After Pak allows access, India says yet to decide on opening Kartarpur Corridor

India and Pakistan in constant touch over Kartarpur corridor issue

International

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Islamabad, Jan 27: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor issue and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

He made the remarks on January 26 night during an informal interaction with the media personnel invited to attend the reception to celebrate the 70th Republic Day of India.

Talking informally to reporters, the high commissioner said that the Indian government had consented to the basic points about Kartarpur corridor except for its zero-point.

Kartarpur corridor: Access mode for Indian devotees yet to be decided

"Because of [upcoming] elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now," he said, adding that; however, building trust was essential before any political dialogue between the two countries.

He said both the countries were in contact over Kartarpur corridor. "So many meetings have taken place on this matter [Kartarpur corridor]," Bisaria told the reporters. A delegation from Pakistani water commission will visit India tomorrow (Sunday)," he added.

The four villages identified for the 4.25 km stretch along Indo-Pak border in Gurdaspur district of Punjab are Chandu Nangal, Jaurian Khurd, Pakhoketahli Sahib and Dera Baba Nanak.

India and Pakistan are yet to finalise the security details and protocol. Broadly, however, there is agreement within the security infrastructure in New Delhi that arrangement will be like the Wagah-Attari border, a senior official in the Home Ministry who didn't want to be named said. For better access control, India wants visas for pilgrims visiting the shrine.

Pakistan sees Kartarpur as high point in Imran Khan's diplomacy

The Kartarpur corridor is a proposed border corridor between Pakistan and India, which will connect the Sikh shrines of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur to facilitate thousands of Sikh pilgrims visiting the country every year.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 13:32 [IST]TN: Modi lays foundation stone for AIIMS in Madurai

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Madurai, Jan 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for AIIMS (All India Institutes of Medical Sciences) Madurai. He also inaugurated super-speciality blocks at medical colleges in Thanjavur and Tirunelveli.

He will also address a public rally in the temple town of Madurai. The rally will present a chance to Modi and the BJP showcase the work the central government has done for Tamil Nadu, said a senior party leader.

As Modi arrives in Madurai, twitter war over #GoBackModi vs #TNWelcomesModi breaks out

The new AIIMS will cost Rs 1,264 crore and is expected to go on stream in 2022. It will be a 750-bed hospital with a long term focus on post graduate and higher education and research. It will have a capacity of 100 MBBS seats and 60 for B.Sc.(Nursing). The project cost to upgrade the three other medical colleges is Rs 450 crore.

While addressing the gathering Modi said,"We all know AIIMS in Delhi has cultivated a brand name in healthcare. With AIIMS in Madurai, this brand has been taken to all corners of the country. The AIIMS in Madurai would be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore.''

Modi said, "The NDA Government is giving great priority to the health sector, so that everyone is healthy and healthcare is affordable."

He also said that under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the government has supported and upgraded Government Medical Colleges across India.

Modi said, "Swachh Bharat has become a people's movement. Rural sanitation has increased from 38 per cent in 2014, to 98 per cent today." He also said,"We have built more than nine crore toilets in this period, out of which 47 lakh have been made in Tamil Nadu alone."

Speaking on the 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections in the general category, PM Modi says the decision has been taken in a way that it doesn't impact Dalits, Tribals and OBCs. "It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by a few people in TN to serve their own selfish interests," says Modi, in an apparent reference to DMK challenging the legislation in Madras High Court.

Speaking on nation's first high-speed train T-18, Modi says the credit for it goes to Tamil Nadu. "In times to come, T-18 will provide high-speed connectivity across the country," says Modi. "When production begins on a large scale, it shall provide a large number of employment opportunities for youth of Tamil Nadu," he says.

Taking a dig at Opposition efforts to form a Grand Alliance, Modi says the parties are keeping aside all other considerations and uniting to remove the "chowkidar". "All those who were used to making deals in government contracts, defence deals and welfare schemes are now facing the music. That is why, they are all coming together," he says.

Stressing that the Opposition parties are uniting out of fear and negativity, Modi says he was not afraid of how big a group they form. "Narendra Modi will stand firmly with the poor. I call upon the people of Madurai and the youth of Tamil Nadu to reject these forces of negativity," he says.

In the last general elections, the BJP won just one Lok Sabha seat out of 39 in Tamil Nadu and drew a blank in neighbouring Kerala which has 20 seats.

According to PMO officials, Modi will fly to Thrissur in Kerala from Madurai to address a public rally. It will be his second visit in less than a fortnight to the state since January 15 when he flew down to inaugurate a bypass in Kollam.Sabarimala issue shows Left govt trying to disrespect Kerala culture: PM Modi

India

oi-Deepika S

Thrissur, Jan 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala and said the Sabarimala issue had shown to the people of the country how the communist government was trying to disrespect the culture of the state.

"The issue of the Sabarimala Temple has caught the attention of the entire nation. The people of India are seeing the manner in which the Communist Government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture," said PM Modi over Sabarimala row.

"Unfortunately today, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack and this attack is being led by the party that is governing the state," he added.

Modi said his government had made efforts to make all kitchens in the country smoke free.

"When we came to power, we made efforts to make all kitchens smoke free. At that time, only 55 per cent of houses had gas connections. But today we have achieved 90 per cent," he said.

"It is an honour that our Government had the opportunity of conferring the a Padma Award on Nambi Narayanan. We value each and every person who is working to make India stronger," said the PM.

Targeting the Congress over espionage charges against Nambi Narayanan, which were recently dropped by the Supreme Court, the prime minister said, "More than two decades ago, a hardworking and patriotic ISRO scientist, Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case, just because a few UDF leaders were settling political scores. Imagine, for their own politics, they damaged national interest, troubled a scientist."

"For them science can be abused as spying, for us science is a matter of national pride.For them solar was a means for a scam, for us solar is a means for a global alliance," he added.

"Let me tell you, neither the Congress nor the Communists have any concern for women empowerment.If they did, they would not be opposing the NDA government's efforts to ban Triple Talaq," said PM Modi.

Launching a scathing attack on the Opposition, PM Modi said, "Abuse me as much as you want but don't put barriers in India's progress. Abuse me as much as you want but don't abuse our great nation."

"What is even more worrying is that the entire Opposition, be it the Congress or the Communists have zero regard for any institutions.For them, every institution, the armed forces, the police, the CBI, the CAG...everyone is wrong but they are right," said PM Modi.

"They are also questioning the Election Commission. The entire nation was amused to see a press conference in London, where, on foreign soil India's democratic ethos was questioned," said PM Modi.

"And, who was spotted in that press conference? A topmost Congress leader.Is this your respect towards institutions and our democracy? Is this what our politics has come to that now, you will even go on foreign soil to undermine the mandate of the people of India, added PM Modi.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 18:44 [IST]Russian woman moves HC to get deported

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Ahmedabad, Jan 27: A Russian woman, facing charges of overstaying in India, has approached the Gujarat High Court to get deported to her country at the earliest and also to quash an FIR lodged against her in the city.

In her first petition filed on January 3, the woman, Anastasiia Leonskaia (38), has pleaded that since she had lost her passport during her stay in India, she should be granted an "exit clearance" and sent to her country.

When the matter was being heard by Justice V M Pancholi, the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Ahmedabad, on January 22, lodged an FIR against her under various sections of the Foreigners Act.

Sacked IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhat's wife's plea challenging probe rejected by SC

The FRRO claimed that Leonskaia had illegally entered India from Nepal in December, 2016 and had overstayed here.

Leonskaia and her one-and-a-half-year-old son, who was born in Goa, are currently residing at Valsad. The woman has claimed that she was robbed in India.

In her petition, filed before Justice Sonia Gokani on Friday, seeking quashing of the FIR, Leonskaia said, "The FRRO should look into the circumstances that forced the applicant to overstay in India and also the circumstances of robbery which left the applicant with no monetary help and assistance."

Her lawyer Nachiket Dave told the court that the FIR should be quashed as the trial would further extend her stay in India.

Admitting the petition, Justice Gokani issued a notice to the FRRO and adjourned the matter till January 29.

Earlier this month, Leonskaia had approached the high court, seeking directions to the immigration authorities to grant her and her son an "exit clearance".

She had claimed that though she had applied for it on December 10 last year, the FRRO had taken no decision on her application.

Leonskaia said though she had produced all the required documents before the FRRO to get the exit clearance in the absence of her passport, the authorities had not taken any concrete step to facilitate her deportation.

She had said it was well within the legal rights and powers of the FRRO to "deport" her to her native country.

If she did not return to her country at the earliest, her seven-year-old daughter, currently under the care of her teacher, would be sent to an orphanage by the Russian government, Leonskaia had said.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 9:43 [IST]Rahul has put chameleon to shame in changing colour: Sakshi Maharaj

India

pti-PTI

Unnao, Jan 27: Attacking Rahul Gandhi, BJP MP from Unnao constituency Sakshi Maharaj said on Sunday the Congress president "has put even chameleon to shame" in changing colour.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, he said, "Congress president Rahul Gandhi sometimes becomes a 'janeudhaari' (one who wear a sacred thread) pandit, sometimes he becomes a Shiv bhakt, and sometimes he tries to do something else. He has put even the chameleon to shame in changing colour."

Sakshi Maharaj also asserted he will be contesting from Unnao till the time he is in active politics.

Asked to comment on reports of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra planning to take a dip in the Sangam during the ongoing Kumbh Mela, the BJP MP said, "A person who had termed Lord Ram as imaginary is calling himself a Shiv Bhakt. Those who called saffron-clad seers terrorists, why are they talking about going to Kumbh. This is because politicians have realised that people who speak about Hindu-hit (welfare of Hindus) will eventually rule the country's politics."

Sakshi Maharaj also said that Rahul Gandhi has failed in politics, hence Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been inducted into the Congress. "But, she too will not be successful," he said.Not 25, but will resolve Ayodhya dispute in 24 hours

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: Hand it over to us and we will solve the problem in 24 hours. This was what Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath had to say on being asked about a resolution to the Ayodhya dispute.

If the Supreme Court is unable to give an early verdict, hand it over to us as the patience of the people is fast running out, the UP CM also said. He also said that the BJP would win more seats than it won in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

On being asked what the approach would be to resolve the Ayodhya dispute, he said that he would comment on it once the court hands over the matter to them. I would still appeal to the court to dispose off the matter soon. On September 30 2010, the Allahabad High Court gave its verdict not on the issue of division of land, but upheld the view that the Babri structure was built after demolishing a Hindu temple or memorial. The Archaeological Survey of India based on the High Court order carried out excavations and in its report admitted that the Babri structure was built by demolishing a Hindu temple or memorial, Yogi told India TV.

Judges who will hear the Ayodhya dispute in Supreme Court

He also said that by adding the title dispute unnecessarily, the Ayodhya dispute is being prolonged. We appeal to the Supreme Court to give us justice at the earliest. If there is unnecessary delay, then the people may lose trust in the institutions, he also said.

We won't take 25 hours, but will resolve the dispute within 24 hours and hence I appeal to the Supreme Court to give its verdict soon. If it is unable to do so, then it should hand over the issue to us, the UP CM also said.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 8:30 [IST]Why Petrol and Diesel prices keep going up? This is what petroleum minister has to say

Naveen Patnaik shaken with BJP rise, fuelling alliance speculation: Dharmendra Pradhan

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 27: Senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan hinted on Sunday his party may not project a chief ministerial face in Odisha, where assembly and Lok Sabha polls are held together, and asserted it will end the two-decade reign of Naveen Patnaik on the back of PM Narendra Modi's popular appeal and development work.

Pradhan, a Union minister and key BJP face from Odisha, also rejected the suggestion that his party was looking at Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as a potential ally after the Lok Sabha polls, saying Chief Minister Patnaik is fuelling such speculation as he was "shaken" with the saffron party's rise.

"We are in a direct fight with the BJD. We are sure to emerge as the number one party and also get a majority in the assembly. The BJP is rising and Modi enjoys a lot of credibility in the state. To survive this, he has spread this (speculation) that he may support the BJP," he told PTI in an interview.

Patnaik, a former ally of the BJP, has maintained that his party BJD believes in keeping equidistant from both the Congress and the BJP.

His decision to keep away from unity efforts of opposition parties has given rise to speculation that he is open to the possibility of supporting the saffron party

Asked if the BJP will announce its chief ministerial candidate, Pradhan said Modi will be its main face and noted that it had won in a number of states such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura without projecting any leader for the top post.

Seen by many political watchers as his party's likely choice for the hot seat if it wins in the assembly polls, Pradhan said the BJP is working with a "collective leadership" in Odisha.

"It (chief ministerial candidate) is not our priority. Our priority is to make the BJP the number one party in the state," he asserted.

The 49-year-old leader has handled several important organisational responsibilities for the party and is said to enjoy the confidence of Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Mounting a sharp attack on Patnaik, Pradhan said he was elected to power again and again because the opposition was too weak to highlight his "corrupt, incompetent and insensitive" rule under which even basic facilities like drinking water, electricity and health services were not provided to most citizens.

Patnaik's call for ending 'PC (percentage commission) culture' in the state is a case of "chor machaye shor" (thief making noise), the BJP leader said, claiming that the chief minister is a part and parcel of this culture.

To a question about Patnaik's perceived image of a clean administrator, he said there cannot be a "bigger lie and joke" as he referred to the Shah commission's report on mining irregularities in Odisha and also the chit-fund scams in the state.

Citing the report, he said over Rs 60,000 crore was siphoned off while people in the state lost over Rs 30,000 crore in chit-fund scams in which several BJD leaders are either in jail or facing charges in courts.

Pradhan said the BJP now has the organisational strength to "expose" the Patnaik government and is in a position to offer an alternative vision for governing the state.

The Modi government's development works- including boosting road, rail and air travel connectivity, spreading the use of cooking gas cylinders from 20 lakh connections to 75 lakh, connecting all its villages with electricity- will be the main drivers of the BJP's campaign in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the state, he said.

"No central government has done as much for the state as the Modi dispensation has," he asserted.

The BJP could not capitalise on the 2014 "Modi wave" in the state due to its lack of organisational capacity but it has come a long way since, he said, noting that the party emerged as the main challenger to the BJD in the panchayat polls by bagging over 33 per cent of votes.

The saffron party had garnered 21 per cent of votes and won only one of the state's 21 Lok Sabha seats, with the BJD winning the remainder 20 by bagging over 44 per cent of votes.The Congress had won 26 per cent of votes but its vote share has since declined in the by-elections and local polls.

The Congress, Pradhan claimed, has crumbled in the state.

"It has zero strength and no leadership. The anti-BJD votes will rally around the BJP in the coming polls," he said.

The popularity and credibility of Modi in the state remains high, Pradhan said, adding that the prime minister's appeal will be the "game-changer".

In the 2014 assembly poll, Patnaik had led the BJD to power for a fourth straight term with the party winning 117 seats in the 147-member assembly with the Congress and the BJP bagging 16 and 10 seats respectively.

Pradhan claimed there is a popular discontent against Patnaik's 19-year-old uninterrupted reign in the state, especially among the youths, women and tribals, due to lack of essential infrastructure and employment opportunities causing migration.

Elevated as a Cabinet minister by Modi in 2017 after being first given the responsibility of a minister of state with independent charge following the BJP's win in 2014 general election, Pradhan is in-charge of the important petroleum and natural gas portfolio.

He has drawn praise from the BJP leadership for steering Ujjwala scheme, which provides free LPG connection to the poor households.

PTINow, pay Rs 10,000 as penalty in case you enter wrong Aadhaar number for transactions

Naidu, Mahajan call all-party meetings ahead of Budget session

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 27: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan have called separate all-party meetings ahead of the Budget session, which begins on January 31, officials said Sunday.

Mahajan has called a meeting on January 30, while Naidu has invited floor leaders of all parties on the morning of January 31, before the commencement of the session.

This Budget session will be the last parliamentary session of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, before the general elections.

Both Naidu and Mahajan have called the meeting for smooth functioning of their respective houses during the session, officials said.

Beside these two meetings, the government is also expected to call a similar meeting of leaders of all parties from both the Houses on January 30, which the prime minister may also attend.

The interim budget will be tabled on February 1 and both the Houses will remain in session till February 13.

PTIHaryana gets response from Malta firm on global COVID-19 vaccine bid, to get supply upto 60 mn Sputnik V dose

Haryana cabinet to decide on Malta firm's offer for selling Sputnik-V vaccine at cost of Rs 1,120 per dose

Haryana Unlock Guidelines: What is open, What is not; Check details

Jind by-poll: A litmus test for all in this high stakes battle

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Jind, Jan 27: A keen contest is on the cards for the Jind Assembly bypoll with all major political parties- the ruling BJP, Opposition INLD, Congress and newly floated Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) - slugging it out to ensure the victory of their candidates.

Anup Karnani elaborating the success factors of businessby Udyog Rahasya

The high-stakes election slated for January 28 is being viewed as a referendum on the Manohar Lal Khattar government and also a semi-final ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The bypoll, which was to be a direct contest between the BJP and the INLD, turned into a multi-cornered fight after the Congress and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) fielded their candidates.

Congress fielded Jat leader and AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala, a sitting legislator from Kaithal and JJP, a breakaway party from the Chautala family-led Indian National Lok Dal, nominated political greenhorn Digvijay Singh Chautala.

Jind bypoll: Campaigning ends for multi-cornered contest

JJP came into being after a split in the INLD following a power struggle in Chautala family.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of INLD legislator Hari Chand Midha.

The BJP is banking on Middh'a son Krishan Middha, a Punjabi, while INLD has nominated local Jat leader Umedh Singh Redhu, who is also backed by a faction of prominent Kandela Khap (caste council).

While the Chautala-led INLD claimed Congress and JJP have fielded "imported" candidates, both Randeep and Digvijay are promising unparalleled development for the area, if elected.

The bypoll has brought together the Congress rank as party's top leaders, including former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state party chief Ashok Tanwar, late CM Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi, CLP leader Kiran Choudhary and party MP Kumari Selja have taken to the streets to ensure Surjewala's victory.

Surjewala's campaign had got a shot in the arm after a heavyweight from the area and Independent MLA from Kalayat Jai Prakash and former minister Mange Ram Gupta lending support to him.

Prakash, a Jat leader, had been seeking the Congress ticket for his son Vikas Saharan.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, cabinet ministers Rambilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu and Manish Grover have been campaigning for Middha.

Political pundits say the dormant Jat community votes are likely to be divided among Surjewala, Redhu and Digvijay as all of them are Jats which can tilt the balance in favour of the BJP candidate.

The fledgeling JJP got a boost with the AAP announcing support for its nominee.

The cancellation of furlough of INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala from Tihar Jail on the directive of the Delhi government led to a verbal duel between warring factions.

Chautala hit back at his grandsons Dushyant and Digvijay, accusing them of "back-stabbing" him and "conspiring" with AAP to keep him out of the campaigning, a charge denied by the Hisar MP.

Playing an emotional card, Chautala in an open letter to the electorate said that he was unwell and in hospital.

"Despite being unwell, I wanted to come to you (seek votes). I gave an application of furlough to jail authorities which was approved from January 17 with riders that I will have to stay at Teja Khera farm house at Sirsa and should not participate in any political activities."

"It is an injustice. However, all limits were crossed when the furlough from January 21 was cancelled.

This has happened due to a conspiracy by Dushyant, Digvijay and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. I have been back-stabbed. I appeal to the electorate to vote for INLD candidate Umedh Singh to avenge the conspiracy hatched against me," Chautala has written in the letter.

Sneh Lata, wife of Chautala senior is being heard in a video saying, "If I die tomorrow, these four persons (Ajay, his wife Naina and their sons Dushyant and Digvijay should not touch my body)."

Hitting back, Naina asks, "Have you ever heard someone cursing her sons and grandsons".

The electioneering has brought about sharp differences in the Chautala clan.

While the BJP brokered peace with Kandela Khap (caste council) chief Tek Ram, a ticket aspirant, Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala apologised to villagers for the infamous firing incident in 2002 during the Chautala regime which led to the death of farmers.

Middha is relying on "all-round development" done during Khattar's over four years regime.

INLD's Umedh and Congress' Surjewala are banking upon anti-incumbency of ruling BJP alleging the saffron party "failed" to honour its poll promises.

The candidate of Lok Suraksha Manch Vinod Kumar Arshi could also play spoilsport in a multi-cornered contest.

Arshi, a Brahmin leader from Jind is a nominee put up by BJP's rebel MP from Kurukshetra, Raj Kumar Saini who is Manch's patron.

Saini has an influence among voters from OBC communities.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 8:46 [IST]Indigo names IIT, United Airlines alumnus Ronojoy Dutta as CEO

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Jan 27: InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, which runs IndiGo, India's largest airline in terms of passengers carried, on Thursday named industry veteran Ronojoy Dutta as chief executive officer (CEO).

Dutta's appointment comes about nine months after IndiGo's president and whole-time director Aditya Ghosh, who managed the day-to-day operations at the airline, announced his decision to quit.

Ghosh's resignation was announced by IndiGo in April last year, following which the airline's co-founder Rahul Bhatia served as the interim CEO. Dutta had been hired as a principal consultant last year.

After Ghosh's exit, industry experts said that his ideal replacement would be someone with extensive international experience and one who could drive and grow the international operations of the airline.

About Ronojoy Dutta:

Brought up in Shillong, Meghalaya, in India's northeast, Dutta is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He joined United Airlines in the US in 1984 and went on to serve as its chairman between 1999 and 2001. Indeed, he was only the second Indian to head an American airline - the first, none other than IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal, who was CEO and chairman of US Airways between 1998 to 2001 (Gangwal also worked at United between 1984 and 1994 - his time there coincided with Dutta's).

On September 11, 2001, hijackers crashed a United flight into the World Trade Center in New York and another in Pennsylvania.

The airline was already making losses, and 9/11 dealt the final blow. Passenger traffic dropped in the months following the attack. In 2002, United filed for bankruptcy with nearly $1 billion in debt. Dutta was forced to quit with a $1.6 million payout.

He returned to India as an advisor to Air Sahara in 2004, and was appointed CEO after a few months. The airline had then just launched its international route from Chennai to Colombo, and Dutta helmed its rapid expansion, registering a 35% annual growth in revenue. He quit the company after Air Sahara was bought out by Jet Airways, the country's oldest private airline.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 15:24 [IST]India emerging as a refinery hub with refining more than its demand: PM Modi in Kerala

India

oi-Deepika S

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 27: In his second visit to Kerala in less than a fortnight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Rs 16,500 crore Integrated Refinery Expansion Project of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in Kochi.

The integrated refinery is a modern expansion complex and would transform the Kochi Refinery as the largest PSU refinery in the country with world class standards.

Addressing the people of Kochi, PM Modi said, " Bharat Petroleum's Kochi Refinery has played a critical role in popularising the clean fuel of LPG among masses in Kerala and neighbouring states over the last more than 50 years of its existence. I recall, in my childhood and youth years, when I had seen many mothers struggling with the firewood stove in the kitchen. Ever since, I had always thought of improving their situation and providing healthy kitchens to the mothers and sisters of India."

TN: Modi lays foundation stone for AIIMS in Madurai

"To cut down on import of crude oil, government has taken decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10% and saving the precious foreign exchange," said PM Modi.

"Over one crore customers have given up LPG subsidy, which has helped many to dump firewood.

Also, by doubling the LPG production, the Kochin refinery will make a great contribution towards Ujjwala," said PM Modi in Kochi.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 16:26 [IST]How Rahul Gandhi is changing the election 2019 narrative

India

oi-Prabhpreet Singh Sood

Bengaluru, Jan 27: Something's been changing, over the last year or so, in the political narrative of the country. And it's Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, who seems to be driving it while those in power seem stuck in the past.

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections were a 'Corrupt' vs 'Communal' fight. On the one hand was the 'corrupt' Congress-led UPA and on the other was the 'communal' BJP-led NDA.

At least that's how they targeted each other. Including the leadership of both the parties. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi led the charge against then-candidate Narendra Modi, while he spearheaded an all-out attack on them.

BJP censures Rahul for abusing PM Modi

How it turned out, made history. After a ten-year reign at the Centre, the Congress was brought down to a paltry 44 seats in the lower house of Parliament. To make matters worse, it lost elections in state after state, wherever it was pitched directly against the 'Communal' BJP.

It took around four years and multiple losses for the grand old party to realise that it wasn't going to win this battle playing the same old card. Particularly given the success that Modi's BJP achieved in consolidating the 'Hindu vote,' unlike it had ever been seen in democratic India. Especially in the Hindi Belt of north-central India.

This finally led to the Rahul-led Congress dropping the 'Communal' charge and using the same tool Modi had used so effectively against the UPA in 2014. The 'Corrupt' and 'inefficient government' tags.

Herein lies the reason for Rahul's all-out and unrelenting attack on the Modi government with the likes of 'Rafael scam', PNB fraud etc., and terming the Modi government a 'suit-boot ki sarkar' working for the benefits of the rich, and against the poor and middle class.

He has also successfully combined this with the Agrarian crisis as well as lack of sufficient job creation for youth and linking it with Modi government's steps like Demonetisation (which he keeps calling a scam) and implementing the Goods and Services Tax regime.

Such a change along with adoption of what many have termed as 'soft-Hindutva'- visiting temples, talking about his Gotra, etc.- have finally brought him success. Witnessed in Congress' direct defeat of the BJP in the Hindi Belt states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh late last year.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi and his party look stuck in the 2014 mode of blaming the Congress for all that's wrong with India, even after BJP enjoying a clear majority at the Centre and being in power in an unprecedented number of states.

This isn't working anymore. As survey after survey ahead of the 2019 elections is showing. Most predicting the saffron party and its current coalition partners falling short of the magic halfway mark. Something thought impossible not too long ago.

Rahul Gandhi may contest Lok Sabha polls from 3 seats

With merely a few months left for the elections to go, it may be a smart thing for the BJP to move away from dynasty based attacks to more pro-farmer and youth (read job) based steps along with those against considered financial defaulters (to counter the suit-boot ki sarkar jibe), which can be taken to the voters. Even on the Hindu vote front, only a big step on the 'Ram temple' issue will help consolidate its major vote bank.

Economically weaker sections based quota was a smart political move on this front, but it will not be enough on its own. As 'corrupt dynasty' or 'Congress-Mukt Bharat' type strategies aren't going to help the BJP achieve the high of the last election this time around.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 9:53 [IST]How India celebrated Republic Day

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: A kaleidoscope of rich cultural heritage of states and their journey towards development was on display as colourful parades marked the 70th Republic Day which passed off peacefully amid tight security, though celebrations were marred in some parts of Northeast following a boycott call by outfits against the citizenship bill

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath announced the launch of a scheme to ensure 100 days of employment every year to the youths from the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the urban areas during his address

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel announced waiver of farmers' outstanding irrigation taxes worth Rs 207 crore during his Republic Day address in Raipur

In a first, Four veterans of Netaji's INA take part in R-Day parade

Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu hailed the state's efforts to create a conducive industrial environment, making way for more investments and job opportunities

Kerala governor P Sathasivam pitched for a united approach towards rebuilding the state devastated by last year's deadly monsoon floods and cautioned against narrow politics and violent protests derailing the efforts and lowering the state's image

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said the militancy-hit Kashmir valley will once again become "the paradise on earth" as was once described by Mughal Emperor Jahangir.

Mobile internet services were suspended across Kashmir as a precautionary measure on the occasion, but mobile phone services functioned as usual. Normal life was affected due to a strike called by separatist groups, which asked people to observe the Republic Day as a "black day"

Security was tightened in the Northeast which was rocked by protests against the citizenship bill.

Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan addressed an almost-empty ground in Aizawl on the occasion due to a statewide boycott call given by an umbrella organisation. No member from the general public attended the function, police said, adding only ministers, legislators and top officials were present

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, passed in Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several outfits in the Northeast have opposed it claiming that it would undermine the rights of the indigenous people of the region.

Relief and rescue ops during Kerala floods theme of Indian Navy Tableau on R-Day

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh came down heavily on organisations that boycotted the celebrations in the state against the bill, saying they should instead contest elections to get people's mandate

He warned that actions of these outfits would tantamount to running a "parallel administration" which is "unacceptable"

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi said there is no place for illegal foreigners and only the indigenous people of the state have the right on its resources

Apprehending that the protests against the bill could affect the celebrations, the Assam Police took rigorous steps to ensure that no one carried black cloth to official functions

Black flags were being shown to the ministers and senior BJP leaders wherever they have been going during the last few weeks in the state as part of protests

In Gujarat, six children and a woman constable riding a stunt motorcycle were injured when the two-wheeler slipped at a state-level Republic Day parade organised in Palanpur

A Madhya Pradesh minister was unable to read out the chief minister's message during a Republic Day function in Gwalior and had to ask the district collector to read it

A video of the incident was widely circulated on social media showing MP Women and Child Development Minister Imarti Devi (43) reading Nath's message in broken Hindi before she asked the collector to read it

Tripura Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki stressed on the need for cordial relations with the neighbouring Bangladesh for development of transport routes that would benefit the state as well as the entire north eastern region

Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan hoisted the tricolour and said the state was poised to spearhead the country's efforts in leveraging technology for development and governance and in enhancing happiness levels of people despite "hostile treatment" by the Centre and a "non-conducive" atmosphere

In Odisha, colourful tableaux displaying the state's rich culture and progress made in different sectors were taken out on the stretch, enthralling the bystanders

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said development, welfare of the poor and empowerment of all sections have become the state's identity

Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh Saturday joined the nation in celebrating the 70th Republic Day, amid tight security arrangements

Police, home guards and NCC contingents were among other participants in the parades held in district headquarters in the two states and their joint capital Chandigarh

A slew of flag hoisting ceremonies were held across Uttarakhand on Saturday to mark the 70th Republic Day.?

A mini-India came alive on the streets of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on the occasion as artistes from 11 states along with marching contingents and youngsters participated in the colourful festivities despite the cold weather.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 8:36 [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

Goa minister hits out at MGP for demanding his ouster

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

Panaji, Jan 27: Goa minister Govind Gawade hit out at ruling coalition partner MGP for demanding his sacking from the cabinet.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a constituent in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Goa government, had on Friday alleged that Gawade, an Independent MLA, had verbally abused its leader and minister Sudin Dhavalikar and demanded his sacking from the cabinet.

MGP executive president Narayan Sawant had claimed that Gawade had verbally abused Dhavalikar over a disagreement on some issue during a state cabinet meeting held on Thursday.

Gawade is Goa's art and culture minister, while Dhavalikar holds the transport portfolio.

Vypam like scam in Goa alleges Congress

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Gawade said Sawant was like a "dog who only knows how to bark".

The Independent MLA also said he was ready to face the MGP.

"I am ready to face them anywhere. Let them accept the challenge," Gawade said, reacting to the MGP's demand to sack him from the cabinet.

He then targeted Sawant, who had said Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar should drop Gawade from his cabinet for his "unruly behaviour".

"This dog, who only knows how to bark, should not teach me. I challenge them to come and argue with me. They are jealous because I have brought development in my constituency which is unprecedented," he said.

When contacted, MGP president Dipak Dhavalikar refused to comment on Gawade's outburst.

"I will offer no comments on such a person," he said.

Besides the MGP, the state's oldest regional outfit, and the Goa Forward Party, the Parrikar government also has the support of all the three Independent MLAs in the state, including Gawade.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 10:19 [IST]IN series will simplify re-registration of vehicles while relocating from one state to another

CMAT 2019 for Srinagar candidates: Check new schedule

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Anuj Cariappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: The CMAT 2019 for Srinagar candidates has been rescheduled. More details are available on the official website.

The exam will now be conducted on January 29. Earlier the exams were scheduled to be conducted on January 27. Details regarding the centres will be informed to the candidates through email and SMS.

The agency is bound to reschedule the exam date due to the closing of Srinagar-Jammu Highway on account of snowfall. "Due to the closing of the Srinagar-Jammu Highway on account of snowfall and landslides, the Common Management Admission Test, 2019 (CMAT-2019) is rescheduled to 29.01.2019 (09:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.) only for affected candidates belonging to Srinagar (187 candidates of Srinagar region who were allotted Examination Centre in Jammu), on the request of the local Administration of Srinagar," the official release said.

"These Candidates will now have their Examination Centres in Srinagar on 29.01.2019 (09:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.). The Centre details in Srinagar will be informed by 27.01.2019 through Email/SMS," the release also said.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 9:13 [IST]Policy paralysis in CBI: No move to appoint OSD of DG rank says govt

High powered panel takes into account observations made by CVC against Verma for his removal

Substantiated to not substantiated: The CVC report that cost Alok Verma his job

Cant act as there is no guideline to handle corruption complaints against CVC: Govt

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jan 27: The government cannot act on two complaints, received by it over a year ago, against Chief Vigilance Commissioner K V Chowdary as there is no guideline to handle such grievances, according to the Personnel Ministry. It said a process to frame such guidelines has been initiated by the government.

The assertion assumes significance as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led panel had on January 10 removed CBI Director Alok Verma from the post considering a probe report by the Central Vigilance Commission among other facts.

"It is informed that presently no guidelines to handle complaints of corruption and other misconduct against Chief Vigilance Commissioner/Vigilance Commissioners are in place," the Personnel Ministry said in response to an RTI query filed by whistle-blower Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi.

A process for framing guidelines to handle grievances/complaints against Chief Vigilance Commissioner/Vigilance Commissioners has been initiated by the Department of Personnel and Training, it said.

Chaturvedi had in 2017 written to the President asking him to take action against Chowdary for recommending closure of probe in alleged corruption cases at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

"It is informed that this department (Personnel Ministry) has two grievances dated July 15, 2017 and August 18, 2017 received by you (Chaturvedi)," the reply said, adding "suitable action can be taken on the grievances" against Chief Vigilance Commissioner once such guidelines are in existence.

Chaturvedi had sought copies of correspondences from the Personnel Ministry related to a plea filed by him in 2017 with the president's secretariat.

The plea was forwarded by the president's office to the Personnel Ministry.Chaturvedi had invoked Section 6 of the CVC Act that empowers the president to refer cases of allegation of misconduct against the Chief Vigilance Commissioner for enquiry by the Supreme Court.

The CVC Act came into force in 2003. The secretariat had forwarded the application to the Personnel Ministry for necessary action.

Chaturvedi had alleged that the CVC closed cases of corruption involving senior functionaries in Delhi's AIIMS.

Chaturvedi, who has sought probe against Chowdary, had sent documents, running into almost 1,000 pages, in support of his claim to the office of the president.

He shared the details of seven cases with the president's secretariat. These include one on his alleged victimisation while he was chief vigilance officer (CVO) at AIIMS.

Chaturvedi served as the CVO, that acts as the distant arm of the CVC to check corruption, at AIIMS from July 2012 to August 2014.He has brought various corruption cases to the notice of the CBI during his tenure. The CBI, after a detailed probe, recommended departmental action in four cases, naming officers and senior faculty members, which were closed by the CVC, reveal documents accessed by Chaturvedi through an RTI plea.

PTI

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 17:24 [IST]Bulandshahr violence: Murdered cop Subodh Singh's mobile recovered from house of accused

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Lucknow, Jan 27: The Uttar Pradesh Police has reportedly recovered the mobile phone of slain police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh from the house of the accused Prashant Nutt who allegedly shot the cop dead on December 3.

Singh, who was the incharge of the Shyana police station, had gone there to calm down the protesters who resorted to stone pelting stones and damaged the public property. However, someone from the crowd hit Singh on the head and he fell down on the ground. While the constables accompanying Singh were taking him to the hospital, the mob again attacked their vehicle. While the policemen with him fled the scene, Singh was shot dead at a point-blank range above his eye.

Hoardings with pics of Bulandshahr violence accused come up in district

Subodh Kumar was killed during mob violence that broke out in Bulandshahr's Siyana area after cattle carcasses were found strewn outside a village. The postmortem report had found a bullet stuck inside Singh's skull and also six marks of injuries inflicted by stones.

On December 3, a mob of some 400 people, including right-wing activists, rampaged through the Chingrawathi village, apparently after cow carcasses were found strewn in a jungle nearby. The incident led to the deaths of the inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and 22-year-old undergraduate student Sumit Kumar.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 12:10 [IST]'Gone too early': Sorrowful condolences pour in for Kannada actor Sanchari Vijay

KCET 2021 registration open from today: How to apply for KCET Exam 2021, fees, other key details

CET 2021 performance not to be criterion for B.SC admissions: Ashwathnarayan

Bengaluru: Nirmala Sitharaman watches film 'Uri: The Surgical Strike', with ex-servicemen

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Bengaluru, Jan 27: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday arrived at Central Spirit Mall in Bellandur, Bengaluru to watch the film 'Uri: The Surgical Strike', with ex-servicemen.

The film is based on the 2016 Indian Army's surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan as a retaliation for the Uri attack that claimed the lives of 17 army personnel.

The movie, based on the events following the 2016 Uri attack in Jammu and Kashmir, has received positive reviews from critics since its release on January 11.

The Kaushal-Gautam starrer is based on the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control in September 2016. The operation was conducted in retaliation to the terrorist attacks on an army camp in Uri earlier in the same month.

Also featuring Paresh Rawal and Mohit Raina, Uri: the Surgical Strike released on January 11.It is matter of faith for everyone: Sanjay Raut demands clarification on alleged Ram temple land scam

Ayodhya land deal: Rahul Gandhi slams BJP, says betrayal in name of Lord Ram is unrighteous

Ayodhya dispute: No show on Tuesday, SC judge unavailable

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Jan 27: Hearing on the Ayodhya dispute is unlikely to take place on Tuesday in the Supreme Court. A newly constituted Bench was scheduled to take place on January 29. Since one of the judges is not available, the hearing will not take place on Tuesday.

The additional regsistrar of the Supreme Court said in a circular that the matter won't be taken up for hearing on Tuesday. Justice S A Bobde who is part of the Bench will not be available on Tuesday.

A new five-judge Constitution Bench was constituted Friday in the Supreme Court to hear on January 29 the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute in Ayodhya.

Judges who will hear the Ayodhya dispute in Supreme Court

The bench was re-constituted as Justice U U Lalit, who was a member of the original bench had recused himself on January 10 after expressing his disinclination to participate in the hearing any further as he had appeared as a lawyer for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh in a connected matter "sometime in the year 1997".The new bench comprises of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer

Justice N V Ramana, who was in the bench which last heard the matter on January 10, is not a member in the new bench

The new bench comprises of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer

Not 25, but will resolve Ayodhya dispute in 24 hours

Justice N V Ramana, who was in the bench which last heard the matter on January 10, is not a member in the new bench

Justices Bhushan and Nazeer are the new members in the bench

A notice sent by the Supreme Court registry to various parties said that the Ayodhya dispute matter will be listed on Thursday, January 29, 2019, in "Chief Justice's court before the constitution bench comprising the CJI, and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer."

Justice Bhushan and Nazeer were part of the three-judge bench, then headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra (since retired), which on September 27, 2018, by a 2:1 majority verdict refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution Bench reconsideration of the observations in its 1994 judgement that a mosque was not integral to Islam. The matter arose during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute.

Justice Nazeer had delivered minority judgement

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the SC against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgement, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.As Modi arrives in Madurai, twitter war over #GoBackModi vs #TNWelcomesModi breaks out

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Jan 27: As Prime Minister arrives in Madurai to lay the foundation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and launch a slew of government projects, hashtag GoBackModi was trending on Twitter.

PM Modi's visit to Tamil Nadu has been marred by a war of 'hashtags' on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Thousands of other tweets, meanwhile, welcomed PM Modi to Madurai and thanked him for setting up AIIMS in the city. Hashtags like #MaduraiThanksModi and #TNWelcomesModi too are among the top trends on Twitter.

Narendra Modi to visit Tamil Nadu and Kerala today

Modi will also be addressing a rally in Madurai to kick off the BJP's election campaign in a state where it won only one Lok Sabha seat out of 39 in 2014. His detractors have dismissed his visit as a gimmick

However, it is not only #GoBackModi that could mar Modi's visit. Dravidian and Tamil nationalist parties have launched black flag protests in several parts of Madurai against the PM's visit. Many are angry that Modi did not visit the state after cyclone Gaja ravaged 12 districts in November.

In April last year, the DMK and other Dravidian parties raised black flags against the PM for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board, while he was visiting IIT Madras.

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Story first published: Sunday, January 27, 2019, 12:28 [IST]Seniors pay too much in taxes

Matthew Hansen did a great job of letting all of us know that Nebraskans who earn over $30,000 get taxed in the same state tax bracket as Warren Buffett, Walter Scott and Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The wealthy do not get taxed more percentage-wise, and thats a shame. I like State Sen. Tony Vargas idea of adding more tax brackets and taxing the rich more and giving tax relief to lower-income citizens, which would include a lot of seniors.

Only 13 states are tax-unfriendly to senior citizens, and our state is one of them. Nebraska taxes Social Security and pensions of seniors. Its no wonder many seniors want to live in tax-friendlier states and often move to them. A favorite couple of friends of mine went to Texas, and it is indeed a tax-friendly state, as is Florida and 35 others.

At one time, Warren Buffett promoted more tax brackets for the wealthy, but I have never heard the other two listed above do that. If senators read Hansens article and the AARP online articles about seniors losing quite a lot of their small Social Security and pension checks to state taxes, maybe someone would do something to help all of them.

Robert Christensen, Ralston

Keeping government in balanceA promising step forward is Nebraskas creation of two problem-solving courts, including one in Douglas County, focusing on veterans convicted of committing a nonviolent felony. Twenty-eight individuals currently are in the court program.

Completing the 18- to 24-month veterans court regimen requires dedication and self-discipline. Participants must keep a job and stay clean of drug or alcohol abuse. They need to pass rehabilitation classes, pay restitution if there were financial damages from their crimes and meet regularly with a judge.

Trained veteran mentors help veterans deal with substance abuse, mental health and other challenges. Veterans participating in the program praise the mentors dedication.

Four veterans graduated from the Douglas County program last June, one in December and seven more in a ceremony Thursday. At graduation, each individual wears a gold-colored dog tag with a message of redemption: Honor Restored.

Funding for Nebraskas prison-alternative courts has been under strain, Heavican told lawmakers: During this past budget year, we completely exhausted our allocated resources for problem-solving courts and had to move some probation dollars to fund those initiatives.In a recent interview with The World-Herald, Hike said city officials have continued to receive complaints about Elberts actions and the length of the previous investigation. As such, he said, Bellevue officials are trying to either put an end to the allegations of misinformation or find out if there is merit to some of the complaints.

The question is: Can Chief Elbert make inroads to get back in the good graces of the police union? I guess I cant answer that ... at the moment, Hike said. I know hes got a tough road ahead of him to do that, and if it cant be done then we have to figure out a way to do it. So I think everythings pretty much on the table.

Elbert and his attorney have consistently denied the accusations, saying the union cherry-picked the information it released in an attempt to orchestrate a narrative. The Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice eventually determined that there was no merit to the complaints.

Previous city officials also said that an external investigation into Elbert, conducted by the Sarpy County Sheriffs Office, was thorough and that when it was presented to the city, Bellevue officials found no reason not to reinstate the chief.He needs to decide if he wants to serve the people and the values of his district or if he wants to do something else, she said. I think this last election was a clear indication that theyre not happy with what theyve had, and so he needs to decide.

Reynolds, the states first female governor, took a nontraditional path to the top office.

That path took her through a stint at college where she says she spent more time partying than studying; a battle with alcoholism that led to a DUI; then time as a county official, an effort to turn her life around and her ascension to the State Senate, the lieutenant governors office and now the governors mansion.

Shes tapping into her background to propose support for others who, like her, didnt follow the high school-college-job path.

What a country and state we live in, she said in her speech Tuesday, where a small-town girl from rural Iowa can become governor and have the opportunity to serve Iowans at the highest level.Omaha police say they think two men were involved in the Saturday night shooting in the Dundee area that left a third man wounded.

Police say the men confronted John E. Mass, 40, and then shot him in the leg as he was entering a parking lot.

The shooting, at 50th Street and Underwood Avenue, was reported at 11:10 p.m. When police arrived, they found indications of a shooting, but no victim  Mass had already driven himself to the Nebraska Medical Center. He was listed in good condition Monday afternoon.

Mass initially went to a nearby business for help before driving himself to the hospital, a police spokesman said. A woman who lives near 50th and Webster Streets said she heard just one gunshot followed a few minutes later by sirens as she was preparing for bed.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing, police said.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 444-STOP, at www.omahacrimestoppers.org or on the P3 Tips mobile app. Tipsters remain anonymous and may be eligible for a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in a shooting.

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 ACLU of Nebraska challenged the validity of the death sentences. The group argued that when the Nebraska Legislature repealed capital punishment in 2015, the law was in effect long enough to convert the death sentences of the 11 men then on death row to life in prison.With two preschoolers at home, I know quite well how this story starts. Life right now is a constant calibration of my children's moods and their energy and their belongings, and the answers usually involve me. Do they need a snack or a nap or a snuggle right now? (Answer: usually snuggle.) Where are their coats and mittens and hats? (Answer: One out of every pair of mittens is gone for good. We will never have a matched set again.) Can we squeeze in a trip to the grocery store before nap time? (Answer: Ha! Only if you're ready for your daughter to climb the bottled water display for the third time.)

It's easy to see how moms often begin taking on this all-encompassing responsibility for multiple lives, and also easy to understand how hard it can be to stop once you're accustomed to making all the decisions and doing all the things. That's not to say dads don't often fill that role, as well, or that every mother does. In a later episode, it's the mom who has the most difficulty adapting to Kondo's method. But research suggests there's still a persistent gender gap when it comes to who does the majority of the housework, one that even trickles down to children, and that doesn't even include the onerous emotional load women sometimes carry for their families.Q: My 9-year-old is the youngest in his fourth-grade class and has always been a very emotional guy. He has trouble bouncing back when things go awry in school (arguments, other kids being unkind, etc.), and tends to break down crying  sometimes derailing his day. I have been trying to encourage him to let things roll off his back a bit more, and to learn to tune out kids who are annoying him. Any advice on how to help him be more resilient?

A: Watching a child suffer because of sensitivity can feel truly hopeless, so let's try to understand his sensitiveness a little more and from there, how we can help him.

You mention that he "has always been a very emotional guy," but I am not sure what that means. A very emotional guy could be anxiety, sensory processing disorder (SPD), or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), or any other kind of emotional-regulation issue. It can also be as simple (and as tough as) he is a good bit more immature than his peers because of his young age, and that being 9 can be intense.

What can you do?The $3.7 million grant also is intended to help Nebraska expand its programs. Nebraska has 439 primary care practices, Evans said, 260 in Omaha and Lincoln and 179 in rural areas. The center has placed behavioral health professionals in 24 of the 179 rural clinics.

Obviously, theres a lot of need out there that still needs to be addressed, Evans said. The centers goal is to place one such provider in every town with at least 2,500 people. Forty-nine towns stand at that number, and behavioral health providers have been placed in about half.

Frankly, in Nebraska, we are ahead of the curve compared to some of our surrounding states, he said. Our training program is designed to help them.

A second area of focus is school mental health. While thats covered by a one-year grant, Evans said, that focus is something officials hope to continue. Schools, he said, are crying out for such services for students. Theyre requesting more staff for their buildings and additional training for school counselors and others already in the schools. Additional training also is needed for professionals with the community agencies who work in schools.

The goal, he said, is to help schools make such programs sustainable.At the beginning of the Omaha Symphonys South Pacific on Saturday, Principal Pops Conductor Ernest Richardson explained that we were about to hear a hybrid combining elements of a full-scale musical and a concert.

The symphony should cultivate this hybrid with different musical crops each year because this experiment yielded a bounty.

It had a few costumes, even fewer props and no sets, but it was expansive, expressive and just plain wonderful.

When you devote much of the stage to a full orchestra, it allows musical theater fans to experience the score as it is rarely heard. Orchestra pits or backstage areas dont have a lot of room, so community theater productions often dont have a lot of musicians. Ideally, music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein deserves so much more, and the Omaha Symphonys players delivered it with fervor and feeling.

The concert was a collaboration between the symphony and Musical Theatre Wichita, which trains artists for professional careers. Many MTW alumni go on to Broadway shows. The theater provided the lead actors in the musical, but a number of Omahans were also onstage.An Offaly restaurant is showing its support for the upcoming INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Association) strike on Wednesday by offering discounted meals for all those taking part on the day.

Shishir, located on High Street in Tullamore, posted details of what it is offering on Facebook.

Any nurse or midwife taking part in the strike will be able to avail of 50% off sit in and take away meals on the day simply by showing their badge.

The offer is from 5pm to 10.30pm on the day.

The strike by members of the INMO is over pay and issues with recruitment and retention. It starts at 8am on Wednesday and runs until 8am on Thursday.The interstates are often used in trafficking or smuggling, and what often happens in human trafficking is people are coerced, forced or tricked into involving themselves in prostitution, Auburn Police Chief Paul Register said. We have to be aware of social media sites and intelligence information to make sure we dont have people that are being brought here by prostitution.

'In our back yard'

Chip Scivicque, a friend of Anders and adviser of the universitys International Justice Mission chapter (AUIJM), recalls viewing a Georgia Public Broadcasting special claiming more than 4,000 minors are trafficked to Atlanta for commercial sex.

That was one of the first things that alerted us to what was going on in the area because we began to find out that those girls are trafficked into Atlanta on Interstate 85 or 20, and thats very much in our back yard, Scivicque said.

As an initiative to raise awareness and serve the community locally, Scivicque elicited the aid of AUIJM president Robyn Whitaker and vice president Rachel Johnson to create and participate in a locally effective event against human trafficking.Here are the paths that the members of the House of Representatives took to Congress. Each line represents a Democratic or Republican representative, and circles are the major educational, career and political milestones on their path to the House. Items are not exhaustive nor in chronological order.

The United States does not grant titles of nobility. There are no lords, barons or dukes here. At least, not officially.

Unofficially, however, Congress is made up of people who have credentials and experiences vastly different from those of most citizens. Unofficially, considering education, career, family background and personal wealth, it seems that America has a ruling class  or at least a limited number of ways to enter the halls of power.

Here, weve traced the pre-congressional career of every House member in the 116th Congress, showing the narrow but well-trodden paths through prestigious schools, lucrative jobs and local political offices that led the latest crop of legislators to Capitol Hill.

The new House has a notable number of political novices, and more women and people of color than any Congress in history. But a majority of members, even the new ones, still made it to Washington by way of institutions and professions that are out of reach for most Americans.

More than 70 percent of House members were lawyers in private practice, businesspeople (including employees in insurance, banking, finance and real estate) or medical professionals. That work can inform the types of bills they introduce, according to research by Katie Francis, a faculty member at Western Governors University. Doctors sponsor more health care legislation, for example.

In part because Congress is filled with successful white-collar professionals, the House is much, much richer than the people it represents, and affluent politicians support legislation that benefits their own class at the expense of others. Wealthier legislators are, for instance, more likely to vote to repeal the estate tax.

The rosy notion that lawmakers from business and professional backgrounds want what is best for everyone is seriously out of line with the realities of legislative decision-making in the United States, wrote Nicholas Carnes, a Duke professor of public policy, in his book White-Collar Government.

About 5 percent of representatives dont have a bachelors degree, compared with about two-thirds of Americans 25 and older. Hover to see members with no bachelors degree

The path to the House starts with higher education. About half of members graduated from public universities, often in their home states, but more than 10 percent of representatives have bachelors degrees from elite, private colleges.

It makes sense to elect educated leaders, and voters seem to think a college education is a necessary qualification for office. But the link between having a degree and being a more effective politician is tenuous. Research on legislators in the United States and in Brazil shows that lawmakers with more formal education are not more productive, more popular or less likely to be corrupt.

The gap between legislators and their constituents is stark in graduate education, too. Almost 70 percent of representatives attended graduate school, but only around 10 percent of Americans 25 and older can say the same.

More than one in three members have law degrees, compared with around 13 percent in the United Kingdom's Parliament. Law school

Among both Democrats and Republicans, lawyers are staggeringly overrepresented: They constitute less than 1 percent of the voting-age population but more than one-third of the House. Perhaps it is natural for the people writing laws to study them first. But the United States is an exception internationally. Research by Adam Bonica of Stanford and Maya Sen of Harvard found that in Sweden, France and Denmark, lawyers make up less than 10 percent of the legislature.

Not only are lawyers more likely to run for office, they are also more likely to win. This success is largely because of the advantage they have in early fund-raising, drawing from professional networks of other lawyers and affluent professionals.

Once in office, lawyers tend to vote in a way that benefits their profession. They are less likely to support laws that would cap awards for damages or regulate legal fees, according to Mr. Bonica and Ms. Sens research.

Almost 40 percent of House members, more than half Republicans, cite business experience. Business owners, executives or professionals

In addition to small business owners and corporate executives, the House is filled with people who worked in finance, insurance and banking.

Members with business backgrounds sometimes argue that their outside the Beltway experience will enable them to run government more like a business  to reduce grift and waste and to pass laws more efficiently. Indeed, a majority of Americans think the country would be better governed with more people from business and management, according to a 2014 Gallup poll.

House members with business backgrounds get more contributions from corporations and vote for pro-business legislation more often. Other research has shown that states with more legislators who worked in the insurance industry are likely to pass bills more favorable to it.

Fewer than 5 percent of representatives cite blue-collar or service jobs in their biographies. Blue-collar or service job

They include Tom Marino, Republican of Pennsylvania, who worked in factories before law school and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, who often refers to her working-class experience as a bartender when explaining her left-leaning economic policy positions.

Mr. Carnes notes that there is no dearth of politically ambitious, qualified working-class candidates. And when working-class candidates run, they do just as well as candidates from other backgrounds. But blue-collar workers are less able to shoulder the practical burdens associated with running a campaign  like taking time off from paid employment  and less likely to be asked to run by local party leaders and officials.

To get people with a more diverse set of experiences into Congress, he argues, we need to focus on recruiting working-class candidates at the local level  often years before a potential congressional run.

Nearly one in five members served or currently serve in the armed forces, including the National Guard. Military experience

This is a substantial decline from the early 1970s, when more than 70 percent of Congress had military experience.

Seventy percent of veterans in the House are Republicans  but several Democratic women elected in 2018 made their military experience a focus of their campaigns, including Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who served in the Air Force.

Common fields for Republicans include medicine, real estate and farming. For Democrats, they include teaching, nonprofits and unions. Experience in one of the above fields

There are rarer occupations, too. Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, played for the Tennessee Titans in the N.F.L. before becoming a lawyer. Jody B. Hice, Republican of Georgia, served as a pastor before stepping down to run for office. He also started a conservative talk radio show.

Other professions are underrepresented, with material consequences for lawmaking. Only about 15 United States representatives are scientists or engineers, which could partly explain lackluster action on climate change and ineffectual regulation of technology companies.

Women tend to have followed more varied paths to Capitol Hill: A smaller proportion are lawyers and businesspeople. Female representatives

While men might run for office because of a longstanding desire to be an elected official, women are more likely to run because they encounter something in their engagement with the political system that angers them enough or frustrates them enough, said Kelly Dittmar, a political scientist at Rutgers Universitys Center for American Women and Politics.

When they run, men and women have roughly the same chance of winning. But research by Sarah A. Fulton, a political scientist at Texas A&M University, shows that female candidates tend to be more qualified.

Many female representatives campaigned on their experience in business and the working world. Some, like Ann Wagner, Republican of Missouri, also highlighted more traditional domestic roles. Her website says her most important jobs, despite her previous role as ambassador to Luxembourg, have always been as a wife, mother and now grandmother.

Only 20 percent of House members did not hold previous political office before entering Congress. No previous political office

Historically, it is somewhat rare for representatives to reach the House without holding previous political office. Nearly 200 representatives have experience in a state legislature; others were mayors, local district attorneys or state agency heads. These experiences arent just symbolic. New legislators with political experience introduce and pass more bills, according to Ms. Francis research.

But drawing politicians from local governments and state legislatures also gives an edge to people who can afford to take those jobs. In some states, those positions dont pay enough to live on. New Hampshires legislature, for example, pays just $200 per two-year term. As a result, state politicians are often local economic elites and corporate titans, said Jake Grumbach, a researcher at Princeton.

The new representatives in the 116th Congress, however, do represent a significant break from the past. More than 40 percent of those elected in November are political novices who have never worked in government. Many were inspired to run in order to stand up to President Trumps agenda  two-thirds of new members are Democrats  but they may also have been emboldened by Mr. Trumps lack of political experience.

That hasnt translated into lots of working-class candidates in this cycle, Mr. Carnes said, but the larger narrative I see on both sides is, You dont have to be an establishment type to be a good politician.LONDON  Prince Philip, the 97-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, has apologized to a woman who was injured in a car crash he was involved in this month, British news outlets reported on Sunday.

The Duke of Edinburgh sent an apology letter to Emma Fairweather, who sustained a broken wrist when his Land Rover hit the Kia minivan in which she was traveling near the royal estate of Sandringham on Jan. 17.

In the note, written on Sandringham stationery and dated Jan. 21, the duke said he was deeply sorry and wished Ms. Fairweather a speedy recovery. He also acknowledged that the accident had left him somewhat shaken, a rare admission from a member of the royal family.

I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident at the Babingley crossroads, Prince Philip said in the letter, acknowledging his share of responsibility. The note was first published online by The Sunday Mirror.MANILA  Two bombs exploded at a cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing 20 people and wounding scores of others, officials said.

The attack on the island of Jolo came less than a week after voters rejected its inclusion in a Muslim autonomous area; the referendum was overwhelmingly approved in other parts of the Mindanao island group, which includes Jolo. The government of the mainly Catholic country has for decades been fighting Islamist separatist groups like Abu Sayyaf and the Islamic State.

The blasts occurred in the morning as people were gathered for Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, the capital of Sulu Province, said Col. Gerry Besana, a spokesman for the military. The bombs were believed to be homemade.

He said one of the bombs exploded inside the church, while the other exploded in a nearby parking lot as congregants panicked and rushed outside.The filmmakers provided the materials to The New York Times, and offered a reporting collaboration. The Times investigated the claims but did not enter into such a partnership. When asked about the discrepancies in Mr. Joness story, the filmmakers acknowledged that they could not corroborate the account and that the plan Mr. Jones had described might not have been medically possible. They encouraged journalists to investigate further.

Journalists reporting on it should take care to contextualize the allegations, said one of the filmmakers, the Danish producer Peter Engel, and to remind readers that, even if proven true, there is no reason to turn away from modern medical clinics, which are regulated in ways which did not exist in the 1980s at the end of the apartheid era.

Such a cautionary note was not included in the version of the film seen by The Times.

The documentary adds new details and raises fresh questions about the death of Mr. Hammarskjold, a Swedish diplomat whose plane crash has never been fully explained. A United Nations panel concluded that there was persuasive evidence that the aircraft was subjected to some form of attack or threat.

But the AIDS accusations are likely to generate the most attention. And though Mr. Joness account cannot be corroborated, there is support for the notion that the militia was at least interested in AIDS research. One young woman, Dagmar Feil, was killed in front of her home in 1990. Her mother told the South African authorities that she had been conducting AIDS research for the militia at the time, according to contemporaneous documents.

Much is unknown about the militia, and it is difficult to sort fact from fiction. Its leader, Keith Maxwell, had claimed that it was rooted in British admiralty traditions and traced its lineage to the early 1800s. When the Hammarskjold documents surfaced in the late 1990s, government officials and experts puzzled over what to make of them. Many dismissed them as forgeries or the product of a Soviet disinformation campaign.

Whatever the group was in that era, by the 1980s and early 1990s it appeared to be a mercenary organization. Paramilitary groups and private military organizations were common during the apartheid era, and the group known as Saimar (pronounced Sy-marr) advertised for military-trained men to serve in unspecified foreign operations.

Mr. Maxwell, who reportedly died in 2006, also ran medical clinics of some kind in South Africa, though he was not a doctor. And he claimed publicly that AIDS would ultimately be good for humanity and would decimate the black population in South Africa.Millions of Americans have come to count on tax refunds to fuel their spending in the waning days of winter. But as income tax filing season opens on Monday, a sweeping tax code overhaul and the lingering effects of a government shutdown could squeeze taxpayers refund checks and delay them, too.

The monthlong government shutdown coincided with one of the Internal Revenue Services busiest times, and while 46,000 employees were called back to work without pay, many did not show up. Many taxpayers calling with questions faced delays of over an hour. While furloughed federal workers will return to their jobs on Monday, it will take time to get parts of the I.R.S. running smoothly again. And the workers time on the job could be brief, with a temporary measure funding the government expiring in three weeks.

Even before the shutdown, big questions loomed about this years tax season. The $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that took effect at the beginning of 2018 lowered individual income tax rates, doubled the standard deduction and eliminated or capped many personal exemptions and tax breaks, such as the state and local tax deduction. All told, the overhaul threw a cloud of confusion over the correct amount to withhold in advance from workers paychecks.

The Treasury Department was given discretion to set new withholding levels, which I.R.S. officials finished early last year to help taxpayers ensure they would not have too much  or too little  held back from their paychecks.Border security and immigration issues are important, and we should deal with them, but we can deal with several important issues at the same time, said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. We cant put the rest of the business of government on hold while these issues, important though they are, are resolved.

For House Democrats, the return to normal governance provides a window to reclaim some of the attention the shutdown drained from the initial rollout of their legislative agenda. House Democratic leaders had insisted when they took control early this month that the shutdown would not affect their carefully choreographed agenda rollout. But it did.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her allies plan to hold a ceremony on Wednesday to formally reintroduce the Paycheck Fairness Act, a measure intended to equalize pay between men and women that Democrats have tried to enact for 20 years. Like other bills under consideration in the House, it is unlikely to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate, but it is a key piece of Democrats messaging to voters ahead of the 2020 elections.

Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Trump also are likely to renew discussion in the coming days about a date to reschedule the presidents State of the Union address, which was previously scheduled for Tuesday and became a casualty of the shutdown. Last week, Ms. Pelosi rescinded her invitation for the president to address Congress while the government was still shuttered, and has said subsequently that the two sides will work to find an agreeable date in the future to allow time to prepare.

On the House floor, Democrats will bring up a vote on legislation that would give nonmilitary federal workers a pay raise in line with the pay increase members of the military have received. The legislation, if it became law, would override an executive order issued by Mr. Trump a week into the shutdown that froze civilian federal pay.

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday about the cost and rationale behind the deployment by Mr. Trump of thousands of active duty troops to the southern border. Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the committees chairman, said in a statement that there has not been adequate justification for the use of our military personnel in this way.Im launching an exploratory committee for president. Senator Elizabeth Warren could be fighting President Trump for the keys to the White House in 2020. But the two already have a long history of trading barbs. She is a goofus. Wannabe tyrant. Heres how Elizabeth Warren has faced off against Donald Trump. In the 2016 election, Warren gleefully played the role of attack dog for the Democrats, taunting Trump on Twitter and in speeches. A small, insecure money-grubber who doesnt care who gets hurt, so long as he makes a profit off it. Donald Trump is worried about helping poor little Wall Street. Let me find the worlds smallest violin to play a sad, sad song. After Trump went after a federal judge because of his Hispanic heritage  Hes a Mexican. Were building a wall between here and Mexico  it was Warren who went on the attack. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself. Exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned racist bully. And at the Democratic National Convention, Warren told liberals that Trump had ripped off ordinary Americans. But he filed business bankruptcy six times, always to protect his own money, and stick the investors and contractors with the bill. And for one low, low price, hell even throw in a goofy hat. But it was her fight with Trump over her claim of Native American heritage that got the most attention. And Massachusetts is represented by Pocahontas, right? Pocahontas. They call her Pocahontas. Ive got more Indian blood in me than Pocahontas, and I have none. I mean  sadly, I have none. But I have more than she does. Hi. This is Elizabeth Warren. Trumps unrelenting mockery prompted Warren to release the results of a DNA test that she says is proof of her ancestry. The announcement largely backfired. She apologized to the Cherokee Nation for taking the DNA test. My mother was born in eastern Oklahoma. But the feud between Warren and Trump continues. President Trumps actions and instincts align with those of authoritarian regimes around the globe. He embraces dictators of all stripes. He cozies up to white nationalists. He undermines the free press and incites violence against journalists. As the 2020 presidential race heats up, one thing is clear  the skirmishes could get nastier.Three main themes emerge in the book in relation to Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump is less of a cartoon figure than he is in most accounts contained in new books about the White House. But Mr. Christie describes him as averse to interpersonal conflict with people he likes, needlessly nasty to some subordinates and prone to trusting people he should not.

Mr. Kushner, whose power has grown recently, appears as a shadow campaign manager and chief of staff in the White House, often giving his father-in-law questionable and problematic advice, according to the book, on topics including Mr. Flynn; how Democrats would perceive the firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director; his initial support for the campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; and how West Wing and key cabinet jobs were filled.

And a number of unqualified figures attached themselves to Mr. Trump and pandered to Mr. Kushner, Mr. Christie said, particularly after he was dismissed from the transition team. One was Mr. Manafort, who bluntly told Mr. Christie in the spring of 2016 that he was succeeding over a rival campaign aide because Im smart enough to agree with Jared, and he is not.

On Feb. 14, 2017, Mr. Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, had lunch scheduled with the president. It happened to be the day after Mr. Flynn  whom Mr. Christie did not back for the national security adviser role  was dismissed for lying to the vice president about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the transition. Mr. Kushner decided to attend.

As Mr. Kushner tucked into his typical salad, Mr. Christie wrote, the president said to him, This Russia thing is all over now, because I fired Flynn. Mr. Christie said that he started laughing, and the president asked why.Still, Paul, Weiss is no exception to the broader pattern across big law: the share of partners who are women and people of color is much smaller than the number reflected in the ranks of associates, or those starting law school, not to mention the general population.

I fear that African-American partners in big law are becoming an endangered species, said Theodore V. Wells Jr., a black partner at Paul, Weiss and one of the countrys most prominent litigators.

The LinkedIn image was a stark illustration of what can happen when promotion decisions are relationship-driven and concentrated in the hands of white-male rainmakers, even in workplaces with a commitment to diversity.

If youre arguing that youre better than most firms, its not a good argument, said Tsedale Melaku, a sociologist at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York who studies law firms. Because most firms have a very difficult time actually bringing real diversity and inclusion into those spaces.

Diversity remains an unfulfilled promised in a variety of elite industries, including tech and finance as well as at big media companies like The New York Times.

More than 20 women and people of color interviewed for this article described obstacles to achieving diversity at Paul, Weiss. Many said that opportunities to be groomed for partner are harder to come by for women and minorities. Even as their work shined, some said, they failed to break into the good graces and social circles of the firms top lawyers, who must champion those hoping to earn a lucrative spot as a partner.

There are white males at the firm that are visibly being given more time in business development opportunities and client contact, said a female minority lawyer at Paul, Weiss who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Theyre clearly being cultivated.After school and on weekends, he knocked on hundreds of doors in an attempt to reach every registered Republican in his district, which covers one full county and parts of three others. He won his partys primary by 45 percentage points in May.

In the beginning, I knew the odds were against him, said Andrew Gilson, who taught Mr. Hanna in Advanced Placement government class. Mr. Gilson assumed that his student was running mainly to gain experience for later in his career.

But Mr. Gilsons opinion changed after Mr. Hannas landslide victory in the primary. Well, maybe hes got a shot here, he recalled thinking. Things were so fickle and fluid at the moment in politics, and even nationally.

Mr. Hanna then toppled Mr. Lynch in the general election in November, winning by 25 percentage points. It was kind of a surprise, Mr. Gilson said, pointing out that the rural district is predominantly older, white and conservative. Voters are mostly focused on the economy, he said, while age and race are marginal issues.There were 60,000 Jews living in Krakow before the war, a quarter of the population; today, there are about 200. The Jewish district now feels at once like a tribute to and a caricature of what it used to be: Outside the Old Synagogue (Polands oldest), bright green trolleys advertising tours of Schindlers factory bounce along the cobblestone. Near Remuh Synagogue and the Old Cemetery are kitschy, Jewish-looking restaurants with Hebrew signs and waiters offering picture menus to passers-by.

Whatever the sentiment, seeing Heil Hitler signs in the neighborhood was jarring. But the legality of it, I soon learned, is an ongoing debate.

Article 256 of the Polish criminal code states:

Whoever publicly promotes a fascist or other totalitarian system of state or incites hatred based on national, ethnic, race or religious differences or for reason of lack of any religious denomination shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to two years.

It continues:

Whoever, in order to distribute, produces, records or brings, buys, stores, possesses, presents, transports or sends the aforementioned items, or those with fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbolism, can be subject to that punishment.

But theres a caveat: Violators are exempt if the act was committed as part of artistic, educational, collecting or scientific activity. Sales of antiques or collectibles with some historic, academic or artistic value are permitted; sales of recent reproductions are not.

Its one of many ambiguities that makes the provision ineffective, according to Katarzyna du Vall, a lawyer in Krakow. You dont know who is an artist, educator, collector or researcher, she said.

Another is the vocabulary. The biggest problem from a legal perspective is what, exactly, totalitarian state means, Ms. du Vall said, explaining how contemporary scholars  political scientists, sociologists, lawyers and other experts  cannot agree on one binding definition.

We talk about Article 256 a lot in Poland, and people dont understand why those proceedings end up with nothing, she said. Its really hard to enforce a law that is not clear for anybody  for judges, for those who punish, for those who commit those crimes.

Rober Opas, a deputy chief of police in Warsaw, acknowledged the law and said violators would be punished. But from our point of view, he said in an email, the problem is sporadic, and we do not receive many reports of this kind. He also noted that it is the Polish court that determines the punishment for each perpetrator.Mr. Green and Mr. Zimmer, who remained in New York, embarked on what Mr. Zimmer called a long-distance relationship, working together over Skype. In 2008, they moved to a two-bedroom apartment in Palo Alto, Calif. Neither drew a salary in the first three years of building Zimride, and each contract they sold to a college was celebrated with a trip to Ikea for Swedish meatballs, Mr. Zimmer said.

In 2011, Zimride raised $6 million. But as a web service, it was caught flat-footed by the rise of smartphones and mobile apps. In 2012, Mr. Green decided to spin out of Zimride a mobile, peer-to-peer ride-hailing service, calling it Lyft.

Instead of just pairing students for long-distance rides, Lyft would put drivers together with riders on public streets, in real time. Mr. Zimmer came up with the idea to emblazon the cars with pink mustaches; Mr. Green encouraged passengers to greet their drivers with a fist bump, to keep the community feeling of Zimride.

At the time, ride-hailing wasnt legal, and only licensed drivers could pick up passengers on public streets. Ann Miura-Ko, a partner at the venture capital firm Floodgate, who had invested in Zimride and sits on Lyfts board, recalled that some board members had been doubtful about the change  but that Mr. Green had been confident.

Someone asked, Will this really work? And he wasnt just sure, he was positive, she said.

But Mr. Green didnt reckon with one issue: Uber. At the time, Uber, run by Travis Kalanick, had positioned itself as a luxury service for the wealthy that used only licensed drivers, unlike Lyfts lower-cost service. In 2013, Uber published a white paper outlining the risks of peer-to-peer ride-hailing, a way to elbow Lyft out of the market.

They were trying to get the whole category shut down behind the scenes, Mr. Green said. They didnt want competition.

Uber officials met with California regulators about the matter. As for Mr. Green, several current and former regulators and lawmakers who oversee ride-sharing in California said they had never worked with him, because Mr. Zimmer was often the one who communicated with officials.Anyone who has seen Casablanca knows the connection between Portugal and World War II refugees. But few know the story of the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes , who in 1940 saved tens of thousands of lives only to be punished for this heroism by his own government. As we mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, we should honor this man who engaged in what one historian called perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual during the Holocaust.

An aristocratic scion, Mr. Sousa Mendes entered the foreign service after law school and spent years on a whirlwind diplomatic tour taking him from Zanzibar to San Francisco before arriving in the south of France in 1938. Mr. Sousa Mendes was a bon vivant and excelled as a diplomatic host, entertaining luminaries famous across the world like Albert Einstein and King Alfonso XIII of Spain. But with his posting as consul-general in Bordeaux, things took a more serious turn.

As the winds of war swept across Europe, Portugals autocratic prime minister, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, was determined to maintain a strict neutrality. So in late 1939, a couple of months after the German invasion of Poland, the Portuguese Foreign Ministry issued its infamous Circular 14 to all embassies and consulates, announcing new regulations concerning categories of people who would not be issued visas without direct approval from the Foreign Ministry. Those of undetermined, contested or disputed nationality were excluded, as were those unlikely to be able to freely return to their home country or support themselves . One category was stark: Jews expelled from the countries of their nationality. Circular 14 covered the very refugees for whom passage was a matter of life and death.

Mr. Sousa Mendes resisted this order from the start. Then in May 1940, the Nazi blitzkrieg swept into France. Tens of thousands of people descended on Bordeaux by train, car, bicycle and even foot. Crowds formed at the Portuguese consulate. Mr. Sousa Mendes cabled Lisbon for instructions. The response: enforce Circular 14.To the Editor:

Life After a Heart Attack at Age 38, by Trymaine Lee (Sunday Review, Jan. 20), is a powerful testament to living as a black person in the United States. All things being equal, black Americans often carry undue  and in this case, unexpected  health burdens because of sustained racial stressors.

Many will benefit from Mr. Lees powerful testimony to the emotions surrounding his heart attack and his recovery. Thankfully, he is able to share his story and bring greater awareness of medical vigilance and personal resilience.

I, for one, will share this essay with students in my global health class this semester.

Donna A. Patterson

Dover, Del.

The writer is an associate professor and chairwoman of the department of history, political science and philosophy at Delaware State University. She teaches classes on global health, African studies and African-American history.

To the Editor:

Im glad that Trymaine Lee survived his heart attack, but having gone through the same experience at the same age, I would point out two big mistakes he made that could have cost him his life .Maj. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter commander in the Vietnam War, led an extraordinary rescue operation that saved the lives of dozens of airborne troops who had been ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers in May 1967. President Barack Obama would later describe the incident as like a bad Rambo movie.

Major Kettles was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Armys highest citation for valor after the Medal of Honor, in 1968.

But the story of his heroism and those of his fellow helicopter crewmen remained largely unknown beyond military circles for nearly half a century.

That changed on July 18, 2016, when President Obama presented Mr. Kettles, a retired lieutenant colonel, with the Medal of Honor at the White House.[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

A man and woman walked out of a subway car at the 51st Street station in Manhattan and darted into the next one on the same train. A plainclothes police officer noticed.

It was rush hour on a Tuesday evening in September on the busy No. 6 line. The officer watched as the woman dipped her hand into a commuters purse while her partner stood in front of her, shielding her from view, according to the officers affidavit. The woman lifted out a wallet, and the officer and his partners closed in.

She threw the wallet to the ground, and the commuter quickly identified it as hers. The woman, Jenny Gomez Velandia, 27, and her accomplice, John Diaz-Albarracin, 31, were arrested, according to a criminal complaint. What seemed like a routine pickpocketing had been thwarted.

But the suspects were not routine. Unlike most pickpockets, they had no criminal history in New York City. They were not locals. They were from Colombia and had come to New York for the purpose of stealing wallets on subways, one of several international pickpocket rings to descend on the transit system in 2018, the police said.It is not for lack of trying.

Since the new year, Mr. de Blasio has aimed announcements on health care for undocumented New Yorkers and a new plan for paid vacation at television and news media audiences far beyond the five boroughs. His proposals are a model, he said in television interviews on The View and on MSNBC. He promised a series of trips around the country to preach the gospel of liberal governance on everything from education to police reform.

The efforts follow a fund-raising push by Mr. de Blasio last year via a national political action committee, Fairness PAC, that raised $469,000 since he started it in July. He doled out modest sums through the committee for candidates in contested races for governor and Congress, and $25,000 each to the state Democratic parties in Iowa and South Carolina  key presidential primary states.

He spent some Q.T. there, said Mr. Benjamin, referring to the quality time Mr. de Blasio spent in South Carolina in September. Mr. de Blasio dined with the chairman of the state Democratic Party, Trav Robertson, during the visit. He later contributed money to the party, as have other potential candidates, including Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Garcetti.

Mr. de Blasio continued his push on Thursday, energetically bounding onto the stage at the mayors conference for his first address outside New York since his pledge to spread the good word.

But as a player in the 2020 conversation, Mr. de Blasio does not yet register even among his fellow mayors, where he holds clout as the leader of the nations largest city, nor among many strategists.Scientists have long known what causes sickle-cell disease and its devastating effects: a single mutation in one errant gene. But for decades, there has been only modest progress against an inherited condition that mainly afflicts people of African descent.

With advances in gene therapy, that is quickly changing  so much so that scientists have begun to talk of a cure.

In a half-dozen clinical trials planned or underway, researchers are testing strategies for correcting the problem at the genetic level. Already a handful of the enrolled patients, who have endured an illness that causes excruciating bouts of pain, strokes and early death, no longer show signs of the disease.

Among them is Brandon Williams, 21, who lives with his mother in Chicago. Because of his sickle-cell disease, he had suffered four strokes by age 18. The damage makes it hard for him to speak. His older sister died of the disease.Meredith Suzanne Scott and Elliott Samuel Hyman were married Jan. 26 at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza. Rabbi Michael Danziger officiated.

The bride, 33, is a development associate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio and received a law degree from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind.

She is a daughter of Deborah E. Scott and George A. Scott of Cincinnati. The brides father is the president of Green Light Projects, a special projects consulting firm based in Cincinnati. He also serves on the board of Warren Wilson College board of trustees in Asheville, N.C. Her mother is the director of the Taft Museum of Art and is on the board of the Art Academy, both in Cincinnati.

The groom, 29, is the director of business development at Wolf Consulting, an information technology consulting firm based in Pittsburgh. He is also a member of the chief executive training program at Alpine Investors, a San Francisco-based firm. He graduated from Vanderbilt and received an M.B.A. from Northwestern.Halley Marisa Goodman and Benjamin Zadek Mandel were married Jan. 26 at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan. Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson officiated.

Mrs. Mandel, 30, is a research analyst at Baron Capital, an asset management firm in Manhattan. She graduated magna cum laude with a dual degree  a bachelor of science in economics and a bachelor of arts in economic history  from the University of Pennsylvania, from which she also received an M.B.A.

She is a daughter of Dr. Candyce Silver and Dr. David P. Goodman of Muttontown, N.Y. The brides parents are psychiatrists in private practice, based in Bayside, Queens.

Mr. Mandel, 32, is an investment analyst at Discovery Capital Management, a hedge fund in South Norwalk, Conn. He graduated from Dartmouth, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard. He is the treasurer on the board of CitySquash, a nonprofit after-school enrichment program for children in the Bronx and Brooklyn.In a depressing news cycle, the cover of In Touch Weeklys Jan. 21 issue was a beautiful sight.

It was a blast from a less complicated past, with its vintage photograph of a beaming Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt staring out at readers from above the bold headline: Were Having a Girl!

For some who saw it in the racks, me included, the cover of this supermarket tabloid provided a double dose of joy. Not only was the It Couple of the late 1990s and early aughts back together  they were about to be parents.

But wait a minute.

The story rang a bell, and when I looked into it, I found that In Touch had devoted its cover to a similar piece of news back in October, with a story headlined Brad & Jen Baby Announcement! Our Dream Finally Came True! That one included the persuasive-seeming detail that the father-to-be was designing the nursery in their new home.

And what about that other time Ms. Aniston was pregnant? In July, the In Touch cover promised, Bombshell Pregnancy News!  and that was just the icing atop the wedding cake of the headline Brad & Jen: Just Married! Inside the Backyard Ceremony.Theres no mystery surrounding how I Am the Night, TNTs new truthy-crime mini-series, came to be. The director Patty Jenkins met and befriended Fauna Hodel, author of a memoir, One Day Shell Darken, about her difficult youth. Not quite a decade later Jenkins made Wonder Woman, which made more than $821 million. Et voila: I Am the Night, a long-gestating project inspired by the life of Fauna Hodel with Jenkins as a director and executive producer.

Its less clear how the six-episode mini-series (beginning Monday), which was created and written by Jenkinss husband, Sam Sheridan, and stars her Wonder Woman collaborator Chris Pine, turned out to be such a lackluster and derivative affair. But we can speculate.

Hodels book was primarily the story of her childhood and teenage years, when she grew up with African-American adoptive parents and thought she was mixed-race, although she was white. It had a sensational kicker: When she learned the truth about her biological parents, she also learned that one of her grandfathers was George Hodel, a prime suspect in the infamously gruesome and unsolved Black Dahlia killing in 1947.

So the story had two currently hot hooks: struggles with race and identity, on one hand, and a lurid real-life murder mystery, on the other. It was out of balance  George Hodel and the Black Dahlia case were a minor, if highly promotable, part of the book  but screenwriting could fix that.Think of the great patrons of music, and some resonant names come to mind: Nikolaus, Prince Esterhazy, for instance, who for three decades employed Joseph Haydn; or Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, who funded Italian baroque luminaries.

But cast around for their successors  the most important commissioners of living composers  and you encounter a string of initials: BBC, WDR, SWR.

The fertile generosity of these public broadcasters (the latter two are Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Sudwestrundfunk, regional radio entities with headquarters in Cologne and Stuttgart) is the subject of this years Focus Festival at the Juilliard School. It opened on Friday with a stimulating concert by the New Juilliard Ensemble in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Manhattan.

Under the banner On the Air! A Salute to 75 Years of International Radio Commissioning, the festival presents five more programs, through Feb. 1, that reveal how much of a lifeline noncommercial radio has become to composers since the end of World War II.Germany, France, Spain and Britain were also among the nations calling on Mr. Maduro to commit to a new vote. Mr. Maduros re-election last year was marred by reports of widespread coercion and fraud.

Mr. Arreaza, the foreign minister, scoffed at the ultimatum.

Europe is giving us eight days? What gives you the right? Mr. Arreaza demanded during a session of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr. Maduro continued to strike a defiant tone on Saturday, writing on Twitter that his government would not rest until we defeat the attempted coup orchestrated by people who want to establish a puppet government of the United States empire.

But his government appears to have decided for the time being not to detain Mr. Guaido or disrupt his political rallies as support for the 35-year-old opposition leader has grown at home and abroad. Mr. Guaido proclaimed himself the legitimate head of the executive branch on Wednesday as his supporters took to the streets in droves.

He argued that the presidency became technically vacant on Jan. 10, when Mr. Maduro was sworn in for a new term after an election widely seen as rigged. The countrys Constitution says that the president of the National Assembly, Mr. Guaido in this case, becomes interim leader if the presidency is vacated.

Venezuelas Foreign Ministry and the State Department did not respond to a request for information about the status of Venezuelan diplomats. It was unclear how many have pledged allegiance to Mr. Guaido and whether they would remain accredited as diplomats in the United States.

At least one official, the countrys military attache in Washington, Col. Jose Luis Silva, said in an interview with The Nuevo Herald that he no longer recognized Mr. Maduro as president.Nervousness about Chinese technology has long existed in the United States, fueled by the fear that the Chinese could insert a back door into telecom and computing networks that would allow Chinese security services to intercept military, government and corporate communications. And Chinese cyberintrusions of American companies and government entities have occurred repeatedly, including by hackers suspected of working on behalf of Chinas Ministry of State Security.

But the concern has taken on more urgency as countries around the world begin deciding which equipment providers will build their 5G networks.

American officials say the old process of looking for back doors in equipment and software made by Chinese companies is the wrong approach, as is searching for ties between specific executives and the Chinese government. The bigger issue, they argue, is the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Chinese government, the fading line between independent business and the state and new laws that will give Beijing the power to look into, or maybe even take over, networks that companies like Huawei have helped build and maintain.

Its important to remember that Chinese company relationships with the Chinese government arent like private sector company relationships with governments in the West, said William R. Evanina, the director of Americas National Counterintelligence and Security Center. Chinas 2017 National Intelligence Law requires Chinese companies to support, provide assistance and cooperate in Chinas national intelligence work, wherever they operate.

The White Houses focus on Huawei coincides with the Trump administrations broader crackdown on China, which has involved sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods, investment restrictions and the indictments of several Chinese nationals accused of hacking and cyberespionage. President Trump has accused China of ripping off our country and plotting to grow stronger at Americas expense.

Mr. Trumps views, combined with a lack of hard evidence implicating Huawei in any espionage, have prompted some countries to question whether Americas campaign is really about national security or if it is aimed at preventing China from gaining a competitive edge.

Administration officials see little distinction in those goals.

President Trump has identified overcoming this economic problem as critical, not simply to right the balance economically, to make China play by the rules everybody else plays by, but to prevent an imbalance in political/military power in the future as well, John R. Bolton, Mr. Trumps national security adviser, told The Washington Times on Friday. The two aspects are very closely tied together in his mind.While federal agencies like the FBI and DHS often step in to address major cyberattacks like the one in Atlanta, they simply do not have the resources to deal with every cyberattack on every city or town. If a similar ransomware attack hits Pierre, South Dakota  population 14,000  at the same time attacks freeze systems in San Diego and Philadelphia, the smaller town might not receive attention, or at least not immediately. Without a massive expansion of these agencies, the federal government will be forced to make tough choices about whom to assist.

The solution to this problem is clear: To minimize dependence on federal resources, states must shore up their own cybersecurity capabilities.

They can start with cybersecurity-focused procurement. When making technology decisions, cybersecurity must be a priority, and states may need to forgo cheapest provider decisions in favor of more secure options.The middlemen could also restrict patients access to certain medications in an effort to steer people toward other, cheaper drugs. Such restrictions would make Medicare coverage significantly less generous. Right now, patients have unfettered access based on their condition and response to the medication to virtually all FDA-approved drugs that must be administered by physicians.

Another major change would affect how Medicare pays physicians for participating in Part B. Right now, doctors receive a markup equal to 4.3 percent of a drugs average sales price. This markup helps cover storage and overhead costs.

Under the new proposal, doctors would receive a flat fee for administering Part B medicines. This flat fee would be lower than the markup many doctors currently receive. By effectively cutting reimbursements, the HHS proposal could make participating in Part B a money-losing proposition for physicians.

Many physicians already struggle to keep their doors open. In one survey, 80 percent of oncologists claimed that past reimbursement cuts affected their ability to practice. When the government cut reimbursements by just 2 percentage points in 2013, half of oncologists had to turn away patients and direct them to different facilities for treatment.For this reason, I have had in-depth conversations with both Sheriff Oscar Martinez as well as county Police Chief Bill Paterson, and they have assured me the irresponsible people who are acting in violation of criminal recklessness will be dealt with accordingly.

Under any and all circumstances, please call 911 immediately should you feel anyone is discharging a weapon in a manner that you feel is, or could be, injurious to yourself or someone else.

It has been my experience that an overwhelmingly majority of gun owners are responsible and support gun safety. As a matter of fact, it is the legal, responsible gun owners who demand gun safety. It is the irresponsible guns owners who need to be held accountable, regardless to how many feet they are from their property line. The state law regarding criminal recklessness will be enforced by the Lake County Sheriff's Department to its fullest extent.

It is my goal as a County Council member to keep people safe while recognizing a person's right to lawful ownership and discharge of weapons.

There have been some very heated discussions on this particular matter, but it is my thought that cooler heads must prevail. Everyone must respect each others' position even if they disagree. I am sure that many will disagree with my stance on this issue, but I felt it necessary to express it.

David Hamm, D-Hammond, is a Lake County Council member. The opinions are the writer's.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1Another resident said refusing to comply with police could be seen as aggressiveness and could put people in danger. Kilpatrick said both schools of thought are factors that play into the complexity of civilian to police relations.

These viewpoints sum up how people see this issue, Kilpatrick said while moderating discussion. It's emotional, and that's why we need to talk about it.

Residents also discussed whether Gary is under-policed or over-policed.

When speaking about incarceration, the accessibility of education to inmates was brought to light by those who had been incarcerated or knew people who have been to prison.

Several residents agreed that accessibility to grants and other educational opportunities could reduce the problem of recidivism.

While most of the attendees were local residents, business owners, activists and organization members, some officials came to listen.

I thought it was inspiring to see community members and grassroots organizations come together to share their thoughts and their vision on how to move the city forward, state Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, said.Toby the therapy dog accompanied Giant Paw Print Rescue in explaining the difference between service dogs and therapy dogs to 60 students in the freshman class at Kouts High School. Toby works with Giant Paw Prints Rescue in Westville and is a 7-year-old Labrador/chow mix, who travels around the Valparaiso community. He often visits special education classes and nursing homes in the area.

Carla, Tobys handler, explained to the students that "Toby is not a service dog. A service dog is trained to provide specific support for individuals with disabilities such as visual or hearing difficulties, seizure disorders, mobility challenges and/or diabetes." Cathy Nolan is the president of Giant Paw Prints Rescue. She rescues and rehomes between 100-115 dogs a year since she opened Giant Paw Prints Rescue, Inc. in 2012. The Kouts freshman class donated four bags of dog food for the rescue group.

Eighty-eight people, which included students and chaperones from St. Mary School, in Griffith, and St. Patrick School, in Chesterton, and others from across Northwest Indiana, represented the Diocese of Gary in Washington D.C. at the 46th annual peaceful, prayerful pro-life event, "The March for Life" held earlier this month. The pilgrimage was led by Rev. Theodore J. Mens, Director of Pro-Life Activities for the Diocese of Gary and Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Griffith and St. Ann Parish in Gary. While in Washington, the group participated in the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, attended the "Life Is Very Good" Evening of Prayer, toured the U.S. Capitol and met with Rep. Pete Visclosky, toured the Holocaust Memorial Museum, attended Mass and toured the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.At approximately 1:19 a.m., Victor D. Crosby, 37, was northbound in the 13000 block of South Avenue O in a 2004 Ford SUV when he struck the rear driver side of a salt truck that was heading west through the intersection, according to reports from Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. A 2005 Nissan Altima was also going north then rear-ended the SUV.If the proposal also is approved by the Republican-controlled House, Hoosier students still won't be learning or memorizing any facts about their state senators. There are no questions about the structure or operation of state government on the U.S. citizenship test.

An opponent of the measure, state Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, said he understands and supports the goal of improving what Hoosiers know about government.

But he said making it a high school graduation requirement is the wrong way to go about it.

"This concerns me as one more mandate that we're going to put on our teachers and our students," Melton said. "Some students are just not excellent test-takers."

State Sen. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, added that forcing students to memorize facts about American government in high school isn't going to make them more likely to recognize their state senator years or decades later.

"If you think about those kids that can't remember certain details from American history when they're asked on the spot, think about what else they would have forgotten from their high school years," Stoops sad.

"Whether it's math or English or any other subject, chances are they're not going to be able to give a correct answer to those, either."INDIANAPOLIS  Hoosier voters are on the precipice of losing the right to directly choose who they want to administer education policy in Indiana.

The Republican-controlled House voted 70-29 Thursday, largely along party lines, to never again put the office of state superintendent of public instruction on the ballot for a four-year term.

Instead, under House Bill 1005, the governor elected in 2020 would appoint an Indiana secretary of education, who'd serve at the pleasure of the governor and be answerable only to the governor.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, sponsor of the proposal, said the change would ensure actions taken by the Department of Education are aligned to the governor's education agenda  an outcome sought by past leaders of both political parties for decades.

But state Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, cautioned that while the change may produce some efficiencies, the state will lose an important independent voice on education, one that often sets lawmakers straight when their ideas are impractical for Indiana schools.

The proposal, which is supported by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate.

State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick, a Republican elected in 2016, announced last year that she would not seek re-election in 2020, due in part to the likelihood that this legislation will be enacted.

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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.Some up, some down

East Chicago logged seven homicides, up from five a year before. Charges were filed in three, or 42 percent, of this year's cases, preliminary records show.

Merrillville saw six homicides, up from three in 2017. Four cases, or about 66 percent, have been cleared, records show. Prosecutors filed charges in two cases, one case was an officer-involved shooting determined to be justified and one was a murder-suicide.

Hammond recorded five homicides, down from 12 in 2017. Police cleared four, or 80 percent, of this year's cases. Prosecutors filed charges in two cases, one case was determined to be self-defense and one was a murder-suicide.

Hobart logged four homicides, two more than the year before. All of this year's cases were cleared. Prosecutors filed charges in three cases, and the fourth was a murder-suicide.

New Chicago saw a double homicide in 2018, the first time in many years the town has recorded a homicide case. No charges have been filed.

Porter County logged zero homicides in 2018, down from four the previous year."Despite currently strong economic conditions, NIPSCO electric operations continue to face declining industrial usage driven by the development of customerowned generation and uncertainty in some industrial markets based on international trade conditions," Sistovaris said in her testimony. "In addition, the industry is in the midst of a transformation toward increased reliance on gasfired and renewable generation. ... It is crucial that NIPSCO be in a position to evolve in alignment with this transformation."

NIPSCO has reached an agreement with its largest industrial customers that will retain them as retail customers while allowing them to take advantage of other opportunities to power their operations. NIPSCO acknowledges that the new system "will result in a near-term shifting of some fixed costs currently being recovered from the industrial customers to other customers" but, according to testimony from other NIPSCO executives, it "will establish a more sustainable rate platform going forward."

NIPSCO argues that its strategy shift will ultimately save customers money over what they'd otherwise have paid, and will help Northwest Indiana industrial users remain globally competitive.We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.Ben Shapiros columns make me smile  when they dont make me shiver with fright. His latest column takes to task Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for twisting facts and fibbing to fit her agenda. This brought forth hoots of laughter from me. He did allow as how these actions were widely derided.

The laughter arose from the audacity to find fault with twisting facts and fibbing when Mr. Shapiro excuses every false statement the president makes. Much like a 4-year-old whines about the injustice of his baby brother getting their mothers attention, Mr. Shapiro complains that the press likes the representative better than they like the president. While one could challenge the representatives time table for climate catastrophe, her statements of widespread poverty in America are well documented. The presidents false charges about newly arriving immigrants are not factually based.

Mr. Shapiros statement that just because something is factually wrong doesnt mean it is morally correct is certainly an interesting one and it seems to go awry. It is difficult to feel a barb when it has first punctured the thrower.

Hope Hunt

North PlatteNebraskans, the Unicamerals bills have been introduced. Now its your turn.

If you want to know what your senators will be talking about the next few months  and if you have something to tell them about it  you happen to live in a state where its easier to do so than virtually any other.

The next few weeks, in particular, are prime time to put in your two cents.

Before we continue, bookmark this website  nebraskalegislature.gov  where you can learn all you need to know.

As the 49 lawmakers finished submitting their bills last week, their committees also began holding public hearings on their proposals. Nowhere else in America, and certainly not in Congress, do legislatures handle the bills before them as Nebraska has for 80 years.

Ever since the first session in 1937 of Nebraskas one-house, officially nonpartisan Legislature, senators have held public hearings on every bill laid before them. Every one.

This session, that means 739 bills and seven proposed constitutional amendments.The Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors gained two new members Wednesday night. Alexis Davidson of McCook and Pam Abbott of Ogallala were officially sworn in at the boards monthly meeting in North Platte.

Both women bring with them a strong desire to serve and improve the rural area they call home. They are excited to join the Mid-Plains team.

Davidson is originally from Culbertson. After graduating from Culbertson High School in 1998, she attended the University of NebraskaLincoln to study law and finance. She graduated with both a Juris Doctor degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005.

That same year, Davidson moved to Denver where she took the bar exam and served as an attorney in Colorado until 2017.

At that point, my husband Matt and I decided we wanted our kids to grow up with the same small town values and experiences that we had, Alexis said. We knew they would have a better chance at that in McCook than in Denver. Plus, we didnt have any family in Denver.

Alexis currently works as an attorney for the Goodwin Siegfried law firm in McCook, and Matt is a controller for Golight in Culbertson. They have two children, Avery and Cooper.Lincoln County commissioners will hear the quarterly report from Emergency Management Director Brandon Myers at their meeting on Monday morning at the courthouse.

Myers oversees Nebraska Emergency Management Agency Region 51, which provides services and training for Lincoln, Dundy and Hitchcock Counties.

In other business, commissioners will:

 Consider claims and treasurers receipts.

 Receive fee reports submitted by the county treasurer showing what the state and county receive from vehicle titles processed in the previous month.

 Consider appointing the chairman and one commissioner to oversee personnel.

 Receive the semi-annual condition of the treasury of Lincoln County statement, showing all the funds and balances from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2018.

 Consider certificates of correction and refund, if any, as submitted by the county assessor.

 Consider approving an appeal that would be filed by the county attorneys office with Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission, regarding the method used to determine tax assessments for Parkland II and Luke Estates rent restricted housing projects in North Platte.Check your calendar  there are a couple of days left for turkey season. You can continue to hunt turkeys until the end of the month. I need to get in one more hunt.

I like to go scouting at the end or right after a snowstorm. Animals are up and moving after being hunkered down for a while and tracks are easily to see and follow in fresh snow. Another plus is that fresh snow is quite a sound deadener. You can move very quietly and get closer to your quarry.

I often take my camera on such scouting trips. All the skills you need for being a good hunter are used and practiced when you are trying to sneak up on something with a camera.

I found fresh turkey tracks in the snow earlier this week and followed them. Eventually I saw the birds filtering through a cedar windbreak about a hundred yards ahead of me. I closed the gap and in due course got within 30 yards of the flock. Close enough to be able to pick out individual birds and get a good picture. Ill be back to this spot, but with a shotgun next time.

SHOT Show

The 2019 SHOT Show was the big news in the outdoor industry this week. It was all this week in Las Vegas. SHOT stands for Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade and all the new products for the year are on display.PUBG Lite has been announced, and it is currently in beta testing but for players in Thailand only. The concept behind the battle royale title is to bring the PUBG experience to gamers who may not have the hardware requirements to play the full game. The developer team has also revealed that the game will be free to play.

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

In a news post at the official PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds website developers have unveiled plans for a slimmed-down version of the popular battle royale game. PUBG Lite, which is in beta phase and is open to players in Thailand only at the moment, will eventually be released as a free to play game that can run on systems with lower specifications  even some devices that utilize an iGPU will be suitable.

Fortunately, the team behind PUBG Lite has offered details about the minimum and recommended PC specifications. Both require Windows 7, 8, or 10 (64-bit) and 4 GB of storage space. For minimum settings, users can play the streamlined battle royale game with a Core i3 2.4 GHz CPU or equivalent, 4 GB of RAM, and a GPU starting from the level of Intels HD Graphics 4000. The recommended specs are listed as an i5 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870.

This is in stark contrast to the system requirements of the full PUBG title, which we reviewed in 2017. Obviously some cuts have been necessary to allow the battle royale smash hit to run on more basic devices. At present, only the map Erangel is available and players are limited to third-person perspective (TPP) play. Lowering the requirements with PUBG Lite and making it a standalone game might convince some Fortnite fans to switch sides and attract more neutrals, but it remains to be seen if this version of the title can snatch away the battle royale crown from its Epic Games rival.The following is a list of incidents in Lycoming County compiled from faxed reports received since January 20, 2019 from Pennsylvania State Police in Montoursville:

PFA Violation - 1/13/19 at 11:20 a.m. at Odell Road, Fairfield Township. Police responded to a report of a protection from abuse order violation. Troopers interviewed the victim at the scene and determined no violation occurred.

Public Drunkenness - 1/9/19 at 2:38 a.m. at Main Street, Hughesville Borough. Howard Price, 27, of Williamsport, was cited for public drunkenness after he allegedly ran through the borough with no shirt and no shoes in cold weather conditions.

Underage Drinking - 12/26/18 at 2:19 a.m. at 500 block of Kepner Hill Rd., Muncy Creek Township. A 20-year-old man was heavily intoxicated and cited for underage drinking.

DUI Crash Alcohol - 12/21/18 at 11:55 a.m. at Pennsylvania Ave./Washington Blvd., Loyalsock Township. A 34-year-old man of Williamsport was charged after rear ending a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Police said he fled the scene and was later found at his residence and taken into custody. He was transported to Lycoming County Prison for a retainer issued by Adult Probation. Blood results indicated a BAC of .239%. There were no injuries as a result of the crash, police said. Police did not give the full name of the man, only the last name McNary was available on the police report.

Drug Possession - 12/18/18 at 11:08 a.m. at I-180/Market Street. Police conducted a traffic stop for a vehicle code violation. Braheem Lewis, 21, of Philadelphia, consented to a search of his vehicle. Drugs and paraphernalia were allegedly found. Lewis was arrested and remanded to Lycoming County Prison.

Criminal Mischief - 12/14/18 at 200 block of Back Street, Upper Fairfield Township. Police said an unknown actor(s) scratched the hood, passenger side front and rear doors, and passenger side rear fender area of a victim's vehicle. The scratches appeared to be made from a tool or key and were approximately two feet in length. Anyone with information may contact PSP Montoursville at 570 368-5700 reference incident number PA18-1478463.

Criminal/Simple Tresspass - 12/4/18 at 9:48 a.m. at 900 block of Ridge Rd., off Rose Valley Rd., Gamble Township. Police said a vehicle trespassed on a Seneca Resources Corporation work site. The vehicle was a black 2007 Ford Expedition SUV that was driving back on private property around a locked gate and utilizing the limited roadway. They also walked their dogs on the property, police said. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call PSP Montoursville at 570 368-5700.

Harassment/Physical Contact - 12/1/18 at 9:30 p.m. at 1900 block of Route 405, Muncy Creek Township. Police said Theresa Boatman, 58, and Peter Gehr, 62, both of Muncy, got into a physical altercation with no severe injuries. Both were cited due to their involvement and engagement with each other.

Drug Possession - 11/25/18 at 8:08 p.m. at High St./Cemetery St., Williamsport City. Tafera Harris, 19, of Harrisburg, was stopped for violations of the vehicle code and was found to be in possession of narcotics, police said. Charges were filed.The Associated Press reported Thursday that 21-year-old Zephen Xaver, the man accused of fatally shooting five women at a small-town bank in Florida, had dreamed of hurting classmates in high school and had long been fascinated with killing.

The AP report was based on police reports and the comments of a former girlfriend.

The slayings did not appear to be part of a robbery, and Xaver had no apparent connection to the Sun Trust branch in Sebring, Florida, or the four employees and one customer who were killed Wednesday.

We believe it was a random act, Sebring Police Chief Karl Hoglund said during a Thursday press conference. Aside from perhaps driving by and seeing it was a bank, we have no known evidence that he targeted this bank for any particular reason.

Based on police and witness accounts, Xaver entered the bank about 12:30 p.m. when the five women were alone. The victims were found lying face down, their bodies surrounded by shell casings. Hoglund said six minutes after the attack began, Xaver call 911 and told a dispatcher that he had killed everyone inside.

On Thursday, an Indiana police department released a 2014 report in which Xaver, then 16, said he had dreams of hurting other students in a classroom.In the last 30-40-50 years, the idea is if you make restitution, done your time, completed the system, rehabilitate yourself, you back as a productive member of society, Jacobsen said.

The legislators discussed possible changes to fireworks laws in the state.

Hanusa said shes working on a bill that would alter the legislation to allow local municipalities to restrict the timeline of sales. The ideas been spurred in part from conversations with the Council Bluffs City Council and Mayor Matt Walsh.

Currently the state sets the selling period, which spans around a month, while local cities and towns set ordinances on when fireworks can legally be used.

If you have a city with just a couple of days of use, it doesnt make sense to allow a month of sales, she said.

Hanusa said the bill would ensure fireworks are legal to use on July 4.

Im trying to bring some more local control back to this issue, she said.

Dawson explained the bill put in a long timeframe for sale because of the thought many vendors would have a permanent structure for sales. He noted businesses wouldnt want to pay property taxes on a building for a year to be able to sell fireworks for a year.The scholarship application form for the Southwest Iowa Educational Foundation  SWIEF  will be online on Feb. 1.

More than 80 scholarships will be available to southwest Iowa high school seniors interested in attending college. The application deadline will be March 15. To access the application, students should go online at swiowaeducationalfoundation.org.

After completing the initial application, students are matched with those scholarships for which they meet specific scholarship criteria. Applicants will then receive a list by email of the SWIEF scholarships for which the student qualifies. Students can then complete any additional specific scholarship requirements.

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Some scholarships are based on financial need, but others are based on merit, so students of all income levels should apply.

SWIEF was founded 30 years ago to improve access to post-secondary education for southwest Iowa students. With a total of more than $85,000 and numerous scholarship awards in the amount of $1,000 or more, taking the time to submit an application can literally pay off for students.The Bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge plans to release a list of its priests that are accused of abusing minors on Thursday (Jan. 31), according to a letter from Bishop Michael Duca.

This is a difficult decision that I have made, but I am convinced that bringing more of the facts of this tragedy into the light will be a help to the victims of abuse and the beginning, I hope, of re-establishing trust where it has been lost, Duca wrote in the letter that was to be read at each Mass in the diocese this weekend and was posted on the dioceses website.

The bishop called his decision to publish the list a hard one, but necessary, adding that healing could not take place until we acknowledge the truth of our past, he wrote in the letter.

Duca first announced his plan to release the list of names in November 2018.

While all seven Catholic dioceses in Louisiana promised to publish similar lists of accused priests, the Diocese of Baton Rouge will only be the third to do so.

On November 2, 2018, New Orleans released a list which included 57 clergy members. Earlier this month, Houma-Thibodaux released a list with 14 names.

Where did accused priests serve? Search by church, school, city and name.Sister Angela Bergeron walked into a dance club in the 1980s and one of the bartenders asked her friend, What are you doing bringing a nun in here? She looked him in the eyes and said, Well, shes human too. Bergeron preceded to groove to Cajun cadences for the rest of night.

Bergeron still had rhythm Saturday afternoon (Jan. 26) as she celebrated her 104th birthday and tapped her hand to the tempo of a fiddle inside the auditorium of Our Lady of Wisdom in Algiers. For the second year in a row, Bobby Michot and the Coulee Jumpers, a Cajun French acoustic trio, crooned tunes from the front of the room as friends, family and former students gathered to celebrate another year of Bergerons life.

When the performance started, Bergeron defied her more than a century old frame and rose from her wheelchair. She shuffled towards the dance floor, where fellow sister and former student Jerome Blank greeted her with a smile and a boogie. Blank and Bergeron are the last two members of the once sprawling Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, a congregation of women founded in Labadieville in the 1870s. They swayed together for a song until Bergeron returned to her wheeled throne, which boasted enough helium balloons to lift the petite nun off her feet.

Throughout the auditorium, over a dozen guests munched on a homemade spread of Cajun cooking and recounted tales of Bergerons more than 50 years in education and more recent escapades within the nursing home. The longtime nun was born in the tiny town of Church Point, spent her youth in the even tinier town of Mamou and taught for 43 years in numerous Louisiana schools and for 10 years in a daycare center.

Shirley Smith was a perpetual student of Bergerons, ascending through the grades at the same time Bergeron rose through the ranks. As she ordered her third husband to fetch a coffee, Smith admitted that she ultimately deviated from the convent lifestyle, but she remains close friends with her dedicated teacher nonetheless.

Smith said Bergeron would act as lookout as she and other students danced to boogie-woogie songs in between classes decades ago. When Bergeron spotted a strict priest, the group would quickly shift to solemnly singing holy melodies. Smith described another occasion in which Bergeron hopped aboard a students bike and careened right into a pole.

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We had to straighten out the metal on the frame, said Smith with a laugh.

Years later, friend Sharon Orlando still describes Bergeron as hell on wheels, albeit currently in a slightly more stable two-wheeled setup. Years ago, in her nineties, she directed the walking group throughout the sprawling nursing home. She would travel from room to room, doling out jokes about her life as a nun and youth in a family of seven brothers and no sisters.

Nowadays, her daily medication includes just one baby aspirin. She insists on feeding herself and holds a bib to her mouth in defiance if anyone attempts otherwise. She still gets a laugh out of old memories. If her lucidity is wavering, a nurse will remind her of her students who couldnt grasp how to pronounce allons, the French word for come on.

Just say Allen, Allen like the mans name and shell snap back and laugh, said friend Susan Bosche.

The afternoon celebration concluded with the Coulee Jumpers guitarist singing a French melody as guests danced throughout the room. Bergeron beckoned for couples to move more comfortably into her line of sight. Near the end of the song, Blank reached for her former teacher and now friends hand. Bergeron let out a small smile as she took in her 37,986th day on earth amongst friends, family and good old Cajun rhythms.Just about everything that is wrong with public discourse in America was on display last Friday (Jan. 18) in a chance encounter in Washington, D.C., among students from a Kentucky Catholic high school, a gathering of American Indians and a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites.

A confluence of politics, race, religion and age mixed with the debate over abortion, immigration, indigenous peoples rights and President Donald Trump played out in front of cellphone cameras recording videos for posting to social media. What could go wrong?

More than a week later, people are still debating what happened and why.

The only area of wide agreement is that the media has made it worse and that we all would be better served by taking a breath before hitting the Twitter button. (Including me.)

A mayor is running for president. No, not that mayor

Most people became aware of the incident through a 90-second social media clip and the narrative best captured by a New York Times headline: Viral Video Shows Boys in Make America Great Again Hats Surrounding Native Elder.

The story described a throng of cheering and jeering high school boys, predominantly white and wearing Make America Great Again gear, surrounding a Native American elder.

The video focused on a stare-down between Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Native American activist leading the Indigenous Peoples March, and Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School in Washington for the anti-abortion March for Life. The clip shows Phillips beating a drum and chanting while Sandmann stands in front of him with either a nervous smile or a contemptuous smirk, depending on your viewpoint.

The Times report described the encounter as 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.

That would be a lot to hang on any event, let alone less than two minutes of a raw video in which nothing is said between the two protagonists. And it didnt take long for that version to be debunked by an almost two-hour video showing the students being taunted and insulted by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites and Phillips initiating the confrontation with the teens.

That set off the next wave of news coverage and Twitter commentary condemning the media for smearing the students by concocting a false narrative and perpetuating the myth that Trump supporters are nothing but hate-filled racists.

That national media scrambled to amend and clarify the event with follow-up stories like Fuller Picture Emerges of Viral Video of Native American Man and Catholic Students and network TV interviews with Phillips and Sandmann, but the damage had been done.

Whatever one believed about what actually happened  Phillips says he was trying to act as peacemaker between the teens and the Black Hebrew Israelites and Sandmann says he was trying to keep things from escalating between Phillips and his fellow students  its obvious that a relatively minor moment was blown out of proportion by the media coverage.

For many, this was more evidence of the biased, lying media and fake news that is out of touch with America. In truth, it has more to do with media outlets' obsession with all things viral, the hot take and the suppression of journalisms ethics and norms to post or tweet in real time and do the reporting later.

Yes, media biases were exposed and the rush to judgment was unfair, especially to Sandmann and the Covington students. But the narrative was quickly challenged by other media sources and news organizations were quick to update and correct their reporting. They should get credit for that because not everyone who makes false statements these days is willing to admit it.

As is true in most human interactions, no party in these events was completely innocent.

The Covington High School students said their chaperones allowed them to respond to the Black Hebrew Israelites insults with spirit cheers, which included one young man removing his shirt and flexing. Thats not exactly the way to defuse the situation. And yes, wearing a MAGA hat is a political statement not a fashion choice.

The Black Hebrew Israelites are well-known for provoking people with racist slurs, not engaging in real dialogue. This is a group to be ignored not engaged.

Waiting for Roger Goodell to do the right thing

Phillips claim to the role of peacemaker doesnt align with his going into the crowd of young people or his banging the drum and chanting in Sandmanns face for several minutes. A tribal elder should be more mature than that.

And the media need to return to the standard of understanding, reporting and and applying news judgment to events before deciding that its enough just to be viral.

Its only making public discussion sicker.

Tim Morris is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write to Tim at tmorris@nola.com.Police arrested a 32-year-old man after he allegedly stole another mans money off the washing machine and struck him multiple times Friday morning (Jan. 25) in New Orleans East.

Christopher Freeman was booked with simple robbery and simple battery, according to jail records.

The simple robbery was reported around 7:30 a.m. in the 9600 block of Chef Menteur Highway, police said. Freeman fled eastbound on Chef Menteur Highway.

It was unclear from the initial police report how much money the man allegedly took.

NOPD also reported an armed robbery in the Milan area of Uptown around 8:45 a.m. Friday.

After an armed man entered a location in the 2600 block of Delachaise Street, he demanded the money and phones from a 35-year-old man and a 48-year-old man, according to an initial police report.

The men complied and the armed man fled in an unknown direction.An elderly mans body was found inside a home after firefighters responded to a two-alarm fire in the 7th Ward Saturday night (Jan. 26), according to New Orleans Fire Department.

The department received a call around 6:33 p.m. after a neighbor called saying that they saw smoke coming from the back of a house at 1824 Touro St., said NOFD spokesman Michael Williams.

By 6:37 p.m., firefighters arrived to the one-story shotgun home and tried to enter through the front door, Williams said. Firefighters headed toward the back of the house after they were unable to enter through a steel door in the front.

Near the back of the house, firefighters saw heavy smoke and large flames, Williams said. At 6:51 p.m. the fire was declared a two-alarm fire.

Firefighters fought the flames as they entered the house and found an elderly man toward the front of the home around 7:09 p.m., Williams said. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The fire department declined on Saturday night to release the name of man.

Fifty-one firefighters, Louisiana State Fire Marshall and the NOPD crime lab were on scene responding to the fire that was under control by 7:18 p.m. Williams said.

No other homes were affected by the fire, Williams said.Update: Theriot was arrested in Richmond, Va. Sunday morning (Jan. 27).

Five people were shot dead Saturday morning (Jan. 26) in what authorities described as related killings in Livingston and Ascension parishes. Investigators are searching for a suspect whom they identified as Dakota Theriot, 21, son of one of the victims.

Three of the victims were found about 9 a.m. at a mobile home park in the 14,000 block of Courtney Road north of Walker. The Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office identified them as Billy Ernest, 48, Tanner Ernest, 17, and Summer Ernest, 20. Police believe Dakota Theriot was dating Summer Ernest and living with her family before killing his girlfriends father and brother.

Twenty-five miles away near the intersection of Churchpoint and Guitrea roads in Gonzales, the Ascension Sheriffs Office said the 21-year-olds parents were found shot to death in a residence. Elizabeth Theriot and her husband, Keith Theriot were both 50 years old.

Before living with his girlfriends family, Dakota Theriot had lived with his parents but was recently asked to leave the residence and not return, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said. Before dying, Keith Theriot gave investigators information that led them to name his son as a suspect, Webre said.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Dakota Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.

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Authorities in Louisiana are still searching for Dakota Theriot, who is considered armed and dangerous.

Deputies said they suspect Dakota Theriot was driving a 2004 Dodge pickup truck with Louisiana license plate C583809. Webre said it was owned by one of the Livingston Parish victims. The vehicle was gray on the top, silver on the bottom, and Webre said authorities suspect Dakota Theriot was driving east toward Mississippi.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

. . . . . . .

Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and education, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach.Former Gov. Chris Christie says President Donald Trump knew it was out of bounds to slam him on the presidential campaign trail in 2015, when then-candidate Trump told a crowd Christie knew about the lane closings at the center of the George Washington Bridge scandal before they happened.

Christie said Trumps former campaign manager, Cory Lewandowski, called Christies campaign after Trump ripped him in the speech to say Trump knew he went too far and said Trump wouldnt launch another attack.

You will not be stunned to know there are times that candidates lose control, they get angry and they say things that are not true, Christie told George Stephanopoulos on ABCs This Week.

The account is detailed in Christies new book, Let Me Finish, which goes on sale Tuesday. Christie appeared on ABC to talk about his book for the first time.

Stephanopoulos pressed Christie on Trumps speech, asking if people can trust the president if he has a record of saying things that are not true? Christie brushed off the question.

The presidents a salesman and he uses, at times, rhetoric that is overblown, and thats the way hes always been, he responded.

What sparked Trump to attack Christie?

He was angry Christie scored the highly-coveted endorsement from New Hampshires largest newspaper, the former governor said.

Christie argues in his book there are a number of folks who he didnt think belonged in the White House, and says the president has been ill served by them.

He also details in the book how Trumps son-in-law, New Jersey native Jared Kushner, carried out a political hit job on him in retaliation for prosecuting his father years ago, according to a report by The Guardian. In a blistering passage, Christie gives his own side of how he was dismissed as head of Trumps transition team shortly after Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

Christie writes that when Steve Bannon, Trumps campaign chief, broke the news, he asked Bannon to tell him who was behind it. Bannon told him it was Kushner, still apparently seething over events that had occurred a decade ago, Christie writes.

The former governor argues Trump would have avoided many of the speed bumps his administration hit if Trump and his senior staff had followed Christies transition plan instead of  quite literally, according to multiple accounts  tossing it in the trash.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.A rare political moment has arrived, as the Legislature moves to demand that secret donors who bankroll elections in New Jersey step forward from the shadows and identify themselves. A strong bill to require full disclosure recently won unanimous approval from a Senate committee, and Gov. Phil Murphy says he fully supports it.

The finish line is in sight. The question now is whether the Assembly will get on board, and at this stage, Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, is the last big player to join the fight. The companion bill in the Assembly, which has languished for two years, hasn't moved an inch yet.

The bill does nothing to limit giant donations from monied special interest groups, like public worker unions and real estate developers. The courts have blocked those efforts on free speech grounds, most infamously with the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case.

But there is no legal barrier to forcing disclosure. The only barrier is political. Donors who want to preserve their outsized influence have conspired with venal politicians in both parties to block reform.

Leaving this dark money option in place renders other election laws meaningless. It allows special interest group to sidestep limits on donations. It allows lawyers and engineers who have contracts with state and local governments to evade pay-to-play restrictions. And it keeps the rest of us in dark, unable to see who is pulling the strings in the back rooms where deals are struck.

Murphy has been a big phony on this, posing as a reformer while taking full advantage of the secrecy. His senior advisors started a dark money fund soon after he was elected, and Murphy himself solicited money for it and appeared in TV ads the group produced. The group, led by Brendan Gill, promised to reveal its donors at the end of 2018, and then broke that promise. Murphy says he wants them to release the names, but it's a kabuki dance. He has kept all the advisors who run the fund close.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, is equally tainted. He received a secret donation of $55,000 from PSEG a few months after he pushed through a shameless bill to grant PSEG up to $300 million a year in subsidies for its nuclear plant. It was discovered only became PSEG sent the check to the wrong fund, one that requires disclosure. Consider that the Sweeney Surcharge on your electric bill.

Both men are atoning for these sins by supporting the bill. Here's hoping that Coughlin joins them soon.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.Classes at Clinton Township School District in Hunterdon County were put on a hold last week by the districts superintendent, who says too many students were staying home ill or coming to school sick with the flu.

In a letter to the school community last week, District Superintendent Michele Cone told families that in order to give students time to recover and limit exposure to illnesses, schools across the district would be closed Friday, Jan. 25 and Monday, Jan. 28.

We are experiencing a large number of student absences due to respiratory/flu and gastrointestinal illnesses, Crone wrote. Unfortunately we are also experiencing a large number of students being sent to school before they have fully recovered, putting themselves and others at risk.

Crone continued, saying that although the State Health Department did not recommend a closure, we feel that this step is in the best interest of our students.

All after-school activities have also been canceled.

We do understand the difficulty it can present with child care and work obligations, however, it is imperative that we limit contact with children that have become ill, she wrote.

Crone also stated that the district was sharing information on the spread and signs of illness on its homepage.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip?Tell us. nj.com/tips

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Kelly Phillips walked slowly but steadily to the edge of the water.

Surrounded by friends, supporters and more than one camera, he watched with a broad grin as a Plaquemines Parish Port Authority vessel in the Sugar Creek Bayou sounded its sirens and sprayed fire hoses into air as a salute to Phillips, a terminally ill man who was given three months to live nearly two years ago. Phillips defied those odds and completed a 20-month journey down the Mississippi River aboard a battered houseboat.

Over a hundred people gathered Saturday (Jan. 26) at the Cypress Cove Marina in Venice, Louisiana to celebrate the completion of his approximately two-thousand-mile trip. In addition to the nautical salute, Phillips was given the key to the city by Plaquemines Parish President Kirk Lepine, who told Phillips, You brought a bright light to Plaquemines Parish.

Phillips, a Wisconsin native who spent many years in New Jersey, was diagnosed about three years ago with cancer of the sinuses. He went through chemotherapy, which caused him to lose around half his body weight and resulted in a stomach ulcer that ruptured.

In March of 2017, doctors gave Phillips three months to live. Unwilling to go into hospice care, he bought a 45-year-old houseboat named Shameless and began to ply the Mississippi River around Wisconsin and Minnesota. After surviving three months past the doctors diagnosis, Phillips, with $214 to his name, decided to set out from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin and head down the Mississippi River.

I figured Id travel for three months and that would be it. I didnt die, my plans got screwed up, so I continued going downriver, he said.

Phillipss months on the Mississippi were frequently challenging. From an exploding can of chili to getting the boat stuck in ice to collisions with rock jetties and even a cargo ship at anchor, Shameless and its captain weathered many potentially disastrous trials.

But along with hardship, Phillips discovered the warmth and generosity of the strangers he met on his journey. People would bring him food and fuel. He was given a motorized bike to use on his shore excursions, a new generator and engine, and, best of all, his furry first mate Sapphire. The pug terrier has been his constant companion since being gifted to Phillips early in the journey.

Kelly Phillips smiles as a vessel from the Plaquemines Parish Port Authority salutes him during a party in his honor at Cypress Cove Marina in Venice, Louisiana, on Saturday, January 26, 2019.

Phillips had initially planned to end his journey in New Orleans but then decided to complete the navigation of the Mississippi River with a final push down to Venice near where the river ends at the Gulf of Mexico.

As the smoke rose from the grill and music blared across the marinas parking lot, Shameless bobbed gently at the Cypress Cove Marina, her journey complete. Two new flags flew above her bow: the Louisiana state flag and a Mardi Gras flag. Tied up behind her was a new skiff, donated to Phillips by Belle Chasse residents Marty Phingsten and Adam Young, who also provided a new battery to Phillips.

We found out he needed a little boat to go from the shore to his houseboat. I think he lost his little flatboat. It went down the river, so we brought him that little boat right there, Phingsten said.

Phingsten and Young were among many people Phillips met along his journey who came to the celebration at the tip of Plaquemines Parish. As Sapphire scampered from new arrival to new arrival, several of whom brought bags of her favorite snack, Cheetos, Phillips greeted everyone with handshakes and hugs.

Captain Terry Roncali met Phillips about a year ago when he helped repair Shameless after it foundered in Hickman, Kentucky. Roncali and his granddaughter made the journey to Venice to reunite with Phillips.

Its just a miracle for him to even be here, Roncali said. When he left Hickman, I wouldnt have given you fifteen cents for him to even have gotten to MemphisHe got to Memphis and I said Boy, look at you go!

Jeanie Louviere of Buras, who just recently met Phillips, brought king cake to the party.

I came down because it was a heartwarming story. Being this guy is having what hes going through, its a blessing to be a part of it, she said.

Louviere told the story of how earlier in the day, Phillips ventured over to a Chili Cook-Off going on just up the road. There he played a game called Chicken Drop, where a chicken is released on a board covered in numbers and whichever number the chicken poops on wins a cash prize. Phillips, she said, played the birthday of his deceased daughter and the chicken came through, winning Phillips about $100.

Its amazing, she said.

Lt. Governor and former Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser came to the party and met Phillips for the first time today.

We want to make sure we extend the Louisiana hospitality to anyone, especially a guy with a story like this, that given the remaining time hes got left, hes sees that hes got friends, Nungesser said.

Kelly Phillips laughs with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser during a party in Phillips's honor at Cypress Cove Marina in Venice on Saturday, January 26, 2019.

Phillips was touched by the show of hospitality: Its over the top. Theres no words. When asked what he learned during his journey, Phillips replied, People are good. Period. All over. My friends from New Jersey who helped me get this far, all the people down the river, its all about themI did the journey but its about the Mississippi River people.

He paused and looked at the crowd around him, If youd asked me four years ago if I wouldve done this, I wouldve said What are you nuts?

Before Phillips and his newfound family dug into the mountain of crawfish, jambalaya, gumbo, barbecued chicken, fried shrimp and other local fare donated to the celebration, Rev. Max Latham of the Three Crosses in Buras gathered the crowd into a circle beneath the raised Cypress Grove Hotel for a blessing. With his arm around Phillipss shoulder, Latham thanked God for bringing Phillips to their community and the gathered crowd nodded its agreement.

When the blessing was finished, Phillips, Sapphire in his arms, wiped a hand across his face and said quietly, I hope heavens like this.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayunes Maria Clark contributed to this report.Four young women were shot in Newark during a candlelight vigil Saturday night and a 16-year-old remains in critical condition, authorities said.

The victims, aged 16 to 20, were shot near Bergen Street and Madison Avenue around 9 p.m. while lighting candles for two teens who died in a car crash Friday, police said.

Quadre Robinson, 17, and Quayim Battle, 19, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on the 600 block of Bergen Street after they slammed a stolen car into the side of a house, the Essex County Prosecutors Office said in a statement. The vehicle struck an unoccupied SUV, two light poles and then the house. One of the cars overturned.

Gunfire erupted Saturday during the vigil for Robinson and Battle. Three were shot in the leg and are in stable condition. Police told NBC New York that Jayla Green, 16, was shot in the head and is in critical condition. All victims were transported to University Hospital, cops said.

No arrests have been reported.

On Sunday night, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Twitter he was devastated to hear about the shooting, and urged people with information to come forward.

Devastated by the shooting of four young women at a vigil last night in Newark. This shameful act of gun violence has no place in NJ.



If you have any info about the incident, please call the Essex County Sheriffs 24-hr tip line at 1-877-NWK-GUNS.https://t.co/a1h93mFo0I  Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) January 28, 2019

The Essex County Sheriff Office is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction those involved in the shooting.

We are aggressively investigating this senseless act of violence, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka said. We ask anyone with information about this incident to come forward and to report what they know to the police.

Tips may be made to the 24-hour Crime Stopper at 1-877-NWK-TIPS (1-877-695-8477) or 1-877-NWK-GUNS (1-877-695-4867). Anonymous tips may also be made using the police website www.newarkpd.org or through our Smartphone App available at iTunes and Google Play.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.JERSEY CITY  Hundreds filled the hallways of Hudson Montessori School as parents chattered loudly and students showcased their innovative projects today.

Children are at the center of their education, Gina Reeves, director of the school, said. (Theyre) always in the process of figuring things out.

The school held its second annual Maker Faire -- which allows students to toy with old inventions, technology and ideas and create something new with it  at 50 Regent St. Its kindergarteners to elementary students were able to present their varying projects to attendees.

Depending on the type of project, the Makers  or students who participated  displayed their works in designated rooms including:

The Dark Room  light-based projects best viewed in the dark.

Creative Works  projects such as LEGO creations, cardboard and recycled material crafts, and art.

Bots and Bytes  robotics, electrical 3D printing and coding projects.

Spills and Thrills  projects made by mixing of potions or reactions that might spill.

Runway Magic  cosplay and fashion designs.

Tech Talks  live presentations from the students.

Avi Mehandru, a second-grader, explained his LEGO project of renewable and non-renewable resources in the Bots and Bytes room. He built a house and windmill to show the effect of solar energy.

Down the hall, in the Creative Works room, Tamir, a fourth-grader, had researched the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) that the Philippines uses for its agriculture and growth of food crops.

Meanwhile, Samar Shahwan, a fifth-grader, sat in the Creative Works room with her hydraulic arm -- which she made out of cardboard, skewers and glue  and showed attendees how she is able to move the makeshift arms left and right and up and down.

I like (the fair), she said. I feel proud when people come to see my project.

Participation in the Maker Faire was optional, according to Reeves, but many students wanted to take part in it.

Everyone brings something to the table, Reeves said. (The students) take global ideas and bring them down to more detail. (Theyre) learning how to learn.BAYONNE  The citys Economic Opportunity Foundation (BEOF) will receive more than $1.5 million in federal funding for early childhood education programs.

The funding, allocated from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will go towards the citys Head Start Initiative, a federal program started in 1965 that provides comprehensive child development programs for low-income children and their families.

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez last week announced that $23 million will be allocated to three organizations in the state, including The Leaguers in Essex County and Tri-County Community Action Inc. in Cumberland County.

The BEOF will receive a total of $1,529,894.

"In New Jersey, Head Start programs have provided engaging opportunities for our youngest students to create, learn, and explore," Booker said in a release. "This federal funding will help provide students the tools they need to reach their full potential and succeed well into the future."

BEOF Executive Director Samantha Howard said the funding will "enable the BEOF to bring comprehensive after-school programs and extended learning opportunities to the youth of Bayonne."

The organization's Head Start program serves more than 150 children in the city.

This financial blessing comes at the most opportune time as BEOF is currently doing renovations on and remodeling the former Holy Family Academy as its new location for the Bayonne Head Start Program, she added.

The BEOF provides a wide range of services to assist low-income, handicapped and senior citizens, and serve as a community hub for many state and federal initiatives.

The city has supported the Head Start program for more than five decades, according to Mayor Jimmy Davis.

Davis thanked Sens. Menendez and Booker for their strong support of the Head Start program in Bayonne, the state, and the nation.Paul Drinkwater | NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Before the countdown to the 2019 Oscars in February, Hollywood will gather at the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the ceremony in which actors are often especially proud to accept honors from "their peers."

The awards ceremony, presented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, recognizes talent in both film and TV.

This year brings a milestone for the actors' union and awards show: the 2019 SAG Awards are the 25th edition of the broadcast, which debuted in 1995.

Here's a rundown of other details about the show, including viewing information, this year's host, presenters, who will receive the SAG Life Achievement Award and a complete list of SAG Award nominees.

Plus: the Hollywood controversy affecting presenters at this year's ceremony.

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Nicholas Hunt | Getty Images

Who is hosting the SAG Awards?

This year's SAG Awards host is actress Megan Mullally ("Will & Grace," "Parks and Recreation").

As Mullally told Variety:

"I first heard them say, 'Will you be our ho?' and I was like, 'Yeah, I can be your ho!' But then it turns out they actually said 'host.' And I was like, 'Oh okay, well I could do that, too.'"

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Dia Dipasupil | Getty Images

Who is presenting at the SAG Awards? Why the Screen Actors Guild accused the Academy and Oscars of 'intimidation'

A bit of awards-season drama transpired earlier this month when the Screen Actors Guild accused the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  which hosts the Oscars  of intimidating actors, Variety reports.

SAG claimed that the Academy had been trying to deter actors from presenting at both the Oscars and the SAG Awards.

Essentially, theyre being told that if they present on another televised awards show, they wont get to present on the Oscars, a source told Variety.

Constance Wu, star of "Crazy Rich Asians," will be among the celebrity presenters at the 2019 SAG Awards.

Others include Chris Pine ("I Am The Night"), Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper and Sam Elliott from "A Star is Born"; Keri Russell ("The Americans"); Alec Baldwin ("Saturday Night Live"/"Will & Grace"); Rami Malek, Joe Mazzello and Ben Hardy from "Bohemian Rhapsody"; Laverne Cox ("Orange is the New Black"); Chadwick Boseman and Angela Bassett of "Black Panther"; Ricky Martin from "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"; Tracy Morgan from "The Last O.G."; John David Washington and Adam Driver of "BlacKkKlansman"; and Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Henry Golding and Ken Jeong of "Crazy Rich Asians."

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Kevork Djansezian | Getty Images

When are the SAG Awards? What channel? How to watch

So when will the awards show be on TV?

The 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards, broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, will air from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT; 6 p.m. MT; 5 p.m. PT) on Sunday, Jan. 27 on both TBS and TNT (simultaneously).

(Channel finder: Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity, Optimum/Altice, AT&T U-verse, Spectrum/Charter, DIRECTV, Dish.)

A sneak preview of "I Am The Night," the new Black Dahlia-adjacent limited series starring Chris Pine and India Eisely, directed by "Wonder Woman" helmer Patty Jenkins, will air on TNT immediately following the show.

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Robin Marchant | Getty Images

SAG Life Achievement Award recipient: Alan Alda

Actor Alan Alda will receive the 2018 SAG Life Achievement Award at the ceremony, to be presented by his "Bridge of Spies" co-star Tom Hanks.

Alda, 82, who lived in Leonia from 1963 to 2001, is known for playing Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in "M*A*S*H." He won four Emmys for his role on the show and another for playing Sen. Arnold Vinick on "The West Wing," earning 21 nominations overall in his career. He also won six Golden Globes for playing Pierce.

The life achievement award is presented for "career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment." Alda will receive the honor just a day before his 83rd birthday.

In July, Alda announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease several years ago. He decided to go public with the diagnosis after he noticed his involuntary movements on camera. The actor, who is an advocate for the science of communication and applies acting techniques to the subject, said he has continued to live a full life since then, starting a podcast ("Clear+Vivid") and speaking at the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.

Alda, who has been nominated for several SAG Awards in his career -- both as an individual actor and as part of ensembles -- will be the 55th recipient of the life achievement honor, since the award predates the show. Other honorees have included Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Debbie Reynolds, Ernest Borgnine, Dick Van Dyke, Lily Tomlin and Mary Tyler Moore.

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Gregg DeGuire | Getty Images

Yara Shahidi and Harry Shum Jr.: SAG ambassadors

Actress Yara Shahidi ("Grown-ish," "Black-ish") will serve as a SAG Awards ambassador.

In that role, Shahidi, 18, will participate in pre-shows and give an inside look at the awards show through her social media channels.

Another SAG ambassador this year is actor Harry Shum Jr. ("Crazy Rich Asians," "Shadowhunters"), 36.

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Complete list of SAG Award nominations

Who is nominated for the SAG Awards? Here's a rundown of each category across film and TV.

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Male actor in a leading role (film)

Christian Bale/Dick Cheney - "Vice" (Annapurna Pictures)

Bradley Cooper / Jack - "A Star is Born" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Rami Malek / Freddie Mercury - "Bohemian Rhapsody" (20th Century Fox)

Viggo Mortensen / Tony Lip - "Green Book" (Universal Pictures)

John David Washington / Ron Stallworth - "BlacKkKlansman" (Focus Features)

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Atsushi Nishijima | Fox Searchlight Films

Female actor in a leading role (film)

Emily Blunt / Mary Poppins  "Mary Poppins Returns" (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Glenn Close / Joan Castleman  "The Wife" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Olivia Colman / Queen Anne  "The Favourite" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Lady Gaga / Ally  "A Star is Born" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Melissa McCarthy / Lee Israel  "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

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Male actor in a supporting role (film)

Mahershala Ali / Don Shirley - "Green Book" (Universal Pictures)

Timothee Chalamet / Nic Sheff - "Beautiful Boy" (Amazon Studios)

Adam Driver / Flip Zimmerman - "BlacKkKlansman" (Focus Features)

Sam Elliott / Bobby - "A Star is Born" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Richard E. Grant / Jack Hock - "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

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Cast in a motion picture

"A Star is Born" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Dave Chappelle / George "Noodles" Stone

Andrew Dice Clay / Lorenzo

Bradley Cooper / Jack

Sam Elliott / Bobby

Rafi Gavron / Rez Gavron

Lady Gaga / Ally

Anthony Ramos / Ramon

"Black Panther" (Marvel Studios)

Angela Bassett / Ramonda

Chadwick Boseman / T'Challa/Black Panther

Sterling K. Brown / N'Jobu

Winston Duke / M'Baku

Martin Freeman / Everett K. Ross

Danai Gurira / Okoye

Michael B. Jordan / Erik Killmonger

Daniel Kaluuya / W'Kabi

Lupita Nyong'o / Nakia

Andy Serkis / Ulysses Klaue

Forest Whitaker / Zuri

Letitia Wright / Shuri

"BlacKkKlansman" (Focus Features)

Harry Belafonte / Jerome Turner

Adam Driver / Flip Zimmerman

Topher Grace / David Duke

Laura Harrier / Patrice Dumas

Corey Hawkins / Kwame Ture

John David Washington / Ron Stallworth

"Bohemian Rhapsody" (20th Century Fox)

Lucy Boynton / Mary Austin

Aidan Gillen / John Reid

Ben Hardy / Roger Taylor

Tom Hollander / Jim Beach

Gwilym Lee / Brian May

Allen Leech / Paul Prenter

Rami Malek / Freddie Mercury

Joe Mazzello / John Deacon

Mike Myers / Ray Foster

"Crazy Rich Asians" (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Lisa Lu / Ah Ma

Harry Shum Jr. / Charlie Wu

Constance Wu / Rachel Chu

Michelle Yeoh / Eleanor Young

Awkwafina / Peik Lin Goh

Ken Jeong / Wye Mun Goh

Gemma Chan / Astrid Young Teo

Henry Golding / Nick Young

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Jonny Cournoyer | Paramount Pictures

Female actor in a supporting role (film)

Amy Adams / Lynne Cheney - "Vice" (Annapurna Pictures)

Emily Blunt / Evelyn Abbott - "A Quiet Place" (Paramount Pictures)

Margot Robbie / Queen Elizabeth I - "Mary Queen of Scots" (Focus Features)

Emma Stone / Abigail  "The Favourite" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Rachel Weisz / Lady Sarah  "The Favourite" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

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Action performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" (Marvel Studios)

"Avengers: Infinity War" (Marvel Studios)

"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (Netflix)

"Black Panther" (Marvel Studios)

"Mission Impossible: Fallout" (Paramount Pictures)

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Gabriel Olsen | Getty Images

Male actor in a TV movie or limited series

Antonio Banderas / Pablo Picasso - "Genius: Picasso" (National Geographic)

Darren Criss / Andrew Cunanan - "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" (FX Networks)

Hugh Grant / Jeremy Thorpe - "A Very English Scandal" (Prime Video)

Anthony Hopkins / Lear - "King Lear" (Prime Video)

Bill Pullman / Det. Harry Ambrose - "The Sinner" (USA Network)

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Female actor in a TV movie or limited series

Amy Adams / Camille Preaker - "Sharp Objects" (HBO)

Patricia Arquette / Tilly Mitchell - "Escape at Dannemora" (Showtime)

Patricia Clarkson / Adora - "Sharp Objects" (HBO)

Penelope Cruz / Donatella Versace - "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" (FX Networks)

Emma Stone / Annie Landsberg - "Maniac" (Netflix)

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Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images

Male actor in a drama series

Jason Batemen / Martin "Marty" Byrde - "Ozark" (Netflix)

Sterling K. Brown / Randall Pearson - "This is Us" (NBC)

Joseph Fiennes / Commander Waterford - "The Handmaid's Tale" (Hulu)

John Krasinski / Jack Ryan - "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan" (Prime Video)

Bob Odenkirk / Jimmy McGill - "Better Call Saul" (AMC)

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Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images

Female actor in a drama series

Julia Garner / Ruth Langmore - "Ozark" (Netflix)

Laura Linney / Wendy Byrde - "Ozark" (Netflix)

Elisabeth Moss / Offred/June - "The Handmaid's Tale" (Hulu)

Sandra Oh / Eve Polastri - "Killing Eve" (BBC America)

Robin Wright / Claire Underwood - "House of Cards" (Netflix)

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Male actor in a comedy series

Alan Arkin / Norman - "The Kominsky Method" (Netflix)

Michael Douglas / Sandy Kominsky - "The Kominsky Method" (Netflix)

Bill Hader / Barry - "Barry" (HBO)

Tony Shalhoub / Abe Weissman - "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Prime Video)

Henry Winkler / Gene Cousineau - "Barry" (HBO)

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Nicholas Hunt | Getty Images

Female actor in a comedy series

Alex Borstein / Susie Myerson - "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Prime Video)

Alison Brie / Ruth Wilder - "Glow" (Netflix)

Rachel Brosnahan / Miriam "Midge" Maisel - "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Prime Video)

Jane Fonda / Grace Hanson - "Grace and Frankie" (Netflix)

Lily Tomlin / Frankie Bergstein - "Grace and Frankie" (Netflix)

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Ensemble in a drama series

"The Americans" (FX Networks)

Anthony Arkin / Stavos

Scott Cohen / Glenn Haskard

Brandon J. Dirden / Dennis Aderholt

Noah Emmerich / Stan Beeman

Laurie Holden / Renee

Margo Martindale / Claudia

Matthew Rhys / Philip Jennings

Costa Ronin / Oleg Burov

Keri Russell / Elizabeth Jennings

Keidrich Sellati / Henry Jennings

Miriam Shor / Erica Haskard

Holly Taylor / Paige Jennings

"Better Call Saul" (AMC)

Jonathan Banks / Mike Ehrmantraut

Rainer Rock / Werner Ziegler

Ray Campbell / Tyrus Kitt

Giancarlo Esposito / Gustavo "Gus" Fring

Michael Mando / Nacho Varga

Bob Odenkirk / Jimmy McGill

Rhea Seehorn / Kim Wexler

"The Handmaid's Tale" (Hulu)

Alexis Bledel / Ofglen/Emily

Madeline Brewer / Janine

Amanda Brugel / Rita

Ann Dowd / Aunt Lydia

O-T Fagbenle / Luke

Joseph Fiennes / Commander Waterford

Nina Kiri / Alma

Max Minghella / Nick

Elisabeth Moss / Offred/June

Yvonne Strahovski / Serena Joy

Sydney Sweeney / Eden

Bahia Watson / Brianna

"Ozark" (Netflix)

Jason Bateman / Martin "Marty" Byrde

Lisa Emery / Darlene Snell

Skylar Gaertner / Jonah Byrde

Julia Garner / Ruth Langmore

Darren Goldstein / Charles Wilkes

Jason Butler Harner / Roy Petty

Carson Holmes / Three

Sofia Hublitz / Charlotte Byrde

Laura Linney / Wendy Byrde

Trevor Long / Cade

Janet McTeer / Helen Pierce

Peter Mullan / Jacob Snell

Jordana Spiro / Rachel

Charlie Tahan / Wyatt

Robert Treveiler / Sheriff John Nix

Harris Yulin / Buddy Dieker

"This is Us" (NBC) Eris Baker / Tess Pearson

Sterling K. Brown / Randall Pearson

Niles Fitch / Teenage Randall

Mackenzie Hancsicsak / Young Kate

Justin Hartley / Kevin Pearson

Faithe Herman / Annie Pearson

Jon Huertas / Miguel Rivas

Melanie Liburd / Zoe

Chrissy Metz / Kate Pearson

Mandy Moore / Rebecca Pearson

Lyric Ross / Deja

Chris Sullivan / Toby Damon

Milo Ventimiglia / Jack Pearson

Susan Kelechi Watson / Beth Pearson

Hannah Zeile / Teenage Kate

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Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images

Ensemble in a comedy series

"Atlanta" (FX Networks)

Khris Davis / Tracy

Donald Glover / Earn Marks

Brian Tyree Henry / Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles

Lakeith Stanfield / Darius

"Barry" (HBO)

Darrell Britt-Gibson / Jermaine

D'Arcy Carden / Natalie

Andy Carey / Eric

Anthony Carrigan / NoHo Hank

Rightor Doyle / Nick

Glenn Fleshler / Goran Pazar

Alejandro Furth / Antonio

Sarah Goldberg / Sally Reed

Bill Hader / Barry

Kirby Howell-Baptiste / Sasha

Paula Newsome / Det. Janice Moss

John Pirruccello / Det. John Loach

Stephen Root / Monroe Fuches

Henry Winkler/ Gene Cousineau

"Glow" (Netflix)

Britt Baron / Justine Biagi

Shakira Barrera / Yolanda Rivas

Alison Brie / Ruth Wilder

Kimmy Gatewood / Stacey Beswick

Betty Gilpin / Debbie Eagan

Rebekka Johnson / Dawn Rivecca

Chris Lowell / Bash Howard

Sunita Mani / Arthie Premkumar

Marc Maron / Sam Sylvia

Kate Nash / Rhonda Richardson

Wyatt Nash / Phil

Sydelle Noel / Cherry Bang

Victor Quinaz / Russell Barroso

Gayle Rankin / Sheila the She-Wolf

Bashir Salahuddin / Keith Bang

Kia Stevens / Tamme Dawson

Jackie Tohn / Melanie Rosen

Ellen Wong / Jenny Chey

Britney Young / Carmen Wade

"The Kominsky Method" (Netflix)

Jenna Lying Adams / Darshani

Alan Arkin / Norman

Sarah Baker / Mindy Kominsky

Casey Thomas Brown / Lane

Michael Douglas / Sandy Kominsky

Ashleigh LaThrop / Breana

Emily Osment / Theresa

Graham Rogers / Jude

Susan Sullivan / Eileen

Melissa Tang / Margaret

Nancy Travis / Lisa

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Prime Video)

Caroline Aaron / Shirley Maisel

Alex Borstein / Susie Myerson

Rachel Brosnahan / Miriam "Midge" Maisel

Marin Hinkle / Rose Weissman

Zachary Levi / Benjamin

Kevin Pollak / Moishe Maisel

Tony Shalhoub / Abe Weissman

Brian Tarantina / Jackie

Michael Zegen / Joel Maisel

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Action performance by a stunt ensemble in a comedy or drama series

"Glow" (Netflix)

Marvel's "Daredevil" (Netflix)

Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" (Prime Video)

"The Walking Dead" (AMC)

"Westworld" (HBO)

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More awards season coverage

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com's newsletters.A jury has found a 40-year-old handyman guilty of murdering his 64-year-old employer in his Newark home.

Nestor Francisco Canela Lopez now faces life in prison for killing his former employer Charles Jeffrey. In 2015 Lopez travelled from the Bronx to the victims home where he bludgeoned the victim to death with a hammer, screwdriver and wrench, the Essex County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

Jeffery was found when the first-floor tenant returned home and walked into the common area. At first the tenant thought the blood on the floor was paint, but soon found Jeffery in the basement with the ball end of a hammer embedded in his head, the prosecutors office said.

Jeffery and his wife fired Lopez, shortly before the murder, because jewelry went missing from the house. Text messages sent by Lopez also showed that he was under severe financial pressure at the time, according to the prosecutors office.

Lopez claimed that he acted in self-defense, but the physical evidence told the true story of the defendants brutal attack, according to Assistant Prosecutor Alex Albu.

After the murder Lopez showered in the victims home, changed clothes and threw out physical evidence in an effort to conceal his actions, the prosecutors office said.

The jurys verdict recognized the defendants gruesome and cold-blooded slaying of the victim, and finally brought the victims family closure, Albu said in a statement.

Lopez was found guilty of murder, multiple weapons offenses, and tampering with physical evidence. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Donohue on March 1, 2019.

Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.South Jersey is getting its first school for specializing in helping students overcome addiction and mental health issues.

According to a report from The Press of Atlantic City, Gov. Phil Murphys office notified the Middle Township School District last week that it would receive a $500,000 grant to help launch the Coastal Prep High School in Wildwood. It will be the third recovery school in New Jersey.

The Coastal Prep recovery high school will be located at the Cape Assist office, and serve Burlington County, Cape May County and parts of Ocean County, according to Middle Township Superintendent David Salvo. Cape Assist is a non-profit agency that helps prevent and treat substance abuse issues in Cape May County.

Recovery high school programs typically serve around a dozen students a year. Coastal Preps first class will include five to eight students, who will all receive high school diplomas from their home district.

I said, What a great opportunity, not only for Cape May County but for the southern counties to give students who are recovering from addiction and other issues. We could give them a chance to get their high school diploma and get them on the right path. And I think thats what were here to do, Salvo said, according to the report.

The grant will fund the implementation of a day program, two educator positions, Cape Assists services and transportation through June 30, and Salvo told The Press of Atlantic City the district will be relying on the state for funding going forward.

Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Twenty-three people have been indicted for their roles in a heroin ring operating in Cape May County.

County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland said Friday the investigation was centered on the areas Woodbine and Millville, and prosecutors name Isiah T. Fitzpatrick, 28, of Woodbine; Harold E. Santiago, 31, of Woodbine; and George T. Williams, 58, of Millville as the leaders of the drug network in the indictment.

These men, and 24 others were arrested in September after authorities allegedly seized methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, guns, cars and cash.

In September, authorities say they seized 13 vehicles, about 6,540 bags of suspected heroin, 6 ounces of suspected methamphetamine, 2 ounces of suspected raw heroin and an unspecified amount of marijuana. Also seized were more than $30,000 in cash, two semiautomatic handguns and one shotgun.

Fitzpatrick, Santiago and Williams were indicted on counts of leading a drug network and other related offenses, while others in the indictment face charges ranging from drug and weapons offenses to money laundering to endangering the welfare of a child.

Also indicted were:

Tracy D. Kluska, 44, of Ocean View

Dominic J. Wilson, 34, of Woodbine

Rachel P. Bowers, 28, of Upper Township

Terry J. Pierce III, 28, of Woodbine

Julius L. Davis, 29, of Woodbine

Dominic Damico, 29, of Pine Hill

Darryl A. Youmans, 52, of Middle Township

Julia A. Pierce, 29, of Woodbine

James M. Serrano, 41, of Woodbine

Cory Scheid, 30, of Woodbine

Corissa J. Williams, 30, of Millville

William A. Hutchison, 48, of Ocean View

Erik I. Hernandez, 33, of Woodbine

Michael A. Mason, 34, of Millville

Jeanette M. Coleman, 52, of Woodbine

Harold E. Crawford, 52, of Middle Township

Alexander Osario, 52, of Wildwood Crest

Traci D. Migliaccio, 25, of Linwood

Josue L. Coriano, 37, of Woodbine

James E., Coleman, 28, of Woodbine

The prosecutors office urges anyone with information regarding this narcotics investigation to contact the Prosecutors Office at 609-465-1135 or anonymously through the Cape May County Sheriffs Tip line at cmcsheriff.net and click on anonymous tip, or through the Cape May County Crime Stoppers at 609-465-2800.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@By_paigegross. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip?Tell us. nj.com/tips

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.The National Association of University Women remembers when our country was facing a financial crisis in 2008. Banks, small businesses, newspapers, the automobile industry and American citizens in general were all fighting to stay afloat fiscally. In many cases, those efforts were fruitless.

People lost their homes, their businesses and their careers. Although personal stories may vary, one phenomenon remains in the forefront as furloughed federal employees try to make their mortgage payments: Big banks were bailed out!

The banks received $700 billion in taxpayers' funds, directly, but some later estimates put the federal government's total financial commitment in the trillions.

Who paid? Those taxpayers rescued the very banking industry that brought much of its financial failures upon itself, mainly due to lack of oversight and corporate greed.

Today, the federal government is in a partial shutdown. Federal employees and others impacted by the shutdown are being asked, once again, to foot the bill. There are those who think proceeds from garage sales and odd jobs should buffer loss wages and sustain one's existence. Not us!

We remember those bailouts, and we are strongly encourage everyone reading this to remind their members of Congress that it is an abomination to shut down the government now on the backs of Americans who saved the economy in 2008,

Remind lawmakers that they should open the government and allow to go back to work the very taxpayers who stepped up when this country was in a downward spiral.

Federal workers are not asking for a bailout, just the opportunity to go back to earning their pay.

Tracy Henry, Civic Engagement Chair and Jennifer Myers, President

The National Association of University Women - Southern New Jersey Branch, Camden

Editor's note: This letter was written prior to President Donald Trump's Friday announcement that he and congressional leaders have agreed to end the shutdown for three weeks. However, the shutdown could be reimposed if there is no settlement on border security funding by Feb. 15.

Women's groups quiet on Murphy team rape allegation

So, I see that Gov. Phil Murphy, his spokesperson and his outside counsel are remaining tight-lipped about the (former Murphy campaign) official who allegedly raped Katie Brennan and then was approved for a state job. Should that shock anyone?

However, what puzzles me is, where are the National Organization for Women and other feminists? They have not strongly reacted to the governor and his administration over their handling of the situation. Brennan also worked on the Murphy campaign when the assault occurred, she says.

The way I see it, NOW and similar groups would be screaming bloody murder if Murphy and his associates had been Republicans. Or, have I missed something?

George P. Heebner Jr., Stratford

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.comUPDATE: Cafe owner stood up to racist tip note, and the internet trolls attacked

A couple in their mid-40s walked into Under the Moon Cafe in Bordentown City on Thursday night. They enjoyed a piece of cake, complimented the food and decor, paid their bill and left.

But while she was cashing out, the owner said, the server noticed they left her something else. Scrawled on the back of the check in big, black lettering, were the words Dont Tip Immigrants!!!

The note was left by a couple in their mid-40s who paid in cash, the owner said.

Owner Santiago Orosco said he was appalled when he saw the waitress post about it on Facebook. To protect her privacy, he made his own post to make his point  racist customers are not welcome at Under the Moon.

Theres no home in my restaurant for hatred, bigotry, racism, homophobia, discrimination. If anyone feels the same way, dont come back, he said.

Orosco believes the note, which didnt include a tip, was left for the American-born server after the couple overheard she was speaking Spanish to another coworker. Her family emigrated from Uruguay more than three decades ago.

Since they paid in cash, he has no way of finding the couple. Orosco called it a cowardly move."

Orosco, himself an Argentinean immigrant, said while racism has always been around, its become worse for Latinos more recently.

(Its) ignorance, plain and simple. And a sense of entitlement too, he noted.

People could be under the impression immigrants get things handed to them, Orosco explained. He came to America with his parents in 1991, worked his way up from a dishwasher and has owned the restaurant for 13 years. He opened up a second location in Lambertville last year.

My thing is, if she went to a Chinese restaurant and people were speaking Chinese, would she reacted the same way? If people were speaking French or German, would she have left the note? he added. My place is supposed to be a loving, cozy restaurant, and my family and I worked our asses off to get what we have today. We dont need that hatred here.

I apologize in advance for what may be a lengthy post. Thursday night we had a couple come in to dine at our restaurant,... Posted by Santiago Aristides on Saturday, January 26, 2019

He said the support from the community has been overwhelming, with friends and customers far and wide sending him encouraging messages.

Its to the point of tears to see such a support for me, my family and the restaurant, he said. Its overwhelming but reassuring that theres these people out there. Theres much nicer people.

His only message to the couple that left the bigoted note? Dont come back.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Police investigating the armed robbery of an Englewood convenience store in which a clerk tried to disarm the gunman are reminding others to put their own safety first.

The robber, dressed in a ski mask, a gray hoodie and dark pants, walked into Stop & Go Deli & Grocery store around 8 p.m. on Tuesday and headed straight to the register, according to Crime Stoppers in Bergen County.

Surveillance videos from two different angles, one on the side of the store and one behind the counter, show the man brandishing a gun and waving it at the employee behind the register.

The gunman then jumps up on the counter and digs at the register as the employee tries to take the gun from him.

Making off with just a handful of cash, the robber heads for the door.

The suspect ran west on Rosemont Place and into a dark-colored vehicle that eventually traveled towards Teaneck, Crime Stoppers reported. The two employees working in the store were not injured.

Englewood police are looking for additional surveillance video, Crime Stoppers said.

They also ask that anyone put in a similar situation not fight with the robber.

CrimeStoppers is offering up to a $1,000 cash reward for any information that significantly assists the police in their investigations.

Tips can be made anonymously on the groups website at https://www.bergencrimestoppers.org or by calling 844-466-6789.

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ladytiamoyo. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Thunderstorms, some locally heavy early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms, some locally heavy early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.Contributed photo / Contributed photo

BRANFORD  Scott Gerber, a law professor at Ohio Northern University, will give a lecture Sunday, Feb. 3 on the historical transition from a church-based government to a democratically based government in Connecticut in the early 1800s.

Gerber, who also is an associated scholar at Brown Universitys Political Theory Project, will be joined for the lecture, entitled Theocracy to Democracy, by Linda Meyer, a law professor at Quinnipiac University.Cats and dogs in Connecticut have been scalded with hot liquid, kicked to death, left shivering outside in the bitter cold, and killed as revenge following romantic break-ups.

These are just a few examples of the claims police have made against individuals charged with animal cruelty recently in Connecticut.

In October 2016, lawmakers gave a voice to these victims when Connecticut became the first state to allow courts to appoint an advocate in criminal cases involving cruelty against cats and dogs.

These advocates monitor a case, investigate facts, attend hearings, and present recommendations to judges  all on a pro bono basis. Both advocates and activists report stiffer penalties since the laws enactment.

The law is known as Desmonds Law in honor of a dog whose owner, Alex Wullaert, beat and strangled him to death in 2012. Wullaert, a Branford resident at the time, did not have to serve any jail time, and the crime was expunged from his record after he entered a diversionary program aimed at helping the mentally ill.

Help in the courts

The ensuing public outcry resulted in not only Desmonds Law, but also Desmonds Army, volunteers who track animal abuse cases around the state and attend court proceedings.

Robin Zilla Cannamela, president of Desmonds Army, said the 2-year-old law is making an impact. Before it, punishment for an animal cruelty case was rare, she said.

Since Desmonds Law, we have seen a significant increase in jail time or probation with suspended sentences, Cannamela said.

Cannamela cited the case of Brian Casson, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison in October for abusing a cat and throwing it into the Naugatuck River in Waterbury.

In another case, in Fairfield, Ray Neuberger, who was charged with abusing two King Charles Cavalier spaniels, served 41 days of pretrial confinement, and made a $23,500 donation to a Bridgeport animal shelter. Neuberger was accused of scalding one dog with a hot liquid and breaking another dogs ribs. He also was prohibited from any contact with the dogs for two years, documents show.

Attorney Kenneth Bernhard of Westport, who was the advocate in the Neuberger case, said he was pleased with the outcome.

I have to believe that having an animal advocate as part of the process can only be a significant step forward in improving our criminal justice system.

Former State Rep. Diana Urban of North Stonington, who introduced the legislation, also asserted the law is making a difference. Advocates are doing work that overburdened prosecutors may not have time to do, she said, such as interviewing witnesses, animal control officers, and veterinarians.

The judges are starting to look for an animal advocate for these cases, which is enormously satisfying, Urban said. The advocates have been introducing evidence, so the egregiousness of the abuse and neglect is right there in front of the judge.

Jessica Rubin, assistant clinical professor of law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and the director of its Animal Law Clinic, serves as an advocate and accompanies student advocates in court. They research the facts of a case and take a stance, which may or may not be consistent with the prosecutors viewpoint.

Rubin also said Desmonds Law is making an impact.

On a gut level, I believe fewer animal cruelty cases are being dropped or dismissed, Rubin said. On an anecdotal level, from my personal experience, I know Desmonds Law is making a difference.

According to Rubin, the law has been used to appoint advocates in 48 animal abuse cases since October 2016. In addition to UCONN, 15 other attorneys are listed with the state as court appointed animal advocates.

From 2006 to 2016, there were 3,723 offenses brought under the animal cruelty statute, and about 80 percent were either dismissed or not prosecuted, according to the Office of Legislative Research.

Desmonds Law allows for, but does not require, the appointment of an advocate, and it only applies to cases involving cats and dogs.

Rubin is researching and compiling the outcomes in all advocates cases to share with lawmakers in the coming months.

The appointments are now coming at an accelerated rate, which is encouraging, Rubin said. I am excited the law is being used across the state.

The advocates cases involve a range of circumstances, such as direct attacks on cats or dogs, dog fighting, and severe neglect.

Rubins team worked on the case of Philip Savva of Killingworth, who was convicted in October 2018 of cruelty to animals. Savva was sentenced to three years of probation, with the possibility of facing a year in prison if he violates it.

According to a Connecticut State Police warrant, Savva had Airedale dogs and puppies in a private kennel. Investigators allegedly found dogs shivering in the cold, with scabs and sores on their necks from their collars being too tight. State officials alleged the animals were not given adequate food, water, shelter, or care, and the seized dogs were dirty and ill, documents show.

According to Rubin, the advocates conducted research and interviews in support of the state Attorney Generals decision to bring a civil forfeiture action to gain possession of Savvas dogs. Savva permanently relinquished 20 dogs and agreed to have no contact with the animals.

It is meaningful to me immediately when I see animals moved from circumstances where they are suffering to good circumstances, Rubin said.

Attorney Howard Gemeiner of New Haven, who represented Savva, said his feelings about Desmonds Law are mixed.

I appreciate the efforts made by the advocates but feel that the process was too adversarial, Gemeiner said.

Gemeiner asserted that not every violation warrants removal of an animal from its owner.

In my clients case he was a breeder who treated his dogs with love and respect, Gemeiner said. Who decides whether its best to remove them forever? There doesnt appear to be any criteria to determine the effect of removal on the animals. There is a big gap between being cruel and being a poorly managing breeder. The system needs to be seriously tweaked.

UCONNs advocates have helped resolve title to animals subjected to cruelty so they could be re-homed quickly, so they dont have to stay in a pound during the duration of a criminal case.

The advocate position can help resolve issues of ownership, offer recommendations on the use of diversionary programs, and offer creative solutions for sentences, Rubin said. We have worked on arrangements to have defendants relinquish the animal and not have any other animals.

Attorney Thomas Cherry of Cheshire is currently the advocate in a case involving a cat named Gus. A Bristol man, Jonathan Ely, is charged with malicious killing of an animal in connection with Gus August 2018 death. According to court documents, the 11-month-old cat suffered injuries to the head, eye, liver, spleen, abdomen, lungs, and kidneys. Police allege Ely used his steel-toed boot with a heavy enough kick to cause fatal injury to the cat, a warrant alleges. The case is pending in Superior Court in Bristol.

Another voice

Cherry said there is often a link between animal abuse, domestic abuse, and violence.

In the past, many animal abuse cases were just dismissed, Cherry said. My hope is for the judge to see the seriousness of the case and how the animal experienced pain. Animal abuse is a serious problem, and it is connected to other violence and should be taken seriously.

Gus owner, David Farmer of Bristol, found his cat dead on the floor. Farmer said he is hoping Ely, his former roommate, gets as much jail time as possible.

I dont have children, and Gus was my family, Farmer said. He was adorable and gentle. Everybody who met Gus loved him.

Farmer hopes having Cherry as an advocate will mean justice for Gus. Ely has entered a not guilty plea and is due back in court on Jan. 28. Elys defense attorney, Forest Green of Bristol, declined to comment.

Desmonds Army volunteer Linda Hall attended Elys most recent court appearance.

No animal should ever have to suffer, said Hall. They should be loved. We want prison time for people who knowingly harm an animal.

The volunteers are going to court for a variety of ongoing animal cruelty cases, including for a Waterbury man accused of killing his ex-girlfriends four kittens and a Durham man charged with killing his ex-girlfriends puppy.

Attorney Renee Bauer of Hamden, another advocate, said this legislation has brought another voice to the table, one which serves as a reminder that the case is in the courts because an innocent animal suffered.

Desmonds Law allows us to view animals as more than mere property that can be disposed of as anyone sees fit, Bauer said.

The court-appointed advocate does not directly represent the animal, but rather the interests of justice and that doesnt always mean a harsh recommendation, Bauer added. Sometimes, there are incidents that are horrible accidents and they need to be handled as such.

Gordon Willard, executive director of the Connecticut Humane Society, said Desmonds Law lets officials know the public wants animal cruelty cases taken seriously.

Animal abuse is a really strong precursor to other abuse, Willard said. It is a big red flag if a person is capable of causing animal suffering.

Willard said he would support expanding the law to allow for advocates in cases involving other animals.

All animals feel pain. If the issue were raised, we would support expanding Desmonds Law  if someone abused a rabbit or a horse, it is no different, he said.

Bauer asserted Desmonds Law falls a little short by only applying to cats and dogs. Bauer noted how a recent case involving a severely malnourished and mistreated horse didnt fall under the law and didnt qualify for an advocate.

There are other animals that need protection as well, Bauer said.

While Connecticut is the first to have this animal advocate law, the idea is spreading. Rubin said she has been in contact with officials in states such as New Jersey, New York, and Maine, where people are interested in having similar laws.

Urban hopes Desmonds Law will ultimately reduce violent incidents like school shootings.

For me, the importance is the link between animal cruelty and future violence, Urban said. I do believe it is a clear signal something is wrong and the perpetrator needs help.

Michelle Tuccitto Sullo can be reached at mtuccittoster@gmail.com.Wooster School is phasing out its lower school due to declining enrollment  but its not the only private school in the state to grapple with a shrinking student population.

Private school enrollments and the number of independent schools in the state has dropped in recent years, in large part because of the decline in the birth rate and wealthy families leaving Connecticut.

Danburys Wooster School cited a drop in the birth rate and the rising cost of college as reasons why lower school enrollment has faltered, while its middle and upper schools have flourished.

By all accounts, these economic and demographic realities arent going to change in coming decades and will continue to threaten the educational and financial viability of lower school divisions in independent schools, Matt Byrnes, head of school, said in a statement.

The lower school served kindergarten through fifth grade, but Wooster will only teach fifth through twelfth grade beginning in the 2021-22 school year.

Wooster officials did not make themselves available to comment further on the decision or future plans.

There are 46 independent schools in the state with about 17,900 students this school year, as compared to 57 schools and about 22,700 students in the 2006-07 school year, according to the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools.

Blythe Everett, head of Marvelwood School, a boarding high school in Kent, attributes the decline to fewer young children and even fewer families who are able to afford private school tuition.

Children of the baby boomers are dwindling and the people that have the money to really send their children to independent schools are older, she said. They don't have kids high school age. Competition is pretty fierce.

National trend

Nearly half of the 939 independent schools examined in a national study lost students between 2006-07 to 2013-14, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. The rest grew in enrollment.

Private schools in New York, New Jersey, the West and the Southwest are growing, while schools in the Mid-Atlantic region are losing students, according to the association. New England, Midwest and Southeast regions report a mix of enrollment growth and loss, the association said.

The closing of Catholic schools has had a big impact on overall enrollment numbers because parochial schools make up a large chunk of the independent school sector, according to the association.

Catholic schools have been struggling lately due to demographic changes, competition from public schools and a decrease in young families practicing their faith. Some Catholic schools in the state have closed, while others, such as St. Josephs in Brookfield, implemented a new teaching model to stay open.

Several public schools in the Danbury area have also seen enrollment fall or remain steady in recent years, according to the state Department of Education.

Meanwhile, Connecticut had the fifth lowest birth rate in the states in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Lower School decline

Enrollment is still good at upper and middle schools, but sometimes flounders at lower schools. Still, educators said it is normal for lower schools to be smaller.

Some parents elect to save money when their kids are younger by sending them to public school, said Douglas Lyons, executive director of Connecticut Association of Independent Schools.

You dont want to start in kindergarten and not be able to finish, he said.

But sending kids to private school when they are younger can give them an advantage, Lyons maintained. Thats why he is paying to send his four elementary-age grandchildren to private schools. If they need to go to a state college later, thats O.K., he said.

My money may run out before college, but theyll be well prepared, Lyons said. I'll be sending a pretty cheeky, resourceful learner into that environment.

Distance is another factor. Parents are less likely to send their kids farther away for elementary school, than for middle or high school.

Parents are not likely to drive 45 minutes each way for second grade, Lyons said.

Its the economy, stupid

Lyons said the economy has had one of the biggest impacts on private schools in some parts of the state.

As businesses leave the state and take wealthier executives with them, private school enrollment drops, he said. This was the case when General Electric left Fairfield, and especially true when Pfizer left New London, he said.

Still, he said Fairfield County has maintained enrollment better than other parts of the state.

There seems to be a fairly steady demand even in the leaner times, Lyons said.

But slow growth in average incomes in West Hartford has hurt private school enrollment in that area, he said.

Janet Izzo, director of admissions at Hamden Hall Country Day School, said the school has seen an increase in applications in recent years as New Haven becomes more vibrant. The school even added a pre-school program a few years ago because of parent interest, she said.

There really is a need for early childhood (education), Izzo said. More and more parents are working and they need their child to go some place.

More than 575 students attend Hamden Hall, according to its website.

Boarding schools thrive

Enrollment at boarding schools in northern Connecticut and nationally is still holding strong, thanks in part to international students.

Lyons said there is a growing desire among Asian families, in particular, to send their children to high school in America because they believe it will help their kids get into an American college.

Rumsey Hall School in Washington, which offers day and boarding programs for kindergarten through ninth grade, is among the thriving schools.

In no way do I think the private school model is getting kind of lost in the jumble of things, said Ben Tuff, director of admission.

Rumsey Hall has around 330 students, with children on the waiting list. Of that, 145 students attend the boarding schoolthe highest its ever been because of international students. This would help make up for any loss in revenue if the day school enrollment dipped, he said.

In the bordering town of Kent, Marvelwood has 135 high school studentsa number Everett said she is satisfied with. Seven to eight years ago, the school had its highest enrollment of about 165 students, but that was too many, she said.

We would probably like to be a little higher than 135, but were comfortable right now, she said.

Most Marvelwood students come from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, but some hale from 15 other states and 12 foreign countries, including Vietnam, China and Mexico.

How schools are attracting students

Schools are boosting marketing and upgrading facilities and programs to attract students.

Marvelwood School recently introduced an equestrian program and renovated its dorms for $2 million, Everett said.

King School in Stamford has increased its online marketing, said Nina Newman, director of admission. But the school, where enrollment is growing in the middle and upper programs and staying steady in the lower school, also relies on word-of-mouth.

We are lucky to have a strong lower school program that our families love and a community that supports our lower school program, Newman said.

Rumsey Hall doesnt need to do much advertising, Tuff said.

Our track record speaks for ourselves, he said. Word-of-mouth marketing works best for us.

Tuff said schools often blame demographics for shrinking enrollment, but in Rumsey Halls case it doesnt matter.

He said students come from Miami or San Francisco or move from New York to live full-time in their families weekend homes in the Washington area.

Even though the demographics might not support the private school learning, sometimes you just have to think outside the box, Tuff said.South Africa: Day 2 of voter registration off to a smooth start

Among those that took their time out on a Sunday to go register was 42-year-old Milnerton resident Ryan Allen, who said he will be casting his vote for the first time in this years polls.

Allen, who said voting was an important part of shaping the future of the country, said his vote was delayed by the fact that he took time to resolve identity challenges that have troubled him since he was 16-years-old.

But despite this, and after finally getting a smart ID card last year, he will be joining many other citizens, most of them half his age, to vote for the first time when the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) administers this years general elections, which are expected to take place in May.

Said Allen: My advise for people who havent registered yet, please come register. It is quite important and the reason being that for our future and for our kids futures, we have got to make the right choices, he said.

Allen was among the 42 residents that walked in to register by 11am on Sunday morning, with 16 others going in to check if their registration details were in order, said Milnerton voting station manager Welcome Mtengwana.

Mtengwana said the voter registration went well on Saturday, with 163 residents showing up to register to vote, while 49 others went in to inspect their registration details.

First-time voter Stefan Jablanovic, 18, said he will in this years elections make his mark for the first time with his future in mind.

I think it is important to vote because it is the least you can do as a [citizen] trying to contribute towards the society of South Africa, putting your voice and your opinion out there in terms of supporting what you think will take the country further, he said.

Another first time voter, Christopher Emefiele, said registering to vote is part of building the country that will benefit all citizens.

I think in terms of why people should come and [register], especially the youth, is because it benefits the country and it benefits every single citizen that is in South Africa so in terms of [building a better country], it means you have to come down and register.

Michael Jedeikin said: This is the first time Im voting and I think it is important to vote to be part of [decision making] in the country.

At the Sinenjongo High School in Joe Slovo Park, 19-year-old Chuma Maphukathe, also a first-time voter, said registering to vote was about making her voice and opinion heard on how the country should be run.

It is about voicing my opinion about access to better education and for young people to get job opportunities. Also, we are evolving technologically and schools should also be that way and not use old methods of teaching, she said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.HARTFORD - An effort to block convicted animal abusers from adopting pets is again before the General Assembly.

The environment committee on Friday raised a bill sponsored by State Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, that would prohibit anyone previously convicted of animal abuse from adopting an animal.

"Lets have this conversation," Tercyak said. "I want to see what folks have to say."

The bill submitted to the committee contains only vague language calling for a prohibition. Previous bills that failed to become law called for an animal abuse registry that rescue groups, pet stores and shelters could use to check the background a person seeking buy or adopt a pet.

Tercyak said hes not proposing a registry at this point, but said hes open to ideas to accomplish the goal.

"This is a good place to start," Tercyak said, referring to his bill.

"This is why we have public hearings, Tercyak said. We may make this with or without a registry. Im putting forth an idea and we will have a public hearing and hear what will work."

The bill follows highly publicized Fairfield County abuse cases in which dogs were found either dead or abused while the person responsible was working or volunteering in the animal rescue field.

Heidi Lueders was charged last year with animal cruelty after five dogs were found dead inside her Fairfield home. The dogs were assigned to Lueders by a local shelter and were under her care.

A registry bill previously passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who opposed creating a registry.

State Rep. Fred Camillo, R-Greenwich and a sponsor of earlier bills, said he supports Terycaks effort and said some form of legislation is needed in wake of recent abuse cases.

"Its similar," Camillo said, referring to bills he sponsored. "I would support it. "

Camillo hes hopeful Gov. Ned Lamont will view the issue differently than Malloy.

"You want something thats workable," Camillo said. "Passing something thats hard to implement is a waste of time."

Not so fast

Brenda Kupchick, R-Fairfield, said she supports the concept but said shes not sure how to enforce the prohibition and is concerned about the cost and functionality of an animal abuse registry.

"Its about how you make it work," Kupchick said.

Kupchick said judges already have the authority to ban a convicted animal abuser from owning or adopting pets in the future.

"There would have to be a registry in every shelter," Kupchick said. "They [shelters and pet sellers] can now go to a judicial website."

Kupchick said a registry list may be too much of a financial burden.

"The state would be required to maintain a list and keep it updated, Kupchick said. In concept its a lovely idea, but in realty Im not sure how to approve it."

Kupchick said a coalition of legislators dedicated to animal welfare issues is not focused on Tercyaks bill.

"We have a lot of animal welfare bills, and we focus on the bills with the greatest impact," Kupchick said.

For and against

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals opposes animal abuse registries.

"Although we appreciate that animal abuser registry proposals derive from a genuine motivation to take animal cruelty seriously, the ASPCA believes that this approach does little to protect animals or people and can have unintended consequences," the organization said in a statement on its website.

The ASPCA said registry lists are expensive to maintain and create, have limited reach, are rarely used and can create a "vigilante" mentality among the public.

On the other hand, the National Anti-Vivisection Society said 10 states are moving ahead with legislation this year and many towns and cities already have the law on their books.

The Society noted that the first abuse registry list was passed in New York State in 2010. In 2014, Nassau County and New York City passed registries and in 2015, Tennessee became the first state to adopt a statewide animal abuser registry.

"Keeping companion animals out of the hands of convicted animal abusers continues to be a priority concern for animal advocates across the United States," the Society said in a statement.

"Animal abuser registries are intended to provide a resource for police, shelters and adoption centers to identify convicted animal abusers who are trying to adopt or purchase an animal or who are involved in new allegations of abuse," the Society said.

bcummings@ctpost.comChina will not approve wind and solar power projects unless they can compete with coal power prices. China stopped subsidizing large scale solar projects in May, 2018. This was reported by John Parnell at Forbes.

Chinas leaders did not like Chinese companies building overseas solar projects overseas at prices far below what they were charging within China.

In 2017, 12% of wind generation and 6% of solar wasted because the power grid could not use the generated power

New solar and wind renewable power projects will have to show that the grid can handle their output and that the price will be lower than coal. Local governments have been told they are free to offer their own subsidies to projects if they wish.

China had provided subsidies of $15.6 billion in 2017 and was on track to subsidize renewables for $39 billion in 2020. However, the new requirements mean that solar and wind will have installations without non-local subsidies in China.

Solar and wind installations are still expected but at a slower rate of growth. The overall price of solar panels will likely increase over the next two years because of consolidation in the industry. Smaller companies will be killed or bought by larger companies.

Over half of the solar and wind will be installed in China, India and the USA.Brazils mining company Vale has had its second iron tailings dam collapse in the last four years. An iron tailing dam burst on Friday. There are forty confirmed dead and about 200 people are missing.

Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.

Brazils Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate the mining dam collapse, saying someone is definitely at fault. Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

Tailings, also called mine dumps, culm dumps, slimes, tails, refuse, leach residue or slickens, terra-cone are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore. Tailings are distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlies an ore or mineral body and is displaced during mining without being processed.

On November, 2015, the Bento Rodrigues iron ore tailings dam failed and destroyed the village of Bento Rodrigues and killed 19 people.

The failure of the Bento Rodrigues dam has been described as the worst environmental disaster in Brazils history. Around 60 million cubic meters of iron waste flowed into the Doce River, causing toxic brown mudflows to pollute the river and beaches near the mouth when they reached the Atlantic Ocean 17 days later. The disaster sparked a humanitarian crisis as hundreds were displaced and cities along the Doce River suffered water shortages.

Huge Amounts of Mined Materials Mean Huge Amounts of Waste

The World mines about 2 billion tons of iron every year and nearly 8 billion tons of coal. There is waste water with toxic metals from the mining process and there is sludge and solid wastes from the mining and from the processing. There are thousands of waste and toxic materials in ponds and landfills.

The world has been using coal, iron and steel for 200 years. Almost none of the waste has been remediated.

Mining for Industry, Energy and Transporation

Six hundreds 5 megawatt offshore wind turbines are needed 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 concrete almost double the material needed to build nuclear power plants.

Solar has a higher carbon footprint with 30-100 grams CO2e/kWh versus 17 grams/kWh for nuclear.. Fossil fuel is at about 800 grams per kWh.

A lot more steel and cement is needed for solar power to generate the same amount of energy as nuclear.

Solar and wind use up 5,000 times more land and 10  15 times more concrete, cement, steel, and glass, than are required than for nuclear plants. Solar panels create 200  300 times more hazardous waste than nuclear.

Top Iron Producing Countries

1. Australia

Usable ore: 880 million tonnes; iron content: 545 million tonnes

2. Brazil

Usable ore: 440 million tonnes; iron content: 280 million tonnes

The second-largest iron-producing country is Brazil, where usable iron ore production totaled 440 million tonnes in 2017. Vale (NYSE:VALE) achieved record production again in 2017, with 366.5 million tonnes of iron ore produced.

3. China

Usable ore: 340 million tonnes; iron content: 210 million tonnes

China is the worlds largest consumer of iron ore, despite being only the third-largest iron-producing country last year. Its production decreased slightly, dropping from 348 million tonnes in 2016 to 340 million tonnes in 2017. According to Statista, Chinese production has fallen since March of this year.

In 2017, the countrys iron ore imports increased by roughly 5 percent compared with the previous year, reaching 1.08 billion tonnes

4. India

Usable ore: 190 million tonnes; iron content: 120 million tonnes

5. Russia

Usable ore: 100 million tonnes; iron content: 60 million tonnes

6. South Africa

Usable ore: 68 million tonnes; iron content: 39 million tonnes

7. Ukraine

Usable ore: 63 million tonnes; iron content: 39 million tonnes

8. Canada

Usable ore: 47 million tonnes; iron content: 29 million tonnes

9. United States

Usable ore: 46 million tonnes; iron content: 29 million tonnes

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, and sometimes other elements. In 2017, total world crude steel production was 1,691.2 million tonnes (Mt). The biggest steel producing country is currently China, which accounted for 49.2% of world steel production in 2017.

There is 150 tonnes of metallurgical coal via steel in an onshore windmill  and 250 tonnes of coal in an offshore one.

The world is using about 7.5 billion tons of coal per year.

Oilsand Tailing Ponds in Canada

The sheer size and scope of Albertas some 20 oil sands tailings ponds is unprecedented for any industry in the world. One of these ponds  the Mildred Lake Settling Basin  is the worlds largest dam by volume of construction material. Since oilsands mining operations started in 1967, 1.3 trillion liters of fluid tailings has accumulated in these open ponds on the Northern Alberta landscape. This is enough toxic waste to fill 400,000 Olympic swimming pools.

Unlike tailings produced from conventional hard rock mining, the solids in oilsands tailings will take centuries to settle to the bottom of the ponds. As a result, it is impossible to dewater the waste for timely reclamation without significant intervention.

Coal Ash Dumps and Sludge Dams

Duke Energy has had several dam breaches and coal ash spills in recent years.

Coal ash is a toxic waste formed from burning coal in power plants to make electricity. It is the second largest industrial waste stream in the USA,.coal ash is linked to the countrys four leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, respiratory diseases and stroke.

Hundreds of contaminated sites and spills have been documented among the 1,400+ coal ash waste dumps across the country. In 2012, the EPA reported that at least 535 coal ash ponds currently operate without a liner to prevent hazardous chemicals from reaching drinking water sources.

There have been 208 known contaminations and spills. Coal combustion waste sites have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, and rivers.

There are 82 high risk and 250 significant risk coal ash ponds. The hazard ratings refer to the potential for loss of life or damage if there is a dam failure.

Coal waste dumps contain billions of gallons of fly ash and other coal waste containing toxic heavy metals, which the EPA considers a threat to water supplies and human health. However, they are not subject to federal regulation, and there is little monitoring of their impacts on the local environment.

The EPA reclassified fly ash from waste to a reusable material in the 1980s. The agency exempted ash from regulations for hazardous waste beginning in 1993. In 2001, the EPA said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used for the disposal of coal waste. However, the agency has yet to act, and coal ash ponds are currently subject to less regulation than landfills accepting household trash, despite the tens of thousands of pounds of toxic heavy metals stored in ash ponds across the U.S. State regulations vary, but most ash ponds are unlined and unmonitored.Jon Nowinskis Facebook motto reads, Made it through the storm and living my dream!

On Jan. 23, Nowinski died at age 37 following a long battle with health complications, but his dream lives on through EARS (Emergency Animal Response Services), the nonprofit he founded in 2012.

He was always there to support any animal cause, lend a hand or offer a kind word, said Animal Control Officer Karen Lombardi of Woodbridge Animal Control, who laughed as she reminisced about chasing a pair of escaped emus with Nowinski. He would often be the first to show up at an emergency. He was the bravest man I ever knew.

Any time of day or night, Nowinski, an animal EMT and K9 medic, was available to help a pet owner with an injured dog or downed horse, arriving with his EARS animal ambulance chock full of first aid supplies and bearing the knowledge and training to put them to use.

He showed up at the drop of a hat when he was needed, said Dr. Stacey Golub, owner of Connecticut Valley Equine Veterinary Services and founder of CT Draft Horse Rescue. He came to help with a downed horse in Northford, driving all the way from Westport. His impact was huge. Jon helped countless animals in all situations. This is a huge loss for animals as well as people; no one can ever fill those shoes.

Nowinskis mission included training others, and he tirelessly traveled the region teaching seminars in emergency and disaster preparedness and animal first aid. When he realized there was no way to safely transport injured or compromised animals he raised funds to purchase and outfit an animal ambulance, complete with oxygen. If an animal organization needed help with a project, hed jump in with a fundraiser.

The announcement of Nowinskis passing produced a flood of posts from police K-9 units throughout the state. The Easton Police posted a photo of their team on Instagram with Nowinski that reads,  . . . our good friend Jon Nowinski passed away last night. Jon was an amazing person who wanted nothing but to give back to the K-9 and animal community . . . Jon also donated several medical kits to K-9 teams throughout CT and also volunteered his time teaching emergency medical classes to civilian and K-9 teams. The post also stated that the Easton, Wilton and Meriden police departments are coordinating to have a K-9 presence at Nowinskis memorial services.

Shortly before he entered the hospital late last year, Nowinski had been hired by Central Hospital for Veterinary Medicine in North Haven to do community engagement and outreach. He never had the opportunity to begin his job.

I had met Jon through EARS and you couldnt help but be impressed by him, said Ken Aldrich, Central Hospital director. He was one of those rare people who was able to find his passion with helping animals and educating others about it. Its exponential in that he taught others to help others, whether it was pet owners or emergency personal, and they continue to teach what they learned from Jon. Its an amazing legacy.

Golub agreed.

He was just an incredible guy with a huge heart, she said. How do you summarize so many great things he did in just a few words? He was an amazing man who did great things to better the lives of animals. I can only hope that someone can take the reins and continue forward with the legacy Jon started.

There will be a gathering of family and friends on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Cody-White Funeral Home, 107 N. Broad St., Milford. Donations can be made in Jon Nowinskis name to EARS at EARSCT.org.RIDGEFIELD  The Village Tavern restaurant on Main Street has closed its doors, roughly two years after opening, according to news reports.

The Patch reported Friday that the eatery had closed up shop.

The Village Tavern opened in Jan. 2017, under co-owners Bruno DiFabio and Germano Minin. The duo met in 2014 when DiFabio was a judge on The Food Networks Chopped and Minin was a contestant

Back in October, DiFabio pleaded guilty to tax evasion, according to the Department of Justice.

At the time, the DOJ said DiFabio also owned several pizzerias in New York and Connecticut, including Pinocchio Pizza in New Canaan, Wilton and Pound Ridge, N.Y; Amore Pizza in Scarsdale, N.Y.; Amore Cucina and Bar in Stamford; and ReNapoli Pizza in Old Greenwich.

The DOJ said when DiFabio is sentenced, he faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $1.6 million and full restitution of $816,954 to the IRS.

After pleading guilty on Oct. 25, 2018, he was released on a $100,000 bond pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.A Connecticut agency that includes the state police is racking up violations and fines due to a nearly two-year backlog in responding to public information requests.

For the past few years, the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protections backlog has generated a steady stream of complaints to the Freedom of Information Commission, which investigates whether denials or delays of releasing information was reasonable.

The approximately two-year wait is for simple requests, not even for those with exemptions that can be argued about, said Colleen Murphy, the executive director of the commission. Were ratcheting up our response with fines and finding the violation is without reasonable cause. The commission is hopeful that this will get some attention.

In one recent case, the commission found DESPP in violation of state FOI laws, and threatened to issue a $100 fine if the requested documents werent turned over in two weeks.

We understand the woes of that agency, we are all feeling the budget pinch, but from an FOI standpoint, when you havent even responded to some basic requests, the commission has been issuing some increasingly pointed decisions, Murphy said.

How FOI works

In most cases, the complaints lodged against the state police or DESPP have been filed by citizens, including prison inmates, who are seeking routine information that is considered public under the states Freedom of Information Act, Murphy said.

In addition to the state police, DESPP encompasses five other agencies, including the Connecticut crime lab and the states 911 system. The public cites DESPP, its former Commissioner Dora Schriro, and state police in FOI complaints, documents show.

The bulk of the FOI requests received by DESPP involve the state police, DESPP spokesman Scott Devico said.

According to state FOI law, most documents, recordings, policies, emails and other information generated by state and local government agencies are considered public and anyone can view them upon request.

There are exemptions, such as arrest records of juveniles, investigative techniques not generally known by the public, pending litigation, negotiations, blueprints or videos of sensitive buildings such as prisons, medical records of employees, and certain personnel documents if they contain records that would be considered embarrassing.

When a member of the public seeks a record from a government agency in writing through the states FOI process, the agency is required to respond within four days of receiving the request, said Thomas Hennick, the commissions public education officer. He said the agency only needs to acknowledge it has received the request at that point.

But the information or documents requested or a denial should be provided in a prompt fashion, according to the states FOI Act, Hennick said.

What constitutes promptness is up for interpretation, he said.

A complaint to the state FOI Commission must be filed within 30 days of a denied request. Government agencies cannot allow the 30 days to pass to avoid turning over the requested information, Hennick said.

Every time you call and ask about your request, the 30 days starts all over again, he said.

In 2018, the commission received 757 complaints, which was a slow year, according to Hennick.

Weve been up over 800 a couple of times, he said.

His office is unable to determine how many complaints are generated each year by the DESPP and state police backlog. But Murphy said the commission noticed a few years ago that complaints against the state police and DESPP were piling up.

Its typical for us to get complaints against the DESPP due to the nature of the records they keep, Murphy said. It has definitely gotten the attention of the commission in the past two or three years. The backlog was even longer and the staff noticed. Weve begun fining them, and in one case, listed a series of similar cases (also related to the backlog) in the final decision.

When a complaint is deemed valid, its assigned to a hearing officer, who is either a member of the commission or an FOI staff attorney. The hearing officer attempts to mediate the complaint before it goes to a hearing. If a hearing is held, the officer will write a recommendation on the appropriate course of action, which is later voted on by the full commission, Hennick said.

The recommendations can range from upholding an agencys denial of records to finding the agency in violation of the FOI Act and ordering remedies, including turning over the requested materials.

Hearing officers have recently started finding the state police and DESPP in violation of portions of the state FOI law and imposing a $100 fine, which is the most the commission can do, Murphy said.

They not only have a two-year backlog, when they do finally address the request, its another 36 days with the time it takes for the requester to pay the fees, Murphy said.

Scope of the problem

Over the past few years, the DESPP Legal Affairs Unit had been slowly reduced through attrition, said Chris McClure, spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management.

For much of 2018, they were down to one paralegal, McClure said.

The assistant legal director for the state police also left, he said. But three paralegal and the assistant legal director positions have since been filled and there are additional attorneys in the unit, McClure said.

The Legal Affairs Unit receives the FOI requests and then seeks the information from the appropriate units within DESPP, including the state police Reports and Records Unit, another understaffed group that FOI hearing officers said has contributed to the backlog.

The Legal Affairs Unit must review all information requested by the public for exemptions and redactions before the documents or recordings can be released.

McClure attributed some of the backlog to the increasing use of body cameras worn by troopers and dash cameras in cruisers, which are time consuming to review.

If there is an FOI request, someone has to review it in its entirety and make changes if there are redactions required, McClure said.

State agencies must submit requests to fill vacancies to the OMP and the state Department of Administrative Services for approval, McClure said.

At least four recent FOI decisions issued in favor of complainants refer to inadequate staffing within the Legal Affairs Unit and Reports and Records Unit as systemic problems causing the DESPP and state police to fail to comply promptly with records requests as required under the Freedom of Information Act, documents said.

Trooper Tanya Compagnone, a spokeswoman for the state police, confirmed the agency has an 18-month backlog, which she said was created as people left or retired and were not replaced with the Reports and Records Unit. Two people were recently hired for the unit and another four are on the way, state officials said.

However, bear in mind that all have to be trained thoroughly before we begin to see a meaningful impact on the backlog, she said.

One mans complaint

Dale Kukucka contended several times during Wednesdays FOI Commission meeting that he has been jailed for a wrongful conviction.

Kukucka, a former Bloomfield teacher, was sentenced in 2016 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at an East Haddam parade three years earlier.

Kukucka filed two FOI requests to the DESPP on April 20, 2018 seeking the agencys policies on tracking cellphones in 2013, the records of calls made by the state police detective investigating his case, witness statements and information on the photo array used by state police Troop K to identify him, according to FOI documents.

Kukucka filed a complaint with the FOI commission against DESPP and Schriro on May 18 when he still didnt receive the information. His case was heard in July by Lisa Fein Siegel, an FOI Commission staff attorney who was assigned as the hearing officer.

FOI documents indicate the Legal Affairs Unit began gathering some of Kukuckas items in June, but didnt forward his request to the Research and Planning Unit, which had some of the information he was seeking, until the day before the FOI hearing in July.

His other request was forwarded by Legal Affairs to the Research and Planning Unit a week before the hearing  three months after Kukucka sought the information, Fein Siegel noted. She recommended the full commission order the DESPP to turn over the items to Kukucka in a timely manner for free.

Although some of the items could not be produced because they didnt exist or were too time consuming to find, most of the information could be released, she determined. DESPP failed to prove it worked in a timely manner to provide the information to Kukucka, violating two sections of the FOI Act, she said.

The full commission unanimously approved Fein Siegels recommendation on Wednesday. DESPP was notified of Fein Diegels recommendation on Dec. 17. As of Wednesday, Kukucka who called in to the meeting, said hes received some items similar to his request, but nothing else.

My main concern is that I was promised I was going to get these materials, he said. What guarantee do I have that they will actually give them to me?

Sam Norton contributed to this story.NEW FAIRFIELD  Two homeowners were sent to the hospital Sunday after they tried to extinguish a blaze at their house before firefighters arrived.

The residents were evaluated at Danbury Hospital as a precaution, said Michael OToole, assistant chief of Ball Pond Volunteer Fire Company.As I look at the tax reform ideas floating around the state Capitol, especially the ones from Sen. Martin Looney, the Senate president pro tem, I think of the last question in the last interview I had with former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy before he left office.

It was about a conundrum, an economic riddle; the Rubiks Cube of state and municipal finance.

Malloy, like a lot of Democrats, including Looney, of New Haven, believes with fervor that we can only save cities by reducing their reliance on property taxes. Makes sense, as no other state is so property-tax-centric, and the system we have now leaves the poorset cities in a fiscal death spiral.

The Democrats, led by Malloy and Looney, have responded by saying, OK, lets cap the city-killing car tax, which they consider unfair at its core. And lets compensate cities and towns by sending them state money  but not equally. Naturally, well pay more to the towns that need it the most and less to the richer towns.

The trouble is, that has all sorts of bad side-effects. I talked about those with Malloy  not because he still had the power to act on it, but because hed thought about these issues for a lifetime.

Trying to find the right formula to address that is a difficult one, Malloy said.

Looneys latest, multipronged plan puts the core idea on steroids. Hed end municipalities ability to tax vehicles altogether. Hed launch a state property tax on cars at 19 mills or less; the statewide cap for the municipal car tax is now 37 mills.

Hed let homeowners lop $50,000 off their assessments, thereby lowering their property tax bills by $1,400 or so, in a typical town.

And hed let businesses knock $25,000 off their real estate assessments.

All of this would reduce towns tax revenues unless they raised mill rates. No one has calculated the exact amounts, but its way more than $1 billion, since the vehicle property tax alone is worth something in the range of $800 million to $900 million for all municipalities combined.

So Looney would create a state tax of one mill  $100 for every $100,000 of assessed value  and hed add one-half of 1 percentage point to the 6.35 percent state sales tax. Together, those new state taxes would raise $700 million, more or less.

The 19-mill state vehicle tax would raise maybe $500 million for the state. All told, the state would now have more than $1 billion to give back to the towns, thereby making them less reliant on the property tax. But of course, towns that had poor-performing schools, or lots of untaxable property, or lots of special education needs  big cities and poor towns  would see the larger shares of cash back from the state.

Translation: Maybe its good economics, but its mostly income redistribution masquerading as property tax reform. And the extra half-point of the sales tax would go to the towns that generated the sales, or towns near malls  thereby encouraging more retail sprawl.

True property tax reform means forcing towns to cut their costs, not just paring back their tax collections and sending them more state money. Looney and fellow Democrats, notably Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, the Senate majority leader, want to do that too, with a radical idea about school systems. Well get to that in a minute.

First, the conundrum.

The more we pay to the towns that need it most, the more they can lower property taxes, and that can make it easier for them to reverse the spiral by attracting people and businesses. Places like Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan with ridiculously low town tax rates can make it up on their own, os so the thinking goes.

Heres one perverse effect: Middle-class people who live in those rich towns are priced out. Maybe theyve owned their houses since the bygone days when prices were more reasonable, or they inherited homes, or they live in smaller, cheaper abodes.

Suddenly, the goal of having economically mixed cities and towns, already slipping away in Connecticut, disappears all the faster.

Malloys answer, and Looney would agree: We should be less reliant on property taxes.

As for the conundrum of how to compensate those cities and towns without further dividing the state, Malloy called it a matter of balance. But he added, that we underwrite teacher pensions in Greenwich to a much larger financial commitment than we do in New Britain doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

He was right, and thats why it wasnt such a bad idea to ask towns to pay part of those teacher pensions. But  here comes the conundrum again  that makes the property tax problem all the worse.

Theres an answer for that, too: Communities could help themselves by doing more things together that they do individually, Malloy said. I wish municipalities became as efficient as our state government has become.

To that end, Looney and Duff have proposed bills that would consolidate small school systems. Looney would create a commission (yeah, its government) to implement regional consolidation of school districts. The goal: For any town or school system that has fewer than 40,000 residents, require such school districts to join a regional school district.

Whoa, does that mean Darien and New Canaan students could be on the same teams and the taunting would stop? Maybe.

The laws would change labor rules to make it easier for cities and towns to meld schools.

All of this is a lot to digest even before we see the fine print, which doesnt exist yet. Looney isnt saying its this or nothing; hes saying heres a starting point for the debate. Such a radical school consolidation plan cant pass; it would have to be more modest.

You may ask, where does Gov. Ned Lamont stand on forced school consolidation and Looneys brand of property tax reform? Hes not saying, but property taxes were a big part of his campaign, and his transition committees recommended some of these ideas, notably the school consolidation idea.

The danger is that we get something less than true reform, and in falling short, we only redistribute income in ways that have harmful effects. One conversation with a ranking lawmaker Friday showed me how hard all this will be.

If were collecting car taxes statewide, Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, said, the money should go into the special transportation fund.

That fund, for highways and transit, needs money that isnt tolls, said Godfrey, a toll opponent.

So, where would the towns get their money? Local income taxes? Local sales taxes? Local user fees? I dont know, Godfrey said.

dhaar@hearstmediact.comNew Delhi:

A painting by the renowned and anonymous street artist Banksy on a fire door at the Bataclan theatre in Paris has been stolen, the concert hall tweeted on Saturday. "It's a deep sadness that moves us today," the tweet read. "Banksy's work, a symbol of remembrance and belonging to everyone -- locals, Parisians, citizens of the world -- was taken from us."

The painting showed a sad figure of a girl wearing a veil in black and white, her head slightly bowed as she gazed downward. The mural carried significance because it was painted on the door of the Bataclan, where 90 people were killed in a November 2015 terrorist attack.

Luvre de @originaIbanksy hommage aux victimes du 13/11 a ete volee. pic.twitter.com/FMHoobzRXm  Bataclan (@bataclan_) January 26, 2019

Reuters reported that a police source said thieves stole the door using a van on Friday night. A CNN report said that the painting was among the many by Banksy in Paris, many of which dealt with Europe's migrant crisis.

Who is Banksy?

Banksy is a famous - but anonymous - British graffiti artist. He keeps his identity a secret. He produces pieces of work which pop up in public places, such as on the walls of buildings. A lot of his art is done in a particular style which people can easily recognise. He began spray-painting trains and walls in his home city of Bristol in the early 1990s. But in the 2000s, he expanded his work beyond Bristol and was soon leaving his artistic mark all over the world, as reported by the BBC.

What happened on the fateful night of November 13, 2015, at Bataclan?

A black Volkswagen Polo pulled up outside the Bataclan concert hall at 21:40 (local time) and three heavily armed gunmen got out. Less than three hours later they were dead, having killed 90 people at the venue and critically injured many others.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation in the 52nd edition of his monthly radio show Mann ki Baat at 11 am on Sunday. The years first edition of PM Modis Mann ki Baat will be broadcast on All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan. The monthly radio show, where the prime minister shares his thoughts can also be heard live on the official Narendra Modi App. The program will also be live-streamed on the Youtube channels of the Prime Ministers Office, AIR and DD News. Last month, the Mann ki Baat radio show had completed 51 episodes. In the 51 episodes, the prime minister has spoken about a bunch of issues of public interest. During the last episode, Modi had emphasised the role of radio as a mighty means of getting across. From remote villages to Metro cities, from farmers to young professionals  the array just prompted me to embark upon this journey of Mann Ki Baat, he had said.

Here are the LIVE updates:

11.33 am: January 30 is the death anniversary of revered Bapu Mahatma Gandhi. At 11 am, country pays homage to martyrs. Wherever we are, we must pay 2 minutes tribute to our martyrs. Remember our revered Bapu. Take vow to fulfil dreams of Bapu, says PM.

30th January is death anniversary of revered #Bapu. At 11 am, Country pays homage to martyrs. Wherever we are, we must pay 2 minutes tribute to our martyrs. Remember our revered Bapu. Take vow to fulfill dreams of Bapu: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/GaYOYFqGop  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.31 am: On January 29, at 11 am, in 'Pariksha Pe Charcha', I will touch upon a lot of things related to exams with my young friends, especially on the topic of stress-free exams. I urged people to send me their inputs, ideas with regard to this programme, says PM Modi.

On Jan 29, at 11 am, in '#ParikshaPeCharcha', I will touch upon lot of things related to exams with my young friends, especially on topic of stress free exams. I urged people to send me their inputs, ideas with regard to this programme: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/NlA8rI4I6P  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.31 am: My younger friends, the days of examinations are approaching. Students, their parents, teachers, all are engaged in tasks related to exams. I wish all the students, their parents and teachers all the best, says PM.

11.30 am: I appeal to all the Sarpanchs, village heads to take lead in this campaign in their respective Panchayats. And do share your "clean beautiful toilet" photos with me on #MylzzatGhar, says PM.

I appeal to all the Sarpanchs, village heads to take lead in this campaign in their respective Panchayats. And do share your "clean beautiful toilet" photos with me on #MylzzatGhar: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/kQMUN8M0FE  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.27 am: This time in Khelo India, participants from every state performed well at their individual level. Life of many medal winner is also immensely inspiring, says the PM.

11.26 am: We have also created world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft. We will soon register Indias presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign, says PM.

We have also created world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft. We will soon register Indias presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/R008NZkFnZ  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.25 am: The number of successful space missions attempted since the country's independence till 2014 have been equal to those successfully completed in the past four years, says PM

11.25 am: Dr. Vikram Sarabhai has had an important role in India's space program. Our space program has been possible due to innumerable young scientists. We take pride in that satellites developed by our students, Sounding Rockets reached space, says the PM.

Dr. #VikramSarabhai has had important role in India's space program. Our #space program has been possible due to innumerable young scientists. We take pride in that satellites developed by our students, Sounding Rockets reached space: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/1bt5oTYSZm  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.24 am: Sant Ravidas proposed that if God was present in every human being, then it was not fair to categorize him on the basis of caste, creed and other sociological demarcations, says PM Modi.

11.23 am: India is a land of saints. Our saints have conveyed the message of goodwill, equality, social empowerment through their thoughts and deeds. One such Saint was SantRavidas and on February 19, we will observe Ravidas Jayanti, says PM.

India is a land of saints. Our saints have conveyed message of goodwill, equality, social empowerment through their thoughts and deeds. One such Saint was- #SantRavidas. On Feb 19, we will observe #RavidasJayanti: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/v3axn2B9N8  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.21 am: Rabindranath Tagore made paintings of many animals, birds, landscapes, human characters but not ascribe any name to most of his works. His paintings have been on display in European countries, in Russia and in Americ, says the PM.

#RabindranathTagore did paintings of many animals, birds, landscapes, human characters but not ascribe any name to most of his works. His paintings have been on display in European countries, in Russia and in America: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/I2uyGW8TyH  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.20 am: I have always considered radio as effective means of connecting with people. Similarly, Netaji shared deep bond with medium of Radio, says the PM.

I have always considered #Radio as effective means of connecting with people. Similarly, Netaji shared deep bond with medium of Radio: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/aaX8UXdWRr  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.19 am: It gladdens me to see many places associated with illustrious sons of India being developed in Delhi. Alipur Road, Sardar Patel museum, Kranti Mandir! Whenever you come to Delhi, you must pay visit to these places: PM

11.18 am: Files associated with #=Netaji be declassified has been a long-standing demand for years. And I am happy that we could manage to do the same, says PM.

Files associated with #Netaji be declassified has been long standing demand for years. And I am happy that we could manage to do the same: PM @narendramodi ,#MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/VtbSbKBTHY  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.15 am: A museum dedicated to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Indian National Army; Yaad-e-Jalian, reminiscences of Jalianwala Bagh, 1857  Indias 1st war of Independence constitute premises of Kranti Mandir, that has been dedicated to the nation, says PM Modi.

11.13 am: Files associated with Netaji be declassified has been long-standing demand for years. And I am happy that we could manage to do the same, says PM.

11.10 am: India has given birth to innumerable great men. On Jan 23, Country celebrated birth anniversary of Netaji. On this occasion, I was fortunate to get opportunity to inaugurate museum dedicated to heroes who fought in Indias freedom struggle, says PM.

India has given birth to innumerable great men. On Jan 23, Country celebrated birth anniversary of #Netaji. On this occasion I was fortunate to get opportunity to inaugurate museum dedicated to heroes who fought in Indias freedom struggle: PM @narendramodi #MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/Gw4GgDuRqN  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.08 am: I urge eminent people of the country to come forward and jointly contribute in campaigning for spreading awareness on voter registration and casting ones vote on the day of polling: PM

11.07 am: This year, there will be the Lok Sabha elections in our country. This is the first time ever, young persons born in the 21st century will be able to exercise their right to vote. I urge young generation to register themselves as voters, if they are eligible, says PM.

11.06 am: On January 25, the Election Commission was formed and now this day is celebrated as National Voters Day. It is natural for every Citizen to feel proud of EC of its meticulous organising abilities, says PM.

11.05 am: On 26th of January, 1950, our Constitution came into being; our Country was proclaimed Republic. Yesterday, we celebrated the Republic Day with pride and fervour, said Narendra Modi.

11.04 am: I have had the fortunate opportunity to be blessed by Swamiji, many a time. In 2007, on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of Sri Sri Sri Shivakumara Swamiji our former President Dr. #APJAbdulKalam had paid visit to Tumukur, says PM.

I have had fortunate opportunity to be blessed by Swamiji, many a time. In 2007, on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of Sri Sri Sri #ShivakumarSwamiji our former President Dr. #APJAbdulKalam had paid visit to Tumukur: PM @narendramodi

#MannKiBaat, #PMonAIR pic.twitter.com/qkZCIrn6lv  All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 27, 2019

11.01 am: was true follower of Lord Basaveshwar's tenet 'Kayakave kailash'. During his life spanning 111 years, he strived tirelessly towards social, educational, and economic upliftment of thousands of people, says PM Modi.

11 am: My Dear Countrymen, Namaskar. On the 21st of this month, our Country received very sad news. Dr. Shri Shri Shri Shivakumara Swamiji of District Tumukur, Karnataka was no more. Swamiji dedicated his entire life to Social Service, says PM Modi.

11 am: PM Modi begins his address remembering the 111-year-old late seer of Siddaganga Mutt Srikumara Swamiji, who died earlier this week.

10 am: PM Modi to address the nation in his monthly radio programme in an hour from now.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

In a breakthrough in the murder of Bulandshahr police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh during the December 3 violence over the alleged cow slaughter in the area, the Uttar Pradesh police has recovered his mobile phone reportedly from the house of the accused. Singh was allegedly killed by the mob who had gathered in the are to protest against the 'cow slaughter' after recovered of cow carcasses in a field.

Singh, who was the incharge of the Shyana police station, had gone there to calm down the protesters who resorted to stone pelting stones and damaged the public property. However, someone from the crowd hit Singh on the head and he fell down on the ground. While the constables accompanying Singh were taking him to the hospital, the mob again attacked their vehicle. While the policemen with him fled the scene, Singh was shot dead at a point-blank range above his eye.

A cellphone video showed Singh's limp body in his car, its windscreen shattered and doors open. As gunshots rang out, a mob ran amok, shouting "goli maro" (shoot him). The post-mortem report also confirmed that Singh died of bullet injuries. The mob also took away his service gun and mobile phone.

But the recovery of his phone is seen as a big breakthrough as it would be presented as key evidence in the case. Recently, Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a man who had allegedly attacked Bulandshahr cop Subodh Kumar Singh with an axe during the December 3 violence.

The accused, Kalua, was arrested from a bus stand and has reportedly accepted his crime. He told investigators that during the violence that broke out on December 3, he was felling a tree to block a road. When inspector Subodh tried to stop him, he attacked the cop with an axe on his head. With his arrest, the total number of accused held in the case went up to 30, a police officer said.

Earlier in December last year, the police had arrested the accused who allegedly shot Singh during the Bulandshahr violence. Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhakar Chaudhary said that the accused identified as Prashant Nutt has confessed to his crime during the interrogation.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address his monthly radio programme, Mann ki Baat, today. This will be his first radio broadcast in 2019. The PM will also visit Madurai today. The visit assumes significance as it will give a boost to healthcare facilities and services in Madurai and adjoining areas as PM Modi will lay the foundation stone of AIIMS and also inaugurate the super speciality blocs of Rajaji Medical College, Madurai, Thanjavur Medical College and Tirunelveli Medical College. He will then visit Kochi where he will unveil a plaque to mark Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex, BPCL Kochis dedication to the nation. The NDA-JDU-LJP will hold a joint press conference in Patna today. Eight more deaths take swine flu count to 70 in Rajasthan.

20:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The Union Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held tomorrow in Delhi has been cancelled.

20:23 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Jammu And Kashmir: Terrorists attacked 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Ahgam, Shopian today. Security forces retaliated. No loss of life or property reported. Area cordoned, search operation going on.

20:23 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Rajasthan: 72 deaths due to swine flu, and over 1856 positive swine flu cases have been reported from across the state between January 1 to January 27.

19:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Police have registered a case against senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge over his remark on Assam's legendary singer-composer Bhupen Hazarika, officials said Sunday.

18:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In

#WATCH PM in Thrissur: Entire nation was amused to see a press conference in London, where, on foreign soil Indias democratic ethos was questioned. And, who was spotted in that PC? A topmost Congress leader. Is this your respect towards institutions & our democracy?#Kerala pic.twitter.com/NG9Ud2Rtiz

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



17:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The issue of the Sabarimala Temple has caught the attention of the entire nation.The people of India are seeing the manner in which the Communist Government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Keralas culture, says PM Modi

17:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Ayodhya case won't be taken up for hearing by the 5-judge constitution bench of Supreme Court on January 29 due to the non-availability of Justice SA Bobde.

17:00 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mumbai: Actor Isha Koppikar joins Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.



Mumbai: Actor Isha Koppikar joins Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/XLETYOcppT

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



16:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Australian Open 2019: Novak Djokovic defeats Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the men's singles final.

16:29 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Govt is promoting the use of environment-friendly transport fuel i.e. CNG by expanding coverage of City Gas Distribution (CGD) network in the country. After successful completion of 10th CGD Bidding Round over 400 districts of the country will be connected for providing piped gas supply: Narendra Modi.

15:31 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Train 18 will now be known as Vande Bharat Express, says Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

15:28 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Saina Nehwal wins Indonesia Masters title after Carolina Marin concedes final due to injury.

15:11 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Union Cabinet meeting to be held tomorrow in Delhi.

15:00 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Kerala: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi.



Kerala: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi. pic.twitter.com/fT6xMocTz9

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



14:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Bikaner, Rajasthan: Three people arrested from Delhi for duping a man to the tune of Rs 55 Lakh over a course of 3 years. 19 mobile phones, 2 laptops and a vehicle seized from them.



Bikaner, Rajasthan: Three people arrested from Delhi for duping a man to the tune of Rs 55 Lakh over a course of 3 years. 19 mobile phones, 2 laptops and a vehicle seized from them. pic.twitter.com/VaeaW6zsOi

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



14:43 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Kerala Governor P Sathasivam receives Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi. PM will dedicate Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi to the nation today.



Kerala Governor P Sathasivam receives Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi. PM will dedicate Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi to the nation today. pic.twitter.com/3xuDglwTJW

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



14:27 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pakistani troops on Sunday opened fire at forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting retaliation by the Indian Army, a defence spokesman said. The Pakistani troops lobbed mortars and opened fire from small arms from across the border in Naushera sector at 1:15 pm, the spokesman said as reported by news agency PTI.

14:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed suspended for 4 matches after accepting that he was in breach of ICCs Anti-Racism Code for Participants following the incident where he aimed a comment at South Africa's Andile Phehlukwayo during 2nd ODI against South Africa on Tuesday.

14:25 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In

Gujarat: Visuals from Digsar Village in Muli taluka of Surendranagar district where Patidar leader Hardik Patel will tie the knot today with Kinjal Parikh.



























Gujarat: Visuals from Digsar Village in Muli taluka of Surendranagar district where Patidar leader Hardik Patel will tie the knot today with Kinjal Parikh. pic.twitter.com/BF1ib0uJfR

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



14:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Uttarakhand: 5 people dead, many injured after a pickup van fell into a deep gorge near Pithoragarh road in Champawat today. Further details awaited

13:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Maharashtra ATS on 9 people arrested on Jan 22 for alleged links with proscribed international terrorist organisation ISIS: One more person arrested yesterday from Mumbra, Thane District. Laptop, tablet, hard disk, pen-drives, router, some mobile phones & diaries seized.

13:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The death count in the bombing of a cathedral on a southern Philippine island rises to 27 with 77 others wounded: AP

11:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has called for an all-party meeting on 30 January in Parliament.

11:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Himachal Pradesh: Cold conditions intensify in the state. Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district records minimum temperature at -17 Degree Celsius. Visual from Udaipur in Lahaul and Spiti district.



Himachal Pradesh: Cold conditions intensify in the state. Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district records minimum temperature at -17 Degree Celsius. Visual from Udaipur in Lahaul and Spiti district. pic.twitter.com/1KaSQmHQjP

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



10:51 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In 19 killed, 48 wounded in bomb attack on cathedral in southern Philippines: Police

09:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Centre to take up highway projects worth Rs 50,000 crore to decongest the National Capital.

09:55 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Jammu-Srinagar national highway to remain close for vehicular traffic for 7th consecutive day today due to unfavourable weather, landslides.

07:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Diesel prices at Rs. 66/litre (increase by Rs 0.10) in Delhi & Rs. 69.11/litre (increase by Rs. 0.10) in Mumbai. Petrol prices remain the same.

07:17 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A Banksy mural painted on a fire door at the Bataclan theater in Paris has been stolen, the concert hall said in a tweet on Saturday.

07:12 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In A fire broke out in a parked cab in Maharashtra's Malaji Pada, Vasai early Sunday morning. More than 15 other cars caught fire. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot. No casualty reported, fire under control.



Maharashtra: Fire broke out in a parked cab in Malaji Pada, Vasai early morning today. More than 15 other cars were caught in the fire. Fire tenders were rushed to the spot. No casualty reported, fire under control. pic.twitter.com/1Av5Ni6nmW

 ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019



For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A three-member Pakistani delegation led by Indus Water Commissioner Syed Mehr Ali Shah on Sunday reached India to visit the Jammu and Kashmir's Chenab river basin, as mandated under the Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960. Apart from Shah, the team includes his two advisers Joint Commissioner Usman Ghani and National Engineering Services Pakistans (Nespak) Mehmood Hayat. The delegation, however, said Islamabad had no objection over the construction of the dams but raised harbour concerns over their design.

"Pakistani delegation arrives in Delhi for Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan," the news agency ANI reported.

Pakistani delegation arrives in Delhi for Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan pic.twitter.com/5cHGWvN9S3  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019

Briefing the media about the 6-day-long visit, a senior officer said, "This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960. Under the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years".

Under the Indus Water Treaty, waters flowing in three Indus tributaries - the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi - have been allotted to India, while the Chenab, the Jhelum and the Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan. However, India has rights to develop hydroelectric power on the Western rivers within the specified parameters of the design.

Since the signing of the treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both the sides have been undertaken. The last tours of the commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014, respectively. The ongoing five-years block will end in March 2020.

This tour will be followed by a visit of India's Indus Commissioner to Pakistan at a mutually convenient date. It was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies and panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir. During this tour, the Pak delegation will inspect the Lower Kulnai and Pakal Dul projects being constructed over the Chenab River.

Pakistan has been long dissenting the storage of water in the dam and the provision of data in regards to its operation. A statement issued by the Foregin Office also alleged that despite several rounds of bilateral negotiations as well as mediation under the auspices of the World Bank, India continued with the construction of the project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the projects in May.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit Tamil Nadus Madurai on Sunday, is likely to face massive protests by the Opposition parties. Accusing the prime minister of ignoring Tamil Nadus interests, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) would stage a black flag demonstration against the prime minister.

On Saturday, MDMK chief Vaiko had said that his party workers will wave black flags at Modi upon his arrival in the state. Vaiko also clarified that the protest was against Modi and his government at the Centre and not against the AIIMS hospital. The MDMK chief said that the Centre was functioning against the interests of the state.

The prime minister is visiting the South Indian state to lay the foundation-stone of AIIMS hospital in Madurai. Questioning the intent of the visit, DMK leader MK Stalin had also launched a scathing attack on Modi over the unfulfilled promises made by him.

Also Read | BJP open to alliances, cherishes old friends: PM Narendra Modi

"His government for four-and-a-half years had focused only on implementing a five-point agenda - Ram Temple, cow protection, Hindi Imposition, Sankritisation and hatred towards minorities" Stalin had said Friday during a rally in Chennai.

The DMK president said that the BJP government at the Centre had promised AIIMS hospitals across the country. In 2015, the government said that it will build AIIMS in five states, including Tamil Nadu.

If they were really keen on doing it, they would have done that. Even if someone had started walking, they would have reached here by now. Even now, Modi is coming only to lay foundation stone, not inauguration, Stalin said.

He said that the Modi government had even promised 100 smart cities across India and 11 of them were to be developed in Tamil Nadu. Show me one smart city that is there across India, he asked.

Also Read | Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Narendra Modi-led NDA likely to lose 100 seats, predict opinion polls

With PM Modis visits ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is hoping to increase its footprints in Tamil Nadu. In 2014 general elections, the party could only manage to win only one of the total 39 seats. However, as per several pre-poll surveys, the BJP may not even open its account in the southern state and the UPA (Congress+DMK) was predicted to win all the 39 seats.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The entry of Priyanka Gandhi in active politics has exposed the degrading level of the countrys political leaders. After Bihar BJP minister Vinod Narayan Jhas sexist remarks, the ruling partys general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has taken an offensive jibe at the Congress leader. The BJP leader said that the Congress brought Priyanka Gandhi as it was banking on chocolaty faces for the Lok Sabha elections 2019.

When asked about the reports of Kareena Kapoor and Salman Khan being the Congress partys candidate from Bhopal and Ujjain, Vijayavargiya during a press conference in Indora said, "This shows the dearth of self-confidence in them. They don't have any leader, that's why they want to contest the upcoming elections while banking on chocolaty faces. Somebody takes Kareena Kapoor's name while others ask for Salman Khan. Now they have brought in Priyanka Gandhi.

Earlier, reacting to Priyanka Gandhis entry into politics, Bihar BJP minister Vinod Narayana Jha had said that she was nothing but a pretty face without any political achievements.

"Priyanka Gandhi is very beautiful, but has no other talent that I can see, neither does she have the political experience. She must be what, 37-38, or maybe older, 44. Till this age, she has no political achievement. Yes, she is good-looking, God has given her that. But how much can she exploit that," Jha had said.

These were not the only two BJP leaders who could not see beyond her face. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi spoke censoriously about Priyankas resemblance to with former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was also her grandmother.

"If a person could become as capable as someone else merely by resembling him or her, by now we would have had many more Virat Kohlis and Amitabh Bachchans. Duplicates do not work in politics. Priyanka Gandhi might resemble Indira Gandhi, but there is a big difference," Modi had said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Amid the growing political storm over Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, the Supreme Court on Sunday said the matter would not be taken up for hearing by the five-judge constitution bench on January 29. The top court has cited the non-availability of Justice SA Bobde as the reason behind the cancellation. The development has been announced in a circular released by the additional registrar of the court.

"Ayodhya case won't be taken up for hearing by the 5-judge constitution bench of Supreme Court on January 29 due to the non-availability of Justice SA Bobde," the news agency ANI reported.

Ayodhya case won't be taken up for hearing by the 5-judge constitution bench of Supreme Court on January 29 due to the non-availability of Justice SA Bobde pic.twitter.com/wzuJsBjwSJ  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019

The hearing on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case has been deferred

The 5-judge Constitution Bench was eventually set up on January 25 and comprises Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Ashok Bhushan, SA Nazeer, SA Bobde and DY Chandrachud.

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the top court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgement, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land be partitioned equally among three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

In the last September verdict of 2:1, a three-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had said the civil suit has to be decided on the basis of evidence, adding that the previous verdict has no relevance on this issue.

However, the Supreme Court is yet to announce the next date for hearing the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute in Ayodhya.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Taking a swipe at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his tall claims to resolve Ram Temple issues within 24 hours, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday asked how a CM can say such things just hours after celebrating the Republic Day of India. Addressing the media in the national capital, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, "We have just celebrated 26 January, if a CM says such things on 26 January you can imagine what kind of CM he must be".

In a veiled attack at the chief minister for turning a blind eye to the sufferings of farmers, Yadav further said, "I would like to tell CM that people have given him 90 days, do something to save the crops from the bulls. Farmers need to be saved first".

Akhilesh Yadav on Yogi Adityanath's statement 'Can resolve Ram Mandir matter in 24 hours': We have just celebrated 26 January, if a CM says such things on 26 January you can imagine what kind of CM he must be. https://t.co/JHJ00o97np  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 27, 2019

On Saturday, Adityanath, barely hours after celebrating the 70th Republic Day of India, threw an open challenge to the Supreme Court, saying, if it is unable to resolve the matter, it should hand over the issue to them. "We will resolve the Ram Temple issue in 24 hours," the BJP leader was quoted as saying by media. The chief minister also urged the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute soon, adding that there was enough evidence to prove Babri Masjid was built after demolishing a temple.

Giving another boost to the growing political storm, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev also requested the Centre to take an initiative for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. "Either Supreme Court or the government should do something for the construction (of Ram Temple). There arent many possibilities of a quick judgement by the court, so I think that the government should take an initiative," ANI quoted Ramdev as saying.

Yog Guru Ramdev: Either Supreme Court or government should do something for the construction (of #RamTemple). There aren't many possibilities of a quick judgement by the court, so I think that the government should take an initiative pic.twitter.com/4Tlg8Z3aT4  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 27, 2019

Amid this high-octane drama, the Supreme Court on Sunday said the hearing in the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid land title dispute case has been deferred due to non-availability of Justice SA Bobde. The matter was earlier scheduled to be taken up for hearing on January 29.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

After watching Zac Efron morph into the notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, the trailer is finally here. The biopic based on Bundy titled, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which showcase the double life of Ted Bundy just got released and Twitter is blown up with praises for the High School Musical actor.

Given the exhilarating performance as seen in the glimpse of the trailer, one user wrote,  Zac Efron as Ted Bundy is kinda perfect casting cause you can't believe that he could possibly play a terrifying serial killer in the same way that you couldn't have looked at Ted Bundy and believed that he *was* a terrifying serial killer. Another wrote,  Im not lying when I say that my heart is beating so fast right now. I am so excited and proud. And shook, Zac looks just like Ted Bundy. I cant wait to see this movie, I just know how amazing he will be. While another user, clearly not a serial killer movie fan, wrote,  Well it's a strange feeling to be extremely excited for a serial killer movie.

Im not lying when I say that my heart is beating so fast right now. I am so excited and proud. And shook, Zac looks just like Ted Bundy. I cant wait to see this movie, I just know how amazing he will be. #ZacEfron #ExtremelyWickedShockinglyEvilAndVile pic.twitter.com/FDIDQcDJii  Zaylor Swifron  (@lovingzacwasred) January 25, 2019

Zac Efron as Ted Bundy is kinda perfect casting cause you can't believe that he could possibly play a terrifying serial killer in the same way that you couldn't have looked at Ted Bundy and believed that he *was* a terrifying serial killer. https://t.co/kew3IpkvVf  John Squires (@FreddyInSpace) January 25, 2019

Watch Zac Efron as the notorious Ted Bundy here:

The biopic based on the American serial killer, Ted Bundy who was responsible for the deaths and sexual assaults of more than 30 women played by Zac Efron will be premiered first at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie will also feature stars like Lily Collins, who plays Bundy's girlfriend, Liz Kloepfer, Big Band star, Jim Parsons, James Helfield among others.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

While the rest of the country is enthralled with phenomenal feats and stunts at Rajpath this Republic Day, Varun Dhawan made sure that our soldiers at the Wagah Border also have a memorable day of patriotism. Visiting the BSFs at the India-Pakistan border, Dhawan shared the spectacular dancer on social media, which he called as one of the most incredible moments of his life. Dhawan wrote,#HappyRepublicDay one of the most incredible moments of my life. Such an honour to perform live at the Attari border for #3.

Watch the video here:

The video shows a 'hat-removing' respect performance with the actor along with the army dance crew V.Unbeatable all in sync. Dancing to the song, the new winners of dance crew can be wearing all wearing camouflage pants, black T-shirts and black safety vests with BSF inscribed on it.

The Badlapur actor made sure to share pictures of the privileged performance with the Indian army at the Wagah border. Sharing flips of the images, Varun wrote, "#HappyRepublicDay one of the most incredible moments of my life. Such an honour to perform live at the Attari border for #3. @remodsouza #3iscoming."

#HappyRepublicDay one of the most incredible moments of my life. Such an honour to perform live at the Attari border for #3. @remodsouza #3iscoming pic.twitter.com/iJdc2fX8GX  Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) January 26, 2019

Film critic Taran Adarsh also took to his Twitter handle to praise the phenomenal of a dance, the critic wrote,  Sabse aage honge#Hindustan... Varun Dhawan performed with the dance group V.Unbeatable for the Jawans at #AttariBorder on #RepublicDay... Varun is currently shooting for Remo D'Souza's dance-based film in #Punjab.

Sabse aage honge #Hindustani... Varun Dhawan performed with the dance group V.Unbeatable for the Jawans at #AttariBorder on #RepublicDay... Varun is currently shooting for Remo D'Souza's dance-based film in #Punjab. pic.twitter.com/mLZlttIEJM  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 27, 2019

Talking about dance, Varun recently announced that he had just begun shooting for Remo D'Souza's dance film, which has been, for now, titled #3 and will reportedly see Shraddha Kapoor as the leading lady.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in 14 states including Odisha, party spokesperson Derek O'Brien said on Sunday. Addressing the media in Bhubaneswar, the TMC leader further expressed his confidence over the BJP's defeat in the General Elections 2019. In an apparent reference to the United India Rally at Kolkata's historic Brigade Parade Ground, O'Brien said that January 19 was a historic day as all the anti-BJP parties joined hand at the stage and that they are ready to fight the crucial Lok Sabha polls later this year.

"We are ready to fight elections. The TMC will fight coming Lok Sabha polls in 14 states including Odisha. January 19 was a historic day as all anti-BJP parties united on that day. In 2019, the BJP will be finished," ANI quoted O'Brien as saying.

The United India Rally, organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 19, marked attendance of over 20 Opposition leaders who vowed to oust the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in 2019. Those leaders include Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav among others.

The only prominent figure who skipped the rally was Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The party, however, had sent Mallikarjun Kharge, who read a special message from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at the event.

Taking about TMC's home turf, O'Brien said, "In West Bengal, we will fight on all the 42 Lok Sabha seats". The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, has set itself a target of 22-23 seats in the state.

The party which currently holds two seats - Asansol and Darjeeling - in the state, has been bolstered with a number of senior Trinamool Congress leaders joining it ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2019.New Delhi:

With 2019 Lok Sabha Elections just around the corner, both the BJP and the Congress have intensified their poll campaigns across the country. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will sound the poll bugle in Patna on March 3, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to arrive in Chhattisgarh's Raipur on Monday. During his day-long visit, the Gandhi scion will address a convention of farmers titled 'Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan' at Rajyotsav Mela ground in Naya Raipur at around 2 pm, according to a party spokesperson.

Ahead of Gandhi's visit to Chhattisgarh, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and AICC in-charge of the state PL Punia on Sunday took stock of the arrangements. A function has been organised to express gratitude to people and farmers for voting the party to power in the state. Beneficiary farmers will be also distributed loan waiver certificates during the event.

As promised by Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his 2018 Assembly polls campaign, loans to the tune of over Rs 6,100 crore of 16.60 lakh farmers were written off hours after the party was voted to power. Implementing another pre-poll promise, the paddy is being procured at a rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal from farmers in the state. Besides, the Congress government has waived outstanding irrigation tax amounting to Rs 207 crore of 15 lakh farmers.

According to reports, a large number of farmers from across the state, including the Naxal-affected Bastar division, will participate in the event.

This will be the Congress chiefs first visit to Chhattisgarh after his party swept the Hindi heartland state in the recently concluded Assembly Elections 2018. On December 11, Congress ended the BJP's 15-year rule in Chhattisgarh by bagging 68 out of the 90 assembly seats.

General elections are due to be held in India between April and May to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha in India's bicameral Parliament.New Delhi:

The Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) is likely to announce the JKBOSE class 11 result 2018 for Kashmir division soon. The candidates who have appeared for the examination are asked to keep all the details ready for the fast and easy access to the results. Soon after the formal declaration of the results, the scorecards will be available on the official website of the board i.e. jkbose.ac.in. According to our sources, the JKBOSE class 11 result will be announced on or before 3rd February. However, the candidates must note that these are tentative dates and there has been official confirmation from the board.

Earlier, there were few media reports that had suggested that the JKBOSE class 11 results 2018 will be announced on 17th January 2019 following which the board came out with an official notification which read, ''The rumour about the declaration of result on January 17, 2019 for class 11 is false. The result declaration is likely to take a few more days.''

The declaration of the result will seal the fate of the thousands of students who have appeared for the examination. The exams for class 11 were conducted from October 26 to November 14, 2018. The first and the last exams were of IT & ITes/ Retail/ Healthcare/ Tourism and Chemistry/ Elective Language respectively.

For the convenience of the students, we have mentioned the process here through which the candidates can download the results once they are released. The JKBOSE class 11 students will first have to visit the official website of the board i.e. jkbose.ac.in then they will have to click on the JKBOSE Class 11th Kashmir Division result link. Soon after clicking on the link, a form will appear, on which the candidates will have to enter their name, roll number and other information. After the candidates click on the submit button, the results will appear on the screen.

The candidates must note that the board will not issue the original marksheet soon after the declaration of the results. Therefore, the candidates must save the PDF of the results and take some printout of the same for future references.

About Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE)

The Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education is renowned as the JKBOSE. This is actually a governmental body that is responsible for the development as well as maintenance of Jammu and Kashmir school education. Under the state government administration, this governmental body acts as the autonomous body of education. Apart from this, the JKBOSE also looks after the quality of the education which is provided to the student at a school level through 10,609 affiliated schools in the state. It also conducts annual 10th and 12th Class Exams every year.New Delhi:

The candidates who are preparing for Tamil Nadu class 12 board examination 2019, we have some important news for you. The Tamil Nadu government has announced changes in the examination pattern for the upcoming class XII state board exam. According to the new question paper pattern, all the Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) this year in Part -A (one-mark questions) will be replaced by fill in the blanks, assertion-reason, match the following and similar questions.

Earlier this month, when the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) released the model question paper there was no mention of such changes.

Students are apprehensive that the new question pattern may have adverse effect on the results. Marks per subject from 200 to 100 and the exam duration by 30 minutes have already been reduced by the government.

This year, the Tamil Nadu class 12 board examination will be held from March 1, 2019, and the students will follow the new pattern.

About Board

The Tamil Nadu Board of Secondary Education was established in 1910, and later after Independence was carved out as and separate Directorate of Government Examinations under the Department of Education, Government of Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu State Board of School Examination conducts Secondary School Examinations and evaluates students on their academic progress through Class 10th Board Examinations and Class 12th Board Examinations. The scores are considered as a valid merit for admissions in universities and schools across the state.Shamokin, PA (17872)

Today

Thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.Australia Day has been met with a divided response.

Kylie Minogue says she's humbled and proud of making the Australia Day honours list. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for her work in the performing arts, and days after quashing rumours she had weeks to live, Olivia Newton John was also recognised.

Australians took to beaches and the sea to celebrate Australia Day, but thousands also took to the streets to say the day marks the beginning of the genocide of the Aboriginal population.

From Sydney all the way to London, Australians protested.

"People are shocked that Australia celebrates the day that the first fleet arrived," one protester told Yahoo7 News. "They're shocked that's what we celebrate, that we were colonised."

More than 3000 marched in the Sydney heat from Hyde Park through the city on a day many in the community disagree with.

"It's a very disrespectful day to have," one woman said.

In Melbourne, protesters clashed with police as tensions boiled over.

The protest rallies have swelled in the past few years, from just a few hundred people in 2015 to thousands this year. Many hope that means public sentiment is changing as well.

"With all our Australians getting together like this, I think it's sending a really clear message that Australians want to have a different conversation about our national day," one man told Yahoo7 News.

It's a view not everyone shares - including One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson.

"Changing the date is not going to change a damn thing," she says. "I'm totally opposed to it."

Newshub.Firefighters are urging Kiwis to be extra-careful as parts of the country are tinder-dry.

Hot air is blowing across from Australia, where it's already caused havoc. Out-of-control bush fires are currently tearing through Tasmania - and there are fears we could be next.

Temperatures are expected to push right into the high 30degCs next week, creating an extreme fire danger.

"You only need a few days of hot weather, which we're going to get, and the fire conditions can very quickly become extreme," Fire Risk Management principal advisor Michael Balmer says.

Firefighters are particularly worried about Canterbury, Marlborough and Northland.

The green grass in the undergrowth has been growing strongly all spring thanks to the rain - but now that it's summer, all that it needs is a few days of hot weather to dry out completely and become an extreme fire risk.

In Central Otago, the landscape is parched and about to get worse.

"It's dangerous, it's everywhere, if you look right down the valley there's so much grass and now it's all drying off," says resident Shelley West.

MetService warns there's no relief for the worst affected areas.

"It's going to remain this way for a number of days yet, we're going to see cloudy humid conditions in the west and some very hot dry conditions in the east," says MetService severe weather forecaster Peter Little.

As a result, some activities may just need to be postponed.

"If you're in a rural area, mowing lawns in the afternoon, in the hottest part of the day, if the blades hit a stone that causes a spark and pretty soon you've got a fire," Mr Balmer says.

The heatwave is already making its mark, and it's set to scorch New Zealand.

Newshub.The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has confirmed a court martial will be held for two personnel on drugs charges.

The two airmen are facing multiple charges of supply and consumption of drugs. The court martial will sit on 18 February at Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea.

In 2016, Newshub revealed an average of two Defence Force personnel were being investigated for drug offences every month.

In an interview at the time, Defence Force Surgeon General Brigadier Andrew Grey denied the problem is out of control.

"I do not think we have a significant problem," he told Newshub.

"What we are looking at from a health perspective is how we can prevent misuse of any substance and how we can help our people."

In the aftermath, the Defence Force brought the Drug Foundation on board to investigate its policy discrepancies around controlled substances and report on a way forward.

It found current policies aren't working and were too "enforcement" based.

Some interviewed felt random drug testing was "targeted" with some staff "protected" from being caught.

Others believed "raising a drug problem" was a one-way ticket to being discharged and they couldn't ask for help.

"There is a heavy reliance on a punishment approach and we've argued their needs to be a more balanced approach," the NZ Drug Foundation's Ross Bell said at the time.

"There is a risk in having that very staunch, zero tolerant message being sent out there, that if there is a young person in the Defence Force who has a problem, are they going to be afraid to seek help?"

Mr Bell believes drugs will likely always be within the NZDF given the age of most of the people who enrol.

"If you look at the age most people go into the Defence Force, they're attracting people between the ages of 18 and 25 - and that's the age where a lot of experimentation is going to happen," Mr Bell said.

Newshub.A group of British tourists that caused havoc on their trip around the North Island has arrived back home in the United Kingdom.

The group were accused of theft, trashing hotels, refusing to pay for food and littering during their stay in New Zealand.

Were you on their flight? Contact news@newshub.co.nz

They were spotted in Auckland, Hamilton, Levin and Wellington. One member of the group, Tina Marie Cash, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft in the Hamilton District Court.

Members of the family were spotted at terminal three at Heathrow at around 6:40am on Sunday morning (local time), the Daily Mail reports.

Group patriarch Larry Doran told the Daily Mail it was the holiday from hell and his family were getting human rights advice over the trip.

"We going to the citizens advice people and the human rights people," he said.

"I've paid for this holiday for me and my wife and we got blamed for things. It's lies, they've condemned us. We've been hiding in the mountains for two days.

"We wanted to see the Hobbits, Lord of the Rings... didn't get to see that."A prominent academic who was sentenced in Wellington on Friday for indecently assaulting an elderly woman can now be named.

Journalism academic and former university lecturer, Grant Hannis, was sentenced in the Wellington District Court on Friday to eight months of home detention and 100 hours of community work, as well as being ordered to pay $3000 in emotional harm reparations.

He was convicted of indecent assault after being found inappropriately touching and kissing a 82-year-old woman with dementia in a rest home in May 2018, reports NZME.

Despite the woman trying to push him away and at one stage a caregiver walking in before leaving to alert a manager, Hannis refused to stop. He also exposed himself to the woman before pulling down her pants and underwear.

At the sentencing, Hannis lost name suppression for what was described as "unbelievable offending" by Judge Stephen Harrop, reports NZME.

Judge Harrop considered Hannis' previous good character, contribution to the community, remorse, and the decision to life name suppression in his sentencing.

"There ought to be a discount to recognise the effect of publication on you as a form of penalty," he said according to NZME.

Hannis had originally claimed the offending was just an intimate moment between friends but later plead guilty.

On Friday, the victim's daughter said the assault had drastically affected her mother.

"Her bright, sparking eyes were now dull and sadness enveloped her body. I held her while she sobbed time and time again. We talked and hugged and cried.

"What the hell were you thinking? She's 82 years old - is that ok with you? How could you contemplate that?," she said reports RNZ.

Hannis read a statement in the court apologising to the victim and her family and saying he had been mentally unwell at the time.

On Saturday, police acknowledged the sentence and said their thoughts were with the elderly woman.

Newshub.The 2018 Wellingtonian of the Year has apologised after describing an anti-sex self-identification group as "whores" on Twitter.

Last August, a Government select committee recommended simplifying the process by which Kiwis can change the gender marker on their birth certificates.

It set off a fiery debate, in which prominent New Zealand feminists have clashed with transgender activists over the issues of biological sex and self-identification.

Top lawyer Steph Dyhrberg waded into the argument on the side of transgender activists.

"I'm furious. These anti-trans whores do not speak for women. How dare they," she tweeted. "Wish they would take up knitting."A Queensland woman suffered two years of horrific vertigo before she was finally diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Alyson Dunlop, 36, began experiencing bizarre visual disturbances two years ago. She was at her son's primary school graduation ceremony when the first attack hit - and hit bad.

"I was sitting down and felt the floor was being ripped out from under me," she told Yahoo7 News. "I lost my vision for about 20 minutes."

When the episodes began to happen more frequently, Ms Dunlop saw an optometrist, but her high blood pressure meant she was passed on to a GP instead.

She was eventually diagnosed with a 5mm benign brain cyst, which neurologists told her was too small to explain her symptoms.

Those symptoms included severe pain, debilitating migraines, temporary partial paralysis and nausea, along with more episodes of vertigo. Doctors dismissed Ms Dunlop's suffering as stress-related.

Over the past two years, she's been prescribed seven different medications, none of which have helped, and her condition has progressively worsened.

Her nausea and paralysis means she can no longer drive or swim, and she struggles when her sons have friends over because she's constantly exhausted.

"I haven't been the best version of myself in two years," she told Yahoo7News. "My emotional health has also suffered."

She's had to give up work, relying on her partner's income and "amazing" support from her three sons aged 11, 14 and 16.

But now hope is on the horizon. On January 15 Ms Dunlop was diagnosed with a pineal cystic tumour by world-renowned neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo.

A pressure build-up is blocking the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in her brain, believed to be causing her many debilitating symptoms. Surgical removal is her best bet, but will set the family back about AU$100,000 (NZ$105,000) as it is not covered by Australia's Medicare.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised AU$11,000 (NZ$11,500) in the week since it was set up, with more than 120 people contributing to the family's medical expenses.

Ms Dunlop says all she wants is her life back.

"I just want to be able to say 'yes' to people's invitations," she told Yahoo7 News.

"I just want to be able to hang out with my family, take the dog to the creek, take the kayak out. I want to have a fun time with my children again."

Newshub.Jeffersonville, IN (47130)

Today

Some clouds. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.Like clockwork, Shashi Gupta and her husband, Atul, prepare several loads of laundry each day for their daughter, Alisha, a resident of Central Virginia Training Center.

The couple takes the roughly 10-minute trip from their home near Wards Ferry Road in Lynchburg to the CVTC campus in Madison Heights, delivering clothes and making sure Alishas needs are met. On one of Shashi Guptas recent trips she held her daughters hands affectionately, noticing they were warm, and braided her hair during a short break from Alishas activities with caregivers.

Moms job never ends, she said with a smile while getting that mornings laundry ready.

The daily routine of visitation and direct involvement in Alishas care so close to home is under threat from CVTCs eventual closure, currently on track to happen by summer 2020. The center, a facility in its 108th year serving residents with intellectual and physical disabilities, is on the path to shuttering completely next year as part of a legal settlement between the commonwealth and the U.S. Department of Justice reached in 2012 to transition residents into community-based settings.

Alisha, who has a disorder called dopa-responsive dystonia and epilepsy, is fully dependent in receiving care, said Atul Gupta. She has lived at CVTC for 15 years and celebrated her 18th birthday in August.

A dean of graduate studies at the University of Lynchburg and a member of the Lynchburg City School Board, Gupta said he and his wife divvy up their jobs and responsibilities to give full-time attention to their daughter.

You adjust your time and your life accordingly, he said.

His fear is a six-week notice will come at any time from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services informing them Alisha has to relocate from the home shes known most her life. The couple hopes a bill presented during this General Assembly session from Sen. Mark Peake (R-Lynchburg), will keep the center operating in some capacity.

I hope it stays open, Shashi Gupta said. If she moves, we have to move. We cannot leave her alone.

Priority No. 1: stability in care

The Guptas are among dozens of families with loved ones still at CVTC, which has experienced a steady decline in population and staff in recent years. While each count was above 1,000 in 2011, as of Jan. 24 the center had 304 full-time employees, two part-time workers and 65 residents, according to DBHDS.

Atul Gupta recalls initially being scared of the move to place his child at CVTC.

We heard the horror stories, he said. When the approval came, we had cold feet.

But after adjusting to life there and experiencing it from the inside, those fears quickly subsided. Gupta said he has never had issues with any of the workers, some he described as hanging on because they love the individuals they serve.

We found CVTC was a wonderful place, he said. They do it for a calling. They really do.

He has considered private providers for Alishas care but problems arise in costs involved and the possibility of being discharged with little warning.

That scares the heck out of me, Atul Gupta said.

Though not ideal for his family, he said he would favor Alisha going to Hiram Davis Medical Center in Petersburg because its under the umbrella of DBHDS and she is ensured protection for care under the DOJ settlement agreement.

He said though a move to Petersburg would disrupt the couples lives, he would be assured of her long-term care.

At the end of the day you have to look at the best interests of her. We may not be here the rest of her life. At least she will have stable care, he said.

The best-case scenario for his family and others with high-care needs is if CVTC remains open, even partially, and serves as a resource for the region in having skilled nurses, he said.

What we need are more skilled beds in Central Virginia, he said. We lack them.

Peake has said his bill to prevent the centers closure, which was referred Friday to the Senate Finance Committee, is to serve residents most in need and keep them from going elsewhere. He has said he doesnt feel group homes would meet some residents needs and he is not opposed to the majority of the roughly 350-acre campus  with dozens of structures not in use  redeveloping under another owner in the future.

Atul Gupta, who also welcomes future redevelopment along with the center staying partially open, said his top priority is stability in care for his daughter. Hes prepared to travel the more than 100 miles to Petersburg while keeping his job in Lynchburg, but hopes CVTC remains his familys lifeline.

If youre high need, high maintenance, nobody wants you, he said in explaining the costs in care. As a parent, you say, OK, what is the optimal solution? Hiram [Davis center], I know, is bad for us, but it provides stability in care.

Horizon steps in

While CVTC braces for closure and area officials ponder the fate of the majority of the property for potential redevelopment, Lynchburg-based Horizon Behavioral Health recently submitted an unsolicited proposal to DBHDS to lease a handful of buildings currently among the most used at the center.

Horizon  a nonprofit community service board that provides treatment for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse disorders in Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell  seeks to lease five buildings grouped together after closure takes effect.

Uses proposed include establishing an intermediate-care facility, residential substance use treatment, and ambulatory services, such as psychiatry, intensive outpatient services and case management, according to Damien Cabezas, Horizons chief executive officer.

Horizon serves individuals fully dependant on care in its eight intermediate-care facility homes, said Lauren Connors, communications and community engagement manager, in an email. An example is some people can swallow safely when food is placed in their mouth but others cannot and need nourishment from a gastric tube, she said.

The nonprofit serves 40 individuals in intermediate-care facilities and is building another home in Lynchburg to serve four more people, Connors said. Horizon does not provide skilled nursing beds.

Relocating some of Horizons Lynchburg-based services into a single location at CVTC is a goal.

From a management point of view, we felt consolidating some services in one space would provide better efficiency in being able to accept referrals and being able to see more individuals, Cabezas said in an interview. We feel its a good location that could serve areas were reaching. Those buildings were recently renovated. They appear to be in very good condition compared to the other buildings there.

Horizon, which currently operates on an annual budget of $51.3 million, provided services to more than 14,753 people in the 2017-18 fiscal year, according to documents in the lease offer proposal. Cabezas said Horizon hasnt yet reached the phase of laying out firm costs for the lease arrangement, but feels it would be cost-effective and not pose significant strains on resources.

A staffing plan also hasnt been finalized, he said, but Horizon expects to create jobs in expanding its services.

Rob Merryman, a member of Horizons board of directors, said the CVTC location near the U.S. 29 bypass and business corridor is superb and the lease proposal is a good use of resources in line with providing individuals with community-based care.

This would be a win-win for all the parties involved, Merryman said in an interview.

Cabezas said the lease helps Horizon advance its mission of providing services for mental health and substance use and for those with intellectual and development disabilities.

We are committed to serving this population, said Cabezas. Theres a lack of services in Madison Heights in general.

Horizon plans to use space for training, have residential crisis-stabilization services on site as part of addressing the opioid epidemic, and place a mental health day-treatment program on site. Cabezas said services would be expanded as a result and more people can be reached.

Another plan is to house and provide services to a dozen residents currently at CVTC through an intermediate-care facility, according to Cabezas.

CVTC has skilled care and intermediate care, while Horizon Behavioral Health provides intermediate care, according to a statement from Horizon. There is some overlap in the services but all are designed to have an individual to be in the less-restrictive environment possible, Connors said in an email.

Building 12, where Alisha currently lives, is proposed to have relocated services of residential crisis stabilization and residential substance use treatment for women, the proposal states.

Horizon is not closing any facilities it currently owns and would expand services through its lease proposal, Cabezas said.

Atul Gupta said he feels Horizon is getting a ready-based business model and infrastructure where the commonwealth has invested more than $20 million in renovations. The state put much money into upgrading a building where his daughter previously lived, which he said now is empty.

They left that building as if they had not spent a dime, Gupta said, in questioning if taxpayers received a good deal out of the capital investment.

He believes Horizon stands to benefit economically from the move, but taxpayers would get more out of having skilled nursing beds available.

At least youre meeting unmet needs, Atul Gupta said. Right now, I dont see a win-win.

Looking to the future

On a January morning in 2017, Amherst resident Martha Bryants twin sons, Taylor and Tyler, were relocated without her consent from CVTC, where they had lived the majority of their lives, to Hiram Davis Medical Center.

Tyler died within two months of the move at a Richmond hospital at age 23. Taylor, who recently turned 25, is at Hiram Davis.

She said the Petersburg facility has workers committed to Taylors care, but she doesnt feel it fits his needs as CVTC did and longs for him to return home. Bryant testified of her experience before Congress last February and hopes Peakes legislation leads to the centers survival.

She describes CVTC as a much safer facility that is fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and has a beautiful first-floor environment in contrast to her sons upper-floor, ward-style facility setting in Petersburg.

Taylor has always had love of a big country family and church, she said of his life at CVTC. He would see his friends, family and caregivers.

When asked about the legislation to keep the center open, Cabezas said Horizon cant predict the future and is pursuing an opportunity to serve as a resource for the area. He said Horizon has a long relationship with CVTC, which gives referrals to the nonprofits intermediate-care facilities. Horizon provides case management for residents.

He said since the closure announcement in 2012, Horizon has hired quite a bit of individuals from CVTC and its a good fit to continue their careers with Virginia Retirement System benefits. Horizon-leased facilities would fit in with any proposed future use for the majority of the campus, he said.

We pride ourselves in integrating our individuals in the community, Cabezas said. We cant do our work without community partners, and that includes the private sector.

Atul Gupta, who is friends with Martha Bryant and other families whove struggled with the closure, said he hopes the center hangs on to serve those most in need in Central Virginia and beyond.

We have the space, we have the infrastructure, he said. Why not create skilled nursing beds so we can bring Taylor back and keep my daughter here, and have other people who need intense medical care and can stay here?

Alisha has lived in three buildings at CVTC; relocating is stressful and hard for her, her parents said.

Everything is a battle in the system, Atul Gupta said. Its not easy to take care of a handicapped person. I always say I dont wish anyone to be in a long-term nursing care facility. Theres a lot of good-hearted people but at the end of the day its a business  its about providing optimal level of care at a reasonable cost.

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.Starbuck signed up the museum as a new member of VAM last year, so this is the first time it was eligible to have an artifact on the list.

I looked at the things we needed to have preserved or needed some restoration work done on them to keep them from further deterioration, she said.

She came across the leg, which she said was a great selection because of its rich history.

She hopes with the initial $750 award money given by VAM just for being on the Top 10 list, she can tell the story of Wares leg to more people.

Ware, who later became the Amherst County Commissioner of Revenue during Reconstruction, liked to say: Im the only man in Amherst County with two left legs; one left on my body and one left at Gettysburg! Starbuck said.

Starbuck said the leg, which made its way to the museum by way of one of Wares descendants in 1993, looks very homemade.

Ware died in 1905 at age 67.

He was a man who didnt let his handicap keep him down and thats a lesson all of us need, Starbuck said.

At Patrick Henrys Red Hill in Brookneal, its 1823 Plat of Red Hill is also on the 10 Ten list.City officials are hoping for good news from the General Assembly this session.

Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg; Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford; Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg; and Sen. Steve Newman, R-Bedford, each have introduced budget amendments to allocate $5 million in state funding to Lynchburg for assistance with College Lake and dam in the aftermath of near-catastrophic flooding this past summer.

There are funds available there that have been used for this type of thing in the past, Peake said. It was a sudden event that took out part of the dam that really raised this to a crisis level, so its worthwhile to address it now at this end as quickly as we can.

Peake said local legislators met with city and University of Lynchburg officials in November and December to discuss their needs after torrential downpours on Aug. 2 caused the College Lake dam to overtop and prompted downstream evacuations.

With an estimated project cost of $47 million, the city and University of Lynchburg, which owns the lake, are pursuing all potential funding avenues to assist with construction of a bridge, dam removal and lakebed restoration that would see the lake drained and wetlands put in place.DeLong said the rally is a good idea to help bring attention to the need to increase funding of education in Virginia.

We have a governor who is very pro-education, and I hope that the General Assembly and Virginia senate will support his budget to fund our future, DeLong said in an email.

Crowder said the rally will be a big wave of red as VEA encouraged rally participants to wear red as part of the #Red4Ed campaign, which calls for stronger financial support for teachers and education.

To see a presence of educators standing there wearing our #Red4Ed is to show that we would like for folks to pay attention, and this big wave of red, people should definitely take notice, she said.

Local educators said they also plan to express support forNorthams proposal to provide $36 million to fund additional school counselors in order to reduce the school counselortostudent ratio.

Were looking to make sure were meeting the needs of our educators so we can meet the needs of our students, Crowder said.

All three education association presidents said they hope Mondays events will encourage legislators to support Northams budget and increase education funding.

Its time to move the state forward, and to do that, we need to fund public education not just for today but for our future, Loos said.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.

To subscribe, click here. Already a subscriber? Click here.Ben Sage and his wife, Polly, are building a pick-your-own produce business on 120 acres at 505 Water St. in Chardon. With them are sons Miles, left, and Alden. Not pictured are children Walker, Elisabeth and David.Jeff Gibbon, an Iraqi war veteran who suffers from PTSD, works with Bear, his service-dog in training. The duo train twice a week at Pet Supplies Plus in WillowickCopyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.DANBURY  It can pop up in the winter and sounds like a loud explosion.

But what it really is, is cryoseism  or ice quakes. Its caused when theres a significant drop in temperature, according to Bill Jacquemin, a meteorologist with Connecticut Weather Center in Danbury.

The extensive rainfall from fall into winter last year made cryoseism more likely for the state because it was absorbed into the ground, Jacquemin said.

When it gets this cold  and were talking brutally cold, deep cold  the ground will freeze, he said. When water freezes, it expands. In the ground, it will also expand. So when it starts to freeze, pressure builds up and cracks will form to release the pressure. It causes a noise, like a boom.

These ice quakes were possibly the cause of some recent 911 calls in Danbury about loud explosions.

The first recent incident in the city was around 9:24 p.m. on Jan. 16 when residents in the area of Christopher Columbus Avenue called in hearing a loud explosion. A nearby firehouse reported it shook the building.

It can cause a vibration where someone can feel a shake, Jacquemin said of ice quakes.

Fire units checked the area for about 15 minutes. Firefighters reported they found no smoke, no flames, no odor and no apparent cause of the noise.

Then, around 8:54 p.m. on Jan. 18, the calls came again, this time in the area of Old Boston Post Road. At least two people called 911 and said they heard a loud bang in the area.

It sounds just like something exploding, Jacquemin said.

Again, firefighters responded and searched for the cause. Again, they came up empty handed.

But even if the firefighters were in the right area, Jacquemin said, there would be no physical evidence of the cryoseism on the surface of the ground.

Its more of an interior thing, he said. It might be deep in the ground. Since its frozen on top, the water freezes and expands and the pressure moves into a direction headed down because its less frozen, theres less resistance.

Though its not definitive that the sounds heard by city residents were ice quakes, its possible because of the recent frigid temperatures over the last few weeks.

Ice quakes happen anywhere on earth when it gets cold enough, Jacquemin said. But, he said, it doesnt happen frequently in Connecticut.

For us here in Connecticut, its not real common, he said. We havent had this deep cold for a while where its really affecting the ground.

Jacquemin said a similar thing happens to ice, which Connecticut residents might be more familiar with. He said as ice expands when its frozen across open water, it makes what sounds like a bellowing noise as opposed to an explosion.

Thats what people are more used to, he said. Thats the exact same thing thats happening in the earth.

Though ice quakes sound alarming, Jacquemin said, residents have nothing to be concerned about.

Its not going to do anything. It wont crack your homes foundation, he said. Theres no threat for human harm at all. Its just part of nature.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.The United States urged all nations Saturday to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" against President Nicolas Maduro  a reflection of the world's deep divisions over the crisis in the embattled Latin American country.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council at a meeting called by the United States that it's beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state" and back Guaido, who has declared himself the country's interim president, arguing that Maduro's re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security and accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next."

What has played out in Venezuela and the world's media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the U.N.'s most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions, especially among the Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members.

The leaders of two of those council nations  France and Britain  joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro Saturday, saying they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

But the opposition to Guaido was reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The United States barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine "yes" votes from the council's six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting "no" while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying "to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits ... in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years."

But he saved his sharped attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain "the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people." He said Cuba has sent "security and intelligence thugs" to sustain Maduro's "illegitimate rule."

"Now is the time for every other nation to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

China's U.N. Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said his government "firmly opposed" the U.S. accusations and doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

"We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself," Ma told the council.

The council meeting came a day after Guaido vowed to remain on the streets until his country has a transitional government, while Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.

"They can cut a flower, but they will never keep spring from coming," Guaido told supporters Friday, alluding to a similar phrase from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

In rival press conferences, Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his call for dialogue.

Each man appeared ready to defend his claim to the presidency no matter the cost, with Guaido telling supporters that if he is arrested they should "stay the course" and peacefully protest.

But the standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

Guaido took a symbolic oath of office Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation's constitutional leader on grounds that Maduro's re-election last year was fraudulent  an allegation supported by the U.S., the European Union and many other nations.

The government of President Donald Trump announced it was recognizing the 35-year-old leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly quickly after his oath, leading Maduro to say that he was breaking all diplomatic ties with the United States and expelling U.S. diplomats. Guaido told the Americans to stay.

Pompeo told the Security Council on Saturday: "Let me be 100 percent clear  President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people."

Guaido's move is the most direct challenge to Maduro's rule despite years of protests at home and international efforts to isolate the regime amid a growing humanitarian crisis fueled by falling oil prices and government mismanagement.

Maduro is accusing the opposition of working with the U.S. to overthrow him. Though over a dozen nations are recognizing Guaido as president, Maduro still has the support of the military and powerful, longtime allies like Russia and China.

"This is nothing more than a coup d'etat, ordered, promoted, financed and supported by the government of the United States," Maduro said Friday. "They intend to put a puppet government in Venezuela, destroy the state and take colonial control of the country."

But he added that he was still willing to talk with the opposition even if he "had to go naked."

Both sides attempted dialogue last year, but it fell apart as Maduro pushed forward with an early election that the country's most popular opposition leaders were barred from running in. Many in the international community condemned that vote and now consider the National Assembly, which Maduro has stripped of its power, the only legitimate institution.Police identified Saturday the two students aboard a school bus in Athens, Texas when it was struck by a train Friday afternoon, killing one of them and injuring the other.

Police said 13-year-old Christopher Bonilla, a student at Athens Middle School, died from his injuries after he was ejected from the bus near the Cream Level Road crossing.

A 9-year-old girl, Joselyne Torres, was trapped inside the bus, but was extricated by firefighters, police said. The Central Athens Elementary school student was taken by helicopter to Children's Medical Center in Dallas, where she had surgery and was in stable condition as of Saturday afternoon.

Both children belong to the congregation of St. Edward's Catholic Church in Athens, which sits just a few blocks from where the crash happened.

"It has been the darkest 24 hours I think we've ever had to go through, not only for our church, but for Athens in general," Father Nolan Lowry said.

As police continue to investigate what went wrong, he's urging the community not to point fingers.

"Accidents happen. All we can do is ask for God's grace to help us heal after that," Lowry said.

Police said the driver of the bus, 78-year-old John Stevens of Mabank, was treated for injuries before being released from the hospital.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who has been so deeply devastated by this tragedy," Athens Police Chief Buddy Hill said. "During this time we ask that the families be given the comfort, support, and dignity that they deserve."

In addition to the names of those on board, Athens police released more details regarding their investigation into what caused the crash.

Police said the bus came to a stop before the train tracks, but then continued to cross -- directly in front of a Union Pacific train. The train pushed the bus about one quarter of a mile down the tracks before it came to a stop.

While the intersection where the crash happened did not have any flashing lights or arms, police said a witness told them the train sounded its horn as it approached the intersection.

The train crew did not sustain any injuries.A D.C. restaurant that was once at the center of an online conspiracy theory dubbed "pizzagate" was intentionally set on fire, fire officials say.

Firefighters responded to a small fire at Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Avenue NW about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night, D.C. Fire and EMS said.

They found that employees had put out the fire that spread to some curtains and window coverings inside the restaurant, the fire department said.

No one was injured in the fire.

Fire investigators determined the fire was arson and later released these photos of a suspect:

Washington D.C. Arson Explosives Task Force

Authorities described the suspect as a white man, 25 to 30 years old with blonde hair, a mustache and a beard. He was wearing a blue and white varsity style jacket and blue jeans at the time of the fire.

Investigators are asking anyone who can identify the suspect to call 202-904-6511 or email james.taylor7@dc.gov.

It's not clear if the fire is related to the fake news "pizzagate" theory.

In December 2016, a North Carolina man armed with an assault rifle traveled to D.C. and fired his weapon inside the restaurant.

Edgar Welch told police he was there to investigate the "pizzagate" theory that claimed Comet Ping Pong was the home base of a child sex abuse ring run by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign chair, John Podesta.

Welch was sentenced to four years in prison.

The pizzeria saw an outpouring of support from the community after the ordeal. Hundreds of signs of support were posted outside Comet Ping Pong in the days after the shooting.Prosecutors presented evidence Thursday that a married father of two in Alexandria, Virginia, who owns a security company shot and killed his girlfriend because she wanted to break up with him.

Daniel Kankam, 44, was charged with murder in the death of 35-year-old Somaya Hussein Ahmed.

Police say Kankam killed Ahmed at her home in the unit block of South Van Dorn Street in Alexandria just before midnight on Jan. 11.

In addition to their relationship, Ahmed worked for Kankam at his company K-1 Tactical Security Services on Edsall Road in Alexandria, prosecutors say.

Kankam appeared in court Thursday and his attorney asked the judge to set bond, saying that Kankam was very stressed in jail.

If the Commonwealth is alleging you placed a gun in your paramours mouth and pulled the trigger, that would be stressful, a prosecutor responded.

The prosecutor said Ahmed's cellphone was recording video the night she was shot as she told Kankam she wanted to end their relationship.

"You are pissing me off," Kankam allegedly told her in the recording.

He is allegedly seen grabbing the phone before the recording ends, prosecutors said.

Investigators believe soon after the recording Kankam put the gun in the victim's mouth and fired.

Kankam then allegedly tried to create an alibi by texting the victims cellphone Where are you."

Prosecutors said Kankam had threatened to shoot Ahmed at least one other time. Another video on her phone taken in October 2018 shows the couple sitting outside her apartment. She can be heard telling him she wants to break things off.

The video allegedly shows Kankam pulling out his gun and pointing it at her.

"Are you going to shoot me?" Ahmed asks.

The video allegedly shows Kankam put the gun back in the holster.

Kankam's wife wiped away tears as she listened to the details of the case on Thursday. She declined to comment as she left court.

The couple's home is blocks away from the murder scene.

Authorities found six guns, including an AR-15, during a search of Kankam's apartment and storage unit, prosecutors said.

Defense attorneys argued the guns shouldn't raise alarm because Kankam owned a security company.

The judge denied Kankam's request for bond.U.S. Marines and Navy Seabees are rebuilding the mountaintop runway on storied Santa Catalina Island, a tourist destination off the Southern California coast.

About 100 Marines and sailors began working on the island this month under an agreement with the I Marine Expeditionary Force at California's Camp Pendleton and the Catalina Island Conservancy. The work on Catalina's Airport in the Sky is paid for by $5 million donated to the nonprofit land trust.

However, the group isn't paying the Marines and sailors for the work, which the military considers valuable training.

The conservancy had been patching the runway at a cost of about $250,000 a year until the state Department of Transportation's aeronautics division said it needed a long-term repair plan. The trust then partnered with the Defense Department's Innovative Readiness Training Program, which looks to match up the needs of communities with military training opportunities.

The airport closed in December, when tons of construction supplies were sent over from the mainland. The military set up an encampment at the airport and began work to replace the existing asphalt with concrete.

The airport dates to 1941, when it was built by leveling two mountaintops and filling in the remaining canyon to create the 3,000-foot (914-meter) main runway, which sits at an elevation of about 1,600 feet (488 meters) about 10 miles from the city of Avalon.

One end of the runway has a huge drop-off and using it has been likened to landing on an aircraft carrier.

The runway is expected to reopen in April. The renovation is expected to give the runaway a 75-year life.

Catalina lies south of Los Angeles, within sight of the mainland, and ferries bring most of the visitors.

Efforts at making the island a resort date to the 1800s but took off the 1920s when chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. began extensive development of facilities and attractions, including making it the spring training home of his Chicago Cubs.A fire raged through a popular Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, ski shop Saturday morning, sending plumes of smoke into the air as firefighters from multiple agencies worked to put out the flames.

The fire erupted around 8:45 a.m. at Salter's Ski Shop on the 3100 block of Ridge Pike, in Eagleville, according to Montgomery County dispatchers.

Multiple area fire departments responded as firefighters climbed ladders to attack the flames from above.

We had heavy smoke showing ... then at, that point, we went on a defensive operation. Everyone was out of the building," Lower Providence Fire Company Chief James Alexander said.

Fire crews issued a mayday call when a firefighter could not find a way out of the structure, but the firefighter was eventually found unharmed, according to county dispatchers.

The building was evacuated and no one was hurt, authorities said.

CORRECTION (Jan. 26, 2018 5:01 p.m.): This story has been updated to correctly attribute information about the fire to Montgomery County dispatchers.President Donald Trump said the odds congressional negotiators will craft a deal to end his border wall standoff with Congress are "less than 50-50."

As hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers prepared to return to work, Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he doesn't think the negotiators will strike a deal that he'd accept. He pledged to build a wall anyway using his executive powers to declare a national emergency if necessary.

"I personally think it's less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board," Trump said in an interview Sunday with the newspaper.

The president was referring to a bipartisan committee of House and Senate lawmakers that will consider border spending as part of the legislative process.

The president's standoff with Democrats on Capitol Hill is far from over and the clock is ticking. The spending bill Trump signed on Friday to temporarily end the partial government shutdown funds the shuttered agencies only until Feb. 15.

It's unclear if the Democrats will budge. Trump seemed girded for battle over the weekend, sending out a series of online messages that foreshadowed the upcoming fight with lawmakers. "BUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!" he tweeted.

Is Trump prepared to shut down the government again in three weeks?

"Yeah, I think he actually is," acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said. "He doesn't want to shut the government down, let's make that very clear. He doesn't want to declare a national emergency."

But Mulvaney said that at "the end of the day, the president's commitment is to defend the nation and he will do it with or without Congress."

The linchpin in the standoff is Trump's demand for $5.7 billion for his prized wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Democrats consider an ineffective, wasteful monument to a ridiculous Trump campaign promise.

Asked if he'd willing to accept less than $5.7 billion to build a barrier on the southern border, Trump replied: "I doubt it." He added: "I have to do it right."

He also said he'd be wary of any proposed deal that exchanged funds for a wall for broad immigration reform. And when asked if he would agree to citizenship for immigrants who were illegally brought into the U.S. as children, he again replied, "I doubt it."

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the leading Republican in the House, said Democrats have funded border barriers in the past and are refusing this time simply because Trump is asking for it.

"The president is the only one who has been reasonable in these negotiations," he said.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a member of the Democratic leadership in the House, said his colleagues are looking for "evidence-based" legislation.

"Shutdowns are not legitimate negotiating tactics when there's a public policy disagreement between two branches of government," he said.

Jeffries said that Democrats are willing to invest in additional infrastructure, especially at legal ports of entry where the majority of drugs come into the country.

"We're willing to invest in personnel. We're willing to invest in additional technology. ... In the past, we have supported enhanced fencing and I think that's something that's reasonable that should be on the table," he said.

Trump has asserted there is a "crisis" at the southern border requiring a wall, blaming previous presidents and Congress for failing to overhaul an immigration system that has allowed millions of people to live in the U.S. illegally.

Last month, he put that number at 35 million, while on Sunday he pegged it at 25.7 million-plus  figures offered without evidence. "I'm not exactly sure where the president got that number this morning," Mulvaney said.

Both are higher than government and private estimates.

His homeland security chief cited "somewhere" between 11 million and 22 million last month. In November, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported 10.7 million in 2016  the lowest in a decade.

The president also tweeted Sunday that the cost of illegal immigration so far this year was nearly $19 billion; he didn't cite a source.

Compare that with research in 2017 from a conservative group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for less immigration: $135 billion a year or about $11.25 billion a month  a figure that included health care and education, plus money spent on immigration enforcement.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. said that he thinks a compromise is possible.

"The president went from talking about a wall along the entire southern border at one point during the campaign ... to let's have barriers where they work and let's have something else where barriers wouldn't work as well," Blunt said.

The partial federal shutdown ended Friday when Trump gave in to mounting pressure, retreating from his demand that Congress commit to the border wall funding before federal agencies could resume work. The bill he signed did not provide the money Trump wanted for a barrier, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called "immoral" and has insisted Congress will not finance.

Mulvaney said Trump agreed to temporarily end the shutdown because some Democrats have stepped forward, publicly and privately, to say they agree with Trump's plan to better secure the border.

Mulvaney said they told Trump they couldn't split with Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, and work with the White House if the government remained closed.

"Everybody wants to look at this and say the president lost," Mulvaney said. "We're still in the middle of negotiations."

Mulvaney appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and CBS' "Face the Nation." Jeffries and McCarthy spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press," Blunt was on Fox.What to Know A 268-pound elephant was born at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse

The Asian elephant was 3 feet tall when he was born on Jan. 15. He has already gained 12 pounds

Asian elephants are critically endangered in the wild

A New York zoo has a big new addition to celebrate: a 268-pound baby elephant.

The baby boy was born Jan. 15 and was 3 feet tall, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse said. Since then, he has already gained another 12 pounds.

The Asian elephant calf is the second offspring of mother Mali and father Doc, who are both 21. The baby's brother, Mali, turns 4 in May.

Ashley Sheppard, Elephant Team Manager at Rosamond Gifford Zoo

Mali was pregnant for 660 days, the zoo said. When she went into active labor, the baby was born in less than a half hour.

To prepare for the birth, zoo workers held drills using a life-sized inflatable elephant and a buoy for the baby, zoo director Ted Fox said.

Mother and baby are both doing fine," Fox said. "We will monitor them closely while giving Mali and her newborn time to bond.

The youngster should be available to see at the zoo in the spring. Until then, the zoo will be posting updates on social media.

With this little one, Rosamond Gifford now has eight elephants, including the baby's grandmother, 35-year-old Targa.

Asian elephants are critically endangered in the wild, so its a huge accomplishment to be able to breed them in human care, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said.

Only about 30,000 Asian elements remain in the wild, the zoo said.

April the Giraffe Kisses New Baby and More Photos

Top Tri-State News PhotosWhat to Know The indictment does not accuse Stone of coordinating with the Russian government's election interference in 2016

But it lays out in detail Stone's conversations about stolen Democratic emails posted by WikiLeaks before the election

Stone appeared in court later Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was arrested, and was granted $250,000 bond

President Donald Trump's confidant Roger Stone has been charged with lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election bid. Prosecutors allege that senior Trump campaign officials sought to leverage the stolen material into a White House victory.

The self-proclaimed dirty trickster, arrested by the FBI in a raid before dawn Friday at his Florida home, swiftly blasted the prosecution as politically motivated. In a circus-like atmosphere outside the courthouse, as supporters cheered him on and jeering spectators shouted "Lock Him Up," Stone proclaimed his innocence and predicted his vindication.

"As I have said previously, there is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself," Stone said.

The seven-count indictment, the first criminal case in months in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, provides the most detail to date about how Trump campaign associates in the summer of 2016 actively sought the disclosure of emails the U.S. says were hacked by Russia and then provided to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. It alleges that an unidentified senior Trump campaign official was "directed" to keep in contact with Stone about when stolen emails relating to Clinton might be disclosed.

Stone is the sixth Trump aide or adviser charged by Mueller and the 34th person overall. The nearly two-year-old probe has exposed multiple contacts between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign and transition period and revealed efforts by several to conceal those communications.

The indictment brings the investigation even further into Trump's circle of advisers and suggests campaign officials were eager to exploit the stolen messages for political gain. But prosecutors did not accuse Trump of wrongdoing or charge Stone with conspiring with WikiLeaks or with the Russian intelligence officers Mueller says hacked the emails. They also did not allege that Trump aides knew in advance of the hacking.

The prosecution mirrors other Mueller cases in alleging cover-ups and deception, accusing Stone of lying to lawmakers about WikiLeaks, tampering with witnesses and obstructing a House intelligence committee probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the election.

Sarah Sanders, Trump's press secretary, said the charges brought against Stone "don't have anything to do with the president." She didn't directly answer questions on whether Trump directed a campaign official to contact Stone about stolen emails and wasn't aware of the Justice Department giving the White House notification of the arrest ahead of time.

Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said the indictment "does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else." Trump, in a tweet Saturday, said that if Stone "was indicted for lying to Congress," then "what about the lying" by top law enforcement and Obama-era national security officials, though he presented no specifics to support his assertion of such "lying."

CNN aired video of the raid at Stone's home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, showing agents in body armor using large weapons and night-vision equipment, running up to the home and banging on the door.

"FBI open the door!" one shouts. "FBI, warrant!" Stone could then be seen in the doorway in his sleepwear before he was led away.

A friend of Stone's, "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, told NBC News that federal authorities also raided a Manhattan apartment that they used to share.

Though not uncommon for the FBI to make early-morning arrests of targets under indictment, it's the first time Mueller has used that tactic. In court papers, prosecutors wrote they had concerns that if Stone was tipped off to the indictment, it would increase the risk he would flee or destroy evidence.

Hours after his arrest, Stone appeared in court in a blue polo shirt and jeans. In releasing him on $250,000 bond, a magistrate judge restricted Stone's travel to South Florida, Washington and New York City and ordered him to avoid contact with witnesses. He's due Tuesday in a court in Washington, where the case was filed.

"This morning, at the crack of dawn, 29 FBI agents arrived at my home with 17 vehicles, with their lights flashing, when they could simply have contacted my attorneys and I would have been more than willing to surrender voluntarily," Stone said outside court.

Known for his political antics, conspiracy theories and hard-ball tactics, Stone has reveled in being a Washington wheeler-dealer dating back to former President Richard Nixon's administration. On Friday, he mimicked Nixon's famous "V'' gesture as he left the courthouse.

Stone, a longtime friend of the president's, briefly served on Trump's campaign, but was pushed out amid infighting with then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Though sidelined, he continued to communicate with Trump and stayed plugged into his circle of advisers.

The indictment says Stone repeatedly discussed WikiLeaks in 2016 with campaign associates and lays out in detail Stone's conversations about emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and posted in the weeks before Trump beat Clinton.

The document says that by June and July 2016, Stone had told senior Trump campaign officials that he had information indicating that WikiLeaks had obtained damaging documents on Clinton.

After WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016, released hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, the indictment says, a senior Trump campaign official "was directed" to contact Stone about additional releases and "what other damaging information" WikiLeaks had "regarding the Clinton campaign." The indictment does not name the official or say who directed the outreach to Stone.

That question was the most significant detail in the indictment, said House intelligence committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

"Our Committee will be eager to learn just who directed a senior campaign official to contact Stone about additional damaging information held by Wikileaks, one of the publishing arms of Russian government hackers," Schiff said in a statement.

Though no officials are identified by name, one Trump campaign aide cited in the case is Steve Bannon, who later became Trump's chief White House strategist. Bannon, referred to as a "high-ranking Trump Campaign official," exchanged emails with Stone in October 2016 about WikiLeaks' plans. The indictment quotes from those emails, which had previously been made public by news outlets.

While the indictment provides some new insight into the Trump campaign, it deals largely with what prosecutors say were Stone's false statements about his conversations about WikiLeaks with New York radio host Randy Credico and with conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, who rejected a plea offer from Mueller last year.

The indictment says Stone carried out a "prolonged effort" to keep Credico from contradicting his testimony before the House intelligence committee. During that effort, prosecutors note that Stone repeatedly told Credico to "do a 'Frank Pentangeli,'" a reference to a character in "The Godfather: Part II" who lies before Congress.

Stone is accused of threatening Credico, including through messages in which he called him "rat" and "stoolie." He also threatened to "take that dog away from you," a reference to Credico's dog, Bianca.

"I am so ready. Let's get it on. Prepare to die (expletive)," Stone also wrote to Credico.

Stone has said for months he was prepared to be charged, while maintaining he had no inside information about the contents of the emails obtained by WikiLeaks or the timing of their release.

Still, he has long attracted scrutiny because of his WikiLeaks-related comments, especially a 2016 tweet  "Trust me, it will soon (be) the Podesta's time in the barrel"  that appeared to presage knowledge that Podesta's emails would soon be released.

In a tweet Friday, Podesta turned Stone's words against him, writing that it was now "Roger's time in the barrel."

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Jonathan Lemire, Jennifer Kay, Terry Spencer and Kelli Kennedy contributed to this report.Ukrainian officials on Friday upped the ante in the growing confrontation with Russia, announcing a travel ban for most Russian males and searching the home of an influential cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The long-simmering conflict bubbled over Sunday when Russian border guards rammed into and opened fired on three Ukrainian vessels near the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. The vessels were trying to pass through the Kerch Strait on their way to the Sea of Azov. The Russians then captured the ships and 24 crew members.

The Ukrainian parliament on Monday adopted the president's motion to impose martial law in the country for 30 days in the wake of the standoff.

There has been growing hostility between Ukraine and Russia since Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Russia has also supported separatists in Ukraine's east with clandestine dispatches of troops and weapons. Fighting there has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014 but eased somewhat after a 2015 truce.

Petro Tsygykal, chief of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, announced at a security meeting on Friday that all Russian males between 16 and 60 will be barred from traveling to the country while martial law is in place.

President Petro Poroshenko told the meeting that the measures are taken "in order to prevent the Russian Federation from forming private armies" on Ukrainian soil.

The announcement follows Thursday's decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap the much-anticipated meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump said it isn't appropriate for him to meet with Putin since Russia hasn't released the Ukrainian seamen.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian intelligence agency announced on Friday that they are investigating a senior cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ihor Guskov, chief of staff of the SBU intelligence agency, told reporters that its officers are searching the home of Father Pavlo, who leads the Pechersk Monastery in Kiev. He said the cleric is suspected of "inciting hatred."

The Pechersk Monastery, the spiritual center of Ukraine, is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian church, which has been part of the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries, moved close to forming an independent church  fueled by the conflict with Russia Ukraine's Orthodox communities earlier this year.

There are currently three Orthodox communities in Ukraine, including two breakaway churches. Ukrainian authorities sought to portray the Russian Orthodox clerics in Ukraine as supporting separatists.

Ukraine's president announced on Thursday that the Constantinople patriarchy has approved a decree granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church, a major boost to the president's approval ratings.

Both the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian authorities are strongly against the move and have warned Ukraine not to do it, fearing sectarian violence.

Russian government-appointed ombudswoman for Crimea told Russian news agencies that all the seamen have been transported from a detention center in Crimea. The three commanders have been taken to Moscow, she said. It wasn't immediately clear where the other 21 have been taken.

A Crimea court earlier this week ruled to keep the Ukrainian seamen behind bars for two months pending the investigation.Here are some of the top stories for last week from the NBC 6 Weekend Digest:

Sex, Drugs Plague Pompano Beach Park, Residents Say

Residents are demanding action after they say a Pompano Beach park has become a haven for sex and drugs.

"There's drug paraphernalia. There's empty wine bottles," said Steven Hoffman, who has a business nearby. "There's drug activity, there's public defecation, you know, sexual activity. There's just all kinds of behavior that doesn't belong in a park where you are supposed to be able to take your kids."

For more information, click here.

Residents in Pompano Beach say a neighborhood park has become a big problem, with drug use, prostitution and other crimes a regular occurrence.

Florida Man Beat, Pepper Sprayed Mom Because 'She Was a Narcissist'

A Florida man is behind bars after police say he beat and pepper sprayed his mother, claiming to do so because she was a narcissist.

The man's mother invited him over for lunch and he showed up with a knife, zip tie and pepper spray before attacking her, according to police.

For more information, click here.

Florida Is The Deadliest State for Pedestrians: Study

The Sunshine State has been deemed the deadliest state for pedestrians, according to a new study.

In total, nine Florida regions were among 20 U.S. metro areas declared unsafe and deadly for pedestrians. The top six most dangerous areas for pedestrians were also located in Florida, according to the study.

For more information, click here.

Costly Parking Payments a Problem for Miami Beach Hotel Employees

The first thing Michela Joseph does when she shows up for her housekeeping job at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach is park her car and pay.

"It's close to work," Joseph said about the lot on 46th Street and Collins Avenue. "It's the only one we have here."

Every day, Joseph spends money to earn money. Right now, the rate is a dollar an hour. But the city last year increased the rate to a flat rate of $20 a day -- meaning Joseph and her coworkers have to pay $400 a month.

For more information, click here.

Employees at the Miami Beach Foutainebleu have to pay an hourly rate to park at a lot to come to work. NBC 6s Jamie Guirola reports.Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen went to an Arizona border city Saturday on the second day of a southwest tour following the recent death of another Guatemalan migrant child in U.S. government custody, which President Donald Trump said was "strictly the fault of the Democrats.".

DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman said Nielsen was in Yuma, Arizona, but gave no other details. Earlier in the week, Waldman had said that Nielsen would meet at the Mexican border with emergency medical technicians and medical professionals, as well as local officials.

Nielsen went to El Paso, Texas, on Friday but the visit was closed to the media and no further information was provided by the department.

Late Friday, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo confirmed he was among those who met with Nielsen, saying they discussed "our immigration needs on the border." The statement from Margo, a Republican, did not mention the deaths of migrant children or whether it was discussed.

The trip came days after the death of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo. Felipe was the second Guatemalan child to die in government custody in three weeks.

Trump addressed the two deaths for the first time Saturday, tweeting, "Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They cant. If we had a Wall, they wouldnt even try! ... Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard & getting so little credit!"

Nielsen has called the death "deeply concerning and heartbreaking" and requested medical help from other government agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard. As Nielsen made the trip to Texas, New Mexico's Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, sent her a letter Friday seeking answers about the boy's death.

"The timeline, action and factors that led to Felipe's death are still developing, but the information that has become public so far is alarming and demands immediate attention and investigation," the letter says.

Felipe and his father, Agustin Gomez, were apprehended by border agents on Dec. 18 near the Paso del Norte bridge connecting El Paso to Juarez, Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The two were detained at the bridge's processing center and then the Border Patrol station in El Paso, until being taken at about 1 a.m. Sunday to a facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) away.

After an agent noticed Felipe coughing, father and son were taken to an Alamogordo hospital, where Felipe was diagnosed with a common cold and found to have a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius), CBP has said.

Felipe was held for observation for 90 minutes, according to CBP, before being released with prescriptions for amoxicillin and ibuprofen.

But the boy fell sick hours later on Monday and was re-admitted to the hospital. He died just before midnight.

New Mexico authorities said late Thursday that an autopsy showed Felipe had the flu, but more tests need to be done before a cause of death can be determined.While walking the streets of Los Angeles, you may have seen someone zoom through an intersection on an electric scooter and thought "That person is going to end up in the hospital." As it turns out, a lot of scooter riders did.

A recent study by UCLA researchers documented 249 total emergency room visits related to scooters at two university hospitals over a one-year period. The researchers looked through medical records at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center-Santa Monica between September 2017 and August 2018 for notes including the word scooter as well as the popular brands Lime and Bird.

The records show that not only are scooter riders at risk of suffering significant injuries, but that riders put themselves in greater danger by violating the law.

Roughly 40 percent of the hospital visits were related to head injuries. Only 4 percent of riders were wearing helmets, which were required by California law for the majority of the study period. That requirement was changed in September.

The researchers also found "a significant subset of injuries" occurred in riders under 18 years old. Both Bird and Lime have company policies barring minors from riding their scooters.

In addition to looking at medical records, the researchers recorded scooter activity at two busy intersections. Their observations found a significant number of riders violating rules by sharing the scooter with a passenger as well as frequent violation of traffic laws.

The researchers believe the study drastically underestimates the actual number of injuries associated with scooters because the data was limited to two hospitals and didn't include visits to urgent care or primary care doctors.Dozens of puppies and their mothers left Fort Worth Saturday morning headed to Florida to find "forever homes."

The Humane Society of North Texas has received more pets in the month of January than they normally do and the organization is running out of space to keep them all, said director of communications Cassie Lackey.

Lackey said Cloud Nine Rescue Flights and Wings of Rescue are the flight partners who stepped up to transport the animals to Fort Lauderdale, which will free up space at the Fort Worth shelter.

In 2019, the Humane Society of North Texas has seen a 55 percent increase in puppy intakes and a 115 percent increase in kitten intakes, Lackey said. The HSNT is bracing for a busier than usual spring.

Lackey said the Humane Society of North Texas is always looking for volunteers, fosters and adopters.The University of Texas at Dallas hosted some of the brightest young minds in North Texas Saturday for the 10th annual African-American Male Academic Bowl.

Around 130 sixth through eighth grade students from across North Texas gathered to compete in a battle of brain power with concentrations on history, math and engineering.

"I'm just glad that people are actually showing that they are proud to be smart," 11-year-old Javon Odum said. "This competition is a big to me. It's reflecting on what I've learned from the past."

Founder David Robinson, Jr. said the event began to help curb a disturbing trend in some African-American communities.

"The numbers are staggering as far as not staying in school," Robinson said.

Robinson said the event has grown larger than he ever imagined and has become a true celebration of excellence.

"We hear stories of schools that actually have waiting lists for teams of boys to compete," Robinson said.

Volunteers come from several fields of work in the community, willing to give the weekend to help inspire the next generation.

"It's heartwarming. It's refreshing and it's encouraging," Dallas City Councilman Kevin Felder said. "These young men are striving to be the best they can be and those are the leaders of tomorrow."

The winners not only get the adoration of their peers, but also laptop computers to help advance their education.Residents near the intersection at Durkee Road and Four Bridges Road in Somers told us they woke up to an unexpected sound this Sunday morning.

At about after 5 o clock, close to 5:30 in the morning, LifeStar came and landed inside the field nearby, Jerome Kulas has lived in the area for over 20 years. After that time, they were still investigating the scene and everything else. Multiple emergency crews came in to check out the area.

State police confirmed a serious accident occurred at that intersection. They also said they are the ones leading the investigation. By 9 a.m., an accident reconstruction team arrived to examine the scene.

Another neighbor who owns the land next to the site of the accident says its not the first time he has seen something like this.

The speed limit is 35, they do 50/55, said Joel Lachance. I see them come up the road to the corner up here. Whatre you gonna do? Theyve hit polesits too narrow.

Police have not yet released information on the victims or details of the accident.Connecticut State Police have arrested a man who is accused of driving the wrong direction for approximately 17 miles on Interstate 395 on Saturday.

Troopers said they received 35 separate 911 calls reporting a vehicle traveling southbound in the northbound lane on I-395 in Plainfield.

Troopers from multiple Troops responded in an attempt to locate the vehicle.

Police said the vehicle narrowly missed multiple State Police vehicles while traveling southbound in the northbound lane. As the vehicle approached exit 18, officers were able to deploy stop sticks and deflate three of the vehicle's tires.

According to police, the vehicle continued driving southbound at a slower speed until a trooper with all of their emergency equipment activated was able to get in front of it. The vehicle only stopped after it hit the front push bar of the cruiser. The vehicle did not damage the police car.

The driver of the vehicle, later identified as 37-year-old Kory Langan, of Nebraska, was transported to Troop E. He is facing charges including DWI, reckless driving, driving the wrong way on a divided highway, failure to obey the sign of an officer and reckless endangerment.

Langan was processed and later released on a non-surety bond. He will be in court on February 12 in Norwich.

Police said Langan traveled approximately 17 miles on I-395 in the wrong direction without hitting any other vehicles before being safely stopped by police.A federal appeals court says police in Connecticut did not violate the rights of an 87-year-old man when officers seized nearly 60 firearms from his home on the belief he was a convicted felon, which it turned out he wasn't.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court's ruling Thursday and dismissed a lawsuit by Joseph Kaminsky, who alleged police violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Police seized Kaminsky's guns from his Coventry home in 2011, after being alerted by the FBI that he had felony convictions from 1964 for unemployment insurance fraud and could not possess guns.

Authorities later discovered the crimes were not felonies and returned the guns to Kaminsky.

Kaminsky had sought undisclosed damages from police.Pope Francis called Sunday for a "just and peaceful solution" to Venezuela's political crisis as he wrapped up a visit to Panama for a World Youth Day rally that was overshadowed by the upheaval unfolding nearby.

Francis refused again to say if the Holy See would recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido in his claim for the presidency, which has been backed by the United States and other regional leaders. The Vatican years ago was frustrated in its attempt to mediate between socialist President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuela's opposition, which has the backing of many Venezuelan bishops.

Speaking off-the-cuff at his Sunday blessing, Francis said he felt particularly close to Venezuelans while he was in Panama. He "asked the Lord to seek and find a just and peaceful solution to overcome the crisis that respects human rights and exclusively seeks the good of all people."

The Venezuela crisis has dominated Francis' visit to Panama, both behind the scenes and in public, with the pope at one point asking out loud if any Venezuelan bishops were on hand at the end of an event. The Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was former ambassador to Venezuela so he knows the situation well.

Francis made the Venezuela comments after he closed out World Youth Day with a Mass in a Panama City field before an estimated 700,000 people and presidents from across the region: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Portugal.

"You dear people are not the future but the now of God," Francis told the pilgrims draped in flags from across the Americas.

At the end of the service, the Vatican announced the next edition of World Youth Day would be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

"Our trip was very long but it was worth it because we came here to Panama City because of our faith, our Christian faith," said pilgrim Sawadogo Kiswensidad, who travelled from Burkina Faso.

After Mass, Francis visited a church-run home for people infected with HIV, sending a strong message of acceptance in Panama, where AIDS carries a stigma.

"Many of the people we help here have been rejected by their families, by people in the street," said the Rev. Domingo Escobar, director of the Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano. "But here they receive Christian help, as the church wants."

Using the parable of the Good Samaritan, who tended to a stranger in need, Francis called for an end to the indifference that society treats the poor and the sick.

"For indifference can also wound and kill. Some for a few miserable coins, others for fear of becoming unclean," he said. "The Good Samaritan, whether in the parable or in all of your homes, shows us that our neighbor is first of all a person, someone with a real, particular face, not something to avoid or ignore, whatever his or her situation may be."

Francis used his visit to the home to issue a string of appeals, beyond Venezuela. He appealed for peace in Colombia following a car bombing at a police academy that killed 21 people earlier this month. He denounced the bombing of a cathedral in the Philippines earlier Sunday. And he added his voice to the chorus of solidarity on Holocaust Remembrance day.

After meeting with World Youth Day volunteers, Francis was heading back to Rome to prepare for another trip next weekend to Abu Dhabi, the first by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula.Residents in a small Florida city gathered Sunday and held a vigil to honor the five women killed in a SunTrust branch mass shooting.

People lit flashlights and cell phones instead of candles to honor the victims because heavy rains in Sebring pushed the vigil to an indoor location. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had made earlier plans to attend but canceled, saying the weather had affected his travels.

Four SunTrust employees and a customer were killed in the bank's lobby Wednesday. After a standoff, police say, Zephen Xaver, 21, was arrested and is now facing five counts of premeditated murder. State Attorney Brian Haas has said it is likely that he will seek the death penalty.

Photos of four of the victims were framed together and stood on an easel among funeral wreaths and next to a banner that read "Sebring Strong."

Sebring police said families of two of the women are raising funds for funerals and other expenses.

One of the victims was Jessica Montague, 31, a mother of three young children and seven stepchildren. She was to have celebrated her husband's birthday the day of the shooting. Another victim was Ana Pinon-Williams, a mother of three and stepmother of four who had recently begun working at the bank and had been planning a family trip to her native Mexico.

Pinon-Williams' brother-in-law, Tim Williams, addressed the crowd at Sunday's vigil.

"Let's use this opportunity, as our hearts are truly broken, and allow the light to shine in our lives," said Williams, a pastor.

The other two victims identified were Marisol Lopez, described by friends as a dedicated longtime bank teller. The customer who was shot dead was Cynthia Watson, who got married earlier this month. Authorities withheld the name of the fifth victim at the family's request in compliance with a new victims' rights law.

Police said the shooting appeared to be a random act, not part of a robbery, and that Xaver had no connection to any of the victims.

SunTrust spokesman Michael McCoy told media the bank has decided not to reopen the branch that came under attack after hearing from families. Instead, it is considering a different use for that space.

The banks had observed a moment of silence Friday at 12:36 p.m., which was the time on Wednesday when authorities say Xaver called 911 and told dispatchers he had shot everyone inside the bank.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 meeting with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang.

The second summit signals stepped-up efforts by both countries to continue talks. Trump has exchanged 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 special U.S. envoy for North Korea negotiations, Steve Biegun, is set to travel to Sweden for further talks over the weekend.

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.

Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for National Interest, said any talks between the two nations are a positive development, but the hard work of negotiating an agreement has only begun.

"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," Kazianis said.

As a possible first step, Kazianis said, North Korea could agree to close its nuclear centrifuge facility at Yongbyon in exchange for some relief from U.S. sanctions or a peace declaration ending the Korean War. The three-year war between North and South Korea ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

"Such a deal allows both sides to come away with a much-needed win that can breathe new life into negotiations," he said.

Kim 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.

Kim's latest trip to China, his fourth since last year, came as the North's strongest ally has encouraged negotiations with the U.S. while at the same time arguing in favor of an immediate easing of sanctions.

The U.S. 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 U.S. mainland. The two sides then turned to insulting each other: Trump called Kim "Little Rocket Man" and North Korea said Trump was a "dotard."

Independent analysts are highly skeptical that North Korea will easily abandon a nuclear arsenal constructed in the face of deep poverty and probably seen by Kim as his only guarantee of his government's survival. But Retired Gen. Vincent Brooks, former U.S. commander of American and allied forces in South Korea, told "PBS Newshour" that he believes Kim is serious about getting rid of his nuclear weapons.

"I do. I think that the dance is going to be very important here, though, as we think about how we go from where we were to where we all want to be," Brooks said. "First, we ought to take him (Kim) at his word. And it's not an easy thing to accept, especially given the track record of North Korea.

"But this is a new leader in North Korea ... and, indeed, there's evidence that he's serious about committing to what he said. For example, we've now gone 415 days without a strategic provocation, test or demonstration. I think that's a signal by itself that Kim Jong Un has moved in a different direction."Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Sunday that those in power are trying to turn people against each other, which she says is "not our America."

Harris, a first-term U.S. senator who announced her candidacy last Monday, rallied supporters outside City Hall in Oakland, her hometown and where she served as a prosecutor before becoming the state attorney general. The event was the formal kickoff for her campaign.

"We are here because the American Dream and our American democracy are under attack and on the line like never before," she said. "And we are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question: Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So, lets answer that question to the world and each other right here and right now. America, we are better than this."

Harris also said that racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and transphobia are real in the U.S. "They are age-old forms of hate with new fuel. And we need to speak that truth so we can deal with it," she said.

Harris cast herself as the kind of leader who can unify the country and would fight for the needs of all Americans.

"Im running for president because I love my country. Im running to be a president by the people. Of the people. For all the people," she said and echoed the words she has used in courtrooms and has adopted as her campaigns slogan: "My whole life, Ive only had one client: The people."

The daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, Harris entered the race on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Campaign aides say she has drawn inspiration from Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first black woman to run for president from a major party.

If Harris were to win the White House, she would be the first African-American woman and first person of Asian descent to be president.

Her first news conference as a candidate was on the campus of Howard University, the historically black college in the nations capital that she attended as an undergraduate. On Friday, she was in South Carolina to speak to members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, of which she is a member.

Harris campaign is expected to highlight her career as a prosecutor as part of her rationale for seeking the presidency. Harris was the first black woman elected district attorney in California, as well as the first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American to hold that job. Some of her tenure as attorney general, particularly relating to criminal justice, has come under early scrutiny.

Harris is among the first major Democrats to jump into what is expected to be a crowded 2020 presidential contest.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have announced exploratory committees. Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Julian Castro, federal housing chief under President Barack Obama and a former San Antonio mayor, already are in the race.

Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont may also run.

In her Oakland speech, Harris said she sees this year as an "inflection point" in American history and that she is best positioned to unite a divided country.

"Even though we have powerful forces trying to sow hate and division, the truth is that, as Americans, we have much more in common than what separates us," according to her prepared remarks.

After the rally, Harris planned to her first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate. In the weeks before last Novembers elections, Harris traveled to the leadoff caucus state to campaign on behalf of Democrats, and also visited other early-voting states.

Harriss campaign will be based in Baltimore and led by Juan Rodriguez who managed her 2016 Senate campaign. Aides say the campaign will have a second office in Oakland.A new transportation system could be coming to Oakland.

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute unveiled plans of a gondola Saturday that would transport passengers from downtown Oakland to Jack London Square near the Oakland As ballpark in less four minutes.

The tram is expected to attract 50,000 tourists a year and is estimated to bring in $400 million in sales tax to the city, the institute said in a statement.

"A gondola provides a unique and important transportation solution for better connecting Oaklands growing downtown and waterfront," said Jeff Bellisario, Vice President of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. "A gondola can serve as a major magnet for economic development, support the Oakland As exciting vision for a waterfront ballpark, attract tourists and other visitors and reduce commute times for thousands of workers."

If the plan is approved by Caltrans and other agencies it will take four years to construct and is expected to cost $100 million.(Natural News) The deep state is utterly petrified that the general public is finally waking up to the Great Vaccine Hoax  so much so that, in a desperate attempt to scare people into still getting vaccinated, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently put out a fear-mongering claim that vaccine refusal represents one of the biggest global health threats of 2019.

In addition to things like air pollution, climate change, a global influenza pandemic, and dengue fever, vaccine hesitancy is now classified by the WHO as a global health crisis, as vaccine hesitancy threatens to reverse progress in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases  vaccine hesitancy, as defined by the WHO, constituting any refusal or delay in getting vaccinated, assuming vaccines are readily available, according to official government guidelines and schedules.

According to the WHO, somewhere between two and three million deaths are prevented every year as a result of vaccination  though concrete data to back this up remains murky, if not completely non-existent. If more people were to agree to get vaccinated, the WHO contends, upwards of 1.5 million more deaths could be avoided  though, again, theres no valid scientific evidence to back this claim, either.

Measles, for example, has seen a 30 percent increase in cases globally, the WHO claims, ignoring the fact that MMR vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella not only cause more measles, but also cause more deaths from measles, compared to non-vaccinated individuals who contract measles naturally.

Its important to keep in mind that measles is much like the chicken pox in that its a relatively harmless disease when contracted naturally. As depicted in an old episode of The Brady Bunch, for instance, contracting measles has never historically been all that big of a deal  and once a person recovers from it naturally, he or she has lifelong immunity, unlike the temporary immunity, at best, thats afforded by MMR vaccines.

At least the WHO admitted in the same statement that this 30 percent increase in measles cases globally is, in fact, caused by other things besides not getting vaccinated  though we would contend that not getting vaccinated plays no role whatsoever in causing more cases of measles.

The reasons for this rise are complex, and not all of these cases are due to vaccine hesitancy, WHO states. However, some countries that were close to eliminating the disease have seen a resurgence, it adds, suggesting that this automatically points to people not getting vaccinated.

More and more parents are refusing vaccines for their children, report finds

But once again, theres no evidence to prove this  just hearsay. And thats why parents are increasingly deciding to forego vaccines for their little ones, instead choosing to allow them to develop natural immunity without the need for deadly chemicals, aborted human fetal tissue, and the many other toxins found in government-sanctioned vaccines.

Flu shots are also declining in popularity, as revealed in a recent report published by the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).

According to Dr. Julie Morita, CDPHs Commissioner, a whopping 83 percent of local parents refused to get flu shots for their children at Lurie Childrens Hospital. And an impressive 14 percent of local parents, the same report found, refused vaccines of all types, pointing to a growing trend of parents doing their homework independently, regardless of what health officials tell them.

Instead of flu shots and vaccines in general, Vaxxter recommends that you [w]ash your hands frequently (but not obsessively); make sure your 25-OH Vitamin D level is between 80 and 100 nmol/l; take Vitamin C Ascorbates 3000mg/day; (and) avoid white sugar, white flour and white rice.

For more related news, be sure to check out Vaccines.news.

Sources for this article include:

CrazzFiles.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

Vaxxter.com(Natural News) Widespread censorship across social media has prompted intense debate, theres no question about that. While tech giants deny that they are suppressing certain points of view, their actions say otherwise. A bevvy of conservative commentators and politicians have been banned, suspended or otherwise censored without legitimate provocation on a number of occasions  with one of the most blatant offenses being the unceremonious banning of Alex Jones and InfoWars across multiple platforms.

Tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google are wielding immense power when it comes to the kinds of content users are allowed to share and see, and it is clear that power is now being abused. There has been much controversy over how to solve this issue, but there may be a simple solution. All telecommunications companies rely on spectrum licenses from the federal government, and upholding free speech could easily be made a condition for these licenses.

As writer Aaron Renn suggests, Perhaps its time that spectrum licenses to mobile-phone companies be conditioned on their recipients providing freedoms for customers to use the apps of their choice.

Why spectrum licenses matter

All wireless communication are based on signals traveling through the air via radiofrequency, or spectrum. Whether youre watching TV, listening to the radio, or browsing Facebook on your cellphone, its all taking place thanks to spectrum.

As CNET explains, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is tasked with regulating such communications and provides licenses to companies seeking to use the spectrum. While companies like Facebook and Google may be privately owned, they rely entirely on spectrum to function. Without wireless connectivity, social media literally couldnt exist.

There has been much debate over who really owns the airwaves, especially given that the FCC has sold billions of dollars worth of public airwaves. Regardless, they are largely considered to be a public space by most  which is why the government regulates them.

If the airwaves used by websites like Facebook and Google are public domain, it would seem logical that these companies must comply with the laws of the land and uphold the rights of the people. The companies may be privately owned, but the airwaves they use to transmit information are not. Preserving and protecting freedom of speech should absolutely be made a tenet of using the airwaves, just like any other public space. Big Tech has made it clear that the industry can and will censor anyone they dont like, for no reason at all.

First Amendment on the internet

Many critics say that the First Amendment does not protect the rights we think it does, particularly regarding social media. This is because proponents of censorship maintain the view that social media platforms are private companies  even though the airwaves they occupy to transmit data are very much a public entity.

Regarding freedom of speech in other public spaces, legal expert Lata Nott told CNN that First Amendment rights need to be upheld. As reported:

If you invite someone to speak on your campus and are a public university, you have to respect their First Amendment rights, Nott says. That doesnt mean you cant put regulations on a speech, like dictating the time, place, venue and suggestions for subject matter. It just means you cant do so in a way that discriminates against a certain point of view.

How is this any different than a social media platform? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like exist to invite users to share their content. They are public sites which operate on public airwaves. They are, in essence, telecommuncations companies  and at the very least, rely on telecommuncations companies to reach the majority of their users.

The protection of basic rights, like free speech, should absolutely be a term of use for public spaces, including airwaves. And companies who refuse to uphold such rights should be stripped of their licenses.

See more coverage of Big Techs attack on freedom at Censored.news.

Sources for this article include:

NYPost.com

CNET.com(Natural News) Although the construction industry is adopting 3D printing techniques, old-fashioned concrete remains the building material of choice. But experts believe bioplastics will eventually usurp concrete due to their greater sustainability.

Zoubeir Lafhaj of the Ecole Centrale de Lille (ECL) explained that 3D printing is one of the pillars of the current industrial revolution. He predicted that the manufacturing process will not only improve the efficiency and speed of construction, but will also reduce waste and remedy many other environmental challenges of the sector.

According to Lafhajs analysis, the construction sector needs to move away from concrete. Instead, it should adopt building materials that require less energy to manufacture and result in lower amounts of pollution and waste.

One promising option is plastic made from biological ingredients. In addition to being more eco-friendly, bioplastics also weigh much less than concrete.

The lighter weight means it is much easier to import and transport bioplastic over any kind of distance. It can be hauled by smaller, cheaper-to-operate vehicles that can fit inside the more narrow streets of increasingly dense urban environments. (Related: This 3D-printing robot can build an entire home in 6 months for just $300,000.)

Amsterdam company is 3D printing buildings using bioplastics

There are already a number of 3D printed buildings in the Netherlands that are constructed with bioplastic. Amsterdam-based construction company Dus Architecture created the model buildings using additive manufacturing systems.

We have entire 3D printed tiny houses, all kinds of staircases and walls standing here, explained the companys co-founder, Hedwig Heinsman. It looks like a modern-day ruin.

Dus Architecture is also building a full-sized canal house with an area of 700 square meters. Once they complete it, the company will set up shop inside the bioplastic building.

All of the smaller prototypes are research and design by doing projects. They allow the builders to figure out what works and ditch what doesnt.

More 3D printed bioplastic buildings have also been set up outside Amsterdam. Back in 2015, Dus Architecture built a small-scale but fully furnished urban cabin out of black bioplastic. A year later, it manufactured a 3D facade for the building where the Netherlands presided over the EU for half a year.

Saving the environment by saving on construction material waste

Up to 25 percent of the building material in a typical construction project goes to waste. But 3D printing is much more precise when it comes to using resources.

Furthermore, any mistakes made with bioplastic can be rectified by shredding the material and reusing it for a do-over. A mistake made with concrete, on the other hand, is the closest thing to being cast in stone.

The formula used by Dus Architecture incorporated flaxseed oil. The 3D printer heated this bioplastic and used it to create layers of molten polymers that will cool into the customized shape.

The machine can print shapes that are up to five meters tall. These include columns, staircases, and walls. The assorted parts are then put together to form the final structure.

In addition to large parts and entire buildings, 3D printing can build very specific items. For example, metal molds are used to make resin joints for trusses in large construction and infrastructure projects. However, these molds cost a pretty penny and are always discarded after the project is finished.

Researchers are developing bioplastics that can withstand the massive temperatures used in the curing process for resin joints. These heat-resistant plastics will be 3D printed into molds that are cheaper, lighter, and reusable compared to their metal counterparts.

Sources include:

AllThings.bio

BioPlasticsNews.com(Natural News) As Venezuelas economy continues to collapse and social unrest rises in response to new political instability, Russia has sent hundreds of mercenaries to the South American country in support of embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Some 400 mercenaries were arriving in the country as U.S. diplomats and their families were packing up to leave the country on Maduros orders following a decision by the Trump administration to back his main rival, Juan Guaido, who declared himself president before slipping out of sight over fears he would be arrested.

The U.K.s Daily Mail reported that the Russian mercenaries were sent specifically to bolster and, perhaps, defend Maduro, possibly from elements of his own military or other factions within the country who are disenfranchised and disgusted. (Related: Pompeo confirms: Hundreds of Russians killed by U.S. during February attack in Syria.)

Once considered the crown jewel of South America, replete with the largest oil reserves in the region, Venezuela was on a path to success before socialist Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998.

Russian interests threatened

Initially, his programs of free health care, which he wrote into the constitution, and wealth redistribution alleviated poverty and improved the lives of most ordinary citizens. But by the time Maduro took power in 2013 after Chavezs death, the countrys economy had begun to spiral downward from socialist policies.

Basic medicine, food, commodities, and services have become scarce or nonexistent. And hundreds of thousands have fled the country in search of better opportunities.

The Russian mercenaries arrived in-country as President Donald Trump was declaring that the U.S. would keep all options on the table to force Maduro from power.

Moscows interest in Venezuela likely involves the countrys vast oil wealth and the fact that it is heavily in debt to Russia (and China). Also, Russian mining firms have interests there as well.

In recent years oil output has declined as the countrys drilling and refining infrastructure has fallen into disrepair for lack of maintenance and spare parts. As oil output fell, so, too, did Caracas income from oil sales.

Read more about Venezuelas social and economic collapse at Collapse.news.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

DailyMail.co.uk

RT.com(Natural News) The concept of doctors prescribing patients certain medications in exchange for money and gifts from pharmaceutical companies isnt new, but it has taken on a whole new level of danger in the wake of the opioid crisis. For a long time, many of us wanted to believe that most doctors are above this sort of behavior, but the statistics tell a different tale: Pharmaceutical firm payoffs to doctors have been linked to rises in opioid deaths.

According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, in the time from August 2013 to December 2015, statistics show that drug makers shelled out nearly $40 million across 435,000 payments to 67,500 doctors throughout the U.S. The payments covered everything from meals to speaking engagements and travel costs. According to the data, the more marketing Big Pharma firms carried out to physicians in a particular county, the greater number of overdoses that were recorded there. This held true no matter how much money was actually spent; the number of interactions seems to be the biggest factor here.

The study found that in a county with a population of 100,000, just three extra payments to doctors were linked to an 18 percent higher number of prescription opioid deaths. Perhaps even more troubling, previous studies have found that more than nine out of every 10 marketing interactions with doctors were for a meal. This means it isnt costing Big Pharma very much money to get doctors attention  and people are losing their lives so their doctor can get a free meal. Its an outrage no matter how you look at it.

The study showed that payments were concentrated in counties that had a greater amount of unemployment, lower income inequality, higher median household income, lower poverty, and more high school graduates, suggesting that certain counties are being targeted.

NYU School of Medicines Dr. Magdalena Cerda said the findings suggest what matters is not so much the high value of payments to a few doctors, but the low value of payments to many doctors, for such things as meals.

Not surprisingly, many states, counties and cities across the nation are filing lawsuits against opioid makers for inappropriate prescription guidelines and downplaying the risks of the deadly drugs. A lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts attorney general alleged that Purdue Pharma influenced legislation and offered universities and medical facilities generous funding to tout OxyContin. To add insult to injury, it was revealed that one member of the family that owns the company was pushing a strategy to blame those who become addicted for overdoses rather than doctors or the pills themselves.

Opioids vs. guns

Its upsetting but not surprising that these stories arent getting a lot of headlines. The mainstream media is all too happy to talk about the opioid crisis and share tales of how families have been affected, but they are very reluctant to point the finger at the parties that are responsible for all this death and destruction.

While the mainstream media is largely ignoring the culpability of doctors in all this, they seem quite content to push the idea that guns are the biggest threat to our society  never mind the fact that opioid deaths have been outnumbering gun deaths since 2015 in a trend that shows no sign of slowing down.

Amid all the calls to ban guns, we never hear calls to ban opioids or stop pharmaceutical companies from marketing them. Instead, they are running around essentially unchecked, paying off doctors to ensure these deadly drugs make their way into the bodies of as many people as possible  and they dont seem to care how many people die as long as their bank balance keeps growing.

Read BadDoctors.news for more news reports on dangerous medicine and irresponsible doctors.

Sources for this article include:

StatNews.com

NaturalNews.comNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the importance of strong transatlantic cooperation and institutions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday (24 January 2019). The Secretary General took part in a panel session on the Future of the Transatlantic Alliance, together with German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, former US Secretary of State John Kerry and Professor Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore.

Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that Europe and North America have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in NATO for over 70 years, protecting common interests and values. The Secretary General noted that Europe and North America are doing more together  modernising the NATO Command Structure, strengthening NATOs cyber defences and investing more in collective defence.

Since 2016, the Secretary General said, European Allies and Canada have spent an extra 41 billion dollars in real terms. Mr. Stoltenberg announced that by 2020, this figure is expected to increase to 100 billion dollars. Based on the national plans coming in from all the Allies, they will add $100 billion by the end of next year, he said.

The Secretary General added that NATO Allies have also demonstrated unity on arms control, speaking with one voice on Russias violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Allies have called on Russia to return urgently to full and verifiable compliance with the Treaty.

During his visit to Davos, the Secretary General also held bilateral talks with NATO Allies and partners, including Polish President Andrzej Duda, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, and the Chairwoman of the CDU Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised Romania on Wednesday (23 January 2019) for its strong contributions to the Alliance. Mr. Stoltenberg was speaking after talks with Prime Minister Viorica Dancila at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The Secretary General highlighted the crucial role Romania plays in the security of the Black Sea region.

Read the Secretary General's joint press point hereBy Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided in Kleber v. CareFusion Corporation last Wednesday that disparate impact liability under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) applies only to current employees and does not include job applicants.

The case was brought by Dale Kleber, an attorney, who applied for a senior position in CareFusions legal department. The job description required applicants to have 3 to 7 years (no more than 7 years) of relevant legal experience.

Kleber was 58 at the time he applied and had more than seven years of pertinent experience. CareFusion hired a 29-year-old applicant who met but did not exceed the experience requirement.

Kleber filed suit, pursuing claims for both disparate treatment and disparate impact under the ADEA. The Chicago Tribune notes in Hinsdale man loses appeal in age discrimination case that challenged experience caps in job ads that Kleber had out of work and job hunting for three years when he applied for the CareFusion job.

Some Basics

Lets start with some basics, as the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) set out in a brief primer on basic US age discrimination law entitled Questions and Answers on EEOC Final Rule on Disparate Impact and Reasonable Factors Other Than Age Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. The EEOC began with a brief description of the purpose of the ADEA:

The purpose of the ADEA is to prohibit employment discrimination against people who are 40 years of age or older. Congress enacted the ADEA in 1967 because of its concern that older workers were disadvantaged in retaining and regaining employment. The ADEA also addressed concerns that older workers were barred from employment by some common employment practices that were not intended to exclude older workers, but that had the effect of doing so and were unrelated to job performance.

It was with these concerns in mind that Congress created a system that included liability for both disparate treatment and disparate impact. Whats the difference between these two concepts?

According to the EEOC:

[The ADEA] prohibits discrimination against workers because of their older age with respect to any aspect of employment. In addition to prohibiting intentional discrimination against older workers (known as disparate treatment), the ADEA prohibits practices that, although facially neutral with regard to age, have the effect of harming older workers more than younger workers (known as disparate impact), unless the employer can show that the practice is based on an [Reasonable Factor Other Than Age (RFAO)]

The crux: its much easier for a plaintiff to prove disparate impact, because s/he neednt show that the employer intended to discriminate. Of course, many if not most employers are savvy enough not to be explicit about their intentions to discriminate against older people as they dont wish to get sued.

District, Panel, and Full Seventh Circuit Decisions

The district court dismissed Klebers disparate impact claim, on the grounds that the text of the statute- ( 4(a)(2))- did not extend to outside job applicants. Kleber then voluntarily dismissed his separate claim for disparate treatment liability to appeal the dismissal of his disparate impact claim. No doubt he was aware  either because he was an attorney, or because of the legal advice received  that it is much more difficult to prevail on a disparate treatment claim, which would require that he establish CareFusions intent to discriminate.

Or at least that was true before this decision was rendered.

Unfortunately, the seventh circuit has now held that the disparate impact section of the ADEA does not extend to job applicants. .Judge Michael Scudder, a Trump appointee, wrote the majority 8-4 opinion, which reverses an earlier 2-1 panel ruling last April in Klebers favor that had initially overruled the district courts dismissal of Klebers disparate impact claim.

The majority ruled:

By its terms,  4(a)(2) proscribes certain conduct by employers and limits its protection to employees. The prohibited conduct entails an employer acting in any way to limit, segregate, or classify its employees based on age. The language of  4(a)(2) then goes on to make clear that its proscriptions apply only if an employers actions have a particular impact depriv[ing] or tend[ing] to deprive any individual of em- ployment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect[ing] his status as an employee. This language plainly demonstrates that the requisite impact must befall an individual with status as an employee. Put most simply, the reach of  4(a)(2) does not extend to applicants for employment, as common dictionary definitions confirm that an applicant has no status as an employee. (citation omitted)[opinion, pp. 3-4]

By contrast, in the disparate treatment part of the statute ( 4(a)(1)):

Congress made it unlawful for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privi- leges of employment, because of such individuals age.[opinion, p.6]

The court compared the disparate treatment section   4(a)(1)  directly with the disparate impact section   4(a)(2):

Yet a side-by-side comparison of  4(a)(1) with  4(a)(2) shows that the language in the former plainly covering appli-cants is conspicuously absent from the latter. Section 4(a)(2) says nothing about an employers decision to fail or refuse to hire  any individual and instead speaks only in terms of an employers actions that adversely affect his status as an employee. We cannot conclude this difference means nothing: when Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in anotherlet alone in the very next provisionthe Court presumes that Congress intended a difference in meaning. (citations omitted)[opinion, pp. 6-7]

The majoritys conclusion:

In the end, the plain language of  4(a)(2) leaves room for only one interpretation: Congress authorized only employees to bring disparate impact claims.[opinion, p.8]

Greying of the Workforce

Older people account for a growing percentage of the workforce, as Reuters reports in Age bias law does not cover job applicants: U.S. appeals court:

People 55 or older comprised 22.4 percent of U.S. workers in 2016, up from 11.9 percent in 1996, and may account for close to one-fourth of the labor force by 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The greying of the workforce is thanks to better health in older age and insufficient savings that require people to keeping working longer, according to the Chicago Tribune. Yet:

numerous hiring practices are under fire for negatively impacting older applicants. In addition to experience caps, lawsuits have challenged the exclusive use of on-campus recruiting to fill positions and algorithms that target job ads to show only in certain peoples social media feeds.

Unless Congress amends the ADEA to include job applicants, older people will continue to face barriers to getting jobs.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The [EEOC], which receives about 20,000 age discrimination charges every year, issued a report in June citing surveys that found 3 in 4 older workers believe their age is an obstacle in getting a job. Yet hiring discrimination is difficult to prove and often goes unreported. Only 3 percent have made a formal complaint. Allowing older applicants to challenge policies that have an unintentionally discriminatory impact would offer another tool for fighting age discrimination, Ray Peeler, associate legal counsel at the EEOC, has said.

How will these disparate impact claims now fare?

The Bottom Line

FordHarrison, a firm specialising in human relations law, noted in Seventh Circuit Limits Job Applicants Age Discrimination Claims:

The decision narrowly applies to disparate impact claims of age discrimination under the ADEA. It is important to remember that job applicants are protected under the disparate treatment portion of the statute. There is no split among the federal appeals courts on this issue, making it an unlikely candidate for Supreme Court review, but the four judges in dissent read the statute as being vague and susceptible to an interpretation that includes job applicants.

Their conclusion: a decision finding disparate impact liability for job applicants under the ADEA is unlikely in the near future.

Alas, for reasons of space, I will not consider the extensive dissent. My purpose in writing this post is to discuss the majority decision, not to opine on which side made the better arguments.Mashonaland East says President Emmerson Mnangagwas visit to the province next Saturday presents the party with an opportunity to prove to detractors that he has grassroots support at both party and government level.

President Mnangagwa resumes his 2019 Thank You rallies at Murewa Centre on Saturday 2 February 2019.

Mashonaland East Zanu PF provincial chairman Cde Joel Biggie Matiza said the rally gives the province an opportunity to prove to detractors that the President has the support of the people of Zimbabwe despite protests led by unruly opposition MDC Alliance elements recently.

We have been given an opportunity to show the world that we are all behind our President, he said.

Zanu PF Politburo member Dr Sydney Sekeramayi and Mashonaland East Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Apolonia Munzverengwi appealed to the people of the province to come to the rally in their thousands.

Lets come in our thousands and be with our President and show him how much we love him, said Dr Sekeramayi while Cde Munzverengwi said, 

President Mnangagwa held Thank You rallies in Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central provinces last year following Zanu PFs resounding victory in the 2018 harmonised elections.

 ZBC

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsTHE commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, Air Marshal Elson Moyo, has said the country is ready to deal with those who are indisciplined and are bent on putting the name of the organisation into disrepute.

Speaking during a graduation ceremony of six Air Force of Zimbabwe officers who underwent Basic Officers Course in 2018, Air Marshal Moyo said the military had sufficient structures to deal with indiscipline and would not hesitate to take strict action against those who stray from the military rules and regulations.

Discipline is the bedrock from which the Air Force of Zimbabwe has over the years scored numerous successes in military and humanitarian assistance and operations.

As a result the Zimbabwe Defence Forces are known worldwide for our standards of military discipline as evidenced in operations that were carried out successfully in Mozambique, Angola, Somalia, DRC among other operations.

We are aware of some cases of indiscipline that were reported during the course of the training programme.

We have sufficient structures to deal with indiscipline in the Air Force of Zimbabwe.

We will not hesitate to take strict action on those who stray from the military rules and regulations.

My clarion call to the graduates is to maintain high standards of discipline as well as applying the knowledge acquired during the course for the benefit of the organisation and the country at large, he said.

Air Marshal Moyo said it was incumbent upon the military to maintain world standard training courses.

 SundayNews

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsHIGH Court Senior Judge, Justice Nicholas Mathonsi has upheld a ruling by the Gweru Magistrate Court to fine a police officer, Detective Constable Gift Gorongonya $400 for shooting a soldier following an altercation.

Gorongonya appeared before Gweru magistrate, Ms Mildred Matuvi, in August last year and was fined $400 for the offence.

Gorongonya appealed against the ruling at the High Court. However, Justice Mathonsi on last Tuesday overruled the appeal and upheld the ruling by Ms Matuvi.

The States case was that in February last year Gorongonya, who was in the company of his colleague, Constable Chrispen Musiiwa, was assaulting a soldier along Harare Road when a Five Brigade bound Zimbabwe National Army bus stopped and Corporal Zico Shumba together with other soldiers disembarked and tried to restrain Gorongonya.

The complainant allegedly disarmed Cst Musiiwa who was armed with a pistol and removed the magazine. The court heard that Gorongonya then drew a pistol and fired some shots before hitting Corporal Shumba on the leg. The two police officers then rushed to Gweru Central Police Station. Corporal Shumba was rushed to Gweru Provincial Hospital (GPH) where he received treatment. Corporal Shumba is said to have sustained a fractured leg as a result of the shooting.

Through his lawyer, Mr Arshiel Mugiya of Mugiya and Macharaga Law Chambers, Gorongonya alleged that he shot Corporal Shumba while in the line of duty after he tried to obstruct him from arresting a suspect. Mr Mugiya had applied for the court to place Gorongonya off remand arguing that he a constitutional mandate of enforcing the law and where there is resistance he can use force.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsAhem. You may have noticed. Important parts of the federal government were shut down, affecting some 800,000 federal workers  and many more folks beyond.

Im pretty sure this didnt escape notice. For most. However, it passed others right on by. Im talking mostly about those who were decrying Democrats as faithless and heartless  before the president decided Friday to temporarily reopen the government  for failing to end the suffering of federal workers on furlough or working without pay.

The argument went something like this: President Donald Trump put forth a reasonable compromise on Dreamers and other facets of immigration and the Democrats refused to negotiate. In this telling, Trump was the adult in the room, as one pundit recently wrote on these pages.

And the problem with this is, to repeat, important parts of the federal government were shut down!

Though the president has moved to reopen the government  for only three weeks, at the end of which we might have another shutdown if Trump doesnt get his wall  its worth considering the dynamics here. Adults dont shut down government, and Democrats didnt do the shutting. Yet they were blamed by the president and his supporters and enablers for not caving  er, negotiating  to end a shutdown that shouldnt have even been happening. And they will likely be blamed again if the shutdown is reprised.

But lets be real. The negotiation Trump really wanted was the one that would have given him $5.7 billion for his border wall. He used the shutdown to try to bludgeon Democrats into submission. It didnt work. Democrats won. Trump, the allegedly artful negotiator, could not get the Democrats to negotiate what shouldnt have to be negotiated  that the government be allowed to function.

This is as if a guy, coveting your wide-screen TV, chains and padlocks the doors of your car and then blames you for not agreeing to give him what he wants. The president was essentially telling Democrats  and the country  what part of blackmail dont you get? Pay me and lets get on with our lives.

Meanwhile, unpaid federal workers stood in lines for handouts. Living paycheck to paycheck becomes a lesson in survival when existence becomes paycheck to no paycheck. Folks were having to decide how to ration what little they had saved, begged or borrowed on such luxuries as food, the electric and gas bill, clothing for the kids and rent or the mortgage, all while maxing out credit cards.

Lets recap. The president was set to sign a short-term spending bill that would have kept the nine agencies affected in this shutdown running. Then conservative pundits Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh brought out the knives, told Trump he was capitulating, and then, all of a sudden, he wasnt signing the bill. Presto, we had a government shutdown.

All this to get a wall that most Americans dont want, to address a crisis that doesnt exist, on a border that is already among the most secure in the world. And Democrats were crafting a compromise that gives the administration even more money for border security  but none for a border wall.

By any measure, this makes them the adults in the room. Lets take a look at the guy who wasnt  and still isnt.

He proposed temporary help for 700,000 Dreamers  people brought here as children by undocumented immigrant parents  when the need exists for 1.8 million. Did I mention that this help would have been temporary? Also temporary was the three-year reprieve he would have given those here because they fled natural disaster and violence in their own countries. Many assuredly have U.S. citizen children and deserve permanency. And he would have required Central Americans younger than 18 to apply for U.S. asylum from their own countries and deny them court appeals. But the law is clear that we consider asylum for folks presenting themselves at the border, even if a fraction of them ever get it. And appeals are just due process that acknowledges that immigration judges can get it wrong.

Even without a shutdown, this was a puny offer. But there was a shutdown. And thats the point. There shouldnt have been. No one should ever be rewarded for blackmail.

That $5.7 billion is a rounding error in a $4 trillion dollar-plus federal budget? Some Democrats were for a wall before they were against it? Both are oversimplifications and both are beside the point. However large the federal budget is and no matter what Democrats voted on earlier vis-a-vis fencing or walls, guns werent pointed at heads when these happened.

The villains here were the folks pointing the guns  and threatening to do so again in three weeks.

o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.netThe filling of a vacancy on the Edgewood Independent School District board by its appointed board of managers could have been handled better.

Dysfunction on the districts board of trustees prompted the state to replace the elected board with an appointed board of managers in 2016.

There was great controversy early on when one of the original appointees, who was outspoken about district operations, was removed and quickly replaced.

Recent action by the board of managers, appointed by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, is once again raising concerns about the governance in this low-property-wealth school district.

At a meeting earlier this month, the state-appointed board of managers filled a vacancy created by the resignation of an elected trustee. For the sake of transparency, that appointment should have been left to the education commissioner.

While it may have been within their legal authority for the appointed managers to make the choice, the troubled history of this beleaguered district makes it important that board politics dont overshadow the education mission.

Morath has said the district will transition to an elected board by 2020. The details of that plan have not been laid out, but school board elections have been allowed to proceed despite the states takeover. Those elected were not allowed to take their posts and will only do so at the education commissioners discretion.

The transition to an elected board began last year. Morath allowed two of the trustees who won voter approval to assume their seats. That made for a seven-member board comprised of five appointed managers and two elected trustees. One of the elected trustees later resigned.

Board President Roy Soto told the Express-News that the appointment decision was made without consulting Morath because the board felt it was its responsibility to move forward.

However, proceeding on issues like this without consulting TEA only cause distractions and invites problems.San Antonio police say a report of vandalism was called in for a very familiar address Sunday afternoon: Their offices.

San Antonio Public Safety Headquarters was the target of a giant spray painted message that an officer at the scene said was reported about 9 a.m.San Antonio police are searching for a man they say shot another in front of an apartment unit on the Southeast Side Sunday morning.

Officers say a 58-year-old man was standing outside an apartment at the Reserves At Pecan Valley in the 4000 block of E. Southcross just after midnight when another man walked up and shot him.Madison Iszler

A man arrested Saturday has been charged in connection to the robbery of a Southwest Side food store last week, according to San Antonio police.

Matthew Avalos, 36, was arrested and charged with felony aggravated robbery, officer Douglas Greene, a San Antonio Police Department spokesman, said.Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim had been dead exactly a year when the "Milwaukee Cannibal" completed military training in San Antonio.

Students who graduated from Fort Sam Houston's U.S. Army Medical Specialist Basic Course in June 1979 didn't realize it at the time, but they had spent weeks learning and living beside one of the most notorious serial killers and cannibals in American history.

Dahmer brutally murdered a total of 17 men in a spree spanning more than 13 years. And he spent a few months within that time frame in San Antonio when the then-19-year-old was enrolled in the course from May 14 to June 22 in 1979, base officials confirmed to mySA.com.

Nearly 40 years after his first murder and 26 years after his arrest, "My Friend Dahmer" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and is expected to be released later this year, according to Rolling Stone.

RELATED: The true story behind the San Antonio kidnapping & murder of 'The Most Hated Woman in America'

The trailer was released earlier this week, giving a preview into Dahmer's high school years, which is when he said the homicidal thoughts began.

By the time Dahmer celebrated his 20th birthday in the Alamo City he had both specialty training and at least one murder under his belt. It happened soon after graduating from Revere High School in Richfield, Ohio.

In 1978 Dahmer picked up Steven Hicks from the side of the road and took him back to his parents house, where he bludgeoned him to death with a barbell. Hicks, an 18 year-old trying to hitchhike to a concert, was dismembered beneath the Dahmer home. His body parts were separated and stored in garbage bag, his bones were buried then excavated, crushed and scattered in a nearby ravine, according to The New York Times.

A missing-person investigation ensued, but the case was considered "active but dormant" after months without clues.

While Hicks' family searched for their son, Dahmer went on to attend Ohio State University for a semester before dropping out and enlisting in the Army.

After completing basic training, Dahmer moved onto the next step in his Army career: Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sam Houston, where he trained in the medical field. He stayed on post, in the barrack for about six weeks, Fort Sam Houston Public Affairs Officer Jose Rodriguez told mySA.com.

RELATED: Women, children shown in eerie photos taken by serial killer from San Antonio

Rodriguez told mySA.com that information on Dahmer's Military Occupation Specialty is not available, but he did "successfully graduate from the course."

No documented murders at the hands of Dahmer happened during his stint in San Antonio, and there are no cold cases in the city from that time, though he did mention in a jailhouse interview with Stone Phillips in the early 1990s that his thirst to kill had "been building up gradually" since his first murder.

"Once it happened the first time, it just seemed like it had control of my life from there on," Dahmer told Phillips.

With his training complete, Dahmer was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 68th Armored Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, and was sent to Baumholder, Germany, according to the New York Times.

Dahmer met bunkmate Billy J. Capshaw while overseas. Capshaw revealed what living with the serial killer was like in an August 1991 interview with The New York Times.

He said Dahmer liked jokes and spending "hours pouring" over children's books. When he was sober he was easy-going, but when he drank he morphed into a "stony-faced," "menacing" person, Capshaw said.

"When he'd drink, he'd get real violent with me," Capshaw said in the report.

Dahmer was honorably discharged in March 1981, a year short of completing his three-year enlistment, according to The New York Times.

READ ALSO: Murder case of 'Phantom Killer' in Texas remains unsolved 70 years later

Rumors for his dismissal pointed to Dahmer's drinking, but Army officials would not discuss the reason with The New York Times. Dahmer told the publication he was discharged under Chapter 9 of the Code of Military Justice, which covers drug or alcohol use.

No known killings happened during his time in the Army. He told The New York Times that his disturbing fantasies of rape, murder, dismemberment, cannibalism and necrophilia recurred when he moved to Milwaukee and moved in with his grandmother.

Dahmer told Phillips his second murder happened "roughly" around 1984, but he didn't plan on, or remember, killing Steve Tuomi. After meeting him at a Milwaukee bar, Dahmer invited Tuomi back to his hotel where he spiked his drink with sleeping pills.

In the conversation with Phillips, Dahmer said he awoke to find bruises on his and Tuomi's body, adding that he "must have" beat the man to death.

Tuomi's remains were never found  Dahmer told The New York Times that he put his body in a suitcase and rode with the luggage in a taxi to his grandmother's home. Upon arrival, he dismembered and disposed of the carcass.

"That's when it all started again," Dahmer told Phillips. "That's when the obsession went into full swing. After the second time, it seemed like the compulsion to do it was too strong and I didn't even try to stop it after that."

Dahmer's grisly murders continued until July 22, 1991, when he was arrested in Milwaukee. Investigators found barrels of bodies, torsos in freezers, skeletons and Polaroid photos detailing his dismemberment processes, according to multiple reports.

He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms, but was killed in 1994 by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkyeTwo men were shot early Sunday after a fight outside a north Houston bar and night club, according to authorities.

The shots came after some sort of dispute broke out around 4 a.m. at El Torito VIP Bar on West Little York.Kel Seliger was once one of the Texas Senate's top Republicans, promoted and applauded for his ability to work across the aisle.

Now, he's suddenly the only GOP member without any kind of leadership role.

Last week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stripped Seliger of his job as a committee chairman. Seliger has said the demotion was political payback; Patrick blames it on Seliger's attitude and a "lewd comment" he recently made about a Patrick female staffer.

Neither man shows signs of backing down. The impasse will test the strength of the lieutenant governor's hold over the Senate as Seliger -- the maverick Republican who has increasingly defied him -- could cause serious problems for Patrick and his priorities.

Seliger, 65, declined to be interviewed for this story.

But those who know him say his values haven't changed. He's the same man elected to represent West Texas 15 years ago, "a straight shooter" with Panhandle pride and an Ivy League pedigree. It's the Senate that has shifted around him, its priorities moving further and further right, leaving him standing firmly in the center.

'A straight shooter'

The Texas Senate was a very different place when Kelton "Kel" Seliger was elected in 2004.

Republicans were moderate by today's standards, with priorities to match. Seliger was coming off four terms as mayor of Amarillo, where he focused on enticing businesses to relocate to the High Plains city by offering them big cash grants.

"He is very much what I would call a regionalist ... an advocate for our part of the state, which I sometimes think is ignored," said former Lubbock mayor David Langston. "He's one of the good guys. He is very genuine. He's a straight shooter."

John Kanelis, former editorial page editor for The Amarillo Globe-News, called Seliger an "independent thinker" who has ensured that West Texans have a voice in the Senate. Born in Amarillo and raised in Borger, Seliger knows the region well. His district stretches across 37 counties from Lipscomb to Loving, and includes the cities of Amarillo, Midland and Odessa.

"He speaks Permian Basin-ese as well as Panhandle-ese," Kanelis quipped. "He claims to be dedicated to local control and public education, and I think his record speaks to that."

Kirk Watson, D-Austin, is one of Seliger's closest friends in the Senate. Both are former mayors who shared a love for motorcycles, until Seliger stopped riding after an accident a few years back. Watson declined to weigh in on the rift with Patrick, but remembered the first time he met Seliger at a conference for municipal officials.

"He was holding court," Watson said. "He has an ability, in that regard, to draw people close to him."

Independently wealthy, Seliger made his money over three decades as an executive in the steel industry. He graduated from Dartmouth University and is a pilot and flight instructor. Seliger and his wife, Nancy, have two sons and live in Amarillo.

Watson described the senator as easygoing and intelligent with a "self-effacing" humor: "He never takes himself too seriously. In fact, most times, the joke is on him."

At least twice, however, Seliger's humor has caused some consternation in the Senate.

When asked if he'd yield for a question during debate on his bill to make the chuck wagon the official state vehicle, Seliger joked that he'd already "yielded more than a high school cheerleader at a drive-in," a comment that flustered then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

And he once crossed Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, during debate on her bill to designate private spaces in the Capitol where nursing mothers could express breast milk. In jest, Seliger introduced an amendment to put the lactation suites in Zaffirini's office. She was not amused.

"It's not funny. It's not funny. It's not funny," Zaffirini muttered, according to a Texas Observer report on sexism in the Legislature. Zaffirini declined to comment further this week.

In recent years, Seliger has become a leader on education issues. He's passed laws to expand baccalaureate degree programs at junior colleges and provide an alternative path to graduation for kids who fail their high school exit exams. He and other West Texans have also advocated to expand veterinary education in the region, which is suffering from a shortage of large animal vets.

In 2012, he was named chairman of the Senate Committee on Higher Education. Dewhurst said he gave Seliger the job because of "his ability to work well with all members." Seliger also chaired the Senate redistricting committee that drew the state's congressional maps in 2011, promising that they'd "look Republican. The only question is how Republican."

'Authentic conservative leadership'

Kanelis called Seliger a "fiscal conservative" who's more moderate on some social issues.

In 2009, for instance, Seliger and another GOP senator opposed diverting millions in state funding from Planned Parenthood, fearing it would shutter the only clinics available in some rural areas. He also wouldn't support a bill requiring women seeking abortions to get a sonogram first, until certain rural areas were exempted.

Lubbock-based radio show host Chad Hasty called Seliger "a moderate Republican in a very conservative Senate," a man whose priorities have remained the same as the chamber has evolved around him.

This ideological shift began years ago, fueled in part by Patrick himself.

When Patrick became a senator in 2007, he was the maverick, a conservative radio show host who promised to shake up the status quo in Austin. In his freshman year, Patrick clashed with senators in both parties, drawing verbal rebukes from John Whitmire and Rodney Ellis, both Houston Democrats. Patrick and former Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, had to be separated in the Senate lounge.

"Dan Patrick started off the session in a really lousy fashion, having listened to no one," Carona said at the time. "But as the session progressed, he has taken to heart some of the advice many of us have given him, and he is now studying the issues more carefully and giving greater consideration to his thoughts before he opens his mouth."

But just a few sessions later, Patrick's star was on the rise. He lambasted Dewhurst -- fresh off a failed Senate run against Ted Cruz -- and Republican leaders for failing to pass strict new abortion laws and promised to restore "authentic conservative leadership" to the state if voters elected him lieutenant governor.

Patrick trounced Dewhurst in the Republican primary. He was sworn in to the state's No. 2 job in January 2015.

Like Dewhurst, Seliger began to draw serious challenges from other Republicans who said he wasn't conservative enough. As the political dynamic shifted, Seliger became more outspoken.

He railed against the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-leaning think tank in Austin, and Empower Texans, a conservative advocacy group that has targeted him. Then, in 2017, Seliger voted against local tax revenue caps and school vouchers, two of Patrick's top priorities, saying they'd be disastrous for his rural constituents.

When primary election day arrived the next year, Seliger had two Republican challengers, one of whom shared a campaign consultant with Patrick. Seliger fended them off, narrowly avoiding a runoff and later winning re-election for a fourth time.

Seliger was the only Republican senator not to endorse Patrick's re-election. Now, if he chooses, he could go rogue and become a key GOP swing vote in the Senate.

'Her lips and my back end'

When lawmakers returned to Austin this month for the 2019 session, it was unclear whether Seliger would retain a committee chairmanship, which automatically includes him in Patrick's leadership circle. Patrick announced the assignments last week, taking Seliger off Higher Education and making him chairman of a newly created Committee on Agriculture.

Patrick said the reassignment was not meant to be a demotion. But Seliger balked, telling the Texas Tribune that the lieutenant governor sent "a very clear warning to the Republicans that if you get off the reservation, you better be careful."

In response, Patrick's senior adviser, Sherry Sylvester, said it'd be easy to find someone else who would be happy to take the agriculture job. Hearing this, Seliger took to the airwaves.

"It was extremely snide and really unbecoming for a member of the staff," he told Lubbock-based radio host Jay Leeson last weekend. "I have a recommendation for Miss Sylvester and her lips and my back end."

By Tuesday morning, Patrick had stripped Seliger of his last remaining chairmanship, a move Seliger implied was retribution for his 2017 votes on taxes and vouchers. On Wednesday, Patrick denied that and expressed concerns with Seliger's behavior.

"When one person has lost the confidence of other senators and is disruptive, then I have to address that," Patrick said, saying Seliger should apologize.

Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, declined to comment on the rift.

"I'm friends with both," he said Saturday. "We all wish we weren't having this discussion. ... We have big projects to work on and we all need to work together and move forward."

Sen. Brandon Creighton is the new chairman of the Higher Education Committee. The Conroe Republican said Friday that he was "preparing himself" for the job and would be "relying on Chairman Seliger and everyone who has a lot to offer there in expertise."

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said he believes Seliger still has the support of his colleagues.

"He still has the confidence of at least most of the senators I've spoken with," West said Thursday. "I think most senators would agree with me that he's been a pleasure to work with. ... He's always been up front. He is a man of integrity."

A few former senators also spoke highly of Seliger.

Craig Estes, a Republican who was ousted last year by GOP Sen. Pat Fallon, said he "always found [Seliger] to be a very conscientious and dedicated public servant." Former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff said, "I've never known him to be anything but a perfect gentleman."

"It's just a shame that a guy of his ability and his motivation is being punished like this," added former Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville. "I realize what he said was a little rough [on Sylvester]. But golly, I mean, I've heard a lot worse."

The Dallas Morning News reached out to 25 returning senators about Patrick's remarks. All but those quoted in this story either did not respond or declined to comment. While Seliger declined to be interviewed, his staff provided a list of awards and accomplishments.

In 2017, for example, he became the first High Plains senator elected president pro tempore in nearly two decades. Largely ceremonial, the pro tem presides over the Senate in the lieutenant governor's absence and is third in line for the governorship.

"Vision, determination, cooperation, mutual respect and concern for others," Seliger said in his speech that day, just more than a year ago. "That should be our goal."

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Caltrans Making Highway Repairs View Photos

Caltrans urges motorists to use caution when driving by road projects this winter. Here is a list of their scheduled highway work for the first week of February.

On Highway 49 at Jack Page Road, north of Sonora, all the way to the Tuolumne/Calaveras county line expect 10 minute delays for an area of one-way traffic control as Caltrans works on striping the road. The work is scheduled between 8PM and 6AM beginning Monday night and each evening, through Friday morning, weather permitting. From 6 AM to 7 PM on HWY 49 at the Montezuma junction 10 miles to Cattle Guard Road more road striping work will also cause 10 minute delays. There will also be shoulder work in the Chinese Camp area from 7:30 AM to 3:50 PM all this week.

At the Yosemite Junction also look for Caltrans workers limiting traffic to one way to set up signs. The sign work is scheduled between 8 PM and 6 AM starting Sunday and each night through Friday morning. Those same nights and during the day as well, starting at the Stanislaus/Tuolumne County line, there will be areas of one-way traffic control to allow drainage and shoulder work along HWY 108/120. It may delay travelers 10 minutes. More areas of day-time drainage work will also delay traffic for 10 minutes on HWY 120 in the Mountain Bluff and Moccasin Creek Bridge area.

Drainage cleaning and inspection half-way between Groveland and the Yosemite entrance on HWY 120 will cause 10 minute delays. Specifically the work will be in the area of Lost Claim Camp Ground to Sand House from 8 AM to 3 PM Tuesday through Friday.R.P. Lumber in Festus plans to expand to the lot next door to its present building.VIRGINIA  The Virginia School Board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the media center of the Virginia School at 651 S. Morgan St.

Among the items on the agenda are:Discuss this article with your neighbors or join the community conversation.

Click here to get accessThe awesome splendor of it all: Photographer uses keen eye to capture natures beauty, gracePlease log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, or activate your access, to continue reading.Jamison Jaron Weeden, 28, Okmulgee resident, left us June 5, 2021. Service of Remembrance will be Friday, 11:00 AM, The Chapel of Peace of the Keith D. Biglow Funeral Directors, Inc., of Okmulgee. biglowfunerals.comThe Midland ISD board of trustees appointed its officers Friday afternoon  unanimously voting Rick Davis as president, Tommy Bishop as vice president and Bryan Murry as secretary.

Davis has been a member of the board since 2008 and said he will be serving his fourth term  seventh and eighth years  as MISD board president. Two years ago, the board changed its policy and removed the term limit on board president.

He said serving as president is important to him, because MISD affects everyone in the community.

"It's important to this community  all members of the community," Davis said. "Whether you have children in MISD or not, public education is important to the entire community for workforce purposes, quality-of-life purposes and a lot of things that everyone should be concerned about. I'm passionate about it, because other than working for my church, I think it's the single most important thing I can do to try and contribute something to this community."

Superintendent Orlando Riddick said, in other school districts across the bation, Davis would be considered a long-serving board president, so it says a lot about the confidence the trustees have in him to be able to re-elect him and the confidence he has in himself to continue to want to do it.

"Rick Davis walked us into (being a mentor board) and the work that we have to do in 2019," Riddick said. "I think it will be a very pivotal year for us as a city, and as a community, and as a district. And having a board president who is ready to take that on says a lot."

He said Davis is very well-balanced and composed and does a great job at presenting himself to the public, the board and to the MISD staff.

Davis also works well with the other board members, Riddick said.

"Rick brings the ability to ensure he captures the voice of every board member," Riddick said. "He understands research and facts. He can challenge us on some things with questions that have us dive deeper. He brings the aspect of collaboration to the table, and he has a great balance. He brings a great balance in giving board members their space and their information, as well as to himself."

Riddick said he has seen trustees who think they need to be loud to get their point across, and he has seen trustees who do not say anything at all, but Davis is not like that. Davis does not yell or berate anyone, and he is good at admitting when others are right. He also understands research and facts, and he presents that body of work rather than just speaking on his own, Riddick said.

"He displays the trait that you would want a board member to have," he said.

Bishop has been a member of the board since 2006. He previously served as vice president.

Davis and Riddick both said Bishop has a wealth of experience as a board member. He served on the Crane ISD school board for 10 years; two years he was president. He served as president of the Region 18 School Board Association for four years.

Riddick said Bishop is very strong at work and does a great job at supporting the board president as well as the other trustees.

Davis said Bishop has been great at contributing to the board.

"He is very solid," Davis said. "And he's a very even keel evaluator of information. So, I think he'll continue to be a great contributor as vice president."

Murry has been a member of the board since 2016, and this will be his first term serving as an officer.

Riddick said he is glad to see Murry take one of the board officer roles.

"He brings a lot of insight and asks a lot of questions," Riddick said. "We don't mind hard questions, and he brings them to use and desires information. He is an accountant by trade, so he's looking for those details, and it helps us keep those skills sharp."

Davis said he looks forward to working with Murry as a board officer for the first time.

"I think he's a terrific board member," Davis said. "I think he's very engaged. I think he really does his homework. I think he dives deep into the information and into the data, and I think he will be a terrific officer as well."

Riddick said the three officers will bring a good balance to the board.

John Kennedy will serve as chairman of the Finance Committee with Murray and Bishop; James Fuller will serve as chairman of the Policy Committee with Robert Marquez and John Trischitti III; and Davis will serve as chairman of the Facilities Committee with Fuller and Murry.

Overall, Riddick said it will be a good upcoming year with the trustees in the roles that they have taken.

"It will continue that path that we're on and not, in essence, disrupt it," Riddick said. "It will keep it very fluid and keep it moving."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featured

Lorain

Event for special needs students to promote inclusionWith the progress being made on the first phase of construction, representatives of the cities of Amherst, Lorain, Underground Utilities and LJanuary 27, 2019 These Media Claims About Venezuela Are Lies Or Misconceptions The U.S. mainstream media is suddenly discovering Venezuela. Without having any actual knowledge of the country, all dirt the writers can think of is thrown against its government. Don't expect to get any facts from them. Most is just propaganda in a media build for a war. In this NPR report for example, Amid Chaos Venezuelans Struggle To Find The Truth, Online, the first line is already an outrageous lie: In Venezuela, where media is controlled by the government, figuring out what is truth, rumor or propaganda has always been difficult. No. The media in Venezuela is NOT controlled by the government. There are many privately owned newspapers and TV stations. Many of them oppose the government. They have a larger viewership than the government controlled ones. While there are, as elsewhere, laws that allow for some censorship, their actual use is not common. - Secretary of State Pompeo and others claim that Cuba is involved in Venezuela. The NYT even headlines: With Spies and Other Operatives, a Nation Looms Over Venezuelas Crisis: Cuba. But all the experts quoted refute Pompeo's claim: This claim that Cuba is controlling Venezuela has been around, really, since Chavez started, said David Smilde, a sociology professor and expert on Venezuela at Tulane University. Its been long overblown.

...

While former military officials who have fled Venezuela have reported the involvement of Cubans within the security and intelligence forces, experts say the extent of that involvement remains shrouded in mystery.

...

Theres been a lot of speculation about this, and rumors about numbers and about how close they are to Maduro, said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. But I havent seen any hard, solid reporting on it.

...

[T]he ranks of Cuban professionals working in the South American country have thinned in recent years, analysts say, and the relationship between Mr. Maduro and the current Cuban leadership is not nearly as warm as the friendship between their predecessors.

...

Political advisers still have the ear of key officials in the Maduro administration, though Mr. Smilde said: Cubans often complain that Maduro doesnt listen to them. Cuba has good economic relation with Venezuela. Several thousand Cuban doctors work there. But that's about it. - One claim, repeated yesterday by the British ambassador at the UN, is that Maduro won the presidential election by "stuffing the ballot boxes". Venezuela doesn't have ballot boxes. It uses an electronic system developed by a British company that is highly praised: In September 2012 former US President Jimmy Carter said the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world. The voters identify with a voter ID and a finger print and vote on a touch screen. Maduro was duly elected as president. Twice. Some, not all opposition parties and candidates, boycotted the last election which led to a lower than usual turnout. Not taking part is a right the opposition can use. It is not the fault of the government. - Some media claim that the "international community" accepted the U.S. sponsored dude's presidential claim. That is a lie. The U.S. tried to find allies for its onslaught on Venezuela but failed to get international support except from a few of its poodles. Yesterday the UN security council did not take up a resolution against Venezuela because it was obvious that it would fail. Even at the Organisation of American States (OAS) U.S. attempts to push for a resolution against Maduro failed to gain a simple majority: Thursday also saw a diplomatic battle at the Organization of American States, with Secretary Pompeo and OAS Secretary Almagro pushing the body to recognize Guaido. The efforts were unsuccessful, garnering only 16 favourable votes out of the 34 countries, with US allies Guyana, Santa Lucia, and Jamaica abstaining. - Another frequently seen claim is that economic mismanagement caused the problems in Venezuela. But it was the drop in oil prices and, even more important, U.S. sanctions that led to billions of losses of government income and caused the economic difficulties. Sanctions do not work against governments as often claimed, but impoverish the people. Already back in 2014 Maduro identified them as part a regime change attempt. The Congressional Research Service lists all the sanctions and warns (pdf) that these hit the poor the most. Even the U.S. sponsored dude acknowledges that the U.S. sanctions are part of the 'regime change' plan: Guaido also praised countries that had imposed sanctions against Venezuela, stressing that sanctions worked and played a part in getting the country where it is today. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is not even as messy as its neighbors are. Despite the current problems the UN's Human Developing Index ranks Venezuela higher than most of them. - All 'western' media repeat the claim that the U.S. sponsored dude claimed the presidency based on article 233 of the constitution. But none of them refute that obviously false claim. Article 233 of the constitution (pdf) of Venezuela details the procedures for the case that the president "becomes permanently unavailable" which Nicolas Maduro is obviously not. Moreover the next in place if the president becomes unavailable is the vice president, not the leader of the National Assembly. The dude has no legal basis to claim the presidency. - Another claim is that the U.S. sponsored dude is somewhat prominent. He is not: Felix Seijas, a political analyst and director of the Delphos polling agency, said surveys showed that few Venezuelans even knew Guaidos name a few weeks ago. The dude is simply a stand-in for Leopoldo Lopez, a criminal opposition politician who already twice attempted violent coups: Born into a well-off family with links to the business and oil sector, Lopez, now 46, was educated in the United States and has a master's degree from Harvard University.

...

In a 2009 classified cable published by Wikileaks, the political counsellor of the US embassy in Caracas, Robin D Meyer, wrote that Lopez had become a "divisive figure within the opposition". "He is often described as arrogant, vindictive, and power-hungry - but party officials also concede his enduring popularity, charisma, and talent as an organiser," the US diplomat wrote. In the U.S. the real man behind the coup attempt is anti-Cuban Senator Marco Rubio: [Rubio] waited less than a month after Mr. Trump took office to begin a persistent effort to draw the presidents attention to Venezuela. In February 2017, Mr. Rubio along with Mr. Pence helped usher Lilian Tintori, a Venezuelan political activist and television star, into the Oval Office to meet Mr. Trump. She told the president about her husband, Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader under house arrest. Rubio and other neoconservatives have since plotted to convince Trump to confront the people of Venezuela. Former CIA official Ray McGovern thinks, like me, that Trump seems to fall into a catastrophic trap: Ray McGovern @raymcgovern - 16:47 utc - 25 Jan 2019 Venezuela could be Trumps Bay of Pigs, with Bolton playing CIA's Alan Dulles and Pompeo John Foster Dulles. They and the US military brass tried to mousetrap JFK with deceitful assurances that there would be no need for US military action. Will Trump face them down, as JFK did? The above are only some of the false claims and misconceptions about Venezuela that are floating around. Please use the comments to collect and refute whatever other lies you see. Posted by b on January 27, 2019 at 15:03 UTC | Permalink CommentsIndia's problem is Pakistan which not only promotes terrorism from its own soil but also trains terrorists in Afghanistan, former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon has said.

The top diplomat, who also served as Foreign Secretary and India's ambassador to China, rejected the claim that there was a direct link between economics and peaceful bilateral relationship.

"An economically strong or weak Pakistan does not matter. Pakistan was doing well economically in the 60s and 70s. It has been doing miserably for the last 15 years, we still don't have good relations with it," Menon said Saturday at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

"All we want is Pakistan to be at peace with itself. Thank you. We want to get on with our lives. We have better things to do," he said.

Menon said the "problem" lay in the political needs of some people on the both sides to maintain a certain level of control, antagonism and hostility.

"For the Pakistan Army it is obvious because it helps them to have a say in the politics, budget and in the Pakistani imagination that they are the defenders of the country," he said.

"India does not face an Afghan problem. We have a Pakistan problem. The terrorists are coming from there. The terrorists who are even trained in Afghanistan are by Pakistan or the ISI," Menon said.

He, however, said the military action was not the solution to settle the longstanding problem.

"I don't think there is a military solution to the Indo-Pak problem. Ever since we both went overtly nuclear, it has stabilised the situation and pushed the level of violence down. We fought three wars in the first 25 years and we haven't fought since and that is when nuclear programmes took off, " the former NSA said.

He was participating in a panel discussion alongside Pulitzer Prize winning American author and academic Steve Coll and US journalist and author Peter Bergen.

Menon said while other countries have a "common interest' in Afghanistan, Pakistan's interest lies in promoting terrorism in the war-ravaged country.

The veteran diplomat said the US might change its behaviour after the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, but not Pakistan as the problem is intrinsic to Islamabad's structure.

Prime Minister Modi visited Pakistan in December 2015 but the terror attacks by Pakistan-based militants in Pathankot in January 2016 and then in Uri in September strained the ties between the two countries.

India cancelled the foreign minister-level meeting with Pakistan to be held in New York last year, citing the "brutal" killing of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the release of the postal stamps by Islamabad "glorifying" Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.

Pakistan's powerful military has always played a crucial role in the country's politics. The army has ruled Pakistan for more than 33 years in the country's 70-year history.Demonstrators run away to avoid tear gas during clashes in Paris, France. Crowds of yellow-vested protesters angry at President Emmanuel Macron and France's high taxes tried to converge on the presidential palace, some scuffling with police firing tear gas, amid exceptional security measures aimed at preventing a repeat of last week's rioting. (Image: AP/PTI)

Thousands of "yellow vest" protesters returned to the streets of France on January 26 to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's policies, despite disagreement in their ranks on how to move the movement forward. Police fired tear gas and water cannon to push back protesters at Place de la Bastille in Paris, one of the regular protest sites, as some demonstrators threw stones from a building site.

The local prefecture reported 223 arrests in Paris.

Interior ministry estimated at 2pm (1300 GMT) numbers for the 11th week of protests were at 22,000 across France, compared to 27,000 at the same time on January 19.

In Paris, the official count was 2,500 demonstrators against 7,000 the previous weekend.

There were clashes too in the southern city of Montpellier, where a police officer was injured by "a pyrotechnic device" said a statement from the local prefecture.

The weekend's protests against Macron's tax and social policies came as divisions appeared among the yellow vests -- named after the high-visibility vests they wear -- as to where to take the movement.

In a new political development, a 31-year-old nurse named Ingrid Levavasseur said this week she would lead a yellow vest list of candidates for the European elections in May.

An initial survey in the wake of the announcement suggested they would garner a respectable 13 per cent of the vote.

But not every protester appeared to welcome this development.

"There is a hard core that is ready to keep fighting," said 42-year-old Gilbert Claro from the Paris suburbs. But the movement "is not meant to be political", he added.

"We have to keep the pressure on in the streets," to get their demands accepted, said Virginie, an activist in her 40s who said she had been involved in the protests from the beginning.

She and many other protesters want a citizen-sponsored referendum so ordinary people can have more of a say in government policy.

Although Macron made some concessions last December in a bid to end the protests, this idea has been consistently rejected by the government.

Recent opinion polls, however, suggest that he has regained some of the ground lost during the crisis, as he has put his case at a series of town hall events around the country.

The "great national debate" he initiated in response to the protests has nevertheless been dismissed as a public relations operation by many yellow vest protesters.

A "masquerade", said Mathieu Styrna, a 36-year-old carpenter from northern France in Paris for the protests. His impression was that the participants had been selected.

Outside Paris, several thousand protesters were marching in Bordeaux and Toulouse in the southwest, two of the cities where support for the movement has been consistently strong.

In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, members of the CGT union joined the protests and about a thousand protesters turned out in the eastern city of Lyon.

In the north, officials in the city of Evreux, Normandy, reported clashes there and damage to the police and Banque de France buildings.

In Paris and several other cities, the yellow vest movement put out a call to continue the protests into the night.

For the first time on January 26, riot police using the controversial defence ball launchers (LBDs) that shoot 40-millimetre (1.6-inch) rubber and foam rounds were equipped with cameras.

A French court on Friday refused a bid brought by France's League for Human Rights (LDH) and the CGT to ban the weapons, blamed for serious injuries suffered by some demonstrators.

The police authority in Paris announced the introduction of the cameras in a move for greater transparency.

On January 27, supporters of the government will stage their first "red scarf" protest to represent what they say is "the silent majority" defending "democracy and its institutions" and denouncing the violence of the yellow vests protests.Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has said, and alleged that the BJP's propaganda machinery spent hundreds of thousands of crores to malign the Congress leader's image.

However, he also emphasised that the issue of who will be the prime minister can be settled after the 2019 polls by grand alliance members collectively.

Asserting that there was never a question mark over Gandhi's leadership, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in an interview to PTI said, even after such a long negative campaign against him, he (Gandhi) has won the hearts of the people through his perseverance, kindness and large-heartedness."

The Congress victory in the three major states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh under Gandhi's leadership has infused a sense of confidence and energy in the party, and in the minds of 69 per cent electorate who had not voted for Narendra Modi in 2014, Yadav said.

Asked if Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said: Yes! He has all the qualities, he is the national president of India's oldest party and been in Parliament for the last 15 years. Don't forget his party has five chief ministers in the country and he is leading them. So, no question should be asked on (Gandhi's) leadership and qualities.

Last month, president of DMK, one of the big allies of the Congress, M K Stalin, for the first time had publicly proposed that the united opposition must field the Congress chief as its prime ministerial candidate to defeat the Narendra Modi government. Stalin was criticised, but he stuck to his views.

However, Yadav, when asked if Gandhi was the obvious choice to lead a pan-India alliance, said India is a democracy, in which people choose their representatives and they in turn choose the leader who becomes the prime minister.

Democracy is always people-centric, it is not person-oriented. We do not want a dictatorship form of government. Presently, the BJP is suffering from Idol worship. We don't want that culture, said the 29-year-old son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad.

Alliance is about parties and not about a single party and its leader, Yadav asserted.

Once we go about the elections, we can always sit down and choose a leader after the elections are over, there is no hurry for that. Don't forget, Manmohan Singh ji was not a PM candidate in 2004, however, he successfully ran the government for 10 years, he said.

Asked if he would be playing the role of opposition unifier that was played by his father in 2004, the RJD leader said he is the youngest leader in the opposition camp, and just a learner, not a leader.

Yes, my father unified the UPA-I and he has been a vocal supporter of opposition unity since May 2014. I will be happy if anyone from our party could emulate his feat, Yadav said.

He said he was making efforts to the best of his ability to bring like-minded parties in the opposition camp and had done so successfully in Bihar.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was framing him in false cases with the help of its alliance partners such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

But, we are not afraid as we are known for our fearless politics. Neither we indulge in, nor fear, vindictive politics, he asserted.

Yadav said he is ready to go to any extent to ensure that the BJP and the Sangh don't come to power and alleged that the Constitution that empowers backwards, minorities and Dalits in the country, is at stake.Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on january 26 hit out at critics of the 10 percent quota for the economically weaker sections, saying some persons in Tamil Nadu were creating an "atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust" to serve their interest.

Sounding the poll bugle in Tamil Nadu at a well-attended BJP rally, he took a swipe at the proposed grand alliance of the opposition parties, saying they had set aside their differences to "remove this watchman," in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

He also said his government was taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism.

"Any person who has cheated or looted the country, shall be brought to justice," Modi said in an apparent reference to economic offenders -- Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are wanted in connection with defaulting on huge bank loans.

Asserting that the provision of 10 percent quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) in the general category will in no way impact the existing reservation benefits for Dalits, Tribals and others, Modi urged the youth to "reject forces of negativity."

The EWS quota had been earmarked with the 'spirit' of providing opportunities to all in education and employment. "This decision has been taken in such a way that it doesn't affect Dalit, tribals," and others, he said. "It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by some people in Tamil Nadu to serve their interest," he said.

Opposition DMK and some other parties in the state have opposed the 10 percent quota, saying social backward alone should be the criterion for reservation. The DMK has moved the Madras High Court challenging the Constitution amendment providing for 10 percent EWS quota.

The Prime Minister said "Narendra Modi will firmly stand with the poor," drawing thunderous applause from the crowd.Crocodiles from two ponds near the Statue of Unity in Gujarat's Narmada district are being relocated for the safety of tourists visiting the Sardar Patel memorial, officials said on January 27 while dismissing reports that the move is linked to the seaplane service.

As many 20 cages have been set up along the banks of the two ponds, officially known as Dyke 3 and 4, to trap the crocodiles, an official informed.

These dykes are artificial water bodies created to stabilise the water released from the Sardar Sarovar Dam before it reaches the entry point of the main Narmada canal, the official explained.

Aradhana Sahu, Conservator of Forests, (Vadodara Wildlife Circle) said that 12 crocodiles have been caught so far, though she added there was no specific target for the number of these reptiles that need to be captured.

"The area around the Statue of Unity near Kevadiya village is attracting huge number of tourists. Since there are crocodiles in these ponds, there exists a threat to the tourists. We have begun the process of relocating the reptiles elsewhere," Sahu said.

"We have not set any specific target of the number of crocodiles to be caught and relocated. Till now, we have shifted 12 crocodiles. They were caught from Dyke 3 and Dyke 4, which are close to the Tent City. As per a rough estimate, there will be around 300 crocodiles in that area," she said.

A field officer overseeing the operation said 20 cages, with meat and fish as bait, have been installed near the two ponds.

"As soon as the crocodile comes out to eat the food kept in the cage, they get caught inside. We have kept all the captured crocodiles in our rescue centre. They will be released in the main reservoir of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the near future," said Idrish Topiya, Assistant Conservator of Forests.

However, both Sahu and Topiya denied reports that the crocodiles were being removed from the dykes to make way for a proposed seaplane service to cater to SoU tourists.

"I want to make it clear that we have not made any plan yet to shift all the crocodiles of that area. The seaplane service is not in the picture yet. We have not received any intimation about it. We are doing this just for the safety of tourists," Sahu emphasised.

"We are relocating these crocodiles just for the safety of tourists. There is no specific instruction to us about any seaplane service" Topiya added.

Earlier on January 23, state Civil Aviation minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama had announced that a seaplane service connecting Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad to the Statue of Unity would commence soon.

When contacted, SJ Haider, Principal Secretary, Gujarat Civil Aviation department, said a location for a water aerodrome near the Sardar Patel memorial had not been decided yet.

He, however, said the location of the water aerodrome will "most likely" be Dyke 3 or 4.

"The location of the water aerodrome at the Statue of Unity will be decided in consultation with DGCA (aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation). It would most likely be Dyke 3 or Dyke4," Haider said.

Recently, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had said over 10,000 tourists were visiting the memorial every day since the 182-metre statue, the world's tallest such structure, was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October last year.live bse live

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Indias federal investigating agency -- the Central Bureau of Investigation -- filed a FIR (first investigation report) against former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group MD Venugopal Dhoot in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans of Rs 3,250 crore sanctioned by the bank to Videocon group companies in 2012.

This is the latest move in the series of events that have untraveled so far at ICICI Bank after the controversy around Kochhar first surfaced in March last year.

Kochhar has been caught up in allegations of corporate misconduct and quid pro quo in sanctioning of loans to the Videocon group. The board, which initially backed its CEO, acted belatedly but appropriately, constituting a committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge BN Srikrishna to probe the matter. While Kochhars term was scheduled to end in March, she went on leave in June last year till the probe into her conduct was completed by an independent agency (Srikrishna committee) but finally resigned in October 2018.

The latest twist of CBI implicating the former CEO & MD of ICICI Bank shouldnt come as a shock to investors.

The allegations against the former CEO, though unproven, are no casual accusations and are being probed by multiple agencies, including the CBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Income Tax authorities, in addition to the internal enquiry instituted by the bank. Possibility of getting an unequivocal clean chit from everywhere is remote.

Kochhar has been accused of cheating ICICI Bank of Rs 1,730 crore, which is already classified as non-performing assets (NPAs) by the bank. By no means is the controversy around the former CEO and MD of ICICI Bank of the nature and scale similar to that of the fraud detected at Punjab National Bank in early 2018. In the case of PNB, fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 14,000 crore significantly weakened the banks financials and highlighted flaws in the internal controls and risk management processes of the public sector lender.

The FIR also names current ICICI group officials, including CEO Sandeep Bakshi, who were part of the credit (loan sanctioning) committee. While the same may be a part of investigation process, questioning decision takers on a business call gone wrong gives an impression of witch hunting. As a result, CBIs action can impact incremental credit decisions in the banking industry.

That said, merely being named in FIR does not debar Bakshi and other key employees from holding their positions. As such, it will not impact banks functioning unless any individual named in the FIR is convicted.

The enquiry and CBIs action is against an individual associated with the bank in the past and not against ICICI Bank or its lending practices. Hence, Kochhars resignation allayed investor concerns around corporate governance at ICICI Bank. The positive stock reaction following the announcement of Kochhars permanent exit from the bank in October 2018 corroborates this argument.

ICICI Banks shares underperformed the Nifty since Kochhars troubles began at the end of March and continued till her going on leave around mid-June. After her exit on October 4, 2018, the stock has significantly outperformed the Nifty till date.

Despite the outperformance, ICICI Bank is still the cheapest corporate lender in the private sector, trading at 1.4 times FY20 estimated book. Investors focus should be on the banks earnings trajectory, which will be the key driver of the stock price. With a potential improvement in return ratios on receding asset quality issues, the stock can re-rate sharply over a period of time. Implication of the former CEO doesnt alter the growth path of the bank. Hence, correction in the stock price, if any, following the negative news flow around Kochhar presents a great opportunity to investors to accumulate the stock.

Follow @nehadave01Maruti Suzuki Ertiga | 3 stars | The second car from Maruti Suzuki, the Ertiga scored three stars for adult occupancy. The car does still manage to get three stars for child protection though.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) should aim for up to 25 percent of its production to be exported although it expects overseas shipments to touch 2 lakh units by 2020, according to company MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa.

The company's total production combined with that of parent Suzuki will cross 2 million units by 2020 when the third unit in Gujarat goes on-stream, and MSI will seek to enter new markets to enhance its exports leveraging on vehicles that will be produced here to meet India's upcoming stricter safety and emission norms.

"We expect the exports to be at least 10 percent of the total production. If it becomes 2 million capacity we are expecting export of 2 lakh units. If opportunity increases we will further try to enhance it. Ideally, 20-25 percent of the production should be exports," MSI MD and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa told PTI in an interview.

The company, which has been exporting to markets like Chile, Indonesia, South Africa, Uruguay and Nepal, is also looking at models which could be shipped to developed markets like Europe and Japan.

"We are studying other products (other then Baleno which the company ships to Japan) which could be exported to Japan as well as other markets. There is a need to develop left hand markets as well along with right hand ones," Ayukawa said.

In 2017-18, MSI exported 1,26,074 units, while in the current fiscal (April to December), the company has already shipped over 81,000 units.

When asked about Baleno shipments to Japan, Ayukawa said exports of the premium hatchback have come down due to a variety or reasons including intense competition in the market. Besides, lack of four wheel drive system in the model has also impacted its uptake in the Japanese market, Ayukawa said.Ravindra V Rao

Commodities have had a mixed week as market players continued to focus on the partial US government shutdown, the US-China trade war, political risk in the UK and the IMF report regarding fears of a slowing global economy along with rising downside risk. Chinas gross domestic production has fallen to an almost three-decade low because of the trade war.

In fact, China reported mixed data. Retail sales and industrial production rose more than forecast; fixed-asset investments and GDP fell more than expected. But industrial metals did not move much in the week gone by.

January 21 was a holiday in the US. Hence, in the holiday-shortened week, US stock futures rose, with optimism creeping back in as investors awaited progress in trade talks to be held next week. However, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Rosss comments did not augur well for sentiment, though it is nothing new hearing that there remain issues to be resolved and a trade deal is not within imminent reach.

We expect non-agro commodities to be volatile next week, too. China will announce its monthly manufacturing PMI, expected to have contracted further according to a Bloomberg forecast. Metals, thus may be weak.

Meanwhile, a Chinese delegation, including deputy ministers, will arrive in Washington on January 28 to prepare for high-level trade talks led by Vice-Premier Liu He. Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen and Vice-Finance Minister Liao Min will also arrive in the US. Chinas central bank governor Yi Gang will too join the talks.

Hence, amid such a high-level meeting of two of the largest economies of the world, base metals are likely to be volatile. Investors are yet to react to weak Chinese GDP figures as they are being careful ahead of next weeks meet.

Crude oil has held above $52 even after the API and the government agency, EIA, reported a huge pile-up of inventories in the US. Political turmoil in Venezuela has recently supported the rally in oil.

As president Nicolas Maduro was re-elected for another term, the US backed an opposition leader to be interim President. The US has also threatened to impose sanctions on Venezuela crude oil. Russia has warned the US not to intervene or face the consequences. In an act of loyalty, Venezuelas military has backed the President. Amid all this drama, crude oil has not reacted in a large way. However, US-Venezuela relations could lead to a spike in crude oil in the short term.

Lastly, gold is likely to stay positive after the IMF lowered its global growth forecast. According to Bloomberg expectations, the US may post weak nonfarm payrolls for January; hence, we expect the yellow metal to be positive. Moreover, amid the US-China trade meet and the political risk in the UK, safe-haven demand may be upbeat. Hence, overall, the outlook for the yellow metal is bullish.

The author is Head - Commodity Research & Advisory, Anand Rathi Commodities.

The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.Ad Resource Stock Digest 1,880 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.Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

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The head of a UN team monitoring the UN-backed cease-fire in Yemen's Hodeidah arrives on Saturday in the rebel-held capital Sanaa to resume his mission, Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported.





Patrick Cammaert, a retired Dutch general, leads a joint committee from both Yemeni rival forces, namely the Saudi-backed government and the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, overseeing the implementation of the cease-fire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.





Cammaert returned to Yemen after a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, where he was accompanied by the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to meet the Yemeni government officials in Riyadh, including President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.





Under the peace deal, the withdrawal from the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa, as well as critical parts of the city associated with humanitarian facilities should be completed within two weeks after the cease-fire enters into force, while the full withdrawal should be completed within a maximum period of 21 days.





It came as the first confidence-rebuilding measure agreed by the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government in the Stockholm-based peace talks last month.





The cease-fire deal went into force on Dec. 18 last year. However, both rival forces have blamed each other for violating the deal and have not fulfilled the withdrawal of forces.





Hodeidah port is the key lifeline and entrance of the majority of food imports and humanitarian aid to the impoverished, war-torn Arab country.





The UN has said the discussions have been stalled because of different interpretations of the Stockholm Agreement over who would control key points of Hodeidah during a partial cease-fire.





Last week, the convoy of Cammaert came under attack in Hodeidah and both Yemeni rival forces traded accusations of attacking the UN convoy.





Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including Sanaa and Hodeidah.





The four-year war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced 3 million others and pushed the country to the brink of famine.



 Flash





At least 34 people were killed, and hundreds remain missing after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the state fire department said.







A total of 46 people were rescued on Saturday morning. And 23 of them were injured and taken to local hospitals.





It is estimated that there are at least 252 Vale workers unaccounted for, according to the company, while the number of local residents who have yet to be found remains unknown.





Civil defense officials said there is still hope to find survivors, as helicopters have found some places which were possibly used as shelters.





However, rescue works may have to be temporarily suspended as it started to rain in Brumadinho, a municipality of Minas Gerais, diminishing chances of finding survivors.





Vale has received an initial fine of 250 million reals (66 million U.S. dollars) imposed by Brazil's environment protection agency Ibama.





The Brazilian government has promised a full investigation into the matter. President Jair Bolsonaro and Minas Gerais state Governor Romeu Zema flew over the destroyed region earlier in the day and promised manpower to aid the rescue, and resources to help the region recover.





In November 2015, a tailings dam collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, killing 19 people and causing substantial environmental and economic damage. It was considered the worst environmental disaster in the Brazilian history.



You are here: World

 Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a message of condolence to his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro over a dam collapse which caused heavy casualties one day earlier.





In his message, Xi said that he was shocked at the news of the dam collapse in the state of Minas Gerais, which also resulted in huge property losses.





On behalf of the Chinese government and people, Xi offered deep condolences to the victims and families of those missing, and expressed his sincere solace to the Brazilian people.





He wished an early recovery to the injured.



THOMAS TWP, MI  An early morning fire has displaced a married couple in Thomas Township.

Firefighters were dispatched to the reported fire at a mobile home at 11382 Armstrong Drive North at 3:50 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26, said Thomas Township Fire Chief Michael Cousins. The husband and wife who live there awoke to find smoke in their bathroom, prompting them to call 911 and vacate the residence, Cousins said.

When firefighters arrived, they found the fire had spread into the attic.

They were able to make a really good stop on it and confine it to two rooms within the structure, Cousins said. It caused some pretty good damage up into that area and we had to shut the power off to the dwelling, which meant we had to shut the water off, too.

Firefighters were able to quell the blaze, and though the residence isnt considered a total loss, its currently uninhabitable, Cousins said. The American Red Cross has been contacted and the agency is assisting the displaced residents, Cousins added.

Neither civilians nor firefighters were injured.

Crews cleared the scene at 6:15 a.m.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but Cousins said there is nothing suspicious about it.MECOSTA COUNTY, MI  A homicide investigation is underway in Mecosta Countys Sheridan Township near Big Rapids, according to the Mecosta County Sheriffs office.

A 33-year-old Barryton man has been arrested and charged with open murder in connection with the killing of a 35-year-old Barryton man, according to a news release issued by the sheriffs office on Saturday, Jan. 26.

Deputies have not released the name of the victim, nor the suspect who is currently being lodged at the Mecosta County jail pending arraignment. Both names will likely be released once the suspect is arraigned, the release reads.

Investigators wrote that the homicide occurred at the victims home, but no other information was provided in the release.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab assisted sheriffs deputies at the scene.CLARK LAKE, MI - The temperature wasnt the only thing plunging Saturday, Jan. 26.

With thermometers reading 7 degrees at 10:15 a.m., 161 brave souls jumped into Clark Lake outside the Pointe Bar and Grill to benefit Special Olympics in the annual Polar Plunge. A calm wind and sunny skies helped a bit.

About $32,500 was raised at the event, exceeding the $32,000 goal, said Andrea Rachko, senior director of development for Special Olympics Michigan. The money will be used for athlete participation in local, regional and state-level Special Olympics competition.

The Clark Lake plunge was one of five across Michigan this weekend. There will be 30 statewide this winter, with a goal of raising $1.2 million, Rachko said.

We really appreciate all of the community support and law enforcement support, Rachko said.

Thirty-one teams made the plunge into the icy water Saturday. A hole had to be opened with chainsaws to give jumpers access.

For Jeff Gier, the plunge is a way to honor and remember his daughter. Bailey Gier, a Northwest High School student, died in a car crash in July 2016. Bailey had jumped with the Northwest team in the plunge in the few years before her death.

Now, Gier jumps for her. He took the plunge with Brittany Doughty and Hannah Parsons, friends of Bailey.

The Richardson Zoo team returned for a second year at the plunge. Megan, Julie, Jill and Susan Richardson, along with zookeeper Christian Samon, all dressed as zoo animals and took the plunge together.

We had so much fun (last year), Megan Richardson said. We tripled our donations this year and brought in more than $600.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A pedestrian was severely injured after being struck by a vehicle early Saturday in Northeast Grand Rapids.

The crash happened about 1:35 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 26 at Plainfield Avenue NE and Elmdale Street, just north of I-96.

Rescuers responding to the scene were told the injured person, an adult male, had a significant fracture to a leg. A bystander reportedly used a belt to apply a tourniquet.Some mid-Michigan school districts are discussing their days off policy as a potential snowstorm and frigid wind chills may lead to multiple cancellations this week.

A winter storm warning by the National Weather Service is set to go into effect at 4 a.m. Monday, Jan. 28 and stretch until midnight Monday night for Genesee, Lapeer, Shiawassee, Bay, Midland, Saginaw, Tuscola, and Sanilac counties.

Snowfall totals of six to nine inches are in the forecast, according to the weather advisory. Communities in the warning area include Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Lapeer, Corunna, Midland, Owosso, Bad Axe, and Sandusky.

A hazardous weather outlook notes wind chill values are expected to fall as low as 35 degrees below zero on Wednesday and Thursday morning with overnight low temperatures also dropping below zero.

Lake Fenton Community Schools have already cancelled their Board of Education meeting scheduled for Monday night due to the anticipated weather, according to a message on the districts website.

Andrea Tuttle, superintendent of Owosso Public Schools, issued statement Saturday, Jan. 26 ahead of the weather system noting the district has already reached their six forgiven days off for the 2018-19 school year and more cancellations are likely to take place this week.

Weather Message from our Superintendent, Dr. Andrea Tuttle: I'm sure you are aware that the weather conditions for... Posted by Owosso Public Schools on Saturday, January 26, 2019

As always, the county superintendents will be communicating with each other and the road commission to make determinations about school cancellations, she said. It is always our intent to let parents know as soon as possible in an effort to provide parents time to make arrangements for childcare.

Tuttle pointed out the district is allowed to petition the state Department of Education for three additional forgiven days off before having to add on time or days to the school year calendar.

That (decision) will be determined in April, 2019 and parents will be notified as soon as possible, she noted. I will always make decisions regarding school closings based on the safety of our students. I would obviously rather add days to the calendar and have students attend school when it is safe to do so.

Kristy Spann, superintendent of Bentley Community Schools, said part of the decision-making process to cancel classes over the next few days will include road conditions and the subzero wind chill values expected mid-week.

Please see the message below from Superintendent Spann concerning the anticipated weather this week: Posted by Bentley Community Schools on Sunday, January 27, 2019

Although we usually wait until the early morning to make these calls, I will make the call the night before when it makes sense, she commented in a letter addressing Bentley families. I dont take these decisions lightly  I know closing school can create a burden for working parents who need to figure out childcare; and, it can be a problem for meeting the mandated minimum number of days and hours we must be in session. However, I will always put student safety first.

Spann added the days off can be used to play games with children, help out neighbors, reading, and performing other tasks.

Pamela Haldy, superintendent of Richfield Public School Academy, offered some tools for parents and children to use online if classes are not in session this week.

Snow days can be fun if the weather permits outside play. Unfortunately, it looks like this time it will be dangerously cold outside, she said. I know that the kids will complain, and probably try to drive you crazy, so I have included a couple of websites for you, one is for educational websites you can access for free and another is for some fun, inexpensive ways to fill the day.

High temperatures are forecast to climb back into the low to mid 30s by next week.The Air Force Knew It Had an Ejection Seat Problem, But Didn't Speed Up a Fix. Then a Pilot Died

And his widow fears that another pilot may suffer the same fate.The McClure family of West Chester, Pennsylvania, is not quite sure how it went missing, but thanks to the organization Purple Hearts Reunited, they have a precious World War I memento back in their possession: the "Lady Columbia Wound Certificate" earned by Army 2nd Lt. Donald Armstrong McClure.

"It was a proud moment" for his grandfather's memory and for the family to be presented with the lithograph print featuring Columbia, the female symbol of the nation, with sword extended to touch the shoulder of a kneeling soldier as though dubbing a knight, Marc McClure, grandson of Donald, told Military.com.

The certificate was given to U.S. troops wounded in World War I in honor of their sacrifice. The Purple Heart, originally established by Gen. George Washington as a "Badge of Merit," was not officially designated until 1932.

Recipients of the wound certificate then became eligible for the Purple Heart. Marc McClure said he has his grandfather's Purple Heart, but the disappearance of the wound certificate was "a family mystery."

"There's no telling where it happened or when it happened," he said in a phone interview Friday.

McClure said he was even unaware that such an award as the wound certificate existed until his grandfather's was presented to the family Thursday night by Jessica Jaggars, operations director for the Vermont-based non-profit Purple Hearts Reunited.

"When servicemen and women are wounded or sacrifice their life at times of war, our country awards them or their family with a prestigious award in the form of the Purple Heart," the organization says in its literature. "As time passes, certain circumstances can lead to these medals being misplaced, lost or even stolen."

"They're gone now, but we can't do enough to honor the memories" of the 'doughboys' of what was then called the Great War, said Chris Isleib, director of public affairs for the World War One Centennial Commission.

McClure's experiences on the battlefield "affected the rest of his life, and affects his family to this day," Isleib said.

Eggars, a captain in the Vermont National Guard, said "it's fulfilling, it's rewarding, and it's very humbling" to participate in the return of Purple Hearts and wounded certificates.

Many of these lost mementos are found by Purple Hearts Reunited volunteers on EBay, which was the case with McClure's certificate, she said.

Marc McClure, a former Army captain, said the family recently discovered letters written from the front in France by his grandfather. The letters were written in pencil, he said, and much of the script has faded, but one they could make out told of 2nd Lt. McClure's ride back from the battlefield shortly after he was wounded.

His left femur had been shattered by shell fragments, and he asked the ambulance driver to go slow to avoid jarring that caused him pain. The ambulance driver said there were two choices -- we can go fast to get out from under the enemy shells that were still falling in the area, or we can go slow and risk getting hit.

In his letter, 2nd Lt. McClure wrote that he told the driver to "Go like hell."

The records show that Donald Armstrong McClure was born in 1896 in Danville, Pennsylvania, and registered for service in June 1917 while a student at the University of Pennsylvania. He served with Troop 1 of the Pennsylvania Cavalry and in May 1918 was sent to France with the American Expeditionary Forces.

In July 1918, he saw action at the second Battle of the Marne, and on Nov. 11, 1918 -- the day the war ended -- he was wounded by shell fragments on the Alsace-Lorraine front.

In December 1918, he was sent back to the U.S. to recover at General Hospital 24 in Pittsburgh and in February 2019 he was honorably discharged from the hospital.

McClure married that same year and had a career in sales and insurance, his grandson said. He died in 1965.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com. Flash

The large-scale military drills of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces in the central country was wrapped up on Saturday seeking to practice offensive tactics.





The massive war game, code-named "Eqtedar," lasted for two days in a vast area in Nasrabad region in Iran's central province of Isfahan.





A total of 12,000 army forces took in the exercise carrying out new offensive tactics in accordance with structural changes in the Army Ground Force, Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari said.





The commander said the Army Ground Force had developed a new structure in its units, adopting an offensive approach.





On Saturday, the Army's units practiced a tactic to prevent the enemy from closing in on the battlefield by creating a long row of blasts using remote-controlled land bombs during a military exercise, according to Tasnim news agency.





The army's combat engineers created a line of explosion of six kilometers to block the forward movement of the hypothetical enemy's personnel carriers and armored vehicles, according to the report.





The military engineering units had been deployed to the drill zone 10 days in advance of the war game to design and prepare the line of explosion and plant remote-controlled bombs.





In another operation on Saturday, two F-7 fighter-bombers of the Air Force were scrambled to hit the enemy's armored equipment with smart bombs.





Besides, the force's fixed and mobile artillery units practiced hitting the enemy's positions with smart and precise shells with a range of 10 to 30 kilometers.





On Friday night, the airborne division of Iran's Army Ground Force carried out a nocturnal reconnaissance and combat mission as a part of a war game.





Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force's Airborne Division, Yousef Qorbani, said that his forces have for the first time carried out a night reconnaissance mission and nocturnal combat with assault copters furnished with night-vision cameras.





During the operation, the Airborne Division's choppers detected the hypothetical enemy's positions and detonated the fixed and mobile ground targets with modified rockets and missiles, Qorbani was quoted as saying.





In April 2018, the Iranian Army Ground Force Airborne Division launched a program to equip all choppers with night-vision cameras to enhance aircraft capabilities in night missions.





On Friday, the soldiers from the artillery, armored unit, rapid-reaction forces, mechanized infantry, combat engineering, telecommunication and electronic warfare, and airborne unit were arrayed in the operation zone with the support of the Air Force fighter jets.





During the first stage of the exercise, the airborne unit's drones and choppers carried out a day-time reconnaissance mission before troops from the airborne brigade and rapid reaction brigade parachuted into the target zone.





Assessment of the power, mobility and agility of the troops as well as the aerial logistics of the airborne unit's copters were among the objectives of the first day of the maneuver.





Iran holds regular war games every year aimed at testing new hardware, enhancing the country's combat preparedness as well as demonstrating Iran's capabilities in the face of threats.



OLD LYME  An Old Lyme resident is dead and a North Haven man hospitalized after falling through the ice at Rogers Lake on Saturday.

The two men were ice staking Saturday afternoon when they fell through the ice, according to state police. First responders rescued one person and were searching for another around 3:30 p.m. Flash

The Palestinians warned on Saturday that the current Israeli escalation of violence against the Palestinians is serving the Israeli parliamentary election that is scheduled in April.





The Palestinian Authority (PA) said in an official press statement that "the Israeli crimes and killings in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza are again reiterating that the Israeli government is going ahead with the policy of escalation."





The statement held the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for this escalation "that would lead to dangerous consequences and more tension and would create an uncontrolled dangerous atmosphere."





The PA statement called on the international community to ensure protection for the Palestinian people, adding that the people and their leadership will remain with steadfastness and will never give up their stable legitimate rights.





The PA statement was made after the Israeli army and the Israeli police killed four Palestinians in the past 24 hours, including one in Gaza, one in Jerusalem and two in the West Bank on Friday and Saturday.





Earlier on Saturday, the PA Health Ministry said in a statement that armed Israeli settlers backed by Israeli army forces shot and killed 38-year-old Hamdi el-Na'san and wounded nine others by live ammunition.





Residents of the village said that dozens of armed settlers and Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Lemghayar north of the West Bank city of Ramallah and clashed with its residents using live gunfire and tear gas.





Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, said in an emailed press statement on Saturday evening that he condemned the settlers' attack on the village.





"The ongoing terrorism of the settlers, totally backed by the occupation army forces against Palestinian civilians, needs an urgent international protection for the Palestinians and an immediate investigation into these crimes," said Erekat.





Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO Executive Committee, also said in a press statement that the crimes committed against the Palestinians is an outcome of the growing "Israeli culture of terrorism, extremism and racism."





Ashrawi called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bear its political, human and legal responsibility and act on the formation of investigations committees and send international inspectors to ensure protection for the armless Palestinians.





Meanwhile, the Palestinian consensus government also condemned what it termed as "the Israeli occupation escalation campaign," saying the escalation is part of the policies of aggression and repression that serves the Israeli election.





Yousef al-Mahmoud, spokesman of the government, said that "the incitement and the international silence backed by the United States had encouraged the Israeli occupation to implement its aggressive policies against our people."





The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs also warned in a press statement of the more settlers' organized assaults and attacks backed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. It warned of "massacres" that would be committed against the Palestinians.





"The failure of the international community to ensure an international protection for the Palestinians had encouraged the settlers and their terrorist organizations to carry on with their assaults on the armless Palestinians," said the statement.





Osama al-Qawasmi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement spokesman in the West Bank, said in a press statement that "what had happened is a filed execution as part of the Israeli election campaign that Israeli leaders are competing on shedding the Palestinian blood."





In Gaza, Islamic Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad called on the Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate their confrontations against the Israeli army and the Israeli settlers in response to the Israeli killing of el-Na'san.





Meanwhile, Israel Radio reported that the Israeli army began to investigate into the incident in the village north of Ramallah without giving any more details.





In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, around half a million Israeli settlers live in 120 settlements where 2.7 million Palestinians live. Friction between the Palestinians and the settlers always turn into violence and more tension.



Come hell or high water, Anthony Gerald shows up. Be it with a cane, a walker or simply limping; he rarely misses a community event because he knows how important it is to be a shining example to his children, often seeks out every opportunity he can to serve as a blessing to someone else. Flash





A Chinese envoy said Saturday that China opposes foreign interference in Venezuela's affairs while speaking at a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on the situation in Venezuela.





"China always opposes interference in other countries' internal affairs and opposes foreign interference in Venezuela's affairs," said Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.





Noting that "the situation in Venezuela belongs to the domestic affairs of that country," Ma said it "does not constitute a threat to international peace and security and it is not on the agenda of the Security Council."





"China is against adding the situation in Venezuela to the agenda of the Security Council," the envoy stressed, adding that the Venezuela's affairs "must be and can only be chosen and decided" by the Venezuelan people themselves.





"We call upon all relevant parties to respect the choice of the Venezuelan people," he said.





Noting that "maintaining stability and development in Venezuela serves the interests of all relevant parties," Ma said that "we hope all parties can contribute more to Venezuela's stability."





"We hope that the international community can jointly create favorable conditions for that," he said.





The Chinese ambassador told the Security Council that China has been "following closely the current situation in Venezuela" and calls upon all relevant parties in Venezuela "to stay rational, keep calm, and bear in mind the fundamental interests of the country and its people to seek a political solution to the issues through peaceful dialogue within the framework of the Venezuelan Constitution."





"China supports the efforts made by the Venezuelan government to uphold national sovereignty, independence and stability," he said.





"China maintains that all countries should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, especially the norms governing international relations and the principles of international law such as no interference in each other's internal affairs, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and refrain from threatening to use force," Ma said.





UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed the meeting.





The last time the Security Council convened on a weekend was on April 14, 2018, to discuss the Israel-Palestine issue.





Saturday's meeting was requested by the United States and some other countries. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participated in and briefed the meeting.







One of the most visible results of the European debt crisis has been its impact on EU foreign policy. Before 2009, the EU looked at its relations with partners such as China from a position of theoretical superiority. The main approach of European policy-makers relied on the assumption that the EU model could be replicated across the world. So Brussels sought to deepen its political and economic dialogue with Beijing by making recommendations on issues such as the rule of law and human rights.



But the onslaught of the European debt crisis ended the ability of the EU to try to impose its terms on other countries. Being unable to cope with its liquidity problems and generate growth and investments, the EU welcomed the increasing role of China in European initiatives and of Chinese state-owned enterprises in European infrastructure works. Within this context, Beijing modestly started to become a dynamic player and even acquired the upper hand in some negotiations with Brussels.

For a brief period after the beginning of the economic crisis, China and the EU collaborated harmoniously. The 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation  decided in 2013  set up the institutional framework on peace and security, prosperity, sustainable development, and people-to-people exchange. However, in spite of this and other joint actions, Brussels decided in 2017 to launch new mechanisms that would potentially limit the activities of Chinese companies in Europe. In 2018, it came up with what it calls a necessary screening of Chinese investments.

The beginning of 2019 finds the EU still skeptical about China, which is being translated into political pressure on the governments of member states to be reserved in granting contracts to Chinese firms. In the EU view, because Chinese companies are subsidized by the Chinese state, competition is therefore unfair. In parallel with the screening tool, the EU is also strengthening its legal framework in line with their skepticism. By considering different Chinese state-owned enterprises as having the same ownership, namely the Chinese state, member states may subsequently find it more difficult to sign contracts with Chinese companies because of the EU law stipulating diversification in the origin of investments.

The new European policy aims at defending the interest of companies from member states, as well as creating more opportunities for them to expand their activities in China and in countries along the Belt and Road. This objective is fair and has not been contested by the Chinese government. What is highly problematic, though, is that an anti-China sentiment is being cultivated in Brussels. Several diplomats, bureaucrats and technocrats have re-introduced the previous framework of superiority, journeying back to the pre-2009 era.

To the point, a hostile approach vis-a-vis China is myopic. Most member states of the EU  including its leading economic power, Germany  are keen on expanding bilateral ties with China. More importantly, Chinese enterprises are often investing while Western ones are absent. If an investment vacuum is created, how will it be filled, especially in states encumbered by unemployment? Privatizations are seen as an important source of growth in Europe, but private European companies do not always express an interest in participating. By contrast, Chinese firms are eager to become involved, and sometimes, to take the economic risk in debt-ridden countries of the EU.

EU policy-makers are right in working to create better presuppositions for European companies. But in so doing, they are wrong in painting China an adversary. By becoming more engaged in Europe, China is learning about European standards and policies and can adapt itself to new conditions. It is now the turn and responsibility of the EU to learn more about China  beyond Cold War terms  and to lead the post-crisis reality of a multilateral world order where developing economies have a share.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:





http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.Today marks the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the allied forces. The International Community has chosen this symbolic day to honour the memory of the millions of Jews who were exterminated with the use of unprecedented, systematic and bureaucratically organised methods at Nazi death camps and elsewhere.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day of responsibility, an international anniversary which once again brings to mind the darkest chapter of European history, which has since constituted a basic element of our collective European identity.

The Jewish communities of Greece suffered irreparably due to the Nazi atrocities, which led to their near annihilation. The Greek State today pays tribute to the memory of millions of our fellow citizens and foreign Jews who fell victim to the most heinous crime in modern History. We also honour the survivors of the Shoah, recognising the indelible wounds to their bodies and souls, as well as the courage and selfless sacrifice of those who rushed to protect those mercilessly persecuted.

Greece joins its voice to the consciousness of all Humanity, and its efforts to those of the other 31 members of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance that have undertaken, through the Stockholm Declaration, the responsibility of preserving the collective memory of our fellow men and women that perished in the Holocaust. At the same time, it repeats its pandemic condemnation of any act that denies historical truth and defames the memory of the millions of victims of the Shoah. We honour and we commit ourselves to the memory of all those lost, and in the name of all who survived, that we will shall never forget.CITY OF FRIDLEY (Legal Notice) ORDINANCE NO. 1357 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING FRIDLEY CITY CHARTER CHAPTER 8. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS I. Title An ordinance of the City of Fridley, Minnesota, amending the Fridley City Charter Chapter 8 entitled Public Improvements and Special Assessments. II. Summary The City Council of the City of Fridley does hereby ordain as follows: That Fridley City Charter Chapter 8 be amended to provide information on how the comprehensive plan may be amended, changing the number of days required for a public hearing notice to be published for zoning to make it consistent with the Fridley City Code and to clarify and update the language of this chapter. III. Notice This title and summary has been published to clearly inform the public of the intent and effect of the Fridley City Code. A copy of the ordinance, in its entirety, is available for inspection by any person during regular business hours at the offices of the City Clerk of the City of Fridley, 6431 University Ave N.E., Fridley, MN. PASSED AND ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FRIDLEY THIS 10TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2018. SCOTT J. LUND MAYOR ATTEST: DEBRA A. SKOGEN CITY CLERK Published in the Columbia Hgt-Fridley Sun Focus September 21, 2018 858881

Ad details CITY OF FRIDLEY (Legal Notice) ORDINANCE NO. 1357 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING FRIDLEY CITY CHARTER CHAPTER 8. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AND SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS I. Title An ordinance of the City of Fridley, Minnesota, amending the Fridley City Charter Chapter 8 entitled Public Improvements and Special Assessments. II. Summary The City Council of the City of Fridley does hereby ordain as follows: That Fridley City Charter Chapter 8 be amended to provide information on how the comprehensive plan may be amended, changing the number of days required for a public hearing notice to be published for zoning to make it consistent with the Fridley City Code and to clarify and update the language of this chapter. III. Notice This title and summary has been published to clearly inform the public of the intent and effect of the Fridley City Code. A copy of the ordinance, in its entirety, is available for inspection by any person during regular business hours at the offices of the City Clerk of the City of Fridley, 6431 University Ave N.E., Fridley, MN. PASSED AND ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FRIDLEY THIS 10TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2018. SCOTT J. LUND MAYOR ATTEST: DEBRA A. SKOGEN CITY CLERK Published in the Columbia Hgt-Fridley Sun Focus September 21, 2018 858881The budget segment in India has been exceedingly crowded and with so many brands offering a multitude of options, choosing the right one for you can be a tough task. We've made a list of the top budget smartphones in India according to every user's requirements.

Taking into consideration multiple factors like camera, performance, battery life, and user interface, this list is all you need to pick the right one.

1. Redmi Note 6 Pro

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The Redmi Note 6 Pro and its predecessor have been selling like hot cakes in the country. Xiaomi has finally managed to overcome the flash sales and they are abundantly available in stock now. The phone has a perfect balance in all segments and pretty much a winner.

It has a 6.26-inch display and is powered by the Snapdragon 635 platform. For multitasking, it has 3GB RAM and 32GB storage in the base variant along with expandable storage. The battery is rated at 4000mAh and is more than sufficient to get you through a couple of days on moderate usage. The rear has a 12+5-megapixel setup and can capture significantly good pictures in both, daytime as well as low-light conditions.

2. Nokia 6.1 Plus

 BCCL

This phone runs on stock Android like every other Nokia branded phone and this is what gives it an edge. The brand has been consistent in pushing out timely updates and the UI is immensely smooth. The design gives a very premium feel in hand and the compact nature of the phone is confidence inspiring.

It has a 5.8-inch display and is powered by the Snapdragon 636 platform. The base variant gets 4GB RAM and 32GB internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card. The rear has a 16+5-megapixel camera set up while the front has a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. A slightly smaller 3060mAh battery powers the phone and will get you through a day's usage.

3. Huawei Y9

 Huawei

The recently launched Huawei Y9 is the first Y-series smartphone to launch in India. The main highlight of the phone is its design and the brand has brought down the P20 Pro's design language, and the Y9 has an eerily similar look. If you're looking for a premium design with flaunt-worthy elements, this one is built for you.

It has a 6.5-inch display and is powered by Huawei's midrange Kirin 710 processor. The phone has 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card. On the rear is a 16+2-megapixel camera setup, while the front has a 13+2-megapixel setup for selfies. The phone runs on a 4000mAh battery that is equipped with fast charging.

4. Realme U1

 MensXP

The Realme U1 is another phone with a good balance of specifications across all departments. It is built from composite plastic that does a significantly good job of imitating plastic. Realme has also added a waterdrop notch to further increase the screen-to-body ratio. It borrows ColorOS UI from OPPO, and it has been drastically improved.

It has a 6.3-inch display and is powered by the latest MediaTek P70 processor. The base variant has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage which is expandable via a microSD card. The rear dual cameras capture sharp pictures in daytime and the front has a huge 25-megapixel shooter for selfies. It is back by a 3500mAh battery that is more than enough to get you through a day and a half.

5. ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2

 ASUS

ASUS is another brand that provides a stock Android experience on its phones and the M2 kills it. Coupled with a midrange Snapdragon 660 processor, it is blazing fast and gets every task done smoothly. The design has been drastically improved and it looks distinctly premium now.

The phone has a 6.26-inch display and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection. In the base variant, you get 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card. The rear gets a 12+5-megapixel camera while the front has a 13-megapixel selfie shooter. Backing these internals is a huge 5000mAh battery that'll get you through days of usage on a single charge.

6. Honor 10 Lite

 Honor

For Honor, the gradient design has been loved by many and has become one major differentiating factor for consumers. It touts an attractive design with a glass-like 3D rear panel that sees dual cameras and a fingerprint sensor on the rear. The front has a small semi-circular notch along with a heavy front camera.

On the front is a 6.2-inch display and the phone is powered by Huawei's midrange Kirin 710 chipset. The base variant comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The rear has a 13+2-megapixel camera set up while the front has a huge 24-megapixel selfie shooter. Powering these internals is a 3230mAh battery.

7. Motorola One Power

 Motorola

This phone is built with one purpose, to offer maximum battery life. Motorola has opted to give with a simple design, and thanks to the huge battery, the phone weighs a lot.

It has a 6.2-inch display and is powered by a Snapdragon 636 processor. The base variant gets 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card. The rear has a 16+5-megapixel camera setup, while the front has a 12-megapixel selfie shooter. Lastly, it has a 5000mAh battery with support for fast charging.Tonight's 'Koffee With Karan' will have two amazing actors who are a fresh breath of self-made success stories in this world of nepotism. Bhumi Pednekar and Rajkummar Rao will be gracing our screens and the little snippet from the show has already got us excited.

While a lot of madness will unfold on the couch, here are a few things you can expect to unravel on the episode:

1. Rajkummar's Hidden Talents

Sure, he is a handsome guy and a great actor but not many are aware that he consciously chooses his roles over money, he is a fantastic dancer and is also trained in martial arts.

2. Bhumi's Struggles With Her On-Screen & Off-Screen Avatar

Now the pretty actress has obviously surprised her fans with her choice of strong roles in movies like 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' and 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' so we have mostly seen her in home grown, 'desi' avatars. Bhumi will reveal some hilarious reactions she gets from her fans when she is out in public. She revealed that people are surprised to see her speak fluent English and it doesn't bother her at all because that means she did full justice to her characters.

 Star World

3. Bhumi's Experience As An Assistant Director

Not many are aware but Bhumi started her career as an AD in YRF and was behind the debuts and auditions of many successful actors today. She revealed on the show that she has auditioned the likes of Ranveer Singh, Kriti Sanon, Parineeti Chopra, and even Rajkummar Rao. She also revealed that she was impressed with Parineeti's audition for 'Ladies Vs Ricky Behl'.

4. Bhumi And Rajkummar's Take On Being An Outsider

The two actors will debate on the favourite subject of nepotism and how was their respective struggle as an outsider in the show business. She started her journey as an AD while Rajkummar struggled to be an actor so naturally their perception was different as well. Bhumi expressed that she has never felt like an outsider and was always appreciated for her work. I don't think it's got anything to do with where you belong. It's just the same thing as, when you start a new thing it's going to be alien at first and then eventually people are very accepting, they're so nice to me. Rajkummar begged to differ and spoke about life post 'LSD'. Probably if I was an insider, people would've pushed me more, that's the only thing I feel. People take time to notice you sometimes but talent speaks!

 Star World

This is going to be one hot coffee brewing with a lot of exciting dope on our favourite actors.The wave of nepotism in Bollywood is so strong right now that we often oversee the insane pool of talent that has been going strong based on their sheer dedication and sheer hard work. Actor Manoj Bajpayee is a man par excellence who has proved time and again that any role is tailor-made for him once he decides to essay it his way.

After being in the industry for over 25 years, the actor has been lauded with the fourth highest civilian honour in the country, the Padma Shri. The actor who entered the showbiz with 'Bandit Queen' back in 1994 has come a long way since then, getting better with every role that he took up, be it the man who danced his heart out in 'Sapne Mein Milti Hai' or the rustic guy who literally made 'Gangs Of Wasseypur' what it became a critical hit.

In an interview post this honour, the actor shared his feelings about this latest development in his life. "It's a huge honour for any professional because it's not an honour for just one particular film or performance. It's an honour for your journey, for your conviction and belief that you had. Also, for the government it's a way of recognising contribution that one has made to cinema. So yes, I am feeling very happy about it. My family, friends and fans have been sending messages to me. I am feeling ecstatic that my work has been recognised by the highest office. His fans have been flooding social media with congratulatory notes.

Well known Bollywood actor Mr. Manoj Bajpayee is awarded "Padmshri" ;



But, glad to inform you that he belongs to Bihar; not to Maharashtra.@PIBHindi@PIB_India @PMOIndia  Niranjan Sinha (@sinha_nir67) January 27, 2019

Congratulations #ManojBajpayee ji on having been conferred with #Padmashri . Great achievement earned by virtue of outstanding meritorious work.  dhirendra mishra (@dhirendra0612) January 27, 2019

It's a well-deserved win and for once, we are elated that no nepotism was involved.New research finds that a structural analog of a compound found in an endangered Chinese fir tree has cancer-fighting properties when combined with an existing cancer drug.

Share on Pinterest Scientists devised a chemical analog of a compound from a rare Chinese tree that, combined with another drug, has cancer-fighting properties.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimate that doctors diagnosed well over 1,700,00 new cases of cancer in 2018, and more than 600,000 people in the United States died from the disease.

Globally, cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of death; by the year 2030, the NCI estimate that 23.6 million new cancer cases will occur.

Researchers are therefore hard at work trying to devise new strategies to fight off this chronic disease, and more and more scientists are turning to nature in search of solutions.

For instance, Medical News Today has recently reported on a study that examined the breast cancer-fighting potential of oolong tea extract; another recent study found that a synthetic analog of a compound scientists found in a Chinese tree may be able to tackle drug-resistant pancreatic cancer.

Now, Mingji Dai, an organic chemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, has lead a team of scientists who are adding to the mounting evidence that nature may hold the key to cancer therapies.

Dai collaborated with Zhong-Yin Zhang, a professor of medicinal chemistry at Purdue, to examine the molecular makeup and therapeutic potential of a tree called Abies beshanzuensis  an endangered species of a Chinese fir tree.

The researchers published their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society..

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Today

Thunderstorms - some may contain locally heavy rain, especially this evening. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms - some may contain locally heavy rain, especially this evening. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.Marietta, GA (30060)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.On Thursday, the commissioner held a special meeting about the matter.

Elections Director Kim Welborn highlighted some of the positive aspects of that location.

The new building will allow more space for all the equipment that is required to conduct elections to be housed under one roof, secured and with climate control plus the loading/unloading processes will be more efficient, said Elections Director Kim Welborn.

The old Club Fitness is big enough for the functions associated with early, one-stop voting and training sessions can be held there. It also has easier access for the public while doing curbside voting, with more accessibility for the disabled and lots of parking.

Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Voter ID will be implemented in the spring across the state and all photo ID cards will be made and distributed by the Board of Elections office, said Welborn.

With the extra space, her office will be able to implement that service, she added.

The Register of Deeds recently moved to 35 W. Fort St. But the main level of that renovated building is completely occupied by the Register of Deeds office. The basement at 35 W. Fort St. is unfinished and would need a complete renovation before it could be occupied.In a prepared statement, Assistant District Attorney Kent Brown commented on the dismissal and verdict: The Court dismissed the kidnapping charge because if the confinement or restraint that forms the basis of the kidnapping is the same confinement or restraint that occurs in the commission of a charged robbery, state law requires the kidnapping charges be dismissed.

It is important to note that Mr. Welch was tried as a co-defendant for the actions of his son, who we previously convicted and sent to prison for his role in this incident. The challenge in this case was proving to the jury that Mr. Welch knew what his son intended to do, while Mr. Welch was suggesting that he had no idea the extreme actions his son ultimately took. As frequently happens in a trial, there were some differences in the witnesses statements and testimony. While we do not know what went into the jurys decision, these were probably some of the factors that affected their verdict.The mystery of Jo Song-gils disappearance deepens. North Koreas charge d'affaires was already set to leave his post in November. He came in May 2015. For observers, Italy is trying to avoid tensions with North Korea. Warmongers threaten peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul (AsiaNews)  Jo Song-gil, North Koreas 48-year-old charge d'affaires (pictured) was replaced in such function by Mr Kim Chon" on 20 November, an official at the Italian Embassy in Seoul told the Yonhap news agency.

South Koreas National Intelligence Service informed South Korean lawmakers of the disappearance of the North Korean diplomat in a closed-door briefing, this according to Rep Kim Min-ki of the ruling Democratic Party.

A newspaper reported that Jo was seeking asylum in a third country and that Italy was holding the diplomat and is family in a safe place.

Italys Foreign Ministry disputed the information, saying that no North Korean official had requested asylum. Instead, it stated that it had been informed of staff changes via diplomatic channels.

South Korea's presidential office said instead that it had no information about the affair.

Jo was posted to Italy in May 2015 as First Secretary, and was set to leave in November 2018.

In 2017, the Italian government expelled North Koreas ambassador Mun Jong-nam following that countrys sixth nuclear test. On 9 October 2017, Jo was appointed charge d'affaires, the highest diplomatic post in the absence of an ambassador.

Whilst the mystery surrounding Jo's disappearance grows, for some observers the low-key approach of the Italian government is based on a desire not to increase tension with North Korea. This explains why the news was leaked by South Korean sources, about a month after the escape.

By contrast, other powers are interested in destabilising the peace process in the Korean Peninsula, which is a major market for weapons manufacturers.Mookie Betts, who accepted his American League MVP hardware at the BBWAA dinner in New York on Saturday, said he does not plan to attend the Red Soxs visit to the White House, reported Boston Globes Peter Abraham.

The Red Sox were scheduled to visit the White House on Feb. 15. But the trip has been postponed until Bostons road trip to play the Baltimore Orioles in May because of the government shutdown. The government reopened Friday, but President Donald Trump placed a Feb. 15 deadline to get a deal done with congress for a border wall.

The Red Sox visit the Orioles from May 6-8. They have an off day May 9.

Team president Sam Kennedy explained at Red Sox Winter Weekend last Saturday the Red Sox feel its not appropriate to attend the White House during a government shutdown.

Youve got 800,000 federal workers who are not working right now, Kennedy said. Some working, some not working but not receiving paychecks. Its hit people hard in the New England area. So just not sure its appropriate to be celebrating in such a public way while theres people who are struggling right now. So thats been the internal conversation.

During the dinner, Betts said, per ESPNs Coley Harvey, Its gratifying to stand up here and accept my MVP Award in the year the Boston Red Sox won the World Series  and especially to do that here in New York.A 74-year-old woman drove into the lobby of a Massachusetts funeral home Saturday while a service was underway, authorities said.

No one inside the funeral home was hurt.

Police and firefighters were called to the Waring-Sullivan Home of Memorial Tribute in Swansea around 8:50 a.m., Sergeant Mark Foley said.

The Fall River woman had just dropped off someone at the funeral home and was going to back into a parking space, Foley said.

It appears the woman mistook the gas for the brake and accelerated over a curb, the sergeant said. The woman then struck a column outside the building.

Foley said the car continued to accelerate through the funeral homes front doors and into the lobby.

Two people were near the lobby but were able to escape injury. Other people were attending a service were in a different part of the building.

The car struck a gas fireplace, causing a pipe to break. Authorities shut off gas to the building.

Obviously, this could have been a disaster, Foley told MassLive.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital for minor injuries. The crash remains under investigation.The driver accused of riding along the Massachusetts Turnpike with another man on his hood during an apparent road rage incident Friday was held at gunpoint by another driver, who is a properly licensed gun owner, according to the Massachusetts State Police.

The two men involved in the road rage incident will now appear in court Monday to face charges.

Authorities say the incident between 37-year-old Mark Fitzgerald of Ashland and 65-year-old Richard Kamrowski of Framingham began Friday after a minor side-swipe collision Friday on I-90 westbound in Weston.

After the minor collision, Kamrowski stopped his Ford F150 in the left lane and tried to exchange paperwork with Fitzgerald, who was still inside his 2016 Infinity QX70, according to Massachusetts State Police.

As the men argued, Kamrowski grabbed a water bottle from Fitzgeralds vehicle and stood in front of it, authorities said.

Fitzgerald then began driving towards Kamrowski, who subsequently jumped up on the hood of Fitzgeralds vehicle, State Police said.

Motorists began calling police around 4:45 p.m. They saw the SUV driving with a man on the hood.

Authorities say Fitzgerald reached speed as high as 70 MPH with Kamrowski on the hood.

At some point, Kamrowski broke the windshield of the Infinity by hitting it with the water bottle he had taken earlier in the encounter, State Police said. The Infinity continued about two to three miles, while other motorists attempted to get Fitzgerald to stop.

Other motorists were able to stop the SUV. One of the other drivers, a properly licensed gun owner, ordered Fitzgerald out of the SUV at gunpoint, authorities said.

Fitzgerald was kept at the scene until troopers arrived.

Fitzgerald was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60, negligent driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

Kamrowski was charged with disorderly conduct and malicious damage to a motor vehicle.

Both men will be arraigned Monday in Waltham District Court.It took 162 years, but one town in Massachusetts will now have a grocery store that can sell alcohol for people to take home.

The town of Rockport was dry since 1865, reports the Gloucester Daily Times.

But last week, the towns Board of Selectmen voted to allow the Whistlestop Market to become the towns only store to sell booze. The store has the towns sole grocery store liquor license, the newspaper reports.

According to the Gloucester Daily Times, Rockport banned alcohol after a woman named Hannah Jumper led a rebellion against alcohol. Jumper and 200 women destroyed anything with alcohol in 1865.

Beer and wine could be sold at restaurants since 2006, but the alcohol needed to be consumed inside the eateries, the newspaper reports. Residents had to leave town to buy booze.

In 2013, voters agreed one grocery store could have a liquor license. For years, a new store didnt open until Whistlestop Market decided to open, the Gloucester Daily Times reports.

Owner Jay Smith told the newspaper it will take a couple weeks before the store begins to sell beer and wine.GOSHEN  Working smoke detectors alerted a family of six Friday night to the fire that enveloped their home on Route 9 here, said Goshen Fire Chief Susan Labrie.

The father, awoken at about 11 p.m. by the smoke detector, first went to the family wood stove. What he found was a fast-moving chimney fire, Labrie said. He barely had time to get his family including four elementary school-age sons.

When he got downstairs he just saw it was blowing orange in the room next to it,' Labrie said.

The man suffered a first-degree burn, similar to a sunburn, on his bare back. Neither his wife or the children were injured.

He walked out through the fire, she said.

It took firefighters from 10 area fire departments to put out the blaze and to bring water from nearby. A rural area, there are no fire hydrants.

Firefighters also worked in 14-degree weather overnight. Slips and falls in the ice were common, she said. One firefighter suffered a cut to the hand that required treatment. Another firefighter felt overcome by exhaust fumes form a pump engine.

The home was a total loss. Labrie said the state has been notified but there is little in the way of debris remaining to help pinpoint a cause beyond knowing the fire began in or around the wood stove.

The family is staying with grandparents nearby , Labrie said.What is the price of saving a life?

How much is it worth to a person to avoid monthly blood transfusions for decades? How much is it worth to partially restore someones eyesight? When it comes to health care, who should pay?

These are the scale of questions that the health care industry is grappling with as it confronts gene therapy, a revolutionary field that comes with a blockbuster price tag.

Insurers, hospitals, drug companies and patients must figure out how to price and pay for therapies that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars  and in the future, potentially millions of dollars  to treat one person.

My true north is always, if you or a member of your family were a patient, would you want them to have the treatment? said Michael Sherman, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, an insurer based in Wellesley.

Gene therapy is a cutting-edge technology in which a new gene can be introduced into someones body to cure a disease.

Only three therapies have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States, and only a small number of patients are eligible to benefit. But a fourth therapy is expected to be approved this year, and more are in the pipeline. The pharmaceutical trade association PhRMA identified 289 gene and cell therapies in clinical trials or awaiting FDA approval, although some may never make it to market and others may take years.

The problem becomes their price.

The first two gene therapies approved in the U.S., which treat types of cancer, are Kymriah and Yescarta. Yescartas list price is $373,000. Kymriahs list price is either $373,000 or $475,000, depending on the type of cancer. That does not include the cost of the hospitalization and medications for side effects, which could push the cost of treatment to $1 million, insurance officials say.

The third therapy, Luxturna, which treats a retinal disorder, costs $850,000 for both eyes.

A gene replacement therapy for spinal muscular atrophy called AVXS-101 could get FDA approval this year. While Novartis, which owns the therapy, has not yet set a price, experts expect it could cost close to $2 million. Spinal muscular atrophy can cause early death or lifelong disability.

No one really knows what the future gene therapies are going to cost, but my expectation is youre going to see a lot of them clustered in the high $1.5 to $2.5 million (range), Sherman said.

Drug companies defend the high prices as justified, based on the cost of developing these drugs and their value. A one-time treatment with gene therapy could potentially cure a disease that would otherwise cause death or disability that would require regular treatment.

Novartis reviewed a number of factors in setting the price for Kymriah. In an email, Eric Althoff, Novartis global head of media relations, said the process involved looking at "... the medical and clinical value, the value to patients, the healthcare system and society, both in the near-term and long-term.

Mike Ybarra, vice president of medical affairs and strategic alliances at PhRMA, said a one-time cure for a disease like hemophilia, for example, could eliminate the need for a lifetime of additional tests, medication and treatment.

Manny Johnson, the first patient to undergo a clinical trial for a type of gene therapy to treat sickle cell disease, underwent monthly blood transfusions for years until he received the therapy.

The key thing to keep in mind is what are we currently spending, Ybarra said. Whats the cost of a one-time therapy versus the cost of continuity of care?

But not all experts agree with the drug companies on what an appropriate price is. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review provides independent assessments of the value of particular drugs. ICER concluded that in order for Luxturna to be cost-effective for a 15-year-old patient, it should be priced between $153,000 and $217,000.

So far, the impact of gene therapy is limited. Kymriah and Yescarta are recommended only for cancer patients who have not responded to traditional treatments. Luxturna treats a narrow type of eye disorder, which affects 1,000 to 2,000 people in the U.S.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts, the states largest insurer, covered one patient for Luxturna in 2018. It anticipates getting zero to two patients a year. The insurer anticipated having between 30 and 50 patients use Kymriah or Yescarta, but only received around 15 claims in 2018. (Some of this could be because the technology is so new, only a small number of providers offer it.)

Many of the therapies being developed are for rare diseases. But there is also, for example, research being done on gene therapies to treat hemophilia  which could have much wider applications.

It would be game changing to treat hemophilia, said Katherine Dallow, vice president of clinical programs for Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts. But at the prices its being manufactured at, it will be a bank breaking effort societally.

Blue Cross Blue Shield officials say they decide whether to cover treatment based on whether it improves patient outcomes. So far, the insurer covers all three gene therapies on the market, and it anticipates covering AVXS-101.

But, Dallow said, The issue around affordability is the million dollar question, and its becoming the billion dollar question.

Insurers point out that the long-term effectiveness of these treatments has not yet been tested. It is also potentially problematic if a patient switches insurance, leaving one insurer to have paid for the treatment while another reaps the benefits.

We need some sort of framework for thinking about what is a fair price and how do we solve the budget impact problem, Sherman said. We dont have an unlimited amount of money to spend on health care. At some point, the budget impact is important.

One method being discussed is value-based payments. These are agreements, which can be structured in different ways, where the drug company only gets a portion of its payment if certain clinical milestones are not met.

For example, Harvard Pilgrim reached an agreement with the maker of Luxturna where the drug company rebates money to the insurer if certain outcomes are not achieved by 90 days and by 2.5 years.

Novartis is offering a value-based agreement to treatment centers that use Kymriah on pediatric leukemia patients, in which Novartis only charges for the drug if the patient responds within a month. If the patient does not respond, the drug is free.

However, there are regulatory barriers to these types of arrangements.

Thomas Barker, a health care attorney at Foley Hoag, said federal rules require drug companies to sell their drugs to Medicaid at the lowest price available. Drug companies are reluctant to enter into arrangements that would lower the Medicaid price  for example, by requiring only a small percentage of the payment up front.

Barker said companies involved in gene therapy are trying to convince Medicaid officials to allow value-based payments. But, he said, I dont think the political officials at (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) at the moment have the wherewithal or the ability or desire to enter into those type of arrangements right now.

The high cost of gene therapy also has implications for public health insurance programs, which are paid for by taxpayers.

Massachusetts became one of the first states to address the issue through its Medicaid program when it received federal approval to create a list of carve-out drugs, including Kymriah and Yescarta, beginning in March 2018.

Typically, MassHealth reimburses hospitals a certain amount for each inpatient stay. But because of how rare, new and expensive gene therapies are, these payments would not cover the hospitals costs, and could throw off future calculations of the rates. So instead, MassHealth pays the hospital separately for the cost of these drugs.

MassHealth has so far approved five of seven requests it has gotten to cover these drugs.

Sherman said as more high-cost therapies come on the market, taxpayers will have to pay more to cover Medicaid costs. Employers and employees will have to pay more to cover the costs of commercial insurance.

Ultimately, this is going to be a problem for all of us, he said.The Greater Easthampton St. Patrick's Parade Committee has announced its 2019 dignitaries and award winners.

The parade marshal is Michael B. Callini, and the Shamrock Award winner Amy Florek of Amy's Place.

The marshal leads the parade contingent that includes elected officials, police officers, firefighters, award winners and committee members.

The Shamrock Award is given to a business that helps support the St. Patrick's committee. Amy's Place has sponsored Celebrity Bartending Night with proceeds going to the Easthampton committee's scholarship.

Stephen J. Zavisza is the recipient of the Gallagher/Walker Award, named in honor of Dan Gallagher and Dick Walker, longtime Holyoke Parade Committee members who began the Easthampton committee. It is given to a person on the committee that goes above and beyond to support its work.

This year's Barbara Parnell Scholarship winners are Gwen Lech, Colin Bush and Marylyn Mathers.

The Easthampton committee is dedicated to representing the greater Easthampton area in the Holyoke parade that honors people of Irish heritage each year. "We also strive to support Irish culture within our community," said Jean Graney, president of The Greater Easthampton St. Patrick's Parade Committee, which has sponsored trips to The Hunger Museum in Hamden, Connecticut, made available Irish language tapes and sponsored an Irish Fest showcasing Irish music and dancers.

"I am committed to supporting this group," Zavisza said. "I enjoy being a part of the group and am more than willing to help them succeed. I appreciate their commitment to their heritage."A shooting in Boston Saturday left one man dead and a second man injured. Police are now investigating the killing.

Officers were called to the area of 49 Withington St. in Dorchester for a report of a shooting around 5:11 p.m. Saturday, according to police.

Two men were discovered at the scene. Both had been shot.

The two victims were taken to local hospitals. One man was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital. The second victims injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, according to police.

A gun was recovered at the scene.

Police did not release the age or names of the victims.

Boston Police ask anyone with information to call Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470.Four men robbed a cell phone store in Brockton Saturday night then fired shots at police as officers pursued the suspects, according to police.

Three of the suspects were caught. Police continue to search for the fourth suspect as of Sunday afternoon.

Officers were called to Belmont Street to investigate a robbery at a T-Mobile store around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Police learned four armed men rushed into the store and robbed it while assaulting a clerk, Brockton Police said in a news release.

The men stole cash and cell phones, The Enterprise reports.

The clerk was taken to a local hospital. Police said he had minor injuries.

Officers then conducted a manhunt for the suspects and located their vehicle in the southeast section of the city.

The suspects shot at police as they ditched the Chevy, police said. It was unclear how many shots were fired. No officers were injured.

Three suspects were caught by authorities.

The Enterprise identified the three suspects as: Stephan Stewart, 26, of Dorchester; Dennis Martin, 23, of Boston; and Darius Carter, 27, of Dorchester.

Police said investigators also recovered two guns.

A Massachusetts State Police helicopter, police dogs from the region and officers from Stoughton, East Bridgewater and West Bridgewater all helped in the response.Col. David A. Brooks (right), former 127th Wing vice commander, receives the Air Force's Meritorious Service Medal during his retirement ceremony on January 5, 2019. Col. Stanley Krasovic, the Wing's new vice commander, presented the award to Brooks for more than 28 years of distinguished service.featured

Macomb Township

LHN students get an education in community service

LHN students get an education in community serviceNew funding has been announced to help small businesses here in Longford to develop their online capabilities. Cllr Micheal Carrigy said the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment backed Trading Online Voucher Scheme (TOVS) will support small/micro businesses in developing their ecommerce capabilities through the provision of training, advice and grant assistance of up to 2,500 (subject to match funding).

Cllr Micheal Carrigy said: The Trading Online Voucher Scheme is essential to helping small business in Longford adapt to the changes and increase further productive growth and job creation.

In 2018, the government supported 13 local businesses here in Longford with funding as part of the Scheme.

Fine Gael in government will continue developing commerce and job creation, both nationally and regionally.

Minister Riuchard Bruton said: There is a digital revolution taking place which is transforming how businesses are interacting with their customers. We must support small businesses in keeping pace with this rapidly changing environment.

Irish consumers spent approximately 7.8bn online in 2018, with this figure expected to exceed 10bn by 2020. It is of critical importance that small Irish businesses are well positioned to take a share of this market.

The Trading Online Voucher Scheme provides much-needed support in this regard and I am delighted that at least 3,000 small businesses will avail of it in 2019.

Since launching in 2014, over 5,000 businesses have been granted funding and 12,000 supported with training through the scheme.Legendary GAA commentator and gaeilgeoir Micheal O Muircheartaigh will be the guest speaker at the 98th Clonfin Commemoration which takes place on Sunday, February 3 next.



The famed Kerryman will speak at the site of the Clonfin Ambush, between Ballinalee and Granard, to mark this years anniversary.

Also read: Win a Massey Ferguson 135 with Longford Vintage Club



Micheal O Muircheartaigh is born out of a rich tradition, with a passion for the Irish language and commitment to GAA, duchas and a heart this is forever young,Sr Maeve Brady of the Clonfin Commemoration Committee said.



No doubt his enthusiasm will be infectious and he will help us individually and collectively to chart a way forward in building an Ireland based on remembering, reflecting and re-imagining.



This years ceremony starts with the 11.30am Mass in St Mary's Church, Granard offered for all deceased members, followed by the commemoration ceremony at the Clonfin site at 3pm.



In this Decade of Centenaries, the Centenary of the Clonfin Ambush will take place in 2021 marking a significant event in the War of Independence. It is fitting therefore that this years theme celebrating the 98th anniversary embraces the slogan used during the 1916 Centenary celebrations - Remember - Reflect - Re-imagine.



The Clonfin Ambush was carried out by members of the North Longford Flying Column, part of Oglaigh na hEireann on February 2 1921. Twenty-one men from the unit, led by Sean MacEoin, planted a mine and lay in wait for tenders carrying the Black and Tans. When the tenders arrived, it was the dreaded Auxies (Auxillaries) on board and the mine exploded under the first tender, throwing its occupants overboard.



This led to a battle that lasted over two hours. During the fighting, the commander of the Auxillaries Lt Commander Worthington Craven died and after his death the remaining policemen surrendered. In total four Auxillaries died that day and eight were wounded.



Sean MacEoins treatment of the surrendered soldiers was commended as humane so much so that some of the soldiers testified at his court martial to his generous treatment of them at Clonfin.

The Clonfin Ambush ended when reinforcements of police and Black and Tans arrived and members of the North Longford Flying Column escaped after a second engage of fire. They later fled to nearby Bracken Wood where they took a roll call, checked their captured arms before each of them headed off into the night.



Each year, the battle is remembered on the site of the Ambush, which has been developed in recent years. Members of the Clonfin Committee once again thanked family, friends, donors and the Hosey family for their interest and encouragement in the refurbishment. They also thanked Longford County Council for their advice and financial support in the work of the site.



The members of the North Longford Flying Column were Sean MacEoin, Ballinalee, Sean Duffy (Ballinalee), James J. Brady (Ballinamuck), Tom Brady (Cartronmarkey), Paddy Callaghan (Clonbroney), Seamus Conway (Clonbroney), Pat Cooke (Tubber), Seamus Farrelly (Purth), Paddy Finnegan (Molly), Larry Geraghty (Ballymore), Mick Gormley (Killoe), Hugh Hourican (Clonbroney), Jack Hughes (Scrabby), Mick Kenny (Clonbroney), Paddy Lynch (Colmcille), John McDowell (Clonbroney), Jack Moore (Streete), Mick Mulligan (Willsbrook), Michael F. Reynolds (Killoe), Sean Sexton (Ballinalee) and Jim Sheeran (Killoe).Sarah Pedersen and her husband imagined that teaching careers would provide stability for the large family they wanted.

Over time, another reality became clear. Pedersen and her husband, both educators in Richmond's public schools who have taught for eight years, do not make enough to support a second child, she said.

"The large family we envisioned for ourselves is just not possible," said Pedersen, who has a 1-year-old daughter. "We can't afford any more kids."

Higher wages are among the issues Pedersen and other educators from throughout Virginia plan to trumpet when they converge Monday in Richmond for a march to the Capitol. The rally, organized by the grass-roots group Virginia Educators United, is expected to mark the latest example of educators taking to the streets toprotest a lack of money for public schools.

The demands animating the Virginia march have been at the heart of teacher strikes and walkouts elsewhere, including Los Angeles, West Virginia, Oklahoma and North Carolina: boosting teacher pay, recruiting and retaining teachers, providing money for building needs, and bolstering school support staffs.

Unlike in other states, the Virginia march is not expected to extend into a dayslong walkout or strike.

Pedersen, a middle school social studies teacher and march organizer, said her students shiver in their seats when boilers fail. Wi-Fi and laptop access are unreliable. So are printers and copiers.

"We're struggling to give them the minimum, and that's tied to the fact that we starve our schools," Pedersen said.

Organizers have encouraged educators to take a personal day to participate in the march, expected to start at 11:30 a.m. at Monroe Park. They are set to make their way to the steps of the Capitol at noon, where educators are scheduled to rally.

Several school systems in Northern Virginia and in the Richmond area have previously scheduled professional development or workdays for teachers for Monday. Students were given the day off in those districts, which include Arlington, Prince William and Henrico countiesand the city of Richmond.

Officials in Henrico, a Richmond suburb where teachers have a "clerical day" Monday, expressed support for employees who plan to participate.

Henrico educators planning to march are arranging with principals and supervisors to complete their work at another time, said spokesman Andy Jenks. A foundation that provides money to the school system has commissioned buses that can carry up to 200 people to the rally, he added.

"We are making it clear that it's OK to participate," Jenks said.

A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman said the school system does not expect a large number of teacher absences Monday.

Kevin Hickerson, president of the Fairfax Education Association, said more than 50 of the union's members plan to march. They were compelled to participate, knowing that some teachers and support staffers, including bus drivers and custodians, cannot afford to live in Fairfax and so travel from as far as West Virginia for work.

Hickerson said he hopes Fairfax educators will draw attention to dire conditions in less fortunate parts of the state.

"If you take Northern Virginia out of the equation, we rank in the bottom five of teacher salaries in the country," he said. "To Fairfax, it's a solidarity movement with the rest of the state to say, 'We hear you. We see your pain.' "

The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, another teachers union, expects that about three dozen members will march, according to its president, Tina Williams.

Michelle Klewer, a middle school special education teacher in Virginia Beach, said larger class sizes and fewer teaching assistants have kept her from spending time with individual students.

A dearth of psychologists and school social workers, she said, means there is not enough support for students facing mental health struggles.

"I want to do the best I can. I want these kids to walk away having learned something," she said. "I don't want to let them down."

State funding for schools has not returned to levels from before the Great Recession, forcing school systems to disproportionately rely on local dollars, according to the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a Richmond think tank.

That has exacerbated inequities - affluent communities are able to infuse more cash into their schools than their less wealthy counterparts.

Virginia ranks 34th nationally in average teacher pay and is in the middle of the pack when it comes to spending per student, according to data from the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers union.

In December, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam proposed a $269 million boost to school funding that would increase teacher pay by 5 percent and provide money for school construction.

The Virginia Education Association, the state's largest teacher alliance, plans to lobby lawmakers Monday morning before the rally. The union's agenda includes supporting the teacher raises Northam has proposed and reducing student-to-counselor ratios, said association spokesman John O'Neil.

Pedersen, the Richmond teacher, described Northam's budget proposals as a "good start" but said "it would be disingenuous to say that fixes the problem."Caracas, Venezuela

Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked on an order that gave U.S. Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, defusing tensions between the countries just hours after their top diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special U.N. Security Council meeting to address the South American country's crisis.

Maduro broke relations with the United States Wednesday after the Trump administration recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.

Maduro gave American diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration refused to obey his order, arguing that the leftist leader was no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a potentially violent showdown at the Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Maduro government had opened a 30-day window to negotiate with the Trump administration the establishment of a "U.S. interests office" in Venezuela, and a similar office for Venezuela in the U.S. A similar arrangement governed bilateral relations between the U.S. and Cuba for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not immediately confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister faced off against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a special U.N. Security Council meeting on Venezuela's situation.

During the debate Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" against Maduro.

Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council that it's beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state" and support Guaido. The young opposition leader has declared himself the country's interim president, arguing that Maduro's re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security and accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next."

What has played out in Venezuela and the world's media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the U.N.'s most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions. The Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela.

The leaders of France and Britain joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro Saturday, saying they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said if there is no announcement of new elections in the next days the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership."

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.

He asked the council, "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."

Arreaza said Venezuela "will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order" and demanded that someone show him where in the country's constitution it states that an individual can proclaim himself president.

The opposition to Guaido was also reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The U.S. barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine "yes" votes from the council's six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting "no" while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying "to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits ... in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years."

But he saved his sharpest attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain "the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people."3 1 of 3 Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union Show More Show Less 3 of 3





The National Weather Service is warning motorists about snow squalls that will move into the Capital Region Sunday afternoon.

A special weather statement was issued Sunday morning alerting people to a line of heavy snow and gusty winds moving east through New York state that will begin in the Capital Region starting around 3 p.m. Sunday.Photo by Wood River Police Department

WOOD RIVER  At Tuesdays Wood River City Council meeting, Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells recognized several first responders from around the area who were involved in helping his son after a scary car crash last May.

Wells presented the Life Saving Award to Justin Chambers and Jared Engelke of Alton Memorial Ambulance; Jarrid Horyn, Ted Luebbert and Kerri Fulkerson of the Hartford Fire Department; Mike Clohessy of the South Roxana Fire Department; officers Dan Geil and Matt Asbury of the Hartford Police Department; officers James Doyle, Lee Bazzell, and Mackenize Sirtake of the Roxana Police Department; officer Pat Carrier of the South Roxana Police Department; Sgts. Darin Redden, Josh Timmins, Brady Greene and T/C Rick Militello of the Wood River Police Department; and citizen Ashton Murray.The American people have mixed feelings about investigating President Donald Trump, with clear majorities wanting newly empowered Democrats to dig into his personal finances and foreign ties but most believing that Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The public's cautiousness extends to its expectations for the forthcoming report from special counsel Robert Mueller III, who has been examining ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.

Half of Americans report they have "just some" confidence or none at all that the Mueller report will be fair and evenhanded, and 43 percent say they have at least a good amount of confidence in its fairness.

The survey was conducted Monday to Thursday, the day before Mueller's team unveiled criminal charges against longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, accusing the political operative of lying, obstruction and witness tampering.

The poll results underscore the complex calculation ahead for Democrats and their new House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, as they balance calls from core supporters to aggressively investigate and possibly even impeach Trump against the potential political backlash from other voters.

The impeachment question has gained attention in the days since the Democrats' House majority was sworn in, with party leaders insisting they will wait to consider their options until after Mueller finishes his work and Trump declaring, "You can't impeach somebody that's doing a great job."

Six in 10 adults support the party using its congressional authority to obtain and release Trump's tax returns, the survey shows. Similar majorities support Democrats investigating suspected financial ties between Trump and foreign governments, the president's relationship and communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as possible collusion in the 2016 campaign.

And yet a 46 percent plurality suspect Democrats will "go too far" in their inquiries of Trump, while just over one-third think they will handle it about right.

Meanwhile, public support for impeachment has dropped in recent months, the poll shows.

In the August Post-ABC poll, conducted immediately after Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other charges and personally implicated Trump in some of his acts, 49 percent said Congress should begin impeachment proceedings that could lead to Trump being removed from office, while 46 percent said Congress should not.

In the new survey, a smaller 40 percent support impeachment proceedings, while a 55 percent majority oppose them.

Partisans have long held sharply different views of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but the new Post-ABC poll shows many Democrats are uncertain about the special counsel's final report. Just over 6 in 10 Democrats say they are confident the report will be fair and evenhanded, while slightly more than 3 in 10 report "just some" confidence or less.

Among self-identified independents, 40 percent are confident Mueller's final report will be fair, while 53 percent express less faith. Confidence drops to 22 percent among Republicans.

It is not clear whether the public's wariness toward Mueller's forthcoming report reflects skepticism in the special counsel himself, anticipation of its findings or the nature of its release. A poll this month by the Pew Research Center found 55 percent of adults saying they are "very" or "somewhat" confident Mueller is conducting a fair investigation, attitudes consistent with surveys since late 2017.

The timeline for Mueller finishing his report is unknown, and it is uncertain how much of the report will be made public. Trump's attorney general nominee, William P. Barr, told senators during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that he would release a summary of the report but that he did not know "what will be release-able" given department regulations.

In Congress, the poll shows House Democrats garner majority support from fellow partisans and independents for investigating possible collusion with Russia in 2016, as well as suspected financial ties between Trump and foreign governments. Roughly 8 in 10 Democrats and about 6 in 10 independents support Democrats probing Trump's relationship with Putin, which has come under increased scrutiny following a Washington Post report that Trump concealed details of their face-to-face meetings.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans oppose Democrats investigating possible collusion, while nearly two-thirds oppose investigating Trump's relationship with Putin and suspected financial ties with foreign governments. Roughly one-third of Republicans, however, support investigations on these latter issues.

Trump's refusal to release his tax returns in line with the tradition of modern presidential candidates was widely unpopular during the 2016 presidential campaign, and the Post-ABC poll shows support for Democrats enforcing that norm. By 60 percent to 35 percent, more say Democrats should use their congressional authority to obtain and release Trump's tax returns.

In their first week in control of the House, Democrats unveiled a bill requiring presidential candidates to release 10 years of tax returns and mandating more transparency for inaugural and transition committees, a law that would apply to Trump in a reelection run. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the idea was effectively dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Democrats may have difficulty balancing pressure for aggressive investigations and perhaps impeachment of Trump from their party's base with the need to avoid alienating independent voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

A 64 percent majority of Democrats support Congress beginning impeachment proceedings against Trump - 55 percent support this "strongly." Among political independents, a 45 percent plurality think Democrats will go too far investigating Trump, more than the 34 percent who think they will handle this about right, and 18 percent believe they will not go far enough.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone Jan. 21-24 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, with 65 percent reached on cellphones and 35 percent on landlines. Overall results have a 3.5-percentage-point margin of sampling error for the full sample.MANILA, Philippines - Explosions Sunday morning at a cathedral in Jolo, in the Philippine region of Mindanao, killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens of others, just after a landmark vote to form a new Muslim autonomous region here following decades of unrest.

The blasts underscore how elusive peace remains in the southern Philippines, where Muslim extremist groups such as Abu Sayyaf and others linked to the Islamic State have long wreaked havoc in the Catholic-majority country.

The attacks, using two improvised explosive devices, occurred about 8:15 a.m. Sunday, just before Mass, according to a statement from Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. The first bomb went off as churchgoers were attending a service, and a second was detonated as soldiers rushed into the church to respond.

Philippine armed forces have been placed on high alert, securing "all places of worship and public places," Lorenzana added in the statement.

Photos of the church, the Cathedral of our Lady of Mount Carmel, shared on social media show shattered wooden pews and debris littering the floor. Bodies were lying in the street outside.

Police said at least 20 people were killed, among them five soldiers who were responding to the first blast, revising an earlier estimate that officials said was incorrect due to double counting. At least 81 people were reported injured. Some of the casualties had to be airlifted to the nearby city of Zamboanga for treatment.

"We are in close coordination with (Philippine National Police) counterparts to aid in the investigation and in the identification of the perpetrators," the Philippine army said.

Later Sunday, the Islamic State's news agency Amaq said the group claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to the Reuters news service. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte condemned the attack as an "act of terrorism."

"The Armed Forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Analysts say, however, that the attacks bear the hallmark of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has long been active in Jolo and is known to have its base of operations in the province. The militant group has been listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Various abductions, bombings and killings have been attributed to it, including the 2001 kidnapping of three American citizens.

The Abu Sayyaf Group "has the capability to mount such kinds of mass casualty bombing attacks," said Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research.

The attacks come just after the region voted this week in a landmark referendum aimed at bringing peace to a region that has for decades been plagued by conflict and violence.

The vote for the so-called Bangsamoro Organic Law, ratified this week, created a new autonomous region in the Muslim-heavy region of Mindanao, which will first be governed by a transitional authority before a new regional government is set up.

Jolo, the capital of Sulu province, rejected the law but would still be considered part of the autonomous region. Analysts say it will be extremely difficult to implement the new law in that part of the region.

Some fear the blast may be a way to shake up the peace process, as some militant factions were not involved in negotiations for the Bangsamoro. It also comes after a mall bombing that left two dead in Cotabato City, about 370 miles away, in December. A military clash with Islamic State-inspired fighters in the province of Lanao del Sur also left three militants dead earlier this week, according to local media reports.

Philippine national security adviser Jun Esperon said authorities have yet to determine whether the two explosions are related to the vote on the Bangsamoro law.

"The perpetrators are mass murderers ... We will not allow them to spoil the preference of the people for peace," he said.

Lorenzana urged the public to "remain calm and avoid spreading panic in our respective communities, to deny terrorism any victory."

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued a statement condemning the attacks and appealed for peace among all religions in the region.

"As we begin a new phase in the peace process with the creation of (the autonomous region), we ask our Christian brethren to join hands with all peace-loving Muslim and Indigenous People communities in the advocacy against violent extremism," the statement said.

---

Mahtani reported from Hong Kong.A man has been arrested for allegedly causing a disturbance at a south Laredo establishment.

READ MORE: K-9 unit shot, killed attempting to restrain chase suspect in San Antonio

Laredo police officers responded to the disturbance in the 100 block of Sierra Vista Boulevard. Responding officers said they saw the suspect walking away from the scene.

When they tried to talk to him, he took off running and led officers on a foot pursuit, LPD said. He allegedly resisted arrest when police caught up to him.

He was identified as Dominic Mendoza, 20. Authorities discovered he had received a criminal trespass warning from the establishment.

READ MORE: A Cartel Killer Provides a Bloody End to the Case Against El Chapo

Mendoza was charged with criminal trespass, evading arrest and resisting arrest. Custody records show he remained behind bars at the Webb County Jail as of Friday afternoon.The Washington's Birthday Celebration Museum says it is ready to showcase the wonderful and dazzling history of yesteryears' celebrations.

New exhibits are on display and visitors are invited to admire celebration memorabilia, which includes the intricate beading and designs of costumes and gowns to black and white photos of celebrations past.Albany

What kind of man threatens another man's dog?

The same kind who has a Richard Nixon back tattoo.

Given the scarcity of Nixon tats, some of you know I'm talking about Roger Stone, the infamous political dirty trickster who on Friday became the latest person charged in Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion.

Stone, 66, has long been as one of the most narcissistic and ethically challenged figures in New York's political world, which is really saying something. He is bigoted and sexist. He cares nothing of facts or accuracy. He seems devoid of a conscience and a moral center.

None of that has stopped "the cockroach of American politics" from being hired, again and again, by politicians who seek skulduggery or smearing conducted on their behalf.

Stone's resume is certainly eclectic and reaches back to the Nixon era. More recently, he aided Al Sharpton's short-lived presidential campaign. He was a $20,000-a-month strategist for state Senate Republicans during the Joe Bruno era. In 2015, he went to work for Donald Trump  a move that would ultimately put him in Mueller's cross hairs.

On Friday, Stone was charged with witness tampering, obstruction of an official proceeding and making false statements, among other counts. The charges stem from Stone's alleged dealings with WikiLeaks, which spent much of 2016 releasing Democratic emails hacked by Russian agents.

Enter Randy Credico, another man with an eclectic resume.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

He's a comedian and a former radio personality. He's a liberal activist with a particular interest in prison reform. He has run for governor. He's also, it seems, friendly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Mueller's indictment says Stone and Credico were conduits between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign, which was allegedly eager to know when damaging information about Hillary Clinton would be released. Nothing illegal there, really.

But when Mueller's team later started asking questions, according to the indictment, Stone pressed Credico to keep his mouth shut.

In text messages, Stone told Credico to "stonewall" or do a "Frank Petangeli"  a "Godfather" reference. When Credico spoke to the FBI anyway, Stone castigated him as "a rat" and "a stoolie" and told his former friend to "prepare to die," according to the indictment.

"You backstab your friends," Stone wrote. "I'm going to take that dog away from you."

What kind of man threatens another man's dog?

Roger Stone, that's who.

The pooch in question is Bianca, a little white ball of fluff and Credico's beloved service dog. He brings her everywhere, including to his chat with the Mueller grand jury.

Stone has admitted he threatened to take the pooch. A few months ago, after Credico talked publicly about the threat to Bianca, Stone posted a video on his Facebook page in which he attempted to justify the dognapping.

Wearing a Panama hat and holding a small Yorkie of his own - I swear I'm not making this up  Stone says he threatened to take Bianca only because Credico is a neglectful owner denying the dog necessary food and medical attention.

I've never met Bianca, but I can say that, judging by the 1,000,003 photos Credico has posted of her on social media, she does not seem to be neglected or hungry.

Stone went on: "I stand second to no one in terms of my record of fighting for animal welfare."

There's more truth to that. As it turns out, on the very short list of redeeming things about Roger Stone is his sincere love of animals, dogs especially.

In an interview last year with the Washington Post about his opposition to the use of dogs in federal research labs, Stone said he had three cats and two Yorkshire terriers and that he and his wife called their home "Stone's Animal Farm."

At the Daily Caller, where Stone is described as the website's "men's fashion editor," he has frequently opined against the cruel treatment of dogs and cats. "What the hell is with all of this taxpayer-funded animal torture?" Stone asked in one of his columns.

An excellent question, actually.

So one bit of good news: If Stone had gone through with his terrible threat to snatch Bianca, it seems unlikely that he would have harmed her. The dog might be another pampered inhabitant of "Stone's Animal Farm."

It's also good news, in a way, that an ethically challenged cockroach who spent his life smearing people has a soft spot for animals and wants to protect them. That's reassuring, somehow. People are complicated.Texas transgender representatives spoke out Saturday about a crime report in the Houston Chronicle covering the shooting of a woman Jan. 24 at a west Houston gas station.

The shooting happened in the parking lot of the service station at the corner of Richmond Avenue and West Beltway 8 around 11 a.m., according to the Houston Police Department. Police initially identified the victim as a woman, but then identified her as a is a 24-year-old man based on her drivers license.

Austin-based Transgender Education Network of Texas responded Saturday to the original report with a statement posted on Facebook.

The initial report listed her as a woman, but then later in the same report went on to state her gender marker identified her as male. Unfortunately (sic) this is a story that plays out far too often in our community. Due to the complicated process and financial barriers that our community face when changing our identification to match who we truly are many of us do not have the means or access to be able to have a state issued license or ID that identifies us correctly as who we are.

Upon further investigation by members within our local community here in Houston we were able to confirm from multiple sources within the community that she is a member of our community and goes by the name of Pinky.

Houston police described the shooting suspect as a black male standing about 5 feet, 8 inches tall. He was last seen in light gray sweatpants and a light gray hoodie. He fled in a light-colored SUV, which could possibly be a Honda make.

Anyone with information about the shooting or the suspect is urged to call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageBreslin and Hamill - ever heard of 'em?

I jest, soberly, and only because of the fresh hell that today's journalists have endured in recent days, with big layoffs passing through chain-owned newspapers (who's left to lay off, you might wonder) as well as the digital newsrooms of HuffPost and BuzzFeed News. And the Newseum, a safe space for fetishizing the typewriters and smoke-filled newsrooms of yore, announced after a long financial struggle that it's selling its fancy building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., to Johns Hopkins University.

It's difficult, then, to shut off Twitter and receive the long, lovingly made documentary "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists" (airing on HBO Monday night, produced and directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy) as it's intended, part of an ongoing Irish wake for an increasingly vanished news era.

Just enough of the film poses a warning about the loss of local reporting, in New York and all the places that unfortunately aren't New York, particularly when it comes to old-school columnists who hit the streets and came back with stories about everyday people's problems.

"Breslin and Hamill" opens in late 1984 as Jimmy Breslin, then a columnist at the New York Daily News, takes the morally correct but certainly minority opinion about Bernhard Goetz, a white, 44-year-old electrical engineer who shot four black teenagers on a New York subway car after they demanded cash. We see Breslin in his full-blown, trademark bombast and righteousness, making the rounds on TV ("Donahue," back then), happy to tell people how wrong they are. Despite popular support for Goetz's vigilantism at first, Breslin files column after column against the tide, repeatedly noting how many of the kids were shot in the back, while fleeing.

The film then expands into a fuller biography of both Breslin (who died in 2017 at 88) and his friend and fellow traveler, Pete Hamill (now 83), a New York Post columnist who also wound up at the Daily News. By way of introduction, we see Hamill, in 1989, taking on Donald Trump, a blowhard real estate developer who bought full-page ads encouraging the execution of the young (and, it turned out, innocent) suspects in the Central Park Jogger attack: "Snarling and heartless and fraudulently tough ... Trump stood naked, revealed as the spokesman for that tiny minority of Americans who lead well-defended lives."

In other words, they told you so. At close to two hours, "Breslin and Hamill" may preach too long, but its copious valentines are appropriately strewn with little heartbreaks - the hard Irish-American upbringings of both men, leading to their triumphs and failures, their struggles with booze and (especially for Breslin) their experiences with grief.

The film is heavier on Breslin, digging up his classic columns on President John Kennedy's 1963 assassination as well as his memorable defense of a female police officer who was fired because she once posed for nude photos. Hamill, meanwhile, is seen as the city's poet, and together they serve their readers in different and effective ways, through such ragingly big stories as the Son of Sam murders, the AIDS epidemic and rioting in Crown Heights.

Breslin becomes a household name outside the five boroughs (doing TV ads for Grape-Nuts cereal; hosting "Saturday Night Live"), while Hamill makes the scene with Jackie Onassis or Shirley MacLaine on his arm. Breslin briefly self-destructs at his new gig at Newsday in 1990, suspended for lashing out at a colleague with racist terms. Hamill becomes a short-tenured boss, running the newsroom of the New York Post and, later, the Daily News.

The industry's losses drench the story in excessive tears, up to and including last year's evisceration of the Daily News' reporting staff. Only Gloria Steinem wisely suggests that the essence of what Breslin and Hamill did so well - telling stories, narrative reporting - remains very much intact, an essential part of human behavior. Everything else was just format and cursing.

---

"Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists" (110 minutes) airs Monday at 8 p.m. on HBO.LIVINGSTON  Dakota Theriot, who is suspected of killing five people in two parishes on the morning of Jan. 26, is now in custody, according tThe titanosaur dinosaur <i>Dreadnoughtus schrani</i> (pictured above) is the only supermassive dinosaur for which scientists have both the femur and humerus bones from the same individual. That makes it the largest dinosaur for which scientists can confidently calculate a mass. However, <i>Argentinosaurus</i> is likely the largest dinosaur, by mass, on record.

The battle for the title of world's largest dinosaur is complicated.

Here's why: Paleontologists rarely discover an entire skeleton. They're more likely to uncover bone fragments and then try to estimate a profile of height and weight. Moreover, there are three categories for largest dinosaur on record: the weightiest, longest and tallest.

Starting with the weightiest, the gold-medal winner is likely Argentinosaurus. This supermassive titanosaur (a titanosaur is a giant sauropod, a long-necked and long-tailed herbivorous dinosaur) that lived about 100 million to 93 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, in what is now (you guessed it) Argentina. [What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?]

But estimates of Argentinosaurus' weight vary widely; the beast weighed 77 tons (70 metric tons), according to London's Natural History Museum; up to 90 tons (82 metric tons), according to New York City's American Museum of Natural History; and 110 tons (100 metric tons), according to BBC Earth.

It's no wonder these calculations are all over the place. Argentinosaurus is known from just 13 bones: six midback vertebrae, five fragmentary hip vertebrae, one tibia (a shinbone) and one rib fragment. "There's a femur that you'll see with it [in some sketches], but that femur was found 15 kilometers [9 miles] away. So, who knows who that belongs to?" said Kenneth Lacovara, a professor of paleontology and geology and the dean of the School of Earth & Environment at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Another contender is Patagotitan, a titanosaur that weighed a whopping 69 tons (62 metric tons) when it lived about 100 million years ago in what is now Argentina. However, this weight was calculated based on a composite of individuals (there were six found in all), rather than just one dinosaur, Lacovara noted.

The dinosaur model of Patagotitan is larger than the exhibition area, so it welcomes guests to the museum at the elevators, as they enter the hall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. (Image credit: Copyright AMNH/D. Finnin)

Which raises the question: How do scientists calculate the weight of an extinct animal? According to Lacovara, there are three ways.

Minimum shaft circumference method: Scientists measure the minimum circumference of the humerus (the upper arm bone) and femur (the thigh bone) from the same individual. Then, they plug these numbers in to a formula. The result is highly correlative with the animal's mass. "It makes sense," Lacovara said, "since all quadrupeds have to put all of the weight of the body on just those four bones. [So], the structural properties of those four bones are going to correlate closely with the mass."

There are caveats, however. If the humerus and femur bone are from different individuals, as they were with Patagotitan, "the result is an estimate of a composite individual that never actually existed," Lacovara said. Moreover, if only a single bone (a humerus or a femur) is used, the proportions of the missing bone are a guess. "Obviously, this introduces even more uncertainty," he said. "Examples of this are Notocolossus and Paralititan."

The largest known dinosaur that has a humerus and femur bone from the same individual is the 77-million-year-old Dreadnoughtus, a 65-ton (59 metric tons) titanosaur that Lacovara and his team excavated in Argentina.

Volumetric method: In this approach, researchers determine the body volume of the dinosaur and use that number to calculate the animal's weight. This is challenging, because most titanosaur skeletons are incomplete. (Dreadnoughtus is the most complete, at 70 percent. Argentinosaurus is just 3.5 percent complete.) In addition, researchers have to guess how much space the lungs and other air-filled structures took up. Experts also have to speculate how "blubbery or shrink-wrapped" the skin on these dinosaurs was.

"In my view, this method is unworkable and lacks replicability, which is one of the hallmarks of science," Lacovara said.

Wild guesses: This is how scientists estimate the weight of dinosaurs that don't have any preserved humerus or femur bones. "Argentinosaurus, Futalognkosaurus and Puertasaurus are examples of this," Lacovara said. "They are clearly huge, but there is no systematic, replicable way to estimate their mass."

Moving on, what's the longest dinosaur? That honor likely goes to Diplodocus or Mamenchisaurus, which can be described as slender and elongated sauropod dinosaurs, Lacovara said. "Both are known from reasonably complete skeletons, and both would be about 115 feet [35 m] long." [How Did Dinosaurs Grow So Huge?]

In contrast, the titanosaurs were shorter. For example, Dreadnoughtus was "only" about 85 feet (26 m) long.

But this category is still rife with uncertainty. "Some dinosaurs claimed to be the longest are extremely fragmentary," Lacovara said. "For example, Sauroposeidon is known from just four neck vertebrae. So, really, who knows?" Meanwhile, Amphicoelias, a sauropod known from only a sketch of a single vertebra in a notebook from the 19th century paleontologist Edward Cope, is sometimes cited as the longest, tallest and heaviest dinosaur.

"The vertebra was apparently lost or destroyed in transport  or maybe never existed," Lacovara said. "You can't have a dinosaur represented by nothing, so as far as I'm concerned, Amphicoelias is not a thing."

As for the tallest dinosaur, the winner is likely Giraffatitan, a 40-foot-tall (12 m) sauropod dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic about 150 million years ago in what is now Tanzania.

As for that dinosaur's actual height, the devil is in the details.

"This, of course, depends on whether these animals could lift their necks up to maximum height," Lacovara said. "Their forelimb and shoulder structure looks like they were angling their necks upward, but we may never know the degree to which they could do this."

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on Oct. 10, 2012, and was updated on Jan. 27, 2019. Additional reporting by Katharine Gammon.

Originally published on Live Science.A CRIMINAL prosecution brought against a haulage company and one of its drivers was dismissed after a judge ruled the summons before the court was fundamentally defective.

Hemps Haulage limited which has a registered address at Blessington, County Wicklow was prosecuted in relation to a detection on the M7 motorway near Castleconnell on May 26, 2017.

The driver of a three-axle truck which was stopped  Dale Haran, 52, who has an address in Finglas, Dublin  was also before Limerick District Court accused failing to take adequate precautions to permit a load from falling.

Garda Brian ODywer of the divisional Roads Policing Unit said he was on duty at a multi agency checkpoint when a truck being driven by Mr Haran was stopped at around 11.45am.

While speaking with the defendant at the scene he noticed something sticking out through the side of the trailer and made further enquiries.

He told Judge Brian OShea he subsequently established that five Hyster forklifts  each weighing around three tonnes  were being transported by Mr Haran.

While there was no issue with the overall weight of the load, Garda ODwyer said he did not believe the forklifts were properly secured.

I observed worn blue ratchet straps which was not good enough. The load was unsecured and I highlighted this to the driver, he said.

Garda ODwyer said under road traffic regulations special-purpose chains should have been used to secure each of the forklifts on the trailer.

He added that the side curtains on trailers such as the one he stopped are there to keep products dry and designed to secure a load.

Sergeant Kevin Bourke, who was called as an expert witness, said the ratchet straps which were used did not have the structural integrity to stop the forklifts from moving in the event of an accident or heavy braking.

One it begins to move, it builds momentum, its a House of Cards scenario, he said adding that he did not believe the person who loaded the forklifts was properly trained in load security.

Being questioned by solicitor Darach McCarthy, Sergeant Bourke agreed he did not examine any of the forklifts or the ratchet straps and that the report he prepared was based on photographs which were taken at the scene by Garda ODwyer.

He agreed there is confusion generally in relation to how heavy loads should be properly secured and that he has encountered loads which had been secured in a similar way in the past.

Following the conclusion of the prosecution case, Judge OShea said he had concerns in relation to law.

He said he was struggling to reconcile the alleged offence before the court with the particulars as outlined on the summons.

The judge said there is a difference between taking preventative measures and actively carrying an unsecured load as was outlined to the court.

The particulars of the offence on the summons do not reconcile with an offence known to the law, he said.

Dismissing the prosecution, he said he was of the view the summons was fundamentally defective.LIMERICK played host to 140 tourism industry professionals from around Ireland for the first national tourism conference of the year.

Delegates from 18 counties attended The Tourism Space LIVE in Thomond Park. The speaker line-up included experts from Sligo, Kerry, Wexford, Dublin, Galway, Clare, Belfast and Limerick.

The Tourism Space LIVE is the first event of its kind in Ireland and is described as a professional development and self-empowerment event for tourism practitioners.

Event organiser Tina ODwyer, Director of the Tourism Space explained why Limerick was chosen to host the event.

There were a number of reasons why Limerick was chosen as the location for this national event. Firstly, it is one of the most accessible locations in Ireland with great road access from almost all parts of Ireland.

Secondly, Thomond Park itself is an iconic venue and the values it represents, such as pride, passion, ambition and achievement, are all values that resonated with our vision for the event said Mrs ODwyer.

We wanted a programme that would motivate and inspire those who work at the frontline of tourism, right at the very start of the year. So much of whats happening in Limerick resonates with our event theme Massive Vision Massive Action, she added.

Tina was optimistic with Limericks tourism strateies heading into the future, partically with Limericks additon to the Wild Atlantic Way.

Limerick is now part of the Wild Atlantic Way, an ambitious tourism strategy for Limerick will be launched shortly, many tourist attractions in Limerick are gaining national and international interest and a high-level branding exercise is also underway, Mrs ODwyer said.

Theres a lot of positive momentum in Limerick right now and its being fuelled by a city and county that has a bold vision for itself and is taking action to achieve it, she she added.

The event offered delegates the opportunity to invest in their personal and professional development within the tourism industry.On Sunday, January 13, South Kildare Photography Club (SKPC) held a special fundraising event in Ryston called Suzannes Sarcoma Day Appeal to raise funds for one of its members medical treatment. Suzanne Behan is planning to travel to Boston for specialist medical advice

SEE ALSO: Fundraising campaign launched for Kildare woman to raise money for cancer treatment in the US

Our club hosted both John Hooton and Michael Linehan in Ryston. John drove from Mallow to deliver his presentation of prints based on landscapes, west of Dingle, explained John Leahy of SKPC.

The photos were very dynamic and colourful with emphasis on early morning or sunset shots. He was assisted by his wife, Noreen and the banter between them was very amusing and informative.

It helped create a very warm atmosphere between presenter and the audience.

He said the presentation lasted over one hour and thirty minutes, yet the time flew.

Noel Buckley was MC for the event and he introduced Michael Linehan from Naas next. Michael put a lot of us amateurs to shame, as most of his presentation centered around the canal areas in Naas. The variety was amazing. We saw wonderful shots of storks, otters, finches, and foxes, he added.

He said both the clarity and originality of his work was awe inspiring.

We raised over 3,500 for Suzanne. Our club was well represented by over 15 members. Members from over ten other clubs attended. They included familiar faces from Malahide, Celbridge, Tullamore, Athy and Kilkenny and other midland clubs as well, he explained, A special word of thanks to all who assisted and were generous of their time at the event. The day was a great success and proved that we photographers do care as a group.

We wish Suzanne every success on her journey and look forward to meeting up after her treatment.

He said Suzanne has been a member for over a year and is a very talented photographer having won a number of national awards.

When we heard that her cancer had returned and that she wished to go to Boston for further treatment, after her liver operation, we decided to help. She was very frustrated while waiting for her liver operation. She is very well regarded by members in other clubs and they helped enormously when selling tickets.Five very nervous leaders were present in Ballbriggan castle for their first weigh-in last week.

Normally week one goes very well and it was the same this year.

Both Cathal and Paul lost one stone with Pamela, Jean and Siobhan shifting half a stone. Thats very good going, but for me transformation is about whats happening on the inside.

Lets get to that soon  but first I am going to talk about our level of physical activity.

10,000 STEPS

All this years Operation Transformation leaders are fitted with Fitbits which are a great aid to looking at health and physical activity.

Walking 10,000 steps per day for health and weight loss was popularized originally in Japan.

The question is, is this myth or is there any research that shows that it works?

Research studies show that 10,000 steps per day isn't a magic number, but it is a good indicator of how much activity a person is achieving in a day.

Walking more steps per day is also associated with being thinner. A study of steps per day and weight, body mass index (BMI), and other indicators for men and women showed that the people who logged more pedometer steps per day weighed less, on average, and had a lower BMI.

There is growing evidence that 10,000 steps is the average number.

Paul, who manages a supermarket is on his feet a lot duing the day and does over 15,000 steps a day  which probably shows that he was eating too much of his favourite chocolate and fizzy drinks.

Cathal was on the other side of matters, with very low activity levels and it tells with his increasing weight gain.

Yesterday I saw Joan (mammy!) and Billy (84-year-old dad) wrapped up and heading out for a walk.

More and more I am convinced that mobility and flexibility are key to ageing well.

Maintaining our mobility through aiming for 10,000 steps per day is critical.

I am in a sedentary job and need to be mindful to step away from the chair and desk.

My invitation to you is to  keep moving.

Now lets look at how this years Operation Transformation leaders did in their first week

Jean Tierney. Age: 33. Bruff, Co Limerick.

Lost 7lbs

I was down in Lough Gur with Jean where 1,350 turned out to support their local leader for the annual Operation Transformation walk.

It was an inspiring day where all generations and all physical levels met in health.

Karl is going to work closely with Jean and body sculpt her into her size 10 wedding dress.

This period is a tough time for Jean and Paddy as its the anniversary of baby Sloanes death. I trust Jean, Paddy and their extended family to manage this profound loss.

Cathal Gallagher. Age: 48. Ballyshannon, Co Donegal. Lost 1 Stone 2lbs

Cathal is a paramedic who has diabetes.

He will need to look at the impact of his diabetes on his feet and eyes. He lost a pile of weight.

There was a discussion with Cathal to ensure the weight is lost gradually. 10% of body weight is what is aimed for for over the series.

We dont want big losses each week but safe weight losses.

On his 3k walk with Karl, Cathal had to stop 4-5 times. Thats fine. Remember slow and steady wins the race of life.

Siobhan O'Brien. Age: 30. Clonsilla, Dublin

Lost 6lb

Siobhans mood has lifted greatly. This is associated with the mood lift through the power of exercise and support.

Her concerns about how pupils would judge her was replaced by the support they have given her. The whole school community, teachers, support staff and pupils are with Siobhan.

Paul Murphy. Age: 41. Tubbercurry, Co Sligo. Lost 1 Stone

I think I will see Paul first on my house visits. His life, I think, is out of kilter. I might think that but I dont think Paul really does.

He has no hobbies. I am unclear what gives him pleasure and meaning.

Paul is too busy doing and not being.

I think he will find getting balance into his lifestyle a bigger challenge than losing weight.

Pamela Swayne. Age: 36. Youghal, Co Cork.

Lost 7lbs

Pamelas week was characterised by a busy household. Planning and structure is the key skill that Pamela needs to embrace.

She had a few failed attempts at giving up smoking, trying cold turkey.

However with a planned approach and contacting the HSE via www.quit.ie she will be more likely to be a successful quitter. Stopping smoking is the biggest gift to her future health.

Come along and join us on the Operation Transformation Journey each Wednesday on RTE 1 at 9.30pm

Dr Eddie Murphy runs a psychological and counselling service in Portarlington, Co Laois. If you are organising a speaker or training for school, community, voluntary, sporting or work groups, call Dr Eddie on 087 1302899 or go to www.facebook.com/ dr.eddie.murphy.psychologistUPDATE: Heres what the new hospital proposed off Route 33 will offer, and look like

Lower Nazareth Township officials twice last week reviewed Lehigh Valley Health Networks proposal to build a hospital campus off the Hecktown Road interchange of Route 33.

The planning commission on Monday tabled its consideration of the plans, requiring revisions to be made before they can be resubmitted, said Lori Seese, township planning and zoning administrator. The commission's next meeting is Feb. 25.

Then on Wednesday, the township board of supervisors granted the health network's request to begin earth-moving activities at the proposed hospital site, Seese said.

Final approval on the project will eventually come before the supervisors, following a recommendation from the planners.

Lehigh Valley Health Network first proposed the hospital campus in early 2016, east of Route 33. The main entrance would be on Hecktown Road, with access planned from Newburg Road, as well.

The latest plans before the township show development on a little more than 80 acres into a 196,000-square-foot hospital with 29,000-square-foot expansion option, plus 101,500 square feet of medical office space.

Traffic projections show 6,642 vehicle trips per day at the campus, including 457 during the peak-travel hour in the morning and 504 in the evening peak hour and 877 trips during the peak hour on Saturdays.

The project site for a new Lower Nazareth Campus of Lehigh Valley Health Network, east of Route 33 between Hecktown and Newburg roads in Lower Nazareth Township, is seen in plans submitted for township approval.

Lehigh Valley Health Network hopes to open a portion of the campus in 2020, The Morning Call reported from Wednesdays supervisors' meeting.

A spokesman for the health network declined to comment Friday because the project has yet to be formally announced.

The project comes amid a building boom for hospitals in the region.

Lehigh Valley Health Network in 2017 announced plans for a new Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono West campus off Interstate 80 in the Tannersville area of Monroe County.

St. Lukes University Health Network, meanwhile, is doubling the size of its Bethlehem Township hospital at Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue with a 180,000-square-foot expansion. St. Lukes is also building a new Quakertown hospital near the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension (Interstate 476), at Route 663 and Portzer Road in Milford Township, Bucks County.

St. Lukes is additionally exploring the possible construction of a new hospital off the Mahoning Valley interchange of I-476 in Franklin Township, Carbon County. The network isnt ready to announce that project until the land development process progresses, spokesman Sam Kennedy said Friday.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Editor's note: Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist, writes on the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen in a move that has been widely described as unconstitutional, prompting suggestions that President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on holding onto power at all cost.

Read below:

Every government always has what I call the Jega moment. Even in advanced democracies, in spite of the sophistication of their governance, politics and powerful institutions, the Jega moment always comes. Broken to its brass-tacks, the Jega moment is that feisty moment that tests an administrations capacity to jump into an oceanic tidal wave without a life-jacket. The Jega moment tests the rawness of a governments brunt as to whether it can bite the bullet. It is akin to that biblical Esthers valiant If I perish, I perish statement.

The Jega moment is reference to the dilemma faced by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan over Mahmud Jega, professor of politics and former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Prior to the 2015 election, my sources said Jonathan was privy to alleged Jegas slant towards Muhammadu Buhari. The hawks in his government gave Jonathan security reports to that effect. He had a choice: sack Jega and face untoward public opprobrium but retain power post-2015 or retain him and see the creeks of Otuoke on a very regular basis. Pusillanimous apparently, Jonathan took the second option but believed that, among other things, the staff of office arranged on his head while he knelt down in the presence of Yoruba kings would make the mansions in Aso Villa, rather than Otuoke creeks, the constant figures he would confront thereafter. As that cliche says, the rest is now history.

In the afternoon of March 9, 2007, President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf also confronted his Jega moment. Unilaterally and in defiance of Pakistani people, he suspended Pakistans Chief Justice, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Within a few hours, he had appointed the countrys next most senior judge available, Justice Javaid Igbal as the acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Within minutes of that order which took the country by storm, Pakistani legal fraternity and the world in general were taken by storm on the diffident manner with which the topmost adjudicator was maltreated. Their averment was that Musharraf had, by that order, taken his dictatorship to its apogee, stomping, in his military jackboots, on the supremacy of Pakistani constitution, rule of law and flagrantly violating the sanctity of separation of powers. By May 12, 2007, in Karachi alone, at least 42 people were reported to have been killed and 140 injured in riots which erupted in this Pakistan capital and largest city. Thousands of roads were blocked and cars burnt in the melee.

READ ALSO: Atiku rejects suspension of CJN Onnoghen

For Buhari, whose most dominant achilles heels as he went into the 2015 election was fear that the military dictatorial gene resident in his gene and manifested in 1984 would sidle back in civilian garbs, 2015 prophets of doom are the Nostradamus of today. Over the Sambo Dasuki and Ibrahim Yaqoob El-Zakzaky matters and in the ransack of Daily Trust newspaper, Buhari has since proved that once a dictator is always a dictator. But perhaps the most notorious of that vermin that dwells in his being is the Walter Onnoghen, Nigerias Chief Justices suspension of last Friday.

That action was Buharis own definitive crossroads akin to Jonathans in Jega. It is apparent to political watchers that the way Buharis reckoning has dimmed considerably over the years, the February election may be too close to call and the Atiku Abubakar, whom the Buhari governments gross incompetence and manifest mis-governance promoted into political reckoning, is foisting on Nigeria an Odinga-Kenyatta model. The fear is that, that model is in the offing in Nigeria. From all indications, this is what is egging Buhari into these anarchist missteps over Onnoghen. You will recall that Raila Odinga, presidential candidate of the National Super Alliance, (NSA) had sparred with Uhuru Kenyatta, incumbent president, in an election which the latter was leading with 54.2% of the votes, compared to Odingas 44.7%, a margin of 1.4 million votes. But the Kenyan Supreme Court annulled the result in August, 2007, citing manifest irregularities. My sources again told me that some hawks in the Buhari government had flung a red flag over Nigerias Supreme Court as where the martial song in the February election would be sang. They mentioned judges they claimed were pro-PDP, including Onnoghen, as reason why they must make an ingress into the Supreme Court, in whatever form.

But the desperation with the way the Buhari government is seeking to retain power after May this year, the unintended consequence may well be the Gbagbo model in Ivory Coast, worlds largest producer of cocoa. The presidential election held in the country in 2010 is beginning to have a flavour reminiscent of Nigerias current electoral drama. The first round of that election was held on October 31 of that year and the second, on November 28. Then incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo and erstwhile opposition leader, Alassabe Quattara, had traded tackle. Ethnicity was deployed in the elections between the countrys northern and southern peoples. Gbagbo had a strong support base from his southern people, while Ouattara, former prime minister, was firmly rooted in the north. More importantly, Quattara had the support of foreign powers, including France. For a country that had then recently emerged from a civil war, ethnicity as dominant thesis frightened the world and raised tension in the election. Violence was ten a dime on the streets and on December 2, 2010, Ivory Coasts electoral commission, in its released provisional results, said Ouattara had won the second round election with 54% of the votes. But Gbagbo had the constitutional council declare the contrary and he, the winner. The result was that he and Ouattara claimed they were victorious in the elections and separately swore themselves in, leading to the 2011 Ivorian crisis.

As Buhari came into power seizing on Nigerians apprehension that the incubus of corruption might be the death of their beloved country and mouthing the mantra as his forte, Gbagbo, born into a Catholic family in Gagnoa, cocoa-growing central-west of Cote DIvoire on May 31, 1945, was a listeners delight. In fact, he was nicknamed Cicero on account of his deft gift of the garbs. He had a PhD in History and was said to often mouth Latin while in school. Like Buhari who many Nigerians saw, pre-presidency, as disdainful of corruption, Gbagbo also promoted a mantra of suffering for the cause of his people.

Indeed, he assumed the sobriquet of little brother. Starting his career as a university lecturer, he was, in 1971, jailed two years on charge of teaching subversive lectures in class. He emerged therefrom into involvement in trade union activism as a lecturer and confronted Ivory Coasts maximum ruler president, Houphouet-Boigny in the 1980s and in 1982, went on exile to Paris. Like Buhari latching on the general disdain for the huge corruption under Jonathan to win, Gbagbo also surfed on general disdain for the government of President Henri Konan Bedie by holding tight to the twine of the widespread xenophobia in that regime. Bedie had earlier ousted Ouattara by introducing the concept of Ivorians for Ivory Coast, as response to Ouattara, a Muslim who was said to have family ties with neighbouring Burkina Faso. Today, Gbagbo is in a small prison at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague, captured in a bunker at the Presidential Palace in April, 2011 and forced out of office by French-backed forces.

READ ALSO: Onnoghen: Presidency wants to truncate Nigeria's democracy - Ortom

Buharis recourse to spitting on the constitution he swore to uphold, his desperation for a second term, as well as that of the hawks surrounding him - in whose veins blood does not flow - will certainly drag Nigeria towards Cote dIvoire and land Buhari on the laps of Gbagbo. If Chief Justice Onnoghen is guilty of all those fabulous allegations levelled against him, he certainly deserves to rot in the hottest part of hell. But, Buhari does not have the constitutional power to sack him. Draftsmen of the constitution apparently didnt envisage that a day would arise that a Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is also the chairman of the National Judicial Council, (NJC) would be accused of such mind-boggling corruption, thus leaving Nigeria in a quandary of what to do with him. However, Buharis action of recourse to self-help, rather than the constitution, to solve this constitutional lacuna is a model found only in Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Papa and Baby Doc of Haiti or in the government of Felix Houphouet Boigny.

It is apparent that the haste to remove Onnoghen before the February election is Buharis frenetic attempt to prevent the Kenyan equation from happening to him. In the course of doing that however, he is dragging Nigeria towards Cote dIvoire and himself closer to giving Gbagbo a fraternal embrace. The frown of America and other western democracies to this sack is revealing of how Buhari is fast taking after Gnagbo, They issued Laurent same veiled threat. As Gbagbos dictatorship created Quattara, Buharis manifest mis-governance of the last three and half years not only moulded Atiku Abubakar, it is drawing unto this erstwhile pariah global and national affection. This Onnoghen sack has even done more. It has shown that Buhari is as desperate as any despot the world over. You do not need a binocular to see vultures hovering in the Nigerian sky.

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.

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Nigerians are in a spiritual borehole| Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng- INEC orders Omoleke Muslim to serve as Ekiti state REC in acting capacity following the transfer of Prof Abdulganiyu Raji to Ogun state

- A spokesperson for INEC, Taiwo Gbadegesin, says there is no external motive behind the transfer of Abdulganiyu Raji

- Gbadegesin notes that Rajis transfer may be as a result of his well-acknowledged outstanding election performances in the past

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ekiti state, Prof Abdulganiyu Raji has been moved to Ogun state.

This is coming barely 20 days to the 2019 general elections. The News Agency Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report that the state administrative secretary, Dr Omoleke Muslim, has taken over on acting capacity.

The public affairs officer of INEC in the state, Taiwo Gbadegesin, told NAN that there was no external motive behind the transfer of the REC.

READ ALSO: ASUU may end strike soon - FG

It may be as a result of his well-acknowledged outstanding election performances in the past.

NAN reports that while performing his first function in Ado Ekiti at the opening of a two-day training session for security agencies ahead of the election, Muslim, urged them to be above board.

He charged the security agents not to dance to the whims and caprices of any political party or individual. Muslim said that INEC in the state was fully ready to conduct free, fair and credible polls.

He gave the assurance that all the 2,445 polling units in the state would be manned by security agents to curb electoral malpractices such as vote-buying, vote-selling and other inducements.

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He said that 10,426 ad-hoc staff and 365 regular staff of the commission would man the exercise on Feb. 16 and March 02, stressing that they have been given the required training for the task ahead.

He warned politicians and their followers to desist from wooing the staff with either money, food, fuel, accommodation or gifts.

Muslim disclosed that election materials would start arriving the state in a few days time through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He enjoined residents to steer clear of activities capable of throwing hitches to the electoral process.

Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Abuja has backed the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in refusing to accept the list of candidates for the next general elections from the Zamfara state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, in a judgment on Friday, January 25, ruled that INEC acted within its powers by refusing to accept list of candidates after the APC failed to conduct a valid primary within the period scheduled by the electoral body, The Nation reports.

The ruling of the Federal High Court was sequel to a suit filed in the name of APC by some individuals, who said they emerged from a consensus arrangement adopted by the party in Zamfara state.

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2019 Election: New IGP Speaks Tough | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng NewsRecently, Legit.ng reported that Richard Mofe-Damijo celebrated his 18th wedding anniversary with his beautiful wife Jumobi Adegbesan. He appreciated her for making him a better person. It would appear the veteran Nollywood actor has found another reason to shower praises on his wife. It is her birthday.

To celebrate her new age, Richard Mofe-Damijo took to his Instagram page to shower her with accolades. First, he shared a beautiful photo of the lady whose beauty is like fine wine.

Then, he went on to talk about her special day and how significant it was for him. Richard, for one, revealed a very interesting detail. He said that, for three years, he had trouble remembering her birthday.

For a while, it plagued him that he could not remember her big day. When he eventually got around to knowing that January 27 was her birthday, he later had issues with getting her gifts that satisfied her.

READ ALSO: RMD biography: Interesting facts to know

Regardless of this fact, their relationship had gone on to grow strong over the years even lasting for 22 years now. This showed that birthday or not, his woman who he called Abike meant a lot to him. He made this clear in his post.

See below:

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"Happy birthday Abike. Your birthdays have always been special. Took me like 3 years or so to get the date right. And now Over 22 years later, my heart still skips a beat once it's January. I do remember now but still struggling with getting the right present without you saying... they cheated you... but see how far we have come sweetie. I even get to post your picture(s) today. More than 3 or 4 If I want right? you rock baby. God bless and keep you for us all. Enjoy!"

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Even more, Richard took to sharing yet another picture of her which showed that he felt truly blessed to have her as his wife. In this photo, he called her the Queen of the Mofe-Damijo clan.

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Recently, Richard Mofe-Damijo took to hanging out with Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola. The two men who are in their late fifties took to rubbing shoulders together and smiling like old friends.

Happy birthday to Richard Mofe-Damijo's Abike!

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Nigerian Celebs Who Are Happy Together Despite The Age Gap - Dare Art-Alade, Kaffy and Peter Okoye - Legit TV

Source: Legit NewspaperThe Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General TY Buratai, on Saturday, January 26, commissioned the newly established Nigerian Army Vehicles Manufacturing Company (NAVMC) in Kaduna state.

The army chief also witnessed the take off of the production of the prototype of the light and heavy infantry vehicles at NAVMC located in the Rigachikun area of the state.

The COAS commissioning the Nigerian Army Vehicle Manufacturing Company in Kaduna. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

Source: Facebook

The event also featured facility tour of NAVMC production line, Which include NAC-V production line, B vehicles assembly plant, fitter machine plant, engine overhaul shop, engine testing bay, fabrication, painting and spray shop as well as foundary and metal smith shop.

The COAS also commissioned some refurbished A and B vehicles and other equipment resuscitated by the NAVMC.

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The COAS inspecting one of the vehicles on display at the company. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

Source: Facebook

Present at the were Honourable Yusuf Zailani, Majority leader, Kaduna state House of Assembly, the chairman, North East Development Commission and former Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Major General PC Tarfa (rtd), and the current Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade.

Others were the Principal Staff Officers from Defence and Army Headquarters, Corps Commanders and Commandants of the various Nigerian Army training institutions and the representative of the Emir of Zazzau and other dignitaries.

The COAS inspecting an equipment on display at the company. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

Source: Facebook

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The COAS had late last year revealed that the Nigerian Army would in 2025 begin the production of combat vehicles in the country.

Buratai made this known at the 77 Regular Recruits Intake passing out parade at the Nigerian Army depot in Zaria, Kaduna state.

He said that through research, the depot had already produced five patrol vehicles named TYB.

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President Buhari commissions first Nigerian drone | Legit TV

Source: Legit- The minister for education, Adamu Adamu, says academic activities may soon resume in universities across the country

- However, striking lecturers insist they will only return to work when their demands are met by the federal government

- Biodun Ogunyemi, the president of ASUU, notes that the federal government has failed to pay the money the N50bn revitalisation fund demanded by the union

The federal government has said that university students may soon return to their various higher institutions as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) could call of its strike in the week starting from Monday, January 28.

The minister of education, Adamu Adamu, speaking with journalists after a press conference on Friday, January 25, said there was a possibility of university lecturers ending their strike soon, Daily Trust reports.

READ ALSO: BVN reportedly exposes more accounts allegedly belonging to Onnoghen

Perhaps, by next week, I hope the ASUU strike will be over," the education minister, Adamu said.

However, ASUU has insisted that university lecturers will only return to work when their demands are met by the federal government.

Speaking on Wednesday, January 23, Biodun Ogunyemi, the president of ASUU, stated that N50 billion is the least amount for the first quarter of 2019 the union is asking for from the federal government as revitalisation fund, Nigerian Tribune reports.

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Ogunyemi revealed to newsmen that as at Wednesday not only has the federal government failed to pay the money, it is showing no indication of releasing it.

Ogunyemi, on the federal governments claim that it had released a sum of N15.4 billion as part of shortfall in the payment of salaries of lecturers, said: We are yet to confirm that as of Wednesday.

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Parents advice government over ASUU strike | Legit TV:

Source: Legit- Reactions continue to trail the suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen's suspension by President Muhammadu Buhari

- The Chief Justice of Nigeria was shown the way out by the president on Friday, January 25 in a move that has been widely condemned

- A Civil Society Organisation, YIAGA Africa Initiative, has called on the president to reverse his decision within seven days

A Civil Society Organisation, YIAGA Africa Initiative, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen within seven days.

Executive Director, YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo made the call on the sidelines of a media roundtable on the 2019 elections and Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) on Saturday, January 26.

Itodo said attempts to rationalize the action taken by the president, is completely irresponsible and should not be tolerated in anyway.

His words: I urge all men and women of reason to ride up and call on the President to reverse this suspension within seven days.

How can the president suspend the head of another arm of government on the basis of an order by the CCT which was issued on 23rd based on the time stamp on the order, but the Court of Appeal too also issued an order on the 24th asking the CCT to stay proceedings.

Anyone who wants equity must come to equity with clean hands, must also do equity but in this particular regard beyond the optics and the fact that we are close to the elections, is the fact that it is completely condemnable and unacceptable.

READ ALSO: Supreme court justices shun inauguration of election tribunals

He continued: I think it is important to say that first, as civil societies we dont condone any form of corruption and we know that this government in its campaign manifesto strongly condemns corruption and has designed programmes or policies to fight corruption.

But it is important to emphasise that you cant fight corruption without the rule of law as the law is very important and compliance is very important.

What happened yesterday (Friday) was executive rascality and should be condemned in every respect, because the president overreached himself and it was just unfortunate because the optics are completely wrong.

We are just twenty something days to the elections. I thought that the president would have respected the oath that he swore to protect and defend the constitution and its fidelity, but to suspend the CJN is completely unacceptable.

Speaking earlier at the roundtable, Itodo noted that Civil Society Organisations and the media have to ensure that the forthcoming 2019 elections are credible.

We have a crucial election in our hands and for the results to reflect the wish of the people, CSOs and the media have to rise up and ensure a credible election.

YIAGA Africa is sounding a note of warning that it will expose any attempt to manipulate the 2019 general elections.

He also urged journalists to adopt the use of accurate data in reporting elections, stressing that the PVT method of the organisation, provides empirical data to enable accurate analysis of the election.

In her welcome remarks, Watching The Vote (WTV), Project Director, Cynthia Mbamalu said what is important for us is that before the elections, we put all our plans as an institution that will deploy observers and ensure we have better partnership with election stakeholders.

She stated that as part of YIAGA WTV initiative, 882 observers were deployed to all 774 local government areas to observe pre-election proceedings, while 3,034 polling unit observers will be deployed across the 1,515 of the 120,000 polling units across the country.

There were sessions on the WTV PVT methodology, WTV pre-election observation, WTV deployment for the 2019 election and media reportage of PVT findings for the 2019 elections.

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Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, January 25, explained why he suspended Justice Onnoghen and appointed Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed as the new acting CJN.

In a press release sent to journalists by his media aide, Femi Adesina, the president said he was served with an Order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal directing him to suspend the embattled Chief Justice.

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Onnoghen's Trial is Politically Motivated - APRJ | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng News- Investigation is being carried out into the finance of Walter Onnoghen

- It was reported that BVN search revealed more accounts belonging to the suspended CJN

- Detectives have written to the banks for more details

Detectives of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit investigating the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen has reportedly uncovered more bank accounts as a result of BVN search.

The Nation reports that the detectives have written three banks for details of the accounts linked to Onnoghen.

READ ALSO: FG clarifies N27,000 and N30,000 minimum wage

According to sources privy to the investigation, detail of the accounts are:

1. USD account from October, 2012 to September, 2016  $1,922,657.00

2. GBP () account from 2012 to September, 2016  138, 439.00

3. Euro account as at September 30, 2016  55,154.00

4. Naira account from September, 2005 to October, 2016  N91, 962.362.49

A document submitted on the reported stated that: Upon receipt of the report, a preliminary investigation was conducted during which the following actions were carried out:

A request was sent to the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) for a report on the suspect.

A letter of investigation activities was sent to Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank and Heritage Bank to provide the statements of accounts of the suspect;

A BVN search through the NIBSS platform was conducted on the suspect and six (6) more accounts were found to be linked or connected to the suspect;

The statements of accounts of the suspect were analyzed and further to that, a letter was written to Standard Chartered Bank requesting for additional information on suspicious activities in the account.

It was reported that there was heightened security in front of the house of Onnoghen although a source claimed it was for his own protection.

He said: Yes, the security around the quarters was enhanced but I doubt your insinuation of restriction of movement of the CJN.

With the tension generated by the suspension of the CJN, security agencies are only taking pre-emptive action to prevent the judges from harm.

Legit.ng had reported earlier that Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, the new acting CJN swore in 250 members of the general elections tribunal.

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During the swearing-in ceremony held in in Abuja on Saturday, Muhammed admonished the members of the election tribunals to carry out their duties with integrity and godly fear in their hearts.

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South-South governors condemn trial of CJN Onnoghen - on Legit TV

Source: Legit- The federal government explained that the proposed N27,000 minimum wage is for state and private workers

- Chris Ngigie said this proposed amount should be for the lowest employees

- The minister of labour and employment said those capable of paying more than the proposed wage should do so

Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment says the national minimum wage of N27, 000 is standard for all workers, but the Federal Government will pay federal workers N30,000.

The minister made this known in a statement signed by lliya Rhoda, assistant director of Press, of the ministry in Abuja on Saturday, January 26.

READ ALSO: FG reacts to US, UKs position on suspension of Onnoghen

According to the minister, President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in November 2018 to consider the issue and recommend a new national minimum wage.

He said the constitution of the committee was in consonance with the provisions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on Nos.26,99 and 131 as well as guidance provided by the accompanying recommendations.

In a bid to achieve a holistic coverage, the prescribed tripartite structure went beyond the requirements of tripartism to tripartite  in order to cover other stakeholders which included Nigeria Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).

It should be noted that the output from the TCNMW was therefore never meant to be sacrosanct, but to provide a guide for the Competent Authority (The Government) to make final decision, Mr Ngige said.

He said the ILO Conventions on minimum wage stipulated that each member state shall be free to decide the nature and form of the minimum wage fixing machinery and methods to be followed in its operations.

He said that ILO further provided that before the government took the final decision on the matter, there should be full preliminary consultations with representatives of organizations of employers, which the government did with TCNMW.

The recommended new national minimum wage of twenty seven thousand naira (N27, 000) is for ALL categories of workers in Nigeria whether public or private sector and is so contained in the new national minimum wage Bill.

The national minimum wage is for workers occupying the lowest rung of the remuneration ladder on Grade Level 1 step 1 and are the most vulnerable segment of Nigerian workers.

It is of utmost importance to note that any public or private sector employer who is capable of paying more than the statutory N27, 000 should be ready to do so.

The Federal Government has taken the lead in this direction by proposing to augment the N27, 000 by N3,000 to bring it up to Thirty Thousand (N30,000) for the least paid worker per month.

Mr Ngige said the Federal Government expected others in the public and private sectors to do the same, if the financial capacity permits, employers can pay more than N30, 000.

He noted that the matter of national minimum wage was in the Exclusive Legislative List as item No. 34 of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He said it is the Executive arm of Government that has the responsibility to prescribe a new national minimum wage and send to the National Assembly (NASS) for legislative action and lastly to the President for assent.

The minister therefore called on the different groups interested in the contents of the 2019 national minimum wage bill already transmitted to NASS to get ready to make their views known at the public hearing.

Recall that lawmakers at the House of Representatives rejected the sum of N27,000 which was approved by the council of state as the new minimum wage, insisting that they support the N30,000 agreement reached by the government, organised labour and the private sector.

The legislators during plenary on Thursday, January 24, said that the sum of N30,000 was adopted as the new minimum wage by the tripartite committee, whose report was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, The Punch reports.

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Shortly before deliberation on the bill, the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, read a letter by Buhari to the legislature, seeking an amendment to the minimum wage act 1981, to reflect a new minimum wage of N27,000.

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Minimum Wage: Is N30,000 Too Much for FG to Pay Workers? - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV

Source: LegitPopular musician Yinka Ayefele has shared his experience on life without the use of his legs.

In a recent interview with The Punch, Ayefele as he is popularly called spoke about the music industry, life without the use of his legs. He expressed hope that he will walk again.

Read excerpts from the interview below:

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Did you have plans to become an artiste before your accident?

Not really. Before the accident, I had released an album, apart from the one I featured in as the leader of my churchs choir. The issue of releasing an album came about when I needed to raise money for my treatment. Instead of going to radio stations to beg for money for further treatment, having been hospitalised for close to a year at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, some of my colleagues suggested that I should release an album since I have the talent. The idea was for the album to be launched and the money that would be raised was to be used for my treatment abroad. Although music had always been a part of me, I never considered taking it up as a fulltime job. I just loved been a broadcaster.

What do you remember about the accident?

The only lingering memory I have is that the accident was like a compass that gave my life direction.

Did you go through a phase of denial when you realised you wouldnt be able to walk again?

At a point, yes! But Im an incurable optimist. Im of the firm belief that nothing is impossible. I know I will still walk again. I believe that with God, all things are possible.

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Meanwhile, Yinka Ayefele, on Tuesday, January 8, paid a visit of gratitude to Governor Abiola Ajimobi after an agreement between him and the state government following the reconstruction of musician's building.

Nigerian Tribune reported that the visit witnessed the final consolidation of an agreement reached between the two parties after the partial demolition of the edifice by the state government for contravention of the approved building plan.

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'Nigeria Needs a Leader That is Not Bigger Than the Country' - Nigeria Street Gist | Legit TV

Source: Legit- Supreme Court justices did not attend the inauguration of election tribunal members as was the custom of the leadership of the judiciary

- Only one justice Sidi Dauda Bage was on the platform with the new acting CJN Tanko Mohammed

- Justice Tanko swore in 250 members of the election tribunals at the Supreme Court Complex in Abuja on Saturday, January 26

Justices of the Supreme Court on Saturday, January 26 did not show up at the inauguration of members of the election petitions tribunal by the new acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed.

Daily Trust reports that only few people graced the event which was held at the Supreme Court Complex in Abuja.

According to the report, only one of the Supreme Court justices, Justice Sidi Dauda Bage, was with the new acting CJN Justice Mohammed.

Missing at the events were justices:

1. Bode Rhodes-Vivour

2. Mary Odili

3. Olukayode Ariwoola

4. Musa Datijo Muhammad

5. Kumai Bayang Akaahs

6. Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo

7. Chima Centus Nweze

8. John Inyang Okoro

9. Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun

10. Chima Centus Nweze

11. Amiru Sanusi OFR

12. Amina Adamu Augie CON

13. Ejembi Eko

14. Paul Adamu Galinje

All the above justices are listed as current members of the Supreme Court on the apex court's official website.

READ ALSO: What removal of Onnoghen may cause for elections - US tells FG

Meanwhile, the Acting CJN Mohammed swore in 250 members of the election petitions tribunal panels for the 2019 general elections in the country.

Speaking during the inauguration, Justice Mohammed charged the tribunal members to know that they are accountable to God under the oath they have just sworn.

This is an ethical undertaking to justice as well as uphold the Rule of Law in our courts. As such, I implore you to discharge your onerous duty diligently and with the fear of God Almighty. The judiciary is in trying times, and you must stand to protect and uphold the integrity of this arm of government, he said.

READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda

I therefore congratulate you on this appointment and I urge you to see this assignment as a call to greater service to your nation. I encourage you to uphold and enhance the honour and standing of the judiciary and I pray that the Almighty Allah will bestow upon you strength, good health and wisdom in the performance of your duties.

Legit.ng had reported earlier that Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, the new acting CJN swore in 250 members of the general elections tribunal.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android and read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

During the swearing-in ceremony held in in Abuja on Saturday, Muhammed admonished the members of the election tribunals to carry out their duties with integrity and godly fear in their hearts.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better

South-South governors condemn trial of CJN Onnoghen - on Legit TV

Source: Legit.ngWashington, January 27: At least five people were killed in two shooting incidents in the US state of Louisiana, police said, adding a manhunt was underway to nab the suspect.

Dakota Theriot, 21, is accused of killing his parents, Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, in the town of Gonzalez in Ascension and three more people in Livingston, CNN reported.

"This is probably one of the worst domestic violence incidents I've seen in quite a while," said Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre on Saturday. 5 Killed in Mass Shooting as Gunman Opens Fire in a bank in Florida, U.S.

The suspect has been charged with two counts of first degree murder, illegal use of weapons and home invasion, Webre told the media.

Before killing his parents, Dakota Theriot murdered Billy Ernest, 43, Summer Ernest, 20, and 17-year-old Tanner Ernest on Saturday morning.

According to Webre, the suspect's parents were alive when deputies arrived at their home later on Saturday and identified their son as the gunman in the Livingston killings.

"We don't know what kind of resources he has or how far he can run. But we don't think he has great means and a lot of resources," CNN quoted the Sheriff as saying.

Investigators were trying to determine the motive behind the shootings. Webre said detectives have not been able to talk anyone who knows the suspect well.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 27, 2019 12:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).New Delhi, January 27: Union Railways minister Piyush Goyal said Sunday that Train 18 will now be known as Vande Bharat Express. The railway minister explained the decision saying that Train 18 is a train built completely in India by Indian engineers, in a span of 18 months. Train 18 Breaches 180 km/hr Mark, Water Bottles Onboard Remain Stable: Watch Video.

Goyal said that the train will ply from Delhi to Varanasi. "It is an example that it's possible to make world-class trains under Make in India," added the minister. Indian Railways Approaches PMO to Launch Train-18 with Fares 40-50% Higher than Shatabdi Express.

Read Railway Minister Piyush Goyal's Comment in the Tweet Below:

Railways Minister P Goyal: Train 18 will now be known as Vande Bharat Express. It's a train built completely in India by Indian engineers, in a span of 18 months. It'll ply from Delhi to Varanasi. It is an example that it's possible to make world-class trains under Make in India. pic.twitter.com/YOO3Mzt84O  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019

On Saturday, with all the safety clearances, trials and tests in place, and the railways all set to launch the indigenously-built Train-18, reports said that the train fares will be likely around 40-50 per cent higher than the Shatabdi Express. Officials said they have approached Prime Minister's Office (PMO) seeking time for the launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is likely after the presentation of the budget.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 27, 2019 05:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).by NAT da Polis

On the feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianuz, the ecumenical patriarch defends his decision to grant autonomy to the Ukrainian Church, as well as upholding the "primus inter pares" status for himself and the Mother Church of Orthodoxy.

Istanbul (AsiaNews)  The anniversary of the death of one of the great Fathers of the undivided Church was commemorated yesterday at the Phanar, headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Gregory of Nazianzus, theologian and patriarch of Constantinople, was a close friend of Saint Basil the Great, whose cultural and ecclesial education he shared, and a great rhetorical stylist, so much so that he was dubbed the "Christian Demosthenes".

Bartholomew used the occasion to defend the Patriarchates decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, insisting that that he did the right thing.

In his homily, the ecumenical patriarch noted that in 1923 the Phanar had granted autonomy to the Estonian Orthodox Church, autonomy which was suppressed following the Soviet invasion of 1940, and the Churchs forced incorporation into the Patriarchate of Moscow.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1990 and 1991, Estonia achieved its independence, as did its Orthodox Church. This angered the then Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II, who broke sacramental communion, but only for a short time.

"Although we have received unjust insults, we have tried to do the right thing, said Bartholomew. This was done according to the wisdom of the ancient millennial Orthodox tradition, accumulated over the centuries, whereby the See of Constantinople is" primus inter pares".

"Based on this accumulated treasure, we proceeded, Bartholomew noted, as we consider it right to grant autocephaly to our Ukrainian Orthodox brothers, who have been deprived of sacramental communion with other Orthodox Churches for almost 30 years, for the mere purpose of punishing Filaret, because he had dared to ask Moscow for the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church."

"It is very clear, that there were no dogmatic, doctrinal differences. Simply, with the independence of 45 million Ukrainians from the Soviet regime, the metropolitan of Kyiv, as an expression of popular conscience, asked for autocephaly."

For the Ecumenical Patriarch, "Filaret was wrong to ask autocephaly from Moscow. He had to ask the Mother Church in Constantinople, who had given them baptism, culture, and the Cyrillic alphabet, and was therefore the only one that had this right and privilege to grant autocephaly."

In any case, "Filaret asked Moscow for autocephaly and got excommunication instead, which is why we intervened as a Mother Church to restore the wrong they suffered. The rest is bad information of northern provenance.

It should be noted that in granting the Tomos to the new metropolitan of Kyiv Epiphanius on 6 January, Bartholomew also reminded him to respect those Orthodox Ukrainians who want to remain under the jurisdiction of his brother patriarch of Moscow.Drivers in Massachusetts were stunned to see a man hanging on for dear life on the hood of an SUV during an apparent road rage incident.

It happened on Interstate 90 near Boston.

Cell phone video shows 65-year-old Richard Kamrowski hanging onto the hood of the SUV screaming to stop the car.

Meanwhile, the driver of the SUV, 37-year-old Mark Fitzgerald, appears to speed up and slow down for several miles with Kamrowski still on the hood.

Kamrowski says Fitzgerald sideswiped him and he ended up on the hood after the two got into an argument.

The video shows Fitzgerald eventually pulling over before another driver intervenes and forces him out of the car with a gun.

Fitzgerald was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, negligent operation and leaving the scene of a crash causing property damage.

Kamrowski was also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.The Montana Audubon Center hosted a bat house building workshop on Saturday to help benefit bats in our region.

The workshop was full, as the Montana Audubon Center and Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks patterned with local families to build a dozen new bat houses.

The new bat houses built today by volunteers will be placed around the Audubon property and Norm's Island.

Heather Bilden with Montana Audubon Center says their night bat walks in the summer have been very popular, but the bats don't have good natural roosting areas on the property.

Some of the houses built will also go to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, who are looking to use some of these houses to habitat bats in areas where people are trying to exterminate them.

"Bat houses are important mostly for exclusion work so when folks want to get rid of bats, the only way to really keep them from coming back is to exclude any opening in the house where they can come back, so if you get an exterminator and they kill the bats obviously it was a good place for bat's so the bat's will just come back," said Megan O'Reilly, a Wildlife Biologist with Montana FWP.

O'Reilly says if a bat is going to use a bat house, it will be in an area where they have already been for some time. She hopes the four chamber bat houses built today can be an alternative to extermination for some of the bat complaints she receives from frustrated home owners.

According to O'Reilly, a common misconception is that bats are viewed as rodents like mice. She says they are actually a long-lived mammal, with only one or two pups a year.

With diseases like white nose disease wiping out bat populations, it's important to protect our local population. Plus, they help take care of the mosquitoes at parks like Norm's Island.Weather Alert

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM MDT THIS EVENING... * IMPACTS: Low humidities, unseasonably warm temperatures, strong gusty winds, and a wind shift with a cold front will create erratic fire behavior. * AFFECTED AREA: In North Central WY Fire Zone...274. In South Central MT Fire Zones...125...126...127...128...129. In Southeast MT Fire Zones...130...131...132. * COUNTIES AFFECTED: In Central MT...Golden Valley...Musselshell. In North Central WY...Sheridan. In South Central MT...Big Horn...Carbon...Park...Stillwater Sweet Grass...Yellowstone. In Southeast MT...Custer...Powder River...Rosebud...Treasure. * WIND: Northwest 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. * HUMIDITY: 13-19 percent. * TEMPERATURES: In the mid 80s to lower 90s. * COLD FRONT: this evening, turning winds to the north/northeast with gusts to 30 to 40 mph possible. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior. &&Two bombs tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral in southern Philippines, killing at least 17 people and leaving dozens wounded, authorities said. CNN's Cyril Vanier reports.Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Low near 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Widely scattered showers or a thunderstorm this evening. Then partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Widely scattered showers or a thunderstorm this evening. Then partly cloudy. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Saturday called for more efforts to accelerate the building of a system to safeguard the wellbeing of veterans.

Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a work conference aiming to push the work in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Sun urged officials to consider the building of a service and security system for military veterans as a political task and finish the building of the system before the end of May. The system should have both funding and personnel support, she said.

Sun added that a unified online information platform should be set up to process online services.This is how much of the border wall has been built so farAuthorities investigating four recent Nevada killings say murder charges are "imminent" against Wilber Martinez-Guzman, seen in this undated photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office.**Embargo: Nashville, TN** Whitfield County Sheriff Deputies Jeffrey Diak and David Headrick are recovering at Vanderbilt Medical Center this weekend, after undergoing surgery Thursday.Through a public information request, News 4 gathered the list of approximately 120 calls the two officers responded to in the last 30 days.A boy was killed Friday when a train collided with a school bus in Athens, Texas, according to a Facebook post from the Athens Independent School District.Two drivers have been charged after a road rage incident where a man ended up on the hood of an SUV driving on the Mass Pike. (Source: WBZ, CNN)Chinese police repatriate long-lost antique from abroad - China.org.cn



Police in north China's Shanxi Province have repatriated a precious bronze plate, a long-lost cultural relic, local authorities announced Saturday.

The Shanxi police received a tip-off in early June of last year that a key cultural relic under state protection was illegally sold abroad by a group of tomb raiders years ago.

The Jin bronze plate, dating back to the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC - 476 BC), had changed hands in many provinces before being sold overseas. The police took months to identify the location of the lost treasure and related tomb raiders and smugglers.

According to archeologists, the Jin bronze plate was a sacrificial vessel designed for the Jin emperor over 2,600 years ago. The relic has a diameter of 40 cm and weighs over 7 kg.

The plate, engraved with dragons, turtles, water birds, frogs, fish and other animals, is seen as an auspicious symbol of royalty, longevity and fortune in Chinese culture.

There are 183 characters engraved in the interior surface of the plate, considered precious cultural records by researchers that tell about the prosperity of the Jin empire.

Shanxi has tightened its crackdown on cultural relic crimes over the years. In 2018, the police uncovered 589 related crimes, seized 885 suspects and broke up 98 gangs.(Reuters) - The U.S. economy lost at least $6 billion during the partial shutdown of the federal government due to lost productivity from furloughed workers and economic activity lost to outside business, S&P Global Ratings said on Friday.

President Donald Trump agreed on Friday to end the 35-day partial shutdown, the longest in history, without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a border wall.

Although this shutdown has ended, little agreement on Capitol Hill will likely weigh on business confidence and financial market sentiments, S&P said in a news release.

Reporting by Soundarya J in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin RavikumarLondon (CNN) - The Bank of England has blocked Nicolas Maduro's officials from withdrawing $1.2 billion worth of gold, Bloomberg reported, dealing a further blow to the embattled Venezuelan President as he tries to salvage his authority.

According to the report, which cites unnamed people familiar with the matter, the gold is a significant part of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank.

CNN has not been able to independently verify the report and is attempting to get a response from Maduro's officials.

The move by the Bank of England came after top U.S. officials urged the British government to help cut off Maduro's access to his country's assets, the report said, and instead steer them towards opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has claimed the presidency.

On Saturday, the UK joined the US and a host of other countries by saying it would recognize Guaido as the country's interim President if new elections were not called within the next eight days.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States in saying that the National Assembly and its President Juan Guaido are best placed to lead Venezuela to the restoration of its democracy, its economy and its freedom," said UK Minister of State Alan Duncan.

In a statement, the Bank of England said Saturday that it provides gold custody services to a large number of customers, but it does not comment on those relationships.

"In all its operations, the Bank observes the highest standards of risk management and abides by all relevant legislation, including applicable financial sanctions," the statement said.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement Friday it plans to use economic and diplomatic tools to ensure any commercial transactions with the Venezuelan government are "consistent" with the US-recognized government of Venezuela led by Juan Guaido.

Reporting by Rob Picheta. CNN's Simon Cullen contributed to this report.ROCHESTER, Minn. - The extreme cold might have some people turning up their thermostat a little higher than usual, which can raise their energy bill.

To help people save energy and cash, Rochester Public Utilities, Minnesota Energy, and Center for Energy and Environment hosted a Saving Energy 101 workshop at the Northrop Community Education Center. They gave advice on how to make homes more efficient, therefore saving money.

"I think it's everybody's responsibility for the environment so I try to both with gas and electric," says workshop-goer Scott Kranz.

Attendees also had the opportunity to sign up for a home visit from a professional to run tests in their home to see where they could be more efficient, and install energy-saving materials.CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  A California man is sentenced to federal prison for dealing drugs in North Iowa.

Dakota Lee Sanders of San Andreas, CA, was arrested in October 2017 after Mason City police said they recovered $40,000 worth of methamphetamine and $25,000 worth of marijuana after two traffic stops and a search of the Days Inn.

Sanders eventually pleaded guilty in Cedar Rapids Federal Court to conspiracy to distribute meth. Hes been given 10 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release.AUSTIN, Minn. - Plunging for Pink is the first event for Austin's Paint the Town Pink campaign, a series of events between now and mid-April. Roughly 200 people jumped into East Side Lake to raise money for breast cancer research at the Hormel Institute.

This is the 7th year for the plunge, and emcee Cody Anderson and event coordinator Toren Biers have been a part of it since the beginning. They think this may be the coldest plunge ever. "I don't remember it ever being this cold and I don't remember the snow before either but that's what makes it exciting," says Anderson. "That's kinda part of being in Minnesota in the winter and doing a plunge is jumping into the ice cold lakes, so we weren't going to let the cold slow us down or apparently the snow either," adds Biers.

To keep everyone safe, they moved the plunge closer to shore so that jumpers didn't go as deep into the water, and didn't have as far to run back for warmth. The Austin Fire Department was there, and there were two warming tents for jumpers to heat up after their plunge.

Plunging for Pink raised around $60,000 last year, and they hope to beat that this year.MASON CITY, Iowa  An Austin man changes his plea on North Iowa check forgery.

Taylor Gordon Maricle, 23, was arrested in November 2018 after a shoplifting complaint at the Mason City Shopko. Police say Maricle was found with methamphetamine, a Viagra pill, and someone elses checkbook. Court documents say Maricle was accused of forging several checks over a two-week period.

He is now pleading guilty to forgery of a check and possession of meth-1st offense. Maricle has been sentenced to 55 days in jail, with credit for time served, and three years of supervised probation. He must also pay a $315 fine.A beautiful and brave young woman who campaigned to get access to the Pembro drug has died from cervical cancer.

Alice Taylor from Ballycallan in Co Kilkenny died on Friday at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.

The 26-year-old was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017 and last year was told that only palliative treatment would now be suitable for her. Her family, friends and the wider Kilkenny community fundraised on her behalf to access the immunotherapy drug, Pembro.



Vicky Phelan, who has campaigned on behalf of all women with cervical cancer to get access to the drug said that the tragic news had 'floored her'.

"Reading about Alice's death has floored me. I had met her and her Mum, Wendy at St. Vincent's Hospital where Alice moved for treatment to get on Pembro, which she had started. It was obviously too late for her. She was far too young to die," Vicky wrote on Twitter.

Alice is the daughter of Martin and Wendy and dear sister of James and William and partner of David O'Dea.

She will repose at her her home on Tuesday from 4pm concluding with Rosary and Vigil Prayers at 7pm. Her removal will take place on Wednesday morning to St. Brigid's Church, Ballycallan, for Requiem Mass at 11am with funeral afterwards to Mount Jerome Crematorium for private cremation.





A colored child-edition of "Das Kapital" has been honored as one of the 24 best Chinese children's books of 2018.

The 150-page book outlines the essence of "Das Kapital," the great work on political economy, and introduces its author Karl Marx, its global influence and its Chinese characteristics.

Intended for children aged between eight and 14 years old, the book is adorned with hundreds of hand-painted illustrations.

And the year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth.

Over the past decades, Marxism has been the foundation of many theories developed by the Chinese communists to guide the nation. Its successful practice in China has inspired generations of Chinese people, and it has become popular among young Chinese as well.

The book has received more than 1,700 comments on China's Dangdang e-commerce platform, with many saying that the book, "written in plain language, is easy to understand."

The award-winning books were selected by the New Reading Research Institute, a non-profit research organization specialized in public reading, which recently received awards from the National Library.

Nearly 1,000 children's books published by over 100 publishing houses nationwide participated in the selection. Other awarded books include "Night at the Museum" and "Our Chinese Characters."Whats your idea of a perfect day, or perfect weekend out in Kilkenny?

Perfect day for me would be a trip into Kilkenny with all the family. Head straight to the Castle Park, down to the playground, and a nice walk around the grounds. There is just something special about Kilkenny Castle and the park. We are so lucky to have such an amazing piece of history on our doorstep. I have to say Savour Kilkenny Festival this year was absolutely amazing.



Who has made the greatest contribution to Kilkenny in your lifetime - and why?

There are so many people who have made such a massive contribution to Kilkenny. From a sporting, musical, political, cultural and community perspective i think its almost impossible to pick just one!

Whats your first Kilkenny memory?

My first Kilkenny memory is heading into Nowlan Park as a young chap with my father to watch Kilkenny hurling games in the National League. We would stop off then in The Pike Bar or The Fox and Goose on the way home for a drink and a bag of crisps or bar of chocolate!

Whats your favourite part of the county - and why?

My favourite part of the county would have to be my homeplace, Skeoughvosteen. I was born and reared here, and though I have travelled and lived in other parts of the country, I love the sense of community in the place and the many many friendships that I have made over the years.



What do you think gives Kilkenny its unique identity?

Kilkenny is a city and county where we value our heritage, culture, tradition and our history, but we also celebrate its diversity. However, for me its the people which gives Kilkenny its unique identity. Since I have become Mayor, I have been very fortunate to meet so many brilliant people right around the county. People who give up so much of their time for the betterment of their communities, its just brilliant to see. I have witnessed first hand ordinary people doing extraordinary things.



Do you have a favourite local writer or author?

I love reading biographies, and I have read Henry Shefflins, Jackie Tyrrells, Charlie Carter and Brian Codys books from front to back in one sitting! Im looking forward to reading the legend Tommy Walshs biography whenever it comes out. A guaranteed best seller!

Whats the biggest challenge facing the county today?

We have many challenges facing the county today. Mental health is a significant issue and despite some brilliant work locally by the likes of Teac Tom, is totally underfunded by this government and needs to be increased significantly. Broadband is a also a huge issue especially in rural parts of the county. Also, whilst we have seen improvements, there is still a serious shortfall of housing supply in Kilkenny and this is a challenge. Also, having not won the All Ireland in a few years, we have to get back to Croke Park on All Ireland Final Day - one hopefully we can overcome this year..

If you had the power to change on thing in, or about Kilkenny, what would it be?

If I could change one thing, I would make sure that Kilkenny would get a third level educational campus immediately. I know plans are in place for a Technological University of the South East, but for me i think Kilkenny should be the centre of this new campus, and it should be located in the Abbey Quarter.WILLAMINA, Ore. -- Several vehicles including log trucks and school buses were damaged in recent days by someone throwing objects at them near the Oregon town of Willamina.

Oregon State Police is looking into at least five such incidents, most of them reported within the last week.

Police escorted school buses in Willamina on Friday after the district reported rocks, apples and other objects being thrown at the buses while they were traveling with students on board.

Log truck driver Tyson Bumgarner told the television station he was driving with his 2-year-old son in the cab on Thursday when someone launched a frozen mango at his windshield, shattering it.

He says he and his son were showered with broken glass and bits of fruit but he was able to get pulled over to the side of the road safely.

Authorities say no one was hurt in any of the incidents.EUGENE, Ore.  Representative Peter DeFazio held a town hall meeting at Lane Community College Saturday.

DeFazio took questions and comments from community members about their experience during the partial government shutdown.

While the government is set to reopen temporarily for three weeks, DeFazio said the fate of the government after that is still uncertain.

There were people saying I have a Ph.D., Im here because Im earning less money than I could because I believe in what the government is doing. Well, are they going to hang around? I dont know," DeFazio said.

DeFazio said he plans to take all the messages and feedback he heard from community members Saturday back to Washington D.C.The Egyptian capital Cairo is hosting the Chinese and Italian cuisine week as part of the celebrations for China's Spring Festival in the Arab country.

The event was officially launched on Saturday and will run till next Wednesday.

The event, titled "A Week of Italian and Chinese Cuisine; Both in Harmony," is co-hosted by the Chinese Cultural Center and Italian Cultural Center in Cairo.

During the one-week event, five Italian chefs will work with Chinese chefs in the scenic restaurant of the Flamenco Hotel along the Nile River in Cairo's upscale Zamalek district.

Ravioli, an Italian dish, was featured as a common culinary denominator that crosses the two cultures.

On Jan. 27-28, the restaurant will offer an Italian menu, dedicating a section for Jiaozi, Chinese dumplings.

On Jan. 29, an Italian-Chinese dinner will be held at one of Flamenco's restaurants and the menu will be Chinese. A corner will be dedicated for Italian ravioli this time.

The event is a good chance for Egyptian students and young chefs who will be invited to learn culinary techniques and tips from the Italian and Chinese chefs.

Wang Zhanglong, holder of the Guinness World Record for the "Biggest Dough-Blown Balloon" and the "Thinnest Handmade Noodles," performed the making of Diaoxiao Noodles, Longxu Noodles and Dough Blowing Balloons, winning the applause from the guests and visitors.

He said the Chinese delegation brought more than 30 kinds of traditional Shanxi noodles and courses such as Corn Cake, Pingyao Beef and Cat-Ear Noodle.

Li Xiaoxia, head of the Chinese delegation from Shanxi, said the masters of the delegation have taught the Egyptian students the methods of making traditional noodles such as Daoxiao Noodles, Cat-Ear noodles as well as traditional Chinese courses such as Kung Pao Shrimp, hot candied sweet potatoes.

"The training of Chinese chefs has also been recognized by Egyptian students. Many of them admired the food we made," Li told Xinhua, adding that "although we speak different languages, I can feel that they like our Shanxi Noodles very much through their smiles."

Nausica Ronca, one of the Italian chefs participating in the event, said it is a new and unique experience to show people how Italians make pasta at home.

"It was also a great chance to be working jointly with Chinese chefs. I have a background about Chinese food and I can cook a variety of Chinese food," Ronca told Xinhua during the ceremony.

She added that China, Egypt and Italy are three different countries with different food cultures, "but we all share things in common, such as rice and pasta, we all cook them almost same way and they are main dishes in our kitchens."

China holds annually a series of events across Egypt where Egyptians and Chinese community in the North African Arab country celebrate the Spring Festival jointly.

Egyptian-Chinese bilateral ties have been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership with growing economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries in the light of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.UPDATE: The Fire Marshal said the cause of this fire is undetermined. He said the flames originated in the living room, but said they were unable to determine a definitive cause.

LEBANON, Ore. -- Crews with the Lebanon Fire District are investigating a fire at a vacant house.

Firefighters were called to a three-bedroom house off of Jennings Street just after 9:00 Saturday morning.

Neighbors told investigators that the house was recently undergoing a remodel and was listed for sale. They said real estate agents showed the home to potential buyers Friday afternoon.

Crews are working to determine what sparked this fire. The Fire Marshal said anyone with information is asked to call the Lebanon Fire District.Hands-on demonstrations to calculate forage break-even prices and yields and information about the Wyoming Hay and Forage Association (WHFA) are part of workshops in Torrington and Casper.

The WHFA and the University of Wyoming Extension host the sessions Tuesday, Feb. 5, in Torrington and Thursday, Feb. 14, in Casper, said Caleb Carter, UW Extension educator.

Association representatives will discuss the benefits of membership followed by the hands-on workshop showing how to use the Enterprise Risk Analyzer Tool. This tool can help calculate cost of production and determine break-even yield and prices, said Carter.

Extension farm and ranch management specialist John Hewlett will discuss risk, break-even prices and yields. Attendees will enter their own data into a computer to learn how to use the tool and interpret the results.

The free Torrington workshop is at Brown Company, in conjunction with the companys customer appreciation day, which starts at 10 a.m. The workshop is 1-4 p.m.Lon Bohn of Gibbon was appointed to Subdistrict 4 on the Central Platte Natural Resources District board of directors at its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday.

Since Bohn was appointed, rather than elected, he will serve a two-year term and will be required to file for a four-year term in 2020. Subdistrict 4 includes a portion of east-central Buffalo County, including part of northeast Kearney and a portion of northwest Hall County. Bohn takes the seat of Bob Schanou of Shelton, who did not refile.

For the record

Other action items and updates on the agenda:

 Board officer election: The board re-elected Jim Bendfeldt as chairman, and Mick Reynolds as vice-chairman for another two-year term. Board officers may serve two, two-year terms.

 Committee selection: Board members selected the committees that they plan to serve on this year. The following committee chairmen were selected: Jerry Milner, Water Quality; Jay Richeson, Water Quantity; Ed Stoltenberg, Eastern Projects; Marvion Reichert Jr, Western Projects; Keith Ostermeier, Programs.TORRINGTON, Wyo.  For more than three years, officials in Torrington were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In May 2015, Western Sugar Cooperative announced its plan to halt processing at its Torrington Factory in late 2016. At the time, the company said it was going to focus on modernizing and expanding operations at its Scottsbluff and Fort Morgan, Colorado, plants. Those expansions were supposed to make the Torrington plant obsolete, and as a result, would cost about 200 people their jobs.

In our city budget we didnt include revenue from Western Sugar thinking each year that it was going to close, Torrington Mayor Randy Adams said in a phone interview Tuesday. We were prepared for that loss of revenue. Were never going to recover it, but at least we were prepared for the loss.

And yet, the Torrington factory remained open.

The cooperatives expansions had not gone as planned, with both the Scottsbluff and Fort Morgan factories experiencing issues including a list of environmental violations which slowed processing and delayed payments to sugarbeet growers.A farmer panel  Discussion with growers, landowners and consultants.

There is no fee to attend, but individuals must pre-register by 5 p.m. Feb. 8 to ensure meals and resource materials are available. Seating is limited. To register, call (402) 624-8030, email cdunbar2@unl.edu.

This conference is sponsored by Nebraska Extension, the Nebraska Soybean Board, the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resource Conservation Services, the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District and USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.

Help available on new crop insurance options

LYONS  The Center for Rural Affairs has a new helpline available for farmers and ranchers.

Farmers and ranchers need to manage risk, whether from weather, markets or other forces. Crop insurance can be used to manage some of their risk.

There can be several reasons why many farmers and ranchers dont buy crop insurance, said Anna Johnson, policy manager with the Center for Rural Affairs. Maybe they havent found an option that covers their operation. Maybe they dont know how to find a crop insurance agent to work with, or dont know what questions to ask when they meet with an agent.Officers also recovered a vehicle in which they believe the men arrived that was stolen from Mishawaka, as well as several jewelry pieces from when they backtracked the path the suspects took.Tim and Beverly Nyden stopped in Kansas City on Tuesday to get some much needed rest after leaving Lynchburg, Virginia the night before.The lawyer has submitted a barrage of filings, some of them striking racial tones and some of them strangely sexual, filled with allegations of collusion and conspiracy, and all pointing to a deep belief that powerful people are working together to keep his brother behind bars.This is not a decision we made lightly, Morgan said. We had several long discussions about whether to continue with the campaign, but ultimately decided we could not. We are very grateful to the many residents from across the village who supposed our candidacy.Helen Etters

Winston-Salem

Stealing their future

As a graduating high school junior and as someone who cares deeply for the world and the people in it, I am truly concerned with the state of the environment.

I dont think it should be a Republican or Democratic party platform as it is now, it is simply ethical to take care of the environment that has done so much for us.

Having the leader of this country deny the issue of climate change is saddening.

My generation and many more to come will have to deal with the bad policy and decision-making going into effect now. That is, assuming we will be able to have more than three more generations of people without completely depleting resources.

Im scared for the world to come in 2075, when I will be celebrating my 73rd birthday with the children and grandchildren I hope to have.

What will the oceans be like or will they be at all?

Will landfills just become dumping grounds for the hopes of todays environmental activists?

Will California have any forest left at all?Generally speaking, Democrats in state capitals are trying to raise taxes to fund additional spending. Republicans are trying to block this, and in some cases to reduce and reform taxes to spur economic growth and expand freedom.

While at the national level Democrats talk mostly about raising income taxes on the wealthy, at the state level they often focus on sales or excise taxes, particularly on energy, tobacco and beverages. Indeed, some Democratic governors and legislators are trying to use new state-tax policies to offset the effect of last years elimination of the federal income-tax deduction for state and local taxes paid. The direct beneficiaries of such state workarounds will be wealthy households, for the most part, although Democrats are (properly) worried that unless they address the issue, many such households will depart for lower-tax jurisdictions, thus imposing broader pain on blue-state economies.

On the spending side of the ledger, both parties typically earmark education to receive the bulk of any new revenues, either to increase teacher pay and reduce class sizes in K-12 schools or to stave off tuition increases at state colleges and universities. For example, big promises on education funding helped propel two new governors to office in competitive elections last year, Democrat Laura Kelly in Kansas and Republican Brian Kemp in Georgia.Since nothing happens in a vacuum, to understand Americas present political moment, we must also have some appreciation for the past.

We must look to data points such as the assassination of President Kennedy, which ushered distrust and cynicism into the lexicon of the 1960s. The Watergate scandal certainly built on this trend. But neither the Kennedy assassination nor Watergate alone can account for Americas devolving democratic traditions.

Where is the data point that has unleashed shutting down the federal government as a viable political option, devaluing impeachment conceptually or creating an us vs. them persona?

The current phenomenon, in my view, began 24 years ago, when Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House of the 104th Congress. It marked the first time Republicans held the majority in the House of Representatives in 40 years.

Gingrich assumed, and rightfully so, that the legislature was a co-equal branch of government. But he overplayed his hand in asserting to delegitimize the presidency of Bill Clinton. Though Gingrichs time as speaker was merely four years, he left a lasting legacy that reaches beyond the corridors of the Congress, coursing through the veins of the nations current public discourse.CYBERSECURITY AT STATE DEPARTMENT: The House has passed the Hack Your State Department Act (H.R. 328), sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., to establish a State Department bug bounty program that would award money to people who inform State of previously unidentified security vulnerabilities in States information systems. Lieu cited the precedent of significant success for a similar bug bounty program begun at the Defense Department in 2016. The vote, on Jan. 22, was 377 yeas to 3 nays.

HALTING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: The House has passed the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act (H.J. Res. 28), sponsored by Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y. The bill would restore funding, through February, for agencies affected by the partial government shutdown. Lowey said the temporary funding would give Congress time to come to a full-year agreement without further jeopardizing vital services or the pay of federal employees. A bill opponent, Rep. Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., said it was not a meaningful effort to end the shutdown because it was similar to other temporary funding measures recently passed by the House that had no chance of becoming law. The vote, on Jan. 23, was 229 yeas to 184 nays.A severe arctic blast will follow the snow, sending Chicago-area temperatures well below zero for an extended period. The mercury is expected to drop below zero Tuesday and remain there until Friday, when it finally creeps back into positive territory. During this frigid spell, temperatures could drop to minus 20 or lower in many locations, with wind chills as low as minus 50. The city will gradually emerge from the deep freeze by next weekend as temperatures rise back into the 20s.Quite a bit of news dropped on Friday, so you may have missed a hedgehog-related alert that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued early that afternoon.

Those tiny, prickly, adorable mammals - which have jumped in popularity as household pets in recent years - may be carrying salmonella germs and spreading them to nearby humans, according to the CDC.

"CDC and public health officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to contact with pet hedgehogs," the agency's notice read.

As of Friday, the CDC said there had been 11 people in eight states sickened by a strain of Salmonella typhimurium; in 10 of the 11 cases, "ill people reported contact with a hedgehog," the agency said.

Though one person was hospitalized, no deaths have been reported. Three of the cases were reported in Missouri, two in Minnesota and one each in Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming.

Researchers collected samples from hedgehogs in the two Minnesota patients' homes and identified the strain of salmonella that was making people sick. It's still unclear if all or some of the pet hedgehogs came from "a common supplier," the CDC said.Despite their public locations, decisions about placing the monuments at these sites were typically done with little or no public debate, Bolton said. In the case of Confederate monuments, whites were reminding everyone, especially their black neighbors, that they were in control.

There is no record or minutes of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners discussing or voting on the statue project, Brownlee said.

The entire community was behind this, Brownlee said. Winstons most prominent people were behind this.

But Winston-Salem black residents, Bolton said, had no input.

Their political rights had (been) or were being taken away, and whites had (been) or were reducing them to second-class citizenship through segregation, Bolton said. Even if black people at the time objected to the placement of these statues, they had little opportunity or recourse to make their objections known.

The statue was erected when blacks couldnt vote, said Adam H. Domby, an assistant professor of history at College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. Domby has studied the history of the Winston-Salem statue, and wrote his masters thesis about the how the Civil War affected life in Forsyth County during the conflict and afterward.We administer elections according to the law and responding accordingly to changes, Tsujii said.

We firmly believe in protecting the safety of schools on the days that were there to serve the public, he said.

Tsujii said it would be challenging to replace school sites in some precincts, with the possibility of having to use a facility in an adjacent precinct.

Lambeth said he would be willing to consider hardship exemptions for communities that cant find another site.

We already are having to make plans to switch the precinct associated with Hanes-Lowrance Middle School since it is being demolished, and two other schools due to parking and other issues, Tsujii said.

We have been turned down by churches in the past and had to go to other churches in the precinct for a site, he said.

Charlie Collicutt, the director of the Guilford County Board of Elections, said he recognized that his county would not require as much scrambling for new precincts as Forsyth, Mecklenburg and Wake.

Collicutt did say, though, that trying to replace the countys 32 school sites would be disruptive and potentially challenging to find suitable replacements.The statue here stood undisturbed until August 2017, when a protest in Charlottesville, Va., over a Confederate statue turned violent, and calls began multiplying for the removal of other statues across the south.

That August saw protesters topple a Confederate soldier statue in Durham. Here, someone placed a small handmade sign reading Shame on the base of the statue, followed by an incident in which someone sprayed paint on parts of the base. Police cleaned up that damage.

A year later, in August of 2018, protesters tore down the statue of Silent Sam in Chapel Hill. On Christmas day in 2018, someone wrote graffiti on the base of the monument in Winston-Salem.

The city notified the UDC by a Dec. 31 letter that the group had until Jan. 31 to move the statue. Carmon told the UDC in the letter that the vandalism incidents raised the potential for confrontation, breaches of the peace and other nuisance-type conduct similar to that endured by other cities.

The UDC struck back on Jan. 3 with a statement denouncing what it called the citys heavy handed tactics that it said were as shocking as they are dishonorable. The UDC said it would fight to keep the statue in place.My two big 2018 winners were Amazon (AMZN), up 28 percent despite declining by a third after hitting its all-time high at $2,050 last September, and Shopify (SHOP), a Canadian tech company based in Ottawa that topped last years picks, jumping 37 percent. (After I added to it last year, it is now my second largest holding after Amazon.)

Despite their big gains last year, Amazon is still my favorite stock, with Shopify a close second. Amazon, with almost half of all online retail sales, dominates a space where none of its competitors have even a double-digit share. Its Prime membership has quadrupled since 2013, now numbering more 100 million people who pay $119 annually for the enhanced service  that totals $11.9 billion!

Amazon is now determined to disrupt health care  it purchased the online pharmacy PillPack for almost $1 billion in June 2018. As a result, CNBC reported, three pharmacy stocks  Rite Aide, Walgreens and CVS  collectively lost $11 billion in market value the day the deal was announced. PillPack, the No. 1 mail-order home-delivery pharmacy, distinguishes itself by customizing the patients dosages through the use of pre-labeled packets, CNBC reported.Just 4 percent of all jobs, 7 million nationwide, are in occupations with at least a 90 percent automation risk exposure, the researchers said. Work is going to be quite durable.

However, very few roles will see no task change, as much work is going to evolve, and likely at faster rates of change than in the past.

Examples of high-risk professions include: 91 percent of those employed in food-preparation jobs; 87 percent of payroll and timekeeping clerks; and 78 percent of light truck and delivery-service drivers.

By contrast, just 4 percent of management analysts are considered at risk for automation, along with 8 percent of software developers and 11 percent of home-health aides.

The discourse appears to be arriving at a more balanced story that suggests that while the robots are coming, they will bring neither an apocalypse nor utopia, but instead both benefits and stress alike, according to the report.

Automation in the last 30 years has delivered more jobs to the economy than it destroyed, and so (it) holds out significant opportunity.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.An ambulance pulls into the WVU-Berkeley Medical Center emergency room Friday afternoon in Martinsburg. New reports show people are more likely to die from an overdose than a motor vehicle accident.I generally agree with the Tribunes editorials. But the Tribune has moved into the realm of fake news with its Jan. 23 editorial (800,000 Dreamers. 800,000 workers. 1 wall. Cut the deal.) denigrating House Speaker Nancy Pelosis refusal to trade the so-called Dreamers for furloughed federal workers. It ignores the fact that she and Sen. Chuck Schumer had made a deal with the president before the shutdown, offering him funding for his wall, which he then reneged on. The editorial also ignores the fact that the president has taken his fight to end DACA to the federal courts. How then does the editorial assert that he is sympathetic to the Dreamers? He has also taken steps to end temporary protected status for Central Americans, Haitians and others who have fled conditions in their home countries and are living among us as assets to our communities. At least one federal court has indicated its belief that this move was likely the result of racial animus. The presidents offer to extend this protection in exchange for the furloughed hostages similarly rings false.David Abel, 72, died June 18th, 2021, at his home in El Dorado, AR, surrounded by his family after a short battle with cancer. David was born November 26, 1948, in Sacramento, CA, to Earnest "Bood" Abel and Peggy Downing Abel. David attended school in Miami, OK, and graduated in 1967. He joi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:A 21-year-old man is being hunted after his parents were shot dead in their home in Louisiana.

Dakota Theriot, 21, has been identified by police as a prime suspect after Keith and Elizabeth Theriot were killed in their trailer in Gonzales on Saturday morning.

Dakota Theriot, 21, is being sought by police (Ascension police/AP)

Three other people were also shot dead nearby in an incident being linked by police.

Theriot remains at large.- Press Association

Gunman on the run after five shot dead in Louisiana

Earlier: Five people have died after shootings in two areas of Louisiana, authorities said.

A suspect has been identified by police, who say he is still at large.

The shootings took place in Ascension and Livingston parishes, about 70 miles west of New Orleans.

Livingston sheriff Jason Ard confirmed on Facebook that three deaths happened in his parish on Saturday. The victims have not yet been named.

Separately on Facebook, the Ascension Parish sheriff's office said two people were shot dead in the city of Gonzalez.

The victims were identified as a husband and wife. Their 21-year-old son is being sought by authorities on first-degree murder charges.

Authorities believe the shootings in the two parishes are connected, and investigators from both jurisdictions are working together.A school in Dublin has topped the Sunday Independent School League tables.

Assumption Secondary School in Walkinstown leads the way in the list that examines the percentage of students that go on to third level education.

Nationwide, four schools sent all of their pupils on to college or university.

Here are the most improved schools in each county:

CARLOW

St Mary's Academy CBS sent 75% of their pupils on to third level last year, up from 40% a decade ago.

CAVAN

The mixed Breifne College sent 45% of students to third level last year, up from 31% in 2009.

CLARE

Scariff Community College saw 94% of students leave the mixed school for university or college courses across the country last year, up from 64% 10 years ago.

CORK

Deerpark CBS in Cork city is the most improved school in the city and county. Last year, 75% of boys from the school went on to third level. That's up from 20% 10 years ago.

DONEGAL

Crana College in Buncrana is the most improved school, having sent 76% of students to third level last year. In 2009, 48% of students went on to third level.

DUBLIN

Assumption Secondary School in Walkinstown is the most improved school in both Dublin city and in the country. They sent 100% of their students to third level last year, up from 42% a decade ago.

In the county, Fingal Community College in Swords is the most improved school. They sent 69% of their students to third level last year, an increase of 33% over the last 10 years.

GALWAY

Galway Community College sent 71% of its students to third level last year, up from 21% in 2009, making it the county's most improved school.

KERRY

Castleisland Community College is Kerry's most improved school. The mixed school sent 89& of its students to third level last year, up from 62% in 2009.

KILDARE

Last year the mixed St Paul's Secondary School in Monasterevin sent 62% of its pupils to third level. In 2009, just 13% of students went to third level.

KILKENNY

79% of Scoil Aireagail in Ballyhale's pupils went to third level last year, an increase from 51% in 2009.

LAOIS

Clonaslee College sent 91% of its students to third level in the second year in-a-row last year, an increase from 70% 10 years ago.

LEITRIM

Ballinamore Community School sent 79% of its students to third level last year, up from 59% in 2009.

LIMERICK

The most improved school in Co Limerick is Sexton Street CBS, which sent 67% of its students to third level last year. In 2009, 31% of students went to third level.

LONGFORD

Lanesboro Community College is the most improved school in Longford, sending 76% of its students to third level last year. It's an increase from 52% in 2009.

LOUTH

Sacred Heart School in Drogheda sent 100% of students to third level last year, up from 76% 10 years ago, making it the most improved school in the county.

MAYO

Muredach's College, Ballina sent 100% of its pupils to third level last year, up from 59% a decade ago.

MEATH

The mixed Gormanstown College sent 84% of its students to third level in 2018, up from 60% 10 years ago.

MONAGHAN

Ballybay Community College, a mixed Church of Ireland school, saw 78% of its students go to third level last year, up from 69% in 2009.

OFFALY

Banagher College, Colaiste Na Sionna sent 90% of its students to third level last year. In 2009, 50% of the students in the school went on to third level.

ROSCOMMON

Roscommon CBS is the most improved school in the county. Last year 98% of students left the school for third level, up from 66% in 2009.

SLIGO

St Attracta's Community School, Tubbercurry sent 86% of their students to third level last year, up from 70% in 2009.

TIPPERARY

Presentation Secondary School, Clonmel is the most improved school in the county. Last year, 96% of its students went to third level. In 2009 they sent 49% of their students to third level.

WATERFORD

Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School in Waterford City sent all of its students to third level last year, up from 69% in 2009.

WESTMEATH

Mercy Secondary School in Kilbeggan sent 84% of its students to third level, an increase from 60% in 2009.

WEXFORD

Presentation Secondary School in Wexford Town is the county's most improved school, with 86% of students going to third level last year. This is up from 55% in 2009.

WICKLOW

Colaiste Chraobh Abhann sent 70% of its students to third level last year, up from 18% a decade ago.Louisiana ranks among the most dangerous areas for pedestrians in a new national report.

The state is listed as fourth in the nation for pedestrian fatalities in the report released by Smart Growth America. In Louisiana, 1,047 walkers were hit and killed by drivers from 2008 through 2017, an average of 2.25 for every 100,000 people.

Baton Rouge is listed as 12th among the top 20 metro areas on the Pedestrian Danger Index. The report says the city had 182 pedestrian deaths over the decade, averaging more than two deaths for every 100,000 people.

The report says the number of people struck and killed by drivers while walking increased 35 percent nationally over the decade.

The report suggests better crosswalks, sidewalks and other infrastructure to make it safer for walkers.

Of the other South Central states, Texas was ranked the eight most dangerous state in the PDI report, Oklahoma came in at 14 and Arkansas was ranked 15the most dangerous.

The PDI statistics are included in Smart Growth Americas 2019 Dangerous by Design report.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics LouisianaEach weekend, signs go up across Northern Virginia as new homes hit the market and potential buyers get a chance to step inside for a look.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formActor Aamir Khan at the screening of Rubaru Roshni in Mumbai, on Jan. 21. The film is a series of three tales  The Orphan and the Convict, The Farmer and the Nun and The Terror And The Mom. (IANS photo)In a bid to repopulate its streets and provide a boom to the economy, the Italian town of Sambuca is selling off houses for just Rs 70 ($1).

The scenic Italian town of Sambuca, located in western Sicily and known as the City of Splendor, was nominated in the list of 'most beautiful towns of Italy.'



Also read: Millennials In Bengaluru Have Given Up The Idea Of Buying 'Unaffordable' Houses

The properties that are being sold range between 430 square feet to 1610 square feet and are all old houses. While the sound of buying houses less than the cost of a chocolate bar sounds inviting, there's a catch.

The interested buyers have to deposit a sum of Rs 12,12,450 for renovations over the course of three years and there's also an additional cost of Rs 4,04,150 as security.

Well, doesn't sound all that cheap now, does it.

According to Giuseppe Cacioppo, the Deputy Mayor and tourist councillor of Sambuca who spoke to CNN, said that this is a very bearable cost for a nominee of the beautiful towns of Italy.

This fertile patch of land is dubbed the Earthly Paradise. We're located inside a natural reserve, packed with history. Gorgeous beaches, woods and mountains surround us. It's silent and peaceful, an idyllic retreat for a detox stay, Cacioppo said.

10 houses have already been sold and the tourist councillor has been contacted by people from countries like Switzerland, France and Spain.

"I didn't sleep last night because I was getting so many phone calls," he said. "I received 39,000 emails in response to the offer, including people who want to buy whole blocks of houses.

ALSO READ: Two Cats Live In A Flat With Rs 1 Lakh Rent In Silicon Valley, Where People Can't Afford HousesTechnology is the reason the world is progressing by leaps and bounds. It has made our lives simpler and easier but it has a flipside too. A gang of five used Google Maps to identify the temples located in deserted places in Karnataka and looted them.

According to Times Of India, the gang used Google Maps to rob temples in Karnatakas Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts. In the past five months, from September 2018 to January 2019, the gang robbed 11 temples in the area and took valuable items worth Rs 2.9 lakhs.

Representational Image

None of the gang members - all aged between 19 to 26 - have a criminal past record or are hardcore criminals, according to the report. They come from professional backgrounds and they joined hands to carry out these robberies.

The gang reportedly used Google Maps to search for temples in remote areas and then made the fool-proof plan to conduct the robbery.

After getting complaints about the series of robberies in Chamarajanagar district, the police investigated the matter and identified a pattern of the robbers. Their efforts soon paid off and they nabbed the gang.

According to the report, Chamarajanagar police told the publication that the gang looted two temples in Mysuru and nine temples in Chamarajanagar in past five months.Young women all over the world are subjected to brutal practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) that have no health benefits whatsoever. These practices are carried out due to sociocultural factors within families and communities.

Another such brutal practice has started gaining ground in the United Kingdom. As per local and international media an African practice of ironing a girls chest with hot stone to delay breast formation is spreading in the United Kingdom.

A Guardian investigation brought to light anecdotal evidence on the same. Reportedly, a thousand girls and women in the kingdom have been subjected to this painful practice. According to the publication, around 15-20 cases were discovered in south Londons Croydon town alone.

Photo: Joe Penney/Reuters; A stone used for breast-ironing is placed on a fire.

In the ironing practice, mothers, aunties or even grandmothers use a hot stone to massage across the girls breast repeatedly in order to break the tissue and stop its growth. It is done sometimes once in a week or once every two weeks depending on the outcome.

According to mothers and grandmothers, the practice is used to avoid unwanted male attention, sexual harassment and rape. According to IANS, the United Nations has described the practice as one of five global under-reported crimes relating to gender-based violence.

Photo: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images; A parent in Cameroon heats a stone to iron the breasts of her daughters

Medical experts and activists consider it as an abusive and futile practice, or even child abuse. The practice could have serious health implications for young women such as physical and psychological scars, infections, inability to breastfeed, deformities and breast cancer.

The Guardian spoke to one of the women who admitted that she started massaging her daughters chest at the first sign of puberty. I took the stone, I warmed it, and then I started massaging [my daughters chest], she was quoted as saying by the publication.

Once the girl developed bruises, the mother was questioned by the police. British-Somali anti-FGM campaigner and psychotherapist Leyla Hussein reportedly said that the victims that she encountered were all British citizens. A former nurse admitted to seeing the numbers of such women growing in the developed country.

Photo: Getty Images/ Representative Image

The British police was criticized for having knowledge of these practices but not fielding any action against them. Nyuydzewira, who was herself subjected to the abuse as a girl said that British authorities were not taking any action because they think it is a cultural practice.

FGM is another such practice which is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. According to WHO, It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.Government-owned carrier Air India has painted two of its aircraft with the logo of Mahatma Gandhi who is known as Father of the nation. His logo was embossed on the airline to mark his 150th birth anniversary.

Gandhi played a pivotal role in Indias freedom struggle as well as development of its constitution. His non-violent practice and promotion of self-reliance and sustainability made him popular all over the world.

Photo: Twitter/Aneesh Phadnis

IANS reported that at present only two aircraft had been painted with his logo and soon the entire fleet of 163 aircraft would also boast Mahatmas symbol. The iconic logo is colored in red and white and depicts the traditional charkha that forms 0 in the number 150. On the left hand side, Gandhi could be seen standing with his stick and the stick forms number 1 of 150.

The logo was embossed on Air India's Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft last week. Both the flights have been operational on both domestic and international routes. In the next three months, all aircraft belonging to Air India, Alliance Air and Air India Express will be inducted with this logo.

The symbol has been inducted on the left side of the fuselage. It takes about 5-hours to get the logo embossed on an aircraft. After that it is thrust back into service.

Photo: Twitter/Aneesh Phadnis

Speaking to IANS, an Air India official said, "We will also unveil the logo on one of the Airbus aircraft during the upcoming Aero India Show to be held in February in Bengaluru."

Not only this but the airline also plans to play Gandhiji's favourite bhajans on its flights apart from short videos on his journey on international flights. The government also plans to have Gandhiji's pictures on trains, metro rail, and State roadways buses.

Meanwhile, Times of India reported that Air India had got a clearance from DGCA for using medium-range dreamliner, non-stop flight to Caribbean. The aviation regulator nods comes a day after there were speculations abuzz that India was going to get hold of a high-profile fugitive though there was no official confirmation.They say that justice delayed is justice denied. This could not be any far from the truth in the case of three school teachers from Maharashtra.

After being in a jail for three years as undertrials accused of rape, a court in Thane acquitted the three male teachers and the female attendant in the case. The acquittal came after the medical examination failed to establish any sexual assault on the girl who was nine years old at the time of the complaint.

AP/ REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

The three men, Sanjay Patil Nilesh Bhoir and Jitendra Jadhav, who taught at a school in Mira Road was arrested on November 2015 on charges of repeatedly raping the nine-year-old girl student. The fourth accused, attendant Usha Tupe was arrested for allegedly helping them in the assault. They were booked under sections 376, 323, 504, and 506 rw 34 of the IPC and also sections 3 and 4 of the POCSO Act 2012.

The arrests were made after the girl's mother made a police complaint against them alleging that her daughter was subjected to multiple sexual assaults over a period of one year between 2014 and 2015.

BCCL/ REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

Following the complaint, there were massive protests at the school by parents of other students and the four were immediately suspended, the principal stepped down and the school decided not to appoint any male teachers.

But they were acquitted by the court after it found no evidence to establish any sexual assault in the girl's medical report.

The Times of India reported that all the four accused were released from jail a day after they were acquitted.

The report, quoting one of the defence lawyers added that CCTV footages from the school also failed to establish any kind of sexual assault.

Another defence lawyer added that the attendant, Tupe was not even working in the school during the time when the alleged assaults happened.

REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

The lawyers also hinted that the teachers were implicated in the false case by a rival school to tarnish the image of the institution. They alleged that the father of the girl was working with the rival school, adding that they are filing a defamation case against the state.

While the accused have been exonerated of the charges, they have been left jobless. The school which had initially suspended them has since adopted a policy of not having any male teachers. A trustee of the school however told The Times of India that they would help the teacher to find a job.Gujarats Gir forest is the only abode of the Asiatic lions and in October last year, 23 of these magnificent wild cats died due to Canine Distemper Virus (CDV).

Five years ago, the Supreme Court had ordered the shifting of a few lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh, where a second home was to be set so that the specie is saved from extinction, due to catastrophes like epidemics.

The order which was announced on April 15, 2013 was never acted upon and now the Madhya Pradesh government has sought the Centres help in getting Asiatic lions from Gir. PTI reported that in a letter to the Ministry of Environment, the state forest department and Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) felt that process of shifting lions could be started immediately.

A copy of the letter was obtained by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey. According to some other documents which were accessed by Dubey through RTI request, the MP government has incurred Rs 14.84 crore in shifting 1,543 families so that lions could smoothly enter the sanctuary.

Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Sheopur district of Gwalior division was selected by the M.P government as the second home for around 500 Asiatic lions. A thousand families were translocated from 24 villages of the particular area.

Photo: BCCL/Representative

However, since 2013 not a single lion has been shifted. The Gujarat government has been reluctant in shifting lions and reportedly have said that they would wait until the completion of studies as per the relocation guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), before any lions are sent to Madhya Pradesh.

In September last year, when the initial deaths of Gir lions had started making rounds, a meeting was attended by representatives of Gujarat and MP governments besides a renowned wildlife scientist in which the issue of lion shifting had cropped up.

As per PTI, the scientist had said Palpur-Kuno was ready to accommodate 40 lions from Gujarat.

Photo: Reuters

Lion population in Gir was estimated to be at 523 lions, including 109 male, 201 female, 73 sub-adults and 140 cubs in 2015 census. It is since estimated to have gone up to nearly 600.

With nearly one-third of them living outside the core, which makes them susceptible to viruses relocating at least some of the lion population becomes crucial for the species.

Congress Leader Atul Chouhan had told PTI last year, "The Vijay's Rupani government had admitted (in Gujarat Assembly) that in the last two years 184 lions died in Gir due to infighting, contagious infections, floods and railway accidents, among other reasons. Despite this no lion was shifted.

CDV can spread from dogs in the wild and had even killed around 1,000 lions in Tanzanias Serengeti National Park in 1990s.I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

This quote by Nikola Tesla pretty much sums up his whole life. Born in what is now known as Croatia, Tesla grew up with a mother who was a bit of an inventor herself. She would make tools and mechanical devices that helped with household chores. Tesla was always inspired by his mother and often credited her for his prolific memory. In fact, his ability to do integral calculus in his head often made his high school teachers think that he was cheating but really, Tesla was just a genius.

Also read: World's Oldest Nobel Prize Winner, 96-Year-Old Scientist Will Make Electricity Cheap For All

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His father, who was a priest, wanted Tesla to join the priesthood as well but Tesla caught cholera right after graduation in 1873. He wasnt just bedridden but also was close to dying multiple times. His sad father then told him hell send him to an engineering school if he recovers. Unfortunately, he was conscripted for the army which made him run away from home and he actually spent time just hiding in the woods. It was in 1875 that he could finally join a college in Austria and even got scholarship for it.

He worked extremely hard during his first year and to the extent that his professors often sent his father letters warning him that Tesla might die of overwork. And well, their warnings were not baseless because he worked from 3am to 11pm and didnt even take weekends off. However, Tesla never really graduated because he got involved with gambling.

He got over his addiction and found himself working in Budapest with a telegraph company. He worked really hard given his love for technology and was soon given the chief electrician position. However, he left for a better opportunity with Continental Edison Company in Paris. He really had a knack for everything technology and in no time, he was already visiting multiple facilities of the company to overlook any engineering issues.

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In 1884, Tesla went to the US to work with Edison Machine Works, a manufacturing unit. Thats when his struggle really began. Now, he was an inventor and the struggle for him wasnt regarding his creativity. Rather, his struggle pertained to investment issues and patents. Tesla might have met Edison only a couple of times but Edison apparently told Tesla that if he was able to improve his DC, hed be given a hefty amount. Once Tesla was done with the work, Edison refused to pay him the money, saying it was only a practical joke. Tesla left immediately and never looked back.

The company he started next was with the help of two investors but unfortunately, they took little interest in what Tesla thought was his groundbreaking project. He wanted to make the usage of electricity more widespread and efficient. Hence, his aim was to come up with alternating current which is something we use today. However, the investors backed out pretty much after he had set up operations in 1886 and he even lost his patents to them. He was left penniless and had to work multiple menial jobs to survive. In that moment, he later recalled, he felt like all his education was a mockery.

Also read: Shower Was Invented In The 1800s Because Doctors Thought It Cured Mental Illness. No Kidding!

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It was in 1887 that he was able to set up Tesla Electric Company with the help of two investors again. It was definitely difficult for Tesla for he had decided to compete with Edisons DC or direct current technique. Edison, as we all know, was a rather famous inventor and to even convince someone that his method wasnt efficient enough was like sin. Edison knew of Teslas efforts since he had worked with Edisons company but believed that it was highly impractical.

A historic moment took place when it came to lighting the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893. Edison and Teslas investors both submitted quotes with Edison saying he could light the whole fair for $554,000, while they said it could be done for $399,000. Teslas technology won the contract, and after the fair AC became more popular and, eventually, the dominant electrical system that we still use today.Ranveer Singh is one actor who is not just loved by his fans but also his critics, co-actors and all the filmmakers he works with. Everyone has only good things to say about him. From Band Baaja Baraat to Gully Boy, Ranveer Singh's film journey has been a roller coaster that has only gone up.

With two smashing hits including Padmaavat and Simmba, the actor is all geared up for the release of Zoya Akhtar's upcoming film Gully Boy, which is loosely based on the lives of Mumbai's underground rappers Vivian Fernandes aka Divine and Naved Shaikh aka Naezy.





From showing the struggles of street rappers of Mumbai to showcasing their inspiring story, Gully Boy is one of the most awaited releases of the year. The trailer of the film has already managed to create a lot of buzz.

In a recent interview with Mid-day Naezy praised Ranveer Singh for his hard work and effort in pulling off the character that is hugely inspired by him and his life. He said,

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We would constantly speak about the indie scene in India. Ranveer has rapped earlier, so that made things easier for him. Apart from that, he is a great observer. He would study us  from our body language, to how we create lyrics for our songs and the kind of language we use in them. When you look at him in the film, it feels as if he has become one of us."

Naezy added that to get into the skin of his character, Ranveer used to listen to his track Aane De, on loop. Well, he is a method actor and in no way can we ignore the hard work he puts in, in all his roles.We are in 2019 and the kind of films Bollywood is offering us, it surely deserves appreciation.

Be it compelling biopics or making homosexual love stories, film directors are open to experimentation and taking up bigger risks and challenges. Bollywood producer and director Karan Johar expressed his desire of taking up a project to direct the unconventional tale of love between a gay couple.

Johar was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he expressed his desire to create a homosexual love story that comes from the heart. He said that his idea of heartfelt gay romance would feature two lead actors who as of now remain undecided. He said,

Being a leading filmmaker, I can make movies on the subject. I would love to make a homosexual love story and would want to cast two leading actors in the film. I dont have in mind specific names of the actors I want to cast in the film, but I surely want to make such a film."

Earlier, KJo had made Dostana featuring John Abraham, Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra and Abhishek Bachchan that revolved around a funny story of three friends.

Dharma

Even though the film touched the topic of homosexuality, it was used in the context of adding funny take which ended up losing its subjective importance. Let's see how KJo redeems himself and take this challenge up.Bollywood actress Amrita Rao is one of the few celebrities who looks like the girl next door even after so many years. Her claim to fame was Ishq Visq and Main Hoon Na and she soon became a popular face.

Families connected with her innocence and choice of films. But she soon took a gap after her wedding. And now the actress is back again with Thackeray. She will be seen playing Meenatal alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

In of our earlier interviews, Amrita had revealed how she lost out on big projects because she has no sugar daddies. She also has reservations in doing love making scenes.

She said: "As the cinema is changing, on-screen kissing, love-making scenes are becoming part of the narrative. I am not saying it is wrong, because it is the reflection of how our society has changed and become comfortable with it. But I am uncomfortable performing it on screen. Love-making is so personal to me that if I do it on screen, it is like I am leaving a part of my soul. I cannot do that."

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According to her, it is not about "right or wrong, it is just about a choice that we all make."

Her performance and on-screen chemistry with actor Shahid Kapoor in Ishq Vishq and Vivah was highly appreciated.

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When asked if she would like to act with him again, Amrita said: "Well after 'Vivah', we should have done more films together but I really do not know why it did not happen. The good thing is that there is still an audience waiting for us to come together and do a film. Like audience, even I am looking forward to such an occasion to happen."

Amrita also said that she would like to work with actor Ayushmann Khurrana in because she "enjoys watching him on screen a lot." Here's hoping we get to see more of her in the coming year.

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.We took off early but made a stop at our cousins house. She fed us and then I decided we would live in the mountains. So, why the mountains? Well, Im not sure. Perhaps it was because there was heavy foliage in the adjoining jungle. So it made it easy to remain hidden. Or maybe it was the wild fruit trees that existed in that area that I had heard so many others speak about. Or perhaps it was the fact that the mountain I had targeted was surrounded by sugar cane fields as far as the eye could see. Well, regardless of the reason(s), it was going to be our new home  and we were excited to get there.

We left our cousins house and started our journey towards the mountain top. We actually found an abundance of food growing along our path. We found cucumbers, okra and an assortment of berries. My sister tried the okra and it almost made her sick. Although I never tried it, I remember her telling me okra was nasty. She warned me that we had to find better food, or we would go hungry. It had only been a few hours so I didnt give her comment much thought. However, based on her reaction to the okra, I did consider her request well founded  so it remained active in the back of my mind.What is driving the concern is a U.S. government discovery that someone within our own government is either selling or providing secret information to the Russians on a major U.S. arms breakthrough. This is a vital weapons project upon which a few billion dollars have been spent to develop this landmark achievement. They know the traitor is either a very high placed civilian or a senior long-time military member. A major part of this story is devoted to the American investigation of who is betraying our country.

One of the more interesting back stories is the death of a high ranking U.S. official and how this is accomplished. Another surprising insight is the illustrations of how the Russian elite live in extraordinary luxury in their country while at all times fearing how this lifestyle can and sometimes is suddenly snatched away by Putin for various surprising reasons.

The purportedly situational accuracy of this novel is breathtaking and contains a surprise thread left hanging which I think will make most readers wish for a sequel to this quite successful trio of excellent books. As in the previous two novels the author continues to include a recipe for a meal that is featured or referenced in the preceding chapter. My wife and I have tried a couple of them and they are quite good and relatively easy to prepare.Those who know me and still talk to me know I always wanted to be a wheelin-dealin kiss-stealin gear-jammin coffee-slammin truck-driving daddy sweet talking every carrot-top waitress from the Queen City to Shaky-Town.

But the journalism gig came along and my long-haul trucking dreams faded like the CB radio craze. I figured I would never get the opportunity to tour this great land of ours behind the wheel of a sweet rig. But it appears that opportunity has finally pulled in to the terminal.

Oscar Meyer is hiring a driver for the Wienermobile.

Sure, its not a Kenworth or a Peterbilt, but it is an impressive vehicle and Oscar Meyer is offering someone the chance to drive it around the country (at least for one year).

The company is taking applications through Jan. 31 to become a Hotdogger starting this June and continuing for 12 months. The perfect Hotdogger, in addition to driving the Wienermobile, would represent the Oscar Meyer brand as a goodwill ambassador through radio and television appearances, newspaper interviews, according to the news release.

Here is a portion of the cover letter I plan to send a long with my resume and application.Pope Francis called for a just and peaceful solution to Venezuelas political crisis as he wrapped up a visit to Panama for a World Youth Day rally that was overshadowed by the upheaval unfolding nearby.

He refused to say if the Holy See would recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido in his claim for the presidency, which has been backed by the United States and other regional leaders.

The Vatican has been frustrated in the past in its attempts to mediate between socialist President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuelas opposition, which has the backing of many Venezuelan bishops.

Here in Panama, I have thought a lot about the Venezuelan people, to whom I feel particularly united in these days. In the face of the serious ongoing situation, I ask you to pray that a just and peaceful solution may be reached.  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) January 27, 2019

Speaking off the cuff at his Sunday blessing, Pope Francis said he felt particularly close to Venezuelans while he was in Panama.

He asked the Lord to seek and find a just and peaceful solution to overcome the crisis that respects human rights and exclusively seeks the good of all people.

The Venezuela crisis has dominated his visit to Panama, both behind the scenes and in public, with the Pope at one point asking out loud if any Venezuelan bishops were on hand at the end of an event.

The Vaticans secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was former ambassador to Venezuela so he knows the situation well.

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Francis made the Venezuela comments after he closed out World Youth Day with a Mass in a Panama City field before an estimated 700,000 people and presidents from Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Portugal.

You dear people are not the future but the now of God, Francis told the pilgrims draped in flags from across the Americas.

At the end of the service, the Vatican announced the next edition of World Youth Day would be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

Our trip was very long but it was worth it because we came here to Panama City because of our faith, our Christian faith, said pilgrim Sawadogo Kiswensidad, who travelled from Burkina Faso.

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After Mass, Francis visited a church-run home for people infected with HIV, sending a strong message of acceptance in Panama, where AIDS carries a stigma.

Many of the people we help here have been rejected by their families, by people in the street, said the Rev Domingo Escobar, director of the Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano.

But here they receive Christian help, as the Church wants.

Using the parable of the Good Samaritan, who tended to a stranger in need, Francis called for an end to the indifference that society treats the poor and the sick.

For indifference can also wound and kill, he said.

Some for a few miserable coins, others for fear of becoming unclean.

The Good Samaritan, whether in the parable or in all of your homes, shows us that our neighbour is first of all a person, someone with a real, particular face, not something to avoid or ignore, whatever his or her situation may be.

Francis used his visit to the home to issue a string of appeals beyond Venezuela.

He appealed for peace in Colombia following a car bombing at a police academy that killed 21 people earlier this month, denounced the bombing of a cathedral in the Philippines earlier on Sunday and added his voice to the chorus of solidarity on Holocaust Remembrance day.

After meeting with World Youth Day volunteers, Francis was heading back to the Vatican to prepare for another trip next weekend to Abu Dhabi, the first by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula.Soldiers and police cordon off the area (WESMINCOM Armed Forces of the Philippines Via AP)

At least 27 people have been killed and more than 70 injured after two bombs were detonated outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital during Sunday mass.

A second blast occurred outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Police said at least 27 people died and 77 were wounded.

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The dead were 20 civilians and seven soldiers, and the wounded were 14 troops, two police and 61 civilians.

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past.

Troops in armoured carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital.

Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

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I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans, said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organisation because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead.

Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it.

The province is home to a rival rebel faction that is opposed to the deal as well as the Abu Sayyaf group, which is not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact.

They worry that small numbers of Islamic State-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.Donald Trump was licking his wounds in the White House this weekend after some of his most enthusiastic fans called him a "wimp" for backing down over the US government shutdown.

In one of the biggest gambles of his presidency, Trump shut down large swathes of his own state apparatus for more than a month in a high-stakes game of poker with Democrats. He was seeking agreement for $5.7bn for his Mexican border wall, but ended up with nothing after succumbing to pressure.

His opponent, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives, walked away with the plaudits. Her belief that voters would blame Trump for the shutdown chaos was borne out in polls, some of which put the president's approval rating eight points down since the shutdown.

Lou Dobbs, a Fox Business Network host, declared: "Pelosi has just whipped the president of the US. I'm an animated, energetic supporter of this president, but you've got to call it as it is."

Ann Coulter, the conservative author of the 2016 bestseller In Trump We Trust, said: "Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as president of the USA."

Americans had become exasperated by the 35-day shutdown which had left 800,000 government workers unpaid, including Nasa scientists, employees at museums and Secret Service agents at the White House.

In Washington, the day before the shutdown ended, reporters saw FBI employees arriving for free meals at a soup kitchen near the White House. Agents said they were no longer able to pay confidential sources in terrorism and drug investigations.

White House officials admitted the president had been, at least temporarily, outfoxed by Pelosi. "Perhaps Trump lost the short-term battle," one conceded.

The US government is now funded until February 15 and a "conference committee" of Republicans and Democrats in Congress will try to reach a compromise. If the stalemate continues until February 15 the US government could shut down again.

An AP poll showed Trump's approval rating falling to 34pc from 42pc a month earlier. S&P Global Ratings said: "The US economy lost at least $6bn, larger than the $5.7bn that the White House demanded for the border wall."

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Taliban officials said US negotiators yesterday agreed a draft peace deal stipulating the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan within 18 months of the agreement being signed. (stock picture)

Taliban officials said US negotiators yesterday agreed a draft peace deal stipulating the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan within 18 months of the agreement being signed.

The details were given by Taliban sources at the end of six days of talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar aimed at ending the region's long war.

They have yet to be confirmed by US officials nor has either side released an official statement.

According to the Taliban sources, the hardline Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Isil militants to attack the US or its allies - a key early demand of Washington. It is not known if the draft is acceptable to both sides or when it will be completed and signed.

The Taliban sources said a key provision to the deal included a ceasefire but they had yet to confirm a timeline and will only open talks with Afghan representatives once the ceasefire is implemented.

Up until now, the Taliban has repeatedly rejected the Afghan government's offer of holding talks, preferring instead to talk directly to the US side, which it regards as its main enemy.

News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces.

Despite the presence of US-led foreign forces training, advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts 17 years after the US led an invasion to drive them from power, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan and 45,000 Afghani security forces have been killed since 2014.

Taliban sources also confirmed provisions in the draft that have broader implications for Afghanistan's ties with its neighbours in Pakistan, India and China.

They said the deal included provisions that Baloch separatist militants will not be allowed to use Afghan soil to target Pakistan. Balochistan, a resource-rich yet often-neglected province in south west Pakistan, has produced separatist insurgencies for more than 60 years.The world is marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others during the Second World War.

In Poland, which was under Nazi occupation during the war, a far-right activist who has served prison time for burning the effigy of a Jew gathered with other nationalists outside the former death camp of Auschwitz ahead of official ceremonies remembering the 1.1 million people murdered there.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Together, we must learn from genocide, challenge prejudice and create a better future.



Watch and share our film for #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/llk5GS3Znh  Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (@HMD_UK) January 27, 2019

Since last years observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

Human Rights First, a US organisation, recalled those killings and warned that todays threats do not come solely from the fringe.

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In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are travelling the road to authoritarianism, said Ira Forman, the groups senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism.

As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust.

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The Polish nationalist, Piotr Rybak, said his group was protesting against the Polish government, accusing it of remembering only murdered Jews and not murdered Poles in yearly observances at Auschwitz.

The accusation is incorrect. The observances at the memorial site pay homage each January 27 to all of the camps victims, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Counter-protesters at Auschwitz held up a Fascism Stop sign and an Israeli flag, while police kept the two groups apart.

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Former prisoners placed flowers at an execution wall at Auschwitz. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter P, the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

Early in the Second World War, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces. Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on January 27 1945.

The clashes of views at Auschwitz come amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

However recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during the war is declining generally.

A study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52% of millennials in Canada cannot name one concentration camp or ghetto and 62% did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

The past year in Poland has also seen high emotions triggered by a Holocaust speech law that criminalises blaming the Polish nation for the crimes of Nazi Germany, something that sparked a diplomatic crisis with Israel and a surge of anti-Semitic hate speech.

The United Nations recognised January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.An aerial view shows a destroyed bridge after the dam burst (AP)

An estimated 300 people are missing after the collapse of a dam which was holding back mining waste in south-eastern Brazil.

The death toll has risen to at least 40 after the disaster inundated a mining complex in the state of Minas Gerais.

State governor Romeu Zema warned that anyone found to be responsible for the disaster would be punished.

According to reports, the complex, owned and operated by Brazilian company Vale, was issued an expedited licence to expand in December due to decreased risk.

Environmental groups in the area say this approval was unlawful.

A total of 23 people were taken to hospital after the collapse, according to the Minas Gerais fire department.

There had been some signs of hope earlier on Saturday when authorities found 43 people alive. Company officials also had said that 100 workers were accounted for.

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Vale workers were eating lunch on Friday afternoon when the dam collapsed, unleashing a sea of reddish-brown mud that knocked over and buried several of the companys buildings as well as the surrounding areas.

The level of devastation quickly led President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials to describe it as a tragedy.

The rivers of mining waste have also raised fears of widespread contamination.

According to Vales website, the waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

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Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what had caused the collapse. He confirmed about 300 employees were working on the site when it happened.

After the dam collapsed, parts of the town of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Several helicopters flew over the area on Saturday while firefighters carefully traversed heavily inundated areas looking for survivors.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and a Vale administrative office, where employees were present.

On Friday, Minas Gerais state court blocked 260 million dollars (197 million) from Vale for state emergency services and is requiring the company to present a report about how they will help victims. On Saturday, the states justice ministry ordered an additional 1.3 billion dollars (989 million) blocked.

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Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana, also in Minas Gerais state, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds of people from their homes.

Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic metres of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr Schvartsman said what happened on Friday was a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.

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Mr Bolsonaro, who assumed office on January 1, took part in a flyover of the area on Saturday.

On Twitter, he said his government would do everything it could to prevent more tragedies like Mariana and now Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underlined a lack of regulation, and many promised to fight any further deregulation by Mr Bolsonaro in Latin Americas largest nation.Meet the Mega Monk. The modern-day version of the wise old man sitting on top of the mountain. Except he is here, among us, experiencing modern life in all its hell and glory.

With over two million followers online and five million copies of his two books sold - Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down and his latest offering Love for Imperfect Things, Haemin Sunim is officially the world's most influential Zen Buddhist.

And the best thing about him? Well, he's just as human as the rest of us. If you're struggling to stay mindful amid the stress and strain, fear not. Haemin feels just the same.

"My biggest weakness," he says, "is I wish I could live my life more like what I am saying. That is my honest truth. Sometimes when I feel depressed I read my book and it helps. I do my best to close the gap between my behaviour and my work but it is a lifetime practice."

He says the last time he lost his temper was "two days ago". The New York subway was down due to maintenance work and Haemin had to find an alternative way to the station where his train departed at noon. He arrived at 12.01.

Frustrated at having to buy a new ticket, he did what he encourages others to do and took a moment out to consider the good in a bad situation. It's what he calls "the filter of light".

"Firstly, I remembered, due to the cold weather I hadn't had a chance to exercise that week. Then I realised I was out of breath and sweating. So this was great exercise.

"Secondly, I had one hour to use and rather than get chips on the train, I realised I could have a good meal. It's impossible to get good Mexican food in Korea, so here I could take the opportunity to enjoy it." Although he has dedicated his life to mindfulness, even Haemin admits he has to work at not letting the critics steal his peace of mind.

"Initially, when I first put my message on social media, I became very interested in what other people were saying about it," he says.

"Even though 95pc of the comments were positive, the human mind tends to gravitate towards the negative 5pc. So I was becoming very critical and hard on myself. I realised this is not just me, a lot of people feel this way. We zero in on negative comments that make us feel lousy."

His advice is to remember - in the grand scheme of things - people give us much less thought than we imagine.

"Although we think other people think about us a lot, actually they don't," he says.

"For example, try to remember what your friend was wearing a week ago. Can you remember? No. And yet, when we go out, we believe, 'My friend will judge me on my appearance'.

"So don't give so much power to other people's opinions. They don't really care as much as you think."

His new book, translated into over 30 languages, offers practical bite-sized pieces of Buddhism and encourages us to embrace our imperfections. So why should we love the imperfect? I ask.

"Let me give you some down-to-earth advice," he says. "When I first became a monk, I had this idea of what would make a perfect monk.

"I thought I had to behave in a very sincere way. And naturally I was hoping my master would do the same. However, when I met my master he was not very sincere at all. He would make jokes and had a fierce temper. I was very upset and wondered why I had been assigned to a monk who was so imperfect.

"Around that time I had a very good monk friend who invited me to his home temple. When I went there his master was very sincere and educated. I was very envious.

"Ten years later I met him and asked how his master was. He told me they were no longer in touch. He said because his master was so perfect he expected all his disciples to behave just like him. But they could never live up to that."

Haemin learned a lifelong lesson. He realised his relationship with his master could grow and was not abandoned due to crushed expectations at the first sign of trouble.

"Because my master knew he was not perfect he always had much more patience with me. He was also much more willing to forgive."

Which brings him to the meaning of life. "We are here to grow," he explains. "Each painful experience gives us an opportunity to grow our compassion."

Only when people are willing to drop the exhausting veneer of perfection, he says, will they experience deeper and more meaningful connections.

"One of the reasons we cannot open ourselves up is down to the belief, 'If I expose the imperfect things about myself then the other person may judge me or not accept me.' That fear makes us close up," he says.

"Only when we have the courage to be vulnerable and speak our truth - no matter how difficult - will the other person's heart open and there is a good chance this person will also respond with the same level of honesty.

"You also might hear some of the difficulties this person is going through. You will realise we are all human and struggling."

Educated at Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton and now basking in the glow of financial success thanks to his books, the monk says the most luxurious item he has splashed out on is a MacBook Pro. "I like my Apple products," he says. But he adds: "I think it's important to treat ourselves from time to time."

At the same time he keeps in mind that "trying to find your own self worth in money or the accolades you collect will leave you feeling it's never enough".

Instead happiness, he says, relies on the ability to appreciate the present moment.

"The sun in the afternoon, nature, a nice coffee on a Sunday morning, the good feeling you get after exercising or seeing a friend you haven't seen in a few weeks. If you can cultivate an ability to do that, that is where happiness lies."

As for the best piece of advice he can offer? He apologises for the fact it sounds "a little bit spiritual". Pausing for a moment, he considers, then concludes: "That which you are seeking the most, you already have in your pocket."

'Love for Imperfect Things' is in bookshops nowThe fashion world can be so sizeist, so this week we decided to look at the topic from the inside out, so to speak.

Our lingerie shoot explores a selection of really beautiful pieces that are for women with larger busts who may feel that they can't find something that is both stunning and supportive. The lingerie comes from Arnotts and the Dublin department store stock 20 lingerie brands where back sizes start at 30 and go to 44 and cup sizes cater from an A right through to K.

"The first thing everyone notices when they get correctly fitted is that they slouch less and stand taller. In addition to how you physically feel, as your silhouette is often lifted clothing tends to drape better and many women comment on how they feel like they have a waist again," reports Rachelle Hanley, the store's lingerie and accessories buyer.

The main issue that the expert fitters in store come across is customers wearing a back size that is just far too big for them.

Rachelle recommends a useful guide is to equate the band size of your bra to your dress size. "For example, a 36 back is equal to a size 14. Therefore if you wear a size 10 in clothing and wear a size 36 back then you can be relatively certain that you need to go down at least a size in the back. There are always exceptions to this rule but it's a guide that I find rings true for most customers. The other thing to take into consideration, especially once your bust size is above a B cup, is that the majority of the support your bra is giving comes from the band. Therefore if you are wearing a back size that is too big for you then you are not giving your bust the support it needs," Rachelle says.

Another mistake she regularly comes across is women fastening their bra at the tightest hook but she says "when you first buy a bra it should be fitted to the loosest hook in order to give your bra longevity."

Expand Close InWear cream mohair mix cardigan, 140; Gina sage green contrast panel chemise, 140, available in sizes 8-14 / Facebook

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Whatsapp InWear cream mohair mix cardigan, 140; Gina sage green contrast panel chemise, 140, available in sizes 8-14

All items available in Arnotts lingerie department on the first floor where you can avail of a complimentary fitting service.

Photography: Barry McCall assisted by Dylan Madden

Expand Close Ginia navy silk wrap pyjama top, part of set, 230; Fantasie white lace bra, 53, available in sizes 30E-36FF, matching brief, 29 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ginia navy silk wrap pyjama top, part of set, 230; Fantasie white lace bra, 53, available in sizes 30E-36FF, matching brief, 29

Styling: Catherine Condell assisted by Kitty McLaughlin

Model: Dioni Tabbers at Models 1

Expand Close DKNY grey pyjama top, sold as set in sizes XS-L, 78; Fantasie Forrie print bra, 53, available in sizes 30E-36G, matching brief, 29, sizes XS-XL / Facebook

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Whatsapp DKNY grey pyjama top, sold as set in sizes XS-L, 78; Fantasie Forrie print bra, 53, available in sizes 30E-36G, matching brief, 29, sizes XS-XL

Hair: Stephen Kelly for Zeba at Arnotts

Makeup: Lesley Keane for MAC at Arnotts, assisted by Samantha RyanThe ongoing crisis around the building of a National Children's Hospital in Dublin is beginning to feel like every episode of Grand Designs combined into one.

The Channel 4 series follows couples as they set about constructing their dream homes from scratch. Each storyline follows the same structure. A budget is set, and builders brought in; to begin with, all goes swimmingly. At some point, the presenter returns, only to find that costs have spiralled out of control, and the couple are on the verge of divorce and/or murder.

There's even a drinking game based on the show which involves taking a shot every time some particular disaster strikes, and the makers once admitted editing an entire episode in order to get viewers as drunk as possible.

Had anyone tried to make a drinking game out of the money pit that's become of the National Children's Hospital (NCH), they'd be on the floor unconscious by now.

Expand Close An artist's impression of the atrium in the new National Children's Hospital / Facebook

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Whatsapp An artist's impression of the atrium in the new National Children's Hospital

At least with Grand Designs one can watch disaster unfold from afar, reassured that someone else is footing the bill. For horrified Irish taxpayers looking on as costs for the Government's latest white elephant escalate crazily, it's equivalent to watching their own money vanish down the drain.

Costs have exploded from an estimated 650m when the project was first announced, to 980m the following year, to a current estimate of 1.43bn, and more likely closer to 2bn once "extras", including IT systems, have been added in. Meanwhile, efforts to cut the budget down to size have failed to identify anything more than nominal savings.

Explaining why costs have gone up so much is harder than one might expect. The Taoiseach gave an explanation before Christmas which satisfied no one. Last week in the Dail, he had another go. Cables were mentioned. Sprinkler systems. VAT. The reasons, he assured disputatious TDs, were "multi-factoral". Again, people with a basic ability to count were left scratching their heads to explain it.

Only in government could these fiscal calamities keep happening without those responsible looking in the mirror and wondering: is it us? Even now that it's been announced there's to be a review of the cost, it's presented as if handing 450,000 to a private financial consultancy to point out a few home truths is a reasonable outlay. It could only be regarded as such in comparison to the ridiculous expense of the project overall.

Time and again, this pattern is repeated, and not just in Ireland. The Channel Tunnel went four times over budget as well, though that was at least a huge and complex engineering project. The National Children's Hospital is just a big building. Public and private enterprises have been putting up big buildings since time immemorial. They ought to have figured out a way of doing so without incurring costs which, were any other client than the taxpayer footing the bill, would lead to bankruptcy - and not just with infrastructure projects.

The various tribunals set up over the past 20 years ended up costing nearly half a billion euro; Beef Tribunal bills were still coming in two decades later.

Calculating costs up front ought to be entry-level stuff for capital projects. The final total will inevitably increase, but not by this much. That can only be explained as a political failure to plan adequately; and it happens repeatedly because, to those in government, money doesn't feel real. It's just figures on a page. Hieroglyphics.

But then is that what you're bound to get by asking the wrong people to do a job? An average workmanlike politician gets 10pc of the vote in his constituency and scrapes past the post on the final count without reaching the quota. Suddenly he's put in charge of a particular department, usually with no background in anything related to the brief, just because he's in favour with the Taoiseach of the day. Now he has literally billions of euro at his fingertips. What could possibly go wrong?

That doesn't describe Minister for Health Simon Harris, because he actually got 15pc of the vote in Wicklow, and was elected on the second count. Totally different. Nonetheless, is there anything in his background - journalism and French degree from DIT; assistant to Frances Fitzgerald when she was a senator - which would make one immediately think of him as an ideal person to take charge of billions of euro?

That's not to have a go at one individual, especially when Harris didn't even sign off on this project, he's simply been left holding the parcel when the music stops. Besides which, they all do it.

The Taoiseach himself was informed of the additional rising costs "some time around end of November", and his spokesperson is still producing meaningless waffle about "contributory factors" and "potential weaknesses" and "the effective management of public funds", as if the words have been thrown together randomly by a computer program set up to produce Vaguely Plausible Things To Say At A Time Like This.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has called for an Oireachtas inquiry into the problem, and such an enterprise would no doubt be able, with the benefit of hindsight, to diagnose very well where the NCH budget went wrong; but it would be idiocy to deny that the same TDs who presided in judgment over their fellow money wasters at any such inquiry would be equally profligate if the roles were reversed. Making rash commitments and mis-spending public money is what they all do.

When Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach came up in 1999 with the idea of a new 65,000-seater stadium, dubbed the Bertie Bowl, the initial cost was estimated at IR350m (equivalent to 444m in today's money), only for a subsequent feasibility study to suggest it would be closer to 900m.

It's doubtful that would have been the final bill either. Thankfully, the plug was pulled. Still, his successors in government, in all parties, have no shame in standing up and making equally rash pronouncements about spending, as if fooling themselves that this time they will get it right.

Put it this way. Does anyone seriously believe the Metrolink project, which will link Dublin Airport to the city centre among other aims, and which is set to begin in 2021, will be brought in within the 2.4bn budget?

Metrolink is already set to be the biggest ever capital project in the history of the State. Surely it's a safe prediction that, a decade from now, the Dail will be having the same argument about cost overruns as they're having now over the NCH. Yet Metrolink has been welcomed by TDs from all parties.

Individual voices have questioned the proposed route, and its effect on local communities, and the social inconvenience of local GAA clubs losing access to their pitches for the seven years which Metrolink is estimated to take to finish; but the cost estimates appear to have been accepted as accurate. If costs subsequently overrun, should they not bear some of the responsibility instead of being able to pick up political capital over the government of the day, of whatever hue it happens to be, by being wise after the event?

When news of the latest overrun in costs for the NCH broke in December, Independent TD Mattie McGrath recalled how, back in March 2017, he and his colleagues in the Rural Independent Group brought forward a motion demanding the Government call a halt to the project due to concerns over rising costs. Instead, he noted: "All of these concerns were ignored by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party. So it is a bit rich for them to start complaining now when the damage has been done." That goes doubly for the latest paroxysms of fiscal indignation in the Dail.

All parties have indulged these vanity projects; none ever learn the lesson, partly because original ministers rarely have to take responsibility for the mess, having moved on long since. Ministers do rely on expert guidance, both from the private sector and the civil service, but signing off on a beloved project usually just means finding an expert who agrees with you.

Since 2005, the Public Spending Code insists "departments must ensure individual projects and investment proposals meet all relevant... value-for-money tests", but that test is met as long as you can find someone willing to say the benefits will eventually outweigh the costs. Either way, it involves a huge dose of blind hope.

Those who win government contracts with estimates which subsequently appear to have been scribbled on the back of an envelope deserve censure; and it could be argued that civil servants, whose job is to advise ministers, should bear responsibility, too. They generally have more experience in these areas than politicians. Civil servants, though, still work under political direction. The buck must stop with ministers who rubber-stamp massive spending commitments and then couch inevitable failures in mealy-mouthed euphemisms.

More than 1bn will now be lost to capital spending elsewhere as a result of the NCH debacle, but the Taoiseach last week simply described that as "reprofiling".

"One of the most important words that you have to be able to say as a government that's serious about the future of the country is to say 'no'," once declared former Taoiseach Enda Kenny. That ability is all too easily lost in high office, as they get carried away by the billions at their disposal. Other people's money never runs out.

Even last week, the Taoiseach was still talking up the "enormous value" a National Children's Hospital will "bring to the country" for the next 100 years. Incompetence on a grand scale is justified by its ultimate benefits. Why should ministers fear failure when there are no consequences to it?

Perhaps we all need to shoulder some blame for repeatedly indulging ambitious ministers' grand designs. Voters turn against jobbing TDs for relatively minor misdemeanours, yet shrug off the wastage of billions of euro as if it's just another day at the office.

Aren't we guilty of not thinking of public money as real either? If we did, we surely wouldn't keep giving it to the same clowns.In an article published last week, 30 of Europe's leading intellectuals, including the Irish author Colm Toibin, issued a rallying cry against the "false prophets" of populism which have placed Europe in peril. While these philosophers, writers and historians properly acknowledged Europe's 'mistakes, lapses, and occasional acts of cowardice', the publication served as a powerful reminder of Europe's liberal values often taken for granted but now under greatest threat since the 1930s. Although not referred to in the specific, the article alluded to Brexit with regret, starting that Europe has been "abandoned from across the Channel". We must fight for the "idea of Europe" the authors exhorted.

In an address to Dail Eireann last June, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, also spoke in powerful terms about the European ideal, of how relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom "started to thaw" when both countries joined the then European Economic Community in 1973. "This is the European Union at its best, building bridges and working for peace and it shows what it means to be a member of our Union. It means agreeing to settle conflicts around a table rather than with arms. It means designing and abiding by rules to build trust and confidence between us. It means voluntarily pooling our sovereignty to make ourselves stronger. It means speaking with one voice in an increasingly volatile and unstable world and it means having the weight of 26 other partners united behind you when you need it the most. This is what Ireland can rely on, both today and in the future," he said.

Relations between Ireland and the UK have been greatly strained by the Brexit process. As both countries adopted positions to their own advantage, it was, perhaps, inevitable that such difficulties would begin to emerge. Such is the human way, and politics is nothing if not human. It will take great political leadership to manage these difficulties, particularly as the UK departure deadline comes into sharper focus, and forge a future in the interest of the peoples on these islands. We would urge political leaders in the UK and on both parts of the island of Ireland to redouble their efforts with a compatible outcome in mind. The interests of both islands, on their chosen paths, must be elevated above the political and personal grievances which have emerged. Political leaders come and go, but such constituent neighbours go on forever.

In that spirit, it is also worth reminding the European Commission president of his other words when he was awarded the honour of addressing Dail Eireann last summer. As the clock ticks down to Brexit, we must prepare for every eventuality, including no deal, he said back then. But he also wanted to be clear: "Ireland will come first." There were those, he said, who thought the other 26 countries of the European Union would abandon Ireland at the last minute for a separate deal that suits them. "Those people have not understood what being part of our Union means," he said. "I count on you to ensure Europe will stay at the heart of Ireland and you can count on me that Ireland will stay at the heart of Europe." For the good of Ireland, and Europe, Jean-Claude Juncker will be held to those sentiments and words.'Whoever is responsible for this bomb in our Beautiful City tonight," tweeted Fiachra McGuinness, proud son of Martin, last weekend after the Derry bomb, "live in Planet hate." Irritated by his sheer effrontery, I responded: "They are merely doing the kind of thing your father organised for decades, Mr McGuinness. Fortunately, unlike him, this time they didn't manage to murder anyone."

Although I didn't see any tweets from anyone supporting the bombers, on this occasion I would expect them to agree with me. The "dissidents" get absolutely furious about the hypocrisy of Sinn Fein and their rewriting of history to pretend they were murdering for equality rather than a united Ireland.

As Rory Dougan, a senior member of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee (32CSM), put it pithily after McGuinness and Gerry Adams had condemned the 1998 Omagh bomb and demanded that the Real IRA - the organisation of which his was the political wing - go out of business: "If we were wrong now, then they were wrong for all them years: and if we are right now then they are wrong."

Kevin Hannaway, Gerry Adams's estranged first cousin, one-time adjutant general of the Provisional IRA and number two to McGuinness, enlarged on this in 2013, four years after his old boss - in the words of the 32CSM - was "standing at Stormont, under the British flag, as a minister of the British crown, calling IRA volunteers 'traitors' for continuing to resist British occupation".

"The present leadership of Sinn Fein," he explained, "if they were out for an Irish Republic they failed. If they were out for civil rights they got it in 1973. So what the f***ing hell was the other 30 years of war for?"

(Say what you like about Mr Hannaway, but he's no quitter. Having abandoned the organisation he had come to despise, he soldiered on for the cause of 32-county Irish sovereignty. Last year, at the age of 70, he was imprisoned in the Republic for knowingly rendering assistance to an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA.)

Mr Hannaway is one of many true believers interviewed by political scientist Dr Marisa McGlinchey, whose invaluable Unfinished Business: The Politics of 'Dissident' Irish Republicanism is about to be launched. That there are quotation marks around "dissident" is for the simple reason that those so classified are not in fact dissidents.

As she explains, "given that non-mainstream Republicans have not altered the Republican beliefs which they have continually held, and given the 'living link' to the pre-peace process period (and in fact to the pre-1969 period)," she mostly uses terms such as "non-mainstream" and "radical republican".

Having subscribed for years to the view that the fringe are the true believers and the mainstream the dissenters, I agree with her completely, but I don't think there's much chance that her labels will stick, for Sinn Fein has done such a brilliant job of lying about history that they have gulled people into believing they are the true heirs of 1916 and the so-called dissidents are fanatical crackpots.

They are indeed, but so in my view were the 1916 leaders and every proponent of physical force since then, including the Provisionals, who ruined thousands of lives over decades until the security forces defeated them and the political wind changed. If you accept the Proclamation of the Irish Republic as dogma, it is perfectly logical to fight on.

Yet, as Dr McGlinchey points out, this does not mean that there is a homogenous group who agree about tactics or even about the kind of Ireland they want. Many of them think armed struggle is pointless in present circumstances. The Derry bomb, planted by the New IRA, was deliberately timed to coincide with the anniversary of Soloheadbeg, but many other non-mainstream groups won't be cheering at this turning up of the temperature.

Through attending their commemorations and public meetings, bothering to get to know individuals, and winning their confidence, Dr McGlinchey was able to conduct frank interviews with dozens of members from the alphabet soup (RSF, 32CSM, RNU, RSM, IRSP, CIRA and RIRA) as well as Eirigi and a scatter of independents that make up radical republicanism and disentangle similarities and differences.

Apart from loathing Sinn Fein for its authoritarianism and suspecting it's run by informers, they all reject the consent principle (that a united Ireland can be attained only through democratic means), because the right to use violence, in her words, is "the ideological rock upon which republicanism has rested", they keep the flame alive for the next generation and agree with Patrick Pearse that "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".

As local MP Gregory Campbell asked wearily: "If they are going to plant a bomb to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the so-called War of Independence then will a subsequent group be doing the same in a hundred years time?"

The Irish State still legitimates 1916 retrospectively, and Sinn Fein still honours all IRA terrorists up until 1998. Last week, Mary Lou McDonald was celebrating the murderers of Soloheadbeg and on Derry City Council, although Sinn Fein voted to "oppose recent attacks carried out in the city" and to "call on those responsible to stop these actions immediately", along with independent republican councillors they rejected an amendment saying the council was sending out "a clear and unambiguous message that violence is wrong whether that be carried out by the state or those opposed to the state past or present, and that it must be condemned".

It's taken us a century to start looking critically at our republican heritage. Is it going to take another before we accept that until we send such a message to future generations the killing will go on? As the late, great Dr Patrick McKernan, then secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, once whispered to me after we had finished listening to a ludicrous speech by a senior member of Sinn Fein: "The dead, the dead, the dead. They have left us our Fenian fools."Will Leo Varadkar's Government - in the words of Simon Coveney - be the Government that "reintroduced a physical border on the island of Ireland" in the event of a no-deal Brexit?

The short answer is yes.

The more accurate answer is the European Union, of which Ireland is a member, would oblige the Government here to reintroduce a border in such circumstances.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

What started out as a bad week for Ireland, after an EU spokesman mentioned the unmentionable - a border on the island of Ireland - later shaped up somewhat more positive, and could be more positive still come Tuesday.

Until then, Leo Varadkar needs to calm down.

Here is the general state of play

The UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, is sticking with her withdrawal agreement, which was defeated by 230 votes in the House of Commons earlier this month.

To leverage her case, she is continuing to hold out the threat of a no-deal Brexit in the belief that she can return to the EU to seek a concession on the backstop element of the deal.

To that end, May's Plan B this Tuesday is expected to include an amendment that a time limit of December 2021 be added to the withdrawal agreement.

Fearful that a Commons majority will ultimately vote for an even 'softer' Brexit, or to remain in the EU, the hardline Brexiteers are now leaning towards supporting May's deal, time-limit included.

Similarly concerned, but more motivated by its fear that Northern Ireland's bond to the UK could be weakened otherwise, the Democratic Unionist Party is also leaning towards supporting May's deal, time-limit included.

Other Conservatives, and possibly some in Labour, may also row in behind the Prime Minister's withdrawal agreement, time-limit included.

However, the backstop element is not a primary concern for many who voted against May's deal last time.

In short, it is a terrible deal for the UK, but the only one possible dictated by her red lines.

Such was the scale of her initial defeat, it is doubtful that May's Plan B will command enough support, let alone a majority, to convince the EU that a deal is in the offing, even if it were minded to be so convinced.

Meanwhile, two of the more able backbench MPs in the Commons, Yvette Cooper of Labour and Dominic Grieve of the Conservatives have amendments of their own pending on Tuesday.

Cooper is seeking to block a no-deal by giving time to a draft law that would require the Government to delay Brexit should a deal not be agreed by February 26.

In other words, if her amendment is passed, it will effectively remove May's remaining leverage with the EU.

Grieve's proposed amendment is, perhaps, potentially even more significant. He is seeking to set up weekly debates that would mean regular votes on what to do in the absence of a deal.

Grieve's amendments set aside six named days for the debates - including March 26, that is, three days before scheduled Brexit.

Ultimately, I expect this date to be crucial, perhaps the seminal moment in the tortured history of Brexit.

Should, or not, the Commons vote in favour of Cooper's motion, a majority will still have to agree to some form of Brexit.

The crucial vote, on March 26, may see a Commons majority vote to defer, by extending or even revoking Article 50, as the European Court of Justice, in a recent judgment, allows it to do.

To revoke would not necessarily mean an end of Brexit, but would allow Article 50 to be triggered again in the future, creating time for either a new, sensible deal to be negotiated under a different set of UK red lines; or, alternatively, for a second referendum to be held.

Following on from a decision to defer Brexit, there may be a leadership challenge to Theresa May and, possibly, to Arlene Foster of the DUP, or alternatively a general election may be called in the UK.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves again...

Last week by confirming that a no-deal Brexit would require the reintroduction of a border on the island of Ireland, the EU has given succour to the UK, the DUP and Brexiteers, and has made Leo Varadkar's task more difficult than it need be at this moment.

On Friday we got an indication of the level of pressure he is now under, a measure, it must be said, brought on by himself, such has been his dogmatic approach to Brexit.

By insisting on a backstop, his critics argue, Varadkar could usher in an accidental no-deal and actually introduce the very border he seeks to avoid at all costs.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and others, have since attempted to put the genie back in the bottle, but their reference to a hypothetical border based on technology, really only further makes the case that Brexiteers and the DUP have sought to make all along.

So Varadkar is left to ratchet up the rhetoric: to bolster his position, he has said that Northern Ireland's customs and regulations would still have to align with the Republic's in the event of a no-deal - to preserve the Good Friday Agreement.

He has also dismissed the notion of a high-tech border and warned of the return of soldiers and physical infrastructure on the Border: "The problem with that in the context of Irish politics and history is those things become targets," he said of such a border.

The truth is, such a border could become a target for terrorists in the future. But now might be a good time to dial down such rhetoric.

One other thing seems more evident this weekend.

Should a border be returned to Ireland as a result of a no-deal Brexit, the UK government will be blamed by many people in Ireland in the first instance; followed by the DUP and shortly thereafter the negotiation tactics of the Government, and ultimately Leo Varadkar himself, forever to be known as the man who "reintroduced a physical border on the island of Ireland".

Eventually, though, it will be the European Union itself which will come to have 'ownership' of such a border.

It is worth recalling what Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president told the Dail last June. There were those, he said, who thought the other 26 countries in the EU would "abandon Ireland at the last minute for a separate deal that suits them". Such people, he said, did not understand what it means to be part of the EU.

Now might also be a good time to remind the elites of Europe what being part of the EU really means; or is it, as I warned in December 2017, that the EU has used Ireland to flush out the UK's position?

A year later, we know what is the UK's position, and, so far, it does not spell compromise. But it could be a lot worse than even that.

For should a border be returned to Ireland, inevitable as that may be, this country's love affair with the EU, which was dealt a blow during the financial crisis, could be more seriously damaged in the long-run, and with it, the staggering but still standing middle ground of politics here.Last Monday, I sat in the Dail chamber listening to the largely mediocre centenary speeches - President Higgins's the sole exception - and reflected on Leo Varadkar's version of the fable of how to boil a frog.

Drop a frog into boiling water and it will jump out. Begin with cold water and the frog will hardly notice the slow rise in temperature until it's too late.

Leo Varadkar has been boiling the Fianna Fail frog on his backstop burner for months and by now it can't even manage a croak.

Fianna Fail is not alone of course. The rest of the Opposition also gladly donned the green jersey offered by Leo Varadkar thinking it would magically avoid a hard border.

On Fianna Fail, as the largest opposition party, fell the primary duty of probing the backstop. But by last Friday it was too lulled to notice that the Taoiseach was suddenly turning up the heat.

Last weekend Shane Ross was still being beaten up for mentioning a hard border. But by Friday, Leo Varadkar was brazenly flaunting a hard border in Fianna Fail's face as if he had no responsibility for it.

Why? Because last Tuesday, the Taoiseach found himself briefing a compliant Opposition, which he had gagged with their own green jerseys.

Fianna Fail and Labour should have challenged the Taoiseach on the fundamental flaw in his backstop strategy as follows:

How could he back Theresa May's withdrawal deal and still insist on a backstop which makes that deal impossible to deliver?

But led by Fianna Fail the Opposition filed out like sheep, consoling themselves they were being patriotic, when actually they were dodging their democratic duty to act with good authority.

This emboldened the Taoiseach to brazenly evade any blame for a hard border while making increasingly inflammatory statements - one which seemed to link the Derry bomb and Brexit was only reported in the Irish Examiner.

At least Professor Deirdre Heenan (who is a member of our Council of State) backed away from a sloppy tweet to Theresa May where she also seemed to conflate the bomb with progress on Brexit.

But not Leo Varadkar who seems happy to deal in what Lenin dubbed "excitative terror" - ie, making wild statements that whip up populist emotions.

To be fair, Sinn Fein spokesperson Matt Carthy had earlier avoided blaming the Derry bomb on Brexit and Mary Lou McDonald criticised the Taoiseach's Davos remarks about soldiers on the border.

But mostly the media has been marginally braver than the Opposition. Hard questions have been asked by Dan O'Brien and Kevin Doyle of this parish, and repeatedly in this column.

Even The Irish Times, which far too often acts as the Taoiseach's Praetorian Guard, has raised awkward questions - or at least its political editor Pat Leahy has done so.

Last Saturday week, Leahy probed the lack of challenge to the backstop strategy in a piece subtitled: 'A device that was meant to facilitate progress has instead become a barrier.'

Leahy pointed out that "within the political and administrative apparatus, any questioning of the strategy is expressed only in hushed tones".

He also quoted a Leinster House observer: "How is it a negotiating triumph if it presents the other party with something they cannot agree to?"

Fianna Fail's failure to call out the Taoiseach on the backstop contrasts with Micheal Martin's earlier courageous challenges to tribal rhetoric.

But months of being boiled in a green jersey seems to have blinded Fianna Fail to the increasing brazenness of the Taoiseach's efforts to avoid any blame.

This has helped hide the fact that while the backstop is a Fine Gael Government's baby, the entire Opposition has been roped in to act as babysitters.

Fianna Fail and the Opposition have been babysitting that Rosemary's Baby for so long they seem blind to their role as pawn in the Taoiseach's brilliant politics of blame evasion.

Behind the briefings, this is the subtext of what the Taoiseach is telling them:

"This is a win-win for me. If my green gamble pays off, I'll get all the credit. If it blows up, you all share the blame."

Instead of insisting the Government investigate alternatives to the backstop, Fianna Fail took refuge in two distractors.

The first distractor was the protracted talks on a FF-SDLP merger which was only laid to rest a few days ago - to the secret relief of many Fianna Fail supporters in Middle Ireland.

The second distractor came last week when Niall Collins moved a Bill originating in the Seanad, to boycott products from West Bank settlements.

Admittedly all parties in Opposition are prone to taking trendy stands in the hope of looking hip, but this was one of the worst I can remember for three reasons.

First, it singles out Israel as if it were the only state guilty of illegal occupations. But as an Irish Examiner editorial explained, picking on Israel risked making us look anti-semitic because it ignored other offenders such as Russia and Turkey.

Second, such a boycott cannot be confined to West Bank settlements and thus risks a backlash from American multinationals in Ireland with Israeli links.

Finally, it puts Niall Collins in bed with the kind of Trots that he normally despises - and already he is making Trotty noises and being sniffy about America.

Asked about the danger to Irish jobs, he said that the United States cannot be given "a free pass on everything simply because it provides us with jobs".

Last Monday I was glad to escape from politics to history and listen to President Higgins's call for courage in facing the challenge of the centenaries, "lest we be tempted to avert our gaze, take refuge in evasion, or seek to ignore the difficult questions they shall raise for us all".

Next day, in Dun Laoghaire Library, I heard the legendary history lecturer Michael Doran rise to that challenge in an tour de force talk on 1919.

Speaking without notes, Doran held the rapt attention of a packed auditorium, aided by a few slides. The most moving was a letter from Christy McDonnell, son of Constable McDonnell, killed at Soloheadbeg.

Last Wednesday in the Irish Independent, Joe O'Toole recalled the views of Mairtin McCormack, journalist son of Paddy McCormack, one of the IRA attacking party.

"Ten years ago Mairtin argued trenchantly that the two RIC men who died in the ambush should also be remembered at the commemoration."

Martin Mansergh replied to O'Toole next day, assuring him the RIC men's names had been added to the memorial.

This reminds me that on February 26, 2006, I took Mansergh to task for the following remarks on RTE.

"Relatives of the policemen do come from time to time to the commemoration, and honourable mention is made of them. I have no problem with that. But there is no suggestion that the people who were taking part in the struggle be put on the same level with those who, in my father's words, had the melancholy fate of falling on the wrong side of history."

Good to see he seems to have changed his mind.'The abrupt ending of existing cooperation agreements between the EU and the UK in a disorderly Brexit would have material and immediate economic implications. The impact of a 'no-deal' Brexit would permeate all areas of economic activity."

So said the Central Bank of Ireland last Friday.

Its report on the outlook for the economy attempted to analyse what would happen if Britain leaves the EU without a deal in two months' time.

The report's starkness caused some surprise. It should not have done. It has long been clear that Ireland, as a highly trade-dependent economy, is extremely vulnerable to anything that disrupts the flow of imports into the country and exports going the other way.

Before looking at the issues raised in the (flawed) report in greater detail, the past week has brought home how big a gamble the Irish Border backstop is. Hailed as a masterstroke by almost everyone in Ireland when it was put on the table 14 months ago, its huge risks are clarifying fast.

Last Monday, the foreign minister of Poland - one of the big five countries in the EU 27 - proposed effectively binning the backstop. That position reflects deep concerns among countries in central Europe about the implications for their EU funds and for their many citizens in the UK in the event of a no-deal outcome. Last Tuesday, a European Commission spokesman stated the obvious about Border checks being needed on this island if there is a no-deal Brexit.

The strains the gamble is causing among members of the Government were also evident last week. Last Wednesday, minister Michael Creed was at sixes and sevens in an interview on what could happen at the Border from March 29. In the Dail, the Taoiseach mused on the possibility of checks on Irish goods at continental ports. In the refined Alpine air of Davos last Friday, he spoke of sending troops to the Border.

From an Irish perspective, it is to be sincerely hoped the British parliament reverses its huge rejection of the EU withdrawal agreement. But if that doesn't happen over the next four to six weeks, and if the only way to avoid the worst-case scenario is for the Taoiseach to back down on the backstop, that is what he should do. The political career of one person is trivial compared to the well-being of the country.

What is at stake is clear from a cursory look at Ireland's enormous dependence on foreign trade. The value of Irish imports and exports exceeds 200pc of economic output, as measured by GDP. Britain's foreign trade is much smaller, amounting to only 60pc of its GDP. In other words, Ireland is more than three times more trade-dependent than is our Brexiting neighbour. Of course, not all of Ireland's trade is with Britain. But a lot of it is, either directly or via the 'land bridge' with the continent. As such, it is perfectly possible a no-deal Brexit could cause a greater shock to the Irish economy than to the British economy.

Despite this, the Central Bank stated last week: "The fact that the Irish economy would continue to grow in 2019 and 2020 in a disorderly Brexit reflects the strong and broad-based expansion in economic activity." There are two serious problems with this.

First, to state that the economy will grow regardless of the Brexit outcome as a "fact" is simply wrong. Forecasts are predictions about the future. They are not facts.

Second, it is possible that the Irish economy could grow this year even with a no-deal Brexit, but it is more likely to contract given the scale of disruption the bank's economists accurately describe.

One only has to consider what its counterpart institution in London is saying about a worst-case scenario for the UK economy in the event of a no-deal. The Bank of England has stated that the British economy could contract by as much as 8pc this year if chaos ensues from the start of the second quarter. Such a slump would be the deepest in living memory and worse even than the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis of late 2008.

The Bank of England has good reason to make dire warnings: it wants to bring home to politicians and the public how bad things could get if Britain goes off the Brexit cliff in two months' time. The Irish Central Bank appears less concerned about influencing opinion.

Of the channels through which the economy would be affected by a crash-out Brexit, the bank's economists very correctly discuss imports before exports. So far in discussion, both in public and in private, the concerns of exporting businesses get far more attention than the risks to imports. This is a mistake because consumers matter more than producers. Everyone, for instance, consumes food, while only a small minority of the population is involved in producing food.

Another reason that imports need more discussion is because they are likely to be subject to more disruption in the event of a no-deal. The British have been signalling - from the very highest level - that trucks arriving from Ireland at Holyhead and elsewhere will be treated no differently than they are now, at least in the initial period after March 29.

They will do this even if the EU side imposes new customs controls and levies tariffs (taxes) on British goods coming into the EU. Nobody I have spoken to who follows these matters closely has heard anything to the contrary.

The British are basing their no-deal planning on the "continuity principle" for the simple reason that they want to minimise the initial disruption. As a country that imports more food than it exports, keeping inflows of foodstuffs will be particularly important. The risk of sold-out supermarkets, shortages of basics and panic buying would be much reduced if British ports made no changes to how trucks are treated when they arrive by sea.

This should give some succour to Irish exporters. Even in a worst-case scenario, they are unlikely to suffer major delays in getting their produce into the British market or to be hit with new tariffs, in the first few weeks at least. For businesses shipping perishables across the water, that will be particularly important.

But that may be only comfort exporters have. Sooner or later, Britain would probably match any new tariffs the EU imposes on British goods. And long before that happens, Irish companies would be hit by a collapse in sterling.

One of the many remarkable things about the Brexit fiasco has been the recent behaviour of financial markets.

Traders believe there is little chance of a no-deal crash-out. For this reason, the British pound has remained surprisingly strong vis a vis the euro and other currencies.

In the days and weeks to come, and if no-deal is not ruled out, the trading herd will take fright. If and when it does, there will be a stampede out of sterling. Given some other fundamental weaknesses in the British economy - most notably its large deficit on its balance of international payments - it is very easy to see the pound falling to parity with the euro.

Such a shift in sterling would also impact the tourist industry. British visitors still account for a sizeable chunk of foreign tourist arrivals. With their pound worth far less in this jurisdiction, which is already pricey when compared to many rival destinations, arrivals would fall off sharply.

That would be compounded by the expected slump in the UK economy, with higher unemployment and much greater uncertainty for consumers.

Curiously, the Central Bank did not mention tourism at all in its report last Friday. That omission may have contributed to its far too rosy outlook for a no-deal scenario. It might well come to rue its statement of 'fact' about continued growth in the Irish economy.When Bono channelled John Maynard Keynes's "animal spirits" at Davos this week to talk about how capitalism is a wild beast that, if not tamed, can and has chewed up a lot of lives, he could have been talking about technology.

"We need to re-imagine it, re-purpose it, remake it, in our own image and the image of this new generation coming through is that they really, really want their world back", he said.

When he talked about how capitalism is amoral, not immoral, he could have been talking about big tech, the most powerful branch of capitalism right now. While tech spouts platitudes about doing no evil, the main guiding principal of tech has too often been that all progress is by definition a good thing. If we can do it, we should do it, and we can worry about the morality and ethics, or indeed the usefulness of it, later.

Ask people why they are not upgrading their iPhones as often and one of the reasons is that no one feels the need to have huge tech advances like facial recognition on their phone and the people who do have facial recognition seem to think it's a pain in the ass. It is perhaps the product of high-functioning tech geeks who've watched too many sci-fi movies.

The iPhone is probably the biggest impacting and most magical day-to-day tech that many people use. But the sometimes most valuable company in the world employing thousands of engineers to improve the iPhone cameras slightly, or get rid of the home button, would strike you as a bit of a waste of energy.

Conor Faughnan, of AA, had a slightly different take on when human beings meet capitalism and tech on Friday. He was talking about how loads of people slowed down to look at a fatal accident on the M50 on Thursday and to take photos and videos of the distressing aftermath of the accident in which Jackie Griffin died and to post them on various online platforms.

This represented, Faughnan said, "the dark side of human nature". All this wonderful technology that could change lives and the best some of us can do with it is rubberneck at a tragedy.

Mark Zuckerberg was out again last week defending Facebook. Zuck portrayed himself as an innocent dreamer who just wanted to make a way for people to connect with other people, with their friends, families and communities. He also pointed out that Facebook allows hundreds of thousands of small businesses to thrive, so Facebook has in fact created "millions of jobs".

The same day as we read Zuckerberg's latest apologia, we also read that Facebook was aware for years that it was making millions of dollars from kids playing games on Facebook who were spending their parents' money on in-game purchases without realising it.

According to internal documents released on Friday as part of a class-action lawsuit, Facebook called it "friendly fraud" and argued internally not to stop it. Perhaps most chillingly, kids who spent a lot of money on games like Angry Birds were referred to by Facebook as "whales", the term used for big hitters in Vegas.

So that's how two of the biggest companies in the world are reinventing the future - better cameras on your 1,000 quid phone in case you come across a car accident and getting kiddies to connect with their families through spending their parents' money. Obviously we can't just blame the tech for everything. Human nature plays a part here too. And obviously technology is changing our lives in all kinds of other ways.

But the front-end consumer-facing side of tech seems to be increasingly geared towards trying to get people to spend more money on things we don't need, rather than making the world a better place. So soon we will all have bendable phones, because we were all crying out for them, 8K TV because our TVs aren't gigantic and sharp enough as it is. And soon we will be able to get an even greater variety of restaurant food delivered to our homes. On it goes.

One of the more useful-sounding bits of news about the potential benefits of tech last week was Jim Daly and Robert Troy's idea about bringing Uber to rural Ireland. Talk about connecting people with their friends, families and communities.

We all accept there are various issues around Uber, notably for the taxi industry, who do not wish to be disrupted by all this new tech (don't tell them about the self-driving cars). But it seemed on the face of it a great example of taking an existing need, and trying to apply new tech to it. It certainly sounds more useful than a TV with a curved screen that has a slightly higher definition, so good it is not discernible to the naked eye.

It makes you wonder if we could look again at the interface between tech companies and government. Tech companies are not very good at doing things in the public interest and governments aren't very good at tech or innovation or solving problems. Is there not room for better synergies between the two? Might a bit of friendly guidance from governments, some directions on societal needs help Big Tech rediscover some sense of purpose? Tech companies would get to solve problems where there were actual needs and they might even repair their reputations.

Of course tech is being used for good in many ways. Bono mentioned delivery drones changing lives in Rwanda. Bono was at Davos announcing a new venture he's involved in called Y Analytics, which will develop metrics for analysing the impact of social and environmental investments, the idea being they work with investors to make decisions that benefit society, as well as making money for shareholders.

This kind of so-called "purposeful capitalism" is very much in vogue, the notion that companies should exist to serve the workers, customers, communities and society at large, as against being just about the enrichment of wealthy shareholders. Assets invested in funds that prioritise social and environmental goals have quadrupled to $12tn in the past 10 years. The head of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, wrote to CEOs last year to tell them that with governments failing to prepare for the future, people wanted companies to be about more than just enriching shareholders in the short term that they should aim to serve customers, the community and society as well.

When hard-nosed investors like BlackRock, who manage over $6tn in assets, are demanding companies have a social purpose, you have to think purpose is becoming a necessity for companies trying to sell to increasingly conscious consumers.

The idea of recruiting Uber to save the social fabric of rural Ireland might never work, but perhaps there is a germ of an idea there. Perhaps it shows a way forward for how tech companies can save themselves from their own worst instincts, a way forward for how government and private enterprise could come together to solve some of the world's problems. To not only tame the beast, as Bono would have it, but to actually get the beast to work for us.Last November, on so-called #RedWednesday, cathedrals and other church buildings around Ireland were lit up in red as congregations gathered to pray in solidarity with Christians and other minorities who are persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Their suffering often goes unnoticed - most of us go about our business, unaware of the injustice and discrimination affecting them.

I recently had the chance to see and hear first-hand about some of that suffering when in mid-December I travelled to northern Iraq with Caoimhe de Barra and Sean Farrell of Trocaire to meet families who were terrorised from their homes by Isil back in 2014.

Many have still not been able to return home - be it to to Mosul or to other villages on the Nineveh plain. They are deterred by the presence of unexploded landmines - but more so by fear and uncertainty about the future.

We brought them the prayers, thoughts and hope of the people of Ireland.

The shocking destruction evident in the town of Batnaya brought tears to my eyes. Some 80pc of it lies in ruins; family homes are burned and looted, shops and businesses in tatters; the church and convent buildings destroyed and daubed with hateful graffiti. Even the town's graveyard is desecrated, crosses and gravestones smashed to pieces.

Expand Close Trocaires Sean Farrell, Archbisop Eamon Martin, Archbishop Warda of Iraq and Trocaire CEO Caoimhe de Barrathe / Facebook

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Whatsapp Trocaires Sean Farrell, Archbisop Eamon Martin, Archbishop Warda of Iraq and Trocaire CEO Caoimhe de Barrathe

How could anyone do this? How will these families ever piece their possessions and lives back together?

But the human spirit is strong - and made stronger by faith in God's grace and by the outpouring of human compassion and charity.

In the nearby village of Teleskof, I met Fr Salar Boudagh and members of his parish council. Together they have led their people towards recovery and the building of new future. Some 900 homes in the parish have been reconstructed with the help of foreign aid, but more so because of the courage and determination of a people who walk by hope and by the light of Christ that overcomes the darkness of evil.

One grandfather related how many of their young people have already left for Europe, the US and Australia. He has two granddaughters - in Chicago and Brisbane - and talks to them often via Skype. They want him to come and join them. He will not go.

Expand Close Iraqi Christian soldiers inside the Grand Immaculate Church in Qaraqoshm near Mosul. It was recaptured from Isil fighters in late 2016 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Iraqi Christian soldiers inside the Grand Immaculate Church in Qaraqoshm near Mosul. It was recaptured from Isil fighters in late 2016

"I'm not leaving", he says, "this is where we are from and our people before us. I will die here and be buried with my family. Christians have lived in these plains since the first century. How can we leave now?"

Sadly though, many are leaving. The Christian communities of the plains of Nineveh in ancient Mesopotamia - first evangelised by the apostles Thomas and Thaddaeus - may be among the earliest in the world. People here still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. But their numbers, and those of other minorities - like the Yazidi Muslims - are in steep decline.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rise in the region of al Qaeda, the Christian population in Iraq has shrunk from more than one and a half million to 200,000-300,000.

The recent Religious Freedom in the World Report 2018, published by Aid to the Church in Need, found significant religious freedom violations in almost a fifth of all countries examined. It observed that "aggressive nationalism, hostile to religious minorities, has worsened," together with "increasing evidence of a curtain of indifference behind which vulnerable faith communities suffer".

Worryingly, the report commented that "in the eyes of western governments and the media, religious freedom is slipping down the human rights priority rankings".

What to do? The church in northern Iraq is already tirelessly working on the ground. We met Archbishop Bashar Warda in Erbil - he is a Redemptorist who lived some time in Dundalk while learning English. He explained how their immediate response to the crisis was to set up refugee camps on church grounds to provide shelter, food and clothing for displaced families and then to find more dignified accommodation for as many households as possible.

With the help of Trocaire and other agencies, he was also able to provide a healthcare clinic and education for displaced children and young people.

Today his priorities have shifted. As many families have at last been able to return to their villages following the defeat of Isil, he plans to restore long-term dignity by rebuilding livelihoods and increasing job opportunities as well as by fixing up homes and church buildings.

He is encouraged by the signing into law in the US of the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act.

This bipartisan law, supported by both Republicans and Democrats, will hopefully trigger the massive capital investment necessary to rebuild the fabric of the towns and villages of minorities that were almost wiped out by persecution.

But Archbishop Warda has no illusions. He realises the deep psychological scars of separation, trauma, and suspicion of neighbours cannot be healed by dollars alone.

He appealed for our prayers and for ideas to help them repair the human cost, to give his young people purpose and a reason for hoping, to explore the seemingly impossible task of long-term reconciliation and peace-building.

His people are highly skilled and resourceful - but naturally they are nervous about investing at this point in anything beyond simple survival. I visited the new Catholic University of Erbil and heard the hopes of the young people, some of them anxious to learn and lead their peers towards a brighter future. I saw the new Catholic hospital which is nearing completion.

The school, hospital and university all need teachers, nurses and doctors to inspire and develop the skills of these young people who have lost several years of their education and who continue to experience horrendous flashbacks to the nights they fled their homes amid screaming and the deafening sounds of bullets and bombs.

At the seminary, 14 young men are studying for the priesthood. They have no illusions about the challenging vocation to which God is calling them. Priests in northern Iraq know they have to be true shepherds for their people - spiritual and community leaders, peace builders, reconcilers, men of great courage and resilience.

I spoke to these young men about Father Ragheed Ganni, a former student of the Irish College in Rome, who was martyred after celebrating Mass in Mosul in 2007. Pope Francis met his family on stage at Croke Park in August during the World Meeting of the Families. His attackers shouted as they killed him: "Why are you still here? We told you to close the church."

Following our visit to Iraq, #RedWednesday will never be the same for me again. I now realise that the story of persecution also includes inspiring the triumph of hope over adversity, and that the solidarity, compassion and charity of Irish people can help bring light into the darkness facing our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away.

Archbishop Eamon Martin is Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All IrelandA young woman diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer, who wanted to be given the chance to have a baby, has passed away.

Alice Taylor (26) was diagnosed with stage 3B terminal cancer, which spread to her heart, lungs and liver last May.

The Kilkenny woman passed away surrounded by her parents Martin and Wendy, brothers James and William, her partner David in St Annes Ward in St Vincents Hospital last Friday.

Alice's family and friends had been fundraising for the past few months for her to get access to the drug Pembro and more than 100,000 had been donated to an online fundraiser.

From the village of Ballycallan, Alice was more used to caring for others, through her job at SOS Kilkenny, which provides day and residential services for adults with intellectual disability.

Speaking prior to her death Alice said: Its hard to explain how you feel when given a terminal diagnosis. I feel many different emotions. I am angry to think I may not be able to do and see a lot of things that I would like to do.

Im sad that I may not be around to have our baby brought into the world. Im worried about my family, Dave (boyfriend) and friends and how they are coping with this situation.

But at the same time, I am optimistic and feel very lucky to have had such a fantastic upbringing and a wonderful life up to now with such a huge amount.

Her cancer treatment began following her diagnosis in November 2017 after Alice attended her GP with irregular PV bleeding the month before. She was referred to St Lukes Hospital, Kilkenny for further investigations and scans including a biopsy. Alices biopsy confirmed a 7cm tumour and Stage 2B Cervical Cancer.

Although shaken by the diagnosis, both Alice and David approached it like they do with everything, strong and positive with good humour as they prepared for battle together. All care was transferred immediately to Dublins Mater and St Lukes Hospitals, in Dublin.

The couple first met at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in 2012 when Alice was studying for a degree in Social Care.

Alice explained: During my first appointment in Dublin, I received the news that I would never conceive or carry my own child. Gone was my lifelong dream of having beautiful little babies and becoming a mother. This news was as bad, if not worse than the diagnosis itself."

The first invasive procedure Alice endured was the removal of a para aorta lymph node in the Mater Hospital. After much discussion with the oncology team, Alice and David were offered fertility treatment at the Rotunda Hospital to create a blastocyst or embryo that would remain cryogenically frozen until a suitable surrogate could be sought.

A blastocyst is an embryo which has been left to develop until day five or six and presents a complex cellular structure formed by approximately 200 cells.

They both grasped the opportunity and following therapy attended the Rotunda for further surgery and egg collection.

We successfully saved one blastocyst so we have a baby in waiting which is amazing and we are so thankful for. I really want to be here for our baby and see him or her grow up, added Alice.

The week before Christmas Day in 2017, Alices gruelling treatment commenced with 25 sessions of external radiation, three sessions of internal (brachytherapy) radiation and six sessions of cisplatin chemotherapy.

Several sessions a week meant Alice practically moved to Dublin with her devoted parents and David, each taking turns to care for her whilst juggling college and work.

Alice eventually returned home from hospital in February last year. However, devastatingly in May, the results of the post treatment PET and MRI scans, used to highlight trouble areas in the body caused by the disease had the worst possible news. The cancer had not responded to treatment.

The PET scan showed Alice now had Stage 3B Terminal Lymph Node positive Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the cervix with metastases in the liver, lungs and heart.

While awaiting further testing and in order to buy Alice some precious time, she commenced aggressive chemotherapy in July.

Alice, had been hoping to take part in further genetic testing available in New York at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre which was to determine the most appropriate drugs and treatment for her condition.

All funds raised went directly towards her medical treatment. Funds not used will be donated in turn to other charities and the Irish Cancer Society.

Health advocate Vicky Phelan paid tribute to Alice, saying she was "floored" by the news of her death.

"Reading about Alice's death has floored me. I had met her and her Mum, Wendy at St. Vincent's Hospital where Alice moved for treatment to get on Pembro, which she had started. It was obviously too late for her. She was far too young to die," Vicky wrote on Twitter."The lesson I hope that the Democrats learn here is that they can't just not negotiate. They can't offer nothing and expect something to get done," Gidley said, adding: "They weren't doing anything on behalf of the American people. They used federal workers as pawns. Regardless of what they try and say and the tears that stream down their cheeks, they did nothing to protect the American people."NEVER FORGET: Walter Sekules holds a photo taken in Tallinn in 1940 of himself as a baby, with his mother Edith and his sister Ruth. Photo: David Conachy

Walter Sekules's earliest memories were childhood games in a prison camp in Siberia.

His Jewish parents had managed to escape the fate of millions of Jews murdered in extermination camps by the Nazis during World War II. But their escape from Austria resulted in the couple and their children being imprisoned in the harsh conditions of Soviet prison camps for more than five years.

The family later found happiness near the Mourne Mountains in County Down when they settled in Kilkeel.

Some of their loved ones and friends did not survive the Holocaust.

Walter was almost seven years old when his family was released from a Soviet prison camp. He is now 78 and this evening he will participate in the National Holocaust Memorial Day in the Mansion House in Dublin.

At his home near Carlingford Lough, Walter told the Sunday Independent the extraordinary story of how his family's lives were turned upside down during the darkest decade of the 20th Century.

His parents, Edith and Kurt, grew up in the Austrian capital of Vienna in cultured and enterprising families involved in manufacturing and clothing businesses.

They were among almost 200,000 Jewish people living in the city.

Edith worked in the luxurious Hotel Bristol in Vienna and Kurt was a radio engineer. They married in 1936.

The rise of Nazism in Germany turned the lives of German Jews into a living nightmare with officially sanctioned persecution. The evil spread to Austria when the country was annexed by Germany in 1938.

Huge crowds of Austrians greeted Hitler as a hero and the Nazi agenda of harming and harassing Jews found widespread willing accomplices within the Austrian population.

New laws led to Jewish people's businesses being confiscated and they were no longer allowed to work in the professions. Jewish shops were plundered and taken over. Jews were not allowed to go to school or university and they were actively intimidated into leaving the country.

Some 130,000 Jews fled the city. More than 60,000 Viennese Jews who could not escape were to die in the Nazi regime's extermination camps.

Those who fled left behind most of their property and they were forced to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all emigres from the Third Reich. Many could not afford to escape.

Edith and Kurt were both fired from their jobs when the Nazi laws were implemented while Edith was pregnant with their first child. Their daughter Ruth was born into a hostile city. Edith was questioned by the Gestapo when faced with false accusations that she was a communist. She gasped with relief when she discovered she was being released.

The couple planned with other members of the family to emigrate as soon as possible. Edith and Kurt and baby Ruth were given a tearful farewell by their family later in 1938 after securing air tickets to Tallinn in Estonia.

Their 1,700km journey included stopovers in Berlin and other cities.

Edith's sister Lotte had already succeeded in travelling to England. She helped her mother to follow her in 1939 when she got her a job as a cook. But no exit visa was possible for Edith's father who stayed behind to look after his own mother. Within a year, Edith's father had died of malnutrition and tuberculosis while his elderly mother died of starvation.

Kurt's parents and his brother Robert also left Austria before war broke out. They settled in Derry after getting visas under a British government scheme to set up factories in Northern Ireland. They founded an artificial flowers business.

Kurt's sister Stella and her children were not so lucky. Their fate remains unknown.

Meanwhile, Kurt and Edith had received help from Jewish groups in Estonia in settling down in Tallinn. Kurt got a job in a radio factory which enabled them to renew their visas to remain there. Walter was born in Estonia in 1940.

But the following year, Russian troops invaded Estonia and the country became part of the USSR. Under the communist system, wealthy or 'bourgeois' residents were being rounded up and transported to Siberia.

In June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression pact with Russia and attacked the Soviet Union.

Kurt and Edith and their two children were deemed to be 'enemy aliens' and they were informed they were being sent to a detention camp.

A Russian officer told them to pack enough belongings for a year. Their detention was to last almost six years.

They were taken to a detention camp east of Tallinn where they joined 150 other 'enemy aliens' - half of whom were Jewish refugees. As the German armies pushed eastwards, all the prisoners were brought to a railway point where they were loaded on to cattle wagons and transported 800 miles east to a detention camp in Gorki, Russia.

They spent five months in the detention camp and then the prisoners were again loaded on to cattle trains to endure a five-day journey to Kazakhstan in mid-November. The exhausted prisoners then had to trudge through deep snow to the Aktyubinsk Camp which had a watchtower and barbed wire.

Walter was 20 months old when he became seriously ill with scarlet fever and he was taken to a local hospital where he underwent an operation. While in hospital he caught chickenpox. He was in a very poor state when he was finally returned to his parents.

He began to improve when a Polish medical orderly in the camp gave him a series of blood transfusions with blood from his mother.

Walter also contracted malaria from mosquito bites.

When the snows thawed at the end of April, all able-bodied males, including Kurt, were sent to work in a local brick factory.

In July 1942, the prisoners were moved again by rail in cattle wagons on a four-day journey east to Karaganda where they were incarcerated in another camp.

Men were sent to work in a brick factory and women without children were sent to work on farms. There were 1,300 internees from some 17 countries.

Many prisoners did not survive the harsh conditions. Many of the men aged prematurely and became haggard and thin. All the prisoners were transferred to the Kok Uzek camp nearby in January 1943.

In February 1945, Edith gave birth to her third child, a daughter called Leah.

The war in Europe ended in May 1945 but the families' fate was not a high priority for the authorities and they remained in detention until January 1947.

Finally their day of release came and they began a 5,000km journey by rail from Karaganda to Vienna, mainly in converted cattle wagons. It was a zigzag journey that began in the Siberian snows and ended 63 days later in gentle spring weather as their cattle wagons crossed the Austrian border.

It was only on the journey back from Siberia that they learned the full extent of the Holocaust which claimed millions of innocent victims.

They were able to live in a family friend's apartment in Vienna for several months before Edith and Kurt received permits to travel to Derry to work in the flowers factory, part-owned by Kurt's brother.

They finally settled in Kilkeel in 1950 where they set up a knitting factory with financial help from a prosperous Viennese family friend, Bernhard Altmann.

Their fourth child, Esther, was born in 1954.

In the 1980s, Walter was running a business in Scotland where he lived with his wife Moira, a native of Lisburn, and their three children when he accepted an invitation to return to Kilkeel to run the family business.

Walter said his parents visited Vienna for a holiday in 2000 when his father was 92 and his mother was 83.

Walter said: "It was my father's first visit to Vienna in over 50 years. They went into the same cafes where they used to go when they were courting as a young couple. They took the same walks that they had enjoyed in the 1930s along the banks of the Danube," he said.

Walter said he is worried by the rise of the Far Right in Europe and the growing expressions of hatred of foreigners and immigrants.

He was asked if he could ever forgive those people who adopted the evil policies that led to the Holocaust and those who would still spread hatred today. His reply was brief: "I'm sorry that they haven't learned better."

This evening, President Michael D Higgins will be among the speakers to address the event in the Mansion House organised by the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland (HETI).

Eibhlin Byrne, chairperson of HETI, told this newspaper: "In 1930s' Europe, fear and uncertainty nurtured extremes, unleashing a cataclysmic disaster on the world.

"The Holocaust did not emerge from nowhere. It was the result of fear and uncertainty. It was the result of seeds sown over many years. Seeds of hatred, mistrust, of anti-Semitism. Ultimately, the seeds of evil.

"Those who perpetrated the Holocaust were, like their victims, men and women, sons and daughters, cherished family members. And yet, given fertile ground for hatred, they became killers and the world became a dark and dangerous place. At times of great uncertainty, there is always a danger that extremists will triumph. It can emerge amongst any nations at any stage. Our vigilance and resolve to fight hatred and fear whenever it emerges will ensure that the Holocaust cannot, will not, and must not be repeated."

Underground fighter who saved hundreds of Jewish children. Obituaries, page 32Transport Minister Shane Ross will move to reduce the extortionate cost of non-alcoholic beer as part of his road safety campaign.

The minister said the Independent Alliance will exert pressure on Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to examine ways of dramatically reducing the cost of alcohol-free beer ahead of the next budget.

"On the surface it beggars belief that non-alcoholic drink is more expensive than equivalent alcoholic products," Mr Ross told the Sunday Independent.

"We should be incentivising customers who want to enjoy a few alcohol-free beers. An initiative along these lines has the potential to be a further part of the campaign against drink-driving."

Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath also said it is "only reasonable" that people expect to pay less for a non-alcoholic beer than an alcohol beer when they are socialising.

Mr McGrath said the regular excise duty of 54 cent per pint does not apply to non-alcoholic beer and this saving should be passed on to customers.

"We need to know why consumers here are charged such high prices for non-alcoholic drinks," he added.

Mr McGrath also suggested the Government should examine ways of reducing VAT on non-alcoholic beer while also complying with European Commission tax rules.

In response to a parliamentary question, Mr Donohoe recently said non-alcoholic drinks are "generally liable" to the 23pc VAT rate in accordance with EU laws.

He also said the price charged by retailers and publicans should "reflect the fact" that no excise is charged on these products.

The inordinate cost of non-alcoholic beer has come under the spotlight as the Government grapples with growing anger in rural Ireland over the introduction of strict drink-driving laws.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail faced a backlash from constituents over road safety measures introduced by Mr Ross in the last Dail term.

Alcohol-free beers have become increasingly popular in recent years and there are a growing number of products on the market.

However, there is no financial incentive for non-drinkers to fork out for the alcohol-free option as they are generally the same price as, or more expensive than, an alcoholic alternative.

Vintners' Federation of Ireland chief executive Padraig Cribben said the prices charged by publicans for non-alcoholic beers generally reflect the prices charged to them by their suppliers.

"Individual publicans decide the price for each product they sell in their pub," Mr Cribben said.

"Their prices are generally based on what suppliers charge them and we understand there is very little difference, if any, in the prices charged to publicans by wholesalers for non-alcoholic beers and traditional beers.

"According to manufacturers, the production cost of non-alcoholic beers is similar, if not higher, to standard beers, the sole difference being the alcohol is removed during the brewing process.

"In price terms, the only difference is non-alcoholic beers do not attract excise which is approximately 32 cent on a standard 330ml bottle.

"There is no difference in the VAT regime."The Government will consider non-pay measures such as increasing staffing levels and improving working conditions in hospitals in order to avert a nursing strike this week.

It is also willing to consider the establishment of a special commission to examine nursing pay levels within the terms set out by the Public Sector Pay Commission.

However, there will be no offer of additional funding for pay increases to meet the demands of nurses and midwives due to fears it will result in other unions making pay demands.

The Government will also expect a commitment to call off all industrial action in return for any proposals it makes relating to staffing and working conditions.

Last Friday, industrial relations talks between nurses and the HSE collapsed as both sides refused to budge ahead of a planned 24-hour strike on Wednesday, which will severely impact on patient safety.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) was yesterday preparing strike committees ahead of Wednesday's planned industrial action.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association is also preparing for strike action by its members this week.

An informed source said there is currently a 60/40 chance of more than 35,000 nurses striking.

However, the Government considers the talks to be "suspended rather than collapsed" and the INMO said it is still available for talks.

Yesterday, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said she believes strike action on Wednesday is inevitable because there has been a lack of serious engagement by the HSE.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha told the Sunday Independent: "As always, we are available but we wouldn't expect the strike can be averted at this point."

She dismissed suggestions of the Government offering to address staffing levels, saying the HSE announced the establishment of a nursing task force last year but did not commit any funding to the initiative.

"It is a measurement tool that tells us how many nurses we need but it doesn't tell us how we get them," she said.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha insisted she has never requested a 12pc pay increase for nurses, which would cost the taxpayers 300m. She said this was a "Government figure".

"What we said is Ireland is in a global economy, we are competing for nurses, we are losing the battle and we cannot staff our wards, therefore we need to pay our nurses with a comparative salary to international colleagues," she said.

"Patients in Irish hospitals are being subjected to unsafe care. We need to make it safer and that requires more nurses and we want to see Government proposals in that regard and we have seen none."

The INMO has also called on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to intervene in the dispute.

Meanwhile, the HSE has warned the strike action will compromise patient safety in hospitals.

In a memo to staff, the HSE said only life-saving services will be operated during the 24-hour industrial action.

The HSE said there will be no nursing cover for local injury units, gynaecological appointments or procedures or outpatient maternity services during the strike.The payments were approved by ministers after Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe brought the order on the additional salaried allowances to Cabinet. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

The Government has approved salary top-ups for politicians totalling around 2.2m over a full five-year Dail term.

The sum includes more than 1m for the chairpersons of Oireachtas committees and 543,000 for TDs who serve as party whips or assistant whips.

Two Government members who attend Cabinet - Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath and Defence Minister Paul Kehoe - are entitled to 15,829 per year each. That's in addition to their junior minister-level salaries of 121,639. A payment of 15,829 is also available to Government chief whip Regina Doherty. Some changes to the system of payments reflect the different make-up of the Dail after last year's election.

The allowances are on top of a TD's basic salary of 87,258. That salary is set to increase by 2,700 this year, amid wider pay rises in the public sector.

A small number of TDs have said they won't take the pay hike while ministers' salaries have been frozen.

Among the payments approved last night is 5,520 for the whips of the Social Democrats, the Green Party and Independents4Change. These three groups weren't catered for under the system in place during the last Dail. The Fianna Fail whip, Michael Moynihan, can draw down a payment of 17,480. That is unchanged from the figure previously on offer to his party's whip.

The sum available to Sinn Fein whip Aengus O Snodaigh is 9,200, up from 5,520 previously listed for his party when it had fewer TDs. Sinn Fein says its TDs "take an average wage" and use the balance for constituency services. The whip's allowance is used for expenses relating to the role, a spokesman said.

The 8,740 on offer to committee chairpersons remains unchanged from the last Dail. There are currently 25 committees with chairpersons entitled to a payment.

Senators that hold leadership positions or serve as whips are entitled to payments of more than 160,000 over five years.

The payments were approved by ministers after Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe brought the order on the additional salaried allowances to Cabinet.

A Department for Public Expenditure spokesperson said it was standard procedure for the system of allowances to be considered to reflect the changes in the make-up of the Dail and Seanad after an election. "Certain rates have been revised to better reflect current party numbers," she said. "New parties are also now represented in the Dail, which must be accounted for."

She pointed out that other rates - including payments for junior ministers that attend Cabinet - remained unchanged. TDs and senators can only claim one payment, so a party whip that also serves as a committee chairperson can only claim one of the allowances. The salaried allowances are subject to all taxes, PRSI and pension deductions.

An Oireachtas spokesperson said the sums set out by the department were linked to the various roles listed and weren't necessarily drawn down by the individual TDs or senators.A team of Malaysian police has been assigned to investigate the case of a missing Irishman as the search for him intensifies.

Tourist Stephen Warde (32), from Kinvara, Co Galway, arrived in Malaysia alone on November 15.

He took a rented unit at the Mercu Summer Suites at Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the south-east Asian country.

Mr Warde, who is from a large family, was last seen a month ago on December 28, a day before his tenancy was due to expire.

All his personal effects were still in the suite when it was searched by police.

The police chief in the Dang Wangi district, Assistant Commissioner Shaharuddin Abdullah, told a press conference late on Friday: "As of today, there has been no sign of him. Investigations are ongoing.

"He was supposed to check out from the unit on December 29 but did not do so. His personal belongings are still there. Police are intensifying the search for him."

Investigations so far have indicated Mr Warde has not left the country.

The Assistant Commissioner added: "Checks showed his passport has not been used."

Mr Warde's mother, Mary Morrissey, has travelled to Malaysia to help with the search for her son and has been accompanied by two of her daughters.

In an emotional plea, she said: "Not having any contact from Stephen is very out of character for him as he is a placid and quiet man.

"We are extremely worried and concerned for his safety and wellbeing."

Thousands of people continue to share posts on Missing Persons Malaysia.

Mr Warde, is from a respected family in Kinvara, south Galway, his father is a retired Army officer.

Local Fine Gael councillor Joe Byrne has urged the public to help by using social media to spread the appeal for information.

Cllr Byrne said yesterday: "Everyone is concerned for his whereabouts and locals are giving as much support as they can to the family.

"Information is sketchy coming from Malaysia so far. Mary has been doing her best to find her son."

Stephen's family are liaising with the Department of Foreign affairs in their efforts to locate him.

Mr Warde is described as being 180cm (5ft 11in) tall, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said: "Foreign Affairs is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance."

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Dang Wangi police headquarters on +603-26002222 or its control centre hotline on +603-26977099 or the nearest police station.Brave: Leona OCallaghan speaks to the media outside court after Patrick ODea was sentenced to 17 years. Photo: Laura Hutton/Collins Photo Agency

A WOMAN who was raped as a child has said that the Irish courts system "broke her a bit" and she is now determined to help other abuse survivors to get their voice back.

Leona O'Callaghan (37) endured a lengthy legal process before Patrick O'Dea (52) was jailed for 17 years last November for repeatedly sexually assaulting and raping her from when she was just 13-years-old.

O'Dea, also known as 'Whacker', of Pike Avenue, Limerick, pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial to charges of sexual assault and rape on dates in 1994 and 1995.

His 42 previous convictions include a single sexual assault on another girl aged under 10. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for multiple rape and sexual assaults of a girl over a six-year period between 1998 and 2004. He continues to maintain his innocence of these charges.

Ms O'Callaghan has bravely waived her right to anonymity and is calling for changes to the legal process of rape trials in Ireland, saying that she "barely made it through."

She said that she has struggled for years after her abuse and has attempted to end her own life several times.

The mother-of-two told Independent.ie it's a weight of her shoulders to know that O'Dea's trial is over and that he pleaded gulty.

"It's such a relief to know it's behind me, you're bracing yourself for so long, not knowing how you'll cope or what could happen.

"I feel so much better knowing that the court case is behind me, I feel like I'm going from strength-to-strength now.

"It's all mind games and stays with you, I just wanted him to know that I don't love him or care for him but I have had to accept his version of reality is so different to ours so there's no point in even trying to understand him.

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"He was already serving a prison sentence but it's definitely a huge help to know he'll be there longer and I won't have to worry about him," she said.

Ms O'Callaghan, who lives in Askeaton, Co Limerick, set up Survivor Support Anonymous (SSA), which is based on a 12 steps programme and is focused on helping survivors of sexual, physical or emotional abuse to cope with trauma and begin to move forward.

She explained: "We try to be more solution focused than problem focused, we don't actually talk about what happened specifically to people as that could be a trigger for others.

"Although we do advise that people do go to counselling so that they can be supported and grounded in a way that only one-on-one counselling can do.

"Each week we take a task to improve our wellness, for some members that might be as simple as to take your medicine every day, for others it might to sleep properly and for others it could be to find something fun to do for yourself.

"I can see the difference in people already after just two-and-a-half-months, I can see people who were ashamed feeling like they can speak, it's very powerful to watch.

"We want to help claim back our lives and to get out of survival mode and start to move forward."

This week SSA marked their official launch with an Exhibition in Limerick called Clothes Don't Rape People, Rapists Rape.

They displayed clothes similar to ones people wore when they were sexually assaulted in.

Expand Close Brave: Leona OCallaghan speaks to the media outside court after Patrick ODea was sentenced to 17 years. Photo: Laura Hutton/Collins Photo Agency / Facebook

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Whatsapp Brave: Leona OCallaghan speaks to the media outside court after Patrick ODea was sentenced to 17 years. Photo: Laura Hutton/Collins Photo Agency

She said: "It shows the insignificance of clothes, there's short skirts, red underwear, a boy's Communion Day outfit, a little girl's princess nightgown and boxers to represent a man who was raped by a male friend.

"It's so broad and we want to show it has nothing to do with the clothes, you're always asked what were you wearing when you were raped and that shouldn't be allowed as a defence.

"The only common thread between all of these different items of clothing is that they are similar to what people were wearing when they were raped, clothing doesn't cause rape."

Determined Leona said she wants to use her experiences to make the legal process easier for other survivors of sexual abuse.

She notes: "I had so many questions throughout the trial and I only really had my investigating garda to ask, then they're so busy that you don't want to feel like you're bothering them.

"All the way through it was quite lonely, I really felt like that was what was missing for me, there were support groups but there weren't boundaries for what people could talk about and I found that quite triggering.

"I needed a safe space with people who would completely understand it.

"The legal process was the most difficult thing I've ever done - I barely made it through, there were parts where I was very suicidal, you lose yourself in it at times.

"I think that's why I'm so passionate about making changes in the current system, it does break you a bit on top of what you've already been through, it shouldn't be like that," she said.

"Resources need to be given to be given to the guards and DPP to bring cases to a close more quickly, overall the system needs to be a lot more sensitive and there should be restrictions on what the defence can throw at you, such as commenting on what you wore, what threw me was when O'Dea was described as not violent in court but what could be more violent than raping a child?

"Sometimes you feel like the morals and ethics of being a good person can be left outside the door of the court when it comes to questioning victims.

"I think there are ways of improving the process, I would like to be able to look other victims in the eyes and say if they come forward it'll be a safe path because at the moment I can't do that, I barely made it through it."

Ms O'Callaghan said that she is now determined to embrace the future with her two teenage children.

She said: "We had the most amazing Christmas, I brought the kids to New York, it was good just to get them away from it all.

"There was so much more exposure from the case than I could have imagined, it was good to get O'Dea's face out there and I was delighted everyone will know what he is and hopefully that will protect others.

"At the same time when you're in the middle of that it can be quite hard and triggering, it raised a lot of questions for the kids and it was a hard time.

"I wanted them to know it's over after this big struggle throughout the last few years, I wanted them to see the world is a good place and just to put smiles on their faces again."Last year we rightly celebrated the centenary of women's right to vote. In the General Election of December 14, 1918, for the first time in Ireland women could both stand for election and be elected.

In that election, two women stood in Ireland: Constance Markievicz in Dublin and Winifred Carney in Belfast. As we know, Constance Markievicz was elected; not so Winifred Carney but she went on to have a powerful career in fighting for the rights of women. During the latter half of 2018, I was invited to many gatherings, lectures and seminars throughout Ireland, based usually on the centenary of the women's right to vote. Rightly during that period, we lauded the work of Anna Haslam and her husband Thomas, the first Suffragettes in both the UK and Ireland, in the setting up of the Irish Women's Franchise League.

Earlier we had celebrated the centenary of the first female graduates from an Irish university, the setting up of Cumann na mBan in 1913, the Rising of 1916, and all of the names and events which crowded the latter half of the 19th Century leading up the groundbreaking right to vote in the legislation in 1918.

Travelling around to the various venues, I often tested the name of Anna Parnell on the audience. In some cases it raised an echo and a recognition; in many cases not so.

Why was this, and who exactly was Anna Parnell?

Anna Parnell was the sister of Charles Stewart Parnell, the man who led the Irish Parliamentary Party for so many years in Westminster and one of the hugely important people in our Irish history. He is properly lauded and commemorated everywhere. Streets and squares, terraces and grand houses are named after him, and yet there is little named after Anna Parnell, and little heed paid to her.

Anna Parnell's life was lived out over 59 years, from 1852 to 1911. Born in Avondale, Co Wicklow, she died in Devon in England in 1911. I was wrong: there is a small plaque high on the wall of the AIB Bank in O'Connell Street, Dublin, at the corner of Parnell Square, and this small plaque simply reads 'Ladies' Land League 1881-1882'. A sighting of this plaque inspired the book by Patricia Groves on Anna Parnell called Petticoat Rebellion. Before Christmas just gone by, Martina Devlin, the journalist and author, wrote Truth and Dare: Short Stories about Women who Shaped Ireland, and included in it is the story of Anna Parnell. So slowly her name is beginning to gain recognition again.

The Ladies' Land League was set up in the aftermath of the famine of 1879. Shortly after that, Charles Stewart Parnell and the other Land Leaguers were imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol. They had fundraised in America to help the evicted smallholders in Ireland, and had done some great work in that. Shortly after the men were imprisoned, the Ladies' Land League was set up to continue the work in the absence of the Land League, and Anna was elected to head up this work.

It was far more radical and realistic than the work of the Land League itself. The funds raised in the US built temporary shelters for the homeless families and they supported the families. Anna herself spoke at many large gatherings in Ireland during that period, particularly in the Cork region. She was good at untangling the legislation which had been passed in the British House of Parliament in relation to Ireland, and often devised ways in which the landless people could stand up to the English.

She performed before huge public gatherings, often crowds of up to 5,000 and 10,000, particularly in Ballydehob, Skibbereen and other areas in West Cork. Above all she was visible and bright, and her voice carried hope for the dispossessed Irish people. As she moved around Ireland, gathering funds, dispensing funds, and helping people, she became a totem for hope for the Irish people. She was truly 'somebody' as Martina Devlin titled her essay on her in her book. She was friends with Jennie Wyse Power, who was one of the founding members of the Ladies' Land League. She was also involved in Inghinidhe na hEireann and continued to keep in touch with her.

So, after the packed 18 months of frenetic activity during the tenure of the Ladies' Land League, why after that did the name of Anna Parnell and others connected with her in the organisation fade from the scene? Why is she at best only a footnote in an Irish history book? Why is she not lauded in the annals of the history of the period?

Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt and others came out from prison and took up the reins again of the Land League. The men decided that Anna and the members of her Ladies' Land League were no longer useful. They were too strident, too radical, too out there, and after all they relied on working through peaceful means to obtain the ultimate goal which would be Irish independence.

In her social policies, in her humanitarian policies, Anna Parnell was way ahead of her time. She believed in the practicalities of helping people, not just in giving massive speeches and hoping to raise their spirits, but also in giving them the funding to relieve them of the dire poverty into which the dispossessed had been left after they had been thrown from their smallholdings.

Her flame shone brightly for such a short time, and yet in that short time she did so much for the evicted people of Ireland, particularly those in the small towns of west Cork and all of the surrounding area. Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt and others went on in their illustrious political careers, until of course the personal scandal involving Parnell and the culmination in his early death after his marriage to Katherine O'Shea, and the subsequent break-up of the then Irish Parliamentary Party.

Anna Parnell moved to England, first to London, then to Cornwall and later to Devon. She wrote verses, she painted, and she wrote a book entitled The Tale of a Great Sham, which detailed her work in the Ladies' Land League and her distrust of the men, including her brother (though she never mentioned him by name), and Michael Davitt with whom she engaged in an acrimonious letter-writing campaign.

She lived in relative poverty in London, in Cornwall, and it was only in the latter part of 1909/10, when she came into a small annuity left to her by her mother, that she was able to live in some type of genteel poverty in the town of Ilfracombe in Devon.

She was relatively happy during this period. Her book had been written and sent to her great friend Helena Molony back in Ireland, where it lay unknown until the mid-1950s.

She was a strong swimmer from early childhood and enjoyed swimming in the sea every day at Ilfracombe. One day she was swept out to sea and despite efforts to save her, she drowned. And so ended the powerful, vibrant but eventually tragic life of Anna Parnell. From time to time, there was a flicker of interest in her. Who was she, what work had she done, what had become of her?

In the early years of this century, the Parnell Society in Ireland paid a visit to the grave of Anna Parnell in Devon. In honour of that visit, Mary McAleese, then President of Ireland, wrote a message to the Parnell Society in which she praised Anna, who she said was ready to do battle for her ideals against all the establishments, political, agrarian, patriarchal and ecclesiastical. In her message Mary McAleese quoted directly from the words of Anna Parnell: "When we are dead and gone and another generation grown up, they will point to us as having set a noble example to all the women of Ireland."

Other groups and individuals have tended Anna's grave, culminating in the Irish government making suitable improvements to the grave site in 1918. She, however, remains an elusive and enigmatic figure, lauded for her work with the poor and yet ridiculed by the very Land League that she and others had worked to save during the absence of the men of the organisation. It is as if they were useful in Irish life during that time of struggle, but when the leaders of the Land League emerged again from prison and took up the reins of the organisation, they were declared redundant.

Earlier in my life I was a history teacher, and was always interested in the 'mystery' of Anna Parnell. This interest was sparked anew when I visited Courtmacsherry in County Cork on Sunday October 28 last, through conversations with Barry Holland and Fr Patrick Hickey; later information received from Mary O'Leary; Karen O'Riordan and Kieran Wyse, both librarians in Cork Co Library; and input from historian Sinead McCoole. They regaled me with vivid accounts of Anna Parnell's crowded meetings in west Cork, and the spirit and hope which she gave to the people of the area.

It is apt, I think, following on from the centenary of the vote for women and entering into the period of commemorating the first Dail, the War of Independence, the Treaty and the Civil War, that the memory of Anna Parnell be invoked and her spirit and her renowned work for the dispossessed be remembered.

When we laud the women of today, let us not forget the women of yesteryear, Anna Parnell and the Ladies' Land League.Major multinational employers are concerned that Irish graduates from college and further education fall short in their ability to speak foreign languages.

Satisfaction ratings with the foreign language skills of new entrants to the workforce are low among foreign-owned employers here, according to a report for the Higher Education Authority, seen by the Sunday Independent.

The National Employer Survey of 760 firms based here provides valuable information on recruitment from higher education. It shows foreign firms are not as satisfied as Irish businesses with graduates' language skills.

Almost two-thirds of Irish employers (65pc) are satisfied with the foreign language skills of young employees coming from colleges and university. However, satisfaction ratings among foreign firms are below average. Just 45pc of multinational companies are happy with higher-education foreign language capability.

While 86pc of employers have indicated they are generally happy with the quality of graduates emerging from third level and 84pc are happy with further-education graduates, news that businesses are unhappy with language skills is worrying.

Foreign language capabilities are expected to become increasingly important as Brexit looms, with many foreign businesses based here expected to increase ties to EU countries and the Middle East.

This is creating further demand among employers for European languages such as French and German, as well as Arabic and Chinese.

Foreign countries where English is commonly taught and spoken are believed to have a competitive advantage over Ireland in this regard.

More than a quarter (27pc) of large companies - employing more than 250 people - said a lack of suitable candidates was a barrier to recruiting college graduates.

Three out of four businesses said they were satisfied with graduates' levels of commercial awareness and entrepreneurial skills. However, 25pc are unhappy with the skills produced here.

One in five employers suggested they are not satisfied with higher-education and further-education graduates' application of technical knowledge, computer and technical literacy, verbal and communication skills, numeracy and data interpretation skills and new employees' ability to work effectively on their own and with others.

They were also worries about the attention to detail graduates apply to their work.

Concern was also raised about the pay demands of workers emerging from third level, particularly among Irish-owned companies and small or medium-sized businesses.

"Salary expectations were cited as a barrier to recruitment by 5pc of employers not hiring higher-education graduates," the report states.

"This reason was much less cited by foreign-owned employers and large employers."A patient advocacy group has called for Dr Gabriel Scally - the doctor appointed by Government to conduct the inquiry into the cervical cancer controversy - to also investigate the escalating backlog in the cervical cancer screening programme.

The delay has resulted in 1,000 women having to undergo repeat smear tests because their original samples had expired. The backlog was caused by a surge in smear tests after the CervicalCheck controversy broke and, in the fall-out, the Health Minister provided free repeat smears for all women.

The Irish Patients' Association said that without having the resources in place, the surge in smear tests was like "pouring a gallon tank into a pint bottle".

Director Stephen McMahon said Dr Scally should be asked to conduct a short scoping exercise to assess possible solutions.

The backlog was revealed by the HSE last week in a statement that also disclosed 6,000 women would have to be recalled for tests because of a mistake made by US-based Quest Laboratories, when testing for the HPV virus. The HSE said there was a low risk to the women's health and the recall was a precaution.

The backlog is regarded as potentially the more serious of the two issues because women are facing delays of up to 24 weeks before their smear tests can be analysed.

However, the government-appointed CervicalCheck steering committee has also been told that women referred to colposcopy clinics for further tests are also facing delays of up to six weeks.

221+, the support group representing the 221 women impacted by the cancer-screening controversy, also called for the backlog to be addressed "as a matter of urgency".

The fresh error relating to 6,000 women predates the current backlog and applies to women in whom low-grade abnormalities were detected. Their samples were sent for secondary testing for the HPV virus, which is present in most cervical cancers. But 6,000 were tested outside of the 30-day window recommended by manufacturers because they mistakenly counted from the time the lab received the sample, rather than the date on which the woman gave the sample.

The error was ongoing since 2015 when secondary HPV testing was introduced.

Patient representative Stephen Teap said the steering committee was briefed on the latest cancer-screening errors last month - but was told not to publicise them until the affected women were informed. He said the committee was not given the full details.

"They said to us do not talk about this for now, just because they didn't want to create panic," he said. "What was more concerning to me was were lives in threat and we were reassured, no, they were not."

Mr Teap said he and the other patient representative, Lorraine Walsh, insisted that women and their GPs should be the first to be informed.

He said the issue of informing the women was discussed again at a committee meeting last Tuesday, with the women and their GPs to be informed by letter later this week.

However, the HSE was pushed into going public after FF leader Micheal Martin raised the issue in the Dail.

"When I woke up on Thursday morning, there was mass confusion. The figure of 6,000 women was thrown out alongside a figure of 1,000," said Mr Teap.

A spokesperson for the health minister Simon Harris said the minster accepts the backlog is "a significant cause of concern". They said the HSE is developing a plan to address it ahead of the switch to HPV testing.There are at least four times the number of Irish victims of the Nazi Holocaust than previously thought.

New research presented by Dr David Jackson at the National Holocaust Memorial Day, at Dublins Mansion House revealed there are four victims, while it was previously thought there was only one.

Until this year the only Irish Jewish person known to have been murdered in the Holocaust was Esther Steinberg.

However Dr Jacksons work has uncovered more names, including Isaac Shishi, Ephraim Saks and his sister Lena Saks, who were all born in Ireland but their families returned to Europe when they were children.

All of these Irish born citizens, together with members of their families, were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Dr David Jackson, a consultant statistician, said information is contained in a variety of sources and he will continue his search.

Online records now available from a wide variety of sources including the Holocaust Centre in Jerusalem have allowed me to piece together these lost and forgotten stories, he said.

I believe there may be more and I will continue to research.

The National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration is organised by Holocaust Education Trust Ireland (HETI) to commemorate the six million Jewish people and millions of others who were persecuted and murdered.

President Michael D Higgins will today give the keynote address at the commemoration.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney and Minister for Justice and Equality Charlies Flanagan, TD will also participate.

Three Holocaust survivors Suzi Diamond, Tomi Reichental and Walter Sekules will recount their personal experiences. Jadzia Kaminska will represent her father Jan Kaminski.That heavy band had been expected to stay in the area until about 4 a.m., he said, and the majority of snow from this event was expected to hit Chicago in that time. It will cross into northwest Indiana later and that band will be out of the area between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., Edwards said.The information within these pages offers parents and educators a tangible measure of just one facet of school performance - how many pupils go to college from each school after sitting the state exams.

There is no correct way to choose a college place and, eventually, a career. The same must be said for picking a school, and it is important that those tasked with guiding youngsters through to their Leaving Cert remember there is more than one way to plot a path to further education or the workforce.

The information within these pages offers parents and educators a tangible measure of just one facet of school performance - how many pupils go to college from each school after sitting the state exams.

This is the first time Irish schools have been compared in such a way year-on-year over the course of a decade. It includes data on the 541,000 students who sat the Leaving Cert in the past 10 years, where they did their exams and how many of them progressed to college. This is based on figures made available by the country's publicly funded colleges. It includes the universities, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), 13 other institutes of technology, as well as colleges of education, the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), National College of Ireland and St Angela's College, Sligo.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

Students from three private colleges - Griffith College, Dublin Business School and the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Sciences in Limerick - are included, as are most of those from the Republic who went on to study at Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster.

This does not mean the tables are without limitations. Despite the Sunday Independent's best efforts, very worthy career pathways are not included because of a lack of information.

No figures are available for students who went directly from school to programmes such as the Post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses provided in colleges of further education. Students who chose third level options outside the state, such as in Britain, the EU and the US, are also not counted because it is not possible to collate this data.

It used to be possible to track student pathways to the UK but this stopped in 2011. Brexit means it is unlikely to resume anytime soon. This has an impact on the figures for schools actively encouraging students to take up options abroad, making it seem as if they are sending fewer students to college than is actually the case. The same must also be said for schools encouraging students to explore the PLC route.

Mature students, others who completed PLCs, people who have changed courses or those who previously deferred a college place are usually credited to a school in the year they entered college instead of the year they sat the Leaving Cert.

Repeat Leaving Cert students may be credited to a school where they originally sat the Leaving Cert and where they completed the state exam for a second time.

UCD, for instance, advises that "in cases where, for example, a candidate sat the exam twice, that candidate will be doubly entered in the data. The double counting occurs even where the candidate repeated the examination in the institution where he or she first sat the examination".

Such double-counting also contributes to some schools showing a much higher proportion of students entering college than is the case, when compared with the number of Leaving Cert students who actually sat the exam. Where this happens the percentage has been capped at 100pc for the tables.

The colleges advise that the schools' data is provided to them for administrative purposes and that they cannot stand over the accuracy of the information if used for any other purpose, such as a league table.

Figures within these tables are skewed somewhat by the personal circumstances in which a new entrant has entered the college system.

For example, after repeating my Leaving Cert, and then eventually dropping out of college, I opted to return to third level as a mature student after completing a PLC. I am an anomaly and it is likely I am counted [at least] twice in these tables. But, most students are not anomalies.

While the tables do not account for extra-curricular benefits associated with schools they are currently the best measure of academic performance at second level available to us and can be used as a guide for students, parents and teachers.This year's Sunday Independent School League Tables supplement marks the first time Irish schools have been analysed over a 10-year period and compared in terms of the number of students they send to college or university.

Just three schools have maintained a perfect record over that period - sending all of their students on to third level since 2009.

They are separated, marginally, by the fact some schools send more students to university instead of colleges or institutes of technology.

Presentation College Cork has become the first school to retain its position as the top-ranked school in the country (in terms of throughput to college) since the Sunday Independent began compiling data on schools four years ago.

This year it has held on to the top spot it wrestled away from Limerick's Glenstal Abbey last year.

Since 2009 it has maintained the enviable record or sending 100pc of its school leavers on to third level.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

What's more, 83pc of its students have been placed in a university over the past 10 years - with many of them choosing to progress to the nearby University College Cork.

Presentation College Cork charges day-fees of 3,900 and boasts of educating history-makers - its alumni include actor Cillian Murphy, journalist Fergal Keane and a host of rugby stars including Ronan O'Gara, Peter O'Mahony and former Ireland manager Declan Kidney.

Two Dublin schools have also maintained a perfect record over the past 10 academic years.

Colaiste Iosagain in Stillorgan has sent all of its Leaving Cert students on to third level since 2009, with 79pc of them securing a place in a university.

It is the country's best performing non fee-paying school in terms of throughput to college.

St Mary's College, Rathmines, has followed suit. The Dublin 6 school has sent 61pc of its Leaving Cert student on to a university.

Cistercian College on the Tipperary/Offaly border, and Mount Anville School, Dublin 14, have fallen just short of making the 100pc club. Both schools had maintained a 100pc record for nine years and last year succeeded in sending 94pc and 97pc of their students on to third level.

Christian Brothers College in Cork city has done well to maintain the county's strong record of academic achievement, sending almost 100pc of its students on to third level.

In all, are were more than 18 schools who sent at least 99pc of Leaving Cert pupils on to third level in the past 10 years.Clive Byrne is the director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD)

Does a parent, student, teacher or school leader in Dublin care which school in Donegal sends the most students to third level education and vice versa? Ultimately, that is the only information provided by the annual school league tables.

The league tables mindset - regarded some as the most valued measure of success - undermines, delays and acts as hugely counter-productive barrier for the urgent educational reform that we need in our second level schools, particularly in senior cycle.

While there is no doubt that some schools have an exceptional, recurring high rate of school leavers entering third level education, a number of common threads run through the second level school system which skew results and, consequently, our perception of what makes a good educational institution.

The current Leaving Cert curriculum and assessment process forces our teachers to 'teach to the test', rather than espousing a love of lifelong learning, imagination, curiosity and inquisitiveness.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

As a result, in recent years, a hierarchy of subjects has emerged. Bonus points are awarded for Higher Level Mathematics, which rewards students for effort rather than ability. Many students pick subjects out of sheer pragmatism rather than interest. A group of students opting for what are perceived as 'easier' courses can give casual readers of the league tables a false sense of a school's commitment to quality education.

Likewise, the student who gets 550 points in the Leaving Certificate but is five points short of their desired course is left distraught and may not even progress to third level education, despite their academic achievement. Again, this skews results.

The Leaving Cert fails to recognise and value independent learning and curiosity. Creative talents and involvement in extra- or co-curricular activities count for nothing, it seems. Ultimately, decades of school and experience end with a two-week memory test based on 21 months of rote learning.

The league tables also fail to recognise that there is a clear three-way split between advantaged, disadvantaged and private schools, which creates a lack of like-for-like comparison.

State policy emphasises inclusion and many schools have a cohort of students with learning difficulties, from disadvantaged backgrounds, or with tough personal situations who often struggle with academic learning and application. The one-size-fits-all approach of league tables does not take them into account.

Indeed, it is a well-known fact that there is a massive under-representation of certain groups in society in third level education including students with a disability and students from the Travelling community. On January 14, Dr Sindy Joyce became the first person from the Travelling community to be conferred with a PhD. While a very welcome and positive development, the reality is that many Travellers' children still do not even complete secondary education. This should be a wake-up call for the Department of Education: reform is needed now, and social class inclusion must be a central part of it.

Notwithstanding, a positive aspect of the school league tables is the rise in the percentage of school students progressing to third level education. As an example, Bailieborough Community School in Co Cavan went from 48pc in 2010 to 74pc in 2017. There has been an increase in Fingal Community College in Swords, Co Dublin, and a massive increase in Boyne Community School in Meath, over the nine-year period from 2009-2017, with a growth of 46.7pc, rising from 49pc to 92pc.

There is currently a varying level of misplaced snobbery throughout educational society in Ireland between a university, an institute of technology, further education training and apprenticeships, and in turn the creation of a prestige class between Level 8 awards and Level 4 awards. That is why the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, as part of its recently published report Senior Cycle Reform: What do you want?, developed three fundamental recommendations to alleviate these issues.

These are:

The establishment of a new Senior Cycle Reform Forum.

The inclusion of a practical or second component assessment as part of the Leaving Cert examination process.

Specific allocated funding provided for a collaborative approach toward traineeships/apprenticeships.

These recommendations will instigate the transition needed to move from standardisation to standard. We will have an accurate way to compare schools, extracurricular activities will no longer be ignored, the hierarchy of subjects will be eliminated, teaching to the test will cease, and creativity, curiosity and independent learning will become a valued part of the education experience.

Our job as educational leaders is not to compile league tables to enable a list of 'high ranking' schools - it's to provide a platform for students to excel and flourish in education and life.

Clive Byrne is the director of the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD).Principal David Lordon with Head of Sixth Year, Rosemary Healy (left), Head of First Year, Anne Long (right) and students Stephen Kearney (left) and Brendan Crowley (right). Photo: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision

There are few certainties in life. But one virtual certainty is that if you sit your Leaving Cert at Christian Brothers College (CBC) in Cork, you are going on to third level education.

CBC has been consistently listed among the best secondary schools in Ireland in terms of third level placement - with a 100pc rate of student progression to third level since 2014.

In the past decade, almost 100pc of all CBC Leaving Cert students went on to third level education.

CBC principal David Lordon says the credit for such an impressive commitment to third level education extends from CBC's teachers to parents and the students themselves.

Founded 130 years ago, CBC now has over 900 pupils in its secondary school and 150 students in its adjacent preparatory school. It operates with 65 teaching staff and is currently planning an ambitious redevelopment including a state-of-the-art new five-storey school building.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

Mr Lordon credits the 100pc third level placement rate to a long-standing school culture of hard work and commitment to excellence.

"All stakeholders - from teachers to students and parents - are fully committed to this," he says.

"When our students come here they are happy to be here and they want to be here.

"They become part of CBC and CBC becomes part of them."

The aim, he explains, is for every student to become the best version of themselves possible.

"We are blessed with the teachers we have here in CBC. They are committed to offering the best possible education to students and are very aware that education is always evolving and always developing - it is never static.

"Our teachers are a living embodiment of what we are trying to achieve."

Mr Lordon says the school understands that it doesn't just help students to reach third level, it must prepare them for the next stage of their academic careers and adult lives.

"We have a responsibility to give them the building blocks so that when they are there, their third level experience is successful."

Over the past 10 years three CBC students - Conor Durkan, Rory Crotty and Alex Burke - achieved the highest marks nationwide in the Leaving Cert.

In 2018, 12 academic university scholarships were awarded to CBC Leaving Cert students.

But CBC is also very proud of its commitment to non-academic activities.

The school traditionally ranks as one of the powerhouses of Irish schools rugby and proudly counts Ireland and Munster star Donncha O'Callaghan among its past pupils.

The school has also recently deepened its involvement in Gaelic games, recently making it to the semi-finals of the Dr Harty Cup, the most prestigious schools hurling competition in Munster, and beating several proud hurling schools along the way.

The school also works hard to instil civic values in its student body, participating in a range of charitable fundraising campaigns and social justice initiatives. Through the Christian Brothers, students participate in a special Zambia Immersion Project which sees them travel to the African country to see at first hand the importance of development work.

A member of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust and a sister school to CBC Monkstown in Dublin, CBC has as its motto Certa Bonum Certamen or 'fight the good fight'. Since 1888, it is a motto the school has proudly lived up to.We're obsessed with college degrees in Ireland. In less than four years' time full-time student numbers will reach the 200,000 mark, according to the latest official Department of Education and Skills projections. That's double the total in 1995/96 and an increase of 30,000 in universities, institutes of technology and other colleges of education in a decade.

Some schools send much higher percentages of their Leaving Cert cohorts to college than others. Not surprisingly, many parents with ambitions for their children to go to college want to know how their daughters' or sons' schools fare in the league tables. By this stage parents know the flaws and limitations of such tables but, nevertheless, read them to get a rough guide as to how individual schools are doing.

A 10-year span of college placement rates - such as published in this special supplement - can reveal sudden dips or lurches forward in performance and potentially indicate that something is not right or is very right with an individual school.

It's easy to underestimate the influence an underperforming or a really good principal has in a school. The principal is the key person in a school and has to be an educational leader as well as a manager of people and resources. But, as the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has pointed out, the differences between the progression rates for schools are also very much a reflection of the kinds of students they enrol - in terms of their gender, their social class background and their academic performance on finishing primary school.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

The league tables also confirm that there are real differences in progression rates between individual schools. They show that fee-paying schools tend to 'do better' in sending students to college. But so do many gaelcholaiste and girls' secondary schools as well as many others in the so-called Free Education scheme.

One thing the tables cannot show is the impact of grinds on individual schools' performances. The practice of paying for grinds is well established, especially in the capital but also across the country. "I can show you schools that are known to have the worst teachers of Irish or maths or history or whatever but who get the best results in those subjects because their students also come to us for extra help," is the boast of the head of one grind school. Grinds don't come cheap and those who can afford them feel they have an extra advantage, real or imaginary.

Barry O'Callaghan, from the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, has talked about schools where students obtain maximum points in their Leaving Cert but who drop out of college when they get there as they don't have creative and investigating minds. The single most important factor in choosing a school is if it fosters creativity, he believes.

About half of our 362,000 second level students attend their local secondary school, which means that parents of anything up to 180,000 other students make active choices for their children's education. Choice is easier to make in urban areas and those who can afford to pay for private schools have a much bigger range of options in the Dublin region.

Prof Emer Smyth, of the ESRI, says that in picking a school, looking at league tables gives parents a very misleading picture of what a school is like. The tables might not give us the 'best' school but she says that research can help parents ask better questions about the kind of school that would suit their children, such as:

What kinds of subjects are offered? If my child is very interested in art or music, can they study it? Do students get a chance to try out different subjects in first year?

Are students encouraged to take higher level in subjects for as long as possible? Or is rigid ability grouping used?

What kind of supports are available to my child? Are there good relationships between teachers and students in the school?

What kinds of after-school activities are offered? What is available if my child isn't interested in sport?

Gerry Bennett, chief executive of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, suggested recently that it would be much better to see a league table that was focused on the holistic, social and personal development of students and that appreciates the guidance and values that schools provide every day.

"How refreshing it would be for Ireland to have a league table that measures how safe and happy our young people are in school, whether they have access to a well-being programme, whether students are encouraged to look outside their own worlds to advocate for those less fortunate, or whether there is an extracurricular programme that helps all of the students thrive and flourish, no matter their academic ability," he said.

It would, of course, but producing such a table would be a logistics nightmare and prohibitively expensive. Inspection reports on individual schools which are published on the Department of Education's website do provide some of that information but not in the same accessible format than a feeder school table does.

Nor, so far, has it been possible to publish information about the progression rates to the widening lists of apprenticeships or to the myriad range of further education programmes available. One of the justifiable criticisms of school league tables is that this area is effectively excluded and that the tables give the impression that higher education is all important.

The issue is being looked at in more detail by SOLAS, the further education and training authority, which is encouraging more Leaving Cert students to consider apprenticeships, Post Leaving Cert and other further education options. It points out, however, that many of those going on to further education courses are older and are not immediate school leavers. With so many different providers and different software, it won't be easy to get details in a consistent manner across the country which can be translated into accessible and digestible formats.

If it is possible to publish the details in an easy-to-read way the Sunday Independent would be happy to do so as this is also the kind of information that students - and their parents - would find helpful in deciding on future courses and careers.Single-sex schools outperform mixed learning environments in terms of how many pupils they send to third level.

Figures compiled and analysed by the Sunday Independent over the past 10 years show students from single-sex schools are more likely to secure a place in college after sitting the Leaving Cert.

The data shows all-boys schools are outperforming all-girls schools in securing college places.

However, girls who have attended a single-sex school are more likely to go on to university than a boy who has attended an all-boys school.

More than 44pc of students to have attended an all-girls' school between 2009 and last year went on to secure a place at an Irish university.

This figure is 2pc lower when it comes to an all-boys school.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

Yet boys who attend single-sex schools are the students who are most likely to progress to third level.

Just 17.5pc of students who attended an all-boys school over the past 10 years did not go on to third level.

For students from an all-girls school this figure stands at 19.1pc.

This means more than 81pc of all students who attend a single-sex school go on to secure a place at third level. More than four out of 10 (43.4pc) secure university places, while 38.2pc go on to study courses in other colleges and institutes of technology.

Students from mixed schools are more likely to opt against going on to third level.

One third of students (33pc) from mixed schools went on to study at university in the past 10 years after completing the Leaving Cert. Almost 40pc (39.7pc) studied at colleges and institutes of technology but 27.3pc did not take up the option of going to third level.

Head of UCC's school of education Dr Fiona Chambers said there are benefits to attending a mixed school. She said choosing what is best for each child can vary depending on the child's strengths and talents.

"When you are in a mixed setting you are more closely aligned to what society looks like," she said.

"Mixed school settings capture what a normal environment will look like for them. Social and emotional development tends to move quicker in a more positive way about social values in a mixed setting because you are in a diverse setting from the outset."Going to college is expensive in 2019, even if you are on a grant. But all the evidence suggests it will be worthwhile from a lifetime earnings' point of view, despite the darkening clouds on the horizon of our booming economy.

A forthcoming report from the Higher Education Authority will show Irish graduates did well in the jobs' stakes with their unemployment rates in low single figures last year. A separate study will confirm high levels of satisfaction among employers who took on graduates or those with further education qualifications.

We know from published data that the 'premium' attached to a degree in this country is significant. Recent information from the Central Statistics Office shows that Irish graduates earn two-thirds more than non graduates. This differential is slightly higher than the average 60pc for those with degrees in the EU as a whole. Of course, there are differences in earnings, depending on what the graduate has studied. Arts graduates, for instance, tend to have lower starting salaries but many can quickly catch up with training, experience and postgraduate qualifications.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

In general, graduates in many EU countries still think it worthwhile studying for a degree. This is different from the situation in the US where the law of diminishing returns has set in for 'investing' in a college qualification, particularly in a top tier university. Tuition fees in the States have risen rapidly and are usually multiples of the 3,000 that half our students have to pay (the other half are on grants).

American students borrow heavily to make their way through college. But many are then saddled with debts to the end of their life and find that their earnings are not enough to pay off loans and live with reasonable comfort. Many is the primary school teacher in a disadvantaged city centre school in the US who has fulfilled their professional dream but at a very heavy price. At present there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion.

Fees are also very steep in the UK where the value of outstanding loans last year was 108bn (124bn); this is expected to reach 450bn (517bn) by the middle of the century. Tuition fees of 9,250 a year (10,629) are not exactly designed to attract mass enrolment, particularly from risk-adverse families in the UK.

In Ireland, however, higher education is still a good 'bet' with the returns more than matching the initial investment. But will this last? Will all the hard slog in college be worth it all as we head into a post-Brexit world marked by tariffs and trade wars? These are among the questions troubling current and future students.

It's instructive and reassuring to look at the evidence for what happened during the most recent economic upheaval. The fact is that while unemployment was rocketing as the economy went into reverse, graduate employment continued to rise, albeit with heavier than usual emigration. That pattern was not unique to Ireland, which has a very high percentage of young people going in college. In the EU as a whole the employment of graduates has risen by an average of 3pc annually since 1995.

Although we often hear complaints about the quality of our graduates and their supposed lack of preparation for the real world of work, employers seem to be happy with them. That's the clear message from a number of separate studies. The UCD Smurfit Business School is the only Irish one ranked by the Financial Times as being in the top 100 in the world. Meanwhile Trinity's graduates are among the most employable in the world according to the QS World University Rankings, which has just been published.

Yet to be published is a study by Fitzpatrick Associates which draws on interviews with 760 employers in Ireland. Employers that have hired either higher education or further education graduates in the previous 24 months are, in general, very satisfied with graduates across a range of workplace and personal attributes. The satisfaction rates were 86pc for higher education graduates and 84pc for further education.

At least four out of five were satisfied in terms of graduates' application of technical knowledge; computer and technical literacy; verbal and written communication skills; numeracy, processing and data interpretation skills; ability to work effectively, both on their own or with others; and attention to detail. Whatever the naysayers have to say about standards in higher education, four out of five employers said they were also satisfied with graduates in terms of professionalism and work ethic; reliability; positive attitude; ethical and social awareness; and ability to cope with work pressure.

There were inevitably some concerns. Three out of four were satisfied with graduates' levels of commercial awareness, entrepreneurial skills and foreign language capability which means that one in four was not. More worrying is the finding that satisfaction among foreign-owned firms with the foreign language capability of graduates is noticeably lower than average. The satisfaction rates among these firms were only at 55pc for those employing higher education graduates and 44pc for those employing those with further education qualifications.

A note of caution as well for those expecting to waltz into a well paid job the day after graduation. One in 20 employers said salary expectations were the reason they didn't hire graduates. It was an issue especially for smaller Irish-owned firms and for construction companies in particular. It was less of an issue for foreign-owned companies who did, however, report some difficulties in recruiting suitable graduates, particularly in niche areas.Not all parents can afford the luxury of being able to send their child to a fee-paying schools. Stock picture

Parents will often wonder if paying extra for their child's education is worthwhile when so many of the country's non fee-paying schools perform exceptionally well when it comes to seeing students progress to third level.

For some, private education is a worthwhile investment. Others may want their son or daughter to follow their path and attend their own alma mater.

And, research shows that when it comes to sending students on to third level, extra investment at second level can go a long way.

Data analysed by the Sunday Independent shows students who attend a fee-paying secondary school are more likely to progress to a university and less likely to not progress to college.

This newspaper's 10-year study of where students go to college shows almost two-thirds (64.3pc) of students from fee-paying schools went on to secure a place in a university in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

This does not take into account the number of students who take up places in universities in the UK excluding Northern Ireland, or in the EU and further afield - many principals will argue that the true figure for those who progress to university courses should be even higher.

Analysis of the data shows a slight increase in the number of students who progressed to university from a fee-paying secondary school last year. In the previous nine years, 63pc of students from a fee-paying background went on to an Irish or Northern Irish university. When this year's figures are added the sum jumps 1.3pc.

Of those students who attended a fee-paying school, 30.2pc secured places in other colleges and institutes of technology.

A total of 5.6pc did not record a place in an Irish university or college.

Not all parents can afford the luxury of being able to send their child to a fee-paying schools.

The research shows non fee-paying schools make up a large cohort of the county's top-performing schools.

Almost three-quarters of students from non fee-paying schools go on to secure places at third level.

A total of 34.9pc of Leaving Cert students from these schools went on to study at a university in Ireland and Northern Ireland over the past 10 years.

Four in 10 students went on to secure places at another college or institute of technology on the island.

More than a quarter of students (25.3pc) from non fee-paying schools did not go on to third level.Some of my closest friends have children in private schools. This may be because they were working class themselves and are keen that their children don't slide back down the class ladder. For some, it is because of a dearth of high-quality public schools in their area as a consequence of the dominance of private schools.

People also believe in private schooling because they consider themselves successful exemplars of such education and wish to replicate it. They believe it mainly delivers life-long social capital. Some also choose it for religious reasons.

It is argued that those sending their children to private schools 'just want the best for their children'. I believe 'the best' for my children is a strong public education system that helps them develop relationships with people from all social backgrounds and bring understanding into their adult lives.

Feeder Schools: Click here for the full breakdown of where Leaving Cert pupils have gone to college over the past 10 years

Decisions about private education for one's own children have a wider impact. The private education system has buckled the public system in the US. Oxbridge graduates, derived mainly from private UK schools, dominate in all professional and leadership positions across the Irish Sea.

In their 2009 book The Spirit Level Richard G Wilkinson and Kate Pickett marshalled comprehensive data to demonstrate that more equal societies do better on all dimensions relating to quality of life. Countries that embrace the diversity of their local community have the highest standards of literacy.

Only 7pc of our second level schools are private. But 90pc of the top 10 feeder schools to Trinity and UCD are drawn from these schools. Their students comprise about 16pc of first year entrants. This skewed institutional progression is a corollary of the Leaving Certificate points system. I can't help but believe this may be 'the best' for a very small number of children, but not for the majority who will shape our future.

Widening participation is key to this. A colleague in Queen's University Belfast recently told me this "has become sexy" and is increasingly being prioritised.

'Widening participation' was the term adopted in the late 1990s in the UK and Ireland to describe programmes that aimed to address the problem of the higher education system leaving working class students behind. Development of these programmes coincided with a wave of optimism following the election of New Labour in the UK and Clinton in the US.

Twenty years later, developed economies are increasingly marked by the electoral success of far right populists. The UK is in constitutional crisis and about to exit the European Union, a process led by a group of Oxford graduates who are as far from the 'common people' as is possible. The US government is in its longest- ever period of shut-down. In France, the Gilets Jaunes have successfully marshalled their modern-day Blair into a large-scale public consultation process. At least in some part, these developments can be attributed to the increased inequalities that are the hallmark of late capitalism.

It is easy to see why more people may think that 'widening participation' is the least radical way to address big problems. Michelle Obama's autobiography Becoming eschewed the large-scale corrective effects politics might deliver in favour of more education for working class students. That is where she places her faith.

Last year, Cambridge University announced a mind-boggling 500m campaign to diversify access, with the aim of recruiting and supporting more working class and ethnic minority students. In 2016, Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford University adapted the Foundation Course from Trinity College Dublin and has now had three successful cohorts of working class students from areas of the UK where Oxford was failing to recruit.

In Ireland, 25pc of Trinity's intake is from 'non-traditional' backgrounds, in other words, working class students, students with a disability and mature students. All of the universities and institutes of technology have access programmes, connecting them with over 200 schools nationwide which are part of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) scheme.

Although Ireland has a higher education participation rate, close to 65pc, under-representation of working class students in higher education persists, ranging from 15pc in Dublin 17 to 99pc in Dublin 6.

There has been some progress and a recent Higher Education Authority (HEA) report notes gains in the numbers of working class students progressing to higher education, while an OECD report cites Ireland and the UK as two of the top-five countries with programmes to effectively target under-represented groups.

Each access student has a 'ripple effect' on their family and community, inspiring others to achieve. Since 2014, we have recruited and trained hundreds of access undergraduates to deliver a mentoring programme back in their own communities and there are now nationwide versions of this approach supported by the Higher Education Authority's PATH initiative.

It is a commonly expressed view that there are too many graduates and that many more young people should be directed into apprenticeships. However, I have yet to meet a professional who is planning for their own child to progress to an apprenticeship. So, if the funnel is only so wide, who should be filtered out?

While not all graduates have professional jobs, the penalties attached to non-participation have increased and higher education is arguably a defensive necessity. OECD evidence clearly demonstrates that a higher education qualification, particularly one from a university, is still the best inoculation against the vagaries of the market and shape-shifting employment structures. It continues to deliver lifelong dividends in earnings, health, well-being and civic engagement.

Access programmes are doing their part to improve the higher education progression of talented working class students with unrealised potential.

Things will not get better through widening participation alone but it is an intervention that delivers intergenerational benefits to students and families and supports greater diversity in the higher education institutions.

Dr Cliona Hannon is Director of Trinity Access 21 at Trinity College DublinBesides the shock of the incident, the officer will be OK. He got lucky, Guglielmi said. The officer, who was talking and in good health, will also be checked out at an area hospital but was not physically hurt.PSNI officers stand watch over the remains of the car that was earlier hijacked and packed with explosives before being detonated outside Derry court house. Photo: Getty

The activities of dissident republican groups are coming under increasing scrutiny by gardai as part of the security preparations for Brexit.

One of the main targets of security forces on both sides of the Border are the activities of the New IRA.

Security sources say the organisation has been increasingly active in recent months, and it has been linked to the "unbelievably reckless" bomb that exploded outside Derry court house last weekend. The bomb exploded 30 minutes after a telephone warning to the Samaritans and as police were still clearing the area.

No organisation has claimed the bomb attack. However, the dissident republican political organisation, Saoradh, claimed that some of its members were among seven people who were arrested in the days after the explosion.

Over an Americano in a Crumlin coffee shop last week, the leader of this "revolutionary republican party", a Dubliner in his 50s, offered a chilling glimpse of the fanaticism that could threaten peace in Northern Ireland.

Brian Kenna is a former employee of the Health Service Executive, and a former prisoner. Jailed for a foiled IRA armed raid in Wexford, he was released under the Good Friday agreement in 1995 and later moved to dissident republican politics - although he does not call it that.

He worked for the HSE's drug addiction services. He was caught carrying notes from dissident republican prisoners in jail to the leadership in Northern Ireland. Kenna was jailed in 2017 for IRA membership. He lost his job but on his release was elected chairman of Saoradh.

He claimed Saoradh is not a mouthpiece of the New IRA - or any other organisation, armed or otherwise - but an "autonomous" political organisation.

Kenna said he didn't know the names of those arrested last weekend.

"But I know they are members of Saoradh," he said. He claimed their arrests were part of an attempt to "demonise" the group, underlined, he argued, by the fact that they were released without charge.

Asked if he approved of the bombing in Derry, he said: "If I was to answer that, that would be used against me in a court of law" and accused the courts of being "politically motivated".

Pressed again, he said: "My opinion of it is that because we have continued partition of this island and occupation of this island by an armed foreign entity, you are always going to see women and men resist that occupation with the use of force."

The Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, warned in November that dissident republicans will undoubtedly attempt to exploit any form of a hard border post-Brexit as "an emotional rally call around their outlook and terrorist aspirations".

In Kenna's view, Brexit brings the Border into "sharp focus". He said he "understands why people would be willing to resist British occupation of this country. In every generation, the last 800 or more years, has resulted in people taking up arms against British occupation. I understand that and that continues," he said.

"Brexit is bringing that attitude into sharp focus. Brexit is showing up the fact that the island is divided, that we do have a Border. It doesn't matter if it's a hard or soft border."'But where will they live?" It's the biggest single reaction I now hear to new high-tech jobs announcements, especially around Dublin.

It happened with Salesforce's 1,500 jobs two weeks ago and Facebook's 1,000 jobs last week.

But with planners and politicians seemingly hapless, another question looms: should tech companies themselves be building houses?

The idea isn't unprecedented in Dublin. It was pursued by what was once the dominant multinational in Dublin - Guinness. Much of the housing and cottages still standing around the city - from Stoneybatter through the Liberties to Crumlin - stem from Guinness's plan to house workers and the less well-off.

Like today, state authorities back then couldn't, or wouldn't, build enough housing for citizens, so the Guinness family, through the Iveagh Trust and other initiatives, stepped in to take action.

No-one is suggesting that the Dublin of the early 1900s accurately resembles the modern city of today. And Guinness was driven to action partly due to the severe levels of poverty back then which simply don't exist in 2018.

But this basic idea - that booming corporations might directly get involved in housing when they start to dominate a city - still has resonance today.

And tech companies themselves are starting to do it in other cities.

In Seattle, Microsoft is setting aside close to $500m to fund the construction of 'affordable' homes.

But these homes are not just for its own employees. The money is being used to build houses for non-tech workers such as teachers, firefighters and others who don't earn the six-figure salaries which are the norm in the big tech companies.

Google is doing something similar close to San Francisco. It has just spent $1bn developing a huge plot of land for 8,000 residential units near its base in Menlo Park - 20pc of these will be designated as affordable housing. Specifically, these affordable units are to be designed for "low-, moderate- and middle-income individuals and families, including service workers, emergency responders, teachers and nurses", according to Google's planning statement.

Facebook isn't far behind, announcing last week that it is taking part in a $500m fund to expand affordable housing in the San Francisco region.

Notice a pattern? These tech giants are booming. The cities they're based in have skyrocketing rents and house prices. Those two things are connected. So the companies are starting to be part of the solution, directly.

"We believe everybody has a role to play and everybody needs to play their role," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, of his company's cash investment.

Back to Dublin - should any of these tech companies be involved in housing here? The case for it goes as follows.

Tech multinationals are, by a long way, the dominant industry in the growth of high-paying jobs. Most are moving, or expanding their bases in the city centre.

Attracted to the high wages, many people are coming from around Ireland and abroad to Dublin. Because they earn more than non-tech peers, higher rents ensue, pushing others out of the market.

Ideally, the State should react to this. It is our country, after all: if there's more demand than supply for affordable housing, isn't it ultimately our responsibility to fix that?

But most of us don't agree on the solutions, ultimately represented by a very minimal response from the Government and planners.

So should the companies themselves intervene?

There are two potential scenarios.

Option one is that a company such as Facebook or Google would build, or commit to buying, a number of units directly themselves. These would be squarely for their own workers.

Option two would be a general investment in affordable housing stock to benefit a wider community base. This would include the likes of teachers, guards and service workers, as well as lower-paid tech workers. This could be by way of a third-party fund, similar to how Facebook is going about it in San Francisco.

Based on conversations I've had with people in these companies, the chances of any of this happening are zero.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, it's hard to compare Seattle or San Francisco with Dublin.

Facebook and Google employ well over 100,000 people between them in the San Francisco area. In Dublin, it's a 10th of that.

It's an even bigger disparity in ratios with Microsoft and Amazon between Seattle and Dublin.

So the effect on rents and home prices in Dublin, while undoubtedly present, can't really be compared by scale.

Even if they could, there's a separate, but equally relevant, point: Dublin is a secondary office location that's a long way down the line from the US headquarters. This matters. Zuckerberg and Smith care about their 'home' towns over and above employment ratios.

They have warm thoughts about Dublin, to be sure. But it's not the same. And neither is the assumed civic responsibility.

Asking big firms to take on some responsibility for the housing of workers here might also establish an odd sort of libertarian principle. It radically reduces the State's responsibility. To me, it resembles the idea that charities might properly be the ones to tend to homeless people or those with severe illnesses, rather than a national health service.

It's true that in the US, this is a brutal reality in many states and cities. So one can see how a Guinness-style Iveagh Trust scenario applies over there.

But Ireland still aspires to be a modern European state that provides more equitable access to infrastructure such as housing as a policy.

Maybe the real choice is to either build more houses or accept what we have.The Government and EU have taken a leaf out of Fawlty Towers over the Border  dont mention the war

The Government has published its plans for new legislation in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but there was still very little light shed on what might happen at the Border.

Words like it might be "very difficult" were used but, despite the best efforts of radio interviewers, ministers were staying quiet about how the Border might operate.

The decision by a European Commission spokesman to spell out the obvious, albeit in very non-nuanced language, was like a diplomatic grenade going off during the week.

It seems a little ridiculous that, for all of this time, the Government and European Commission simply declined to talk about how the Border with the North might operate in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

A simple glance at the EU rule book shows there would have to be Border checks in such a scenario. However, both sides simply ignored the question for good reason.

It has yet to be negotiated. Why would the Irish Government concede that there would be a hard Border when it might never come to pass and, if there is no-deal, it hopes to negotiate the extent of the Border checks that might be required?

By admitting there would be a hard Border in what is a hypothetical situation, the Irish Government would have played its hand too early.

When the European Commission spokesman stated the obvious, it forced the dialogue into the open. It had been forced back into its box by both sides, until, of course Taoiseach Leo Varadker's Davos interjection about the potential for troops on the border in the event of a no-deal.

It is difficult to say what concessions, if any, the European Union might make in how the Border would be operated by the Irish customs authorities. However, it is a conversation that will have to be had if Britain crashes out without a deal at the end of March.

Like so many other aspects of Brexit, the Government has taken a very logical course of action - if things all work out well in the end. If it all goes horribly wrong, analysts and voters will pick over the catalogue of errors and what should have been done differently.

When it comes to not discussing the Border in a no-deal, Fianna Fail seem to be broadly behind the Government's approach - for now. A party which has its own track record of denying the obvious for tactical purposes, its leader Micheal Martin appeared somewhat supportive of the Government's approach at this stage.

He will, of course, reserve the right to take a different view if it all goes wrong and, as Tanaiste Simon Coveney put it to Shane Ross, this Government does become the outfit that put a hard Border back in Ireland.

Glanbia to remain a big cheese

Glanbia has made what could prove to be a very important announcement for the south-east of the country. It plans to invest 140m in a new manufacturing facility in Belview, Co Kilkenny.

The new plant will be a joint venture between Glanbia Ireland and Royal A-ware, a major global cheese and dairy producer. The big news is that the plant will make cheese products for the continental market. Yes, the one that doesn't include the UK, especially after Brexit.

It will have a production capacity of 450 million litres of milk a year, which will be sourced locally. That should take some of the Brexit worry away from local farmers - but they are not all happy.

When it comes to dairy farmers and milk, only one thing counts - price. ICMSA president Pat McCormack praised the strategic decision by Glanbia to diversify its product range into new cheese products, but gave a warning shot across the bows.

"It is no secret that we've had several differences of opinion with Glanbia about the way to arrive at farmer milk price, particularly when their price drifts below current per litre based on the Ornua PPI - as is the case now," he said. He went on to say that farmers would judge the investment on the basis of whether it does, or does not, return a stronger milk price to them.

He stuck the boot right in when he reminded them to "always remember whose work it is that they're ultimately building this 140m facility on".

Glanbia Ireland is now majority owned by the Co-op and McCormack's views might reflect how happy those in the plc are to have put some of those issued behind them.

Nama's 740m loose ends

Tying up loose ends in a 74bn property portfolio is a tricky business, especially when it involves Nama. The Minister for Finance confirmed to Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty, in an answer to a Dail question last week, that the state agency would indeed have some loose ends when it winds up its work in 2021.

He said there was a possibility that a small number of loans may not be resolved by 2021 due to ongoing litigation. There could also be a small residual portfolio of property loans which are likely to remain unresolved.

What happens to legal actions and loans that are unresolved when the agency in charge dissolves? One option is that they are simply dropped. Paschal Donohoe told Doherty that such assets are currently expected to be less than 1pc of Nama's original portfolio.

Well, 1pc of 74bn is 740m. However, the state of what is left in the Nama portfolio at this stage is not too hard to glean, as it must be pretty toxic. Nama's remaining assets are valued at just 2.3bn on its balance sheet, yet we are told they represent 23.9bn of the original book value of the loans.

So Nama is carrying them at a 90pc discount to their original value and this is despite significant rises in the value of residential and commercial property in the last five years.

The complicating factors here may be poor title or security, ongoing litigation and whatever else. These loans were held by 223 debtors. The agency is expected to report a surplus of 3.5bn.

Dyson is not untying the cord with Brexit Britain

James Dyson attracted a lot of ire for saying his multi-billion pound electronic products group was moving to Singapore. The ire came because Dyson was a major backer of Brexit. Immediately, everybody assumed he was giving two fingers to Brexit Britain, presumably on the basis that he didn't think the future of the UK was going to be all that solid.

The details behind the move are a little more nuanced than that. He made profits of 1bn last year, with the fastest growth continuing to be in Asia. Singapore is closer to those Asian customers and his manufacturers.

Tax is another possible incentive but the UK is a pretty attractive location for intellectual property (IP) and entrepreneurs who want to develop businesses.

In fact, Dyson employs 1,500 people in R&D alone in the UK and it plans to employ another 300. This won't be affected by the move. It is taking a massive gamble on developing a new electric car in Asia. Its IP is likely to stay in the UK and it is simply its head office which is moving to Singapore.

Jobs may follow in the future but Brexit is unlikely to be the driving factor. His timing is pretty awful because it looks bad. But when would be a better time for a Brexit backer to announce such a move? Perhaps when Jeremy Corbyn is prime minister!

The head office move will reduce the amount of tax paid into the British exchequer, but not massively. Only two people will technically move to Singapore and one of them, the chief executive, already lives there.

It isn't the Brexiteer abandoning ship story that has been presented.The scene of the accident which took place at the start of Louise McBrides family holiday in France  just 20 minutes after leaving Roscoff ferry port they were hit by a French car whose driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.

I made my first travel insurance claim ever last year - after being in a car accident in France.

It was an eye-opener. I was astounded at the amount of documents I needed to get together to make a claim. This is not only time-consuming, but on an emotional level I found it difficult to get these documents together - because it involved revisiting my family's traumatic experience in France.

Luckily, my family and I all survived the car crash. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to get the necessary documents together to make a claim if you have lost a loved one when on holiday - or if you, or one of your travelling companions, is seriously injured while abroad.

Another thing which struck me when making the claim was how difficult it can be to get a payout - particularly for small claims.

Expand Close Louise McBride and her children Kelan, Lara and Emilia / Facebook

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I made a travel insurance claim to cover the cost of some accommodation which I had booked and paid for ahead of the holiday - but which my family and I could not stay in after we were diverted as a result of the accident.

The claim itself was only for a few hundred euro, so it was relatively small. I provided our insurer - VHI Multitrip - with various documents to support the claim.

In the end though, I didn't get a payout because an excess (the first part of a claim which you must cover yourself) of 85 was applied for each member of my family of five - rather than for just one of us. This brought the total excess for our claim to 425 - which was more than the loss I was claiming for.

When a family is making a claim - particularly to cover the cost of a single bill (such as holiday accommodation), surely it would be fairer for only one excess to be applied for the entire family than to have an excess applied for every person in the family?

I put this point to VHI MultiTrip and a spokeswoman said: "To help keep the policy at a fair price for all customers, we have agreed an excess with underwriters. All of the cover on the policy is applied per person, except for a few sections that have overall policy limits, so the excess is applied per person."

Personally, I would prefer to pay more for insurance and be covered - than to pay a 'fair' price and not be covered.

The spokeswoman added that it is possible to buy an optional excess waiver add-on when buying insurance. With this add-on (which costs extra), you would not be hit with an excess when making a claim.

Luggage claims

I had considered making a travel insurance claim for lost and damaged belongings as a result of the accident - but decided against it when I saw the extent of documentation required. To be able to claim for lost or damaged personal luggage or belongings, you must provide proof of ownership. This can be difficult.

For example, with VHI Multitrip, you must provide "receipts or similar documentation for the items you are claiming for as evidence of value and ownership. Similar documentation can include bank statements showing purchase, original packaging for item, or a photo showing the items in question." Other travel insurers have similar rules around this.

Our car accident happened shortly after our arrival in France for a two-week holiday - while we were en route to our camp site.

Like any other family travelling with young children, our car was packed to the brim with luggage at the time of the crash. Much of our luggage was strewn across the motorway after the crash.

We salvaged most of our luggage immediately after the accident. But once the gendarmes arrived on the scene, we weren't allowed to check our car for other belongings. Our car was a write-off and was towed away and eventually scrapped.

We were in such a state of shock at the time of the accident that it was only after we had returned to Ireland that we started to remember some of the belongings which we had left in the car.

Some of the items which were left in the car were old; some were new. Some were valuable; some weren't. Some items had been bought with cash rather than card. We certainly didn't have receipts for, or photos of, everything in the car. Neither did we have a list of all the items in the car. Who does? Who packs or prepares for an accident when going on holiday?

Who has the ability to think straight after an accident - and to therefore be in a position to take photos of damaged belongings?

Injuries & Health

Thankfully, I had packed our European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) for our holiday - so most of our French hospital bills were covered by those cards and I did not go through my travel insurance for that. (The EHIC lets you get public healthcare in another EU or EEA state for free, or at a reduced cost.)

We weren't robbed when on holiday, but if you were to make a travel insurance claim as a result of a robbery, you must usually report the theft to the local police within 24 hours.

You must also usually get a written report from the police about the theft - and you will need to submit that report with your claim.

These might seem like reasonable requests, but what happens if you're stranded in the middle of nowhere after being robbed when on holiday - and you can't get to a local policeman within 24 hours? What happens if you're too badly injured or in shock to even consider going to a police station? Even if you can get to a police station, what happens if there's a language barrier and you therefore can't ask for a written report - or indeed, if the police refuse to provide you with one?

In our case, for example, the gendarmes refused to provide us with their written report about our car accident. We were told there were only two copies of the report -one for the French police and one for the French judiciary.

Should you cut short your holiday because of health problems, you must usually provide your travel insurer with documentation from the doctor who treated you abroad, stating why it was medically necessary for you to return home.

Should you cancel or cut short your holiday as a result of the death of a loved one, you must usually provide your insurer with the death certificate of your loved one if making a claim. Some people might find it too traumatic to even look at a death certificate after the loss of a loved one - never mind handle it for the purposes of making a travel insurance claim.

"Where there are specific requirements or exclusions in the terms and conditions [of VHI MultiTrip], this is in order to validate claims, minimise fraud and to protect the pricing for all customers by ensuring only claims that were intended to be covered are paid," said a spokeswoman for VHI MultiTrip. "This is for the benefit of the customer base as a whole and is also required to meet contractual and regulatory requirements."

The spokeswoman added: "All claims are reviewed within the terms and conditions of the policy and claims handlers are required to assess claims based on the policy terms and conditions.

"For the majority of cases, this includes gathering supporting evidence to validate the claim is covered within the terms of the policy and also provides an audit trail to evidence that the claim has been paid correctly. For example, if the policy states that cover applies subject to the incident being reported to a relevant authority or service provider to record the cause of the loss, the role of the claims handler is to get the appropriate documentation to evidence that the policy wording was adhered to."

I will continue to buy travel insurance before holidays - because I know how quickly things can take a turn for the worse when abroad and because it is prudent to do so. Medical bills can be huge if you're injured or in an accident abroad - without travel insurance, you could be in a precarious financial position if things go wrong.

My family and I all survived that accident and that matters more to me than any payout I would get from travel insurance. All the same, I believe that there is a lot of work to be done to make travel insurance simpler and easier to understand, that excesses should be fairer (if applied at all) - and that it shouldn't be such an ordeal to make a claim.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE WITH TRAVEL INSURANCE

Policies must be simpler

I have been writing about personal finance for 17 years, and I still find it a challenge to read and understand travel insurance policies. I imagine it is even more of a challenge for many others  particularly those not familiar with insurance jargon and financial terms.

Many of us simply dont have the time or inclination to read a travel insurance contract in full. Yet, to know exactly what youre covered for  and when and where youre covered, you need to read and understand a travel insurance contract in its entirety. This is not easy. Travel insurance contracts are long and complicated.

As with any insurance, when you buy travel insurance, you have no idea what might trigger a claim. So even picking one or two sections out of your policy which you feel will be most relevant to your trip  and concentrating on understanding those sections  may not be enough.

The Central Bank said that its consumer-protection code has rules to ensure that financial products (including travel insurance) are understood by consumers and that claims are handled fairly. However, this code was introduced more than 10 years ago  and the majority of travel insurance contracts are still far too long and complicated. A spokeswoman for VHI Multitrip said that there is a project under way to look at simplifying the VHI Multitrip policy document and reducing the length.

Copies should be okay for claims

Another difficulty that people may run into with travel insurance is that they may have to submit original documents when making a claim as their insurer might not accept photocopies.

However, there are a number of original documents that people might be reluctant to send to an insurer  particularly if its a sensitive or valuable document, such as a death certificate or a police report of a theft or accident. Most travel insurers require death certificates to check the validity of a claim which has arisen following the death of a loved one or travelling companion. A spokeswoman for VHI Multitrip said that it will be moving away from the need for customers to provide original documents. She added that VHI Multitrip is working on rolling out further developments around online claiming, where customers can submit scanned copies or photographs of documents when making a claim.

Phone calls should be covered

When youre involved in an accident or emergency abroad, youre likely to run up an expensive phone bill. Youll typically call your insurer, emergency services, and your family. You might call the Irish embassy or others for advice. Youll make other calls to try to organise yourself after the incident. Phone calls, however, may not be covered by your insurer.

VHI MultiTrip, for example, doesnt cover the cost of telephone calls. Blue Insurance covers the cost of certain phone calls, such as calls to emergency assistance services  as long as you can provide receipts or other evidence to show the cost of the calls and the numbers telephoned.

Excesses should be fairer

Even if your claim is valid, there may be no point making a claim because of the excesses on your policy. This should not be the case. Excesses should be fairer and lower.Ireland's air traffic control (ATC) system could manage airspace throughout Europe - where strikes by French and other operators have frequently grounded flights during peak summer holidays in recent years - according to airline entrepreneur Declan Ryan.

A son of the late Ryanair founder Tony Ryan, the aviator has also said airlines need to "get rid" of some pilots around the world as part of an innovation drive.

"I just love to think about Eamonn Brennan, who now runs Eurocontrol, if he was given the right tools with regards to innovation," Ryan told the Airfinance Journal conference in Dublin last week.

Brennan, the former head of the Irish Aviation Authority, was named director general of Brussels-based Eurocontrol, the agency developing a Europe-wide air traffic management system, in 2017.

"My understanding is the ATC capability we have here in Ireland is enough to cover Europe," said Ryan.

"I didn't go to Harvard or anywhere else like that, but I know that if you had one ATC [operator] in Ireland, our costs would come down. There's loads of room for innovation."

Ryan's Dublin-based Irelandia Aviation firm has invested in a number of low-cost airline start-ups over almost 20 years.

It owns a majority stake in Viva Air, the low-cost carrier which operates in Colombia and Peru, and which Ryan said during the week that he aims to list on the stock market next year.

"We have Viva Labs down in Medellin, and it's the team behind Propeller in Shannon, which is very interesting," said Ryan.

Propeller Shannon is a start-up accelerator which is backed by organisations including travel software firm Datalex, the Irish Aviation Authority, Boeing, SMBC Aviation Capital and Enterprise Ireland.

"When you think about it, when you get on a Viva Colombia flight or a Viva Peru flight, we should be able to know if you like beer, if you like a sandwich, or what your family's favourite perfume is, but we don't," Ryan told the conference.

He added: "We need to do loads on data and we need to do loads on drones.

"I think we need to get rid of some pilots around the world."

The entrepreneur also said that legacy carriers are "woeful" at trying to establish low-cost airlines.

"The legacy guys, by and large, aren't very innovative when it comes to costs," he said.Malta-based Patrick (69), Killiney-based John Hegarty (65) and their extended families control the civil engineering and construction group, PJ Hegarty. The company's signage is long a familiar sight at high-profile building and demolition jobs and work on one of the biggest of these, the reconstruction of the ESB's Fitzwilliam Street headquarters, is ongoing. An 8m contract to turn a dump into a park at Haulbowline in Cork has recently been completed, while Apollo House is no more, thanks to the Hegarty wrecking ball. The company is at number 11 in the Construction Industry Federation list of Ireland's top contractors, with turnover of 205m.Dublin woman Rosaleen Blair (54) set up a nanny recruitment business in her home city before moving to the UK to work with former BBC Dragon, James Caan. She set up a new division at his company, Alexander Mann Solutions, which she later bought out. Blair subsequently sold it for 315m in 2013 and continued to run the company. It is believed that she retained a significant stake in the company which was again sold last May for A820m (929m) to Canada's Omers Private Equity. On this basis, we are conservatively increasing her wealth estimate by 17m.Wicklow-based Richard Roche (62) heads up the family behind the Roches Stores chain. In 2006 the family sold the leasehold of the Roches Stores department store business to Debenhams for 29m but held on to nine of the properties, as well as property company, Westfield Investments. It is currently developing property in Mauritius, the UAE and Reading in the UK, where it launched an 18-storey mixed-use development in 2017. The unlimited company has also developed car parks and retail in Ireland.Ray Hutchinson (69) and his family own Manderley Food Group, based in Tandragee, Co Armagh, which operates the Tayto brand outside the Republic of Ireland. It is now the largest producer of snack foods in the UK following its acquisition of Tavern Snacks in 2017. Brexit and uncertainty around Sterling are potential concerns but turnover grew from A163m (182m) to A173m (194m) in 2017, with profits down from A2.9m (3.25m) to A1.5m (1.7m).Michael Roden (60) owns Merrion Property Group, which recently returned to the development market with the highly praised Blackrock House apartment development in a restored convent in Cork city. But the going was tough for Roden in Northern Ireland in 2018 when it emerged there was a doubt over the continuation of horse racing at the North's oldest venue, Down Royal, owned and leased out by the property group since 2005. With the lease now expired, Merrion was due to take over the running of the venue this month. The company originally made its name selling a 24-acre site in Dublin's Mount Merrion for more than 50m in 2003.Lambert, 34, an Ohio native who had been living in Highland Park, was on his way home about 5 p.m. on Jan. 12 when he stopped to help with a crash involving multiple cars on the northbound lanes of I-294 near Willow Road. He had positioned his car in the left lane to help protect the stopped motorists from oncoming northbound traffic, when he was hit and killed, said Leo Schmitz, director of Illinois State Police.Cork businessman Leslie Buckley (74) had a challenging year in 2018, stepping down from his role of chairman of the board of INM in May as a scandal about alleged data breaches unfolded at the newspaper group. He subsequently welcomed the appointment of High Court inspectors to the company as an opportunity to 'vindicate' himself. He originally made his name as a restructuring expert working with companies such as Waterford Crystal, Irish Steel and Aer Lingus. A close associate of Denis O'Brien, he was chief operations officer of Esat Telecom from 1996 to 1997. He is estimated to have made 10m from the sale of Esat to BT in 2000 and 70m from his interests in Digicel. Buckley and his wife Carmel co-founded Haven, a housing and sanitation charity in Haiti.Leo Crawford, chief executive of Irish Spar franchise owner BWG, and two other directors of the group are in line to share a windfall of about 75m in the coming years as BWG's majority shareholder takes full control. Crawford, together with BWG's property director John Clohisey and finance director John O'Donnell, own 20pc of BWG, with the rest owned by South African company, The Spar Group (TSG).Kyran McLaughlin (74), one of the biggest shareholders in stockbroker Davy, last year stepped down from his role as head of capital markets at the firm, to be succeeded by AIB CEO Bernard Byrne. He is to remain as deputy chairman of the company. Once dubbed the most powerful man in Irish stockbroking, McLaughlin's stake in Davy is estimated to be worth well in excess of 50m. As a Ryanair director during a turbulent period he survived a challenge to his seat on the airline's board but some investors were clear in their opinion that nine years is too long a stint.Gemma Smith Maughan (76) and husband Michael own 46pc of Gowan Group, which distributes everything from Peugeot cars to LG appliances, as well as owning Senator Windows. Last October, it announced it would close two of its most prominent south Dublin car dealerships, including its landmark outlet in Ballsbridge. The group said the sites were no longer suitable for the car business and it was reported that the properties were being sold for an estimated 18m. Latest accounts show turnover rising from 167m to 182m in 2017, with pre-tax profits of 1.4m. The group was established by Maughan's late husband Con Smith in 1969. He tragically died just three years later in the Staines air crash in London. Daughters Alba, Christiana, Mary Louise and Fiona each own 13pc.Former GPA executive Domhnal Slattery (52) made 32m when he sold aircraft leasing company Avolon to Chinese firm Bohai for 1.2bn in 2015. He is still leading the firm and it has been a busy year, with a mammoth 10bn order for 100 Airbus jets going in December. But there has been uncertainty too, stemming from the debt concerns around HNA, the giant parent of Bohai. Last year, Orix Corporation bought 30pc of Avolon through the Japanese group's Dublin-based aviation subsidiary for $2.2bn (1.93bn), implying an Avolon enterprise value of $23.7bn (20.8bn). Now based in Hong Kong, where he still leads Avolon, Slattery made his first big splash when he sold his first aviation business, International Aviation Management, to RBS for 45m in 2001. Slattery owns a swanky Shrewsbury Road house previously owned by developer Sean Dunne and his wife, Gayle Killilea.Limerick native Dolores McNamara (59) shot to fame in July 2005 after she won 115m in the Euromillions Lottery. She bought a 4.5m country estate outside Limerick and purchased properties in both the US and Turkey. In 2017, the former cleaning lady had around 40 homes in the US city of Detroit, Michigan, listed for forfeiture by local authorities for non-payment of property taxes.Walsh (53) and Kelly (52) are the founders of Carlow-based security camera and software firm Netwatch, which merged with companies in Britain and the US in a deal funded by private equity firm, Riverside. The deal means the pair combined are the second largest shareholders in a company that now plans to double in size as it takes in entities in the US, the UK, as well as Carlow. The company employs over 180 staff in offices in Newry, Cambridge and two in the US. Its customers span the globe, with a particular focus on South Africa, Europe, the US and the Middle East.Dublin-born David McMurtry (78), who co-founded UK-headquartered precision engineering business Renishaw, is a billionaire thanks to his 36pc 1.17bn stake in the firm.

Living in greenest Gloucestershire, near Bristol, the inventor - who was born in Clontarf and went to Mount Temple school - holds more patents in his name than British billionaire and fellow inventor James Dyson. He has seen his paper fortune fall this year due to a fall in FTSE 250-listed Renishaw's share price of about 20pc. Nevertheless, he picked up a 17.9m dividend last year, and has banked over 100m in pay and dividends since 2009.

Renishaw, which employs about 5,000 people - including 260 in Swords - makes 3D metal printers, medical robots, and hi-tech components of laser altimeters and lidar. Its equipment is used by everyone from hospitals to major manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce and the Asian giants that are contracted to make smartphones for Samsung and Apple.

The firm began life in 1973, after McMurtry worked as a troubleshooter on the Concorde Olympus engine at Rolls-Royce, and where he met his co-founder, Welshman John Deer.

McMurtry and his wife are generous supporters of charities near where they live. He's also believed to support other causes here in Ireland anonymously. The company champions engineering, inventing, science and technology and is particularly keen to encourage young women to join the firm. Meanwhile, it also supported a Brunel museum and an aerospace museum in Bristol, which houses one of the last Concordes.

An eco-home that he designed and built in the Gloucestershire countryside cost 34m and featured in an episode of the BBC series, Sherlock. McMurtry, a fan of cars and motor racing, drives a top-of-the-range, souped-up Mini and also owns one of the cheapest Renault electric cars on the market. In 2016, he also invested in a small electric car startup close to where he lives, in which a group of young engineers, who have a background in Formula One and other top echelons of motorsport engineering, are working.Meath-born David Bobbett (59) led the management buyout of bespoke kitchen maker H&K International, which supplies major fast-food restaurant chains globally such as McDonald's, Burger King and Subway. It was reported last autumn that he was one of the backers of a Paddy McKillen Jr plan to build on a high-profile 9.7-acre site at Temple Hill in Blackrock, Co Dublin.Tech entrepreneur Colm Lyon (55) sold his online payments company Realex to New York-listed Global Payments for 115m in 2015, making around 92m from the deal. As part of that deal, Lyon acquired a London-based business and consumer payments company, Fire Financial Services. Last July it became the first Irish-based payments firm to be authorised to provide new services under EU rules aimed at opening up banking. Latest accounts for the firm, to the end of April 2016, showed retained losses had grown to 6.7m.Hewitt and Glover may have caught some in the audience by surprise with the notably deliberate, measured tempo they chose for the finale. For at least one listener, it sounded self-consciously, conspicuously slow. And yet there was no denying the gravitas this brought to the movement, the sorrow-beneath-a-smile sense one draws from some of Mozarts autumnal works, such as his Symphony No. 41, Jupiter.Chris O'Callaghan (67) and his family owned 90pc of Cork-based fuel importer and distributor Inver Energy which was sold to UK firm Greenergy in 2017. The financial terms were not disclosed but a second company controlled by the O'Callaghans, World Fuel Markets Limited, showed a gain of almost 26m related to the deal. It also included Inver's UK subsidiary and its 50pc share of the company behind the Foynes Oil Terminal. In 2016, Inver recorded a 5.7m pre-tax profit on turnover of 485.9m. In 2015, it had secured over 112m in financing to fund expansion in both Ireland and the UK.Cork-based Lyonshall has sought to increase the size of its development near University College Cork

Plans for almost 1,400 new student bed spaces have been submitted since the start of the year as the housing crisis continues to hit those in third-level education seeking accommodation.

Like most demographics, the student housing sector is facing a significant shortfall with demand for spaces more intense than ever before. At the time of last year's CAO offers there were 3,070 properties available nationwide.

Prime Living has applied to build 706 purpose-built student bedrooms in Sandyford in south county Dublin. The Swedish company bought a 1.8 acre site at the junction of Blackthorn Road and Carmanhall Road for around 10.3m in 2017. It intends to spend upwards of 20m on the development itself.

The site was originally purchased with permission to build 147 apartments, a creche, a cafe, and a gym. It is 3km from UCD and within walking distance of Luas stations that can deliver students to Trinity, the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, and DIT.

It follows Prime Living's first investment in Ireland - a development site in Letterkenny in Co Donegal. Prime intends building around 136 bed spaces there. The company itself is a joint venture with Cara Cove Holding.

Among its directors is Sweden-based Ian McGlinchey, who owns a series of Irish pubs overseas. Prime Living holds 70pc of the Prime Living Sandyford Ltd entity, while Cara Cove owns the remainder.

Due to the scale of the project, Prime Living has gone straight to An Bord Pleanala and can expect a decision on the matter by May 7.

Elsewhere, Cork-based Lyonshall has sought to increase the size of its development on the Bandon Road, despite intense local opposition. The developer was given the green light in August to build 320 units near University College Cork, but has returned to the board with an intention to build 419.

Nearby residents said the development would lead to an over-concentration of student housing in the area.

Finally, planning advisers Declan Brassil and Co have applied for another 235 student bed spaces on the Mangan Road in Dublin 8.

A study from property website Daft, published in August, accused the government of negligent inaction on student housing, stating just 1,400 homes were available in Dublin for more than 80,000 students.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, housing policy analyst Mel Reynolds said it was not surprising that developers were interested in student housing.

Its a very profitable end of the market if you can get them rented. Even though there is a considerable level of them being built, a significant shortfall still remains, he said.The Cliffs of Moher are up for an award at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards

It is an often under-appreciated fact that Ireland's largest indigenous sector - employing 270,000 people throughout the country - is the tourism and hospitality industry.

In terms of jobs, it is far bigger than agriculture, retail, manufacturing or even the financial services sector.

And yet it rarely makes the business or economic headlines.

Software company Salesforce deservedly made a big splash last week with its announcement of 1,500 jobs in Dublin over the next five years.

That's approximately 300 jobs a year, which is to be applauded.

Compare and contrast to Center Parcs in Longford, which will open its forest lodge park this summer with 1,000 permanent jobs from the off.

It could be argued that this employment in Ireland's midlands is more valuable to the country in terms of economic and regional balance.

So why doesn't tourism, from media or Government circles, get due acknowledgement as an economic sector?

Part of the reason is that the industry hasn't been loud or bold enough in talking about itself and its economic importance.

That is part of the reason behind the Irish Tourism Industry Awards, which take place this Friday in Dublin.

These are a celebration and, crucially, a very public acknowledgement of excellence in Irish tourism.

The usual suspects, if you like, are in the running for awards including Aer Lingus, Stena Line, Dublin Airport, the Jameson visitor centres and the Cliffs of Moher. But there's also some fascinating new and emerging tourism businesses in the mix including food tours, tourism technology and greenways.

But to use that old cliche: all finalists on the night are winners as they showcase the best of Irish tourism which as an industry is entrepreneurial, innovative and ambitious.

There will also be a Special Recognition award on the night for International Airlines Group CEO Willie Walsh to acknowledge his work in global aviation and Irish tourism.

Walsh now heads up one of the world's largest airline groups, that includes Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia, with 565 aircraft flying to 279 destinations and carrying around 113 million passengers each year. Not bad for someone who started as an 18-year old cadet pilot with Aer Lingus in 1979.

Business leaders such as Walsh need to be acknowledged by the Irish tourism industry and perhaps that's what the sector should be doing more of.

Putting faces to the industry's success help raise the profile of the sector.

The likes of Francis Brennan, Darina Allen, Pat McCann and Michael O'Leary are all leaders in their field and have generated significant economic and employment opportunities.

There seems to be merit behind a National Tourism Day, as done in many other countries, to highlight the importance of the sector, its economic contribution, and to salute the people that lead from the front as well as the unsung heroes.

Why the desire to raise the profile of the tourism and hospitality sector?

It's not just to get a pat on the back. Instead, it is to make the argument that tourism as an industry is too important to take for granted. The Government must ensure that enabling factors for tourism success are in place.

Worryingly, some of those pro-tourism enabling factors have begun to unravel of late.

Although the Irish tourism industry has just enjoyed a record year of value and volume, it enters into 2019 with a degree wariness as to what lies ahead.

Brexit, of course, is the looming challenge and Failte Ireland, the national tourism development authority, have estimated that a hard Brexit will cost the sector 390m in its immediate aftermath.

That's bad enough, but it's an external factor that tourism and every other economic sector must grapple with.

Of equal concern is the self-inflicted wound that the Government imposed on the sector with the tourism Vat hike in the most recent budget.

In his budget speech, the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe stated that the Vat increase would be an additional tax of 466m on the sector.

Add a bad Brexit and the Vat hike together, and that's getting close to a 1bn wallop to Ireland's largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer.

Other non-tourism legislation coming down the tracks, such as the restrictions on short-term lettings, also run the risk of having unintended consequences for Irish tourism if it leads to less available accommodation stock for visitors at a time where there's still a shortage of hotels.

Despite these challenges, Irish tourism is still confident in growth this year.

It is a remarkably entrepreneurial industry. Aside from Center Parcs, this year will see new hotels built, new aircraft and ferries in operation, and the 10m Museum of Literature Ireland visitor attraction opening its doors on St Stephen's Green.

It is estimated that the tourism industry is committing 2.5bn over the next three years as it invests in its own capacity for growth.

As with any sector, the future is paved with opportunities and challenges. Despite difficulties ahead the industry is confident in its capacity to achieve continued growth given a level playing field.

Last year the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the umbrella group for the sector, clearly set out an eight-year roadmap to 2025 for the tourism's sustainable success including a 65pc increase in overseas tourism revenue and 80,000 more jobs nationwide.

However, to achieve this pro-tourism policies and investment strategies must be pursued by Government, agencies and industry.Karl Fitzpatrick, owner of Wexford-based Chevron Training and Recruitment, has made a 2m bid for the business in its entirety.

An offer of 2m has been made to the receiver of e-learning platform Shaw Academy, the Sunday Independent understands.

The Dublin-based academy, which provides more than 70 different online courses to 4.5 million students globally, sought the protection of the court at the start of the year after its largest debtor made demands for it to repay 5.7m in loans.

Its understood Karl Fitzpatrick, owner of Wexford-based Chevron Training and Recruitment, has approached the High Courts receiver, Stephen Tennant of Grant Thornton, with an offer for the business in its entirety. Tennant has been seeking expressions of interest from investors in order to put a scheme of arrangement in place that would see the company exit examinership within three months.

Fitzpatrick led a management buyout of Chevron Training and Recruitment, which had entered into examinership, in December 2012.

The Wexford-based company employed 15 people then but now has 44 staff. It also posted a 1.5m profit last year.

The education entrepreneur declined to comment on an offer for the Shaw Academy.

The Shaw Academy posted revenue of 7.2m last year.

Founded six years ago by James Egan and Adrian Murphy, the business, which now employs 66, has grown from 10,000 students to 4.5 million last year. Initially offering finance-based subjects, it now offers subjects including design, beauty, languages and photography.

The Shaw Academy encountered financial difficulties after Columbia Lake Partners Growth Lending issued a demand for the money it had lent in 2017. Earlier this month, the High Court heard that the Luxembourg fund had provided the group with 4.65m two years ago, which was due for repayment in November 2018. The court heard the Shaw Academy had been proactive and had been in talks with a potential investor, who had withdrawn in late December.

Directors and senior management had also made cuts to their remuneration and staff before applying for court protection.

Non-executive chairman, Stephen Murphy, succeeded Richard Branson as chief executive of the Virgin Group in 2005 before standing down six years later. Murphy also chairs the Ovo Energy Group, a major new UK utility supplier, GYG, and London & Capital.When Jim Harrison agreed to help out with the running of his local agricultural show, he hadn't the slightest idea that he was taking the first step on the road to become the national executive administrator of the umbrella organisation co-ordinating Irish rural shows.

Less than a decade and a half later, he is anxiously looking forward to the challenge of working with 138 rural agricultural show committees spanning both sides of the Border, north and south, encouraging and inspiring their continued development over the coming years.

The Castleblayney, Co Monaghan man is the newly appointed secretary of the Irish Shows Association, having succeeded Michael Hughes, whose shoes are hard to fill, in recent weeks. "I was born and reared a next-door neighbour of the singer Big Tom in Castleblayney, and have been involved in farming and livestock all my life," he explained.

"I showed pedigree Limousin cattle at the shows at Castleblayney, Tydavnet, Virginia and Dundalk before ever I got involved in the running of a show, and was always an admirer of the dedication of the people who ran the shows and the amount of voluntary work which they put into making them a success," he went on to say.

"There was 10 of us in it and we were reared on a 40-acre farm, but it would be impossible to do that today, because there is not the living out of it," says the father-of-four whose work as a builder was necessary to supplement the tight margin out of livestock farming.

His eldest, 21-year-old Matthew, a third-year agricultural degree student, is taking over the farming work and will probably use his agricultural qualifications to engage in an off-farm position as well as part-time farming.

Jim ran suckler and beef production enterprises on the farm, but Matthew is keen to add sheep to the farm profile as he takes over the mantle of running the holding, leaving his dad more time for his new role in the Irish Shows Association.

However, he has been a member of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) for 10 years and national executive representative for Co Monaghan. Former chairman of the ICSA suckler committee, his tenure as Connacht-Ulster vice-president comes to an end later in the month and he will not be seeking re-election with the workload of his new commitments.

"My first involvement with the running of a show was around 2005 when I was asked to help out at Castleblayney my local show," he said.

"One of the men involved with the cattle at Castleblayney asked me to a meeting because they were getting low in members, and for the first year I was involved with the cattle section at the show", he added.

Within two years of his initial involvement, he was elected chairman of the Castleblayney Agricultural Show, a position which he continued to hold for the next six years "and that is how I got involved with the shows".

In 2009, he joined the Irish Shows Association as a board member for the Midland region and in 2013 and 2014 he was national president, following which he became national treasurer of the ISA from 2014 to 2018.

The more he became involved, the greater was the influence which the ISA was having on fulfilment in his life, and the more he was enjoying the roles of officership and the people he was associating with.

"You could call the show people one very big family really because they are very nice people.

"They are very different from a lot of the farm organisations and I have experience of some involvement in them, too, but the show people are very different. I found them really down to earth people," he said.

During his two-year term as national president he got the opportunity of attending many of the rural shows around the country and estimates that he has been to at least 95 of the 138 shows affiliated to the ISA.

The association is an All-Ireland organisation with nine member show societies across the Border in Northern Ireland, which is only a few yards from Jim's home at Tullyraghan, Drumakill outside Castleblayney.

His immediate predecessor in the role of ISA executive secretary, Michael Hughes, had been indicating his interest in retiring for a couple of years "and then in 2017 he made it clear that he was only going to continue in office for 2018, so I showed an interest in it and board members got to know that, and I was lucky enough to get the job.

"I am looking forward to it, because in my earlier life, I had a great interest in shows, and would have attended a lot of them in the region but I never thought that I would be secretary of the association one day," he said.

He takes over at a challenging time for the rural agricultural shows, with rising costs and competing events depleting attendances.

"The biggest challenge for shows, and it always will be, is the weather. Last year was very good with most of the shows having excellent weather. That is the biggest challenge because you know if the rain is coming down, the people are not going to come out and the show finances are going to suffer. The shows are very dependent on the gate receipts to keep going," said Jim.

Age profile

"The second biggest challenge is getting the help for the day and getting people involved in the committees, and that is getting seriously difficult because in farming, the age profile is getting higher and higher all the time and the very same is happening with the shows

"The age profile on the committees is getting higher. There are shows with a good number of young people, but they are in the minority of shows and I see it as a big challenge for me to try and encourage more young people to get involved in their local show

"We are going to have to get something attractive enough in there to get more young people. If we don't get more young people involved and teach our young people how to run shows, it is going to be a very challenging time for shows in the years to come and could wipe out a lot them," he said.

The ISA are at the early stages of developing a 'Super Show' website which will have the facility and capacity to take a lot of the time-consuming work out of paper administration procedures.

"In the past, the people who ran the shows were willing to do a lot of paperwork, but I don't think that the young people of today will do it," says Jim.

"I remember my own family when they were younger coming into the show office at Castleblayney, filling up forms, writing up the entries and arranging the show catalogue. We are going to have to do things differently if we are to attract more young people to get involved," he added.

The ultimate objective of the 'Super Show' system is that the central site would eventually carry the work for all member shows. It is being piloted with a few shows. The availability of the necessary funding to run the site could become the determining factor on the speed of its further development. "The young people today are all on their phones and tablets, and if we could get a system where entries could be made online for all shows, I believe that young people may be encouraged to take more interest," he said.

"The shows are also going to have to be more innovative in trying new ideas and adding new attractions if they are going to continue to attract the attendances that they need to keep going.

"Doing the same thing all of the time, there is an increasing danger of losing the audience," he says. "Some of the simplest things can become the biggest money spinners. I saw one show where they had a competition to guess the number of eggs in a basket in the poultry section, and it turned out to be the biggest money earner at the show."

Funding from the Department of Agriculture and the allocation to shows by Minister Michael Ring over the past two years has been of great assistance.

While the cost of insurance continues to be an issue for all event organisers, the umbrella policy of the ISA covering all member shows has been beneficial, while safety consciousness to prevent accidents remains a priority for all committees.

As Jim looks forward to his new challenging role, he believes that rural Ireland would be the poorer for the loss of the rural agricultural shows and the stamina and commitment of the men and women involved will ensure that "the show goes on" for many a day to come.The prospects for Ireland's commercial real estate market sits right between the sunny uplands of a booming multinational sector that some have described as Ireland's version of an oil bonanza and the dark looming clouds of Britain's potentially messy Brexit divorce.

So what are the prospects for the sector and where is it all heading? The Sunday Independent asked Marie O'Riordan, a real estate partner at the international law firm Eversheds Sutherland.

She recently acted for a joint-venture company of Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) and Colony Capital in their pre-let deal of its Spencer Place office development to the US software giant Salesforce, the largest-ever office letting in Ireland.

She believes that the deal is a further example of the confidence that US tech companies have in the Irish market and its workforce, coming soon after the announcement of Facebook's move to its new campus on the site of AIB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge, which also involved RGRE, Colony Capital and on which she and her Eversheds Sutherland team also worked.

Q: What is the appetite like at the moment for Irish commercial property from overseas?

We are seeing a steady flow of investment from outside of Ireland into the market currently. Many indigenous developers are now active once again, some of whom are supported by overseas investors. European funds are very keen to acquire Irish real estate and lease returns in Ireland are seen as very appealing to, for example, German, Swiss and Luxembourg based funds.

Q: What effect is Brexit having on different asset classes?

Dublin has seen an increase in US and UK companies setting up operations in the city in recent months, with over 20 companies having declared Dublin as their post-Brexit base. As a compact city, Dublin offers the advantage of proximity to almost everything a business and its employees will need.

Many of the world's leading financial institutions have offices in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), while Silicon Docks is home to many of the world's leading technology companies.

The strong market and continued deleveraging has given rise to a large number of high profile real estate deals, such as those involving Salesforce, Facebook, Barclays and LinkedIn. A move to Ireland is likely to involve the acquisition of Irish real estate, either by way of lease or outright ownership.

We have seen a return to 10-year leases, sometimes with the benefit of break options (being a right to terminate the lease earlier, in some cases subject to payment of a penalty). Larger tenants or multinationals often prefer to sign 15- or 20-year leases, also with break options, to ensure the continued availability and control of space.

On any new lease deal, other tenant-friendly inducements may also be available such as rent-free periods, rent holidays, capital contributions and fit-out allowances.

Q: Do you expect to see the same level of activity and quality of transactions that Ireland has experienced over the last few years, being sustained into 2019/2020?

While we see the level of activity staying strong in 2019, particularly in the Dublin office market where demand for space remains high, it is hard to look beyond that at this point given how dynamic the market is and the many external global factors at play.

Q: What are the main challenges you face today? How will Brexit impact your business?

The challenge is to always stay ahead of clients' needs across all sectors and to leverage the international expertise of our colleagues based in the Eversheds Sutherland offices around the world to maximum effect. With Ireland as a hub for many multinationals, and described as the "tech capital of Europe with Dublin at its heart" by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the recent Salesforce announcement, we anticipate more international firms will look to establish a position here. Brexit will, of course, pose major challenges for all of us over the coming months and years, but it also presents opportunities.

Our clients are very pragmatic and we are working closely with them on how to future-proof their businesses and to anticipate, as best we can in these uncertain times, what lies ahead.

The position with the Irish Border and cross-border trade with Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK has created significant business uncertainty. We are seeing a surge in demand for services across the board from real estate, employment, trade, competition through to IP and data protection and beyond. It really is a time of all hands on deck for our clients.

There is some speculation in the industry that Dublin has the potential to become a global centre for commercial dispute resolution in the wake of Brexit. It remains to be seen if that will come to pass. However, it is fair to say that Dublin has much in its favour - such as it will be the main EU common-law country post-Brexit and it has a very pro-business government.

The wider Irish legal sector generates an estimated 2.3bn annually in revenue, and contributes 1.7bn to the Irish economy, employing in excess of 18,000 people. With Brexit, we anticipate big changes in the sector.

Q: Has your client profile changed over the last 10 years, and in what ways? Who are you seeing coming into the market?

There has been a lot of change. We are experiencing intense activity in the Irish real estate market, particularly the Dublin real estate market in the areas of office/commercial real estate and private rented sector developments (PRS schemes). A lot of this growth is being driven by foreign investors, with tech companies in particular looking to occupy large office space in Dublin.

Q: What are the trends in leasing? Are leases/licences being adapted to facilitate flexible office providers such as We Work?

There is flexibility for the right deals. We have worked on a number of very high-profile lease deals recently where the tenants are planning to occupy significant space in Dublin.

In these deals the tenants are very involved in the design and layout of the space and the landlords are willing to work with their tenants to help them achieve their goals.

Q: What types of US/UK institutions are looking at Dublin as an alternative - who is looking to expand their footprint in Dublin and what are they doing?

There is more activity from US and European institutions rather than UK investors in the Dublin real estate market and our client profile has evolved over recent years to reflect this.A mock checkpoint manned by actors dressed as customs officers constructed during an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. Hundreds of protesters have warned Theresa May that a hard Irish border risks destroying Northern Ireland's hard-won peace. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Northern Ireland's ex-police chief Sir Hugh Orde has warned that a hard border would be exploited by dissident republicans.

The former chief constable of the PSNI said there is no way to avoid the return of security patrols if there is a no-deal Brexit.

Expand Close Sir Hugh Orde, Northern Irelands former Chief Constable, warned of the consequences of a hard border. / Facebook

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He also accused politicians of having their heads "stuck in the mud and hoping it will all go away" when it comes to the security threat surrounding the Irish border issue.

Speaking to RTE's This Week programme, Sir Hugh said there would be "huge consequences" if a hard border returned, adding that security officers would be targeted.

"History tells us that, by definition, they are targets, as soon as you have a fixed point, and we have to think of this particular issue in the context of the politics, to recreate a hard border would be of huge significance in security terms," he added.

"By definition it would be foreseeable that they would be those at risk and would be targeted.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A mock border wall is being destroyed during a protest by anti-Brexit campaigners, Borders Against Brexit in Carrickcarnan, Ireland, January 26, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne People destroy a mock border wall as they attend a protest by anti-Brexit campaigners, Borders Against Brexit in Carrickcarnan, Ireland, January 26, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Actors in military fatigues take part in an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth, expressing their opposition to the imposition of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire People stand next to a mock militarised border crossing as they attend a protest by anti-Brexit campaigners, Borders Against Brexit in Carrickcarnan, Ireland, January 26, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne An actor in military fatigues takes part in an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth, expressing their opposition to the imposition of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire People take part in an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth, expressing their opposition to the imposition of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire A mock checkpoint manned by actors dressed as customs officers constructed during an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. Hundreds of protesters have warned Theresa May that a hard Irish border risks destroying Northern Ireland's hard-won peace. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire A mock checkpoint manned by actors dressed as soldiers and customs officers constructed during an anti-Brexit rally at the Irish border near Carrickcarnan, Co Louth. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday January 26, 2019. Hundreds of protesters have warned Theresa May that a hard Irish border risks destroying Northern Ireland's hard-won peace. See PA story POLITICS Brexit Border. Photo credit should read: Brian Lawless/PA Wire A man holds a sign next to a mock border wall during a protest by anti-Brexit campaigners, Borders Against Brexit in Carrickcarnan, Ireland, January 26, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne / Facebook

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"The moment you see anything that starts to create the perception of a very hard distinction between north and south, it creates a catalyst that allows people to exploit that position and certainly dissident republicans would be in that category."

He said it would not be possible to monitor the border with only cameras and technology.

"There is nowhere to my knowledge in the world where a purely technological solution to an issue of a border has been achieved or is likely to be achieved," he said.

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"You can do a certain amount with technology but you still need an element of policing to deal with determined criminals and people who take advantage of a privileged status, so there would have to be some form of physical customs presence and there are huge consequences to that in context of Northern Ireland and (the) Republic.

"In my judgment you would have to see some form of physical barrier like exists in many parts of the world where international borders are routine part of everyday policing of different countries."

Asked if dissidents would view a hard border as an opportunity for them to mount further attacks he said:

"At the moment you see anything that starts to create the perception of a hard distinction between North and South, it creates a catalyst that allows people to exploit that position and certainly dissident republicans would be in that category."

"Worryingly we saw a car bomb only last week in Derry and that is a statement that things are going to get more difficult not less. A hard border, if I was the chief of Northern Ireland's police force, would worry me greatly".

Meanwhile, Tanaiste Simon Coveney has ruled out any movement on the backstop in a rare interview with the British media.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said that the backstop was already a compromise built around UK red lines and said Ireland will insist on the United Kingdom keeping its word.

Ireland has the same position as the EU when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced packaged that is not going to change, he told the BBCs Andrew Marr show.

Read More

Mr Coveney suggested that the route out of the current deadlock is to alter the political declaration on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, saying it was the package of the two that had been rejected in Westminster.

Its the balance of the two of those things that I think we need to be looking at now, he said.

Echoing arguments laid out by the Taoiseach during his week in Davos, Mr Coveney attempted to put the onus to find a breakthrough on opponents to the backstop.

Nobody yet that argues against that insurance mechanism nobody has come up with a pragmatic, sensible and legally sound way of avoiding border infrastructure re-emerging between the two jurisdictions re-emerging on the island of Ireland.

In the absence of a deal an arrangement would need to be struck between the EU, the UK and Ireland to avoid a border which would not be easy, he said.

There is no magic solution here for this problem. If there was it would have emerged by now and that is why Ireland will insist on the United Kingdom keeping its word both to Ireland and the EU and to people in Northern Ireland in terms of protecting a fragile but hugely valuable peace process, he said.

Pressed on comments made by Mr Varadkar in Davos about the return of troops to the border Mr Coveney did not answer when asked what uniform those troops would be wearing.

In the wake of those comments the Taoiseachs aides were forced to clarify that he was not referring to Irish personnel.

Speaking on the Marr show, Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied Mr Coveney's comments meant Theresa May's Brexit deal was "dead in the water".

"Not at all," said Mr Hancock. "That's a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think it's also extremely clear from that interview and the tone... is that Ireland doesn't want to have a no-deal Brexit.

"The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

"The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen."

With additional reporting from the Press AssociationLondon warned that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, cross-border supply would not be possible and could be left without any legal basis

It's hardly surprising that the energy/electricity market got a special mention in the Government's newly-published 'no deal' Brexit plan, given its importance to the Irish economy in terms of growth and competitiveness.

The proposals are designed to allow for the continued operation of the all-island Single Electricity Market if Britain crashes out of the EU at the end of March, pending longer-term provisions for the area (see panel).

More specifically, they will ensure that the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities has the powers necessary to make changes to licence conditions of stakeholders in the Single Electricity Market to allow Ireland to meet its obligations under EU energy rules.

According to Fergal O'Brien, economist at business and employer association Ibec, this is one of the areas that all sides want to support and there's a strong willingness there that agreements on both sides will be reached.

"I am confident that this can be achieved even if there is a hard Brexit. We are significant importers of energy and the North/South and East/West interconnectors are very important in that context," O'Brien said.

Brexit may be a challenge that can be overcome, but the industry is facing other commitments. According to the Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment, the EU has set binding targets for Member States to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20pc by 2020.

In addition, under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) Ireland is committed to produce from renewable sources at least 16pc of all energy consumed by 2020 - it has committed to meet this national target through 40pc renewable electricity, 12pc renewable heat and 10pc renewable transport.

A big focus is getting more renewable energy into the system, said David Martin, spokesperson for Eirgrid, the country's electric power transmission generator.

"The Government made a commitment that 40pc of our electricity would come from renewables by 2020. We are currently running at about 30pc, the target is doable.

"Most of the wind energy is in the west of Ireland. At Eirgrid, our biggest challenge is to get that energy across to where the most demand is and that's the greater Dublin area. We're working on a big transmission project to reinforce the electricity transmission in Meath and Kildare to that end.

"Currently, we have two very powerful lines - from West to East - that are used for this purpose. These two lines are carrying more power than ever before, particularly due to increased demand and the growth of wind energy in the south west of the country.

"This is an important project that will secure energy supply in Meath, Kildare and Dublin and underpin economic growth in the region," he added.

A new wholesale electricity market also began operating late last year after utility regulators and grid operators came together to shake-up the electricity industry in a bid to align it more with the EU. In addition, plans for a second Northern Ireland/Ireland interconnector are on ice pending a court ruling while proposals for another linking us with continental Europe - the Celtic Interconnector - is also on the cards.

The sub-sea electricity line between Ireland and France would be capable of carrying approximately 700 megawatts of electricity in either direction, enough to power 450,000 households.

Ireland is both an importer and exporter of electricity.

"The Celtic Interconnector, which is due to be up-and-running in 2025, will send our renewables and it will make us less dependent on the UK and put downward pressure on prices. The flows on the interconnectors are also largely dependent on price," said Martin.

Another commitment to change is the plan to decommission the ESB's Moneypoint, the country's largest coal-powered station, which is located in Co Clare.

Moneypoint consists of three, 305-megawatt steam generating boilers and its maximum power output is the equivalent of about 20pc of the electricity demand in the Republic of Ireland. It uses about two million tonnes of coal a year. Despite being environmentally unfriendly, it remains an important part of Ireland's energy infrastructure. However, it's likely to be decommissioned by 2030.

ESB Networks also recently announced the results of major tenders for a 1.2bn programme to upgrade the country's electricity meters. The upgrade will begin this autumn and continue to 2024, with the replacement of older meters a priority.

A consortium of Siemens Ireland and Kamstrup A/S won the contract to provide meters and provide technical infrastructure support.

IMPACT OF NO-DEAL ON SUPPLY ACROSS THE BORDER

The importance of Northern Ireland to the Republic's electricity supply was recently highlighted in a warning from the British government in a technical note.

It said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, cross-Border supply between the Republic and Northern Ireland would not be possible and could be left "without any legal basis."

The note added that while the British government would do what it could to ensure current arrangements are maintained, it had to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

Ireland and the North essentially share a wholesale electricity market known as the Single Electricity Market that is covered by EU Law. After Brexit, this law will no longer apply to the North, but the two governments believe these agreements would stand even in the event of a hard Brexit.

"However, if such an agreement cannot be reached, there is a risk that the Single Electricity Market will be unable to continue, and the Northern Ireland market would become separated from that of Ireland," the document warned. "Separate Ireland and Northern Ireland markets will be less efficient, with potential effects for producers and consumers on both sides of the border."

In such a scenario, the Northern Ireland Transmission Systems Operator (SONI), and the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator, would work to lessen the impact on Northern Ireland.

There are two interconnectors in Ireland - one linking us with the North, and another across the Irish Sea that provides a link with Wales. We also access electricity from continental Europe via the UK.

A no-deal Brexit could mean stakeholders having to renegotiate deals under new trading rules.

"In Northern Ireland, electricity market participants should continue using the Single Electricity Market processes and arrangements," the briefing document said.

"However, market participants should be aware of the risk that the Single Electricity Market may not be able to continue, in which case government and the Northern Ireland Utility Regulator will take action to seek to ensure continued security of supply and market stability," said the briefing note.

It added that the British government would do what it could to ensure current arrangements would prepare for a worse-case scenario."I love this club and I will always love this club no matter what," Arnautovic said in a statement released by West Ham. "You have decisions you have to make in life, but I say from now it doesn't matter what happens I will always love West Ham."Irish President Michael D Higgins warned of the rise in anti-Semitism at an event in Dublin.

The president of Ireland has warned of a rise in anti-Semitism and racism across Europe at an event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Michael D Higgins also spoke of the surge in support for extreme right-wing political parties in a number of countries.

Speaking at the National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration in Dublins Mansion House, President Higgins urged people to work together to ensure hatred does not spread its dark shadow.

Ceremonies are being held across the world to remember the six million Jews and others killed in Adolf Hitlers notorious death camps.

Today, 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day, #HMD2019.



As he did in 2015 and 2012, President Higgins will tonight address the annual commemoration in Dublin.

See details at https://t.co/XoTPeqReyE pic.twitter.com/Po99UaV4JG  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) January 27, 2019

The event marks the date when the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland were liberated by Soviet forces on January 27 1945.

Also attending the event in Dublin were Holocaust survivors Suzi Diamond, Tomi Reichental and Walter Sekules, as well as Jadzia Kaminska, who represented her father Jan Kaminski.

Mr Higgins first spoke at the memorial day in 2012  an event that has taken place annually since 2000, after Ireland signed an international agreement to commit to remembrance of the Holocaust.

We are witnessing a growing rise of various forms of a corrupted and distorted nationalismMichael D Higgins

He said: Following World War Two, nations around the globe resolved to create political and economic structures and build international institutions that would ensure the horrors wrought by two world wars would never reoccur.

Today, however, we are witnessing a growing rise of various forms of a corrupted and distorted nationalism on virtually every continent.

Countries across Europe have seen a rise in electoral support for political parties declaiming an extreme, exclusionary message.

Refugees, immigrant communities and other minority groups are increasingly viewed as a threat to the rights of the majority, and many achievements by those who have fought tirelessly for human rights are under threat by a new generation of extremists who view those universal rights as a threat to their own individual rights.

The poison of anti-Semitism is not absent from their rhetoric.

Those forms of strident nationalism and populism, not to be confused with the emancipatory popular movements of the past that sought universal provision, continue to spread across Europe and other parts of the world.

As anti-Semitism and racism once again begin to rise across Europe we must remember the Holocaust collectively and work together to ensure that hatred and inhumanity is not allowed to once again spread its dark shadow across Europe and the world.Dublin has delivered a thinly veiled warning to Downing Street not to go back on the Brexit deal hammered out with the European Union.

And in what is likely to be seen as a swipe at hardline Tory Brexiteers, Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney told the Press Association that those misrepresenting the backstop had failed to produce an alternative to it.

Mr Coveney said the British Cabinet had endorsed the Withdrawal Agreement including the backstop aimed at preventing a hard border, as he made clear it would not be changed.

He told the Press Association: A hard border cannot return.

Peace and the Good Friday Agreement are more important than Brexit.

Even in a no-deal Brexit situation every party and every MP in the UK will have a responsibility to ensure there is no return to a hard border and Northern Ireland is protected.

A hard border cannot return. Peace and the Good Friday Agreement are more important than BrexitSimon Coveney

That wont be easy and those who misrepresent the backstop dont have an alternative to it.

With 60 days (from Monday) to go, the people attacking the backstop need to be asked two questions. Firstly, what is their alternative?

Secondly, do they wish to protect the peace process?

With Tory Brexiteers putting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to secure a time limit for the backstop, Mr Coveney made it clear that would not be acceptable.

He said: Skilled UK and EU teams have worked to bring about a Withdrawal Agreement that has been endorsed by 27 governments and the British Cabinet.

Expand Close Countryside near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, part of a former smuggling route covering both sides of the Irish border (Michael McHugh/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Countryside near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, part of a former smuggling route covering both sides of the Irish border (Michael McHugh/PA)

The backstop was negotiated around British red lines.

The EU has been clear that the backstop is an integral part of the withdrawal agreement.

A backstop is not a backstop if it is time limited.

The backstop, which would see the UK obey EU customs rules if no wider trade agreement is sorted out after a transition period, has been attacked by Brexiteers who say it could keep Britain tied to Brussels indefinitely.

The issue is likely to feature in a Commons Brexit showdown on Tuesday after Leave backers tabled amendments to a Government motion calling for major changes to the backstop.

Mr Coveney, who is also foreign minister, used Mrs Mays own words to insist that guarantees on the border could not just be aspirational.

He said: As the Prime Minister said herself in her Andrew Marr interview no border simply doesnt happen simply because people sit around saying, well, we wont have a border.

Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May (Steve Parsons/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May (Steve Parsons/PA)

The Prime Minister was spot on when she added that this is about practicality and a guarantee, not just aspiration.

With some Irish politicians predicting that people would tear down any border infrastructure erected, Mr Coveney insisted there was never an excuse for violence.

He said: Whatever the political grievance, there is no justification for violence in Northern Ireland.

It is true that there is strong cross-community opposition in border regions to the possibility of any hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney side-stepped questioning about what he believed the consequences would be of any attempt to impose martial law in Northern Ireland after a no-deal Brexit.

He said: Ireland accepts Brexit is going to hurt us economically, its a UK policy and there is nothing we can do about the economic damage it will cause.

However, we will not accept any going backwards on the 20 years of peace and stability between communities in Northern Ireland and between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney dismissed suggestions Ireland could form a customs union with just the UK, stating: I can rule out any border between Ireland and the rest of the EU.

Asked if some Irish people enjoyed having such political influence over the future of Britain, Mr Coveney said: There is nothing enjoyable about Brexit.

It is a lose, lose, lose situation.

The EU will lose a great member state.

Ireland will lose a great partner in the EU.

And in my humble opinion, the UK will lose by leaving.

The Commons rejected the Brexit deal Mrs May agreed with the EU by a crushing majority of 230 earlier this month.

The PM has anchored hopes of re-selling it to MPs with concessions on the backstop.Six per cent of UK citizens believe the Nazi holocaust is fake news, that the thousands of survivors of the Nazi death camps and the witnesses (including personal accounts of hundreds of British, American, Russian and German soldiers, Jewish Sonderkommandos and Waffen-SS, including Rudolf Hoss, the man responsible for the administration of Auschwitz/Berkenau who admitted everything in his memoirs) are all liars, and, against literally a mountain of incontrovertible physical, audio/visual, personal and bureaucratic evidence listing the number, race, ethnicity and actual names of the murdered, that the Holocaust never happened. Even in the face of more recent proven bigoted genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia and Cambodia, and political genocide in China, do they refuse to accept the truth.

Its even worse than that though. The conservative estimate for the total number of non-combatant human beings murdered for political reasons in Europe from 1933-45 is 17 million. By far the largest group were the Jews of Europe who were hunted down and persecuted and murdered (even from the British Channel Islands they were deported to their deaths), but when this number of humans is involved we are all part of this terrible event. In denying through bigotry the truth of the Jewish Shoa, they deny the broader definition of what took place, that their relatives probably died in it, and so they deny their responsibility to discover and admit the truth and mourn their own dead.

We all share in the terror and shame because everyone is related to everyone as geneticists have proven, and it seems to me impossible that somewhere up my family tree there isnt a green shoot that was murdered and cremated, or indeed a murderer.

Thats why, on this Holocaust Memorial Day, I proclaim the truth of the terror and mourn with the descendants of the 6 million murdered Jews and 11 million murdered others; I am their brother.

Peter Hoare

Ampthill

When does muscular liberalism become Islamophobia?

While giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee earlier this week, the Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman defended her assertion that schools should enforce a muscular liberalism to prevent religious groups from influencing the national curriculum. Her defence of this rather heavy worded stance brought to mind the prodigious words of Thomas Paine, who once said, The greatest tyrannies are often perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes. Ms Spielman in 2017 sanctioned a controversial policy whereby state officials inspecting schools could question young schoolgirls about their choice to wear a garment that enabled them to look more like their mothers.

Ironically, this approach that claims to protect schoolgirls from the pressures of wearing a hijab inverts the secular mandate on which it is based on its head by effectively allowing the state to act like the moral police. Moreover, the policy is discriminatory in so far as it specifically targets the hijab as a religious symbol, without including others such as the Sikh turban within its scope.

Even if other religious symbols were to be included (and Ms Spielman condemns Jewish schools that demand religious considerations should trump the Equality Act), the question is why Ofsted would choose to interrogate young schoolgirls about a choice to wear an otherwise innocuous head covering but not be concerned about certain schools requiring young girls to wear pencil skirts to school  widely deemed as uncomfortable and impractical by children. If the pursuit of secular values is really at the heart here, paradoxically Ms Spielmans approach poses the greatest threat to the same.

Ayesha Malik

Grayshott

Hands off Venezuela

The UKs pipsqueak foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that unless the Venezuelan government announces new elections within eight days the UK government will recognise pretender Juan Guaido as Venezuelas interim president.

The Tories combine empty imperial delusions with hypocrisy.

Only three weeks ago Theresa Mays Brexit deal was voted down by 230 votes  the largest defeat for a sitting government in history. If she had a shred of decency or honour such a crushing defeat should have led to her resignation and a general election.

Instead Theresa May clings to office with the help of 10 DUP MPs whose support she bought with 1bn of taxpayers money following her humiliation in the 2017 general election.

The Tories who are so keen on an election in Venezuela yet darent call one in the UK because they know they would be crushed at the polls.

Hands off Venezuela Tory hypocrites!

Sasha Simic

London, N16

What will the Salmond case mean for a second Indy Ref?

Commentators are fixated on the question of whether the charges against Alex Salmond will damage the SNPs plans for another referendum. Yet Salmond is yesterdays man, a sideshow, however much he continues to be revered by some in the SNP.

What would really affect the prospects for another referendum is the tangle that Nicola Sturgeon is now in, with investigations into her own and her governments conduct relating to the Salmond case. It is impossible to conceive of a referendum being planned and fought at a time when these investigations are in play. Who knows what revelations there may be?

It is not in the interests of Scots for there to be another referendum, but at present it certainly is not in the interests of the SNP, either.

Jill Stephenson

Edinburgh

The ruling class have blown it

The rolling calamity of Brexits impasse despite prime minister Theresa Mays bumbling and dismaying effort at resolution attests to The Economists recent lament that Britain is governed by a self-involved clique (the Oxford chums) that rewards group membership above competence and self-confidence above expertise.

David Cameron arrogantly gambled the UKs future on a referendum that he lost and the opportunistic Boris Johnson leaped onto the Brexit bandwagon to enhance his prime ministerial ambition. The malign incompetence of the Brexit negotiators, as the chaos of a no-deal Brexit looms with ordinary British people at risk of serious harm inflicted by Britains bumbling chumocrats, has even incited the Queen to plea for seeking common ground in the midst of fiery acrimony.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Its at these uncertain times, when the Queen weighs in on irresolute affairs of global importance, that make me more considerate of Australias constitutional monarchy. QE2 could yet prove balm to Britains wound of rupture with the European Union, the epitomy of moral dereliction of egotistical and destructive behaviour exacted by the UK ruling elite.

Joseph Ting

Brisbane

The Leave campaign doesnt respect democracy

Theresa May is not well placed to be pontificating about democracy. She leads a minority government that is (normally) propped up by a Northern Ireland party that does not reflect the Remain majority vote there; she originally tried to force Brexit through with no reference to parliament and has treated it with contempt throughout.

We should also keep recalling Mr Farages earlier 48:52 unfinished business remark, which strongly suggests that for most Brexiteers opposition to a second vote is not based on principle but on the simple fear that, with what we now know, the Peoples will might have changed and they will lose.

The truth is that for many a parliamentary vote for a second referendum would actually restore faith in our democracy. Those who refer to the consequences of this are offering disgraceful incitement to the radical right to whom democracy only matters as long as they win.

Adrian Cosker

HitchinNine people were injured after a gas explosion in The Hague caused the front of a building to collapse, the Dutch citys fire department has said.

Emergency workers rescued three injured people from a collapsed three-story home in the city in the Netherlands and are looking for anyone else who might have been killed or injured.

At least seven people have been taken to nearby hospitals, The Hague fire department said.

RTL News said the blast had caused three houses to collapse. It said nearby residents had been evacuated as a precaution.

A story and photograph published by local news service Omroep West said a single building had collapsed after a blast and emergency services were at the scene.

City emergency services spokesman John Kardol said it remained unclear what caused the gas explosion.

The blast tore off the homes front and demolished the dwelling, damaging nearby homes and cars.

Emergency workers recovered two injured people from the collapsed three-story home (AP/Wong Maye-E) (AP)

Debris covering part of the street and parked vehicles complicated the search.

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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

As darkness fell, fire engine lights shined on exposed rooms where a sofa, table and chairs still could be seen on the third floor.

Sniffer dogs were brought in to aid the search. Rescue teams worked carefully because the buildings extensive structural damage meant more sections might collapse.It is a 1m aeroplane which has been stood, unmoved and untouched, at a Madrid airport for almost a decade.

Now officials have asked a question which some may be surprised to learn they didnt raise earlier: who exactly does it belong to? And why is it there?

The apparently abandoned aircraft  a McDonnell Douglas MD87 medium-range commercial jet  has been parked up at Adolfo Suarez Barajas Airport since 2010, it is believed. At some point, someone has taped off its motors and pilot-static system, though its not clear who. Staff have nicknamed it the "ghost plane".

Now, airport director Elena Mayoral has submitted a public notice to the official state gazette of Spain, the Boletin Oficial del Estado, asking for anyone with information to come forward.

The same note, which was published on Friday, will now run for three months. After that, if the owners are not traced, the plane will be sold off at auction with the money going into the countrys treasury.

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

That may be preferable for the owners. If they are traced, they are liable to be hit with a hefty tax and parking bill.

The airport has not commented on the ghost plane but research carried out by Spains El Pais newspaper has found it was bought by a company called Saicus Air  based in the Canary Islands  in July 2010.

Recommended The art of naming airports

The firm went bankrupt in December of the same year.

While many planes lay idle at aviation graveyards across the planet, it is rare for them to be left parked up unnoticed at working airports.

Another similar case occurred at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia in 2015 when three Boeing 747 cargo craft were left abandoned at different times.

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The owners were never traced and the planes were eventually auctioned off for scrap in 2017.Emergency services in Tasmania are battling 72 separate bushfires and have urged residents living near five particularly dangerous sites to evacuate their homes.

Over 1,000 kilometres of uncontained fire edge remains burning across the state, said Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) Chief Officer, Chris Arnol.

With more challenging fire behaviour predicted towards the middle of this week, and another 5-6 weeks to go this bushfire season, its not the time to become complacent.

370 firefighters and 31 aircraft have been deployed to battle the bushfires and the situation is expected to worsen early next week.

Austalias Bureau of Meteorology has raised the fire danger level to very high in seven Tasmanian districts for Tuesdays forecast.

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

Temperatures continue to hover around 30C and windy conditions are likely.

The TFS asked residents near the five fires at Emergency Warning level, the hightest bushfire rating, to leave the area.

People situated near an Emergency Warning level bushfire should leave now, Mr Arnol said.

Burning embers will arrive ahead of the main fire, and smoke and ash will make it difficult to see and breathe  the safest thing you can do is leave before the fire arrives.

The Great Pine Tier bushfire, the largest blaze, is burning across 36,000 hectacres.

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A total fire ban has been put in place across the state, meaning Tasmanian residents are prohibited from using barbecues, outdoor fires and portable stoves.

On Saturday the TFS said in a statement the fires had, over the past month, burned through 99,000 hectares of land, with the blazes spreading in remote and challenging terrain.Twin bombings at a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Philippines have killed at least 20 people attending Sunday service and wounded dozens more, in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the region in recent years.

The first blast went off inside the cathedral on Jolo island, in Sulu province, shattering the buildings windows and destroying its entrance.

Security forces rushed to the scene, only for the second bomb to be detonated outside, officials said.

The second explosion hurled debris and the remains of victims across a town square immediately outside the cathedral.

Five soldiers died in the attack, with 65 civilians also left wounded.

Pictures showed several rows of wooden pews destroyed inside the cathedral, with wreckage strewn across a blackened floor.

Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures A bombed-out mosque stands in what was the main battle area in Marawi AFP/Getty Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damaged buildings and houses Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damaged vehicles are seen in Marawi city Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damaged houses, buildings and a mosque Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures A military vehicle drives past bombed-out buildings AFP/Getty Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damaged houses, buildings and a mosque are seen inside Marawi city Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures A graffiti that reads "I love ISIS" is seen in a damaged building in Marawi city Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Bombed-out buildings are seen as government troops board trucks AFP/Getty Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Damaged buildings and houses Reuters Damage caused in Islamic State assault on Marawi city: In pictures Military trucks drive past destroyed buildings and a mosque AFP/Getty

Bodies were photographed on the busy street outside, which was sealed off by troops as vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the hospital.

Humvees and army trucks could also be seen at the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police suspect the bombings were the work of the Abu Sayyaf, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Isis.

Jolo island is a stronghold for the Abu Sayyaf, and successive administrations have failed to prevent the militants from running a lucrative piracy and kidnapping operation from the region.

The enemies of the state have boldly challenged the capability of the government to secure the safety of the citizenry in that region, a spokesperson for Rodrigo Duterte, the nations leader, said.

The armed forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals.

The attack comes six days after the mainly Muslim area overwhelmingly voted yes in a referendum on the regions autonomy.

But most voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it, setting the stage for further political turmoil in the area.

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Delfin Lorenzana, the defence secratary, called the attack a dastardly act and urged the local population to cooperate and deny terrorism any victory.

We will not allow them to spoil the preference of the people for peace, said Hermogenes Espero, the countrys national security adviser.

A Catholic bishop, Benjamin de Jesus, was gunned down by suspected militants outside the same cathedral in 1997.

Additional reporting by agenciesVenezuela has dismissed a demand from UK and EU leaders for the country to hold a new presidential election within a week, after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president following a disputed vote last year.

The leaders of France and Britain joined Spain and Germany on Saturday to say they would recognise Mr Guadio as president, unless Nicolas Maduros government called a fresh vote in the next eight days.

The EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there was no announcement of a new election, the bloc would take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the countrys leadership.

Europe is giving us eight days? Jorge Arreaza, Venezuelas foreign minister, said in response.

Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people? Its almost childlike.

Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Show all 18 1 /18 Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Protesters clash with the Bolivarian National Police during a demonstration against the government of the Venezuela and president Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on 23 January 2019 EPA Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Demonstrators cheer as Venezuela's National Assembly head Juan Guaido declares himself the country's "acting president" at a rally in Caracas AFP/Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Opposition supporters take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Opposition supporters take part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Juan Guaido, head of Venezuela's opposition-run congress, declares himself interim president of the nation until elections can be held during a rally in Caracas demanding leader Nicolas Maduro's resignation AP Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Opposition supporters carry letters to form the word "Democracy" while taking part in a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Police watch over marching anti-government protesters in Caracas EPA Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government A vehicle is overturned as opposition demonstrators block a road during a protest against the Venezuelan government AFP/Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government A National Police officer fires rubber bullets during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government A demonstrator throws back a gas canister while clashing with security forces during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Security forces look on after clashing with opposition supporters participating in a rally against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's government REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Demonstrators during a protest against the government of Nicolas Maduro at Plaza Altamira in Caracas Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Demonstrators during a protest against the government of Nicolas Maduro at Plaza Altamira in Caracas Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government EPA Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government AFP/Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government The remains of a statue of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez is seen hanging from a pedestrian bridge after it was destroyed in San Felix, Venezuela REUTERS Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Riot police on motorcycles clash with opposition demonstrators during protests in Caracas AFP/Getty Images Venezuela protests: thousands rally against government Supporters celebrate Juan Guaido declaration that he is Venezuelan president EPA

Mr Maduro is under pressure from all sides, after a top military official also recognised Mr Guaido as president.

Jose Luis Silva, a military attache in Washington, defected from the government, declaring his support for the opposition leader in a video posted online.

Today I speak to the people of Venezuela, and especially to my brothers in the armed forces of the nation, to recognise President Juan Guaido as the only legitimate president, the official said, in a clip recorded in Washington.

He was filmed sitting at a desk, seated alongside the Venezuelan flag.

The armed forces have a fundamental role to play in the restoration of democracy, Mr Silva said.

His defection was triggered by the US recognition of Mr Guaido as Venezuelas interim president, with Washington, Canada and multiple Latin American countries declaring Mr Maduros second-term election win fraudulent.

The top brass of the military and the executive branch are holding the armed forces hostage. There are many, many who are unhappy, Mr Silva said.

My message to the armed forces is, Dont mistreat your people. We were given arms to defend the sovereignty of our nation.

They never, never trained us to say, This is for you to attack your people, to defend the current government in power.

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Small rebellions against the Maduro administration have broken out in Venezuelas armed forces in recent months.

But the embattled president has managed to prevent a full-scale military uprising.

Venezuelas commanders pledged their loyalty to Mr Maduro in the days after Mr Guadio declared himself leader.

The opposition claim the presidents re-election last year was fraudulent.

Mr Silva said that one consular official in Houston and one in another US city had also defected but that he was the only diplomat in Washington he knew of who had broken with the Maduro government.

We welcome him and everyone who with honesty want to follow the constitution and the will of the Venezuelan people, Mr Guaido said about the official, in a celebratory post on social media.

Venezuelas defence ministry called Mr Silva a coward and posted a picture of him online, emblazoned with the word traitor across it in red capital letters.

Additional reporting by agenciesDespite a conservative backlash that has seen him called a wimp and a broken man, Donald Trump is continuing to insist he did not cave to the Democrats by ending the government shutdown without funding for his border wall.

After ending the shutdown, Mr Trump tweeted that this was in no way a concession, signalling that if he didnt get a deal from Congress by February 15, he could shut the government down again or declare a national emergency to re-route federal money to fund the wall.

Mr Trump now appears to have doubled down on this argument with a series of tweets re-affirming his belief that a wall is needed, and he will get it. On Saturday evening he insisted: Only fools, or people with a political agenda, dont want a Wall or Steel Barrier to protect our Country from Crime, Drugs and Human Trafficking. It will happen  it always does!

The damage to some of his base support, however, appears to have already been done. On Sunday morning, the top two trending topics on Breitbart, once run by Trumps former strategist Steve Bannon, were [Democratic Speaker Nancy] Pelosi Trumps Trump and Govt open  Border too.

The website carried extensive coverage of how Trumps political opponents had mocked him for being dog walked by Pelosi and demonstrating the Art of the Cave.

It comes after commentator Mike Cernovich, who has a large pro-Trump following, said that the president was now a broken man.

The influential conservative commentator Ann Coulter reacted to Mr Trump ending the shutdown by insultingly invoking the memory of recently deceased former US president George HW Bush and writing: Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.

Ms Coulter has previously said that Mr Trump would be dead in the water if he did not get his wall, saying if he couldnt build it, Trump will just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populists for a while, but hell have no legacy whatsoever.

In another indication that the presidents base support might be wavering, conservative leader Mark Meckler, who helped found the Tea Party movement, accused Mr Trump of having brought his troops on the battlefield and then walked away.

Mr Meckler called the presidents decision to sign off on a deal without wall funding pathetic and disgusting.

Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures The US Capitol on the first morning of a partial government shutdown in Washington EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures President Trump speaks with children who called the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracker in the State Dining Room of the White House. He earlier in the day, tweeted that he was 'all alone in the White House' waiting for Democrats to make a deal on border security EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Furloughed federal workers pick up free food at a pop-up store of Kraft Heinz Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Hundreds of federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Reuters Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures From left, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Dick Durbin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi walk to speak to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security in the Situation Room of the White House. Trump declared he could keep parts of the government shut down for "months or even years" as he and Democratic leaders failed in a second closed-door meeting to resolve his demand for billions of dollars for a border wall with Mexico Evan Vucci AP Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures A sign alerts visitors to the closure of the National Archives on the fifth day of a partial government shutdown EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Hundreds of federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Visitors read signs announcing the closure of the White House Visitor Center EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures President Donald Trump speaks during a round-table discussion on border security and safe communities with State, local, and community leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures A sign alerts visitors to the closure of the White House Visitor Center on the first day of a partial government shutdown EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Furloughed federal workers show their IDs for entering a pop-up store of Kraft Heinz Getty Images

He said that during the shutdown he and other conservative leaders had been aggressively defending the presidents hardline approach. At the request of the White House, he said they made repeated media appearances, but they got no warning he was about to surrender.

No way would I go on the radio anytime again in the future and say The president and I believe, Meckler said. Certainly, he did not fulfill his promise to the base and Im appalled. More importantly than me is what Im hearing from the grassroots. Theyre appalled.

He brought his troops on the battlefield with an absolute promise. And then he walked away.

Not all the presidents supporters were critical of him, however.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right wing organisation Turning Point USA urged his twitter followers: Dont waver in your support of Donald Trump.

He is fighting , ALONE , daily to protect our country and to fulfill the promises from the campaign Im so sick of people from our side finding every excuse to attack the greatest president of our lifetime We must have his back.The American people have mixed feelings about investigating President Donald Trump, with clear majorities wanting newly empowered Democrats to dig into his personal finances and foreign ties but most believing Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The publics cautiousness extends to its expectations for the forthcoming report from special counsel Robert Mueller III, who has been examining ties between Russia and Mr Trumps 2016 campaign.

Half of Americans report they have just some confidence or none at all that the Mueller report will be fair and even-handed, and 43 per cent say they have at least a good amount of confidence in its fairness.

The survey was conducted Monday to Thursday, the day before Mr Muellers team unveiled criminal charges against long-time Trump friend Roger Stone, accusing the political operative of lying, obstruction and witness tampering.

The poll results underscore the complex calculation ahead for Democrats and their new House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, as they balance calls from core supporters to aggressively investigate and possibly even impeach Mr Trump against the potential political backlash from other voters.

Recommended Trump can expect Mueller probe to dominate the rest of his term

The impeachment question has gained attention in the days since the Democrats House majority was sworn in, with party leaders insisting they will wait to consider their options until after Mr Mueller finishes his work and Mr Trump declaring: You cant impeach somebody thats doing a great job.

Six in 10 adults support the party using its congressional authority to obtain and release Mr Trumps tax returns, the survey shows. Similar majorities support Democrats investigating suspected financial ties between Mr Trump and foreign governments, the presidents relationship and communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as possible collusion in the 2016 campaign.

And yet a 46 per cent plurality suspect Democrats will go too far in their inquiries of Mr Trump, while just over one-third think they will handle it about right.

Meanwhile, public support for impeachment has dropped in recent months, the poll shows.

In the August Post-ABC poll, conducted immediately after Mr Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other charges and personally implicated Mr Trump in some of his acts, 49 per cent said Congress should begin impeachment proceedings that could lead to Mr Trump being removed from office, while 46 per cent said Congress should not.

In the new survey, a smaller 40 per cent support impeachment proceedings, while a 55 per cent majority oppose them.

 Lawyer Alan Dershowitz: Mueller report to be 'devastating' for Donald Trump

Partisans have long held sharply different views of Mr Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but the new Post-ABC poll shows many Democrats are uncertain about the special counsels final report. Just over six in 10 Democrats say they are confident the report will be fair and even-handed, while slightly more than three in 10 report just some confidence or less.

Among self-identified independents, 40 per cent are confident Mr Muellers final report will be fair, while 53 per cent express less faith. Confidence drops to 22 per cent among Republicans.

It is not clear whether the publics wariness towards Mr Muellers forthcoming report reflects scepticism in the special counsel himself, anticipation of its findings or the nature of its release. A poll this month by the Pew Research Centre found 55 per cent of adults saying they are very or somewhat confident Mr Mueller is conducting a fair investigation, attitudes consistent with surveys since late 2017.

The timeline for Mr Mueller finishing his report is unknown, and it is uncertain how much of the report will be made public. Mr Trumps attorney general nominee, William P Barr, told senators during his confirmation hearing earlier this month that he would release a summary of the report but he did not know what will be release-able given department regulations.

Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Show all 16 1 /16 Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions New York Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Washington Post Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Newsday Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions St Louis Post Dispatch Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Chicago Sun Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Star Ledger Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Daily News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The New York Times Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions San Francisco Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Boston Globe Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Houston Chronicle Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Miami Herald Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions Detroit Free Press Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Wall Street Journal Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions The Dallas Morning News Trump's presidency: US media reacts to Manafort and Cohen convictions USA Today

In Congress, the poll shows House Democrats garner majority support from fellow partisans and independents for investigating possible collusion with Russia in 2016, as well as suspected financial ties between Mr Trump and foreign governments. Roughly eight in 10 Democrats and about six in 10 independents support Democrats probing Mr Trumps relationship with Putin, which has come under increased scrutiny following a Washington Post report that Mr Trump concealed details of their face-to-face meetings.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans oppose Democrats investigating possible collusion, while nearly two-thirds oppose investigating Mr Trumps relationship with Mr Putin and suspected financial ties with foreign governments. Roughly one-third of Republicans, however, support investigations on these latter issues.

Mr Trumps refusal to release his tax returns in line with the tradition of modern presidential candidates was widely unpopular during the 2016 presidential campaign, and the Post-ABC poll shows support for Democrats enforcing that norm. By 60 per cent to 35 per cent, more say Democrats should use their congressional authority to obtain and release Mr Trumps tax returns.

In their first week in control of the House, Democrats unveiled a bill requiring presidential candidates to release 10 years of tax returns and mandating more transparency for inaugural and transition committees, a law that would apply to Mr Trump in a re-election run. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said the idea was effectively dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Democrats may have difficulty balancing pressure for aggressive investigations and perhaps impeachment of Mr Trump from their partys base with the need to avoid alienating independent voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

A 64 per cent majority of Democrats support Congress beginning impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump  55 per cent support this strongly. Among political independents, a 45 per cent plurality think Democrats will go too far investigating Mr Trump, more than the 34 per cent who think they will handle this about right, and 18 per cent believe they will not go far enough.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone 21-24 January among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, with 65 per cent reached on mobile phones and 35 per cent on landlines. Overall results have a 3.5-percentage-point margin of sampling error for the full sample.

The Washington PostWas this the shutdown to end all shutdowns?

The answer could be yes. The toll exacted on government operations and federal employees by the record 35-day stalemate  not to mention the political costs to those in the White House and on Capitol Hill  was so punishing that it is giving momentum to a long-standing call to prohibit the government disruptions that have become a regular facet of Washington hardball.

Shutting down the government should be as off-limits in budget negotiations as chemical warfare is in real warfare, Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, said on Friday.

He was not alone in expressing those sentiments. Members of both parties said it was past time to enact legislation that would essentially mean the government would remain open at existing spending levels when an impasse such as the fight over the border wall was reached, rather than shuttering parts or all of the government. That is an outcome that virtually everyone agrees is costly, unnecessary and even embarrassing.

This never should have happened, said Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaking for many.

Veterans of past shutdowns have come to learn there are few, if any, winners in the end and closing the government has not proved effective as a negotiating strategy for those who use the government as a lever to press their case. It did not work for then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, for Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and House conservatives in 2013, or for Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and fellow Democrats in 2018.

Government workers are penalised through no fault of their own, constituents are inconvenienced, the nations image is hurt, and those responsible for running the government look inept, irresponsible and unwilling to reach an accommodation. The tension in this shutdown was evident in the internal finger-pointing that broke out among Republicans as workers missed two pay-checks and airports began to struggle with the absences of security workers and flight controllers.

Ive said repeatedly throughout this process that government shutdowns are a bad idea, said Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio. They hurt federal employees and their families, disrupt critical government services and increase the cost to taxpayers. This shutdown confirmed what we already knew about shutdowns. Lets do something about it now while the pain and inefficiency of this moment is fresh on our minds.

Mr Portman has for years sponsored legislation to prevent shutdowns, and he introduced the measure again this month as the government limped along partly closed and federal employees lined up for food assistance and other aid.

Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures The US Capitol on the first morning of a partial government shutdown in Washington EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures President Trump speaks with children who called the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracker in the State Dining Room of the White House. He earlier in the day, tweeted that he was 'all alone in the White House' waiting for Democrats to make a deal on border security EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Furloughed federal workers pick up free food at a pop-up store of Kraft Heinz Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Hundreds of federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Reuters Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures From left, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Dick Durbin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi walk to speak to reporters after meeting with President Donald Trump about border security in the Situation Room of the White House. Trump declared he could keep parts of the government shut down for "months or even years" as he and Democratic leaders failed in a second closed-door meeting to resolve his demand for billions of dollars for a border wall with Mexico Evan Vucci AP Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures A sign alerts visitors to the closure of the National Archives on the fifth day of a partial government shutdown EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Hundreds of federal workers and contractors rally against the partial federal government shutdown Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Visitors read signs announcing the closure of the White House Visitor Center EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures President Donald Trump speaks during a round-table discussion on border security and safe communities with State, local, and community leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House Getty Images Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures A sign alerts visitors to the closure of the White House Visitor Center on the first day of a partial government shutdown EPA Trump shuts down US government over Mexico border wall  in pictures Furloughed federal workers show their IDs for entering a pop-up store of Kraft Heinz Getty Images

Under his plan, which has 18 co-sponsors and rising, funding at existing levels would continue for agencies covered by an appropriations measure that was not signed into law by the beginning of the fiscal year on 1 October, preventing any lapse that incites a shutdown. To spur a resolution, funding would be reduced by 1 per cent after 120 days if no agreement is reached and by 1 per cent more every 90 days.

It is one of these moments where after many years of us trying to get something passed that ends the shutdown, I think there is support coalescing around a legislative response, Mr Portman said.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va, whose state is home to tens of thousands of federal employees and contractors, introduced his own proposal, partly with the idea of shaming his colleagues and the Trump administration into avoiding such confrontations.

Searching for a bill title that would deliver the message, he and his staff came up with Stop Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years, otherwise known as the Stop Stupidity Act. In the event of funding showdowns, his approach would be to maintain spending for all but the legislative branch and the White House.

More than a little bit of common sense tells me that we wouldnt be here 35 days into this shutdown if all our staffs were experiencing the same kind of shortfall and economic distress that 800,000 of our fellow federal workers experienced, he said on the Senate floor.

Mr Warner acknowledged his title was somewhat tongue in cheek, and he would be receptive to making changes in the interest of enacting a law that would prevent recurrences of the last weeks.

 Trump says he will declare a national emergency if no deal is reached on border wall

The final language in any deal that comes out three weeks from now should put strong provisions and strong penalties in place to prevent this tactic from being used by either party or any White House or Congress in the future, he said, a view shared by Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

The final package should also end government shutdowns once and for all, Mr Grassley said.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi also welcomed the idea on Friday, saying in a meeting with news columnists that she wanted to explore the possibility of legislation that would serve as a shutdown prevention act.

Despite widespread sentiment against shutdowns in Congress, there could be opposition. Some lawmakers might not want to surrender potential leverage in the spending wars. There could be resistance from others who do not like the concept of automatic spending authorisation, arguing that it gives up a fundamental power of Congress. Democrats have feared automatic spending cuts could be a backdoor way for Republicans to cut money for federal programs.

President Donald Trump might be reluctant to sign a bill that includes such provisions, though he has now experienced such backlash to the shutdown and might prefer another way to circumvent Congress, such as declaring a national emergency to build the wall if negotiations fall through.

Congress will still have its opportunities for brinkmanship such as the need to raise the debt limit, though House Democrats have already taken steps to make that more automatic as well, in an attempt to reduce the threat to economic stability  and eliminate a politically charged vote.

Whether they can succeed remains to be seen, but Mr Portman, Mr Alexander and others said they were determined over the next three weeks to press the case for permanent protection against shutdowns.

We accepted the idea that shutting down the government is an acceptable bargaining chip in a budget negotiation and it should never, ever be, and we should resolve that that should never, ever happen, Mr Alexander said.

The Washington PostUS and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for the North American coastline.

Two F-22 and two CF-18 jets identified the Russian nuclear-capable aircraft when they entered an area near Alaska patrolled by the Royal Canadian Air Force, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

The organisation patrols the skies above the US and Canada using radar, satellites and fighter aircraft.

The US Air Force sent planes from its air base in Alaska.

In September US Air Force fighter jets were twice forced to intercept two Russian bombers off Alaska.

TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base Show all 12 1 /12 TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-16C-F-16D-Fighting-Falcon.jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base Boeing-KC-135-Stratotanker.jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-22-Raptor-(2).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-15C-Eagle-(3).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-16C-Fighting-Falcon-(4).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base B-52H-Stratofortress-(1).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-15C-Eagle-(6).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base F-16C-Fighting-Falcon-(8).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base Boeing-AWACS.jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base B-52H-Stratofortress-(3).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base B-52H-Stratofortress-(2).jpg Brian Hall TopGun for real: war training at Nellis Air Force Base SAAB-JAS-39-Gripen-(1).jpg Brian Hall

NORADs top priority is defending Canada and the United States, said General Terrence J OShaughnessy, the NORAD commander.

Our ability to protect our nations starts with successfully detecting, tracking and positively identifying aircraft of interest approaching US and Canadian airspace.

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There were no reports of conflict.

Additional reporting by agenciesFive people have been killed in shootings in two areas of Louisiana.

Police said they have identified a suspect who is still at large and said to be armed and dangerous.

Dakota Theriot, 21, is accused of killing his parents and three other people on Saturday in Ascension and Livingston parishes, about 70 miles west of New Orleans.

Keith and Elizabeth Theriot, both 51, were killed in their trailer in the city of Gonzalez on Saturday morning, the Ascension Parish sheriffs office said on Facebook.

Police arriving at the scene said they were able to interview one of the victims before they died and they named their son as the suspect.

Dakota Theriot, 21, was being sought by authorities on first-degree murder charges (Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office/The Advocate via AP) (Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office/The Advocate via AP)

Separately on Facebook, Livingston sheriff Jason Ard confirmed three deaths had happened in his parish.

They were identified as Billy Ernest, 43; Summer Ernest, 20; and Tanner Ernest, 17.

It is believed Theriot had recently started dating Summer Ernest.

Investigators work at the scene of the shooting in Ascension parish in Louisiana (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP)

Theriot is being sought on first-degree murder charges.

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

He was last seen driving an allegedly stolen grey and silver 2004 Dodge pickup.

It is believed he may be heading to the neighbouring state of Mississippi.

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Investigators from both jurisdictions are working together to locate Theriot, who remains at large.Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has fired his ambassador to China after the envoy said it would be great if the US dropped its extradition request for a Chinese tech executive arrested in Canada.

Mr Trudeau said on Saturday he had asked for and accepted John McCallums resignation on Friday night.

Mr McCallum made the remark to the Toronto Star on Friday. That came a day after he issued a statement saying he misspoke about the case earlier in the week and regretted saying Meng Wanzhou has a strong case against extradition.

The arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies at Vancouvers airport on 1 December severely damaged relations between China and Canada.

The US wants her extradited to face charges she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huaweis business dealings in Iran.

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

Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallums resignation as Canadas ambassador to China, Mr Trudeau said in a statement.

Mr Trudeau said Jim Nickel, the deputy head of mission at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, would represent his government in China. He thanked Mr McCallum, a former minister in Mr Trudeaus Cabinet, for his 20 years of public service.

China detained two Canadians shortly after Ms Mengs arrest in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her. A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial of a drug case, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier.

Mr McCallum told Chinese media in the Toronto area earlier in the week the extradition of Ms Meng to the United States would not be a happy outcome.

He suggested the case was politically motivated and said the US could make a trade deal with China in which it would no longer seek her extradition, and two Canadians detained in China could then be released.

But on Thursday Mr McCallum took back the remarks and said he misspoke.

Mr Trudeau had earlier dismissed calls to fire Mr McCallum, but he clearly had enough after the envoy spoke off script again. Mr Trudeau and foreign minister Chrystia Freeland have stressed that Canadas government can not interfere politically in the case.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, said Mr McCallum should have been fired days ago because his remarks raised concerns about the politicisation of the Meng case.

Mr Scheer said Mr McCallum caused damage to Canadas reputation by delivering different messages through different media on different days.

Mr McCallums remarks surprised many and fuelled speculation Canada might be trying to send a signal to China to reduce tensions.

A year ago, Mr McCallum also made controversial comments about how Canada had more in common with China than the United States under Donald Trump. Mr McCallum has strong personal ties to China, and he pointed out to Chinese-language media this week that his wife is of Chinese ethnicity and his three sons have Chinese spouses.

Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he felt bad for Mr McCallum but said it was the right thing to do.

What is worse is this is happening in the middle of the crisis when we need all-hands on deck, Mr Saint-Jacques said.

He said the Chinese will now know that Mr McCallum was not speaking for the Canadian government.

Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Mr Trudeau, said: Mr McCallums remarks were continuing to cause confusion about Canadas position. On a matter of this importance, the Canadian government has to speak with a single, clear voice.

Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, said it is not an ambassadors job to speak out of turn.

Of course, McCallum can obviously take refuge in arguing that what he said was largely true, but he cant escape the fact that it wasnt his job to say it. It does underline the hazards of sending a politician to do a diplomats job, Mr Bothwell said.

Mr Saint-Jacques said he spoke to Chinas consul general in Montreal on Thursday who reported that China is furious at Canada for arresting Ms Meng on behalf of the US, which is involved in trade talks with China.

Mr Saint-Jacques said the consul general told him he thinks a Canadian delegation should visit Beijing for talks. Mr Saint-Jacques believes Canada should appoint a special envoy to try to resolve the crisis.

Mr Trudeau and Mr Freeland have stressed that Canada has an extradition treaty with the US that it must respect.

The White House National Security Council declined comment on Mr McCallum.

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Ms Meng is out on bail in Vancouver awaiting her extradition proceedings. The US has until Wednesday to submit paperwork for the extradition request.

Huawei has close ties to Chinas military and is considered one of the countrys most successful international enterprises.

APA director of graduate studies at Duke University has stepped down after she reportedly asked Chinese students to speak only in English while on campus, even during breaks.

Megan Lee Neely, an assistant professor at the university, is believed to have sent an email to students on Friday afternoon after receiving complaints from two unnamed colleagues.

Both faculty members picked out a small group of first year students who they observed speaking Chinese (in their words, VERY LOUDLY) in the student lounge, she wrote, according to The Duke Chronicle.

They wanted to write down the names so they could remember them if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a masters project.

They were disappointed that the students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand.

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

Ms Neely then warned students to keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak Chinese in the building.

The assistant professor added that while she had the utmost respect for international students, she encouraged them to commit to using English 100% of the time while in university buildings and in professional settings.

Screenshots of the email were posted on Twitter, where they soon generated uproar and were retweeted thousands of times.

Students at the university, which is located in North Carolina, received a second email on Saturday afternoon from Mary Klotman, the dean of the medical department.

There is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other, Ms Klotman wrote, according to The Duke Chronicle.

Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom. And your privacy will always be protected.

Dr Neely has asked to step down as director of graduate studies for the masters program effective immediately, she added.

Ms Klotman said she had asked Duke Universitys Office of Institutional Equity to conduct a review of the graduate program, to recommend ways in which we can improve the learning environment for students from all backgrounds.

 Dolce & Gabbana apologises after racism row

A committee of Chinese students at the university has launched a petition calling for a full investigation into the controversy.

The group said they were dishearteaned by faculty members implying that "students of diverse national origin would be punished in academic and employment opportunities for speaking in their native language outside of classroom settings."

Ms Neely remains an assistant professor at the university's medical department.Donald Trump has paid tribute to people who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people in a statement marking Holocaust Memorial Day.

The US president said to remember those who were murdered and survived the Holocaust was to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again, adding: We remain committed to the post-Holocaust imperative, Never Again.

His statement said: We hold in our hearts the memory of every man, woman, and child who was abused, tortured, or murdered during the Holocaust.

To remember these men and women  those who perished and those who survived  is to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again. Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes all men and women everywhere and invites repetition of this great evil.

Never Again means not only remembering  in a profound and lasting way  the evils of the Holocaust, but it also means remembering the individual men and women in this Nation, and throughout the world, who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.

The president said in his statement: The Third Reich, and its collaborators, pursued the complete elimination of the entire Jewish people. Six million Jews were systematically slaughtered in horrific ways.

The Nazis also enslaved and murdered Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their cruel regime. The brutality of the Holocaust was a crime against men, women, and children. It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against God.

Tweeting his statement, he also posted a photo of himself and his wife Melania at a Holocaust remembrance service which appears to have been taken from a Holocaust memorial service the Trumps attended in 2017 and has drawn criticism online.

Other world leaders also attended ceremonies remembering the victims.

In Britain, leaders across the political spectrum paid tributes, with Theresa May sharing on Twitter a hand-written message in the Holocaust Educational Trusts book of commitment.

Jeremy Corbyn whose Labour party has been dogged by claims of antisemitism, quoted a message by Kindertransport refugee Lord Dubs: Its important that we say resolutely: it must never be allowed to happen again.

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He also tweeted: Todays #HolocaustMemorialDay event was deeply moving. We heard from Holocaust survivors and those who have suffered other more recent genocides. A powerful reminder why we must stand against racism and oppression everywhere.A 21-year-old man suspected of killing five people, including his parents, his girlfriend and her father and little brother, has been arrested in Richmond County, Virginia.

Dakota Theriot will be sent to Ascension Parish in Louisiana, and booked on two counts of first-degree murder, illegal use of weapons, and home invasion.

On Saturday, Ascension Parish officials were called to a trailer in Gonzales where they found Theriots parents, Elizabeth and Keith, alive but suffering from gun wounds.

The parents were sent to a hospital in Baton Rouge and died shortly after, but not before they were able to identify Theriot as the suspected shooter, Ascension Parish Sherriff Bobby Webre told USA Today.

The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away, Mr Webre told a CBS affiliate. But before he passed, the authorities were able to get a dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act.

Mr Webre said Theriot lived with his parents, but was told to leave and not return to their home.

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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Local authorities believe Theriot returned to his parents home after killing three other victimsBilly Ernest, 43, Tanner Ernest, 17 and Summer Ernest, 20in Livingston Parish, about 30 miles south from his hometown.

Two minorsa 7-year-old and a 1-year-oldwere found at the scene and are safe.

Theriot was briefly in a relationship with Summer and had lived with the Ernests for several weeks.

Crystal Ernest-DeYoung, 46, the eldest Ernests sister, told USA Today that she believes Theriot only recently started dating Summer.

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They all had very good hearts, Ms Ernest-DeYoung said. They trusted people too much. They all loved unconditionally.

Were all devastated. We dont know how somebody can be so evil, Ms Ernest-DeYoung added. We dont know how were going to get on. We lost three people that are so dear to our hearts.Firefighters in Brazil have resumed their search for hundreds of people missing in the wake of a massive dam collapse.

Crews returned to mud-covered areas on Sunday after a several-hour suspension over fears a second dam was at risk of breach.

The dam burst at Vales Corrego do Feijao mine in southeastern Brazil unleashed a torrent of mud on Friday, burying the mining facilities and nearby homes in the town of Brumadinho.

Nearly 300 people are still missing, with the list of those unaccounted for being constantly updated, Flavio Godinho, a spokesman for the Minas Gerais civil defense agency, said.

Most of those lost are presumed dead, officials said.

Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste Show all 7 1 /7 Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A building lays in ruins after a dam collapsed in eastern Brazil. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A road near Brumadihno is blocked by waste. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view of the burst dam in eastern Brazil. AFP/Getty Images Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste The flow of waste spread from the dam to a nearby village. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A firefighters' helicopter hovers as rescuers work in the search for victims AFP/Getty Images Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view shows flooding triggered by a dam collapse near Brumadinho. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view after a dam collapsed near Brumadinho, Brazil. AP

The confirmed death toll rose to 58 on Sunday, according to the Civil Defence Agency.

The death toll exceeded a 2015 tailings dam collapse at an iron ore mine less than 100km (60 miles) to the east, belonging to Samarco Mineracao SA, a Vale joint venture with BHP Group.

The Samarco dam break spilled mining waste into a more remote region five times, killing 19 people, burying a small village and contaminating a major river in Brazils worst environmental disaster on record.

Fears about another dam burst in Brumadinho on Sunday triggered evacuation sirens in the town before dawn, but by afternoon officials said there was no risk and the evacuation was called off.

Rescuers search for victims in the mud-hit community of Casa Grande (MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP/Getty Images)

State fire department spokesman Pedro Aihara initially said 24,000 people would need to be evacuated, but later revised the number down to 3,000. In total, 24,000 people are affected in some way by the disaster, he said.

The Brazilian government has ordered Vale to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mining complex.

On Sunday, courts nearly doubled to 11bn reais (2.2bn) the amount of Vale assets frozen in anticipation of damages and fines.

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Vale chief executive Fabio Schvartsman apologised without taking responsibility in an television interview on Saturday.

Apologies to society, apologies to you, apologies to the whole world for what has happened, he said. I dont know who is responsible, but you can be sure well do our part.

The cause of the dam burst remains unclear.Hopes are fading for hundreds of people still missing after a dam collapse at an iron ore mine in Brazil, after officials suspended the search for survivors amid fears a nearby dam was at risk of breaking as well.

Authorities on Sunday are evacuating 24,000 people in several neighbourhoods within range of the B6 dam, owned by the same company as the dam that broke on Friday.

Anger erupted over the increasing likelihood many of the Vale company workers and residents living near the mining site are dead. The death toll stands at 34, but around 300 other people are estimated to be missing.

Rescue teams had been searching for survivors at the facility near the city of Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state following the collapse of a dam holding back mine waste, sending out waves of mud for several miles.

Throughout Saturday, scores of families awaited word on their loved ones as Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, admitted that most recovery efforts would entail pulling out bodies.

Im angry. There is no way I can stay calm, said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked for the mining company for 20 years. My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if its bad.

Authorities with the Minas Gerais fire department said on Saturday that 23 people had been found and taken to hospital.

Vale said in a statement on Saturday that while 100 of its workers were accounted for, more than 200 workers were still missing. Local fire officials estimated the total number missing at close to 300.

Avimar de Melo Barcelas, the mayor of Brumadinho, said he also expected the death toll to rise as search and rescue operations continued.

Relatives of missing people wait for news after dam disaster (Reuters)

As Brazils attorney general promised an investigation into the cause of the disaster, many families expressed anger over Vales safety record.

Environmental groups blamed a lack of regulations and pledged to scrutinise the actions of new president Jair Bolsonaro  who promised to deregulate the industry during his election campaign.

On Saturday, state courts and the Minas Gerais justice ministry froze around $1.5bn (around 1.2bn) from Vale assets to fund state emergency efforts and told the company to present a report detailing how they would help victims.

The companys CEO, Fabio Schvartsman, said he did not know what caused the collapse  but attorney general Raquel Dodge said someone is definitely at fault. She noted there were another 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone classified as being at risk of rupture.

Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste Show all 7 1 /7 Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A building lays in ruins after a dam collapsed in eastern Brazil. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A road near Brumadihno is blocked by waste. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view of the burst dam in eastern Brazil. AFP/Getty Images Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste The flow of waste spread from the dam to a nearby village. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste A firefighters' helicopter hovers as rescuers work in the search for victims AFP/Getty Images Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view shows flooding triggered by a dam collapse near Brumadinho. AP Brazil dam collapse leaves town buried in waste An aerial view after a dam collapsed near Brumadinho, Brazil. AP

Daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on Saturday that the dams mining complex was issued an expedited licence to expand in December due to decreased risk. Preservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful.

Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who has not heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company. Vale destroyed Mariana and now theyve destroyed Brumadinho, she said.

President Jair Bolsonaro surveys area buried by mud in Brumadinho (AP)

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed countless fish.

The rivers of mining waste from the latest disaster also raised fears of widespread contamination. According to Vales website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said a delegation of 130 specialists has left for Brazil to assist the search and rescue operation. Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said his delegation includes K-9 forces, firefighters and a special underwater unit.

The military is responding to an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who offered the aid to his close ally, Mr Bolsonaro.

Additional reporting by agenciesA shadowy Apartheid-era South African paramilitary unit plotted to infect the continents black population with Aids, it has been claimed.

An ex-member of the South African Institute of Maritime Research (SAIMR) said the group spread the virus at the behest of its eccentric leader Keith Maxwell, who wanted a white majority country where the excesses of the 1960s, 70s and 80s have no place in the post-Aids world.

Speaking to the makers of the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjold, former SAIMR intelligence officer Alexander Jones said Maxwell, who had few, if any medical qualifications, set himself up as a doctor treating poor, black South Africans.

What easier way to get a guinea pig than [when] you live in an apartheid system? Jones told the film, which premieres this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. Black people have got no rights, they need medical treatment. Theres a white philanthropist coming in and saying, You know, Ill open up these clinics and Ill treat you. And meantime [he is] actually the wolf in sheeps clothing.

The documentary makers found a sign advertising the services of a Doctor Maxwell in Putfontein, near Johannesburg, and spoke to locals who remembered a man who had a virtual monopoly on the areas healthcare, despite offering strange treatments.

Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181107.bin Museum of London / Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181108.bin Museum of London / Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181141.bin Henry Grant Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181118.bin A United Nations photograph by Kay Muldoon Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181111.bin Courtesy of the News Line Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181112.bin Courtesy of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181113.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181114.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181115.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181116.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181119.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181120.bin FORWARD TO FREEDOM Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181121.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181122.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181123.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181124.bin Anti-Apartheid Movement Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181126.bin SATIS (Southern Africa - the Imprisoned Society) Anti-Apartheid Movement: in pictures 181128.bin

One local shopkeeper said the so-called doctor had given false injections.

Mr Jones said SAIMR also operated outside South Africa, telling the documentary: We were involved in Mozambique, spreading the Aids virus through medical conditions.

SAIMR is long thought to have had covert ties to Apartheid South Africas armed forces.

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It has also been accused of working with British intelligence and the American CIA to assassinate UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.

The Swedish-born secretary general, a supporter of decolonisation, died in mysterious circumstances when his plane exploded just before landing in Zambia in 1961, as he tried to broker a peace between the newly independent Congo and the breakaway province of Katanga.

In 1998, post-Apartheid South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed it had found letters on SAIMR-headed notepaper which seemed to suggest that British intelligence and the CIA had agreed that Hammarskjold should be removed.

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Both Britain and the US denied involvement in any assassination plot, with the CIA dismissing the suggestion as absurd and without foundation.

Maxwell, who died in 2006, was an eccentric who liked to dress up in the style of an 18th Century admiral and give himself the rank of commodore.

It is not clear to what extent the alleged late 1980s Aids plot was just one of his fantasies, or whether he had access to the expertise and funding needed to turn it into reality.

An Observer article written with the assistance of the documentarys co-producer Andreas Rocksen and its director Mads Brugger reveals the filmmakers were able to find writings in which Maxwell seemed to delight in how Aids might decimate the black South African population.

In one of the newly discovered documents, Maxwell wrote: [South Africa] may well have one man, one vote with a white majority by the year 2000. Religion in its conservative, traditional form will return. Abortion on demand, abuse of drugs, and the other excesses of the 1960s, 70s and 80s will have no place in the post-Aids world.

Some of Maxwells former associates, however, insist his interest in Aids was benevolent rather than genocidal.

Anti-abortion doctor Claude Newbury told the documentary: He was against genocide and he was trying to discover a cure for HIV.Cabinet ministers have demanded that a no-deal Brexit remain an option for Britain, ahead of a showdown in House of Commons over the matter.

Education secretary Damian Hinds and commons leader Andrea Leadsom both said the option to quit talks without a deal should be a possibility for Theresa May.

The comments from Mr Hinds in particular, seen as one of the cabinets strong Remainers, will give little comfort to pro-EU ministerial colleagues who have threatened to resign over no deal in recent days.

It comes amid repeated warnings that a no-deal Brexit could severely damage the UK economy.

On Tuesday Ms May will face a concerted effort from a cross-party group of MPs likely backed by Jeremy Corbyns front bench to extend the Article 50 negotiating period, delaying Brexit and avoiding no deal for now.

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

However, the prime minister has insisted it must remain a possibility and in the past week or so both justice secretary David Gauke and pensions secretary Amber Rudd have indicated they could resign if the government were to pursue a no-deal Brexit policy.

Speaking on the BBC Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hinds was asked if he could follow suit, answering: I dont envisage no deal becoming government policy.

We want to avoid a no deal. No deal would not be a good outcome.

But he went on: But, it is important that it remains as a possibility because, on the other hand... some people are trying to thwart Brexit altogether.

On the controversial backstop proposals  to come into play if the UK cannot agree a future trade deal with the EU by December 2020, potentially locking Britain into an indefinite customs union  Mr Hinds said there are reasons to believe it would never happen.

And, even if it did, actually there are some advantages to the backstop as well as drawbacks, he added.

Asked if the government supported a time limit to the backstop  something set to be demanded by Tory MPs and Ms Mays DUP backers on Tuesday  he said it was not entirely in the gift of the government.

In an article for The Sunday Times, Ms Leadsom accused some MPs of using attempts to take no deal off the table in order to stop Brexit altogether.

 Brexit: 17 billion already ripped out of UK public purse due to decision to quit EU, research shows

She wrote: Im usually the last person to agree with anything that Michel Barnier says, but this week I was surprised to find common ground with him.

He made clear that opposition to a no-deal Brexit will not stop it from happening in March.

Taking no deal off the table has been used as a thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit  which conveniently overlooks the simple fact that no deal is the legal default, and that the best and most responsible way to avoid it is by voting for a deal.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper said she was not seeking to block Brexit with her no-deal amendment and said she was not yet sure if she had the backing of Mr Corbyn.A cabinet minister has refused to completely rule out the possibility that the UK could impose martial law to stop disorder in the case of a no-deal Brexit.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said it was not the focus of our attention, but admitted the government ws looking at all the options.

Other cabinet colleagues have argued that a no-deal Brexit must remain an option for the UK in Brexit negotiations, ahead of attempts by a group of cross-party MPs to take it off the table on Tuesday.

Speaking on BBC1s Andrew Marr programme, Mr Hancock denied the government was specifically planning for martial law, but did not rule it out either.

Of course government all the time looks at all the options in all circumstances," he said.

When pressed on whether ministers were considering it, he said: Not specifically, no. It remains on the statute book, but it isnt the focus of our attention.

He then sought to distance himself from leaked comments in November claiming he had said he could not guarantee patients would not die in a no-deal scenario

After being questioned on the cabinet comments, he said: Why dont I tell you exactly what the position is. As health secretary I feel very responsible for making sure people can have unhindered access to medicines, its incredibly important.

Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Show all 11 1 /11 Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray (left) and a pro-Brexit protester argue as they demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament A pro-Brexit protester argues Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Police surround the pro-Brexit protester after he confronted Steve Bray, a pro-European protester Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament A leave supporter is spoken to by a police officer as he argues with a remain supporter, Steve Bray, outside Parliament PA Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament MPs in Parliament are to vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal next week after her December vote was called off in the face of a major defeat Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament A leave supporter is spoken to by a police officer PA Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Police look on as anti-Brexit protesters demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament. Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Police hold back a leave supporter PA Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament A police officer speaks with anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Police surround a pro-Brexit protester after he confronted a pro-European protester Getty Images Police separate clashing Brexit protesters outside Parliament Conservative MP David Davies, wearing a gopro camera, speaks to anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray Getty Images

Now, if everybody does what they need to do then Im confident that can continue and the pharmaceutical industry, who are responsible for building the stockpiles in case there are delays at the border, they have reacted so far in an exemplary manner.

Earlier in the day, education secretary Damian Hinds and commons leader Andrea Leadsom both said the option to quit talks without a deal should be a possibility for Theresa May.

The comments from Mr Hinds in particular, seen as one of the cabinets strong remainers, will give little comfort to pro-EU ministerial colleagues who have threatened to resign over no deal in recent days.

Ms Leadsom targeted criticism at MPs attempting to temporarily rewrite standing orders of parliament to allow themselves to bring forward legislation to vote on instead of the government, effectively stripping Ms May of some executive power.The UKs electoral watchdog is seeking to give itself more powers of investigation, which could be in place in time for a potential second Brexit referendum.

The Electoral Commission is proposing to take responsibility for some prosecutions against political parties and campaign groups itself, rather than passing cases to the police.

Pro-Leave politicians and campaigners have expressed concern about the plans, citing fears over alleged bias in the commission against Brexit.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told The Sunday Telegraph the Conservative party should formally oppose the move.

The Electoral Commission is not trusted to be impartial, and a number of its leading figures have said very prejudicial things about Brexit, he said.

An independent prosecutor is a safeguard and thats the whole purpose of a prosecutor. Investigators have a prejudice in favour of prosecuting.

The election watchdog is to publicly consult on the issue, but said it would be able to extend its remit itself if it decided to.

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: This is something that we have been looking at for quite a while.

We are looking to be able to obtain information. When we talk about obtaining powers of prosecution, we are talking about obtaining information.

The Electoral Commission insisted the move to gain more powers was not connected to the possibility of another Brexit referendum being held in the next year.

 Vote Leave campaign group 'cheated' to bend referendum spending rules, whistleblower Shahmir Sanni claims

We will shortly be consulting with political parties, the police and the CPS on a prosecution policy which will bring our regulatory powers in line with a wide range of public bodies, the spokesperson said.

Parties and campaigners are required to comply with our notices should we need information. Where this information is not forthcoming, enhancing our ability to obtain details about how campaigning activities are funded will ensure we can provide voters with transparency.

Matthew Elliott, who was chief executive of the official Vote Leave campaign, said he believed the commission was not fit for purpose. Last July, Vote Leave was fined 61,000 and referred to the police after an Electoral Commission probe said it broke electoral law.

In September, the High Court ruled that the watchdog had misinterpreted spending rules in its advice to the campaign group, although it agreed Vote Leave had broken the rules.

The Electoral Commissions recent bungles have already demonstrated that it is not fit for purpose, so this plot to award themselves the power to prosecute is extremely worrying, Mr Elliott said.

Press AssociationIreland has dealt a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of obtaining the changes to her Brexit deal needed to secure the backing of her own Conservative MPs.

The countrys foreign minister Simon Coveney said the Irish backstop that Ms May wants to renegotiate isnt going to change despite the prime ministers deal being comprehensively rejected by the House of Commons.

On Tuesday Ms May hopes to secure backing for a move to go back to Brussels and ask for changes to the backstop, in order to put it to another full vote in the coming weeks.

Tory rebels and her DUP Northern Irish partners in government have both indicated they could back her deal if she can secure changes to the backstop.

But speaking to the BBCs Andrew Marr show, Mr Coveney said: The European parliament will not ratify a withdrawal agreement that doesnt have a backstop in it. Its as simple as that.

He added: The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines.

Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement is part of a balanced package that isnt going to change.

The backstop arrangement  to prevent a hard border being implemented on the island of Ireland  comes into play if the UK cannot agree a future trade deal with the EU by December 2020, potentially locking Britain into an indefinite customs union.

"Brexit betrayal" march in London Show all 43 1 /43 "Brexit betrayal" march in London "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a sign in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carrying a noose at the "Brexit betrayal" march. The man carrying it told a reporter: "That's what the traitor May deserves." AP "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit supporters hold a sign opposed to Nigel Farage Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters carry a defaced British flag on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson addresses a rally after taking part in a Brexit 'betrayal' march in central London PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London Police officers attempts to keep rival protesters from clashing at the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London Victoria Jones/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds an anti-Theresa May sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator and his dog Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator at the protest Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro-brexit demonstrators endorse UKIP Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A Brexit 'betrayal' march protester wearing a Make Britain Great Again hat in London on 9 December 2018 Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The "Brexit Betrayal" march passes through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Tommy Robinson tells protesters to join Ukip via their mobile phones on stage next to leader Gerard Batten (right) at the Brexit 'betrayal' march Gareth Fuller/PA "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester speaks thorugh a megaphone on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator walks in the picket line Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester carries a Union Jack on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator wrapped in the Union Jack Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit anti-May sign at the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Pro brexit demonstrators move through Central London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator marches with sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A pro-brexit demonstrator holds a rude sign in the rally Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march passes down Victoria Street near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A festive protester marches near Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a mock noose as the march passes down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester wrapped in the Union Jack marches down Victoria Street towards Parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester makes some noise on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester dressed as a dinosaur holds a sign rallying against "Davocracy" - in reference to the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester holds a pro-brexit sign on the march Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London The march approaches parliament Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A protester distributes pro-brexit lapel badges Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A demonstrator wears an anti-EU poster and holds an anti-BBC sign Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A smoke bomb is deployed in Parliament Square as the march comes across the counter-demonstration Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London A flag bearing the Arms of Plantagenet flies in theprot Angela Christofilou/The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Protesters on the Brexit 'betrayal' march in London on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Brexit 'betrayal' marchers gathering on Park Lane ahead of a protest on 9 December 2018 Angela Christofilou/ The Independent "Brexit betrayal" march in London Angela Christofilou/The Independent

But it has emerged as a key sticking point with many Conservative MPs and the DUP refusing to countenance a withdrawal agreement with it in.

Health secretary Matt Hancock denied that Mr Coveneys refusal to consider renegotiating the backstop meant Ms Mays Brexit deal was dead in the water.

He said: Thats a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think its also extremely clear from that interview [with Mr Coveney] and the tone... is that Ireland doesnt want to have a no-deal Brexit.

 Health secretary Matt Hancock on Northern Irish backstop: government will 'listen very carefully' to those wanting to remove backstop

The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

The idea the EU and the Irish government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.Ministers have been accused of putting the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) before domestic violence victims after it was claimed plans to reform abortion laws in Northern Ireland had been restricted for fear of angering them.

Labour MP Stella Creasy had intended to put down an amendment to the draft Domestic Abuse Bill, but she said the scope of it had been restricted  a technical move that prevents her from bringing her reforms forward.

Northern Ireland has a ban on abortions in almost all cases  even rape or incest. Theresa May has come under pressure to give MPs a free vote on the issue after abortion was legalised in the Republic of Ireland following a referendum last May.

But the DUP, which the Prime Minister relies on for a majority in Parliament, is vocal in its staunch opposition to women accessing abortions.

Ms Creasy tweeted on Sunday: This government cares more about the DUP than domestic violence. Proof (is that) theyve restricted scope of Domestic Abuse Bill to try to prevent abortion reform in Northern Ireland.

Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Show all 8 1 /8 Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Campaigners intervene after police try to lead away one of the three women (centre with sunglasses) who publicly took an abortion pill during a demonstration outside Belfast's Crown and High Courts, where counter-demonstrations were held by both sides of the Northern Irish abortion argument. PA Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Police officers watch on from close by as abortion rights campaign group ROSA, Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity hold a protest in Belfast Getty Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Eleanor Crossey Malone takes an abortion pill as abortion rights campaign group ROSA, Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity distribute abortion pills Getty Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Ruth Coppinger TD addresses the crowds outside Belfast's Crown and High Courts where counter-demonstrations were held by both sides of the Northen Irish abortion argument. PA Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Eleanor Crossey Malone displays an abortion pill packet after taking a pill Getty Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills Protestors dressed as hand maidens stand as abortion rights campaign group ROSA, Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity distribute abortion pills from a touring bus Getty Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills An unidentified woman takes an abortion pill as abortion rights campaign group ROSA, Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity distribute abortion pills from a touring bus Getty Images Northern Irish women protesting anti-abortion laws take illegal pills A robot drone delivers abortion pills as abortion rights campaign group ROSA, Reproductive Rights Against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity distribute abortion pills Getty

Wont just affect Northern Ireland but all VAWG (violence against women and girls)  (I am) asking every MP to join me ensuring this scam wont work.

Fellow Labour MP Jess Phillips echoed her remarks, urging that the Domestic Abuse Bill must not be used as a tool to appease the DUP because this would undermine the safety of victims from across the UK.

If women and children in my constituency are less safe because the government cannot bear to face a vote on womens rights in NI then they fail all of us, she added.

The Sunday Times reported that a measure that would have given Westminster jurisdiction over abortion laws in the bill has been dropped. A Cabinet Office source told the newspaper: A bright civil servant foresaw the potential for the legislation to cause problems for the DUP.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UKs largest abortion provider, said: The idea that the government would sacrifice the rights of Northern Irish women for the votes of 10 DUP MPs is absolutely appalling.

The Abortion Act of 1967 means terminating pregnancies is legal in England, Wales and Scotland, but it is largely prohibited in Northern Ireland through section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

When approached by The Independent, a Home Office spokesperson said that whether particular amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill on abortion or otherwise were in scope would be a matter for the House authorities once the Bill was introduced.Britain could ban social media companies that fail to remove harmful material, health secretary Matt Hancock has said.

The politician wrote to Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Apple, Google and Facebook after the death of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old-girl who had been viewing material online linked to depression, self-harm and suicide.

We can legislate if we need to, he said, when asked about websites where content promoting self-harm and suicide can be found.

It would be far better to do it in concert with the social media companies but if we think they need to do things that they are refusing to do then we can and we must legislate.

The health secretary was asked, during his appearance on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show, if the UK would go as far as banning or imposing extra taxes on websites that failed to remove harmful content.

Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Show all 10 1 /10 Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 30 per cent of people deal with anxiety by talking to a friend or relative, or by going for a walk. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Almost one in five people feel anxious all or a lot of the time. PA Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 22 per cent of women feel anxious a lot or all of the time, compared to 15 per cent of men. Roman Levin/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 45 per cent of people who feel anxious in everyday life cite financial issues as their biggest cause of worry. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report And 26 per cent of people who feel anxious say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with worry. And 26 per cent of people say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with anxiety. Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 27 per cent of people who suffer from anxiety say work issues, such as long hours, are the source of the problem. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report But 16 per cent use alcohol to cope, while 10 per cent turn to cigarettes in the face of anxiety. Unemployed people are more likely to resort to these harmful strategies: 27 per cent use alcohol and 23 per cent use cigarettes. AFP/Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Only seven per cent of people who say they suffer from anxiety seek help from their GP. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report People are thought to be more anxious than they were five years ago. Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty

Ultimately parliament does have that sanction, yes, he said.

Its not where Id like to end up, in terms of banning them, of course, because theres a great positive to social media too.

But we run our country through parliament and we will and we must act if we have to.

Mr Hancocks intervention came after Molly Russells father said that Instagram helped kill his daughter.

The teenager was found dead in November 2017 and an inquest into her death is expected later this year.

In his letter to the social media companies, the health secretary said that he felt esperately concerned to ensure young people were protected.

I welcome that you have already taken important steps, and developed some capabilities to remove harmful content," he wrote. "But I know you will agree that more action is urgently needed.

It is appalling how easy it still is to access this content online and I am in no doubt about the harm this material can cause, especially for young people.

It is time for internet and social media providers to step up and purge this content once and for all.

Mr Hancock said that the government was preparing a white paper to examining online dangers, which would consider content on sucide and self-harm.

 Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg: social media company would be 'open to regulation'

I want to work with internet and social media providers to ensure the action is as effective as possible," he said.

"However, let me be clear that we will introduce new legislation where needed.

The Samaritans praised the health secretary, saying that he had taken a positive step in contacting the technology companies and talking about how social media platforms could do more to protect users from harmful content.

While there are lots of positive peer support communities on social channels, we need to maximise opportunities to see positive content and minimise potential for seeing more harmful content," a spokesperson for the charity said.

Tech companies could do more to show users how to flag dangerous content and should work together to remove dangerous imagery across their platforms. There is also a need for more research to into this issue, which should by carried out by these companies."

However, the spokesperson said the charity knew that for a lot of people, social media and the online environment more generally provided them with an important space to share their feelings and get support.

"It is really important that this continues, and wed like companies to do more to ensure that people searching for self-harm and suicide content are able to access supportive content more easily, they said.

It is understood that Instagram is taking steps to reduce the amount of harmful content on the platform and will inform Mr Hancock of its plans.

The sites approach will include blocking content from appearing on hashtag searches, where the hashtag is being used to share significant amounts of harmful material.

Our thoughts go out to Mollys family and anyone dealing with the issues raised in this report," a spokesperson for Instagram said.

"Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the people in our community, and we work with experts everyday to best understand the ways to keep them safe.

We do not allow content that promotes or encourages eating disorders, self-harm or suicide and use technology to find and remove it.

"Mental health and self-harm are complex and nuanced issues, and we work with expert groups who advise us on our approach.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

"They tell us that the sharing of a persons mental health struggle or connecting with others who have battled similar issues, can be an important part of recovery.

"This is why we dont remove certain content and instead offer people looking at, or posting it, support messaging that directs them to groups that can help.

We are undertaking a full review of our enforcement policies and technologies around self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. As part of this, we are consulting further with mental health bodies and academics to understand what more we can do to protect and support our community, especially young people.

While we undertake this review, we are taking measures aimed at preventing people from finding self-harm related content through search and hashtags.

For confidential support in the UK, contact the Samaritans on 116 123. In the US, contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline on1-800-273-8255.

Additional reporting by agenciesMore than 2.6 million British people think the Holocaust is a myth, a poll has found.

Five per cent of UK adults do not believe millions of Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis, according to the survey, which survivors and anti-racism campaigners said pointed to a terribly worrying level of denial.

A further 8 per cent of the British public claims the scale of the genocide has been exaggerated, according to research released to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day.

Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking, said Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), which commissioned the poll.

Six million Jewish people were murdered by Germanys Nazi regime during the Second World War as part of Adolf Hitlers campaign of extermination.

Remembering the Holocaust Show all 16 1 /16 Remembering the Holocaust Remembering the Holocaust 119165.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119169.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119229.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119167.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119162.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119166.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119163.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119224.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119168.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119228.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119152.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119226.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119150.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119151.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119147.bin Hannah Bills Remembering the Holocaust 119231.bin Hannah Bills

Almost two-thirds of the British public either grossly underestimate that figure or have no idea how many had died, the survey found

One in five said fewer than two million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, while 45 per cent said they did not know.

I find these figures terribly worrying, said Steven Frank, a Dutch Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who was forced into a concentration camp at the age of seven following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands.

He added: If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself.

Mr Frank, whose father was gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, speaks to school pupils about his experience of Nazi persecution and said he had encountered Holocaust deniers at talks.

In my experience, people dont have a solid understanding of what happened during the Holocaust and thats one of the reasons I am so committed to sharing what happened to me, he said. The only way to fight this kind of denial and antisemitism is with the truth.

Seventy-three per cent of UK adults believe more should be done to educate people about the Holocaust, according to the HMDTs poll of 2,006 people.

Ms Marks-Woldman said: The Holocaust threatened the fabric of civilisation and has implications for us all.

Without a basic understanding of this recent history, we are in danger of failing to learn where a lack of respect for difference and hostility to others can ultimately lead.

With a rise in reported hate crime in the UK and ongoing international conflicts with a risk of genocide, our world can feel fragile and vulnerable. We cannot be complacent.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

More than 100 antisemitic incidents are recorded in Britain every month, according to the Community Security Trust. The organisation, which monitors anti-Jewish hate crime, warned last year that bigots were becoming more confident to express their views.

The European Jewish Congress this week voiced alarm about the resurgence of antisemitism, urging political leaders to prepare for the upcoming battle against extremism that is infecting our continent again.

Joe Mulhall, senior researcher at anti-racism campaign group Hope Not Hate, said: As time passes we have fewer and fewer people who witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust first-hand. Thats why its vital we keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, especially among younger generations.A massive eruption on the Isle of Skye helped push the planet into a period of dramatic global warming millions of years ago, according to new research.

Evidence gathered from rocks scattered across the Inner Hebrides by a team of British and Swedish researchers revealed volcanic activity that coincided with an 8C surge in the worlds temperature.

When volcanoes erupt they can trigger periods of climate change as they inject large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum that took place around 56 million years ago has previously been linked with a series of volcanic eruptions across the North Atlantic.

However, until now there was no evidence for any major eruptions taking place in Scotland.

Recommended Indonesia volcano now quarter of original size after eruption

Analysis of volcanic rocks known as pitchstones that appeared to have been deposited around 20 miles apart on the Inner Hebrides revealed they had identical chemical composition and texture, suggesting the rocky island outcrops were the result of a single, enormous explosion.

The scientists from Swedens Uppsala University and the Universities of Durham and St Andrews, were able to trace their origin to the Red Hills on Skye, around 25 miles further north.

This site was likely formed by an enormous vent at which the eruption began, according to their analysis published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The scientists compared the size of the eruption to Krakatoa in 1883, one of the most destructive volcanic events in recorded history.

Environment news in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Environment news in pictures Environment news in pictures Davos 2019: David Attenborough issues stark warning about future of civilisation as he demands practical solutions to combat climate change Sir David Attenborough has issued a stark warning about climate change to business figures gathered in Davos, telling them that "what we do now...will profoundly affect the next few thousand years". On the eve of this year's World Economic Forum, the renowned naturalist told the audience that the worlds of business and politics should "get on with the practical solutions" needed to prevent environmental damage. "As a species we are expert problem solvers. But we've not yet applied ourselves to this problem with the focus it requires. "We can create a world with clean air and water, unlimited energy, and fish stocks that will sustain us well into the future. But to do that, we need a plan," he said. The broadcaster made his speech after receiving a Crystal Award, which is awarded by the forum to "exceptional cultural leaders". AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures At least 60% of wild coffee species face extinction triggered by climate change and disease Two decades of research have revealed that 60 per cent of the worlds coffee species face extinction due to the combined threats of deforestation, disease and climate change. The wild strain of arabica, the most widely consumed coffee on the planet, is among those now recognised as endangered, raising concerns about its long-term survival. These results are worrying for the millions of farmers around the world who depend on the continued survival of coffee for their livelihoods. As conditions for coffee farming become tougher, scientists predict the industry will need to rely on wild varieties to develop more resilient strains Alan Schaller Environment news in pictures Warming Antarctic waters are speeding the rate at which glaciers are melting The Antarctic ice sheet is losing six times as much ice each year as it was in the 1980s and the pace is accelerating, one of the most comprehensive studies of climate change effects on the continent has shown. More than half an inch has been added to global sea levels since 1979, but if current trends continue it will be responsible for metres more in future, the Nasa-funded study found. The international effort used aerial photos, satellite data and climate models dating back to the 1970s across18 Antarctic regions to get the most complete picture to date on the impacts of the changing climate. It found that between 1979 and 1990 Antarctica lost an average of 40 gigatonnes (40 billion tonnes) of its mass each year. Between 2009 and 2017 it lost an average 252 gigatonnes a year. This has added 3.6mm per decade to sea levels, or around 14mm since 1979, the study shows Nasa/Getty Environment news in pictures Greater Manchester to ban fracking, paving way for confrontation with government over controversial industry Greater Manchester is to effectively ban fracking, raising the prospect of fresh confrontation with the government over the controversial industry. All of the regions 10 councils are to implement planning policies which create a presumption against drilling for shale gas in their areas, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has announced. Campaigners said the move was the latest sign that the tide was turning against fracking, which has been the subject of multiple legal battles across the country. Critics of fracking say it poses environmental and health risks. Drilling at the UKs only operational fracking site, run by Cuadrilla in Lancashire, has repeatedly been halted due to earth tremors. But ministers support the industry and last year unveiled plans to accelerate the development of new drilling sites Ross Wills Environment news in pictures Japan confirms plan to resume commercial whaling in its waters from next year Japan will resume commercial whaling next year for the first time in more than three decades, in a move that has provoked strong criticism from campaigners and the international community. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said his nation would leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to resume hunting the marine mammals in Japanese waters. However, he stated the activity would be limited to Japans territory and the 200 mile exclusive economic zone along its coasts. This means controversial scientific trips to Antarctica in which Japanese vessels killed hundreds of whales, as well as activity in the northwest Pacific, will stop in 2019 AP Environment news in pictures COP24: Environmental groups criticise morally unacceptable climate deal reached after major Poland summit Diplomats from around the world have agreed a major climate deal after two weeks of United Nations talks in Poland. But climate campaigners warned the deal  effectively a set of rules for how to govern the 2015 Paris climate accord  agreed between almost 200 countries lacked ambition or a clear promise of enhanced climate action. Activists cautiously welcomed elements of the plan, saying important progress had been made on ensuring that efforts to tackle climate change by individual nations can be measured and compared. But environmental groups were also highly critical of the agreement, warning it lacked ambition and clarity on key issues, including financing for climate projects for developing countries. The COP24 deal, which is aimed at providing firm guidelines for countries on how to transparently report their greenhouse gas emissions and their efforts to reduce them, was confirmed on 15 December, after talks overran Reuters Environment news in pictures Unprecedented changes needed to stop global warming as UN report reveals islands starting to vanish and coral reefs dying Greenhouse gas emissions must be cut almost in half by 2030 to avert global environmental catastrophe, including the total loss of every coral reef, the disappearance of Arctic ice and the destruction of island communities, a landmark UN report has concluded. Drawing on more than 6,000 scientific studies and compiled over two years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings, released this morning, warn enormous and rapid changes to the way everyone on Earth eats, travels and produces energy need to be brought in immediately. Though the scientists behind the report said there is cause for optimism, they recognised the grim reality that nations are currently nowhere near on track to avert disaster AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures Africas three biggest elephant poaching cartels exposed using DNA from illegal ivory shipments DNA taken from massive shipments of ivory has been used to identify the three largest wildlife trafficking gangs operating at the height of Africas elephant poaching epidemic. Ivory tends to be shipped around the world from African ports in bulk, and scientists have used genetic evidence gleaned from intercepted batches to reveal their origins. Led by Dr Samuel Wasser from the University of Washington, they traced a number of these shipments to three cartels operating out of Kenya, Uganda and Togo. Evidence collected by Dr Wasser has already helped convict ivory kingpin Feisal Mohamed Ali, and as his team joins the dots between shipments they plan to shore up the cases against more of the continents most prolific smugglers Art Wolfe

Nearly 40,000 deaths have been attributed to the massive explosion in Indonesia, and its effects on global weather patterns were felt for years afterwards.

Fossils from around the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum showed that here too volcanoes appear to have had far-reaching effects.

The surge of CO2 in the atmosphere threw the climate into disarray for around 100,000 years, warming the atmosphere and turning the oceans acidic.

 Indonesia Tsunami: Volcano erupting

This triggered the extinction of tiny sea creatures, while others massively expanded in number to fill their place.

With global temperatures once again rising due to humans pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, comparisons have been drawn with this prehistoric period of intense warming and modern climate change.Tesco will reportedly axe 15,000 jobs as part of a 1.5bn cost-saving measure.

The supermarket chain will also close its meat, fish and delicatessen counters, according to the Mail on Sunday.

The paper claims in-store bakeries will also be overhauled, with fresh dough replaced with frozen dough.

It said staff canteens would be closed and replaced with vending machines.

Some meat, fish and deli counters in Tescos largest stores will remain open from Thursdays to Saturdays, the paper added.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The closures and cutbacks are said to be part of chief executive Dave Lewis attempts to save 1.5bn in costs by 2020.

Dave Lewiss attitude seems to be if in doubt, just close it  but for elderly customers, or those on a budget, using the counters for a few slices of ham, those arent the days they do their shopping, one source said.

 Former Tesco bosses Chris Bush and John Scouler cleared of 250m fraud after case collapses

It comes after Tescos former UK finance director was cleared over a fraud and false accounting scandal that saw the company overstate its profit forecast by 250m.

Carl Rogberg was cleared of all charges at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday after the Serious Fraud Office presented no case against him.

The supermarket chain recently celebrated its best Christmas sales since 2009, with a 2.2 per cent rise in UK like-for-like sales in the six weeks up to 5 January.Legal challenges against the British government over its inability to protect nature will be brought to an abrupt halt in the event of a no-deal Brexit, experts warn.

The countrys largest wetland and protected northern moors are among the habitats at stake if ministers cannot agree on a deal before the end of March.

Frustrated after failed attempts to block roads being built through swan-nesting grounds or the burning of bogs to create shooting estates, many local groups have turned to Europe for help.

There are currently 14 active cases from Britain involving potential breaches of environmental laws listed by the European Commission, with more thought to be in the pipeline.

As part of its green Brexit vision, the government plans to create a new body to replace the commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which are capable of holding states to account for their environmental shortcomings.

Environment news in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Environment news in pictures Environment news in pictures Davos 2019: David Attenborough issues stark warning about future of civilisation as he demands practical solutions to combat climate change Sir David Attenborough has issued a stark warning about climate change to business figures gathered in Davos, telling them that "what we do now...will profoundly affect the next few thousand years". On the eve of this year's World Economic Forum, the renowned naturalist told the audience that the worlds of business and politics should "get on with the practical solutions" needed to prevent environmental damage. "As a species we are expert problem solvers. But we've not yet applied ourselves to this problem with the focus it requires. "We can create a world with clean air and water, unlimited energy, and fish stocks that will sustain us well into the future. But to do that, we need a plan," he said. The broadcaster made his speech after receiving a Crystal Award, which is awarded by the forum to "exceptional cultural leaders". AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures At least 60% of wild coffee species face extinction triggered by climate change and disease Two decades of research have revealed that 60 per cent of the worlds coffee species face extinction due to the combined threats of deforestation, disease and climate change. The wild strain of arabica, the most widely consumed coffee on the planet, is among those now recognised as endangered, raising concerns about its long-term survival. These results are worrying for the millions of farmers around the world who depend on the continued survival of coffee for their livelihoods. As conditions for coffee farming become tougher, scientists predict the industry will need to rely on wild varieties to develop more resilient strains Alan Schaller Environment news in pictures Warming Antarctic waters are speeding the rate at which glaciers are melting The Antarctic ice sheet is losing six times as much ice each year as it was in the 1980s and the pace is accelerating, one of the most comprehensive studies of climate change effects on the continent has shown. More than half an inch has been added to global sea levels since 1979, but if current trends continue it will be responsible for metres more in future, the Nasa-funded study found. The international effort used aerial photos, satellite data and climate models dating back to the 1970s across18 Antarctic regions to get the most complete picture to date on the impacts of the changing climate. It found that between 1979 and 1990 Antarctica lost an average of 40 gigatonnes (40 billion tonnes) of its mass each year. Between 2009 and 2017 it lost an average 252 gigatonnes a year. This has added 3.6mm per decade to sea levels, or around 14mm since 1979, the study shows Nasa/Getty Environment news in pictures Greater Manchester to ban fracking, paving way for confrontation with government over controversial industry Greater Manchester is to effectively ban fracking, raising the prospect of fresh confrontation with the government over the controversial industry. All of the regions 10 councils are to implement planning policies which create a presumption against drilling for shale gas in their areas, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has announced. Campaigners said the move was the latest sign that the tide was turning against fracking, which has been the subject of multiple legal battles across the country. Critics of fracking say it poses environmental and health risks. Drilling at the UKs only operational fracking site, run by Cuadrilla in Lancashire, has repeatedly been halted due to earth tremors. But ministers support the industry and last year unveiled plans to accelerate the development of new drilling sites Ross Wills Environment news in pictures Japan confirms plan to resume commercial whaling in its waters from next year Japan will resume commercial whaling next year for the first time in more than three decades, in a move that has provoked strong criticism from campaigners and the international community. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said his nation would leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to resume hunting the marine mammals in Japanese waters. However, he stated the activity would be limited to Japans territory and the 200 mile exclusive economic zone along its coasts. This means controversial scientific trips to Antarctica in which Japanese vessels killed hundreds of whales, as well as activity in the northwest Pacific, will stop in 2019 AP Environment news in pictures COP24: Environmental groups criticise morally unacceptable climate deal reached after major Poland summit Diplomats from around the world have agreed a major climate deal after two weeks of United Nations talks in Poland. But climate campaigners warned the deal  effectively a set of rules for how to govern the 2015 Paris climate accord  agreed between almost 200 countries lacked ambition or a clear promise of enhanced climate action. Activists cautiously welcomed elements of the plan, saying important progress had been made on ensuring that efforts to tackle climate change by individual nations can be measured and compared. But environmental groups were also highly critical of the agreement, warning it lacked ambition and clarity on key issues, including financing for climate projects for developing countries. The COP24 deal, which is aimed at providing firm guidelines for countries on how to transparently report their greenhouse gas emissions and their efforts to reduce them, was confirmed on 15 December, after talks overran Reuters Environment news in pictures Unprecedented changes needed to stop global warming as UN report reveals islands starting to vanish and coral reefs dying Greenhouse gas emissions must be cut almost in half by 2030 to avert global environmental catastrophe, including the total loss of every coral reef, the disappearance of Arctic ice and the destruction of island communities, a landmark UN report has concluded. Drawing on more than 6,000 scientific studies and compiled over two years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings, released this morning, warn enormous and rapid changes to the way everyone on Earth eats, travels and produces energy need to be brought in immediately. Though the scientists behind the report said there is cause for optimism, they recognised the grim reality that nations are currently nowhere near on track to avert disaster AFP/Getty Environment news in pictures Africas three biggest elephant poaching cartels exposed using DNA from illegal ivory shipments DNA taken from massive shipments of ivory has been used to identify the three largest wildlife trafficking gangs operating at the height of Africas elephant poaching epidemic. Ivory tends to be shipped around the world from African ports in bulk, and scientists have used genetic evidence gleaned from intercepted batches to reveal their origins. Led by Dr Samuel Wasser from the University of Washington, they traced a number of these shipments to three cartels operating out of Kenya, Uganda and Togo. Evidence collected by Dr Wasser has already helped convict ivory kingpin Feisal Mohamed Ali, and as his team joins the dots between shipments they plan to shore up the cases against more of the continents most prolific smugglers Art Wolfe

The EU has taken the UK to court more than 50 times over its poor efforts to protect nature, forcing it to clean up the air and protect porpoises in its waters.

But with exit day only two months away, experts think there will be little political will from either European or British authorities to continue ongoing proceedings if no deal is agreed.

I dont see why first the commission would keep on spending time and effort on these cases, and second why the UK government would listen if anything came out of them, said Dr Viviane Gravey, an expert in EU environmental policy at Queens University Belfast.

Lawyers in Brussels are currently investigating Lough Neagh and Lough Beg in Northern Ireland, the largest wetlands in the British Isles and home to nesting whooper swans.

Campaigners have exhausted all other routes to oppose a planned road through Lough Begs floodplain and controversial sand mining taking place on Lough Neagh.

However, given its designation as a special protected area under EU law, they were able to take their case to the commission. Now, with the case still hanging in the balance, they fear time has run out.

A no deal means no access to a complaints procedure that could be all that stands between this area being the jewel of Northern Irelands crown or a desecration of a unique landscape, said James Orr, director of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland.

 Philip Hammond refuses to rule out resigning if there is a no-deal Brexit

Another complaint involving attempts to burn dozens of blanket bogs in the north of England and turn them into shooting estates has been underway for six years.

After submitting a case to the commission, conservation groups achieved victory in 2018 when the government agreed to preserve these unique habitats.

However, with a deadline of June to end the burning on grouse hunting estates, a no-deal outcome in March could compromise years of struggle.

It remains to be seen whether they achieve it we are pessimistic that the moment, said Andrew Dodd, who has worked on the case for the RSPB.

The commissions involvement is critical to ensure [the government] delivers, and if we dont have a transition period its going to be down to the likes of RSPB and other NGOs to keep on pushing the UK government.

A spokesperson from the commission confirmed that while legal proceedings would be brought to a conclusion under the withdrawal agreement, they could not speculate about a no-deal scenario.

If recommendations by the commission do not persuade a nation to make changes, the case will pass to the ECJ as the final arbiter.

Recommended EU takes British government to court for illegal air pollution levels

Dr Gravey said owing to the bad press the commission and the ECJ tend to get in the UK, there is unlikely to be any political fallout for the government in ignoring their rulings.

In certain circumstances weve seen how European institutions can be quite literally the last line of legal defence for environmental cases in the UK, said Dr Tom West from environment lawyers ClientEarth, noting that Michael Goves proposed environmental watchdog will not be ready in time for an emergency no deal.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: We are fully committed to pursuing an orderly, negotiated withdrawal from the European Union. However, as a responsible Government we are also preparing for no deal, including the implications this would have for the current infractions process.

We will not weaken environmental protection when we leave the EU, but will instead maintain  and even enhance - our already high environmental standards.This year will see one of the biggest CO2 surges in more than six decades of measurements, according to the Met Office.

Rising emissions due to the worlds continued appetite for fossil fuels will combine with reduced absorption of greenhouse gas by withering grasslands and forests.

Describing the prediction as worrying and compelling, scientists said it was an urgent reminder that the time to cut out carbon is now.

CO2 levels will be at a record high once again after emissions reached unprecedented levels last year, dashing hopes the world had finally hit peak carbon.

Besides fossil fuels pumping out the harmful gas, natural weather fluctuations will exacerbate the problem as they hamper the ability of carbon sinks to store it.

Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Show all 5 1 /5 Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Thousands skip school to attend climate protest 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 on Thursday 17 January 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school to call for stronger action against climate change. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo) Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Students and others hold placards as they march 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. Sign in center reads in Dutch 'shortly everyone will have a house on the sea'. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo) Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Thursday, 17 January 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school to call for stronger action against climate change. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo) Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Students and others hold up placards with climate messages during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday 17 January 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school to call for stronger action against climate change. Banner at right in Dutch reads 'we are truant for more forests' and at centre-rear reads 'no money if it melts'. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo) Thousands skip school to attend climate protest Two girls hold up a banner during a demonstration against climate change in Brussels, Thursday 17 January 2019. Thousands of students as part of the Youth for Climate movement took time off school to call for stronger action against climate change. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo)

In 2019 an upward swing in tropical Pacific Ocean temperature will make many regions warmer and drier.

As drought sets in and plants dry out, they will be less capable of sucking CO2 from the atmosphere, and massive deforestation in places like the Amazon is making this problem even worse.

The new predictions were based on monitoring at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, which has registered a 30 per cent increase in the concentration of CO2 since 1958.

Carbon sinks have saved us from what has already happened  the future rise would have been about double if it wasnt for the sinks. So we are lucky they exist, to be honest, Professor Richard Betts of the Met Office Hadley Centre told The Independent.

But the sinks themselves are affected by the climate, and thats an important thing because it shows that as climate change continues in the future it may affect their strength.

If emissions continue to rise, a major concern is that the carbon sinks currently storing carbon will cease to function, potentially leading to uncontrollable warming and a scenario dubbed hothouse Earth.

Forecast CO2 concentrations at the Mauna Loa station for 2019 (orange), along with previous forecast concentrations and the real observed data (Met Office)

Last year Mauna Loa observatory recorded concentrations of over 410ppm in April, marking the highest level that had been reached in at least 800,000 years.

This year CO2 levels in the atmosphere are likely to hit 411 parts per million (ppm).

The Met Office forecast predicts the average increase in CO2 will be around 2.75ppm, the third largest annual rise on record, matched only by two years in which El Nino Pacific warming events took place.

 Sir David Attenborough at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice: Climate change 'our greatest threat'

CO2 is by far the biggest contributor to climate change, and global efforts to prevent environmental disaster largely focus on transitioning away from industries that pump it into the air.

Scientists welcomed the new data collected in Hawaii, describing it as a call to innovate with rapid and radical responses to the looming crisis.

We need to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use, increase soil carbon sequestration to lock-up CO2, decelerate deforestation and land conversion, and promote less polluting more sustainable agriculture, said Professor Nick Ostle from Lancaster University, who was not involved in the Met Office research.

Its a massive challenge but there are real opportunities to make an impact individually and globally.(The Center Square)  The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents keen on recreating in the water to look out for cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, in Illinois waters, which can be toxic to humans and pets.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.Community Information

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If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.The Trump administration is working to slow down the implementation of a major international environmental regulation thats set to take effect in 2020. The administration hopes that the effort will ease the compliance burden on businesses by phasing in the rules gradually, rather than all at once.

Counterintuitively, phasing in the regulation could raise costs on American consumers, rather than reduce costs as the administration intends. Its smarter to let the rules go into effect as scheduled.

The regulation was issued years ago by the International Maritime Organization, which regulates global shipping. The rules will require ships to use fuel containing no more than 0.5 percent sulfur  a compound which causes acid rain and exacerbates peoples breathing problems. Thats a steep drop from the current global limit of 3.5 percent sulfur.

The Trump administration fears the regulation will cause demand for diesel, heating oil, and other low-sulfur fuels to surge, resulting in precipitous fuel cost increases on consumers. It also worries that shipping companies will abruptly raise prices on imported goods to offset their higher fuel costs.

Fortunately, these sudden price hikes arent likely. The oil industry has known about the regulation, commonly called IMO 2020, for roughly a decade. Petroleum companies have already upgraded their refineries to meet the coming demand for low-sulfur fuels. A recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration suggests that, if the new rules are implemented as planned, there will be minimal effects on domestic fuel prices.

Similarly, a report commissioned by the IMO concluded that the refinery industry can produce sufficient amounts of marine fuels of the required quality . . . while at the same time supplying other sectors with the petroleum products they require.

Take Houston-based Shell Oil Co., for example. Ahead of IMO 2020, the company introduced updated sulfur recovery techniques, including enhanced fuel cleaning methods and sulfur capture products. The companys SCOT ULTRA treatment cost-effectively reduces sulfur emissions by up to 60 percent.

All told, eight in 10 Gulf Coast refineries are already equipped to convert heavy crude into low-sulfur fuels.

A new, international demand for low-sulfur, cleaner fuels is also poised to bolster Houstons refining industry. Foreign countries, many of which run ships on high-sulfur bunker fuel, will have no choice but to seek out Houston diesel. Texas hosts 30 percent of American refining capacity.

By 2020, refineries diesel profit margins could jump 35 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Refiners in Houston, San Antonio and El Paso are already celebrating the potential spike.

Meanwhile, the shipping industry has prepared by installing sulfur scrubbers on its vessels. These devices capture sulfur emissions, thereby enabling ships to adhere to the regulation despite using higher-sulfur fuels.

Commodities trading company Trafigura, which has an office in Houston, has already equipped all 32 of its ships with scrubbers.

In other words, the free market is working. Companies had plenty of advanced warning about the new regulations, and they proactively adapted to prevent any market distortions.

Phasing in the rules would create uncertainty for these industries. The administration hasnt even clarified how long it wants to stall the rollout. Six months? A year? Five years?

Even if the administration releases a more specific phase-in timeline, refineries would still be forced to estimate how this piecemeal approach affects global demand for low-sulfur fuels. This guesswork could cause refineries to produce too little low-sulfur fuel, thereby leading to shortages. Ironically, such shortages would result in higher prices for the very consumers the administration intends to help.

IMO 2020 also wont push up the price of imported goods. The United States already imposes a more stringent 0.1 percent sulfur cap on all ships that come within 200 miles of our shores. So a 0.5-percent limit will have little impact on American consumers.

IMO 2020 will take effect sooner or later  theres no way to delay it entirely. The only question is whether the administration disrupts a decades worth of planning by the oil and shipping industries, unintentionally harming American consumers in the process.

Landrith is president of Frontiers of Freedom, a public policy think tank.These jackals must never be allowed to rise again.

In 1942, my grandfather, Friedrich Kellner, wrote those words in his diary. At the time, he was a German justice inspector.

The Nazis were at the height of their power, having conquered most of Europe, but Kellner was certain the leaders in the democracies would never allow Nazi terrorists to dominate the world. When the defeat came, his fellow citizens, whose adoration of their Fuhrer rang out in fervent cries of Heil Hitler, would deny everything.

They will say they always knew National Socialism would end in this manner and that none of them had ever been a National Socialist. In reality, only 1 percent of Germans at most were true opponents of Hitlerism.

Kellners greatest worry was that the evil spirit of Adolf Hitler, the benighted racial theories and fanatical anti-Semitism that had deranged his contemporaries, would not die with the man but be used by future Nazi types to stir up ancient hatreds in their own quest for supremacy. It is a worry with particular resonance today  Holocaust Remembrance Day.

By the time of this 1942 diary entry, Kellner had been opposing these jackals for 20 years. An infantry sergeant in World War I, he was wounded in battle and welcomed the establishment of the Weimar Republic after Germanys defeat. He became a political activist for the Social Democratic Party in in the city of Mainz and campaigned against the anti-democratic parties  the National Socialists, monarchists and communists.

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Kellner moved his family to the small town of Laubach to avoid the Nazi reprisals against their opponents, and there he became the administrator of the regional courthouse. He occasionally wrote brief essays about life under totalitarian rule. When Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland, Kellner began writing in earnest, recording Nazi crimes in a secret diary so future generations could have a weapon of truth against their own Nazis. He sometimes spoke aloud his thoughts and was considered a bad influence on the people and placed under surveillance by the Gestapo.

He was interrogated twice. In spite of that, he filled almost 900 pages , concluding his observations only when a battered Germany surrendered unconditionally.

Of the various themes interwoven among his diary entries  accounts of atrocities, the German peoples overwhelming approval of the Nazi agenda, the selfishness of neutral nations, the failure of the democracies to take decisive action  the most historically significant may perhaps be Kellners early recognition that the increasingly brutal injustices against the Jewish people were leading to their extermination and that this horrible possibility evoked only indifference in their Christian neighbors.

If the Jews  who have contributed real achievements over the centuries to our nations development  can be made a people without rights, then that is an act unworthy of a cultured nation, and the curse of this evil deed will indelibly rest on the entire German people, Kellner wrote about the laws that deprived Jews of citizenship. Following a list he copied into his diary of Field Marshal Hermann Gorings draconian regulations for Jews in the workforce, he asked: Why so many words? Just say Jews are not people but slaves. In this official order is the essence of National Socialism. The Jews who emigrated from Germany should thank God. The treatment of Jews who remained is cruel, relentless, and inhuman. Their fate is pitiful.

In September 1939, two weeks into the war, he realized the Jews in Poland were being targeted for death.

Tales of atrocities of the worst kind are buzzing in the air, he reported.

A few weeks later, on Oct. 7, 1939, after letters arrived from the front and soldiers home on leave described terrible events, Kellner understood what was approaching. The word Ausrottung appeared for the first time in his diary  it means extermination. He prophesied that the extermination of the Jews would be a fatal mistake for the Nazis themselves and bring about the Third Reichs downfall.

A specific description of a massacre is found in his recording of a soldiers eyewitness account of a slaughter in Poland, where naked Jewish men and women were placed in front of a long, deep ditch and shot.

As the ditch was being filled in  recounted the soldier for the justice inspector  screams could be heard coming from those still alive.

Ninety-nine percent of the German people, directly or indirectly, carry the guilt for the present situation, my grandfather wrote.

In December 1941, he made note of German Jews being transported out of the country. He did not know where they were being sent, but he was sure it was to their deaths.

This despicable and sadistic treatment against the Jews that has lasted now for several years  with its final goal of extermination  is the biggest stain on the honor of Germany.

Several months later, he learned of their destination and described it this way: In the last few days the Jews from this region have been removed. The families Strauss and Heynemann were taken from Laubach. I heard from a reliable source that all the Jews were taken to Poland and murdered by SS brigades.

In a cry of anger and despair, he proclaimed, Such atrocities will never be able to be erased from the book of humanity. Our murderous regime has for all times besmirched the name Germany.

Kellners empathy for the Jewish people was not related to personal knowledge of Jews. He had no Jewish friends. He hardly knew any Jews (which was not unusual, considering less than 1 percent of the population of Germany was Jewish). Kellner simply believed all people were the same. Despite Hitlers fulminations and Joseph Goebbels noxious anti-Semitic propaganda, there was no master race or subhumans, and Kellner refused to pretend otherwise to align himself with a malignant ideology.

Besides, he knew exactly why Jews were hated. And it had nothing to do with the Jews themselves.

The Jews are not worse than people in general, he insisted. Its only a matter of needing a scapegoat. Rulers in every age have used diversionary tactics to shield their own guilt. The entire action against the Jews is no different from throwing down a piece of meat for the beasts.

The reason his countrymen, particularly the upper classes, subscribed to such an obvious ruse did not escape him. He disdained the German elite and leadership that played along with the phobic racial theories. The judges, lawyers, teachers and physicians always behaved as the worst anti-Semites, Kellner pointed out, from professional jealousy.

And he added sardonically, The Jews have to be exterminated because they are wiser than the German people.

Though Kellner understood much and displayed a morality and wisdom unique for any time, there was a question he was unable to answer, a question he asked himself that was laden with despair. A minor and yet affecting coincidence attends this question. In 2005, the United Nations established a special day for the millions of victims of the Third Reich to be recalled each year in solemn ceremonies. The day for International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Jan. 27  today .

In the beginning of 1940, with Poland totally crushed after only a few months of war and the air still buzzing with tales of atrocities of the worst kind, justice inspector Kellner concluded one of his diary entries  which happened to be dated Jan. 27  with the sad cry, Why have we sunk so low as a people?

The Cambridge University publication of my grandfathers diary comes at a unique moment, when it is most needed. Anti-Semitism is spreading around the globe as never before, and attacks against Jews on the rise, even as they pray in their synagogues here in the United States.

When Kellner wrote, These jackals must never be allowed to rise again, he added, I want to be there in that fight. He is in that fight, in todays fight against fanatics with a totalitarian agenda. And readers of his diary will wonder with alarm, as did Friedrich Kellner, why the pillars of civilization are so meager they can be pulled down by brutes.

Kellner is a retired English professor who taught at the University of Massachusetts and Texas A&M University. He is the grandson of Friedrich Kellner and published the diary in its original language in Germany in 2011, and is the editor and translator of the English edition, My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner  A German against the Third Reich, published by Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2018.After much speculation, XXXTENTACION's camp has confirmed the birth of the late rapper's child, Gekyume.

It was by way of an Instagram Story upload on X's page that the news was announced with the simple message "Yume has officially arrived," ending with the emoji of baby.

Image via Instagram

The child's name comes from a word that XXXTENTACION, born Jahseh Onfroy, had actually made up. According to Onfroy, the word, pronounced geck-yoom, signifies being in a "different state' or next "universe" of thinking.

Frequent collaborator John Cunningham teased the birth of Gekyume this week with a tweet, writing "it's baby week." It's surely a bittersweet moment for the family and fans as Gekyume arrives three days after what would have been his father's 21st birthday.

It was on June 18th that the South Florida rapper was fatally shot while leaving a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The conception of his first child with Jenesis Sanchez was announced soon after.

In addition Vol. 4 of the Members Only compilation series arrived on January 23rd, featuring appearances from a host of names that included Robb Bank$, Ski Mask The SLup God, Kid Trunks, Cooliecut, Bass Santana and XXXTENTACION himself. It marks the second posthumous full-lnegth effort to come of XXXTENTACION, following on December's SKINS album.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!Photo: Contributed

Police are looking for witnesses after an early morning fight sent three men to hospital.

Two separate groups started fighting just after 1:30 a.m. in Yaletown on Mainland Street near Nelson Street.

The fight turned serious after three men involved in the altercation were stabbed. A 29-year-old man from Surrey was taken to hospital with serious, non-life threatening injuries.

A 25-year-old Vancouver man and a 26-year-old Richmond man were both treated at hospital with minor injuries. Six men were arrested and been released without charges.

The investigation is on-going and police are looking for anyone who may have dash-cam footage or witnessed the fight.If you go

Tickets and passes are available at www.bctboxoffice.org.

VIP pass: $100, $60 for students and seniors age 65 and older. Entry to all film screenings, along with a free, private tour of "Sensual/Sexual/Social: The Photography of George Platt Lynes" at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, conducted by curator Rebecca Fasman of the Kinsey Institute.

Weekend pass: $75, $45 for students/seniors. Entry to all film screenings.

Daily pass: $35-$50; $20-$30. Available for Friday or Saturday.

Tickets to individual screenings also are available; prices vary.

Schedule

FRIDAY: 7 p.m. program

"Missed Connections": Two strangers bond at a festival but forget to exchange contact info. 15 min.

"Rafiki": Two girls long to be more than good Kenyan girls and wives. 83 min. (Warning: Includes graphic violence and non-explicit sexual situations.)

FRIDAY: 9:30 p.m. program

"Con Paquito Era Mejor" : A man moves in with his daughter and son-in-low and continually reflects his frustrations. 5 min.

: A man moves in with his daughter and son-in-low and continually reflects his frustrations. 5 min. "Violet and June" : A girl falls in love with her best friend. 6 min.

: A girl falls in love with her best friend. 6 min. "Hard Paint (Tinta Bruta)": A socially repressed young man uses neon body paint to express himself. 118 min. Warning: Includes nudity, explicit sexual content and graphic violence.

SATURDAY: 11 a.m. program

"Elena": A 17-year-old living with her grandmother has doubts about her sexuality. 22 min. Warning: Mature content.

A 17-year-old living with her grandmother has doubts about her sexuality. 22 min. Warning: Mature content. "Bobby and Sheelaugh": In this animated short, a mythological creature's ancient battle for acceptance helps a young lesbian overcome her own fears. 5 min. Warning: Mature content.

In this animated short, a mythological creature's ancient battle for acceptance helps a young lesbian overcome her own fears. 5 min. Warning: Mature content. "DAUGHTER": An immigrant mother worries about her transgender daughter. 5 min.

An immigrant mother worries about her transgender daughter. 5 min. "OUT in the Streets": Two gay men in Chicago face living on the streets. 17 min. Warning: Mature content.

Two gay men in Chicago face living on the streets. 17 min. Warning: Mature content. "Forget Me Not" : Two 70-year-old women face a series of coincidences. 7 min.

: Two 70-year-old women face a series of coincidences. 7 min. "Primavera en Rosa Espana" : A look at the LGBTI experience in Spain. 20 min.

: A look at the LGBTI experience in Spain. 20 min. "Something about Alex": A teenager struggling with his gender attempts to reconcile with his identity. 19 min.

SATURDAY: 1:30 p.m. program

"Primavera de Fernanda": After a job offer, a woman negotiates her identity. 8 min.

After a job offer, a woman negotiates her identity. 8 min. "Kanarie": A young man must survive military training during apartheid in South Africa. 120 min. Warning: Language.

SATURDAY: 7 p.m. program

"Hoosier": Shot in Bloomington, the film follows a young man trying to find his place in the local queer subculture. 15 min.

Shot in Bloomington, the film follows a young man trying to find his place in the local queer subculture. 15 min. "Three Centimeters": Four teenage girls find their friendship tested while stuck on top of a Ferris wheel. 8 min.

Four teenage girls find their friendship tested while stuck on top of a Ferris wheel. 8 min. "Mapplethorpe": An intimate portrait of the celebrated, yet controversial, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, played by Matt Smith. 102 min. Warning: Nudity, non-explicit sexual content.

SATURDAY: 9:30 p.m. programClick here to find out where to get a COVID-19 vaccine or test.

To find out how many local residents have been vaccinated for COVID-19, click here. Use the map to find numbers for individual counties.

Find detailed statistics about COVID-19 tests, cases and deaths by county and for the state as a whole on the Indiana State Department of Health's online dashboard.Lima, OH (45805)

Today

Partly cloudy. Risk of scattered storms. Isolated strong to severe storms. High 84F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low 68F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.Welcome to Minnesotas new governor Tim Walz comes with some advicePakistan on Sunday closed its Consulate in Afghanistans Mazar-e-Sharif city after a woman tried to enter the building with a hand grenade hiding in her bag, the Foreign Office said.

Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital of Balkh province.

Today, the Pakistan Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif was closed when an Afghan woman was caught trying to sneek a hand grenade into the Consulate in her personal bag, the FO said in a statement.

It said the woman was arrested by the police and investigations are on to find the perpetrators of the failed attack.

The Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul urged the Afghanistan Foreign Office to provide fool-proof security to its Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif and to share the findings of its investigation at the earliest.

Pakistan Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will remain closed for visa services till the provision of fool-proof security by the authorities in Mazar-e-Sharif to prevent any untoward incident in the Consulate General, according to FO.

Last year, Pakistans Consulate in Jalalabad remained closed for several weeks due to security reasons.Photo: VPD

A 69-year-old Vancouver resident is dead after a late-night shooting in what police are calling the citys second homicide of the year.

Zenen Cepeda Silva was found suffering from gunshot wounds by Vancouver Police responding to a 911 call related to a shooting near Fraser Street and East 51 Avenue just before midnight on Jan. 26.

Cepeda Silva was transported to hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to a VPD press release the shooter had fled before police arrived.

Investigators believe Mr. Cepeda Silva was shot as he walked toward the front of a residence. This appears to be a targeted incident and there is no evidence to suggest that the public is at risk, said Sgt. Jason Robillard in a press release.

Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call the VPD'S homicide unit at (604)717-2500 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.Indian-American students, professionals, businessmen and homemakers joined expatriates and officials to outnumber and outstay Sikh separatists who had made a failed attempt to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations at the Indian embassy in Washington.

Ambassador Harsh Shringla unfurled the Tricolour near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the embassy, surrounded by a large turnout of Indian-Americans and expatriates.

People familiar with developments dismissed a claim by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), which organised the protest, that its members had burnt an Indian flag outside the embassy as completely false. The photos and videos of the celebrations show no such thing took place. The claim is intended to cover up their flop show, said a person regarding the claim made on SFJ website.

They used a different image to make their claim. No Indian flag was burnt, the person added.

The demonstration by SFJ attracted only around 20 people, who were completely outnumbered by flag waving Indians.

This demonstrates the hollow claim of SFJ that they enjoy wide support. They are a fringe group backed by Islamabad, clearly bringing out the nefarious design of Pakistan to stir up trouble. In fact, most of the demonstrators were Pakistanis and not Sikhs, a second person said.

In his speech, Shringla spoke about the contribution of Indian-Americans to ties between India and the US and outlined progress in bilateral relations.

The gathering relocated indoors later to listen to a recording of President Ram Nath Kovinds Republic Day address.

Security arrangements for the event were unprecedented, with personnel from the US Secret Service, the state departments bureau of diplomatic security, US park police, local metropolitan police and fire services crawling all over the flag-hoisting event.

The SFJ activists began gathering around noon, carrying Khalistan flags and placards condemning India, but they were no match for the Indian-Americans who had been waiting for them.

US law enforcement officials stood in a line, keeping the two sides apart, as voices and tempers rose on both sides.

The SFJ activists were moved to the sidewalk across the road, from where they continued the sloganeering, drowned out by patriotic songs from loudspeakers deployed by the embassy. Slogans of Bharat Mata ki jai,Vande Matra and Pakistan murdabad drove away anti-India and pro-Khalistan slogans from the separatists.

SFJs agenda is one of hate and bigotry funded by an agency that has funded terrorism in South Asia. Its critical we stand together against this agency (ISI), said Jay Kansara, director of government relations at the Hindu American Foundation.

Earlier, Sikhs of America denounced the SFJ protest, saying: Sikhs reside and have businesses not only all over India but also boast a global presence. Such theatrical protests like flag burning are detrimental to the peace loving and harmony enhancing Sikh community everywhere.Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the United States Congress, said she will officially launch her 2020 White House campaign with a speech on February 2.

Gabbard had announced her intention to run in a TV interview earlier in January, but had added that she would be doing a formal launch at a later date, which she declared in a letter to supporters.

At the Hawaii state legislature, the three-term member of the House of Representatives invoked a speech by Martin Luther King Jr, the iconic leader of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, in which he sought inspiration from the state on how to achieve racial harmony.

You can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of mans inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice, Dr King, as he was called, had said.

It is in this spirit of compassion and respect for the freedom and dignity of all people that Im offering to serve you as your President, Gabbard wrote in the letter to her supporters, asking them if they would like to tune in to her live on Saturday, February 2, when Ill be officially announcing my candidacy for President, to hear my vision for the country and the movement we will build together.

Interestingly, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris launched her campaign for the White House on Martin Luther King Day last Monday in an apparent bid to frame herself as an African-American, which is on her fathers side. On her mothers side, she is an Indian-American.

Gabbard is part of a growing group of Democrats who have either declared their run for the presidency or are considering it  Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, Pete Butt, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown and others, each hoping to win the Democratic nomination to take on President Donald Trump, whose low approval ratings and chaotic presidency make him look vulnerable.

The Indian-American community of 4 million is not large enough to break or make a presidential run, but their increasing political activism and check-writing abilities go much beyond their numbers, and they are now courted aggressively by all candidates. Donald Trump, as the Republican nominee, became the first major party candidate to hold an outreach event specifically with Indian-Americans in 2016.

Gabbard is not Indian-American, but the community has embraced her as one of its own as she is a Hindu and also because of her efforts to reach out to them. She is also the co-chair of the House India caucus, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent personal wishes and gifts on her wedding in 2015 through party senior Ram Madhav.

The Republican Hindu Coalition is expected to announce its endorsement of Gabbard for the primaries on Monday, said its chairman Shekhar Tiwari. The community is excited about both Harris and Gabbard and Democratic strategists worry they may split the community.

Yes, their running (Harris and Gabbard) might split the communitys resources  volunteer and financial  in 2019. But they have to make it to January 2020 and the primaries (especially March) to see if there is any division in votes, Shekar Narasimhan, leading Democratic strategist working on the partys outreach into the Asia-Pacific and Islanders community, said just days before Harris and Gabbard had announced their intention to contest.Britains Telegraph newspaper has apologised and paid damages to United States First Lady Melania Trump after publishing an article it says contains many false statements.

The newspaper said on Saturday it apologises unreservedly to Mrs Trump and her family for any embarrassment caused by the content of a cover story published on January 19 in the newspapers weekly magazine supplement.

As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs Trump substantial damages as well as her legal costs, The Telegraph said. The newspaper did not disclose the size of the settlement.

The Telegraph said it falsely characterised Melanias fathers personality, falsely reported the reasons she left an architecture program, and falsely reported her career as a model was unsuccessful before she met Donald Trump.

We accept that Mrs Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance, the newspaper said, also acknowledging it had incorrectly reported the year when the couple first met.

The claim that Mrs. Trump cried on election night is also false, The Telegraph said.

It also retracted the statement that Mrs Trumps father, mother and sister had relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Trump. The Telegraph is one of Britains leading broadsheet newspapers and is traditionally aligned with the Conservative Party.

It is not the first time Mrs Trump has successfully challenged the British press. She received damages and an apology from the Daily Mail in 2017 after bringing a libel action against the popular tabloid.BJP feels that Priyanka Gandhis appointment as Congress incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh will be beneficial to it in the fight against the SP-BSP alliance in the coming Lok Sabha polls and that it is better prepared to take on the opposition than it was in 2014.

The party is also aiming at winning nearly half the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal and Odisha and is optimistic about again forming alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharasthra.

BJP leaders said that the party was better prepared to take on the opposition in Uttar Pradesh compared to 2014 due to stronger booth-level presence and the work done by the Modi government over the past five years.

They also made light of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party saying that a buzz was sought to be created when SP and Congress had come together during the 2017 assembly polls but the alliance failed.

However, they also said that Congress gaining credibility or improving its prospects in the state due to appointment of Priyanka Gandhi as Congress general secretary in charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh will benefit the party against the gathbanthan (alliance).

Priyanka Gandhis appointment came days after Congress was left out from the alliance announced by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. The Congress has announced that it will contest all 80 seats in the state but has kept the window of an understanding open.

The BJP had done very well in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, winning 71 seats with two seats going to its ally, and party leaders said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would again contest from Varanasi.

BJP leaders did not rule out the possibility of Modi contesting from another seat and said a decision is expected to be taken once the Lok Sabha campaign picks up pace. There have been demands from some Congress workers that Priyanka Gandhi should contest against Modi from Varanasi.

BJP leaders said while BJP will need to improve its vote share by a small percentage compared to 2014 to get a good outcome, the SP and BSP will need to do more. They said that the opposition has many prime ministerial candidates and who will be the PM will be most important issue in the election.

The leaders said that the 2019 election was an ideological battle, a very important election and the party will fight it with more vigour than 2014.

We were in power in five states in 2014, today we are in 16. The number of party workers has gone up to 11 crore. There are 22 crore beneficiaries of government schemes. We will get full majority and Narendra Modi will again become prime minister in 2019, a party leader said.

The BJP is also focusing on states such as West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala where it had won very few or no seats in 2014 elections.

The party has adopted an aggressive strategy in West Bengal, where it is hoping to win 23 of the 42 seats and is scheduled to hold over 300 rallies in different parts of the state with a big rally in Kolkota in the first week of April. Modi will also address gatherings in the state.

In Odisha, the party is aiming to get at least half of 21 Lok Sabha seats and in Kerala it is aiming to win at least 5 seats.

In Mahrashtra, where Congress and NCP have already reached a broad understanding, BJP leaders expressed confidence about reaching an agreement with Shiv Sena. Party leaders said that they will also take steps to address concerns in the northeast regarding the citizenship amendment bill.

While it is still not clear how many seats BJP will fight on its own, party leaders indicated that the National Democratic Alliance will contest almost all the Lok Sabha seats.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the opposition saying that they are a group which is bankrupt of ideas and only united by their hate for Modi.

PM Modi targeted the opposition for having no regard for institutions such as armed forces, police and CBI. All they have in common is hatred for me. They are now even questioning the Election Commission. They believe they are right and everyone else is wrong, he said.

Speaking at a rally in Keralas Thrissur, he said the people have installed him as chowkidaar (watchman) and he will make sure there is no wrongdoing under his watch.

Follow LIVE updates here

In his second visit to Kerala in a month, PM Modi attacked the Left front government for attacking the cultural ethos of the state with its stand on the entry of women in Sabarimala. Cultural ethos of Kerala are under attack from the party in power. People can see the manner in which the communist government is disrespecting all aspects of states culture. I dont understand why they are targeting our culture which has stood the test of time, he added.

Watch: 90% of households in India have a cooking gas connection, says PM Modi

The Prime Minister said that nothing separates the Congress-led UDF from the Left in Kerala. LDF and UDF are the same. The Congress says one thing in Delhi and one in Kerala, Modi said.

He also alleged the while the Left and the Congress claim to be champions of women rights, their actions speak otherwise. They dont care about women, why else will they oppose triple talaq. Has there ever been a woman chief minister from the Left? he added.

Kerala have been witnessing protests since the Supreme Court order to open the doors of the Sabarimala shrine to women of all ages, overturning a traditional ban on women of childbearing age from entering the temple.

Female devotees aged between 10 and 50 had for decades been barred from the shrine on grounds that the presiding deity is a celibate, and the court ruling enraged traditionalists in Kerala. The LDF government of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was determined to uphold the court verdict.

Modi also aimed at the Congress for its leader Kapil Sibal attending an event in London where a man identifying himself as a cyber expert said voting machines used in India were being rigged, an allegation that triggered a spat between political parties.

Entire nation was amused to see a press conference in London, when Indias democratic ethos was questioned on foreign soil. Who was spotted in that press conference? A top Congress leader. Is this how you respect our democracy? he asked.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai on Sunday and inaugurate super speciality blocks at the Rajaji, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli medical colleges as the BJP focuses on increasing its footprints in the south.

He will also address a public rally in the temple town of Madurai. The rally will present a chance to Modi and the BJP showcase the work the central government has done for Tamil Nadu, said a senior party leader.

It will be an opportunity to showcase the developmental projects brought to Tamil Nadu by the BJP-led central government, H Raja, a BJP national secretary, told IANS.

About 1 crore people have benefited from the Mudra loan scheme in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, 3,000 km of highway projects are being implemented in the state. That apart, many families have received gas connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.

Also read: Over 300 rallies, grand show in Kolkata in list of BJPs Bengal blitz

In the last general elections, the BJP won just one Lok Sabha seat out of 39 in Tamil Nadu and drew a blank in neighbouring Kerala which has 20 seats.

According to PMO officials, Modi will fly to Thrissur in Kerala from Madurai to address a public rally. It will be his second visit in less than a fortnight to the state since January 15 when he flew down to inaugurate a bypass in Kollam.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to dedicate an integrated refinery expansion project to the nation at a function in Kochi. The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited project cost Rs 16,500 crore.

With Tamil Nadu and Kerala together sending 59 MPs to the Lok Sabha and the BJP is keen to expand its electoral footprint to the states as the NDA government eyes a second term.

In Tamil Nadu, the BJP is also hopeful of an alliance with the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) after the DMK shut its doors on the saffron party and is all set for a tie up with the Congress.

Also read: Operation Kamala on, our MLAs offered money, claims Kumaraswamy, BJP denies

A senior BJP leader said that a team of party leaders was discussing alliance with about half a dozen smaller parties in Tamil Nadu and they expect a rainbow coalition to be formed before the elections. Our internal surveys have shown that we are in a good position in at least 4-5 parliamentary seats in Kerala, he said.

During his earlier visit to Kerala on January 15, Modi had come down heavily on the Left Front government over the Sabarimala issue and warned the CPI (M) that it will be uprooted like it was in Tripura if it continued to antagonise people.

The PM said people know Communists dont respect history, culture and spirituality. For a few months the entire nation has been talking about Sabarimala. The conduct of the LDF government on the issue will go down as one of the most shameful behaviour by any government or party, he said adding violence and intimidation wont subdue his party workers in the state.

The BJP which has been leading frenetic protests against entry of women in the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala, failed to make a mark in the recently concluded local body bypolls in Kerala. Out of the 39 seats in which elections were held, the BJP won only two.Telugu Desam Party founder N.T. Rama Raos elder-son-in-law and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus co-brother-in-law Daggubati Venkateswara Rao on Sunday announced he was joining Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddys Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress for the political future of his NRI son Hitesh Chenchuram.

Making the announcement soon after his hour-long meeting with Jagan Reddy at his Lotus Pond residence along with his son, he said he has got a promise from Jagan, as the YSR Congress chief is called popularly, for a ticket for his native Parchur Assembly segment in Prakasam district.

During the meeting, Rao presented Jagan a book titled A history and 100 facts authored by himself on events in the revolt against NTR by his family members under Naidus leadership with overthrew the TDP founder in 1995 and became to be known as the August Coup.

Chenchuram, an NRI settled in the US, is trying to relinquish his American citizenship to facilitate his entry in the Andhra Pradesh elections. His mother and former Union minister Daggubati Purandheswari is currently in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), heading its all-India womens outfit.

Talking to media after his meeting with Jagan, Rao ruled out his wife joining the YSR Congress. However, speculations keep doing rounds over her quitting the BJP in pursuit of greener pastures as her party, a non-entity in Andhra Pradesh, obviously cannot give her a bright political future.

Rao had reportedly sided with Naidu in the succession war following a promise by the latter to make him deputy chief minister which failed to become a reality. After waging a losing battle against Naidu in the war of political succession, the Daggubati couple joined hands with Jagans father and Congress leader Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, Naidus bete noir, in the run-up to 2004 Assembly elections.

After crossing over to the Congress, Rao was elected to the Assembly from Parchur and his wife went to Lok Sabha from Visakhapatnam with the backing of YSR. In the next Parliament elections, she was re-elected from Visakhapatnam to become a minister in the UPA-II.

The familys political future, however, became shaky with the Congress partys downfall in Andhra Pradesh in the 2014 elections for its role in bifurcation of the state. Purandhareswari eventually switched over to the BJP and Rao stayed away from active politics.

Meanwhile, NTRs widow Lakshmiparvati, who sided with Jagan after disbanding her TDP-LP party after NTRs death, declined to comment on Raos joining the YSR Congress

The YSR Congress has been identified as an outfit of Andhra Pradeshs dominant Reddy community and its leader seems trying to undo this image by attracting leaders from Naidus Kamma community, especially those from the NTRs family and Raos admission needs to be viewed from this context, a YSR Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Hindustan Times.

K. Nageswar, political analyst and journalism and mass communication teacher in Osmania University in Hyderabad, however, said Raos joining in the YSR Congress is unlikely to impact the electoral fortunes of Naidus TDP as the political legacy of NTR has fizzled out in Andhra politics as seen by TDPs repeated electoral victories after Naidu took over the reins from NTR. The development may only help Jagan to fire another salvo at his arch-rival Naidu from Daggubatis shoulders, Nageswar said.In an indirect attack at the various alliances being formed across the country by political parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that it did not matter how big a group they formed, he would continue to stand with the poor.

Speaking at a public meeting in Madurai after laying the foundation stone of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences, PM Modi said that the union government is taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism.

Any person who has cheated or looted the country shall be brought to justice. This is regardless of whether he is in india or abroad, Modi said in a reference to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

All those who were used to making deals in government contracts, defence deals and welfare schemes are now facing the music. That is why they are all coming together, they say that keeping aside all other consideration, they must unite to remove this watchman, he said. (Follow live updates here)

However big a group they form out of fear and negativity, Narendra Modi will stand firmly with the poor. I call upon the people of Madurai and the youth of Tamil Nadu to reject these forces of negativity, Modi said.

He also hit out at those who were opposing the 10 per cent reservation bill that was passed by Parliament on the last day of the Winter session.

Watch: NDA govt is giving great priority to health sector: PM Modi

Modi said that the Union government was committed to provide employment opportunities and education to all segments of society and that it was with this spirit that the government brought in the 10 per cent reservation bill in government jobs and education.

It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu, to serve their own selfish interests, he said while speaking about the 10 per cent reservation bill.Photo: CTV News

Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday to remember a retired Abbotsford Police officer killed in a collision in Nanaimo last month.

Officers from several police departments joined family at the celebration of life for Shinder Kirk, 59, a longtime spokesperson for the Abbotsford Police Department and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. After his retirement, he worked as a Commissionaire with the APD, CTV News reports.

"He left a wonderfully strong legacy for us, not just on the media relations side, but in terms of his community work and his advocacy for anti-gang programs and working with kids that we continue to this day," Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton told the mourners.

"His sense of humour, his smile, his laughter, he was a larger-than-life individual who could fill a room with a lot of goodness."

"Shinder always took the value that the public has the right to know," added retired Sgt. Peter Thiessen.

"You always got straight talk from Shinder. He was always willing to give advice if you asked for work related things or even on personal things, the challenges that we all have in our life. He was always there to talk to."

 with files from CTV VancouverCongress president Rahul Gandhi will travel to South Africa on an invitation from President Cyril Ramaphosa, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma has said .

President Ramaphosa has invited Rahul Gandhi to visit South Africa. The invitation has been accepted, and the details of the visit are currently being worked out by the foreign affairs department of both the parties, Sharma said.

Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh had called upon the South African president, who was the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations, here on Saturday. They also discussed issues of mutual interest.

President Ramaphosa lauded Indias role in its fight against apartheid. Both, the African National Congress (ANC) chief and Rahul Gandhi has reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two parties, Sharma said. The leaders also discussed regional and global issues, he said.Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday criticised Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for his remarks that if the Supreme Court is unable to give a verdict on the Ram Temple issue, it should hand it over to us and it will be resolved within 24 hours.

Reminding the UP CM, Akhilesh said the farmers need to be saved first.

I would like to tell CM that people have given him 90 days, do something to save the crops from the bulls. Farmers need to be saved first. We have just celebrated 26 January, if a CM says such things on 26 January you can imagine what kind of CM he must be, Akhilesh said.

On Saturday, in an interview to India TV, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said that the peoples patience on the Ram Temple issue is running out.

The unnecessary delay... is causing a crisis so far as peoples patience and trust are concerned. I want to say that the court should give its verdict soon, and if it is unable to do so, it should hand over the issue to us. We will resolve the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute within 24 hours. We wont take 25 hours, Yogi Adityanath said.

When asked why the Centre had not brought an ordinance on the issue, he said it could not be done since Parliament cant discuss matters that are sub judice.

Saying that they were leaving it to the court, he said, Had the court given justice based on the 1994 affidavit filed by the then central government, a good message could have gone to the country. It would have been a nice example. But this unnecessary delay is causing a situation where peoples patience is fast running out.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi took to Twitter to criticise the Uttar Pradesh CMs remarks.

I am sure you will in an hour by destroying Constitution,& Rule of Law, by Closing all Courts of Law, if needed by Encounters also as this is your way of doing JUSTICE, but fortunately in India Ambedkars Constitution is still relevant and we are celebrating it today, Owaisi tweeted.

The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Friday reconstituted the bench hearing the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute. The new five-judge bench will hear the case on January 29.

Earlier, Justice Lalit recused himself from hearing the case after it was pointed out that he had appeared in a related case in 1997. The reasons for Justice Ramanas exclusion are not known yet.

The case has been pending before the Supreme Court since 2010. The top court was scheduled to hear the case in October last, but put it off to January 2019 after rejecting the UP governments plea for speedy hearings with CJI Gogoi saying the court has its own priorities.A war of words broke out on Twitter between Congress president Rahul Gandhi and senior Assam BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma over the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

There have been widespread protests in the northeast against the Citizenship Bill that seeks to confer citizenship on non-Muslim religious groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP was trying to polarise the region for political gain. I am disturbed by the growing violence and unrest in the N East where religion & ethnicity are being used as weapons by the BJP to polarise the region for political gain. This type of politics, that pitches brother against brother & fans hatred, is evil & must be stopped, he tweeted.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2015, hit back saying that it was the Congress which had strangulated the Northeast for decades.

Also read: Mizoram Governor addresses empty ground amid R-Day boycott call against Citizenship Bill

Dear @Rahul Gandhi~Perplexed by your anxiety. Are you aware how @INC India has strangulated NE for decades? Dont give value judgements. Were talking to people to address genuine concerns. Some fake protestors, with bare or no support, are withering away. Rest assured, NE is safe! Sarma tweeted

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha in the Parliaments winter session of Parliament, but was stalled in the Rajya Sabha. Voting on it is expected in the Rajya Sabha during the budget session beginning January 31. Theres fear in the Northeast that passage of the Bill could lead to large scale migration from Bangladesh and affect indigenous populations.

The Bill has sparked protests across much of the Northeast and spurred the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to walk of the BJP-led government in Assam last month.

Last week, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav rushed to Assam after five MLAs of the ruling party in Assam openly voiced their opposition to the Bill as it would violate provisions of the Assam Accord, signed in 1985 after a six-year agitation against illegal immigrants.Ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a mega public rally under the aegis of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at Patnas iconic Gandhi Maiden on March 3.

At a time when regional players in the opposition are making all possible efforts to form a formidable grand-alliance to defeat the BJP in the upcoming polls and the Congress party upping its ante against the ruling party, the BJP and its allies- LJP and JD (U)- are leaving no stone unturned to retain power.

A month ahead of the proposed NDA rally, the Congress is scheduled to organise a mega rally in the same location, in which party president Rahul Gandhi will address the gathering.

Rahul is expected to be joined by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) leader Upendra Kushwaha.

On Sunday BJP state president Nityanand Rai, JDU state president Bashishta Narayan Singh and LJP state president Pasupatinath Paras will hold a joint press conference in Patna to formally announce the date of the NDA rally.

Prime Minister Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan are expected to share the dais on March 3.India is poised to lodge a strong protest on Monday against lack of security measures to prevent the burning of its national flag outside the Indian high commission on Saturday, Indias Republic Day, hours after the Foreign Office insisted Britain does not condone such activities.

A group of Khalistan supporters burned one flag, stamped on others and raised anti-India slogans, holding placards with images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national security advisor Ajit Doval outside India House in the presence of some British police personnel.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: We are aware of a social media video that appears to be from the demonstration outside India House in Aldwych on Saturday, 26 January. No allegations of crime have been reported. We are working to establish the exact circumstances of the video.

Indias protest is likely to take the form of a note verbale, besides the issue being raised at various levels, sources said. The incident appeared set to spark another round of diplomatic tension on such issues that have engaged the two countries since the early 1980s.

It was the second incident in London involving the Indian flag within a year. It was also mutilated in Parliament Square during the April 2018 visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. Indias strong protest at the time had prompted an apology from the Foreign Office.

Plans to burn the Tricolour on Republic Day had been announced on social media. However, on Friday, a Foreign Office spokesman reiterated that Britain allowed peaceful protests, but insisted it does not condone the burning of national flags.

He said: We congratulate India on her 69th Republic day celebration, and look forward to deepening our relationship further as we prepare to leave the European Union and forge new partnerships with key global allies.

We are proud to be a country that fiercely protects the rights of individuals to peaceful protest and free speech as essential parts of a vibrant democracy, provided that demonstrators act within the law. We do not condone the burning of national flags, which is deeply offensive to most people.

There was no counter-protest by pro-India elements during the Saturday incident outside India House.Hashtag GoBackModi was trending on Twitter ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis his visit to Madurai in Tamil Nadu today to lay the foundation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and launch a slew of government projects.

Modi will also be addressing a rally in Madurai to kick off the BJPs election campaign in a state where it won only one Lok Sabha seat out of 39 in 2014. His detractors have dismissed his visit as a gimmick.

A man who dint come to Gaja cyclone why is he coming now..#Gobackmodi pic.twitter.com/CYw00lcNiF  Manivannan Govindan (@ManivannanGov12) January 27, 2019

No fund allocated for AIIMS!



No plan in place for AIIMS!



Laying foundation for AIIMS in Madurai after high court whacked you!



Starting your election campaign from Madurai!



Tamils are not fools! We know your gimmicks!#gobackmodi pic.twitter.com/2HQLoPC8Gj  Omar (@Omar22461461) January 27, 2019

Silent when police shot down 13 civilians in TN.

Silent again after abolishing use of 12th marks in NEET exam.



MODI doesn't care for Tamil Nadu's people!

Have some dignity and stop using your trolls to trend fake welcomes.#GoBackModi is the voice of Tamil Nadu and India! pic.twitter.com/hASUcymF7f  Abhishek Sankrit (@AbhishekSankri1) January 27, 2019

BJP supporters hit back at the #GoBackModi with #MaduraiThanksModi and #TNWelcomesModi on Twitter, insisting that Modi has done a lot for Tamil Nadu.

#MaduraiThanksModi DMK introduced Alcohol to TN in 1971...

Now BJP got TN AIIMS !



BJP Made Kalam Sir President..

Yet DMK makes TN Believe BJP is Anti-Tamil.

Karunanidhi Prevented Moopanar from becoming PM..

Yet he is "Pacchai Tamilan".

Time to introspect TN folks  mahindu (@mahindu2011) January 26, 2019

He gave us #Jallikattu

He secured our fishermen lives

He gave us defense corridor

He has given us #AIIMS

Welcome Thalaivaa @narendramodi#MaduraiThanksModi#TNWelcomesModi https://t.co/5ZVulop0yp  PRAVEEN RAJA (@praveenrajap) January 27, 2019

#TNWelcomesModi #MaduraiThanksModi #MaduraiThanksModi Modiji is like a sharp sword, that cuts off corruption and cheating. Lets welcome Modiji.  Srimani (@srimani75) January 27, 2019

It is not only #GoBackModi that could mar Modis visit. Dravidian and Tamil nationalist parties have launched black flag protests in several parts of Madurai against the PMs visit. Many are angry that Modi did not visit the state after cyclone Gaja ravaged 12 districts in November.

While 12 TN districts were severely affected with cyclone Gaja hit in November last, the PM did not come here to assess the damages. The Centre also turned down the state governments plea to sanction Rs 15000 crores for relief measures, K Ramakrishnan, general secretary, Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) said,

He further said that the Union government rejected Tamil MPs objection in implementing 10% reservation for economically weaker sections in general category.

Tamil Nadu is the home for social justice and it is also has been a pioneer in implementing reservations for suppressed class. However, the NDA government has rolled out 10% reservation for economically weaker section in open category. Therefore, to express our dissatisfaction, we will show black flag against the PMs visit, said Ramakrishnan.

Former MP Vaikos Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, and Tamizhar Vaazhvurimai Katchi are taking part in this black flag protest. Protesters are also using black balloons to make their point.

In April last year, the DMK and other Dravidian parties raised black flags against the PM for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board, while he was visiting IIT Madras.Let us work together to save the culture of Kerala, and to create New India, Positive India: PM

When we talk about Kerala, we remember the accomplishments of the Indian diaspora.The NDA government is taking many steps to deepen the bond with the Indian diaspora. Let us work together to save the culture of Kerala, and to create New India, Positive India, said PM Modi.

I shall not allow corruption.I shall not allow the nations culture and unity to be destroyed: PM

Four years ago, you installed me as your watchman in Delhi. As long as I am there, I shall not allow corruption.I shall not allow the nations culture and unity to be destroyed, said PM Modi.

We value every person who is working to make India stronger: PM on Padma award to Nambi Naraynan

It is an honour that our Government had the opportunity of conferring the a Padma Award on Nambi Narayanan. We value each and every person who is working to make India stronger, said the PM.

Targeting the Congress over espionage charges against Nambi Narayanan, which were recently dropped by the Supreme Court, the prime minister said, More than two decades ago, a hardworking and patriotic ISRO scientist, Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case, just because a few UDF leaders were settling political scores. Imagine, for their own politics, they damaged national interest, troubled a scientist.

For them science can be abused as spying, for us science is a matter of national pride.For them solar was a means for a scam, for us solar is a means for a global alliance, he added.

Mindset of the Emergency still lives on in the minds of many Congress leaders: PM

Now, this culture has spread to Madhya Pradesh where BJP workers are being attacked.The mindset of the Emergency still lives on in the minds of many Congress leaders, said PM Modi.

Cong will even go on foreign soil to undermine the mandate of the people of India: PM

They are also questioning the Election Commission. The entire nation was amused to see a press conference in London, where, on foreign soil Indias democratic ethos was questioned, said PM Modi.

And, who was spotted in that press conference? A topmost Congress leader.Is this your respect towards institutions and our democracy? Is this what our politics has come to that now, you will even go on foreign soil to undermine the mandate of the people of India, added PM Modi.

Congress or the Communists have zero regard for any institutions: PM

What is even more worrying is that the entire Opposition, be it the Congress or the Communists have zero regard for any institutions.For them, every institution, the armed forces, the police, the CBI, the CAGeveryone is wrong but they are right, said PM Modi

Abuse me as much as you want but dont put barriers in Indias progress: PM

Launching a scathing attack on the Opposition, PM Modi said, Abuse me as much as you want but dont put barriers in Indias progress. Abuse me as much as you want but dont abuse our great nation.

Abuse me as much as you want but dont mislead the farmers. Abuse me as much as you want but dont create hurdles in creating opportunities for our youth. Abuse me as much as you want but dont harm our poor, he added.

Oppn bankrupt when it comes to any positive and constructive agenda for the development of our nation: PM

My friends in the Opposition are bankrupt when it comes to any positive and constructive agenda for the development of our nation.All they have is hatred for Modi.Their day begins with abusing Modi and ends with abusing Modi, said PM Modi

Neither the Congress nor the Communists have any concern for women empowerment: PM

Let me tell you, neither the Congress nor the Communists have any concern for women empowerment.If they did, they would not be opposing the NDA governments efforts to ban Triple Talaq, said PM Modi.

Keralas ethos under attack by Left govt: PM on Sabarimala row

The issue of the Sabarimala Temple has caught the attention of the entire nation.The people of India are seeing the manner in which the Communist Government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Keralas culture, said PM Modi over Sabarimala row.

Unfortunately today, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack and this attack is being led by the party that is governing the state, he added.

We electrified every village, now were working towards electrifying every home: PM

When we took office, 18,000 villages had no electricity. Today, all of them are electrified and we are now working on electrifying every home, said PM Modi.

Toilet coverage gone up to 98% today: PM

An issue like sanitation, which was never important enough to be high on the priority of previous governments is a core focus area for the Government. That is why, the toilet coverage, which was around 38% in 2014 has gone up more than 98% today, said PM Modi

We have the worlds largest healthcare programme in the world, Ayushman Bharat: PM

In just 4 years, the number of mobile manufacturing units has gone up from 2 to over 120. India has one of the biggest start-up ecosystems in the world, thanks to the youth. We have the worlds largest healthcare programme in the world, Ayushman Bharat, said PM Modi.

India has gone ahead of China in getting FDI: PM

India has gone ahead of China in getting FDI. Be it manufacturing and start-ups, India is making remarkable progress, said PM Modi.

5 yrs ago, world had given up on India but today, they want to come and invest: PM

Five years ago, the world had given up on India but today, the world wants to come here and invest. Our perception has improved and so has our performance. We have moved up from rank 142 to rank 77 in the Ease of Doing business rankings, said PM Modi.

NDA govt transformed culture of governance in India: PM

In the last four and a half years, the NDA government in the Centre has transformed the culture of governance in India. Today, India is the fastest growing major economy in the world, said PM Modi in Thrissur.

To cut import burden of petrol, diesel, govt has begun development of biofuels in a big way: PM

Keeping in view the import burden of petrol and diesel, the Union Government has begun the development of biofuels in a big way. Whether it is aviation fuel or petrol and diesel, we have succeeded in ten percent blending of biofuel.Our effort is to increase this to 25%, said PM Modi.

Nearly six crore poor women have received a free cooking gas connection: PM

We are very close to our goal to provide a cooking gas connection to every home. Nearly six crore poor women have received a free cooking gas connection, said the prime minister , adding, Indias energy needs are growing.That is why we have speeded up the development of oil and gas infrastructure in the country.

Kochi refinery will propel the states growth: PM Modi

Kochi refinery will propel the states growth. It will help reduce 10 per cent import of oil and save foreign remittances, said PM Modi.

Today, 90% of households in India have a cooking gas connection: PM

Four and a half years ago, we launched a major effort to make all kitchens smoke-free. In 2014, only 55% of all homes in India had a cooking gas connection. Today, that number stands at over 90%, said PM Modi in Thrissur

Today, I am here to dedicate Kochi refinery and other projects which will make the life of people easier: PM

During my last visit, I dedicated Kollam bypass which was stalled for decades. Today, I am here to dedicate Kochi refinery and other projects which will make the life of people easier, said PM Modi

PM Modi addresses public meeting in Thrissur

PM Modi is addressing a public meeting in Thrissur. Happy to be in Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, said PM Modi while addressing the rally.

PM Modi to address rally of Yuva Morcha workers in Thrissur shortly

PM Modi will be addressing a rally of Yuva Morcha workers shortly. Organisers said around three lakh workers are attending the meet in Thekkinkad grounds.

Labourers who were working on the projects were the Real heroes: PM

I bow my head before all those labourers who toiled day and night during construction. I am told that at the peak of the project, over 20,000 labourers were working at the site. In many ways, they are the Real Heroes of the Project, said PM Modi.

India emerging as a refinery hub with refining more than its demand: PM

Indian refinery industry has done well in establishing itself as a major player globally. India, which is second largest oil refinery in Asia, is emerging as a refinery hub with refining more than its demand

To cut down on import of crude oil, govt has taken steps towards reducing imports by 10%: PM

To cut down on import of crude oil, government has taken decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10% and saving the precious foreign exchange, said PM Modi.

By doubling LPG production, Kochin refinery to make contribution towards Ujjwala: PM Modi

Over one crore customers have given up LPG subsidy, which has helped many to dump firewood.

Also, by doubling the LPG production, the Kochin refinery will make a great contribution towards Ujjwala, said PM Modi in Kochi.

Integrated Refinery at BPCL to become largest unit: PM

Integrated Refinery will become the largest industrial unit. A proud moment for the country, said PM Modi.

PM, Kerala CM at Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Governor P. Sathasivam, and other leaders attend inauguration of Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Governor P. Sathasivam, and other leaders at Integrated Refinery Expansion Complex at BPCL Kochi. ( ANI Photo/Twitter )

PM inaugurates BPCL refinery expansion complex

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) refinery expansion complex in Keralas Kochi. The project costs Rs 16,504 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) refinery expansion complex ( ANI Photo/Twitter )

PM arrives in Kochi

After inaugurating two projects in Kochi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go to Thriisur where he will address a rally of Yova Morcha workers.

This is his second visit to the state in two weeks. In the first week of January, he visited Kollam to open a bypass road project. While addressing a rally, he had criticised the left front governments handling of Sabarimala issue.

PM Modi arrives in Kochi. ( ANI Photo/Twitter )

They are uniting only to remove watchman: PM Modi on Oppn alliance

While addressing a public meeting Tamil Nadus Madurai, PM Narendra Modi said, They are uniting only to remove watchman: PM Modi on Opposition alliance.

Remain vigilant against any negativity: PM Modi

It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion & mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu, to serve their own selfish interests.

I urge all of you to remain vigilant against such negativity, said PM Modi.

Taking steps to get rid of corruption, nepotism: PM Modi

The Union Government is taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism. Any person who has cheated or looted the country, shall be brought to justice, said PM Modi in Madurai.

10% reservation doesnt impact Dalits, Tribals & OBCs: PM Modi

Recently we decided to provide 10% reservation in government jobs and education to the poor among the general category.

This decision has been taken in a way, that it doesnt impact Dalits, Tribals & OBCs, who are already availing benefits of reservation, said PM Modi in Madurai.

Aim to make Tamil Nadu hub for aerospace, defence industries : PM Modi

Our aim is to make Tamil Nadu the preferred hub for aerospace and defence industries in India.

The Union Government is focusing on port-led development. Tuticorin Port, is an icon and an engine for the economic growth of Tamil Nadu, said PM Modi in Madurai.

Dhanushkodi will soon be connected to Rameshwaram, Pamban: PM

You are all aware of the link between Rameshwaram and Pemban, which was snapped in 1964. For the last 50 years, there has been a demand to re-establish it. We have begun work on this project. Soon, Dhanushkodi will be connected to Rameshwaram and Pamban, said PM Modi in Madurai.

Focused to improve connectivity: PM Modi

We are focusing on various forms of connectivity, including highways, waterways, airways, and i-ways, said PM Modi while addressing a public meeting in Madurai.

Rural sanitation has increased from 38% in 2014, to 98 % today: PM

Rural sanitation has increased from 38% in 2014, to 98 % today.

We have built more than 9 crore toilets in past 4 years, out of which 47 lakh have been built in Tamil Nadu alone, said PM Modi in Madurai.

Ayushman Bharat, a path breaking measure: PM

Ayushman Bharat has taken path breaking measures to undertake holistic healthcare development, said PM Modi.

AIIMS, a brand name in healthcare taken to all corners of country: PM

AIIMS in Delhi has cultivated a brand name for itself in healthcare. With AIIMS in Maduari, this brand name has been taken to all corners of the conuntry.

It will be constructed at the cost of Rs 1,264 crore , said PM Modi.

MDMK stages protest against PM Modi; detained

Led by party chief Vaiko, MDMK cadres Sunday staged a black flag demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly before he arrived here, accusing him of betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu.

PM Modi inaugurates speciality blocks at Thanjavur Medical college

PM Narendra Modi also inaugurated super-speciality blocks at medical colleges in Rajaji, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli.

PM lays foundation stone of AIIMS in Madurai

In Tamil Nadus Madurai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone AIIMS, which will ensure the accredition of high quality health resources in Tamil Nadu, said former Tamil Nadu chief minister O. Panneerselvam.

Pariksha pe Charhca on January 29

I was suggested to talk about exams warriors in this session of Mann ki Baat, however, I am happy to inform you that I will hold a special session Pariksha par Charcha so as to address the students of the country. A few international students will also jin our session this time, said PM Modi.

PM remembers Subhash Chandra Boses contribution for the country

Subhash Babu will always be remembered as a heroic soldier. He played an important role in the freedom struggle. Dilli Chalo, Tum mujhe khoon do main tumhe aazadi doonga, with these slogans he awakened every Indian, said PM Modi.

Will soon launch Chandrayaan-2: PM

We will soon launch Chandrayaan-2 to make Indias mark on Moon, said PM Modi.

Today, our space programme is powered by several young scientists. We must take pride in the fact that the satellites developed by our students are reaching the space today. On 24 January Kalam SAT, created by our students, was launched, he added.

PM Modi remembers Karnataka seer Shivakumara Swami

We received a sad piece of news this month. Shivakumara Swami ji left us for his heavenly abode. He dedicated his entire life for the service of society. He spent the 111 years of his life working for the social, educational welfare of thousands of people, said PM Narendra Modi.

PM requests all to go out and vote

This year, our Country will undergo Lok Sabha Elections. 1st time ever, young persons born in 21st Century to exercise their Right to Vote in Lok Sabha Elections. I urge the young generation to register themselves as voters, if they are eligible, said PM Modi.

PM to dedicate Rs 16,504 cr single largest investment in Kerala

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will arrive here later Sunday, is slated to dedicate the Rs 16,504 crore single largest investment in Kerala when he unveils an integrated Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) refinery expansion complex.

Radio address to connect with common man

The Prime Minister through his Mann Ki Baat address on the radio aims to connect with the common man on a regular basis and inform them about the initiatives of the Government and also seeks the support of the common man in nation building and governance.

Mann Ki Baat to air at 11 am

The radio podcast, which is the first one in 2019, will be broadcasted on the entire network of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan at 11 am. The programme will also be streamed on the YouTube channels of the Prime Ministers Office, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, AIR and DD News.

PM Modi to address 1st Mann Ki Baat of 2019

PM Narendra Modi will Sunday address nation in the 52nd episode of Mann Ki Baat of his radio programme. This will be the first episode of 2019.The law ministry has cautioned the commerce ministry that the UKs imminent exit from the European Union (EU) is a matter of serious concern for Indias trade and industry and the government must take legal recourse to protect Indian interests during the Brexit.

The Law Ministry wants the administrative ministry (Commerce Ministry) to take up the matter in the WTO (the World Trade Organisation), a government official with direct knowledge of the matter said requesting anonymity.

The governments legal experts have said that Brexit could restrict Indian companies access to the EU through the UK. Several commercial agreements will also need to be renegotiated on account of this, the official said. The government has been discussing this matter with trade experts, legal specialists and the industry bodies, including Ficci and CII.

Some sectors that are likely to face the heat due to Brexit include automobiles, auto components, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, education and IT enabled services. Most of these sectors will be vulnerable to changes in demand and currency values, Ficci said in an email reply. There are more than 800 Indian companies in UK, it added. For many of these companies, London also serves as the European HQ.

Queries sent to ministries and law and commerce did not elicit any response. CII offered no comments on this matter.

Experts expect operational costs of Indian companies to soar. Many Indian establishments which were operating across EU through the UK may have to set up new offices in the EU. This may increase infrastructure and manpower cost for Indian companies, Abhishek A Rastogi, partner, Khaitan & Co, said. With the UK moving out of the EU, the latter might not remain as attractive to Indian Investors as it used to be pre-Brexit, he said.

According to Ficci, this may also give an opportunity for the Indian firms to renegotiate better deals and tax concessions in the UK. India is the major foreign direct investment source for the UK because many Indian firms have used it as a gateway to Europe. With UK moving out of EU, it might not be as attractive to Indian firms as before. However, the UK government would not like to miss out Indian investments and will thus try to attract Indian firm by offering more incentives such as tax breaks, easy regulations and opening up market, it said.

Daksha Baxi, Head  International Taxation, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, foresees some taxation issues for Indian firms operating in the UK. Upon Brexit, Indian companies having holding or an operating company in the UK or EU may lose the benefit of tax concession on income from the other EU jurisdiction under the EU directives, unless the UK continues to give such concession to UK companies investing in EU and vice versa, she said.

In a quick survey of 45 Indian firms conducted by Ficci in 2016 immediately after the Brexit referendum, companies saw both, an adverse situation emerging due to the UKs exit decision, and opportunities for more Indian companies doing business with their UK counterparts.

Bilateral trade between India and the UK was worth about 18 billion in 2017 while Indias bilateral trade with EU, as a block of 28 countries, including the UK, in 2017 (January to October) was to the tune of 70.7 billion.

Ficci enumerated some practical difficulties that Indian firms could face. While Indian businesses in general dont intend to set up operations in any other EU country because of Brexit, they are concerned about the impact on intra company transfers/movement of professionals and Indian migration over the medium term, it said.

Furthermore, it is anticipated that the companies that have operations in the UK and the EU will have to face significant translation losses with the probability of volatility in currencies remaining high, it said.

Post Brexit some companies could face investigation from competition authorities both in the UK and the EU, it said. Until now, a majority of the competition law in the UK was derived from the EU, it said.

The biggest costs of doing business across borders tend to come from non-tariff barriers, rules of origin checks, custom controls, compliance with different products standards between the countries, it said.

India may also use Brexit as an opportunity, Rastogi said. Brexit may nudge UK to develop better trade relations with India after losing access to the EU single market.

For instance, India may have an opportunity to increase its agro-products to the UK, Ficci said. Post Brexit, EU subsidies may no longer be available for the UK and the extent to which the UK will be able to support its farmers on subsidies is debatable. The UK may find it necessary to reduce tariffs in order to import cheaper food products, it said.Shocked and insulted after not being allowed to enter the venue of the Republic Day celebrations in Aizawl, two IAS officers have written to the home ministry seeking action.

The powerful NGOs in Mizoram, including the Young Mizo Association, had announced a boycott of the Republic Day celebrations in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

In a letter to Union Home Secretary with copies marked to state government officials Krishna Mohan Uppu, the Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Mizoram, said he has never faced such an insult and indignation in my entire life as a civil servant. Uppu detailed how he arrived at the Assam Rifles ground, the venue of the celebrations, at 7 am but was prevented from entering by representatives of the NGOs.

In his letter, Uppu wrote how he tried to reason with the NGO representatives and the police personnel on duty but they were told that only secretary level and above officers will be allowed to go.

Sensing that there might be a law and order situation if we keep arguing with the NGOs and since the police personnel on duty were discharging their duties to ensure invitees are allowed peaceful access, we had to stay put outside the venue, the letter reads.

After waiting for an hour, we had to leave the venue with a heavy heart and a feeling of insult and indignation for not being allowed to attend Republic Day celebrations in my own county and the very state I am working, Uppu wrote in the letter.

Bhupesh Chaudhary, another young IAS officer, posted as registrar of cooperative societies, too, wrote a similar letter and said he, too, was not allowed and was told that the government of Mizoram has entered into an agreement with the NGO coordination committee, a group of powerful Mizo NGOs, which said that only secretary level and above officers would be allowed on the premises.

It is most unfortunate that in my own country I have been stopped from attending Republic Day celebrations by the people of the same country. Can it get worse, Chaudhary said adding at least eight to nine officials were prevented from attending the function forcefully.

We are bound by the government orders not by diktats of the NGOs, he said. This is unthinkable in free India, he said.

Both Uppu and Chaudhary have demanded investigations and action on the incident.

Home Secretary, Mizoram did not respond to calls and text messages seeking a response.

Lalhmachhuana, Secretary of the NGO coordination committee and general secretary of the Young Mizo Association, said the organizations had requested the officials to not take part voluntarily in light of the boycott call.Ahead of the exam season, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address students, teachers and parents at the Pariksha pe Charcha programme on January 29.

It was suggested that I talk about exams warriors, however, I am happy to inform you that I will hold a special session Pariksha par Charcha to address the students of the country, said PM Modi said at his Mann ki Baat radio programme on Sunday.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will organize the Class 12 board examination from February 15 to April 3, while the Class 10 board examination will be held from February 21 to March 29.

The PM recalled the contribution of Subhas Chandra Bose towards Indias Independence movement and said he will always be remembered as a heroic soldier.

He (Subhas Chandra Bose) awakened India through slogans such as Dilli chalo and Tum mujhe khoon do mein tumhe azaadi doonga, said Modi.

With just months left for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi urged the youth to go out and vote. This is the first time that those born in the 21st century will exercise their right to vote. It is time for the youth to be part of the decision-making process now, he added.

Modi also praised the Election Commission for holding polls across the length and breadth of the country. The EC was formed on January 25, 1950 and the day is celebrated annually as National Voters Day. Seeing the scale on which the elections are held in India, it is natural for people across the world to be surprised. 

The PM said that when we hear that a polling station is set up 15,000 feet above sea level in Himachal Pradesh, voting arrangements are made in far-flung islands of Andaman and Nicobar, or even in a remote forest area of Gujarat, where there is only one voter, it is very natural to be proud of the Election Commission.Photo: The Canadian Press

Britain's Prince Philip has apologized to a woman who was injured when the car she was riding in collided with a Land Rover that he was driving.

The 97-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II told the woman he was "deeply sorry" that she was injured in the Jan. 17 collision.

In the letter, published in the Sunday Mirror, Philip said he was dazzled by the sun when he entered a main road near the royal retreat in Sandringham in eastern England.

He wrote to Emma Fairweather, who suffered a broken wrist in the crash, that "I can only imagine that I failed to see the car coming, and I am very contrite about the consequences."

Philip was unhurt although his car flipped over. He was not charged with any infraction and continues to drive.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked Keralas ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) for leading an attack on the states cultural ethos. He cited the Sabarimala issue and said it has beyond doubt proved that communists are in a race to disrespect the states culture. The Sabarimala temple issue has got the countrys attention. People are seeing the manner in which the communist government is disrespecting our culture... he asked at a rally of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)s youth wing in Keralas Thrissur

Sporadic violence has rocked Kerala since the Supreme Court ended a ban on women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala Temple in September. Protesters have since attempted to prevent women in the menstruating age from entering the temple. Two women become the first in centuries to enter the hill temple in defiance of threats from Hindu groups this month. The entry sparked protests and a day-long strike in Kerala. The BJP has backed the protests as it is trying to make inroads into Kerala, where it has little presence, ahead of the national polls due this summer. It has peaked in its western and northern strongholds, where the BJP won 71 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh alone to sweep to power in 2014.

Modis attack on CPI (M) is the second this month over Sabarimala. In an address to BJP workers in Kollam two weeks back, Modi said the Kerala governments handling of the issue will go down in the history as a shameful act.

The CPI (M) had hit back saying the state government was implementing the judgement of the Supreme Court, and Modis statement has dangerous implications for the future. This means that any Supreme Court judgment, which does not suit the interests of the BJP and RSS will be defied and the government seeking to implement it will be attacked by them, the CPI (M) said in a statement on January 16

Read | Narendra Modis visit to Tamil Nadu sparks war on Twitter

On Sunday, Modi said neither the Congress nor communists have any concern for women. He called their stand on the criminalisation of the practice of instant divorce among a section of Muslims a classic example of that. The Opposition has questioned the governments efforts to criminalise a civil offence after the Supreme Court declared instant divorce unconstitutional in 2017.

Modi referred to an event in London this month, where an Indian-born man claiming to be a cyber expert sought to demonstrate how electronic voting machines can be hacked while claiming the BJP had rigged the 2014 elections by hacking them. He accused the Congress of having zero regards for institutions and using foreign soil to denigrate the countrys image. Whether it is Army or the Election Commission, their attitude is same, he said. The nation was amused to see a press conference in London where the countrys democratic foundation was questioned. A senior Congress leader [Kapil Sibal] was present at the press conference which questioned our democratic setup.

Modi called Opposition parties bankrupt and added that is why they were teaming up to oust him.

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In Tamil Nadus Madurai, Modi hit out at critics of the 10% quota for the economically weaker sections and said a few in the state were creating an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust for selfish interests. At a BJP rally, he reiterated the quota will not impact the existing reservation benefits for Dalits, Tribals and Other Backward Class. Tamil Nadus Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has opposed the quota, saying social backwardness alone should be the criterion for reservation.

(With PTI inputs)Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hit out at Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala for implicating ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in a false espionage case while his government had honoured him with a Padma award on this Republic Day.

More than two decades ago, a hardworking and patriotic ISRO scientist, Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case, just because a few UDF leaders were settling political scores. Imagine, for their own politics, they damaged national interest, troubled a scientist, Modi said while addressing a rally in Keralas Thrissur.

It is an honour that our Government had the opportunity of conferring a Padma Award on Nambi Narayanan. We value each and every person who is working to make India stronger, he added.

Attacking the Congress further over the espionage charges against the scientist, which were scrapped by the Supreme Court, and corruption cases in Kerala, especially the solar scam under then chief minister Oommen Chandy, he said,For them science can be abused as spying, for us science is a matter of national pride.For them solar was a means for a scam, for us solar is a means for a global alliance.

Narayanan had expressed happiness over the Modi governments decision to confer him the Padma Bhushan, describing it as an acknowledgement of my innocence.

Narayanan had run into a huge controversy during 1990s when he was arrested on spying charges. He was heading the cryogenic division of the ISRO when he and another scientist D Sasimukar were arrested in the alleged espionage case in 1994. They were held with two Maldivian women on charges of selling space secrets of the country to foreigners.

Following a protracted legal battle, the Supreme Court quashed the case against Narayanan, who was cleared of all the charges. In 2018, the Supreme Court directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to him. The court also ordered an inquiry against police officers who probed the case.Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde, known for his inflammatory statements, landed in a controversy again on Sunday after saying that the hand that touches a Hindu woman must not exist.

Addressing a function, organised by the Hindu Jagrana Vedike, at Madapura in Somwarpet taluk of Kodaugu district, Hegde also claimed that history had been distorted to claim that the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and instead it was a Shiva temple called Tejo Mahalaya.

Hegde alleged the poison of caste came into society only 700-800 years ago, and thus entered Indian history. Things that already existed were given new names and we had even lost the strength to claim them as ours, he said.

Todays Taj Mahal, what is it? A big construction that Shah Jahan built for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. How much love he had for his wife and look at how big a building he constructed for her. That was not built by Muslims, definitely not. History says that, even Shah Jahan in his autobiography has said that he bought the palace from Raja Jaisimha, and that it was a temple constructed by Raja Paramardi Deva, Tejo Mahalaya, which became Taj Mahal, he alleged.

He went on to add that if Hindus continued to sleep then even their houses would be renamed as Manzil. If this continues in the coming days, Lord Ram will become Jahanpanah and Sita will become bibi, he added.

Calling for a fundamental shift in thinking, Hegde said the happenings in society had to be viewed in totality. The question was not which community or caste anybody belonged to. If anyone touches a Hindu girl then that hand should not exist. This is how history is written. Where it is a question of making history there you can see valour, where it is a question of studying history, then cowardice comes forth. Do you want to be makers of history or students of history?

Similar, Hegde said, was the history of the Qutub Minar, which he said, historians claimed was built by the then ruler Qutub-ud-din Aibak. If you go to that compound, you will see a board by the Archaeological Survey of India, not the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, Vishwa Hindu Parishad or RSS. It is clearly written on that board that it was a complex of temples dedicated to 24 stars, of Jain temples, and this was destroyed by Muslim invaders, he said.

He said the board was not put up after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. But governments over the past 70 years had said that Qutub Minar was built by Aibak. Lies, lies, lies, lies. They tried to destroy the identity of our community over these many years, Hegde added.

Reacting to the statement, Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao said nothing better could be expected from Hegde. What kind of language is this? A Union minister is openly calling for vigilantism. No matter which community, if a woman is harassed then the law must be invoked, he said.

Gundu Rao said it was condemnable that the minister did not care to speak about achievements either of his department or of the government. Nothing is being said about what has been achieved by his ministry. It is very clear that this is the language they will use for the Lok Sabha polls, but the people of the country are seeing through it, he said.The ministry of road transport and highways has finally identified the land it requires for the Indian side of the Kartarpur corridor and issued a so-called land notification under the National Highways Act 1956, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times  kick-starting work on connecting the Dera Baba Nanak shrine on the Indian side of the border with the Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan, the final resting place of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith.

We have already had a meeting to decide the alignment for the corridor based on which a stretch of road has been identified to be notified as national highway and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will be building it. The state government now has to begin land acquisition process, a senior transport ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The four villages identified for the 4.25 km stretch along Indo-Pak border in Gurdaspur district of Punjab are Chandu Nangal, Jaurian Khurd, Pakhoketahli Sahib and Dera Baba Nanak.

A second transport ministry official said land acquisition may take longer as another final notification for the land is yet to be issued by the ministry of road transport and highways.

Also read | Indias response to proposal on Kartarpur agreement childish, says Pakistans foreign office

This notification was for intent to acquire the land following which we will be issuing another notification which would be the final notification. The current notification gives provisions for anyone to file their objections, if any, with the concerned state authorities within 21 days. After the objections are finalised the final notification will then be issued only after which the state government can begin land acquisition, this official added, asking not to be identified.

Construction on the Pakistan side of the corridor has begun.

India and Pakistan are yet to finalise the security details and protocol. Broadly, however, there is agreement within the security infrastructure in New Delhi that arrangement will be like the Wagah-Attari border, a senior official in the Home Ministry who didnt want to be named said.

For better access control, India wants visas for pilgrims visiting the shrine.

The issue on whether only Sikh pilgrims from India will be allowed to visit the shrine is still open. New Delhi would like the shrine to be open to all Indians because Guru Nanaks appeal cuts across faiths.

The Border Security Force (BSF) and Bureau of Immigration will be entrusted with access control and over all security of the area, the home ministry official said and added, we have had several rounds of meetings.

Stake holders have advised the government that security measures should not be implemented in a piecemeal manner. We cannot have gradually implementation or add on requirements,  a senior official in the security establishment said on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued by Pakistans foreign office on Tuesday, the Pakistani government said the draft agreement between the two governments has been shared with New Delhi through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad inviting New Delhi to urgently send a delegation for negotiating and finalising the proposal.

Pursuant to the decision taken by the Government of India on 22 November 2018 to expeditiously realise the long pending proposal to establish Kartarpur Corridor, India has today shared the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan.

India has also proposed two set of dates, 26 February and 7 March 2019, for the visit of Pakistan delegation to New Delhi to discuss and finalise the modalities so that the Indian pilgrims can visit the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor at the earliest, a ministry of external affairs statement issued Tuesday said.

Also read | Work on Kartarpur corridor in full swing on Pakistan sideThe habitat of the Gangetic dolphin, Indias national aquatic animal, is mainly in moderately polluted, sometimes even heavily polluted, stretches of the Ganga, according to a January 17 report published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Titled Biological Health of River Ganga, the report indicates that between 2014 and 2017, when the CPCB undertook investigations, there was no improvement in the overall water quality of the Ganga, including in the stretches where Gangetic dolphins are found.

This is the first time that the CPCB has undertaken a biological water quality assessment  how suitable the water is to support life  of the Ganga. It has also done a biological surveillance of the rivers benthic macro-invertebrates, which are creatures found in the riverbed that react to changes in water quality and indicate how much life and biodiversity the river can support.

Between 2014 and 2018, the water quality in Uttarakhands Haridwar (Jagjeetpur) deteriorated from clean to heavily polluted, another document released alongside said. The reason why a large stretch of the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh is severely polluted is the heavy load of pollutants brought in by its tributaries, Pandu and Varuna.

In fact, the Pandu was biologically dead -- incapable of supporting life because of high pollution -- in the pre-monsoon season of 2017-18.

The Gangas flow velocity -- rate of water flow -- was found to be highest in the Himalayas in Uttarakhand. At the confluence of the Alaknanda and Mandakini, the rate was the highest -- 3 metres/second in summer and 2.5 metres/second in winter. But in the rest of the river, the rate ranged between 0.4 metres/second and 0.53 metres/second, which is very low, according to water experts.

Given the water quality and the rate of flow, the goal of the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Namami Gange -- launched by the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in 2014 -- to ensure by 2020 a significant reduction in threat to endangered species, including the Gangetic dolphin, is a tall task, the report indicated.

Our overall finding was that most stretches of the Ganga from Uttarakhand to West Bengal are in the moderately polluted category. When there is severe pollution, there is no life. But life can sustain in moderately polluted water, provided there is also adequate flow. We are also seeing Gangetic dolphins in moderately polluted water, said a CPCB bio-lab official on the condition of anonymity.

He, however, added that the Ganga report is in a draft stage but it had to be published because of certain court orders.

The report listed the Gangetic dolphin habitats where no perceptible improvement was seen in water quality between 2014 and 2017: Rudraprayag to Haridwar in Uttarakhand; Bijnor to Narora in Uttar Pradesh; Kachlaghat to Kanpur in UP; Kanpur downstream of Allahabad in UP; Allahabad downstream of Ghazipur in UP; and Buxar to Bhagalpur in Bihar. It said two stretches of the Ganga in West Bengal, between Farakka and Tribeni, recorded heavy pollution in 2015 and 2016.

The Gangetic dolphin is an indicator species for the Ganga ecosystem and is extremely vulnerable to changes in water quality and flow. It is categorised as endangered in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The CPCB carried out a bio-assessment of Gangetic dolphin habitats based on information provided by WWF-India.

Gangetic dolphins are a resilient species. I think they can survive even in moderate pollution but the biggest threat is that the flow in the Ganga is declining. They need a dynamic system to survive, deep water with adjoining shallow spaces, flowing water and space to meander, said ecologist and Nalanda Open University vice-chancellor, Ravindra Sinha.

Aquatic life needs certain conditions to live -- if there is less flow and water is polluted, some species will start dying out. In this study, the CPCB is using benthic macro-invertebrates as a proxy indicator for water quality. River and pond ecosystems are very different. River needs to have a certain velocity so that the river can self-cleanse. I dont think the flow in the Ganga is adequate; there is additional pollution load too. Namami Gange should focus on pollution prevention and deliver on ecological flow, said Shashank Shekhar, hydrogeology expert and assistant professor, Delhi University.

SA Hussain, scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, added, The government should release 35% to 40% of the mean monthly flow even in the lean season. This can go a long way in reviving the Gangetic dolphin habitat.Taking a swipe at the Congress over Priyanka Gandhi Vadras entry in politics, senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday said it was fielding chocolaty faces in Lok Sabha polls as it has a dearth of strong leaders.

A Congress leader demands that Kareena Kapoor should be fielded from Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Sometimes others talk about fielding Salman Khan from Indore. Likewise, Priyanka (Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) was also brought into active politics, Vijayvargiya told reporters here.

Agle Lok Sabha chunav ke maidan mein utaarne Congress ke pass mazboot neta nahi hai. Isliye woh aise chocolaty chehre ke madhyam se chunav ladna chahti hai (The Congress does not have strong leaders to field in the next Lok Sabha elections. For this reason, it wants to fight polls through these charming faces), he said.

He also said that Priyanka would not have been brought into active politics if there was confidence within the Congress on (party chief) Rahuls leadership. Vijayvargiyas comments came amid a controversy over senior BJP leader and Bihar Minister Vinod Narain Jhas remark on Friday that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has no other quality except being very beautiful and the Congress should remember that beauty does not garner votes.

The remark by Jha, who holds the Public Health and Engineering portfolio, was met with disapproval from Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) even as the opposition Congress-RJD combine demanded his sacking, accusing him of having displayed a perverse attitude towards women.

Opinion | The Congress has unveiled its new front foot strategy for 2019

Meanwhile, Vijayvargiya on Saturday condemned those associating the Centres decision to confer Bharat Ratna on former President Pranab Mukherjee with party politics.

I was watching a debate on a TV channel in which it was being said that the decision to confer Pranab da with Bharat Ratna was taken to strengthen BJP in West Bengal. Those involved in this kind of discussion are insulting Pranab da, he said.

Vijayvargiya is the BJPs in charge general secretary for West Bengal.

The decision to confer Pranab da with Bharat Ratna is the biggest proof of the fairness of this honour. It is wrong to link this decision with party politics. Such comments are condemnable, the BJP leader said.

During the (PM Narendra) Modi government, national honours are given to those who deserve them, he claimed.

Vijayvargiya termed the Madhya Pradesh governments farm loan waiver scheme a political gimmick, and asked if it had the Rs 40,000 crore needed for the scheme.

Also read | Rahul, Sonia Gandhi in Goa on 3-day private visit: ReportThe Northeasts most populous state, Assam, is a veritable museum of competing tribes, sub-tribes and ethnicities. Bablu Nandi, a Hindu Bengali young man whose community is now staring at a looming identity conflict, has added one more community to that simmering list: Assamese Bengali.

The birth of this new identity can be attributed to the Centres push to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to give citizenship to any non-Muslim from Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan who wishes to settle in India. We are Assamese Bengali. We are not only Bengali, Nandi says.

To most Indians, Assamese Bengali would be a confusing term. Assamese and Bengalis are two different communities, with two different cultures, languages (although they share a similar script) and racial ancestry. Most notably, a sizeable number of indigenous Assamese are tribals; Bengalis arent.

Even these tribals have their distinct ways of life. Some are the so-called plains tribe, like the Bodos. Others are the hill tribes, such as Dimasas, because they inhabit the mountains to the south. Nandis use of Assamese Bengali, which melds the two distinct communities, is his way of saying he is both Assamese and Bengali.

Also read: Mizoram Governor addresses empty ground amid R-Day boycott call against Citizenship Bill

It is also a way of staking claim to a land where people like him arent welcome because they are migrants who came, in steady streams, from Bangladesh over decades and are seen by local ethnic Assamese as claimants to an ever shrinking pie of resources and a threat to local culture.

The BJPs citizenship bill, although aimed at shoring up support among Assams Hindu Bengalis, is however not what this Bengali-dominated village thinks it needs most. To us, (inclusion) in the NRC is more important. What will we do with the citizenship bill? We dont have any relatives left (in Bangladesh) who we want to bring here, Nandi said.

Nandi refers to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) released last year. Not being on the register could lead to loss of citizenship and indefinite confinement in a jail-like detention facility. The terms of citizenship were sealed when the then Rajiv Gandhi-led government signed the historic Assam Accord of 1985 after a six-year anti-immigration agitation. Anyone who could prove that their ancestors resided in the state before midnight of March 24, 1971 would be counted as citizens.He claims tens of thousands of deserving Bengali Hindus, like Muslim Bengalis, have been left out of the NRC because they have no record that they migrated before March 24, 1971.

Minesh Ranjan Trivedi, a village elder, says 70% of the 200-odd households have been left out of the NRC. We came in as refugees after Indias independence because East Pakistan government was harassing us. Jawaharlal Nehru gave us shelter. The Hindus came from Sylhet district of present Bangladesh and Muslim Bengalis mostly came from the Mymensingh region, he said.

Such historical claims dont cut ice with indigenous Assamese. Two seminal events shook the state. In the 1960s, an attempt was made by elite Hindu Bengalis to make Bengali the official language of Assam, which led to a successful agitation to block it. In the 1980s, a six-year mass movement to oust illegal Muslim Bengali settlers culminated in the Assam Accord. Modi said he will throw out Bangladeshis, now he wants to bring more, said Sunita Kalita-Rakhang, a local Assamese woman.

If any Bengali can prove his ancestors as per the NRC process, it can be acceptable to all because it is monitored by SC. NRC is not about identity but citizenship. But citizenship bill is about identity. This is pure reality (sic)..., said Amulya Kalita, a writer and teacher of Pub Sesamukh Government School in Hajo near Guwahati.Yoga Guru Ramdev on Sunday said that the Central government should take an initiative for the construction of Ram Temple as the possibility of a quick judgment by the Supreme Court in this regard is less likely to come.

Speaking to media persons in Delhi, Ramdev said: Either the Supreme Court or the government should do something for the construction (of #RamTemple). There arent many possibilities of a quick judgment by the court. So I think that the government should take an initiative.

A new five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was set up on Friday, and will hear the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid matter on the next date.

The case has been pending before the top court for the last eight years. Parties in the case and various right-wing organisations have been asking for an early or day-to-day hearing for a long time.

Last year, the Supreme Court had refused to grant an urgent hearing, saying the court had other priorities and had posted the matter for hearing on January 29 this year before the appropriate bench.

On January 16, as part of the ongoing Kumbh Mela, a group of religious personalities lit 33,000 earthen lamps in Prayagraj, seeking the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya at the earliest.A couple in West Bengals Howrah district were arrested on Sunday for allegedly killing their two-and-a-half month old girl child a day before, police said. Two other family members were also held.

According to police, residents of Ghugupara in the Liluah police station area alleged on Sunday morning that a man and his wife had buried their infant daughter alive at a desolate place not far from their home.

We have recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death. Four members of the family, including the parents, have been arrested. They are being interrogated, Rathod Amit Kumar Bharat, deputy commissioner, Howrah Police, said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local resident said the couple, Sanjay and Sangeeta Gupta, who hails from Bihar, aroused their neighbours suspicion when they told them on Sunday morning that the girl had died on Saturday night. Neighbours then informed the police.

Local people also alleged that the couple earlier killed two more baby girls but their neighbours did not inform the police since they were not sure. On Sunday, local police officers said they were looking into the allegation.

The incident happened barely two days after Bengal celebrated amid fanfare the National Girl Child Day (January 24) under the aegis of the state administration, with district magistrates leading the celebration in each district.

Notably, the alleged killing took place within a week of the police in North 24-Parganas district arresting a couple, Manikumar and Rani Biswas , for allegedly killing their 13-day-old girl. Neighbours had accused this couple too of killing two more baby girls in the past.

These alleged killings are taking place despite the state governments intense campaign for chief minister Mamata Banerjees favourite project for girl children, Kanyashree, that has won her accolades at the global level.

In 2017, Banerjee received the United Nations Public Service Award for Kanyashree Prakalpa that takes care of educational and marital expenses of girl children.Author Gita Mehta, who is Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiks sister, on Saturday declined to accept the Padma Shri award, saying its timing could be misconstrued in an election year. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Mehta said she learned of her nomination only through the media and that her brother Odisha CM was on her mind when she declined it.

Your name was announced as a Padma Shri awardee on the occasion of Republic Day 2019 but you declined the award. Did the awards committee not check with you or inform you ahead, that they wanted to confer it on you ?

As I am currently in a hospital, I was not able to be contacted. I was not aware that my name was under consideration until my husband informed me that the press had already published my name, while the external affairs ministry was trying to get in touch with me.

Did you specifically have your brother, CM Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, in mind, and the fact that he will face assembly polls simultaneous to the Lok Sabha elections and be a tough contender for the BJP, when you refused the award ?

I was of course thinking of my brother, not wishing to cause him any embarrassment at a sensitive time - or even face accusations that nepotism might have been brought to bear to get me the award, so with great regret I declined. It is unfortunate that I was not able to do so before my name was published, as I do not wish to seem ungrateful for the honour the Government of India wished to bestow on me.

What do you think of Indias national awards on the whole?

National awards are always open to subjective reactions, eg why Ravi Shankar, but not Vilayat Khan for the Bharat Ratna?

Do you think writers, litterateurs and journalists should accept national awards at all?

I absolutely think writers and artists should receive awards, reminding the world of the importance of culture.

The press note issued by the committee calls you a foreigner. Notwithstanding your lineage and the fact that India is always present in your writing, are you one?

I am an Indian citizen and carry no other passport or nationality.Photo: The Canadian Press Ann Coulter participates in the "AAA: Ask Ann Anything" panel at Politicon at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles.

No retreat, no surrender is how President Donald Trump frames his decision to temporarily reopen the government while still pursuing a border wall deal.

Some of his conservative backers have a different take: "pathetic" and "wimp."

Other Trump supporters seem willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, yet they insist that any ultimate government funding deal the president signs must include money for a wall.

Trump defended himself Saturday from the conservative backlash to his decision to end the 35-day-old partial government shutdown  the longest in U.S. history  without money for his promised border wall. He said if he didn't get a fair deal from Congress, the government would shut down again on Feb. 15 or he would use his executive authority to address what he has termed "the humanitarian and security crisis" on the southern U.S. border.

After he announced his decision, a New York newspaper headline dubbed him "CAVE MAN."

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, a big wall supporter, called Trump the "biggest wimp" ever to occupy the Oval Office. A conservative news outlet, Breitbart, dubbed Trump's announcement on Friday a "short-term surrender to Democrats."

Trump insists he didn't cave to anyone and said the standoff with Democrats was far from over.

"Negotiations with Democrats will start immediately," Trump tweeted on Saturday. "Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in. The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border & through dialogue. We will build the Wall!"

Earlier, Trump tweeted: "This was in no way a concession. It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it's off to the races!"

In California for a meeting of the Koch political network, Trump supporter and Koch donor Doug Deason of Texas said he was "severely disappointed" that the president agreed to reopen the federal government. Deason said he wanted Trump to go "nuclear" and keep the government closed as a way to cut the number of federal workers and would have preferred if Trump had used emergency funding to pay essential workers.

"We hired him to go shake up DC. We didn't hire him to maintain the status quo," said Deason, a member of the finance committee of America First Action, the only sanctioned pro-Trump super PAC.

While some of Trump's backers have lobbed insults at the president, others are willing to give him more time to negotiate.

"I'm a pragmatist. I understand when you're fighting a battle like this you have to do what's necessary to keep certain parts of the government moving," said Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University and a Trump confidant. "I think you have to do things like this to achieve a greater goal in the end. I believe that's what he's doing."

Falwell encouraged Trump to declare a national emergency if Democrats haven't agreed to wall funding by the time the current deal expires.

Another evangelical leader with Trump's ear, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, said the president was smart to end the shutdown, even if some conservatives are angry.

"In this Round 1, the president was the one who appeared to be the more reasonable one. He was willing to negotiate and willing to compromise," Perkins said. "There is wisdom here in what he did."

Yet Perkins, like other more forgiving Trump supporters, acknowledged that the president must ultimately craft a deal that includes funding for the border wall.Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid wants to know why Union finance minister Arun Jaitley is perturbed about the CBIs raid into Videocon headquarters in connection with the case against former ICICI bank chief Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar for alleged conflict of interest in the sanctioning of a Rs 3000-crore loan.

Jailey who is in the US for medical treatment described the CBI raids at the Videocon headquarters in Mumbai and Aurangabad on Thursday as investigative adventurism in a Facebook post.

Khurshid asked Jaitley if the CBIs adventurism was not their standard procedure.

FM Jaitley is perturbed about CBIs adventurism but is that not their standard procedure? For too long mistakes are treated as corruption; indiscretion is treated as malice. Being a country of criminals by govt directive is horrible, Khurshid tweeted.

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid wants to know why Union finance minister Arun Jaitley is "perturbed" about the CBIs raid into Videocon headquarters in connection with the case against former ICICI bank chief Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kocchar for alleged conflict of interest in the sanctioning of a Rs 3000-crore loan.Jailey who is in the US for medical treatment described the CBI raids at the Videocon headquarters in Mumbai and Aurangabad on Thursday as "investigative adventurism" in a Facebook post. Khurshid asked Jaitley if the CBIs adventurism was not their standard procedure."FM Jaitley is perturbed about CBIs adventurism but is that not their standard procedure? For too long mistakes are treated as corruption; indiscretion is treated as malice. Being a country of criminals by govt directive is horrible."Chanda Kochhar has been accused of criminal conspiracy and cheating by the CBI, along with her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon head Venugopal Dhoot for alleged irregularities in the loan.The CBI in its FIR had said the loans to Videocon had been sanctioned in violation of the banks credit policy."One of the reasons why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators and professionalism takes a back seat," Jaitley had said in his Facebook post.The CBI officer-in-charge who lodged FIR in the case has been transferred out. The development took place a day after CBI booked former Kochhar, her husband and others in the case.

Chanda Kochhar has been accused of criminal conspiracy and cheating by the CBI, along with her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon head Venugopal Dhoot for alleged irregularities in the loan.

The CBI in its FIR had said the loans to Videocon had been sanctioned in violation of the banks credit policy.

One of the reasons why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators and professionalism takes a back seat, Jaitley had said in his Facebook post.

The CBI officer-in-charge who lodged FIR in the case has been transferred out. The development took place a day after CBI booked former Kochhar, her husband and others in the case.Claiming that there were 100 per cent chances for hacking electronic voting machines, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday warned that democracy could not be sacrificed to hackers.

Chandrababu Naidu demanded that the Election Commission of India either ensure VVPAT receipts were issued 100 per cent or revert to the old ballot paper system.

Addressing a meeting of Telugu Desam Party MPs in state capital Amravati, he noted that anybody could misuse technology.

Its easy to misuse technology. It is particularly easy for the one who writes the (software) programme. The Election Commission is only a referee. It should not enforce a system on which there is no trust, the TDP chief remarked.

Stating that people were the main partners in elections, he said enhancing faith in the people was democracy.

Political parties are only raising the peoples demand. Many parties are opposed to the EVMs. Even developed countries have not been using EVMs and hence the EC should not exert pressure on using a system in which there is no faith, Chandrababu Naidu added.

He asked his party MPs to raise the issue in Parliament and oppose the use of EVMs in the ensuing elections.

Meanwhile, the TDP opposed the Centres reported move to introduce a full Budget for the 2019-20 financial year. Chandrababu Naidu asked his MPs to exert pressure on the Centre to make it introduce only a vote-on-account budget.The body of a woman was found inside a residence in Sector 46, inside a bed box, over five days after the woman went missing.

For five days, Dinesh Kumar slept on his bed in a rented room in Jal Vihar Colony in Sector 46, unaware that the body of his drivers wife was hidden in the bed box, a few centimetres beneath his mattress. Dinesh, who runs a tea business, returned from his village in Narnaul on Monday morning and after taking a breather, went to work.

Over the course of the next five days, he sensed an unpleasant odour in his room, but said that he assumed it was due to the lack of ventilation or a rodent death and slept as usual. On Saturday morning at 8.30am, he woke up, unable to breathe due to the foul smell.

He opened the box and was shocked to see the decomposing body of a woman, his drivers wife. He said he immediately called the police after recovering from the initial shock.

Police said Rajesh Kumar, Dineshs driver, had allegedly murdered his wife, Babita (30), and fled after hiding her body in the bed box. Rajesh has been missing since Monday when, according to the police, the murder took place.

Jai Bhagwan, inspector, Sector 50 police station, said that Babitas father alleged the role of his son-in-law as he suspected Babita of having an extramarital affair and warned her against using a mobile phone.

The womans father said that Rajesh often used to fight with his daughter and on one occasion, had broken the SIM card of her phone. The woman was last seen on Monday at 6 am, when she had visited her father, who lives across the street from her, said Bhagwan.

Also read | Married man kills live-in partner in Delhi, caught while trying to bury body in UPs Bijnor

She left her five children (from a previous marriage) at her fathers place but he did not suspect something was amiss as he thought that she was accompanying her husband on a trip, police said.

Police said Babita, who had come from Gaya in Bihar, had married Rajesh of Behror in Rajasthan, seven months ago, after divorcing her first husband.

The couple had rented a room in Jal Vihar, Sector 46. Rajesh started driving a car for Dinesh, who lives alone in a rented room at a distance of around 10 metres from the couples house, the police said.

Bhagwan said that Rajesh had allegedly killed his wife on January 21 and since he had the spare keys to Dineshs room, hid her body in a bed box to avoid suspicion before escaping.

Dinesh said that he had gone to his native village in Narnaul on Saturday and left the keys to his room with Rajesh. When he returned and contacted Rajesh, Rajesh told him that he was out of town for personal reasons and would return in a few days, said Bhagwan.

Shahid Ahmed, station house officer (SHO), Sector 50 police station, said that since the body was highly decomposed, it was not certain how the accused had murdered the woman.

We found some blood stains in the bed box and a probe has been initiated. We suspect the womans husband but are not giving a clean chit to others yet. Two teams are conducting raids and will be sent to his village to arrest him, said Ahmed. Dinesh could not be reached for comment.

The post-mortem examination would be conducted by a medical board at the Civil Hospital on Sunday.

A case was registered against the accused man under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Sector 50 police station on Saturday, police said.

Also read | Class 12 student records apology, jumps off Vaishali high-rise buildingThe UP Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday busted an exam-rigging racket, a solvers gang and a gang of fraudsters after arrest of three people each from Lucknow, Mathura and Agra during the recruitment test for around 49,000 posts of constables of civil and armed police. In separate incidents, three other including two proxy candidates appearing in place of other candidates were arrested from Agra and Firozabad while a candidate was nabbed using unfair means from Agra.

The UP Police Recruitment Board (UPPRB) was conducting two-day exam for the posts of reserved citizen police and reserved regional armed constabulary on January 27 and January 28. Lakhs of candidates turned up for the test at 720 exam centres across 35 districts. These included 62 centres in Lucknow.

STF officials claimed that the miscreants attempt to rig the exam was foiled due to the alertness of the state police.

SSP of STF Abhishek Singh said the solver gang was busted after arrest of the mastermind, Nishant Prabhakar, his close accomplice Santosh Tewari and the solver Santosh Kumar, who was appearing in place of one Sadan Singh. He said the solver was arrested from Vasudev Memorial Girls Degree College in Hariharnagar, Madiaon and the two other including the mastermind was arrested later on his revelation.

The SSP said three persons, including a leader of the gang involved in helping candidates by informing correct answers through hidden electronic devices, were arrested from highway police station of Mathura. He said four electronic communication devices, one ear phone device, one button camera, admit cards and identity cards of several aspirants were recovered from them.

He said the gang leader was Aligarh resident Pawan Kumar, who with help of his associates, was involved in helping candidates through electronic devices. Two others arrested along with him were close associate Raj Kumar and one aspirant Jeevan Singh.

During interrogation, the gang leader said he charged Rs 6 lakh per candidate for helping them in the exam, said the officer.

The SSP said three members of fraudsters gang were arrested from Agra. They were identified as Shiv Kumar and Bhuvanesh, residents of Mathura and Satyam Katiyar of Kanpur Dehat.

The trio used to dupe gullible unemployed youths by promising success in different recruitment exams. The three accused revealed that they used to disappear after collecting money from the aspirants, he added.

He said Satyam Katiyar was wanted in similar frauds in other recruitment exams of different states. For last three years, Katiyar was wanted by Madhya Pradeshs Jabalpur police for similar fraud. Efforts are on to cross-check the criminal background of his two accomplices, he added.

The Agra city police arrested a youth Rahul from Firozabad for appearing in place of Dinesh from the same district. According to police, the arrest was made from Ramesh Chand Dinesh Chand Sharma Saraswati Vidya Mandir at Albatia in Jagdishpura (Agra) and a case was registered.



The accused had put his photo on the admit card of the applicant, but his signatures and biometrics did not match, leading to the arrest. A case was registered under various sections of IPC and Examination Act against Dinesh and Rahul at Jagdishpura police station.

Meanwhile, another arrest was made when an applicant Khilona Prasad of Mathura was nabbed from Child Progressive School at Pushpanjali Ashiana in Agra when he was found using a bluetooth device. The accused was booked under Examination Act at Sikandra police station in Agra.

Another proxy candidate identified as Ankit Kumar Singh was arrested from a school in Firozabad. He was appearing for Ravi Kumar who too was arrested from outside the center in Firozabad. Both belong to village in Aligarh district and have been booked under various section of Indian Penal Code informed RK Singh, the SP City for Firozabad.

.A juvenile was stabbed to death and his friend suffered serious injuries when they were attacked by a local youth in a fight over dominance in his locality in central Delhi, a police officer said on Saturday, adding that the accused has been arrested.

The accused has been identified as Deepak, a class 12 dropout and a resident of Prem Nagar. He was arrested on Friday night from central Delhi.

Police said the incident occurred on Friday around 2 pm in Patel Nagar, when one of the victims identified as Shanu,17, had an altercation with a friend of Deepak over supremacy in the area. Shanu later slapped Deepaks friend.

During investigation, it was found that Shanu was earlier apprehended on charges of murder registered against him in Moti Nagar area and was released last month. He likes to throw his weight around in the area. To show off his dominance, he slapped Deepaks friend a multiple times over a trivial argument, a senior police officer said.

The friend then informed Deepak about the assault. In a bid to take revenge, Deepak found Shanu and his friend, Shivam,16, hanging around. He slapped Shanu and later stabbed him a multiple times after a fight, he said.

When Shivam came to rescue Shanu, he too was attacked by Deepak. He later escaped from the spot. Shanu and Shivam were taken to a nearby hospital where Shanu was declared brought dead. Shivam is undergoing treatment, he added.Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that the Centre has sanctioned projects worth Rs 50,000 crore to decongest Delhi and save it from air pollution, which has become a serious problem. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led Central government is likely to inaugurate a number of road infrastructure projects.

Speaking at an event to lay the foundation stone for the Rs 2,820 crore corridor between Akshardham and Eastern Peripherial Expressway (EPE), Gadkari said that work on Dwarka Expressway (on Delhi side) and Kalindi Kunj-Sohna via Faridabad will start soon.

Delhi is facing two main problems  air pollution and water pollution. We have approved projects worth Rs 50,000 crore to combat these. In Delhis history, funds have never been sanctioned on such a large scale, said Gadkari.

The Akshardham and Eastern Peripherial Expressway (EPE)  a part of the Akshardham-Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) corridor  will be completely elevated and pass through densely populated areas like Khajuri Khas and Geeta Colony.

Gadkari said that Northeast Delhi MP and Delhi Bharatiya Janata Partys Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari has been persistently requesting him to do something about the traffic situation in this part of the city.

Tiwari said, The only demand of people in my constituency was to solve the traffic congestion problem. I had promised them that I will resolve it. I have made all possible efforts but due to the obstructions by the Delhi government, our efforts could not bear fruits. But Gadkari ji has helped us in addressing this problem now.

Union Ministers Satyapal Singh, General (Retd) VK Singh, Vijay Goel, BJP MP Maheish Girri, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, and other senior party leaders, were present at Saturdays event.

The six-lane access controlled corridor will connect Akshardham in east Delhi to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway junction on Baghpat Road. The project will be completed in two parts: Akshardham to Khajuri Khas/UP Border and Khauri Khas/ UP Border to Mandola-Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) intersection. The project is part of the 155km long corridor, which has been declared National Highway 709B, between Akshardham and Saharanpur in UP.

Listing out the other projects sanctioned by his ministry to decongest Delhi and neighbouring Gurugram, Gadkari said that the Rs 10,000 crore Dwarka Expressway (the work in the Delhi portion of which is yet to start), Rs 4,000 crore Urban Extension Road 2 (the third ring road) and Rs 7,000 crore Delhi-Meerut expressway will play a big role in addressing the problem of traffic jam in the city.

We have sought time from the Prime Minister to lay the foundation for the Dwarka Expressway (work on Delhi side is yet to start) next week. We have also sanctioned the work for Kalindi Kunj-Faridabad-Sohna Road corridor and UER 2, Gadkari added.

Talking about the Modi governments commitment to deliver on its promises, Gadkari said that the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, a part of which was inaugurated last year by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be fully operational by March end. From April 1, you can reach Meerut in just 40-minutes from Delhi. Earlier, it used to take 3.5 hours, said Gadkari.

The drive to IGI Airport is also likely to get smooth, as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is going to complete the work on making Dhaula Kuan to IGI Airport stretch signal-free in the next four months, the highways and transport minister informed.

Gadkari said that with the opening of EPE and Western Peripheral Expressway  both projects had been stuck for a long time  the traffic congestion of various national highways passing through Delhi has dramatically reduced.

Today, people from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and other states dont have to cross Delhi to go to Mumbai. This has reduced the traffic congestion on national highways passing through Delhi, he said.On a cold January morning, sitting on the floor on mats in a classroom at a North Delhi municipal corporation (NDMC) school in Jahangirpuri, around 20 students of class 2 repeat the math tables of eight in unison. But the strength of this classroom has not been full even once over the past two months. The reason? Lack of benches in the school.

Its very difficult to sit on the mats in winter. I fell ill last week. Now, my mother has got me warmers to wear beneath my trousers. It has become better now, said an eight-year-old, who was attending the school after five days on Wednesday after recovering from a fever. The mat she is sitting on is still damp from the previous days rain.

School officials said they have only 200 benches for around 1,100 students. The school operates in two shifts  girls in the morning and boys in the evening.

Only one bench is available for every five to six students. They are in use constantly, because the school operates in two shifts. The last batch of new benches came in 2013, and they have not been replaced ever since, the principal of the school said.

And its not just one school. Thousands of students studying in the 765 schools under the jurisdiction of the north civic body are forced to sit on the mats because of the lack of benches in their classrooms.

The matter came to light in November last year when the Congress councillor from Jahangirpuri, Poonam Baghdi, raised it during a house meeting, saying that more than 38,000 students in north civic body schools did not have benches to sit on. The authorities had then promised to take prompt action.

However, when HT visited some of these schools, students were still seen sitting on the floor on the mats.

Nothing has been done so far. I am going to sit on the floor during the next house meeting to raise this matter again. The authorities do not have money to get furniture for our children, but they claim to aim to set up world-class schools, Baghdi said.

Two kilometers away, in a neighbouring block in Jahangirpuri, a group of students of class 1 are seen sitting on the floor at another north civic body school. Officials said they receive complaints from parents every day, about their children sitting on the floor.

We have now started to rotate classrooms with furniture, among students from classes 2 to 5. At least everyone will get a chance to sit on the benches once or twice a week, the principal of the school said.

He said that even the furniture available is not in a good shape. Most of the benches are broken and half of them do not have backrests, the prinicipal said.

In another school in Mukundpur, a group of students said that in summers they can lean against the wall. But, in winters, the walls are too cold. My mother gives me a towel to place on the mat. It makes it a little tolerable, said a class 5 student of the school, who lives in a neighbouring slum.

The schools run by the citys three municipal corporations  east, north and south  run schools for children up until class 5.

A senior official, who refused to be named, said authorities are soon going to procure 10,000 new benches. Officials said the matter has been pending since 2013 because of quality standards set by the civic body.

The authority purchases the furniture through an e-portal  Government e-Marketplace. But the quality of furniture offered on the portal did not match the quality standards set by the north corporation committee, in January last year. It took months to get furniture as per our set standards available on the portal. Now, we have sent a proposal to get 10,000 new benches to the financial department, and we are waiting for a clearance for the same, the official said.

Adesh Gupta, mayor of the north corporation, said the tender of 10,000 benches has been sent for financial concurrence to the civic bodys finance committee.

We are expecting a clearance sometime soon. The tender will be awarded immediately to the selected company. We are expecting to get the new furniture in February, he said.

Meanwhile, back in the school in Jahangirpuri, around 12:20 pm, the mother of the 8-year-old reached the school to meet the principal with a request to provide her daughter a bench. She falls sick very often. I have come to request the principal to make some arrangement for her. He has assured to extend some help, she said.Delhi Police on Saturday arrested a 32-year-old carpenter for allegedly killing his 28-year-old live-in partner in northeast Delhis Usmanpur and trying to bury her body at a village in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, around 160 km away from Delhi.

Police said the carpenter, a resident of a village in Bijnor, was married, but had been living away from his wife and three-year-old daughter. The accused told police that his 28-year-old live-in partner was also married. She was, however, allegedly pressurising the man into marrying him, following which they often had heated arguments.

Fights also used to break out between the mans wife, who lived in the same area, and his live-in partner, over who would live with the man in his house. According to the police, after one such argument between the two women when the man supported his wife, he and the live-in partner had a heated argument.

Later that night, on January 22, another argument between the man and the live-in partner turned ugly, and he strangled her to death, police said.

He then wrapped her body in a cloth and planned to dispose it off by dumping it in a drain. However, seeing heavy security deployment in the capital because of Republic Day, he could not execute the plan, a police officer, who did not want to be identified, said.

The next day, he hired a car and drove 160 km to his village, Khatriyan, in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. Police are yet to recover the car. While trying to bury the womans body in the village, local residents spotted him and informed local police. Uttar Pradesh Police then took the body of the woman in their custody and questioned the man.

Also read | Unware of murder, man sleeps on bed with body of his drivers wife hidden in storage in Gurugram

After the man confessed to killing her, UP Police informed their Delhi counterparts on January 24. A Delhi Police team was rushed to Bijnor and the man was arrested.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast), Atul Thakur, said local police questioned the man and informed them. We sent a team to Bijnor on Thursday and the accused was brought to Delhi on Saturday, Thakur said.

The DCP said they questioned the man and he confessed to killing his live-in partner during interrogation. Police, however, are yet to recover the car he used to ferry the womans body.

Police said the live-in partners husband, who lives in Brahmapuri, was informed of her death. Police also found that she fled from her husbands house in July last year, after which he had filed a missing complaint. However, she had started living with the accused man, and did not return to her in-laws house, the police said.

Also read | Class 12 student records apology, jumps off Vaishali high-rise buildingIf India was a start-up in 1947, not even the most venturesome of venture capitalists would have invested in this audacious experiment. In the first years of our life as an independent nation, predictions that we would fall apart came thick and fast. Representative here are these words of Claude Auchinleck, former commander-in-chief of the British Indian Army, writing in 1948: The Punjabi is as different from a Madrassi as a Scot is from an Italian. The British tried to consolidate it but achieved nothing permanent. No one can make a nation out of a continent of many nations.

Contrary to these prophets of doom, we have stayed united, and somewhat democratic. However, as we mark the completion of 69 years as a Republic, a sober reflection is called for. India is not about to break up, yet major faultlines persist. This column foregrounds four such.

The first faultline is deepening religious division. The lifes work of our Republics founders was to ensure that people of all religions (or none) would have equal rights in independent India. Shortly after Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru deplored the constant cry for retaliation and vicarious punishment of the Muslims of India, because the Pakistanis punish Hindus. That argument does not appeal to me in the slightest. Our secular ideals, insisted Nehru, impose a responsibility to our Muslim citizens in India.

These ideals are now under threat from a rising Hindutva majoritarianism. Muslims are freer to practise their faith in India than, for example, Muslims in China. But they suffer disproportionately in times of communal rioting. Even in times of peace they can be shunned or stigmatised. The lynchings over the past few years and the blatantly communal Citizenship (Amendment) Bill have pushed the Republic several steps closer to being a Hindu Pakistan.

A second major faultline of the Republic is that of persisting social inequality. In any developing society experiencing high rates of economic growth, there will be growing wealth inequalities. These are worrying, but more worrying, from the point of view of democracy, are inequalities of status, whereby citizens are discriminated against on the basis of caste and gender.

The Constitution abolished untouchability, and made women equal to men. However, in everyday life in India, in the home and in the workplace, Dalits and women are often treated as less-than-equal citizens. It was believed that caste discrimination was particularly bad in the villages; yet, as the tragedy of Rohith Vemula showed, it can be pervasive even in the science faculties of our best universities. Meanwhile, in recent decades there has been a declining participation of women in the workforce, along with increasing violence against them in public spaces.

Along with Dalits and women, adivasis are also often subject to discrimination. Their forests, waters, lands and minerals have been seized by more powerful interests, and they have got absolutely nothing in return. One statistic says it all; while adivasis are 8% of our population, they constitute 40% of those displaced by so-called development projects.

In his last speech to the Constituent Assembly, BR Ambedkar remarked: On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one [person] one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one [person] one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?

Seventy years later, these contradictions persist. To be sure, our claims to being the worlds largest democracy are vitiated by the venality and corruption of our political leaders. But they are vitiated far more by the everyday behaviour towards Dalits by upper caste Hindus, and towards women by men of all castes and religions.

A third faultline is that posed by growing environmental degradation. The death of our rivers, the decimation of our forests, the contamination of our soil and atmosphere, all raise disturbing questions as regards the future prospects of economic growth in India. Yet, perhaps because the burden of environmental abuse falls disproportionately on the poor, no political party has paid the subject much attention. We have the scientific expertise to help mould a more sustainable development path; but this expertise (as witness the case of the Gadgil Report and the Kerala floods) goes entirely unheeded.

A fourth major faultline is the degradation of our public institutions. It was Indira Gandhi who, as prime minister, first sought to manipulate and control institutions which were meant to operate independently and autonomously. What she began, other parties and leaders have taken further. The bureaucracy and police are now more or less captive to the interests of the ruling party. So are investigative agencies, such as the CBI and the ED, and, even to some extent, the RBI. Meanwhile, Parliament is mostly non-functional; the funding of parties is absolutely opaque.

With every passing year our institutions become less independent, more compromised, with deeply negative consequences for everyday life in India.

We became free of colonial rule in August 1947; and adopted a republican Constitution in January 1950. Seven decades later, we may be more democratic than when the British left these shores. But we are certainly less democratic than what the framers of our Constitution hoped us to be. Indeed, the faultlines I have identified here have persisted regardless of who is in power, at the Centre or in the states. They need to be addressed, and remedied, if we are to be more worthy of the ideals bequeathed us by the founders of our Republic.

Ramachandra Guha is the author of Gandhi: The Years That Changed The World

The views expressed are personalAunty, you should write on the elections, this week, said Bansuri. I rolled my eyes so hard that I feared for a moment that my eyeballs would stay stuck up there. The newspaper is so full of election-related stuff these days that even if I murder you for calling me aunty, it wont get me more than three lines on page 15 of the paper, I growled, cursing myself silently for allowing entry to Chaddha jis offspring in my home. Yes, if this scenario seems familiar, thats because I have written about this episode with Bansuri in the past. It all came back to me today as I came across this interesting Twitter handle @TheLinguist5, that corrects the grammar of tweets flying all over, especially as the atmosphere on social media gets hotter. Youll see the context a little ahead into this piece. First, let me finish recalling Bansuris rant.

Then write on the India-Pakistan war, she said.

Which war? I asked. The one starring Fawad Khan, she replied. #facepalm, I began to wonder why Bansuri Chaddha, of all the people, is taking so much interest in my column. And scared as hell that she may end up reading it someday.

Anyways, I had come to tell you that whenever Salman Khan comes to your office for Stars in the City event, Id try to be there. Aapko toh vaise bhi log chahiye hote honge seats bharne ke liye, she said. Oh, so kind of you. You can, in fact, easily fill 2-3 seats, I replied, shaking my head at my own loss of manners.

How mean! Chalo aap kuchh bhi likh lo. Who reads your column anyways? she countered. Its anyway, not anyways, I said, desperately trying to change the topic. No ways. Papa always says anyways and hes always right, she retorted.

Thank you. I got the topic, I said, and got up to show her the door. And while this was then, seeing social media handles such as The Linguist make an attempt to point out language errors gives me, too, an opportunity to repeat my point.

Bansuri and her dad are among the one billion out of 1.2 billion people in India who say anyways, when the correct usage is anyway. Now I, for one, have the least right to be uptight about grammar, because I often make mistakes owing to lack of knowledge, or carelessness. Also, I stopped judging people on their spellings, commas or pronunciation in grade four in school, when I got bullied for pronouncing AC 2-tier as AC 2-tyre while reading a chapter on Indian Railways. I hated the bullying then, I would hate it now. But what it didnt do is make me unduly defensive of a mistake and not being open to correcting it. And hence the point Im making this week.

Whether it is English or Hindi or any other language, it never hurts to learn a new word or the right usage of something. But, at times, we are so not willing to admit to an error just because we see the majority making it. I remember attending a schools Republic Day function as a guest a couple of years ago. When it was time to sing the National Anthem, some kids made the very common mistake of singing the line Gaahe tav jaye gatha as Gaahe sab jaye gatha. I pointed it to a teacher standing nearby when the anthem ended, only to hear her say, Really? Well have to check it out. Sab jaye gaatha makes more sense...it means everyone should sing together. I was so alarmed at this defence that I left a possible debate with her to Rabindranath Tagores soul, which must have been jolted in heaven.

READ | A Calmer You, by Sonal Kalra: No, your parents house is NOT your house

I feel like talking about a few other very common, but incorrect, usage of terms that a majority of us indulge in. I do know, however, that some grandson or granddaughter of Wren & Martin will get down to finding grammar mistakes in this write-up itself. Anyway, nikaal lo galti. Hum Indian hain, humko kis ka darr hai. Yeh lo examples...

1. Off late: There seems to be a mysterious quota of extra letters (not alphabets, please!!) that God of English seems to have reserved for Indians, and we liberally download from it. So, an extra f, when the correct usage is Of late comes from the same place the extra s in anyways comes from. Usage: Kejriwal has not been wearing a muffler of late (not off late), because he couldnt hear whether people want him to contest or protest. See, Bansuri, I wrote on elections!

2. Be rest assured: Now, you cant be rested and assured in a single phrase. Because we are wrongly using two verbs. But, youve always heard people say it this way, havent you? Example (imaginary, dont troll me please): Sushma Swaraj told Arun Jaitley, Whether BJP gets votes or not, rest assured (not be rest assured) that we will go and have the best chholey-kulchey in Amritsar.

3. Im here only: See, if you are here, where else could you be? Unless you have some strange spiritual powers that your limbs could be elsewhere while the rest of you are here, WHY DO YOU SAY ONLY? But we do. In a very, hum toh aise hi hain, kar lo jo karna hai way, we continue to add words and alphabets (I mean, letters) wherever we wish. Example: Sonia: Where is Manmohan ji? I havent heard his voice in months. Rahul: Mom, turn around. Hes here, accidentally. (not hes here only).

4. Taken for granted: Mujhe taken for granted mat liya karo  say half of all the wives in India to half of all the husbands in the country. And vice versa. Now listen, Einsteins of Hinglish like myself. You cant say taken and lena both in a phrase because they mean the same thing. So while dont take me for granted is fine, taken for granted lena is not. Its not, its not, its not.

See how useful this weeks rerun has been? I even gave examples. Bansuri is still not likely to get the point. So, for her and thanks to wikiHow, I reproduce a 4-step practical guide to help you stop saying anyways, if you do.

Step 1: Practice saying anyway several times a day. Repeat: Im an idiot, but I want to meet Salman Khan, anyway. I never read a newspaper, but I give suggestions for column topics, anyway. Im 25-years-old, now. Ill continue to address every woman as aunty, anyway

Step 2: Practice pronouncing anyway one syllable at a time. First syllable is en. Second syllable is ee. Third syllable is way. And thats how many there are.

Step 3: Say it together en ee way, and close your mouth immediately, so you cannot make the z sound.

Step 4: Look in the mirror as you practice saying anyway. Make sure your lips dont roll to form a z sound at the end. If you mess up, dont lose heart. Just practice some more.

Sonal Kalra is worried that Bansuri will sulk for at least two months after this column, and might start taking lessons from @TheLinguist5. But, isnt that good news, anyways? Mail her at sonal.kalra@ hindustantimes.com or facebook.com/sonalkalraofficial. Follow on Twitter @sonalkalraPhoto: The Canadian Press Police stand between anti-fascist protesters and a group of Polish nationalists who want to place a wreath at Auschwitz in honor of Poles murdered by the Germans, in Oswiecim, Poland, on Jan. 27, 2019.

The world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others during World War II.

In Poland, which was under Nazi German occupation during the war, a far-right activist who has been imprisoned for burning the effigy of a Jew gathered with other nationalists Sunday outside the former death camp of Auschwitz ahead of official ceremonies remembering the 1.1 million people murdered there.

Since last year's observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that "today's threats do not come solely from the fringe."

"In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are travelling the road to authoritarianism," said Ira Forman, the group's senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. "As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust."

The Polish nationalist, Piotr Rybak, said his group was protesting the official observances at Auschwitz, claiming they remember only murdered Jews and not murdered Poles.

That accusation is incorrect. The observances at the state-run memorial site pay homage each Jan. 27 to all of the camp's victims, both Jews and gentiles.

Counter-protesters at Auschwitz on Sunday held up a "Fascism Stop" sign and an Israeli flag, while police kept the two groups apart.

Former Auschwitz prisoners placed flowers Sunday at an execution wall at Auschwitz. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter "P," the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

Early in World War II, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces. Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in an op-ed in the weekly Welt am Sonntag that across Europe populists are propagating nationalism and "far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust."

"We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy," Maas wrote.

Over the past year, Germany has seen a rising number of often violent attacks against Jews carried out by neo-Nazis and Muslims, prompting the government to appoint a commissioner against anti-Semitism and to start funding a national registration office for anti-Semitic hate crimes.

The clashes of views at Auschwitz come amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

However recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during World War II is declining generally.

A new study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52 per cent of millennials in Canada cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62 per cent of millennials did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Its findings were similar to a similar study carried out a year before in the United States.

In Britain, a new poll by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place.

The poll of more than 2,000 people released Sunday also found that nearly two-thirds of those polled either did not know how many Jews had been murdered or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust.When actor Rishi Kapoor announced to his fans in September last year that he was headed for the US for treatment and would be away from work for a while, he had much of India worried. With the nature of disease undisclosed, speculations flew, as many thought, he could be suffering from cancer. His brother, Randhir Kapoor, rubbished such talk in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Now the actor has opened up about his illness. Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Rishi said that he hoped his treatment, which is currently on, would end soon and he would return. My treatment is on, hopefully I will recover soon and God willing I will return.

Also read: Neetu Singh reveals what 38 years of marriage with Rishi Kapoor look like. See pic

He went to add how his journey so far has been long and tedious and that it has required him to be patient, a virtue he has in short supply. The procedure is long and tedious and one needs immense patience which unfortunately is not one of my virtue.

He also added how he was treating his time away from films as a much needed break. He said that he hoped to return to work but will certainly not rush into things.

Thankfully, I am not thinking about films anymore, just want to be blank and refresh myself with a more relaxed mind. This break shall be therapeutic for me.

The said report also added that if all went well, the actor would return to India in April this year.

It may be recalled that his wife, actor Neetu Kapoor and him, in smaller measure, often share photos with their industry friends, who would visit them in New York. Over the months, names have included Priyanka Chopra, Anupam Kher, Javed Akhtar among others.

Rishis second stint in front of the camera has resulted in some fine films. Just last year, he has given films like Anubhav Sinhas Mulk and Nandita Das Manto.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreActors Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam and Varun Dhawan were at the Wagah border on Saturday as they celebrated Republic Day with a crowd of over 28000 people. Vicky had earlier informed his fans via an Instagram post that he and Uri: The Surgical Strike co-star Yami would be in the temple town of Amritsar, en route to the Attari-Wagah border on Saturday. Later in the evening, he put up more pictures and video from the border.

Also read: Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam are high on josh at Wagah border on Republic Day. See pics

The actor is on a career high  2018, in particular, has been a great year for the actor. What began with appreciative nods for his urban take in Love Per Square Foot, soon found favour in his measured and controlled performance in Raazi. He followed it up with a supporting role in Sanju (which many feel overshadowed the main protagonist). Then came Manmarziyaan and Netflix Lust Stories and 2019 has started on a high note with Uri.

Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan and Yami Gautam at Wagah.

Connecting with a 28000 crowd, Vicky was clearly in the mood  his Uri anthem, Hows the Josh?, was ably answered back, with screams of High, sir in tandem. In other pictures, shared by him, we see him as he watches the proceedings at the border on a bright and sunny winter afternoon.

Yami too shared moments from the border; sharing a picture of Vicky and herself, she wrote: The JOSH was unbeatable today for the Republic Day celebrations at the Wagah Border, Attari. Thank you @bsf_india and everyone for such a surreal experience!!

Uri: The Surgical Strike is based on India armys retaliatory attacks on terrorist camps inside Pakistan after the 2016 September attacks on army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, where 21 soldiers were killed.

Uri has charmed the Indian audience and become the first film in 2019 to breach the Rs 100 crore mark. In fact, as per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film is definitely inching towards the Rs 150 crore (Rs 138.19 crore as on Saturday) mark.

Sabse aage honge #Hindustani... Varun Dhawan performed with the dance group V.Unbeatable for the Jawans at #AttariBorder on #RepublicDay... Varun is currently shooting for Remo D'Souza's dance-based film in #Punjab. pic.twitter.com/mLZlttIEJM  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 27, 2019

Meanwhile, Varun Dhawan too was at Wagah for Republic Day celebrations. The actor and his group of dancers, wearing camouflage bottoms and BSF-embossed T-shirts, danced to the beats of popular Bollywood song, Suno Gaur Se Duniya Walo Buri Nazar Na Humpe Dalo. Their military-inspired dance steps matched the fervour around.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreLooks like Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are into family life in a big way. After their big fat Indian wedding in India last month and vacations in the UK, Switzerland and Caribbeans, the couple is now in the US.

On Sunday, pictures and videos of their family dinner from Belmont in North Carolina, USA are viral. In the many videos we can see Nick welcoming and greeting many people. In one of the many pictures, Priyanka too can be seen. Also in the frames are Nicks side of the family including mom Denise and kid brother Franklin.

Also see: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas walk hand in hand on a date night. See their pics here

It may be recalled that Priyanka and Nick got married on December 1 in Jodhpurs Umaid Bhawan. With pre-wedding festivities like sangeet, mehendi and haldi ceremonies followed by a Christian and Hindu wedding ceremonies, the marriage was a lavish affair. Post that, the couple moved to Delhi where they hosted a reception for her family and friends in the nations capital, which was also attended by PM Narendra Modi.

The couple then moved to Mumbai, where they hosted not one, but two receptions. The latter was for Priyankas industry friends. The glittery affair saw newly married couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, dance away to glory with Priyanka and Nick. They then, moved to London where they celebrated Christmas with their immediate family including Denise, dad Kevin, Franklin apart from Joe and Sophie. They then moved to Switzerland to celebrate the new year where apart from the regular set, Priyankas mom Dr Madhu Chopra and brother Siddharth were also present.

On the work front, Priyanka will see the release of her Hollywood film, Isnt It Romantic? while her Hindi film Shonali Boses The Sky Is Pink is still being shot.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreHrithik Roshan and Sussanne Khan may have divorced and gone their own ways but the two never fail to come together for their boys -- be it for vacations or movie shows. No wonder then that the former couple stepped out, and in style, for a lunch with their kidsHrehaan and Hridhaan in Mumbai on Sunday. Seeing them, chic is the only word that comes to the mindHrithik wearing a grey-coloured sweatshirt paired with jeans and a beanie, while Sussanne in a black shirt and army green boots.

Also read: Hrithik Roshan posts stylish new pics from Switzerland, ex-wife Sussanne calls them perfect

Soho House in Juhu area is the new go-to place for all in Bollywood. Be sure to spot one star or the other at the upscale restaurant. The team of the soon-to-release film, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, comprising Sonam Kapoor, her dad Anil Kapoor and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, were seen at the eatery. Also seen at the place were actors Kriti Sanon, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Bhumi Pednekar.

Airport is another place where you can often spot stars. The Kapoor sisters, Janhvi and Khushi, were seen returning together from their stay in Spains Barcelona city. It has been reported that the two were there for Janhvis new advertisement shoot. The Dhadak actor had been sharing pictures from the Spanish city too. Also returning to Mumbai was another onscreen pair Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani  who were returning after their shooting stint in Delhi for their upcoming film, Kabir Singh, a Hindi remake of hit Telugu film Arjun Reddy.

Take a look at all the pictures here:

Hrithik Roshan and Sussanne Khan at a lunch date with their boys, Hrehaan and Hridhaan in Mumbai.

Airport: Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor; Kiara Advani and Shahid Kapoor

Kangana Ranaut and Jacqueline Fernandez at Mumbai airport on Saturday.

Kriti Sanon and Fatima Sana Shaikh at Soho House in Mumbai.

Bhumi Pednekar at Soho House, Mumbai.

Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Vidhu Vinod Chopra share a joke.

(All pictures by Viral Bhayani)

Follow @htshowbiz for moreWe are thrilled to finally be on the agenda to get approved in February, and we think this is a huge win for our entire Henry River family, Reyes said.

Federal and state tax credits are available for historic properties but Reyes said hes not sure he and his parents will avail themselves of the credits but its a nice thing to have available. If it works out that it will help with restoring the property, then they hope to use any tools available, Reyes said.

The owners do have plans to redevelop the property but retain its historic roots. Reyes said they are in the early stages of redeveloping the property into a cultural hub.

The company store is standing and was used as the site of the bakery in the dystopian movie Hunger Games, which used the site for the District 12 scenes where the heroes of the movie lived. He plans to use the number 16 house, which was used as the Hunger Games character Katniss Everdeens home, as a museum.

Of the 35 original homes on the property, 20 remain but are in need of restoration, as well as installation of water, sewer and electrical, Reyes said. He also would like to add 12 homes to bring the total to 32.Luckily temperatures were above zero for SilverStar's annual Australia Day BIKINI Run on Saturday.

Hundreds hit the slopes at SilverStar Mountain Resort to celebrate their National Day on skis and snowboards in nothing but... very little clothing!



Like many resorts in Canada, SilverStar Mountain Resort is home to Australian staff and visitors (who travel to the area), braving the elements in underwear, swimwear or bright clothing and draped in their national flag as they rode down ski slopes.



Over 338,000 Australians visit British Columbia annually with hundreds being employed at the Vernon ski area. SilverStar Mountain has become a very popular tourist destination at this time of the year with its Australian visitors escaping record summer temperatures and it being their summer holiday period.



The day was made more enjoyable on the slopes with milder temperatures, blue skies and soft snow.



SilverStar Mountain Resort has enjoyed a healthy ski season with record numbers visiting the mid-mountain village.

Facebook SilverStarUniontown, PA (15401)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 66F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 66F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.St. Joseph, MI (49085)

Today

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Photo: Contributed

UPDATE 8:15 p.m.

Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 50 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said that at least 19 people died and 48 were wounded. Police and military reports said the casualties included both troops and civilians.

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armoured carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

ORIGINAL 7:27 p.m.

Philippine officials say two bombs have exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least eight people.

Security officials say the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral during a Sunday Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.

Police and military reports say at least eight people died, including five troops and three civilians. At least one civilian has been wounded.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility.Mike Lewis

mlewis@herald-mail.com

Maryland Labor Secretary Kelly M. Schulz recently announced the launch of the Maryland Youth Apprenticeship Ambassador Program.

The program raises awareness of and encourages participation in the Apprenticeship Maryland Program, Marylands youth apprenticeship effort.

Casey Kelly, a former youth apprentice and current junior analyst for Washington County-based Beacon Grace, was named the states first youth apprenticeship ambassador.

The announcement was made at Frederick County Public Schools second annual Youth Apprenticeship Summit, an informational event that introduced FCPS students to apprenticeship employers and provided opportunities for career development.

Youth apprenticeship connects employers with the talent of the future, and gives apprentices a head start in developing career skills and a professional network, Schulz said in a news release. The Maryland Youth Apprenticeship Ambassador Program empowers ambassadors to do what comes naturally to them: raise awareness about youth apprenticeship and encourage students and businesses to engage in apprenticeship opportunities. With our ambassadors help, we will continue growing this important program throughout the state.

Kelly joined the youth apprenticeship program through Washington County Public Schools in January 2018. While finishing his senior year at Washington County Technical High School, Kelly was hired by Beacon Grace as a junior analyst apprentice.

The youth apprenticeship program prepared me for a career by giving me a foot in the door with a local business, Beacon Grace, Kelly said in the release. When applying for the program, I wasnt sure what I wanted to do, but I saw it as an opportunity that would give me great work experience and Id be able to get paid while doing it. The program gave me the chance to show off my skills and willingness to learn, so much so that I was offered a full-time position upon completion of the youth apprenticeship program.

Kellys eagerness to learn, positive attitude and ability were some of the many reasons Beacon Grace hired him full-time upon completion of his apprenticeship, and they are the reasons he was selected as Marylands first ambassador, according to the release. Now in his role at the growing supply chain consulting company, Kelly conducts research, manages projects, and helps market the companys services to local businesses.

Casey has been an advocate of youth apprenticeship from the start, Schulz said. His infectious enthusiasm and genuine love for apprenticeship make him the perfect ambassador for the program. We are proud to partner with Casey as we continue growing youth apprenticeship across all of Maryland.

The Apprenticeship Maryland Program was founded in 2015 as a pilot in Frederick and Washington counties. With apprenticeable occupations in in-demand industries, students gain valuable work experience in growing fields. Since its launch, the program has grown by 245 percent in the number of participating youth apprentices and 292 percent growth in the number of participating businesses, and is now offered in Dorchester, Frederick, Howard and Washington counties, with plans to expand statewide.

Similar to the successful Apprenticeship Ambassador Program for the states registered apprenticeship program, youth apprenticeship ambassadors raise awareness about youth apprenticeship as Marylands premiere workforce solution, advance and support outreach activities and events, and help drive stakeholders to action.

I wanted to become a youth apprenticeship ambassador because I have experienced how great of an opportunity this was and wanted to educate everyone on the benefits of participating, Kelly said. Youth apprenticeship is a benefit to the kids, the businesses and the community.

Youth apprenticeship is open to all industries, with a priority on high-growth career fields such as those in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and manufacturing.

For more information about the youth apprenticeship program or the Maryland Youth Apprenticeship Ambassador Program, contact info@mdapprenticeship.com.Sherry Greenfield

sgreenfield@herald-mail.com

Local chefs buttoned up their white aprons Saturday night and treated 200 guests at Fountain Head Country Club in Hagerstown to their best culinary delights.

The Washington County Arts Council held its 10th annual Art of Cooking fundraiser, offering guests a full-course meal, thanks to this years six chefs.

The menu included an appe-thai-zer roll with sweet chili sauce; cream of porcini and champignon soup; shrimp tony; caprese salad; artisan cheese board; beef short ribs; cheese grits; sauteed asparagus; roasted butternut squash with pasta; German pound cake; and white chocolate orange creamsicle truffles.

Benito and Deborah Vattelana of Waynesboro, Pa., were excited to introduce their cream of porcini and champignon soup, which they also call mushroom soup.

We enjoy cooking together, Deborah said.

Benito agreed.

We enjoy traveling and enjoying good food, he said.

Thirty years ago, while traveling, they discovered the recipe for their soup.

We were in a restaurant and convinced them to give up the recipe, Benito said.

Today, its a favorite on their Thanksgiving table.

The final course  German pound cake and white chocolate orange creamsicle truffles  was the creation of Ed and Kathy Forrest of Hagerstown.

We saved the best for last, Kathy said.

Kathy said the recipe for German pound cake came from her mother, who got the recipe from her friend.

Its really very simple, but its rich, Ed said.

Ed said his interest in cooking dates to his late grandmother, Ethel Needy, who owned and operated The Spot Restaurant in Mount Lena for 50 years. Needy died in 1999 at the age of 89.

The restaurant since has closed.

The money raised from Saturdays event will go toward the arts councils operating expenses, Executive Director Mary Anne Burke said.

With 200 guests and tickets costing $150 per person, Burke said the organization should raise about $30,000.

This is the biggest crowd we have ever had, she said.

Operating expenses include supporting local art endeavors and keeping the doors of the councils exhibit and shop galleries open.

The event also included a silent auction.The Herald-Mail

Hagerstown City Councilwoman Emily Keller took issue with statements that Del. Neil Parrott, R-Washington, made to a local television station last week in support of President Donald Trumps ban on transgendered people serving in the military.

(Pentagon spokeswoman) Lt. Col. Carla Gleason said that our military needs to be the most lethal and combat-effective force in the world, and this change will help them to be ready to fight battles, Parrott told WDVM- TV. The goal of the military is to protect our country, not a huge social experiment, which was taking place at the end of Obamas presidency.

Keller responded to the remarks on social media, saying, This hurts my heart and brain to listen to such a disparaging comment made by Delegate Neil Parrott. We are talking about human beings  not social experiments, and listed statistics about the number of transgenders who have attempted suicide and the number serving in the military.

Words matter, she added. Why would any adult  especially an elected official  go out of their way to further marginalize or belittle the over 700,000 transgender people in the United States? People  not social experiments. These are our friends, family, children and PATRIOTS serving in the United States Military  again, not social experiments.

Parrott, who announced in November that he is considering a run for Congress, said he had not seen Kellers comments before he was asked about them, but he stood by his support of the ban.

For context, transgender individuals have not been allowed in the military for decades. It was the policy until the very end of President Obamas presidency, he said. And then, President Trump changed it back because of advice from military leaders saying that it was hurting our readiness to be combat-ready.

And I do agree its not a place for a social experiment that we dont know if its going to work or not, he added. I think Emily and I come at this from very different worldviews. I think I look to science. I looked at (The) Johns Hopkins University, which wont perform sex changes. And she points out a major issue  the suicide rates are very high. I think a lot of people are approaching this from the wrong angle, rather than helping people  to recognize who they really are.

Musical chairs in the Maryland Senate?

As the Maryland Senate prepared Tuesday to hear a bill to update procedures for acquiring artifacts for the state archives, Senate President Mike Miller called on the distinguished chair of the Health, Education and Environmental Affairs Committee to lead the discussion.

But state Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Montgomery, the floor leader for the bill, doesnt chair any of the Senate standing committees.

Yet.

Not getting ahead of ourselves here, she said.

That is when Miller burst into song, transforming the Senate chamber for a moment into a Broadway theater and maybe hinting at things to come.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, he crooned to the senators applause, its only a day away 

From Broadway

to Hollywood

As he and Del. William Wivell, R-Washington, presented legislation to the House Judiciary Committee last week to alter requirements for correctional-officer candidates to take polygraph tests, Del. Mike McKay, R-Washington/Allegany, used a well-known line from Apollo 13 to make a point about prison staffing shortages.

Houston, he said to Chairman Luke Clippinger, we have a problem.

Not to be outdone, Del. Susan McComas, R-Harford, referenced the 1967 prison film Cool Hand Luke as the discussion continued.

Im gonna see if we can work in another movie reference here, Clippinger quipped.

Im thinking of a song, McKay warned.

Please dont, Wivell pleaded.

Top teachers recognized

Jeanine Horst, a fifth-grade teacher at Cascade Elementary School, was honored by the General Assembly with all of Marylands teachers of the year last week.

Horst was named Washington Countys Teacher of the Year last spring, and was among the seven finalists for the state award.

The teachers were recognized in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates.

 Compiled by

Tamela BakerPhoto: Chelsea Powrie

Penticton business HNZ Topflight is concerned about a proposed National Park in the South Okanagan, because it may affect the areas they can access to teach pilots.

Dave Schwartzenberger, HNZ general manager, said they are facing uncertainty while trying to renew provincial permits to fly into nearby land. The company is currently operating under an extended lease for the land which will potentially be re-confirmed in the late spring or early summer.

"If there's any issues, we're addressing them, so that we can be a good part of the community here in Penticton and the South Okanagan. So, the National Park Reserve, it's difficult for us, because of course there's no guarantee for us," Schwartzenberger said.

HNZ Topflight has been training in the same spots in the Okanagan-area mountains for over 70 years, offering a unique skillset to Canadian and worldwide military pilots. Schwartzenberger said recent spotlights on the national park issue have caused concerns.

"A lot of people say, well, just go somewhere else," Schwartzenberger said. "But it's become a bit of an essential service for military groups, really. Our Canadian forces, we've almost exclusively been training them since 1951."

Federal environment minister Catherine Mckenna apparently told Schwartzenberger that HNZ Topflight would be allowed to continue operations if a national park were introduced.

"We've been given assurance, even minister McKenna joked when we met that she know the defence minister well, and she'd put in a good word," Schwartzenberger said. "We just need assurances that our business can continue."

He added that the perception that HNZ Topflight is against the environment is incorrect.

"I see people all the time, they say, 'Why is Topflight against the park?'" Schwartzenberger said. "We're not against conservation, we're not against anything like that, we just need to operate our business. Without access to these areas, we don't exist."At first glance, the five young men walking up State Street in downtown Bristol appear to be friends heading home after a night on the town. The surveillance video shows it was around 1:30 a.m. Jan. 9. Suddenly, one launches himself at a sign on the sidewalk. And he didnt let it go at that. He walks back farther, starts running and then throws himself at the sign again. There appears to be a jump of a few seconds in the video clip and the next thing you see is the sign has been knocked off its pole onto the ground. The young man wearing a black Miller Lite T-shirt then casually picks up the sign and leaves. His actions went way beyond a prank or horseplay. When the Bristol Herald Courier broke the news and an arrest was made, there was a lot of interest and quite a bit of anger. Some said it was disrespectful while others called it downright mean. Heres why it infuriated me. That sign wasnt just a street marker or a stop sign, though that would have been bad enough. It was a historical marker that detailed Bristols claim to fame, the 1927 Bristol Sessions, and it was located on what many consider hallowed ground. It marked the place where a talent scout made recordings of Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and other regional musicians, an event deemed so important it led to Bristol being named the birthplace of country music. Though the sign was found by police, it was damaged beyond repair. The marker was erected in 2008 after approval by the Tennessee Historical Commission. According to Linda Wynn, the commissions assistant director for state programs, it will cost $1,450 to replace. It will be placed on the states Missing Marker list and replaced when money is available, she said. A police captain said restitution may be sought as part of the court case against the young man charged. If convicted, its the very least he could do. I also think he owes this community an apology.You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here are some recent crimes that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net

CRIME: THEFT FROM WATER MACHINE

DATE: January 20, 2019

RCMP FILE: 2019-3641

At 3 a.m. on January 20th a vehicle drove up to Lake Countrys Woodsdale General Store, stopped at the AQUA 247 water machine where the 2 male occupants stole the change box. There have been similar occurrences in the Okanagan in the past week. If you recognize this car (likely a Dodge Dart) or suspect, please contact Lake country RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2000.00.

CRIME: THEFT OF PURSE / FRAUD

DATE: November 9, 2018

RCMP FILE: 2018-69766

Between noon and 1:30 p.m. on November 9th a purse was stolen from a business on the 10,000 block of Bottom Wood Lake Road in Lake Country. The purse, containing a wallet, cash and car keys was later found in a garbage can at a local business, minus the valuable contents. The cards were used multiple times at Lake Country stores before they were cancelled. The suspect is described as a Caucasian female 45-50 years of age with brown hair who was wearing a blue and white polka dot cap, a blue down jacket, blue jeans and knee high brown leather boots.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net.BRISTOL, Va.  Backers of the proposed Virginia Business College hope to receive preliminary state approval in March.

Last June, U.S. Magis International, the Chinese-based owners of the former Virginia Intermont College campus in Bristol, applied with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to establish and operate a private business college. On Friday, college President Randall Blevins said the council is expected to review the plan at its March 18 meeting.

We still dont have the provisional acceptance, but were supposed to get that on March 18, Blevins said. Were hoping everything will come together. They [council] dont have any issues with our paperwork, its just a process.

Council spokeswoman Laura Osberger confirmed it is expected to appear on the agenda.

The Virginia Business College application requires additional information. The goal is to place it on the March 18-19 Council agenda for provisional certification, assuming all of the application requirements have been met by that time, Osberger wrote in an email to the Bristol Herald Courier.

The proposed schools intent to operate document filed with the council outlines how it would operate as a not-for-profit corporation.

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Plans call for offering a bachelor of science in business administration degree in the first year. In the third year, the school expects to expand degree offerings to nursing, health care administration and public health administration, as well as long-term plans to offer graduate degree programs.

Plans also call for using five of the schools existing buildings, but the documents dont specify which ones, other than the library, would be housed in the fine arts building.

Local auction firm set to sell VI items

Also on Friday, Kimball Sterling Auctioneers of Johnson City announced it is scheduled to sell of thousands of items that were part of the former VI college on March 2. A time has not been announced.

Weve just got to get rid of the old stuff so we can begin renovation work, Blevins said.

The auction company announced its plans via its website and Facebook page.

The notice reads, We have just signed a contract to liquidate Virginia Intermont College. It will be the first Saturday in March. Great art, computers, pool tables, upscale exercise equipment, complete pottery studio with wheels and kilns, theatre department with costumes and props, microscopes, office equipment, art wielding studio, uniforms, 1000's of items. More to come later as we catalogue.

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At the onset of its meeting Thursday, the Board of County Commissioners made an announcement out of the blue that it will no longer be keeping written minutes from its open meetings, effective immediately, and that video recordings would now serve as the official record. This announcement came without warning  it was not listed as a line item on the agenda, there was no public comment on the matter and it was decided without a vote.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Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email customercare@heraldandnews.com for help creating one.Huntington, WV (25701)

Today

Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.



We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us hereEditor: Our lake and Colorado River are out of control, and no official wants to mWe're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

SubmitPublished on 2019/01/27 | Source

Young foreign entrepreneurs pose at Pangyo Techno Valley in Gyeonggi Province last Thursday.

Pangyo Techno Valley south of Seoul is quickly becoming a haven for foreign tech start-ups who are drawn by the fast-paced and efficient work environment. On a recent visit to a 607 sq.m office at the Start-up Campus there, several groups of foreigners were in evidence, giving the impression of a library at a university overseas.

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Sampsa Siitonen of Finnish water-treatment company SansOx said, "Korea has the potential of becoming a test bed for cutting-edge technology. We chose Korea as our foothold in foraying into the Asian market".

The company developed water purification technology using ozone and infrared light. "A small Korean manufacturer will start making our product soon", Siitonen said, and the company is hiring two Korean workers this year.

Most foreign tech start-ups setting up shop at Pangyo Techno Valley are small players with fewer than 10 workers established just two to three years ago. At present, there are around 40 of them, specializing in artificial intelligence, fintech and high-tech medical devices.

They were selected by a government start-up support program called the K-Start-up Grand Challenge, which aims to attract foreign promising businesses to make the country a Asian hub for tech start-ups. Last year, it drew 1,770 teams from 108 countries vying for a spot.

Mario Aguilera is the Bolivian founder and CEO of Tespack, which develops backpacks, helmets and vests equipped with solar panels that can recharge smartphones and other electronic devices. "We plan to move our headquarters from Finland to Korea this year and use Korea as our manufacturing base", he said.

"Until now, we entrusted production to companies in China and Vietnam, but we were concerned about the high rate of defective products", Aguilera added. "But small and mid-sized Korean companies have better technology and we can produce high-quality products cheaper than in Europe".

Foreign start-ups are impressed by the speed of production and innovative environment here. Julian Osborne of Swiss fintech company AAAccell said, "I've traveled around the world, but Korea is nearly the only country where decisions are made in just a few days. For start-ups, whose success or failure is determined in just a few years, the fast pace of work in Korea is its biggest strength".

Young foreign entrepreneurs also pointed to the world-class communications infrastructure and hardware technology like semiconductors and displays in Korea. They say the U.S.' Silicon Valley may have talented workers and wealthy investors, but Korea has the world's best communications infrastructure and hardware.

Another plus is the fact that Korea is home to legions of tech-savvy customers who are eager to try out the latest gadgets and technologies.

The program, which began in 2016, selects 40 companies from around the world and grants them W100 million in support funding and free office space for a year as well as assistance in finding investors (US$1=W1,132).

The program drew criticism for supporting foreign companies instead of Korean ones, but some start-ups have already hired Korean workers or entrusted small and mid-sized manufacturers here with making their products.

Tour operator Travelplan, which uses AI chatbots for travel reservations, has surpassed 1 million users and employs 14 Koreans. And Bear Robotics won a US$2 million investment from food delivery app developer Woowa Brothers to jointly develop food-delivery robots.

Still, red tape remains as a drawback even for foreign start-ups at Pangyo Techno Valley. No foreign start-up there is involved in the ride-sharing services, which has faced fierce resistance here, while Lineus Medical is the only one specializing in healthcare services.Videos

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.Published on 2019/01/27 | Source

Korea's exports of mobile phones plunged over 20 percent last year to the lowest point in 16 years.

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Korean smartphone makers struggle with fierce competition from Chinese companies, plus many of manufacturers and parts makers have moved production abroad.

According to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT on Sunday, phone exports, including both parts and end products, stood at US$14.61 billion last year, down 23 percent from 2017 and on a par with the 2002 level (US$1=W1,123). Phone exports surpassed those of semiconductors in 2008, have shrunk to 1/9 a decade on.

"Korean manufacturers had a tough time against mounting competition from Chinese phone makers, and many companies that make parts for mobile phones also relocated overseas, which contributed to the decline", a ministry spokesman said.

The figures cover only products that are physically shipped from the country.

According to market researcher Strategy Analytics, Korea last year shipped 1.44 billion phones, down five percent from 2017 and the first ever contraction. But Chinese producers Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO all increased their sales and captured the second, fourth and fifth largest world market share in the third quarter of last year.

Samsung, which has the world's largest market share, has moved its major manufacturing base to India and Vietnam.Published on 2019/01/27 | Source

Hyundai's big butch Palisade SUV that was unveiled late last year has found eager customers in men approaching their midlife crisis or with families to ferry about.

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Hyundai Sunday released analysis of 20,506 sales of the Palisade in Korea during its first week of pre-orders.

A whopping 85.2 percent of buyers were men. SUVs generally appeal to men, who also bought 80.5 percent of Hyundai's midsize Santa Fe SUV and 79.1 percent for the large Veracruz, which the Palisade has now replaced.

Most of the male customers were 40 or above with 37 percent, followed by those in their 50s with 26.9 percent and their 30s with 21.2 percent. Only two percent were in their 20.

The main reason is that customers in that age range have more money at the peak of their working lives, and the biggest group of female buyers were also in their 40s with 33.6 percent and 50s with 26 percent.

The average age of a Palisade buyer was 47.5, suggesting that the car appeals to family men keen to show off status to others like them.

The Palisade has either seven or eight seats. The seven-seater costs about W290,000 more, but 76.4 percent of buyers opted for that version. A Hyundai staffer said, "It looks like customers prefer the roominess".

Few SUV drivers in that age range are likely to use more than four seats if the whole nuclear family piles in, but the status conferred by cars that take up half the road remains irresistible to many men in Asia and beyond.



Haiti - News : Zapping...





Budget returned to the Executive

"The 2018-2019 Budget already late has been returned by the Parliament to the Executive for serious breach, rare in the history of Parliament. The reasons are many : no tax reform and fiscal justice, no respect of the 2016 law, inconsistency, anti-social, low public investment..." said economist Eddy N. Labossiere



Japan : Donation of heavy machinery

On January 23 at the Ministry of Public Works, the new Japanese Ambassador to Haiti Mitsuaki Mizuno attended the signing ceremony of the Heavy Equipment Grant Agreement for road construction and agricultural equipment under the program for the economic and social development of Haiti (non-project), between "Japan International Cooperation System" (JICS), and Joubert C. Angrand the Minister of Agriculture of Natural Resources. In his speech, Ambassador Mizuno hoped that this donation will have a positive impact on national agricultural production.



MUPANAH Closed this weekend

The General Directorate of the Haitian National Pantheon Museum (MUPANAH) will keep its doors closed this weekend due to the continuation of the development work. Activities will resume Monday, January 28, 2019 from 8:00 am following the usual schedule.



Crime Scene Management Training

Led by a trainer from the technical and scientific police department of the Inter-regional Judicial Police Direction Antilles-Guyane, a four-day training session was held in support of the Haitian National Police. This "crime scene management" training was provided to investigators from the Office of Scientific and Technical Police (BPST) and trainers from the National Police Academy.



New Annex of the Ministry of Commerce

Daniel Denis Director General of the Ministry of Trade and Industry proceeded this week at the inauguration of a new annex of the Ministry of Trade in Mirbalais in the presence of an imposing delegation of the central office, the Deputy Abel Descolines, Mayor Oxama Moses and a representative of the Chamber of Commerce, Ronald Chevry.



Firefighters : Cooperation with Germany

Fednel Monchery, Director General of the Ministry of the Interior, accompanied by volunteer firefighters from Germany, visited the Directorate of Civil Protection and Firefighters of Port-au-Prince to establish bridges useful for strengthening the structures of emergencies and improve the response capabilities of these entities.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Petit-Goave : Teachers will not go back to the classrooms





Friday, January 25 at a press conference, strikers teachers of the Faustin Soulouque High School (on strike since January 14th https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26663-haiti-petit-goave-lycee-faustin-soulouque-closed-angry-students-demand-reopening.html ) of Petit-Goave said they are determined to carry on their strike to the end, saying they will not be fooled again and that they will not return to classrooms until their demands are met:



1) The payment of salary arrears 2013-2014; 2014-2015;



2) The appointment of teachers who work in the classrooms;



3) The budgeting of teachers who teach in class without being paid.



In addition, they ask the authorities to respect the rights of students who understand the correctness of the demands of teachers and who demonstrate in the streets to demand the resumption of classes. In addition, the teachers deplore all the forms of violence and damage recorded during the mobilization of high school students and denounce the brutality of police officers against the young protesters.



Moreover, they denounce the verbal violence, the threats and the smear campaign orchestrated against them by the local authorities, criticizing in particular the Mayor Limongy who did not mince words in their regards...



On the other hand, the strikers congratulated the Police Commissioner, Julbert Counselor for his understanding and welcomed the sense of responsibility of the Dean of the Court of First Instance, Fritzner Duclair and Judge Arentz Mars who knew how to measure and understand the extent of the crisis by making good proposals.



They announce the holding of a sit-in before the prosecutor's office of Petit-Goave, Monday, January 28, to respond to the Commissioner of the Government, Fourjy Pierre who threatened to arrest, any teacher who incites students to violence provided that we file a complaint.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26731-haiti-petit-goave-8-hours-of-demonstrations-and-violence-several-victims.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26724-haiti-petit-goave-activities-paralyzed-for-lack-of-fuels-and-student-demonstrations.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26672-haiti-petit-goave-violent-clashes-between-students-at-least-6-wounded.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26663-haiti-petit-goave-lycee-faustin-soulouque-closed-angry-students-demand-reopening.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25191-haiti-petit-goave-promise-of-a-school-year-without-strike-at-lycee-faustin-soulouque.html



HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)

















A mid-level restaurant, like Chilis, Red Robin or Panera.

Light industry to keep jobs in the area.

More retail so we don't have to go to Tucson.

Better and more mass transit options.

All of the above.

Vote

View ResultsDid you see it? Birders flock to Madera Canyon for rare findMOSS POINT, Miss. -- Willie James Daddy Willie Smith will be turning 100 years old on Wednesday and said the key to reaching such a milestone is simple as he pointed toward the sky.

People ask me the secret to living this long and I point to the sky and tell them if they ask that man and whatever answer he give you, thats it, Smith said. Me, you or anybody else, if it wasnt for the Lord, we wouldnt be here.

Smith was born Jan. 30, 1919 in Fort Deposit, Ala. His parents, Enoch and Rosie Lee eventually relocated to Mississippi where the family initially settled on Krebs Ave., but later moved to Skip Street in Pascagoula.

Assuming parental responsibilities after his sister died giving birth to her nephew, Smith later joined the U.S. Army in 1941 during WWII.

Those who know Smith affectionately heap praise on him for being a great man and for his sweet potato pies. According to his pastor, Lester Brooks, Daddy Willie is one of the greatest men I have known.

I have known him for 15 years and he is one of the best deacons I have ever pastored, Brooks said. He also has a great mind and often talk with him just to soak up some wisdom from him. He probably has forgotten more than I have ever known and its just a blessing to be in the presence of a man his age. I pray the Lord blesses him for another 100 years.

Smith met his wife Dorothy and eventually settled on Molden Ave., in Moss Point where they raised five children. To provide for his family, Smith worked at Ingalls Shipyard in various positions until he decided to retire.

According to family, Smith remains active by walking daily, cooking and serving as a deacon at First Christian Church in Moss Point where he has been a member his entire life.

Rep. Jeramey Anderson was in attendance and presented House Resolution 17, which commends and congratulates Smith for reaching 100 years old on Wednesday.

The City presented a proclamation stating Smiths birthday on Wednesday, Jan. 30 going forward in the City of Moss Point will be known as Willie James Smith Day.

As for Daddy Willie, he plans to be here as long as the Lord decides.

Feels great to still be here I reckon, he said. I have a few aches and pains, but thats expected with life. I just thank the Lord for blessing me and allowing me to see and experience this with everyone here.Every misstep is another hurdle to effectively cleaning the bay. If we see another record year of rainfall, we will lament the self-inflicted damage in the form of pollution in our waterways created because some farms slipped through the cracks during the shutdown.NEW HAVEN  Quantum Circuits, a company that came out of research at Yale University, is expected to boost New Havens profile as the site of cutting-edge research on quantum computing that seeks practical applications for this nascent technology.

The 3-year-old company, co-founded by Robert Schoelkopf, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the opening of its state-of-the-art labs and in-house manufacturing facility at 25 Science Park.

From one employee in 2015 to 20 scientists and engineers today, more than half of whom have doctorates, it expects to grow significantly in the next several years.

Quantum computing potentially will be able to produce calculations orders of magnitudes faster and more powerful than todays supercomputers, according to the company.

One observer at the celebration compared the difference between current computers and quantum computers to the huge industrial advance from the horse and buggy to the combustion engine.

Schoelkopf, who is the Sterling professor of applied physics at Yale, and chief scientist at Quantum Circuits, explained that the applications include drug designs for biotech, logistics, energy, cryptography and machine learning.

Other practical applications include weather prediction, driverless car navigation and economic market analysis.

He also gave an example of a problem in which quantum computing could help.

Lets say you are a biologist or a doctor and you think a molecule could be a new drug. You want to know if it could ... be created. If you want to do that, you basically have to do trial and error in the laboratory. But with a quantum computer, we could potentially design it or explore a whole host of possibilities beforehand and sort of cut the corner on all of the actual chemistry, Schoelkopf said.

He said it cuts down on the needle in a haystack approach to scientific discovery.

He said researchers now are at a tipping point in the technology and know how to build machines that will take on problems previously not computable.

The co-founder said currently at its labs they are making silicone chips and testing them there.

Schoelkopf said, if you look at the life of conventional computing, no one predicted what is possible today  from streaming music to communicating over a smartphone.

Similarly, in quantum computing, once we get them into peoples hands multiple new uses will present themselves, he said.

Schoelkopf said eventually they will have their own machines hosted from the lab that can be accessed over the Internet.

Schoelkopf and the companys other co-founders, Michel Devoret and Luigi Frunzio, all are members of Yales applied physics department and pioneers in the field of computing with superconducting circuits.

Quantum Circuits said it has raised some $18 million in investments.

Peter Schiffer, vice provost for research and a professor in applied physics at Yale, said they are grateful for federal investments as well as the support of Connecticut Innovations in funding startups coming out of university research.

Canaan, which has offices in Westport, and Sequoia are among the private investors putting money into quantum computing companies.

Dan Ciporin, general partner at Canaan, said his company has put more than $100 million into early-stage venture capital investment in Connecticut.

Gov. Ned Lamont came to Thursdays ceremony to underscore the states interest in seeing companies such as Quantum Circuits advance.

He said as a sociology major in the 1970s at Yale College, he was skating on thin ice in grasping quantum computing principles, but he supports the Yale model in which research is turned into companies that create jobs.

Lamont said Connecticut several generations ago was known as the most entrepreneurial in the country . He said that spirit is back in the form of such companies as Quantum Circuits. He expected that it will turbo charge the path to commercialization in the relatively near future.

He assured the company that he would make sure it gets the right introductions.

We will do everything we can to get the talent they need, the governor said.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577Portion of N.C. 65 to be named for Ray Kelly

Rockingham County Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution to name a portion of N.C. 65, between the corner of County Home Road and N.C. 65 West (just past Hospice of Rockingham County) in honor of Ray Kelly. The resolution expresses appreciation to Kellys generous service to his community and to the Veterans of Rockingham County.This isnt to say that Harris wont eventually emerge as the winner. But at least the results would be more credible. As of now, they are anything but.

A subcontractor who worked for Harris may have altered or discarded mail-in ballots that could have changed the outcome. More than a dozen witnesses have signed sworn affidavits alleging that Leslie Dowless or his surrogates collected unsealed and incomplete ballots from voters. So bothered was the bipartisan state Board of Elections that it refused to certify the results.

It is true that the impasse in the 9th, for now, leaves 750,000 residents of that district with no representation in Congress. Thats an unfortunate consequence. But as some voters around here well know, it is not unprecedented.

When Democrat Mel Watt resigned his congressional seat in the 12th District in January 2014 to become director of the National Housing Finance Agency, then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, chose to hold off on the special election to replace Watt until that November. So the 12th District, which until 2016 included parts of Greensboro, was left without representation in Washington for nearly a year  until Democrat Alma Adams, then a Greensboro resident, won the seat.Still working after 50-plus years, still paying into Social Security and Medicare, I dont deny the value of social programs; apparently Wangard does. If so, she should please donate her benefits to the IRS.

Meredith Millard

Greensboro

Where are we today? Let me tell you a story.

Two young children asked their father for some food because they were hungry. The father went to the cupboard and saw there was no food. The father said, Sorry, kids, were out of food and I cannot go shopping because I did not get paid for the work I did this month.

The children said maybe you could call the president of our country and tell him we are hungry.

That wont work because he wants to spend money to build a wall  to keep other children and their families out of our country, said the father.

Will the children and their families go hungry? Oh, father, what will happen to us? We are hungry, said the children.

Is this really what our country is coming to?

James Fleming

Clemmons

Democrats oppose wall to spite TrumpThe average age of members of the House and Senate in the 115th Congress was 57.8 years and 61.8 years, respectively, among the oldest ever, according to the Congressional Research Office. Apart from public service and politics, the most dominant professions were in lucrative fields such as business and law.

Even if running for Congress is fast becoming a million-dollar proposition, ever lengthening campaign cycles mean that once you run, you end up running full-time. Ocasio-Cortez, for example, quit her job as a server in a restaurant in February 2018, almost nine months ahead of Election Day. For most Americans with even less in savings, a lower education level, or a precarious employment situation, taking the step of quitting a job to run for office is unfathomable. Even if they somehow overcome those hurdles, they will lack the connections and social capital to raise the money required to run competitively.As the University of North Carolina System transitions from one president to another, the systems Faculty Assembly, along with the Board of Governors, is committed to putting students first, so our students will be prepared to contribute to a stronger North Carolina.

The primary purpose of faculty, staff and administration on the campuses of the UNC System is to support our students by providing the best possible education so they will give back to North Carolina through industry, education, health and human services and as citizens. We can accomplish this through collaborative relationships with the leadership of the UNC system and the North Carolina legislature.

The members of the Faculty Assembly, which represents all 17 campuses across the state, welcome Dr. William Roper as interim president of our system.

We are confident that in this role, Dr. Roper will work with campus faculty and administrators to listen to the level of honest and candid counsel that will allow all of us to make students our top priority.

We welcome his leadership in the systems commitment to access, affordability, efficiency and the high quality of programs that lead to student success.White said the county has been particularly focused on trying to intervene at age 3 with children who have deficits. The county is recognizing and diagnosing the deficiencies early on to help get them on track, she said, through Judy Centers that link families to resources in early childhood, a preschool center, and a program that identifies children with disabilities as toddlers.GREENSBORO  Two people are in custody after a gunshot was fired inside Four Seasons Town Centre in Greensboro on Saturday night.

Ivan Joseph Smyre, 25, of Greensboro, and Robert Lamont King, 26, were taken into custody, according to a news release from Greensboro police.

Officers were called to the shopping mall at 410 Four Seasons Town Centre at about 8:15 p.m. after a gunshot was fired during a fight there.

Nobody was hurt in the shooting, which occurred shortly before the mall's scheduled closing. Mall security was able to safely get everyone out and closed the mall.

Police said the people involved in the fight tried to leave after the shooting, but officers immediately took two people in custody.

Police have not said what, if any, charges Smyre or King face and the incident is still under investigation.

Anyone with any information can call Greensboro police at 336-373-1000 or text keyword badboyz and the tip to 274637. Callers can remain anonymous.The others tried to get Richmond, named the best math student his first semester at A&T, to leave Greensboro, where he was struggling. He lost a federal job training and counseling position that he was good at when funds ran out.

But Richmond always came back, especially to care for his ailing parents. He died in 1990.

Integration at last

Back in 1960, the sit-ins lasted for months. Woolworth agreed to open the lunch counter under its own terms July 25, allowing its black employees the first bite to eat at the counter.

McCain, who had gone back to the suburbs of Washington during his summer break, bought a plane ticket just to be there.

It was a day that Khazan, who grew up in Warnersville, a Greensboro community founded by freed slaves after the Civil War, told anyone who would listen on the playground. He said he would sit at the counter one day, just as he would one day taste the water coming out of the whites only fountains, which he at the time suspected tasted like lemonade.By looking into complaints that never get beyond a lower level of review, the new board might be able to head off problems or patterns in their early stages, she said.

This is what they are impaneled to do, look at lower-level complaints that never make it to the PCRB to see if we are seeing repeated problems, Vaughan said.

Councilwoman Sharon Hightower has been one of the strongest critics of the commission approach, saying that she believes it could diminish the average residents ability to air their complaints to a board of fellow residents.

You can have the GCJAC if you want to look at trends and all that, Hightower said of the advisory commission. But there still needs to be an independent commission where people can file a complaint.

She would like to move the PCRB back under the umbrella of the Human Relations Commission, saying the review committee belongs there because its reason for being is tied to human relations.

Hightower also blasted the council for voting to fire two black appointees from the advisory commission, former members Cherizar Crippen and Irving Allen.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 2007, everything fell apart. Burned out from a near-decade of grueling work, Stamey was struck by crippling fatigue and painful internal swelling that doctors couldnt explain.

This mystery ailment  diagnosed years later as Bartonellosis, or cat-scratch fever  stripped Stamey of the vigor that had once defined her, leaving her barely enough energy to crawl across her floor to feed her pet dogs, let alone run her practice.

Rumors that she was addicted to drugs and alcohol, fed by small-town gossip and social media exchanges between angry clients, spread through the community. Eventually, even friends turned on her.I think, generally, that its made me and all of us look at the quality of the safety net when people are suddenly out of work and made us understand that there are a lot of people in our county who are living paycheck to paycheck, he said."I'm not dishonest anymore, my bills are getting paid," said Wendy, who spoke about her gambling habit on the condition she not be identified. "I hadn't had a car for four years and I got one today, so everything is falling into place and I know that's from not going out to gamble."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.Two events that occurred in 1619 in Virginia reverberate through American history to this day: the first meeting of an elected representative legislative body  the House of Burgesses  in the New World and the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to what would become the United States. One event, we proudly commemorate every year when the General Assembly holds a ceremonial session in the Colonial capital of Williamsburg; the other, we Virginians have tried to push out of our collective consciousness for generations with dire consequences.

Its time Virginia confronted this aspect of our history  for the good of our state and our nation.

Virginians for Reconciliation is a bipartisan group of leaders from across the commonwealth that has come together to turn 2019, the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans being brought to these shores, into a year of racial healing. Virginians from the realms of business, religion, education and elected public service are determined to make 2019 the year we finally begin that process, one we should have started generations ago.Now heres the kicker. Of the 20 most dangerous major cities, all but one had a Democratic mayor. In many of these cities, the Democratic Party has ruled for a half-century or more. Only Tulsa, Oklahoma, with 17.3 murders per 100,000 residents, had a Republican mayor.

Who knows what conclusion can be drawn from the finding that the most murderous cities have been controlled by Democrats  and often black Democrats? I am not suggesting that Democratic control causes murder and mayhem. What I am saying is that murder, mayhem and other violent crime are not reduced by the election of black or white Democrats to run our cities. That means one cannot dismiss out of hand a question then-candidate Donald Trump asked black Americans in a 2016 campaign speech in Michigan: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? ... What the hell do you have to lose?Asperger's syndrome is considered to be a variant of Autistic Disorder which is currently classified as a Pervasive Developmental Disorder. In other words, it is a mild form of Autism. People with Asperger's are statistically more prone to impulsive and immediate forms of aggressive behavior such as pushing, or yelling but it is not associated with the type of violence that occurred in Connecticut. This type of pre-planned, intentional, "rage based" violence stems from mental health difficulties of another type. Serial killers and mass murderers have demonstrated a wide range of severe mental health difficulties that tend to fall more in the direction of personality disorders, psychosis and sociopathic tendencies. The type of people who commit these acts are either out of touch with reality in some significant way or they are so deeply self-absorbed that they are unable to distinguish their perceived needs from the rest of the world and other people. They believe that what they need and want is pre-eminent to all other aspects of the world, including other people's needs, thoughts and feelings.Seventh-grade student Rhys Ana Savering, of Sacred Heart Catholic School in Danville, has been named the Special Girls4Tech Recognition Winner for the Scholastic National Tech4 Innovation Student Contest.

The Girls4Tech portion of the contest recognizes young ladies who show innovation and creativity in the STEAM  science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics  field in an effort to encourage them to pursue STEAM related classes or careers.

The Tech4 Innovation Contest is a nationwide competition. Students from third to seventh grade can be entered in grade-level divisions. Students are asked to create a concept that uses digital technology to solve real-world problems in the context of a given category. Students must be able to draw the idea and describe what the innovation does and what problem it would solve.

Saverings concept was a device that could be used for safety in agriculture and would ensure a cleaner and chemical free food supply.

Savering will receive a new laptop and a cash prize for her winning entry. The school will also receive grant money to be used for enhancing students access to technology and encourage students to enter STEAM careers.The George A. Grekos scholarshiphas been established with The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region in memory of the 21-year-old Chatham High School graduate.

The scholarship will support Danville and Pittsylvania County graduates, with a preference for Chatham High School graduates, who attend Christopher Newport University.

We are honored to help build this permanent legacy to George Grekos, said Debra L. Dodson, executive director of The Community Foundation.

Anyone who wishes to help build the scholarship can support the fund by sending donations to The Community Foundation, care of the George A. Grekos Scholarship, 541 Loyal Street, Danville, VA 24541.

The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region is an independent, public charity established in September 1996 by a steering committee of local civic leaders to gather permanent funds to support our area. The Community Foundation holds assets of $37 million and has awarded more than $22 million in grants and scholarships.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Irish PM warns troops could be deployed to border with UK over Brexit

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 03:22PM

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has warned that military troops could return to the border with the UK if London fails to finalize a deal on its withdrawal from the European Union.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV on Saturday, Varadkar said a hard border between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland could be reinstated after 20 years in the form of "people in uniform... possibly a police presence, or an army presence to back it up".

He said that Ireland, an EU member, had been "victimized" by Britain's struggle to leave the EU.

The comments come as British Prime Minister Theresa May has been desperately seeking an approval of her Brexit deal with the EU in the British parliament.

UK lawmakers are mostly opposed to a clause in the deal, known as the Irish backstop, which allows the EU to include Northern Ireland or the entire UK in its customs union in 2020.

The backstop has been described by both London and the EU as an insurance policy to avoid a hard border between the two Irelands and allow a treaty between the UK and Ireland in 1998, known as the Good Friday Agreement, to survive.

However, an Irish government spokesperson sought to clarify Varadkar's comments, made on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, on the potential deployment of troops on the border in case of a no-deal Brexit.

The spokesperson said the Irish premier was only describing what a hard border situation would look like, adding that Dublin was still committed to joint efforts with the EU and London to avoid a disorderly Brexit on Mach 29.China reacts after American warships sail through Taiwan Strait

People's Daily Online

(CRI Online) 10:05, January 26, 2019

Chinese authorities are calling on the United States to abide by the one-China policy, while at the same time, carefully handle any Taiwan-related questions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has issued the warning after two American naval vessels passed through the Taiwan Strait earlier this week.

"China closely followed and had knowledge of the entire course of the U.S. warships passing through the Taiwan Strait. China has already expressed to the U.S. side that it is deeply concerned about what happened. The Taiwan issue is the most important and most sensitive issue for the China-U.S. relationship. We urge the U.S. side to abide by the One China Principle and the Three Communiques, and carefully and appropriately manage the Taiwan issue in order to avoid damaging the China-U.S. relationship and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait," said Hua.

A Guided-missile destroyer and its companion vessel sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday.

US military officials have also released a statement, contending the manuever is "in accordance with international law."Damascus Accuses Ankara of Breaching 1998 Agreement - Reports

Sputnik News

13:43 26.01.2019(updated 16:08 26.01.2019)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently recalled the 1998 agreement with Damascus, saying the deal allows Ankara to enter Syria when it is threatened.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry reacted to the recent statement by Erdogan concerning the 1998 Adana agreement, accusing Turkey of violating the accord since 2011 by supporting terrorists and occupying Syrian territory, SANA reported, citing a representative in the ministry.

"Syria confirms that it is in compliance with the Adana Interstate Agreement on Combating Terrorism in all its forms and all agreements related to it, but the Turkish regime has been violating the agreement since 2011 up to now by sponsoring and supporting terrorism, training militants and making it easier for them to go to SAR, or through the occupation of Syrian territories with terrorist groups it controls it or directly with the help of the Turkish Armed Forces," Syrian state television quoted a source in the ministry as saying.

The ministry called on Ankara to "activate" the 1998 agreement, leaving the boundary territories in the state as they were before the beginning of the war in 2011.

The Adana agreement was signed by Syria and Turkey on October 20, 1998 and aimed to restore bilateral relations following a crisis that arose due to Syria sheltering militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is officially listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey.

According to the agreement, Syria had to halt PKK activities on its territory, including a ban on logistical, material and financial support for the group on its territory, as well as prohibit establishing camps, shelters and facilities for training militants. Turkey, in turn, gained the opportunity to take appropriate measures to deter the terrorist threat.

Syria, Turkey Relations Tense Amid Plans for New Ankara Op in Manbij

Tensions between the two sides of the Adana agreement recently flared up, as Turkey mulled over a new operation against Kurdish-held areas of Syria after its military success in Afrin.

Damascus is negotiating with the Kurds, who are seeking support amid Ankara's military plans.

Erdogan, in turn, recently emphasised that Turkey should have control "in the field" and is not open to other suggestions.

Prior to that, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the Turkish Army was ready to start an offensive against Kurdish forces on the eastern bank of the Euphrates at the earliest opportunity. However, after talks with US President Donald Trump, who informed his Turkish counterpart of plans to withdraw US troops from Syria, Erdogan shelved his plans, saying that the offensive would be launched only after the US forces' complete pullout.

 SputnikAt Least 13 Civilians Killed in Int'l Coalition Strike in Syria - Reports

Sputnik News

14:18 26.01.2019(updated 15:27 26.01.2019)

On 22 January, the Ikhbariya TV channel reported that coalition jets killed several civilians who were fleeing Baguz in Deir ez-Zor Province.

At least 13 civilians died as a result of an airstrike carried out by the international coalition in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Province, the DPA news agency reported on Saturday citing Syrian human rights watchdogs.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Kurdistan's Rudaw English news outlet reported citing a conflict monitor that a heavy airstrike conducted by the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh* terrorist group might have resulted in children casualties in Syria.

This comes after earlier in the week, the Ikhbariya TV channel stated that US-led coalition jets struck vehicles carrying civilians who were fleeing the village, where US-led forces were battling Daesh. Following the reports, the Operation Inherent Resolve Joint Task Force said in a statement that the coalition was conducting an investigation into the attack to conclude if it had caused the deaths of civilians in Syria.

Syrian media have frequently reported civilian casualties resulting from US-led coalition airstrikes. Previously, the coalition acknowledged that at least 1,114 civilians have been killed in Syria and Iraq as a result of its campaign to defeat Daesh.

Syrian authorities have repeatedly called on the United Nations to hold those responsible for civilian deaths accountable and put an end to the US-led coalition's unauthorised presence on Syrian territory. The US-led coalition's activities in Syria are not endorsed by the Syrian government, President Bashar al-Assad nor the United Nations Security Council.

*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries

 Sputnik13 Syrian civilians killed in US-led operation in Dayr al-Zawr

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 03:15PM

More than a dozen civilians have lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group carried out an operation in Syria's troubled eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Saturday that US-led forces shelled farming land between al-Baghuz Fawqani and al-Marashidah towns in Abu Kamal district in the province late Friday night, killing 13 people and injuring many more.

The London-based monitor added that there were seven children among the fallen civilians.

The group noted that the death toll was expected to rise as some of the wounded victims were in a critical condition.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes and operations 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.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the Security Council, Francisco Antonio Cortorreal, on January 19, censured last week's US-led coalition strikes against al-Baghuz al-Tahtani village in Dayr al-Zawr province, saying the US-led warplanes had targeted dozens of families, who were fleeing from areas controlled by Daesh.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria's official news agency SANA on January 18 that 20 people were killed when US-led warplanes bombarded residential buildings in the village.

"This new crime is in line with the criminal acts that the US-led coalition is perpetrating systematically and on a daily basis against Syrian people, and in flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," said the letters.

"The activities of this alliance are illegal as it has been formed outside the UN framework. Such acts have only contributed to the expansion of extremist terrorist organizations, especially Daesh. Cooperation and coordination between these terrorist groups and this alliance has been documented in numerous letters that [the] Syrian Arab Republic has sent to the Security Council," added the letters.

The ministry also condemned in the strongest terms the US-led coalition's continued attacks against the conflict-plagued country's critical infrastructure, energy facilities and public and private property.

It also called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities as regards to the establishment of international peace and security, and put an immediate halt to crimes against humanity that were being carried out by this "rogue" coalition against Syrian civilians and infrastructure.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry demanded that the Council take necessary measures to set an international mechanism to punish the perpetrators of such crimes.Damascus: Turkey breaching 1998 agreement by 'occupying Syrian territory'

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 04:55PM

The Syrian government has strongly dismissed recent remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan concerning a 1998 agreement between Ankara and Damascus, saying Turkey has been breaching the pact by supporting "terrorism" and occupying Syrian territory since 2011.

"Syria confirms that it is in compliance with the Adana Interstate Agreement on Combating Terrorism in all its forms and all agreements related to it, but the Turkish regime has been violating the agreement since 2011 up to now by sponsoring and supporting terrorism, training militants and making it easier for them to go to [the] Syrian Arab Republic, or through the occupation of Syrian territories with terrorist groups it controls  or directly with the help of the Turkish Armed Forces," an unnamed source at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on Saturday.

The source then called on the Ankara government to activate the 1998 agreement and leave the control of border territories to Damascus as they were before the outbreak of foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria nearly eight years ago.

The Adana agreement was signed between Turkey and Syria on October 20, 1998. It clearly stated that the Damascus government would not allow any activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group on Syrian soil, and would block any terror activities that could threaten Turkey's sovereignty.

Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would not hesitate to form a safe zone in northern Syria by itself even if its allies broke their promises on the issue.

"We do not need the invitation of anyone [to enter Syria]," the Turkish leader said, referring to the Adana deal.

Ankara has been threatening for months to launch an offensive in northern Syria against the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization and an extension of the PKK, which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

The Turkish military, with support from allied militants of the so-called Free Syrian Army, launched two cross-border operations in northern Syria, namely "Euphrates Shield" in August 2016 and "Olive Branch" in January 2018 with the declared aim of eradicating the presence of Kurdish militants and Daesh terrorists near Turkey's borders.Tunisian FM demands restoration of Syria's Arab League membership

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 07:08PM

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui has called on the Arab League to restore Syria's membership, saying the "natural place" of the country is within the 22-member regional organization.

"Syria is an Arab state, and its natural place is within the Arab League," Jhinaoui said during a news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Tunis on Saturday.

"The question of Syria returning to the Arab League does not depend on Tunisia but on the Arab League," he added.

"The foreign ministers (of member states) will decide on this subject," Jhinaoui said. "What interests us is Syria's stability and security."

Lavrov also called for readmitting Syria in the Arab League.

"We would like Tunisia to support the process of Syria's return to the Arab family and the Arab League," the top Russian diplomat said.

"I believe that Tunis is interested in a quick return of Syrian refugees sheltered in Tunisia," Lavrov said. "We will do everything to create proper conditions in Syria for that kind of return," he added.

There are around 400 Syrian refugees in Tunisia, according to estimates by the UN refugee agency.

Tunisia is scheduled to host the 30th annual summit of the Arab League in March.

On January 18, Lebanon's Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called on the Arab League to restore Syria's membership in the 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.

"Syria should return to us ... Syria should be in our embrace instead of throwing it into the embrace of terrorism," he pointed out.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on January 8 that the current Damascus government needed to implement a number of measures toward a political settlement of the ongoing Syria crisis to be able to reclaim its membership in the Arab League.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in Cairo, Shoukry said such measures were required "in accordance with  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."

The issue of possible restoration of Syria's membership to the Arab League comes especially after the latest move by some Arab countries to re-open their embassies in Damascus.

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, Bashar al-Assad, upon arrival at Damascus International Airport, before they both headed to the presidential palace.

The two leaders discussed bilateral ties and the "situations and crises faced by many Arab countries," the Syrian presidency said in a statement.

SANA quoted the Sudanese leader as saying during the meeting that he hoped Syria would 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.Here Comes The Sun, To Help Power Kazakhstan

By Bruce Pannier January 26, 2019

Kazakhstan has just launched operation of the largest solar power station in Central Asia, in the central Karaganda Province, the heart of coal country.

Authorities in Kazakhstan have pledged to "go green," the theme of EXPO-2017 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, and the solar plant near the town of Saran that started operation on January 24 is a first step toward that goal.

The 307,664 photovoltaic panels cover an area of more than 160 hectares and have the capacity to generate some 100 megawatts (MW) of power, providing some 145 million kilowatt hours annually.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided a loan of nearly $53 million, and the Green Climate Fund extended a loan of some $22 million toward the project's estimated cost of around $130 million. Germany's Solarnet partnered with SES Saran, the latter being described as "a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the German-based group Joachim Holding."

The 100 MW of power the Saran plant will supply is not much. The EBRD noted the new solar plant would "contribute to achieving the Kazakh government goal of non-hydro renewable energy accounting for 3 percent of all power generation by 2020."

Kazakhstan has huge oil reserves and is the world's leading producer of uranium, but at least 75 percent of Kazakhstan's power needs continue to be filled by coal. It is a resource that Kazakhstan has in abundance -- some 37.5 billion tons.

But this dependence on coal is taking its toll on the environment. Last year in Temirtau, some 40 kilometers north of Saran, black snow fell on the ground, alarming locals and sparking calls for the government to take measures to find another source of generating energy.

According to the EBRD, the Saran plant will "help reduce CO2 emissions by 93,500 tons per year."

On its own, that won't bring white snow back to Temirtau soon, but it is a start.

The EBRD is helping to finance construction of another 100 MW solar power plant in Kazakhstan's southern Zhambyl Province.

The operators of the Saran plant say the solar panels can withstand snow and rain and will operate for some 40 years. Even in adverse weather conditions, the plant can still deliver some 10-15 MW.

That is not to say there are no drawbacks to the Saran plant. RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, known locally as Azattyq, reported the cost of electricity generated by the plant would be 36.41 tenges ($1=377 tenges), which is 2- to 2.5-times higher than the average rate. The Saran plant was due to start operation in November 2018 but this needed to be rescheduled several times.

Kazakhstan has vowed that by 2050, the country will generate half of its electricity needs through renewable resources.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/here-comes-the-sun-to- help-power-kazakhstan/29732873.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.Kurdish Protesters Reportedly Storm Turkish Military Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan

Sputnik News

17:00 26.01.2019(updated 18:09 26.01.2019)

Residents were quoted by Reuters as saying that protesters were demonstrating against recent Turkish air strikes in the area.

Protesters stormed a Turkish military camp near Dohuk, situated in Iraqi Kurdistan, on Saturday, burning vehicles and standing on tanks, Reuters reports.

In 2018, the Turkish military established three new bases in the Kani Rash and Hakurk areas of Iraqi Kurdistan, according to the London-based New Arab outlet.

Turkish forces have been active in Iraqi Kurdistan since the mid-1990s, with an estimated 2,000 special forces and intelligence officers reportedly stationed in the capital city of Erbil, as well as Sulaymaniyah and other cities since 1998.

Earlier this week, Turkey allowed flights to the airport of Sulaymaniyah to resume after lifting a ban that was imposed following the 2017 independence referendum in the semi-autonomous region.

In June 2018, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that Turkey may soon start an operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq's Qandil Mountains where the main base of the PKK, designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, is reportedly located.

Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 when a ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK collapsed over a series of terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK members. Turkish forces are involved in anti-PKK raids across Iraq, carrying out airstrikes and other operations.

 SputnikIran Defies French Sanctions Threat, Accuses Paris of Destabilising Mideast

Sputnik News

15:28 26.01.2019(updated 15:31 26.01.2019)

Iranian authorities have said repeatedly that the country's rocketry and missile testing activities were in full compliance with international treaties, including the UN Security Council resolution governing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Tehran will be forced to reconsider its relations with European powers if they impose any new sanctions against Iran over its missile testing activities, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi has said.

"Iran has always sought to consolidate peace and stability in the region, and believes the mass sale of sophisticated and aggressive weapons by the US and some European countries, including France, have undermined stability and balance in the region," the diplomat indicated, according to PressTV.

Qassemi's remarks follow comments by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday that Paris would impose fresh sanctions against Tehran if talks over Iran's missile program don't pan out. "We are ready, if the talks don't yield results, to apply sanctions firmly, and they know it," Le Drian said.

Emphasizing that Iran's military capabilities were governed by a defensive "doctrine of deterrence," Qassemi said that Iran had "designed its defence capabilities based on a realistic assessment of existing threats," and would strengthen these capabilities if necessary.

"Iran's missile capability is not negotiable, and this has been brought to the attention of the French side during the ongoing political dialogue between Iran and France," Qassemi stressed.

Earlier, diplomats speaking to Reuters said that the EU was mulling new sanctions against Iran over its missile program, with the possible restrictions including asset freezes and travel bans on members of the Revolutionary Guards and individuals connected to the country's missile program. The US, which unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal last May, has warned Iran not to engage in testing activities, and lobbied the EU to sanction Tehran.

Iranian officials have repeatedly indicated that their missile program was in line with the terms of the JCPOA and the UN resolution governing it, and indicated that Iran's missile capabilities were not up for negotiation. Iran has amassed a large arsenal of conventional short, medium and long-range missile systems which it insists are purely defensive in nature. Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Tehran of "defying" the international community, and alleged that Iran was "pursuing enhanced missile capabilities that threaten Europe and the Middle East."

 SputnikIran Accuses France Of 'Destabilizing' Region

January 26, 2019

Iran has accused France of destabilizing the region after Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian threatened new sanctions against Tehran over its missile program.

"The Islamic republic has always called for the strengthening of peace and stability in the region," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released overnight on January 25-26.

As such Iran "considers the mass sales of sophisticated and offensive weapons by...France as a factor in destabilizing the balance of the region," the statement said.

It came after Le Drian on January 25 said Paris was ready to impose new sanctions on Tehran if talks on its missile program make no progress.

"We have begun a difficult dialogue with Iran... and unless progress is made we are ready to apply sanctions, firmly, and they know it," Le Drian said.

He also demanded that Iran change its behavior in the region, especially regarding its military actions in Syria.

"Iran's missile program is not negotiable," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in response, warning that "any new sanction by European countries will lead to a review of our relations with them."

Iran gave up most of its nuclear program under a landmark 2015 deal with major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States -- in exchange for sanctions lifting.

But in May the United States withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

Tehran has continued to develop its ballistic missiles but it says the program is purely defensive.

Based on reporting by AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-accuses-france-of- destabilizing-region/29732614.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.Iran vows to reconsider cooperation with Europe in case of new sanctions

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 02:06AM

Iran has strongly censured France for threatening to impose new sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its missile program, vowing to reconsider its relations with European countries in case such bans are imposed.

The remarks were made by Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi in reaction to earlier comments by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

"Iran's military capabilities are part of the country's legitimate defense power and a guarantor of the Islamic Republic's national security, which is based on the doctrine of deterrence," Qassemi said Friday.

"The Islamic Republic has designed its defense capabilities based on a realistic assessment of the existing threats," he said, vowing that the country would strengthen such capabilities to the extent it deems necessary.

"Iran's missile capability is not negotiable, and this has been brought to the attention of the French side during the ongoing political dialogue between Iran and France," he said.

Qassemi further noted that Le Drian's threat to impose new missile sanctions is against the spirit of political talks and cooperation between the two countries.

He also vowed that Iran will reconsider its interaction with European countries in case these states impose any new sanctions against Tehran.

"Iran has always sought to consolidate peace and stability in the region, and believes the mass sale of sophisticated and assault weapons by the US and some European countries, including France, has undermined regional stability and balance," he said.

Qassemi's remarks came after the top French diplomat said his country is ready to impose further sanctions on Iran if no progress is made in talks over Tehran's ballistic missile program.

"We are ready, if the talks don't yield results, to apply sanctions firmly, and they know it," Le Drian told reporters.

Diplomats previously told Reuters that new sanctions being considered by EU countries over the missile issue could include asset freezes and travel bans on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRCG) and people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program.

Le Drian's threatening remarks come as the European Union is expected to launch its exclusive payment mechanism, known as Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), for facilitating non-dollar trade with Iran in a bid to circumvent the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The SPV "should be implemented in the coming days," Le Drian told the French parliament's foreign affairs committee on Wednesday.

"It will work as a sort of clearing house that will allow in euros for Iran to benefit from some of its oil resources and at the same time buy essential products from the main three main (European) partners," he added.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions, and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.US bid to create crisis in Iran-IAEA ties 'falling flat': Report

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 11:36AM

The US has failed to create a crisis in Iran's cooperation with the UN atomic agency which has repeatedly confirmed the peaceful nature of the country's nuclear program, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg said the US was pushing to open "a special investigation" into Iran's past nuclear work, but "it's not gaining traction among the international officials who can make it happen."

The financial news provider said it had obtained documents and interviewed diplomats who attended a meeting between US officials and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna last week.

"American officials have been ratcheting up pressure at the International Atomic Energy Agency in recent weeks, threatening new sanctions and advocating for more aggressive inspections," Bloomberg said.

"However, the efforts are falling flat," it said, citing three diplomats who participated in the meeting.

It's a rare pushback for the US at the IAEA ... the episode illustrates the rising difficulty American officials face in convincing allies to follow the US on Iran," it added.

During the private meeting held on January 20 and attended by 70 diplomats assigned to the IAEA, the participants heard what hawkish US national security adviser John Bolton called "substantial evidence" that Iran had lied to IAEA inspectors.

"There is a sense that the administration is frustrated that their campaign to renegotiate the deal isn't working," said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"What we see is the US maximum pressure campaign is heating up even further," she added.

The diplomats said the fresh US allegation was based on an analysis by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Institute for Science and International Security, which used data supplied by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has on several occasions drawn international ridicule for his allegations about Iran's "secret" nuclear activities.

Last September, Netanyahu went to the UN to show pictures of an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons storage site, which turned out to be a carpet cleaning factory, with the IAEA ignoring the claim.

"There has been a concern that the US and some other countries want to precipitate an inspection crisis," Geranmayeh said. "But there's been resistance to this. The deal's stakeholders feel they have a good grip on what's happening in Iran."

The US has been trying to coerce the Europeans into following its lead and withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which President Donald Trump renounced in May.

Since the US left, the deal's remaining powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK -- have struggled to provide the sanctions relief promised when Iran agreed to nuclear caps.

The Europeans are currently trying to put a special purpose vehicle designed to protect companies from US sanctions into operation, but are facing Washington's threats of retribution for any trade with Tehran.

Bloomberg cited the diplomats in Vienna as saying that "while they will continue engaging with the US, they want to avoid provoking a scenario that will escalate into a new crisis with Iran."

One envoy said the US was forcing the IAEA to "rehash 20-year-old information" which had been settled down by the nuclear agency, warning that it could shut the doors to diplomacy and lead to "tragic consequences".Japan's Iran oil loading to continue through March

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Sat / 26 January 2019 / 14:01

Tehran (ISNA) - Japanese refiners will continue to lift oil from Iran through March after receiving a waiver from U.S. sanctions on crude imports in November, Takashi Tsukioka, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said.

Japan resumed oil liftings from Iran this month after refiners Fuji Oil Co Ltd and Showa Shell Sekiyu KK loaded cargoes onto a tanker that is expected to arrive in Japan on Feb. 9, according to Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide.

Japan's oil refining industry will continue to ask its government to seek an extension of the U.S. sanctions waivers after the initial 180-day exemption is over in May, he said

Japanese refiners will likely be able to secure alternative supplies from other Middle Eastern countries, he added.

Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd plans to buy the remainder of its contractual volumes of Iranian oil between February and March, said Tsukioka, who also serves as Idemitsu's chairman.

Idemitsu is likely to renew its term contracts for Iranian oil although details have not been decided, he said.

End ItemAny move against Iran to cost invaders' economy, security: Military spox

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA -- An Iranian military official warned enemies about any unwise move against Iran which could cost their own economy and security.

Spokesman of the Iranian Armed Forces Abolfazl Shekarchi made the remarks in a news conference on Saturday.

He stressed those regional countries that are acting the dictated orders of the US, need to realize that Iran is not powerful in just missiles, air force, navy, and ground forces but it all other areas as well so if they take any moves against Iran, they will have nothing of their economies and securities left.

'Iran is not hostile to any countries unless they want to make a move against Iran with the support of the world hegemony,' said Brigadier General .

He said, 'As the Supreme Leader of Iran, [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei,] said, 'If the enemy strikes once, they will be struck tens of times by Iran and be severely punished.''

9417**1424Iran's Army "Eghtedar-e- 97" drills end in Isfahan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Isfahan, Jan 26, IRNA -- Great drills of "Eghtedar-e- 97"( Authority- 97) of Iran's Army Ground Force ended on Saturday afternoon with the achievement of all preset goals in the public area 'Nasrabad' of Isfahan.

In this 2-day drill, over 12,000 attacking forces carried out a variety of assault operations, unified assault and clean-up using rapid reaction forces.

In the "Authority- 97" exercise, armored units, artillery, rapid response, mechanized Infantry, martial engineering, telecommunications, and airborne, UAVs and Airborne units, with the support of Army Air Force fighters, were participated.

In the first stage of the exercise, after reconnaissance of UAVs and airborne helicopters, the 55th Airborne Brigade and the rapid reaction Brigade 25 fully-equipped entered the region with helicopters, and in addition to identification, they cleared and destroyed the enemy's elements, equipment and fortifications.

The Final stage of the Iranian Army Ground Forces' drills dubbed as 'Eghtedar-e- 97' (Authority- 97) started in the central province of Isfahan on Saturday.

The event was held with the attendance of Commander-in-Chief of Iran Army Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi.

The drills started on Friday.

'Eghtedar-e- 97' spokesman Brigadier General Nouzar Nemati said that during the first stage of the last day of the drills which kicked off on Friday, the portable and stable artilleries targeted enemies' positions in 10-30 km distances with precision-guided and intelligent shells.

According to the official, 'during the second stage, the infantry and armored units annihilated enemies' positions by conducting offensive operation.

Earlier, in a press conference, Commander of Iranian Army's Ground Force Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari told reporters that 12,000 assault forces executed modern combat tactics in compliance with new structural changes in the Ground Force of the Iranian Army.

He noted that two changes of approach 'mobility and invasion', which had been fulfilled in the force was also assessed.

He went on to say that heliborne operation was implemented by heavy-lift Chinook helicopter and Bell-214 helicopter as well.

9455**2050Saudi Arabia blacklisted for lax control on terror financing: Report

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 07:44AM

Saudi Arabia has reportedly been included in an EU draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc due to their alleged lax control on money laundering and terrorism financing.

An EU source and a Saudi source told Reuters on Friday that the European Commission had added Riyadh to its blacklist, which already includes 16 states based on criteria used by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based watchdog.

The EU claims that the countries blacklisted "have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regimes that pose significant threats to the financial system of the Union."

The bloc has recently taken a new methodology, under which jurisdictions may also be blacklisted if they fail to provide sufficient information on ownership of companies or if they have lax rules on reporting suspicious transactions or monitoring financial customers.

The EU's decision to include Saudi Arabia in its blacklist needs an endorsement by the bloc's 28 member states before being formally adopted next week.

The updated list is still confidential, according to the two sources.

Saudi Arabia is under mounting pressure over the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh's Istanbul consulate in October 2018. The killing is widely believed to have been ordered by the kingdom's US-backed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Riyadh has sought to distance bin Salman from the case despite the conclusion by US senators and the CIA that he was behind the murder.

The possible blacklist would further complicate Saudi Arabia's financial ties as the EU's banks are required to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from listed jurisdictions.

Capital Economics halves Saudi growth forecast for 2019

Separately on Friday, a report from London-based research firm Capital Economics found that key economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to be hard hit this year as oil output drops and governments rein in spending.

Saudi Arabia, the report said, will see its growth almost cut in half to 1.3 percent in 2019, down from 2.5 percent last year.

It further predicted the kingdom's return to austerity in the latter half of the year, saying the planned generous spending announced in the Saudi budget is likely based on dodgy assumptions.

"The budget seemed to be based on an optimistic forecast for oil to average $80 [per barrel]," the report added.

This is while Saudi Arabia is struggling with the high cost of its protracted war on Yemen.

It has signed multi-billion-dollar contracts to purchase weapons and military equipment from several western countries amid stiff resistance from the Yemenis.

During Trump's visit to Riyadh in May 2017, Saudi Arabia agreed to buy $110 billion worth of US weapons and signed other "investment" deals worth $350 billions.

In September, Trump called on Saudi Arabia to increase its military spending, with an eye on more weapons sales to the "rich" kingdom.U.S. gov't shutdown ends, but border issue remains

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 14:45, January 26, 2019

Friday saw the end of the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown. But the issue that started it -- border security -- remains unresolved.

On the day, the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law a bill funding the government for three weeks and put 800,000 federal employees back to work, but without a deal yet with Congress on his desire for 5.7 billion U.S. dollars to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, which means the bargaining on the wall will go on.

Trump has for two years promised his supporters a wall to stop the tide of illegal immigration coming from the U.S. southern border. But Democrats said the wall is expensive, sends the wrong message to neighbors, and is unlikely to fix the problem.

A month-long impasse followed the Dec. 22 shutdown, whereby Democrats refused to fund the wall and Trump refused to re-open the government, leaving nearly a million federal workers without pay. Political pressure mounted, as polls showed Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown.

"Trump was suffering serious political backlash against his instigation of the government shutdown," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"Republicans were being blamed much more for the shutdown than Democrats and that led many Senate Republicans to push for a resolution. They needed to limit the political fallout so that it does not torpedo GOP party prospects next year," West said.

The White House said Trump signed into law the "Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019," which includes funding for the federal government through Feb. 15.

Trump said in a speech on Friday that if an agreement can't be reached by Feb. 15 and the government is shut once again, he would use his presidential authority to deal with what he billed "a national emergency."

"As commander-in-chief, my highest priority is the defense of our great country," he said.

BORDER SECURITY

It remains unknown now how Trump will address border security going forward. Trump reiterated his previous thoughts about the possibility of declaring a "national emergency" -- a legal mechanism that would allow the president to use the military to build the wall. But he added that he didn't want to use that option.

Justin Bogie, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told Xinhua that all indications are that Trump "would declare a national emergency if border security negotiations fail. Trump has fairly broad power to do so, though it would almost certainly be challenged in the court system."

West said declaring a national emergency would lead to a court case "that will drag out for months. Trump will go into his re-election campaign not having much construction to show voters, even if he wins that case."

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, told Xinhua Trump has "reserved the right to declare such an emergency, but there will also be pressure from Congress, including Republican members, to avoid setting that precedent regarding the balance of powers."

POLITICAL SETBACK

Mahaffee said Friday's ending of the shutdown was a "significant setback for President Trump," as Democrats remained united and pressure rose on the White House to reopen government.

"The President's approval ratings were falling as the shutdown went on. The public was increasingly concerned about the impact of the shutdown on the economy, small business, and federal workers."

"As this goes ahead, there will be a window for some negotiation, but there is not the appetite -- either in Congress or among the American people--for the type of wall that the President and the Trump base desire," Mahaffee said.

Writing for CNN, Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, argued that Friday was a major win for House Speaker and Trump nemesis Nancy Pelosi.

"Trump leaves the budget battle without getting what he wanted, badly damaged with the electorate, including among some Republican voters, and with the first cracks having emerged among congressional Republicans. This was not how he wanted to head into the (new) year," Zelizer said.

Trump's base, many of whom are white, working class males, believe illegal migrants create lower wages and take their jobs, and it remains unknown how Trump's base will receive the president's actions in the lead up to the 2020 elections.Venezuela Defence Attache to Washington Recognizes Guaido as President

Sputnik News

00:33 27.01.2019(updated 02:42 27.01.2019)

The Venezuelan defence attache to Washington DC said that he recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido Marquez (Guaido) as interim president, having broken with Maduro's government.

Col. Jose Luis Silva, a military attache at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, told the US Spanish-language daily newspaper El Nuevo Herald on Saturday that he did not recognize Nicolas Maduro as the Venezuelan president.

"As the Venezuelan defense attache in the United States, I do not recognize Mr. Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela My message to all armed forces members, to everyone who carries a gun, is to please let's not attack the people. We are also part of the people, and we've had enough of supporting a government that has betrayed the most basic principles and sold itself to other countries," Silva said.

The attache also called on other armed forces members to recognize Guaido as the nation's legitimate president.

The situation in Venezuela escalated on Tuesday, when the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared that Maduro had usurped power. Guaido proclaimed himself interim president on the following day.

The United States, alongside a handful other nations, recognized Guaido, after which Maduro called the opposition leader a US puppet and accused the US of organizing a coup in Venezuela. The Venezuelan president also ceased diplomatic relations with Washington DC and gave US diplomats 72 hours to leave the country.

 SputnikLast Group of US Diplomats Left Venezuela - Maduro

Sputnik News

02:49 27.01.2019(updated 02:50 27.01.2019)

CARACAS (Sputnik) - The last group of US diplomats has left Venezuela earlier in the day, said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, adding that he had tasked the country's foreign ministry to launch talks with the United States on creation of so-called offices of mutual interests in the countries within 30 days.

Earlier in the day, the ministry released a statement announcing that the offices would be created.

"They [US diplomats] have already left the country, the last group left today," Maduro said in his address for a Venezuelan youth organization.

Talking about the offices of mutual interests, the president recalled that a similar body had been operating in Cuba, which has no diplomatic relations with the United States, during a year. He said that the work of the offices would be organized like it was in Cuba.

Earlier, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the United States and Venezuela will hold talks within 30 days on creation of "offices of mutual interests" in the countries' capitals, and during this period the diplomas from the US and the Venezuelan embassies will be allowed not to leave the countries where they are working.

The ministry recalled that the diplomats had started leaving the embassies on Friday.

"The two governments have agreed to hold talks on creating an office of mutual interests in each capital. In these offices, migration procedures will be carried out, and other issues of mutual interest will be solved in strict compliance with the international laws in case of bilateral ties rupture. Agreement should be reached within 30 days," the statement read.

The ministry specified that diplomats from the US Embassy in Venezuela and the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States had been allowed to remain in the countries where they work in order to participate in these talks.

"During the agreed period they will be under diplomatic protection, but will have to conduct activities exclusively in the embassies," the statement read on.

On Tuesday, the situation in Venezuela, which has been hit by mass protests since the beginning of the week, escalated when the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared that Maduro had usurped power. Opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself interim president on the following day.

The United States along with some other states recognized Guaido as the interim president, after which Maduro accused the United States of organizing a coup in Venezuela. Maduro also decided to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States and asked US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours.

 SputnikPompeo Urges International Support for Venezuelan Opposition Leader

By Margaret Besheer January 26, 2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side," Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

Several European governments, including Britain, Spain, Germany and France, said Saturday they would recognize the 35-year-old Guaido as president if no election is called within eight days.

The United States requested the Security Council meeting. Pompeo was accompanied by his newly appointed special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams.

Pompeo called the Maduro regime an "illegitimate mafia state" and criticized countries including Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for supporting him.

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia shot back that regime change is "a favorite geopolitical game of the United States," and he asked Secretary Pompeo directly whether the Trump administration plans to militarily intervene in Venezuela.

"Does that mean that the United States is ready to use military force against a sovereign state under a bogus pretext?" Nebenzia asked. "It is here in this room that we need to hear a clear answer: whether Washington intends once again to violate the U.N. Charter?"

Pompeo offered no response at the meeting and sidestepped a reporter's question about it during a brief interaction with the press, saying he would not speculate on what the U.S. would do next.

Venezuela held presidential elections on May 20, 2018. Many voters boycotted, saying the polls were not free and fair. Several opposition members also were prevented from running. Incumbent president Maduro won with nearly 70 percent of the vote, but the results have been challenged both domestically and abroad. He was sworn in for a second six-year term on January 10.

On January 23, the democratically-elected National Assembly  which is controlled by the opposition  declared Maduro's rule illegitimate. Invoking constitutional provisions, National Assembly leader Guaido declared himself interim president until there are new elections.

Maduro has accused Washington of instigating a coup d'etat and told U.S. diplomats to leave the country. His foreign minister traveled to New York for the Security Council meeting.

Minister Jorge Arreaza told the council that despite Washington's intervention and tweets from Secretary Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence that he said incited and support the opposition and urge security forces to defect from Maduro, his government is still willing to talk to Washington.

He also dismissed the eight-day deadline from the Europeans.

"Europe is giving us eight days?" Arreaza asked with incredulity. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or ultimatum to a sovereign people?"

He also took a swipe at Washington for past interventions in Iraq and Libya and the Trump administration's recent announcement that it will pull its small military force from Syria.

"You recall what happened with Saddam Hussein or [Moammar] Ghadafi. Despite all assurances, they were killed," he noted. "The United States is withdrawing forces from Syria, are they going to try to start a new war in Latin America? In Venezuela? We are not going to give them that satisfaction."

Several Latin American countries sent envoys to the meeting.

Peru, a Security Council member, said it has been directly affected by the exodus of some 3 million Venezuelans fleeing the violence and humanitarian crisis. It has received 700,000 refugees.

Colombia, which has taken in more than 1 million Venezuelans, sent its foreign minister.

Carlos Trujillo asked the council to help his country address the refugee crisis and support the delivery of humanitarian aid to Venezuela. He also appealed to the council to protect opposition leader Guiado and members of the national assembly. He urged new free and fair elections.

But other Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Cuba, came to express support for Maduro.

The United Nations political chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned council members that the situation is "cause for serious concern."

"The protracted crisis in the country has had a grave impact on the population, with high levels of political polarization, growing humanitarian needs and serious human rights concerns," DiCarlo said.

On Friday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for talks to defuse the political tensions in Venezuela, saying that the situation "may rapidly spiral out of control with catastrophic consequences."

Fern Robinson contributed to this report.US, Taliban May Have Reached Accord on Troop Exit, VOA Told

By Ayaz Gul January 26, 2019

The United States and the Taliban may have agreed on a plan for American troops to leave Afghanistan, sources privy to the development told VOA Saturday. In return, the insurgent group has given assurances that no international terrorist groups would be allowed to use Afghan soil to threaten America or any other country in the future.

The understanding is the outcome of nearly a week of intense, uninterrupted dialogue between U.S. and insurgent representatives in Doha, Qatar. Representatives of the host government and Pakistan also have been in attendance.

The sources told VOA they expected the two negotiating sides to announce the withdrawal plan by Monday at the latest, if all goes as planned. The U.S. drawdown plan would require the Taliban to observe a cease-fire. Both the withdrawal and the cease-fire, however, will be "limited and conditional."

Sources did not rule out the possibility that President Donald Trump might announce and give details of the final agreement with the Taliban at his State of the Union speech, whenever that is scheduled.

The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been leading the American side in what observers describe as an unprecedented engagement between the two adversaries in the 17-year-old war.

Still work to do

Khalilzad tweeted late Saturday that after six days in Doha, he was headed to Afghanistan for consultations.

"We have a number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and 'everything' must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive cease-fire," he said.

Khalilzad described his meetings in Doha as "more productive than they have been in the past" and added that the two sides had made "significant progress on vital issues." He did not elaborate and said the talks would resume shortly.

Late Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet, "Encouraging news from @US4AfghanPeace (Khalilzad). He reports significant progress in talks with the Taliban on #Afghanistan reconciliation."

He added later, "The U.S. is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home. Working with the Afghan gov't & all interested parties, the U.S. seeks to strengthen Afghan sovereignty, independence & prosperity."

Shortly after Khalilzad's tweets, the Taliban issued their own statement, saying the negotiations "revolving around the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and other vital issues saw progress."

"The policy of the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] during talks was very clear  until the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible," the group noted.

But the issues under consideration are of "critical nature and needed comprehensive discussions," the group said.

The Taliban added that the two sides would share details of the Doha meetings and receive guidance from their "respective leaderships" before they reconvened to discuss "unsolved" matters to find an "appropriate and effective solution." The Taliban statement did not explain further.

Sources told VOA they believed the agreement on a conditional and limited withdrawal and cease-fire would give both sides an opportunity to test the waters "without taking too huge a political risk."

Pakistan takes credit

Officials in Pakistan took full credit for persuading the Taliban to engage in the dialogue at the U.S. request.

"Pakistan's success is that it has sincerely and faithfully diverted the recent positive environment and energy in its relations with the U.S. to the complete benefit of the Afghan peace process, and Afghanistan as a whole," a senior official told VOA as the talks progressed in Doha.

Islamabad insists a peaceful Afghanistan is key to Pakistan's future security and economic stability as well as those of the region in general.

Pakistani officials believe any agreement at this stage will help bridge the trust gap between the U.S. and the Taliban and will "add much needed political capital" to Washington's account to achieve the ultimate goal of peace in Afghanistan. This agreement may prove an important asset in later, more serious stages of negotiations, they said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's nascent government, which has made resolution of the Afghan conflict its top foreign policy priority, sees continued U.S. involvement in Afghanistan reconstruction as key to the future security and economic stability of the region.

"This political reconciliation must succeed. ... We wish that the U.S. leaves Afghanistan as friend of the region, not as a failure," Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor stated prior to the Doha talks.

Afghan president's outburst

It is not clear whether the Taliban have agreed to talk directly with President Ashraf Ghani's national unity government in Afghanistan, an administration that critics say remains fragile, is marred with political controversies and suffers from "disunity."

The Taliban have so far refused to engage with the Afghan government in a peace process, dismissing it as an illegitimate entity and an "American puppet."

Speaking during the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Ghani for the first time publicly criticized the Khalilzad-led peace effort and indicated the Afghan government might not accept any possible outcome of the Doha talks.

Ghani warned that any truce the U.S. signs with the Taliban must pave the way for direct talks between his government and the insurgents to decide all issues, including foreign troop withdrawal.

"There's discussion, but this discussion needs to be shared back. A discussion that does not involve the region, we will not trust," Ghani said when asked whether the talks in Qatar were nearing a breakthrough.

"If we don't get all the pieces right, one piece alone doesn't suffice," he added.

During his interaction, Ghani also revealed that since he took office in late 2014, Afghan security forces have lost more than 45,000 personnel while battling the Taliban. The United Nations continues to document record levels of civilian casualties in its annual reports. Millions of others have been made refugees within Afghanistan, and the warfare discourages many more from returning from refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran.

Aside from the humanitarian consequences of the fighting, it has cost the United States nearly $1 trillion while its military has lost nearly 2,500 personnel. The presence of 14,000 American soldiers means Washington will continue to pay around $45 billion annually to sustain operations if peace talks fail to produce desired results.

An American university research report released late last year noted that the Afghan war had killed about 150,000 people, including government forces, insurgents, U.S. and personnel of the NATO-led coalition. The U.S.-led military invasion stemmed from terrorist attacks on American cities in September 2001 that were plotted by al-Qaida, allegedly out of its bases in Afghanistan.KC-46 hits milestone at Edwards AFB

By Brig. Gen. E. John Teichert, 412th Test Wing commander / Published January 26, 2019

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- Fielding began last week on America's newest air refueling tanker aircraft  the KC-46 Pegasus. Operationalizing a new military aircraft does not happen often, but when it does, it typically goes through Edwards Air Force Base  the center of the aerospace testing universe. Regardless of whether it is a frequent or a rare occurrence, hitting a milestone like this should be a huge source of pride for our entire team.

Fielding the KC-46 provides a massive boost to our nation's warfighting capabilities in a world characterized by competition from near-peer adversaries. We would not have reached this point without the amazing accomplishments of the 412th Test Wing.

The KC-46 is not perfect. Yet, strategic leaders at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and the Pentagon would not have been in a position to field it now without the knowledge we provided to them to understand and mitigate problems. It was our team who discovered faults. It was our team who raised concerns. It was our team who collaborated with the contractors, the program office and the end-users to fix shortcomings.

The warfighter deserves the best capability possible. As such, we will continue to be intimately involved in molding and shaping this new aircraft into a fully-effective and suitable warfighting machine. Along with our operational test, program office and contractor partners, it will be our team who verifies fixes. It will be our team who ensures that requirements are met. It will be our team who refines the capability into the needs of the warfighter. It will be our team who completes the certifications to refuel the entire range of U.S. and ally military receivers. It will be our team who helps create the roadmap for next-generation refueling capabilities beyond those currently on the drawing board.

It was the Global Reach Combined Test Force and the 418th Flight Test Squadron who played the most significant role in this massive accomplishment. Operations, maintenance, engineering and program management were at the forefront of this substantial test and evaluation effort. Yet, we should never lose sight of the fact that our entire team played a critical role. It required the efforts of defenders, logisticians, strategic planners, medics, firefighters, trainers, inspectors and educators. It required expertise in communications, contingencies, finance, safety, intelligence, facilities, civil engineering, services, security and personnel. It required those who create a safe environment, a positive climate and a trained workforce. Ultimately, it required a complete focus on shaping America's arsenal as we strive together for the warfighter.

The KC-46 will not be the last aircraft whose fielding path comes through our organization, as the U.S. military's next trainer and next bomber are already on the books to perform the bulk of their testing here. When the time comes for the test and evaluation of America's next remotely piloted aircraft and newest fighter, they will likely arrive on our doorstep as well. It is because the world knows our team is comprised of reliable experts and focused professionals who provide world-class test and evaluation for the warfighter.Remarks at a United Nations Security Council Meeting on Venezuela

Remarks

Michael R. Pompeo

Secretary of State

United Nations

New York City

January 26, 2019

Good morning. On behalf of President Trump and the American people I first want to thank Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas of the Dominican Republic, the current president of the Security Council, for scheduling this meeting. My former colleague, Ambassador Haley, lobbied for a year to get the council to address Venezuela but her pleas fell on deaf ears. This meeting is long overdue. And you all know why it's overdue.

Take Carlos Aquino, a 37-year-old construction worker, weeping over the tiny coffin of his deceased infant son who had died of starvation.

Such scenes of misery are now the norm in Nicolas Maduro's Venezuela where millions of children are suffering from malnutrition and starvation thanks to a socialist experiment that caused the economy to collapse. This human misery isn't a secret. Stories like this one are well documented by our press corps. You can read about men like Carlos every day. People like him are why the United States has called this meeting.

We're here because Maduro has reduced ordinary Venezuelans who once lived in prosperity to rooting through dumpsters to find something to eat.

We're here because scores of Venezuelan women, some of them teenagers, have fled Maduro's madness to other countries, and in desperation turned to prostitution to survive.

We're here because of Maria Vielma, a school psychologist who said through tears, "We have a government that is dedicated to destroying, not to constructing."

Another man, a farmer named Vladimir Sequera, who never got more than a sixth grade education but he hoped that his stepdaughter Gabriela could fulfill her dreams of being a lawyer  she now says, "Our whole future has been taken away." That future, for her and all Venezuelans, didn't magically disappear on its own. The Maduro regime's failed policies, oppression, and corruption stole that future.

The United States is helping to recover a brighter future for Venezuela. We're here to urge all nations to support the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from former President Maduro's illegitimate mafia state.

The humanitarian situation demands action now; it demands action today. Today nine out of ten citizens live in poverty. Millions lack access to drinking water and food. Three out of four hospitals have been abandoned. Three million Venezuelans have been forced to flee their homeland thereby flooding the region and threatening international peace and security. Maduro's prisons are full of political prisoners unjustly behind bars and the graveyards hold dissidents and protesters that have been killed by this regime.

I want to talk to you about just one of them, a member of the city council of Caracas named Fernando Alban. Just four months ago he came here to this city to meet with the world's representatives who gather here every year during the United Nations General Assembly. He came here to speak about the failures of the Maduro regime and about his hopes for a more democratic and a more prosperous future for his country.

After that he went home. He went home to the country that he loved. Maduro's secret police arrested him at the airport as soon as he landed. He died in their custody three days later and the pathetic explanations for this death have convinced absolutely no one.

The time is now to support the Venezuelan people, to recognize the new democratic government led by interim President Guaido, and end this nightmare. No excuses.

The United States stands with the Venezuelan people. So far, many other nations have chosen to do the same and they too have recognized the legitimate government of interim President Guaido. The United States stands proudly with you as we stand together in support of Venezuela. You knew the Venezuelan people did not have a moment to spare.

And now it's time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem.

Some countries have publicly taken former President Maduro's side. China, Russia, Syria, and Iran are just four of them. Just this morning we tried to find a way for this council to speak in one voice in support of the Venezuelan people and the democratic ideals through a presidential statement on this council, but our Russian and Chinese colleagues refused to let this move forward. It's not a surprise that those who rule without democracy in their own countries are trying to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits.

Nor are these countries supporting international norms as they cynically claim. China and Russia are propping up a failed regime in hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years. This money was never intended to help the Venezuelan people, it lined the pockets of the Maduro regime, its cronies, and its benefactors.

But no regime has done more to sustain the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people than the regime in Havana. For years, Cuban security and intelligence thugs, invited into Venezuela by Maduro himself and those around him, have sustained this illegitimate rule. They have trained Maduro's security and intelligence henchmen in Cuba's own worst practices. Cuba's interior ministry even provides a former  provides former President Maduro's personal security. Members of this body often use their microphones here to condemn foreign interference in internal affairs. Let's be crystal clear: the foreign power meddling in Venezuela today is Cuba. Cuba has directly made matters worse and the United States and our partners are the true friends of the Venezuelan people.

On Wednesday, the Venezuelan people chose to take their country back on the anniversary of the day the dictator Marcos Jimenez Perez was forced out of power back in 1958.

We call for Venezuelans to work now together to peacefully restore the constitutional government and return the country to a secure, democratic, and prosperous path. As we read reports of peaceful Venezuelan protesters killed or wounded, we also repeat our insistence that Venezuela's security services show restraint.

And I want to be 100 percent clear: President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our own people.

We hope that the international community will support the people of Venezuela and the transitional government led by Juan Guaido. On January 23rd, Guaido declared himself interim president of Venezuela in accordance with Venezuela's own constitution. He made this declaration with the full support of the National Assembly and of the Venezuelan people. Our nations must stand up for the rule of law and support the leader who the Venezuelan people have affirmed as their legitimate interim president. It is our hope that free and fair elections happen as soon as possible.

Back in 1961, President Kennedy spoke in Caracas. He declared, "We will be partners in building a better life for our people."

America's ambition has not changed since that day. We stand with the Venezuelan people as they seek to build a better life for themselves and we cannot ignore the suffering or tyranny taking place in this proud nation. Neither should other countries who care about freedom and prosperity.

Today we call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuela's democratic transition and interim President Guaido's role in it. Thank you.Remarks at a Press Stakeout

Remarks

Michael R. Pompeo

Secretary of State

United Nations

New York City

January 26, 2019

SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning. The United States is very proud that we had a long overdue meeting here of the UN Security Council today and we are equally proud to stand with the Venezuelan people as they protest and restore democracy in their nation. Former President Maduro's socialist experiment has ruined a once proud nation, as I said earlier, and we're  we stand with the Venezuelan people to restore democracy and return that country to its rightful condition. Got a whole nation starving, massive malnutrition, refugees fleeing. This is an international crisis to be sure. And nations like Cuba and Russia and China have shamefully cast their lot in support of the former president. They don't have the best interests of the Venezuelan people at heart.

We hope that every nation will join us in recognizing interim president Juan Guaido. We hope too that each of those nations will ensure that they disconnect their financial systems from the Maduro regime and allow the assets that belong to the Venezuelan people to go to the rightful governors of that state.

We hope too that this peaceful transition can continue. We must stand for the rule of law and support the leader who the Venezuelan people have affirmed through their constitution as the interim president of their country.

Happy to take a couple questions.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR PALLADINO: Reuters, Michelle Nichols.

QUESTION: Hi. Thank you.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Hi.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Michelle Nichols from Reuters. Couple of questions. First of all, in there the Russian ambassador had a very direct question for you about the U.S. taking military action. If you'd like to answer that here, feel free.

What economic measures does the U.S. plan to impose on Venezuela? And do you think the Venezuelan opposition should assume the UN seat here, and does the U.S. plan to draft a General Assembly resolution to make that happen?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Michelle, let me take two of those three questions. First, this is the first step of what we hope will be real progress here at the United Nations. We think every member of the United Nations ought to join in support of Venezuelan people, so we will continue to work to get more and more support. We're already a great deal along the way and we do think that there will be appropriate resolutions when the time is right, and we'll certainly support those. They won't come just from us, they'll come from other nations who care deeply about the Venezuelan people as well.

The other two questions involve what the United States will do next. I'm not going to speculate or hypothesize. I know only this: we're determined to support the Venezuelan people so that they can ultimately have the democratic institutions they deserve and they can return this once vibrant, wealthy, wonderful nation to its rightful place.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --

MR PALLADINO: Voice of America. Voice of America, Celia Mendoza.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Secretary. So what exactly are you prepared to do for the Venezuelan people? You had announced the $20 million in humanitarian aid, and also today you said something in your speech: it is "time for every nation to pick a side." Will the U.S. consider secondary sanctions against countries who recognize the Maduro regime, like Washington did in Iran?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So the United States has already done a great deal for the Venezuelan people. We will continue to do that. You mentioned the initial monies, $20 million, to ensure that food and medicine and we can get some level of order to begin to be restored. There'll be much more to do. We'll call upon other nations. We will join with them to create development and humanitarian assistance projects that actually deliver for the Venezuelan people. Those are all part of what will come when we get the democratic changes that we're working towards achieving.

You had a second question too?

QUESTION: About secondary sanctions possibly for nations --

SECRETARY POMPEO: Yeah, again, I'm not going to speculate on what other processes the United States might undertake, but know that we think now that the National Assembly is the rightful governing body. They've chose interim President Juan Guaido to represent them and so we think that the resources that belong to the Venezuelan people ought to go to the leaders that they have under their constitution duly elected.

Anybody else?

QUESTION: Sanction anybody that will do business with them?

SECRETARY POMPEO: I'm not going to speculate on what we're going to do next.

MR PALLADINO: (Inaudible) final question. Associated Press, Edith Lederer, please. Edith?

I'm sorry.

QUESTION: (Off-mike.)

MR PALLADINO: (Inaudible) CBS right here. (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Secretary  Mr. Secretary, it's Pamela Falk from CBS. How concerned are you about the military-to-military contact between Russia and the deliveries of equipment last month to Venezuela, and have you had any contact with the military of Venezuela? Thank you.

SECRETARY POMPEO: So I spoke this morning about Cuban security and Russian influence, Russian interference. We want the Venezuelan people to have their say. And so the Russians have chosen to support the Maduro regime, I hope they'll change their way, I hope they will come to see that the rightful people to run this country are those that the Venezuelan people chose. And so we'll have conversations with every country, including the Russians. We'll talk with the Chinese, we'll talk with everyone. We think the whole world ought to get behind what it is that the Venezuelan people have demanded for their country.

Thank you. Thank you all.Maduro Announces Military Drills: 'Armed Forces Make Our Country Unapproachable'

Sputnik News

07:36 26.01.2019(updated 07:40 26.01.2019)

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik)  Venezuela will hold exercises in mid-February, during which its armed forces will demonstrate how they can protect the country during an invasion, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Friday.

"Our armed forces will have exercises on February 10-15: drills on infiltration into our territory, on protection of territories, coasts, rivers, on military and civil mobilization. Our armed forces make our country unapproachable," Maduro told a press conference, adding that the army was able to resist any imperialist enemy that would come to the territory of Venezuela.

Maduro added that Venezuela's people and Armed Forces will prevent the coup that Washington intends to stage.

"Millions of people across the world know that Venezuela is a democratic country and that an anti-Venezuela coup is being implemented by the United States Today we can say that this is a new version of a coup, with absurd arguments, without any grounds or logic. Venezuelan people will not let this happen. The Venezuelan Armed Forces will not let this happen," Maduro said.

President Nicolas Maduro also said that Venezuela is grateful to the United States for convening the UN Security Council meeting on the political situation in the country, the Venezuelan foreign minister will travel to New York to defend Venezuela's interests.

"The United States has proposed a debate on Venezuela in the UN Security Council, let it be a debate, we welcome it, this is what we wanted. Thank you very much, Mr. [US Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo. The foreign minister will go to New York I told the minister that he was going to New York to defend Venezuela," Maduro said at a news conference broadcast on Twitter.

Maduro said that he saw no reason to resign, since no conditions for this move were in place according to the country's constitution.

During a press conference, Maduro cited the reasons for Venezuelan president to resign stipulated in the country's constitution: death, health condition, dismissal, a decision by the Supreme Court.

"There's no reason why I should leave my post. I am alive, I am healthy. I am not obliged to leave my post due to any of these reasons, and I will not do this," Maduro said.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the interim president of Venezuela. The United States shortly afterwards called on Maduro to step down and let Guaido assume his post.

Maduro responded by saying that Washington had attempted to stage a coup in Venezuela and announced his decision to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States. He also suggested that Guaido was a "US puppet." However, on Friday, Maduro expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Guaido, but the opposition leader ruled out the possibility of communication.

 SputnikVenezuela Opposition Head Declared Himself President After Pence's Call  Report

Sputnik News

09:57 26.01.2019(updated 10:00 26.01.2019)

The report comes a few days after US President Donald Trump tweeted that he "officially recognised" Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's Interim President.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the country's Interim President after he received a call on Tuesday from US Vice President Mike Pence, who pledged Washington's support for Guaido, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

The WSJ cited an unnamed senior US administration official as saying that Pence promised that the White House would back Guaido if "he seized the reins of government" from President Nicolas Maduro by invoking a clause in Venezuela's constitution.

The source claimed that Pence's late-night call was part of Washington's secret plan it had developed over several weeks to try to oust Maduro and recognise Guaido as Venezuela's Interim President.

The source referred to previous talks between "US officials, allies, lawmakers and key representatives of the Venezuelan opposition, including with Guaido himself".

Trump had long perceived Venezuela as one of his top three foreign policy priorities, including Iran and North Korea, the source claimed, adding that the White House's plan to topple Maduro was partly driven by key members of the Trump administration in the National Security Council and anti-Maduro advocates in Congress.

"In late December/early January, they [administration officials] started talking to the [Venezuelan] opposition. The opposition at this point believed, and told US officials, that they needed the international community's backing to affect the political dynamic inside Venezuela", the source said.

On 2 January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Colombian President Ivan Duque allegedly spoke about how they could "collaborate with regional and international partners to help those who are fleeing Venezuela and return Venezuela to its democratic heritage".

On January 10, Pompeo held talks with Guaido and pledged US support "to work on a path to a democratic future for his country". Shortly after, the US State Department said in a statement related to Venezuela that "it is time to begin the orderly transition to a new government", according to the source.

Venezuela's political crisis escalated this week after an abortive uprising in the capital by members of the national guard. Following the incident, Venezuela's Supreme Court dismissed opposition leader Juan Guaido from his post as National Assembly chairman.

On Wednesday, Guaido declared himself the country's Interim President, with the US, Canada, and allies in Latin America recognising the politician as such. Caracas responded by announcing that it would be breaking off relations with the United States.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, described the US policy toward Venezuela as "destructive", adding that Moscow considers Washington's open calls for insurrection in the Latin American country "unacceptable".

 SputnikUS Considers Keeping Troops at al-Tanf, Syria to Counter Iran Amid Exit - Report

Sputnik News

11:41 26.01.2019

Earlier this month, an anonymous source told AFP news agency that the US has started withdrawing non-essential equipment from Syria, though American military personnel remain deployed in the Middle Eastern country. The troop pull-out was announced by President Trump in December 2018.

Despite President Trump's previous pledge to withdraw US troops from Syria, Washington is considering keeping some troops in al-Tanf, a strategic base in southeastern Syria, to counter Iran's regional clout, according to Foreign Policy magazine.

"Al-Tanf is a critical element in the effort to prevent Iran from establishing a ground line of communications from Iran through Iraq through Syria to southern Lebanon in support of Lebanese Hezbollah," an unnamed senior US military source told the magazine.

Iran has repeatedly been accused of having a military presence in Syria, as well as attempting to build a base there. However, Tehran has strongly refuted the claims, insisting that its military presence in the country is limited to sending military advisers at Damascus' behest to help fight terrorists.

Foreign Policy also cited a US government official as saying that staying at al-Tanf could raise legal issues for the Trump administration.

First of all, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force stipulates the use of force against non-state militants, rather than nations like Iran, no matter how problematic they may be.

Secondly, there is a question mark over President Trump's willingness to approve a plan that keeps US forces in Syria amid the current US troop withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country.

Earlier this month, Hilal Hilal, the assistant regional secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, said that Damascus would continue to demand the withdrawal of US troops from the al-Tanf base.

"We believe that any foreign base created on Syrian soil without the consent of the president and the government of Syria represents an occupation and aggressive forces. Of course, we will fight the existence of such bases on our territory," Hilal underscored.

His statement came after Trump announced on his Twitter page in mid-January that US troops in Syria are starting their pullout "while hitting the little remaining ISIS [Daesh*] terrorists from many directions".

The remarks followed a Pentagon official's statement, cited by AFP news agency, that the US is withdrawing non-essential equipment, not troops, from Syria "at this stage".

On 19 December, the White House announced plans to withdraw roughly 2,000 US troops from Syria within the next several months, 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.

The decision was slammed by some US officials and prompted two resignations: US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, who announced that his views were no longer aligned with Trump's, and Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the US coalition in Syria.

"Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries

 SputnikEU States Identically Raise Pressure on Maduro Ahead of UNSC Meeting - Moscow

Sputnik News

14:59 26.01.2019(updated 18:01 26.01.2019)

Some EU member states, namely France, Germany and Spain, are calling on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to hold a "free and transparent" snap election. Otherwise, they vow to follow the US example and recognise Juan Guaido as interim president of Venezuela.

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted on Saturday that the statements made by France, Germany, and Spain with regards to recognising Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president were identical and made by European leaders simultaneously, according to Maria Zakharova, the ministry's spokeswoman.

"The statements are not only identical, but they have been made simultaneously," she wrote in a Facebook post.

This observation comes after earlier in the day, Spain gave an ultimatum to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, saying that it would recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido as country's president if the incumbent leader fails to announce an election in eight days, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned.

"If a fair, free and transparent election in Venezuela is not convened within eight days, Spain will recognise Juan Guaido as the president of Venezuela," Sanchez said in an official statement.

At the same time, the German government said that it was also ready to recognise Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela if the similar conditions as brought forward by Madrid are not met, according to a government spokesman's statement posted on Twitter. A similar stance has been voiced by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Later in the day, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunts echoed these concerns, warning that Britain will recognise Juan Guaido if Venezuela fails to announce new elections in 8 days.

The statements come on Wednesday, after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the country's interim president, with the US, Canada, and allies in Latin America, recognising the politician as such.

Maduro, in his turn, accused Washington of attempting to stage a coup in Venezuela and announced his decision to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States.

 SputnikUS, Taliban Reportedly Finalise Draft of Peace Deal to End 17-Year War

Sputnik News

16:39 26.01.2019

The talks to finalise the agreement were held in Qatar, where the Taliban has a political office, and lasted six days - more than originally planned, according to Reuters.

Taliban representatives and US authorities finalised a proposed deal during the course of six days of negotiations in Qatar that would put an end to the Afghan war, which has raged in the country for 17 years, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing Taliban sources.

According to the source, the agreement highlights that the deal includes guarantees that al-Qaeda* and Daesh* will not be able to use Afghanistan as a base for terrorism.

Moreover, the deal urges teh foreign military forces that are present in the central Asian country to withdraw within 18 months, the source added.

After the negotiations, US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to inform President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul about the achieved progress.

The US embassy in Kabul has not yet confirmed the reports on the draft agreement and the envoy's visit to Afghanistan's capital.

On January 25, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that the US and the Taliban were nearing an agreement envisaging the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the insurgents' pledge to prevent terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda from infiltrating the country ever again.

Afghanistan is currently suffering from an unstable political, social and security situation due to the activity of the Taliban and Daesh*. The Taliban, an Islamic insurgent group, seized power in the country in 1996. The United States deployed its troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to fight al-Qaeda in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, saying that the country had become a safe haven for the terrorist network while the insurgents were in power. The US troops eventually overthrew the Islamists.

While most of the US troops had been withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Washington continues to support the Afghan armed forces in combating terrorism.

*al-Qaeda and Daesh are terrorist groups, banned in Russia

 SputnikUnited Nations Security Council Holds Emergency Meeting on Venezuela

Sputnik News

17:20 26.01.2019(updated 21:35 26.01.2019)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Venezuela. The political crisis in the country flared up as Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself the interim president.

Addressing the UN Security Council, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza demanded the proof of the election fraud, the United States and its allies claimed. He repeatedly recalled that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a legitimate head of state.

He continued questioning the logic behind the European states ultimatums put forward by Germany, UK, France and Spain earlier in the day. As he noted, Venezuela simply asks for respect of international laws, including the UN charter in the issue.

"Nobody is going to give us deadlines or tell us if there are elections or not," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza stated. "How is it that you can issue an ultimatum to a sovereign government?" he asked.

Speaking further, the minister stressed that Caracas hoped that the international body would convene on more meeting, aimed to find out who had been the initiator of a coup attempt in Venezuela.

"I hope that the Security Council will convene a meeting to evaluate who was behind this coup d'etat and to punish those who were behind it And they would not need a lot of intelligence because of the evidence is abundant," Arreaza said.

"It was Donald Trump who threatened the use of military force directly against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. How is that he was not even challenged or questioned by the entities of multilateralism?" Arreaza said.

In conclusion, Arreaza underlined that peace and stability would prevail in Venezuela despite foreign efforts to initiate a war there. At the end of his speech, he read a part of the Venezuelan constitution, noting that self-declaration as a president is not mentioned there.

Later on, commenting on the US statements during the meeting, the representative of Venezuela noted that dialogue with Washington and Donald Trump "stands and still on the table".

"We make it abundantly clear here, I quote a point that President [Nicolas] Maduro has made, it is our intention to establish communication and dialogue with the government of President Trump. That offer stands and is still on the table," Arreaza said at an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

US Accuses Cuba, Urges Int'l Community to Recognize Guaido as Interim President

In turn, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at the United Nations Security Council, blamed Venezuela's ongoing crisis on President Nicolas Maduro.

"We must support the Venezuelan people for the sake of peace in the region," Pompeo added.

Moreover, Mike Pompeo accused Cuba of worsening the situation in Venezuela.

"Cuba has directly made matters worse. And the United States and our partners are the true friends of the Venezuelan people," Pompeo said.

Also, he called on the international community to recognise Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela.

"Now we have a new leader, [Juan] Guaido, in Venezuela, who promised to bring elections and constitutional order back to Venezuela and security back to the region. We cannot delay this critical conversation, which has the world's attention. For the sake of Venezuela and the region, we must support the Venezuelan people and do so right now," Pompeo stressed.

The UN human rights office said that at least 20 people have died in the unrest in Venezuela, adding that the deaths should be subject to an impartial investigation.

Earlier, Bolivian President Evo Morales called the convening of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the current crisis in Venezuela, branding recent developments an "invasion" of the country's internal affairs.

France Calls on Venezuela Gov't to Respect National Assembly's Rights  Deputy Envoy to UN

Addressing the UN Security Council, Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative to the UN stated that France calls on Venezuela authorities to respect the rights of the National Assembly.

"France calls on the Venezuelan authorities to respect the rights of the National Assembly Given the fact that the National Assembly is the only democratically elected body in Venezuela. Given that the situation continues to deteriorate France urges the Venezuelan authorities to authorize and facilitate the work international humanitarian actors and NGOs that are seeking to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable men and women of the society, in particular, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly," Gueguen said.

Political Crisis in Venezuela

Venezuela's political crisis escalated after mass protests began against President Nicolas Maduro. Amid the rallies, the speaker of the country's parliament, Juan Guaido, declared himself the interim head of state. Guaido's interim presidency has been supported by around a dozen countries, including the US.

Following Guaido's move, Washington urged President Nicolas Maduro to step down and let Guaido assume his post.

 SputnikOpposition Leader Guaido Demands Early Election in Venezuela as Soon as Possible

Sputnik News

17:27 26.01.2019

MADRID (Sputnik) - Early elections in Venezuela should take place in six to nine months or earlier, and Venezuelans themselves must resolve the conflict in the country, the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-run National Assembly, opposition leader Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself Venezuela's interim president, said.

"Elections should be held as soon as possible But first, we need to improve the electoral system as soon as possible, so that there is one voter and one vote. We are talking about six or nine months, maybe less, but [it should be held] as soon as possible," Guaido told Antena3 broadcaster, answering a question about the possible timing of early elections.

The politician evasively answered a question on whether he was ready to ask for military assistance from other states if the situation develops against the interests of the opposition.

"Venezuela is a sovereign country, and Venezuelans themselves must resolve the conflict. But there is a humanitarian crisis, and children die every day, there must be a quick solution to this crisis and this conflict," Guaido added.

He reiterated that the opposition is not ready for negotiations with President Nicolas Maduro, because the authorities "are trying to gain time, as they did many times before."

"Free election is the only possible point for a real resolution of the political crisis," Guaido stressed.

Answering a question about a possible amnesty for President Nicolas Maduro, Guaido said that this will be possible only if the Venezuelan authorities cooperate to restore the constitutional order.

The situation in Venezuela escalated on Tuesday, when the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared that Maduro had usurped power. National Assembly speaker Guaido proclaimed himself interim president on the following day.

The United States along with some other states recognized Guaido, after which Maduro called the opposition leader a US puppet and accused the United States of organizing a coup in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan president also decided to cut off diplomatic relations with the United States and asked US diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours. However, the United States has refused to withdraw its diplomats.

 SputnikPompeo Calls On World To Stand With Venezuela's 'Forces Of Freedom'

By RFE/RL January 26, 2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on all United Nations members to recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo said at a January 26 special session of the UN Security Council, referring to Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, who Washington is urging to step down.

Pompeo called Maduro's government an "illegitimate mafia state" and said its "socialist experiment caused the economy to collapse," citing deep poverty and the collapse of services such as hospitals.

Pompeo also said he hoped countries who have expressed support for Venezuelan opposition leader Guaido also disconnect their financial system from Maduro's government.

"We hope too that each of those nations will ensure that they disconnect their financial systems from the Maduro regime and allow assets that belong to the Venezuelan people to go to the rightful governors of that state," Pompeo told reporters on the sidelines of the UN meeting on Venezuela.

Maduro has broken off diplomatic relations with Washington and ordered U.S. diplomatic staff to leave by January 27. Venezuela's government later stepped back from the order, saying the diplomats would be allowed to stay while the matter is being negotiated.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's defense attache to the United States broke with his government on January 26, saying he no longer recognized Maduro as president and supported Guaido as interim leader.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, told the Security Council on January 26 that Venezuela did not pose a threat to international peace and security and should not be on its agenda.

"If anything does represent a threat to peace, it is the shameless and aggressive actions of the United States and their allies in the ouster of the legitimate elected present of Venezuela," Nebenzya said.

He accused the United States of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" in Venezuela while demanding to know whether the Trump administration "is ready to use military force" against Maduro's government.

Ahead of the meeting, Germany, France, and Spain said they would recognize opposition leader Guaido as interim president if no elections were held within eight days.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline in his comments at the Security Council meeting.

"Europe is giving us eight days? Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people," Arreaza told the Security Council. "It's almost childlike."

"Venezuela will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order," he said.

Arreaza said Maduro's government still hoped to establish communication and dialogue with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. "That offer stands," he told the council.

Maduro has refused to step down after disputed elections last year, despite growing pressure from the opposition in Venezuela and internationally.

"We are not seeking to install or remove governments, we want democracy and free elections in Venezuela," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in Madrid.

In what appears to be a coordinated message from European Union countries, French President Manuel Macron sent a tweet echoing Sanchez's comments at almost the same time.

"The Venezuelan people must be able to freely decide their own future," Macron wrote.

Meanwhile, German government spokeswoman Martina Fietz said, "Unless elections are announced in the next eight days, we are ready to recognize Juan Guaido as interim president."

EU officials have stopped short of recognizing Guaido as interim president, instead calling for democratic elections.

The United States, Canada, and major regional players, including Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, have already thrown their support behind the opposition.

Other countries -- including Russia, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua -- have backed Maduro.

Russia has accused Washington of backing a coup attempt.

In press conferences on January 25, Guaido urged his sympathizers to stage another mass protest next week and told them that if he was arrested they should "stay the course" and peacefully protest, while Maduro called for dialogue.

Maduro won a second term in May elections widely seen as undemocratic and was sworn in on January 10 amid mounting international pressure on him to step down.

Guaido has described the situation in Venezuela as a "humanitarian emergency."

Despite possessing the largest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela has been in economic and political crisis for years.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un- security-council-to-meet-on-venezuela- political-crisis/29732523.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.U.S. Envoy Hails 'Significant Progress' In Talks With Taliban

By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan January 26, 2019

The U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan says progress had been made in six days of discussions with the Taliban in Qatar aimed at bringing an end to Afghanistan's 17-year conflict.

Zalmay Khalilzad said on Twitter on January 26 that no deal had been finalized with the militants, but he said further talks would resume shortly.

He also said that he was flying back to Afghanistan to discuss the talks.

"Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues," Khalilzad said in a tweet.

"We have a number of issues left to work out," he said, while adding that "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and 'everything' must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that while there was "progress" at the meetings, reports of an agreement on a cease-fire and talks with Kabul "are not true."

"Since issues are of critical nature and need comprehensive discussions, therefore it was decided that talks about unresolved matters will resume in similar future meetings," Mujahid said in a statement released on January 26.

The statement added that until the withdrawal of international troops was hammered out, "progress in other issues is impossible."

Earlier, unnamed Taliban sources quoted by Reuters had said that the hard-line Islamic group had offered assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by Al-Qaeda and the extremist group Islamic State (IS) to attack the United States and its allies.

"In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and cease-fire is implemented then other aspects of the peace process can be put into action," a Taliban source told Reuters, quoting from the draft.

More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital of Doha, Reuters reported, citing Taliban sources.

The Taliban has so far refused to hold direct talks with the Afghan government officials.

Khalilzad has held at least four meetings with Taliban representatives, but there has been no letup in the violence so far.

He has recently made visits to China, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in an effort to bring the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators together.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-envoy-hails-significant-progress- in-talks-with-taliban/29732996.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.Treasury: US stepping up economic measures to drive Maduro from power

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 02:35AM

The Trump administration says the US will step up economic measures against Venezuela in a bid to drive President Nicolas Maduro from power a day after Caracas severed diplomatic ties with Washington.

The Treasury Department issued a statement Friday, saying the US will use "its economic and diplomatic tools" to ensure that any commercial sales by Venezuela are consistent with Washington's recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state.

"The United States will use its economic and diplomatic tools to ensure that commercial transactions by the Venezuelan government, including those involving its state-owned enterprises and international reserves, are consistent with this recognition," said the statement.

The department, however, did not say there will be any freeze on Venezuela's US assets and accounts.

Maduro has censured US President Donald Trump for seeking to orchestrate a coup against his government and backing the self-declared leader.

"I believe there's no doubt that Donald Trump wants to impose a de facto government, unconstitutional government, a coup against the people and democracy in Venezuela."

Trump recognized Guaido as the "legitimate" interim president of Venezuela, calling on other governments in the Western Hemisphere to also recognize his so-called presidency.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to urge members of the United Nations Security Council to recognize Guaido on Saturday in a session Washington had requested earlier.

Pompeo will be accompanied by former US diplomat Elliott Abrams, who he tapped as the government's point person to handle the escalating crisis in Venezuela.

Maduro said he welcomed the UN session, adding, "We're going to tell the truth about the articles of the constitution, about the coup."

At least 10 countries, including Russia, Turkey and Iran, have expressed their support for Maduro and condemned outside interference in Venezuela.

On Thursday, Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino also threw his support behind President Maduro, who still enjoys broad support among the armed forces.

Observers say the strong support by the army as well as Russia and other countries have dealt a significant blow to US efforts to oust Maduro, forcing the EU to backpedal on its "Maduro must go!" stance.US plans to keep troops in Syria's al-Tanf base: Report

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:12AM

The United States is reportedly planning to keep some of its forces in a military base in southeastern Syria despite a total withdrawal ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Informed sources told Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine on Friday that given the strategic importance of the al-Tanf garrison, situated in Syria's Homs Province near the Iraqi border, the US government mulls keeping at least some troops there.

The first source said the only "logical purpose" al-Tanf serves is to let Washington "monitor and disrupt" the alleged flow of Iranian military advisers. "Honestly, you could not contrive a different military mission."

The other source said the move allows American soldiers claim self-defense in striking Iranian military advisers, among others in the area.

"When they come through, we've claimed, I think reasonably, that they've been threatening either US forces or partner forces," he said.

A former senior US military commander, said, "Al-Tanf is a critical element in the effort to prevent Iran from establishing a ground line of communications from Iran through Iraq through Syria to southern Lebanon in support of Lebanese Hezbollah."

Keeping troops in al-Tanf goes against Trump's pullout order. It could also raise legal issues for the Trump administration as the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force permits the use of force against non-state militant groups, not nation states.

Iranian military advisers are in Syria at the request of the country's legitimate government but the US has deployed troops to the Arab country without an authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

While Tehran has been key to defeating terrorists and helping keep Syria in one piece, Washington's record has been sketchy, marked by a bid to prop up anti-government and separatist forces.

Trump announced the plan to withdraw all 2,000 American forces from Syria in December 2018 amid preparations by Turkey to launch an operation against US-backed Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

His abrupt move sparked concern among officials in Washington, prompting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to step down in protest.

The planned pullout also raised worries among Kurdish militants operating in northern Syria and left them feeling abandoned by Washington.

The vast majority of US troops are operating in northeastern Syria while only over 200 of them are concentrated in al-Tanf.

Earlier on Friday, a video released by the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, purportedly showed the entry of about 250 US trucks loaded with weapons and logistical equipment to American bases in Syria.

Last week, the founder of Blackwater - now called Academi - said American troops in Syria could be replaced with mercenaries.

Erik Prince, who founded the infamous private military company, told Fox Business that using private contractors would allow Trump to end "forever wars" and protect US allies against what he called Iranian military advisers and Syrian army soldiers.Pompeo names US neocon Elliott Abrams to head up policy toward Venezuela

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 10:21AM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has appointed Elliott Abrams, a hawkish neoconservative, to handle US policy toward Venezuela.

"Elliott will be a true asset to our mission to help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country," Pompeo said on Friday in announcing Abrams' appointment.

The top US diplomat said Abrams would accompany him to the United Nations on Saturday for a Security Council meeting on Venezuela where the US plans to pressure other countries to support Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's interim president.

Venezuela is convulsed by political crisis. On Wednesday, Guaido declared himself the "interim president" of the country, rejecting the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn earlier after winning elections boycotted by the opposition.

On Friday, former US Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul denounced Washington's backing for the botched coup in Venezuela, calling it 'hypocrisy' and urging the US government to learn lessons from the so-called war on terror.

Abrams, appearing with Pompeo at a briefing for reporters, described the situation in Venezuela as "deep, difficult and dangerous."

Abrams, a Jewish neoconservative who has long advocated an interventionist US role in the world, has served in the administrations of former US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Among his positions was a Middle East expert on the National Security Council and later as a global democracy strategy adviser. He was also assistant secretary of state during the Reagan administration.Yemeni ballistic missiles hit Jizan, Najran in Saudi Arabia

Iran Press TV

Sat Jan 26, 2019 04:26PM

Yemeni army forces, supported by allied fighters from Popular Committees, have hit gatherings of mercenaries working for the regime in Riyadh in the kingdom's regions of Jizan and Najran with domestically-manufactured missiles in retaliation for the Saudi campaign against the impoverished nation, a report says.

Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, citing an unnamed military official from the missile unit of the Yemeni army, reported that a gathering of the mercenaries in Tawal district was hit with a high-precision Badr P-1 ballistic missile on Saturday.

It added that the projectile had accurately struck the designated target, leaving an unspecified number of soldiers either killed or wounded.

The report also said that a short-range Zelzal-1 missile, with an average range of 150 kilometers, was also launched against Saudi positions in Najran's al-Baqa'a Desert.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of about 56,000 Yemenis.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country's infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the United States and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply Riyadh with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.Saudis' airstrikes kill 4 civilians in western Yemen

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA -- The Saudi jetfighters attacks on Hajjah, western Yemen has claimed the lives of 4 civilians, Yemeni TV Channel 'Al-Masirah' reported.

According to Yemeni media, Saudi warplanes targeted a house in Amakieh village killing four members of a family and destroying the building.

Meanwhile, Saudi jetfighters bombarded Haraz and Midi cities four times.

The United Nations Security Council enacted resolution 2451 to support the Stockholm Agreement on deployment of a team in order to facilitate monitoring and implementing the Agreement and establishing truce in important Yemeni ports.

The resolution mainly focuses on sending essential commodities to the Yemeni people, supporting the Stockholm Agreement, assigning the Secretary-General of the United Nations to implement it and observing the ceasefire.

The fourth round of Yemen peace talks kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 6, with the attendance of the UN special envoy Martin Griffith and the government representatives, and agreed to establish truce in Yemeni ports of al-Hudaydah, al-Salif, and Ayn Issa.

Saudi Arabia and its regional allies attacked Yemen in March 2015 to bring back to power the deposed president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Since then, the invaders have committed horrible war crimes against Yemeni civilians.

9376**1771Statement by a Treasury Spokesperson on Venezuela

U.S. Department of the Treasury

January 25, 2019

Washington  A U.S. Department of the Treasury Spokesperson today issued the following statement on Venezuela:

"This week, President Trump recognized Juan Guaido as the interim President of Venezuela. Diplomatic and economic relations between the United States and Venezuela must be consistent with the United States' recognition of Juan Guaido and the National Assembly. The United States will use its economic and diplomatic tools to ensure that commercial transactions by the Venezuelan Government, including those involving its state-owned enterprises and international reserves, are consistent with this recognition."

####MI5 Reportedly Deploys 700 Spies to N Ireland Amid Fears of Hard Border Violence

Sputnik News

15:25 26.01.2019

Late last week, New Irish Republican Army (IRA) hardliners detonated a car bomb outside a courthouse in Londonderry. According to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, no one was hurt in the bombing, which came amid ongoing Brexit talks.

The UK's MI5 intelligence agency has deployed more than 700 spies in Belfast as part of a massive anti-terrorist operation in the area; it comes amid concerns that the so-called New Irish Republican Army (IRA) may capitalise on the possible return of a hard Irish border after Brexit so as to fuel a fresh conflict, the Daily Mail reports.

The newspaper cited Brian Kenna, a former IRA prisoner and chairman of the Revolutionary Republican Party Saoradh, as saying that "Britain still rules the six counties of [Northern] Ireland and this is going to lead to renewed conflict".

In this vein, Kenna was echoed by Patrick Carty, one of Saoradh's leaders, who specifically singled out Brexit's potential, which he warned may "break up the British state".

"With the inevitable infrastructure of a hard border imminent, this will drive home to the Irish people the partition of our country [] and as history teaches us, it will inevitably stoke the fires of resistance against British rule in Ireland", Carty said earlier this month.

MI5's focus on New IRA comes after the group's hardliners staged a car bomb blast outside a courthouse in Londonderry on 19 January. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) reported that no one was injured in the explosion and that an investigation has been launched.

PSNI acting chief constable Barbara Gray told The Times that police have found arms and explosives and that the New IRA still have the capability to conduct more attacks. According to her, "the threat is nothing like we experienced in the past, but these people are intent on violence and they are not going away".

The newspaper also cited an unnamed counterterrorism source as saying that "there is a reason MI5 has about 20 percent of its total strength in Belfast and last weekend was a timely reminder of that reason".

A dissident group known as the New Irish Republican Army (IRA) was established in 2012 as a result of the merger of several republican paramilitary organizations. The group, which includes about 40 hardliners, seeks a united Ireland and rejects Northern Ireland's current political institutions.

The boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland remains an issue at Brexit talks amid concerns that the UK's exit from the EU might imperil the free movement of goods and workers between Ireland and the Northern Irish counties of the United Kingdom, culminating in the return of a "hard" border between them.

 SputnikWhat's best for the children?

Disabled children and their families are sometimes at odds with School District 51 over what's required in providing special education

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.Sandy Wilder, right, walks through a slushy parking lot and strong, gusty winds while on her way to do some shopping at Walmart on Saturday. The National Weather Service has put out an alert for snowy and windy weather late Sunday and early Monday.The 20-pound bronze tablet in position on the topmost rock of the Grand Teton. The plaque lived atop the range for 48 years before an unknown person removed it in 1977.Gillette, WY (82718)

Today

Sunny. High 89F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 56F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.

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.Right now, there is so much bad news that many of us feel flummoxed. But, Oregonians have a chance to do something positive for public lands.

Congress is planning to soon take up a new public lands bill, called the Oregon Wildlands Act.

Reintroduced by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden last fall, the Oregon Wildlands Act protects vulnerable lands around our state still needing protection, including additions to the Wild Rogue Wilderness, the Devils Staircase area, and others. To learn more: https://oregonwild.org/oregon-wildlands-act-1

Recently, a major logging industry lobby launched a campaign to pull protection for the Rogue Wilderness from the bill. Reneging on a previous agreement protect this area, Rep. Greg Walden helped to strip Rogue protections from the final version of the bill. The Wild Rogue isn't even in Walden's district!

The Wild Rogue is home to key salmon and trout spawning tributaries, thousands of acres of old-growth forests and some of the most beautiful landscapes in Oregon.

If you have ever rafted, fished, hiked or camped in the Rogue Watershed, please let our politicians know that you support the Wild Rogue Wilderness additions in the larger Oregon Wildlands Act.I'm writing in response to Harry Mallory's recent letter to the editor. That he would attempt to deride a mother for using the platform she was given, which undoubtedly she would much prefer not to have, is simply wrong.

He presumes to know what happened on that night, but, since one of the two people involved had a gun and the other did not, we are only able to hear one side. There was no way to "hear both sides!" Trayvon was not there to give his version. For all we know, Trayvon could have been trying to defend himself! George Zimmerman was told by police not to pursue Trayvon, but he did anyway. Why? Could it have been because he was black?

All we truly know is that Trayvon ended up dead. His mother has every right to talk about gun violence. To suggest she is "making a buck" off of a very real tragedy, to many at least, is appalling. Who more than the family of a victim has the right to speak on the subject? Many families who have lost loved ones because of guns speak out. Does Mr. Mallory think they are all trying to profit when they do so? I think not. Justice in America is far from perfect. Not every jury gets it right. Did they this time? We will never know.

Sandra Schomberg

Corvallis (Jan. 25)

Love 4 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0



Have any questions? Please give us a call at 907-352-2250Convention of States needed to restrain govt.

I watch with curiosity as I see two governments struggle with what the people want versus what the elected officials want.

England struggles with Brexit as elected officials snub their noses at the plurality of voters who want sovereignty from the European Union.

The U.S is in a precariously similar situation as our federal government has surpassed the original intent of our founders . It has become so polarized that the work of the people is no longer their concern.

George Mason, a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, was wise enough to speculate that there might come a day when those whom we elected might choose to ignore the will of the people. Mason explained that an oppressive Congress would never agree to propose amendments necessary to restrain a rogue, tyrannical legislature.

He introduced a second way to amend the Constitution through a Convention of States; allowing the states to propose amendments that Congress would surely ignore, such as term limits, fiscal restraint and returning the rights of the states back to them.Emotionally, I felt it was the worst thing in the world for her at the time, said Snider, who lived in Richmond but has since moved to Spotsylvania County. It was as if she was backtracking rather than moving forward with her life, which is what we were trying to help her do.

Scott would not be deterred.

There were times she was overwhelmed by the extent of care required by her patient, Richard Cole, a former Navy corpsman living in Stafford County. But there also were moments when she realized Cole and his wife had been through similar experiences as she and her husband. The patient and nurse found themselves talking, not only about end-of-life decisions, but also happy memories.

Instead of being the worst possible situation for a grieving widow, it became the best way for the woman to find her place in a new world.

It was all part of our universes grand plan for me and him, she said about Cole in early December. He tells me how much he appreciates my compassion, my empathy and my friendship. I tell him theres a reason he came into my life when he did.

Rick saved me, she said.

TOP CAREGIVERAll together, they raised $4,250.

Mike Ragon said that thanks to the Lowes store in Stafford Marketplace off State Route 610, which sold them all the supplies for the project at cost, they spent only $3,300 of what was raised.

The remainder was donated to the shelter.

Ragon and his dad, along with a team of 31 people who also donated time, built the shed over the course of one month, finishing on Nov. 30.

It took a total of 495 man-hours to complete; 153 of those were Ragons.

And my dad would have had the same, because he was with me every step of the way, Nolan Ragon said.

From planning to completion, the project took five months.

Mike Ragon said his son practiced construction on a small shed in their back yard, but had never built anything of this size before.

Still, the sophomore at North Stafford High School said he isnt worried about his construction collapsing.

If a tornado comes through, it will still be up, he said, as his dad jokingly knocked on wood.When a person is living paycheck to paycheck, just one setback, such as a childs illness or necessary car repair, can eat up one months rent, Marra said.

Often they just need time to get paid again, she said. Right now, theyre at the mercy of the landlord. [The new legislation] gives them a right.

Marra said the study group found that routinely, especially in rural areas, leases are agreed upon by a handshake and the terms are month-to-month.

So tenants are afraid to take their landlords to court to assert their rights because theyre afraid the landlord will turn around and evict them 30 days later, she said.

But new legislation would mean that, unless stated otherwise in writing, all leases are for 12-month periods.

Kloeckner said the new bills mean a landlord will be more likely to collect the money that is owed to him or her.

Theres no question that the landlords are supposed to get their rent. One of the most essential duties of the renter is to pay rent and pay it on time, she said.A Spotsylvania County man was killed Saturday evening while crossing State Route 3 in Orange County, police said.

State police spokesman Brent Coffey said 42-year-old Brett C. Stannard was in the area of State Route 20 (Constitution Highway) when he was struck by a 2005 Ford Econoline van that was heading east in the right lane.

Stannard died at the scene from injuries sustained in the crash, which took place at 7:45 p.m.

Coffey said the pedestrian was wearing all black and was not in a crosswalk. The Fords driver, a 36-year-old Spotsylvania man, was not injured and remained at the scene.

Trooper J.D. Jones is investigating the incident. No charges have been filed.

Coffey said state police were assisted by the Orange Sheriffs Office and the Orange and Lake of the Woods volunteer fire and rescue departments.

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.Six commercial out-parcels of vacant land around the Lowes store off U.S. 17 in Stafford County will be sold in an absolute auction Feb. 20.

The parcels, recently appraised at $3.6 million, will sell as a whole, with declarant rights. John Dixon & Associates, a real estate and marketing firm headquartered in Marietta, Ga., will conduct the sale as part of a two-day auction of real estate in a number of states.

Its been a long time since we had a property of this value selling with no reserve," Dixon, president of the auction company, said of the Stafford property in a news release. "Its possible someone could get a real bargain, though I expect well see serious competition for these.

The tracts, totaling 18.8 acres, are located on Banks Ford Parkway at U.S. 17, bordering the Lowes Home Improvement store at Cherry Grove at Celebrate Virginia North. They were among the nine parcels owned by Silver Cos. principals and other investors that were sold at auction in 2014 as part of a process that would allow Stafford and Celebrate Virginia Norths bondholders to receive real estate tax payments and assessments that were more than two years delinquent.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ANDERSON, SC (FOX CAROLINA) -The Anderson County Sheriff's Office says a man threw about 80 grams of meth out of the window while he was trying to flee from deputies during a traffic stop.Please either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.(CNN/Meredith) -- Dakota Theriot, the man accused of killing five people in Louisiana, was captured Sunday morning in Richmond County, Virginia, according to a joint statement from the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office and the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office.

Theriot, 21, was apprehended following a night on the run after being named a suspect in the shooting deaths of his parents, his girlfriend, and her father and brother in two separate shootings Saturday.

Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, were at their home near Baton Rouge when the suspect killed them, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said.

When authorities arrived at the scene, Keith Theriot was still alive and told them his son shot them, authorities said.

Another crime scene 30 miles away

Dakota Theriot's girlfriend, Summer Ernest, and her relatives were found dead in a home 30 miles away. The dead included her father, Billy Ernest, 43, and her brother Tanner Ernest, 17, according to authorities.

Theriot was dating Summer and had lived with the Ernests for several weeks, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said. He was recently asked to leave the residence and not return, according to authorities.

A 7-year old and a 1-year-old were found in the home, but were unharmed and are now with their mother.

Authorities believe the shootings stemmed from a "boyfriend [and] girlfriend type of dispute," CNN affiliate WAFB reported.

"This is probably one of the worst domestic violence incidents I've seen in quite a while," Webre said. "For a young man to walk into a bedroom and kill his mother and his father, and then kill friends in Livingston that he had a connection with."

There were no red flags ahead of the two shootings Saturday morning and other than a simple possession of drug paraphernalia charge, Theriot had no other run-ins with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, Ard said.

Theriot had last been seen driving a gray and silver 2004 Dodge pickup truck belonged to the Ernest family, authorities said.

Theriot will be taken back to Ascension Parish, Louisiana, and booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion and illegal use of weapons, investigators said Sunday. Unlimited website access 24/7

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 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more!

With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime.Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked on an order that gave US Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, defusing tensions between the countries just hours after their top diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special UN Security Council meeting to address the South American country's crisis.

Caracas: Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked on an order that gave US Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, defusing tensions between the countries just hours after their top diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special UN Security Council meeting to address the South American country's crisis.

Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration recognised Opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, a move the embattled socialist described as a "vile" coup attempt.

Maduro gave American diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration refused to obey his order, arguing that the leftist leader was no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a potentially violent showdown at the hilltop Embassy compound on Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Maduro government had opened a 30-day window to negotiate with the Trump administration the establishment of a "US interests office" in Venezuela, and a similar office for Venezuela in the United States.

A similar arrangement governed bilateral relations between the US and Cuba for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not immediately confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister faced off against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a special UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela's situation.

During the debate  which was convened by the US  Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" against President Nicolas Maduro  a reflection of the world's deep divisions over the crisis in the South American country.

Pompeo told the UN Security Council that it's beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state" and support Guaido. The young opposition leader has declared himself the country's interim president, arguing that Maduro's re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security and accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation", including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the US will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesise on what the US will do next."

What has played out in Venezuela and the world's media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the UN's most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions.

The Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations, France and Britain, joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro on Saturday, saying they would follow the US and others in recognising Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said if there is no announcement of new elections in the next days the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership".

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline. "Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."

Arreaza said Venezuela "will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order" and demanded that someone show him where in the country's constitution it states that an individual can proclaim himself president.

As for possible military action to oust Maduro, Arreaza said, "we will not allow any government or any country to violate our sovereignty, and give a pretext for Donald Trump to start a war."

The opposition to Guaido was also reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The United States barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine "yes" votes from the council's six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting "no" while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying "to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits ... in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years".

But he saved his sharpest attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain "the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people".

He said Cuba has sent "security and intelligence thugs" to sustain Maduro's "illegitimate rule".

"Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

China's UN Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said his government "firmly opposed" the US accusations and doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. "We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself," Ma told the council.

Cuba's UN Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez went further, rejecting "the deliberate" and "fake news" cast on the country not only by Pompeo but by Elliot Abrams, the new chief of US policy on Venezuela who sat in the council after the secretary of state left.

The Security Council meeting came a day after Guaido vowed to remain on the streets until his country has a transitional government, while Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.

In rival press conferences, Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his call for dialogue.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

Guaido took a symbolic oath of office Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation's constitutional leader on grounds that Maduro's re-election last year was fraudulent  an allegation supported by the US, the European Union and many other nations.

Directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the government's sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Guaido's move is the most direct challenge to Maduro's rule despite years of protests at home and international efforts to isolate the regime amid a growing humanitarian crisis fuelled by falling oil prices and government mismanagement.

Maduro is accusing the opposition of working with the US to overthrow him. Though over a dozen nations are recognising Guaido as president, Maduro still has the support of the military and powerful, longtime allies like Russia and China.

He said he is still willing to talk with the opposition. Both sides attempted dialogue last year, but it fell apart as Maduro pushed forward with an early election that Venezuela's most popular opposition leaders were barred from running in.Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 50 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

Manila: Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 77 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

The first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack, security officials said.

Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said that at least 19 people died and 48 were wounded. Police and military reports said the casualties included both troops and civilians.

Photos on social media showed debris and bodies lying on a busy street outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which has been hit by bombs in the past. Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles were transporting the dead and wounded to the hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organisation because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead. Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it. The province is home to a rival rebel faction that's opposed to the deal as well as smaller militant cells that not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact. They worry that small numbers of Islamic State-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.

Security officials were looking "at different threat groups and they still can't say if this has something to do with the just concluded plebiscite," Albayalde told ABS-CBN TV network.

Aside from the small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group, other militant groups in Sulu include a small band of young jihadis aligned with the Islamic State group, which has also carried out assaults, including ransom kidnappings and beheadings.

Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding at least five hostages  a Dutch national, two Malaysians, an Indonesian and a Filipino  in their jungle bases mostly near Sulu's Patikul town, not far from Jolo.

Government forces have pressed on sporadic offensives to crush the militants, including those in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people. A few thousand Catholics live mostly in the capital of Jolo.

The cathedral is located in Jolo town center in front of a square and near a budget hotel, a bank and commercial stores as well as a public market.Taliban officials said US negotiators on Saturday agreed on a draft peace pact setting out the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan within 18 months, potentially ending the United States longest war.

Kabul/Peshawar: Taliban officials said US negotiators on Saturday agreed on a draft peace pact setting out the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan within 18 months, potentially ending the United States longest war.

The details of the draft were given to Reuters by Taliban sources at the end of six days of talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar aimed at ending the war, more than 17 years since American-led forces invaded Afghanistan. It stipulates that troops would leave within 18 months of the agreement being signed.

While no joint statement was issued, Khalilzad tweeted later that the talks had made significant progress and would resume shortly, adding that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to meet government officials.

Meetings here (in Qatar) were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues, he wrote, adding that numerous issues still needed work. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and everything must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire, he wrote in the tweets.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday wrote on Twitter that he had received encouraging news from Khalilzad about the talks.

The US is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home, Pompeo tweeted. He did not give a timetable for the potential withdrawal of US forces.

A Taliban statement issued later also noted progress on troop withdrawal and other issues but said more negotiations and internal consultations were required.

The policy of the Islamic Emirate during talks was very clear  until the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using another name the group calls itself.

It was not clear whether the draft described by the Taliban sources was acceptable to both sides or when it could be completed and signed.

Main enemy

According to the sources, the hard-line Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its allies  a key early demand of Washington.

They said the deal included a ceasefire provision but they had yet to confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives once a truce was implemented.

Up until now, the Taliban has repeatedly rejected the Afghan governments offer of holding talks, preferring instead to talk directly to the US side, which it regards as its main enemy.

In 18 months, if the foreign forces are withdrawn and ceasefire is implemented, then other aspects of the peace process can be put into action, a Taliban source said, quoting from a portion of the draft.

More talks on the draft are expected in February, again in the Qatari capital Doha, the Taliban sources said.

They expect their side to be led by new political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movements co-founder and a former military commander who was released from prison in Pakistan last year.

While they said his appointment had boosted momentum for a deal, it was unclear if he had joined the talks.

Near-daily attacks

News of progress on a deal comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces.

Despite the presence of US-led foreign forces training, advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts 17 years after the US-led an invasion to drive them from power, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani said last week that 45,000 members of the countrys security forces had been killed since he took office in 2014.

The United States has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led mission, known as Resolute Support, as well as a US counterterrorism mission directed at groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Despite reports last month that the United States was considering pulling out almost half of its forces, a White House spokesperson said US president Donald Trump had not issued orders to withdraw the troops. However, the administration has not denied the reports, which have prompted fears of a fresh refugee crisis.

The Taliban sources said other clauses in the draft include an agreement over the exchange and release of prisoners, the removal of an international travel ban on several Taliban leaders by Washington and the prospect of an interim Afghan government after the ceasefire is struck.

The suggestion to appoint an interim government in Afghanistan comes as top politicians including Ghani have filed their nominations for the presidential polls in July. Ghani has repeatedly rejected the offer to agree to the formation of an interim government.

The Taliban sources also confirmed provisions in the draft that have broader implications for Afghanistans ties with its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, India and China.

They said the deal included provisions that separatist militants from Balochistan, a resource-rich southwestern Pakistani province, will not be allowed to use Afghan soil to target Pakistan.TOTALAN, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish rescuers on Saturday found the dead body of a two-year-old boy who had fallen into a deep narrow well in southern Spain on Jan. 13, a Spanish official said. Miners had been drilling day and night to reach the boy, Julen, into the borehole - 100 metres (300 feet) deep and just 25 cm (10 inches) wide - which was blocked with soil

TOTALAN, Spain (Reuters) - Spanish rescuers on Saturday found the dead body of a two-year-old boy who had fallen into a deep narrow well in southern Spain on Jan. 13, a Spanish official said.

Miners had been drilling day and night to reach the boy, Julen, into the borehole - 100 metres (300 feet) deep and just 25 cm (10 inches) wide - which was blocked with soil.

"At 1:25 a.m. (0025 GMT), the rescue teams reached the area of the well where they were looking for Julen and they found the lifeless body of the little one," said a government spokesperson in Malaga.

There had been no signs of life since the boy had fallen into the borehole as his family was walking through a private estate in Totalan in southern Spain. Rescuers found the well was blocked with soil, raising fears the well had collapsed on top the child.

(Reporting by Miguel Pereira; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Joan Faus; Editing by Sandra Maler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The demonstration by Sikh For Justice (SFJ) outside the Indian Embassy in Washington was attended by around 15-20 people. They were completely outnumbered by flag-waving, enthusiastic and patriotic Indians, official sources said in New Delhi.

Washington/New Delhi: A small group of Sikh separatists held a protest in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington during which they tried to burn the tricolour on India's Republic Day, a move slammed by the local Sikh community and termed as a "flop show" by Indian government sources.

The demonstration by Sikh For Justice (SFJ) outside the Indian Embassy in Washington was attended by around 15-20 people. They were completely outnumbered by flag-waving, enthusiastic and patriotic Indians, official sources said in New Delhi.

It demonstrated the hollow claim of the SFJ that they enjoy wide support. They are a fringe group backed by Pakistan clearly bringing out the nefarious design of Islamabad to stir up trouble. In fact, most of the demonstrators were Pakistanis, they said.

The protesters raised "Khalistan Zindabaad" slogans and tried to burn the Indian flag in the presence of a battery of reporters from the local Pakistani media.

The Indian government sources said SFJ's claim on their website that they burnt an Indian flag outside the Embassy is "completely false" as the photos/videos show, no such thing took place. The claim is intended to cover up for their flop show, they said.

The SFJ supporters were outnumbered by Indian-Americans raising 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogans with Indian flags flying high in their hand.

Around 2.30 pm on Saturday, the members of the SFJ  in front of a group of Pakistani reporters and cameramen  tried to burn the Indian flag. They ended up burning a green flag that had 'S' written on it.

With passions running high between Indian-Americans and protesters, the local law enforcement officials had warned against any attempt to burn the Indian flag. In fact, they sought additional security personnel as the standoff continued. A group of mounted police were seen standing a few blocks away.

It was some tense moments for the local law enforcement officials as the two groups were standing face-to-face in a park just across the road from the Indian embassy in Washington. The standoff lasted for about two hours after which the protestors were forced by the local police to move across the road.

The local Sikh community slammed the SFJ for the protest. "Such theatrical protests like flag burning are detrimental to the peace-loving and harmony enhancing Sikh community everywhere," Jasse Singh and Kamaljit Singh Soni, the chairman and the president of the Sikhs of America, said in a joint statement.

"I am disturbed and concerned that a chosen few can build a narrative about the Sikh community in the USA which will be viewed by the whole world," said Puneet Ahluwalia, an Indian American leader from Virginia."I will not stand for these forces to develop a misguided narrative with US leadership and public, besides polarising the already sensitivities towards minorities in India."

In a statement, American Hindu Coalition (AHC) expressed deep dismay at the SFJ attempt to burn the Indian flag. "The intent of flag burning is also an immense affront to the largest democracy on the earth and causing huge grief to the American Hindus," said Harsh Sethi, the AHC president who himself has a Sikh inheritance.

Ravi Batra, an Indian-American attorney from New York, said, "What SFJ - an American-born and accredited entity is seeking to do, however - is to burn the flag of another nation - and here is the critical part - as part of a campaign, allegedly, as an unregistered foreign agent engaging in terrorist activities in India."

Meanwhile, the twitter account of the SFJ has been suspended by the social media company. "Account suspended," said the twitter page of '@SikhsforJustice' Saturday. Twitter did not gave any reason for it except for providing links to its rules. "Twitter suspends accounts which violates the Twitter Rules."

It is understood that Twitter suspended the account of the SFJ for running a hate campaign against India.RTHK: 19 dead in Philippines cathedral bombing

Two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 50 during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

The first blast occurred inside the Catholic church on war-torn Jolo on Sunday morning as mass was being celebrated, followed by a second explosion as troops responded, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Besana said.

"The motive is surely... terrorism. These are people who do not want peace. It is sad that this happened right after the Bangsamoro law was ratified," Besana said.

Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde said that at least 19 people died and 48 were wounded. Police and military reports said the casualties included both troops and civilians.

Jolo lies in the proposed Bangsamoro Muslim-majority autonomous region, which local voters overwhelmingly approved last week.

The island is also a base of the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the worst terror attacks in the nation's history.

Last week voters decisively approved a more powerful autonomous region in the Philippines' south, which is hoped will bring peace and development after decades of fighting that have killed thousands and mired the area in poverty. (AP/AFP)

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.By Philip Pullella PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Saturday the Roman Catholic Church was weary and 'wounded by her own sin,' in an apparent reference to the global sexual abuse crisis. Francis made the comment in the homily of Mass for priests, nuns, and members of Catholic lay organizations in Panama City's newly renovated cathedral of Santa Maria Antigua, the first in mainland America, which was completed in 1716. The pope has called a summit of the heads of national Catholic churches at the Vatican from Feb.

By Philip Pullella

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Saturday the Roman Catholic Church was weary and "wounded by her own sin," in an apparent reference to the global sexual abuse crisis.

Francis made the comment in the homily of Mass for priests, nuns, and members of Catholic lay organizations in Panama City's newly renovated cathedral of Santa Maria Antigua, the first in mainland America, which was completed in 1716.

The pope has called a summit of the heads of national Catholic churches at the Vatican from Feb. 21-24 to discuss what is now a global sexual abuse crisis.

The meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable..

In his homily, Francis spoke of "The weariness of hope (that) comes from seeing a Church wounded by her own sin" and of a Church "which so often failed to hear all those cries".

He used the words "weary," "wearisome" or "weariness" about 20 times in the homily.

Francis then led an elaborate service in which he consecrated the basilica's new altar, donning a white apron over his vestments as he rubbed it down with holy oil and blessed it with incense.

Relics of three Latin American saints - Saint Rosa of Lima, Saint Oscar Romero and Saint Martin de Porres - as well as a relic of Saint John Paul II, were installed in the altar.

Romero, a champion of the poor, was killed by a right-wing death squad in San Salvador in 1980 and was made a saint by Pope Francis in 2018.

Last year was an "annus horribilis" for the pope, with abuse crises exploding in several countries, particularly Chile and the United States.

Following accusations of a cover up of abuse in Chile, all 34 of the country's bishops offered their resignations. Francis has so far accepted seven of them but has also defrocked two Chilean bishops accused of molesting minors.

Last August, the Church in the United States was rocked by a damning grand jury report on the sexual abuse of children by priests in Pennsylvania over a 70-year period.

Francis has urged predator priests who have sexually abused minors to turn themselves in and has acknowledged that the Church had made serious errors in the past.

Before leaving for Panama, Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said a meeting between the pope and victims of clergy abuse was not on the schedule. On past trips, however, such meetings were announced only after they took place.

Francis is in Panama for the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day, a global gathering of Catholic youth that takes place in a different city about every three years.

On Saturday night, Francis was due to preside at a prayer vigil with hundreds of thousands of young Catholics who have come to Panama from around the world. He leaves for Rome on Sunday night after a closing outdoor Mass.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Diane Craft)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Authorities in Louisiana said they are searching for an 'armed and dangerous' 21-year-old accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate but related shootings Saturday.

New Orleans: Authorities in Louisiana said they are searching for an "armed and dangerous" 21-year-old accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate but related shootings Saturday.

Authorities say Dakota Theriot first shot and killed three people  the woman believed to be his girlfriend, her brother and father  in Livingston Parish before taking her father's truck, driving to neighboring Ascension Parish where he shot and killed his parents.

"We are totally focused on finding him. We're following every lead that we come up with," said Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard during an evening news conference streamed online. Theriot was being sought on first-degree murder and other charges. He was believed to be driving a stolen 2004 Dodge Ram pickup, gray and silver in colour.

Authorities have identified the victims in Livingston Parish as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20. Ard said Summer and Theriot were in a relationship and that Theriot had been living with her family for a few weeks.

But he said after talking with Summer's mother, there was no indication of any red flags ahead of Saturday's multiple shootings.

Authorities earlier identified the other two victims as Theriot's parents  Keith, 50, and Elizabeth Theriot, 50, of Gonzales. They were shot in their trailer on Saturday morning.

"The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away," said Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre. But before he died, Webre said authorities were able to get a "dying declaration from him, and only enough information to let us know that it was his son that committed this act."

Webre said there were indications that Theriot was traveling east and maybe was in another state by now.

"We're going to work every lead. We're going to follow every tip," he said during the evening news conference.

Ard said Dakota Theriot is believed to be armed with at least one handgun. We do not have a motive. It is still undetermined," Ard said.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernest's sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.

"My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didn't get good vibes from him," DeYoung said. She said she wasn't sure how her niece and Theriot met, but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.

"My mom is a good judge of character and she just thought he was not good," DeYoung said of Theriot.

DeYoung said she skipped the birthday party and didn't meet Theriot herself. DeYoung said Summer and Tanner Ernest were two of Billy's three children. He was also raising his wife's children.

DeYoung said Theriot doesn't have a vehicle and she's not sure how he ended up at the Ernest home on Saturday, but after the killings, he took off in her brother's truck.

There were also two young children in the home at the time. DeYoung said a 7-year-old took the baby out of the house and went to a neighbours. DeYoung said her brother, niece and nephew were good people.

"They all had very good hearts. They trusted people too much," she said, as she began crying. "They all loved unconditionally." Charlenne Bordelon lives near the house where the Ernests were killed. She told The Advocate newspaper that two young children from the house ran to her home. They were uninjured and asked for help after the shooting.

Bordelon said Theriot was the older daughter's boyfriend and that he'd recently moved in with the family but she did not know him.

A Facebook page appearing to belong to Dakota Theriot was filled with defensive and sometimes angry posts. He shared someone else's post in June that said "wish i could clear my mind jus for one day" (sic) with a sad face emoji.

In May, he reposted something saying, "If you have a problem with me, tell me. Not everyone else." He also shared someone else's post that said, "I don't care what people say about me I know who I am and I don't have to prove anything to anyone." Webre said Dakota had lived with his parents briefly but was asked to leave the residence and not return.

"I would not approach this vehicle. We feel no doubt that Dakota is going to be armed and dangerous, and we need to bring him to justice really quick," Webre said.

Webre said Dakota Theriot had some run-ins with law enforcement in other parishes that he described as misdemeanor-type incidents that did not include violence: "Certainly nothing of the magnitude that we've seen today."

Webre said there was no reason to think Theriot was now targeting someone else but warned that because he's armed and dangerous: "Anybody he comes into contact with could be a target."RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said. The incident followed a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians near the city of Ramallah in which a settler was lightly injured, the military said

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said.

The incident followed a confrontation between settlers and Palestinians near the city of Ramallah in which a settler was lightly injured, the military said.

"Initial details suggest that shortly thereafter, a conflict erupted between Israeli civilians and Palestinians in the area, in which live rounds were fired by the civilians. One Palestinian died and several others are injured," the military said in a statement, adding that an investigation has begun.

The Palestinians said the settlers had entered the village of al-Mughayer and that its residents tried to fend them off. The Israeli military said its forces dispersed the crowds. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that the man killed was 38 years old and that nine other people were wounded by gunfire.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing.

"The Israeli Government is continuing its policy of escalation," Abbas said in a statement published by the official Wafa news agency. "This will lead to serious consequences, further tension and the creation of a dangerous and uncontrollable atmosphere."

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014, and a bid by U.S. President Donald Trump to restart negotiations has so far shown little progress.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a capital in east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move unrecognized abroad and in 2005 pulled its settlers and army out of Gaza. It maintains a blockade of the territory, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and the West.

In the West Bank, the Palestinians have limited self-rule and most of the territory is controlled by Israel. Most countries view the settlements Israel has built there as illegal - a view that Israel disputes, citing biblical, historical and political ties to the land.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Baz Ratner NAIROBI (Reuters) - A blast near a cinema in downtown Nairobi injured one person on Saturday and security services cordoned off the site, police said. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters.

By Baz Ratner

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A blast near a cinema in downtown Nairobi injured one person on Saturday and security services cordoned off the site, police said.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters.

A Reuters reporter at the scene said there did not appear to be any major damage to surrounding shops.

The incident comes less than two weeks after Islamist militants stormed an upscale hotel in Nairobi, killing 21.

Security guard Appolonary Odero, who was in the area, said the blast took place around 7 p.m. (1600 GMT).

"There was a big flow of people. A trolley was being pushed by someone and it exploded. It was a very big sharp explosion that made everyone run away," he said. "The man pushing the trolley had some injuries."

He said he was not aware of anyone else injured.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Edmund Blair)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Abdul Matin Sahak MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police arrested dozens of people in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif including six Turkish teachers in a raid on a school Turkey suspects has links with President Tayyip Erdogan's arch enemy, officials and teachers said. The raid on Afghan-Turk school on Friday was the latest move against an educational foundation the Ankara government says is connected to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric it accuses of being behind a coup attempt in 2016.

By Abdul Matin Sahak

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police arrested dozens of people in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif including six Turkish teachers in a raid on a school Turkey suspects has links with President Tayyip Erdogan's arch enemy, officials and teachers said.

The raid on Afghan-Turk school on Friday was the latest move against an educational foundation the Ankara government says is connected to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric it accuses of being behind a coup attempt in 2016.

Shukarullah Samadi, one of the teachers at the school said police had begun their raid at around 2 a.m., arresting six Turkish teachers and at least 40 other teachers and staff members.

"These schools have been successful for 23 years and we're very worried about their future in Afghanistan," he said.

Afghan Turk CAG Educational NGO (ATCE), the body that runs the schools, operates schools in several cities including the capital, Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat and has been in Afghanistan since 1995.

It says it is an independent foundation and has denied any involvement with the 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Its schools have a good reputation but Ankara, which has major economic interests in northern Afghanistan as well as strong political and cultural links, has put heavy pressure on the Kabul government to turn them over to Turkey.

Last year the government ordered the management of the schools to be transferred in accordance with the wishes of the Turkish government but implementation has been slow.

Similar schools linked to Gulen's Hizmet movement operate across the world and Turkey has pressed countries where it has influence to transfer their management to the Maarif Foundation, a Turkish educational body.

A statement on the foundation's website on Saturday said it had taken over six out 12 of Gulen's schools in Afghanistan.

Monir Ahmed Farhad, spokesman for the governor of Balkh said the action was taken to enforce the government's decision to transfer management of the school.

"This decision to transfer management of the Turkish Afghan school comes from an agreement between the ministry of education of Afghanistan and Turkey, the local administration in Balkh is just implementing it," he said.

Students and teachers at Afghan-Turk school expressed alarm and said they feared a decline in educational standards.

"Our whole concern is that the quality of education at the schools does not go down," said Aref Mousavi, the father of a child at the school. "It's been very good over the years and this should stay the same."

Since the abortive putsch, Turkey has waged a crackdown on suspected members of Gulen's network. Some 77,000 people have been jailed and more than 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sectors. Gulen has denied involvement in the coup and condemned it.

(Writing by James Mackenzie, additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul; Editing by Clelia Oziel)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar on Saturday said that his party is in talks with five MLAs from the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar-led coalition and will soon, with their support, form the government in the state.

Panaji: Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar on Saturday said that his party is in talks with five MLAs from the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar-led coalition and will soon, with their support, form the government in the state.

Chodankar told ANI that once the MLAs of the ruling coalition withdraw their support and the upcoming assembly by-polls in Shiroda and Mandrem are over, the Congress will proceed towards forming the government.

Last year too, the Congress claimed to form the government in Goa citing the example of Karnataka, where the BJP was invited to form the government after the state polls failed to give a clear verdict. "Congress would form the government in the state after the upcoming assembly by-polls in two seats. We are in touch with five MLAs of the ruling coalition. And with their support the Congress will form the government once they pull out of the ruling dispensation," Chodankar said.

Dates for the by-election have not been announced yet, but are likely to be held in the next couple of months. The Congress with 12 MLAs is the principal opposition party in the state Assembly.

The Congress had also submitted a memorandum to Governor Mridula Sinha, staking claim to form an alternative government at a time when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was undergoing treatment for his pancreatic ailment.Referring to the 'investigative adventurism' comment made by Arun Jaitley over the ICICI fraud case, Telugu Desam Parliamentary party leader Y Satyanarayana Chowdary said the Centre is putting a question mark on whether it is the way to run a government.

Amaravati: The TDP yet again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, this time using Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's purported remarks on CBI, saying the central government itself was caught in doubt on how to rule.

"They themselves are putting a question mark on whether it is the way to run a government," Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader Y Satyanarayana Chowdary remarked, referring to the 'investigative adventurism' comment made by Jaitley.

Jaitley had on Friday targeted the CBI over the Kochhar probe, advising the investigating agency to avoid 'adventurism' and concentrate only on the bull's eye. Jaitley, recuperating after a surgery in a hospital in the US, had tweeted that one of the reasons for the "poor" conviction rate in India is that "adventurism and megalomania" take over investigators and professionalism takes a back seat.

"There is a fundamental difference between investigative adventurism and professional investigation," Jaitley had tweeted.

Chanda Kochhar, former CEO of ICICI Bank and her husband Deepak Kochhar were booked on Thursday by the CBI for alleged cheating and corruption in clearing six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon group during her tenure

Briefing newsmen after a meeting of the TDP, chaired by party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Chowdary said they discussed Jaitley's comments on the ongoing CBI probe in the case. "Though by name it is the NDA government, only the BJP is leading the government as owners and destroyed all institutions. It could not run either the government or Parliament in the last five years," he said.

One after the other, institutions like the RBI, CBI, ED and the Navaratnas had collapsed, he alleged. Earlier, a TDP release said the TDPP meeting discussed the Union Finance Ministers remarks, with Chandrababu Naidu alleging that the Centre was seeking to 'threaten' political opponents through raids by the CBI and ED.

He cited the cases of CBI investigation against former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, Akhilesh Yadav and Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The TDP chief accused the Centre of creating an "atmosphere of terror" in the country by pushing industrialists into losses, bankrupting banks and creating a bad situation which would not enable any development even in the future. "They are pushing the country into a grave financial crisis and making the future dark," he said.

Chandrababu also alleged that ONGC was pushed into losses only to benefit Gujarat. "NBCC India was damaged while the Navaratna companies the nation's wealth were also being diluted," he added.

He asked the TDP MPs to coordinate with other parties in Parliament and protest the BJPs 'misrule'.The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to withdraw 18 cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots and asked the district authorities to approach the court.

Muzaffarnagar: The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to withdraw 18 cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots and asked the district authorities to approach the court, sources said on Sunday.

UP's special secretary of law JJ Singh has directed Muzaffarnagar district magistrate Rajeev Sharma to withdraw the cases, they said.

On the directive from Lucknow, the district authorities have started preparing to approach the court for permission to withdraw the cases. The cases were filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code including 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 397 (attempt to cause death), the sources said.

The directive came after the state government sought details of 125 cases filed in relation to the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.

Additional district magistrate Amit Kumar told PTI that the state government had sought the details to review the possibility of withdrawing the 125 cases pending in courts.

Several leaders of the ruling BJP, including MPs Sanjeev Balyan and Bharatendra Singh, MLAs Sangeet Som and Umesh Malik, have been named in these 125 cases. Minister in the state government Suresh Rana and Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi are also accused in cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots.

However, the cases asked to withdraw do not include the names of these BJP leaders.

Communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September 2013 had claimed 60 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.

The state government had formed an SIT to probe the riot cases. The SIT has filed charge sheets in 175 cases.

Police had registered cases against 6,869 people and arrested 1,480 people in connection with the riots.

According to the SIT, 418 accused have been acquitted in 54 cases due to lack of evidence.When asked if Rahul was the obvious choice to lead a pan-India alliance, Tejaswi said India is a democracy, in which people choose their representatives and they in turn choose the leader who becomes the prime minister.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has said, and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) propaganda machinery spent hundreds of thousands of crores to malign the Congress leader's image.

However, he also emphasised that the issue of who will be the prime minister can be settled after the 2019 polls by grand alliance members collectively.

Asserting that there was never a question mark over Rahul's leadership, the RJD leader in an interview to PTI said, "even after such a long negative campaign against him, he (Rahul) has won the hearts of the people through his perseverance, kindness and large-heartedness."

"The Congress victory in the three major states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh under Rahul's leadership has infused a sense of confidence and energy in the party, and in the minds of 69 percent electorate who had not voted for Narendra Modi in 2014," Yadav said.

Asked if Rahul has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said: "Yes! He has all the qualities, he is the national president of India's oldest party and been in Parliament for the last 15 years. Don't forget his party has five chief ministers in the country and he is leading them. So, no question should be asked on (Rahul) leadership and qualities."

In December, president of DMK, one of the big allies of the Congress, MK Stalin, for the first time had publicly proposed that the united Opposition must field the Congress chief as its prime ministerial candidate to defeat the Narendra Modi government. Stalin was criticised, but he stuck to his views.

However, Tejaswi, when asked if Rahul was the obvious choice to lead a pan-India alliance, said India is a democracy, in which people choose their representatives and they in turn choose the leader who becomes the prime minister.

"Democracy is always people-centric, it is not person-oriented. We do not want a dictatorship form of government. Presently, the BJP is suffering from Idol worship. We don't want that culture," said the 29-year-old son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad.

He asserted that alliance is about parties and not about a single party and its leader.

"Once we go about the elections, we can always sit down and choose a leader after the elections are over, there is no hurry for that. Don't forget, Manmohan Singh ji was not a prime ministerial candidate in 2004, however, he successfully ran the government for 10 years," he said.

Asked if he would be playing the role of Opposition unifier that was played by his father in 2004, the RJD leader said he is the youngest leader in the Opposition camp, and just a "learner, not a leader".

"Yes, my father unified the UPA-I and he has been a vocal supporter of Opposition unity since May, 2014. I will be happy if anyone from our party could emulate his feat," Yadav said.

He said he was making efforts to the best of his ability to bring like-minded parties in the camp and had done so successfully in Bihar.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was framing him in false cases with the help of its "alliance partners" such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department.

"But, we are not afraid as we are known for our fearless politics. Neither we indulge in, nor fear, vindictive politics," he asserted.

Yadav said he is ready to go to "any extent" to ensure that the "BJP and the Sangh" don't come to power and alleged that the Constitution that empowers backwards, minorities and Dalits in the country, is at stake.On 19 January, Sister Anupama along with three other nuns who had pledged support for the Kerala nun rape case, also penned down a letter to the chief minister seeking his intervention in the matter.

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Save Our Sisters (SOS), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has written a letter to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking government intervention to protect the nuns who led the agitation against Bishop Franco Mulakkal.

"The rape survivor and the other five nuns who supported her in the case against Bishop Franco Mulakkal are facing an imminent threat of being separated and sent away from Kerala by the Missionaries of Jesus," the SOS letter to Vijayan read.

SOS urged the government to ensure that the lives of the nuns are not endangered by enforcing transfer order.

"We call upon the government to initiate immediate action to forestall the move to remove them from their present convent where the government is giving protection, till the trial is completed," the NGO said.

Eminent writers and social activists have also extended their support to the petition.

On 19 January, Sister Anupama along with three other nuns who had pledged support for the nun allegedly raped by Bishop Franco Mulakkal, also penned down a letter to the chief minister seeking his intervention in the matter.

Bishop Mulakkal has been accused of raping and forcing unnatural sex on the nun multiple times between 2014 and 2016.Bhagwat said: 'We do not pray for someone's misfortune; while only pray for happiness to all. But the anti-national elements are trying every bid to destroy the peace and virtues and are working on their nefarious designs.'

Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh): Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that "anti-national" forces are nefariously working for demolishing the peace and virtues in India.

"We do not pray for someone's misfortune; while only pray for happiness to all. But the anti-national elements are trying every bid to destroy the peace and virtues and are working on their nefarious designs," Bhagwat said while addressing an event in Kanpur on Saturday after hoisting the tricolour on the occasion of Republic Day.

The RSS chief said that only India has the capacity to counter and defeat these "anti-national" forces. "The whole world knows about it and is suffering from it, but only India has the capacity to defeat such forces," he added.

He also said that the standard of living of every Indian has to be raised if India has to become the "Vishwa-Guru".

"We take a pledge on this day to raise the standard of living of every Indian so that India may acquire the status of Vishwa-Guru once again," said Bhagwat.A kaleidoscope of rich cultural heritage of states and their journey towards development was on display as colourful parades marked the 70th Republic Day which passed off peacefully amid tight security, though celebrations were marred in some parts of North East following a boycott call by outfits against the citizenship bill.

New Delhi: A kaleidoscope of rich cultural heritage of states and their journey towards development was on display as colourful parades marked the 70th Republic Day which passed off peacefully amid tight security, though celebrations were marred in some parts of North East following a boycott call by outfits against the citizenship bill.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath announced the launch of a scheme to ensure 100 days of employment every year to the youths from the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the urban areas during his address.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel announced waiver of farmers' outstanding irrigation taxes worth Rs 207 crore during his Republic Day address in Raipur.

Governor of Jharkhand Droupadi Murmu hailed the state's efforts to create a conducive industrial environment, making way for more investments and job opportunities.

Kerala governor P Sathasivam pitched for a united approach towards rebuilding the state devastated by last year's deadly monsoon floods and cautioned against narrow politics and violent protests derailing the efforts and lowering the state's image.

Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik said the militancy-hit Kashmir Valley will once again become "the paradise on earth" as was once described by Mughal Emperor Jahangir.

Mobile internet services were suspended across Kashmir as a precautionary measure on the occasion, but mobile phone services functioned as usual. Normal life was affected due to a strike called by separatist groups, which asked people to observe the Republic Day as a "black day".

Security was tightened in the North East, which has been rocked by protests against the citizenship bill.

Governor of Mizoram Kummanam Rajasekharan addressed an almost-empty ground in Aizawl on the occasion due to a statewide boycott call given by an umbrella organisation. No member from the general public attended the function, police said, adding only ministers, legislators and top officials were present.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, passed in Lok Sabha on 8 January, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Several outfits in the Northeast have opposed it claiming that it would undermine the rights of the indigenous people of the region.

Chief Minister of Manipur N Biren Singh came down heavily on organisations that boycotted the celebrations in the state against the bill, saying they should instead contest elections to get people's mandate. He warned that actions of these outfits would tantamount to running a "parallel administration", which is "unacceptable".

Governor of Assam Jagdish Mukhi said there is no place for illegal foreigners and only the indigenous people of the state have the right on its resources.

Apprehending that the protests against the bill could affect the celebrations, the Assam Police took rigorous steps to ensure that no one carried black cloth to official functions.

Black flags were shown to ministers and senior BJP leaders wherever they had been going over the past few weeks in the state as part of protests.

In Gujarat, six children and a woman constable riding a stunt motorcycle were injured when the two-wheeler slipped at a state-level Republic Day parade organised in Palanpur.

A Madhya Pradesh minister was unable to read out the chief minister's message during a Republic Day function in Gwalior and had to ask the district collector to read it.

A video of the incident was widely circulated on social media showing Madhya Pradesh women and child development minister Imarti Devi (43) reading Nath's message in broken Hindi before she asked the collector to read it.

Tripura governor Kaptan Singh Solanki stressed on the need for cordial relations with the neighbouring Bangladesh for development of transport routes that would benefit the state as well as the entire north eastern region.

Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan hoisted the tricolour and said the state was poised to spearhead the country's efforts in leveraging technology for development and governance and in enhancing happiness levels of people despite "hostile treatment" by the Centre and a "non-conducive" atmosphere.

In Odisha, colourful tableaux displaying the state's rich culture and progress made in different sectors were taken out on the stretch, enthralling the bystanders.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said development, welfare of the poor and empowerment of all sections have become the state's identity.

Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh Saturday joined the nation in celebrating the 70th Republic Day, amid tight security arrangements.

Police, home guards and NCC contingents were among other participants in the parades held in district headquarters in the two states and their joint capital Chandigarh.

A slew of flag hoisting ceremonies were held across Uttarakhand on Saturday to mark the 70th Republic Day.

A mini-India came alive on the streets of Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow on the occasion as artistes from 11 states along with marching contingents and youngsters participated in the colourful festivities despite the cold weather.Each high court judge is saddled with nearly 4,500 pending cases, according to the law ministry. At the same time, each judge of the subordinate judiciary has nearly 1,300 cases pending, the same data shows.

New Delhi: Each high court judge is saddled with nearly 4,500 pending cases, according to the law ministry. At the same time, each judge of the subordinate judiciary has nearly 1,300 cases pending, the same data shows.

Going by the number of cases pending in high courts and the lower courts, the ministry came up with the average cases pending per judge based on the sanctioned strength.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, at the end of 2018, 2.91 crore cases were pending with the district and subordinate courts. In the 24 high courts, 47.68 lakh cases were pending.

From 1 January, Telangana has its own high court, taking the number of high courts in the country to 25.

The data states that while 4,419 cases are pending per judge in the high courts, 1,288 are pending with each lower court judge.

It says that while the sanctioned strength of the subordinate courts is 22,644, the working strength is 17,509  a shortage of 5,135 judicial officers.

Similarly, in the high courts, the sanctioned strength is 1,079, the working strength is 695  a shortfall of 384 judges.

The data was collated for parliamentary use.

Successive law ministers have been writing to chief justices of high courts, urging them to fill up vacancies in the lower courts.

Incumbent Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently urged the chief justices of high courts to speed up the recruitment of judicial officers for the lower judiciary, as, according to him, one of the main reasons for high pendency was the inordinate delay in filling up the vacancies of judicial officers.

The minister urged the chief justices to hold timely examination and interviews to recruit judges for lower courts.Palaniswami had assured Tamil Nadu's full support to facilitate early commencement and completion of the project in Madurai for realising late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's dream.

Madurai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday laid the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Thoppur near Madurai at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore, the first such facility in Tamil Nadu.

He also unveiled super speciality blocks at state-run medical colleges in Madurai, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli through video conference facility.

These blocs would have high-tech diagnostic equipment and facilities including Cath lab.

The proposed 750-bed modern AIIMS in Madurai, on its completion, will also offer 100 MBBS seats. On the occasion, Modi also dedicated 12 passport 'seva kendras'.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami thanked the prime minister for providing the AIIMS facility to Tamil Nadu and urged upon the Centre to set up a medical college at the backward Ramanathapuram district.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said AIIMS, Madurai would greatly benefit the people of southern backward districts of Tamil Nadu adding all necessary infrastructure will be developed in the region.

The Madurai AIIMS was given union cabinet approval in December, 2018.

Palaniswami had assured the state's full support to facilitate early commencement and completion of the project for realising late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's dream.

When the Centre announced in its 2014-2015 budget that new AIIMS would be set up in various parts of the country, Jayalalithaa had requested one such facility for Tamil Nadu.

Following her plea, the Centre announced in the 2015-16 budget that an AIIMS would be set up in the state. After a prolonged process, the authorities zeroed in on the Thoppur near Madurai for locating the AIIMS.Asserting that 10 percent reservation in jobs and education for the economically weaker section of general category is testimony of Union governments commitment for welfare of all sections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to remain vigilant against negativity being spread around it.

Thopur: Asserting that 10 percent reservation in jobs and education for the economically weaker section of general category is testimony of Union governments commitment for welfare of all sections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people to remain vigilant against negativity being spread around it.

Addressing a public rally, Modi said: Union government is committed to providing employment opportunities and education to all segments of our society. It was with this spirit that recently we decided to provide 10 percent reservation in education and government employment to the economically backward sections among the general category. This decision has been taken in such a way that it does not impact the Dalit, tribals, and OBCs who are already availing the benefits of reservation".

Cautioning people against alleged negativity being spread around it, he further added, It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu to serve their own selfish interest. I urge all of you to remain vigilant against such negativity. Any political thought which opposes the poor cannot ever benefit anyone".

PM Modi: It's unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion&mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu to serve their own selfish interest. I urge all of you to remain vigilant against such negativity. Any political thought which opposes poor can't ever benefit anyone. pic.twitter.com/0aj5j3HIdB  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019

He also assured the members of Devendra Kula Vellalar community and stated that the government is fully sensitive towards their demands.

I want to talk to you about one more issue, this is relating to the Devendra Kula Vellalar community and ensuring justice as well as an opportunity for them. The issue came to me and I am fully sensitive towards their demand. You would be happy to know that there is significant progress with regards to it. I assure the community that justice will be done, this is a subject about social harmony and we are committed to justice for all, he asserted.

Reportedly, the Devendra Kulla Vellalar community in Tamil Nadu is seeking exclusion from SC status.

Talking further about Swacch Bharat and infrastructural development during the last four-and-half years, the prime minister informed the gathering that as many as 47 lakh toilets were constructed in Tamil Nadu alone between 2014 till present time.

Swachh Bharat has become a peoples movement. Rural sanitation has increased from 38 percent in 2014 to 98 percent today. We have built more than 9 crore toilets in this period, out of which 47 lakh have been made in Tamil Nadu alone. Our aim is to ensure that development reaches all sections of society," he said.

The prime minister added, "We are focusing on various forms of connectivity. In the last four-and-half years, 35,000 kilometres of the new highways have been built. The speed of highway construction and laying of railway lines has been doubled.

Earlier in the day, he had also laid the foundation stone of AIIMS in Madurai and had outlined the healthcare initiatives of the central government during an event in the city.Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday dedicated to the nation an integrated refinery expansion complex of the public sector Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited at the Kochi Refinery.

Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday dedicated to the nation an integrated refinery expansion complex of the public sector Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited at the Kochi Refinery.

He also laid the foundation stone for a petrochemical complex at the refinery and a skill development institute at Ettumanoor besides inaugurating a mounded storage vessel at the LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited in Kochi.

Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister dwelt at length on the petrochemical sector in the country, which he said was emerging as a refinery hub, refining more than its demand.

He said the government had provided nearly six crore LPG connections to the poor people under the Ujjwala Yojana scheme since May, 2016 when it was launched.

He noted that more than 23 crore LPG consumers had joined the PAHAL (the Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG) scheme that has helped in identifying ghost, multiple and inactive accounts.

Modi said PAHAL had entered into the Guinness Book of World record, being the largest direct benefit transfer scheme.

The integrated refinery is a modern expansion complex and would transform the Kochi Refinery as the largest PSU refinery in the country with world class standards. It is equipped for production of cleaner fuels.

It will double the production of LPG and diesel and commence production of feedstock for petrochemical projects in the plant.

Mounded Storage Vessel, IOCL LPG Bottling Plant, inaugurated by Modi has a total storage capacity of 4350 MT. Storage capacity at the plant was enhanced to meet the LPG requirement of nearly six days bottling capacity of the plant.

It is considered the safest storage vessel ensuring highest level of safety for plant and adjacent areas. LPG receipt through pipeline will bring down movement of LPG tankers on roads.

Petrochemical complex, BPCL Kochi refinery is a Make in India initiative aimed at reducing dependence on imports. The skill development institute at Ettumanoor backed by the Ministry of Petrochemical and Natural Gas will provide vocational training and enhance employability and entrepreneurship for deserving youth both in oil & gas and other industries.

This world class institute was being set up at an eight acre campus allocated by the state government and would have a capacity to skill around 1,000 youths annually in 20 different skills.

The function was attended among others by state Governor P Sathasivam and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.Till now no loss of life or property has been reported from Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian area. More details of the incident are awaited.

Militants attacked 44 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp at Ahgam, Shopian on Sunday.

Jammu And Kashmir: Terrorists attacked 44 Rashtriya Rifles camp at Ahgam, Shopian today. Security forces retaliated. No loss of life or property reported. Area cordoned, search operation going on.  ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019

The security forces retaliated after the attack. The area has been cordoned off, and the search operation is going on.

Till now, no loss of life or property has been reported.

Earlier on Sunday, Pakistani troops opened fire at forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district, prompting retaliation by the Indian Army, a defence spokesman said.

"The Pakistani troops lobbed mortars and opened fire from small arms from across the border in Naushera sector at 1.15 pm," the spokesman said.

He said Indian troops guarding the border retaliated effectively and the exchange of fire between the two sides was continuing when last reports came in.

With inputs from PTIThe government of Maharashtra has clarified that the state-appointed subcommittee met twice before clearing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The government of Maharashtra has clarified that the state-appointed sub-committee met twice before clearing the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, unlike what had been reported earlier. But the minutes of the meetings confirm the sub-committee did not address most of the objections raised by various departments.

Touted as Prime Minister Narendra Modis plan to upgrade infrastructure in India, the 508-kilometre project is estimated at Rs 1.08 lakh crore, with central railway footing half of the bill, and the rest of the 50 percent of the expenses to be shared equally between Gujarat and Maharashtra.

On 27 February 2017, the home department of Maharashtra government issued a circular noting the formation of a sub-committee to conduct an in-depth study of the bullet train project. The sub-committee, said the circular, would be headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself.

More than six months later, on 12 September, 2017, the home department issued another circular approving the project. When RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge sought details of the sub-committees meetings, the documents provided by the home department read, You have sought information on the meetings of the cabinet sub-committee. So far, not even one meeting has been held. Firstpost accessed the documents and reported on 25 December, 2018 that Fadnavis had overlooked his own orders before clearing the project.

Within days, the state government suspended the information officer, Sarangkumar Patil, for providing incorrect information. The suspension was the first after Right to Information Act came into force in 2005.

The home department then provided the correct information to Ghadge, by providing minutes of the two meetings held on 23 August, 2017 and 4 September, 2017.

At the first meeting, held after over five-and-a-half months of the formation of the sub-committee, they mainly discussed the proposed place of the terminus at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.

The MMRDA had raised its objection at the proposed terminus, for it could have an impact on the development potential at BKC. The urban development department even said it would lead to a revenue loss of Rs 48,000 crore.

The sub-committee discussed how the majority of the construction would be underground. Along with Fadnavis, three others on the panel of the sub-committee were Minister for Revenue, Relief & Rehabilitation, and Public Works Chandrakant Patil, Education Minister Vinod Tawde and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote. All of them were present at the first meeting, along with other officers in concerned departments.

In the following meeting of 4 September, 2017, the panel decided to finalise BKC for the Mumbai terminus. It said that 0.9 hectares of land should be made available for the terminus. The land value should be included in the state governments share value in the bullet train implementation company. The sub-committee said the decision on the state governments 25 percent share value in the company would be taken in the cabinet meeting.

Three days later, on 7 September, 2017, the cabinet cleared the project.

According to the minutes, Patil had been absent in the second meeting of 4 September. The rest were there. However, Raote had initially told Firstpost, "I am not looking into the bullet train, the chief minister is."

Upon pointing out his name is on the sub-committee, Raote said, "My name may be there, but I have no clue about it. I don't know what this committee is, and I do not recall attending anything pertaining to it."

After making that statement, Raote later denied it. The recording of the call is with the reporter. It embarrassed the state government, even suggested that Fadnavis had no option but to approve it, since it is Modis pet project.

Ghadge said he had inspected the file thoroughly but did not get any information of the meetings conducted by the sub-committee. There was no correspondence, minutes or report of the sub -committee meeting, he said, wondering how accurate the details provided by the state government are.

The papers do not disclose how long the meetings lasted.

A former IAS officer, who inspected the papers, said the documents look genuine. The department sends out a summary of the meeting, he said. The papers are authentic."

Ghadge said even if we go by the minutes they have provided, it shows they did not address several objections raised by various departments.

On 3 January, 2017, the transport department of the state home department solicited inputs from others on the bullet train project, in which the planning department said the MoU should clarify how the revenue would be shared between Centre, Gujarat and Maharashtra after the project is operational.

The revenue department had even more pertinent objections. It noted the project is likely to make losses, which means one would have to infuse capital repeatedly to keep it afloat.

In this regard, it is important to know what the responsibility of the state would be, it said. There is no information or estimate available regarding how much profit or loss this project would make.

In conclusion, the revenue department asked to examine how many people go to Ahmedabad for work from Maharashtra currently, in order to establish the benefits for the state.

The minutes provided under the RTI reveal the sub-committee, which was formed to conduct an in-depth study, did not touch upon any of the objections raised above.The Madhya Pradesh government has sought the Centre's help in getting Asiatic lions from Gujarat's Gir, which has been delayed by over five years despite a Supreme Court order, according to official documents.

New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh government has sought the Centre's help in getting Asiatic lions from Gujarat's Gir, which has been delayed by over five years despite a Supreme Court order, according to official documents.

In a letter to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it said the state forest department and Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) feel that the process of shifting of the lions can be started immediately.

Hence, it is requested to issue necessary direction for the shifting of lions from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh, the letter said.

A copy of the letter was received in response to an RTI query filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.

The Gujarat government, however, has maintained that it would wait completion of studies as per the relocation guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) before releasing the lions, according to the communique.

The Supreme Court had in April 2013 directed shifting of some lions from Gir to Madhya Pradesh by October of that year, saying the species "should have a second home to save it from extinction, due to catastrophes like epidemic, large forest fire etc".

Gujarat has been opposing Madhya Pradesh's request of seeking lions from it.

The Madhya Pradesh government had chosen Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Sheopur district of Gwalior division as a second home for over 500 Asiatic lions. But not a single lion has been shifted so far.

According to other documents accessed by Dubey through the RTI query, about Rs 14.84 crore has been spent by the Madhya Pradesh government in translocation of 1,543 families from 24 villages of the area to pave way for lions entry into the sanctuary.

"The central government must issue a direction to ensure lions from Gir are shifted to Madhya Pradesh at the earliest," Dubey said.

The matter of shifting of lions had cropped up in a meeting, which was attended by representatives of the Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments, besides a renowned wildlife scientist, in September last year.

At the meeting, the scientist had said Palpur-Kuno was ready to accommodate 40 lions from Gujarat, according to minutes of the meeting.Addressing the nation in the 52nd episode of his Mann Ki Baat radio programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the EC for its meticulous organising abilities.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed the contribution of the Election Commission of India for continuously working towards strengthening the democracy and also urged the youth of the country who have attained the age of voting to register themselves as voters.

Addressing the nation in the 52nd episode of his Mann Ki Baat radio programme, the prime minister said, "25th January was the day the Election Commission was formed, which is celebrated now as National Voters Day. The scale at which elections are organised in our country astonishes the world. It is natural for every citizen to feel proud of the Election Commission of its meticulous organising abilities."

In his address, the prime minister also praised young scientists who are entrusted with the responsibility of taking the country forward. He said, "Today, our space programme is powered by several young scientists."

"We must take pride in the fact that the satellites developed by our students are reaching the space today. On 24 January, Kalam SAT, created by our students, was launched," he added.

Expressing pride, Modi said that India has also created a world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft. He said that the country will soon register Indias presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign.

He also paid tribute to freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He said, "Subhash Babu will always be remembered as a heroic soldier".

"He played an important role in the freedom struggle. 'Dilli Chalo', 'Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe aazadi doonga', with these slogans he awakened every Indian," he said.

Modi expressed happiness regarding the declassification of the Bose files. "For many years it was being demanded that the files related to Netaji be made public and I am happy that we fulfilled this demand," he said.

Paying tribute to late Shivakumar Swamiji, the pontiff of Sree Siddaganga Matha who recently passed away after a prolonged illness in Karnataka's Tumkur, the prime minister said that he had dedicated his entire life to social service, working for the social, educational welfare of scores of people.

"Shivakumar Swamiji was a true follower of Lord Basaveshwar's tenet 'Kayakave Kailash'. During his life spanning 111 years, he strived tirelessly towards social, educational, and economic upliftment of thousands of people," Modi said.

The prime minister did not miss out on extending his wishes for students preparing for exams. He said, "My younger friends, the days of examinations are approaching. Students, their parents, teachers, all are engaged in tasks related to exams. I wish all the students, their parents, and teachers all the best".

He has also written a book Exam Warriors which intends to reach out to the students and prepare them to face the difficulties ahead of exams.

In his address, the Prime Minister also asked people to send their ideas for 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' programme on 29 January, in which he will emphasise on stress-free exams.It is hardly a secret that Maryland has high taxes and that they are a major contributor to the fact that it is a very expensive place to live. Governor Hogan has made great strides over the past four years to control spending, lower taxes and make Maryland more affordable, but we want to go even further. Too many Maryland families are struggling, and too many businesses will not consider locating here because of the cost of living. That is why we are introducing the Common Sense Tax Cut Act of 2019, which will lower the Maryland income tax rate by a quarter percentage point  saving middle class Marylanders hundreds of millions of dollars every year in taxes while also making our state more competitive economically. Maryland is stronger than it has ever been and its future potential is unlimited, but only if all people can afford to live here.Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

Islamabad: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

He made the remarks on Saturday night during an informal interaction with the media personnel invited to attend the reception to celebrate the 70th Republic Day of India. Bisaria said India had consented to the basic points about the Kartarpur corridor except for its zero-point (crossing point).

He said both the countries were in contact over Kartarpur corridor. "So many meetings have taken place on this matter (Kartarpur corridor)," he said. But he ruled out any quick resumption of talks due to upcoming election in India.

"Because of (upcoming) elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now," he said. He went on to say that trust-building was important before resuming political dialogue between the two countries.

India last week shared with Pakistan the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan. Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara.

The much-awaited corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur  the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev  with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur.

The corridor was a long-pending demand of the Sikh community. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on 26 November last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later on 28 November, Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor at Narowal, 125 kilometres from Lahore. Bisaria said that 2019 was important for India as it marks 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The reception was attended by politicians, parliamentarians, diplomats, media persons, businessmen and civil society representatives.Investigation from the site of many of these crimes found that hate crimes are not motivated by religious hatred alone.

Editor's Note: This is the fifth article of a six-part series from 13 recent hate crime hotspots in Uttar Pradesh; read Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV. Next: How Hate Crimes Change Lives, Livelihoods And Ways Of Living

***

Naseerpur village, Mau: When the residents of Bholapur Hindoliya village in north-western Uttar Pradesh (UP) caught a 20-year-old outsider near a cattle-shed, trying to draw out a buffalo, they were enraged.

Having suffered enormous losses due to frequent cattle theft, they thought they had finally found the thief. Eyewitnesses said the villagers, mostly Jats, then asked the thiefs name.

On hearing Shahrukh, a Muslim name, they lynched him and did not stop until he was dead.

This incident was one of 61 from Uttar Pradesh (UP) recorded in Hate Crime Watch, a database of religious identity-based hate crimes across India from 2009 to 2018, which accounted for nearly a third of such crimes in the country.

Our investigation from the site of many of these crimes found that hate crimes are not motivated by religious hatred alone. Instead, most lie at the confluence of various factorslocal politics, gender, and crucially, economics. Religious bias often proves to be the last straw.

This story is the fifth of our six-part series (you can read the other parts here, here, here and here) on hate crime in UP.

Always an intersection

Various factors have contributed to the rise of hate crime in UP, apart from an inherent religious bias, according to Sudha Pai, former professor of political studies at New Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has authored several books on UP. At the individual level, the people who commit such crimes are driven to it due to various micro and macro reasons, she told FactChecker.

From sustained poor governance to the loss of aspiration among the young to poor social indicators, various factors have affected the population and created unhappiness in them, she said. Such discontent, along with the growth of the Hindu right in the state, means the state has become a fertile ground for mobilisation of such people by Hindu right-wing organisations, which then incite people into committing acts of violence, Pai said.

Missing these factors, while examining religious-hate crimes, might lead to a flawed analysis, she added.

A hate-crime that creates more hate

Pais words find resonance in the death of 68-year-old Mohammed Younus in the eastern UP district of Mau.

Younus was killed late on the night of June 26, 2017, at the mosque in his village, Naseerpur, during Ramzan, a month of prayer and fasting for Muslims. Younus had intervened when one man in a group of five had thrown a gunny-sack at the mosque. The sack, it was later revealed, contained pork.

Naseerpur residents remembered being stunned by the killing. This had never happened in their village before, they insisted repeatedly when FactChecker visited in December 2018.

Naseerpur has a population of around 2,000. Nearly 35 percent of households are Muslim, who, along with the many lower- and upper-caste Hindu families, have lived in harmony as far back as most peoples memory stretches.

Arvind Murti, a Mau-based civil liberties activist, saw a pattern in the method behind Younus killing. The killing reflected a hark back to the older days, when people would instigate communal riots in Mau. The attempt, clearly, was to spark off another clash here, he said, pointing to the timing of the incidentduring Ramzan, less than a week before Eid, one of the most significant Muslim festivals. Murti, who heads the Inquilabi Kamgaar Union, a Mau-based union which works for workers rights, said the killing was an attempt to widen existing communal fault lines.

A peek into Maus history is instructive. In 2005, the district headquarters saw deadly clashes between members of the Hindu and Muslim communities, which left at least 14 people dead. The clashes occurred after a dispute over the use of loudspeakers at a time when the Hindu festival of Dussehra coincided with Ramzan.

Hindu Yuva Vahini activists played an active role in the riots, news reports revealed. A citizens report by Saajhi Duniya, a Lucknow-based not-for-profit, said Hindu Yuva Vahini founder Yogi Adityanath, now the chief minister of UP who was then the member of parliament from neighbouring Gorakhpur, had stoked tensions by holding a public meeting after being prevented by Mau police from visiting the district during the riots.

When Younus was killed, the local police believed the perpetrators had tried to create a similar situation. The police arrested local criminal Ramesh Singh Kaka and four of his accomplices. The police had been trying to track down Kaka and in order to distract the polices work, Kaka planned this attack, Alok Kumar Jayswal, the deputy superintendent of police of Mau, told FactChecker, He was hoping for a full-blown communal riot, but the people of Naseerpur reacted maturely.

While a riot was prevented, Younus killing changed the way Mau lives, locals said. Now, we are told we are a sensitive village, in police records, said Umair Khan, 28, who works as a construction worker. An eyewitness to the killing, Abdul Jabbar Khan, said the villagers suspected an insider hand in the killing and all fingers pointed to someone in the Hindu community. Otherwise, how would outsiders know how to get here and then escape within seconds of the attack? Khan said, adding that these suspicions have worsened distrust between the communities.

Gender meets hatred

Another common theme that FactChecker found, in at least three of the 13 instances, was of an insistence by upper-caste Hindu men to save the honour of Hindu women by opposing their relationships with lower-caste or Muslim men. In all three cases, this was the primary motivation for the hate crime.

In the run-up to the UP assembly polls, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said that love jihad, a term used largely by the Hindu right to describe a relationship between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, was a key issue for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He maintained this stand even after being sworn in as the states chief minister, when he said love jihad was dangerous.

In February 2017, BJP chief Amit Shah said anti-Romeo squads would be created across UP to safeguard the honour of women by preventing their harassment by men. One prominent BJP leader conceded in an interview to Huffington Post that this was one way of preventing interfaith relationships.

This fits into the narrative that the Hindu right-wing has been trying to build around Muslim men being invaders, Pai said. In this narrative, the Muslim invaders attack Hindu women who, then, need to be protected from such attacks, she said.

In Muzaffarnagar, a senior functionary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu right-wing organisation and an affiliate of the ruling BJP, said the organisation views interfaith relationships, especially ones where the man is a Muslim, very critically: People dont realise but this is a conspiracy against the Hindu religion. The functionary said within the organisation and its affiliates, the general instruction is to try and ensure such relationships do not last. We try and speak to their parents, we also speak to the couple, he said, Sometimes, things go out of hand and it gets violent.

Pais words and the VHP functionarys confessions find resonance in Bulandshahrs Soi village, where the elopement of a Muslim youth with a Hindu girl ended with an elderly Muslim man, Ghulam Mohammed, being lynched by enraged Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) activists in May 2017. The activists believed Mohammed had helped the couple elope.

Soon after the couple eloped, HYV activists threatened Sois Muslim families, villagers told FactChecker. We were threatened and abused because they thought that it was a conspiracy that Muslims had hatched against Hindus, Chidda Khan from Soi said.

Such an interplay of gender with politics often has a caste element to it.

In Bulandshahrs Sonda Habibpur village, power play around gender, caste equations and religion came together when a young Dalit boy eloped with a Muslim girl from the same village, in June 2018.

They could kill me, and nobody would care

They could kill me, dump my body somewhere and nobody will care, Shrikrishna, the father of the eloped boy, told FactChecker. He said he did not leave home after dark, and had curtailed his working hours to be home before dusk.

Shiv Kumar, 20, had eloped with Razia, a 19-year-old Muslim girl, on 6 June, 2018.

Shrikrishna belongs to the Kori (weavers) caste, considered a Scheduled Caste in UP, from which President Ram Nath Kovind also hails. Shrikrishnas family and his brothers family, who live next door, are the only two Kori families in the village of 2,000.

After the couple eloped on 6 June, the villagers went to the police. Shrikrishna accompanied them and then, for the next few days, did all he could to trace the couple, he said. I was livid. My sons actions had landed us all into trouble, he told FactChecker. Finally, the couple were traced to Noida, from where they were brought back by the police. However, they said they wanted to get married, and on 21 June, their marriage was registered in court.

Five days later, Shrikrishna said, he got a call early in the morning. It was from an upper-caste village acquaintance, asking him to attend a panchayat meeting called to discuss the elopement.

At the meeting, some 100 people from the village had gathered, Shrikrishna said. They urged him to return the girl to her family. I kept telling them, they are both adults and the court has agreed to their marriage. How can I interfere in that? he said.

At this, some upper-caste men caught him by the ear and pushed him to the ground, he said. They said, how dare I sit on a chair in front of the villages upper-caste men, he said, So, I sat on the ground.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) he filed, the villagers then asked him to leave the village as punishment. When he refused, a few of them started assaulting him, throwing punches and kicks at him. Then, he said, they threatened to bring his wife and daughter to the panchayat and take turns to rape them in public.

The villagers then asked him to lick his own spittle from the ground, he said, adding, In that moment, I felt they would kill me if I didnt do it. So, I did it. When he tried to go back home, the assaulters followed him, assaulting him all the while.

Shrikrishna said the panchayat was convened at the behest of the girls family. But he blamed four upper-caste men for attacking him, along with Bhura Khan, the girls father.

The issue continues to fester. Shrikrishna and his family feel ostracised, while the accused continue with their lives as before.

The economics of hate

The road leading to the home of Krishan Pal, at the end of Bholapur Hindoliya in Bareilly district, goes past most homes in the village. It is flanked by mud huts with thatched roofs, with cattle tied outside almost every household.

Pals house is a pukka one, a simple brick structure, with green paint so thin that it exposes the brick underneath.

Pal, 19, is in jail. He is one of the eight people that the Bareilly police have booked for the murder of 20-year-old Shahrukh Khan, who was lynched on August 29, 2018, allegedly after being caught stealing buffaloes. Two of Khans accomplices, the police and villagers said, had escaped.

For years, villagers had suffered massive economic losses due to cattle thefts, locals said. So that night, when Pal and other villagers caught Khan, they thought they had finally found the thief.

This has happened so many times. We have complained to the police, but they do nothing, one villager who lives in the house next to Pals told FactChecker.

In fact, just four months before the incident, in April 2018, some thieves had made away with some of Pals buffaloes. We had to create a lot of ruckus with the local administration and look for the cattle, [but] we finally found them, Ramshri, Pals sister-in-law, said.

Cattle theft can be a huge financial setback in these parts. One cattle trader in Bareilly district, on condition of anonymity, said a buffalo would cost at least Rs 40,000. For families such as Pals, who depend on small-scale farming as well as dairy, buying cattle can be a substantial investment.

In August, weeks before the lynching, Pals family had just seen a heavy financial setback, having spent over Rs 1 lakh on a family members hospitalisation. We had to borrow money to pay the bills, but despite that, she didnt survive, Ramshri said of her sister-in-law.

Villagers said these worries must have been on Pals mind when he spotted Khan next to the cattle shed that night, as he stepped out to go to the toilet.

But the family refuted the allegations that Pal had lynched Khan. He was stressed; we all were. But we decided we will hand him [Khan] over to the police as soon as the sun breaks out, his younger sister-in-law, Pushpadevi said. Around 6 a.m., when they called the police, other villagers gathered and started beating Khan up, she alleged.

Two blocks away from Pals house is the house of another accused, Mukesh (who goes by one name, even in the FIR), who is also currently in jail. His wife, Satwati (who also uses only her first name), said he had been falsely implicated. One side of his body is wasted. How can he lynch someone? she said.

The family depended on farm labour, Satwati said, and with her husband away, she did not know how to keep track of the investigations. They had not appointed a lawyer yet. No lawyer came to us. No one even told us what to do, she said.

But the police said their investigations had revealed that Pal, his 40-year-old uncle, Gajendra, along with three others, had lynched Khan to death because they were enraged that Khan and his accomplices were trying to steal their cattle. In their anger, they lynched him to death, a police official said, asking that his name not be revealed.

Khans family, on the other hand, made a counter-allegation. They asked us to get Rs 1 lakh if we wanted to see Khan alive, said Khans 18-year-old sister Noorjehan Khan, alleging Pals family had made a ransom call at 6 am.

Pals family denied having made the call, and blamed other villagers. They got greedy, but we dont want such money, Ramshri said.

Pushpadevi said the family was in a bind. As soon as we caught Khan, villagers mocked us for refusing to beat him up. For hours, she added, the family ensured that Khan was safe.

We kept staving off the mob, insisting that the police deal with him. Now, we are the ones in jail.

In Thiriya village in Bareilly district, Zulfikar Khan, 17, and Noorjehan Khan, 18, younger siblings of Shahrukh Khan, recounted that the 22-year-old was a gifted embroiderer who worked in Dubai, and was his family sole earner. I want to study to be a lawyer so that I can fight the injustice of the kind that my brother was dealt, she said.

(Purohit is an independent journalist, writing on politics, gender, development, migration and the intersections between them. He is an alumnus of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.)

Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit/FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.Former chief election commissioner of India Navin Chawla on Saturday posed several questions regarding the election processes in the country, ranging from conflict of interest to need for reforms.

Jaipur: Former chief election commissioner of India Navin Chawla on Saturday posed several questions regarding the election processes in the country, ranging from conflict of interest to need for reforms.

Speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Chawla said, "Our Parliament consists of extremely rich people. Many of them are industrialists and businessmen. They find themselves on parliamentary committees, exactly those places where there is conflict of interest. Are those people in Parliament representing the voice of the people?"

Without taking any names, the former CEC said, "A current fugitive, now, was once put in the civil aviation ministry's parliamentary committee. The supposed rationale was that the man had domain expertise. We are on the way to becoming a rich and powerful Parliament, but one should ask if this is the voice of the people?" he asked the audience.

He expressed concern over the use of money and muscle power in elections. After his responsibility as CEC was over, one of the candidates had told him that he had spent Rs 50 crore for the Lok Sabha elections, while another had spent Rs 72 crore, Chawla said, pointing out that the expenditure limit for the parliamentary election is Rs 70 lakh per candidate.

Chawla, who became India's 16th Chief Election Commissioner in 2009, said the government's attitude in tackling unaccounted cash used in elections was critical. He stressed the need for greater participation of women in elections and expressed disappointment over the number of women candidates being given tickets by political parties.

Chawla said the Chief Election Commissioner should be appointed with the consensus of the prime minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.

He also spoke on electoral reforms and his worries about the system. Explaining the importance of every vote, he referred to the example of present Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi who had lost the Assembly election in 2008 by just one vote.

"It is remarkable that candidates accept results irrespective of win or loss. That is the great strength (of our system)," he said.

Later, Chawla spoke on the difficulty of conducting elections in Naxal and mountainous areas.

On the issue of EVMs, he said the people should have faith in the system.The MMRDA had raised its objection at the proposed terminus, for it could have an impact on the development potential at BKC.

Maharashtra govt says panel on bullet train project met twice, but sub-committee didn't address most objections

At the first meeting, held after over five-and-a-half months of the formation of the sub-committee, they mainly discussed the proposed place of the terminus at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.

The MMRDA had raised its objection at the proposed terminus, for it could have an impact on the development potential at BKC. The urban development department even said it would lead to a revenue loss of Rs 48,000 crore.

Arun Jaitley advises CBI to steer clear of 'adventurism', but finance minister doesn't practise what he preaches

Jaitley's problem is that his own finance ministry often violates these 'Lakshman rekhas' he is drawing. Either he does not know what is happening in his own ministry (which I doubt), or Jaitley does not practice what he preaches. This government, and every other government before it, has had and will continue to have antipathy against some of us. That is fine.

But it should be pointed out that disrupting and maligning institutions that have won the Nobel Peace Prize is fine with Jaitley.

Narendra Modis Bollywood blitz, and a bandwagon of political films begs the question: Are we citizens or fans?

Big as Bollywood superstars are, Narendra Modi is the biggest social media brand of them all, and taking selfies with him means getting noticed by his ardent following. The prime minister gets to reinforce his image, as fans of Bollywood personalities watch their icons bending their knees to fit into a selfie frame. His timing in 2019 is impeccable.

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened review  Netflix docu is as entertaining as it's insightful

Those keeping track would already be aware that this film chronicles the rise and fall of the now infamous Fyre music festival, a luxury resort event that was supposed to be the greatest thing since Woodstock, but ultimately turned out to be a gigantic dumpster fyre. The less you know about the events that unfold, the better.

Neelesh Misra on navigating fiction and fact: 'Journalism helped in striking the right balance in my storytelling'

Neelesh Misra is one of Indias most-loved oral storytellers, reaching more than 100 million people every week across radio and digital platforms. He is also the founder of Gaon Connection, Indias biggest rural media platform. He has written five books, and lyrics for over 30 Hindi films. He is an award-winning journalist, formerly deputy executive editor of a leading daily, and South Asia correspondent for The Associated Press.Railways said that the Rewa-Anand Vihar Superfast Express, Guwahati-New Delhi Express and Hyderabad-Delhi-Telangana Express were delayed by two hours each owing to low visibility due to fog.

New Delhi: A thick blanket of fog engulfed Delhi on Sunday with visibility dropping to less than 50 meters and minimum temperature hovering at 5 degrees Celsius, the weather department said on Sunday.

"As many as 13 trains were rescheduled after getting delayed for at least by 2 hours," according to the Indian Railways.

"Due to cold wave, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital touched "poor" category with the presence of moisture in the air increasing the atmosphere's capacity to hold particulate matter (PM) for a longer time, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) said .

The overall AQI of Delhi docked 252 in the morning. At Dhirpur, the AQI was recorded at 160 at 11 am, while in Mathura Road area it dipped to 'poor' category at 274. Furthermore, the AQI near Pitampura, Airport Terminal 3 and Delhi University stood at 276, 161 and 257 respectively.

The maximum temperature in Delhi is likely to hover around 19 degrees Celsius.

Railways said that the Rewa-Anand Vihar Superfast Express, Guwahati-New Delhi Express and Hyderabad-Delhi-Telangana Express were delayed by two hours each owing to low visibility due to fog.

Other trains which were delayed by over two years include Howrah - New Delhi Duronto Express, Mahabodhi Express and Islampur New Delhi-Magadh Express.Daily Bulletin: Narendra Modi will address the first Mann ki Baat of 2019 today, he will also visit Tamil Nadu and Kerala; ED was granted two-day custody of Gautam Khaitan; day's top stories

Modi to address first Mann ki Baat of 2019 today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation in the 52nd episode of his Mann ki Baat radio programme on Sunday. "The first #MannKiBaat of 2019 will take place on the 27 January. Share your ideas and suggestions for it. Dial 1800-11-7800 and record your message. You can also share inputs on the MyGov Open Forum or the NaMo App," Modi had tweeted.

The radio podcast, which will be the first of 2019, will be broadcast on the entire network of the All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan at 11 am. The programme will also be streamed on the YouTube channels of the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, AIR and DD News. Regional language versions will also be repeated at 8 pm.

Yogi Adityanath says can resolve Ram Temple issue in 24 hours if Supreme Court can't

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said people's "patience" on the issue of the Ram Temple is "fast running out" and if the Supreme Court is unable to give an early verdict on the dispute, it should "hand it over to us" and it will be resolved within 24 hours.

Soon after, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi reacted to his comments, claiming that Adityanath would indeed resolve the dispute "in an hour by destroying the constitution and rule of law, by closing all courts... if needed by encounters also, as this is your way of doing JUSTICE".

ED gets two-day custody of Gautam Khaitan

Delhi's Patiala House court on Saturday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) two-day custody of Gautam Khaitan, who was arrested in connection with the AgustaWestland case. He has also been arrested in a fresh case of money laundering and for holding black money.

Reports quoted the ED as saying, "During the hearing, the ED had told the court he is running less of a law firm and more of a money-laundering business. We need to ask questions. This custody is necessary."

Narendra Modi to visit Tamil Nadu and Kerala today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai on Sunday. He will also inaugurate the super speciality blocks of the Rajaji Medical College in Madurai, Thanjavur Medical College and Tirunelveli Medical College as part of projects to upgrade government-run medical colleges. The inauguration is scheduled to take place at 11.30 am.

The prime minister will also visit Kochi to unveil a plaque to dedicate to the nation an integrated refinery expansion complex of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. He will also lay the foundation stone for a petrochemical complex at the same venue and inaugurate a storage vessel at an LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited in Kochi and lay the foundation stone for a skill development institute at Ettumanoor.

Shivpal Yadav to contest Lok Sabha polls from Firozabad

Former Samajwadi Party leader and chief of the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) Shivpal Yadav has announced he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Firozabad constituency. The current MP from Firozabad is Akshay Yadav, son of Shivpal's estranged brother and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav.

During the Yadav family feud in 2016, Ram Gopal had backed Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, their nephew.

News18 quoted Shivpal as saying, "Neither did I, nor did Neta ji, ever consider Mayawati a sister. Then how is Akhilesh calling her bua?" He added that Mayawati cannot be trusted as she used to call the Samajwadi Party "gundo ki sarkar" (a government of thugs).

World No 1 Novak Djokovic to face World No 2 Rafael Nadal in Australian Open final

Novak Djokovic will face second seed Rafael Nadal, who he described as his "biggest rival," in the men's singles final of the Australian Open on Sunday. This will be their 53rd career meeting and eighth in the final of a Grand Slam. In 2012, the pair contested the longest Grand Slam final in terms of time at the Australian Open, when Djokovic edged an epic battle 7-5 in the fifth set after 5 hours and 53 minutes.

Jaitley targets CBI over Chanda Kochhar probe

A day after the CBI named banking doyen KV Kamath and several other bigwigs in the sector for questioning in the alleged fraud case against former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley advised the investigating agency to avoid "adventurism" and concentrate only on the bull's eye. Jaitley, who is recuperating after a surgery in a hospital in the US, on Twitter said one of the reasons for the "poor" conviction rate in India is that "adventurism and megalomania" overtakes investigators and professionalism takes a back seat.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a case of criminal conspiracy and fraud against the Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar. The agency also said Kamath, as well as present ICICI Bank CEO Sandeep Bakshi, Goldman Sachs India chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee, Standard Chartered Bank CEO Zarin Daruwala, Tata Capital head Rajiv Sabharwal and Tata Capital senior adviser Homi Khusrokhan, need to be investigated for high-value loans ICICI Bank sanctioned under Kochaar to Videocon Industries. It alleged that the loans were extended in violation of the bank's lending policies and in exchange for an investment by the consumer electronics company's owner in a business headed by Chanda Kochhar's husband.

Samsung Galaxy M series price leaked ahead of Monday launch

The starting prices of the Samsung Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20, set to make it into the Indian market on Monday, have been leaked online, along with some of their specifications. It has also been revealed that the sales of the new line-up of these India-first smartphones will begin via Amazon India.

Manoj Bajpayee calls Padma Shri a 'huge honour'

Actor Manoj Bajpayee is feeling ecstatic as his work has been recognised by the "highest office". He said getting a Padma Shri is an honour for "your journey and conviction". "It's a huge honour for any professional because it's not an honour for just one particular film or performance. It's an honour for your journey, for your conviction and belief that you had," Manoj told IANS on Saturday.The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday made a breakthrough in the Bulandshahr violence case, in which police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh had been killed. According to reports, the police have recovered Subodh's mobile phone based on information from sources.

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday made a breakthrough in the Bulandshahr violence case, in which police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh had been killed. According to reports, the police have recovered Subodh's mobile phone Prashant Natts house by the special investigation team (SIT).

Superintendent of Police (City) Atul Srivastav said the police had launched a search operation after receiving information about the location of the cell phone. However, he did not specify where they had found the phone. "A probe is underway. We are also searching for his pistol," he was quoted as saying by ANI.

The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt's house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records, he said.

Natt's house was searched by the SIT after the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court issued a search warrant. Six phones were taken from the house, including Subodh's, News18 reported.

So far over 35 people, including Natt, have been arrested in connection with the case. Natt had confessed to shooting at Subodh, according to police.

Atul Srivastav, SP City: Info was received through sources about the location of the mobile phone of the deceased policeman Subodh Kumar. We've recovered the phone after search operation at the location. Probe underway. Search for the pistol still underway. #BulandshahrViolence pic.twitter.com/1BPnm4ZQDd  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 27, 2019

On 3 January, one of the main accused in the case, Bajrang Dal leader Yogesh Raj, was sent to 14 days' judicial custody. He was produced before a chief judicial magistrate court in Bulandshahr after his arrest on 2 January from Khurja, around 16 kilometres from Bulandshahr, on charges of instigating a mob, rioting, vandalism and disturbing public order.

On 14 January, the Bulandshahr district administration had invoked the National Security Act against three people arrested in connection with the alleged cow slaughter that had triggered the violence on 3 December. Cattle carcasses were found strewn in the fields outside the Mahaw village in Siyana, after which a mob went on the rampage, attacking the local Chingrawathi Police Post. Besides Subodh, a civilian, Sumit Kumar, also died in the violence.

Two separate FIRs  one for the violence in which nearly 80 people, including 27 unidentified, were named, and the other for the alleged cow slaughter  were registered at the Siyana Police Station.

With inputs from agenciesFinance Minister Arun Jaitley is upset because he believes the CBI action against ICICI Bank is 'investigative adventurism', not a 'professional investigation'.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has offered some very sound advice to officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is under the direct management of the prime minister.

Jaitley is upset because he believes the CBI action against ICICI Bank is "investigative adventurism", not a "professional investigation".

What is the difference between the two? According to Jaitley, "investigative adventurism involves casting the net too wide, including people with no mens rea (meaning having criminal intent), or even having a common intention to commit an offence, relying on presumptions and surmises with no legally admissible evidence".

In Jaitley's opinion, "adventurism leads to media leaks, ruins reputations and eventually invites strictures and not convictions". "In the process, the targets are ruined because of harassment, loss of reputation and financial costs. It costs people their career," the finance minister said, concerned that this was happening because of the CBI's recklessness. We must commend his concern.

Jaitley may not be serious about what he is saying. We will explain this later, but first let us understand why he is upset.

The fact is that he is right in saying there is legal adventurism in this government. There have been cases where sedition cases have been filed but thrown out of court soon after, becoming nothing but a waste of time and government money.

In the ICICI Bank case, which involves the former chief of the lender Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar for their alleged association with an industrial house, the CBI wants to investigate others. These include the bank's current CEO Sandeep Bakshi; former ICICI Bank executive director K Ramkumar; Goldman Sachs India chairman Sonjoy Chatterjee; managing director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life NS Kannan; Standard Chartered Bank CEO Zarin Daruwala; Tata Capital head Rajiv Sabharwal; New Development Bank president KV Kamath; and Tata Capital senior advisor Homi Khusrokhan.

According to the FIR filed by the CBI, "the role of these senior officers of the sanctioning committee (that granted loans to Videocon) may also be investigated".

The banking and CEO community is powerful and has access to the government, which is responding to their concerns through Jaitley's blog so the bureaucrats stay away and don't harass them. This community can harm the "business-friendly" reputation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jaitley, and that is why the finance minister, though in a hospital in the US, feels strongly enough about the case to issue a statement.

He had also said: "Professional investigation targets the real accused on the basis of actual and admissible evidences. It rules out fanciful presumptions. There is no personal malice or corruption. It targets the guilty and protects the innocent. It secures convictions and furthers public interest... One of the reasons why our conviction rates are poor is that adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators, and professionalism takes a back seat."

I completely agree. Jaitley's problem is that his own finance ministry often violates these 'Lakshman rekhas' he is drawing. Either he does not know what is happening in his own ministry (which I doubt), or Jaitley does not practice what he preaches. This government, and every other government before it, has had and will continue to have antipathy against some of us. That is fine.

But it should be pointed out that disrupting and maligning institutions that have won the Nobel Peace Prize is fine with Jaitley. It is his precious "Ease of Doing Business" index that he is worried about when he warns the CBI on the ICICI Bank case. He should know that investment is attracted to nations that have a rule of law, not just a rule of law for millionaires.

Of course, there must be accountability and responsibility, and the government should refrain from "adventurism" and "megalomania". But this should be true of reckless government action against every Indian, regardless of whether they are wealthy or have access to the finance minister even when he is in hospital. Otherwise it is just hypocrisy.Among the 'unsung heroes' who were given the Padma awards this year is a tea-seller who donates profits for the education of slum children, a doctor couple who charge Re 1 from patients and a retired IPS officer who set up a school for a Mahadalit community.

New Delhi: A tea-seller who donates profits for the education of slum children, a doctor couple who charge Re 1 from patients and a retired IPS officer who set up a school for a Mahadalit community are among the "unsung heroes" who were given the Padma awards this year.

A villager from Odisha who single-handedly toiled to carve out a three-kilometre-long canal to bring mountain water to irrigate 100 acres of land and a German who looks after 1,200 sick, old and injured cows in Mathura are also among the 112 people who were chosen by the government for the awards, home ministry officials said.

Devarapalli Prakash Rao, known as 'chai bechne-wala guru', has been providing education to slum children through the money earned from selling tea. Rao, who has been working since the age of seven and suffers from lower torse paralysis, contributed half of his income in setting up and running a school  Asha O Ashwasana  in Cuttack.

Doctor couple Smita and Ravindra Kolhe have been serving the poor Korku tribals in the Naxalism-affected Bairagad in Melghat district of Maharashtra for the past three decades. They run a clinic and charge a negligible fee of Re 1 and Rs 2 and helped make Melghat a suicide-free zone for farmers. The Kolhes also developed a fungus-resistant variety of seeds, helped in developing good roads, ensuring electricity and setting up 12 primary healthcare centres in the region. Smita left a promising medical career in the city to join Ravindra in his mission.

Retired IPS officer Jyoti Kumar Sinha, who had served as secretary at the National Security Council Secretariat, has been providing education to children of the Mahadalit Musahar community post-retirement in Bihar.

The Musahar community has a literacy rate of just 3 per cent and for them, Sinha has set up an English medium residential school  'Shoshit Samadhan Kendra'  where 320 Musahar students are enrolled from classes 1 to 12.

Daitari Naik is called as "Canal Man of Odisha" as he single-handedly toiled to carve out a three km-long canal to bring mountain stream to water agriculture fields. Carved the canal with hoe and crowbar in four years, the water has reached 100 acres of land around Baitarni village, where there is no water shortage now.

Friederike Irina Bruning, is known as 'gau mata ki aashraydaatri' (one who gives shelter to cows) for her relentless work to look after 1,200 cows in her 'gaushala' in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for the past 23 years. She takes care of homeless, abandoned, sick, blind and badly injured cows in her gaushala which is managed through monthly expenses of Rs 22 lakh (for medicine, food, grain and salaries) received through rent from her properties in Berlin.

"Like past few years, this year too, the list of Padma awardees is full of unsung heroes who have been contributing to the society unnoticed," a Home Ministry official said.

Assam's Uddhab Kumar Bharali, an engineering college drop-out, is known for low cost, mass-friendly innovations for the last 30 years. Bharali has 118 inventions to his credit like the pomegranate de-seeding machine and the garlic peeling machine. He has also developed new polythene making machine to cater to demand from tea estates in Assam; helped in increasing income of tea pluckers from Rs 9 to Rs 20 per kilogram.

Madurai Chinna Pillai, a woman farmer, has pioneered micro-finance in Tamil Nadu through her 'Kalanjiam' movement. An illiterate farm labourer, Pillai spread community-based micro-finance for poverty reduction 50 years ago  a precursor to India's vibrant self-help group eco-system. She has established the country's first federation of rural women savings and credit group and also started 'Kalanjiam' community banking programme in the villages of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry.

Shabbir Sayyad, another recipient of the Padma award, has been taking care of 165 cows in drought-prone Marathwada in Maharashtra. A second generation cow caretaker from a family of butchers, Sayyad neither sells milk nor sells cows for meat but only sells cow-dung as manure to farmers, earning a meagre amount of Rs 70,000 yearly.

Anup Ranjan Pandey is the founder of Bastar Band, a theatre group which brings together artists from local tribes.Spreading the message of love, peace and brotherhood through music in the violence-ridden Bastar, he propagates the message of 'Banduk chhodo, Dhol pakdo' (abandon guns, pick up drums).

Sixty-seven-year-old Mohammad Hanif Khan Shastri is a Delhi-based Sanskrit scholar who has been promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony through his books and poems based on ancient Indian Shlokas. He has written eight books, 700 poems on ancient Indian shlokas.

Saalumarada Thimmakka, a 106-year-old woman from Karnataka, has single-handedly planted thousands of trees over 65 years, taking care of them as her children. She has been spreading awareness about deforestation.

Dagli Muktaben Pankajkumar helps poor blind women to become self-reliant. Founder of CU Shah Pragna Chakshu Mahila Sevakunj, Surendranagar in Gujarat, Muktaben has been working for the cause of persons with disabilities, established an educational institute where 200 blind students are currently enrolled.

Another awardee, Kailash Madbaiya is a Bundeli folk writer and also the president of Akhil Bhartiya Bundelkhand Sahitya and Sanskrit Parishad. Madbaiya wrote 27 books like Jay Veer Bundele Jawan Ki, Meethe Bol Bundeli Ke and also led Manikikaran Andolan for Hindi-Bundeli language.SINGAPORE, January 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has joined The Expatland Global Network. The firm will provide migrant banking advice to the Auckland E-Team's clients.

BNZ is one of New Zealand's leading full service banks and has been helping people to start a new life in New Zealand since 1861. It offers retail, business and institutional banking.

The Expatland Global Network is made up of Expatland Teams ('E-Teams'). Operating at city level, they have essential local knowledge and insight. They cut through complexity and drill down to the issues that are relevant to specific locations.

John Marcarian, founder of the Expatland Global Network, says, "Adding a world-renowned brand such as BNZ to the Expatland Global Network shows how far we have come since our launch less than a year ago. We are committed to providing expats with a trusted network of service providers in their new city and BNZ is the perfect banking provider for any expat making the move to Auckland."

Evan Veza, Head of International Business Development, BNZ Partners comments, "BNZ has joined the Expatland Global Network to support the development of expats as they integrate into life in New Zealand. We've helped generations of migrants start a new life in New Zealand and we're pleased to be joining forces with the team at Expatland who use their global knowledge, skills, expertise and networks to help expats successfully integrate into New Zealand."

'Expatland' origins

Expatland began as a book, written in 2015 by John Marcarian, as a result of John's personal expat journey. Its focus was to help expats plan their move overseas.

E-Teams around the globe

The Expatland book was just the start. To solve the problem of lack of support for would-be expats, John has launched the Expatland Global Network in 2018.

The Network is expanding rapidly. There are now E-Teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Prague, Budapest, Hong Kong, London and Singapore. With best-in-practice members recognising the importance of this service, many more will follow.

Businesses interested in joining an E-Team in their city can get in touch with Expatland: http://www.expatland.com/contact/

Contact:

Lloyd Gofton

lloyd@liberatemedia.com

+44(0)7919-353-484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."UBS has hired Oi-Yee Choo as its head of investment banking for Singapore, according to a memo seen by FinanceAsia.

Choo was most recently head of Singapore investment banking and an executive director at Morgan Stanley. She will join the Swiss bank on February 4.

She has worked on a number of key transactions for SingTel, the CapitaLand group and Temasek Holdings, including the sale of its stake in SingTel, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Huaneng Renewables. She was also involved in the IPO of Religare Health Trust and Ascendas Hospitality Trust.

Choo replaces Keith Magnus, who was...In 2017, the much-loved Jr NTR added a new dimension to his career when he hosted Bigg Boss Telugu and ruled the small screen. Unfortunately, the star could not return for the second season because of his professional commitments. And, as a result, the makers decided to rope in Nani for the show. Sadly, the Natural Star failed to impress a section of the viewers. The makers are looking for someone to host Bigg Boss Telugu Season 3 and replace Nani.

According to the latest reports, Jr NTR has been approached and he is likely to say yes. However, he will be able take up the offer only if SS Rajamouli allows him to do so. The Baahubali director, who has collaborated with Tarak for RRR, does like not like it when his actors take up new commitments while working on his films.

However, he might make an exception for the Aravinda Sametha actor as Bigg Boss is mostly shot at nights. This is a developing situation and one is likely to get more clarity about it in the coming days.

If Jr NTR agrees to host the show, it will definitely add a new dimension to it. Moreover, it should help Tarak prove once again that he is the king of the small screen.Janhvi Stunned In An Anarkali

Janhvi Kapoor arrived at Umang 2019 in a beautiful anarkali dress. Janhvi wore an embroidered golden anarkali dress with a sheer white dupatta, and accessorized with golden and pearl earrings. After she marked her entry into the industry with Dhadak, Janhvi is now working on two films; a biopic on India's female combat aviator, Gunjan Saxena, and the other, a Karan Johar period drama titled Takht.

The Charming Vicky Kaushal

Vicky Kaushal looked suave at Umang 2019. He wore a grey plaid tux with a black tee. His ever charming smile was on for the cameras. Vicky was at the Wagah Border for the Republic Day celebrations on Jan 26th. The crowds' response when he shouted How's the josh' was amazing. He has been reveling in the success of his film Uri: The Surgical Strike.

Aamir Greets The Cops

Aamir Khan posed for photographs with the cops at Umang 2019 and can be seen shaking their hands after. Aamir wore an all black ensemble, with a black tee, a black pant and a black button up jacket.

Fatima Dons Ethnic Look At Umang

Fatima Sana Shaikh, Aamir's co-star from Dangal and Thugs of Hindostan was also present at Umang 2019. Fatima looked lovely in a sequined baby pink saree at the event. Fatima has been filming for an Anurag Basu film and has been loving the journey of learning from and working with the director as she recently expressed in an interview.

Totally Glamorous, Taapsee!

Taapsee Pannu looked totally glamorous at Umang 2019. She looked like she had been dropped off from another era in her beautiful black ensemble, with hair and make up done right! Taapsee was recently in the news for being unceremoniously dropped from the remake of Pati Patni Aur Woh.

Kartik Aaryan's Bindaas Look!

Kartik Aaryan looked too cool at the Umang Awards this year. He was sporting a totally chill look in a Justin Bieber t-shirt, ripped denims, and a bandana. Kartik Aaryan is all set for the release of his upcoming movie Luka Chuppi, in which he will be starring alongside Kriti Sanon.Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam starrer Uri:The Surgical Strike which released two weeks back has managed to earn big bucks at the box-office. Though the film began slowly it picked up pace at the box-office in no time because of the good word of mouth publicity. Uris third Friday at the box-office saw it earn Rs 4.40 crores and on Republic Day, ie yesterday, it raked in Rs 9.75 crores. Such returns are exceptional keeping in mind the budget of the film which is said to be around Rs 50 crores. The film has earned Rs 148.18 crores till date and is all set to cross the Rs 150 crore mark at the box-office today. In the category of mid-budgeted films, it has already surpassed several hits like Raazi, Stree, Badhaai Ho and more. And today it is set to break the record of Tanu Weds Manu which is the highest grossing mid-range film till date.Australian farmers have demanded an animal rights group be banned from Facebook after creating a map which shows the location of farms.

Animal rights charity Aussie Farms has released an interactive map detailing the location of hundreds of farm businesses in Australia.

The map shows locations where they think animals are being exploited.

The National Farmers Federation (NFF), an organisation that represents farmers and the agricultural sector in Australia, has called the map a malicious social media campaign.

Hundreds of farmers now have concerns that activists will use the map to track down private addresses and trespass on them.

Some have called for the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission to retract Aussie Farms' charitable status.

'Falsely represented'

NFF president Fiona Simson said some farmers are distressed' after being falsely represented

They are rightly distressed that their name has incorrectly been linked to animal cruelty, Ms Simson said.

They are extremely anxious and very angry that their workplace, and their home, has become the target of extreme and dangerous activities.

Agriculture and Water Resources Minister, David Littleproud said the radical campaign is irresponsible at best.

Putting the locations of farms online could be creating an attack map for activists. This will potentially result in illegal behaviour by activists, he said.

Farms are peoples homes, not just their businesses. Some farmers have already complained the website claims they run businesses which they do not.

The map follows news of British farmers criticising misinformation about the industry as a result of social media campaigns such as 'veganuary'.

According to NFU Cymru, farmers are becoming increasingly frustrated at the attempts of individuals and activist groups using 'misinformation and inaccuracies' to tarnish the industrys reputation.by Sean Fitzpatrick | Sat, Jan 26th 4:00pm EST

Elie Okobo moved into the starting five as the Suns are without DeAndre Ayton, TJ Warren, Richaun Holmes, and De'Anthony Melton. Okobo played 31 minutes and scored just seven points and added four assists with three boards.Johnson & Johnson researches and develops, manufactures, and sells a range of products in the health care field worldwide. It operates through three segments: Consumer Health, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices. The Consumer Health segment offers baby care products under the JOHNSON'S and AVEENO Baby brands; oral care products under the LISTERINE brand; skin health/beauty products under the AVEENO, CLEAN & CLEAR, DR. CI:LABO, NEUTROGENA, and OGX brands; acetaminophen products under the TYLENOL brand; cold, flu, and allergy products under the SUDAFED brand; allergy products under the BENADRYL and ZYRTEC brands; ibuprofen products under the MOTRIN IB brand; smoking cessation products under the NICORETTE brand; and acid reflux products under the PEPCID brand. This segment also provides women's health products, such as sanitary pads and tampons under the STAYFREE, CAREFREE, and o.b. brands; wound care products comprising adhesive bandages under the BAND-AID brand; and first aid products under the NEOSPORIN brand. The Pharmaceutical segment offers products in various therapeutic areas, including immunology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, oncology, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The Medical Devices segment provides electrophysiology products to treat cardiovascular diseases and neurovascular care products to treat hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke; orthopaedics products in support of hips, knees, trauma, spine, sports, and other; advanced and general surgery solutions that focus on breast aesthetics, ear, nose, and throat procedures; and disposable contact lenses and ophthalmic products related to cataract and laser refractive surgery under the ACUVUE brand. The company markets its products to general public, and retail outlets and distributors, as well as distributes directly to wholesalers, hospitals, and health care professionals for prescription use. Johnson & Johnson was founded in 1886 and is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Read MorePresident Donald Trump is again considering invoking emergency powers to build his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval, roiling the latest bipartisan negotiations over immigration with the renewed threat of unilateral executive action and further dividing Republicans already reeling from the fallout of the shutdown.

"The president's commitment is to defend the nation, and he will do it either with or without Congress," acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on "Fox News Sunday."

The partial shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history, ended Friday with Trump agreeing to temporarily reopen the government without any money for a wall.

Inside the West Wing over the weekend, Trump told advisers that declaring a national emergency may be his best option now as he scrambles to assert himself in a divided government and to secure wall funding, according to four people involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

One White House official described Trump's decision to reopen the government as "clearing the deck" for executive action rather than a retreat. And a longtime confidant said Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by news coverage of his concession to Democrats and has been encouraged by conservative allies to escalate the fight.

A bipartisan, bicameral congressional committee has been charged with brokering an agreement on border security as part of a deal to keep the government open past Feb. 15, and a stalemate could trigger another shutdown.

Trump's consideration of such action comes as conservative commentators have lashed out at Trump and said he gave in to top Democrats on Friday, and as special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election has moved deeper into Trump's inner circle, raising questions about the future of his presidency.

Some Republicans on Sunday waved Trump off potentially signing a declaration after 35 days of enduring criticism as he held firm. Public opinion polls show that the public blames Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the prospect of a national-emergency declaration a "terrible idea," reflecting widespread conservative unease about using executive powers in sweeping ways to achieve political ends, a tactic they have long criticized Democratic presidents of employing.

"It's just not a good precedent to set in terms of action. It doesn't mean that I don't want border security. I do. I just think that's the wrong way to achieve it," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., agreed. "I happen to agree with the president on barriers at the border and border security as an important first step, but there might be a future president that I don't agree with that thinks something else is an emergency," Blunt said on "Fox News Sunday," adding that he hopes "the president doesn't have to go there."

Other Republicans said the GOP appetite for using emergency powers was stronger than the remarks of lawmakers on television suggested, because of widespread thought that the party's base would applaud Trump for being bold.

"He's certainly going to have Democratic opposition for partisan reasons and Republicans opposed based on the precedent it sets," former White House legislative director Marc Short said in an interview. "But there is one thing some Republicans say to the media, and then there is what they say quietly to each other when the camera is not on: 'I sure wish he'd do it.' "

Several White House officials said privately on Sunday that Trump has argued that a national-emergency declaration in the coming weeks could pressure Congress to include wall funding as part of a broader legislative package next month and could signal to the GOP's core voters that the president is going to extremes to secure funding for his campaign's biggest pledge.

Mulvaney said that if the legislation Congress sends to the president's desk is unsatisfactory, Trump could veto it. He said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Trump may be prepared to bring about a shutdown next month.

After Trump agreed to reopen the government, a committee was charged with negotiating an agreement on border security as part of a new spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

Republican leaders appointed to the committee include Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with GOP Sens. Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and John Hoeven of North Dakota. Democratic leaders tapped Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard Durbin of Illinois and Jon Tester of Montana.

The White House Counsel's Office, led by Pat Cipollone, has prepared drafts of declarations, and Trump spent much of Thursday night reviewing them in the White House residence as he watched TV coverage of the shutdown, according to two White House officials familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Angry with Democrats' refusal to bend to his demands, in particular with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Trump pressed Cipollone for guidance about the potential legal repercussions and called friends, such as Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, to hear their views about the negotiations, the two officials said.

In the end, Trump backed off on Friday after being briefed by aides on mounting anxiety among Republican lawmakers over the shutdown and federal flight delays. Trump was wary of the prospect of a shutdown showdown and court challenges over emergency powers unfolding at the same time, the officials added.

"Ultimately he'll be judged by what happens at the end of this process, not by what happened this week," Mulvaney said on Fox.

The White House declined to comment about the internal deliberations or the president's calls.

There are tensions in the White House about the political cost of using emergency powers. Senior adviser Jared Kushner has reservations and is hopeful that Democrats may eventually agree to work with the administration on a bipartisan immigration deal, while others, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, have talked up a national emergency as a way of prompting a reckoning on the issue, according to the four people familiar with the discussions.

Some Trump allies have urged the president to act, stoking his own instincts about using emergency powers, White House officials said.

"Come February the 15th, if the Democrats still say: 'Go to hell on the wall, you get a dollar, that's it,' they basically tell Trump, 'I'm not going to do with you what I did with Bush and Obama,' then I hope he will go the emergency route," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News on Friday.

The Trump administration has spent weeks casting the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as a security and humanitarian crisis that may necessitate the declaration of a national emergency, laying the groundwork in congressional briefings, news conferences and Trump's address to the nation this month.

Trump argued on Sunday that illegal immigration was costing the country tens of billions of dollars a month, although it was not clear on what data he was basing his estimate.

"We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168," he tweeted. "Cost Friday was $603,331,392."

Trump has previously claimed that the cost of illegal immigration is more than $200 billion a year, without providing any evidence for those claims.

About 11 million people are estimated to be living in the United States without documentation. But on Sunday, Trump challenged that number, tweeting that "there are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS"

Asked on "Face the Nation" about that number, Mulvaney said he did not know where Trump was getting his information. But he argued that the figure "has to be larger than 11 million" because of the numbers of migrants who continue to cross into the United States each month.

"I think that number was accurate a couple of years ago. We know that it's going up," Mulvaney said.

As the negotiations begin anew, lawmakers from both parties stuck to their positions on Sunday. Some Republicans, however, cautioned against another government shutdown over the wall.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on "Face the Nation" that "absolutely nothing" was accomplished by partially shutting down the government.

"Shutdowns are never good policy, ever," she said. "They are never to be used as a means to achieve any kind of goal, no matter how important that goal may seem to be."

The Washington Post's Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.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

Nomura Holdings, Inc. provides various financial services to individuals, corporations, financial institutions, governments, and governmental agencies worldwide. It operates through three segments: Retail, Asset Management, and Wholesale. The Retail segment offers various financial products and investment services for individuals and corporations. As of March 31, 2020, this segment operated a network of 128 branches. The Asset Management segment engages in the development and management of investment trusts; and provision of investment advisory services for pension funds and other institutional clients. The Wholesale segment is involved in the research, sale, trading, agency execution, and market-making of fixed income and equity-related products. It also engages in underwriting various securities and other financial instruments, such as various classes of shares, convertible and exchangeable securities, investment grade and high yield debts, sovereign and emerging market debts, structured securities, and other securities; arranging private placements, as well as other capital raising activities; and the provision of financial advisory services on business transactions comprising mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, capital structuring, corporate defense activities, leveraged buyouts, and risk solutions. In addition, this segment offers various financial instruments. The company was formerly known as The Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Nomura Holdings, Inc. in October 2001. Nomura Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1925 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Read More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.

QIAGEN N.V. provides sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company offers primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits designed for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories. It also provides interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) for TB testing, and assays for post-transplant testing and viral load monitoring; assays for analysis of genomic variants, such as mutations, insertions, deletions, and fusions; and assays for prenatal testing and detection of sexually transmitted diseases and HPV; and sample to insight instruments, including one-step molecular analysis of hard-to-diagnose syndromes, and integrated PCR testing. The company offers PCR consumables, such as quantitative PCR, reverse transcription and combinations kits for analysis of gene expression, genotyping and gene regulation instruments and technologies; human ID and forensics assay consumables, including STR assays for human ID, and assays for food contamination; PCR instruments consist of digital PCR solutions; and developed and configured OEM consumables. It offers predefined and custom NGS gene panels, library prep kits and components, whole genome amplification, etc.; bioinformatics solutions; and custom laboratory and genomic services. It serves molecular diagnostics, academia, pharmaceutical, and applied testing customers. The company has collaboration agreements with Amgen Inc.; CLIA-certified laboratories; NuProbe Global; and Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.

Read MoreWall Street Legend Who Picked Bitcoin in 2016 Shares #1 Pick for the 2020s (Ad)

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

The answer will surprise you.I had to be a mastermind, Deborah Rider told me Saturday in Glen Burnie, where Maryland Food Bank volunteers handed her some fresh and canned vegetables to augment her grocery shopping. I learned how to juggle things. The first thing I did was call my lenders; they need to hear from you. But I need to give [credit] to Navy Federal Credit Union. They said right away to federal workers, Weve got you. They were phenomenal. Navy Federal cut Rider a break on her car payment and, because she was a direct deposit customer, advanced her the first pay she missed as an interest-free loan. The bank that holds her mortgage was not so helpful. But, Rider says, Navy Federals program helped her get by until the Trump Shutdown ended.Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Netherlands 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 Netherlands ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.To be honest, when you have somebody that writes a letter and doesnt sign it, its hard to take it seriously, Fuller told the Times. I get anonymity, I get why somebody would do that, but at what point does it become just hard feelings. The police department, its a hard place if you dont quite fit in. I was in the fire department. If its not a good fit, everything does look very negative.AbbVie Inc. discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals in the worldwide. The company offers HUMIRA, a therapy administered as an injection for autoimmune and intestinal BehAet's diseases; SKYRIZI to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adults; RINVOQ, a JAK inhibitor for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis in adult patients; IMBRUVICA to treat adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), mantle cell lymphoma, waldenstrAm's macroglobulinemia, marginal zone lymphoma, and chronic graft versus host disease; VENCLEXTA, a BCL-2 inhibitor used to treat adults with CLL or SLL; and MAVYRET to treat patients with chronic HCV genotype 1-6 infection. It also provides CREON, a pancreatic enzyme therapy for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency; Synthroid used in the treatment of hypothyroidism; AndroGel for males diagnosed with symptomatic low testosterone; Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation; Lupron for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids; and Botox therapeutic. In addition, the company offers ORILISSA, a nonpeptide small molecule gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist for women with moderate to severe endometriosis pain; Duopa and Duodopa, a levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel to treat Parkinson's disease; Lumigan/Ganfort, a bimatoprost ophthalmic solution for the reduction of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension; Ubrelvy to treat migraine with or without aura in adults; Alphagan/ Combigan, an alpha-adrenergic receptor agonist for the reduction of IOP in patients with OAG; and Restasis, a calcineurin inhibitor immunosuppressant to increase tear production. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in North Chicago, Illinois.

Read MoreFAIRFIELD  A poignant, somber and yet intriguing exhibition opened Wednesday night, Jan. 23, at the Fairfield University Art Museum, recalling the deaths of French children during the Holocaust.

Ghosts: French Holocaust Children  a photographic and sculptural display collection created by Robert Hirsch, an artist and photo historian from Buffalo, N.Y.  employs hundreds of photos of the Jewish children who were taken away to concentration camps during World War II.GREENWICH  After being sworn in earlier this month, Alexandra Bergstein has embarked on a series of public events throughout the 36th State Senate district, which covers all of Greenwich and portions of Stamford and New Canaan. But as she has done so, the new senator has found herself on the receiving end of public opposition in the form of sign-carrying protestors. Its something few state legislators ever face, fewer still so early into their first term in office.

Attendees at each of the three public discussions Bergstein held this week on improving the local business climate were met by a group demonstrating against her recently introduced bill to bring electronic tolls to state highways.

Bergstein has let her feelings be known about the opposition  and taken steps to control how it has been expressed at the public meetings. That has angered critics, who claim shes trying to quash their voices. But Bergstein rejects the idea that debate is not welcome at her events.

I want everyone to feel heard, Bergstein said on Friday. But I do expect mutual respect. That means no shouting, be courteous and civil and share your point without any intentional misinterpretation of facts.

Bergstein, a Democrat, has issued a set of written guidelines for her public appearances calling for civil discourse only. The guidelines call for no personal attacks or false statements, real facts only for which people have to cite sources, a calm, controlled and constructive tone from speakers  and no signs allowed.

People who do bring signs are asked to leave them at the door and collect them at the end.

Lindy Urso, a Greenwich resident, attended Thursdays event at Greenwich Library to protest the tolls bill. He said he tried to enter the event but was told he could not if he did not leave his sign at the door, even though he and others pledged they would not be vocal in any way.

We tried to enter the venue quietly with our no tolls signs and we were excluded, Urso said. Ms. Bernstein is your typical limousine liberal who knows whats best and will not tolerate dissent.

Ed Dadakis, a town resident and member of the state Republican Party, said he was disappointed in Thursdays event. He said Bergstein had said she wanted to have a conversation but instead her insistence on only accepting written questions made it seem like she wanted to avoid debate.

You cant have much of a conversation like that, Dadakis said. Ive been to a lot of these kinds of events and the entire environment was very controlled. I think it was done that way to keep her from interacting with constituents.

Bergsteins bill backing tolls, one of several shes drafted and submitted since being sworn in, could well prove to be popular. She was open about her support for tolls during the campaign, making it a centerpiece of her platform. Most of the packed audience at Thursdays event gave her toll proposal and other views loud applause when she discussed them.

On Friday, she noted that the Go Fund Me page supporting the organization NoTollsCt.org recently received a donation from former state Sen. L. Scott Frantz, whom she defeated in the November election. Bergstein said the Greenwich Republican Town Committee had posted a tweet encouraging people to turn up for the Greenwich Library event to send a message to her and new Gov. Ned Lamont that they do not want tolls. She said she has been harassed by phone and email for days

That doesnt seem constructive, Bergstein said. I invited everybody to come inside and join the conversation in a civil, respectful manner. Thats the standard in this community. We dont need personal attacks, intimidation or deliberate misrepresentation of facts. That is counterproductive.

Bergstein added that she makes it a point to engage protestors at events she has done throughout the district.

At every event I go up to them and learn their names and ask them about their stories, Bergstein said. I listen to them. Ive been shouted at and there are people who have clearly not read my bill. I have invited them into the room and I have called upon them.

Not everyone has seen it that way. Some attendees of her event in Stamford this week, held the night before the Greenwich event, characterized Bergstein as talking over and dismissing those who spoke in opposition to tolls. Speakers at the Stamford event did not submit comments in writing.

But the guidelines she issued did find a supporter from across the political aisle. Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei, a Republican, spoke about the issue at Thursdays Board of Selectmen meeting.

Those guidelines include things like no signs, which I happen to agree with her on, because I dont think (signs) really add anything to it, Tesei said. And come with your opinions, but based on facts and cite your sources. Obviously no yelling and so forth. That is something Im endorsing what shes doing because I think thats a positive reinforcement of the type of dialogue wed like to see.

Bergstein said she is not approaching the issue across partisan lines. Tolls are in the best interests of the state, she said, adding she welcomes continued debate of the issue and discussion about her bill.

Im not a politician, Im a problem solver, Bergstein said.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comSHELTON  As school administrators continue crafting next years budget request, Sheltons top city official offered some advice  do not ask for more money.

Mayor Mark Lauretti, asked about the schools seeking a 2019-20 fiscal year operating budget which could include a 2.99 percent increase, said he would not grant any such bump from the present years $72.5 million budget.

They are not getting an increase, said Lauretti. This is a superintendent and a board that cannot manage money. Until someone holds them accountable, (the school board and superintendent) are not getting any more money. This is the first time in 28 years that I have taken this position.

School Superintendent Chris Clouet, who is crafting a budget proposal which could go before the Board of Education Wednesday, said he has not heard directly from the mayor or mayors office on this issue.

Im not sure what his thinking is on that, said Clouet, but what is not true, the false notion, is that we dont handle our money well. We are audited every year. It is a transparent process for all to see. I think it is getting a little stale to constantly repeat what is just not true.

Board of Education Chair Mark Holden also takes issue with Laurettis statement on the boards financial abilities.

If were in top 26 percent for student achievement for grades K through 8, and we have one of lowest levels of funding in the state, how can we be mishandling money? asked Holden.

Holden said that, no matter the mayors present stance, the Board of Education still needs to prepare to present a reasonable proposal and be ready to vigorously support the request with facts.

Frankly, while (Laurettis) saying that is his plan, we still need to make the case for a responsible request, said Holden. The 2.99 percent discussed by the superintendent still requires some cuts. We need to come in with a request and make the case that this isnt pie in the sky, its not a wish list, its what we think we need to take care of the needs of our students.

Lauretti also added that he does not plan to let the school board dig into the citys general fund to cover the present fiscal years budget, if it were slip into a deficit.

They have a responsibility to stay within their budget, said Lauretti. I have never had a board or superintendent overspend their budget like this one. They have to be held accountable for that. They are going to disagree with me, but when they can give themselves handsome pay increases, which the superintendent has, and make families participate in pay to play, thats just wrong.BRIDGEPORT  Three juveniles were taken into custody Friday night after a pursuit following a carjacking and shots fired in the city, Police Chief Armando Perez said.

The incident began at the CVS Pharmacy store at 3710 Main St. Perez said three juvenile males approached a BMW in the parking lot and started up a conversation with a male and female in the car.

Perez said the male and female got out of the car and two of the juveniles jumped into the vehicle. The third juvenile pulled out a gun and fired at the male and female before getting into the car and driving off, Perez said. No one was hit by any of the bullets.

An anti-crime police unit saw the car double parked on Washington Terrace later that evening, around 9:30 p.m.

The anti-crime unit tried to get the driver to pull over, but he took off, Perez said, adding that the driver got onto the highway and Bridgeport police pursued the vehicle.

The Bridgeport unit lost site of the car when the driver got off the Lordship Boulevard exit in Stratford off Interstate 95. At this point, Perez said, Connecticut State Police and Stratford police were notified of the pursuit.

A pursuit continued throughout Stratford, reports indicated in the area of the airport, until the car bottomed out and became disabled, Perez said.

All three bailed out of the car, but they were apprehended relatively quickly, the chief said. It was a joint effort by Stratford, Bridgeport and state police.

The driver is a juvenile known to Bridgeport police, Perez said, adding that he had a very, very poor attitude when he was taken into custody.

Perez said police canvassed for the gun, which they believed was tossed out of the vehicle at some point during the pursuit, but were unable to locate it after a thorough search.BRIDGEPORT  A student of the New England Tractor Trailer Training School is in critical condition Saturday after being shot multiple times, including once in the head, police said.

The shooting happened in broad daylight, around 11:30 a.m., at the NETTTS, 510 Barnum Ave.

A 28-year-old New Haven resident was shot at the school, where he is a student, according to a statement from Lt. Christopher LaMaine.

The evidence indicates that when he (the victim) went to his car during class, he was confronted by a lone gunman, who opened fire on him without provocation, LaMaine said. (He) was struck multiple times, including once in the head.

LaMaine said he was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he immediately underwent surgery. He remains in critical condition.

The motive for the attack remains unclear, LaMaine said.

Perez said the shooting was captured by nearby cameras and shows the suspect walk up to the victim as he was walking to his car and fire a gun at least six times.

It looks like hes going to survive, Perez said. Hes in serious but stable condition at Bridgeport Hospital.

No suspect has been apprehended as of later Saturday, but the chief said detectives are actively investigating.

This story has been updated to include additional information from Bridgeport police.Officers from the Baltimore Police Department went to the 2400 block of Annor Court in the Westport area of Southwest Baltimore after receiving reports of a shooting Saturday evening.UPDATE: 1:19 p.m.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office identified Matthew Reyes Mireles, 38, as the man they charged in the shooting death of a BCSO K-9 unit Friday night following an erratic, multi-county chase.

Mireles has been charged with multiple felonies including interference with a police service animal, attempted capital murder of a police officer, aggravated assault on a public servant, and evading arrest detention with a vehicle.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES

A Bexar County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit is dead and a man is in critical condition at an area hospital after a high-speed, multi-county chase that began in Karnes City ended in an exchange of gunfire on the far West Side of San Antonio, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar.

The 38-year-old male suspect, who according to BSCO had several outstanding warrants, fled from Karnes City police attempting to pull him over sometime after 10 p.m. Friday.

Now Playing: Bexar County Sheriff's Office deputies accompany Chucky, a BSCO K9 dog, to Becker Animal Hospital after the dog was shot and killed attempting to restrain a chase suspect Friday night, Jan. 26, 2019, according to BCSO. Video: 21 Pro Video

The chase followed U.S. 181 to Interstate 37 North where the chase turned toward San Antonio with the man intermediately firing shots at pursuing law enforcement, Salazar said. At some point, two State Troopers and three BCSO deputies joined the pursuit.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

The man abandoned his vehicle at an area near Loop 1604 and Texas 151, leaving it in drive, which resulted in the vehicle striking a patrol car, according to Salazar. The man continued on foot and "continued to fire shots wildly."

Salazar described the chaotic situation saying deputies and troopers attempted to keep traffic back and away from the scene as the man "with a complete disregard for human life" walked along pointing his gun at officers, himself, an overhead helicopter and at passersby.

"All the officers involved showed an amazing amount of restraint and I'm very proud of the way they reacted," Salazar said.

At a certain point Chucky, a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois, was deployed by BSCO to restrain the man.

"Chucky was able to get a bite on the suspect," Salazar said. "Unfortunately that suspect fired several shots, Chucky was struck and died there at the scene."

Salazar explained that law enforcement then opened fire on the man, striking him several times in the lower extremities. He was transported to University Hospital in critical condition after officers performed life-saving measures on him.

Chucky did have an issued vest but wasn't able to wear it at the time, the Sheriff's Office said in an emailed statement. The vest can't be worn all the time because of concerns with overheating and fatigue, and it is supposed to put on the dog in the case of a pre-planned operation.

The incident Friday wasn't pre-planned. Chucky's handler "who was actively engaged in pursuing the armed suspect did not have an opportunity to place the vest on Chucky, as doing so would have continued to place the public in imminent danger," the Sheriff's Office said. "Immediate actions had to be taken to ensure the suspect was stopped quickly."

Talking about the loss of one of his deputies Salazar said sometimes not everybody makes it home and sometimes law enforcement officers lose their lives in the line of duty.

"That doesn't make it any easier when that deputy's got four legs," Salazar said. "It's a heartbreaking situation and these dogs are part of our family they are deputies as well. Chucky went out doing what he was brought here to do, to save lives. And he undoubtedly saved lives with what he was able to accomplish in his last moments.

Salazar said there will be a funeral for Chucky, who according to officials had been partnered with an unidentified deputy for the last two years.

If he survives, the unidentified man is facing multiple charges.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.Early voting begins Monday and continues through Feb. 8 in the special election to replace Justin Rodriguez in the Texas House of Representatives.

Five candidates  four Democrats and one Republican  are vying for the position. Rodriguez vacated the House District 125 seat when he accepted an appointment to the Bexar County Commissioners Court.

The special election will be on Feb. 12. The winner will serve the rest of Rodriguezs term, which lasts through 2020. The states 86th legislative session began earlier this month.

On ExpressNews.com: Meet the candidates who want to become San Antonios newest state representative

HD-125 covers a diagonal swath of the West and Northwest sides, from Zarzamora Street to Loop 1604. Voters can check their registration and verify whether they live within the district on the countys website.

The candidates are:

Steve Huerta, a Democrat, is a political consultant and activist with the grassroots organization All of Us or None. Huerta, 50, has said he wants to bring an activist mindset to the Legislature.

On ExpressNews.com: Huerta disputes claim that hes ineligible for special election to fill San Antonios open House seat

Polling sites Elections Department: 1103 S Frio St. Great Northwest Library: 9050 Wellwood Las Palmas Library: 515 Castroville Road Leon Valley Conference Center: 6421 Evers Road Maury Maverick, Jr. Library: 8700 Mystic Park Memorial Library: 3222 Culebra Northside Activity Center (conference room): 7001 Culebra Voting hours Monday, Jan. 28-Friday, Feb. 8: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3:12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4-Wednesday, Feb. 6: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7 and Friday, Feb. 8: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. See More Collapse

Ray Lopez, a Democrat, is a retired AT&T executive who served for eight years on the San Antonio City Council.

Fred Rangel, a Republican, owns two small businesses  Adco Master Builders and Adco Professional Services  and has served as a precinct chair and on community groups.

Coda Rayo-Garza, a Democrat, is a senior coordinator for the San Antonio Independent School District and also has worked as a policy adviser to City Council members.

Arthur Art Reyna, a Democrat, is a lawyer who held this House seat from 1996 to 2002 and has also served on the Leon Valley City Council.

On ExpressNews.com: Candidates in HD-125 agree schools need more money  but they differ on how to do it

There will be seven sites to cast ballots during the early voting period. Unlike election day, voters can go to any of the sites to vote, regardless of their precinct.

NOTE: This article has been updated to add a polling site and correct Huertas age.

Dylan McGuinness covers local politics and the Bexar County government for the Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinnessWASHINGTON - A day after President Donald Trump surrendered in his standoff with congressional Democrats and agreed to reopen the federal government, he continued to push back against the notion - including criticism from political allies - that the episode represented a major defeat.

Trump had insisted for more than a month that he would not let the government shutdown end without securing money for his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. But on Friday, he reversed course in the face of mounting public pressure, declining poll numbers, escalating air travel delays and anger from the FBI director he selected. The deal struck with congressional leaders reopens the government through Feb. 15, while creating a committee meant to negotiate a border-security agreement.

On Saturday morning, the president took to Twitter, saying that "21 days goes very quickly" and once again vowing that the promised wall would be constructed.

"Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in," he wrote. "The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border & through dialogue. We will build the Wall!"

He also had tweeted Friday night that the deal "was in no way a concession."

Trump's efforts to spin the episode as a victory - or at least a momentary pause on the way to a victory - came amid an immediate backlash from conservatives allies, criticisms the image-conscious president had no doubt seen.

While some of his backers rallied around the president, stalwart Trump allies joined in the criticism. Lou Dobbs, the Fox Business Network host, sharply criticized Trump's move and said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "just whipped the president of the United States." On Saturday, Dobbs predicted that the president's approval ratings would drop even more. Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator, suggested Trump was "the biggest wimp" to hold the office. Far-right websites described Trump as caving.

The White House on Saturday tried to counter that image.

Asked during an appearance on Fox News whether the president had caved on the shutdown fight, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said, "100 percent no. He stood up for the American people. He reopened the government."

Gidley said that Trump had repeatedly asked for the sort of border funding that U.S. security officials said they needed, only to encounter intransigent Democrats in Congress.

"Democrats would not negotiate. They would not come to the table," Gidley said. He predicted that some Democrats would be willing to cut a border-security deal in coming weeks that includes money for a wall, even as party leaders have said they have no intention of funding Trump's border wall.

"The lesson I hope that the Democrats learn here is that they can't just not negotiate. They can't offer nothing and expect something to get done," Gidley said, adding: "They weren't doing anything on behalf of the American people. They used federal workers as pawns. Regardless of what they try and say and the tears that stream down their cheeks, they did nothing to protect the American people."

Despite that argument, the shutdown's end was widely seen in the capital and beyond as the president giving in, which played out in media coverage: The Washington Post described Trump's "capitulation to Democrats" as "a humiliating low point in a polarizing presidency." The New York Times depicted Trump as "backing down," while the Wall Street Journal called Trump's move "a retreat."

Trump had fretted about the shutdown's impact on the economy and his personal popularity. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday found that public disapproval of Trump had increased to 58 percent as most Americans held him and congressional Republicans responsible for the shutdown.

In recent days, Trump had sought to point fingers, blaming fellow Republicans and even his own staff for failing to help him achieve his campaign promise to fund a border wall.

The man who had campaigned as a business savant and master dealmaker emerged from the unprecedented shutdown looking, above all, ineffective. It was that image that he and the White House seemed to be trying to avoid Saturday, insisting instead that the wall would still be built and that the president deserved praise for reopening the same government he had brazenly closed more than a month earlier.

For the 800,000 employees who have not been paid during the 35 day shutdown, that pain will not end immediately. It will likely take until late next week before they receive their payments, delays that will cause continued hardship for all the employees already struggling to pay bills during the longest shutdown in history.

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Video Embed Code

Video: President Trump said Jan. 25 there's a 'good chance' negotiations with congressional leaders would include funding a wall to avoid another shutdown on Feb. 15.(The Washington Post)

Embed code:Before he became linked to the shocking creation of the worlds first gene-edited babies, Rice University professor Michael Deem was probably best known for the development of a mathematical model to improve the flu vaccine.

But that same year, he published little-noticed research that would turn out to be more influential: a 2010 study describing how a strange cluster of DNA sequences in bacteria acts as a sort of immune system to repel infections, the latest in the then-hot new field in molecular genetics.

This research is teaching us things we could havent have imagined just a few years ago, but theres an applied interest in this work as well, Deem said in a Rice news release. Its believed, for instance, that the bacterial immune system uses a process  to silence disease genes it recognizes, and biotechnology companies may find it useful to develop this as a tool for silencing particular genes.

He Jiankui, Deems co-author on the paper and then a Rice graduate student, would go on to apply related techniques. In China in November, He announced the birth of twin girls whose DNA hed altered as embryos to help them resist infection with the HIV/AIDS virus. The bombshell declaration outraged the international scientific community because of concerns the DNA changes would be passed to future generations and could cause harm.

This week, He was fired from Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, in the wake of an investigation that seemed to confirm his claim about the girls.

The future is still uncertain for Deem, whose seeming involvement in the work is under investigation by Rice. The Associated Press, which broke the story, wrote that Deem worked with He on the project and quoted him on a few aspects, such as the consent parents gave and how the editing works like a vaccine.

RELATED: Chinese scientist and Houston professor claim to have created first gene-edited babies

The new spotlight is unfamiliar turf to the previously under-the-radar Deem, a bioengineering and physics professor who colleagues describe as brilliant, ambitious and bold. His interests range from the pursuit of a Newtons laws of biology and the identification of materials for natural gas cars to the detection of a subtle electrocardiogram signal that might predict a heart attack.

Whether he ever received any training in human subjects research is another matter.

Reaction from colleagues

I believe Michael Deem to be a person of integrity, do not believe he would knowingly do something dishonest or unethical, said Ariel Fernandez, a former Rice professor now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If he was indeed involved in this huge scientific miscarriage in a substantive way, Id have to assume he was unaware of the ethical complexities associated with (gene editing), Fernandez said.

Kirsten Matthews, a fellow in Rices Baker Institute who co-authored a policy paper with Deem on the flu vaccine research, added that he seems very much the engineering/physicist type  a problem solver focused on how to fix things. Im not sure he saw societal implications.

Deem, who has not spoken publicly since talking to the AP, declined Chronicle interview requests through his lawyers. He previously didnt respond to a Chronicle phone call and email.

Rices administration also declined to comment.

The university issued a statement in November saying Rice had no knowledge of the work and that the work as described in press reports violates scientific conduct guidelines. The statement called the work inconsistent with ethical norms of the scientific community and Rice University.

A one of a kind scientist

Deems interest in science dates back to his public high school days in New Jersey, where he competed in state competitions in biology, chemistry and physics. I really enjoyed those, even coming in 1st in physics one year, he told the Biological Physicist in 2009.

Deem would go on to be much decorated and accomplished. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard, he received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and MIT recognition as a Top Innovator Under 35 as a UCLA professor in the 1990s. And after coming to Rice in 2002, he received the Academy of Science, Medicine and Engineering of Texas ODonnell Award. Hes on 15 U.S. patents and eight international ones.

It is Deems breadth that most stands out. He holds two professorships at Rice  one in biochemical and genetic engineering and one in physics and astronomy  and hes also the founding director of a university program in synthetic and physical biology. Hes trained in statistical mechanics, an abstract basic science that deals with the collective behavior of large ensembles. His interests include evolution, immunology, materials science, computer modeling, vaccine development and genetic engineering, according to his Rice lab website.

Only a very smart person with extreme confidence in his abilities and an extreme drive to succeed would dare to be as bold as Deem, said Fernandez. He surely wants to leave his mark as a scientist.

But Fernandez and others say the extremely interdisciplinary nature of Deems work can be a handicap, hard to assess unless the person judging has a similarly broad background and interests. Also, scientists typically make their mark because of the depth of their work, not the breadth, they noted.

Fernandez says Deem is one of a kind, maybe a genius, but some may say he still needs to be discovered. Theres a perception that we havent yet seen the home run we would expect given his potential.

Colleagues add that though Deems research is first-rate, it doesnt help that it is typically published in journals considered fairly middle of the road, not high-impact ones. Hes currently unfunded by the National Institutes of Health, the gold standard for biomedical research. His last NIH grant ended in 2014.

Still, his forte is the lab. The Rice Thresher, the student newspaper, reported he hasnt taught an undergraduate class since fall 2013 and said student reviews from that class characterized him as extremely smart but a poor instructor, a great researcher forced into a teaching role.

In fall 2007, Deem hit it off with He, then new to the Rice campus from China. The 2010 publication of three significant papers by the two prompted Rices media relations office to put out a news release entitled Hes on a hot streak in which He said he looks forward to making the move from theoretical work in Deems lab to experimental work in immunology.

Jiankui is a very high-impact student, Deem said in the news release. He has done a fantastic job here at Rice, and I am sure he will be highly successful in his career.

The 2010 Deem-He papers included one that applied evolutionary biology statistical techniques to trade data to show that the world economy is more sensitive to recessionary shocks and recovers more slowly than 40 years ago because of globalization; the mathematical flu model work, which predicts which strain will become dominant in a given season; and the gene-editing one, which describes how natural selection and evolution influence the way bacteria acquire immunity from diseases.

Fernandez says the gene-editing in China was very much inspired and based on that last research.

Conflicting reports

APs reporting of Deems involvement in the gene-edited baby work in China stunned colleagues at Rice, partly because Deem is a theoretician who doesnt maintain a wet lab where chemicals and drugs are tested.

The online publication Stat reported that the day story broke, Deem was accompanied into his students office area by Rices vice provost for research, and grad students and post-docs were told to turn over their files and research records as part of the university investigation.

Deems lawyers in December denied any involvement by Deem, issuing a statement that Michael does not do human research and he did not do human research on this project.

DEEM DEFENSE: Lawyers say Rice professor not involved in controversial gene-edited babies research

AP responded that it stood by its story, noting a reporter interviewed Deem.

To questions about whether the work might have been a hoax, Deem told the AP, Of course the work occurred. I met the parents. I was there for the informed consent of the parents. He said he absolutely thought they were able to understand the risks.

The AP, which reported that Deem holds a small stake in Hes two companies and sits on the scientific advisory boards of both, also wrote that the Rice professor defended Hes actions, noting the research team did earlier experiments on animals.

We have multiple generations of animals that were genetically edited and produced viable offspring, and a lot of research on unintended effects on other genes, said Deem.

In addition, Deem was listed as a collaborator on Hes website, which on Friday could not be accessed. In all, the two have eight publications together, including one in 2017 on sequencing a virus genome.

That doesnt include a He paper on gene editing human embryos that lists Deem as a co-author that Stat last month reported was rejected by an international journal days before news broke about the gene-edited babies in China. Two people familiar with the peer-review process told Stat that the journal, which was not named in the story, cited ethical and scientific concerns raised by independent scientists. The paper, which describes altering a gene involved in an inherited disorder that leads to premature cardiovascular disease, did not report a pregnancy.

Rice officials this week gave no timetable for when they hope to wrap up the investigation.

Todd Ackerman can be reached at todd.ackerman@chron.com or on Twitter @chronmedFirst, lets not over-produce these town halls and totally control the questions, skewing the process in favor of those in the audience who we have put there because we think they will be good on TV. Lets respect the tradition of the town hall a little and allow some room for organic audience questions and response even if it makes the telecast feel a little messy. (For those of us not working in TV, lets do the same in the voices we bring into our reports, stories, podcasts and videos.)Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro wants you to know he knows the rent is too high.

Families are spending too much on housing, leaving them crowded in tight quarters or homeless, the former U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary said Jan. 12 as he announced his candidacy. Housing affordability in the United States, Castro said, is now in crisis.

Thats going to change, he told a crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered at Plaza Guadalupe on San Antonios West Side. We will invest in housing thats affordable to the middle class and to the poor.

But in Castros backyard, housing advocates say the former San Antonio mayor, like most of his predecessors, failed to craft a policy squarely aimed at the areas need for affordable housing.

It wasnt as big a priority as there was a need for, said Rod Radle, former executive director of affordable housing nonprofit San Antonio Alternative Housing Corp.

An affordable housing crunch now looms over the city. Housing costs have risen faster than incomes since 2010. Nearly half of the citys renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to a report released last year by Mayor Ron Nirenbergs Housing Policy Task Force. One in five San Antonio families that own their homes pay a similar percentage on their mortgage.

Related: City panel gives preliminary OK to proposed 24-story tower in downtown San Antonio

Meanwhile, the citys housing stock has tightened, fueling fears that the region wont have enough residences to house the more than 1 million people expected to move here in the coming decades.

Under Castros watch, the city set a goal to reduce the amount of occupied housing units that cost more than 30 percent of families income by 2020  but will likely fall short.

And a city housing incentive program key to Castros Decade of Downtown came under fire in the last two years for handing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives to developers to build housing well out of reach of most San Antonians.

A few gains

Castros record on affordable housing has a few bright spots.

He was instrumental in helping the city land several affordable housing projects and the federal funds to finance them, said Lourdes Castro Ramirez, former CEO of the San Antonio Housing Authority. That includes nearly $30 million in HUD grants that went toward redeveloping the Wheatley Courts public housing complex on the East Side into a 414-unit mixed-income development, part of a broader effort to rejuvenate the community.

Castro tapped Radle to serve on the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corp.s board of directors in part to help insure the parks build-out includes some affordable housing, Radle said.

Now, developers must set aside at least 5 percent of residential units for households making 80 percent or less of the area median income, Radle said.

As mayor, Castro took a broad approach to solving regional economic woes that can contribute to problems with housing affordability, Castro Ramirez said. She noted his initiatives such as Pre-K 4 SA, the sales tax-funded early childhood education program, and his push for more housing downtown, itself an effort to generate economic activity.

Castro Ramirez, who left the housing authority in 2014 to become Assistant Secretary of Public and Indian Housing at HUD under Castro, chaired Nirenbergs housing task force.

You cant look at housing on its own, she said. You have to look at the condition of the housing, the resources and support that families that live in public housing or low-income housing, and figure out how to improve their quality of life or their standing.

Castro Ramirez later added, I think (Castro) was thinking much more holistically. Even with bringing more housing units to downtown, I think it was an economic development strategy, creating more job opportunities.

Related: 260-plus San Antonio affordable housing units in the pipeline under revamped incentive program

In his five years as mayor, Castro placed unprecedented attention on revitalizing the citys urban core, including calling for the first-ever round of East Side summits and the creation of the Inner City Reinvestment Infill Policy, campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Fiore said in a statement.

Castros policies encouraged $4.4 billion of total investments in once overlooked areas, including the development of 4,200 affordable housing units that would not have otherwise happened, Fiore said.

A city memo shows that those 4,200 units contain a mix of affordable and workforce housing. Workforce housing is generally for families making 80 percent or less of the areas median income  which hovers around $49,000 in San Antonio  while affordable housing typically means for households earning 60 percent or less of the area median income.

In his tenure as HUD secretary  from July 2014 through January 2017  Castro backed initiatives to support low-income housing, issuing millions in grants through HUDs Choice Neighborhoods and Promise Zones programs. In 2016, Castro established the National Housing Trust Fund, which invested $174 million in affordable housing units for extremely low-income households.

As HUD Secretary, Castro spearheaded a comprehensive effort at the agency to work with local municipalities across the country to blunt the rising affordability crisis nationwide, Fiore said. His eye has long been on this challenge, and he will continue to address it as a presidential candidate, and, if elected, as president.

High-dollar housing

As mayor, Castro focused much of his housing attention on the city center, where higher-rent units and pricey condos have since proliferated.

Construction of new, market-rate housing was the linchpin of Castros Decade of Downtown, an effort to bring more residents, retailers and companies to San Antonios long-neglected urban core.

Castros SA2020 initiative  a long-term planning measure that established goals for downtown development, education and health, among other areas  set a target for new downtown housing units: an additional 7,500 by 2020. The thinking was build rooftops and retail and firms would follow.

You have to have so many housetops if youre going to get commercial development and grocery stores, Radle said.

But downtown construction is pricey, owing to high land costs, zoning regulations and upgrades to decades-old streets, sidewalks and drainage.

To encourage developers to build downtown, the city developed two incentive programs: the Inner City Reinvestment and Infill Policy (ICRIP), which waives SAWS and city fees for construction in low-income and undeveloped neighborhoods, and the Center City Housing Incentive Policy (CCHIP)  a program that gives developers property tax rebates and construction loans to build housing downtown.

The incentives worked. Since 2012, the programs sparked at least $4.4 billion worth of investments and subsidized at least 6,500 housing units, 230,000 square feet of retail space and 28,000 square feet of office space.

The city is on track to hit the SA2020 goal of an additional 7,500 residential units in the downtown area, according to a report released this week.

Related: San Antonio home sales climbed 5 percent in 2018

But the incentives drew criticism from council members and community activists who questioned whether the city needed to subsidize market-rate housing projects while the region suffers from a shortage of affordable housing.

They normally went to developments and developers who had projects ready to move forward, Radle said of the incentives. For a lot of nonprofit developers, thats just not the case.

City officials gave almost $102 million in incentives to developers through CCHIP from 2012 to 2017. Of the more than 6,500 units CCHIP helped fund, less than a quarter  about 1,500  were set aside for affordable housing.

Among the projects that received CCHIP funds: the Arts Residences and Thompson San Antonio hotel and residential tower under construction at 123 Lexington Ave., near the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Houston-based DC Partners received more than $10 million in incentives, the largest package in the programs history, to develop the $116 million high-rise, which will have more than 60 condos costing as much as $4.5 million.

Officials also awarded $3.7 million in CCHIP incentives to Pearl developer Silver Ventures for the Cellars at Pearl apartment complex. The average rent at the upscale development was $3.14 a square foot when it opened in 2017  well above the average area rent of $1.16 a square foot.

The city also awarded nearly $2 million through CCHIP to a controversial South Side development that displaced more than 100 low-income families from the Mission Trials mobile home park. Castro voted against a zoning change to allow the development in 2014, but was overruled by a 6-4 council vote.

It was said very poignantly that we move mountains to create jobs in this city. We move mountains to preserve our aquifer. We move mountains to save bats. And we move mountains to preserve historic buildings, Castro said at the time of the vote. And we need to move mountains for people, which is ultimately the reason we serve you all.

In November 2016, the city awarded $1.8 million through CCHIP to developers to build the Mission Escondida Luxury Apartments where Mission Trails sat. None of the developments 360 units are considered affordable, according to figures provided by the city.

Missed opportunity

In response to the Mission Trails development, Castro convened a panel in July 2014 to figure out how to encourage development in needy neighborhoods without displacing residents.

The committees formation marked a turning point in Castros attention to affordable housing, said Trinity University urban studies professor Christine Drennon. But the topic faded from view after Castro left for HUD later that July and the committee presented a report on how to tackle gentrification to City Council in May 2015, she said.

His tenure here was cut really short, said Drennon, who served on the committee. Who knows what he mightve done?

In 2016, while serving as HUD secretary, Castro began raising the alarm for San Antonio to modify its incentive programs and make a greater investment in affordable housing, Fiore said.

I'm convinced that if San Antonio does not take bolder steps now to enhance housing affordability, then in a few years this will give rise to a decade of displacement, Castro said in October 2016 after he visited the East Meadows housing development, which replaced Wheatley Courts on the East Side.

Related: Filling in San Antonio's skyline: An update on 10 major downtown construction projects

In December, City Council retooled the Castro-era incentive programs after pausing CCHIP for nearly a year, building in affordability requirements. The changes also included barring housing units for sale at $360,000 or more or apartment complexes with average rents of $2.75 a square foot or higher from receiving subsidies.

Now that there has been an infusion of incentives to get market-rate units in the downtown area, there needs to be as much, if not more, emphasis on developing the truly affordable, rent-restricted units that will be a complement to that, Radle said.

Home prices in the San Antonio area have risen more than 20 percent since 2009, outpacing income growth. Ten years ago, the median home value in San Antonio sat at $103,700, estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show. By 2017, that figure had risen 22.5 percent to $127,000.

Meanwhile, San Antonios median household income only rose 15.4 percent from $43,087 in 2009 to $49,711 in 2017.

But the citys housing stock is falling far behind its economic growth. Nirenbergs task force found that the number of households grew by 6,500 annually from 2005 to 2016 but San Antonios job base grew by 14,900 on average annually.

The task force has laid out five strategies to tackle the problem, including boosting the citys investment in housing and increasing affordable housing construction. Outgoing City Manager Sheryl Sculley also set aside $25 million for affordable housing programs in the citys current budget.

Its a start, Radle said of the $25 million. Its a drop in the bucket, though.

Joshua Fechter is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering real estate, economic development and philanthropy. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreportsSunday, January 27, 2019

Office of Personnel Management (OPM): OPM has several resources for help finding the current status of the federal government (while the federal government is shut down, you will see the same notice: Due to a lapse in appropriations), pay and leave furlough guidance, and a sample letter to creditors and landlords (link to the letter is about halfway down the page).

This FAQ based on information from the Department of Justice and Office of Management and Budget has some helpful information about how agencies with contracts are expected to operate.

OMB also has a website with links to contingency plans for specific government agencies that may include more information about guidance or support specific to an agencys employees. The State Departments and USAIDs guidance may have some relevant information for grantees.

About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org.

Hi everyone, my name isand I am the former chair of the Government Evaluation TIG. This week is sponsored by the Government Evaluation TIG, and our first post comes at a difficult time for those working in or for government and government-funded programs. There are a few resources out there to try to help federal employees and contractors navigate the uncertainty of the shutdown. This article from GovLoop outlines a few we want to highlight here:There are some resources for contractors as well, but they mostly deal with being ready for a shutdown ahead of time, like this list from the Professional Services Council (although there are some tips for communication during a shutdown). Contractors also may be eligible for unemployment benefits. We encourage you to share any additional links or resources in the comments below.This is a painful time for many, including many AEA members. Our thoughts are with all who are affected by the shutdown, especially people whose livelihoods and well-being are being stressed and will continue to be affected even after the government re-opens.The American Evaluation Association is celebratingwith our colleagues in the. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our Govt Eval TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.josephmohanti said: Hi ppl, I want to know the difference between applying for ICT Business analyst and Analyst programmer or whatever for 189. Does it matter when we land in Australia? How does it effect us? If it doesn't, why wouldn't everyone go with an occupation with a lower cut off itself? Click to expand...

You have to get yourself assessed positively for the Anzsco code under which you are going to applyYour evidence especially RnR and education will be scrutinised thoroughly to ensure that you meet the requirements of the Anzsco codeYou cannot apply as a plumber , can you and hope to get away with it ?CheersCHICAGO - Headlines filled with frightening news of opioid abuse, overdoses and reports that 90 percent of addictions start in the teen years could make any parent worry. Yet parents remain conflicted about opioids: while more than half express concern their child may be at risk for opioid addiction, nearly two-thirds believe opioids are more effective at managing their child's pain after surgery or a broken bone than non-prescription medication or other alternatives, according to a nationwide survey commissioned by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).

"The survey results shed light on the country's conflicted relationship with and understanding of opioids. While most parents said they were concerned about side effects and risks such as addiction, improper or recreational use and overdose, they still thought opioids work best to manage pain," said ASA President Linda J. Mason, M.D., FASA. "Opioids may not always be the best option. It really depends on the type of surgery and how long they are required. It is, however, important for parents to know that there are many alternatives available that are as - or more - safe and effective for pain management. But only about a third of parents whose children were prescribed opioids even asked their doctor about pain management alternatives."

Although short-term use of opioids can be effective when managed safely and the risks minimized, more than 2 million Americans abuse them and more than 90 people die of an opioid overdose every day. Opioid-related deaths among children and adolescents nearly tripled between 1999 and 2016, driven mostly by prescription opioids.* During Physician Anesthesiologists Week (Jan. 27 - Feb. 2), ASA wants parents to know that a physician anesthesiologist or other pain management specialist can create an individualized plan to best address patients' pain based on the condition or type of surgery and decrease the risk of opioid misuse and addiction.

The new survey of more than 1,000 parents of children aged 13-24, one-third of whom had been prescribed opioids, revealed that while 83 percent of parents believe they are prepared to safely manage their child's opioid use if prescribed, the facts don't quite bear out. The results suggest there is a need for improved awareness on: opioid alternatives; safe storage and proper disposal; talking to children about risks; and the benefits of naloxone, an emergency medication that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

Parents aren't asking about effective alternatives

While opioids can help with pain management for a few days after surgery or injury, there are effective alternatives that do not have the side effects and risks of opioids, including non-opioid medications and non-drug therapies. But the survey results suggest parents often don't ask about alternatives, or aren't aware of the range of options.

59 percent said they would talk to their physician about pain management options, but only 37 percent of those whose children were prescribed opioids actually did.

88 percent recognized non-opioid, over-the-counter medications, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) and aspirin, are used to effectively help treat pain. However, few were aware the same applies to other non-opioid options, including steroids (23 percent), antidepressants (9 percent), and anti-seizure medications (7 percent).

15 percent incorrectly said antibiotics are an effective pain reliever.

Beyond medications, a number of non-drug therapies can help with ongoing pain, including nerve blocks, physical therapy, biofeedback, meditation, virtual reality, massage and acupuncture.

Parents are unaware that safe storage and proper disposal are key

More than half of people who misuse prescribed opioids get them from a friend or relative. That's why safe storage and proper disposal of the drugs are important to help curb the epidemic. But the survey results suggest parents don't fully understand the benefits and appropriate methods of safe storage and disposal.

Only 50 percent said they stored or would store opioids in a safe and secure place (not the medicine cabinet, where they can be accessed by others).

60 percent of those whose children took opioids said they needed fewer than were prescribed and, consequently, had leftover medication. But only 39 percent of all parents disposed or would dispose of leftover opioids as recommended, including taking them to a local pharmacy or health clinic, flushing them down the toilet or mixing them with dirt, kitty litter or coffee grounds before throwing them away.

Yet, 61 percent correctly identified the ideal method of disposing leftover opioids, which involves taking them to a collection center at a local police station or drug disposal program at a pharmacy or health clinic.

Parents understand importance of communication

When a child is prescribed opioids, parents need to have an open and honest discussion about the potential side effects and risks - not only with the child taking the medication, but other family members as well. Surveyed parents generally understood that.

74 percent said they have talked to their child about the dangers of abusing prescription and over-the-counter medications and 20 percent said they intend to have the conversation.

89 percent of those whose children have been prescribed opioids said they've had those discussions.

91 percent said they are confident their children know that prescribed and over-the-counter medications can be just as dangerous as illegal drugs.

Parents recognize naloxone saves lives

Naloxone (Narcan) is a lifesaving medication administered via nasal spray or injection that rapidly reverses the effects of an overdose. It's important to know about naloxone because anyone who uses opioids - even if they've been prescribed by a doctor - may be at risk for an overdose.

The availability of naloxone varies by state. In most states it is available by prescription and some pharmacies sell it over the counter. Most parents recognize naloxone's value.

71 percent agreed that having naloxone on hand is the same as having other life-saving medication available for people who suffer from conditions such as allergies, asthma or diabetes.

29 percent were concerned that having it on hand encourages risky opioid use.

80 percent said they would be more comfortable having it at home if their child or another family member was taking opioids.

92 percent thought all first responders should carry it.

"It's critical that we recognize the gaps in opioid knowledge and work to correct them, ensuring everyone understands how to use them safely and minimize their risks. A physician anesthesiologist or other pain management specialist can help parents address their child's pain and decrease the risk of opioid misuse and addiction," said Dr. Mason. "We also need to reassure parents that naloxone saves lives and needs to be widely available."

The 17-question Engine CARAVAN Omnibus Survey was conducted online November 25-December 2, 2018 among 1,007 parents of children ages 13-24. If their children were ever prescribed opioids, parents were asked to think of their child with the most recent prescription when answering the questions. If their children were never prescribed opioids, parents were asked to answer for their oldest child between the ages of 13 and 24.

###

Visit ASA's website for information about all aspects of pain management and to access an opioid overdose resuscitation card that provides guidance on symptoms of an overdose and how to help.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 53,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring that physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during, and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care that every patient deserves.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/WhenSecondsCount. Like ASA on Facebook; follow ASALifeline on Twitter.

*Gaither JR. US National Trends in Pediatric Deaths From Prescription and Illicit Opioids, 1999-2016. JAMA Network Open. 2018;1(8):e186558. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.6558Athens, AL (35611)

Today

Cloudy with rain ending overnight. Low 66F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain ending overnight. Low 66F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.Elkhart, IN (46516)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 62F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 62F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.(Photo: REUTERS / Erik De Castro)A flotilla of bancas (locally made boats) carrying evacuees displaced from their homes due to fighting between government soldiers and Muslim rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), is seen during sunset at a wharf in Zamboanga city, southern Philippines September 14, 2013. Fighting intensified on Saturday in the southern Philippines between government troops and rogue Muslim separatists, shattering a ceasefire almost immediately as it was to go into effect and leaving many residents running low on supplies. Dozens have been wounded and more than 62,000 people displaced, with hundreds of homes razed and a hospital still in flames.

At least 27 people have been killed and dozens injured after two bombs were detonated in a cathedral in the Philippines as Sunday mass was being celebrated and churchgoers were praying.

According to military personnel, the first bomb was detonated inside the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral in Jolo, Sulu province on Mindanao Island in the country's south, just after 8am.

As soldiers responded, a second device was detonated in the car park, the BBC reported.

The explosions came just after a landmark vote to form a Muslim autonomous region here following decades of unrest, The Washington Post reported.

The World Council of Churches strongly condemned "the vicious attack on worshippers" on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.

WCC general secretary Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit expressed profound sorrow and offered condolences and prayers for the families of the victims, for the wounded and for all the people of Philippines.

"In the face of this brutality, the human family, all people of faith and of good will, must stand together to recommit to respecting and caring for one another, to protecting one another, and to preventing such violence," Tveit said.

The blasts underscore how elusive peace remains in the southern Philippines, where Muslim extremist groups such as Abu Sayyaf and others linked to the Islamic State have long wreaked havoc in the Catholic-majority country, said the Post.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the attackers used two improvised explosive devices and they occurred about 8:15 a.m.

No group has so far said it was behind the attack, but Jolo has long been a base for militants including those of the Abu Sayyaf group.

The attack comes days after a majority-Muslim area in the region voted for greater autonomy in the referendum they held the BBC said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana called the attack a "dastardly act" and urged the local population to work with the authorities to "deny terrorism any victory."

"We will use the full force of the law to bring to justice the perpetrators behind this incident."

In last week's referendum, voters approved the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in majority-Muslim areas of southern Philippines.

But voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it.

The referendum followed a peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).One of the worlds most popular sopranos (she originated the role of Christine in former husband Andrew Lloyd Webbers The Phantom of the Opera, which, as badges of honor go, aint bad), a crossover artist of the first order, equally at home with the classics as with pop, tours in support of her recently released Hymn album. A voice to be reckoned with. 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at the Hippodrome, 12 N. Eutaw St. $64.50-$173.50. france-merrickpac.com.North Andover, MA (01845)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.Robbie McGee, Hyde Park who died suddenly on November 30 last was a man very fond of his roots and the sea was his life from which he mostly derived his livelihood and it was also his hobby.

Robbie was the middle child of six of a family of Thomas and Peggy McGee. He was reared at 40 Hyde Park which was the family home and lived there all his life. He also worked for the most part in the Quay area.

He went to school in the now closed Point Road National School which served for a time as a community centre for the area.

He spent part of his younger years in the army, but his occupation and indeed pastime throughout his life was fishing and loved watching the ships sail into the local harbour. He helped at times with the discharging of cargoes.

But his passion was to go fishing and picking the produce of the sea, such as cockles and mussels, and shared those with his family and friends.

He and his good friend Gerard Rogan had a boat between them which they used to catch fish.

He never married, but he had a great affinity with his siblings and a close relationship with his nephews and nieces.

He had an especially close relationship with twin sister Rita. They were virtually inseparable, and Rita was very caring of her brother, doing a lot of her brothers household chores.

She travelled back and forth on her bicycle from her home to see him and to take care of his needs three times a week.

In his latter years his mobility was restricted a lot and stayed at home much of the time with his two dogs that he adored. He managed though to totter along to his butcher to get bones for his two special friends.

His coalman Jim Callan was very good to him, visiting him at least a couple of times a week, and would bring him out on a Friday to his twin sister Rita to get his groceries. He would stay and have a chat over a cup of coffee.

His family were happy and most grateful to Robbies friend Fiona Squibb for her kindness to him in looking after the two dogs when he became seriously ill some five years ago, and also for helping to find a new home for them in Kerry after his passing.

Robbie possessed an outgoing personality, and revelled in being called Bobby McGee from the hit song Me and Bobby McGee.

Robbie loved dancing in his earlier years, and excelled at jiving which he often displayed in the two local venues he mainly attended, the Adelphi ballroom and the town hall.

He also used to dance in Blackrock in the Pavilion ballroom, which like the other two venues have since closed. Another favourite pastime of Robbies in those earlier years was playing the mouth organ.

He was predeceased by his brothers Vincent and Thomas, along with his parents.

He will be very sadly missed by his brother Richard, sisters, Geraldine, Canada who sadly could not travel home for the funeral, Rita and Bernadette, brother and sisters in-law, nephews, nieces, cousins, extended family, relatives, wonderful neighbours and friends.

After reposing at Shevlin's Funeral Home, Barrack Street on the Tuesday, Robbies remains were taken the next day to Saint Joseph's Redemptorist Church. Father Eamon Hoey CSsR celebrated Requiem Mass and delivered the eulogy.

All his nephews and nieces did the Readings, and his nieces brought up the Offertory gifts.

The beautiful music was provided by Evelyn Crawley. Brother Richard spoke warmly about Robert at the end of the Mass.

Robbie was laid to rest in Saint Patricks cemetery Dowdallshill.This year sees the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the Louth County Hospital at Dublin Road, Dundalk, patients having moved from the old Infirmary at the top of Stapleton Place, built in 1834. The hospital administration has changed several times over that period from being run by the Louth County Council, the Regional Health Board and then the H.S.E.; each time with promises of a better and a more economically efficient service but I regret to say that I do not believe that this has proved to be the case. The institution has served North Louth well in many respects and its medical staff has provided the most dedicated care to patients, but has always been short of the funding needed, in spite of many promises.

The childrens wards have been closed and the emergency services have become more and more restricted, to name just a few shortfalls, but perhaps the greatest loss has been the closing of an excellent maternity unit.

This all began many years ago and culminated in what was announced as only a temporary measure back in 2001, which was supposed to be replaced by a midwifery advisory unit but even this was finally abandoned in 2013.

Many people, including much maligned local politicians, have fought long and hard to try to maintain and even improve the services at the Dundalk hospital but it seems they have been fighting a losing battle against the central authorities. This thought came to my mind when I was looking up old editions of the Dundalk Democrat for 2002, a year in which there was to be a General Election in May, and I noted that one headline in the month of January stated that there was a possibility that the local Louth Hospital Action Group would field a candidate who would be independent of the main political parties. In the event, it came to nothing but the ruling party at the time, Fianna Fail, must have been conscious that the future of the Hospital was a big issue among the voters of North Louth because, only a week later, the Democrat was announcing that the Minister for Health was meeting with a group of Louth politicians in Dublin to discuss the future of the Dundalk hospital.

This article carried a surprisingly young looking photograph of the Minister concerned who turned out to be none other than present Leader of the Opposition (and collaborator with the present Government) Micheal Martin. Mind you, he was not all that young then because Miceal will be 59 next August which made him older in January 2002 than the present Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is now; Leo celebrated his 40th birthday last week.

The report stated that 'In an exclusive interview with the "Dundalk Democrat" Minister Martin said that, contrary to to local opinion, the Louth Hospital figured prominently in plans for the region's health services and would be reflected in the coming years'.

Further on in the article Minister Martin is reported as saying that 'he accepted that there was widespread concern over the Hospital's future. But I can say that the (Dundalk) Hospital has a very strong future.

'The town is one of the fastest-growing in the country and the Hospital needs to expand accordingly. The Minister stated that 3 million had been spent on the hospital over the past three years and the plan is to allocate a further 3.5 for this year, with an additional investment to follow.'

Readers will note that the money referred to by the Minister was in 'pounds', which presumably meant 'punts', even though the Euro currency, worth about four fifths of the punt, had come into use on January 1 of that year! I will leave my readers to decide for themselves if those promises were fulfilled!

In the event Fianna Fail, led by Bertie Ahern, won the election in May of 2002, with 81 seats out of a possible 165, to stay in power and Fine Gael, who took only 31, under Michael Noonan, had one of their worst results in 20 years. Incidentally, the Green Party had a very good result, winning six seats with about 4% of the first preference votes.

In Louth Dermot Ahern, headed the poll for Fianna Fail and Seamus Kirk, of the same ruling party also retained his seat.

Fergus O'Dowd replaced Brendan McGahon, (who retired at that election), on the Fine Gael ticket. Michael Bell of Labour lost his seat to Arthur Morgan of Sinn Fein.>> June 2016: After initially approving the expansion, ADEM rescinds the permit modification because an adjacent landowner was not officially notified of the project.

>> November 2017: ADEM approves the expansion permit again.

>> February 2018: Local landowner Bobby Lewis, one of the driving forces behind the first successful challenge of the permit modification approval, files a lawsuit protesting the landfills impact on his health and property in circuit court. The lawsuit remains active, according to the states online court records.

>> May 2018: City rescinds permit modification request for the expansion. With challenges possible at each step, the city opts to roll the permit renewal and modification into one hearing  now scheduled for Feb. 28. This effectively eliminates an extra time period for challenges. Also, Tallahassee, Florida, environmental lawyer David Ludder has filed an argument that not all landowners were notified of the project again since ownership of one property switched hands during the two months between when Dothan officials provided ADEM a list of adjoining property owners and the time ADEM mailed out notifications.Two men found in a Walmart parking lot in Dothan with credit card skimming devices and readers, credit cards, debit cards, and illegal drugs could go free after a federal judge ruled the items confiscated were the result of an unlawful search and seizure.

U.S. District Judge William Keith Watkins ruled in favor of a motion to suppress the fruits of the seizure filed by Darryl Urgelles Mestre, one of two men arrested in April of 2018 after an officer approached the two in an SUV in the southside Walmart parking lot.

According to the ruling, Watkins said the evidence appears that the Dothan officer approached the two men initially because he noticed the SUV had been parked in the same spot for several hours without moving. When he approached the vehicle, the two men appeared to be asleep.

Watkins said the pivotal moment of the encounter occurred when the officer appeared to open the door of the vehicle on his own when arriving at the vehicle. Watkins determined that at the moment of the initial encounter, there was not enough evidence to support reasonable suspicion.A generous gift of 100,000 from the Hugo Charitable Trust has been given to a fund set up to assist with Raphoes status as a Heritage Town of Donegal.

The donation will be spent in consultation with local businesses, tourism stakeholders and community groups. Its hoped the gift will kick start projects that can help turn Raphoe into Donegals flagship Heritage Town and attract tourists into the area.

Maryanne Green, the eldest daughter of Irish philanthropist and businessman the late Hugh Green, founded the Hugo Charitable Trust last year in New Zealand to continue Hughs philanthropic legacy.

Hugh was born in Raphoe and had a great love for both Ireland and New Zealand. Growing up in Ireland and growing up poor gave him a strong work ethic and other values and life skills that set him on his way. Hugh was then grateful that he found opportunities in New Zealand that gave him the wealth to be able to give back and give others a hand up, said Maryanne Green. Hugo, by the way, was the name Hugh used on his travel documents when he left Ireland at the age of 17, said Maryanne.

The Hugo Charitable Trust has a broad range of charitable purposes, with a focus on education, social assistance programmes, and medical research. In its first year, the Trusts donations totalled just over $3 million given to over 70 great New Zealand charities and causes.

To give the Hugo Trustees a feel for what inspired Hugh and contributed to his drive and passion to get things done, the Hugo team travelled to Ireland from New Zealand last summer and visited Raphoe.

They were met by representatives of Raphoe Community in Action at the Volt House Resource Centre and visited the former Green Family home, the Central Hotel. The 27-strong group that included Maryanne, the chairman, Mark Owens, and members of the Green family including Hughs brother John, who was also born and raised in Raphoe, were taken on a guided tour of the village and Oakfield Park. They visited the three main churches in the town and took part in a candle light service in St Eunans Catholic Church in Hughs memory.

Speaking during the visit Maryanne Green, said it was an emotional day, filled with memories of her late father and his many visits to Raphoe. He loved Donegal but he had a special fondness for Raphoe, he just loved to meet the cattle dealers at the mart and drop in to see his many friends for a chat and a cup of tea. That was his perfect holiday above anywhere else in the world that he visited.

Maryanne said: We are keen to help with some Raphoe projects and give something back essentially from my father. There is a sense of old world charm here that could be enhanced to help attract visitors.

"Raphoe has so much history too, with the Beltany Stone Circle, the Castle and St. Eunans Cathedral waiting to be explored. Tourism is a rapidly growing industry with social media reaching everywhere in the world we felt that a good start is to tap into the tourism potential. Upwards of 100,000 visitors every year go to Oakfield Park in Raphoe which is evidence of the potential to attract tourism revenue.

The chairman of the Hugo Charitable Trust, Mark Owens added that Raphoes image as an old Market Town with its Fair Day in the Diamond and the 19th century architecture gave it an edge that other towns no longer had. Im from New Zealand and I love the sense of history and charm that Raphoe exudes.

The Fair Day in Raphoe which ended in the 1960s was where Hugh Green in his own words "earned his first shilling and learned how to be a good judge of character." These were the foundation stones to his hugely successful business career, turning the Hugh Green Group into one of the largest contracting and property companies in New Zealand.

The first project to be sponsored by the Hugo Charitable Trust was last months Christmas Lights Event when the trees in the Diamond were lit up in memory of the 41 soldiers from Raphoe who died in WWI. Many of the trees in the Diamond were planted in honour of the soldiers shortly after the war ended in 1918. Other projects will be rolled out over the coming months with a view to turning Raphoe into the flagship Heritage Town of Donegal.Geraldine Diver is principal at Donegal Town's Abbey Vocational School, a Dub by birth, but she earned her Donegal passport a very long ago. This week Geraldine features in our "My Donegal Life" section:

What's your idea of a perfect day, or perfect weekend out in Donegal?

A trip to Arranmore island is my perfect day away! I love everything about it. The trip over on the ferry where you are immediately hit with the getting away from it all feeling with the sound of the sea in your ear and the vision of islands dotted around the bay which are just beautiful. Walking on the island beaches where the sand is white and the water is turquoise blue is really special. Reading the Sunday newspaper or a good book in Teac Phil Bans looking out of the window at the spectacular views is the perfect respite from the hustle and bustle of life. Chatting to the many local warm and friendly characters reminds me of the great sense of community in Donegal. Finally there is nothing better to finish a day than a a bite to eat and more chat in The Lobster Pot in Burtonport when I get off the ferry.



Who has made the greatest contribution to Donegal in your lifetime - and why?

The social connectivity and sense of belonging that sport brings to all in Donegal contributes hugely to the county. When Donegal under Brian Mc Eniff lifted Sam Maguire for the very first time on 20th September, 1992 will be remembered as one of our greatest sporting days. The joy, excitement and buzz that Jim McGuiness and the Donegal team brought to the whole county again in the summer of 2012 was superb. Jims positivity and determination is admirable. Moya Doherty for the fame and pride she brought to the county with Riverdance in 1994 Nationally showcasing our own brand. Today - Jason Black for his successful ascend and descend on K2 coupled with his positivity and ability to overcome many life challenges as well as his charity and voluntary work. Jason spoke to our students last year in the school and had such a positive impact on so many, myself included!



What's your first Donegal memory?

My first memory was coming to Donegal to run summer camps when I was a PE student in Limerick. I thought Donegal was spectacular.

What's your favourite part of the county - and why?

Well definitey Arranmore which is a very special unspoilt escape. My daughter Karla got married there in the summer and it was really beautiful  we were lucky that we had such a hot summers day but there is nowhere in the world as nice, even on a bad day ! I also love Rossnowlagh beach and Tullan Strand and Sliabh Liag.

What do you think gives Donegal its unique identity?

The people, the fun, the craic and the sense of community spirit. The warmth, the openness, the generosity, the great gift of communication, the list is endless.



Do you have a favourite local writer or author?

Eileen Carr in the AVS - she is an exceptional musician; Diamaid Mc Gee is also so talented  his voice is amazing. Mark Langan has a special performance style which is really great. Sean Mc Ginley from Ballyshannon is a talented actor and Celine Mc Glynns paintings are exceptional.

What's the biggest challenge facing the county today?

Apart from the uncertainty of Brexit our infrastructure and in particular the lack of a train to and from Dublin and Galway is a serious challenge in terms of tourism, accessibility for students coning to an from college and indeed for ease of access for sick and disabled and in fact for all. The financial challenge for parents to further educate their children at 3rd level as they have to leave the county means many are compromised.

If you had the power to change one thing in, or about Donegal, what would it be?

The creation of more flights into Donegal Airport would be an enormous help to the county in terms of tourism. The County needs to be made more accessible! Bring railway lines to Donegal. Education  LYIT are doing amazing work with the introduction so so many level 8 programmes and many other courses that reach out to our students. I would like to progress this further and create a situation for our students that does not force them to leave this county for further education. The mental wellness of our young people needs to be supported with Adequate sports facilities for schools and for the local community  gyms, sports halls and other leisure facilities for our youth.The organisers of the Billy Finn Sessions Concert on Friday, February 1, in Dorrians Imperial Hotel, Ballyshannon have announced that a surprise special guest has been added on to the list of performers for the event.

The surprise guest is a native of Virginia and long resident of North Carolina. He grew up in a musical household and became an accomplished guitarist, fiddler and five string banjo player.

A decade ago he won a bursary to study Irish fiddle playing in Ireland and the music of skin framed instruments which were the fore-runner of the banjo in Africa.

The award allowed him to study and travel for one year. In considering where to study fiddle music, Donegal was a natural choice. He based himself in Ballyshannon for several months studying with Caoimhin Mac Aoidh before spending an additional period in Glenties studying the music of the famed Campbells.

After his period of research in Africa he was drawn to return to Donegal so rich was his experience here.

In the intervening years he has continued to concentrate on his musical development and has become one of the foremost performers of traditional Appalacian music in America.

He has been booked to feature in a series of concerts in London next month highlighting Appalacian and traditional America roots music.

When he heard of the Billy Finn Concert, he re-arranged his plans in order to attend and has gone further to enthusiastically agree to perform on the night. His playing will be a very rare treat for lovers of acoustic traditional music. All will be revealed closer to Friday night's event!

Local musicians

The concert will feature many local musicians who played with Billy and will include promising local fiddler Daire Gallagher who will be in duet with Caoimhin Mac Aoidh. Songs will be provided by the tremendous Shauna Mullin accompanied by Senan Brennan.

One of the most exciting uilleann pipers of the modern era, John Tuohey, will be performing as will the renowned flute player, Patsy Hanley. As a recognition of his contribution to the Irish music tradition Patsy was awarded the coveted TG4 Gradam Ceoil Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

The concert will take place in Dorrians Imperial Hotel, Ballyshannon, on Friday night, February 1 starting at 9pm. Admission is 10 with partial proceeds to local Donegal charities.When you think of Australia (let alone one of its islands), warm water, scorching sand and a rustling undergrowth probably come to mind. Heard Island however, the land down unders best kept secret, features none of the above (it does plays host to some strange noises, but youll have to trade the undergrowth for glaciers and crocs for seals).

A seven day boat trip from Fremantle, getting to Heard Island is a bumpy 4,000-kilometre journey that only fishermen, poachers, and small groups of research scientists dare to make. Aside from that, few Australians are aware this rugged island exists.

According to the CSIRO, an American sailor, John Heard, discovered Heard Island in 1853, And promptly named it after himself Britain then formally claimed Heard Island in 1910, later transferring it to Australia in 1947. And apart from a brief stint in the 1880s (when sealers almost wiped out Heards elephant seal population), Heard Island has been left to its own devicesand developed such biological purity it was named a World Heritage Site in 1997.

Heard Island is also Australias tallest mountain (measuring 2,745 meters at its peak517 taller than Kosciuszko) and an ancient geological goldmine. But very few people have heard (heh) of it, let alone stopped by for a visit. This is down to a number of factors: Heard Island is shrouded in thick cloud for about 360 days per year. It also features an active Volcano, with molten rock gurgling up through its middle; spewing forth and (gradually) increasing the islands size.

Most volcanos are located on the boundary of two tectonic plates, where they rub (or smash against) each other. But Heard Island, like Hawaii, is part of the 5% of the worlds volcanoes that sit on hotspots in the middle of tectonic plates. As the ABC explains, A hotspot is a place where an unusually high flow of convective heat, known as a mantle plume, rises from deep within the earth. The plume melts through the earths crust, forming a volcano.

In other words: Heard Island is like a pimple, forcing its way through the earths crust.

If it wasnt for the volcano there would be no way for such a rich variety of species to exist on Heard Island (and the surrounding waters). As research scientist Dr Trull recently told the ABC, The islands volcanic activity is a source of iron. Iron enters the water and fertilises phytoplankton productivity in the Southern Ocean Phytoplankton are the plants of the sea.

Smaller animals, like krill, eat the phytoplankton. Crustaceans and fish then eat the krill. Birds and seals eat the fish, (ABC).

Suffice to say, Heard Island is an interestingif unaccessibleplace to visit. Which is why it is so fascinating to listen to someone who has been there multiple times explain what this wildlife-rich, exposed outcrop is really like. Dr Doug Thost, a former glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic division is one such individual. Talking to the ABC, he describes it as a danger and a privilege and explains why he has mixed feelings about the place.

Humanity deserves to know a bit more about this place; it is a jewel in the southern Indian Ocean. Id hate to see it loved to death, but Id love to see it on Australias list of things to do from a research perspective Being in such a remote and wild place is pretty humbling. You have to be very aware of the potential danger you could be in and how unlikely it is that you could be rescued if something does go wrong, but its invigorating.

In fact, 15 years ago, one of Dr Thosts fellow glaciologists almost died exploring the island to study how fast one of its glaciers was melting: We were at the top of the glacier and my co-researcher and I turned around to go back. We were roped up, thank God, because my colleague suddenly fell into a crevasse. He was a dead weight hanging down there for a bit, Dr Thost told the ABC.

The weather can be just as nasty, with wind speeds at Heard averaging a cool 33 kilometres per hour, and maxing out at 200 kilometres per hoursomething which Dr Thost had the misfortune to experience on top of a glacier, during an impromptu blizzard. So despite luxury cruise ships braving more dangerous destinations this year, dont expect a tourism boon here.

Having said that, if tourism could ever be implemented sustainably, it would be a remarkable trip for nature lovers. According to the ABC, Three species of seal live on and around the islands. There are also two endemic bird species, the Heard Island sheathbill and Heard Island cormorant. Fifteen species of flying birds breed there as well as four species of penguin. And thats not to mention the Antarctic cod and icefish, or the human-sized Patagonian toothfish (and rare lantern fish).

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Australian Geographic (@australiangeographic) on Oct 10, 2017 at 3:08pm PDT

Like the Galapagos, Heard Island was granted UNESCO World Heritage status due to its biological purity (Heard is the only subantarctic island virtually free of introduced species, ABC). And as Dr Trull saw for himselfthat purity is reflected in the behaviour of its wildlife.

The penguins are so curious, Dr Trull told the ABC, They arent fearful of humans, so they come up to the boat and get so excited that they get silly. They dive and jump like dolphins, trying to get a look at the boat, and they just look stunned.

The entire place is stunning, and its ours. Its our volcano and glaciers and animals, he continued. It startles me that Australians think of their beaches and red deserts, but they dont know about this other part of their landscape.

RELATED: The Worlds Most Scary Travel Destinations For Those Who Fear NothingHighlights:

Unidentified Google device spotted on Geekbench

The phone runs on Android Q

Google to hold Google I/O from May 7-9

A unannounced Google phone by the name of Google Coral has been spotted on Geekbench and it could be one of the flagship models that the company is expected to release this year. The phone is seen sporting a 6GB RAM and scoring 3,296 points on single core tests and 9,235 in multi core tests. These scores are higher than the what the Google Pixel 3 XL, OnePlus 6 and the LG G7 ThinQ have scored.

It is possible that this phone has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset that was released recently. The listing also shows that the phone is running Android Q, which is yet to enter a beta testing phase or even get announced by Google. The phone is speculated to be the top variant of the the Google Pixel 4, which could be the first device to feature Android Q. Google generally gives a sneak peak into its next generation of operating system at its annual I/O event.

In a related development, Google has announced that it will hold this years I/O from May 7 to May 9 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The announcement was made by company CEO Sundar Pichai on Instagram. Even a few tweets were shared on Twitter and people had a few fun moments when they had to crack a puzzle or spot the details of the announcement in what looked like a source code.

Google I/O is an annual developer conference held by Google at it campus in Mountain View, California, and it showcases technical in-depth sessions focused on building web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open sources such as Android, Chrome and Chrome OS, APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more. Last year, Google announced Android P and its features at Google I/O.

Related Read:

Google I/O 2018 announcements: Android P, Machine Learning, AI, Google Assistant, Digital Wellbeing, Maps, Google Lens and moreHighlights:

HMD Global teases Nokia 9, and a phone with punch hole display

These phones are said to launch at MWC

HMD Global has teased the launch of the Nokia 9 PureView as well as a yet unidentified phone sporting a punch-hole front camera design. Shared via Chinese search engine Baidu and Android Pure leaks, the teasers show silhouette of phones. On these teaser, the company mentions that these phones will launch on February and apparently, the company is also planning to stream the launch event.

Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, tweeted the really really meme inviting people to join the announcement. The teaser on Baidu shows a phone with a punch hole selfie camera in the top left corner of the display. The other teaser has a clear reference to the much-hyped Nokia 9 PureView's penta-camera design. By this, Nokia confirms all the leaks and reports which claimed that this device will sport five cameras on the back panel.

Recently, detailed 5K renders of a Nokia phone that has a punch-hole display were leaked and it was claimed that the phone could be Nokia 8.1 Plus. It was suggested that the Nokia 8.1 Plus may have an 6.22-inch almost edge-to-edge display with a FullHD+ resolution. It is seen sporting a dual camera unit along with an LED flash. The images also suggested an Android One branding on the bottom.

A few days back, a video showed that the Nokia 9 PureView will be able to click photos with all the five sensors at the same time and the setup is claimed to capture up to 10 times more light in comparison with a regular phone camera sensor. The Nokia 9 PureView is said to sport a 5.99-inch PureDisplay display panel with 2K resolution and HDR10 compliance. Under the hood, the Nokia 9 PureView is expected to launch running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

Related Read:

Rumoured Motorola P40 with punch-hole display leaked

Nokia 8.1 First Impressions: Maximum Nokia, pure AndroidHighlights

Facebook may be planning to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger

The services are said to continue to operate as a stand-alone apps

This will reportedly allow users to communicate across platforms

It looks like Facebook may be planning to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. According to a report by the New York Times, the move should allow Facebooks Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg to assert his control over his companys multiple divisions. Sources told the publication that while the services will continue to operate as stand-alone apps,the underlying technical infrastructure will be unified. This will reportedly allow users to communicate across the platforms for the first time.

The report notes that the plan is currently in the early stages with the goal of completion by the end of the this year, or early next year. It also notes that it will require reconfiguration of how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at a basic levels. It is further noted that all apps should incorporate end-to-end encryption, which would protect messages from being read by anyone other than the participants.

The New York Times report notes that by integrating the apps, Zuckerberg hopes that it increase Facebooks utility and keep users engaged within the platform itself. This in turn would reduce they need for people to use rival messaging platforms.

However, integrating the services does bring up questions regarding privacy and how data will be shared between the services and Facebook. The report notes that while WhatsApp only uses a phone number, while Facebook and Instagram require users to provide details about their identities. An interesting point that was brought up in the report is how the company plans to combat fake news spreading on the platform, especially since all three platforms will be integrated.

The spread of fake news on WhatsApp is a big problem for Facebook and the company has taken steps to curb the problem. This includes limiting the number of people a certain message can be forwarded to. A feature that was initially exclusive to India, but was recently rolled out globally.MANTI  A Lehi man was booked into the Sanpete County Jail Saturday night for allegedly killing his girlfriend's dog.

Spencer Whitaker Tuttle, 39, was arrested for investigation of aggravated cruelty to animals.

According to a Sanpete County Jail report, a sheriff's deputy was dispatched to a possible vandalism. When the deputy arrived and found Tuttle, he "stated he had gotten mad and kicked his girlfriends dog which killed the dog. Tuttle called his girlfriend telling her something happened, he kicked the dog and the dog was not moving."

Additional information was not immediately available.HOLLADAY  A woman who prosecutors say killed her family's pet cat in front of her children now faces multiple charges.

Ariane Christine Borg, 38, of Holladay, was charged Jan. 17 in 3rd District Court with child abuse, a second-degree felony; torture of a companion animal, a third-degree felony; and two counts of child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.

A $100,000 warrant was issued for her arrest. She was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on that warrant on Saturday.

Her attorney, Steven Burton, said his client has made great strides in dealing with mental illness since the alleged incident four months ago, and it's disappointing that she is now being charged, arrested and re-victimized.

On Sept. 25, Unified police were called to Borg's home where two children, ages 10 and 16, reported their mother was "going crazy," according to charging documents.

"Both children were found crying hysterically," and told the responding officers that Borg "'beat their cat over and over again' and snapped its neck," the charges state.

One child told investigators that she saw Borg "hold the cat by the legs and pound it repeatedly on a table," the charges state.

When officers found Borg in the house, she had to be taken to a local hospital to be treated for self-inflicted stab wounds, the charges state.

Due to the events, a therapist diagnosed one of the children with suffering "multiple types of abuse/trauma at the hands of her mother" for the events of that night.

Burton said his client is known as a loving mother who has battled with depression most of her life.

"Last July, her doctor adjusted her medications and her mental health began spiraling downward. In September, the week before she was arrested, the police were called multiple times to assist with her mental health crisis but no meaningful help was provided. Because of the changes in medication and a lack of mental health treatment, Ariane suffered a critical manic episode. She believed that she and her family were being attacked and she injured herself and a beloved family pet while suffering from those delusions," he said in a statement.

Burton said Borg has successfully responded to treatment since October and has returned to her normal self. That's why he said it is "devastating" to be criminally charged without warning and arrested by a team of U.S. marshals who showed up at her door late at night with a warrant.

"It is disappointing to see that after all we have learned about mental illness, our system still re-victimizes those who are struggling and increases the risk that they will suffer further setbacks. We hope that those who see this story will urge law enforcement, prosecutors, the media and the Legislature to improve the way we treat mental illness so we can help those who are sick before they reach a point of crisis and tragedy," Burton said.

An initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday.

A hotline for children suspected of being abused or neglected is available 24/7 at 1-855-323-3237. If someone is dealing with mental illness, the Utah Statewide Crisis number is 801-387-3000.SALT LAKE CITY  The new leader of the Utah Senate is smiling, but his tone is firm when he says his hefty transportation funding earmark, long opposed by Gov. Gary Herbert, is here to stay.

"Oh, I think so," incoming Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said during a recent early morning interview in front of the fireplace in the private formal lounge just off the Senate floor.

Adams, 64, then chuckled briefly when pressed about his 2011 bill setting aside more than $600 million annually for roads that was vetoed by the GOP governor, an action overridden by lawmakers in a special session.

"I think the governor supports it now. You'd have to ask him. But I think he understands exactly the concept," Adams said, even though Herbert's proposed budget calls for reducing earmarks.

With taxes at the top of the agenda for the 2019 Legislature that begins meeting Monday, earmarks aren't getting much attention. Instead, the focus is on the governor's other plans for what he describes as tax modernization.

Legislative leaders agree with Herbert that the sales tax base needs to be broadened by adding taxes to some yet-to-be identified services. There's also interest in his proposed $200 million tax cut, given the state's more than $1 billion budget surplus.

Adams sees no need to revisit his transportation earmark, describing designating ongoing revenues for what are often one-time projects as insurance against economic uncertainty.

"That's what I call a working rainy day fund," Adams said, noting hundreds of millions of dollars of earmarked transportation funds were diverted to other state needs during the last recession a decade ago  and could be again if necessary.

"That's a possibility, but I can't be negative. I just want to be positive," Adams said of another recession. "I'm not going to predict that we're going to have a downturn. But what I will predict is we ought to be prepared for one."

Despite their past differences, Adams said his relationship with the governor remains strong.

"We're still good friends and those types of frictions, I think, are natural," he said.

Herbert said he's optimistic about the opportunities presented by new leadership in both the House and the Senate, where Republicans continue to have supermajority control.

The governor said Adams' "experience in the Utah Senate, in local government and in business will serve him well in his new role as Senate president. He has given so much service to our state, and I look forward to working with him."

In 2009, Adams was on the shortlist to become lieutenant governor when Herbert took over in 2009 for then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who stepped down to become U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama.

They built I-15 when I was in the sixth grade. So we'd go out and play on it. But I never heard my parents complain about I-15 being built in our front yard. Except my dad did complain a little bit about the lights.  Incoming Utah Senate President Stuart Adams on being a fifth-generation resident of Layton

Herbert ended up choosing a state senator from Davis County, Greg Bell, over Adams, a former Layton city councilman and Utah House member who was serving as Utah Transportation Commission chairman.

That turned into an opportunity for Adams, a real estate developer with The Adams Co., a decades-old family business that builds "family-friendly" homes in Davis County, to return to the Legislature.

"Sen. Bell happened to be my senator, so it brought me back," Adams said. He was appointed by the governor to fill the remainder of Bell's term and has held the District 22 seat ever since.

Adams joined leadership in 2012, when he was elected majority whip by the Senate Republican caucus. Once he's confirmed by the full Senate Monday, he'll replace now former Sen. Wayne Niederhauser as president.

The transition, Adams said, feels natural because of his closeness with Niederhauser, a Sandy Republican who did not seek re-election to the Senate last year after 12 years in office, including six as president.

"I think he was a great leader, very transparent, very collaborative," Adams said of Niederhauser, promising his tenure in the Senate's top spot would be more of the same.

"President Adams and I have been really close," Niederhauser agreed. He said he relied on Adams' negotiating skills and expects the new president to be more hands-on than he was when it comes to working on bills.

"He is, in my opinion, bar none the best bill sponsor in the Legislature," Niederhauser said, citing Adams' efforts on the historic anti-discrimination and religious rights compromise in 2015.

"It was his negotiating ability that got us where we needed to be," Niederhauser said. "He was a master at keeping people at the table and working out compromises. That was a great strength."

Those skills will carry over to his relationship with the governor, Niederhauser said.

"President Adams knows what it takes to get something done," he said. "When it comes down to taking care of what he wants to do, he's going to be persistent in getting it done."

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, said the Senate will be different under Adams.

Weiler described Niederhauser, a CPA, as meticulous with the budget, soft-spoken with a steady hand, while Adams is "a tough negotiator. I think he's very confident and really understands the issues, very, very well. I think he's very strategic."

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, said she and Adams share a goal of making sure the Senate runs smoothly.

********

Stuart Adams

Age: 64

Residence: Layton

Education: Bachelor's degree in business finance from University of Utah

Career: Real estate developer

Public offices: Layton City Council, Utah House of Representatives, Utah Senate

Family: Married, 4 children, 15 grandchildren

********

"He's conservative, but he's always open," said Mayne, the new leader of the six Democrats among the 29 state senators. "If I don't talk to him every day, I talk to him every other day. We have good communication."

Adams counts incoming House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, as a longtime friend and said he expects them to work well together. Both are from Davis County, and both are replacing Salt Lake County lawmakers.

But even though there are no longer any Salt Lake County lawmakers in either House or Senate GOP leadership, Adams doesn't want Davis County to be seen as having outsized control in the state.

"I think we'll look at the state in a holistic way. I think I always have and hopefully, always will. I think we'll be cautious," he said. "We'll try and do what's right.  stay on that high ground and make right decisions. I don't see this as us versus them."

Adams is not shy, however, about touting his heritage as a fifth-generation resident of Layton. Growing up, he sat in traffic with his parents when they commuted to Salt Lake City for work and saw I-15 routed through his neighborhood.

"They built I-15 when I was in the sixth grade. So we'd go out and play on it," he recalled. "But I never heard my parents complain about I-15 being built in our front yard. Except my dad did complain a little bit about the lights."

As an adult, another transportation issue helped push him into politics. Living on the east side of U.S. 89 at a time when there were no traffic lights, Adams said a friend urged him to run for the Layton City Council to remedy the situation.

"He said, 'I'm not worried about you getting across the highway  because you're a better driver now,'" Adams said. "But, he said, 'I remember how you drove in high school and you have a daughter turning 16.' So I went and filed."

Transportation has been a key issue for Adams throughout his political career, including helping to settle the legal fight over Legacy Highway led by then-Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and to bring commuter rail through Davis County.

Whether the Senate presidency is the last stop on that career remains to be seen for the father of four and grandfather to 15, all living within 20 minutes of his Layton home.

Asked if would rule out running for another office, Adams said, "I'll tell you, my wife has and I'm very obedient. I really don't have any thoughts of anything else right now."SALT LAKE CITY  Search and rescue crews recovered the body of a Monticello man Saturday who was caught in an avalanche in the La Sal Mountains in San Juan County.

Scott Pehrson Jr., 39, was trapped in the slide while snowmobiling in Dark Canyon Basin about 4:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the San Juan County Record. The San Juan County Sheriff's Office posted the Record's story on its Facebook page.

Pehrson, a married father of four, was with a group of eight Monticello-area residents snowmobiling in the area. Officials estimated the snow in the slide was 65 feet deep, according to the Record.

The group searched for Pehrson until dark Friday but were not able to find him. They were able locate his destroyed snowmobile and a damaged helmet, the Record reported.

Volunteers and helicopter crews from Classic Air, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Powderbird and the Utah Department of Public Service renewed the search Saturday morning, according to the Record. One crew purposefully triggered another avalanche to make the area safe for searchers on the ground.

About 65 residents from San Juan and Grand counties helped with the search on the ground, including three dozen snow machines.

The DPS helicopter detected a signal from Pehrsons avalanche beacon, the Record reported.

Pehrson's body was found about 6 feet under the surface, "quite a bit upstream from where the snowmobile was recovered," according to San Juan County Sheriff Jason Torgerson.RIVERTON  Last year the Utah Legislature passed eight bills related to mental health and suicide prevention.

This year lawmakers are pushing to do more.

Community members, school district representatives and advocacy groups met last week at an event organized by Action Utah to discuss what bills will be presented in the 2019 legislative session to address suicide prevention and what the public can do to help.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, said the 2018 session was unprecedented for mental health and suicide prevention bills. Some of the bills being proposed this year will expand on programs from last year, including one that would give more funding toward the Elementary School Counselor Program created with HB264.

"We know suicide is very preventable, and the good news is that were seeing our suicides rates over the past three years stabilize, which is good, and in some demographics we are starting to see those going down, so were encouraged about that," Eliason said.

Angie Cook, policy coordinator for Action Utah, said that community outreach was one of the most helpful outcomes from the legislation last year.

Training the parents on signs of what to look for, thats how we make change," Cook said.

She said anyone who wants to help with this issue should take QPR training. QPR stands for question, persuade, refer. It is an hour-and-half program showing people how to recognize warning signs and what to do to help anyone who is struggling.

Its life-changing, it really is. Ive unfortunately had to help five people that have reached out to me that have been in a suicide problem, and it really helps you feel educated enough to know what to say," Cook said.

The QPR institute teaches the course online and it can also be found for free from organizations in Utah, including the Utah Department of Health and Healthy Riverton.

According to Eliason, for the average youth there are 15 minutes or less between when a youth thinks about taking their life and makes an attempt. Because of that, he is looking at ways to ensure firearms are not readily available during that time since in Utah, firearms are the most common method of suicide deaths.

Mental health issues and suicide are the leading cause of death for teenagers. We need to do better.  Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy

Eliason is proposing HB17, which addresses trigger locks, firearm safety information and suicide prevention courses.

The reality is that the likelihood that the firearm they purchased is going to be used to kill a member of their own family is exponentially greater than that the firearm is going to be used to stop an intruder from coming into their home," Eliason said.

Rep. Steve Handy, R-Layton, is proposing again this session a so-called "red flag" law. This would give family members and law enforcement the ability to petition for temporarily restricting access to firearms when someone is making threats or could be a danger to themselves or others.

"Suicides are not typically long-term planned things, theyre quick things, and so what this law is determined to do is to create space and time and distance," Handy said.

Thirteen states have passed similar legislation, and 18 states are currently considering it.

Improving availability of medical care professionals is seen as another way legislation can help with suicide prevention. Eliason said Utah ranks 49th in the nation for access to primary care physicians and is also far below average for access to psychiatrists.

"Mental health issues and suicide are the leading cause of death for teenagers. We need to do better," Eliason said.

Other bills planned during this session will also address access to mental health professionals, including funding to increase residency spots in the University of Utah psychiatry program and creating a help desk for physicians to call and speak with a mental health professional so they can help their patients immediately instead of referring them.

Cook encouraged searching for suicide prevention on the Utah Legislature website to see the proposed legislation and following specific bills to receive updates. She also suggested talking to senators and representatives.

"You can jump in and start making a difference, and we need everybodys voice," Cook said.

Eliason stressed letting legislators know this is important to you and asking them what they are doing about the issue.

"The good news is this is an extremely bipartisan issue, its not even bipartisan, its nonpartisan  something everyone should agree with," Eliason said.DRAPER  A familiar face will take over the Salt Lake County mayor's office.

Salt Lake County Democrats elected Jenny Wilson to replace Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, who resigned as mayor after being elected to Congress last November. Wilson will fill the remaining two years of McAdams' term and will have to run for election in 2020 to retain the seat.

A total of 760 (of 1,107) Salt Lake County Democratic Party Central Committee members participated in the special election at Corner Canyon High School. Wilson defeated Shireen Ghorbani on the second round of voting with 55 percent of the vote. Salt Lake County Councilman Arlyn Bradshaw and Stone Fonua were eliminated on the first ballot.

Wilson, the first Democratic woman to hold the county mayor position, will be sworn in next Tuesday. She has served on the County Council for a decade. She ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate last November. Wilson said she intends run for a full term as mayor in 2020.

"I feel great. I feel ready to go. This has been a great journey," Wilson said after the election.

Her first order of business as mayor, she said, will be at the state Capitol next week as the Utah Legislature goes into session to ensure lawmakers don't repeal the Medicaid expansion initiative voters approved in November.

"I believe strongly we have to preserve Medicaid. That was something the voters, especially in this county, said they wanted," she said. "It's the right thing to do, it's the cost-effective thing to do, it's the humane thing to do."

McAdams congratulated Wilson on her victory.

"I worked closely with her as a councilwoman and know her to be a good listener and a leader," he said. "Im confident that the job of maintaining a balanced budget, strong bond rating and efficient services for county residents is in good hands."

Gov. Gary Herbert said in a tweet that he hopes that "together we can help Salt Lake County continue to succeed and address the challenges that come with growth."

Wilson, whose father Ted Wilson served as Salt Lake City mayor for nine years in the mid-'70s and '80s, said her experience on the council will serve her well in her new role.

"It has given me an opportunity to engage in the issues and to listen to my constituents," she said, listing air quality, homelessness and affordable housing as key issues.

Wilson said she can build on the successes for former Democratic mayors Peter Corroon and McAdams. "But to build on those successes we need someone who is in the driver's seat on policy and someone who has been there," she said.

Salt Lake County has emerged as a stronger blue area in a sea of red the past year.

"We have to spend our political capital wisely. We have a lot of political capital this year. We received it from your work," she told Salt Lake County Democrats. "We've got to have an advocate for us who knows this community."

Wilson's move to mayor opens a seat on the County Council that Democrats will fill in the next month.

Ghorbani, who lost her bid for Congress last November, said will stay involved in politics but not as a council candidate.

"It's not a good fit for my life," said Ghorbani, an associate director in the facilities department at the University of Utah.

Ghorbani didn't seek endorsements during her mayoral campaign, and unlike the other candidates who brought large entourages to the stage Saturday, she delivered her candidate speech alone.

"This is between you and me," she told voters.

Ghorbani downplayed the need for political experience, noting neither Corroon nor McAdams has previously worked in county government.

"We need a mayor who will work on the inclusive growth, be aggressive about sustainability and provide a social safety net that works for everyone," she said.

"How are we going to add half a million people to this county by 2050 without planning carefully?" Ghorbani said. "We have to be funding for affordable housing in all areas of the county.  We have to be fighting for equal access to education."

Bradshaw, who has served on the County Council since 2010, said he talked to many residents about issues facing the county such as air quality, open space access and affordable housing.

"I have to admit I'm a bit of a policy geek," he said in his election speech. "When I see a problem in our community, I am willing to come up with the right policies and, more importantly, a collaborative action plan to fix it."

McAdams said the new mayor would have an approach to leadership that differs from his, but is just as important.ST. GEORGE  A new stake center for the St. George East Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was heavily damaged by fire early Saturday.

Fire officials there are saying the fire was intentionally set.

"Whether you believe this faith or not, it doesn't matter. This is sacred ground," said resident Michelle Tooke. "This is the Mormons' place of worship, and to see the devastation, it just breaks my heart. It's gut-wrenching."

The fire started just after 1 a.m. and burned quickly through the ceiling and attic. St. George Fire Chief Robert Stoker said a fire sprinkler system was installed but not yet functional in the building, which was nearing the end of its construction process.

Stoker said burn patterns suggest the fire started outside of the building and was started using some sort of fuel. Officials with the local police, fire and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are helping with the ongoing investigation.

The building, Stoker said, was expected to be finished in about a month and is now a total loss.

"The building that we were so anticipating moving into over the next few months is gone," a post on the St. George East Stake's Facebook page states. "Those that were up watching it burn were stunned and in complete shock. Our faith is only strengthened as we work through this bump in the road."

Firefighters from St. George, Washington and Ivins all participated in the mostly defensive attack on the blaze. Stoker said the steeple and a large portion of the roof collapsed, making it more dangerous to fight the flames from inside.

The original East Stake Center, which was demolished to build the new building, was built by local church members in the 1960s. Reconstruction of the new building, located across the street from the pioneer-era St. George Temple, at 453 S. 300 East, began in February 2018.

A video history of the construction is posted online at eaststake.com.

"Its just terrible to have this sort of thing happen here," said stake spokesman Ralph Atkin. "The building was only a month away from opening and to have it go up in smoke and flames is just devastating."

He said three Latter-day Saint congregations have been displaced during the construction. Now they will have to wait as the damaged new building is razed and work restarts.

Atkin said a camera at the St. George Temple Visitors' Center caught the start of the fire at 12:45 a.m. A facility management camera also captured the blaze. However, both cameras are on the west side of the building and the fire began on the east side.

"I know there's a lot going on in the world, but this is really close to home," said John Gordon, a resident in St. George. He said it's not the first time they've had to endure hard things, citing the flood in 2005.

"We're really resilient," Gordon said. "We just pick up and move on. We know the plan. And, yeah, we get hit every once in a while, but, most of us come from good pioneer stock and we can handle stuff like this."

Small pockets of the once very large fire burned into the afternoon, but firefighters remained on scene to monitor the situation. No one was injured in the fire Saturday.

Stoker is asking anyone with information about the origin of the fire to call St. George police at the nonemergency number, 435-627-4300.

Contributing: Tad Walch, Marc Weaver and Alex CabreroAs we prepare to begin one of the most substantive legislative sessions in recent memory, a line from Thomas Edison rings true: Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning. Utah has enjoyed years of good fortune thanks to a thriving economy, engaged business community, high quality of life and effective state and local government. Of course, it is not simply good fortune keeping Utah at the top; careful planning and good policy have encouraged smart growth and will continue to shape our states future for years to come. At the same time, we know our states rapid growth will bring with it increasingly complex challenges.

For this reason, the Salt Lake Chamber has focused our 2019 legislative agenda around addressing Utahs growth. Now is the time to ensure our states good fortune continues by maximizing opportunity with thoughtful planning. We call upon lawmakers to think holistically about the way we grow and work to enact policies that acknowledge the interconnection between policy issues. Our six areas of focus draw attention to this less siloed approach.

First, reinforcing Utahs strong business climate. This is the year to act on tax reform. The Salt Lake Chamber remains supportive of updating our tax code to broaden the base and lower the rate. We also believe the larger tax reform discussion cannot happen without also examining the sales tax distribution formula. Utahs economy is drastically different than when this formula was adopted over 30 years ago. With a shrinking sales tax base and a growing service economy, it is time that we look at what consumable services the state should collect sales tax from and how this tax revenue can be equitably distributed to municipalities, without harming current sales tax revenues, to encourage smart planning. From a business standpoint, a distribution formula that meets todays needs and considers issues related to regional and statewide growth is paramount.

Second, with a strong business climate and modern tax structure comes the need for Utah to develop an educated workforce. By supporting programs like Talent Ready Utah, the public and private sector can create partnerships that build our workforce and address immediate employer needs. With every industry relying on technology, computer science in every Utah classrooms is a critically important tool to ensure our state has a trained workforce to meet these short- and long-term demands.

Addressing our states housing affordability problem is our third focus area. Workforce training and filling jobs is important, but only if employees are able to afford to live in or near the communities where they work. Utah has a housing shortage that will only compound without solutions on an individual, local and state level. The Chamber supports providing technical support to cities to connect transportation and land use; educating Utahns about the need for smart growth; incentivizing transit-oriented and other mixed-use developments, and advancing reforms to Utahs referendum law that provides clarity for residents, cities and developers.

The fourth area of focus is transportation. The Salt Lake Chamber has long been a champion for Utahs multimodal transportation system. It is significant to our economy and a critical piece of solving our housing affordability challenge. We support users bearing the primary responsibility for funding Utahs transportation infrastructure. Proactive planning surrounding future funding approaches, such as the road user charge, are important steps to ensuring our multimodal system can keep up with population growth.

Fifth, natural resources. Growth inevitably brings with it concerns about Utahs water supply and air quality. The Chamber supports secondary water metering as a way to educate residents about their water use and encourage conservation. Air quality is a paramount concern, and we believe enforcement of no-burning on red air days and funding for wood burning change-outs can go a long way to reducing winter time emissions.

Finally, health care. Utahs employers are the largest health care purchaser in the state and nation. For this reason, it is critical employers play a more prominent role in the future of our states health care system and have more flexibility, transparency and control in costs, particularly as it relates to prescriptions drugs.

When viewing through the lens of growth, its easy to see how each of these issues are interconnected and why they are top priorities for the Salt Lake Chamber. Over the next 45 days, Utahs business community stands ready to collaborate with the Legislature to combine opportunity with smart planning and advance growth-minded policies that will set our state on a path of enduring good fortune.The Utah Legislature begins tomorrow. Get ready for a month and a half of non-stop lawmaking. Every issue imaginable will come up before Utahs 104 legislators. We take a look at the people, the process and what we hope will be the outcomes.

The people_: Utahs House and Senate members hold regular jobs, are not paid very much and, aside from top leadership, dont get much glory or notoriety. Who are these people? What is their motivation? Why do they serve?_

Pignanelli: "Public service is about serving all the people, including the ones who are not like you.  Constance Wu

Humorous observations and rational critiques of legislators policy deliberations are fair game. But anyone who attacks the Legislature as an institution or the integrity of individual members, regardless of party affiliation, is subject to my Full Italian response (animated passion, arms waving, leg stomping and loud protestations). It is not a pretty sight.

Ten years of legislative service representing the Salt Lake downtown area, combined with 22 years of lobbying, cultivates my deep affection for the people and traditions of the Legislature. Every one of the almost 1,000 lawmakers I encountered sought office for the finest reasons  help their community, promote personal ideals of good governance, bring unique experiences to the process, etc. The part-time nature of these positions demands incredible sacrifice from them, but guarantees a strong nexus to their constituents. The results can be inspirational or frustrating, but are based on pure commitment.

Prior to my first oath of office, always prescient Grandmother Pignanelli offered the Italian proverb Si mira piu dellaffetto che alleffetto (loose translation: look beyond effects and appreciate the good intentions of an effort).

Webb: Legislators are normal folks  which is why our system of government works reasonably well. But they have enough ego and confidence to put themselves before voters to be accepted or rejected in a very public election. It is a real ego boost to win. Its devastating for some people to lose.

The part-time status of Utahs Legislature is a real blessing for the state. Utah lawmakers are always torn between their legislative service, their full-time jobs, and their family, church and other responsibilities  and thats a good thing. Few legislators are so caught up in politics that it defines and dominates their lives. And they have to live with the laws they pass, like everyone else. By contrast, in states with full-time legislatures, the focus is mostly on getting re-elected.

The process_: A record number of bills, well over 1,000, will be filed, far more than the Legislature can meaningfully address in its 45 calendar-day session (34 working days). Will the important issues be addressed? Should the session be lengthened?_

Pignanelli: Currently, 320 million Americans are witnessing unprecedented dysfunction strangling federal institutions. The other side of the spectrum is our Capitols well-oiled machinery. The much vaunted "Utah Way" that attracts businesses and media attention also permeates state government. Despite time constraints, lawmakers will scrutinize, prioritize and compromise to ensure major budgetary and administrative needs are met, while maintaining strong management principles. Lengthening the session creates problems for part-time lawmakers. Better alternatives exist in bolstering interim committees.

Webb: Its very difficult to make controversial decisions in a committee of 104. But thanks to a very professional and capable staff, and a disciplined process, the Legislature does a nice job of prioritizing legislation and addressing the most critical issues. What looks chaotic from the outside, actually runs pretty smoothly. There is method in the madness. Lengthening legislative sessions would be a mistake.

The outcome_: When all is said and done, how will we know the Legislature has properly served Utah citizens and dealt with the states top challenges? What is on the legislative must do list?_

Pignanelli: Decision-makers will need to grapple with a potential recession in the next two years, explore more opportunities for efficiencies, continue planning for growth and its impact upon water and lifestyles, etc. Legislators do have a tough dilemma: leave the recently passed initiatives untouched (knowing potential large problems may result) or endure voracious criticism when educating constituents why they need to be modified.

Webb: We must judge a legislature not by any crazy bill introduced, a silly speech delivered, or a nonsensical committee debate  but by the final outcome. When Utahs lawmakers go home, the budget will be balanced and major issues will be addressed. Certainly the states problems wont be entirely resolved. Air quality will still be a problem. Education will still be underfunded. Additional tax reform will be needed. Crime will still occur. But incremental progress will have been made, and the state will be just fine for another year.

Remember, not all problems can be solved by government. What happens in families, schools and churches is much more important.

Even the harshest critics of the Utah Legislature must admit that in comparison to the national Congress, Utahs Legislature is a model of efficiency, accomplishment and probity.

Heres to a great session.Families are the foundation of society. When did it become acceptable to tear them apart?

It took nearly two decades for my father to hear back about his application to get a green card. By then hed gotten married and had a family. He was informed that he only had three months to make a decision before the opportunity was revoked. My parents decided to take the chance. Although the following months were expensive, busy and full of interviews and paperwork, the decision has provided ample opportunity for our family that would not have been available otherwise.

Thats what immigration is about: family.

So often, when reading arguments against immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, I see a lot of numbers; the number that should be allowed in, the number of jobs available, the number of available housing units. But at its heart, immigration isnt about numbers. Its about people. Families.

The 2018 American Family Survey found that the majority of people still identify themselves through their family; we tend to see ourselves as father, mother, spouse or sibling before anything else. Family is a large source of identity. Its within the family that we learn about right and wrong, how to socialize and how to love. The family is a vital institution in our society, one that is responsible for shaping future generations and promoting our core beliefs of freedom, independence, equality and opportunity. These are the qualities that families coming to America seek.

A report released Thursday, Jan. 17, by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services found thousands more immigrant children have been separated from their parents than previously reported. The majority of these separations started in mid-2017, after the "zero tolerance" policy was enforced. The policy came to an end last year, but the repercussions and effects are ongoing.

What kind of message do such actions send to the rising generation, as well as the rest of the world? One that promotes hostility over compassion. One that focuses on differences rather than commonalities. One that encourages selfishness rather than selflessness. Its a message that adds to the storm of distrust and suspicion that has attacked nearly every part of our society.

Immigration is not an easy issue to solve. If it were, wed have it figured out by now and not be in a record long government shutdown centered around the issue. Immigration requires a fine balance between ensuring responsible, good people are coming in and doing so in a timely manner. This isnt a call for completely open borders  regulation and a thorough vetting of migrants is necessary  but it is a question of the methods and lack of compassion that seems to override much of our current immigration and refugee process. What kind of a people have we become if we can justify a child being taken from its mother? Perhaps it is too lofty or naive of an ideal to promote, but I believe that prosperity comes with the responsibility to help others and extend those blessings as far as possible, not selfishly put up defenses.

Immigration is not an easy issue to solve. If it were, wed have it figured out by now and not be in a record long government shutdown centered around the issue.

Americas immigration policy has a long, often complicated history. It has never been called perfect, but it has constantly been influenced by the cultural zeitgeist and political climate. This isnt inherently bad, but times change and adjustments become necessary when the system stops working.

In preparation for this piece, I talked to my dad about our immigration experience and all the things that went on behind the scenes that I wasnt a part of. The process involved doctors appointments, flying across the country to the American embassy and many, many interviews. Yet when I asked him how he felt about the overall experience, he only had one real criticism: I wish they didnt treat us like criminals right from the start.

My family didnt trek over a thousand miles by foot and didnt come to the country seeking asylum from corrupt governments and treacherous environments. But when it comes to the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, many of these families have done just that. Lets not greet them with more of the pain and suffering they are trying to escape. Surely we are better than that and can find a more compassionate and effective solution that ensures safety and still promotes our values.

The people, primarily families, seeking entrance to our country want to contribute to and encourage that very American idea of freedom of opportunity. If Americans truly value family, then immigration policy and efforts should be made with the intention of keeping them together. Keeping families together keeps society together, and should be a priority, not a convenient side effect.The battle between President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rages on in sophomoric fashion while a weary nation wonders why petty politics, personal attacks and Twitter battles are all we get out of Washington. The American people clearly deserve better and should expect more.

Pelosi appears to have won this round by rescinding the invitation for the president to deliver the State of the Union address in the House chamber, and the president has acquiesced to not delivering the speech until the government reopens.

Many have surmised that it is impossible for the president to deliver a State of the Union address while the government is shut down. We should remember that this is about the state of the union, not the state of the government. We should also remember that elected officials and federal workers are charged to run the government, not the country. The country is the responsibility of the people.

State of the Union addresses have devolved over the past several decades into laundry lists advocating for government-centric solutions and a platform for delivering partisan applause lines. The speeches are typically scored by the number of standing ovations and the presence of special guests, who sadly become oratorical props, in the gallery. Such speeches are hardly worth the hype and are rarely recorded as remarkable in the history books.

The president can deliver a report on government in writing to Congress, which he should. Then he should prove that a president can transcend the state of the political moment and deliver a clarion call to the American people in a true State of the Union speech.

The president should address the nation on Tuesday night. He should do it standing in the center of the Capitol rotunda  the middle of the seat of power  surrounded by scenes of Americas finest hours, greatest triumphs and most important moments. He could summon the spirit of Lincoln, who, during the greatest division the nation has known, felt that the construction work on the Capitol rotunda must continue to signify and symbolize our commitment to the future of the United States. A 1863 conversation about the Capitol dome was reported in the memoirs of John Eaton, published in 1907. Eaton, who served under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, reported that Lincoln said, If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on. Trump standing in the rotunda should send the same sign.

He shouldnt mention Democrats or Republicans, other than to call on both sides to live up to the ideals they profess to believe. If he mentions border security and a long list of spending priorities, or if he focuses on the stock market or unemployment rates as the crowning standard for American greatness, the speech wont be worth the effort or current fight just for the chance to deliver it.

The president should set aside all bombast, every exaggerated story or stretched statistic and anything, including his own ego, that would detract from the real message of a uniquely American moment. One friend commented to me that if the speech is about the speaker and not the hearer, it will be a message only multiplied by a factor of one. If, on the other hand, its about the 328 million individuals who make up this nation, it will be magnified 328 million times.

The president can rightly declare, in the words of Scott Rasmussen, that Politics has failed, but America will not! He can then lay out all that unites the nation, the principles and values, the commitment to community and the rights and blessings of freedom, because that is the actual state of the nation, rather than the political state of the moment. He should then outline why American citizenship matters, clarify what it is our government should guarantee and why we should stop looking to centralized power in Washington to solve the countrys pressing problems.

From the middle of the rotunda, the president can remind the American people that the state of the union has little to do with those who occupy the 435 seats at one end of the Capitol or the 100 occupants of the seats at the other, nor is it the person sitting in the seat in the Oval Office. The state of the union has been and will always be determined and driven by the discussions of a family sitting around a dinner table at home, community members at the counter of a local cafe, a student sitting at a desk or the caregiver at the side of a hospital bed  these are the true seats of American power. Those who occupy them determine the true state of the nation.

Note: Trump is unlikely to attempt such an address. Stay tuned; we will deliver a possible speech in this space in the days ahead.Five years ago, some far-sighted, if perhaps a bit trigger-happy, people in Deer Trail, Colorado, population 700, had a bright idea. They put a referendum on the ballot that would have allowed people to buy hunting licenses to shoot drones from the sky.

What a simple, practical solution.

Of course, the plan came with a few potential problems. It may be irritating and, as weve recently seen, dangerous, to have unmanned mosquito-like machines buzzing overhead, but flying bullets arent exactly fun, either.

So it may have been a good thing the referendum failed, but Ive thought a lot about those folks ever since.

I knew trouble was brewing in 2014 when a triathlon runner in Australia was hit in the head by a drone that fell from the sky. A videographer was using it to film the event but claimed someone else hijacked the drone, possibly using a cellphone.

As I wrote at the time, history shows that every new breakthrough that streaks through the sky trails clouds of both promise and dread. And thats why, as a society, we cant have nice things.

In a month when the government shutdown has taken all the oxygen out of news cycles, drones still have managed to gain a foothold on the worlds attention span. Unless we find some sort of solution, they could dominate the news, in a bad way, on some future day.

Trouble began in December, when Londons Gatwick Airport spotted nearby drones three days in a row. About 1,000 flights were disrupted, ruining travel plans for about 140,000 people, or roughly the entire population of West Valley City.

Then in January, Heathrow Airport had to close for about an hour because of a drone.

Now, Newarks Liberty Airport has been bitten. On Tuesday, two nearby drones were spotted at about 3,500 feet, and flights temporarily were halted. How long until it happens at an airport near you?

Maybe the chance to interrupt a major airport is just too tempting for bored people who are tired of disrupting virtual worlds on video games. Maybe law enforcements apparent inability to catch the operators makes mischief that much more appealing. Or maybe something more sinister could be coming.

If a flock of birds could bring down Captain Sullenbergers jet a decade ago, imagine what a drone might do in a midair collision.

During the Obama administration, the media focused on the militarys use of drones to fire missiles at suspected terrorist targets abroad. The relative lack of attention today does not mean those strikes have ceased. A group known as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism keeps track of such things and the harrowing stories of innocent people who become collateral damage. It would be naive to think the nations enemies wouldnt try to retaliate some day using inexpensive drones of their own.

Meanwhile, people are working on solutions. The best idea may be to jam the frequencies being used to operate the drones, effectively killing them. But a recent report in The Economist quoted Iain Gray, director of aerospace at Britains Cranfield University, as saying this might also damage an airports radio and navigation systems.

Other ideas include firing a net to capture the offending craft.

We had better hope one or more of these become reliably usable, as well as cheap enough for airports to keep on hand.

Meanwhile, a Chinese company, JD.com, has begun making drone deliveries of books and supplies to remote parts of Indonesia. Amazon still is working on a drone delivery system of its own, and on federal permission to use it. Drones are being used to take aerial photos, and search and rescue teams already are finding them useful.

Like it or not, the skies are bound to become more crowded. Separating the bad drones from the good ones could be more challenging, especially if bad guys perfect ways to hijack the good ones.

As history has shown, the bad guys can be relied upon to try to twist every advance to their own advantage.

By the way, the Economist also said an Idaho company has developed cartridges it claims are specially designed to shoot the things out of the sky.

If that idea ever catches on, I know of some folks in Deer Trail, Colorado who might want jobs.JENNA DUNCAN can be reached at 940-566-6889 and via Twitter at @jennafduncan.

DALTON LAFERNEY can be reached at 940-566-6882 and via Twitter at @daltonlaferney.The Mariner East 1 pipeline can be seen in sinkhole that developed Sunday in a neighborhood in West Whiteland, Chester County.opinion

Checking off all the boxes in the Covington debacleYou are the owner of this article.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has transferred its officer investigating the ICICI Bank fraud case for allegedly leaking information.

Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, a Superintendent of Police-rank officer who was part of the Banking and Securities Fraud Cell of the CBI in Delhi, was shifted to the agencys Economic Offences Branch in Ranchi district of Jharkhand a day after he signed the FIR in the case on January 22.

A discreet inquiry against Mishra indicated his role in leaking information related to searches conducted by the investigation agency at various locations in connection with the case, a CBI officer said. Justifying the transfer, the agency official also blamed Mishra for keeping the preliminary enquiry into the case pending without any reasons.

On January 25, Union Minister Arun Jaitley, who is undergoing treatment in the US, cautioned the CBI against investigative adventurism and megalomania, two days after the agency filed an FIR against former CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak, Videocon group MD Venugopal Dhoot and others.

Sitting thousands of kilometres away, when I read the list of potential targets in the ICICI case, the thought that crossed my mind was again the same  instead of focusing primarily on the target, is a journey to nowhere (or everywhere) being undertaken? he said in a series of tweets.

Apparently disagreeing with CBIs action in the case, Jaitley said, If we include the entire whos who of the banking industry  with or without evidence  what cause are we serving or actually hurting?Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 70th Republic Day. (File Photo)

Singapore: The longstanding friendship between Singapore and India continues to expand with each passing year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 70th Republic Day.

"Your two visits to Singapore last year gave strong momentum to our Strategic Partnership, especially in new areas of cooperation such as FinTech and innovation," Lee said on Modi's visits to Singapore in 2018.

The conclusion of the Second Review of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement last June provided a conducive framework for the two countries' agencies and companies to strengthen trade and economic linkages, Lee said.

"The launch of the Third Review in September 2018 reflected our two countries' mutual commitment to enhance our partnership amidst a rapidly changing world. These initiatives and our many other cooperation platforms will bring Singapore-India relations to greater heights," he wrote in the letter on Saturday.

"As India celebrates this auspicious day, we congratulate India on the great strides she has made in the country's development as well as on the international stage. I wish you and all Indian nationals a joyous 70th Republic Day," Lee added. President Halimah Yacob congratulated President Ram Nath Kovind in her letter.

"On behalf of the people of Singapore, I would like to express my warmest congratulations to you and the people of India on the joyous occasion of India's 70th Republic Day."

Singapore and India enjoy a special relationship rooted in deep historical ties, vibrant people-to-people linkages, regular high-level exchanges and strong economic cooperation.

"In 2018, our two countries further expanded bilateral cooperation across several pillars of our Strategic Partnership, as well as launched cooperation in new areas including FinTech and innovation" reaffirmed President Halim Yacob in her letter.

"I am confident that relations between our two nations will continue to strengthen in the years to come. I wish Your Excellency good health and every success," he added.The governments Make in India campaign beginning 2014 and gradual tax increases on imports of mobile phone components have spurred the creation of more than 260 manufacturing units.

Smartphone makers in India are calling for export credits on devices and tariff cuts on machinery imports as part of measures they say will make Asias third-biggest economy a global smartphone manufacturing hub.

The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), whose members include some of the industrys biggest names including Apple Inc, made the proposals in a 174-page document reviewed by Reuters and submitted to the government ahead of its annual budget announcement next week.

As the country is nearing to achieve saturation point... without an export take off manufacturing growth cannot be sustained and accelerated, the ICEA said in the document.

The ICEA confirmed it submitted the document. The finance and technology ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

The governments Make in India campaign beginning 2014 and gradual tax increases on imports of mobile phone components have spurred the creation of more than 260 manufacturing units in the country and over 600,000 jobs, ICEA said.

That has helped India become the second-biggest producer of mobile phones after China, and prompted foreign smartphone makers such as Oppo and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as well as contract manufacturers like Wistron Corp and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn) to ramp up production for phones primarily sold domestically.

The industry is now set for a further boost under a broader National Policy on Electronics currently in the works. Yet at the same time, the government also appears to be raising obstacles.

Next month, it will begin taxing imports of touch panels two months earlier than initially planned, sending mixed messages to handset manufacturers as setting up the means to assemble panels locally is a significant expense.

Consistency in policy is important for any industry to mature, said Navkendar Singh, associate research director at consultancy International Data Corp. Back-and-forth in policy hurts investor sentiment and the countrys positioning as a destination to manufacture.

In its document, ICEA proposed the government raise the export credit received on the value of mobile phone shipments to 8 percent from 4 percent. It also called for the introduction of a 5 percent export credit on services such as mobile apps.

Other proposals from the body - which also counts Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, Oppo and Foxconn among its members - include lower import taxes on capital goods such as machinery and ensuring manufacturers have access to low-cost capital.

The next phase (of manufacturing) can now probably be driven by export incentives, said Vikas Agarwal, India head of Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus, which is not an ICEA member.

The eventual goal is to establish India as the preferred destination - and not just driven by duties, but by the opportunities in the Indian market.

The ICEA, formerly the Indian Cellular Association, also called on the government to re-consider levying duties on new components, and allow for the local manufacture of parts already under the import tax regime to develop in a timely manner.

The import tariff on touch panels has been of particular concern to manufacturers including Samsung.

The South Korean firm has written to the federal government saying it cannot make two of its high-end models in India because of the tariff, the Economic Times reported this week.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters Samsung had written to the government, and that the firm was investing in a touch panel assembly plant in India which would ready by the end of March 2020.

Samsung declined to comment.

The government aims to export USD 9 billion worth of mobile phones in the year ending March 2020 from just USD 100 million in 2017, the ICEA said in a previous report.

Despite some improvement in exports since 2015, India still has a long way to become an export hub, it said.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The 15-year-old technology company has been a darling of Californias Silicon Valley, making stars out of its founder, chief executive and chairman Mark Zuckerberg, and Sandberg.

Facebook Incs operations chief Sheryl Sandberg said on Wednesday that the worlds largest social network needed to win back public trust after facing scandals for violating its users privacy.

The social media platform is investing billions of dollars a year to improve the security of its network, Sandberg said in an interview hosted by German newspaper Die Zeit and UK law firm CMS at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

We did not anticipate all of the risks from connecting so many people, Sandberg said, adding that the site had added features that give users greater control over their personal information.

The 15-year-old technology company has been a darling of Californias Silicon Valley, making stars out of its founder, chief executive and chairman Mark Zuckerberg, and Sandberg, known for her feminist manifesto Lean In. But its shares have fallen roughly 33 percent since July to USD 144 due to concerns about user privacy.

Last year, the company was buffeted by revelations that UK consultancy Cambridge Analytica had improperly acquired data on millions of its US users to target election advertising.

We need to earn back trust, Sandberg said.

Some of Facebooks major shareholders have pushed for Zuckerberg, who has majority control of the company, to step down as chairman.

Sandberg said he should remain both chair and CEO. She said that she also plans to remain at Facebook, where she has worked since 2008.

I think I have a job to do, she said. Its a job I really want to do.

Sandberg said that if Facebook had to change its business model and charge users a subscription fee instead of collecting advertising revenue, far fewer people would be able to use it.

Fundamentally disallowing our business model would harm a lot of people all over the world.

She said her grassroots womens movement, spurred by the publication of Lean In, was still going strong. But, asked if she was considering a run for US president in the 2020 election, she replied : Its not on my agenda.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Cometh the hour, cometh the man! goes the saying (and we may improve it by adding woman). With national polls practically at the door, we shall know who the man or the woman is going to be only after the election has flashed past us, not before, such is the tricky electoral wicket. The political scene is riddled with uncertainties.

If the Congress has notched up tide-turning recent victories in states, the BJP has enviable organisational prowess and vast money resources with which to dazzle the voter, browbeat opponents, and win over turncoats, in addition to the crowd-pulling abilities of PM Narendra Modi.

Until a month and a half ago, when the Assembly election results for three key Hindi heartland results came in, it was plausible to give Mr Modi higher probability marks than others for leading the next coalition government at the Centre. But the situation has not remained static.

In order to avoid misconceptions, it is necessary to underline that we are firmly in the coalition universe already. Even the present government is a coalition of several parties, a political khichri, with the BJP leading it. The BJP is unlikely to have won 31 per cent of the national vote in 2014 (and enough Lok Sabha seats to have a majority on its own) if it had fought the polls alone.

Especially given the none-too-bright record of the present regime, few can doubt that the next government too will be a coalition. With its customary shrewdness, BJPs progenitor RSS recently let out that a hung Parliament was the most likely eventuality in the current situation, puncturing any possible bravado talk on the BJPs part of winning a majority.

The BJPs present attack line that the Opposition parties offer only unstructured chaos is, thus, plain unsubtle propaganda. The point really is which political parties line up on which side of the basic ideological and political dividing line that separates the BJP from the Congress.

Further, all concerned will be keenly watching which leader from the BJP or from the ranks of its rivals is likely to attract the most support in a hung Parliament. There are noteworthy probable claimants for the top job on both sides. Their names are a subject of open speculation.

Being the incumbent leader, Mr Modi is, of course, the pre-eminent contender from the BJP-RSS quarters. His capacity to draw attention can never be in doubt. But his government coming up short on delivery in the wake of turbo-charged propaganda at every step, its principal characteristic, has boosted hopes not only among rival parties, but also (with RSS blessings) of some within the saffron camp.

On the other side of the fence, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has, in the course of two gruelling years, slow-marched his way into the arc of contention  first encircling the countryside, as it were, in line with Chairman Maos famous dictum. His putative secular camp rivals for the top job after the election  principally West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and BSP leader Mayawati  appear to be more virtual reality than reality.

In fact, what they seem to possess is their derived status (besides their ambition). They will get any traction at all if and only if Rahul Gandhis Congress either produces more MPs than the BJP does or is just a shade behind the BJP in parliamentary numbers, and not if it falls disappointingly short of a certain threshold.

In short, if the Congress does poorly, the non-Congress secular camp pretenders to the throne that make so much anti-BJP noise these days will also be ambushed by history. Can distributaries be bigger than the mainstream eventually, no matter how much froth they produce?

Mr Gandhis case is, in fact, an instructive one. His rising stature in public estimation (and acceptability as a political figure of substance) came into full view with the Gujarat Assembly election of 2017 when his party nearly snatched a victory from the entrenched BJP-RSS in the state although it had been a low-impact customer for long, and practically absent from Gujarats electoral calculus in the preceding two decades.

The Nehru-Gandhi scion was the indefatigable star campaigner for his side. He first united a divided state party and got it battle-ready. He showed sang froid and negotiating skill when he successfully pulled in non-party young firebrands like Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mewani and Alpesh Thakore, whose hallmark was rebellion, to do battle alongside him.

Mr Gandhi also overcame the doubts of a deeply sceptical public. When one recalls that period, it is possible to make the argument that if PM Modi was not a Gujarat native, and if he hadnt pleaded with the voters to come to his aid as he faced an acid test, his party may well have come off second best.

A few months later, it became evident that Gujarat was not a flash in the pan for the Congress leader. His campaigning energy and political strategising stopped a rampaging BJP in Karnataka. Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah worked as hard in the Karnataka Assembly election as they had done in Gujarat, but this was of no avail. For them, in Karnataka, the home-state effect was absent.

Later the same year, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (bitterly feuding Congress factions were made to cooperate in these states too) fell to the Congress as the BJP was forced to cede space even in regions of these states where the RSS had been entrenched practically since Independence.

Elections are hard to call, but there seems to be a certain wind blowing that disturbs the equanimity of the ruling dispensation. It is the fast-changing texture of politics which has compelled the government  in an attempt to woo back voters  to allow education and job quotas even for income tax-payers among the Hindu upper castes, and this strikes people as odd.

A government that had set out to bring about economic, social and political reform is obliged to take recourse to old-fashioned reservation policies to pull its chestnuts out of the fire.

It is not confident enough to bank on the premise that while the Congress had notched up Assembly wins, voters do a different arithmetic for Lok Sabha elections. Psephology suggests that in Indias case the Parliamentary vote tends to go the same way as in an Assembly if the voting for the two is within six months of one another. Thats an added headache for the BJP, and a plus for Mr Gandhi.

But state polls are history. Now the Congress leader will be sorely tested in two areas. He must do better in UP than his opponents think. Priyanka Gandhis spectacular induction may be helpful here. Mr Gandhi also needs to bag a couple of pre-poll allies. Thatll be a crucial asset in augmenting numbers if the result shows a hung Parliament, as is more than likely.

Rahul Gandhi is the lone Opposition leader who has challenged this government and the PM across the board  on issues of economics, politics and ideology, besides the negative impact of policies on ordinary Indians; other Modi opponents have picked their battles selectively. He is the opponent the BJP fears.The acclaimed writer and documentary producer Gita Mehtas declining of the Padma Shri award is in keeping with the highest standards of her writing. This is one refusal that comes without causing great offence or kicking up a political storm although political elements may it see in a different light. It is the likelihood of the conferring of the award being misunderstood on the eve of the general elections that has spurred her to act thus. The distinguished writer has built up a volume of work in a lifetime that is to be admired and has little to do with her being the elder sister of Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha. The forces behind the nominations may aver that the award was only on merit and had nothing to with the politics surrounding the impending elections. If so, the Padma award should have been conferred years ago on a such a fine Indian writer rather than now in 2019.

It is a reflection of the age we live in that even awards to recognise meritorious work in varied fields that they should be so politicised. The conferring of Bharat Ratnas this year on three personalities, including the former President Pranab Mukherji, is also seen to be invested with heavy political motivation. The least that can be said about the highest civilian honour is the award has been considerably watered down over time since 1954 when the first of 45 Bharat Ratnas was awarded to C.V. Raman, C. Rajagopalachari and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. History might suggest there have been doubts about as many awardees as consensus that many deserved it for their accomplishments and contribution to the nation. We can consider ourselves fortunate that many of the early awards were conferred on great people who were nation and institution builders rather than politicians.Much brouhaha surrounds the Indian-origin female Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, in her 2020 Presidential bid in the US, as indeed, of the bid of the first Hindu member of US Congress, Samoan-American Tulsi Gabbard, who is clearly not even part of the Indian diaspora.

The global Indian diaspora, linked to India through ancestry, nationality, ethnicity or some other means, is over 31 million strong, the largest in the world and almost equivalent to the population of Malaysia. Early emigration since the times of King Ashoka to subsequent traders, merchants and artisans who travelled to Central Asia, the Arab peninsula, African ports, Southeast Asian trading points led to the ubiquitous Indian diaspora being spread far and wide. The later wave of migrants, mid-19th century onwards, were indentured labourers, primarily from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who went to island nations like Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji etc., as also to the east African port cities and South Africa. Post-Independence, the economic opportunities in the oil boom of Gulf sheikhdoms, professionals in the US and liberal emigration policies of Australia and Canada accounted for major emigration of the Indian populace.

Today, while Mauritius has an overwhelming Indian majority of over 68 per cent, others like the UAE with 40 per cent, Suriname with 27 per cent, Kuwait with 21 per cent, etc. have significant populations of NRIs or people of Indian descent. The single largest Indian community is in the United States with a population of nearly 4.5 million  they are also the most financially affluent ethnicity, with a household income of over $122,000, out-earning all other ethnicities.

The current political leadership in Mauritius, Portugal, Ireland and Trinidad & Tobago has an impressive sprinkling of diaspora members. This logically accrues a significant cultural, economic, diplomatic and political relevance and visibility for the Indian identity. Befittingly, the diaspora is a heterogeneous bouquet of religions, regions, races and identities that compose India itself.

The recently concluded 15th Pravasi Bharitiya Divas at Varanasi celebrated this vibrant community with the attendance of Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Norwegian MP Himanshu Gulati and 4,000 others. The conventions theme created a sense of reciprocal expectations from the diaspora  Role of Indian diaspora in building New India. While India remains the worlds top recipient of remittances from its diaspora, with nearly $80 billion in 2018 (China reportedly got around $67 billion), its role in economic health via remittances and potential investments is significant. However, the extended expectation of a more favourable political or diplomatic outlook towards India, owing to the significant numbers of the Indian diaspora, is often misplaced.

Much brouhaha surrounds the Indian-origin female Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, in her 2020 Presidential bid in the US, as indeed, of the bid of the first Hindu member of US Congress, Samoan-American Tulsi Gabbard, who is clearly not even part of the Indian diaspora. Even though Ms Harris identifies herself more with her African-American roots as opposed to Indian-American (her father was a Jamaican and her mother a Tamilian), the numeric-financial power of the Indian diaspora may lead to the subtle amplification of her Indian roots. Whereas Ms Gabbards Indian connection by way of her personal faith and ostensible equation with the Indian leadership in Delhi has put the influential Hindu organisations in the US firmly on her side. That both of these candidates are Democrats, and that in an increasingly polarised world, underpinned by unashamed realpolitik, that the Republican President is historically more pro-India than a Democratic one, is of little consequence. Despite Donald Trumps blatant whimsicalities, inelegance and unbelievable failings, the emergence of India as a strategic pivot against common-strains of concerns is more definite. Yet, names of potential Republican candidates like Larry Hogan, Jeff Flake or Bob Corker do not resonate in the Indian imagination as yet. The sense that somehow an Indian-origin person will be more amiable, responsive and favourable towards India is solely an emotional reaction.

Recent experience with the likes of crusader prosecutor Preet Bharara or the previous governor of Lousiana, Bobby Jindal, has been contentious and often left a sour taste. Mr Jindal, in particular, downplayed his Indianess, never joined the India-Caucus as a Congressman or visibly championed Indian causes, and was routinely mocked for his extra white photos that almost seemed apologetic of his heritage. Similarly, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad distances himself from his Indian roots to dial-up his Malayan credentials, whereas the likes of Nikki Haley and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar have been more open in acknowledging their ancestry (even at the cost of pejorative barbs like typically Indian).

Despite the excitement in India owing to the diasporas individual achievements, expectations of a necessarily pro-India tilt are unfounded and unrealistic.

Beyond the cultural affinity, these individuals owe both their political and moral allegiance to the flag that they swear by, and any conduct to the contrary does not behoove a citizenship, irrespective of their ancestry. We too would take justifiable affront to any individual who takes Indian citizenship, yet retains a higher sense of loyalty and fidelity to their ancestral lands. Therefore, the celebration of a Mother Teresa, Annie Besant, Ruskin Bond, Tom Alter or Mark Tully as Indians, as opposed to their original ancestry.

On the hardnosed tables of international diplomacy and compulsions, a Mauritius would be driven by its own interests in wooing Chinese investments or a Seychelles in spurning an Indian naval port. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costas (Goan ancestry) polite assertion as the advocate of India in Europe would be constrained by Portugals own limitations, interests and internal politics that will realistically define the practicality of the well-meant statement.

Yet the importance of Indian soft power via its throbbing diaspora cannot be underesti-mated in the long run nor can their ability to contribute economically (however the inherent higher-rate-of-return on investments made in India is an oft understated reality). More importantly, as the ambassadors of Indias lofty secularity and industriousness, the diaspora does a yeoman service in projecting the nation as progressive and tolerant. And the talented diaspora, unlike a lot of other ethnicities, is not known for any nefarious, regressive or ulterior agendas that could militate against the sensibilities of their adopted homeland, permanently or otherwise.Foreign policy is the external aspect of national policy. It covers the whole gamut of global, regional and neighbourhood developments, movements and strategies. When national policy is substandard it puts a ceiling on the success of foreign policy no matter how good it is.

Take a look: What are the foreign policy challenges faced by Naya Pakistan? Similarly, given the external dependency of Pakistans national policy, it cannot achieve its goals without a prioritised and resourced foreign policy. Some aspects of external policy are primarily dealt with by specialised ministries, departments and services. But the Foreign Office should not be held responsible for the negative consequences of bad decisions it had no part in taking. This often happens and is always at the cost of the national interest.

This is obvious. Yet in practice it is usually ignored. Why? The main reason is the unwillingness of corrupt or weak governments to take any risks for good governance, including good foreign policy. This is the soft state syndrome. It is often a prelude to a failing state. It precludes serving the national interest. Powerful vested interests define the national interest and make foreign policy. What is to be done?

If the political system is made participatory and inclusive it will eventually find the right answers. If it remains elitist, exclusive and exploitative it will not. Changing the system, however, involves risk-taking.

The US is still the worlds mightiest and only comprehensive global power. Afghanistan is a force multiplier for Pakistans security or insecurity.

As regards India, the core issues for Pakistan are progress towards a Kashmir settlement acceptable to opinion in the Valley and radically improving the horrendous human rights situation there. For India it is Pakistans use of terrorist proxies. These core issues need to be addressed to the satisfaction of each other if dialogue is to be meaningful. Finding common ground for a negotiating process to be sustainable is a challenge. Indian interference in Balochistan is a fact. However, the Balochistan problem is not of Indias making. It is due to institutionalised bad governance and exploitation over decades. Pakistan should continue to extend its hand of cooperation irrespective of a lack of response from India. It should keep the LoC quiet as best it can. It should build on the Kartarpur initiative. It should extend normal trading or MFN rights as promised. This is arguably a WTO obligation also.

Pakistan should offer travel, communications, confidence and security-building (including regular nuclear and water-management) discussions and proposals. Let India take its time to respond. Pakistan cannot lose by being consistent and reasonable. Realistic rather than provocative narratives need to be developed. The people of both countries need to get to know each other more directly instead of through warped images. Differences need to be contained, addressed and reduced through a realistic working relationship. This will enable South Asia to meet the survival challenges of the 21st century.

The leaders of both countries should make appropriate statements, stay in touch, and unfold a range of innovative initiatives. If India demurs, even after its elections, that is its problem. India is justly regarded as a large neighbour with a small heart. Many Afghans see Pakistan similarly despite the massive Afghan goodwill accumulated during the Soviet occupation. Why? Pakistan need not create a two-front situation for itself. Being large-hearted towards a smaller neighbour is actually good strategy. Specific issues are more easily resolved when the fundamentals are okay.

By arrangement with DawnHyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which has been claiming it will win 16 Lok Sabha seats in the ensuing elections, is focusing on candidates for the four key segments of Chevella, Malkajgiri, Secunderabad and Nalgonda.

These four segments have become crucial for the TRS, after Malkajgiris sitting MP, Mr C. Malla Reddy, resigned his seat following his election to the Assembly from Medchal segment. Mr Reddy, who had won the Lok Sabha seat on a Telugu Desam ticket in 2014, later joined the TRS.

Mr M. Hanumantha Rao, who contested from Malkajgiri in 2014 on a TRS ticket was defeated by Mr Reddy. In the recent Assembly elections, Mr Rao got elected from Malkajgiri Assembly segment.

As both leaders have gone to the Assembly, the TRS leadership is now in search of a strong candidate for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha. Even Mr Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, TRS MP from Chevella Lok Sabha seat, quit the party during the Assembly elections to join the Congress.

Though the party leadership initially thought of fielding chairman of the Telangana Legislative Council K. Swamy Goud from Chevella, it is now said to have changed its mind as Mr Goud is not keen on contesting the Lok Sabha election in view of requirement of huge finances and domination of a particular upper caste in Chevella.

Sources in the TRS say party supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and working president K.T. Rama Rao are trying to rope in wife of filmstar Ram Charan Konidela, Upasana Konidela, to contest against her uncle Konda Vishweshwar Reddy.

There is also speculation in the TRS that the ticket could go to P. Karthik Reddy, son of Ms Sabitha Indra Reddy.

But some contest this claim, saying that Mr Karthik Reddy contested on a Congress ticket and lost in 2014 while his mother was elected from Maheswa-ram Assembly segment in the recent polls and as long as Ms Sabitha is with the Congress, it would be difficult for Mr Karthik to get a TRS ticket.

The party leadership is also of the opinion that compared to Ms Sabithas family, the family of Mr Vishweshwar Reddy wields influence in Chevella.

Regarding Ms Upasana Konidela, party sources said their working president had a good rapport with her family and is in touch with Ram Charans uncle, film star Pawan Kalyan.

Party leaders are also saying one cannot rule out the possibility of the TRS taking the support of Pawan Kalyan for Malkajgiri and Chevella seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The TRS also has to look for a potential candidate for Secunderabad where it polled 1.44 lakh votes and stood fourth, while Bandaru Dattatreya of the BJP, then a TD ally, won.

The MIM, which had stood third with 1.45 lakh votes, has this time decided to support the TRS nominee.

The TRS, which won in only one out of seven Assembly segments in Secunderabad for the Lok Sabha seat, has won six segments in the recent Assembly polls.

During the 2014 elections, the TRS had fielded Mr T. Bhim Singh, husband of former Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice, Ms T. Meena Kumari, and is this time searching for a formidable candidate.

Similarly, the ruling party is looking for a strong leader for Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat, as sitting MP Mr Gutha Sukhender Reddy does not seem to be keen to contest from Nalgonda this time.

Though there were rumours that Mr Rama Rao could contest from Nalgonda, some senior leaders are ruling that out.

As chances of Mr Rajeshwar Reddy or Mr Sukhender contesting seems remote, the TRS is in search of a formidable candidate for the seat.Hyderabad: Senior Congress leaders have started meeting local leaders in the name of get-togethers and preparing the ground to lobby for tickets for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections after being defeated in the recent Assembly elections held in Telangana.

Though AICC president Rahul Gandhi has stated that candidates who lost in the Assembly polls will not be given tickets in general elections, senior leaders of the Congress continue to work hard to grab them.

They believe that lobbying is the greatest weapon in the Congress but before approaching the high command, they want to make sure that they have full support of the local cadre. Being away from their constituencies has proved costly for Congress leaders who won in 2014. To rectify their mistakes, the leaders have started meeting all district leaders.

The ticket for the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat is seeing tough competition with former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy competing with former minister D.K. Aruna and Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy. Ms Aruna and Mr Revanth Reddy lost in the Assembly elections and, according to sources, want a chance to prove themselves in the general elections.

There is intense lobbying for other seats too where senior Congress leaders are angling for tickets.

Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, who joined the Congress from the TRS before the Assembly elections, may face competition from his previous opponent Karthik Reddy. According to party sources, there might be tough competition for Mr Patel Ramesh Reddy from Mr Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy  who won the Assembly election  for the Nalgonda ticket.

Former PCC chief Ponnala Laxmiah and TPCC treasurer Guduru Narayana Reddy are both in the race for the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat. Senior leader Renuka Chowdary and MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy are eyeing the Khammam constituency where the Congress got good results during the Assembly polls.

All the aspirants think that they can do better against the TRS candidates in the general elections expecting that it will be a Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi affair.Banners of welfare schemes taken up by the Telangana state government have come up all over the city, on Metro pillars, bridges and bus shelters (Photo: DC0

Hyderabad: The TRS, which was way ahead in campaigning in the recently-concluded Assembly elections, is again taking the lead.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, the party managed to paint the city pink with TRS hoardings on every pillar and post. As the country gears up for the Lok Sabha polls, the TRS government is again making use of hoardings and banners to attract people.

Banners have come up all over the city, on Metro pillars, bridges and bus shelters. The most visible thing in the city these days are posters of welfare schemes taken up by the Telangana government with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekar Raos face on them.

Every bit of the skyline and metro pillars highlight some welfare scheme or the other. On Begumpet bridge, there are three hoardings announcing free, 24-hour power supply. Similar posters are seen also at Kukatpally, Secund-erabad, Khairatabad and Erragadda. There are also hoardings announcing other government schemes like Kanti Velugu, Rythu Bandhu and Kalyana Lakshmi Metro Rail.

The Chief Minister is making use of banners explaining his resounding victory in the Assembly elections, to announce government schemes. However, once the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections sets in, these posters bearing the government logo and the chief ministers face will have to be removed.

During the Assembly polls, the TRS had conquered advertisement boards, as these belong to private parties and political ads can be put up there only if the owners dont have any objection.

The schemes on the hoardings now are a clear indication that the Chief Minister is all set, with renewed energy, to face the Lok Sabha elections, he himself again being the poster boy.Congress president Rahul Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has said, and alleged that the BJPs propaganda machinery spent hundreds of thousands of crores to malign the Congress leaders image.

However, he also emphasised that the issue of who will be the prime minister can be settled after the 2019 polls by grand alliance members collectively.

Asserting that there was never a question mark over Gandhis leadership, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in an interview to PTI said, even after such a long negative campaign against him, he (Gandhi) has won the hearts of the people through his perseverance, kindness and large-heartedness. The Congress victory in the three major states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh under Gandhis leadership has infused a sense of confidence and energy in the party, and in the minds of 69 per cent electorate who had not voted for Narendra Modi in 2014, Yadav said.

Asked if Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said: Yes! He has all the qualities, he is the national president of Indias oldest party and been in Parliament for the last 15 years. Dont forget his party has five chief ministers in the country and he is leading them. So, no question should be asked on (Gandhis) leadership and qualities. Last month, president of DMK, one of the big allies of the Congress, M K Stalin, for the first time had publicly proposed that the united opposition must field the Congress chief as its prime ministerial candidate to defeat the Narendra Modi government. Stalin was criticised, but he stuck to his views.

However, Yadav, when asked if Gandhi was the obvious choice to lead a pan-India alliance, said India is a democracy, in which people choose their representatives and they in turn choose the leader who becomes the prime minister.

Democracy is always people-centric, it is not person-oriented. We do not want a dictatorship form of government. Presently, the BJP is suffering from Idol worship. We dont want that culture, said the 29-year-old son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad.

Alliance is about parties and not about a single party and its leader, Yadav asserted.

Once we go about the elections, we can always sit down and choose a leader after the elections are over, there is no hurry for that. Dont forget, Manmohan Singh ji was not a PM candidate in 2004, however, he successfully ran the government for 10 years, he said.

Asked if he would be playing the role of opposition unifier that was played by his father in 2004, the RJD leader said he is the youngest leader in the opposition camp, and just a learner, not a leader.

Yes, my father unified the UPA-I and he has been a vocal supporter of opposition unity since May 2014. I will be happy if anyone from our party could emulate his feat, Yadav said.

He said he was making efforts to the best of his ability to bring like-minded parties in the opposition camp and had done so successfully in Bihar.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was framing him in false cases with the help of its alliance partners such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

But, we are not afraid as we are known for our fearless politics. Neither we indulge in, nor fear, vindictive politics, he asserted. Yadav said he is ready to go to any extent to ensure that the BJP and the Sangh dont come to power and alleged that the Constitution that empowers backwards, minorities and Dalits in the country, is at stake.Madurai: Lashing out at the DMK for taking exception to the Centres 10 per cent reservation bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the opposition parties are creating suspicion and mistrust among the people in Tamil Nadu, to serve their own selfish interests.

This decision (to ensure quota) has been taken in a way that it doesnt impact Dalits, Tribals and OBCs, who are already availing reservation benefits, Mr Modi said while assuring justice as well as opportunities to the Devendra Kula Vellalar community.

He said it was unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by a few people in Tamil Nadu, to serve their own selfish interests. The Centre is committed to providing employment and education to all segments of our society It was with this spirit that recently, we decided to provide 10 per cent reservation in education and government employment to the poor among the general category.

I want to talk to you about one more issue. This is relating to the Devendra Kula Vellalar community and ensuring justice as well as opportunities for them, he said.

Training his guns on the Congress and allies, Mr Modi said, All those who were used to making deals in government contracts, defence deals, and welfare schemes, are now facing the music. That is why they are all coming together.

Referring to the mahagathbandhan, he said, They say that keeping aside all other considerations, they must unite to remove this watch-man. Those cheating, looting the country will be brought back, he added.

Those cheating, looting the country will be brought back:

Apparently referring to economic offenders Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who are wanted in connection with defaulting on huge bank loans, and are abroad, the Prime Minister said any person who has cheated or looted the country will be brought to justice and this is regardless of whether he is in India, or abroad.

The Union governments effort against corruption has created a stir from Chennai to Delhi, and his government is taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism, he said.

Talking about equal opportunity for all, the PM said, Opportunity for all cannot be guaranteed as long as there are artificial concepts of high and low, or ours and theirs in the society.New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded scientists in the country saying, "Today, our space programme is powered by several young scientists".

"We must take pride in the fact that the satellites developed by our students are reaching the space today. On 24 January Kalam SAT, created by our students, was launched," he added.

Addressing the first Mann Ki Baat of 2019, the Prime Minister expressed pride and said that India has also created a world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft.

He said that the country will soon register Indias presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign.

India successfully launched its 46th flight of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) carrying Kalam SAT, a communication satellite developed by students and India's military satellite Microsat-R from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The launch of the satellite is said to be unique as PSLV-C44 fourth stage was re-used automatically to launch Kalamsat payload and Microsat-R satellite into space from the First Launch Pad (FLP). PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages.

The PSLV with two strap-on configuration was identified for this mission and the configuration is designated as PSLV-DL.Its a destination and experience that has always been on his bucket list, and now he is fulfiling those dreams. Following the Northern Lights, Bengaluru musician and entrepreneur Carlton Braganza is in Finland at Rovaniemi. Not only will he be captivated by the aurora borealis, he will also be performing his set to a select group of travellers at a bunker around a bonfire as the sky lights up with the ethereal phenomenon. Incidentally, Rovaniemi is Santa Claus' village and predictably, Carlton found much cheer in the air as he made his way into the icy village! I am so excited to be performing here. The idea was to merge travel with music. This tour curated by a Mumbai couple with The Backpacker and Co, brings likeminded people together to see the Northern Light. And playing music there was an offer I could not refuse. Super excited, says Carlton, who is currently in Helsinki, and sang to a happy and content group of locals at a neighbourhood karaoke bar.

We are doing all sorts of things, a gigs at the Arctic bunker in the middle of the wilderness, another at a popular local pub, and another gig at Helsinki. I will be performing with Abhijit Gupta, who sings with me. We will be doing everything, from small jams with locals and will play a set of classic rock and blues, he adds. With a car rally also happening during the time, Carlton hopes to see a large audience. For now, he has been busy posting about his experience so far, Showed Helsinki a drunken good time last night! Tonights gig with ma boy @abhijitgupta and The Backpacker Co at @oliverscorner_rovaniemi tonight!!!. And given that the weather is -33, and he has already seen a glimpse of the lights, its sure to inspire a gig that will be remembered by all.Mumbai: Nick Jonas is expected to join Priyanka Chopra in the exotic islands of Andaman and Nicobar when the actress goes there in February to shoot for her film The Sky Is Pink.

Reportedly, there were a few issues initially as Nick is an American citizen and there are certain islands which come under the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) where foreigners are not allowed.

There was a bit of tension as American national John Allen Chau was killed by the local Sentinelese tribe there last year. But, the local administration that had lifted the RAP for a few islands there are keen to promote the Union Territory for tourism. They have allowed the shoot to happen and for foreigners to visit the island. There are other crew members as well who are not Indian, says a source.

The last time a Bollywood film was shot in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was the Kaalapani (1996), a bilingual film starring Mohanlal, Prabhu Ganesan, Tabu and Amrish Puri. Shonali Boses The Sky Is Pink starring Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim will be first full-fledged Bollywood film being shot in the protected islands in the Union Territory.

A major portion of the film has already been done in London, New Delhi and Mumbai. In a few days from now, Priyanka will be flying off to the islands for the shoot, says a trade source. The patchwork of the film will later be completed in Mumbai.New Delhi: The CBI has transferred the investigating officer in the ICICI Bank case as its discreet inquiry suggested his role in leaking information related to searches, officials said on Sunday.

Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra was transferred to Ranchi, a day after filing an FIR in the case against former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group MD Venugopal Dhoot on January 22, they said.

The agency had carried out searches at multiple locations after the charge of the case was given to new investigating officer Mohit Gupta, they said.

Justifying the transfer, the CBI pinned the blame on Mishra for keeping the preliminary enquiry pending without any reasons, they said. The CBI did not issue any formal statement in this regard.

ICICI Bank case is one of the very important cases that was pending without progress, one of the officials said.

The official said after review some time ago, the preliminary enquiry was sped up and was converted into a regular case.

Immediately after the registration of the case, the searches were proposed to be conducted, they said. However, it was suspected that there was a possibility of information regarding searches being leaked, the official claimed.

A discreet inquiry was conducted and role of Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra was strongly suspected. Hence he has been transferred pending detailed inquiry in the matter, being serious, he said.

The officials alleged role of Mishra and others, if any, in keeping the PE pending is also being looked into.

Meanwhile, the agency did not respond to question if Mishra was suspected of leaking the information why was he allowed to file the FIR when agency knew that he was delaying the preliminary enquiry.

The agency also did not respond to question which officer had cleared the FIR.

The agency had carried out searches at the offices of Videocon Group in Mumbai and Nupower Renewables and Supreme Powers, both controlled by Chanda Kochhars husband, on January 24.

It is alleged that during the tenure of Chanda Kochhar six loans worth `1,875 crore were cleared for Videocon Group and its associated companies in which in two cases she herself was on the sanctioning committees.

In its FIR, the CBI has also named several top honchos of banking industry including the present CEO of ICICI Bank Sandeep Baxi alleging that they were also members of the sanctioning committees whose role needs investigation.Thank you for reading!

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Past Event - Wednesday, March 31, 2021 This page may be updated if the event is repeated

100% of proceeds will support United Rehabilitation Services

Celebrate Jersey Mikes Month Of Giving

United Rehabilitation Services (URS) has been chosen by the three local Jersey Mikes Subs locations for their 11th Annual Month of Giving. Customers are invited to visit Jersey Mikes for the Day of Giving on Wednesday, March 31 to enjoy a delicious sub meal and they will donate 100 percent of the days sales to URS!

Jersey Mikes locations:

3510 Pentagon Blvd, Beavercreek

6002 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville

1512 Miamisburg Centerville Road, Dayton

Hours: 10 am - 9 pm

URS is grateful to the local Jersey Mikes Subs owner for choosing URS as a recipient of this generous donation every year, generating more than $27,000 to support vital programs for children and adults with disabilities right here in our community.

Proceeds from the Day of Giving will support:

The regions only 5-STAR Rated Early Childhood Education Programs for children with and without disabilities, ages 6 weeks - 17 years old with on-site Nursing Services to meet the needs of medically fragile children.

Specialized Therapy Programs with the regions only Pediatric Aquatic Therapy Program and Universal Exercise Unit spider cage

Day services and Pre-vocational Training Programs for adults and seniors with developmental and acquired disabilities.

Employment Services for high school students and adults with disabilities, including the newly launched URS Academy, a vocational training program that will create work-ready employees for local employers.

United Rehabilitation Services (URS) was founded in 1956 as the Dayton Chapter of United Cerebral Palsy and today serves more than 3,000 children and adults annually with a variety of disabilities or special needs, including Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Autism, and Alzheimers. The agency is committed to providing compassionate care for the span of a person's life, from infancy through the senior years.Contributed Photo

State Sen. Carlo Leone, D-27, joined Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at the State Capitol in Hartford on July 19 as he signed new legislation into law that will increase the criminal penalty for interfering with a police officer when it results in the death or serious injury of another person.

"Last year's police chase from Stamford to Norwalk exposed a serious loophole in our law," said Leone. "Officer Troy Strauser was critically injured while in pursuit of suspect who had fled from the police, leading them in a chase across three towns. The penalty for this was only a misdemeanor, and god forbid if Officer Strauser or a passerby had died, it would have left his wife and family behind, and this still would have been a misdemeanor. I am glad to see our law strengthened and the penalty for interfering with an officer increased."In 1970, I was in graduate school at the University of Virginia. I joined the Virginia Womens Political Caucus in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. It took 49 years, but at long last, the Virginia Senate passed it. Then I read that Del. Margaret Ransone, a Republican, who chairs the House Privileges and Elections subcommittee, voted with a 4-2 majority to table it in an attempt to prevent a vote on the floor of the House.

As hard as that vote is to believe, she has the right to her opinion. What she does not have is the right to deny me, or the other women of this country, equal rights, equal protection under the law.

I am 75 now, and I fervently hope that before I die I can say to my daughters, to my granddaughter, and to all the women of our country: You are equal because our Constitution says you are. At last. At last. At last.

Anna Askounis, CharlottesvilleThe arguments for a two-term governor are numerous: It's businesslike, giving an executive a chance to concoct and carry out an agenda. It creates accountability, demanding an executive keep his or her promises or risk getting kicked out by voters. It's about time, telegraphing that Virginia  despite its love affair with the past  is looking to the future.

If the politicians don't get it, the public does.

A poll in January 2015 by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University showed that more than 6 in 10 voters  73 percent among Democrats; 57 percent among Republicans  favor allowing a governor to run for re-election at least once.

Roughly a third prefer the status quo  the one-term-and-you're-done rule, in place since 1851.

That's when a new constitution stripped the legislature of its power to choose the governor and assigned it to the people  the people being white men, 21 or older, who had lived in Virginia for at least two years and were residents of their city or county for at least a year before the election.

These days, foes of a two-term governor say the office is too powerful to allow one person to exercise such influence uninterrupted for eight years; that somehow the legislature is an insufficient check on the executive.Although Warren is criticized as "divisive," serious politics should divide the polity by tugging its public arguments up from the superstitions and fetishes of identity politics, to the realm of ideas. Columnist Murray Kempton said that the similarity between American politics and professional wrestling is the absence of honest emotion. Not the way Warren goes about it. She is a clenched-fist candidate, boiling with indignation and bristling with proposals, including some that are punitive toward disfavored Americans. Most progressives feel this way, but most voters might prefer someone who will lower the political temperature by lowering the stakes of politics.This is the right hand doing business with the left hand, said Thomas Hadwin, a former executive for electric and gas utilities in Michigan and New York who now lives in Virginia and has been critical of Mountain Valley.

So if you expect that to represent the need of the marketplace, its not doing that.

End users of the gas, such as Roanoke Gas, have been identified for just 13 percent of the pipelines capacity.

Demand for natural gas is leveling off at the same time pipeline construction is rising, critics say, which could lead Mountain Valley to export the gas to customers overseas.

Lawyers for FERC counter in briefs filed with the D.C. Circuit that the 20-year contracts, referred to as precedent agreements, account for 100 percent of the pipelines capacity.

That demonstrates that there is a market for the gas, they argued, and that the companies involved would not have invested in the project unless they were confident it will succeed. FERC also found studies showing a lack of demand for natural gas to be unpersuasive, the attorneys said.

Was Mountain Valleys use of eminent domain under the FERC certificate allowed by the Natural Gas Act?The University of Virginia has joined 37 other hospitals in suing over a new federal rule that cuts some Medicare rates for outpatient hospital sites to match rates at doctors offices.

The plaintiffs, which include the University of Kansas Hospital Authority, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and other hospitals in several states, challenge the new rule as an executive overreach that will cost hospitals $380 million in 2019 and $760 million in 2020. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Jan. 18.

The Department of Health and Human Services rule, which took effect Jan. 1, is known as a site-neutral payment policy. It means that Medicare now pays the same rates for medical services regardless of whether they are provided in a physicians office or in a department located off a hospitals main campus. In general, services at hospital outpatient departments  such as radiology, ultrasound and urgent care  are more expensive to provide than in physicians offices because hospitals have stricter regulatory requirements, according to the complaint.I was really surprised, and surprised in the same way that it turns out  all of my neighbors were when I began to ask them if they knew anything about this, because literally nobody knew anything about this new Comprehensive Plan and the new Future Land Use Map.He now encourages his peers to go talk to the guidance counselor if they need help.

I dont think people realize how trained they are and how much training they get to help students in any way they need, he said.

Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, sponsored House Bill 1729, which would require school counselors to spend 80 percent of their time counseling students. The bill is one of a package that are expected to receive bipartisan support and pass both chambers.

* * *

Nicholas King, the director of student services for Albemarle County schools, said the bills represent a shift in thinking about school security and the impact that students mental health has on safety.

Because thats such a critical piece, he said. So much of what happens in our school and that impacts the safety of our students is directly attributable to the actual mental health of students in our schools.  So this broadening of the idea of school safety to encompass mental health, I think, is an incredible move forward for the commonwealth.Local distillers, vintners and brewers are going back to the future, dusting off old recipes while they await a more permanent reopening of the federal government and the governments alcoholic beverage label approval process.

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government for more than a month idled the federal approval process for information and marketing labels placed on each bottle, can and keg of alcoholic beverages produced for sale. An agreement was reached Friday but only provides funding for the next three weeks.

Thats kept local beverage makers from releasing new drinks into the market and others from making new drinks for release.

Were not counting on releasing anything new at this point, said Mark Fulton, brewer and operations manager at Reason Beer, in Albemarle County. We had a few things we had planned on trying, but we plan months in advance and we have no way of knowing  what the backlog on label approvals will be.

Hunter Smith, of Champion Brewery in Charlottesville, said the government shutdown and resultant labeling freeze was making the business reassess its brewing schedule and look for Plan B.The more Badger finds out about the nonprofit program, the more she likes it.

It just makes you feel really secure, she said, adding that she knows her children mean well, but shes not ready to move. I didnt think it was fair of me to make them worry, either, but if I can do this, it makes all of us happy.

Thats the purpose of the village movement, an effort that makes it possible for seniors to stay independent longer. The movement started in Boston more than 15 years ago and has developed into an organization called the Village to Village Network with more than 200 programs nationwide and another 150 in the works.

Started with a survey

LOWLINC started offering services in 2016, two years after residents Mary-Jane Atwater, Jeff Flynn and Joe Sakole began talking about ways to bring such a program to their community. Atwater was involved with a similar program in Alexandria, and Flynn often heard from residents who simply couldnt keep up with home maintenance as they got older.

I knew where they were coming from when they said they dont want to move, Flynn said. Ive lived here forever and I love it. I dont want to move, either.When pianist Behzod Abduraimov plays the first notes of the Tuesday Evening Concert Series first concert of the new year, Valentines Day still will be more than two weeks away. Complex matters of the heart, however, will start unfolding immediately.

The main theme of the program is love and death, Abduraimov said. The theme didnt emerge until after the pianist had selected three of his favorite compositions  three masterpieces, he said  and started noticing the connections.

Tuesdays program in the University of Virginias Cabell Hall Auditorium focuses on the Richard Wagner/Franz Liszt work Isoldes Libestod, Liszts Sonata in B minor and Sergei Prokofievs 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75.

Theres freedom, of course, but, luckily enough, in the scores of these three masterpieces, we can see clear ideas and intentions of these composers, the pianist said.

Abduraimov will open his program with Liszts 1867 piano transcription of Isoldes Liebestod from Wagners Tristan und Isolde. It retains the grand scale and tensions of an opera about passion, infidelity and death; the piano distills the emotions without diluting the drama.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.

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.

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Netherlands, Tesco Family Dining Limited, Tesco Food Sourcing Brazil Representa??o De Servi?os Ltda., Tesco Food Sourcing Limited, Tesco Foundation (Nadacia Tesco), Tesco Freetime Limited, Tesco Fuchsia (1LP) Limited, Tesco Fuel Limited, Tesco Global Employment Company Limited, Tesco Guangdong (HK) Co. Limited, Tesco High Beech Limited, Tesco Holdings BV, Tesco Holdings Limited, Tesco Home Shopping Limited, Tesco Hungary (Holdings) Limited, Tesco International Franchising s.r.o., Tesco International Internet Retailing Limited, Tesco International Services Limited, Tesco International Sourcing Limited, Tesco Ireland Holdings Limited, Tesco Ireland Limited, Tesco Ireland Pension Trustees Limited, Tesco Jade (GP) Limited, Tesco Joint Buying Service (Shanghai) Co Limited, Tesco Kipa Kitle Pazarlama Ticaret Lojistik ve, Tesco Kirkby (General Partner) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (LP) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Unitholder 1) Limited, Tesco Kirkby (Unitholder2) Limited, Tesco Lagoon GP Limited, Tesco Licences Limited, Tesco Lotus Retail Growth, Tesco Lotus Retail Growth Freehold and Leasehold Property Fund, Tesco Maintenance Limited, Tesco Mauritius Holdings Limited, Tesco Mobile (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Tesco Mobile CR s.r.o., Tesco Mobile Communications Limited, Tesco Mobile Ireland Limited, Tesco Mobile Ireland Limited, Tesco Mobile Limited, Tesco Mobile Services Limited, Tesco Mobile Slovakia s.r.o, Tesco Mobile Slovakia s.r.o., Tesco Mobile CR, Tesco Nanjing Zhongshan, Tesco Nanjing Zhongshan (HK) Co. Limited, Tesco Navona (1LP) Limited, Tesco Navona (GP) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Navona (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Navona PL Propco Limited, Tesco Opticians Limited, Tesco Overseas (Holdings) Limited, Tesco Overseas Investments Limited, Tesco Overseas ULC, Tesco Passaic (1LP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (GP) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 1) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Passaic (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Passaic PL Propco Limited, Tesco Pension (Jade) Limited, Tesco Pension Investment Limited, Tesco Pension Trustees Limited, Tesco Personal Finance, Tesco Personal Finance Compare Limited, Tesco Personal Finance Group Limited, Tesco Property (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) (No.2) Limited, Tesco Property (Nominees) Limited, Tesco Property A.S., Tesco Property Finance 1 Holdco Limited, Tesco Property Finance 1 PLC, Tesco Property Holdings (No. 2) Limited, Tesco Property Holdings Limited, Tesco Property Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.5) Limited, Tesco Property Nominees (No.6) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP No.2) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (GP) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.1) Limited, Tesco Property Partner (No.2) Limited, Tesco Red (1LP) Limited, Tesco Red (GP) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee 2) Limited, Tesco Red (Nominee Holdco) Limited, Tesco Sarum (1LP) Limited, Tesco Sarum (GP) Limited, Tesco Seacroft Limited, Tesco Secretaries Limited, Tesco Services Limited, Tesco Sourcing India Private Limited, Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Tesco Stores (Thailand) Ltd, Tesco Stores CR a.s., Tesco Stores Limited, Tesco Technology Services HK Limited, Tesco Treasury Services PLC, Tesco Trustee Company of Ireland Limited, Tesco Underwriting Limited, Tesco Vin Plus SA, Tesco Worldwide Limited, Tesco for Thais Foundation, Tesco-Global Stores Privately Held Co. Ltd, Tesco.Com Limited, The Brookmaker Limited Partnership, The Teesport Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Aqua Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Atrato Limited Partnership, The Tesco Blue Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Coral Limited Partnership, The Tesco Dorney Limited Partnership, The Tesco Kirkby Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Navona Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Passaic Limited Partnership Limited Partnership, The Tesco Property (No.2) Limited Partnership, The Tesco Red Limited Partnership, The Tesco Sarum Limited Partnership, Trent Hypermarket Private Limited, Trigger Retail Ltd, Valiant Insurance Company DAC, Value House Properties Limited, Variable Preference, Ventnor High Street Management Company Limited, Verulam Properties (2001) Limited, Verulam Properties Limited, Victoria BB Sp z.o.o., WE7, WSC Properties Limited, Wanze Properties (Dundalk) Limited, Weymouth Avenue (Dorchester) Limited, Whitecastle Properties Limited, Wm. Low Supermarkets Limited, Woolwich Central Residents Management Company Limited, Worple Road Plc, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, Xiamen Firste Property Limited, aAcklam Management Company Limited, dunnhumby (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, dunnhumby (Thailand) Limited, dunnhumby Canada Limited, dunnhumby Consulting Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Czech s.r.o., dunnhumby Employment Company Limited, dunnhumby Holding Limited, dunnhumby Hungary Kft, dunnhumby IT Services India Private Limited, dunnhumby Inc, dunnhumby International Limited, dunnhumby Ireland Limited, dunnhumby Italia Srl., dunnhumby Limited, dunnhumby Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., dunnhumby Netherlands B.V., dunnhumby Norge A.S., dunnhumby Overseas Limited, dunnhumby Poland Sp z.o.o, dunnhumby Slovakia s.r.o., dunnhumby South Africa (Pty) Ltd, dunnhumby Trustees Limited, and dunnuhumby.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

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol. The company is involved in oil and gas refining, marketing, and bulk selling activities. It produces conventional, premium, and reformulated gasolines; gasoline meeting the specifications of the California Air Resources Board (CARB); diesel fuels, low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels; CARB diesel; other distillates; jet fuels; blendstocks; lube oils and natural gas liquids; and asphalts, petrochemicals, lubricants, and other refined petroleum products. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned 15 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.2 million barrels per day. It sells its refined products through wholesale rack and bulk markets; and through approximately 7,000 outlets under the Valero, Beacon, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, and Texaco brands. The company also produces and sells ethanol, dry distiller grains, syrup, and inedible corn oil primarily to refiners and gasoline blenders, as well as to animal feed customers. It owns and operates 13 ethanol plants with a combined ethanol production capacity of approximately 1.69 billion gallons per year. In addition, the company owns and operates crude oil and refined petroleum products pipelines, terminals, tanks, marine docks, truck rack bays, and other logistics assets. Further, it owns and operates a plant that processes animal fats, used cooking oils, and other vegetable oils into renewable diesel. The company was formerly known as Valero Refining and Marketing Company and changed its name to Valero Energy Corporation in August 1997. Valero Energy Corporation was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Read MoreMarking the end of World Youth Day, Francis urged young people not to wait. Realize that you have a mission and fall in love; that will decide everything. We may possess everything, but if we lack the passion of love, we will have nothing. Let us allow the Lord to make us fall in love! The 35th WYD will be held in Portugal.

Panama (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis led this morning the Mass bringing to a close the 34th World Youth Day in Panama. In his homily, he told the 600,000 participants that they must act not tomorrow, but now. He urged them to dream and build the future today because You, dear young people, are not the future but the now of God.

The large Campo San Juan Pablo II (Metro Park), where that Mass was celebrated, was full of hundreds of flags and countless tents where so many young people spent the night in an atmosphere of celebration. A 301-membe choir followed the Gloria clapping their hands.

Francis arrived before 8 am (1 pm GMT) and slowly made his way through the crowd. In his address he started with the beginning of Jesus' public mission (Lk 4: 20-21), when he began telling the congregation in the synagogue: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

This is the now of God. It becomes present with Jesus: it has a face, it is flesh. It is a merciful love that does not wait for ideal or perfect situations to show itself, nor does it accept excuses for its appearance. It is Gods time, that makes every situation and place both right and proper. In Jesus, the promised future begins and becomes life.

Yet, not everyone in Nazareth understood. The same thing can also happen with us. We do not always believe that God can be that concrete and commonplace, that close and real, and much less that he can become so present and work through somebody like a neighbour, a friend, a relative. We do not always believe that the Lord can invite us to work and soil our hands with him in his Kingdom in that simple and blunt a way.

Often, we too behave like the neighbours in Nazareth: we prefer a distant God: nice, good, generous but far-off, a God who does not inconvenience us. Because a close and everyday God, a friend and brother, demands that we be concerned with our surroundings, everyday affairs and above all fraternity. God chose not to reveal himself as an angel or in some spectacular way, but to give us a face that is fraternal and friendly, concrete and familiar.

You too, dear young people, can experience this whenever you think that your mission, your vocation, even your life itself, is a promise far off in the future, having nothing to do with the present. As if being young were a kind of waiting room, where we sit around until we are called. And in the meantime, we adults or you yourselves invent a hygienically sealed future, without consequences, where everything is safe, secure and well insured. A make-believe happiness. So, we tranquilize you, we numb you into keeping quiet, not asking or questioning; and in that meantime your dreams lose their buoyancy, they begin to become flat and dreary, petty and plaintive (cf. Palm Sunday Homily, 25 March 2018). Only because we think, or you think, that your now has not yet come, that you are too young to be involved in dreaming about and working for the future.

Furthermore, the recent synod on young people highlighted the value of listening and dialogue between generations, the value of realizing that we need one another, that we have to work to create channels and spaces that encourage dreaming of and working for tomorrow, starting today. And this, not in isolation, but rather side by side, creating a common space. A space that is not simply taken for granted, or won in a lottery, but a space for which you too must fight.

You, dear young people, are not the future but the now of God. He invites you and calls you in your communities and cities to go out and find your grandparents, your elders; to stand up and with them to speak out and realize the dream that the Lord has dreamed for you.

Not tomorrow but now, for wherever your treasure is, there will your heart also be (cf. Mt 6:21). Whatever you fall in love with, it will win over not only your imagination, it will affect everything. It will be what makes you get up in the morning, what keeps you going at times of fatigue, what will break open your hearts and fill you with wonder, joy and gratitude. Realize that you have a mission and fall in love; that will decide everything (cf. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Nada es mas practico). We may possess everything, but if we lack the passion of love, we will have nothing. Let us allow the Lord to make us fall in love!

For Jesus, there is no meantime, but only a merciful love that wants to enter into and win over our hearts. He wants to be our treasure, because he is not a meantime, an interval in life or a passing fad; he is generous love that invites us to entrust ourselves.

At the end of the service, Francis announced that the 35th WYD will be held in Portugal. Afterwards, he went to the Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritan Juan Diaz, a foundation sponsored by the Panamanian Church in favour of young people and poor adults living with AIDS.

After lunch, he will meet with WYD volunteers to thank them for their work. At 6.15 pm (11.15 pm GMG), he is expected to leave for Rome where he should land at 11.50 (10.50 GMT).The following companies are subsidiares of Colgate-Palmolive: 887357 Ontario Inc., COLGALIVE S.A., CP GABA GmbH, CP International Holding C.V., CP West East Investment Limited, Cleaning Dimensions Inc., Colgate (BVI) Limited, Colgate (Guangzhou) Company Limited, Colgate (U.K.) Limited, Colgate Business Services of the Americas S.C., Colgate Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Colgate Global Business Services Private Limited, Colgate Holdings, Colgate Inc., Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals Inc., Colgate Palmolive Ghana Limited, Colgate Palmolive Holding S.Com.P.A., Colgate Palmolive Nouvelle Caledonie Sarl, Colgate Palmolive Tanzania Limited, Colgate Sanxiao Company Limited, Colgate Venture Company Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Asia) Pte Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Blantyre) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Brunei) Sdn Bhn, Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc. y Compania Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive (Centro America) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (China) Co. Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Costa Rica) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominica) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominican Republic) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (East Africa) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Eastern) Pte. Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Egypt) S.A.E., Colgate-Palmolive (Far East) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Fiji) Pte Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Gabon) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Guyana) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (H.K.) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Hellas) S.A. I.C., Colgate-Palmolive (Hong Kong) Holding Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Kazakhstan) L.L.P., Colgate-Palmolive (Latvia) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Middle East Exports) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Myanmar) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (New York) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive (Proprietary) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Research & Development) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Romania) SRL, Colgate-Palmolive (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Uganda) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Vietnam) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Zambia) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Zimbabwe) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive A.B., Colgate-Palmolive A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Adria Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Treasury Services Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Belgium S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Bolivia Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Caricom Service Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Central European Management Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Chile S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cia., Colgate-Palmolive Comercial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Commercial (Hellas) SP LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Commerciale S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive Commericale S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive Compania Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive Company Distr. LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Cote dIvoire S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cyprus Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Development Corp., Colgate-Palmolive East West Africa Region (Pty) Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Enterprises Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Espana S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Europe (Holdings) Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Europe Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Finance (UK) plc, Colgate-Palmolive Global Trading Company, Colgate-Palmolive Holding Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Holding Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Hungary Kft Limited Liability Company, Colgate-Palmolive IHQ Services (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Inc. S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Industriel S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive International Holding LLC, Colgate-Palmolive International LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Investment Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (BVI) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (PNG) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Investments Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Israel Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Italia S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive JSC, Colgate-Palmolive Lanka (Private) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Latin America Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Marketing Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive Maroc S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Mocambique Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive NJ Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Nederland B.V., Colgate-Palmolive Norge A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Participacoes e Investimentos Imobiliarios Lda., Colgate-Palmolive Peru S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Pty Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Retirement Trustee Limited, Colgate-Palmolive S.A. de C.V., Colgate-Palmolive S.p.A., Colgate-Palmolive Senegal S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Services (Hellas) LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Services CEW GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Services S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Slovensko s.r.o., Colgate-Palmolive Support Services, Colgate-Palmolive Temizlik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticart S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Transnational Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Ukraine LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Unipessoal Lda, Colgate-Palmolive de Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive de Puerto Rico Inc., Colgate-Palmolive del Ecuador S.A.I.C., Colgate-Palmolive del Peru (Delaware) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Eeska republika spol. s r.o., Colpal CBS S de R. L. de C. V., Consumer Viewpoint Center Inc., Cotelle S.A., Dimac Development Corp., Dominica Coconut Products Limited, EKIB Inc., ELM Company Limited, Elta MD Holdings Inc., Elta MD Inc., EltaMD, Filorga Americas Inc., Filorga Asia Limited, Filorga Benelux SA, Filorga Cosmetiques Polska, Filorga Middle East DMCC, Filorga Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Filorga RU Limited Liability Company, GABA Europe Holding GmbH, GABA International, GABA International Holding LLC, GABA Schweiz AG, GABA Therwil GmbH, Gamma Development Co. Ltd., Global Trading and Supply LLC, Hamol Ltd., Hello Products, Hello Products LLC, Hills Funding Company, Hills Pet Nutrition (NZ) Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Asia Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Canada Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Denmark ApS, Hills Pet Nutrition Espana S.L., Hills Pet Nutrition GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Holding B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Indiana Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Italia S.r.l., Hills Pet Nutrition Korea Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing s.r.o, Hills Pet Nutrition Norway AS, Hills Pet Nutrition OOO, Hills Pet Nutrition Pty. Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition S.p.A., Hills Pet Nutrition SNC, Hills Pet Nutrition Sales Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition South Africa Proprietary Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition Sweden AB, Hills Pet Nutrition Switzerland GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Taiwan Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition Trading (GZ) Co. Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hills Pet Nutrition de Puerto Rico Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition s.r.o., Hills Pet Products (Benelux) S.A., Hills Pet Products Inc., Hills Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Hills-Colgate (Japan) Ltd., Hopro Liquidating Corp., Hygiene Systemes et Services SA, IES Enterprises Inc., Inmobiliaria Colpal S. de R.L. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Hills S.A. de C.V., Innovacion Creativa S.A. de C.V., Kolynos Corporation, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Espana S.L.U., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia S.R.L., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques S.A., Laser Brand Toothpaste, Lournay Sales Inc., Mennen Company, Mennen Interamerica Ltd., Mennen Limited, Mennen South Africa Ltd., Mennen de Chile Ltd., Mennen de Nicargua S.A., Mission Hills Property Corporation, Mission Hills S.A. de C.V., Norwood International Incorporated, Olive Music Publishing Corporation, PCA SKIN, Paramount Research Inc., Penny LLC, Pet Chemicals Inc., Physicians Care Alliance LLC, Productos Halogenados Copalven C.A., Purity Holding Company, Purity Music Publishing Corporation, Refresh Company Limited, Samuel Taylor Holdings B.V., Sanex, Sanxiao Company Limited, Services Development Co. Ltd., Societe Generale de Negoce et de Services (GENESE) S.A., The GDN - The Global Distributive Network SAS, The Lournay Company Inc., The MPDP - The Medical and Pharmaceutic Distributive Platform SAS, The Murphy-Phoenix Company, Tom's of Maine, Toms of Maine Holdings Inc., Toms of Maine Inc., Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Vipont Pharmaceutical Inc., and XEB Inc..Delek US Holdings, Inc. engages in the integrated downstream energy business in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Refining, Logistics, and Retail. The Refining segment processes crude oil and other purchased feedstock for the manufacture of various grades of gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, asphalt, and other petroleum-based products that are distributed through owned and third-party product terminal. It owns and operates four independent refineries located in Tyler, Texas; El Dorado, Arkansas; Big Spring, Texas; and Krotz Springs, Louisiana, as well as three biodiesel facilities in Crossett, Arkansas, Cleburne, Texas, and New Albany. The Logistics segment gathers, transports, and stores crude oil, intermediate, and refined products; and markets, distributes, transports, and stores refined products for third parties. It owns or leases capacity on approximately 400 miles of crude oil transportation pipe, and lines, approximately 450 miles of refined product pipelines, an approximately 900-mile crude oil gathering system, and associated crude oil storage tanks with an aggregate of approximately 10.2 million barrels of active shell capacity; and owns and operates nine light product distribution terminals, as well as markets light products using third-party terminals. The Retail segment owns and leases 253 convenience store sites located primarily in Texas and New Mexico. Its convenience stores offer various grades of gasoline and diesel under the DK or Alon brand; and food products and service, tobacco products, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and general merchandise, as well as money orders to the public primarily under the 7-Eleven and DK or Alon brand names. It serves oil companies, independent refiners and marketers, jobbers, distributors, utility and transportation companies, the U.S. government, and independent retail fuel operators. Delek US Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

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See Teeka's Top 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Speaking to some 600,000 young people, Francis stressed the importance of Mary's yes. Saying yes to the Lord means preparing to embrace life as it comes, with all its fragility, its simplicity, and often enough too, with its conflicts and annoyances. For too many, It is easy enough to criticize and complain about young people if we are depriving them of the jobs, education and community opportunities they need to take root and to dream of a future. Without education, it is difficult to dream of a future.

Panama (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis spoke to 600,000 young people at Panama Citys Metro Park for the Vigil of prayer of the 34th World Youth Day, at the Campo San Juan Pablo II, not far from the ocean.

The site was full of flags from around the world when Pope Francis arrived just before 6.30 pm (10.30 pm GMT), along with five young people, standing in for five continents. A large picture of a young man, Jesus with open arms, stood in the back of the platform. Next to the Pope lay the mitre and a relic of the bloody shirt of Mgr Oscar Romero.

In his address, the pontiff said The salvation the Lord offers us is an invitation to be part of a love story. And That was how he surprised Mary, and asked her to be part of this love story. Obviously, the young woman of Nazareth was not part of the social networks of the time. She was not an influencer, but without wanting or trying to, she became the most influential woman in history. [. . .] Mary, the influencer of God. With just a few words, she was able to say yes and to trust in the love and promises of God, the only force capable of making all things new.

We are always struck by the strength of that young womans yes, the words be it done that she spoke to the angel. This was no merely passive or resigned acceptance or a faint yes, as if to say, Well, lets give it a try, and see what happens. It was something else, something different. It was the yes of someone prepared to be committed and take a risk, ready to stake everything she had, with no more security than the certainty of knowing that she was the bearer of a promise. Hers would undoubtedly be a difficult mission, but the challenges that lay ahead were no reason to say no.

This afternoon we also heard how Marys yes echoes and expands in every generation. Many young people, like Mary, take a risk and stake their future on a promise.

Saying yes to the Lord means preparing to embrace life as it comes, with all its fragility, its simplicity, and often enough too, with its conflicts and annoyances, and to do so with the same love with which Erika and Rogelio spoke. It means embracing our country, our families and our friends as they are, with all their weak points and their flaws.

Why did he do this? Because only what is loved can be saved. Only what is embraced can be transformed. The Lords love is greater than all our problems, frailties and flaws. Yet it is precisely through our problems, frailties and flaws that he wants to write this love story. He embraced the prodigal son, he embraced Peter after his denials and he always embraces us whenever we fall: he helps us to get up and get back on our feet. Because the worst fall, the fall that can ruin our lives, is to remain down and not allow ourselves to be helped up.

Taking his cue from of the testimonies, that of Alfredo, who was left without work, without education, without community, without family, the pope said It is impossible for us to grow unless we have strong roots to support us and to keep us firmly grounded. It is easy to drift off, when nothing holds us down. There is a question that we older people have to ask ourselves, but also a question that you need to ask us and we have to answer: What roots are we providing for you, what foundations for you to grow as persons? It is easy enough to criticize and complain about young people if we are depriving them of the jobs, education and community opportunities they need to take root and to dream of a future.

Without education, it is difficult to dream of a future; without work, it is very difficult to dream of a future; without a family and community, it is almost impossible to dream of a future. Because dreaming of a future means learning how to answer not only the question what I am living for, but also who I am living for, who makes it worthwhile for me to live my life.

I remember once talking with some young people, and one of them asked me: Father, why are so many young people today not interested in whether God exists or find it difficult to believe in him, and they seem so bored and aimless in life? I asked them in return what they thought. I remember one particular answer that touched me and it relates to the experience Alfredo shared  its because many of them feel that, little by little, they stopped existing for others; often they feel invisible. This is the culture of abandonment and lack of concern for others. Not everyone, but many people feel that they have little or nothing to contribute, because there is no one around to ask them to get involved. How can they think that God exists, if others have long since stopped thinking that they exist?

We know well that to feel acknowledged or loved it is not enough to be connected all day long. To feel respected and asked to get involved is greater than simply being on-line. It means finding spaces where, with your hands, your heart and your head, you can feel part of a larger community that needs you and that you yourselves need.

It is always possible to sprout shoots and grow when there is a community, a warm home that enables us to take root, that provides the confidence we need and prepares our hearts to discover a new horizon: the horizon of a beloved son or daughter who is sought, found and entrusted with a mission. Through real faces, the Lord makes himself present. To say yes to this love story is to say yes to becoming a means of building in our neighbourhoods those ecclesial communities capable of walking the streets of our cities, embracing and weaving new relationships. To be an influencer in the twenty-first century is to be guardians of roots, guardians of all that prevents our life from dissipating and evaporating into nothingness. Be guardians of everything that can make us feel part of one another, to feel that we belong.

Finally, The Gospel teaches us that the world will not be better because there are fewer sick, weak, frail or elderly people to be concerned about, or because there are fewer sinners. Rather it will be better when more people, like these friends, are willing and enthused enough to give birth to the future and believe in the transforming power of Gods love. Are you willing to be an influencer like Mary, who dared to say, Let it be done? Only love makes us more human and fulfilled; everything else is a pleasant but useless placebo.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.

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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Experian plc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a technology company. The company operates through two segments, Business-to-Business and Consumer Services. It provides data services to identify and understand their customers, as well as to manage the risks related with lending. The company also offers analytical and decision tools that enhance businesses to manage their customers, minimize the risk of fraud, comply with legal requirements, and automate decisions and processes. In addition, it provides financial education, free access to Experian credit reports and scores, online educational tools, and applications to manage their financial position, access credit offers, and protect themselves from identity fraud. The company serves customers in financial service, direct-to-consumer, health, retail, automotive, software and professional services, telecommunications and utility, insurance, media and technology, government and public, and other sectors. It operates in North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. Experian plc was formerly known as Experian Group Limited and changed its name to Experian plc in July 2008. Experian plc was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

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. 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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. 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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.Community Bank System, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Community Bank, N.A. that provides various banking and other financial services to retail, commercial, and municipal customers. It operates through three segments: Banking, Employee Benefit Services, and All Other. The company offers various deposits products, such as checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as time deposits. It also provides loans, including consumer mortgages; general purpose commercial and industrial loans, and mortgages on commercial properties; paycheck protection program loans; installment loans that are originated through selected dealerships and are secured by automobiles, marine, and other recreational vehicles; personal installment loans and lines of credit for consumers; and home equity products. In addition, the company offers broker-dealer and investment advisory; cash management, investment, and treasury services; asset management; and employee benefit services, as well as operates as a full-service insurance agency that offers personal and commercial lines of insurance, and other risk management products and services. Further, it provides contribution plan administration, employee benefit trust, collective investment fund, retirement plan administration, fund administration, transfer agency, actuarial and benefit consulting, VEBA/HRA, and health and welfare consulting services. Additionally, the company offers wealth management, retirement planning, higher educational planning, fiduciary, risk management, trust, and personal financial planning services; and investment alternatives, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and advisory products, as well as master recordkeeping services. As of January 25, 2021, it operates approximately 230 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Western Massachusetts. Community Bank System, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Onondaga, New York.

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Get the full details hereJolo (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Two bombs killed 27 people and injured dozens more this morning at the Catholic cathedral in Jolo, an island near Mindanao.

The first blast happened at 8.45 am, as Sunday Mass was underway, in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which had been targeted in the past. A second device was detonated in the nearby parking lot as soldiers responded.

The official death toll is not yet final, but at least 27 people, civilians and soldiers, are known to have been killed, and at least 48 are wounded.

As the military sealed off the area, the injured were taken to hospitals with some airlifted to Zamboanga. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the twin-attack.

Jolo island has long been troubled by Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist organisation inspired by al Qaeda, which has carried out bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

Today's attack comes a few hours after a referendum approved the creation o the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The vote ended with the victory for autonomy and should bring to an end almost 50 years of conflict between the Philippine military and rebel separatist Islamic groups. However, although many Muslims backed the new political entity, the province of Sulu rejected it. Jolo is its capital.

According to analysts, the referendum is very much to the benefit of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but there are other rebel groups and extremists who feel excluded from the autonomy and its benefits.Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA provides dialysis care and related dialysis care services in Germany, North America, and internationally. It offers dialysis treatment and related laboratory and diagnostic services through a network of outpatient dialysis clinics; materials, training, and patient support services comprising clinical monitoring, follow-up assistance, and arranging for delivery of the supplies to the patient's residence; and dialysis services under contract to hospitals in the United States for the hospitalized end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and for patients suffering from acute kidney failure. The company also develops, manufactures, and distributes dialysis products, including polysulfone dialyzers, hemodialysis machines, peritoneal dialysis cyclers, peritoneal dialysis solutions, hemodialysis concentrates, solutions and granulates, bloodlines, renal pharmaceuticals, and systems for water treatment; and non-dialysis products, such as acute cardiopulmonary and apheresis products. In addition, it develops, acquires, and in-licenses renal pharmaceuticals; offers renal medications and supplies to patients at homes or to dialysis clinics; and provides vascular, cardiovascular, endovascular specialty, vascular care ambulatory surgery center, and physician nephrology and cardiology services. The company sells its products to dialysis clinics, hospitals, and specialized treatment clinics directly, as well as through local sales forces, independent distributors, dealers, and sales agents. As of December 31, 2020, it operated 4,092 outpatient dialysis clinics in approximately 150 countries. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany.

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The army still occupies land in Kepapilavu, a village Mullathivu district. The authorities had promised to return it by today. Tamils ask for southern support.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  A group of Tamils has been camping out for 700 days in front of a military area in northern Sri Lanka, demanding the return of their land, which was taken over by soldiers during the civil war.

Residents complain that the land was supposed to be returned to its legitimate owners by today. Instead the army is still occupying it and for now has not said when it will depart.

Locals claim to have been deceived for years by false promises. For Tamils, they are "all empty words". This is why they are protesting, asking for support from southern Sri Lanka and the international community.

On Tuesday, a delegation attended a press conference at Colombo's Centre for Society and Religion to highlight their demands.

The event was organised by the People's Alliance for Right to Land (PARL). On that occasion, Tamil representatives also met with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in Parliament.

The land they claim is located in the northern and eastern provinces, the regions most devastated by the countrys civil war, which lasted almost 30 years.

President Maithripala Sirisena had promised that the land in Kepapilavu, a village in Mullathivu district, would be handed back by 31 December 2018.

Later, at meeting with a delegation in early January, some government officials had assured them that the land would be returned by today. Instead the legitimate owners are still camped outside the occupied area.

Their hopes had been rekindled in December 2017, when the army returned part of the area. Since then, there is nothing about the other parts.

In Colombo, two women talked about what Tamils have had to endure for almost two years, surviving all sorts of hardships, including bad weather like wind, rain, dust, heat. In their plea, S. Adhiyakala and B. Sivabalapushpam insisted that "if our lands are not returned, we will reclaim them".

For activist Ruki Fernando, "700 days are endless. It is the longest protest ever carried out by a community in Sri Lanka. People have been living out in the open since 1 March 2017. They have resisted intimidation and harassment by the army, police and intelligence agencies.

"They have struggled to survive and yet have continued to send their children to school and take care of the elderly.

Last but not east, They have organised protests in Colombo and other parts of the country, as well as met with political and religious leaders, media and representatives of the international community."Newell Brands Inc. designs, manufactures, sources, and distributes consumer and commercial products worldwide. Its Appliances and Cookware segment offers household products, including kitchen appliances, gourmet cookware, bakeware, and cutlery under the Calphalon, Crock-Pot, Mr. Coffee, Oster, and Sunbeam brands. The company's Commercial Solutions segment provides commercial cleaning and maintenance solutions; closet and garage organization; hygiene systems and material handling solutions; and home and security, and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms products under the BRK, First Alert, Mapa, Quickie, Rubbermaid, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, and Spontex brands. Its Home Solutions segment offers food and home storage; fresh preserving; vacuum sealing; and home fragrance products under the Ball, Chesapeake Bay Candle, FoodSaver, Rubbermaid, Sistema, WoodWick, and Yankee Candle brands. The company's Learning and Development segment provides writing instruments, including markers and highlighters, pens, and pencils; art products; activity-based adhesive and cutting products; labeling solutions; and baby gear and infant care products under the Aprica, Baby Jogger, Dymo, Elmer's, EXPO, Graco, Mr. Sketch, NUK, Paper Mate, Parker, Prismacolor, Sharpie, Tigex Waterman, and X-Acto brands. Its Outdoor and Recreation segment offers products for outdoor and outdoor-related activities under the Coleman, Contigo, ExOfficio, and Marmot brands. The company markets its products to warehouse clubs, department stores, drug/grocery stores, mass merchants, specialty retailers, distributors and e-commerce companies, home centers, sporting goods retailers, office superstores and supply stores, contract stationers, and travel retailers. The company was formerly known as Newell Rubbermaid Inc. and changed its name to Newell Brands Inc. in April 2016. Newell Brands Inc. was founded in 1903 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Since last year, all rumours surrounding Nokia have centred around the Pureview handset that will feature a penta-camera setup on the rear. This handset is expected to be the first from a major smartphone manufacturer to feature a five camera layout on the rear. By now, most of the features and specifications of the Nokia 9 Pure view have already been leaked; save an official announcement. However, if the latest teaser from HMD Global is to go by, then there will be another handset that will be showcased at MWC; and this one will feature the trendy punch-hole selfie camera thats appearing on smartphones this year.

As per a recent report by GSMArena, Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, Juho Sarvikas has announced that Nokia will be making its official appearance at the MWC event on February 24 and anyone who is not at the event can stream the keynote as well. Apart from this, HMD Global has released two teasers for the February 24 event with one of them referencing the Nokia 9 Pureview smartphone and its penta-camera layout on the back. The second teaser is a bit ambiguous as it shows a silhouette of a phone with a punch-hole camera in the display at the top left-hand corner. In all likelihood, this isnt the Nokia 9 Pureview as the handset, when leaked in the past featured a sizable top bezel. There is a huge likelihood that this is a new device and may, in fact, be the rumoured Nokia 8.1 Plus. However, there is no confirmation on the same.

The Nokia 9 Pureview has recently made an appearance in a leaked promotional video and it lines up with leaked images that have been floating around. With it, we learn about some interesting features that the handset will boast. Firstly, the handset will run on Android 9.0 Pie and secondly, it will feature a 5-camera layout with Zeiss Optics. The device once launched will have an edge-to-edge 5.99-inch 2K HDR PureDisplay and sport an in-display fingerprint scanner like most of the current flagships such as the Vivo NEX and OnePlus 6T.

The Nokia 9 PureView will also be Qi compatible which means that it will support wireless charging. The handset is powered by a Snapdragon 845 SoC, the same one used in the current crop of flagships from Samsung, OnePlus and LG. Paired with the SoC will be 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. As of now, this looks like the only configuration it will be available in.

Disclaimer: The above report is completely based on online rumours and leaks from the respective sources. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Asian Age and/or other staff and contributors to this website. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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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.Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday laid the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Thoppur near here at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore, the first such facility in Tamil Nadu.

He also unveiled super speciality blocks at state-run medical colleges in Madurai, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli through video conference facility.

These blocs would have high-tech diagnostic equipment and facilities including Cath lab

The proposed 750-bed modern AIIMS here, on its completion, will also offer 100 MBBS seats.

On the occasion, Modi also dedicated 12 passport 'seva kendras'.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami thanked the Prime Minister for providing the AIIMS facility to Tamil Nadu and urged upon the Centre to set up a medical college at the backward Ramanathapuram district.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said AIIMS here would greatly benefit the people of southern backward districts of Tamil Nadu adding all necessary infrastructure will be developed in the region.

The Madurai AIIMS was given union cabinet approval in December, 2018.

Palaniswami had assured the state's full support to facilitate early commencement and completion of the project for realising late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's dream.

When the Centre announced in its 2014-15 budget that new AIIMS would be set up in various parts of the country, Jayalalithaa had requested one such facility for Tamil Nadu.

Following her plea, the Centre announced in the 2015-16 budget that an AIIMS would be set up in the state.

After a prolonged process, the authorities zeroed in on the Thoppur near here for locating the AIIMS.Republic Day was commemorated with enthusiasm and patriotic fervour in the schools of Dehradun. The faculty and students gathered to mark the occasion at the Doon Cambridge School, Delhi Public School and Pine Hall School here on Saturday.

At the Doon Cambridge School the students celebrated the 70th Republic Day with the unfurling of the National Flag followed by the National Anthem.

After this Garima Negi and Kiran Rana spoke on the significance of Republic Day. The students from classes III to IX gave a special performance in Sanskrit Priyam Bharatam. The principal, HK Chhabra addressed the students advising them to be good citizens of the country.

She propounded the idea of doing the best and feeling proud in being an Indian stating, Education is not the name of any degree or certificate that can be shown to others as a proof. Remember that to be the best you must be able to handle the worst.

At the Pine Hall School, the ceremony began with the hoisting of the tri-colour by principal Rama Anand. After singing of the national anthem and Vande Mataram, speeches were delivered on the significance of the occasion.

The school remembered the sacrifices of freedom fighters especially from Uttarakhand. The principal in her speech exhorted the students to maintain the dignity of being a citizen of great country like India and motivated the students to uphold the honour, integrity, uniqueness and diversity of their cultural heritage. The programme concluded with distribution of sweets.

In Delhi Public School, principal BK Singh along with his entire team enthusiastically gathered to hoist the national flag. To mark the significance of this day, a gala celebration was held at the school.

The students brought the stage alive with their passion and love for their motherland. The principal BK Singh motivated the students to be enlightened citizens of the country, to participate in the development and improvement of the society around them, to be aware of the challenges that the country faces and resolve to find answers and contribute to the nations progress as the future of the nation is held in their hands.The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI), Bhubaneswar Chapter in association with Tax Research Department, ICAI organised a seminar on Insight to the Assessment of Income Tax here on Sunday to mark its golden jubilee year.

Gujarat Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Ajai Das Mehrotra attended as chief guest and spoke on various amendments, notifications of the Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT). OPGC Ltd Finance and Taxation Head Niranjan Swain also spoke. Among others, Chapter chairman Damodar Mishra, Council member Niranjan Mishra, Professional Development Committee Chairman Mukesh Chaubey, Managing Committee member Uttam Kumar Nayak were present.Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and the Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema on Sunday wrote to the Assembly Speaker Rana KP Singh to bring a special resolution in the Assembly Session asking the British Government to apologise for Jallianwala Bagh massacre in its centenary year.

As per the feelings of the entire Punjabis and patriots from across the globe, AAP has demanded from the UK Government on the centenary of Jallianwala Bagh to apologise for the acts of its own Government, said Cheema in his letter addressed to the Speaker Rana KP Singh.

Cheema said that the centenary year of Jallianwala Bagh will commence from April 13, 2019. In view of the unprecedented contribution of Punjabis against the British rule, the centennial year holds special significance for the whole country, including Punjabis. Therefore, the Punjab Government should celebrate this centennial year dedicated to martyrs with special preparations, he said.

Referring to his letter to the Speaker, Cheema said that even 100 years after Jallianwala Bagh incident, the British Government, that boasts of being the mother of democracy across world, has not apologised for the massacre, while Canada's Parliament has apologised for their action and injustice to the Komagata Maru.

Cheema said that due to the efforts of Canada-based professor Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation, led by Sahib Singh Thind and others, the Parliament of Canada had apologised for the Komagata Maru incident and on the demand of the same organisation including the opposition party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, a letter has been written to the Speaker demanding apology of British Government.

The resolution passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha will be sent to the UK Government through the Government of India, he said.Its imperative for the Middle Kingdom to recognise that any provocative statement will make the Taiwanese people more resilient against it. Only peace talks can resolve matters

Delivering a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Message of Compatriots in Taiwan on January 2, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, A Taiwan independent from mainland China is not an option and no person or party can stop the trend towards unification. Xi also reportedly said that China would not renounce the idea of using force to re-unify Taiwan with China. He further said, Independence would only bring profound disaster for Taiwan and assured the island a bright future under a one-country, two-system framework.

In an equally strong reply to President Xis speech, Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen argued that her Government does not accept the 1992 Consensus, and emphasised that a vast majority of Taiwanese stand resolutely opposed to one country, two systems. She further said that the development of cross-strait relations must be based on the four musts: China must face the reality of the existence of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and not deny the democratic system that the people of Taiwan have established together; China must respect the commitment of the 23 million people of Taiwan to freedom and democracy and not foster divisions and offer inducements to interfere with the choices made by the people of Taiwan; China must handle cross-strait differences peacefully, on the basis of equality, instead of using suppression and intimidation to get Taiwanese to submit; and it must be the Government or Government-authorised agencies that should engage in the negotiations. Any political consultation that is not authorised or monitored by the people cannot be called democratic consultation. This is Taiwans position, a democratic one.

Of course, the tension between Taiwan and China is not new. In fact, the genesis of the conflict between them goes back to 1949, when losing the mainland China to the Mao-led Communist Party of China, Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan, establishing Taipei as the capital of the Republic of China Government. Subsequently, China and Taiwan claimed to represent all of China.

The ouster of Taiwan from the membership of the United Nation General Assembly and its Security Council as well as the US decision to recognise China as a country, ending its diplomatic ties with the Republic of China in 1979, boosted Chinas position against Taiwan. At the same time, the Chinese leadership focussed on using the 1992 Consensus between representatives of the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang (KMT) party of Taiwan as the strongest tool to claim Taiwan as a part of China.

However, since President Tsai came to power in 2016, she made one thing very clear that her Government does not recognise the 1992 Consensus. At the same time, Tsais New Southbound policy to strengthen Taiwans ties with Southeast Asian countries and build a strong relationship with South Asian countries, including India, and other developments caused heartburn in the Chinese leadership. As if these developments were not enough for China to initiate punitive actions against Taiwan, US President Donald J Trumps special focus on elevating ties with Taiwan accentuated the rift between China-Taiwan relations. This is evident from the fact that after being elected as President, Trump received a telephone call from Tsai Ing-wen and also initially questioned the One China Policy. Trump signed into law the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for the 2018-19, which mentions strengthening defence partnership between the US and Taiwan as continuing US legal commitments.

The NDAA also stated that the US should invite Taiwan to participate in military exercises and consider re-establishing port-of-call exchanges between the navies of the two sides. Trump signing the Taiwan Travel Act cleared the way for the visit of high-ranking officials to Taiwan. A new de facto US Embassy was inaugurated in Taipei, among other things. In December 2018, the US President signed into law the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, which reiterates American commitment to counter efforts to change status quo and support peaceful resolution acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In turn, while China has been extensively using its economic power to force several countries  Nigeria, Panama and others  to de-recognise Taiwan as an independent country, it also opened a new air route over the narrow Taiwan Strait separating China and Taiwan and has been carrying out military details in the vicinity. China put pressure on the International Civil Aviation Organisation to not initiate Taiwan as a guest of the Icao Assembly in September 2016. Beijing wrote letters, asking dozens of international airlines to change the way they refer to Taiwan on their websites and threatened to disrupt their operations in China if they did not comply.

Amid Chinas offensive strategy against Taiwan, the defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the local elections of Taiwan encouraged Beijing because the Chinese leadership saw the DPPs electoral loss as the rejection of the Tsai Governments efforts to make Taiwan an independent country. At the same time, the victory of the KMT in the elections was a welcome development, given its pro-China stand. In fact, Chinese state-run media depicted the election reversals as a vindication of Xis measures to isolate Taiwan and undercut its international standing.

But the fact remains that the defeat of the DPP in the local elections must not be seen as an indication of the change in the thinking of the people of Taiwan as far as the countrys independence and sovereignty are concerned. The reality is that in a poll, 75 of the Taiwanese respondents saw China and Taiwan as two different states. Viewing mainland China as a perverted form of Chinese culture, Taiwanese also consider their culture and tradition as pure Chinese and feel proud of their democratic institutions, freedom of Press and other liberal values. They do not want to give up these hard-earned markers.

To argue that the DPPs loss in the elections resulted from the Tsai Governments assertive policy towards China would be misplaced. In fact, a number of domestic issues, including her Governments labour and pension policy, Tsais poor leadership, lack of strong strategy, her Governments performance on marriage and economic policy among others were responsible for the DPPs loss in the elections. On the other hand, the KMT planned an effective election strategy to defeat the DPP.

While saying that the use of military power cannot be ruled out to bring Taiwan under the control of China, the Chinese President completely overlooked the fact that today, Taiwan enjoys strong ties, although unofficial, with a number of countries, including all the other major powers of the world. It is also a fact that countries across the globe have recognised Taiwan as a champion of democratic institutions. At the same time, it is also a core interest of the US to see Taiwan flourish as a promising democratic and independent country. Given the fact that the people of Taiwan are aware of Chinas dubious stand on one country, two systems in Hong Kong and Tibet, Xi could not win over Taiwanese with these tactics.

Thus, it is imperative for the Chinese leadership to recognise the direction of the wind as far as the China-Taiwan issue is concerned. Any provocative statement will only make the people of Taiwan more resilient against China. At the same time, it is also the responsibility of the global community to see that Taiwan must remain a strong democratic country. It is only through peace talks that the two sides can end conflict, leading to strengthening peace, security and development in the Taiwan strait and the region.

(The writer is Visiting Fellow, National Chengchi University, Taipei, and Research Fellow, Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata)In a major boost to the real estate sector, the Supreme Court today dismissed a petition filed by the Ex-CEO, Ramesh Sanka against the flagship company of IREO in India, namely IREO Pvt. Ltd.

Ramesh Sanka had filed the petition in the nature of public interest litigation alleging financial irregularities in the affairs of IREO Pvt. Ltd and large scale diversion of funds. Several homebuyers had also approached the apex court for raising their grievances.

The Supreme Court had issued notice to the governmental agencies to look into the allegations made by Mr. Sanka, claiming to be a whistleblower. The agencies filed status reports in relation to the inquiry conducted by them in relation to allegations made before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court after perusing the status reports had come to the conclusion that this was not a fit case for grant of any relief and has dismissed the petition giving a clean chit to IREO.

The Supreme Court while dismissing the petition observed that personal grievances cannot be allowed to be raised before the apex court and the same are not in the nature of public interest litigation. The Court while dismissing the petition safeguarded the rights of the customers by clarifying that they will be at liberty to pursue their legal remedies before appropriate forum.The Opposition has realised that it must have a pro-people agenda before calling on the voters to oust the incumbent government. Getting rid of the Modi government cannot be the only agenda to approach the polls with. Diverse regional political parties need more common grounds than simply replacing the government.

The United Opposition rally in Kolkata was very vocal about the diverse ills, real or perceived of the Modi government but offered little on how they will go about setting things right.

Populist speeches insinuating the impending doom of democratic tradition and institutions are populist at best. They would get you rapturous applause but getting the confidence of the voters is a different kettle of tea altogether. The voter will want to know what the alliance has to offer.

When the Opposition leaders united in Kolkata. (Photo: PTI)

Voters will also question the basic structure of the Opposition alliance and the role Congress party will play in their scheme of things. Voters would not have forgotten the fate of governments led by HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral and the atmosphere of political uncertainty that followed. Even today visions of a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the centre does not raise much hope.

The stand of Congress is a bit of an enigma at this point in time. If the party is part of a proposed Opposition coalition why is it going it alone in Uttar Pradesh? Why it has unleashed the last possible personality in its arsenal  the affable and charismatic Priyanka Gandhi in the backyard of PM Modi and CM Yogi?

Why did Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati skip the Brigade meeting? Was it because of prior commitments, ideological discomfiture or that they both see themselves as natural and possible prime ministerial choice? A turf Mamata Didi intends to intrude as she projects herself as a possible prime ministerial candidate.

The Opposition must remember that apart from a political agenda there is a larger national agenda at stake. (Photo: PTI)

One thing is certain - the Opposition's strategy of deciding on a prime ministerial candidate post polls is just not going to work. Once the results are out there would be unprecedented chaos. Without a set and common agenda and a visible prime ministerial face, the proposed Opposition front would look like a political pressure group.

The Opposition must remember that apart from a political agenda there is a larger national agenda at stake. If you leave out the decision of demonetisation the government led by PM Modi has more or less stuck to the national agenda set by the previous Manmohan Singh government.

In its turn, the Manmohan Singh led government tried to take forward the agenda of the Vajpayee government. One can argue that these governments, including the present dispensation, may not have been able to fulfill all of the expectations and promises made when it came to power but nobody will say that the country is where it was in May 2014.

Also read: A blockbuster brews: Did Priyanka Gandhi join politics after Amitabh Bachchans blessings?From Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977 to Mian Nawaz Sharif in 2017, what is the one thing that is common among all the elected prime ministers of Pakistan? Not one of them had a full five-year term. From military coups to judicial assassination to presidential dismissals to court-ordered disqualifications, the prime ministers of Pakistan have the almost surreal status of an unceremonious removal from the office. Reasons vary, but the edifice of democracy was not given a chance to be strengthened in its shaky foundation, myriad factors threatening its very existence.

Two completed terms later, in 2019, as the categorical supporter of democracy, a denouncer of military coups and a critic of judicial overreaching, I hope Pakistan is on its way to becoming a real democracy where the only way to have a new prime minister is through vote after the completion of his/her term in five years.

Prime Ministers of Pakistan tend not to complete their full term in office, due to a variety of factors. (Photo: Reuters/file)

To move forward, there is much to be learned from the past, and to make the most of today, it is imperative to have a vision for tomorrow. What is also very important is to not let the truth be obfuscated with bluster, emotionalism, finger-pointing and lack of introspection. What is even more important is that Pakistan holds all who served in any public office responsible for their alleged misdeeds, and not let accountability be construed as a witch-hunt, as political victimisation.

With Nawaz Sharif in jail, Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Zardari facing various inquiries, there is a great deal of clamour in Pakistan as to the need to hold the powerful accountable, the imperativeness of justice to be blind to cliches of power and money bestowing on anyone the get-out-of-jail-free card, and to remain steadfast in ensuring that no political position makes anyone impervious to the uniformity of accountability.

The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan is walking the talk, and the justice system is finally doing what it should have done all along: hold all who have harmed Pakistan accountable. Despite all the efforts of Sharifs family and party to paint a picture of victimhood and injustice to a three-time prime minister, crying hoarse at their failure to move Sharif out of Pakistan on the pretext of medical treatment, what remains indisputable is that financial corruption is a reality in Pakistan.

A narrative is being created that Sharif is being 'victimised' by a nexus of the establishment, the judiciary and Imran Khan. (Photo: Reuters/file)

Nawaz Sharif must get the best medical treatment that is available in Pakistan while being given all his legal rights as he serves his seven-year sentence. What Nawaz Sharif, his daughter, supporters and party members must remember is that people of Pakistan are not as naive as they are considered to be. Pakistanis know that corruption at the very top is a reality. They know the powerful work on self-serving agendas. They know their vote is not for their life to be improved but to benefit that of whom they vote for. They know there is an absence of across-the-board accountability. They see, they know, and they remember.

People of Pakistan are not fools, they notice things, and they question things. Answers may remain elusive, and accountability is considered a utopian concept: ideal but impossible until now. They know that what has existed in Pakistan is extractive political dynamics. When you enter public office not to serve the people, not to deliver on the social contract for the people, but to extract value for your interests. What ensues is crony capitalism and undermining of institutions; without doing the latter, it is hard to establish the most conducive environment for extraction.

People of Pakistan know that corruption is as much a reality as the hardship they bear to live a life of dignity, providing essentials for their family. They know that those in power do it through various means. People of Pakistan have always asked questions.

They asked: Why did Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1973 instead of introducing substantive civil service reforms ended up making civil servants more powerful? Why were certain state institutions created and handed over to civil servants, with controlling power in those multi-billion rupee corporations?

In 1973, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, instead of introducing civil service reforms, ended up making civil servants more powerful. The people of Pakistan remember that. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

People throughout the last few decades, during civilian and military rules, saw what happened and asked: Why is corruption done through giving of contracts to cronies, the front men? Why are contracts for international airports, construction of highways and development of areas given to selected companies? Why despite the World Bank-mandated stipulation of transparency and due process many scams take place? Why are only the chosen few given contracts? Why are contracts for motorways given to favourite foreign companies, not to benefit Pakistan, but to ingratiate the powerful with those big companies?

People asked: Why was there an absence of forensic audits to confirm the money trail of those who had become wealthy in a very little time? How did they become owners of multiple sugar mills, other industries?

People asked: Why were huge chunks of land bought by a particular family at a very low price? Why was the land, buy-it-a-very-cheap-cost deal of which was deputed to a deputy commissioner/other high-level civil servant, bought by the patriarch of the family when the son was the chief minister? Why was the development of that land done with funds from the public exchequer with the claim it was all for the good of the people whereas the real purpose was to have its value increase manifold?

People asked: Why were licences for government concerns given to friends and cronies? Why were those friends and cronies asked to establish mills? Why were governmental contracts from that of a road to purchase of submarines given not on merit but nepotism?

People asked: When the scion of a business family was made the chief minister, why did he create a provincial organisation that while pretending to work for the betterment of the people primarily catered to enhancement of personal assets of that one family?

People asked: Why was there an advertising agency in Islamabad, founded by the top female leader of one party and her close female political associate, that received the largest share of government advertising? They were also the top position-holders in that government.

People asked: How was unquantifiable money made through a mechanism of pre-shipment inspection, and clearance of the same shipments? Why were there reports of the same money finding its convoluted way into some very secret accounts in discreet Swiss banks?

Why was tax on chicken products reduced when a particular political dynasty ventured into poultry business? (Photo: PTI)

People asked: Why did a finance minister ask people to eat chicken and not dal when one kg of dal could and one kg of chicken could not feed many? Why was the tax reduced on chicken products when a particular political dynasty ventured into poultry business? Why was taxation manipulated to suit the business interests of one family?

People asked when once again the lament of We didnt do anything began: Why do buildings holding records of multi-billion projects keep getting burnt down?

People asked: Why is the lower-level judiciary involved in corruption? Why do they look the other way, or become part of it?

People asked: Why was a Chief Justice enraged about a report on his sons alleged corruption, and gave the owner of a media house a severe dressing-down?

People asked: Why did the media tycoon say theyd get them when the time was right (as then they needed him to topple someone else?)

People asked: Why is there a scandal of layering of bank accounts, money deposited from one account to another to make the original deposit and the source of that money almost impossible to trace?

People asked: How is the accountability of private contractors providing food to an army station headquarter done? Who is doing an audit of the big defence contracts? Who is doing the accountability of the army-run business conglomerate, one of the biggest in the country? Why did the off-site meeting of a national fertiliser sold internationally take place in Brazil? Why doesnt a retired general really retire, and become the head of a corporation? Who is the watchdog of real estate, the biggest business in Pakistan, the biggest retailer of which is the army? And that even if there is an intra-institutional audit, why is the civilian leadership reluctant to ask the army legitimate questions?

Today people of Pakistan ask: Why is the accountability of the Sharif family being conveniently labelled a political witch-hunt orchestrated by a nexus of the establishment, the judiciary and Imran Khan? Panama Papers was an international revelation, and had nothing to do with anyone whos being blamed for making the Sharif family a victim of political vengeance.

PM Imran Khan is not a saviour, but he is looked at as someone who will ensure accountability. (Photo:AP/file)

Justice delayed is still justice, and accountability of those who harmed Pakistan is what will make Pakistan a country that introspects, learns, recalibrates and moves forwardchanged, better, more honest, more empathetic. Prime Minister Imran Khan is not a saviour, but, relentless and incorruptible in his pursuit of justice and accountability of the corrupt, he is looked at as someone who will ensure accountability  be it of his own party members, family members, higher judiciary, military big shots and previous prime ministers, presidents, chief ministers and their corruption-happy band of men and women. Khan did not start any case against anyone but Khan will ensure that accountability is not a witch-hunt but a just and a transparent process.

At least, that I, as a voter of Imran Khan, hope to see happen in my beloved Pakistan.

Also read: 'Rigged', 'selected', 'confused': A concise guide to the vocabulary of Imran Khan's criticsFlights into a major US airport were briefly suspended on Tuesday evening after a drone was spotted over another nearby airport.

At about 5pm (9pm GMT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received two reports from flights headed to Newark Airport in New Jersey that they had spotted a drone about 3,500 feet over nearby Teterboro Airport.

The administration said in a statement that arriving flights were held briefly but resumed after no further sightings were reported.

The airport, which serves New York City, said just after 7pm that it was operating normally again. The FAA had no reports of delays at the airport on its website.

Normal #EWR operations have resumed after arrivals were briefly held by the FAA due to reports of drone activity north of the airport earlier this evening. Were coordinating with the FAA & fully supporting all federal law enforcement authorities as they investigate this incident  Newark Liberty Airport. Wear a Face Covering. (@EWRairport) January 23, 2019

Brett Sosnik was on a United Airlines flight bound for Newark when the pilot told passengers that they would be circling in the air because of a drone spotted in Newark airspace.

Mr Sosnik, who was returning from the Bahamas, said his plane circled for about half an hour.

Flights were suspended from Newark on Tuesday evening (Mark Lennihan/AP)

I was looking around trying to find a drone in the air when we were closer to landing, but I didnt see anything, said Sosnik, a New York City resident who works in marketing.

Theres got to be a way to combat that stuff and not have it affect huge airports with such a little piece of technology.

Just landed at Newark. Our @united flight had to circle because of stopped takeoffs and landings due to nearby drone activity. Time to come up with technology to remotely shut down these drones #EWR  Brett Sosnik (@BrettSoz) January 22, 2019

United Airlines spokesman Robert Einhorn said the impact on its operations has been minimal so far.

Londons Heathrow Airport briefly halted departing flights earlier this month after a reported drone sighting  just three weeks after multiple reports of drone sightings caused travel chaos at nearby Gatwick Airport.

In the US, unless the operator gets a waiver from the FAA, drones are not allowed within 5 miles of most airports, and are not supposed to fly above 400 feet.RSS has written to Modi saying that changing the policy implementation date will hurt 130 million small Indian entrepreneurs.

The new rules, to be implemented from Feb. 1, will deal a blow to Walmart Inc and Amazon.coms ambitions in the country.

A Hindu nationalist group close to Prime Minister Narendra Modis party has urged him to resist pressure from the United States and not defer new regulations for the e-commerce sector, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The economic wing of the group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the fountainhead of the ruling party, has written to Modi saying that changing the policy implementation date, under pressure from Washington, will hurt 130 million small Indian entrepreneurs.

There is no need to buckle under these pressures. India must continue to chart the way best for itself and the entrepreneurs, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch said in its letter, which was reviewed by Reuters.

The new rules, to be implemented from Feb. 1, will deal a blow to Walmart Inc and Amazon.coms ambitions in the country. They mandate that e-commerce companies will not be allowed to sell products from firms in which they have an equity interest.

Reuters reported on Thursday the United States government had told Indian officials the new rules will hinder the investment plans of the two companies.

The rules, which will force the companies to change their business structures and raise operational costs, have sparked an extensive lobbying effort from both Amazon and Walmart, which last year invested USD 16 billion in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart.

Both Amazon and Walmart have sought an extension of the Feb. 1 deadline, but government sources have said that was unlikely to happen as Modi needs millions of traders by his side in an upcoming national election due by May.

On Friday, the Confederation of All India Traders, which has supported tougher scrutiny of large e-commerce players, said: the entire trading community will vote against the government if they extend the deadline.

The e-commerce spat is the latest in a number of disputes over trade and investment relations between India and the United States.

Walmart spokesman Greg Hitt told Reuters this week the company had engaged the (United States) administration on this issue.

The RSS has long advocated self-reliance and opposed the opening up of the Indian economy to foreign players.

Small Indian retailers have alleged that e-commerce companies use their control over inventory from their affiliates to create an unfair marketplace that allows them to sell some products at lower prices, which hurts the businesses of brick-and-mortar retailers. Such arrangements would be barred under the new policy.

In front-page advertisements in newspapers last week, Walmart-owned Flipkart highlighted how the platform had helped transform local struggling businesses selling badminton racquets and sarees, a traditional dress.Naomi Osaka extended her winning grand slam run to 12 matches with a dominant victory over Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

The US Open champion has taken the increase in expectation and attention in her stride and needed only an hour and 12 minutes to wrap up a 6-4 6-1 win against the sixth seed, who struggled with a neck problem.

Osaka could now face a rematch of the controversial New York final against Serena Williams, who takes on Karolina Pliskova in the second semi-final.

Speaking on court, the 21-year-old said: I tried to be consistent, or as consistent as I can. Shes a really great player. Its kind of unfortunate that she got injured. Playing against her even if she was injured was still really tough.

I just had one goal, which was to try as hard as I can and not get angry, I think I did it really well so Im very happy.

Osaka had survived three-set clashes with tricky duo Hsieh Su-wei and Anastasija Sevastova in the last two rounds and looked much more comfortable against the more conventional game of Svitolina.

Japans Naomi Osaka progresses to the semis (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

The Ukrainian, looking to move beyond the last eight at a slam for the first time at the fourth attempt, began 2019 with the confidence from winning the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals last October.

Svitolina broke Osaka when she served for the opening set at 5-3 but her second serve was taking a pounding and, although Osaka missed wildly on three set points, she converted her fourth.

The fourth seeds record in matches after winning the first set is astonishing  she has now won 58 straight dating back to 2016  so Svitolina was clearly up against it.

And the Ukrainian simply could not find a foothold in the match. She took a medical time-out at 0-3 in the second set to have treatment to her neck and shoulder, an issue that had bothered her in the third round against Zhang Shuai, but there was no way back.More than a fifth of information passed by the public to police helps foil terrorist attacks, with 18 plots thwarted since March 2017, a counter-terror chief has said.

A record 700 terror investigations are ongoing, up from around 500 in 2017, assistant commissioner and head of UK counter-terrorism policing Neil Basu said.

Mr Basu said he was incredibly grateful that 2018 was spared the level of carnage of the previous year, when dozens of people were killed in attacks in London and Manchester.

However, he warned the worst-case scenario was public complacency, revealing that there had been a dramatic fall in the number of instances information was reported to the police.

More than 31,000 pieces of information were passed to police in 2017, which more than halved to 13,093 in 2018.

In both years, just over a fifth of the information passed on was very significant, meaning it directly led to the identification of a suspect or plot or was a small piece of the jigsaw that helped a plot be disrupted or criminal be prosecuted, Mr Basu said.

Neil Basu (Victoria Jones/PA)

He added that part of the reason behind the fall could be the dominance of Brexit, which undoubtedly took up much attention last year, when there was very little terrorist activity compared with 2017.

Two continuing concerns were the potential of radicalised fighters returning from abroad and the spread of propaganda online, he said.

Drawn on the latter, Mr Basu said: Its not so much the volume of threat, but a shift in the threat to the young and the malleable, even the mentally ill who are being affected by what they are seeing, and they are taking that and then using very low-sophistication measures, things that everyone can get access to  a knife or a vehicle  and making an attack.

And those are the kind of things that worry us most, they are the hardest to see and they are the hardest to stop.

And thats why we need communities to stand up and report changes in behaviour that they are seeing within their communities which might actually help us stop these things before they happen.

He added: If one in five times someone picks up a phone or emails us is a significant piece of intelligence, that is a major contribution from citizens and we want that to continue.

Four far-right radical extremist plots and 14 Islamist terror plots were foiled by police and the security services within the last two years.

This compares with 30 planned attacks that were successfully disrupted in the four years prior to March 2017.

Mr Basu was speaking at the launch of a major cinema advert campaign to increase peoples awareness of suspicious activity and encourage them to report it to police.

The 60-second film shows a series of scenarios, such as a man stockpiling hazardous material and another buying weapons, before rewinding and zooming in on the danger.

An on-screen message reads: Unfortunately life has no rewind button.

If it doesnt feel right, ACT.

Asked why the advert was being shown in cinemas, Mr Basu said: Well, the great thing about cinema is youre here, youre trapped in the audience and youve got to watch it.

It will be shown at 120 cinemas across the UK over eight weeks from January 25.The Met Office has warned there is colder weather to come after snow and sleet showers hit the UK on Tuesday.

Wednesday is expected to be the chilliest day of the week, with northern areas waking up to temperatures of minus 2C (28F).

Coastal areas can expect more snow and sleet showers throughout the day.

(PA Graphics)

The Met Office issued a yellow severe weather warning until 11am for ice across much of the country.

The alert says ice is likely to form on Wednesday morning, warning of the risk of falls on icy surfaces and ice on roads, pavements and cycle paths.

A spokeswoman said Northern Ireland saw some significant accumulations on Tuesday which later pushed across Wales, central parts of England and towards the South East.

Weve seen a few centimetres in particular over the hills, but also a good dusting of snow to lower levels as well.

Good morning, here is Wednesday's weather summary. Don't forget, you can visit our website (https://t.co/cQSfu1VDbo) for all local & national weather forecasts including the 6-30 day UK outlook. Please tweet or drop us an email with any other queries. ^Dan pic.twitter.com/D4Y83DoEkI  Met Office (@metoffice) January 23, 2019

She said Wednesday will be one of the coldest days of the week, but with a lot of sunshine to compensate.

Those concerned about the yellow warnings should allow extra time for journeys and take extra care on untreated roads and pavements.

Its patches of ice left over from snow showers that people should look out for.

Gritters have been out in force (Liam McBurney/PA)

The weather caused some disruption to rush-hour rail services.

Greater Anglia Rail advised customers that trains will be running with speed restrictions between Hackney Downs and Cambridge and services may be cancelled, delayed by up to 15 minutes or revised.

Merseyrail said that due to ice preventing electricity from reaching the trains, services between between Aintree and Ormskirk, Hooton and Ellesmere Port, and Hooton and Chester have been cancelled.

Whilst other Merseyrail lines are running, passengers have been warned to expect severe delays and cancellations.

Peak View near Macclesfield (Peter Byrne/PA)

Some coastal showers will continue overnight on Wednesday while many central and eastern areas are expected to be clear, cold and frosty.

Although the weather will warm slightly towards the end of the week, more cold weather is set for the weekend.

The spokeswoman said: Gradually some slightly warmer air will push in for the latter part of the week, but we have a band of rain pushing in Saturday which will push much colder air in behind it.Labour are highly likely to support a plan to delay the UKs exit from the EU if a Brexit deal is not achieved by the end of next month, the shadow chancellor has suggested.

John McDonnell described the cross-party Bill  backed by Labours Yvette Cooper and Tory Nick Boles  as sensible and said it was increasingly likely that his party would back it.

Meanwhile, former chancellor George Osborne has told the BBC that a delay looks like the most likely option.

The group of MPs are seeking to give time for a Bill to suspend the Article 50 withdrawal process if there is no new deal with Brussels by the end of February.

Mr McDonnell told BBC Twos Newsnight: Yvette Cooper has put an amendment down, which I think is sensible.

It says to the Government youve run down the clock so much, it looks as though if you cant get a deal by February 26 the Government will then have to bring forward proposals to extend that.

So I think its increasingly likely already that well have to take that option because the Government has run the clock down.

Mr McDonnell said Labour had to go through its own party processes to determine whether they would back it, but added: Its highly likely but well go through our normal process of consultation with our members.

Yvette Cooper has put an amendment down, which I think is sensible, says Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell adding its increasingly likely Labour would back her amendment@johnmcdonnellMP | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/RB1hi3EQHS  BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) January 22, 2019

Mr Osborne, speaking to the BBC in Davos, compared no deal to Russian roulette, saying the prospect of Britain crashing out of the bloc means the gun is held to the British economys head.

He added: I think at the moment delay looks like the most likely option because at least that gives some space to explore whether theres an alternative deal on the table.

I doubt there is, but thats worth exploring, or whether we need to resolve this through a referendum.

It comes after businessman Sir James Dyson delivered a blow to Brexit Britain after announcing he is to relocate the Dyson head office from the UK to Singapore.

He was heavily criticised for the move, which Liberal Democrat Layla Moran said smacked of staggering hypocrisy, while Solicitor General Robert Buckland said he was disappointed by the announcement.

The bombshell move will mean Dyson is no longer a British registered company and Singapore will become its main tax base.

And in a further blow, ferry giant P&O announced it is to re-register its UK fleet under the Cyprus flag ahead of Brexit.

Elsewhere, a report leaked to Sky News suggested Border Force planning for a no-deal Brexit warns of significant outbound queues at the Eurostar and a potential degradation of border security.

The presentation by the Home Office agency, seen by Sky, also predicted there could be a loss of data and a potential surge in non-EU passenger traffic if there is a reduction in the value of the pound.

Sir James Dyson announced he is to relocate the Dyson head office from the UK to Singapore (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Ms Coopers amendment is one of several tabled by MPs to the Prime Ministers deal, the rejection of which by an overwhelming 230 votes last week has thrown into doubt proposals for a backstop to keep the Irish border open.

In a break from usual procedures, the amendments will be voted on by MPs on January 29 in another day of high Brexit drama in the Commons which could put Mrs May under intense political pressure to change course.

One plan, tabled by Tory Dame Caroline Spelman and Labours Jack Dromey, would effectively rule out a no-deal Brexit.

Another, from Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve, would give MPs powers to take control of the parliamentary agenda on a series of days in the run-up to the official date of EU withdrawal on March 29 to pass resolutions on the way ahead.

Labours Hilary Benn is hoping to secure a range of indicative votes on various Brexit options.

And the chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland Committee, Conservative Andrew Murrison, put forward proposals  which he said were designed to appeal to moderate MPs who just want Brexit sorted  for a time limit on the backstop.

Labours frontbench tabled its own amendment calling for a vote on the partys plan for a customs union with the EU and on whether to legislate for a public vote.More than a third of employees at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland have quit their job due to stress in their workplace, according to new research.

It suggested 37% changed their jobs because of frustrations not addressed by management while a quarter (25%) admitted to calling in sick because of work-related stress.

The report  Causes and Implications of Workplace Stress in SMEs  from software firm Process Bliss also indicated more than half (55%) of those who responded admitted they were not clear about some company processes.

Lack of clarity and guidance was also among the causes of stress (37%) as well as having to chase colleagues for updates (32%) and being micromanaged by bosses (15%).

Process Bliss chief executive Alister Esam said: Many of these issues come from people not being given sufficient training or a functioning process to follow that enables them to do their job well.

At the same time, managers are checking up on, and micromanaging staff because they have no way of seeing whether employees are following that process correctly.

(David Cheskin/PA)

This harassment is stressful, contributing to a culture of mistrust and causing people working at SMEs to leave in significant numbers.

Many companies document their processes, but it is clear that many employees arent aware of that fact or find them inaccessible.

As a result, they effectively operate without them which leads to errors, micromanagement and mutual distrust between staff and bosses.

More than a third (35%) said working for a small business was more stressful than a larger company while more than a quarter (27%) did not feel trusted in the workplace.

Mr Esam added: Doing more to reduce stress in the workplace is hugely important and should be a key priority for Scottish SME bosses during 2019  staff retention is vital.

Employees do their best work when they are motivated, engaged, trusted and work in a reduced-stress environment and leave a job when they are unhappy and demotivated.

Workplace stress can come from many different sources and while no boss can eliminate stress completely, there are lots of measures that can be put in place to ensure day-to-day frustrations are reduced.A 15-year-old with a rare brain tumour is to undergo pioneering proton beam therapy at the UKs first dedicated NHS treatment centre.

Mason Kettley, from Angmering in West Sussex, will receive the highly targeted therapy which helps shrink tumours and cuts the risk of side-effects.

It will be carried out by the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester  home to the worlds newest proton beam therapy centre.

Mason is one of the first patients to undergo proton beam therapy in the UK and the first to go public.

Until now, British patients needing the treatment had to travel to countries including the US.

He was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour in October after suffering headaches and failing to put on weight.

Doctors found that the tumour was growing in a critical part of his brain but could not operate due to the risk of causing blindness and damage to vital brain tissue.

The Christie (Phil Tragen/Christie NHS Foundation Trust/PA)

Science-loving Mason, who wants to work as a doctor specialising in tumours when he is older, said he did not initially have many symptoms.

He said: I had some headaches and stomach pains and usual things, and got check-ups at the doctors.

My mum said, hes not gaining weight or growing, and eventually, when we moved last year, we saw doctors who told us to go to Worthing Hospital for an MRI scan.

We had the scan and the result showed it was a tumour.

Following a biopsy and an operation to insert a shunt, doctors referred Masons case to a national panel of experts.

They decided that his tumour  known as a benign pilomyxoid astrocytoma  made him a suitable candidate for proton beam therapy.

Mason, who lives with mother Cally, stepfather Ryan and four siblings  Taylor, 20, Logan, 10, Scarlett, seven, and Elijah, four  said he feels apprehensive about the treatment.

He said: Im a bit nervous because the machine is intimidating because of its size.

The proton gantry at The Christie (Christie NHS Foundation Trust/PA)

Its a bit nerve-wracking but this is a better choice than chemo because its more effective. Because of my age, (doctors) thought radiation would be a better choice.

Their goal is to stabilise the tumour. It may shrink, but they are aiming to stabilise it.

Mason, who likes to spend his spare time on social media and watching movies, is planning on going to McDonalds once treatment has finished.

Im a fussy eater but Ill be having large fries, he said.

Mason will have treatment Monday to Friday for almost six weeks  28 sessions in total.

A specially made radiotherapy mask has been created to keep his head still during the therapy.

He said: The short-term effects are that you may vomit and get a headache now and then, but in the long term the side effects are rare.

Masons family has been hugely supportive, though his younger siblings are unaware of his treatment.

(PA Graphics)

My little sister and little brother dont know because they are young, he said.

My 10-year-old brother understands a bit and hes a bit upset about it. My older sister is 20 and shes out most of the time.

Mason, who will sit GCSEs next year, will have six weeks off school.

Proton beam therapy is a highly targeted treatment which hits tumours much more precisely than conventional radiotherapy.

This makes it beneficial for patients with difficult-to-treat tumours in critical areas, such as in the brain or spinal cord, and for young people whose tissues are still developing.

Two new proton beam therapy centres have been built at The Christie and University College London Hospital (UCLH) with 250 million of Government money.

Consultant clinical oncologist Gillian Whitfield, who is leading Masons care at The Christie, said: With proton beam therapy, compared to conventional radiotherapy, there is less dose to surrounding normal tissues and less risk of permanent long-term effects of treatment.

Mason Kettley (Danny Lawson/PA)

This is particularly important for children and teenagers with curable tumours, who will survive decades after treatment and are at much greater risk of serious long-term effects of treatment than adults.

Masons tumour is a low grade (slow growing) tumour with a high chance of cure.

For Mason, in comparison to conventional radiotherapy, proton beam therapy should carry a lower risk of some important long-term side effects of treatment, particularly effects on short-term memory and learning ability and the risk over the next eight decades of the radiation causing other tumours.

Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England said: This is a hugely exciting development for the NHS and we are delighted that we are able to provide this life-changing treatment for patients like Mason.

Ashya King (Hampshire Police/PA)

Proton beam therapy hit the headlines in 2014 when the parents of Ashya King, who was due to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy at Southampton General Hospital, fled with him to Spain.

They were arrested in Spain but were eventually able to take him for proton treatment in Prague.

His father Brett has said Ashya is now cancer-free.Nicola Sturgeon will warn the Prime Minister she is pursuing the impossible if she wants to change the Brexit backstop arrangements for Northern Ireland.

The Scottish First Minister is heading to London for talks with Theresa May, as the Prime Minister battles to try to get her proposed European withdrawal deal through Parliament.

And rather than focusing on the Northern Irish backstop, which European leaders insist forms a key part of the Brexit arrangements, Ms Sturgeon said Mrs May should instead be trying to extend the timetable for a deal.

Backstop provisions were written into the UKs draft Withdrawal Agreement in a bid to prevent any return to a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and the North.

But the controversial measure has drawn criticism from some MPs.

In particular politicians from Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party  whose votes ensured Mrs May passed a crucial no confidence vote last week  are vehemently opposed to any arrangements which would see the province treated differently from the rest of the UK.

Nicola Sturgeon will hold talks with the Prime Minister over Brexit on Wednesday (Jonathan Brady/PA)

In a statement to MPs on Monday, the PM promised to seek a means to keep the Irish border open in a way which can win the support of Parliament.

But Ms Sturgeon said instead the Prime Minister should be focusing on seeking an extension to the Article 50 deadline.

With no Brexit agreement as yet approved by Parliament, the UK could crash out of the European Union with no deal  something the Scottish First Minister and others want Mrs May to explicitly rule out.

Ms Sturgeon issued a stark message to the PM ahead of Wednesdays talks, saying: The UK is in the midst of the most serious political crisis in many decades  and it is entirely a mess of the Prime Ministers own making.

With time running out, Theresa May needs to stop blaming everybody else and start listening.

She added: Theresa Mays current strategy is to rule out the possible  extending the Article 50 period  while pursuing the impossible  changes to the backstop.

At todays meeting I will be making clear to the Prime Minister that it is she who needs to change her position  not everybody else.

WATCH LIVE: PM @Theresa_May makes a statement on Brexit in @HouseofCommons https://t.co/f2qY99RWTq  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) January 21, 2019

Mrs May also pledged to give the devolved administrations of the UK an enhanced role in the Brexit process  but the day after she gave this commitment the UK Government cancelled a meeting with senior politicians from the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

Ms Sturgeon said: Scotlands voice, and our overwhelming vote to remain in the EU, have been completely ignored at every turn  indeed, the fact that the UK Government has cancelled Thursdays Joint Ministerial Council on EU Negotiations at the last minute doesnt inspire any confidence that they are keen to hear others views.

The Scottish First Minister repeated her calls for a second Brexit vote to be held, as well as extending the timetable for the Article 50 talks.

She said: The time has come for the Brexit clock to be stopped, through a formal extension of Article 50 to allow a second referendum on EU membership to be held. We simply cannot afford to be dragged any closer to the cliff edge of no deal  an outcome which should now be explicitly and definitively ruled out.

With Brexit only a matter of weeks away, and with MPs emphatically rejecting the Prime Ministers Brexit deal, both Labour and the Tories must agree to put the question to the people.More than half of Britons would shop elsewhere if a retailer was throwing away surplus stock rather than giving it to charity, according to a survey.

The Prince of Wales-founded charity In Kind Direct has called on more retailers and manufacturers to prevent their unsold products from going to landfill by donating them to those in need.

A total of 2 billion worth of unwanted, surplus consumer goods are produced in the UK each year, with levels peaking in January and unsold goods often heading to landfill, incineration or discount retailers, according to research carried out by PwC on behalf of In Kind Direct.

Source: In Kind Direct.

Some 52% of Britons would feel disappointed if they knew that a business was not giving its surplus stock to charity, and 51% would go as far as choosing to shop in other stores, rising to 60% of those aged 16 to 24, the poll for In Kind Direct suggests.

Almost three quarters of Britons (73%) said they would be throwing away clothes in January, while 38% planned to get rid of unwanted Christmas presents and a quarter said they would be throwing away toiletries.

Some 74% of Britons believe that retailers surplus stock should be donated to charity, with three out of five people saying that businesses have a responsibility to do so, the survey indicates.

In Kind Direct chief executive Robin Boles said: More and more businesses are thinking about the impact they are having on the environment and what they can do to improve any negative effect their businesses make. At the same time, employees are choosing to work in companies that take positive social action.

We have seen a sharp rise in the number of people who increasingly rely on support from charities across the UK and the products we supply.

Retail expert Kate Hardcastle said: Retail businesses need to listen to the wishes of customers more than ever before. Trading ethically and respectfully is high up on a customers wish list.

It makes good business sense for organisations to put their surplus stock to good use to help communities, not least because this new research highlights just how much customers appreciate it and its an obvious way to reflect their wishes.

Censuswide surveyed 4,001 UK adults between December 14-19.A senior paediatrician has urged the Scottish Government to move from policies to action to transform childrens health.

Professor Steve Turner made the comments as a scorecard marking the governments progress two years on from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) State of Child Health: Scotland report was published.

The update notes significant progress against 17 of the 36 recommendations, including against what are seen as the major barriers to child health in Scotland  child poverty, obesity and mental health.

Among the policies praised are the Scottish Governments plan to tackle child poverty, new birth and early years payments for lower-income families, an extra 250 million a year for mental health, a commitment to halving childhood obesity by 2030 and consulting on restricting junk food promotions.

Some progress is noted as being made against a further 12 recommendations while seven have recorded no progress, including Scottish Government funding of mandatory child health training for trainee GPs and giving every child with a long-term condition a named health professional.

The report warns the present situation of rising child poverty and a widening health gap between rich and poor children is not acceptable, and policies must now secure measurable improvements in child health.

Action needs to be taken on child health, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Prof Turner, the RCPCHs officer for Scotland, said: Scotland currently has some of the worst outcomes for child health in Europe, but as our scorecard shows the government is working hard to turn this around.

However, the government strategy now needs to turn to action.

The gap in health outcomes between the richest and poorest communities in Scotland is widening, and that has a detrimental effect on rates of childhood obesity, mental health and mortality, particularly for Scotlands most vulnerable families.

Without timely and effected change, many more of Scotlands youngsters will join the 230,000 children already living in poverty and their health will undoubtedly suffer as a result.

He also called for the introduction of a Scotland-wide child death review process to help cut the number of children who die from preventable causes.

The Scottish Government has committed to bringing in a new national approach for effective, sensitive child death reviews by 2020.

Mr Turner said: In 2019 approximately 100 children will die from preventable causes in Scotland.

Unlike England and Wales, we do not have a system to learn from these tragedies.

As a priority, we need to identify why these deaths occur and to take action.

Public health minister Joe FitzPatrick said: We welcome the recognition from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health that we are making good progress across a wide range of measures.

The Year of Young People 2018 was about giving young people a stronger voice and weve seen real progress in tackling the different inequalities that can put up barriers for too many young people.

We are looking seriously at how we address obesity, not just among children, but are also absolutely clear that to improve peoples health, we also need to care for mental health and look at the impact of poverty.

We are also working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate to establish a national hub focused on the reviewing and learning from deaths of children and young people in Scotland.Countdown presenter Rachel Riley has recalled the hideous feeling of receiving hate-filled abuse for trying to speak out about anti-Semitism.

To chuckles at a packed Holocaust Memorial Day reception at the House of Commons, she first joked that her mums Jewish and my dads Man Utd before outlining some of the abuse she has endured recently.

Ms Riley, 33, spoke of her deep and irreparable sorrow about the Holocaust and of feeling emotionally punched in the stomach after visiting Auschwitz in November.

The speech I just delivered at @HolocaustUKs event.

Important #WeRemember and learn from the mistakes of the past, huge thanks to everyone who continues to spread this message.#BeLouder against antisemitism.#EnoughIsEnough  #HMD2019 pic.twitter.com/3RzAMCcjEE  Rachel Riley  (@RachelRileyRR) January 22, 2019

She said: On Twitter the messages I am sent are often indistinguishable from that you would expect from a neo-Nazi  yet the tweeters are identifiably not neo-Nazis.

The markers of the red Labour rose coupled with the Palestinian flag, and the hashtag of Get The Tories Out and Jeremy Corbyn For PM along with the standard claim to be against racism in all forms are their signature giveaways.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Dame Margaret Hodge and Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke were among the other speakers at the event organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Rachel Riley spoke of her `deep and irreparable sorrow about the Holocaust (Ian West/PA)

Ms Riley said: In the name of Labour I have been called a hypocrite, a lying propagandist, a tits-teeth-and-arse clothes horse dolly bird weaponised with anti-Semitism, fascist, right-wing extremist, Nazi sympathiser, a Twitter cancer, thick Tory, brainwashed, an anti-Semite, a white supremacist hate preacher.

My speech is dedicated with love to all the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and all the modern-day backchannel mensches. You know who you are   Rachel Riley  (@RachelRileyRR) January 22, 2019

Other slurs have included being called not a real Jew, a child bully, a bonkers mad conspiracy theorist, a paedo-protector minion puppet whom my dead grandfather would be disgusted by, she said.

Ms Riley said she has faced calls from critics to be fired from her high-profile role as the numbers whizz on Countdown.

She said she felt she has been targeted for speaking about anti-Semitism in the Labour party.

She said she was trying to educate herself on the topic, and watched six hours of videos on Christmas Day on the history of anti-Semitism and had spoken to a range of people including experts and Labour MPs.

She suggested that knowledge and truth are our only weapons in trying to tackle the problem, adding: You need to know next to nothing to propagate Nazi or Soviet Jew-hating propaganda reframed to fit todays narrative, which spreads like wildfire and is dangerous.

But you need to know nearly everything to stop it. The odds are stacked in the anti-Semites favour.

Calling for the Labour party to try to help restack those odds, she said: No-one should have to risk their safety and jeopardise their career in speaking out against anti-Semitism in Britain in 2019.E-commerce, or online trade in goods and services, has become a huge component of the global economy.

A WTO report put the total value of e-commerce in 2016 at USD 27.7 trillion.

Impatient with a lack of World Trade Organization rules on the explosive growth of e-commerce, 76 members - including the United States, China, the European Union and Japan - agreed on Friday to start negotiating a new framework.

China, which is locked in a trade war with the United States, signaled conditional support for the initiative but said it should also take into account the needs of developing countries, in comments likely to rile Washington.

E-commerce, or online trade in goods and services, has become a huge component of the global economy. A WTO report put the total value of e-commerce in 2016 at USD 27.7 trillion, of which nearly USD 24 trillion was business-to-business transactions.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, negotiators from the 76 countries and regions agreed on Friday to hammer out an agenda for negotiations they hope to kick off this year on setting new e-commerce rules.

Ive said for quite some time it was unacceptable that by 2018 ... the WTO wont have a deeper, more effective conversation about a phenomenon that is driving the global economy today, said WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo.

China was not an original signatory but now they are. They have reaffirmed their intention to start negotiations on electronic commerce. I think this is a welcome development, he told a briefing in Davos.

Japans trade minister Hiroshige Seko said his country hopes to use its presidency of this years Group of 20 meetings of major economies to help accelerate negotiations.

The current WTO rules dont match the needs of the 21st century. You can tell that from the fact there are no solid rules on e-commerce, Seko told a separate briefing.

Chinas WTO Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen said the e-commerce declaration could have been better drafted but Beijing was still willing to co-sponsor it.

But Beijings call for full respect (to be) accorded to the reasonable requests of developing members could increase friction with Washington, which says the WTO must stop giving special treatment to countries such as China that call themselves developing.

Another Asian giant, India, did not join the initiative. It has previously said the WTO should finish off the stalled but development-oriented Doha Round of talks before moving into new areas.

It would always be better if we had every WTO member in it, Azevedo said. But what is important also is that this group is open. Its an open-ended group, so any member that wants to participate in this conversation can join any time.

Trade experts say the global trade rulebook is rapidly becoming outdated and needs to keep up or become obsolete. A recent study found that 70 regional trade agreements already include provisions or chapters on e-commerce.

The WTOs 164 members failed to consolidate some 25 separate e-commerce proposals at a conference at Buenos Aires in December, including a call to set up a central e-commerce negotiating forum.

E-commerce, which developed largely after the WTOs creation in 1995, was not part of the Doha round of talks that began in 2001 and eventually collapsed more than a decade later.

US President Donald Trumps administration says the WTO is dysfunctional, as it has failed to hold China to account for not opening up its economy as envisaged when Beijing joined in 2001.

To force reform at the WTO, Trumps team has refused to allow new appointments to the Appellate Body, the worlds top trade court, a process which requires consensus among member states. As a result, the court is running out of judges, and will be unable to issue binding rulings in disputes.

While the United States was among the signatory countries of the e-commerce agreement, it did not participate in a separate informal WTO gathering chaired by Switzerland.

Azevedo said Washingtons absence was totally and solely driven by domestic considerations and unrelated to the countrys suspicions over the multilateral trading system.

But he voiced concern over the tide of protectionism that overshadowed discussions at Davos among the rich and powerful.

These trading tensions are not only a threat to the system. They are threats to the whole, entire international community, he said. The risks are very real. There will be economic impacts.A former US Marine being held in Russia on suspicion of spying has been denied bail, according to his brother.

Paul Whelan, 48, who is a citizen of the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US, was arrested in Moscow in December.

His twin brother David Whelan said in a statement that the family are disappointed that his detention will continue, adding: We were not surprised the court denied bail.

While we still lack any details from the Russian government about why Paul is thought to be a spy, and who provided him with the alleged state secrets, we are certain that he was entrapped and is not guilty of espionage.

The Associated Press reported that Mr Whelan, who appeared in court on Tuesday in a glass cage, has been accused of possessing a flash drive containing Russian state secrets.

However his defence barrister Vladimir Zherebenkov argued that Mr Whelan had asked an unnamed person to email him travel information about Russia.

Paul Whelan, who was arrested on suspicion of spying in Russia (Handout)

Mr Zherebenkov added that after Mr Whelan could not download the information he then asked the person to put it on a flash drive.

We dont know how the materials that contain state secrets ended up there, he said.

David Whelan added: We have not had any information about a USB drive, what was on it, or how it might have materialised in Pauls possession.

Unfortunately, todays ruling merely confirms that Paul will remain wrongfully detained for many more months.

His brother is worried about some health conditions, he added, and is also concerned about translator support and his ability to present his defence in English.

The Russian government has frustrated efforts by UK and US authorities to meet with Paul, he added, however Canadian consular staff are scheduled to meet Mr Whelan on Thursday.

Paul Whelan was arrested on spying charges in Russia (Handout)

We hope that it will occur, David Whelan said, adding: It is clear to our family that only government action will return Paul to his family any time soon.

We know that the consular efforts of the US, Canada, Ireland and UK will help keep us aware of Pauls health and ensure his rights are respected. But we hope additional steps will be taken to bring him home.

The family are trying to pay his legal fees by raising money through an online fundraising campaign, David Whelan said.

Mr Whelan, 48, could face up to 20 years in jail over the espionage charges, according to the Kremlin-backed Tass news agency.

He works as the global security director for a US car parts manufacturer and lives in Michigan, according to the Associated Press.Two men were sentenced on Tuesday for assault and threatening to remove their victims legs in a paramilitary-style attack.

Robert ONeill, 42 from Belfast and Daniel McClean, 52, from Dunmurry pleaded guilty earlier this month to collecting information useful to terrorism, and common assault, on February 6, 2014.

They were arrested by detectives from the PSNIs Terrorism Investigation Unit following searches in the West Belfast and Dunmurry areas, in relation to an investigation into paramilitary-style attacks.

On Tuesday, at Belfast Crown Court, ONeill was sentenced to two years and eight months.

Due to time spent on remand, he will not be returned to prison.

McClean received a two-year sentence, suspended for three years.

The men were sentenced at Belfast Crown Court (Clara Molden/PA)

Both men are subject to a 10-year notification order.

Detective Inspector David Lowans, from PSNIs Terrorism Investigation Unit, said: Todays successful prosecution and sentencing of Robert ONeill and Daniel McClean demonstrates our commitment to pursue anyone involved in terrorism and also anyone involved in any aspect of a paramilitary-style attack.

There are many obvious challenges in relation to bringing counter terrorism cases to court, such as fear of victims and witnesses to speak out or give evidence, however we will always work to overcome these.

Todays result is testimony to the fact that we can still prosecute people involved in terrorism even when the victim does not want to give evidence.

Mr ONeill and Mr McClean were arrested as part of an operation during which evidence was gathered that they assaulted a man in an attempt to intimidate him into divulging the names and addresses of people dealing drugs in the area, as well as what types of drugs.

They hit him and made a number of threats to blow off his legs with a shotgun if he did not provide this information or if he told any lies.

Detective Inspector David Lowans added: There is no place in modern society for this violence and threats of violence.

Paramilitary-style attacks dont work; they are barbaric and despite claims from the groups responsible that they are protecting their communities, they are only ever about people cementing their own status and control over their communities.The Trump administration can go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue, the US Supreme Court has said.

The high court split 5-4 in allowing the plan to take effect, with the courts five conservatives backing it and its four liberal members saying they would not have.

The order from the court was brief and procedural, with no elaboration from the justices.

The courts decision clears the way for the Pentagon to bar enlistment by people who have undergone a gender transition.

It will also allow the administration to require that military personnel serve as members of their biological gender unless they began a gender transition under less restrictive Obama administration rules.

Transgender military members have the courage to serve our country and deserve to do so. We have to fight back to reverse this. https://t.co/ln495C3RUR  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 22, 2019

The Trump administration has sought for more than a year to change the Obama-era rules and had urged the justices to take up cases about its transgender troop policy immediately, but the court declined for now.

(PA)

Those cases will continue to move through lower courts and could eventually reach the Supreme Court again.

The fact that five justices were willing to allow the policy to take effect for now, however, makes it more likely the Trump administrations policy will ultimately be upheld.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the department was pleased with the courts decision.

The Department of Defence has the authority to create and implement personnel policies it has determined are necessary to best defend our nation, she said, adding that lower court rulings had forced the military to maintain a prior policy that poses a risk to military effectiveness and lethality.

Groups that sued over the Trump administrations policy said they ultimately hoped to win their lawsuits against the policy.

Jennifer Levi, an attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said in a statement that the Trump administrations cruel obsession with ridding our military of dedicated and capable service members because they happen to be transgender defies reason and cannot survive legal review.

Until a few years ago service members could be discharged from the military for being transgender. That changed under the Obama administration.

The military announced in 2016 that transgender people already serving in the military would be allowed to serve openly.

And the military set July 1, 2017, as the date when transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist.

But after President Donald Trump took office, the administration delayed the enlistment date, saying the issue needed further study.

And in late July 2017 the president tweeted that the government would not allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.

He later directed the military to return to its policy before the Obama administration changes.The family of a woman killed in a speedboat crash said Home Secretary Sajid Javid has underlined his personal commitment to finding her fugitive killer.

On Tuesday, Mr Javid met the family of Charlotte Brown  who died aged 24 after a boat belonging to Jack Shepherd flipped into the wintry waters of the River Thames during a champagne-fuelled first date in December 2015  to discuss the operation to catch him.

Shepherd, 31, has been on the run since he vanished before his Old Bailey trial last summer, during which he was sentenced in his absence to six years in prison for manslaughter by gross negligence.

Speaking outside Parliament, Ms Browns father Graham Brown said: The Home Secretary has underlined his personal commitment to see that the current manhunt is given the necessary resources and priority required.

Our message is clear  there can be no hiding place for Jack Shepherd.

No one should give support, assistance or encouragement to him other than to do what he should have done in the first instance, which is to hand himself in.

Charlotte Brown (Metropolitan Police/PA)

He added: Jack Shepherd was able to abscond whilst on unconditional bail.

The police and other agencies have a responsibility to do whatever it takes to ensure that justice is served.

Ms Browns mother Roz Wickens and sister Katie also attended the meeting.

The police have assured the family that everything which can be done is being done, Mr Brown said, adding: They are following a number of leads.

Sajid Javid (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

The meeting with the Home Secretary was arranged by his Cabinet colleague, Communties Secretary James Brokenshire, who is the familys local MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup.

Mr Brown added: The intervention of the Home Secretary, with the aid of our MP, has been most welcome by the family.

We are grateful that the Home Secretary has got involved in this manner.

Uncorroborated theories have put web designer Shepherd in locations including Turkey, Thailand and Georgia.

Mr Brown described his daughter as a beautiful soul, adding: We miss Charlotte every day.

The lapse of time does not temper the rawness and the pain of our loss.

Mr Javid said: Charlottes family are understandably heartbroken and distraught following this awful tragedy. I have taken a personal interest in this case and am determined to ensure Jack Shepherd faces justice.

I told the family we will strain every sinew and explore every option to bring them the justice they deserve as soon as possible.

The Metropolitan Police and National Crime Agency are doing all they can to track down Mr Shepherd. If anyone is aware of his whereabouts they should report it immediately.

What is clear is that Charlottes family have suffered enough. That is why I am repeating my plea for Mr Shepherd to give himself up.Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro has pledged to work in harmony with the world to cut carbon emissions, aiming to quell international concerns that his country, the main custodian of the oxygen-rich Amazon, could put economic interests over environmental ones.

The environment dominated talks at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, and the nationalist leader struck a conciliatory tone in a keynote speech.

It was a far cry from the combative one he had taken on the campaign trail, such as by once threatening to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

A general view of the Amazon near Manaus, Brazil (Adam Davy/PA)

Minutes after famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough spoke of the challenges of fighting climate change, Mr Bolsonaro chose his words carefully in pledging to work with other countries to cut carbon emissions, while also freeing up business.

The environment must go hand in hand with development efforts: One should not of course emphasise one more than the other, Mr Bolsonaro told a nearly-packed hall in the Swiss resort town, which responded with polite applause.

We plan to work in harmony with the world, and in sync with the whole world, in terms of decarbonising the economy, reducing CO2 emissions, and of course preserving the environment, he said in a speech that was short on details.

Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, enters the stage (Markus Schriber/AP)

During the campaign, Mr Bolsonaro vowed to pull Brazil from the Paris accord, only to backtrack after winning and promising to stay.

Scientists say Brazil will not be able to meet its emission targets if he rolls back environmental regulations and opens up more of the oxygen-rich Amazon to mining and farming.

He also sought to play up economic prospects in Brazil at an event that has long represented business interests and global trade.

But globalism is in retreat as populist leaders put a focus back on national interests, even if that means limiting trade and migration.Community representatives, political leaders and security services are attempting to restore calm to Londonderry after an unsettling three days.

Housing Executive contractors and other services including transport and postal were suspended in some areas of Derry after three major security alerts on Monday, and a car bomb on Saturday night.

A third security alert is underway in Derry tonight. An abandoned ASDA van has been left outside St Marys Secondary School blocking the road. Police cordon in place. pic.twitter.com/nLgGQxbuj4  aoife-grace moore. (@aoifegracemoore) January 21, 2019

Amid the disturbances, a van belonging to a contractor working with the Housing Executive was hijacked.

Following the incident, the contractor withdrew services in the Bishop Street, Brandywell, Creggan, Rosemount and Rossville areas of the city.

Likewise, Royal Mail said on Tuesday that following advice from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), its workers would not be attending certain areas of the city after one of its vans was hijacked.

Foyle MP Elisha McCallion (Sinn Fein) said she has called an urgent meeting with statutory agencies aimed at restoring services in the city which have been suspended due to the disorder.

Forensic investigators at the scene of a car bomb blast on Bishop Street (Niall Carson/PA)

I have asked the Unity of Purpose group to urgently convene a meeting with the key statutory agencies that have had services affected as a result of this mindless spate of alerts, she said.

Also speaking on Tuesday, after hundreds of residents were evacuated from their homes on Monday night, Derrys top police officer Gordon McCalmont confirmed two of the vehicles had been hijacked at gun point.

Two out of the three  there has been mention of guns being involved, he said.

Those drivers were going out to their work yesterday, going to do a days work and support their families, and Im sure not for one minute did they think they would be confronted by armed masked men.

Its madness, that is the reality of it.

We are grateful to those in the community who worked with us to find temporary shelter for those evacuated, and for the patience of the people of this city as we worked as quickly as possible to make sure it was safe for normal life to resume.

PSNI have confirmed that two out of the three hijackings in Derry last night saw drivers held at gunpoint. Royal Mail today not sending drivers to certain points in the city. Main line of inquiry points to the New IRA. https://t.co/6fvtLMgYhW  aoife-grace moore. (@aoifegracemoore) January 22, 2019

The PSNI say its main line of inquiry is that Saturdays bomb and Mondays spate of alerts were conducted by the New IRA, an amalgamation of dissident republican factions in Derry, who are allegedly responsible for the riots in the Bogside area of the city during the summer.

Meanwhile, the five men  aged 50, 42, 34 and two aged 21  who were arrested over the blast outside Bishop Street courthouse on Saturday night, were released unconditionally.Scotlands public services watchdog has accused the Scottish Government of a lack of progress over enabling her to hold public value investigations.

Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Public Services Obmudsman (SPSO), said the inability to hold this type of investigation is a significant gap in her powers.

She said an approach such as Irelands would help her raise concerns on behalf of vulnerable people, giving a voice to the voiceless.

Public value investigations are instigated by the ombudsman, whose office normally investigates complaints about public services lodged by the public.

They do not have to be about a specific complaint.

In a written submission to the Scottish Parliaments Local Government and Communities Committee, ahead of a meeting on Wednesday, Ms Agnew said she told the committee last year of legislative changes she sought, including the ability to hold public value investigations.

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Rosemary Agnew (Ashley Coombes/SPSO/PA)

The submission states: This is a significant gap in my powers when compared to other ombudsman schemes.

It is available as standard to many ombudsmen across Europe, particularly those jurisdictions most like Scotlands.

Ombudsman schemes that have these powers tend to use them sparingly.

The main point about the approach is that the investigations demonstrate public value and highlight issues that might not, through the normal course of a complaint, come to light.

In other jurisdictions, such as Ireland, they have shown to be very effective at raising issues faced by vulnerable groups  a voice for the voiceless.

The submission continues: I have continued to discuss these with the Scottish Government but am concerned about the lack of progress.

While discussions with the Scottish Government are ongoing, I have not yet had a definitive or final response.

She also called for legislative changes to enable those making complaints to no longer be legally required to submit them in writing, unless can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

Ms Agnew wants to be able to receive complaints in any format, which she said would remove communication barriers.Bolivias President Evo Morales has celebrated his 13 years in office amid controversy over whether he should be allowed to run again.

Last year, Bolivias top electoral court accepted Mr Morales candidacy for a fourth term despite a constitutional ban and referendum against such re-election.

Elections for the next five-year presidential term are set for October.

Mr Morales on Tuesday highlighted his governments achievements, including having South Americas strongest economic growth.

Musicians parade past the government palace in La Paz (Juan Karita/AP)

Mr Morales spoke during his annual speech to Congress.

He took office in 2005 and was re-elected in 2009 and 2014.

Bolivians rejected a constitutional amendment to allow more than two consecutive terms in a 2016 referendum.

But Mr Morales party convinced the constitutional court to rule his candidacy was legal, saying term limits violate citizens human right to run for office.Cake chain Patisserie Valerie has collapsed into administration, putting more than 3,000 jobs at risk.

The firm said discussions with its lenders HSBC and Barclays to extend a standstill agreement on its debts had failed, leaving it with no option but to appoint KPMG as administrator.

KPMG said it would continue to trade 121 out of 200 stores, but added that 70 cafes and concessions would close over the next few days, resulting in a significant number of redundancies.

More than 3,000 jobs are at risk (Nick Ansell/PA)Blair Nimmo, head of restructuring at KPMG and joint administrator, added: Our intention is to continue trading across the profitable stores, as collectively the brands have a strong presence on the high street and have proven very popular with consumers.

At the same time, we will be seeking a buyer for the business and are hopeful of a good level of interest.

Unfortunately, however, we have had to take the difficult decision to close 70 stores resulting in a significant number of redundancies.

We will be working with those affected employees, providing all support and assistance they need.

The cake firms parent company Patisserie Holdings has been grappling with the fallout of an accounting fraud since October.

It said on Tuesday evening that the extent of fraud meant it was unable to renew its bank loans and did not have sufficient funding to continue trading.

Chairman Luke Johnson has extended an unsecured, interest-free loan to help ensure that the January wages are paid to all staff working in the ongoing business, the company added.

The loan will also assist the administrators in trading as many profitable stores as possible while a sale process is undertaken.

Last week, Patisserie revealed KPMG had been hired to carry out a review of all options following the accounting scandal which pushed it close to collapse last year.

It also unveiled the devastating extent of irregularities in its books, which included thousands of false entries into the companys ledgers.

Rebecca Long-Bailey said the option of employees being given a chance to buy out the company had never been on the cards (Kirsty OConnor/PA Wire)

The firm said an initial investigation pointed to cashflow and profitability being worse than previously thought when the problem was first discovered in October.

The discovery of a black hole in the companys accounts in October last year pushed it into a crisis which saw it almost cease trading.

A rescue plan was passed by shareholders in November, resulting in the issue of 15 million worth of new shares.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said: News that Patisserie Valerie has collapsed into insolvency as a result of fraud will worry workers and their families.

She added: The option of employees being given the opportunity to buy out the company has never been on the cards.

Labour is looking at possible changes to the law and the financing necessary to support employees considering the option of taking over companies when faced with similar situations.Police have named a young woman who died after being hit by a car in East Renfrewshire.

Astrid Yeates, 21, was crossing the A77 Ayr Road in Giffnock on Friday morning when she was struck.

Ms Yeates, who lived locally, was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow but died from her injuries.

The car driver was not hurt.

Police are continuing to appeal for witnesses to the collision near Woodvale Avenue at around 7.35am.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sergeant Andrew Mair on 101, quoting incident number 0531 of January 18.The current political leadership in Mauritius, Portugal, Ireland and Trinidad & Tobago has an impressive sprinkling of diaspora members.

The global Indian diaspora, linked to India through ancestry, nationality, ethnicity or some other means, is over 31 million strong, the largest in the world and almost equivalent to the population of Malaysia. Early emigration since the times of King Ashoka to subsequent traders, merchants and artisans who travelled to Central Asia, the Arab peninsula, African ports, Southeast Asian trading points led to the ubiquitous Indian diaspora being spread far and wide. The later wave of migrants, mid-19th century onwards, were indentured labourers, primarily from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who went to island nations like Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji etc., as also to the east African port cities and South Africa. Post-Independence, the economic opportunities in the oil boom of Gulf sheikhdoms, professionals in the US and liberal emigration policies of Australia and Canada accounted for major emigration of the Indian populace.

Today, while Mauritius has an overwhelming Indian majority of over 68 per cent, others like the UAE with 40 per cent, Suriname with 27 per cent, Kuwait with 21 per cent, etc. have significant populations of NRIs or people of Indian descent. The single largest Indian community is in the United States with a population of nearly 4.5 million  they are also the most financially affluent ethnicity, with a household income of over $122,000, out-earning all other ethnicities.

The current political leadership in Mauritius, Portugal, Ireland and Trinidad & Tobago has an impressive sprinkling of diaspora members. This logically accrues a significant cultural, economic, diplomatic and political relevance and visibility for the Indian identity. Befittingly, the diaspora is a heterogeneous bouquet of religions, regions, races and identities that compose India itself.

The recently concluded 15th Pravasi Bharitiya Divas at Varanasi celebrated this vibrant community with the attendance of Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Norwegian MP Himanshu Gulati and 4,000 others. The conventions theme created a sense of reciprocal expectations from the diaspora  Role of Indian diaspora in building New India. While India remains the worlds top recipient of remittances from its diaspora, with nearly $80 billion in 2018 (China reportedly got around $67 billion), its role in economic health via remittances and potential investments is significant. However, the extended expectation of a more favourable political or diplomatic outlook towards India, owing to the significant numbers of the Indian diaspora, is often misplaced.

Much brouhaha surrounds the Indian-origin female Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, in her 2020 Presidential bid in the US, as indeed, of the bid of the first Hindu member of US Congress, Samoan-American Tulsi Gabbard, who is clearly not even part of the Indian diaspora. Even though Ms Harris identifies herself more with her African-American roots as opposed to Indian-American (her father was a Jamaican and her mother a Tamilian), the numeric-financial power of the Indian diaspora may lead to the subtle amplification of her Indian roots. Whereas Ms Gabbards Indian connection by way of her personal faith and ostensible equation with the Indian leadership in Delhi has put the influential Hindu organisations in the US firmly on her side. That both of these candidates are Democrats, and that in an increasingly polarised world, underpinned by unashamed realpolitik, that the Republican President is historically more pro-India than a Democratic one, is of little consequence. Despite Donald Trumps blatant whimsicalities, inelegance and unbelievable failings, the emergence of India as a strategic pivot against common-strains of concerns is more definite. Yet, names of potential Republican candidates like Larry Hogan, Jeff Flake or Bob Corker do not resonate in the Indian imagination as yet. The sense that somehow an Indian-origin person will be more amiable, responsive and favourable towards India is solely an emotional reaction.

Recent experience with the likes of crusader prosecutor Preet Bharara or the previous governor of Lousiana, Bobby Jindal, has been contentious and often left a sour taste. Mr Jindal, in particular, downplayed his Indianess, never joined the India-Caucus as a Congressman or visibly championed Indian causes, and was routinely mocked for his extra white photos that almost seemed apologetic of his heritage. Similarly, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad distances himself from his Indian roots to dial-up his Malayan credentials, whereas the likes of Nikki Haley and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar have been more open in acknowledging their ancestry (even at the cost of pejorative barbs like typically Indian).

Despite the excitement in India owing to the diasporas individual achievements, expectations of a necessarily pro-India tilt are unfounded and unrealistic. Beyond the cultural affinity, these individuals owe both their political and moral allegiance to the flag that they swear by, and any conduct to the contrary does not behoove a citizenship, irrespective of their ancestry. We too would take justifiable affront to any individual who takes Indian citizenship, yet retains a higher sense of loyalty and fidelity to their ancestral lands. Therefore, the celebration of a Mother Teresa, Annie Besant, Ruskin Bond, Tom Alter or Mark Tully as Indians, as opposed to their original ancestry.

On the hardnosed tables of international diplomacy and compulsions, a Mauritius would be driven by its own interests in wooing Chinese investments or a Seychelles in spurning an Indian naval port. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costas (Goan ancestry) polite assertion as the advocate of India in Europe would be constrained by Portugals own limitations, interests and internal politics that will realistically define the practicality of the well-meant statement.

Yet the importance of Indian soft power via its throbbing diaspora cannot be underesti-mated in the long run nor can their ability to contribute economically (however the inherent higher-rate-of-return on investments made in India is an oft understated reality). More importantly, as the ambassadors of Indias lofty secularity and industriousness, the diaspora does a yeoman service in projecting the nation as progressive and tolerant. And the talented diaspora, unlike a lot of other ethnicities, is not known for any nefarious, regressive or ulterior agendas that could militate against the sensibilities of their adopted homeland, permanently or otherwise.The UK Government has cancelled talks with senior politicians from Scotland and Wales over Brexit, MSPs have been told.

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Governments External Affairs Secretary, said a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee due to be held on Thursday will no longer take place.

She said the move flies in the face of the Prime Ministers rhetoric after Theresa May had promised an enhanced role for the devolved governments in Brexit negotiations.

Mrs May told the Commons on Monday that while it was the job of her administration to negotiate for the whole of the UK, ministers were committed to giving the devolved administrations an enhanced role in the next phase, respecting their competence and vital interest in these negotiations.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted at the time she was very sceptical about the commitment.

Ms Hyslop told MSPs in Holyrood on Tuesday: Given the Prime Ministers approach to engagement with the Scottish Government to date, her offer of an enhanced role for devolved administrations lacks credibility.

She added: This morning, the UK Government cancelled a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee that deals with EU negotiations, which was due to take place on Thursday  a decision which flies in the face of the Prime Ministers rhetoric.

External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop (Jane Barlow/PA)

A UK Government spokesman confirmed Thursdays meeting in Cardiff would not go ahead due to diary pressures on the part of Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington.

He said: We place the utmost importance on engaging with the devolved administrations ahead of the UK leaving the European Union and as you would expect, there are regular and detailed discussions at all levels.

The Prime Minister will meet with the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales later this week.

Bruce Crawford, convener of the Scottish Parliaments Constitution Committee, questioned Ms Hyslop on the best way forward of resolving the current impasse over Brexit, after Mrs Mays proposed withdrawal deal was defeated by a record majority in the House of Commons.

Ms Hyslop backed a second European referendum to try to achieve this  something the PM has ruled out.

The External Affairs Secretary said: It is important there is some consensus on the way forward but in the absence of consensus in parliament the best resolution would be a second EU referendum.

She criticised Mrs May for failing to consider seeking an extension to the Article 50 negotiation deadline, and for refusing to rule out a no deal Brexit.

Ms Hyslop said: The Scottish Government will continue to do everything we can to protect Scotlands interests and the First Minister is due to meet the Prime Minister in the coming days.

The Prime Minister should now focus on securing an extension to article 50, during which time arrangements can be made for a second referendum which includes the option to remain within the EU.A Catholic boys school has been closed for a day while protests continue over videotaped encounters between some of their students, members of a black religious sect and Native American marchers outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC last week.

President Donald Trump tweeted that the students at Kentuckys Covington Catholic High School have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be.

Nick Sandmann and the students of Covington have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be. They have captivated the attention of the world, and I know they will use it for the good - maybe even to bring people together. It started off unpleasant, but can end in a dream!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019

The president said he hoped the teenagers will use the attention for good, and maybe even to bring people together.

The first images tightly focused on the students wearing Make America Great Again hats and laughing derisively as an elderly Native American beat a drum.

Longer videos showed the drummer intervened as a street preacher made racist statements with a megaphone.

The incident saw a meeting of three groups with different agendas.

A sign reading This Was Not Okay is seen in front of Covington Catholic High School (Bryan Woolston/AP)

A group of five black men shouted vulgar insults while protesting against centuries of oppression.

The Catholic high school students were visiting Washington for a rally to end abortion.

Native Americans were marching to end injustice for indigenous peoples across the globe who have seen their lands overrun by outside settlers.

The three groups met for just a few minutes on Friday at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, an encounter captured in videos that went viral over the weekend and again cast a spotlight on a polarised nation that does not appear to agree on anything.

A police car sits in front of Covington Catholic High School (Bryan Woolston/AP)

At first the focus was on a short video showing one of the high school students, Mr Sandmann, wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, popularised by Mr Trump, and appearing to smirk while a crowd of other teens laughed derisively behind him, as he faced off against a 64-year-old Native American, Nathan Phillips, who played a traditional chant on a drum.

However, a separate video showing members of a group calling itself the Black Hebrew Israelites taunting everyone on the mall that day, calling the Native Americans who had gathered there for the Indigenous Peoples March Uncle Tomahawks and Five dollar Indians and the high school students crackers and worse.

It was an ugly encounter but one that nevertheless ended with no punches thrown or other violence.Snow fell across parts of the country and temperatures struggled to get much above freezing as a band of wintry weather hit the UK on Tuesday.

A Met Office yellow warning for ice came into force at 4pm on Tuesday and continues until 11am on Wednesday, covering much of the country.

Travellers faced some disruption as roads were closed and flights delayed due to the icy conditions.

Afternoon treatment underway on the #M80 in the sun. Could see a few wintry showers but mainly clear, dry and cold for the rest of the day and overnight. Further grits planned for the early hours #winterinfo pic.twitter.com/RzdVX7WABk  Amey SE Trunk Roads (@SETrunkRoads) January 22, 2019

Gritters out in force across Scotland overnight were restocking supplies to return and treat the roads.

Snow was not confined to the hills in Scotland on Tuesday, with flurries in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There was also snowfall on the Pennines in the north of England.

By mid-morning Police Scotland had received 125 reports of road incidents, with the force urging motorists to slow down and drive to the conditions.

Across Scotland, we have received 125 road crash incidents since 0700hrs this morning , many due to adverse weather. Please slow down and drive to the conditions. A yellow weather warning remains in place until 12noon today. pic.twitter.com/yn6Pc9V2dv  Police Scotland Control Rooms (@polscotcontrol) January 22, 2019

The A83 was blocked in Argyll and Bute, while the B974 in Aberdeenshire closed after vehicles got stuck in snow.

Flights to Glasgow and Edinburgh from Stornoway Airport were delayed and three schools were shut in the Highlands due to the weather.

Aberdeenshire was one of the coldest spots on Tuesday, where the temperature was expected to plunge to minus 5C.

(PA Graphics)

Met Office meteorologist Simon Partridge said: The showers will continue to make their way further eastwards.

An ice warning covers Northern Ireland, western Scotland and much of England and Wales.

The showers will on the whole fade away over night, just persisting down those western coasts, and it will be another cold night.

Gritters to be out on primary routes tonight and from 4.45am, & city centre pavements from 4.45am. Road surface temp forecast for -7.2C o'night in Bridge of Don area & not getting above 0C before 11am in rest of city. Roads are mostly dry but be aware there might be icy patches. pic.twitter.com/3kyuEWTBJ9  Aberdeen City Council (@AberdeenCC) January 22, 2019

Towns and cities will be around or just below freezing. But outside the cities temperatures a good few degrees below that.

In Scotland you may see a few spots drop as low at minus 9 or minus 10C.Republicans in Londonderry say they are being used by the police in an effort to calm tensions after a car bombing in the city on Saturday night.

Five men aged 50, 42, 34 and two aged 21, who were arrested over the blast outside Bishop Street courthouse, have been released unconditionally.

Representatives for the men, who belong to republican political party Saoradh, claim the arrests were a publicity exercise by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

The harassment from security services is nothing new to republicans but since the formation of Saoradh in 2016, the harassment has increased, spokesman Paddy Gallagher said.

We have people who are stopped and searched on a daily basis, family homes have been raided, its a wide range of people that are being targeted.

Paddy Gallagher (Aoife Moore/PA)

The arrests (on Sunday) were indiscriminate, it was names out of a hat.

One of the men was arrested in a dawn raid in a one-bedroom flat, which he says was searched for over eight hours.

Hes a member of Saoradh youth division, hes a 21-year-old man, a young man, and its these people who oppose the status quo who are being targeted.

(PA Graphics)

Ciaran Shiels of Madden & Finucane solicitors, who represents the 21-year-old, said: There was never any question of charges in this case. This arrest was particularly cynical. Not a shred of incriminatory evidence was put to him in two days of interviews.

In fact our office was contacted by a number of witnesses confirming our clients exact whereabouts on Saturday, all of which could be readily corroborated by CCTV.

Saoradh is based at Junior McDaid House near the Bogside area of Derry, a republican ex-prisoner welfare service.

Junior McDaid House says it offers free welfare rights services on housing and community issues, and represents current and ex-republican prisoners.

Saoradh was linked by some in the media to Saturdays car bombing after releasing a statement on its website.

Junior McDaid House near the Bogside area of Derry where political party Saoradh have their headquarters. (Aoife Moore/ PA Wire)

The statement noted the date of the attack on the Bishop Street courthouse coincided with 100 years since the start of the Irish war of independence.

However, the group says it 100% denies involvement in the bombing and further security alerts on Monday.

Saoradh are a standalone party, and we only speak for Saoradh, Mr Gallagher said.

We released a statement saying that there was an attack on a British institution highlighting that it happened. Obviously that was misinterpreted by media and whoever else, but the statement merely pointed out that it happened on a British institution on the anniversary and 100 years on were still partitioned.

We understand why these attacks happen, and that was pointed out in the statement. It does appear that it will continue, maybe, but we only speak for Saoradh.

Were a legitimate, political, republican, anti-Good Friday Agreement party, and we have support throughout Ireland. Establishment parties constantly say we have no support, but if that was we would shut down.

On Monday, Derrys top police officer denied claims the arrests were used for publicity.

PSNI Superintendent Gordon McCalmont and Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton (Niall Carson/PA)

Superintendent Gordon McCalmont said: I would challenge that. Everything we do has to be lawful, proportional and necessary.

The checks and balances that are there before we make those arrests would really challenge those comments.

That criticism is totally unwarranted.A pensioner has been found guilty of murdering his estranged wife after she left him for an old flame via Facebook.

David Thomas, 74, lay in wait and stabbed 69-year-old Sheila Thomas with a kitchen knife and bludgeoned her with a lump of wood at the family home in Herne Hill, south London.

The killing on July 24 last year came a month after Mrs Thomas, a mother of five, left her husband of 50 years for a man she had known as a teenager.

The Old Bailey heard how Mrs Thomas had a fling with Victor Cassar in 1975 and then got together again after he sought her out on social media.

When the defendant found out, he had insisted his wife should move out of the family home in June 2018.

Prosecutor Brian ONeill QC told jurors it was a planned killing.

The statue of "Lady Justice" by the British sculptor, Frederick William Pomeroy, which stands on the dome of the Central Criminal Court also referred to as the Old Bailey, on Old Bailey, central London.

About a week before the murder the defendant had asked a friend whether he could get a gun for him, the court heard.

Mr ONeill said: Mrs Thomas had gone to the address to collect some belongings believing the defendant would not be at home. Indeed he told her in a phone call the previous evening that he would not be there. But that was a lie. He was there, waiting for her, waiting to kill her.

A neighbour heard a male voice coming from the address angrily shouting tell me where you live, said Mr ONeill.

A womans voice responded let me go, let go of me.

The neighbour then heard the man threaten to break her neck.

When police arrived at the scene, Thomas opened the door wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt and shorts, the court heard.

He told police that he had been stabbed during a fight and that Mrs Thomas was upstairs.

She was found in a bedroom with at least two stab wounds to the chest and head injuries.

Giving evidence, Thomas told jurors he had lost control after his wife claimed he was not the father of two of their daughters.

He told the court: She said I dont love you, I dont know why you are worried about me, I have never loved you.'

She told him she detested having sex with him and that she should have left him years ago, the court heard.

She said I will tell you something now you dont want to knowyou are not the father to two of your daughters, Thomas said.

A jury deliberated for nine and a half hours to find Thomas guilty of murder by a majority of 11 to one.

Judge Richard Marks QC remanded the defendant into custody to be sentenced on Thursday.

Detective Chief Inspector John Massey, of Scotland Yard, said: This is a particularly tragic set of circumstances.

When the victim and the person responsible are husband and wife there are bound to be devastating effects for the immediate family and friends.

I hope this verdict brings a sense of justice for Sheila and those affected, and will allow them to take the next steps in rebuilding their lives.Brexit-backing businessman Sir James Dyson is to relocate the Dyson head office from the UK to Singapore.

The bombshell announcement will mean Dyson is no longer a British registered company and Singapore will become its main tax base.

The headquarter switch from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, is likely to prove controversial given that Sir James  the companys billionaire chairman, founder and owner  is an outspoken proponent of Brexit.

It is the second blow Dyson has dealt to Brexit Britain after last years announcement that it will manufacture its new electric cars in Singapore, rather than the UK.

In justifying the move, chief executive Jim Rowan dismissed the idea of Brexit and lower taxes being a motivation.

The move is nothing to do with Brexit or tax, its about making sure we are future proofed. There are huge revenue opportunities in Singapore, China is the poster child of that, he said.

See you later: James Dyson is off to Singapore (PA)

The tax difference is negligible for us, we are taxed all over the world and we will continue to pay tax in the UK. We will continue to invest in the UK, in Malmesbury, in Bristol and London.

Mr Rowan confirmed that Sir James was integral to the decision to ditch Britain.

Two of Dysons senior executives will move to Singapore initially, with the head count to grow over the coming years.

The company, best known for its vacuum cleaners and other domestic appliances, is working on developing an electric vehicle in the Asian nation.

The firm said in a statement: An increasing majority of Dysons customers and all of our manufacturing operations are now in Asia; this shift has been occurring for some time and will quicken as Dyson brings its electric vehicle to market.

We are now at a point where Dysons corporate head office will relocate there to reflect the increasing importance of Asia to Dysons business.

But having one of Britains most successful manufacturers quit the UK comes at a sensitive time, with several car makers including Nissan, Ford and Toyota warning about the rising prospects of a no-deal Brexit, which would jeopardise their operations in the country.

Today we announced our 2018 highlights. We invested in our future technologies and products, including a new 200m campus at Hullavington, UK. Turnover grew 28% to 4.4bn and profits grew 33% to 1.1bn, driven by growing global demand. pic.twitter.com/T9dVSk8mrq  Dyson (@Dyson) January 22, 2019

Dyson was keen to stress its commitment to Britain, pointing out that it is investing 200 million in new buildings and testing facilities at its campus at Hullavington Airfield.

The company bought the disused airfield two years ago and has already renovated two hangars at the 517-acre site.

The announcement was made alongside Dysons full year results for 2018, when profits topped 1 billion for the first time.

Turnover rocketed 28% to 4.4 billion and profits jump 33% to 1.1 billion, with Mr Rowan pointing to the success of products such as its Supersonic hairdryer.

Liberal Democrat MP and Best for Britain supporter Layla Moran said the move smacks of staggering hypocrisy.

She added: It is utterly unbelievable that the business face of Brexit is moving yet another part of his business out of the UK.

This can only be seen as a vote of no confidence in the idea of Brexit Britain.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland said he was disappointed by the announcement and said he would ask for a clear explanation of why this is happening.

The South Swindon MP told BBC Radio 4s PM programme that many Dyson employees live in his constituency, adding: Im disappointed to say the least that at this time a company led by a person who advocated Brexit has decided to relocate outside of this country.

Im going to want to have a clear explanation as to why this is happening and what effect this will have on the constituents who I represent.A review will be carried out at Scotlands flagship hospital after it emerged one of the two patients who died there after contracting an infection linked to pigeon droppings was a child.

Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed a post-mortem examination carried out on the youngster showed the Cryptococcus bacteria was a contributory factor in their death.

An earlier patient at Glasgows Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was also found to have an infection caused by inhaling the fungus Cryptococcus, which is primarily found in soil and pigeon droppings, but Ms Freeman confirmed it did not contribute to their death.

Pigeon droppings appeared in a plant room on the hospitals rooftop via a small break in the wall, which was invisible to the naked eye, Ms Freeman said.

Adding it was still unclear how the bacteria had entered the ventilation system, she said a review would be carried out in the design, build, handover and maintenance of the flagship hospital.

It was built for the Scottish Government at a cost of some 842 million and opened at the end of April 2015.

Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde/PA)

Despite the hospital having only recently been constructed, Ms Freeman said there appeared to be a number of instances where the fabric of building was less than satisfactory.

After visiting the hospital on Tuesday morning, the Health Secretary said: I have agreed a review, with external expert advice, that will look at the design of the building, the commissioning of the work, the construction of the building, the handover of the building and the maintenance of the building, in order to ensure we identify where issues were raised that should have been addressed and where maintenance programmes now should be perhaps more robust or more frequent.

Ms Freeman announced the review after setting out clear factual points on the two patient deaths to MSPs at Holyrood.

She said the Cryptococcus bacteria had initially been identified in one patient in November 2018 but was not linked to that persons death the following month.

Ms Freeman added: In December a post-mortem of a child who has passed away conformed that Cryptococcus was both present and a contributory factor in their death.

She explained the second case triggered the introduction of additional infection control measures by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, including prescribing anti-fungal medication to vulnerable patients and the provision of additional air filters.

I am confident the board have taken all the steps they should to ensure and maintain patient safety, she said.

The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate will review the incident and make any recommendations deemed appropriate.

My Topical Question will bring the Health Secretary to Parliament today to provide further information, after two patients contracted a fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings at the hospital. The patients later died and our thoughts remain with their families. pic.twitter.com/L1WCUvPe0l  Monica Lennon (@MonicaLennon7) January 22, 2019

Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said the public would be shocked to learn one of those who had died was a child as she claimed there had been a complete lack of clarity from the health board about the infection.

Ms Lennon said: I think the people of Scotland will feel it is absolutely extraordinary that in a modern hospital, Scotlands flagship and apparently super hospital no less, we have a situation where pigeons and infections can kill patients.

If this unthinkable and deadly infection can happen at the flagship Queen Elizabeth, what is to stop it happening at other hospitals?

The Labour MSP pressed Ms Freeman on when the Scottish Government had been alerted to the issue, after reports an outpatient had contacted previous health secretary Shona Robison in March 2018 regarding problems with pigeons at the hospital.

Ms Freeman said a thorough search of records by both the Government and staff at Ms Robisons constituency office had found no trace of this letter.

The Health Secretary said: The Government was first informed of the Cryptococcus infection in two patients on December 21.

That was the right time for the Government to be informed because it was the post-mortem following the death of the child that identified the second case, and that second case is the trigger then for additional infection control action, therefore we were rightly informed.

Following the hospital visit Ms Freeman said she had been made aware of a further two fungal infections in patients, though neither are connected to the Cryptococcus infection.

Additional control measures have been put in place and the source of the infection is being investigated, she said.A no-deal Brexit will lead to a hard border in Ireland, the European Commission has said.

Irelands foreign minister Simon Coveney said Dublin would face a very difficult job to avoid the need for physical infrastructure on the border with Northern Ireland if Theresa Mays Withdrawal Agreement failed.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Ireland and the UK would have to negotiate a new agreement on full alignment of customs and regulations to avoid a hard border.

The warnings came as MPs tabled amendments in Parliament to the Prime Ministers deal, the rejection of which by an overwhelming 230 votes last week has thrown into doubt proposals for a backstop to keep the Irish border open.

In a break from usual procedures, the amendments will be voted on by MPs on January 29 in another day of high Brexit drama in the Commons which could put Mrs May under intense political pressure to change course.

One plan, tabled by Tory MP Dame Caroline Spelman and Labours Jack Dromey, would effectively rule out a no-deal Brexit.

Another, from Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve, would give MPs powers to take control of the parliamentary agenda on a series of days in the run-up to the official date of EU withdrawal on March 29 to pass resolutions on the way ahead.

Dominic Grieve (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

A cross-party group of MPs, including Labours Yvette Cooper and Tory former minister Nick Boles, is seeking to give time for a Bill to suspend the Article 50 withdrawal process if there is no new deal with Brussels by the end of February.

Labours Hilary Benn is hoping to secure a range of indicative votes on various Brexit options.

And the chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland Committee, Conservative Andrew Murrison, put forward proposals  which he said were designed to appeal to moderate MPs who just want Brexit sorted  for a time limit on the backstop.

Just re-tabled my amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement. It reads; <At end add: but insists on an expiry date to the backstop.>

Short and sweet. Likely to appeal to moderate MPs who just want #Brexit sorted.  Andrew Murrison MP (@AWMurrison) January 22, 2019

Labours frontbench tabled its own amendment calling for a vote on the partys plan for a customs union with the EU and on whether to legislate for a public vote.

The move was welcomed as a step forward by Labour supporters of a second EU referendum including MP David Lammy, but shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey insisted it did not tie the party into backing a new vote in any way.

Speaking in Brussels, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said there was nothing new in Mrs Mays statement to MPs on Monday, in which she promised to seek a means to keep the Irish border open in a way which can win the support of Parliament.

(PA Graphics)

Asked whether the EU commitment to the peace process would last whether or not there is a deal, Mr Schinas told reporters: If you like to push me and speculate on what might happen in a no-deal scenario in Ireland, I think its pretty obvious, you will have a hard border.

Our commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and everything that we have been doing for years with our tools, instruments and programmes will have to take inevitably into account this fact.

So, of course, we are for peace, of course we stand behind the Good Friday Agreement, but thats what a no-deal scenario would entail.

Mr Varadkar later told the Irish Parliament: Both the UK and Ireland will have an obligation to honour the Good Friday Agreement, protect the peace process and honour our commitment to the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland, that there wont be a hard border.

We would have to negotiate an agreement on customs and regulations that meant full alignment so there will be no hard border.

Mr Schinas said the Withdrawal Agreement sealed between the UK and EU last November was not up for negotiation, and channelled the Spice Girls as he said: We expect the United Kingdom to tell us what they want, what they really, really want.

Mr Coveney later said: In the absence of the backstop and a Withdrawal Agreement, we have a very difficult job to do to prevent border infrastructure, but of course that would have to be our focus.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised the people of Northern Ireland that the Government would do everything in our power to avoid a hard border after Brexit, amid fears it could undermine the peace process.

But in a TV interview earlier this month, she cautioned that this would require action to resolve issues arising from Brexit, telling the BBCs Andrew Marr: No border doesnt happen simply because people sit around saying, well, we wont have a border.

She has faced fierce opposition from Conservative Eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party, who fear the backstop could trap the UK indefinitely in a customs union and force Northern Ireland to follow single market regulations.

But former cabinet minister Damian Green, a close ally of Mrs May, said he had detected signs of opinion shifting, telling BBC Radio 4s World At One: People are now actively looking for a deal that they can support, rather than actively looking for reasons why they cant support whatever has been put forward.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said it was very concerning that Mrs May had not removed the option of a no deal from the table.

Mary Lou McDonald (Niall Carson/PA)

Speaking outside the Irish parliament in Dublin, she said: As each day and as each week passes, we come perilously closer to the prospect or at least the possibility of a crash Brexit.

Green MP Caroline Lucas warned of a potential collapse of law and order and a threat to peace in Northern Ireland if Brexit went ahead without a deal.

Speaking at a Peoples Vote press conference in Westminster, Ms Lucas said: The Government has not put 3,500 troops on stand-by to hand out plastic Union flags for everyone to wave at their no-deal Brexit street parties.

Its put troops on stand-by to help deal with the potential collapse of law and order.

She said it was unforgivable for advocates of no deal to play games with peace in Northern Ireland.A copy of an 18th century book of pornographic prose labelled as the most famous banned book in the country has sold for nine times its guide price.

Memoirs Of The Life Of Miss Fanny Hill, The Career Of A Woman Of Pleasure, London, by John Cleland, sold for 360 despite only being estimated at 40-60.

Cleland was arrested and handed a jail sentence for obscenity after the book was published in 1748, and it was banned from publication in America until 1966 and in the UK until 1970.

The author of the book was originally jailed for obscenity (Hansons/PA)

The copy sold at auction was an edition from 1880, and Jim Spencer, antiquarian books expert at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire, said: I wasnt surprised to see this book do well. We had strong interest prior to the sale. It sold to a private UK buyer.

It was one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, the first English pornographic prose.

Today Fanny Hill is considered an important piece of political parody and sexual philosophy.

Antiquarian books expert at Derbyshires Hansons Auctioneers said some of the terminology in the book "raises a smile" (Hansons/PA)

Mr Spencer, who found the book by chance after cataloguing items in his saleroom, added: It stands as one of the great works of 18th century fiction for its unique combination of parody, erotica and philosophy of sensuality.

Some of the terminology in the book raises a smile.

Cleland boasted that he could write a sexually exciting story without using a single foul word. Instead he conjured up descriptions such as Red Headed Champion, The Engine of Love Assaults, Stiff Staring Truncheon and Sturdy Stallion.Sir David Attenborough has warned it is difficult to overstate the environmental crisis facing the planet, as he was interviewed live on stage by the Duke of Cambridge.

The veteran broadcaster urged leaders to care for the natural world as he spoke with William at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Blue Planet and Dynasties narrator stressed the frightening mechanisms humans have for destruction, and warned how a healthy natural world was absolutely essential to human life.

Sir David told the duke: The future of the natural world is in our hands. We have never been more powerful.

We can wreck it with ease. We can wreck it without even knowing we are doing it.

And if we wreck the natural world, in the end, we wreck ourselves.

The Duke of Cambridge in conversation with Sir David Attenborough during WEF 2019, discussing Sir Davids career including his upcoming series Our Planet, urgent environmental challenges, and his advice to the next generation of global leaders.The Annual Meeting 2019 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 22, 2019.Copyright by World Economic Forum / Benedikt von Loebell

The broadcaster added: It is difficult to overstate it. We are now so numerous, so powerful, so all-pervasive, the mechanisms that we have for destruction are so wholesale and so frightening, that we can actually exterminate whole ecosystems without even noticing it.

Sir David also discussed his new nature documentary Our Planet, saying streaming it on Netflix would allow it to be seen by millions of people around the world.

The incredible story of the one place we all call home.

It's #OurPlanet.  pic.twitter.com/x1Ga4Kt3wD  Our Planet (@ourplanet) November 8, 2018

Describing the modern technology used in his documentary making, he said: The facilities we now have are unbelievable. We can go everywhere. We can go to the bottom of the sea, we can go into space, we can use drones, we can use helicopters, we can speed things up and we can slow them down.

So the natural world has never been exposed to this degree before.

He urged people not to waste the riches of the natural world on which we depend and to respect the planet by not throwing away food or power.

Sir David added: Just care for the natural world, of which we are an essential part.

 LIVE: The Duke of Cambridge in conversation with Sir David Attenborough at #WEF19 on the urgent challenges facing the next generation of environmental leaders: https://t.co/CcYMfonaDL  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) January 22, 2019

Second in line to the throne William described it as a personal treat to be interviewing Sir David.

The duke has spoken of his fondness for watching Sir Davids programmes as a child and previously described him as having the single most important impact in my conservation thinking.

He revealed in Davos: Its a personal treat for me to be sitting here asking you questions.

Normally I have to endure people asking me questions so its quite nice to be turning the tables for once.

One of Sir Davids favourite clips from Our Planet  dramatic footage of an Arctic glacier carving up and falling into the sea  was played during the Forum.

The naturalist said: One of the most immediate dangers facing the planet today is rising temperatures In the Arctic temperatures are rising very fast.

As Sir David discussed the difficulty in capturing the fast-moving glaciers on film, William joked that they were a bit like children  unpredictable.

On Monday, Sir David was given a Crystal Award for his leadership in environmental stewardship at the WEF, and used his acceptance speech to call for a plan to tackle environmental problems.

The duke greets Sir David Attenborough (Markus Schreiber/AP)

William asked Sir David: People of my generation now are beginning to step into positions of leadership around the world.

The work to save the planet is probably, largely going to happen on our watch.

What advice do you have for my generation?

Sir David, who was given a standing ovation by delegates at the end of the interview, responded: There has never been a time when more people have been out of touch with the natural world, than there is now.

We have to recognise that every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food we take, comes from the natural world.

And if we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves. We are one coherent ecosystem.

Its not just a question of beauty, or interest, or wonder  its the essential part of human life is a healthy planet.

The pair also discussed how Sir David will be seeking a global deal for nature in Beijing in 2020.

Tanya Steele, chief executive of WWF-UK (World Wildlife Fund) of which the naturalist is an ambassador, welcomed his call for action.

We urgently need a new global deal for nature and people to kick-start a worldwide programme of recovery and, at the same time, bold action to restore nature at home in the UK, she said.

We are the first generation to know that we are destroying the world and almost certainly the last that can do anything about it.Kishors reaction to Ms Vadras appointment has given rise to speculation that the Janata Dal(U) has not given up on the Congress.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadras appointment as Congress general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh has once again revived talk of a possible rapprochement between the Congress and the Janata Dal (U). It is an acknowledged fact that Prashant Kishor, former poll strategist and now Janata Dal (U) vice-president, had met Congress leaders several months ago on behalf of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with an offer of a tie-up. The Congress, however, did not respond too enthusiastically as it did not want to take any decision without the concurrence of its ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which was not forthcoming. Mr Kishor is known to have a good equation with Ms Vadra as he had worked closely with her during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in his capacity as a poll strategist for the Congress. In fact, Mr Kishor had then suggested that Ms Vadra should enter politics as he believed her presence would make a huge impact in the Uttar Pradesh polls but it was not to be. Mr Kishors reaction to Ms Vadras appointment has given rise to speculation that the Janata Dal(U) has not given up on the Congress. One of the most awaited entries in Indian politics is finally here. While people may debate the timing, exact role, and position, to me, the real news is that she finally decided to take the plunge! Congratulations and best wishes to Priyanka Gandhi, he tweeted.



Reports about Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindias meeting with the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister at his residence in Bhopal last week set Delhis political grapevine buzzing. Though both leaders clarified that it was a mere courtesy call, it has not stopped people from speculating about the real reason for this meeting. It is being said that Mr Chouhan offered Mr Scindia the chief ministers post if he switched sides to the Bharatiya Janata Party since it is certain that the Kamal Nath-led government will not last long given the Congress Partys thin majority in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. Mr Chouhan apparently has his own reasons for making this offer. He believes that if the BJP does topple the Congress government, he will not make it as chief minister and that the post will instead go to his arch-rival, Kailash Vijayvargiya. Others maintain that Mr Scindia reached out to Mr Chouhan to send out a message to his bete noire, Digvijaya Singh, that like him, he also has the ability to enjoy a rapport with his political opponents. Some said Mr Scindia made this move to improve his acceptability in the state with an eye on the future. While these stories are swirling around, Mr Scindia will have his hands full now that he has been given charge of western Uttar Pradesh ahead of a crucial Lok Sabha election.

Ever since he was expelled from the Samajwadi Party by its new leader Akhilesh Yadav two years ago, Amar Singh has been making strenuous efforts to find a new home as he is clearly lost without being attached to a political party. Described variously as kingmaker and deal maker, the former Samajwadi Party leader has zeroed in on the Bharatiya Janata Party as his next choice. But the BJP has been cool to his overtures though it is all too willing to use Mr Singhs skills when required. As a result, Mr Singh is said to have tried his luck with media baron and fellow Rajya Sabha member Subhash Chandra in the belief that he is close to PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. Besides, Mr Singh has also been making the right noises. He once said that his life was dedicated to Mr Modi and later, when asked who would be the next PM, Mr Singh unhesitatingly said it would be Mr Modi. Mr Singh got his hopes up about his possible induction into the BJP when the PM especially referred to him at a public event in Lucknow last year. Mr Singh, who was seated in the audience, obviously felt emboldened as he lost no time in calling on Uttar Pradesh chief Yogi Adityanath after the programme.

News about their romance and impending marriage had hit the headlines nearly three years ago. The media had then been abuzz with news that former Chief Election Commissioner of India S.Y. Quraishi and Nepals current Election Commissioner Ila Sharma would soon be tying the nuptial knot. Their romance is said to have blossomed when they met in 2015 at a conference in Mexico on money in politics. When these reports first came out, Mr Quraishi had taken to Twitter to describe them as speculative though he did say that Ila and I are indeed very good friends. Many reports and denials later, the two finally got married recently. This time there was no publicity as the couple made sure it was a quiet affair with no band, baja or baraat.The Irish Government has admitted it would be very difficult to avoid border infrastructure in Ireland under a no-deal Brexit.

Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney said his focus remained on the Withdrawal Agreement and the backstop insurance policy.

On Tuesday, a European Commission spokesman suggested Britain exiting the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement in March may lead to the imposition of a hard frontier between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney said: In the absence of the backstop and a Withdrawal Agreement we have a very difficult job to do to prevent border infrastructure, but of course that would have to be our focus.

The Irish Government has insisted for months that while it will prepare for a hard Brexit with the UK at the ports and airports, it will not put in place infrastructure to check goods or people at the land border with Northern Ireland.

The backstop in the draft Withdrawal Agreement has been a central part of Dublins plan to avoid checks on the Irish border.

The Irish Governments Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney has admitted it would be `very difficult to avoid border infrastructure in Ireland under a no-deal Brexit (David Young/PA)

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: Wed have to negotiate an agreement on customs and regulations that meant full alignment, so there will be no hard border.

We already have that agreement, that is the backstop. Nobody who is opposed to the backstop can credibly say that they are also against a hard border.

Unless they can come up with something else. Nobody else has done that yet.

Polands foreign minister has suggested a time-limited backstop.

The Irish believe a time limit would mean it was not actually a backstop, designed to prevent a hard border if no better trade deal is hammered out between the UK and the EU.

Mr Coveney told reporters in Dublin: As the debate on the backstop in Westminster continues this week I think the focus should be on this issue, to ensure that we do have a credible legal mechanism and a regulatory mechanism to prevent border infrastructure.

That is called the backstop and many people seem to refer to the backstop as a political tool as opposed to a legal and regulatory mechanism to protect the important status quo on this island, which does not have any physical border infrastructure in the North.

Our focus remains on that, that is the solution, that is how we prevent this issue becoming a real problem.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas was asked whether the EUs commitment to the Irish peace process would last whether or not there is a Brexit deal.

He replied: If you like to push me and speculate on what might happen in a no-deal scenario in Ireland, I think its pretty obvious, you will have a hard border.

Our commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and everything that we have been doing for years with our tools, instruments and programmes will have to take inevitably into account this fact.

So, of course, we are for peace, of course we stand behind the Good Friday Agreement, but thats what a no-deal scenario would entail.The Irish Government is failing to fulfil its human rights obligations and protect its citizens from the impact of climate change, the High Court in Dublin has heard.

At the opening of a landmark case against the Irish state, the court heard of the devastating consequences of climate change.

In 2017, Friends of the Irish Environment obtained leave from the High Court for a judicial review of the Governments approval of its National Mitigation Plan (NMP) on the basis that the decision was inconsistent with national, EU and international obligations.

It came after the Government published its mitigation plan detailing its goal to achieve an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

Climate change is a threat to all of us, yet the Irish Governments climate policy is weak and unambitious. Were taking the Government to court to demand more climate action. We need your support to show the Government that this case is for all of us: https://t.co/hYktPmf6c0 pic.twitter.com/wMNOV34w1i  Climate Case Ireland (@climatecaseire) May 9, 2018

Climate Case Ireland is calling for the state to be more ambitious in its plans to tackle climate change, and is asking the court to quash and remit the inadequate NMP and review its plans and policies.

Eoin McCullough, senior counsel for Friends of the Irish Environment, said the Governments plan is not enough to achieve its targets.

Pollution

He also told Justice Michael McGrath that the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change said that countries including Ireland should reduce emissions by 25% to 40% by 2020.

I am able to demonstrate that the National Mitigation Plan is not calculated to achieve substantial emissions reductions in the short term or in the medium term, he said.

This creates an unacceptable risk of contributing to global warming of more than two degrees.

He said Ireland has the third highest emissions per capita in Europe and contributes disproportionately to global climate change.

Mr McCullough added: Irelands plan is not sufficient to achieve reductions. The state will not reach 25% to 40% reduction by 2050.

He added that Ireland is failing to fulfil its human rights and constitutional obligations to protect Irish citizens from the impacts of climate change.

It wont meet EU mandate-imposed requirements by 2020  that is a legal requirement. Ireland wont even achieve its legally mandated targets.

He said global warming will lead to heatwaves, droughts, floods and wildfires as well as disruption to food supplies and an increase in deaths across the world.

The Governments Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) published a report last year which said Irelands greenhouse gases are rising and the Government is completely off course in achieving its 2020 and 2030 emission targets.

Mr McCullough said these are the conclusions of the states own advisory council.

Sadhbh ONeill, spokeswoman for Climate Case Ireland, said she is delighted the court is hearing the case.

More than 100 supporters packed out the small courtroom, with many members of the public sitting on the floor to hear the opening statement from Mr McCullough.

The courtroom was packed this morning - people sitting on the floor  we want #ClimateActionNow



The courtroom heard it's "not lawful to retain in place a system that contributes to the strong risk of global warming" @campaignforleo@RichardbrutonTDhttps://t.co/bPjbMJFF52 pic.twitter.com/rn5jFf1gBc  Climate Case Ireland (@climatecaseire) January 22, 2019

Ms ONeill added: We have had a massive turnout, a huge public support and weve had nearly 16,000 signatures on our petition now.

Its all part of holding the Government to account.

Theres lots of pressure on the Government to reform its policy, but this is different because we are asking the courts to intervene because Irish policy has been so unambitious, our emissions are rising instead of falling.

Even though the Government and our ministers have announced they are going to introduce new plans and policies, we have seen very little action and the emissions are still rising.

In order to really bend the emission curve downwards we need the courts to intervene and specify exactly what way the Government should comply with its obligations under the law.

The case continues.COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Even before he announces whether he's a 2020 presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders is working to avoid the drubbing that South Carolina's African-American voters handed him in 2016.

A day after speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally in the state capital on Monday, Sanders stayed through Tuesday for three more events in which African-American audiences were receptive to a message that hewed largely to his 2016 Democratic presidential platform. But the Vermont independent got personal even as he pitched free college tuition and a higher minimum wage, recounting repeatedly that he joined King's 1963 March on Washington and calling the late civil rights leader a "major political influence on my thinking."

Asked Tuesday at historically black Benedict College about marching with King, Sanders joked with students that "this kind of dates me a little bit" and added that it "was one of the important days in my life."

For the famously cantankerous senator, who labored to connect with black voters during his first White House bid, the more intimate touches in this week's South Carolina swing showed that he knows he can't neglect the bellwether early-voting state if he runs again. With one leading black candidate already declared in California Sen. Kamala Harris, and a second potential contender in New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Sanders would face even stiffer competition here in 2020 than he did in 2016, when Hillary Clinton brought strong ties to African-American communities.

What Sanders offered this week, ahead of South Carolina visits by Harris and another fellow 2020 rival, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, was also an interest in going beyond the state's traditional Democratic strongholds, though it wasn't without a few stumbles along the way. He visited an African Methodist Episcopal church in the city of Florence on Monday night but left before the service was over.

Amanda Loveday, a former executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said Sanders' early exit in Florence was a "wrong" step in a state where authenticity is critical.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

"You have to be in South Carolina and actually be in South Carolina," Loveday said, "and I worry that he did not show that" fully in Florence.

Sanders also faced logistical questions as he arrived in Charleston on Tuesday night. Brady Quirk-Garvan, chairman of the Charleston County Democrats, noted on Twitter that the senator was more than an hour late and "didn't ask the local Dems to help promote."

"I'm no expert in Democratic primaries," Quirk-Garvan added, "but this doesn't seem like a helpful re-boot..."

Sanders senior adviser Josh Orton pushed back at Quirk-Garvan's interpretation, posting a picture of the crowded Charleston event and tweeting that "the ENERGIZED crowd of Dems and others here chanted something. Let's just say it was...an encouragement."

To an extent, Sanders' tougher job in 2020's first-in-the-south primary stems from his stunning 2016 success. Many of the unabashedly liberal policies he championed in that presidential race are now part of the Democratic DNA, rendering his agenda somewhat less unique.

The 77-year-old senator acknowledged that fact Tuesday during a meeting with the South Carolina state legislature's Black Caucus. Sanders told the lawmakers that he has no plans to officially join the Democratic Party even as he touted Democratic platform changes made in response to his campaign.

"Yeah, we lost. But our ideas won," Sanders said. "They are the ideas of America."

Xavier Duffy, a junior at Benedict College, where Sanders visited, said he supported Clinton three years ago but "would vote for (Sanders) this time."

Praising Sanders for offering "a template instead of just an inspirational speech," Duffy said that trailblazing candidacies from Harris and potentially Booker were compelling but that young voters are "keen enough to" go beyond identity and ask 2020 candidates, "What do you have to offer?"

Symone Sanders, former press secretary for Sen. Sanders' 2016 campaign, said in an interview that she's "not surprised" to see him back in the state early, adding that both the senator and aides "wish he spent more time in South Carolina" during his first run. She is not related to the senator.

Even if other Democratic primary contenders share some of his central ideas, Sanders' higher name recognition and conspicuously different style may yet prove advantageous. Booker wove his trademark oratorical sweep into Monday remarks honoring King, while Sanders echoed the sentiment of other rally speakers by bluntly calling Trump a "racist."

And when Sanders addressed South Carolina state lawmakers, he again aligned his goals with King's pursuit of both racial and economic fairness.

"Whether you're black or you're white or you're Latino, you need health care," Sanders said. "You want your kids to get a good education. You want clean drinking water. ... If Dr. King had remained alive, he would have had success in bringing people together around that kind of agenda."

___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Sen. Jeff Merkley, one of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, seemed content to meet with constituents in Oregon and did not say if he'll run for president in 2020.

Merkley has been postponing a decision on a White House bid for some time. Last year, he said he'd decide soon after the November midterm election. Now, he says he'll decide before the end of this first quarter.

Nine Democrats have declared their intentions to run -- the most recent was Sen. Kamala Harris from California.

"One every day," Merkley said with a grin during an interview Monday before he hosted a town hall in a community college in Salem, Oregon's capital city.

Deciding whether to run is a gamble as Merkley faces an ever-expanding field of Democrats and would have to abandon the option of being elected to the Senate for a third term - unless the Oregon Legislature changes the law.

Merkley gained some name recognition nationally last June, when he tried to enter a federal facility in Texas where immigrant children were being held. An aide videotaped the scene as he was refused entry and police were called. The video quickly gained over 1 million views in a day, and was repeated in newscasts across the country.

In this Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 photo provided by Zoe Selsky, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley holds a town hall at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore. On a day when another U.S. senator formally entered the 2020 presidential race, Merkley, who's also pondering a run, seemed content to just be a senator by holding a town hall back in his home state of Oregon. (Zoe Selsky via AP)

At a town hall Monday, Merkley - wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a work shirt - described his efforts to stop the internment of immigrant children, including through his introduction of the "No Internment Camps Act."

The Oregon Democrat said it was "spooky" that in this era, legislation in America would have internment camps in its title.

Merkley, the son of a millwright, was first elected to the Senate in 2008 and handily won re-election six years later.

Asked if he might prefer to be in the Senate if Democrats gain control in 2020, Merkley said: "Well I tell you, I've been in the majority, and I've been in the minority, and the majorities are better."

He said senators have a huge ability to influence the direction of policy, even if they're not the chair of a committee or subcommittee. Merkley is a member of the appropriations committee; the environment and public works committee; the foreign relations committee and the budget committee.

Merkley, to support Democratic candidates for other offices in key states, has hired field staff in states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. They could also assist in laying the groundwork for a presidential run. He has already visited Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, states that have early primaries and caucuses in the presidential sweepstakes.

___

Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselskySAN FRANCISCO (AP) - U.S. government regulators are accusing software maker Oracle of engaging in discriminatory practices that resulted in thousands of its women, black and Asian employees being underpaid by more than $400 million.

The allegations emerged Tuesday in a filing made in a two-year-old case that is being pursued by a part of the U.S. Labor Department that examines the pay practices of government contractors. The agency estimates Oracle has government contracts worth about $100 million annually.

The filing cites evidence that Oracle underpaid women and ethnic minorities for similar work done by white men by as much 25 percent. The alleged practices affected more than 5,000 women, more than 11,000 Asians and fewer than 30 blacks from 2013 through 2016.

Oracle declined to comment.SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Latest on the arraignment of the Navy officer who supervised a SEAL accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017. (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

The Navy officer who supervised a SEAL accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017 has been charged with various offenses. They include allegedly conducting the SEAL's re-enlistment ceremony next to the prisoner's corpse and encouraging enlisted personnel to pose for photos with the body.

Lt. Jacob Portier's court martial began Tuesday at a San Diego Navy base with the arraignment. His defense attorney says Portier will plead not guilty to all charges at a later date. That procedure is allowed in the military court system.

Portier also is accused of impeding the investigation of Special Warfare Chief Edward Gallagher. Portier was the officer in charge of Gallagher's platoon during the deployment.

Gallagher pleaded not guilty to premediated murder and other offenses.

____

9 a.m.

Military prosecutors say the Navy officer who supervised a SEAL accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017 is being charged on various offenses. They include allegedly conducting the SEAL's re-enlistment ceremony next to the prisoner's corpse and encouraging enlisted personnel to pose for photos with the body.

Lt. Jacob Portier's attorney says he plans to plead not guilty to all charges Tuesday at the Navy base in San Diego.

Portier also is accused of failing to report a war crime and impeding the investigation of Special Warfare Chief Edward Gallagher by destroying evidence.

Portier was the officer in charge of Gallagher's platoon during the deployment.

Gallagher pleaded not guilty earlier this month to premediated murder and other offenses.DETROIT (AP) - A judge has dismissed involuntary manslaughter charges against a former suburban Detroit police officer and two paramedics in connection with the death of a man in jail.

The judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors presented insufficient evidence that the actions of former Westland police Sgt. Ronald Buckley and Westland paramedics Matt Dicosola and Leah Maynard caused the December 2017 death of 35-year-old William Marshall.

The three of them still face misconduct in office charges.

Buckley was fired in October three days after being charged with Dicosola and Maynard.

Marshall was arrested by Westland police for drug possession. Authorities say he repeatedly had convulsions in the police lockup but wasn't given medical treatment. He died of cocaine toxicity.LAS VEGAS (AP) - A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed four people in Nevada over the past two weeks, including an elderly Reno couple, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate.

Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, from El Salvador, has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges. Authorities said they expect to file murder charges against him in Reno in the shooting deaths of a Washoe County couple and in Douglas County in the slayings of two women in Gardnerville.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.

The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and it was too early to comment on a possible motive.

Investigators who had been tracking Martinez-Guzman considered him "an imminent threat" when they arrested him Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping mall.

"We couldn't account for him Friday night, and we couldn't predict what he would do Saturday night," Furlong told The Associated Press. "It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest."

This undated photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office in Carson City, Nev., shows suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman. Authorities investigating four recent Nevada killings say murder charges are pending against Martinez-Guzman, suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. (Carson City Sheriff's Office via AP)

Detectives had watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins, raising concern that he might try to dispose of evidence connected to the slayings. He did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed, the sheriff said.

The suspect did not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to the sheriff.

President Donald Trump seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

"Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country," Trump said Monday in a tweet. "We need a powerful Wall!"

The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the center of his battle with Democrats that has shut down much of the federal government.

Since the start of his presidency, he has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were here illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico fatally shot a California police officer.

Many academics and Trump's critics have pushed back on the president's narrative, citing studies that have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.

The Nevada suspect, who was due in court Thursday, had lived in the Carson City area for about a year. His only known infraction was a speeding ticket, the sheriff said.

"We have no information this guy has ever been on anyone's radar," Furlong said.

The investigation began Jan. 10, when 56-year-old Connie Koontz was found dead in her home. Three days later, the body of 74-year-old Sophia Renken was discovered in her home about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where Koontz lived, authorities said.

On Jan. 16, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno.

The two were remembered as "jovial" by Tom Cates, a longtime friend who knew the Davids through Reno's rodeo and equestrian scene.

Cates said Gerald David used his time as the Reno Rodeo Association president in 2006 to promote a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting the group's cowboys to show they were "tough enough to wear pink shirts."

"You walk into a room and his presence will just command attention. He was a true leader," Cates said.

Sharon David was "exuberant" and "bubbly" and "loved animals to the hills," he said. She was a former director of the rodeo.

Renken belonged to an antique automobile club and was known as the friendly driver of a Ford Model A who was always volunteering to help.

Robin Reedy, who was also in the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said she was surprised to learn Renken's age.

"I would never have known she was 74 by the way she acted," she said.

Koontz, who worked at a Walmart and as a manicurist at a local salon, was remembered by co-workers Tuesday as a positive woman who loved wearing bright colors. Her Walmart colleagues wore memorial buttons with her picture.

She was "the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green crocs and rock it," said Teri Bower, who works at the store.

Koontz and her daughter were best friends, Bower said, and the mother had saved up money and surprised her daughter with a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday in December.

Bower said the killings had shaken the quiet community where everyone knows everyone and big news is a pending storm "or a bear running down Main Street."

"This does not happen around here," Bower said. "It's crazy."

___

This story has been updated to correct the suspect's age to 19, not 20.

___

Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Las Vegas, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this story.

This January 2019 photo shows a copy of the 2006 Reno Rodeo program with a photo of Gerald David. A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed several people in Nevada over the past few weeks, including David and his wife, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate. On Jan. 16, 2019, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno. (Reno Gazette Journal via AP)LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's effort to toss out a lawsuit by porn actress Stormy Daniels over a hush-money agreement to keep mum about their alleged affair (all times local):

4:20 p.m.

A federal judge appeared inclined to toss out a lawsuit against President Donald Trump by porn actress Stormy Daniels that seeks to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair.

Judge S. James Otero did not rule Tuesday, but he seemed to conclude the lawsuit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed to rescind the nondisclosure agreement.

Trump and attorney Michael Cohen also vowed not to penalize Daniels for speaking publicly about the affair Trump denies.

The judge says Daniels had received what she sought in the lawsuit.

Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, vigorously fought to keep the case alive because he wants to take sworn depositions from the president and Cohen.

Outside court, though, Avenatti declared the hearing a victory for Daniels.

___

1:36 p.m.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump want a federal judge to toss a lawsuit by porn actress Stormy Daniels over a hush money agreement she signed not to discuss an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump's attorneys are in a Los Angeles court Tuesday to argue that Daniels' lawsuit challenging a nondisclosure agreement is no longer relevant.

Trump and a company formed by his former personal lawyer say they won't punish Daniels for breaking the $130,000 agreement.

Trump has denied the affair Daniels says occurred in 2006.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, wants a court to declare the agreement was illegal and prevent her from returning the money.

A company set up by Michael Cohen has dropped its threatened $20 million lawsuit against Daniels for allegedly violating the deal.NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Flight arrivals at Newark Airport were briefly suspended Tuesday evening after a drone was spotted over another nearby airport, officials said, in the latest incident of the unmanned aircraft affecting commercial air travel.

At about 5 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration received two reports from flights headed to Newark that they had spotted a drone about 3,500 feet (1,000 meters) over nearby Teterboro Airport. The administration said in a statement that arriving flights were held briefly but resumed after no further sightings were reported.

The airport, which serves New York City, said just after 7 p.m. that it was operating normally again. The FAA had no reports of delays at the airport on its website.

Brett Sosnik was on a United Airlines flight bound for Newark when the pilot told passengers that they would be circling in the air because of a drone spotted in Newark airspace. Sosnik, who was returning from the Bahamas, said his plane circled for about half an hour.

"I was looking around trying to find a drone in the air when we were closer to landing, but I didn't see anything," said Sosnik, a New York City resident who works in marketing. "There's got to be a way to combat that stuff and not have it affect huge airports with such a little piece of technology."

United Airlines spokesman Robert Einhorn said the impact on its operations "has been minimal so far."

FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2008 file photo, planes are parked at terminals at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. Federal aviation authorities stopped flights from flying into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, due to reports of drones spotted above nearby Teterboro Airport. Reports say the drones were no longer in the airspace and flights had resumed landing at Newark on Tuesday evening. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

London's Heathrow Airport briefly halted departing flights earlier this month after a reported drone sighting - just three weeks after multiple reports of drone sightings caused travel chaos at nearby Gatwick Airport.

In the U.S., unless the operator gets a waiver from the FAA, drones are not allowed within 5 miles (8 kilometers) of most airports, and are not supposed to fly above 400 feet (120 meters).On January 7, Mr Gadkari created a flutter within his party by describing Indira Gandhi a model of women empowerment.

BJP president Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other dignitaries during the 70th Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: As the country celebrated its 70th Republic Day, one could see Congress chief Rahul Gandhi seated in the front row with Union minister Nitin Gadkari, chatting continously. Three seats to the right of Mr Gandhi was BJP chief Amit Shah.Incidentally in the saffron corridors people speak in hushed voices that if the BJP failed to cross 180 seats, the party could look at Mr Gadkari as an option for the top post. While Mr Gadkaris camp vehemently denies any such speculations in the party, some feel that he is the only one who could bring parties like NCP, BJD and even TMC to NDA fold.

On January 7, Mr Gadkari created a flutter within his party by describing Indira Gandhi a model of women empowerment. He had said, His nation had leaders like Indira Gandhi. She got the better of many stalwart male leaders of her time.

In another incident, Mr Gadkari had virtually questioned the Modi government when he told the media that implementing Maratha reservation may not yield results to tackle the unemployment crisis. Where are the jobs? he had said.

Congress president, Mr Gandhi had immediately tweeted: Excellent question Gadkariji. Every Indian is asking the same question. The Congress then went on to describe Mr Gadkari as the first BJP Minister to speak the truth and courageously raise the question that we and the people of India have been asking.

After the BJPs defeat in recent Assemble elections, it was again Mr Gadkari who came out in the open to say that said the central leadership should take responsibility.

While Gandhi got a front row seat, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was seen seated in the second row, unlike last year when both of them were made to sit in the sixth row.

Mr Gandhi, who had taken over as the new Congress chief last year, was designated the sixth row seat during the 2018 Republic Day celebrations, prompting angry protest from his party which accused the government of setting aside traditions and indulging in cheap politics.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon State Medical Examiner says the weapons used to kill four people Saturday at their Oregon home were an ax and knives.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that sharp-force trauma was the cause of death for 9-month-old Olivia Gago, 31-year-old Shaina Sweitzer and 64-year-old Pamela Bremer.

The medical examiner said 66-year-old Jerry Bremer died of a combination of blunt-force trauma and sharp-force trauma.

The sheriff's office says Mark Gago killed his parents, his girlfriend and their daughter Saturday night before deputies fatally shot him as he attacked an 8-year-old girl who was Sweitzer's daughter.

The sheriff's office says deputies shot Gago before he could kill the girl.

A roommate was also hurt.

An investigator carries a box with a live snake, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, outside a house where authorities say a man killed four members of his family, including his infant daughter, at the Canby, Oregon, home they shared, over the weekend. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)

The home is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Portland near Woodburn.

The incident remains under investigation.

Crime scene tape marks off an area, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, near a memorial of candles, flowers and teddy bears outside a house where authorities say a man killed four members of his family, including his infant daughter, at the Canby, Oregon, home they shared, over the weekend. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - Four U.S. senators are urging President Donald Trump to use the Guantanamo Bay detention center to hold fighters from the Islamic State group captured in Syria.

The Republican lawmakers say Islamic State prisoners could escape or be released in Syria, and they would face "justice" at the detention center on the U.S. base in Cuba.

Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida made the suggestion in a letter sent Tuesday to the president.

The issue has come up because Trump has ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria and U.S. allies there hold hundreds of IS prisoners.

Trump when he took office reversed an order from President Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo detention center. There are 40 prisoners still held there.NEW YORK (AP) - Medical officials have determined that two immigrant sisters from Saudi Arabia, whose bodies mysteriously washed up on the New York City waterfront in October, killed themselves.

Tala Farea, 16, and Rotana Farea, 23, "bound themselves together before descending into the Hudson River." Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson said in a statement Tuesday. The cause of death was drowning.

Their fully clothed bodies were discovered Oct. 24 near the river, two months after they were last seen in Fairfax, Virginia, where they had been living in a shelter amid allegations that they were abused at home.

Police said the sisters had been in Manhattan since Sept. 1, staying at expensive hotels and ordering in pairs of meals until a credit card they were using maxed out. A jogger said he saw them praying at a playground near the river, sitting about 30 feet (9 meters) apart with their heads in their hands, hours before their bodies were found, police said.

The deaths shined a light on the secretive and risky journeys Saudi women take to flee their homes in the kingdom and abroad. Under the kingdom's guardianship system, women must have the approval of a male relative - such as a father, husband, brother, or even a son - to marry, obtain a passport or travel.

New York City Police Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said people who knew the Farea sisters in Virginia told investigators that they made statements within the last year indicating "that they would rather inflict harm on themselves - commit suicide - than return to Saudi Arabia."LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo said Tuesday it will bring a factory to Michigan, creating up to 400 jobs at what it describes as the world's first plant "100 percent" dedicated to the mass production of autonomous vehicles.

The company plans to spend about $13.6 million to retrofit a to-be-determined manufacturing facility in the Detroit area. In exchange, it will get a state incentive grant worth up to $8 million that was approved Tuesday by the Michigan Strategic Fund Board.

Waymo spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said the company plans to hire up to 400 people to work at the factory, including engineers, operations experts and fleet coordinators. She said Waymo is looking for a site and hopes to open the plant in the middle of this year. A memo from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. says Waymo will create 100 jobs, with the potential for up to 400, and it chose Michigan despite a "high level of interest" from states in the Midwest, South and Southwest.

The company integrates its self-driving system into vehicles it buys from automakers and is currently testing autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans in a preferred rider program for passengers in the Phoenix area, but with human backup drivers on board. It plans to expand the service to the San Francisco area but has not given a time frame. Waymo previously announced plans to buy 62,000 Pacificas and 20,000 I-Pace electric SUVs from Jaguar.

Waymo, which has a 20-employee facility in the Detroit suburb of Novi where it tests vehicles in snowy weather, will put the new factory in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties, where the auto industry dominates the economy with thousands of jobs from U.S. and foreign-based automakers as well as parts supply companies.

"As we begin to commercialize our business and vehicle supply grows, we're laying the foundation for a scalable, robust vehicle integration plan, starting in Michigan," the company said in a blog.

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2017, file photo a Chrysler Pacifica hybrid outfitted with Waymo's suite of sensors and radar is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Google's self-driving car spinoff Waymo said Tuesday it will bring a factory to Michigan, creating up to 400 jobs at what it describes as the world's first plant "100 percent" dedicated to the mass production of autonomous vehicles. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies autonomous vehicles, said the announcement shows that Waymo, which was spun off from Google and is part of parent company Alphabet Inc., has plans to integrate itself into the existing auto industry.

"You can't reinvent everything. Coming to Michigan in some ways is your complete recognition of that," Smith said. "Michigan is where you go in the United States to be fully immersed in automotive culture and industry."

Smith said Waymo will find abundant labor supply at a lower cost than in California, where it is now headquartered.

The announcement confirms that Waymo will use the Michigan factory to produce a large number of vehicles for ride-hailing services in many cities, Smith said. But it did not say when it will deploy the vehicles without human backup drivers.

"This is an announcement about a facility to be, and the cars that will come from that facility one day," Smith said. "What this is is that Waymo plans to eventually expand. They've been setting that foundation for a couple of years now."

Michigan Economic Development Corp. CEO Jeff Mason said Silicon Valley companies are increasingly interested in relocating to or expanding in the state. He cited KLA-Tencor's plan to open a $70 million semiconductor research-and-development center in Ann Arbor and Samsung SDI's plan to build a $60 million-plus electric vehicle battery pack plant in Auburn Hills.

___

Krisher reported from Detroit.FESTUS, Mo. (AP) - Police say 63-year-old eastern Missouri man told investigators he fatally shot his son after finding him choking his mother in their home.

Festus Police Chief Doug Wendel says officers called to a home early Monday found the couple's 29-year-old son dead from gunshot wounds.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the father said his son was drinking heavily. He said when he found his son choking his mother, the man hit him in the head with a revolver. Wendel says the son then threw the father across a room and threatened his life.

Wendel says when the son advanced toward his father, the man fired at him.

The man was booked on suspicion of murder but was released pending application of warrants.

Wendel would not release the family's names.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.comDURHAM, N.H. (AP) - The University of New Hampshire is celebrating J.D. Salinger's centennial year with an exhibit he likely would have loathed: a display of previously unseen photos of the famously reclusive author.

Salinger, who was born Jan. 1, 1919, and died in 2010, spent the last nearly six decades of his life far from the public eye in Cornish, New Hampshire. The photos unveiled Tuesday were taken by famed German photographer Lotte Jacobi for the book jacket of Salinger's 1951 novel "Catcher in the Rye," but he requested the picture be removed from the book after the first printing so he wouldn't be recognized.

The collection of 17 images essentially doubles the number of public photos of Salinger, said Thomas Payne, associate professor of English at the university.

Payne said that in today's society where "narcissism has gone viral," Salinger was ahead of his time in retreating to Cornish to "pull the wall down on human interaction."

"Today, if J.D. went to Cornish ... we'd know what he was fleeing," Payne said. "The emptiness of being known but not really seen."

Though he praised Salinger as someone with a "rare depth of soul," Payne also said viewing some of his work and his personal life through the lens of the current #MeToo movement is "very troubling."

A previously unseen photo of author J.D. Salinger is displayed at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. The photos taken for the book jacket of Salinger's 1951 novel, "Catcher in the Rye," were among nearly 50,000 images bequeathed to the university by German photographer Lotte Jacobi. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)

At age 53, Salinger wrote to an 18-year-old college student, Joyce Maynard, and invited her to live with him after reading an essay she had published in The New York Times Magazine. Maynard dropped out of Yale and lived with him for a year before he sent her packing.

"That is obviously of deep concern," Payne said in an interview. "I had women writers in my life 10 years ago who, when I spoke of my love of Salinger, called me out. I didn't see what they saw enough. ... I deeply regret that I was obtuse, that I didn't see what they saw."

Maynard, also an author, said Tuesday that the photos show a very different man from the one she knew.

"This was a young man in possession of no small amount of ambition, publishing his first novel, and hoping very much to capture the attention of the public. The demands for privacy would come much later," she said in an email.

Though she waited 25 years before publishing a book about the year she spent with Salinger before he sent her packing, she was widely criticized for violating his privacy by telling her story and for later selling the letters Salinger wrote her. In 1999, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called her a "predator."

"I do believe the response to this book would be very different, if it were published today," said Maynard, who is now resuming her sophomore year at Yale 46 years later.

Though she said Salinger's treatment of her and other behaviors call his character into question, Maynard said his books should stand apart from the writer.

"You can question Salinger as a human being and still view him as a great writer," she said. "But his brilliance in no way earned him the right to be exempt from the same kinds of standards of behavior as the rest of us."

Jacobi, who photographed Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt and other famous figures of the 20th century, also spent her final years in a small New Hampshire town. But unlike Salinger, who stopped publishing in 1965, she remained active well into her 80s and left nearly 50,000 negatives to the university when she died in 1990. The exhibit of her work will be on display at the University of New Hampshire library until March 29.BENTON, Ky. (AP) - The estate of a girl killed and three other students wounded in a shooting at a Kentucky high school have filed suit against the school district and school officials, the teenage suspect and his mother and stepfather.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Marshall County Circuit Court alleges school system employees knew or should've known of suspect Gabe Parker's "dangerous propensities" and didn't monitor or prevent his actions. It says employees failed to comply with school safety regulations, resulting in the January 2018 shooting.

The school superintendent declined comment.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Bailey Holt, one of two students killed, and three of the eleven others hurt.

Parker was indicted as an adult on two murder charges and 14 assault charges. The judge in the case entered a not guilty plea on Parker's behalf.PHOENIX (AP) - Lawyers squared off Tuesday at the Arizona Supreme Court over whether two Christian artists who make wedding invitations as part of their business can refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons.

An attorney for artists Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski argued complying with Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance would violate their clients' free-speech and exercise-of-religion rights by forcing them to custom-make products for same-sex weddings. They believe a marriage should be between only a man and woman.

The city contends the two artists are free to infuse their faith within their business, but said the courts shouldn't create a blanket exception that allows them to discriminate against a class of people.

So far, two courts have upheld the constitutionality of the ordinance.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled this summer that while the ordinance may have an incidental effect on free speech, its main purpose is to prohibit discrimination. The appeals court concluded the ordinance regulates conduct, not speech.

Outside of court Tuesday, Duka and Koski explained how their Christian faith guides them in everything they do, including their work life.

Attorney Eric M. Fraser, left, who is representing the city of Phoenix, speaks after giving oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons, as he stands next to Don Logan, City of Phoenix Equal Opportunity Director, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

"When we reflect God's creativeness in small ways through our art, it reveals something about him," Koski said. "That is why we cannot separate our faith from our artist creativity."

Inside the courthouse, Chief Justice Scott Bales raised a scenario about Duka and Koski selling a wedding stationary package to a couple with the names of Pat and Terry. The chief justice asked whether the artists would sell the package if the couple were heterosexual but would object if they were a same-sex couple.

Jonathan Scruggs, an attorney representing Duka and Koski, said it's about the message that's conveyed by the wedding package. "They send different messages," Scruggs said, likening the position his clients are in to asking an LGBT artist to design a shirt that says "Protect Marriage."

The two artists want to post a statement on their website saying they won't create artwork that violates their religious beliefs, including making products used in same-sex wedding ceremonies. But they haven't posted such a statement because they believe it would violate the ordinance.

Bales asked Eric M. Fraser, an attorney representing the city in the dispute, whether artists who oppose same-sex unions could include content on a wedding invitation that says marriage is between only a man and woman.

Fraser said the artists probably could do so, as long as they sell it to any couple that wants to do business with them.

This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, finding the state's civil rights commission showed anti-religious bias when it ruled against the baker for refusing to make the cake.

The Supreme Court decision, however, didn't address the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people.

An Arizona law that bars discrimination by businesses doesn't include sexual orientation as a protected class. Phoenix, Tempe, Flagstaff and Tucson have passed ordinances banning businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Phoenix hasn't yet taken any enforcement actions stemming from its ban on sexual orientation-based discrimination.

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs speaks during a news conference after giving oral arguments on behalf of Brush & Nib Studio owners at the Arizona Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Brush & Nib Studio owners Joanna Duka, front left, and Breanna Koski, front right, smile as they attend a news conference with supporters after oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Joanna Duka, co-owner of Brush & Nib Studio, speaks during a news conference after the Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Breanna Koski, co-owner of Brush & Nib Studio, speaks during a news conference after the Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Attorney Eric M. Fraser, who is representing the city of Phoenix, speaks during a news conference after oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Don Logan, right, City of Phoenix Equal Opportunity Director, speaks during a news conference after Eric M. Fraser, left, an attorney representing the city of Phoenix, oral arguments at the Arizona Supreme Court over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Supporters of Brush & Nib Studio owners Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, stand on the steps of the Arizona Supreme Court building after the court heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of Phoenix's anti-discrimination ordinance that bars businesses from refusing service to same-sex couples for religion reasons Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gusty winds sweeping across Southern California have toppled trees onto roads, cars and yards, killing at least two people, relatives and police said.

Offshore winds were gusting Tuesday in many mountain and valley areas, and periods of wind were expected to continue through the week, the National Weather Service said.

On Monday, winds toppled huge trees in neighborhoods across Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In San Diego, a pine tree crashed onto a rental house, killing a couple who were on vacation. Troy and Jessica Nelson of Grand Forks, North Dakota, were sleeping upstairs in the home when the 75-foot (23-meter) tree fell, relatives and police said.

"It's such a freaky accident," Tammy Reynolds, the man's sister, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I guess we're all so numb from it, and for both of them to go."

The winds came shortly after the region was pounded by heavy rain for days. The saturated ground can loosen root systems, making it more likely for the wind to topple trees, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Fernando Pattison told KNBC.

In San Diego and Orange counties, another round of winds was expected for late Thursday into Friday, according to the National Weather Service.ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Three men and a high school student were charged with plotting to attack a rural upstate New York Muslim community named Islamberg with explosives, authorities said Tuesday.

The Rochester-area residents are accused of plotting to attack the small Muslim enclave west of the Catskills, according to court papers.

The timing of the attack was unknown. At the time of their weekend arrests, the men, three of whom were in Boy Scouts together, had access to 23 rifles and shotguns and three home-made explosives, Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan said at a press conference.

"I don't know that there was a specific date. They had a plan in place," Phelan said.

He did not rule out the possibility of additional arrests.

Charged with weapons possession and conspiracy were 20-year-old Brian Colaneri, 18-year-old Andrew Crysel and 19-year-old Vincent Vetromile. A 16-year-old student at Odyssey Academy in Greece was charged as an adolescent offender.

This combination of three Jan. 22, 2019, photographs released by the Greece Police Department in Greece, N.Y., shows Brian Colaneri, from left, Andrew Crysel and Vincent Vetromile. Authorities said that the three men were charged with plotting to attack a rural upstate New York Muslim community with explosives. The three Rochester, NY-area men are accused of plotting to attack Islamberg, a 60-acre Muslim enclave west of the Catskills, according to court papers. (Greece Police Department via AP)

It was a lunchroom comment by the student during school Friday that launched the investigation.

"He looks like the next school shooter, doesn't he?" the student allegedly said while showing students a picture of another boy on his phone, according to Phelan.

A student who heard the comment "did what we teach kids to do and told somebody," the chief said.

School security and Greece police interviewed both students and others and eventually "uncovered ... a plot to attack an Islamic community in Delaware County, known as Islamberg," Phelan said.

The pictured student was not charged, he said.

Police also searched five locations and seized 23 weapons and numerous electronic devices, including phones and computers. Most of the weapons were rifles and shotguns, some of which were legally owned by relatives of the suspects, authorities said.

Three improvised explosive devices wrapped in duct tape were found at the 16-year-old's house.

"They were homemade bombs with various items - black powder, BBs, nails, inside a container," Phelan said.

It was unclear whether the suspects had lawyers yet. Attempts to reach relatives to comment weren't immediately successful.

Greece Central School District Superintendent Kathleen Graupman said the students who reported the comment "changed the narrative."

"They trusted their instincts and used what they learned in school," she said.

The rural community in Delaware County is operated by The Muslims of America, an indigenous American Muslim organized based in the U.S., which runs 21 others in North America. It was settled by followers of Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarik Gilani. The mostly African-American settlers first came to the area in the 1980s to escape crime and crowding in New York City.

Police and analysts have dismissed accusations that the 60-acre community is a terrorist training ground, but the claims have persisted for decades.

In 2017, a Tennessee man was convicted on federal charges for what authorities called plans to burn down Islamberg's mosque in 2015. Robert Doggart, now 67, is serving time in federal prison.

A message seeking comment about the new arrests was sent to The Muslims of America.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for federal charges in addition to the state charges.

"Anyone accused of plotting an act of violence targeting a religious minority should face state and federal hate crime and civil rights charges commensurate with the seriousness of their alleged actions," CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said in a statement.

Phelan credited the students who reported the lunchroom comment with saving lives.

"If they had carried out this plot, which every indication is that they were going to, people would have died," the chief said. "I don't know how many and who, but people would have died."A video of the incident has gone viral in social media, causing embarrassment to the state Congress government.

Indian army tanks and other military equipment roll past Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard, during Republic Day parade in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)

Bhopal: Madhya Pradeshs women and child welfare minister Imarti Devi on Saturday created a flutter when she fumbled while reading out her Republic Day speech and later asked the district collector to complete the address.

A video of the incident has gone viral in social media, causing embarrassment to the state Congress government.

A three-time MLA from Dabra in Datia district in MP hoisted the tricolour in the police ground in district headquarters of Gwalior and then climbed on the podium to read the governors message for the people on the occasion.

She started fumbling while reading a few lines in the written speech and had even spelt some words incorrectly.

Gwalior district collector Bharat Yadav was seen coming forward to help her in reading out the speech. However, she finally gave up and handed over the mike to Mr Yadav asking him to finish the speech.

The minister who has completed higher secondary education later told the local media that she was unwell for the past two days. I was sick for last two days. You can verify it with my doctor, she said while trying to explain her plight.

In a similar incident, Chhattisgarh minister Kawasi Lakhma allowed the Bastar district collector A. Tambli to read the Republic Day speech on his behalf after unfurling the tricolour in Jagdalpur in south Chhattisgarh.

Mr Lakhma simply made way for the Bastar district collector at the podium to read out governors message for the people after taking the salute of district level Republic Day parade there. Mr Lakhma cannot read or write.COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The last Confederate flag to fly at the South Carolina Statehouse has quietly been put on display at a museum, ending a three-year saga over what to do with the rebel banner, which was removed after nine black church members were killed in a racist attack on a Charleston church.

On Nov. 26, Confederate Relic Room staff put the nylon flag into a $1,400 viewing case that hangs between two offices amid a display of other historical South Carolina flags, museum Executive Director Allen Roberson said after a budget presentation to lawmakers on Tuesday.

"I'm sure we won't satisfy everybody. But it is up," Robeson said.

The display of the flag itself was a political compromise, hurriedly reached in the wee hours of the morning when it appeared removing the banner from the Statehouse was going to fall a few votes short. The agreement that lawmakers approved called for "appropriate, permanent and public display" of the flag, the last to fly at the Capitol near a monument to Confederate soldiers.

On July 10, 2015, a special team of state troopers in dress uniforms pulled down the flag, carefully wrapped it in special paper and gave it to Robeson. He carried it to an armored van for the six-block trip to the Confederate Relic Room.

The museum initially proposed a nearly $4 million project that included a massive restoration of its building and a high-tech display including screens displaying pictures or names of Civil War dead.

This Dec. 21, 2018, photo provided by the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room shows the final Confederate flag used at the South Carolina Statehouse, on display at the Confederate Relic Room in Columbia, S.C. It took more than three years after the flag was removed on July 10, 2015, to put it on display. (Brad Warthen/South Carolina Confederate Relic Room via AP)

That idea fell flat and the flag stayed in a small, flat, acid-free box behind several locked doors as Robeson came up with other proposals, including a recent request for $200,000 to renovate the two offices on either side of the flag's new home.

After last year's budget passed without the funds in it, Robeson commissioned a special case to fit the flag and protect it from ultraviolet light. Once that was finished, South Carolina's final Confederate flag found its home quietly.

It's not the conclusion Robeson wanted. He and others in his museum felt the flag was a political item that didn't need to be in a military museum.

"The staff feels very strongly it is not a military artifact. It doesn't need to be stuck on a wall somewhere in a frame," Robeson said in June 2017. "A lot of these flags have gunpowder, blood, bullet holes - they were what 18- and 19-year-old boys died fighting under. This is not the same thing."

Attendance at the Confederate Relic Room dropped for a while as the flag controversy swirled. Robeson told lawmakers Thursday that it had finally increased by about 2,000 people in 2018.

Now that the flag is back on permanent display, Robeson has asked for a one-time allocation of $25,000 to increase security, both when the museum is open and after-hours.

___

Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. Read his work at https://apnews.com/search/jeffrey%20collinsUNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations' envoy to the Mideast said Tuesday that peacekeepers in Lebanon have not been given access to tunnels stretching into Israel, which U.N. officials say violate a case-fire resolution that ended a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Nikolay Mladenov told the Security Council that the U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL has confirmed that two tunnels crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, but "has not been granted access to the confirmed entry points of a tunnel near Kfar Kila on the Lebanese side."

He did not say whether Lebanon's government or the Hezbollah militant group was blocking access for UNIFIL, but U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen blamed the government.

Cohen accused Hezbollah, an Iranian ally, of threatening international peace and security with the extensive tunneling exposed by Israel, which has reported uncovering six tunnels into its territory.

"We commend UNIFIL's work to keep the Blue Line under control, but it is unacceptable that the Lebanese government has not yet given UNIFIL access to the tunnel entrance on their side of the Blue Line," Cohen told the council.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon complained to the council that "the Lebanese army has taken no action in response, allowing Hezbollah to continue building these tunnels undisturbed."

Danon alleged that Iran funnels $7 billion to militant groups across the region, including $1 billion to Hezbollah, which he said has "grand plans to take over the Israeli Galilee" and invests millions in every tunnel. He provided no information on how Israel calculated its estimate of Iranian spending, which also included $4 billion to the Syrian government, "hundreds of millions" to Iran's proxies in Iraq, tens of millions to Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen, $70 million to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and $50 million to Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Mladenov noted that Lebanon has been without a government for over eight months and called on all parties to resolve their differences so the country "can address the man pressing challenges it faces, including that of a struggling economy."

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mladenov said that "we should have no illusions about the dangerous dynamics ... which continue to unfold before our eyes" and have eroded "the possibility of establishing a viable, contiguous Palestinian state."

He pointed to Israel's latest new settlement plans and approvals, nearly half to be built deep in the West Bank, which the Palestinians say must be part of their state. He also cited "additional attempts to pass legislation that would directly apply Israeli law to the territory of the occupied West Bank, raising fears of future annexation."

Mladenov said the chance for peace opened more than 25 years ago with the Oslo accords, which were enshrined in U.N. resolutions and bilateral agreements, but has "eroded as the prospect for credible negotiations has dimmed, only to be replaced by the lack of hope and the growing risk of a one-state reality of perpetual occupation."

He urged both sides to recommit to the principles in those agreements - that key issues can be resolved only through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador, told the council that last year "Israel's illegal occupation became more entrenched, more brutal and extreme" with the political process "deadlocked."

"Day by day, the occupation is destroying the two-state solution and sowing deep despair among our people," he said.

But despite "the dismal situation," Mansour said, Palestinians "remain committed to non-violence, dialogue and the objectives of peace" and negotiations on a two-state solution. He urged regional and international efforts "to help overcome the impasse and contribute to the realization of a just solution as a matter of urgency."LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge appeared inclined Tuesday to toss out a lawsuit against President Donald Trump by porn actress Stormy Daniels that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair.

Trump and his former personal lawyer asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit after agreeing to rescind a nondisclosure agreement that included a $130,000 payment to Daniels.

Judge S. James Otero did not rule in U.S. District Court, but he seemed to agree with lawyers for the president and Michael Cohen that there were no longer grounds for a lawsuit.

"It seems you've achieved ... what you sought to achieve," Otero said to Daniels' attorney.

If Otero does throw out the case, it would give both sides a chance to claim victory.

The case would allow Daniels to speak without threat of legal consequences, but it would also prevent further litigation she has sought to force the president and Cohen to give sworn testimony.

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2019 file photo, President Donald Trump speak to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington. A federal judge in Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 22, appeared inclined to toss out a lawsuit against Trump by porn actress Stormy Daniels that seeks to tear up a hush-money settlement about their alleged affair. Her attorney Michael Avenatti argued the case should continue because he wanted to take sworn statements from Trump and Cohen. He plans to ask for legal fees. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, brought the lawsuit to free herself from the agreement that silenced her as the 2016 presidential campaign reached its conclusion.

Cohen had arranged the payment and later pleaded guilty to campaign violations after admitting the deal was struck to help Trump prevail in the presidential contest.

Trump has denied the alleged 2006 affair.

Daniels had claimed the agreement was not valid because Trump's signature was not on it and the president's lawyer has said he was never party to the settlement.

Despite appearing to get what Daniels originally sought - dismissal of the agreement she disregarded long ago in speaking to news media and writing a book - her lawyer fought hard to keep the case alive.

Attorney Michael Avenatti, who once toyed with making a presidential run to take on Trump, wanted the case to continue so he could force Trump and Cohen to give depositions.

But the judge wasn't buying Avenatti's legal reasoning for keeping litigation going when there was no longer an issue in dispute.

Otero repeatedly asked Avenatti to cite case law to support his arguments. But after he named several cases, Otero told him he was "mixing apples and oranges."

"I think we see the issues very differently," the judge said.

During those exchanges, Trump's attorney, Charles Harder, had a smirk that appeared to keep growing.

Still, Avenatti declared his client the winner after Tuesday's hearing.

"They admitted what we said all along," Avenatti said. "So any attempt by anyone to claim that this is not a victory for Stormy Daniels is completely bogus and nonsense and dishonest."

Essential Consultants, the company Cohen set up to handle the deal, had once sought to fight Daniels in arbitration for violating the nondisclosure agreement by speaking in public about the affair. Cohen had even threatened a $20 million lawsuit against her.

Cohen didn't follow through with those legal actions after seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, but he had said he would seek repayment of the $130,000.

Cohen's lawyer, Brent Blakely, said Tuesday he wouldn't seek repayment of that money.

Avenatti said he would seek legal fees regardless of how Otero rules on dismissal of the case.

Last month, Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump $293,000 in attorney's fees after dismissing a defamation lawsuit she brought against him.TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A man who disputed suburban Phoenix police's assertion that a teenage boy they shot and killed had stolen an airsoft gun from his truck now says he is unsure, prompting authorities to reiterate Tuesday plans to re-interview witnesses and victims.

Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir has said 14-year-old Antonio Arce was seen carrying what looked like a replica handgun he stole from the truck when he was shot as he ran away from a police officer in an alley. She also said two independent witnesses reported seeing him with a firearm in his hand.

The truck's owner told KNXV-TV late Monday that he couldn't say with certainty how many airsoft guns were in his truck. He asked not to be named but was openly identified as Lou Silvas in an interview with The Arizona Republic earlier in the day.

"There could have been a third or a fourth (airsoft gun)," he told the TV station. "I don't know. We had so much stuff in there."

Silvas told the newspaper that he was moving items from his truck and then heard two gunshots in the alley nearby minutes later. He said he then checked and saw his two airsoft guns were accounted for but a black cellphone was missing.

"If they're announcing on the airwaves that (the airsoft gun) was taken from my vehicle, that's not true," Silvas said in the newspaper interview. "Because I had my two still there, and that's all I'm saying."

FILE - This file photo provided by Jason Gonzalez shows a selfie of Antonio Arce. A suburban Phoenix police chief on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, offered her condolences to the family of 14-year-old burglary suspect Arce, who was shot and killed by an officer, calling the boy's death "tragic" but asking that the public withhold judgment until an investigation is completed. (Courtesy of Jason Gonzalez via AP, File)

Attempts to reach Silvas were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Authorities say Silvas' recollection directly contradicts body camera footage, evidence and witness statements. Police said the newspaper's article leaves open the question about how a replica handgun was found beneath Arce, as shown in body camera videos, which have no gaps in footage.

"To remedy discrepancies reported to media surrounding this incident, we anticipate that we will re-interview witnesses and victims to ensure that the most accurate information is included in the investigation," police spokesman Ronald Elcock wrote in a news release.

The officer who shot Arce has been identified only by last name, Jaen, and authorities say the officer has been in law enforcement for 17 years but is now on administrative leave.

Arce was shot in the rear shoulder blade and later died at a hospital. His family members have called for police to fully explain what happened.WASHINGTON (AP) - Russia's efforts to expand its influence and China's modernizing military are among the "ever more diverse" threats facing the U.S., according to a major intelligence report released Tuesday.

The National Intelligence Strategy report, issued every four years, also singles out such potential threats as North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, the growing cyber capabilities of U.S. adversaries and global political instability.

The report, which sets out the priorities for the various agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, notes that the United States "faces an increasingly complex and uncertain world in which threats are becoming ever more diverse and interconnected."

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said in a letter accompanying the report that the U.S. agencies must adapt to respond to what he calls a "turbulent and complex" environment.

"We face significant changes in the domestic and global environment," Coats said. "We must be ready to meet the 21st century challenges and to recognize emerging threats and opportunities."

He said the intelligence community must improve cooperation among member agencies and foster more innovation. He also said agencies must do more to increase transparency to raise public trust in their work.

The report does not rank the threats, but the first section is devoted to the threat posed by "traditional adversaries" seeking to take advantage of the weakening of the post-World War II international order and increasingly isolationist tendencies in the West. "Russian efforts to increase its influence and authority are likely to continue and may conflict with U.S. goals and priorities in multiple regions," it says.

Coats also addressed his staff at the strategy's rollout, pledging that the intelligence community would not be dissuaded from "seeking the truth, and when we find the truth, speaking the truth."

Coats said the 17-agency intelligence community plans to operate with greater transparency to earn and uphold the trust of policy makers and the American people.

Senior Intelligence officials at the strategy's unveiling did not address statements from President Donald Trump dismissing intelligence findings. Trump has expressed disregard for key intelligence findings regarding Russian influence in the 2016 election and Saudi Arabia's role in the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking broadly, one senior director of national intelligence official said the push for greater transparency is part of an effort to restore trust with the American people following Edward Snowden's 2013 leak of classified U.S. material about America's surveillance programs. Senior intelligence officials briefed journalists at the strategy's unveiling on condition they not be cited by name.

The 2019 National Intelligence Strategy report also discusses China's modernization of its military and pursuit of "predominance" in the Pacific region.

The strategy notes that both China and Russia continue to pursue anti-satellite weapons to weaken the U.S. military and security. It also says the threat from hacking is growing as more adversaries acquire the technology to interfere with U.S. computer systems.WASHINGTON (AP) - Confused about the business proposal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow? Join the club.

President Donald Trump's lawyer-spokesman Rudy Giuliani and a disputed Buzzfeed News report have muddied the waters on exactly how long negotiations over the project went on. It's a key question because Trump was pursuing the deal during the 2016 campaign while he was publicly calling for easing U.S. sanctions on Russia and as Moscow was directing a large-scale operation aimed at swaying the election his way.

Here's what we know so far:

- September and October 2015: As a Trump Organization lawyer, Michael Cohen receives a proposal for a hotel, office and residential building in Russia that comes to be known as the Trump Tower Moscow project. One of Trump's numerous corporate entities then enters into a letter of intent on the project.

- Late 2015: Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are copied on emails about the project. In one email, Ivanka Trump suggests an architect for the building.

- May 4-6, 2016: Felix Sater, an executive who had worked on and off for the Trump Organization, and Cohen discuss having Trump visit Russia after the Republican National Convention. They also discuss the possibility of Cohen meeting in mid-June with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Sater said Peskov had invited Cohen as his guest.

FILE - In this Dec. 12, 2018, file photo, Michael Cohen, right, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, arrives at federal court for his sentencing in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

- Aug. 28, 2017: Cohen submits to Congress a two-page letter about the Trump Tower Moscow deal, saying the project ended in January 2016, that he only discussed it three times with Trump, that he never considered traveling to Russia or asking Trump to travel there, and that he did not recall having contact with the Russian government about the proposal. All of those statements were false, according to court papers.

- September and October 2017: Cohen says in prepared remarks to the Senate intelligence committee that the Moscow deal ended "before the Iowa caucus and months before the first primary." He says the same during testimony before the committee. Those statements turned out to be lies.

- Nov. 29, 2018: Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress. He says he briefed Trump and his family members on the Russia proposal through June 2016. Cohen says he lied to minimize the public understanding of Trump's Russia ties, to try to limit the various Russia investigations and to be consistent with Trump's "political messaging."

- Dec. 12, 2018: Cohen is sentenced to three years in prison.

- Jan. 17, 2019: BuzzFeed News, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, reports that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow proposal. The report does not specify what Trump said to Cohen or when he said it.

- Jan. 18, 2019: In a rare public statement, a spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller disputes the BuzzFeed 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," spokesman Peter Carr says in a statement. BuzzFeed stands by the story and asks for clarity from Mueller's team.

- Jan. 20-21, 2019: Giuliani suggests in TV interviews that Trump remembers conversations with Cohen about the project "up to as far as October, November," or right up until the election. That would have extended the timeline for the Russian business deal well beyond what the president has publicly acknowledged. Giuliani also leaves open the possibility that Trump and Cohen might have discussed Cohen's testimony. The next day, Giuliani walks back his comments, saying they "did not represent the actual timing or circumstances of any discussions." He says his comments were "hypothetical" and "not based on conversations" he had with the president.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - A federal trial began Tuesday for lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a plan that a different court blocked last week.

Former U.S. Census Bureau director John Thompson, the first plaintiffs' witness for the bench trial in Maryland, testified Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross disregarded "long established" Census Bureau protocols in adding the citizenship question. Thompson, who oversaw the bureau from 2013 through June 2017, said he doesn't think officials properly tested the question for the 2020 census.

"It's very problematic for me," Thompson said of Ross' decision.

The trial before U.S. District Judge George Hazel in Greenbelt, Maryland, began one week after a federal judge in New York barred the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the census for the first time since 1950. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, who concluded Ross acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner before deciding to add the citizenship question.

A trial for a separate suit over the same issue, filed by the state of California, began in San Francisco on Jan. 7. A judge finished hearing testimony in that case on Jan. 14 and is scheduled to hear closing arguments Feb. 15.

The plaintiffs for the case being tried in Maryland include residents of Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Attorneys from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund also sued on behalf of more than two dozen organizations and individuals. The court agreed to consolidate the claims in December.

In a court filing, plaintiffs' attorneys say Ross communicated with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other administration officials before issuing the March 2018 directive "to further the unconstitutional goal of diluting the political power of non-white immigrant communities." The Census Bureau's own analysis shows the citizenship question would lead to a lower response rate to the 2020 census by households with at least one non-citizen member, the lawyer said.

"Consistent with numerous other statements and actions of President Trump and Trump Administration officials, these efforts were driven by racial animus against non-white immigrants," they wrote.

The Census Bureau began collecting citizenship data through the annual American Community Survey in 2005. Ross decided to use the same wording from that "well-tested question" on the ACS for the citizenship question on the 2020 census, government lawyers said in a court filing.

"Secretary Ross carefully considered, but was ultimately unpersuaded by, concerns that including a citizenship question would reduce the self-response rate for non-citizens," they wrote.

Plaintiffs' attorneys had urged Judge Hazel to proceed with the Maryland trial as scheduled since the judge's ruling in the New York case could be reversed on appeal. The clock is ticking for all of the cases: The Census Bureau has said the "drop-dead" date for changes to the 2020 census questionnaire is June 30, 2019, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Denise Hulett, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the Los Angeles-based group's lawsuit is the only one to allege that the citizenship question on the 2020 census is a "product of a conspiracy that began in the early days of the Trump administration."

"It allows us to talk about the motives of a large group of people instead of the motives of just Secretary Ross," she said during a break in the trial.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A young couple from India who wrote a travel blog were intoxicated when they died in a fall from a scenic overlook in Yosemite National Park in California, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday.

Menakshi Moorthy, 30, and her husband Vishnu Viswanath, 29, each had intoxicating levels of ethyl alcohol, a substance found in most alcoholic drinks, the Mariposa County coroner said.

The report didn't provide a blood-alcohol ratio.

Viswanarth's tripod was later discovered on the edge of the overlook. His brother, Jishnu Viswanath said it appeared the couple died trying to take a photo.

Moorthy described herself and her husband as "travel obsessed" on their blog, "Holidays & Happily Ever Afters," which was taken down Tuesday.

It had been 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.

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 file photo, an unidentified couple gets married at Taft Point, upper left, in California's Yosemite National Park. A Northern California coroner says a young couple from India was intoxicated when the pair fell to their deaths from the scenic overlook in Yosemite. Autopsy reports provided by the Mariposa County sheriff's department Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 concluded that 30-year-old Meenakshi Moorthy and her husband, 29-year-old Vishnu Viswanath, were both "intoxicated with ethyl alcohol prior to death." (AP Photo/Amanda Lee Myers, File)

Moorthy described herself in the blog as a "quirky free spirit" and "an ardent adrenaline junkie - roller coasters and skydiving does not scare me."

She once 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?"

Park rangers found the couple's bodies in October 800 feet (245 meters) below popular Taft Point in Yosemite. The coroner found both died of multiple head and internal injuries caused by their falls.

Moorthy and Viswanath were born in India and had lived in the United States for a few years, most recently in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cisco India said Viswanath was a software engineer at the company's headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Moorthy and Viswanath graduated in 2010 from the College of Engineering, Chengannur, in the Alapuzha district of India's Kerala state, said Nisha Kuruvilla, one of their professors.

She said Moorthy and Viswanath were good students who were fond of traveling and had married at a Hindu temple in Kerala in southern India in 2014.

Viswanath 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.

Moorthy also blogged about depression. In a post from April, she 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.

The couple's pictures indicated they liked to pose in scenic spots at sunset, the last time they were seen alive.ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - The Latest on the arrest of three adults and a high school student accused of plotting to attack an upstate New York Muslim community (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

Police say three adults and a 16-year-old student plotted to attack an upstate New York Muslim community and had access to 23 firearms and three homemade explosives at the time of their arrests.

Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan told reporters Tuesday the Rochester-area residents had made plans to attack Islamberg, a rural Muslim enclave west of the Catskills. The chief says the timing of the attack is unknown.

The three adults arrested were 20-year-old Brian Colaneri, 18-year-old Andrew Crysel and 19-year-old Vincent Vetromile. Each was charged with weapons possession and conspiracy. A 16-year-old student at Odyssey Academy in Greece also was charged as an adolescent offender.

Phelan says it was a comment by the student during school Friday that launched the investigation.

This combination of three Jan. 22, 2019, photographs released by the Greece Police Department in Greece, N.Y., shows Brian Colaneri, from left, Andrew Crysel and Vincent Vetromile. Authorities said that the three men were charged with plotting to attack a rural upstate New York Muslim community with explosives. The three Rochester, NY-area men are accused of plotting to attack Islamberg, a 60-acre Muslim enclave west of the Catskills, according to court papers. (Greece Police Department via AP)

Attempts to reach relatives to comment weren't immediately successful.

_______

1:30 p.m.

Three men are charged with plotting to attack an upstate New York Muslim community with explosives.

Court papers say three Rochester-area men are accused of plotting to attack Islamberg, a rural Muslim enclave west of the Catskills.

Police in the Rochester suburb of Greece this weekend arrested 20-year-old Brian Colaneri, 18-year-old Andrew Crysel and 19-year-old Vincent Vetromile. Each was charged with weapons possession and conspiracy.

Court papers say they intended to use several improvised explosive devices wrapped in duct tape that were shaped like cylinders and a mason jar.

Followers of a Pakistani cleric settled Islamberg in the 1980s to flee crime in New York City.

It was unclear whether the men had lawyers yet. Attempts to reach relatives to comment weren't immediately successful.

Police planned a Tuesday news conference to release more details.SEATTLE (AP) - Three Democratic electors from Washington state who joined a longshot effort to deny Donald Trump the presidency in 2016 are challenging the $1,000 fines they received for breaking their pledge to support their party's nominee.

Bret Chiafalo, Levi Guerra and Esther John had agreed to support Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College if Clinton won the popular vote in Washington, which she did.

Instead, they joined some other electors from around the country in casting votes for Republican Colin Powell. The idea was to deny Trump a majority, thus throwing the election to the U.S. House of Representatives - something that last happened in 1824.

The plan failed. Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman imposed fines of $1,000 on each elector for breaking their vow to honor the will of voters.

In arguments before the state Supreme Court in Olympia on Tuesday, the trio's lawyer, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, argued that the fines violated their First Amendment rights. The nation has a long history of having electors vote their conscience, he said, and never before has one been fined for doing so.

"The question for this court is not whether they were right; the question is whether they had a right," Lessig told the justices. "If they have a constitutional freedom, then they can't be fined for exercising that freedom."

Lawrence Lessig, right, an attorney representing three Washington state presidential electors, speaks Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, during a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

The electors unsuccessfully asked a federal court to block the state from fining them. The court found that federal law does not give electors absolute freedom to vote for the candidates of their choice, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request for an emergency order.

On Thursday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in a similar case concerning Colorado elector Michael Baca. He saw his vote discarded under state law because he wrote in the name of then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich instead of Clinton.

Voters in the U.S. do not directly vote for a president and vice president. Instead, they vote for a slate of electors who pledge to cast their votes for their party's nominee through the Electoral College.

While the Constitution gives states the power to appoint electors, the debate centers on whether the states can control how the electors vote.

An attorney for Washington state, deputy solicitor general Callie Castillo, told the state Supreme Court that the electors did not have a free-speech interest in how they cast their vote. But, she said, the state does have an interest in ensuring the will of the people is honored.

"Nothing in the Constitution prevents the state from placing conditions on presidential electors and then holding them to those conditions," the state wrote in a brief. "And no court - anywhere - has adopted petitioners' view that presidential electors have a First Amendment right to cast their ballots free of influence by the state."

John, an administrative assistant at her Quaker church in Seattle, said she had no qualms about taking action to oppose Trump in the Electoral College, even if it meant voting for someone who didn't win the popular vote in Washington.

"I knew that he wasn't qualified, that he had said horrible things about women," she said. "I thought maybe we could get some Republican electors to come on our side."

The justices did not indicate how soon they would rule.

Lawrence Lessig, an attorney representing three Washington state presidential electors, speaks Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, during a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Callie Castillo, Deputy Solicitor General for the state of Washington, speaks Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, during a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of state presidential electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Callie Castillo, right, Deputy Solicitor General for the state of Washington, speaks Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, during a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of state presidential electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman listens to testimony Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, as she attends a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Washington state presidential electors Esther John, center, and Bret Chiafalo, right, sit behind their attorneys Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, during a Washington Supreme Court hearing in Olympia, Wash., on a lawsuit addressing the constitutional freedom of electors to vote for any candidate for president, not just the nominee of their party. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)While Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala have 130 Lok Sabha seats.

New Delhi: With the Hindi heartland emerging as a tricky terrain, BJP spin doctors have decided to focus in eastern and southern India. The party is planning at least 300 rallies in West Bengal and nearly the same number in southern states as a build-up to the Lok Sabha elections in around May.

While Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala have 130 Lok Sabha seats.

If we can manage a lions share of Lok Sabha seats from Bengal and southern states, we will able to cross the 250 mark, a senior BJP leader said on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

Bengal is all set for a major campaign blitz involving top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, in the next three months. The Prime Minister is expected to hold two rallies in West Bengal during the first week of February.

Following the entry of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into politics and the SP-BSP coalition consolidating rapidly, BJP strategists feel that the route to Delhi through Uttar Pradesh could be a tricky one. After the recent Assembly poll setbacks in Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BJP is not confident of retaining the 71 Lok Sabha seats it won in Uttar Pradesh 2014.

Ahead of Prime Ministers Tamil Nadu on Sunday, BJP national general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao has gone on record saying that the Prime Ministers visit will give a major boost to BJPs growth plan in Tamil Nadu and South India.

Speaking to the media, Mr Rao said that the Prime Minister would present a report card for the developmental projects. He will explain to the people what his government has done for the state and the country, he said. Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha seats.

In Karnataka which has 28 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is allegedly still trying to rock the state government. On Saturday, chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy alleged that the BJP was still persisting with its Operation Kamal to topple the JD(S)-Congress government.

The chief minister alleged, Operation Kamal is still on. The BJP offered one of our MLAs huge amount of money.

Former state chief and BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa refuted the charges ad claimed that the Congress-JD(S) combine has failed to keep its flock together.

In Kerala with 21 Lok Sabha berths, the BJP is working to highlight the Sabarimala issue to ensure that the Hindutva issue pays rich electoral dividend like Ayodhya temple did at the national level in the 1990s.

Despite RSS heavy presence in the state, the BJP has never been able to make political inroads. The vote banks of the Nairs, Ezhava, dalits are split between the UDF and the LDF. Also the 55 per cent of Hindu vote bank has never tilted towards the BJP.

Keeping the Sabarimala pot stirring, the BJP is now trying to exploit the religious sentiments of the majority community, a senior party functionary said.

In Andhra Pradesh with 25 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is finding itself in a tight corner. A party functionary from the state felt that it might be difficult to even retain the two Lok Sabh seats from the state.

In Telengana with 17 seats, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is expected to bag the maximum number of Lok Sabha berths.

The BJP has planned over 300 rallies in West Bengal over the next two months.DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) - Authorities say the driver of a school bus that caught fire after being rear-ended at a South Carolina rail crossing safely evacuated all 34 children aboard.

The Palmetto Rural Fire Department says in a Facebook post that no one was seriously hurt in the crash Tuesday morning in Darlington County.

State Highway Patrol spokesman Cpl. Sonny Collins says the bus was stopped at the train crossing when a car struck it from behind and caught fire, spreading flames to the bus.

Collins says the car's driver was taken to a hospital. There were no immediate details on the driver's condition.

County schools spokeswoman Audrey Childers says the students aboard the bus were headed to two elementary schools in Darlington.ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Immigrant advocates said Tuesday they are suing the U.S. government, claiming it is detaining immigrant children too long and improperly refusing to release them to relatives.

A federal lawsuit filed last year in Alexandria, Virginia, was expanded on Friday to propose including the cases of more than 10,000 children.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, said the Department of Health and Human Services has been slow to release immigrant children to sponsors in the United States and that an agreement to share sponsors' information with deportation officers has deterred some from offering to take the minors.

"Children belong in homes with families, not warehoused in government detention centers," he said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said the agency, which oversees the care and custody of immigrant children stopped on the border, doesn't comment on pending litigation.

The filing on behalf of children and their sponsors comes shortly after a detention camp housing migrant teenagers in Texas was shuttered and amid a partial government shutdown that has dragged for nearly a month over the Trump administration's demand for a wall on the southwest border.

Immigrant children who are stopped on the border alone are placed in the custody of HHS until they are released to screened sponsors in the United States. About 50,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were caught on the southwest border during the last fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Kayla Vazquez, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she has been trying to get her husband's 17-year-old cousin released from federal custody since immigration authorities stopped him on the U.S.-Mexico border in August.

Vazquez said she has been repeatedly asked for documents from social workers that her family has already supplied to sponsor the teen, and fears the U.S. government is stalling until he turns 18 and can be transferred to an adult detention facility.

"I feel like they're playing a game and they're just keeping him there to have the family suffer," she told reporters on a conference call.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Foreign Ministry has denounced as "hasty and incorrect" a German ban on Iran's Mahan Air from landing in the country.

The official IRNA news agency Tuesday quoted Bahram Ghasemi, ministry spokesman, as saying the ban on the airline was in defiance of "mutual relations" between the two countries.

Mahan Air is on a U.S. sanctions list and Germany said Monday it banned the airline from landing in the country immediately, citing security concerns and the airline's involvement in Syria.

Ghasemi expressed hope that Germany would revise the "hasty" decision.

The airline had several weekly flights between Tehran and German cities.ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - A Virginia-based psychotherapist is suing to overturn Maryland's ban on conversion therapy for minors, saying it prevents him from taking clients with an "unwanted same-sex attraction."

The Baltimore Sun reports Christopher Doyle filed a federal lawsuit Friday, arguing the ban adopted last year violates his rights, as well as clients' rights "to prioritize their religious and moral values."

The American Psychological Association opposes therapy seeking to change sexual orientation, saying it doesn't work and can cause harm.

Meagan Simonaire is bisexual and made headlines when the then-delegate opposed her state-senator father by speaking out against the practice. She called the lawsuit "a punch in the gut."

Doyle is represented by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, a group opposed to same-sex marriage.

The attorney general's office said it hadn't seen the lawsuit.

___

Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.comLOS ANGELES (AP) - Reaction from selected nominees for the 91st annual Academy Awards, announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California:

___

- "Cinema needs the opportunity to be diverse. What mainstream cinema and the theatrical experience has lacked in general is diversity. And I'm talking about diversity in terms of stories and characters and ways of doing films." - Alfonso Cuaron, nominated for best director for "Roma," one of ten nominations for the film. Via phone interview.

- "Thirty years is a long time, ain't it?" - Spike Lee, on his first Oscar nomination as director in a three-decade career, for "BlacKkKlansman." Via phone interview.

- "It feels great. I'm still freezing my butt off." - Willem Dafoe, who for months has been in Canada filming the Disney sled-dog movie "Togo." Via phone interview.

- "The subject matter we're talking about is a very unpleasant time in history, and we did it with an unusual style in storytelling. We knew it was going to be polarizing, but we felt like it was in a good way." - Adam McKay, director of "Vice," nominated for best picture and several other Oscars. Via phone interview.

Alfonso Cuaron arrives at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

- "To break down a wall like that, to be your ancestors' wildest dreams, to show other young women of color and boys and girls that you can do whatever you want no matter what struggles you have in your life - all of that. That's what it means to me." - Hannah Beachler of "Black Panther," the first African-American to be nominated for production design. Via phone interview.

- "We always felt that if Alex was able to climb up El Capitan without a rope and succeed - that for us is always going to be the win already." - Jimmy Chin, co-director with of "Free Solo," the nominated documentary about Alex Honnold becoming the first to climb Yosemite's El Capitan without ropes. Via phone interview.

- "No one is saying I don't have a chance. They're saying you have a chance. The women who I'm going against are top level. The top of the heap. To be there and give them a run for their money, I'm totally stoked." - Ruth E. Carter, nominated costume designer for "Black Panther." Via phone interview.

- "I was flying into Warsaw when they were announcing the nominees. When I landed, I got bombarded by messages, a nice way to arrive." - Pawel Pawlikoski of Poland, whose film "Cold War" was nominated for three Oscars including best director. Via phone interview.

- "As a daughter of a domestic worker and an indigenous woman myself, I am proud this movie will help those of us who feel invisible be seen" - Yalitza Aparicio, nominated for "Roma." Via emailed statement.

- "It's a national pride. Lebanon doesn't have a real cinema industry in the real sense of the term. With our first nominee last year and this one this year, it's a big step." - Nadine Labaki, director of Lebanon's "Capernaum." Via phone interview.

- "Hot damn!" - Sam Rockwell, best supporting actor nominee for "Vice." Via emailed statement.

___

For full coverage of the Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/AcademyAwards .

This image released by Netflix shows filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, left, and Yalitza Aparicio on the set of "Roma." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Cuaron was nominated for an Oscar for best director for his work on the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (Carlos Somonte/Netflix via AP)

This images released by CBS Films shows Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh in "At Eternity's Gate." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Dafoe was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for his role in the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (Lily Gavin/CBS Films via AP)PHOENIX (AP) - It remained unclear Tuesday if two doctors who cared for an incapacitated Arizona woman who gave birth as a result of a sexual assault could face any criminal fallout.

"Unfortunately, I don't have any details on the doctors," Phoenix police spokesman Tommy Thompson said in an email.

He would not say if they were being investigated as part of the case.

Hacienda HealthCare announced Sunday that neither physician would continue to provide care at their Phoenix facility, which serves children and young adults.

One resigned and the other has been suspended.

The 29-year-old victim, who has been incapacitated since the age of 3, gave birth to a boy at the facility on Dec. 29. Employees said they had no idea she was pregnant. As her guardian, the woman's mother was required to submit an annual report to the court that included results of a medical exam. According to court records, her last known physical was in April.

FILE - This Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, file photo shows Hacienda HealthCare in Phoenix. Two doctors who cared for an incapacitated woman who gave birth as a result of a sexual assault are no longer providing medical services at the long-term care center in Phoenix, Hacienda HealthCare said Sunday, Jan. 20. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Police have been collecting DNA samples from all male employees but haven't ruled out other possible suspects.

It wasn't known whether either doctor is male and, therefore, gave DNA.

Meanwhile, the woman's parents released a statement Tuesday through their attorney disputing characterizations that their daughter is comatose. They described her as being intellectually disabled because of seizures in early childhood. While she doesn't speak, she has some mobility in her limbs, head and neck. She also responds to sound and can make facial gestures.

"The important thing is that she is a beloved daughter, albeit with significant intellectual disabilities," attorney John Micheaels said. "She has feelings, likes to be read to, enjoys soft music, and is capable of responding to people she is familiar with, especially family."

The woman is currently in a hospital. Police have not said if her infant son remains hospitalized. Her family has said they will care for the baby.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss envoy in Tehran over the "illegal" detention of an American-born anchorwoman on Iranian state television.

The Tuesday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes Bahram Ghasemi, ministry spokesman, as saying Tehran lodged a "strong protest" over the detention of Marzieh Hashemi in a meeting with the Swiss ambassador. The Embassy of Switzerland looks after Washington's interests in Tehran.

Ghasemi said Iran also demanded Hashemi's "unconditional" release.

Hashemi has been detained as a material witness, though it's unclear for which case, and has appeared twice before a U.S. District Court judge.

Hashemi has been in custody since last week. Officials said she was expected to be released immediately after her testimony is completed, but it's not clear when that would be.MILAN (AP) - Italy's interior minister on Tuesday called the French leader Emmanuel Macron "a terrible president," in comments that were sure to further add to tensions with Italy's trans-Alpine neighbour over immigration.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League that governs in coalition with the 5-Star Movement, said his issue was not with the French people but with "with Macron, who talks a lot and achieves little, who give lessons of generosity, and then rejects thousands of migrants at the Italian border."

"If Macron is so good, he can prove it with facts by letting in thousands of refugees who are in Italy and whom he promised hospitality, with other European countries," Salvini continued in a Facebook live transmission.

He said he hoped French voters would send Macron a message during the European elections in late May by showing their support for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, with whom Salvini is allied in European politics.

The 5-Star leader, Luigi Di Maio, already sparked annoyance earlier this month by saying his populist movement was ready to help France's anti-government yellow vest protesters. The French Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the Italian ambassador over sharp anti-French comments from Italy about Europe's migrant crisis.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte has tried to tamp tensions down, saying that while questioning the efficiency of global politics was legitimate "this does not mean to put into discussion our historic friendship with France, nor with the French people."

In this photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, opens his arms and looks up as he attends a press conference at Chigi Palace in Rome. Italy's interior minister is calling the French leader Emmanuel Macron "a terrible president," saying he "talks a lot and achieves little." The comments Tuesday by Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League that governs in coalition with the 5-Star Movement, were sure to further raise tensions with Italy's trans-Alpine neighbor. (Riccardo Antimiani/ANSA via AP)

"This relationship remains strong and steady despite the political discussion," Conte said.

The summons by the French Foreign Ministry on Monday was in reaction to Di Maio's accusations that France is leading colonial-style policies in Africa that are "impoverishing" Africans and driving them to Europe's shores. Salvini repeated them on Tuesday morning television. The populist government last fall accused France of dumping under-age migrants over the border without authorization.

In the recent spat, the populist Italian government accuses France of obliging 14 African countries using the CFA franc currency, established in 1945, to buy French government bonds with half of their reserves to finance public spending in France.

The Italian financial daily il Sole 24 Ore reported that the deposits made by the 14 countries into the French Treasury had marginal impact on French coffers, totalling 10 billion euros - or just 0.5 percent of the French public debt. It also noted that only 9 percent of the 23,370 migrants that arrived in Italy last year came from the 14 countries using the CFA.

A French diplomatic official said Ambassador Teresa Castaldo was questioned Monday about the "unfriendly and baseless" comments. The official said they run counter to "Franco-Italian partnership" and the sense of "European community." The diplomat was not authorized to be publicly named.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and the partial government shutdown (all times local):

8:45 p.m.

Senate leaders have agreed to hold votes on dueling proposals to reopen shuttered federal agencies this week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has set up the two showdown votes for Thursday, a day before some 800,000 federal workers are due to miss a second paycheck.

One vote will be on his own measure, which reflects President Donald Trump's offer to trade border wall funding for temporary protections for some immigrants. It was quickly rejected by Democrats.

The second vote is set for a bill approved by the Democratic-controlled House reopening government through Feb. 8, with no wall money, to give bargainers time to talk.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, smiles as she helps give out food at World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organization started by Chef Jose Andres, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Washington. The organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters, has set up a distribution center just blocks from the U.S. Capitol building to assist those affected by the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Both measures are expected fall short of the 60 votes need to pass.

__

4:05 p.m.

The Senate will push forward with two votes this week to end the government shutdown, but it's doubtful either will pass.

First will be President Donald Trump's proposal to provide $5.7 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, some deportation protections for immigrants and supplemental disaster funds for regions hit by hurricanes and wildfires, in exchange for reopening the federal government.

It's expected to fail.

After that, senators will vote on a House-passed package that would temporarily reopen the government, through Feb. 8, while providing the $12 billion in disaster funds.

Voting is designed to pressure senators to cross party lines to end the shutdown, now in its 32nd day.

An estimated 800,000 federal workers are expected to miss another paycheck Friday.

___

3:50 p.m.

The Department of Agriculture has announced it will reopen Farm Service Agency offices nationwide to process loans, tax documents and trade aid payments to farmers and ranchers.

The Farm Service Agency had been shuttered since the second week of the shutdown, aside from temporarily reopening select offices last week.

From Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, the offices will be open Monday to Friday. From Feb. 4 through Feb. 8, the offices will be open three days a week. Roughly 9,700 federal workers have been called back to work to staff the offices.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue also announced the deadline for farmers to apply for aid payments to offset their trade losses will be extended to Feb. 14.

USDA says these activities were restored because any lapse "would harm funded programs."

___

3:05 p.m.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump did not propose a "good faith" proposal to end the government shutdown.

The New York senator said Tuesday that Trump's offer to protect some immigrants from deportation in exchange for $5.7 billion from Congress to build the border wall with Mexico is "one-sided, harshly partisan and was made in bad faith."

Senate Democrats are expected to reject the measure when it comes to a vote later this week as the shutdown drags on.

Now in its 32nd day, the shutdown has left some 800,000 federal workers facing another Friday without paychecks.

Schumer says the White House wasn't "seriously negotiating" with Democrats. He says Trump's immigration proposals do not reflect earlier bipartisan efforts.

He says, "That's not 'The Art of the Deal.'"

___

2:10 p.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls President Donald Trump's offer to provide some deportation protections for immigrants along with for his $5.7 billion demand for the border wall with Mexico a "nonstarter."

Pelosi told reporters Tuesday that Trump needs to re-open the government before any negotiations over border security.

As the partial government shutdown stretches to Day 32, the House will push forward more proposals to end it. One measure adds $1 billion more for border security.

The Democratic leader said House has voted more than nine times to re-open government.

Some 800,000 federal employees are poised to miss another paycheck on Friday.

Pelosi said Congress can't give in to Trump demands "every time he has an objection" and threatens to "hold the employees hostage."

___

1:45 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Democrats should get behind his bill to reopen shuttered parts of the government and toughen the nation's borders.

The Kentucky Republican said Tuesday the legislation he unveiled on the Senate floor should appeal to Democrats who want help for so-called "Dreamer" immigrants. McConnell noted that the bill contains some of those protections. He emphasized it is the only measure before Congress that would reopen the government and which President Donald Trump will sign.

McConnell will try to muscle through the massive bill, which includes $5.7 billion for Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The partial government shutdown is in its 32nd day.

The bill was immediately shot down by Democrats. They insist that the government reopen before any border security talks. They also say the immigration provisions are inadequate.

___

12:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump's proposal to break through the budget deadlock appears to be gaining little traction.

Despite the fanfare of the president's announcement and the rush to release the legislative package late Monday, voting in Congress is not expected to unfold until later in the week.

Even then it seems doubtful that the measure will pass swiftly.

Democrats say they are unwilling to negotiate any border security funding until Trump reopens the government.

Meanwhile, the impact of the shutdown continues to ripple across the nation as it stretches into its 32nd day.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after speaking about his plan to move a 1,300-page spending measure, which includes $5.7 billion to fund President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the sticking point in the standoff between Trump and Democrats that has led to a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump pauses while speaking about the partial government shutdown, immigration and border security in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)MIAMI (AP) - A traffic incident in Miami involving a gun-wielding white man and a group of black bicyclists protesting housing inequality on Martin Luther King Day is being investigated as a possible hate crime, prosecutors said Tuesday.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a news release that she has ordered her hate crimes chief to look into Monday's confrontation in the upscale Brickell section of Miami. The man with the gun, 51-year-old Mark Bartlett, has so far been charged only with illegally carrying a concealed weapon, which is a felony.

Video shot by bystanders and aired by numerous news outlets shows Bartlett swearing and hurling racial insults at the group of black cyclists, while keeping the gun at his side. A Miami police report says the cyclists blocked part of a major street to protest plans for a private development to displace affordable housing in the financially struggling Liberty City neighborhood.

"I am outraged at the reported acts depicted in the videos taken during this incident," Fernandez Rundle said. "I am committed to filing the appropriate charges and to vigorously prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law."

Court records on Tuesday did not list an attorney for Bartlett.

In Miami, the Martin Luther King holiday is traditionally a time for young African-American men to ride dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and bicycles throughout the area in an anti-violence effort known as "Wheels Up, Guns Down," which takes its name from a Philadelphia protest over the death of a black biker several years ago.

This Jan. 21, 2019 photo released by the Miami Dade County Department of Corrections shows the booking mug of Mark Allen Bartlett who was charged with a weapons violation after a traffic confrontation in Miami. Prosecutors are investigating the confrontation as a possible hate crime. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a news release, Tuesday, that she has ordered her hate crimes chief to look into the confrontation. (Miami Dade Department of Corrections via AP)

They typically weave in and out of traffic at high speeds, pop wheelies, ride while standing on their seats and execute similar dangerous stunts on major highways. Every year, police make dozens of arrests and seize numerous vehicles, and this year was no exception.

The cyclists protesting housing inequality were an offshoot of that tradition, news outlets reported. An organizer of Monday's protest did not return a phone call Tuesday.

Several videos from different perspectives were shot of the confrontation involving Bartlett. In one, an unidentified white woman is shown yelling at the cyclists to move because she has to go pick up her children, then screaming that one of them ran over her foot.

"You just touched me, you bunch of thugs," she screams.

A few minutes later, a man in a pink T-shirt, whom police identified as Bartlett, walks up to the scene with his handgun at his side, yelling obscenities and racial epithets at the black cyclists. Police later arrested Bartlett on the weapons charge as he was driving a few miles from the scene.

According to the police report, Bartlett was incredulous at his detention.

"Why am I being arrested when those kids are free to ride around?" he asked. "I did pull out my gun. But I never pointed it at them."

Later Tuesday, a truck equipped with large video screens on each side was seen driving up and down Brickell Avenue showing the confrontation. It wasn't clear who was behind the display.

_____

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MiamicurtHazarika was honoured with the highest civilian award of the country more than seven years after his death.

Guwahati: Welcoming the decision to confer the Bharat Ratna posthumously on music maestro Bhupen Hazarika, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bharat Ratna for the Bard of Brahmaputra is a great honour for Assam. Mr Hazarika, with his message of humanity, was not only a great son of Assam, but of India as a unifier of people of all languages and creed through his contributions to the field of art and culture of the country, Mr Sonowal said in a statement.

Mr Hazarika was honoured with the highest civilian award of the country more than seven years after his death.

Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state BJP chief Ranjit Dass also expressed happiness over the decision to confer Bharat Ratna on Mr Hazarika. However, talking to a private TV channel, Mr Sarma, a former Congress minister said during the time of erstwhile UPA regime a recommendation was made by the Tarun Gogoi-led Assam government to confer the Bharat Ratna on Mr Hazarika, but it was declined saying the award could not be given posthumously.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has said that the state's cultural integrity and harmony could only be kept alive if Mr Hazarikas ideologies are preserved and followed to its true spirit.WASHINGTON (AP) - Leighton Mark, a photojournalist who taught himself to make pictures with one arm after he was wounded in 1984 while covering the civil war in Lebanon, has died. He was 67.

Mark died Saturday at Lexington Park Assisted Living Health Center in Topeka, Kansas, said a cousin, Monette Mark.

Mark worked for United Press International and The Associated Press during a long career that was nearly cut short when he was 32.

He had been in Beirut for UPI just three months when, in March 1984, gunfire from street fighting awoke him in his west Beirut apartment. After he stepped onto his balcony and began making pictures, a Druze militiaman sprayed him with automatic rifle fire. His shoulder bleeding, he managed to get into the hallway and find help.

"I remember seeing the AK go up, ducking - too slowly - screaming my head off in terror and bouncing off the wall," he said in recounting the moment for a UPI story in 1987. "I almost came back in a body bag."

UPI reported at the time that the militiaman who fired may have mistaken Mark's camera for a weapon. The Druze militiamen allowed him to be taken to the American Hospital in Beirut. After surgery he was flown by U.S. Marine helicopter to a ship and eventually was transferred to the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans.

FILE - This 2005 file photo shows Leighton Mark. Mark, a photojournalist who taught himself to make pictures with one arm after he was wounded in 1984 while covering the civil war in Lebanon, has died. He was 67. (AP Photo)

After a year of recuperation, Mark sought a way to continue his career. He told UPI that a former camera repairman for National Geographic had modified Mark's equipment to accommodate one-handed shooting. Mark said he would hold the camera in the palm of his left hand and release the shutter with his little finger.

"I can pretty much do the same things I did before," he told UPI. "I just do them a little differently than other shooters."

UPI assigned Mark to its Washington bureau.

Mark later left UPI for The Associated Press, where he worked as a photo editor in the Washington bureau from 1997 until his retirement in October 2016.

"Leighton was the kind of photojournalist and editor we all want to emulate," said David Ake, AP director of photography, "He was a kind and inquisitive soul who overcame personal obstacles with a spirit to succeed that was remarkable. And oh yes, he could make a great picture followed by yet another great picture."

Leighton Doyle Mark was born Sept. 14, 1951, to Monte and Darlene Mark in Topeka. He graduated from Washburn University and later worked for a newspaper in Independence, Missouri.

He joined UPI in 1981 and worked on its photo desk in Brussels and as its bureau manager for the pictures department in Johannesburg, South Africa, before being assigned to Beirut in December 1983. That was less than two months after the suicide truck bombing of Marines Corps barracks that killed 241 military personnel and wounded many more.

Survivors include an aunt, Dorothy Mark. A memorial service was planned for Feb. 9 in Topeka.Efforts to make Virginia the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment encountered a setback Tuesday following a subcommittee vote against several resolutions in the state's Republican-controlled Legislature.

The nation's supporters of the gender-equality amendment have been hoping this increasingly blue state will approve the ERA at a critical moment in their campaign to revive the measure, which is nearly half a century old.

ERA proponents say ratification by 38 states would meet the U.S. Constitution's threshold for approval. But it would also likely spark battles in the courts and Congress over a long-passed 1982 deadline and various other legal issues.

Measures to ratify the ERA in Virginia were voted down in a subcommittee for the House of Delegates' Privileges and Elections Committee. Proponents say there still may be a chance the measure can be voted out of the full committee Friday.

If that happens, ERA supporters say they have the votes in the full House to pass to the resolution. The Senate passed its version last week.

The proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution would outlaw discrimination based on gender, providing Congress with firmer grounding to pass anti-discrimination laws while giving lawsuits more strength in the courts.

Republican Margaret Ransone, the subcommittee's chair, said at Tuesday's hearing that the ERA was "simply not needed" and told young girls in the audience that "you can do anything that you want."

"I don't need words on a piece of paper," Ransone said. "God made us all equal."

Virginia's ERA opponents also cite the 1982 deadline and the fact that five states that ratified it in the 1970s later passed measures to rescind their support.

They've also raised concerns about an amendment being used to remove restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortion.

But ERA supporters, who include Republican lawmakers, labeled such criticisms as "fear mongering."

Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, a Democratic sponsor of one of the ERA measures, told the subcommittee that the amendment would strengthen protections against gender-based discrimination, particularly in court.

"We want sex-discrimination cases to be analyzed in the same way that the courts analyze race, religion and national origin," she said. "It's much more difficult to have state-sanctioned race discrimination than (it is) sex discrimination."

Carroll Foy also pointed to a Christopher Newport University poll released in December that estimates 81 percent of Virginia voters support ratification.

Katherine Jordan, a spokeswoman for the group VAratifyERA, said supporters are now focusing their attention on Friday's hearing before the full Privileges and Elections Committee. She said there's still a chance the measure could be voted out of committee to the House floor.

Such a vote would be a first in Virginia. Since 1973, ERA measures have never passed Virginia's House or even left the Privileges and Elections Committee, according to the House Clerk's office.

"Virginia politics is complicated," Jordan said. "Until the full committee has decided definitively, we will remain hopeful that the will of Virginians still has some sway."

Momentum has been growing in statehouses across the country to revive the original ERA.

Congress had approved the ERA for ratification by the states in 1972. Thirty-five states had ratified it by a final 1982 deadline, leaving the amendment three states short of what was needed.

ERA advocates are now harnessing the energy of the #MeToo movement and concerns about President Donald Trump's policies to push more states to ratify the proposed amendment.

In the last two years, Nevada and Illinois ratified the ERA, bringing the number of states to 37.BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors say they've dropped their investigation into possible accessory to murder charges against a man for a crime allegedly committed in a secretive German colony in Chile more than four decades ago.

Muenster prosecutors said Tuesday there wasn't enough evidence to bring charges against the 72-year-old, whose name wasn't given, and other possible charges were all past the statute of limitations.

The victim was an opponent of Chile's military dictatorship in 1976 who was kidnapped and thought to have been brought to the Colonia Dignidad, then killed and buried.

But the suspect said while he knew prisoners were brought to the colony and he'd helped watch them, he didn't know of any killings.

Prosecutors said they also couldn't prove when and where the victim had been killed.LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Latest on a man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and accused of killing four people in Nevada over the past few weeks, adding fuel to the immigration debate (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

Members of a northern Nevada automobile club are devastated by the loss of 74-year-old member Sophia Renken.

Authorities say Renken and three others were killed this month by a man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally who was arrested over the weekend.

Robin Reedy, who is also a member of the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said Renken was "just one of the nicest people" who drove a Ford Model A and was always volunteering to help.

She says Renken stood out as a single woman in the club, where most women were members along with a spouse.

This undated photo provided by the Carson City Sheriff's Office in Carson City, Nev., shows suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman. Authorities investigating four recent Nevada killings say murder charges are pending against Martinez-Guzman, suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. (Carson City Sheriff's Office via AP)

Reedy says she was surprised to see Renken described in some media reports as elderly because she was tall and fit and acted youthful. Reedy says she would never have known Renken was 74.

She says Renken also enjoyed going out with friends and had a dog.

___

1:20 p.m.

A sheriff says authorities quickly decided to arrest an El Salvadoran immigrant suspected of four recent northern Nevada slayings after he approached a regional mall that has a large gun store.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that police vehicles pinned a BMW driven by 19-year-old Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman during Saturday's arrest in a Carson City mall parking lot.

Furlong says a flash-bang grenade was used, but no gunshots were fired.

Furlong says Martinez-Guzman did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed.

The sheriff says he did not know if there was a gun in the car when it was sealed as evidence and taken to Reno for crime lab processing.

The sheriff says investigators watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins on Saturday.

Furlong says the investigators feared Martinez-Guzman might try to dispose of evidence connected to the four slayings.

Martinez-Guzman is jailed in Carson City awaiting a Thursday court appearance.

___

12:15 p.m.

One of four people in Nevada who authorities say were killed by a man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally is being remembered by co-workers at a northern Nevada Wal-Mart as bubbly and positive.

Co-worker Teri Bower said Tuesday that 56-year-old Connie Koontz was also a manicurist at a salon in the town of Gardnerville who loved bright colors.

Bower says Kootnz was "the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green Crocs and rock it."

Bower says workers at the Wal-Mart were collecting donations to cover funeral costs and wearing buttons with pictures of Koontz that say "Loved Always."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman is from El Salvador and had no criminal record or history of previous immigration violations.

___

11:10 a.m.

Two victims of a killing spree in Nevada that has been blamed on a man from El Salvador who authorities say was in the U.S. illegally are being remembered as longstanding members of Reno's equestrian and rodeo scene.

Former Reno Rodeo Association president Tom Cates says he met Gerald David and his wife Sharon David three decades ago and spent "many miles and many hours together" on horseback with them.

Cates says Gerald David was previously the association's president and promoted a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting cowboys to show they were "tough enough to wear pink shirts."

Cates also was a member of the local Elks Lodge when David was the group's leader.

He says Sharon David was "exuberant, bubbly, loved animals to the hills."

Cates says the two were also members of a horseback social organization called the Nevada White Hats.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says suspect Wilbur Martinez-Guzman is from El Salvador and had no criminal record or history of previous immigration violations.

___

9:30 a.m.

U.S. immigration authorities say a man suspected of killing four people in Nevada over the last few weeks is from El Salvador and entered the United States illegally.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that 19-year-old Wilbur Martinez-Guzman had no criminal record or history of previous immigration violations.

The agency did not have additional details on his alleged illegal entry to the U.S., including when and where it occurred.

The agency's public affairs staff is furloughed because of the government shutdown.

President Donald Trump has seized on the killings to bolster his argument for his proposed border wall with Mexico.

- This version corrects that the suspect is 19, not 20.

___

6:45 a.m.

Authorities say a man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed four people in Nevada over the past few weeks, adding fuel to the immigration debate.

President Donald Trump has seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

It was not clear Tuesday where 19-year-old Wilbur Martinez-Guzman was from or how he came to the U.S.

He has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges.

Authorities have said they expect to file murder charges against him in the shooting deaths of an elderly Reno couple and two women in a nearby town.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said that federal immigration authorities told his office Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally.

___

This version corrects that the suspect is 19, not 20.WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is moving forward with plans for President Donald Trump to deliver his State of the Union speech next week in front of a joint session of Congress - despite a letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting he delay it.

The White House sent an email to the House sergeant-at-arms asking to schedule a walk-through in anticipation of a Jan. 29 address, according to a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the planning by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Nancy Pelosi made the invitation to the president on the State of the Union. He accepted," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. "At this point, we're moving forward."

The move is the latest in a game of political brinkmanship between Trump and the House speaker as they remain locked in an increasingly personal standoff over Trump's demand for border wall funding that has forced a partial government shutdown that is now in its second month.

The maneuvering began last week when Pelosi sent a letter to Trump suggesting that he either deliver the speech in writing or postpone it until after the partial government shutdown is resolved, citing security concerns. But the White House maintains Pelosi never formally rescinded her invitation, and is, in essence, calling her bluff.

"She has not canceled it. She asked us to postpone it," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel.

President Donald Trump, center, Vice President Mike Pence, left, escorted by Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, right, visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

"We have no announcement at this time," he said, "but Nancy Pelosi does not dictate to the president when he will or will not have a conversation with the American people."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said the address should be "in the House chamber as we have always done. This is not the time to play politics."

At the same time, the White House is continuing to work on contingency plans to give Trump a backup in case the joint-session plans fall through. The president cannot speak in front of a joint session of Congress without both chambers' explicit permission. A resolution needs to be agreed to by both chambers specifying the date and time for receiving an address from the president.

Officials have been considering a list of potential alternative venues, including a rally-style event, an Oval office address- as Pelosi previously suggested - a speech before the Senate chamber, and even a return visit to the U.S.-Mexico border as Trump is expected to continue to hammer the need for a barrier, according to two others familiar with the discussions.

Multiple versions are also being drafted to suit the final venue.

The Constitution states only that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union," meaning the president can speak anywhere he chooses or give his update in writing. But a joint address in the House chamber, in front of lawmakers from both parties, the Supreme Court justices and invited guests, provides the kind of grand backdrop that is hard to mimic and that this president, especially, enjoys.

Still, North Carolina's House Speaker Tim Moore wrote a letter inviting Trump to deliver the speech in the North Carolina House chamber. And Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield on Friday invited Trump to deliver the address at the state Capitol in Lansing instead.

Trump called Moore Monday evening, according to his office, and spoke by phone with Chatfield Tuesday morning, Chatfield tweeted.

"I understand you have other plans for #SOTU, but as we discussed, I look forward to hosting you in Michigan again soon," Chatfield wrote.

Pelosi in her letter had cited the impact of the ongoing shutdown on the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service, questioning whether they could secure the speech given that they have been operating without funding.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen responded by assuring that DHS and Secret Service were "fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union."

Asked about the letter by reporters Tuesday, Pelosi did not address the White House's decision, saying only: "We just want people to get paid for their work."

Senior White House staff had been in a morning huddle discussing the upcoming speech when news of Pelosi's letter first broke on TV. The power play - which Trump countered by revoking Pelosi's use of a military aircraft, thereby canceling a congressional delegation visit to Afghanistan - had put the status of the marquee speech in limbo, leaving staff scrambling to figure out how to proceed.

"We'll keep you posted," Sanders had told reporters when asked for a status update Friday.

In their standoff, Trump has also accused Pelosi of behaving "irrationally," while Pelosi has refused to negotiate with Trump on border funding until he agrees to reopen the government.

In a tweet Sunday, Trump wrote that he was "still thinking about the State of the Union speech" and that there were "so many options - including doing it as per your written offer (made during the Shutdown, security is no problem), and my written acceptance."

"While a contract is a contract," he wrote, "I'll get back to you soon!"

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor, Catherine Lucey and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.

___

Follow Colvin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colvinj

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, smiles as she helps give out food at World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organization started by Chef Jose Andres, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Washington. The organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters, has set up a distribution center just blocks from the U.S. Capitol building to assist those affected by the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, smiles as she helps give out food at World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organization started by Chef Jose Andres, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Washington. The organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters, has set up a distribution center just blocks from the U.S. Capitol building to assist those affected by the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center left, and Chef Jose Andres, center right, arrive to give out food at World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organization started by Chef Jose Andres, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Washington. The organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters, has set up a distribution center just blocks from the U.S. Capitol building to assist those affected by the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The former owner of a company that left thousands of tons of potentially explosive artillery propellant at a Louisiana National Guard facility has dropped an appeal of his sentence.

Meanwhile, a codefendant's sentencing appeal remains before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Former Explo Systems Inc. owner David Alan Smith and program manager Keneth Wayne Lampkin were among five defendants who pleaded guilty in what a prosecutor called the nation's worst-ever dumping of military explosives. All five were sentenced Nov. 29 in federal court in Shreveport.

The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit on Tuesday dismissed Smith's appeal, as requested by the 63-year-old resident of Winchester, Kentucky. Smith's filing last week said only that he had decided to drop the appeal after talking with his lawyers. He had begun appeal proceedings in December.

Online court records show Lampkin's appeal remains active. Federal public defender Betty Marak has not filed a brief with Lampkin's arguments.

Explo Systems had an $8.7 million Army contract to "demilitarize" artillery charges at a 15,000-acre (6,100-hectare) Louisiana National Guard facility called Camp Minden. Louisiana State Police began investigating it in 2012, after a thunderous explosion shattered windows miles away, created a 7,000-foot (2,130-meter) mushroom cloud and derailed 11 nearby rail cars.

FILE - This 2012 aerial file photo provided by the Louisiana State Police shows a portion of the M6 artillery propellant improperly stored outside Explo Systems Inc., a munitions dismantling facility at Camp Minden in Minden, La. The former owner of a company that left thousands of tons of the potentially explosive artillery propellant at the Louisiana National Guard facility has dropped an appeal of his sentence. A codefendant's sentencing appeal remains before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)

State government had to clean up 7,800 tons (7,100 metric tons) of potentially explosive M6 and 160 tons (145 metric tons) of clean-burning igniter, much of it outdoors or otherwise stored unsafely.

The company went bankrupt in 2013.

Plans to burn the material in the open sparked a public outcry. The Army eventually paid a Baton Rouge company $32 million to create a large enclosed chamber in which the material could be burned and the air inside scrubbed clean of pollutants.

Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and to making false statements, and was sentenced to 4 years and 7 months in prison and to pay $34.8 million restitution. On Dec. 20, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote recommended he be sent to a prison near his home.

Lampkin was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison and ordered to pay $149,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to making false statements. Three other former Explo Systems officials also pleaded guilty, drawing sentences ranging from 2 to 5 years in prison. They were ordered to repay the federal government a total of $449,000.

The restitution adds up to $35.4 million. Prosecutors said it includes the $8.7 million contract plus cleanup costs.

Explo Systems co-owner David Fincher of Burns, Tennessee, died days before he was scheduled for trial.COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - The Latest on reaction from a recent encounter between white teenagers, Native American marchers and a black religious sect outside the Lincoln Memorial. (all times local):

7:45 p.m.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the White House has reached out to students at a Kentucky high school who became embroiled in an encounter with a Native American activist and a black religious sect that was captured on video.

Videos posted of the confrontation drew wide criticism on social media, but it's not entirely clear what happened. The various sides say they were misunderstood.

Sanders says, "we've reached out and voiced our support." She says no one understands better than President Donald Trump when the media jumps to conclusions and "attacks you for something you may or may not have done."

She says if the president does invite the students from Covington Catholic High School to the White House, it will be sometime after the government shutdown has concluded.

A protestor leads a Native American prayer with a traditional drum outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after videos emerged showing students from Covington Catholic High School mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The school was closed Tuesday as a security precaution.

___

5:15 p.m.

Catholic church officials in Kentucky say an independent, third-party investigation will begin this week into the recent encounter between white Catholic high school students from Covington and a black religious sect and a Native American in Washington, D.C.

The Diocese of Covington said Friday's encounter near the Lincoln Memorial is "a very serious matter that has already permanently altered the lives of many people." The statement by the Roman Catholic diocese adds that facts will be gathered to determine "what if any corrective actions, if any, are appropriate."

The statement didn't elaborate on the investigation or who would conduct it.

The Kentucky boys' school shut its campus Tuesday as a precaution and a small protest was held outside the diocese amid continuing fallout from the encounter, which was recorded on video that went viral. The statement says police recommended the closure because of the possibility of large crowds. Those didn't materialize, and the diocese says the school will reopen once law enforcement says "it is safe to do so."

__

3:15 p.m.

Twitter has suspended an account that helped spread a video of an encounter last week between white students from a Catholic high school in Kentucky and a Native American in Washington, D.C.

Twitter prohibits the creation of "fake and misleading accounts."

Twitter said in an email that "Deliberate attempts to manipulate the public conversation on Twitter by using misleading account information is a violation of the Twitter Rules." It didn't elaborate.

Recorded images of the encounter that initially generated outrage on social media were tightly focused on the students wearing "Make America Great Again" hats who seemed to laugh derisively as they surrounded an elderly Native American beating a drum.

Longer videos showed the drummer intervened as a street preacher made racist statements with a megaphone.

___

12:40 p.m.

A Native American involved in an encounter between white teenagers and a black religious sect outside the Lincoln Memorial last week says he wants to meet with the students involved.

The Cincinnati Enquirer cited a statement from Nathan Phillips on Tuesday offering to travel to Covington Catholic High School and have a dialogue about cultural appropriation, racism and the importance of listening to and respecting diverse cultures.

He says he'd like to use what occurred as a teachable moment.

Recorded images of the encounter that initially generated outrage on social media were tightly focused on the students wearing "Make America Great Again" hats who seemed to laugh derisively as they surrounded an elderly Native American beating a drum.

Longer videos from other perspectives showed the drummer intervened as a street preacher made racist statements with a megaphone.

___

10:45 a.m.

A Kentucky boys' school shut down its campus on Tuesday as a precaution and a small protest was held outside their diocese as fallout continued over an encounter between white teenagers, Native American marchers and a black religious sect outside the Lincoln Memorial last week.

President Donald Trump tweeted early Tuesday that the students at Covington Catholic High School "have become symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be" but says he hopes the teens will use the attention for good, and "maybe even to bring people together."

The recorded images that initially generated outrage on social media were tightly focused on the students wearing "Make America Great Again" hats who seemed to laugh derisively as they surrounded an elderly Native American beating a drum.

Longer videos from wider perspectives emerged later over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.

Native American protestors hold hands with parishioner Nathanial Hall, right, during a group prayer outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after videos emerged showing students from Covington Catholic High School mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protestors gather outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after videos emerged showing students from Covington Catholic High School mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Native American protestors hold hands with parishioner Nathanial Hall, right, during a group prayer outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after videos emerged showing students from Covington Catholic High School mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Protestors gather outside the Catholic Diocese of Covington Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Covington, Ky. The diocese in Kentucky has apologized after videos emerged showing students from a Catholic boys' high school mocking Native Americans outside the Lincoln Memorial on Friday after a rally in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Guy Jones, left, and a supporter of President Donald Trump named Don join hands during a gathering of Native American supporters in front of the Catholic Diocese of Covington in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Jones organized Tuesday's gathering. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Sleepy Eye Lafromboise, right, and his son Eshtakaba, both of the Sioux Nation, sing during a gathering of Native American supporters in front of the Catholic Diocese in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Sleepy Eye Lafromboise, center, and his son Eshtakaba, both of the Sioux Nation, sing during a gathering of Native American supporters in front of the Catholic Diocese in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Guy Jones, left, and a supporter of President Donald Trump named Don embrace during a gathering of Native American supporters in front of the Catholic Diocese of Covington in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Jones organized Tuesday's gathering. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Carolina A. Castoreno-Santana, Executive Director of the American Indian Center of Indiana, speaks during a gathering in support of Native Americans in front of the Catholic Diocese in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

A man places a sign showing support for the students of Covington Catholic Catholic High School in front of the Catholic Diocese of Covington in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

Guy Jones speaks to the press during a gathering in front of the Catholic Diocese in Covington, Ky., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Jones organized Tuesday's gathering of Native American supporters. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States said Tuesday an international conference next month to promote peace and stability in the Middle East is not aimed at demonizing Iran, which has denounced the gathering as America's anti-Iran "circus."

U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the Security Council that the conference in Warsaw on Feb. 13-14 sponsored by the United States and Poland is also not aimed at discussing the merits of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA, which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

He called the ministerial meeting a brainstorming session to "develop the outline of a stronger security architecture" in the Mideast with sessions on the humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, missile development, extremism and cybersecurity.

Cohen's comments followed complaints from Iran directed at Poland for co-hosting the conference and a tweet by Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denouncing it as a U.S. anti-Iran "circus." Poland's foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz said in remarks published Monday that Iran wasn't invited and Russia would not attend.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council later that Moscow would like to believe the conference isn't just aimed at one country. He then asked: "Why has that conference not invited Iran, which is one of the most significant and large countries in the region?"

"Attempts to create some kind of military alliances in the region, holding different conferences and focusing on having a simplified unilateral approach to the region that is clearly linked just to Iran, is counterproductive," he said, "and just pushes further away the prospects of finding a genuine security architecture for the region."

Nebenzia also asked how it's possible to have "a genuine architecture without solving the Palestinian issue." He reiterated Russia's offer to host talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, stressing that this is the only way to solve so-called final status issues and achieve a two-state solution.

Looking ahead to the Warsaw conference, Cohen said there will be "a dynamic discussion and collaborative thinking with the goal of contributing to a more peaceful, stable and prosperous Middle East." He added that this would be "a more productive approach" than the Security Council's monthly Mideast meetings focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"It's also important to state clearly what this ministerial (conference) is not: It is not a forum to re-litigate the merits of the JCPOA. While we've made our concerns with the JCPOA clear, we respect other states' decisions to support it," the U.S. envoy said. "It is also not a venue to demonize or attack Iran."

Cohen said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "has outlined a clear strategy to reach a new comprehensive deal with Iran built on the shared global understanding that Iran must cease its destabilizing activities."

But he said the conference will acknowledge the need for action against Iran's missile program, Iranian proxy Hezbollah's tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, and the "unacceptably provocative act by the Iranian and Syrian regimes" in launching a rocket from Syria at Israel over the weekend.

Cohen said these activities, among others, are "drivers of instability in the Middle East, but the scope of the discussion will be much broader than any one country or set of issues."

"As a testament to this, countries from around the world have been invited to participate," he said.

Pompeo, who recently completed a Mideast tour bringing the Trump administration's anti-Iran message to the region, said Sunday in Qatar that he hoped the Warsaw conference will allow the world to see "the enormous coalition that is prepared to assist in creating stability and peace here in the Middle East."

"We'll work on many issues including how it is we can get the Islamic Republic of Iran to behave more like a normal nation," Pompeo said.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A man is under arrest in Utah after police say he posted on Facebook about "killing as many girls as I see" the same weekend that Women's Marches were held around the U.S.

Christopher W. Cleary, 27, wrote he wanted to be "the next mass shooter," because he had never had a girlfriend and he was still a virgin, according to jail documents filed by police in the city of Provo.

He wanted to "make it right" with women who had turned him down and also said "there's nothing more dangerous than a man ready to die," the documents said.

Cleary is from Denver and Colorado police on Saturday contacted officers in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, where Cleary had checked into an AirBnB rental a day earlier.

With help from the FBI, officers tracked Cleary to a restaurant and arrested him on suspicion of a felony threat of terrorism charge.

The posts did not mention the marches but investigators were concerned because they were happening that day in Provo and Salt Lake City, along with dozens of other cities, the documents said.

In this photo released Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2019, by the Utah County Jail, is Christopher W. Cleary. A man is under arrest in Utah after police say he posted on Facebook about "killing as many girls as I see" the same weekend that Women's Marches were held around the country. Jail documents filed by police in the city of Provo say 27-year-old Christopher W. Cleary wrote he was angry because he'd never had a girlfriend and wanted to "make it right" with a mass shooting. Cleary is from Denver and the documents say Colorado police contacted officers in Provo on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019. (Utah County Jail via AP)

Cleary acknowledged making the posts, but said he deleted them after receiving threats in response, police said.

He told investigators he had an impulse-control disorder and was suicidal. Colorado authorities said Cleary is on probation after stalking and threatening women there, according to Utah police documents.

He was being held without bail in Utah, and authorities were expected to seek his extradition to Colorado.

No attorney or publicly listed phone number was immediately available for Cleary.HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Still coping with the death of their teenage son a year ago, Michael and Kristin Song are on a mission that is helping to relieve some of their pain - advocating for tougher federal and state laws on safe gun storage aimed at keeping firearms out of children's hands.

Ethan Song, 15, accidentally shot himself in the head with a handgun owned by his friend's father in their hometown of Guilford, Connecticut, on Jan. 31, 2018. The friend's father had kept the .357 magnum and two other guns secured with gun locks in a plastic container in his bedroom closet, but keys to the locks and ammunition also were in the container, police said.

Versions of "Ethan's Law" were introduced this month in the U.S. Senate and Connecticut House of Representatives. Under the federal bill, gun owners could face up to five years in prison and a $500 fine if they leave a firearm unsecured at home and a minor or someone else who can't legally possess a gun uses it to injure or kill themselves or another person. It also includes incentives for states to pass their own laws.

"We really want to get it passed," Michael Song said. "I truly believe this could save thousands of lives. It's a mission for our family to help us get through this tragedy that we have had to endure."

Nearly 1,700 children under 18 died from accidental gun deaths from 2001 to 2017 and more than 33,000 were injured, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advocates say recent research shows such accidents happened roughly twice as often as the records indicate.

Another 7,700 minors intentionally killed themselves with guns during the same time period, and more than 2,500 intentionally injured themselves with firearms, according to the CDC.

In this Nov. 27, 2018 photo, Michael Song, left, and his wife, Kristin, center, listen to speakers at a press conference about gun safety following the accidental death of their son, Ethan, in front of First Congregational Church across from the Guilford Green in Guilford, Conn. At right is Rev. Ginger Brasher-Dunningham. The Songs are on a mission that is helping to relieve some of their pain - advocating for tougher federal and state laws on safe gun storage aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of children. (Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)

"If a child is in the home, your guns should be stored safely. Period," said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who introduced the federal law with fellow Democratic Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Supporters believe such laws also could help prevent school shootings. In nearly two-thirds of school shootings, the shooters used a gun obtained from their home or a relatives' home, according to a report by the Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education.

Federal law currently doesn't require safe storage of firearms by their owners. It does mandate that licensed manufacturers and dealers include gun storage or safety devices when they sell or transfer handguns, but the law doesn't apply to private sellers.

Eleven states have laws concerning gun locking devices, with Massachusetts being the only state that requires all firearms be stored with locks in place, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In Connecticut, California and New York, gun owners must lock their weapons when storing them in certain circumstances. Other states have gun lock laws similar to the federal law.

Gun rights supporters say gun owners should make their firearms inaccessible to unauthorized people, but they oppose laws telling owners specifically how to store their weapons.

"Many factors must be considered when deciding where and how to store guns," said Catherine Mortensen, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association. "A person's particular situation will be a major part of the consideration. We reject government mandates on specific methods of storage because those fail to recognize the unique circumstances of individuals and families."

In Ethan Song's case, Connecticut prosecutors said they could not charge Ethan's friend's father under the state's existing safe gun storage law because it requires only loaded guns to be safely stored. Prosecutors said there was no evidence the friend's father stored the guns loaded, and no evidence he knew or should have known a juvenile was likely to gain access to the guns without his permission.

Connecticut state lawmakers say "Ethan's Law" would revise state law to close loopholes and require all guns - loaded or unloaded - be safely stored.

"The real intent of the law is to get everybody to lock them up, just like we buckle our seat belts now and think nothing of it," Michael Song said. "I'm just hoping people come to their senses and say this is logical. We can save lives."

In this Nov. 27, 2018 photo, Michael Song, left, father of Ethan Song, points toward heaven and says in unison with those gathered, "We Love You Ethan," during a press conference about gun safety in front of First Congregational Church in Guilford, Conn. From second left, State Senator-elect Christine Cohen, Jeremy Stein, executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, State Representative Sean Scanlon, Kristin Song, Ethan's mother, and Rev. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham. Still coping with the death of their teenage son a year ago, the Songs are advocating for tougher federal and state laws on safe gun storage aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of children. (Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP)ORLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) - The Latest on the fatal shooting of a teen at a suburban Chicago mall (all times local):

11:40 a.m.

The fugitive suspect in the fatal shooting of a teenager at a suburban Chicago mall is a parolee who was released from prison after serving a little over a year for armed robbery.

According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, 19-year-old Jakharr Williams of University Park has been on parole since his release in June.

Police identified Williams as the suspect after interviewing witnesses to Monday's shooting at Orland Square Mall in Orland Park. They say he was an acquaintance of 18-year-old Javon Britten of Richton Park who was shot and killed during an argument at a food court at the mall. Williams fled.

Police say Britten staggered to a nearby clothing store and collapsed. He was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn a short time later. A bystander suffered a graze wound to a leg.

People leave the scene where a gunman shot and killed a man near the food court inside the Orland Square Mall, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

___

10:35 a.m.

Police say the suspect they are searching for in the fatal shooting of a teenager at a suburban Chicago mall is a 19-year-old acquaintance of the victim.

In a news release Tuesday, Orland Park Police said they are searching for Jakharr Williams of University Park in the shooting at Orland Square Mall. The attack Monday left 18-year-old Javon Britten of Richton Park dead and a bystander suffered a graze wound to the leg.

Police say Britten and Williams got into an "altercation," and that Williams pulled out a handgun and fired multiple times before fleeing the mall about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

Police say Williams should be considered armed and dangerous.

___

8:30 a.m.

Authorities are seeking a man suspected of fatally shooting a teenager and wounding a bystander at a suburban Chicago mall.

Orland Park police say the suspect and the victim were involved in "an altercation" before the Monday shooting at Orland Square Mall .

Police say the suspect pulled a handgun, fired multiple times and fled the mall, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The victim was identified as 18-year-old Javon Britten of Richton Park. He collapsed outside a clothing store and was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police say the suspect is believed to be 20 years old and likely knew Britten.

Deputy Police Chief Joseph Mitchell says a bystander suffered a graze wound to the leg. Mitchell calls the shooting an "isolated incident."

Authorities work the scene where a gunman shot and killed a man near the food court inside the Orland Square Mall, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Police and fire departments respond to the scene at Orland Square Mall where a shooting occurred Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)BERLIN (AP) - The former director of an asylum-seeker home in western Germany has been convicted of abusing people in his care.

The Siegen state court on Tuesday sentenced the 38-year-old to 15 months' probation, and fined him 1,200 euros ($1,365), dpa news agency reported.

The former insurance salesman started running the home in 2013 and told the court he'd let it get out of control to the point where residents were locked into a "problem room" for small infractions and he turned a blind eye to physical abuse. The court said it took into account his full confession in his sentence.

Twenty-six other personnel are separately on trial on allegations they hit residents and pepper sprayed them.

The case caused an outcry in 2014 when video of the abuse was leaked.LOS ANGELES (AP) - Some fun and interesting facts about Tuesday's nominations for the 91st Academy Awards:

- After more than 30 years and some two dozen films, Spike Lee received his first Academy Award nomination for best director for "BlacKkKlansman." It's also the first time one of his movies has been nominated for best picture.

- Glenn Close's best actress nomination for "The Wife" is her seventh, and could finally mean her first Oscar. She has more nominations without a win than any other living actor or actress.

- "Black Panther" is the first Marvel movie - and the first superhero film of any kind - to be nominated for best picture. Its $700 million box-office take is more than the earnings of the other seven best-picture nominees combined.

- "Roma" is the first Netflix film to be nominated for best picture.

- Sam Elliott's first Oscar nomination - for best supporting actor in "A Star Is Born" - comes 50 years after his first acting credit, on the TV series "Judd for the Defense."

This image released by Focus Features shows director Spike Lee, left, with actors Topher Grace, center, and Adam Driver on the set of Lee's film "BlacKkKlansman." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Lee was nominated for an Oscar for best director for his work on the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (David Lee/Focus Features via AP)

- Rami Malek, nominated for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody," is the only first-time Oscar nominee among the men up for best actor. He's up against multiple nominees Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Viggo Mortensen and Willem Dafoe.

- Yalitza Aparicio's nomination for "Roma" comes in her first role as an actress.

- This is the second of Hollywood's four versions of "A Star Is Born," to get a best picture nomination, along with the 1937 original. The 1954 and 1976 versions each got several Oscar nominations, but not for best picture.

- No women were nominated for best director this year. The number of female directorial nominees in the 91-year history of the Oscars remains five.

- Eighty-seven countries submitted movies to be considered for best foreign language film. Five got nominations : Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico and Poland.

- Bob Hope hosted the Oscars a record 19 times. No one is scheduled to host this year's ceremony.

___

For full coverage of the Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/AcademyAwards .

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Glenn Close in a scene from "The Wife." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Close was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for her role in the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (Graeme Hunter/Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Disney shows a scene from Marvel Studios' "Black Panther." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, the film was nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. (Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios-Disney via AP)LOS POZOS, Panama (AP) - A handful of carpenters were putting the finishing details on a towering cedar chair, detailed with carvings and crowned by a triangular pediment.

Still missing were its white upholstery and two ornamental shields representing the Vatican and Pope Francis, who will use it when he visits Panama starting Wednesday to preside over World Youth Day.

"You know who the chair is for, where it is going to be shown," said Hernan Guardia, 42, whose workshop is responsible for crafting the elegant throne. "Practically the whole world will see it."

That will happen Saturday, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) to the northeast at the Santa Maria la Antigua Cathedral in the Panamanian capital's colonial core.

The cathedral was closed for several years for restoration work that finally concluded in December, and it will reopen to the public after Francis consecrates it.

Guardia has made a name for himself for years repairing and crafting wooden furniture for churches in Panama City's historic quarter.

A worker varnishes a pew that will be used by pilgrims during Mass on World Youths Day, to be celebrated by Pope Francis, at Hernan Guardia's carpentry workshop where the Pope's chair is also being built in Los Pozos, Panama, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. The Argentine pontiff visit Panama Jan. 23-27. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

In addition to the papal chair, his workshop has also built 200 pews for the cathedral as well as 16 bishops' chairs, one for Panamanian Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa and 24 more for priests. To get the job done, Guardia doubled his staff to 20 artisans.

From all the wood that was procured for the furnishings, Guardia said the best and finest pieces were selected for Francis' chair, which stands about 6 1/2 feet (just over 2 meters) tall and was based on a design provided by the Roman Catholic Church.

"I have taken it on in a very simple way," he said, adding that filling this order required discipline and rigor at every stage. "It's just another job that we have to carry out, only with a very special meaning."

A detail of pews that will be used by Cardinals, Bishops and pilgrims during Pope Francis' Mass on World Youths Day, at Hernan Guardia's carpentry workshop where the Pope's chair is also being built in Los Pozos, Panama, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. The Argentine pontiff visit Panama Jan. 23-27. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

A worker sprays a wooden chair that will be used by Cardinals and Bishops during Pope Francis' Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral on World Youths Day, at Hernan Guardia's carpentry workshop where the Pope's chair is also being built in Los Pozos, Panama, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. The Argentine pontiff visit Panama Jan. 23-27. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Carpenter Hernan Guardia speaks during an interview with The Associated Press about the chairs he's making ahead of Pope Francis' visit, to be used on the altar during a Mass on World Youth Day, at his workshop in Los Pozos, Panama, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. Guardia is algo building new pews for Panama City's Cathedral, behind, ahead of Pope Francis' Jan. 23-27 visit. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

A worker sands a wooden chair that will be used by Cardinals and Bishops during Pope Francis' Mass on World Youths Day, at Hernan Guardia's carpentry workshop where the Pope's chair is also being built in Los Pozos, Panama, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. The Argentine pontiff visit Panama Jan. 23-27. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - A North Dakota couple died while vacationing in San Diego when a 75-foot-tall pine tree crashed onto their rental house as they slept, relatives and police said.

Troy and Jessica Nelson ran a promotional products and apparel company, Trojan Promotions, in Grand Forks.

They were spending the weekend at the house after attending a trade show during the week, according to the man's sister Tammy Reynolds. They were sleeping upstairs when the tree toppled in gusty winds around 6 a.m. Monday.

Reynolds said her sister-in-law's brother, Ryan Langerud, was on the first floor of the house and survived.

"It's such a freaky accident," Reynolds told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I guess we're all so numb from it, and for both of them to go."

Reynolds said Langerud told her he found himself in the basement with items on top of him and initially was confused as to what had happened. She said Langerud told her it sounded like an airplane had crashed into the house.

This combination photo of undated images provided by Trojan Promotions shows Jessica Nelson, left, who was killed along with her husband Troy Nelson after a 75-foot-tall pine tree crashed into their rental home in the Point Loma Heights neighborhood of San Diego on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 during gusty winds. Relatives say the couple, who ran a promotional products and apparel company, Trojan Promotions, in Grand Forks, N.D., were vacationing in San Diego after attending an industry expo. (Trojan Promotions via AP)

Trojan Promotions senior production manager Krisi Lund said Tuesday the future of the company is up in the air as its employees grieve the deaths of the Nelsons.

"We carry on day by day. The future of the company hasn't been decided. We're committed to our clients. We are going to take care of our clients the best we can the way Troy and Jessica would want us to," Lund told The Associated Press. "They were generous beyond belief in every aspect of their lives."

San Diego Police Lt. Christian Sharp said the fallen tree caused a gas leak in the house and clipped some power lines.

This undated photo provided by Trojan Promotions shows Troy Nelson who was killed along with his wife Jessica Nelson after a 75-foot-tall pine tree crashed into their rental home in the Point Loma Heights neighborhood of San Diego on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 during gusty winds. Relatives say the couple, who ran a promotional products and apparel company, Trojan Promotions, in Grand Forks, N.D., were vacationing in San Diego after attending an industry expo. (Trojan Promotions via AP)LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivian President Evo Morales celebrated his 13 years in office on Tuesday amid controversy over whether he should be allowed to run again for the presidency.

Last year, Bolivia's top electoral court accepted Morales' candidacy for a fourth term despite a constitutional ban and referendum against such re-election. Elections for the next five-year presidential term are set for October.

Morales has presided over an unprecedented economic boom and is credited with lifting millions out of poverty, but he has lost support following allegations about manipulation of the justice system, his insistence to run for another term and corruption scandals.

"It's our greatest weakness, but I want to tell you that we will not tolerate corruption," Morales told lawmakers without mentioning the upcoming elections.

During his annual speech to Congress, Morales highlighted his government's achievements, including economic growth in the Andean nation, which at 4.5 percent is South America's strongest.

Morales became Bolivia's first indigenous president in 2005. He supported a 2009 constitution that allowed only two consecutive terms - though he later argued the restriction took effect only after the new constitution was adopted. The former coca farmer was re-elected in 2009 and 2014.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales points from from a balcony at the government palace flanked Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, left, and Bolivia's Foreign Minister Diego Pary, after Morales delivered his annual report to Congress in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Morales is marking 13 years as the leader of the South American country. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivians rejected a constitutional amendment to allow more than two consecutive terms in a 2016 referendum. But Morales' party convinced the constitutional court to rule his candidacy was legal, saying term limits violate citizens' human right to run for office.

An October 2018 poll by the company IPSOS said that 68 percent of Bolivians surveyed opposed his re-election.

"Unfortunately we have a divided country as a result of (Morales') desire to continue," said Senator Oscar Ortiz, who plans to run for the presidency. "He should obey the constitution to avoid seeming like someone who wanted to carry out a coup on his own constitution."

Musicians parade past the government palace after Bolivia's President Evo Morales delivered his annual report to Congress in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Morales is marking 13 years as the leader of the South American country. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivia's President Evo Morales delivers his State of the Nation address to Congress in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Morales is marking 13 years as the leader of the South American country. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivia's President Evo Morales waves as he arrives at Congress accompanied by legislators, to give his annual report in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Morales is marking 13 years as the leader of the South American country. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)EL PASO, Texas (AP) - El Paso Electric plans to add a $143 million power generator and introduce more solar power by 2023, the utility recently announced.

The company said the planned power generator will be located at its Northeast El Paso power plant and comes after studies that showed the electric utility will need more power generation by 2023 to replace three aging gas-powered generating units, the El Paso Times reports . The company also said it will add its first battery storage for solar power within the next four years.

El Paso Electric is in negotiations with an unspecified number of companies for the power expansion, which is the result of the company's June 2017 request for power-generation proposals.

The utility provides power to more than 420,000 customers in western Texas and southern New Mexico.

The proposed 226 megawatt, natural-gas generating unit at the Newman Power Station, the company's largest power plant, is scheduled to be operating by 2023, according to current plans.

The utility plans to purchase an additional 200 megawatts of solar power by 2022 from plants that other companies will build and operate. It will need 50 megawatts of that power in 2022 and the remainder by 2023, officials said.

The company also plans to purchase 100 megawatts of battery storage, which would be installed in several places, said Mary Kipp, El Paso Electric's chief executive officer.

The company does not yet have an overall cost estimate for the power expansion beyond the estimated $143 million cost for the Newman generating unit, Kipp said.

The Newman generating unit will have to be paid through customers' rates, Kipp said. The company has said it will not seek approval from regulators to increase rates to pay for the new unit until after it starts operating.PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Philadelphia prosecutors say they've seen no evidence from newly found boxes of files in a former Black Panther's police slaying case that a judge had a conflict of interest.

Mumia Abu-Jamal recently won a chance to reargue his appeal in the 1981 slaying because a state Supreme Court justice who sat in on the 1998 arguments had been the city's district attorney during his initial appeal.

Current District Attorney Larry Krasner must soon decide whether to fight a city judge's decision to give Abu-Jamal the new hearing. That ruling followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ordered a new hearing in a similar case.

In a letter to the court Friday, Krasner's office said six boxes of case files found this month in a storage area include police paperwork, tapes, jury selection notes and discovery material. But prosecutors said there's no sign that retired Justice Ronald Castille was directly involved in Abu-Jamal's case as district attorney from 1986 to 1991.

"The Commonwealth did not find any documents showing D.A. Castille's personal involvement in defendant's case," the letter said.

Criminal justice reformers, police union officials and others are eager to see if Krasner will challenge Abu-Jamal's appeal, given his background as a civil rights lawyer and death penalty opponent.

Abu-Jamal, a taxi driver and radio reporter, was convicted of killing Patrolman Daniel Faulkner after the policeman pulled over his brother in an overnight traffic stop. Abu-Jamal became an international celebrity through his writings and recordings from death row on the U.S. justice system. His death sentence was later overturned over flawed jury instructions, and he is now serving life without parole.

His lawyers are also going through the boxes found in the storage area. Judith L. Ritter, a lead lawyer on Abu-Jamal's appeal who teaches at Widener University's Delaware Law School, declined comment Tuesday.

___

This story has been corrected to say the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new hearing, not a new trial, in a related case.SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Navy officer who supervised a SEAL accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017 was charged Tuesday with various offenses tied to the case, including allegations he conducted the SEAL's re-enlistment ceremony next to the corpse and encouraged enlisted personnel to pose for photos with the body.

The court martial for Lt. Jacob Portier began with the arraignment Tuesday at the Navy base in San Diego. Portier also is accused of failing to report a war crime, destroying evidence and impeding the investigation of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher.

Portier's attorney, Jay Sullivan, said Portier will plead not guilty to all the charges at a later date, which is allowed under military court rules. Both sides agreed to meet again next week to discuss restrictions on information, photos and video from the investigation and whether anything should be classified or kept from the public during the rare trial of an elite special warfare operator.

Sullivan said he plans to object to a protective order in place because it has limited his ability to review the investigation's documents and interview witnesses about statements that have been made, though he believes there may be things that should be kept from the public and discussed in closed session during the trial.

Sullivan said Portier - who was the officer in charge of Gallagher's platoon during the deployment - is innocent. Sullivan believes it will come out that the Islamic State fighter was killed in combat operations and Portier was not there.

He also said the re-enlistment ceremony was done legally in a war zone where there may have been other casualties nearby.

"I can tell you he certainly never ordered anybody to appear in any photos with a dead ISIS fighter," Sullivan said after the arraignment. "I can tell you that a re-enlistment ceremony was done on the battlefield and for a Navy SEAL nothing could be more proud and honorable than re-enlisting to serve your country on the battlefield."

Gallagher pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges of premediated murder and other offenses, including opening fire on crowds of Iraqi civilians, and shooting a female and a male in separate incidents.

Navy prosecutors have painted a picture of a decorated SEAL going off the rails on his eighth deployment, indiscriminately shooting at Iraqi civilians and stabbing to death a captured Islamic State fighter estimated to be 15 years old. They say he also posed with the corpse, including at his re-enlistment ceremony.

His lawyers have said the allegations were made by disgruntled SEALs out to get Gallagher because he was a demanding platoon leader.

Portier's lawyer said the Naval SEALs have had "extraordinary success" in Iraq. He is concerned the Navy's prosecution of the case in a public court martial could undermine that, hurt morale and reveal information about the secretive force. He wants the State Department to intervene on behalf of national security. He believes it's important to determine whether parts of the case, such as operations' details, tactics, etc., should be only discussed in closed sessions.

"I believe the investigation should be classified," Sullivan said after the arraignment. "The operations that we do over there is protecting our national security, and parading these warfighters on the stage, I think it puts them at risk and our mission over there at risk."

Gallagher, who has been jailed since his arrest Sept. 11, will stand trial Feb. 19.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has chosen a top official in the administration of President Donald Trump for a seat on the Florida Supreme Court.

DeSantis announced Tuesday that he's chosen Carlos Muniz for the high court. Muniz has been working as general counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, which is led by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Muniz has never served as a judge, but worked as a top attorney for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and was chief of staff for former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Muniz attended the University of Virginia as an undergraduate and got his law degree in 1997 from Yale University.

DeSantis has now filled three openings on the Supreme Court due to mandatory retirements. He replaced three judges who frequently ruled against the GOP-controlled state government.RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on a North Carolina congressional race for which a winner hasn't been finalized while an absentee ballot fraud investigation continues (all times local):

1:10 p.m.

A North Carolina judge says there aren't grounds to step in and declare victory for the Republican in the country's last undecided congressional race amid an investigation into whether his lead was boosted by illegal vote-collection tactics.

Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit by Republican Mark Harris insisting he be declared the winner. Harris' attorneys asked the judge to step in because they said the 9th congressional district urgently needs a representative in Washington, D.C.

Harris narrowly leads Democrat Dan McCready in the contest, but the numbers have been clouded by doubt due to allegations that mail-in ballots could have been altered or discarded by a Harris subcontractor.

The state elections board was disbanded by an unrelated court order last month, and a new one takes over in nine days.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2018 file photo Republican Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C. The North Carolina board investigating allegations of ballot fraud in a still-unresolved congressional race between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready could be disbanded Friday, Dec. 28 under a state court ruling in a protracted legal battle about how the panel operates. The state Elections Board has refused to certify the race between Harris and McCready while it investigates absentee ballot irregularities in the congressional district stretching from the Charlotte area through several counties to the east. Harris holds a slim lead in unofficial results, but election officials are looking into criminal allegations against an operative hired by the Harris campaign. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

___

11:45 a.m.

A North Carolina judge is considering whether he must order the victory of the Republican in the country's last undecided congressional race despite an investigation into whether his lead was boosted by illegal vote-collection tactics.

Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said Tuesday that he's unclear why Republican Mark Harris' lawyers insist he decide the winner when he doesn't know what investigators found.

Harris narrowly leads Democrat Dan McCready in the 9th District race. There are allegations that mail-in ballots could have been altered or discarded by a Harris subcontractor.

The state elections board was disbanded by an unrelated court order last month, and a new one takes over in nine days.

Harris's attorneys say the judge should step in because the district's residents urgently need a representative in Washington, D.C.

___

12 a.m.

A North Carolina judge is considering a demand to order the victory of the Republican in the country's last undecided congressional race despite an investigation into whether his lead was boosted by illegal vote-collection tactics.

A trial judge in the state's capital of Raleigh hears arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit by Republican Mark Harris, who narrowly led Democrat Dan McCready in the 9th District race before the investigation started.

Lawyers for McCready and the state elections board want the lawsuit dismissed. They say a completed investigation and planned evidentiary hearing is needed into allegations that mail-in ballots could have been altered or discarded by a Harris subcontractor.

Democrats in the U.S. House indicate they'll also to look into the allegations.HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Former Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania, a longtime civil rights activist who helped persuade John F. Kennedy to make a crucial phone call to the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960 presidential campaign, has died. He was 92.

Wofford died in the hospital late Monday night of complications from a fall Saturday in his Washington apartment, his son Daniel Wofford said.

Kennedy's phone call to Coretta Scott King when her husband was locked in a Georgia prison cell in 1960 is credited by some analysts with turning the black vote in his favor and perhaps proving to be the decisive factor in the race against Republican Richard Nixon.

Despite fears of a backlash by Southern whites, Wofford and fellow campaign aide R. Sargent Shriver pressed Kennedy to make the call and then helped engineer the distribution of pamphlets to the black community and black churches that quoted the Kings expressing their gratitude. They also cited Martin Luther King Sr. saying he would switch his vote to back Kennedy as a man of "moral courage."

Wofford went on to serve as a civil rights aide to Kennedy during his administration and worked in private law practice, higher education and Pennsylvania state government until his upset Senate win in 1991.

Wofford, who was white, began his activism in high school. Visits to India left him inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi, and he marched with King. He became an aide and friend to Democratic presidents over a span of decades.

In this April 26, 1994, photo, Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., salutes at the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers during the opening session of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford died in the hospital late Monday night, Jan. 21, 2019, of complications from a fall Saturday in his Washington apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said. He was 92. (Peter Diana/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

"He was really blessed to have such a long and full and interesting and happy life," Daniel Wofford said in an interview Tuesday. "As we realized that we were going to lose him, we began to focus on what an amazing career and father and friend he was to so many."

As the head of President Bill Clinton's domestic volunteer program, Wofford was behind the national Martin Luther King Day of Service, which urged Americans to volunteer on the holiday.

"Harris Wofford believed that every American has a responsibility to make the future better for all of us, and he spent his long, good life doing just that," Clinton said in a statement. "For more than half a century, he was one of America's most important moral voices for equality and justice, quality health care as a fundamental right, and creating more opportunities for people to serve their country."

Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Tuesday called Wofford "a champion of justice and a man of uncommon courage who dedicated his life to service."

"It's only fitting that Harris passed away on the national day of service he helped to bring into existence," Casey said.

Though perhaps best known for his three years in the Senate, Wofford left a large legacy by shaping government programs behind the scenes.

As a Kennedy aide, he helped Shriver create the Peace Corps. In the Senate, he led the effort to create the Corporation for National Service.

"I obviously get a lot of joy out of public service," Wofford said in a 1995 interview. "I've followed ideas in life, and the idea of volunteer service has been with me even before I went to college. It's very hard to imagine life when you're not following ideas."

Wofford was president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury and Bryn Mawr College, the women's liberal arts institution outside Philadelphia, and did a stint as Pennsylvania's Democratic Party chairman.

In 1991, Wofford was then-Gov. Bob Casey Sr.'s secretary for labor and industry when Casey appointed him to fill the Senate vacancy created by the death of Republican John Heinz.

Six months later, Wofford pulled off a surprise victory in the special election to complete Heinz's term. He beat Republican Dick Thornburgh, who was President George H.W. Bush's attorney general and a former Pennsylvania governor.

The author of four books, Wofford was known as a bit of an egghead, not a smooth-talking politician. He had difficulty speaking in sound bites, and many analysts say he preferred the nuts and bolts of legislation over ribbon-cutting events and public visits.

In the midterm election of 1994, voters soured on Clinton's early efforts and gave control of Congress back to Republicans for the first time in decades. In Pennsylvania, Wofford fell in his bid for a full Senate term to Republican Rick Santorum.

A year later, Clinton named Wofford to head the Corporation for National Service , which included Clinton's beloved AmeriCorps.

"I'll always be especially grateful for his role in making AmeriCorps a reality," Clinton said.

In late 2007, Wofford traveled to Iowa to endorse the candidacy of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

According to The New York Times, he told a crowd that he had not felt so inspired "since the days of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. ... Barack Obama picked up the torch that they lit."

In 2016, Wofford, by then a widower of two decades after his wife of 48 years, Clare, died of leukemia, announced in a column in The New York Times that he had found love with a man 50 years his junior.

"At age 70, I did not imagine that I would fall in love again and remarry. But the past 20 years have made my life a story of two great loves," he wrote.

Wofford was 75 when he met Matthew Charlton, who was 25, and they married when they were 90 and 40.

Wofford's activism in civil rights dated to the 1950s. He served as a lawyer for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, was one of the first white graduates of Howard University Law School in 1954 and became a close confidant of King.

Born in 1926 in New York City to a successful insurance salesman and a civic activist, Harris Llewellyn Wofford was active during his teenage years in Scarsdale, New York, advocating worldwide government as the founder of Student Federalists.

But during a visit to India, he was exposed to Gandhi's teachings and his enthusiasm was tempered by a realization that more practical solutions would be needed for world problems. He and Clare later wrote "India Afire," published in 1951, and sent it to King.

He also helped arrange King's visit to India, and King, already intrigued by Gandhi's methods, and Wofford came to share an affinity for applying Gandhi's ideas of nonviolence to the civil rights movement.

He is survived by Charlton and three children, Susanne, Daniel and David, and six grandchildren.

___

This story has been corrected to show Wofford served as secretary of labor and industry under then-Gov. Bob Casey Sr., not Sen. Bob Casey.

In this Nov. 11, 1991, photo, newly elected Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., is congratulated by Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey after defeating Republican Dick Thornburgh in a U.S. Senate election in Philadelphia. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford died in the hospital late Monday night, Jan. 21, 2019, of complications from a fall Saturday in his Washington apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said. He was 92. (Robin Rombach/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

FILE - In this Nov. 9, 1994, file photo, Harris Wofford, head of the Corporation for National Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, is pictured in Philadelphia. Kennedy presidential aide and former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford, a Democratic activist who staged an upset Senate win in 1991, has died. Wofford died late Monday night, Jan. 21, 2019, of complications from a fall in his Washington, D.C., apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said. (AP Photo/Nanette Kardaszeski)

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama presents a 2012 Citizens Medal to former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Wofford, a civil rights activist who staged an upset Senate win in 1991, has died. He was 92. Wofford died late Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, of complications from a fall in his Washington, D.C., apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

In this Nov. 4, 1991, photo, Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., is pulled in two directions by a supporter and his wife, Clare, at a rally in Pittsburgh. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford died in the hospital late Monday night, Jan. 21, 2019, of complications from a fall Saturday in his Washington apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said. He was 92. (Al Fuchs/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Rio de Janeiro civil police arrested five leaders of a powerful militia gang, including an active-duty police major, during an operation in the city's West Zone on Tuesday morning.

Public prosecutors said in a news conference that they seized documents that map out systematic extortion of residents and businesses through fines for their "services," and an illicit real estate scheme where militia occupied and sold land illegally. The militia members were also under investigation for bribing state agents, handling stolen cargo and operating a loan-shark ring, among other things. Eight other militia members have been issued arrest warrants but were not found during the operation.

"This criminal organization has terrorized the population," said Fabio Barucke, a civil police officer who took part in the investigation.

Militia groups control vast areas of Rio de Janeiro's periphery. Many members are active or retired police, military and firefighters and extort residents for basic services like electricity, cable television and transportation. Since the 1990s, militia groups have grown to be among the most powerful and feared criminal organizations in Rio.

Militia members often have connections to politicians in cities and the legislature of Rio de Janeiro state. Soon after the operation, local news outlets reported that President Jair Bolsonaro's son, Senator-elect Flavio Bolsonaro, had given public service awards to two of the alleged militia members, one who was arrested and another with an outstanding warrant.

In a statement, he said he always acted in defense of security forces and that he's given hundreds of awards.

Manuel de Brito Batista, right, member of a militia gang, is detained by the police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Rio civil police and public prosecutors are booking five leaders of a militia gang into prison for extortion, illegal land occupation, bribery to public agents, and illegally carrying firearms, among other things. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Flavio Bolsonaro also employed the mother of one of the wanted militia members in his cabinet when he was a state deputy, according to reports. The mother was one of several employees flagged by financial regulators for irregular payments in his cabinet.

In his statement, Flavio Bolsonaro said that the alleged criminal's mother was hired by someone else and that he couldn't be held responsible for things he didn't know about.

The younger Bolsonaro has been at the center of mounting questions about irregular payments in his administration as a state deputy.

"I continue to be the victim of a defamation campaign," he wrote.

The day began with reports that the men arrested were possibly tied to the murder of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco, who was gunned down with her driver in March of last year.

Several public officials, including former Security Secretary Richard Nunes, have said militias were involved in her assassination.

Prosecutors said the men were not arrested for that crime but would be investigated.

"We don't rule out the possibility of their participation in the Marielle Franco crime," Simone Sibilio, a public prosecutor overseeing the militia operation told reporters Tuesday. "All those arrested will be questioned, with the expectation that they will collaborate with other investigations."

Laerte Silva de Lima, member of a militia gang, is detained by the police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Rio civil police and public prosecutors are booking five leaders of a militia gang into prison for extortion, illegal land occupation, bribery to public agents, and illegally carrying firearms, among other things. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)DENVER (AP) - The Latest on a snowstorm in the Rockies (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Transportation officials have reopened a 185-mile (298-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 70 between Denver and the Kansas border that was closed because of ice and blowing snow.

Amy Ford, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, says I-70 reopened Tuesday afternoon as the weather started to clear. A nearly 100-mile (161-kilometer) section of Interstate 25 from Pueblo to the New Mexico border remains closed because of blowing snow.

Wind gusts in some places reached 45 mph (72 kilometers per hour) and created blizzard conditions Tuesday. The storm also shut down schools and military installations in and around Colorado Springs, including Fort Carson and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The avalanche danger was also elevated in Colorado's mountains.

Tom Sawyer plays with his dogs Tucker and Tanner in the snow at Liberty Park, in Salt Lake City, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

___

3:20 p.m.

Major highways reopened in Wyoming after a snowstorm moved out of the state.

Portions of Interstates 80 and 25 were closed during the storm over the long holiday weekend.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation cautioned travelers Tuesday that the highways and other roadways in the state remain slick.

The National Weather Service says another storm will bring more snow to northwest Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park later Tuesday and Wednesday

___

10:30 a.m.

A powerful winter storm has caused traffic accidents, power outages and even an avalanche in Utah.

Little Cottonwood Canyon reopened Tuesday morning, a day after an avalanche closed the canyon and State Route 210.

Meanwhile, state troopers reported more than 200 crashes on highways in the last three days.

A power outage hit 12,000 customers Monday morning in parts of Draper, Bluffdale and Lehi. Rocky Mountain Power says it restored electricity later in the day but there were some scattered outages.

____

9:10 a.m.

Snow and strong winds have caused hazardous travel conditions throughout much of Wyoming.

A 100-mile (161-kilometer) section of Interstate 80 was closed Tuesday morning between the small cities of Rock Springs and Rawlins because of blowing snow.

Officials reopened a section of Interstate 25 that had been closed because of the snow but said conditions were still hazardous.

The storm that dumped show across the state over the long holiday weekend was moving out.

But the National Weather Service says another storm will bring more snow to northwest Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday and Wednesday.

___

8:54 a.m.

Blowing snow and icy roads in suburban Denver and other parts of eastern Colorado have closed schools and shut down highways.

Stretches of Interstate 70 were closed Tuesday, preventing travelers headed from near the Kansas border from reaching the Denver area.

Winds in some places were gusting up to 45 mph (72 kilometers per hour) and creating blizzard conditions.

The snow has been fairly light but the wind is pushing it across roadways, hurting visibility.

The storm has also shut down schools and military installations in and around Colorado Springs, including Fort Carson and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The avalanche danger was also elevated in Colorado's mountains.

On Monday, a backcountry skier died in a slide near Aspen.WASHINGTON (AP) - An unidentified foreign government is asking the Supreme Court to get involved in a case that may be part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

The justices on Tuesday granted the government's request to file a censored version of an appeal to the high court in which the country is fighting a grand jury subpoena and a $50,000-a-day fine for not complying with the subpoena.

The appeal doesn't identify the country, a company it controls or even the lawyers who are representing it. But the appeal says the justices should make clear that a federal law that generally protects foreign governments from civil lawsuits in the U.S. also shields them in criminal cases.

The justices had previously refused to block the subpoena and fine on an emergency basis.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington had in December upheld the issuance of the subpoena and a contempt order issued by a district court judge when the company, identified only as wholly owned by a foreign country, failed to comply.

The country says that the appellate ruling would upset foreign relations in a big way if allowed to stand. It says the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is "the first appellate court in American history to exercise criminal jurisdiction over a foreign state."

In this Jan. 7, 2019 photo, The Supreme Court in Washington. An unidentified foreign government is asking the Supreme Court to get involved in a case that may be part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The country says it is immune from being subpoenaed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and that complying would require it to violate its own laws.

The U.S. government has until Feb. 21 to respond to the appeal. An uncensored, sealed version of the appeal also has been filed with the court.

Both Politico and The Washington Post have reported that the subpoena apparently relates to the Mueller investigation. Prosecutors have been trying to obtain information from the foreign-owned company since last summer, Judge Stephen Williams wrote in an opinion that was released by the appeals court earlier in January.

The case has been shrouded in secrecy as it has moved through the court system. Federal marshals closed an entire floor of the federal courthouse in Washington last month when the case was argued before the three-judge appellate panel. The move stymied the efforts of a group of about 15 reporters to see whether any Mueller team members or other participants had entered the hearing room.JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed a Palestinian militant and wounded four others shortly after an Israeli soldier was shot on the border of the coastal enclave, authorities said. Following the incident, Israel said it would halt a key transfer of Qatari funds to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said that an officer was lightly wounded after a bullet hit his helmet "during a riot in the southern Gaza Strip" and that Israeli tanks fired at a Hamas militant position in response.

The Gaza health ministry confirmed that the shelling killed a 24-year-old man and injured four people, one seriously.

Mahmoud al-Nabahin was a member of Hamas' armed wing known as the Qassam Brigades, the group said in a statement.

Later Tuesday, Israeli aircraft carried out multiple strikes on a Hamas military site in northern Gaza Strip, saying the Islamic group bears responsibility for violence emanating from the territory, Israel's military said in a statement. There were no reports of casualties.

The violence escalated tensions at a sensitive time for both Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.

A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to halt Wednesday's planned transfer of $15 million in Qatari funds for Hamas to pay salaries for civil servants. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Netanyahu has previously stipulated that the cash injection was contingent upon calm along the Gaza border.

For months, Hamas has held weekly protests along several sections of the Gaza-Israel perimeter fence, driven largely by economic hardship caused by the 11-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza.

Qatar, a go-between for Hamas and Israel, is trying to mitigate the crisis in Gaza and consequently quieting the protests to prevent an all-out war between Gaza militants and Israel.

Since they were launched in March, more than 185 Palestinians were killed in the demonstrations. An Israeli soldier was shot dead in July by a Gaza sniper.

___

Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion reported this story in Jerusalem and AP writer Fares Akram reported from Gaza.SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Hundreds of government officials and community leaders met in Puerto Rico's capital on Tuesday to brainstorm ways to fight drug trafficking and other crimes as the U.S. territory faces a dwindling police force and an increase in brazen daylight violence.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello said reforming the island's prison system is one of several measures he believes are needed to make the island safer, adding that his administration also will take unspecified immediate action to reduce crime.

"It's not going to be an overnight homerun," he said. "We're not going to come out of here with all the solutions."

There have been 43 reported killings in Puerto Rico in the first few weeks of the year, compared with 65 during the same period in 2018.

But officials say they worry that an increasing number of crimes are being committed during the day and in busy public areas. The most recent one occurred two weeks ago in the popular tourist area of Isla Verde, where a shootout was captured on video at around 9 a.m. on Sunday near a hotel and one of the island's busiest highways, leaving one man dead and another injured.

"Citizens don't feel safe," Douglas Leff, FBI special agent in charge of the San Juan division, told The Associated Press, before heading to a work group that was closed to the press. He said his office has requested more federal funds and more agents, adding that ideally he needs 10 to 15 percent more staff than what's available.

Leff said he also worries about the effect the U.S. government shutdown will have on Puerto Rico's crime if it continues: "We may have a serious problem."

Puerto Rico Rep. Jose Melendez told the AP that another concern is that Puerto Rico is losing police officers amid a 12-year recession. He said 1,200 of them left last year alone, many seeking better pay and benefits in the U.S. mainland. Melendez also worried about criminals shooting people during the day even in crowded areas.

"They no longer respect daylight hours," he said. "Now they do it anywhere, any time."

After officials emerged from the work groups, they said suggestions included helping former inmates find housing, providing police with more training and equipment, and fixing streetlights in high-crime areas that remain dark more than a year after Hurricane Maria.MILAN (AP) - A senator with Italy's governing 5-Star Movement has apologized for a tweet citing a century-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, which he later deleted.

Elio Lannutti came under fire after posting an article on Twitter that cited the fabricated, anti-Semitic "Protocols of Zion," which asserted a Jewish plan for global domination, to attack the international banking system. A member of the opposition Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti, called the words "the lowest point in this mix of hatred, negation-ism and racism that reappears more and more often."

Lannutti said Tuesday on Facebook that he did not intend to offend anyone, "much less the Jewish community." He said sharing a link didn't mean endorsing the contents, adding, "I would like to stress that I am not, and will never be, an anti-Semite."CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The latest on a National Guard uprising in Venezuela (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered a close review of the country's relationship with the United States in answer to stinging condemnation from the Trump administration.

Vice President Mike Pence sent a videotaped message to Venezuelans calling Maduro a dictator who maintains power by jailing dissident voices. The video was released Tuesday, a day before the opposition holds nationwide demonstrations calling for the removal of Maduro.

Maduro spoke hours later on state TV, saying Pence hit a 200-year low in relations between the two countries by authorizing a coup.

The U.S. maintains an embassy in Caracas, but the two countries haven't exchanged ambassadors in nearly a decade.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, center, stands with his Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez before giving his annual address to the nation to members of the Constitutional Assembly inside the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is in a deepening crisis after two decades of socialist rule that has led to shortages of food and medicine.

___

7:25 p.m.

The leader of the Organization of American States is praising a decision by Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly to stay in the regional group.

Secretary General Luis Almagro on Tuesday said he welcomed a decision by legislators to name new assembly leader Gustavo Tarre Briceno as a special representative to the bloc.

Venezuela's government announced its withdrawal from the OAS in 2017 after member states began raising questions about the leadership of socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Almagro has been one of Maduro's fiercest critics and has already recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.

Venezuela's pro-government Supreme Court declared Monday that the National Assembly's leadership is illegitimate and nullified its recent decisions.

Guaido has re-energized the nation's opposition movement and is calling for mass protests across the country Wednesday.

___

6:20 p.m.

Some of the Republican members of Florida's congressional delegation are urging President Donald Trump to recognize Juan Guaido as Venezuela's new interim president.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that "I think now is the moment and leadership can really, really make a difference for the people of Venezuela."

DeSantis was joined at the White House on Tuesday by Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart. They exited their meeting with Trump urging him to apply pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Scott says socialism in Venezuela has left it without food, gas and medicine and notes that millions of people have left the country.

Venezuelan opposition leaders are calling for nationwide protests Wednesday. The once-wealthy oil nation is sliding into a deepening political and economic crisis.

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12:45 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says Venezuelans have the "unwavering support" of the United States in their effort to restore democracy to their country.

In a video message released Tuesday, Pence called Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro a "dictator with no legitimate claim to power."

The vice president says the U.S. joins other "freedom-loving" nations in recognizing the popularly elected National Assembly as the "last vestige of democracy" in Venezuela. He says he supports the decision by National Assembly president and opposition leader Juan Guaido to declare Maduro a "usurper" and call for the creation of a transitional government.

Anti-Maduro demonstrations are expected nationwide on Wednesday.

Pence says the American people will be with Venezuelans until democracy is restored.

___

11:20 a.m.

Foreign ministers of five European countries say they want the European Union to take an active role in international mediation they deem necessary in Venezuela, where the opposition is readying for a new round of anti-government protests on Wednesday.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the foreign affairs ministers of Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands are urging EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to intensify contacts to establish "as soon as possible" a so-called "Group of International Contact."

"It's crucially important for Europe to have a significant presence in such Group of Contact in order to promote adequately our common interests," the statement says.

Venezuela plunged deeper into turmoil Monday as security forces put down a pre-dawn uprising by National Guardsmen that triggered violent street protests.

___

11 a.m.

Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital are sifting through charred rubble and smoldering trash after violence erupted a day earlier.

Local merchant Carmen Martinez said Tuesday her neighbors in Caracas took to the streets because they were fed up with rising costs and a lack of basic goods.

Isolated protests broke out after officials arrested more than two dozen National Guardsmen who mounted an uprising against President Nicolas Maduro.

Drivers in one neighborhood veered around an overturned trash bin in the middle of a busy street. Security forces left behind dozens of empty tear gas canisters fired to subdue angry residents.

Student Jesus Veroes says he's saddened by a clash with police in his neighborhood that left an important cultural center a burned ruin.

Large demonstrations nationwide are expected Wednesday.

Anti-government protesters create a burning roadblock, including the use of a car, during clashes with security forces as they show support for a mutiny by a National Guard unit in the Cotiza neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. Venezuela's government said Monday it put down the mutiny. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Roadblocks set up by anti-government protesters block a street in the Cotiza neighborhood during clashes with security forces as some residents show support for a mutiny by a National Guard unit in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019. Venezuela's government said Monday it put down the mutiny. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital erupted in violence late Tuesday for a second straight night amid fears that demonstrations called by the opposition could spur further violence.

In the Catia district, a few miles from the presidential palace, youths set fire to barricades while shouting for President Nicolas Maduro's government to fall.

Opposition lawmaker Juan Manuel Olivares, who is also a physician, initially reported that one demonstrator had been killed, but he later walked that back, saying instead that there were five people being treated for bullet wounds at a hospital in Catia, one of whom was in serious condition. The Associated Press was unable to immediately confirm the report.

Videos circulating on social media showed residents in the southern city of San Felix setting fire to a statue of the late President Hugo Chavez, who installed Venezuela's socialist system and picked Maduro to succeed him.

Opposition leaders, who are calling for nationwide protests Wednesday, have regained momentum in their efforts to confront the socialist president as the once-wealthy oil nation slides into a deepening political and economic crisis, with angry residents heeding the call to action.

On Monday night, Venezuelans barricaded streets in dozens of Caracas areas that haven't seen such turmoil in years.

Cotiza neighborhood residents carry water from a public fountain a day after isolated protest against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital sifted through charred rubble and smoldering trash on Tuesday, following a day of violence erupting in the streets. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Local merchant Carmen Martinez said her neighbors were frustrated by rising costs and a lack of basic goods under the current government.

"The people are going into the streets just for that reason," Martinez said. "What do you do? Nobody seems to notice us."

The sound of gunfire was heard in some neighborhoods, while people in others banged pots and pans from their open windows.

The government has accused the opposition of trying to provoke bloodshed. In the western city of Maracaibo, authorities said late Tuesday that security forces seized grenades, a submachine gun and National Guard uniforms from a three-person "terrorist" cell that officials said was planning to infiltrate Wednesday's march.

"Here we are all in the same holding pen: without light, without water, without medicine, without gas and with an uncertain future," Juan Guaido, president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, wrote on Twitter, calling for nationwide demonstrations and urging Venezuelans to abandon Maduro.

Guaido, a member of the Popular Will party, is also pursuing a campaign to gain the support of the armed forces, which Maduro's government relies on to suppress unrest.

Dozens of leaders in the international community have joined the chorus calling Maduro's presidency illegitimate.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday pledged his support for the people of Venezuela who take to the streets against Maduro.

"Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power," Pence said in a video message. "He has never won the presidency in a free and fair election, and has maintained his grip of power by imprisoning anyone who dares to oppose him."

The government has accused the opposition of attempting to mount a coup.

The latest turmoil began Monday when a small group of soldiers took captive a captain in charge of a police station in western Caracas and stole a cache of weapons from another outpost. Officials said 25 soldiers were quickly caught at the National Guard outpost 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Miraflores presidential palace, and two more arrests were made at another location.

The same night, another group of heavily armed national guardsmen published a series of videos on social media saying they won't recognize Maduro's government, citing Guaido's call to action.

Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez said at a Tuesday news conference that investigators recovered most of the 51 stolen weapons. The 11 still missing are in the hands of the Popular Will party, he said, without offering proof.

"We warn that the nexus has been clearly linked between terrorists in the Popular Will party and those who perpetrated isolated violence yesterday," Rodriguez said.

On Tuesday, drivers veered around an overturned garbage bin that still smoldered, while dozens of empty tear gas canisters fired by security forces at angry residents littered a nearby street.

Other roads remained blocked by gutted cars and tree branches.

People clustered on sidewalks trying to come to terms with the damage and thinking about what might happen during Wednesday's protests. The smell of tear gas lingered in the air.

The clash in that neighborhood left a burned ruin of the Robert Serra cultural center, which is named for an important Venezuelan socialist leader who is considered a martyr. It's unclear who burned the building, but officials say criminals threw gasoline bombs into the center.

Student Jesus Veroes said he was saddened by the violence, but blamed people from outside the neighborhood for the destruction of the center, which was often used by children who go and read.

In a televised address Tuesday evening, Maduro said five people had been detained in connection with the fire and warned, "We're going to catch them all!"

Rallying supporters before Wednesday's expected protests, he also accused Pence of trying to overthrow his government by fomenting unrest and said that as a result he would be reviewing the future of U.S.-Venezuela relations.

"Do you want to be a country colonized by the gringos?" he asked the crowd of several hundred seated before him.

A resident of the San Jose del Avila's neighborhood covers her nose from the lingering odor of tear gas fired by Venezuelan Bolivarian National Police a day prior, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital sifted through charred rubble and smoldering trash on Tuesday, following a day of isolated protests in response to the arrest of National Guardsmen who mounted an uprising against President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Cotiza neighborhood residents clean up a day after isolated protests in response to the arrest of National Guardsmen who mounted an uprising against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital sifted through charred rubble and smoldering trash on Tuesday, after violence erupted in the streets a day prior. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Residents of the San Jose del Avila's neighborhood collect tear gas canisters fired by Venezuelan Bolivarian National Police a day after isolated protests in response to the arrest of National Guardsmen who mounted an uprising against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital sifted through charred rubble and smoldering trash on Tuesday, after violence erupted in the streets a day prior. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Carmen Marcano, a Cotiza neighborhood resident, shows her wounds caused by rubber bullets fired by Venezuelan Bolivarian National Guardsmen during a protest, a day prior, in response to the arrest of National Guardsmen who mounted an uprising against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. Working class neighborhoods in Venezuela's capital sifted through charred rubble and smoldering trash on Tuesday, after isolated protests erupted in the streets Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on the Los Angeles teachers strike (all times local):

8 p.m.

Los Angeles teachers have approved a contract deal between their union and school officials, ending a six-day strike in the nation's second-largest district.

Although all votes haven't been counted, the union said Tuesday evening that a "supermajority" of its 30,000 members voted in favor of the tentative agreement.

Educators will go back to work Wednesday morning. They walked off the job Jan. 14.

The agreement reached shortly before dawn Tuesday gives teachers a raise, additional support staff and smaller class sizes.

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2019, file photo, student Leo Rittner Solomon, 6, front left, and parent Hilda Rodriguez Guzman, right, react as United Teachers Los Angeles president and teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl announces the nation's second-largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District, was going on strike in Los Angeles. The union said Monday, Jan. 21, that teachers are due back at picket lines Tuesday morning even if an agreement is reached Monday, saying it takes time to mobilize a ratification vote of a deal. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The Board of Education is expected to move quickly to ratify the deal.

___

2:30 p.m.

A tentative deal between Los Angeles school officials and the teachers union includes a 6 percent raise for educators, a slight reduction in some class sizes and additional support staff, including nurses and librarians.

The Los Angeles Unified School District released additional details after an agreement was reached Tuesday. Teachers will vote on the deal later in the day.

Officials say every campus will see an increase in nursing services over the next three school years. Teachers complained that some schools only had a nurse on staff once a week.

The new contract also eliminates a longstanding clause that gave the district authority over class sizes. Grades 4 through 12 will be reduced by one student during each of the next two school years and two pupils in 2021-2022.

Teachers are expected back in classrooms on Wednesday.

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12:25 p.m.

Striking Los Angeles teachers are optimistic their union leaders have negotiated a contract they can support.

Thousands of striking teachers were jubilant at a rally Tuesday after the mayor and union negotiators announced a tentative agreement with the superintendent of the nation's second-largest school district.

Some Los Angeles Unified School District teachers were already declaring victory despite a lack of details about the agreement.

Some teachers at the boisterous rally outside City Hall say they trust their union and will vote for the pact later in the day unless it doesn't go far enough in reducing class size or weakens their health care.

One high school teacher, Sharon Maloney, says she's leaning against supporting it because she's skeptical the district made enough concessions. She says she'll need to see the details before she supports it.

___

9:52 a.m.

Contentious contract negotiations have resulted in a tentative deal between Los Angeles school officials and the teachers union that will allow striking educators to return to classrooms on Wednesday.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the deal Tuesday. He says it requires the approval of the teachers and the Board of Education.

Tens of thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles walked off the job Jan. 14 for the first time in 30 years.

Schools stayed open, staffed by a skeleton crew of substitute teachers and administrators.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is projecting a half-billion-dollar deficit this budget year and has billions obligated for pension payments and health coverage for retired teachers.

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7:46 a.m.

The office of Mayor Eric Garcetti says leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the striking teachers union will give an update on contract negotiations.

Garcetti says the two sides will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m.

The mayor's office said earlier that the latest round of contract bargaining ended before dawn after 21 hours.

The strike by United Teachers Los Angeles is the first against the huge school district in 30 years.

It began on Jan. 14 following 21 months of unsuccessful talks.

The latest bargaining began last week after efforts by the mayor to seek a resolution.

___

7 a.m.

The office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says the latest bargaining session between striking teachers and the Los Angeles Unified School District lasted 21 hours and ended before dawn Tuesday.

The mayor's office says negotiators plan to reconvene at 9:15 a.m.

The update on the status of talks comes as the strike by United Teachers Los Angeles enters its second week.

Thousands of educators walked off the job and onto picket lines Jan. 14 for the first time in 30 years.

The union and the school district are at odds over issues including salary, class sizes and support staff.

Schools have stayed open during the strike with substitute teachers in classrooms.

Negotiations between the two sides continued through the long holiday weekend.

___

6:50 a.m.

Hundreds of firefighters are marching in downtown Los Angeles to support public school teachers as their strike enters its second week.

The firefighters are taking time out Tuesday morning from a conference of the International Association of Fire Fighters to back the teachers.

Thousands of educators represented by United Teachers Los Angeles walked off the job and onto picket lines Jan. 14 for the first time in 30 years.

The union and the Los Angeles Unified School District are at odds over issues including salary, class sizes and support staff.

Schools have stayed open during the strike with substitute teachers in classrooms.

Negotiations between the two sides continued through the long holiday weekend.

The district is the second largest in the U.S. after New York City.

FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2018, file photo, United Teachers Los Angeles leaders are joined by thousands of teachers as they march past the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown Los Angeles. The union representing striking teachers in Los Angeles says the strike will continue into its sixth school day on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, regardless of the outcome of negotiations Monday. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, center flanked by Austin Beutner, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, right, and United Teachers Los Angeles, Union President Alex Caputo-Pearl, left, during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019,. A tentative deal was reached Tuesday between Los Angeles school officials and the teachers union that will allow educators to return to classrooms after a six-day strike against the nation's second-largest district, officials said. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)MEXICO CITY (AP) - The death toll in a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline in Mexico rose to 93 on Tuesday after four more injured people died at hospitals.

Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said Tuesday that 46 victims who were severely burned were still in hospitals, two of them in Galveston, Texas. Some are in very poor condition.

The victims were gathering gasoline from an illegal pipeline tap in the central state of Hidalgo on Friday when the gas ignited, littering an alfalfa field with charred bodies.

Many suffered bad burns over much of their bodies; about 22 of those who initially survived have since died of their injuries.

The government reported Monday that an astonishing total of 14,894 such illegal taps had been found in 2018, an average of about 41 per day nationwide.

Hidalgo had 2,121 taps, more than any other state. The fire occurred in the town of Tlahuelilpan, where 38 taps were found in 2017 and 23 in 2018.

People carry the coffin of a victim of the gas pipeline that exploded in the village of Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. A massive fireball that engulfed locals scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed dozens of people and badly burned dozens more on Jan. 18. An image of Our Lady of Guadalupe decorates the coffin. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)

On Tuesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a plan that includes six types of social aid programs for communities that have been the scenes of illegal taps in the past.

The programs will be offered in 91 townships in nine central states where pipelines pass through.

The plan includes job-training stipends, old-age supplementary payments, small, unsecured lending programs and scholarships.

Some of the communities have actively helped fuel-theft gangs in the past by confronting military and police patrols, or acting as look-outs. Lopez Obrador hopes to eliminate pretexts for helping the gangs by providing opportunities for local residents in the legitimate economy.

"No Mexican will be forced by necessity to participate in these activities," Lopez Obrador said at a rally in a small town northwest of Mexico City.

A man carries a cross during the funeral procession of a person who died when a gas pipeline exploded in the village of Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, Sunday Jan. 20, 2019. A massive fireball that engulfed locals scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed dozens of people and badly burned dozens more on Jan. 18. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)

A woman cries during the funeral of a person who died when a gas pipeline exploded in the village of Tlahuelilpan, Mexico, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. A massive fireball that engulfed locals scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed dozens of people and badly burned dozens more on Jan. 18. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration can go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.

The high court split 5-4 in allowing the plan to take effect, with the court's five conservatives greenlighting it and its four liberal members saying they would not have. The order from the court was brief and procedural, with no elaboration from the justices.

The court's decision clears the way for the Pentagon to bar enlistment by people who have undergone a gender transition. It will also allow the administration to require that military personnel serve as members of their biological gender unless they began a gender transition under less restrictive Obama administration rules.

The Trump administration has sought for more than a year to change the Obama-era rules and had urged the justices to take up cases about its transgender troop policy immediately, but the court declined for now.

Those cases will continue to move through lower courts and could eventually reach the Supreme Court again. The fact that five justices were willing to allow the policy to take effect for now, however, makes it more likely the Trump administration's policy will ultimately be upheld.

Both the Justice and Defense departments released statements saying they were pleased by the Supreme Court's action. The Pentagon said its policy on transgender troops is based on professional military judgment and necessary to "ensure the most lethal and combat effective fighting force." Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said lower court rulings had forced the military to "maintain a prior policy that poses a risk to military effectiveness and lethality."

In this Jan. 7, 2019 photo, The Supreme Court is seen in Washington,. The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue. The high court on Tuesday reversed lower-court orders preventing the Pentagon from implementing its plans. The high court for now declined to take up cases about the plan. The cases will continue to move through lower courts. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Before beginning to implement its policy the administration is expected to need to make a procedural filing in one case in Maryland challenging the plan. That request could be made this week.

Groups that sued over the Trump administration's policy said they ultimately hoped to win their lawsuits over the policy. Jennifer Levi, an attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said in a statement that the "Trump administration's cruel obsession with ridding our military of dedicated and capable service members because they happen to be transgender defies reason and cannot survive legal review."

Until a few years ago service members could be discharged from the military for being transgender. That changed under the Obama administration. The military announced in 2016 that transgender people already serving in the military would be allowed to serve openly. And the military set July 1, 2017, as the date when transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist.

But after President Donald Trump took office, the administration delayed the enlistment date, saying the issue needed further study. And in late July 2017 the president tweeted that the government would not allow "Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." He later directed the military to return to its policy before the Obama administration changes.

Groups representing transgender individuals sued, and the Trump administration lost early rounds in those cases, with courts issuing nationwide injunctions barring the administration from altering course. The Supreme Court put those injunctions on hold Tuesday, allowing the Trump administration's policy to take effect.

The Trump administration's revised policy on transgender troops dates to March 2018. The policy generally bars transgender people from serving unless they do so "in their biological sex" and do not seek to undergo a gender transition. But it has an exception for transgender troops who relied on the Obama-era rules to begin the process of changing their gender.

Those individuals, who have been diagnosed with "gender dysphoria," a discomfort with their birth gender, can continue to serve after transitioning. The military has said that over 900 men and women had received that diagnosis. A 2016 survey estimated that about 1 percent of active duty service members, about 9,000 men and women, identify as transgender.

___

Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas court officials are looking for Marshallese language interpreters because a lack of qualified interpreters has courts turning to out-of-state help over the phone or video, which officials said isn't ideal in some cases.

The Arkansas Administrative Office of Courts Interpreter Services is holding an orientation Friday and Saturday with the goal of finding Marshallese interpreters, The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. More than 12,000 people from the Marshall Islands live in northwest Arkansas, according to research from the University of Arkansas.

Short hearings can use out-of-state interpreters over the phone or through video, but longer hearings and trials need to have an interpreter present, said Benton County Circuit Judge Doug Schrantz, who also acts as administrative judge for the county's circuit courts.

Local public defender Kevin Lammers said having an interpreter present makes the process smoother. Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Smith added that some interpretation services just don't work well over the phone.

"I would prefer to have the interpreter there in person," Smith said. "Sometimes things happen that can't be handled by telephone. People may have questions for their lawyers."

The orientation this week will go over the role of court interpreters and explain the state's judicial process, said Mara Simmons, a manager at Interpreter Services. The training will also focus on ethical issues and highlight that interpreters act as neutral parties.

"If a defendant needs help, then that's the responsibility of the attorney," Simmons said. "The interpreter is also not allowed to give advice."

The certification process can take up to a year and includes two assessment exams, Simmons said. Applicants must also pass a background check.

___

Information from: Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, http://www.nwaonline.comMADRID (AP) - Taxi drivers striking to demand tighter regulations for companies using ride-hailing apps blocked traffic for another day in Spain's two major cities on Tuesday, while threatening to take their protest to the French border.

Hundreds of taxi drivers continued to block major roads in Madrid and Barcelona, with many wearing the yellow traffic safety vest that has become the symbol of protests in neighboring France.

Alberto Alvarez, spokesman for the Barcelona taxi driver association Elite Taxi, told Spanish television that "we are talking to our colleagues in France to go to the frontier also."

The strike started in Barcelona on Friday, when some taxi drivers trashed cars operated by the app services Uber and Cabify.

Taxi drivers in Madrid joined the protest on Monday. They are promising to continue to disrupt traffic flows on Wednesday, when the Spanish capital hosts a major tourism trade show.

The taxi drivers in Barcelona want regional governments to force users of services of ride-hailing apps to contract rides 12 hours beforehand.

FILE - This June 21, 2017, file photo shows the building that houses the headquarters of Uber, in San Francisco. Police in Barcelona have arrested seven people on suspicion of attacking cars that work with ride-hailing apps like Uber and Cabify as part of a protest by taxi drivers. The attacks took place Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 after taxi drivers announced an indefinite strike protesting a regional government plan to regulate the ride-hailing services. One group reportedly smashed a car's windows while the driver was inside. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

Taxi drivers in both cities already went on strike against the internet-driven ride-hailing platforms in July.

They complain that ride-hailing app drivers compete unfairly since they don't have the same regulations and costs.VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican is insisting that there were no accusations of sexual abuse against an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis when he resigned suddenly in 2017 and was promoted to a job at the Vatican.

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti repeated Tuesday that the Vatican only received the first accusations of alleged sexual abuse by Archbishop Gustavo Zanchetta a few months ago.

Zanchetta's former deputy, the Rev. Juan Jose Manzano, told The Associated Press last week that he had sent the Vatican information in 2015 and 2017 of alleged inappropriate sexual behavior by Zanchetta that included taking naked selfies and reports that he engaged in harassment and misconduct with adult seminarians.

Manzano told the AP those reports didn't constitute formal canonical accusations of sexual abuse, but were merely reports of behavior that he, another former vicar general and the rector of the seminary in Oran, northern Argentina, considered important to bring to the Vatican's attention.

He said he didn't believe there had been any cover-up and that he considered Francis a victim of Zanchetta's "manipulation."

Gisotti didn't directly address or dispute Manzano's reports in his statement Tuesday.

In this Aug. 26, 2016 photo, former Bishop of Oran Gustavo Zanchetta participates in negotiations with border workers in Oran, Salta, Argentina. In August 2017, Pope Francis accepted Zanchetta's resignation after priests in the remote northern Argentine diocese of Oran rebelled under his authoritarian rule and sent reports to the Vatican embassy in May or June of 2017 alleging abuse of power and sexual abuses with adult seminarians, the former vicar said. (AP Photo/Javier Corbalan)

"In reference to the articles published recently by several news sources, as well as to some misleading reconstructions, I resolutely repeat what was stated this past 4 January. In addition, I emphasize that the case is being studied and when this process is over, information will be forthcoming regarding the results," the statement said.

In his Jan. 4 statement, Gisotti confirmed that Zanchetta was under preliminary investigation for alleged sexual abuse, but said that the accusations were first made in the autumn of 2018. He said the reasons for Zanchetta's resignation were due to his difficult, tense relations with the Oran clergy and inability to govern them.

He said the current bishop of Oran was gathering testimony that hadn't yet arrived at the Vatican's bishops' office, and that Zanchetta would refrain from working during the preliminary investigation.

Manzano's comments to the AP, in an on-camera interview and a subsequent email, undermined the Vatican's assertion that Zanchetta had only faced accusations of authoritarianism and difficulty governing his clergy at the time of his July 2017 resignation, since Manzano said the reports concerned allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior and alleged misconduct with seminarians.

After accepting Zanchetta's resignation Aug. 1, 2017, Francis in December that year named him to a newly created position of "assessor" in the Vatican's office of financial management, APSA.WARSAW, Poland (AP) - A car driving the wrong way down a street struck a policeman near the Polish president's headquarters Tuesday before speeding off and ramming into a metal barrier protecting the driveway of the building, officials said. A man was detained at the scene.

President Andrzej Duda said it was an "astonishing" situation, but stressed that the palace is well guarded and protected.

Polish authorities said that the incident didn't appear to be terror-related.

Warsaw police spokesman Mariusz Mrozek said the detained man remained under police surveillance while he was hospitalized due to incoherent behavior and speech. Blood tests are to determine whether the man was intoxicated with alcohol or drugs.

The crash comes a week after the mayor of the northern city of Gdansk died after being stabbed on a stage in front of thousands of people the night before by an ex-convict during a charity event. The killing stunned Poland, and raised questions about the security of public officials.

Police officers surrounded a silver Volkswagen car with a Warsaw license plate just in front of the gate to the palace Tuesday.

Police officers examine a car in the driveway to the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 after a man rammed the car into a metal barrier protecting the driveway. The man was driving the wrong way and hit a policeman who was trying to stop him before ramming into the barrier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Mrozek said the 36-year-old man, a Pole, was driving the wrong way in downtown Warsaw and hit a policeman who was trying to stop him. Fleeing the scene, the man drove into the barrier.

The officer was hospitalized with cuts and bruises but there was no threat to his life, Mrozek said.

Police officers examine a car in the driveway to the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019 after a man rammed the car into a metal barrier protecting the driveway. The man was driving the wrong way and hit a policeman who was trying to stop him before ramming into the barrier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) - The Republican Party believes it finally has its answer to the Democratic fundraising behemoth ActBlue.

GOP groups are lending their support to a new donor platform called Patriot Pass, which they say will help the party match and even surpass the organization that sent more than $700 million to Democratic campaigns in 2018.

After the Republican Party's midterm losses, party officials said they needed to find a way to match the small-dollar fundraising power of ActBlue.

The Republican platform is a joint effort of GOP payment processing firm Revv and the party's data clearinghouse, DataTrust. Revv founder Gerrit Lansing, who briefly worked as White House chief digital officer, said that combination will help the GOP pass Democrats.

Democrats, meanwhile, are playing a game of catch-up of their own, struggling to create a hub for their data to rival DataTrust.

Patriot Pass is meant to allow the GOP to unite its donor and political databases, helping the party to improve its small-dollar fundraising and understanding of the electorate.

The GOP platform will allow one-click donations, like ActBlue does, to candidates and committees on the political right, leading to more streamlined donations to Republican causes.

"Reducing the friction increases donations," said Lansing, who said the party studied ActBlue and e-commerce sites.

An advantage of Patriot Pass over ActBlue, Lansing said, is its reliance on the technology and security of Silicon Valley payment processor Stripe.

GOP groups don't expect Patriot Pass to match ActBlue's fundraising immediately but believe as the 2020 election gets into high gear it will help level the playing field on small-dollar fundraising, which has long been a Democratic advantage.

Mike Shields, a Data Trust senior adviser and the former chief of staff of the Republican National Committee, said support from President Donald Trump's campaign team and the White House, including Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was integral to the speedy launch after the midterms.

By the end of next month, Trump's re-election campaign, the RNC and the GOP's two congressional arms will be live on the new platform, Lansing said. By midyear, he said, they hope to have individual candidates and outside organizations on board.

The rollout was made in conjunction with the Tuesday start of the winter meeting of the RNC's governing body in New Mexico.

News of the new GOP donor platform was first reported by Politico.HAVANA (AP) - The head negotiator for Colombia's rebel National Liberation Army is denying advance knowledge of a bombing attack on a police academy that killed 21 people last week and is demanding that the Colombian government allow negotiators to return safely from Cuba.

Pablo Beltran, chief of the group's peace delegation, said his team was unaware the rebel army was planning the attack.

He called on Colombia to follow the protocol agreed to by government and ELN negotiators that allows the rebel leaders to return from Cuba in the event peace talks fall apart. The document signed by the lead negotiators from each side gives the ELN members 15 days to return to their jungle camps with specific guarantees to ensure their safety.

"We weren't involved," Beltran said in a Monday interview with Telesur, a network run by Cuba, Venezuela and other leftist Latin governments. "We are going to insist, until the final day, that the government provides guarantees for our return."

Rebel leaders have been on the island for peace talks with the Colombian government to end over five decades of conflict but those efforts are now stalled after authorities blamed the ELN for the car bombing at a police academy in Bogota on Thursday. ELN members in Colombia have stated they were responsible for Colombia's worst terror attack in recent years.

Colombia President Ivan Duque reiterated his call Tuesday for the Cuban government to arrest and extradite the ELN negotiators on the island. The Cuban government has stated that it intends to follow the previously agreed upon protocol for a break in the dialogue. Guarantor country Norway said Tuesday that it also intends to honor the agreement.

A man embraces a police officer, outside the General Francisco de Paula Santander Police Academy, a day after a car bomb exploded at the site, in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. Colombia blames the National Liberation Army, ELN, rebels for the deadly attack that left more than 20 dead and wounded many others. (AP Photo/John Wilson Vizcaino)

"Norway should fulfill its promises," the nation's ministry for foreign affairs wrote in a letter to Colombian officials obtained by The Associated Press.

Colombian officials are arguing that the protocol no longer holds weight because it was signed by a previous administration and that Cuba is required under international accords to cooperate in ensuring those responsible for a terror attack are held responsible.

"We hope that the international community supports us, and we are calling on the Cuban government to help us obtain justice in Colombia," Duque said.

The protocol for a break in peace talks allows negotiators with Colombia's last remaining rebel group to travel home through Venezuela. It also requires the military to halt any activity against pre-identified rebel strongholds for a 72-hour period during their return.

Peace talks began under former President Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2016. However, talks with the smaller ELN have consistently struggled to advance for a variety of reasons, including the rebel group's decentralized structure, making any implementation difficult.

Duque has argued since his election last year that talks with the ELN should continue only if the guerrillas hand over all kidnapping victims and cease violent activity.BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's president said on Tuesday that a government decree that could invalidate hundreds of corruption cases involving senior officials is "crassly unconstitutional," a development that also prompted concern from the European Union.

President Klaus Iohannis blasted the measure put forward this week by the justice minister, saying the ruling Social Democrats "don't care about Romania; they care about their own politicians with legal problems."

Premier Viorica Dancila is considering the measure, which could lead to the suspension of trials and verdicts and lead to resentencing in the cases of some convictions.

In televised comments late Tuesday, Dancila said she supported the measure, insisting it wouldn't impede the anti-corruption fight.

But critics say it would be a setback for democracy and weaken efforts to fight high-level graft.

The development came after the Constitutional Court ruled in November that one of five judges on the High Court for Cassation, the nation's highest appeals court, wasn't appointed properly in 2014, opening the way for it to review verdicts issued since 2014.

"All these people who have suffered deserve a fair trial," Dancila said. "It's sad that people went to prison. Their families and health were destroyed."

Iohannis said "laws can't work retroactively" in a country where there is rule of law.

An EU official said Brussels was watching the development closely.

"It is essential for Romania to get back on track in the fight against corruption to ensure an independent judiciary and to avoid any further steps back," Margaritis Schinas, EU Commission spokesman said Tuesday.PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered a New Hampshire couple detained pending trial for a sex-trafficking operation in which they were accused of recruiting Chinese women to travel to the U.S. on tourist visas to engage in paid sex across northern New England.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee praised the detention order, citing "a serious risk of flight and danger to the community, especially the Chinese women involved in the operation."

An FBI agent testified that 37-year-old Shou Chao Li ran a restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, at the same time he and his wife, 37-year-old Derong Miao, engaged in sex trafficking.

The scale of the alleged operation was large by rural New England standards with at least 27 women engaging in sex at locations across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Authorities discovered after the couple's arrest another location, a massage parlor in Rochester, New Hampshire, where they believe prostitution also took place. Miao is linked to that operation as well, the agent testified.

Miao used a messaging service popular in China, called WeChat, to recruit women who were isolated and controlled by the couple, FBI Special Agent Christopher Peavey testified Tuesday. The couple kept the passport of one of the women, he testified.

"They were predominantly fearful of law enforcement but in general they were fearful," he testified. "They were fearful of the people they worked for."

Mingli Chen, attorney for Li, suggested that the federal government's case was weak. His client contends he was only paid to give the women rides to various locations.

"There's no evidence showing to the court or anybody that my client was hurting or injuring or harming anyone, was forcing anyone to engage in prostitution," Chen said.

The two were arrested Dec. 13, and police searched their three cars, their home in Concord, New Hampshire, a second home and the No. 1 Chinese Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Their attorneys argued Tuesday that they were not at risk of flight, and that they posted no danger to their communities.ORLAND PARK, Ill. (AP) - A man identified by authorities Tuesday as the suspect in the fatal shooting of a teenager at a suburban Chicago mall was previously convicted of armed robbery and had been an acquaintance of the victim.

Orland Park Police identified the suspect as 19-year-old parolee Jakharr Williams of University Park. The department said in a news release that Williams, who fled after the shooting and has not been arrested, should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police said Williams and 18-year-old Javon Britten of Richton Park were arguing in a food court at Orland Square Mall Monday when Williams allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired several shots. Britten was struck and a bystander's leg was grazed by a bullet.

Police said Britten staggered to a nearby clothing store, where he collapsed. He was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn a short time later.

According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website and Orland Park Police, Williams was convicted of armed robbery in 2017, and that he served a little more than a year in prison before he was released in June last year.

Orland Park is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

This photo provided by the Orland Park Police Department shows Jakharr Williams. Police say the suspect they are searching for in the fatal shooting of a teenager at a suburban Chicago mall is a 19-year-old acquaintance of the victim. In a news release Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Orland Park Police said they are searching for Jakharr Williams of University Park in the shooting at Orland Square Mall. The attack Monday left 18-year-old Javon Britten of Richton Park dead and a bystander suffered a graze wound to the leg. (AP Photo/Orland Park Police Department)

Authorities work the scene where a gunman shot and killed a man near the food court inside the Orland Square Mall, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

People leave the scene where a gunman shot and killed a man near the food court inside the Orland Square Mall, Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)

Police and fire departments respond to the scene at Orland Square Mall where a shooting occurred Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, in Orland Park, Ill. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune via AP)BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the announcement of nominees for the 91st annual Academy Awards, which are being announced Tuesday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California (all times local):

8:50 a.m.

The 2019 Oscar nominations are full of surprises and some downright stupefying snubs.

"A Star Is Born" and "Black Panther" have both picked up a handful of prestigious nominations, including for best picture, but both Bradley Cooper and Ryan Coogler were passed over for directing nominations.

The presumed documentary front-runner "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" also came up empty handed Tuesday, as did the long-shot indie "Eighth Grade" and "Mary Poppins Returns" star Emily Blunt.

For more on the surprises from this year's Oscar nominations, click here .

CORRECTS CATEGORY - This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows director/co-writer/producer Bradley Cooper, left, and camera operator Scott Sakamoto on the set of "A Star is Born." On Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, Cooper was not nominated for an Oscar for best director for his work on the film. He was nominated for best actor for his role in the film. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24. (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. via AP)

___

5:50 a.m.

Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" and Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Favourite" have led all films with 10 nominations each heading to the 91st Academy Awards.

The nominees for best picture are: "A Star Is Born," ''Roma," ''Green Book," ''The Favourite," ''Black Panther," ''BlacKkKlansman," ''Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Vice."

With "Roma," Netflix has scored its first best picture nomination, something the streaming giant has dearly sought. Marvel, too, joined the club with "Black Panther," the first superhero movie ever nominated for best picture.

Spike Lee has been nominated for his first directing Oscar 30 years after a writing nod for 1989's "Do the Right Thing."

The Oscars are Feb. 24. Following Kevin Hart's exit as emcee, the telecast is currently host-less.

___

5:45 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best director have been announced.

The nominees are: Alfonso Cuaron, "Roma"; Spike Lee, "BlacKkKlansman"; Pawel Pawlikowski, "Cold War"; Yorgos Lanthimos, "The Favourite"; Adam McKay, "Vice."

___

5:42 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best actor and best actress have been announced.

The best actor nominees are: Christian Bale, "Vice"; Bradley Cooper, "A Star Is Born"; Rami Malek, "Bohemian Rhapsody"; Viggo Mortensen, "Green Book"; Willem Dafoe "At Eternity's Gate."

The best actress nominees are: Yalitza Aparicio, "Roma"; Glenn Close, "The Wife"; Olivia Colman, "The Favourite"; Lady Gaga, "A Star Is Born"; Melissa McCarthy, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

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5:40 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best picture have been announced. Eight films are vying for the top honors at February's Academy Awards.

The nominees are: "Black Panther," ''BlacKkKlansman," ''Bohemian Rhapsody," ''The Favourite," ''Green Book," ''Roma," ''A Star Is Born," ''Vice."

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5:38 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best original song have been announced.

The nominees are: "When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings" from "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"; "All The Stars" from "Black Panther"; "I'll Fight" from "RBG"; "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from "Mary Poppins Returns"; "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born."

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5:35 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best animated film have been announced.

They are: "Incredibles 2," ''Isle of Dogs," ''Mirai," ''Ralph Breaks the Internet," ''Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse."

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5:30 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best foreign language film have been announced.

The nominees are: Germany's "Never Look Away"; Japan's "Shoplifters"; Lebanon's "Capernaum"; Mexico's "Roma"; Poland's "Cold War."

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5:28 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best supporting actor have been announced.

The nominees are: Mahershala Ali, "Green Book"; Sam Elliott, "A Star Is Born"; Adam Driver, "BlacKkKlansman"; Richard E. Grant, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"; Sam Rockwell, "Vice."

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5:25 a.m.

The Oscar nominees for best original score have been announced.

They are: "Black Panther," ''BlacKkKlansman," ''If Beale Street Could Talk," ''Isle of Dogs," ''Mary Poppins Returns."

___

5:20 a.m.

The reading of the nominations for the 91st annual Academy Awards has begun.

The nominees for best supporting actress have been announced.

They are: Amy Adams, "Vice"; Marina de Tavira, "Roma"; Regina King, "If Beale Street Could Talk"; Emma Stone, "The Favourite"; Rachel Weisz, "The Favourite."

___

5 a.m.

The reading of this year's Oscar nominations are about to begin.

Tracee Ellis Ross and Kumail Nanjiani will announce nominees in 24 categories highlighting everything from the best picture and acting performances to production and costume design beginning at 5:20 a.m.

The entire announcement can be watched at Oscars.com and Oscars.org .

The presentation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, California.

The Oscars will be broadcast live on Feb. 24 on ABC.

___

3 a.m.

The Oscars may not have a host for their main ceremony, but they'll have two when nominees for the 91st Academy Awards are read Tuesday morning.

Actors Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross will emcee the announcement of nominees for the best in film in 24 categories.

It could be a big morning for films like "A Star Is Born," ''Black Panther," ''The Favourite" and "Roma." A best picture nomination for "Roma" would Netflix's first, and Spike Lee could finally get his first best director nomination.

Another film likely to be a best picture contender is "Green Book," which won the top award at Saturday's Producer Guild Awards, which is a reliable Oscar barometer.

The Oscars will be broadcast on ABC on Feb. 24.LONDON (AP) - Prime Minister Theresa May is determined to get a tweaked version of her rejected European Union divorce deal through Parliament. British lawmakers have other ideas - lots of other ideas.

May's Conservative government is headed for a showdown with Parliament next week, when lawmakers get to vote on the prime minister's latest proposal, and can try to amend it to send her in another direction.

Here's how the battle is shaping up:

MAY'S PLAN B

After the divorce agreement struck between the U.K. government and the bloc was resoundingly rejected by Parliament last week, May held talks with government and opposition politicians and came up with a "Plan B" - one that looked remarkably similar to her Plan A.

May told the House of Commons on Monday that she was aiming to win lawmakers' backing for her deal after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure.

A demonstrator waves her flags for the media outside parliament in London, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday - and it looks a lot like Plan A. May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The bloc insists that it won't renegotiate the withdrawal agreement. And opposition lawmakers say the scale of May's defeat last week - 432 votes to 202 - shows she must radically alter her deal if it is to have any hope of approval.

But Parliament is deeply divided about what changes to make. Pro-Brexit lawmakers want to remove the Irish "backstop," an insurance policy that would constrain British trade policy in order to ensure there are no customs checks between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. Pro-EU legislators want May to lift her insistence that Brexit means quitting the EU's single market and customs union.

Amid the impasse, one thing is in short supply: time.

BUY BREATHING TIME

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, with or without a divorce deal. The political impasse over Brexit is fueling concerns that the country may crash out of the bloc without an agreement in place to cushion the shock. That could see tariffs imposed on goods moving between Britain and the EU, sparking logjams at ports and shortages of essential supplies.

May says the only way to avert a no-deal Brexit is to back her deal, but lawmakers are trying to pause the clock.

Groups of "soft Brexit"-backing lawmakers, who want to keep close economic ties to the EU, are planning to use amendments during a Jan. 29 debate on May's plan to try to rule out a "no-deal" Brexit, delay Britain's departure and put alternative plans on the table.

Half a dozen amendments had been filed by Tuesday, most aiming to allow time for Parliament to hammer out alternatives to May's rejected deal. One of the most prominent, with support from both opposition and Conservative lawmakers, would give May until Feb. 26 to pass a deal, or see Brexit delayed as Parliament took charge.

It will be up to Commons Speaker John Bercow to decide which amendments are put to a vote. Any that are approved would not be legally binding, but as an expression of the will of Parliament would be hard for the government to ignore.

SEEK A NEW REFERENDUM

A growing group of campaigners argues that Brexit has become so divisive, complicated and gridlocked that politicians can't solve it, and the only answer is to ask voters again whether they want to leave the EU.

May is strongly opposed to the idea. She said Monday that a new referendum, less than three years after voters opted for Brexit, would "damage social cohesion by undermining faith in our democracy."

But others argue that it's the only way to break the logjam.

"Two and a half years ago we voted on an abstract idea, that's the truth," pro-EU Conservative lawmaker Dominic Grieve said Tuesday.

He said now that the details of Brexit were clearer, the best course was to "go back and ask the public whether they really want what the prime minister has negotiated and offer them the alternative, remain, instead."

DECISION TIME

May says she plans to go back to Brussels after Jan. 29 to seek changes to the deal from EU leaders - ideally after getting Parliament to pass a vote calling for a time limit on the border backstop.

The bloc insists that the legally binding, 585-page withdrawal agreement cannot be reopened, and says the backstop is essential to keeping the Irish border open.

EU spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Tuesday that in "a no-deal scenario in Ireland, I think it's pretty obvious, you will have a hard border."

The EU is more flexible about a non-binding political declaration laying out the framework of future relations between Britain and the bloc. But EU leaders say they won't consider any changes until Britain figures out what kind of Brexit it wants.

"I have a terrible sense of deja vu," Schinas said, before using the words of the Spice Girls to send a message to British politicians.

"We expect the U.K. to tell us what they want, what they really, really want," he said.

___

Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this story. Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

__

Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

British Union flags fly in front of The Houses of Parliament in London, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union Brexit divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Banners lie on the ground near parliament in London, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday - and it looks a lot like Plan A. May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The sun shines through European Union flags tied to railings outside parliament in London, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit Plan B on Monday - and it looks a lot like Plan A. May launched a mission to resuscitate her rejected European Union divorce deal, setting out plans to get it approved by Parliament after securing changes from the EU to a contentious Irish border measure. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)BEIRUT (AP) - The United Arab Emirates hosted a Syrian trade delegation led by a businessman and lawmaker who has been on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list since the country's civil war erupted in 2011, UAE state media reported Tuesday.

The meeting marked the latest manifestation of a changing regional policy toward Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, which is seen as having largely won the country's destructive civil war.

The high-profile meeting comes weeks after the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus for the first time in seven years __ a break with its U.S. ally, which shuns restoring ties with Assad's government. Bahrain's embassy followed suit the next day.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday it had appointed a diplomat to serve as deputy charge d'affaires at its embassy in Damascus. Jordan reopened its border with Syria reopened to trade in October, after years shuttered by war.

The UAE's state-run WAM news agency said the private sector forum launched Sunday in Abu Dhabi was meant to "enhance" commercial ties between Emirati and Syrian businessmen.

WAM said Mohammed Hamsho led the Syrian delegation. Hamsho is on the sanctions list for supporting Assad and his brother, Maher Assad, who Washington accuses of playing a leading role in human rights abuses in the war.

In this Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019 made available by the Emirates News Agency, WAM, shows Syrian businessman and lawmaker Mohammed Hamsho, second left, at a trade forum launched Sunday, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Syrian trade delegation to the high-profile meeting is led by Hamsho, who is on the U.S. Treasury sanction list since the country's civil war erupted in 2011. Hamsho is on the sanctions list for supporting Assad and his brother, Maher Assad. (WAM via AP)

Emirati and US officials didn't immediately respond to request for comment.

On Monday, the European Union announced it was adding 11 businessmen and five companies to its list of Syrians under sanctions for backing Assad's government.

EU foreign ministers imposed travel bans and asset freezes on them, saying they "are involved in luxury estate development and other regime-backed projects, and as such support and/or benefit from the Syrian regime."

Among those were high profile Syrian businessmen and lawmakers, including Syrian entrepreneur Samer Foz, who emerged as a leading Syrian businessman amid the civil war. He and other businessmen on the list are involved in a controversial multimillion-dollar joint venture with Damascus Cham Holding for the construction of Marota City, a government-backed luxury residential and commercial development in the capital Damascus.

Monday's move in Brussels means the EU sanctions list now includes 270 people and 72 "entities," which are usually companies, organizations or agencies.

The EU began imposing sanctions on Assad and his supporters in 2011. They are reviewed every year.

The measures include an oil embargo, investment restrictions, a freeze on Syrian central bank assets held in the EU, and export bans on equipment that could be used to crack down on civilians.MOSCOW (AP) - Russian police detained a drunken man who threatened the crew of an passenger plane flying Tuesday from a Siberian city to Moscow, forcing it to land shortly after take-off.

The Russian Investigative Committee said that the man told the Aeroflot crew that he was armed and demanded the diversion of the plane after it had taken off from the Siberian city of Surgut. The plane landed in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk, about 230 kilometers (145 miles) to the west.

The plane stood on the runway in Khanty-Mansiysk for more than an hour before law enforcement officials went onboard. The airport was evacuated and the area cordoned off. Aeroflot said no one was hurt.

The investigators said the man has been identified as a Surgut resident who has a past conviction for property damage. He will now face charges of hijacking.DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - The Latest on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

Drugmaker Merck says it will ship another approximately 120,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to Congo by the end of next month amid the second deadliest outbreak in history.

Associate Vice President Lydia Ogden told the World Economic Forum that the company is committed to having a ready stockpile of 300,000 doses and already has shipped 100,000 to the World Health Organization.

Health officials have called the experimental vaccine highly effective against the virus.

Congo's health ministry says more than 63,000 people have received the vaccine in the outbreak that was declared on Aug. 1 in the country's densely populated northeast near Uganda and Rwanda.

The President of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende stands on the stage as United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks through live video conference at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Carrying out vaccinations is complicated by rebel attacks, poor infrastructure and in some cases hostility from communities that have never faced an Ebola outbreak before.

___

5:25 p.m.

The chairman of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has denied that his company's technology allows China's security forces to eavesdrop on customers and demanded that critics back up the charges.

Liang Hua told reporters on the sideline of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos: "If they believe there's a backdoor, they should offer evidence to prove it."

The United States and other Western countries fear that the Shenzhen-based maker of smart phones and network gear could design its equipment to let the Chinese government listen in. Several countries, including the United States, have restricted purchases of Huawei equipment.

Huawei is also the subject of a diplomatic wrangle between the United States, Canada and China. Canada last month detained the company's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also daughter of Huawei's founder. She faces extradition to the U.S. on charges she misled banks about Huawei's dealings in Iran. Beijing has protested the arrest.

Liang said he has "every confidence" in the legal proceedings.

___

5:20 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he's "very hopeful" that progress can be made toward ending Yemen's war.

America's top diplomat said he would speak later Tuesday with U.N. envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, who has been trying to bridge gaps between its Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government and Iran-aligned Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

He spoke Tuesday by videoconference to the World Economic Forum in Davos, after President Donald Trump cancelled plans for a U.S. delegation to attend because of the government shutdown.

In another session, David Miliband, who heads the International Rescue Committee, said the conflict in Yemen was emblematic of the "rise of the age of impunity" where belligerents "can commit crimes and not be held accountable."

Yemen, he said, is "often described as a tragedy, but it in fact is better described as a series of crimes."

The United Nations says Yemen is facing the world's biggest humanitarian crisis.

___

4:35 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he's "optimistic" that there will be a "good outcome" in upcoming trade discussions with China in Washington.

A high-level Chinese delegation is due to arrive in the U.S. capital on Jan. 30 as the two sides seek to strike an accord to end their trade conflict.

Addressing delegates at the World Economic Forum via video-link because of the ongoing government shutdown in the United States, Pompeo said the "course of the relationship will be determined by the principles that America stands by."

He noted those include "free and open seas" and "fair and reciprocal trade arrangements where every country has the opportunity to compete on a fair, transparent and open basis."

If Beijing adopts such policies, Pompeo said, he's "confident that our two nations can thrive and prosper together."

___

4:15 p.m.

The head of Citigroup bank thinks the Brexit discussions will "go down to the wire."

At an event organized by Bloomberg on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat said the bank has had "no choice" but to prepare for Britain leaving the European Union on March 29 without a deal.

He said he hoped "reason will prevail and we'll strike a balanced outcome for each of the parties."

He said the bank, which employs around 9,000 in Britain, will likely move the European operations it has in London to the continent.

He wouldn't disclose exactly how much the bank is likely to spend on its Brexit contingency plans but he said it was "not going to be a cost-neutral outcome."

Earlier at the World Economic Forum, UBS Chairman Axel Weber, said both sides should "stop the clock" if no Brexit agreement looks likely to be agreed on in time for Britain's official departure on March 29. Many U.K. lawmakers are looking to extend the date the country leaves.

UBS has already warned that around a fifth of its 5,000 London staff will be affected by Brexit.

___

3:50 p.m.

Naturalist David Attenborough won a standing ovation from delegates at the World Economic Forum after warning them that the planet faces destruction if climate change is not dealt with imminently.

In an interview conducted by Prince William, Attenborough said it is "difficult to overstate the climate change crisis."

He said humans have become "so numerous" and possess a "frightening" array of destructive mechanisms that "we can exterminate whole ecosystems without realizing."

Attenborough was the star turn on the first day of the gathering of the business and political elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

He is spearheading efforts to strengthen conservation efforts for a summit in Beijing in 2020.

Attenborough told the audience that, "Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food comes from the natural world and that if we damage the natural world we damage ourselves."

___

1:10 p.m.

A top financial regulator in China says it's "certain" that the Chinese economy will slow further this year - but that's largely due to a "much-needed" cooling of the real estate market.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said the slowdown from last year's 28-year low rate of 6.6 percent to around 6 percent is not a "collapse."

The International Monetary Fund this week forecast that the world's number two economy would grow by 6.2 percent in 2019.

Fang said the slowdown has been due to trade tensions with the United States and a cooling housing market.

He said that the Chinese authorities have an array of fiscal, monetary and regulatory tools to deal with any setbacks that may arise: "If anything we should not over-react."

___

12:15 p.m.

Research shows that the U.S. government would stand to benefit from retraining the vast majority of the 1.4 million Americans expected to lose their jobs to technology over the next decade.

A study by the World Economic Forum, which is holding its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, found that businesses could only profitably retrain 25 percent of workers replaced by robots and other forms of automation. Success means putting the workers in jobs that require skills similar to those they already have and that can pay more than the jobs they lost.

The government could retrain 77 percent and still earn back its investment in the form of higher tax revenue and lower costs for unemployment benefits. Eighteen percent could be retrained by government - but not in a cost-effective way. Retraining will cost governments and businesses $34 billion over a decade, the study found.

Five percent couldn't be retrained, the survey suggests.

___

12:10 p.m.

Mohammed Hassan Mohamud, who has been a refugee in Kenya for two decades, gave an impassioned plea to the political and business elites gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to do more than pay lip-service to the plight of millions of displaced people.

Mohamud, who is one of the seven co-chairs at this year's World Economic Forum, explained how 185,000 people from ten different nationalities are confined in Kenya's Kakuma camp with very little chance of getting out and making a life for themselves.

Refugee camps, he said, "are not ethical" and "not conducive to human growth."

Mohamud, 28, said he wants to use his position as a WEF co-chair to "demystify" the refugee experience.

"We're not criminals," he said. "It's not a crime to flee your country ... I don't know what you're all afraid of."

___

12:00 p.m.

A top Red Cross official says climate change is worsening "old-age tensions" between farming and herding communities in Niger and Mali, where troubles are compounded by violence and competition for water and land resources.

The comments from the president of the International Committee from the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, come as he visits the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday, after visiting the troubled Sahel region in West Africa in recent days.

Maurer said lines of long-running conflict in northern Mali are moving south, toward the border with Niger and Burkina Faso. He noted "a clear accentuation of the conflict due to the dynamics of climate change."

ICRC cited figures that temperatures in the Sahel are increasing 1.5 times faster than the global average. Maurer says the region is among the "top five concerns" in the world this year.

___

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will headline the first full day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with a speech to political and business leaders.

The nationalist leader is attending an event that has long represented business's interest in increasing ties across borders. But globalism is in retreat as populist leaders around the world put a focus back on nation states, even if that means limiting trade and migration.

After Bolsonaro's speech on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will address the gathering on Wednesday.

But several key leaders are not attending to handle big issues at home: U.S. President Donald Trump amid the government shutdown, British Prime Minister Theresa May to grapple with Brexit talks, and France's Emmanuel Macron to face popular protests.

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks through live video conference at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Prince William, left, listens to Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster and natural historian, during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Prince William, left, and Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster and natural historian, shake hands after participating in a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Prince William, left, and Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster and natural historian, watch the screening of Attenborough's new documentary "Our Planet" during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Britain's Prince William, left, listens to Sir David Attenborough, broadcaster and natural historian, during a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate leaders on Tuesday agreed to hold votes this week on dueling proposals to reopen shuttered federal agencies, forcing a political reckoning for senators grappling with the longest shutdown in U.S. history: Side with President Donald Trump or vote to temporarily end the shutdown and keep negotiating.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. set up the two showdown votes for Thursday, a day before some 800,000 federal workers are due to miss a second paycheck. One vote will be on his own measure, which reflects Trump's offer to trade border wall funding for temporary protections for some immigrants. It was quickly rejected by Democrats. The second vote is set for a bill approved by the Democratic-controlled House reopening government through Feb. 8, with no wall money, to give bargainers time to talk.

Both measures are expected fall short of the 60 votes need to pass, leaving little hope they represent the clear path out of the mess. But the plan represents the first test of Senate Republicans' resolve behind Trump's insistence that agencies remain closed until Congress approves $5.7 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. For Democrats, the votes will show whether there are any cracks in the so-far unified rejection of Trump's demand.

Democrats on Tuesday ridiculed McConnell's bill, which included temporarily extended protections for "Dreamer" immigrants, but also harsh new curbs on Central Americans seeking safe haven in the U.S.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the GOP plan's immigration proposals were "even more radical" than their past positions. "The president's proposal is just wrapping paper on the same partisan package and hostage taking tactics," offering to temporarily restore programs Trump himself tried to end in exchange for wall funding, Schumer said.

McConnell accused Democrats of preferring "political combat with the president" to resolving the 32-day partial federal shutdown. He said Democrats were prepared to abandon federal workers, migrants and all Americans "just to extend this run of political theater so they can look like champions of the so-called resistance" against Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after speaking about his plan to move a 1,300-page spending measure, which includes $5.7 billion to fund President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the sticking point in the standoff between Trump and Democrats that has led to a partial government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The confrontational tone underscored that there remained no clear end in sight to the closure. Amid cascading tales of civil servants facing increasingly dire financial tribulations from the longest federal shutdown in history, the Senate chaplain nudged his flock.

"As hundreds of thousands of federal workers brace for another painful payday, remind our lawmakers they can ease the pain," Chaplain Barry Black intoned as the Senate convened.

The upcoming vote on the Democratic plan marked a departure for McConnell, who had vowed to allow no votes on shutdown measures unless Trump would sign them.

The White House views its latest offer as a test of whether Democratic leaders can hold their members together in opposition, said a person familiar with White House thinking who was not authorized to speak publicly. The administration also wants to show they are willing to negotiate, hoping it will push more blame onto Democrats, who are opposing negotiations until the government reopens. Public polls show Trump is taking the brunt of the blame from voters so far.

"How long are they going to continue to be obstructionists and not solve the problem and not reopen the government?" White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of Democrats.

One freshman, Democrat Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, a state that's home to many federal workers, was circulating a draft letter Tuesday urging Pelosi to propose a deal that would reopen the government and then consider border security legislation - including holding votes on Trump's demand for wall money - by the end of February. A similar effort was under way last week by a bipartisan group of senators.

As the stalemate grinded on, Alaska Airlines said the closure would cause at least a three-week delay in its plan to start new passenger flights from Everett, Washington. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the shutdown could slow home sales by 1 percent in coming months. And a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, owned by musician Jon Bon Jovi joined the list of establishments serving free meals to furloughed federal workers.

McConnell's bill largely reflects the proposal Trump described to the nation in a brief address Saturday. It would reopen federal agencies, revamp immigration laws and provide $5.7 billion to start building his prized border wall with Mexico - a project Democrats consider an ineffective, wasteful monument to a ridiculous Trump campaign promise.

Republicans posted the 1,301-page measure online late Monday. Its details provoked Democrats, particularly immigration provisions Trump hadn't mentioned during his speech.

The measure would provide a three-year extension of protections against deportation for 700,000 people covered by the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Democrats want far more to be protected - Trump last year proposed extending the safeguards to 1.8 million people, including many who'd not yet applied - and want the program's coverage for so-called "Dreamers" to be permanent.

Trump has tried terminating the Obama-era DACA program, which shields people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, but has been blocked so far by federal judges.

The GOP bill would revive, for three years, protections for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua who fled natural disasters or violence in their countries. Trump has ended that Temporary Protected Status program for those and several other countries.

Republicans estimated the proposal would let 325,000 people remain in the U.S. But the GOP proposal contains new curbs, providing those protections only to those who are already in the U.S. legally and who earn at least 125 percent of the federal poverty limit.

The bill would also, for the first time, require minors seeking asylum from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to process their applications at facilities the State Department is to establish in several Central American countries. Other new conditions include a limit of 15,000 of these minors who could be granted asylum. Currently, many asylum seekers apply as they're entering the U.S. and can remain here as judges decide their request, which can take several years.

As a sweetener, the Republican measure also contains $12.7 billion for regions hit by hurricanes, wildfires and other disasters. The Democratic bill also includes the disaster aid.

One White House official said Trump was open to counter-offers from Democrats. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Trump was also willing to use his proposed temporary extensions for "Dreamers" as a way to seek long-term deal.

The official said Trump would be willing to seek at least permanent legal status for "Dreamers," but probably not a path to citizenship.

Democrats have refused to negotiate until Trump reopens the government. Trump is worried Democrats won't agree to a wall compromise if he relents, while Democrats say Trump would use the shutdown tactic again if it works.

"If we hold the employees hostage now, they're hostage forever," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Jill Colvin, Catherine Lucey, Kevin Freking, Matthew Daly and Laurie Kellman contributed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., center, smiles as she helps give out food at World Central Kitchen, the not-for-profit organization started by Chef Jose Andres, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in Washington. The organization devoted to providing meals in the wake of natural disasters, has set up a distribution center just blocks from the U.S. Capitol building to assist those affected by the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Furloughed EPA worker Jeff Herrema holds a sign outside the offices of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, in Park Hills, Ky., Tuesday, Jan 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - The Latest on Zimbabwe's deadly unrest (all times local):

7:45 p.m.

Witnesses say Zimbabwean soldiers are still roaming the streets of the capital and assaulting people, even after the president denounced violence by security forces as "unacceptable."

Soldiers in two army trucks appeared to be targeting street vendors as they cruised Harare's streets at nightfall.

Human Rights Watch's southern Africa director Dewa Mavhinga says uniformed soldiers have injured many people and there is "no reason for the wanton attacks."

President Emmerson Mnangagwa cut short an overseas visit amid growing accounts of violence by soldiers, police and ruling party youth gangs in a crackdown on protests against a dramatic fuel price increase.

The ongoing assaults raise questions about the influence the president has to rein in the military's use of force.

___

5:50 p.m.

Human Rights Watch says "the mask has now been taken off the Mnangagwa government" in Zimbabwe after hundreds of people were wounded or arrested in a crackdown on protests and at least 12 were killed.

Southern Africa director Dewa Mavhinga told reporters in Johannesburg that the military opened fire on crowds, killing bystanders as well as protesters, and wounding others. Security forces have gone house-to-house in Harare, Bulawayo and other cities, beating and torturing men.

He calls the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa the same as that of longtime leader Robert Mugabe but with "an even more brazen system in charge."

Mavhinga says the shootings in broad daylight and the shutdown of the internet are extreme and unprecedented.

He urges Zimbabwe's neighbors to pressure it to stop abuses, especially South Africa, the 16-nation Southern Africa Development Community and the African Union.

___

4:10 p.m.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says his country favors the lifting or easing of international sanctions on neighboring Zimbabwe, whose new government has cracked down on protests over a dramatic rise in fuel prices.

Ramaphosa spoke on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying Zimbabwe faces "serious, serious, economic challenges and they can be assisted by the world if those sanctions are lifted."

The United States has sanctions on Zimbabwean officials including President Emmerson Mnangagwa and says certain human rights reforms are needed to lift them.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Zimbabwe Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said that "we don't need to be told by anyone that we need to do better on human rights or open up democratic space ... we need to do it for ourselves."

Despite the unrest that doctors say has killed at least 12 people, Ncube called the protests a sign that Zimbabwe was democratizing after Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule.

Ncube also said he hopes to gain access to some $500 million in lines of credit at Davos, adding that "one can never say" how close he was to securing it.

___

3:50 p.m.

Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights says it believes the 12 deaths and more than 300 injuries it has documented in the past week's crackdown on protests "are just a fraction of the actual victims."

Dr. Norman Matara told reporters in Johannesburg that others who died on the street were taken directly to mortuaries and many injured were afraid to seek medical treatment.

He says several people were arrested and dragged from their hospital beds. Some people shot in the head at close range and died. An estimated 50 percent of those wounded were bystanders hit by stray bullets when the military opened fire on crowds.

The group documented abuse of people as young as 9. The doctors saw a pattern of violence across the country, suggesting that security forces were trained in torture methods and the violence was "premeditated."

___

1:45 p.m.

South Africa says it is considering a bailout for neighboring Zimbabwe "as long as it is affordable for our side."

Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says she is meeting with her Zimbabwe counterpart at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and that "support will be provided."

She says South Africa is monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe, where doctors and activists say at least 12 people have been killed in a week of unrest over a dramatic rise in fuel prices. The state-backed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission criticizes the use of the military and live ammunition in a crackdown on the protests.

South Africa recently turned down Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa's request for a $1.2 billion loan.

___

11:30 a.m.

The government-backed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission says it has documented eight deaths in a days-long crackdown on protests over a dramatic fuel price increase.

The constitutional body's statement on Tuesday came hours after President Emmerson Mnangagwa cut short an overseas trip to return home and announced that violence by security forces would be investigated.

The rights commission criticizes the use of the military and live ammunition and says the government has not learned from the deadly post-election crackdown in August in which six people died.

The commission says the government should "ensure compensation for those that have been victims of military and police brutality."

___

9 a.m.

Zimbabwe's president calls violence by security forces "unacceptable" and says it will be investigated after a week of economic crisis and crackdown in which activists said a dozen people were killed.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday called for a "national dialogue" among political parties. He spoke upon returning home after skipping a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to deal with unrest.

Zimbabwe's military was in the streets last week for the first time since post-election violence in August in which six people were killed. This time, people reported being hunted down in their homes by security forces and severely beaten.

Mnangagwa says chaos and insubordination will not be tolerated and "if required, heads will roll."

He defends the dramatic fuel price increase that began the unrest.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on January 15, 2019 in Tel Aviv

Israel on Sunday officially recognised Venezuela's National Assembly chief Juan Guaido as president, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following close ally Washington in endorsing the opposition leader.

Netanyahu announced in an online video that Israel was joining the United States, Canada and a host of South American countries "in recognising the new leadership in Venezuela".

Guaido proclaimed himself acting president of Venezuela on Wednesday during a mass opposition rally against leader Nicolas Maduro.

Since then, the United States, Canada and many South American countries including Brazil and Colombia have backed his self-proclamation.

Maduro rejected demands by European countries to call elections within eight days in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Nations including France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany warned they would recognise Guaido as president unless there are snap polls.

The US has pressed all countries to "stand with the forces of freedom" in Venezuela, but key backers such as Russia have stuck with the embattled leader.

Desperate protesters have taken to the streets in Venezuela over a crisis that has seen two million flee shortages of basic food and medicine.

Some 26 people have been killed and more than 350 people have been detained in clashes this week between anti-Maduro activists and security forces, the UN said.Armed groups hold sway over most of the Central African Republic, despite a 13,000-member UN peacekeeping force

Central African Republic's government and militias who control most of the country held on Friday their first face-to-face talks since the country's crisis erupted in 2012, as fresh violence claimed 13 lives.

Their arduously-arranged peace talks began on Thursday in a suburb of the capital of Sudan.

"First face-to-face meeting between government and the 14 armed groups on Friday morning in Khartoum," the UN said on Twitter.

Militia chiefs met high-ranking government emissaries, including Defence Minister Marie-Noelle Koyara, Justice Minister Flavien Mbata and President Faustin-Archange Touadera's chief of staff, Firmin Ngrebada.

Time to talk: Central African Republic's government is sitting down with militias who control most of the country

The armed groups put forward their demands, according to UN sources, who gave no further details.

Photographs that the UN released of the meeting showed Ali Darassa, head of one of CAR's biggest armed groups, the Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC).

Darassa, whose group has clashed this month with government and UN forces in the central town of Bambari, had previously said he would not go to Khartoum.

The meeting, brokered by the African Union after 18 months of exploratory work, aims at reaching an accord and setting up a follow-up committee.

But seven previous peace talks have been held and no agreement has lasted. The previous deal, in 2017, survived less than 24 hours.

One of the stumbling blocks is whether militia chiefs should be amnestied, as well as persistent violence that has undermined trust.

Late Thursday, a UPC militiaman in Ippy, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Bambari, opened fire on a funeral, "killing 10 people and injuring 17 others, 13 of whom are in serious condition," the UN told AFP on Friday.

A UN source told AFP that toll may be higher, adding that the assailant was a "drunken UPC fighter. The zone commander executed him in public on Friday."

Hours before, three people, including a woman and a child, were killed on a road near the central town of Alindao by so-called anti-Balaka militiamen, whose representatives are at the Khartoum talks.

- Prolonged crisis -

CAR's crisis brewed in late 2012 when a mainly Muslim rebel movement called the Seleka seized towns in the north and centre of the country.

In March 2013, after power-sharing deal with the government broke down, the Seleka entered the capital Bangui and forced president Francois Bozize, a Christian, from power.

A predominantly Christian militia called the anti-Balaka emerged, prompting widespread fears of Rwandan-style genocide.

Central African Republic

Former colonial ruler France intervened militarily under a UN mandate, pushing the Seleka from power, and in February 2016, Touadera, a former prime minister, was elected president.

But he only controls a fraction of the state, despite the support of more than 13,000 troops and police in the UN's MINUSCA mission.

The rest of the country is in the hands of militias, who typically portray themselves as defenders of a community or religious group but often fight over cattle or mineral wealth, a hoard that includes gold, uranium and diamonds.

Thousands of people have been killed and a quarter of the population of 4.5 million have fled their homes.

Sudanese authorities say the parlay in Khartoum could last up to three weeks.Although both countries are on opposite sides of the Syria conflict Turkish-Russian ties have improved markedly after reaching a lowpoint with the 2015 downing of a Russian warplane

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold Syria talks in Moscow on Wednesday, with Turkey saying they will focus on Ankara's so-called "security zone" in northern Syria.

The two leaders are on opposite sides of the conflict: Russia provides critical support to the Syrian government, while Turkey has backed rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Despite this, they have worked closely to find a political solution to the seven-year conflict. Russia and Turkey have agreed to coordinate ground operations in Syria following US President Donald Trump's shock announcement on pulling 2,000 American troops out of Syria last month.

In a speech on Monday, Erdogan said he would discuss with Putin the creation of a Turkish-controlled "security zone" in northern Syria, suggested by Trump.

The US-allied Kurds, who control much of northern Syria, have rejected the idea, fearing a Turkish offensive against territory under their control.

Moscow, a long time supporter of Assad, is likely to oppose the plan, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week saying Damascus must take control of the country's north.

Nearly eight years into Syria's deadly conflict, the US pullout has led to another key step in Assad's Russian-backed drive to reassert control over the country.

Kurdish forces who were left exposed by Trump's pledge to withdraw US troops have asked the Syrian regime for help to face a threatened Turkish offensive.

The Kremlin hailed the entry by Syrian forces into the key northern city of Manbij for the first time in six years after Kurds opened the gates.

Moscow plans to organise a three-way summit with Turkey and Iran at the beginning of this year as part of the Astana peace process, launched by the three countries in 2017.

"So far, no date has been set but after negotiations with Erdogan, we will begin preparations for the trilateral summit," Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters last week.

The last meeting between Putin, Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani took place in Iran in September last year with the fate of the rebel-held Idlib province dominating the agenda.

Ties between Russia and Turkey plunged to their lowest level in years in November 2015 when Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane over Syria.

But after a reconciliation deal in 2016, relations have recovered with remarkable speed with Putin and Erdogan cooperating closely over Syria, Turkey buying Russian-made air defence systems and Russia building Turkey's first nuclear power plant.Normally workmanlike relations between Australia and China have been tested amid increased competition for influence in the Pacific

Australia is investigating reports a Chinese-Australian dissident is missing in China, officials said Wednesday, raising concerns he may be the latest Western citizen to be detained in the country.

Yang Hengjun -- a novelist, former Chinese diplomat and democracy activist -- went missing shortly after he travelled to the southern city of Guangzhou last week, friends said.

When asked about Yang's case, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was "seeking information about an Australian citizen who has been reported missing in China".

"Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment," a spokesman told AFP.

The Australian government is believed to be in contact with Yang's friends and family, as well as Chinese authorities.

At a regular press briefing in Beijing Wednesday, China's ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she "did not know" about Yang's situation and "needs to get more information from the relevant departments".

Authorities in Guangzhou did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Yang had travelled to China with his wife and son on January 18, but never made a planned internal flight to Shanghai.

His disappearance prompted fears that he may be the latest victim of an increasingly broad dragnet by Chinese security services.

Australia recently expressed concern about China's detention of two Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest in Canada of a senior executive of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Tensions have also been strained between China and Australia in recent months.

Australia banned Huawei from participating in its 5G network in August over security fears. The United States and New Zealand have taken similar steps.

Yang's friend and journalist John Garnaut described him as "brilliant" and "a courageous and committed democrat".

"This will reverberate globally if authorities do not quickly find an off-ramp," he warned.

Yang had worked in the ministry of foreign affairs in Hainan province, but later left for Hong Kong in 1992 and the US in 1997 where he worked for the Atlantic Council think tank.

He later took up Australian citizenship -- although Beijing does not recognise dual nationality -- and wrote a series of spy novels and a popular Chinese-language blog.

Once described as China's "most influential political blogger", Yang went missing once before in 2011, describing his disappearance as a "misunderstanding" when he resurfaced days later.Tala Farea (L) and her sister Rotana ran away several times from their family's home in Virginia

Two Saudi sisters whose bodies were found taped together on the banks of a New York river committed suicide, the city's medical examiner said on Tuesday.

Rotana Farea, 22, and her sister Tala, 16, were found beside the Hudson River in late October with no visible signs of trauma, dressed all in black, and in coats with fur-trimmed collars.

They were tied together at the ankles and waist by duct tape.

"My office determined that the death of the Farea sisters was the result of suicide, in which the young women bound themselves together before descending into the Hudson River," Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson said.

After their deaths, a police official appeared to confirm that the sisters had applied for asylum, but did not provide further detail.

Fatimah Baeshen, spokeswoman for Saudi Arabia's US embassy in Washington, tweeted that "Reports that we ordered anyone related to the Saudi sisters, Tala and Rotana Farea, God rest their souls, (who recently died tragically in NY), to leave the US for seeking asylum; are absolutely false."

They had run away several times from their family's home in Virginia, where they had not lived since the end of 2017.

The sisters had been placed in a shelter but left Virginia in August and set out for New York. There, they stayed in several different upscale hotels and maxed out a credit card, according to an NYPD spokesman quoted by US media.

A witness reportedly saw the two young women early on October 24 on a playground near the Hudson, where they appeared to be praying.

US media quoted police as saying the sisters had indicated that they would rather harm themselves than return to Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom is one of the world's most restrictive countries for women, a situation highlighted this month by the case of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun.

The teenager fled what she said was physical and psychological abuse from her family in the kingdom, and received asylum in Canada.Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio, an indigenous schoolteacher with no acting experience, landed the part in "Roma" when she accompanied her sister to the audition

Mexicans celebrated Tuesday as "Roma" grabbed 10 Oscar nominations -- none more exuberantly than the film's breakout star, Yalitza Aparicio, who melted hearts and went viral with her ecstatic reaction to her best actress nomination.

Aparicio, an indigenous schoolteacher with no acting experience who landed the part when she accompanied her sister to the audition, posted a video on Twitter of the moment she got the news.

Watching the announcements on a laptop in what appeared to be her hotel room in Tijuana -- where she had traveled for a photo shoot at the US-Mexican border fence -- Aparicio let out a scream when her name popped up, then pressed her hands to her face, choking back tears, in a gesture of pure joy no actress could feign.

The video went viral, garnering tens of thousands of likes and countless replays on Mexican TV.

"I'm so happy. I was not expecting this news when I woke up so early today," Aparicio wrote.

Filmed in Spanish and the indigenous Mixtec language, set in Mexico City in the 1970s and filmed in black and white, "Roma" is not supposed to be the kind of movie that finds huge success in the United States -- especially not in the Mexico-bashing era of President Donald Trump.

Alfonso Cuaron's intimate portrait of his childhood and the two women who raised him in "Roma" garnered the most Oscar nominations of any film in 2018, together with "The Favourite"

But Alfonso Cuaron's intimate portrait of his childhood and the two women who raised him -- his nanny, played by Aparicio, and his mother, played by best supporting actress nominee Marina de Tavira -- garnered the most Oscar nominations of any film this year, together with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's "The Favourite."

"Roma" scored several firsts in the process: first Spanish-language film nominated for best picture, and the first nominations for streaming giant Netflix in the directing, original screenplay, foreign language film and best picture categories, among others.

For Mexico -- where the film triggered a national conversation on race, class and the traumas of the past -- the news was celebrated by figures from the president on down.

Cuaron "is a first-rate filmmaker, a source of pride for Mexico. I congratulate him and all the actors and production team.... We should all see the film," said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- admitting that he himself had not watched it yet.

- 'Viva Alfonso!' -

"We're all happy! What can I say? It's been a very intense morning," said Eugenio Caballero, the production designer on "Roma" who famously recreated Cuaron's boyhood home and street in minute detail for the film.

Yalitza Aparicio (L) and Marina de Tavira pose with the Best Movie trophy for "Roma" in the press room during the 24th Critics' Choice Awards on January 13

"I'm so happy to see the nominations for Yalitza, Marina, Alfonso and the entire team," he told AFP.

Mexican filmmakers have racked up an impressive string of successes at the Academy Awards in recent years.

The trio of Mexican directors known as the "Three Amigos" -- Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu -- have won the best director award four of the past five years. Cuaron, who won in 2014 with "Gravity," now stands to make that five of the past six.

The Mexican film community was jubilant.

"VIVA ALFONSO!!" tweeted del Toro, whose film "The Shape of Water" won the most statuettes at last year's Oscars with four, including best picture and best director.

"I can't believe it!! I can't take the excitement," tweeted Gael Garcia Bernal, one of Mexico's best-known actors, who became a Hollywood heartthrob after starring in Cuaron's last Spanish-language film, "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001).

"'Roma' is making history for Mexican film, on an international level," said the president of the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, Ernesto Contreras.

Mexicans will no doubt be watching in droves when the Oscars ceremony is held on February 24.

"The great value of 'Roma,' besides its visual beauty, lies in the questions it asks us as Mexicans, about who we are, where we come from and our shared wounds," said Maria Novaro, head of the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE).A furloughed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee in line at a food distribution effort for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown

Most never needed help from a food pantry. But a month since the US government shutdown began, dozens of federal employees have been lining up in Brooklyn for basics.

Customs, tax and emergency management officials are all among the crowd, having gone unemployed since December 22.

Others deemed "essential" like transportation workers or prison guards are forced to continue working without pay, taking advantage of their lunch breaks to stock up.

Volunteers are manning distribution tables in the lobby of the New York borough's Barclays Center, which usually hosts concerts or sporting events rather than charity drives.

Those in need first register and then fill plastic bags with canned goods, potatoes, chicken, grapes and basic toiletries.

"I came here to grab some goods, to be honest," said Antoinette Peek-Williams, an employee of the Homeland Security Department, who came an hour by subway from Harlem.

Furloughed employee Antoinette Peek-Williams traveled an hour by subway to stock up on basic goods

"Any way I can save money and put towards something else -- that's what I am trying to do."

Since the budget impasse began, the 62-year-old lives "day to day -- watching what I eat, watching what I spend, not spending."

"Praying that they make a decision sooner than later."

She hopes to return to work on February 1 -- an optimism of which she's no longer so certain.

"I am a person where the glass is always half-full," said the mother of a college student.

"I have to stay hopeful," she said. "If you don't have hope, you don't have anything."

It's a sentiment echoed by Chante Johnson, a tax administrator.

But "it's getting rough," the 48-year-old said. "It's coming, like, to the end of everything."

- 'Unprecedented' -

Furloughed federal workers receive milk as the Food Bank for New York City holds a distribution for federal workers impacted by the government shutdown in Brooklyn

She provides for a daughter along with her mother, and says she hasn't been able to sleep or eat healthy since being out of work.

"I just want them to open it up," she said. "Start talking and open up the government."

For those federal workers forced to work without pay, the situation is even more tense.

They can only testify anonymously, sworn to confidentiality.

"It is very stressful," said one 39-year-old single mother, who works as a prison guard at Brooklyn's federal detention facility.

She came to the food pantry on her lunch break seeking enough to prepare a few meals.

Her daughter is nearing the end of high school, and as students apply for universities, she laments being unable to pay her child's application fees.

She managed to postpone the monthly bill for her cell phone -- which she needs for work -- albeit with a late penalty.

But she won't be able to make it after mid-February.

"After that I won't be able to go to work," she said, saying she won't have money to fill her car's gas tank.

The shutdown has exacerbated an already precarious situation in a city where soaring rents are pushing more and more families into poverty, said Francisco Tezen, head of development at the Food Bank for New York City.

The non-profit, the city's largest food assistance organization, hosted the distribution along with corporate sponsors.

Volunteers take turns manning distribution tables in the lobby of the Barclays Center

"Something like this is unprecedented, it's almost equivalent to times when we have had to activate response and services in response to a disaster," said Tezen.

"Just the length of period of time, and the volatility and the unknowns."

Organizations like his "can be of assistance and help," he said -- "but we are not an antidote to gridlock or just bad policy."

He refrained from pointing specific blame for the political stalemate, but many in New York, a Democratic stronghold, pin culpability on Donald Trump.

In Johnson's view, the border situation is not dire enough to require the $5.7 billion the president has demanded to build a wall.

"What happened? Did a Mexican beat him up as a little boy so he is so gung-ho on this wall?" she asked. "Talk about it and get us back to work.

"Get us back the work that we love doing."Japan's Naomi Osaka denied the pressure created by her breakthrough win at Flushing Meadows last year was getting to her and she was enjoying herself at Melbourne Park

Japan's Naomi Osaka said she felt another Grand Slam title was close after routing an injured Elina Svitolina to reach the Australian Open semi-finals Wednesday.

The US Open champion cruised past the Ukrainian sixth seed 6-4, 6-1 and said she was hungry for more success ahead of a final four clash with Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova

Osaka, 21, seeded fourth this year, denied the pressure created by her breakthrough win at Flushing Meadows last year was getting to her and she was enjoying herself at Melbourne Park.

"I know that a few months ago I would have given anything to be in the semi-finals of a Slam," she said.

"But it's this weird feeling of, like, you want to do the next big thing. Especially now that I won a Grand Slam, I feel like I want to win another on.

"I'm so close and I just want to keep going."

Elina Svitolina received treatment for a neck or shoulder injury in the second set and looked a shadow of the player that won the WTA Finals in Singapore last October

The win put Osaka into her straight Grand Slam semi-final and she is the first Japanese woman in the final four at Melbourne Park since Kimiko Date in 1994.

Svitolina received treatment for a neck and shoulder injury in the second set and looked a shadow of the player that won the WTA Finals in Singapore last October.

"I tried to be consistent, it's unfortunate that she got injured but playing against her even when she was injured was still really tough," Osaka said.

- Keeping calm -

She was pleased to maintain her composure in a simple straight sets win after previously losing her cool on court when her last two matches went to three sets.

"I feel like I play better when I'm calm," she said.

"When I'm not calm, it just makes my life harder. So I just try to stay calm, there's an inner peace I can tap into sometimes during my matches."

It was Naomi Osaka's second straight Grand Slam semi-final after Flushing Meadows and she is the first Japanese woman in the final four at Melbourne Park since 1994

Osaka has a 3-2 losing record against Pliskova and said the Czech, who has been one of the most consistent performers at Grand Slams in recent years, was tough to play.

"I can barely read her serve, so it's very difficult for me," she said.

"She doesn't hit too many unforced errors, which is a little bit dangerous."

Osaka and Svitolina both fired down aces to hold their opening service games then went on to exchange two breaks mid-way in the opening set.

Osaka was the dominant player, hitting 17 winners to three and four aces to one but struggled to put away her chances.

She has complained throughout the tournament that she was making too many mistakes and 19 unforced errors to Svitolina's seven in the first set kept the Ukrainian in the match.

Osaka wasted three set point opportunities, screeching in frustration as she sprayed the ball wide on both her forehand and backhand.

She finally converted a fourth opportunity when Svitolina netted a return but looked anxious heading into the second set.

She settled her nerves and took an early break, then held serve with an ace.

With the set at 3-0 in Osaka's favour, Svitolina received treatment for an injury that also hampered her during a three-set fightback against China's Zhang Shuai in the third round.

She struggled when play resumed, conceding a break then limply handing Osaka her seventh straight game in the next to make it 5-0.

She held serve to get on the board in the second set but it only delayed the inevitable as Osaka claimed victory after 72 minutes.Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, tasked with negotiating a truce in the US-China trade war, gets top billing in Davos, where the US government shutdown means Washington has no delegation

China and Europe take centre stage in front of the world's business elite at Davos on Wednesday, a day after Brazil's hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro promised reform and tried to win over sceptics about his environmental platform.

The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) is taking place this week in a global context of populism and concern for the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Arriving by train to Davos on Wednesday is Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16-year-old who has inspired protests by high-schoolers across Europe demanding stronger government action to fight global warming.

Top billing on the WEF stage will go to Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, who is tasked with negotiating a truce in the US-China trade war.

The annual conference in the Alpine ski resort was originally expected to see the two sides meet, but that was before the White House cancelled the US delegation's trip due to the government shutdown in Washington.

Beyond the trade war, Davos-goers are also concerned about the economic slowdown in China.

Oxfam has highlighted the extent of growing global inequality at a time when analysts are fretting over the effects of economic slowdown in China

Economic experts predict growth of about six percent in China for 2019, which is still relatively strong, but below the country's stellar rates of recent years.

Wang will be watched closely to see if Beijing has plans for stimulus or to liberalise the economy in order to restore ebbing investor confidence.

- No 'happy globalisation' -

The clash between Beijing and Washington, which is again upsetting the markets, has dampened spirits at Davos, as signs grow of a broader slowdown in the world economy.

"This is really the end of happy globalisation," said Pascal Cagni, ex-CEO of Apple Europe and head of the Business France lobby.

"We are finishing digesting the 2008 crisis and we realise that the global governance we need is not there," he said.

Europe also takes its turn at the WEF on Wednesday, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel making her traditional visit to the forum to promote the continent's leading economy.

However, Merkel comes to Davos weakened after being forced out of the leadership of her CDU party last year. She plans to leave office by 2020.

The Europeans as a whole come to Davos under the cloud of Brexit, with Britain's plan to divorce from the European Union blocked in parliament.

German chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Davos to promote Europe's top economy amid fears over the effect a no-deal Brexit could have on the continent

Prime Minister Theresa May pulled out of the conference to handle Brexit as did the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, both eager to avoid a "no deal" exit on March 29.

But May's international trade secretary, Liam Fox, is one of a clutch of cabinet members who have made the trip to reassure investors about Britain's post-Brexit future.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after a recent trip to London to press May to secure a deal with Brussels, will also address the Davos audience on Wednesday.

The younger generation of European leadership will be represented by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was thrust unexpectedly to power in June after a parliamentary vote of no confidence in his predecessor.

Sanchez will meet with top executives from US tech giants, including Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, with Madrid's controversial decision to tax Silicon Valley on sales certain to be on the agenda.

The EU is struggling to agree a bloc-wide tax on tech giants such as Facebook and Google. Several European countries -- including Spain, France and Britain -- are now looking to impose their own taxes.JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon garnered his biggest pay package in 2018 since the financial crisis

Ten years after Wall Street recklessness helped lead to the Great Recession, compensation for top bank CEOs is soaring even as pay flattens at junior levels.

Compensation figures released so far by large banks this year suggest a rich season for CEOs, despite myriad worries for markets, including slowing global growth, trade wars and Brexit uncertainty.

Compensation for Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the biggest US bank by assets, hit $31 million in 2018, up 5.1 percent, and his highest pay since the 2008 financial crisis.

At Morgan Stanley, Chief Executive James Gorman will take home $29 million, up seven percent.

Final pay numbers are expected in the coming days from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

The biggest six US banks last year reported a record $117.6 billion in profits, with JPMorgan notching its highest-ever annual income of $32.5 billion and Morgan Stanley also a new peak at $8.2 billion.

- A wide gap -

Compensation varies for everyday employees of the financial heavyweights but even the more generous boosts do not reach the CEO pay bumps thus far.

Pay among JPMorgan's 256,000 employees rose an average of 4.4 percent, while compensation for Morgan Stanley's 60,300 workers dipped two percent, according to an analysis published over the weekend by the Financial Times.

At Goldman Sachs, which faces government probes over its connections to the scandal-plagued Malaysian fund 1MDB, worker salaries fell three percent.

Worker pay rose 2.2 percent at Bank of America and Citigroup and Wells Fargo worker pay climbed 4.1 percent, according to the Financial Times.

The gap between CEOs and rank-and-file employees remains astronomical.

Analysts say the better US economy is one reason swelling CEO pay at banks has not aroused itense criticism. This 2012 phot captures a more hostile view of Wall Street in the wake of the financial crisis.

At JPMorgan, Dimon's salary is more than 364 times the median employee salary, while at Morgan Stanley Gorman's compensation is some 192 times greater than that of a median employee, according to the AFL-CIO.

The bounty is even greater at other financial groups like private equity behemoth Blackstone, which paid Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman $786 million in 2017, the third biggest payout ever on Wall Street behind Daniel Och of Och-Ziff Capital, who took home $1.2 billion in 2008 and $918.9 million in 2007.

Tharindra Ranasinghe, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland's school of business, said the public's view of the higher pay has been muted somewhat by improvement in the broader economy that has strengthened employment markets.

"It seems that this is not that much of an outrage for Main Street," he told AFP. "It seems like Main Street kind of gets excited on this when the economy is doing badly."

Some of the criticism has also likely been tempered by the practices of large banks adding rules that allow them to recover -- or claw back -- compensation in case of bad executive performance.

Another factor is that bank profits have risen, at least in part, due to traditional activities such as consumer loans or financing for mergers or public offerings.

"These are not speculative ventures that may run against the interests of Americans," said Gregori Volokhine of Meeschaert Financial Services.Drone sightings have caused flight disruptions at several major airports, including Newark, New Jersey and London's Gatwick

A drone briefly disrupted air traffic Tuesday at Newark airport, one of New York's three major hubs for air traffic, US officials said.

There were no further drones sighted, and arrivals were allowed to resume after a short suspension, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman told AFP.

The FAA ordered a ground stop for other flights heading to Newark, however, until the "backlog" of arrivals landing at the airport were cleared.

"Around 5:00 pm, we received two reports from incoming flights into Newark that a drone was sighted at about 3,500 feet (1,070 meters) above Teterboro," another nearby airport in New Jersey, the spokesman added.

Drones have caused a growing number of flight disruptions in recent weeks. In December, London's Gatwick airport was paralyzed for 36 hours after a drone sighting.

Europe's busiest airport, Heathrow in London, was shut down for an hour on January 8 because of a drone incident.

US law bars drone pilots, unless they have special permits, from flying these aircraft above 400 feet (122 meters) and within 5 miles (8 km) of an airport.

Authorities who oversee the airports in New York said they support the probe into the Newark drone incident.US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats says cyber threats and China's technological advances are key challenges for the American intelligence community

China is making technological advances in a far shorter timeframe than it took the United States, rapidly narrowing the gap between the two countries, a senior US intelligence official said Tuesday.

Reaping the benefits of sending tens of thousands of students and researchers to the United States, and a determined policy to buy and steal US technology, Beijing has "compressed the timeframe" for catching up, and now has "remarkable" capabilities, the official told journalists on condition of anonymity.

That is one of the key challenges for the United States, according to the new US National Intelligence Strategy.

In unveiling the strategy, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said it sets a focus for the US intelligence community in a time of rapid technological change.

"Today, we face the most diverse and complex set of threats that we have ever seen," Coats said in a speech to the intelligence community.

"The question then becomes what do we need to do now... We must become more agile."

The strategy, the first drafted in five years, notes major changes in the world led by the weakening of the post-World War II global order, China's emergence as a global economic and military power, and the rise of cyber threats.

Coats named China, Iran, North Korea and Russia as key state threats, but said a broad range of non-state actors -- jihadist groups, organized crime and others -- are empowered by new technologies and could find common interests among themselves.

"Our greatest concern comes from those forces merging together," Coats said.

"You're going to see interests aligned," between non-traditional allies, warned the senior official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

That goes for the United States as well, the official said: "We need partnerships with non-traditional partners, state, local and tribal."

- US space lead eroded -

China and Russia have eroded US dominance in space, according to the latest US National Intelligence Strategy

At the time of the previous strategy in 2014, cyber attacks, along with threats to economic and financial security and to election security, were relative afterthoughts.

Now, they are at the forefront, underscored by persistent attacks from Russia and China in recent years -- with cyber security paramount, according to the new strategy.

"Cyber hygiene is 90 percent of the issue" in confronting these challenges, the official said.

The other area that deeply worries US intelligence is the loss of America's longstanding lead in space.

China and Russia especially are aiming for parity with the United States in space, but technology and commercialization have given many countries and non-state actors space capabilities as well.

"We worry a lot about advantage," the official said.In this courtroom sketch by Jane Wolsak and released to AFP by the artist, Meng Wanzhou (L), Huawei's chief financial officer, speaks with lawyer David Martin in the courtroom in Vancouver, British Columbia in December 2018

China on Wednesday accused the United States of "bullying behaviour" after US authorities confirmed plans to seek the extradition of a top Chinese telecom executive detained in Canada.

The United States faces a January 30 deadline to file an extradition request for Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, whose arrest last month sparked diplomatic tensions.

"We will continue to pursue the extradition of defendant Ms Meng Wanzhou, and will meet all deadlines set by the US/Canada Extradition Treaty," said US Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi on Tuesday.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested at Vancouver airport on December 1 at the request of the United States, which says she violated American sanctions on Iran.

She has since been freed on Can$10 million (US$7.5 million) bail and is awaiting a hearing on her extradition.

According to the agreement between the two countries, the United States has 60 days after an arrest made at its request in Canada to formalise an extradition request.

Once a request has been submitted, the Canadian justice ministry has 30 days to begin official extradition proceedings, though the process can take months or years.

China, which has defended both Huawei and Meng since the CFO's arrest, criticised the US extradition request as without "legitimate reason" and "not in conformity with international law".

"This is a type of technological bullying behaviour and everyone can clearly see the real purpose," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press briefing.

The US "will stop at nothing to suppress Chinese high-tech enterprises and restrain China's legitimate development rights", she added.

Meng's arrest has sparked an escalating diplomatic crisis between Ottawa and Beijing.

Two Canadians have since been detained in China on national security grounds, in what is thought to be retaliation for the arrest.

A Chinese court also this month sentenced a Canadian man to death for drug trafficking following a retrial, a drastic increase of his previous 15-year prison sentence.Three men were arrested at Gerald Ford Airport in the city of Grand Rapids as Muse Abdikadir Muse, 23, also known as Muse Muse, was going through the TSA security screening process

Three American citizens of Kenyan descent have been charged with conspiring to support the Islamic State group after an arrest at a Michigan airport foiled their alleged plot, authorities announced Tuesday.

The three men, all in their 20s and related to each other, allegedly recorded videos pledging their allegiance to IS and discussed a potential car attack in the United States if one of them was unable to travel overseas to fight for the terror group.

FBI agents employed undercover agents to communicate with the suspects and multiple search warrants of their social media accounts to monitor the suspects' communications between each other, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

The three were arrested Monday at Gerald Ford Airport in the city of Grand Rapids as Muse Abdikadir Muse, 23, also known as Muse Muse, was going through the TSA security screening process.

Authorities said he had checked in for a trip that would eventually take him to Mogadishu, Somalia, with the goal of joining IS.

In an online exchange with an undercover FBI agent, Muse allegedly said he wanted to join IS in Somalia and "fight in the front lines," according to the affidavit.

Police also arrested at the airport terminal the men said to be Muse's co-conspirators: his brother Mohamud Abdikadir Muse, 20, and another relative, Mohamed Salat Haji, 26.

The two are alleged to have purchased the airline ticket and driven Muse to the airport.

All three men, who are naturalized US citizens from Kenya, were charged with conspiring to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Law enforcement became interested in the elder Muse starting in April 2016, when he allegedly publicly posted pro-IS messages on his Facebook account, the affidavit said.Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011

Nearly 5,000 people, including almost 500 Islamic State fighters, have since Monday left the jihadist group's last bastion in eastern Syria, where IS continues to lose ground, a Britain-based monitor said.

Kurdish-led forces, backed by air strikes of the US-led coalition, have been battling since September to expel the jihadists from their enclave in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

"Around 4,900 people, mostly women and children but including 470 jihadists, have since Monday deserted the last IS pocket in the Deir Ezzor province, including 3,500 that left the area on Tuesday," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP on Tuesday.

The majority of the civilians are family members of jihadists, the Observatory said.

They were evacuated on dozens of trucks chartered by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led alliance fighting IS.

In recent weeks the SDF has seized several eastern villages from IS, including Hajin, Al-Shaafa and Sousa.

Islamic State is now confined to just 10 square kilometres (four square miles) in Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.

On Tuesday, the "SDF progressed, without any resistance from IS, into the Baghouz area, the last still in the hands of jihadists," Abdel Rahman said.

The SDF "now controls half" of Baghouz, he added.

The new wave of departures means that nearly 27,000 people have left former IS areas since early December, including almost 1,800 jihadists who have surrendered, the Observatory said.

IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" in areas under their control.

But they have since lost most of that to various offensives in both countries.

The Kurdish fighters who do much of the ground fighting against IS have pressed hard since President Donald Trump announced last month that he was ordering a complete US troop pullout from Syria.

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (right) and top Democrat Chuck Schumer, pictured in February 2018, announced an agreement on the Senate floor Tuesday for a pair of test votes

US Senate leaders have agreed to vote Thursday on competing proposals to end a government shutdown now in its second month, but the chances are slim that either will reopen federal agencies.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and top Democrat Chuck Schumer announced an agreement on the Senate floor Tuesday for a pair of test votes.

The first would be a procedural step on a measure that funds all shuttered branches of government through September, and includes President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding and his proposal on immigration policy.

A second vote would be on a stop-gap measure that funds government until February 8, to allow for debate over border security and immigration, while also letting Trump's upcoming State of the Union address before Congress proceed.

It also would include disaster relief money already passed in the House.

Each proposal would require 60 votes to advance in the 100-member body, a high threshold, given the current level of partisan rancor over who is to blame for the shutdown.

A senior Republican Senate aide told AFP it was unlikely Republicans would sign on to the short-term funding bill, and that even if they did, the president would not sign it.

But the Democratic leader took to the floor to say the votes "could break us out of the morass we are in," and he specifically encouraged Republicans to sign on to the stop-gap bill to briefly open government.

"It will allow us to then debate, without hostage-taking, without temper tantrum... how we can best do border security," he said.Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative on Afghan reconciliation, speaks at an event in April 2016 before his latest position

The United States confirmed Tuesday that its envoy is meeting in Qatar with the Taliban, seeking to negotiate an end to the Afghanistan war despite a new major attack claimed by the insurgents.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special representative on Afghan reconciliation, met Tuesday in the Qatari capital Doha with Taliban representatives, the State Department said.

"We can confirm that Special Representative Khalilzad and an interagency team are in Doha today talking with representatives of the Taliban," a State Department spokeswoman said, adding that the talks were taking place over two days.

Khalilzad has sat down several times with the Taliban but it marks the first time that the United States has confirmed his meetings so directly.

The meeting came even though the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack Tuesday against an Afghan intelligence base in central Wardak province.

A local official said that at least 65 people were killed, in the latest high-casualty attack in Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman announced the meeting with Khalilzad on Monday, saying that the United States accepted an agenda of "ending the occupation of Afghanistan and preventing Afghanistan from being used against other countries in the future."

President Donald Trump has ordered a halving of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan as he voices eagerness to end America's longest-ever war, launched in 2001 after the September 11 attacks.

The Afghan-born Khalilzad, a key US policymaker under former president George W. Bush, met the Taliban after talks in Afghanistan as well as stops in key regional players China, India and Pakistan.

In Kabul, Khalilzad spoke with President Ashraf Ghani and vowed that the United States would maintain security support to Afghan forces.

"We agreed military pressure is essential while we prepare to engage in negotiations for peace," he tweeted.

He elaborated later: "To achieve peace, we are ready to address legitimate concerns of all Afghan sides in a process that ensures Afghan independence and sovereignty, and accounts for legitimate interests of regional states."

"Urgent that fighting end. But pursuing peace still means we fight as needed," he tweeted.

Khalilzad is last known to have met the Taliban last month in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, which has jockeyed for influence versus Gulf rival Qatar on spearheading diplomacy with the Taliban.US President Donald Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping are facing a trade war that has weighed heavily on the outlook for the Asian giant, the world's second-largest economy

A top White House aide flatly rejected media reports Tuesday that Washington had canceled a trade meeting ahead of next week's high-level talks with Chinese officials.

The reports by the Financial Times and CNBC earlier sent US stocks sharply lower, reviving fears that efforts to resolve the US-China trade war could fail.

But National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told CNBC that such reports were false.

"With respect, the story is not true," Kudlow said.

"There was never a planned meeting that was canceled."

Stock prices recovered some of their losses following Kudlow's remarks shortly after 2030 GMT. Wall Street had already been in the red due to downgraded global economic forecasts.

Soy and corn futures also fell on fears Beijing was less likely to resume imports.

According to both media outlets, US officials had cited a lack of progress on some of the thorniest issues in the trade dispute -- including allegedly forced technology transfers and structural reforms to China's economy -- and cancelled plans for a face-to-face preparatory meeting this week.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is due to travel to the United States next week as the two sides work to resolve their disagreements by March 1, when a 90-day truce is due to expire, allowing US import duties on Chinese goods to increase sharply.

Last year, the Chinese economy posted its slowest annual growth in nearly three decades, according to official figures published Monday in Beijing.

The trade war has weighed heavily on the outlook for the world's second-largest economy.The Lebanese finance minister said his country was "capable of honouring all its engagements, namely its debts"

Finance Minister on Tuesday said Lebanon's financial and monetary situation was stable, a day after Moody's downgraded the country's credit rating citing debt risks.

On Monday, Moody's Investors Service said it had downgraded Lebanon's issuer ratings to Caa1 which corresponds to "poor quality and high credit risk".

The agency said the decision "reflects the heightened risk that the government's response to increased liquidity and financial stability risks will include a debt rescheduling or other liability management exercise that may constitute a default under Moody's definition".

Khalil downplayed the importance of the downgrade on Twitter, saying "the financial and monetary situation (in Lebanon) remains stable and the Treasury's (liquidity) needs are guaranteed".

The Lebanese finance minister said his country was "capable of honouring all its engagements, namely its debts".

Moody's said public debt in Lebanon was estimated at 141 percent of gross domestic product in 2018, making it one of the world's most indebted countries.

The global ratings agency recalled that in December 2018 it had already "changed the outlook on Lebanon's then B3 issuer ratings to negative reflecting rising liquidity and financial stability risks".

It noted that "the ongoing delay in the formation of a government is adding to Lebanon's pressures".

Prime Minister Saad Hariri was tasked with forming a new government in May after the country's first parliamentary elections in nine years.

But for the past eight months he has struggled to get politicians from all sides in the multi-confessional country to agree on a cabinet.

The finance minister admitted on Twitter, however, that the Moody's downgrade "confirms the need to step up the formation of the government in order to launch a financial reform process aimed at reducing debt".

Moody's ratings announcement on Monday came as the energy-rich Gulf state of Qatar said it would buy $500 million in Lebanese government bonds in order to strengthen the country's economy.Waymo, the former Google car unit of Alphabet, will establish its own factory in Michigan to install self-driving technology into vehicles in its fleet

Waymo on Tuesday announced it will rev up its self-driving car production by establishing a factory devoted exclusively to mass production of autonomous vehicles in Michigan.

The company owned by Google-parent Alphabet collaborated with Michigan's economic development corporation on a plan to use a manufacturing facility in that state for integrating self-driving technology into vehicles it adds to its fleet.

Waymo already has about 20 workers based in the southeast Michigan city of Novi.

The location of the new plant has yet to be determined, but was not expected to be too far from Detroit, nicknamed "Motor City" due to the role the auto industry has played there.

The Waymo project was to create 100 jobs, with the potential for that number to multiply as it produces vehicles capable of "level 4" autonomy on a scale where level 5 is fully autonomous without a need for human intervention.

The facility "will be the world's first factory 100 percent dedicated to the mass production of L4 autonomous vehicles," Waymo said in an online statement.

The plant will integrate the self-driving system into the vehicles for the Waymo fleet, including from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover.

"We're laying the foundation for a scalable, robust vehicle integration plan, starting in Michigan," according to Waymo, which is partnering with the Canadian-based automotive supplier Magna to help integrate the technology into various vehicles.

Investment in the project was expected to tally $13.6 million and result in a performance-based grant of as much as $8 million from a Michigan business development program.

"Our local engineers are already hard at work outfitting our Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans with Waymo technology, and now we're looking forward to expanding our roots," the company said.

Born in a Google lab devoted to big-vision new technology, Waymo became a subsidiary of Alphabet in 2016.

A self-driving car service being tested by Waymo opened up to more people in the Phoenix, Arizona, area, late last year.

Those taking part in the service can use a smartphone application to summon autonomous vehicles any time of day to get about in an area about 100 square miles at its maximum, according to Waymo chief John Krafcik.

Waymo expected businesses to be interested in using the autonomous ride service to carry customers to and from shops.

The firm last year announced it was adding as many as 62,000 Fiat Chrysler minivans to its autonomous fleet in an expanded collaboration announced by the companies.Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa returned home on Tuesday

After Zimbabwe's authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was forced from power, his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the country had turned the page on repression.

Today, such claims sound deeply hollow as Zimbabwe reels from its second crackdown on protest in less than six months, analysts say.

"The mask has fallen," said Piers Pigou, an expert on southern Africa at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

"It is not a reformist government that is in place," said Dewa Mavhinga, regional director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The same methods have been used, the same brutality has been meted out."

Security forces last week moved ruthlessly against demonstrators outraged by a more-than doubling in fuel prices.

Among the severest critics of the operation is the government-appointed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.

On Tuesday, it said at least eight people died, mostly by gunfire, and the army and police had used "systematic torture".

That followed violence in August, where six people were shot dead in post-election demonstrations, a bloodletting that ended Mnangagwa's post-Mugabe honeymoon.

- Parallels -

Mavhinga said he saw a parallel today with the ruthless methods used by Mugabe, now 94, who ruled Zimbabwe from independence from Britain in 1980 until November 2017.

These included the massacres of Ndebele citizens in 1983 and 1984 that left some 20,000 dead, and post-election violence in 2008 that claimed more than 200 lives.

The difference today, though, is that the repression is brazen, he suggested.

"The militarisation is now more open, the disregard for the law is now more open," he said. "This is extreme, it is unprecedented."

Pigou agreed.

"In 2008, it was a network of informal repression in many ways, involving members of security forces but others as well. It is (now) much more overt," he said.

Civil society groups have given a provisional toll of at least 12 dead last week, including a nine-year-old child, and 78 wounded, while the authorities give a figure of three dead.

NGOs report dogs which were unleashed on civilians, and wounded people who were forced to leave hospital in order to be placed on instant trial, as well as the case of a man who was tortured with a shard of a bottle that was repeatedly jabbed into the sole of his foot.

"Some people were shot at close range, about one meter (three feet) away," said Norman Batara of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR).

Fearing for their safety, some members of the ZADHR have fled to Zambia, Botswana and South Africa, the organisation said.

The authorities ordered a shutdown of the internet, a move that the Zimbabwe High Court on Monday ruled was illegal -- only the president has such powers, it said.

- 'Crocodile' -

Mnangagwa, 76, cut short a foreign tour after the crackdown, amid growing concern about the scale of the violence.

He fired off a vow to take action as he returned home on Tuesday.

"Violence or misconduct by our security forces is unacceptable and a betrayal of the new Zimbabwe," he said on Twitter, in words that echoed his response after the events in August.

"Chaos and insubordination will not be tolerated. Misconduct will be investigated. If required, heads will roll."

But he also had tough words for the protests, condemning them as "wanton violence and cynical destruction."

Commentators offered different explanations as to why Mnangagwa was so notably out of the picture as the latest repression unfolded.

"It certainly does not indicate that this man is in control of the situation," suggested Pigou.

Mahvinga argued there could be "tensions" between the president and his vice president, retired general Constantino Chiwenga, over ultimate control of Zimbabwe's economic levers.

But Derek Matyszak of South Africa's Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said Mnangagwa was playing a typically stealthy role, in line with his nickname of "Crocodile."

Mnangagwa himself played a key role, but behind the scenes, in Mugabe-era crackdowns.

"Mnangagwa is never near the scene of the crime," Matyszak said.A relative of Mohammed al-Nabaheen, 24, a Hamas militant who was reportedly killed by Israeli tank fire, reacts at a hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip on January 22, 2019

Israeli tank shelling killed a Hamas militant along the Gaza border on Tuesday as Israel responded to gunfire that wounded one of its soldiers, officials said.

Those incidents and another exchange of fire earlier in the day signalled a rise in tensions as Israel blocked aid money to Gaza from Qatar over border unrest.

Mohammed al-Nabaheen, 24, was killed by tank fire while two other people were hurt, a Gaza health ministry spokesman said.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, confirmed he was a member of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

The Israeli army said it had targeted a Hamas observation post after a soldier was lightly wounded when a bullet struck his helmet.

In a statement, it said an initial investigation found "an assailant fired at troops" during a riot that included rock-hurling.

"A bullet struck the helmet of an IDF officer, lightly injuring him," it added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

A picture published by the army on social media showed the soldier's damaged helmet.

Earlier Tuesday, the army said shots were also fired at troops in a separate incident.

In response a tank targeted a Hamas military post without reports of any injuries.

An informal truce between Hamas and Israel had brought relative calm to the border in recent weeks.

But there were warnings of another escalation since Israel has held up the latest cash transfer from Gulf state Qatar to Gaza, set to take place under the truce.

- Protests since March -

The payments are controversial in Israel, where they have sparked opposition from right-wing activists and politicians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is campaigning for re-election in April 9 polls.

Palestinian protesters run through tear gas fumes during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration along the border with Israel east of Gaza City on January 11, 2019

Qatar's ambassador to Gaza said Monday that the $15 million (13 million euros) in cash, to pay the salaries of Hamas civil servants in the enclave, was expected to be delivered via Israel this week, possibly on Wednesday.

But after the latest violence, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity that Netanyahu had decided not to allow the transfer on Wednesday.

Israel's permission is required since the cash must be delivered via its territory.

Hamas is labelled a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, and banks are hesitant to make the transfer.

The payment would be the third of six planned tranches, totalling $90 million, in connection with the truce.

Israel has also allowed deliveries of Qatari-financed fuel to the blockaded enclave to help ease a severe electricity shortage.

Mass protests and clashes erupted on the Gaza-Israel border in March last year.

The weekly protests have been calling for Palestinian refugees in Gaza to be able to return to their former homes now inside Israel.

Israel accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out violence.

At least 244 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since March, 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.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, pictured during a White House briefing in January 2018, often meets with reporters in more impromptu settings

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has told his chief spokeswoman Sarah Sanders "not to bother" with formal media briefings in the White House, because journalists don't cover her fairly.

"The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the 'podium' much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press," Trump tweeted.

"I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!"

The White House briefing room, a keystone of modern presidential messaging, has been largely abandoned under Trump.

The last briefing where Sanders took questions from reporters was on December 18. On January 3, Trump himself made a surprise appearance -- his first at the briefing room podium -- to deliver a statement on border security, but took no questions.

The White House Correspondents Association, which represents journalists covering the president, attacked Trump's statement.

"This retreat from transparency and accountability sets a terrible precedent," said association president Olivier Knox.

Knox called the briefings a way to "highlight that no one in a healthy republic is above being questioned."

Trump complains frequently about what he says is unfair coverage of his presidency. The dispute gets personal, with Trump and his aides occasionally insulting or reprimanding their most disliked journalists in public.

After Trump clashed angrily with CNN reporter Jim Acosta at a press conference in November, the White House briefly withdrew his credentials, before a court ordered them reinstated.

While the regular, formal briefings that were once a presidential staple have petered out, Sanders often meets with reporters in more impromptu settings.

Trump also takes questions frequently, making him unusually accessible.

However, the occasions in the Oval Office or before boarding the Marine One helicopter tend to be hurried and less open to follow-up questions than a real press conference.Iranians hold banners bearing messages that call for the release of US-born journalist Marzieh Hashemi, in front of the Swiss embassy in the capital Tehran on January 20, 2019

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran to demand the unconditional and immediate release of a state television journalist detained in the United States.

Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said a note of complaint was issued to the ambassador for Switzerland over the "inhuman and discriminatory" detention of Iranian citizen and Press TV reporter Marzieh Hashemi.

The Swiss embassy in Tehran handles US interests in the Islamic republic after the two countries broke off relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Her immediate and unconditional release was demanded" at the meeting with the ambassador, Ghasemi added.

US-born Hashemi, who works for Iran's English-language Press TV, was arrested on arrival at St Louis Lambert International Airport on January 13, according to family and friends cited by Press TV.

Hashemi, a Muslim convert who changed her name from Melanie Franklin, had reportedly been visiting her ill brother and other family members.

A US court on Friday confirmed the arrest, saying her testimony was required over an unspecified case but that she was not accused of a crime.

At a hearing in Washington, a judge ordered the partial unsealing of an order on Hashemi.

The court said Hashemi was arrested on "a material arrest warrant" and would be let go after she gave testimony to a grand jury investigating unspecified "violations of US criminal law".

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Thursday described the detention as a "political action" by the United States that "tramples on freedom of speech" and demanded she be set free.

Zarif said that since Hashemi was married to an Iranian she is considered as an Iranian national and "it is our duty to defend our citizens".Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, says a planned US-Polish conference on the Middle East is 'counterproductive' for its narrow focus on Iran

Russia on Tuesday slammed a planned US-Polish conference on peace and security in the Middle East as "counterproductive" because of its focus on countering Iran, and said it would not attend.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced plans for the major conference in Warsaw on February 13 and 14 to be attended by ministers from a dozen countries.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the conference would fail to bolster Middle East security because of its "one-country aspect" and failure to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Attempts to create some kind of military alliances in the region by holding conferences and focussing on having a simplified unilateral approach that is clearly linked just to Iran are counterproductive," Nebenzia told a council debate on the Middle East.

Such a move "just further pushes away the prospects of finding a genuine security architecture for the region," he added.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry released a statement saying Russia would not attend the meeting which is described as an "anti-Iran platform" and a bid to create conditions to weaken the Iran nuclear deal.

"Why has that conference not invited Iran, which is one of the most significant and large countries in the region?" asked Nebenzia.

Iran has reacted angrily to the planned conference and warned Poland that it could face consequences for hosting the gathering.

Pompeo first announced the conference on January 11 to bring together countries in addressing peace and security in the Middle East, and make "sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence" in the region.

The conference has also received a cool reception from European countries.

Facing a lack of enthusiasm, acting US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen described the Warsaw meeting as a "global brainstorming session" and stressed that it was "not the venue to demonize or attack Iran."

Some of the agenda items for the conference include the humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen, missile development and cyber security, Cohen told the council.Since the fall and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, Libya has become a key getaway for migrants seeking to reach Europe

Two migrants have died and nearly 500 have been rescued in the past three days off the coast of Libya during perilous attempts to cross the Mediterranean to towards Europe, the Libyan navy said Tuesday.

Spokesman General Ayoub Kacem told AFP that 473 migrants from Africa, Syria and Bangladesh were rescued over the past 72 hours in four separate operations.

On Sunday, two migrants who had died of hypothermia were found on a boat, while more than 140 others were rescued after 24 hours at sea, he said.

Two merchant ships took part in operations to rescue the migrants "at the request of the Libyan navy", he added.

A cargo ship registered in Sierra Leone on Sunday rescued 141 migrants including 25 women and two children after they sent out an SOS signal using Alarm Phone, a volunteer-run Mediterranean rescue hotline, he said.

The Italian government said it had been in contact with Libyan authorities to help them rescue the survivors.

"After several days of rough seas, human traffickers took advantage of the calm sea this weekend to act again," the presidency of the council of ministers in Rome said in a statement.

Some 170 migrants have died in two shipwrecks over recent days in the Mediterranean, the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR said.

Since the fall and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, the North African country has become a key gateway for migrants seeking to reach Europe.

Today, tens of thousands of migrants a year seek help from human traffickers to make the crossing to Italy, 300 kilometres from the Libyan coast.

Hundreds of migrants die every year attempting the journey.

Controversial deals reached in Libya, along with Rome's decision to close its ports to ships that rescued migrants at sea, have drastically cut the number of arrivals to Italian coasts since mid-2017.US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs A. Wess Mitchell, pictured in March 2018, said he would step down to spend more time with his children

The top US diplomat for Europe resigned Tuesday, citing personal reasons, opening a new vacancy at time of uneasiness among traditional US allies with President Donald Trump's approach.

A. Wess Mitchell said he would step down as the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs effective February 15 to spend more time with his two children.

"As the administration starts its third year, I feel I have completed what I set out to do -- develop the department's Europe strategy," Mitchell said in a statement.

Unlike recent high-profile resignations over Trump's pullout from Syria, Mitchell did not indicate he was protesting any policy.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that Mitchell had "done an outstanding job" and wished him "much happiness" with his family.

His departure comes after France, Germany and, to a lesser extent, Britain voiced unease over Trump's sudden withdrawal from Syria, where 2,000 US troops have been fighting the Islamic State movement and maintaining an unstated truce with Turkey.

Mitchell's tenure was dogged by unusually pointed exchanges between European allies and Trump, who has cast doubt on the value of the NATO alliance and broken the diplomatic taboo on criticizing friendly nations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made no secret of her disdain for Trump, who has repeatedly attacked her welcoming of more than one million asylum seekers, while Trump has ridiculed French President Emmanuel Macron's domestic standing after he criticized the US leader's nationalist ideology.

Mitchell's portfolio also covers Russia, which has sought a warm relationship with Trump personally even as the United States keeps building pressure over issues including Moscow's support of separatists in Ukraine and its alleged meddling in US elections.

A German speaker who holds a doctorate in political science from the Free University of Berlin, Mitchell is a veteran Washington think-tank expert and co-founded the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Mitchell, who advised Mitt Romney during his failed 2012 president campaign, has advocated a traditional Republican foreign policy that emphasizes a strong US military edge against potential rivals.

Mitchell was confirmed by the Senate in October 2017 after an uncharacteristically long gap from the previous administration as the Trump administration vetted nominees for loyalty.

Elisabeth Millard, a career diplomat, will succeed Mitchell in acting capacity until the administration proposes a replacement.The Oscar is the film industry's top prize

The nominations for the 91st Oscars were announced Tuesday, with "Roma" and "The Favourite" leading the pack.

But the statistical quirks that the annual event throws up can be as intriguing as tracking which movies get the most nods.

Here are some fun facts and figures from this year's list of nominees:

- Netflix's big step forward -

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron has helped Netflix to a historic first best picture Oscar nomination with "Roma"

Streaming giant Netflix took a major step forward in its quest to be both a distribution king and a purveyor of quality original content with 14 Oscar nominations, including its first for best picture for "Roma."

"Roma" earned 10 nods, while "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" -- the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen -- scored three. The last Netflix nomination went to "End Game," which is up for best documentary short subject.

Netflix claimed a 15th nomination for another documentary short, "Period: End of Sentence," but it was not listed as a Netflix production in the Academy's press kit.

In 2018, the company earned eight nominations, half of them for "Mudbound." In the years before, Netflix had just a handful of nominations, all in documentary categories.

By comparison, Amazon Studios -- which had already broken through in the best picture category in 2017 with "Manchester by the Sea" -- earned three nominations for steamy Polish love story "Cold War."

"We are honored to receive our first Best Picture nomination and so many other firsts this morning," said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

- Wakanda forever -

Actor Chadwick Boseman -- who plays the title role in "Black Panther" -- makes the Wakanda Forever arm gesture on the Oscars red carpet in March 2018

For many moviegoers, the Oscars have become somewhat elitist, often rewarding arthouse fare that not many have seen. But those fans cannot complain this year.

Marvel superhero blockbuster "Black Panther" -- the highest-grossing film of 2018 in North America -- scored seven nominations including one for best picture, becoming the first movie based on a comic book to earn the honor.

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, who stars in the film, posted footage on Twitter of the cast celebrating when excerpts from the film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con.

"Seven #OscarNoms for #BlackPanther, including best picture!! This is our reaction the first time we saw footage from the film and we're feeling this way all over again today! Thank you @TheAcademy! #WakandaForever," she wrote on Twitter.

Beyond its best picture nomination, "Black Panther" earned nods for costume design, original score, original song (rapper Kendrick Lamar is a nominee in that category), production design, and sound mixing and editing.

- Cuaron reigns supreme -

Director Alfonso Cuaron has earned four Oscar nominations himself -- for best picture, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography

Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma," a black-and-white cinematic ode to his childhood in 1970s Mexico City -- and the mother and nanny who raised him -- earned a whopping 10 nominations to lead the contenders.

But the Mexican filmmaker himself scored an impressive feat -- four of those nominations are his: for best picture as a producer, best director, best original screenplay and best cinematography.

He joins illustrious company with his achievement: Warren Beatty did the same, scoring four nominations in four different categories -- twice -- for "Heaven Can Wait" and "Reds."

Joel and Ethan Coen did it for "No Country for Old Men."

- Snubs and surprises -

Bradley Cooper got a nomination for best actor in "A Star Is Born" -- but not one for best director

Industry watchers were shocked that Bradley Cooper was snubbed in the best director category for "A Star Is Born" -- but earned three nominations for best actor, best adapted screenplay and best picture (as a producer).

They were thrilled to see Spike Lee earn his first directing nomination for "BlacKkKlansman." It was his fifth overall -- counting two others for the same film. The US filmmaker earned a lifetime achievement award at the 2016 Oscars.

Another major name left off the list was Timothee Chalamet, who had been seen as a likely contender for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a drug addict in "Beautiful Boy."

And many expected "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" -- a critically acclaimed documentary about US children's show host Mister Rogers -- to make the cut. It did not.

A happy surprise was a best actress nomination for breakout "Roma" star Yalitza Aparicio in her debut performance

A happy surprise was a best actress nomination for breakout "Roma" star Yalitza Aparicio in her debut performance.

For Oscars watcher Sasha Stone, the new voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "really did show up and vote in ways we've not really seen in the Oscar race, just not in ways we thought they might...surprised. A little weirded out."A member of the Palestinian security forces stands in front of a poster of President Mahmud Abbas, during a protest in Bethlehem on September 26, 2018 against Washington's decision to cut aid

The Palestinian Authority will refuse all US government aid for fear of lawsuits over alleged support for terrorism, officials said Tuesday, throwing into doubt the future of security coordination and projects already under way.

Senior official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians had demanded all funding stop at the end of January for fear they would expose themselves to costly lawsuits under the US Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA) which is about to come into force.

"The government sent an official letter to the US administration requesting it stop all aid to the Palestinian Authority, including assistance to the Palestinian security services," Erekat told AFP.

He said the main reason for the move was the ATCA legislation.

The legislation passed by the US Congress last year stipulates that foreign organisations that receive certain types of US funding be subject to American counterterrorism laws.

Families of American victims of past Palestinian attacks have pledged to sue the Palestinian Authority over their alleged support for violence.

Israeli and US officials regularly accuse the PA of encouraging violence by providing funds to the families of prisoners or those killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis.

The PA says the payments are a form of welfare to the families who have lost their main breadwinner and denies it is seeking to encourage violence.

Many Palestinians also view prisoners and those killed while carrying out attacks as heroes in their conflict with Israel. Palestinian leaders often venerate them as martyrs.

US President Donald Trump had already pledged to cut almost all humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, who froze contact with the White House after its declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017.

Palestinian leaders accuse Trump of seeking to blackmail them into accepting the terms of a peace plan his administration has been working on that they believe will be blatantly biased in favour of Israel.

Due to the Palestinians' decision to refuse remaining aid, the planned expansion of a school near Bethlehem will now not be completed, while infrastructure projects in Jericho and other towns will also stop.

The US also is scheduled to provide $35 million in annual support for the Palestinian security services in the coming years, including to help security coordination with Israel that Israeli officials say is crucial for maintaining calm in the occupied West Bank.

This funding had not been cut off by the US government but will now cease.

A US official confirmed Tuesday the United States was "working through" the potential impact of ATCA and had "taken steps to wind down certain projects and programmes in the West Bank and Gaza."

Erekat played down the ending of US funding, saying it would "not impact on the role of the security services".

However, a senior Palestinian security official told AFP the impact could be significant.

They were searching for new sources of funding in Europe and elsewhere, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A handful of US contractors working to support the security services have already left the Palestinian territories, he added.

- The half-built school -

The West Bank village of Al-Jabaa village close to Bethlehem received a USAID grant last year to expand its school, partly to increase the space for girls to study.

Construction began late last year but will now halt this week, with only about a quarter of the work done and the entire school unusable.

"The students cannot go back to school now," Diab Mashaala, mayor of the village, told AFP.

"If it was as it was before (the work began), it would be better than now."

Malak, a teacher at the school, said they had planned a major expansion including a science laboratory and a library.

"The decision to stop construction upset us a lot."

Sean Carroll, president of the Anera organisation that was working with USAID to build the school and implement other projects, said it was likely to remain unfinished unless new funds were found.

"This school has been caught in the middle," he told AFP.

"You would hope that reasonable minds would find a way to finish the school to allow the kids to learn."

The ATCA legislation could prevent the US funding any aid projects in the future, even if relations between Palestinian and US governments improve.Djouhri was released on bail on health grounds in February because of his heart problems. He underwent surgery last year

A Franco-Algerian businessman arrested in Britain as part of a probe into former French president Nicolas Sarkozy faces a British court ruling next month on whether he should be extradited to France, a judge said Tuesday.

Vanessa Baraitser, a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, told Alexandre Djouhri she will announce her decision on his extradition on February 26, following two days of hearings in the long-running case.

Djouhri, a key figure in the investigation into the alleged Libyan financing of Sarkozys 2007 presidential campaign, told AFP he was confident she will rule in his favour.

"I'm totally confident," he said outside the courtroom, flanked by his son and daughter.

Djouhri's extradition hearing began Monday after several previous postponements and as the 59-year-old businessman suffers continued heart problems.

He was summoned several times by the French courts and arrested at London Heathrow Airport in January 2018 on a European arrest warrant.

Djouhri in September called the warrant "fraudulent".

French investigators are examining his alleged involvement in the 2009 sale of a villa in the French Alps for around 10 million euros ($11.3 million).

A Libyan investment fund managed by Bashir Saleh, the ex-chief of staff of Libya's deposed leader Moamer Kadhafi, bought the property at a "very inflated" price, and Djouhri is suspected of being its true owner, a source close to the inquiry has told AFP.

Djouhri was released on bail on health grounds in February because of his heart problems. He underwent surgery last year, a source close to the case previously told AFP.

The businessman must continue to adhere to bail conditions until February's verdict.

He must stay in his home between 2 and 6 am and report to a police station between noon and 4 pm.

He must also remain within the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the neighbouring City of Westminster district.Some believe the trial of Nigeria's top judge on graft charges is a political bid to remove him from office ahead of next month's election, where he would have a key role in deciding on any disputes

Nigeria's government wants the country's top judge to be suspended pending the outcome of his fiercely-disputed trial on corruption charges, a court was told on Tuesday.

Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen went on trial last week at the Code of Conduct Tribunal where he is facing six charges relating to the non-declaration of foreign currency bank accounts.

The case is politically charged as the government has been accused of trying to influence the judiciary by removing Onnoghen, who would rule on any election disputes.

Africa's most populous nation goes to the polls to elect a new president and parliament on February 16. Concerns have already been expressed about attempts to rig the result.

Prosecutor Aliyu Omar told the tribunal that Onnoghen had been formally served with a summons but he was not present for Tuesday's hearing.

"What we are asking for is for him to step aside and we have filed an application for that," he said.

"We are not asking him to resign but we are asking him to step aside for the period of this trial."

Onnoghen's lawyer, Wole Olanipekun, said the hearing should be adjourned until the outcome of separate applications to halt the proceedings.

But the tribunal rejected the request, adjourning the case until January 28.

Ahead of the election, there have been concerns that both the ruling All Progressives Congress and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party are looking to buy votes.

But the PDP has gone further, casting doubt on the impartiality of the electoral commission, alleging some of its staff have been compromised.

Buhari embarked on a high-profile anti-corruption campaign after taking office in 2015, which the PDP has criticised as a political witch-hunt.

His opponents say the main opposition has been unduly targeted by means of the security agencies and courts like the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Senate leader Bukola Saraki was brought before the tribunal on charges of false declaration of assets but was ultimately cleared by the Supreme Court.A new book by a former assistant to US President Donald Trump depicts a White House staff that was 'absolutely out of control' at times

An upcoming book portrays a White House staff under President Donald Trump that was "absolutely out of control" at times and often at each other's throats, according to excerpts published on Tuesday.

"Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House," which goes on sale next week, was written by Cliff Sims, who served as a special assistant to the 45th president.

The Washington Post, National Public Radio and Axios published excerpts from the 384-page book by Sims, who worked on Trump's campaign before joining the White House as Director of Message Strategy.

According to the Post, the book features "expletive-filled scenes of chaos, dysfunction and duplicity among the president, his family members and administration officials."

The book is "neither a sycophantic portrayal of the president nor a blistering account written to settle scores," the Post said, and Sims does not spare himself from criticism, confessing to being "nakedly ambitious."

"It's impossible to deny how absolutely out of control the White House staff -- again, myself included -- was at times," Sims writes.

The president cultivated chaos among his advisers, Sims writes, but he says "it's dang near impossible to spend one-on-one time with Donald Trump and not end up liking him."

The book recounts Trump's reaction to criticism by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of his handling of an August 2017 rally by white supremacists in Virginia.

US President Donald Trump once accused former Republican House speaker Paul Ryan of being disloyal, according to a new book about the Trump White House

According to the book, as Ryan spoke on television, Trump demanded that an assistant get the Wisconsin congressman on the phone.

"Paul, do you know why Democrats have been kicking your a-- for decades?" the book quoted Trump as telling Ryan. "Because they know a little word called 'loyalty.'

"Why can't you be loyal to your president, Paul?" Trump said.

Sims recounts the first day in the White House when Trump was railing about news reports that the crowd at his inauguration had been relatively small.

Sims wrote a draft of a statement for White House spokesman Sean Spicer and had to quickly rewrite it after his computer crashed.

Spicer, he writes, ended up "walking into his own execution" when he appeared before the White House press corps to claim -- falsely -- that the crowd for Trump's inauguration had been the largest in history.

- Trump's 'enemies list' -

Trump was deeply suspicious of his own staff, Sims writes, and he once helped the president and his longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller draw up an "enemies list."

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly is quoted as saying in a new book that the job was the worst he's ever had

"We're going to get rid of all the snakes, even the bottom-feeders," Trump told them.

Sims describes conversations with White House chief of staff John Kelly, a former Marine Corps general who was brought in to bring order to the White House.

"This is the worst (expletive) job I've ever had," Sims said Kelly confided in him at one point.

"People apparently think that I care when they write that I might be fired," Kelly said. "If that ever happened, it would be the best day I've had since I walked into this place."

Kelly left the White House this month.

Trump is depicted in the book as easily bored.

As Ryan, the House speaker, was giving a presentation on health care in the Oval Office, an impatient Trump walked out and went to another room to watch television.

Vice President Mike Pence was sent to persuade him to return.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway comes in for biting criticism in a new book about the Trump White House

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway comes in for biting criticism with Sims describing her as the "American Sniper of West Wing marksmen" whose agenda is "survival over all others, including the president."

According to National Public Radio, Sims realized, after failing to secure a promotion, that his days were numbered in a White House rife with infighting.

"(Trump) hadn't lifted a finger for countless loyal aides before me and... wouldn't for countless aides to come."

Sims concludes he had "let my personal relationship to the president blind me to the one unfailing truth that applied to anyone with whom he didn't share a last name: we were all disposable."

According to The New York Times, Sims received a seven-figure advance from publisher Thomas Dunne Books.Asim Omer was arrested in December 2016 and charged with killing a policeman after hundreds of students clashed with security forces at the campus of Khartoum University

A Sudanese student sentenced to death for the 2016 killing of a policeman was declared "not guilty" at his re-trial Tuesday, his political party and Amnesty International said.

Asim Omer was arrested in December 2016 and charged with killing a policeman earlier that year after hundreds of students clashed with security forces at the campus of Khartoum University.

In September 2016 a court found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

Omer appealed the verdict and the appeals court ordered a retrial.

On Tuesday, a Khartoum court declared him "not guilty," the opposition Sudanese Congress Party of which Omer is a member said in a statement.

Rights group Amnesty International welcomed "not guilty" verdict but demanded an investigation into allegations he was "tortured in prison".

"Though Asim has been acquitted, justice can only truly be done once the officials responsible for his ill-treatment are held to account," said Amnesty's Joan Nyanyuki.

Students at Khartoum University had demonstrated several times in 2016 against an alleged plan to sell off buildings belonging to the institution.

The government had denied these allegations, and police often resorted to firing tear gas.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland by video

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday praised a wave of "disruption" in world politics, citing Donald Trump and Brexit but also pointing to elections in France and Malaysia.

Addressing the world's business elite in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Pompeo renewed Trump's criticism of international institutions and the US president's calls for "strong borders" to protect national sovereignty.

"New winds are blowing across the world," Pompeo told the World Economic Forum, speaking by video after the his trip was scuttled by the ongoing US government shutdown.

"I'd argue that this disruption is a positive development," he said.

Pompeo said that in recent years, "voters have tuned out politicians and political alliances that they thought were not representing their interests."

He cited Trump's 2016 election and Britain's referendum four months to leave the European Union -- both of which stunned elites -- as well as more recent election triumphs by Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who addressed Davos earlier on Tuesday.

More surprisingly, Pompeo pointed to the 2017 election in France of President Emmanuel Macron -- a political centrist who broke out of the party system but who recently has been beleaguered by protests from the Yellow Vest movement which says he is out of touch with ordinary people's economic anxieties.

Pompeo also listed as an example of the world's new directions last year's electoral comeback of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad after corruption allegations against his predecessor.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose political return was cited by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as one of a series of disruptions in world politics, addresses a meeting of the APEC forum in Papua New Guinea in November 2018

The 93-year-old Mahathir is known for his firebrand remarks on the West and recently cited Trump's proposals to build a wall on the Mexican border in defending a ban on athletes from Israel.

Pompeo, responding to a question in Davos, acknowledged that Trump's criticism of international institutions has ruffled feathers, although he denied that the United States has become more isolated.

"It is the case that sometimes leadership and asking hard questions drives others to be a little concerned. Perhaps they're not quite ready to stare these problems in the face," Pompeo said.

"But we are -- President Trump is. We know that these challenges must be confronted," he said.Mnangagwa scrapped plans to attend the Davos summit of world leaders this week

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed Tuesday to investigate the security forces' deadly crackdown on protesters, as he returned to the country and scrambled to fend off a barrage of criticism.

The crackdown has shattered Mnangagwa's claims to have turned a fresh page after the violently repressive era of Robert Mugabe, forced from power by the military 14 months ago.

"Violence or misconduct by our security forces is unacceptable and a betrayal of the new Zimbabwe," Mnangagwa said on Twitter.

"Chaos and insubordination will not be tolerated. Misconduct will be investigated. If required, heads will roll."

He also condemned the protests last week that were marked by rioting and looting.

"This was not a peaceful protest. Wanton violence and cynical destruction," he said. "This is not the Zimbabwean way."

Mnangagwa issued his statement after cutting short a foreign tour during which he had been seeking much-needed investment.

The protests, sparked by the government's more than doubling of fuel prices, were met with a ruthless response from the army and police.

The protests were met with a ruthless response from the army and police

On Tuesday, the government-appointed Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission issued a highly critical report, saying at least eight people had been killed.

Soldiers and police had visited many homes at night to hand out "indiscriminate beatings" to men and boys as young as 11, it said.

"Torture was perpetrated through beating the men with baton sticks on their backs while they lay on the ground," it said. Attack dogs were also used and victims were often too scared to seek medical attention.

- 'Regrettable and tragic' -

Other civil society groups say at least 12 people were killed in the crackdown and scores treated for gunshot injuries, as well as reporting hundreds of incidents of assault and torture.

About 700 people have been arrested, officials say.

Mnangagwa, 76, who was Mugabe's former deputy, said raising fuel prices "was not a decision we took lightly. But it was the right thing to do".

"What followed was regrettable and tragic," he added.

He had visited Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan before scrapping his plans to attend the Davos summit of world leaders this week.

Protests were also staged in neighbouring South Africa

Mnangagwa has repeatedly pledged that Zimbabwe had entered a new era when he came to power in November 2017 after Mugabe was toppled, ending a 37-year bloody authoritarian reign that saw the country's economic collapse.

But Zimbabweans have seen little evidence of the promised economic revival or increased political freedoms.

Mnangagwa's election victory in July was tainted by accusations of fraud. There was outrage when troops opened fire on protesters in Harare, killing several, before the results were announced.

The protests in Zimbabwe were fuelled by daily shortages of banknotes, fuel, food and medicine, as well as mass unemployment

The UN human rights' office last week also criticised the government's reaction to the latest protests, which were fuelled by daily shortages of banknotes, fuel, food and medicine, as well as mass unemployment.

The army and police have denied any wrongdoing, saying some assailants raiding homes and beating people were wearing official uniforms to pose as security personnel.

Five MDC opposition party lawmakers have been detained and refused bail, the party said Tuesday.

- Internet block eases -

"We don't trust his word. We don't regard him as an honest leader," MDC lawmaker Morgen Komichi told reporters after Mnangagwa's announcement of the investigation into the security forces.

Human rights lawyers said 28 people seeking treatment after the crackdown were arrested on Tuesday at a medical centre in Harare.

A court ruled Monday that government had no powers to order the internet shutdown imposed as protests swept across the country.

By Tuesday, the internet and social media appeared to be returning to normal.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday that lifting the targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe would "relieve the tension" in the country.

Zimbabwe could then "begin to operate in an economic manner with the capabilities that it has," he suggested.

"We are involved in serious discussions to see how best any form of assistance can be made available to Zimbabwe," he said.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on Tuesday told AFP that the government would press on with economic reforms despite the unrest.

"The economic reform agenda is a very serious one, but also we are determined to see it through," he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"This (unrest) is part of the pain in terms of the reform roadmap."

"The truth is we've had 20 years of economic decay and morass, and we're determined that we fix this and move Zimbabwe to the next level."The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump's ban on transgender military service to take effect pending the outcome of litigation on the sensitive issue.

The White House had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after lower courts prohibited Trump's administration from implementing the controversial restrictions.

The Trump administration has said there is "too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality" to allow transgender people to serve openly -- a policy enacted under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.

The court decided by a narrow 5-4 majority to allow the restrictions as litigation moves forward in lower courts -- a ruling praised by the Pentagon.

"The Department is pleased with the orders issued by the Supreme Court today. We will continue to work with the Department of Justice regarding next steps in the pending lawsuits," it said in a statement, adding that "we treat all transgender persons with respect and dignity."

Under the Obama-era policy, transgender recruits were to start being accepted by July 1, 2017. The Trump administration postponed that date to January 1, 2018, before deciding to reverse the policy entirely.

But the ban on transgender people in the military was repeatedly challenged in court, leading to an updated policy that also contained major restrictions.

It barred military service by people who had undergone gender reassignment surgery as well as people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria -- unless they could demonstrate an absence of the condition for 36 consecutive months.

The updated policy -- which the Pentagon insisted Tuesday "is NOT a ban on service by transgender persons," despite having previously acknowledged that it may exclude "many" of them -- was also suspended because of its similarity to the original measure.

- Democrats slam ruling -

From left: Retired Army lieutenant colonel Ann Murdoch; Transgender American Veterans Association Vice President Gene Silvestri; Yvonne Cook-Riley; retired Army major and Transgender American Veterans Association President Evan Young; petty officer first class Alice Ashton; and retired Air Force major Nella Ludlow pose for a photo in Arlington National Cemetery after attending a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on June 8, 2018

The government appealed and asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, requesting that it suspend the rulings of the lower courts.

Otherwise, "the nationwide injunction would ... remain in place for at least another year and likely well into 2020 -- a period too long for the military to be forced to maintain a policy that it has determined, in its professional judgment, to be contrary to the nation's interests," the Trump administration argued.

The number of transgender troops among America's approximately 1.3 million active duty service members is fairly small, with estimates topping out at 15,000. Their fate is currently unclear.

Democrats were quick to condemn the Supreme Court ruling and the underlying Trump administration policy it permits.

"Prejudice is not patriotism. Discrimination is not a national security strategy. This ban is nothing more than bigotry codified into law and an insult to all who have worn our nation's uniform," Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.

Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein said it effectively marks a return to the policy under which openly gay people were barred from military service.

"The ban would essentially restore 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' for transgender service members, only allowing them to serve if they hide their true identity," Feinstein said.

And Democratic Representative Adam Smith, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that "anyone who is qualified and willing should be allowed to serve their country openly."

"We have fought against this bigoted policy at every step, and we will continue to do so," he said.US President Donald Trump insisted he will not lift the federal government shutdown unless Democrats approve his $5.7 billion plan for walls on the US-Mexican border

President Donald Trump had a message Tuesday for Democrats hoping he'll relent in the political arm wrestling that has seen funds blocked to parts of the government for a record 32 days: "No Cave!"

Trump's defiant tweet again blamed congressional Democrats for the chaos, insisting he will not lift his shutdown on federal government funding unless they approve his $5.7 billion plan for more walls along the US-Mexican border.

"Without a Wall our Country can never have Border or National Security. With a powerful Wall or Steel Barrier, Crime Rates (and Drugs) will go substantially down all over the U.S.," Trump tweeted.

"The Dems know this but want to play political games."

Trump triggered a partial government shutdown on December 22 -- refusing to sign off on funding everything from FBI salaries to the National Park Service -- as a way of pressuring the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives to back the wall project.

FBI Agents Association member Thomas O'Connor holds an FBI report "Voices From the Field" giving examples of how the shutdown is undermining their work on drug, gang enforcement, security, and counter-terrorism

But with Democrats refusing to give in and Trump sticking to his hardball tactics, political paralysis in Washington has morphed into growing day-to-day pain across the country as some 800,000 federal employees adjust to life without salaries.

Trump's main opponent, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was adamant that the president is to blame. "#EndTheShutdown now," she tweeted.

Pelosi, speaker of the Democrat-led House, argues that border security funding cannot even be discussed before the shutdown ends, accusing Trump of "holding Americans hostage."

- Senate to vote -

US government shutdowns since 1976

The Senate is set to vote on two bills this week that would in theory break the deadlock, even if both have little chance of passing.

The first is on Trump's compromise offer made Saturday, when he told Democrats he would extend temporary protection to about a million immigrants currently risking deportation if he gets his wall funding.

Pelosi sent out a rejection before Trump had even officially laid out his proposal. The president also caught backlash from the right wing of his own party, which accused him of wanting to give amnesty to large numbers of people living in the country illegally.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that a vote on Trump's plan would take place this week, saying the chance to end the shutdown is "staring us in the face."

However, the bill looks doomed, with the senior Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, describing the Trump offer as "going nowhere fast."

"President Trump and leader McConnell need to come to their senses," he said.

The Senate was also expected to reject a second, Democrat-backed bill to restart funding for the government. Even if it did get through Congress, "the president won't sign it," a senior Senate Republican aide said.

Both votes are expected Thursday.

- Political fight, real consequences -

A sign at the entrance to the National Zoo in Washington tells of its closure because of the government shutdown

Extending the existing border fences has been at the top of Trump's domestic agenda since his 2016 campaign.

Democrats accuse his campaign against illegal immigration of ignoring more complex humanitarian issues on the border and stoking xenophobia.

But the disagreement over walls has expanded into a much broader test of political strength in divided Washington, with each side desperate to prevent the other from declaring victory.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of thousands of unpaid federal employees and many more contract workers are collateral victims, facing the start of a second month of going unpaid.

Hundreds of thousands of unpaid federal employees and many more contract workers are facing a second month of going unpaid with many visiting foodbanks to get by

Full-time employees will get their back pay eventually, but in the meantime they still have to meet mortgage payments and other monthly costs. Contractors, however, won't receive the lost payments.

"If you're not going to pay our bills, then send us back to work. That's all we're asking," said Yvette Hicks, 40, a contractor at the Smithsonian museum complex. "People are losing their houses, people are losing their cars and everything."

"Right now, this shutdown is really destroying me and my family," added the single mother of two. "I'm the mother and the father in my household, and my children depend on me."An Israeli soldier stands on a Merkava tank stationed on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, on November 13 2018

A Hamas militant was killed by Israeli tank fire along the Gaza border Tuesday, the health ministry in the strip said, in what the Israeli army described as a response to gunfire which wounded a soldier.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP that Mohammed al-Nabaheen, 24, was hit by tank fire and died, while two other people were hurt.

Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, confirmed he was a member of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

The Israeli army said it had targeted a Hamas observation post after a soldier was lightly wounded when a bullet struck his helmet.

In a statement, it said an initial investigation found "an assailant fired at troops" during a riot that included rock-hurling.

"A bullet struck the helmet of an IDF officer, lightly injuring him," it added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

A picture published by the army on social media showed the soldier's damaged helmet.

It was the first time in weeks that an Israeli soldier had been reported injured by gunfire along the border, though earlier Tuesday the army said shots were also fired at troops in a separate incident.

In response a tank targeted a Hamas military post without reports of any injuries.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all fire from the Gaza Strip, even if it carried out by smaller groups.

At least 244 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire since regular protests began along the border in March.

Most were killed during the often violent protests, though others were killed by tank fire or air strikes.

Two Israelis, including a soldier shot along the border, have died.

Israel accuses Hamas of orchestrating the protests and using them as cover for attacks.A man has been charged with manslaughter after he allegedly shot and killed his wife while drunk at a party in the NSW Riverina region.

The 31-year-old woman died in a Melbourne hospital on Tuesday, three days after she was shot at a small gathering on a property on the Cobb Highway in Pretty Pine.

The 32-year-old man, who was originally charged with firing a gun under the influence and other offences, had his charge upgraded to manslaughter on Wednesday.

He was bailed to reappear at Griffith Local Court on March 20.Tim Paine's stint as Australian captain should still be a one-off for a wicketkeeper according to Ian Healy, who believes Steve Smith should be welcomed back as skipper as soon as his ban expires.

Healy served as a vice-captain to Mark Taylor for several years, but questioned how long a wicketkeeper could hold the lead role in the long term.

"I think Painey has done a fantastic job and I think he will be able to last the (Smith) ban, but that might do him. That's when he'll be really tired," said Healy, ahead of Australia's first Test with Sri Lanka in Brisbane.The Australian government is investigating the reported disappearance of a Chinese-Australian writer following concerns he may have been detained by Chinese authorities.

Novelist and influential online commentator Yang Hengjun did not complete the second leg of a journey from Sydney to Shanghai after flying out of Australia on January 18 with his wife and son, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Friends of Dr Yang are concerned he may have been detained by Chinese officials before boarding the flight from Guangzhou.

Australia's foreign affairs department on Wednesday said it was "seeking information about an Australian citizen who has been reported missing in China".

Former China correspondent John Garnaut says Dr Yang is "not only brilliant but extraordinarily popular among the Chinese-speaking world and a courageous and committed democrat".

"This will reverberate globally if authorities do not quickly find an off-ramp," Mr Garnaut wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Similar concerns were raised for Dr Yang's safety in 2011 when he disappeared after calling a friend from a Chinese airport claiming he was being followed by three men.

He later claimed the matter had been a "misunderstanding".NRL player Zane Musgrove intends to plead not guilty to indecently assaulting a woman in a beachside Sydney pub, a court has been told.

The 22-year-old Wests Tigers prop appeared in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday, accused of assaulting a 22-year-old woman early on November 24 at the Coogee Bay Hotel.

The former Rabbitohs player's lawyer Michael Bowe indicated his client will be entering not guilty pleas on all three charges, including aggravated indecent assault and common assault.

Musgrove's bail - which includes a condition he not approach the pub - was continued.A homeless man who left a woman for dead on a busy Melbourne street has pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing her death.

Michael Panayides appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday via video link, pleading guilty to five charges over the death of the cyclist, 27-year-old Dutch national Gitta Scheenhouwer, on Chapel Street on August 12 last year.

Panayides pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death, failing to render assistance, negligently dealing with proceeds of crime, theft of a motor vehicle and recklessly causing injury.

He is due to appear in the County Court for a directions hearing on Thursday.Who is Warren Mundine, the Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Gilmore?

Mr Mundine is an indigenous community leader whose career has spanned across the public, private and charity sectors. He has been the deputy mayor of Dubbo, commissioner of the NSW Local Government Grants Commission and was chairman of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council from 2013 to 2017. He's also the second cousin of boxer Anthony Mundine.

Why does his name sound so familiar?

He is a conservative political commentator, regularly speaking about indigenous issues in the media. Mr Mundine also hosts Mundine Means Business on Sky, which looks at entrepreneurship in indigenous communities and considers where improvements can be made.

What was his role with the Labor Party?

He was the national president from 2006 to 2007, before quitting the party in 2012 after almost 20 years of membership.

Mr Mundine left the party saying it no longer held the same values as when he joined, and he was disappointed Labor hadn't put forward any indigenous candidates for winnable seats.

Has he ever had a tilt at federal parliament?

He sought Senate pre-selection in both 2001 and 2012. In the latter year he put his name in the ring to fill a seat vacated by Mark Arbib, but he lost out to Bob Carr.

What is he passionate about?

The plight and progress of indigenous Australians. Mr Mundine has called for an indigenous voice in parliament but says most communities are more worried about jobs, education and healthcare over the date of Australia Day.First-time Oscar nominees are usually a little nervous about what they are going to wear to the Academy Awards.

Sydney screenwriter Tony McNamara has it all sorted out.

"I'll just be dragging out the B&S (bachelor & spinsters) ball black suit," McNamara laughed in an interview with AAP on Tuesday.

McNamara, 50, received an original screenplay nomination for The Favourite.

The title is fitting for the film set in early 18th Century Britain around a love triangle involving Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and two cousins, played by Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.

The Favourite has become a favourite to dominate the February 24 Academy Awards.

The film picked up 10 nominations at Tuesday's Oscar nomination ceremony in Beverly Hills, equalling the Netflix Spanish language film Roma for the most nods for any film.

The Favourite's haul included best picture, director for Yorgos Lanthimos, lead actress for Colman, supporting for Stone and Weisz and production design for Australia's Fiona Crombie.

"We are all gobsmacked," McNamara, who is in London working on a new project with Lanthimos, said.

"We're elated because we all pretty much got a nomination."

McNamara first worked with Crosbie on The Sydney Theatre Company production of his play, The Great, a decade ago.

Crosbie and McNamara's wife, Belinda Bromilow, are close friends.

"It is amazing for us to be nominated together," he said.

McNamara has been a prominent figure in Australian TV, stage and film, writing episodes of TV series The Secret Life of Us, Puberty Blues and Doctor, Doctor, writing/directing The Rage in Placid Lake and penning Sydney Theatre Company productions including The Great and The Grenade.

The Favourite has taken a long path to this year's Oscar ceremony with British screenwriter Deborah Davis writing the first draft in 1998 and McNamara brought on to re-write after Lanthimos became attached in 2010.

Lanthimos, whose film resume includes The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, was looking for a screenwriter with a sense of humour and who shared the same sensibility for the rejig.

"We didn't really want to make a BBC style drama," McNamara said.

"We just took the idea of the historical story and wanted to start again and re-invent.

"We didn't care about the history that much.

"We just wanted to make an interesting movie."One of Queensland's biggest hospitals may soon stop outsourcing security as the "shopping centre-style" guards being provided are ill-equipped to deal with violent patients.

Jack McGuire from the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland said it asked Brisbane's Princess Alexandra (PA) Hospital to bump up security after staff repeatedly reported being exposed to violence.

"What the PA is starting to look at now is rather than outsourcing security to companies, they're bringing it back in-house so they can train their security to be more fit for purpose and across how to deal with these violent patients," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.Police are hunting for a man who allegedly stole a luxury car from an inner Sydney unit complex while dressed as Santa a fortnight before Christmas.

A woman reported her Mercedes missing on December 9, the day after parking it in an underground car park in Zetland.

Investigators have released CCTV footage in the hope of catching the suspected thief, who was "depicted wearing a Santa costume with a white beard".

"Stealing is unacceptable, and our investigators will continue to pursue all leads to crack this case," Superintendent Andrew Holland said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We are calling on the community and, in particular, the man in the vision to come forward and assist us with our inquiries into this brazen motor vehicle theft."A man has been stabbed in the back in what police believe is a random attack inside a waiting room at a busy inner Sydney hospital.

The 45-year-old was in the triage area of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital at Camperdown late on Tuesday night when he was stabbed by a woman.

The pair aren't believed to be known to each other - the man had been brought in from a hospital in Wagga Wagga for unrelated treatment, while the woman had arrived by ambulance from a home in Concord.

The victim underwent emergency surgery and is in a stable condition.

The 29-year-old woman was arrested and is under police guard in hospital, where she will undergo a mental health assessment.

"The incident is not being treated as a targeted or provoked attack," police said in a statement on Wednesday.A few years back Fiona Crombie and Peter Knowles made the major life decision to pack up their lives and young children in Australia and move to London to further their film careers.

There were a few hiccups and stressful moments along the way for the movie-making couple.

Success eventually flowed, including the news on Tuesday that Sydney-born, Adelaide-raised Crombie was nominated for an Oscar for her extraordinary work on Academy Awards heavyweight The Favourite.

Crombie's production design nomination was one of 10 The Favourite received to tie with the Alfonso Cuaron-directed Spanish language drama Roma for most nominations heading into the 91st Academy Awards ceremony on February 24.

Bedlam broke out at Crombie's London home where she watched the announcement on TV with co-nominee, UK set decorator Alice Felton.

"We were shrieking," Crombie told AAP.

"We were laughing and crying."

Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara also received an original screenplay nomination for co-writing The Favourite's script.

The film is set in early 18th Century Britain and centres on the relationship between two cousins, played by Emma Stone and Rachel Wesiz, competing for Queen Anne's (Olivia Colman) affections.

Crombie, a NIDA graduate who was a resident designer at the Sydney Theatre Company, moved into film when she joined forces with old Adelaide school mate and then rising director Justin Kurzel to work on the 2011 award-winning biographical crime drama Snowtown.

The path to England opened when Kurzel directed 2015's MacBeth and Crombie was hired to be production designer.

Crombie, producer husband Knowles and their daughter Oona, 12, and son Orlando, 8, attempted to travel between Australia and the UK.

"It got to the point where the kids were getting older and needed more stability so we thought we would try our luck in the UK for a few years," Crombie said.

The first job Crombie scored was The Favourite, but it was delayed for a year and they wondered if they made the right decision to move from Australia.

"We didn't even have furniture because we didn't want to spend any money," Crombie said.

"I remember we had just one outdoor Ikea table inside and two chairs and a couple of bean bags."

Crombie was hired to do the production design on Australian director Garth Davis' Mary Magdalene and at the end of that The Favourite was preparing to shoot.

Crombie and Felton went trawling through London's markets looking for antiques, furniture, fabrics and accessories for the early 18th century set film.

"The thing that is amazing about working in London is the access to incredible furniture," Crombie said.

The most notable piece they found is something audiences who have watched The Favourite will likely remember.

"The pidgeon house," Crombie says.

"We found it in an antiques market.

"It wasn't super cheap, maybe Stg300 and we didn't get it straight away but went back two weeks later and it was still there so we were like, 'OK. It's meant to be in the film'."

The success and access to London's markets and antique shops has meant Crombie has been able to upgrade the furniture at home from the one Ikea table and bean bags.

"We're making roots," Crombie laughed.They're gearing up to spend their first Valentine's Day together as a married couple.

And now Liam Hemsworth is planning to surprise new wife Miley Cyrus with something special on the romantic holiday.

Speaking to Extra TV on Saturday at the G'Day USA Gala in California, The Hunger Games hunk admitted that he was feeling pressure to top a gushing tribute that Miley posted on Instagram to celebrate his 29th birthday earlier this month.

How romantic! Liam Hemsworth, 29, spoke candidly about his Valentine's Day plans with wife Miley Cyrus at the G'Day USA Gala in California on Saturday

'I'm definitely going to take that into account and try to top it,' vowed the star.

Liam also revealed details about his and Miley's secret Tennessee nuptials, which took place in their home in December.

'It was mainly immediate family, a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing,' he said. 'I am very happy to be where I am.'

'It was mainly immediate family, a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing': Liam also revealed details about his and Miley's secret Tennessee nuptials, which took place in their home in December

They tied the knot during an intimate ceremony at their home on December 23.

Earlier this month, Miley paid a heart-warming tribute to Liam on his 29th birthday.

The Bangerz hitmaker, 26, shared a lengthy letter to her new husband on Instagram, writing: 'L, HBD [Happy Birthday] to my #1'.

'Thank you for giving me the happiest days of my life': Miley shared a heart-warming 29th birthday tribute to her husband Liam earlier this month

'When we met you were 19, today you are 29... I thought I could share some of my favourite things about my favourite dude in honor of this very special day,' she wrote.

Miley detailed some of Liam's great qualities, including his contagiously positive nature.

'The look on your face when you receive good news and how you look AT the bad news. I love how you always try things your way, but are never to proud to ask for help. (Yes, I've noticed and taken note, I'm a work in progress),' she penned.

His best qualities: Miley penned a sweet and lengthy letter about Liam, which she shared to Instagram on Monday

Miley continued: 'I love your dirty socks on the floor cause that means YOU'RE HOME. I love when you introduce me to a new band, so when you're away I can listen, and it feels like you're here.

'I love laying in bed late at night looking for new recipes, only going to sleep so we can wake up and make breakfast together while having a hot cup of coffee (almost as hot as you are).'

Miley gushed over the activities the lovebirds share, including eating Chinese food after a night of drinking, attending parties and brushing their teeth together in the morning.

Loved up! Miley gushed over the activities the lovebirds share, including eating Chinese food after a night of drinking, attending parties and brushing their teeth together in the morning. Liam and Miley pictured in 2012

'I love going to a random party and remembering basically everyone is fake AF out here and how lucky I am to share a life with someone so REAL. I love how you let ME be ME. Put simply... I love YOU. Unconditionally,' she fondly expressed.

'In our time together you have displayed what it really means to love through all circumstances. I respect you and you respect me.

'You and me baby... let's take this dark place head on and shine through with the light of L.O.V.E. Thank you for giving me the happiest days of my life.'She may be in hot water as a promoter for the Fyre Festival.

But Emily Ratajkowski looked calm and collected as she stepped out with her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard in New York on Sunday afternoon.

The 31-year-old personality showed off her trim waistline in a black crop top and denim slacks as the pair hurried through city streets side-by-side.

Think thin: Emily Ratajkowski looked calm and collected as she stepped out with her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard in New York on Sunday afternoon

Emily's slender frame was further highlighted with a thick black leather belt and gold buckle sitting atop her hips.

She kept her arms warm with a fuzzy beige coat and stayed on trend with a pair of chunky grey sneakers.

Ratajkowski wore her dark brown hair parted down the middle and shielded her eyes from the sun with a pair of cat-eye Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Take a walk: The 31-year-old personality showed off her trim waistline in a black crop top and denim slacks as the pair hurried through city streets side-by-side

Sebastian was equally bundled up wearing a puffy yellow coat and black trousers as he carried a Crate and Barrel bag.

In addition to Emily's subpoena, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and other models, Instagram influencers and artists who helped promote Fyre Festival could be forced to disclose information about payments they received from organizer Billy McFarland.

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Fyre Media on Friday asked a judge for a new round of subpoenas for the celebrities who helped build hype around the ill-fated festival in the Bahamas, according to Billboard.

Walk it out: Emily's slender frame was further highlighted with a thick black leather belt and gold buckle sitting atop her hips

Trouble: The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Fyre Media on Friday asked a judge for a new round of subpoenas for the celebrities who helped build hype around the ill-fated festival in the Bahamas, according to Billboard; seen on Instagram

An additional subpoena is slated for DNA Model Management, which represents Emily Ratajkowski and was paid $299,000 by McFarland in March 2017.

Jerry Media, an online agency that promoted Fyre Festival on social media in exchange for a $90,000 payout in March 2017, is also on the list of entities facing a subpoena.

Nearly two years later, the subpoenas are part of an investigation into what happened to the estimated $26million McFarland raised from investors and doled out in the weeks and months before Fyre Festival went up in [metaphorical] flames, leaving thousands of attendees and workers broke and abandoned, investors swindled out of millions and, ultimately, landing McFarland behind bars.She's been employing her burlesque expertise for a series of performances in Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show in Paris over the past several days.

And Dita Von Teese, 46, was seen exiting her final performance at Folies Bergere on Sunday night, following a seven-show guest appearance in the popular show.

Looking as glamorous as ever, the American beauty carried a huge bouquet of flowers as she returned to her hotel in the City of Light.

Final performance: Dita Von Teese was seen exiting her final performance in Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show at Folies Bergere in Paris on Sunday night

She looked typically stylish for her outing, donning a black ensemble that included a full-length black satin coat and sparkling flat shoes.

Wearing her lustrous raven locks in classic Old Hollywood waves, she highlighted her natural good looks with a palette of makeup that included bold red lipstick.

During her run in the show, Dita wrote on her Instagram account: 'I feel right at home here in the @jpgfashionfreakshow #fetish club!

Say it with flowers: Looking as glamorous as ever, the American beauty carried a huge bouquet of flowers as she returned to her hotel in the City of Light

Tres chic: She looked typically stylish for her outing, donning a black ensemble that included a full-length black satin coat and sparkling flat shoes

Beauty: Wearing her lustrous raven locks in classic Old Hollywood waves, she highlighted her natural good looks with a palette of makeup that included bold red lipstick

'Its a privilege to step into this show with these incredible performers, I have so much respect and adoration for the cast, the crew, and how much they give both onstage and off every night.

'Thank you @jpgaultierofficial for creating such a magnificent show, and thank you to the cast and the production team for making me feel so welcome here at Folies Bergere.'

The show's official account also shared footage of her performing onstage in lingerie, alongside the caption: 'Thank you @ditvonteese for 7 amazing shows!'

On Wednesday, she was seen leading the glamour at the the Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Spring Summer 2019 showcase during Paris Fashion Week.

Feeling at home: 'During her run in the show, Dita wrote on her Instagram account, 'I feel right at home here in the @jpgfashionfreakshow #fetish club!'

Gratitude: On Sunday, the show's official account shared footage of her performing onstage in lingerie, alongside the caption, 'Thank you @ditvonteese for 7 amazing shows!'

The artist showed off her famous curves in a sheer gown with a tight corset middle and billowing sheer skirt which displayed her suspenders underneath - nailing the high-fashion burlesque look.

Dita made the most of her hard-worked curves in the sizzling ensemble which comprised of a boned corset and floor-sweeping skirt.

The sheer material helped highlight her saucy lingerie beneath while she went braless on top - leaving nothing to the imagination.

She slicked her raven tresses into a sky-high beehive which added a further vintage feel to the overall look and highlighted her alabaster complexion.

Hot stuff: On Wednesday, Dita led the glamour at the the Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture Spring Summer 2019 showcase during Paris Fashion Week

Ahem! The 46-year-old stunner showed off her famous curves in a sheer gown with a tight corset middle and billowing sheer skirt which displayed her suspenders underneath

Her porcelain skin looked totally flawless with her trademark make-up wowing the crowd complete with a slick of cat-eye liquid eyeliner and bold lip.

Last month, Dita returned to her burlesque roots as she performed an intimate show at central London venue The Box Soho.

The show was part of her The Art of the Teese tour, which took place in city across Europe in October and November.

Speaking about her new tour after the full roster of dates were announced last year, the dancer admitted she was delighted to be returning to the stage.

Hot stuff: Last month, Dita returned to her Burlesque roots as she performed an intimate show at central London venue The Box Soho

Flawless: Her porcelain skin looked totally flawless with her trademark make-up wowing the crowd complete with a slick of cat-eye liquid eyeliner and bold lip

'Its always a thrill to create new acts, exploring new ideas that capture the spirit of vintage burlesque that we love, but in ways that havent ever been seen before,' she said in an official statement.

'It was especially enjoyable to infuse elements of Absolut Elyxs fabulous style with the ideas for the new acts. People know me for my cocktail glass acts, so it was fun to create one around the glamorous and whimsical copper imagery that is instantly recognizable with their brand.'

She added: I cant wait for fans to see the new costumes, which are blinding sparkly, thanks to my favourite designers and Swarovski. Im especially fired up to be bringing my show to cities Ive never performed before!'

A vision: She slicked her raven tresses into a sky-high beehive which added a further vintage feel to the overall look and highlighted her alabaster complexion



Her adorable baby girl just couldn't look any cuter.

On Sunday Kenya Moore shared a gorgeous Instagram video of tiny Brooklyn wriggling in her crib as she celebrated her first three months in the world.

But the 48-year-old doting mom's math was a bit off.

What a cutie: Kenya Moore shared an Instagram video of her darling daughter Brooklyn on Sunday on what she called her three-month anniversary

As the daughter she shares with her restaurateur husband Marc Daly, 45, was born on November 4, it's still another week before Brooklyn turns three months on February 4.

However, it's always delightful to see Kenya's tiny tot, who was dressed in a onesie with a lamb's face on the front and lay one a white blanket with the word 'love' embroidered on it.

She shared the video with a caption that read: '#3monthsold today (Yes I know I have items in my crib but its just for the video/photo).

'Thank you @andy for my giant snoopy, And my aunty @kandi for my beautiful crib and @smiloinc for our amazing gifts,' she wrote with shoutouts to her New York-based pal and entrpreneur Andy McCune and hitmaker Kandi Burruss, 42.

The doting mom's math was a bit off: As Brooklyn was born on November 4 she won't turn three months until February 4, here seen on a beach on Kenya's 48th birthday last Thursday

And she added the hashtag, #miracle baby.

Brooklyn truly was a miracle. Kenya's pregnancy was extremely difficult for the TV star, who was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy-related condition that causes high blood pressure and possible organ damage.

Her three-hour C-section was complicated by uterine fibroids, which required doctors to cut both horizontally and vertically.

New addition: Kenya's tiny tot was dressed in a onesie with a lamb's face on the front and lay on a white blanket with the word 'love' embroidered on it

Despite all the complications and her advanced age, The Real Housewives Of Atlanta alum told People she's still hoping for another child.

'I don't know if my body can do it,' Kenya admitted. 'But we would love to have one more.'

But Kenya appears to have regained her pre-baby body and looked better than ever in a bikini shot she shared on Instagram on Thursday morning.

She and Marc split their time between Atlanta and New York.She has been on everyone's lips since arriving in the city of love for the prestigious week-long fashion extravaganza.

And Celine Dion continued to up the ante as she arrived in another showstopping ensemble as she stepped out of the Hotel de Crillon in Paris on Sunday.

The style icon, 50, didn't hold back as she slipped into a statement red tulle jacket which was complete with a huge velvet bow.

Wow: Celine Dion continued to up the ante as she arrived in another showstopping ensemble as she stepped out of the Hotel de Crillon in Paris on Sunday

Celine opted for a red and black theme, wearing a black turtleneck underneath her eye-catching number, teamed with a floor length leather skirt.

Despite the cooler temperatures, Celine still rocked a pair of chunky oversized shades, while slicking her blonde locks back into a bun.

She opted for a full face of make-up in natural tones, sporting a neutral palette of make-up including a pale pink lip.

Dazzling: The style icon, 50, didn't hold back as she slipped into a statement red tulle jacket which was complete with a huge velvet bow

Showstopper: Celine opted for a red and black theme, wearing a black turtleneck underneath her eye-catching number, teamed with a floor length leather skirt

Flanking her as she stepped out of the hotel was her close friend, Pepe Munoz, 34, who has accompanied her on the fashionable trip.

Doing little to dispel the rumours of romance, the pair were inseparable when they left the Paris hotel.

Her friend Pepe looked dapper for the day out, donning a black, polo shirt with grey slim-fitting trousers and a stylish leather jacket.

Entourage: Despite the cooler temperatures, Celine still rocked a pair of chunky oversized shades, while slicking her blonde locks back into a bun

Glam: She opted for a full face of make-up in natural tones, sporting a neutral palette of make-up including a pale pink lip

Celine and Pepe, who laughed off rumours of a romance after they were linked in the summer of 2017, were seen putting on a tactile display at Alexandre's Haute's fashion presentation.

The pair looked close as they chatted on the front row, with Pepe adjusting Celine's dress, and the superstar lovingly cupping his face.

Back in 2018, Pepe revealed that romance rumours between the pair, sparked when they danced together onstage, had amused them.

Dispelling romance rumours, he told the Montreal Gazette: 'We still laugh about them. I can count on her when I need to talk, and I am ready to listen to her, too.'

'Celine is a woman who is completely transparent. She doesn't cheat. She is exactly what you see: nice, tender, generous, always ready to offer the best of herself.'

Pals: Flanking her as she stepped out of the hotel was her close friend, Pepe Munoz, 34, who has accompanied her on the fashionable tripJason Ritter is a dad.

The actor and his longtime-love, Melanie Lynskey, have welcomed their first child together.

The couple have not yet officially announced the birth of their child, but from congratulatory messages it seems their child is a girl and at least one month old.

Jason Ritter and Melanie Lynskey welcomed their first child together, according to Us Weekly; seen together in March

While Ritter, 38, and Lynskey, 41, haven't revealed a name, news of the birth broke with a congratulatory post from director Neema Barnette.

'Congrats to Raising Dion Co Star Jason Ritter & his wife on the birth of their beautiful Sag baby girl,' she wrote on Dec. 18. 'Babies are a blessing & so is Jason!

'What a hands down brilliant talent & exceptional human being he is! Im blessed to have shared creative energy with you. Thank you for giving me a seamless performance.'

Keeping quiet: The couple have not yet announced the birth of their child, but it appears their bundle of joy is at least a month old; seen in April

Happy: Ritter, 38, and Lynskey, 41, also haven't revealed a name, but news of the birth broke with a congratulatory post from director Neema Barnette

A super fan also tweeted that she saw Jason, Melanie and baby at the airport on Saturday evening.

'I saw @JasonRitter and @melanielynskey at the airport and I smiled at her and I hope she took that as I love you, youve been in so many movies I adore and your baby is adorable,' the Twitter user wrote.

It appeared Ritter was welcoming the kind words for his growing family as he liked the tweet.

The notoriously private couple were engaged in February 2017 after Lynskey confirmed during a Hollywood Today Live interview.

Jason is the son of the late Three's Company star John Ritter, who died from a heart condition at the age of 54 in 2003.

Kind words: A super fan also tweeted that she saw Jason, Melanie and baby at the airport on Saturday eveningScarlett Moffatt has revealed she would love to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing after her childhood spent as a ballroom dancer.

The TV presenter, 29, has a wealth of experience on the dancefloor with around 600 trophies to her name, as well as being previously taught by Strictly professional dancer Anton Du Beke.

Scarlett told The Mirror: 'Im not exclusive to ITV, so I can do what I want. Ive always loved Strictly  Id love to be on it.'

Seasoned: Scarlett Moffatt 29, has a wealth of experience on the dancefloor with 600 trophies to her name

Celebrities with dance experience have been criticised in the past for taking part on the show with some viewers believing it gives them an unfair advantage.

Scarlett appears to have had a change of heart about taking part in the show as she previously said: 'I feel like I probably couldnt because I can already dance. I feel like I would have a very unfair advantage.'

The I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! winner recently opened up about body confidence, saying she has 'learned to embrace' her shape.

She told The Sun Online: 'I've learned to embrace my curves, this is me. I was going to hide away under a suit and I thought, no, why should I, so I wore this dress instead that shows off everything.'

Expert: Scarlett previously took lessons with Strictly Come Dancing's Anton Du Beke

The former Gogglebox star's newfound confidence comes after she previously felt like she had to look a certain way after leaving the jungle.

Speaking at the Glamour Beauty Festival in March, the brunette shared: 'When I first came out of the [I'm A Celebrity] jungle I went through a stage where I felt like I had to try and look a certain way.

'I wanted to try and get out of the stereotypical Geordie girl so I stopped wearing fake tan and wore WAG dresses.'

Strictly: Certain celebrity's with dance experience have been criticised in the past for taking part on the show with some viewers believing it gives them an unfair advantage

Scarlett - who was interviewed by sister Ava, 11 - said she didn't want to conform to how she though she should look.

'I was really miserable,' she continued. 'I like being orange and having eyelashes that go up to my forehead.'

Earlier this month, Scarlett took inspiration from Ariana Grande as she thanked her ex-boyfriend Lee as she summarisied her 2018.

She took to Instagram to reveal that she is going into 2019 happy, confident and with self-worth.

Confidence: The TV star recently opened up about body confidence, saying she has 'learned to embrace' her shape.

In the lengthy caption, she penned: 'Ladies if you do one thing in 2019 be kind & forgiving to yourself. Give yourself as much love & attention as you give other people. Ive learnt so much in 2018.

'That I dont have time to hate people who hate me, because Im too busy loving those who love me.

'That trolls opinions are genuinely irrelevant to my life. 3. Ive learnt to be as kind to myself as I am to other people.

'And that sometimes by removing people from your life you actually gain so much self worth.

She said: 'Ive never felt as happy & confident in my life as I have the last 4 month & Im gonna continue that in 2019'

'Ive never felt as happy & confident in my life as I have the last 4 month & Im gonna continue that in 2019.'

Scarlett, who was previously in a relationship with personal trainer Lee Wilkinson, told how she is open to dating again and is currently on the look out for someone new.

Sh said: 'I'm looking for a new man, but I haven't found one yet. I'm working on it.'He's been a regular in Albert Square since 2007.

But Nitin Ganatra has revealed his stint on EastEnders as Masood Ahmed will be coming to an end soon.

The 51-year-old actor released a statement: 'When I was asked to return to EastEnders, it was always with the intention of helping set up new Asian characters that continue the Masood family adventures. With Arshad and Mariam at the helm and with the arrival of the feisty sister Iqra and Habiba, I can now venture off to new horizons as an actor'.

New start: Nitin Ganatra revealed his stint on EastEnders as Masood Ahmed will be coming to an end soon

He went on to say that he's 'deeply attached' to his character of Masood and is overwhelmed with the love he has received by the audience.

He ended by saying: 'I will of course miss EastEnders and the wonderful people that work tirelessly to bring audiences dramatic, funny and compelling stories. Who knows Masood may return. But for now farewell. Much love and respect to the whole epic team of EastEnders.'

A spokesman for the hit soap confirmed the news: 'Nitin has been a wonderful addition to the cast and we wish him all the very best for the future.'

Time to say bye: The 51-year-old actor released a statement: 'When I was asked to return to EastEnders, it was always with the intention of helping set up new Asian characters'

Nitin's exit scenes are set to air next month, but it is unknown how his character will leave Walford.

He previously left in 2016 before returning for a one-off appearance in 2017, and again permanently in 2018.

The actor has been highly praised for his role and won Best Onscreen Partnership with his co-star Nina Wadia at the 2009 British Soap Awards.

Co-stars: He went on to say that he's 'deeply attached' to his character of Masood and is overwhelmed with the love he has received by the audience

He then went on to be nominated for the prestigious Best Actor gong at the 2010 British Soap Awards.

Meanwhile, Masood's aunt and uncle, Mariam and Arshad, are set to be joined by their granddaughters Iqra and Habiba soon.

Speaking about the sisters' arrival, boss Kate Oates said: 'The sisters are certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with. Their arrival will throw number 41 into chaos as they become a nightmare for Mariam and Arshad. Residents of Walford beware, take on one of the sisters and you take on the pair.'Megan Barton Hanson looked inconsolable at a pub in London on Friday, mere hours before she took to Instagram to publicly declare her relationship with Wes Nelson was over.

The Love Island star, 24, was spotted in floods of tears at the bar as her friends desperately tried to comfort her amid her anguish.

At one point, Megan, who was clad in a black polo neck with her blonde hair tied back in a messy bun, held her head in her hands as she became overwhelmed with emotion.

Distraught: Megan Barton Hanson looked inconsolable at a pub in London on Friday, hours before she took to Instagram to publicly declare her relationship with Wes Nelson was over

The Essex beauty reportedly split from Wes, 20, after a series of fights over his close partnership with his Dancing On Ice skater Vanessa Bauer.

A source told The Sun: 'It's all about Vanessa. She can't get over her jealousy and doesn't trust her.

'Their friends are hopeful that when Dancing On Ice is over they can sort their differences out and Megan will trust that Wes wants to be with her and nobody else.

It's all over: Megan took to Instagram on Saturday to reveal her six-month relationship with Wes had come to an end

Devastated: The Love Island star, 24, was spotted in floods of tears at the bar as her friends desperately tried to comfort her amid her anguish

Racked with jealousy: A source of their split: 'It's all about Vanessa. She can't get over her jealousy and doesn't trust her'

Lean on me: Her friends did their best to make her smile amid her heartache

'He's been staying in a hotel the past few weeks and not commuting home after DOI to escape the arguments, they've been privately rowing nonstop over Vanessa.'

The couple faced further strain after their flat was ransacked by thieves on Friday, with thousands of pounds worth of designer goods and electrical items stolen.

The source added the pair decided to move out to separate places following the burglary.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Megan and Wes for further comment.

Advice: The source added: 'Their friends are hopeful that when Dancing On Ice is over they can sort their differences out and Megan will trust that Wes wants to be with her and nobody else'

Megan announced their split on Saturday, in her statement she admitted she still 'love and adores' Wes and will come to the Dancing On Ice studios on Sunday to watch him compete.

She wrote on Instagram: 'I am so grateful and so blessed to have found Wes, I will always love and adore him and I am so lucky to call him my best friend it has been an incredibly hard decision to for both of us but we are both looking forward to moving on together as friends and supporting each other in everything we do.

'I will be down at at Dancing On Ice tomorrow to watch him smash it again. Only one thing left to say come on Wes and Vanessa.'

But Wes, who has topped the leaderboard for the past two weeks, is said to be confused as to why Megan wants to watch him and Vanessa skate together, after she publicly lashed out at the German skater and described her jealousy towards her on Instagram.

Blow: The couple faced further strain after their flat was ransacked by thieves on Friday, with thousands of pounds worth of designer goods and electrical items stolen

Struggle: The source added the pair decided to move out to separate places following the burglary

Sweet: A pal wrapped her arm around the Love Island star in a bid to comfort her

A source told The Sun: 'Megan's jealousy spiralled out of control and she became fairly obsessive about Vanessa.

'The split isn't particularly friendly and he doesn't understand why she would come down to the show tonight.

'He is really worried Megan will confront Vanessa backstage, and really have it out with her. He is dreading a scene.'

Heartache: At one point, Megan, who was clad in a black polo neck with her blonde hair tied back in a messy bun, held her head in her hands

Break-up: Megan announced their split on Saturday, in her statement she admitted she still 'love and adores' Wes

Surprising: Despite the split, she said she would still come to the Dancing On Ice studios on Sunday to watch him compete despite her feud with Vanessa

'Decided to separate' The star, who found herself embroiled in an ongoing feud with his DOI partner Vanessa Bauer, took to her Instagram Stories on Saturday morning to confirm the news

Megan's problems with Vanessa started after Wes' debut performance two weeks ago where she accused the skater of 'tactfully' breaking up with her boyfriend Louis Nathaniel to gain headlines.

The blonde bombshell recently told the Loose Women panel that she stands by her belief that Vanessa's break-up was 'tactical'.

Meanwhile, Wes broke his silence on the split on Instagram as he shared a series of memes about their hamster Jon Snow, which Megan had told jokingly followers they would co-parent.

Row: Megan's problems with Vanessa started after Wes' debut performance two weeks ago where she accused the skater of 'tactfully' breaking up with her boyfriend Louis Nathaniel to gain headlines

Joking: Meanwhile, Wes broke his silence on the split on Instagram as he shared a series of memes about their hamster Jon Snow,which Megan had told jokingly followers they would co-parentHe's a veteran actor with almost 60 films and a host of television shows under his belt.

And Billy Zane enjoyed a well-earned break as he headed to a London salon on Friday for a manicure.

The Titanic star, 52, wrapped up against the winter chill with plenty of layers complete with a white trench coat over a blue hoody.

Relaxation time: Billy Zane enjoyed a well-earned break as he headed to a London salon on Friday for a manicure

He clad his legs in blue chinos and completed the look with blue Nike trainers.

Billy covered his head with a blue baker boy cap and donned a pair of oversized glasses for the relaxing outing where he was accompanied by a female pal.

The actor looked pleased with his manicure as he checked out his nails with a grin on his face.

Style: The Titanic star, 52, wrapped up against the winter chill with plenty of layers complete with a white trench coat over a blue hoody

He later showed off his rock-and-roll side as he changed into a black leather jacket during the pamper session in the capital.

The father-of-two was previously married to Australian actress Lisa Collins from 1989 to 1995.

Billy was then engaged to his Cleopatra co-star Leonor Varela and later to Kelly Brook with the pair having an on-off relationship before calling it quits in August 2008.

Chilled out: He clad his legs in blue chinos and completed the look with blue Nike trainers as he was joined by a female companion for the outing

The Trouble Sleeping actor went on to date Croatian model Jasmina Hdagha in 2010 before they split a year later.

He is now engaged to brunette beauty Candice Neil and the couple are parents to daughters Ava Catherine, eight, and Gia, four.

Despite being busy with his family, Billy is set to star in indie drama flick Cliffs Of Freedom set to hit screens later this year.Sam Dastyari was booted from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Sunday night.

The disgraced former Senator became the second camp-mate to be sent packing on the Channel Ten reality show, with his eviction coming after a fiery showdown with co-star, Jacqui Lambie.

The pair - who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum - clashed over their opinions on changing the date of Australia Day, with Jacqui saying: 'It's about time the Parliament had a backbone and said "No, enough"'.

Going, going, GONE! Sam Dastyari was evicted from I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! on Sunday night, following a fiery clash with Jacqui Lambie over Australia Day and minorities

'It's celebrating an inclusion of everyone': Jacqui claimed that many Aboriginal people support keeping Australia Day on January 26

Conservative Jacqui, who is of partial Indigenous descent, claimed that many Aboriginal people support keeping Australia Day on January 26.

The outspoken politician stated: 'Many of us you know what, we've let it go, get on with it. To us, it's celebrating an inclusion of everyone'.

Sam stated that he was in favour of changing the date, claiming that the national day has become too divisive.

'There were elements of genocide': Sam was sent packing shortly after his clash with Jacqui

'I'm sick of minorities to be honest with you': Jacqui wasn't shy in sharing her opinion

'White people came and put up a British flag and said, "This land is ours now." And then that was the start of genocide. There were elements of genocide there,' he proffered.

Jacqui refused to budge from her position, arguing that it was only a vocal minority of citizens who wanted the date change because they were stirred up by the media.

'I think the media belts it up a lot more than it needs to be belted up,' she said passionately.

Out: The disgraced former Senator became the second camp-mate to leave the reality show

The brunette then blasted: 'I'm sick of minorities too, to be honest with you, I'm just sick of us all bending over for minorities!'

Speaking to camera later, Sam insisted that Jacquie was just flat wrong, and shortly after the exchange it was announced that he had been voted off the show.

Sam's Sunday night eviction from I'm A Celebrity isn't the first emotional exit he's had to make in the public eye.

The Labor senator humiliatingly resigned from politics in December 2017 after controversy over his links to wealthy Chinese donors.'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here' star Jacqui Lambie has suffered a horrific head injury after a challenge went terribly wrong in the South African jungle.

The Australian senator, 47, was running up against a boulder wall with co-star Justin Lacko, when she sustained the knock on the head.

At first, Jacqui's injury didn't seem too serious, only for her then to end up being rushed from the camp to a nearby hospital for an emergency CT scan.

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Horrific! Jacqui Lambie (pictured) rushed to hospital in an ambulance for emergency CT scan after suffering gory head injury leaving giant lump on her head during I'm a Celebrity trial

Moments after winning the treacherous challenge, camp mate Justin noticed Jacqui's head was bleeding.

'You've hurt yourself, can we get a medic in here,' Justin said, clearly concerned for his camp mate.

'She's bleeding on her forehead,' Justin continued, 'can we get a medic, I'm dead serious.'

Looked over: The outspoken senator initially seemed okay after the accident, but an injury to her head continued to swell after she collided with a boulder during a challenge

Being treated by a doctor, Jacqui confirmed the accident had happened on the course.

'Do you know by chance when this happened?' the doctor asked.

She replied: 'Yeah, when the ball went over my head.'

After the collision, Jacqui's forehead continued to swell considerably and it became obvious she needed urgent medical attention.

No time to waste: An ambulance rushed Jacqui from the camp site to a nearby hospital in dramatic scenes which aired on Sunday night's episode

She was rushed to hospital in an ambulance for doctors to examine the extent of the injuries, and underwent a CT scan.

The scan determined that Jacqui had not sustained a skull fracture and there was no underlying head injury.

The senator was later released back to camp and was in a good enough mood to laugh the incident off, despite significant bruising visible on her face and eye.

All clear: Jacqui was given a CT scan in order to see if she had sustained a skull fracture and to make sure there was no underlying head injury. She was later released back to camp

When speaking to the medic, the politician-turned-reality star was coy about her injuries.

'I've had two kids mate and went through labour pain,' Jacqui said.

'I know that's difficult for you men and you die when you've got the flu cause you call it man flu,' she joked.Guns 'N' Roses guitarist Slash hit the heights of his fame in the 1990s.

But the music superstar says he has no recollection of those defining years due to his hard partying.

Speaking on Australian panel program The Project on Sunday night, the 53-year-old discussed the debaucherous decade, humorously stating: 'I don't even remember the 90s!'

'I don't even remember the 90s!' Legendary guitarist Slash, 53, detailed his wild past in Guns 'n' Roses during an interview on Sunday night's edition of The Project

Slash explained that he has been touring almost continuously since 1987 - the year that Guns 'N' Roses shot to international fame.

And while he claimed that the band's tours were 'wild' in the following years, he gave up hard partying in 2006.

However, Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, insists that his sobriety doesn't mean he's not a legitimate rock star.

Speaking out: Elsewhere in the interview, the guitarist talked of how he has taken a political turn with his new album, Living The Dream

'I'm a rock 'n' roller through and through, I'm just recovering from drugs and alcohol!' he exclaimed.

The English-born guitarist is hardly any stranger to risky behaviour however.

A former heroin addict, in 2001 he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a form of congestive heart failure caused by years of alcohol and drug abuse.

Wild man: 'I'm a rock 'n' roller through and through, I'm just recovering from drugs and alcohol!' he exclaimed. Slash is pictured on stage performing for Guns 'N' Roses in 1992

Despite being given between six days and six weeks to live, he survived through physical therapy and the implantation of a defibrillator, and has been clean and sober since 2006.

Elsewhere in the interview, the guitarist talked of how he has taken a political turn with his new album, Living The Dream.

Slash has largely kept out of politics for the past three decades, but the latest record hints at a critique of current conditions in America.

Clean: While Slash claimed that the band's tours were 'wild' in the following years, he gave up hard partying in 2006. Pictured on Stage with Axl Rose of Guns 'N' Roses in the 1990s

Of the album's title, he explained: 'Living the dream' is a sarcastic statement that we use a lot.

'You ask somebody how they're doing and they say 'Oh, living the dream'. It's sort of a tongue-in-cheek statement.

'In light of everything that's going on politically, in the US especially, 'living the dream' was a (sarcastic) statement as to what's going on there.'She's been enjoying an idyllic three-week getaway to St Barts with husband Spencer Matthews and their four-month old son Theodore.

And despite a rainy return to London, Vogue Williams appeared to be in high spirits as she stepped out to walk her pet pooch Winston on Saturday.

The reality star, 33, covered up against the chill in a padded black jacket while showing of her trim figure in fitted black leggings and a neon jumper.

Heading out: Vogue Williams appeared to be in high spirits as she stepped out to walk her pet pooch Winston in rainy London on Saturday

She clad her feet in black trainers and sported a pair of Apple AirPods for the wintery walk around the capital.

The new mother went makeup free for the outing to show off her glowing tan while piling her locks atop her head.

Vogue shared on Instagram that she was pleasantly surprised by the weather in London after her month in the sun, writing alongside a shot of herself in tiny shorts: 'Weve arrived back in London and you know what, its actually not that cold! I mean I wont be wearing an outfit like this but its not ski suit weather either which is a winner'.

Wrapped up: The reality star, 33, covered up against the chill in a padded black jacket while showing of her trim figure in fitted black leggings and a neon jumper

Later in the day Vogue posted a video to her Instagram Story as she arrived home and attempted to serenade her husband Spencer, 30, with a French song.

The singing didn't go down well with Spencer who told his wife: 'You're exhausting me'.

The family-of-three recently returned from a blissful break to the Caribbean Island with Spencer's family but didn't let the break stop them from plugging their reality show.

Wish you were there? Vogue shared on Instagram that she was pleasantly surprised by the weather in London after her month in the sun

Romantic: Later in the day Vogue posted a video to her Instagram Story as she arrived home and attempted to serenade her husband Spencer, 30, with a French song

Earlier in the week the last episode of Spencer, Vogue and Baby Too aired on E4 was met with fans begging the pair for a second series.

Vogue shared a picture of herself and Spencer grinning and told viewers: 'We are feeling this happy!!! Thank you so much for all of your support, were delighted you loved it .'

During Monday's final episode the couple gave a playful insight into their marriage as they swapped jibes.

Doting: The family-of-three have been enjoying a blissful holiday to the Caribbean Island with Spencer's family but didn't let the break stop them from plugging their reality show

Smiles: Vogue shared a picture of herself and Spencer and told viewers of their show: 'We are feeling this happy!!! Thank you so much for all of your support, were delighted you loved it .'

The episode focused around Theodore's naming ceremony, with the couple making invitations with their own painted hand prints.

In a playful segment, Spencer joked that the first thing he noticed about his future wife when they first met on Channel 4 ski competition The Jump in early 2017 was her 'huge hands'.

To which, Vogue, 33, hilariously responded: 'Well I thought you were a kn*b when I first met you.'They're one of Hollywood's hottest couples.

And Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas stunned as they attended the Netflix 2019 Nominees Toast ahead of the SAG awards in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The Welsh beauty, 49, looked as glamorous as ever as she stepped out in an elegant blazer with red trim over a black asymmetric jumpsuit to celebrate with her husband who is nominated for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series SAG for his work in The Kominsky Method.

Date night: Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas stunned as they attended the Netflix 2019 Nominees Toast ahead of the SAG awards in Los Angeles on Saturday

Not one to forgo on bling, Catherine dazzled with diamond hoop earrings and plenty of rings on her fingers.

The Ocean's Twelve actress left her brunette tresses loose and sported glam makeup for the star studded bash.

Meanwhile her husband Michael, 74, looked dapper in a navy suit over a fitted black shirt and styled his silver locks to perfection while sporting a stylish beard.

Pals: The Welsh beauty, 49, looked glamorous as ever as she stepped out in an elegant blazer over a black asymmetric jumpsuit (pictured with Nicole Avant US Ambassador to the Bahamas)

Style: Not one to forgo on bling, Catherine dazzled with diamond hoop earrings and plenty of rings on her fingers (pictured with Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos)

Beauty: The Ocean's Twelve actress left her brunette tresses loose and sported plenty of heavy makeup for the star studded bash

Also at the event were United States Ambassador to the Bahamas Nicole Avant and actors Jason Stamos and Jason Bateman and music legend Quincy Jones.

Earlier this month mother-of-two Catherine went into 'mamarazzi' mode as she posted a picture of her daughter Carys, 16, leaning against an old red Volkswagen Beetle.

She captioned the sweet snap: ''Carys with a car mamarrazi is what my kids call me with my camera'.

Groomed: Meanwhile her husband Michael, 74, looked dapper in a navy suit over a fitted black shirt and styled his silver locks to perfection (pictured with Quincy Jones)

Star studded: Also at the event were stars (L-R) Jason Bateman, Julia Garner, Chuck Lorre and John Stamos

The actress is also mother to Dylan, 18, with Michael, who has a second son from his previous marriage.

He discussed his 18-year marriage to Catherine earlier this month after winning Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy for his work in The Kominsky Method at the Golden Globe Awards.

'I think the fact that were in the same industry really helps us to understand what is going on.

'It was great for her to be here tonight and to share one of those nice things where your partner totally understands whats going on,' he continued.

Mum mode: Earlier this month mother-of-two Catherine went into 'mamarazzi' mode as she posted a picture of her daughter Carys, 16, leaning against an old red Volkswagen Beetle

Happy family: The long married couple are parents to Dylan, 19, and Carys with Michael crediting their professions for their wedded bliss (pictured 2015)They're both household names in their native Australia.

But the celebrity status of Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) and Phoebe Tonkin may not have been enough to get them through the door at Hollywood hot spot, Craig's.

According to an onlooker, the pair were turned away from the busy restaurant on Saturday night, after allegedly failing to secure a table.

No reservations? On Saturday night, Australian models Lara Bingle (left) and Phoebe Tonkin (right) reportedly 'failed to secure a table at Hollywood hot spot

Old Hollywood glam! Sydney-born Lara, 31, wore a stylish black gown as she stepped out in Los Angeles

The potentially awkward incident didn't appear to bother the pair, who looked in high spirits as they strolled down a street.

Lara and Phoebe's pit-stop at the bustling venue appears to have occurred after they attended the G'DAY USA gala in Hollywood.

G'DAY USA occurs annually each January, and celebrates the achievements of Australians in the United States.

In high spirits! The gal pals appeared giggly in spite of the fact they were reportedly turned away from Craig's

Dazzling brunette: Phoebe (right) opted for nineties-style velvet black dress that reached down to the floor

Both Lara and Phoebe looked simply sensational with both opting to wear glamorous black gowns.

Lara, 31, donned a form-fitting number which she teamed with a pair of stylish black slides.

She parted her blonde hair in the middle, adding a black ribbon and pair of pearl drop earrings.

Models with much in common: Both Phoebe and Lara were both born in Sydney, and now currently live and work in Los Angeles

Meanwhile, Phoebe, 29, opted for nineties-style velvet black dress that reached down to the floor.

Clearly complementing Lara, the brunette stunner also wore pearl earrings and added an eye-catching hair accessory in the form of a shiny gold scrunchie.

Both Phoebe and Lara were both born in Sydney, and now currently live and work in Los Angeles.

Late last year, Lara told InStyle Australia that she loves living in L.A., gushing over the city's warm weather and its wide open spaces.Kate Beckinsale has been hospitalised after suffering a ruptured ovarian cyst.

The English stunner, 45, took to social media Saturday night to share a pair of Instagram shots from inside a hospital, where she was being treated amid the health issue.

'Turns out a ruptured ovarian cyst really hurts and morphine makes me cry,' she wrote, adding that she was 'so thankful to everyone who looked after' her,' and the hashtag, #wobbly.

Get well soon: Kate Beckinsale has been hospitalised after suffering a ruptured ovarian cyst, sharing photos from her hospital bed on Saturday night

The post included two images, one of the actress with a nasal breathing tube in, and another shot of her resting in a hospital bed.

The selfie showed the actress with smudged mascara on her cheeks while she still sported glam gold eye shadow.

The hospitalization came just three nights after the London native made a special appearance at a St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital fundraiser at the LA Art Show held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Tough times: The Pearl Harbor actress got rest in a hospital bed on the difficult evening

'I think you get to a certain point in your life where you know what cancer does to peoples families,' she told Variety at the event.

'Its just so incredible to me. Its just a horrible nightmare.

'And so the fact that St. Jude takes care of absolutely everything, so literally families have no other worries other than taking care of each other and their kids, I find that so moving and so brilliant.'

Fighting the good fight: The London native made a special appearance at a St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital fundraiser at the LA Art Show on Wednesday

In a speech at the benefit, according to the outlet, Kate hailed the medical organization for its positive impact on the 'the way the world treats pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases.

'Because of your support at events like tonight, families never receive a bill for treatment for travel or housing or food, because St. Jude believes that all families need to worry about is helping ... their child live.'

The Total Recall star, who shares her 19-year-old daughter, Lily, with ex Michael Sheen, has past opened up on her health-geared lifestyle, which is choc with workouts and free of alcohol.

Focused: In a speech at the benefit, Kate hailed St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital for its positive impact on the 'the way the world treats pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases'

She told SHAPE in 2016: 'I don't drink alcohol. I feel [its effects] very quickly, so I've never actually had an entire glass of anything alcoholic.'

She opened up to the fitness publication about how nothing feels better than a good exercise session, saying that 'working out is basically nature's antidepressant.

'Hardcore workouts have really made a big difference in my life,' she explained. 'I have a lot of internal energy, and intense exercise helps me channel that energy. I find balance by doing a workout that makes me pour sweat. I never was that girl before, but I am now.'

According to the Mayo Clinic, ovarian cysts can cause serious symptoms including abdominal/pelvic pain, a fever or vomiting; those who experience such symptoms are encouraged to seek medical attention immediately.She stars as Uma in the new fantasy flick Paradise Hills.

And on Saturday, Emma Roberts looked doll-like as she stepped out at the film's premiere, held at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The 27-year-old was styled in a powder blue, A-line mini, complete with a bow and embellished detail.

Her big night: On Saturday, Emma Roberts, 27, stepped out at the Paradise Hills premiere at Sundance in Park City, Utah

The star kept warm with grey hosiery and heeled boots.

The pretty blonde, who initially arrived with a complementing blue coat, wore her shoulder length hair straight and parted down the middle.

For make-up, Emma highlighted her hazel eyes with dark, earth-toned shadows and false lashes.

Looking lovely: The actress was styled in a powder blue, A-line mini, complete with a bow and embellished detail

Her glam: For make-up, Emma highlighted her hazel eyes with dark, earth-toned shadows and false lashes

Plot thickens: Emma says that Paradise Hills is a 'wacky' movie about 'women who get don't comply' to society and get 'sent to a finishing school to be fixed'

Also out for the evening, were the beauty's co-stars; Milla Jovovich, Eiza Gonzalez, Danielle Macdonald, Awkwafina.

During a sit-down chat with IMDB, Emma explained what the movie was about.

'This move is super wacky. It takes place in the future, hopefully not a real future. But in this future, if girls, young women don't comply to kind of the image that society of kind of their family wants for them, they are sent to a finishing school to be fixed.'

Girls club: Also out for the evening, were the beauty's co-stars; Milla Jovovich, Eiza Gonzalez, Danielle Macdonald, Awkwafina

Next up for the niece of Julia Roberts is a voice role in the animated film, UglyDolls.

The comedy, premiering in May, features an all-star cast including Nick Jonas, Blake Shelton, Gabriel Iglesias, Kelly Clarkson and more.

Emma will also star in the film, Anya's Ghost, based on the book of the same name.

Sleek: The pretty blonde signed autographs for her adoring male fans

Getting in touch with her inner child: Next up for the niece of Julia Roberts is a voice role in the animated film, UglyDolls

Lacy lady: Eiza Gonzalez was full of flounce in a white lace look

Short and sweet: Milla Jovovich showed off her slim stems in a jacket-inspired mini-dress

Pretty in pink! Awkwafina was sassy in a soft pink suit with a fashion-forward jacket that flashes just a hint of skin

Jumpsuit for joy! Danielle MacDonald looked lovely in a navy blue jumpsuit tied together with a sashIt's the night of nights for Australian stars making a name in Hollywood.

And Isla Fisher was joined by Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus and Lara Bingle along with a host of others stars at the G'Day USA Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The flame-haired Hollywood starlet shimmered on the red carpet in a glamorous sparkling dress which featured a daring thigh-high split.

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All the way to Tinseltown! Isla Fisher (pictured), Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus and Lara Bingle lead the celebrity arrivals at the G'Day USA event in Los Angeles

The actress opted for a glossy make-up look, and wore her trademark tresses down around her shoulders.

The former Home and Away star accessorised with a white clutch and matching strappy heels at the event.

The Wedding Crashers actress showed off her playful side as she posed up a storm on the red carpet at the event.

Shimmering star: Isla Fisher, 42, showed off her slender figure on the red carpet in a glamorous sparkling dress which featured a daring thigh high split

Beauty: Isla wore her trademark flame-haired tresses down around her shoulders

Also at the star-studded event was newlywed Liam Hemsworth, 29, looking dashing with his Hollywood starlet wife Miley Cyrus, 26, by his side.

The couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony three weeks ago, sharing a number of wedding snaps for their intimate ceremony in front of family and friends.

The acclaimed actor walked the red carpet, while his new bride elected to side-step the spotlight and slip into the event through another door.

Golden couple! Recently married Liam Hemsworth, 29, and Miley Cyrus, 26, (both pictured) stepped out for the first time as husband and wife at the event

The man of the hour! The acclaimed actor walked the red carpet, while his new bride elected to side-steep the spotlight and slip into the event through another door

Also at the event was Australian model Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) who looked simply incredible in a billowing black dress.

The 31-year-old, who is married to Sam Worthington, displayed her toned physique in the ravishing frock, which featured a cowl neck and off-the-shoulder sleeves.

She completed the head-turning outfit with a gorgeous pair of pearl earrings and slicked her blonde tresses back into a neat bun.

She's a goddess! Meanwhile, Australian model Lara Bingle looked simply incredible in this billowing black dress

Old Hollywood glam: The 31-year-old displayed her enviably-toned physique in this ravishing frock, which featured a cowl neck and short off-the-shoulder sleeves

Beautiful: She completed the head-turning outfit with gorgeous pearl earrings and slicked her blonde tresses back into a neat bun. Pictured with Phoebe Tonkin

Lara wore a luminous makeup look that consisted of defined eye brows, minimal eye shadow and bright red lips.

Blonde beauty Renee Bargh, 32, shined in a sophisticated black frock which clung to her slender frame.

The Australian-born star posed up at storm on the red carpet in the chic black gown, which she paired with high-shine glided pumps at the ritzy event.

Beauty in black! Extra presenter Renee Bargh flaunted her fabulous figure in a chic black gown as she lead the fashion pack at the G'Day USA event in Los Angeles on Saturday

The TV host kept her accessories to a minimum, complimenting her ensemble with gold-studded earrings and a collection of dainty rings on her fingers.

Renee completed the look with her flaxen-coloured tresses pulled back in an elegant low-bun.

Enhancing her flawless visage, Renee opted for a luminous complexion, smokey eye shadow, a pop of coral blush and a glossy pout.

She did it again! The Australian presenter never looks anything short of perfect

Stepping out: She looked every inch the glamazon at the event, which was held in Culver City

Glimpse of skin: The jaw-dropping number also featured a low-plunging back

Turning to the men, Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan, 79, looked every inch the larrikin as he posed with a glass of wine on the red carpet.

The iconic 1980s actor, who starred in the hit series, wore a velvet blazer along with black suit pants and a black shirt wore slightly unbuttoned.

Luke Hemsworth, 37, showed off his buff frame in a metallic maroon suit, which he wore with a slightly unbuttoned black shirt.

Metallic man: Luke Hemsworth, 37, showed off his buff frame in a tight maroon suit, which he paired with an unbuttoned black shirt

Crocodile Dundee: Actor Paul Hogan, 79, opted for a velvet suit jacket, while he casually wore his shirt undone. He paired it what appeared to be a metallic tie

Meanwhile, looking the epitome of elegance was model and actress Olympia Valance.

The 26-year-old showed off her bronzed tan in a golden frock that revealed her slender silhouette.

The sizzling starlet certainly stole the spotlight when she walked onto the red carpet thanks to the glistening woven fabric of her stand-out gown.

Celestial: Looking the epitome of elegance was model and actress Olympia Valance (pictured)

Flaunting a glimpse of her decolletage, the body-hugging ensemble featured a plunging neckline and was cinched at the waist.

The Playing For Keeps actress accessorised with a simple bangle and wore statement diamond earrings.

Complimenting the attire, she completed the look with a pair of nude pumps.

Sensational: The 26-year-old showed off her bronzed tan in this golden frock that revealed her slender silhouette

Olympia's glamorous makeup look consisted of deep cherry lipstick, lashings of mascara and defined eye brows.

Her mahogany locks were styled in a high bun and fastened with a twinkling hair accessory.

Bloom actress Phoebe Tonkin also made a stellar appearance at the annual gala.

Sparkle! Enhancing the brunette's curves, the dress was emblazoned with this glimmering knitted fabric

All the right places: Flaunting a glimpse of her decolletage, the body-hugging ensemble sported a plunging neckline and was cinched at the waist

The 29-year-old bombshell wore an eye-catching black velvet dress complete with large stud earrings.

Styling her brunette hair in a mid-pony, Phoebe added a playful touch to the ensemble with a glitzy scrunchie.

And also attending the event was House of Cards actor Cody Fern.

Bloom actress Phoebe Tonkin also made a stellar appearance at the annual gala

Making a statement! The 29-year-old bombshell wore this eye-catching black velvet dress complete with large stud earrings

The 30-year-old looked handsome in a glitzy two-piece suit for the occasion.

Dressing sharply, Cody opted for a metallic blue blazer and matching tailored trousers in a satin fabric.

Embellished with crystals all over, the brunette hunk teamed up the dazzling ensemble with black dress shoes.

Cody accessorised the look by wearing a statement silver ring.

Familiar face! Also attending the event was House of Cards actor Cody Fern

Dazzling: The 30-year-old looked handsome in this glitzy two-piece suit for the occasion

Complete: The hunk teamed up the dazzling ensemble with black dress shoes

All about the bling! Dressing sharply, Cody opted for this metallic blue blazer and matching tailored trousers in a satin fabric

Wow! The quirky ensemble was embellished with crystals all over

Flawless: The actor stunned as he flaunted his perfect visage while striking a pose for the camera

He styled his chestnut locks in loose curls around his face, sweeping a few strands to one side.

Meanwhile, former Packed to the Rafters star Jessica McNamee made an entrance in a chic black number.

The actress paired her draped gown with sky-high black heels.

Casual: Meanwhile, former Packed to the Rafters star Jessica McNamee made an entrance in a chic black number

Monochrome chic: The actress paired the attire with sky-high black heels

Stylish: Her glossy brunette tresses were styled in a structured up-do that perfectly framed her striking facial features

She accessorised the look with dainty drop-earrings and an edgy golden choker, embellished with pearls.

A stand-out feature of her look was Jessica's bronzed eye shadow, which enhanced her green eyes and porcelain complexion.

Her glossy brunette tresses were styled in a structured up-do that perfectly framed her striking facial features.

Sizzling: A stand-out feature of her look was Jessica's bronzed eyeshadow, which enhanced her green eyes and porcelain complexion

Meanwhile, making a bold statement was Lovechild star Miranda Tapsell, who stepped out with her writer husband, James Colley.

The 31-year-old actress stunned in a bright pink plunging gown that cascaded down to the floor.

Featuring delicate straps, the vivid number showed off a glimpse of Miranda's toned arms and cleavage.

Belle of the ball: Making a bold statement was Lovechild star Miranda Tapsell (L), who stepped out with her writer husband, James Colley (R)

Eye-popping colour: The 31-year-old actress stunned in this bright pink plunging gown that cascaded down to the floor

Sweet: Featuring delicate straps, the vivid number showed off a glimpse of Miranda's toned arms and cleavage

Playful: She sported a quirky braided hairstyle that revealed a fresh-faced complexion

She sported a quirky braided hairstyle that revealed a fresh-faced complexion.

Looking every inch the smitten couple, the newlyweds cuddled up for a snap in front of the cameras.

James looked handsome in a two-piece navy suit - complete with a white collared shirt and smart black tie.

Love is in the air! Looking every inch the smitten couple, the newlyweds cuddled up for a snap in front of the cameras

Dapper: James looked handsome in a two-piece navy suit - complete with a white collared shirt and smart black tie

Glam: Miranda rocked a dark smokey eye shadow look paired with glossy lips and pink blush

Power couple: Actress Sarah Murdoch (L) graced the red carpet clad in a jaw-dropping navy gown. Pictured with husband Lachlan (R)

Elsewhere, actress Sarah Murdoch graced the red carpet clad in a jaw-dropping navy gown.

Cheerfully posing beside her husband and businessman Lachlan, Sarah flaunted her slender physique in the showstopping frock.

Decorated with a mesh insert at the bust, the blonde beauty teamed the get up with a black clutch and glitzy silver watch.Vicky Pattison has revealed the way her ex-fiance John Noble treated her after his cheating scandal emerged was 'cruel and callous'.

However the TV presenter, 31, candidly admitted she would have wanted to take him back if he was willing to apologise for what he had done.

But Vicky told Fabulous magazine she was met with a very different reaction when she confronted John about the claims he had been grinding up against a mystery blonde in a Dubai club.

'Cruel': Vicky Pattison has revealed that the way her ex fiance John Noble treated her after his cheating scandal emerged was 'cruel and callous'

She claimed that when she spoke to him he told her that he didn't know what she was talking about, after her agent informed her of the rumours about John.

Vicky said he was 'awful', adding: 'He was dismissive, saying he hadn't done anything wrong and he didn't want to talk to me when I was 'like this.'

'For the first two weeks, if he'd walked through the door and thrown himself at my mercy and said 'I'm so sorry, I've made a mistake...' I would've wanted to have taken him back. I wouldn't have, but I'd have wanted to.'

Gutted: However the TV presenter, 31, candidly admitted that she would have wanted to take him back if he was willing to apologise for what he had done

However although Vicky confessed she was blind to their deteriorating relationship prior to his trip, she insists they were very much together, despite claims from John's side that they had broken up.

Vicky heartbreakingly admitted that John stopped loving her before he flew out on holiday, and had started to treat her badly.

She said: 'I was the only one planning the wedding, his heart wasn't in it. I'd rush back from working in London because he hated me being down south and he'd go straight out and not come home all night.'

While he spent nights out with his friends, Vicky had no idea what he was up to and whether he could have been cheating on her then as well.

Shocked: But Vicky told Fabulous magazine she was met with a very different reaction when she confronted John about the claims he had been grinding up against a mystery blonde in a Dubai club (pictured in June 2017)

However she refuses to ponder the thought as she believes it won't give her any peace, and plans to focus her energy on finding a relationship where effort is a two-way street.

John was filmed with his lips just inches away from the mystery blonde before she started grinding on his lap.

An eyewitness told MailOnline at the time that the scenes were 'shocking', describing the interaction as 'very flirty'.

The Newcastle businessman got up close and cosy with the mystery blonde just hours before a posting a photo of Vicky on Instagram along with the words Cant wait to get back to this little monster.

Playing dumb: She claimed that when she spoke to him he told her that he didn't know what she was talking about, after her agent informed her of the rumours about John (pictured following their engagement)

John had been partying at the Billionaire Mansion when he met the blonde, with an eyewitness telling MailOnline: I was really shocked. I recognised John as soon as he got into the club because Im a fan of Vickys.

I couldnt believe that he was talking so close to her. The music was loud so he was leaning into her so that he could hear her. Then she started grinding on his lap.

It was very flirty and they were really close.

John had begun the evening dining in the Taj Hotel restaurant that turns into a nightclub when he struck up a conversation with the girls on the next table.

The insider added: John asked the girls on the neighbouring table if they were all right and if theyd mind posing for a selfie with him and his friends, which seemed a bit strange but the girls didnt seem to mind.

Then his group were joined by this really attractive young blonde, aged only in her early 20s, wearing a revealing nude dress and nude heels and with really long hair extensions.'

Vicky said he was 'awful', adding: 'He was dismissive, saying he hadn't done anything wrong and he didn't want to talk to me when I was 'like this' (pictured in September 2018)

The shocking scenes come after Vicky admitted she is 'fighting a battle' in her relationship after being plagued by rumours of strife following the death of her best friend Paul Burns and two of John's grandparents' passing earlier this year.

Speaking to New Magazine, the former Geordie Shore star was typically candid about her battles as she admitted the couple are struggling.

She said: 'We're going to Dubai, so we're out of the hardest bit. My birthday's coming up, his birthday is coming up, so we're on a nice run of seeing each other a lot. Everyone's fighting a battle to make it work.'

The couple, who got engaged in July 2017 - were apparently not on speaking terms before their romantic trip and had severed ties on social media, with sources claiming their relationship is 'hanging by a thread'.

Vicky reportedly asked John to accompany her in Dubai where she was working at the time so they could 'talk things through'.

John had allegedly felt like he was playing 'second fiddle' to Vicky's busy lifestyle in London. The businessman is also reportedly desperate to start a family while Vicky was said to be less keen.They hadn't enjoyed a night out together in four years until Paul Knightley's birthday last year.

So it's no surprise Sam Faiers seized the opportunity to enjoy a rare night out with her sister Billie once again at 100 Wardour, in London on Saturday.

The Mummy Diaries' Sam, 28, was snug in a caramel coloured faux fur coat while her sibling Billie, 29, dressed for the occasion in a pink furry jacket.

Sister Act: Sam Faiers bonded with her equally stylish sister Billie on a rare boozy London night out as they enjoyed time away from their broods on Saturday

As the temperatures took a turn for the worst at 8 degrees, Sam brought the collar of her furry jacket together as she clutched at her chest.

The reality star mum kept up her glamorous image in a striped animal print-inspired dress and strappy heels for her girls' night out.

Perfecting her look, the mother-of-two wore her brunette tresses in cascading curls and she toted a little clutch bag with her essentials.

Freezing! As the temperatures took a turn for the worst at 8 degrees, Sam brought the collar of her furry jacket together as she clutched at her chest

Style goals: The reality star mum kept up her glamorous image in a striped animal print-inspired dress and strappy heels for her girls' night out

Golden-haired Billie looked equally stylish in her pink coat which she complemented with a slick of bubblegum shade lipstick.

The Instagram sensation injected some showbiz sparkle to her look with a sequinned clutch bag that she kept close to her.

Completely in her element, the mother-of-two looked ecstatic when she hit the town and took time away from her parenting duties.

Dolled up: Perfecting her look, the mother-of-two wore her brunette tresses in cascading curls and she toted a little clutch bag with her essentials

Great fun: Completely in her element, the mother-of-two looked ecstatic when she hit the town and took time away from her parenting duties

Back in May last year, Billie made the shocking admission that she hadn't found time to enjoy a night out with her sister.

She wrote at the time on social media: 'Last night was to say the least ... celebrating @paulknightley7 30th birthday ... first night out with my sister @samanthafaiers for 4 years ohhh yes we celebrated.'

The former TOWIE stars have slowed down on their partying ways as they have embraced their new phase of life as mothers with their own parenting reality show.

Off they go: The former TOWIE stars have slowed down on their partying ways as they have embraced their new phase of life as mothers with their own parenting reality show

Reality star parade! Golden-haired Billie looked equally stylish in her pink coat which she complemented with a slick of bubblegum shade lipstick

Sam and Billie have built their own mini empire with their reality show The Mummy Diaries which documents their day-to-day lives bringing up their children.

The youngest, Sam, is happily romancing Paul Knightley while they raise three-year-old Paul and one-year-old Rosie.

Meanwhile, Billie brings up four-year-old Nellie and one-year-old Arthur with her husband-to-be Greg Shepherd.She may be the daughter of very famous parents, but she makes her own money.

And on Saturday, Lily-Rose Depp splashed out a small amount of her fortune during a day of high-end shopping in Beverly Hills.

For her retail outing, the 19-year-old was joined by a female companion.

Retail therapy: On Saturday, Lily-Rose Depp, 19, enjoyed a day of high-end shopping with a pal in Beverly Hills

Lily-Rose kept casual in a powder blue cable knit sweater.

The Paris native paired her cozy sweater with a pair of black, skinny trousers and brown, knee high boots.

She accessorized with delicate earrings, tiny shades and a small handbag.

Her look: The Paris, France native paired her cozy sweater with a pair of black, skinny trousers and brown, knee high boots

It seems that shopping was left for the gal pals only, as rumored boyfriend Timothee Chalamet was no where in sight.

The duo first met as co-stars on the Netflix biographical drama, The King.

And it appears that life imitated art, as Timothee plays King Henry V of England, while Lily-Rose acts as wife Catherine.

Lily-Rose and Timothee were seen kissing in NYC last October.

Cute: The actress is rumored to be dating her King co-star, Timothee Chalamet, 23. He is seen in London earlier this month

Up next, the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis in the comedy horror, Moose Jaws.

Not only is she an actress, the beauty is also a model like her mother. Lily appeared as the face of Chanel and walking in the brand's show.

'It's an honor to work with a fashion house like Chanel that I've admired since I was a little girl and obviously have seen my mom do,' she began in an interview with France 24.

'They are so loyal. My mom has been working with them since she was 18-years-old and she still works with them, and now I work with them...'It was a big day for co-stars Eiza Gonzalez and Milla Jovovich.

Their new fantasy drama film, Paradise Hills, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Saturday.

And as part of their media blitz weekend of promotions, the ladies went with their own versions of casual-cool ensembles for a party hosted by Variety.

Cool ensembles: Eiza Gonzalez and Milla Jovovich the Variety Studio party at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah with some of their co-stars

The 28-year old Gonzalez, who has seen her star soar in the last couple of years, looked stylish in black leather pants and a white frilly blouse that was adorned with a black western bow tie.

To help with the winter chill of Utah, the Baby Driver star covered up in a long dark duster-style sweater that included touches of burgundy, yellow, and various shades of grey.

She rounded out the ensemble with pointed black boots and had her brown tresses long and flowing to the middle of her back and with a center part.

Jovovich, 43, showed off her still amazingly lean figure in light blue denim skinny jeans and a v-neck t-shirt.

Stike a pose: The actress looked stylish in black leather pants and a white frilly blouse that was adorned with a black western bow tie

Keeping warm: The 28-year old covered up in a long dark duster-style sweater that included touches of burgundy, yellow, and various shades of grey.

Rising star: Gonzalez has seen her star rise since her role in 2017's Baby Driver

She covered up in a fluffy animal print cardigan, and wore white pointed ankle boots that had extra fabric that wrapped around the top part.

The Resident Evil star also wore her brown tresses long, but with a part on the slight right.

Also on hand for the party was the film's leading lady Emma Roberts, who wore a mustard-colored mini-dress, black opaque tights and flashy red boots.

The celebrity guest list also included such stars as Zac Efron, Hilary Swank, Zach Galifinakis, Jenny Slate, Jon Hamm, Angela Sarafyan, Daniel Radcliffe, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Armie Hammer and Zazie Beetz.

Casual cool: Milla Jovovich showed off her lean figure in denim skinny jeans and a t-shirt

Offbeat: The Resident Evil star covered up in a fluffy animal print cardigan

Leading lady: Emma Roberts, 27, wore a mustard-colored mini-dress and black opaque tights

Say cheese! Jovovich and Roberts joined Paradise Hills co-star Danielle Macdonald, director Alice Waddington, and co-star Awkwafina for some group photos

Birthday Girl: Eiza Gonzalez and the cast of "Paradise Hills" celebrate at Stella's Film Lounge during The 2019 Sundance Film Festival at Stella's Film Lounge on January 26, 2019 in Park City, Utah.

At one point, the three stylish ladies were joined other co-stars Danielle Macdonald, Awkwafina and the film's director, Alice Waddington, for some group photos.

Set in the not-too-distant future, Paradise Hills centers around a mysterious and high-class boarding school for wayward girls that's located on an isolated island.

It follows the daughter of a wealthy businessman (Roberts), who is sent to the exclusive sanitarium by a billionaire who wants to marry her. However, he is also mounting a hostile takeover of her fathers company.

Transformation: Zac Efron, 31, showed off his platinum dyed locks and full beard

Warm and comfy: The Neighbors star rocked a stylish black jacket with a furry collar

Youthful: Actress Hilary Swank, 44, looked stylish in a grey ensemble and black boots

Fit and ready: The Oscar-winner showed off her toned upper body with the open neckline

Funnyman: Zach Galifinakis, 49, was all smiles and jokes while at the party

Jenny Slate, 36, rocked a all-black ensemble with a white button-down shirt

Sweet and soft: The actress, best known for her roles on Parks and Recreations and Saturday Night Live, pulled her tresses off of her face and in a bun

Mad man: Jon Hamm, 47, looked ruggedly handsome with his beard and winter ensemble

Eye-catching: Actress Angela Sarafyan, 35 showed off her toned midriff in a stylish blue suit

Sisters in arms: Awkwafina flashed the piece sign alongside Lulu Wang

Cool: Awkwafina, 30, wore a pair of plaid pants with an emerald green stripe down each leg

Making an appearance: Film director Patty Jenkins wore a black and orange sweater

Chat time: Jenkins joined Sam Sheridan and India Eisley for a photo on a couch

Adorable: Sex therapist Dr. Ruth flashed her trademark smile as photographers snapped away

Fan friendly: Daniel Radcliffe (center) and writer Simon Rich (right) took on a Q-and-A session

Working it: Actor Armie Hammer, 32, struck an 'I got game' poseHe's in the middle of a brief tour of Australia and New Zealand.

And on Saturday, rapper Tyga landed at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport ahead of his performance at the city's Festival Hall last night.

Flying in from Auckland, Kylie Jenner's ex-boyfriend looked relaxed in a designer activewear ensemble.

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Fifty shades of grey! Kylie Jenner's ex Tyga cut a casual figure in designer activewear as he touched down in Melbourne during Australian tour on Saturday

Tyga wore a grey Balenciaga hoodie paired with matching sweatpants and trainers, while adding a touch of bling with a chunky wrist watch and designer shades.

Flanked by a beefy entourage, the star stopped to sign autographs and posed for pictures while exiting the terminal.

While the lucky fans waiting at the airport had the opportunity to meet Tyga for free, the same cannot be said for those who coughed up a whopping $10,000 for the privilege at Sunday night's Rolling Loud Festival in Sydney.

Style: Tyga wore a grey Balenciaga hoodie paired with matching sweatpants and trainers, while adding a touch of bling with a chunky wrist watch and designer shades

Following his performance at the hip-hop extravaganza, a VIP package with the American rapper at an afterparty was advertised for $10,228.

Muscle Brothers promoters were spruiking the pricey tickets for the event at Sydney bar Establishment.

Their 'Platinum VIP table' package was said to guarantee punters 'two artist meet-and-greet tickets' to get up close and personal with Tyga for $10,228.

That's pricey! Following a performance at Sydney's Rolling Loud Festival on January 27, a 'VIP package' with the American rapper, featuring 'meet and greet, your own waitress and $8,000 bar tab', at an afterparty at Sydney bar Establishment is available

While the expensive experience is no longer available for purchase, fans can still shell out $565.39 for a standard meet and greet with the rapper.

Tyga will his Australian tour at Brisbane's Eatons Hill on February 28.

The star first performed in Australia while supporting Nicki Minaj in 2012.

He later returned in 2014 following the release on his third album, Hotel California, and brought his 'Rawwest Alive' tour Down Under in 2016.Jacqui Lambie will be rushed to hospital during Sunday night's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

On Sunday morning, the show's official Instagram page shared a teaser clip of the 47-year-old suffering a head injury in the South African jungle.

In the scene, Jackie is seen attempting to earn 12 stars in the difficult Sunday Slam challenge alongside co-star Justin Lacko, 28.

Has I'm A Celebrity gone too far?Jacqui Lambie is rushed to hospital after suffering a serious head injury during a VERY dangerous Tucker Trial

'We can't show you much, but what we can tell you is tonight's Trial involves Jacqui Lambie, a large boulder to the face and an ambulance,' read the caption.

The challenge involved the pair navigating an obstacle course while wearing comical faux elephant feet.

At one stage in the clip, Jacqui was seen being carried away in an emergency vehicle after a large boulder struck her on the head mid-way through the obstacle course.

Eek! On Sunday morning, the show's official Instagram page shared a teaser clip of the 47-year-old suffering a head injury in the South African jungle

That must hurt! 'We can't show you much, but what we can tell you is tonight's Trial involves Jacqui Lambie, a large boulder to the face and an ambulance,' read the caption on the show's official Instagram page

It's unclear whether Jacqui's injury will prevent her from continuing in the competition.

The incident comes just days after the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! campsite was evacuated due to the presence of a highly venomous snake.

Gogglebox's Angie Kent looked visibly shaken after a crew member announced she had to leave the area due to a sighting of a Mozambique spitting cobra.

Ambulance: The former Australian Senator was later carried away in this emergency vehicle

In footage shared to the show's Twitter account, a producer said over intercom: 'Yvie and Angie, we've just seen quite a dangerous snake in camp.'

They continued: 'We are going to ask you to make your way down to the creek while we send somebody in.'

Meanwhile, footage showed the deadly snake slithering through the camp, just a few metres from where a celebrity was sleeping.

After the contestants were evacuated, a crew member and wildlife expert arrived and began searching for the snake in the rocks.

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues Sunday at 7:30pm on Channel 10

Everyone out! The incident comes just days after the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! campsite was evacuated due to the presence of a highly venomous snakeShe's always dressed to impress.

And Kendall Rae Knight looked sensational as ever as she stepped out in style for her 27th birthday at Rosso Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday night.

The reality star was joined by her sister Cassidy as well as her fellow Love Island stars Ellie Brown and Stephanie Lamb.

Party: Kendall Rae Knight looked sensational as ever as she stepped out in style for her 27th birthday at Rosso Restaurant in Manchester on Saturday night

Kendall turned heads with a figure hugging, corset inspired dress with a baby pink top and a black lower half.

She added height to her frame with a pair of pink heels and accessorised with a black handbag.

Fellow islander Stephanie Lamb wore a light green crop top with matching, flared trousers and handbag.

Her locks, which were in light curls, were styled up into an updo.

Birthday girl: The reality star was joined by her sister Cassidy as well as her fellow Love Island stars Ellie Brown and Stephanie Lamb

Ellie sported a white, long-sleeved dress with a plunging neckline and peach heels.

The pair held hands with the birthday girl as they headed into the restaurant with Kendall's sister Cassidy who donned a pink crop top and pink, flared trousers.

Kendall was the first star to be eliminated from the Mallorcan villa over the summer when Adam Collard dumped her to chase Rosie Williams.

Kendall hit it off with former Love Island winner Kem Cetinay on After Sun and they were spotted sharing a kiss but the flirtation didn't come to fruition.

Style: Ellie sported a white, long-sleeved dress with a plunging neckline and peach heels

She also enjoyed an unlikely flirtation with Eyal Booker on the series but things didn't progress any further after they locked lips during the Christmas reunion.

Eyal told The Sun Online: 'We had a little kiss at one point, we had seen each other out and got a little closer and I think just there was so much drama on the Love Island reunion, and it was just a little nice Christmas kiss.'

The curly-haired model and yoga enthusiast explained that they were hoping to stay in touch, but nothing really progressed over the festive period.

TV: Kendall was the first star to be eliminated from the Mallorcan villa over the summer when Adam Collard dumped her to chase Rosie Williams

'We enjoyed each other's company and we were going to see where it went, and that was all it was,' he added.

'It wasn't to do anything more than just have a kiss, we were just joking around, we'd had a drink or two and yeah, we were just having fun.'

The pair avoided each other on the red carpet, but were seen partying with the rest of the Love Island gang at the hotel after-party, proving it was all water under the bridge.It was the gripping and hugely successful TV drama that made his name.

Yet I can reveal that Richard Maddens future in the BBCs Bodyguard has been thrown into doubt  as the shows producers confirm the Scottish actor is in contention to play James Bond.

Heart-throb Richard, 32, took the title role in the TV series as bodyguard David Budd and picked up the gong for Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards last week.

Richard Madden took home the Best Actor in a Television Drama gong at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, for hit drama Bodyguard earlier this month

A second series is expected but a producer on the show let slip to me: We dont know if Richard will do series two.

And totally unprompted, he added: It depends what happens with James Bond, we dont know yet.

There has been increasing speculation about Madden replacing Daniel Craig in the most coveted role in the movies.

It is understood that Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has been in touch with Madden  and he even went as far as to do a shoot dressed as the suave hero for glossy magazine, GQ.

In the interview, he couldnt help but gush about the opportunity, saying it was a brilliant thing to be touted as Craigs successor.

He said: I love the movies. Ive read all the books. But he added: If you talk about it, youll curse it.

Before Madden starred in Bodyguard (pictured with Keeley Hawes), he played Robb Stark in TV fantasy series Game Of Thrones

Craig has long expressed a desire to retire from the famously physically demanding role but has been persuaded by Ms Broccoli to give it one more go  with him agreeing in 2015 to star in the next 007 film, currently titled Bond 25.

Shortly before Craig signed the big-money deal, the 50-year-old star said he would rather slash his wrists than play the character again, adding: If I did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money.

Madden has been described by Hollywood experts as the perfect choice to become Bond.

Before he starred in Bodyguard, he played Robb Stark in TV fantasy series Game Of Thrones.

Being surrounded by real ale and hearty meals might entice most people to pile on the pounds, but not model Jodie Kidd.

She runs the Half Moon country pub in West Sussex and told me at fashion designer Zoe Jordans VIP breakfast at Isabel in Mayfair last week.

Ive lost a stone since writing a book and taking up running. Isabel is the sister restaurant to Notting Hill celebrity hotspot Casa Cruz.

Jodie, 40, added: My boyfriend and I have been running in the countryside and Ive learnt so much about nutrition.

Jodie was one of the original waif models in the 90s  I hope shes not on the way back to those scarily thin days.Kate Langbroek recently revealed she and her family would be moving to Italy for a year.

And it seems the family - which includes Kate's husband Peter Lewis and their four children- are finally on their way.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the 53-year-old shared images of her clan en route to the European country as they begin their new life abroad.

'Bologna bound!' Kate Langbroek and her family (pictured) head to Italy... after the radio star confessed she was 'hanging by a thread' due to nerves about the international move

'It's a-happening,' Kate captioned one photo of the family as they posed with their luggage.

She added the hashtags 'lastleg', 'bolognabound' and 'sixtakeitaly'.

Another image, taken as the family boarded a plane, was captioned: 'Imma sucker for a tarmac pic.'

'It's a-happening,' Kate posted a number of snaps of the clan en-route to the European country, where they will live for a year

Last Wednesday, Kate admitted she was nervous about the big international move, confessing she wasn't entirely sure why she was doing it.

'I can't tell you why because I've got NFI [no f***ing idea],' Kate said during an interview on The Project.

'But at the time it seemed like a good idea that we would take our four children and got to live in Italy for a year.'

She added: 'Why? I don't know. I'm hanging by a thread.'

'I'm hanging by a thread': Last Wednesday, Kate confessed on The Project she had no idea why she was heading overseas for a year

Still got her job! The radio star will still do her Hughesy & Kate drive time radio show from a studio in Italy

The radio star will still do her Hughesy & Kate drive time radio show from a studio in Italy.

Kate was going to quit her job altogether but her radio partner Dave Hughes, 48, encouraged her to keep working.

'The reason that we left KIIS FM [at the end of 2017] was because I only wanted to sign a one-year contract because I knew that we wanted to go and live overseas this year,' Kate told News.com.au last Monday.

While she assumed she would have to quit working in the Australian media, Dave told her, 'You're crazy, we've got to keep doing the show.'He recently advertised for jobs online after being sacked from Weekend Today last month.

And now Peter Stefanovic appears to be crossing enemy lines after reportedly being spotted in meetings at ABC's Sydney headquarters this week.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the 37 year-old was in negotiation mode during his visit to the national broadcaster.

Available for hire! Peter Stefanovic was reportedly spotted taking meeting at ABC headquarters after being axed from the Today show in Nine's staffing 'bloodbath'

Since his sensational dismissal from Nine, which preceded brother Karl and wife Sylvia Jeffrey's axing from the Today show, Peter has been proactive in the job hunt.

Last week, the former war correspondent was seen discussing 'job opportunities' in a cafe in Barangaroo, Sydney.

The unemployed journalist spoke with his business contact - possibly an agent or TV network executive - for around an hour.

Double whammy: Since his sensational dismissal from Nine, which preceded wife Sylvia Jeffrey's axing from the Today show, Peter has been proactive in the job hunt

An onlooker told Daily Mail Australia that Peter may have been in the middle of a job interview as he was overheard talking about his 'relevant skills and experience'.

Towards the end of their conversation, the other man spoke about a 'project with Matt Okine', the comedian and former Triple J presenter.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Peter posted a job advertisement he posted for work on the online media newsletter, Social Diary.

Casual: The unemployed journalist spoke with his business contact (the bald man, right) for around an hour at the Back Row West cafe in Barangaroo, Sydney on Wednesday

Advertisement: The former Weekend Today presenter's management shared his profile, which stated that he is 'now available for any upcoming relevant opportunities'

The former Weekend Today presenter's management shared his profile, which stated that he is 'now available for any upcoming relevant opportunities'.

The message, which was accompanied by a smiling photo of Peter, began: 'Peter Stefanovic has been on the ground for many of the world's most recent historic events.'

It continued: 'Peter is now available for any upcoming relevant opportunities including ambassador roles and MC/Hosting opportunities'.

No more: Peter's Today presenter wife, Sylvia Jeffreys (right), also lost her role on the show amid the massive shake-up, but remains contracted to Nine

It was announced on December 18 that Peter would not be returning to Channel Nine in 2019.

Just one day later, his brother Karl, 44, who hosted the weekday edition Today show, was axed while on his honeymoon with new wife Jasmine Yarbrough, 34.

Peter's wife, Sylvia, 32 also lost her role on the show amid the massive shake-up, but remains contracted to Nine.Comedian Magda Szubanski has controversially backed the move to change the date of Australia Day.

The former Kath and Kim star, 57, said she was confident we could find a date 'everyone could feel a part of', when speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

This year Madga was also named a Companion of the Order of Australia on the national day's honours list.

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'We should have some sensitivity': Magda Szubanski, 57, (pictured) controversially backs the move to change the date of Australia Day

The veteran TV star, who was also an active campaigner for the 'Yes' vote for same-sex marriage last year, was candid in her remarks.

'We need to have some sensitivity and I really think we can find that consensus,' she said, comparing it to the Irish celebrating when the English arrived.

UK-born Magda said her reasoning behind it was for indigenous people and 'respecting Aboriginal cultures.'

The Babe: Pig in the City went on to say she hoped to, 'move the date to something less contentious and that we can all celebrate.'

Change the date: Magda said last year about the date of Australia Day: 'Not a date that is built on the blood and bones and suffering of First Nations people'

Madga said she was 'humbled' to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia this year, with it citing her service as an entertainer and activist.

It read: 'For distinguished service to the performing arts as an actor, comedian and writer, and as a campaigner for marriage equality.'

Joining the comedian on the honours list is Grease actress OIivia Newton-John and global pop star, Kylie Minogue.

Award: Recognised for 'distinguished service to the performing arts as an actor, comedian and writer, and as a campaigner for marriage equality,' Magda was given the Order of Australia

Entertainer and activist: Magda was a campaigner for the 'Yes' vote during the vote on same-sex marriage last year, which saw her recognised in the honours list. Pictured playing a celebrant at a gay wedding on Neighbours

This isn't the first time Magda has championed the change the date cause, with the comedian being more graphic on Twitter during last year's celebrations.

She wrote: 'We need a new day, a fresh start to celebrate all that is great and good about this nation. Not a date that is built on the blood and bones of our first nations people.'

Ahead of Australia Day celebrations, a number of Australian stars have been in favour of the change the date movement.

Hollywood star Russell Crowe along with actress Miranda Tapsell and Bachelor in Paradise host Osher Gunsberg have all been vocal about changing the date.She is due to fly more than 14,000km from Sydney to Italy on Friday, yet Kate Langbroek appears to have cold feet about the idea.

Kate, 53, told The Project on Wednesday that she and her husband Peter Lewis, and their four kids, will shift to Bologna for a year - but she is not entirely sure why.

'I can't tell you why because I've got NFI [no f***ing idea],' said Kate.

'I'm hanging by a thread': Radio star Kate Langbroek (pictured), 53, revealed on Wednesday's edition of The Project that she's terrified about moving to Italy with her husband and four kids

'But at the time it seemed like a good idea that we would take our four children and got to live in Italy for a year.'

She added: 'Why? I don't know. I'm hanging by a thread.'

The radio star will still do her Hughesy & Kate drive time radio show from a studio in Italy.

Big move! She is due to fly more than 14,000km from Sydney to Italy with her family on Friday, yet Kate appears to have cold feet about the idea

Kate was going to quit her job altogether but her radio partner Dave Hughes, 48, encouraged her to keep working.

'The reason that we left KIIS FM [at the end of 2017] was because I only wanted to sign a one-year contract because I knew that we wanted to go and live overseas this year,' Kate told News.com.au on Monday.

While she assumed she would have to quit working in the Australian media, Dave told her, 'You're crazy, we've got to keep doing the show.'

Kate, 53, told The Project on Wednesday that she and her family will shift to Bologna for a year - but she is not entirely sure why. 'I've got NFI [no f***ing idea]. But at the time it seemed like a good idea that we would take our four children and got to live in Italy for a year,' she said

Kate explained: '[Dave is] a very determined person and he had an outcome that he wanted and so there was no point in discussing the others really.'

The Hit Network was apparently so determined to keep the Hughesy and Kate partnership alive that they sent executive producer Sacha French to Bologna to find a studio for Kate to broadcast from.

Dave also said he is committed to working with Kate, even if it's a long-distance arrangement, because their chemistry is unrivalled.

Italian job: The radio star will still do her Hughesy & Kate drive time radio show from a studio in Italy. Pictured with her Hit Network drive time co-host Dave Hughes

'In many ways [working with Kate] is the easiest thing I've ever done. It's not work when I'm with her, basically. I was like, "If we can make it happen that is definitely my best result".

'She took a lot of convincing to be honest, but we've got there so let's hope that technology will be on our side and we'll have a fun year.'If fans of the Today show thought Nine's casting shakeup was over, they would be sorely mistaken.

According to insiders, the beleaguered breakfast show is set to welcome Steve Jacobs, 52, back to the panel next week as he resumes his old job as full-time weatherman, TV Blackbox reported on Wednesday.

Steve, who was the main weather presenter for Today between 2005 and 2017, will take the reigns from Natalia Cooper, who is currently away on maternity leave.

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Another Today shakeup! Weatherman Steve Jacobs, 52, will return to the embattled Nine breakfast show full-time next week

It is unknown whether Natalia will resume her position once she returns, however.

Natalia took over the job from Steve back in 2017, after he relocated to Vanuatu in a last-ditch effort to save his marriage to then-wife Rosie.

The couple called it quits within a the space of a few months, however, with Rosie telling News Corp last July that moving overseas only accelerated the demise of their marriage.

There's a familiar face! Steve (pictured) was the main weather presenter for Today between 2005 and 2017

Stepping into her shoes! Steve will take the reigns from Natalia Cooper (pictured), who is currently away on maternity leave

'It was worse because I was isolated without longstanding friends or family and without people who knew our history. So I had no one I could trust or talk to. And we were trying hard to make it work but in my heart I knew it wasnt and it was like treading water,' she told the publication.

Their split was a volatile one, with Rosie taking steps towards obtaining an AVO against the star, which she ultimately let lapse, and no charges were ever made.

Steve returned to Australia after the split and has since moved on with new girlfriend Emma Goody.

Splitsville: Steve (left) and former wife Rosie (right) called it quits within a the space of a few months after relocating to Vanuatu in 2018

Will Steve save the day? It's likely Nine bosses are hoping charismatic Steve (pictured) will help to win back viewers for Today following a disastrous start to the ratings period

It's likely Nine bosses are hoping charismatic Steve will help to win back viewers for Today following a disastrous start to the ratings period.

The embattled program averaged just 211,000 metro viewers in its first week featuring the new lineup, which was around 61,000 less than Channel Seven's Sunrise.

The outcome was recently described by News Corp as Today's 'lowest in 10 years'.She's known for her impeccable fashion sense.

And E! Australia host Ksenija Lukich looked simply sensational while attending the Flying Fish restaurant opening at Sydney's The Star on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old showed off her phenomenal figure in a figure-hugging Alice McCall dress, which featured a daring thigh split.

Thigh's the limit! Ksenija Lukich puts on a leggy display in a daring split dress as she attends restaurant opening at The Star in Sydney on Wednesday

Sporting a pair of classic black heels, Ksenija flaunted her long, slim legs while posing against a media wall upon her arrival.

With a material belt cinching her waist, the dress perfectly highlighted the model's feminine silhouette.

Ksenija accessorised with a pair of statement drop earrings and her diamond sparkler from husband Dan Bragg.

Keeping it chic! Ksenija accessorised her look minimally with a pair of statement drop ear rings and her diamond sparkler from husband Dan Bragg

Touch of luxury! Ksenija paired the designer ensemble with a black Saint Laurent handbag

She completed her look with a black Saint Laurent handbag.

The TV personality is clearly a fan of Alice McCall's designs, as she previously wore the same $390 Hachi dress while out with friends last month.

In an Instagram photo shared on December 29, she posed with five of her girlfriends, alongside the caption: 'Reunited with my honeys'.

So nice she wore it twice! The television personality clearly adores the design, as she already debuted the $390 Hachi dress by Alice McCall last month when out with friends

In the group photo, only the top half of her dress was visible, but it appeared to be an identical design.

The denim-look dress isn't new for Ksenija either, as she rocked a similar look by Alice McCall back in November.

In a photo posted to Instagram, she modelled a rather familiar looking skirt and crop top set worth $480.She is best known for playing Stephanie Scully on the long-running soap Neighbours.

And Carla Bonner, 45, sent her Instagram followers into a frenzy on Tuesday after sharing a throwback photo taken 21 years ago.

The mother-of-two was pictured aged 24 breastfeeding her second son Jhye, and her fans were gobsmacked by her ageless appearance.

'You never seem to get any older!' Former Neighbours star Carla Bonner, 45, left fans stunned on Tuesday after sharing a throwback photo (left) taken 21 years ago

'You never seem to get any older, still look fabulous!' one follower wrote.

Another commented: 'Wow and you don't look a day over 22.'

One of Carla's fans from the United Kingdom suggested she hasn't aged because of 'that Aussie sun'.

'This day 21 years ago my heart burst in overwhelming love': In the photo's caption, Carla shared a heartfelt tribute to her son Jhye on his 21st birthday

Ageless: Carla (pictured with Jhye recently) appears to have hardly aged a day in 21 years

In the photo's caption, Carla shared a heartfelt tribute to Jhye on his 21st birthday.

'This day 21 years ago my heart burst in overwhelming love with the arrival of my second beautiful son Jhye,' she began.

'Go forth and shine baby, dream big, this is the beginning of the rest of your life! I'm so proud of the hilarious, loving, huge hearted, compassionate, gorgeous human you are and [I am] so proud to be your mama. Happy 21st birthday my precious boy.'

Impressed: 'You never seem to get any older, still look fabulous!' one Instagram follower wrote

Speculation: One of Carla's fans from the UK said she hasn't aged because of 'that Aussie sun'

Mama's boys: Carla is mother to 21-year-old Jhye (centre) and 27-year-old Harley (left), who also starred on Neighbours

The Melbourne local is also mother to 27-year-old actor Harley Bonner.

After quitting Neighbours in 2010, Carla went on to star in Wentworth in 2013 and last year appeared on Superwog.

She briefly returned to Neighbours in 2015 before quitting the show for second time in May 2017.Sydney's PR maven Roxy Jacenko is letting it all hang out.

During a night out in Sydney on Tuesday, the businesswoman, 38, showed off her ample cleavage in a low-cut mini dress.

Sharing a photo to Instagram, the busty blonde proudly flaunted her best assets as she posed on her balcony before heading out to dinner.

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Busting out! PR queen Roxy Jacenko flaunted her surgically-enhanced cleavage in a very racy mini dress as she headed out on the town on Tuesday night

Clad in the embellished form-fitting frock, the mother-of-two also showcased a bronzed glow and flaunted her trim pins.

Roxy finished off her look with a pair of Christian Louboutin heels and a Bulgari box clutch.

'Casual Tuesday's in @glamcornerau,' she jokingly wrote.

New hair! The Sweaty Betty PR owner also revealed her new flaxen hair extensions, leaving her curly mane to cascade past her shoulders. Earlier that day, Roxy had been at exclusive Sydney hair salon Pierre Haddad Hair, who helped with her dramatic hair transformation

The Sweaty Betty PR owner also revealed her new flaxen hair extensions, leaving her curly mane to cascade past her shoulders.

Earlier that day, Roxy had been at exclusive Sydney hair salon Pierre Haddad Hair, who helped with her dramatic hair transformation.

It's not the first time, Roxy has flaunted her surgically-enhanced bust on Instagram.

Close-up! It's not the first time, Roxy has flaunted her surgically-enhanced bust on Instagram. Last year, she shared a photo of herself wearing a black and white snakeskin-print bra and a string of small white pearls

Last year, she shared a photo of herself wearing a black and white snakeskin-print bra and a string of small white pearls.

But the decidedly racy post was all for a good cause, as Roxy was promoting the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

It's a cause close to the publicity maven's heart, after she personally battled the life-threatening disease.

Support: The decidedly racy post was all for a good cause, as Roxy was promoting the Breast Cancer Network Australia

Roxy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 - just three weeks after her husband, Oliver Curtis, was imprisoned for insider trading.

'The timing is extraordinary,' Roxy told The Daily Telegraph at the time.

'What I have experienced in the past three weeks is the most shocking thing I have ever experienced. I dont think there is anything that could shock me more now.'

Roxy apparently discovered a lump in her left breast while showering, and underwent emergency treatment soon afterwards.

Her mother, Doreen Davis, is also a breast cancer survivor.She's known for pushing boundaries when it comes to her risque workout gear.

And Tammy Hembrow took advantage of a nearly-empty gym on Monday during her regular sweat session on the Gold Coast.

In a series of videos shared to Instagram, the 24-year-old fitness model demonstrated her eyebrow-raising exercise routine.

The perks of an empty gym! Instagram model Tammy Hembrow performed a racy workout routine in VERY revealing activewear on Monday

Tammy wore activewear from her own label, Saski Collection, including a skimpy black crop top and booty-hugging bike shorts.

The mother-of-two began with plank hip twists, positioning herself on all-fours and slightly raising her derriere before moving her hips from side to side.

She followed this with semi-circle crunches, with the maneuver highlighting her toned stomach and impressive core strength.

Daring display: In a series of videos shared to Instagram, the 24-year-old fitness model demonstrated her eyebrow-raising gym routine

First things first: The mother-of-two began with plank hip twists, positioning herself on all-fours and slightly raising her derriere before moving her hips from side to side

Putting on a show: Tammy wore activewear from her own label, Saski Collection, including a skimpy black crop top and booty-hugging bike shorts

Finally, Tammy demonstrated her twisting hanging leg raises using gym equipment.

While holding onto an overhead bar, she lifted up her legs while bending at the knees and keeping her thighs together.

She performed the motion at a leftwards angle, and then to the right, before repeating it several times.

Dedicated: She followed this with semi-circle crunches, with the maneuver demonstrating her toned stomach and impressive core strength

Leaving little to the imagination: Tammy is known for pushing boundaries when it comes to her risque workout gear

Meanwhile, the Hembrow family have been nicknamed 'Australia's Kardashians' thanks to their lavish lifestyles, exotic looks and massive social media followings.

It is even believed that Tammy, who shares two children with her ex-fiance Reece Hawkins, is considering relocating permanently from the Gold Coast to LA.

In a recent YouTube video, her sister Emilee Hembrow said: 'Tammy's trying to make us all move to LA... I just have mixed feelings [about it].'

Working up a sweat: Finally, Tammy demonstrated her twisting hanging leg raises using gym equipment

It's stretcher girl! Tammy, who is close friends with Khloe Kardashian, was a guest at Kylie Jenner's 21st birthday party in West Hollywood on Thursday, 9 August

Tammy, who is close friends with Khloe Kardashian, was a guest at Kylie Jenner's 21st birthday party in West Hollywood on Thursday, 9 August.

However, her evening didn't exactly go to plan.

After collapsing on the dancefloor at the Delilah nightclub, she was carried out of the venue face down on a stretcher shortly before midnight.Former Married At First Sight contestant Dean Wells has claimed producers portrayed him as a 'sexist misogynist' thanks to the show's editing.

Speaking to Wednesday's Daily Telegraph, Dean, 41, said: 'I have spoken out about the editing and the manipulation that goes on behind the scenes and the way they portrayed me.

'They pretty much did a number on me and portrayed me as a sexist misogynist a***hole, which is completely not true.'

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'The did a number on me': MAFS' Dean Wells (pictured) lashed out at the show's producers for 'making him look like a misogynist' on Tuesday

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Nine for comment.

Dean has been on the warpath about MAFS of late.

Last Wednesday, the reality TV star claimed he was forced to shut down his business and 'rebuild his entire career' after his devastating portrayal on the reality show.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, Dean (left), 41, said: 'I have spoken out about the editing and the manipulation that goes on behind the scenes and the way they portrayed me.' Dean is pictured with former MAFS 'wife' Tracey Jewel

Dean said he was painted as the show's 'villain' last year after plotting a so-called 'affair' with co-star Davina Rankin, 26, despite being paired with Tracey Jewel, 36.

The freelance creative director has now lashed out at producers, claiming he became the 'most hated man in the country' due to their 'bulls***' editing.

'It completely disrupted my life. It made me have to basically rebuild my whole career from scratch because all the things that were being said about me,' Dean said in a YouTube video.

Dead added: 'They pretty much did a number on me and portrayed me as a sexist misogynist a***hole, which is completely not true'

'I had to shut down my business and start from scratch and rebuild my whole life.'

Dean even compared his experience on MAFS to a bad dream.

Describing how his life spiralled after the show began airing, he said: 'The next thing you know, I was cast as the villain, as a sexist, misogynist violent a***hole, which was terrible because, first of all, I would never be violent towards a woman in any way.'

Speaking out: Last Wednesday, the reality TV star claimed he was forced to shut down his business and 'rebuild his entire career' after his devastating portrayal on the reality show

The Sydneysider then hit back at the show's promotional materials, which portrayed him as a domineering chauvinist who 'wants to be loved and honoured and obeyed'.

He raged: 'I would never say the word "obey". I believe that women can have careers and do whatever they want  it was nothing to do with what I was talking about.

'They paint me as this guy who wants a woman to obey him.'Advertisement

Train operator Amtrak says it is on the lookout for 'real people' willing to go on free long-distance train journeys and share their experiences on social media.

The competition - tagged #AmtrakTakeMeThere - closes at the end of the day on Thursday, US ET time, and entrants are being asked to convince the rail company why they deserve to take a trip on board a long-distance train.

But 'glitzy influencers' need not apply.

US train operator Amtrak says it is on the lookout for 'real people' who can share their long-distance train journey experiences on social media. Pictured is the Capitol Limited service that runs from Washington DC to Chicago via Pittsburgh and Cleveland

The operator has no quibbles about who it wants to take the trip. According to its website, entrants should be 'real people' who are specified as 'creatives, introverts, survivors, retirees'.

'Were not looking for glitzy influencers with millions of followers who quit their day job to travel the world,' the site continues. 'If youre interested, we hope youre a leader in your social media community, and your creativity and energy allows you to connect with your followers at a deeper level.

'You daydream about cross-country adventures, and as an unconventional traveler, you'd bring a diverse and unique perspective to travel. You feel like the #AmtrakTakeMeThere Social Media Residency is on track with your passions, and you could probably come up with a better train pun than that.'

The operator has no quibbles about who it wants to take the trip. According to its website, entrants should be 'real people' who are specified as 'creatives, introverts, survivors, retirees'. Pictured is the Coast Starlight service, which runs from Seattle to Los Angeles

Besides an ability to play with words, entrants are expected to use their submission as a platform for telling their own life stories.

They must maintain their 'train of thought', 'avoid tunnel vision' and 'choo-choos their words' carefully. It probably helps if participants like to 'let off steam' on their journey.

Wannabes must impress Amtrak with their answers to four questions to emerge the winner, to be announced by the rail company on 15 February.

The website asks entrants to tell the train operator a little about themselves (their story), how they use social media to engage with their online community, how train travel could better fit with their travel needs than other conventional methods and why they want to travel with Amtrak.

Amtrak runs more than 30 train routes throughout the United States and Canada, travelling to more than 500 destinations in 46 US states.Every week our Holiday Hero NEIL SIMPSON takes an in-depth look at a holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you dont have to.

This week, he explores the wonderful world of club lounges in hotels...

Walk through the doors of a hotel club lounge and youre walking into a secret hotel within a hotel.

Bright spot: The spacious lounge at Londons Langham Hotel, where guests eat food by Michel Roux Jr

In the mornings, youll see guests enjoying a private breakfast far from the crowds in the main restaurant. After lunch, they can take afternoon tea  for free. And in the evening, there are usually canapes and cocktails.

Its all on the house and reserved for a limited number of lucky guests. Heres whats on offer  and how to join the club.

Life in the lounge: Club lounges vary and the best are spectacular. The newly refurbished, two-storey lounge on the 30th and 31st floors of the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong is billed as the worlds best.

Guests rave about visits, starting their day with a full breakfast at sunrise and ending it with champagne and stunning views at night.

At the Langham Hotel in London, the free food comes from Albert Roux and Michel Roux Jr  and staff offer complimentary clothes-pressing so you can enjoy it in style.

At the Hamilton Princess in Bermuda, the lounge also has sofas on a private terrace overlooking the marina, and the club lounge at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida, often becomes the club beach, with hammocks reserved by the sea.

In almost every club lounge there are quiet areas and business facilities, such as high-speed wi-fi and printers.

You can always expect lounges at the big chains such as Hyatt, Sheraton and Hilton. But they are increasingly offered at mid-range hotels too, including Radisson-Blu and Sofitel.

How do I join? Sign up to a hotel loyalty scheme, build up enough points and you can access the lounge for free. The Hilton scheme is one of the most generous, though frequent travellers also like Accors scheme for allowing points to be converted into Avios points. InterContinental (which includes Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza) and Starwood (Marriott and Westin brands) also have hotel-branded credit cards so you can earn points as you shop.

Sea view: The lounge at the Hamilton Princess in Bermuda has sofas on a private terrace

If you dont have enough points to get into the lounge, and the hotel is quiet, some allow you to pay for entry. It starts at about 40 per person per day, depending on the hotel and the day of the week.

Book ahead: When choosing a hotel room, see if there is a club bedroom available, with lounge access included. They normally cost about a third more than standard rooms, with the best deals at weekends when there are fewer business travellers. Club rooms often have extras such as Nespresso machines, faster wi-fi and a later checkout.

The bottom line: The most lavish lounges are in the Far East, Middle East and Europe. In many American hotels, you can be charged for alcohol at night. But in costly cities you can still save by snacking in a lounge rather than heading out to a restaurant  many solo travellers say they prefer eating in a lounge rather than at a table for one elsewhere.

Last minute: If you dont arrange access in advance, and if youre not in a loyalty scheme, industry insiders say you should always sign up if youre offered the chance at reception. When the standard rooms are overbooked, staff may have a number of lounge access rooms to fill and offer those to guests.Matriarch Barbara Doran says the family are 'very frightened'

THE MATRIARCH

The matriarch of the unruly clan being hunted by outraged Facebook vigilantes is grandmother Barbara Doran, 55.

Mrs Doran has told Daily Mail Australia that she is too scared to sleep at night.

The family feel they are being 'tortured' by the public and insist they have done nothing wrong.

'I'm very, very frightened, honestly,' Mrs Doran said.

THE RED BULL THIEF

Tina Marie Cash faced a New Zealand court last week and pleaded guilty to theft charges relating to a stolen Red Bull, rope and sunglasses.

WHERE ARE THEY FROM?

The family has lived in various caravan parks around the East Midlands in the UK.

Neighbours, who claim the family lived on the Washingborough Road caravan site in Lincoln, say one of the men left the area two years ago 'to escape trouble'.

He is believed to have then moved to a second site in Bitteswell, Leicestershire, where he lived for a brief period.

A neighbour, who knows the family, told MailOnline: 'We are family and we stick together.

'Everything that's been said about them in New Zealand isn't true. They are a good family.'

One member of the family has bizarrely claimed they are related to Britain's 10th richest man.The leader of the far-right group Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, visited Roger Stone at his Florida home and wore a t-shirt professing the Trump ally's innocence.

Tarrio, 34, showed up at Stone's Fort Lauderdale house wearing a black t-shirt which reads on the front: ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG!

The image on the back of the shirt shows the face of late President Richard Nixon, Stone's idol. Underneath the photo of Nixon reads: IF I WEREN'T EFFECTIVE YOU WOULDN'T HATE ME.

The image beneath that shows a cartoon figure depicting Stone wearing his trademark striped suit and making a victory sign with his fingers while his hands are outstretched at opposite ends.

Roger Stone received a visitor at his Florida home on Sunday who came to show support for President Trump's longtime ally following his arrest - Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio

Tarrio, 34, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys movement, showed up at Stone's Fort Lauderdale home wearing a black t-shirt which reads on the front: ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG!

The image on the back shows the face of Richard Nixon. Underneath the photo of Nixon reads: IF I WEREN'T EFFECTIVE YOU WOULDN'T HATE ME. The image beneath that shows a cartoon figure depicting Stone wearing his trademark striped suit and making a victory sign

The victory sign was made famous by Nixon who flashed it regularly during his political career.

The t-shirt is a gimmick produced by a web site which Stone hopes will raise money for his legal bills.

'Friends, I need your help,' Stone writes on the web site.

'Despite a lack of evidence of Russian Collusion, Wikileaks collaboration or any other illegal activity in the 2016 election, long time Trump advisor Roger Stone has been targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Tarrio is seen above walking into the home on Sunday afternoon. He has been the leader of Proud Boys since Gavin McInnes resigned in November

'Mueller seeks to criminalize normal political activities by Roger Stone while ignoring the blatantly illegal activities of the Clinton campaign and the Obama NSA, DOJ and FBI.

'Roger Stone refuses to be pressured into testifying against President Trump.

'His legal fees in this epic fight could top $2million, threatening to destroy him and his family.

'Please help us. Everything will be used to help defray the costs of keeping up the battle against those that would silence Roger Stone and turn him against President Trump.'

Tarrio succeeded Gavin McInnes, the co-founder of Vice Media, as the leader of the controversial group.

In November, McInnes announced his resignation from the group after it was learned that FBI officials told local authorities in Clark County, Washington State that the Proud Boys was an 'extremist' organization with 'ties to White Nationalism'.

Days later, the top FBI agent in Oregon contradicted the assessment given to Clark County officials.

Special Agent in Charge Renn Cannon told reporters in Portland that the bureau did not designate Proud Boys as an extremist organization, according to The Oregonian.

Cannon said that the information given to Clark County authorities 'tried to characterize the potential threat from individuals within that group.'

He clarified that while the bureau does not designate organizations, it will investigate any alleged conspiracies to commit crimes.

'We do not intend and did not intend to designate the group as extremist,' he said.

The tattoo of Nixon is identical to the one on Stone's back (seen in the above undated file photo). Stone is known to be an admirer of the disgraced late President

The t-shirt is a gimmick produced by a web site which Stone hopes will raise money for his legal bills. Tarrio is seen above wearing the shirt on Sunday

McInnes quit as leader of the men-only, self-described 'Western chauvinist' group weeks after nine members were arrested by the New York Police Department for their involvement in a brawl with antifa activists on the Upper East Side of Manhattan

McInnes quit as leader of the men-only, self-described 'Western chauvinist' group weeks after nine members were arrested by the New York Police Department for their involvement in a brawl with antifa activists on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Three antifa members were also arrested, though there was criticism of the NYPD because it waited until days later to arrest the Proud Boys members.

The October 12 brawl took place outside of a club where McInnes was invited to address a group of Republicans.

The willingness of Republicans to invite the leader of a group denounced as a hate organization and 'neo-fascist' also sparked outrage among liberals.

Proud Boys has also been behind numerous acts of political violence across the country, authorities say.

'The FBI has warned local law enforcement agencies that the Proud Boys are actively recruiting in the Pacific north-west,' the FBI said in a November memo.

'Proud Boys members have contributed to the recent escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses, and in cities like Charlottesville, Virginia, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.'

Nine 'Proud Boys' members arrested after brawl in New York Then-Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes held a rally for around 50 people at the vandalized Manhattan GOP headquarters on October 12. After the rally was over, a number of bare-knuckle fights broke out with members of Antifa. The combatants were wrestling one another on the sidewalk. The New York Police Department arrested three Antifa members on the night of the scuffle, but did not arrest anyone from Proud Boys. Days later, the NYPD reviewed surveillance footage which led to the arrest and indictment of nine members of Proud Boys. Proud Boys members are seen above assaulting an anti-racist protester on Manhattan's Upper East Side on October 12 The brawl took place after the group's then-leader, Gavin McInnes, addressed a group of Manhattan Republicans On the night of the incident, the NYPD arrested three people involved in the brawl, but no Proud Boys members. Police later used footage and arrested nine members of Proud Boys All 12 were charged with various counts of rioting, assault, and attempted assault. 'Followed the Proud Boys as they left the event,' photojournalist Shay Horse tweeted after the incident. 'About 1-2 blocks away a 30 (proud boys) vs. 3 fight broke out.' 'It ended with 30 proud boys pummeling a guy on the ground screaming, 'ARE YOU BRAVE NOW F****t?!' he wrote. McInnes managed to drive off without getting arrested, witnesses told the New York Daily News. No serious injuries were reported. The Proud Boys posed for a picture on the street before going to an East Side bar, he tweeted, adding that 'many fights were happening at once.' The fight broke out just before 9pm on Third Avenue and East 84th Street where vandals sprayed anarchy symbols on its doors. About 80 protesters showed up at the club on Friday night chanting, 'No racists, no KKK, no fascist USA' and holding signs and banners, including some opposing white supremacy. The three men, Finbarr Slonim, 20, and Caleb Perkins, 35, both of the Upper East Side and Kai Russo, 20, of Brooklyn, were charged with robbery, harassment and assault. It was later learned they were there to protest Proud Boys. Councilman Rory Lancman said in a statement that he was outraged that no Proud Boys members ended up in handcuffs despite being seen fighting while police stood nearby. 'It is revolting to see white supremacists commit a hate crime on the streets of New York City  in full view of the NYPD  and for none of them to be arrested or prosecuted,' Lancman said. 'We have seen this in other cities, but it is shocking to see it here.' 'Hateful and violent behavior has no place in New York City, and those responsible must be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.' Advertisement

McInnes has even encouraged violence. He was once quoted as saying: 'Fighting olves everything.'

He announced his resignation from Proud Boys just days after the arrest of the group's members in New York.

'I am told by my legal team and law enforcement that this gesture could help alleviate their sentencing,' McInnes said at the time.

McIness and Proud Boys have denied the label 'alt-right' as well as ties to white nationalism or white supremacism.

'The alt-right advocates for an all-white ethnostate, something we have never done at any point,' the Proud Boys said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'And our chairman, and countless Proud Boys of color in the group being there is proof of that.'

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit which monitors hate groups in America, accuses Proud Boys of propagating racist, Islamophobic, misogynistic, and homophobic rhetoric.

McInnes has been quoted as saying that immigrants bring a 'rape culture' to America and that Muslims have a 'problem with inbreeding.'

He has also said that Muslims are 'stupid' and 'the only thing they really respect is violence and being tough.'

Since taking over for McInnes, Tarrio has vowed that the group will not change its behavior.

'Were just, basically, a group of guys that hang out and drink beer together and just have a good time,' he told Heavy.

'Obviously, were a political group but thats secondary in nature.

'We just enjoy our time with our brotherhood.'

Tarrio was spotted walking into Stone's house just hours after the Stone, the self-described political dirty trickster, did not rule out cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation after vowing he would not turn on President Donald Trump.

'That's a question I'll have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion,' he told ABC's 'This Week.' 'If there is wrongdoing, I know of none, but if there is, I would testify honestly.'

He added: 'Id also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. Its true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, theyre benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.'

Stone, 66, was charged on Friday with lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election bid. He said after his arraignment he would not 'bear false witness against the president.'

On Sunday, he slammed the charges as 'thin as p*** on a rock.'

'Im prepared to fight for my life,' he told ABC News.

Earlier on Sunday, Stone did not rule out cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller

Roger Stone, flashing a victory sign after his court appearance, said he's innocent

Roger Stone is seen outside of his Florida home on Sunday after his ABC interview, flashing a victory sign

He has proclaimed his innocence.

Mueller's team charged Stone with five counts of lying to Congress, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, and one count of witness tampering.

Stone said he has not spoken to the president about the Russia investigation.

'Have you ever had any conversations with the president during the campaign or since the campaign about Russia or the Mueller investigation?' ABC anchor George Stephanopolous asked him.

'None whatsoever,' Stone replied.. 'Categorically. ... Zero. Zero.'

He also said he has not asked the president for a pardon.

'I have never asked for a pardon,' he said.

Stone is a long time GOP operative who has been friends with Trump for years. He served as an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign. He left on August 8, 2015 amid controversy, with he claiming he quit and Trump claiming he was fired. But he stayed in touch with the campaign after he formally left.

He downplayed questions on whether he was concerned President Trump seemed to distanced himself from their relationship.

'I never discussed these matters with the president and everything that I did regarding trying to get as much public attention to the Wikileaks disclosures among voters, among the media is constitutionally protected free speech. That's what I engaged in. It's called politics and they havent criminalized it, at least not yet,' he told ABC.

On Saturday night the president took to Twitter to say: 'Roger Stone didn't even work for me anywhere near the Election! WITCH HUNT!'

Roger Stone outside his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home

The indictment does not charge Stone with crimes directly related to Russia or with conspiracy to skew the 2016 election, but with what legal experts call 'process crimes'  lying to investigators and trying to tamper with their work after being asked about contacts he claimed to have with WikiLeaks around the time the anti-privacy group published thousands of stolen emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Stone told ABC he will tell the court that any 'error in memory was without intent.'

'I am human and I did make some errors but they're errors that would be inconsequential within the scope of this investigation,' he said.

He said repeatedly during his interview that he used publicly available information to make his claims during the 2016 campaign.

'All I did was take publicly available information and try to hype it to get it as much attention as possible, because I had a tip, the information was politically significant and that it would come in October,' he said.

The indictment also alleges that a top Trump campaign official instructed Stone to get information from WikiLeaks about hacked Democratic email ahead of the 2016 election.

Stone claims that official is Rick Gates, who is cooperating with Mueller's investigation, and whom Stone claims is seeking a reduction in his sentence.'

He said he never talked about the subject with Gates.

'I never spoke about this matter with Rick Gates. But Im mindful of the special counsel's ability to induce people to say things that are not true, particularly people who are seeking a reduction in their sentence or people who have an ax to grind,' he said.

Robert Mueller and his team asked for Stone's indictment to be sealed until he was arrested

Agents wearing body armor and drawing their weapons swarmed Stone's home in a posh south Florida neighborhood on Friday morning after the indictment was unsealed

Courtroom sketches from Friday morning show Roger Stone in handcuffs as he was led in, and then standing behind a podium next to his lawyer

FBI agents clad in bulletproof vests arrived at Stone's Fort Lauderdale mansion with guns drawn on Friday morning after Mueller unsealed a seven-count indictment from a grand jury impaneled in his sprawling probe of Russian election meddling.

Mueller asked a judge Thursday to keep Stone's indictment sealed until his arrest, arguing that 'law enforcement believes that publicity resulting from disclosure will increase the risk of the defendant.

The special counsel has been investigating Stone for any communications with Wikileaks during the 2016 campaign.

He blasted the FBI for their treatment of him during his arrest in the pre-dawn hours on Friday.

'I think the way I was treated on Thursday was extraordinary and I think the American people need to hear about it,' he told ABC News.

'This was an attempt to poison the jury pool,' he charged. 'These are Gestapo tactics.'

He noted he would have turned himself in if asked.

'They simply could have called my lawyers and I would have turned myself in,' he said.

Stone appeared in court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Friday morning. He was freed on bond.

Stone emerged from the federal court building flashing a V-for victory with both hands raised, Richard Nixon-style, after appearing in front of a judge Friday afternoon.

He addressed scores of reporters outside the court to say: 'I am falsely accused' while protesters around him shouted 'lock him up' and supporters chanted 'Roger! Roger!'

Donald Trump, left, has now tried to distance himself from indicted Roger Stone, right, saying he 'never even worked for me near the election'

'I will plead not guilty to the charges,' Stone said, shouting over the protests. 'I will defeat them in court. I believe this is a politically motivated investigation.'

He added: 'There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself. I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated.'

Wikileaks, shortly before the Democratic National Convention in 2016, posted hacked emails from officials.

The emails revealed how the party was working to secure Hillary Clinton's nomination over that of primary challenger Bernie Sanders and resulted in then Democratic National Convention Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning her post.

During the presidential campaign, Stone publicly bragged about having 'backchannel communications' with Julian Assange and, in multiple occasions, appeared to predict the WikiLeaks releases.

Since then, Stone has walked back those claims.

He said his claims were exaggerations based on public information, as well as tips from New York radio host Randy Credico.

In the indictment, Stone is charged with tampering with Credico, including tell him to do a 'Frank Pentageli' in his congressional testimony.

Frank Pentageli i a character in the film "The Godfather Part II" who testified before a congressional committee that he does not know critical information that he does in fact know.

Stone said that conversation was a joke between the two men.

'Mr. Credico is an impressionist. He does Humphrey Bogart. He does Jack Nicholson. He does Richard Nixon. He does Bill Clinton. The exchange we talked about is Roger Stone this, Roger Stone that. Roger Stone was in the olive oil business with my father but that was a long time ago. It has to be seen in context. It is a humorous exchange,' he said.

'So theyre taking things out of context, present them in a light that it mischaracterized their significance. I never told Mr. Credico to lie. I did - at one point when he said my liberal friends will be very upset, my progressive friends will be upset if they believe I was helping you because they would think I was helping Trump - it was only in that context that the Fifth Amendment protections were discussed,' he added.Theresa May fears rebel Tory MPs will this week write a 'blank cheque' to Parliament which could allow Brexit to be delayed for a year or longer  or even stopped entirely.

The Commons is due to vote tomorrow on various amendments  including one to seize power from ministers and hand it to backbench MPs so they can influence the timing of Britain's departure.

Supporters of the plan  led by Labour's Yvette Cooper and former Tory minister Nick Boles  say the amendment is designed to stop a damaging No Deal exit, as it would postpone the March 29 leaving date by nine months if a deal is not secured by February 26.

But Downing Street insiders are pleading with MPs not to support the proposal, warning that the Bill could be changed later to delay Brexit indefinitely.

Instead Mrs May is pinning her hopes on an amendment tabled by senior Tory MP Graham Brady, which would endorse her deal on the condition she can overhaul the controversial Irish border backstop.

Boris Johnson heaped pressure on the PM today by urging her to demand a 'freedom clause' in the backstop, that would either involve a time limit it or unilateral exit.

However, he said that meant rewriting the text of the Withdrawal Agreement - something the EU is adamant will not happen.

Theresa May (pictured returning to Downing Street today) is desperately struggling to hold her Cabinet together and fend off a Remainer bid to force a Brexit delay in crunch Commons votes

Supporters of the plan  led by Labour's Yvette Cooper (left) and former Tory minister Nick Boles (right) say the amendment is designed to stop a damaging No Deal exit

What is the Plan B vote the PM is 'betting her house on' today and what will it mean if it passes? What is happening? Because Theresa May's Brexit deal was defeated, the law says she must tell Parliament what her Plan B is. This has to be done in a motion to the Commons, which will be voted on by MPs on Tuesday night. That motion can be re-written by MPs if they table amendments and win a vote in favour of them. Some amendments have already been tabled and MPs can keep producing them until Monday night. What does May's plan say? It promises more cross-party working, renews commitments to protecting workers' rights after Brexit and says the PM will ask Brussels for more concessions on the backstop. It it based on the current deal that was crushed by 230 votes last week. What do the main amendments say? Jeremy Corbyn's amendment says Parliament should vote on 'options' including a renegotiation of the deal to get a permanent customs union and for a second referendum. A cross party amendment from Yvette Cooper and Nicky Morgan seeks to block no deal by giving time to a draft law that would require the Government to delay Brexit if a deal has not been agreed by February 26. It upturns normal convention by putting a backbench MP's Bill ahead of Government plans. An amendment from Tory rebel Dominic Grieve seeks to set up weekly debates that would mean regular votes on what to do in the absence a deal. His amendments sets aside six named days for the debates - including as late as March 26. The Government also appears to be encouraging MPs to back amendment from two senior Tory MPs. One from Andrew Murrison would effectively set a time limit on the backstop of December 31, 2021. Another amendments tabled by Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 committee, would effectively eradicate the backstop and demand the EU and UK find other solutions. Some ministers hope that if these amendment receive strong support it will pile pressure on the EU to make concessions on the backstop - which Brexiteers fear the UK will be stuck in forever, and the DUP believes risks splitting the union. What would the vote do? Legally nothing - but if the Commons votes in favour of a clear way forward by a majority it will be a major political signal of what might happen. Is it a new 'meaningful vote' that can approve May's deal? No. At some point, the PM will have to stage a repeat of last week's vote to get explicit approval from MPs to go ahead with her deal if she wants it to survive. Advertisement

Appealing for MPs to shun the Cooper amendment, a senior No10 source said: 'Leaving aside the constitutional concerns around the Cooper Bill, it is clear from Yvette Cooper's comments that backing her Bill means signing a blank cheque when it comes to delaying Brexit.

'It could mean Brexit is delayed for nine months, a year, or more. It also opens the door to Brexit not happening at all.' The warning came amid signs that Tory ministers who threatened to quit over a No Deal were stepping back from the brink.

Last week Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd suggested she could resign from Cabinet unless ministers were given a free vote on the anti-No Deal bill, adding privately that dozens of ministers could do the same.

Theresa May, pictured, fears rebel Tory MPs will this week write a 'blank cheque' to Parliament which could delay Brexit

But the Mail understands many have been reassured they will have an opportunity to stop No Deal at a later point.

Chancellor Philip Hammond and Mrs May's effective deputy David Lidington have told them to keep their powder dry.

The source said: 'We don't think there will be fireworks this week. I don't think there will be mass resignations.

'People are working hard to make sure amendments go down that keep the party together.'

Yesterday Mr Lidington argued this week's vote was not the 'final decision point' and insisted MPs will have another 'meaningful vote' on Mrs May's deal next month once she has been back to Brussels.

He wrote in the Observer: 'If Parliament wishes to avoid No Deal, I have no doubt it will find ways to express a view in the coming weeks.'

The Cooper amendment has won the backing of nearly ten Tory MPs  all voted Remain in 2016 and several back a second referendum.

Labour is also expected to whip its MPs to support it. Yesterday Miss Cooper told the Andrew Marr show that her Bill 'gives Parliament the option to decide how long [the delay] should be' and that it was 'not about blocking Brexit'.

Under her proposal, Mrs May would be forced to ask the EU for an extension to Article 50 if she fails to secure a deal.Russia has denied sending 'mercenaries' to Venezuela as the country's Moscow-backed President Nicolas Maduro battles to hold on to power.

The Kremlin has faced claims that up to 400 private military contractors had travelled to South America to shore up Maduro's weakening grip on the country.

But Russia's government, which backs Maduro and has previously supplied tanks to Venezuela, today denied the claims.

Maduro is facing a challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido who last week declared himself interim President.

Last night Guaido called for a new round of protests against Maduro on Wednesday and Saturday, and demanded new elections.

A Russian-made T72 tank takes part in military exercises at Fort Paramacay in Venezuela today. The Kremlin has denied claims that 400 'mercenaries' have been sent to the country

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, centre, speaks to the country's defence minister during a military exercise today as he battles to hold on to power

Washington has recognised Guaido's claim to power and Europe has threatened to follow suit if Maduro does not call fresh elections.

But Russia, along with China, Iran and Turkey, has backed Maduro against what they regard as a coup attempt.

A self-proclaimed Cossack leader close to army veterans had said a private military contractors group recently returned from Gabon.

The Russian ambassador to Caracas also dismissed reports of Russian mercenaries in Venezuela.

The group had 'urgently' got together '400 people' to send to Caracas via Cuba to assist Maduro, he claimed.

Asked whether Russian mercenaries were in Venezuela, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded: 'No of course not.'

Maduro is facing a challenge to his authority from opposition leader Juan Guaido (pictured at a Mass in Caracas on Sunday) who last week declared himself interim President

Yesterday Maduro appeared at a military exercise in the state of Carabobo where he called for 'union, discipline and cohesion' to defeat what he called an 'attempted coup d'etat.'

Rejecting the call for new elections, Maduro said: 'Venezuela is not tied to Europe. This is complete insolence.'

The military has so far remained largely loyal to Maduro but opposition leader Guaido has tried to persuade them to switch sides.

Guaido called for a 'peaceful' strike Wednesday to paralyze the country followed by a 'big national and international rally' Saturday.

Earlier Venezuela's military attache to Washington Jose Luis Silva broke ranks with Maduro and urged his 'brothers in the military' to bcak Guaido.

The crisis has erupted after Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a disputed election victory last year.

Pope Francis, winding up a trip to Panama, said Sunday he was praying that 'a just and peaceful solution is reached to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights.'Advertisement

A shocking photograph of Aboriginal men lined up, shackled with heavy chains around their necks, and being guarded by white men armed with rifles is just one of many confronting images captured in the late 1800s.

Black and white photos have emerged showing the cruel treatment of Indigenous Australians at the hands of white settlers in the late 1900s.

Other harrowing pictures depict Aboriginal men and boys chained together, standing or sitting, wearing just a cloth around their waists.

Aboriginals lined up, shackled by neck chains and wearing just a pair of briefs with white men standing guard, pictured with a huge rifle is just one many chilling images that have emerged

The shocking black and white photos showcase the cruel ways Aboriginal people were treated from the late 1890s

Huge groups of Aboriginal men and boys are pictured chained together, standing or sitting, wearing just a cloth around their waist, as white police men and 'Aboriginal trackers' stand beside them with four rifles

Aboriginal prisoners (pictured) were chained and forced to lay a railway near Derby, Western Australia, about 1897

The photos, taken between 1890 and the 1930s, show Aboriginal prisoners being captured moments after being caught committing petty crimes such as killing cattle.

The raw images show rows of chained Indigenous people standing under the shade of a tree with police men and 'Aboriginal trackers' pictured with four huge rifles.

Police were paid per indigenous prisoner and cruelly brought them into jail using chains.

While some Aboriginal prisoners are captured working on a boat, other prisoners were forced to lay railways in Derby, Western Australia.

In early Australia, incarceration was used as a tool to weaken the Aboriginal Australians and they were often arrested for petty crimes such as stealing and killing cattle.

The confronting collection of photographs show Aboriginal prisoners across the country, from on board ships to working on wharf rail lines and chained to railway wagons.

Some Aboriginal prisoners are captured on a boat (pictured) while other prisoners were forced to lay railways

Police were paid per indigenous prisoner and cruelly brought them into jail using chains where they were forced to work

In early Australia, incarceration was used as a tool to weaken the Aboriginal people and were often arrested for petty crimes

The haunting collection of photographs show Aboriginal people chained, captioned 'Native Prisoners on N.2', in about 1930

A chilling image shows one lonely Aboriginal man (pictured) standing in chains as he leans against a tree with a piece corrugated iron at the stump of the tree as well as a hat and pile of cloth

One of the photos is captioned 'native prisoners on N2', which is believed to be a ship, shows 12 Aboriginal men lined up with chains to their necks, dressed in rags.

Two white men were photographed leading one Indigenous prisoner by a chain alongside three horses and whip in hand around 1910.

At least 22 Aboriginal prisoners are seen to be chained together while standing in a shallow river of water wearing a cloth around the groin region.

Another image shows white man dressed in shirt and trousers holding a chain connected to two elderly Indigenous prisoners

Hundreds of Aboriginal prisoners were captured and chained, forced to work on many projects including laying rails

Two white men are pictured with three horses, with one of them leading an Aboriginal man by a chain to his neck

At least 20 Indigenous Australians were photographed standing in a shallow river, all chained together (pictured)

Haunting photos show the disturbing history and abuse of aboriginal people in the early twentieth century (pictured 1930)

Another image shows a white man dressed in a shirt and trousers holding a chain that is connected to two elderly looking Indigenous prisoners.

A chilling image shows one lonely Aboriginal man standing in chains as he leans against a tree with a piece corrugated iron at the stump of the tree as well as a hat and pile of cloth.

A line of Indigenous men were photographed at the turn of the century wearing chains during their transit to jail, surrounded by what appears to be white first class citizens.

Australia is marking their ten year anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

One decade ago, the declaration was passed to combat the discrimination, marginalisation and human rights violations of the 370 million Indigenous people living in more than seventy countries today

A line of Indigenous men were photographed at the turn of the century wearing chains during their transit to jail (pictured)

At least 30 Aboriginal prisoners are pictured chained together being led to Cossack Goal in Western Australia around 1902

Shocking images of entrapped Indigenous Australians serve as a reminder of the dark past and oppression that was suffered

The haunting photos show the disturbing history and abuse of aboriginal people in the early twentieth century.

Australia is marking their ten year anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

One decade ago, the declaration was passed to combat the discrimination, marginalisation and human rights violations of the 370 million Indigenous people living in more than seventy countries today.

A decade since this landmark legislation, shocking images of entrapped Indigenous Australians emerged, serving as a reminder of the dark past and oppression that was suffered.The number of Tinder-related police call-outs has more than doubled in the last three years, official figures show.

Police now receive more than 20 reports a week linked to the online dating app. As recently as 2015, police had about eight Tinder-related calls a week, or a total of 442.

Police figures indicate this rose to 1,087 in 2018  although as not every force provided a full set of figures, the true total is likely to be even higher.

The statistics come after teaching assistant Anna Rowe, 44, revealed how she went to the police after being duped into an affair with a married father she met on Tinder.

He had even used the same picture of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan on his Tinder account, allowing him to continue lying to his family without the risk of being caught out.

Anna Rowe, 44, pictured left, was duped into an affair with a married father she met on Tinder 'Antony Ray'. He used an image of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan as his profile picture (right)

Ms Rowe, from Canterbury, Kent, spoke to 'Anthony Ray' for six months before he disappeared and she now wants the Government to make posing as someone online to forge a fake relationship illegal.

The jump in reports follows a spate of high-profile crimes in which fraudsters, rapists and killers have used the smartphone app to trawl for victims.

Deceived by a married man A teaching assistant went to police after being duped into an affair with a married father she met on Tinder. Anna Rowe, 44, met 'Antony Ray' on the app in 2015 and exchanged thousands of messages with him before meeting in person. He told her he had been divorced for 15 months but was in fact still married and using separate phones to hide his affairs from his family. He had even used the same picture of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan on his Tinder account, allowing him to continue lying to his family without the risk of being caught out. He vanished after six months, claiming to be looking after his ill mother. Miss Rowe, from Canterbury, alerted police to his activities but he was never arrested. She now wants the Government to make posing as someone else online to forge a fake relationship illegal. The act is known as 'catfishing', after a film and TV series which documents the phenomenon. Advertisement

Forces did not specify the nature of the incidents logged, but previous research has found that around a third of crimes involving dating apps are sexual assaults and rapes.

Freedom of information requests sent to every British police force found Devon and Cornwall to have the most Tinder-related call-outs, with 86 in the year to December 10.

Assuming they continued to receive calls at the same rate, this would have risen to 91 by the year's end.

Essex and the West Midlands were close behind with 84 and 83 respectively, based on similar calculations.

Many incidents occurred on public transport, with British Transport Police recording 51 calls in 2018.

A number of forces did not respond to the request, while others did not provide figures for the entire year, meaning the true scale of the problem is likely to be even greater than the data suggests.

The changing face of dating  and the associated risks  have prompted some innovative responses by police.

Avon and Somerset police placed its own 'lonely hearts' listing on Tinder in 2015  using the name Bobby  to warn users to stay safe when meeting strangers.

Grace Millane, the 22-year-old backpacker murdered in New Zealand last year, is believed to have met her alleged killer on Tinder.

Miss Millane, from Essex, went missing in December and was found dead in parkland near Auckland. Jesse Kempson, 26, was arrested for her murder but denied the charge in court last week.

Grace Millane, 22, pictured, is believed to have met her alleged killer on Tinder last year

Serial con-artist Kris Lyndsay, from St Austell in Cornwall, was jailed for four years in 2016 after using Tinder to swindle women.

Lyndsay conned his victims out of 13,000 before he was jailed.

He told them he had lost his wife and daughter in a car crash to win their trust and boasted about his fictitious businesses.

Mother-of-two Annemarie Fletcher, from Glastonbury in Somerset, parted with a watch and diamond ring worth 40,000 after he claimed he was having cash flow issues at work.

In 2017, Jonathan Frame was jailed for 18 months following a similar scam. The 32-year-old from Swinton, Greater Manchester, would take control of his partners' bank accounts to fund a lavish lifestyle. He admitted defrauding two women of 6,990.Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday said special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment against Roger Stone is 'pretty damning' and that the close confident of President Donald Trump is in 'very grave danger.'

'I think if he decides to go to trial, he's in very, very grave danger,' Christie said of Stone on ABC's 'This Week.'

'The indictment I think is a pretty damning indictment,' he added.

Chris Christie said special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment against Roger Stone is 'pretty damning' and Stone is in 'very grave danger'

Roger Stone was arrested and charged Friday on seven counts, including lying to Congress

Stone, 66, was charged on Friday with lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election bid.

Mueller's team charged Stone with five counts of lying to Congress, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, and one count of witness tampering.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was blunt in his assessment of Stone's chances.

'He's got a problem. Because they've got all these e-mails and text messages that he created that tell a pretty clear story. And I think it's going to be very difficult for a jury to listen to that and conclude that it wasn't what he was trying to do,' he said.

Christie, who headed Trump's transition team until he was fired and has been considered for several top jobs in the president's administration, said it would not be politically viable for Trump to pardon his longtime friend.

'I think the president understands the limits of politics, he's understanding it even more. And I think he knows that those kind of pardons would not be politically viable,' he said.

Stone said earlier on the ABC Sunday show he has not asked the president for a pardon.

'I have never asked for a pardon,' he said.

The self-described political dirty trickster also did not rule out cooperating Mueller's Russia investigation.

'That's a question I'll have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion,' Stone told ABC News. 'If there is wrongdoing, I know of none, but if there is, I would testify honestly.'

He added: 'I'd also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. It's true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, they're benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia.'

Stone slammed the charges as 'thin as p*** on a rock.'

'Im prepared to fight for my life,' he told ABC News.

Christie disagreed with Stone's argument.

'The fact of the matter is that every white collar defendant in this circumstance, when theyre confronted with a bunch of documents of their own making try to say that they're out of context. If I had a nickel for every time I had a defendant tell me, when I was U.S. attorney, it was out of context, Id be a rich guy and Im not,' he said.

And Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, came on 'This Week' after Stone and said 'I think he's going to need a much better defense than the one you just heard.'

Schiff said his panel had tried to get information about the activities of the Trump campaign during the 2016 contest that they could not obtain but Mueller had.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Stone is 'going to need a much better defense than the one you just heard'

Roger Stone flashed the 'V' for victory sign when he returned to his Florida home after appearing on ABC News

'Bob Mueller has the advantage of a lot of evidence that we don't. We were really circumscribed at what we could look at. For example, we wanted to try to compel some of the witnesses that Mr. Stone alluded to, to come in and testify. We wanted to try to test what Don Jr. and others were telling us. We wanted to get phone records. We couldn't do that but Bob Mueller has been able to do that,' he said.

He added that if there will be a collusion indictment, it will be the last indictment Mueller files in his investigation.

'If there is a conspiracy to defraud the United States, a collusion indictment, it would be the last indictment that Bob Mueller would seek, not the first. So we'll have to wait to see what evidence he produces,' he noted.

The indictment against Stone does not charge him with crimes directly related to Russia or with conspiracy to skew the 2016 election, but with what legal experts call 'process crimes'  lying to investigators and trying to tamper with their work after being asked about contacts he claimed to have with WikiLeaks around the time the anti-privacy group published thousands of stolen emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Stone said he has not spoken to the president about the Russia investigation.

'Have you ever had any conversations with the president during the campaign or since the campaign about Russia or the Mueller investigation?' ABC anchor George Stephanopolous asked him.

'None whatsoever,' Stone replied.. 'Categorically. ... Zero. Zero.'Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd's Georgian lover has revealed the convicted killer was 'crying his eyes out' when he told her he was wanted over the crash.

Maiko Tchanturidze is understood to have fled the capital Tbilisi after her romantic relationship with Shepherd was exposed by the Daily Mail.

But despite the married fugitive's actions, his 24-year-old girlfriend is 'besotted' and continues to stand by Shepherd - describing him as the 'best person in the world'.

In hiding: Maiko Tchanturidze is understood to have fled Tbilisi after the Mail exposed their relationship

Besotted: Maiko Tchanturidze, pictured with Jack Shepherd on Mount Kazbegi

'He is the best person in the world,' Miss Tchanturidze said. 'Everything the media is saying about him is false.'

Pictures emerged yesterday of the couple gazing adoringly into each other's eyes on a mountaintop in Georgia  just weeks after Shepherd had fled Britain last March.

His victim: Charlotte Brown was just 24

The 31-year-old web designer's relationship with Miss Tchanturidze appears to have become serious enough that they travelled to her family home in Kutaisi, 140 miles west of the capital, in October.

Shepherd had not told police about his relationship with the glamorous TV journalist in a bid to protect her, sources said. She is now likely to face censure over claims that she knew Shepherd was wanted in the UK for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown.

Last night, a friend told the Mail: 'She has fled Tbilisi and deleted all her social media accounts. Some of Maiko's friends and colleagues were unaware of her relationship with Shepherd and she has some explaining to do.

'Those who did meet him didn't know he was a wanted man. Maiko has gone to ground because she is scared that it looks like she was harbouring him.'

Shepherd is understood to have told her he was a fugitive, and gave his version of what happened to Miss Brown, 24, whom he blames for her own death.

Sources said Miss Tchanturidze supported Shepherd's decision to appeal against his six-year prison sentence, but encouraged him to hand himself in after senior UK politicians joined the public outcry over his flight from justice.

Jack Shepherd asked for copy of Kafka's The Trial about miscarriage of justice to read in jail Shameless Shepherd has asked for a copy of Franz Kafka's The Trial to read in jail. The classic story about a miscarriage of justice centres on a man trapped in a baffling legal nightmare. Shepherd has requested The Essential Kafka, which includes The Trial, along with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and an album of photographs of his estranged wife and two-year-old son. He is being held in a 'special unit' in Gldani Prison Number Eight, known for poor treatment of prisoners. Videos surfaced online in 2012 of staff beating inmates. Sources said the jail was overrun with drug dealers and murderers but indicated Shepherd 'will be treated with kid gloves', adding that guards will 'look after him'. Advertisement

Miss Tchanturidze told The Sun: 'He said he had something to tell me. He seemed upset, his face was red. He was struggling to get his words out, but he said he'd been involved in a boat accident where a girl had died, and that he was wanted by Interpol. He said he was going to hand himself in because he 'didn't want to be hunted down like an animal'.

'I was beyond shocked. He was also crying his eyes out.

'It was very frightening to hear his story. I had questions, but he answered them all and cleared even tiny doubts I had.'

She said they clicked after he petted her dog in a park, adding: 'We bumped into each other a few more times. We became close so I introduced him to my sister and friends, and we started going out to bars and restaurants.'

At the time the couple posed gazing into each other's eyes on Mount Kazbegi, 100 miles north of Tbilisi, the grieving family of Miss Brown, from Clacton, Essex, had no idea that he had skipped bail and fled overseas.

Shepherd was said to be a regular visitor at the apartment Miss Tchanturidze shares with her sister in the affluent district of Saburtalo in Tbilisi.

He married in Britain two months after killing Miss Brown in December 2015. The couple have a child, two, but his wife threw him out after learning he had cheated.

Shepherd has asked for of Franz Kafka's The Trial to read in jail. The story about a miscarriage of justice centres on a man trapped in a baffling legal nightmare.

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd asks victim's parents to visit him in Georgian jail to 'explain what happened to their daughter in fatal Thames crash'

From Inderdeep Bains in Georgia for the Daily Mail

Shepherd yesterday said his victim's parents were welcome to visit him in a Georgian prison.

The convicted killer, who has infuriated Charlotte Brown's family by blaming her for her own death in a speedboat accident on the Thames, said via his legal team: 'I wish to speak to you very soon.'

One of his lawyers, former model Mariam Kublashvili, has branded Shepherd 'a victim of the British justice system' and vowed he will fight attempts to extradite him back from Georgia to the UK.

Jack Shepherd, pictured in a courtroom in Tbilisi, Georgia, went on the run before his trial and was found guilty in his absence

She said: 'He wishes to see her mother and father and speak to them as soon as possible. He wants to tell them what happened. He knows he should have spoken to them long ago.

'He said he was extremely depressed over what happened. He was suicidal when he first came to Georgia.'

Last night there was no response to the invitation from Miss Brown's mother Roz Wickens, 53, of Clacton, Essex, or her father Graham Brown, 55, of Sidcup, Kent.

One of his lawyers, former model Mariam Kublashvili (pictured), has branded Shepherd 'a victim of the British justice system'

Miss Wickens had told The Sun on Sunday: 'I want to look him in the eye and ask him how Charlotte died. He was the last person to see my beautiful daughter so only he can tell the truth about what happened. I want to give him a chance to give an honest account  but I can't imagine that he will agree to see me. He's a weasel.

'It's time that he shows remorse and stops lying. He's convinced himself that he's the victim. It shows his incredible arrogance and lack of respect or empathy for anyone else. His moral compass isn't there.'

Womaniser Shepherd was convicted of Miss Brown's manslaughter after trying to impress her by drunkenly speeding up the Thames in his defective boat, which capsized. He went on the run before his trial and was found guilty in his absence.

Shepherd fled to Georgia, but was able to claim legal aid and allowed to communicate with his lawyers from his bolthole.

He was then allowed to appeal against his conviction, funded by taxpayers.

Met police probe 'clever' speedboat killer's network of friends and family who may have bankrolled him as he lived the high life while on the run in Georgia

Jack Shepherd, 31, had been at large for ten months until he turned himself in

He lived the high life while abroad despite claiming to be 'suicidally depressed'

Web designer was a regular in a local restaurant and visited ski resort in Georgia

Police probe how he managed stayed on the run with enough financial support

Police are today investigating whether a network of family and friends could have helped speedboat killer Jack Shepherd stay on the run in Georgia.

The 31-year-old had been at large for ten months until he finally turned himself into police in Tbilisi last Wednesday after a Daily Mail campaign for justice.

But Shepherd spent his last few months on the run in a high rise Soviet era block of flats in Tbilisi's sought after middle class residential area of Saburtalo.

Jack Shepherd (left) has continuted to blame Charlotte Brown (right) for the speedboat accident on the River Thames in London that killed her

He lived the high life while abroad, despite claiming to be 'suicidally depressed' amid his claims there was 'no evidence' of his guilt at an Old Bailey trial.

The web designer from Devon, was also a regular in a local restaurant, visited a ski resort in Georgia, took skiing lessons and dated women while at large.

Now, Scotland Yard has vowed to investigate how Shepherd managed to stay on the run with enough financial support for so long, reported the Daily Telegraph.

A force spokesman said: 'If evidence of assistance is identified, we will submit a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision.'

When he appeared at a court in Georgia last Friday, Shepherd tried to dodge extradition by claiming he could be murdered if he is sent back to a British prison.

Shepherd continued to paint himself as the victim, blaming Charlotte Brown for the speedboat accident on the River Thames in London that killed her.

His lawyers argued that 'emotional' British jurors had made a mistake convicting him because they did not hear his testimony, even though he had fled the UK.

And they indicated they would contest his extradition, claiming Shepherd's life would be in danger if he was returned to a British jail.

The speedboat owned by Shepherd who was found guilty of killing his date on the Thames

They said that is because Miss Brown's father Graham, 55, of Sidcup, Kent, works in the Prison Service and had threatened him over the phone.

But Mr Brown, who is a semi-retired Prison Service data analyst, said the fugitive's claims were a 'preposterous fabrication', adding: 'That phone call did not happen.'

The judge remanded Shepherd in custody at Tbilisi's high-security jail Gldani #8 for three months, to give both legal teams time to prepare for a full extradition hearing.

Miss Brown, from Clacton-on-Sea, died after plunging into the icy waters of the Thames when Shepherd's boat crashed during a Champagne-laden date in 2015.

Shepherd went on the run before his trial and jurors convicted him of manslaughter by gross negligence. He was sentenced to six years in jail but remained at liberty.A man robbed a bank in Texas before making his getaway on an electric scooter, police said.

Luca Mangiarano, 19, was arrested Thursday and charged in connection with a bank robbery which happened at the BBVA Compass bank at the 320 block of West 6th Street in Austin.

The teller told police that a young man in a hoodie walked up to her station and handed her a note demanding money, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox7.

Luca Mangiarano, 19, (pictured) was charged after he robbed a bank in Downtown Austin on December 18

She told police officers that a young white man with a hoodie walked into the bank and had approached her station on December 18.

The note said: 'This is a robbery, Please give me all your 100's and 50's in a envelope and everything will be ok.'

The victim told police officers that she was scared and gave the suspect cash from her bank drawer.

Another employee at the bank told police that he saw a male believed to be the suspect leaving the bank and grabbing a scooter.

Officers were able to acquire surveillance video from a business nearby that showed a man matching Mangiarano's description riding a scooter northbound away from the bank.

During the investigation, police requested account information from Uber , which owns Jump, for scooter which was rented in the area when the bank was robbed.

Mangiarano made his getaway from the bank on a Jump scooter (pictured) which he rented using a phone app

The incidident happened on December 18 at the BBVA Compass bank on the 320 block of West 6th Street in Austin

Fox7 reported that the suspect rented the bike using a phone app, while the scooters have the users' GPS and account. This was how police were able to track him down.

Uber supplied police with Mangiaranos phone number, email address and credit card number.

Cops then pulled surveillance video that captured Mangiarano in front of his apartment and concluded he appeared to be the robber caught on the banks still photos from the incident, the affidavit states.

Mangiaranos cellphone information also showed that he was in the vicinity of the bank at the time of the robbery, according to the affidavit.

They were then able to identify the suspect as Luca Mangiarano. He was later apprehended and arrested by police officers.An evangelical christian blogger who controversially suggested women shouldn't abort their rapist's babies because 'two wrongs don't make a right' sparked outrage on social media.

Mother-of-four - and grandmother-of-nine - Lori Alexander urged women to never except abortion as an option in an opinionated Facebook post on Saturday.

On the official page of her blog, The Transformed Wife, one curious reader asked Alexander 'Should a woman be forced to carry her rapist's baby?'

To which the 60-year-old from San Diego, California said: 'Two wrongs never equal a right.'

The contentious statement gave birth to a debate of its own - with many of Alexander's readers claiming that the only alternative to having the baby is 'murder'.

Lori Alexander, 60, regularly makes controversial comments on her blog, The Transformed Wife

One woman said 'my friend has two rape babies. They're so wonderful and full of life.'

Her hard-line christian following suggested any pregnant women unwilling to love a child as their own should still carry them full-term and give it up for adoption instead - regardless of rape.

However, Alexander's outburst wasn't a view shared by all, with one angry user asking 'Why are the women always shamed?

'Why is there no judgement on the irresponsible men who get these women pregnant or help fund and encourage the abortions because they are too irresponsible to be fathers leaving the mothers to feel hopeless.'

On Saturday Lori urged her readers to never consider abortion - no matter the circumstances

One reader asked if a victim of rape should still carry on with a pregnancy. Lori responded that 'two wrongs don't make a right'

The comment sparked an wealth of debate below, with some claiming that regardless of circumstance, any woman who has an abortion is a 'murderer'

The original poster of the question said there was 'no biblical justification for an anti-choice stance. I hope no woman you love is ever put in that position.'

This isn't the first time Alexander has voiced controversial viewpoints about the freedoms of choice women have or feminism generally - a concept she calls 'toxic'.

In December, the stay-at-home mom of 35 years uploaded a generalized hand-drawn flow-chart to her Facebook page, attempting to suggest that mothers who have careers are 'falling apart' and letting down their children.

According to Alexander though, mothers who 'choose' to stay at home have more fulfilling lives and their children are 'blessed'.

The Grandmother-of-nine says she suffered 23 unhappy years of marriage until she saw the light, thanks to a message from above

A flow-chat she made claiming working moms are bad moms caused outrage in December

She also suggested that women who work are too tired for sexual intimacy, and are therefore bad wives.

'I feel very sorry for you and the myth you believe and perpetuate,' one lady said. 'This is not 1958 - you live in a world that fortunately no longer exists.'

Others branded Alexander a 'crackpot' and 'vile'.

'My motivation was just to show the difference between a stay-at-home mom and a working mom,' Alexander said in an interview with USA Today.

'People say its completely false, but its not. One is gone all day, the other is not; working moms have child care, while stay-at-home moms are the caretakers.

'Everything else, these things arent necessarily what happens, but are the things I feel you should shoot for as a stay-at-home mom.'

She believes feminism is 'a bug' and regularly tells women there place in the family is that of a caregiver, not an equal contributor

Other hand-drawn messages have garnered similar disdain. One reader labelled Alexander a 'crackpot'

Born in South-Carolina, Alexander says she suffered an unhappy marriage to her husband, Ken, for 23 years until she received 'a wake-up call' from above.

A self-described born again Christian, Alexander says she decided to start the blog when one of her daughters moved away from home so she could take her teachings with her.

Now, she regularly posts about marriage, homemaking, raising children and being a 'godly woman'.

And with each explosive article often comes an avalanche of controversy.

In one blog post, titled 'Men prefer debt-free virgins without tattoos', Alexander launched a scathing attack on the young women and teenagers of today.

Many accuse Alexander of encouraging patriarchy and living in the past. She originally started to blog so her daughters could access her life-lessons at anytime after leaving home

'Do you know how much more attractive debt-free virgins [without tattoos] are to young men?,' Alexander rhetorically asked.

'Unfortunately, there are so few of these types of young women anymore because of the high costs of college [debt] and sexual promiscuity even from those within the church.

'As believers in Jesus Christ, we need to live in a way that is pleasing to the Lord because His ways are the best,' she surmised.

Despite her rigorous views, Alexander says she has friends from all walks of life and described herself as a caring person.

'People have told me to jump off a cliff,' she said. 'But I dont want to destroy anyones life. Mommy shaming is such a big thing today, and I am not shaming working mothers.

'In real life, I am very loving and kind to people. Im just speaking from my own experience; but I try to always speak the truth found in God's word.'A new mother has posted an open letter to a male passenger who called her 'two ton woman' on a Delta flight to Detroit.

Katie Kiacz posted two photos and claimed the man fat-shamed her and made the offensive comment to his friend after being seated beside her during the flight from Orlando to Detroit on Tuesday.

He then tried to change seat and told his friend it 'was not good' when he saw Kiacz, who had just give birth, was about to sit beside him.

Katie Kiacz claimed an unidentified man fat-shamed her and made the offensive comment to his friend after being seated beside her during the flight from Orlando to Detroit on Tuesday

In the letter seen by Yahoo Lifestyle she said: 'Dear Man on flight DL1723. 'You referred to me as a "2-ton woman."

'You told your friend soon as I boarded and you saw me that it was "not good."

'When I confronted you saying "I am not two tons but I did just have a baby", you sighed and got up to use the bathroom then quietly asked the flight attendant for a different seat.

'Im glad there were not any,' she wrote. 'I bet you didnt tell her why you wanted to sit elsewhere, that you said something so heartless and were confronted.

'You did not apologize. You did not even acknowledge my existence throughout the remainder of the flight. Thats fine. I do not need your validation.'

Her post was shared 120,000 times in less than 24 hours, concludes with her explanation as to why she felt the need to publicly shame the man.

She explained: 'So why am I posting? To call you out. Because I do not exist to please you.

'Because I will take up as much space as I want. Because even when confronted you did not think you were in the wrong, that you did not need to apologize.

'As a woman, I am sick of this s**t, Kiack wrote. Would he have said that had I been a man? Or had my daughter and husband with me? I dont know.

'But women deal with these attitudes and behavior more than men, that I do know. And I. Am. Over. It.'

Kiacz posted a picture of the man who allegedly fat shamed her and asked the flight attendant to change seats when she sat beside him

The post (pictured) was shared 120,000 times but has subsequently been taken down

Kiacz used the hashtag Call him out" along with her message online.

'Oh, and this post is public,' she added. 'I hope a woman in his life sees this and is able to explain to him why his behavior was inappropriate. Not that I think itll make a difference.'

Her post has since been taken down. However she told Yahoo Lifestyle that instead doing interviews, she is promoting the work of a Northwestern University professor who studies female body image.

The post received over 85,000 comments  many of which supported Kiacz and shared their own stories  before it was taken down.

'The outpouring love and support has been unreal,' Kiacz wrote on Facebook Wednesday, Yahoo reported.

'In that moment, I was shaking with anger, I was overcome by sadness, and for a moment I was ashamed and self-conscious.'

She claimed she had to remind herself of 'who I was, what I do, and how much I have accomplished and still have to accomplish.'Brigitte Macron's fashion choices raised eyebrows today after she wore a pair of trainers for a visit to an ancient temple in southern Egypt.

France's first lady, 65, sported a pair of Louis Vuitton Run Away sneakers for the engagement at the iconic Abu Simbel temple earlier today.

The shoes are not available to buy, but similar styles are priced at 635.

Mrs Macron joined her husband Emmanuel Macron for the visit, which is part of a three-day tour of the country.

The ancient temple they visited was built during the reign Egypt's famed pharaoh Ramses II, and is more than 3,000 years old.

Brigitte Mcron raised eyebrows today after sporting a pair of trainers to an ancient temple in southern Egypt today

France's first lady, 65, was wearing a pair of Louis Vuitton Run Away sneakers which cost around 635. Abu Simbel was built during the reign Egypt's famed pharaoh Ramses II

Last year, Egypt celebrated the 50th anniversary of its historic rescue from flooding of the Nile.

Mrs Macron paired the dressed-down trainers with a smart grey pantsuit.

Macron was received by Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani and the director of the French Institute of Archaeology Laurent Bavay.

The trip to Egypt comes as 'Yellow Vest' protests against his policies continue to be held on the streets in France.

Macron is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday for talks aimed at strengthening the 'strategic partnership' between the two countries.

During his visit, some 30 deals worth several hundred million euros are expected to be signed in the fields of transport, renewable energy, health and agri-food.

Last year, Egypt celebrated the 50th anniversary of its historic rescue from flooding of the NileNine Japanese companies, including drugmakers and a newspaper, have received blackmail letters containing white powder suspected to be cyanide, police and local media said Sunday.

The letters were sent under the names of executed members of the Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese doomsday cult behind the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo, and demanded 35 million won (24,000) in bitcoins, a police spokesman told AFP.

'Major pharmaceutical and other companies... received envelopes with threatening letters and a powdery substance' suspected to be cyanide, he said, without identifying the companies.

The blackmail letters were sent under the names of executed members of Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo

Local media said the names on the letters, included Shoko Asahara (above), the charismatic leader of the sect

'I will make fake medicine containing potassium cyanide and distribute it,' the letter said, according to the spokesman, and warned 'a tragedy will happen' if the money was not transferred by 22 February.

Local media said the names on the letters, which were received on Friday included Shoko Asahara, the charismatic leader of the sect who was executed with 12 of his one-time followers in July last year.

The white powdery substance was later confirmed to be cyanide, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported, adding that an similar envelope was also sent to the Tokyo headquarters of the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

Similar threatening letters were sent to some pharmaceutical companies in Osaka in January last year, Jiji Press reported.Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday he wasn't sure where President Donald Trump got the information about the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. posted in one of his tweets.

'I'm not exactly sure where the president got that number this morning,' Mulvaney said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'

Mulvaney was asked about a claim Trump made, where the president charged there are 25,772,342 illegals in the United States.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said he wasn't sure where President Trump got the information about the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. posted in one of his tweets

President Trump was driving home his argument on illegal immigration on Twitter Sunday morning

The president gave no indication where he got the data for the number in this tweeet

'We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168. Cost Friday was $603,331,392. There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS,' the president wrote.

President Trump provided no indication where he received the data he cited.

Roughly 11 million undocumented residents are estimated to be living in the United States.

Mulvaney did argue the number has to be higher than that because of the number of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. every month.

He conceded the 11 million number was accurate at one point but argues it has risen in recent days.

'I think that number was accurate a couple years ago and we know that it's going up because, we know for example, that 60,000 new illegals are coming across each month for the last three months. Again a number that is not made up. That is a real number. So we know the number has to be larger than 11 million,' he said on 'Face the Nation.'

'I've seen ranges as high I think of 30 or 40 million. I'm not exactly sure where the president got that number this morning. But I think what you see him trying to do is point out how silly this debate is,' he added.

Mulvaney, the budget director for the United States, did not address the cost numbers the president cited in his tweet.

President Trump pounded home his desire for more border security on Twitter Sunday morning in the wake of his deal with Democrats the reopened the federal government without the $5.7 billion needed to fund his border wall.

He repeated his favorite new slogan, tweeting: 'BUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!' with a video from the Republican National Committee where ranchers, at an unspecified point on the border, complained about crime and drugs allegedly brought across the border by illegal immigrants.

The president also touted a case out of Texas that was talked about on 'Fox and Friends' Sunday morning.

Texas elections officials said Friday that they identified roughly 95,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls going back to 1996.

Roughly 58,000 of the suspected non-citizens are believed to have voted in at least one Texas election.



'58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID! @foxandfriends,' Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

President Trump repeated a charge out of Texas about voting fraud

Voting Rights groups have questioned the Texas numbers

The Texas Tribune tweeted information challenging the claims

Voting rights groups challenged the accuracy of the Texas count.

'There is no credible data that indicates illegal voting is happening in any significant numbers, and the Secretary's statement does not change that fact,' Beth Stevens, voting rights legal director for the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Associated Press.

The Texas Tribune is also questioning the numbers.

'Those 95,000 registered voters are individuals who the state says have provided some form of documentation that showed they were not a citizen when they were obtaining a driver's license or an ID card,' the paper noted.

'Of those 95,000, 58,000 individuals cast a ballot in one or more elections from 1996-2018. That is a 22 years. That does not mean the state is saying 58,000 non-citizens voted. We do not yet know if any of those 58,000 are really non-citizens,' it wrote.

Congress returns to Washington D.C. on Monday and federal workers will be back on the job after the 35-day shutdown, the longest in American history, came to a close on Friday.

Mulvaney refused to get into specifics of what Trump will demand when both sides return to the negotiating table this week to work out a longterm funding plan to see the government fully funded through the next fiscal year.

Legislation passed by the Senate and House Friday night - and quickly signed by Trump - funds the government through Feb. 15. It also creates a bipartisan, bicameral committee charged with negotiating an agreement on border security as part of a new spending bill for the Homeland Security Department.

President Trump pounded home his desire for more border security on Twitter Sunday morning in the wake of his deal with Democrats the reopened the federal government without the $5.7 billion needed to fund his border wall

Mick Mulvaney refused to get into specifics of what Trump will demand when both sides return to the negotiating table this week

Mulvaney refused to answer whether or not Trump would take less than the $5.7 billion he demanded as his original price to reopen the government - the amount he needs to build a border wall.

'This is not something where the president's married to a number, he's married to border security,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday.'

'The president's commitment is to defend the nation, and he will do it either with or without Congress,' he noted.

Democrats have refused to give the president the money he needs to build a wall.

The acting White House chief of staff indicated Trump is willing to shut down the government yet again.

'Yeah I think he actually is. Keep in mind he's willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border. He does take this very seriously,' Mulvaney said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'53-years after Roger Patterson and Bob Gilmlin first claimed to have caught footage of Bigfoot on camera, the mysterious Sasquatch has once again been captured on film - or so one man believes.

In the foothills of Northeast Provo on January 2, a local resident and a group of friends spotted a large and unfamiliar looking figure lurking a-top a rock on a hill-side.

Noting its apparent towering stature, the man remarks 'Seriously, look how big it is,' before hastily concluding 'I think it's a Sasquatch'.

The camera then zooms closer the the alleged creature, showing the large dark figure moving slowly on the mountain.

One of the witnesses, Austin Craig, was so convinced by the sighting he took the day off work to find more evidence of the legendary monster's presence in the area.

The dark and large figure was spotted in the Provo mountain range in Utah or January 2

Austin Craig (pictured) returned to investigate the sighting

'You can't just see something that's maybe a once-in-a-century discovery and go do your nine-to-five job,' Craig said in an interview with WGN-9.

'You go to look for fur, or footprints, or some kind of evidence.'

Accompanied by a friend , Craig went back up the mountainside in search of Bigfoot but came back empty handed.

When Craig and his friend reached the location the figure was originally spotted in, a voice comes over the radio and tells them:'That is exactly where I saw the 'Sasquatch', and you guys put together aren't even as close to as wide or tall as what I saw.'

'Was it a bear? Maybe. That's plausible. Was it a person? Also plausible,' Craig said.

'Was it something else? I think that's also possible. Who knows?'

The men believe the size and movement of the figure means is could be a Sasquatch. They conceded that it could also be a bear or person

Austin Craig stands where his friend spotted the figure

Utah has been subject to several claims of Bigfoot sightings over the years, so much so, the state has its own division dedicated to hunting down the beast, The Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization.

Much like Craig's investigation, The Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization's search was inconclusive.

There years ago, one mother claimed to have captured footage of Bigfoot lurking in a patch of tall grass on her way to Provo airport.

The 1967 footage shot by Roger Patterson and Bob Gilmlin continues to be the most contested piece of evidence as to whether the creature exists

Jerry Crew found a giant cast of a 'Bigfoot' footprint in 1958. But in 2002 the whole thing was revealed to be a hoax carried out by Ray Wallace

Though a long-term figure of Native American folklore, the Sasquatch was first thrust into the media spotlight in 1958, when Jerry Crew said he found giant footprints - belonging to Bigfoot - near Bluff Creek in Northern California.

In 2002, the grandchildren of Ray Wallace revealed their grandpa had staged the whole thing for 'a joke', but alleged sightings of the giant figure in America's mountain ranges have continued to persist ever since.Advertisement

Pope Francis has led the global condemnation after a bomb attack on a Catholic church killed 20 people in the Philippines.

The pontiff, who is on a visit to Panama, voiced his 'firmest reproach' for what he called a 'terror attack' while a Muslim leader also condemned the blast.

At least 20 were killed and a further 81 people were injured in the double bomb attack which wrecked a Catholic church on majority-Muslim Jolo island and then injured troops who raced to the scene.

Emergency treatment: Bomb victims receive care in a hospital after two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo in the Philippines, killing 20 people and injuring dozens of others

Wreckage: The debris inside a Catholic Church where two bombs exploded is pictured on Sunday as a soldier stands guard

Condemnation: The Pope, pictured in Panama today, voiced his 'firmest reproach' after the terror attack in the Philippines

Francis said the 'terrorist attack' was just the latest to hit the Christian community in the Philippines, and called for those responsible to change their ways.

Yousef Al-Othaimeen, the head of a 57-member group of Muslim nations, also expressed his 'deep indignation' at the attack.

The general secretary of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation said his group rejected all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism, whatever their sources or motives.

The fatalities in the blast included 15 civilians and five troops, while also among the wounded were 14 troops, two police and 65 civilians.

Security officials said the first bomb went off in or near the Jolo cathedral during Sunday Mass, followed by a second blast outside the compound as government forces were responding to the attack.

Troops in armoured carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the town hospital and other casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

Medical help: Philippine Coast Guard personnel assist their wounded comrade on a stretcher, who was one of the victims of the twin bombings

Emergency: Victims receive treatment in a hospital after two bombs exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo

Investigation: Soldiers outside the Catholic church in the Philippines where a bomb attack left 20 people dead

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

President Rodrigo Duterte's office said it would 'pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars'.

'The enemies of the state boldly challenged the government's capability to secure the safety of citizens in that region. The armed forces will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals,' Duterte's office said.

Jolo Island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

President Rodrigo Duterte's office said it would 'pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars'.

'The enemies of the state boldly challenged the government's capability to secure the safety of citizens in that region. The armed forces will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals,' Duterte's office said.

Debris: Filipino soldiers stand guard next to a cordon as the clean-up begins following the bomb attack in the PhilippinesA 14-year-old dancer who auditioned for Britain's Got Talent has been struck down with a rare condition which means she faints every time she stands up.

Faith Morris went from living an active life to being confined to a wheelchair in June last year.

In 2014, she auditioned for Britain's Got Talent with her dance group called Eclipse and had a promising career ahead of her.

But now Faith faces spending her life in a wheelchair after being diagnosed with Postural Tachycadia Syndrome (PoTS).

Faith Morris, pictured at a Britain's Got Talent audition in 2014, suffers from a rare condition that means she faints almost every time she stands up

The promising dancer, 14, now faces life in a wheelchair because of Postural Tachycadia Syndrome

It means every time she stands, her heart rate speeds up, causing her to pass out.

Faith was diagnosed with the condition after she fainted during a parents' evening last year.

As a result, Faith can only stand up if she does it extremely slowly, but is forced to use a wheelchair for most of her lessons at school.

Mother-of-three Lakami Seaman, 39, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, said: 'We had a hellish month trying to figure out what was wrong with Faith.

'We were at a parents' evening at her school when we first realised she had something wrong with her.

'We had been there for a while and were walking around. Someone had tapped me on the shoulder and told me it looks like Faith was going to faint.

The condition means every time she stands, her heart rate speeds up, causing her to pass out

Faith said: 'It's quite lonely because everyone else is doing stuff that I can't do. I really miss dancing but whenever I stand up I just feel really dizzy'

'We took her outside so she could get some air and then home she seemed better after some food.

'Me and Faith had gone to go see a play about the Little Mermaid later that evening.

'She didn't even get to her seat before she fainted.'

Ms Seaman added: 'We took her to the GP and they checked her out. They gave her some antibiotics as they thought it was just a chest infection.

'A month later and she was still bad so I took her to Worcester Royal Hospital.

'I thought she might have had glaucoma fever. Every time she stood up her heart rate would rise.

'The paediatrician went to the cardiologist and told them about Faith's symptoms and they were the one who told us about this condition.

'She went into the hospital on June 22 and three days later is when they diagnosed her with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome.

'They didn't seem to have any information on this condition it was new to them and to us.

'They just printed off information from the internet and discharged her. We're just trying to get our heads around it.'

After Faith's diagnosis, Ms Seaman was forced to give up her job as a cleaner at a care home to look after her.

Her mother, Lakami Seaman, said: 'She went into the hospital on June 22 and three days later is when they diagnosed her with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome. They didn't seem to have any information on this condition it was new to them and to us'

Faith now attends school for just an hour a day and has to spend most of her time in a wheelchair

She said: 'We can't plan anything as you don't know how she's going to be feeling that day.

'We've just muddled through. She didn't go back to school until September and now she's only doing an hour a day.'

Faith usually spends an hour at school in the library, and only recently joined lessons in the classroom.

Ms Seaman said: 'This condition took her independence away. She's worried about missing out on being a normal teenager.

'She can't dance anymore. She can't cope with a shower so she has to have baths now.

'When we go out she will use her wheelchair. If she feels funny, she will need to lie down for a bit.

'I'll ask her if she is okay when we are out and about. She will now avoid things that she knows will make her ill. She just paces herself through the days now.'

Faith said: 'It's quite lonely because everyone else is doing stuff that I can't do. I really miss dancing but whenever I stand up I just feel really dizzy.

'I just hope that one day I'll be able to get back to dancing but at the moment I'm just trying to get used to living with the condition.'Former Starbucks CEO and one-time Democrat Howard Schultz has said he may run for president in 2020 as an Independent, in an interview with Scott Pelley on CBS's 60 Minutes , which will air on Sunday. Schultz is pictured speaking at the GLSEN Respect Awards in Beverly Hills on October 19

Former Starbucks CEO and past member of the Democratic party Howard Schultz has said he may run for president in 2020, and if he does, he might seal the deal on re-election for current President Donald Trump.

Schultz, 56, stops short of announcing candidacy for president, but makes clear that if he does run, which he is considering, he will do so as an Independent, in an interview with Scott Pelley on CBS's 60 Minutes, which will air on Sunday.

'We're living at a most fragile time,' Schultz tells Pelley in a preview of their conversation shared by CBS.

'Not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president, but also the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what's necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged every single day in revenge politics.'

While Schultz's frustration with the two-party system is shared by many, his potential candidacy as a liberal Independent could split voters who would otherwise support a Democratic opponent to a Republican incumbent Trump, 72, and therefore virtually guarantee Trump the win in 2020, according to experts.

Meanwhile, a total of seven people have already announced they will be vying for the Democratic nomination, including US senators Kamala Harris (California) and Kirsten Gillibrand (New York).

One Democratic strategist had harsh criticism for Schultz, should he choose to run.

'Trumps strategy has always been divide and conquer, and this plays directly into his hands,' the strategist told the Atlantic.

'Hes Ralph Nader without any of Naders redeeming qualities. Whats his value proposition for America? Make America like a corporate chain?'

Nader ran for president largely under the Green party in 1996 and 2000, and as an Independent in 2004 and 2008. People who believe Nader cost Al Gore the presidential election in 2000 have called the concept of vote-splitting between similar candidates the Nader effect.

While Schultz's frustration with the two-party system is shared by many, his potential candidacy as a liberal Independent could split voters who would otherwise support a Democratic opponent to a Republican incumbent Trump, and therefore virtually guarantee Trump the win in 2020, according to experts. Schultz is pictured in a still from his interview with CBS's Scott Pelley

There are also some Republicans, like Never Trump movement advocate Bill Kristol, who are against Schultz running as an Independent, for fear he may help Trump win again. President Donald Trump is pictured leaving the Oval Office in Washington, DC on January 25 to announce that a deal has been reached to reopen the government through February 15

Former US secretary of housing and urban development and San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat who has also announced he is running for president in 2020, told Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, of Schultz: 'I have a concern that, if he did run, that, essentially, it would provide Donald Trump with his best hope of getting reelected.'

'Just the other day, there was a fairly comprehensive poll taken that showed, essentially, right now, that the president has a ceiling of about 41 percent or 42 percent in terms of support for him, no matter which Democratic candidate they polled against him,' Castro said of the numbers behind his reservations about Schultz as a prospective competitor, and candidate.

'So his only hope, if things stayed the same -- and that's a big if -- is essentially to get somebody else, a third party, to siphon off those votes. And I don't think that that would be in the best interest of our country. We need new leadership. And so, you know, I would suggest to Mr. Schultz to truly think about the negative impact that that might make.'

Former US secretary of housing and urban development and San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat who has also announced he is running for president in 2020, told Jake Tapper, of Schultz: 'I have a concern that, if he did run, that, essentially, it would provide Donald Trump with his best hope of getting reelected'

There are also some Republicans, like Never Trump movement advocate Bill Kristol, who are against Schultz running as an Independent, for fear he may help Trump win again.

'One reason my colleagues and I are focused on a Republican primary challenge to Trumpapart from the fact that were Republicansis that it doesnt present any of the problems of inadvertently helping him by being a spoiler,' Kristol told the Atlantic over email.

For all the guesswork about what a run by Schultz might do to Trump's chances at staying in office, Schultz himself hasn't said he'd run, although it seems by his string of public appearances that it's becoming more and more likely.

In June, while announcing he was stepping down as CEO of Starbucks, Schultz told CNBC: 'Theres a lot of things I can do as a private citizen other than a run for the presidency of the United States. I dont know what that means right now.' He would have stepped down sooner, he said, if not for staying on to make sure the incident where two black men were removed from a Philadelphia Starbucks location was handled to his standards. Schultz is pictured on March 22, 2017 speaking at the Starbucks annual shareholders meeting in Seattle

But in June, while announcing he was stepping down as CEO of Starbucks, Schultz told CNBC:

'Theres a lot of things I can do as a private citizen other than a run for the presidency of the United States. I dont know what that means right now.'

He would have stepped down sooner, he said, if not for staying on to make sure the incident where two black men were removed from a Philadelphia Starbucks location was handled to his standards.

If Schultz should decide to enter the fray to be considered for president in 2020, he'll join a growing field of contenders already announced on the Democratic side.

A total of seven people have already announced they will be vying for the Democratic nomination, including US senator Kamala Harris (California, pictured)

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York) and US Representative from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard have announced they will run for president in 2020

In order of their announcements that they would be running according to Ballotpedia, the following Democrats have publicly stated their intent to seek nomination as the Democratic party candidate for president in 2020:

Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur from New York; former US Representative from Maryland John Delaney; US Representative from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard; Castro; Gillibrand; Harris; and mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg.

US Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren announced in December that she had formed an exploratory committee to consider the possibility of running for president.

US Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders is expected to announce that he will run again, as well, according to Yahoo! News, but his senior advisor Josh Orton wrote on Twitter on Friday that 'no decision is imminent,' and added, 'Enjoy your weekend.'

Sanders is an Independent but he ran against former Secretary of State for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election, and lost.

Trump filed to run for re-election on January 20, 2017, the same day he was inaugurated as our current president.

Schultz's full interview on CBS's 60 Minutes will air at 7pm Eastern on Sunday.The Facebook account of the Syrian presidency has revealed that the wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has undergone a 'successful' operation as part of treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

The post shared a photo of Asma al-Assad, 43, who was born in London, together with the following message: 'Asma al-Assad continues her treatment against the malignant tumour.

'Breast surgery at the Damascus military hospital has been successful.'

The presidency announced in August that the London-born first lady, 33, had begun treatment for 'a malignant tumour in the breast that was discovered at an early stage'.

This photo was shared by the Syrian presidency on Facebook and shares that Asma al-Assad, 33, had successful breast cancer surgery

Since then, the presidency's social media accounts have often showed her with a scarf knotted elegantly around her head, visiting children cancer patients, wounded soldiers, or attending charity events.

On Saturday, it published a video of her visiting a triple amputee wounded in Syria's nearly eight-year conflict, inside what appeared to be his family home.

Born in 1975, the British-born former investment banker styled herself as a progressive rights advocate and was seen as the modern side of the Assad dynasty.

Since news of her cancer diagnosis, he presidency's social media accounts have often showed her with a scarf knotted elegantly around her head while visiting cancer patients and wounded soldiers

The wife of the Syrian president has been spotted visiting cancer patients and wounded soldiers since her diagnosis

The presidency's social media accounts have often showed her with a scarf knotted elegantly around her head while meeting supporters

But after the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 spiralled into a devastating civil war, she was criticised over her support for her husband.

Asma, whose father is a cardiologist and whose mother is a diplomat, has two sons and a daughter with Assad.

Asma's parents are from the central province of Homs but she was born and raised in London before moving back to Syria after meeting the president.

The two have been married for 18 years and have three children, Hafez, Zein and Karim.

The couple's marriage was announced by state media six months after he assumed the presidency in July 2000 following the death of his father Hafez.

This photo posted on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency back in August, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife Asma Assad with an IV in her left arm

A further photo of Asma Assad was shared on her Instagram account in August, showing her after the treatment in a different outfit. She is pictured carrying files and holding a glass of tea with her wrist bandaged

Asma, whose father is a cardiologist and whose mother is a diplomat, has two sons and a daughter with Assad

The two have been married for 18 years and have three children, Hafez, Zein and Karim

After the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 spiralled into a devastating civil war, she was criticised over her support for her husband

She was compared by some to Marie Antoinette after the emails emerged, shopping while thousands died at home

In 2012, Asma came under severe criticism after a stash of emails emerged revealing her shopping habits and exploits at Harrods while war raged in Syria.

The emails showed her desperate search for a Harry Potter DVD, her concern over getting hold of a new chocolate fondue set, and her interest in crystal-encrusted designer shoes costing nearly 4,000.

She was compared by some to Marie Antoinette after the emails emerged, shopping while thousands died at home.

In one message, sent on June 17, 2011, she wrote about a 2,650 vase she wanted.

In an email to the familys London fixer, Soulieman Marouf, she wrote: Pls can Abdulla see if this is available at Harrods to order  they have a sale.Trooper Christopher Lambert (pictured), 34, was struck and killed while on the scene of a three-vehicle car crash Saturday afternoon

A Wisconsin man has been arrested in connection with a crash that left an Illinois state trooper dead as he helped other road accident victims.

Off-duty trooper Christopher Lambert, 34, was struck and killed while on the scene of a three-vehicle car crash on the afternoon of January 12.

Wisconsin man Scott Larsen, 60, has been arrested on a warrant charging him with reckless homicide in the death of Lambert, Illinois State Police and the Kenosha County sheriffs department said Saturday.

Larsen is expected to appear in the Skokie branch of Cook County court on Tuesday for a bond hearing, Hansen said.

According to the Kenosha News, Larsen, 60, of Somers, was taken into custody by Kenosha County sheriff's deputies Thursday. It was reported that he works in Kenosha as an accountant.

His bail was set Friday at $25,000, and he was ordered to surrender his passport and driver's license and turn himself into Northbrook police next week.

He has posted bail, according to the Kenosha County jail website.

Lambert, a married father-of-one, was on his way home to his family when he spotted the accident in the left lane of I-294 near Willow Road, according to a statement from the Illinois State Police (ISP).

Lambert was trying to save the lives of the passengers involved in the crash when he was struck by a Jeep that failed to stop. The impact threw Lambert several feet.

Christopher Lambert was a five-year veteran of Illinois State Police and leaves behind a wife, Halley, and their one-year-old daughter Delaney

'Trooper Lambert deliberately placed his vehicle in a position to protect the lives of the victims of the previous crash, and took on the danger himself,' said ISP Director Leo P. Schmitz last week.

Lambert suffered serious injuries and was given CPR by an off-duty nurse at the scene.

He was then transported to Glenbrook Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.

'Trooper Lambert was a great trooper and was respected by those within and from outside the ISP, this is a tremendous loss which could have been prevented and should have never happened,' Schmitz said.

Halley Lambert (pictured) holds the hand of her one-year old daughter Delaney during the funeral of her husband Christopher at Willow Creek Community Church on Friday

Libertyville Police Officer Brandon Bernabei (pictured) gives a remembrance speech during Christopher Lambert's funeral

The U.S. Flag which covered the casket of Christopher Lambert is handed to Illinois State Police Director Leo P. Schmitz

Earlier this week Schmitz said Lambert will be 'remembered for his dedication to the Illinois State Police and for giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect and serve the citizens of Illinois'.

Lambert was a five-year veteran of the Illinois State Police District 15 in Downers Grove and was assigned to the Criminal Patrol Team.

He was also a former member of the United States Army.

'We lost our trooper, we became weaker,' Schmitz said. 'We lost one of our own, one of our best. Everybody loved him.'

The married father-of-one was on his way home to his family when he spotted the accident in the left lane of I-294 near Willow Road, according to a statement from the Illinois State Police (ISP)

Lambert suffered serious injuries and was given CPR by an off-duty nurse at the scene (pictured). He was then transported to Glenbrook Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later

Lambert's body was escorted to the Cook County medical examiner's office after he was knocked down.

Photos show dozens of officers standing in the snow as they saluted the patrol cars as they drove by.

Earlier on Saturday, the ISP encouraged local residents to stay off the roads after multiple crashes occurred during the day.

Lambert was also a former member of the United States Army and was newly marriedThe next jamboree, which has been dubbed the 'Catholic Woodstock,' will be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022

Around 700,000 people attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day which takes place every three years

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Pope Francis wore local headgear ahead of an open-air Mass dubbed the 'Catholic Woodstock' - a jamboree attended by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Panama City.

Organizers said about 700,000 people attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day, which takes place in a different city every three years.

The next jamboree, which has been dubbed the 'Catholic Woodstock,' will be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

Many of the young people in the crowd had spent the night on the fields of a park named after Pope John Paul - the last pontiff to visit Panama.

Pope Francis wears local headgear ahead of an open-air Mass dubbed the 'Catholic Woodstock' - a jamboree attended by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Panama City

Crowds of thousands gather at the Saint Paul II Metro Park to hear the Pope say Mass during World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama

Pope Francis delivers his homily during an morning Mass - which began unusually early at 8am due to sweltering tropical heat

In his closing homily at the Mass, which started unusually early at 8am due to the sweltering tropical heat, Francis urged young people to work against 'fear and exclusion, speculation and manipulation.'

The Pope was photographed earlier in the trip wearing a Panama hat.

This was Pope Francis' last event before he returns to Rome to prepare for a historic trip to the Arabian Peninsula.

After a week at the Vatican, Francis leaves on Sunday for a three-day trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where he will become the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula and say the first Mass in a public venue there.

There are an estimated one million Roman Catholics in the UAE, all of them expatriate workers.

The freedom to practice Christianity or any religion other than Islam is not a given in the Gulf and varies from country to country.

Pope Francis embraces a man dressed in blue during his visit at the Casa Hogar 'El Buen Samaritano' in Panama City, Panama

The Pope gestures with John Oh Woong-Jin (left), the founder of the Congregation of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus-Philippines

Catholic pilgrims stand with their arms around each others shoulders as they listen to a Mass by Pope Francis this morning

A young woman leans on a man's back as they embrace during an open-air mass at the Campo San Juan Pablo II on the outskirts of Panama City

A picture of the Salvadoran Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero is held next to a national flag of El Salvador during the closing mass of the World Youth Day, officiated by Pope Francis

In the UAE and Kuwait, Christians may worship in churches or church compounds and in other places with special licenses. Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, bans the practice of other religions.

During the Panama trip, the themes of migration and the Church's sexual abuse crisis loomed large.

Francis said at one event that it was 'senseless and irresponsible' to stigmatize migrants and see all of them as threats to society, weighing in again on one of the most divisive issues in the United States.

A pilgrim who took part in an evening vigil in the framework of World Youth Day is pictured inside a sleeping bag in the morning before the arrival of Pope Francis to officiate an open-air mass

Pilgrims from Guatemala smile as they wait for the arrival of Pope Francis to officiate an open-air morning mass on Sunday

Many young people in the crowd spent the night on the fields of a park named after Pope John Paul after an evening vigil

He spoke several times of the need for 'bridges, not walls,' again putting himself at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, who on Friday agreed under mounting pressure to end a 35-day partial government shutdown -without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a wall along the border with Mexico.

Trump has repeatedly warned about the dangers of illegal immigrants, and said the wall would help solve the problem.

On Saturday, Francis said the Roman Catholic Church was weary and 'wounded by her own sin,' in an apparent reference to the global sexual abuse crisis.

Organizers said about 700,000 people attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day, which takes place in a different city every three years

The next jamboree, which has been dubbed the 'Catholic Woodstock,' will be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022 (pictured, a pilgrim prays during mass)

Pope Francis smiles as he clasps the hand of John Oh Woong-Jin during his visit at the Casa Hogar 'El Buen Samaritano'

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims as he arrives in the pope-mobile to give an open-air mass at the Campo San Juan Pablo II

Panama President Juan Carlos Varela (second from left), his wife and first lady Lorena Castillo (third from left), Colombian President Ivan Duque (fourth from left), Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado (sixth from left), his wife and first lady Claudia Dobles (fourth from right), Salvadorian President Salvador Sanchez (third from right), and the Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales (second from right) attend the closing mass of the World Youth Day

Later, at a lunch with a delegation of young people, he told an American representative that clergy sexual abuse was a 'horrible crime' and that the Church should be united in fighting it.

Francis has called a summit of the heads of national Catholic churches at the Vatican on February 21 to 24 to discuss what is now a global sexual abuse crisis.

The February meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable.Savannah Spurlock's family released the latest photo of the missing-mother-of-four which shows her with darker hair and a fuller face

Savannah Spurlock's family are releasing the most recent images of her as the hunt for the missing mother-of-four continues.

The latest photo shows the 22-year-old with brown hair - much darker than the photos circulating which show her with blonde locks - and a rounder face, presumably due to having recently given birth.

'Because Savannah has so many different ''looks'' we ask if anyone has photos taken the six weeks prior to missing to please message to us,' a post on the page Missing Savannah said. 'As we receive them, we will share. This photo was newly found in her grandmother's digital camera.'

The family also released images of the month-old twin boys who have now been without their mother for three weeks.

Savannah vanished after leaving The Other Bar in Lexington, Kentucky, with two men on January 4, just days after she gave birth to twins.

Savannah, who has been missing since January 4, gave birth to twin boys in December (pictured)

Savannah, who gave birth to the twins in December, last spoke to her mother at 2.30am the night she went missing to tell her she was leaving the bar and would be home 'in a few hours'.

Savannah's mother said that one of her toddler sons (pictured) says he misses his mommy

On Tuesday, police investigating the disappearance of the Kentucky mother searched the home of one of two men who she was last spotted with three weeks ago.

The two men were questioned by police at the time but they were not charged in connection with her disappearance.

Savannah's mother Ellen Spurlock told WKYT that her disappearance has been especially hard on her toddler children, aged two and four.

'(Her son) doesn't know what's going on, but my fear is how long can that take place, you know? Mommy is not here for 11 days, each day is another day,' she said after when the search was reaching the two-week mark.

'The twins are too young, but the two-year-old, he misses his mommy. He saw her on TV one night and said 'Mommy'. He misses her.

'I cope with it by praying and believing that she is still out there.'

Ellen Spurlock said she didn't recognize the men in the footage.

'I don't sleep at night. It's a nightmare,' she said. 'I'm just trying to get information out to the public in the hopes and prayers that somebody is going to come forward that will lead to her.'

'It gets harder and harder with each day that passes,' she said. 'I just want to know so bad where Savannah is and that she is OK.'

The 22-year-old (pictured in an older photo) vanished after leaving The Other Bar in Lexington, Kentucky with the two men on January 4 just days after she gave birth to twins

She was last seen on surveillance video leaving The Other Bar in Lexington, Kentucky with two men. They were questioned by police at the time but they were not charged in connection with her disappearance

The two men, along with a third, were located and questioned but not charged. One of the men drove away in a pick up truck (pictured)

Shaquille Smith, Spurlock's ex-boyfriend and the father of two of her children, said he believes the men know where she is

Police searched the home of one of the men on Tuesday and seized a car.

Savannah's ex-boyfriend and the father of two of her children, Shaquille Smith, said he believes the men know where she is.

'I do think the guys she was with that night know exactly where she is,' Smith told Fox News.

'I do think she is out there somewhere worried and thinking about her kids, family and friends.'

Ellen said that the police have not been able to share details of the case with her 'because it is so active', but she added that she understands.

Savannah's aunt Elaine Moore said the young woman had always been good about letting her parents know if she was staying out late.

The family is desperately pleading for any help in locating Savannah as the search enters is nearing its fourth week.

'She's a very sweet, kind-hearted young lady and would do anything to help anybody,' Moore said.

'You hate to think about this for anybody. This is just your worst nightmare.'

Another one of Savannah's aunts Lisa Thoma shared an emotional video on Facebook last week pleading for help to find Savannah and also thanking those who have prayed for her niece's return.

'The family is having a hard time, but we're leaning into each other, we're leaning into God,' Thoma said in the video posted to the Facebook group Missing Savannah.

'If you know anything, we beg you, come forward and call the Richmond, Kentucky police department.'

The mother-of-four gave birth to twins last month and has two sons aged two and four

Savannah is 5ft tall and weighs about 140lbs.

She has shoulder-length brown and blond hair and several tattoos, including one on the right side of her torso that reads, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me,' and another on her back that reads, 'I'm her daughter'.

Ellen has pleaded: 'Please come forward and share this. Please. I'm begging you.

'We miss Savannah. She lived with me. I see reminders of her every day in this house. I can't even explain the nightmare this is for us.'

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is urged to contact Lt. Col. Rodney Richardson with Richmond police at 859-624-4776.The NHS is trying to fight a ruling with the Supreme Court after it was ordered to pay for the four surrogate babies of a woman it had left infertile, The Sunday Times reported.

The 35-year-old, who has been granted anonymity, was left infertile after a late diagnosis of cervical cancer by doctors left her with irreparable damage to her uterus and ovaries.

She later won her fight to seek out a surrogate mother in California and the NHS was ordered to pay compensation of more than 1.1million.

The NHS is trying to fight a ruling with the Supreme Court after it was ordered to pay for the four surrogate babies of a woman it had left infertile

The amount also includes up to 558,945 for surrogacy in America.

Known only as Ms XX, the 35-year-old, argued that she deserved the chance to begin a family.

She added that it was the NHS's failure to spot her cervical cancer at the early stages that rendered her infertile.

Ms XX, who harvested 12 of her eggs before undergoing chemotherapy treatment, was also left with severe damage to her bladder and bowel.

In a last-ditch attempt to stop the taxpayer paying for the treatment, NHS bosses have now submitted a 28-page application to the Supreme Court.

The document, which was submitted on January 15, has now left an air of uncertainty around Ms XX's payout.

Ms XX told The Sunday Times: 'I didn't choose to be in this position and I deserve the chance to begin a family of my own.'

The NHS blunder began when medics at The Whittington Hospital in north London missed four opportunities to diagnose cervical cancer

Anne Kavanagh from legal group Irwin Mitchell, solicitor to Ms XX, told The Sunday Times: 'My client has always maintained that she needed to conclude the litigation process before she could begin the process of having a family.

'However, her plans are now on hold and we will continue to support her through this process while we wait for a decision on whether the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from the NHS.'

The NHS blunder began when medics at The Whittington Hospital in north London missed four opportunities to diagnose cervical cancer from smear tests in 2008 and 2012 and biopsies in 2012 and 2013.

The cancer was finally diagnosed when the patient was 29 and she was told by doctors she would be unable to bear children.

Ms XX, who comes from a big family and whose sister has ten children, had always dreamed of having a big family.

Previously a court had heard that it was the woman's 'central ambition' to have at least four children.A group of Muslim parents have staged a protest outside a primary school with a gay assitant head teacher after claiming its sex education programme was 'over-promoting LGBT movements'.

Andrew Moffat MBE, assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community School in Saltley, Birmingham, has been criticised by some parents for piloting a programme called No Outsiders.

Run alongside sex and relationship education lessons, the scheme promotes LGBT equality and challenges homophobia in primary schools.

Books now being read by pupils at Parkfield Community School include Mommy, Mama and Me and King & King - stories about same-sex relationships and marriages.

Fatima Shah (holding petition), who is protesting against a sex education programme at Parkfield Community School in Saltley, Birmingham

But Mr Moffat, who is gay, has come under fire from some Muslim parents who believe homosexuality is a sin.

Outraged mother Fatima Shah, who has taken her 10-year-old daughter out of the school, said: 'It's inappropriate, totally wrong.

'Children are being told it's OK to be gay yet 98 per cent of children at this school are Muslim. It's a Muslim community.

'I've taken my daughter out and other parents have too. Enough is enough.

'Sex relationship education is being taught without our consent. We've not been informed about what's being taught.

Andrew Moffat, assistant head teacher at Parkfield Community School with a 'No Outsiders' book

'Mr Moffat is running what's called CHIPS - challenging homophobia in primary schools - and it's totally against Islamic beliefs.

'My child came home and told me am I OK to be a boy? It's confusing children about sexuality.

'I want my child to learn about English, maths and science.

'I'm keeping my daughter away from the school until something is done. I've been paying 20-an-hour tuition at home instead.'

And while Ms Shah is against LGBT equality being taught at Parkfield, the29-year-old insisted she believed that 'gay people should be treated with mutual respect'.

Speaking alongside other Muslim parents during a demonstration outside the

school gates, the mother-of-three added: 'We believe in fundamental British values and believe gay people should be treated with mutual respect and without prejudice or discrimination just like any other human being.

'We respect the Equality Act and believe it can be implemented without the promotion of homosexuality.

Hazel Pulley, head teacher at Parkfield Community School in Saltley, Birmingham

'Children have a naive and innocent picture of sexual relationships.

'At this age it is inappropriate to teach them what is a gay or straight relationship.

'The school knew the local community and parents have a different set of family values and morals, and were opposed to an LGBT agenda that says being gay is OK.

'Our community ethos was not respected. We feel betrayed by the school.'

Others who spoke to outside the school included mother-of-two Mariam Ahmed.

The 34-year-old, who has helped organise a petition calling for change, said: 'No Outsiders is not for our community. We have a different ethos.

'Mr Moffat is over-promoting LGBT movements.

'I have nothing against him and I fully respect his beliefs but this should be stopped being taught in schools. It's not necessary. It's confusing children.

Andrew Moffat (left) and Hazel Pulley, assistant head and head teacher at Parkfield Community School

'My little girl is four, she's in reception and she came home asking me if it's OK to be a boy instead of a girl and has dressed up in her brother's clothes. She's four years old.'

Mohammed Sakib, 37, who has children aged eight, nine and 10 at the school, added: 'I respect all religions but why should sexuality be taught to primary school-aged children? It's out of control.

'[Mr Moffat] seems a friendly and good-natured guy but he needs to respect us as Muslim parents. He needs to listen.'

Another mother, who has children aged seven and 11, added: 'Why does my seven-year-old girl need to be taught about same-sex marriages and homosexuality?

'She should be playing, having fun and should be learning about English and maths. This curriculum is putting ideas into their heads.'

Another added: 'There's no need. This place is different, it's a 90 per cent Muslim school.

'There's books on the curriculum like Mommy, Mama and Me which promotes same-sex marriage and being lesbian. Just why is this needed?'

In 2014, Mr Moffat resigned from Chilwell Croft Academy in Newtown, Birmingham following a backlash from parents after coming out during a school assembly.

The school teacher has been at Parkfield Community School for four years.

In 2016, the 740-pupil school was deemed outstanding across the board by Ofsted and, a year later, Mr Moffat was awarded an MBE for services to equality and diversity in education.

The report said: 'This is an inclusive school that celebrates diversity. As a result, pupils demonstrate respect for an individual's age, disability, gender or gender reassignment, sexuality, race, religion or belief.'

Fatima Shah (holding petition), who is protesting against a sex education programme at Parkfield Community School

In a joint statement outlining concerns by parents, Mr Moffat and Hazel Pulley, CEO of Excelsior Multi Academy Trust, said Parkfield Community School 'have no plans to change their curriculum and No Outsiders remains an integral part of the drive for excellence'.

They added: 'The No Outsiders programme teaches children that everyone is welcome.

'It was created in 2014 by Andrew Moffat, assistant head at Parkfield Community School, and piloted at the school.

'The aim was to find a way to teach children about the Equality Act 2010, developing an understanding of British values through an inclusive curriculum and school ethos.

'A key element of the No Outsiders ethos is engagement with parents from the start, in order to promote solid foundations of tolerance that are matched both in and outside the school gates.

'Ninety-eight per cent of the children at Parkfield practice the Islamic faith and initially this presented tension within some aspects of No Outsiders, specifically the acceptance of LGBT equality.

'Through parent workshops where resources and discussions were shared in the early stages of the pilot, the school was able to move forward with the support of the parent community.

Andrew Moffat MBE is assistant headteacher at Parkfield Community School (pictured)

'In the last four years the No Outsiders ethos has blossomed as an integral part of the school. An outstanding Ofsted report in 2016 recognised No Outsiders as a key strength of the school.

'In December 2018, a small group of parents at Parkfield School voiced concern about proposed government changes to the teaching of SRE (Sex and Relationship Education) in schools for 2020, specifically that schools would be forced to teach the subject and parents would be unable to withdraw children.

'At Parkfield School, SRE has been taught for the last three years, always in July, to Y3, Y5 and Y6.

'Every year before the lessons are delivered parents are invited to review materials used and are given the option of removing children from the lessons if they wish.

'In the first week of January 2019, Parkfield school received a steady stream of enquiries about the teaching of SRE and linking No Outsiders to SRE.

'Parents were concerned that the school was promoting homosexuality and indoctrinating their children to be gay.

'The headteacher, David Williams, and Andrew Moffat have met any parent asking for a meeting and were currently meeting parents about this at least once every day, 'No Outsiders' resources are shown and usually parents leave appearing to be reassured and happy with the explanation.

Full text of leaflet handed out to parents outside Parkfield School 'Brothers and sisters, is it OK for your children to be gay? 'Are you aware of the resource being used in literacy lessons promoting homosexuality? 'Did you know Mr Moffat left his last role because parents believed he had no right coming out to children? They wanted all the lessons containing LGBT to be removed from curriculum. 'Did you know that our children are now being taught the very same thing? 'Have you asked what your children are being taught? What they are reading? 'Please join us in our petition to have the No Outsider removed from the curriculum. 'Please help us make a difference to what children are being taught.' Advertisement

'Presently these meetings have been curtailed due to them becoming personal and aggressive.

'However, a small group of parents are collecting petitions on the school gate to 'stop the sexualisation of children'.

'On Monday, January 11, Andrew Moffat approached the parents to ask what the petition was about; unbeknown to Andrew, he was filmed by a parent and this film was later put on social media.

'A member of the public phoned the school on Thursday, January 17 to say the film of Mr Moffat would be 'bad for his health'.

'Many parents told the school they felt pressured to sign the petition but didn't really support it.

'Some parents are openly refusing to sign. On Friday, January 18 the school was leafleted at home time: On Saturday, February 2 there are two public meetings in the community about the teaching of SRE.

'Central to everything we do is our duty to safeguard all children.

'As part of our safeguarding duty, we have to ensure we safeguard and protect them from all possible forms of harm including homophobic or transgender bullying.

'No Outsiders allows us to raise awareness of these differences so that children are able to tolerate and accept differences in our society.'Ministers today praised amendments tabled by senior Tories that would endorse Theresa May's Brexit deal - as long as she can overhaul or time limit the Irish border backstop.

Health Secretary Matthew Hancock welcomed the changes being pushed by 1922 chair Sir Graham Brady and former minister Andrew Murrison as a key part of 'building a majority' for the package.

In a thinly-veiled appeal for Brexiteers to stage a show of support in crucial votes on Tuesday, Mr Hancock said he 'understood the impulse' behind the tweaks.

Sir Graham has put forward a text calling for the Irish backstop to be replaced with 'alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border', but adding that the House would 'support the Withdrawal Agreement subject to this change'.

Meanwhile, Mr Murrison has suggested agreeing Mrs May's deal as long as the backstop is guaranteed to expire by the end of 2021.

Theresa May (pictured playing with Blitz the dog at church in Maidenhead today) faces another gruelling week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay Brexit

Health Secretary Matthew Hancock welcomed the changes being pushed by 1922 chair Sir Graham Brady and former minister Andrew Murrison as a key part of 'building a majority' for the package

Sir Graham (left) has put forward an amendment that would endorse Mrs May's plan with the caveat that the Irish backstop must be overhauled. But Speaker John Bercow (right) has the final say over what is selected for votes

The amendments have been signed by loyalists including former deputy PM Damian Green, and are attracting some support from

However, the selection of which amendments are debated and voted on is the gift of Speaker John Bercow - who has so far proved deeply reluctant to help the Government.

Earlier this month he ignored an almost identical proposal Mr Murrison tried to tag on to the Brexit deal, despite tacit backing from ministers.

Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney upped the stakes in the bitter wrangling today by warning that the EU will never allow the backstop to be ditched.

Mr Coveney said even if member states agreed to abandon the mechanism for guaranteeing there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, MEPs would veto it.

However, Mr Hancock accused him of negotiating tactics - pointing out that a no deal outcome would be the biggest risk of creating a hard border.

The clashes came as Theresa May faces another gruelling week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay Brexit.



What is the Plan B vote the PM is 'betting her house on' today and what will it mean if it passes? What is happening? Because Theresa May's Brexit deal was defeated, the law says she must tell Parliament what her Plan B is. This has to be done in a motion to the Commons, which will be voted on by MPs on Tuesday night. That motion can be re-written by MPs if they table amendments and win a vote in favour of them. Some amendments have already been tabled and MPs can keep producing them until Monday night. What does May's plan say? It promises more cross-party working, renews commitments to protecting workers' rights after Brexit and says the PM will ask Brussels for more concessions on the backstop. It it based on the current deal that was crushed by 230 votes last week. What do the main amendments say? Jeremy Corbyn's amendment says Parliament should vote on 'options' including a renegotiation of the deal to get a permanent customs union and for a second referendum. A cross party amendment from Yvette Cooper and Nicky Morgan seeks to block no deal by giving time to a draft law that would require the Government to delay Brexit if a deal has not been agreed by February 26. It upturns normal convention by putting a backbench MP's Bill ahead of Government plans. An amendment from Tory rebel Dominic Grieve seeks to set up weekly debates that would mean regular votes on what to do in the absence a deal. His amendments sets aside six named days for the debates - including as late as March 26. The Government also appears to be encouraging MPs to back amendment from two senior Tory MPs. One from Andrew Murrison would effectively set a time limit on the backstop of December 31, 2021. Another amendments tabled by Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 committee, would effectively eradicate the backstop and demand the EU and UK find other solutions. Some ministers hope that if these amendment receive strong support it will pile pressure on the EU to make concessions on the backstop - which Brexiteers fear the UK will be stuck in forever, and the DUP believes risks splitting the union. What would the vote do? Legally nothing - but if the Commons votes in favour of a clear way forward by a majority it will be a major political signal of what might happen. Is it a new 'meaningful vote' that can approve May's deal? No. At some point, the PM will have to stage a repeat of last week's vote to get explicit approval from MPs to go ahead with her deal if she wants it to survive. Advertisement

If the plan, pushed by Labour's Yvette Cooper, is passed by MPs on Tuesday it would pave the way for law ordering a nine-month extension to be considered on February 5.

Amendments are also tabled intended to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and stage a series of 'indicative' votes to work out what approach would gain a majority in the Commons.

The government seems to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories including 1922 committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and ex-minister Andrew Murrison that would demand a rewriting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something Mrs May could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

Mr Hancock said today he was sympathetic to the way Tories were searching for solutions - although he declined to say whether he supported either amendment.

'I think that we need to build that majority in the Commons clearly and this was one of the proposals thats coming from a wide range of people who want to get a deal through,' he said.

Ministers are increasingly hopeful that there could be movement as splits emerge between Dublin and EU leaders over whether there would need to be a hard border if the UK crashes out.

However, a rattled-looking Mr Coveney today warned that it will not help if the Commons votes to make demands that will be rejected by the EU.

Simon Coveney said even if member states agreed to abandon the mechanism for guaranteeing there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, MEPs would veto it

He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: 'The European Parliament will not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that doesn't have a backstop in it.

'It's as simple as that.'

Mr Coveney said: 'The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises.

'It was designed around British red lines.

'Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced package that isn't going to change.'

Speaking on the same programme, Mr Hancock denied Mr Coveney's comments meant Mrs May's Brexit deal was 'dead in the water'.

'Not at all,' said Mr Hancock. 'That's a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think it's also extremely clear from that interview and the tone... is that Ireland doesn't want to have a no-deal Brexit.

'The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

'The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.'

When asked whether he agreed with Yvette Cooper's amendment, Mr Hancock said: 'No, because delaying Brexit won't help solve these problems.

'The thing I would say in response to Yvette and all those who feel so strongly against having a no-deal exit is... you can't just vote for delay - that doesn't solve anything - you have got to vote positively for a deal, so let's keep having those conversations about what the Commons can coalesce around.'

Mr Coveney said abandoning the backstop would mean relying on an 'aspirational hope'.

Asked if Ireland would support an extension of Article 50, Mr Coveney said: 'Yes. Ireland won't be an obstacle to more time if that's needed.'Advertisement

Heartbroken family and friends have gathered for the funeral of a two-year-old boy whose body was found yesterday morning after a heroic 10-day recovery effort after he fell 230 feet down a well in Spain.

Hundreds of mourners attended the ceremony today in the beachfront district of El Palo in Malaga, where the body of Julen Rosello was taken by hearse last night.

His devastated mother, Vicky, and father, Jose, were seen comforting each other in the square outside the cemetery, before clutching a football as he sat down for the service.

Julen was buried alongside his brother, Oliver, who died in 2017 aged three after suffering cardiac problems. A crowd at the entrance to the cemetery applauded as the little boy's family arrived for the burial.

Engineers, police and miners had been working round-the-clock to reach Julen after he plunged down the 9-inch wide, illegal well on January 13 as his parents prepared lunch nearby in Totalan, a southern town near Malaga.

Scroll down for video.

Hundreds of mourners gathered today at the cemetery in El Palo, Malaga, Spain, where the body of Julen Rosello was taken by hearse last night. Pictured are Julen's father, Jose, and mother, Vicky

Julen's distraught father Jose holds a football as he grieves his son during the funeral service today, which was attended by hundreds of well-wishers

Mourners wait for the arrival of Julen's coffin as flowers arrive at the ceremony while members of the Spanish police watch on

Julen's body is taken through the streets of El Palo and towards the cemetery today as mourners watch on in silence

Julen's was found in the early hours of Saturday morning, almost two weeks after he fell down the hole, which was drilled - illegally - by someone searching for water. He is seen here in undated family photos

Spain has been gripped by the complex search-and-rescue operation to try and save Julen, which was fraught with technical difficulties that caused delay upon delay. Pictured: Mourners at his funeral today

An attendee at the funeral speaks to police officers who were guarding today's ceremony. Julen's post-mortem was carried out yesterday, suggested he most likely died when he fell down the well

The rescue team found Julen early on Saturday morning, prompting his father, Jose, to shout, 'Not another time, no' - a reference to their other young son's death two years ago.

Julen had barely turned seven months old when his older brother died.

His mother, Vicky, held Oliver for three hours after his death in the children's hospital, according to Spanish media.

The parents - who 'dreamed of one day having a big family' - visit Oliver's grave every week and talk to him for hours.

They say they're now praying Oliver is watching over his little brother from heaven and keeping him safe.

Julen fell before hitting a layer of earth, the local government said, adding that an investigation was underway to determine any 'potential liabilities' in the two-year-old's death.

A post-mortem was carried out yesterday, the results of which will be communicated to the judge investigating the case.

Local daily Malaga Hoy, citing sources, however, said the post-mortem found Julen died on the same day he fell from a 'traumatic brain injury'.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter: 'All of Spain feels the infinite sadness of Julen's family. We have followed closely every step to reach him.

'We will always appreciate the tireless efforts of those who looked for him over the past days. My support and affection to his parents and loved ones.'

In a tweet, Spain's King Felipe VI extended his 'deepest condolences to Julen's whole family'.

The Civil Guard police force, whose explosives experts helped elite miners to dig a tunnel to reach Julen, expressed sadness that the operation had not had a happy end.

'Unfortunately, despite so much effort by so many people, it wasn't possible...' it wrote on its official Twitter account. The operation is thought to have cost around 500,000.

Julen was buried alongside his brother, Oliver, who died in 2017 aged three after suffering cardiac problems. Pictured is Jose Rosello being comforted by a fellow mourner

Julen's father Jose waits for the arrival of a coffin of his son. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter: 'All of Spain feels the infinite sadness of Julen's family. We have followed closely every step to reach him'

Jose Rosello, Julen's father, walks through the huge crowds of locals and other wellwishers who attended his son's funeral service today in El Palo, Malaga

Police and rescue workers - some of whom may have been involved in the operation to recover Julen's body - watch on during today's funeral

In a tweet, Spain's King Felipe VI extended his 'deepest condolences to Julen's whole family'. Pictured: A mourner smokes a cigarette at today's service

People gather beneath the gates of the cemetery in El Palo were Julen Rosello's funeral was taking place this afternoon

Julen's body arrives outside the gates of the cemetery in El Palo yesterday where it was moved to a funeral chapel before today's service

Julen's parents clasp a ball as they wait for the arrival of their son's body yesterday after a harrowing and drawn-out rescue operation

Spain has been gripped by the complex search-and-rescue operation fraught with technical difficulties that caused delay upon delay as Julen's distraught parents and relatives stood by.

It was 'a colossal mission,' regional government spokesman Gomez de Celis told reporters yesterday morning, that involved 'moving 85,000 tonnes of earth in a brief space of time... with the obstacle course that the mountain was throwing at us'.

There had been no sign of life from the boy but rescuers believed they knew where he was inside the well, which was dug by an entrepreneur - most likely without government permission.

The only evidence of the boy's presence was some strands of hair that matched his DNA and a bag of sweets he had been holding when he fell into the well.

Rescuers were not able to get to Julen via the well he fell down because it was blocked by a layer of earth, sand and stones believed to have been dislodged when he tumbled in.

After unsuccessfully trying to suck up the blockage using machines, they decided to dig a vertical shaft parallel to the well and then dig a four-yard tunnel to join both channels.

Despite the passage of time, the boy's relatives held out hope that Julen had somehow survived the fall and would be found alive.

An investigation into the circumstances of his fall into the unmarked, illegally-dug well - one of many in Andalusia - will be carried out by an investigating judge.

A minute's silence was hold for Julen at 11am yesterday.

This footage - taken yesterday - showed engineers drilling through the rock to get through to the well where Julen's body was found

The Civil Guard released this footage showing rescue workers trying to reach the two-year-old boy yesterday

The baby fell into this 15-inch wide borehole on the estate on the outskirts of Malaga. It is pictured shortly after Julen fell down there on January 13Stephen Erickson (pictured) was granted an emergency request to testify against a school janitor who raped him repeatedly

A man with terminal cancer was given the opportunity to testify from his deathbed against a school janitor who raped him as boy.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly last month granted an emergency request to let Stephen Erickson, 55, give a sworn statement to 'preserve his testimony' for a lawsuit he wanted to file against the church which ran the school.

Erickson, who suffered from terminal skin cancer, gave a videotaped sworn statement from his bed at Albany Medical Center on December 12. He died one week later.

In a transcript obtained by the New York Post, Erickson accused Eugene Hubert, a janitor at St. Teresa of Avila School in Albany, of sexually assaulting him 'three times a week.'

Hubert 'penetrated me in the men's room and boys room,' Erickson testified, saying the abuse was also oral.

The abuse happened over a two-year period in the late 1970s, when Erickson was a young student attending the school, which is now closed.

Erickson, an Air Force veteran and electrician claimed that his marriage collapsed under the stress of living with the abuse perpetrated against him.

'I want to talk to the jury. It has ruined my life. Basically, this guy just ruined my life. I lost my adolescence, just not growing up as a normal kid.'

A lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese attended the deposition and a a jury will now hear his taped testimony.

His lawyer Jeff Herman told The Post that Erickson waited his whole life for justice and wanted to share the impact the abuse had on his life.

Erickson is survived by his ex-wife Margaret Sorokey (left) and son Stephen (right)

Herman, who represents several child-abuse victims, claimed: 'Even though he was on his deathbed, he was determined to have his voice heard  even beyond his grave.'

Herman plans to file a lawsuit against the Diocese of Albany for Ericksons estate. Erickson was divorced but had a son.

In court papers requesting the deposition, the Herman Law firm charges the diocese 'should have known that Hubert posed a danger to commit sexual assault.' Hubert died in 1997.

Herman plans to file a lawsuit against the Diocese of Albany for Ericksons estate. Erickson was divorced but had a son.

Several other men allege they were were sexually abused at St. Teresas by Gary Mercure (pictured) a former priest who is currently serving 25 years for raping two altar boys

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, (pictured), who was appointed to lead the Albany diocese in 2014, has acknowledged the church had failed in its handling of the allegations and abuse at St. Teresa of Avila.

Herman Law firm charges the diocese 'should have known that Hubert posed a danger to commit sexual assault.' Hubert died in 1997, according to papers requesting the deposition.

Several other men also claim they were sexually abused at St. Teresas by Gary Mercure, a priest who is serving 25 years in a Massachusetts state prison for raping two altar boys, according to the Albany Times Union.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, appointed to lead the Albany diocese in 2014, has acknowledged the church had failed in its handling of the allegations and abuse at St. Teresa of Avila.

'I admire the bravery of those who have come forward to share their stories of betrayal and pain to help other survivors of childhood sexual abuse,"

'The fact is, the heinous crimes of some within the church and our institutional failings shattered childrens lives and haunted survivors for decades.

'We did not do enough to protect Gods children and we must focus on rebuilding the trust we broke,' he said in a statement to the Albany Times Union.Advertisement

World War II guns fired a salute in Russia tonight as the country marked 75 years since the siege of Leningrad in which a million people died.

Some 2,500 Russian soldiers paraded with tanks and modern military hardware in the streets of St Petersburg - once known as Leningrad - in a show of Moscow's military might today.

Modern heavy weaponry trundled past the city's Hermitage Museum alongside the T-34 battle tank credited with defeating Hitler's invaders as crowds watched the parade in falling snow and 12F (-11C) temperatures.

Vladimir Putin - whose brother died in the siege - hailed St Petersburg as an 'impregnable city' and called the Nazi siege a 'crime against humanity' as he visited a memorial nearby.

Commemoration: World War II guns fire a salute in St Petersburg today, in a reconstruction of a salute first shot 75 years ago after Soviet troops liberated the city - then known as Leningrad - from Hitler's invaders

Anniversary: Spectators watch a firework show marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the 872-day siege of Leningrad during World War II, amid snowfall and below-freezing temperatures in St. Petersburg on Sunday

Russian military jets fly during the military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Nazi siege of Leningrad

The brutal siege of the city lasted nearly two-and-a-half years until the Soviet Army drove the Nazis away on January 27, 1944, helping to turn the tide of the war.

Encircled by the Nazi troops for 872 days, the city of around three million people endured unspeakable horrors as hundreds of thousands died from shelling, disease or hunger.

Estimates of the death toll vary, but historians agree that more than 1 million Leningrad residents died from hunger or air and artillery bombardments during the siege.

During the siege, most Leningrad residents had to survive on rations of less than half a pound of bread a day and whatever other food they could buy or exchange at local markets after selling their belongings.

Putin said that the Nazis, who had tried to starve 'an impregnable city' to death and subjected residents of Leningrad to 'horrendous suffering', would never be forgiven.

'According to the enemy's plans, Leningrad should have disappeared from the face of the Earth,' Putin said at a memorial concert.

'This is what is called a crime against humanity.'

Re-enactment: Military personnel fire guns during a salute in memory of the gun fire that marked the end of the siege in 1944

People watch a victory salute in St Petersburg - formerly known as Leningrad - where the siege was lifted 75 years ago

Re-enactment: Actors recreate the end of the siege of Leningrad 75 years after the city was relieved from the Nazi blockade

Russian President Vladimir Putin embraces an elderly woman as he visits an exhibition of the patriotic association 'Lenrezerv' in St Petersburg today

How citizens of Leningrad endured the longest and deadliest military blockade in history The siege of Leningrad was the longest and deadliest military blockade in history with residents resorting to cannibalism and corpses left lying in the street. Adolf Hitler planned to starve the city into submission rather then send more troops and artillery to try and take what is now St Petersburg is a conventional battle as part of Operation Barbarossa. In the first bombardment in 1941 the city's food stores were destroyed and within weeks the citizens were running out of supplies. By November 1941, food rations were 250 grammes per day for manual workers and 150 grammes for all other civilians, of which 50 to 60 per cent was made up of sawdust and other inedible components. Bread that was mixed with sawdust to make it seem filling and when a bomb destroyed a food store and sugar melted into the ground, desperate residents dug up the sweetened earth, mixed it with flour and cooked it. As starvation and freezing temperatures began to take their toll on the residents of Lenningrad, corpses began to litter the streets and many of those still alive started to eat the bodies of the dead. Reports even described how one mother smothered her 18-month-old baby to feed her older three children and a plumber killed his wife to feed his sons and nieces. During the siege a special police force was even created to combat cannibalism, but they still struggled to maintain order and prevent people from eating dead bodies or killing the living. Around 1,500 people were thought to have been arrested for cannibalism and after the siege was lifted those believed to have turned to cannibalism faced criminal charges and some were sentenced to death. The siege continued until January 27, 1944, when German forces were expelled from the southern outskirts of the city. The siege was also known as the Leningrad Blockade and the 900-Day Siege and was estimated to have killed more civilians than the bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Russian casualties during the siege were also bigger than then the combined American and British casualties during the entire Second World War. Advertisement

Putin, at 66, was born in Leningrad after the war but his older brother died in childhood during the devastating siege and is buried in a mass grave at Piskaryovskoe.

The Russian leader's mother nearly succumbed to hunger during the siege, while his father fought in the war and was wounded near Leningrad.

The vehicles on display today included a T34 tank, a consignment of which were shipped from Laos earlier this month as Russia ran out of the Soviet-era war machines.

The tanks played a key role in defeating the Nazis and became a widely revered symbol of the nation's wartime valour and suffering.

Putin later laid flowers at a monument in Piskarevskoye Cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of siege victims are buried.

He did not attend the parade, which some civic groups had objected to as inappropriate, saying the day should commemorate victims rather than flaunt military strength.

More than 2,500 servicemen in modern and period uniforms including sheepskin coats and felt boots took part in the parade, which also included a military flyover.

A moment of silence was observed to the ticking of a metronome, which was used to warn residents about air raids during the siege.

While some people criticised the authorities for holding a parade they denounced as misplaced sabre-rattling and militaristic propaganda, others praised it.

Natalya Gerashchenko brought her 12-year-old son to see the parade.

'A military parade is very beautiful,' the 35-year-old said. 'The lifting of the siege is very important for everyone.'

Ivan Kolokoltsev, a 45-year-old manager, said: 'We have to remember, we have to commemorate it so that people remember.'

Others said one of the most horrific chapters of World War II should be remembered differently.

'I am against militarism,' Yakov Gilinsky, an 84-year-old siege survivor, said ahead of the parade.

Political commentator Anton Orekh suggested that the money spent on the parade should have been given to survivors instead.

'Old people would buy some medicine and new clothes and for a time forget they have to count pennies,' he wrote.

But a defence ministry official insisted the event was not celebratory in nature, describing it as a 'soldierly ritual'.

Russian army servicemen attend the parade to mark 75 years since Leningrad siege was lifted during the World War Two, in Saint Petersburg today

Servicemen involved in the military parade in St Petersburg's Dvortsovaya Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the WWII Siege of Leningrad

Servicemen and women parade St Petersburg's Dvortsovaya Square to mark the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the WWII Siege of Leningrad

Russian army servicemen in historical uniforms marched and chanted during the parade. The parade came as Germany announced it was earmarking cash to help the 86,000 survivors

Estimates of the death toll during the 872-day siege vary, but some historians say more than a million Leningrad residents died from hunger or air and artillery shelling bombardments

President Vladimir Putin's ministers said the cash was not enough for the around one million lives lost in the siege. Vladimir Putin's own one-year-old brother was among those who died during the siege

Russian President Vladimir Putin greets visitors as they view an exposition of Red Army and Nazi Wehrmacht vehicles and weapons from the LenRezerv collection

Residents watch the military parade at Dvortsovaya Square during the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Leningrad

Boris Ratushny, 82, in the foreground, a survivor of the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II, swims in the icy water in St Petersburg, today

A man swims in the icy water in St Petersburg during celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Nazi siege of Leningrad during WWII

Russian anti-aircraft missile systems C 400 driving during the military parade. Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, is home to around 86,000 siege survivors and the cash will be used to modernise a hospital for veterans

Earlier Germany announced the country would pay 12 million to help Russian World War II veterans and siege survivors, but Moscow said the cash was not enough.

The initiative was billed as a 'voluntary humanitarian gesture towards the surviving victims of the blockade'.

Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, is home to around 86,000 siege survivors and the cash will be used to modernise a hospital for veterans.

'We are confident that this voluntary action will improve the quality of life of the surviving victims of the siege and serve in the historical reconciliation of the people of both countries as a basis for our bilateral relations in the future,' the German and Russian foreign ministers said.

Moscow said that while the initiative was 'important', Germany should compensate all living survivors of the 1941 to 1944 siege of Leningrad.

'The launch of this humanitarian initiative does not mean that the issue has been put to rest of the German government providing individual compensations to all living siege survivors irrespective of their nationality,' said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

People walk in snowfall to the Motherland monument to place flowers at the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery where most of the Leningrad siege victims were buried during World War II

Russian T-72B3 tanks drive during the military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the lifting of the Nazi siege of Leningrad, at Dvortsovaya Square in Saint Petersburg

Honour guards (left) and cadets wearing Soviet uniform march during a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Leningrad Blockade during World War II

The Russian T-72B3 battle tanks involved in a military parade along with more than 2,500 soldiers and 80 units of military equipment in St Petersburg's Dvortsovaya Square today

Russian aerobatic team Strizhi, or The Swifts in English, performed on MIG-29 during the parade to mark 75 years since Leningrad siege was lifted

St Petersburg marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War siege by Nazi forces with a large military parade in the city's Palace Square

Tanks and air defence missile systems rolled through the heart of Saint Petersburg today, as the city formerly known as Leningrad, marked the 75th anniversary of the end of a World War II

Col Gen Alexander Zhuravlev (left), Commander of Russia's Western Military District, reviewing a military parade in St Petersburg

Russian armoured vehicles during a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Leningrad Blockade during World War II today

More than 2,500 soldiers and 80 units of military equipment paraded in St Petersburg as snow fell and temperatures hovered around minus 18C

Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the Rubezhny Kamen monument at the Nevsky Pyatachok Memorial Site south east of St Petersburg today

Russia's President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at St Petersburg's Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of WWIIAssistant Professor Dr Megan Neely stepped down as director of graduate studies at Duke University Saturday

A Duke University professor is stepping down after sending a shocking email to Chinese exchange students telling them to speak English.

Dr Megan Neely stepped down as the director of graduate studies for the university's medicine department Saturday after photos of the email began circulating on social media.

In the email, Neely urged the students to refrain from speaking Chinese in order to 'improve their English', suggesting that doing so may lead to 'unintended consequences'.

'I encourage you to commit to using English 100% of the time when you are in Hock or any other professional setting,' she wrote.

In the email, sent to first and second year bio statistics master's students, Neely said that two separate faculty members approached her with concerns over students speaking Chinese.

'Both faculty members picked out a small group of first-year students who they observed speaking Chinese (in their words, VERY LOUDLY) in the student lounge/study areas,' the email reads.

'They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand,' it continued.

She had sent an email to first and second year master's students suggesting the Chinese exchange students speak English '100% of the time'

Neely continued by saying the faculty members asked for the names of the Chinese-speaking students to 'remember them if the students ever interviewed for an internship or asked to work with them for a master's project.'

'To international students, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak in Chinese in the building,' she said.

A photo of the email was posted to Twitter Saturday morning, garnering nearly 6,000 retweets, 11,000 likes and major backlash against Neely.

Petitions were immediately started online calling for her firing.

By Saturday evening, a statement by Mary E Klotman, Dean of the Duke University School of Medicine, said that Neely had asked to step down.

The email was posted to Twitter and quickly circulated online, leading to major backlash toward the professor

Duke University offered an apology to the masters students and said a review of their master's program is underway

'Dr. Neely has asked to step down as director of graduate studies for the master's program effective immediately and will be replaced by an interim DGS to be named shortly,' it read.

Klotman issued an apology letter to the students, adding that a thorough review of the master's program is underway.

'There is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other,' the statement read. 'Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom.'

It appears this wasn't the first discriminatory email Neely had sent to students.

An email from February 2018 stated similar concerns and cited faculty members as raising the initial concerns with her.

It's unclear who the two faculty members are, or if they existed to begin with.Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney upped the stakes in the bitter Brexit battle today by warning that the EU will never allow the backstop to be ditched.

Mr Coveney said even if member states agreed to abandon the mechanism for guaranteeing there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, MEPs would veto it.

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock accused him of negotiating tactics - pointing out that a no deal outcome would be the biggest risk of creating a hard border.

The clashes came as Theresa May faces another gruelling week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay Brexit.

Simon Coveney said even if member states agreed to abandon the mechanism for guaranteeing there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, MEPs would veto it

The clashes came as Theresa May (pictured at church in Maidenhead today) faces another gruelling week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay Brexit

If the plan, pushed by Labour's Yvette Cooper, is passed by MPs on Tuesday it would pave the way for law ordering a nine-month extension to be considered on February 5.

Amendments are also tabled intended to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and stage a series of 'indicative' votes to work out what approach would gain a majority in the Commons.

The government seems to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories including 1922 committee chairman Sir Graham Brady and ex-minister Andrew Murrison that would demand a rewriting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something Mrs May could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

Mr Hancock said today he was sympathetic to the way Tories were searching for solutions - although he declined to say whether he supported the amendment.

Ministers are increasingly hopeful that there could be movement as splits emerge between Dublin and EU leaders over whether there would need to be a hard border if the UK crashes out.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is said to have told Mrs May in a phone call recently that a full customs union would be the price of rewriting the backstop.

However, a rattled-looking Mr Coveney today warned that it will not help if the Commons votes to make demands that will be rejected by the EU.

He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: 'The European Parliament will not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that doesn't have a backstop in it.

'It's as simple as that.'

Mr Coveney said: 'The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises.

'It was designed around British red lines.

'Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced package that isn't going to change.'

Speaking on the same programme, Mr Hancock denied Mr Coveney's comments meant Theresa May's Brexit deal was 'dead in the water'.

'Not at all,' said Mr Hancock. 'That's a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think it's also extremely clear from that interview and the tone... is that Ireland doesn't want to have a no-deal Brexit.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured on the BBC's Andrew Marr show today) accused Mr Coveney of negotiating tactics - pointing out that a no deal outcome would be the biggest risk of creating a hard border

'The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

'The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.'

When asked whether he agreed with Yvette Cooper's amendment, Mr Hancock said: 'No, because delaying Brexit won't help solve these problems.

'The thing I would say in response to Yvette and all those who feel so strongly against having a no-deal exit is... you can't just vote for delay - that doesn't solve anything - you have got to vote positively for a deal, so let's keep having those conversations about what the Commons can coalesce around.'

Mr Coveney said abandoning the backstop would mean relying on an 'aspirational hope'.

Asked if Ireland would support an extension of Article 50, Mr Coveney said: 'Yes. Ireland won't be an obstacle to more time if that's needed.'Jim Sheridan (pictured) - who served as MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire and is now a local councillor - apologised while calling his accusers 'misguided'

Labour is facing a backlash today after lifting the suspension of an ex-MP who hit out online about the Jewish community.

An investigation was launched into Mr Sheridan following a complaint that he had posted on social media about his loss of 'respect and empathy' for the community over the anti-Semitism row threatening to engulf Labour.

In a statement, Mr Sheridan - who served as MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire and is now a local councillor - apologised while calling his accusers 'misguided'.

But Tories condemned the 'appalling' decision to reinstate the politician, warning it sent the 'wrong message entirely'.

In his statement, Mr Sheridan said the party had told him on Friday that 'no further action' was being taken.

'Whilst I am delighted with this decision, I remain of the view that my accusers were misguided and overreacted to what was intended to highlight my personal frustration and criticism of those intent on undermining our leadership in Scotland and the UK,' he said.

'I would also like to reiterate my sincere apologies to the Jewish community whose historic struggle I have supported all my political life.'

Mr Sheridan said he had been 'humbled' by the level of support he received.

He added: 'Throughout this unfortunate distraction I have maintained my total commitment to my constituents and will continue to do so.

'Likewise my complete support for the Labour Party and our leaderships at every level continues, and reinforces my determination to return Labour administrations at local, devolved and national level, for the many not the few.'

It is understood Mr Sheridan will be issued with a reminder of party conduct.

A Labour Party spokesman said: 'The Labour Party takes all complaints of anti-Semitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms.

'All complaints about anti-Semitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.'

Paul Masterton, Scottish Conservative MP for East Renfrewshire, said: 'This is an appalling decision that sends the wrong message entirely to the Jewish community.

'Sneaked out apologetically, on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, it takes on extra meaning.

'Richard Leonard should be utterly ashamed for having allowed to happen on his watch.'Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris formally launched her presidential bid Sunday in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., vowing to 'lead with integrity' and 'speak the truth' in a speech containing rebukes to President Donald Trump's leadership.

'With faith in god, with fidelity to country, and with the fighting spirit I got from my mother, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States,' she told a cheering crowd of 20,000 supporters.

'And as we embark on this campaign, I will tell you this, I am not perfect. Lord knows I am not perfect. But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. I will lead with integrity, and I will speak the truth,' she added.

Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris formally launched her presidential bid Sunday in her hometown of Oakland, California

A crowd estimated to be 20,000 cheered her entrance into the 2020 field

'I'm running for president because I love my country,' Harris told the crowd

Harris, 54, entered the race with the potential advantage of being the Democratic candidate who looks most like the party's increasingly diverse base of young, female and minority voters.

'I'm running for president because I love my country. I'm running to be president of the people, by the people and for all people,' she told her hometown crowd.

She spoke before a giant American flag with yellow and purple campaign signs waving in the crowd behind her. Her campaign music showed her personality: she came out to 'Work That' by Mary J. Blige and exited the stage after her speech to the mixtape version of 'My Shot' from the musical 'Hamilton.

Her address was filled with soaring rhetoric and repeated the line 'let's speak the truth' as one of the passion points of her campaign.

But her words also featured pointed criticism of President Trump, charging him with making America 'weaker.'

'Under this administration, America's position in the world has never been weaker. When democratic values are under attack around the globe, when authoritarianism is on the March, when nuclear proliferation is on the rise, when we have foreign powers infecting the White House like malware, let's speak that truth. And let's speak truth about what are clear and present dangers. And let's speak the biggest truth, the biggest truth of all. In the face of powerful forces trying to sow hate and division among us, the truth is that as Americans, we have so much more in common that what separates us,' she said.

She slammed Trump's idea of a border wall as 'a medieval vanity project' and criticized the administration for its immigration policy.

'When we have children in cages, crying for their mothers and fathers, don't you dare call that border security, that's human rights abuse,' Harris said.

Harris holds her niece Amara while standing with her husband Douglas Emhoff and her family as she launches her candidacy

Harris greeted supporters after her announcement

She did not mention Trump by name but her criticism of his administration was obvious in her words.

'We are here because the American Dream and our American democracy are under attack and on the line like never before,' Harris said. 'We are here at this moment in time because we must answer a fundamental question. Who are we? Who are we as Americans? So, let's answer that question to the world and each other right here and right now. America: we are better than this.'

She slammed the 'people in power' who 'are trying to convince us that the villain in our American story is each other.'

'But that is not our story. That is not who we are. That is not our America,' the California senator said. 'The United States of America is not about us versus them.'

In addition to her attacks, her speech had red meat for liberals, advocating for 'Medicare for All,' universal kindergarten and 'debt-free' college.

'I am running to declare, once and for all, that health care is a fundamental right, and to deliver that right with 'Medicare for All.' To declare education is a fundamental right, and we will guarantee that right with universal pre-k and debt-free college,' she said.

She also called for criminal justice reform, a reduction in the gender pay gap and a middle-class tax cut.

'I am running to guarantee working and middle-class families an overdue pay increase. We will deliver the largest working and middle-class tax cut in a generation,' she vowed.

Republicans were quick to attack her 'liberal policies.'

'It's fitting that Harris chose the most liberal district in deep-blue California to launch her campaign. Government-run health care, weaker borders and higher taxes might be popular there, but her liberal policies are totally out-of-step with most Americans. President Trump has led this country to record economic highs and strengthened our national security, and it's why he's going to be re-elected in 2020,' said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens in a statement.

Harris announced her intention to run last Monday and slipped in a few campaign appearances before Sunday's formal launch. She heads to Iowa for a town hall in Des Moines this Monday evening.

By launching her bid in the town where she was born, she used her speech to highlight her biography and her work for the community - a tactic similar to one Barack Obama used when the then-first term senator announced his candidacy.

'It was just a couple of blocks from this very spot nearly 30 years ago as a young district attorney, I walked into the courtroom for the first time and said the five words that would guide my life's work. Kamala Harris for the people,' she said.

Harris argued she's the kind of leader who can unify the country and would fight for the needs of all Americans.

Harris appeared at a fundraiser for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., of which she is a member, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 in Columbia, S.C.

Harris appeared on 'Good Morning America' last Monday to announce her intention to run

Harris used her announcement speech in her hometown to highlight her biography

The appearance at a plaza outside City hall was intended to portray her candidacy as the latest chapter in a lifetime of advocating for all people and to promote a message of unity. She began her career as a prosecutor in Oakland and later became California's attorney general.

'My whole life, I've only had one client: The people,' Harris said, echoing the words she has used in courtrooms and has adopted as her campaign's slogan.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, has drawn deeply from symbolism as she has rolled out her campaign. Her first name, pronounced 'comma-la,' is from the Sanskrit word for 'lotus flower.'

She entered the race on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Campaign aides say she has drawn inspiration from Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first black woman to run for president from a major party.

If Harris were to win the White House, she would be the first African-American woman and first person of Asian descent to be president.

Her first news conference as a candidate was on the campus of Howard University, the historically black college in the nation's capital that she attended as an undergraduate. On Friday, she was in South Carolina to speak to members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, of which she is a member.

She made a national name for herself with her questioning on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she sits with Sen. Cory Booker, who may also run for president

Other women already in the 2020 Democratic field (L to R): Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

Harris' launch speech criticized President Trump's leadership in the world

Harris' campaign is expected to highlight her career as a prosecutor as part of her rationale for seeking the presidency. Harris was the first black woman elected district attorney in California, as well as the first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American to hold that job. Some of her tenure as attorney general, particularly relating to criminal justice, has come under early scrutiny.

The former California state attorney general has become popular with liberal activists for her tough questioning of Trump administration appointees and officials, including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during Senate hearings.

Harris is among the first major Democrats to jump into what is expected to be a crowded 2020 presidential contest and she is one of several women competing.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have announced exploratory committees. Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Julian Castro, federal housing chief under President Barack Obama and a former San Antonio mayor, already are in the race.

Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont may also run.

After the rally, Harris planned to her first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate. In the weeks before last November's elections, Harris traveled to the leadoff caucus state to campaign on behalf of Democrats, and also visited other early-voting states.

Harris's campaign will be based in Baltimore and led by Juan Rodriguez who managed her 2016 Senate campaign. Aides say the campaign will have a second office in Oakland.NHS chiefs are using Shakespeare, Harry Potter and Manchester United as bargaining tokens to lure doctors from Australia.

The popular English exports are being used in a new campaign across Facebook and Instagram to lure more family doctors from the British overseas territory.

The number of full time doctors in England has fallen despite a pledge from former health secretary Jeremy Hunt that there would be 5,000 more by next year.

Jeremy Hunt said in 2015 that there would be 5,000 more family doctors by 2020

He made the pledge in 2015 but the UK currently has one in eight GP posts vacant.

The last minute scramble to have 2,000 more doctors by 2020 will see Aussie doctors offered a 'relocation package' of up to 18,500 to move.

Premier League giants Manchester United, well supported in Australia alongside Liverpool, are being used as a tempter to move to the north west.

William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter are also being used to attract attention. As is the Peter Rabbit author's namesake, Harry Potter.

The campaign is urging doctors to move to the home of the boy wizard and take the Harry Potter tour in the Warner Bros. studio in Watford.

The campaign is using the Harry Potter tour in Watford as a ploy to lure doctors from Australia

The 'fantastically easy' Tube system was also touted as a bargaining chip for moving to the capital, while Bristol - the 'spiritual home' of Banksy - also mentioned.

Shakespeare and Robin Hood join the prestigious list. They were used to promote a move to the Midlands.

'We are now looking across the world  but especially in places like Australia  for the best GPs to join us,' the six-month campaign will state, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

A survey of 860 GPs by Pulse magazine found the average vacancy rate at their surgeries was 12.2 per cent. This has risen from 11.7 per cent reported last year and compares with just 2.1 per cent in 2011.

These staffing gaps pile the pressure on remaining family doctors and increase waiting times for patients.

Almost a fifth of respondents  18 per cent  said their surgery had given up hiring another GP after unsuccessful attempts.

Rising numbers of family doctors are retiring in their 50s, moving overseas, going part-time or quitting altogether. They are not being replaced by younger trainees, who are instead choosing more lucrative careers as consultants or surgeons.

Patient demand is also rising due to the ageing population and migration, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to secure an appointment.

Medic who swapped NHS job for four-day weeks Down Under Dr Chris Reid, who formerly worked at a rural GP practice in Dorset, moved to New Zealand with his wife Sara and their two border terriers. He was able to trade long hours for four-day weeks, and the couple swapped their cottage for a home with 12 acres of land and its own private beach in the Bay of Islands. Dr Reid, who studied medicine at Newcastle University and emigrated more than a decade ago, said: I work Monday to Thursday, from 7.30am to 5.30pm, and one in six Saturdays. Im also on call every 20 nights in the local hospital. We have 15-minute appointments with each patient and time to think and do a proper job. Dr Reid added that doctors are no different from other professionals and should not be judged for pursuing a nice life. We work in a global market and our skills are a global commodity, he said. The NHS recruits from overseas, and plenty of doctors trained in New Zealand end up going off to Europe. Like in any trade, people will go where they think they can further their career and have a nice life. Advertisement



Kurdish PM Hopes Assyrians in Iraq Will Not Emigrate

Patriarch of Antioch and the East Ignatius Aphrem II (left) meets with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil on January 25, 2019. ( Safeen Dizayee) The head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stressed on Friday that Erbil will continue to work to protect the culture of Christians and he hopes they won't emigrate.

..."the Prime Minister thanked them for their visit and stressed that the culture of co-existence stems from a belief and that they will continue protecting that culture," read a statement from PM Nechirvan Barzani's office.

The comments were released after he met Syriac Orthodox Christian leaders including Ignatious Aphrem II who is the patriarch of Antioch and All the East.

Barzani "also hoped that the Christians who have taken shelter in the Kurdistan Region won't migrate abroad, hoping they remain in their country."

His diocese includes churches in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Greece, Lebanon and Egypt. He is a native of the northern Syrian city of Qamishli.

Barzani expressed "the readiness of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the further development of Syriac education in the Kurdistan Region."

The delegation expressed "delight" towards the Kurdistan Region for protecting Christians, according to the KRG statement.

"[It] thanked the people of Kurdistan, Kurdistan Regional Government and the Peshmerga in protecting, sheltering and aiding the Christians in their difficult times," read the statement.

Most Christians in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region either belong to the Roman Catholic or Orthodox churches. Few are Protestant or other denominations.

The delegation "pointed out to the history of Christians in the region as they have lived in peace with all other components, and they praised the co-existence of the components of the Kurdistan Region," added the statement.

While Kurdistan is predominately Sunni Muslim, Christians are spread throughout greater Kurdistan in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Armenia.

The KRG has sought to placate the dwindling minority. Barzani himself has visited Pope Francis and Christians and Kurds largely live together peacefully.

"Discussing the circumstances of the region in terms of stability, economy and the future, and exchanging memories were another part of the meeting," added the statement.

Estimates vary, but in the 1987 Iraqi census 1.5 million Christians were counted. Around half a million Christians were estimated to live in the country prior to the ISIS conflict.

Christian community leaders have told Rudaw English that they estimate around 200,000-250,000 Christians remain split between the Kurdistan Region and elsewhere in Iraq. Most of the decrease is attributed to emigration abroad.An Australian academic has reportedly been found dead alongside her sister buried in a shallow grave in Argentina.

University of New England microbiology professor Lily Pereg and her sister Pyrhia Sarusi were reportedly found dead by police at the property of Ms Sarusi's son Gil Pereg in Mendoza, local media reports.

The 36-year-old has reportedly been arrested and charged with murder.

The two sisters reportedly went to Mendoza to visit Pereg, who had lived in Argentina for more than 10 years.

The bodies of Australian university professor Dr Lily Pereg (left), 54, and her sister Pyrhia Sarussi (right), 63, were found in Mendoza

The two sisters had been 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.

Vered has been pleading with the public for information on Facebook since the sisters were last heard from on January 11.

A GoFundMe page to help find the sisters was started on January 17 and has raised more than $7500.

"(We are) humbled by the outpouring of support and love, worldwide. Your love carried us and will help us recover from a huge tragedy. There will never be an explanation," the page reads.

Lily Pereg (left) and Pyrhia Sarussi (right) were allegedly last seen in the Argentine city of Mendoza visiting Ms Sarussi's son, Gil Pereg, 36

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.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

Lifeline 13 11 14She asked the officers for help with tyre, and they agreed 'without hesitation'

Kind-hearted police officers have been praised for stopping to help a woman who was changing her flat tyre at a service station.

The NSW officers had stopped at a service station in Sydney's eastern suburbs when they noticed the woman was struggling with a flat tyre.

'Not all police officers are pricks, thank you!!' the grateful woman posted online.

'Not all police officers are pricks, thank you!!' the grateful woman posted online

The woman had been driving along Coogee Bay Road at around 4.30pm on Australia Day.

She suddenly realised her car had a flat tyre which needed attending to.

She quickly pulled into the next service station, a Caltex service station in Coogee, to inspect the vehicle when she noticed a police officer walking out of the store.

The woman asked the officer to help her change her flat tyre, and the officer willingly agreed to.

'Drove into the closest servo to get a better look at it when I'd seen an officer walk out of the servo and asked him if he was able to help change a tyre, without hesitation helped me,' she wrote on Facebook.

Many praised the officers' action, with one person saying: 'Cops are top.'

'Onya officer !' another commented.Stormy Daniels arrived at the porn industry's annual AVN Awards with her attorney Michael Avenatti, who joked that President Trump should have been there because he has 'f***ed more people than anybody'.

Avenatti used his appearance at the so-called 'Oscars of Porn' to give his views on a range of political issues, including his belief in providing health care and free college tuition to all Americans.

Daniels signed copies of her new book Full Disclosure at the AVN Expo before posing for pictures with Avenatti in front of dozens of photographers who were gathered at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

The pair were dressed to the nines for the event, with Daniels sporting a long navy blue gown with a plunging neckline while Avenatti opted for a dark tuxedo complete with a patterned bow tie.

Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti at the AVN Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas last night (left) and Daniels at the book signing before

Daniels sported a long navy blue gown for the event, which is nicknamed the 'Oscars of Porn'

As he walked the red carpet, Avenatti joked that both he and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, were being honored at the award show that night.

'It's an honor for me to be here tonight because Bob Mueller and I were co-nominated for an award tonight. It's a joint award. It's "Best Domination of a Sitting US President,' he quipped.

Avenatti also took time to praise Daniels and said he was fighting to make sure Congress would make Michael Cohen's hearing open to the public.

'Stormy and I are going to attend, providing that it's a public hearing,' Avenatti said of Trump's former lawyer, who claims the president directed him to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged affair.

'I'm demanding that it be public to hear the testimony from Michael Cohen. It should not be in a smoke-filled room,' Avenatti continued.

Daniels and Avenatti walked arm in arm as he joked that both he and Special Counsel Robert Mueller had been awarded the 'Best Domination of a Sitting US President' award

Daniels and Avenatti seemed to be in good spirits, laughing together as they snapped photos

'Frankly, I want America to see Stormy at that hearing because that hearing would not have taken place but for the courageousness and fortitude of Stormy Daniels.'

'It would not have happened. None of this would have happened without Stormy Daniels. I'm going to be diligent and make sure that people know her significance in American history.'

Daniels' Twitter handle was briefly suspended earlier this week after she lashed out on Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen

Avenatti, who briefly flirted with the idea of a presidential 2020 run before he was accused of domestic violence in November, also talked plenty of politics.

He addressed the issue of funding for Trump's border wall, which led to the longest government shutdown in history before the president finally backed down last week.

'I do think we have to have a strong southern border, but that doesn't mean we necessarily have to build a wall,' he told the Daily Beast.

'I think we've got to find a way for each kid in America to go to college if they want to go to college,' he added. 'Above all else, whoever the Democrats nominate, they've got to be a fighter.'

'If Trump is the nominee on the other side, he's not just going to roll over, you're going to have to take the fight to him.'

Avenatti said the country also needed to 'figure out the health care situation' and took aim at Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal to fight climate change.

'I think a lot about what she talks about makes a lot of sense, but I think a bunch of it is a little unrealistic,' he said.

'I definitely think we need to make climate change a priority. We need to rejoin the Paris Agreement. There's no question it's a crisis.'

But she seemed to leave the past week's troubles behind her as she smiled on the red carpet

With her Twitter back in action, Daniels happily posted a selfie with Avenatti on the red carpet

'I just don't know if we can take that big step, to a Green New Deal in that short a time period.'

Nearly 600 adult film performers arrived in Las Vegas for this weekend's AVN Expo, which was attended by 50,000 fans.

Cardi B was selected as the first woman ever to perform at the AVN Awards, which also opted to have only women present the awards at this year's show.

Daniels happily posted a selfie with Avenatti at the event on her Twitter, page, which had been briefly suspended earlier this week after she lashed out at Cohen for postponing an appearance before Congress.

Cohen's lawyer pushed back his testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee next month, citing safety concerns.

'Are you f***ing serious, Mikey?! What about MY family? You gave zero s***s about my baby,' Daniels tweeted on Wednesday.

Before walking the red carpet, Daniels was on hand to promote her new book 'Full Disclosure' at the AVN Expo

Daniels happily sat down to sign copies of her book and chat with fans, sporting a plunging tight blue dress for the event

'In all serious though, this is WHY you shouldn't back down! This is your chance to be a hero! I'll loan you some of my balls, hold your hand, or whatever else you need to do the right thing,' she continued.

Daniels claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006 while he was already married to Melania, and is suing to have a non-disclosure agreement about the alleged encounter invalidated.

But a Los Angeles federal judge said last week that the case could be thrown out after hearing from Trump and Cohen's lawyers, who argued the NDA had already been torn up so there was no contract to argue over.

The judge didn't rule on the motion to dismiss the case, but seemed inclined to agree with Trump's attorney Chris Harder and Cohen's attorney Brent Blakely, noting to Avenatti, 'It seems you've achieved...what you sought to achieve.'

But Avenatti disagreed, saying that he needs an agreement signed by Trump himself stating that he will not sue Daniels for breaking the NDA.

Avenatti also wants Trump and Cohen to pay for the costs of the lawsuit, and admitted he wanted the case to proceed to force Trump to answer questions under oath.Roseanne Barr, the comedian whose television show was canceled last year after she made a racist remark on Twitter, visited Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday as part of a tour of Israel.

'There are no proper words for me to express the connection I feel, first of all to God, to Torah (Bible), to my people,' Barr, who is Jewish, said.

Barr, 66, arrived in Israel last week with celebrity US rabbi Shmuley Boteach, after Barr reiterated earlier this month that she felt her firing from ABC was a result of anti-Semitism.

She had previously made this claim in June, one month after she and her show were pulled from the air.

While in Israel on Sunday, which is also World Holocaust Remembrance Day, Barr visited the Kotel, which is also known as the Western Wall, and Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. The holocaust refers to the genocide of Jewish people by German Nazi soldiers before and during World War II.

She and Boteach were also photographed with Israel's Minister of Culture and Sport, Miri Regev, and Dana White, former Chief Pentagon spokesperson, who left her role after Gen. James Mattis announced his resignation as US Secretary of Defense.

In May, Barr's revival of her hit 1980s sitcom 'Roseanne' was abruptly canceled by ABC after she posted a racist tweet.

In the post, Barr compared Valerie Jarrett, a black woman who was a former president Barack Obama administration official, to an ape.

The tweet read: 'Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a baby=vj.'

At one point, Barr claimed she didn't know the woman was black. At another point, she told followers not to defend her and said that what she did was 'unforgiveable.'

And on January 10, Barr doubled down on a claim she made in June that her firing was a result of anti-Semitism.

Comedian Roseanne Barr (center), whose television show was canceled last year after she made a racist remark on Twitter, is being welcomed along with US celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach (rght) in Israel. Barr and Boteach are pictured with Dana White (left), former Chief Pentagon spokesperson, who left her role after Gen. James Mattis announced his resignation as US Secretary of Defense

'I feel that what happened to me, a large part of it is antisemitism,' the Jewish actor to the Jerusalem Post, over the phone from her Hawaii home.

'I think it played a part - the fact that I was never allowed to explain what I meant - and what I meant was a commentary on Iran - so they purposely mischaracterized what I said and wouldn't let me explain.

'And in haste they did something unprecedented that they've never done to any other artist. And at the base of that I think it's because I am the most vocal person about Israel and BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions].'

Barr, 66, arrived in Israel last week with celebrity US rabbi Shmuley Boteach, after Barr reiterated earlier this month that she felt her firing from ABC was a result of anti-Semitism. Barr (center) laughs as she meets Israel's Minister of Culture and Sport, Miri Regev (second from right), in Jerusalem's Old City January 27, with Boteach (left)

Boteach has consistently supported Barr, following the backlash from her comment.

He told the Post: 'She wrote one tweet, she apologized for it, she cried, she asked Valerie Jarrett publicly for forgiveness, she humbled herself.

The well-known America rabbi also said her treatment from ABC was harsh and hasty, especially in light of how he said others who have been accused of much worse have been treated in Hollywood within the past two years.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement in existence since at least 2005, which calls on foreign actors to participate in various forms of boycotting the State of Israel.

In May, Barr's revival of her hit 1980s sitcom 'Roseanne' was abruptly canceled by ABC after she posted a racist tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, a black woman who was a former president Barack Obama administration official, to an ape. Barr visits the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall, which is the holiest site where Jewish people go to pray, in Jerusalem's Old City on January 27 in Israel. The Western Wall is not the same thing as the West Bank barrier

Supporters of BDS want to see Israel withdraw from occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, and full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Those in favor view BDS in line with the anti-apartheid movement of the 20th century in South Africa. It's led by the Palestinian BDS National Committee and Barr, who is pro-Israel, is against it.

Opponents of BDS, like Barr, call BDS anti-Semitic, comparing it to the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Boteach is also against the BDS movement. Barr is slated to speak against BDS at the Knesset, which is the legislative branch of the Israeli government, on January 31.The glamorous teenage daughter of slain underworld figure Carl Williams has made the journey to Sydney for a girls' trip - while staying at the house of Nomads bikie leader Moudi Tajjour.

Dhakota Williams, 17 and her sister Breanne, 25, were pictured at Tajjour's flashy new apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour during the Australia Day weekend.

While Dhakota is the much-publicised daughter of the Melbourne gangland figure who was bashed to death in 2010 by a fellow prisoner, Tajjour is understood to be the Nomads OMCG's new national president.

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The glamorous teenage daughter (right) of slain underworld figure Carl Williams has made the journey to Sydney for a girls' trip with her sister Breanne, while staying at the house of Nomads bikie leader Moudi Tajjour

A series of videos uploaded by Williams to Instagram showed her and two of her friends relaxing in Tajjour's plush apartment.

In one, Williams can be seen laughing in the background as Tajjour jokes with someone on the phone.

The girls all live in Melbourne, where Dhakota's father once fought in a bloody gangland war that claimed the lives of 36 criminals at the turn of the century.

Her father was killed by the prisoner when she was only nine years old.

The fellow convict was armed with a steel pipe from an exercise bike while he served time for conspiracy to murder.

Two videos uploaded by Williams to Instagram showed her and her friend relaxing in Tajjour's plush apartment (pictured leaving a Sydney court in 2018)

Williams' (pictured) Instagram account has nearly landed her in trouble in the past.

Williams' Instagram account has nearly landed her in trouble in the past.

She posted a photo of herself in one of Crown Casino's high-roller's room, and geo-tagged it as inside Crown Casino's Mahogany Room.

As with all of the gaming areas in Crown, anyone inside has to be over 18 years old.

Several days after Dhakota posted the picture Crown referred the matter to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, as well as Victoria Police.

After a full investigation, both Dhakota and Crown were cleared of any fines.

Tajjour, meanwhile, rose to prominence after a marriage to Salim Mehajer's sister Sanaa and told Daily Mail Australia in a statement through his lawyer in November he had decided to take over the national presidency.

'Having been out of the club for 12 months I felt it was time to rejoin my mates,' he said in the statement.Yvette Cooper today warned that the game of 'chicken' over Brexit must end - as ministers pleaded with Remainer MPs not to kill off no deal in crunch votes this week.

The Labour MP urged politicians to back her bid to delay the UK's departure date in a Commons showdown on Tuesday and avert the threat of crashing out.

But the PM's effective deputy David Lidington begged the House to hold off inflicting another stinging blow on the government's strategy, saying they would have more chances in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Damian Hinds suggested keeping no deal as a 'possibility' was crucial to have leverage with the EU in frantic negotiations.

The appeal for more time came as tensions escalated dramatically over how to resolve the deepening political crisis over Brexit.

Mrs May is facing another gruelling week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off the bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to extend the Article 50 process.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper (pictured on the BBC's Andrew Marr show today) urged politicians to back her bid to delay the UK's departure date in a Commons showdown on Tuesday and avert the threat of crashing out

The PM's husband Philip May (pictured together at church in Maidenhead today) encouraged her to keep fighting for a deal with Brussels that would finally win over rebels in her own party

The PM's effective deputy David Lidington (pictured) insisted the Commons showdown on Tuesday will not be the 'final decision point'

If the plan, pushed by Ms Cooper, is passed by MPs on Tuesday it would pave the way for law ordering a nine-month extension to be considered on February 5.

Amendments are also tabled intended to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and stage a series of 'indicative' votes to work out what approach would gain a majority in the Commons.

The government seems to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories that would demand a rewriting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something she could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

Ministers are increasingly hopeful that there could be movement as splits emerge between Dublin and EU leaders over whether there would need to be a hard border if the UK crashes out.

However, a rattled-looking Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney today warned that it will not help if the Commons votes to make demands that will be rejected by the EU.

'The European Parliament will not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that does not have a backstop,' he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

Mrs May must control rising unrest in her own ranks, after Amber Rudd hinted she could quit to support the Cooper amendment on Tuesday.

Chancellor Philip Hammond also refused last week to rule out resigning if the government's stated policy becomes no deal Brexit - although he tried to play down the idea that the latest votes are 'high noon', saying there was still time to find a solution.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Ms Cooper denied she was trying to 'block Brexit' with her amendment.

The former Treasury minister said she was not yet sure if she had the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, nor of some of the Tory frontbench. On Mr Corbyn she said: 'I hope he will support it - he obviously needs to make a decision in the normal way.

UK 'could impose martial law' to limit no-deal Brexit chaos Whitehall officials have been 'war-gaming' imposing martial law to avoid chaos on the streets after a no-deal Brexit, it was claimed today. The extreme measures are being considered as part of a major response if the UK crashes out of the EU at the end of March. Mandarins have been discussing whether to use wide-ranging powers in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 - which include curfews, travel bans and deploying the army, according to the Sunday Times. Robert MacFarlane, the deputy director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, has been involved in preparations for no-deal Brexit. The possibility of using the Civil Contingencies Act for Operation Yellowhammer - the no-deal Brexit plan - was apparently raised for the first time last week. 'As no-deal preparations are accelerated and training is rolled out to civil servants, questions have been raised about the legislation and how it could be used in the event of a no-deal Brexit,' a source told the Sunday Times. A Downing Street spokesman said: 'Respecting the referendum decision means leaving the EU. 'The PM has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal, but as a responsible Government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared.' Advertisement

'I suppose what I would say to him, to the Prime Minister, to the Government ministers who I think also want to make sure that we don't have no deal is in the end we can't... keep waiting for other people to sort this out.

'We can't carry on with a kind of game of chicken... That's not a way to make sensible decisions.

'In the end someone has to take some responsibility and say: 'if the Prime Minister runs out of time she may need some more time' - that is not about blocking Brexit, that is about being responsible and making sure you can get a Brexit deal.'

Cabinet Office minister Mr Lidington urged Remainer MPs to hold their fire, saying there would be other opportunities to avoid no deal.

'If Parliament wishes to avoid no deal, I have no doubt it will find ways to express a view in the coming weeks,' he wrote in the Observer.

'But next week's debate is not a re-run of the meaningful vote, nor is it the final decision point for MPs.

'So we must keep our focus on the only real way to rule out no deal - and that is to find common ground on a deal.'

Mr Hinds made clear no deal was not his favoured outcome, but warned that 'prolonging' the Article 50 period would not help resolve the crisis.

'I don't envisage no deal becoming Government policy. We want to avoid a no deal. No deal would not be a good outcome,' he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday.

'But, it is important that it remains as a possibility because, on the other hand... some people are trying to thwart Brexit altogether.'

Health Secretary Matthew Hancock also said he 'emphatically' did not want no deal, but argued that delay would not help.

He also suggested that despite the 'negotiating position' being taken by the Irish government it was clear they were alarmed at the prospect of no deal.

'The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit,' mr Hancock said.

'The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.'

Junior minister Stephen Hammond, who declared himself a 'proud' Remainer, hinted that he might not jump ship to back the Cooper plan.

He told the BBC he was hoping Mrs May would give 'some definition to when she intends to hold the meaningful vote'.

However, defence minister Tobias Ellwood today openly contradicted the PM by warning it is 'time to rule out the very possibility of no deal'.

'It is wrong for government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world,' he wrote in the Sunday Times.

Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney (left) today warned that it will not help if the Commons votes to make demands that will be rejected by the EU. Health Secretary Matthew Hancock (right) said he 'emphatically' did not want no deal, but argued that delay would not change the fundamentals in the Parliamentary standoffA Yellow Vest leader hit in the face by a rubber bullet during a protest has been placed in a coma and is likely to be disabled for life.

Anti-government protesters believe Jerome Rodrigues was deliberately targeted and called for 'a mass uprising' against President Emmanuel Macron's government following the wounding.

Today Philippe de Veule, Mr Rodrigues's lawyer, confirmed his client has been 'placed in an artificial coma' and was likely to be 'handicapped for life'.

Mr Rodrigues was in Place de la Bastille, one of the French capital's most famous squares, during rioting on Saturday afternoon when he was hit in the right eye.

Dramatic video that he filmed himself showed the moment he was struck in the face, moments after protesters were seen fleeing across the square.

Jerome Rodrigues, one of the leaders of the the Yellow Vests movement, wast seriously injured in the eye by a projectile during clashes between protesters and riot police

Yellow vest protesters set up barricades and fires near the Place de la Bastille during the 'Act XI' demonstration in Paris on Saturday

Jerome Rodrigues captured the moment he was hit in the eye as a crowd of fellow Yellow Vest protesters gathered around him when he fell to the ground (right)

Yellow vest activist Mr Rodrigues, was injured during Paris a protest and was bandaged up and taken to the hospital

Other protesters threw projectiles and clashed with police trying to disperse them.

The camera suddenly pointed up towards the sky as Mr Rodrigues fell to the ground and concerned protesters surrounded the injured man.

In other clips filmed from other in the area, Mr Rodrigues could be seen clutching his eye as blood poured down his face.

The mobile phone footage was recorded at around 4pm and then posted on social media.

Jerome Rodrigues was filming the protest and captured the moment he was hit in the eye

It was the 11th Saturday in a row during which the Yellow Vests  who are named after their high visibility jackets  took to the streets across France.

While still conscious, Mr Rodrigues told the LCI news outlet: 'It's very painful, I'm waiting for the doctors who have to come and tell me what it is, it's my right eye, and I think I stayed sedated for seven or eight hours.

'Originally, I arrived on the Place de la Bastille to try to make sure that the Yellow Vests go away, that they can leave the Bastille following attacks by Black Bloc anarchists against the police.

'I'm a hyper pacifist, I don't want anyone to hurt themselves, I went to get my little Yellows out of this hell.'

Mr de Veule said an official complaint would be made about the incident, which is already being investigated by the police.

Referring to rubber projectiles made from French-made weapons, Mr de Veule said: 'It was a flash ball'. I have material proof of this.'

In turn, police suggest that a non-lethal grenade exploded in front of Mr Rodrigues, and he was hit by shrapnel.

Eric Drouet, another Yellow Vests leader, said the incident justified 'a mass uprising without precedent by all useful and necessary means'.

Such words will be of huge concern for Mr Macron, who on Thursday accused British politicians of 'tearing society apart' by allowing a Brexit referendum in Britain.

The President's Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, said there were more than 60 arrests cross Paris on Satuday, and violence in other major cities including Bordeaux and Marseille.

Activist Jerome Rodriguez, leader of the Yellow Vest movement, films a marchbefore being injured yesterday

Protesters clashed with police in the Place de la Bastille where Mr Rodrigues was struck in the face by a flash ball

Protesters face the riot police as clashes erupted next to the Place de la Bastille yesterday

Protesters rally in downtown Paris today. Hundreds of people wearing red scarves marched through the city to protest violence unleashed during two months of anti-government demonstrations by the Yellow Vest movement

Yellow Vest protesters clash with French riot police at the Place de la Bastille during the 'Act XI' demonstration (the 11th consecutive national protest) in Paris yesterday

Mr Castaner said: 'I condemn with the greatest firmness the violence and degradations committed this Saturday again, in Paris and in the provinces, by thugs camouflaged in yellow vests.'

Despite a range of concessions by President Macron including scrapping green taxes of diesel and petrol, the Vests 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.

The Yellow Vests said their protests would continue indefinitely as they campaign for even more concessions.

Opponents of violence take part in a demonstration by the 'red scarves' movement in Paris, today. The banner reads: 'Stop the violence'

A man with his hand wrapped in a red scarf takes part in a rally in Paris today against violence

A dozen 'Yellow Vests' movement members shout at the thousands of 'Foulards Rouges', or Red Scarfs, demonstrators arriving at the Place delaying Bastille after a march in support of the government policy in Paris today

French riot police dogs attacked protesters in the Place de la Bastille, where Yellow Vest leader, Mr Rodrigues, was hit with a flash ball from a police weapon

Riot police dragged off protesters during the demonstration in Place de la Bastille on Saturday

A French riot officer holding a flash-ball gun as protesters wearing yellow vests take part in a demonstration at Place de la Bastille in Paris (file photo)

French police are investigating how the prominent yellow vest protester suffered his eye injury, as well as other protest-related injuries.

Violence by protesters and the sometimes-aggressive police response have prompted a national debate since the anti-government movement kicked off two months ago.

A counter-demonstration is planned Sunday in Paris by groups calling themselves the 'red scarves' and 'blue vests' to protest the violence.

Paris police said Sunday they are investigating the eye injury of Mr Rodrigues, among other protester injuries.

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 struggling to get above the 30 per cent mark.A man is wanted for questioning after an 11-year-old girl was allegedly indecently assaulted at a gaming arcade while her family stood nearby.

The alleged attack took place inside a shopping centre on Hay Street, Haymarket, near Sydney's CBD on Sunday afternoon.

Police have released CCTV images of a man leaving the arcade who they believe may be able to assist with their investigation.

He is described as being aged in his 40s with a medium build and a shaved head and a fair complexion.

He was wearing a black t-shirt, beige shorts with black shoes and sunglasses.

A man (pictured) is wanted for questioning after an 11-year-old girl was allegedly indecently assaulted at a gaming arcade

The girl, from Padstow in Sydney's south-west, is believed to have been approached by an unknown man and allegedly indecently assaulted before the man left the arcade.

She told her family members about the alleged attack and they reported it to police.

Detectives from Sydney City Police Area Command are appealing for information.

Anyone with information, or anyone who knows the identity of the man, is urged to come forward.Dakota Theriot, 21, is wanted in Louisiana for the fatal shootings of five people on Saturday morning. The suspect allegedly opened fire on a family of three before gunning down his own parents across two Louisiana neighborhoods outside of Baton Rouge

A father told police in his dying breath that his 21-year-old son was responsible for his shooting as the search continues for the missing gunman.

Keith Theriot, 50, from Gonzales, Louisiana, told investigators that son Dakota Theriot has shot him but died shortly after in hospital.

Both Mr Theriot and his wife Elizabeth Theriot, 50, were shot inside their home on Saturday.

Police say suspected gunman Dakota Theriot, who is wanted for the fatal shootings of five people, is still at large hours after the shooting spree on Saturday morning.

The suspect allegedly opened fire on Billy Ernest, 43, Tanner Ernest, 17, and Summer Ernest, 20, in Livingston Parish before fatally shooting his parents Elizabeth Theriot, 50, and Keith Theriot, 50, at their home in Ascension Parish, east of Baton Rouge, shortly before 9am.

A motive in the killings has not been revealed, but authorities believe it was a 'boyfriend [and] girlfriend type of dispute', according to WAFB.

'He lived there with the mom and dad for a little while, but was recently asked to leave with some disagreements,' Ascension Sheriff Bobby Webre said. 'But no idea why he would do anything like this.'

'This is probably one of the worst domestic violence [incidents] Ive seen in quite a while. For a young man to walk into a bedroom and kill his mother and his father, and then kill friends in Livingston that he had a connection with.'

Theriot is wanted for at least two counts of first-degree murder, illegal use of a weapon, and home invasion in connection to both shootings.

He has yet to be charged in Livingston.

Video courtesy WVLA

Authorities say Dakota Theriot shot his parents Keith Theriot, 50, and Elizabeth Theriot, 50, at their home in Ascension Parish around 9am Saturday morning

Before shooting his parents, Theriot allegedly shot dead Summer Ernest, 20, (above) and two of her family members. Facebook indicates that Theriot and Summer Ernest were friends

Summer Ernest's 17-year-old brother Tanner and her father Billy, 43, were shot and killed

Facebook indicates that Theriot and Summer Ernest were friends. Ernest even liked a few of Theriot's last posts before the killings.

According to the Ernests' neighbor, two of the family's youngest children came to her home on Saturday morning looking for help.

'It's so heartbreaking,' Charlenne Bordelon explained to the Advocate, adding that the children were under the age of eight and in the home at the time of the killings.

Authorities describe the suspect as 'armed and dangerous'.

They think he may be heading towards Mississippi in a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck with license plate number C583809.

It is described as being grey on the top and silver on the bottom.

Authorities described Theriot as 'armed and dangerous'. His motive in the fatal shootings has not been revealed

The mobile home where Theriot allegedly killed his parents is pictured above. A neighbor said he had recently heard a number of arguments at the home

Investigators are pictured at the scene of Keith and Elizabeth Theriot's murders

Police have said they think the suspect may be heading towards Mississippi in a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck with license plate number C583809 (above)



Michael Logan, who lives next door to the mobile home where the Theriots were killed, told The Advocate he heard an ambulance Saturday morning and looked outside to see the mayhem as police arrived.

Deputies later searched a barn behind his house to see if the gunman was hiding there, Logan said.

The neighbor said that he didn't know the Theriot family very well and had only had a couple casual conversations with them when they saw one another outside.

Logan also noted that he'd overheard several arguments at the home lately.

'There's been a lot of yelling matches,' usually at night, he said.

He said he was shocked to learn of the grisly double-homicide that took place right next door, adding that 'nothing crazy like this' happens in the area.

'Any time you hear of a shooting this close to home, it's never good. It never gives you a good feeling,' he said.

Authorities have asked anyone with information regarding shootings or Theriot's whereabouts to call the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office at (225) 686-2241 ext. 1 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.The notorious gipsy family who caused havoc in New Zealand landed back in the UK this morning and moaned they had had a 'holiday from hell.'

The now infamous family were accused of trashing a beach, leaving a cafe without paying, damaging their apartment and allegedly stealing a journalist's phone in a trip that saw the Mayor of Auckland label them 'worse than pigs'.

The Doran clan touched down at Heathrow Terminal 3 at 6:40am and tried to hide their faces in the arrivals hall before downing cans of Red Bull.

Patriarch Larry told Mail Online the family had done nothing wrong on their trip, saying on arrival in England today: 'We've been tortured, we've been condemned.

The Doran family arrive at Heathrow today. Pictured is Joe Doran with several luggage cases

'We've done nothing wrong. It's been the holiday from hell.'

He added: 'I've paid for this holiday for me and my wife and we got blamed for things.

'It's lies, they've condemned us. We've been hiding in the mountains for two days.

'We wanted to see the Hobbits, Lord of the Rings, didn't get to see that.

Larry (pictured at Heathrow) told a photographer: 'I'll break your bones. I'll break your camera'

Larry, Joe and Eileen were joined by Joe's mum Barbara, a young child and an older girl

'We couldn't go no where. You couldn't call it a holiday the way we were treated.

'We going to the Citizens Advice people and the Human Rights people.'

The family said they flew to New Zealand on January 10 for their holiday, landing on January 11.

The four adult Dorans were served with 28-day deportation liability notices by New Zealand's immigration service before leaving to return to the UK today.

Another member of the group, 26, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with assault with a weapon, reckless driving fraud by dishonestly using a document.

He appeared at Auckland District Court and was bailed until February.

'We going to the Citizens Advice people and the Human Rights people,' said Larry (right)

'You couldn't call it a holiday the way we were treated,' Joe added. The family pictured today at Heathrow

The family were escorted by airport staff at Auckland International before catching their flight

Eileen pushes a pram at Auckland International Airport as a member of staff carries a suitcase

Joe Doran loads the family's cases onto a trolley at Auckland Airport after getting out of a van

They claim their arrival was after a lot of the offences they are accused of took place.

Joe Doran  sarcastically nicknamed Honest John  sporting a new blond hair cut, said: 'It's a very bad time to speak to me.

'We got blamed for everyone else's doings. We are getting blamed for all different travellers' problems.

'We didn't know them. I had to dye my hair.'

The Dorans said they got accused of leaving rubbish on a beach which wasn't theirs.

Larry holds his phone up to his ear before the flight from Auckland to Heathrow

They received dozens of complaints from locals and businesses across New Zealand after arriving on January 11 - pictured is Joe

Picture taken at the motel near the airport in Auckland where the Doran clan were staying

One of the members of the group was seen ushering a child away as he threatened local woman Krista Curnow, saying he was going to 'knock your brains out' after an incident in NZ

They claim from then on everyone had it in for them.

Larry added: 'People tried to ram us off the road, I crashed the car back there.'

He was referring to people distracting him by calling his family 'gipsy scum', causing him to crash into a curb, setting off the airbags.

The family abandoned the vehicle and souvenir hunters stripped the rental car of its number plates, tax sticker and keys, apparently left in the ignition.

'We were on the beach that day and they've let this go.

'We landed on the 11th in New Zealand, all this happened before we got there and that's it.

Joe's wife Eileen added: 'We were on the beach. A boy got assaulted and we went.

The pair were seen around Auckland Airport in New Zealand before they left for the UK

The man in the black Hugo Boss t-shirt appears to be Joe Doran with his wife Eileen

'But that rubbish was not ours. It was not our rubbish.

'But we were the last ones off the beach. I don't know why they had it in for us.'

The Dorans tried to cover their faces as they got in a taxi after an hour long wait.

Larry, Joe and Eileen were joined by Joe's mother Barbara, a young child and an older girl.

Footage showed a young boy, wearing a wide-brimmed Bunnings Warehouse hat, approaching a woman, telling her: 'I'll knock your brains out', after she videoed them littering a beach

Witness Krista Curnow said the group of about 12 tourists, who spoke with an Irish accent, turned violent when she asked them to clean their mess as they left the beach

Larry told a photographer: 'I'll break your bones. I'll break your camera.'

The tourists, believed to be from Liverpool, faced claims they trashed a beach, left a cafe without paying, damaged their apartment and allegedly stole a journalist's phone.

They also apparently caused unrest on their flight to New Zealand.

A young boy in the group also threatened to 'knock the brains out' of a woman who had filmed them littering on a picturesque Auckland beach while the family have also been accused of putting ants and hair in restaurant meals to avoid paying the bill.

The establishments where the group of British tourists have reportedly had complaints about their behaviour during their stay in New Zealand

A beach-goer called Krista Curnow filmed them leaving beer bottles and piles of rubbish on Auckland's Takapuna Beach on the 13th of January, starting a string of high profile incidents.

A 26-year-old woman connected with the rowdy tourists was arrested and charged with theft a week later.

Auckland mayor Phill Goff labelled the tourists 'a*******' in a radio interview, adding that they shouldn't be in the country

She pleaded guilty to two theft charges for stealing rope, Red Bull and sunglasses from an Auckland service station over the New Year period.

Tina Marie Cash, 26, was ordered to pay up more than $55 (30) for the items she robbed from the Caltex store.

The group of around 12 included brothers John and David Johnson, their partners, children, and mother, Eileen Doran, of Liverpool.

They said they are a 'respectable' family who were 'here to see the Hobbits' - but their plans have been 'f***** up' by the accusations against them.

Their stint of mayhem across New Zealand led to the group being labelled 'a*******' and 'trash' by the mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff.

There was even a petition calling for their deportation which amassed thousands of signatures.

In a radio interview, Goff said: 'I've asked the council to follow up because I want to see them loaded with an infringement fine for trashing our country. They shouldn't even be here.'Syriac Patriarch Opens Archdiocese Residence in Erbil, Iraq

The head of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Antioch and the East Ignatius Aphrem II, opened a new Archdiocese Residence of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Erbil's Ainkawa neighbourhood on Saturday.

"We thank the Kurdistan Regional Government for allowing us to do this, by granting this piece of land for us and by giving assistance to us," said Patriarch of Antioch and the East Ignatius Aphrem II.

Thousands of Christians fled to the Kurdistan Region when ISIS seized swathes of northern Iraq in 2014.

"The people and government of Kurdistan embraced them," said KRG spokesperson Safin Dizayee of the displaced Christian families. "They can practice their religion and perform their rituals."

Many are still living in the Kurdistan Region and this new centre will improve church services for Syriac Orthodox Christians them.

Parishioner Emel Cemil said she was happy to see the new centre opened, but ultimately "We want to return to Mosul, our city and churches."

The Patriarch was joined by Patriarch of the Chaldean Church and Cardinal of Rome Louis Raphael I Sako, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Mar Gewargis III, Christian leaders from across Iraq, and officials from the KRG.Prince George revealed his nickname is 'Archie' when he started chatting to a dogwalker.

The young prince was walking with his grandmother, Carole Middleton, near her home in Berkshire, when he struck up a conversation with a stranger.

The five-year-old started talking to the woman while stroking her dog after playing with his younger sister, Charlotte, in a stream.

The woman was told not to take pictures of the royal children by a police protection officer.

She made small talk with the prince, who is third in line to the throne, when he told her his name was actually Archie.

Prince George told a woman walking her dog in Berkshire that his nickname is 'Archie'. Above he is with his sister Charlotte arriving at the Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital after the birth of their younger brother, Prince Louis

The unnamed woman told the Sun: 'I was asked by a police minder not to take a photo of the children, which I didn't, but George started stroking my dog.

'Just to be friendly I engaged in a bit of small talk and I asked George what his name was, even though obviously I knew it.

'To my astonishment he said "I'm called Archie" with a big smile on his face. I don't know why he calls himself Archie but kids often play with their names and I think it's lovely.'

George's middle names are Alexander and Louis and at school he is known as PG.

Parents Kate and William then started calling him PG Tips or just 'Tips' after the brand of tea.

When she was pregnant Kate referred to him as 'our little grape'.

Princess Charlotte will be joining her older brother at Thomas's Battersea school in south west London in September

Archie is originally a German name with Scottish roots, where it is a shortened version of Archibald.

The royal family often have nicknames for each other and Prince William went by the name 'Steve' at university to blend in with his fellow students.

It also emerged that in September Charlotte is to go to the same Battersea school as her older brother.

She has been at Willcocks Nursery in Kensington since last January and will enrol at Thomas's Battersea, which costs 6,000-a-term.

It was reported last year that the Cambridges may not send their children to 'traditional' secondary schools such as Eton.Fred and Rose West's youngest son, Barry, will speak about his parents in an upcoming film by Sir Trevor McDonald

Rose West's youngest son will speak out for the first time as it is revealed his mother may have driven her serial killer husband to kill more girls.

The twisted couple's son, Barry, will speak about his parents in an upcoming film by Sir Trevor McDonald.

He previously said in 2004, that when he was seven, he heard his mother attacking his older sister Heather - who was one of 12 known victims of the couple.

Their youngest son said: 'Then mum stamped on her head five times. She didn't move again', the Sunday Express reported.

Barry was one of five West children taken into care in 1992 after a sexual abuse case was opened against their parents.

Tara, Louise, Rosemary and Lucyanna were also removed from the household by the local authority, the Mirror reported.

The new documentary will reveal how Rose was 'actively involved' in her husband's murder of at least a dozen girls between 1967 and 1987.

Rose still denies her role in the murders but Sir Trevor's documentary suggests she is just as violent as her husband was.

Although she was only fifteen when she met Fred, who was 27 and had already killed, psychologist David Canter believes Rose may have played a leading role in the relationship from the outset.

'Rose West was not a bystander', said Sir Trevor, 79. 'She was deeply involved. In any normal situation you would think that a wife's influence would curb Fred's horrific tendencies but we learn that she was actively involved.

'When they cruised around to pick up people, she was the one who probably convinced the girls to get in the car.'

The documentary will also reveal how Rose West (pictured right with husband Fred left) was 'actively involved' in the crimes in which girls and young women were murdered

The former broadcaster, who will present new evidence in the show, also visited the 'eerie' site of the Cromwell Street 'House of Horrors' and met the families of victims.

Jayne Hamer, a former Cromwell Street lodger, will describe hearing screams from the cellar and tell Sir Trevor how she feels lucky to have left the house alive.

The documentary will also feature the first television interview of the sisters of victim Juanita Mott.

Juanita went missing in 1975, aged eighteen, and her remains were among the nine found at Cromwell Street in 1994.

Three more sets of human remains were found elsewhere, bringing the total number of victims to 12.

British-Trinidadian broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald will present new evidence on Rose and Fred West when the documentary airs on Thursday

Rose West, 65, was convicted of 10 murders and is one of a very few female prisoners serving a whole life tariff.

Her husband, Fred, confessed the killings in 1994 and committed suicide while on remand at HMP Birmingham a year later.

Fred and Rose West: The Real Story with Trevor McDonald will broadcast on ITV on Thursday, January 31 at 9pm.Brexiteers voiced anger today after it emerged the electoral watchdog wants more powers in time for a potential second Brexit referendum.

The Electoral Commission has proposed taking responsibility for some 'prosecutions' - instead of handing them to the police and CPS.

The change could be in place by May, although the watchdog insists it only intends to use the powers to obtain information about funding, rather than take charge of full-blown criminal cases.

However, Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg said the commission was 'not trusted to be impartial' after a long-running spat over the 2016 referendum.

Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg said the commission was 'not trusted to be impartial' after a long-running spat over the 2016 referendum

'The Electoral Commission is not trusted to be impartial and a number of its leading figures have said very prejudicial things about Brexit,' he told the Sunday Telegraph.

'An independent prosecutor is a safeguard and that's the whole purpose of a prosecutor. Investigators have a prejudice in favour of prosecuting.'

The row comes amid rising pressure from Remainers across parties to stage another referendum on Brexit.

Supporters argue that a national vote could be held in the middle of the year, with the Article 50 departure date extended to give time.

The Electoral Commission has faced fury from Eurosceptics for repeatedly investigating the official and unofficial 2016 Leave campaigns, while refusing calls to probe the Remain operation.

The watchdog is launching a consultation on beefing up its powers, but says it does not need approval from government or other bodies.

A spokesman said: 'This is something that we have been looking at for quite a while.

'We are looking to be able to obtain information. When we talk about obtaining powers of prosecution we are talking about obtaining information.'

The spokesman added: 'We will shortly be consulting with political parties, the police and the CPS on a prosecution policy which will bring our regulatory powers in line with a wide range of public bodies.

'Parties and campaigners are required to comply with our notices should we need information.

'Where this information is not forthcoming, enhancing our ability to obtain details about how campaigning activities are funded will ensure we can provide voters with transparency.'

Matthew Elliott, who was chief executive of official Brexit campaign Vote Leave in 2016, said the commission getting more powers was 'worrying'

The watchdog insisted the move to gain more powers was not connected to the possibility of a new Brexit referendum being held.

Matthew Elliott, who was chief executive of official Brexit campaign Vote Leave in 2016, told the Telegraph: 'The Electoral Commission's recent bungles have already demonstrated that it is not fit for purpose, so this plot to award themselves the power to prosecute is extremely worrying.

'If they wish to extend their remit, they should make the case to Parliament. It is anti-democratic for a quango which has shown bias to become both judge and jury in elections and referendums.'NHS bosses have been slammed after spending 1 million to send doctors and nurses to Angelina Jolie's charity in Cambodia to boost leadership skills - despite severe cuts at several UK hospitals.

The actress's Maddox Jolie-Pitt foundation has received around 40 paid NHS volunteers in the past decade, with taxpayers paying at least 15,000 for each six-month placement.

The medics travel to Cambodia as part of the Improving Global Health programme, which is run by the Thames Valley and Wessex NHS Leadership Academy.

However, many hospitals in the area are struggling with cuts and have taken to fund-raising to maintain vital services.

Around 40 volunteers from the NHS have visited Angelina Jolie's charity in Cambodia, to boost their leadership skills

The costs included in the placements to Cambodia are a monthly allowance between 800 and 1,000 and economy flights from 650 return.

The money is determined by factoring in the cost of living in the country, including accommodation, food, internet access, phone bills and local travel costs.

Any NHS employee can apply to the scheme, along with trainee doctors and nurses.

All money is provided by Health Education England, which is taxpayer funded.

According to an annual report, the funding supports medics working abroad to gain 'valuable experience and expertise' that could support the NHS.

Meanwhile, Poole Maternity Hospital, which is in the area of the Thames Valley and Wessex NHS Leadership Academy, is asking for 7,105 in donations for two phototherapy blankets.

Another local hospital, Dorset County Hospital, was forced to close its maternity ward on 16 separate occasions after having to make 7.6 million in cuts.

NHS staff in Cambodia working at Angelina Jolie's charity under the Improving Global Health scheme that's cost taxpayers up to 1million

Other struggling nearby hospitals include Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital, which had to shut 30 times last year and in Banbury, a team of doctors, midwives and special care baby unit nurses have been replaced by a single midwife and assistant.

Following the news, Conservative MP Peter Bone told the Sun: 'My concern is that this money if it's being spent overseas should come from the 13billion foreign aid budget not from health money.'

John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: 'The NHS should be focusing all of its resources on the most essential services before thinking about spending money elsewhere.'

In response to the criticism, Health Education England said: 'These staff give up their salaries to go and work in resource-poor settings where they provide huge benefit to local healthcare systems.

'In exchange they bring back new skills in leadership and other areas that help them care for patients better. While volunteering, their employing trust can use their salary locally for other staff.'

The NHS Thames Valley and Wessex Leadership Academy added: 'Volunteers work with the local health team and are supported to use quality improvement methods to help make sustainable improvements in healthcare and to develop their own leadership skills.'An autistic woman who was raped at a care home has been diagnosed with HIV.

The abuse took place at a facility in north London, allegedly by a night shift worker.

The Independent Brent Safeguarding Adults Board revealed in a report that the shocking abuse at the independent care home could have taken place at any time between 2006 and 2016, the Sunday Express reported.

The woman in her 50s, renamed as 'Cassie' to protect her identity, was found to have HIV after she collapsed in 2016 and was taken to Guy's Hospital.

She had been in care since childhood and began suffering from rashes, bruising, teeth problems and had lost her appetite, all from about 2007.

Police were called when it was ruled by doctors that the disease was sexually transmitted and she lacked the mental capability to consent to sex.

A report by Dr Margaret Flynn, found that that Cassie, or 'Adult B', was 'failed by services'.

The woman named 'Cassie' in a report by Brent Council was taken to Guy's Hospital after collapsing at the care home she had lived at in London

Cassie's mother believes the rape was carried out by a worker at the home during a night shift.

But because the suspected rape could have happened anytime during a ten-year period, police were unable to take forensic evidence and so the culprit will not be brought to justice.

A Met Police spokesman said the investigation was closed in 2017 as there were no new lines of enquiry.

He added: 'Due to the ten-year period the offence was alleged to have occurred between, no clear suspects could be identified and there were no forensic opportunities available.

'There are no lines of inquiry that require further examination at this time.'

The home has now been closed and all the five other residents are at new facilities.

Brent Council said the authority no longer places residents at homes run by the private company.

A spokesman said: 'All of the partners on the Safeguarding Adults Board, including the council, have expressed our deep and sincere regret to both Cassie and her family.

'We can confirm that Cassie is no longer living in a care home managed by the previous provider and the other five residents who lived there with her have also been moved to other homes with the co-operation of their families.

The woman was found to have contracted HIV through sex but did not have the mental capacity to consent

'Cassie, and all the former residents are now safe and happy, and Cassie is having all her health and care needs met.

'We continue to monitor her progress regularly as well as maintaining contact with her family. We no longer place any residents in care homes run by this provider.

'The entire independent safeguarding board worked closely with the police and received regular updates regarding their investigations.

'A full investigation was conducted by the police who concluded that unfortunately and despite best efforts, there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal prosecution against anyone.

'The council works closely with partner agencies, the CQC and the Safeguarding Adults Board in order to protect Cassie and all of our vulnerable residents. The Board carried out a full and independent multi-agency investigation after the police investigation was completed to ensure lessons were learnt.

'The Council takes its responsibilities to vulnerable adults very seriously and is continuously working to improve the support we provide to vulnerable adults in Brent, including setting up a team that specifically focuses on reviewing the quality of care and support for individuals in residential placements, and integrating the health and social care learning disability teams into a single team providing holistic support to adults with a learning disability.'

The case came to light as it emerged also emerged a woman in a vegetative state in Arizona gave birth.

Police have said the Native American, who has been incapacitated since age three, was sexually assaulted and delivered a baby last month at Hacienda HealthCare in Phoenix.

Male nurse Nathan Sutherland, 36, is facing one charge of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse after a DNA test identified him as the baby's father.The shocking moment a man brutally bashes a woman in a mass brawl outside a McDonald's has been captured on camera.

The footage, uploaded to social media, shows a violent riot break out in the car park of the Westfield Manukau McDonald's, Auckland, early on Saturday morning.

The scene takes a chilling turn when a man wearing a red hat brazenly walks up to a nearby woman and punches her square in the face.

The footage (pictured) captured a violent riot break out in the car park of the Westfield Manukau McDonald's

The full force of the attack sends the woman flying limply to the concrete ground.

According to Auckland police, the woman, who has not been identified, was knocked unconscious as a result.

'One female was reportedly punched in the head and fell over,' a police spokesperson said in a statement issued to The New Zealand Herald.

'She appeared to have lost consciousness for a time but regained it and was taken to Middlemore Hospital in a moderate condition,' the spokesperson added.

According to Auckland police, the woman was knocked out as a result of the awful incident (pictured)

A third woman can be seen trying to attack the man in the red hat (pictured) after he bashed the first woman

Immediately after the bashing took place, another man appears in the camera shot and drags the attacker away from the scene.

The woman recording the footage rushes over to the unconscious victim and can be heard urgently asking her: 'Are you okay?'

Auckland police are continuing to investigate the matter.Cele chef Dan Doherty, 33, opened the Royal Oak restaurant in Marylebone, London last summer

A celebrity chef who stars alongside Mary Berry in a BBC series was banned from his own restaurant after he was accused of demanding oral sex from a junior female colleague and sexually harassing other workers.

Dan Doherty, 33, opened the Royal Oak restaurant in Marylebone, London last summer and also appears as a judge on Britain's Best Home Cook on BBC One, the show that was made to replace the Great British Bake Off.

He left the gastropub last November after being accused of creating a culture of harrassment, with an external firm investigating the claims.

Two former members of staff say that four female workers left the gastropub because of Doherty's behaviour.

Last month, Doherty was forced to apologise in front of staff in a meeting, after being found guilty of misconduct.

Female bar and kitchen staff were asked during the investigation about claims that Doherty demanded oral sex and told them that he wanted to see them without their kitchen whites on.

According to the Sunday Times, Doherty said at the meeting: 'I am sorry for causing any distress'.

He has now been moved from his role as head chef to executive chef which means that, while he's back at work and still in charge of the menu, he will not run the kitchen or deal with junior staff on a daily basis.

Women were told they could leave with 'no questions asked' following the investigation into Doherty, though this was later denied by the company.

The source who denied the claim also insisted that Doherty's new role was not created with the intention of limiting his interaction with female staff.

Doherty released a statement about the claims last night: 'I would never intentionally make offensive comments to anyone I work with, female or male.

'I have apologised to the whole team for any offence I may have inadvertently caused. It would never be my intention.'

He recently announced plans to open a new restaurant in New York and will also appear in a new series of Britain's Best Home Cook with Berry and Claudia Winkleman.

He appears as a judge on Britain's Best Home Cook on BBC One, the show that was made to replace the Great British Bake Off

In the past, Doherty was forced to apologise for making homophobic comments online, where he told one fan 'don't be gay'.

However, he is also co-founder of Chefs of Tomorrow, a group promoting young talent in the industry.

He also runs events for women to 'get together and discuss the unique pressures of this industry and how that may affect them'.

Doherty has also spoken out about women's issues in the industry.

Private firm HR180, based in Yorkshire, wrote to staff as they investigated the claims about Doherty.

They wrote: 'An issue of alleged inappropriate communication with members of staff working at The Royal Oak  has recently come to our attention.

'The incident could constitute misconduct, which may lead to the company taking disciplinary action. We ask you to bear with us whilst we conduct our investigations and reiterate that all parties are presumed innocent of any possible charges unless evidence determines otherwise.

'We reserve the right to change or add to these allegations as appropriate and in light of the results of our investigation.'

Urban Inns Limited, the company that runs the Royal Oak, said: 'We take allegations of misconduct in any form very seriously and we used an independent HR company to thoroughly investigate some suggestions of inappropriate communications.

'Urban Inns Limited has acted, and continues to do so, on these recommendations, following which Dan returned to work.'The builder of Sydney's damaged Opal Tower has stopped paying for temporary accommodation and food for the units now declared safe to occupy, but some residents are refusing to move back in.

Icon Construction won't pay food or accommodation past Sunday for residents of 74 apartments after the body corporate's engineers Cardno declared those units safe to occupy.

'It is important to note that we are continuing to work with all the engineers to ensure all queries are thoroughly addressed and that the extent of apartments with actual remedial works is minimal,' Icon said in a letter to residents.

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The builder of Sydney's damaged Opal Tower has stopped paying for temporary accommodation and food for some units now declared safe to occupy but some residents are refusing to move back in

Icon won't pay food or accommodation past Sunday for residents of 74 apartments after the body corporate's engineers Cardno declared those units safe to occupy

'Approximately 65 per cent of the apartments are ready to be reoccupied now.'

Other residents will be able to stay in hotel accommodation until at least Wednesday.

But some residents are refusing to move back into the building until all construction works are finished.

Other residents will be able to stay in hotel accommodation until at least Wednesday (pictured: people being evacuated from Opal Tower)

Another resident insists engineers and the NSW government need to provide confirmation that the building is safe to occupy for everyone (pictured: evacuated residents)

Another resident insists engineers and the NSW government need to provide confirmation that the building is safe to occupy for everyone (pictured: the tower's faulty structural beams)

'We paid for a brand new apartment, not a construction site,' Wei Yang told AAP on Sunday.

'We, the owners, are the ones that have to pay our mortgage every single week ... You can imagine how much stress we are experiencing.'

Another resident insists engineers and the NSW government need to provide confirmation that the building is safe to occupy for everyone.

'We can't move back into construction site yet,' Yoyomummy LZ wrote on Facebook.

Design engineer WSP on Thursday said it had established a reoccupation schedule for apartments that are 'physically remote' from repairs, strengthening works or propping (pictured: damaged floors within the tower)

It said stabilisation works had been undertaken on three walls in the building across 12 levels

Design engineer WSP on Thursday said it had established a reoccupation schedule for apartments that are 'physically remote' from repairs, strengthening works or propping.

It said stabilisation works had been undertaken on three walls in the building across 12 levels.

But it maintains the building is structurally sound overall - a verdict also made by the government's independent engineering experts.

Residents (pictured) have been told to stay in emergency accommodation, which has been extended another week as many are reluctant to move back inMolly, 14, of Harrow, north west London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017 after showing 'no obvious signs' of severe mental health issues

Thirty families have blamed social media for provoking their children's suicides as it emerged Pinterest sent tragic Molly Russell a personalised email containing images of self-harm.

Molly, 14, of Harrow, north west London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017 after showing 'no obvious signs' of severe mental health issues.

Her family later found she had been viewing material on social media linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide.

The teenager's father has now criticised Pinterest, alongside Instagram, for hosting 'harmful' images he said may have played a part in her death.

Ian Russell said: 'The more I looked, the more there was that chill horror that I was getting a glimpse into something that had such profound effects on my lovely daughter. Pinterest has a huge amount to answer for.'

Papyrus, a charity working to prevent child suicides, said it has been contacted by 30 families who suspect social media played a part in their children's deaths, the Sunday Times reported.

Pinterest, which allows users to save images in a virtual scrapbook, hosts images of self-harm wounds, fists clasping white pills, and macabre mottos which can be viewed by children aged 13 and over.

The website, which uses algorithms to drive content, sent a personalised email to Molly containing graphic images a month after she died.

Her family later found she had been viewing material on social media linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide

The teenager's father, Ian, criticised online scrapbook Pinterest, alongside Instagram, for hosting graphic images of self-harm he believes may have played a part in Molly's death

The email, which included an image of a slashed thigh, said: 'I can't tell you how many times I wish I was dead.'

Her father has now asked for an independent regulator to be established in the UK to ensure distressing content is 'removed from social media and online within 24 hours'.

An image found on social media depicting a girl with the caption 'Who would love a suicidal girl?'

Mr Russell said: 'We are very keen to raise awareness of the harmful and disturbing content that is freely available to young people online.

'Not only that, but the social media companies, through their algorithms, expose young people to more and more harmful content, just from one click on one post.

'In the same way that someone who has shown an interest in a particular sport may be shown more and more posts about that sport, the same can be true of topics such as self-harm or suicide.'

Mr Russell said Molly, who went to Hatch End High School in Harrow, Middlesex, had started viewing disturbing posts on the social network without the family's knowledge.

He told the BBC: 'She seemed to be a very ordinary teenager. She was future-looking. She was enthusiastic.

'She handed her homework in that night. She packed her bags and was preparing to go to school the next day and then when we woke up the next morning, she was dead.'

It was only after her death in 2017 that the teenager's parents delved into her social media accounts and realised she was viewing distressing images.

Pinterest, which uses algorithms to drive content, sent a personalised email to Molly containing graphic images of self-harm a month after she died

One account she followed featured an image of a blindfolded girl, seemingly with bleeding eyes, hugging a teddy bear.

The caption read: 'This world is so cruel, and I don't wanna to see it any more.'

Mr Russell said Molly had access to 'quite a lot of content' that raised concern.

How parents can protect their children on social media Parents are encouraged to monitor their children's activity online to keep them safe while using the internet and social networks. Families should explore websites and apps together and talk about what their children are viewing online.

Parental controls can be used to block upsetting or harmful content. These controls can often be found in the settings of a mobile phone.

Parents are also able to restrict app purchases and how long children spend online. Source: NSPCC Advertisement

'There were accounts from people who were depressed or self-harming or suicidal,' he said.

'Quite a lot of that content was quite positive. Perhaps groups of people who were trying to help each other out, find ways to remain positive to stop self-harming.

'But some of that content is shocking in that it encourages self-harm, it links self-harm to suicide and I have no doubt that Instagram helped kill my daughter.

The posts on those sites are so often black and white, they're sort of fatalistic. [They say] there's no hope, join our club, you're depressed, I'm depressed, there's lots of us, come inside this virtual club.'

Algorithms on Instagram mean that youngsters who view one account glorifying self-harm and suicide can see recommendations to follow similar sites.

Experts say some images on the website, which has a minimum joining age of 13, may act as an 'incitement' to self-harm.

Instagram's guidelines say posts should not 'glorify self-injury' while searches using suspect words, such as 'self-harm', are met with a warning. But users are easily able to view the pictures by ignoring the offers of help.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock orders blitz on 'appalling' internet suicide images and warns web giants they could face new laws to stop vulnerable children being bombarded with harmful content

By Brendan Carlin, Political Correspondent for the Mail on Sunday

Health Secretary Matt Hancock today ordered web giants to crack down on suicide and self-harm images online or face new laws to stop vulnerable children being bombarded with the horrific material.

He said it was appalling how easy it still was to access such harmful content online.

But the Minister said it was now time for internet and social media providers to step up and purge this content once and for all.

His intervention comes just days after the father of a 14-year-old who killed herself after viewing online images glorifying suicide called on social media firms to clean up their act.

In a letter to web giants Facebook (which owns Instagram), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Apple and Google, father-of-three Mr Hancock spoke of his horror as a parent at Mollys death and signalled he was moved to intervene by Mr Russells remarks

Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly died in November 2017, even accused Instagram of helping to kill her.

In a letter to web giants Facebook (which owns Instagram), Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Apple and Google, father-of-three Mr Hancock spoke of his horror as a parent at Mollys death and signalled he was moved to intervene by Mr Russells remarks.

Mr Hancock wrote: Molly was just two years older than my own daughter is now and I feel desperately concerned to ensure young people are protected.

'The grief Mollys parents feel is something no one should have to experience. Every suicide is a preventable death, including Mollys.'

And he paid tribute to Mr Russell, writing 'I was inspired by the bravery of Mollys father, who spoke out about the role of social media in this tragedy.'

Noting that suicide was now the leading cause of death for young people under 20, he said: As Health Secretary, I am particularly concerned about content that leads to self-harm and promotes suicide.

Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly (pictured) died in November 2017, even accused Instagram of helping to kill her

The Government was developing proposals to address all online harms  including suicidal and self-harm content  and to work with social media providers, he said.

Setting out his aim to make the UK the safest place to be online for everyone, he warned service providers: Let me be clear, we will introduce new legislation where needed.

Mr Hancock added: Research shows that people who are feeling suicidal use the internet to search for suicide methods.

'Websites provide graphic details and information on how to take your own life. This cannot be right. Where this content breaches the policies of internet and social media providers, it must be removed.

Molly Russell died after being sucked into what her father described as a digital club on the photo-sharing site. On it, users shared material focusing on depression, self-harm and suicide.

In a statement last week, Instagram said it does not allow content that promotes or glorifies self-harm or suicide and will remove content of this kind.Whitehall officials have been 'war-gaming' imposing martial law to avoid chaos on the streets after a no-deal Brexit, it emerged today.

The extreme measures are being considered as part of a major response if the UK crashes out of the EU at the end of March.

Mandarins have been discussing whether to use wide-ranging powers in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 - which include curfews, travel bans and deploying the army.

Meanwhile, MPs face sitting longer and having their holidays cancelled as efforts are ramped up to get crucial legislation through Parliament in time for the schedule March 29 departure date.

Theresa May (pictured at church in Maidenhead today with husband Philip) is desperately scrambling to find a way through Parliamentary deadlock on Brexit

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was no 'specific' plan for martial law, but did not completely rule it out

Labour's Yvette Cooper (left) is heading a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay the Article 50 process. Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom (right) has insisted Brexit should only be put off if there is a deal to implement

The developments come as Theresa May desperately scrambles to find a way through Parliamentary deadlock on Brexit.

The PM is trying to fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers in a key vote on Tuesday night to force her to delay the Article 50 process. The plan, pushed by Labour's Yvette Cooper, would pave the way for law ordering a nine-month extension to be considered on February 5.

Amendments are also tabled intended to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and stage a series of 'indicative' votes to work out what approach would gain a majority in the Commons.

The government appears to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories that would demand a rewriting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something she could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

But Mrs May must control rising unrest in her own ranks, after Amber Rudd hinted she could quit to support the Cooper amendment on Tuesday.

Chancellor Philip Hammond also refused to rule out resigning if the government' stated policy becomes no deal Brexit - although he tried to play down the idea that the votes this week are 'high noon', saying there was still time to find a solution.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood today openly contradicted the PM by warning it is 'time to rule out the very possibility of no deal'.

'It is wrong for government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world,' he wrote in the Sunday Times.

Robert MacFarlane, the deputy director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, has been involved in preparations for no-deal Brexit, according to the newspaper.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood (pictured) today openly contradicted the PM by warning it is 'time to rule out the very possibility of no deal'

The possibility of using the Civil Contingencies Act for Operation Yellowhammer - the no-deal Brexit plan - was apparently raised for the first time last week.

'As no-deal preparations are accelerated and training is rolled out to civil servants, questions have been raised about the legislation and how it could be used in the event of a no-deal Brexit,' a source said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was no 'specific' plan for martial law, but did not completely rule it out.

'Of course Government all the time looks at all the options in all circumstances,' he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

'It remains on the statute book but it isn't the focus of our attention.'

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'Respecting the referendum decision means leaving the EU.

'The PM has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal, but as a responsible Government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared.'

No10 is preparing moves to extend Commons sitting hours and cancel the February half-term to pass a series of laws that are needed to smooth a no-deal Brexit.A festival reveller accused of punching a security guard and then glassing a woman in the face was filmed being pinned to the ground by four police officers.

Isoa Rabuatoka, 18, allegedly went on the wild rampage at the Hardcore Till I Die music festival at the Sydney Showgrounds shortly before 7pm on Saturday.

After he allegedly punched the security, the teenager is said to have thrown a glass bottle toward the guard but it instead hit an 18-year-old woman in the face.

Rabuatoka had reportedly drank 'an entire bottle bottle of Jim Beam and (had) MDMA in his system', according to The Daily Telegraph.

A festival reveller has been accused of punching a security guard and glassing a woman in the face - before he was pinned to the ground by several police officers

The 18-year-old man allegedly undertook the attacks at the Hardcore Till I Die music festival at the Sydney Showgrounds shortly before 7pm on Saturday

The bottle broke on impact and she was treated at the scene for facial lacerations.

The teenager then allegedly fled the scene and remained on the run before he was restrained by police three hours later.

In footage, believed to be taken during Rabuatoka's arrest, three New South Wales police officers are seen to apply ample force while attempting to restrain him.

As the man lay face to the ground, one officer is seen kneeing him in what appears to be the face before capsicum spray was eventually used.

The trio are then joined by two more members of the force who assist with putting the man in handcuffs before he allegedly spat at an officer.

Rabuatoka had reportedly drank 'an entire bottle bottle of Jim Beam and (had) MDMA in his system' at the time of his alleged arrest

The man was restrained at the Hardcore Till I Die festival which was enjoyed by thousands of revellers on Australia Day. Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting anyone pictured above is guilty of any crime

Security guards are also seen watching on as crowds of party goers continue to enjoy the festival's music.

The man was taken to Auburn Police Station where he was charged with reckless wounding, common assault, assault police, and resist or hinder police officer in the execution of duty.

He was refused bail to appear in Parramatta Bail Court on Sunday.The Pacific island of Niue is mourning the loss of its only duck after he was attacked by a dog and found dead in a bush.

The nation, which has a population of under 2,000, was brought to the spotlight last year after the duck was found sitting in a large puddle by a muddy road.

The island country, which comprises of a jagged landscape of corals, does not provide an ecosystem for many wetlands or ponds for ducks to reside in.

The duck, affectionately named Trevor the mallard, quickly became a celebrity among locals who often fed it and stopped to take selfies.

The Pacific island of Niue has said its farewell to their only duck, Trevor the mallard (pictured)

Niue comprises of a jagged landscape of corals and does not provide an ecosystem for many wetlands or ponds (stock image)

The lone duck had also been used as a landmark for directions.

No one knows for sure how Trevor ended up in the island country, but a Facebook page dedicated to the mallard speculated he flew in from a storm last year.

Since Trevor's arrival, the Niue Fire Service would top up his puddle from time to time in order to maintain a habitat for him.

Niue's former New Zealand high commissioner also once fed the mallard with bok choy.

The duck was named after Trevor Mallard, the speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives.

The Niue Fire Service made sure to top up the puddle from time to time in order to maintain a habitat for Trevor (pictured)

Trevor's presence in Niue brought fame to the island made up of just over 1,600 people.

'After a year of driving around with a bag of oats always in my car, I'll miss my stops on the way to and from work to feed and check on Trevor,' Niue Chamber of Commerce chief executive Rae Findlay told ABC.

'He will definitely be missed, he captured many hearts and even the rooster, the chicken and the weka were looking a little forlorn today wandering around the near dry puddle'.

Niue is a self-governing state but Niueans are also considered citizens of New Zealand.The tense moment officers stormed a home with police dogs and arrested accused car thieves after a 300 kilometre pursuit has been captured on body camera.

Police allege the couple, allegedly armed with knives, led police on a wild chase before hiding in the Jamboree Heights home, in Brisbane, late on Saturday night.

The raid came shortly after the pair allegedly drove a stolen vehicle from the Fraser Coast to Brisbane, colliding into other cars as they drove, before attempting to hide from police by invading a property and threatening the owner with a knife.

Their 16-hour reign of terror began at 6am on Saturday when they allegedly stole a car from a home in Urraween, Hervey Bay.

From there, the duo - a 29-year-old man and a woman - drove the car to Brisbane before being picked up by a police helicopter at 9.50pm that night.

While the pair allegedly recklessly sped through the western suburbs, the police helicopter continued to track the car from up above as police pursued below.

The vehicle then came to an abrupt stop in Dandenong Road, Jamboree Heights, just after 10pm.

The pair abandoned the car and allegedly attempted to steal another vehicle, but gave up and instead stormed a nearby home.

Police (pictured) arrested two people, after a pursuit spanning 300km, from a Jamboree Heights residence, in Brisbane, earlier today

It's alleged that the man and woman were armed with a knife (pictured) at the time of their arrest

In a bid to gain entry to the home, the pair allegedly threatened the 44-year-old male occupant while trying to find a place to hide.

Shortly after, cops entered the premises alongside a police dog, and found the pair hiding in separate locations.

While police tried to detain the suspects the man is alleged to have threatened officers, and was subsequently tasered and sustained a bite from a police dog.

The woman has since been charged with six offences, including dangerous driving, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and attempted armed robbery threatening personal violence.

She also faces charges of burglary and commit an indictable offence, enter with intent and commit an indictable offence, and serious assault with intent to resist arrest.

The woman was refused bail and is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrate court on January 28.

The man is currently being treated for the dog bite and is expected to be charged later today.A security guard is accused of suffocating a nightclub patron by putting him in a chokehold while restraining the man during a brawl.

The contractor was also photographed pressing his knee into the man and putting his hand over his face while he was on the ground.

Mitch Barber claimed he was almost rendered unconscious as he had difficulty breathing due to the pressure applied to his neck.

Mitch Barber, 20, accused a security guard of suffocating him by putting him in a chokehold during a brawl on Saturday night

Mr Barber claimed he was almost rendered unconscious as he had difficulty breathing due to the pressure applied to his neck

The 20-year-old said the security guard put him in a chokehold then pulled him to the ground before pressing his body weight into him.

'I tried to call for help but I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything, I was slowly blacking out,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'All I heard was my girlfriend crying "let him go". I thought I was going to die.'

The fracas began in a nightclub on the far north coast of NSW about midnight on Saturday with at least a dozen people involved.

Mr Barber said he confronted a man who allegedly pinched a female friend on the bottom, starting the chain of events.

He said the man headbutted him in the face and he responded by throwing his drink on the other man, leading to everyone being kicked out.

The dispute then escalated into a large brawl on the street outside which led to him being grabbed by the security guard.

Mr Barber said his friend had to pull the security guard off him just before police arrived and the crowd dispersed.

He said he suffered a sprained finger and minor neck injury in the incident.

The security guard was also photographed pressing his knee into the man and putting his hand over his face while he was on the ground

Footage from the scene showed the end of the melee as friends separated the combatants and pulled them away from the fray, as Mr Barber was held on the ground (far right)

Mr Barber said he suffered a sprained finger and minor neck injury in the incident

Footage from the scene showed the end of the melee as friends separated the combatants and pulled them away from the fray.

The video also showed the security guard leaning on Mr Barber as the fight ended, with his friends and girlfriend running over to them.

Lismore Police said they were investigating the incident but it was too early to divulge any significant details.

No one was arrested over the brawl and no charges laid. Police were seeking CCTV of the incident and asked for witnesses to come forward.

Daily Mail Australian has contacted the security company for comment.Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has revealed he's strongly considering a presidential run as an Independent and is bashing Democrats and Republicans alike for failing to address the nation's crippling debt.

Schultz, the 65-year-old billionaire who led Starbucks for 24 years, says that the nation's greatest domestic threat is its mounting debt which sits at a whopping $21trillion.

'I think the greatest threat domestically to the country is this $21 trillion debt hanging over the cloud of America and future generations,' Shultz said to CNBC.

Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, 65, says Donald Trump is not fit to be president and he's considering running as an Independent in the 2020 presidential race in a sit down interview with 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday

He said that in just the next two years, the financial market will change drastically and it's more important than ever to face the debt before it affects the future generations.

'I dont believe that the stock market is going to continue to grow at the level it has between now and 2020. You're going to see a sea change,' he added.

Schultz has been an outspoken critic on Trump's landmark tax legislation and the slashing of corporate tax rates, but he did admit that the current economy is strong.

Schultz is yet to officially announce a bid in the 2020 presidential race but says if he does it will as an Independent despite being a life-long Democrat.

In a stunning statement Schultz said he believes Donald Trump is not qualified to be the nation's leader.

'We're living at a most fragile time. Not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what's necessary for the American people and are engaged every single day in revenge politics,' Schultz said in a preview of his sit down interview with 60 Minutes.

In the interview, set to air on Sunday January 27, he'll touch on his business life and prospects for a future presidential campaign.

Although he's yet to announce that he'll officially run, he's been dropping plenty of hints towards a presidential bid.

The 65-year-old billionaire says if he does go for the presidency, it'll be as an Independent and has slammed Republicans and Democrats alike for failing to tackle the nation's $21trillion debt

'Not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what's necessary for the American people...' Schultz said in a preview of his 60 Minutes interview

Speaking on CNBC last June he said: 'President Trump has given license to the fact that someone who is not a politician could potentially run for the presidency.'

Schultz also criticized the Democrats for their proposals, such as the single-payer health care and guaranteed income schemes, which he believed were too left-wing.

Late last year, Schultz, began assembling a crack PR-team, including the campaign manager for John McCain's 2008 presidential run, for his potential presidential run.

He brought on board Steve Schmidt, a former vice chairman at public relations powerhouse Edelman, who previously managed the late Republican Senator McCain's presidential campaign.

Political pundits say the public relations and advisory team Schultz has brought on is a signal that he is a sure sign he will run despite that he has yet to visit the places like Iowa and New Hampshire, where potential candidates have already begun campaigning in.

The businessman worth $3.3billion pictured above with wife Sheri Kersch Schultz

Schultz stepped down as Starbucks CEO in 2017, though he remains chairman emeritus. He has an estimated net worth of about $3.3billion, according to Forbes.

Democratic operatives, however, worry that if Schultz runs as an Independent it'll only split anti-Trump votes and possibly help Donald Trump get re-elected, according to The Atlantic.

The idea's already proved unsettling to Democrats in his home state.

'I have two words for Howard Schultz on a potential run for president as an independent: Just. Don't,' Tina Podlodowski, chairwoman of the Washington Democratic Party said in a statement, the Seattle Times reported.

'For 2019 at least, the fact that serious people like Howard Schultz are considering an independent race might help bring home to more voters, including independents and some Republicans, how important it is to replace Trump. So in that respect its a good thing,' Bill Kristol, the conservative analyst and vehement supporter of the Never Trump movement, said.Donald Trump has now tried to distance himself from indicted Roger Stone, saying his one time confidant 'never even worked for me near the election'.

Stone, 66, was charged with lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's 2016 election bid.

But on Saturday night the president took to Twitter to say: 'Roger Stone didn't even work for me anywhere near the Election! WITCH HUNT!'

He had started his post writing: 'CBS reports that in the Roger Stone indictment, data was 'released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton.' Oh really!

'What about the Fake and Unverified 'Dossier,' a total phony conjob, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign?'

'Whatabout all of the one sided Fake Media coverage (collusion with Crooked H?) that I had to endure during my very successful presidential campaign. What about the now revealed bias by Facebook and many others.'

Scroll down for video.

Donald Trump, left, has now tried to distance himself from indicted Roger Stone, right, saying he 'never even worked for me near the election'

The president took to Twitter Saturday evening after Stone, 66, was arrested by the FBI

He concluded his tweets with: 'WITCH HUNT!' after earlier tweeting his support for Stone

Stone, the self-proclaimed 'dirty trickster' was arrested by the FBI in a raid before dawn Friday at his home in Fort Lauderdale.

The Washington Post reports the two men have been friends for forty years.

In 2015 Stone is said to have worked as an adviser during the presidential campaign. He remained in contact with Trump and his team through the election, according to reports.

Trump has previously defended Stone, seen as his Presidential election strategist and pivotal in him winning the 2016 race, by claiming his arrest was the 'Greatest Witch Hunt in the History of our Country!'

On Saturday, he again tweeted his support for Stone, this time saying: 'If Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress, what about the lying done by Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Lisa Page & lover, Baker and soooo many others?

'What about Hillary to FBI and her 33,000 deleted Emails? What about Lisa & Peter's deleted texts & Wiener's laptop? Much more!'

On Saturday, Stone sought to make light of the charges leveled against him and appeared at his home wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: 'ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG!' on the front.

Stone faces charges of tampering with witnesses and obstructing a House intelligence committee probe into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the election.

Last month it was reported that Stone had to give up health insurance because he couldn't afford it as the Russia probe has dried up his consulting business.

Speaking to Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Friday night, the former confidant to President Donald Trump declared: 'I intend to plead not guilty. I believe I will be vindicated.

'The indictment is thin, indeed. So what is this about? It's about silencing me.'

The two men, pictured here in 1999, have been friends for decades and Stone is said to have worked as an adviser during the presidential campaign

The president, pictured with Stone in 1999, said his longtime confidante 'didn't even work for me anywhere near the Election'

Roger Stone pictured leaving the Fort Lauderdale Florida Federal Courthouse Friday

FBI agents clad in bulletproof vests arrived at Stone's Fort Lauderdale mansion with guns drawn on Friday morning after Special Counsel Robert Mueller unsealed a seven-count indictment from a grand jury impaneled in his sprawling probe of Russian election meddling.

The indictment does not charge him with crimes directly related to Russia or with conspiracy to skew the 2016 election, but with what legal experts call 'process crimes'.The Mayor of Auckland has refused to back down after calling the British gypsy family causing trouble in New Zealand 'a*******' who are 'worse than pigs'.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff made the comments to a local radio station after family members allegedly dumped rubbish on Takapuna Beach and threatened to mow down a witness.

The four adult Dorans have been served with 28-day deportation liability notices by New Zealand's immigration service.

The Mayor of Auckland has refused to back down after making comments saying the British gypsy family (pictured) wreaking havoc in New Zealand were 'a*******'

Barbara Doran (left) and Joe Doran (right) are threatening, with other family members, to sue the mayor of Auckland

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff (pictured) made the comments to a local radio station after family members allegedly dumped rubbish on Takapuna Beach and threatened to mow down a witness

But they show no signs of leaving yet and have checked into a hotel near Auckland airport.

Mr Goff is furious at the behaviour of the family and wants actions to be taken against them for 'trashing' the country.

'These guys are trash. They are leeches,' the Mayor said.

Despite the family threatening to sue Mr Goff, he told the NZ Herald he stands by the comments he made about the unruly family.

'With all the evidence emerging on their behaviour, Aucklanders were right to call them out. I don't resile from any comments I made about them,' Mr Goff said.

The British family has been making headlines across the world since arriving in New Zealand before Christmas.

Images show members of the family standing in public smoking and spitting, some drinking red bull while others carrying six-packs of beer.

The clan, who have lived in caravan parks across the East Midlands in the UK, are now so notorious that a hire car they crashed and abandoned in Auckland has been stripped by souvenir hunters.

Joe Doran, who earned the nickname 'Honest John' in New Zealand for lying about his real name, is pictured with his wife Eileen

Joe Doran picks up his baby daughter, as his family were on the best behaviour following accusations that they damaged their apartment and allegedly stole a journalist's phone

They ditched their rented seven-seater Honda Odyssey on Thursday after crashing it into a curb so hard the airbags popped and two tyres burst.

Joe Doran, who also goes by the name Miley, said his father crashed the vehicle because he was distracted by people calling them 'gypsy scum' while reversing in Mangere.

But as the travellers fled the crash scene, souvenir hunters stripped their car of its number plates, tax sticker and keys, apparently left in the ignition.

The Dorans, including matriarch Barbara Doran, 55, her husband Larry, their son Joe and his wife Eileen, have caused mayhem since arriving in New Zealand last month.

The tourists face claims they trashed a beach, left a cafe without paying, damaged their apartment and allegedly stole a journalist's phone.

Their antics have made headlines across the world. They have been accused of trashing an apartment, leaving restaurants without paying and stealing from shops

Pictured are matriarch Barbara Doran, 55, her husband Larry

One of the family's children was filmed threatening to 'knock the brains out' of locals who challenged their behaviour during a fortnight of chaos.

They also left a hotel room in Wellington strewn with cans of Red Bull, spaghetti and cigarette butts and smelling of poo, it has been claimed.

One woman in the group was caught on security cameras stealing sunglasses, rope and drinks from a service station.

On several occasions the group ordered meals at restaurants and then claimed that the food was contaminated with ants or hair and refused to pay for it.

Another member of the group, 26, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with assault with a weapon, reckless driving fraud by dishonestly using a document. He appeared at Auckland District Court and was bailed until February.A horror weekend at music festivals across the country has continued, with a sixth reveller hospitalised in Victoria after a suspected drug overdose.

Rainbow Serpent dance festival has been raging on over the long weekend in regional northwest Victoria.

But for the sixth time in little more than three days, a young reveller was taken to Ballarat Base Hospital for urgent treatment for a suspected drug overdose.

A sixth man has been rushed to hospital from a music festival in regional Victoria after a suspected drug overdose

The most recent case saw paramedics called to the festival grounds at about 3:30pm Sunday.

He was immediately rushed to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.

There, he will meet doctors and nurses who have already been tirelessly working to save the lives of five others who are suspected to have overdosed.

Hours before the young man was found at the campsite, a man in his 20s was rushed to the hospital. He was admitted at about 10:35am.

Saturday saw four people admitted into hospital, a female in her 20s, two men in their 20s, and a man in his 30s.

Police have been conducting searches of cars and campsites to apprehend drug smugglers

The sixth suspected overdose comes only hours after the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) issued a statement of advocacy for pill testing.

Industry experts are beginning to throw their support behind pill testing, after a horror weekend also saw 14 Sydneysiders rushed to hospital for suspected overdoses at a pair of Australia Day festivals.

ACEM joins the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in backing calls to introduce pill testing at festivals.

Police, meanwhile, have had their work cut out for them, making more than 20 arrests at Rainbow Serpent since the four-day festival kicked off Friday.

A 17-year-old boy was charged with drug trafficking.An adult entertainer has been slammed for drinking beer through a didgeridoo while partying with friends on Australia Day.

The stripper, who goes by the stage name Bambi Le Fist, was filmed by Perth model Cassy Walker downing the alcoholic beverage while friends cheered on.

Dressed in a floral bikini, the glamorous blonde shouted 'Straya' after finishing the drink before wiping her mouth to clean up beer spilling down her face.

The video quickly sparked outrage after being posted to social media, with viewers slamming the woman for being disrespectful to indigenous culture.

Scroll down for video

An adult entertainer (pictured) has been slammed for drinking beer through a didgeridoo while partying with friends on Australia Day

The stripper, who goes by the stage name Bambi Le Fist (pictured), was filmed by Perth model Cassy Walker

Bambi Le Fist (pictured) can be seen downing the alcoholic beverage while friends cheered on

'This is so disrespectful to our culture,' one commentator wrote. 'This is wrong on so many levels,' added another.

Didgeridoos are a traditional Aboriginal instrument made from hollowed out logs and are a strong part of Indigenous culture.

Despite strong backlash online, Bambi took to her personal Instagram to defend her actions, offering a bizarre reason for why she believed the stunt wasn't offensive.

'This is actually why the didgeridoo was actually invented... for the Aboriginal community to do funnels,' she said while topless and holding the didgeridoo.

'A little history lesson for all you uneducated people out there,' she captioned the video.

'The didgeridoo evolved into a wind instrument AFTER it was used for funnels.'

The stripper, who goes by the stage name Bambi Le Fist (pictured), was filmed by Perth model Cassy Walker downing the alcoholic beverage while friends cheered on

Her response drew further outrage online, with social media users bombarding her post demanding she remove the video.

'Mad disrespect coming from you, this is disgusting as if you can have the energy to actually do this sh**, educate yourself,' one person wrote.

'How can you continue to disrespect the first nations people whilst resting on their land?,' added another.

Thousands of Australians protested Australia Day celebrations on Saturday.

January 26 marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the 'First Fleet' to Sydney Cove, carrying mainly convicts and troops from Britain.

For many indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years, it is 'Invasion Day', the start of Britain's colonisation of aboriginal lands and their brutal subjugation.The body of a man who disappeared under the water while swimming in Sydney's west today, has been found.

At 11.30am on Sunday, emergency services were called to Bents Basin, about an hour west of Sydney, after a group of men were seen struggling in the water.

Three men, believed to be aged in their 20s, were rescued by bystanders, however, a 25-year-old man did not resurface after disappearing underwater.

The body of a man who disappeared under the water while swimming in Sydney's west today, has been found

A search began involving local police, assisted by Fire & Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance, and NSW State Emergency Service.

Assistance was also been sought from police divers.

Just after 1.30pm the body of a man believed to be a Nepalese national was found.

Bents Basin Road in Wallacia and Bents Basin has been closed to the public as the search was conducted.

More to come.

Bents Basin Road in Wallacia and Bents Basin has been closed to the public as the search was conducted



A former Sydney dentist has been banned from practicing after he failed to report his five-year jail sentence for an aggravated break and enter.

In 2016, Adam Elshaimy, 30, was imprisoned for his role in a 2013 break-in at the Vegas Hotel on Darlighurst Road in Sydney's Kings Cross, which saw a staff member hogtied and $150,000 stolen.

After finally being informed of the conviction the Health Care Complaints Commission first suspended his license to practice before referring the issue to the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal for assessment.

A former Sydney dentist has been banned from practicing after he failed to report his five-year jail sentence for an aggravated break and enter (stock image)

In 2016, Adam Elshaimy, 30, was imprisoned for his role in a 2013 break-in at the Vegas Hotel (pictured) on Darlighurst Road in Syndey's Kings Cross, which saw a staff member hogtied and $150,000 stolen

The commission concluded that Elshaimy was not a 'suitable person to hold registration in the health profession of dentistry' and urged that his licence be revoked.

As a result, Elshaimy has been banned from practicing again, however, he rejected claims he was unsuitable to be a dentist.

The 2013 aggravated robbery saw a number of offenders, including Elshaimy, use a claw hammer to smash through the window of the hotel before stealing the day's take and escaping in a getaway car.

Elshaimy's brother Islam Elshaimy, who was a security guard at the hotel at the time, was also found guilty and sentenced to four years jail for his role in the robbery.

At the conclusion of his trial, Elshaimy was acquitted of conspiracy to commit and armed robbery, but was found guilty of aggravated break and enter and larceny, The Daily Telegraph reported.

During the trial, the court heard Elshaimy's brother and co-accused Islam Elshaimy was working as a security guard at the venue at the time of the offence (stock image)

At the time of the offence, Elshaimy had been working part time at dental surgeries in both Liverpool and Double Bay in Sydney.

He went on to be a co-owner of the Liverpool practice, but sold his share of after his 2016 conviction.

Elshaimy is banned from reapplying to be reinstated until after his jail sentence is completed in September 2021.A pub barred its patrons from wearing any attire bearing the Australian flag on Australia Day.

The Newtown Hotel, in Sydney's inner-west, left some scratching their heads on Saturday when a sign out front informed customers they'd be turned away if the flag was displayed.

'Newtown Hotel respectfully declines to be part of the 26th of January as the land was not ceded,' the sign reads.

A pub has controversially barred its patrons from displaying Australian flag on Australia Day

'Today there is a dress code and that involves no Australian flag attire and accessories.'

Some punters online were less than thrilled with the decision, saying it was 'un-Australian' to ban the flag.

'Can't wear the Australian flag in Australia? Ridiculous,' one wrote.

'But [it] will have a colonial style building on Aboriginal ground profiting money selling alcohol?' another asked.

Adversely, many were in favour for the move, sharing messages of support with red, yellow and black heart emojis, representing the colours of the Aboriginal flag.

'Big UPS (sic) to these guys!!' one person wrote with the hashtag 'always was, always will be'.

'That's awesome,' wrote another.

The Newtown Hotel (pictured) displayed the sign, saying the Australian flag went against a 'dress code'

The stance is the latest in a series of political statements the Newtown Hotel has made in the past couple of years.

Most recently, they decided against broadcasting last year's Melbourne Cup as a sign of solidarity against the horse racing industry.

Management at the Newtown Hotel declined to comment.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has given less of his wealth to charity than Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or even Donald Trump, according to new figures.

The world's wealthiest man, who is currently in the midst of a pricey divorce from his wife of 25 years MacKenzie, donated just 0.0906 per cent of his considerable wealth, public records show.

Bezos, 55, gave a tiny slice of of his $160 billion fortune - $145 million - to help charitable causes, The New York Post reports.

That puts the magnate way behind Bill and Melinda Gates who gave away 37 per cent of their fortune and Warren Buffet who donated 36 per cent of his wealth.

Washington-based The Chronicle of Philanthropy say Microsoft founder Gates is the most generous philanthropist in the US.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan gave away four per cent and even President Trump donated three per cent of his $3 billion fortune.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gives less of his wealth to charity than Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or even Donald Trump according to new figures

Microsoft founder Gates and his wife Melinda are the most generous philanthropist in the US, according to Washington-based The Chronicle of Philanthropy

The world's wealthiest man Bezos, pictured, 'donated just 0.0906 per cent of his wealth'

Amazon CEO Bezos, right, is now in a relationship with former TV host Lauren Sanchez

Earlier this month Bezos, who also operates the private space exploration firm Blue Origin and owns the Washington Post newspaper, announced he was getting a divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie on Twitter.

The post came a day before his eight-month long romance with Lauren Sanchez was revealed.

Their divorce is likely to make 48-year-old MacKenzie, a novelist, the richest woman in the world after the pair did not sign a pre-nup agreement leaving her entitled to half of his massive $140billion fortune.

Sources say he is now planning on moving in with new girlfriend Lauren and they are 'very much together'.

Bezos' parent started the Bezos Family Foundation back in 2000 but up until 2017 Bezos contributed just under $6 million to the group.

In 2013 Brad Stones book The Everything Store said employees at Amazon did not even get subsidized meals at company cafeterias.

Amazon has been criticized in its home of Seattle, Washington, for doing little to address problems of the growing homeless population.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan 'gave four per cent of their $54 billion wealth'

Figures show President Donald Trump, left, donated three per cent of his $3 billion fortune while Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right, gave 13 per cent

Warren Buffett, pictured, came second to Bill and Melinda Gates in the figures which show he donated 36 per cent of his wealth

His charitable efforts appear to have been on the up of late after he gave $33 million to fund scholarship for 'dreamers,' the name given to undocumented children of immigrants who face legal obstacles in attending college or university.

He also donated $10 million to a group called With Honor which helps veterans enter politics and has earmarked nearly $100 million for homeless charities.

In September he launched the Bezos Day One Fund, which will provide aid to homeless families and open preschools in low-income communities.

Bezos, who has homes in Seattle, Washington DC, Texas and Beverly Hills, California, made a $2billion initial commitment to the philanthropic fund.

But while that number seem impressive in reality only amounts to 1.2 percent of his estimated net worth.The latest Saturday Night Live episode opened with a parody of a Fox News segment mocking the indictment of Trump ally Roger Stone.

In the role of primetime host Tucker Carlson was Alex Moffat, who praised Donald Trump for 'heroically' ending the government shutdown before welcoming Stone, played by Steve Martin.

'Our final story this week is the dramatic, some would say ludicrous arrest of longtime trump associate Roger Stone. The man is 66 years old, frail, barely able to post shirtless photos of his jacked body. Clearly no threat to anyone. Yet this is how the FBI raided his home,' Carlson says as violent footage from an action movie takes over the screen.

'Here with his side of the story is a man you look at and instantly think, I trust this guy. Please welcome Roger Stone.'

Martin's Stone comments on his 'fun couple of days' and complains that his bank accounts have run dry because of the indictment before issuing a desperate plea to the president: 'Pardon me!'

The parody came one day after real-life Stone was arrested for lying to Congress in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

The latest Saturday Night Live episode opened with a parody of a Fox News segment mocking Trump ally Roger Stone's indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Primetime host Tucker Carlson, played by Alex Moffat, introduces Stone, played by Steve Martin, by saying: 'Our final story this week is the dramatic, some would say ludicrous arrest of longtime trump associate Roger Stone. The man is 66 years old, frail, barely able to post shirtless photos of his jacked body. Clearly no threat to anyone'

Martin's Stone comments on his 'fun couple of days' and complains that his bank accounts have run dry because of the indictment before issuing a desperate plea to the president: 'Pardon me!'

SNL's mockery came one day after real-life Stone was arrested in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. The 66-year-old is pictured leaving court Friday

"Here with his side of the story is a man you look at and instantly think, I trust this guy. Please welcome Roger Stone." #SNL @SteveMartinToGo pic.twitter.com/qGh2XOcz0j  Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) January 27, 2019

Moffatt's Carlson opened the segment by describing himself as 'like if those shorts with the little whales on them came to life'.

'Our top story tonight, President Trump's heroic end to the shutdown,' Carlson says. 'It took him 35 days, but he was finally able to get no wall. Meanwhile, as the Democrats stall, the crisis at our border rages on. Here with her take is the host of Justice with Judge Jeanine. How are you?'

Cecily Strong reprised her role as Pirro, who claims to have spoken with TSA agents who'd gone four weeks without paychecks but were still in high spirits.

Carlson then welcomes Kate McKinnon as Wilbur Ross, the multimillionaire commerce secretary who sparked outrage this week with insensitive remarks about federal workers affected by the government shutdown.

'Now, Wilbur, earlier this week, you said that you didn't understand why furloughed government workers needed food assistance, because they could just take out low-interest loans instead?' Carlson asks.

Ross replies: 'Right, well, that was silly of me. I simply meant there are other ways of getting money. They could have liquidated some of their stocks, or sold one of their paintings. Even if they sold a lesser Picasso, it's still going to get you through a week or two of yacht maintenance.'

'I still think that comes across as insensitive to people living paycheck to paycheck,' Carlson says.

'No, no. All I meant was, that we all have to make sacrifices in times of hardship. For example, instead of going out to dinner, you could open a restaurant in your house. Or for a period of time, you could have your horses attend public school. The small things add up,' Ross responds.

Appearing on the segment to comment on the end of the government shutdown was Judge Janine Pirro, played by SNL's Cecily Strong

Kate McKinnon appears as Wilbur Ross, the multimillionaire commerce secretary who sparked outrage this week with insensitive remarks about federal workers affected by the shutdown

Next up is Secretary of Commerce and man of the people, Wilbur Ross. #SNL pic.twitter.com/MZmeyAwK8a  Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) January 27, 2019

After dismissing Ross, Carlson introduces his biggest guest of the night in Stone, who was interviewed on the real program the night before.

Moffatt's Carlson says: 'You had a harrowing past 36 hours, your home was raided, you were arrested and charged with seven felony accounts. Including lying to Congress.'

Stone interjects: 'That was four counts.'

Carlson responds: 'The indictment says seven.'

'Okay, I'm lyin',' Stone says with a laugh. 'Honestly, I think I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. I mean, seven felonies, one, two -- I can't even count that high. How cool is that?'

In an attempt to rein his guest back in, Carlson says: 'Mr Stone, what I think you're really trying to say is that you're a feeble old man, right?'

'Yeah, right, the pity thing,' Stone says. 'I'm a poor helpless old man, I'm 66. I'm almost as old as Sting.'

Carlson says: 'And that's why it was so awful the way the police raided your home.'

'Exactly. The whole experience was so harrowing,' Stone replied. 'And afterwards I could only manage one radio interview. And a speech from the steps of the courthouse and two appearances on television. It's horrible.'

The host probes: 'And haven't these ridiculous accusations made you poverty stricken as well?'

'Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm broke from my legal battles. And now no one will buy my books,' Stone says.

'Why will no one buy your books?' Carlson asks.

'Because they're bad!' Stone exclaims.

'Just tell people how they can donate money to help you,' Carlson says:

'I set up a donation pageant based on a phrase people have been yelling at me: "Hey, Roger, go fund yourself!"' Stone replies.

Carlson thanks Stone for his time, and the guest says: 'Pardon me?'

'I said, thank you,' Carlson responds.

Stone says: 'Oh, no. That wasn't a question, I was saying that to the president. Pardon me!'

Roger Stone appeared on Tucker Carlson's show in real life on Friday night after his arrestDonald Trump met with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' outspoken conservative wife in the White House in an hour-long meeting about the far-right agenda last week.

The president sat with Ginni Thomas, 61, and a group of conservative activists believed to be her anti-liberal group called Groundswell in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

In the meeting the group reportedly criticized transgender people, discussed barring women in the military and bashed Republican leadership, according to the New York Times.

Donald Trump met with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife Ginni Thomas and her far-right activist group Groundswell last week at the White House

The meeting raises question of a conflict of interest as Ginni is the wife of sitting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The couple pictured above with their dogs

Trump was reportedly low-key in the meeting and listened 'quietly' as the group shared their points, according to three unnamed sources familiar with the meeting.

Thomas reportedly accused White House aides of blocking conservatives and allies of the president from obtaining various administrative positions.

She was joined by Rosemary Jenks of anti-Immigration think tank NumbersUSA and Frank Gaffney, the founder of the Center for Security Policy which happens to be known for anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Also in attendance was chief of staff for Texas Representative Louie Gohmert.

One woman in the meeting reportedly argued that all women should be banned from military service because they're physically different than men.

At another point one person said that gay marriage was harming the 'fabric of the United States', the Times reported.

Ivanka Trump made a surprise visit to the meeting, at which point Trump praised her saying 'she would be beloved if she were serving a liberal president, instead of getting negative news coverage'.

The meeting was planned after the Justice Thomas and his wife had dinner with Trump and First Lady Melania

Ginni Thomas has landed in hot water for her social media posts

This controversial meme shows Lady Liberty crying because immigrants coming into the U.S. are allegedly criminals and killers

Ginni shared a post calling 17-year-old high school student David Hogg 'a special kind of stupid' in a March post that has since been deleted

Ginni Thomas' appearance is controversial and raises question of a conflict of interest as she's the wife of a siting Supreme Court justice but was still given such close access to the president.

The meeting took place after it was delayed for months, according to the sources. The meeting was planned after the Thomases had dinner with Trump and First Lady Melania.

Thomas is no stranger to controversy.

On her Facebook she's known to share conservative memes, praise for Trump, and launch attacks on Democrats. In one post she alleged that Democrats committed voter fraud in the 2018 midterms.

She was criticized just last month after she shared shocking social media posts where she called the Parkland school shooting survivors a threat to the country because of their fight for gun control.

According to Mother Jones, Ginni Thomas and Republican consultant John Bolton formed Groundswell in 2013 to strategize against Democrats.

It is a secret organization of conservative activists that hailed membership from journalists of Brietbart News and the Washington Examiner.

The group allegedly meets weekly to plot against the political left.

Justice Clarence Thomas and Ginni pictured together. The pair got married on May 30, 1987Theresa May's husband was dragged into the Brexit civil war at No10 today amid claims he urged the PM not to cave in to Labour demands for a permanent customs union.

Philip May apparently enraged senior aides by instead backing a new push for a deal with Brussels that would finally win over Tory rebels and the DUP.

The spat emerged as tensions escalate dramatically over how to resolve the deepening political crisis over Brexit.

Mrs May is facing another frantic week as she tries to keep her Cabinet together and fend off a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay the Article 50 process.

If the plan, pushed by Labour's Yvette Cooper, is passed by MPs on Tuesday it would pave the way for law ordering a nine-month extension to be considered on February 5.

The PM's husband Philip May (pictured together at church in Maidenhead today) encouraged her to keep fighting for a deal with Brussels that would finally win over rebels in her own party

Labour's Yvette Cooper (left) is heading a bid by cross-party Remainers to force her to delay the Article 50 process. Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom (right) has insisted Brexit should only be put off if there is a deal to implement

Amendments are also tabled intended to rule out a no-deal Brexit, and stage a series of 'indicative' votes to work out what approach would gain a majority in the Commons.

The government seems to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories that would demand a rewriting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something she could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

But according to the Sunday Times there was a major meltdown in No10 over whether to try to get a deal through with support from Labour.

No.10 chief of staff Gavin Barwell apparently accused Philip May of 'scuppering' plans to offer the Opposition a permanent customs union with the EU.

Mr May, pictured with his wife on Sunday, is already said to have convinced the Prime Minister not to resign after her 2017 snap General Election

A source said: 'Philip May was flamed by Barwell for scuppering the outreach to Labour' and another said he 'took a pop at Philip May.'

Mr May is already said to have convinced the Prime Minister not to resign after her 2017 snap General Election and disastrous party conference the same year.

Tory Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns yesterday said Mr May could even take over negotiations with the EU.

She told the BBC Marr Show: It seems he is talking more sense at the moment.

While Downing Street said reports of a row were utter bunkum.

Mrs May's husband lined up with chief whip Julian Smith, who warned that ignoring the objections of Brexiteers and the DUP risked tearing the Tories apart.

The PM has made clear she is determined to renegotiate the controversial Irish border backstop in a bid to win over critics of her package.

The government appears to be pinning its hope on changes tabled by senior Tories that would demand a rewriting or time-limiting of the controversial Irish border backstop - something she could take to Brussels as concrete evidence of the will of MPs.

But Mrs May must control rising unrest in her own ranks, after Amber Rudd hinted she could quit to support the Cooper amendment on Tuesday.

Chancellor Philip Hammond also refused to rule out resigning if the government's stated policy becomes no deal Brexit - although he tried to play down the idea that the votes this week are 'high noon', saying there was still time to find a solution.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington, the PM's effective deputy, today pleaded for Remainer MPs to hold their far, saying there would be other opportunities to avoid no deal.

'If Parliament wishes to avoid no deal, I have no doubt it will find ways to express a view in the coming weeks,' he wrote in the Observer.

UK 'could impose martial law' to limit no-deal Brexit chaos Whitehall officials have been 'war-gaming' imposing martial law to avoid chaos on the streets after a no-deal Brexit, it was claimed today. The extreme measures are being considered as part of a major response if the UK crashes out of the EU at the end of March. Mandarins have been discussing whether to use wide-ranging powers in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 - which include curfews, travel bans and deploying the army, according to the Sunday Times. Robert MacFarlane, the deputy director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, has been involved in preparations for no-deal Brexit. The possibility of using the Civil Contingencies Act for Operation Yellowhammer - the no-deal Brexit plan - was apparently raised for the first time last week. 'As no-deal preparations are accelerated and training is rolled out to civil servants, questions have been raised about the legislation and how it could be used in the event of a no-deal Brexit,' a source told the Sunday Times. A Downing Street spokesman said: 'Respecting the referendum decision means leaving the EU. 'The PM has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal, but as a responsible Government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared.' Advertisement

'But next week's debate is not a re-run of the meaningful vote, nor is it the final decision point for MPs.

'So we must keep our focus on the only real way to rule out no deal - and that is to find common ground on a deal.'

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood today openly contradicted the PM by warning it is 'time to rule out the very possibility of no deal'.

'It is wrong for government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world,' he wrote in the Sunday Times.

However, Education Secretary Damian Hinds said no deal could not be taken off the table.

He made clear it was not his favoured outcome, but warned that 'prolonging' the Article 50 period would not help resolve the crisis.

'I don't envisage no deal becoming Government policy. 'We want to avoid a no deal. No deal would not be a good outcome,' he told Sky News' Sophy Ridge On Sunday.

'But, it is important that it remains as a possibility because, on the other hand... some people are trying to thwart Brexit altogether.'

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Ms Cooper denied she was trying to 'block Brexit' with her amendment.

The former Treasury minister said she was not yet sure if she had the backing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, nor of some of the Tory frontbench. On Mr Corbyn she said: 'I hope he will support it - he obviously needs to make a decision in the normal way.

'I suppose what I would say to him, to the Prime Minister, to the Government ministers who I think also want to make sure that we don't have no deal is in the end we can't... keep waiting for other people to sort this out.

'We can't carry on with a kind of game of chicken... That's not a way to make sensible decisions.

'In the end someone has to take some responsibility and say: 'if the Prime Minister runs out of time she may need some more time' - that is not about blocking Brexit, that is about being responsible and making sure you can get a Brexit deal.'

Responding to news the Government was looking at the possibility of a martial law scenario, Labour MP and Best for Britain campaign supporter, David Lammy said: 'This is a full-blown crisis'

It comes after reports preparations are being looked at for the possible imposition of martial law after a no-deal Brexit.

The move has been described by sources as the civil service 'prepping' for all possibilities.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'Respecting the referendum decision means leaving the EU.

'The PM has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal, but as a responsible Government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared.'

As the political crisis gathers pace, the Government is ready to extend working hours for MPs in order to get Brexit legislation through the Commons before the scheduled EU withdrawal date of March 29.

Responding to news the Government was looking at the possibility of a martial law scenario, Labour MP and Best for Britain campaign supporter, David Lammy said: 'This is a full-blown crisis.

'The Government is recklessly drawing up plans for a colossal act of self-harm.

'Through continuing on the path to Brexit, despite having achieved no consensus on a deal in Parliament, the Government is preparing to declare war on itself.

'The idea that the Government has any mandate for this catastrophic scenario is ludicrous.

'The Leave campaign promised a stable new trading relationship with the EU after Brexit, not total isolation and soldiers in our airports.'The US and Canadian Air Force were forced to scramble four fighter jets Saturday to intercept two Russian bombers closing in on North American airspace off the coast of Alaska.

Two US Air Force F-22 fighter jets and two Canadian CF-18 jets escorted the supersonic, nuclear capable aircraft after they were spotted above North America.

Both jets 'remained in international airspace', according to The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Officials said 'NORAD positively identified 2x Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers entering the Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone'.

The US and Canadian Air Force scrambled four fighter jets to intercept two Russian bombers closing in on North American airspace off coast of Alaska, NORAD tweeted

Both jets 'remained in international airspace', according to The North American Aerospace Defense Command, who posted online about the incident

NORAD tweeted: 'An E-3 AWACS, 2x F-22, 2x CF-18 fighter jets from NORAD positively identified 2x Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers entering the Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone on January 26, 2019.

'Bombers remained in international airspace and did not enter sovereign territory.'

The US Air Force sent planes from their air base in Alaska.

It is the first known Russian flight near North America this year.

In September US Air Force fighter jets twice were forced to intercepted two Russian bombers off the coast of Alaska.

The first interception took place on September 1 when another pair of Russian bombers flew nearby.

Those planes were also intercepted by F-22 fighters after they crossed into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone south of the Aleutian Islands.

Then two weeks later two more Russian bombers were spotted in the same area.

NORAD Commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said then: 'The homeland is no longer a sanctuary and the ability to deter and defeat threats to our citizens, vital infrastructure and national institutions starts with successfully detecting, tracking and positively identifying aircraft of interest approaching US and Canadian airspace.'Retailers are using social media to clamp down on shoppers who lie about not receiving items bought online and 'serial returners'.

Online giant ASOS has started scouring the Facebook and Instagram profiles of people who have been flagged by its security team for repeatedly claiming they hadn't received their package.

The retailer admitted it checks the customer's social media to see if they have photographed themselves wearing the item.

Online giant ASOS has started scouring the Facebook and Instagram profiles of people who repeatedly claim their parcels haven't arrived

But ASOS said it only relates to customers who say they have returned a package and still demand a refund, it told The Telegraph.

The company said it didn't use the technique to catch out serial returners, because customers are 'well within their rights' to send back items.

Serial returner are shoppers who deliberately buy several clothes knowing full well that they won't keep some of them.

It's become such a problem for online shops that 45 per cent of retailers are planning to ban them, researcher Brightpearl found.

Brightpearl asked over 200 bosses at online retailers in Britain and over one third said they'd seen a spike in serial returners in the last year.

Meanwhile, sources told The Telegraph Harrods has started denying refunds to loyalty card holders who'd requested a large number of refunds in short spaces of time.

Harrods has started denying refunds to loyalty card holders to serial returners, sources say

Sales associates are said to often monitor those customer's social media accounts to make sure they're not wearing the items once and sending them back.

A Harrods spokesman told the paper: 'Harrods is a customer-service centred business and has a 14 days returns policy for in-store sales.

'However there are a number of exempted product categories stated on the returns policy, and we reserve the right to designate a product as being non-returnable at the point of sale.'Michael Bloomberg lambasted President Donald Trump as an incompetent 'pretend CEO' and likened his presidency to a horror movie in a pair of speeches Friday night.

Addressing a gathering for the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia, the former New York City mayor said: 'It's clear that this president, at this point, cannot be helped'.

He vowed to make sure that Trump doesn't get re-elected in 2020, remarking: 'The presidency is not an entry-level job. There is just too much at stake.

'The longer we have a pretend CEO who is recklessly running this country, the worse it's going to be for our economy and for our security. This is really dangerous.'

The remarks by Bloomberg, a former Republican who registered as a Democrat only last fall, were some of his toughest against Trump since his speech to the Democratic National Convention more than two years ago.

Back then, Bloomberg warned of the prospect of a Trump presidency: 'God help us.'

Bloomberg reflected upon that 2016 speech repeatedly on Friday, and he went further, suggesting that the government shutdown has proved that his initial warning about Trump was correct.

Michael Bloomberg lambasted President Donald Trump in a pair of speeches on Friday night. Speaking at a gathering for the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia, the former New York City mayor said of Trump: 'The longer we have a pretend CEO who is recklessly running this country, the worse it's going to be for our economy and for our security.' Bloomberg echoed those remarks in a second speech at the US Conference of Mayors (above)

Bloomberg likened Trump's presidency to a horror flick, saying: 'Instead of Freddy Krueger and the 'Nightmare on Elm Street', we've got Donald Trump and the 'Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"'. Trump is pictured at the White House on Friday

He panned Trump's White House by comparing it to 'a bad horror movie'.

'But instead of Freddy Krueger and the 'Nightmare on Elm Street', we've got Donald Trump and the 'Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue",' Bloomberg said.

The potential presidential candidate echoed those remarks during a later appearance at the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC.

Speaking just before the partial government shutdown came to an end, Bloomberg said: 'This is about competence and the lack of it we are seeing in the White House.

'The government shutdown is a complete failure of executive leadership, and it's one of the worst cases of incompetent management I have ever seen.'

Bloomberg's warm reception at Virginia business event highlighted the chief political challenge should he enter the 2020 race.

Liberal activists, who like to attack what they call 'corporate Democrats', play a far more prominent role in the primary process than do the kind of business executives who gave him a standing ovation Friday.

One of the most prominent early Democratic candidates, Massachusetts Sen Elizabeth Warren, has warned against the role of billionaires in the presidential primary process.

Bloomberg tried to make the case for both capitalism and a centrist candidate, suggesting that Democrats don't need to choose between 'energizing the base' and 'pragmatic leadership'.

Asked about his 2020 intentions, he acknowledged that he has 'a good life' and can make a difference even if he doesn't run.

'Having said that, I don't like walking away from challenges.'A Twitter user is planning to complain to the Home Secretary after police investigated him for retweeting a poem which suggested transgender women are still men.

Harry Miller is furious at his Orwellian treatment by an officer who rang to check his thinking after he had liked a limerick which includes the lines: Youre a man. Your breasts are made of silicone... And we can tell the difference... Your hormones are synthetic.

In all, the company director  a former policeman  had posted about 30 tweets on transgender issues when he was called by a police officer, who introduced himself as representing the LGBTQ community after receiving a complaint.

Harry Miller (pictured) is furious at his Orwellian treatment by an officer who rang to check his thinking after he had liked a limerick

According to Mr Miller, 53, of Nettleton in Lincolnshire, the complainant was an unknown member of the public who had found him via his plant management company and decided if I employed trans people at all, it was not a safe space for them.

The officer, PC Mansoor Gul of Humberside Police, told Mr Miller that he had 30 tweets by him.

When asked if any contained criminal material, the policeman read the poem, prompting Mr Miller to say afterwards with some disbelief: A cop read me a limerick over the phone.

Mr Miller said: I said, I didnt write that. He said, Ah, but you liked it and promoted it. I asked why he was wasting his time on a non crime.

He said, Its not a crime, but it will be recorded as a hate incident. 

He added: The cop told me that he needed to speak with me because, even though Id committed no crime whatsoever, he needed (and I quote) to check my thinking! Seriously. Honestly.

Finally, he lectured me. Said, Sometimes, a womans brain grows a mans body in the womb and that is what transgender is.

Father-of-four Mr Miller told The Mail on Sunday: 1984 is supposed to be a book, not a police operat- ing manual.

He added: To be told that the police needed to check my thinking was a bit much.

Mr Miller insists that he has nothing against transgender people but is concerned about the damaging potential impact for the safety of women from proposals to allow any man who chooses to identify as female.

He plans to write to the Chief Constable of Humberside, the Home Secretary and the Police Commissioner for Humberside to complain and ask the force to sort out its borders as to what constitutes police work.

Mr Gul told The Daily Telegraph: Although none of the tweets were criminal, I said to Mr Miller that the limerick is the kind of thing that upsets the transgender community. I warned him that if it escalates, we will take further action.

A Humberside police spokesman said all reports of hate incidents are taken seriously and the force would always take appropriate action.Venezuelas military attache at the U.S. embassy in Washington supported self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido in a video shared on social media.

Colonel Jose Luis Silva said he stands by the roadmap of acting President Juan Guaido.

Venezuelas Defense Ministry called him a traitor and described his actions as an act of treason and cowardice with the fatherland inherited from our liberator Simon Bolivar, News.am reported citing CNN.

As reported earlier, on January 23, opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president of Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro blasted these actions as a coup detat organized by US and announced that it was severing diplomatic relations with the US. American diplomats have already left Karakas.

The United States, Canada and a number of Latin America countries recognized Guaido as a legitimate president.As Donald Trump gears up for a second run at the presidency, he's reportedly eyeing Joe Biden as his greatest threat.

Trump allegedly views the former vice president as his 'most dangerous potential opponent' in the 2020 presidential race.

Former Senator Biden has notably not announced his decision to run in the upcoming presidential election yet.

President Donald Trump (left) reportedly sees former Vice President Joe Biden (right) as his greatest threat in the 2020 presidential race, even though Biden is yet to announce if he'll run

Trump sees Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren as his greatest Democratic competitors in the 2020 presidential race. Warren announced her presidential campaign on December 31

Earlier this month Biden was 'in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president'. He also told allies he was 'skeptical the other Democrats eyeing the White House can defeat President Trump', according to a New York Times report.

Aside from Obama's former right-hand man, Trump is also fixated on Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who announced her presidential campaign on December 31, as another major Democratic challenger, as per a separate New York Times report.

On Friday Trump announced that the Republican National Committee unanimously voted to support him in the upcoming 2020 election and he's already keeping an eye out for potential competitors.

His advisers also have their focus on California Senator Kamala Harris who announced her presidential campaign last week and potentially Beto O'Rourke, the former Texas Senate candidate, who is yet to announce a 2020 bid.

Earlier this month Biden was 'in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president'. Biden pictured above former president Barack Obama

Trump's advisers are also eyeing California Senator Kamala Harris and former Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke as opponents

Polls have seen Biden ranked higher than Trump and other potential Democratic contenders in favorability ratings, according to AOL.

Trump's already run his mouth against Biden.

'He ran two or three times, he never got about one percent. And then [Barack] Obama came along and took him off the trash heap, and he became a vice president, and now he's leading,' the president said in an interview with Fox News earlier this month.

Though Biden's yet to provide a hint on a presidential run, his youngest brother told local paper the Palm Beach Post that he just might.

'I think we're going to run...Now, he could surprise me. But I know the family's behind him 100 percent,' Frank Biden said.

Political pundit Ashley Pratte hailed Biden as 'arguably the party's best hope for 2020', in an NBC opinion piece.

'As the most established, qualified, experienced, likable, popular and bipartisan Democrat exploring a bid for the presidency, his ability to relate to blue-collar Americans and his jovial demeanor make him the ideal candidate to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump,' she added.A major UK charity has failed to remove from office a senior director accused of bullying whistleblowers, corruption and sexual harassment  including sending witch porn to a female executive.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), a family planning group employing 30,000 staff and heavily backed by British aid, kept the head of its Africa operations despite being warned six years ago by the Kenyan government of serious allegations against him and other officials.

Regional director Lucien Kouakou was subsequently at the centre of a scandal over fraud, sexual harassment and abuse of staff.

Yet he has not been ousted after the IPPFs African regional executive accused the London-based charity of an attack of the whole African region.

Lucien Kouakou, pictured, kept his job at the International Planned Parenthood Federation despite being found to have bullied whistleblowers and claims he tried to cover up corruption

And the department for international development (Dfid) has given the group 132million for a three-year project, despite pledges to stop funding organisations guilty of exploitation.

The whole system at the organisation is riddled with opportunities for corruption but there is simply no willpower to tackle it, said one former insider.

Documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show:

Senior IPPF officials accused of taking tens of thousands of pounds in expenses for attending partner meetings that never took place in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo;

One senior manager, later sacked, took $120,000 (91,000) and $121,900 (92,400) in cash for expenses at two of the meetings;

Rampant fraud such as spending $22,620 (17,000) for translation services from a fake firm in Senegal and $20,600 (15,600) on fees for non-existent schools in Ghana;

Concerns of malpractice surrounding the $1.37million (1.04million) purchase of less than an acre of swampland in Kenya;

Mr Kouakou kept his job despite being found to have bullied whistleblowers and claims he tried to cover up corruption;

Allegations he sent a witch porn video featuring a snake and naked woman to a senior female staff member to intimidate her.

The furore is a blow to one of Britains most influential aid charities, founded 67 years ago to fight for womens rights, and the latest setback for a sector that has seen some of its best-known names damaged by a spate of scandals.

British-based director general Dr Alvaro Bermejo, pictured with Dfid Minister Alistair Burt, said in an email to staff in October last year that after an entirely independent and very thorough probe by the law firm Mr Kouakou was returning to his job

Well-placed sources handed the MoS leaked documents including emails, invoices and reports along with audio tapes of meetings and video footage.

One IPPF insider also claimed there are current investigations into alleged frauds and mismanagement involving associations in Liberia, Malawi and Burkina Faso.

Many concerns revolve around Mr Kouakou, who was appointed in 2008 to head the IPPFs African region. He describes himself on social media as a distinguished and visionary leader.

Yet in April 2013 Kenyas foreign ministry sent a letter of complaint to IPPF, saying its staff had raised claims of discrimination, use of rude and abusive language, intimidation andsexual harassment of women employees by Mr Kouakou and other senior officials in the charity.

It is not known how the group responded although Mr Kouakou kept his job. His salary is unknown, but one of his fellow regional directors pocketed $380,447 (288,200) in 2017.

In July 2017 Inacio Neves, a senior IPPF finance adviser, wrote a detailed memo called Suspicious Misappropriation of Funds at IPPF Africa Region Office in conjunction with colleagues.

IPPF is a family planning group employing 30,000 staff and is heavily backed by British aid

It was sent to executives in London and Nairobi. Neves wrote that he had been quietly probing fraud by senior managers involving ghost meetings, faked invoices, abuse of expenses and a secretive and deficient procurement process for the purchase of 0.73 acres of land in Nairobi.

Subsequent memos by Neves and another colleague claimed Kouakou attempted to cover up fraud by his head of operations. He has sought to argue that what took place was a mere mistake, they told the head of human resources.

They also said they were threatened by Mr Kouakou. This was confirmed in May last year by the strictly confidential investigation report of an external probe commissioned by the charity. It concluded the pair were subjected to behaviour which is workplace bullying by Mr Kouakou and which only arose after they blew the whistle.

Allegations of fraud were confirmed, leading to dismissal of the head of operations, although Mr Kouakou remained in post. He later stepped aside during another investigation by a Kenyan law firm.

An email to staff on October 18 last year from Alvaro Bermejo, the British-based director general, said that after an entirely independent and very thorough probe by the law firm Mr Kouakou was returning to his job. This led to fury from four senior ex-staff who said they had resigned since they could no longer tolerate harassment, bullying, and financial impropriety.

The ex-staff said the office was not a safe space for staff, enclosing a witch porn video clip said to have been sent to a woman official.

On November 27 last year Mr Bermejo sent staff another email saying Mr Kouakou has left IPPF today after a disciplinary process following new information concerning management controls and oversight in connection with this fraud.

Yet another memo was sent to staff earlier this month, saying that following Mr Kouakous termination an appeal had led to new hearings and during this process Lucien will be placed on suspension.

An earlier meeting of the regional executive committee had pledged support for Mr Kouakou, saying the allegations against him were not an attack of an individual but of the whole African region.

A spokesman for IPPF said they had a zero-tolerance policy on fraud, investigate all allegations and comply with all obligations to contact donors and our regulator.

He added the charity was committed to safeguarding staff.

Dfid said it learned about the allegations of fraud in August last year and had since been kept up to date with IPPF investigations. A departmental source said they had halted the contract award when alerted to the case but found IPPF controls were sufficiently robust to justify continued funding.

Mr Kouakou did not respond to requests to discuss the claims.Countdown star Rachel Riley has been given extra protection on the programme after her criticism of Jeremy Corbyns stance on anti-Semitism

Countdown star Rachel Riley has been given extra protection on the programme after her criticism of Jeremy Corbyns stance on anti-Semitism resulted in her being threatened by Labour supporters.

Ms Riley, 33, who is Jewish, yesterday revealed that security at the Channel 4 studio had been increased in the face of what she claimed was hideous abuse and physical threats from people clearly identifying as Corbyn supporters.

She said: We are getting more security for Countdown. By speaking up against anti-Semitism you are a target. I dont take it lightly.

The more I speak, the more abuse I get, and the more abuse I get the more I speak.

Its got to the point where I cant look at my Twitter feed any more. Its just a constant stream.

Ms Riley  who joined the programme in 2009 after graduating in maths from Oxford  said she had felt compelled to speak out the more she had learned about anti-Semitism in Labours ranks.

She also said she was in no doubt about the political allegiances of her abusers. She told The Times: With the hashtag Get The Tories Out or the red rose or hashtag JC4PM, they say to me, Youre only calling out the Left. Well, I have been attacked by people on the Left.

One of her critics tweeted: Rachel Riley is really milking this faux anti-Semitism outrage farce. Many of us see it for the b******s it is, a manufactured attack on anyone who dares criticise the Israeli regimes Apartheid policies.

Another sneered: Rachel Riley proves that you can go to an elite uni and still be as thick as s***.

Ms Riley, who last week addressed the Holocaust Educational Trust reception in Parliament, said that some of her critics had even contacted Channel 4 calling for her to be sacked.

She said: People have been repeatedly messaging Channel 4 saying I should be fired or arrested  that Im a racist and a white supremacist.

The 33-year-old  who joined the programme in 2009 after graduating in maths from Oxford  said she had felt compelled to speak out the more she had learned about anti-Semitism in Labours ranks

Ms Riley, 33, who is Jewish, yesterday revealed that security at the Channel 4 studio had been increased

But she said she had no intention of staying quiet, adding defiantly: They picked the wrong woman  whatever they throw at me, Ill throw right back.

Mr Corbyn, who insists he has always opposed racism, has found it impossible to distance himself from the anti-Semitism row surrounding his party.

Last year, it emerged that in 2012 he had supported a mural which depicted Jewish financiers playing a Monopoly-style board game on the backs of naked people.

And it later emerged he has been at a 2014 wreath laying for individuals behind the group that carried out the Munich Olympic massacre, although he insisted he was not part of the commemoration.

Mr Corbyn, who insists he has always opposed racism, has found it impossible to distance himself from the anti-Semitism row surrounding his party

However, Ms Riley said she had no doubt Mr Corbyn was anti-Semitic. She added: Its part of his fundamental core belief system, the overlooking of anti-Semitism in relation to his pro-Palestinian stance.

A spokesman for Channel 4 last night said there would be an increased presence as far as security was concerned but declined to comment further.

The Mail on Sunday understands that neither Channel 4 nor the production company which makes the programme has called in the police.

A Labour Party spokesman said: Labour is committed to tackling anti-Semitism in all its forms.For almost 20 years it has been a familiar sight on the streets of Middle England  an Ocado van bearing home deliveries of Waitrose groceries.

But soon those same vehicles might instead be carrying goods for Marks & Spencer, which is planning to launch its own 1 billion food delivery service and is in top secret talks with Ocado.

If the deal is successful, M&S would buy key distribution centres, delivery vans and lorries from the online food retailer.

The Mail on Sunday understands that talks between top executives at the two companies have been conducted over the past few weeks.

If the deal is successful, M&S would buy key distribution centres, delivery vans and lorries from the online food retailer

The talks are the latest twist in M&S chairman Archie Normans strategy to turn around the 11 billion retail giants fortunes amid ongoing cuts and plans to close 100 stores by 2022.

A City source said: Archie Norman needs something transformational to make his mark at M&S and he is running out of time.

The deal on the table is effectively buying the Waitrose part of the Ocado business and replacing it with M&S products.

Norman said last summer that fierce rivalry from other chains, growth in home delivery and a consumer squeeze were eroding our business and market position. He added: The business is on a burning platform. Accelerated change is the only option. The tide is running more strongly against us now.

Ocado  whose contract with Waitrose runs until the end of September 2020  was launched by three ex-Goldman Sachs bankers as an online-only supermarket in 2000.

It soon struck a partnership to deliver Waitrose food alongside groceries from well-known brands.

Waitrose now has its own separate delivery operation run directly from its own stores and warehouses.

Its customers can order from Waitrose or Ocado.

An industry source said Waitrose shoppers would be 'up in arms' about the potential severing of ties.

A deal is by no means certain. But if Ocado decides to sell its highly automated distribution centres to M&S, it would allow the online pioneer to focus on selling its technology expertise to supermarkets in other countries and fulfil the ambition of its chief executive Tim Steiner for the company to become a global technology success story to rival Californias Silicon Valley.

Ocado has recently agreed a string of deals to provide its technology blueprint to giant food retailers outside Britain, such as US supermarket giant Kroger. That has quadrupled Ocados value to almost 7 billion.

But an M&S deal could mean ultra-loyal, affluent Waitrose shoppers desert the Ocado business overnight, a chief concern that could jeopardise the ambitious deal.

The tie-up would not affect a separate Ocado service agreement with Morrisons, which uses Morrisons branded vans.

Ocado and Marks & Spencer both declined to comment.A shocking three million Britons dont believe the Nazi death camps ever existed, according to a new survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day today.

The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors.

And the study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated.

The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors. Above, Auschwitz I concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland

The findings come against a backdrop of bitter accusations of anti-Semitism within Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party, while compulsory study of Holocaust history has been part of the National Curriculum for all schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14 since the early 1990s.

Describing the findings as terribly worrying, Holocaust survivor Steven Frank said: The only way to fight this kind of denial is with the truth.

If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself.

And renowned historian Simon Schama, author of The Story Of The Jews, said he believed the internet was largely responsible for the level of deniers.The author of a controversial new book that claims to 'conclusively prove' a link between the legalisation of marijuana and a rise in violent crime has received a torrent of death threats.

Alex Berenson, 46, analysed dozens of studies comparing murders and violent assaults in US states where marijuana is legal for his book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness And Violence.

But the married father of two said he was 'unprepared' for the backlash, including death threats on social media and people ringing his home to threaten his children.

'You can never be prepared for death threats but I've been stunned by the backlash,' he said.

Reflecting on the lessons from his research, he warned that the rush to legalise marijuana in the UK is a 'catastrophic' mistake, adding: 'Those in the UK who are pushing to legalise cannabis should look at the US.

Alex Berenson claims to 'conclusively prove' a link between the legalisation of marijuana and a rise in violent crime

Tell Your Children The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence by Alex Berenson has sparked controversy which led his children to be threatened and for him to suffer death threats

He urged the UK to think twice before legalising marijuana as he claims it has had a knock-on effect on crime rates in the US

'Study after study backs up the fact that states where marijuana has been legalised have suffered a sharp increase in crime.'

The first four states to legalise the drug  Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington  have all seen a sharp increase in violent crime since doing so in 2014.

In Washington, the murder rate rose more than 44 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

But critics accuse Mr Berenson of 'cherry picking' statistics and describe his book as 'reefer madness', a reference to a 1930s film in which schoolchildren go mad after smoking marijuana. However, with the US cannabis industry now worth 39 billion a year, Mr Berenson said: 'There is a rush to push through legislation in Britain because there are billions at stake.

He warned marijuana can cause paranoia and psychosis sparking violence

'It's a catastrophic mistake. When there's a mass shooting, US pro-gun advocates come out and say, 'It's not guns that kill people, people kill people'. If someone proposed legalising guns on a mass scale in Britain, they'd be greeted with derision, but because marijuana is viewed as trendy and harmless it's treated differently.'

He said that he had been inundated with calls from mothers who told him that their children had become psychotic after smoking marijuana.

'It causes paranoia and psychosis and paranoia and psychosis cause violence,' he said.

'Does the UK really want to rush headlong into this?'Jeremy Corbyns chief spin doctor lavished praise on Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro after a bloody clampdown on his own people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Despite the violence on the streets of the Venezuelan capital Caracas in 2014 that left 40 protesters dead, Seumas Milne jetted to South America to interview the ruthless Marxist.

And in a gushing report, the then journalist claimed the despot, who today is struggling to maintain his grip on the oil-rich nation, was more inspired by Beatle John Lennon than hard-Left ideology.

He added that Maduro plays guitar and likes salsa and is keen on Indian philosophy and meditates regularly.

Despite the violence on the streets of the Venezuelan capital Caracas in 2014 that left 40 protesters dead, Seumas Milne (right) jetted to South America to interview the ruthless Marxist (left)

Mr Milne left The Guardian newspaper the following year to take up his position as director of strategy in the Labour leaders office.

His former media bosses were so worried about the 2014 interview being too sympathetic that they insisted Mr Milne was accompanied by a senior editor.

One source said: A grown-up was sent to hand-hold because everyone knew what Seumas was like. Someone had to be there to make sure he actually asked some probing questions.

However, their plan failed  in a video of the meeting, Mr Milne is seen embracing and joking with Maduro before asking him a series of soft questions.

Despite widespread allegations of vote-rigging and opposition leaders being detained, Mr Milne claimed the protests against Maduro were an anti-democratic rebellion.

And he attacked the US government for interfering in the region, blaming powerful interests rather than the Socialist government for food shortages that have left citizens forced to eat zoo animals.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Seumas Milne arrive at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool in September 2018

Mr Milne went on to urge Britain to look to Maduro for inspiration, saying: Venezuela is very far from being the basket case of its enemies hopes.

He added: They have demonstrated that there are multiple social and economic alternatives to the failed neoliberal system that still has the West and its allies in its grip.

His comments echo a claim made by Mr Corbyn that Venezuela has showed us that there is a different, and a better, way of doing things. Its called Socialism.

Last night, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that the UK would recognise Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president if fair elections were not announced within eight days.

The move marks a ratcheting-up of pressure on Maduro, who faces international demands to give way to Mr Guaido, head of the countrys national assembly.

Mr Hunt tweeted: After banning opposition candidates, ballot box stuffing and counting irregularities in a deeply flawed election, it is clear Nicolas Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela.

And in a dig at the Labour leader, Mr Hunt added: Wonder how proud Jeremy Corbyn is of ringing Nicolas Maduro on live TV to congratulate him on his victory?

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday called on countries to pick a side on Venezuela, urging them to back Mr Guaido.

Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games, Mr Pompeo told the UN Security Council in New York.

Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or youre in league with Maduro and his mayhem.Alex Salmond will continue to present a TV talk show on the Kremlin-backed broadcaster Russia Today  despite facing 14 criminal charges.

The former First Minister of Scotland appeared in court last week accused of two attempted rapes, nine sexual assaults, two indecent assaults and one breach of the peace.

But yesterday the channel insisted he would continue to present the hour-long political show which he has fronted and produced since 2017.

Host: Alex Salmond on his Russia Today show. The channel insisted he would continue to present the hour-long political show which he has fronted and produced since 2017

The former First Minister of Scotland appeared in court last week accused of two attempted rapes, nine sexual assaults, two indecent assaults and one breach of the peace

A spokesman said: In respect of the legal process under way, we are unable to comment or take any action that might affect due process. This matter does not concern anything related to the Alex Salmond Show or RT, and the Alex Salmond Show will continue on-air, as usual.

Mr Salmond has been called a useful idiot for legitimising a channel widely seen as a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, Mr Salmond made no plea and was released on bail to reappear this week. Outside court, he insisted he was innocent of any criminality.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said he should not appear on RT while the case is ongoing.Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were last night accused of putting their loony Left politics before the victims of paedophilia.

The attack came after Labours Home Affairs team, led by Ms Abbott, put down a wrecking amendment to a new child protection law, which is due to be debated by MPs on Wednesday.

The Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill would pave the way for the UK to be able to directly order American tech giants such as Google and Facebook to hand over data needed to convict British paedophiles within days.

Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were accused of putting their loony Left politics before the victims of paedophilia

But it requires a new international treaty with the United States as more than 90 per cent of online child abuse in the UK is linked to US-based software firms.

Currently, UK law enforcement officials have to apply to the US Department of Justice to get data held in America, but this process can take two years  allowing paedophiles to continue their abuse.

However, Labour is demanding that Britain write in special assurances to the new accord that no data we may theoretically share in return could ever be used to sentence a criminal to death. Washington has warned the Home Office that any attempt to attach strings to the treaty would kill it dead.

Last night, Security Minister Ben Wallace criticised the Labour leadership for holding to ransom the data-sharing treaty.

He said: The Islington clique at the top of the Labour Party is putting politics before jailing paedophiles in a nightmare vision of what it would be like if they were to ever get into power.

The loony Left of the London Labour mafia are holding to ransom our childrens safety with an amendment that would destroy any chance of a treaty with our American allies.

Mr Wallace urged moderate backbenchers to rebel against the leadership, saying: Sensible Labour MPs have a chance to show Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott that they will not play theoretical parliamentary games with the lives of vulnerable victims.

Ahead of the Commons debate, Mr Wallace gave a chilling warning that every day this Bill is delayed is another day another child could be abused.

The attack came after Labours Home Affairs team, led by Ms Abbott, put down a wrecking amendment to a new child protection law, which is due to be debated by MPs on Wednesday

Explaining the urgent need for the new law, he said: At the moment this process takes months and years, but this Bill and a new treaty with the United States, which we have in draft, would reduce that to days and weeks.

The Mail on Sunday understands the US has warned Ministers that the proposed UK-US agreement would be likely to fall down in the Republican-controlled Senate if there was any attempt to bind the hands of the American courts.

The Home Office has warned the new measures are needed urgently to help pursue paedophiles who are currently operating in Britain.

One operation that began in 2017 involved a UK male suspect using Facebook, Instagram, Gmail and Snapchat and pretending to be a teenage girl to extract indecent pictures from underage boys.

Data collected by the National Crime Agency helped to identify more than 150 potential child victims. However, the agency is still awaiting authorisation from a US judge to release further data.

A Labour spokesman said: Neither the collective efforts of a collapsing Government to mollify President Trump nor the personal ambitions of unsung Ministers should make the UK complicit in executions, whether in Saudi Arabia or Texas.

We support the swift exchange of information to bring criminals to justice where there are assurances that the death penalty will not be applied.A jewelry thief's plan to rob a shop in New York went right according to plan, until the point where he looked a security camera straight in the lens as he made his getaway.

The daredevil crook broke into the jewelry store in Queens where he made off with $100,000 worth of baubles and gems.

The jewel thief cut a hole in the roof of the Shlomi Jewelry Store in North Corona at around about 7:30pm on Wednesday after the shop had shut for the day.

A dimwitted thief took $100,000 in goods from a jewelry store before jumping into a cab to make his getaway - and then looked directly at the security camera

The thief initially bagged some 90% of the store's inventory into several bags but left them

The burglar broke into the store after it had shut for the evening, entering via the rooftop

The brazen burglar lowered himself into the store with a rope before cutting the wires to the surveillance equipment.

Shop owner Shlomi Sakal, pictured, said he knew nothing about the burglary until his alarm company called him at 6am

The suspect spent more than four hours meticulously working his way though the business and shoved around 90% of its inventory, worth an estimated $1 million, into various bags according to the Daily News.

'They're sitting here at least like five hours, emptying almost everything in the store,' owner Shlomi Sakal said to ABC7. 'Cut the alarm, cut the camera, cut the wire, cut the roof.'

'Police came, say nothing is wrong,' Sakal said. 'They look through the gate. They say nothing was inside the gate. They left.'

The thief ended up leaving all of the bags behind except one which he hauled into a livery cab he had hailed on the street.

The jewelry in that particularity bag was estimated to be around $100,000.

But the masked man then made one small but potentially crucial mistake.

The thief entered the store through the roof and lowered himself down to the shop floor

The display cases and cabinets were left empty as the burglar set about bagging everything up

In a moment of foolishness, the thief ended up looking directly at the camera

After getting into the taxi, he looked directly down the lens of the car's surveillance camera providing police a perfect picture of him.

Cops are now looking for the thief who is described as Hispanic and between 30 and 40-years-old. He wore a hoodie and a face mask.

Police released a surveillance image taken from the livery cab on Saturday in the hope that someone recognizes him.

'There's lot of work to do,' NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said. 'One of the things that we'll look at, obviously, is any connection to any other incidents both inside New York City and outside.'

Anyone with information regarding this man's whereabouts is urge to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a dam collapsed in the countrys southeast, killing at least 34 people, a telegram published on the Kremlin website on Sunday said, TASS reports.

"Please accept our deepest condolences over the tragic aftermath of the disaster in the Minas Gerais state. I ask you to convey the words of sincere sympathy and support for the relatives and friends of those killed and also wishes of a speedy recovery for all those injured," the telegram said.

A dam holding back waste from an iron-ore mine in Brumandinho in the Minas Gerais state collapsed on Friday. The residents of nearby houses have been evacuated, several houses have been destroyed by the mud.

Brazils rescue services have confirmed the death of 34 people. According to Globo TV channel, 23 people have been hospitalized. Some 296 people have gone missing.An internet mogul who spent $1 million on his wedding and flew his wife overseas to party with Snoop Dogg could be facing 60 years behind bars for one of the biggest alleged telecommunication scams in US legal history.

While Perth millionaire Zhenya Tsvetnenko lived a life of luxury, US authorities were digging into his alleged involvement in the alleged text-messaging scam.

The 39-year-old was arrested by Australian Federal Police at his river front apartment on December 20.

While Perth millionaire Zhenya Tsvetnenko (pictured) lived a life of luxury, US authorities were digging into his alleged involvement in a text-messaging scam

The 39-year-old was arrested by Australian Federal Police at his river front apartment on December 20 (pictured left with then-wife Lydia and Snoop Dogg)

According to The Sunday Times, the Russian-born internet mogul has since spent the last 39 days at Hakea prison.

The AFP acted on an extradition arrest warrant from authorities in the US, who allege Mr Tsvetnenko was involved in the plot that swindled $196 million from mobile phone customers.

The alleged scheme defrauded people by charging them extra for 'premium' text messages without their permission.

While users typically ignored or deleted the messages, these consumers were billed for the services at a rate of $13 per month, even though they never ordered them, prosecutors claim.

The 39-year-old was first made aware of the allegations in July 2016 and has heavily denied them.

'In July 2016, I learnt I had been accused of and charged with committing criminal offences in 2012 and 2013, in the United States of America,' Mr Tsvetnenko said.

'I am not guilty of the alleged offences.'

The US Attorney's Southern District Office of New York charged the 39-year-old with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, in 2016.

The 39-year-old was first made aware of the allegations in July 2016 and has heavily denied them

He married fashion designer Lydia Tsvernenko (pictured right) - Lydia Gaugg when they met - and the couple were dubbed the 'Posh and Becks' of Perth's social scene

Despite the charges being laid in 2016, proceedings for the extradition arrest warrant weren't completed until recently.

Each charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence, meaning he could be looking at up to 60 years in prison.

Denying the allegations, Mr Tsvetnenko said he put all of his success down to hard work.

'I've got nothing to hide. I've never tried to deceive anyone. I'm basically an open book,' he said.

Mr Tsvetnenko is worth an estimated $100 million and sits in the top ten of Australia's richest people under 40.

Ms Tsvetnenko arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at the pair's $1 million wedding before splitting after ten years in 2018

Starting off as a university drop-out, he worked through his nights devising a computer program that delivers SMS messages automatically.

In less than two years he was earning more than $4 million a month, and in three years he became Western Australia's richest young man.

He then married fashion designer Lydia Tsvernenko - Lydia Gaugg when they met - and the couple were dubbed the 'Posh and Becks' of Perth's social scene.

Ms Tsvetnenko arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at her $1 million wedding and posed for photographs with rapper Snoop Dogg after flying to Hollywood for her 29th birthday.

The pair were married for ten years before splitting in 2018.President Donald Trump has gleefully tweeted about the devastating layoffs sweeping online journalism outlets this week, touting the cuts as a triumph against 'Fake News' media.

But he's facing furious backlash for gloating about the loss of about 1,000 American jobs and proclaiming 'Fake News has caused a big downturn'.

This week BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post announced cuts resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs for reporters, editors, and media workers.

'"Ax falls quickly at BuzzFeed and Huffpost!" Headline, New York Post. Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth!' Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.

President Donald Trump shamelessly gloated about the layoffs sweeping the journalism industry this week

On Saturday he tweeted that news outlets like BuzzFeed and Huffington Post announced layoffs because they are 'Fake News and bad journalism', even though the cuts are blamed on advertising sales

Backlash: This news outlet fired back at Trump writing 'It's unfortunate that a President can be gleeful when Americans lose their jobs'

Despite Trump's claims that the outlets cut employees due to 'bad journalism', the real reason lies in declining advertising numbers.

Earlier this week parent company Verizon announced it would cut 7 percent of staff in its Media Group which includes Huffington Post, Yahoo and AOL, resulting in the about 800 layoffs, according to Axios.

BuzzFeed also cut about 15 percent of their workforce, resulting in 250 layoffs. The group slashed their national news, national security and health verticals this week.

'This experience is heartbreaking for everyone involved. We had people up until 4 am last night trying to accelerate the process and meet with as many people as possible before the weekend,' BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti said in a memo obtained by the Splinter Web.

'I wish this wasnt the case but it is. I know this is resulting in additional anxiety and stress, we are trying to mitigate as much as possible. It really sucks and Im sorry,' he added.

BuzzFeed cut about 15 percent of their workforce, resulting in 250 layoffs this week

The reason for the cuts is declining digital advertising sales as tech giants Facebook and Google monopolize digital ads and block news sites from cashing in on that revenue with their changing algorithms.

'This isnt happening because of market inefficiencies or consumer preferences or social value. Its happening because two very large companies have taken the advertising revenue that journalism outlets rely on and replaced it with nothing,' HuffingPost senior reporter Zach Carter tweeted.

Facebook and Google account for 73 percent of all U.S. digital advertising, according to CNBC.

Trump's tweet is his latest jab in a long battle against media outlets that are critical of the president and his agenda.

Just last week Trump launched a blistering attack against BuzzFeed News after the outlet published a report that alleged the president told his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to lie before Congress about dealings with Russia.

The bombshell article, published January 17, claims that Trump directed Cohen to lie about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Firing back: Twitter users were angry that a president would be happy about the loss of American jobs

'They don't deserve this cruelty': This Twitter user expressed disgust over Trump's tweet gloating over the journalism job cuts

Many Twitter users found Trump's tweet inappropriate after more than a thousand workers lost their jobs

This Twitter user fired back at Trump saying the news outlets didn't announce cuts due to bad journalism but because new outlets are being 'pushed aside by social media'

This Twitter user pointed out that Trump's own self-named magazine was a flop in the cut-throat journalism world

Huffington Post senior reporter Zach Carter clarified that the companies announced cuts because they couldn't make enough in advertising revenue

Trump vehemently denied the article and dismissed it as 'disgraceful', using it as fuel for a heated tirade against 'Fake News Media' that he believes is out to get him.

Trump's tweet about the journalism job cuts led to fury on Twitter, with many pointing out that the president should never be happy about loss of employment.

'You're the first American president to celebrate job loss. Congrats?' one Twitter critic wrote.

'There is something incredibly wrong with someone who so gleefully rejoices int he misfortunes of others,' another Twitter user added.

'It's unfortunate that a President can be gleeful when Americans lose their jobs' West Wing Reports tweeted.

'Thats not true at all and Trump is literally the King of Fake News. Some types of print journalism are getting pushed aside by social media because they tried to copy social media. But theres a huge need for true investigative journalism to find out the truth,' Twitter User Eugene Gu wrote, explaining the real reason why the cuts took place.

At just 20 years of age, Natalie Fornasier felt perfectly healthy - until a small mole that had been on her toe since childhood led to a life changing diagnosis.

In 2014, the university student was sailing with friends in the Greek Islands when she woke up one morning to find her legs covered in bruises.

Ms Fornasier thought she may have been sleep walking, but when her friends said they hadn't seen anything, she checked the mole on her toe and realised it had changed shape.

A week later, she returned to her home town Sydney and sought the advice of doctor.

Ms Fornasier was stunned when they told her she had stage three melanoma.

At just 20 years of age, Natalie Fornasier felt perfectly healthy - until a small mole that had been on her toe since childhood led to a life changing diagnosis (pictured)

'I wasn't thinking about cancer because I was feeling perfectly healthy. By the time I flew home, some of the bruises had faded. I felt useless and scared,' Ms Fornasier told the Daily Telegraph.

The doctors operated to remove the cancer and also lymph nodes in her groin, however, the young Wahroonga resident still felt uneasy.

'It was traumatic. I couldn't look at my foot. They told me they thought they had caught it all but melanoma is a dormant cancer. All it takes is for one cell to attach itself somewhere.'

After four years of being cancer free, Ms Fornasier decided to travel to Italy, where the 24-year-old met and fell in love with 23-year-old Alexander Puchta from Germany.

'I told him my story and that the cancer could come back. I also had lymphedema, my leg was swollen from the lymph nodes being removed, but it didn't deter him and he's stuck with me ever since,' she said.

Upon returning home, a routine six monthly scan showed nodules in her lungs and she has started a course of immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy is treatment whereby drugs are used to boost the body's immune system to help the patient fight the cancer.

So far, the treatment is working, with the nodules in her lungs shrinking significantly, however, if she comes off the drugs there is always the danger they could return.

After four years of being cancer free, Ms Fornasier decided to travel to Italy where the 24-year-old met and fell in love with 23-year-old Alexander Puchta from Germany (pictured)

The young woman says she now believes her calling in life is to educate others on the risk of skin cancer and sun exposure.

'I see young women baking in the sun trying to emulate their role models on social media and how they're putting themselves at risk. Are they serious? You can protect your skin from the sun and still be diagnosed like me, so it is about knowing your body.'

She also said she believes schools should have regular skin checks for students to raise awareness and get them into the habit of checking their skin.

She has become the ambassador of a campaign called @CallTimeonMelanoma, started by health and fashion editor Lisa Patulny.

As hard as some days are, says Natalie, there are others where she feels normal and is glad she met Alexander through the experience.

She hopes to finish her journalism degree in the near future.A popular racing personality has been scooped up by Channel 10 in a lucrative deal that will she her earn $250,000 a day.

Francesca Cumani was the face of ITV racing in 2016 and became one of the most popular personalities in the racing industry before moving to Channel 7 to cover the Spring Racing Carnival.

But after inking a $100 million contract for the next five Melbourne Cup Carnivals, Channel 10 secured the signature of the highly sort after racing expert in a deal believed to be worth $5 million over five years, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Popular racing personality Francesca Cumani (pictured) has been scooped up by Channel 10 in a lucrative $5million deal that will she her earn $250,000 a day

With the racing event held over just four days, Miss Cumani stands to earn $31,250 per hour of work.

'When the Melbourne Cup moved homes I was hopeful I could go with it because I could not imagine it not being part of my year and I am really, really thrilled to be part of it with Channel 10,' she said of the move.

'I would have been so miserable watching from afar.'

Network 10 Head of Sport Matt White was also thrilled to welcome the racing expert to his team.

'Australian audiences love Francesca and we love the fact she's joined the 10 sport team,' he said.

'Francesca will be key to everything we do on-air across the four days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

'She brings a unique blend of energy, experience and knowledge to our coverage. It's a fabulous fit.'

After inking a $100 million contract for the next five Melbourne Cup Carnivals, Channel 10 secured the signature of the highly sort after racing expert

'When the Melbourne Cup moved homes I was hopeful I could go with it because I could not imagine it not being part of my year and I am really, really thrilled to be part of it with Channel 10,' Miss Cumani said

Miss Cumani was raised in a racing family and has shown a love for the sport since an early age.

Her father, Luca Cumani, is a prominent Italian horse trainer, based in England since 1976.

She started riding horses at the age of 12, before gaining her amateur license.

However, a role as a professional was never on the cards.

Instead, Miss Cumani entered the pundit side of the industry and has become a huge success.

The glamorous commentator has spoken in the past about her love of the racing industry and how she hopes to see that glamour remain a staple of the sport.

'Growing up in England, we have the influence of Royal Ascot where there are actual dress rules,' she told Vogue.

'I think racing should be kept like that, it should be demure and chic, less of that nightclub feeling with short skirts and revealing dresses.'Republican Rep. Steve King left an audience of constituents on their feet at his first public appearance since being admonished by his colleagues in the House over racially charged comments he made earlier this month.

On Saturday, King told the 75 audience members at one of 39 planned town hall meetings in Iowa that he isn't a white supremacist and has never discriminated against anybody.

Addressing what he called 'the elephant in the room', King aired his frustration that his comments about white nationalism had been taken out of context.

'White nationalist, white supremacist, western civilization - how did that language become offensive?' King said in an interview with The New York Times.

'Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and civilization?'

Steve King (pictured) was admonished by the House after he was quoted in the New York Times saying he didn't understand how terms such as 'white supremacist' had become racist

However, a 75-strong audience stood twice for King at a town hall meeting on Saturday, in Primghar, Iowa

The comments caused an uproar, and the nine-term House member was rebuked in a 424-1 vote and maligned by his fellow Republicans.

'The US house Representatives must censure Rep. Steve King for his racist remarks,' tweeted Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan.

'Support for white supremacist ideology should have no place in Congress.'

In reponse to his reproaching, King said he was astonished that a few words from an interview could 'outweigh 20-some years of public service, 20-some years of giving you my word every day.'

'And not one soul has stood up and said I've ever lied to you or misrepresented anything. Not one soul has stood up and said Steve King has ever acted in a racist fashion, that he ever discriminated against anybody,' he continued.

King addressed the 'elephant in the room' and insisted he was not a white supremacist or a racist

However, despite his claims, a number of King's previous controversies and historic extremist outbursts - particularly about race and immigration - have been thrust back into public consciousness.

Shortly before the Congressional election in November, King met with the far-right Freedom Party in Austria, which is widely believed to have Nazi ties.

The 69-year-old said the meeting was with business leaders, including one person from the Freedom Party, but a report from the Washington Post suggested otherwise.

He also previously retweeted a 'Nazi sympathizer' on Twitter and even publicly sponsored a white nationalist fringe candidate in a bid for the Toronto mayor-ship.

King, who has largely been sidelined by the Republican party because of his extremist views, also tweeted 'We can't restore our civilization with someone else's babies', in reference in immigration in 2017.

In a later interview in an Austrian magazine last year, King elaborated on this point, suggesting immigration and diversity bring unfavorable risks.

'What does this diversity bring that we don't already have? Mexican food. Chinese food,' King said at the time.

'Those things, well, that's fine, but what does it bring that we don't have that is worth the price?'

King's controversial comments thrust a history of his extremist outbursts back into public consciousness (pictured: King shakes hands with far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders)

Echoing Wilders' views on immigration, King said 'We can't restore our civilization with someone else's babies'

King has a history of controversial social media comments, including the time he retweeted a 'Nazi sympathizer' (left). He also compared 'leftists' to Nazi's (right)

Although King's recent comments drew a relatively large media contingent to Saturday's meeting, none of the attending constituents were on hand said anything critical about his controversies.

Many expressed their support, telling King they think he's doing a great job.

In the few instances in which King's history of insensitive comments and his most recent statements arose, the audience seemed supportive - standing twice during the gathering to applaud him.

Despite the ongoing media fanfare surrounding King, the audience at the meeting offered no criticism about the remarks

Many of those in attendance thanked King and offered their support to the nine-term congressman

Pamela Harrman criticized what she called a 'progressive movement to change our country' claiming liberals can say anything while conservatives are demonized when they speak out.

Harrman said she supported King and shook her head at other Republicans 'all bailing out on you.'

Lori Scroggin added, 'We support you and support your conservatism.'

King didn't take questions from reporters.Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone may be accused of lying and tampering with witnesses, but it's equally notable what he's not charged with: colluding with the Kremlin in a grand conspiracy to help Trump win the presidency in 2016.

The case is the latest in a series brought by special counsel Robert Mueller that focuses on cover-ups but lays out no underlying crime. It's a familiar pattern in Washington, where scandals from Watergate to Iran-Contra and Whitewater have mushroomed into presidency-imperiling affairs due to efforts to conceal and mislead.

In the Russia investigation, one Trump aide after another has been accused of lying to investigators, or encouraging others to do so, about Russia-related contacts during the campaign and transition period.

Mueller may well have evidence of criminal coordination between Trump associates and Russia that he has yet to reveal, but so far, he's focused repeatedly on those he believes have tried to throw federal or congressional investigators off the trail.

Stone's indictment charges him with seven felonies, including witness tampering, obstruction and false statements, while leaving open the question of whether his or the Trump's campaign's interest in exploiting Russia-hacked emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton crossed a legal line.

'There's sort of two possible ways this investigation could end up. One is he finds this big Russian conspiracy or collusion with the Russians to influence the election,' said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University white-collar criminal law professor and former federal prosecutor. 'The other, I think very real possibility, is he just finds a cover-up.'

Roger Stone, seen outside his home Sunday morning, was arrested Friday by the FBI

The 66-year-old was charged with lying about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails in the 2016 election

Special Counsel Mueller has focused his investigation on those he believes have tried to throw investigators off the trail

The Stone case is in some way reminiscent of Mueller prosecutions that have accused former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen of lying to Congress about his role in a Moscow real estate project; former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn of lying about his contacts with the Russia's U.S. ambassador; and ex-campaign aide George Papadopoulos of lying about his knowledge that Russia had 'dirt' on Clinton in the form of stolen emails.

In none of those cases did prosecutors say the things the defendants lied about were crimes themselves.

The absence of a definitive answer to the collusion question, more than 20 months into Mueller's work, has given the president and his allies a wedge to attack the investigation. In the hours after Stone's pre-dawn arrest at his Florida home Friday, Trump returned to his favored refrain of 'NO COLLUSION' on Twitter.

His lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, mocked the case as 'nothing more than another false statement charge' and speculated without evidence that Mueller's inquiry was nearing an end.

But with each new charge, Mueller continues to publicly untangle Trump campaign operations and their intersection with Russia's efforts to hurt Clinton and help Trump.

The Stone indictment, for instance, reflects an unflattering portrait of a presidential campaign eager to exploit stolen emails about a political opponent.

It alleges that Stone informed unidentified senior Trump campaign officials of what Stone was hearing about plans by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks regarding the hacked emails.

It says a senior Trump campaign official 'was directed' to contact Stone about additional releases and 'what other damaging information' WikiLeaks had 'regarding the Clinton campaign.'

In this courtroom sketch Roger Stone, left, a confidant of President Donald Trump, attends a federal court hearing, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Stone was arrested Friday in the special counsel's Russia investigation and was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe. (Daniel Pontet via AP)

Of those charged from the Trump campaign, prosecutors have not said that the things the defendants lied about were crimes themselves

Though those allegations don't form the basis of any of the charges against Stone, their inclusion in the 24-page indictment could signal that Mueller isn't done with that prong of the investigation.

He already has charged 12 Russian military intelligence officers in the hacking of Democratic email accounts, setting up the potential for prosecutions of any Americans who might be involved in that conspiracy.

'This doesn't look to me like an investigation that's about to wrap up,' said Stanford law professor David Alan Sklansky. 'I would be cautious about reading too much into what's not in the indictment.'

All told, Mueller has charged six Trump associates and 34 people overall, along with three companies. It is unclear when the investigation might end.

Mueller has charged six Trump associates and 34 people overall, along with three companies

A defiant Stone, flashing a Nixonian-style victory sign, emerged from the courthouse on Friday to proclaim his innocence and predict his vindication.

He was released on $250,000 bond and will make his first court appearance Tuesday in Washington, where the case was brought.

'As I have said previously, there is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself,' Stone said.

He denied prosecutors' accusation that he repeatedly lied to the House Intelligence Committee, including when he said he had not discussed his pursuit of the stolen emails with any Trump campaign officials.

Stone has previously denied that he ever bullied other witnesses to change their testimony, which is another allegation he faces.

Jimmy Gurule, a Notre Dame law professor and former Justice Department official, said that so far Mueller's Russian defendants stand accused of one set of crimes and the American ones accused of separate violations, without direct evidence linking the two. But, he said, the repeated allegations of lies and false statement might speak to a 'consciousness of guilt' that could pique a prosecutor's interest and suggest more grounds to pursue.

'I do think that it's more than just coincidental that there's all of these communications between multiple members of the Trump campaign and Russians, and efforts by members of the Trump campaign to cover up and conceal' those communications, he said.A memorial was being held for 29-year-old Jakeira Green who died earlier this month

Authorities are hunting for a gunman who killed a man and wounded two others at a funeral near Los Angeles.

It happened Friday afternoon outside New Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Compton.

Witnesses tell KABC-TV that an argument erupted between family members attending services for a relative who was brought there after dying in Louisiana.

A memorial was being held for 29-year-old Jakeira Green, who died in a car crash in the south.

During the service, as her grandmother was eulogizing, a man suddenly stood up and began yelling and cursing according to KTLA.

One man was killed and two other people hurt Friday afternoon outside New Holy Trinity Baptist Church at a funeral

An argument erupted between family members attending services for a relative who was brought there after dying in Louisiana. There was blood on the sidewalk outside the church

Jakeira Green, 29, died in a car crash in Louisiana but her family wanted to see her buried in her home state of California

'Words were said inside the service that somebody took offense to,' said sheriff's Lt. Derrick Alfred. 'Emotions got out of hand.'

Witnesses say the dispute spilled out into the back parking lot, where fists were thrown and then someone pulled a gun and began firing resulting in three men being hit.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says one man died at the scene and two others are hospitalized in stable condition.

During the mayhem, two drivers collided in the street as they tried to speed away.

Witnesses say the dispute spilled out into the back parking lot, where fists were thrown and then someone pulled a gun and began firing

The argument turned into a fist fight, one witness said, and then a family member pulled out a gun and started shooting other attendees

'We know that this is a horrible incident,' Alfred said. said. 'We know that there's a lot of people that were there that are angry about what happened, and we're hoping that they'll come forward and talk to us.'

Neither the shooter nor gun used in the shooting had been found as of Friday night.

However, investigators say they know who the suspect and are working to track him down.

Anyone with information can reach the sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Anonymous tips may be submitted via 800-222-8477.

People in nearby businesses said they heard the arguing -- and then the gunfire -- and were panicked inside their stores, locking their doors before stepping outside to take a lookTexas elections officials said Friday that they have identified roughly 95,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls going back to 1996, raising alarms among voting rights activists who called the numbers suspect and feared new efforts to tighten access to the ballot box.

The state has been one of the nation's biggest voting rights battlegrounds in recent years and drawn attention over severe punishments in voter fraud cases.

In 2017, a Fort Worth jury sentenced a Mexican national who has lived in the U.S. since she was a baby to eight years in prison for illegal voting, after which she faces deportation.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (seen far right) said his office last year prosecuted 33 people for voter fraud

Texas elections officials said Friday that they have identified roughly 95,000 non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls going back to 1996. Paxton tweeted in response to the news

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton highlighted that case in a statement about the latest numbers released by state elections officials.

Roughly 58,000 of the suspected non-citizens are believed to have voted in at least one Texas election, and Paxton said his office 'will spare no effort in assisting with these troubling cases.'

Nearly 16 million people in Texas are registered to vote.

Paxton said his office last year prosecuted 33 people for voter fraud, though it was not immediately clear how many of those cases involved non-citizens.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott praised the findings, which officials said were the result of voter rolls being checked against a state database of Texas residents who are not citizens but legally obtained driver's licenses.

'I support prosecution where appropriate. The State will work on legislation to safeguard against these illegal practices,' Abbott tweeted.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott praised the findings, which officials said were the result of voter rolls being checked against a state database of Texas residents who are not citizens but legally obtained driver's licenses. A voter (pictured) heads to a polling place in El Paso on November 6

Sam Taylor, spokesman for the Texas secretary of state's office, said they were 'very confident' the citizenship data obtained by the Texas Department of Public Safety was current.

But a voting rights group immediately questioned the accuracy of the data and warned that the numbers would likely fuel efforts to tighten voting laws.

Texas Democratic lawmakers also urged caution, including Dallas state Rep. Rafael Anchia, who said 'because we have consistently seen Texas politicians conjure the specter of voter fraud as pretext to suppress legitimate votes, we are naturally skeptical.'

Texas has one of the nation's toughest voter ID laws and spent much of this decade defending Republican-drawn voting maps, which lower courts called discriminatory and racially gerrymandered.

The Supreme Court, however, largely upheld the maps last summer.

'There is no credible data that indicates illegal voting is happening in any significant numbers, and the Secretary's statement does not change that fact,' said Beth Stevens, voting rights legal director for the Texas Civil Rights Project.Ashlee Brown suffered more than 100 injuries. The mother-of-three had been bound, gagged and had her long hair cut off

A Muslim man who left his wife to die for five days when she was dumped in their garage after suffering horrific injuries is trying to appeal against his eight-year prison sentence.

Ashlee Brown, 25, was found in the passenger seat of the family car after enduring a 'deliberate and frenzied assault' and being tied up with clothesline wire.

The mother of three children aged under five had been bashed, stabbed, gagged and had her long strawberry blonde hair cut off.

Her husband Mohamed Naddaf, 37, told police he found his wife in that state and chose to 'care' for her in their house at Craigieburn in Melbourne's north rather than call triple zero.

Naddaf had helped his wife into the bathroom, put her down on a flannelette sheet on the floor and fed her water through a syringe for five days.

He set up a television and heater and brought Ashlee a pillow as he tended to her wounds in what a court heard was their 'unkempt and dirty' home.

Naddaf finally called emergency services after Ashlee died on November 6, 2016 from complications arising from more than 100 injuries.

Ashlee's mother Siobhann believes her daughter's death had 'all the hallmarks of an Islamic honour killing.'

Mohamed Naddaf was sentenced to eight years' jail for the criminally negligent manslaughter of his wife Ashlee Brown in their Melbourne home. Ashlee had suffered more than 100 injuries

Siobhann Brown waves an Australian flag at a protest organised by the Australian Liberty Alliance outside the sentencing of Mohamed Naddaf over Ms Brown's daughter's death

Ashlee Brown and Mohamed Naddaf (both pictured) lived together in Melbourne's northern suburbs. Ashlee was 25 when she was found dead on the bathroom floor of the couple's home

A post-mortem examination found Ashlee had suffered injuries to her head, torso, buttocks and limbs. She had been stabbed in the thighs and had bruising to her right side, including her breast.

Naddaf, who was trying to resuscitate Ashlee in front of their two-year-old daughter when paramedics arrived, told police: 'I honestly didn't think she was going to die.'

He pleaded guilty to criminally negligent manslaughter and was sentenced in July last year to a minimum eight years in jail.

Naddaf now intends appealing against the severity of that sentence in a case that would be heard by three judges of Victoria's Court of Appeal. Ashlee's mother was informed by police.

'It's an absolute kick in the guts,' Ms Brown told Daily Mail Australia. 'It's such a shock, I couldn't believe it. The whole thing makes me physically sick.'

Making the news even more painful for Ms Brown, Ashlee would have turned 28 on Wednesday.

Five years after Ashlee Brown told her mother she was marrying Mohamed Naddaf (pictured) she was found dead in the couple's marital home. Naddaf pleaded guilty to manslaughter

Siobhann Brown protesting outside court before Mohamed Naddaf was jailed for eight years

'Ashlee was a fun-loving girl,' Siobhann Brown told Daily Mail Australia of her child. 'She was giving. She was loving. She loved the sun, the beach. She loved singing, dancing, having fun'

'My daughter's injuries and circumstances surrounding her death had all the hallmarks of an Islamic honour killing,' Ms Brown said.

'We don't know who's responsible for Ashlee's death. All he's guilty of is failing to call an ambulance.

'Well, if he's not responsible for Ashlee's injuries, who in the bloody hell is? Why aren't we looking for them?'

'There's a lot of things to me that don't make sense.'

The court had heard Naddaf found his wife covered in blood from 'head to toe' but Justice John Champion found there was 'no explanation as to how and in whose hands she was treated so brutally.'

Naddaf told detectives his wife had asked him not to call for help and he had warned her 'you're gonna die baby, you're gonna die.'

Justice Champion said Naddaf's response was 'pathetically weak' and showed a 'gross lack of respect' for his wife.

He did not accept Naddaf's claim that Ashlee asked him not to call for help in case their three children were taken by authorities.

'All that was required was a phone call,' Justice Champion said. 'Her death was slow, avoidable and miserable.'

Siobhann Brown (pictured) had not heard from her eldest daughter Ashlee for five years when she learnt of her death. Ashlee had called to say she was converting to Islam to get married

'I'm not telling Ashley's story to make friends,' Siobhann Brown says of her daughter. 'I don't want to tell lies, I'm not going to sugar coat it. I'm telling Ashlee's story for it to be known'

'You left her to deteriorate and die before your own eyes and those of your children.'

Police initially charged Naddaf with assault and false imprisonment. They later accused him of killing his wife, but then prosecutors withdrew the charges and agreed to let him plead guilty to manslaughter.

HOW DID 25-YEAR-OLD ASHLEE BROWN DIE? Ashlee Brown was found dead on her bathroom floor at Craigieburn, in Melbourne's north, on November 6, 2016. Her husband Mohamed Naddaf, 37, told police he had found Ashlee bloodied and beaten in their garage four or five days earlier. Naddaf said he had 'cared' for Ashlee instead of calling an ambulance because she had not wanted help. A post-mortem examination found Ashlee had suffered more than 100 injuries to her head, torso, buttocks and limbs. She had been stabbed in the thighs and had bruising to her right side, including her breast. Naddaf was originally charged with assault and false imprisonment. He was later charged with killing his wife but then prosecutors withdrew the charges and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter based on negligence. Naddaf was not accused of causing any physical harm to Ashlee. He was sentenced to a minimum eight years' prison in July 2018. Advertisement

Justice Champion said Naddaf's motivation for not acting to save his wife was unclear.

The court heard Naddaf had a significant criminal history and was a long-term drug user - taking heroin, marijuana and ice.

'The Crown is not in a position to prove who inflicted the injuries upon Ms Brown,' Justice Champion said.

'It is not possible to say exactly when Ms Brown died but... she suffered to a considerable degree.'

Naddaf was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment with a minimum term of eight years before being eligible for parole. He had already served 621 days in pre-sentence detention.

Ms Brown has previously told Daily Mail Australia she had not heard from her eldest daughter since a phone call five years before she died.

On that occasion her daughter told her she was marrying a Muslim man and was three months' pregnant with her first child.

Ms Brown had met Naddaf when Ashlee visited the family's home in country Victoria when she was about 18.

'She introduced him as 'Macca',' Ms Brown said. 'It was very brief.

'He seemed like a nice, very polite, young man. It pains me to say that. I didn't see him again after that.'

There was no communication for some time before a phone call came 'out of the blue' that would mean the end of all contact between Ms Brown and her daughter.

Ashlee Brown, 25, was found dead on her bathroom floor with more than 100 blunt and sharp force injuries covering most of her body. She had been bound, gagged and had her hair cut off

'It's an absolute kick in the guts,' Siobhann Brown said of Mohamed Naddaf's appeal against his sentence. 'It's such a shock, I couldn't believe it. The whole thing makes me physically sick.'

When Ashlee was about 20 she rang to say she was pregnant and wanted her mother's blessing to convert to Islam and marry Naddaf.

'She said to me, 'Mum, I need your blessing to become Muslim'. She said 'I'm three months' pregnant and I'm engaged to Mohamed. I would really like to marry him, mum, and settle down and have a baby'.

'I said to her, 'Darling, I don't know anything about the Muslim religion. As long as you know what you're doing'.

'I said, 'Do you have to wear one of those burqas or hijabs?' I didn't know what they were called.

'She said, 'No mum, only when I go into the mosque because it's disrespectful for a woman to show her face before God'.

'I said to Ashlee, 'As long as you're making a fully informed decision and it's what you really want'.'

Ashlee said that it was.

Siobhann Brown and her teenage daughter Dakota-Lee (right) both have an elaborate arm tattoo in memory of Ashlee(left). Mother and daughter want people to know how Ashlee died

'There was a pause after that,' Ms Brown said. 'She said, 'Thank you, mum'. And then her voice seemed to change and she said, 'It's Islam'. That didn't mean anything to me at the time.

'We said goodbye to each other and we hung up and I didn't hear from Ashlee again.'

Ms Brown said she was convinced the lack of subsequent contact with Ashlee was solely down to her religious conversion and Naddaf controlling his wife.

'I believe Islam killed my daughter,' the 47-year-old said.

'If I could have taken that phone call back I would have not have given her my blessing. I would have said 'No, sorry love'.

'I'm not against Muslims. That's not what it's about.

'I'm not telling Ashlee's story to make friends. I don't want to tell lies, I'm not going to sugar coat it. I'm telling Ashlee's story for it to be known.'

Ms Brown could not believe her daughter would willingly cease all contact with her mother and three siblings, who are now aged 12 to 22.

She has never met Ashlee's three children who were aged aged three, two and six months old when their mother died.

A spokesman for the Court of Appeal said an application for leave to appeal against Naddaf's sentence had been filed. The matter was yet to be listed for hearing.If you've ever craved a Big Mac at 7am, there's good news for you.

McDonald's Australia has announced that from today its all day menu will be served around the clock, meaning Australians will no longer have to wait till the clock strikes 10.30am to feast on a burger.

The new all-day menu is set to include the Big Mac, quarter pounder, cheeseburger, chicken nuggets and the classic french fries.

McDonald's Australia has announced its All Day Menu will begin from today which will include Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Cheeseburger, nuggets and fries

McDonald's Australia's Marketing Director, Jo Feeney, said a trial in Victoria and South Australia had been a success.

'We're excited to be serving-up some of our most-loved menu items all day every day with the introduction of the All Day Menu at all our restaurants,' Ms Feeney said.

The menu will be available in-restaurant, as well as via drive-thru and delivery.

After successful trial in Victoria and South Australia, all the stores will start with the menu

McDonalds revenue grew by 5.5 per cent to $6.8 billion in the first quarter of 2018 with profits increasing 13 per cent to $1.9 billion.

A major contributor to the profits in first half of this year was a value-for money menu which actually had people spending more.

Launching the all-day menu could help boost the profits even higher.Pilots from the Swifts aerobatic team consisting of six MiG-29 fighter jets wrapped up a military parade on St. Petersburgs Palace Square marking the 75th anniversary since the liberation of the city from a Nazi siege, TASS reported.

More than 2,500 troops, security forces and also nearly 80 pieces of special equipment took part in the event. The parade featured legendary Soviet T-34 tank, artillery systems and Tornado multiple launch rocket systems, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, Tigr, UAZ, Taifun armored vehicles, T-72B3 tanks, BTR-82A armored fighting vehicles, S-400 air defense missile systems and Iskander-M missile systems.

Fellow countrymen from 19 countries and 13 Russian regions came to St. Petersburg to take part in the event.

The siege of Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) started on September 8, 1941 and lasted 872 days. It was broken on January 18, 1943, in the course of the Iskra strategic military operation during the Soviet Unions Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany and was completely lifted on January 27, 1944. Leningrad is the only large city in the worlds history that withstood almost 900-day encirclement.

No more than 800,000 residents were remaining in the city by the end of the siege out of the 3 million people that had lived in Leningrad and its suburbs. According to various estimates, from 641,000 to 1 million Leningraders died as a result of hunger, bombings and artillery shelling. Almost 34,000 people were wounded, 716,000 residents were left without shelter and 1.7 million were evacuated across the Road of Life and by air in 1941-1942.

TASS also reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin laid flowers on Sunday at a monument in the Leningrad Region commemorating warriors who died during the Nazi-led siege of Leningrad.

The ceremony was also attended by Russian Presidential Envoy to the North-Western Federal District Alexander Gutsan and Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko.

The monument Boundary Stone was built in memory of soldiers who fought during the blockade at Nevsky Pyatachok, some 50 km east south-east of Leningrad. Combat actions there were carried out in order to break through the blockade. Some 50,000 Red Army soldiers and officers were killed in the operation, while Germanys losses were estimated at 10,000.

According to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the anniversary is "a very important date for the entire country, for all Russians and personally for President Putin." The Russian leader earlier recalled that his father Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin went immediately to the front after the war broke out where he fought and was heavily wounded at Nevsky Pyatachok, near blockaded Leningrad.

Later, Putin also laid flowers at the Mother Motherland monument on Piskarevsky cemetery. This is not the first time Putin visits the cemetery during the days commemorating the lifting of the Leningrad siege. Traditionally, he also visits a mass grave, where his brother Viktor, who died during the siege, was buried.

The Russian president is due to take part in several other events, which will be held on Sunday in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region to mark the 75th anniversary since the lifting of the siege of Leningrad.A Perth internet mogul who spent $1 million on his wedding and flew his wife to Hollywood to party with Snoop Dogg is facing fraud allegations in the United States.

On Friday, Zhenya Tsvetnenko, 36, was indicted over an alleged scheme to defraud mobile phone customers by charging them extra for 'premium' text messages without their permission.

Ms Tsvetnenko, who is worth an estimated $100 million, denies the allegations, but if he is found guilty he could be charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and spend up to 20 years behind bars, news.com.au reported.

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On Friday, Zhenya Tsvetnenko (pictured with his wife Lydia) was indicted over an alleged scheme to defraud mobile phone customers by charging them extra for 'premium' text messages without their permission

The Southern District of New York US Attorney's Office alleges Mr Tsvetnenko and seven others for a scheme lasting from 2011 and 2013.

It is alleged the scheme left mobile phone users receiving unsolicited text messages for content including horoscopes, celebrity gossip and trivia.

While users typically ignored or deleted the messages, these consumers were billed for the services at a rate of $9.99 per month, even though they never ordered them, prosecutors claim.

Fraser Thompson, who was allegedly involved in the scheme, was arrested on Friday in California and another man reportedly involved, Francis Assifuah, was arrested in April.

Lydia Tsvetnenko (pictured centre) arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at her $1 million wedding and posed for photographs with rapper Snoop Dogg after flying to Hollywood for her 29th birthday

Ms Tsvetnenko, who is worth an estimated $100 million, denies the allegations, but if he is found guilty he could be charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering

Mr Tsvetnenko is reportedly planning to fight extradition and has not yet been arrested.

The internet mogul is married to Perth-based fashion designer Lydia Tsvernenko and the couple flaunt their lavish lifestyle on social media.

Ms Tsvetnenko arrived in a horse-drawn carriage at her $1 million wedding and posed for photographs with rapper Snoop Dogg after flying to Hollywood for her 29th birthday.

'My sexy pregnant wife before I say bye bye to my car!': A post from the Internet millionaire at the time Ms Tsvetnenko was pregnant with their child saying goodbye to their Lamborghini estimated at $200,000Gold coin buyers face a right Royal Mint rip-off with its latest Sovereign coins being sold for almost twice their market value.

A commemorative 'limited edition' 2019 gold Sovereign in a fancy wooden box is being sold by Royal Mint  owned by Her Majesty's Treasury  for 450. But on the bullion market a Sovereign sells for 240.

The latest coin is a 'proof' which means it has been struck with a highly polished die. It has a sharper mirror-like surface than other Sovereigns and has never been in circulation.

Although this can excite coin collectors  numismatists  it is unlikely to add any value for investors who just see it as bullion.

Fool's gold? The coin is a 'proof' which means it has been struck with a highly polished die

Even the marketing boast of being a 'limited edition' of perhaps 9,500 is unlikely to make it worth any more.

The fancy packaging  a walnut-veneer box for the coin to sit in plus a 'certificate of authenticity'  is also mainly for looks and adds no value. Similar presentation boxes can be bought for 20 from auction websites such as eBay.

The Sovereign is legal tender, thereby exempting investors from capital gains tax on any gains.

As investment grade gold there is also no VAT to pay on the coin. Although it has a 1 face value, it comprises 0.235 troy ounces of gold so its true value is much higher.

A troy ounce is slightly heavier than a traditional ounce. The coin is 22-carats  being 22 parts gold and two parts copper. The alloy is used to toughen up the metal so it is harder to damage.

Lawrence Sinclair, head of bullion at auction house Spink, says: 'I like trading gold  and do not care if it sits in a pretty box.

'I might buy a gold Sovereign off you for 230 and then sell it for just under 240. It is only worth its gold value unless it is a particularly collectable piece. What the coin comes in is of no investment interest to bullion dealers.'

Sinclair adds: 'If I could read the future for gold coin prices I would not be talking to you, but enjoying life on a luxury yacht. Yet Sovereigns will always be worth something, no matter what happens  unlike some shares or crypto currencies.'

He concedes that on rare occasions, proof Sovereigns surprise the market by being worth more than their intrinsic value.

For example, an unusual proof from 2017  with a special George and the Dragon design to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the modern Sovereign coin  can now sell for more than 800 if in pristine condition.

Another highly sought-after proof is a 1989 Sovereign to mark the 500th anniversary of earlier minted Sovereigns  for King Henry VII in 1489. These coins can change hands for more than 1,000.

The earliest historic Sovereigns stopped being minted in 1604. They were bigger and heavier than the present coin  and a more pure 23-carat gold.

These are historic pieces and not beholden to the price of gold in the market  costing some 10,000.

Jim Brown, a numismatist from auction house Dix Noonan Web, says: 'There is something about gold coins that makes people think they are a great investment, but this is not necessarily so.

'Buy a new car for 10,000 and if a few years later it is worth 5,000 no one is surprised. Yet the same could happen with gold coins.'

Brown understands the need for Royal Mint to put a high price tag on its proof coins  as it has production and marketing costs to cover.

He says: 'Purchases are often driven by emotion. For example, grandparents might want to buy a coin made in the year of a grandchild's birth and pay extra for a fancy display case. They should not confuse this with buying a shrewd investment.'

Brown warns buyers against being pressured into a purchase by clever advertising. Instead he suggests anyone interested in buying should contact the British Numismatic Trade Association.

Chris Barker, research manager at Royal Mint, says: 'Proof gold coins are struck to the highest standard and are works of art. Do not simply contact a bullion trader if you want to sell but visit a coin specialist as they might offer you more.'Meeting: The banking group is holding its annual shareholder meeting in Melbourne

A haulier who blames CYBG for the collapse of his business last night embarked on a 1,400, 21,000-mile round trip to Australia to grill bosses at the bank.

David Taylor, 54, is flying to Melbourne, where the banking group is holding its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday at 10am local time.

He is teaming up with Ian Lightbody of the NAB Customer Support Group, which was set up by owners of small and medium-sized enterprises who claim their businesses were ruined by loans issued by Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.

Lightbody, a Scot, bought two shares in CYBG last week to ensure they can attend the AGM.

The Mail on Sunday reported last week that CYBG  which was spun off by the National Australia Bank (NAB) in 2016 and has a large shareholder base Down Under  is braced for a revolt against executive pay at the AGM.

Taylor and Lightbody took off from Glasgow at 9pm last night and return on Thursday.

Oldham-based Taylor claims he was misled by Yorkshire Bank in 2007 when he bought land to build a depot for 2.3 million.

He claims the bank knew the land was actually worth 800,000 and says this led to the collapse of his business, named Tescos primary haulier of the year in 2015.

CYBG denies wrongdoing.To the untrained eye, it appears no different from the thousands of other red brick office blocks in industrial estates across Britain.

But look closely at Endeavour House, on the outskirts of Banbury, and youll notice the tinted windows that protect the highly confidential work going on inside.

This is the secretive Oxfordshire base where some 35 cyber security experts are testing equipment supplied by controversial Chinese telecoms giant Huawei  and will within months publish a potentially explosive report that could trigger a global trade war.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Huawei testing lab  known as the Cell  has quietly been moved to this new location so more extensive experiments can be conducted into the security of its circuit boards and code, which power Britains telecoms networks.

Man in charge: Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei, pictured during a round table meeting with the media in Shenzhen city, south China's Guangdong province

For years, BT, Vodafone, 02 and other telecoms firms have used Huawei technology in their mobile phone and broadband networks.

The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) was set up in 2010 by the Chinese firm to allay fears that this equipment could be accessed by Beijing to get hold of personal mobile phone and internet data that could be used for state-sponsored espionage.

Since 2014 the work of the British nationals employed there has been monitored by GCHQ, the Cabinet Office and Home Office.

Huawei is a private firm, but critics argue it has close ties to Beijing. Its founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei is a former officer in the Peoples Liberation Army with links to the Communist Party. Zhengfei denies the suggestion that Chinese authorities have asked for help to spy on Western countries.

The row about potential state interference flared up last year when Huaweis chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada at the request of the US authorities. She remains under house arrest and faces extradition to the US.

Last week, Vodafone followed BT in suspending the use of Huawei kit in its core network. The Princes Trust charity, the University of Oxford and Queens University Belfast have also severed ties with Huawei, while its technology has effectively been banned in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Crucially, the Cell has the only access to Huaweis confidential source code and is the only facility that can really test whether there are vulnerabilities that could allow back-door access to networks.

Industry sources say they eagerly anticipate the result of work at the Cell, which will be published in July and could be used by the Government to decide whether to follow other nations in banning Huawei. A ban could force other countries to stop using Huawei, as the Cell is seen as having the best view of Huaweis capabilities.

Covert: Endeavour House, on the outskirts of Banbury, has tinted windows that protect the highly confidential work going on inside

The Cells British cyber security experts  who are nonetheless on the Huawei payroll  have to go through developed vetting, the top level of clearance for people with access to top secret information.

Since 2014, their work has been monitored by Government officials on the HCSEC Oversight Board, set up after Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee, led by former Defence Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, expressed concern about the firms grip on the UK telecoms market in 2013.

Huawei has now vacated its original testing base and moved half a mile down the road to this larger office space in a sign it is ramping up checks. Sources at Huawei said the larger space would allow it to expand its testing capabilities and carry out work more efficiently.

Huaweis supporters say the fears over state interference stem from the US, which has historically been protective of its home-grown firms, especially in the technology sector, and fearful of foreign competition.

The Government could find itself at the centre of a diplomatic row as it seeks closer ties with China after Brexit while maintaining its good relationship with the US.

Last month, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he had very deep concerns about Huawei being involved in Britains 5G network, which is being launched this year.

The Oversight Board, chaired by Ciaran Martin, chief executive of GCHQs National Cyber Security Centre, produces an annual report, usually in July, detailing the findings of the Cells work.

Last year, the boards report provided only limited assurance that the risks to Huaweis involvement in critical networks have been sufficiently mitigated.

On Friday, Vodafone said it would pause installing Huaweis equipment in its core networks, but would continue to buy Huaweis radio gear used on towers.

Vodafones chief executive Nick Read said he made the decision due to the general noise surrounding Huawei and warned that banning Huawei would significantly delay the rollout of 5G.Tesco is set to axe about 15,000 jobs and close meat, fish and delicatessen counters in one of the biggest shop floor culls of boss Dave Lewiss reign.

The chief executive of the Britains biggest supermarket will also overhaul the in-store bakeries  where frozen instead of fresh dough will be used, cutting the need for skilled bakers  and replace staff canteens with vending machines.

The plans are expected to affect the majority of Tescos 732 larger stores.

A typical Tesco Extra has five fish mongers, five butchers and six deli and cheese counter workers.

Industry sources estimated that the move would result in the loss of as many as 15,000 staff

The Mail on Sunday understands that counters in a handful of the biggest Extra stores will open on Thursdays to Sundays  but others face closure or being scaled back dramatically.

Industry sources estimated that the move would result in the loss of as many as 15,000 staff and warned that the supermarket could lose regular customers who use the deli counter.

One senior industry source said: Dave Lewiss attitude seems to be if in doubt, just close it  but for elderly customers, or those on a budget, using the counters for a few slices of ham, those arent the days they do their shopping.

The closure of staff canteens will mean job losses in the back office as Lewis continues his attempts to make 1.5 billion in cost savings by 2020.

Details of the seismic store overhaul comes just days after former Tesco director Carl Rogberg, who was cleared of fraud and accounting charges, attacked Lewis for paying a 129 million fine to the Serious Fraud Office for a deferred prosecution agreement.

Living up to his Drastic Dave moniker from his time at consumer goods giant Unilever, Lewis is under pressure to stave off the rising influence of German discounters Aldi and Lidl. Both had a record-breaking Christmas, with two thirds of all shoppers heading there in December.

Tesco outperformed Sainsburys but its performance was flattered by a boost in sales from its wholesale business, Booker.

Nationwide: The plans are expected to affect the majority of Tescos 732 larger stores

Waitrose was the worst performing supermarket at Christmas, with sales down 1.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to December 30, according to research company Kantar Worldpanel.

Lewis has attempted a fightback against Aldi and Lidls rise with the launch of Tescos own discount brand Jacks. However, veteran retail analyst Richard Hyman said the deli counters shake-up appeared to be more of a short-term ploy to boost profitability. I think its very difficult to see how anyone could regard this as positive unless all youre looking at is short term profits, Hyman said.

Getting rid of counter jobs means some serious skills being lost. Once you start stripping out differences consumers will just do their shopping based on price, and Tesco will still not be able to compete on that front with Aldi and Lidl.

Unions are expected to act with dismay, with many blaming supermarkets for the demise of independent butchers, bakers and delicatessens on high streets.

The large grocers have routinely argued that such skills are retained via their counter services. Morrisons, in particular, has pushed its Market Street in advertisements.

Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys have all undergone redundancy rounds and major overhauls.

Sainsburys cut thousands of management roles in stores last year as part of a 200 million cost-cutting push. It followed a further 3,000 job losses in 2017 in stores and head office roles.

Asda revealed plans to slash up to 2,500 workers last October. There were about 1,000 redundancies in 2017. Morrisons had a major shake-up a year ago, changing 1,700 roles.

Tescos Lewis is expected to update staff early this week and will be forced to go through redundancy negotiations.

It comes less than a week after the third and final former Tesco executive facing charges of fraud and false accounting was cleared. Rogberg, who was UK finance chief, followed Chris Bush, Tescos former UK boss, and John Scouler, former commercial director.

The case was based on overstated profits in 2014, just months after Lewis joined Tesco.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Bush is suing Tesco for unfair dismissal. He was sacked in April 2015 following a 32-year career at the grocer.

A spokesman for Tesco said: Were always looking at ways to run our business more simply and efficiently. Whenever we make changes in our business, colleagues are always the first to know.Although China's economy grew at its lowest rate for 28 years in 2018, fund manager Andrew Graham remains phlegmatic about its slowing down.

Graham, manager of Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust, believes there remain plenty of opportunities for an astute investor such as himself to make strong, long-term returns for shareholders.

The key, he says, is to focus on the sectors of the economy that will continue to flourish.

Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust has 27 holdings, giving it geographic spread across most of Asia apart from Japan where it does not invest

He says: 'China is in transition. It is no longer the low-cost manufacturer of the world. It is now an economy focused more on serving internal consumer demand and doing business with its Asian hinterland than being the world's economic engine.'

These changes, he adds, will put more emphasis on both technology and environmental conservation, while fuelling growth in financial services industries to meet the money needs of the population.

These are the areas, he says, that he will concentrate on as an investor.

The trust is currently more than 40 per cent invested in Chinese businesses, either through shares listed in China or Hong Kong.

The biggest holding is a 7.4 per cent stake in internet giant Tencent.

Other key China positions include insurer AIA and clean energy distributor ENN Energy Holdings. He is also currently running the rule over financial services group Ping An Insurance.

Graham says: 'We are looking for companies that can generate a strong return on capital  that is big profits  over a sustained period of time.

The fund has been hit by market fallout from the trade war between China and the US

'There are some 400 companies on our radar, but we tend to invest in no more than 30 at any stage.'

Currently, the trust has 27 holdings, giving it geographic spread across most of Asia apart from Japan where it does not invest. The trust's performance record is more than respectable.

Over the past three years, it has generated overall returns of 69 per cent although like all Asia funds it has been hit by market fallout from the trade war simmering between China and the United States.

Unlike many rival funds, the trust has a couple of unusual bents.

First, part of its objective is to deliver a growing income, even if some of the dividend payments made half-yearly to shareholders are funded out of capital returns.

Graham says: 'The trust has a dividend yield of 4.5 per cent but the portfolio's underlying yield is 2.6 per cent.

'The difference is funded out of capital. It is a policy that is proving popular with shareholders who like a regular income.'

Secondly, the trust's board asks shareholders every three years to vote on whether it should continue or be wound up.

This policy keeps Graham and his deputy Damian Taylor (ex- Goldman Sachs) firmly on their toes. The next vote is in July 2021.

The trust is more than 40 per cent invested in Chinese businesses, either through shares listed in China or Hong Kong

The trust's ongoing charge is 1.1 per cent and the shares currently stand at an 11 per cent discount to the value of the underlying assets  attractive to those who believe the discount could narrow in the future in response to positive news such as China and the United States resolving their trade issues.

Martin Currie is part of American fund manager Legg Mason, but is run out of Edinburgh as an independent investment operation.

Given the trust's exposure to China, it should only be considered by those who are prepared to ride out any short- term stock market setbacks and invest for the long term.

It should represent no more than 5 per cent of any well-balanced investment portfolio.P.H. writes: In 2017 I got involved with a firm called Atlantic Advisory Limited and its director, Gareth Hazelden. There were seven or eight calls, always polite, and he explained that his company made money for clients by investing in stock market contracts for difference (CFDs).

I agreed to invest 10,000 so he could open an account on my behalf with a separate firm CMC Markets. Atlantic then telephoned me almost every day, sometimes two or three times, recommending trades.

Last July the calls stopped. I pressed Atlantic and was told there was only 390 left in my account. I expressed my shock and horror and then found that commission of 7,057 had been charged by Atlantic and a further 1,199 by CMC Markets. At no time did Atlantic advise me of my losses and its business terms say simply that CMC will collect unspecified charges and pass some on to Atlantic.

I thought Atlantic would work to increase my capital but they appear simply to have used my trades to line their own pockets.

Life imitating art: This week's scenario was reminiscent of Hollywood movie Trading Places

Contracts for difference are high risk. In effect, you bet that the price of shares or commodities will rise or fall within a certain time. You never own the shares or commodities and you only have to put down a modest percentage of the full value of the trade.

This means your profits are magnified if you win, but your losses can wipe you out if prices move against your bet. CMC warns: You could lose all your capital. With commendable honesty, it adds that 80 per cent of its retail investor accounts lose money on CFDs.

Atlantic Advisory, based in Truro, Cornwall, is more upbeat. It also warns that 80 per cent of CFD accounts are losers, but it dilutes this with a long list of what it says are advantages, including the ability to buy or sell up to 20 times the value of your initial deposit.

It even mentions low dealing costs and tells investors: We specialise in CFDs as we firmly believe they are the most innovative and versatile product available to investors today. I suspect the 80 per cent who lost might disagree.

You have told me that while you are prepared to take the losses on the chin, what sticks in your throat is that both firms  particularly Atlantic  have emerged with hefty commissions that add up to almost all your losses.

The whole scenario reminded me of the movie Trading Places, where two ageing Wall Street dealers from fictional firm Duke & Duke take on streetwise Eddie Murphy and explain how they get some clients to buy commodities such as orange juice or pork bellies, while other clients sell those same investments.

Atlantic Advisory Limited: The company claim to make money for clients by investing in stocks

They tell him: The good part is that no matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke & Duke get the commissions.

In what is clearly a lightbulb moment for Eddie Murphy, who knows nothing about Wall Street, he replies: Sounds to me like you guys are a couple of bookies.

I do not think I could have put it better, so I invited the bookies  sorry, fully authorised investment firms  to comment.

Gareth Hazelden and his colleagues in Truro offered no comment or explanation, but did contact you directly. CMC told me: We will respond in due course. But that response, when it came, was: We do not wish to comment on this matter. But behind the scenes, I suspect the phones were red hot between CMC in London and Atlantic in Cornwall.

Both firms quickly contacted you to offer a settlement which came from Atlantic, but only on condition you signed a confidentiality agreement.

You have not told me how much you received, except to say that you are satisfied. You added: I dont think that the settlement would have been possible without your involvement.

I hope CMC and Atlantic have learned from the experience. Nobody can object to anyone making an investment when they are fully informed of the risks and the charges. But to find that losses incurred are close to the dealing charges levied is adding insult to injury.The incredible wealth and power of the US tech companies will be on display again this week when Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon reveal their latest quarterly figures.

We saw just how much sway they have earlier this month when a warning from Apple that its sales would not be as healthy as expected sent stock markets tumbling around the world.

This was ostensibly because the bad news from Apple was seen as a harbinger of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has access to vast amounts of user data that provides an incredible level of insight into the private lives of citizens around the world

But what was really significant about the Apple crash is that it shows the incredible influence it and its fellow Silicon Valley giants now wield, and how deeply they are implicated in the economic and social problems that bedevil us.

The huge interest in Jeff Bezos divorce, and the Amazon chiefs stupendous $140billion fortune, is another indicator of how deeply the US tech giants have seeped into the collective consciousness.

The fascination is with the extreme wealth at the top of the tech companies, but at the core of this is perceived unfairness and inequality.

The founders and leaders of the tech companies have made huge personal fortunes, thanks to their entrepreneurial and innovative genius. Nothing wrong with that.

But the nature of the businesses, and the amount of data and insight they have into the private lives of citizens around the world, mean they wield more power than most, if not all, politicians.

They stand accused of avoiding taxes, undermining democracy and privacy, and of pillaging traditional businesses. The latter is not just a concern for the Corbynites but is shared by the plutocrats themselves.

Nick Hanauer is not a household name in the UK, but in the US he is known for becoming super wealthy as the first person outside the Bezos family to invest in Amazon. Safe to say, he knows his onions when it comes to capitalism.

In an Oxfam report published at Davos last week, he said the crisis of inequality  which he admits gave rise to his own fortune  is the result of moral failure by economists, politicians and the media, who sent out the message that greed is good.

Hanauer calls for a stake to be driven through the heart of the neoliberal religion that assumes if everyone behaves in their own self-interest, it will somehow lead to the most positive outcome for society.

Ordinary consumers are the driving force of a successful economy, and if too much money is concentrated in the grasp of a very few at the top, it is self-defeating.

The tech giants are a new type of corporation that has outrun existing tax systems and regulation, but a new approach is proving elusive.

Powers to curb the might of large, complex and monopolistic tech companies do exist, but few politicians have the guts to use them.

The social and economic challenges are difficult. What, and how much, should they pay for piggybacking on content created by others?

What are the rights of social media users about privacy and the use of their personal data? What responsibility do platforms bear for fake news or online abuse?

The entrepreneurs and inventors behind the tech companies have been like infant Hercules who do not know their own strength. As their companies mature, solutions must be found.Elizabeth Llewellyn: Songs Of The Heart And Hereafter

St James's Church, Piccadilly, London

Rating:

Elizabeth Llewellyn, one of our leading Verdi sopranos, rarely does recitals. But as a proud black Briton, she has a strong fellow feeling for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, son of a Sierra Leone doctor, who in his brief life (1875-1912) became so famous but is now so forgotten.

Coleridge-Taylors father returned to Africa while Coleridge-Taylor was only a child, leaving his British mother to bring him up alone in Croydon. He soon showed exceptional musical gifts, which prompted a member of the congregation at their church to pay for him to go to the Royal College of Music.

Here he excelled, winning golden opinions from his composition teacher, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, from Ralph Vaughan Williams, and indeed from Sir Edward Elgar, who got Coleridge-Taylor one of his first commissions while still only a student, from the Three Choirs Festival.

Elizabeth Llewellyn is one of the finest Verdi sopranos in the country, and while her recitals are rare they're worth the wait

At the RCM, Coleridge-Taylor wrote the first of his cantatas based on the then fashionable epic poem The Song Of Hiawatha. It created a sensation, and even during the Twenties was regularly performed at the Royal Albert Hall.

Sadly, by then Coleridge-Taylor was no longer with us. He died, aged only 37, of pneumonia.

IT'S A FACT Coleridge-Taylor didn't receive any royalties for the hugely popular Hiawatha, a scandal that led to the formation of the Performing Rights Society. Advertisement

He was extremely assiduous, and left lots of songs, which Liz Llewellyn has been trawling through, with her indefatigable accompanist Simon Lepper. This carefully planned recital contained a dozen Coleridge-Taylor songs, all of them attractive and well worked, albeit none containing the sort of killer tune that makes, for instance, the tenor solo Onaway! Awake, Beloved! from Hiawatha so memorable.

Room was also found here for songs by Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Elgar, finishing off with Mahlers Ruckert-Lieder song cycle.

Liz and Simon are booked to record an album of these charming songs, which will, I hope, reawaken interest in a composer too accomplished to be forgotten.

Hector Berlioz: The Complete Works

Warner Classics Out Fri

Rating:

Warner Classics has issues this on 27 CDs in a bargain box costing just over 50. The orchestral music is entrusted to conductors of the stature of Jean Martinon, Riccardo Muti and Leonard Bernstein. The choral and operatic stuff is in the safe hands of musicians of the calibre of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Michel Plasson and John Nelson.

Did you know that Berlioz composed a song cycle called Irlande? Neither did I but it's there. As are better known and even more distinguished pieces, such as Janet Baker's Les Nuits d'ete (with Sir John Barbirolli).

A moan, though. Unlike Decca's magnificent pre-Christmas Bach box, where alternative recordings of major works abound, the only one here is a murky 1924 Symphonie Fantastique. Martinon's version included here is top class. But what about Sir Thomas Beecham's, with the same Parisian orchestra? It's maybe the most vivid performance on disc of this work.

In 2003 Decca issues a splendid commemorative box for Berlioz's 200th, consisting of all the Berlioz recordings of Sir Colin Davis, the composer's foremost interpreter of modern times. Good as this Warner box is, it might be worth seeking out that one on reissue later this year.Two gay men have been offered IVF treatment by the NHS in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in Britain.

The married couple hope to conceive their own baby using sperm from one of them and a surrogate mother who will bear the child.

The NHS will fund the process of a donor egg being fertilised and the resultant embryo implanted into the surrogate mother.

A gay Scottish couple have been offered IVF treatment on the NHS in what is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain (file image)

The NHS has until recently refused to give gay male couples such treatment because of a blanket ban on using surrogate mothers.

The Scottish Government changed that policy two years ago so any couple, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, is eligible for free fertility treatment.

That decision marked the biggest shift since 2013, when NHS guidance across Scotland, England and Wales made IVF available to same-sex couples and single women with fertility problems.

But because of the ban on surrogates, in practice same-sex couples meant only women. They had to demonstrate their infertility by showing they had failed to get pregnant after several attempts with artificial insemination.

The Scottish couple  who The Mail on Sunday has decided not to identify  revealed they were set to undergo NHS treatment when they posted an appeal online for an egg donor.

One of the men wrote: Our NHS clinic dont have any anonymous egg donors, they advised us we would need to find a known egg donor. Any suggestions how to go about it?

A friend replied: Wow, did not know Scotland were offering this on the NHS!

The man replied: Yes, its a new service they offer in Scotland we only found out [about it] when the GP referred us.

The NHS has until recently refused to give gay male couples IVF treatment because of a blanket ban on the use of surrogate mothers

Gay rights group Stonewall said: We welcome any move that ensures lesbian, gay, bi and trans people have fair and equal access to fertility treatment.

A Scottish Government spokesman confirmed fertility treatment was offered to men in same-sex relationships who had fertility problems, including same-sex male couples using a surrogate. But he emphasised the NHS would not find the surrogate.

While a single IVF policy applies to the whole of Scotland, the situation is more complicated in England, where each of around 200 clinical commissioning groups sets eligibility rules.

It is thought there have been no cases of IVF treatment for a gay male couple being funded by the NHS in England.

In Wales, fertility treatment for gay couples is in theory available on the NHS, although its policy states that surrogacy IVF will only be provided where no other fertility treatment options are available and strictly for medical reasons.

Josephine Quintavalle, founder of pro-life group Comment On Reproductive Ethics, said: Its a total distortion of what constitutes a genuine fertility problem It does seem extraordinary the extremes that people will go to distort nature, to create a child.The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked today, January 27.

As Deutsche Welle writes, every year on January 27, the millions of victims of the Nazi reign of terror (1933-1945) are remembered, with commemorative concerts, interviews with contemporary witnesses or guided tours of memorial sites acroos the world.

The date also marks the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp, by Soviet troops in 1945. In 2005, the UN General Assembly declared January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The United Nations will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, January 28, with a series of events, including a special session of the UN General Assembly that will include speeches by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon.

Following the General Assembly event, the Israeli Mission to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Missions of Peru and Portugal, will hold an event to open an exhibition devoted to diplomats who are Righteous Among the Nations at the organization's headquarters in New York.

UN Secretary General Guterres will take part in the Israeli event alongside ambassadors and relatives of the diplomats recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, Arutz Sheva reports.

At the conclusion of the events, Ambassador Danon will lead a delegation of 40 UN ambassadors to Poland to visit the death camps, and then arrive in Israel. This mission is in conjunction with the March of the Living and the American Zionist Movement.Breast cancer in young women is more likely to be fatal if it occurs after theyve had a baby, according to a new study.

Changes to a womans breasts triggered by bearing a child make it easier for cancer cells to spread, researchers found.

Oncologist Dr Virginia Borges, who led the University of Colorado study, said: If a woman gets breast cancer before 45, it is far more aggressive and more likely to kill if she has had kids.

Changes to a womans breasts triggered by bearing a child make it easier for cancer cells to spread, researchers found. Stock image

The study followed 701 US women diagnosed between 1980 and 2014 and before their 45th birthday.

Among women diagnosed in the early stages of cancer, those who had given birth less than ten years before diagnosis were up to five times more likely to see the cancer spread, compared to non-mothers.

Dr Borges discovered that child-bearing triggers breast changes that cause cancerous cells to behave much more aggressively, increasing their ability to invade surrounding breast tissue and spread.

She stressed her findings did not mean becoming a mother increased the chances of breast cancer.

But she said motherhood was a readily identifiable risk factor for breast cancer aggressiveness which women and doctors needed to be aware of.A former royal editor claims that the Prince Harry has become more high maintenance since marrying Meghan.

Journalist Duncan Larcombe, the author of, the author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, also said that the famously laid-back prince has become more 'grumpy' with palace staff.

In a new interview with The New York Post, Larcombe said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are becoming difficult to cater for.

He said: 'All of Harry's staff have always thought he was fantastic, but the two of them (Meghan and Harry) are high maintenance.'

Royal biographer Duncan Larcombe claims that as a couple the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'high maintenance'

Larcombe went on to say that 33-year-old Harry had become 'quite grumpy and aloof from his own inner circle of staff ' adding 'Harry was always very pally with (them), so this is very unlike him.'

The biographer also described the prince as 'down to earth' and while he hadn't previously taken himself 'very seriously' he has noticed that change.

MailOnline has contacted Kensington Palace for a comment.

This comes just a few days after Larcombe admitted he believes there may be something to the reports that Harry's pregnant wife does not get on with her sister-in-law Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Larcombe (pictured) claims that Harry is now taking himself more seriously

On rumours of a rift between Meghan and Kate, the former Royal Editor at The Sun told Yahoo: 'I think it's very interesting that the Palace have come out and denied certain stories but, others they haven't actually denied at all.'

He went on to slam the Duchess of Sussex's family - claiming that their behaviour throughout her relationship with Prince Harry has been 'tacky'.

In the interview, the writer criticised Meghan's father, Thomas, and half-sister Samantha, saying: 'They have reduced the commentary of the Royal family to something from the Jerry Springer Show, you know it's tacky.'

In stark comparison, he praised Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, for her quiet presence next to her daughter on her wedding day, adding: 'She's maintained a dignified silence, she has done everything right.'

The writer also revealed that Prince Harry and Prince William are 'very, very defensive' of their wives - and that he and Harry once nearly had a fight.

He said: 'I've found that with Harry and William as well, that if you write a story about them that's true, and that's fair, they don't have a problem with it.

'Where they start getting angry or defensive is when you get something wrong, they're also very, very defensive of their other halves.'

He went on to say that Harry has become quite 'aloof' and 'grumpy' with palace staff whom he was previously 'pally with'

Larcombe also says that he believes there may be something to the reports the Harry's pregnant wife, Meghan, does not get on with her sister-in-law Kate, the Duchess of CambridgeThe Queen has been joined by her guest Sir Jackie Stewart for Sunday service in Sandringham today.

The Queen, who remains in Norfolk on her winter break, looked regal in an aqua ensemble as she arrived at St Mary Magdalene Church, just a stone's throw away from her home on the Sandringham estate.

The 92-year-old monarch was once again spotted without a seatbelt despite the controversy surrounding the Duke of Edinburgh's crash last week where he had also gone without a belt.

The Queen has arrived at St Mary Magdalene Church for Sunday service, spotted without a seatbelt once again

Following the incident the Queen faced criticism for making a similar journey without wearing one just 48 hours later.

Despite remaining vigilant since having been spotted wearing a seat belt while driving her Range Rover on Friday she went without as she was chauffeured to the service in a Bentley today.

Police have spoken to the Duke after he was pictured driving a new Land Rover alone and without a belt just 48 hours after his crash.

She was joined this morning by racing legend Sir Jackie, who is believed to be staying with the royal family in Norfolk, having joined them at a shooting party on Friday.

She was joined this morning by racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart who was spotted arriving alongside Princess Anne's husband Sir Timothy Laurence

The Princess Royal was also present today, arriving on foot alongside her husband Sir Timothy Laurence this morning

The monarch looked regal in an aqua ensemble as she was chauffeured to the church accompanied by a female companion

Her majesty is now in her final weeks of her winter break in Norfolk, expected to return to London in early February

The former F1 racing driver firmly established himself in the royal fold from a young age.

He enlisted Princess Anne to write the foreword for his biography and his wife Helen, who is now battling dementia, is godmother to Zara Tindall, the Queens granddaughter.

The Princess Royal was also present today, arriving on foot alongside her husband Sir Timothy Laurence this morning.

Anne wrapped up against the cold in a teal coat and red velvet hat as she arrived at church this morning.

Both Anne and her husband were also present at the royal shoot on Friday.

Joined by a bevy of local friends the 92-year-old Queenled the way, using a walking stick to negotiate the rough terrain.

The Queen was typically elegant in her choice of dress today, with every inch of her outfit perfectly coordinated

Sir Jackie appeared to take a liking to a dog who was stood outside the chapel upon his departure this morning

The Queen was behind the wheel of her Range Rover on Friday as she headed out on a hunt, but was seen wearing her seatbelt on that occasion

The Queen (pictured on Friday) herself did not appear to get to grips with a gun but appeared instead to offer encouragement from the sidelines

Sir Jackie Stewart was also among the shooting party, well known for being a keen marksmen.

The 79-year-old was a prize-winning member of the Scottish clay pigeon shooting team before he became a racing driver and competed in the UK and abroad.

Her Majesty was also joined by several canine pals, sure to be a welcome addition for the monarch who lost the last of her beloved corgis last year.

The Queen herself did not appear to get to grips with a gun but appeared instead to offer encouragement from the sidelines. Earlier in the day, she enjoyed lunch with the shooting party.

She also took the role as royal chauffeur getting behind the wheel of her Range Rover to transport her guests - and new photos have since confirmed that she was wearing a seat belt.

The Queen is now in the final weeks of her time in Norfolk, expected to return to Buckingham Palace in the first week of February.

She will mark the 67th anniversary of her accession to the throne on February 6, normally done privately on her Norfolk estate.

The longest-reigning sovereign in British history became queen on February 6 1952 on the death of her father King George VI.She celebrated with a fiery display last night at the celebrations for Monaco's patron saint and today saw the festivities continue for Princess Charlene.

Charlene, who turned 41 on Friday, joined husband Prince Albert, 60, at the Monaco Cathedral this morning for the celebration of Saint Devote.

Charlene cut an elegant figure in a full-length fitted black dress as she arrived at the cathedral on Sunday.

St Devote's Day is a national holiday in Monaco in remembrance of their patron saint, a Christian martyr who was killed and tortured for her faith in the 4th century.

Charlene, who turned 41 on Friday, joined husband Prince Albert and her son Jacques on the balcony of the royal palace to wave to well-wishers on St Devote day

Charlene cut an elegant figure in a full-length fitted black dress as she arrived at the cathedral on Sunday

Earlier today the royal couple stood at the balcony of the royal palace, where they could be seen waving to well-wishers below.

One of the couple's four-year-old twins Prince Jacques joined his parents on the balcony but his sister Gabriella was not seen at the event.

MailOnline has contacted Palais Princier De Monaco for a comment.

Jacques, however, could be seen perfecting his royal wave to well-wishers who had gathered outside the palace hoping to catch a glimpse of the royals.

However, it seems that royal duties became too much for the youngster, who could be seen putting his head in his hands as the day went on.

Saturday saw the royal couple and their son attend a traditional remembrance service for St. Devote.

She and Albert posed on the steps of the cathedral ahead of the service this afternoon

The couple appeared to be in good spirits as they joined members of the clergy outside the cathedral

Doting mother Charlene could be seen cradling Jacques, while his twin sister Gabriella was absent today

Despite the absence of one family member the royal couple appeared to enter into the festivities with full spirit

St Devote's Day is a national holiday in Monaco in remembrance of their patron saint, a Christian martyr who was killed and tortured for her faith in the 4th century.

They also helped set light to a fishing boat - a tradition that's been going strong since the reign of Prince Louis II in 1942.

According to legend, Christians saved St Devote's body and cast it off in a boat to Africa in the hope that once there she would receive a Christian burial.

While Jacques, whose twin sister Gabriella was absent today, initially showed enthusiasm royal duties quickly took their toll

The four-year-old prince could be seen placing his head in his hand after the royal wave became too much

The young prince couldn't hide his boredom after a long stint of being stood on the balcony

Princess Charlene of Monaco joined husband Prince Albert and one of her twins, Jacques for St. Devote celebrations on Saturday

The royal couple set light to a fishing boat - a tradition that's been going strong since the reign of Prince Louis II in 1942

While four-year-old Jacques was present last night, his twin sister Gabriella appeared to be absent from the proceedings

Doting mother Charlene could be seen planting a kiss on her son's forehead last night

A dove then flew from her mouth and guided the boat to Monaco where it ran aground.

The Saint is believed to have helped the principality in times of peril ever since.

In line with the legend, Prince Albert and Princess Charlene took part in an annual ceremonial ritual remembering the Saint's final journey.

They were given torches which they used to set fire to a fisherman's boat like the one that the Saint's body was carried on.

Charlene looked typically chic on Saturday opting for an oversize hooded wool dress which she paired with cream trousers for the occasion

Prince Albert, meanwhile, was suitably dapper in a grey suit and black wool coat while little Jacques was adorable in a Gucci Kids brown coat

Charlene looked typically chic on Saturday opting for an oversize hooded wool dress which she paired with cream trousers for the occasion.

The former Olympic swimmer stuck to a neutral colour palette layering up with a mushroom roll-neck top and completed her ensemble with some dove grey ankle boots.

Prince Albert, meanwhile, was suitably dapper in a grey suit and black wool coat while little Jacques was adorable in a Gucci Kids brown coat.A gay couple has welcomed a set of twins with two different fathers, after both men were able to fertilise an embryo during the IVF process.

Calder and Alexandra Berney Edwards are actually half siblings despite being born at the same time, because they don't share paternity.

They were born to London-based couple Simon and Graeme via surrogate, Meg Stone, 32, whom they met in Canada.

Amazing advances in IVF meant that the couple were able to fertilise an embryo each and both were placed into surrogate Meg Stone's womb.

Simon (right) and Graeme Berney Edwards are both biological fathers to their twins Calder and Alexandra (seen shortly after their birth) after they were both able to fertitilise an embryo

Simon, 43, said: 'It really is amazing that Graeme and I have been able to father one of our twins each.

'Meg did an amazing job - and it meant that she was actually pregnant by two men at the same time. It's thanks to the wonder of IVF that we have been able to achieve our dream.

'Graeme and I have always wanted to have a family, and now we have our lovely twins.

'They are still classed as twins even though they have different biological fathers.'

The couple knew that they wanted to try to start a family this way as it meant that they would be the named parents on the birth certificate from the start.

Amazing advances in IVF meant that the couple were able to fertilise an embryo each and both were placed into surrogate Meg Stone's womb. Pictured: Meg with twins

The couple travelled to Canada in order to have the IVF they required, as the process of fertlising two embryos with different sperm isn't yet available in the UK. Pictured: Graeme and Simon with the twins

This is unlike the UK where it can take up to six months to get a parental order granted to change it from the named birth mother at the birth.

This treatment isn't practised in the UK, where two embryos fertilised by different fathers are put back at the same time.

So they extended their search for a surrogate to Canada and met Meg who already had a family of her own - her two sons, Jeffrey, 12, and Max, five.

Meg said: 'I saw Simon and Graeme's profile on a surrogacy website and I thought they had lovely smiles.

The married couple say that meeting Meg was like being 'reunited with a long lost sister'

The twins have just celebrated their first birthday and Meg flew over from Canada to help them celebrate

'I had recently split with my partner and I wasn't ready for another baby, so I wanted to help someone.'

The couple chose an anonymous egg donor, and then flew out to a fertility clinic in Los Angeles to fertilise the embryos.

Simon said: 'We couldn't decide on who would be the biological father. Graeme said it should be me, but I said that he had just as much right as I did.

'When we spoke to the doctor at the clinic he stunned us with his reply. He told us that it could be both of us.

'They said that we could have half the embryos fertilised with my sperm and then half with Graeme's sperm.'

The couple then tied the knot, and decided to fly out to Canada on their honeymoon - and meet up with Meg for the first time at the same time.

Simon said: 'We were nervous at the beginning - in case that we didn't click with her. But we needn't have worried.

The couple now refer to Meg as the twins' 'Tummy Mummy' which she says she loves

The couple say that their two children have gone from strength to strength and are 'hitting all their milestones'

'Meeting Meg was like being reunited with a long lost sister. She wrapped us both in a hug before introducing us to her adorable boys.

'We didn't how to thank her. We told her we were so grateful to her - she was changing not only our lives but our families too.'

Six months later, one fertilised embryo of Simon's, and one embryo of Graeme's were put back into Meg's womb.

Then they faced an agonising two week wait to see what would happen and whether it would work.

The couple risked only one of the embryos working, which would mean that just one of them would be the biological father to the baby.

Simon said: 'We talked about it and decided that if it happened, we would just go back and have another go again, so that we would end up fathering one baby each.

HOW DOES IVF WORK? The menstrual cycle is first suppressed with medication before other drugs are used to encourage the ovaries to produce more eggs than usual. An ultrasound scan is carried out to check the development of the eggs, and medication is used to help them mature. The eggs are then collected by a needle inserted into the ovaries, via the vagina, before the eggs are fertilised with sperm. Finally the fertilised embryo is transferred into the womb to grow and develop. A single IVF cycle has an average success rate of 32.3 per cent for those under 35, dropping to five per cent for women aged 43 and 44 and only 1.9 per cent for those 45 and older. Despite IVF being most effective for the under 35s, 57 per cent of IVF cycles are undergone by women 35 or older. Advertisement

'When the two weeks were up, Meg had some fantastic news - she was pregnant. It had worked.

'Now we just had to wait and see if she was pregnant with both of our babies - or just one.'

Meg had an early scan a few weeks later and it was a nerve-wracking wait. Even if both the embryos had taken, it may be that only one of them had gone on to survive.

But against all odds it had worked and Meg was pregnant with both babies.

Simon said: 'She FaceTimed us from the scanning room. First of all we saw one heartbeat, and our stomach clenched with nerves.

'Then we saw the other heartbeat. Graeme and I just hugged each other. We were just over the moon. We were both going to be dads - she was pregnant with both of our babies.

'We kept in touch with Meg regularly and she gave us updates on how the pregnancy was going.

'And we went over to Canada to visit her for her 19 week scan. We put our hands on her bump and felt our babies kicking. It was a magical moment.

'For our Christmas present, she had arranged a lovely photoshoot to be done with all of us together. We got to meet her family too, which was lovely. It was great to see her being a mum to her children. We knew that our babies were in the best possible hands.'

The pregnancy went smoothly but at 31 weeks, pregnant in May last year, Meg sent messages to say that she was in pain and thought she was in labour.

Simon said: 'We were panicking as she was five weeks early. We didn't know whether we would make it to the birth.

'We packed our stuff and caught the first flight out to Canada. But whilst we were in the air we couldn't contact Meg to find out what was happening. The wait was agonising.

'We dashed to the hospital when we arrived, to find out it was a false alarm. We were just so relieved that she and the babies were fine.

'We stayed out there and at 36 weeks, Meg went into labour. Graeme held her hand through it all whilst her mum and I stood at the other end.

'It was the most amazing experience of our lives. Alexandra was born first and then Calder arrived minutes later. They were both healthy and it was just amazing to meet them at last.

'When we both held them for the first time, we couldn't believe that we were both daddies. It was a long way to go and do this, but it was worth it to both be able to have fathered one of the twins each.

'Calder was the double of Graeme, and Alexandra was the image of me.'

'We were finally allowed to fly home with them seven weeks later. It was sad to say goodbye to Meg, When we brought them home for the first time, it was just incredible. Since then they have gone from strength to strength. They are doing so well and hitting all their milestones.

'We have had wonderful support too from TAMBA, the UK twins and multiple births association, which has been amazing.'

The twins have just celebrated their first birthday and Meg flew over from Canada to help them celebrate.

Simon added: 'It was incredibly special having her there to celebrate the twins special day with us. It's hard work having two babies, but Graeme and I are loving every minute of it.

'We are still in touch regularly with Meg, and we can't thank her enough for what she has done for us. It's amazing to think that she has enabled us both to become daddies. It's a wonderful gift.

Meg said: 'Simon and Graeme are like brothers to me now. They call me the twins 'Tummy Mummy' which I love.

'It was amazing being pregnant with embryos that they had both fathered - science is an amazing thing.'A bride has called for brands to make clothing more practical for women after she organised for her dress and those of her bridesmaids to have pockets.

Eve Paterson's big day has gone viral after pictures of the 24-year-old and her bridesmaids wearing the white and green outfits on her wedding day were shared thousands of times on Twitter.

Photos of the innovative design were shared on Twitter by bridesmaid Nell Goddard who admitted they used them for storing snacks.

Tweeting the photo she wrote: 'My friend got married last month and her dress and the bridesmaids dresses ALL HAD POCKETS.

Eve Paterson has been applauded on Twitter after a photo was shared of her big day, revealing that all of her bridesmaids dresses as well as her own gown had pockets

'And yes, we did use them for storing snacks, thank you for asking.'

The image proved a hit with Nell's followers, amassing over 13,000 likes and almost 3,000 retweets receiving much praise from followers.

'Pockets and belts. Wow, just wow,' wrote one follower.

Joking another cheeky Twitter user said: 'Oh my god! I might have to divorce my husband just so I can do this!!'

A third added: 'ALWAYS POCKETS! I love this bad*** wedding.'

The snap was shared by bridesmaid Nell Goddard who said that the pockets were used for storing snacks

Eve claims that women's clothing isn't empowering enough and she wanted her dresses to be beautiful but practical

Bride Eve, who lives in Cambridge, said: 'You'd never expect to hire suits for guys and then 'add pockets' as an extra, so the idea that women have to do it is insane,

'These dresses proved that it's possible to look beautiful, feel amazing, and be practically equipped for the day, and I hope it encourages other brands to up their game on this as well.'

Eve said the comments prove impractical women's clothing is 'a real issue'.

'Women's clothing simply doesn't empower women as much as it should,' said Mrs Paterson.

The image proved a hit with Nell's followers, amassing over 13,000 likes and almost 3,000 retweets receiving much praise from followers

'Pockets are such a tiny issue in comparison to the oppression of women globally, but I think it plays into a much deeper misconception that women should look good rather than be practically equipped  but why should we have to choose?'

Eve bought her dress from David's Bridal, while the bridesmaids' were from KF Bridal, and she said she used the pockets to stash her lipstick, phone, plan for the day and some snacks.

One wedding picture sees her husband Angus Paterson eating a Milky Way bar from her pocket after the wedding ceremony.

Eve's seamstress stitched fabric from her mother's dress into the pocket lining as her 'little piece of 'something old'' that she 'could feel throughout the day'.

One wedding picture sees her husband Angus Paterson eating a Milky Way bar from her pocket after the wedding ceremony

The bride's seamstress says that the pockets were perfect for storing speeches and tissues

'I would totally recommend that other brides think about getting pockets not only for their own dresses, but for their bridesmaids too,' said Mrs Paterson.

'It's one of the most important days for us ladies to be 'on our game', but we're not just there to look amazing  we want to successfully host all our family and friends, and pull off a major event.

'Thinking about adding pockets ahead of time means there's ample space for snacks for your new husband, notes for speeches, tissues for mum, and all the other things we know will help the day run smoothly!'What if David Cameron had never been Prime Minister? What if youd listened to me and kept this disastrous politician out of office in 2010?

This thought springs to mind after the recent revelation by Donald Tusk, president of the European Council.

Mr Tusk says Mr Cameron confessed to him he only called the EU referendum because he thought it would never happen.

Mr Camerons whole aim in life was to save the Tory Party from a well-deserved doom. Why bother? By 2010, the Tory Party obviously hated its own supporters, and was physically dying [File photo]

And it was this childish, irresponsible trickery (typical of Mr Cameron) which put us where we are now  a constitutional crisis with no obvious end, a chaotic, ill-managed exit from the EU which will satisfy nobody and almost certainly hurt quite a few innocent bystanders.

Mr Tusk recalled that the Tory leader had told him he felt safe in promising a referendum because his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, would block the idea.

Well, I had always assumed this was so, but it was good to get it from such a powerful source  reinforced when it was officially denied, always the best sort of confirmation.

Donald Tusk (pictured above) recalled that the Tory leader had told him he felt safe in promising a referendum because his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, would block the idea [File photo]

Mr Camerons whole aim in life was to save the Tory Party from a well-deserved doom. Why bother?

By 2010, the Tory Party obviously hated its own supporters, and was physically dying. Its real membership was so small and old that it could only fight elections by expensively bussing large numbers of apolitical but ambitious young men and women into marginal seats to do the donkey work.

Big donors were wondering if it was worth their while financing it any more.

One more proper defeat, and the Tory Party would have split and collapsed, not before time.

Far from being a bad thing, this would have left the way open for a new party that actually was conservative, patriotic, against crime, in favour of good schools, friendly to the married family.

It might even have devised a coherent plan for leaving the EU, and won a parliamentary majority for that policy.

If Mr Brown (pictured above) had won in 2010, I suspect the country would be in better shape by far than it is now, while Jeremy Corbyn would still be quietly growing marrows in his North London allotment, a forgotten fringe figure [File photo]

After all, we already have plenty of political parties which speak for political correctness, Brussels rule, stupid foreign wars, unmarried families, concreting over the countryside, dreadful schools and letting criminals off.

It would have made a change to have one that took a different line. Would it have been so bad to have endured a few extra years of Gordon Brown to win that prize?

His government wouldnt have differed much from a mis-named Conservative government. Actually, it might even have been better than the Coalition we got.

George Osborne didnt fix the economy, as he keeps claiming. Anything but, as everyone outside the South East knows all too well. And I doubt Mr Brown (chastened by the Iraq War) would have been mad enough to intervene in Libya.

And what a great difference that would have made. For it was Mr Camerons mad, thoughtless overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi that launched the current phase of mass migration into Europe and Britain. This disaster is still out of control and has caused insoluble migration crises all across the continent, not to mention much misery for the migrants themselves.

If Mr Brown had won in 2010, I suspect the country would be in better shape by far than it is now, while Jeremy Corbyn would still be quietly growing marrows in his North London allotment, a forgotten fringe figure.

And people like me might be able to go into politics and do some good, instead of being kept out of it by a trio of ultra-liberal party machines. As it is, just look at it. You should have listened to me. Its too late now.

ADHD: The riddle of the missing facts

The troubled celebrity Ant McPartlin announced last week that he has been diagnosed with ADHD. Why the inverted commas?

Well, these things may not be quite as hard and fast as you might believe.

Youd think from the way ADHD supporters go on about it that it was an actual disease, though theyre careful not to use the word.

Ant McPartlin announced last week that he has been diagnosed with ADHD. Why the inverted commas? Well, these things may not be quite as hard and fast as you might believe [File photo]

But the fact they want to hide is that it isnt. Its just a collection of tick-box opinions, quite unsupported by hard, objective science.

Yet children, often very young, are dosed with powerful amphetamines (normally a Class A illegal drug) or very similar pills, on this cloudy basis. But heres an astonishing fact youd struggle to know if you werent very alert.

Some doctors, especially in the USA where the ADHD industry is far older and bigger than here, fiercely challenge the very existence of the complaint.

Perhaps in the hope of getting them to shut up, the US governments mighty National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a special conference in 1998 to try to reach a consensus between the enthusiasts and the doubters. It failed.

Instead, a statement was issued with a lot of soothing, optimistic waffle about ADHD, but containing the cold, hard verdict, forced into the wording by the doubters: We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction.

You can see how devastating these few words are. How can you give children powerful drugs if you have no physical diagnosis?

The words are still true, by the way, 20 years later. Despite endless efforts to find an objective test, ADHD is still diagnosed only by subjective opinion.

A copy of the original document survives by accident in an obscure corner of the internet. It is also quoted in a number of scientific journals and newspapers from the time. There is no doubt of its authenticity.

But in the NIHs official website version of the 1998 document, the vital words are not there any more. Was the removal official? If so, who decided and why? I cant get a clear explanation.

This is the sort of thing you might expect in Orwells 1984 where the past was constantly being rewritten to suit those in power. But in a major Western country, it seems to me to be more than a little worrying.

There's something serious about Mary

Sometimes I am quite baffled by the verdicts of professional reviewers. The new movie about Mary Queen of Scots, starring Saoirse Ronan, is far better than Id been led to expect.

Theres some political correctness, some silly sex, some liberties taken with the facts  but its mainly a serious and sometimes rather beautiful attempt to portray one of the great stories of history.

Unlike the absurdly overpraised The Favourite, which is drivel.

The new movie about Mary Queen of Scots, starring Saoirse Ronan, pictured above, is far better than Id been led to expect

Last week the Church of Englands second attempt to smear the reputation of one of its greatest figures, the late George Bell, collapsed utterly.

Its first try was revealed as a sloppy, deeply prejudiced kangaroo court, which wrongly assumed Bishop Bells guilt from the start, like some Stalinist tribunal. You might have thought Justin Welby would admit defeat.

But no, he opened yet another inquiry into so-called new allegations of sexual abuse which were revealed on Thursday to be an embarrassing rubbish-heap of twaddle, not remotely resembling real evidence.

The police took a few weeks to dismiss them. Mr Welbys apparatus, petulantly unwilling to admit they had been wrong in the first case, dragged it out for a year.

He has sort of apologised, grudgingly, as railway companies and children do. But he still seems to think there is an impossible dilemma. I can assure him there isnt.

All we need is an Archbishop of Canterbury who understands the principles of justice (not him), and therell be no dilemma at all.

He knows what he can do. Until he does it, a cloud will hang over the C of E.

If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens, click here.@ChescoCourtNews on Twitter

Michael P. Rellahan has been a staff reporter and editor at the Daily Local News since 1982. He has covered all kinds of news over the years but is now assigned to report on court and legal news, as well as Chester County government news and politics.Russian and German Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Heiko Maas have welcomed the German governments decision to allocate 12 mln ($13.6 mln) for projects in St. Petersburg as a humanitarian gesture and Germanys recognition of its responsibility for the Nazi-led Siege of Leningrad, TASS reports.

"75 years ago, Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg, was completely liberated by Soviet troops from the blockade by the German Wehrmacht, which left its mark in history as a brutal act against the entire city and its population," the statement said. "This ended the 872-day period of deaths, hunger and suffering, during which more than 1 million people died."

"We, the foreign ministers of Germany and Russia, welcome the decision of the German government, which is based on the recognition of the responsibility for the crimes of those years committed by Germany, to make a voluntary humanitarian gesture for those victims of the siege who are still alive. The 12 mln payment will be used to modernize a hospital for war veterans and create in St. Petersburg the German-Russian Center for communication and meetings for members of the public of both countries and those affected by the siege," the statement said.

Lavrov and Maas expressed confidence that "this voluntary act will contribute to improving living standards of the siege victims and will serve for historic reconciliation between the two countries peoples as a basis for bilateral relations in the future."

On occasion of the Leningrad sieges anniversary, the German Foreign Ministry noted that "Germany recognizes its historic responsibility" for the blockade. According to the ministry, Maas and Lavrov agreed to implement the projects to support the sieges victims in May 2018. Maas said this Germanys gesture is "a symbol that this act [siege] must never happen again."

The siege of Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) is one of the most tragic pages in the history of the Soviet Unions Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany. According to various estimates, between 600,000 and 1.5 mln citizens died during the siege. The operation on lifting the blockade began on January 14, 1944. It was completely lifted on January 27, 1944. Leningrad is the only large city in the worlds history that withstood almost 900-day encirclement.Ashland, KY (41101)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph.The following items are based on information provided by officials in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.The small mining town of Saran is in the very centre of Kazakhstan, 203 kilometres from Astana, with a population of just over 50,000 people entered the history of the country this week. As New Europe reports, on January 23, the largest solar power station not only in the former Soviet republic, but also throughout the whole of Central Asia, with a capacity of 100 megawatts was launched here.

An international team of investors and specialists from Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia implemented the project. They did not accidentally choose this city as a place to install a solar power station. Saran is located in the very center of the vast Kazakh steppe.

In the winter there are a lot of sunny days here where 307,000 green panels installed on an area of 164 hectares will now convert solar energy into electrical energy, which will be supplied to consumers throughout the country. The power of the new solar power station will be enough to provide electricity for ten of the same cities as Saran.

Germanys Ambassador in Astana Tilo Klinner, who also arrived at the opening of the station, noted that since this day the mining town Saran, where coal had been mined for electricity production for many years, changed its specialization and became a city of green energy.

The diplomat recalled that this project originates from the International Exhibition EXPO  Astana  2017. The memorandum on mutual cooperation between the Akimat (city hall) of Saran and SES Saran LLP was signed during the EXPO. This became the basis for the start of construction. The German company GoldbeckSolar, together with partners from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, built the station in record six months.

According to the main investor of the project and the head of the GoldbeckSolar company Joachim Goldbek, such efficiency is explained by several reasons. The main reason is trust in Kazakhstans partners, Goldbek said. The second is the financial support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which provided the loan.

Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that the government of Republic aims to achieve the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the total electricity production basket up to 3% by 2020, up to 10% by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Sixty objects of renewable energy with a total capacity of 531 megawatts built in Kazakhstan at the present time. At the end of 2018, the volume of generated electricity from renewable energy sources amounted to 1.3 billion kilowatts / hour. Another 50 renewable energy facilities with a total capacity of 2,353 Megvatts will be launched by 2020, Bozumbayev said.

The Minister added that 36 renewable energy facilities with a total capacity of 900 megawatts would be built from 2021 to 2023. This means that by 2023, Kazakhstan will produce over 3000 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy sources. For comparison: today the country as a whole produces 18,000 Megawatts from other energy sources, Bozumbayev said.

Addressing investors, he suggested not to limit himself only to solar energy projects, but, given the strong winds that blow almost all year round in the open steppe, to pay attention to the construction of wind power plants. By the way, on the day of the presentation of SES Saran LLP, the Akimat and GoldbeckSolar signed a memorandum on the development of the SES Saran project, providing for the expansion of investments to 500 million US dollars.

Recall, Kazakhstan has taken obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030 compared with the 1990 level. Kazakhstan is the 14th country in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.Dalton, GA (30720)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 68F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.We've launched a new site for events and entertainment all along the Flight 93 Memorial Highway. Read the latest articles and buzz around town.

Keep up to date on upcoming events and submit your own.

Visit What's NXT 219 Kankakee, IL (60901)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.Cullman, AL (35055)

Today

Occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 67F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.WALLINGFORD  The region is about to get some quiet time.

Or at least a bit quieter.

Residents who have been bothered by the frequency and volume levels of warning horns used along the new  and very popular  Hartford Line commuter rail corridor are about to get some noise relief as part of new program.

The state Department of Transportation says Connecticut has become the first in New England to use automated horn systems, commonly known as wayside horns. The horns are being installed in at-grade railroad crossings as part of noise mitigation efforts by DOT, according to Richard Andreski, the agencys Public Transportation Bureau Chief.

The first of the wayside horns were put into service on Jan. 21 at the Cooper Street crossing in Meriden. In the coming weeks, wayside horns will be installed at the Pent Highway railroad crossing in Wallingford.

Other installations of wayside horn systems will take place at other at grade crossings in Wallingford and other communities along the rail line, according to DOT officials. There are a total of seven at grade railroad crossing in Wallingford, including the one at Pent Highway.

An automated horn system consists of stationary horns mounted on poles at active railroad crossings, Andreski said. The system is designed to direct a consistent audible warning toward the roadway, alerting motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists to an approaching train.

Wayside horns are designed to limit loud warning sounds to a 250-foot perimeter. Outside the 250-foot perimeter, the noise produced by wayside horns is substantially reduced for nearby residences and businesses.

The installation of wayside horns is part of CTDOTs obligation to reduce noise associated with the Hartford Line rail service and to improve the quality of life for communities along the corridor, Andreski said in a statement.

We recognize the benefits the new system brings and look forward to installing additional systems in the near future, he said.

The wayside horns take the place of train-mounted horns, which are typically activated, and can be heard as far away as half mile away. For those living or working closest to the rail line, the train horns reach sound levels of 90 decibels or more.

The sound made by the train horns can be heard at a perimeter that is between 6 and 7 times as large as the noice perimeter of wayside horns, according to DOT data.

The Hartford Line rail service features 17 weekday round trips between New Haven and Hartford, with 12 of these trips continuing north, terminating at Union Station in Springfield, Mass.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.comBRIDGEPORT  A man has been arrested in the citys second homicide of the year, which took place Sunday morning on Reservoir Drive.

According to police, at 9:02 a.m. Sunday, several shots were fired in front of the Citgo gas station at 915 Reservoir Avenue, Bridgeport. A 50 year-old-male was struck by gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the mans identity will be released at a later date, pending an autopsy.

On Sunday morning, police said, detectives processing the crime scene recovered a handgun that the victim possessed at the time of his death. Police said detectives quickly developed a suspect and, around 1 p.m. Sunday, Jayvell Washington, 39, was taken into custody in front of a Fairview Avenue address after he was dropped off by two other males in a rental car. Washington has several addresses in Bridgeport, police said.

Washington is charged with murder and his bond is set at $1,000,000 pending arraignment in court Monday.

Washington has reportedly been involved in several other violent incidents in the city. He served seven years in prison for a 1998 manslaughter conviction as well as a 3 and a half-year federal sentence on gun charges and a two-year state term for selling drugs. In 2017, he was arrested for attempted murder, first-degree assault and other charges stemming his allegedly shooting a city man that year.

The Reservoir Avenue shooting comes a day after a student was shot at the New England Tractor Trailer Training Schools campus. The 28-year-old New Haven resident was in critical condition on Saturday, but Chief A.J. Perez has said he is expected to survive.

Lt. Christopher LaMaine said the student was heading to his car when a lone gunman opened fire on him without provocation. The student was also hit multiple times, including once in the head.

Video footage from nearby cameras shows the suspect firing the gun at least six times, Perez said.

This is the citys second homicide of the year. The first death came less than two weeks ago when 39-year-old Razzie Hancock, of Bridgeport, was stabbed.

Police charged Kenyon Gay, 41, of Bridgeport and West Haven, with murder, possession of a dangerous weapon and second-degree assault. His bond was set at $1 million.

Gay has been accused of stabbing Hancock because they had been dating the same woman.

There were 11 homicides in Bridgeport last year, a decline since 2017 when there were 23.

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Website epssura.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery and Boostrap. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 108411 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 76757 bytes (74.96 kb uncompressed) and 16442 bytes (16.06 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-11-29, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..If more proof is needed that the Marxist view of history is utterly discredited, we offer you as evidenceJohn Bercow. Were the Speaker almost anyone else, there would be no prospect of Commons procedure rules being rewritten off the cuff. Were there no prospect of Commons procedure rules being rewritten off the cuff, the Cooper amendment would stand no chance of achieving its aim  namely, to extend the Brexit deadline by means of a private members bill if no deal has been agreed by the end of February. And were the Cooper amendment to stand no chance of achieving its aim, the odds of a Brexit extension would be dramatically reduced.

It is the certainty of Bercow recasting the rules to help forestall Brexit that has raised the possibility of the Government responding by proroguing Parliament altogether, on the ground that illegitimate measures require desperate counter-measures. This would drag the Queen, who has body-swerved political controversy during her immaculately-conducted reign of over 60 years, into the eye of a public maelstrom during its twilight. It is hard to believe that she would have spoken as she did last week were this not the case.

So this chain of events turns out to be the product of the character, frustrations and resentments of one man  not the inexorable forces of class struggle and historical materialism.

As Tuesdays Commons votes loom, it is sensible to presume that the Speaker will behave this week exactly as he did less than a fortnight ago. He prepared the way for the Governments record defeat by not selecting the so-called Murrison amendment, which was helpful to Ministers. And he had a point in arguing privately that if the Government wants to put a proposal to the House it should do so itself. It doesnt follow that because the referee is biased  as in this case  every single decision he makes is mistaken.

That amendment, which would provide a cut-off date for the backstop, is still floating around. So is a proposal backed by Graham Brady and Damian Green to replace the backstop with other means of minimising the effects of Brexit on the UK-Ireland land border. Green and other May-friendly Soft Brexiteers will be in conversation with May-friendly harder Brexiteers to find an amendment that works for the Government and can then be carried. After all, the Prime Ministers thinking seems to be that the EU wont make concessions, on the backstop or anything else, until it sees that the Commons is prepared to support something. If so, this logic is sound.

Both the main parties have a big choice to make as Tuesday approaches. For Labour, Jeremy Corbyn will be asking himself whether his party can support the Cooper amendment, thereby probably enabling it to pass, without setting a precedent for a future Labour Government. For if private bills can be used to wreck the plans of a Conservative-led Government, there is no instrinsic reason why they cant be used to wreck those of a Labour one. His Blairite and Brownite enemies could use the device to block socialism (as he sees it).

For the Conservatives, May will be pondering the likelihood of the Speaker not selecting backbench amendments designed to help her. It follows as the day the night that the Government must table its own backstop-related amendment to its own neutrally-termed motion. It will need to be robust  concentrated perhaps on the unilteral right of the UK to leave the arrangement if no other can be found.

If so, the European Research Group and other committed Brexiteers are likely to back it. So are Tory Soft Brexiteers and Remainers  on the ground that the EU is likely to reject it; that the Prime Minister will then be forced back to square one, and that she will then have no option other than to resume cross-party talks that will probably settle on a Norway-flavoured solution.

But perhaps the EU wont reject it  at least, not entirely. The jitters in Ireland last week, the recent intervention of Germanys Foreign Minister, rumblings from Poland and rumours from the Commission suggest that the EU may be prepared to compromise. Maybe  and maybe not. A Government amendment is not the best plan in the world but it would be the best plan that May has got.Colonel Richard Kemp was an infantry battalion commanding officer, headed the international terrorism team of the Joint Intelligence Organisation in the Cabinet Office, and was Chairman of the COBRA Intelligence Group and of the EU and Nato Intelligence Support Committee. Dr Lee Rotherham is Director of the Red Cell, and is Executive Director of Veterans for Britain.

This weeks Aachen summit declaring closer integration between Germany and France in defence and foreign policy will inevitably give rise to headlines about an EU military force. Commentators here in the UK often describe these developments as risible and unnecessary, like endless EUs directives on cucumbers, and look no further. But neglecting the details and the hazardous effects for the UK is a serious error.

To date, even many MPs still have failed to familiarise themselves with developments and the extent to which the UK has become involved. The topic has been almost absent from the public debate over the future shape of the post-Brexit deal, despite its consequences for defence and, more broadly, for the encompassing range of security and international relations issues with which the matter is closely bound.

So how does defence creep into the Brexit negotiations? The Barnier Model envisages a deal comprising four pillars, in which two are the old Justice and Home Affairs and Defence pillars, re-established from Maastricht Treaty days. The Chequers approach also envisaged a form of pillar structure in which both form separate units. In both cases, close institutional cooperation is anticipated, and Parliament does not seem to have been given much opportunity to consider the ramifications or its ability to provide future oversight, and safeguard national interests.

There are several risks arising from a lack of strategic reflection on the nature of those ties, given that the EU is now in a period of acceleration towards a defence union. A dispassionate audit of past trends, stated objectives, and highlighted ambitions clearly indicates that the side arrangements already being made during transition generate real risk for the UKs strategic global interests; and, consequently, that this element of the negotiation also needs a radical rethink, and that instructions to civil servants engaged in ongoing planning needs to change.

Consequently, I have reviewed the very recent history of these developments in a new paper, Brexits Troubled Flank  The Departure Deal and EU Defence Integration, written with Dr Lee Rotherham.

The paper sheds light on the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, alongside its twin, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which take an indisputable course of direction towards the declared aim of a common defence. We show how it has taken place over five phases, and now is advancing apace with a mandate that unblocks major integrational opportunities for the EU.

We briefly explain how this process is part of a wider horizon of integration across a range of other policy areas, meaning that firewalling within a close association agreement with the EU (such as Chequers provides) is ultimately an impossible task. And we contextualise UK historic engagement on defence with its European neighbours from the Treaty of Dunkirk onwards, showing the policy bipolarity between the sure anchor of NATO, and the flexing shift from multilateral intergovernmental arrangements between European states that the EU is now authorised to swallow up.

There are now four key threats from being too closely tied to the new landscape of EU Defence structures;

The pursuit of a single market in defence, which creates a new risk to the UKs independent strategic capability;

The creation of a major defence budget, with procurement leading the way, whereby UK finances may be diverted away from UK theatre requirements;

Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO)  the creation of structures that increasingly duplicate and in time will rival NATO, notwithstanding current shallow caveats;

The generation of common assets and common units, thus providing the kernel of a future common European standing army.

In the language of the Chequers Cabinet agreement and the White Paper that followed, the UK Government does talk in terms of the principality of NATO and of its separate status. But the pragmatic reality, when speaking with diplomats, is that European capitals are, behind the scenes, divided along very different faultlines. Different alliances flow over different aspects of future defence integration, with some governments prepared so sign off on certain arrangements while objecting to different proposals.

This fluidity creates a dangerous dynamic in Brussels negotiations, since it is the very prerequisite required for states to concede that ends up generating motion towards deeper defence union, and across a wider range of policy areas. As the process is slow, the evolution follows over time, but the nature of the EU treaties and the acquis communautaire means it never recedes, and the direction is one way.

For this very reason, expressions inserted at the demand of certain EU states that EU defence integration will not undermine NATO cannot be taken at face value. The aspiration is undermined by the practical effect over time of assigning strategic ambitions, creating big budgets, identifying defence obligations, harmonising forces, creating common units, and creating a single defence industry (with all the shutting down of peripheral factories that will follow). NATO is under real threat from this since the EU ambitions run on a steady long term trend.

The Government, meanwhile, is running a Brexit policy on defence that aspires to being institutionally close to the entities pursuing this process. It will therefore share the risks and damage when these policies develop. It will encourage elements of Whitehall to pursue even further the policy of the past 20 years of pooling resources in order to cut UK costs, and with them independent capability. Too close an institutional affiliation meanwhile leads to too close a UK orbit, and no prospect of an easy escape vector when the ongoing process of EU integration bites into the bone.

A Whitehall mantra of ad hoc participation contrasts with the heavy and legalistic obligations stated in the entry agreements that Whitehall has permitted and which the EU has no will to change, nor any requirement to do so.

Given proven trends, and demonstrable ambition, that time will come. The UK will then, by negligence, have contributed to a catastrophic defence rift between the continents of Europe and North America. And of more direct and immediate concern, it will have triggered the breakdown the unique and irreplaceable defence and security relationship that the UK has with the US.Danville, IL (61832)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 68F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 68F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Columbia, MO (65201)

Today

Thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

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Thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.Brunswick, GA (31520)

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Cloudy skies early with isolated thunderstorms developing late. Low near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early with isolated thunderstorms developing late. Low near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media after a meeting for signing an agreement on guarantees for the vote at the National Electoral Council (CNE) headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela March 2, 2018. Marco Bello | Reuters

Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt. The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy. Earlier Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council: "Let me be 100 percent clear  President Trump and I fully expect that our diplomats will continue to receive protections provided under the Vienna Convention. Do not test the United States on our resolve to protect our people." In the Security Council meeting, critics and supporters of Maduro's government faced off in a reflection of the world's deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country. During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support Guaido. "Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."

Demonstrators shout slogans while a barricades seen burning in the background during a demonstration against Nicolas Maduro policies. Rally against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and also to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of Marcos Perez Jimenez's dictatorship in Caracas. Roman Camacho | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying "to engineer a coup" against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security, and he accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government. Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force. Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next." Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez. On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuela's opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region. The Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Council's five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts. The leaders of two of those council nations  France and Britain  joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership." Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline. "Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."

Juan Guaido, President of Venezuela's National Assembly, reacts during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez in Caracas, Venezuela January 23, 2019. Carlos Garcia Rawlins | ReutersBy Wahidul Islam

Amidst all the debates of Citizenship Amendment Bill and the clutter of logics and illogic in support and against the bill, the ruling BJPs underpinning is mostly based on the fear factor that Assam is being inhabited by all illegal Bangladeshi Muslims, therefore influx of large number of Hindus from the neighbouring country is required to maintain the Hindu majority of the state.

Although constitution doesnt talk about a Hindu majority country but many ministers and politicians from the right wing BJP are very vocal about maintaining a Hindu majority. Himanta Bishwa Sarma, the Minister for P.W.D, Health and Finance, Assam had famously asked in 2016 asked the people of the state to choose their enemy  the 1-1.5 lakh people or the 55 lakh people?

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The agenda is to brand all the Muslims living in the state as Bangladeshi and create an artificial fear among the majority that Muslims would snatch away all their resources and rights in near future. As per the hate propaganda the state of Assam is full of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims roaming everywhere, in the streets, pavements, villages and towns.

The nationalists and patriots sometimes caught a few of them, beat them and then hand them over to police (whom I will call defunct since millions of Bangladeshis infiltrated under their nose and roaming freely if we believe the Chauvisnist propaganda).

If we agree in principle that there were no Muslims in Assam during partition and most the Muslims of Assam are illegal Bangladeshis (according to some ministers and politicians the figure is 4 million) a few questions would arise in this context.

1. Wasnt there any Muslims in Assam during the time of partition?

2. Who were Fakher Uddin Ali Ahmed and Sir Syed Muhammad Sadullah or Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin? (Ask google if there are no answers)

3. Why the number of Muslim MLAs was 34 during the partition era (as per the list in http://assamassembly.gov.in/mla-1946-52), who were they?

4. As per the propaganda districts like Barpeta, Goalpara and Dhubri are occupied by Bangladeshis who migrated and settled down there by uprooting the majority post independence era, to be precise after 1971 if we think that Assam accord is constitutionally valid and legal. Then how come the MLAs of those districts were mostly Muslims during the first and second decades of Independence?

5. If the process of NRC is not efficient at all and Bangladeshis made their way to it, are the Government denying that thousands of civil and non civil officers who have dedicated their time and energy for the process are not loyal and have been sold to Bangladeshis?

6. Since a huge spectrum of the political debate in Assam is centred on either bashing AIUDF and its leader Badruddin Ajmal, doesnt he have the right to fight election?

7. If Badruddin Ajmal and his alikes are Bangladeshis why doesnt the Government of Assam take action and bar them from politics? And if they are genuine citizens of this country why is there a problem of being them in politics.

8. Most importantly how come millions of Bangladeshis infiltrated through the border when we have one of the worlds most disciplined and dedicated armed force protecting the Indo-Bangladesh border?

The real issue is about having 34% Muslims in Assam and as many as 14 Muslim MLAs in the assembly and having a respectable number of political representation. Although those politicians mostly keep themselves away from raising their voice for the interests of the community but the headache for the BJP and their Chauvisnist alikes is that there are some political representations of Muslim at least for the namesake. In short the issue is not about protecting Assam from illegal migrants or Bangladeshis, or loving the country, or having sympathy for the persecuted minority in the neighbourhood, but about setting foot in West Bengal through sympathy and to get maximum benefit in national election by misleading the general public.

Wahidul Islam is based in Assam and can be reached at [email protected]

Previously, the U.S. has cited national security as reason to not use Chinese equipment, alleging the equipment could provide backdoor access for the Chinese government into U.S. networks. Since 2012, Huawei has been barred from selling equipment in the U.S. because of security concerns by the U.S. government .

Huawei is under mounting international pressure about the security of its technology, and is part of the larger narrative of the U.S.-China trade battle. The U.S. has been urging diplomatic allies such as Britain, Poland and Germany to bar China -based firms from building its 5G, according to the Times.

The Trump administration has been pressuring American allies to bar Huawei and other Chinese tech firms from building the infrastructure needed to produce the next generation of ultra-high speed internet, according to the New York Times , amid a high stakes economic battle between the two countries.

Although Huawei has denied these claims, Reuters reported last month that Trump was considering an executive order to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, two of China's biggest network equipment companies.

According to The Times report, the U.S. government sees fifth generation, or 5G, network, as part of a new arms race where the winner would gain an economic, intelligence and military edge for much of this century. The 5G standard is meant to allow more devices to be on one internet connection, with faster device communications and data transfers. Competition in the telecommunication space to move to 5G is fierce.

In a related move, China's envoy to the European Union warned on Sunday that excluding Huawei could hamper 5G development, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Trump's campaign against Huawei, the world's largest maker of networking equipment, and other Chinese firms occurs at the same time China and the U.S. try to resolve their trade disputes under a tariff cease-fire that is expected to end in March.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month agreed to halt any new levies to give diplomacy a chance. However, when asked about trade negotiations with China last week, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, the U.S. is still "miles and miles" from a deal.

Read the full New York Times report here.

-- Reuters and CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.President Donald Trump speaks with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2018.

And by 50 percent to 37 percent, Americans blame Trump, rather than Democrats in Congress, for the debacle. That result reflects their disagreement with his stance on the issue that caused it.

The poll's results showed that by 63 percent to 28 percent , a margin greater than two to one, Americans believe the country is "off on the wrong track" rather than "headed in the right direction." That's significantly worse than the 56 percent to 33 percent finding from the December NBC/WSJ poll, taken before the shutdown.

The government shutdown that just ended has deepened Americans' discontent with the state of the nation--and they place the blame primarily on President Donald Trump, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed.

Pluralities disapprove the president's handling of border security and immigration issues, and say would-be immigrants across the southern border with Mexico would strengthen rather than weaken America. A 52 percent majority opposes construction of a wall or fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, while 45 percent favor it.

Unlike some other national polls, the NBC/WSJ survey did not show a decline in Trump's overall approval rating. That assessment, buoyed by majority support for his handling of the economy, remained unchanged from December: 43 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove.

Underneath that unimpressive showing lies sharply negative assessments of the president. Just one-third of Americans express confidence that Trump has the right goals and policies; an even lower proportion, 28 percent, express confidence that he has the right personal characteristics to be president.

On both counts, he compares unfavorably to public assessments of his predecessors: Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

By 47 percent to 36 percent, Americans rate Trump negatively rather than positively for "being a good negotiator," the characteristic he has long claimed as his signature quality. He fares even worse on "being steady and reliable" (53 percent negative, 32 percent positive), "being knowledgeable and experienced enough" (54 percent negative, 32 percent positive), "being honest and trustworthy" (58 percent negative, 28 percent positive) and "having high personal and ethical standards" (58 percent negative, 24 percent positive).

The telephone survey of 900 adults, conducted Jan. 20-23, carries a margin for error of 3.27 percentage points.Charles Koch Patrick T. Fallon | The Washington Post | Getty Images

A broad coalition of business groups is pledging to hire workers with criminal backgrounds in the wake of a new federal law aimed at reducing incarcerations. The movement is spearheaded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, who enlisted the support of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association and the American Staffing Association have signed on as well. Together, the groups represent businesses that employ roughly 60 percent of the American workforce. "As business people, we have so many opportunities we aren't even aware of to make our country better and help people improve their lives. This is one of them," Koch said in a statement. "I challenge all of us, as business leaders, to take this important next step together." Koch announced the initiative Sunday at a retreat in California, with a direct appeal to donors to his network of philanthropy and advocacy groups. More than 700 people attended the meeting, representing businesses that employ more than 2 million workers.

The Koch network has long pushed to overhaul the nation's criminal justice system. The group met with President Donald Trump at the White House last spring on the issue, leveraged relationships with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, and urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to make a deal. The result was a rare bipartisan bill that Congress passed last year, just days before the government shutdown began. The First Step Act reduces prison terms for nonviolent drug offenses and gives judges more discretion in setting those sentences. It also eliminates the "three-strikes" rule that imposed a mandatory life sentence for three or more drug convictions. The sentence is now 25 years. The legislation could also have an impact on the nation's workforce, with roughly 650,000 people released from prison each year. SHRM Chief Executive Johnny Taylor said businesses have a responsibility to ensure former inmates have the opportunity to find a job and stay out of jail. "Legislation is interesting, but it ultimately only matters if it results in behavioral change," Taylor said. "We can have a narrative around the importance of hiring the formerly incarcerated, and it really can all fall apart if employers -- primarily HR professionals -- don't make it happen."

From left, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Cory Booker, D-N.J., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., conduct a news conference in the Capitol on the passage of the criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act, on December 19, 2018. ( Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

'You don't have to lie'Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify following a break during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee joint hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Facebook's reported plans to integrate its three messaging platforms could very well lead to additional regulatory scrutiny for a company that's already under a legal microscope.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Facebook plans to combine the technical infrastructure behind WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, though the apps will continue to function as separate services. The paper cited four people familiar with the company's plans.

CNBC spoke with several antitrust lawyers who all said that Facebook's move is unlikely to bring new antitrust action against the company. But the public debate quickly started percolating.

Marc Rotenberg, president and executive director the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told the Times that Facebook's plans would be "a terrible outcome for internet users," and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) took to Twitter to voice his concern.

"This is why there should have been far more scrutiny during Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp which now clearly seem like horizontal mergers that should have triggered antitrust scrutiny," Khanna wrote.

tweet

The last year has been brutal for Facebook. The company is facing intense pressure over its privacy practices and platform manipulation by foreign actors. At a hearing of international lawmakers in the U.K. in November, a Canadian representative suggested antitrust might be the solution to Facebook's problems.

"What we're regulating ... are the symptoms," said Charlie Angus, Canada's vice chairman of the House of Commons' standing committee on access to information, privacy and ethics. "Perhaps the best regulation would be antitrust."

Proponents of breaking up Facebook have suggested spinning out WhatsApp or Instagram. The company's family of apps sees north of 2.5 billion users each month and dominates mobile traffic. But Daniel Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said that combining the back-end technology of the services shouldn't factor into that issue.Stocks may be on the brink of another correction.

Despite 2019's strong start, the Economic Cycle Research Institute's Lakshman Achuthan believes the market remains in a danger zone, because there's evidence economic growth is still decelerating.

"The elephant in the room remains the cyclical slowdown. And, as long as that slowdown is in play... the risk of a correction remains. It hasn't gone away," the firm's co-founder said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

Achuthan, an economic forecaster, draws his conclusion from a chart showing Index corrections and slowdowns over the last decade. The shaded areas represent U.S. growth rate cycle downturns.

"It's really about the direction of economic growth. It accelerates and decelerates. It goes in cycles," he said, noting that a during a slowdown the "risk of a 10  20 percent correction pops way up."

Achuthan used the same chart last year to help build his correction prediction. His indicators began showing signs of a growing economic slowdown in late 2017. A few months later, he officially turned cautious.

"We were very alone last year saying 'hey, there's a slowdown coming,'" he said. "They bring with them a lot of stock market correction risk."

By last summer on "Trading Nation," Achuthan was warning investors that a 10 to 20 percent correction would likely hit stocks. By Dec. 24, the Dow and were trading 20 percent off their all-time highs.

Stocks have staged a considerable comeback since then. So far in January, the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 6 percent. However, Achuthan contends nothing has fundamentally changed since last year's downdraft.

"We're still in this slowdown. There is more to come. It is not over," he said. "It's not an all clear signal until those leading indicators turn back up."

But it's not all bad news.

He is not predicting the economic slowdown will turn into a recession. According to Achuthan, it's possible growth will begin re-accelerating within the next couple of quarters  particularly if international markets show signs of recovering.

"The United States does exist inside the global economy, and we're plugged in. It's important to us," Achuthan said. "Maybe that's where we need to see the bottoming first."In an effort to secure the best talent on the market, more and more companies are expanding their applicant pool to include professionals without a traditional college degree.

Job search site Glassdoor compiled a list of who some of these companies are, with top employers like Apple, Google and IBM making the cut. Recently, FlexJobs examined that list to see which companies are also in their database with open positions that allow employees to work from anywhere. (FlexJobs notes that while some of the available work-from-home positions at these companies do require a college degree, there are many open positions that don't.)

Take a look at the list below to see which flexible companies you should consider working for if you don't have a four-year college education:By Milinda Ghosh Roy

Kolkata, Jan 27 (IANS) While the habit of wasting food at festivities, parties or even at household dinners has become an increasingly callous trend in urban living, a computer science teacher from West Bengals Asansol is working diligently to put a leash on food wastage and save hundreds from hunger.

Chandra Sekhar Kundu, the founder of Food, Education and Economic Development (FEED), collects excess untouched food from college and office canteens everyday and distributes it among nearly 200 poor children from Kolkata and Asansol.

Apart from supplying the daily meal to the underfed for the last four years, Kundu and his associates cook fresh food every night for street children in at least three places in Asansol and provides them necessary lessons on food education and nutrition.

So many people in our nation stay hungry. It is not possible for us to feed them all but at least if we stop wasting food and give away the excess to those who need it, I feel we can prevent many from spending another night on an empty stomach, said Kundu, also called the food-man by many in his neighbourhood.

I did an RTI on food wastage in 2016 and found out that around 22,000 crore tonnes of foodgrain is wasted in India every year. If we can save only 10 percent of that, it would be enough to match our governments arrangements for mid-day meals each year, he said.

Kundus life changed forever on the night of his son Srideeps birthday party in 2015 when he went outside to dump some spare food and found two street children scavenging for pieces of chicken from a dustbin.

Pained by the sight, I brought them to my home and provided them whatever we could arrange. I felt extremely guilty for throwing away the excess dishes minutes ago and wondered why I never gave it much of a thought before. I could not sleep that night, he reminisced.

Within a few months of the incident, Kundu made a short film on food wastage to raise awareness on the issue. The effort was largely appreciated by his colleagues and students at the Asansol Engineering College.

Kick-starting his tirade against the food wasters, he set up an NGO named Bengal Save Food and Save Life Brigade with his team of students and fellow teachers from the college, who initially collected the extra food from the college canteen and fed 15 to 20 poor children dwelling in Asansol station.

We formed FEED in 2016 and approached the canteen owners of a number of educational institutions and offices in Asansol and Kolkata. Today we have tie-ups with the CISF barracks in Asansol, IIM Calcutta and a few other offices under a project called Commitment 365 days where the canteens of the respective organisations provide us their excess food on a daily basis.

We provide day meals to around 180 street children every day with this food, Kundu explained.

The street children living under the Gariahat flyover in south Kolkata and a slum in Joka, among other places, are the beneficiaries of the scheme.

While the day meals are collected and supplied, the volunteers of the organisation cook fresh food for the poverty stricken as they do not want to serve dishes stored for a long time

It is difficult to collect food at night as it might be too late for the children. It would be unhygienic to serve them food from the afternoon. So our volunteers cook fresh food at two places of Asansol. Close to a hundred kids have dinner every night, he said, adding that the initiative is partly funded by the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Buoyed by the success, Kundu has started another initiative called Share your special day where people from all walks of life can make their birthdays, marriage or anniversaries memorable by filling the plates of under-fed kids with nutritious food.

Several people have come forwarded and contributed since we started it almost two years back. Many newly-weds join us to celebrate their anniversaries while some parents contribute on their kids birthday. It seems the bright smiles in the faces of those kids makes their special day a bit extra special, said Kundu, who regularly posts pictures of those children and the contributors on his Facebook page.

We have expansion plans. We are in talks with a number of organisations and eateries in Kolkata so that more such children can be helped. We also need a refrigerator to be able to store food for longer period and a vehicle for transporting it, he added.

(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Milinda Ghosh Roy can be contacted at [email protected])Welcome to Beachwood, a progressive and dynamic city recognized by 24/7 Wall Street in 2020 as one of Americas 50 Best Cities to Live. Editors and businesses nationwide have taken notice of our outstanding municipal services, innovative economic-development policies, low tax rates and awaThe complaint asserts that since biblical times, Judea and Samaria have been part and parcel of the Land of Israel, as reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and an unbroken line of historical and archaeological sources spanning more than 3,000 years.CLEVELAND, Ohio  A wheelchair didnt stop Mary Atwater from joining about 1,500 other Ohioans who came to the inaugural Marijuana Expo Cleveland Saturday, an event aimed at raising awareness and educating the public about the fast-growing medical cannabis industry.

I have multiple sclerosis, paralysis on one side of my face, and a lot of chronic pain, and I want to learn more about medical marijuana. I see some things on TV and Ive read some things about it, but I want to talk to some people in the field, said Atwater, 66, of Cleveland. I dont know if it will be helpful or not, but I want to know more about it.

Atwater represented the sentiment of most of the people attending the event held at Red Space in Cleveland, at 2400 Superior Ave. Some already had medical marijuana cards, & some were seeking jobs, but it seemed like everyone was hungry for more information.

The event was hosted by Ohio Marijuana Card, a start-up business that has state-certified doctors throughout Ohio who specialize in recommending medical marijuana for qualifying patients. Tickets were sold in advance for $8 to about 1,200 people, and Amanda Ferdig, head event coordinator, estimated that another 300 people paid $10 at the door. Some traveled from other parts of Ohio including Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton.

This turnout is better than we expected. We thought we would put together a small, hometown expo, but clearly the people wanted more, she said. Now were planning to host three more events this year in Cincinnati, Columbus andwell, we havent decided the fourth city yet.

Randy Shaffer, marketing director for Ohio Marijuana Card, said people are starving for information about the fast-growing medical marijuana industry.

Right now, theres a line of about 150 people outside waiting to get inside. Were letting people in when security tells us we can, he said late Saturday morning. This is a great turnout for a first event.

The event attracted 32 vendors that included two dispensaries, wellness-related companies, a start-up magazine, the Cleveland School of Cannabis, and a 24-year-old custom T-shirt and production company based in Painesville that just launched a new cannabis division a few months ago.

We started looking at this industry about a year ago, but when we heard about this expo three weeks ago we decided to go for it and weve created 48 designs so far," said Pat White, co-owner of Cannabis Custom Tees, noting that he was concerned when he looked online and there were only 400 attendees registered in advance. He said he couldnt have been happier with the turnout, which helped validate the decision to launch a cannabis division.

If this event was marketed more, Ill bet there would have been a whole lot more people here today. Just look around. Im looking forward to being part of their next event now.

Both he and his wife, Joey, said theyre excited about the opportunities in this new field, because theyre making T-shirts for consumers, people in the medical field and people working in the industry. Some of the T-shirt sayings include, Natures Medicine, "Legalize Cannabis, Chronic Relief and Alcohol Kills Cannabis Chills.

Dr. William Kedia, a co-owner of Terrasana, a dispensary that plans to open its first of four locations in Garfield Heights in late February, said hes passionate about the opportunity to be in this field. Hes been a primary care doctor for about 20 years. His father, a urologist for 40 years, with at least 100,000 patients over the decades, is among his partners.

Im a primary care physician in Stow and Tallmadge for about 20 years. In all of my years of being a physician I have not seen this level of excitement for anything like this. Nearly every day patients are asking me about medical marijuana, and believe it or not, the average age of these people inquiring is about 65, he said, noting its one of the reasons he decided to get into the field.

Kedia said the other reason that he decided to be a dispensary owner is because hes seen first-hand  way too many times  the detrimental effect of opioids on patients.

When it comes to dealing with chronic pain, the only option is getting on narcotics, and Ive seen people get addicted with just two doses on IVs, he said. My passion will always be helping people. Thats why I decided to get into this field. I kept asking myself, what more can I do, especially with this opiod epidemic.

Our group is very focused on medicine before anything else, he said. Otherwise, why do it? Look at this turnout. People want information. The No. 1 question weve been getting today is when do you open, followed by, will you have products?

Kevin Greene, vice president of admissions and recruiting at the Cleveland School of Cannabis, said most people stopping by their booth were just trying to navigate this new field.

People are trying to understand what types of jobs are available in this new industry, and they dont realize that with a new industry you need everything, and some of those jobs have nothing to do with being close to the plant, he said. Theres all sorts of opportunities.You will receive 5-day a week delivery of the Citizen Tribune newspaper to your home or business, plus full, ad-free access to CitizenTribune.com as well as full access to the Electronic Edition of the newspaper.



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Only $198.95 per year after promotional period.Hala China, a joint initiative by Meraas and Dubai Holding, will bring a variety of Chinese experiences to Dubai for a month of celebrations to usher in the new Chinese year that begins on February 5 this year.



Some of Dubais most vibrant destinations, including Al Seef, Bluewaters, Boxpark, City Walk, Dubai Parks and Resorts, Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR), La Mer, Madinat Jumeirah, The Beach, Global Village and The Outlet Village, will be decorated for the occasion from January 28 to February 23 to host a packed schedule of activities as the city continues to embrace Chinese culture.



Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, chairman of the board of directors at Hala China, said: Hosting the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside China in Dubai this year allows us to further contribute to realising the pioneering tourism vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and to diversify the emirates economic landscape."



Given the range of Chinese-inspired events and activities we are set to witness across some of Dubais most innovative destinations, we are confident that the Chinese diaspora and tourists will enjoy the month-long festivities. The celebrations will demonstrate why the citys state-of-the-art infrastructure and inclusive culture make it an ideal home for Chinese expatriates, he said.



He added: Hala Chinas Chinese New Year celebrations extend beyond just two nations and will appeal to anyone interested in learning about new cultures.



It is estimated that more than 270,000 Chinese expats live in the UAE. From January to November 2018, the number of transit tourists from China visiting Dubai reached nearly 800,000, representing a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent. The inaugural Chinese New Year celebrations at City Walk in February 2018 attracted more than 22,000 Chinese and other visitors. This year, that number is expected to rise even further, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Peoples Republic of China confirming its active participation in the initiative.



Tan Li, acting consul-general of the Peoples Republic of China in Dubai, said: The extensive list of Chinese cultural activities that Hala China will host in Dubai over the next month is a shining example of the mutual respect and progressive vision China and the UAE share, and their proactive contribution to each others cultural awareness and social integration."



For the people of China, Chinese New Year is a time of great hope for the future and reflection on the past. The fact that Dubai is embracing our cultural heritage in such a generous, open and welcoming way speaks of the strengthening social ties between China and the UAE, she said.



A Royal Ceremony

Distinguished members of the UAE royal family, UAE government ministers and leading diplomats from the Consulate-General of the Peoples Republic of China in Dubai will attend a glamorous gala event at the Bvlgari Resort Dubai to launch the Chinese New Year festivities.



The dignitaries in attendance will break bread over a lavish Chinese menu, complete with a tea ceremony and exquisite food carvings, created by a leading Chinese food culture exhibition group.

The expected presence of a roster of VIP celebrities from the UAE and China at the official opening of the Dubai-hosted Chinese New Year celebrations testifies to the importance of the Hala China initiative in advancing bilateral synergies.



Chinese Buffet Bonanza

One of the highlights of the festivities will be the multi-faceted Food Festival. To start with, the Exchange Programme  taking place on January 27 at The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management  will have the students of the academy learn how to cook authentic Chinese and Arabic food from a well-known Dubai-based chef. The exchange will bring the best of both cuisines to life on the plate.



On January 29, Hala China is set to run a TV cooking competition that will see 10 top master chefs from China and 10 revered UAE-based chefs go head-to-head at Nikki Beach in front of a live audience, with Dubais restaurateurs and foodie influencers judging the outcome of the cook-off. The chefs, split into five teams of two, will have just 20 minutes to whip up an appetizer, a soup, a main course with meat, a vegetarian main course and a dessert.



Dragons on the Prowl

From January 28 to February 1, surprise performances inspired by Chinese traditions will unfold in the lively public spaces of Al Seef, Bluewaters, Boxpark, City Walk, Dubai Parks and Resorts, JBR, La Mer, Madinat Jumeirah, The Beach, Global Village and The Outlet Village. Among the performances will be demonstrations of the Chinese martial art kung fu, fashion shows presenting traditional Chinese garments qipao and hanfu, classic Chinese dances such as the Snow Lion, and childrens street dance.



On February 1, Dubais vibrant streets will set the stage for the spectacular Grand Parade, starring enormous dragons, acrobatic performers and much more. Al Mustaqbal Street at City Walk has been designated to host the parade of over 40,000 participants that is certain to generate a roar of approval from the audience.



From February 1 to 9, Dubai Parks and Resorts will host a sprawling Chinese Market featuring merchant exhibitions, Chinese craftsmanship displays, opera performances and Chinese art stalls.



From February 7 through to the end of the festival on February 23, up to 30 stands will assemble along the streets of Al Seef for the Food Market that is set to offer visitors the chance to sample all things deliciously Chinese, from spring rolls to dumplings and wontons, as well as favourites from the region.



Hala China, an initiative by Meraas and Dubai Holding, focuses on exploring opportunities that facilitate economic development through tourism, trade and investment. The initiative features a year-long calendar of events, including food festivals, fashion shows, sporting competitions, as well as music and cultural festivals. - TradeArabia News ServiceRobin Kuntz was standing behind a table at Memorial City Mall Saturday morning trying to encourage shoppers to join a stem cell and bone marrow international donor registry when she looked up and saw a man shed never before met but immediately recognized from photographs as the person who saved her life.

Kuntz, a 59-year-old retired flight attendant in Houston, was crying as she was hugged Jason Kippenbrock, a 28-year-old from Indiana who had come to surprise her at the donor outreach effort. Kippenbrock donated his stem cells seven years ago when he heard he was a perfect match for Kuntz who, at the time, had an aggressive and deadly form of leukemia. He donated his cells through a fairly simple blood procedure in Indiana and the cells were taken to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center where they were implanted in Kuntz. She has since completely recovered.

They both agreed to waive their anonymity a year later and have been trading emails and Facebook greetings ever since. They figured theyd meet someday and Kuntzs daughter arranged the get-together by flying Kippenbrock to Houston so he could surprise her mother at the event.

Meeting him today is No. 2, Kuntz said, of the greatest moments in her life, a moment that played out on the side of the Abercrombie & Fitch store at the mall. No. 1, she said, was having her daughter.

The German-based international donor network DKMS sponsored the booth to encourage more people 18 to 55 years old to provide samples of their DNA by a simple swabbing of their mouths. The samples are then sent off to be analyzed and put in a big donor directory that can be accessed by transplant physicians looking for stem cell and bone marrow donor matches. Only about 2 percent of the population is in the directory, said Amy Roseman, donor recruitment coordinator.

Josh Alexander, a lawyer in Houston, stopped by to have his mouth swabbed. For him it was personal because his aunt received a bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia that prolonged her life. Another relative received a bone marrow transplant in Dallas after finding a match through DKMS.

Im trying to help any way I can, said Alexander.

Several well-wishers stopped by to shake Kippenbrocks hand and call him a hero. He said he was glad he could help.

I dont know when I thought twice about it, he said, recalling the moment he got the call asking if he could donate his stem cells because he was a perfect match for someone who needed them.

Kippenbrock joined the donor network when he was a freshman at the University of Notre Dame in 2009 when audience members at a Christmas concert were asked to get their mouths swabbed during intermission. He didnt think much about it again until three years later when he got a call that he was a perfect match. He received injections for five days to prepare the stem cells for removal and then it was like donating blood.

A year later, he got some great news that the recipient of his stem cells was doing well.

Its pretty amazing, said Kippenbrock, who graduated from medical school at Indiana University last year and is in his first year of residency in internal medicine in Indianapolis.

lynn.sixel@chron.com

twitter.com/lmsixelAirbus Helicopters delivered 356 rotorcraft and logged gross orders for 413 helicopters (net: 381) in 2018 (up from 350 gross orders in 2017), maintaining its lead in the civil & parapublic market, the company said.



It also booked 148 orders for light twin-engine helicopters of the H135/H145 family and secured 15 orders for the next-generation H160. At the end of last year, the overall backlog increased to 717 helicopters.



Our commercial performance in 2018 demonstrates the resilience we have developed as a company to help us navigate what remains a challenging environment, said Bruno Even, Airbus Helicopters CEO.



Even though the civil & parapublic market remains at a low level worldwide, we have managed to maintain our global leadership thanks to our wide and modern portfolio of products and services and our international footprint.



Meanwhile, we have increased our market share in the military sector by securing major contracts with leading armed forces worldwide, with best-in-class solutions. These positive trends give us the means to prepare the future and continue our transformation, with innovation at our core and customer loyalty at heart, he added.



In 2018, Airbus Helicopters delivered the first of 100 H135s for China in Qingdao, where a dedicated final assembly line will serve the growing demand of the Chinese market for civil & parapublic helicopters. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Government Flying Service took delivery of the first H175s in public services configuration.



Last year also proved successful for the Super Puma family which demonstrated its versatility by being selected in key military campaigns, while attracting new civil & parapublic customers with repurposed H225s previously operated on the oil & gas market. Likewise, 2018 proved to be a very positive year for the NH90, which attracted orders for 28 units in Qatar while being selected by Spain in the frame of a follow-on order for 23 units.



Key programme milestones were achieved in 2018, including the power-on and ground testing of the CityAirbus electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology demonstrator, ahead of a maiden flight expected early 2019. The first H160 in serial configuration entered flight trials in 2018, while the VSR700 unmanned aerial system demonstrator performed its first unmanned flights at the end of the year.  TradeArabia News ServiceLuxembourg-based Tenaris, a leading supplier of tubes and related services, has closed its previously-announced acquisition from a private group of 47.79 per cent of the shares of Saudi Steel Pipe Company (SSP).



SSP is a welded steel producer listed on the Saudi stock market, for a total amount of SR529.8 million (approximately $141 million).



SSPs facilities are located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and have a manufacturing capacity of 360,000 tonnes per year. The company, which started its operations in 1980 and serves energy, industrial and commercial segments, is qualified to supply products with major national oil companies in the region, including Saudi Aramco.



Tenaris will begin consolidating SSPs results from January 21, and together will have more than 1,000 employees in Saudi Arabia.



Tenaris has been serving the Saudi market for decades, and the combined portfolios coupled with the strengthened technical capabilities will allow the company to better meet customers requirements.



The result of the transaction is expected to expand Tenariss industrial presence in Saudi Arabia, one of the largest markets for OCTG (oil country tubular goods) and line pipe products, and the range of products it supplies to Saudi Aramco.



Since its first industrial investment in Saudi Arabia in 2010, Tenaris has continuously invested in the expansion of its local operations, supporting the industrialization of the country.



The official integration of Saudi Steel Pipe into Tenaris marks an important step to further expand the companys footprint and capabilities in Saudi Arabia, said Mariano Armengol, who has been appointed as managing director and chief executive officer for SSP.



I would like to recognise the efforts of both Tenaris and SSP teams who contributed to the successful closing of this acquisition. We are very positive to what the future holds in terms of business growth and people development, Armengol added.



Ahmed Al Debasi, SSPs former managing director and newly appointed chairman of the board of directors, said: We are pleased to join Tenaris, a global leader who shares our industrial legacy, our commitment to customers and our willingness to contribute to Saudi Arabias oil and gas development.



The integration will strengthen our technical capabilities, allowing us to better meet customer requirements and become an industrial hub for the region, he added.



SSP operates five pipe production lines, covering an outside diameter range from -inch to 20-inch outside diameter which complements Tenariss existing offering in Saudi Arabia.



Tenaris premium OCTG threading facility in Dammam covers a range from 4  inches to 14 inches for the threading of full length pipes and accessories, with an annual capacity to produce 120,000 tonnes.



The combined portfolio will provide Saudi Aramco and regional customers with a comprehensive range of products, which includes welded pipes, commercial pipes and a full range of line pipes, as well as expanded services offer incorporating coating and bending, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceSmart Dubai has revealed the results of the Happiness Index 2018, where the emirate scored 90 per cent for customer happiness levels during interactions with government and private sector entities, a media report said.



The entities with the highest happiest levels under the Large Government Entities category were Dubai Electricity and Water Authority with 94.87 per cent, Dubai Police with 87.16 per cent, and Roads and Transport Authority & Dubai Municipality with 84 per cent, reported Dubai Media Office.



As for the Medium-Sized Government Entities with More Than 20,000 Votes category, Dubai Customs came in first with 97.49 per cent, followed by the Dubai Land Department and Dubai Courts with 81.65 per cent and 76.99 per cent, respectively.



Meanwhile, in the Medium-Sized Government Entities with Less Than 20,000 Votes category, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority came in first with 91.70 per cent, the General Civil Aviation Authority came in second with 88.83 per cent, and the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation came in third with 82.72 per cent.



In the Private Sector Category, Al Masraf Arab Bank for Investment & Foreign Trade came out on top, followed by RAK Bank and Joyalukkas Exchange in second and third place, respectively.



The number of votes cast by customers at government and private sector entities in 2018 totalled 8 million, collected from 172 institutions that have deployed Happiness Meters at customer centres and online platforms. The institutions comprise 43 Government entities and 129 private companies. The Happiness Meter can be found in 960 service centres across the city, as well as 273 websites and smart applications.



Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, director general of Smart Dubai, said: The Happiness Index is an essential instrument that provides access to feedback from Dubais residents and visitors about happiness levels when conducting experiences across the city.



We are committed to continuously developing and improving Government services, in an effort to further improve Dubais Happiness Index score. Our ultimate goal is to raise our happiness levels to 95 per cent by 2021, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai.



We are grateful to all the Government and private sector entities that have collaborated with Smart Dubai, which resulted in a significant boost to happiness scores, driving us forward in our quest to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world, Dr Aisha added. Furthermore, these efforts helped raise awareness of smart services and their importance in peoples lives, reaffirming the effectiveness of our plans and strategies in accelerating the emirates transformation into a full-fledged smart city.



Two separate metrics were used to calculate the Happiness Index score, namely: rate of interactions with the Happiness Meter on smart channels, which accounts for 30 per cent of the total score, and customer votes at service centres, which account for 70 per cent.



The results were then split into four main categories: Large Government Entities with a high volume of customers, Medium-Sized Government Entities with More Than 20,000 Votes; Medium-Sized Government Entities with Less Than 20,000 Votes, and Private Sector Entities.



The Happiness Index is part of the ambitious Happiness Agenda initiative, launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in May 2016 to quantify and analyse customer happiness levels when interacting with all of Dubais government and private sector services. The Happiness Agenda helps accelerate efforts to set plans and roadmaps for spreading happiness in the community and the nation.Beto O'Rourke, who ran in the 2018 Senate race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and is a potential 2020 candidate for president, is no stranger to making the national political headlines. Now, the former Democratic congressman, 46, is in the spotlight for a different reason.

On Wednesday, Mother Jones magazine published an unearthed 2013 video of O'Rourke performing with his former band, The Sheeps, at the now-closed Moontime Pizza in El Paso. The footage shows O'Rourke singing "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones while wearing a tight onesie and sheep mask.

RELATED: Beto O'Rourke won't rule out 2020 presidential run

Apparently, disguises were a regular part of the punk rock cover band's shows.

"Our persona was that we were a very famous band from New Zealand and we didn't want people to know our true identities  that's why we wore masks," Sheeps bassist Ailbhe Cormack told Mother Jones. "I think people followed along with the mystery of it, but they knew who we were."

Between 2003 and 2004, Mother Jones reports that The Sheeps played three shows in the El Paso area, including a performance at Moontime Pizza in December 2003.

By the time they played their final show in 2004 at T-Lounge, some band members had lost their sheep masks. Video footage by "elephantandseal," posted here, shows members wearing brown paper bags over their heads instead.

In addition to The Sheeps, O'Rourke played in two other bands. He was once a member of the punk rock band, Foss, which toured the United States and Canada before breaking up in the '90s, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Then, nearly a decade later, after starting a web design company and eyeing a career in politics, O'Rourke not only formed The Sheeps, but also the Fragile Gang rock band, according to Mother Jones.

Although O'Rourke stopped performing with Fragile Gang after two of its members, Klahr and Cormack, moved to Los Angeles, the band, still in existence, plays on.

O'Rourke acknowledged that a career in music was not in the cards for the El Paso native.

"I wasn't that good at it," he said in a 2017 Houston Chronicle article.

He also was feeling pressure from his father to take a more serious career path. "He won't say it, but the expectation is: We didn't take out loans for you to go to Columbia and then [play] in a punk band your whole life," reports the Houston Chronicle.

RELATED: Beto O'Rourke meets with local bands to jam out in Houston

However, O'Rourke has managed to keep his love of music alive. During his 2018 Senate race against Cruz, he performed onstage with Willie Nelson in Austin and met up with local bands in Houston to enjoy some music and raise money for his campaign.

What's more, Mother Jones reports, O'Rourke brought a fog machine to his concession speech and filmed himself playing air drums on the steering wheel during road trips.

Marcy de Luna is a digital reporter specializing in social media, the famous, and food. You can follow her on Twitter @MarcydeLuna and Facebook @MarcydeLuna. Read her stories on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | Marcy.deLuna@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageEtihad Etisalat (Mobily), a mobile network operator in Saudi Arabia, and Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, have launched the first Joint ICT Academy among operators in the kingdom.



The academys opening ceremony was held on January 24, at the Mobily headquarters, in the presence of Maziad Al Harbi, chief technology officer at Mobily; and Huaweis chief executive officer for Saudi Arabia Zhang Dongliang, said a statement from the company.



The facility is aimed at minimising the gap between the vision 2030 talent demand and the supply in the ICT industry, it stated.



Both Mobily and Huawei have developed a new elites programme to embrace the 2030 ICT vision - which provides Mobily ICT employees with knowledge, equips them with the needed skills for future challenges and ultimately develops the Saudi ICT sector, it added.



Al Harbi said: We are passionate to join forces with Huawei to ensure that Saudi Arabia remains at the forefront of the latest trends and technologies.



Innovation is vital to enabling the kingdom to transform into a digital country, and at Mobily we are committed to deploying the most advanced technologies. That is why we are aiming to cultivate 300 Huawei certified ICT talents for Mobily before 2020, remarked Al Harbi.



Dongliang said: We are proud that Mobily has selected our company as a partner to help them align with the kingdoms vision.



Our vision is to empower this regions generation and develop the necessary talents and skills that would help accelerate the countrys digital transformation, he added.



The Joint ICT Academy, said the top official, will also give the chance to college students who have demonstrated interest in the ICT sector to enroll.



The academy hosts multiple creative learning resources such as books, lab guides, eLearning (Cloud Learning), online tests, along with various simulation tools, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceA Montgomery County nonprofit group is helping a Conroe family rebuild their home and lives after an early-morning fire Jan. 2 destroyed everything they owned.

Sam Campbell and his partner Mandi Wood say their family of six were lucky to escape the fire, which happened so quickly that day.

In three minutes tops, all of this happened, Campbell said.

On Friday, Men Unleashed Montgomery County began excavating the property located off Texas 105 East near Cut and Shoot, which would have cost Campbells family about $10,000, but the nonprofit organization did it for free.

Thats because its part of Men Unleashed mission as a new faith-based, community service oriented nonprofit organization that launched in Montgomery County after Hurricane Harvey because of realized need that the community would need help.

As only the second chapter it Texas, it strives to be His Hands and Feet that Beat the Street by uniting people to serve the community in various ways, whether that is by mowing a veterans yard or building a porch, helping a widow with groceries, or building a wheel chair ramp for those with disabilities.

Bobby Weatherford with Men Unleashed Montgomery County says the group is all about neighbors helping neighbors. The nonprofit focuses on the elderly, veterans, widows, single-family homes, the lost and the homeless. Since Hurricane Harvey, the organization has built six porches and wheel chair ramps, fed 15 families turkey baskets, provided $3,000 in gifts to families for Christmas.

We started out fixing porches and cutting grass and last week we roofed a house and now we are doing demolition, so the work is getting larger and I guess it is mostly because Im saying we are just going to stay with doing small repairs and the Lord is like, uh, nooo, Ive got bigger plans, Weatherford said with a laugh.

Campbell, who was a drug and alcohol counselor for Heavens Army in New Caney, connected with Weatherford through the different ministries that they are both involved in working in, including Caney Creek Cowboy Church.

Campbell said it has been touching to watch a group of volunteers come together to help his family rebuild and restart their lives after the fire.

I just want to thank everybody, Woods said. We are blessed. They didnt even know us. Now look where they are.

Campbell said the home was uninsured. Since the fire there has been an outpouring of support from the community.

A Go Fund Me page created by Michelle Pierce has raised $4,285 of a $10,000 goal in 23 days. However, more help is needed for the family that estimates it will cost about $50,000 to rebuild the home, with Campbell doing most of the work himself.

Family and friends are hosting a benefit for the family around 11 a.m. on Feb. 23 A.V. 'Bull' Sallas Park at 21675 McCleskey Rd. in New Caney. Baskets and items are needed for an auction and raffle and can be dropped off at Scotts Auto Repair. The event will include barbecue plats, a car show, live music, and kids activities at the indoor and outdoor event. For more information, call 832-493-6578.

For more information about Men Unleashed, email info@menunleashed.org.WASHINGTON  Energy Secretary Rick Perrys decision to award a $115 million no-bid contract to develop an advanced nuclear enrichment facility in Ohio is drawing scrutiny from Senate Republicans.

The Department of Energy said this month it would award the contract to Centrus Energy, a former government-owned contractor that ceased enrichment operations in 2013 before declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In a letter to Perry this week, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the company had a mixed history in fulfilling federal contracts for nuclear fuel and questioned whether the money it received would end up supporting the Russian state-owned firm TENEX, from which Centrus buys enriched uranium.

This contract appears to use American taxpayer funding to bailout Centrus, an unsuccessful business that relies on commercial relationships with Russian state-owned corporations to stay in business, Barrasso wrote. Congress did not authorize or fund this project.

Both the Department of Energy and Centrus declined to comment for this story.

When uranium comes out of the ground, it has a relatively low concentration of radioactive isotopes. In order to fuel nuclear power plants or produce weapons, the uranium must be enriched, or processed to increase the concentration of isotopes.

Foreign sources

Centrus, the Maryland-based successor to the former United States Enrichment Corp., which was privatized in 1998, operated enrichment plants in Ohio and Kentucky until 2013, when uranium prices crashed following a tsunami that caused the shutdown of nuclear plants in Japan.

In 2017, Centrus counted revenues of less than $200 million, down from more than $1.9 billion in 2012, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. With its enrichment facilities shuttered, the companys business primarily centers on importing enriched uranium from abroad, including Russia, a common practice in the U.S. energy sector.

Nuclear plants here get more than 90 percent of their fuel supply from abroad, with Russia the third largest supplier behind Canada and Australia, according to the Department of Energy.

The Energy Department pitched the Ohio contract as a step toward developing a U.S. supply chain for the more concentrated form of uranium required by some advanced nuclear reactors, which have potential for both commercial and military use.

For now it is a small-scale demonstration project with 16 centrifuges, to be located on the 600-acre former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketown, Ohio, which was once operated by Centrus and is in the midst of a government cleanup estimated to cost $17.5 billion.

But it could just be the beginning, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette tweeted of the contract this month. The department is on its way to creating fuel for the next generation of advanced reactors critical to our future.

The announcement drew accolades from Democrats and Republicans alike in Ohio, likely to be a critical battleground state for President Donald Trump in his re-election bid in 2020.

Getting Piketon back to its full potential benefits the skilled workforce here, the surrounding local economy, and strengthens national energy and defense security, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement at the time of the announcement. I want to thank the Department of Energy and the Trump administration for reconsidering the Obama administrations decision to end the domestic uranium enrichment demonstration program.

The Obama administration canceled its contract for a similar demonstration project with Centrus in 2015, after the Department of Energy determined their work was of minimal incremental value, according to Barrassos letter.

Industry interest

But within the nuclear energy sector, interest persists to develop a more enriched form of uranium for advanced reactors, in particular smaller advanced reactors to potentially be used on military bases or in remote communities.

Right now, the only companies capable of producing that fuel are in Russia, said Everett Redmond, a senior technical adviser at the trade group Nuclear Energy Institute.

Ive heard from the Russian companies they can provide it, he said. We would like to see a domestic source, for fuel security and national security. With the political tensions worldwide, as youre trying to get a new market going, it would make sense to have a source in the U.S.

While there are other enrichment companies with the capability to perform the demonstration project, the Energy Department said in a notice earlier this month that Centrus subsidiary American Centrifuge Operating was the only firm that qualified. The department noted that Centrus is U.S.-owned and controlled, a requirement for enrichment contracts to supply the military, and was the only firm with a current license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to perform the work.

Barrassos letter, however, said Centrus failed to pay the annual fee for that NRC license last year, as required by law to maintain that status.

james.osborne@chron.com

Twitter: @osbornejaHeal Nepal: On World Leprosy Day, UK charity targets an ancient disease

Leprosy is a '21st-century blight on humanity that does not need to exist today', according to The Leprosy Mission (TLM).

The Peterborough-based charity launches today  World Leprosy Day  its Heal Nepal campaign in a bid to finally rid the country of the ancient disease.

Despite being entirely treatable, prejudice surrounding leprosy sees it remain a resolutely stubborn disease to tackle in Nepal, meaning many people are left with avoidable life-long disabilities including blindness.

Following the advent of multidrug therapy in 1982, a combination of three antibiotics providing a complete cure for leprosy, and in the run-up to the Millennium, the number of new leprosy cases globally plummeted from millions of cases a year to around a quarter of a million.

But although the World Health Organisation's target to achieve the elimination of leprosy  defined as less than one person per 10,000 of the population  was achieved on a global level by the year 2000, it wasn't until 2009 the government of Nepal reported that it had achieved the elimination target.

Sadly, despite extraordinary efforts made by NGOs including TLM, the number of new cases annually have remained much the same since 'elimination'. Latest statistics from the WHO, published in August 2018, reveal there were 3,215 new cases of leprosy diagnosed and treated in Nepal in 2017.

TLM, however, believes this figure is just the tip of the iceberg with thousands of cases going undiagnosed. It is launching Heal Nepal to equip its flagship Anandaban Hospital, on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu, to help finally rid the country of the disease.

TLM's head of programmes, Sian Arulanantham, says now is the perfect time to launch the campaign, in the wake of the devastating earthquakes of 2015 that killed 9,000 people and caused the destruction or damage of a million homes.

'It has been a very strange but amazingly encouraging situation to witness,' she said.

'Leprosy is so very misunderstood and stigmatised in Nepal with many people hiding the early signs of the disease for fear of being cast out of their families, jobs and communities because of ancient beliefs that leprosy is a curse. This is tragic as they then go on to develop life-long disabilities.

'Before the earthquake Anandaban Hospital was a hospital nestled away in the Himalayas that leprosy patients heard about through the grapevine. A place where they would receive first-class clinical care and, crucially, would be loved and accepted when they had nowhere else to turn.

'But the earthquake saw the Leprosy Mission staff based at Anandaban Hospital reach out and provide medical care, emergency shelter and food packages to more than 18,000 earthquake victims.

'It was a game changer. Suddenly this hospital hidden away in the mountains became a beacon of light opening its doors to everyone.

'Leprosy patients were giving up their beds to trauma patients, sometimes from the very same communities that had banished them when they heard they had leprosy.

'It was amazing to see and, despite the same number of staff who work tirelessly around the clock, patient numbers have doubled to 40,000 a year since, no one is turned away.

'Suddenly some of the sting was taken out of leprosy which gives us an amazing opportunity through our outreach teams to find and cure more people hidden away with the disease, hopefully before they develop disabilities.'

As well as Anandaban Hospital being the national specialist leprosy referral hospital for Nepal, it is an international leprosy training centre and a world-class research centre partnering with the best researchers in its field, including those at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Prof Diana Lockwood, professor of tropical medicine at the school, treats new cases of leprosy in the UK  around a dozen a year, all originating from overseas.

She said: 'Stigma and ignorance about leprosy are still major hurdles in stopping new patients seeking treatment.

'This project will help break down barriers and encourage new patients to seek treatment. Getting patients to be diagnosed early before they develop disabilities is vital especially in Nepal.'

International development secretary Penny Mordaunt said: 'Heal Nepal will not only improve the health and dignity of thousands of people living with leprosy, it will also mean that female community volunteers receive medical training to diagnose and manage the illness in some of the country's most remote areas.

'Every time the British public reach into their pockets and donate to a UK Aid Match charity, the government matches their contributions pound for pound. This appeal is directly changing the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable people.'

For more information about Heal Nepal and leprosy click here.Church of England says it will give 'serious consideration' to letter opposing transgender services

The Church of England has said it will give 'serious consideration' to a letter signed by over 1,600 clergy and church wardens in opposition to its latest guidance on transgenderism.

The open letter asks the House of Bishops to 'revise, postpone or withdraw' the guidance on services of welcome for transgender people.

The Church of England has faced backlash over the guidance, which advises members of the clergy to address the transgender person by their chosen name and give the occasion a 'celebratory character'.

Controversially, the guidance also formally commends the incorporation of the existing rite for the Affirmation of Baptismal Faith into the services.

'The possibility of celebrating gender transition appears to be based on the rejection of physical differentiation between male and female (known as 'sexual dimorphism'),' the letter states.

'This dimorphism is not only an almost universal biological reality (with the exception of a very small number who are biologically intersex) but has also been the basis of the Church's understanding of Christian marriage, is seen as an important feature of God's work as creator, and is a symbol of God's covenant relationship with humanity.

'The guidance offers no theological reflection to justify this sort of revised narrative.'

Signatories of the letter include the former Bishop of Rochester, Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Rt Rev Graham Dow, Assistant Bishop of Chester, Ven Dr Edward Dowler, Archdeacon of Hastings and the Archdeacon of Bath, Ven Dr Adrian Youings.

Rev Ian Paul, a member of the Archbishops' Council, told The Times that the scale of the response was 'unprecedented'.

'This is the voice of the Anglican core,' he said.

The Church of England said in a statement to the newspaper: 'The bishops will give the letter their serious consideration, especially in the context of the preparation of a major new set of teaching and learning resources on identity, relationships, marriage and sexuality, "Living in Love and Faith", which will be published next year.

'Transgender matters will be covered in those resources and the pastoral guidance does not pre-empt the work of the "Living in Love and Faith" process. The guidance is not a restatement or a new statement on matters relating to gender, nor does it change the Church of England's teaching.'

A Church of England minister and signatory of the letter David Baker criticised the statement from the Church of England, saying it appeared to bat the issue into the long grass.

'Furthermore, it did not suggest any of the usual actions which generally signify actual, genuine listening  such as meeting in person with some of those who have signed, engaging in detail with the specific issues raised, or setting out any kind of process of response,' he said.

'But it is listening in deeds we seek, not 'listening' as in words only, via a brief statement to the press.'Bishops always say they're listening: are they listening to us about transgender?

I am one of the nearly 1,700 Church of England clergy and others who have signed an open letter to our bishops about the issue of transgender.

More than that, I am one of the informal team which has formed out of this spontaneous mass movement of Anglicans and got together to make the letter happen.

Why did I do that? Well, as I have written elsewhere, I would hope that transgender people are always as welcome as anyone else at our church. I would hope they would be baptised or renew their baptism vows as much as anyone. But as I also said in that same article, there are some problems with the existing guidance from the House of Bishops, and I think they are well worth flagging up.

Now part of contemporary 'Bishop-speak' seems to be 'the language of listening'. Scarcely a week goes by without one or other bishop promising to listen to this, that, or the other group. For example, not long ago in the Diocese of Lichfield, Bishop Michael Ipgrave convened a 'listening group' to hear 'concerns over issues of sexual orientation and gender identity'. And last October, bishops in Oxford diocese pledged themselves to 'continue to listen to different streams' in the ongoing debates about these topics. Last year also, Justin Welby tweeted that a good Lent (now only a few weeks away in 2019) 'begins with paying attention and listening'. And he has promised that the Lambeth Conference of bishops in 2020 will be a time when those attending 'listen to each other'.

So we can say without doubt that 'listening' is in vogue  and conversely, we might happily assume that turning a deaf ear is, equally, out of fashion. And that is just as well, because the 1,689 of us (and the number is still rising) who have signed this new open letter humbly hope that the details of what we set out within it may now be truly heard. Initial signs have not been promising; a statement in The Times from 'the Church of England' (who?) said the bishops would 'give the letter their serious consideration'  but then effectively appeared to bat it into the long grass. Furthermore, it did not suggest any of the usual actions which generally signify actual, genuine listening  such as meeting in person with some of those who have signed, engaging in detail with the specific issues raised, or setting out any kind of process of response. But it is listening in deeds we seek, not 'listening' as in words only, via a brief statement to the press.

And we ask not to be heard because of our numbers  though those should give pause for thought. We ask not to be heard because we are 'right'  for we do not claim to have all the answers. We ask not to be heard because we bring threats  for we come in the peace of Christ. We ask not to be heard at the price of excluding others  for by all means hear the voices of those who think differently from us, and especially those who experience transgender issues personally.

No: we ask to be heard because we believe the detailed theological questions we raise merit close examination. So we ask not to be dismissed with soundbites ('this is not compulsory') nor with platitudes ('this does not change doctrine')  for we have heard the soundbites and the platitudes, truly we have, and yet we still come to the table now with our voices, our questions, and the detail of the issues we raise. And we will keep coming until the details are answered.

We ask to be heard because the voice of the church, of which we are part, right across the world and through history, speaks mostly with a different voice on these matters to what we now hear from you. We cannot simply ignore the voice of brothers and sisters in Christ in other denominations, in other continents, at other times and places. And we ask to be heard because the voice that should be heard above all is not ours but the voice of God through Scripture  and we do not believe the existing guidance has yet engaged with that fully. We ask to be heard because we wish to walk with you, our shepherds in Christ, our bishops, to the Word of God once more and to say to you, 'Show us  please show us, how may our questions be answered from these pages?'

So respectfully, and from our hearts, we ask you to listen. To engage, point by point, in detail, with the matters being raised. To listen from the heart, with minds engaged, and in so doing to hear the questions well. And as you engage with us, listen to us, pray with us, we assure you of our prayers. We are fellow pilgrims together, walking as part of his church, under the authority of his ever-speaking Word. For it is his voice and his voice alone that counts  not ours.

So bishops, as you truly listen and engage, may the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace  now and always. Amen.

David Baker is a former daily newspaper journalist now working as an Anglican minister in Sussex, England. Find him on Twitter @Baker_David_AEmail Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

We live in an increasingly tech-centered age. Driverless cars, microchip implantation, and facial recognition are all things previously found only in science fiction and have somehow become a reality. Americans are wholly dependent on their smartphones and apps. And while this technology has become easier and easier to purchase, it still carries a high price: too many of us are signing away our privacy to the likes of Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Social media apps and websites claim to promote all-American values like free speech, transparency, and connectivity in the true spirit of the internet. But weve recently seen what happens when some people who say things that do not align with the political goals of a company. Facebook recently censored prominent African pro-life advocate Obianuju Ekeocha for the crime of posting a link to an article. The article was harmless, a simple spotlight piece on Ekeochas activism. But Facebook silenced her speech, explaining only that it goes against our community standards. Translation: the community is closed to conservatives.

Like Facebook, Twitter also polices its platform with an uneven enforcement of its own policies. It recently blocked the account of Jesse Kelly, a former Marine and stalwart conservative whose opinions are reasonably mainstream. Twitter even violated their own policy by not providing a reason for the ban. Twitter reinstated his account after a threat of investigation from Congress, indicating that they may indeed have something to hide. Other examples abound, including the shadow banning of elected representatives like Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, and Devin Nunes.

The tech giant Google has also been credibly accused of a bias against conservative speech and activity: earlier this year, it suggested that the California Republican Party is promotes Nazism. In fact, Google employees discussed modifying search results to sway opinion. Changing search results may not sound that harmful, but a newly released documentary, The Creepy Line, suggests otherwise. The filmmakers devised an experiment which concluded that replacing certain search results can sway the opinion of an unwitting adult 20 percent, and even 60 percent in some demographics, in favor of the administrators desired outcome.

Even more worrying: 99.5 percent of participants did not realize that they were being shown biased search results. This means that someone at Google intending to sway an election in favor of a particular candidate would have no technical issue stopping them.

Those on the right who have had enough with the policing from the tech gods of Silicon Valley have begun to do something about it. The Media Research Center recently launched Tech Watch, which aims to keep an eye on big tech, much like MRCs longstanding NewsBusters blog has done with the media. They are leading the charge in holding Big Tech accountable, something that is increasingly needed. If conservatives are going to be able to decide what to do about censorship of our speech online, well need every tool we can muster at our disposal.

There is room for disagreement among conservatives about what should be done about the power of social media companies and big tech. Congressman Steve King of Iowa has suggested converting the large behemoth organizations that were talking about . . . into public utilities. Other conservatives want to go after the tech companies for violating antitrust laws. Perhaps these are necessary steps; but at the very least, its crucial that users are more aware of how social media companies use the content the users themselves provide, and how the companies can manipulate them.

One publication keeping track is a start, but its not enough. To come to a well-rounded conclusion on how to deal with this growing issue more information must be gathered, more experiments run, and more questions must be asked of Twitter, Facebook, and Google. It regulation is necessary, it will need to be carefully crafted and reasonably limited. Watchdogs like the MRC Tech Watch and information downloads like The Creepy Line are a tremendous start to tackling this issue, but we are far from finishing the fight.

Ken Blackwell was a Domestic Policy Advisor to the Trump/Pence Presidential Transition Team. He is a Senior Advisor to Securing America's Future Energy.DMCC, the worlds flagship Free Zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise, today (January 27) announced a number of changes to its management team.



In a major revamp, DMCC has appointed Ahmed Bin Sulayem as the new chief executive officer replacing Gautam Sashittal who has stepped down from his CEO role and will leave DMCC at the end of April after five successful years in the position.



Joining DMCC as chief operating officer in 2009, Sashittal was later appointed CEO in 2014. During his tenure, he was instrumental in developing DMCCs business portfolio, industry reputation and global brand.



The change in management comes as DMCC moves into a new phase of commercial growth, expansion and innovation.



This year will see the launch of the state-of-the-art DMCC Coffee Centre  a first of its kind in the region  marking a new milestone in Dubais success story as a global trading hub,. said the company in a statement.



In addition, construction continues of DMCCs new mixed-use destination, Uptown Dubai, as does the development of its wider Smart Dubai strategy designed to enhance its Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) district, it stated.



On Bin Sulayem's new role, DMCC said he will combine the position with his current popst of executive chairman.



Bin Sulayem has led the development of DMCC over the last 17 years, creating the countrys leading free zone  home to over 15,500 companies  and one of the worlds largest diamond and precious metals trading hubs, said the statement from the company.



Feryal Ahmadi has been appointed as the new chief operating officer and will assume the role with immediate effect. Since 2014, Ahmadi has served as DMCCs executive director of corporate services; having joined the organisation in 2008.



As a long-standing member of the DMCC executive management team, she has played an integral role in shaping the Dubai entity through the management of multiple business development streams and corporate departments.



Lauding Sashittal's contribution, Bin Sulayem said: "He has been a central feature in DMCCs success story. The impact of his unwavering commitment, high standards and ability to drive commercial growth has been considerable, and I would like to thank him for his nine years of service."



"DMCC is the worlds leading free zone and we have exciting plans ahead to ensure we retain this position. The consistent growth of company registrations combined with major projects in the pipeline, namely, Uptown Dubai and the imminent launch of the DMCC Coffee Centre, will ensure DMCC continues to serve as a hub to drive global trade flows through Dubai, and increase its significant contribution to the emirates GDP," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceGeorgia pastor loses 2 teenage sons in crash, says hes keeping faith in God anyway

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A Georgia pastor who lost both of his sons in a car crash on Sunday says he's walking by faith through his pain even though he cant understand why his family has been hit by such tragedy.

"It's difficult for me to process as a father," Pastor Kevin Royston of OutReach Church in Newnan, told news station WSBTV of the death of his sons, Kahlil Royston, 17, and Josh Royston, 16, near the church. "If God allowed it, He's going to give me strength to go through it."

Reports from 11 Alive and WSBTV said Kahlil, who was driving with his brother in the front passenger seat, was on Smokey Road at about 1 p.m. when the accident occurred. They had just left church to get haircuts at the barbershop but Kahlil lost control of the car he was driving and hit two trees.

Georgia State Patrol said Kahlil was speeding when the car went airborne. Josh died at the scene while Kahlil succumbed to extensive injuries at the Atlanta Medical Center.

As Kahlil battled for his life Sunday night, his father desperately begged his friends on Facebook to help him pray for a miracle that would save his son.

My son Kahlil Royston is in critical condition. Please pray that God does a miracle in His Body. He has body injuries and head injury. I've released my faith, please release yours. Thanks! he wrote shortly before 10 p.m.

For two more days, Royston openly declared his faith, citing the promise of Scripture.

I speak life to those things that do not exist as though they did. I speak a creative miracle over Kahlil now every part of his body is healed perfectly, and his brain is operating normally in Jesus Name! Roman 4:17, he wrote in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Several hours later Tuesday afternoon after Kahlil died, Pastor Royston remained resolute in his faith, thanking God for another miracle.

We would like to thank everyone for all your prayers for Kahlil. Kahlil and Joshua will be missed dearly. God performed a miracle in a different way than we thought, but He still performed a miracle. Kahlil's organs will be used to be a blessing for persons in need of them. We have to have faith to change a situation but we also have to have faith to deal with a situation when God doesn't do it the way we thought. Continue to pray for our strength as we move forward, he said.

Josh and Kahlil were both students at Newnan High School and their deaths shocked the school community.

Please continue to keep the Royston family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. Both Joshua and Kahlil will be missed dearly. We will share arrangements once they become available, Principal Chase Puckett wrote on the schools Facebook page.

Students like classmate, Tiah Lee who knew the brothers were devastated and remembered them fondly.

I just loved Josh, I loved Kahlil. I loved both of them, Lee said.

Joshua she said, loved music, always tried to bring cheer to others.

You could have a bad day, and you come around him and hed just have the biggest smile, Lee said. He just makes you happy. And Kahlil, he was like a big brother to all of us.

Despite his pain over losing his two boys however, Pastor Royston says he is believing that God has a plan.

Sometimes life will throw us blows that seem unbearable. But these are the times where we must make ourselves stay connected to the only source of life our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We move forward by faith, not by disappointment, grief, or misunderstandings - no by faith, he noted on Facebook.

That does not mean we don't acknowledge our pain, our disappointment, and our lost (sic) of understanding but we don't move forward from that place. We go to our source and we ask him how to move forward so our life will continue to bring him glory. We have to remember He's God and he has a ram in the bush, he said.

A memorial service for the brothers will be held on Wednesday Jan. 30, at St. Smyrna Baptist Church at 68 Heery Road beginning at 11 a.m. A visitation will be held on Jan. 29 at Sellers and Smith, 168 Greenville Street from 5 to 8 p.m.Former Village Church childrens minister charged in assault of minor

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Just months after he was quietly removed from his role last June, the Matt Chandler-led Village Church in Texas has revealed that a former childrens minister, Matthew Tonne, has been charged with sexual assault involving a minor from his church.

The assault reportedly took place at a camp for kids in 2012.

We have an update regarding the 2012 Kids Camp situation that we communicated publicly last September. The Dallas County District Attorney filed charges in this case against a former employee of The Village Church, Matt Tonne, who was indicted by the Dallas County Grand Jury and is being prosecuted by the District Attorney's office. Matt turned himself in and is now out on bond. The outcome is pending trial, the church said in a statement this week.

The admission comes after Chandler declined to say if any person of interested in the case was ever affiliated with the church after revealing the assault last September. He also said that "no persons of interest" in the investigation have access to children at The Village Church.

Information from court documents reviewed by The Christian Post shows that Tonne, 35, was charged with indecent child contact and released on a $25,000 bond. He was ordered to have no contact with the complainant in the case against him or her family.

Tonne was also ordered to have no contact with children 17 years or younger except his own children. He is expected to answer to the charge at 9 a.m. on Jan. 29.

On Sunday, Pastor Chandler updated the congregation and commented, "This whole thing is a mess. I have personally felt thin and exhausted and worn out and heartbroken."

"We want truth  we want justice  and we want healing," he stressed.

Before he was removed from his post at The Village Church last June, Tonne, a longtime church employee, was known as a beloved leader and family man with a wife and three children of his own.

A former colleague, Courtney Hofmann, described Tonne in a 2013 blog post as a humble and devout leader who loves children.

Matt loves the Lord and is marked by humility, wisdom and patience (he works with a staff of all women for goodness sakes and yet somehow he puts up with all our emotions and craziness on a never ending basis). He loves and shepherds the children, families and volunteers of our ministry and is a great asset to our church body. He likes YouTube videos, internet memes, and is pretty consistently rocking out to the most recent pop hits while cranking out Children's curriculum from his office. He speaks in moderate language and has a bandwidth that is unreal, Hoffman wrote.

In his statement on the investigation last September, Chandler said the minor began recalling the alleged 2012 assault at Mount Lebanon Kids Camp that The Village Church attended. The Cedar Hill Police Department in Texas, which investigated the case, could not immediately reveal any additional details about what happened when contacted by CP on Friday.

Chandler noted in his statement that even though the assault took place in 2012, it was only in early 2018 that she came to a place where it was possible to verbalize the memory of what happened for the first time through ongoing therapy.

The church has cautioned that the charge against Tonne does not mean he is guilty.

This indictment is not a declaration of guilt or innocence; it is only the next step in the process. When a person is indicted, they are formally charged with a crime, but like any citizen in our country, they are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law, the statement said.

It also noted that when Tonne was removed from his post last June, it was not connected to the investigation against him.

We anticipate and understand questions about why Matt Tonne left staff and whether this case had anything to do with his transition. We removed Matt from The Village Church staff in June of 2018 for other reasons, and we communicated those specific issues to our staff, as well as to members and volunteers in his ministry department at that time, the church said. We have been and will continue to be in close contact with those directly involved in this situation and will continue to do all we can to assist with any request that authorities have for us.

Church officials also asked for prayers for all involved in the situation.

There are no adequate words that can express the pain, sorrow and grief that are wrapped up in this whole situation. We are committed to pursuing healing and justice and will continue to follow the lead of the authorities and experts involved in the case. As we all wait for updates, we ask for you to pray for everyone involved, as we look to Christ for hope in such a dark situation, church leaders noted.'Patterns of Evidence' film offers proof of Moses' authorship of Old Testament

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The documentary series "Patterns of Evidence" will be releasing its next installment, "The Moses Controversy, which will examine the authorship of the Old Testament. Did Moses write the first books of the Bible, including his firsthand account of the Exodus story, or were the books written a thousand years later?

The documentary was created by award-winning filmmaker Timothy Mahoney (Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus) who hopes to provide solid evidence to settle the debate about the true authorship of the first five books of the Bible, the most read book in the world.

The movie features interviews with some of the worlds leading experts in Egyptology, ancient Hebrew, and archaeology as Mahoney searches for answers.

If Moses did not author the Torah, as Scripture says, then some of the Bible is true, and some is not. How can we know what to trust? Is the Bible based on history, or merely folklore?" Mahoney said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

In my own search for the evidence, I had to ask myself if I believe the Bible because its true, or because its just what I believed because of my upbringing, said Mahoney. Since the rest of the Bible is based on the writings of Moses, the credibility of the exodus and the rest of the Bible is directly connected to the question of Moses authorship.

A popular argument against Moses authorship is that the eyewitness account recorded in Exodus predates alphabetic writing. Mainstream scholars have also argued that Moses writing does not line up with commonly-cited historical dating systems.

Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy explores early methods of writings including hieroglyphics, and newly-discovered cave inscriptions found in the Sinai region which shows that Hebrew was the earliest alphabetic system.

Presented by Fathom Events and Thinking Man Films, Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy will hit theaters nationwide for three days only, March 14, 16, and 19.

For more information visit, Patterns of Evidence.com/Moses.'6 truths about God's wrath': John Piper

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Bethlehem College & Seminary Chancellor and Desiring God founder John Piper recently gave a message about what he called six truths regarding the nature of Gods wrath.

Piper opened his remarks at a conference on Wednesday by declaring that the greatest peril facing every person was the righteous wrath of God against guilty sinners, leading to everlasting suffering.

Poverty, hunger, disease, war, crime, climate change, addictions, homelessness, ignorance, sex trafficking: these bring great global suffering  and they pale in comparison to the peril of being under the wrath of God, stated Piper.

They are all tragic, but they are all temporary. They may last a lifetime, but the wrath of God lasts forever.

From there, Piper laid out the six truths: the wrath of God is righteous, terrible and eternal, coming in final judgment, owing to our sin, Gods prerogative instead of ours, and has already begun.

In America today, it would not be wrong to say that we are collapsing morally at every level of society and ripening for judgment. That would be a true statement, I believe; its just misleading because the collapse itself is judgment, said Piper.

And if you want to read how that works, just look at the rest of Romans 1, and you will see what Paul means by the present activity of the wrath of God giving men over to their sin.

While stating that he believes America is currently undergoing judgment from God, Piper also stressed that Christians should still pray for revival and pray for awakening.

Regarding that the wrath of God is Gods prerogative, not ours, Piper spoke about how believers should not take Gods prerogative and become the mediators of wrath.

We die for our enemies; we dont kill them. We dont pronounce damnation on infidels; we evangelize them. We plead with them. We love them. We call them. We go to them, continued Piper.

Were not those who go out looking to show wrath to our adversaries. That belongs to God, and he assigns us to love our enemies.

The topic of the wrath of God can be a contentious one. In 2013, for example, Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Songs for the Presbyterian Church (USA) decided to not include the song "In Christ Alone" in their hymnal because of the lyrics on that cross as Jesus died / the wrath of God was satisfied.

Brandon W. Peach of Lightworkers wrote a column published by The Christian Post earlier this week about the topic of Gods anger, listing three biblical truths about the subject for believers.

These included Gods memory of sin being mercifully brief, how people should not confuse natural consequences with Gods anger, and that God is never angry with you.

Romans 1:18 makes it clear that Gods wrath is reserved for sin itself, revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He detests sin, but he does not detest sinners, wrote Peach.

This is a critical distinction to make, because if Gods anger was toward us as individuals, we would be powerless to overcome it.

Peach added that Gods gift to fallible humans comes to us through the redeeming work of Christ on the cross.

When God became human in the form of His son, He emptied Himself of anger. In other words, theres no anger left somewhere on reserve for Him to take out on us when we disobey, Peach continued.Tim Keller: Christians should ask this 1 question before choosing a career

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Before choosing a career path, believers should ask themselves, What gifts do I have, and how can I be useful to other people through my work? pastor and author Tim Keller has advised.

During a recent desiringGod.org podcast, Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, said that in this consumeristic age, people find their identity in the products and brands they consume  and jobs are like that too.

There is just no doubt, he said. I see plenty of people taking jobs that really dont fit. They dont fit their talents very well, and very often the jobs dont necessarily fulfill them because the jobs arent really helping people very much. But the jobs are high status, and people feel like I need to be in that job so I can feel good about myself. It is an identity marker.

Keller contended that when choosing a career path, many people ask themselves, How do I take a job that gives me the same kind of sense of self-worth I get when I am driving a particular kind of car?

Instead, he advised people to choose a job on the basis of vocation and ask themselves, What gifts do I have, and how can I be useful to other people through my work?

TheEvery Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to Gods Work author stressed that God created people to work  and all good work done well is Gods calling.

Seeing your work as a calling is not a problem if youre stuck in a job you dont like, he said. You need to say that right now it is still Gods calling and that gives you a lot of peace. You can say, Hey, I can still answer Gods calling in this job even when I am looking for a job that I think fits my gifts better.

Earlier, Keller explained that the Christian understanding of vocation is if you produce a product that makes peoples lives better, even if it's a rather boring process to do it, you are doing Gods work.

You are caring for Gods creation. You are serving peoples needs, he said.

Unfortunately, secular culture promotes the idea that work is about personal fulfillment, excitement, and a paycheck.

Why does it have to be so incredibly fulfilling when you know that you are doing something that helps people? he asked. I do think that is part of what I mean when I say that we have lost the idea of calling, and we are looking now at work as a way of fulfillment, and that actually, in the end, crushes you.

Grumpiness, anger, or only doing what I have to do to get by when it comes to work demonstrates a lack of a Gospel character, Keller warned.

The Gospel helps make you grateful, make you humble, gives you inner peace, makes you generous in your spirit, he said. If you just dont show all those things at work, it means that you are not really letting the Gospel change the heart the way it ought to.

In the long run, a Gospel-changed heart usually makes you a pretty good worker, he concluded. It makes people want to work with you. It makes people want to be on your team. It makes employers happy with your work. In the long run, having a Gospel-changed heart is pretty practical in the field of work.

A 2018 survey conducted by the Barna Research Group in collaboration with Abilene Christian University in Texas found positive indicators that people who profess faith in Christ are living their convictions while at work.

The study found that of 1,459 self-identified working American Christians polled, 82 percent "are rooted in a conviction that Christians should act ethically, speak the truth (74 percent) and demonstrate morality (72 percent).

Additionally, the respondents indicated that "working Christians should make friends with non-Christians (66 percent), withstand temptation (59 percent) and do excellent work in an effort to bring glory to God (58 percent)."

Millennial Christians are the most likely group to say it's completely important for Christians to mold their workplace culture and serve others, polling higher than Gen X and Baby Boomers in that category.

"This could be a wake-up call for church leaders to equip the largest generation in the workforce with a deep vocational understanding," the Barna report concluded.Use What God Provides Christian Examiner Contributor | 26 January, 2019 by Mark Klages

Readers, I have received several comments responding to my post on September 21, 2018, titled "Marijuana and Christianity: Is CBD Sinful?" Some are confused, some elated. The truth is Christians don't seem to know much about CBD, prescription opioids and the growing opioid crisis, and the Bible as it relates to different medicines. What we do tend to know about is anything the mainstream media or Government tells us is bad or illegal  like cocaine, methamphetamines or meth, and recreational marijuana at the Federal level.

Here are some facts of which many Christians might not be aware. Vicodin and Norco are two names for a commonly prescribed narcotic painkiller, hydrocodone. Christians and non-Christians alike use hydrocodone, many without ever questioning its origin. If you don't know, hydrocodone is a semisynthetic opioid derived from codeine, which is one of the opioid alkaloids found in the opium poppy (hence opioid). Similar to Oxycodone and related to dozens of opioid preparations, hydrocodone is part of the group of addictive painkillers that according to WebMD were prescribed more than 214 million times in 2016, that killed nearly 117,000 Americans in 2015 and 2016, which is more than the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined, and that afflicts roughly 2 million Americans ages 12 and older with addiction every day, according to a 2015 study.

Here is another fact most of us missed. In June of this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 5 certain preparations of cannabidiol (CBD) with extremely low levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychotropic compound in marijuana. But what does that mean? Schedule 1 drugs are narcotic drugs that carry with them a high risk of abuse and addiction and have no currently accepted medical use. Schedule 5 drugs are narcotic drugs with the lowest potential for abuse among scheduled drugs, limited quantities of narcotics in their preparation, and include recognized medicines such as Robitussin AC.

"Hey, that's great." You say. "But what does that mean for Christians in constant pain who seek alternative solutions to addictive and life-destroying narcotics?"

I'm glad you asked.

Some Christians may not be aware that Luke the disciple of Christ and evangelist was a physician. In Colossians, we are told that "Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you" (Col 4:14, NKJV). There has also been ample study done and numerous books written on the topic of medicines from Biblical times. Further, most if not all denominations of Christianity today recognize the skill of today's physicians as a gift from God; therefore, prescriptions to combat pain can be an extension of that gift.

The Bible clearly indicates man in Jesus' day used wine as a painkiller. Wine was also the accepted drink in Jesus' time, mostly because clean water wasn't always readily available and wine, though it carried with it the potential for abuse, was at least free of microorganisms that caused illness and disease.

"Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." (1 Tim 5:23, NIV)

"In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain." (1 Tim 3:8, NIV)

But what about marijuana and the fact that the only Federally legalized preparation of CBD is for the explicit treatment of seizures and has not been approved, at the Federal level, for pain or recreational use?

Christian, this is the difficulty in the CBD conversation. Christ calls for us to honor the authority of the Government(s) over us, and Romans 13 is one of the most quoted scriptures in the CBD conversation. It also causes great confusion for Christians in states where marijuana use is legal because marijuana use of any kind remains illegal on the Federal level.

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." (Rom 13:1-2, NIV)

Christians, the confusion comes from a lack of knowledge, lack of research, or stigma associated with marijuana. Newsflash: CBD comes from hemp (non-psychoactive) as well as marijuana (psychoactive), and hemp-based CBD products are legal in all 50 states. For Christians, that means pain management by hemp-derived CBD aligns with scripture and law. It also means any use of marijuana-derived CBD remains conflicted for Christians and illegal at the Federal level while legal in some states (9  recreationally; 46 with a physician's prescription).

Friends, our loving Father has created many useful substances in nature that are both beneficial to the body and safe for our use. It is our responsibility to seek His face and research which of those substances align with scripture, still provide the benefits we need, and are legal as far as governing authorities are concerned. So let's educate ourselves, pray unceasingly, and use what God has given in the manner in which He intended. We don't need to rebel against those authorities when what God has provided is sufficient for our needs.

 Mark Klages is an influential contributor, a former US Marine and a lifelong teacher who focuses on applying a Christian worldview to everyday events. Mark blogs at https://maklagesl3.wixsite.com/website under the title "God Provides where Hate Divides," with a heart to heal social, political, relational, and intellectual wounds through God's divine love and grace. Mark can also be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-klages-04b42511/.Our world is evil, but you can change that Christian Post Columnist | 27 January, 2019 by Jim Denison

Let's begin with this shocking headline: "America's favorite Valentine's Day candy is unavailable this year." Necco, the original producer of Sweethearts candy, went out of business last July. The candy's new owner promises to have the candy back on shelves next year.

I wish this were the only bad news in the news.

New York legislators approved a bill this week protecting abortion in case the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. There was loud cheering in the New York state Senate chamber when the bill passed.

The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, allows non-physicians such as licensed midwives, physician assistants, and licensed nurse practitioners to perform abortions. It expands late-term abortions and could compel doctors to perform abortions or risk losing their license to practice.

Meanwhile, details are emerging about Zephen Xaver, the man who allegedly killed five people inside a SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida, two days ago. His ex-girlfriend has told reporters that Xaver had an obsession with guns and death. "He was pretty open about the fact that he wanted everybody to die. All he talked about was killing people," she said.

When you read stories like these, don't you feel an urge to do something to help? Something to protect unborn children and victims of senseless crime? Something to make the world better than we found it?

'What counts in life'

Nelson Mandela: "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead."

How do we make such a "difference"?

Read more from "Our world is evil, but you can change that" on The Christian Post.Having a child is a life-changing experience so its understandable that first-time parents have jitters and feel a variety of different emotions from excitement to fear. Englands Prince Harry has undoubtedly been feeling some of that too as he awaits the birth of he and Meghan Markles first child this spring. But the prince has now found one thing to do every day to keep himself calm before the new royal baby arrives.

Heres how the Duke of Sussex is staying centered while anticipating the arrival of his little one.

What Harry admitted to doing every day

The way Harry is keeping calm is through meditation. According to the Daily Mails Rebecca English, during a recent outing, the prince spoke with a Buddhist monk who said that Harry told him he meditates on a daily basis.

Random fact of the day: a 69-year-old Buddhist monk named Kelsang Sonam, who gave Harry a copy of a book entitled 8 Steps to Happiness, said the prince told him he meditates every day, the royal correspondent tweeted.

Practicing meditation can help reduce stress, control anxiety, and improve ones mental health. Its also something that the duchess is a fan of herself and may have introduced to her husband.

Markle has benefited from the practice

Before she married Prince Harry, Markle ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig and wrote about how much she benefited from meditation and recommended it to others.

Last week marked the one year anniversary of my relationship with meditation, something I found endlessly daunting at first (the thoughts, the distractions, the boredom of it), but soon became the quietude that rocked my world, she explained. I cant put my finger on the why or the how, but I will tell you this much, for meI am just happier. And meditation has much to do with that. I urge you to give it a shot. The worst thing that can happen is that you gave yourself ten minutes of quiet in an endlessly loud world. Shhhhhit feels good.

This will be a part of their childs life

Something else Markle and Harry have been doing together is yoga and they reportedly cant wait to do it with their new baby.

Closer Weekly reported that the couple is having a mom-and-baby yoga room built at their new Windsor home. The Duchess of Sussex is very fond of the exercise as her mother, Doria Ragland, has worked as a yoga instructor.

Meghan has kept up her own routine during her pregnancy and many experts say gentle stretching is highly beneficial for babies too, a source said. [Their child] will be the first royal baby to be skilled in yoga.

Read more: Why Meghan Markle Needs Prince Harrys Help to Return to Suits

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton have been a pretty solid pair since they first began dating in 2001. Though there have been a couple of breakups and some tabloid blunders, for the most part, the royal couple appears to be the picture of perfection. We all know that distance and the princes unwillingness to commit to the relationship caused the couples big breakup in 2007.

However, did an American heiress named Anna Sloan cause the couple to call it quits for the first time in 2004.

When did Prince William start dating Kate Middleton?

Duchess Kate Middleton and Prince William were introduced to one another in 2001 just before they began their first year at St. Andrews University. Initially, the pair were just friends, and they even dated other people. However, by the end of their second quarter things shifted. The future King of England saw Middleton walking in one of the universitys fashion shows, and he was smitten. He later cornered her at a party, and the pair shared a kiss, officially changing their relationship forever. However, a woman named Anna Sloan was also making her way into Prince Williams inner circle.

Inside Prince William and Anna Sloans friendship

During his time at St. Andrews, the prince struck up a friendship with American heiress, Anna Salon. The pair bonded over the death of their parents. The prince was still reeling from his mother, Princess Dianas death in 1997 and Salon was dealing with her own personal tragedy. Her father, businessman George Sloan had died in 2001 in a shooting accident at the family estate in Nashville.

In her book William and Harry, royal biography Katie Nicholl wrote, When Anna invited William and a group of friends to Texas for a holiday before he went to Greece, it hurt Kate deeply. She suspected William might have feelings for the 22-year-old heiress.

Why did Kate Middleton and Prince William break up in 2003?

By 2003 the prince was having doubts about Middleton. To get a break, he organized an all-boys trip to Greece. Middleton was also having doubts about the relationship. Nicholl wrote, Kate was beginning to question Williams commitment to their relationship, and she also had her own creeping doubts about their future after St Andrews. A number of things had caused her to question Williams commitment, although she had not raised them with him yet. One was Williams friendship with an American heiress called Anna Sloan.

In the end, Middleton and Prince William would split briefly in 2004 and the princes relationship with Sloan was not really a factor. In fact, Sloan attended the duke and duchess 2011 wedding with her husband, Eddie Smith.

Why did Kate Middleton and Prince William breakup in 2007?

A series of events led to Kate Middleton and Prince William big blow up in 2007. Distance certainly played a factor. Middleton was working in London as a fashion buyer while the prince was enrolled in the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, England. Their relationship continued to fray further after Prince William skipped out on the holidays with Middleton and her family, and her 25th birthday the following January. It also didnt help that the media was obsessed with Middleton and the paparazzi stalked her endlessly.

However, the final straw of their relationship came after Prince William was photographed touching one girl inappropriately and flirting with other at Elements nightclub in Bournemouth. Middleton pulled the plug on their relationship after seeing the photos in the newspaper.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!California Department of Education

News Release

California Department of Education

News Release

California Receives Nearly $11 Million Federal Early Childhood Education Grant

SACRAMENTOState Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) was awarded a federal Preschool Development Birth Through Five Initial Grant Award for $10,620,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. It was one of 45 states/territories that received the grant award.

These grants help states analyze and enhance their early learning and care systems to maximize the availability of high-quality early learning and care options for low-income and disadvantaged families. It will also help California improve the quality of early childhood care by streamlining administrative and funding systems.

This grant helps streamline access to early education through more effective and efficient operations, said Thurmond. That in turn will help us take a step towards meeting the crucial goal of expanding these programs and reducing the achievement gap.

California has 3 million children younger than five years old, half of whom come from low-income families. Through this federal grant, California will first conduct a statewide birth-through-five needs assessment and then develop a strategic plan that will provide guidance to policymakers to increase access to services for children and families with high needs.

The grant will also:

Dramatically expand families access to the information they need to find high-quality early learning and care for their children as well as increase their child development knowledge.





Strengthen supports for the early childhood workforce.





Improve the quality of early learning and care programs, including the launch of a peer learning network to support further leadership development in Tribal Child Care.

In order to provide input and guidance to Californias early learning and care team and to support the implementation of the grant, the CDE will launch a stewardship team consisting of other state agencies serving young children and their families. The CDE will also work in partnership with the Governors State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care on the needs assessment and strategic plan. Resources for families, child development contractors, and the child care community are available on the Early Learning and Care Division Resources web page

# # # #

Tony Thurmond  State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, December 8, 2020Many of these cases were known by the holders to be "abusive to determine, ignorance of their functions, forms representing...Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne

The federal agency built to find new ways to pay for new Canadian infrastructure says it is deep in talks on over a dozen projects.

In the fall, officials with the Canada Infrastructure Bank had more than 120 meetings about more than 60 projects across the country, including some that came unsolicited from the private sector. The bank's mission is to find ways to get private money to pay for public projects that will produce revenue, such as toll roads and transit systems and trade portals.

Officials have narrowed their focus to about a dozen possibilities for serious consideration, but details about them will only become public if the agency agrees to back work with loans or equity stakes.

The bank's political critics say the bank is acting in secret with billions of public dollars and hasn't gotten much done anyway. The agency says making the projects public before deals are signed could cause financial harm to their public owners and private backers.

Infrastructure Bank CEO Pierre Lavallee says there is a negotiation process for any projects under serious consideration that includes the sharing of confidential financial information that can't be made public.

"The CIB will be one of many partners involved in a project. Since we are an investor, we will have to respect commercial confidentiality with the other partners, especially the owners or sponsors," Lavallee said.

"When decisions are made for CIB to invest in projects, then there will be information shared with the public."

The Liberals created the agency in 2017, hoping to use $35 billion in federal funding to pry three to four times that from the private sector to pay for new infrastructure projects that are in the public interest. In practice, that means projects need to meet federal policy objectives, along with those of the jurisdiction housing a particular project.

Projects also need to be "bankable," meaning they could attract private dollars and "appropriately transfer revenue risk to the private sector," read part of Infrastructure Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne's briefing binder, obtained by The Canadian Press under the federal access-to-information law.

Internal government documents previously obtained by The Canadian Press have suggested the bank could provide a loss buffer to the private sector, and bear some risk to help projects get completed.

The briefing binder says the bank planned to develop a "national project pipeline" over the next year. The aim was to "catalyze the market" by listing "projects at various stages," including those the agency "might view as potential investments."

"The first version of this project inventory is expected to be operational in the coming months and will develop over time, based on how government partners use the new tool for planning and prioritizing opportunities and challenges that could interest investors," said Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, a spokeswoman for Champagne.Photo: The Canadian Press Rosanna Arquette, left, and director Ursula Macfarlane pose for a portrait to promote the film "Untouchable" at the Salesforce Music Lodge during the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, in Park City, Utah.

Harvey Weinstein's name was intrinsically linked to the Sundance Film Festival for years, which makes it somewhat fitting that 14 months after his demise the festival played host the world premiere of a documentary about his rise and fall.

"I'm so happy it's at Sundance," said "Untouchable" director Ursula Macfarlane, whose film debuted Friday night in Park City. "It's the perfect place for a film about Harvey."

The film is semi-biography of the disgraced mogul, packed with interviews from people who knew him as a concert promoter in Buffalo, those who worked alongside him at Miramax and The Weinstein Company, like Zelda Perkins, his former assistant, director Mark Gill and producer Jack Lechner. It also features a handful of women who came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, including actresses Rosanna Arquette, Erika Rosenbaum, Caitlin Dulany and Paz de la Huerta.

"We knew that at the heart of it we wanted to tell some of the accusers' stories, but we couldn't spend the whole film telling those stories because it would probably just be too intense and too much," Macfarlane said. "We also wanted to tell the story of Harvey and to understand what kind of human he was, and why people liked him and why he had this charm and this spell where he could draw people in. We couldn't just say he's a monster and he was raping people for 40 years...We wanted to understand how he got in a position where he was able to do these things."

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. Friday's premiere occurred hours after Weinstein appeared in a Manhattan courthouse to change his legal team in a rape and sexual assault case .

Former employees in the film describe his charisma and power and how extraordinary it was to be part of Miramax during its salad days, while also detailing his monstrous and abusive tendencies (like throwing marble ashtrays at people's heads) and how he considered himself to be "the sheriff" of New York.

"It's important that it wasn't all sexual but also about the psychological abuse and physical abuse," Macfarlane said. "I get the feeling having met former staffers that there is a sort of PTSD of just having been an employee in the office."

Getting people who worked alongside him to talk was a struggle, however. Macfarlane says the culture of fear still lingers for people who work in the industry. She tried to get Weinstein on camera as well, but he declined multiple requests.

"I'm really proud of the ones we did get on board," she said. "It was very courageous of them to talk about their regrets and what they feel they could have done better."

Kathy Declesis, a former assistant to Weinstein's brother Bob, describes how she quit after being privy to how the company was handling misconduct allegations.

Macfarlane knows she could have continued following the developments in Weinstein's criminal case, but decided to let his downfall be the end of her film.

"You could do the 5-part series in 10 years' time when maybe you would get the interview with Harvey, who knows what would have happened by then, but I think we had an energy and a momentum," she said. "I want people to come out and say 'OK this is very distressing and depressing but what can we do about this?' I want there to be a bigger point to it."The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a PSU under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, has invited applications in a prescribed proforma from eligible candidates for filling 31 vacancies in Engineering Cadres in Civil and Electrical trades/disciplines comprising Chief Engineer (Civil-01), Executive Engineer (Electrical-01), Executive Engineer (01), AEE (Civil-04), AEE (Electrical-01) and Junior Engineer (Civil-22) and Junior Engineer (Electrical-01) posts on a deputation basis.

Candidates selected will be appointed at the EPFO HQ and its units in Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh. The application process (offline mode) towards the same will start from 11 January 2019. All applications must be submitted on or before 25 February 2019.

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs, JEs in Civil and Electrical trades Organisation The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) Educational Qualification As specified in the notification Experience Relevant experience as detailed in the notification. Skills Required Desirable Job Location Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh Salary Scale Paid under Level 13 to Level 06 as per the designation. Industry PF, Pension and Insurance Application Start Date January 11, 2019 Application End Date February 25, 2019

Age Criteria And Fees

Desirous candidates applying for the post of Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs in Civil and Electrical trades through EPFO Recruitment 2019 must meet the age criteria as detailed in the notification, with a relaxation in the upper age limit for reserved categories per the guidelines of Government of India.

For details regarding fee towards the application processing, if any, refer to the official advertisement link provided below.

Also Read: BSF Recruitment 2019 For 1763 Constables (Tradesman); Apply Before 23 February 2019

Eligibility And Educational Qualifications For Selection

Candidates applying for the post of Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs in Civil and Electrical trades through EPFO Recruitment 2019 must meet the following criteria:

Chief Engineer - Candidates applying for this position must be holding an analogous post in the concerned Dept./Care on a regular basis, and must possess a Degree in Civil Engineering with 10 years experience in supervisory capacity and maintenance of civil engineering works.

Executive Engineers (Civil/Electrical) - Candidates applying for this post must possess a Degree in Civil/Electrical Engineering from a recognised University/Institute and must be serving under the Central/State Govt's or UT administration, besides holding analogous posts.

Assistant Executive Engineers (Civil/Electrical) - Candidates applying for this post must be serving under the Central/State Govt's or UT administration, or holding analogous posts.

Junior Engineer (Civil/Electrical) - Candidates applying for this post must possess a Diploma in Civil/Electrical Engineering from a recognised University/Institute and must be serving under the Central/State Govt's or PSUs, besides holding analogous posts on a regular basis.

Selection And Pay Scale

The selection of candidates as Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs in Civil and Electrical trades through EPFO Recruitment 2019 will be done based on Shortlisting of candidates by a committee constituted by EPFO and Personal Interview.

Candidates selected as Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs will be paid as under various Levels ranging between Level 13 to Level 06.

Also Read: SBI Recruitment 2019 For Sr. Executives (Credit Review); Earn Up To INR Rs 12 Lakh Per Annum

How To Apply

Candidates applying for the post of Chief Engineers, Executive Engineers, AEEs and JEs in Civil and Electrical trades under Engineering Cadres through EPFO Recruitment 2019 must fill the necessary details in a prescribed proforma and address it to, "Sh. Sanjay Bisht, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I(HRM), Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan, 14 Bhikaiji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066".

All envelopes containing the application and supporting documents must be submitted on or before 25 February 2019.

For detailed advertisement about EPFO Recruitment 2019 For Engineering Cadres In Civil And Electrical Trades click hereOur Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.Published On Jan 27, 2019 08:59 AM By Dhruv.A for Maruti Wagon R

The past week was one of the most powerpacked ones in several months, with multiple big ticket launches. Of course, all this madness was complemented by our sensible buyer guides.

New launches

The much awaited Tata Harrier finally made its entry, that too at an enticing starting price . If you have already made your mind to buy it then which variant makes sense for you?

Nissan is aiming high with the launch of the new Kicks which gets a really competitive starting price . However, which variant of the Kicks makes sense for you? If you want to personalize it to your taste then heres the list of accessories it offers. Click here to read more.

Maruti has brought the third generation of its high selling hatchback, the WagonR. It's now bigger, more feature-loaded and packs a bigger engine option as well. All this without any significant rise in price. Take a look . Which variant of the new WagonR offers the most value? Answer here .

BMW launches a comparatively affordable coupe-SUV for its India lineup. It's called the X4 and is priced at Rs 60.6 lakh and can be had with both petrol and diesel engines. Here are all the details .

Mercedes-Benz launches the most luxurious van you can buy in India, the V-Class, in two variants. Here are the price and variant details.

Want a closer look at the new Toyota Camry? Here are the first impressions .

News

Maruti opens bookings for the Baleno facelift. For the booking amount and expected prices, click here .

Skoda will be introducing a Hyundai Creta rival and we will be meeting it for the first time at the Auto Expo 2020. Want to know what it will be called in India? Click here .

MG is all set to bring its first electric SUV to India in 2019 itself. It is going to rival the Hyundai Kona once it enters. Here are the details .

Wait for the next-gen Toyota Corolla is going to extend but when it comes, its going to pack BSVI engines right from the beginning. When is that though? Click here to find out.

Maruti is going to give a facelift not just to the Baleno but also to its sportier iteration, the RS. Heres what it gets .

Tata 45X has a launch month now. So when will the Maruti Baleno, Hyundai i20 and Honda Jazz have a new competitor? Answer here .

Now time for some CarDekho advisories. Take a look

Read More on : Wagon R AMTnews, crime

Australian organised criminals are more likely to commit their first offence well into adulthood, rather than start a life of crime in their teenage years. The first Australian study looking into the criminal histories of organised offenders has found almost 60 per cent of organised criminals first offended after they turned 20. Almost a third of Australian organised criminals were more than 30-years-old by the time they were first arrested for offences such as drug smuggling, money laundering or being involved with outlaw motorcycle gangs. The study, conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology, examined the criminal history and behaviour of more than 2000 organised criminals, who had committed a combined 37,000 offences. While organised criminals were more likely to be well into their 20s when they first started offending, previous international research into the behaviour of criminals not involved in gangs or syndicates found they began their criminal careers when they were teenagers. The study said the difference between the starting ages for organised crime and other offences was due to organised crime being more complex. The institute's research manager Anthony Morgan said there were several factors for organised criminals beginning their life of crime later on than general criminals. "The type of offences that organised criminals are more likely to be involved in require life experience, like being involved in an illicit drug network," Mr Morgan said. "Often these sorts of skills used for organised crime are developed over time, and fairly strong networks of organised crime offenders require levels of trust." The institute said while much is known about organised crime activity, little was known about the criminal histories of offenders. "Organised crime is one of the most persistent and complex threats currently affecting Australia and was estimated to have cost up to $47.4 billion in 2016-17," the study said. "Research into organised crime in Australia has been limited by a lack of publicly available data and adequate samples for study." The study found the frequency of organised crime activity increased with age, along with the seriousness of the offence. Organised criminals' first offence were more likely to be assault-related, 20 per cent, followed by property offences, 18 per cent, and drug offences, 17 per cent. More than half of organised criminals in the study had recorded drug offences in their criminal history, while 44 per cent had committed assault. Those who committed drug offences were more likely to be older than those who committed other offences such as fraud or those involving weapons. "Offending was most prevalent throughout organised crime offenders' 20s and early to mid-30s," the study said. "Older offenders tended to commit more serious offences." Mr Morgan said while organised criminals started later in their criminal careers, their rate of offending was likely to stay constant as they get older. "We found the prevalence [of offending] in this group remains pretty consistent from their early 20s to their mid to late 30s, which is quite unique," he said The new research also found there were more organised criminals who committed offences across a range of offence categories compared to those who specialised in one area. "Generalist offenders tended to offend for the first time at a younger age. Thirty-five per cent of generalist offenders committed their first offence before the age of 18 compared with just 7 per cent of specialist offenders," the report said. Mr Morgan said the institute has looked at using the data to better understand the behaviour patterns of organised criminals. He said it would provide multiple uses to police officers investigating organised crime. "What the data highlights is that if you target active criminals [due to them being generalists], you tackle multiple types of crimes," Mr Morgan said. "We're looking to build on this data to look specifically at motorcycle gang offenders and also looking at identifying high-risk offenders and how to target them." An AFP spokeswoman said the federal police are still analysing the results of the study. "The AFP continues strong collaboration and exchange of information and intelligence with domestic and international law enforcement authorities to combat all forms of transnational organised crime," the spokeswoman said.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/a5ba06cf-16d7-48e4-8eab-84b473b05754/r0_293_5760_3547_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Canberra pet owners are being warned not to leave their dog or cat unattended in their car, as the RSPCA recorded its busiest year for animal rescues from hot vehicles in 2018. RSPCA ACT inspectors rescued 46 animals trapped in cars in the past year, almost twice as many as the year before. December had the highest number of rescues in a month in the organisation's history, as 12 pets were pulled from cars. New draft laws proposed by the ACT government would fine or even imprison those who abandon pets in a vehicle. Pet owners found guilty would be fined up to $3000, or in more serious cases, be jailed for up to one year. RSPCA ACT chief executive Michelle Robertson said while inspectors had responded to a record number of call outs, countless more incidents aren't reported. "We want to caution the community to avoid heartbreak by potentially losing a beloved pet from heatstroke," Ms Robertson said. "Even a short walk in the heat of the day can be fatal and it only takes six minutes for an animal to die in a hot car." One dog was rescued recently by a RSPCA inspector after being locked in a car for more than two hours while its owners were inside a nearby building. The dog was treated for heat sickness and given fluids before it was taken to an overnight vet for observations. As heatwave conditions continue to grip Canberra and much of Australia, Ms Robertson said pet owners should be vigilant. "Our pets can't always adequately cool themselves during such intense heat," she said. "It's up to us as responsible pet owners to do everything we can to protect them." City Services minister Chris Steel said proposed animal welfare laws, currently under community consultation, would serve as a powerful deterrent for pet owners. Currently, there is no offence in the ACT for pet owners who leave their pet unattended in a car. "We have heard from the community that it is totally unacceptable for animals to be left in vehicles in distress or at risk of injury," Mr Steel said. "These proposed laws send a clear message that a car is no place for an animal to be left unattended, especially in hot weather." Under the new laws, bystanders would be able to break into a car to save a distressed animal. The RSPCA warned that pets can still suffer heat stress, even if they aren't trapped in a car. Ms Robertson said certain breeds are more susceptible to heat than others, such as bulldogs and pugs. She said dogs bred to have flat faces were most at risk. "What happens with these dogs that have exaggerated features is that they have smaller nostrils and a narrow windpipe, and it can be difficult for them to get oxygen," Ms Robertson said. "Other dogs can be more susceptible to heatstroke if they're very old or very young or have pre-existing health conditions." If an animal is trapped in a locked car and is panting heavily, drooling or unconscious and the owners are not able to be contacted, the RSPCA said to call triple zero immediately. Once the animal has been removed from the car, the RSPCA recommends moving the animal to a shaded area, placing a wet towel on its belly or groin, allow the animal to drink small amounts of cold water and take it to a nearby vet.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/dfa273f6-84b4-4b5b-ac12-7b71a6dd77b0/r0_266_5000_3091_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgSt. Johnsbury, VT (05819)

Today

A few thunderstorms this evening. Mostly clear skies late. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

A few thunderstorms this evening. Mostly clear skies late. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low 54F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.BJP Bihar President Nityanand Rai said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be presenting his government's five years report card during the NDA rally in Patna on March 3.

In a joint press conference of the NDA in Patna which was addressed by Rai, JDU State President Bashishtha Narayan Singh and LJP State President Pashupati Paras, BJP President announced NDA will hold a massive rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on 3rd March where Prime Minister Modi will be presenting the report card of his government.

Rai said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending this rally along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Pashupati Paras informed that BJP national president Amit Shah will also be present in the rally which will take place just few days ahead of the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP State President also added that the Congress will be asked to present its report card of 55 years to the people.

"NDA ki rally mein pradhanmantri saboot ke saath apne sarkar ka hisab denge aur Congress se 55 saalon ka hisab lenge", said Nityanand Rai, Bihar BJP President.

When questioned, whether BJP was the big brother in the NDA alliance, Nityanand Rai said that Lok Sabha elections will be fought jointly by BJP national president Amit Shah, JDU national President and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Minister and LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan.

"Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan will be fighting elections together to win and make Narendra Modi the PM again", said Nityanand Rai.

Bashishtha Narayan Singh said alliance partnership are working together to ensure that the rally on 3rd march was the biggest in recent history.

Interestingly, at the same venue, Congress will be holding a Jan Akanksha rally on 3rd February which will be addressed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The NDA rally is being seen as a reply to the Congress's rally in Bihar.

Also read: Train 18: Here's how much it will cost you to travel on India's fastest trainThe Enforcement Directorate on Friday received the green signal from the PMLA court, Mumbai to confiscate properties worth Rs 89.56 crore of Speak Asia Online Pvt. Ltd.

A case was registered by the Mumbai Police in 2011 based on which ED initiated an investigation against Speak Asia Online Pvt.Ltd., Singapore, its directors and others as per the money laundering act. The investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate revealed that Speak Asia Singapore in connivance with its foreign associate Haren Venture Pvt. Ltd. (HVPL), Singapore and its three representatives in India namely Tulsiyat Tek Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Kritanj Management and Allied Services, Mumbai and Seamless Outsourcing LLP, Mumbai floated a web-based online money circulation scheme through its website.

"Money collected from gullible investors in the guise of subscription fee for online survey was sent out to Singapore in the bank account of M/s. HPVL, Singapore. During the investigation in this case of money laundering, the Enforcement Directorate identified the proceeds of crime and attached Rs 89.56 crores in Current account of M/s. Seamless Outsourcing LLP, Mumbai in March 2015," said an ED official.

After the investigation, the Enforcement Directorate had filed the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against the said company and 7 others for the commission of offence under Section 3, punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002 before the Mumbai court.

The partner of Seamless Outsourching LLP, Mumbai failed to appear before the PMLA Special Court despite issuance of non-bailable warrant against him. On the application moved by the Enforcement Directorate, the PMLA Court declared Mansoor Nizam Patel, a 'proclaimed offender'. Thereafter, ED filed an application in the PMLA Court for the confiscation of a bank deposit of Rs 89.56 crore, following which the court allowed the same.

This is the first case where the ED has been able to confiscate liquid cash of such magnitude.

Also read: Train 18: Here's how much it will cost you to travel on India's fastest trainRussian President Vladimir Putin wished Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and on India's 70th Republic Day. In his message, Vladimir Putin said India has achieved "impressive success" in socio-economic, scientific and technological spheres.

India celebrated its 70th Republic Day with a grand military parade and a show of its history, cultural diversity and strategic weaponry at the Rajpath. Foreign dignitaries and the top politicians were among the spectators.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to all citizens of the Republic of India," a senior Russian Embassy official said.

"India has achieved impressive success in socio-economic, scientific, technical and other spheres," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Your country rightfully enjoys high authority in the international arena, actively participates in tackling pressing issues of the regional and global agenda," he said in his message. The relations between the two countries are "dynamically developing," he said.

"I am convinced that further advance of the entire gamut of Russian - Indian ties fully meets the interests of our people and contributes to ensuring international stability and security," Vladimir Putin added.

"I sincerely wish good health, well-being and success to all citizens of India," he said.

Also read: Chhattisgarh govt to write off Rs 207 crore of irrigation tax; to benefit 15 lakh farmersArun Jaitley who is recovering from a surgery has been drawing flak for allegedly meddling in the ICICI Bank case. Turns out that two days before the minister said that one of the reasons for poor conviction rate in India is that "adventurism and megalomania" overtakes investigators and professionalism takes a back seat, the investigating officer in the Chanda and Deepak Kochhar-Venugopal Dhoot case was transferred.

The officer, SP Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, part of CBI's Banking and Securities Fraud Cell (BSFC) in Delhi, signed the Chanda Kochhar FIR on January 22. According to a report in The Indian Express, Mishra was transferred to the Economic Offences Branch in Ranchi the next day.

Two days after his transfer, Jaitley took to social media to express his views on 'investigative adventurism' that he said is a "journey to nowhere". "Adventurism leads to media leaks, ruins reputations and eventually invites strictures and not convictions. In the process, the targets are ruined because of harassment, loss of reputation and financial costs. It costs people their career," he wrote. "Professional investigation targets the real accused on the basis of actual and admissible evidences. It rules out fanciful presumptions. There is no personal malice or corruption. It targets the guilty and protects the innocent. It secures convictions and furthers public interest," Jaitley said. One of the reasons why conviction rates in India are poor is that "adventurism and megalomania overtakes our investigators and professionalism takes a back seat," he wrote.

His comments were retweeted by Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Sources told the daily that Jaitley's comments should not be misconstrued as they were merely "elderly advice". A senior government officer took the minister's side and said that Jaitley's comment was valid and asked how can one name top board members without evidence.

On the other hand, the Congress has been up in arms about Jaitley's comment and accused him of pressuring the CBI. The Congress alleges that Jaitley has been putting pressure on CBI to "go slow" in the case and that his comments amounted to rebuking and threatening the agency.

As mentioned in the daily, Jairam Ramesh said: "His statement is extraordinary. It is a clear signal to the CBI to go slow. It also smacks of double standards which, of course, is not new for him. He called Vodafone (case) tax terrorism and then did exactly the same thing in regard to Cairn. He calls ICICI case investigative adventurism yet does exactly the same in regard to his predecessor."

Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma lashed out on Jaitley and said that when he asked the CBI to operate within its gambit, the BJP "attacked" him.

Former Union Minister and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance M Veerappa Moily said that he does not believe that the statement was an off-the-cuff remark. He said that NDA ministers are "pressured by the party higher-ups".

However, former CBI Special Director NR Wasan who served in the agency for 18 years said, "This is a very poorly drafted FIR. Probe agencies never make roving enquiries. They should focus on the crime they are probing. This type of investigation will never see an end," as mentioned in the daily.

(Edited by Anwesha Madhukalya)

Also read: 2019 will be the year of growth for Indian IT, says Tech Mahindra MD CP GurnaniAnything that is written in an Indian language should qualify as Indian literature rather than being dubbed as regional literature, acclaimed Tamil writer Perumal Murugan said Sunday.

Murugan, 53, asked if writings in other languages were regional literature what qualified then as the mainstream literature.

"I don't like to qualify it as regional literature. It's so sad. If this is regional, then what is the mainstream literature? Is it English?" he asked.

"Anything that is written about Indian life and in an Indian language should be part of the Indian literature rather than being dubbed as regional literature. That would make perfect sense," he said at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival.

Murugan, who writes in Tamil, declared his writing "dead" in 2015 after he was harassed and attacked by right-wing groups.

He participated in a discussion at JLF on his comeback novel "Poonachi" (The Story Of A Black Goat) which is a fable about a goat that tells a story of humans, love and freedom.

Echoing Murugan's views, his English translator for "Poonachi" N Kalyan Raman said many of the Indian languages had already become international languages.

"Bengali is spoken in Bengal. Tamil is an official language in India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka," he said.

Talking about writing, Murugan said creative writing was all about a quest for the unknown and drew an interesting analogy between writing and farming.

He emphasised that both are essentially same in "creating a new life".

"There are many things in nature which are hidden and remain a secret, but they remain a secret so far as we are not aware of them, the act of creative writing is to discover what is still unknown. It is a quest for the unknown. In a certain sense even the goal of humans is part of nature. The secret of human life can be revealed through writing," he said.

Known for his fine connection with the land and giving so evocative a flavour of the landscape to the readers that they can smell the dust, Murugan said his stories were woven out of elements of nature.

Murugan who said he would have been a farmer if not a writer compared farming with creative writing.

"I come from a family of farmers. Farming is akin to creative writing. Unless you have a creative bent of mind, you can't do farming. All the processes involved in farming - from preparing the soil, sowing the seed, nurturing and harvesting - are same as in writing.

"Farming is essentially creating a new life in a creative way. This is the basis of my writing. The ability to create a new life," he said.

Noting that writing is a wonderful way to express yourself, Murugan said he had always liked literature which is why he also studied it.

"I don't write every day. But something keeps going on in my head. Writing keeps forming itself inside my head. I need a space and time, only then can I write," he said.

The controversial writer said although he was not a political chronicler, yet his writing was not free from politics.

"I am not a writer who writes overtly about politics. I even look at politics through the literary lens. But nothing is free of politics and therefore when I write, politics is embedded in it just as it is embedded in everything we do," he said.

"Poonachi" is Murugan's first novel after his self-imposed literary silence in January 2015.

He gave up writing after protests against his novel "Madhorubhagan" (One Part Woman) set in his hometown.

Local groups led protests against the book, saying the "fictitious" extramarital sex ritual at the centre of the plot insulted the town, its temple and its women.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Patty Jenkins has hinted that the third part of Gal Gadot-fronted "Wonder Woman" series will be set in the present era.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 47-year-old director, who is currently working on "Wonder Woman 1984", said she has an inkling of where the story could go after the sequel.

"It's definitely one of the things we talked about. I'm not planning to put it in the past again, because where are you going to go? You have to go forward. It's definitely a contemporary story. That's all I can say. Where we put it and how that gets figured out, I haven't totally nailed down," she said.

After the debacle of DC's 2017 superhero ensemble "Justice League", fans have been petitioning the director to helm the next instalment, but Jenkins said it is an "extremely challenging" task.

"The 'Justice League' movie, I find those movies to be extremely challenging. I think they are fantastic when they are well done," she said.

She believes before going forward with the next "Justice League" film, the studio should focus on the individual stories of all the superheroes.

"Taking on all of those characters at the same time in the timeline... I sort of hope that we don't do a Justice League movie for a little while, because I'm excited to see all of their movies. I want to see 'Aquaman 2', I want to see 'Flash'," the director said.

"Never say never, but I think everyone should have their moment to shine," she added.

"Wonder Woman 1984" will see Gadot's Wonder Woman face off against Kristen Wiig's Cheetah. The film will also feature "Game of Thrones" and "Narcos" star Pedro Pascal in a pivotal role. It is set to release on June 5, 2020.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti



leader Akhil Gogoi Sunday said if proper respect is not shown to the Assamese people and the Citizenship Amendment Bill is passed, then "we must have the courage to tell the government that we may consider not staying with India".

Addressing a protest rally against the proposed legislation at Panitola in Assam's Tinsukia district, Gogoi said, "If the government gives us the respect we deserve, we are with the nation but if the sentiments of the indigenous Assamese are ignored and the bill is passed, then each Assamese must have the courage to say that they will not be a part of India."



The proposed legislation seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and many parties and organisations have claimed that it will have an adverse impact on the demography of the sensitive border state.

They said the provisions of the bill will nullify the 1985 Assam Accord, which provides for deportation of all illegal migrants, irrespective of religion, who had entered the state after March 1971.

Gogoi, who has been spearheading the agitation by 70 organisations against the bill, said, "We want to make it clear that if the need and situation arises, Assam must be able to say that they are prepared not to stay with India ... if the government respects us, we will stay with India or we will quit."



Several organisations in Mizoram had boycotted the Republic Day celebrations in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Assam Police had earlier filed a sedition case against Gogoi, Sahitya Akademi winning litterateur Hiren Gohain and senior journalist Manjit Mahanta for making secessionist remarks at a protest meeting in Guwahati.

Meanwhile, BJP workers and All Assam Students' Union (AASU) activists clashed in Nalbari district when the student organisation was protesting against the bill during a bike rally taken out by the saffron party workers to escort Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, who had gone there for the inauguration of a hospital by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

The AASU members were protesting with black flags and demanding that the bill be scrapped when they were allegedly stopped and attacked by the BJP workers with stones.

The police brought the situation under control and the students' body has filed a case against the BJP activists at the Ghograpar police station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)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.A 32-year-old villager, who was abducted by a group of Maoists over suspicion of being a police informer, was found dead Sunday here in Maharashtra, police said.

The victim, Sansay Tanu Beig, a resident of Jaravandi village under Erapalli tehsil of Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, was abducted late Saturday night, a police official said.

Around 40 Maoists entered the village and barged into Beig's house from where they pulled him out after brandishing weapons, he said.

Villagers came to Beig's defence and requested the Maoists to leave him as he was innocent, the official said.

However, the rebels did not listen to them and took the villager with them, he said.

Beig's blood soaked body was found in early hours of Sunday in the main square of the village, he said.

Maoists suspected Beig had informed the police about their meeting held in the village, the official said.

The ultras assaulted Beig with sticks, leading to his death and dumped his body near the village, he said.

The Jaravandi police later reached the spot and shifted the body to a state-run hospital for post-mortem, the official said.

A probe is underway and the police were in the process of registering an offence, he said.

This is the fourth incident of killing of a villager over suspicion of being a police informer in the district in the last one week, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nicolas Maduro's government backtracked on an order that gave US Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave Venezuela, defusing tensions between the countries just hours after their top diplomats traded heated rhetoric at a special UN Security Council meeting to address the South American country's crisis.

Maduro broke relations with the on Wednesday after the recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, a move the embattled socialist described as a "vile" coup attempt.

Maduro gave American diplomats three days to leave the country, but the refused to obey his order, arguing that the leftist leader was no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a potentially violent showdown at the hilltop Embassy compound on Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Maduro government had opened a 30-day window to negotiate with the the establishment of a "US interests office" in Venezuela, and a similar office for in the

A similar arrangement governed bilateral relations between the US and Cuba for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not immediately confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister faced off against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a special UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela's situation.

During the debate -- which was convened by the US -- Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support opposition leader Juan Guaido while Russia accused the Trump administration of attempting "to engineer a coup d'etat" against President Nicolas Maduro - a reflection of the world's deep divisions over the crisis in the South American country.

Pompeo told the UN Security Council that it's beyond time to back the Venezuelan people as they try to free themselves from what he called Maduro's "illegitimate mafia state" and support Guaido. The young opposition leader has declared himself the country's interim president, arguing that Maduro's re-election was fraudulent.

But Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said doesn't threaten peace and security and accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's legitimate government of choosing "maximum confrontation", including the artificial creation of a parallel government. He urged Pompeo to say whether the US will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesize on what the U.S. will do next."



What has played out in and the world's media between supporters and opponents of the Maduro government played out face-to-face in the chamber of the UN's most powerful body, which has failed to take action on the Venezuelan crisis because of deep divisions.

The Security Council's five veto-wielding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations - France and Britain - joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro Saturday, saying they would follow the US and others in recognising Guaido unless Venezuela calls new presidential elections within eight days.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said if there is no announcement of new elections in the next days the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership".

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline. "Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike."



Arreaza said Venezuela "will not allow anyone to impose on us any decision or order" and demanded that someone show him where in the country's constitution it states that an individual can proclaim himself president.

As for possible military action to oust Maduro, Arreaza said, "we will not allow any government or any country to violate our sovereignty, and give a pretext for Donald Trump to start a war."



The opposition to Guaido was also reflected in the initial procedural vote on whether the 15-member Security Council should even discuss the crisis in Venezuela, which is not on its official agenda.

The barely survived the vote to go ahead with the meeting, receiving the minimum nine "yes" votes from the council's six Western nations along with Kuwait, Peru and the Dominican Republic. China, South Africa and Equatorial Guinea joined Russia in voting "no" while Indonesia and Ivory Coast abstained.

Pompeo went after Russia and China, accusing them of trying "to prop up Maduro while he is in dire straits ... in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years".

But he saved his sharpest attack for Cuba, saying no country has done more to sustain "the nightmarish condition of the Venezuelan people".

He said Cuba has sent "security and intelligence thugs" to sustain Maduro's "illegitimate rule".

"Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."



China's UN Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said his government "firmly opposed" the US accusations and doesn't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. "We hope the country that accuses others can do likewise itself," Ma told the council.

Cuba's UN Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez went further, rejecting "the deliberate" and "fake news" cast on the country not only by Pompeo but by Elliot Abrams, the new chief of US policy on Venezuela who sat in the council after the secretary of state left.

The Security Council meeting came a day after Guaido vowed to remain on the streets until his country has a transitional government, while Maduro dug in and accused his opponents of orchestrating a coup.

In rival press conferences, Guaido urged his followers to stage another mass protest next week, while Maduro pushed his call for dialogue.

The standoff could set the scene for more violence and has plunged troubled Venezuela into a new chapter of political turmoil that rights groups say has already left more than two dozen dead as thousands take to the street demanding Maduro step down.

Guaido took a symbolic oath of office Wednesday proclaiming himself the nation's constitutional leader on grounds that Maduro's re-election last year was fraudulent - an allegation supported by the US, the European Union and many other nations.

Directives sent Friday by the State Department to the Federal Reserve will make it harder for Maduro to gain access to the government's sizable overseas assets, including revenue from oil sales and profits by Houston-based Citgo, a unit of the state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Guaido's move is the most direct challenge to Maduro's rule despite years of protests at home and efforts to isolate the regime amid a growing humanitarian crisis fuelled by falling oil prices and government mismanagement.

Maduro is accusing the opposition of working with the US to overthrow him. Though over a dozen nations are recognising Guaido as president, Maduro still has the support of the military and powerful, longtime allies like Russia and China.

He said he is still willing to talk with the opposition. Both sides attempted dialogue last year, but it fell apart as Maduro pushed forward with an early election that Venezuela's most popular opposition leaders were barred from running in.Venezuela defused a potential showdown with the United States, suspending a demand that U.S. diplomats leave the country as Washington called on the world to "pick a side" in the South American nation's fast-moving crisis.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro broke relations with the United States on Wednesday after the Trump administration and many other nations in the region recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, a move that Maduro called a coup attempt.

Maduro gave US diplomats three days to leave the country, but the Trump administration said it wouldn't obey, arguing that Maduro is no longer Venezuela's legitimate president. That set the stage for a showdown at the hilltop US Embassy compound Saturday night, when the deadline was to expire.

But as the sun set on Venezuela's capital, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Maduro's government was suspending the expulsion to provide a 30-day window for negotiating with US officials about setting up a "US interests office" in Venezuela and a similar Venezuelan office in the United States.

The US and Cuba had a similar arrangement for decades before the Obama administration restored diplomatic relations with the communist-run island.

The State Department did not confirm the Venezuelan government's account, reiterating only that its priority remains the safety of its personnel and that it has no plans to close the embassy.

"That is true diplomacy," Maduro said after reading out the statement on national television.

Earlier in the day, critics and supporters of Maduro's government faced off at the UN Security Council, reflecting the world's deep divisions over Venezuela, which is mired in political confrontation as well as an economic collapse that has caused millions to flee the country.

During the debate, which was requested by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged all nations to end Venezuela's "nightmare" and support Guaido.

"Now is the time for every other national to pick a side," Pompeo said. "No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem."



Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia charged that the Trump administration is trying "to engineer a coup" against Maduro. He said Venezuela doesn't threaten international peace and security, and he accused "extremist opponents" of Maduro's government of choosing "maximum confrontation," including the artificial creation of a parallel government.

Nebenzia urged Pompeo to say whether the U.S. will use military force.

Pompeo later told reporters who asked for a response, "I am not going to speculate or hypothesise on what the U.S. will do next."



Pompeo was accompanied to New York by Elliott Abrams, who was named a day earlier as the U.S. special representative for Venezuela. Abrams is a former assistant secretary of state for Latin America who worked at the White House when a 2002 coup in Venezuela briefly ousted Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

On his first day on the job, Abrams met with exiled leaders of Venezuela's opposition. He also spoke by phone with Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress. Abrams reaffirmed U.S. support for Guaido as interim president, said Kimberly Breier, the current assistant secretary of state for the region.

The Security Council, the UN most powerful body, has not taken action on the Venezuelan crisis because of the divisions. The Security Council's five veto-holding permanent members could not unite behind a statement on Venezuela, presenting widely differing texts.

The leaders of two of those council nations France and Britain joined Spain and Germany to turn up the pressure on Maduro, saying Saturday that they would follow the U.S. and others in recognizing Guaido as president unless Venezuela calls a new presidential election within eight days.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there is no announcement of a new election in the next days, the 28-nation bloc "will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership."



Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza dismissed the deadline.

"Europe is giving us eight days?" he asked the council. "Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people. It's almost childlike." Arreaza asked that someone show him where in Venezuela's constitution it says an individual can proclaim himself president.

Guaido says he is acting in accordance with two articles of the constitution that give the National Assembly president the right to hold power temporarily and call new elections.

While the council debated, a man identifying himself as Venezuela's military attache in Washington posted a video saying he had broken with Maduro and now would report to Guaido.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United States pressed all nations Saturday to "stand with the forces of freedom" in Venezuela, encouraged by a tougher European line as Russia stood in the minority in backing embattled leader Nicolas Maduro.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a forceful case at a special session of the United Nations Security Council, where he described Maduro as part of an "illegitimate mafia state" responsible for Venezuela's economic collapse.

With mounting protests over Venezuela's crisis in which more than two million have fled shortages of basic food and medicine, Pompeo asked all nations to follow the US in recognising opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president.

"Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo said. He also urged all countries to end financial transactions with Maduro's government, which has struggled to pay bills despite the country's oil wealth.

Pompeo denounced Russia and China, which have stood by Maduro, saying that they were "propping up a failed regime in the hopes of recovering billions of dollars in ill-considered investments and assistance made over the years".

Russia has denounced the United States for interference and attempted to block the Security Council meeting, but it was voted down with nine of the 15 members agreeing to go forward. But Russia blocked a draft Security Council statement seen by AFP that would have offered full support to Guaido and called the National Assembly that he heads "Venezuela's only democratically elected institution".

"Venezuela does not pose any threat to peace and security. The intention of the United States is to orchestrate a coup d'etat," said the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.

He accused the United States of continuing to treat Latin America as a "backyard where you can do anything you want" and, in a shot at the Europeans, said Russia would not raise France's populist Yellow Vest protests at the Security Council.

President Donald Trump's recognition of Guaido has been supported by many Latin American powers including Brazil, Colombia and Argentina -- but not all. European powers, after cautious initial statements, on Saturday warned that they will recognise Guaido unless Maduro calls elections within eight days.

"If within eight days there are no fair, free and transparent elections called in Venezuela, Spain will recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuelan president" so that he himself can call the vote, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised announcement.

Britain, France, and Germany followed suit, with French President Emmanuel Macron tweeting: "The Venezuelan people must be able to freely decide on their future."



Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza rejected the ultimatum, accusing the Europeans of "putting themselves at the tail" of Trump. "From where do you get the power to issue deadlines or ultimatums to a sovereign people?" he told the Security Council.

The 28-member European Union is not united on Venezuela, with Greece's ruling left-wing Syriza party voicing "full support and solidarity" for Maduro.

Maduro's re-election last year was contested by the opposition and rejected by the US, EU and UN as a sham -- but he has until now retained the loyalty of the powerful military.

Guaido, who has managed to galvanize a previously divided opposition, this week attempted to attract military support by offering an amnesty to anyone who disavows Maduro -- and suggested amnesty for Maduro himself -- but with no luck so far.

He scored a symbolic victory when Venezuela's military attache to Washington, Colonel Jose Luis Silva, announced Saturday he was breaking with Maduro and called on his colleagues in the armed forces to follow suit.

But Guaido was also forced to admit he had held a meeting with Maduro's number two Diosdado Cabello after the government published a video of the rendezvous.

Guaido had previously rejected an offer of talks, saying he won't attend a "fake dialogue" on a crisis that has left 26 dead in clashes this week between anti-Maduro activists and security forces.

He downplayed the significance of the talks, telling supporters at a rally Saturday: "We are willing to meet with all the officials for the cessation of the usurpation and for free elections."



More than 350 people have also been detained this week in the protests, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Friday. Both Guaido and Maduro have called for demonstrations next week, raising fears of further violence.

Maduro has given US diplomats until late Saturday to leave Venezuela. The United States said it was ignoring the order as it no longer considers Maduro the president -- but withdrew non-essential staff and argued that Maduro still bore responsibility for diplomats' safety.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to withdraw 18 cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots and asked the district authorities to approach the court, sources said Sunday.

UP's special secretary of law JJ Singh has directed Muzaffarnagar district magistrate Rajeev Sharma to withdraw the cases, they said.

On the directive from Lucknow, the district authorities have started preparing to approach the court for permission to withdraw the cases. The cases were filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code including 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 397 (attempt to cause death), the sources said.

The directive came after the state government sought details of 125 cases filed in relation to the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.

Additional district magistrate Amit Kumar told PTI that the state government had sought the details to review the possibility of withdrawing the 125 cases pending in courts.

Several leaders of the ruling BJP, including MPs Sanjeev Balyan and Bharatendra Singh, MLAs Sangeet Som and Umesh Malik, have been named in these 125 cases. Minister in the state government Suresh Rana and Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi are also accused in cases related to the Muzaffarnagar riots.

However, the cases asked to withdraw do not include the names of these BJP leaders.

Communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September 2013 had claimed 60 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.

The state government had formed an SIT to probe the riot cases. The SIT has filed charge sheets in 175 cases.

Police had registered cases against 6,869 people and arrested 1,480 people in connection with the riots.

According to the SIT, 418 accused have been acquitted in 54 cases due to lack of evidence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a first, the UP cabinet will hold a meeting at Allahabad during the ongoing Kumbh mela in the city on January 29, an official said Sunday.

After the meeting, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other ministers are likely to take a dip in the holy waters of Sangam, he said.

"On January 29, the UP Cabinet will be holding its meeting at the integrated command and control centre in Kumbh mela area. The meeting is likely to commence at 10.30 am," Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi told PTI.

Adityanath along with his council of ministers will visit Akshayvat and Saraswati Koop.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN's Mideast envoy is calling the death of a Palestinian in West Bank clashes with Israeli settlers "shocking and unacceptable."



Nikolay Mladenov on Sunday called on Israel to "put an end to settler violence and bring those responsible to justice."



Hamdi Naasan, 38, was killed Saturday near the village of al-Mughayyir, close to Ramallah. The Palestinians say settlers shot him. The settlers say a Jewish man was stabbed by Palestinians and they fired in the air while chasing away the attackers.

The Israeli police and military have launched investigations. The violence came days after Israel charged a Jewish teenager with manslaughter in the death of a Palestinian woman in the West Bank.

Over 400,000 settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Prince Philip has apologised to a woman who broke her wrist after being involved in a car crash with his Land Rover, saying that he is "deeply sorry" for the terrifying accident.

Last week, Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, miraculously escaped unhurt in the accident when the Land Rover he was driving flipped onto its side after a collision with another car carrying two women and a baby.

The 97-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was unharmed but the two women in the Kia hatchback were injured in the accident near the Queen's Sandringham estate on Thursday. The nine-month-old baby who was in the back seat of car was uninjured.

The Duke said in a letter to Emma Fairweather, who broke her wrist in the accident, that he was "very sorry" for his part in the accident, and wished "a speedy recovery from a very distressing experience, the Sunday Mirror reported.

"I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident... I can only imagine that I failed to see the car coming, and I am very contrite about the consequences," said the letter published by the paper.

"I was somewhat shaken after the accident," he continued, "but I was greatly relieved that none of you were seriously injured. As a crowd was beginning to gather, I was advised to return to Sandringham House by a local police officer. I have since learned that you suffered a broken arm. I am deeply sorry about this injury."



Last week Fairweather, a passenger in the Kia, told the newspaper that she felt "ignored and rejected" because she had not received an apology, but told the paper on Sunday that she was "chuffed" that he had finally responded.

Fairweather, from King's Lynn, told the Sunday Mirror: "I thought it was really nice that he signed off as 'Philip' and not the formal title. I was pleasantly surprised because of the personalised nature."



The paper reported Buckingham Palace has confirmed the letter is genuine.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who took delivery of a replacement Land Rover after the crash, was later reportedly spoken to by police after being pictured driving without a seat belt two days after the crash.

Philip, who formally retired from public life in 2017, has been seen behind the wheels on numerous occasions over the decade.

At present, there is no upper age limit for driving in the UK. However, a person's driving licence expires once he or she reaches the age of 70.

If the licence expires and they fail to renew it, then they legally are not allowed to drive. But if they apply for a renewal they may continue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British MPs could sit longer hours and their February holiday may be scrapped as the government races to pass its Brexit legislation before Britain leaves the EU on March 29, Downing Street said Sunday.

Prime Minister Theresa May's government is looking at making the House of Commons sit on more Fridays -- which it does not normally do -- and extend debating time well into the evening on some days.

It is also "reviewing" the week-long February recess, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

There are still eight laws the government wants to pass to prepare the statute books for Brexit, covering areas of trade, fisheries and agriculture, immigration, the environment and healthcare.

These includes any bill needed to implement a divorce deal with the EU, which MPs have yet to agree to.

"We remain committed to ensuring all necessary legislation is in place for exit day on March 29, 2019, and it is important to stress we are confident of meeting that commitment," the spokeswoman said.

"We are aware this is a challenging timetable, so as a precautionary measure we are in preliminary discussions about extending sitting times -- but only if necessary."



She said MPs would have a chance to debate and vote on any decision, adding that the government recognised the need to balance their constituency and family responsibilities.

Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, suggested this week that Brexit could be delayed if necessary by a few weeks to get the bills through.

"I'm absolutely certain that if we needed a couple of extra weeks or something, that that would be feasible," she told the BBC's "Newsnight" programme.

But she added that "with goodwill and a determination, we can still get the legislation through in time".

Meanwhile, officials are looking at whether they might need sweeping powers, including the introduction of martial law, if there is disorder after Brexit, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

There has been a discussion about using the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which allows curfews, travel bans and the deployment of the army to quell any social unrest if Britain leaves the EU with no deal.

A separate Downing Street spokeswoman said: "The prime minister has said that there will be disruption in the event of no deal."



"But as a responsible government we are taking the appropriate steps to minimise this disruption and ensure the country is prepared.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday slammed the opposition Congress led UDF in Kerala for implicating former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case, saying they did so "as some party leaders wanted to settle political scores."



The Prime Minister said it was an "honour" for his government to have got the opportunity to confer the Padma Bhushan to Nambi Narayanan,who was implicated in a false case.

Training his guns on the UDF, the prime minister said they had implicated Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case as some UDF leaders wanted to settle certain political scores.

"A few years ago, a hard working and patriotic ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case just because a few UDF leaders wanted to settle political scores", he said.

"Imagine, for their own politics,they damaged the national interest. It is an honour that our government had the opportunity of conferring the Padama award on Nambi Narayanan. We value each and every person who is working to make India stronger," Modi said.

"For them science is for spying, but for us science is a matter of pride. For them, solar was a matter of scam but for us it was a matter of development," he said.

The solar scam pertains to alleged duping of several people of crores of rupees by prime accused Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan by offering them solar panel solutions.

Nambi Narayanan was arrested on November 30, 1994 while working on cryogenic engine technology at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The espionage case, which hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transferring of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.

However, the Supreme Court on September 14 2018 ordered a high-level probe to put to task erring police personnel for arresting and causing 'tremendous harassment' and "immeasurable anguish" to the scientist in the case and asked the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh to him as compensation for undergoing "immense humiliation".

The Supreme Court has set up a high-level commission in the ISRO spy case and his name should not have been considered now," Senkumar alleged.

Narayanan had moved the top court against the Kerala High Court order, which said no action was required to be taken against former DGP Siby Mathews and two retired Superintendents of police K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two home guards were hacked to death by suspected poachers in Valmiki Nagar Tiger Reserve sanctuary area close to the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar's West Champaran district, an official said on Sunday.

District Forest Officer, West Champaran, Gaurav Ojha said Arjun Yadav and Hira Lal Kushwaha were attacked in Narangiya Don forest area in the early hours of Sunday by about a dozen people.

The two home guards were part of a patrol party which had caught hold of a poacher and was taking him along, but was ambushed by his associates en route, Ojha said.

Yadav and Kushwaha were attacked with sharp-edged weapons while the other home guards ran for their safety. The attackers escaped upon securing the release of their associate, he said, adding a search was on for the killers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A student and a policeman were killed on Sunday in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a protest over water and electricity outages at a university turned violent, police said.

Lubumbashi university, whose student body numbers nearly 10,000, and the surrounding neighbourhood have been without power or water for three days after cables and pipes were damaged in torrential rain.

Clashes broke out after police used tear gas and warning shots to try to disperse crowds of students returning from the governor's residence in Upper Katanga.

"I just lost a police officer hit by an anti-riot vehicle," said General Paulin Kyungu, head of the police in Upper Katanga.

"I also learn that a student died from gunshot wounds," he added.

University president Kishiba Fitula said another three students were injured, adding that the "situation is calm again."



The violence came after new President Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in on Thursday, marking DR Congo's first peaceful handover of power after chaotic and bitterly disputed elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A delegation of an organisation fighting for tribal rights and a sub-divisional officer in Maharashtra's Palghar district had an argument after the former objected to the presence of armed policemen during the discussion.

A video of the incident, which took place Saturday at the Talasari tehsil office between a delegation led by Shramajivi Sanghatana chief Vivek Pandit and Dahanu Sub Divisional Officer Saurabh Katiar, was widely circulated on social media platforms.

Finally, Sub Divisional Police Officer Mandar Dharmadhikari had to intervene, following which the discussion between the delegation and the SDO took place over the distribution of ration cards to tribals, officials said.

A Shrajivi Sanghatana functionary said 350 out of the 2,100 pending ration cards were distributed following the discussion while the rest would be given out soon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the permission accorded to Karnataka for a detailed project report (DPR) on its proposed dam across the Cauvery river at Mekedattu.

In a 92-page memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, he also requested the Centre to cancel the permission given for conducting a survey for building a new dam in Mullaiperiyar by the Kerala government.

It also sought conferment of 'Bharat Ratna' on former chief ministers of Tamil Nadu C N Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa.

The memorandum, listing various demands, called for bringing three towns-- Salem, Hosur and Neyveli under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN.

Palaniswami sought additional funds for providing 'Gaja' cyclone relief.

He said the Prime Minister should take steps to protect the fireworks industry which provided livelihood to eight lakhpeople.

He said GST amount due for Tamil Nadu should be released immediately.

The Prime Minister was here to inaugurate a slew of projects in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three persons were killed when a motorcycle collided with a four-wheeler in Kamrup district of Lower Assam, a police officer said Sunday.

According to the officer, the accident occurred on National Highway-37 in Bondapara police station area of the district around 9pm, killing three local people on spot.

The deceased have been identified as Chinmoy Rabha, Bikash Rabha and Themna Marak, all in their 20s, officer-in- charge (OC) Jogendra Barman said.

Their bodies have been sent to Gauhati Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Since standardisation has been notified, India can become one of the most competitive economies in the field of technical textiles, Union minister Smriti Irani said Sunday.

Speaking after inaugurating a three-day 'reverse buyers sellers meet' and Global Textile Expo here, she told the foreign buyers from over 20 countries that India recently ensured that HSN codes were notified for over 207 textile items.

In the area of cotton, India has a surging potential particularly in the field of medical textiles; and because of standardisation, the country can become the most competitive economies in the technical textiles, she said.

The minister also appealed to Tamil Nadu to unleash the untapped potential so that the state can be at the forefront.

She further said that the technical textiles market is likely to touch USD 3 billion in another two-and-a-half years.

Amongst all the schemes that has been enunciated and presented to the textile industry, she said, most of the benefits have been accrued and established by Tamil Nadu.

Irani also highlighted various schemes where Tamil Nadu gained the most, which include yarn bank scheme, powertex, powerloom cluster, group insurance scheme under social security and also GST.

Stating that the visiting foreign buyers may be wondering why she was talking about the schemes, subsidies and taxation in this meet, which was to initiate buyers and sellers, the minister said, "We are hoping to lessen the burden on our units so that they become competitive in terms of price. We become best price point."



Tamil Nadu handlooms minister, O S Manian, appealed to youngsters to come forward to weaving and join the textile industry and showcase their talent and innovations to uplift the livelihood of weavers and the sector as a whole.

He also appealed to the Union textiles minister to take steps to establish a powerloom textiles market either in Somanur in Coimbatore district or Palladam in Tirupur district.

State Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani, Deputy Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly Pollachi V Jayaraman and chairpersons of Texprocil, Pdexcil also spoke on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court has taken the authorities to task for assigning duties to schoolteachers which are "not remotely" connected to imparting

The high court held that principals and teachers cannot be asked by municipal corporations to perform duties outside the purview of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory (RTE) Act and rules under it.

Justice C Hari Shankar set aside several notifications issued by the corporations requiring the principals and teachers to conduct household survey and participate in preparation of the Ward Register.

The court, however, clarified that authorities are justified in seeking assistance of principals and teachers to aid in opening bank accounts of children in the school and linking them with Aadhaar cards, but the requirement cannot be treated as "mandatory" and cannot be made a basis for proceeding against them for non-rendering adequate assistance.

"This court is constrained to take judicial notice of the fact that there is a prevalent practice, in recent times, of schools assigning to teachers duties and tasks not remotely connected to imparting of education. This, in the opinion of this court, is impermissible and unconscionable in equal measure," it said.

The court added, "Education is a serious affair, and teachers are justifiably regarded as discharging divine duties, nourishing and nurturing the minds of tomorrow. Single-minded devotion, and blind pursuit of excellence must guide every educator. It is no less than an affront, therefore, to belabour teachers with tasks which deflect, detract and distract, from the noble task of imparting education."



The court's order came on a petition by an organisation, Akhil Delhi Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a society comprising teachers of schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, espousing their cause.

The plea challenged the duties assigned to teachers in government schools which are not linked to education, including opening of bank accounts of children of their schools, linking the accounts with Aadhaar and conducting house to house survey to maintain the ward education register.

They contended that the ward education register is required to be maintained by the 'local authorities' under the RTE Act.

The counsel for the Delhi government contended that these duties are only incidental and ancillary to the duty of imparting education, which is the primary duty of the teachers and principals.

The court agreed with the submission of the teachers organisation that under the RTE Act and RTE Rules, the duty of maintaining the ward education register and conducting household survey is cast upon the local authority and it do not contemplate participation of the principals and teachers in the exercise.

"No doubt, the local authority could justifiably request for assistance from the principal and the teachers of the schools, so that the carrying out of the said exercise is facilitated, and so that the purpose thereof is contained. That would not, however, justify issuance by any of the Municipal Corporations, of directives, to the teachers and the principals to mandatorily carry out the said exercise, or even to assist or participate therein, under pain of punitive consequences for default, in any manner," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A tea-seller who donates profits for education of slum children, a doctor couple who charge Re 1 from patients and a retired IPS officer who set up a school for a Mahadalit community are among the "unsung heroes" who were given the Padma awards this year.

A villager from Odisha who single-handedly toiled to carve out a three-km-long canal to bring mountain water to irrigate 100 acres of land and a German who looks after 1,200 sick, old and injured cows in Mathura are also among the 112 people who were chosen by the government for the awards, Home Ministry officials said.

Devarapalli Prakash Rao, known as 'chai bechne-wala guru', has been providing education to slum children through the money earned from selling tea.

Rao, who has been working since the age of seven and suffers from lower torse paralysis, contributed half of his income in setting up and running a school -- 'Asha O Ashwasana' -- in Cuttack.

Doctor couple Smita and Ravindra Kolhe have been serving the poor Korku tribals in the Naxalism-affected Bairagad in Melghat district of Maharashtra for the past three decades. They run a clinic and charge a negligible fees of Re 1 and Rs 2 and helped make Melghat a suicide-free zone for farmers.

The Kolhes also developed a fungus-resistant variety of seeds, helped in developing good roads, ensuring electricity and setting up 12 primary healthcare centres in the region.

Smita left a promising medical career in the city to join Ravindra in his mission.

Retired IPS officer Jyoti Kumar Sinha, who had served as secretary at the National Security Council Secretariat, has been providing education to children of the Mahadalit Musahar community post retirement in Bihar.

The Musahar community has a literacy rate of just 3 per cent and for them Sinha has set up an English medium residential school -- 'Shoshit Samadhan Kendra' -- where 320 Musahar students are enrolled from classes 1 to 12.

Daitari Naik is called as "Canal Man of Odisha" as he single-handedly toiled to carve out a three km-long canal to bring mountain stream to water agriculture fields. Carved the canal with hoe and crowbar in four years, the water has reached 100 acres of land around Baitarni village, where there is no water shortage now.

Friederike Irina Bruning, is known as 'gau mata ki aashraydaatri' (one who gives shelter to cows) for her relentless work to look after 1,200 cows in her 'gaushala' in Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for the past 23 years.

She takes care of homeless, abandoned, sick, blind and badly injured cows in her 'gaushala' which is managed through monthly expenses of Rs 22 lakh (for medicine, food, grain and salaries) received through rent from her properties in Berlin.

"Like past few years, this year too, the list of Padma awardees is full of unsung heroes who has been contributing to the society unnoticed," a Home Ministry official said.

Assam's Uddhab Kumar Bharali, an engineering college drop-out, is known for low cost, mass-friendly innovations for last 30 years.

Bharali has 118 inventions to his credit like pomegranate de-seeding machine, garlic peeling machine. He has also developed new polythene making machine to cater to demand from tea estates in Assam; helped in increasing income of tea pluckers from Rs 9 to Rs 20 per kg.

Madurai Chinna Pillai, a woman farmer, has pioneered micro-finance in Tamil Nadu through her 'Kalanjiam' movement.

An illiterate farm labourer, Pillai spread community-based micro-finance for poverty reduction 50 years ago -- a precursor to India's vibrant self-help group eco-system.

She has established the country's first federation of rural women savings and credit group and also started 'Kalanjiam' community banking programme in the villages of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry.

Shabbir Sayyad, another recipient of the Padma award, has been taking care of 165 cows in drought-prone Marathawada in Maharashtra.

A second generation cow caretaker from a family of butchers, Sayyad neither sells milk, nor sells cows for meat but only sells cow-dung as manure to farmers, earning a meagre amount of Rs 70,000 yearly.

Anup Ranjan Pandey is the founder of Bastar Band, a theatre group which brings together artists from local tribes.

Spreading the message of love, peace and brotherhood through music in the violence-ridden Bastar, he propagates the message of 'Banduk chhodo - Dhol pakdo' (abandon guns, pick up drums).

Sixty-seven-year-old Mohammad Hanif Khan Shastri is a Delhi-based Sanskrit scholar who has been promoting Hindu-Muslim harmony through his books and poems based on ancient Indian Shlokas. He has written eight books, 700 poems on ancient Indian shlokas.

Saalumarada Thimmakka, a 106-year-old woman from Karnataka, has single-handedly planted thousands of trees over 65 years, taking care of them as her children. She has been spreading awareness about deforestation.

Dagli Muktaben Pankajkumar helps poor blind women to become self-reliant. Founder of CU Shah Pragna Chakshu Mahila Sevakunj, Surendranagar in Gujarat, Muktaben has been working for the cause of persons with disabilities, established an educational institute where 200 blind students are currently enrolled.

Another awardee, Kailash Madbaiya is a Bundeli folk writer and also the president of Akhil Bhartiya Bundelkhand Sahitya and Sanskrit Parishad. Madbaiya wrote 27 books like 'Jay Veer Bundele Jawan Ki', 'Meethe Bol Bundeli Ke' and also led 'Manikikaran Andolan' for Hindi-Bundeli language.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): The Karnataka government is considering increasing the subsidy for regional films and setting up a Tulu film institute, state Minister for Urban Development and Housing U T Khader said Sunday.

The plan on the subsidy and institute follows the contributions made by the Tulu film industry in the last five decades, the Minister said.

He said this while speaking at the inaugural function of the celebration organised at the Nehru Maidan here by the Coastalwood Artistes and Technicians Cultural Association (CATCA) on completion of 100 films in Tulu.

The Coastalwood directors and producers should put together their demands, if any, and present them to the government, he said.

The government was ready to take steps to encourage the film industry in the coastal region. The industry has grown over the years after the first film in the language came out in 1971, he said.

The films had been successful in presenting the social and cultural traditions of the region.

Earlier, founder of Karavali group of institutions S Ganesh Rao formally inaugurated the celebration.

He said Tulu film-makers should be prepared to meet new challenges and take more number of quality films to the audience as production of 100 movies in the language had been completed.

The first Tulu film was 'Enna Tangadi' produced and directed by R Rajan in February 1971 and the latest was 'Karne' directed by Sakshath and starring Arjun Kapikad.

Karne was released in November last.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepal Students Union, the youth body affiliated to main opposition party Nepali Congress, on Sunday burnt effigy of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli here to protest against clearance of the National Medical Education Bill by the ruling party in the parliament.

The students staged a black flag demonstration against PM Oli as soon as he landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport in the national capital after attending the 49th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Despite the police intervention the agitating students torched the effigy amid chanting slogans against the government and PM Oli.

The student activists were protesting against the communist government's act to endorse the National Medical Education Bill.

The youth body alleged that the bill was endorsed by the ruling party without addressing the demands of agitating senior surgeon Dr Govinda K C, who has been staging fast unto-death for the past 20 days demanding sweeping reforms in the country's medical sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A pair of snow leopards will again be seen at the Himalayan Nature Park in Kufri next month, an official said Sunday.

A male-female pair of leopards will be brought here most probably by February 10 from the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling in West Bengal under animal exchange programme, said Kufri Range Forest Officer (RFO) Himanshu.

A team of six people, including two veterinary doctors, a forest guard and two animal attendants, left for Darjeeling on January 26, he said.

Himanshu told PTI that the two leopards will be brought to Kufri in a specially constructed caged truck.

The team most probably will leave for Darjeeling on February 2 and is likely to reach Kufri by February 10, he added.

As per guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), the leopards will be quarantined for one month before being put on display in March for visitors.

The snow leopard has been declared as vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), he said, adding that it is found in 12 countries.

The big cat is found only in five Indian states, including Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Himanshu added.

Snow leopards are found in their natural habitats at the Pin Valley National Park at Lahaul-Spiti, Great Himalayan National Park at Kullu and Kibber Wild Life Sanctuary at Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

The CZA had approved last year a proposal to bring two big cats to the Kufri zoo, he added.

"However, the hot weather conditions in Bihar, UP, Delhi and Haryana did not allow us to bring the snow leopards by road during previous several months as heat wave might have harmed them as they are habitual to cold weather conditions," the RFO said.

He said a pair of snow leopards - Subhash and Sapna - was earlier kept in an enclosure in Kufri zoo 15 years ago.

At that time too, they were brought from the Darjeeling zoo by road in a pre designed cage.

Female leopard Sapna died in 2007, subsequently, the male leopard Subhash was sent to Darjeeling zoo for breeding in 2012, he added.

The Kufri hill station was founded by Britishers in 1819. The zoo was established in 1992 in Kufri.

About two lakh people visit Kufri zoo every year, the RFO said. Being tourist season, four to five thousand tourists are visiting the zoo daily these days, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The longstanding friendship between Singapore and India continues to expand with each passing year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 70th Republic Day.

"Your two visits to Singapore last year gave strong momentum to our Strategic Partnership, especially in new areas of cooperation such as FinTech and innovation," Lee said on Modi's visits to Singapore in 2018.

The conclusion of the Second Review of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement last June provided a conducive framework for the two countries' agencies and companies to strengthen trade and economic linkages, Lee said.

"The launch of the Third Review in September 2018 reflected our two countries' mutual commitment to enhance our partnership amidst a rapidly changing world. These initiatives and our many other cooperation platforms will bring Singapore-India relations to greater heights," he wrote in the letter on Saturday.

"As India celebrates this auspicious day, we congratulate India on the great strides she has made in the country's development as well as on the international stage. I wish you and all Indian nationals a joyous 70th Republic Day," Lee added.

President Halimah Yacob congratulated President Ram Nath Kovind in her letter. "On behalf of the people of Singapore, I would like to express my warmest congratulations to you and the people of India on the joyous occasion of India's 70th Republic Day."



Singapore and India enjoy a special relationship rooted in deep historical ties, vibrant people-to-people linkages, regular high-level exchanges and strong economic cooperation.

"In 2018, our two countries further expanded bilateral cooperation across several pillars of our Strategic Partnership, as well as launched cooperation in new areas including FinTech and innovation" reaffirmed President Halim Yacob in her letter.

"I am confident that relations between our two nations will continue to strengthen in the years to come. I wish Your Excellency good health and every success," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A small group of Sikh separatists held a protest in front of the Indian Embassy in Washington during which they tried to burn the tricolour on the Republic Day, a move slammed by the local Sikh community.

Organised by New York-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), the protesters raised "Khalistan Zindabaad" slogans and tried to burn the Indian flag in the presence of a battery of reporters from the local Pakistani media.

However, the SFJ supporters were outnumbered by Indian-Americans raising 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogans with Indian flags flying high in their hand.

Around 2.30 pm on Saturday, the members of the SFJ in front of a group of Pakistani reporters and cameramen tried to burn the Indian flag. They ended up burning a green flag that had 'S' written on it.

With passions running high between Indian-Americans and protesters, the local law enforcement officials had warned against any attempt to burn the Indian flag. In fact, they sought additional security personnel as the standoff continued. A group of mounted police were seen standing a few blocks away.

It was some tense moments for the local law enforcement officials as the two groups were standing face-to-face in a park just across the road from the Indian embassy in Washington. The standoff lasted for about two hours after which the protestors were forced by the local police to move across the road.

The local Sikh community slammed the SFJ for the protest.

"Such theatrical protests like flag burning are detrimental to the peace loving and harmony enhancing Sikh community everywhere," Jasse Singh and Kamaljit Singh Soni, the chairman and the president, respectively, of the Sikhs of America said in a joint statement.

"I am disturbed and concerned that a chosen few can build a narrative about the Sikh community in USA which will be viewed by the whole world," said Puneet Ahluwalia, an Indian American leader from Virginia.

"I will not stand for these forces to develop a misguided narrative with US leadership and public, besides polarising the already sensitivities towards minorities in India," he said.

In a statement, American Hindu Coalition (AHC) expressed deep dismay at the SFJ attempt to burn the Indian flag.

"The intent of flag burning is also an immense affront to the largest democracy on the earth and causing huge grief to the American Hindus," said Harsh Sethi, the AHC president who himself has a Sikh inheritance.

Ravi Batra, an Indian-American attorney from New York, said, "What SFJ - an American-born and accredited entity is seeking to do, however - is to burn the flag of another nation - and here is the critical part - as part of a campaign, allegedly, as an unregistered foreign agent engaging in terrorist activities in India."



Meanwhile, the twitter account of the SFJ has been suspended by the social media company.

"Account suspended," said the twitter page of '@SikhsforJustice' Saturday. Twitter did not gave any reason for it except for providing links to its rules. "Twitter suspends accounts which violates the Twitter Rules."



It is understood that twitter suspended the account of the SFJ for running hate campaign against India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US has made "significant progress" in its peace talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan, a top Trump Administration official has said.

However, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, cautioned that nothing has been finalised yet.

Afghanistan-born Khalilzad said this in a series of tweets after six days of talks with the Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar. He now heads to Kabul for consultations with the elected Afghan government.

"After six days in Doha, I'm headed to Afghanistan for consultations. Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues," he said Saturday.

"Will build on the momentum and resume talks shortly. We have a number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and 'everything' must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire," Khalilzad said.

The top American diplomat thanked Qatar for their constructive engagement and their facilitation of this round of talks.

Since being appointed in September last, Khalilzad has met with all sides in an attempt to end America's longest war.

The Taliban control nearly half of Afghanistan, and are more powerful than at any time since the 2001 US-led invasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The 34-year-old wife of a Shiv Sena leader facing trial in his murder case, was Sunday found hanging inside the toilet of the Kalyan jail in neighbouring Thane district of Maharashtra, police said.

Vaishali Nimse was found hanging with a nylon rope tied to her neck, an official said, adding that they suspect it to be the case of suicide.

The incident came to light this morning, after a woman guard noticed that Vaishali had not returned from the toilet for long, following which she alerted her colleagues.

Vaishali was facing trial for allegedly awarding a contract to kill her husband Shailesh Nimse, a Sena leader from Shahapur taluka, on suspicion that he was having an extra-marital affair.

Shailesh was allegedly killed by suspected contract killer Pramod Lute (32) and his associates in Ganeshpuri in Thane district on April 20 last year, the official said, adding that during investigation Vaishali was arrested for plotting the murder.

Shailesh's half-burnt body was later found in a village near Ganeshpuri.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court Sunday cancelled the January 29 hearing in the politically sensitive Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land title dispute case as one member of the five-judge Constitution bench would not be available.

The sitting of the Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi stands cancelled as Justice S A Bobde will not be available on January 29, as per a notice issued by the Supreme Court registry.

"Take notice that due to non availability of Justice S A Bobde on January 29, 2019 (Tuesday), sitting of Constitution bench in Chief Justice's court, comprising the Chief Justice, Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, stands cancelled.

"Therefore, Constitution bench matter will not be taken up for hearing," the notice stated.

The five-judge bench was re-constituted on January 25 as Justice U U Lalit, who was a member of the original bench, had recused himself from hearing the matter.

When the new bench was constituted, Justice N V Ramana was also excluded from the re-constitution bench.

No reason was cited for the exclusion of Justice Ramana in the new Constitution bench.

Besides the CJI, the new bench comprises justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.

In the fresh bench, justices Bhushan and Nazeer made a come back to hear the matter.

Both of them were part of a earlier bench headed by then CJI Dipak Misra (now retired).It had on September 27, 2018, refused to refer to a five-judge Constitution bench the reconsideration of the observation in its 1994 judgment that a mosque was not integral to Islam.

While Misra and Bhushan had said it has to find out the context in which the five-judge bench had delivered the 1994 judgment, Justice Nazeer had given a minority verdict disagreeing with the two judges.

Nazeer had said whether a mosque is integral to Islam has to be decided considering religious belief which requires detailed consideration.

On January 10, Justice Lalit had recused himself after expressing disinclination to participate in the hearing any further as he had appeared as a lawyer for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh in a related matter "sometime in the year 1997".

Fourteen appeals have been filed in the apex court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in four civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

On January 10, the bench in its order had noted that the apex court registry's secretary general has informed the CJI that in four suits, out of which these appeals have arisen, in all 120 issues have been framed for trial and a total of 88 witnesses were examined.

It had noted that depositions of witnesses run into 13,886 pages and a total of 257 documents exhibited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tanks and air defence missile systems rolled through the heart of Saint Petersburg on Sunday as the city formerly known as Leningrad marked the 75th anniversary of the end of a World War II siege that claimed more than 800,000 lives.

The parade in Russia's second city was the first time war-era and modern heavy weaponry, including the famed T-34 battle tank and multiple-launch rocket systems, have trundled past the Hermitage Museum to mark the end of the siege of Leningrad, sparking controversy with some survivors criticising "militarism".

President Vladimir Putin, a native of Saint Petersburg, skipped the show of force in the snow-covered Palace Square, although his itinerary included a visit to a memorial cemetery and several other events.

More than 2,500 servicemen in modern and period uniforms including sheepskin coats and felt boots took part in the parade which also included a flyover of military aircraft.

Hundreds of spectators watched the performance in falling snow and temperatures of minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 Fahrenheit), some wrapped in blankets against the cold.

A moment of silence was observed to the ticking of a metronome used to warn residents about air-raids during the siege. Some clutched flowers and could not hold back tears.

"This is a celebration for the city and the country," said Ivan Kolokoltsev, a 45-year-old manager.

"We have to remember, we have to commemorate it so that people remember." Natalya Gerashchenko brought her 12-year-old son to see the military display.

"A military parade is very beautiful," the 35-year-old said. "The lifting of the siege is very important for everyone." Encircled by the Nazi troops for 872 days between 1941 and 1944, the city of around 3 million people went through unspeakable horrors.

With supplies to the city cut, bread rations plunged to 250 grammes (about half a pound) for manual workers and 125 grammes for other civilians.

More than 800,000 people starved to death or died of disease and shelling. Numerous historians say the true figures are higher Many in Saint Petersburg, including some siege survivors, have denounced the parade as misplaced sabre-rattling and militaristic propaganda.

"I am against militarism," Yakov Gilinsky, an 84-year-old siege survivor, told AFP ahead of the parade. "War is horrible." Some said that the money spent on the parade should have been given to survivors instead.

"Old people would buy some medicine and new clothes and for a time forget they have to count pennies," wrote political observer Anton Orekh.

"Though after the siege they are not afraid of anything, of course." Irina Sadchikova, a 47-year-old librarian, said that the authorities were often so focused on official events they forgot about siege survivors and war veterans.

A defence ministry official has insisted the event was not celebratory in nature, describing it as a "soldierly ritual".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the day was important "for all Russians and personally for President Putin." Clutching red roses, Putin visited the famed Piskaryovskoe cemetery where groups of Russians wished him good health.

Putin, at 66, was born after the war. But his older brother died in childhood during the devastating siege and is buried in a mass grave at Piskaryovskoe.

The Russian leader's mother nearly succumbed to hunger, while his father fought in the war and was wounded near Leningrad.

Since Friday, the city has been holding a series of commemorative events that include music concerts and film screenings.

On Sunday evening, authorities will conduct a gun salute in memory of the gun fire that marked the end of the ordeal in 1944.

The trauma from the war is deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the city.

Some buildings still carry signs warning residents about air raids. Russia's former imperial capital is home to some 108,000 war veterans and siege survivors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture was activated early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 34 and leaving some 300 missing, firefighters and the mining company said.

The alarm went off at 5:30 am (0730 GMT) warning of dangerously high water levels at a dam that is part of the Corrego do Feijao mining complex, a statement by the Vale mining company said. A dam at the same mining site burst Friday, spewing millions of tons of sludge, sweeping away and burying buildings and people in its path.

Firefighters said they were evacuating communities near the dam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ramgarh constituency in Rajasthan's Alwar district is all set to witness a triangular contest among candidates of ruling Congress, opposition BJP and BSP on Monday when polling takes place at 278 polling booths.

Election to the constituency could not be held along with other seats due to the death of BSP candidate Laxman Singh few days ahead of the polling on December 7 and now the election is taking place on January 28 where as many as 20 candidates are in the fray.

The BSP has fielded former union minister Natwar Singh's ex-MLA son Jagat Singh while former Alwar Zila Pramukh Shafia Zubair Khan is contesting as a Congress candidate. Former Pradhan Sukhwant singh is the BJP candidate.

Feedback from Ramgarh is very positive we are going to win the seat. People gave mandate to Congress in December 7 elections and the party will win this seat also, Pradesh Congress Committee president and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot told PTI.

Exuding confidence, the party candidate Shafia Zubair Khan, 51, said people were hopeful of development after the formation of the Congress government and therefore there is a positive atmosphere in favour of the party.

I am seeking vote in the name of development. Since Congress has formed the government, people are hopeful that their works will be done if they elect the Congress candidate and therefore I will certainly get the edge, Shafia, who was the Alwar Zila Pramukh from 2010-15, said.

She said the basic demands of people in the constituency were about a government college at Ramgarh, better roads among others.

BJP state president Madan Lal Saini also exuded confidence that BJP candidate will win the election because people are "not satisfied" with the performance of the Congress.

He said BSP candidate Jagat Singh will lose because it has been exposed that he was contesting only to defeat the BJP candidate.

Congress came to power on various promises made to farmers and youths. It had promised to waive off farmers loan within ten days but the government has not waived loans so far, Saini said.

Jagat Singh was the BJP candidate from Bharatpur's Kaman seat from 2013-18 but the party denied him ticket for the 2018 assembly elections. He was also Congress MLA in 2003-08 from Alwar's Laxmangarh seat.

BSP's state president Sitaram Meghwal said caste equations were in favour of the BSP and therefore the party will win the seat.

We held a road show on Saturday which received a very huge response. Caste equations are in favour and our tally in the assembly will increase from present 6 to 7 after the elections in Ramgarh, he said.

Congress, BJP and BSP held intense campaigning and rallies in the constituencies to woo voters. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot addressed a mass rally on Friday while BSP held a road show on Saturday.

There are 2.35 lakh voters, which included 1.10 lakh female voters, in the constituency where as many as 278 polling stations have been set up for the election, result of which will be announced on January 31.

In the December 7 elections, which were held on 199 out of 200 seats, Congress won 99 seats and one of its alliance partners- RLD- won one seat and the Congress formed government.

The BJP won 73 seats, BSP 6, RLPT 3, CPI (M) and BTP 2 each and 13 independents won the elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to arrive in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur Monday to address a convention of farmers.

During his day-long visit, Gandhi will take part in a programme, titled 'Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan', to be held at Rajyotsav Mela ground in Naya Raipur at 2 pm, said a party spokesperson here Sunday.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and AICC in-charge of Chhattisgarh P L Punia Sunday took stock of the preparation for the function meant to express gratitude to people and farmers for voting the party to power in the state, he said.

This will be the Congress chief's first visit to Chhattisgarh after his party formed the government last month.

The Congress had posted a massive victory in the November assembly polls, winning 68 of the total 90 seats and ending the 15-year-old BJP rule.

During the function, beneficiary farmers will be distributed loan waiver certificates, the spokesperson added.

A large number of farmers from across the state, including the Naxal-affected Bastar division, will participate in the event, he claimed.

Gandhi had assured to waive farm loans if his party was voted to power while campaigning for the assembly polls and the promise was fulfilled within three hours of the formation of the Congress government, the spokesperson added.

Loans to the tune of over Rs 6,100 crore of 16.60 lakh farmers have been written off, he said.

Implementing another pre-poll promise, the paddy is being procured at a rate of Rs 2,500 per quintal from farmers in the state, the spokesperson added.

Besides, the Congress government has waived outstanding irrigation tax amounting to Rs 207 crore of 15 lakh farmers, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.Congress president Rahul Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has said, and alleged that the BJP's propaganda machinery spent hundreds of thousands of crores to malign the Congress leader's image.

However, he also emphasised that the issue of who will be the prime minister can be settled after the 2019 polls by grand alliance members collectively.

Asserting that there was never a question mark over Gandhi's leadership, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in an interview to PTI said, even after such a long negative campaign against him, he (Gandhi) has won the hearts of the people through his perseverance, kindness and large-heartedness."



The Congress victory in the three major states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh under Gandhi's leadership has infused a sense of confidence and energy in the party, and in the minds of 69 per cent electorate who had not voted for Narendra Modi in 2014, Yadav said.

Asked if Gandhi has all the qualities to make a good prime minister, the former Bihar deputy chief minister said: Yes! He has all the qualities, he is the national president of India's oldest party and been in Parliament for the last 15 years. Don't forget his party has five chief ministers in the country and he is leading them. So, no question should be asked on (Gandhi's) leadership and qualities.

Last month, president of DMK, one of the big allies of the Congress, M K Stalin, for the first time had publicly proposed that the united opposition must field the Congress chief as its prime ministerial candidate to defeat the Narendra Modi government. Stalin was criticised, but he stuck to his views.

However, Yadav, when asked if Gandhi was the obvious choice to lead a pan-India alliance, said India is a democracy, in which people choose their representatives and they in turn choose the leader who becomes the prime minister.

Democracy is always people-centric, it is not person-oriented. We do not want a dictatorship form of government. Presently, the BJP is suffering from Idol worship. We don't want that culture, said the 29-year-old son of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad.

Alliance is about parties and not about a single party and its leader, Yadav asserted.

Once we go about the elections, we can always sit down and choose a leader after the elections are over, there is no hurry for that. Don't forget, Manmohan Singh ji was not a PM candidate in 2004, however, he successfully ran the government for 10 years, he said.

Asked if he would be playing the role of opposition unifier that was played by his father in 2004, the RJD leader said he is the youngest leader in the opposition camp, and just a learner, not a leader.

Yes, my father unified the UPA-I and he has been a vocal supporter of opposition unity since May 2014. I will be happy if anyone from our party could emulate his feat, Yadav said.

He said he was making efforts to the best of his ability to bring like-minded parties in the opposition camp and had done so successfully in Bihar.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was framing him in false cases with the help of its alliance partners such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

But, we are not afraid as we are known for our fearless Neither we indulge in, nor fear, vindictive politics, he asserted.

Yadav said he is ready to go to any extent to ensure that the BJP and the Sangh don't come to power and alleged that the Constitution that empowers backwards, minorities and Dalits in the country, is at stake.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)June 16, 2021, Wednesday

If India goes on to win the inaugural WTC title, it could prove to be the watershed moment for the revival of the longest format ...Punjab's Finance Minister has asserted that his state is a strong fort of the and any kind of BJP "magic" cannot work there.

He also said his party's decision to draft Vadra and as general secretaries for was like a smart general bringing the 'reserve force' to the battlefront when the war peaks and it would ensure success.

Badal was here in this Swiss Alps town to represent in its maiden appearance at the (WEF) summit, during which he made a strong pitch for investments and to boost its international profile to fast-track industrial development.

Attending a number of official sessions, sideline events and bilateral meetings with prospective investors and international organisations, he pitched his state as a great place to do business in with a supportive ecosystem.

In an interview on the sidelines of the WEF Annual Meeting that ended Friday, Badal told PTI, " is the party's fort and the BJP has never been able to win over the people of "



"The BJP's magic may have worked across the country, but it never worked in Punjab," he added.

On the appointment of new general secretaries for Uttar Pradesh, which was announced when the summit was underway, Badal said, "What smart generals do at the time of war, is they keep one part of the force in reserve. When the war has started and reaches its peak, then the reserved force is brought to the front and that helps win the election."



"So I think, that reserved force has come out now in form of and and the success will be now with Congress," he said.

He, however, added that he did not discuss domestic politics with the global leaders here as was not a platform where one should talk anything negative about These political fights are domestic issues and they should be resolved at home only, he maintained.

The 56-year old said Punjab needs to tell the world that it is ready for business as well, after taking care of India's and even border security all along.

"We have been told that industries need to be set up in each and every part of the country to make great and we are taking it as another national duty," said Badal, who has a law degree from the University of London and was a practicing barrister before entering politics.

A five-time MLA, Badal is known as a 'progressive farmer' and was the author of the party manifesto during last state assembly polls. He is also part of the team that is preparing the Congress manifesto for the national elections.

"Punjab has come to for the first time and the reason for that is the realisation that the state needs to expand on its industrialisation after the GST regime impacted the competitive edge it enjoyed in the agriculture and foodgrain sector," Badal said.

He said foodgrain accounted for 40 per cent of its tax base and Punjab provides 30 per cent of the country's foodgrain requirement.

"Post GST, this tax base has been impacted in a big way. Though we are getting compensation right now, this would end in about three and half years after completion of five years of the GST rollout," he said.

Badal said that for the last 70 years, Punjab has been taking care of the of the country on the lines of national security.

"Now we have realised that we cannot remain dependent on and therefore we also need to improve our public and international relations through summits like WEF here in Switzerland," he said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has written to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh over the inordinate delay in the project to set up Post Graduate Institute of Horticulture Research and Education (PGIHRE) at Amritsar.

In his letter, the chief minister pointed out that the Punjab government, after accepting the Centre's, had transferred 100 acres of land at Attari, Amritsar and another 50 acres at Abohar for establishment of PGIHRE.

The Centre had announced the setting up of a PGIHRE in Punjab at Amritsar while presenting the Union Budget 2015-16, a Punjab government release said here on Sunday.

Later, as per their requirement, a team of Director of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE)/Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) had identified another 25-30 acres of additional land on the Amritsar-Attari national highway for the purpose of establishing an administrative-cum-academic campus and student hostel, the release said.

"However, in spite of repeated written and personal reminders, no confirmation was forthcoming from DARE/ICAR to enable the Punjab government to acquire this expensive additional land in the interest of finalising and starting this prestigious project," Amarinder wrote to the agriculture minister.

Seeking the personal intervention of the Union minister, the chief minister said the proposed state-of-the-artPGIHREshould be made operational without any further delay, as it would go a long way in benefitting the state and the nation.

The institute would also help motivate farmers to shift from traditional agriculture to horticulture to supplement their income, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A ward boy of a reputed hospital in Pune was arrested for allegedly filming a woman changing her clothes for an MRI procedure, police said Sunday.

Police said Lakesh Lahu Uttekar (25) was caught after the woman Saturday night found a mobile phone in the changing room of Jehangir Hospital and found a clip in it of her undressing.

Meanwhile, the hospital said in a statement that Uttekar was not on its rolls, but is sub-contracted from a private agency as the housekeeping staff. The hospital has also apologised to the woman concerned.

"The woman was admitted in the hospital on January 23 for abdominal pain and she was advised to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan on Saturday. The ward boy asked her to change in a room other than the one designated for the purpose," a Koregaon Park police station official said.

The woman found a phone in the room and alerted her husband, and on checking the device the couple found a clip of her undressing, the official said.

A complaint was filed at Koregaon Park police station and Uttekar was held after he gave vague answers during the probe, the official added.

He has been charged under section 354 (watching or capturing the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed) of the Indian Penal Code.

The hospital said, "We will take stern action against the agency concerned, terminating the contract and advising other hospitals as a precaution against such acts by employees".

The concerned ward boy violated the standing order of carrying a mobile phone inside the MRI area, it stated.

The hospital further said the security staff was immediately held the ward boy after the patient raised the concern, and handed him over to the police.

"Jehangir Hospital is a 73 year old legacy hospital and we always put our patients first. We have an absolute 100% no tolerance policy. We have apologised to the patient in concern and will do our best in co-operating with the police in the case," the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump's warning of getting tough on Pakistan will not happen as the US needs Islamabad as long as there are American troops in Afghanistan, noted American journalist and author Peter Bergen has said.

In a blistering attack on Pakistan, Trump had on January 1 last year accused Islamabad of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists in return for USD 33 billion in aid over the last 15 years while "fooling" American leaders.

In September last year, the Trump administration cancelled USD 300 million in military aid to Islamabad for not doing enough against terror groups like the Haqqani Network and the Taliban active on its soil.

"As long as there are American troops in Afghanistan, the US needs Pakistan. The US policy makers should accept this fact. Donald Trump's talk of getting tough on Pakistan is not going to happen," Bergen, who serves as CNN's national security analyst, said Saturday at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

"If the upcoming Afghan elections prove to be a fiasco like the previous two elections, then it will be easier for President Trump to say why are we here (Aghanistan) when we haven't been able to put up a genuine and stable government," he said while participating in a discussion with former National Security adviser Shivshankar Menon and Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, author and academic Steve Coll.

Bergen said the notion that the US was in Afghanistan for the commercial interest is "ludicrous" and described as "non-sense" the theory that terrorists are acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

He also said if there were another attack like the 26/11 Mumbai attack, India would have to respond.

Bergen said the US has a "very confusing policy" on Afghanistan.

"If you are negotiating with the Taliban whose principal demand is the troop withdrawal and the Trump administration has already announced to pull out the American troops, what is the US getting in return? It's pretty confusing right now, he said.

In a sudden move, President Trump last month announced his decision to pull around half of the 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan. The move stunned and dismayed the US allies, diplomats and officials in Kabul.

The announcement came during a renewed push for talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year war.

In September last year, the Trump administration had appointed former US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as special envoy to Afghanistan to create the opportunities to get the Afghans and the Taliban to come to a reconciliation. He has visited Pakistan, India and Afghanistan to try to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Echoing Bergen's view, Coll said it was a "confusing environment" while adding that Afghanistan's domestic politics is inevitably unstable.

Lauding the Afghan government for its resilience, he said it was remarkable to see how it has sustained itself in the challenging environment.

"I have been hearing this year after year that the Taliban will take over within one year. There's something resilient about the Afghan State. One can say it is not sustainable and may be it will collapse in six months, but the fact that it has sustained itself under such extraordinary pressure for 5-6 years ought to get our attention. There is something going on there," he said.

Coll, who is currently the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, said Pakistan never supported al-Qaeda but the Taliban.

"The ISI as an institution became an important state within Pakistan in the 1980s as a result of the collaboration between the CIA, ISI and the Saudi intelligence during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The USA ran the ISI against the Soviets.

"The ISI is inseparable from the Pakistan's military. It is not a rogue organisation, it is not even an independent intelligence service, it is commanded by a three-star General, then there are groups and clients like militants in Kashmir. But the central structure is inseparable from the Pakistani military," he said.

Coll's new book Directorate S on the CIA and America's secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan during 2001-2016 was also discussed during the session.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pope Francis winds up a global gathering of young Catholics on Sunday with a giant open-air mass for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before leaving Panama.

The pope, who on Saturday admitted the Church had been "wounded" by a deepening clergy sex abuse crisis, will celebrate the second open-air mass of his visit at a park on the outskirts of Panama City.

After mass, scheduled for early in the morning to avoid high temperatures, the 82-year-old pope will meet young people living with AIDS and HIV at the Good Samaritan home in the city.

Francis will thank hundreds of World Youth Day volunteers at a stadium in the afternoon before a farewell ceremony and a flight back to Rome.

The pope acknowledged Saturday that the Church was "wounded by sin" in a homily addressed to priests and seminarians reeling from sexual abuse scandals and coverups.

Celebrating mass at the landmark Cathedral of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City, Francis warned of the "weariness of hope that comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which has so often failed to hear all those cries."



At a lunch meeting with 10 young pilgrims, Francis said sex abuse by the clergy was "a horrible crime," according to one of the guests.

Later, at a massive vigil that the organizers said drew 600,000 pilgrims, the pope called on young people to reject the temptation to live their lives online and urged them to get involved in their communities.

Life was not "in the cloud, waiting to be downloaded, a new app to be discovered, or a technique of mental self-improvement," the pontiff said during his grandfatherly discourse.

The Argentine pope has used his encounter with young people in Central America to speak out repeatedly in defense of migrants, and address other problems affecting the region such as poverty, drug trafficking, violence and what he said was a regional "plague" of murders of women.

In a swipe at US President Donald Trump's plans to build a border wall against migrants, the pope said at a giant prayer meeting on Saturday that it was "senseless" to condemn every immigrant "as a threat to society."



During that mass Francis consecrated a new altar at the restored basilica, rubbing it down with holy oil and blessing it in a solemn ceremony.

Installed in the altar were the relics of three Latin American saints, including Oscar Romero -- the San Salvador archbishop murdered while giving mass by a far-right hit squad in El Salvador in 1980 -- who was made a saint by Francis last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With the arrest of nine people from Agra, Mathura and Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task force (STF) on Sunday busted three gangs which were allegedly assisting candidates in recruitment exam for police constable, officials said.

These gangs, one of which was using gadgets like bluetooth earphones and web cameras, provided fraud candidates who wrote the offline recruitment exam 2018 for UP Police and PAC for aspirants, the officials said.

They would charge the aspirants between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement issued here.

One of the gangs, which allegedly assisted constable recruitment exam aspirants to use unfair means, was busted and its members were arrested in Agra, it said.

Shivkumar and Bhuwanesh from Mathura and Satyam Katiyar from Kanpur Dehat were arrested. Two fake admit cards and cash were recovered from them, it said.

They also admitted that they used to charge Rs 6-8 lakh from people to prepare fake exam-related documents, the STF said.

The kingpin along with two of his gang members was held from Mathura by the Noida field unit of the STF.

Pawan Singh and his aides Jeevan Singh and Rajkumar Singh, all three hailing from Aligarh district, were arrested, it said.

"Four sim card-based electronic communication devices, 22 bluetooth earphones, one web camera, marksheets and admit cards of 11 exam candidates and Rs 15,000 were seized from their possession," an STF officer said.

An SUV which was used by them was also impounded, the officer said.

"The candidates sitting for the exam would read out the questions that would be transmitted through the devices fixed in their amulets to gang members outside the exam centres who would then feed them with correct answers," the STF said.

According to the officials, the third gang was busted in Lucknow by the STF, which was carrying out an operation to target exam frauds on specific inputs about their involvement in police recruitment exams.

Nishant Prabhakar, Santosh Tiwari, both residents of Lucknow, and Santosh Paswan from Nalanda in Bihar, were arrested, the agency said.

"They used to send fake candidates by tampering admit cards and would charge aspirants anywhere from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, the STF said in a statement.

The agency said legal proceedings against the accused men were underway and they were being interrogated to elicit details about their nexus, which could help check such exam frauds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Paradip Port in Odisha is likely to increase cargo handling to 110 million metric tonne (MMT) during the current fiscal, up from 102 MMT traffic handled last year.

"The port is expected to reach 110 MMT mark in terms of cargo handling this fiscal, exhibiting a compounded annual growth rate of 11.56 per cent," Chairman of Paradip Port Trust (PPT), Rinkesh Roy said.

During 2017-18, PPT joined the exclusive club of 100 million tonne ports by handling record 102 MMT traffic, which is the second highest throughput achieved among all major ports and the third highest among all ports in India.

Roy said the port's capacity has been rated at 277 MMTPA, making it the largest in the country, while the effective capacity has been increased to 234 MMTPA.

"Operationally, it has scaled new heights in terms of innovations and efficiency," he said.

The Mechanised Coal Handling Plant (MCHP) has shown an improvement in efficiency by 65 per cent. It has loaded 1.32 lakh MT in single day in comparison to 1.01 lakh MT in 2014-15, the PPT Chairman said while speaking during Republic Day celebrations in the port on Saturday.

The iron ore handling plant has shown 141 per cent improvement in efficiency with net loading rate stands at 1,000 TPH, which was just 414 TPH in 2014-15, Roy said.

Noting that the Marine Department handled a record 27 vessel movements in just 20 hours, he said that for the first time, the port has discharged edible oil from MT Delfine through Mediterrnean Mooring Method without using any berth.

All time record traffic of 6.39 Lakh MTs was handled in a single day on October 14, 2018.

All time high monthly traffic of 10.18 MMT was handled during January, 2018, he said.

Stating that the port witnessed the docking of a luxury cruise liner 'MV Silver Discoverer' with foreign tourists on Saturday, the PPT chairman said it will boost tourism in the state.

Outlining a paradigm shift in the safety culture and practices by the Port, he said the focus for this year is to impart proper training to workers, introduction of bus services and prohibition of two wheelers and persons walking inside the Port, introduction of no standing zones in berth areas and level crossing warning systems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistani troops Sunday opened fire at forward posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting retaliation by the Indian Army, a defence spokesman said.

The Pakistani troops lobbed mortars and opened fire from small arms from across the border in Naushera sector at 1:15 pm, the spokesman said.

He said Indian troops guarding the border retaliated effectively and the exchange of fire between the two sides was continuing when last reports came in.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In February, Texans experienced forced rolling and extended blackouts ordered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas as demand for electricity spiked during a winter storm. On Monday, ERCOT took precaution to avoid blackouts by urging Texans to conserve power through Friday as summer temperatures continue to rise. Approximately 12,000 megawatts of generation were offline Monday, and ERCOT officials said the outages were unexpected. Are you satisfied with ERCOTs oversight of the states electric grid?

You voted:Pakistan on Sunday closed its Consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif city after a woman tried to enter the building with a hand granade hiding in her bag, the Foreign Office said.

Mazar-e-Sharif is the capital of Balkh province.

"Today, the Pakistan Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif was closed when an Afghan woman was caught trying to sneek a hand grenade into the Consulate in her personal bag," the FO said in a statement.

It said the woman was arrested by the police and investigations are on to find the perpetrators of the failed attack.

The Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul urged the Afghanistan Foreign Office to provide fool-proof security to its Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif and to share the findings of its investigation at the earliest.

Pakistan Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will remain closed for visa services till the provision of fool-proof security by the authorities in Mazar-e-Sharif to prevent any untoward incident in the Consulate General, according to FO.

Last year, Pakistan's Consulate in Jalalabad remained closed for several weeks due to security reasons.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, is the clear front-runner to become the country's top diplomat when Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua steps down on her retirement, according to a media report.

Janjua, who was the first woman to become Pakistan's foreign secretary, will retire on April 17 after serving in the position for two years.

Mahmood is second on the seniority list as Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and Luxembourg Naghmana Hashmi is the senior most current career diplomat, Dawn reported Sunday.

Hashmi, many believe, is not in contention because of her impending retirement in about a year and a half. The government, therefore, wants to post somebody who has sufficient time on hand, the paper said.

She is instead tipped to be posted as ambassador to China.

Ambassador to Italy Nadeem Riaz is third on the seniority list, followed by Envoy to Germany Johar Saleem.

Mahmood, Riaz and Saleem are from the same course - 13th Common - but Mahmood is senior in intra-batch seniority.

The other name that is being talked about in the race for the top slot of Foreign Office is ambassador to the UAE Moazzam Ahmad, who is far too down on the seniority list placed at the ninth rung.

The race for the foreign secretary's job this time round has been lacklustre particularly when compared to the bruising competitions on the last two occasions - 2013 and 2017.

The last race was especially ugly because it ended with the resignation of former high commissioner to India Abdul Basit, who was once the FO's rising star. And few can forget the spat between the former high commissioner and the then outgoing foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry that became public.

The 2013 run, meanwhile, was made interesting because of a snafu by the PML-N government that recalled Basit from Germany, where he was posted as ambassador, and appointed him the foreign secretary, but then replaced his nomination with Aizaz before he could take charge. That episode set up the bitter fight witnessed in 2017.

Other planned rotations linked to the foreign secretary's appointment are Ambassador Saleem moving to Brussels in place of Hashmi. His place in Germany is, meanwhile, planned to be filled by Zaheer Janjua, who was recalled from Moscow in 2016.

However, the paper failed to point out who will replace Mahmood as high commission in India in case he was appointed as foreign secretary.

Mahmood's colleagues describe him as affable and workaholic. He is also said to be very strong in drafting. He has a high blood count' on the official performance grading. Moreover, he has a diverse experience of bilateral as well as multilateral diplomacy under his belt, having represented the country in Turkey, the US, the UN in New York, Thailand and India.

He has also headed the Afghanistan and West Asia Division as additional secretary and remained director general of foreign secretary's office.

His detractors, nevertheless, say he is a very soft voice and lacks dominating physical presence in meetings.

One of them quipped, "as a matter of fact foreign ministers do not really want a domineering, combative figure as the head of FO bureaucracy. They are rather interested in someone who would not rock the boat".

Another source said Mahmood had a lucky career in Foreign Service and "has been at the right place at the right time".

Janjua, the outgoing foreign secretary, had also come in office with a relatively low profile.

While commenting on her tenure, former foreign secretary Salman Bashir said Janjua "performed very well in a quiet way". She, he reminisced, had always been a troubleshooter and as a foreign secretary steered foreign policy operations in an effective way.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A three-member delegation, headed by Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah, will be visiting India on Sunday to inspect the Pakal Dul dam and Lower Kalnai hydel power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, a media report said.

After the bilateral talks on the Indus Waters Treaty in August last year in Lahore, India rejected Pakistan's objections on the construction of the 1,000MW Pakal Dul dam and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydropower projects on the Chenab river and invited Pakistani experts to visit the sites to address their concern.

"We are going to India on Sunday (today) via Wahga border," Shah was quoted as saying in the Dawn.

The Pakistani delegation's visit came after India's Commissioner for Indus Waters Pradeep Kumar Saxena gave a nod for inspection of Indian hydro-power projects on Chenab basin from January 28 to January 31, earlier this month, it said.

India had scheduled inspection of the projects by Pakistani experts first in September and then in October. But, the visit was postponed due the Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir and then winter session of Indian Parliament, the report said.

The delegation would return to Pakistan on February 1, it added.

India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.

The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year and arrange technical visits to projects' sites and critical river headworks.

Under the provisions of the Treaty, waters of the eastern rivers - Sutlej, Beas and Ravi - had ben allocated to India and the western rivers - the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab - to Pakistan, except for certain non-consumptive uses for India.

The treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers. However, there have been disagreements and differences between India and Pakistan over the treaty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Anjan Dutt says his upcoming film 'Operation Writers' on the exploits of Benoy, Badal and Dinesh will try to capture the passion of people who fought for a belief and died during pre-Independence India.

Dutt told PTI the three martyrs were a hardcore suicide squad which took to violence because their ruler was more violent but he had no intention of idolising anyone.

"But the fact remains that these boys or men are symbol of values and attitude that many of today's nationalists have lost," the 'Ranjana Ami Aar Aashbona' director said Saturday.

Asked about the pre-production of the film, scheduled to be released in August 2019, Dutt said, "What I had decided from the start was that I will try to be as factual and historically correct as possible, the period details have to be correct but I will not make a conventional historical film."



On December 8, 1930, Benoy along with Badal and Dinesh Chandra Gupta, dressed in European costumes, entered the Writers' Building, the citadel of power in British rule, and shot dead colonel N S Simpson, who got notoriety for brutal force against freedom fighters.

While Badal Gupta ingested Potassium Cyanide, Benoy and Dinesh shot themselves point blank with firearms surrounded by British police after the firing. Benoy breathed his last in a hospital while Dinesh survived and was sentenced to death by hanging on July 7, 1931 at the Alipore Jail.

Asked for the reason to take up the story of sacrifice of the three warriors, Dutt said, "I had been fascinated by incidents of numerous suicide squads and their huge guerilla warfare with British. I realised I belong to a race of great warriors.

"I decided I had to make a film on that... I chose the assassination of Colonel Simpson in 1930 by three very young men in their early 20s. I simply had to as a Bengali. Since I was the first to show the global Bengali with film 'Bong Connection', ... I had to show the fighter Bengali with 'Binoy Badal Dinesh," he said.

Stating the plan of the film had begun long back, Dutt said, "since I began my third Byomkesh film in 2013 I had started reading up about the Bengal Volunteers, Mukti Shangha.

Stating he had sought to make the film historically and factually correct and yet infuse a certain tension and passion that would make it relevant and not just a period piece, Dutt said "certain facts I discovered were so dramatic that I did not need to tweek it for drama."



He said certain situations had only been fictionalised for the sake of story telling, like the one-hour long battle with 18 bullets fired.

"My job was to make the mission or the climax unpredictable. Since I have also incorporated rebel Kanailal Bhattacharya's killing of Judge Garrik which happened within a month after Dinesh's hanging, I have played around with time, flashbacks etc.It now feels like an exciting script," he said.

"For instance, while everyone knew that the two committed suicide, one was hanged, my job was to keep the suspense alive despite knowing the facts," he said.

Bengali actors Abir Chatterjee, Anirban Bhattacharya and Arjun Chakraborty will portray the three leads in the film.

"Since it was a period piece that showed the sacrifice of the three brave men, me and my producer wanted actors who could portray them as three ordinary men, who could at the same time show what they did was heroic," Dutt signed off.

The shooting of the film will start soon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One person was killed and another injured on Sunday when a tempo carrying them was hit by a train at an unauthorized level crossing in Lower Assam's Chirang district, an official said.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) spokesman Nripen Bhattacharji told PTI that the tempo, while attempting to cross the tracks between Basugaon and Dangtol, came in the way of Dadra-Guwahati Express and got entangled to its engine.

The tracks were covered with mud in a way that vehicles could move over it, Bhattacharji said, adding that the collision did not have any impact on the train engine.

The railway officials had to stop train movement on the tracks for about an hour to disengage the tempo from the engine, he said.

Stating that trains have to pull brakes 300 metres before the halting point to avoid toppling over, the NFR spokesman clarified that drivers were not required to either slow down or stop at unauthorized crossings.

Bhattacharji also said that NFR has no unmanned level crossing in its areas of operation in Northeast, Bengal and Bihar.

"In several places, there are bridges over and under the tracks for pedestrian and vehicular movement, but the NFR does not maintain any unmanned level crossing," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday described the National Register of Citizens (NRC) a "waste paper" and said it should have been linked to voters list.

"The whole exercise by spending crores of rupees to update the NRC for detecting illegal foreigners have been wasted. The process was started in 2013 and in five years they (the BJP government) could not publish a correct NRC," the senior Congress leader said.

The NRC is a "waste paper and has become valueless now", Gogoi told a press conference here



It should have been linked to the voters list till January 2019. Those over 40 lakh people left out of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) are still in the voters list and they will cast their vote, he said.

"We (when Gogoi was the chief minister) had impressed upon the Centre that a similar NRC updation exercise has to be taken up in all states and not exclusively in Assam," Gogoi added.

Regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, he said it has not only been opposed in Assam but also across the country with the BJP's allies -- the JD(U), Shiv Sena and most of the chief ministers in the northeastern states being against it.

"Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma say we don't understand the bill. None of us understand (it), only two of them understand," Gogoi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture went up early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 34 with hundreds more feared dead, firefighters and the mining company said.

An alarm warning of dangerously high water levels at a dam that is part of the Corrego do Feijao mining complex in southeastern Brazil went off at 5:30 am (0730 GMT), a statement by the mining company Vale said.

A dam at the same mining site burst Friday, spewing millions of tons of treacherous sludge and engulfing buildings, vehicles and roads.

Firefighters said they immediately began evacuating communities near the dam.

"Attention, general area evacuation!" blared a warning through loudspeakers in Brumadinho, population 39,000.

"Find the highest point in the city," the warning said.

Vale's CEO Fabio Schvartsman and Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema earlier warned that the death toll from the Friday rupture could rise.

"From now, the odds are minimal (to find more people alive) and it is most likely we will recover only bodies," Zema told reporters late Friday.

In Rio, Schvartsman spoke of a "human tragedy." Search and rescue operations, suspended overnight because of rain, resumed at 4 am (0600 GMT).

Dozens of helicopters were set to be deployed because the thick mud was treacherous for ground rescuers to venture into.

Among the more than 170 survivors rescued from the disaster, 23 were hospitalized with injuries.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flew over the devastated zone on Saturday, later tweeting that it was "difficult to not be emotional before this scene." All was being done to care for survivors and "determine the facts, to demand justice and prevent new tragedies," he added.

The military said it deployed 1,000 soldiers, including sniffer dogs, to the disaster zone.

Separately, an Israeli team of 130 soldiers equipped with cellular location equipment, drones and naval sonars is set to reach the area Sunday to help search for survivors and bodies, an Israeli military spokesman said. The team is expected to stay for one week.

The disaster was the first big emergency faced by Bolsonaro and his government since he took office in early January, and may be one of the deadliest disasters in Brazil's history.

Vale has been shaken by the disaster, the second in three years it has suffered in the same state.

Workers at its mine had been at lunch in an administrative area Friday when they were suddenly swamped by millions of tons of muddy trailings -- a waste byproduct of the iron-ore mining operations.

The ruptured dam, 42 years old and 282 feet (86 meters) high, had been in the process of being decommissioned. Vale said it had recently passed structural safety tests.

After overflowing a second dam, the muddy mass barreled down toward Brumadinho but only glanced along the town before roaring through vegetation and farmland, smashing houses and swallowing tractors and roads in its path.

Vale shares plummeted on the New York stock exchange Friday, closing eight percent lower.

Brazil's environmental protection agency hit Vale with an initial $66.5 million fine over the disaster.

Minas Gerais state authorities said they were about to levy another penalty. They have already obtained a court order blocking $270 million of Vale funds in bank accounts with a view to using the money for victim relief.

The mining company, one of the world's biggest, was involved in a 2015 mine collapse elsewhere in Minas Gerais that claimed 19 lives and is regarded as the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.

Would-be rescue volunteers were urged to stay away because of the slippery, perilous mud. Media were pressed not to use drones to avoid collisions with rescue helicopters.

"There used to be people here, houses. I'm just floored by this tragedy," Rosilene Aganetti, a 57-year-old resident in one of the affected villages, told AFP, pointing to an expanse of mud.

"Several of my friends who were in the Vale cafeteria are missing," she said, holding back sobs.

Another woman, Suely de Olivera Costa, desperately trying to find her husband who worked at the mine, accused Vale of "destroying Brumadinho and nobody is doing anything -- what will be the next town?"



The Brazil office of environmental group Greenpeace said the dam break was "a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies."



Such incidents "are not accidents but environmental crimes that must be investigated, punished and repaired," it added.

In 2008, a moving mass of mud and rocks from an illegal iron ore mine slammed into the Chinese town of Taoshi, in northern Shanxi province, killing 262 people.

A mine collapse at a gold mine in Merriespruit, South Africa caused 17 deaths in 1994.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel's prime minister warned the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah of his army's "lethal" power on Sunday, in reaction to Hassan Nasrallah cautioning the Jewish state against further strikes in Syria.

"The lethal striking force of the IDF (Israeli army) stands facing Hezbollah," Israel's premier Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

In an interview with Beirut based al-Mayadeen television on Saturday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had warned Netanyahu that Syria and Hezbollah could "at any moment" decide to "deal with ... Israeli aggression."



"Don't make an error of judgement and don't lead the region towards war or a major clash," Nasrallah said, stating that Hezbollah possessed "high-precision missiles" capable of hitting anywhere in Israel.

Israel's army has since 2013 claimed hundreds of attacks on what it says are Iranian military targets and arms deliveries to Tehran-backed Hezbollah, with the goal of stopping its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

Netanyahu said Nasrallah was experiencing "great consternation" over Israel's recent operation to expose and destroy tunnels from Lebanon to Israel.

He also spoke of what he called Hezbollah's "financial distress" and the Jewish state's "determination".

"Believe me, Nasrallah has good reasons not to want to feel the might of our arm."



Earlier this month Israel concluded an operation to unearth and destroy tunnels which the army accused Hezbollah of digging across the border from Lebanon.

Nasrallah had on Saturday acknowledged "there are tunnels in southern Lebanon," refusing to specify who built them and when, and mocking Israel for taking "many years" to find them.

A month-long war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Each high judge is saddled with nearly 4,500 pending cases, according to the Law Ministry.

At the same time, each judge of the subordinate judiciary has nearly 1,300 cases pending, the same data shows.

Going by the number of cases pending in high courts and the lower courts, the ministry came up with the average cases pending per judge based on the sanctioned strength.

According to the Judicial Data Grid, at the end of 2018, 2.91 crore cases were pending with the district and subordinate courts. In the 24 high courts, 47.68 lakh cases were pending.

From January 1, Telangana has its own high court, taking the number of high courts in the country to 25.

The data states that while 4,419 cases are pending per judge in the high courts, 1,288 are pending with each lower judge.

It says that while the sanctioned strength of the subordinate courts is 22,644, the working strength is 17,509 -- a shortage of 5,135 judicial officers.

Similarly, in the high courts, the sanctioned strength is 1,079, the working strength is 695 -- a shortfall of 384 judges.

The data was collated for parliamentary use.

Successive law ministers have been writing to chief justices of high courts urging them to fill up vacancies in the lower courts.

Incumbent Ravi Shankar Prasad recently urged the chief justices of high courts to speed up the recruitment of judicial officers for the lower judiciary, as according to him, one of the main reasons for high pendency was the inordinate delay in filling up the vacancies of judicial officers.

The minister urged the chief justices to hold timely examination and interviews to recruit judges for lower courts.Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said the NDA government was committed to strengthening initiatives for ensuring universal healthcare and the "pathpbreaking" Ayushman Bharat scheme is being implemented to holistically address health issues.

Addressing the gathering after laying the foundation stone for Rs 1,264 crore AIIMS at Thoppur near here, he outlined the welfare initiatives taken by the Centre on the health care front.

The AIIMS reflects the vision of "Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat," he said.

AIIMS in New Delhi had cultivated a brand name for itself in healthcare and with the AIIMS in Madurai to come up "we can say that this brand of health care has been taken to all corners of country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to Madurai, from Guwahati to Gujarat," he said.

Expressing confidence that the proposed AIIMS will benefit the entire Tamil Nadu, he said "the NDA government is giving great priority to health sector so that every one is healthy and healthcare is affordable."



Through the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the government has supported up gradation of government medical colleges across the country, he said.

The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and other similar plans are making safe pregnancy a mass movement, he said.

Besides in Delhi, there are six other functional AIIMS at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh.

The Centre has also proposed to set up 14 AIIMS across the country.

Expressing happiness over inaugurating the new super speciality blocks in Tamil Nadu government medical colleges, Modi referred to the Central government health initiative Mission 'Indradhanush'.

The speed and scale of 'danush' (arrow) was working and seting a new paradigm in preventive health care.

The number of MBBS seats have been increased by almost 30 per cent in the last four-and-a-half years, he said.

The "Ayushman Bharat," is a carefully thought out approach to ensure achievement of universal health coverage and it is a "pathbreaking intervention," to holistically address health issues.

About 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres were being set up to provide comprehensive primary care and preventive health services, the Prime Minister said.

The PM Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) provides financial protection upto Rs 5 lach per family per year to cover over 10 core needy families in case of hospitalisaiton.

"It is the largest health insurance scheme in the world," he said.

About 1.57 crore people in Tamil Nadu were covered under the scheme and in just over three months about 89,000 patients had undergone treatment for which more than Rs 200 crore had been authorised.

While the NDA government was committed to Tuberculosis elimination by 2025, the Prime Minister said he was happy to learn that Tamil Nadu intended to achieve the goal by 2023, and pledged the Centre's support for it.

"I once again assure that my government is committed to strengthening the initiatives in health care to ensure universal health coverage," Modi said.

He dedicated 12 passport seva kendras in Tamil Nadu and said this initiative was one more example of improving the ease of living for our citizens.

The proposed 750-bed modern AIIMS here, on its completion, will also offer 100 MBBS seats.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami, who participated in the function, thanked the Prime Minister for providing the AIIMS facility to Tamil Nadu and urged upon the Centre to set up a medical college at the backward Ramanathapuram district.

Earlier, the MDMK cadres, led by its chief Vaiko, staged a black flag demonstration against Modi shortly before he arrived here, accusing him of betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Police said the protesters were detained.

Releasing black baloons, the protesting party cadres raised slogans against Modi alleging that he betrayed the interests of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and other issues.

In a counter move, BJP youth wing supporters put up posters sarcastically "welcoming Vaiko".

amil Nadu unit BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan and Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan strongly condemned MDMK for the protest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said the NDA government was committed to strengthening initiatives for ensuring universal healthcare and as part of it had taken the AIIMS brand to various parts of the country.

Addressing the gathering after laying the foundation stone for AIIMS at Thoppur near here, he outlined the initiatives taken by the Centre on the health care front.

The AIIMS reflects the vision of "Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat," he said.

AIIMS in New Delhi had cultivated a brand name for itself in healthcare and with the AIIMS in Madurai to come up "we can say that this brand of health care has been taken to all corners of country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to Madurai, from Guwahati to Gujarat," he said.

Expressing confidence that the proposed AIIMS will benefit the entire Tamil Nadu, he said "the NDA government is giving great priority to health sector so that every one is healthy and healthcare is affordable."



Under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the government has supported upgradation of goverment medical colleges across the country, he said.

Noting that he was happy to inauguate new super speciality blocks in Tamil Nadu government medical colleges, he referred to the Central government health initiative Mission 'Indradhanush'.

The speed and scale of 'danush' (arrow) was working and seting a new paradigm in preventive health care.

"Today I am happpy to dedicate 12 passport office seva kendras in Tamil Nadu and this initiative is one more example of improving the ease of living for our citizens," the Prime Minister added.

The proposed 750-bed modern AIIMS here, on its completion, will also offer 100 MBBS seats.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami, who participated in the function, thanked the Prime Minister for providing the AIIMS facility to Tamil Nadu and urged upon the Centre to set up a medical college at the backward Ramanathapuram district.

Earlier, the MDMK cadres, led by its chief Vaiko, staged a black flag demonstration against Modi shortly before he arrived here, accusing him of betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Police said the protesters were detained.

Releasing black baloons, the protesting party cadres raised slogans against Modi alleging that he betrayed the interests of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and other issues.

In a counter move, BJP youth wing supporters put up posters sarcastically "welcoming Vaiko".

The MDMK cadres, however, said the protest was not against the AIIMS.

Slogans like "go back Modi," and counter hashtags "Madurai thanks Modi," and "TN welcomes Modi" trended on micro blogging site Twitter.

Tamil Nadu unit BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan and Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan strongly condemned MDMK for the protest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan hinted Sunday his party may not project a chief ministerial face in Odisha, where assembly and Lok Sabha polls are held together, and asserted it will end the two-decade reign of Naveen Patnaik on the back of PM Narendra Modi's popular appeal and development work.

Pradhan, a Union minister and key BJP face from Odisha, also rejected the suggestion that his party was looking at Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as a potential ally after the Lok Sabha polls, saying Chief Minister Patnaik is fuelling such speculation as he was "shaken" with the saffron party's rise.

"We are in a direct fight with the BJD. We are sure to emerge as the number one party and also get a majority in the assembly. The BJP is rising and Modi enjoys a lot of credibility in the state. To survive this, he has spread this (speculation) that he may support the BJP," he told PTI in an interview.

Patnaik, a former ally of the BJP, has maintained that his party BJD believes in keeping equidistant from both the Congress and the BJP.

His decision to keep away from unity efforts of opposition parties has given rise to speculation that he is open to the possibility of supporting the saffron party



Asked if the BJP will announce its chief ministerial candidate, Pradhan said Modi will be its main face and noted that it had won in a number of states such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura without projecting any leader for the top post.

Seen by many political watchers as his party's likely choice for the hot seat if it wins in the assembly polls, Pradhan said the BJP is working with a "collective leadership" in Odisha.

"It (chief ministerial candidate) is not our priority. Our priority is to make the BJP the number one party in the state," he asserted.

The 49-year-old leader has handled several important organisational responsibilities for the party and is said to enjoy the confidence of Prime Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Mounting a sharp attack on Patnaik, Pradhan said he was elected to power again and again because the opposition was too weak to highlight his "corrupt, incompetent and insensitive" rule under which even basic facilities like drinking water, electricity and health services were not provided to most citizens.

Patnaik's call for ending 'PC (percentage commission) culture' in the state is a case of "chor machaye shor" (thief making noise), the BJP leader said, claiming that the chief minister is a part and parcel of this culture.

To a question about Patnaik's perceived image of a clean administrator, he said there cannot be a "bigger lie and joke" as he referred to the Shah commission's report on mining irregularities in Odisha and also the chit-fund scams in the state.

Citing the report, he said over Rs 60,000 crore was siphoned off while people in the state lost over Rs 30,000 crore in chit-fund scams in which several BJD leaders are either in jail or facing charges in courts.

Pradhan said the BJP now has the organisational strength to "expose" the Patnaik government and is in a position to offer an alternative vision for governing the state.

The Modi government's development works- including boosting road, rail and air travel connectivity, spreading the use of cooking gas cylinders from 20 lakh connections to 75 lakh, connecting all its villages with electricity- will be the main drivers of the BJP's campaign in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the state, he said.

"No central government has done as much for the state as the Modi dispensation has," he asserted.

The BJP could not capitalise on the 2014 "Modi wave" in the state due to its lack of organisational capacity but it has come a long way since, he said, noting that the party emerged as the main challenger to the BJD in the panchayat polls by bagging over 33 per cent of votes.

The saffron party had garnered 21 per cent of votes and won only one of the state's 21 Lok Sabha seats, with the BJD winning the remainder 20 by bagging over 44 per cent of votes.The Congress had won 26 per cent of votes but its vote share has since declined in the by-elections and local polls.

The Congress, Pradhan claimed, has crumbled in the state.

"It has zero strength and no leadership. The anti-BJD votes will rally around the BJP in the coming polls," he said.

The popularity and credibility of Modi in the state remains high, Pradhan said, adding that the prime minister's appeal will be the "game-changer".

In the 2014 assembly poll, Patnaik had led the BJD to power for a fourth straight term with the party winning 117 seats in the 147-member assembly with the Congress and the BJP bagging 16 and 10 seats respectively.

Pradhan claimed there is a popular discontent against Patnaik's 19-year-old uninterrupted reign in the state, especially among the youths, women and tribals, due to lack of essential infrastructure and employment opportunities causing migration.

Elevated as a Cabinet minister by Modi in 2017 after being first given the responsibility of a minister of state with independent charge following the BJP's win in 2014 general election, Pradhan is in-charge of the important petroleum and natural gas portfolio.

He has drawn praise from the BJP leadership for steering Ujjwala scheme, which provides free LPG connection to the poor households.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A team of Mumbai police on Sunday arrested a person from Mithanpura locality in this north Bihar town for allegedly defrauding people of more than Rs 12 crore in the western metropolis.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, Manoj Kumar said Ranjan Kumar Srivastava was arrested by the Mumbai police crime branch team which took him away after producing him before a magistrate and obtaining a transit remand.

The SSP said Srivastava had set up a marketing agency in Mumbai, amassed more than Rs 12 crore by collecting Rs 5,000 each from clients in the name of "security deposit" and fled the city.

Residents of the western metropolis had lodged cases in this connection at police stations concerned and the crime branch, which took up the matter, learnt that the accused was staying at his home here in Mithanpura, the SSP added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 13-year-old tigress, popularly known as "Collarwali" from Madhya Pradesh's Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), has given birth to four cubs, making her the mother of 29 cubs born in different litters in the last ten years, which forest officials feel could be a rare record.

Tourists Sunday spotted the Royal Bengal tigress 'T-15' with four cubs in the PTR, field director Vikram Singh Parihar told PTI Sunday confirming the births.

The tigress hit headlines in April 2017 for expanding her litters by giving birth to four cubs.

Responding to a query on whether 'Collarwali' has now become the first such tigress in the world to have given birth to so many cubs in its life-span, Parihar said he has not come across such a feline, and that he is checking it out.

Talking about the latest births, Parihar said this was the eighth litter of the "Collarwali".

"(Earlier) It had given births ot 25 cubs in seven different litters," Parihar said, adding that the tigress is a prolific breeder and a cub-raiser.

He said 21 of 25 cubs of the tigress born earlier, are currently wandering in the reserve.

"The tigress is very beautiful, no doubt about it. Its eyes and walk sway all. At the (current) age of 14, this big cat has given birth, which itself is the most pleasant surprise," the field director said.

He said the average life span of a tiger is 14-15 years.

"'Collarwali' looks young, and going by her beauty and robust health, she might create another record hopefully by living beyond 20 years. Look at the feline, it seems that she might survive 22 years," the forester said.

The tigress was born in September 2005, he said citing official data.

The big cat brings in huge revenue for the PTR as hundreds of tourists drawn from different parts of India, besides foreigners, turn up to catch a glimpse of the majestic beast.

"Department of Post had issued a special cover envelope of 'Collarwali' on World Sparrow Day on March 20, 2015. Besides, New Zealand and Canada too issued personalised stamps on the tigress in that year," a forest official said.

According to wildlife activist Sanjay Tiwari, 'Collarwali' was born to tiger T-1, also known as 'Charger', and tigress 'Badimata'.

Remarkably, the big cat had successfully reared her five cubs in 2010, he added.

As per the last tiger count in 2014, the population of the striped animals in the PTR, spread over 1169 sq kms in Seoni and Chhindwara districts, stood between 35 and 49.

'Collarwali' is as famous as feline 'Machhli' of Ranthambore in Rajasthan, who died in August 2016, Tiwari said, adding that 'Machhli', who was born in 1996, was considered the world's oldest big cat.

The feline, who lived for 20 years, had given birth to 11 cubs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)More than 25,000 Mexican workers at dozens of factories south of Brownsville, Texas, went on strike Friday after owners of the plants that assemble for export refused union demands for a 20 percent pay hike and an annual bonus.

The Union of Maquiladora Industry Industrial Workers of Matamoros, the SJOIIM, said that by late Saturday nine companies had agreed to meet the salary and bonus demands.

Union leader Juan Villafuerte thanked union members who had stood outside in the rain and cold, noting "we hope to soon conclude this action."



The government of Tamaulipas state said at least one company announced plans to leave the city of Matamoros. The state's development office said other companies had halted expansion projects.

The strikes affect factories that make auto parts, medical equipment, plastics and other goods.

The labour strife comes on the heels of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's promise to double the minimum wage in communities along the U.S. border to 176.2 pesos a day, the equivalent of $9.28 at current exchange rates.

However, workers who were making more than minimum wage in Matamoros factories would not have benefited from the hike in the minimum wage, sparking discontent.

The workers are also demanding a one-time bonus of about $1,685.

The new border minimum wage is higher than the prevailing minimum in the rest of the country, about $5.35 per day. However, the cost of living along the border is much higher than in the rest of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday slammed the Congress and the Left parties, saying they had no respect for institutions, including the Election Commission and that their talk about democracy was the "biggest joke".

Modi, who was addressing a huge Yuva Morcha rally here, also referred to the political killings in Kerala and equated it with those in Maharashtra



He said the mindset of the Emergency still lived in the minds of many Congress leaders.

"Congress and communists talking about democracy is the biggest joke. What is happening in some parts of Kerala.. political workers are killed just because their ideology is different from the communists," he said.

The prime minister this culture has now spread to Madhya Pradesh, where BJP workers were being attacked.

He said the Congress was even questioning the election commission.

"Be it Congress or communists, they have zero regard for any institution. For them every institution, the armed forces, police, CBI, the CAG, everybody is wrong, but they are right."



He also referred to the recent hacker's press meet in London over the alleged hacking of EVMs in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"And who was participating in the press conference? A top-most Congress leader.

Is this your respect to our institutions and our democracy? Is this what our have come to right now? Whoever has gone to foreign soil to undermine the mandate of the people of India will have to answer to the people of India," Modi said.

The Prime Minister, who was in Kerala for the second time this month, once again raked up the Sabarimala issue and alleged that the cultural ethos of the state was under attack from the ruling communist party in the state.

He said that the state government has been disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture.

"Unfortunately, today, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack. And this attack is being made by the party governing the state.

The issue of the Sabarimala temple had caught the attention of the entire nation.

The people of India are seeing the manner in which the communist government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture



The UDF too is just like the Communists," Modi said.

The Prime Minister also said that the opposition parties had only one agenda and that was to abuse him.

"All they (opposition) have is hatred towards Modi.

Their day begins with abusing Modi and ends with abusing Modi."



He said they could abuse him as much as they wanted, but should not 'mislead' farmers, put hurdles in creating opportunities for the youth, 'harm' the poor or put barriers in India's progress.

"Abuse me as much as you want but don't abuse our great nation," Modi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi may



share the stage with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan here on March 3 at a rally where the NDA will sound the bugle for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state.

The announcement was made Sunday at a joint press conference by the JD(U), the BJP and the LJP.

Kumar who heads the JD(U) and Paswan who is the LJP chief, have given their consent for attending the rally, while an invitation was being sent to Modi, the NDA leaders said.

Notably, the NDA rally will be held exactly a month after Congress' "Jan Akanksha Rally", which will be addressed by Rahul Gandhi. It will be his first public meeting in Bihar after becoming the party's national president.

Asked whether their rally was aimed at giving a "reply" to Gandhi, the NDA leaders said they were not bothered about the Congress president.

They said that BJP president Amit Shah will also be requested to attend the rally, where workers of all the three NDA constituents would gather from across the state.

They reiterated that candidates to be fielded by the respective NDA constituents would be finalised in due course and said that the date of March 3 was agreed upon since the parties wanted to hold one such public meeting before the poll schedule was announced.

The NDA rally could be the first occasion for Modi and Kumar to share stage at a political function in Bihar.

Kumar had cancelled a dinner hosted for BJP leaders a decade ago when advertisements appeared in local newspapers wherein he was shown holding hands with Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat.

Kumar snapped 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 when it became amply clear that the party would fight the Lok Sabha polls with Modi as its face.

Kumar, however, returned to the NDA in 2017 after a short-lived alliance with arch-rival Lalu Prasad's RJD.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Led by party chief Vaiko, MDMK cadres Sunday staged a black flag demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly before he arrived here, accusing him of betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu.

Police said more than 100 protesters were detained and later let off.

Earlier, a scuffle broke out between the Police and the MDMK cadres as the police asked them to diperse.

Releasing black baloons, the protesting party cadres raised slogans against Modi alleging that he betrayed the interests of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery and other issues.

The Prime Minister arrived at the airport here about 30 minutes later and is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences near here and also address a public meeting.

The protest was held near the Periyar bus stand in the city, away from the venue of the AIIMS site and not in the route taken by the Prime Minister from the airport.

In a counter move, BJP youth wing supporters put up posters sarcastically "welcoming Vaiko".

"We are here to welcome you and give a send off to you," the posters read.

The MDMK cadres claimed that the centre had accorded "permission to projects like neutrino and hydrocarbon extraction" which, according to them, would have an adverse impact on the livelihood of the farmers and also affect the common people.

On the Cauvery issue, they alleged that the Centre was supportive of Karnataka's bid to build a dam at Mekedatu across the river by giving permission for preparing a detailed project report.

The MDMK cadres, however, said the protest was not against the AIIMS.

Slogans like "go back Modi," and counter hashtags "Madurai thanks Modi," and "TN welcomes Modi" trended on micro blogging site Twitter.

Tamil Nadu unit BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan and Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan strongly condemned MDMK for staging the protest ahead of the prime minister laying the foundation for a big project beneficial to the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A ward boy of a reputed hospital in Pune was arrested for allegedly filming a woman changing her clothes for an MRI procedure, police said Sunday.

Police said Lakesh Lahu Uttekar (25) was caught after the woman Saturday night found a mobile phone in the changing room and found a clip in it of her undressing.

"The woman was admitted in the hospital on January 23 for abdominal pain and she was advised to undergo an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan on Saturday. The ward boy asked her to change in a room other than the one designated for the purpose," a Koregaon Park police station official said.

The woman found a phone in the room and alerted her husband, and on checking the device the couple found a clip of her undressing, the official said.

A complaint was filed at Koregaon Park police station and Uttekar was held after he gave vague answers during the probe, the official added.

He has been charged under section 354 (watching or capturing the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed) of the Indian Penal Code.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A village in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, which has witnessed a string of farmer suicides over years, has resolved to boycott upcoming Lok Sabha and state assembly polls unless various demands of locals, including compensation to agriculturists for low crop yield, are met by the government.

A resolution to this effect was adopted during a Gram Sabha meeting by residents of Wagda Izara village in Mahagaon tehsil on Republic Day.

The resolution copy has already been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a local leader said Sunday.

The main demands included direct credit of PM's Crop Insurance Scheme amount into bank accounts of farmers, and setting up fodder store rooms for cattle in view of drought, said farmer leader Manish Jadhav.

The villagers also demanded formation of a separate Vidarbha state comprising various districts in the east Maharashtra region.

"The gram sabha also proposed that farmers who have recorded lesser soybean and cotton crop yields due to scanty rainfall, be paid a compensation of Rs 50,000 per hectare," he said.

The meeting, held under village sarpanch Chhaya Khandare, also extended its support to the proposed stir of farmers to be launched from Punatamba village in western Maharashtra's Ahmadnagar district.

"We have been facing an acute drinking water crisis every year. We want it resolved permanently through the Centrally-sponsored water supply schemes," the Sarpanch said.

She also demanded a complete crop loan waiver and fresh credit for farmers.

The meeting was attended by a large number of villagers wherein it was resolved that the future polls will be boycotted if our demands are not met, Jadhav said.

The village, with population of around 1500, falls under Umarkhed (SC) assembly constituency, currently represented by the ruling BJP. It falls under Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency, represented by the Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Despite what some Brazoria County drivers seem to believe, Lake Jacksons festival of lights does not take place every morning when its patrol vehicles line up on Highway 288, their red and blue beacons certainly not meant to spread joy.British star Lena Headey says she got "really emotional" on the final day of filming "Game of Thrones".

The 45-year-old actor recently appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" where she told the host that despite the evil nature of her character Cersei, she roots for her to survive in the end.

"Someone has to," she said.

Headey said on the final day, she had heard that the show's creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, had prepared speeches and drawings from storyboards for the cast members.

"I suddenly got really emotional at the end and tried to head down the stairs. They all rushed up and trapped me. And then they gave the speech, and it was really moving," she said.

The actor also revealed her thought process when she shot her last scene as Cersei Lannister.

"I was like, 'Well, it's been nine years. It's been amazing and I'm happy to go and find new things,'" she said.

The actor reminisced that after receiving the script for a season, she would always go straight to the end to find out about Cersei's fate as the show has the tendency to kill off its main characters.

"They usually give us all of them, and if anyone says they don't flip to the end, they're lying," she added.

The eighth and final installment of "Game of Thrones" is slated to premiere on April 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday again raked up the Sabarimala temple issue and said the communist government in the state has been disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture.

He also lambasted both the congress and Communists for having no regard for women's empowerment, best exemplified by their opposition to the NDA government's efforts to end triple talaq.

"Let me tell you, neither Congress nor the communists have any concern for women's empowerment.If they did,they would not have opposed the NDA government's effort to end triple talaq.

India has had many women Chief Ministers, but is there any communist chief minister?," he asked.

On the Sabarimala issue, Modi alleged that the cultural ethos of the state was under attack from the Communist government.

"Unfortunately today, the cultural ethos of Kerala is under attack.

And this attack is being made by the party governing the state. The issue of the Sabarimala temple caught the attention of the entire nation.

"The people of India are seeing the manner in which the communist government of Kerala are disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture.

I fail to understand why the commmunists are undermining our culture and civilisation which has stood the test of time.

The UDF too is just like the Communists," Modi said.

The Prime Minister also charged the opposition with being 'politically banckrupt.'



"India's strength lies in its democracy. It is from our land that democracy had spread to the world. Elections will come and go, but the nation will remain.

In their dislike for Narendra Modi, the Congress and the communists and their other friends should stop disrespecting institutions and our democracy," Modi said.

the prime Minister said that these parties, in addition to opposing India's culture, had one thing in common and corruption.

In the last three years, so many LDF ministers had to resign. Why? Congress history is also well known," he added.

"Four years ago you chose me as your chowkidar in Delhi. I am there. I shall not allow corruption. I shall not allow the nation's culture and unity to be destroyed," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Sunday said political leaders who sell dreams to people, but fail to make them a reality get "beaten up" by the public.

The minister, who handles a host of infrastructure-related portfolios in the Modi government, asserted he is a doer and delivers on his promises.

"People like (political) leaders who sell them dreams. But if these dreams are not realised, then they beat them up (politically) as well," said, speaking at a function here.

"I am not the one who only sells dreams, but I deliver 100 per cent what I talk about," he said.

Gadkari, a former BJP president, also spoke about his stint as Maharashtra's PWD minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power (1995-99) in the state.

"The mediapersons in know what kind of a person I am as they have seen how I complete projects. They do trust me," said the 61-year-old politician from

"People used to laugh at me when I, as PWD minister, used to claim that I was going to build over 50 flyovers in Mumbai, and bring down the travel time between and to merely two hours (via 91-km expressway).

"I was ridiculed but I proved them wrong and completed every project I had promised," said.

At the function, actor Isha Koppikar joined the BJP and was made working of the party's women transport wing.

In December, Gadkari said at an event in that leadership should have the tendency to own up defeat and failures.

The remarks had come days after the BJP's dismal show in Rajasthan, and assembly elections.

As the comments created a controversy, Gadkari said his statements had been twisted and alleged "there was a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist" his comments and "draw politically motivated inferences to malign" him and his party.

At the valedictory function of the annual Marathi literary meet at Yavatmal on January 13, Gadkari said politicians should not interfere in other fields.

The meet was embroiled in a controversy after an invitation to writer was withdrawn apparently under pressure from a political party.

Without making a direct reference to the row, Gadkari had said, "Politicians should learn not to interfere in other fields. The people who are in universities, educational institutions, literature and poetry, they should be dealing with their (respective) areas.Sri Lanka's Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government lacks political capability and does not have adequate support in Parliament to pass the new Constitution, which he claimed that if introduced will divide the country.

He also reiterated his demand for a fresh poll in the island nation.

"The current government lacks political capability to enact the proposed new Constitution. They have no support in parliament to pass that," Rajapaksa told reporters on Saturday.

"This is a Constitution which aims to divide the country," he said, adding that the government has failed to deliver their promises made in elections and made it unpopular.

"We want a general election," he said.

Sri Lanka's former strongman, who attempted to overthrow Wickremesinghe with the help of President Maithripala Sirisena last year, has been attacking the prime minister's move to introduce a new Constitution after a report prepared by the Panel of Experts for the Steering Committee was presented in Parliament early this month.

During a debate in the House, Rajapaksa said the effort must now be abandoned and there must be a fresh parliamentary poll.

The Rajapaksa camp claims that the report is the new draft of the Constitution and it aims to dilute the unitary state of the island nation, degrading the upmost position granted to the majority Sinhala Buddhist religion in the current Constitution.

Speaking in Jaffna on Saturday, a senior member of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), M A Sumanthiran said that the proposed Constitution would ensure the island's unitary character.

"Misinformation was being spread by the Rajapaksa-led Opposition that the new Constitution will formulate a federal structure for Sri Lanka despite repeated explanations that the unitary state and the position of Buddhism will not be harmed," he said.

The TNA opposed the October 26 stand off when Rajapaksa was appointed as the prime minister by Sirisena in violation of the Constitution.

They voted against Rajapaksa as the new prime minister and demanded the restoration of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Rajapaksa camp now alleges Wickremesinghe of relying on the TNA support to prove his majority in Parliament to continue the government.

Wickremesinghe, therefore, is under TNA's obligation to deliver a new constitution to appease them, they alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Italian Davis Cup squad, led by world number 18 Marco Cecchinato, arrived here on Sunday for the World Group Qualifiers against hosts India at the South Club from February 1-2.

In absence of Italy's top-ranked Fabio Fognini who has ruled himself out to treat an injury, Cecchinato will spearhead the team on the grass courts.

Cecchinato who made a first round exit at the Australian Open against Serbia's Filip Krajinovic is expected to be a threat on the opening day of the tie.

Cecchinato had caused a major upset by ousting Novak Djokovic in the French Open quarters last year.

World number 35 Andreas Seppi is the next best Italians in terms of ranking. The other members of the contingent includes number 54 Matteo Berrettini, Thomas Fabbiano (102) and doubles world number 88 Simone Bolelli.

A total of 24 teams will play in the knockout qualifiers on February 1 and 2 to decide which 12 teams will play the year-end Final in Madrid in November 2019.

According to the new format, only four semifinalists from 2018 season along with two wild cards Argentina and Britain have a direct entry.

India lost their World Group Play-off to Serbia while Italy lost their quarterfinal to France. Since India are ranked 20, they again got a shot at World Group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Inter-state trade of farm products in mandies (wholesale markets) through the eNAM platform is gathering pace with the latest transaction taking place at Gujarat's Palanpur mandi, which sold green gram to Sumerpur mandi of Rajasthan.

In April 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the pilot of electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) as part of the central government's objective to double farmers' income by 2022.

eNAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. The platform seeks to help farmers in getting better market access, find more buyers/traders for their produce and earn higher income. Small Farmers' Agri-business Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency for implementing eNAM under the aegis of the Union agriculture ministry.

Trade in 585 mandis is currently taking place on the electronic network, which helps discover price in real time in a transparent manner. The government aims to integrate 200 mandis this year and another 215 next year with the e-NAM platform. There are about 2,700 APMC mandis and 4,000 sub-market yards in India.

Earlier, trade used to happen within the APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) mandi or between two APMC mandies situated in the same state.

Recently, the first inter-state transaction in tomatoes was carried out between a trader of Bareilly e-NAM APMC of Uttar Pradesh and a farmer of Haldwani e-NAM APMC of Uttarakhand.

On the same day, another transaction in potatoes was carried out between a trader of Rudrapur e-NAM APMC of Uttarakhand and a farmer of Moradabad e-NAM APMC of Uttar Pradesh. In both the cases, e-payments have been made through e-NAM portal.

Further, inter-state transactions happened between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The interacting mandis were Gadwal mandi from Telangana and Kurnool mandi from Andhra Pradesh.

The latest development is from the Palanpur mandi of Gujarat which sold green gram to Sumerpur mandi of Rajasthan, a senior agriculture ministry official said.

Though the volumes of inter-state trade on e-NAM platform are low currently, the programme will prove to be a giant leap in reforming the agriculture market in India, the official added.

The ministry has integrated 585 wholesale regulated markets/ (APMC) markets in 16 states and 2 Union territories (UTs), who have carried out requisite reforms in their state APMC. Currently, seven states -- Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand -- are working on the modalities to establish inter-state trade.

Farmers can access the information on e-NAM easily through their mobile phone from anywhere. This online trading platform aims at reducing transaction costs, bridging information asymmetry and helps in expanding the market access for farmers.

eNAM is a virtual marketplace with a physical market (mandi) at the backend, networking the existing APMC/mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities for pan-India electronic trading. Mandis handle huge volumes of farm produce. eNAM provides quick quality assaying solutions to promote online trading.

Logistics providers' information is also being provided on the e-NAM portal to traders from outside the state which will facilitate transportation of commodities.

The agriculture ministry is in the process of developing a separate dashboard to promote inter-state trade among e-NAM states.

There are also discussions ongoing among the officials of the ministry, SFAC and state governments on dispute settlement mechanism. Initially, the dispute has to be settled by the mandi of origin where the e-trade is going to be executed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Singapore can expect a rise in tourist arrivals from India with the Indian government focussing on improving airport infrastructure in tier II cities, which will lead to increased flight frequencies between the two nations, said One Faber Group.

The Singapore-based lifestyle services brand expects a huge influx of tourists from India, particularly millennials interested in leisure travel.

"More airports mean more opportunities to target weekend travellers to regional countries. With India's plans to invest in the building of 100 airports over the next 10-15 years, the India tourism market is expected to grow exponentially, especially with the millennial market," Mount Faber Leisure Group Director (Sales and Business Development) Patrick Lee told PTI.

He also added that now airlines are also increasing flight frequencies from India to Singapore to offer seamless connectivity from various airports.

India's tourist arrivals to Singapore is growing from strength to strength. We hope to see rapid an increase in Indians visiting Singapore. We are exploring opportunities to deepen trade engagement in tier II cities with key India travel agents, Lee added.

According to him, India is a key source market for Singapore Tourism and despite demonetisation and implementation of goods and services tax (GST), visitors' arrival continued to increase.

From January December 2017, Singapore received 12,72,074 visitors from India, registering a growth of 15.94 per cent year-on-year, and arrival continues to grow.

One Faber Group, which operates popular cable car network, recorded 3,66,422 Indian visitors in 2018.

"As per Singapore Tourism Board data, in 2018 there has been a rise of 16 per cent in the number of Indian tourists. In 2018, around 1.32 million Indian visitors landed in Singapore," he said.

Singapore is among top five destination for Indian outbounds. The others includes Dubai, Thailand and Malaysia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India has relaxed a key condition to allow members of the Surinami-Hindustani community living in Europe to get Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card, according to an official statement.

Earlier, there was a limitation that OCI could be issued only to four generations of the original forefathers of the community who had migrated from India to Suriname, a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America.

Consequently, many young members of the Surinami-Hindustani community belonging to fifth and subsequent generations could not avail of this benefit.

As a result of persistent efforts by the Embassy of Netherlands, the government of India has decided that, henceforth, descendants up to sixth generation of the original Indian immigrants who had arrived in Suriname and later migrated to the Netherlands may be considered for OCI, the statement said.

An announcement in this regard was made by India's Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony during the Indian Republic Day celebrations in the Netherlands on Saturday.

He invited all members of Surinami-Hindustani community who do not have an OCI card to apply for the same at the earliest.

Rajamony also announced that because mandatory conscription was in force in the Netherlands prior to 1996, those members of the Surinami-Hindustani Community who were excluded from the OCI scheme can now apply for it, the statement issued by the Indian Embassy in The Hague said.

This (Indian government's decision) will help integrate the largest Indian community in Europe even more closely with India, Rajamony told PTI.

The Netherlands has the largest population of overseas Indians in mainland Europe,majority belonging to the 2,00,000 strong Surinami-Hindustani community whose ancestors were taken as indentured labour from India to Suriname 145 years ago.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said that the two sides were in contact on the Kartarpur corridor issue and that New Delhi has already appointed a focal person for the purpose.

He made the remarks on Saturday night during an informal interaction with the media personnel invited to attend the reception to celebrate the 70th Republic Day of India.

Bisaria said India had consented to the basic points about the Kartarpur corridor except for its zero-point. He said both the countries were in contact over Kartarpur corridor.

"So many meetings have taken place on this matter (Kartarpur corridor)," he said.

But he ruled out any quick resumption of talks due to upcoming election in India.

"Because of (upcoming) elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now," he said.

He went on to say that trust-building was important before resuming political dialogue between the two countries. He said a delegation from Pakistani water commission will visit India on Sunday.

Bisaria said that 2019 was important for India as it marks 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The reception was attended by politicians, parliamentarians, diplomats, media persons, businessmen and civil society representatives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Sunday attended a public event for the first time since he was diagnosed with a pancreatic ailment last year when he turned up at the function to inaugurate a cable-stayed bridge on the Mandovi river, and charged up the audience with the popular dialogue from a Bollywood movie.

The 5.1 km long, four-laned "Atal Setu" was opened to public by Union Minister for Road Transport and National Highways Nitin Gadkari in presence of Parrikar, Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and other ministers from the state.

The bridge has become the third such link over the river to connect Panaji with North Goa.

Wearing a defence cap and medical appendage attached, Parrikar, 63, charged up the audience when he asked them "How is the Josh", a popular dialogue from Bollywood film "Uri The Surgical Strike", which has become popular with many politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"How's the Josh?, How is the josh?, How's the Josh?... I will transfer my josh (enthusiasm) to you and sit here and speak a few words," said Parrikar, 63, in his firstever public speech in the last one year.

The former defence minister has been in and out of hospitals in Mumbai, Delhi and the USA since February 2018.

He has been recuperating at his private residence near here since October 14 last year, after he was discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in New Delhi.

Parrikar could not attend the office of CM for long due to his illness.

He has not attended any public events except visiting his office at the state secretariat late last year on few occasions.

The frail looking Parrikar was greeted with lusty cheers by people when he arrived for the inaugural event this evening.

The bridge is considered to be his dream infrastructure venture.

During his brief speech, Parrikar lamented a social media "tendency" to oppose every developmental project in Goa.

"There is opposition for airport and even to the garbage treatment plant. I think Goans should be positive," he said.

The "Atal Setu" is expected to decongest Panaji, which receives approximately 66,000 vehicles every day, to a great extent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The head of the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon has warned Israel over its continued attacks in Syria, saying a miscalculation could drag the region into a war.

Hassan Nasrallah made the comment during a wide-ranging interview that lasted more than three hours with the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV station late on Saturday.

Nasrallah said Iran, Syria and Hezbollah could "at any moment" decide to deal differently with Israel's actions in Syria and hinted that Tel Aviv might be a target.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: "Be cautious. Don't continue what you are doing in Syria. Don't miscalculate and don't drag the region into a war or a major confrontation."



Nasrallah said circumstances in the region have changed as Iran and its allies, including his group, expand their influence in the region. This means any war can be on more than one front, Nasrallah warned.

Israel has recently increased its attacks on suspected Iranian military targets in Syria, confirming such targeting in a shift from its longstanding policy of playing down or not commenting on its military activities in the war-torn country.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, and it has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iranian troops who have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces to maintain a permanent presence in postwar Syria.

In the latest violence, the Israeli military claimed responsibility for a series of airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria last Monday, saying it was responding to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier. The Iranian launch followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

Nasrallah said Israel has failed to realize what he said are its goals in Syria: undermining the Syrian government, forcing Iran from Syria and preventing Hezbollah from acquiring precision missiles. He also said Netanyahu is the person "most disappointed" by US plans to withdraw from Syria and cited the pullout as another "failure".

Nasrallah's appearance followed reports in Israel and elsewhere that his health was failing. He dismissed the reports as "lies".

"I don't suffer from any health problems," said Nasrallah, who seemed relaxed and at times joked with his interviewer and sipped on tea and water. "I have been active, and I also lost weight," he said with a giggle.

The Hezbollah leader regularly addressed his supporters and made TV appearances about pressing issues in the region and Lebanon. But the 59-year-old Nasrallah, who has led his group through different wars with Israel for nearly three decades, had not appeared since November despite Israeli escalation in Syria and along Lebanon's borders.

Nasrallah described his silence as intentional, saying Hezbollah chose not to address Israel's attacks so as not to feed what he called an Israeli "publicity stunt".

In December, the Israeli military launched "Operation Northern Shield" to detect and destroy what it has described as a vast network of Hezbollah tunnels built for militants to sneak across the border into Israel, capture territory and stage attacks.

Israel discovered at least six tunnels, which it said were Hezbollah's prime strategic investment for its next potential war.

In the first comments about the tunnel operation, Nasrallah played down the discoveries, saying Hezbollah would need more than a few tunnels if it ever decided to invade Israel. He also said at least one of the tunnels was built more than a decade ago.

"This is a 13-year-old (Israeli) intelligence failure," Nasrallah said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw is set to star in the humanitarian drama "Seacole", based on the life of pioneering Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole.

Charlie Stratton is directing the film from a screenplay he has written with Oscar-nominated Dianne Houston and Marnie Dickens, reported Variety.

Seacole became popular during the Crimean War for her care of wounded British soldiers, described in her 1857 autobiography "Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands".

The film will focus on the Crimean battlefield, Seacole's desire to work with Florence Nightingale and her dedication to care for the British soldiers during and after the war.

"Mary Seacole was a pioneering humanitarian who led a courageous life with kindness and charisma. I am deeply inspired by her tenacity and grit and am excited for her place in history to be celebrated in this film," said Mbatha-Raw.

The film will be co-produced and financed by Epic Match Media and UMedia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four Iraqi policemen were killed Sunday in two back-to-back bomb blasts at one of their positions north of the capital, near a former jihadist bastion, local officials and officers said.

"At around 8:00 am, the police officers were taking up their post at the southern entrance of Al-Sharqat," the town's mayor, Ali Dodah, told AFP.

"One bomb went off, killing two police officers and wounding eight. An hour and a half later, as reinforcements arrived, a second bomb went off," Dodah said.

A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the first blast's toll to AFP and said the second explosion killed two officers and wounded three.

And a medical source at Al-Sharqat's hospital confirmed a total of four officers were killed.

Al-Sharqat, around 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, was held by the Islamic State group until autumn 2017.

It was one of the last areas recaptured by the government, which announced several months later that it had ousted IS from Iraq.

But hit-and-run attacks -- particularly assassinations and kidnappings of local officials -- still take place and hint at an underground network of IS sleeper cells in some of the country's most remote areas.

On Thursday, a car bomb killed a police officer near Hawija, another former IS stronghold.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma was Sunday arrested in a case related to the killing of two youths in alleged police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in 2015 in Behbal Kalan of Punjab's Faridkot district, police said.

Confirming Sharma's arrest from his residence in Hoshiarpur in the early hours, Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said they had specific inputs that the accused was trying to flee to some undisclosed location.

"Former senior superintendent of police Charanjit Singh Sharma was arrested from his residence in Hoshiarpur by a Special Investigation Team of the Punjab Police," Singh, who is also an SIT member, said.

He said Sharma had been asked to appear before the SIT on January 29, "but when we got the input that he was trying to flee to some unknown location, we carried out his arrest today (Sunday). Had we not arrested him in the morning, he would have fled by evening as he was trying to run away from the law".

"We are conducting investigations and taking action as per law. During this period, Charanjit Singh Sharma and some others had filed a writ before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on which the court gave its verdict recently," he said.

Sharma was leading a police party that allegedly opened fire at the anti-sacrilege protesters at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015.

His arrest, first in the case after SIT was formed last year, comes two days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the petitions seeking a CBI probe into the desecration of religious texts and police firing incidents in the state in 2015 and challenging the findings of the Ranjit Singh Commission into the incidents.

JusticeRajan Gupta had said the SIT formed by the Punjab government would probe the incidents.

A bunch of petitions challenging the findings of the Ranjit Singh commission had been filed by Sharma (now retired) and four other cops.

The petitioners had approached the court questioning the action against them on the basis of the Justice Ranjit Singh commission which probed the Behbal Kalan police firing and sacrilege incidents in the state in 2015.

The court had dismissed their plea seeking a CBI probe into the four FIRs registered in connection with the sacrilege incidents.

With the dismissal, the interim stay granted on proceedings against the police officers for their alleged role in firing on protesters at Behbal Kalan in 2015, where two people died, had stood vacated.

The Punjab government last year had added the names of a few police officials, including Sharma, in an FIR registered earlier at Baja Khana police station in Faridkot under IPC sections for murder and attempt to murder.

Their names were added on recommendations of the Ranjit Singh commission report on police firing at Behbal Kalan.

The police officials had also challenged the findings of the Commission contending that no notification was issued to wind up an earlier panel - Zora Singh Commission - set up to probe the state-wide sacrilege incidents.

The Punjab Assembly had on August 28 last year passed the unanimous resolution for withdrawal of investigation into sacrilege incidents of Guru Granth Sahib from the CBI and handing over the cases to the SIT in the Punjab Police.

The state government had formed a five-member special investigation team (SIT), headed by Prabodh Kumar, Director, Bureau of Investigations (BOI), to probe sacrilege and related police firing incidents.

The petitioners had demanded a CBI probe into the incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and related police firings.

They had also challenged a Punjab Assembly resolution passed in August last year for taking back investigation of the incidents from the Central Bureau of Investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five persons were killed and two others injured Sunday when their car lost balance and overturned after hitting a road divider in Rajkot district of Gujarat, police said.

The victims were returning from a marriage ceremony when the mishap took place on the Rajkot-Bhavnagar highway near Jangwad village under Jasdan taluka, around 200 kms from here.

While four persons died on the spot, one succumbed to injuries at the civil hospital in Rajkot, an official of the Atkot police station in Jasdan said.

The two injured were undergoing treatment at the hospital, he said.

All seven were returning from a marriage ceremony in Junagadh when the car driver lost balance over the steering wheel after hitting the divider, causing the vehicle to turn upside down, the police official said.

The deceased were identified by the police as Lakhman Kuvadiya (32), Nileshbhai Chavda (26), Rakesh Chavda (23), Bharat Keroshiya (26) and Kalpesh Keshoriya (26).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will meet the CEOs of public sector banks Monday to take a stock of the banking sector, and discuss ways to improve their financial health, sources said.

The meeting assumes significance as it comes just three days ahead of the Budget 2019-20, the last from this government before the general elections expected to be held in April-May.

The full-day meeting is likely to be attended by Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, who is going to announce his first monetary policy review on February 7.

Goyal, who was given additional charge of the finance ministry last Wednesday as Arun Jaitley is away to the US for a treatment, is his expected to discuss a host of issues including credit offtake and bad loan position of lenders.

Among the key issues, sources said, the meeting will review progress of various schemes of the government being implemented through the government. It will also review the credit flow to MSMEs, agriculture and retail sectors.

Besides, sources said, the meeting will also review financial performance of the banks for the nine months ended December 2018.

Non-performing assets (NPAs) would also come up for deliberation, they added.

Public sector banks (PSBs) have seen decline in bad loans by over Rs 23,000 crore from a peak of Rs 9.62 lakh crore in March 2018 due to various initiatives taken by the government.

At the same time, PSBs have also made a record in recovery of Rs 60,726 crore in the first half of the current financial year, which is more than double the amount recovered in the corresponding period last year.

According to the latest finance ministry data, non-NPA accounts overdue by 31 to 90 days (Special Mention Accounts 1 & 2) of PSBs have declined by 61 per cent over five successive quarters - from Rs 2.25 lakh crore as of June 2017 to Rs 0.87 lakh crore in September 2018.

In his first stint as finance minister for 100 days last year, Goyal was instrumental in setting up a committee headed by non-executive chairman of Punjab National Bank Sunil Mehta to examine whether creation of an asset reconstruction company or asset management company to help in faster resolution of stressed assets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South star Prithviraj Sukumaran says as someone who has always been immersed into the craft of filmmaking, turning producer was an organic decision.

The actor, who is making his production debut with sci-fi horror thriller "Nine", says through his banner Prithviraj Production he wishes to provide a platform to "good and unusual" content.

"I have always believed that facilitating good, unusual content should be one of my prerogatives as someone who has spent half his life in cinema. Today I'm in a position in the industry where I can do it.

"When the script of 'Nine' came along, I saw that there's a possibility of making something that is genuinely new and entertaining at the same time. I thought this is project with which I should launch my company," Prithviraj told PTI in a telephonic interview from Kochi.

The actor also stars in "Nine", which has been directed by Jenuse Mohamed.

The movie is being co-produced by Sony Pictures India and marks the studio's maiden venture into the south industry.

The film is a troubled father-son story set against the backdrop of a global event that takes place over the period of nine days.

Prithviraj plays Albert Louis, an astrophysicist working in a fictitious institute called ISRC.

"The event happens within the domain of his expertise. That's how his life becomes interlinked with the phenomenon," he says of his role.

This year is special for the actor not only as an up-and-coming producer but also because he is set to make his directorial debut with political thriller "Lucifer", starring Mohanlal.

But acting will always be "home" for Prithviraj.

"Even as an actor, much before I turned director or producer, I was somebody who was very involved with every film I was doing. I would pretty much be a part of a project from the time they toss the ball to the marketing. It's very simple.

"I act, produce and direct. They are three different jobs all within the same realm of creativity. I enjoy all of them equally but ultimately I'm an actor. I'll hopefully keep producing and directing films, but I'll always come back to acting."



He says besides the elements of science fiction and horror, "Nine" goes into the psychological thriller zone.

The 36-year-old actor says the film is "educational" and hopes if children could also watch the movie.

"I really wish people come with their families to watch the film. It will be nice if kids can come and see the film. It has an engaging story and an interesting visual narrative. I would want to see this new kind of cinema becoming successful," he says.

Several stars such as Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Prakash Raj have taken the political plunge ahead of Lok Sabha polls this year, but Prithviraj says he has no such ambitions.

"I really do not have the aptitude for politics," he adds.

The actor, however, stands by his "Nine" co-star Prakash Raj and praises him for "walking the talk".

"I have complete respect for the fact that he has a political stand and he's thrown his conviction behind it. Even if you don't agree with his thoughts, you have to hand it to the man that he's actually walking the talk.

"I know how strongly Prakash feels about issues surrounding him and the current political scenario. I wish him all the best, I wish he succeeds. I hope he has the power and machinery with which he can execute his ideas. I know that some of those ideas are quite interesting," he says.

"Nine" is slated to be released on February 7.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) set by the HRD Ministry for selecting Institutions of Eminence (IOEs) has recommended to increase the number of such institutes to 30 from the current 20, according to senior officials.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had last year in February constituted a four-member committee which was entrusted to conduct the appraisal of applications for shortlisting 20 IoEs.

The IoE project for internationalisation of Indian campuses and creating world class universities was rolled out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in September 2017.

"The EEC has recommended to increase the number of Institutions of Eminence to 30. However, the recommendations are yet to be considered by the UGC," a senior HRD Ministry official said.

Union Minister of State for HRD Satya Pal Singh had also informed Parliament about the committee's recommendations earlier this month.

Following first report of recommendations from the committee, the HRD Ministry had last year in June granted the eminence tag to three public institutions including Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Bombay.

Manipal Academy of Higher Education, BITS Pilani and Jio Institute by Reliance Foundation were granted the IoE tag in the private sector. However, a controversy had erupted over the selection of yet to be established Jio Institute prompting the HRD ministry to clarify that it has just been issued a 'letter of intent' and the eminence tag is conditional subject to fulfilment of all requirements.

The EEC had then in last December recommended 19 names for the IoE status, which included two public universities and seven private universities and five names from the two categories to be kept in reserve list.

Among those recommended in the public institutions list were Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Tezpur University, Savithribai Phule Pune University, University of Hyderabad, Aligarh Muslim University, Panjab University and Andhra University.

The recommendations from the private sector included Sharda University, Ashoka University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, VIT Vellore, Jamia Hamdard University, Azim Premji University, Krea University, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, OP Jindal Global University, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Institute of Public Health Sciences and Satya Bharti University.

The selected government institutions can get grants up to Rs 1,000 crore provided they meet certain conditions. Although the private institutions will not receive government funds, they will have the freedom to decide their fee structure and courses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Confident of growth with an ambitious fleet and route expansion plan underway, major SpiceJet's head has said the focus is also on keeping costs low to ensure profitability.

Singh, who was here to participate in the Annual Meeting that ended Friday, also hoped that the would soon be able to start operating seaplanes under the regional air connectivity scheme (Udan).

"Things are shaping up quite well. We have added a lot many planes in last few months and we will further add a lot more in this year and in next few years.

"We have also started cargo planes. It is looking quite good. The focus is clearly on growth and at the same time to keep costs lower to ensure we are profitable and we are quite confident that we will achieve the profitability target," Singh told PTI in an interview.

"We have ordered for 200 planes to be delivered by 2024. The first 10 were delivered in December 2018. In addition, we have ordered 50 smaller propeller planes, mostly for Udan type routes. Of these, currently we have 27 planes with us, so these have started coming in quite rapidly," he added.

He said made profits for 14-15 quarters in a row and it was only the last 2-3 quarters that were difficult, largely because of massive increase in

ALSO READ: SpiceJet lands in trouble with DGCA after midair New Year celebrations



"With moderation in oil prices, things should be better again. At the same time, like ours are also adopting new technology in terms of aircraft. The new aircraft coming in will have fuel bill reducing considerably by 15-20 per cent. When these new aircraft become a larger proportion of the fleet, then like ours will become profitable in any case," he said.

On plans to launch seaplanes, Singh said, "We were waiting for two things -- first the government was to frame regulations and that have been formulated now.

"Second, we wanted to include some of the seaplane routes under the Udan scheme and we have actually bid for some seaplane routes under the scheme now and hopefully we can soon get them started."





Singh had helped start in 2005 with the objective of making flying affordable for all. After a successful tenure, he exited from the in 2010 before buying it back again when it was near shutdown in 2015.

He has since scripted one of the most remarkable turnaround stories in global by leading to 14 consecutive quarters of profit.

At the five-day WEF summit, Singh chaired the Aviation, Travel and Tourism (ATT) Governor's meeting, becoming the first Indian to be made the ATT Governors Board Chair.

ALSO READ: SpiceJet starts daily direct flight service to Hong Kong from New Delhi



He also has other 'turnarounds' to his credit, including for the loss-making Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the national television broadcast network Doordarshan. He has an engineering degree from the prestigious (IIT) Delhi, LLB from and an MBA from Cornell University in the US.Veteran Republican consultant Roger Stone said Sunday his predawn arrest by US federal agents as part of the Russia collusion probe amounted to "Gestapo tactics" intended to prejudice a potential jury in his prosecution.

Stone was raided at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday, becoming the sixth campaign associate of President Donald Trump indicted in the investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion with Moscow in the 2016 election.

"I'm 66 years old. I don't own a firearm, I have no prior criminal record, my passport has expired," Stone told ABC's "This Week" magazine program.

He complained that it was "extraordinary" for a 29-member SWAT team with numerous cars, amphibious vehicles and a helicopter to make the arrest, adding that he was forced to look "down the barrel of assault weapons" as he opened his front door in bare feet.

"They could have called my lawyers and I would have turned myself in," he said.

"It was an expensive show of force to try to depict me as Public Enemy Number One... to poison the jury pool. These are Gestapo tactics."



Stone, a renowned political dirty trickster who has consulted with Trump for decades, is charged with lying to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 about his communications during the campaign with Julian Assange.

Assange's WikiLeaks published embarrassing Russian-hacked communications from Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, giving Trump's campaign a boost.

Stone is also accused of witness intimidation tactics to sway the testimony before Congress of radio host Randy Credico, who was in contact with Assange in 2016.

Stone denies all charges and says he has never spoken to Trump about WikiLeaks, Russia or the Mueller investigation.

"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos suggested that Stone's treatment was partly due to the fact that he was a flight risk who might wish to tamper with or destroy evidence.

"I have been under surveillance for two years ... There is nothing to find. I have a million e-mails. They have been reported -- many of them taken out of context in this indictment -- but there is nothing to find," he hit back.

"Again, I think it is designed to intimidate me or perhaps seek personal information that can be used to embarrass me that has nothing to do with Wikileaks, Russia, the 2016 campaign or anything else."



Stone said he "categorically" had not destroyed or discarded communications devices, hard drives or other evidence.

"My lawyers have been insistent on this. We very early had a request from both the Senate and the House. We have destroyed nothing whatsoever," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former chairman has pitched for setting up of a 'new Aayog' and giving it responsibility for allocating capital and revenue grants to the states.

Kelkar, in a paper titled 'Towards India's New Fiscal Federalism', said it is desirable that a functionally distinct entity such as the new Aayog be put to use to do the job at hand related to the structural issues including removal of regional imbalances in the economy.

The eminent economist, however, added that he is not suggesting for a moment that the new Aayog should take the form of the old Planning Commission.

Socialist-era Planning Commission was replaced by think-tank on January 1, 2015, by the Modi government.

Kelkar argued that replacing the Planning Commission, which was promoting regionally balanced growth in India, by the Niti Aayog, a think tank, has reduced the government's policy reach.

"It is desirable that a functionally distinct entity such as the new Niti Aayog or Niti Aayog 2.0 be put to use to do the job at hand related to the structural issues including removal of regional imbalances in the economy.

"...this would mean that the new Niti Aayog or Niti Aayog 2.0 will be responsible for allocating development or transformational capital or revenue grants to the states," he said.

Kelkar also suggested that in order to make the new Niti Aayog more effective, it is essential to ensure that the institution is at the 'High Table' of decision making of the government.

"This means the vice-chairman of the new Niti Aayog will need to be a permanent invitee of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

"Thus, the new Niti Aayog will make available to the highest level of policy making the knowledge-based advice and provide the national and long term perspective on the policy proposals," he noted.

Kelkar, also a former finance secretary, said the new Niti Aayog need not be involved with the approval of the state's annual expenditure programmes.

"It should rather strive to be a think-tank with 'praxis' possessing considerable financial muscle and devote its energies to outline coherent medium and long term strategy and corresponding investment resources for transforming India," he suggested.

Kelkar further pointed out that according to his study, new Niti Aayog will annually need the resources of around 1.5 to 2 per cent of the GDP to provide suitable grants to the states for mitigating the development imbalances.

He said that Indian economy today is on a growth turnpike, not very different from the growth miracles experienced by Asian tigers as well as China in earlier decades.

"India has consistently accelerated its growth rate over the last three decades," Kelkar said, adding that India's democracy has proved to be sine qua non for effectively formulating key economic policies and conducting policy reforms in a country that is so diverse.Prime Minister Sunday hit out at critics of the 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections, saying some persons in Tamil Nadu were creating an "atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust" to serve their interest.

Sounding the poll bugle in Tamil Nadu at a well-attended BJP rally here, he took a swipe at the proposed grand alliance of the opposition parties, saying they had set aside their differences to "remove this watchman," in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

He also said his government was taking effective steps to rid the country of corruption and nepotism.

"Any person who has cheated or looted the country, shall be brought to justice," Modi said in an apparent reference to economic offenders -- Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are wanted in connection with defaulting on huge bank loans.

Asserting that the provision of 10 per cent quota to economically weaker sections (EWS) in the general category will in no way impact the existing reservation benefits for Dalits, Tribals and others, Modi urged the youth to "reject forces of negativity."



The EWS quota had been earmarked with the 'spirit' of providing opportunities to all in education and employment.

"This decision has been taken in such a way that it doesn't affect Dalit, tribals," and others, he said.

"It is unfortunate that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust is being created by some people in Tamil Nadu to serve their interest," he said.

Opposition DMK and some other parties in the state have opposed the 10 per cent quota, saying social backward alone should be the criterion for reservation.

The DMK has moved the Madras High Court challenging the Constitution amendment providing for 10 per cent EWS quota.

The Prime Minister said " will firmly stand with the poor," drawing thunderous applause from the crowd.Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu Sunday said new policies of the government will ensure the doubling of exports, currently pegged at USD 321 billion, in a few years.

He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a new office and laboratory complex of the Export Inspection Agency at Margao in south Goa.

"It is our endeavour to increase India's exports from the current USD 321 billion to almost double in a few years. One of the principal potential areas for export is fisheries, especially at a time when for the first time, the country has come out with an agricultural policy," Prabhu said.

He said the policy focuses on five key elements, namely agriculture, horticulture, plantation, fisheries and meat.

"All these are going to be exported. From the current USD 30 billion, we want to take it to USD 100 billion. Fisheries can create several lakh jobs in the country," he added.

He said the Air Cargo policy announced on January 15 this year will boost fish exports, adding that the Centre and Goa government would tie up to form clusters to make value-added products.

"Vegetables, fruits, cashew, fish can be exported from Goa. For that, we have already created a marine export development agency," he said.

Prabhu, who is also Union civil aviation minister, said the Mopa greenfield airport, expected to be operational by 2020, will help give the coastal state new opportunities.

"We are planning to set up export hubs so that Goa will be benefit from new infrastructure," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit Sunday accused the BJP and the AAP of reneging on promises made to the people of the city and said her party would win all the Lok Sabha seats in the national capital in the upcoming polls.

People still remember the development Congress governments brought to the city, Dikshit, a three-time chief minister of Delhi, said and added that the ruling AAP does not know how to work.

"They voted for the BJP and the AAP in previous elections but got lies and hollow promises in return," she alleged.

Accusing the AAP of making tall claims instead of working for the people, she asked people not to vote for it in the Lok Sabha elections.

"The Lok Sabha polls are very important, do not vote for a party that tells lies and makes promises only," she said.

She asserted that the Congress was on the rebound in Delhi and people wanted it to form the next government at the Centre. "This large gathering rekindles hope that the Congress will win all the seven seats in Delhi," she said.

Mounting an attack on the BJP, Dikshit said the national capital was the filthiest under the party-ruled municipal corporations.

"I had never seen Delhi so filthy before," she said.

Dikshit attacked Modi government, saying its decisions like the Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation have had a negative impact on people.

"What happened to the promise of giving Rs 15 lakh and bringing back black money. The BJP only misled people," she charged.

She said that during the Congress rule, the metro fares were hiked only twice, whereas the Kejriwal government raised the fares twice in a year.

The Metro project was never delayed when the Congress was in power. Now, the Phase III of the Metro was running behind schedule and there was no about when will phase IV start, she said.

Dikshit also attacked the AAP government over the worsening public transport system and air quality in Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda Sunday said former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was 'most welcome' to contest from his Bangalore North parliamentary constituency in the coming Lok Sabha polls, as he expressed confidence that he would succeed, if given an opportunity.

"Most welcome...till now I was contesting against small people. I entered parliament for the first time after defeating Veerappa Moily (former union minister)," Gowda said in response to a question from reporters about Gowda contesting from Bangalore North constituency.

I wish to contest against Deve Gowda once. if God gives me an opportunity I will contest and will succeed."



Sadananda Gowda is the sitting Member of Parliament from Bangalore North.

Meanwhile, Deve Gowda, in response to a question on whether he would contest from that constituency, Sunday said, "why (discuss about it) now itself..."



The former Prime Minister had in March said he would not be contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

However, recent reports have suggested that pressure is mounting on him to contest from Bengaluru North or Mandya constituencies.

According to reports, during the recent party meeting, a section of leaders from Bengaluru proposed the idea of the JD(S) supremo contesting from Bangalore North as it would help the ruling coalition gain hold in the city.

Vokkaligas, the community to which Gowda belongs, have a considerable presence in the constituency, along with minorities.

Currently, BJP has its hold over the three Lok Sabha constituencies Bangalore- North, South and Central.

Noting that the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition are yet to discuss seat sharing,Deve Gowda said his earlier comments of his grandson Prajwal Revanna contesting from Hassan was his personal wish and the party was yet to decide on it.

"Has Congress and JD(S) decided on any seat till now? None...

On Hassan you in the media have discussed several times, so I had said why do you worry, I will make my grand son (Prajwal) contest," the JD(S) supremo said.

This is my personal statement. Our partys parliamentary board has not yet decided. I have expressed my personal feeling in front of you," he added.

Gowda had recently given a clear indication about his grandson Prajwal Revanna contesting the LS polls from Hassan, the JD(S) bastion that he has been representing.

Prajwal is the son of Gowda's elder son and senior JD(S) leader, PWD Minister HD Revanna.

Prajwal's candidature will mark the entry of the third generation of Gowda family into electoral politics; with both his father and uncle- Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy already at the helm of states political affairs.

There are also reports that a section within the party was pushing Kumaraswamys son and



Prajwals cousin- Nikhil Kumaraswamys candidature from Mandya, if Deve Gowda chooses not to contest from there.

The ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka will take a decision on seat sharing for the coming Lok Sabha elections in three or four days, coalition coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah had said Thursday.

JD(S) has already expressed its desire to contest in 12 seats, on which the Congress party has some reservations.

The Congress has said seat sharing would be on the basis of 'merit'.

Seat sharing is expected to be a litmus test for both parties, mostly in old Mysuru region constituencies, where JD(S) has emerged as a dominant force in the recent past and Congress has its sitting MPs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Decomposed bodies of an elderly couple were found inside their house in southeast Delhi's Amar Colony, police said on Sunday.

They have been identified as Virender Kumar Khaneja (77) and his wife Sarla (72).

Police were informed about a senior citizen going missing at around 10.30 am.

A police team then reached the couple's house where it found the flat locked from inside. The couple's phones were switched off, Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast), said.

At the instance of relatives and neighbours, police broke the lock of the flat, he said.

The decomposed bodies of the couple were found lying on the floor in a room, Biswal added.

The couple's son Dr Amit Khaneja lives in the US, the officer said.

According to preliminary investigation, police did not find any signs of forced entry in the house, the DCP said.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. Investigation is underway to ascertain the cause behind the unnatural deaths, he said.

The couple were registered under the senior citizen category in the police records of southeast district, he said.

The beat officials used to visit them frequently. The staff last visited them on January 15 and fixed their water issues, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cyberterrorism is outpacing physical attacks among far-left groups -- such as animal rights and environmental activists -- who are passionate about their cause but do not want directly to harm humans, a study has found.

According to researchers from Michigan State University in the US cyberattacks happen more often and can cause greater destruction than physical terrorist attacks.

"Little work has been done around the use of the internet as an attack space," said Thomas Holt, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State.

"If we don't get a handle understanding them now, we won't fully understand the scope of the threats today and how to prevent larger mobilisation efforts in the future," said Holt.

The findings, published in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence, underscore that ideological cyberterrorist attacks are outpacing physical attacks among far-left groups.

To understand these attacks, researchers analysed the scope, growth and impact of ideological cyberterrorist incidents from far-left groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front and the hacker conglomerate group Anonymous.

These groups don't necessarily want to physically harm humans, Holt said.

Rather, they are motivated by animal and environmental activism and feel passionate about attacking companies, organisations and government entities that go against their beliefs.

Unfortunately, everyday consumers get caught in attack aftershocks from data breaches and information loss, researchers said.

"These kinds of ideologically motivated attacks are devised to have an emotional and economic impact on groups that go against their beliefs," Holt said.

"If you visit a company's website expecting to see one thing and this group has instead hacked the website and posted customers' personal information, that's a huge issue for both the company and the consumers," he added.

Organisations in Holt's research that have fallen victim to these attacks range from Dow Chemical to the US government, and in industries ranging from meat production to fashion.

The high-profile nature of the internet -- on which these ideological groups can manipulate traffic -- is the ideal platform to attack.

"If you're a consumer and you bought a product from one of the victim companies, these attackers would target your data as being associated with something that goes against their ideological beliefs," Holt said.

"In another case, the group attacked the federal government by releasing passwords for government agencies," he said.

Holt's research examined physical and cyber terror attacks committed by these far-left groups between 2000 and 2015 in the US, UK and Canada.

"The number of physical attacks by these groups was steady for the first few years of our study and then declined over time," Holt said.

"At the time, cyberterrorist incidents began increasing and peaked at nine attacks in 2015," he said.

"While we can't speculate as to why physical attacks have declined, we believe that the cyber component increased because these attacks generate an economic and emotional impact, draw attention to their cause from the public and may be less likely to lead to arrest," he added.

Whether acting as a mobilised organization or an individual, ideological cyberterrorists are as dangerous as the violent extremists seen across the globe, researchers said.

In fact, only one of the incidents observed resulted in an arrest, meaning the actors are still at-large. The mask of the internet makes them harder to catch and easier for them to hide, Holt said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Controversial Independent MLA Anant Kumar Singh on Sunday took part in a road show by the Congress here to galvanize support for Rahul Gandhis rally on February 3.

The Mokama MLA, who wore a red tilak and dark sunglasses in his trademark style and is desirous of contesting Lok Sabha election from Munger, rode the same vehicle as Akhilesh Prasad Singh Congress Rajya Sabha MP and the chief of the states committee for Lok Sabha poll campaign.

Waving at curious journalists, the 'bahubali' MLA from an assembly segment of Munger said categorically "that he will be in the Lok Sabha fray as a Congress candidate."



Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who has maintained that his proximity to the Mokama MLA was on account of "family relations," however, sought to distance himself from Anant Singhs claim saying "a decision on who will be given a party ticket and from where will be taken by the party high command."



Notably, Singhs induction into the Congress may put the opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar under strain since the RJD has been bitterly opposed to his entry.

Formerly known to be close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Singh was ousted from the JD(U) in 2015 after RJD supremo Lalu Prasad demanded action against him in connection with assault on a party supporter in Mokama.

Recently, Singh sang paeans to Prasad, indicating that he was ready to warm up to the RJD, but was snubbed by party heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, who said there was no place for "bad elements".

Meanwhile, Madhepura MP Pappu Yadav took a dig at Tejashwi Yadav saying he should "ensure the safety and security of his own supporters" before taking a stand on people with tainted backgrounds.

"Which party does not have people with criminal antecedents? Tejashwi Yadav is only massaging his ego. He deems it more important to visit Lucknow and congratulate Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati for the SP-BSP alliance than caring about his own foot soldiers," Pappu Yadav said in Samastipur.

The Madhepura MP, who himself has a tainted antecedent, was in the north Bihar district to meet the family members of local RJD leader Raghuvar Rai, who was gunned down a couple of days ago.

Pappu Yadav, who had fought the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on an RJD ticket, was ousted soon afterwards for anti-party activities. He has since founded his own outfit Jan Adhikar Party and claims that while Lalu Prasad was ready for his partys inclusion in the Grand Alliance, it was being thwarted by Tejashwi.

The Madhepura MPs wife Ranjeeta Ranjan is a Congress MP from Supaul.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China has bestowed special awards on the envoys of Pakistan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka for their contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of which the controversial China Pakistan Economic Corridor is a flagship project.

The ambassadors of Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malta, and Bosnia-Herzegovina in China were conferred with Silk Road Super Ambassador Awards in Beijing on January 24, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday.

The BRI which aims to build major infrastructure projects with Chinese investments around the world is modelled on the ancient silk route.

India has protested to China over CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The huge Chinese investments evoked concerns of debt traps after China acquired Sri Lanka's Hambantota port on a 99-year lease as part of a debt swap.

Similarly, huge Chinese loans obtained under the previous Abdullah Yameen government stoked similar fears in Maldives. The present government headed by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said it is reviewing the Chinese projects.

Pakistan where China reportedly committed USD 62 billion for various CPEC projects has recently cancelled a power project to reduce debt burden.

CPEC is regarded as the "flagship project" of the BRI, the daily's report said adding that it covers wide areas, ranging from transportation to industrial zones.

Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khalid told the Global Times before the the award ceremony that Pakistan has benefited from the CPEC.

"Our cooperation is very broad and is expanding, so we are happy. We are confident that as we move forward, we will see more tangible progress in our cooperation, "he said.

The Maldives was one of the first countries to join the BRI. Maldives' Ambassador to China Mohamed Faisal told the daily that in the past four to five years, Maldives has received a lot of development assistance from China and for the future, "I have a very high expectation" of the BRI, he said.

The 'Silk Road Super Ambassador' award ceremony was organised by the Silk Road Cities Alliance, Silk Road City Institute and Beijing Belt & Road Cooperative Community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday said the Centre's aim is to make Tamil Nadu a preferred hub for aerospace and defence industries in the country.

Tamil Nadu was among the country's most progressive industrial states and also one of the pioneering states for the Defence Industrial Corridor and leading player in the Centre's Make In India initiative, he said.

"Our aim is to make Tamil Nadu the preferred hub for aerospace and defence industries in India.

"This could be the in the areas of engineering, design, manufacture and allied activities. The Defence Industrial Corridor shall be a generator of employment generation as well," the Prime Minister said addressing a BJP rally here.

The corridor was launched by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week.

As part of the Centre's port-led development initiative, Modi said the first container mainline vessel was flagged off recently from Tuticorin port, an icon and engine for the economic growth of the state.

Given its strategic location, Tuticorin port now has the potential to become a transhipment hub for south India and can also push the industrial development of the region, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese Consul General to Kolkata Zha Liyou on Sunday said that confidence building measures between five eastern Indian states, including West Bengal, and Chinese provinces was one of his topmost priorities.

"Our leadership attaches great importance to state-province level ties, which is called sub-national level relationship," said Liyou, who became the new Chinese Consul to Kolkata this month.

He said culture, education, sports, youth, media, academics and film are some of the areas the two sides can work on as part of the state-province relationship.

The Chinese diplomat said, "We need to make Bengal and Yunnan sister states, and Kolkata and Kunming as twin cities to boost ties at various levels."



"The West Bengal capital and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, can reach at consensus on many areas including culture and tourism," he said.

On the upcoming Bengal Global Business Summit, to be held in February, Liyou said, "For many years we have tried to convince the Chinese provincial leaders to come to the summit. A a very high-level delegation from Yunnan province would be sent to the summit."



The vice-chairman of the Provincial People's Congress will head the delegation, he told reporters here.

Informing reporters that an expo will be held in Yunnan in June, the consul-general said, "I will extend invitation to the chief ministers from five states."



Stating that Chinese President Xi Jinping had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi four times in 2018, Liyou said, "To put in practice what our president agreed with your prime minister, our foreign minister can tour India in the end of this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired Canada's ambassador to China after the envoy said it would be "great" if the US dropped its extradition request for a Chinese tech executive arrested in Canada.

Trudeau said Saturday that he had asked for and accepted John McCallum's resignation Friday night.

McCallum made the remark to the Toronto Star on Friday. That came a day after he issued a statement saying he misspoke about the case earlier in the week and regretted saying Meng Wanzhou has a strong case against extradition.

The arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies Ltd. at Vancouver's airport Dec. 1 severely damaged relations between China and Canada.

The US wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huawei's business dealings in Iran "Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum's resignation as Canada's Ambassador to China," Trudeau said in a statement.

Trudeau said Jim Nickel, the deputy head of mission at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, would represent his government in China. He thanked McCallum, a former minister in Trudeau's Cabinet, for his 20 years of public service.

China detained two Canadians shortly after Meng's arrest in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her. A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial of a drug case, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier.

McCallum told Chinese media in the Toronto area earlier in the week that the extradition of Meng to the United States "would not be a happy outcome."



He suggested the case was politically motivated and said the US could make a trade deal with China in which it would no longer seek her extradition, and two Canadian detained in China could then be released.

But on Thursday McCallum walked back the remarks and said he "misspoke."



Trudeau had earlier dismissed calls to fire McCallum, but he clearly had enough after the envoy spoke off script again. Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland have stressed that Canada's government can't interfere politically in the case.

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, said McCallum should have been fired days ago because his remarks raised concerns about the politicization of the Meng case.

Scheer said McCallum caused damage to Canada's reputation by delivering different messages through different media on different days.

McCallum's remarks surprised many and fueled speculation that Canada might be trying to send a signal to China to reduce tensions.

A year ago, McCallum also made controversial comments about how Canada had more in common with China than the United States under Trump.

McCallum has strong personal ties to China, and he pointed out to Chinese-language media this week that his wife is of Chinese ethnicity and his three sons have Chinese spouses.

Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he felt bad for McCallum but said it was the right thing to do.

"What is worse is this is happening in the middle of the crisis when we need all-hands on deck," Saint-Jacques said.

He said the Chinese will now know that McCallum was not speaking for the Canadian government.

Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Trudeau, said "Mr. McCallum's remarks were continuing to cause confusion about Canada's position.

On a matter of this importance, the Canadian government has to speak with a single, clear voice." Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, said it is not an ambassador's job to speak out of turn.

"Of course, McCallum can obviously take refuge in arguing that what he said was largely true, but he can't escape the fact that it wasn't his job to say it. It does underline the hazards of sending a politician to do a diplomat's job," Bothwell said.

Saint-Jacques said he spoke to China's consul general in Montreal on Thursday who reported that China is furious at Canada for arresting Meng on behalf of the U.S., which is involved in a trade talks with China.

Saint-Jacques said the consul general told him he thinks a Canadian delegation should visit Beijing for talks. Saint-Jacques believes Canada should appoint a special envoy to try to resolve the crisis.

Trudeau and Freeland have stressed that Canada has an extradition treaty with the U.S. that it must respect.

The White House National Security Council declined comment on McCallum.

Meng is out on bail in Vancouver awaiting her extradition proceedings. The US has until Wednesday to submit paperwork for the extradition request.

Huawei has close ties to China's military and is considered one of the country's most successful international enterprises.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 5.1-km long cable-stayed "Atal Setu" on the Mandovi river in Goa, a third such bridge to connect the state capital with North Goa, was Sunday opened to public by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and other ministers from the state also attended the event to inaugurate the four-lane bridge which at 2.5 lakh tonnes is equivalent to the weight of 570 Boeing aircraft.

The bridge is made of 1 lakh cubic metres of high strength, high performance concrete enough to fill 40 Olympic size swimming pools, an official had said.

Around 13,000 tonnes of corrosion resistant reinforcement steel, 32,000 square metres of structural steel plates and 1,800 kilometres of high tensile pre-stressing strands have gone into making the bridge.

The bridge has 88 high tensile strength cables in the state-of-art single place harp type cable stay system, and a real-time force monitoring mechanism.

The bridge is constructed by the GIDC (Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation) and engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro.

The link will decongest Panaji to a great extent, as approximately 66,000 vehicles enter the capital city every day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet is expected to soon approve a relief package for farmers grappling with falling prices of their crops and to tackle distress in the farm sector, according to sources.

The likely relief package is seen as an attempt to assuage the farming community's discontent ahead of the general elections.

"...the agriculture ministry's proposal on addressing income deficit syndrome of small and marginal farmers is on the agenda (at the Cabinet meeting)," a source said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has deferred its meeting which was scheduled for Monday, as per sources.

The agriculture ministry has recommended several options to provide both short and long-term solutions to address agrarian distress. However, a final call will be taken in the Cabinet meeting as a huge cost is involved, they said.

One of the options proposed is waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time, costing an additional Rs 15,000 crore to the exchequer.

There is also a proposal to completely waive premium for taking insurance policy for food crops. The Centre is also evaluating the scheme followed by the Telangana and Odisha governments wherein a fixed amount is transferred directly into the bank account of farmers, the sources further said.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had recently indicated that the government would announce an agriculture package before the 2019-20 budget. The NDA government will present an interim budget on February 1.

Experts said the government has less time to implement any new scheme. The measure has to be such that it can be implemented faster to reap the political gains during the elections.

It may be noted that the central government has taken farmers' issues seriously after the ruling BJP was defeated in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the recent state polls, where rural distress was a key factor.

Farmers are in distress owing to fall in prices of most crops in view of bumper crop.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the residence of the man who allegedly shot him, officials said Sunday.

The recovery comes nearly two months after the incident in Bulandshahr's Siana area where on December 3 a mob fought pitched battles with police , apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village.

Inspector Subodh Kumar's phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said.

Natt, who had allegedly shot the inspector during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is in jail.

We had got information from sources that inspector Subodh Kumar's mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natt's house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place, Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said.

The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt's house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records, he told reporters.

However, the pistol that was used to open fire on the inspector is still missing, and the ASP said a search is on for it.

Natt, 26, a resident of Chingrawathi village, would work part-time as a driver in and nearby areas, and other times worked locally as a labourer, according to the police.

During the violence, a 20-year-old Chingrawathi resident Sumit Kumar was also killed of gunshot.

An FIR was lodged at the Siyana police station against at least 80 people for murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damaging public property, among other charges.Twenty-seven were named.

So far, 38 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence case, Siyana Circle Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI Sunday.

Those arrested include Bajrang Dal's Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh Raj, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Siyana unit head Shikhar Agarwal, Army jawan Jeetender Malik, and Kalua, who first attacked the inspector, surrounded by five to six men.

A separate FIR for cow slaughter was filed on December 3 in which six accused have been arrested.

Three of them, Azhar Khan, Mehboob Ali and Nadeem Khan, were on January 14 booked under the Security Act (NSA) by the Bulandshahr administration, which said their release may disrupt public order.Brazilian judicial authorities have frozen USD 3 billion in assets of the Vale mining company after a dam collapse at one of its sites left at least 37 dead and more than 250 missing.

The public prosecutor's office of the state of Minas Gerais announced late Saturday that it had frozen a total of 11 billion reales -- about USD 3 billion -- in Vale assets.

The dam break Friday at the Corrego do Feijao mining complex in southeastern Brazil unleashed a torrent of sludge that swept across buildings, roads and vehicles.

The order freezing Vale's assets said the company's real estate and vehicles would be embargoed if it could not come up with the full amount.

The company also has been hit with fines by the federal and state government totaling some USD 92.5 million. Vale share prices fell Friday more than 8 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Fifteen people, including a BJP corporator, were Sunday booked for the communal clash that broke out in Khujner town in Madhya Pradesh on Republic Day, a police officer said.

Five of them have been arrested so far, he said.

Prohibitory orders were clamped in the area, where two groups of different communities had clashed at a Republic Day function.

The district administration had imposed prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 in Khujner, banning assembly of five or more people, he said.

Most of the shops remained closed in the town and additional police force was deployed to prevent any further flare-up, the officer said.

Churner police station in-charge, inspector Ramkumar Raghuvanshi, said the situation in Khujner was under control.

He said both the groups had lodged cross-complaints based on which two separate FIRs were filed.

Fifteen people from both the communities, including BJP corporator Kamal Yadav, were booked and five of them arrested, Raghuvanshi said.

Yadav is not among those arrested.

All of them were booked under IPC sections related to rioting, armed with deadly weapon, voluntarily causing hurt, unlawful assembly and criminal intimidation, among others, Raghuvanshi said.

In his Republic Day message Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath had stressed on making communal harmony an integral part of society.

He had called upon the people of the state to beware of forces that try to create rifts in society.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse Sunday wondered over his party's stand of not believing in any EVM hacking claims, but taking seriously a computer hacker's allegations against him.

In 2016, "ethical" hacker Manish Bhangale had accused Khadse of receiving calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's Karachi residence.

Khadse had stoutly denied the charge and Bhangale was arrested in March 2017 for allegedly creating a fake phone bill to establish his allegation.

"How come my party trusted hacker Manish Bhangale's claims and without any substantial evidence let one's life get devastated. Who has given you right to affect one's life based on some which had no substantial evidence," he said.

Khadse was speaking at a public rally in Jalgaon, his home district in North Maharashtra.

The former minister, in his speech, made a reference to the BJP's official stand of not relying on any claims made by a cyber expert based in London last week.

The expert, Syed Shuja, had claimed electronic voting machines (EVMs) can be hacked. He had claimed the 2014 general election was "rigged" through EVMs, a charge rubbished by the BJP and also the Election Commission.

Shuja had also sought to link alleged EVM tampering with the fatal road accident of senior BJP leader and Union minister Gopinath Munde just after the BJP won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

From time to time, Khadse, who was once seen as No. 2 in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet, has been expressing his disappointment with the BJP leadership on being sidelined in the party.

Khadse, who held several key portfolios, resigned in June 2016 after facing a string of allegations, including irregularities in a land deal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The West Bengal CID has arrested two top officials of a beverage-manufacturing company for their alleged involvement with a Pakistan-based racket that conned people with fake lottery schemes, a senior officer of the agency said Sunday.

Acting on a suo motu case registered at Egra police station in East Midnapore district on January 13, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) found out that the racket had been duping people in the state as well other parts of the country, he said.

Two officials of Pran Beverages (India) Private Ltd - director Rajesh Ghosh and sales administration manager Bidhan Kirtaniya - were arrested Saturday night after they were found to have received money from the racket, he told PTI.

The duo were produced at Contai court, which remanded them to police custody, the officer said.

"The officials were apprehended under several relevant sections of the IPC and section 66 (D) of the IT Act. Necessary searches have been conducted and documents seized from the residential premises of the two accused and the head office of the beverage company at Chinar Park, New Town," he said.

Sharing the modus operandi of the racket, the CID officer said that the money collected from people were sent to Pakistan through hawala channels.

"The racketeers would call up people via phone or Whatsapp from numbers starting with +92 or 0092 to tell them that they won a huge amount of money in lottery, which would be transferred to them on payment of processing fees.

"Once the fees were deposited in the bank account, it was withdrawn by agents here in India. They then sent the money to Pakistan after routing it through Dubai," he explained.

As of now, the department was trying to find out more about the operations of the racket, the officer said.

"It seems to be quite a big racket. We are trying to find out which other states they have (racketeers) been operating from and who all are involved in the process," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iraq on Sunday said it would summon the Turkish ambassador over the death of a Kurdish protester after Turkish troops opened fire on demonstrators in the country's northwest.

On Saturday night, Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region of northwestern Iraq to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment.

Witnesses said Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators, causing casualties and damage.

Iraq's foreign ministry on Sunday denounced the incident, saying one person was killed and several others wounded when Turkish forces "opened fire on citizens in the Shiladzeh area".

"The foreign ministry will summon the Turkish ambassador to hand a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated," it added.

Turkish forces are deployed in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region and often carry out raids and air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a "terrorist" group by Ankara.

On Saturday, the Kurdish regional government said it was "saddened" by the casualties and material damage at Shiladzeh but only referred to an "incident" without mentioning Turkey or the protest.

Footage distributed by activists appeared to show protesters setting Turkish military vehicles on fire.

Turkey's defence ministry said one of its bases was attacked after "provocation by a PKK terror group," resulting in some damage to vehicles and other equipment.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the PKK was "troubled" because Ankara was hitting its "terror nests".

"They are provoking the local community. And we know that the PKK is behind this (the attack)," he told reporters in the southern city of Antalya.

Cavusoglu said he had spoken to the prime minister of autonomous Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, who reportedly told him authorities would conduct a "comprehensive



investigation".

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, but also operates bases in the Qandil mountain area of Iraq's Kurdish region.

In December, Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's "repeated" air strikes as a "violation of its sovereignty".

Turkey has pressed Iraq to play a bigger role in fighting the PKK, and last month announced deeper bilateral cooperation on the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United Nations will officially launch the International Year of Indigenous Languages on Monday afternoon in Paris, France.

Here in Samoa, the year will be marked with the release of a Samoan language dictionary, the first monolingual dictionary for Samoan language.

Ms. Nisha, director of the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO) for Samoa has been supporting the Samoan Language Commission since last year on the work and is confident the dictionary will be complete by December.

A monolingual dictionary, rather than a Samoan to English dictionary will enable people to expand their vocabulary and protect their mother tongue, Ms Nisha said.

If you want to develop the language as a medium of instruction for example, to produce literature, poetry, know what do different words in Samoan language mean, and in different contexts,

The idea through this initiative is to enrich the peoples knowledge and understanding of their own language, to enlarge their vocabulary. That will be a focus for the year in Samoa.

Unlike many other indigenous languages, Samoan is not at risk of becoming endangered or extinct. But it needs constant attention to ensure that doesnt happen.

Ms Nisha said children in particular need to learn in their mother tongue to be strong learners in any other language, like English.

If a child is not strong in mother tongue, one language, the child will find it harder to become strong in an acquired language.

For the child to be more receptive to ideas and learn more, absorb more during that zero-to-six age group when the child is most absorbing and fastest growing, the medium of instruction and how much exposure the child gets becomes very important.

For Samoans living abroad, Ms Nisha said she hopes the dictionary will be a useful resource for parents taking on the responsibility of teaching their children their mother tongue.

Outside of Samoa, with little or no educational resources in Samoan, parents have themselves and their diaspora community to lean on when it comes to language promotion.

Keeping the language alive and promoting the language becomes parental business family business, said Ms Nisha.

We are hoping that the dictionary will be one important tool in that direction.

At least the parents will have a resource to themselves that they can use and as children are growing into adulthood they can continue to learn their language.

In 2013, a Victoria University of Melbourne academic built an online database of 300,000 words in Samoan in the website sketchengine.co.uk.

As the International Year of Indigenous Languages, Ms Nisha said she hopes people will take the opportunity to look at how language contributes to society, and in particular to the preservation of culture and tradition.

Samoans are proud of their heritage, she said, and that passion should be channelled into formally understanding the way language keeps traditional knowledge alive.

Traditional knowledge does not exist in English, or in a foreign language, they exist in mother tongues.

They have been passed down from generation to generation. When a language weakens, along with that a lot of history, a lot of traditional knowledge weakens. When language dies, a body of knowledge dies, Ms Nisha said.An avalanche of mud and rocks crashed into a hotel during a wedding celebration in southeastern Peru, killing at least 15 people, authorities said Sunday.

"The avalanche broke through the walls of the hotel, entering into it with force," the mayor of the city of Abancay, where the hotel is located, told RPP radio.

The mayor, Evaristo Ramos, said about 100 guests had been invited to the wedding party and "there are 15 dead and 34 injured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A meeting was held here to review arrangements for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir next month, an official spokesman said on Sunday.

Principal Secretary of Planning, Development and Monitoring Rohit Kansal reviewed the arrangements for the prime minister's visit at the meeting Saturday evening, the spokesman said.

Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Jammu, Srinagar and Leh on February 3 to lay foundation stones of various development projects and inaugurate some others.

Modi had last visited the state on May 19 last year to lay the foundation of Zojilla Tunnel project which once completed will provide all weather road connectivity to frontier Ladakh region which presently remains cut off for four to five months a year owing to heavy snowfall during winter.

"At the three-hour meeting, which was also joined by Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam, Kansal took detailed stock of the arrangements being made for the series of functions to be organised at Jammu, Srinagar and Leh," the spokesman said.

The prime minister is also scheduled to address a public rally in the Vijaypur area of Samba district after laying the foundation stone of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) there.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on a chemical from China, used in photography and manufacturing of dyes, for five years to protect domestic producers of the chemical intermediate from cheap shipments.

The anti-dumping duty on Meta Phenylenediamine (MPDA) imported from China will be in the range USD 573.92-USD 1,015.44 a tonne, according to a notification of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

It is for the second time in a row that anti-dumping duty has been imposed on the import of the chemical from China. The duty was to expire in March 2019.

The levy has been imposed after the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, made a recommendation for the same. DGTR was earlier known as the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD).

On the recommendation of DGAD, a definitive anti-dumping duty was imposed on the chemical in March 2014.

Later, Aarti Industries filed an application before DGAD for review and continuation of the duty on the chemical.

Following 'Sunset Review' of an anti-dumping investigation on the imports of MPDA, the DGTR recommended for imposition of the levy for another five years.

MPDA is a chemical intermediate used for manufacturing dyes, engineering polymer and in photography and medical applications.

Under normal (room) conditions, it is a colourless or white colour solid, which tends to turn red, purple (dark colour) in air, on storage.

Countries carry out the anti-dumping probe to determine whether the domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.

As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organization.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has favoured the setting up of open jails for the female prisoners in the state to ease their rehabilitation after release, an official said Sunday.

The first-of-its-kind prison will allow the female inmates to work outside the inner prison premises, the official said, adding that Singh has sought a proposal from the Department of Prisons.

The chief minister had on Saturday inaugurated the newly constructed waiting hall for the families of the inmates during his visit to the Patiala Central Jail.

He was informed by the Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Rohit Chaudhary that an open jail for male inmates already existed in Nabha and there was a proposal to set up more such jails in Bathinda, SBS Nagar and Kapurthala.

According to the official, the waiting hall would be beneficial for the families of inmates coming from distant places, who earlier had to wait in the open or makeshift sheds.

"These waiting halls are well equipped with facilities like washrooms, water coolers, television etc. Utility stores have also been set up in these waiting halls from where the families can buy items of daily need and give them to their inmate relatives," an official release said.

The halls are constructed in Central Jail Patiala, Ludhiana and Kapurthala, and work is in progress in Central Jail Ferozpur, Hoshiarpur, New Jail Nabha and Distrcit Jail Sangrur, it added.

Chaudhary also told the chief minister that the government had already approved a fund of Rs 60 crores to purchase security equipment, weapons, building infrastructure and modernisation of prisons, and also for purchase of vehicles for the Prison Department to further strengthen the existing infrastructure in the state jails.

Further, all the prisons were declared polythene free and the carry bags used in canteens will be made from waste newspapers, he added.

On the occasion, Singh also launched 'e-purse system' to facilitate prisoners to buy items of daily needs inside the jail.

The system has also been introduced in 15 prisons across the state, where all the financial transactions would be conducted through computer software with the help of smart cards.

The chief minister also inaugurated a solar power plant installed in the local Central Jail, in order to make the jail eco-friendly.

Chaudhary also informed Singh that such solar plants were also being set up in 19 prisons across the state.

Later, Singh also visited the high-security zone of Central Jail Patiala, where hardcore criminals were lodged, and reviewed the security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The country's largest carmaker Maruti India (MSI) should aim for up to 25 per cent of its production to be exported although it expects overseas shipments to touch 2 lakh units by 2020, according to company MD and CEO

The company's total production combined with that of parent will cross 20 lakh units by 2020 when the third unit in Gujarat goes on-stream, and MSI will seek to enter new markets to enhance its exports leveraging on vehicles that will be produced here to meet India's upcoming stricter safety and emission norms.

"We expect the exports to be at least 10 per cent of the total production. If it becomes 2 million capacity we are expecting export of 2 lakh units. If opportunity increases we will further try to enhance it. Ideally, 20-25 per cent of the production should be exports," MSI MD and CEO told PTI in an interview.

The company, which has been exporting to markets like Chile, Indonesia, South Africa, Uruguay and Nepal, is also looking at models which could be shipped to developed markets like Europe and Japan.

"We are studying other products (other then Baleno which the company ships to Japan) which could be exported to Japan as well as other markets. There is a need to develop left hand markets as well along with right hand ones," Ayukawa said.

In 2017-18, MSI exported 1,26,074 units, while in the current fiscal (April to December), the company has already shipped over 81,000 units.





ALSO READ: Maruti employs multiple endorsers to give each channel a unique identity

When asked about Baleno shipments to Japan, Ayukawa said exports of the premium hatchback have come down due to a variety or reasons including intense competition in the market.

Besides, lack of four wheel drive system in the model has also impacted its uptake in the Japanese market, Ayukawa said.

The model, exclusively manufactured in India, is the first car from MSI's stable to be exported from India to Japan.The government has sought the Centre's help in getting Asiatic lions from Gujarat's Gir which has been delayed by over five years despite a order, according to official documents.

In a letter to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it said the state forest department and Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) feel that the process of shifting of the lions can be started immediately.

Hence, it is requested to issue necessary direction for the shifting of lions from to Madhya Pradesh, the letter said.

A copy of the letter was received in response to an RTI query filed by wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.

The government, however, has maintained that it would wait completion of studies as per the relocation guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) before releasing the lions, according to the communique.

The had in April 2013 directed shifting of some lions from Gir to by October of that year, saying the species "should have a second home to save it from extinction, due to catastrophes like epidemic, large forest fire etc".

has been opposing Madhya Pradesh's request of seeking lions from it.

The government had chosen in Sheopur district of Gwalior division as a second home for over 500 Asiatic lions.

But not a single lion has been shifted so far.

According to other documents accessed by Dubey through RTI, about Rs 14.84 crore has been spent by the Madhya Pradesh government in translocation of 1,543 families from 24 villages of the area to pave way for lions entry into the sanctuary.

"The central government must issue a direction to ensure lions from Gir are shifted to MP at the earliest," Dubey said.

The matter of shifting of lions had cropped up in a meeting, which was attended by representatives of Gujarat and MP governments besides a renowned wildlife scientist, in September last year.

In the meeting, the scientist had said Palpur-Kuno is ready to accommodate 40 lions from Gujarat, according to minutes of the meeting.Three months after the Delhi administration completed a first-of-its-kind skill development programme for 50 manual scavengers and provided them alternative means of livelihood, many have returned to cleaning sewers, citing lack of regular income and harassment at workplace.

The initiative, aimed at eradicating manual scavenging and finding alternative employment for the participants, had come amid an intense debate on the deaths of workers while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in Delhi.

In an early setback to the Shahdara district administration-led programme, a number of manual scavengers selected for the three-month training course, which started in August last year, withdrew within a week, according to those who completed the exercise.

Of those who were provided skill development training, many left the jobs they were given due to non-payment of salaries and unwillingness to travel. Those who could not be placed immediately returned to the hazardous work to keep their households running.

Suraj Kumar, 38, who has been cleaning sewers without safety gear in northeast Delhi for 19 years, said he was given a caretaker's job at a dosshouse in GTB Nagar with a salary of Rs 14,000 a month, but he did not take it.

"I don't think dosshouses are safe. People who drink a lot and create nuisance throng such places, many are criminals. So, I didn't accept the job offer," he said.

"I have not been informed about any other opportunities since November. With no options available, I returned to the old job," said Kumar, who earns about Rs 10,000 a month collecting waste and cleaning sewers by hand.

Officials told the manual scavengers they'd be hired as drivers, operators and helpers for the 200 sewer cleaning machines the Delhi government is planning to purchase, but things have moved at a snail's pace on this front, those who underwent the training course said.

Thirty-six-year-old Kullu got a housekeeping job in Noida, but he chose not to take it and continues to clean gutters in Seemapuri. "I was offered Rs 7,000 a month for a 10-hour-a-day job. Had I accepted it, I would have spent Rs 100 to and from work daily. That means Rs 3,000 a month on travel," he said.

Suresh Baidya, 56, who got a job at a night shelter in Seemapuri, said a number of the manual scavengers did not complete a week in the training as it kept them from their daily earnings.

"Though our trainers did their best, many left on their own as they wanted to earn on a daily basis. They were not ready for an 8-hour job," he said.

Another person, now a caretaker of a Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) night shelter, complained he hadn't received his salary for two months.

Many who the DUSIB employed have returned to cleaning drains and sewers as they didn't get salaries on time, he claimed, adding he would also have to go back to the muck if the situation persisted.

Vinay Kumar Stephen, chief functionary, Sadik Masih Medical Social Servant Society, the NGO that trained the manual scavengers, said, "We have given our best. But, there is a need to change their mindset. Most of those who returned to cleaning sewers feel restricted in a regular job."



"They want to work 3-4 hours a day and earn just enough to keep their household running. Therefore, they give priority to the work that can fetch them Rs 2,000 in just two hours, irrespective of the life-threatening risk and stigma involved," he said.

Stephen said some manual scavengers, who couldn't be placed, would be accommodated as drivers and helpers of the sewer cleaning machines. This project is set to start soon.

The Delhi government had earlier said the machines would be available by October 2018 and their owners, including nine families of manual scavengers who died at work, would earn at least Rs 50,000 per month. The drivers would get about Rs 21,000 and helpers Rs 15,000.

The NGO is striving to provide better job opportunities to those trained in the programme.

"We gave employment to over 80 per cent of the people we trained. Some did not accept the offers as they wanted to work near their residences. A few quit their jobs after a fortnight or a month. We had also asked them if they were willing to take catering jobs on trains, but they weren't ready to travel," he said.

Education plays an important role in deciding who gets what. Someone who never went to school can't be given an office job, Stephen told PTI.

Manual scavengers clean sewers with rudimentary tools risking their lives because such work is readily available and they can make quick money. Even municipal corporations hire them on contractual basis to clean septic tanks and sewers, he claimed.

There is a need to create awareness about the hazards of manual scavenging. The government should ensure strict implementation of the law against the objectionable practice, he said.

On complaints of irregular salaries, he said, "These are teething problems. Some people don't have a bank account. In a few cases, date of birth on Aadhaar card is wrong. We are addressing such issues. Payment of wages becomes regular after 2-3 months."



Stephen, however, claimed DUSIB has provided temporary employment to workers. "The chief minister distributed job letters and promised them a minimum Rs 14,000 a month as salary. Now, DUSIB wants them to clean night shelters for Rs 7,000. We give them the remaining Rs 7,000... I can't go on like this."East Delhi District Magistrate K Mahesh, under whose supervision the exercise was conducted, said, "Some people quit their jobs as they wanted to work near their residences. As for the irregular salaries and harassment at work, the Labour Department will take action in such cases.""Many of them are happy with the jobs we provided. Yes, a few people who were hired by private employers face some difficulties in payment of wages," he told PTI, adding it isn't pragmatic to expect that there won't be complaints.

"I think the programme has been successful and we are considering doing it again after the elections," Mahesh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five unidentified people looted cash, jewellery and other expensive items from farmhouse in Raisina zone here, a police official said on Sunday.

The robbers struck on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.

In a police complaint, the owner of the farmhouse claimed that the robbers carrying country-made pistols took him, his wife and his farmhouse employees hostage and robbed Rs 68,000 cash, mobile phones, expensive watches and car, a police officials said.

Rajesh Vats, the former RWA president of Ansal Aravalli Retreat said, "This was the sixth case of robbery in the area in the last four months."



Gurgaon Police PRO Subhash Bokan said a case has been registered against five unnamed people and investigation is underway.

"The faces of accused were covered. We have collected CCTV footage and analyzing it for clues," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sarod maestro Ustad feels the 21st century is the "worst" time for humanity, a phase in which people are killing each other on account of religion.

"We need peace in the world, but unfortunately politics is now based on religion, politicians plays around with religion for selfish interests. So that is the unfortunate part, not only in India but all over the world," the 'Padma Vibhushan' told PTI.

Khan was speaking on the sidelines of the Kolkata Literary Meet here.

"The 21st century should have been very peaceful, successful. But, it has turned to be the worst time all over the world. People are afraid to travel and there is no security," he said.

Recalling the words of his father Hafiz Ali Khan that "all of us have a common God and we are a common race", the 73-year-old maestro said, "I wish this message was given by priests of every religion."



Khan said every human being has to make efforts to maintain peace and harmony in the world.

Without elaborating, he pointed out that there had been instances of "radicalisation of research scholars" and said it shows education has not created compassion and kindness in humans.

During a discussion at the literary meet, Khan said to a question about the role of tradition and convention in arts, "If you want to do something (different), if God is kind, you might come up with something new within the tradition.

"If your composition is beautiful, the raga becomes more interesting. It is important for any young musician to give more importance to composition."



To another question, he recalled having recorded a 'Tribute To Tagore' album with late Rabindra Sangeet exponent Suchitra Mitra.

"I had travelled with Mitra in Bengal (during the recording of the album), and I realised how Tagore took liberty in his ragas and how beautifully it came out. I thought only a genius can take such liberty," Khan said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ten people were killed Sunday in northern Burkina Faso in a "terrorist attack", according to a security source and a local elected official.

"Around 10 armed individuals in the morning carried out a terrorist attack in the village of Sikire," which left "10 dead and two seriously wounded," a security source told AFP. Sikire is in the Sahel region and is frequently a target of jihadist attacks.

According to a local official in Arbinda, about 20 kilometres away, contacted by phone from Ouagadougou, "the assailants armed with Kalashnikovs made several tours of the village opening fire on the inhabitants." "They ransacked and set fire to shops and other businesses and took motorbikes," added the official who requested anonymity.

He said the inhabitants had stayed holed up in the homes "in panic over these attacks which have been increasing in the area".

On January 10, 12 people were killed in attack in Gasseliki, a village around 30 kilometres south of Arbinda. 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. At first concentrated in the north, the attacks have spread to other regions including the east, which borders Togo and Benin.

The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times, leaving nearly 60 dead. The attacks attributed to several jihadist groups and to other smaller factions has caused more than 280 deaths since 2015.

Since January 1, a state of emergency has been declared in 14 of the country's 45 provinces. In the face of failing to stop the increasing attacks, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore earlier this month fired the army chief and on Thursday in a cabinet reshuffle replaced the ministers of defence and security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dubbing the opposition as a "corrupt house", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said in the last four years, people in Delhi have made him a "chowkidhar".

"As long as I am there in Delhi, I will not allow any kind of corruption and will not allow the nation's unity and integrity to be destroyed," said Modi, addressing a mammoth rally of his party workers here.

After inaugurating the meeting of the state Yuva Morcha, he said: "My friends in the opposition are bankrupt when it comes to development of the nation. All they have is hatred against Modi. Their day begins by abusing Modi and ends by again abusing Modi. All I wish to tell them is 'you may abuse me, but please don't mislead the farmers, youth and the poor' and don't destroy the great nation and its progress," said Modi.

"The opposition is destroying agencies like the CBI, armed forces, police, CAG and even the Election Commission as all these organisations are wrong for them, while they (Congress) are right.

"Recently, the entire nation was amused to watch a press meet on foreign soil which was one that hit badly at the democratic ethos of our country, when the Election Commission came under attack. Seen was a 'top-most leader'. They even undermine our nation on foreign soil," said Modi and added that the Congress party will have to answer for this.

"Elections will come and go, but the nation will always be here. The opposition should stop disrespecting institutions," added Modi.

Speaking against both the ruling CPI-M led government and the Congress-led opposition in Kerala, Modi said the cultural ethos of Kerala has been destroyed.

"The issues in Sabarimala was watched across the country and saw the way the CPI-M was disrespecting all aspects of Kerala's culture. Why is the CPI-M undermining our culture? The Congress here also is no different, as they say one thing in Delhi and another here. None of these two parties have any respect for gender justice," said Modi.

The Prime Minister pointed out that so many ministers of the Left government in Kerala had to resign due to corruption.

"For the Congress led UDF, the solar scam was there. For the Congress, solar is used for scam, while we use solar for development of the nation. The Congress here made ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan, a spy and used the case to settle political scores amongst themselves, while we honoured him with a Padma award. We really value science," added Modi.

He urged his party workers to work to save the culture of Kerala and to help build a new India and a positive India.

Modi arrived at Kochi around 2 p.m on Sunday and after inaugurating a crucial petrochemical project, he reached Thrissur.

He returned to Delhi, soon after addressing the party workers at Thrissur.

--IANS

sg/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Venezuelan military officer publicly defected from the government of President Nicolas Maduro, provoking a swift response from defence leaders, amid an ongoing political turmoil in the South American country.

Venezuela's military attache in Washington, Col. Jose Luis Silva Silva, told CNN on Saturday that he's breaking with Maduro in support of Juan Guaido, the self-proclaimed interim President.

"I stand by the roadmap of acting President Juan Guaido," Silva said on a video shared on social media.

Silva said the roadmap included "ceasing the usurpation of the executive power", the "beginning of a transition to a new government" and "free and transparent elections for all Venezuelans who want to participate".

The announcement led the Venezuelan Defence Ministry to put out a critical tweet on the its official account.

The tweet showed a screen grab from the video of Silva declaring his defection with the word "TRAIDOR" (traitor) emblazoned over it.

"Insubordination in the face of international interests is an act of treason and cowardice with the fatherland inherited from our liberator Simon Bolivar. As such, we reject the declarations made by Col. Jose Luis Silva Silva, who was acting as military attache in the US," the Ministry wrote on Twitter.

Also on Saturday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly drafted an amnesty bill to protect military members who want to defect from the Maduro government, CNN reports.

The measure would also offer pardons to civilians, politicians, public officials and military members accused during the governments of Hugo Chavez -- who was President from 1999 to 2013 -- and Maduro of committing crimes or supporting unconstitutional acts.

Lawmakers are likely to vote on the bill on Tuesday.

Guaido, who heads Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly, has called on the nation's military to work with him, but the head of Venezuela's armed forces said that he still supported Maduro.

He emerged this week as the biggest challenge to Maduro's turbulent presidency and declared himself Acting President amid massive anti-government protests, claiming Maduro was illegitimately elected for a second term.

Earlier Saturday, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt joined Spain, Germany and France in delivering Maduro an ultimatum: "Guaido will be recognised as President if elections are not called before their deadline".

The European Union (EU) also warned of "further actions" against Venezuela if elections are not called in the coming days.

--IANS

ksk/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Prime Minister of Spain announced his government would officially recognize the legitimacy of the speaker of Venezuela's National Assembly who recently proclaimed himself president of the South American nation unless the current government calls a new election within the next eight days.

Sources in the Spanish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Pedro Sanchez would later be joined by other European leaders throughout the day in threatening to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as President of Venezuela instead of Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in on Jan 11 following his controversial reelection, Efe news reported.

"Spain gives Nicolas Maduro eight days to call an election and if it doesn't occur, we will recognize Juan Guaido as President," Sanchez said during a press conference in Madrid.

Sanchez thus became the first of the European Union's 28 heads of government to position himself before the bloc's adoption of a common stance on the ongoing legitimacy crisis in Venezuela.

The governments of France, Germany, the UK and Portugal on Saturday followed Spain in its eight-day demand to Maduro.

To which Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza responded: "Europe is giving us eight days to what? Where do they get the idea they have the authority to give us ultimatums?"

Venezuela refused Saturday before the UN Security Council to hold new elections, as the European Union has requested, in order to resolve the crisis the country is going through, a matter that has divided the United Nations with a fierce standoff between the bloc led by the United States and the "illegitimate mafia state" of Nicolas Maduro, supported by Russia and China.

Meanwhile the speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly and self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, said Saturday that he is ready to meet with officials of the Nicolas Maduro government in order to end what he considers the usurping of the presidency by the Chavista leader, though without confirming that any such meeting had occurred.

On Friday, however, Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez showed "proof" of a supposed meeting between Guaido and the head of the Chavista National Constituent Assembly (ANC), Diosdado Cabello.

Rodriguez presented a video taken by security cameras showing a hooded man in a hotel with Chavista leaders Diosdado Cabello and Freddy Bernal.

According to Rodriguez, the hooded man was Guaido heading for a meeting with the Chavistas, whom he supposedly told that he was being pressured by the United States and by the leader of his party - Voluntad Popular - the imprisoned Leopoldo Lopez.

Guaido did not confirm that account.

In the Americas, after the US, other governments like Brazil, Argentina and Chile also recognized Guaido, while Mexico, Cuba and Bolivia maintained their support of Maduro, as did Russia, China and Turkey.

The Venezuelan government on the same day, through its embassy in Washington, announced that the United States "has effectively withdrawn its personnel from the diplomatic mission" in Caracas, and that the two countries have agreed to negotiate the establishment of an office of interests in each capital.

A period of 30 days has been set to reach that agreement.

"With that objective in mind, the staff remaining in each diplomatic mission is authorized to stay," the Venezuelan ministry said.

Col Jose Luis Silva Silva, until now the military attache at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, announced this Saturday his support for the National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaido, as interim president of his country.

"I, in my position as the defense attache of Venezuela in the United States, do no longer recognize Mr. Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela," Silva told the daily El Nuevo Herald of Miami in a telephone interview from Washington.

"Enough is enough. Let us recognize who by law is the real president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido," he added.

--IANS

vin/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In order to cope with a no-deal Brexit, thousands of British companies are gearing up to move operations abroad if the UK crashes out of the European Union, the media reported.

The British Chambers of Commerce said on Saturday that it believed the companies that had already gone ahead with their plans represented the "tip of the iceberg" and that many of its 75,000 members were already spending vital funds to prepare for a disorderly exit, reports the Guardian.

The development comes before a crucial week in Parliament, in which MPs will try to wrest control from Prime Minister Theresa May's government in order to delay Brexit and avoid a no-deal outcome.

The BCC said that in recent days alone, it had been told that 35 firms had activated plans to move operations out of the UK, or were stockpiling goods to combat the worst effects of Brexit.

Matt Griffith, director of policy at BCC, said that many more companies had acted to protect themselves since May's Brexit deal was decisively rejected by MPs in the Commons earlier this month.

"Since the defeat for the Prime Minister's deal, we have seen a sharp increase in companies taking actions to try and protect themselves from the worst effects of a no-deal Brexit. No deal has gone from being one of several possible scenarios to a firm date in the diary."

Last week some of the UK's largest employers -- including Airbus, Europe's largest aerospace manufacturer, which employs 14,000 people in the UK and supports another 110,000 through supply chains -- warned of potentially disastrous effects of no deal on its UK activities.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)While the habit of wasting food at festivities, parties or even at household dinners has become an increasingly callous trend in urban living, a computer science teacher from West Bengal's Asansol is working diligently to put a leash on food wastage and save hundreds from hunger.

Chandra Sekhar Kundu, the founder of Food, Education and Economic Development (FEED), collects excess untouched food from college and office canteens everyday and distributes it among nearly 200 poor children from Kolkata and Asansol.

Apart from supplying the daily meal to the underfed for the last four years, Kundu and his associates cook fresh food every night for street children in at least three places in Asansol and provides them necessary lessons on food education and nutrition.

"So many people in our nation stay hungry. It is not possible for us to feed them all but at least if we stop wasting food and give away the excess to those who need it, I feel we can prevent many from spending another night on an empty stomach," said Kundu, also called the 'food-man' by many in his neighbourhood.

"I did an RTI on food wastage in 2016 and found out that around 22,000 crore tonnes of foodgrain is wasted in India every year. If we can save only 10 percent of that, it would be enough to match our government's arrangements for mid-day meals each year," he said.

Kundu's life changed forever on the night of his son Srideep's birthday party in 2015 when he went outside to dump some spare food and found two street children scavenging for pieces of chicken from a dustbin.

"Pained by the sight, I brought them to my home and provided them whatever we could arrange. I felt extremely guilty for throwing away the excess dishes minutes ago and wondered why I never gave it much of a thought before. I could not sleep that night," he reminisced.

Within a few months of the incident, Kundu made a short film on food wastage to raise awareness on the issue. The effort was largely appreciated by his colleagues and students at the Asansol Engineering College.

Kick-starting his tirade against the food wasters, he set up an NGO named 'Bengal Save Food and Save Life Brigade' with his team of students and fellow teachers from the college, who initially collected the extra food from the college canteen and fed 15 to 20 poor children dwelling in Asansol station.

"We formed FEED in 2016 and approached the canteen owners of a number of educational institutions and offices in Asansol and Kolkata. Today we have tie-ups with the CISF barracks in Asansol, IIM Calcutta and a few other offices under a project called 'Commitment 365 days' where the canteens of the respective organisations provide us their excess food on a daily basis.

"We provide day meals to around 180 street children every day with this food," Kundu explained.

The street children living under the Gariahat flyover in south Kolkata and a slum in Joka, among other places, are the beneficiaries of the scheme.

While the day meals are collected and supplied, the volunteers of the organisation cook fresh food for the poverty stricken as they do not want to serve dishes stored for a long time

"It is difficult to collect food at night as it might be too late for the children. It would be unhygienic to serve them food from the afternoon. So our volunteers cook fresh food at two places of Asansol. Close to a hundred kids have dinner every night," he said, adding that the initiative is partly funded by the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Buoyed by the success, Kundu has started another initiative called 'Share your special day' where people from all walks of life can make their birthdays, marriage or anniversaries memorable by filling the plates of under-fed kids with nutritious food.

"Several people have come forwared and contributed since we started it almost two years back. Many newly-weds join us to celebrate their anniversaries while some parents contribute on their kid's birthday. It seems the bright smiles in the faces of those kids makes their special day a bit extra special," said Kundu, who regularly posts pictures of those children and the contributors on his Facebook page.

"We have expansion plans. We are in talks with a number of organisations and eateries in Kolkata so that more such children can be helped. We also need a refrigerator to be able to store food for longer period and a vehicle for transporting it," he added.

(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Milinda Ghosh Roy can be contacted at milinda.r@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pop star Rita Ora reportedly had a secret relationship with Victoria Beckham's eldest son Brooklyn Beckham.

According to The Sun, Victoria was concerned after discovering her then 18-year-old son had been enjoying a fling with Ora, then 26, reports dailymail.co.uk.

"Posh (Victoria) apparently made it very clear that she didn't approve of the romance, which sparked following a London dinner in May 2017," said a source.

Brooklyn and Rita allegedly shared some intimate moments before his parents banned him from seeing her again and sent him back to New York.

The source said: "Posh saw a couple of texts they had been sending. She didn't want her boy being led astray, and didn't want them partying together. David and Victoria were adamant the pair shouldn't date and made it very clear they didn't approve."

Although they apparently decided not to take their relationship any further, Brooklyn and Ora are still thought to be on good terms.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana continued to receive unseasonal rains for a second consecutive day on Sunday, under the impact of upper air circulation in Maharashtra, officials said.

Few places in Telangana experienced moderate to heavy rains since late Saturday, throwing the normal life out of gear.

Hyderabad and surroundings received intermittent rains on Sunday. Dark clouds enveloped the city, considerably bringing down the day temperature. The forced many to stay indoors.

Heavy rains lashed the city and outskirts Saturday night, inundating roads and leading to traffic jams. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Dana Kishore said roads were damaged at a few places and various teams were working to repair them.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said the rains were caused by upper air circulation over Vidarbha and neighbourhood in Maharashtra.

It has forecast light to moderate rain or thundershowers at a few places over Telangana on Sunday and Monday.

According to the Met officials, some parts of the state received 3 to 10 cm rainfall since Saturday.

The districts of Siddipet, Jangaon, J. Bhupalpally and Karimnagar received heavy rainfall.

The rains also brought down the maximum temperatures across the state. The departure from normal ranged from two to nine degrees Celsius. Medak recorded lowest minimum temperature of 16 degrees Celsius.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A demonstration by pro-Khalistan Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) outside the Indian Embassy in Washington on the occasion of the Republic Day turned out to be a flop show with tricolour-waving Indian Americans outnumbering members of the fringe group.

Sources in New Delhi on Sunday said the demonstration by SFJ on Saturday was a flop show attended by around 15-20 people. "They were completely outnumbered by flag waving, enthusiastic and patriotic Indians."

"This demonstrates the hollow claim of SFJ that they enjoy wide support," the source added.

"They are a fringe group backed by Pakistan, clearly bringing out the nefarious design of Pakistan to stir up trouble."

According to the sources, most of the demonstrators were Pakistanis.

"SFJ's claim on their website that they burnt an Indian flag outside the Embassy is completely false," the source said.

"The claim is intended to cover up for their flop show."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twitter has suspended the account of the pro-Khalistan Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), whose demonstration outside the Indian Embassy in Washington on Republic Day turned out to be a flop show with tricolour-waving Indian Americans outnumbering members of the fringe group.

Sources in New Delhi on Sunday said only 15 to 20 people turned up for Saturday's SFJ demonstration and "they were completely outnumbered by flag waving, enthusiastic and patriotic Indians".

Journalist Seema Sirohi posted on Twitter at @seemasirohi from Washington: "The Khalistanis tried but lost the battle of slogan shouting. Bollywood songs and spirited counter shouting of pro-India slogans endured for three hours on a bitterly cold day."

Her post included a video of the Washington demonstration that showed some counter-protesters also shouting slogans against Pakistan. Police were seen standing by in the video.

The source in New Delhi described the SFJ as "a fringe group backed by Pakistan, clearly bringing out the nefarious design of Pakistan to stir up trouble".

Meanwhile, Twitter suspended SFJ's account with a terse notice, "Account suspended: This account has been suspended."

While it did not specify the reason for banning SFJ's account, Twitter's rules say its service cannot be used "for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities."

The source in New Delhi source said the sparse turnout "demonstrates the hollow claim of SFJ that they enjoy wide support".

According to the sources, most of the demonstrators were Pakistanis.

"SFJ's claim on their website that they burnt an Indian flag outside the Embassy is completely false," the source added.

"The claim is intended to cover up for their flop show."

Although banned on Twitter, SFJ accounts were active on Facebook and Instagram, where its postings showed what were purported to be Republic Day protests by the group in several places outside India.

On Twitter, hashtags like #BurnTheTricolor, #SikhReferendum2020 and #FreeKhalistan were active, but showed posts both for and against those proposals.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)During his 'Mann ki Baat' on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged everyone to pay a 2-minute tribute to the martyrs on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30.

"My dear countrymen, January 30 is the death anniversary of the revered Bapu. At 11 a.m. the whole country pays homage to the martyrs. Wherever we are, we must pay two minutes tribute to our martyrs. Remember our revered Bapu and take a vow to fulfil the dreams of pujya Bapu, to build a new India, and to fulfil our duties as a citizen," Modi said.

He also remembered Shivakumara Swami - the seer who headed the Sree Siddaganga Mutt in Karnataka's Tumakuru - for his "tireless" efforts towards the social, educational and economic upliftment of thousands of people.

"On the 21st of this month, our country received very sad news. Shri Shri Shri Shivakumar Swamiji of district Tumakuru, Karnataka was no more. Shivakumar Swamiji dedicated his entire life to social service. During his life spanning a hundred and eleven years, he strived tirelessly towards the social, educational and economic upliftment of thousands of people. He dedicated his life to ensuring that food, shelter, education and spiritual knowledge reached out to people.

"I have had the fortunate opportunity to be blessed by Swamiji, many a times. In the year 2007, on the occasion of the centenary celebration of Shivakumar Swami ji, our former President APJ Abdul Kalam had paid a visit to Tumakuru. On this occasion, Kalam Saheb had recited a poem dedicated to the revered Swamiji," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor politician Pawan Kalyan on Sunday announced two more candidates of his Jana Sena party for the ensuing elections to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Addressing a massive public meeting here, Jana Sena chief announced candidature of former Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar from Tenali constituency while Thota Chandrasekhar will contest from Guntur.

Manohar, son of former Chief Minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, quit the Telugu Desam party (TDP) to join Jana Sena in October last year.

Pawan had earlier announced that Pithani Balakrishna will contest from Mummidivaram constituency in East Godavari district.

The popular actor exuded confidence that Jana Sena, with the support of weaker and backward sections of the society, will hoist its flag in Amaravati. Stating that he is doing without expecting money and position, he promised to politically empower all sections.

Pawan, who is younger brother of superstar-turned-politician K. Chirnajeevi, said he has entered to root out corruption from the society.

Jana Sena leader has already announced that his party will contest all 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in alliance with the Left parties.

He took potshot at YSR Congress Party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, saying he wants to be Chief Minister for 30 years. "Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is also looking to come back to power and after that he wants to hand over power to his son," he said alleging that both parties are not aware of the ground realities.

Pawan said he wanted to come to in 2003. "I have not come into politics for the sake of power. If I wanted that, I would have become MP or MLA in 2009," he added.

In 2014 elections, Pawan had campaigned for TDP-BJP alliance. He later distanced himself from the BJP after the Centre failed to fulfil the promise to accord special category status to the state. He also found fault with the TDP for not fighting against the injustice done to the state.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A three-member Pakistani delegation will leave for India on Sunday to inspect hydro-power projects in the Chenab basin in Jammu and Kashmir.

The team of experts will be headed by Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah, reports Dawn news.

"We are going to India on Sunday via the Wagah border," Shah told Dawn on Saturday.

The general tour for inspection of Indian hydro-power projects by Pakistan experts was finally confirmed by the New Delhi's Commissioner for Indus Waters Pradeep Kumar Saxena in a letter earlier this month.

The team will inspect the projects from January 28 to 31 and will return to Pakistan on February 1.

According to Shah, the tour was not limited to only the 1,000 MW Pakal Dul and the 48 MW Lower Kalnai. The team might also visit Ratle and other hydro-power projects.

As a result of the 115th meeting of the Permanent Commission for Indus Waters (PCIW) in Lahore last August, India had scheduled inspection of the projects by Pakistani experts first in September and then in October.

But it was postponed.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, whose "Roma" has been nominated across 10 categories at the Oscars, believes there's immense scope for compatibility when it comes to a film's release in theatres and via the OTT medium.

"Roma" got a limited theatrical release, and it was put out by Netflix for the streaming platform's audience last December. The number of theatres playing the film increased as the gripping drama created a buzz.

Cuaron says he has "deep respect" for Netflix which has created such a wide audience for a film which is black and white, in Spanish, and one without stars.

"I am very grateful about that. I am also grateful that through the platform, the film has had a very healthy theatrical release. Yes, I think the theatrical release has been very healthy... It had a 70 millimeter release as well... I think both the online platform and theatrical release can be compatible. It can be and should be compatible," the Oscar-winning director told IANS over phone from Singapore.

At the Golden Globes this year, Cuaron was irked when a journalist asked him how the combined release between Netflix and theatres could mark the death of independent cinema.

Cuaron had said: "My question to you is, how many theatres did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars - how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release?"

"Why don't you take the list of foreign films this year and compare the theatrical release to those things and for how long they've been playing. See how many are playing in 70 (millimeter)."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hundreds of people cheered on Sunday as rainbow-coloured boats carrying LGBT revellers sailed in the waters of Myanmar's Yangon city in a sign of growing acceptance for the community in a socially conservative country where gay sex remains illegal.

It was the country's first pride boat parade, a part of Myanmar's annual LGBT festival, Yangon Pride, organised by non-profit &PROUD to celebrate the fight for acceptance and against the stigma the community faces, reports Efe news.

The first part of the fifth edition of the festival concluded on Sunday and the second will be held over the next weekend.

Around 300 people enjoyed the three cruises on Saturday, about two hours of journey each way along the Yangon River.

"Every year we make (the festival) bigger and bigger and this year we pushed a lot. Every year, we take a few more steps into the city," said Willem van Rooij, co-director of &PROUD.

Myanmar laws consider sexual activities between people of the same sex illegal which is punishable with up to 10 years in prison .

Nikki Rangoon, a 22-year-old trans woman, told Efe news that the greatest support came from the people despite the government and authorities ignoring the community.

This is the fifth year running for the festival.

&PROUD renamed it Yangon Pride last year to anchor it to the global Pride movement for LGBT people.

This year's festival also featured an exciting line up of award-winning films, live performances, talks and activities to promote greater understanding of the rights and identities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people, according to the organisers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Inspired by movie "A Wednesday", a minor in Ghaziabad threatened to rock the city by planting bombs on January 26, 2019 -- the Republic Day, police said on Sunday.

On January 24 evening and also the next morning, the UP 100 received a threatening call on its internet portal. The person threatened that he would plant bombs at several strategic locations in Kavi Nagar Police Station area and blast them simultaneously, according to the police.

The threat being of grave nature, the police registered a case and initiated an investigation.

During the investigation, it was found that the call had been made from a laptop connected to wifi in Hans Apartments, Radiant School, in RK Puram, falling within Kavi Nagar Police Station limits of Ghaziabad.

The investigation officer, who solved the mystery fast, found that the threat had been issued by a minor. To mislead the police, the accused who issued the threat gave the mobile number of a family friend on the portal.

However, during interrogation, he gave in and confessed to the crime. But, as the local residents collectively requested the police to be lenient, they released the boy with a warning, said Superintendent of Police (City) Shlok Kumar.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday hold his second "Pariksha Pe Charcha" in which he will interact with 2,000 students from high school to college, along with their parents and teachers.

The event will be held at Talkatora Stadium and telecast live.

"It is a unique interaction where students, teachers, parents and the Prime Minister will come together to discuss issues related to exams and the stress connected to that," the Human Resource Development Ministry said in a statement.

While last year, only students of Delhi-NCR participated in the event, this year, students from all over India as well as Indian students residing abroad, including in Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Nepal, Doha, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, would be participating.

Around 675 students from many states and union territories have already arrived in Delhi for the event, it said. Selected students will be allowed to ask questions to the Prime Minister on study-related matters.

This year's event would also see a cultural programme of 10 minutes and screening of a short film on initiatives taken by the HRD Ministry since last year's "Pariksha Pe Charcha" to reduce exam-related stress.

Modi had held his first such interaction with the students last year in February. Earlier that month, he had released his book "Exam Warriors" -- a guide to help students battle the exam anxiety.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Markets opened with gains on Monday and then lost ground on three of the four trading days thereafter. They say a week is a long time and this was truly so this time around.

The market was packed with news-flow and it seemed never ending. It began with Sun Pharma clearing the air about the whistle-blower issues. Yes Bank appointed a new MD and CEO. CBI filed an FIR against ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar. The week ended with Subash Chandra sending a letter about the debt on his group companies' balance sheets and apologising to stake holders.

BSE Sensex lost 361.07 points or 0.99 per cent to close at 36,025.54 points. Nifty lost 126.45 points or 1.16 per cent to close at 10,780.50 points. After a choppy week, Dow managed to close with marginal gains of 30.85 points or 0.12 per cent at 24,737.20 points.

Sun Pharma calmed the nerves of investors by addressing the issues raised by the whistle-blower and the share rallied Rs 31.45 or 8.05 per cent to close at Rs 422.20. Yes Bank announced its third quarter results and the appointment of its new MD and CEO Ravneet Gill, ex-CEO Deutsche Bank India operations.

The share was up Rs 21.40 or 10.79 per cent at Rs 219.65. During trading on Friday it had touched a high of Rs 236.30 on short covering.

Maruti Suzuki posted a poor set of numbers on account of lower sales and the share was hammered. It lost Rs 837 or 11.38 per cent to close at Rs 6,516, its lowest value in about 20 months.

Subash Chandra sent an open letter to stakeholders at the end of the day (Friday) after the parent company and group company share prices were hammered and lost Rs 120.80 or 27.45 per cent to close at Rs 319.35. Intra-day they had touched Rs 288.95. The letter asks stakeholders to be patient till the stake sale happens and Subash Chandra admits to having made wrong decisions in the course of the business, particularly in respect of the D2H acquisition and some other businesses.

In a very important ruling, the Supreme Court has held the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code tenets to not allow promoters of stressed assets to bid for them as correct. Hopefully the spate of cases currently on would now come to an end.

The week ahead has two events coming up and the timing of the same is of great importance. On Thursday, Jan 31, futures expire for January series.

The current level of the cash value of Nifty at 10,780.50 points is as flat as a doormat as the same is up 0.70 points or 0.01 per cent for the series. With the budget up on Friday, one can expect expiry to be a volatile affair.

The union budget would be presented on Friday, February 1. This budget would be presented by acting FM Piyush Goyal in absence of the unwell Arun Jaitley. The backdrop of this budget is the upcoming general elections in April and May which would be a no holds barred election.

As a precursor to the same the budget would set the tone. Expect announcements to pamper the different voter class and make it a case where the opposition says that they would not pass the proposals if they are elected to power. This challenge would be the dilemma that the opposition faces. If they agree, they are second and if they disagree, they lose votes. A classical Catch-22 situation. This would be akin to the historic reservation bill which was proposed and voted in flat 48 hours without any opposition ultimately.

Expect farmer assistance to be paid on land holding before the start of the new sowing season direct into the bank account akin to the Telangana model and the recently announced Odisha model. The exemption limit for income tax being raised from the present Rs 2.5 lakh to maybe Rs 3.5 lakh if not Rs 5 lakh.

Enhancement of limits under 80 CC of the income tax and some sops for the MSME and SME segments. It would be the mother of all budgets where the purse strings after 4-and-a-half years of financial prudence would be opened and just distributed. While puritans may not agree with what is being said or will be done there are enough precedents of this in the past as well.

Markets in the week ahead will be choppy and will react to news flow from company results and events as they unfold. Trade cautiously.

(Arun Kejriwal is founderm Kejriwal Research and Investment Services)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren has convened an all-party meeting on Monday on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Manipur is one of the northeastern states which has been seeing various agitations in protest against the passing of this Bill on January 8 by the Lok Sabha.

The Janata Dal (United) has already announced that it will not take part in the meeting.

JD (U) state president Hankhanpao said the Chief Minister had refused to summon an emergency session of the state assembly to hold a threadbare discussion on the bill.

"We fail to understand that anything useful will emerge from the all parties' meeting."

On Sunday, the Manipur People's Party also announced that it will refrain from participating in the meeting on Monday.

A statement from the MPP said that it had made its position on the issue clear to the public and there is nothing to be discussed now.

"The BJP led government should have summoned the emergency session. We shall not participate in the meeting since the chief minister is whimsically sweeping the people in any direction", it said.

A sit-in protest were staged in many parts of the state on Sunday. An effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was burned at a market in Khetriga in Imphal East district.

The North East India Development Party launched a signature campaign from Sunday. Functionaries of the party said that the campaign which will cover the entire state will continue till the Bill is scrapped.

Chief Minister N. Biren said: "Now that the union home minister has assured that the interest of the indigenous peoples of the NE region shall be protected people should call off the agitations."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress headquarters at Mall Avenue in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, where the partys high profile office-bearers Priyanka Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia will have their offices to run the Uttar Pradesh campaign is being painted in fresh white.

The sprawling double-storeyed building is being dressed up for the new occupants as the mood turns upbeat among party loyalists.

A new 'war room' is being constructed and a conference hall for workers to meet leaders in private is also being built. There are 12 computer terminals.

Surrounded by high-rises that have cropped up in the past few years, the state Congress headquarters for long has been a sad reflection of the party's decline in the state. There is now hope among the cadres that things could change.

Anil Kumar Sharma, assistant permanent secretary (Organisation) who pedals over 14-km to reach the office daily points to the repairs that are taking place in the building. "Similar repairs" were underway in the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) set up by Priyanka Vadra.

There is some aggression creeping back as well. "In the war between falsehood, lies and truth, Priyanka will certainly lead the Congress to victory in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections," says Sharma.

For that to happen the physical repairs of the state party headquarters as well as that of the party will need to take place.

The NSUI office on the campus lies neglected. Inaugurated in 1986, the office next to a bust of Indira Gandhi has a rusted lock at its gate, which rarely opens now, says a party man. Empty packets of chips are littered around. People dump garbage in front of it.

UPCC spokesman Virendra Madan downplays plans for renovation and makeover and says it has nothing to do with Priyanka Vadra's appointment as general secretary in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh. "This has been going on for some months now as we try to get battle ready for the Lok Sabha challenge" Madan told IANS.

Negotiating the ripped flooring, the broken walls, the slippery ground, a dump of removed glass panes, windows, western commodes and other civil equipment, one reaches the backyard of the UPCC office where shanties dot a large part of the campus.

Gayas Ahmad, a driver with the Congress for the past 15 years but now terminated in a downsizing drive recently, informs 14 families working for party live here. There are five cars at the UPCC office.

Expectation of these people from Priyanka Vadra is less for the state and country and more for themselves. "We have not been paid our dues, have been asked to vacate the houses. So we have gone to court...may be Priyankadidi will help us," says one on the condition of anonymity.

In a room packed with old newspaper clippings, Arman Ahmad, a 33-year-old Seva Dal worker for the past three years says, "I am wedded to the Congress due to its secular ideology but tell me how can change come if the organisational structure continues to be so rusted as it is now."

Yet, the elections and prospect that things might improve for the party has lifted spirits. On Saturday, hundreds gathered at the party office to celebrate Republic Day.

Ram Avtaar, who runs the party canteen, says while till not long ago he sold 100 cups of tea daily, the number has gone up to 250 since Priyanka Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia's appointments were announced.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).Captain Marvel will now be the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, says Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.

"We thought it was the right time to finally introduce Captain Marvel to the world. She is one of the most popular characters and one of the most powerful characters in the comics and will now be the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe," Feige said in a statement to IANS.

Marvel Studios' "Captain Marvel" introduces the MCU's first stand-alone, female-franchise title character --- Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel.

Set in the 1990s, "Captain Marvel" follows Danvers' journey as she becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes. Based on the comic book series, first published in 1967, "Captain Marvel" stars Oscar winning Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn with Annette Benin and Jude Law.

Feige says a female superhero was long overdue.

"We have always had powerful female characters and heroes in our films. But having a female superhero franchise title character for the first time feels overdue, and it's something that we have been excited about for a long time and we can't wait to deliver it to the world," he added.

"Captain Marvel" will release in India on March 8 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)While the central and Punjab governments have been blaming each other for the delay in executing the work related to the Katarpur Corridror project on the Indian side, residents of villages whose land will be acquired for the religiously significant project are apprehensive about their fate at being uprooted from the land where they have lived for decades.

While the villagers clearly welcome the Kartarpur Corridor project and are quite willing to offer their land for the project, their apprehension is about the compensation they will receive and whether it be adequate to rehabilitate themselves in another area.

The villagers have formed a committee of four villages in which the land is proposed to be acquired, as per the land acquisition notice issued by the government in the past one week, to put forward their common demand on compensation and rehabilitation.

At meeting of the committee, in which local farmers, residents and even functionaries of farmers' organisations participated earlier this week in the presence of a visiting IANS correspondent, it was pointed out that over 200 families will be uprooted in the next three months as the government goes ahead with land acquisition and implementation of the corridor project.

The international border (IB) is just a new hundred metres from the area where the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has proposed the highway for the corridor project right up to the IB. Red flags have been put up in the agricultural fields by NHAI officials to mark the proposed highway.

"As per the rough estimates, nearly 300 acres of land will be acquired for the corridor project. Out of this, 54 acres will be required for the highway alone," Gurpreet Singh, a farmer and resident of Pakhoke village on the outskirts of Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) town, told IANS.

The most-affected villages are Pakhoke, Chandu Nangal, Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) and Jodiyan Khurd.

Farmers say that the DBN belt is well-known for cauliflower farming and the land acquisition will leave farmers without their basic livelihood.

"The farmers welcome the Kartarpur Corridor project. This is a very big thing happening and has matured after a very long time and lot of efforts. We don't want to stop the acquisition process. Our concern is how will the government compensate and rehabilitate us," another farmer, Suba Singh, pointed out.

The committee of farmers is scheduled to meet the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner on Monday (Jan 28) on the land acquisition.

"Each farmer makes around Rs 2 lakh per year from growing cauliflower. This income will go once the land is acquired. The government should compensate the farmers not only for the market price of the land but also for the loss of income from agriculture," farmer Joginder Singh said.

Most farmers in the area have small land holdings of two to five acres and survive on growing different crops, including cauliflower.

With the central and Punjab governments under pressure to complete the corridor project in Punjab before November, when the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikhism's founder, Guru Nanak Dev take place, the whole DBN area is all set for a major transformation.

The first batch of pilgrims from India for the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara, where Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life and is his final resting place, is likely to cross the IB into Pakistan in November this year as both countries work out the travel modalities.

The gurdwara, which is significant for Sikh religious history and is visible from the India side on a clear day, is located around 4.5 km from the IB.

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rapper Kanye West has sued Universal and EMI over his record and publishing contracts.

In a free-form rant posted online in October 2018, West said he had tried to purchase his publishing catalog from Sony/ATV Music and they declined.

"I have the money to buy (back) my publishing," West said in the video, and added: "And they told me that I couldn't buy my publishing . It's like the control."

While the terms of his contract are not public, music publishing deals typically do not allow artistes to simply buy back their publishing whenever they want.

However, earlier this week, West tried another course of action by filing a pair of lawsuits in an attempt to extract himself from his publishing and label deals.

One is against EMI Music Publishing, with whom he signed in 2003 and which is now owned by Sony/ATV, and the other is against the Universal Music Group companies Roc-a-Fella Records (the formerly Jay-Z-owned record label that released his early albums), Def Jam Records and UMG's merchandising arm, Bravado.

The move seems to be an attempt to acquire the rights to his music, something he also alluded to in the October video, obliquely referencing Prince's strenuous efforts over the years to gain control of his catalog.

The lawsuits, filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, are described as "almost entirely redacted", reported variety.com.

It further reads: "There now exists a dispute between Plaintiffs and Defendant EMI regarding the parties' rights and obligations to one another under the EMI Contract and Extensions." A similar statement is applied to his label agreements.

West has sought declaratory relief and alleges unjust enrichment on the part of the companies he is suing.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, better known as Krish, finally opened up on all the speculation and controversies regarding his feud with Kangana Ranaut and his ouster from 'Manikarnika', the Rani Laxmibai epic saga which seems to have been more exciting behind the scenes than on screen.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q. A lot of speculation about how much of 'Manikarnika' have you directed?

A. You mean what you see on screen? I saw the film. I'd say more than 70 per cent is mine. I remained quiet until the release. I had to remain quiet for the sake of the film and for the entire team which worked so hard on the film. But now if I don't speak about what Kangana did to the film I'd be doing a disservice to all our hard work. Many people advised me to talk after the film was taken away from me. I'd say what I directed was pure gold. Kangana turned it into silver.

Q. Why did you leave the film when it was on the verge of completion?

A. You know, every time I am asked this, my heart sinks to the ground. Let me say this outright. I did not leave the film incomplete. I left it when it was almost complete. I shot 'Manikarnika' for 109 days whereas I completed NTR biopic in half that time. Then we did the dubbing post-production, everything for 'Manikarnika'. Only then did I move to my other commitment (the NTR biopic). For me the film was complete. Everyone had dubbed except Kangana.

Q. Then what happened?

A. Once I finished she promised to do some patchwork completely under my guidance. She promised she'd shoot for 4-5 days extra and send me all details of the shooting. No such thing happened. And she says she had to re-shoot many portions because my cinematographer Gnana Shekhar had not done a good job. What nonsense is she talking?! Every actor, every technicians gave their life and breath to their film.

Q. This film seems to have taken from you more than it has given?

A. At the end of the day it is my baby. I have seen the film. And I am relieved that the grandeur vision and scale that I imagined for the film remains intact. The climax in Jaipur (doubling up for Gwalior) was shot entirely by me. I charged half of the fee that I get for my Telugu films as I wanted to be a part part of this historical attempt to bring Rani Laxmibai's story to screen. This is the highest number of days I've shot for any film. And I've directed complex costume dramas like 'Kanche' and 'Gautamiputra Satarkarni'. In 'Kanche' I had shot five war scenes. So I know the complexities of shooting a period film. We shot a huge battle scene in Hyderabad. We shot in Jaipur and Jodhpur. The film was supposed to release on August 15, 2018. I completed the film in June, only a small portion remained which we agreed to shoot later and then I had to direct the NTR bio-pic since the director who was supposed to do that project was shifted out. Then that whole thing with Sonu Sood happened.

Q. What happened?

A. Kangana decided to re-shoot Sonu's entire portion. He had shot for 30 days! So you can imagine what she wanted to remove. I remember when she saw the first cut the first thing she said even before praising the film was, 'Sonu Sood is too overpowering na?' Because as an antagonist Sonu Sood was very strong. That's how we had designed the film. For the protagonist to appear powerful, the antagonist has to be strong.

Q. In the credits of Manikarnika her name comes first then yours?

A. I must tell you how this whole tamasha of the credits unfolded. In the beginning it was just my name 'Krish' on the poster. In fact I remember we released a poster on my birthday on November 10. Kangana cut the cake with me, and we hugged. Anyway....But on the second poster and in the trailer 'achanak mera naam Radha Krishan Jagarlamudi ho gaya' (suddenly my name became Radha Krishan Jagarlamudi).

Q. Kyon ho gaya? (Why that happened?)

A. Perhaps to confuse the audience about my identity. I asked why my name was being changed in the poster. She said I hadn't supported her when Sonu Sood spoke against her so why should she bother. Why should I have supported her, when I knew Sonu was right and he took a stand and said he won't shoot the film with her.

Q. Why did your changed name bother you so much?

A. In Telugu cinema they know me as Krish. Then in the trailer, her name came as director after mine. And then at the time of the film's release her name came first as director, then mine. When I rang her up to confront her, she said, 'No, I've shot so much'. What she did basically was remove Sonu Sood's role, reduce it substantially and replace him with another actor Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, and then she shot the new actor's close-ups and inserted them in scenes that I had shot. I am telling you 70 per cent of what you see on screen is mine. Please understand, this is my fourth period film. And I was given to do Manikarnika because of what I had achieved in the other three period films. It was (the scriptwriter) Vijayendra Prasadji who called me to direct this film. He had seen my work and knew what I was capable of. In fact I am the one who suggested the title 'Manikarnika'. I read close to twenty books on Rani Laxmibai before directing this film. I worked closely with Vijayendraji. We began shooting at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad after the puja. I was the director. Then Kangana Ranaut... inki himmat toh dekho (look at her guts). When people ask me why I left the film, I get very upset. I didn't leave. I shot 95 per cent of the film.She did her own thing with 5 per cent of the film. She did her own thing with Sonu Sood's role just to satisfy her ego.

Q. This is sad?

A. I never wanted a confrontation. I am not that kind of a person. But when I see what was done do to my vision I feel very angry and sad. I am talking now regardless of how the film has fared because that's how I had planned to speak. I remember Sonu Sood's character was introduced with a kushti (wrestling). Kangana wanted to know why he should do kushti. I wanted the action to be raw and real. Even the fights with the women were designed as raw.

Q. Not just Sonu Sood. Look at what happened to Atul Kulkarni's great character of Tayta Tope?

A. Yes, really sad. This film was not made to glorify Kangana Ranaut. It was meant to extol our great freedom fighters. The film is great even now. But I had made a greater film. She didn't understand that. She didn't understand that she couldn't play God with history. 'Yeh yahan se nikalo, woh yahan dalo'. It doesn't work that way.

Q. She was just an actor in the film. Why did the producer allow her to override your vision?

A. Exactly. The producer should answer that. What authority did she have to remove Sonu Sood? Have you ever heard of anything like this? She was of course the protagonist. But I am a reputed director directing a genre that I know. What gave her the right to tamper with what I did? And the team's hard work, the sleepless nights, the toil... More than anything else, when you are working on an epic film, it is easy for anyone to come at the last minute and claim credit. Sonu Sood also directed 5 shots. He can also claim to be co-director. The few scenes that needed to be shot after I left were to be done by my assistant director. Suddenly, I discovered she is co-director. What happened?

Q. You tell me?

A. It was pre-decided, an elaborate plan to undermine my directorial status. On August 15, 2018, I am director. October 1, 2018, I am director. Then suddenly she's also the director. I argued with the producer Kamal Jain. But he stood by her. I don't want to say anything about him as he's in the hospital. What was the necessity of taking out Sonu Sood and doing her own thing?

Q. Now that you've spoken do you think there will be repercussions?

A. I had to set the record straight. I needed a proper closure for my film. 'Manikarnika' is my baby. Would Sonu Sood or Atul Kulkarni have signed the film if Kangana Ranaut was the director? They put their heart and soul in. It is my team's hard work being undermined. It's not about shooting. It's about executing. Many people from Mumbai have called to congratulate me. What I made was to perpetuate the phenomenon of Jhansi Ki Rani. Not Kangana Ranaut.

(Subhash K. Jha can be reached at 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.)World number 18 Marco Cecchinato along with other Italian Davis Cup team members arrived here this morning ahead of their qualifiers against hosts India at the South Club, scheduled to be held from February 1-2.

The team will be led by non-playing captain Corrado Barazzutti.

Italy will miss the services of top-ranked Fabio Fognini, who has ruled himself out to recover from an injury.

Cecchinato, who stunned Novak Djokovic in the 2018 French Open quarterfinals and made a first round exit at the Australian Open against Serbia's Filip Krajinovic, is expected to hurt India most on the opening day of the tie.

World number 35 Andreas Seppi will be the next best bet for the Italians. The other members of the contingent include Matteo Berrettini, Thomas Fabbiano and Simone Bolelli.

A total of 24 teams will play in the knockout qualifiers on February 1, 2 to decide which 12 teams playing here will play the year-end finals.

Twelve winners from the qualifiers here will join six other teams for the 18-team finals in Madrid in November this year.

According to the new format, only four semi-finalists from the 2018 season along with two wild cards -- Argentina and Britain - have a direct entry.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The coming Lok Sabha elections are "lopsided" and there is no level playing field, says the Congress party which fears his party may also not get much media exposure ahead of the big battle.

"Where is the money, it has all been amassed by the BJP. They are sitting on a mountain of money and have cornered all the fleet (of private chartered aircraft)," senior leader and Congress Publicity Committee member Anand Sharma told IANS.

"The 2019 elections are lopsided and not on a level playing field. The BJP has an enormous treasury which will be utilised buy out airtime, print-space, social media space, bill boards and even mobile marketing avenues. In those terms we are way behind," said Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha.

Besides a deluge of advertisements in prominent newspapers endorsing Modi governments various schemes, the BJP, also had been the number one advertiser on television in November last during the run-up to Assembly elections in five states.

"The BJP's political desperation is now out in the open and it can go to any extent and do everything in its capacity to thwart the opposition.

"Part of those frantic efforts will be booking grounds, auditoriums and vehicles, blocking hotels and motels. They may even go to the extent of buying out vendors who have a big role in supplying campaign and election infrastructure," said Jha.

Another party leader said the Congress was "nowhere near" the BJP in terms of advertising.

"The Prasar Bharti is autonomous only for name sake. Besides, a large number of media houses are either owned or controlled by Modi's cronies. Getting space on TV has become difficult and perhaps unaffordable," he said.

Since coming to power at the Centre in May 2014, the BJP's financial clout has grown enormously and with the introduction of electoral bonds, the party has been raking in the 'moolah' (money) invariably declaring the highest annual income of all parties.

In 2016-17, the BJP declared an annual income of Rs 1,034.27 crore nearly double of the Rs 570.86 crore, it declared in 2015-16. For the year 2017-18, the BJP declared a total income of Rs 1,027,crore and spent over Rs 750 crore of it in the year.

According to the data by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the BJP cornered over 93 per cent of donations of above Rs 20,000 pocketing Rs 437.04 crore, which was 12 times more than the rest six national parties.

It also amassed over Rs 553 crore as income from unknown sources in 2017-18 which was four times the aggregate of other national parties.

The ADR put the income of the national parties for 2017-18 at Rs.1,293.05 crore, of which the BJP had declared Rs.1,027.33 crore for the period.

The income and expenditure of the Congress party for the 2017-18 was not known as the party had not submitted its audited reports to the Election Commission, the last date for which was December 17 last. The party in 2016-17 had declared an income of Rs 225.36 crore.

Besides the BJP's deep pockets, the Congress has also to contend with ministers, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, using government podiums to canvass for the party, Sharma said.

"As a Prime Minister, Modi holds the record of wasting public money on election campaign. In flagrant violation of conventions and norms, Modi and his ministers have always used government podiums for BJP propaganda as well as to display their vitriol and despise for the Congress," he said pointing to numerous instances where Modi, while speaking in government programmes, has attacked the Congress and the opposition.

Flush with resources, the ruling BJP seems to have already cornered most of the campaigning resources even before the mega political battle for Delhi starts to unfold.

Struggling to get helicopters to ferry its leaders or grounds and auditoriums for hosting rallies and mass meetings, the Congress says it is facing a severe handicap on this front too.

Sharma could not hide his exasperation over the party's struggle to get choppers. "Where is the money. They (BJP) are sitting on a mountain of money and have already blocked aircraft charters and helicopters in advance," he complained.

With the BJP in power in a large number of states, the Congress is also apprehensive of not getting permission for rallies or mass meetings from the respective state governments.

Incidentally, the BJP itself has been at the receiving end of this tactic often employed by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal.

The Banerjee administration has on several occasions denied permission for BJP President Amit Shah's rallies leading to either cancellation of the events or the party having to take legal recourse.

(Anurag Dey can be contacted at anurag.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was crowned champion of the Indonesia Masters 2019 on Sunday after her opponent Carolina Marin pulled out of the summit clash due to an injury.

Marin, the reigning Olympic champion and three-time world champion, twisted her right knee after landing awkwardly following a smash in the first game itself.

The Spanish shuttler was leading 10-4 before her discomfort and pain made her pull out of the mega final.

Saina was the runner-up in the 2018 edition of the Indonesia Masters.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Talking about the unifying power of music, Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on Sunday said that he doesn't respect convention in music or in and lamented the state of the 21st century world, driven by religious strife.

"I don't respect convention. It is a very unhealthy word. Even regarding religion, my father often told me all of us have a common God. In this 21st century, we are still fighting and killing each other on account of religion," Khan said here at the Tata Steel Literary Meet 2019.

The master of strings regretted that education has failed to instil compassion and kindness in human beings.

"How can a (person holding a degree like) PhD be radical or communal? This is the problem of the whole world, not only in India," he pointed out.

Expressing gratitude to the Almighty for the unifying power of music, Khan said, "I think the 21st century is the worst time for the world, which should have been the best time. People are afraid to travel internationally, there is a problem of security. Thank God that music has connected the world whereas language creates barriers."

According to the Padma Vibhushan awardee, this message of common God and race should have been given by every priest but they don't talk as 'they are paid servants'.

"At this age, I want to give my opinion and share my thoughts with the people," he said.

About presentation and breaking convention, the legend said, "Presentation is a different art. Grammar and literature are important for everybody to learn but very few musicians realise the level of poetry. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was an amazing combination of a poet and musician. He took liberty in every Raga and I think only a genius can do that and the rest follow the convention".

As a young boy, he said, he did not like Rabindra Sangeet but later liked it due to Suchitra Mitra, one of the finest exponents of Rabindra Sangeet.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Icy winds swept across Himachal Pradesh with temperatures remaining below the freezing point in most places, a official said. Keylong was the coldest in the state at a low of minus 17 degree Celsius.

"It was cloudy after a day of sunshine in the state. There was no rain or snow in the state in the past 24 hours," an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official here told IANS.

The minimum temperature was minus 0.2 degree in Shimla, which last saw snow on Friday.

Snow could be seen in certain areas of Shimla like the Mall Road, the Ridge, the US Club and Jakhu hills.

Areas near Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda and popular tourist resorts of Manali and Dalhousie are also covered under a thick blanket of snow.

Kalpa in Kinnaur district saw a low of minus 5.2 degree, while the minimum temperature was minus five degree in Manali, minus 4.2 degree in Kufri, minus 1.5 degree in Dalhousie, 0.5 degrees in Palampur and 0.6 degrees Celsius in Dharamsala.

The Met Office said the western disturbance would be active in the region from January 29 onwards, bringing more snow and rain.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bengali writer Manoranjan Byapari, a name to reckon with in Dalit Literature, on Sunday said that though not visible it is the prevalent caste system in West Bengal that stood against any celebration of his success.

"I am the best example of caste system in Bengal. I won the Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and many other awards. Fourteen of my books are being translated, but no Bengali channel or newspaper reported about it the way they would have had I been from the upper castes.

"Forget about the caste factor, but hardly did anyone feel proud about it as a Bengali," the 68-year-old Byapari said during a discussion on his novel 'Batashe Baruder Gondho' at the Tata Steel Literary Meet 2019.

It has been translated into English as 'There's Gunpowder in the Air' by Arunava Sinha.

The word 'casteism' is not used openly. Bengalis are very intelligent. The divide is in the form of 'chotolok' and 'bhodrolok' which indirectly stood for lower and upper-class people, the witty writer said.

"How far the upper class people allow us to be a part of their domestic life is up to them. But at the economic level, if a lower class person comes up they will try their best to stop his/her advance," pointed out the author of 'Interrogating my Chandal life: An Autobiography of a Dalit'.

The man who started writing after a chance encounter with writer Mahasweta Devi, said: "The recent recognition from various parts of India is unbelievable for me. Had I believed in God I would consider it to be His magic. But I haven't seen the Gentleman and don't have His mobile number. I had also searched him on 'Google' but never found him."

Hailing from a family that migrated from Bangladesh, Byapari found himself in refugees camps in Bankura and South 24 Parganas district. Getting no government aid, he never got a chance to go to school, and had to toil for two square meals daily.

In such a dark situation, he fled from the refugee camp in South 24 Parganas district's Gholadoltala to north Bengal's Siliguri in search of food. There in 1967,"I got to see the Naxalites closely".

Explaining how he landed in jail during the Naxal Movement, the writer said: "I loved telling stories and often made them up. So after I left Siliguri and came to Kolkata (then called Calcutta) where my parents had shifted by then, I told people that I have been to a place like Naxalbari (where the Maoist movement began in India) and met people like Kanu Sanyal, Khokon Majumdar and Jangal Santhal."

He was tied to a pillar and thrashed by some people who were strongly against Naxalite politics.

Later, the Naxalites approached him asking 'if he wanted to return the blows' and thereby he got involved with the Maoists despite having no political knowledge about their ideology, and was jailed.

One jail inmate showed him a 'small Banyan plant protruding out of the walls of The National Library'. He explained to young Byapari that there is no water or mud but the plant is still growing.

So if he has the vigour he can grow, look around, find humour and even learn things inside the jail.

"Today I feel I have broken all the boundaries," he said with a degree of satisfaction.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kathmandu, Nepal: H. E. Mr. Amjad Hussain B. Sial, Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), said that said promotion of womens welfare and empowerment is at the forefront of SAARCs agenda.

Addressed the Opening Session of the South Asian Regional Conference Weaving the Web as a Special Guest of the event in Kathmandu this morning, H. E. Mr. Amjad Hussain B. Sial said SAARC is a regional organization created primarily to promote the welfare of the peoples of this region.

In the Conference, organized by Sankalpa  Womens Alliance for Peace, Justice and Democracy , eminent women representatives from the South Asian countries are participating to discuss measures to promote the welfare of women in order to bring them into the mainstream of socio-economic development.

Since the promotion of womens welfare and empowerment is at the forefront of SAARCs agenda, we greatly value the holding of this Conference to strengthen partnerships among women in the region, the Secretary General H. E. Mr. Amjad Hussain B. Sial said addressing the Opening Session of the Conference.

As women constitute almost 50% of the regions population, since the inception of SAARC, the South Asian leaders have underscored the need to bring them into the mainstream of socio-economic development. Their unequivocal resolve to empower women culminated in the adoption of the SAARC Social Charter, which incorporates a broad range of targets to be achieved for womens social and economic emancipation, he added.

Besides the SAARC Social Charter, the Secretary General shed light on SAARCs several other inter-governmental mechanisms dealing with the promotion of the status of women. They include Ministerial Meetings on Women; Technical Committee on Women, Youth and Children; SAARC Gender Policy Advocacy Group; and Regional Convention to combat trafficking of women and children for prostitution. He stated that SAARC also collaborates with several UN Specialized Agencies, including UNWomen, in promoting womens welfare and empowerment.

Highlighting the importance of education in empowering women, the Secretary General said, The first and foremost pre-requisite is the education of our girls that will certainly be a catalyst for socio-economic development, improvement in the quality of life and reducing poverty. He said that educated women will be able to play even greater role in all walks of life, including at senior policy-making levels. The powerful tool of education will help in mainstreaming of women and making them economically empowered and financially independent.

Concluding his remarks at the Opening Session, he said, This Conference is a good initiative to bring together a large number of women advocates from the region to contemplate measures to collectively address the challenges that women face.Participating in a session on racism at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, acclaimed author of 'The Impressionist' Hari Kunzru brought up the hashtag #ItsOkayToBeWhite that is used by the American alt-right groups, in the context of the supposed expectation that white people are supposed to feel permanently guilty.

Kunzru theorized that this idea emerges from the uncomfortable sensation that one is individually complicit in racism.

"It is a tricky theoretical ground because of the way our culture encourages us to think in terms of personal agency, guilt and responsibility," he said.

In a neat turn of phrase, he advocated the idea of "active intellectual unpicking" to help people reconcile their individual ideas of themselves as liberal, with the knowledge that they are the beneficiary of a system that privileges them.

The challenge facing people of colour is what Kunzru termed "a collective coming together", to collectivize over shared oppression, with the same aims in mind, and at the same time emphasise their "individual subjectivities" in order to dismantle the generalisation.

The Jaipur Literature Festival will reach its culmination on Monday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In his first speech in months, ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar urged Goans to develop a "positive mentality", while also urging residents of the state to shed opposition to all and everything.

"There is opposition for everything. This mentality has developed. Goans should be positive now. This is my message today," Parrikar said at a function organised for inauguration of a third bridge across the Mandovi river named "Atal Setu" at the hands of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

Parrikar also said that he was aware of negative comments on Facebook, especially vis-a-vis the signature cable-stayed bridge and while urging people to be positive.

"With who's money is the bridge being built? Whose money is it? It is not my money. It is your money, people's money," Parrikar said.

Urging people to be positive has been a constant refrain from Parrikar ever since he became Chief Minister in 2012.

Parrikar also said that Nitin Gadkari was his "hero", thanks to the latter's execution of the Golden Quadrilateral project, when he was a Union Minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The ailing Chief Minister also picked a popular dialogue from the superhit film "Uri", based on the armed forces' "surgical strikes", to address the audience with the words: "How is the josh?"

Parrikar's words were: "How is the josh? How is the josh? I will transfer my josh to you and sit here and speak a few words."

The popular dialogue has been quoted by several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, since the release of the Vicky Kaushal-starring film. Parrikar was the Defence Minister when the surgical strikes were conducted along the Indo-Pak border in 2016.

Underlining the importance of roads in the development of a region, Parrikar, who is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and has been unable to attend office consistently for nearly 11 months now, also quoted former US President the late John F. Kennedy.

"After I became CM for the first time, I had a quote of John F Kennedy before me. 'America's roads are not good because America is rich. But America is rich because roads are good.' This sentence had impacted me when I was a child," Parrikar 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 boom that followed India's economic liberalisation in the 1990s led to an "exponential increase" in the accumulation of garbage while also changing athe very nature' of litter generated. This "storm of waste" is a ticking time bomb and could have disastrous, fatal and horrifying consequences if not checked, say Robin Jeffrey and Assa Doron, who have co-authored the monumental "Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India".

Doron, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asia Studies at the Australian National University, once went to Seelampur on the outskirts of Delhi and was "horrified" to see the manner in which old mobile phones -- e-waste -- were being treated.

He immediately and approached Jeffrey, a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, saying: "This is huge, we need to study garbage in India," thus beginning the research for the book.

"Since India's boom in the 1990s and the aftermath of its economic liberalisation, the volume of waste has increased exponentially and the nature of waste has changed too. This boom has also produced construction and demolition waste, the hazardous waste and the plastic and the fast-moving consumer waste," Doron told IANS on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

India, for example, had a culture of using biodegradable plates instead of plastic plates that you see all around today, he said.

"All of these together make an almost perfect storm of waste which is very difficult to tackle unless you do it at different levels of governance," he added.

His co-author Jeffrey, on the other hand, said that there is some value in the waste and the people who work in the landfills extract that value.

"While you got to extract that value out of the garbage, it must must follow a certain procedure," Jeffrey told IANS.

He said this complexity applies to all kinds of waste. "You have to find out who is throwing it, why is he throwing it, is there a need to throw it, who is the first person to handle it and then where can it go to have a new life."

"The pharmaceutical industry is centred now in India because certain ventures are not profitable anymore in the West. These multinationals have outsourced their companies to India, particularly Hyderabad, which has emerged as the pharmaceutical capital of India. A lot of what they discharge into the waterbodies and in the soil are active ingredients. They are creating a bacteria-resistant environment, what is also known as superbugs.

"It's disseminating and killing the fields, its harming the livelihood of the people who live in the periphery of these companies. It's creating new bugs that even the most powerful antibiotics cannot tackle. So you have a situation where effluents produced as a result of bringing new industries in india, or creating special economic zones, is actually harming India in the long run. There has to be better planning and corrective measure need to be applied," anthropologist Doron said.

Jeffrey said that life expectancy for those working and living around landfills in India is just 39 years as respiratory diseases and infections are common among them.

They suggested empowering of local urban bodies and municipalities to deal with the crisis.

"At the moment they have the responsibility but they do not have the wherewithal, not do they have enough trained staff," said Jeffrey, while Doron added that local governments need to partner with civil society and the people who are already on the ground dealing with waste. They need to be made aware of the serious health implications, and "trained in extracting value from waste without hampering the or causing serious health implications" to themselves or those around them.

(Saket Suman is in Jaipur at the invitation of the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A former Punjab Police officer was arrested on Sunday in connection with the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing in Faridkot which claimed the lives of two people.

Charanjit Singh Sharma was arrested by a special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police from his residence in Hoshiarpur, around 150 km from here.

SIT sources said that Sharma resisted the arrest briefly but the team managed to take him to Amritsar where he is being questioned.

"I can confirm the arrest. He was arrested early today from his residence in Hoshiarpur. We are questioning him. We cannot share more details at this stage," Inspector General (IG) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, in-charge of the SIT, said.

He said Sharma will be produced in a court later on Sunday.

"We had reports that Sharma was planning to flee from the country," the IG added.

The arrest comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by Sharma and three other police officers seeking protection from prosecution in the case.

Sharma was Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Moga district when the firing incident took place during a protest by Sikh activists against repeated incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib.

He and the other police officers - Bikramjit Singh (then SSP Fazilka), Inspector Pardip Singh and sub-inspector Amarjit Singh - were booked for murder and attempt to murder following recommendations by the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission of Inquiry.

Sharma was suspended and later compulsorily retired.

Punjab was brought to a standstill in October 2015 with radical Sikhs and others blocking highways and roads for days.

Radical Sikh leader Dhian Singh Mand, who led the protests, said on Sunday that the arrest was the first step towards taking action against those who tried to cover-up the sacrilege incidents during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government in Punjab at that time.

Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Harpal Singh Cheema said that the arrest was a good step but the process had been delayed by the Congress government in the state.

--IANS

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(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.)Delhi Police has recovered two decomposed bodies of elderly couple from their house in the national capital, a police officer said on Sunday.

The police was informed by a local in Mount Kailash locality in south Delhi on Saturday that a senior couple living in a house were not responding to the knocks on the door despite repeated attempt.

"A police team reached the spot and found that the house was locked from inside. The door was force-opened and the two bodies were found in a decomposed state," Deputy Commissioner of Police Chinmoy Biswal said.

"The bodies have been identified as those of Virender Kumar Khaneja (77) and his wife Sarla Khaneja, 72. Their son Dr Amit Khaneja lives in the USA," Biswal added.

Khaneja's phone record suggested that they did their last conversation on Saturday morning and thereafter, he could not be reached over phone," the official said. He also added that there were no signs of a forced entry into the house.

"We have sent the bodies for postmortem examination and are waiting for the report which may throw light on the cause of death."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hectic diplomatic parleys have been mounted by the Indian government to get some "high value" economic offenders from West Indies amidst reports that a long-haul aircraft of Air India is being readied to bring them back.

India does not have a mission in St John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda -- the country where diamantaire Mehul Choksi has acquired citizenship. India also does not have an extradition treaty with Antigua. Recently, he had submitted his Indian passport to Antigua and Barbuda authorities amounting to giving up his Indian citizenship.

Officials in the Indian High Commission in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, which is concurrently accredited to Antigua, are as yet unaware of any operation to bring back the "assets", including diamantaire Mehul Choksi and Winsome Diamonds promoter Jatin Mehta, who have taken citizenship in the Caribbeans.

Sources in Delhi said the government of India through its high commission in Georgetown has taken up the matter of Mehul Choksi. It is understood the matter is still under consideration, they said.

The operation to bring back "high-value" economic offenders from the West Indies is likely to be concluded by Tuesday (January 29), sources had indicated on Saturday.

The mission involving a long-haul Air India jet, which has been pulled out of the fleet, will carry a team of investigating officers tasked to get hold of the fugitives. The number of "assets" being targeted is not yet known, though both Choksi and Mehta have taken citizenship in the Caribbeans.

The officials are tight-lipped but are on stand-by. Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place.

Mehta became a citizen of St Kitts and Nevis some years ago, while Choksi took Antigua and Barbuda citizenship recently. These islands provide visa-free travel to 132 countries. Both St. Kitts and Antigua have airfields that can accommodate wide-body aircraft. It is not clear if they would be picked from one location or multiple destinations.

The lack of extradition treaties has made these islands a safe haven for India's uber rich. Other countries such as Grenada, St Lucia and Dominica also have similar citizenship by investment programmes.

Dominica and St Lucia give citizenship and a valid passport for just $100,000 (over Rs 70 lakh), which is chump change for ultra-rich Indians on the run.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday watched film "Uri: The Surgical Strike" with war veterans at a Bengaluru mall.

"What a power-packed movie... Brilliant performances Yami Gautam, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Mohit Raina. Recharged also by the energy in the cinema hall! #HighJosh," Sitharaman tweeted.

In a series of tweets, the Defence Minister shared videos of her movie-viewing experience along with veterans at a mall in the city's southeastern suburb.

Directed by Aditya Dhar, the film, featuring Vicky, Yami, Paresh and Mohit, is based on the September 2016 attack by armed militants near the town of Uri in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Defence Minister also tweeted a video of her repeating a famous line from the film, "How's the josh?", as the audience screamed "High sir".

--IANS

bha/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The new year begins for India on a note of achievement as far as our international relations go and also significant success in checkmating the designs of an adversary next door -- the Pak Army-ISI combine -- who had been relentless in pursuing their proxy war against India using cross-border terrorism as its principal weapon. The present regime in India has been notably smooth in securing for the country a newfound recognition as a world power known to be actively contributing to global peace and economic advancement with a forthright approach of opting for bilateral relations based on mutual economic and security interests. Consolidation of our dealings with SAARC, growth of a strategic partnership with the US and Japan to work for the maritime freedom in the Indo- Pacific region and the security of the Indian Ocean in the backdrop of aggressive manoeuvres of China there and the convergence struck by India with the democratic world in general and US in particular against the rise of terror in the name of Islam, can be flagged as valuable upshots of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign and security policy.

However, it is ironic though not surprising that even as India has been pretty successful in isolating Pakistan in the international community as the breeder of Islamic extremism and terror, the threats to India's internal security have hardened at the turn of the year. There are three strategic paradigms that are creating a disquieting scenario for India for the period ahead. One is the ongoing challenge of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir that began in its current form in the early Nineties when Pakistan's ISI, enthused by the credit it got for the success of the anti-Soviet armed campaign conducted on the war cry of Jehad in Afghanistan, planned to replicate the Afghan Jehad in Kashmir by pumping in Mujahideen into the Valley from across the LoC.

This was the start of an irreversible process of subversion on the call of Jehad superseding the earlier political slogans of plebiscite and azadi. Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir fronting the Hurriyat was soon to show up for what it really was -- a bunch of Pak agents. And the Centre had to give up the earlier attempt at bringing the Hurriyat around by talking to them. The Valley-based political parties have copied the Hurriyat in not saying a word against the infiltration of terrorists by Pakistan and are now even upholding the locals who were recruited by the Pak ISI as terrorists specifically for the purpose of attacking our security forces. The policy of the Centre that talks with Pakistan cannot be resumed unless that country renounced cross-border terrorism stands fully vindicated. The Centre would be willing to talk to our own people in Kashmir who had all the freedom to criticise the former for any unfulfilled demands but the 'fifth column' on our side need not be treated with gloved hands any more.

A second development that is aggravating the threat scenario for India is linked to the changing contours of the 'war on terror' which was essentially a deep-seated conflict between the US-led West and the Islamic radicals of Al Qaeda-Taliban axis unravelled by 9/11. Although India was ahead of Pakistan in coming on board with the US-led 'world coalition' against the new global terror, Pakistan stepped up its own proxy war against this country with the help of India-specific militant outfits under its control exploiting its leverage with the US as a 'frontline ally' in the 'war on terror'. Years later it has come out that the Pakistan army was merely hoodwinking the US about fighting the Al Qaeda-Taliban combine which led President Donald Trump to suspend financial aid to Pakistan and put an end to his predecessor's policy of making a distinction between 'good terrorists' and 'bad terrorists'. With passage of time, the US realised that the 'war on terror' had failed to achieve its objective of getting the 'moderates' in the Muslim world to fight the Islamic radicals at home and pushing forth the cause of democracy there.

Pakistan's response to President Trump's criticism for its failure to deny safe havens to terrorists on its soil was a recalcitrant public statement from Prime Minister Imran Khan to the effect that Pakistan had no business to fight the 'American war'. Imran's regime is a fig leaf for the Pak army whose agenda was served by the rise of Pakistan as the fulcrum of faith-based terror that found validation in the name of Jehad. Pakistan is determined to pursue its low cost option of destabilising Kashmir through terrorism -- in 2018 the attempts to infiltrate militants under cover fire at the LoC doubled over those in the previous year. It will accelerate its efforts to recruit locals encouraged by the silence of parties in the Valley on the issue of cross-border terrorism. The J&K administration and police are still not doing enough to identify the ring leaders who were recruiting stone pelters and gunmen on behalf of Pak ISI.

And finally, a new dimension of the covert offensive of Pakistan is its unabashed attempts to enlarge the Kashmir issue into a narrative of 'mistreatment of the Muslim minority' in India and join in the chorus of opposition here that harped on the sense of 'insecurity' allegedly prevailing in the community under the Modi regime. It is no surprise that Pakistan is fishing in the troubled waters of India's domestic in the run-up to the general election. The national security concern in this is the likelihood of increased radicalisation and stepping up of the ISI's operations for raising sleeper cells of terror in different parts of the country. The recent busting of a 10-member module spread across Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, whose handlers were in Pakistan, highlights this danger. There is also a likelihood of communal tensions brewing in the country in the post-election period regardless of the poll results and this will call for greater alertness on the part of local authorities.

The security problem of India attributable to Pakistan cannot be dislinked from the China-Pak military alliance that now traverses the CPEC and finds reflection in the resolute opposition of China to the proposal of the UN Security Council to name Pak-based militant leaders as 'international terrorists', stance of China on Kashmir and the Chinese attempt to collude with Pakistan on the Afghan issue. Post-Doklam, China is consolidating the role of the Peoples Liberation Army across the LAC. Dealing with the Sino- Pak hostility on our borders and elsewhere in our neighbourhood remains a major focus of our national security strategy in the year ahead.

(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)

--IANS

pathak/am

(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's co-brother Daggubati Venkateswara Rao on Sunday met YSR Congress President Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy and decided to work with the opposition party.

Venkateswara Rao, whose wife D. Purandeswari is with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), met Jaganmohan Reddy at the latter's Lotus Pond residence here. He was accompanied by his son Hitesh Chenchuram, who is an aspirant for a YSR Congress ticket for the ensuing elections to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

Venkateswara Rao, the eldest son-in-law of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao, told reporters that they discussed working with the YSR Congress. He said they would make an announcement soon on joining the party.

He also made it clear that Purandeswari will remain in the BJP. "She will remain with the party or retire from That is her personal decision," he said.

Purandeswari was a Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet before switching loyalties to the BJP after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Venkateswara Rao was not active in since 2014.

The decision of Venkateswara Rao and his son to join the YSR Congress is the latest political twist in the NTR family. As Venkateswara Rao is known as an arch rival of Chandrababu Naidu, his induction in the YSR Congress would be significant for the party ahead of the simultaneous polls to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Lok Sabha.

Venkateswara Rao had joined the TDP soon after actor-turned-politician NTR floated it in 1983. The same year he was elected to the state Assembly and was re-elected in 1985. He also served as a minister in NTR's Cabinet. In 1991, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bapatla constituency.

In 1995, a few months after the TDP returned to power in Andhra Pradesh, Venkateswara Rao sided with Chandrababu Naidu in the revolt against NTR but returned to the latter's camp a few weeks later when Naidu sidelined him.

After NTR's death in 1996, he along with NTR's second wife Lakshmi Parvathi founded a new party -- NTR TDP. However, the party failed to make any impact on state

In 1999, he joined hands with NTR's son Harikrishna to launch a new party called Anna TDP. This experience also proved a disaster as it drew a blank in the elections.

In 2004, he along with Purandeswari joined the Congress. He was elected to the Assembly from Purchur while Purandeswari was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bapatla. She became a minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Purandeswari joined the BJP and contested unsuccessfully for the Lok Sabha but her husband had since been staying away from active politics.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP feels that Priyanka Gandhi's appointment as Congress incharge of eastern Uttar Pradesh will be beneficial to it in the fight against the SP-BSP alliance in the coming Lok Sabha polls and that it is better prepared to take on the opposition than it was in 2014.

The party is also aiming at winning nearly half the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal and Odisha and is optimistic about again forming alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharasthra.

BJP leaders said that the party was better prepared to take on the opposition in Uttar Pradesh compared to 2014 due to stronger booth-level presence and the work done by the Modi government over the past five years.

They also made light of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party saying that a buzz was sought to be created when SP and Congress had come together during the 2017 assembly polls but the alliance failed.

However, they also said that Congress gaining credibility or improving its prospects in the state due to appointment of Priyanka Gandhi as Congress general secretary in charge of Eastern Uttar Pradesh will benefit the party against the gathbanthan (alliance).

Priyanka Gandhi's appointment came days after Congress was left out from the alliance announced by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. The Congress has announced that it will contest all 80 seats in the state but has kept the window of an understanding open.

The BJP had done very well in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, winning 71 seats with two seats going to its ally, and party leaders said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would again contest from Varanasi.

BJP leaders did not rule out the possibility of Modi contesting from another seat and said a decision is expected to be taken once the Lok Sabha campaign picks up pace. There have been demands from some Congress workers that Priyanka Gandhi should contest against Modi from Varanasi.

BJP leaders said while BJP will need to improve its vote share by a small percentage compared to 2014 to get a good outcome, the SP and BSP will need to do more. They said that the opposition has many prime ministerial candidates and "who will be the PM will be most important issue" in the election.

The leaders said that the 2019 election was an "ideological battle", "a very important election' and the party will fight it with more vigour than 2014.

"We were in power in five states in 2014, today we are in 16. The number of party workers has gone up to 11 crore. There are 22 crore beneficiaries of government schemes. We will get full majority and Narendra Modi will again become prime minister in 2019," a party leader said.

The BJP is also focusing on states such as West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala where it had won very few or no seats in 2014 elections.

The party has adopted an aggressive strategy in West Bengal, where it is hoping to win 23 of the 42 seats and is scheduled to hold over 300 rallies in different parts of the state with a big rally in Kolkota in the first week of April. Modi will also address gatherings in the state.

In Odisha, the party is aiming to get at least half of 21 Lok Sabha seats and in Kerala it is aiming to win at least 5 seats.

In Mahrashtra, where Congress and NCP have already reached a broad understanding, BJP leaders expressed confidence about reaching an agreement with Shiv Sena. Party leaders said that they will also take steps to address concerns in the northeast regarding the citizenship amendment bill.

While it is still not clear how many seats BJP will fight on its own, party leaders indicated that the National Democratic Alliance will contest almost all the Lok Sabha seats.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kathmandu, Nepal: Nepal Student Union (NSU), the student wing of the main opposition Nepali Congress, staged street protest against of the government for endorsing the National Medication Education Bill bulldozing the protest of the opposition parties.

Hundreds of thousand NSU cadres come out of the street in Kathmandu even burning effigy of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. NSU cadres come from various campuses in the capital converged into mass protest in Kathmandu. Police had used force against of the protest when NSU cadres burnt effigy of Prime Minister Oli.

The NSU cadres demanded resignation of the Prime Minister Oli on the moral ground for failing to live up the agreement signed with medical reformist Dr. Govinda KC.

The NSU cadres also chanted slogans against the government demanding probe into the wide-body procurement scam and arrest of the perpetrators involved in the rape and murder of Nirmala Pant.American actor Billy Zane has heaped praises on Hollywood star Bradley Cooper's "A Star is Born" and thinks he has proven actors make great directors.

Zane told BANG Showbiz: "Bradley did a phenomenal job, I think actors do make great directors because they understand how to shoot emotion.

"The first hour of that movie takes place in hotels and parking lots but you're completely engrossed in behaviour and subtlety and nuance and improvisation, and two people who are talking to each other, falling in love. He captured that in a very efficient and elegant and easy way, with very smart two-camera coverage,

"It was intelligent, it was subtle and it wasn't chasing results."

The "Waltzing with Brando" actor believes "A Star is Born" is "great testament" to Bradley transferring his skills from actor to director as he thinks he's achieved something a more experienced filmmaker may not necessarily have done, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

He said: "I think a storyteller that might not be as well versed in the finer currents and notes of discourse that an actor, who spends their career and time observing with themselves and with others.

"I think that movie is a great testament to that fact and that you don't need a huge budget to create emotional investment on that scale."

Zane also praised Cooper's co-star in the movie, Lady Gaga.

--IANS

dc/sim

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The West Bengal CID has unearthed a Pakistan-based racket of cheating gullible people in India in the name of lottery prizes, and arrested two top officials of a beverage company here for their involvement as agents of the racketeers, an official said here on Sunday.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official said the matter came to light after the probe agency lodged a suo motu case in Egra Police Station of East Midnapore district on January 13.

"The allegations in FIR are that certain Pakistan based racketeers are cheating gullible people in West Bengal and other places in India in the name of lottery prizes.

"People are informed by numbers starting with +92/ 0092 through phone/ WhatsApp by racketeers that they have won huge amounts in lottery prizes which would be given on payment of "processing fees'.

"Once these fees are deposited in bank accounts, the same is quickly withdrawn by agents of racketeers in India and later sent abroad through various hawala channels and exports, etc.," the official said.

During the probe, role of some officials of Kolkata-headquartered Pran Beverages (India) Pvt Ltd in receiving and transferring funds abroad through various means surfaced.

On Friday, CID officials arrested two officials of the company Rajesh Ghosh and Bidhan Kirtaniya for their alleged involvement in the case.

While 44-year-old Ghosh is a Director, Kirtaniya (38) is the Manager, Sales Administration of the company.

They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act related to offences of cheating, receiving and concealing stolen property.

The two were produced before the Contai court which sent them to police custody.

Searches have also been conducted in the residential premises of the accused and the company's head office at Chinar Park, New Town and several incriminating documents seized.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four to five armed robbers struck at an upscale farm house here on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday and looted cash, jewellery, expensive watches, a car and mobile phones of owner and his employees, police said.

The robbers struck at farm house number 7/8-CL located at Ansal Aravalli Retreat under Raisina zone around 12.05 a.m, according to the police.

An FIR has been registered at Bhondsi Police Station in this regard.

"The robbers carrying country-made pistols jumped the wall of our premises and took me, my wife and three staff members hostage on gun point. They also thrashed us and tied our hand with mufflers. They snatched my wallet containing Rs 45,000, apart from some important documents including driving licence and Aadhaar card," said Jitender Thakran, the victim who took the farm house on lease for 9 years in August 2016.

Besides Thakran, the robbers also snatched his wife Meena Thakran's wallet containing Rs 10,000, Rs 13,000 from his business friend Dinesh, four expensive mobile phones, a gold chain, two gold rings and three-month-old Maruti S-Cross car.

Ansal Aravalli Retreat is known for its farm houses, dense forest area and natural habitat of leopards.

Rajesh Wats, a former RWA president of Ansal Aravalli Retreat, said: "This was sixth case of robbery in the last four months in the area having over 675 farm houses and 300 of them are occupied by residents.

"It could be an act of some Mewat-based gang which strike around mid-might. One such incident was reported in my farm house as well on October 26, 2018," Wats said.

"We have registered an FIR against five persons and an investigation is underway. The faces of accused were covered with monkey caps. We have collected CCTV footage and DVR and analyzing it to get some clues," said Subhash Bokan, PRO of Gurugram police.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Weekend tourist rush to enjoy snowy landscapes in Himachal Pradesh, slippery roads and lack of traffic management in picturesque resorts of Kufri, Fagu and Charabra have brought these picnic destinations to a halt - quite literally.

The result: Long traffic gridlocks adding to the problem of the commuters, mainly locals.

So what to do?

If you are heading to tourists spots near Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda, where the traffic was restored partially on Saturday after five days of closure, leave your car behind in Shimla.

Hire a public transport bus or a local taxi to go there as the local drivers are trained to drive on slippery snow-laden roads.

Also check weather conditions when venturing out on the high hills as chances of snapping of road links are high.

Areas near Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda and popular tourist resorts of Manali and Dalhousie are covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Snow could be seen in certain areas of Shimla like the Mall Road, the Ridge, the US Club and Jakhu hills.

"It took two hours for me to cover just 13 km between Kufri and Shimla on Saturday due to traffic mismanagement and slippery road conditions," Himkiran Manta, a resident of Shimla, told IANS.

He said tourists were responsible for most of the traffic jams.

"Since the tourists are not adaptive to driving vehicles on snow-laden roads, they often create unnecessary traffic jams by getting their vehicles struck," he said.

Manta, along with his family, was held up in Rohru, some 120 km from here, for the past five days after closure of road links due to snowfall.

He said the roads were partially reopened but were still treacherous owing to slippery conditions and early morning frost.

Shimla Deputy Commissioner Amit Kashyap has asked tourists to avoid travelling in their vehicles beyond Shimla as the road is slippery after the snowfall.

"We are advising the motorists, especially the tourists, to park their vehicles at Dhalli and use public transport to reach Kufri and its nearby destinations," he told IANS.

Officials said roads in the higher reaches of Kinnaur, Shimla, Chamba, Mandi, Kullu and Sirmaur districts were severely hit by heavy snowfall and work was on to reopen these.

In the state capital and other popular tourist resorts like Manali and Dalhousie, internal roads were too slippery for traffic as these were laden with snow. Even walking in the streets was risky.

Although the Shimla Municipal Corporation has cleared the snow on Cart Road and some VIP roads, most of the other roads have not been cleared yet.

Due to slippery condition of roads and pathways in Shimla, many pedestrians, most of them tourists, were getting injuries.

Tourists have been facing much difficulty in Shimla and Manali as most of the parking lots are slippery and covered with good quantity of snow.

"I had to give Rs 1,000 for hiring potters to get my car out of the snow," Rahul Ramachandran, a tourist in Shimla from New Delhi, said.

An avalanche alert has been declared in higher reaches, mainly in Kinnaur, upper areas in Manali and Pangi subdivision of Chamba which experienced heavy snowfall.

The Met Office has forecast more snowfall across the state on January 30.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 27 people were killed and 77 injured on Sunday in twin explosions during Mass at a church in Philippines' Sulu province, police said.

A senior police officer told the media that the blasts hit the Jolo Cathedral at 8.15 am, reports Xinhua news agency.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde said the explosions were caused by improvised (IEDs).

He said onewent off inside the church while athe second one near its entrance.

"It went off one minute apart," Albayalde said.

"We strongly condemn this atrocious act of taking the human lives for whatever purpose the perpetrators may have. The (PNP) together with other government security forces will make sure those who are behind this will be soon identified and put behind bars," he added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack that comes after the holding of a referendum on the creation of a Muslim autonomous region in the south of the country, called Bangsamoro, and conceived as a peaceful solution to decades of separatist conflict provoked by Islamist radicals.

The province of Sulu - whose capital is Jolo - voted against integrating into Bangsamoro, but since it is part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with four other provinces its votes are counted in a block and will belong to this new entity.

In Sulu, several radical groups linked to the Islamic State, such as or the Maute group, have been responsible for bloody attacks in the past.Two pilgrims were killed and 24 others injured on Sunday in an accident in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, police said.

The accident took place on the Jammu-Pathankot highway when the vehicle carrying pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi hit a divider and turned turtle.

"The two victims died on the spot. Of the 24 injured, 18 were sent to the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu city. Some are said to be critical," the police added.

All the pilgrims belonged to Gujarat.

--IANS

sq/ksk/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One more person has died and four others are in critical condition after allegedly consuming 'prasadam' served outside a temple in Karnataka's Chillanallapura district on January 25.

The incident occurred outside the Gangamma Temple in the Chintamani town of the district.

Police said it has taken into custody, a woman who works as a cook at a hotel and had allegedly cooked the 'kesari bath' (halwa), which was served outside temple premises.

28 people were admitted into the hospital on Friday after they complained of discomfort. One woman identified as Kavitha (28) died on Saturday.

Another woman Saraswatamma (55) lost her life and four people are said to be in critical condition in hospital.

Chintamani city police has filed an FIR against accused Amaravati and have taken her into custody for further investigation. The police have sent the samples of the 'prasadam' to the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Temple's priests told police that the 'Kesari bath' was not prepared inside the temple premises but was brought by devotees from outside.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Venezuela on Sunday slammed its defence attache to Washington's decision to recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido as President, labelling his move as "treason".

"To surrender to international interests is an act of treason and cowardice towards the homeland inherited from our liberator Simon Bolivar, so we reject the statements of Colonel Jose Luis Silva, who had served as military attache to the United States," Sputnik quoted the Venezuelan Defence Ministry as stating.

"As the Venezuelan defence attache in the United States, I do not recognize Mr Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela," Silva had announced at the Venezuelan embassy in the United States. He also urged other Venezuelan defence personnel to support Guaido as the President.

The South American nation's dismissal of Silva's move comes amidst political turmoil in the nation.

On January 23, Guaido, the opposition leader and National Assembly President, proclaimed himself as President of Venezuela to crowds of cheering protesters. He was immediately recognised as interim President by the USA.

The elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, labelled it as a coup attempt by the US authorities and severed all ties with the country. Following this, the USA appealed to nations to "pick a side" over the crisis in Venezuela at a UN Security Council meeting on Saturday.

Despite major protests and an ultimatum by most nations to hold fresh elections, Maduro continues to hold on to his post. Countries like Russia and China have backed Maduro while condemning international interference in the nation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a jolt to the Nicolas Maduro-led Venezuelan government, the South American nation's military attache to the United States broke with the regime and asked other armed forces members to recognise Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim president.

"As the Venezuelan defence attache in the United States, I do not recognize Mr Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela," Colonel Jose Luis Silva announced, extending his support to Guaido, who is also recognised as interim President by the US and most of its allied countries.

In an appeal to members of the Venezuelan armed forces to support Guaido, Silva said: "My message to all armed forces members, to everyone who carries a gun, is to please let's not attack the people. We are also part of the people, and we've had enough of supporting a government that has betrayed the most basic principles and sold itself to other countries." He was speaking at the Venezuelan embassy in the United States.

This came after US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, rallied for all countries to "pick a side" in the Venezuelan crisis.

"Now, it is time for every other nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you're in league with (Nicolas) Maduro and his mayhem," Pompeo remarked on January 26, labelling Maduro's regime as "illegitimate mafia state".

Venezuela plunged into political crisis last week after Guaido proclaimed himself as President amid throngs of cheering supporters, who called for Maduro to step down. The US first extended its support to Guaido, followed by nations like Canada and the UK. However, countries like Russia and China have shown support for Maduro and slammed the United States for their interference in the nation.

Maduro has since severed all diplomatic ties with the US. He ordered all US diplomatic staff to leave Venezuela, following which the United States pulled all non-emergency staff out from the nation after their initial dismissal of Maduro's move.

Maduro has called the opposition leader a US puppet and accused the US of organizing a coup in Venezuela.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The talks between US and the Afghan Taliban in Qatar were quite successful and "more good news" is expected in the next few days, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday amid reports that the two sides had finalised a draft deal to end the 17-year-old Afghan war.

"Expect more good news in the next few days," Qureshi told the media in Multan's Ameerabad on Sunday. "We want a solution to the problems in Afghanistan. We want to resume trade."

Qureshi said the US-Taliban talks were a "major diplomatic victory".

"Pakistan played a vital role in bringing the US and the Taliban to the negotiation table," he said.

According to Pakistan Today, the draft agreement includes apparent concessions from both sides, with foreign forces to be withdrawn from the country in 18 months from the time of signing of the deal.

Taliban has also offered assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its allies - a key early demand of Washington.

US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad reportedly said the talks should be aimed at reforms and not for a demand by the Taliban to control Afghanistan. He is to head to the Afghan capital to brief President Ashraf Ghani on the six-day talks. The talks were originally scheduled for only two days.

On Saturday evening, Khalilzad hailed "significant progress" in finding a solution to end Afghanistan's long-running war.

"Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues," he tweeted. The envoy, however, added that both sides have a "number of issues left to work out. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and "everything" must include an "intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday Tweeted that he had received "encouraging news" from Khalilzad about the talks.

"The US is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home," Pompeo tweeted. He did not give a timetable for the potential withdrawal of US forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that while there was "progress" at the meetings, reports of an agreement on a ceasefire and talks with Kabul "are not true", Tolo News said.

"Since issues are of critical nature and need comprehensive discussions, therefore it was decided that talks about unresolved matters will resume in similar future meetings," Mujahid said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Guwahati : The 70th Republic Day was celebrated in Manipur at the historic Kangla Fort on Saturday.

Gracing as Chief Guest of the function, Governor Dr. Najma Heptulla unfurled the Tricolour and inspected the guard of honour accorded by a contingent of 5th IRB commanded by Bidyapati Thingbaijam, DSP 9th IRB (Mahila).

The Manipur Governor took salute from 73 marching contingents including nine band contingents and various school contingents led by Parade Commander Thaimei Gaipuiril Kabui, Assistant Director, MPTC.

Altogether 20 cultural troupes from various communities and organisations across the state showcased their mesmerizing cultural performances.

A total of 18 tableaux of various Departments including Forest, Manipur Fire Service, DIPR, Education, Social Welfare, Health among others also showcased their departmental activities and services for the welfare of the people of the State. Giant gates were erected along the March past routes by various departments.

The Manipur Governor handed over the President's Police Medal for Distinguish Service to Thangkhanlal Guite, ADGP (Modernisation) and Police Medal for Meritorious Service to K. Ajitkumar Sharma, Addl. SP, Jiribam, Rudra Narayan Singh, Inspector, CID (SB), E. Bhubaneshwor Singh, Inspector, CID (SB), Yambem Anderson, Subedar of MPTC, Pebam Inaoba Singh, Havildar, 2nd IRB, Shri Kh. Indrakumar Singh, Havildar, 7th MR and Kh. Suranjoy Singh Havildar, MPTC.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh delivering vote of thanks at 1st MR Battalion Ground assured the people of the State that the State government stands for the protection and integrity of the people of Manipur.

He said the Government will not take up any steps that will affect the sentiments of different ethnic communities living harmoniously in the state. He also maintained that the government will not remain silent if there are any elements in the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that will cause threat to the integrity of the indigenous people of Manipur.

The Manipur CM appealed to the people to thoroughly familiar with the contents of the bill before resorting to any forms of protests. He urged the people not to resort to any kinds of agitations like bandhs, blockades, strikes, etc. especially in Imphal as it hampers the economic development of the entire state.

He reiterated that the Home Ministry has given assurance that the bill will not be implemented in the States without the prior consent of the State Government.

The Manipur CM urged all civil society organisations of the State for open dialogue and discussions along with legal experts. The State government took a decision regarding the introduction of the Manipur Peoples Bill in the State Assembly so that the Centre Government may not take up anything without prior consent of the state government in connection with CAB, he added.

It may be mentioned that Republic Day were celebrated in all the District Headquarters of the State.

Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar Singh, Cabinet Ministers, MLAs, top civil and police officers and others attended the celebration.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)The UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, who will be conducting an international probe into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on Sunday said that she has not yet received any reply from the Saudi authorities.

Al Jazeera reported that Callamard on Saturday requested the authorities seeking access into Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and to visit the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"I conceive of this inquiry to be a necessary step, among a number of others, towards crucial truth-telling about and formal accountability for the gruesome killing of Mr. Khashoggi," said Callamard.

Callamard, who is expected to visit Turkey from January 28 to February 2, had said earlier this week that a team of three people, comprising legal and forensic experts, will seek to establish "states' and individuals' responsibilities" for the killing.

Khashoggi, a journalist for Washington Post, was killed in the Saudi consular premises in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2 last year.

Since then, Saudi Arabia, while acknowledging the gruesome killing, has started trial against 11 suspects, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty for five of the accused, a trial which has been slammed by the UN Human Rights Council as "insufficient."

There has also been a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report which points towards the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The allegations against the Crown Prince, also known as MBS, have been repeatedly and strongly refuted by Saudi Arabia.

Callamard's findings are expected to be reported to the UN Human Rights Council in June this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Iraqi civilians were shot and wounded by Turkish troops after scores of protesters stormed a Turkish military base in Northern Iraq on Saturday.

Civilians near Duhuk city in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region protested against Turkish air strikes against civilians in the northern part of the country, a senior security official told CNN.

Around 300 protesters attacked the military base in the town of al-Amadiya and set two military tanks ablaze.

Turkey has been conducting air strikes in the Kurdistan region, claiming to be targeting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. Official statistics released by local authorities in the Kurdish region confirmed that the Turkish bombings claimed the lives of 36 people.

Turkey has long fought the PKK, a banned Kurdish group who are responsible for major terror attacks in Turkey as part of its push for autonomy. Both the United Nations and the United States have branded the PKK a terrorist group.

Turkey's Defence Ministry took note of the incident and tweeted: "In northern Iraq there is an attack on a base as a result of PKK terror organizations provocation. There is partial damage on vehicles and equipment. Necessary precautions have been taken."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Anadolu Agency that Turkish warplanes and drones were used to disperse the protesters after the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday announced that the party will fight upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 14 States including Odisha.

Addressing media persons here, TMC leader Derek O'Brien said: "We are ready to fight elections. The TMC will fight coming Lok Sabha polls in 14 states including Odisha. January 19 was a historic day as all anti-BJP parties united on that day. In 2019, the BJP will be finished."

While talking about West Bengal, the TMC leader said: "In West Bengal, we will fight on 42 Lok Sabha seats."

In December last year, while addressing an event in Mumbai the BJP president Amit Shah had said that the party was aiming to win 23 seats out of the 42 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won only two seats--Asansol and Darjeeling--in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court has cancelled the hearing in the Ayodhya title suit case slated for January 29 by a five-judge bench due to the unavailability of one of the judges, Justice SA Bobde.

On Friday, the apex court had constituted a new five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Abdul Nazeer, Justice SA Bobde and Justice DY Chandrachud.

Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Abdul Nazeer were brought in to replace Justice UU Lalit and Justice NV Ramana as both of them were a part of the three-judge bench, headed by former CJI Deepak Misra, which refused to refer the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench by a 2:1 verdict in September last year.

The three-judge bench had ruled that the apex court would hear the issue purely as a "land dispute," dismissing a plea to reconsider the apex court's 1994 judgement that a mosque was an integral part of Islam.

On January 10, the Supreme Court had fixed January 29 as the next date for hearing after Justice UU Lalit recused himself from hearing the case, after advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for one of the Muslim parties, pointed out that Justice Lalit had appeared for Kalyan Singh in a related case.

However, Dhavan clarified that he was not requesting that Justice Lalit should recuse himself from hearing the case but was only bringing it to the notice of the apex court.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for one of the Hindu parties, said that there was no problem if Justice Lalit continued to hear the matter but the latter recused himself from hearing the case.

The bench in its order had said that there are 120 issues framed by the Allahabad High Court, 88 witnesses, testimonies running into 13,886 pages, 257 other documents, High Court judgment into 4,304 printed pages and 8,533 typed pages, and original records lying in 15 sealed trunks in a locked room.

The case has been pending before the apex court for the last eight years. Parties in the case and various right-wing organisations have been asking for an early or day-to-day hearing for a long time.

Last year, the top court had refused to grant an urgent hearing in the matter, saying the court had "other priorities" and posted the matter for hearing in the first week of January this year before the "appropriate bench."

In 2010, the Allahabad High Court had divided the disputed land in Ayodhya into three parts for each of the parties-the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former SSP of Moga Charanjit Singh Sharma, who was wanted in the 2015 Behbal Kalan firing, was arrested on Sunday morning from his house here. Two persons had allegedly died in the police firing.

"Special Investigation Team has arrested Charanjit Singh, the then SSP Moga, related to Behbal Khan firing case today. Substantial evidence against him has been found in the case," Inspector General of Police (IG) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh told ANI.

"His role in the case is a matter of investigation. There are many things disclosed now in the case and many more to come. He has been arrested under Section 302 based on the statements on the case file and evidence," Singh added.

Giving further details, the IGP said: "A notice was given to Charanjit to be present on January 29. But he was unavailable. Police got the information that he has been planning to flee abroad".

According to Singh, the police arrested Charanjit Singh from Hoshiarpur in the early hours today.

In 2015, a case was filed against unidentified police officials at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot district after two persons were allegedly killed in the police firing during an anti-sacrilege protest.

Later in August 2018, acting on the recommendations of the retired Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, the Punjab Police included names of four police personnel in the FIR.

Names of Provincial Police Services (PPS) officers Charanjit Singh Sharma along with Bikramjit Singh, Pardip Singh and Amarjit Singh were added to the case following the directives of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. (ANI)

In 2015, a case was filed against unidentified police officials at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot district after two persons were killed in police firing during an anti-sacrilege protest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lieutenant Bhavana Kasturi, the first woman officer of the Indian Army to lead an all-men contingent of Army Service Corps (ASC) at the 70th Republic Day Parade, said saluting President Ram Nath Kovind was the most memorable moment of her life.

"The moment when I saluted the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, the President, that was the most memorable moment of my life," she told ANI.

Photos of the young woman officer saluting the President made rounds on social media and were widely tweeted, with Lt Kasturi being lauded for the poise with which she led the contingent.

She said that ASC contingent got the chance to march at Rajpath after 23 years and she is hopeful of getting the best marching contingent award this year.

"Even more memorable was the enthusiasm and satisfaction in the eyes of my Jawans when we finished our parade and reached Red Fort. Hardwork of one year is not a small thing," she said.

She also said that nothing is impossible for women.

"Girls have got so much potential in them and nothing is impossible, one has to never give up and hard work never goes in vain," said Lt. Bhavana Kasturi.

The young woman officer who hails from Hyderabad said that her family was always by her side.

"My family always stood by my side and have always supported me, not only in my success but even in my failures," she said.

Display of women power was among the major highlights of the Republic Day parade this year.

Major Khushboo Kanwar also scripted history on Saturday by leading an all-women contingent of the Assam Rifles in the Parade, while Captain Shikha Surbhi of the Army Signals Corps performed a standing salute on a motorcycle.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia has slammed the United States over the burgeoning political crisis in Venezuela and expressed "regret" that the UN Security Council was being drawn into the "unscrupulous games".

"Today's event convened by the American delegation with the only goal to keep destabilizing the situation in Venezuela by imposing own attitudes and solutions to the problems it (Venezuela) has been faced with recently," TASS quoted Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, as saying at an emergency called by the US.

Nebenzia outlined, "The meeting we all have to attend is another part of the US strategy to change power in Venezuela. We regret that the Security Council is being drawn into those unscrupulous games."

He also lambasted European nations for giving an eight-day ultimatum to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to hold fresh elections, outlining that it undermined the country's sovereignty.

"Unconditionally, crisis are better to be avoided than solved. However, you suggest a specific solution to this crisis, giving an eight-day ultimatum. You totally ignore Venezuela's sovereignty by imposing the solutions suitable to you (on Caracas)," he stated.

"We vehemently condemn those who are pushing Venezuelan society into an abyss of deadly strife," the Russian envoy stressed, adding that Maduro enjoyed "evident support" amongst the people, unlike opposition leader Juan Guaido.

He further dismissed the idea of Maduro seeking Russia's protection amid the crisis. "I don't think he needs our protection. He is the constitutional president, he has his army. I don't think he needs protection."

Nebenzia's comments were made at the same event where the US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, labelled Maduro's regime in Venezuela as an "illegitimate mafia state" and called for all nations to "pick sides" in the crisis.

On January 23, Guaido, the opposition leader and National Assembly President, proclaimed himself as President of Venezuela to crowds of cheering protesters. He was immediately recognised as interim President by the USA.

The elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, labelled it as a coup attempt by the US authorities and severed all ties with the country. Countries like Russia, Bolivia, Iran, and Turkey have extended their support to Maduro and slammed international interference in the South American nation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Researchers from LSTM and Imperial College London have designed drugs which could help combat potential new flu pandemic.

The drugs work by targeting the receptors of the cells by which the virus gains entry to the human body.

In a paper published in the Journal of Immunology the team, led by LSTM's Professor Richard Pleass, show that by engineering a part of an antibody they can target the viral proteins that allow flu to mutate and become deadly to humans.

Global annual influenza outbreaks account for 3,00,000 - 6,50,000 respiratory deaths, mostly in children and the elderly.

Speaking about the study, Professor Pleass explained that influenza vaccines have limited public impact during pandemics, and current influenza vaccines are less efficacious than vaccines for many other infectious diseases. "This is because influenza viruses that circulate in human and animal populations mutate two key viral surface proteins, haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), thus allowing them to escape from protective antibodies produced through natural infection or vaccination," Pleass added.

The study finds that both HA and NA target a sugar called sialic acid, that is found in abundance on the receptors of cells lining the mammalian respiratory tract, which the virus uses to gain entry into the body. The sialic acid-binding contacts on HA and NA do not mutate readily, otherwise the virus would not be able to infect human cells.

The team has engineered antibody Fc fragments with enhanced sialic acid that target these conserved parts of both HA and NA, binding influenza viruses and thus blocking their interactions with human cells.

By targeting sialic acid, these engineered biologicals may also be useful in the control of other pathogens, such as group B streptococci, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycoplasma genitalium, and Newcastle Disease Virus.

Professor Pleass added, "The transfer of antibodies from people recovering from influenza during the 1918 and 2009 pandemics reduced mortality from influenza by 50 per cent and 26 per cent respectively. However, to be useful, these antibody medicines (also called FLU-IVIG) need to be manufactured in advance of future epidemics, which is obviously problematic as there may be modest or little neutralising activity against newly emerging strains. Therefore, combinations of existing medicines, including FLU-IVIG, with sialic acid blockers could increase their efficacy while future-proofing against the next pandemic."

Professor Sara Marshall, Head of Clinical and Physiological Sciences at the Wellcome Trust, who provided funding for this work, said that the study could have really far-reaching impact not only for influenza but as a platform technology to develop new medicines for many other diseases that are currently treated by antibodies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police raided the residence of Indian Revenue Service Officer in Jagatpur area of Jaipur and recovered assets, including cash and jewellery worth crores of rupees.

A team of the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Saturday conducted a raid on the Shankar Vihar residence of IRS officer Sahi Ram Meena and seized documents related to various properties owned by him, police said today.

Meena, currently posted as Deputy Commissioner (Narcotics) in Kota, Rajasthan has been taken into custody.

"A search operation recovered a total of at Rs 2,26,00,098 in cash, jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh, documents related to a flat, a petrol pump, 25 shops and 82 pieces of land and a banquet facility in Jaipur, from the house of Meena," Superintendent of Police, ACB said.

"Search teams have been sent to his other properties. An investigation is underway," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Arulmozhi Saravanan, a Mudra Yojana beneficiary, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday during his visit to the city to lay the foundation stone of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Saravanan, whose thermo flasks were ordered by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) via Government e-Marketplace (GeM), decided to meet the Prime Minister after learning about his visit to the city.

Earlier, when Saravanan learnt about the Central government's Mudra Yojana for small entrepreneurs to get loans without collateral, she had applied for the same and obtained a Mudra loan for her business-to supply simple goods and products to government offices.

When she heard of the GeM, she herself registered on it. In 2017, while browsing the GeM site, Saravanan noticed that the PMO was interested in purchasing a few thermo flasks, which she could supply. She responded, and soon PMO confirmed the order. The flasks were later supplied, and the payment was made to Saravanan.

Saravanan shared this story with Prime Minister Modi, through a letter. The Prime Minister later mentioned it on his 'Mann Ki Baat' programme in mid-2017.

It is worth mentioning that in her letters to PM, she addresses PM Modi as her father.

Thereafter, by supplying products to various offices, her business grew. Recently, she wrote to the Prime Minister again, informing him of the updates in her business, and the transformation in her life.

Interestingly, the turnover of her enterprise has crossed Rs 1 crore in the current financial year. It all started with an order of Rs 234 on GeM.

Saravanan, who earlier used firewood for cooking, now has moved over to a gas cylinder. She is now planning to give up her cooking gas subsidy. Next on her agenda will be a home loan.

She said that her experience using GeM makes her believe that it is a great platform for the government offices to save public money. For her, GeM is now not just a means to a business. She describes it as a service to the nation.

Saravanan also believes that doing business has become easier after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

From Mudra, to GeM to GST, Saravanan, undoubtedly, is just one illustration of how the government's reforms are working on the ground to improve the ease the people's life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Guwahati : A low intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in Manipur Imphal West district on Saturday while the nation celebrated the 70th Republic Day.

According to the reports, the IED was exploded near by a wall of the camp of Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) located at Lamphel area in Imphal West district at around 1 pm.

There is no report of any casualty in the blast.

A top police official said that, suspected militants had planted the IED targeting to security personnel.

Meanwhile, Manipur police and other security agencies have started investigation.

Eight banned militant outfits of the North Eastern region have called for boycott the Republic Day celebrations.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing an NDA rally here on March 3, announced BJP ally JD(U)'s state president Vashisht Narayan Singh on Sunday.

"We will be organising a big political rally in Patna's Gandhi Maidan on March 3. I will not predict the number of people who would attend it but can say that it will be an unprecedented one in the region," said Singh while addressing a press conference here.

Others who will attend the rally include Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan and other senior leaders of NDA.

Singh also said, "We will reach out to people with the details of public welfare works done by the government and urge them to participate in the rally," he said.

BJP state president Nityanand Rai and LJP state president Pashupati Paras were also present at the press conference.

On December 23, BJP president Amit Shah had announced that Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP will contest on six seats in Bihar.

Shah had also informed that his party would contest on 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, while an equal number of seats will go to the Janata Dal(U).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A three-member team of Pakistani officials is to visit India from Sunday for inspection of India's hydroelectric projects on Chenab river, ARY News reported.

The Pakistani delegation will be led by Indus Water Commissioner Mehr Ali Shah. The visit ends on February 1.

The meeting follows their talks held in August last year in Lahore when the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan came to power. The delegation will travel to India through the Wagah border and hold talks under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT).

In the previous round of talks, both sides failed to achieve any progress over the river water dispute.

During the talks, Pakistan had expressed reservations over construction of the 1,000-MW Pakal Dul and 48-MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on two different tributaries of River Chenab by India.

The Indian side led by its water commissioner P.K. Saxena agreed that all issues between the two countries would be resolved under the Indus Water Treaty.

New Delhi later invited the Pakistani side to visit and inspect the two hydro-electric projects.

Pakistani officials will inspect the Lower Kulnai and Pakal Dal projects.

The Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) was formed under Indus Waters Treaty, it includes the Indus commissioners of both the countries. The treaty provides both the commissioners to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan.

Under Article VIII of the treaty, both the commissioners are mandated to undertake, once in every five years, a general tour of inspection of the rivers for ascertaining the facts connected with various developments and works on the rivers on both sides.

The treaty specifies that the waters of three eastern rivers namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, have been reserved for India while that of western rivers, namely Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, are for Pakistan

However, India claims it has unrestricted rights to develop hydroelectric power projects on the western rivers within the specified parameters of design.

Pakistan says that the design of two under-construction hydroelectric projects Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai violate the river water treaty, while the Indian officials insist on their right to build these projects and hold that their design is fully in compliance with the guidelines of the treaty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A delegation of Pakistani officials arrived here on Sunday to attend a general tour of inspection of India's hydroelectric projects on Chenab River, under the Permanent Indus Commission, which is slated to take place between January 28 to 31.

Pakistan's Indus Commissioner, Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Indus Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Saxena, along with their respective advisers will undertake this tour in Chenab basin of Jammu and Kashmir.

This tour is an obligation imposed on both the countries by the Indus Waters Treaty 1960 between India and Pakistan. Under the Treaty, both the Commissioners are mandated to inspect sites and works on both the sides of Indus basin in a block of five years.

Since the signing of the Treaty, a total of 118 such tours on both sides have been undertaken by the Commission. The last tours of the Commission in Pakistan and India were held in July 2013 and September 2014 respectively. So far, no tour could be held in the current five years block which ends in March 2020.

This tour, where the Pakistani officials will be inspecting the Lower Kulnai and Pakal Dal projects, will be followed by the tour of Indian Indus Commissioner to Pakistan, at a mutually convenient date decided between the two Commissioners.

This tour was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of elections of local bodies and Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the previous round of talks, which took place in August, last year when the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan came to power, both sides failed to achieve any progress over the river water dispute.

During the talks, Pakistan had expressed reservations over construction of the 1,000-MW Pakal Dul and 48-MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on two different tributaries of River Chenab by India.

The Indian side led by its water commissioner P.K. Saxena agreed that all issues between the two countries would be resolved under the Indus Water Treaty.

New Delhi later invited the Pakistani side to visit and inspect the two hydro-electric projects.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Islamabad High Court will on Monday hear the bail plea of jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on grounds of his failing health.

The Express Tribune reported that a two-member divisional judge bench, comprising of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhter Kiyani, will also hear a petition seeking suspension of the seven years prison sentence on Sharif pronounced by an accountability court in Lahore in December last year.

Sharif's counsel Khawaja Haris on Saturday filed a petition seeking bail for the former Prime Minister on medical grounds.

The IHC had earlier fixed February 18 to hear appeals of the former Prime Minister, who has been sentenced to seven years jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case. He is incarcerated in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail.

A medical panel last week recommended that Sharif should be shifted to hospital for "optimal management" of his failing health, along with some changes in his medication to treat his high blood pressure and diabetes as well as further tests.

The board in a report added that Sharif has a past medical history of hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease and kidney stone disease.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The stalled Nepal-India petroleum pipeline has been expedited with the Nepal government okaying forest clearance for the project, which is now expected to be completed by April-end, said a Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) official.

The state-owned NOC received the Cabinet's go-ahead to cut trees that lie along the nine kilometre Pathlaiya-Amlekhgunj section of the project.

A Cabinet meeting on January 17 decided to allow the project to cut down around 80,000 trees in the section of Pathlaiya-Amlekhgunj forest route. Of the trees set to be cut down, 6,533 are big trees, an official of the corporation told Kathmandu Post.The Timber Corporation of Nepal, which has been assigned the task of cutting the trees, was issued a 30-day notice last Tuesday.

The 69 km-long pipeline stretches from Amlekhgunj in Nepal to Motihari in India. Pipe laying works on a nine-km stretch in Nepal had stalled due to the forest clearance issue.

"If the project is expedited, it can be completed within two months," said the Nepal Oil Corporation official. Initially, NOC had aimed to begin commercial operations of the pipeline by March. "However, due to the delay in forest clearance, it has been pushed back by a month to April-end."

The pipeline project started on March 9 last year. The ground-breaking of the pipeline project took place more than two decades after the first discussion on the project was held between Nepal and India.

Indian Oil Corporation had proposed construction of a cross-border pipeline in 1995 and signed a memorandum of understanding with NOC at the junior executive level a year later. In 2004, the two sides upgraded the agreement to the chief executive level. However, due to a number of legal hurdles, the project failed to take off.

Indian construction company Likhiya Infrastructures has been awarded the pipeline construction project with the completion deadline of 15 months. Simlesh Limited of Maharashtra, India, is manufacturing the steel pipes being used in the project.

Moti Prabha Infra Tech, another Indian company based in Faridabad, has been upgrading four vertical fuel storage tanks at the Amlekhgunj depot of NOC. These tanks have a combined storage capacity of 13,400 kilolitres. Two of the tanks can hold 3,900 kilolitres each and the other two tanks can hold 1,500 kilolitres and 4,100 kilolitres respectively, said the daily.

Around 200,000-litre diesel can be imported in an hour upon completion of the project. This would also reduce the transportation and leakage costs, which total over Rs 1 billion.

Almost 70 per cent of pipe-laying works of the cross-border pipeline have been completed along the Nepal side, but the pipe-laying works along almost 10-km area that falls within the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and a few other community forests had been halted due to lack of government permission to cut down trees.

The fuel pumping facilities will be located in Motihari, India. NOC plans to conduct a trial of the project by supplying diesel in the first phase.

Nepal and India have invested Indian Rupees 2.75 billion for the project of which the Indian Government is investing Rs 2 billion while the remaining amount will be invested by Nepal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Goa Tamil Sangam has urged Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to name the new Mandovi bridge in Panaji after Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

S. Shivaraman, the General Secretary of all India Tamil Sanga Peravai Association, told ANI that a delegation of the association handed over the appeal letter on behalf of the Goa Tamil Sangam to North Goa MP Shripad Naik on Saturday.

"We, the Goa Tamilians request your good self to kindly consider our proposal to name the new Mandovi bridge as Shri Manohar Parrikar Bridge," read a letter written to Gadkari.

Goa Tamil Sangam claims to be the only association in Goa for the socio and cultural activities for around 10,000 Tamilians in Goa.

"Most of the people in Goa are deeply touched and remembered the good infrastructure and development work carried out by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the great visionary man. Irrespective of the party and political affinity most of them in Goa liked him and pray for his good health and speedy recovery from his acute and chronic medical ailment" read the letter.

Parrikar is suffering from a pancreatic ailment and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, and New York since February last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A two-year-old boy who fell into a 70-feet deep borewell in Kerher Village of Madhya Pradesh's Singrauli has been rescued, officials said on Sunday.

The minor, identified as Aditya Kushwah, allegedly slipped into the deep borewell while playing outside his house.

A rescue team of local administration officials, which rushed to the spot rescued the child.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid tribute to late Shivakumar Swamiji, the pontiff of Sree Siddaganga Matha who recently passed away after a prolonged illness in Karnataka's Tumkur, saying that he had dedicated his entire life to social service, working for the social, educational welfare of scores of people.

"Shivakumar Swamiji was a true follower of Lord Basaveshwar's tenet 'Kayakave Kailash'. During his life spanning 111 years, he strived tirelessly towards social, educational, and economic upliftment of thousands of people," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing the Mann Ki Baat programme.

"I have had fortunate opportunity to be blessed by Swamiji, many a time. In 2007, on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of Sri Sri Sri Shivakumar Swamiji our former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had paid the visit to Tumukur," he added.

Prime Minister Modi also urged the young generation to register themselves as voters as Lok Sabha elections are just around the corner. In his podcast, the PM stated: "This year, our country will undergo Lok Sabha elections. First time ever, young persons born in the 21st Century to exercise their Right to Vote in Lok Sabha Elections. I urge young generation to register themselves as voters if they are eligible."

The Prime Minister also lauded the Election Commission of India (ECI) for conducting massive elections in India and making efforts to strengthen India's democracy.

He also praised ECI for setting up a polling booth in Gir forest for just one voter. "You must have heard about Gujarat, in Gir forest, a polling booth was set up just for 1 voter. When I listen to these things, it is very natural to be proud of the Election Commission."

"I urge eminent people of the country to come forward and jointly contribute in campaigning for spreading awareness on voter registration and casting one's vote on the day of polling," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Modi on Sunday paid tribute to late Shivakumar Swamiji, the pontiff of Sree Siddaganga Matha who recently passed away after a prolonged illness in Karnataka's Tumkur, saying that he had dedicated his entire life to social service, working for the social, educational welfare of scores of people.

"Shivakumar Swamiji was a true follower of Lord Basaveshwar's tenet 'Kayakave Kailash'. During his life spanning 111 years, he strived tirelessly towards social, educational, and economic upliftment of thousands of people," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing the programme.

"I have had fortunate opportunity to be blessed by Swamiji, many a time. In 2007, on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of Sri Sri Sri Shivakumar Swamiji our former Dr APJ had paid the visit to Tumukur," he added.

Prime Minister Modi also urged the young generation to register themselves as voters as Lok Sabha elections are just around the corner. In his podcast, the PM stated: "This year, our country will undergo Lok Sabha elections. First time ever, young persons born in the 21st Century to exercise their Right to Vote in Lok Sabha Elections. I urge young generation to register themselves as voters if they are eligible."

The Prime Minister also lauded the of (ECI) for conducting massive elections in and making efforts to strengthen India's democracy.

He also praised ECI for setting up a polling booth in for just one voter. "You must have heard about Gujarat, in Gir forest, a polling booth was set up just for 1 voter. When I listen to these things, it is very natural to be proud of the "

"I urge eminent people of the country to come forward and jointly contribute in campaigning for spreading awareness on voter registration and casting one's vote on the day of polling," he added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded scientists in the country saying, "Today, our space programme is powered by several young scientists".

"We must take pride in the fact that the satellites developed by our students are reaching the space today. On 24 January Kalam SAT, created by our students, was launched," he added.

Addressing the first Mann Ki Baat of 2019, the Prime Minister expressed pride and said that India has also created a world record for launching 104 satellites simultaneously from the same spacecraft.

He said that the country will soon register India's presence on the moon through the Chandrayaan-2 campaign.

India successfully launched its 46th flight of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) carrying Kalam SAT, a communication satellite developed by students and India's military satellite Microsat-R from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The launch of the satellite is said to be unique as PSLV-C44 fourth stage was re-used automatically to launch Kalamsat payload and Microsat-R satellite into space from the First Launch Pad (FLP). PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages.The PSLV with two strap-on configuration was identified for this mission and the configuration is designated as PSLV-DL.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Guwahati : Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal joined the nation in celebrating the 70th Republic Day by offering floral tribute to the martyrs at the martyrs column at Shradhanjali Kanan in Guwahati on Saturday.

He also offered floral tribute at the portrait of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika at the venue.

The Assam CM speaking on the occasion urged the people to work with compassion for the humanity at large.

Stating the 70th Republic Day very significant for Assam due to the Union Governments decision to confer Bharat Ratna on Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Sonowal thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling a long standing demand of the people of the state.

Moreover saying that the Governments decision to confer the highest civilian award of the country to the maestro makes the people of Assam happy and proud, Sonowal made a call to the people of the state to follow his humanitarian values and work for humanity with compassion and commitment.

Sonowal also congratulated eminent physicist Dr. Illias Ali and innovator Uddhav Bharali, who have also been conferred with Padma Shri Awards.

The Assam CM also attended the central celebration of 70th Republic Day of the State Government held at Veterinary College Playground at Khanapara today.

Sonowal alongwith the Governor of Assam Prof. Jagdish Mukhi, presented the Republic Day Journalism Award to veteran journalist Dhirendra Nath Chakraborty on the occasion.

The award introduced by the Information & Public Relations Department in 2017 carries a citation, a japi, sharai, gamosa and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday said he is open for talks with the international community, especially with United States President Donald Trump, over the ongoing political crisis in the South American nation.

During an interview with CNN Turk on Sunday, Maduro urged member countries of the European Union, including Spain, France and Germany, to withdraw their ultimatum calling for re-elections in Venezuela within the next eight days.

Maduro said that opposition leader Juan Guaido had breached the constitution by declaring himself to be the Interim President of the nation last week.

The US, which has recognized Guaido as leader, had on Saturday urged the to "pick a side" on Venezuela and financially disconnect from Maduro's government.

On Saturday, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom called on President Maduro to hold a "free and transparent" snap election. If he fails to do so within eight days, they threatened to recognise Juan Guaido as the country's interim president, following Washington's move.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Authorities on Sunday (local time) arrested Dakota Theriot, the 21-year-old accused of shooting five people in Louisiana, from Richmond County, Virginia.

A joint statement from the Ascension Parish sheriff's office and the Livingston Parish sheriff's office confirmed that Dakota had been on the run for a night after he emerged as the prime suspect behind the killings of his parents, girlfriend, her father and brother in two separate shootings on Saturday, CNN reported.

He was arrested from a relative's home, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan B. Smith stated.

"He seemed a little tired, a little worn," Smith added.

The relatives were returning home at around 8 am after staying the night at a motel, Smith said, adding that they were with a Richmond County Sheriff's Office escort. Coincidentally, Dakota arrived at the house while deputies were present there.

Saturday's shootings took place in Livingstone and Ascension, south of the state capital Baton Rouge.

Dakota's parents Elizabeth and Keith, both 50 years old, were at their house in Gonzalez Town, Ascension when they were killed. Keith was still alive when authorities reached the house, who confirmed it was his son who shot them.

Dakota's girlfriend, Summer Earnest, and her family members were found dead in a house in the neighbouring Livingston Parish. She was found dead along with her father, 43-year-old Billy Earnest, and brother, 17-year-old Tanner Earnest, authorities confirmed.

Dakota had been dating Summer and was living at her house for several weeks before he was asked to leave and never return, authorities say.

Authorities believe that a "boyfriend-girlfriend type of dispute" was the reason behind the shootings.

Dakota will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder, illegal use of weapons and home invasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The police have launched investigations after nine Japanese firms received threatening letters demanding money and containing a white powdery material, believed to be cyanide.

Six pharmaceutical companies and the Tokyo headquarters of The Mainichi Newspapers received the letters, according to The Japan Times.

The letters demand a payment of 35 million won in bitcoins, failing which the toxic material may be used for indiscriminate killings.

"I will make fake medicine containing potassium cyanide and distribute it. Send 35 million won (USD 31,300) in bitcoins by February 22. If not, a tragedy will happen," local authorities quoted the letters as saying.

The names of the other two companies - another pharmaceutical company based out of Osaka and a food company - have not been revealed by the police, even though investigations are underway.

The letters were sent under different names, including that of executed Aum Shinrikyo cult leader, Shoko Asahara.

Shoko was executed in July last year, after being convicted of masterminding the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, which killed over 10 people and wounded dozens, amongst other murders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)New Delhi (India) Jan 27 (ANI) In a bid to enhance its unmanned warfare capability, the Indian Air Force is planning to acquire around 15 more HAROP attack drones which can crash into high-value enemy military targets to destroy them completely.

The Air Force already has an inventory of these drones which are equipped with electro-optical sensors to loiter over high-value military targets such as surveillance bases and radar stations before exploding them.

"A proposal to acquire these attack drones is expected to be discussed by the Defence Ministry at a high-level meeting in the coming week to strengthen the fleet of such drones in the Air Force," Defence sources told ANI.

Once approved, the Indian Air Force would be exercising the option clause in the previous deal signed a few years ago with Israel which is the main supplier of all types of drones to the Indian Air Force including the surveillance machines including the Searcher and the Heron.

India is also discussing the Project Cheetah with the Israelis under which almost all the drones of the three services would be turned into high-quality attack drones and their surveillance capabilities would also be enhanced.

The three forces have a fleet of more than 100 of these unmanned aerial vehicles which have been acquired over the years in different batches.

The forces are also working on developing indigenous combat drones which would be deployed on both the China and Pakistan border once the project is complete.

Americans have been using the combat drones to carry out targeted assassinations of terrorist leaders in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan but the relatively slow unmanned vehicles are not known to be very effective in warfare where the opposition also has a strong air force.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Pakistan are in touch over the cross-border Kartarpur corridor and New Delhi has appointed a point person for it, Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria has said.

Speaking to reporters at an event he hosted on the occasion of India's Republic Day on Saturday, Bisaria said the Indian government has consented to the basic points about the Kartarpur corridor except for its Zero point.

"Because of general elections in India, the bilateral political contacts might be difficult for now," Bisaria said, adding that however, building trust was essential before any political dialogue between the two countries, the Express Tribune reported.

He said both the countries were in contact over the Kartarpur corridor. "So many meetings have taken place on this matter," Bisaria said. He added that a delegation from the Pakistani water commission is to visit India on Sunday.

The Republic Day event was attended by political leaders, parliamentarians, Islamabad-based diplomats and civil society representatives.

Bisaria said that 2019 marked the 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. On the occasion, a short film on Gandhi was also screened.

The ambassador said that Pakistan and India both started their journeys as independent states together. And this year Baba Guru Nanak's birth anniversary would be celebrated in both the countries.

The Indian government on the eve of Guru Purab on November 22 last year approved construction of the Kartarpur Corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the India-Pakistan international border. The Kartarpur route along India-Pakistan border is three kilometres away from Gurdaspur in Punjab. Once functional, the corridor would allow Sikh pilgrims direct access to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where Guru Nanak died in 1539.

On Tuesday, India shared the coordinates of the Zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International border with Pakistan.

India has also proposed two sets of dates i.e. February 26 and March 7 for the visit of a Pakistani delegation to New Delhi to discuss and finalise the modalities.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that India is trying to complete its part of the Kartarpur Corridor work before Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman watched Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam-starrer 'Uri

"What a power-packed movie @AdityaDharFilms and @RonnieScrewvala. Brilliant performances @yamigautam @vickykaushal09 @SirPareshRawal ji, @mohituraina. Recharged also by the energy in the cinema hall! #HighJosh," Sitharaman tweeted after watching the film.

In a video shared by the Defence Minister, she can be seen encouraging the audience in the theatre while saying the popular catchphrase "How's the josh" from the film.

The film, which released on January 11, has impressed the audience and collected Rs 148.18 crore till Saturday.

The film is based on the 2016 Indian Army's surgical strikes in Pakistan following the attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri town.

While the numbers speak for themselves, the success of the film is evident as the film's catchphrase "How's the Josh" has managed to take the internet by storm. The trend is being followed by everybody from children to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI officer-in-charge who lodged FIR in the alleged irregularities pertaining to the sanctioning of loans by the ICICI bank, has been transferred out.

The development took place a day after CBI booked former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar, her husband and others in the case.

Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra, who was Superintendent of Police (SP) of Banking and Securities Fraud Cell of CBI, Delhi, was transferred to CBI's Economic Offences Branch in Ranchi, Jharkhand.



He had signed FIR against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Venugopal Dhoot and others on January 22 in connection with ICICI-Videocon case.

On January 24, CBI booked former Chanda Kochhar, her businessman husband and Videocon MD Venugopal Dhoot in a case of alleged irregularities in the sanctioning of loans by the ICICI bank.

Kochhar had quit the ICICI on October 4 last year in the wake of allegations that she had favoured Videocon in the lending processes because the consumer electronics company's founders had invested in a company of her husband

The CBI filed cases against the three along with some others after conducting raids at four premises in Maharashtra, the investigating agency had said.

The preliminary enquiry apparently showed that from June 2009 to October 2011, ICICI Bank had allegedly sanctioned six high-value loans to various Videocon Group companies, CBI sources said.

Chanda Kochhar had taken over the post of the Managing Director of the ICICI Bank on May 1, 2009.

The companies M/S Nupower Renewables Limited (NRL) and M/S Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL) have also been named in the case registered by CBI.

It is alleged that SEPL was initially incorporated by Dhoot and his associate Vasant Kakade and the ownership of the company was later transferred to by selling the shares of the company to Pinnacle Energy Trust (PET) which was owned by Kochhar.

It was also alleged that Dhoot had invested a large amount of funds in Deepak Kochhar-owned Nupower months after the Videocon group received Rs 3,250 crore as loan from the ICICI Bank in 2012.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday confirmed the firing of the country's ambassador to China over comments on the US' request to extradite executive Meng Wangzhou.

In a statement, Trudeau stated he had sought and received the resignation of Ambassador John McCallum, a report on South China Morning Post, in partnership with POLITICO, confirmed.

The sacking comes after McCallum criticised the US' request for extraditing Meng, following which he issued an apology, and then commented on the case yet again. He told The Toronto Star that it would be "great for Canada" if the US dropped charges against the tech giants' CFO and deputy chairperson.

McCullum's comments cast shadows of doubts over whether Canada was in opposition to the US' charges against Wangzhou, who was arrested in December last year from Vancouver, and if the Trudeau government was sending different messages in Ottawa and Beijing.

Trudeau confirmed that Jim Nickel, McCullum's deputy head of mission, will represent Canada in China.

The Prime Minister further lauded McCullum's service, highlighting his work in immigration. McCullum was the immigration minister during the huge influx of Syrian refugees under the Trudeau government.

"His work (on refugees) ... remains an inspiration to Canadians and an example to the world. I thank him and his family for his public service over the past many years," Trudeau said in the statement.The Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday reportedly recovered the mobile phone of policeman Subodh Kumar from the house of main accused Prashant Natt, who had allegedly shot down the policeman on December 3 in Bulandshahr.

Atul Srivastav, Superintendent of Police (SP) City, said, "As per information received from sources, an operation was conducted to recover the mobile of the deceased policeman Subodh Kumar. His phone was recovered from the main accused Prashant Natt's house."

The search for the pistol is still underway, he added.

Inspector Kumar was killed on December 3, 2018, in violence that flared up after carcasses of cattle were apparently found in a forest close to a police post in Uttar Pradesh.

Kumar was wounded and later died. A postmortem report had found that the policeman had died of a bullet wound below his left eyebrow.

One of the prime accused in the case, BJP's Yuva Morcha leader Shikhar Agarwal was on January 10 arrested by the police from Hapur.

So far over 35 people, including Prashant Natt, have been arrested in connection with the violence.

Natt, had confessed to shooting at Subodh Kumar, according to police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)National Security Advisor of the United States John Bolton said that any violence and intimidation against US diplomats, Venezuela's "democratic leader" Juan Guaido or the National Assembly will be met with "significant response" from the US.

"Any violence and intimidation against U.S. diplomatic personnel, Venezuela's democratic leader, Juan Guiado, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response," Bolton tweeted on Sunday (local time).

He also said that Cuba's "support and control" over current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's armed forces are "well known".

"Cuba's support and control over Maduro's security and paramilitary forces are well known," he said in another tweet.

Last week, the US and a few of its allies recognised Guaido as Venezuela's interim President. The move was met by Maduro severing all diplomatic ties with the US and ordering all American diplomats to leave the country. He also directed all Venezuelan diplomats to return from the US.

However, on Saturday, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry suspended the expulsion of the US diplomats, The Hill reported.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo labelled Maduro's regime in Venezuela as an "illegitimate mafia state" and called for all nations to "pick sides" in the crisis while addressing a UN Security Council emergency meeting.

On January 23, Guaido, the opposition leader and National Assembly President, proclaimed himself as President of Venezuela to crowds of cheering protesters. He was immediately recognised as interim President by the USA.

Maduro, in turn, labelled it as a coup attempt by the US.

Countries like Russia, Bolivia, Iran, and Turkey have extended their support to Maduro and slammed international interference in the South American nation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)JOLO, Jan 27: Two bombs minutes apart tore through a Roman Catholic cathedral on a southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, killing at least 27 people and wounding 77 others during a Sunday Mass, officials said.

Witnesses said the first blast inside the Jolo cathedral in the provincial capital sent churchgoers, some of them wounded, to stampede out of the main door. Army troops and police posted outside were rushing in when the second bomb went off about one minute later near the main entrance, causing more deaths and injuries. The military was checking a report that the second explosive device may have been attached to a parked motorcycle.

The initial explosion scattered the wooden pews inside the main hall and blasted window glass panels, and the second bomb hurled human remains and debris across a town square fronting the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, witnesses said. Cellphone signal was cut off in the first hours after the attack. The witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press refused to give their names or were busy at the scene of the blasts.

Police said at least 27 people died and 77 were wounded. The fatalities included 20 civilians and seven troops. Among the wounded were 14 troops, two police and 61 civilians.

Troops in armored carriers sealed off the main road leading to the church while vehicles transported the dead and wounded to the town hospital. Some casualties were evacuated by air to nearby Zamboanga city.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a statement.

"We will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars. The law will give them no mercy," the office of President Rodrigo Duterte said in Manila.

It said that "the enemies of the state boldly challenged the government's capability to secure the safety of citizens in that region. The (Armed Forces of the Philippines) will rise to the challenge and crush these godless criminals."

Jolo island has long been troubled by the presence of Abu Sayyaf militants, who are blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization because of years of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings. A Catholic bishop, Benjamin de Jesus, was gunned down by suspected militants outside the cathedral in 1997.

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

It came nearly a week after minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation endorsed a new autonomous region in the southern Philippines in hopes of ending nearly five decades of a separatist rebellion that has left 150,000 people dead. Although most of the Muslim areas approved the autonomy deal, voters in Sulu province, where Jolo is located, rejected it. The province is home to a rival rebel faction that's opposed to the deal as well as smaller militant cells that not part of any peace process.

Western governments have welcomed the autonomy pact. They worry that small numbers of Islamic State-linked militants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia could forge an alliance with Filipino insurgents and turn the south into a breeding ground for extremists.

"This bomb attack was done in a place of peace and worship, and it comes at a time when we are preparing for another stage of the peace process in Mindanao," said Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. "Human lives are irreplaceable," he added, calling on Jolo residents to cooperate with authorities to find the perpetrators of this "atrocity."

Security officials were looking "at different threat groups and they still can't say if this has something to do with the just concluded plebiscite," Albayalde, the national police chief, told ABS-CBN TV network.

Aside from the small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group, other militant groups in Sulu include a small band of young jihadis aligned with the Islamic State group, which has also carried out assaults, including ransom kidnappings and beheadings.

Abu Sayyaf militants are still holding at least five hostages  a Dutch national, two Malaysians, an Indonesian and a Filipino  in their jungle bases mostly near Sulu's Patikul town, not far from Jolo.

Government forces have pressed on sporadic offensives to crush the militants, including those in Jolo, a poverty-wracked island of more than 700,000 people. A few thousand Catholics live mostly in the capital of Jolo.

There have been speculations that the bombings may be a diversionary move by Muslim militants after troops recently carried out an offensive that killed a number of IS-linked extremists in an encampment in the hinterlands of Lanao del Sur province, also in the south. The area is near Marawi, a Muslim city that was besieged for five months by hundreds of IS-aligned militants, including foreign fighters, in 2017. Troops quelled the insurrection, which left more 1,100 mostly militants dead and the heartland of the mosque-studded city in ruins.

Duterte declared martial law in the entire southern third of the country to deal with the Marawi siege, his worst security crisis. His martial law declaration has been extended to allow troops to finish off radical Muslim groups and other insurgents but bombings and other attacks have continued.Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Sunday said that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are worried over Priyanka Gandhi's entry into

"BJP is getting upset over her entry, that's why they are making various statements. It's our personal matter, don't know why their stomach is aching," Kamal Nath told media here.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whose entry into was a guessing game for several years, formally made her foray, with the Congress appointing her General Secretary in-charge of crucial Uttar Pradesh state's eastern part.

When asked about the farmer loan waiver cases, Kamal Nath said: "There were fake loans that were given in the name of farmers. This corruption has been going on for many years. We will do a criminal investigation on this matter. We have received information from various districts. The numbers I feel will go up to Rs 1000 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat claimed that "anti-national" forces are nefariously working for demolishing the peace and virtues in India.

"We do not pray for someone's misfortune; while only pray for happiness to all. But the anti- elements are trying every bid to destroy the peace and virtues and are working on their nefarious designs," Bhagwat said while addressing an event here on Saturday after hoisting the tricolour on the occasion of Republic Day.

The RSS Chief said that only India has the capacity to counter and defeat these "anti-national" forces. "The whole world knows about it and is suffering from it, but only India has the capacity to defeat such forces," he added.

He also said that the standard of living of every Indian has to be raised if India has to become the "Vishwa-Guru".

"We take a pledge on this day to raise the standard of living of every Indian so that India may acquire the status of Vishwa-Guru once again," said Bhagwat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced compensation of Rs 40 lakh to the wife and Rs 10 lakh for the parents of Uttar Pradesh Police constable Harsh Chaudhary who was killed in an encounter in Amroha on Sunday.

In addition, one government job for a family member has also been announced.

The deceased constable was a native of Hathras district. A state funeral would be accorded to him, police informed.

Anand Kumar, Additional Director General (ADG), Law and Order, said the encounter ensued when a police party went in search of a criminal at Bachhraon in Amroha district. When the police asked the history-sheeter to surrender he hurled fire at the police in which constable Harsh sustained bullet injury. He was immediately rushed to TMU hospital Moradabad where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment.

In the retaliatory fire, the criminal Shivavtar also sustained bullet injury and later succumbed at the same hospital.

"At about 7-8 in the evening on the basis of specific information the police team went to a tube-well located in Bachhraon area in search of a wanted criminal Shivavtar who has 19 criminal cases against him. When police asked him to surrender he fired on the police party in which one of our constables Harsh Chaudhary sustained bullet injury and was immediately rushed to the hospital where he died during the treatment," said Kumar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The district administration has put in place a foolproof preparation along with elaborate security arrangements to ensure that the voting for Jind assembly by-poll goes on smoothly and peacefully on Monday.

A total of 21 candidates are in the fray. Prominent among them are Congress' Randeep Singh Surjewala, BJP's Krishan Midha, Indian Lok Dal's (INLD) Umed Singh Redhu, and Jannayak Janata Party's (JJP) Digvijay Singh.

As many as 1, 71,113 people, including nearly 80,000 women, are eligible to vote. At least 158 polling stations have been set up, of which 67 are located in rural areas. The by-poll was necessitated following the death of Hari Chand Midha, an INLD MLA, on August 26.

The counting of votes is scheduled for January 31.

Jind Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ashwin Shanvi on Sunday gave necessary guidelines to the police personnel deployed on the booth level duty related to election and security arrangements.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Pushpa Khatri said the police force in a large number has been deputed for the peaceful conduct of Jind bye-elections. "3,000 police personnel and 500 Home Guard jawans, one CRPF company and one RAF will be deployed," she said.

"Additional police forces have been deployed at sensitivities and highly sensitive booths. There are 51 places where police check posts have been ensured for through checking for any intoxicants, liquor, and weapons," said Khatri.

"In the Jind city and village, the police have been conducting flag march for the last three days to keep vigil on anti-social elements. The district police are on high alert for the bye-elections in Jind," he said.

The District Electoral Officer (DEO) Amit Khatri said that those voters who do not have a voter identity card, such voters can cast vote by showing any other 12 prescribed identity cards bearing a photograph of the person.

Khatri said that the Election Commission of India has approved of 12 other identity cards for those voters who do not have a voter ID card so that every voter can cast his or her vote through any of these identity cards.

These 12 identity cards are driving license, MNREGA card, passport, service identity card, passport, bank passbook issued by the post office, smart card, health insurance smart card, pension-related papers, photo voter Sleep, and Aadhar card.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bollywood film director Ali Abbas Zafar, who is quite active on social media, on Sunday shared another picture of Salman Khan from his upcoming directorial 'Bharat' and thanked his fans for all the love they showered on the recently released teaser of the film.

Zafar tweeted, "Thank you for all the love," and posted a picture of Salman Khan.

The photograph shows the 53-year in an Indian Navy officer's uniform.

The upcoming film also starring Katrina Kaif, Jackie Shroff and Sonali Kulkarni is a remake of the 2014 South Korean blockbuster 'Ode to My Father'.

The makers of 'Bharat' recently unveiled the first teaser of the film. The one-minute and twenty-six-second teaser showed the 'Dabangg' actor in different avatars, narrating the story of his character's life.

Interestingly, even though the teaser introduced different shades of Salmans' characters, it did not reveal his lead pair Katrina Kaif at all.

Previously Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif were seen together in the films 'Ek Tha Tiger' and 'Tiger Zinda Hai.'

According to reports, the 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' actor will be seen sporting five different looks in the film spanning 60 years, including a crucial part which will showcase the actor in his late 20s, looking much leaner and younger.

The film is Salman Khan's third collaboration with director Ali Abbas Zafar after the 2016's 'Sultan' and 2017's 'Tiger Zinda Hai.'

It is slated to hit the big screens on June 5, 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Emphasising the increase of 30 per cent in undergraduate medical seats in the last four-and-half years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that NDA government is giving priority to healthcare so that all citizens are healthy and healthcare is made affordable.

"The numbers of undergraduate medical seats have been increased by almost 30 per cent in last four-and-half year. The launch of Ayushman Bharat is also a big step. It is a carefully thought out approach to ensure the implementation of universal health coverage for our country. The 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres are being set up to provide comprehensive primary care and preventive health services," said Prime Minister Modi.

Further outlining the effect of Ayushman Bharat, he said: "One crore fifty-seven lakh persons of Tamil Nadu state are covered in this scheme. In just over three months about 89,000 beneficiaries were admitted and an amount of more than Rs 200 crore has been authorised for admitted patients of Tamil Nadu. The state has already started 1320 health and wellness centre."

After the foundation stone laying ceremony of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai, the Prime Minister said: "The laying of foundation stone of AIIMS reflects our vision of 'Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat'. We all know that AIIMS in Delhi had cultivated a brand name for itself in healthcare. With AIIMS in Madurai we can say that this brand of healthcare has been taken to all corners of the country from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Guwahati to Gujarat".

PM Modi also inaugurated the super speciality blocks of Rajaji Medical College, Madurai, Thanjavur Medical College and Tirunelveli Medical College as part of upgradation projects of these facilities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The slump in gold prices and the emergence of sovereign gold bonds (SGB) seem to have spelt the death knell for gold exchange traded funds (ETFs). Assets of gold ETFs have reduced by more than a third in the last five years to Rs 4,571 crore. Gold ETFs have seen net outflows of Rs 4,701 crore, with net inflows in only two of the past 60 months, data from Association of Mutual Funds in India shows.

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.

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Digital EditorTensions between the US and China are about to get more complicated, with the World Trade Organization poised to begin an investigation into President Donald Trumps tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods. On Monday, the Geneva-based arbiter of trade disputes will likely launch an inquiry into whether the US duties run afoul of a requirement that all WTO members give each other the same tariff treatment, as China asserts.

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Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital EditorTHE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE Native America From 1890 to the Present David Treuer Riverhead Books 512 pages; $28 Over the past 12 months, Native American politicians, artists and academics have made uncommon gains. Indeed, Native American women helped to make 2018 the Year of the Woman. In November, New Mexican and Kansan voters elected Debra Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) to Congress, while voters in Minnesota elected Peggy Flanagan (Ojibwe) their lieutenant governor. In October, the sociologist Rebecca Sandefur (Chickasaw) and the poet Natalie ...Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

Bigwigs at South Pacific-themed grocer Trader Joes must open a third Kings County location in Coney Island, according to thousands of locals who signed a petition claiming a local outpost would help make the neighborhood Brooklyns next hipster enclave. (Jonesing for a Joes! Thousands sign petition demanding Trader Joes open in Coney Island, by Julianne McShane, online Jan. 18).

The store known for its Hawaiian-shirtclad employees would bring fresh and inexpensive fare to Coney residents who must now otherwise shop at three larger, chain supermarkets, according to the petitions co-organizer, who claimed to own three apartments in the neighborhood, and admitted to jockeying for a Joes because he said it would increase the value of his real estate.

As of Jan. 23 more than 3,000 people signed the plea, which seeks 5,000 names, and calls for bringing more skinny-pants residents to Coney in addition to the grocer.

Readers had a lot to say online:

Trader Joes is a commercial enterprise. After the skinny pants residents come, it may be lucrative for Starbucks, Trader Joes, et al., to open stores in Coney Island, pricing most people out. Be careful what you wish for.Janet from Park Slope

Hey, company we dont own stock in or have anything to do with spend your money to open up a store where we want you to because WE SAY SO! WAAAHHHH!Jim from Cobble Hill

Just a reason for Trader Joes not to open in Coney Island. BECAUSE YOU ARE TELLING THEM TO.

IAMRIGHTAGAIN

from CONEYISLAND

They have a gold mine, people act like they are giving the food away.Just in from FL

You can move back to your cul de sacs if you miss the comforts of your homes.Tony from Sheepshead Bay

Traders would be such a welcome sight in the South Brooklyn!!!Anna M from Brighton

Lol at the out-of-touch leisure class that thinks a Traders or Whole Paycheck would be of any use to the working class.Henry Ford from Bay Ridge

Leisure class? I bust my a five days a week 98. I am the working class and I want Trader Joes. The area is dominated by Eastern European markets, where you can forget about friendly customer service, and low-end grocers that will sell you food that expires within two days of purchase. Whole Foods would be a stretch, but TJ is more than welcome.Anna from Brighton

Stop n Shop is a low-end grocer selling about-to-be expired food? Be careful what you wish, a 100 percent increase in your rent will arrive right after Trader Joes.Henry Ford from Bay Ridge

Who wants yet another hipster enclave nowadays in Brooklyn  unless they are local real-estate speculators?SCR from Realityville

To everyone whos a millennial and is tired of the lackluster food options, limited coffee shops and cafes  Coney is going to be amazing in five years  Lets bring TJ where it belongs.David from Coney

Church will be missed

To the Editor,

Its been almost two months since a fire destroyed the Emmanuel Episcopal Church on E. 23rd Street in Sheepshead Bay (Historic Sheepshead Bay church ravaged by midnight blaze by Kevin Duggan, online Nov. 30). Workers have removed most of the debris. But until recently, the A-frame of the chapel remained, a reminder of the uplifting spiritual mission of the church.

Sixty years ago, when my family moved to E. 23rd Street, we were delighted to hear the church bells on Sunday morning and see the respectable, finely attired and smiling church-goers, mostly West Indians, walking to church. On Palm Sunday, the parishioners would form a procession and walk through the neighborhood singing pastoral hymns to celebrate Jesuss entry into Jerusalem.

The rector of the church, Rev. Alexander Gunthorpes, welcomed us new neighbors and always extended an open invitation to attend services, which I did on several occasions. The church also served as a meeting place for a variety of groups, including The Paper Moon Players theater group, AARP, and Narcotics Anonymous. Fortunately, for some of us neighbors who needed a meeting place to rally local support to stop a developer from overbuilding on the block, Rev. Gunthorpes opened the door to us. Throughout all of our (successful!) efforts to block the building of a 10-story, 50-unit condo, the church was strongly supportive.

Another group that met at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church was the Messiahs Congregation, a Christian Reformed Church. They too were a welcome addition to the neighborhood. That churchs pastor, Rev. Steve Schlissel, likewise welcomed all to its services. At Christmastime, we would run to the front door to hear carols sung by the parishioners, who always stopped at our house on their way to spreading cheer in the neighborhood.

Several years ago, I made a painting of the church. Im so glad I did. Now both the church and the great old house next door are gone, and this painting will be there to call up the peaceful tranquillity that Emmanuel Episcopal Church brought to our block.Margherita DAnna

Sheepshead Bay

Save climate now

To the Editor,

Im glad that Gov. Cuomo pledged to fight climate change in his State of the State address.

But to turn those goals into reality, he must pass the Climate and Community Protection Act.

The Act will move us to a 100-percent renewable economy, while investing in jobs and protecting communities. It already has strong support in the Assembly, the state Senate, and community organizations across the state.

Current scientific consensus is that climate change may produce life-threatening, perhaps civilization-destroying change  perhaps within the next 50 years.

Only a madman would bet our childrens lives on the scientists being wrong.

There is no greater priority, and no time to lose. We simply must pass the Climate and Community Protection Act now. Marc Ribot

Cobble Hill

Post problems

To the Editor,

Whats with the post office in Sheepshead Bay? When you go in, there is a small box to place your mail in. Invariably, the box is always filled, and I have to walk away and come back later when I hope the box will be less filled. The box should be emptied every half hour. Thats not much to ask for.

When you say something to the workers, they all become quite nasty. Were not paying their salaries to be treated in this manner. I am not asking the impossible to empty a box. If this cant be done, I suggest a larger box be brought in. This is certainly not the way to accommodate people, especially at a time when we are warned about not mailing items in the boxes along the streets.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Reconsider ferry

To the Editor,

Mayor DeBlasios State of the City speech announced upcoming new ferry services for other neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island, but forgot Canarsie (Sunken dreams! Ferry service not coming to Canarsie any time soon, city says by Kevin Duggan, online Jan. 14).

There is money available to support a new ferry service from Canarsie. This would also offer thousands of subway riders another alternative during reconstruction of the Canarsie L line tunnels over the next several years. Adding Canarsie to stops at Coney Island and Bay Ridge on to Wall Street Pier 11 would generate many more riders, resulting in a more financially viable operation.

Why not apply for capital grants from the New York State Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration to assist in funding?

The citys Department of Transportation does this and receives tens of millions on an annual basis on behalf of the Staten Island Ferry. Albany also provides State Transportation Operating Assistance for transportation systems such as the Staten Island Ferry along with local share against federal grants.

Ridership on any transit service generates yearly federal transportation formula capital assistance.

Riders could purchase weekly or monthly passes for discounted fares.

Larry Penner

Great NeckAn Australian university professor and her sister have been found dead in a shallow grave in the Argentinian city of Mendoza over the weekend.

The close-knit academic community of agricultural scientists in NSW are in shock following the discovery of Lily Pereg, 54, the professor of Microbiology at the University of New England, and her sister, Pyrhia Sarussi, 63.

Lily Pereg (left) and her sister Pyrhia Sarusi have been found dead in Mendoza. Credit:Facebook

Police found the pair at the bottom of a property occupied by Ms Sarussi's son, Gil Pereg, 36. Police prosecutors have arrested Mr Pereg and charged him with murder.

Ms Pereg was appointed a full professor at UNE just days before she travelled to the US and on to Argentina. The pair were last heard from on January 11, local media reported.Toronto: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired Canada's ambassador to China after the envoy said it would be "great" if the US dropped its extradition request for a Chinese tech executive arrested in Canada.

Trudeau said on Saturday that he had asked for and accepted John McCallum's resignation on Friday night.

McCallum made the remark to the Toronto Star on Friday. That came a day after he issued a statement saying he misspoke about the case earlier in the week and regretted saying Meng Wanzhou has a strong case against extradition.

The arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies at Vancouver's airport on December 1 severely damaged relations between China and Canada.Dubai: The lawyer for an Australian-based academic detained on charges of trying to "infiltrate" Iranian institutions said on Sunday the woman had been freed, Iran's state news agency reported.

Melbourne University academic Meimenat Hosseini-Chavoshi.

Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, a population expert, is affiliated with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne.

A dual Australian-Iranian citizen, she was detained as she was leaving Iran in December. Iran does not recognise dual nationality and does not routinely announce arrests or charges of dual nationals.

"I checked today and I was told that Mrs Chavoshi has been released a few days ago," said Mahmoud Behzadi, a lawyer of Hosseini-Chavoshi was reported as saying on Sunday.Manila: The head of the world's largest body of Muslim-majority countries has strongly condemned the twin bombings of a Catholic church in the Philippines that killed 20 people and wounded more than 80.

The general secretary of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Yousef al-Othaimeen has also expressed his "deep indignation" at Sunday's terrorist attack.

Police investigators examine the site after the bombings in Jolo, Philippines. Credit:AP

He says the OIC firmly rejected all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism, whatever their sources or motives.

Pope Francis also condemned the bombings.If youre repeatedly doing a task, or doing it for a long time  driving for many hours  your neurons become tired. And they appear to fall asleep. They become saturated, and they need to go offline and into this sleep-like state. And we know when they go offline, there are more performance errors. Snoozing like a seal You might find it weird to think of parts of your brain having a snooze while you are wide awake. Really, its always been a bit of a mystery why humans dont do this, because so many animals do.

Seals and dolphins can sleep with half their brain while the other half stays alert. Cows continue to chew grass while asleep. Some birds take hundreds of short naps every day. For decades, we thought humans were different. We were either awake or asleep. It turns out we were entirely wrong. In recent years, sleep scientists have got access to a new tool: high-density electroencephalography. By strapping a cap containing hundreds of electrodes to a persons head, they can see exactly whats going on in the brain. This led to several discoveries that have redefined the way we think about sleep.

These are quite specific small regions that are going offline, says Dr D'Rozario. We still dont know why they happen. But they do appear to be linked to brain fatigue. In studies of people using driving simulators for 12 hours or more, these local sleeps seem to occur in the most-used regions of the brain. Its as though the drivers overloaded a specific pocket of neurons, and it needed to shut down and reboot. It might be the brain quickly cleaning out a build-up of toxic chemicals. But they dont seem good. We know there are more performance errors when parts of the brain are sleeping, says Dr DRozario. Studies in animals and humans suggest within those few seconds of local sleep we are at higher risk of making an error  which poses a major problem for drivers.

Dr DRozario is studying what can be done about it. Sleepwalking toward disaster Her team studies the people who sleep the worst: insomniacs and people with sleep apnoea, a common condition in which a person stops breathing during sleep. She suspects these people will be more prone to having their brain take short naps. After testing these patients on driving simulators, she plans to see if three days using a CPAP machine  a traditional treatment for apnoea  can cut out the small sleeps and improve performance. "We think this is what is explaining why some people are at higher risk behind the wheel," she says.Fewer Australians are entering the teaching profession, generating an ongoing tussle with unions and universities to attract enough teachers, Queensland's Education Minister Grace Grace says.

On Sunday, the Queensland Teachers' Union called for an additional 7000 teachers in Queensland schools.

Education Minister Grace Grace discusses Queensland teacher numbers. Credit:Tony Moore

Ms Grace said Queensland education authorities would provide 3700 more teachers over the next four years and were ahead of projections to provide the extra 7000 teachers.

"At the moment we have more than adequate teachers for our needs," Ms Grace said.A double-murderer who was the first documented case of a Queensland criminal who took drugs to boost his confidence in preparing for the killings became, years later, the state's first prisoner to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree behind bars.

The remarkable story of how detectives caught the teenager responsible for the Coorparoo Junction murders and the records he broke during and after the crime was shared at the Queensland Police Museum, more than 50 years after the shocking crime.

The Coorparoo Junction murderer, 18-year-old James Christopher Wylie Whiteford. Credit:Sunday Truth Newspaper

Members of the Wood family were shot, stabbed and burned in their home on Cavendish Road in 1964, with only one of the three women surviving the horrific attack.

It started on the evening of March 21, 1964. About midnight, 55-year-old Meta Wood woke to see a man standing on the back patio of her home and toy shop business armed with a .22 calibre rifle and large knife.A man has been charged with drink-driving after nearly crashing into a group of diners at South Bank while riding a Lime scooter and being three times over the legal alcohol limit, police allege.

Police said the 23-year-old rider was seen on the scooter without a helmet on the Grey Street footpath when he nearly struck a table of patrons outside a restaurant on January 26.

A man was charged with drink driving after he was allegedly riding a Lime scooter drunk at South Bank on January 26.

He then allegedly attempted to continue to ride away before nearly falling over as police called for him to stop.

The Caboolture man was arrested and taken to the Brisbane City watchhouse where he allegedly had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.151 per cent, which was more than three times the legal limit.Sydney's mothballed desalination plant has been reactivated for the first time in almost seven years as Sydney's water levels dropped below 60 per cent on Sunday morning.

Sydney Water confirmed the Kurnell facility was restarted on Sunday, with the city's water reservoir's now sitting at 59.9 per cent.

The Sydney Desalination Plant has been turned on due to dam levels dropping below 60 per cent.

The plant, which filters salt molecules from sea water, will take up to four months to produce drinkable water, and twice that time to be running at its maximum output of 250 million litres a day - about a sixth of Greater Sydney's needs.

In a statement on its website, Sydney Water said water from the desalination plant must meet the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.A body has been recovered following a search for a man who went missing under water at Bents Basin in Sydney's west this morning, police have confirmed.

A separate search on the south coast found the body of a 27-year-old man who went missing and failed to surface in the Kangaroo River.

Emergency services were called to Bents Basin about 11.30am when three men were seen struggling in the water.

Bents Basin, in Sydney's far south-west, is a popular swimming spot in the State Conservation Area, on the Nepean River. Credit:Nick Moir

Two of the men were rescued by bystanders, but the third, a 25-year-old, "disappeared underwater", police said in a statement.BNP's $US3 billion wipe out BNP Paribas Securities was blamed for erroneous orders that knocked almost 10 per cent off the value of Formosa Petrochemical Corp. in March 2018, Taiwan's third-largest stock at the time, according to a senior official with the island's bourse. About $US3 billion was erased from Formosa's market value as a result of a cascade of trades during the closing auction, which were caused by a bug in BNP's system, the official said at the time. Deutsche Bank's 28 billion euro flub German lender Deutsche Bank accidentally transferred 28 billion euros ($44.5 billion) to one of its outside accounts, Bloomberg News first reported in April 2018. Deutsche Bank's 2018 couldn't have come at a worse time for the bank. Credit:Bloomberg

The errant transfer occurred as part of the bank's daily derivatives dealings, according to a person familiar with the matter. The sum far exceeded the amount it was due to post and landed in an account at Deutsche Boerse AG's Eurex clearinghouse, temporarily boosting the collateral held by the world's fourth-largest clearinghouse by more than half. The embarrassing blunder couldn't have come at a worse time as Deutsche Bank was struggling at the time with a leadership tussle that resulted in the exit of CEO John Cryan and two of his top lieutenants, and tainted its chairman. Gold's no haven Gold traders were rattled in June 2017 by a huge spike in volume in New York futures when trading jumped to 1.8 million ounces of gold in just a minute, an amount bigger than the gold reserves of Finland. Gold futures fell as much as 1.6 per cent on Comex. One possible explanation: a mistaken trade of 18,149 lots of a futures contract, about 100 times the size of a typical trade of 18,149 ounces. "No one has a clue, apart from the unfortunate individual that pressed the wrong button," David Govett, head of precious metals trading at Marex Spectron Group in London, said at the time of the spike in volume.

Disney's phantom menace Volume in Walt Disney Co. appeared to surge for a moment in February 2015 when more than 131 million shares of the stock seemed to trade at once on the New York Stock Exchange, a transaction so big only one shareholder probably could have placed it. But it turns out it never happened, as the initial trade of 131.66 million shares was cut 100-fold to a much less magical 1.3166 million. The size of the order was incorrectly reported at first, according to a person familiar with the matter. It's not like Disney needed the volume boost, with shares jumping nearly 8 per cent on the day to their highest since at least 1974 after posting quarterly sales and earnings that topped estimates thanks to "Frozen" gifts over the holidays. TIn October 2014, someone placed more than 40 erroneous orders totaling 67.8 trillion yen ($860 billion) on Japan's over-the-counter market -- greater than the size of Sweden's economy at the time. Credit:AP

The 67.8 trillion yen bidder In October 2014, someone placed more than 40 erroneous orders totaling 67.8 trillion yen ($860 billion) on Japan's over-the-counter market -- greater than the size of Sweden's economy at the time. The attempted transactions included a bid to buy 57 per cent of Toyota's outstanding shares and other big stakes in Japanese blue chips including Honda, Canon, Sony and Nomura Holdings. The orders were cancelled before they were executed. Goldman's options disruption Confusion swept across trading desks in August 2013 as prices for equity derivatives swung without reason, with some contracts trading for $US26 one minute and $US1 the next. The culprit was Goldman Sachs, which experienced software errors causing the firm to spew unintentional orders from the first moments of trading, according to a person briefed on the matter. An internal system used to help prepare to meet market demand inadvertently produced orders with inaccurate price limits and sent them to exchanges, the person said. UBS & CapcomHarrisonburg, VA (22807)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.Update 11.15pm: At least 200 people are missing after the collapse of a dam which was holding back mining waste in south-eastern Brazil.

The death toll has risen to 34 after the disaster inundated a mining complex in the state of Minas Gerais.

State governor Romeu Zema warned that anyone found to be responsible for the disaster would be punished.

According to reports, the complex, owned and operated by Brazilian company Vale, was issued an expedited licence to expand in December due to decreased risk.

Environmental groups in the area say this approval was unlawful.

A total of 23 people were taken to hospital after the collapse, according to the Minas Gerais fire department.

The mud covers the backyard of a house (AP)

Vale workers were eating lunch on Friday afternoon when the dam collapsed, unleashing a sea of reddish-brown mud that knocked over and buried several of the companys buildings as well as the surrounding areas.

The level of devastation quickly led President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials to describe it as a tragedy.

The rivers of mining waste have also raised fears of widespread contamination.

This house was completely destroyed by the flow of mining waste (AP)

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what had caused the collapse. He confirmed about 300 employees were working on the site when it happened.

After the dam collapsed, parts of the town of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Several helicopters flew over the area on Saturday while firefighters carefully traversed heavily inundated areas looking for survivors.

The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and a Vale administrative office, where employees were present.

A van is seen in half buried in the mud (AP)

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana, also in Minas Gerais state, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds of people from their homes.

Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic metres of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Rescue efforts are continuing at the scene with dozens of people still missing (AP)

Mr Bolsonaro, who assumed office on January 1, took part in a flyover of the area on Saturday.

On Twitter, he said his government would do everything it could to prevent more tragedies like Mariana and now Brumadinho.

The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underlined a lack of regulation, and many promised to fight any further deregulation by Mr Bolsonaro in Latin Americas largest nation.- Press Association

Nine dead and up to 300 people missing after Brazilian dam bursts

Update 3pm: Rescuers are searching for survivors in a huge area of south-eastern Brazil buried by mud after the collapse of a dam holding back mining waste.

At least nine people are dead and up to 300 more are missing after the disaster in Minas Gerais state.

State governor Romeu Zema said: Most likely, from now on we are mostly going to be recovering bodies.

Workers with Brazilian mining company Vale were eating lunch on Friday afternoon when the dam collapsed, unleashing a sea of reddish-brown mud that knocked over and buried several structures belonging to the company.

Dozens of companys employees will act as volunteers helping with reception and identification services. Vale is already providing all the necessary resources (food, water, medicines etc).  Vale Global (@valeglobal) January 25, 2019

The level of devastation in the city of Brumadinho and surrounding areas quickly led President Jair Bolsonaro to describe it as a tragedy.

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse, and confirmed that about 300 employees were working in the area when it happened. About 100 have been accounted for, and rescue efforts are under way to determine what had happened to the others.

A collapsed bridge near Brumadinho, Brazil (Bruno Correia/Nitro via AP)

After the dam collapsed in the afternoon, parts of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles.

Local television channel TV Record showed a helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the waste.

Photos showed rooftops poking above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and a Vale administrative office, where employees were present.

A cut-off road near Brumadinho (Leo Drumond/Nitro via AP)

Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish.

An estimated 60 million cubic metres of waste flooded rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr Schvartsman said what happened on Friday was a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.

Flooding triggered by the dam collapse (Bruno Correia/Nitro via AP)

We will take all the possible steps to minimise the suffering of families and victims, Mr Bolsonaro said in a speech, which he posted on Twitter.

The president plans to tour the area later. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underlined a lack of regulation.

The rivers of mining waste raised fears of widespread contamination.

According to Vales website, the mine waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from the 2015 disaster contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

- Press Association

Nine dead and hundreds missing after Brazil dam bursts

At least nine people have died and around 200 remain missing after a mining dam collapsed in Brazil.

President Jair Bolsonaro described the collapse in the city of Brumadinho as a tragedy.

Seven bodies had been recovered by late on Friday, according to the governors office of Minas Gerais state. But it was feared the death toll would grow as rescue and recovery teams dug through feet of mud.

Fabio Schvartsman, CEO of mining company Vale, said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened. About 100 had been accounted for, and rescue efforts were under way to determine what had happened to the others.

The principal victims were our own workers, Mr Schvartsman told a news conference, adding that the restaurant where many ate was buried by the mud at lunchtime.

After the dam collapsed in the afternoon, parts of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Local television channel TV Record showed a helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the waste.

Ive never seen anything like it, said Josiele Rosa Silva Tomas, president of Brumadinho residents association. It was horrible the amount of mud that took over.

Ms Silva Tomas said she was awaiting news of her cousin, and many she knew were trying to get news of loved ones.

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in Minas Gerais state, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes.

Mr Schvartsman said what happened on Friday was a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less.

The state fire department said about 200 people were missing. The Minas Gerais governors office said 150 were missing.

Mr Bolsonaro, who assumed office on January 1, said he lamented the accident and sent three cabinet ministers to the area.

We will take all the possible steps to minimise the suffering of families and victims, Mr Bolsonaro said.

Mr Bolsonaro planned to tour the area by helicopter on Saturday. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazils economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

The latest spill is a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies responsible for the tragedy with Samarco dam, in Mariana, also controlled by Vale, Greenpeace said in a statement.

History repeats itself, tweeted Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and three-time presidential candidate. Its unacceptable that government and mining companies havent learned anything.

The rivers of mining waste raised fears of widespread contamination.

According to Vales website, the mine waste, often called tailings, is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from the 2015 disaster contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

Vale is Brazils largest mining company. Two hours after the accident, its stock fell 10% on the New York Stock Exchange.

Just before midnight Saturday, firefighters put out a list of 187 people who had been rescued throughout the afternoon.

Of the 427 workers who were on hand when the dam collapsed, 279 had been accounted for, Vale said in a statement.

More than 100 firefighters were on the scene and another 200 were expected to arrive Saturday.- Press AssociationThere has been an explosion in the Hague in the Netherlands.

Local media say the front of a building has collapsed with fears people could be trapped under the rubble.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:RTHK: Live your life offline, Pope tells young Catholics

Pope Francis called on hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims in Panama on Saturday to reject the temptation to live their lives online, and get involved in their communities.

Life was not "in the cloud, waiting to be downloaded, a new app to be discovered, or a technique of mental self-improvement," the 82-year-old pontiff told a massive vigil at the World Youth Day gathering.

"It is not enough to be connected all day long. To feel respected and asked to get involved, is greater than simply being online," Francis said at the vigil, held at a park outside Panama City.

He urged them "to embrace life as it presented itself," and look for areas where "with your hands, your heart and your head, you can feel part of a larger community that needs you and that you yourselves need."

The World Youth Day organizers said 600,000 were massed at for the slickly produced vigil, with music, dance and periods of quiet contemplation.

Pope Francis also acknowledged that the Catholic Church was "wounded by sin" in a message addressed to priests and seminarians reeling from sexual abuse scandals and coverups.

In a mass that he officiated at the centuries-old Cathedral of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City, Francis warned of the "weariness of hope that comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which has so often failed to hear all those cries."

It was the Argentine pontiff's first reference to the sex abuse scandals rocking the Church since he arrived in Panama on Wednesday.

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Westmeath are the early leaders of Division 2A of the Allianz Hurling League on score difference, with Wicklow heading Division 2B.

Goals were key for Westmeath in their 2-17 to 0-15 win over London at TEG Cusack Park, Mullingar.

The hosts built up a 1-12 to 0-4 interval lead, after a strong first half display, which saw Allan Devine net their opening goal.

London hit a trio of unanswered points on the restart, with David Nolan, Shane Lawless and Aaron Sheahan on target.

However, Westmeath hit the net for a second time, with Niall Mitchell on target.

The visitors battled hard, but finished with 14 men after a red card for Conor Kennedy following a high challenge on Robbie Greville.

Mayo staged a strong second half display, to earn a 0-17 apiece draw with Meath in Tooreen.

The home side trailed by 0-15 to 0-9 after 43 minutes, but held the Royals to just two further points, as they dug in to claim a share of the spoils.

Just three points separated the sides at half-time, but scores from Padraig O'Hanrahan, Damien Healy and Kevin Keena helped double that advantage nine minutes into the half.

Meath led by 0-17 to 0-15 in the 66th minute, before Mayo claimed the final two scores.

Christy Ring Cup champions Kildare staged a strong finish in Division 2B, to claim a 2-16 to 1-13 away win over Donegal in Letterkenny.

The sides were well matched throughout, with Gavin Browne firing an early goal for the hosts, and while Brian Byrne had an early penalty blocked, Kildare made amends through a Bernard Deay goal.

Donegal shaded a 1-7 to 1-6 interval lead, and moved three points ahead early on the restart.

However, Kildare swung a six-point turnaround, with Byrne netting their second goal on the stroke of injury-time.

A trio of first half goals helped Roscommon to a 3-18 to 1-11 away win over Louth in Division 3A.

Gearoid Egan hit the net twice, while Conor Mulry also found the net on the way to a 3-11 to 0-4 interval lead.

Louth grabbed a consolation goal from Gerard Smith, from a free on the half-back line.

Armagh held Monaghan to just three second half points, as they recorded a 4-11 to 0-5 win in Inniskeen.

The visitors led by 1-4 to 0-2 at half-time, with Stephen Renaghan netting their goal.

Monaghan's first half points came late in the half from Tadhg Campbell and Eamonn Collins.

However, Armagh continued to look good on the restart with goals from Eoin McGuinness and Dylan McKenna (2) helping them to a 15-point win.

There were one-point wins for both Sligo and Cavan in Division 3B.

An injury-time point from Ruairi Brennan gave Sligo a 2-14 to 1-16 win at Kent Park.

Sligo led 1-4 to 0-6 at the interval, with Gary Cadden netting their goal.

Fermanagh battled back, with a Declan McGarry goal in injury-time looking like ensuring a share of the spoils, but Brennan fired late for a Sligo win.

A John Sheanon score, earned Cavan a slender 2-9 to 1-11 win over Leitrim in Ballyconnell.

Leitrim led 1-7 to 1-2 at half-time, but were reduced to 14 men in the 46th minute after a straight red card for Liam Moreton, and Cavan finished strongly.A team of Malaysian police officers are trawling through CCTV images of a missing Irish man as the search for him intensifies.

Tourist Stephen Warde (32) from Kinvara, Co Galway arrived in Malaysia alone on November 15 last and rented a unit at the Mercu Summer Suites along Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpar.

A number of police officers have been assigned to investigate the case as they trawl through any images that may have caught on security cameras close to where he had been living.

Mr Warde, who is from a large family, was last seen a month ago on December 28, a day before his tenancy was to expire. All of his belongings were still in the unit when searched by police.

Police chief Assistant Commissioner Dang Wangi Shaharuddin Abdullah told a press conference late, As of today, there has been no sign of him. Investigations are ongoing.

He was supposed to check out from the unit on December 29, but did not do so. His personal belongings are still there. Police are intensifying the search for him.

Investigations so far indicate that Mr Warde has not left the country.

The Assistant Commissioner added: Checks showed his passport has not been used to exit the country.

Mr Wardes mother Mary Morrissey has travelled out to Malaysia to help with the search for her son and has been accompanied by two of her daughters.

In an emotional plea she said: Not having any contact from Stephen is very out of character for him as he is a placid and quiet man.

We are extremely worried and concerned for his safety and well-being.

He is described as having dark brown hair, brown eyes, and is 511 in height and of a heavy set.

Thousands of people continue to share an emotional post on, Missing Persons Malaysia, with one person saying, Thinking of Stephen and all of you Mary. So sorry to hear this. Hope he is found safe and well. Please let us know if there is anything we can do.

His Godfather Pat Greene posted: A very difficult time Mary, I know you are a strong person and please God he will return safely home, I have the honour of being his god father, so placid and quiet, we all will pray for him.

Mr Warde, is from a respected local family and his father is a retired Army officer.

Local Fine Gael councillor Joe Byrne urged the public to help by using social media to spread the appeal for information.

Speaking yesterday Cllr Byrne said: Everyone is concerned for his whereabouts and locals are giving as much support as they can to the family. Information is sketchy coming from Malaysia so far. Mary has been doing her best to find her son.

The Students Union at NUI Galway and Kinvara GAA also tweeted for anyone who had contacts in Malaysia to share information about his disappearance.

Stephens family are liaising with the Department of Foreign affairs in a bid to locate him.

A Department spokesperson said:  Foreign Affairs is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Dang Wangi police headquarters at +603-26002222 or its control centre hotline at +603-26977099 or the nearest police station.Update: Armed Gardai have carried out searches in Cabra, Dublin, after shots were fired at a house last night.

Nobody was hurt in the incident on St Attracta Road.

Gardai in Mountjoy are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

Local Fianna Fail representative Mary Fitzpatrick said the attack could have had deadly consequences.

Ms Fitzpatrick said: "Guns, they kill, that's the intention of them and it's unacceptable in any residential community in any part of our city or country that there are people who think that they can act with impunity and randomly discharge firearms.

"That is just unacceptable and the consequences for them should be severe."

Earlier: Garda appeal for witnesses after house damaged in Dublin shooting

Gardai in Dublin are appealing for witnesses following a shooting incident in Cabra last night.

A house was damaged by gunfire but no one was injured.

Gardai received the alert shortly before 10pm last night when a number of shots were fired at a house on St Attracta Road.

Windows at the front of the building were damaged, but no one inside the house was injured.

Armed gardai responded and a series of searches got underway, while the scene of the shooting was preserved for a technical examination.

Gardai at Mountjoy are appealing for witnesses to contact them on 01- 6668600 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.New fears have emerged about the viability of the stalled Cork event centre process after the classification of 9m State funding as a loan.

The Irish Examiner has learned that Cork City Council plans to seek legal advice on the Department of Arts decision to classify 9m of the increased 30m State injection into the development of the 6,000-capacity venue on South Main St as a repayable loan.

There are real fears that unless new talks on a repayment mechanism can be agreed, the entire process, which has been dragging on since 2014, is at risk.

Lord Mayor, Cllr Mick Finn, has written to the key parties involved, calling for round-table talks to thrash out the outstanding issues.

Lord Mayor, Cllr Mick Finn.

This project is crucial for not just the city, but the region. It is one of the key triggers for the future of the city, he said.

I would call on all parties involved, including the Tanaiste, to overcome the remaining challenges, and to iron out what residual issues that are left.

The Tanaiste was not available for comment over the weekend.

Just before Christmas, the department confirmed that following detailed consideration of the city councils request for additional funding, and in light of the extra works required to deliver a slightly larger events centre, the total public funding could be increased by 10m to 30m, in accordance with public procurement rules.

It told the council on December 21 that the funding would be made up of grant aid of 21m and a repayable 9m loan to the developers, BAM.

A computer impression of the Cork event centre.

Talks between the department, Cork City Council, BAM and venue operators Live Nation have begun to discuss all aspects of the public funding elements.

The talks are taking place against the background of a request from the department to the city council asking it to outline its view, and that of BAM, in relation to the loan element. It is also understood the department has sought written assurances from the city that no further public funding will be required for this project.

The citys head of planning, Pat Ledwidge, who is overseeing the councils tender process with BAM, said: We are looking at the implications of the departments letter, and the impact of the letter on the viability of the project.

It is the latest obstacle to hit the complex project which has been blighted by delays, seen public investment almost double, and costs soar from 53m to just under 80m in four years.

It is more than four years since the initial 20m in State funding was awarded to BAM, almost three years since the sod turning, and almost a year since the outline of a new funding deal was agreed in principle.

It emerged in February 2017 that the tendered design would not be commercially viable for Live Nation, that a larger, more flexible and adaptable venue would be required, and that as a result, more public investment would be needed.

The revelation triggered a long and tortuous process which culminated last month in the Department of Arts finally sanctioning the extra funding.

But the talks on the funding arrangements have yet to be agreed, more legal advice is being sought and planning has yet to be secured.

FF Cllr Ken OFlynn, who this time last year branded the project a white elephant, accused the Tanaiste of hoodwinking the public on the sanctioning of the extra funding.

The longer this goes on, the more it looks like its a non-runner for the city. Its time for this to go back out for public tender, to find a more suitable site, he said.

BAM did not respond to several requests for comments.

Timeline of events

2009

May: Beamish & Crawford brewery on South Main St closes with the loss of 120 jobs.

2010

Brewery site owners Heineken announce an international competition to select a development partner to regenerate the site. BAM wins with its 150m Brewery Quarter plan to include offices, student apartments, and a 6,000-seat concert, events and conference.

2011

Planning granted for Brewery Quarter. Work is due to start on the event centre first.

2013

April: Cork City Council invites the private sector to pitch for an initial 12m in public funding to secure the development of an events centre in the city.

2014

December: Following a protracted tendering process, and last minute talks to increase the public funding to 20m, BAM wins the tender.

2015

BAM acquires the site in full from Heineken, which now withdraws from the joint venture. There are no signs of construction starting on the event centre.

2016

February: Just weeks before the general election, Taoiseach Enda Kenny turns the sod on the project. The public is told demolition will start within weeks, and the venue could be open by 2018.

May: Still no sign of construction work. City councillors demand a briefing from BAM but are told it will be October before it can take place.

August: It emerges that detailed internal designs on the venue are months from completion and that it wont open by 2018, as predicted.

September: Demolition work and minor archaeological investigations start on site.

2017

January: BAM restates its commitment to delivering an events centre for Cork, and insists the project is still on track.

Early February: The internal design is complete. But the then Housing Minister Simon Coveney concedes that 10m more in state funding will be required.

February 20: BAM boss, Theo Cullinane, tells city councillors at a private briefing that a larger venue is needed, that project costs have soared, and that another 18m is needed - 12m plus 6m for contingency costs.

September: Cork City Council applies to the Department of Culture for an extra 10m for the project. It is subjected to rigorous legal scrutiny.

2018

February: BAM and now Tanaiste Simon Coveney reveal the outline of a funding deal they say has been agreed in principle. BAM says if deal is agreed, building could start in Q3.

May: BAM boss Theo Cullinane concedes that timelines outline in February will not be met. He insists the project will be delivered.

August: BAM lodges planning application for the enlarged venue.

October: Planners request further information, citing concerns about the design of the building. Tanaiste confirms that legal advice from Attorney General on the extra funding request is still not ready.

November: Government includes South Main St area in urban regeneration funding programme to provide public realm upgrades in support of the development of the event centre.

December: Tanaiste confirms that legal advice clears an increase in state investment in the project from 20m to 30m - comprised of 21m grant aid and a 9m repayable loan.

2019

January: Tanaiste confirms that talks on the schedule of payments for the 30m, including the repayment mechanism for the 9m loan element, are underway.Twitter is at war with hashtags GoBackModi and TNWelcomesModi over the Prime Minister's visit to Tamil Nadu's Madurai today. Lot of the anger against the Prime Minister stems from the Centre's alleged inability to help the people of the state during the onslaught of Cyclone Gaja. The cyclone that wreaked havoc for ten days in November last year ended up leaving over 3 lakh people homeless.

The Prime Minister is visiting Madurai to lay the foundation for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He will also inaugurate the super speciality blocks of Rajaji Medical College (Madurai), Thanjavur Medical College (Thanjavur) and Tirunelveli Medical College (Tirunelveli) as a part of upgradation projects of government medical colleges. The Prime Minister will also visit Kochi on the same day and unveil a plaque and dedicate an integrated refinery expansion complex of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited to the nation.

PM Modi will also lay the foundation stone for a petrochemical complex at the same venue, inaugurate a mounded storage vessel at an LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited in Kochi and lay the foundation stone for skill development institute at Ettumanoor.

With this schedule, Twitter has been divided with some welcoming the Prime Minister warmly, while others are criticising.

MDMK Chief Vaiko said that his party would stage a black flag demonstration against PM Modi for 'ignoring' Tamil Nadu's interests.

The demonstration is not against the AIIMS, but Modi and his government that is neglecting and functioning against the interests of Tamil Nadu, he said.

Angry citizens made GoBackModi one of the top trends.

#GoBackModi No Use of Foundations Stones.. Ceremony is nothing but a BJP Campaign!!#BJPfailspic.twitter.com/OGJlXpREJ5 - Dhinesh dhinu (@dhinesh1997a) January 27, 2019

When we were affected by Gaja cyclone, no words from you, so now for you #GoBackModi - bastin (@bastinmaradona) January 27, 2019

Since you have not kept your promises on ... Please #GoBackModi - Pon adhavan (@PonAdhavan) January 27, 2019

Other have, however, welcomed Prime Minister.

#TNWelcomesModi PM Modi has always been with the Tamil people and their welfare. Welcome to TN #PMModi - . (@vijayak21447313) January 27, 2019

#TNWelcomesModi Another achievement of modi government AIIMS at madurai - karthik (@karth_87) January 27, 2019

Modi ji Govt is Championing the cause of Healthcare for All with Ayushman Bharat (PM-JAY) now #AIIMSMadurai to our #Madurai#MaduraiWelcomesModi and #TNWelcomesModi always  pic.twitter.com/XLQrweGdB4 - Lotus for Mettupalayam (@Lotus4MTP) January 27, 2019

Also read: ICICI Bank case: Two days before Jaitley's 'investigative adventurism' comment, probe officer was transferredPETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - Military authorities say U.S. Air Force and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to escort two Russian bombers that were travelling near the North American coastline.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/1/2019 (874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Russian Air Force's IL-78 air-to-air refuelling tanker, right, demonstrates in-flight refuelling of a Tu-160 strategic bomber over Red Square during the Victory Day military parade to celebrate 73 years since the end of WWII and the defeat of Nazi Germany, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Military authorities say U.S. Air Force and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to escort two Russian bombers that were travelling near the North American coastline. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - Military authorities say U.S. Air Force and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to escort two Russian bombers that were travelling near the North American coastline.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command says two F-22 and two CF-18 fighter jets identified two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers.

The Russian planes were said to be entering an area patrolled by the Royal Canadian Air Force on Saturday morning.

There were no reports of conflict between the Russian and the U.S. and Canadian jets.

NORAD says it uses radar, satellites and fighter aircraft to patrol the skies and monitor aircraft entering U.S. or Canadian airspace.

General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, the NORAD commander, said in a statement that "NORAD's top priority is defending Canada and the United States.

"Our ability to protect our nations starts with successfully detecting, tracking, and positively identifying aircraft of interest approaching U.S. and Canadian airspace," O'Shaughnessy said.Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2019 (874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mugsy, a Maltese/Japanese Spitz dog poses for a photo with her new mom Sam Taylor at their home in Burnaby, B.C., Friday, Jan 25, 2019. Mugsy, a rescue dog from Iran had a man douse her in a corrosive cleaner when she was around six weeks old burning much of her face and causing her to loose a eye, most of a ear and her nose. Mugsy was flown from Iran to Canada and now lives in Burnaby with her adoptive mom Sam Taylor. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

VANCOUVER - On a chilly January afternoon, Mugsy zipped across a green lawn like a whitish-brown arrow playing catch.

Her owner, Sam Taylor, a resident of Burnaby, B.C., threw a brown, stuffed hedgehog and the seven-month-old pup chased it, tail wagging, just like any other dog would.

But Mugsy is not like any other dog.

"She looks like Voldemort but has the heart of Harry Potter and his friends," said Taylor with a laugh, as she cuddled the pup.

On Feb. 12, Mugsy will undergo the third surgery of her tiny life to repair damage from acid that was thrown onto her.

This surgery, to take place in Vancouver, will create nostril openings and use the tip of her ear to replace the melted bone and skin on the top of her nose, Taylor said.

The dog will be temporarily blind as the ear is folded over her face and attached over her nose so a blood supply forms from the ear onto the nose, she said, adding that the ear acts as a graft.

The next surgery will attach stents in place of nostrils and unfold the ear, she said.

The two surgeries are expected to cost up to $7,000.

"It's no guarantee but (the doctor) seemed optimistic," Taylor said, smoothing the dog's left ear, which will be used to create the bridge of her nose.

Mugsy was born in Iran, and when she was 40 days old somebody threw acidic cleaner on her face as she played outside. Most of the pup's face was melted  including her lip, right eye and right ear. Although her Iranian family loved her, they could not afford all the treatment that Mugsy would need, so they decided to put her down.

But at veterinarian's office in Iran, a volunteer from Persian Paws Rescue and Loved At Last Dog Rescue intervened. She also offered to pay for the Maltese-Japanese spitz mix's eye removal, which was causing the pup the most pain.

The volunteer was worried about an infection in the dog's nasal cavity and decided that the best chance for her survival would be if she was adopted by someone in North America who could afford the care, Taylor said.

Last fall, Taylor, who works as a lab assistant at a hospital in downtown Vancouver, was browsing Loved At Last Dog Rescue, which finds homes for local and international stray dogs.

She was looking to make a donation on the site when she saw a blurred-out image that read, "graphic injury."

"I thought it can't be that bad," she said.

She clicked.

"It was very, very graphic. I read her story and just and felt, 'Oh I really want to help this dog.'"

She thought it over for about an hour  just a donation wouldn't help because the dog needed surgery not available in Tehran  and then asked her roommate, who agreed to having a dog in the house.

"And I showed her a picture, and she said, 'Whoa, OK.'"

After filling out an application in late October, Taylor waited for about two months for Mugsy. A family visiting Vancouver brought Mugsy over with them, she said, noting that they had brought over other dogs before.

When Mugsy arrived she was very scared, Taylor said. She barked and howled and didn't come out of her travelling kennel for about an hour.

And even after she came out, she didn't eat or drink much.

"But now she's very spoiled," Taylor said, holding Mugsy close. "She gets squash and brown rice and sweet potato in her food. She's pretty well-loved."

Mugsy was called Hapoochi in Iran, which means tiny puppy, but Taylor said she wasn't pronouncing the name right so her roommate came up with the name Mugsy.

"She does have the mug for it," she said, with a chuckle.

Asked why she adopted a dog from another country when there a lot of dogs in Canada that need help, Taylor said it is "incidental" that Mugsy is from Iran.

Once she saw Mugsy on the website, she said she couldn't stop thinking about her.

"I don't think animals have boundaries and borders. They don't have a nationality," Taylor said. "I can understand if people think it's a bit corny."OTTAWA - Denna Weston was among the first on the scene of a school bus collision that killed her 11-year-old son in Alberta 19 years ago.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/1/2019 (874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Another day begins on the yellow bus, as children peer through fogged-over windows on their way to school in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced a task force look at the possibility of retrofitting school buses with seat belts. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Wong Maye-E

OTTAWA - Denna Weston was among the first on the scene of a school bus collision that killed her 11-year-old son in Alberta 19 years ago.

It was a Friday in October. Jared, a Grade 6 student, was waiting for his turn to be dropped off. The bus passed right by his family home along Highway 22X, just east of Calgary, to drop off some other students before it was Jared's turn.

But a pickup truck collided into the side of the bus with Jared and two other children aboard. When Weston and her neighbours arrived on the scene, one boy was partially out one of the side windows, a girl had exited the bus and her son was still inside.

The mother and her neighbours administered CPR until an air ambulance arrived, but Jared died on route to the hospital. The other two children survived their injuries.

"It was a long haul. And every time something happens, even the (Humboldt) Broncos accident, everything comes back," Weston said in an interview this week.

There's not a day that you don't think about it."

Weston has since acquired the complete RCMP accident reconstruction  a document she says she shouldn't have, but that she needed to see to fully understand and cope with the devastating loss of her child.

"It clearly stated: had Jared been wearing a seatbelt, he would have lived," Weston said.

Weston is among many parents, as well as bus drivers and other concerned citizens, calling for the federal government to make seatbelts mandatory in Canadian school buses.

They were hoping  and, indeed, many were expecting  to hear Transport Minister Marc Garneau announce this would finally happen last week when he addressed the media on the subject of school buses during a meeting of provincial transport ministers in Montreal.

Instead, he announced a task force to look at the possibility of retrofitting school buses with seatbelts. It will bring together provinces, territories, school boards and school bus manufacturers to look at "the implications of mandating the compulsory wearing of seatbelts," Garneau said Jan. 21.

"The task force will look at vehicle standards and operations, both inside and outside the bus, with an emphasis on seatbelts," Simon Rivet, a senior media adviser with Transport Canada said in a statement.

"This work involves expanding our evidence base, such as looking at fleet composition across Canada."

Pilot projects will also be explored as a way to "help Transport Canada develop guidelines to assist school bus operators across Canada to make sure that seatbelts, when installed on school buses, are always worn properly by all occupants," Rivet added.

But the idea of installing seatbelts in school buses has been met with some opposition.

Alex Bugeya of the Ontario School Bus Association says his organization welcomes the work of the task force, but has written to Garneau to stress that industry should be part of the discussions.

"It's a very complex issue," Bugeya said.

In Ontario, a driver is responsible for ensuring anyone under age 16 is wearing a seatbelt if one is present.

"How does that dynamic work when we're dealing with a 72-passenger vehicle? Are we looking at the need for bus monitors?" Bugeya said, adding that evacuation procedures, loading times and route procedures are also important to consider.

And then there's cost. Retrofitting older buses with seatbelts could require new seats, new anchorage requirements and other expensive structural adjustments.

"It's not something we're opposed to exploring. I think it's a discussion that should take place, but it is something that has to happen in conjunction with a decision to mandate seatbelts."

But Gary Lillico, a school bus driver in British Columbia, believes there have been enough studies done on this issue, and that more action is needed.

He pointed to a 2010 report, uncovered by a CBC investigation in October 2018, in which a researcher at Transport Canada concluded current compartmentalization safety features on buses are not enough to stop injuries, particularly in side impacts and rollovers.

Lillico has started a petition on Change.org calling for mandatory school bus seatbelts. It now has more than 50,000 signatures.

But he worries nothing will happen due to governments and school boards concerned about retrofit costs.

"What is the price of a life?" he said.

In Alberta, where she has to drive by the intersection where her son was killed every day, Weston says she is upset this issue has been raised for many years, and yet still school buses don't have seatbelts.

"It's frustrating that nothing has been done. And how many kids have died since?"MONTREAL - People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier has chosen a candidate to represent his party in its first-ever Quebec election.

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People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, right, poses with James Seale, a candidate for the upcoming federal byelection in the riding of Outremont during an event in Montreal, Sunday, January 27, 2019. The federal byelection will take place on February 25. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

MONTREAL - People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier has chosen a candidate to represent his party in its first-ever Quebec election.

Bernier was in the Montreal area on Sunday to launch the campaign of Canadian Army veteran James Seale, who will be on the ballot for Bernier's fledgling party in the federal byelection in Outremont on Feb. 25.

Seale was a member of the armed forces for more than 30 years, and served overseas stints in Israel, Germany, Haiti and Bosnia before later becoming a military instructor and civil servant.

He said he was attracted to the party because of Bernier's promise to increase investment in Canada's defence.

"The PPCs commitment to gradually increase military spending ... will ensure my Canadian Armed Forces' brothers and sisters will be properly equipped and trained to defend Canada in an increasingly complex and uncertain world," Seale said in a statement.

In an interview prior to the launch, Bernier acknowledged he had a "steep hill to climb" in Outremont, which was a longtime Liberal riding before it was captured by the NDP's Tom Mulcair in 2007.

When asked if his statements lambasting what he called "extreme multiculturalism" could hurt the party in the diverse riding, Bernier said he believed his message would appeal to diverse communities as well.

In contrast to other parties  including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals  who "celebrate difference," Bernier said, his campaign will focus on "what unites us.

"Mr. Trudeau, with his cult of diversity, that doesn't create a stronger country if we have people who come to Canada and who don't share the fundamental values at the base of Western society," he said.

"It's a position we have to explain, but once we talk to people they understand."

Bernier also didn't rule out the possibility of proposing a values test for new immigrants, although he said it wasn't a priority.

The longtime Conservative MP founded the People's Party of Canada in September after leaving the Tories following a series of disagreements with leader Andrew Scheer.

A spokesman says the new party has taken in close to $1 million in donations since last August.

The other candidates in Outremont include lawyer Rachel Bendayan for the Liberals, international development specialist Julia Sanchez for the NDP, Jasmine Louras for the Conservative Party, and artist Michel Duchesne for the Bloc Quebecois.

Mulcair won the riding handily in 2015, taking 44 per cent of the votes compared to Bendayan's 33 per cent. Mulcair left politics and resigned as NDP leader last year.

Despite the steep challenge he party faces in the riding, Seale said he expects to be competitive.

"Yes, we have work to do, but at the same time we have very good chances, I think," he said.RIVERVIEW, N.B. - A New Brunswick minister found himself compelled to preach Sunday about whether Donald Trump would be welcomed in his church: a place of worship that prides itself on its inclusive and welcoming nature.

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A New Brunswick minister found himself forced to preach Sunday on whether Donald Trump would have a place in his church: a place of worship that prides itself on its inclusive and welcoming nature. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Hispanic pastors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Susan Walsh

RIVERVIEW, N.B. - A New Brunswick minister found himself compelled to preach Sunday about whether Donald Trump would be welcomed in his church: a place of worship that prides itself on its inclusive and welcoming nature.

Rev. Steve Berube of St. Paul's United Church in Riverview agreed to write a sermon on any topic as a prize for a silent auction fundraiser, and the group of winning "co-conspirators" asked him to address whether the president has a place in his church.

The winning bid? $60.

"If I had known, I would've out-bid them!" laughed Berube.

"But it was a lot of fun. I used a bit of humour in it. Every now and then, we have to have a little bit of laughter when we're facing and dealing with serious issues."

Berube said his church is welcoming to everyone, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation  a trait he believes the president fails to embody, based on comments he's made about women, the LGBTQ community, refugees and immigrants.

"Where do the bounds of inclusion end, is really the question," said Berube, 62, "and how do we welcome in somebody who is so antithetical to the things that we believe?"

Berube said he struggled with writing the sermon because it forced him to weigh Trump's behaviour  which he described as normalizing bullying and sexism  against lessons taught in scripture.

The minister said Jesus is often portrayed as an all-accepting and all-forgiving figure  and while plenty of biblical stories point to that, he said there are others in which Jesus is more demanding.

"Really, there's a sense of accountability that he calls us to around justice and mercy, especially for those who are on the margins," he said, which makes it difficult to strike a balance between how the Bible's words and Trump's behaviour.

"It's really easy to turn Donald Trump into a caricature and forget that he's a human being who's capable of change," said Berube.

In the end, Berube did decide that Trump would be welcomed at St. Paul's  though he noted that he would have to make a lot of changes in order to truly be a part of the church.

Berube said he believes worship is about transforming oneself and being more open to learning about other people. He said he and his congregation would expect the president would be open to this kind of spiritual metamorphosis.

"Donald Trump would be welcomed," he said. "But we would also expect anybody who comes  just as I have been transformed, just as others in the congregation have been transformed  that he, too, would be transformed."

He added: "He may find it pretty uncomfortable."

While his Sunday sermon may have had a controversial subject, the minister said he welcomes any dissenting views from his congregation.

"I will always get pushback, and that's a good thing," he said.

"It pushes me to deeper understandings. It pushes me to listen harder to people who have a different perspective. It pushes me to recognize that there are many good people out there who hold different views, and they are not diminished in any way."

Berube said he'd like to extend an invitation for Trump to pay St. Paul's a visit if he ever makes it to New Brunswick.

 By Alex Cooke in HalifaxTurkey reiterated its position in support of Moroccos sovereignty and territorial integrity during a visit to Rabat by envoy of Turkish President.

Moroccos territorial integrity and stability constitute a strategic priority for Turkey, said Ibrahim Kalin, envoy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was bearing a message to King Mohammed VI.

Morocco is a brotherly country to Turkey that is of extreme importance for us, said the Turkish envoy in a statement to the press after talks with Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.

The Turkish official also highlighted the historic and firm relations existing between the two countries and expressed Ankaras willingness to further strengthen these cooperation ties in all areas, including economic, commercial and cultural.

We are working to intensify our joint actions to bring bilateral relations to the level of a true strategic partnership in the years to come, he added.

Bound by a free trade agreement since 2004, trade between the two countries increased more than four-fold since 2006.

Moroccos exports to Turkey totaled 6.9 billion dirhams, that is 2.8% of its total exports. Moroccos imports from Turkey soared to 19.3 billion dirhams, making up 4.4% of total imports.

Moroccos exports to Turkey include cars, fertilizers, sugar, gold and fisheries while its imports cover cars, clothes, steel and iron.Belgrade methadone provider has been accused of overprescribing drug

Methadone may seem like a miracle drug for some, but it can lead to death or dangerous side effects if not taken properly.

David Healow, a doctor at Community Medical Services, has been sued at least three times on accusations of overprescribing methadone to a patient. He has settled the suits outside of court or they were dismissed. However, Healows practicing license has no negative marks against it, according to a search with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

The most recent lawsuit against Healow was filed in 2008 in Yellowstone County District Court. It was dismissed two months later because of a confidential settlement.

In that case, the family of Steven Webb, a former patient of Healow, accused Healow of overprescribing medication that killed Webb.

In a separate 2006 case, the family of Christine Kearney filed a lawsuit in Yellowstone County District Court and accused Healow of overprescribing methadone to Kearney, causing her death. That lawsuit was thrown out of court two years later.

Mark Schaefer, vice president for the clinics northern territory, said the clinic performed a background check on Healow before hiring him. Schaefer said the clinic also verified Healow's credentials and looked at reports from the Office of the Inspector General.

Rowen Schuler, the clinic's manager, said the clinics medical director and quality management department oversee the providers and patients charts. She said that oversight ensures patients are receiving an appropriate amount of medication.

Healow didn't respond to requests for an interview about the lawsuits.

Daniel Lipari, a Belgrade methadone patient, said he wasn't concerned about Healows history. Lipari said hes seen other doctors at the clinic via video, and he has seen Healow once. He said the clinic is careful about how and who it prescribes methadone to.PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2019

NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Holtzman's highly praised short story "Paper Dolls of the East" is a finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award, it was recently announced. The festival which debuted 10 years ago on the campus of The University of Arizona, will take place in March 2019.

Holtzman's story, which was already awarded an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train, one of the most respected short-story journals in print, was nominated after competing with a record 693 entries from across the United States.

The story tells the tale of a young Syrian girl, her life "broken into two uneven pieces" by a mountain range that separates Syria and Lebanon, and the persistence of hope and family in such a dire and forgotten place.

Holtzman, Global President of BLJ Worldwide, witnessed first-hand many of the events depicted in the story while volunteering in the refugee camps in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon.

I have this dream where I am falling and there is no one to catch me or any solid ground to free me. But I realize now it is the world not me that is falling away, like the collapse of a temporary scaffolding that was built to make me feel tethered to something real and far from death. It is me who is left behind when the world falls. No family. No house. No things. No memories.

-- from Paper Dolls of the East

You can read "Paper Dolls of the East" at https://www.mikeholtzman.com

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mike-holtzmans-short-story-paper-dolls-of-the-east-named-a-finalist-for-the-tucson-festival-of-books-literary-award-300784786.html

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A soldier looks at scattered wooden pews inside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo, capital of the southern Philippine province of Sulu, after two deadly bomb blasts ripped through during a Sunday Mass, Jan. 27, 2019.

Updated at 6:45 a.m. ET on 2019-01-27

Two homemade bombs exploded during a Sunday Mass at a Catholic church in the southern Philippines, killing at least 20 people and wounding 81 others, officials said, in a daring attack blamed on suspected pro-Islamic State militants.

The first bomb detonated inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, capital of Sulu province, about 960 km (600 miles) south of Manila. Then another bomb exploded at a parking lot as people scampered for safety after the first explosion, the military said.

We condemn this dastardly attack on civilians who were peacefully attending church services at the Jolo Cathedral, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the bombings were likely carried out by the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants.

We do not want to make speculations, but we can be sure that this is 99 percent the handiwork of terrorists, Hataman told reporters.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said several victims had been airlifted to Zamboanga City, about 150 km (93 miles) north of Jolo.

I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans, Lorenzana told reporters.

Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, the regional police commander, said 20 people died, including five soldiers, correcting higher figures released earlier by authorities. He said 14 soldiers and two policemen were among the 81 who suffered injuries.

Military chief Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. condemned the attacks, describing them as treachery, and vowed to hunt down and use the full force of the law" to punish those responsible.

I call on the people for calm and sobriety as government security forces address this attack," he said.

The bombings took place just two days after the nations elections commission confirmed that a majority in the mostly Muslim provinces in the southern Philippines had cast yes ballots on Monday for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) versus almost 200,000 who had voted against it.

Residents of Jolo voted to reject inclusion in Muslim autonomous region promised to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which would gain huge administrative power under the BOL.

The law aims to give the south an expanded autonomous area, offering self-determination to the nations four million Muslims by empowering them to elect their own parliament and control over many local government functions, including taxation and education. It would also allow Muslim Filipinos to incorporate Sharia law into their justice system.

National security adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the bombings appeared to have been carried out by people opposed to the BOL. He did not name the Abu Sayyaf, although the group has been left out of any negotiations related to autonomy because it is considered a terrorist organization.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law signifies the end of war for secession, he said, calling those behind the attack as mass murderers and extremist criminals.

The bodies of some of the bombing victims are covered with white sheets after the two explosions in Jolo, capital of the southern Philippine province of Sulu, Jan. 27, 2019. [HO/Philippine military]

Notoriously known

The military poured additional forces in Jolo last month in a bid to crush the Abu Sayyaf, which has an estimated armed strength of less than 500. The group gained notoriety for its alleged involvement in recent bombings and for beheading some of its kidnapped victims.

In 2004, the Abu Sayyaf, or Bearers of the Sword, bombed a passenger ferry on Manila Bay, killing more than 100 people in one of the deadliest terrorist strikes in the country.

A faction of the Abu Sayyaf led by Isnilon Hapilon, who was considered the Islamic States leader in Southeast Asia, ventured across the Mindanao island and took over the city of Marawi in 2017. Five months of gunbattles ensued, destroying the predominantly Islamic city and killing about 1,200 people, most of them militants. Hapilon and other key militants were slain in October 2017.

Salvador Panelo, President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman, vowed that authorities would go after the perpetrators of Sundays bombings.

The law will give them no mercy, he told reporters, adding that the bombings posed a challenge for the Duterte government to crush the Abu Sayyaf, which has survived for years by attracting young, disgruntled Muslims living in impoverished southern regions.

The twin explosions occurred days after the Jan. 21 vote that led to the ratification of the BOL in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur. Although Jolo voted no to inclusion, the law is virtually a done deal.

Another plebiscite will take place on Feb. 6 in six towns in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato. The results, however, are not likely to change the overall outcome, experts said.

Authorities hope that the BOL will end a nearly 40-year conflict, which has killed more than 120,000 people on Mindanao, the countrys second-largest island. As part of a deal struck with Manila over BOL, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front had also agreed to disband its fighting force.

Richel V. Umel in Iligan City contributed to this report.

Updated to correct the higher death toll released earlier by authorities.





The nation got an impromptu lesson recently over journalistic ethics and the importance of checking facts before publishing a story. The media went wild over a video clip that supposedly showed students from Covington Catholic High School mocking a Native American Vietnam veteran in Washington, D.C. The veteran, Nathan Phillips, was attending the Indigenous Peoples March. The students were in D.C. for the annual March for Life rally. Following both marches, a short video clip emerged showing one of the students, Nick Sandmann, and Phillips staring at each other. Sandmann appeared to be smirking while Phillips stood nose to nose with the teenager and played his drum.

The media ran with the story that the students from Covington Catholic had been shouting insults and, essentially, trying to pick a fight. The teenagers were blasted by most news outlets, celebrities and absolutely pilloried on social media. Then, a much longer video was discovered that showed things were not nearly as simple as they appeared. The insults and racist remarks were actually shouted by members of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, and Phillips approached Sandmann, not the other way around. Sandmann also spoke out and claimed that he was trying to diffuse the situation but also refused to back down and be intimidated by either the Black Hebrew Israelites or Phillips.

Unfortunately, by the time context for the video was released, the damage was done. The students had been threatened with expulsion, labeled as racists and seen their names smeared by the national media. Worst of all, a video taken out of context and spread by the media lead some people to threaten to murder a bunch of teenagers and their families.

Numerous journalists have retracted, deleted and apologized for jumping the gun, but the damage has already been done. As Patricia Heaton pointed out in a series of tweets, the failure of the media to do their duty and check the facts means that the teenagers are going to be impacted by 30 seconds of foolishness for the rest of their lives.

These young people will forever have these smears follow them through their life every time they proffer their resume with the word Covington on it, Heaton wrote. It will also affect anyone who ever has or ever will attend that school. The damage is incalculable.

Heaton stated that it is not enough for the students to receive mere apologies from the journalists who cheerfully piled on an incomplete story. It seems to me that an apology without some kind of accompanying action which speaks to the seriousness of their transgression  a suspension from work, some loss of pay  renders any apology empty, Heaton wrote. After all, certain colleges or employers might not want to run the risk of accepting a student or employee who could potentially be seen as controversial. Some kind of compensatory action would go a long way in signaling [journalists] recognition of the seriousness of their transgression and help to restore whats left of the publics very fragile trust in their reputations as trustworthy journalists.

At this point, no media outlet has yet taken Heatons advice, and the journalists who did not bother to fact check the story are currently off the hook. This has helped make for a very dark week for the American news media, especially given that the media already had a black eye following Buzzfeed misprinting an update on the Muller investigation so completely false that Muller actually released a statement saying it was not true. Regardless of whether you stand on the left or right side of the political aisle, there is no doubt that Americans trust in the media has tanked. Given stories like this, that should come, unfortunately, as no surprise.Pope Francis called for a just and peaceful solution to Venezuelas political crisis as he wrapped up a visit to Panama for a World Youth Day rally that was overshadowed by the upheaval unfolding nearby.

He refused to say if the Holy See would recognise opposition leader Juan Guaido in his claim for the presidency, which has been backed by the United States and other regional leaders.

The Vatican has been frustrated in the past in its attempts to mediate between socialist President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuelas opposition, which has the backing of many Venezuelan bishops.

Here in Panama, I have thought a lot about the Venezuelan people, to whom I feel particularly united in these days. In the face of the serious ongoing situation, I ask you to pray that a just and peaceful solution may be reached.  Pope Francis (@Pontifex) January 27, 2019

Speaking off the cuff at his Sunday blessing, Pope Francis said he felt particularly close to Venezuelans while he was in Panama.

He asked the Lord to seek and find a just and peaceful solution to overcome the crisis that respects human rights and exclusively seeks the good of all people.

The Venezuela crisis has dominated his visit to Panama, both behind the scenes and in public, with the Pope at one point asking out loud if any Venezuelan bishops were on hand at the end of an event.

The Vaticans secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was former ambassador to Venezuela so he knows the situation well.

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Francis made the Venezuela comments after he closed out World Youth Day with a Mass in a Panama City field before an estimated 700,000 people and presidents from Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Portugal.

You dear people are not the future but the now of God, Francis told the pilgrims draped in flags from across the Americas.

At the end of the service, the Vatican announced the next edition of World Youth Day would be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

Our trip was very long but it was worth it because we came here to Panama City because of our faith, our Christian faith, said pilgrim Sawadogo Kiswensidad, who travelled from Burkina Faso.

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After Mass, Francis visited a church-run home for people infected with HIV, sending a strong message of acceptance in Panama, where AIDS carries a stigma.

Many of the people we help here have been rejected by their families, by people in the street, said the Rev Domingo Escobar, director of the Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano.

But here they receive Christian help, as the Church wants.

Using the parable of the Good Samaritan, who tended to a stranger in need, Francis called for an end to the indifference that society treats the poor and the sick.

For indifference can also wound and kill, he said.

Some for a few miserable coins, others for fear of becoming unclean.

The Good Samaritan, whether in the parable or in all of your homes, shows us that our neighbour is first of all a person, someone with a real, particular face, not something to avoid or ignore, whatever his or her situation may be.

Francis used his visit to the home to issue a string of appeals beyond Venezuela.

He appealed for peace in Colombia following a car bombing at a police academy that killed 21 people earlier this month, denounced the bombing of a cathedral in the Philippines earlier on Sunday and added his voice to the chorus of solidarity on Holocaust Remembrance day.

After meeting with World Youth Day volunteers, Francis was heading back to the Vatican to prepare for another trip next weekend to Abu Dhabi, the first by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula.The world is marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others during the Second World War.

In Poland, which was under Nazi occupation during the war, a far-right activist who has served prison time for burning the effigy of a Jew gathered with other nationalists outside the former death camp of Auschwitz ahead of official ceremonies remembering the 1.1 million people murdered there.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Together, we must learn from genocide, challenge prejudice and create a better future.



Watch and share our film for #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/llk5GS3Znh  Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (@HMD_UK) January 27, 2019

Since last years observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.

Human Rights First, a US organisation, recalled those killings and warned that todays threats do not come solely from the fringe.

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In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are travelling the road to authoritarianism, said Ira Forman, the groups senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism.

As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust.

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The Polish nationalist, Piotr Rybak, said his group was protesting against the Polish government, accusing it of remembering only murdered Jews and not murdered Poles in yearly observances at Auschwitz.

The accusation is incorrect. The observances at the memorial site pay homage each January 27 to all of the camps victims, Jewish and non-Jewish.

Counter-protesters at Auschwitz held up a Fascism Stop sign and an Israeli flag, while police kept the two groups apart.

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Former prisoners placed flowers at an execution wall at Auschwitz. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter P, the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

Early in the Second World War, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces. Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on January 27 1945.

The clashes of views at Auschwitz come amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

However recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during the war is declining generally.

A study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52% of millennials in Canada cannot name one concentration camp or ghetto and 62% did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

The past year in Poland has also seen high emotions triggered by a Holocaust speech law that criminalises blaming the Polish nation for the crimes of Nazi Germany, something that sparked a diplomatic crisis with Israel and a surge of anti-Semitic hate speech.

The United Nations recognised January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.Nicola Sturgeon has thrown her support behind Labour MP Yvette Coopers Article 50 amendment, which the SNP in Westminster will back on Tuesday.

If the amendment is selected by the Speaker, MPs will vote on whether the Prime Minister must seek a delay to the planned Brexit date of March 29 if no deal has been approved by February 26.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford is also expected to table an amendment on Monday calling on Mrs May to note the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Commons all voted overwhelmingly to reject her deal.

But speaking on the BBCs Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, the Scottish First Minister said Theresa May had not revealed what her next plan for Brexit was  meaning extending Article 50 was now pressing and urgent.

Hereas the Bill. It gives the Govt til end of Feb to sort things out, but if they havenat, then Parliament would get a vote on whether to extend article 50 & get a bit more time. It gives Govt & Parliament a chance to avert No Deal in March if time has run out pic.twitter.com/P2rMfDuEZ3  Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) January 23, 2019

Ms Sturgeon said: I dont think she had a clue herself where shes going, if I can be as blunt as that.

Theres an air of unreality. Theres almost an air of the Prime Minister and her Government being in complete denial about this. Yesterday there were reports in the media about how she might be close to getting a majority behind her deal by making a commitment to removing the backstop  ignoring the reality that the EU have shown no signs of being prepared to agree to that.

Thats why I think now Article 50 should be extended, there should be a request made for that and the SNP were the first party to call for that.

That is now pressing and urgent and SNP MPs on Tuesday this week will vote for Yvette Coopers amendment. We think that request should be made now, but nevertheless I think Yvette Coopers amendment takes us in the right direction.

On Saturday the Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell spoke at a Rally for Europe in support of a Peoples Vote.

He said it would be physically possible to organise another referendum in the time available before the Brexit due date, however it remains one of the lesser considered options in Westminster.

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When Ms Sturgeon was asked about its chances, she told Mr Marr: I dont think its off the table. I do accept that as things stand right now there doesnt appear to be a majority in the House of Commons and thats because for reasons that only he can or cant explain, Jeremy Corbyn is fixedly on the fence on this issue. He said he wanted to try to get a general election, he tried that and failed.

It seems to me its incumbent on Labour to make its position on this clear  if it does so then I do think there would possibly be a majority in the House of Commons so Labour, at the moment, are the block to that and I think thats deeply regrettable.

Well have to wait and see what Labours position would be. Firstly wed have to wait and see if there would be a general election. Its pretty inexplicable that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leader here in Scotland (Richard Leonard) doesnt seem to be able to say what position on Brexit they would take in a general election.

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She added: Im simply recognising the many hypotheticals underlying. Ive always said  I said in the 2015 general election if you recall, I said it in the 2017 general election  that the SNP would want to be part of a progressive alternative to a Conservative government if the arithmetic leant itself to that. That remains the case.

Obviously Labour have to be willing to work with the SNP as well as the SNP being willing to work with Labour.

Until now the blockage to working together like that has come from the Labour side but I would always do whatever I could as leader of the SNP to keep the Tories out of Downing Street.Emergency services looking for a missing pensioner have focused their latest search efforts around a river in north-east Scotland.

Phyllis Milne, 86, was reported missing from the Quarryhill area of Keith, Moray, on Saturday.

She was last spoken to by a family member at around 10pm on Friday.

Police, the coastguard and fire and ambulance crews have been involved in searches for the missing woman over the weekend.

On Sunday, the coastguard and specialist search officers from Police Scotlands operational support unit focused their searches around the River Isla, north of Keith, towards the River Deveron, after receiving information from the public about sightings of Ms Milne.

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Inspector Neil Campbell said: I would urge anyone who believes they saw Phyllis on Saturday, and has not spoken to us, to come forward.

Any information, no matter how small you may think it is, can assist us with our inquiries.

We are grateful to the community for their support and offers of assistance with the searches.

Due to the terrain we are searching and the associated risks, as well as the weather conditions, we are continuing the searches with our specialist officers.

If public searches are to be arranged, we will of course let the community know.

The missing pensioner is described as being around 5ft 6ins, of medium build, and has thick, short, curly grey hair.

She wears glasses and was last seen wearing a beige jacket with a fur collar.The Scottish Greens have warned they cannot support the Governments proposed budget as it stands, saying it would be damaging for local services across the country.

They argue the current level of funding proposed for local government means they cannot back the SNP administrations budget for 2019-20.

The Greens have called for a fundamental change of position from ministers ahead of the first vote on the budget on Thursday.

Ministers say the budget proposes real terms increases in funding for councils and they are urging MSPs from other parties to unite behind the spending plans.

With the SNP not having a majority in the Scottish Parliament, Finance Secretary Derek Mackay needs the support of at least one other party if his financial package is to be approved.

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The Greens, who say they have reached agreement with the SNP on four previous occasions, argue the budget contains fresh proposed cuts and they are looking for more money to be allocated to Scotlands councils.

Total funding for both the revenue and capital budget in the local government settlement is up more than 210 million, with overall Scottish Government support to local government at 11.1 billion.

This includes core funding and cash from other areas, but council umbrella body Cosla argues that due to money already committed and ring-fencing, both core capital and revenue budgets have been cut by 2%, at 198 million and 207 million respectively.

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: The Greens went into this years budget process with a precondition of progress on local tax reform, to make council budgets less dependent on the Government in future.

Im convinced that a solid package of measures can be agreed, which over the coming years would empower Scotlands councils and finally end the unfair council tax.

But the Government seem determined to force through a hugely damaging budget for 2019/20, decimating local services around the country. Thats not something we can support.

As councils prepare to set their budgets for the coming year the threat to jobs, services like education and community facilities such as swimming pools and libraries is very real. A crisis in local services can be avoided, but it will require a fundamental change of position from the Scottish Government.

Our spending plans for 2019-20 provide a real terms funding increase for Scotlands essential public services.Finance Secretary Derek Mackay

Meanwhile, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said Mr Mackay must take independence off the table if he wants to unlock budget talks with them.

Leader Willie Rennie said: If the Finance Secretarys talks with the Green Party are faltering, he knows exactly what he needs to do to unlock talks.

The damage done by independence to public services would be enormous. We are not asking the SNP to abandon their belief in independence. We just want the SNP minority Government to cease preparations for the remainder of this Parliament.

Mr Mackay said the 11.1 billion settlement for local government represents a real terms increase in both revenue and capital funding, and a real terms increase in total overall support.

He said the Scottish Parliament should unite behind the plans to provide certainty on public spending and economic investment amid ongoing Brexit uncertainty.

Mr Mackay said his door remains open to opposition parties to secure a deal and ensure the budget passes.

He said: With unemployment in Scotland below 100,000 for the first time on record, it is essential we do all we can to protect our economy amid the ongoing Brexit uncertainty.

The Scottish budget we propose offers that stability and provides as much certainty as possible in the circumstances.

Our spending plans for 2019-20 provide a real terms funding increase for Scotlands essential public services, including additional funding of almost 730 million for our health and care services and more than 180 million to raise attainment in our schools.

The budget also gives a vital boost to our economy through our 5 billion infrastructure investment programme.Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said it was important for all to work together in finding solutions to Brexit saying it was important to listen to all Northern Ireland and not just the DUP "because they happen to sit in Westminster".

In a wide-ranging interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, the Tanaiste ruled out binning the hated backstop of parliament voted it down on Tuesday but said Ireland would not stand in the way of delaying Article 50 - and postponing Brexit - if more time was what was needed.

"Brexit is not an Irish policy," he said "but it is causing huge problems on the island or Ireland. There is an obligation on people to actually have pragmatic solutions rather than wishful thinking."

He said Ireland "will insist" the UK keeps its word to the people of Northern Ireland and the way to overcome the obstacles was through the future relations talks during the transition period.

"The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines," he said.

"Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement is part of a balanced package that isn't going to change."

However responding, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said delaying Brexit would not resolve the issues. Although he said he "emphatically" did not want a no deal and the way to avoid that was by endorsing Theresa May's withdrawal agreement.

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He said Theresa May had agreed to the backstop based on her own red lines. He said it was "entirely unreasonable" to take out all the compromises made by Britain while including those compromises made by the EU.

Speaking about the Taoiseach's comments on troops on the border in the event of a no deal. He said Mr Varadkar was reminding people of what the border once looked like.

"What I would ask people to think about is how far we have come in the last 20 years and what the peace agreement has done for relationships between our two island. Let's not go backwards and cause tension," He said.

"Let's not just listen to one political party's voice from Northern Ireland because they happen to sit in Westminster. Let's listen everybody in Northern Ireland is saying. What business is saying, farmers, unionist and nationalist.

"There is a strong view coming from Northern Ireland that says we have a withdrawal agreement which protects the peace process and good relations on the island of Ireland. Let's take that rather than risk a no deal Brexit."

Ireland will insist on the UK keeping its word.

On Tuesday parliament will again vote on Theresa May's deal with the EU. There have been more than a dozen amendments tabled including ensuring there can be no departure in a no deal, delaying Brexit and binning the backstop and looking for "alternative arrangements".

"There is no magic solution here for this problem," Mr Coveney continued.

"If there was it would have emerged by now and that is why Ireland will insist on the UK keeping its word to Ireland, the EU and the people of Northern Ireland in terms of protecting a fragile but hugely valuable peace process."

Asked if the Commons voted on finding alternative arrangements to the backstop, would the withdrawal agreement be "holy text" and untouchable the TD said that would be like asking Ireland to renege on its commitments and instead replace them with a hope something would be found.

Listen to what the people of Europe are saying.

He said the way to tackle the issues was in the future trade relations talks.

"That is the way I hope these negotiations will go rather than the British parliament deciding on something that may command a majority in Westminster but has no chance of getting agreement or ratification in the EU.

"Listen to what people are saying in Europe. This is not just about Britain's future. This is about how we work together in the future."

He added: "People keep talking about games of chicken and the UK position being against the Irish or the EU position. We are all trying to work together here.

"Britain and Ireland are two islands next door to each other, we have an extraordinary history at times a very tragic history. But we have to work out these things together and stop talking about games of chicken."

Mr Coveney said he did not believe the only reason for Theresa May's crushing defeat in the Commons earlier this month was down to the backstop alone.

"If you look at the withdrawal agreement it is actually not that controversial. It is about protecting citizens rights.. about protecting British citizens rights in the EU .. it's about a financial settlement.. it's about creating the time and space for a transition period.. for preparing for new realities.

"And its about protecting a peace process which I believe the Prime Minister is deeply committed to."

He added: "The problem with the argument is that nobody has come up with a pragmatic, sensible and legally sound way of avoiding border infrastructure reemerging between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. And that is why it took two years to get the backstop agreed and that is why I believe the Prime Minister is correct when she defends it."Genral view of the Donaghadee Road in the Ballyholme area of Bangor where a woman in her 70s died after being struck by a car on Saturday evening. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

A woman pedestrian aged in her 70s was killed after she was hit by a car in Bangor.

The woman had been walking along the Donaghadee Road, Ballyholme at around 7.15pm when she was hit by the Citreon C3. Such were her injuries she died at the roadside.

The road was closed for a period to allow for investigations of the scene. It has since reopened.

Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dash-cam footage available to contact them on 101, quoting reference number 1165 26/1/19.Two people were injured after they were assaulted during an altercation in Portrush.

A 45-year-old female sustained a cut to her face after she was assaulted while a man (50) was attacked but did not sustain any injuries as a result.

Police said an altercation broke out between a number of people after they got out of a taxi in The Links area of Portrush on Saturday night.

A 27-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possession of an offensive weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence was later released pending further investigation. So too was a 25-year-old man who was arrested at the scene.

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact 101 quoting reference 1653 26/01/19. Or provide anonymous information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.Northern Irelands ex-police chief Sir Hugh Orde has warned that a hard border would be exploited by dissident republicans.

The former chief constable of the PSNI said there is no way to avoid the return of security patrols if there is a no-deal Brexit.

He also accused politicians of having their heads stuck in the mud and hoping it will all go away when it comes to the security threat surrounding the Irish border issue.

Speaking to RTEs This Week programme, Sir Hugh said there would be huge consequences if a hard border returned, adding that security officers would be targeted.

Straight talking on the reintroduction of Irish Border from former head of PSNI Sir Hugh Orde, OBE, QPM. He said the politicians have their heads in the sand. I have been warning since the day after #Brexit that there will have to be a border. Letas stop messing & talk about it  Senator G Craughwell (@GCraughwell) January 27, 2019

History tells us that, by definition, they are targets, as soon as you have a fixed point, and we have to think of this particular issue in the context of the politics, to recreate a hard border would be of huge significance in security terms, he added.

By definition it would be foreseeable that they would be those at risk and would be targeted.

The moment you see anything that starts to create the perception of a very hard distinction between north and south, it creates a catalyst that allows people to exploit that position and certainly dissident republicans would be in that category.

He said it would not be possible to monitor the border with only cameras and technology.

There is nowhere to my knowledge in the world where a purely technological solution to an issue of a border has been achieved or is likely to be achieved, he said.

You can do a certain amount with technology but you still need an element of policing to deal with determined criminals and people who take advantage of a privileged status, so there would have to be some form of physical customs presence and there are huge consequences to that in context of Northern Ireland and (the) Republic.

In my judgment you would have to see some form of physical barrier like exists in many parts of the world where international borders are routine part of everyday policing of different countries.

People seem to have a head stuck in the mud and hoping it will all go awaySir Hugh Orde

The former president of the Association of Chief Police Officers said that, if he was still police chief of the PSNI, a hard border would worry me greatly.

Referring to last weekends New IRA car bombing in Londonderry, he described it as a significant move.

He added: Its a statement that things are going to get more difficult, not less.

He was asked whether politicians have paid enough attention to the security threat that looms over a hard border.

People seem to have a head stuck in the mud and hoping it will all go away, he said.

If I was chief I would do my very best to maintain the border using non-military resources.

The military are not there to reinforce international borders unless a threat is extraordinarily high.

Im sure both the Commissioner of the Garda (Drew Harris) and the Chief Constable of the PSNI (George Hamilton) would do their best to maintain a presence to support what should be custom and excise officers.

The military would have to be seen as a last resort, not a first and only if civilian law enforcement agencies did not feel they were capable of securing those positions safely for the people working there.Actors (back row left to right) Dame Penelope Wilton, Nina Sosanya and Sheila Hancock join Holocaust survivor Mindu Hornick (front left) and Rwandan genocide survivor Chantal Uwamahoro (front right) in lighting a candle in memory of all victims of genocide at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony held the QEII Centre, Westminster, London.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has joined 200 survivors of the Holocaust and genocides to honour the millions of people who were murdered.

Britains Jewish community was assured it was an intrinsic part of what makes Britain great, at a national memorial service in Westminster.

Mr Corbyn, whose party has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism, arrived 20 minutes before the service began and was seen chatting and taking photos with guests.

"Itas important that we say resolutely: it must never be allowed to happen again."



Lord Alf Dubs shares his powerful story on Holocaust Memorial Day. #HMD2019 #HMD #HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/V1bVgPSApZ  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 27, 2019

He earlier posted on Twitter: Let us never allow anti-Semitism or any other form of racism to disfigure our society.

Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Laura Marks told guests trustees had been questioned over recent months about whether the guest list was appropriate given the reported prevalence of anti-Semitism within mainstream politics.

She told the room: We were asked if it was appropriate to continue to welcome some representatives knowing that this may cause distress to Holocaust survivors and refugees.

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But we know through independent studies that people who attend Holocaust Memorial Day events learn more, empathise more deeply and go on to do more to build a better future.

The Labour leader said afterwards that he found the ceremony deeply moving, calling it a powerful reminder of why we must stand against racism and oppression everywhere.

Speaking to about one thousand guests, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said he was deeply troubled by the prevalence of modern-day prejudice.

He said: We still imagine that these barbarities belongs in the history books, and yet today, 74 years since the Nazi death camps were liberated, anti-Semitism is on the rise, here and abroad, and Jewish communities are once again living in fear.

Important now as ever to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and ensure that we learn the stark lessons of the past and confront racism, bigotry and hatred. Privileged to take part in the UK Commemorative Ceremony later today. #HolocaustMemorialDay https://t.co/rKDcqN9c7g  James Brokenshire (@JBrokenshire) January 27, 2019

This troubles me deeply and must trouble us all.

And I want to reassure our Jewish community that you are an intrinsic part of what makes Britain great, and the Government will always stand by you to challenge bigotry and intolerance and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that future generations never forget where hatred can lead.

Ahead of the ceremony, special envoy for post-Holocaust issues Lord Eric Pickles told survivors at a reception that democracy is the best bastion against tyranny.

He said: The battle of the Holocaust continues to this day.

There are serious numbers of people that want to pretend it didnt exist.

There are serious numbers of people that want to lie about the Holocaust.

And we are here to counter that with truth.

Its visible by the mere fact that we cant advertise where we are (here today) we cant do things like that, we dont put ourselves forwardRachel Levy, Holocaust survivor

TV actors Nina Sosanya and Sanjeev Bhaskar both gave readings during the service, which was interspersed with poignant short films from survivors and musical tributes.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis were also present.

Six candles were lit by survivors, including grandmother Rachel Levy, to represent the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and those who died in more recent genocides.

Ms Levy, who survived Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland as a teenager with her brother, said she found the current level of anti-Semitism in Britain frightening.

The 87-year-old, who was born in former Czechoslovakia and came to the UK after the war, said: Its worrying and frightening, because I cant believe that things can happen again.

And one shouldnt close ones eyes to that, close your hearing for that because it is happening, people are turning nasty again, of all classes.

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I dont understand why.

People I meet are normal people, I have not suffered from it myself, I havent come across any aggressive people, but its happening to other people and its visible.

Its visible by the mere fact that we cant advertise where we are (here today) we cant do things like that, we dont put ourselves forward.

Im Jewish, so what? We dont deny it, but we dont boast about it.

I love being Jewish and Ill never give it up and Im not religious.but I still believe that miracles have happened to me and there is hope.

The ceremony ended with Somewhere Over the Rainbow sung by the Fourth Choir.

It comes as a survey commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 UK adults does not believe the Holocaust took place, while one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated.

Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) either could not say how many Jews were murdered or grossly under-estimated the number, the survey of more than 2,000 people found.Prime Minister Theresa May has been seeking concessions on the backstop (Steve Parsons/PA)

Theresa Mays bid to get EU concessions on the Northern Ireland Brexit backstop has been strongly rejected by Dublin.

The Prime Minister has anchored her attempts to try and re-sell her Brexit strategy to Parliament on a push to change the backstop proposals which have been roundly condemned by prominent Leave supporters.

However, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney firmly insisted the EU was not prepared to accept changes to the deal which is aimed at preventing the return of a hard border.

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He told BBC Ones Andrew Marr Show: The European Parliament will not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that doesnt have a backstop in it. Its as simple as that.

The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines.

Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced package that isnt going to change.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied Mr Coveneys comments meant Mrs Mays Brexit deal was dead in the water.

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Not at all, said Mr Hancock. Thats a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think its also extremely clear from that interview and the tone Ireland doesnt want to have a no-deal Brexit.

The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds told Sky News: There are multiple reasons to believe the backstop would never come into place.

And, even if it did, actually there are some advantages to the backstop as well as drawbacks.

However, Brexiteer Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said she wanted the PM to abandon the backstop, telling Sky News: Id like to see her bin the backstop. I think we need to bin it completely.

The backstop would see the UK remain under EU customs rules if a wider trade agreement had not been reached after a transition period.

Tory Brexiteers have tabled Commons amendments calling for major changes to the backstop, including the imposition of an end date for it.

Commons Speaker John Bercow will decide if the backstop amendments get to be voted on by MPs when the PMs Brexit stance is again considered in Parliament on Tuesday.

And the PM faced problems on a second Brexit front as Cabinet divisions over a no-deal withdrawal from the EU broke to the surface again.

Mr Hinds said: I dont envisage no deal becoming Government policy.

We want to avoid a no deal. No deal would not be a good outcome

The comments came after Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom branded attempts by MPs to kill no deal as an option, through a series of Commons amendments on Tuesday, as a thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit.

The tensions emerged as it was revealed preparations are being looked at for the possible imposition of martial law after a no-deal Brexit.

The move has been described by sources as the civil service prepping for all possibilities.

aThe PM needs to hold her nerve. Weave seen a lot of movement over the last week, from the EU.



aIn 2016, Barnier said that ahis job is to give such a bad deal to the UK, post Brexit that they would want to remain.a (We) need to stand up and not take thata @andreajenkyns#Ridge pic.twitter.com/XZRCrjbFgi  #StandUp4Brexit (@StandUp4Brexit) January 27, 2019

Mr Hancock denied the Government was specifically planning for martial law but did not rule it out.

I wouldnt put a stress on that, he said. Of course Government all the time looks at all the options in all circumstances.

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He also distanced himself from leaked comments in November claiming he had said he could not guarantee patients would not die in a no-deal scenario.

I didnt quite say that, he said. Cabinet discussions are meant to be secret.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said she was not in favour of a second referendum, but would vote Remain if one was held.

Ms Rayner told Sky News: I would probably vote Remain and the reason is Ive seen over the last 2.5 years all the analysis we have got at the moment.

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When asked if Labour would back Yvette Coopers Brexit amendment which seeks to stop a no deal and extend Article 50, Ms Rayner said: Labour will do whatever it takes to avoid a no-deal Brexit, so if thats the only option we have its something we will seriously consider.

Let me be as clear as I possibly can be for the people that are listening to this programme  weve put our amendment down, weve said we respected the result of the referendum, we want to find a deal, we want a customs union, we want protection for environment, consumer, employment. Weve said that all along.

Theresa May will not budge on her red lines, shes forcing us and trying to bully us into a no-deal scenario.

We will do whatever it takes, through Parliament, to stop that no-deal scenario from happening. If that means backing an amendment, then we will do that.

Ahead of Tuesdays Commons showdown, defence minister Tobias Ellwood broke ranks and insisted a no-deal scenario must be ruled out.

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Despite Mrs May refusing to take the prospect of no deal off the table, Mr Ellwood wrote in the Sunday Times: It is now time to rule out the very possibility of no deal.

It is wrong for Government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world.

In other measures, the Government is seeking to extend working hours for MPs to get Brexit legislation through the Commons before the scheduled EU withdrawal date of March 29.

Parliaments February break looks set to be scrapped and sitting days extended by starting earlier and finishing later than usual.Police have renewed their appeal for information into the killing of the IRA informer Eamon Collins on the 20th anniversary of his savage murder.

And they say those responsible should expect to hear from the police in the coming weeks.

The 45-year-old father of four was deliberately knocked down while out walking with his dogs in the Doran's Hill area of Newry in a revenge attack for turning on his former comrades.

What followed was an attack later described as "grotesque" and thought to have been carried out by the Provisional IRA. Collins was stabbed in the face and head numerous times until he was unrecognisable and so the family were unable to have an open coffin for his funeral.

Police later recovered a DNA profile from one of the killer gang and believe the attacker himself suffered a serious injury in the attack.

Detective Inspector Conor Sweeney from Legacy Investigation Branch said: Eamon Collins was attacked while out walking his dogs in the peaceful, lonely early hours of the morning.

" A car full of people pulled up beside him and launched a sudden, sustained and savage assault. Beaten about the body with blunt objects and stabbed repeatedly in the head and face, Eamon never stood a chance that morning.

Its a fact that elements of Eamon Collins life have been highly publicised in the media and other public records. However, that past was behind him and he himself had publicly rejected violence and turned away from those involved in such violence.

"At the time of his brutal murder, Eamon was simply a devoted husband and a loving father. The killers left in their destructive wake a grieving widow and four fatherless children."

A recklessly courageous individual.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Hunting knife similar to one used by killers. Compass from handle of similar hunting knife. Murder scene on Dorans Hill / Facebook

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Collins played a role in the IRA's intelligence and internal security network although said he never directed killed. In 1985 he turned supergrass after being arrested by police in but relented and retracted his statements under pressure from his family.

He was subsequently charged with five murders and dozens of terrorist offences but was not convicted and returned to live in Newry in the staunchly republican Barcroft Estate.

In 1996, Collins wrote a devastating expose of the IRA, Killing Rage, based on his life as a terrorist. He described the torture and murder of the undercover British Army officer Robert Nairac in 1977 and how his body was disposed of in a meat mincer.

He also infuriated the IRA by describing it as a chaotic, anarchic organisation whose members were happiest when they were in the pub.

Collins also wrote and featured in numerous articles for national newspapers. He was vocal in criticising republican violence and had been threatened numerous times by the IRA before his death.

Coroner John Lecky, at the inquest into Collins' death, said his murder was one of the most brutal, horrific and grotesque murders they had encountered.

Neil Belton, an editor for publishers Granta described Collins as "a recklessly courageous individual who seemed to have found some way of publicly atoning for what he had done through the book. It is a tragic, tragic waste".

We are close to identifying killers.

Detective Inspector Conor Sweeney continued: Detectives will be following a number of lines of enquiry in the weeks ahead and those responsible should expect police attention.

"A full DNA profile has been recovered from the crime scene. We believe this DNA profile was left by one of the killer gang. With the advances in DNA technology, I believe we are close to identifying this person.

However, police are always reliant on information from the public to help us solve such crimes.

"In this instance, the DNA profile was extracted from blood left at the scene. Forensic analysis of the blood tells us that the person who left it was male, and that he himself suffered a severe injury during this frenzied attack.

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"There will be people in the community, whether in the Newry area or south of the border or anywhere else, who are aware of an acquaintance, a relative, a neighbour suffering such an unexplained wound. It may stand out in their minds as having occurred on the same day that they heard about Eamon Collins murder. This is information that we need people to tell us.

20 years have now passed since this merciless killing. I ask those who were involved, or heard accounts of what happened, either in the immediate aftermath or indeed over the years, to think about the devastating effect this has had on Eamons family, and to come forward to the police.

A number of people were involved in Eamons murder. They know who they are and they are going to have to live with that for the rest of their lives. While they are not before the courts today, police will continue the investigation with the objective of putting them there. I would appeal to them to do the right thing and make a difference to Eamons family by making themselves known.

We are appealing for assistance from the local community who we still believe can help us, despite the amount of time which has elapsed. Anyone with information can contact detectives in Legacy Investigation Branch on 101 or LIBEnquiries@psni.pnn.police.uk. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.Dublin has delivered a thinly veiled warning to Downing Street not to go back on the Brexit deal hammered out with the European Union.

And in what is likely to be seen as a swipe at hardline Tory Brexiteers, Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney told the Press Association that those misrepresenting the backstop had failed to produce an alternative to it.

Mr Coveney said the British Cabinet had endorsed the Withdrawal Agreement including the backstop aimed at preventing a hard border, as he made clear it would not be changed.

He told the Press Association: A hard border cannot return.

Peace and the Good Friday Agreement are more important than Brexit.

Even in a no-deal Brexit situation every party and every MP in the UK will have a responsibility to ensure there is no return to a hard border and Northern Ireland is protected.

A hard border cannot return. Peace and the Good Friday Agreement are more important than BrexitSimon Coveney

That wont be easy and those who misrepresent the backstop dont have an alternative to it.

With 60 days (from Monday) to go, the people attacking the backstop need to be asked two questions. Firstly, what is their alternative?

Secondly, do they wish to protect the peace process?

With Tory Brexiteers putting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to secure a time limit for the backstop, Mr Coveney made it clear that would not be acceptable.

He said: Skilled UK and EU teams have worked to bring about a Withdrawal Agreement that has been endorsed by 27 governments and the British Cabinet.

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The backstop was negotiated around British red lines.

The EU has been clear that the backstop is an integral part of the withdrawal agreement.

A backstop is not a backstop if it is time limited.

The backstop, which would see the UK obey EU customs rules if no wider trade agreement is sorted out after a transition period, has been attacked by Brexiteers who say it could keep Britain tied to Brussels indefinitely.

The issue is likely to feature in a Commons Brexit showdown on Tuesday after Leave backers tabled amendments to a Government motion calling for major changes to the backstop.

Mr Coveney, who is also foreign minister, used Mrs Mays own words to insist that guarantees on the border could not just be aspirational.

He said: As the Prime Minister said herself in her Andrew Marr interview no border simply doesnt happen simply because people sit around saying, well, we wont have a border.

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The Prime Minister was spot on when she added that this is about practicality and a guarantee, not just aspiration.

With some Irish politicians predicting that people would tear down any border infrastructure erected, Mr Coveney insisted there was never an excuse for violence.

He said: Whatever the political grievance, there is no justification for violence in Northern Ireland.

It is true that there is strong cross-community opposition in border regions to the possibility of any hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney side-stepped questioning about what he believed the consequences would be of any attempt to impose martial law in Northern Ireland after a no-deal Brexit.

He said: Ireland accepts Brexit is going to hurt us economically, its a UK policy and there is nothing we can do about the economic damage it will cause.

However, we will not accept any going backwards on the 20 years of peace and stability between communities in Northern Ireland and between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney dismissed suggestions Ireland could form a customs union with just the UK, stating: I can rule out any border between Ireland and the rest of the EU.

Asked if some Irish people enjoyed having such political influence over the future of Britain, Mr Coveney said: There is nothing enjoyable about Brexit.

It is a lose, lose, lose situation.

The EU will lose a great member state.

Ireland will lose a great partner in the EU.

And in my humble opinion, the UK will lose by leaving.

The Commons rejected the Brexit deal Mrs May agreed with the EU by a crushing majority of 230 earlier this month.

The PM has anchored hopes of re-selling it to MPs with concessions on the backstop.Cabinet divisions over a no-deal exit from the EU have broken to the surface again as Prime Minister Theresa May faces a major Commons clash on the issue.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds insisted he could not envisage a no-deal Brexit being Government policy.

The comments came after Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom branded attempts by MPs to kill no deal as an option, through a series of Commons amendments on Tuesday, as a thinly veiled attempt to stop Brexit.

Mr Hinds told Sky Newss Sophy Ridge On Sunday: I dont envisage no deal becoming Government policy.

We want to avoid a no deal. No deal would not be a good outcome.

Mr Hinds insisted there were advantages to the controversial backstop proposals intended to avoid a hard border in Ireland by getting the UK to obey EU customs rules if no wider trade deal is agreed after a transition period.

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The Education Secretary said: There are multiple reasons to believe the backstop would never come into place.

And, even if it did, actually there are some advantages to the backstop as well as drawbacks.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said the EU was committed to a backstop.

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He told BBC Ones Andrew Marr Show: The European Parliament will not ratify a Withdrawal Agreement that doesnt have a backstop in it. Its as simple as that.

The backstop is already a compromise. It is a series of compromises. It was designed around British red lines.

Ireland has the same position as the European Union now, I think, when we say that the backstop as part of the Withdrawal Agreement is part of a balanced package that isnt going to change.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied Mr Coveneys comments meant Mrs Mays Brexit deal was dead in the water.

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Not at all, said Mr Hancock. Thats a negotiating position the Irish are taking, but I think its also extremely clear from that interview and the tone Ireland doesnt want to have a no-deal Brexit.

The whole purpose of the backstop is to avoid a hard border, which risks being a consequence of a no-deal Brexit.

The idea the EU and the Irish Government would drive this process to a no-deal exit in order to try to achieve something which is intended to avoid no-deal Brexit, that is not going to happen.

However, Brexiteer Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said she wanted the PM to abandon the backstop, telling Sky News: Id like to see her bin the backstop. I think we need to bin it completely.

aThe PM needs to hold her nerve. Weave seen a lot of movement over the last week, from the EU.



aIn 2016, Barnier said that ahis job is to give such a bad deal to the UK, post Brexit that they would want to remain.a (We) need to stand up and not take thata @andreajenkyns#Ridge pic.twitter.com/XZRCrjbFgi  #StandUp4Brexit (@StandUp4Brexit) January 27, 2019

The comments came as it emerged preparations are being looked at for the possible imposition of martial law after a no-deal Brexit.

The move has been described by sources as the civil service prepping for all possibilities.

Mr Hancock denied the Government was specifically planning for martial law but did not rule it out.

I wouldnt put a stress on that, he said. Of course Government all the time looks at all the options in all circumstances.

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He also distanced himself from leaked comments in November claiming he had said he could not guarantee patients would not die in a no-deal scenario.

I didnt quite say that, he said. Cabinet discussions are meant to be secret.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said she was not in favour of a second referendum, but would vote Remain if one was held.

Ms Rayner told Sky News: I would probably vote Remain and the reason is Ive seen over the last 2.5 years all the analysis we have got at the moment.

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When asked if Labour would back Yvette Coopers Brexit amendment which seeks to stop a no deal and extend Article 50, Ms Rayner said: Labour will do whatever it takes to avoid a no-deal Brexit, so if thats the only option we have its something we will seriously consider.

Let me be as clear as I possibly can be for the people that are listening to this programme  weve put our amendment down, weve said we respected the result of the referendum, we want to find a deal, we want a customs union, we want protection for environment, consumer, employment. Weve said that all along.

Theresa May will not budge on her red lines, shes forcing us and trying to bully us into a no-deal scenario.

We will do whatever it takes, through Parliament, to stop that no-deal scenario from happening. If that means backing an amendment, then we will do that.

Ahead of Tuesdays Commons showdown, defence minister Tobias Ellwood broke ranks and insisted a no-deal scenario must be ruled out.

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Despite Mrs May refusing to take the prospect of no deal off the table, Mr Ellwood wrote in the Sunday Times: It is now time to rule out the very possibility of no deal.

It is wrong for Government and business to invest any more time and money in a no-deal outcome which will make us poorer, weaker and smaller in the eyes of the world.

In other measures, the Government is seeking to extend working hours for MPs to get Brexit legislation through the Commons before the scheduled EU withdrawal date of March 29.

Parliaments February break looks set to be scrapped and sitting days extended by starting earlier and finishing later than usual.The export of thousands of tonnes of Northern Irish animal waste destined for the Republic could be threatened by a no-deal Brexit, farming and political representatives have said.

Massive amounts of chicken and pig manure are sent to anaerobic digestion plants in Ireland each year to create energy.

If the frontier becomes a border with the EU in less than 10 weeks, no one knows that will happen to it, SDLP Assembly member John Dallat said.

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The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) said solutions could involve spreading more on the land, incineration and the use of other waste at energy facilities. Historically it would have been burned in a Scottish incinerator.

Mr Dallat said: I believe there is now a real risk to our rivers, watercourses, lakes and indeed the sea as ammonia and other nitrates build up to levels that are well above what is considered safe, and we have no Assembly to address this issue.

He said ammonia levels are higher in Northern Ireland than elsewhere in the UK or Republic. It is a noxious gas which emanates from animal waste.

Expand Close John Dallat questioned the wisdom of the promotion of intensive farming methods which demand outlets for huge volumes of sludge (SDLP/PA). / Facebook

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Whatsapp John Dallat questioned the wisdom of the promotion of intensive farming methods which demand outlets for huge volumes of sludge (SDLP/PA).

The East Londonderry Assembly member estimated that up to 75,000 tonnes of animal waste are sent to the Republic each year for processing into energy.

The UK is due to exit the EU at the end of March but Westminster has rejected the draft Withdrawal Agreement on the table.

It leaves a no-deal exit the default position unless another plan is agreed.

Senior civil servants briefing Stormont Assembly members on delivery plans for their departments in the absence of a functioning legislature disclosed to Mr Dallat details of the potential impact.

This brings directly into focus the wisdom of the promotion of intensive farming methods which demand outlets for huge volumes of sludgeJohn Dallat

Litter from poultry farms and sludge from intensive pig farms may not be exported to anaerobic digestion plants in the Republic following Brexit, the public representative said.

He added: This brings directly into focus the wisdom of the promotion of intensive farming methods which demand outlets for huge volumes of sludge.

Digesters use organic material like slurry and silage to make a biogas which is burned to produce electricity.

Expand Close Ammonia levels are higher in Northern Ireland than elsewhere in the UK or Republic (PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Victor Chestnutt, deputy president at the UFU, said: There are going to be potential barriers for litter.

It usually goes to arable land as fertiliser.

Under a no deal you would effectively become a third country, moving that to an EU country.

All the rules of third countries would apply to that and the EU already has its rules for third country waste but it is one of the secondary issues.

Expand Close Ulster Farmers Union deputy president Victor Chestnutt said there could be barriers to the export of animal waste following a no-deal Brexit (UFU/PA). Cliff Donaldson / Facebook

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He said the export of animal product was the immediate priority.

Effectively litter is something which is easier to move, historically it would have been to Scotland to be burned in an incinerator, then it became more attractive to go south to be used as fertiliser.

He said the Tully Quarry development had taken a substantial amount for biogas, burning for energy.

There are alternative technical solutions to export, for example local land spreading, incineration and use in AD (anaerobic digestion) plants.

Equally, it disrupts trade, it is whether there are more efficient ways that we look utilise it.

An AD project outside Ballybofey in Co Donegal was to be constructed by Co Antrim-based Williams Industrial Services, but the firm has gone into administration.

The project received a 9.3 million loan from Government jobs creation agency Invest NI.Tesco is considering an overhaul of its business.

Tesco is reportedly considering a major revamp of its stores which could affect thousands of jobs across the UK.

The supermarket chain is considering closing, or scaling back operations at in-store bakeries, meat, fish and delicatessen counters, according to the Mail on Sunday.

The paper claims the overhaul is centred around the retailer's larger stores. There are 732 across the UK and it is estimated the shake-up could affected thousands of jobs.

Tesco has around 50 stores in Northern Ireland with around 20 being the larger Extra or Superstores outlet. The chain has around 35% of the grocery market share in Northern Ireland.

The BBC reported on an internal email it had seen from an executive which stated plans were still being finalised but said changes would be "hard and unsettling".

Chief executive Dave Lewis is trying to make cost savings of 1.5billion for 2020 and staff will be informed in the coming week of its plans, it was claimed.

Unions have called for meetings with the employer.

A spokesman for Tesco told the Mail: "Were always looking at ways to run our business more simply and efficiently. Whenever we make changes in our business, colleagues are always the first to know."The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes or affirmations occurred in the last two weeks, beginning with the most recent:

1. Moody's affirms 'A3' rating for Cumberland County Hospital System

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A3" rating for Cumberland County (N.C.) Hospital System, known as Cape Fear Valley Health, affecting $78 million of outstanding rated debt.

2. Moody's affirms 'Ba1' rating for Palomar Health

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "Ba1" rating for Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health, affecting $609 million of rated debt.

3. Moody's downgrades South Central Regional Medical Center's note rating to 'MIG 3'

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Laurel, Miss.-based South Central Regional Medical Center's short-term rating from "MIG 1" to "MIG 3," affecting $58 million of hospital revenue notes.

4. Fitch assigns 'B'/'RR4' to Tenet's $1.5B senior secured second-lien notes

Fitch Ratings assigned a "B"/"RR4" rating to Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's $1.5 billion senior secured second-lien notes, applying to $15 billion of debt outstanding as of Sept. 30, 2018.

5. Moody's downgrades Houston Healthcare's rating to 'Baa3'

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Robins, Ga.-based Houston Healthcare from "Baa1" to "Baa3," affecting $72 million of rated debt.

6. Moody's affirms 'Aa3' rating for Midland County Hospital District

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "Aa3" rating for Midland County (Texas) Hospital District.

7. Moody's downgrades Premier Health Partners and Miami Valley Hospital to 'Baa1'

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of Premier Health Partners and Miami Valley Hospital, both based in Dayton, Ohio, from "A3" to "Baa1," affecting $623 million of rated debt.

8. Moody's affirms 'Baa1' rating for Southcoast Health

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed its "Baa1" rating to New Bedford, Mass.-based Southcoast Health, affecting $144 million of rated debt.

9. Moody's assigns 'A2' rating to Orlando Health

Moody's Investors Service has assigned an "A2" rating to Orlando (Fla.) Health, affecting $337 million of proposed revenue bonds.

10. Moody's affirms 'A1' rating for Genesis Health System

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A1" rating for Davenport, Iowa-based Genesis Health System, affecting $142.7 million of outstanding revenue bonds.A 17-year-old male has been charged with criminal negligent homicide in a shooting that left his 15-year-old girlfriend dead. The shooting occurred on 23119 Kimberly Glen Lane at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Sheriff Ed Gonzales said that the shooter involved was the 15-year-old's boyfriend.

According to authorities, there was a large group of people at the home at the time of the shooting. A 17-year-old boyfriend and 15-year-old girlfriend were reportedly upstairs in a bedroom when the shooting occurred. Gonzales said that the 17-year-old then shot the 15-year-old girl. It is unclear if the the shooting was accidental or intentional. Harris County Sheriff's deputies then took the 17-year-old into custody after the shooting.Japan's once-buoyant real estate market has seen a sharp pullback in foreign buying, sending property deals falling by a third in the second half of 2018.

Property transactions declined 34% on the year to a six-year low of 1.72 trillion yen ($15.78 billion) in the six months ended December, according to the Tokyo-based Urban Research Institute.

Foreign buying, which made up more than 30% of all transactions a year earlier, tumbled 90% on the year to 91.9 billion yen. Relatively low prices had made Japanese real estate an attractive asset compared with property on other markets, but that perception has changed.

"We haven't been able to buy very many properties recently," said an executive at the Japanese arm of a U.S.-based real estate fund. The number of properties on the Japanese market began to decline in the second half of 2018, and those that were on sale were too pricey, this person said.

A real estate broker reports that Tokyo waterfront condominiums that Chinese investors had bought up aggressively are now up for sale. With China's economy slowing, making the government clamp down tighter for fear of capital outflows, Chinese money appears to ebbing from once-brisk overseas real estate deals.

Japan's property deal drought is particularly noticeable at the high end.

Last year's most expensive purchase, excluding sites for development, was the roughly 150 billion yen acquisition of the Shiba Park Building in Tokyo's Minato Ward by a group of investors. This was well below the big deals seen in 2017, when China's Anbang Insurance Group bought about 200 rental condominium buildings from U.S. investment group Blackstone for roughly 260 billion yen.The U.S. flag is folded during the burial service.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)A woman walks past a recent artwork by street artist Banksy in Paris on June 25, 2018, on a side street to the Bataclan concert hall where a terrorist attack killed 90 people on Novembre 13, 2015.By Trend

Italian company ProBusiness S.R.L. will deliver 2,424 tons of various drill pipes required for drilling and repair work at oil and gas fields to the Turkmennebit State Concern, Trend reports with reference to the state concern.

It is expected that the funding will be partially ensured at the expense of the Turkmenbashi Complex of Oil Refineries.

Turkmennebit State Concern developed a plan of geological and technical measures until 2024. The state concern operates about 30 fields, including more than 600 oil and gas deposits at various stages of development.

In accordance with the plan, new fields  "Northern Goturdepe", "Altyguyy", "Uzynada" are being actively developed, modern methods for increasing oil recovery of productive deposits at the fields in long-term operation are being widely implemented, and the advanced technologies in the field of well workover are being applied.

The volumes of drilling, as well as the scale of construction of exploration and production wells have been considerably increased. Particular attention has been paid to the study of deep-lying structures.

The implementation of projects for the accelerated industrial development of promising fields in the Turkmen sector and the coastal zone of the Caspian Sea, in the Amu Darya basin and in the Central Karakum desert continues.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Taliban representatives and US authorities finalised a proposed deal during the course of six days of negotiations in Qatar that would put an end to the Afghan war, which has raged in the country for 17 years, Trend reported citing Sputnik.

According to the source, the agreement highlights that the deal includes guarantees that al-Qaeda* and Daesh* will not be able to use Afghanistan as a base for terrorism.

Moreover, the deal urges teh foreign military forces that are present in the central Asian country to withdraw within 18 months, the source added.

After the negotiations, US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to inform President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul about the achieved progress.

The US embassy in Kabul has not yet confirmed the reports on the draft agreement and the envoy's visit to Afghanistan's capital.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Irans export to Turkmenistan has decreased by 7 percent, Rahmatullah Khormalu, commercial attache of Iran to Turkmenistan, told ISNA, Trend reports.

Some $305 million worth of products have been exported from Iran to Turkmenistan during the nine months of the current Iranian year (starting from March 21, 2018), with a 6-7 percent decline in export as compared to the same period last year, he said.

Turkmenistan is the 13th target market of Iranian goods. China, Russia, Turkey and Iran are among the top exporters to Turkmenistan. The import of products from other countries to Turkmenistan has also decreased, he said.

According to Khormalu, Turkmenistan has been experiencing a decline in economic growth in recent years. As a result, the country imposes a tighter supervision over import and seeks alternatives to import. Therefore, import to Turkmenistan has seen a 40 percent decrease during the last couple of years.

Turkmen officials want investments to be made in the fields of petrol, gas, electricity, agriculture, electronic industry, etc. Iranian producers should come forth with investments in these spheres, he remarked.

Moreover, Iran could attract Turkmen investors in joint projects. Mining, textiles, and other products in border provinces could benefit from Turkmen investments.

As for the participation of Iranian businessmen in any projects in Turkmenistan, we would advise that Iranian businessmen invest and trade only per contractual agreements, and to sign the contracts in foreign currency, such as the euro, Khormalu said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

In February 2019, the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR intends to increase oil pumping through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline up to 85,000 tons, a source, having the corresponding information, told Trend.

"In January, 80,000 tons of oil are planned to be shipped in the northern direction, while in general, 320,000-325,000 tons of oil are planned to be pumped through this pipeline in the first quarter of 2019," the source said.

SOCAR pumped 170,000 tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in December.

SOCAR pumped 1.3 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2018 compared to 1.5 million tons in 2017.

It was earlier reported that Azerbaijan plans to export 1.5 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2019.

The Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline transports oil extracted by SOCAR independently, as well as from onshore fields developed within joint ventures. SOCAR has been the operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 2008.

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers long. The length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section - 916 kilometers. The highest capacity of the pipeline stands at 105,000 barrels a day.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Structural reforms currently underway in Azerbaijan are one of the directions of the concept of deep reforms implemented in the country on the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov told reporters Jan.26.

Ahmadov pointed out that these reforms are aimed at developing and improving the mechanism of public administration, but structural changes in no way envisage workforce reduction.

"The instruction of the First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva on providing employment to redundant employees in one of the structural subdivisions of Azerenergy OJSC shows that the reforms are not aimed at workforce reduction. It is not about reducing workforce, but about even more efficient use of workforce, human capital, increasing the efficiency of certain state structures, and increasing the contribution of those working in these structures to the common cause," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that one of the medias responsibilities is to convey to the people and the public the true essence of the instruction given by Mehriban Aliyeva.

"First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva openly said that these people should be provided with employment in structures that are renewed and formed as a result of the reforms," he said.

Earlier, First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva instructed Azerenergy OSJC to provide employment to redundant employees of Militarized Security Unit LLC.

On December 13, 2018, a group of redundant employees of the "Militarized Security Unit" LLC appealed to First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva.

Mehriban Aliyeva ordered an immediate resolution of the issue on the condition that the redundant employees` labor rights be restored and they be provided with jobs.

A special commission has been created for this purpose, and the issue of providing employment to these citizens in the structural subdivisions of Azerenergy Joint Stock Company in Mingachevir will be resolved as soon as possible, said Azerenergy OSJC.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 26 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Jan. 27, Trend reports.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council intends to make maximum use of the existing potential for the development of cooperation between the business circles of the two countries, said Samad Gurbanov, chairman of the Board of the Council, Trend reports with reference to the Economy Ministry.

He was speaking at a general meeting of the Council with the participation of representatives of over 100 business structures and organizations operating in the fields of agriculture, industry, construction, transport, economy and oil sector.

Opening the meeting, Gurbanov noted the high activity and positive results of the organizations activities last year.

The meeting was continued by the discussion of administrative issues.

Chairpersons of the commissions on logistics, food products and agriculture, certification and customs procedures - Natig Heydarov, Ismayil Orujov and Namig Tagiyev were elected. Natig Heydarov was also elected deputy chairman of the board.

Then, new features of the Councils website www.ards.az were presented.

In the final part of the meeting, its participants discussed the plan of measures and projects for the first half of 2019.

The Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council was established in 2016.

The main goal of the Council is further deepening of ties in the fields of economy and mutual investment between Azerbaijan and Russia, cooperation between businessmen. To this end, the Azerbaijan-Russia Business Council closely cooperates with a similar organization in Russia - the Russian-Azerbaijani Business Council, and systematically holds joint meetings of business councils with the participation of businessmen.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Haciqabul Qusculuq, a poultry factory in the Hajigabul District of Azerbaijan, may reduce egg production, Mikayil Salahov, a warehouse manager, told Trend.

This is due to the factory facing problems with product sale due to competition in the market.

"Sales of our products have deteriorated significantly because of the import of eggs from Ukraine to the local market. The factory produces over one million eggs daily, with an annual volume of about 300-320 million eggs. The company is capable of increasing production, but considering that this perishable product is delivered to shopping facilities inside the country, this issue is not on the agenda," Salahov said.

He mentioned that the company exported eggs in small volumes to Iraq last year.

"Last year, proposals about the export of eggs to Iraq were considered. We have already commenced exports to Iran, and, these deliveries will most likely be carried out throughout the year," said Salahov.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzVenezuela suspended its demand for all for U.S. diplomatic personnel to leave the country this weekend amid continued efforts by Washington and its allies to oust embattled President Nicolas Maduro, AP reports.

Why it matters: The move, which came just days after Maduro severed relations with the U.S. due to President Trump's decision to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuelas interim president, reduces the most immediate risk of a confrontation between the two nations.

Details: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Maduros government and the U.S. agreed on a 30-day window to negotiate replacing the embassies with an "interests office," per AP. For decades, the U.S. and Cuba had a similar arrangement before former President Barack Obama restored relations in 2015.

But the State Department did not corroborate the Venezuelan governments account, AP notes. The agency said it has no plans to close its embassy in Caracas, and that the safety of American diplomats remains its top priority.

Go deeper:In the wake of George Soros' broadside against China in Davos, expect to hear much more about China this week.

What to watch: The U.S. and China will hold another round of trade talks on Wednesday  this time in Washington. Vice Premier Liu He "may be bringing an offer of more significant structural concessions," says Bill Bishop of Sinocism, but dont expect major breakthroughs.

What else to expect this week..

Caterpillar said last quarter that it was reeling from tariffs, so a lot of China watchers will be looking to its earnings tomorrow.

said last quarter that it was reeling from tariffs, so a lot of China watchers will be looking to its earnings tomorrow. Apple is out with earnings on Tuesday. We already know the company had a rough quarter. Expect CEO Tim Cook to field a lot of questions from analysts about China, and none about his lunch with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Davos.

is out with earnings on Tuesday. We already know the company had a rough quarter. Expect CEO Tim Cook to field a lot of questions from analysts about China, and none about his lunch with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Davos. Microsoft and Amazon report earnings on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Also watch for reports from Facebook and Tesla, which is expected to be profitable for a second consecutive quarter.

The government is back open, but we may not get the final 2018 GDP report on Wednesday. The release may be postponed if theres a big backlog of prep work for the Bureau of Economic Analysis employees who were furloughed.

The Fed concludes its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. No rate hike is expected.

on Wednesday. No rate hike is expected. One report thats coming for sure is the first jobs report of 2019, which will be released on Friday at 8:30 am. Economists estimate that 160,000 jobs were added in January. The unemployment rate is less predictable, as a lot of government workers will have been counted as unemployed for the reference week of Jan. 612.

Brexit is still an omnishambles. Reuters has an excellent guide to the various amendments you can expect this week, and which ones have a chance of passing.

TL;DR: Don't be surprised if the government loses control of parliament, allowing MPs to draft and vote on their own Brexit policies.

Go deeper: Chinese vice premier heads to D.C. for next round of trade talksThe United States officially recognized Juan Guaido as the rightful (if interim) president of Venezuela; it has also pledged a paltry $20 million of humanitarian assistance to the country.

The state of play: A top sovereign-debt lawyer has proposed one huge next step the White House (and only the White House) could take. It would be much more effective than $20 million in cash  and it would cost nothing at all.

If Guaido does take power, he will immediately be faced with more than $90 billion in outstanding debt, the vast majority of which is in default.

Creditors have already begun the rush to the courthouse , trying to turn those debts into judgments that can in turn be used to seize Venezuela's assets around the world. (Among those assets: Citgo, the giant oil refiner.)

, trying to turn those debts into judgments that can in turn be used to seize Venezuela's assets around the world. (Among those assets: Citgo, the giant oil refiner.) Venezuela has an enormous and fractious range of creditors , including not only bondholders but also sovereigns (Russia and China are the two big ones), as well as corporations that have won international arbitration proceedings against the country.

, including not only bondholders but also sovereigns (Russia and China are the two big ones), as well as corporations that have won international arbitration proceedings against the country. All of those creditors have been waiting for the Nicolas Maduro regime to come to an end. At that point they will start laying claim to Venezuela's assets, which ultimately include some 300 billion barrels in oil reserves. That's the largest store of oil in the world.

If the fight over Venezuela's debts were to be halted for a few years, that would give the Guaido regime, working with the IMF, time to get the domestic economy back on its feet. The debts racked up by the Hugo Chavez and Maduro administrations will have to be dealt with at some point, but given the scale of Venezuela's humanitarian disaster, court fights in New York should not dominate Guaido's priorities.

The solution to the debt problem is presented in an important paper by Lee Buchheit and Mitu Gulati. Buchheit, the doyen of sovereign debt restructurings, explains that the U.S. government can unilaterally call an effective standstill to court proceedings by declaring Venezuelan assets temporarily immune from attachment by U.S. courts.

The Obama administration did exactly that for Iraq in 2011, 2012 and 2013. All it took was an executive order from President Obama.

in 2011, 2012 and 2013. All it took was an executive order from President Obama. Obama's executive order was a matter of national security. Today, the U.S. foreign-policy and national-security apparatus is focused on the Americas. Trump says that he "will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power" in Venezuela.

The bottom line: It is extremely rare for the U.S. government to prevent established legal mechanisms from running their natural course. But it can be done and has been done in the past. If Trump were to sign an executive order preventing creditors from attaching Venezuela's assets, that would be by far the greatest gift he could bequeath a fledgling Guaido administration.

Go deeper:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that Israel would recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's de facto president, joining the U.S., Canada and a host of Latin American nations.

The big picture: As I reported yesterday, the Trump administration asked Israel to support its move against President Nicolas Maduro and recognize Guaido as president. Israel, which has no diplomatic relations with Venezuela, initially hesitated to support Guaido amid fears that the Maduro regime would harm the Jewish community in Venezuela.

Go deeper: Trump administration asked Israel to publicly support push against MaduroHi all,



Like a lot of people, I'm quite anxious about the new legislation coming into place in regards to the sponsor needing to be approved and submitting police checks before proceeding with the partner visa.



I do have two questions



a) Do any migration agents know if we will get some sort of notice that the new legislation will be implemented? Or could it be as simple as... tomorrow sponsors will need to complete an application?



b) My partner is not here yet but he has been granted a 12 month (max 3 month each stay) multiple entry tourist visa. In the scenario he arrives, the new law is implemented, the results of my sponsorship application do not arrive before his max 3 month stay is over. Do you think there will be questions if he enters and exits the country (as in, could they see on the immigration system that I, his sponsor, would be applying for a sponsor visa and tell him that he is not coming to Australia with the intention of leaving, therefore telling him he can't enter the country?)



Thank you.Support local journalism

Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution.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.Of custody and crypto The normally staid world of custody banking is now having to embrace the wild child of global assets: cryptocurrency. And this is happening just as bitcoin, the poster child of cryptocurrency, seesawed from US$30,000 one week to $40,000 the next, shedding then recovering 30% of its value. Some bitcoin bulls are talking of $100,000 by year-endKienholz, founder of the California/International Arts Foundation, fiercely advocated for the artists of Los Angeles, and she hosted dinner parties to connect them with writers, politicians and tastemakers from all over the world. She was one of the main sparks for the idea that became the L.A.-focused artist showcase Pacific Standard Time, and she never stopped advocating for the artists of Los Angeles to be written permanently into art history.  Los Angeles TimesSeriously. The Danish start-up is meant for artists to be able to take some control over their careers, no matter what their agents do. Truelinked will feature digital profiles of artists that can be searched by companies and opera houses.  The Stage (UK)



Have any questions? Please give us a call at 541-889-5387Doctors and other health professionals who are pushing for an increase in the excise tax on cigarettes will stage the White March outside of the Senate tomorrow (Tuesday) to express their hardline stance on the issue. The health advocates will converge at the World Trade Center in Pasay City and then proceed to the Senate to witness the Senate ways and means committee hearing on the proposed increase in the tax on cigarettes. Earlier, Senator Sonny Angara as committee chairman debunked allegations that his committee merely sat on the proposal to impose additional tax on cigarettes. There are two pending Senate bills which seek to increase the price of cigarettes: One, filed by Senator JV Ejercito and the other, by Senator Manny Pacquiao. Ejercito, chair of the Senate health committee, wanted a P90 per apck cigarette while Pacquiao opted for a P60/pack cigarette. Angara said he acknowledges that sin taxes have been crucial and very important in funding health programs of the government, he said. That is why our previous records would show that I have been supportive of past tobacco tax reforms such as the 2012 sin tax law, graphic health warning law, and the latest cigarette tax law being implemented this year, he also said. As one of the authors who pushed for the approval of the Universal Health Law, he said they are very determined to look for ways to fund it and make it work for the Filipino people. Philhealth Director Anthony Leachon, and one of the convenors of the march, stressed that the increase will provide crucial funding for the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act that will benefit the current and future generations of all Filipinos from womb to tomb. Indeed, sin taxes have played a significant role in boosting the health budget since the legislation of the Sin Tax Reform Act in 2012. Not only did the said law significantly raise the excise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, but it also earmark a substantial portion of the incremental revenues for health, he said. As a result, he said the health budget has grown tremendously over the last six years, from P44 billion in 2012 to P171 billion in 2018. This is despite the laws effectiveness in reducing the number of smokers in the country.He also emphasized that raising the price of cigarettes through higher taxes is the single most effective way to encourage tobacco users to quit and prevent children from picking up the habit. There are 13.05 million smokers in the Philippines. Are you for the health of every Juan De La Cruz ? Then lets fight together for UHC and raising sin taxes for tobacco by not less than P60.00, Leachon said, Leachon said UHC will be dead in the 17th Congress if its not passed by the first week of February, and it would be back to square one for efforts to fund the UHC. He likewise warned that if pro-health legislators do not win, the program will be in danger and will deprive each Filipino access to healthcare. The sin tax hike advocates have vowed to rally behind the re-election bid of senators and members of the House. Last Jan. 18, leaders of 30 Philippine medical societies gathered to call for the Senate passage of a bill increasing the excise tax on cigarettes to at least P60 per pack. The UHC , which is awaiting the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte to become a law, seeks to enroll all Filipinos under a state-backed health insurance program both as paying and non-paying members.This also intend to expand the governments free health insurance program to millions of poor Filipinos, and it has been sent to President Duterte for his signature. Leachon, past PCP president, said re-electionist senators and House members could lose a conservative estimate of five million to six-million votes in the mid-term elections. Dr. Antonio Dans of the National Science and Technology Administration (NSTA) also echoed Leachons warning, saying if higher tobacco tax isnt passed before the election break, reelectionist lawmakers should face the consequence of their action. We are watching you. We have to hold you youre accountable for what you say and also for what you dont say. So, we are going to fight as a profession to make this an election issue, said Dans, founding president of the Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine.Talladega, AL (35160)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 72F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.Purchase an online subscription to our website for $7.99 a month with automatic renewal. Each online subscription gives you full access to all of our newspaper websites and mobile applications. To cancel you may contact Customer Service @ 256-235-9253 or email JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM



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Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.

Now you know where we get these people from. Somehow Harris, who was in her late 20s or at most 30 when she dated the 60-year-old married Brown around 1994 did so because he was just so very irresistable. Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle reported it on Twitter:

WILLIE BROWN: "Ive been peppered with calls from the national media about my 'relationship' with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that she was going to run for president. Yes, we dated."https://t.co/xkzR0YhIl0  San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) January 26, 2019

That of course, was in exchange for certain kinds of favors. Her rival, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren got her start playing fake Indian. Kamala went the old fashioned way, sleeping her way to the top. Democrats have some pool of candidates here in this 'it's our turn' year of the woman and out to Get Trump offerings.

Willie Brown, of course, was California's most powerful politician, which might have had something to do with why Harris was out 'dating' the married man twice her age. And it's interesting because Brown, a former attorney for pimps in his pre-political days, seems to have a taste for the kind of women often seen in a positive light by pimps, such as this one - who represents Brown's taste in women. Not that it mattered that he was married, he's always had a girlfriend in the picture, according to the article. And well, Kamala was one of them.

Other reports say that once Kamala got the office she wanted from Brown, she dumped him. Brown made a cutesy reference to Kamala saying she was going to ticket him for jaywalking, which sounds like overkill, probably the kind of statement someone with a guilty conscience would make, not wanting anyone to know about how she got her office. What's more, Harris has kept virtually all references to Brown out of her numerous memoirs on the market.

Some feminist she is. She slept her way to the top and now it's out. It's actually not the first time it's been out, but since it's coming out now so early in the campaign, perhaps it was an inoculation shot, the way that candidate Donald Trump's team must have released the Melania Trump nude modelling shots to the New York Post to make it 'old news' so as to assure it would not become a campaign issue the day before the election.

All the same, it's disgusting, and while Trump is no angel on the love front, at least he never offered sex for political favors, either to women or from women. He never cheated on someone's spouse to get himself some political power the way she did. So now that Harris is presented as a role model and antidote-to-Trump these days, is she going to encourage all the little girls out there by saying that getting a politically strong boyfriend is the way to make it big in politics now? One wonders.

Let's hope she has to answer some questions about it from the Trump camp in what's sure to be a pious and hectoring political campaign.

Image credit: Twitter screen shot from the San Francisco Chronicle.Trump vs. fake news media

When President Trump accused the fake news media of being an enemy of the people, there was a collective gasp heard around the world. Time has once again proven the President correct. Tong warfare and -ism accusations from the left have reached epic proportions. The so called progressive media no longer speak the truth to the American people; that qualifies as an enemy of the people. Wallowing in the drum beat of negativity coming from the socialist progressive media, Democrat sycophants, who apparently cannot think for themselves, engage in the politics of ignorance. Case in point, Dannel Malloy, former Governor of Connecticut, was asked what his plans were for his first night in his new home in Essex, CT. He told the reporter that he planned to watch the coverage of President Trumps speechbut not the speech itself. His remarks speak volumes about not only the intellectual deleterious Democrats, but the real dynamics between the Democrat party and the so-called main stream media.

There has been an accepted idea that the liberal media is a pawn of the Democrat party. It seems apparent, since the election of President Trump, that this opinion is slightly skewed. It is the Democrat party that is the pawn of the media. With alacrity, Democrats, in particular politicians, political pundits and Hollywood types, expose themselves as not only intellectually challenged, but profoundly dependent on the memes in the media. It is always a scratch your head moment when they open their mouths or text their tweets. Consider the missile of ignorance tweeted by Alyssa Milano following the misreporting by the media about the Covington Catholic High School students. The vituperation against President Trump stinks like inspissated bile. The more it stinks, the easier it is to shine a light on what is really going on. The liberal press, who misreport time and time again at the expense of the American people, look like rabid raccoons who become so focused on their target that they fail to see what is going on outside their orbit. And the Democrat leadership and celebrities fall in line like dutiful soldiers. The irrational hatred directed at our President says more about the media than their target. Many of Donald Trumps supporters have felt that the hatred was a result of an overwhelming narcissistic rage following an election that they got so wrong. Still others believe that the fancy social butterflies in the left-wing media abhor the thought that America elected an offensively bold street-fighter from Queens, New York. While there is a kernel of truth in these beliefs, it is far more sinister than just a neurotic disturbance. It is becoming more and more apparent that liberal progressive socialists in the media fear an unabashed capitalist in the White House who threatens their deepest belief in themselves. What could be more threatening to a socialist than an archetypal capitalist in the White House -- particularly if the policies emanating from the white House have been so successful? It is of no wonder that the liberal media fails to inform the American people of his successes. The next question is: why do these people who know socialism has failed time and time again cling to this odious ideology? Could it be because it is only the leaders in the movement who do not suffer the consequences? Consider Venezuela that is crumbling under socialism. The promises of prosperity and equality for all made to the masses quickly vanished to the point where toilet paper was no longer available. Dollars to donuts the leadership always have soft tissue to wipe their Fannies.The Democrats' stealth jihad

For decades, the Democratic Party has shown by both words and deeds that they despise the U.S. Constitution while they bend over backward to embrace Islamists, illegal aliens, and anyone who hates America. The left is interested only in power and nothing else  even if it means to sacrifice our national security and advocate open borders. The liaison between American Muslims and the Democratic Party is frequently described as a marriage of convenience, where Muslims will ally with leftist politicians, who will gladly cede some of their power to this group of enforcers so conservative politicians and Christians who advocate self-defense and sane social policies are kept out of office.

While America is in hibernation, Muslim organizations with the help of Democrats have been busy, working "stealthily" to change America in what is called "soft jihad." Soft jihad is practiced where Muslims are not strong enough to unsheathe the sword of jihad, where the true nature of Islam is exposed and when the public would likely stamp them out. A critical tool of soft jihad involves penetration of the American educational system, such as Da'wa, the religious duty of each Muslim to convert non-Muslims and strengthen the Islamic Ummah. America is on a precarious path to lose its freedom and American values we have cherished for over 200 years. We must accept that the current Democratic Party is no longer the party of Kennedy. It has become the greatest threat to our national security and our survival as a nation. Many Americans are confused as to why Democrats back Islamic ideology, honor their holidays and customs, and promote Islam as "the religion of peace," knowing that Islam is not a religion of peace. In fact, it is an ideology of war. The answer is quite simple: the Democratic Party stands with anyone who dislikes America and the Republican Party. History has proven that once Muslims reach close to 10% in population, they institute sharia law and adopt their own legal system  a government within a government. Some self-appointed prima donnas cover themselves with the shield of academic freedom. Academic freedom is like liberty  it can be abused often and abused greatly. That is the price of freedom. Yet these abusers of freedom, the far left, will be among the first to be buried under the rubble of a free society's collapse they work so doggedly to bring about. Muslims love our liberal politicians and will happily ally with them, who then will gladly cede some of their power to this group of enforcers. I cannot emphasize enough the urgency of this threat. It is indeed urgent that we confront Islamic ideology and its expansionism, close all their chapters across America, and declare the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates a terrorist organization. All of us must pressure our government, at all levels, to abandon the practice of "political correctness" and protect and safeguard it against a truly deadly assault that is Islamic ideology. Sugarcoating Islam is universally practiced not only by leftist politicians and liberal media, but also by the self-described doctors of Islamic religion. They keep ranting about the importance of accepting things on faith, denigrate reason, dangle carrots and sticks, and demand unconditional surrender in return for guaranteed bliss and salvation. Use jihad of the sword when it can and use soft jihad until the sword can be unsheathed to finish the job. And don't forget: the ends justify any and all means in Islam. Regrettably, America's fortress is no longer safe. We also need to keep in mind that the breach of "Fortress America" from the air on 9/11 is only the first installment of many more forthcoming heinous assaults  unless we abandon our complacency, stop relying on the invincibility of law enforcement agencies, and willingly make the sacrifices that will protect our way of life. Knowing Islam intimately and having experienced its systemic savagery has compelled me to warn repeatedly of the deadly and imminent threat it poses to all non-Muslims. For as long as the leftist officials bend over backwards to protect Islam as an endangered species, Islam will thrive and flourish. It is long past time for our elected officials to wake up and stop their political correctness.The Philippines will continue to improve its market for business, investments, and tourism, the Palace vowed on Sunday as it welcomed a report by an American web-based media outfit that the country ranked 50th in the list of best countries in the world On Saturday, U.S. News and World Report, a media company that features news, opinion, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis, announced that the Philippines took the 50th spot in the 2019 Overall Best Countries Ranking. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo welcomed the result, adding that the government will do everything it can to climb up further in the rankings. The Duterte Administration continuously breaks ground to nurture the countrys business climate and drive investor confidence to a higher level by cleansing the government of corrupt officials, streamlining the delivery of frontline services, among others, he said. Tourism, which is one of our major economic drivers, is likewise a priority with a focus now given on environmental sustainability, he added. Currently, the country is ranked 22nd in adventure, 26th in open for business, and 37th in quality of life. For Panelo, the rankings are a testament that the Philippines is already an emerging market for business, investments, and tourism. According to the United States-based company, the overall ranking of 80 countries was measured on global performance with a variety of metrics, including adventure, citizenship, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, heritage, movers, open for business, power, and quality of life.The report, which was drawn from a survey of more than 21,000 global citizens, was based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel, and investment and directly affect national economies. Switzerland remains in the top spot for the third consecutive year, while Japan placed second after landing in the fifth spot in last years list. Ranking 3rd to 5th place in the list are Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, respectively. On the other hand, Sweden landed on the sixth spot, emerging as the best country for green living, headquartering a corporation, and raising children. Completing the top 10 list are Australia, the United States, Norway, and France in the 7th to 10th place, respectively. The last in the list of 80 countries is Iraq, which failed to be included in the list last year.Teachers unions in Denver, Oakland prepare to strike

Following the settlement of an 8 day teachers strike in Los Angeles, the teachers union in Denver authorized a strike to begin Monday. And the Oakland teachers union will vote on January 29 whether to authorize a strike or not. What lurks below the surface of negotiations in all three school districts is the continuing controversy over charter schools. Unions hate them, parents love them. But unions see them as an existential threat to their existence because they don't conform to the union's idea of "quality education."

Los Angeles Times: The strike talk was mostly about new hiring, smaller class sizes and salary increases. But lurking just below the surface during the teacher walkout in the Los Angeles Unified School District was another issue: charter schools, which many teachers (and their union) fear and loathe, seeing them as an existential threat to traditional public schools. Indeed, one of the less-noticed provisions of the agreement to end the strike was that the school board would call for a statewide reexamination of the role and effect of charters, and that it would consider asking the state for a moratorium on any new ones. Board member Richard Vladovic said he will introduce a resolution on those subjects on Tuesday. The states law authorizing the creation of charter schools has been around since 1992 and legislators have made it easier during the ensuing years for such schools to open. In L.A. Unified, their growth has been explosive: The district now has 277 charters, most of them independently run, though they receive public funding. Most are non-union. They enroll close to 140,000 students  about one in five in the district. Their growth is responsible for about half of the declining enrollment in traditional public schools that has sapped the districts finances over the last 15 years. "Unfair" scream the unions. Demanding excellence in education instead of mediocrity puts regular public schools at a disadvantage. Charter schools were originally intended to be laboratories of innovation, showing district-run schools new ways to provide more successful educational experiences, especially for low-income students of color. They provided an option for parents whose children were stuck in truly awful schools. No matter what you may have heard, L.A. schools were not doing fine before charter schools came on the scene. There were schools where some of the teachers read newspapers in the back of the classroom while showing their students Disney videos on a regular basis. Some high schools didnt even offer the courses required to apply to one of the states four-year colleges. There were math and science classes taught by a series of rotating substitutes who had no expertise in the subjects. Its not surprising that academic outcomes were shockingly bad. Parents who couldnt afford to move or pay for a private school were stuck. School administrators too often brushed off their concerns. Charter schools gave these families their first chance to have a voice in their childrens education. Charter schools are not perfect, nor are they all better than public schools. But the keyword here is "choice" and unions can't stand it. Given the choice between the hellholes that schools have become in many inner cities versus the worst of the charter schools, most parents who want their kids to value academic achievement, choose charter schools. So the strikes may be about money, more teachers, and even smaller class sizes, but the inferiority of public schools when compared to charter schools is seen as a threat to the existence of teachers unions. If every parent had a choice, the only students left in public school would be the worst of the worst. Rather than improve the quality of teachers, unions prefer to flex their muscles and penalize parents who care about their kids education by putting roadblocks in their way to sending children to charter schools.US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad would not confirm a draft deal was in place, saying only that "significant progress" had been made.

Reuters is reporting that Taliban officials say they have reached a draft deal with US negotiators to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan in 18 months.

While no joint statement was issued, Khalilzad tweeted later that the talks had made significant progress and would resume shortly, adding that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to meet government officials. Meetings here (in Qatar) were more productive than they have been in the past. We have made significant progress on vital issues, he wrote, adding that numerous issues still needed work. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and everything must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire, he wrote in the tweets. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday wrote on Twitter that he had received encouraging news from Khalilzad about the talks. The U.S. is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home, Pompeo tweeted. He did not give a timetable for the potential withdrawal of U.S. forces. A Taliban statement issued later also noted progress on troop withdrawal and other issues but said more negotiations and internal consultations were required. The policy of the Islamic Emirate during talks was very clear  until the issue of withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is agreed upon, progress in other issues is impossible, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using another name the group calls itself.

This is clearly the most important progress toward withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan that has been made to date. The Taliban has refused to talk to the Afghan government until negotiations with the US have been concluded. They are not going to like some of what the US and the Taliban are talking about.

According to the sources, the hard-line Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its allies  a key early demand of Washington. They said the deal included a ceasefire provision but they had yet to confirm a timeline and would only open talks with Afghan representatives once a truce was implemented.

The government of President Afrash Ghani may not like it, but they will have very little to say in the matter if the US withdraws its forces. The Taliban already control half the country and the government is losing ground all the time.

Otherwise, there are some key ingredients in the deal:

The Taliban sources said other clauses in the draft include an agreement over the exchange and release of prisoners, the removal of an international travel ban on several Taliban leaders by Washington and the prospect of an interim Afghan government after the ceasefire is struck. The suggestion to appoint an interim government in Afghanistan comes as top politicians including Ghani have filed their nominations for the presidential polls in July. Ghani has repeatedly rejected the offer to agree to the formation of an interim government. The Taliban sources also confirmed provisions in the draft that have broader implications for Afghanistans ties with its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, India and China. They said the deal included provisions that separatist militants from Balochistan, a resource-rich southwestern Pakistani province, will not be allowed to use Afghan soil to target Pakistan.

If the Taliban deny AQ and ISIS from using Afghanistan as a base, that would be a minimum requirement for a US withdrawal. We are not likely to get any assurances about the composition of an interim Afghan government following our withdrawal, nor will we be able to get the Taliban to withdraw from any territory they already occupy.

So after 17 years of spending blood and treasure in Afghanistan, is this the best we can do? Many who served there might not think so and to them, the outline of this deal, if it is finalized, would be a bitter pill.Defections, asset seizures, ultimatums: In Venezuela, the wheels are turning and the news is getting good

The past couple days have been seemingly gloomy for the prospects of Venezuelans restoring their democracy, given the military's reluctance to break ranks and recognize the valid president of the country, Juan Guaido, along with the hard opposition from overseas players such as Russia, defending their Venezuelan rice bowls. All of those millions of people, peacefully marching for the right to live in a free, non-socialist country, and they seem to have been stopped in their heels by ... Russia, whose role up until now had been seen as tangential. That's worth a far closer look: the fact that Russia dispatched some hardened Cossacks to personally guard the country's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, suggests a lot more going on moneywise than previously thought. But the clouds seem to be clearing now, and the outlook is getting brighter. In just the last day, a lot of good news has rolled out. From Reuters, a military defection, which is exactly what is wanted to enact change:

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's top military envoy to the United States defected from the government of President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, as the South American nation said the two countries had scaled back their diplomatic missions to skeleton staff. It's not only good in itself - it may trigger a chain reaction. These things can happen very fast. That guy knows what the deal is and what's coming down the pike and he's decided he's better off with Guaido. Here's another one from CNN, citing Bloomberg: London (CNN) The Bank of England has blocked Nicolas Maduro's officials from withdrawing $1.2 billion worth of gold, Bloomberg reported, dealing a further blow to the embattled Venezuelan President as he tries to salvage his authority. According to the report, which cites unnamed people familiar with the matter, the gold is a significant part of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank. CNN has not been able to independently verify the report and is attempting to get a response from Maduro's officials. It had to have been an important withdrawal, given that Maduro was going for the reserves, which is kind of like a nation's savings account. The U.K. blocked the thugs from draining those coffers, signalling that Europe is onboard for the sanctions squeeze - keeping Maduro away from Venezuela's money in the hopes he will decide it's better to leave. Europe, in fact, has been very helpful, here's the other news item from the region - an ultimatum: European leaders announced Saturday that if Venezuela does not hold new elections, they will recognize National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate president. Just the idea of a helpful Europe is a good change in itself, because it does have a long and disgusting history of supporting communists and socialists in the region - from the liberation-theology money out of Germany to corrupt the region's clerics to the International Red Cross succoring FARC terrorists and hiring their relatives, to the Hague constantly harassing Colombia for trying to get rid of those same Marxist narcoterrorists and Netherlands shipping a few starry eyed guerrilla gals - the region is, after all the home of radical chic. So this represents a break from the usual intransigence, and is wonderful in itself because it's bad news for the dictatorship. When a third-world socialist dictatorship has lost Western Europe... Here's another one - Venezuela has blinked on the potential U.S. embassy showdown: Easy instant analysis: That is weakness. Guess the prospect of tangling with old Elliott Abrams, who's been around the block a few times with these Latin tyrants, was something they didn't want to get involved with. Here's yet another bit of good news from another front, off Twitter: #Venezuela Today in all the municipalities all over Venezuela citizens honor those murdered by the regime of tyrant Maduro this week , remembering that their call was always for peaceful protests #VzlaEnAsamblea #MaduroAsesino

pic.twitter.com/dIoGrjhz7f  Michael Welling (@WellingMichael) January 27, 2019 The Venezuelans are not letting up. They are hanging on, they are staying in the streets, and their peaceful protests are still covering the country. That signals commitment, and the people's deep desire for restoring their once-vibrant democracy. They are putting it on the line, against thugs, goons, torture and dictatorship and not letting them get away with it. That's national greatness - and a sign they are worthy of the change they call for. Every crack in the military is good news. Every bid to separate Maduro from Venezuela's money is good news. Every diplomatic united front to dislodge the dictatorship is good news. And with people hanging on in hope, the stage is set for great news. There is reason for optimism that the odious socialist dictatorship is not going to maintain its grip. Image credit: Twitter screen shotIn just a few days, she's made an amazing string of opinions and news on foreign policy. All of it is about as fringe-left, fringe-terrorist, succor-the-enemy, anti-American crazy, as it can possibly get.

The more you learn about the world view of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, the less you like her. In fact, the more you learn, the more you think there's an actual national security problem with her in Congress.

What genius placed this maniac on the House Foreign Relations Committee?

First, news came out that she urged a judge to show leniency to a group of ISIS terrorists caught trying to head out to Syria to fight for ISIS, using icky pope-like language about mercy and claiming a long prison sentence to the terrorists would ruin their lives. What the terrorist had in mind of course, was raping Yazidi and Christian women, beheading opponents, and shooting to kill Americans, which is what they were up to at the time. The group was every bit as vicious and psychopathic as al Qaida before it, and there she went, using her lefty pleas for mercy on such people.

According to Fox News:

The nine Minnesota men were facing decades in prison after being accused in 2015 of making plans, including buying fake passports, in an effort to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, which was at its peak level of activity and held territory in Syria and Iraq.

The judge chose instead to place the security and right to life of all the people they wanted to kill first and put them in the can for 30 years a pop.

How does one explain this? Ethnic solidarity? The Somali vote? The advice of her brother-in-law creepily in a powerful post back in Somalia? Anything to oppose America? There are no good answers to this, given that ISIS was every bit as savage as al Qaida, and maybe more. Oh, and she claims some taxi driver once called her 'ISIS.' What was she upset about?

And so much for all those gushy leftist tear-jerker stories in the press about Omar's rags-to-riches story as a Somali 'refugee' or the supposed assimilation capacities of Somali migrants, which in her case includes a questionable marital arrangement, and who, by all means, we should admit more of.

She actually gets worse. Instead of sticking to issues supporting Middle Eastern terrorists, she's waded into the Venezuelan issue ... on the side of Russia, mouthing its propaganda. Get a load:

A US backed coup in Venezuela is not a solution to the dire issues they face. Trump's efforts to install a far right opposition will only incite violence and further destabilize the region. We must support Mexico, Uruguay & the Vatican's efforts to facilitate a peaceful dialogue.  Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 25, 2019

What on earth would she know or care about Venezuela, given that she's never shown any interest in it or made statements about it in the past? Her claims of 'a coup' are surreal, and have been expertly and devastatingly refuted, rimshot, by Wall Street Journal top foreign correspondent David Luhnow here, just citing the news. At a minimum, it's pretty obvious Omar doesn't read the news.

Here's what her statement actually means:

Ilhan Omar stands against the Venezuelan people's wishes for democracy and stands with Russia in keeping an authoritarian figure in power. There is no coup; Trump recognizing the interim president is not a coup.  James Khoruts (@JamesKhoruts) January 26, 2019

Russia, you recall, is practically alone in supporting Venezuela's cheating, lying, thieving, drug-dealing dictator. Europe isn't tolerating him. Canada's lefty Prime Minister isn't standing for him. Virtually all of Latin America is dead set against him and wants him out. The only people openly supporting him are the nations in hock to Venezuela in some way - Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, Turkey, and especially, Russia. Everyone else has either stayed silent or taken the unprecedented move of coming out to condemn Maduro and tell him his time is up. Among those miserable champions of Maduro, Russia is the only one with the power.

It's rather amazing to see someone like Omar come up and step up for Russia, quoting Russia's own propaganda line to the letter. Oh and it gets worse, as Twitchy noted: Omar retweeted a note of praise from someone on Twitter who has been involved with a Russian-funded propaganda group. Why is someone in Congress retweeting actual Russian propaganda? As a Polish observer noted on Twitter:

completely with Russias position. The lady said that Trump supported a coup in Venezuela. Isnt it somewhat strange that the views on Venezuela of Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, fully coincide with Russia's biggest conspiratorologists, but it is Trump that is consideredPutins agent?  Andrzej Kozlowski (@akoz33) January 27, 2019

The only thing one can conclude is that if the U.S. takes one position, she's going to be against it, no matter whose position, no matter how gamy, how slimy, how criminal, she would have to support to do it. Terrorists? No problem. Russia? Right there on the spot for them even when other lefties are staying away. Are cartels next? We can probably expect her to champion Mexican cartels and Central American gangs next and we know she will.

Where does that resentment come from? This person was given the opportunity of a lifetime as a refugee to come to America and make a life and join the political system making laws others must live under. She's been in office less than a month and already we are seeing this kind of stuff? She's actually rather grotesque in her anti-American ingratitude -- no rightwinger could make up such a specter five years ago.

And more importantly, what is this obvious crazy doing on the House Foreign Affairs Committee? Why did Democrats put this freshman congressmember of very poor judgment there? They slapped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's hands and kept her out of the House Ways and Means Committee because they didn't want her anywhere near money, but why did they put Omar in a foreign policy committeeship? Would this person even qualify for a security clearance, if such things are required of congressmembers? Is the information she's getting for her lawmaking also going to Somalia, Russia, or her ISIS buddies? One hopes the FBI is onto her with some surveillance because this is the sort of case they used to pursue for national security purposes before they changed course and devoted all resources to Getting Trump.

At a minimum, Democrats have a problem with her, and the sooner they rein her in to preserve their credibility as alternatives to Trump, the better. They'd be wise to kick her off any committee assignment given what's coming out of her.One Way Outraged Americans Can Beat Robert Mueller

Much has been made of the pre-dawn arrest of Roger Stone in his home in Fort Lauderdale. To make this arrest, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, probably having delegated the task to his subordinate Andrew Weissmann (who is known for this tactic), assembled a full-scale FBI SWAT team of 29 members, replete with long weapons, body armor, and even a flash-bang grenade or two. The arrest took place at "zero dark thirty" or 5:30 A.M. Nevertheless, a CNN crew was on hand to film the whole thing. Once upon a time, this level of force was considered necessary only to raid suspects able and inclined to shoot back, or who might destroy evidence. Think Symbionese Liberation Army or drug kingpin Frank Lucas of American Gangster fame. In such cases, in which the suspects really might shoot back, a television crew would never be allowed, on the grounds that they could be killed in the crossfire. The fact that a CNN crew was allowed to film Stone's arrest is evidence that nobody believed he was dangerous. Indeed, he was not: he is a 66-year-old white-collar suspect with no prior history of violence, who didn't even have weapons in his house. Even the judge processing Stone's arraignment implicitly accepted that Stone was not dangerous; he allowed Stone to be released on a $250,000 surety bond.

The usual procedure in white-collar cases is not to assemble an unnecessary SWAT team. Instead, the Justice Department informs the suspect's attorney that the suspect has been indicted and needs to turn himself in to whatever courthouse for arraignment. The attorney informs the suspect and usually surrenders his client peacefully in the courthouse. No guns, no flash-bangs, no pre-dawn raids. Alan Dershowitz has said the only purpose of this level of force is to intimidate the mark into flipping on someone higher. In the case of Roger Stone, that can mean only President Trump. Nor is Stone the only white-collar suspect to feel Mueller's wrath. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort got it much worse. Manafort not only was subjected to the same kind of pre-dawn raid as Stone, but also denied bail and held in solitary confinement  before his trial. All suspects are, legally, presumed innocent until they have been duly convicted. The government has a positive duty to treat all suspects as decently as possible until their convictions. Tactics such as the ones employed on Stone and Manafort are an outrage and instances of government tyranny. Alan Dershowitz opined that the ACLU ought to be up in arms over this kind of arbitrary treatment of Manafort but that he wasn't holding his breath. (Dershowitz himself resigned from the ACLU a few years ago.) Is there anything we, the citizenry, can do about this violation of our rights? Actually, there is: jury nullification. It is the public's final sanction against abusive, arbitrary, and tyrannical government power. Jury nullification is the refusal of a jury to convict a defendant, no matter how irrefutable the evidence against the defendant is. Law professor John Joseph Duane calls it the "Top Secret Constitutional Right." It's "top secret" because no judge or prosecutor ever likes to admit that any jury can always tell him to go take a hike. Professor Duane says the absolute right of a jury to implement jury nullification is enshrined in the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and also in the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a right to a jury trial whose verdicts no judge has the power to overturn. Jury nullification has a long history in the United States. Colonial juries used it to refuse to convict in "maritime cases" (presumably, that means smuggling). Before the Civil War, juries composed of abolitionists used it to refuse to convict defendants accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Act, much to the rage of the South. During Prohibition, juries used it to refuse to convict in cases of violations of the Volstead Act. One estimate has it that juries nullified as many as 60% of all Prohibition cases. And, shamefully, all-white juries in the South used it to refuse to convict white men accused of murdering blacks. The Emmett Till case is the most notorious instance of this abuse. Jury nullification can also be used to rebuke abuses of power committed by unaccountable, out-of-control special counsels like Robert "Gestapo" Mueller. How much egg would end up on Mueller's face if, after all of his efforts, Roger Stone's jury refused to convict? Naturally, the last thing Mueller will ever do is publicize the fact that the public can actually tell him to go stuff it. The author is an Iowa truck driver known to some AT readers as Kzintosh. Image: James Ledbetter via Flickr.New York State Declares War on Life

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, once known as a fairly conservative Democrat, has run full speed ahead into the winds of the far-left, progressive agenda. After being accused by gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon of not being sufficiently progressive, Cuomo appears to be seeking to outdo New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, whose ultraprogressive agenda is totally destroying the city. For decades, New York State allowed abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy, and only when performed by a physician. Abortions performed in violation of the law were subject to criminal prosecution. As of this week, under Governor Cuomos brand-new Reproductive Health Act, late-term abortions may be performed literally until right before birth and even by non-doctors, and not only in order to save the mothers life but also to protect a patients health -- something defined quite broadly by the laws own language, which endorses abortions at will, for no health reason whatsoever. (Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry the pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion, pursuant to this article). Furthermore, abortion performed in violation of the law (although it is hard to imagine that any abortions will now be illegal) has been removed from the New York State Criminal Code.

Decriminalizing illegal abortion is not a mere abstract formality. To quote one prominent news source: Livia Abreu of the Bronx lost her baby in a 2018 domestic violence attack. Charges against her ex-boyfriend, Oscar Alvarez, include abortion in the first degree. The passing of RHA will exonerate him from those charges. I cannot imagine living in a world where harming or killing an unborn child is not a crime, Abreu said. New York State's Reproductive Health Act, under the guise of progressiveness and liberality, is in truth a regressive act of intolerance toward the state's religious communities. By sanctioning abortions literally until a moment prior to birth, in deference to womens right to choose, and by decriminalizing illegal abortions, Governor Cuomo and his political allies have declared war on human life, which is a reflection of God's image. This brazen offense against Biblical law and values and against millions of New Yorkers who object to the Reproductive Health Act's radical message speaks volumes about the state government's respect for faith and human life. The hypocrisy is biting. Progressive politics is used to serve special, liberal interests, whereas the sensitivities of large religious constituencies in the state who oppose this new law are trampled upon without comment. But worse is the offense against Biblical morality. New York State has in effect asserted that a womans convenience and whim are more important than the life of another. Have any of the politicians who supported this law ever really thought about this, or have they brushed this concern under the carpet in their idolatrous quest to satisfy every senseless progressive goal? But let us go a bit deeper. It is not only Cuomo and his allies who are to blame for this unprecedented assault on religion. In fact, the blame in large measure lies on the religious communities themselves. With the glaring exception of Brooklyn New York State senator Simcha Felder, who votes Republican in line with his districts Orthodox Jewish constituency, other regions of the state which are comprised of religious communities are frequently represented by liberal Democrats. A quick look at New York States legislative districts and their elected representatives underscores this fact, which is a given for us New Yorkers. For whatever reason, most New Yorkers continue by rote to elect liberal Democrats, irrespective of the Democratic candidates values. Case in point: Even the vile socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hails from a heavily Catholic district (New Yorks District 14), although the district is not overwhelmingly religious, it has pockets of regular worshippers in its quite numerous houses of prayer, as well as those who take their religion in general very seriously. So too for many other New York districts, comprised of various religious communities, that are woefully represented by progressive Democrats. It is time for people of religious conviction to take their conviction to the poll booths and make seismic political change. Rather than voting by rote, religious people must start to vote with their minds and hearts. Otherwise, they can only blame themselves for the wretched results of the progressive political machine. In the case at hand, it is a documented fact that the Reproductive Health Act was passed by the votes of Democrats from religious-oriented districts. We conclude with the words of one of American Jewrys greatest sages, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who stated concerning abortion: "If the sinfulness of murder were only a result of our moral judgment, then why not permit abortions? As a matter of fact, it happens in modern society. Abortion is murder according to Jewish Law. The fetus is alive. The liberals of today dont like that position. The liberals of today have simply lost the criterion of morality, what is moral and what is immoral; they are absolutely confused and perplexed The birth of every child is an important event for the mother. The birth of the first child is the greatest and most cathartic experience for a mother, if a woman is ready to be a mother. Being a mother is not simple. It is a physiological relationship, a psychological relationship, a spiritual relationship. More than that, it is a metaphysical relationship -- somehow complete identification between mother and child. That is why I cannot understand it, I cannot grasp it, to me it is something vulgar, this clamor of the liberals that abortion be permitted. Its not a clamor anymore  its a legislated fact. How can a mother kill her baby? I cant understand it, I cannot grasp it Thats the choice: God-given morality or the gospel of Andrew Cuomo. Avrohom Gordimer is chairman of the Rabbinic Circle at Coalition for Jewish Values, a public policy institute reflecting traditional Jewish thought. He serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News, Yated Ne'eman, and a host of other publications. He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar, and he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan. The views expressed in the above article are solely those of the writer.Interestingly enough, Nehemiah had the same problems that Trump is facing now, with opposition from people who sound very much like the modern Democrats and establishment Republicans who stand to lose power and wealth from actually securing our borders.

Nancy Pelosi stated that a border wall is "an immorality" and that is a part of why she refuses to allow funding for one. Strange -- in the Bible the Prophet Nehemiah is imputed with righteousness for building a wall around Jerusalem, but in this case, Mother Pelosi, San Francisco's answer to the Madonna, has adjudged this as ungodly.

Nehemiah was trying to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem that was torn down when the Babylonians invaded Israel. The returning Jews had no defenses and were oppressed by the lack of security. Notice how modern this ancient criticism sounds to our ears:

3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are buildingeven a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!

Much like the Democrats, the inhabitants of Palestine mocked the idea of securing Jerusalem with a wall.

Likewise the Jews saw the wall much as we see the need to defend America:

After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Dont be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. 15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work.

So, Nancy Pelosi can at best use a nebulous "love thy neighbor" quote to justify not securing our border, while she ignores a very concrete Biblical admonition.

And to illustrate her hypocrisy for all the world, she has condemned Christians for not embracing open borders (this from the woman who fights to protect womb-ripping.) And Pelosi was for a border wall before she was against it. Even Steny Hoyer, Democrat House Majority Leader, disagrees with Pelosi on this issue.

But what gets me is Pelosi's disinvitation of Donald Trump to the House chamber to deliver the State of the Union address.

Think about the irony; Pelosi says it is immoral to prevent people from simply walking in and doing as they please and yet she is going to ban the President of the United States from doing his job as required by the Constitution. She thinks walls are immoral, yet is imposing a wall of her own. She is perfectly happy to prevent the President from co-opting her chamber but will not extend that courtesy to the rest of the nation where alien trespassers are concerned.

If we have no right to stop people from invading our sovereign territory what right does she have to stop Trump from invading the House chamber?

Sadly, the President has surrendered over this issue. I fear the President thinks he can win good will by that, showing he is flexible. Of course, Democrats see it as weakness and will begin a feeding frenzy.

Presidents traditionally get a bump in polling numbers after a SOTU speech.

On the other hand, Trump may simply change his mind and do it anyway. He often employs that strategy, handing his enemies an apparent win then pulling the rug out from under them. It would serve him well now.

One must earnestly hope Trump isn't signaling a willingness to retreat on this. If he does it is the end of his presidency. I suspect he knows this. Also, he should not reopen the government, even if he declares a state of emergency and builds the wall that way. No; he should declare the emergency (and it wouldn't be the first time -- we are actually still in a state of emergency declared by Roosevelt during the Great Depression) but not reopen the government until either Congress funds it or the wall is completed. And as the predominantly Democratic government workers go without pay the pressure will mount on Pelosi. As Saul Alinsky said, if you push a negative long and hard enough it will break through and become a positive. Trump needs to stand his ground.

How can Pelosi justify impoverishing her own base in favor of invading trespassers who come to steal American jobs and American social services? She lost the Rust Belt in the last presidential election that way. If it is immoral to build a wall, how much more so is it to sacrifice these workers to her own ego and power? But then, Pelosi is the face of the Jefe Class in America, and what happens to the proles outside her power base is immaterial. She proved that by vacationing in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, partying like it's 1999 while those she ostensibly protects suffered like it was 1931.

If Nancy Pelosi is so concerned about morality, perhaps she should remember the words of Nehemiah:

34 neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept Thy law, nor hearkened unto Thy commandments and Thy testimonies, wherewith Thou didst testify against them. 35 For they have not served Thee in their kingdom, and in Thy great goodness that Thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which Thou gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works. 36 Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it.

In the end is America so different? Our kings, princes, priests and fathers are more interested in cheap labor, wealth, political power, and our obedience than in doing what is right for the People. They happily allowed foreign influences to subvert and corrupt their culture, and this brought about their end. America is merrily doing likewise.

I would not exactly call that moral.

Read more from Tim and friends at The Aviary www.tbirdnow.mee.nuThere's much truth in Jaques's mediation on life's seriated stages. We embody different characters as we age: the helpless babe, the self-centered child, the maturing teenager, the responsible adult, the dependent senior. But during life's journey, as the body swells and atrophies, we adopt different roles as well. We assume these appellations for different occasions, acting them out, expressing their qualities before shifting, sometimes unconsciously, to another.

I thought about this layered humanity while reading a Tablet article on the "Birth of the Cool Guy." By "Cool Guy," author Kat Rosenfeld is referring to the skinny, late-20s, thinly bearded, white progressive male who wears Warby Parker glasses and name-drops Sylvia Plath.

Rosenfeld is more particular about Cool Guy's habits: "When he's not tweeting about toxic masculinity, he's hanging out in the replies on feminist threads, apologizing on behalf of all men everywhere for being such trash." But, Rosenfeld explains, that vocal support for women's lib is often a cover, more performative than sincere. When the inevitable outing of Cool Guy's past sexual misconduct happens, he doubles down on his persona. "[H]e makes sure to let everyone know how happy he is to be the bigger person and throw himself under the bus for the movement."

The proto-Cool Guy was famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who, until his downfall, was chummy with the liberal smart set. Weinstein's fall from feminist grace precipitated the fall of others: former New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, former CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, actor James Franco, journalist Glenn Thrush, former Today host Matt Lauer, former senator Al Franken.

Not all of these guys took their licks lying down. Some maintained their innocence against the torrent of accusations, only to begrudgingly accept their fate before an arbitrarily angered and spiteful public. But, to a man, they insisted upon their profound respect for women even as they lit the "closed" sign on their careers.

The tendency for men who self-identify as feminists to actually be discourteous jerks (or worse) toward women is no surprise to Rosenfeld. In fact, she sees it as a feature more than a bug. "Scratch the surface of the Cool Guy's self-conscious cheerleading, and there's often something ugly underneath." The ugliness, it turns out, is base human nature: affectation, power-mongering, manipulation. In other words, it's an act, cynically performed to achieve the desired results.

And what reward does underplaying masculinity bring to men? Feminine plaudits, for one. Then there's the wider social factor. "Cool Guy's performance inches him incrementally closer to the new nexus of cultural power," Rosenfeld observes with a jaundiced eye. And, as always, there's the libido to consider. Performative feminism will occasionally put the Cool Guy "in contact with women who find his posturing attractive."

Rosenfeld isn't fooled. "Cool Guys are not, above all, hot." The attraction some women have for male feminist allies doesn't come from their vocal support for Hillary Clinton. Rather, it's for the appearance that they're somehow guarded against masculinity's more dangerous traits. "It's not that this self-flagellating male feminism is sexy, but it does seem safe," Rosenfeld reasons, imitating the perspective of the gender studies major who's watched one too many Lifetime original movies.

Yet it never turns out that way. We don't need another Ronan Farrow-authored expose to know that guys who claim to want to smash the patriarchy are actually enthralled by it. The regular leftist blow-ups over the thinly veiled sexism of "Chapo Trap House" acolytes demonstrates that enough. As does the liberal reverence for the Kennedy clan.

So why is it so easy for some men to throw on the cape of feminist superhero while harboring schemes of misogynistic dominance? How is the pretense so simple?

Lying is as old as Eden. But it's been made even easier with the rise of social media. Personalities, photographs, biographies, stories, interests, all with corresponding accounts, can be created ex nihilo with just a few clicks on a keyboard. The digital persona lends itself to exaggeration because the negative costs of hyperbole are so low. So people act out their aggression online  or, in the case of the Good Guy, feign empathy in order to ingratiate themselves with the opposite sex.

Try as some twisted souls might, the digital world will never be fully integrated with the tangible one. That doesn't stop some men from playing the white night on Twitter while being an ogre in person. What's been lost in this mix is the sense of integrity that comes with speaking as real people to one another. The postmodern dispensation pushed by the left that has robbed words of their connection to concrete meaning  making everything we say a mere construct dictated by outside forces  has severed the moral link between talk and action.

If words are just words, and if our identity is freely chosen at any given moment, why shouldn't men lie to women about their sympathy for the female struggle? They're just words, after all. And we're all just actors in a cosmic drama trying to expropriate what we can from each other before the final act. Why does any of it matter if you don't believe in transcendent good?

In a 2013 conversation between New York Times columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins, the former asked the latter, "Have you started thinking about what sort of public image you want to project as you prepare to shake off this mortal coil?" What could be more representative of our increasingly performative age than two elite opinionators considering how they're perceived at the end of life rather than the kind of people they actually were?

Just because life's a drama doesn't mean we have to play pretend. We should be true to our words and deeds. There's already enough distrust in American society. Cool Guys don't have to come along and ruin it for everyone.The Supreme Court has designated Associate Justice Diosdado M. Peralta as working chairman of the Courts Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Court, one of Chief Justice Lucas Bersamins 4-point agenda for the judiciary. In a speech before the University of Santo Tomas community, Bersamin stressed that the committee on the revision of the Rules of Court is the most important of all the committees in the Supreme Court since aside from deciding cases, updating the rules of court is very basic, if not the other important function of the Court under the Constitution. The top magistrate said that he cannot entrust this Committee to any other person except to the most competent and that is no other than a ThomasianJustice Peralta. The Chief Justice Bersamin wants to update the procedural rules to make them embody and be attuned to the technological developments, which tops his initial 4-point agenda for the Judiciary. Admitting that the current Rules of Court still contain provisions that institutionalize delays, Bersamin vowed to make the judicial system responsive to the public need for quick dispensation of justice. Peralta, for his part, accepted the challenge and vowed to have a revised Rules of Court in Civil Procedure by the third quarter of 2019.He disclosed that he is looking at simplifying rules in civil procedure, including amending the rules on evidence, pleadings and reglementary period. Peralta added that all pleadings must be evidentiary in nature, and there must be faster service of summons. Peralta has been an associate justice of the Supreme Court for almost ten years now. He was already twice shortlisted by the Judicial and Bar Council for the position of Chief Justice when Chief Justices Teresita De Castro and Bersamin were successively appointed. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Peralta was an associate justice, and later, the presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan. He first joined the judiciary as a regional trial court judge in Quezon City, after serving as Assistant City Fiscal of Laoag City and Manila. The other members of the Committee are SC Associate Justices Francis H. Jardeleza, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, and Alexander G. Gesmundo. Also included as members are Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra, Philippine Judicial Academy Chancellor Adolfo S. Azcuna and Vice Chancellor Romeo J. Callejo, Sr., and law professors Francis Ed Lim, Tranquil S. Salvador III, and Amador Z. Tolentino, Jr.European companies held back at least P25 billion worth of investments since 2018 and may continue to do so until the government makes a firm decision on the proposed Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities or Trabaho bill, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines said over the weekend. The chamber said many European firms were unsure if they would continue to manufacture in a new incentives-regime that could lessen if not curtail the profitability of their operations in the country. I only know, personally, a handful of companies. But I think there might be more out there, said ECCP executive director Florian Gottein. He said there could be 10 European companies, mostly into manufacturing, that suspended expansion plans in the Philippines. These included companies that have been doing business in the country for decades already, he said. These companies were among the first to be vocal about their sentiments against the proposed bill.Based on the 2018 investments update released by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the drop in annual investments was substantially influenced by uncertainties brought by the propose reforms in incentives and perks under the Trabahol bill. Investments in economic zones dropped 40.97 percent to P140.24 billion in 2018 from P237.57 billion in 2017. Data culled from Peza showed that the number of investment projects also declined 4.51 percent to 529 last year from 554 projects in 2017 Exports from economic zones, however, increased 6.58 percent to $45.18 billion as of October 2018 from $42.38 billion a year ago.Username: Password: or Register

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Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change LoP Guest

lop guest

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01-27-2019 10:11 PM











Post: #1 Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

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Elliot Abrams was heavily involved with an attempted coup to overthrow now deceased former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He also later charged with lying to Congress, pleaded to less crimes, and subsequently pardoned by former President George H.W. Bush.



Trump campaigned on the promise to stop the dangerous cycle of regime change in foreign countries. Once again he is breaking that promise. He is a very weak man.



Trump-bashing Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams to lead US regime change in Venezuela



https://www.rt.com/usa/449756-abrams-pom...an-contra/ Trump has selected a man to lead regime change in Venezuela that could easily start WW3. Elliot Abrams was a contributing member to the 'lie factory', a group of neocons working in the Pentagon in the Office Of Special Plans in the run up to the Iraq invasion. He is also a founding member of the Project For A New American Century where he helped author a roadmap that was originally written to further Israel's dominance in the middle east, but was later changed to reflect the plan to use the United States instead to bring regime change to targeted countries.Elliot Abrams was heavily involved with an attempted coup to overthrow now deceased former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He also later charged with lying to Congress, pleaded to less crimes, and subsequently pardoned by former President George H.W. Bush.Trump campaigned on the promise to stop the dangerous cycle of regime change in foreign countries. Once again he is breaking that promise. He is a very weak man.Trump-bashing Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams to lead US regime change in Venezuela LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 441979

01-27-2019 10:14 PM











Post: #2 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

The stupid bastard has literally surrounded himself with psychopaths.. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 486139

01-27-2019 10:16 PM











Post: #3 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

Trump is about to become a full on zionist war monger.



No more beatin around the bush trying to pacify his base. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 414299

01-27-2019 10:20 PM











Post: #4 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 10:14 PM) The stupid bastard has literally surrounded himself with psychopaths..

Yes. And now the American public has to pay the price. China and Russia are invested in Venezuela. These countries and others are trying to get out of using dollars for petro and the elitists can't allow that to happen. We could easily end up in a major war over this and once again it would be good men and women who would maimed and killed for these greedy globalists. Yes. And now the American public has to pay the price. China and Russia are invested in Venezuela. These countries and others are trying to get out of using dollars for petro and the elitists can't allow that to happen. We could easily end up in a major war over this and once again it would be good men and women who would maimed and killed for these greedy globalists. LoP Guest

lop guest

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01-27-2019 10:38 PM











Post: #5 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

The silence from trumpers on this speaks volumes.



Minus a few devout pro-zionists the large majority of them are dead silent on this. LoP Guest

lop guest

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01-27-2019 10:57 PM











Post: #6 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 10:38 PM) The silence from trumpers on this speaks volumes.



Minus a few devout pro-zionists the large majority of them are dead silent on this.

Ron Paul is denouncing Trump's support of the attempted coup. This is why the NWO made sure he was never elected as president. Trump is not half as smart as he portrays himself to be.



Ex-US Congressman Ron Paul denounces American backing of Venezuela's failed coup



https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/01/2...-Venezuela Ron Paul is denouncing Trump's support of the attempted coup. This is why the NWO made sure he was never elected as president. Trump is not half as smart as he portrays himself to be.Ex-US Congressman Ron Paul denounces American backing of Venezuela's failed coup LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 414299

01-27-2019 11:41 PM











Post: #7 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 10:38 PM) The silence from trumpers on this speaks volumes.



Minus a few devout pro-zionists the large majority of them are dead silent on this.

I could only find a few congressmen who have opposed Trump's approval of the attempted coup in Venezuela.



Unfortunately, bipartisan support for right-wing dictators in Latin America is all the rage in the United States.



Little outrage was voiced when a far right-wing president was installed in Honduras following a U.S. supported coup. And now we have thousands fleeing the corruption in Honduras as they head for the U.S. border. I could only find a few congressmen who have opposed Trump's approval of the attempted coup in Venezuela.Unfortunately, bipartisan support for right-wing dictators in Latin America is all the rage in the United States.Little outrage was voiced when a far right-wing president was installed in Honduras following a U.S. supported coup. And now we have thousands fleeing the corruption in Honduras as they head for the U.S. border. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 486139

01-28-2019 12:59 AM











Post: #8 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 11:41 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 10:38 PM) The silence from trumpers on this speaks volumes.



Minus a few devout pro-zionists the large majority of them are dead silent on this.

I could only find a few congressmen who have opposed Trump's approval of the attempted coup in Venezuela.



Unfortunately, bipartisan support for right-wing dictators in Latin America is all the rage in the United States.



Little outrage was voiced when a far right-wing president was installed in Honduras following a U.S. supported coup. And now we have thousands fleeing the corruption in Honduras as they head for the U.S. border.

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 442059

01-28-2019 01:01 AM











Post: #9 RE: Trump Picks War Criminal To Lead Venezuela Regime Change

The architect of the Iraq occupation.



I guess they are looking for a long lasting and steady flow of new Venezuelan migrants for the US economy.

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Venezuela has had a long and mostly tragic history of suffering under strongman rule.Caudillismo, the system of personalised power and governance which the country has experienced for decades did not begin with Hugo Chavez. Its origin goes way back to the very moment the nation was born.

The charismatic aristocrat Simon Bolivar, who fought the Spanish crown to get Venezuela its independence in 1821 and became its first president, set up the foundations of caudillismo in the country (and the other four nations he liberated  Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru). He was a man in search of glory and a military officer who believed in top-down decision-making. He did not tolerate being criticised or challenged.

The caudillo rule did not disappear with Bolivars death. His successors, including Jose Antonio Paez, Antonio Guzman Blanco, or Juan Vincente Gomez followed in his footsteps towards personalised power. Obsessed with being as glorious as Bolivar, they were more preoccupied with personal aggrandisement than building strong institutions in the the nascent Venezuelan state.

Personalised power, elitism and authoritarianism continued to dominate the Venezuelan political arena well into the 1950s under Marcos Perez Jimenez, who staged a coup against the first democratically elected President Romulo Gallegos. Perez Jimenezs abuse of power and ruthless repression suffocated the Venezuelan society to the point that public anger boiled over into a popular uprising. A subsequent rebellion of junior officers deposed him in 1958 and paved the way for a new political beginning.

Venezuelas main political powers signed the so-called Punto Fijo pact, which marked the beginning of the transition to democracy. While for at least three decades the pact gave the country political stability and socioeconomic progress, the culture of personalistic leadership did not disappear.

Carlos Andres Perez, who led the country 1974-79 and 1989-93, also used his charisma for political mobilisation and personalisation of power. Relying on growing revenue from petrodollars in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, he established vast client networks and governed with the help of a small clique exclusively loyal to him.

All these attempts by charismatic strongmen to usurp power over the past two centuries have cost Venezuela dearly: They have systematically undermined the building of institutions and weakened state mechanisms of accountability, transparency and separation of powers.

180530095418091

Chavez was no different. People found him funny and entertaining, easy to connect with, as he spoke like an ordinary Venezuelan. His popularity went beyond the borders of the country and with his populistic discourse, he captured the attention of many people across the world. His foreign sympathisers bought into the idea that participatory democracy was being applied in Venezuela and that it was going to wipe out corruption and inefficiency. But it didnt.

Meanwhile Chavez, and later his handpicked successor Nicolas Maduro, systematically destroyed democracy by dismantling all mechanisms of separation of powers and undermined all state institutions  a deliberate move aimed at leaving the population and the opposition with absolutely no one to appeal to.

As a result, he gained complete control over the state apparatus and nothing could happen in the country without his personal approval. While the situation is a bit different for Maduro, as he has to negotiate with partners in the ruling coalition, the fact remains that Venezuelas institutions have been severely damaged and disempowered and there are no functioning checks and balances on executive power at the moment.

This idea that a leader has the right to take up superpowers needs to go down with Chavismo. If Venezuelans want to build a democratic society, the first principle they have to restore is horizontal decision-making: No president should have full power to rule as he or she pleases.

Democracy means not just holding elections but also having a balance and separation of powers, where the parliament, the judiciary and society as a whole are able to monitor the decision-making of the executive.

We need to get used to the idea that in democratic systems changes to the status quo or policymaking cannot happen overnight; there cannot be rule by executive decrees, top-down populist mobilisation and no opposition or public debate.

And in order for Venezuela to get out of the caudillismos grip, it needs a leader that does not believe charisma is a source of legitimacy  someone rather dull such as Guaido, who can invest in building institutions, not his public image.

Nobody, including Guaido himself, expected he was going to emerge as the leader of the opposition. He is not the typical Caracas-born-and-raised upper-middle class Venezuelan politician; he is a fresh face, who until a few weeks ago was relatively unknown to the public and the international community.

Yet crucially he appears to have an institutional flair like no other opposition figure. He talks about human rights, rule of law, restoring institutional powers in a peaceful manner and stirs away from messianic promises, self-promotion or party politics. Guaido has also made sure to reach out to various political groups and stakeholders, including government supporters and the military, reassuring them that a transition does not mean a witch-hunt and it will be a fair institutional process. In his public appearances, he has emphasised unity and has made sure he is surrounded by a cross-partisan group of politicians.

And this is what Venezuela needs right now: someone talking about and committing to democratic principles and institutions, and not another media darling who knows how to sing, dance, and tell funny stories on live TV. The country does not need a saviour, but a leader who has a clear vision and a plan for how to restore its democratic institutions, restart the economy and rebuild the welfare system so it works for everybody. Guaido will probably get better at public speaking eventually, but this should not be his priority right now.

His only focus should be on building alliances and public consensus around the idea of restoring broad-based institutional democracy in Venezuela.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.It is no surprise the Saudi propaganda machine has come after US House Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Saudi Arabia Declares War on Americas Muslim Congresswomen, a title ran in Foreign Policy magazine recently, where we find out: Gulf Arab monarchies are using racism, bigotry, and fake news to denounce Washingtons newest history-making politicians. This is serious business.

The two Muslim women at the centre of attention of the Saudi propaganda machinery are Palestinian American Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected US representative for Michigans 13th congressional district, and Somali American Ilhan Omar, newly elected US representative for Minnesotas 5th congressional district.

Naturally, many racist conservatives in the United States were upset with the election of two Muslim women to the US Congress, and their run-of-the-mill xenophobia was expected. But the vitriol Saudi-affiliated media outlets and commentators spewed was indeed something new.

So, why would the Saudis, or any other tyranny in the Arab and Muslim world whose very existence is dependent on the benevolent generosity of the US military, pick up a fight with these two newly elected members of the US Congress?

Arent the Saudis the Custodians of the Two Noble Sanctuaries, as they call and thus congratulate themselves? Arent they supposed to be protectors and supporters of all Muslims around the world?

According to the FP, academics, media outlets, and commentators close to Persian Gulf governments have repeatedly accused Omar, Rashida Tlaib  and Abdul El-Sayed (who made a failed bid to become governor of Michigan) of being secret members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are hostile to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

So, there you have it, the catchword: the Muslim Brotherhood.

The bugbear of the Muslim Brotherhood

The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US as a scary monster predates the brief fortune of leading member and deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. In the Arab world, however, it was in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that the ruling regimes of Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE considered it their number one enemy. Because of Hamas (considered a branch of the organisation), Israel, too, joined these Arab states in their shared fear and loathing of political Islam. Through a deliberate and sanctioned ignorance, these governments are reducing the entire spectrum of resistance to their tyrannies to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia and its allies, the UAE and Egypt in particular, have launched a vicious and indeed deadly campaign against the organisation. But this is not why they have come after the two US Congresswomen.

Another article published on the MinnPost explains: Saudi loyalists arent wrong that Omar is a persistent critic of the Saudi regime. Recently, shes condemned the kingdom over two crises that are drawing international scrutiny to the secretive regime: the war in Yemen, and the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Thus for their outspokenness and open criticism, Omar and Tlaib are perceived as what Professor Mahmoud Mamdani of Columbia University calls bad Muslims in his remarkable study and subsequent book. By contrast, good Muslims  the ones Saudi Arabia et al like  are those silently watching it massacre Yemenis and cut Khashoggi to pieces while rushing to make ticket reservations for their Hajj pilgrimage.

Noting these vicious attacks against these young Muslim lawmakers in the new US Congress, Professor Mohammad H Fadel of the University of Toronto pointed out a crucial issue: The shocking willingness to attack Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans and embrace American Islamophobia reveal a deeper and more depressing state of affairs between the Arab world and its expatriates.

But why should Saudis and their allies be afraid of Muslim Americans? Well, they fear the Khashoggi effect  too many Muslims exposing and criticising tyranny.

If America could be beautiful

While the Saudis and their allies are scared witless of just two Muslim women, there are strong indications that more will be joining Congress in the coming years.

The 116th Congress, of which Omar and Tlaib are now members, is the most diverse in US history, with a record number of Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans and the first Muslim and Native American women to serve.

Before that, the 115th Congress, and before it, the 114th, were also considered most diverse in US history.

Increasing diversity of political representation in the US is a clear trend and Muslim Americans are very much part of it. Currently, there are some 3.4 million Muslims living in the US (just over one percent of the US population), but the young generation among them is emerging as exceptionally engaged in the public and political arenas.

The majority of Muslim Americans (76 percent) are first or second-generation immigrants, many of them (or their parents) hail from lands that suffer under despotic rulers. The Muslim American youth, being politically active at home, is also very much vocal about the tyranny in their homelands (just like Omar and Tlaib are, and just like Khashoggi attempted to be), readily exposing the deep corruption and the evil banalities of the regimes that rule them.

And this is what is scaring, not just the Saudi elites, but also the Egyptian, the Emirati, the Iranian, etc regimes in the Arab and Muslim worlds which detest freedom of expression. They would very much like these outspoken Muslim Americans back home where they can arrest, jail, torture, and murder them in peace.

Muslims living in the US are emerging as a peculiar vintage. Their small number is not a significant portion of the population but their cumulative resistance to the diabolical Islamophobia that is coming their way in their adopted country is making them stronger citizens of a fragile democracy.

This historic opportunity has turned Muslims living in the US (but also in Canada, Europe, and Australia), where they face daily racist xenophobia, stronger agents in their respective histories, and as such, they are serious threats to the countries of their origins and the pathetic tyrants ruling them.

Today, not just Saudi Arabia, but equally Iran, Egypt, Turkey, or Pakistan have lost their exclusive claims on what it means to be a Muslim. Muslims around the globe who are not living under tyranny have equal, if not larger, claims on their faith. The theological and political implications of these small demographic changes are enormous. In this sense, the hatred of the Saudis towards two Muslim American congresswomen is just the tip of an iceberg.

The Saudi-Zionist alliance

It is not accidental that the selfsame Muslim women that the Saudis and their allies hate are targeted by the propaganda machinery of major Zionist outlets, which defame and demonise them because they take principled positions on Israel, criticising its policies and supporting the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The Saudi-Zionist alliance now runs deeply into the heart of the Arab and Muslim world. Ruling regimes from Saudi Arabia to Chad are putting all their eggs in the Zionist basket, hoping this would ensure their survival. Bad move. The power of the Zionists over the US politics is seriously challenged, and Muslims are part of a rising democratic will that will include the democratic aspirations of Muslim nations in their agendas.

In addition to the Zionist-instigated Islamophobia in Europe, Australia and North America, Muslims on these continents face another abusive danger: Racist Islamophobes abusing legitimate criticism of Arab and Muslim states in their warmongering schemes. The crucial question of womens rights is particularly vulnerable to this abuse and is often incorporated in the aggressive demonisation of not just the ruling regimes (who are responsible for the violations of these rights) but the entirety of Muslim and Arab cultures.

With Islamophobia from one side, bourgeois feminism at the service of war machines on the other, and the Saudi-Zionist alliance aiming to silence and kill voices of Muslim dissent, Muslim living in the US and elsewhere have their work cut out for them.

There is no underestimating the institutional and propaganda power of these nefarious forces. One must celebrate the election of two Muslim women to the US Congress, but one should not be too sanguine about their overnight success either. That the Islamophobes, xenophobes, the Saudis and their regional allies are alarmed is a good sign, but the battles ahead are mighty and mean. After all, for every Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in the US Congress there is a platoon of Nancy Pelosis and Chuck Schumers in the back pockets of regressive, Islamophobic and Zionist powers.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.* Username

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Page: 1 2 3 One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes Ian2day.com

Registered User

User ID: 481390

01-27-2019 03:08 PM



Posts: 4,629









Post: #1 One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

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One in 20 people in Britain do not believe the Nazi death camps ever existed

The revelation provoked concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors

A survey by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust also found one in 12 believe the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated



A shocking three million Britons dont believe the Nazi death camps ever existed, according to a new survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day today.



The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors.



And the study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated.





The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors. Above, Auschwitz I concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland



The findings come against a backdrop of bitter accusations of anti-Semitism within Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party, while compulsory study of Holocaust history has been part of the National Curriculum for all schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14 since the early 1990s.



Describing the findings as terribly worrying, Holocaust survivor Steven Frank said: The only way to fight this kind of denial is with the truth.



If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself.



And renowned historian Simon Schama, author of The Story Of The Jews, said he believed the internet was largely responsible for the level of deniers.





The study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated. Above, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in Germany



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...finds.html The Resistance Is Now!



https://ian2day.com/2016/03/04/my-story/





The great danger of the future, Delgado warned, is that we will have robotized human beings who are not aware that they have been robotized.

http://www.constantinereport.com/hearing...periments/ One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated, study findsOne in 20 people in Britain do not believe the Nazi death camps ever existedThe revelation provoked concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivorsA survey by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust also found one in 12 believe the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggeratedA shocking three million Britons dont believe the Nazi death camps ever existed, according to a new survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day today.The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors.And the study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated.The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors. Above, Auschwitz I concentration camp in Nazi-occupied PolandThe findings come against a backdrop of bitter accusations of anti-Semitism within Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party, while compulsory study of Holocaust history has been part of the National Curriculum for all schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14 since the early 1990s.Describing the findings as terribly worrying, Holocaust survivor Steven Frank said: The only way to fight this kind of denial is with the truth.If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself.And renowned historian Simon Schama, author of The Story Of The Jews, said he believed the internet was largely responsible for the level of deniers.The study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated. Above, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in GermanyThe Resistance Is Now!The great danger of the future, Delgado warned, is that we will have robotized human beings who are not aware that they have been robotized. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 455233

01-27-2019 03:20 PM











Post: #2 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

More propaganda and draconian thought crime laws are in our future.



Isn't it odd that the one people who should have learned and understood the true lesson of the holocaust narrative



Three years after the Nazis were defeated they ethnically cleansed Palestine, set up a network of Jewish-only settlements on the sites of those former Palestinian villages and created the worst, most brutal apartheid state on the world . LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 455795

01-27-2019 03:30 PM











Post: #3 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

The number who don't believe is actually higher than 10%.



Heres the real shocker...



The number who thought holocaust a good idea is even higher than that. They just dont poll on that question. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 442355

01-27-2019 05:03 PM











Post: #4 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

LoP Guest Wrote: (01-27-2019 03:30 PM) The number who don't believe is actually higher than 10%.



Heres the real shocker...



The number who thought holocaust a good idea is even higher than that. They just dont poll on that question.

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 486077

01-27-2019 05:13 PM











Post: #5 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

There is a lot of stupid out there thb. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 484698

01-27-2019 05:21 PM











Post: #6 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

This Brit has a page printed from his family tree where 7 names all died at one particular place on the same day. (must have been shower day) I'm not Jewish myself, but on my Grandfathers side there is still a Jewish contingent.



There's no denial to be had when you've had first hand accounts of what happened and how they travelled across Europe escaping the Nazis.



Plenty of people on here will call it fake, but they wouldn't know real if it jumped up and bit them on the nose. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 429525

01-27-2019 05:23 PM











Post: #7 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

Ian2day.com Wrote: (01-27-2019 03:08 PM) One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated, study finds



One in 20 people in Britain do not believe the Nazi death camps ever existed

The revelation provoked concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors

A survey by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust also found one in 12 believe the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated



A shocking three million Britons dont believe the Nazi death camps ever existed, according to a new survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day today.



The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors.



And the study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated.



link to image: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/27/...051171.jpg

The revelation that more than one in 20 people in the UK are Holocaust deniers provoked outrage and concern from Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors. Above, Auschwitz I concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland



The findings come against a backdrop of bitter accusations of anti-Semitism within Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party, while compulsory study of Holocaust history has been part of the National Curriculum for all schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14 since the early 1990s.



Describing the findings as terribly worrying, Holocaust survivor Steven Frank said: The only way to fight this kind of denial is with the truth.



If we ignore the past, I fear history will repeat itself.



And renowned historian Simon Schama, author of The Story Of The Jews, said he believed the internet was largely responsible for the level of deniers.



link to image: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/27/...375114.jpg

The study  commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and involving 2,000 people  also found that one in 12 believe that the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated. Above, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in Germany



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...finds.html

Now ask them about the many other holocausts that happened in the 20th century. Now ask them about the many other holocausts that happened in the 20th century. Richard Eldritch

Hussar!

User ID: 486082

01-27-2019 05:25 PM



Posts: 2,550









Post: #8 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

Is that lamb? "Tricky Dicky Ritchy Eldrich is indeed an asshole. You should commit yourself to a monastery and live out your dwindling days milking goats and making foul smelling cheese in some dank basement, wot." 1110.00)

lop guest

User ID: 480427

01-27-2019 05:38 PM











Post: #9 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes





The Eagle is above a swastika (vehicle). Protective intelligence network watches over marked trucks containing on average three Jews heading south towards Venice. These would be Jews out of Germany and western Poland camps, versus the Jews sent to Ukraine behind the invasion, out of Poland.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTdt4TGkFG0



Only video I could find on the symbol (ignore message, because I only want to illustrate the symbol). They should think on the subject more, and look at where all the roads lead and where the invasions take place in sequence. The Eagle's nest was obviously a watch post, not an "escape hatch."The Eagle is above a swastika (vehicle). Protective intelligence network watches over marked trucks containing on average three Jews heading south towards Venice. These would be Jews out of Germany and western Poland camps, versus the Jews sent to Ukraine behind the invasion, out of Poland.Only video I could find on the symbol (ignore message, because I only want to illustrate the symbol). 1110.00)

lop guest

User ID: 480427

01-27-2019 05:41 PM











Post: #10 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

1110.00) Wrote: (01-27-2019 05:38 PM) They should think on the subject more, and look at where all the roads lead and where the invasions take place in sequence. The Eagle's nest was obviously a watch post, not an "escape hatch."



The Eagle is above a swastika (vehicle). Protective intelligence network watches over marked trucks containing on average three Jews heading south towards Venice. These would be Jews out of Germany and western Poland camps, versus the Jews sent to Ukraine behind the invasion, out of Poland.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTdt4TGkFG0



Only video I could find on the symbol (ignore message, because I only want to illustrate the symbol).

These Jews are "going back in time" ("Spartans"); the Swastika belongs to them now, and me because I own the symbol intellectually the same as other arcane symbols. These Jews are "going back in time" ("Spartans"); the Swastika belongs to them now, and me because I own the symbol intellectually the same as other arcane symbols. idiotchild

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01-27-2019 05:45 PM



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Post: #11 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

Why does not remembering make us do it again? I never would've thought of doing such a thing to anyone if it wasn't presented by history. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 486097

01-27-2019 06:17 PM











Post: #12 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

In order to fall for the scams of narcissists, you have to have a degree of empathy. The new arrivals, lack empathy as empathy is largely genetic. general mishka

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01-27-2019 06:17 PM



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Post: #13 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

Ian2day.com Wrote: (01-27-2019 03:08 PM) One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated, study finds



One in 20 people in Britain do not believe the Nazi death camps ever existed

Let me guess, those one in 20 are muslims Let me guess, those one in 20 are muslims LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 482810

01-27-2019 06:19 PM











Post: #14 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

No one should have to know anything about the stupid holocaust, the fact it is constantly shoved[/align] in our faces is simply another jewish vulgar display of power. 269346

The Grinch Who Stole LOPmas!

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01-27-2019 06:24 PM



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Post: #15 RE: One in 20 Britons do not believe the Holocaust took place, and one in 12 believes

Have to remind the little white children about the 6 gorillion Jews who died in the Holocaust or they will do it again! Advertisement



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ComebackTown is published by David Sher to begin a discussion on a better Birmingham.

David Sher is Co-Founder of AmSher Compassionate Collections and past Chairman of Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, ONB, and CAP.

Let's turn Birmingham around. Click here to sign up for newsletter. There's power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

I publish an article about our Birmingham region every week, but this piece affects me more directly since I live in Vestavia Hills.

It also impacts my wallet since I spend a lot of money in my community and Vestavia raised our sales taxes from 9 to 10% last year.

Last month Sprouts on Highway 31 closed its doors after only two years in business.

According to ABC33/40, Vestavia Hills recruited Sprouts in 2014 with "a $1.4 million cash up front incentive to the developer to make the project happen."

Vestavia maintains the decision was beneficial saying, "The site had topographical issues and it was hard to recruit developers. It was a site that had no activity on it and had been dark for many years, generating no tax revenue and being an eye sore for the corridor."

"To date, $1.1 million in taxes and fees have been collected...we haven't had 100% return on the investment, but within another 2 or 3 years, we should break even and then after that, pay dividends to us..."

There are two other Birmingham area Sprouts locations--one on Highway 150 in Hoover and one on Highway 280 in Birmingham. Both of those cities told ABC 33/40 there were no incentives offered for those store openings.

Four types of incentives

Local municipalities offer four types of incentives to businesses.

Incentives to help developers tackle projects that might not be possible without government financial aid. Incentives to help successful local businesses grow. Incentives to steal businesses from neighboring municipalities or to pay a business not to leave town. Incentives to recruit businesses from out-of-state.

According to Verge.com, "Every year, American cities and states spend up to $90 billion in tax breaks and cash grants to urge companies to move among states. That's more than the federal government spends on housing, education, or infrastructure. And since cities and states can't print money or run steep deficits, these deals take scarce resources from everything local governments would otherwise pay for, such as schools, roads, police, and prisons."

A better option

I'm not saying all incentives are bad-some seem to work. But I'm not shrewd enough to know which will be successful-and obviously neither are our government officials.

Vestavia Hills is not alone. This is just how we do things here. We allow businesses to extort money from us and call it economic development.

My gut says if we had taken that $200 million of incentive money and invested it in ourselves, we would have more businesses, more jobs, and a better quality of life.

We could have put that money into education, public transportation, roads, crime reduction, or to not raise taxes.

Then out-of-state businesses might select Birmingham because we are their first choice--not because we are the biggest patsies.I recently spent two days in Washington, DC for the Evangelicals for Life Conference, and then at the national March for Life. I can report that the pro-life movement is changing in some interesting andfor me, at leastinspiring ways.

The first notable change is in the demographics of those who support limits or an outright ban on abortion. Millennials are more likely than their parents to support at least some limits, according to recent polling data. But those same young people are not quite as likely to identify with the label pro-life or to support candidates and ballot measures based upon their leanings on this issue.

I think thats because they are looking for a political ethos that is holistically pro-life, at all stages of life and for all people. They wont show up to be simply anti-abortion. But they are very interested in being pro-life.

Whats the difference?

According to researchers, millennials are very concerned with authenticity. This concern influences everything from brand and advertising preferences to Intellectual and religious consistency. Young people who believe in the dignity and worth of unborn human life are committed to applying that same worldview to all kinds of people in all stages of life: the disabled, minorities, the elderly, immigrants, refugees, prisoners, etc.

They dont trust a movement that cares deeply for the unborn, but very little for children languishing in the foster care system at age 8.

For that reason, the discussions I heard and participated in at Evangelicals for Life felt pitch-perfect. Sponsored by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the event featured pastors and laypeople who are deeply committed to a biblical view of human life in every context. From both sides of the political aisle, the argument was made time and again that while abortion must end, reflecting the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world requires far more of us than simply outlawing abortion.

It will require that we demonstrate care for mothers in poverty and crisis who are considering abortion, and provide them with real hope and real options.

It will require that we become radically committed to providing forever families to children born to mothers who are unable to care for them, rather than allowing those children to languish forever in an unhealthy foster care system or orphanages.

It will require that we uphold the dignity and worth of disabled people, fully welcoming them into our churches and communities. (Parents of disabled children report that very few churches offer accommodations or environments which allow them to bring the whole family to church, increasing their sense of isolation.)

It will require that we learn how to minister to the growing number of Americans battling mental illness and their families.

It will require that we press our leaders to treat immigrants and refugees with the compassion and dignity Christ indicated was due to the sojourner.

It will require that we advocate for criminal justice reform, recognizing that our justice system is imperfect and must improve to be reflective of the kind of justice for all that our God requires.

It will require that we recognize that neither of the two major political parties in our country are really getting this right across the board. None reflect a fully biblical view of the sanctity of human life.

One EFL panel discussion included Michael Wear, a pro-life democrat who served in the Obama administration. He challenged us to be willing to swim upstream within our own political parties (as he consistently has to do as an advocate for the unborn) and bring our influence to bear on these issues. He made the point that we affiliate with political parties not simply to acceptwhole cloththe party platform, but to influence it.

If we want to see a culture of life the United States, we must do far more than engage in political warfare geared toward a single facet of the issue. As necessary as it is to end abortion, we will change the culture by becoming pro-life in a way that acknowledges all God has required of us, and makes allies of a new generation.A Mobile man was arrested Saturday for making terrorist threats.

Ladarius Cannon, 23, of Mobile, was arrested at the Lakeview Apartments at 6650 Cottage Hill Road, and booked into the Mobile Metro Jail on charges of terrorist threats, harassment communication, reckless endangerment, first-degree criminal mischief, and first-degree unlawful imprisonment.

The Mobile Police Departments SWAT team arrived to the apartment complex around 9:45 a.m. on a call of domestic violation, and Cannon had reportedly barricaded himself inside an apartment along with other family members.

A short standoff with police ensured before Cannon was taken into custody without incident. No injuries were reported, and no further details were available.John Harris is hooked on Buc-ees, its whimsical buck-toothed cartoon beaver mascot, and the tasty under-$5 breakfast that he grabs as he heads off to work.

Less than $5 for a croissant and sweet tea, said Harris of Orange Beach, an electrical contractor, speaking on Friday morning as he walked out of the new Buc-ees at Interstate 10 and the Baldwin Beach Express. Its quick and Im on my way.

For Rayburn and Genie Wilson, Pensacola residents who travel the U.S. in their recreational vehicle, Buc-ees represents to them convenience and variety. And we dont have to wait for gas, said Genie Wilson.

Ask anyone about why Texas-born Buc-ees appeals to them, and youll get a variety of answers.

Clean restrooms and parking lots? Buc-ees hires hundreds of workers at each site, and its hard to miss some of them cleaning the place and the property throughout the day.

Extensive food items? Buc-ees is popular for beef brisket, fudge and jerky. But inside the stores, customers can find the beaver logo brandished on an assortment of unusual items from pickled quail eggs to cherry butter.

Accessible fuel pumps? The Alabama Buc-ees has 120 of them.

Souvenirs? There are plenty of quirky items with the companys beaver logo: Coffee mugs, t-shirts, sleepwear, bikinis, belts, hats, beach towels, dog toys, coolers, and the popular corn nuggets, to name just a few.

Its become a convenience store on steroids and almost like Walmart, said Venky Shankar, director of research at the Center for Retailing Studies at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. They are nicely laid out and the in-store items are very focused and cater to travelers. People just started falling in love with them and look forward to these stores whenever they are driving.

Novelty destination

Buc-ees officially branched out of Texas on Monday, when the chain opened a 53,000-square-foot travel station in Alabama at the Baldwin Beach Express and I-10, about 30 miles east of downtown Mobile.

The Baldwin Beach Express location joins the 33 Buc-ees in Texas.

Some publications have referred to Buc-ees Texas loyalists as cult-like, but scholars dispute the reference claiming the appeal isnt limited to just the Lone Star State.

After all, as Betsy Gelb, professor marketing at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, points out: The Buc-ees faithful outnumber most cults. Buc-ees fan group is not small, Gelb said.

Michael Brainard is one of the Buc-ees super-fans. Brainard, who lives in Lebanon, Missouri, started up a Facebook page called, Buc-ees Beaver Sticker Sightings, dedicated to people who bought Buc-ees stickers and placed them throughout the country.

It started out as a joke among friends that anywhere we went, wed put up a sticker, photograph it and document it and other people have since joined in, said Brainard. He said the activity started after his family visited a Buc-ees about 10 years ago in New Braunsfel, Texas.

Its definitely a novelty destination, said Brainard. I think they are absolutely amazing.

Amazing is a word that typically comes up, too, when travelers talk about Buc-ees squeaky clean restrooms. The chain markets itself to interstate travelers who may be wary about visiting truck stops that have a less-than-stellar reputation with tidiness.

In fact, Jeff Blodgett, professor of marketing at the University of Houston-Victoria, goes so far as to say that the restrooms are the central key to Buc-ees success.

A very simple concept, but having recently traveled by car from Houston to Miami, I can attest that it is one that other gas stations/convenience stores outside of Texas have yet to capitalize on, said Blodgett. Everyone  men, women, teens, young children, etc.  value clean restrooms.

Throughout its travel centers, Blodgett said, Buc-ees subtly touches upon each of the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch to create a pleasing and entertaining environment.

He described Buc-ees as possessing the vibe of Disneyland and Stew Leonards, a landmark supermarket chain in Connecticut and New York. Others speak of Buc-ees as a hybrid of a Cracker Barrel gift shop and Costco.

Among convenience stores considered travel stations, Buc-ees appeal in Texas may only be rivaled by the popularity Wawas holds in Philadelphia and along the East Coast.

The founders learned that if you make it attractive and appealing, people will spend more money and if they spend more, they will keep coming back and that is how the cult-like status is built, said Shankar at Texas A&M University.

Gelb said that Buc-ees quirky billboards shouldnt get lost in conversations about its appeal.

In Texas, the chain will place billboards hundreds of miles from the nearest Buc-ees, offering amusing messages.

Only 262 miles to Buc-ees. You can hold it.

Some say Best Jerky Ever. 797 miles

My Overbite is sexy. 50 miles

Your Throne Awaits. 13 miles

How many retailers do you know with a sense of humor? said Gelb. So that is a good start right there. When you see that billboard, you smile.

The closest Buc-ees to the Baldwin Beach Express location is in Baytown, Texas, which is about 470 miles. That means that are plenty of opportunities for Buc-ees billboards as far west as eastern Texas and Louisiana, and as far east as Orlando.

She added, Then you have to deliver on that message that they will, indeed, find a clean restroom. If you talk about it and deliver on that, youre just way ahead of the crowd.

In recent months, the more Mobile-localized billboard has advertised the companys pay range -- $13 to $17 an hour, for the over 200 jobs that arrived when Buc-ees opened.

Buc-ee's is no longer just for Texans (and visitors). You can now visit the beef jerky bar and pick up some "beaver nuggets" in Alabama! We're happy for you AL. You're going to love it! https://t.co/rzkH3cjfyo#bucees #notjustagasstation #thepppteam #nexthomerealtycenter pic.twitter.com/InTk6GcFBG  Pamela Post (@pamelapost) January 25, 2019

Alabama, youre welcome.



For what? Rumor has it yall officially have a Buc-ees. May you never take this glorious gift for granted. #blessed @PopcastPod @jamiebgolden Im anticipating a future Green Light   Morgan Gentry (@morgangen) January 24, 2019

It's hard to explain Buc-ee's to the uninitiated. It's beyond a convenience store. Consider 50,000 square feet, 124 fueling positions and the biggest, most pristine restrooms imaginable.That's what Alabama is getting. https://t.co/Ng3ZLA7ivN  Dean Barber (@DeanWBarber) January 23, 2019

Expansion plans

Buc-ees has announced plans to expand into Florida, with travel stations locating to Daytona Beach and St. Johns County. Two other locations in Texas are scheduled to open this year.

There are rumors that the company was planned expansions in Mobile and Leeds, along I-20 east of Birmingham, but Nadalo has not confirmed additional Alabama locations.

We do not have any additional sites in Alabama ready for construction but continue to look within the state for opportunities, he said.

Shankar said Buc-ees has been very cautious in expanding, since the company was founded in 1982.

Based in Lake Jackson, Texas, Buc-ees stayed in expansive Texas, where long driving distances allowed the company to spread itself throughout the state while plunking down the humorous billboards hundreds of miles from the nearest locations.

I think they really hit upon a nice niche and made it an inviting place rather than as a place that is a necessary evil of having to fill up with gas and move on, said Shankar.

But will Buc-ees be diluting its brand by venturing outside of Texas?

The fact that Buc-ees is our vanguard to come into Alabama shows the good judgement of Alabama, from my point of view, said Gelb.

Shankar and Gelb both compared Buc-ees situation to Starbucks, traditionally a Washington-state brand long associated with Seattle which soared in popularity during the 1990s as it expanded beyond its origin state and into a global coffee shop powerhouse.

Shankar, though, said he expects expansion to continue to be cautious. The founders are very conservative and its a private business that has grown cautiously, he said.

Growth outside of Texas, he said, is inevitable.

By and large, people understand that retailers will (expand), said Shankar. If they are successful outside the state, (Texans) will take pride knowing that its a Texas-based chain and is successful.

He also said that Buc-ees, as it grows in reputation and stature outside of Texas, can take a cue from the marketing prowess of a fellow-Texas institution: The Dallas Cowboys, which became known as Americas Team in the late 1970s.

Said Shankar: Though they are based in Texas, they have a global following and its almost cult-like as the fans travel outside of Texas to see their games and have followers in Arizona, New Mexico and even Lebron James. Theres the Americas Team tag line as well. But if you go back to their roots, they are quintessentially a Texas team.This is an opinion column.

It has begun. The Alabama Legislature will return in March, so legislators have their snouts in the air, trying to figure out what kind of rancid red meat will suit the sniffers of their constituents.

The early bird gets the cred, so the most eager state representatives have begun to pre-file bills to put their mark on the session and their name on the line.

Nobody does it like Rep. Tommy Hanes, a retired firefighter who represents Dekalb and Jackson counties in the northeast corner of Alabama.

He fired off a bill that would require users of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  that thing we used to call Food Stamps  undergo drug testing in certain circumstances.

Boom. Thats HB3. Put those deadbeats in their place.

But that wasnt good enough. Hanes also fired off HB9, another bill aimed at food stamp recipients. This one would prohibit DHR from requesting a waiver of work requirements for recipients.

Which is a bloody beefsteak for an outrage that  doesnt exist.

Hanes has tried this bill before. And while the Department of Human Resources can, in rare cases, request waivers for able-bodied food stamp recipients, it almost never happens. But Hanes wants to be ready in case. Lord knows what would happen if we let some hungry soul eat.

Hanes also filed a bill, HB14, that would drug test recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families  we used to call it Welfare. The full text of that bill is not available on the state site, yet, but you get the picture.

Hanes hates the deadbeats and the entitled class. He sneers at public assistance.

Unless, of course, its public assistance for public employees.

Hanes has filed 10 of the 23 bills so far pre-filed in the Alabama House.

Hanes, with HB1, wants to restart a form of the old DROP program, or the Deferred Retired Option Plan for state employees that was abolished in 2011. The program was designed to help the state hold on to experienced workers, but became politically unpopular after workers left with huge windfalls. At the time it was cancelled, then-AEA bosses Joe Reed and Paul Hubbert were eligible for a combined $2.8 million in DROP money.

Hanes  he pre-filed 10 of the 23 filed so far this year -- also filed HB4, a bill that would prevent the governor or others from giving bigger raises to appointed department heads than a merit employee gets. The prolific Hanes also pre-filed a bills to allow tax deductions or contributions to state parks, to the Alabama Department of Mental Health or the Medicaid agency. Another of his bills would give tax credits for storm shelters.

He filed three bills aimed at taking care of firefighters, including bills allowing firefighters with cancer to, under certain conditions, have it considered an occupation disease in order to collect workers comp.

Of course we want to take care of our firefighters. But ...

Did I mention Tommy Hanes is a retired firefighter? Sigh.

Other bills pre-filed thus far include a bill by Rep. Allen Farley, a Republican from Jefferson County, that would make Alabamas texting-while-driving law tougher. HB6 would make it illegal to hold a phone or use other devices to take pictures from a car. Or in billspeak, it would make it illegal to:

Physically hold or otherwise support with any part of the person's body a wireless telecommunication device or standalone electronic device, or Use a wireless telecommunication device or standalone electronic device to watch, record, or capture a photograph or video.

That raises some questions.

Id like to pre-file a bill or two. The first one would be to end the annual Legislative session. Seems to me getting these guys together every four years would work just fine.

John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.The death penalty trial of Stephen Marc Stone, a man accused of killing his wife and young son nearly six years ago, is scheduled to begin Monday in Madison County.

Stone is charged with two counts of capital murder in the February 2013 deaths of 32-year-old Krista Stone and 7-year-old Zachary Stone at their south Huntsville home.

Hes pursuing an insanity defense.

Jury selection is set to begin around 9 a.m. Monday. Lawyers say it could take a few days before the jury is seated and testimony begins.

Questions about Stones mental capacity have delayed the trial in the past. Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate in 2017 ruled Stone was not competent to stand trial and ordered he be treated at the Alabama Department of Mental Health. A new trial date was set after Stone was released from mental health treatment.

Before the trial begins Monday, Pate still has to rule on a defense motion to bar Stones police interview from being used as evidence. In the interview, police have said, Stone confessed to both killings. In their motion, defense attorneys Brian Clark and Larry Marsili argue that Stone didnt understand his Miranda Rights, meaning his statements were made involuntarily.

The defendants purported confession and/or statements are inadmissible because they were involuntarily made, the defense attorneys said in court records. They are also asking the judge to toss any evidence that police found as a result of or after the illegal interrogation.

All searches and seizures that followed  the illegal interrogation are fruit of the poisonous tree, Clark and Marsili wrote.

Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard and Chief Trial Attorney Tim Gann are prosecuting the case. If Stone is convicted, prosecutors will ask the jury to recommend the death penalty. The defense has filed several motions to bar the death penalty. The judge said she will rule on those motions if Stone is convicted.

The potential witness list includes several Huntsville police officers, medical experts and others.

Authorities say after the killings, Stone took his two young daughters to his parents home in Leeds. Stone turned himself in for the killings at the police station in Leeds, previous court testimony revealed. Leeds police contacted Huntsville authorities, who went to the Stone home at 11313 Chicamauga Trail S.E. and found both bodies on Feb. 24, 2013. Court records say Krista and Zachary Stone were both choked, and the boy was also drowned.

Stone is charged with one count of capital murder that accuses him of killing two or more people and a second count of capital murder alleges he killed a person younger than 14.

Stone doesnt have a criminal history, according to police. He and Krista worked at Crestwood Hospital.Dakota Theriot, who is accused of killing his parents and three others Saturday morning (Jan. 26) in Livingston and Ascension parishes, was captured by authorities in Virginia on Sunday morning, according to the Livingston Parish Sheriff Department.

The 21-year-old was discovered more than 1,000 miles away from the murder scenes in Richmond County, Virginia, after an overnight manhunt, in which he was described as armed and dangerous.

Authorities in Richmond were alerted of Theriots suspected involvement in the quintuple murder since he had family ties in the county. The next morning Theriot arrived a family members house with a firearm pointed out of the window. Deputies, who were already at house, demanded Theriot drop the firearm. He complied and was taken into custody, said Richmond County Sheriff Steve Smith.

Theriot is being housed at the Northern Neck Regional Jail and is currently being held without bond pending his appearance in court, authorities said.

Ascension Parish officers discovered Theriots parents  Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50  inside a trailer suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were alive at the time of the officers' arrival. Keith Theriot named his son as the shooter in the attack. The couple was transported to the hospital where they later succumbed to their injuries.

Three other people connected to Theriot were found fatally shot around 9 a.m. at a mobile home park 25 miles away from the Acension Parish scene. The Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office identified those victims as Billy Ernest, 48, Tanner Ernest, 17, and Summer Ernest, 20. Police believe Dakota Theriot was dating Summer Ernest and living with her family before killing his girlfriends father and brother.

Before living with his girlfriends family, Dakota Theriot had lived with his parents but was recently asked to leave the residence and not return, Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said. Before dying, Keith Theriot gave investigators information that led them to name his son as a suspect, Webre said.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Dakota Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.A Tennessee state representative is attracting national attention for his idea to enforce a dress code on parents visiting public schools.

Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, told TODAY hed heard horror stories from educators about the way adults dress at the states public schools.

People wearing next to nothing. People wearing shirts or tattoos with expletives. People coming onto a school campus and cursing the principal or the teacher out. These things happen regularly, Parkinson told the program.

He also cited an incident in which a mother visited her childs elementary school while wearing lingerie.

A principal I talked to told me a lady came into the office with her sleepwear on with some of her body parts hanging out. You got children coming down the hall in a line and they can possibly see this, he said.

Parkinsons bill would also draft a larger code of conduct for adults on campus.

The regulations would be up to each school district, he said.

Parkinson said the bill is still in its planning stages but if approved by committee it could go to a vote as soon this summer.Federal high school graduation rates for the 2016-17 school year are out, and once again, Alabama finds itself at or near the top of the list. This time Alabama touts the highest graduation rate among all states and the District of Columbia for African American students, whose graduation rate has risen nearly 20 percentage points---to 86.5 percent---since 2012.

Hispanic students in Alabama graduated at the second-highest rate---88 percent---in the country.

And Alabama ranked fourth highest for graduation rate overall, with a rate of 89.3 percent.

But dont celebrate just yet. Alabamas high graduation rates a few years ago brought federal auditors to the state, resulting in an admission by state officials that rates were artificially inflated because they counted students whose coursework wasnt aligned with state standards.

So do these latest graduation rates measure up?

One measure Alabama education officials created to determine if graduates are ready for life after high school---college or career---paints a different picture.

While Alabamas federal graduation rate for black students is 86.5 percent, the percentage of black students who have earned one of the states college or career readiness credentials is only 55.6 percent.

A similar but much smaller gap exists for white students: 91 percent graduation rate, college and career readiness rate of 80.4 percent.

So, whats the difference in the two rates? And does the gap matter?

Alabamas state superintendents---both past and present---say that gap matters a lot.

A high graduation rate is wonderful news, former state superintendent Joe Morton told AL.com on Friday, but the news comes with an asterisk. That asterisk is that in too many schools the gap is so great that students and their families are being misled into thinking the graduates are ready for their next step of some form of additional education and/or work, when they really are not.

Morton, who now serves as President of the Business Education Alliance, issued a dire warning. There is no challenge greater or more important for the future of Alabama than closing the gap between the [college and career readiness rate] and the graduation rate.

Since the Alabama State Board of Education scrapped its high school graduation exam requirement in 2013, questions have been raised about what earning an Alabama diploma signifies.

In an interview in July on this subject, current Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey said, "For the most part, [earning a diploma] means someone has persisted to finish the credits needed to get a high school diploma."

That isn't enough, though, and, Mackey said, a "big shift" in thinking has been taking place in education.

Without an exam to show graduates have attained a grade-level appropriate base of knowledge, state education officials in 2015 created a new way to show that graduates were ready for the next step, whether that was work or career.

Called college and career readiness indicators, Mackey said, show a student not only knows something but also knows how to do something.

Alabamas seven college and career readiness indicators are:

Earning a benchmark score in any subject area on the ACT college entrance exam,

Earning a qualifying score of 3 or higher on an Advanced Placement (AP) exam,

Earning a qualifying score of 4 or higher on an International Baccalaureate (IB) exam,

Earning college credit while in high school,

Earning a silver or gold level on the ACT WorkKeys exam,

Earning a career technical industry credential, or

Being accepted into the military.

The college and career readiness rate in a given year shows the percentage of students who started ninth grade four years earlier that earned one or more of the seven indicators. Heres what that gap looks like for various groups of students in Alabamas schools.

This chart shows the gap between the federal high school graduation rate and the college and career readiness rate for students who started ninth grade in the 2013-14 school year.

Mackey, too, said the gap between the graduation rate and the college and career readiness rate presents a challenge for school officials and students.

"Ideally, we need to have a high graduation rate with high readiness indicators," he said. "They need to be linked together."

In March, former interim Superintendent Ed Richardson called out more than 150 Alabama schools for having a large gap in a comparison of 2016 graduation and college and career ready rates.

In a strongly-worded memo to superintendents statewide, former state superintendent Ed Richardson---then serving as interim---wrote, This is one of the most serious issues facing our schools. Failure to address this issue immediately will only result in more high school graduates and their families being led to believe they are ready for the next step in their lives when they are notharm public education and depress our states economic growth.

The National Center for Education Statistics Institute for Education Sciences, the data-crunching and research arm of the federal education department, released the 2016-17 school year graduation rates on Jan. 24.

To see the full list of all states and 2016-17 graduation rates, click here.

For a look at your high schools graduation rates and college and career readiness rates, click here.On Saturday evening, Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler posted photos of Arizona Democratic Sen. Krysten Sinema on his public Facebook page, prompting a heated discussion in the comments section about the senators attire.

Ziegler, a Republican in his second term as state auditor, posted the photos on his public Jim Ziegler State Auditor page, and shared it to his personal Facebook page.

The photo caption: What newly elected AZ democrat senator wore to work.

Some commenters made remarks comparing Sinemas clothing to an exotic dancer or prostitute. Zeigler has not responded to those comments specifically.

Other commenters expressed anger that Ziegler was shaming the senator for her clothing and said it was inappropriate for Ziegler to have posted the photos.

In earlier versions of Zeiglers post he said Sinema took the floor improperly attired." That phrase was later removed, and Ziegler did not directly comment on Sinemas attire  a dress and tall boots  but instead mused about the male senator who he said accompanied Sinema as she took the floor of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, is visible in the bottom corner of one of the photos.

He represents these out-of-state senators instead of us, the people of Alabama, Ziegler wrote on the Facebook post. Can you see him? I am exploring running against him next year.

In this Aug. 13, 2018 file photo, Democratic United States Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema hosts a town hall event in Tucson, Ariz. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)AP -WR

Zeigler is known in Alabama for attention-grabbing and divisive statements. He made national headlines during the 2016 special Senate election for comparing then-candidate Roy Moores alleged relationships with teenage girls to the marriage of teenage Mary and Joseph in the Bible.

Ziegler has not yet returned AL.coms request for comment.

Sinema was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2018 and became the first openly bixsexual person to serve in the Senate. Previously, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has made headlines in the past for less conventional clothing choices.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/Since December 2018, Syria has achieved major diplomatic victories in terms of Damascus reintegration into the Arab worlds diplomatic fold. Regional states, which, to various extents, supported the Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assads regime earlier in the conflict, have mostly come around to accepting the inevitable and started normalizing their relations with Syria. Yet the United States shuns Syrias re-entry into the mainstream diplomatic arena of Arab states, believing that regional regimes should later leverage the opening of ties with Damascus as a bargaining chip to extract greater concessions from Assad.

By opposing the legitimacy of Assads government and continuing to impose sanctions on Damascus and individuals in Assads clique, Washington is creating dilemmas for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, such as the United Arab Emirates, that see Syrias reconstruction as representing important opportunities for economic and geopolitical empowerment. Undoubtedly, securing lucrative contracts in Syrias reconstruction will inevitably entail cooperating with the Damascus regime. Yet this reality has potential to create further complications in regional dynamics, as well as US-GCC relations.

The UAEs hosting of a Syrian trade delegation earlier this month was a case in point. Mohammed Hamsho, a Syrian closely tied to the Assad family who has been sanctioned by the US Treasury, led the delegation. Other Syrian lawmakers and businessmen also targeted by US sanctions attended too. The long reach of US sanctions is unquestionably a concern for GCC states that seek to exert their influence in Syria, primarily via construction projects. Non-US companies, such as Emirati ones, seeking to enter Syria must account for Washingtons sanctions because any involvement of US citizens or American firms risks trouble. Given that Syrias business climate is opaque, even careful companies that do their due diligence may find themselves violating US sanctions if they deal with Syrian individuals or entities targeted by Washington.

In September, the US administration announced the imposition of new sanctions on Syrian individuals and entities for having provided Assads regime with weapons and fuel. Two of the companies were UAE-based: International Pipeline Construction FZE and Sonex Investments Ltd. The US State Department may well target more entities in the Emirates based on their ties with the Damascus regime.

The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act passed in the House of Representatives on Jan. 23 but is currently pending in the US Senate. If signed into law, the legislation would require Americas executive branch to sanction individuals or entities engaged in major transactions with the Syrian regime or non-state actors allied with Assad in sectors such as construction, energy, engineering and defense, which are all key lifelines for Syrias government. The bill would also result in punitive measures being taken against the Central Bank of Syria if the US Treasury Department concludes that the institution is a major concern in terms of money laundering.

From the perspective of American politicians and media pundits rallying behind the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, sanctioning Assads regime severely limits Damascus access to economic support and limits the regimes ability to continue consolidating its control over land it has retaken from the Islamic State and Sunni rebels. The US leadership believes that without its military leverage on the ground, financial pressure must sit at the center of Washingtons strategy for affecting the Syrian regimes conduct, and that of non-Syrian Shiite militias backing Assad, including the Fatemiyoun Division and Zaynabiyoun Brigade, which the US Treasury placed on its financial blacklist Jan. 24.

From Abu Dhabis perspective, the GCC states failure to play a pivotal role in Syrias reconstruction could only result in Iran playing that role. The UAEs leadership sees the further consolidation of Tehrans influence in post-conflict Syria and the Levant at large as a grave threat to the Arabian Peninsula sheikhdoms that must act to bring Assads regime back to the Arab fold and ultimately further distance Damascus from Tehran to the maximum extent possible. The lack of GCC participation in Iraqs reconstruction following the fall of the Islamic State in Mosul and other territories last year cost the Arab Gulf states an opportunity to regain influence in Iraq at Irans expense, which is not to be a repeated experience in Syria as the Emirati leadership sees it.

Against the backdrop of Americas impending military withdrawal from northern Syria, both Washington and the GCC states share concerns about Iran acting quickly to fill a potential power vacuum. Yet the issue of sanctions on Syrian individuals and entities linked to the Iranian-backed Baathist regime will likely result in greater divergence between Washington and Arab Gulf states such as the UAE when it comes to dealing with the realities on the ground in Syria. As Arab governments continue exploring prospects for commercial opportunities in Syrias post-war reconstruction and the renewal of diplomatic relations with Damascus, Washington is using its financial leverage to slow down the Syrian regimes reintegration into the Arab worlds economic and political systems.

For the UAE and other GCC states, which seek to become major players in Syrias post-conflict business landscape, US sanctions that require such entities in the Gulf to take even greater risk by entering Syria pose dilemmas as Abu Dhabi, Manama and other Arab capitals seek to gain greater economic, diplomatic and geopolitical influence in Damascus. The dynamics will likely serve to further frustrate GCC states, which have on many occasions throughout both Donald Trump and Barack Obamas presidencies accused the leadership in Washington of failing to account for the interests of Americas closest allies in the Gulf when making key decisions on US foreign policy vis-a-vis Syria.Last week we wrote that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was seeking a lifeline in Syria in his meeting three days later with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

That lifeline came in the form of the 1998 Adana agreement between Ankara and Syria, which Putin considers a path to Turkish-Syrian coordination against terrorist groups, and which Erdogan sees as an open invitation to attack the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); the United States also labels the PKK as a terrorist group.

At a joint press conference following his Jan. 23 meeting with Erdogan, Putin said, The 1998 treaty between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Republic of Turkey is still valid, and it deals specifically with the fight against terrorism. I think this is the legal framework that covers many issues relating to ensuring Turkeys security on its southern borders. Today we have been discussing this issue thoroughly and intensively.

Addressing military cadets a day after returning from Moscow, reports Semih Idiz, Erdogan said this accord had resulted in the eventual capture of [PKK leader Abdullah] Ocalan, who is currently serving a life sentence in Turkey. After our meeting with Putin we understand much better the need to bring the Adana Accord back on the agenda, and to concentrate on this with determination, Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu added that Turkey and Russia were on the same page regarding a Syrian political settlement, writes Maxim Suchkov, except for the issue of whether President Bashar al-Assad should stay in office. Remarkably, Cavusoglu alluded to ongoing indirect contacts between Turkey and the Syrian government, but fell short of providing details.

This is a coup for Putin, writes Idiz. Getting Ankara to revive the Adana Accord means, in effect, that Ankara and Damascus will establish contact and start officially cooperating again. This is what Moscow has pushed for some time, and what Erdogan has resisted.

Erdogan's interpretation of Adana can also be read as a mandate for Turkish intervention against the YPG in Syria, which is opposed by both Moscow and Washington. Speaking on Jan. 25, two days after the summit with Putin, the Turkish president said, We dont need anyones invitation because we already put a signature on the issue with the Adana Agreement in 1998. This signature clears the way for Turkey to enter those areas in the event of an unfavorable incident and stipulates that members of the separatist terrorist organization be handed over to us.

The Erdogan-Putin talks did not provide any indication that Moscow would support a Turkish military incursion into northern Syria, explains Idiz. Complicating matters further for the Turkish side is the fact that Russia is working to secure an agreement between the Kurds in northern Syria and Damascus, in order to prevent a Turkish operation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this month that these territories should be transferred to Syrian regime control after the United States departs. During his press conference with Erdogan in Moscow earlier this week, Putin also underlined that there was no UN resolution or an invitation from the Syrian government' that would enable this security zone to be set up.

Suchkov adds, Over the more than 20 years since the enactment of the agreement, Syria and Turkey have been on a twisted path in terms of its implementation with regard to PKK cross-border operations. Its also not the first time that Putin has urged Erdogan and Assad to reactivate this agreement. Moscow has been raising this issue in talks with Ankara and Damascus since at least 2016.

Under the agreement, explains Suchkov, the Syrian party committed to five points, all of which pertain to the activities of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); Turkey considers the PKK to be a terrorist group with strong links to the People's Protection Units and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Syria, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, will not permit any activity which emanates from its territory aimed at jeopardizing the security and stability of Turkey. Syria will not allow the supply of weapons, logistic material, financial support to and propaganda activities of the PKK on its territory, the first principle reads. The agreement also envisages close security coordination between Damascus and Ankara on the issue, including 'a direct phone link between the high level security authorities of the two countries' and 'two special representatives each to their diplomatic missions.'

Suchkov adds, The concept of launching two parallel reconciliations  a political one between Damascus and the Kurds and security coordination between Ankara and Damascus  is a creative idea Moscow has brought to the table with an eye toward meeting the very interests of Turkey, Syria and the Kurds. The idea seeks to provide ultimate security for the first; grant control over the 'safe zone'/buffer zone and a prospect for maintaining state integrity for the second; and ensure safety with an eye on the political future in the form of autonomy for the third.

As we recalled last month, Al-Monitor has covered this trend and made this case since at least October 2016, when Mahmut Bozarslan broke the story of a meeting between the Syrian government and PYD officials mediated by Russian officials at Khmeimim air base in Syria. In August 2017, we wrote, Turkeys preoccupation with beating back Syrian Kurdish control in northern Syria could open the door to some type of accommodation with Damascus, and we have continued to report and assess this trend since, avoiding the fashion and pitfalls of those advocating US support for local governance in northeastern Syria on the shoulders of the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces].

Perhaps the most revealing part of the press conference was when Putin spoke of European efforts to undermine the work of the Astana group, adds Suchkov. Prior to the meeting with Erdogan, Moscow got hold of a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that representatives of France, the UK and Germany are said to have written. Putin, citing the letter, said the three had pressed Guterres to demand that Staffan de Mistura, before he left his post as UN Syria envoy, block decisions of the Astana group on the formation of the Constitutional Committee. Frankly, we were shocked to learn this. But well be patient and continue working with them, Putin said.CAIRO  Egyptian Minister of Endowments (Awqaf) Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa inaugurated Jan. 20, on behalf of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly, the International Awqaf Academy (IAA), a training institute for imams and preachers in 6th of October City in Giza governorate. The event was attended by Egyptian and international figures concerned with renewing Islamic discourse.

Gomaa said in his speech, The IAA is a starting point toward moving forward with the call to renew Islamic discourse in order to face an intellectual stalemate and extremism.

The IAA was built on an area of 11,000 square meters (2.7 acres) at a cost of 100 million Egyptian pounds ($5.6 million), funded by the Ministry of Endowments and fitted with modern equipment and foreign language labs, so imams can communicate with those in the West, as well as computer labs.

Among the international figures attending the inauguration was Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Sheikh. Sheikh said during the ceremony that the IAA is a great scientific foundation to establish the correct understanding of religion, and that the Saudi Institute of Imams and Preachers would launch training courses in cooperation with the IAA, although he did not specify whether these courses would be held in Saudi Arabia or Egypt.

Mohannad Khorshid, head of the Center of Islamic Theology at Munster University in Germany, said during his speech at the inauguration, This is a very important step in support of Islamic enlightenment sponsored by Egypt. It will help spread moderate religious ideology and renew religious discourse. The IAA will train a large number of scholars and preachers from Germany and Western European countries.

Sheikh Jaber Tayeh, official spokesman for the Ministry of Endowments and head of the ministry's religious department, told Al-Monitor, The IAA consists of a number of buildings equipped to train both male and female preachers from inside and outside Egypt. They are trained by scholars from Al-Azhar who are known for their knowledge and mediation skills in order to raise the intellectual level of imams and preachers. The opening of the academy comes as part of the Ministry of Endowments' efforts to renew religious discourse in Egypt, an issue raised by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

He said, What is new about the IAA is that it offers a six-month experience for imams that includes intensive training through an enlightened scientific curriculum that offers a moderate vision for renewing religious discourse and providing a new vision that will enhance the way they confront extremism and terrorism.

Tayeh added, This experience is a first in Egypt since it lasts [six months], unlike the ministry's regular trainings that last for no more than a week. It also provides good contact with imams from outside Egypt."

When imams and preachers apply to the IAA, they are tested on their knowledge in religious sciences. After the imams are accepted, they are trained by university professors and experts in economy, politics and psychology, Tayeh explained, noting that the training is comprehensive and not only limited to religion and imams are trained in different fields and taught foreign languages.

Tayeh said that the training is completely free, and that so far 130 imams have been accepted. The IAA can train 500 imams at the same time.

It is difficult at this time to train all of the Ministry of Endowments preachers since there are over 54,000 imams and preachers, but eventually everyone will receive the training, he added.

Tayeh said, We hope that the IAA will respond to the demands of Sisi to renew the religious discourse in Egypt. It will attempt to clear up any misconceptions and teach Egyptian and foreign imams on how to improve the image of religion and refute any ideas that call for extremism and violence.

Sisi has repeatedly criticized the religious discourse in Egypt and called on religious institutions, namely Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Endowments, to renew the religious discourse by redefining and purifying religious concepts to make them compatible for the modern age.

Gomaa announced the opening of the world's largest academy for the training of preachers on Aug. 3, 2018. On Oct. 30, he said that he would head a board of trustees at the IAA, consisting of prominent Egyptian scholars, intellectuals and academics in various disciplines. The most prominent of these figures are Grand Mufti of Egypt Shawki Allam, head of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Mustafa el-Faki and former President of Al-Azhar University Ahmad Omar Hashem.

Meanwhile, Al-Azhar University opened Al-Azhar Academy for the training of imams and preachers on Jan. 16, just a few days before the Ministry of Endowments inaugurated its own academy. The objectives of both academies are almost identical, especially with regard to renewing religious discourse and responding to Sisis demands in this regard.

However, Al-Azhar Academy focuses on training imams on religious sciences only; the training does not include other nonreligious fields. The two academies provide training for imams from around the world and Al-Azhar Academy will start training imams from 20 countries.

Acting Deputy Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Saleh Abbas said in his speech during the opening of Al-Azhar Academy that it aims to serve the directives of Sisi to provide preachers with knowledge and train them to confront extremism.

Abdullah al-Najjar, a member of the board of trustees of IAA and member of Al-Azhars Islamic Research Academy, told Al-Monitor, The role of the board of trustees is to develop the IAAs general policy in order to fulfill its role in promoting the religious discourse and improve the performance of the preachers.

Najjar, who is also a professor of Sharia and law at Al-Azhar University, added, The IAA is an important step toward renewing the religious discourse with new tools and a balanced scientific approach. There is no duplication between the IAA and Al-Azhar Academy.

He noted that if every religious institution launched an academy to train preachers, it is certainly a gain and they would all have complementary roles, especially since Al-Azhars scholars are the ones who would train preachers at the IAA.

Georges Fahmi, a research fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and an expert in religious reform affairs, told Al-Monitor, Religious reform initiatives in Egypt are somewhat chaotic since there is a lot of conflict of interest and duplication between religious institutions. The proof is that Al-Azhar established a similar academy instead of joining efforts with the Ministry of Endowments.

Fahmi said, There is competition over who carries the banner of religious reform in Egypt without any real discussion about the meaning of the reform itself, its objectives and how to achieve it as well as the necessity of renewing religious discourse.CAIRO  A decision to expel a female student from Al-Azhar Universitys Mansoura branch Jan. 12 has stirred controversy across the country.

The decision was made after the student in question hugged her friend at a birthday party held inside the campus of Mansoura University. With people taking opposing positions, a number of campaigns were launched in defense of the Egyptian student. A handful of hashtags created by activists and artists have managed to garner popularity, including ones that translate into #LoveisnotaCrime and #IstandinSolidaritywithAlAzharStudent.

Conversely, some criticized the acts of the two students for being supposedly too indecent for a university campus.

A video went viral on Jan. 2 that shows a young man kneeling down and holding a flower bouquet he presents to his female friend (who attends Al-Azhar University) before hugging her inside the campus of Mansoura University, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education and is not related to Al-Azhar University.

Being found in violation of social values, Mansoura University stated on the same day that a decision was made to refer the male student to a disciplinary board. The university also sent a report briefing the incident to Al-Azhar University regarding the female student, who is studying Arabic at Al-Azhars Mansoura branch.

In turn, Al-Azhar University president Muhammad Mahrasawi decided to refer the female student to a disciplinary board, which reached a decision Jan. 12 to expel the female student. Meanwhile, the male student was expelled for two years from Mansoura University.

The female students acts were a complete renouncement of Al-Azhar values, as well as social and university values, Mahrasawi told the media Jan. 12.

The same justification was cited in a press statement released by Mansoura University Jan. 14 that read, A decision has been made to expel the male student on the grounds that he disrespected university values and customs as well as public norms.

The story continued to develop in light of wide public reaction on social media. Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb called on the university to reconsider its decision in a Jan. 14 press statement in which Tayeb urged Al-Azhar to take into account the juvenility of the female student, her educational future, and to put advice and guidance over enforcing punitive actions.

In compliance with Tayebs statement, the High Disciplinary Board for Students at Al-Azhar University has reduced the punishment from expulsion to barring her from taking her exams for the first semester of this year.

Following Al-Azhar Universitys move, calls were also raised to reduce the punishment imposed on the Mansoura University student that will affect his educational future. Subsequently, a follow-up decision was issued by the disciplinary board at Mansoura University on Jan. 15 to mitigate the punishment to barring him from taking his exams for the first semester. The decision came after Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar intervened and demanded a reduced punishment.

Intisar al-Saeed, director of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law, believes the hugging incident has been blown out of proportion.

Saeed told Al-Monitor, The incident did not call for such punitive action in the first place. But this sort of matter is to be expected from Al-Azhar University because we are dealing with men of religion.

She noted that the Al-Azhar grand imams position in the matter shows he is walking a path of openness that does not go in line with the official conservative line of Al-Azhar.

Meanwhile, Iham Shahin, who teaches Aqida (Islamic Creed) and philosophy at Al-Azhar University, stressed to Al-Monitor that Al-Azhar imam and the university are on the same line, adding, If a judgment involving injustice or lack of compassion was made, Al-Azhar imam would intervene to remedy the situation.

Shahin believes the decision was steeper than the incident. The female student does not deserve to have her future go into waste. She based her assessment on an Islamic jurisdiction rule: A punishment shall be in correlation to the crime, no more, no less.

Shahin stressed that the female students mistake was that she didnt stop her friend from hugging her, probably due to her young age and lack of life experience.

Organizing birthday parties and engagements among students inside Egyptian universities has become commonplace in recent years, with many such events occurring in front of a large number of students. This was the case in universities such as Helwan University, Misr University for Science and Technology, and Zagazig University, among others. The hugged girl, however, attracted the most attention since she was expelled.

The initial decision to expel the female student is a first in Egypt. In October 2017, a similar incident took place at Tanta University when two friends of the opposite sex hugged each other at an engagement party. But the university decided back then to bar the students in question from taking their exams in one course only.

According to the Disciplinary Regulations for university students, if students are found guilty of indecent acts, the punishment starts with barring them from an exam and expands to expelling them indefinitely. In the case of the female student, Al-Azhar University used the maximum penalty before the grand imam intervened.

Ahmad Zarea, a spokesperson for Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor, The university is a place of science, not for having engagements and parties. He added that hugging contradicts social values and is not acceptable inside the university in any shape or form.

Zarea clarified that the decision to expel was made in accordance with the legal disciplinary boards, stressing that it was a legal decision rather than a religious one.

Zarea also stressed that, while the so-called hugging incident took place at Mansoura University rather than Al-Azhar University, the girl is an Al-Azhar student. This affiliation entails a responsibility on her to conduct herself in a way that consists with the university. In addition, Mansoura University is also a place of science where such an act is not acceptable, not to mention the vicious outcry on social media that hurt the universitys image after the hugging video surfaced online. As such, punitive action was a must.

Noteworthy is that Al-Azhar University practices single-gender education where women and men have separate campuses and any encounter between them is prohibited.LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 486020

01-27-2019 11:21 AM













Post: #1 Bugging Out to Belize, Who'$ with me

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On City Council's agenda, under new business, is the first reading of an ordinance to rezone the 9.3-acre hospital property and to approve the concept plan for it.

Ordinances require two readings.

The Marian Group, from Kentucky, has proposed redeveloping the abandoned hospital property, 828 Richland Ave. W. The venture involves repurposing the actual hospital building for housing as well as the construction of four new apartment buildings, outdoor recreation space and dozens of parking spots, among other things.

The plan includes demolition of the on-site nurses building  a sore subject  and preservation of the sandstone wall along Richland Avenue.

In total, the Marian Group has drawn in 160 apartments for the so-called gateway-to-Aiken parcel, but such density would require a waiver, which the Planning Commission recommended not be issued. Not having a waiver would cap the apartment count to 112, according to City Council documents.

The Planning Commission advises City Council.

Compounding City Council's Monday evaluation is the Design Review Board recommendation  not unanimous  to extend Aiken's Historic Overlay District to include the entire hospital site. City Council, though, will take up that matter another time; it's not on the Monday agenda.

The Marian Group does not yet own the hospital property. Aiken County does. At last check, the deal was still being worked out, and James Duffy, a Marian Group development associate, said the two parties were working well together.

The hospital property was once home to the Aiken County government.

City Council meets at the Municipal Building, 214 Park Ave. S.W. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

City Council's schedule also includes:

A presentation by the Aiken Downtown Development Association.

An ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2018-19 budget for Citizens Park fence repairs.

Ordinances to annex residential properties.

A 5 p.m. work session, during which stormwater rates and council districts will be discussed.

Aiken panel recommends extending historic overlay to include old hospital property The Aiken Design Review Board has recommended extending the Historic Overlay District to inc

City Council member Dick Dewar, according to briefing documents, has asked that City Council discuss returning to a 4-2-1 election plan, which was effective from the early 1990s to 2013.

The 4-2-1 plan involves four single-member City Council districts, two council members elected at-large and a mayor elected at-large.

City Council is currently organized 6-1: six single-member districts and a mayor elected at-large.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.The heyday for Palmer amaranth introductions in Iowa was 2016 with the planting of native seed mixes contaminated with Palmer amaranth. I am aware of more than 30 counties where Palmer amaranth was found in CRP fields following planting of contaminated seed mixes.WASHINGTON  Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and Congressman Kelly Armstrong this week urged U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) SecreBrody Stapel, a young farmer from Cedar Grove, Wisconsin and president of Edge Dairy Farmers Cooperative, says he welcomes the challenge of working on solutions to dairy-industry issues with fellow members of Wisconsin Dairy Task Force 2.0.RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. (AP) - Federal agents have arrested a California nurse on suspicion of running an illegal online pharmacy that sold more than 20,000 opioid prescription pills.

The Sacramento Bee reports Sunday that Carrie Alaine Markis of Rancho Cordova was arrested last week and could face charges including distribution and conspiracy. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney.

Prosecutors say the 46-year-old earned tens of thousands of dollars selling drugs via a marketplace on the darknet called Farmacy41.

The newspaper says Markis is identified in court papers as holding a master's degree in nursing science and health care leadership from the University of California, Davis.

Markis is expected to appear in court Monday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento has led efforts nationwide to crack down on hidden web sites that purport to offer untraceable sales of drugs.

(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press).......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

PANAMA CITY  Pope Francis called Sunday for a just and peaceful solution to Venezuelas political crisis as he wrapped up a visit to Panama for a World Youth Day rally that was overshadowed by the upheaval unfolding nearby.

Francis refused again to say if the Holy See would recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido in his claim for the presidency, which has been backed by the United States and other regional leaders. The Vatican years ago was frustrated in its attempt to mediate between socialist President Nicolas Maduro and Venezuelas opposition, which has the backing of many Venezuelan bishops.

Speaking off-the-cuff at his Sunday blessing, Francis said he felt particularly close to Venezuelans while he was in Panama. He asked the Lord to seek and find a just and peaceful solution to overcome the crisis that respects human rights and exclusively seeks the good of all people.

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The Venezuela crisis has dominated Francis visit to Panama, both behind the scenes and in public, with the pope at one point asking out loud if any Venezuelan bishops were on hand at the end of an event. The Vaticans secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was former ambassador to Venezuela so he knows the situation well.

Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the situation in the South American nation was very palpable during the Argentine-born pontiffs trip.

It has been a source of frustration for the Latin American pope, since his diplomatic efforts have not borne fruit in the country, Chesnut said.

Francis made the Venezuela comments after he closed out World Youth Day with a Mass in a Panama City field before an estimated 700,000 people and presidents from across the region: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Portugal.

You dear people are not the future but the now of God, Francis told the pilgrims draped in flags from across the Americas.

At the end of the service, the Vatican announced the next edition of World Youth Day would be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022.

Our trip was very long but it was worth it because we came here to Panama City because of our faith, our Christian faith, said pilgrim Sawadogo Kiswensidad, who travelled from Burkina Faso.

After Mass, Francis visited a church-run home for people infected with HIV, sending a strong message of acceptance in Panama, where AIDS carries a stigma.

Many of the people we help here have been rejected by their families, by people in the street, said the Rev. Domingo Escobar, director of the Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano. But here they receive Christian help, as the church wants.

Using the parable of the Good Samaritan, who tended to a stranger in need, Francis called for an end to the indifference that society treats the poor and the sick.

For indifference can also wound and kill. Some for a few miserable coins, others for fear of becoming unclean, he said. The Good Samaritan, whether in the parable or in all of your homes, shows us that our neighbor is first of all a person, someone with a real, particular face, not something to avoid or ignore, whatever his or her situation may be.

Francis used his visit to the home to issue a string of appeals, beyond Venezuela. He appealed for peace in Colombia following a car bombing at a police academy that killed 21 people earlier this month. He denounced the bombing of a cathedral in the Philippines earlier Sunday. And he added his voice to the chorus of solidarity on Holocaust Remembrance day.

During his trip Francis questioned the wall that U.S. President Donald Trump would build on the Mexican border, urged society and the church not to turn their backs on or stigmatize those who migrate due to poverty and violence, and sought to encourage young Catholics and the clergy.

Late Sunday afternoon, Francis met with World Youth Day volunteers at a soccer stadium where he thanked them for their sacrifice and urged them to go forth and bear witness of the experience.

Go out and spread the word about everything you have seen and heard.  Not with lots of words but rather, as you did here, with simple and ordinary gestures, those that transform and renew each hour of the day, the pope said.

This is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, Carla Hernandez, a 21-year-old Honduran nursing student said of her World Youth Day experience. A night in which we shared, prayed and enjoyed the stars. The pope has filled us with hope.

Catholic officials had long anticipated a low turnout because the January date did not coincide with North American and European school calendars, and indeed the estimated 600,000 at the previous nights vigil was sharply down from previous years.

Still, Chesnut said, between the low attendance by the youth and the statistics showing that the loss of the faithful in Latin America has continued during (Francis) pontificate, the lasting impact of his visit is not clear.

Francis plane departed in the evening for Rome, where he will prepare for another trip next weekend to Abu Dhabi, the first by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula.

___

Associated Press writer Kathia Martinez in Panama City contributed to this report........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

SUNLAND PARK  Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border are investigating claims by a 17-year-old Guatemalan teen and his father that they had been held against their will by a human smuggling operation in Colonia Rancho Anapra in Mexico.

The teen was apprehended by Border Patrol agents near Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, according to a Border Patrol news release. Agents noticed he had facial injuries and began investigating further. The 17-year-old stated that he and his father were beaten while being held in a stash house against their will.

He said that he and his father attempted to escape, but became separated. The smugglers were able to catch up to him and began to physically assault him, the teen told border agents. He was able to escape again during the assault and ran north across the international border where agents apprehended him.

He said he did not know where his father was and said he feared the smugglers would hurt or kill him.

A short time later, his father was apprehended by Border Patrol agents while illegally crossing the border about a mile and a half from where his son had been encountered. The father informed agents that he had been separated from his son during an escape attempt from a house in Mexico and believed smugglers might have killed his son.

After the man provided the agents with his sons name, the agents realized that he was the father of the assaulted teen. The father and son were reunited at the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station and family members were contacted.

Border Patrol said a subsequent investigation revealed the location of the stash house where the two males claimed they were held and extorted for money in Colonia Rancho Anapra south of Sunland Park. Agents uncovered additional evidence supporting the claim that the father and son, as well as other Central American migrants, were being held against their will.

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El Paso Sectors Border Patrol Foreign Operations Branch relayed the information to the Mexican authorities and initiated a coordinated binational enforcement effort, the news release sated.

On Tuesday, Jan. 15, Chihuahua State Police searched the property and found a person locked in the house and unable to leave, the release stated. According to the Border Patrol, the stash house had several mattresses strewn about indicating many people had been staying there........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

SANTA FE  Ted Lockwood, founding president of United World College-USA, has died at age 94.

From 1982 to 1993, Lockwood served as president of the two-year international baccalaureate boarding school for students ages 16-19.

The school in Montezuma, housed in an historic building with distinctive castle turrets about five miles west of Las Vegas, N.M., is one of 17 United World College campuses around the world.

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Lockwood, who died Monday, helped start the school with philanthropist Armand Hammer. He also wrote a book chronicling the schools beginnings, Dreams & Promises: The Story of the Armand Hammer United World College, published in 1997.

In a news release from the college, Lockwood was described as a gentleman, educator, and visionary who laid the groundwork for the schools success and was passionate about young students who attended while he was president.

He connected with the students, thoroughly enjoying interacting with them through discussion and through shared experience, said Shirleen Lanham, a 30-year teacher at UWC-USA.

He went on expeditions with them, hung out with them after meals in the cafeteria, saw every bus off after graduation to say farewell, and read every students report, adding a comment of his own.

The school has students from all over the world as well as from New Mexico. The United World College movements stated mission is to bring people, nations and cultures together.

Lockwood was born Dec. 5, 1924, in Hanover, N.H. He attended private school in Lake Placid, N.Y., and graduated as valedictorian from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., in 1948. Lockwood earned his masters and doctorate degrees from Princeton University.

He taught at Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., before becoming dean of faculty at Concord College in Athens, W.Va., and provost and dean of faculty at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

He became president of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., in 1967. He was at the helm when that college began allowing female students.

All of us at UWC-USA, and across the movement, owe Dr. Lockwood a debt of gratitude, current UWC-USA president Victoria Mora said in the release. We wish his family peace in this time of loss.

He was living in Stowe, Vt., when he died.

Lockwood is survived by his wife of 38 years, Lu Lockwood, two daughters from a first marriage and two stepsons.

A memorial service is scheduled for Feb. 9 at St. Johns in the Mountains, a church in Stowe.

Lu Lockwood is requesting memorial contributions be made to UWC-USA.

Montezuma was the closest thing to Teds heart, she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated United World College-USA is east of Las Vegas, N.M. It has been corrected to west........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

About 150 civil cases and hundreds of people who work in federal courthouses throughout New Mexico will avoid a further disruption thanks to the Friday deal to temporarily reopen the federal government.

But federal courts throughout the country and in New Mexico still used up much of the available money collected through court fines and fees to make sure many people who work there were paid during the partial shutdown.

So another stalemate would have a more direct and immediate effect on federal courts in the state, Mitch Elfers, the clerk of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico told the Journal.

Now we all cross our fingers and hope, Elfers said.

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The public probably didnt notice much change in federal courthouses during the shutdown, Elfers said. But many people who work in the courts on a contract  some defense attorneys, expert witnesses, translators and counselors  didnt get paid during the shutdown, and some civil cases were brought to a halt.

In New Mexico, U.S. District Judge William Chip Johnson, the chief judge, issued two orders that pertained to the government shutdown. One, on Dec. 27, stayed all civil proceedings in which the United States was a party. There are about 150 such cases, Elfers said.

Johnsons other shutdown-related order on Jan. 11 deemed essential all employees of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, including Bankruptcy Court, the Probation and Pretrial Services Office and the District Court Clerks Office.

That order meant that most employees in those offices would have worked without paychecks once the fines and fee money dried up. That was expected to happen around the end of the month had Fridays deal not been reached, Elfers said.

Several hundred attorneys and other court staff in the state would have been affected.

There are about 95 people who work in the clerks office, and the courthouse has 70 people who work in the judges chambers, Elfers said.

Steve McCue, the federal public defender in Albuquerque, said the office has about 90 employees, about 40 of them attorneys, in New Mexico.

The Probation and Pretrial Services Office has about 200 employees who supervise about 1,400 people throughout the state, said Margaret Vigil, the chief U.S. probation officer in the state.

McCue said employees of the public defenders office account for only about half the public defense attorneys who work in federal court in the state. Much of the workload is carried by attorneys in private practice who then bill the government.

Vigil said the probation and pretrial office uses vendors throughout the state, such as counselors, who worked without getting paid during the shutdown.

Jason Bowles, a private practice attorney who defends clients on a contract basis, was one of the attorneys hit.

Weve been told we have to keep working, and we are. Were continuing to help defendants who are indigent, but were not getting paid for it, Bowles said last week, prior to the deal to temporarily reopen the government was reached on Friday. The lawyers understand and hope theyll get paid. They are assigned the case and they do their job and I havent noticed anybody not do their job yet.

Bowles said he didnt have to try to hire a defense expert witness during the shutdown. He did have civil cases that were affected. In one of his cases, a trip to California to take the deposition of an expert witness was canceled because government attorneys had been furloughed. He said because of that cancelation, discovery deadlines set in the case are likely to be missed.

U.S. Marshals Service deputies and attorneys and staff in the U.S. Attorneys Office didnt receive paychecks during the government shutdown. The exact number of those employees affected by the shutdown wasnt available on Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Sullivan, a spokesman for the office in New Mexico, said that employees in the offices civil cases were furloughed and on the criminal side they worked without paychecks........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The case of a shield claimed by the Pueblo of Acoma as a sacred ceremonial object  now resting at a Paris auction house  drags on.

The pueblo believes it is one of several similar shields stolen from a tribal home in the early 1970s.

But Jerold Collings of Mule Creek, the man who provided the shield to the EVE Auction House, said in court documents filed Thursday that he inherited it from his mother after she died in 1984.

I know for a fact that Mr. Collings never stole it or knew there was any problem whatsoever, said Collings attorney Mark Rhodes.

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Collings also claims that the shield has been in his family since before the enforcement of the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act, making it not subject to forfeiture.

Still, should the shield prove to be Acoma in origin, Rhodes said his client would be willing to work with the pueblo to return it to them. But hed like to know the basis for the tribes claim.

He is fine with it going back to Acoma Pueblo if they are the rightful owners, Rhodes said. Thats not unreasonable.

Ownership can be difficult to discern, Rhodes said, as Native Americans are culturally not as reliant on written records.

The theft itself, the tribe writes in court documents, is believed to have been reported to the tribal sheriff.

There is no written record of the burglary, but it was not common practice for reports to be memorialized in writing with the tribal sheriff, according the complaint filed in New Mexicos U.S. District Court.

Rhodes, who deals with cases involving Native American artifacts, said thats often the root of much of the conflict that can surround such cases.

You have a very distinct difference in cultures. Native Americans will do a lot more of their history orally. Our Anglo legal system is based on a lot of writing, Rhodes said. That puts the individuals who end up with these pieces in an awkward position.

In a statement, Acoma Gov. Brian Vallo said the pueblo is amenable to working with Collings for the return of one of its most significant items of cultural patrimony.

We are hopeful that through forfeiture proceedings or direct negotiations with Mr. Collings, the process for timely return of the shield will be realized, Vallo said. We appreciate Mr. Collings coming forward to participate in the process of resolving this matter. Without doubt, the Acoma Shield remains a critical component in our cultural fabric and must come home.

The shield remains in France, although EVE backed down from selling it in 2017 after international outcry. The U.S. Department of Justice is working to have it repatriated to the American government.

The tribe celebrated the return of another ceremonial shield last month. That one was discovered at a Montana art gallery........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Several hundred migrants climb over a small fence at the U.S.-Mexico border just after midnight. The fence, designed to stop vehicles, isnt much of a deterrent. Some of the migrants toss belongings, while others pass children, over the fence.

About the same time, not far away, drug mules try to move contraband across the border. They are hoping to use the movement of migrants as a distraction.

This isnt a narrative pushed by President Trump. It happened this month at Antelope Wells, N.M. The crossing was caught on video, and the video was released by the Border Patrol a couple of days after it happened. The group numbered 247. Less than 48 hours later, Border Patrol agents encountered another 115 at the same location. And just this past Thursday, more than 300 migrants turned themselves in to Border Patrol there.

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Included in the influx of families crossing the New Mexico-Mexico border was 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died in an El Paso hospital after making the crossing with her father last month. Her death, and that of 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, who died in a New Mexico hospital after crossing with his father near El Paso, still arent discouraging migrants from bringing children on the perilous journey.

To add to the tragedy, many of the migrant families are embarking with the intent of seeking asylum even though few will qualify. Most acknowledge they are fleeing poverty in search of a better life, rather than meeting the asylum bar of fleeing danger. In reality, that means most will end up being tagged for deportation at some point.

When do we as a nation step up to discourage these crossings that too often end in heartbreak?

Meanwhile, north of the border, 800,000 federal workers have been going without paychecks. They arent the only ones suffering from the government shutdown. The ripple effect has hurt contractors, small businesses and the overall economy.

President Trump and House and Senate leaders on Friday finally agreed to end the shutdown for three weeks and negotiate on border issues. This is an opportunity not to be wasted by the continued refusal to compromise weve seen.

Trump earlier offered temporary status for 700,000 Dreamers and 300,000 other undocumented residents in return for $5.7 billion in border security money, including for barriers. Thats an opening bid. But rather than come back with a counter, the Democrats  including our own delegation  insisted on playing politics, rejecting it out of hand because of their dislike of Trump.

There is no doubt a larger barrier  a fence or a wall  in strategic areas can serve as a deterrent to migrants who are choosing dangerous, remote places to enter this country. According to Brandon Judd, president of the union for Border Patrol Agents, a survey of 700 agents in Tucson and Laredo, Texas, found 90 percent supported a wall or barrier system to secure the border.

Trumps latest proposals no longer called for a concrete wall from sea to shining sea, but steel barriers in strategic places. And while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi labels a wall immoral, Democrats have funded such border barriers before. In 2006, they endorsed a bipartisan measure to provide fencing along 700 miles of the border. That included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and then-Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. According to Customs and Border Protection, the number of migrants crossing illegally significantly declined where there are barriers.

In the meantime, criminal organizations use the smuggling of migrants to shield transportation of illegal narcotics across the border. On the night the 247 crossed, Border Patrol agents seized 265 pounds of marijuana and arrested two suspected drug mules with the aid of Customs and Border Protection.

(Thats one reason why its so important to keep our National Guard troops there. They play a crucial role, handling vehicle maintenance, horse care and surveillance cameras so Border Patrol agents can focus on the influx of immigrants.)

As for finally doing right by the Dreamers, these are the young adults brought here as babies, toddlers or children by their immigrant parents, forced to live in a fog of uncertainty as they go to school, work and raise families while they wait for the U.S. to stop kicking the can and provide permanent green cards or a path to citizenship.

Despite all the posturing in D.C. and photo ops at the border, this is real life in New Mexico, folks. Its time our leaders  especially N.M.s congressional delegation  start compromising.

While constructing barriers at Antelope Wells and other parts of the border are clearly just a piece of the solution, its a start to limiting the number of death trips across the desert. Trump has also included funding for more equipment, better technology, more border agents and immigration judges  things Democrats have been asking for.

So far, Democrats have countered with a proposal that refuses to include even one inch of wall, which is actually steel fencing or other barriers. That is a mistake. New Mexico is taking in hundreds more people in facilities and providing them with medical care Democratic lawmakers have labeled sub-standard. How can anyone with a conscience let that continue?

And the notion that the Border Patrol can provide extensive medical care to hundreds of migrants at a remote spot in the desert is fantasy. As Most New Mexicans can tell you, medical resources here are stretched thin to begin with.

Each party had the chance to reform immigration when it had control of the government, and each blew it. Now, impoverished migrant families, federal workers, thousands of young Dreamers and local economies are paying the price.

Both Trump and Democrats act like the shutdown is the exclusive responsibility of the other. Its not. It took two to shut it down, and its time to end it, once and for all. We have three weeks. Lets make it count.

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........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

WASHINGTON  This must be the last shutdown, ever. No politicians should be able to wreck government and inflict suffering on its employees as a form of brute force to get their way.

Any deal to end this nonsense must therefore include a measure akin to the no-more-shutdowns proposal from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., disarming those who so disrespect government that theyre willing to throw the country into chaos.

It also means that continuing to resist President Trumps intransigence is not a radical position. It is the moderate position.

There is longing for moderates of one kind or another to come up with a solution to this crisis. Yet whats more moderate than saying that everything related to border security should be on the table for negotiation, but in a considered, thoughtful way? A border wall should not be privileged just because we have a president obsessed with symbols that rally his base.

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And, by the way, that base is shrinking, as a CBS News poll Wednesday showed.

The pollsters asked: Do you think the issue of a border wall is worth the federal government shutdown or not? Overall, 71 percent of Americans said that the border wall is not worth the shutdown, including 92 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans. GOP senators who faced Thursdays failed votes on competing proposals  with and without Trumps $5.7 billion in wall money should note that this fight is uniting Democrats and dividing their own party. (On Friday, Trump and Congress agreed to end the shutdown for three weeks and negotiate on border issues.) Lets be clear: Trumps opponents were not refusing to negotiate. In fact, House Democrats said Wednesday they were willing to offer additional money for border security, though not the wall.

As Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Tuesday in an interview with NPRs Rachel Martin: Democrats  I certainly am, and my colleagues are, too  are glad to have the discussion about the elements in the presidents proposal. All they are asking, he said, is to treat it like every other item of business we have, rather than a take-it-or-leave-it.

In other words, they wouldnt let Trump use a shutdown to override the normal process of governing. Republicans are saying peoples lives are the leverage they want to use, and we want to discredit the use of government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, Kaine told Martin. Why take paychecks away from FBI agents? Why shutter food-stamp offices because the presidents not getting his way on border security? Why, indeed?

And Trump has shown negotiating with him is a fools errand. His proposal Jan. 19 and again Thursday was presented as a compromise. It was no such thing. His concession to legalize  temporarily  the status of some 700,000 immigrants brought across our borders when they were children essentially ratifies the status quo forced on Trump by lower-court decisions the Supreme Court left in place on Tuesday.

His supposed step toward more openness for asylum seekers turned out to be exactly the opposite, once its more stringent provisions were made clear. Trumps approach to negotiating is: Give me what I want, and if you dont, Ill ask for even more.

This is lunacy. It has to stop, which is why Warners end-shutdowns bill is so important. As The Washington Posts Aaron Blake summarized it: In the event of a lapse in government funding, the act would reinstate funding levels from the previous fiscal year  except for Congress and the office of the president, which would not receive funding until they reached an agreement.

Warner calls his bill the Stop STUPIDITY Act, standing for Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years.

Trump wants rational people to be so horrified at the damage hes willing to inflict that theyll cave in. Its his M.O., as Damian Paletta and Josh Dawsey noted in The Post: He creates  or threatens to create  a calamity, and then insists he will address the problem only if his adversary capitulates to a separate demand.

Giving in to such behavior is not moderate, reasonable or sensible.

What would be moderate (and what prevailed Friday, albeit with a three-week deadline) is a suggestion from my friend, former Capitol Hill staffer Bruce Wolpe  re-open the government and name a bipartisan commission to assess border and immigration issues, with a 60-day deadline to report.

Yes, Congress regularly resorts to commissions when government seems paralyzed. But with the president assuming the mantle of paralyzer-in-chief, we need a resolution that does not empower a leader so selfish hes quite happy to tear our government apart, piece by piece........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Copyright  2019 Albuquerque Journal

When visiting the site of the Terracotta Army statues in China, Sharon Bartel Clements turned to her husband and asked him, where are all the women?

The couple was visiting Xian and went to the mausoleum where there are rows of thousands of life-size clay sculptures of Emperor Qin Shi Huangs male warriors. The statues, buried around the emperor for protection, were discovered in 1974.

Its like my natural instinct to look for women warriors, but of course they didnt have any, said Bartel Clements.

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Upon her return home, the Tesuque-based artist felt called to create a project that showed women as warriors. The result was 30 plaster molds of torsos made from the bodies of real women, all of whom, according Bartel Clements, have overcome some kind of adversity in their lives.

Shes arranged the torsos in rows, resembling how the Terracotta statues are lined up in the pits of Xian.

The Warrior Women Torso Project will be shown for the first time in its entirety at the Center for Contemporary Arts starting next Friday, Feb. 1.

Bartel Clements has been working on the project for about six years, with female friends or friends of friends willing to let her wrap their torsos and allow the plaster to dry over a several-hour process.

The front and back pieces are held together by rivets and the plaster wraps are covered in sewing patterns, something Bartel Clements said she added to represent the patterns people create in their lives. She also made spines for most of the torsos out of additional plaster, a symbol of the great strength associated with that body part.

To Bartel Clements, women are the real warriors. While the statues in China were meant to represent physical strength, which is most commonly associated with men, she said a womans strength often comes from within. Thats why almost all of the women who participated in her project wrote passages about hardships in their lives. The anonymous stories are collected in a book along with images of the plastered torsos.

This is (the) Warrior Project, so through their own perseverance, strength and so on, they overcame their adversity, said Bartel Clements. Some have had cancer, some verbal or physical abuse, so on. The stories are quite compelling.

In the book, which is expected to be ready for the CCA show, the women also write about how their loved ones  like their mothers and daughters  were warriors themselves.

One woman describes her daughter, who was diagnosed with ADHD and auditory processing disorders at birth, but was able to graduate from college with honors, become a teacher and have a family of her own. Another portrays herself as the product of warrior women, being the granddaughter of a Polish immigrant who raised five kids with a sometimes abusive husband and the daughter of a woman who was present in her family members lives despite severe health issues.

All of the women who participated are left anonymous, Bartel Clements explained, because they represent all women, not just the ones that are here.

Though the Chinese Terracotta statues represent the full body, Bartel Clements says she intentionally veered away from that to create a more universal representation. Something that was important to her, she added, was that her subjects represent not just different life experiences, but also different body types.

These women are not Venus de Milo, she said. They are not perfect beings, which theyre not supposed to be because nobodys perfect, and were all different shapes and sizes.

During a walk-through of the installation at her Tesuque home studio, Bartel Clements pointed out that some of her models were in various stages of pregnancy. Another had gone through a mastectomy. The stands for the torsos were made so each mold matches the height of the particular woman it was made from.

Over the plaster and sewing patterns, Bartel Clements added adornments to give the torsos a pop of color and make them more aesthetically pleasing. In some cases, she used pieces that reflected a little more of the womens stories. Along the bottom of one the last torso molds, made from a woman who was eight months pregnant, she added maps from various cities in Spain, where the woman had made a monthslong trek. An image of a cathedral is on the right shoulder. While the woman was in Spain, according to Bartel Clements, she visited a fertility clinic due to difficulties she had getting pregnant.

For another mold, the artist incorporated sheet music for Ballade Pour Adeline, a 1976 instrumental composition written by French musicians. Bartel Clements said the woman whose torso is portrayed brought along the music for the casting. The woman had recently overcome a serious injury from a ski accident that left her very incapacitated for more than a year, but Bartel Clements didnt pry into why she came with sheet music.

One or two torsos have previously been shown in exhibitions at Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, the Harlem School for the Arts and the Art Design Consultants Gallery in Cincinnati. But Bartel Clements said the entire concept doesnt come across with just one. The torsos and the stories they represent, she said, are more powerful together.

Its like a collective consciousness kind of feeling when you have them all together, she explained. Theres more strength.

Warrior Women Torso Project

WHEN: Feb. 1-April 29. Opening reception is Friday, 6-8 p.m. CCA members can attend a VIP preview from 5-6 p.m.

WHERE: Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail

TICKETS: $5/free for CCA members, Cinematheque ticket holders, active duty military or kids under 12. The book will be on sale for $25.95.

HOURS: Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 p.m........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

It might be difficult to see the silver lining in a state audit report for Northern New Mexico College with 18 negative findings and a disclaimer of opinion  meaning auditors couldnt find enough evidence to form an opinion one way or the other  on the schools business operations.

And you could see it as public relations spin that the college touted the findings released last week as a remarkable improvement.

But, really, it does appear that Northern is climbing out of the mess that current president Rick Bailey inherited when, after a long career in the Air Force, he moved to northern New Mexico and took over at NNMC in 2016.

The negative findings remain significant: lack of financial controls, documentation and segregation of duties to ensure back-up and oversight in financial transactions; problems reconciling account balances at years end; and messy details like a lack of policy for tracking expenses for recruiting student athletes.

The disclaimer of opinion in the report conducted by an Albuquerque accounting firm says, The College could not provide adequate supporting documentation for certain transactions and balances for its business-type activities during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2018, which was a result of both insufficient and circumvented internal controls over financial reporting.

But consider what had happened in the recent past. Northerns 2017 audit had 48 negative findings, close to three times the number in the new report.

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And here are some lowlights from the pre-Bailey era:

A financial officer at the school had embezzled $200,000 in cash and checks, according a state audit released in 2017. The college under Bailey said it reported the irregularities as soon as it discovered them. The embezzler, who according to the State Police admitted to the thefts, has never been charged with a crime. District Attorney Marco Serna said last week that his office is negotiating a pre-indictment plea in the case.

Also according to the audit released in 2017, Northerns then-president was away at conferences for 40 weekdays, took 45 personal vacation days and used numerous more days worth of hours as do not disturb time in 2015. Nancy Rusty Barcelo, who stepped down in that year after five years as NNMCs president, also had 744 hours of potential non-approved leave time, the audit said, at a cost to the college of $87,000, not including taxes and benefits.

The latest audit says that when Northern switched to a new accounting system in 2006, student receivables that were outstanding were not transferred with enough detail to enable pursuing what was owed. The problem facilitated the embezzlement of funds in prior years, the college said in its response to the new audit.

NNMC had been experiencing years of financial problems, late audits, layoffs and reduced class offerings amid staff turmoil and political infighting. The college also has had to pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle whistleblower, workplace issue and contractor lawsuits. Amid all this, the schools former leadership spent time, energy and, almost certainly, money on a silly lobbying effort to change Northerns designation from college to university.

So the proper thing to do at this point is to cut Bailey and the team hes brought in some slack and thank them for an improved financial situation at Northern. We look forward to continuing our positive trajectory, Bailey said last week. Lets give him at least another year or two to wrangle his schools finances into shape........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

SANTA FE, N.M.  A budget close to $50,000 may not seem like a lot to some nonprofit organizations, but to the volunteers running the library in Vallecitos, its an unimaginable sum.

But rural library supporters are dreaming big these days, pushing for a legislative appropriation that would create a permanent funding source for their operations.

The small Vallecitos library serves a community of an estimated 141 people in unincorporated Rio Arriba County. The library, also a community center, is housed in what was once a hardware store, estimated to date back to the 1880s.

With the exception of when some hippie settlers who moved in and grew marijuana on the top floor several decades ago, the structure had long been abandoned before the library moved in around 2013, according to board treasurer Marlene Fahey.

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There were no windows, Fahey recalled. The floors were all dirt.

Renovations have largely been the handiwork of community members, and the facility is filled with donated furniture and materials. Today, the library sees between three and 12 daily visitors on its three open days per week.

It has about 2,000 books, though many of those are in boxes because of a lack of shelves. Fahey says the most popular offerings are the centers free internet and public landline telephone.

The phone has been installed outdoors on the portal, and people can use it any time of day. According to Fahey and library board president Lorraine Alire, many residents homes are so remote that phone and electric companies cant service them at all.

The library has had as many as 80 different devices connect to its Wi-Fi in a given month. Three public computers are housed in what was once the buildings living space for the hardware store owners. Fahey said people also use their own phones or computers in the library, because of the Wi-Fi, as well as on the portal or in their cars parked in the driveway.

Volunteer Edward Manzanares, who arrived at the library on a snowy afternoon recently so Fahey and Alire could head home, described the space as a hidden gem. Its definitely more than a library and seems to function almost like a village living room or den.

Manzanares said its somewhere he can socialize with other residents, and he tries to stay there into the evening so locals can come by. Some nights he has stayed until 2 a.m., hanging out and watching Netflix on the computer.

The large front room at the entrance is also used for public meetings and parties, and the volunteers try to offer regular activities for local kids. Using the back kitchen, they make pizza or sandwiches with the children on Fridays when theres no school. Locals schools run four days a week, with longer hours per day.

I think the kids up here are kind of like the rest of us, where the fact if they can have internet access, use a computer and make pizza, thats pretty special to them, said Fahey.

But Fahey acknowledged that the facility is still in a primitive stage. The library operated on approximately $9,000, mostly from State Library aid, in 2018. And that was a high figure. The 2017 budget was closer to $3,000.

With such a small budget, the library crew doesnt regularly have enough wood to heat the large front room during the winter. Ceiling lights havent been installed throughout the building.

Things could change if a bill now before the Legislature becomes law. It would establish a permanent fund for supporting and developing rural libraries. Funding for 50 libraries around the state would come from interest earnings on the endowment.

Backers of the idea have set their sights high. They are asking for $50 million for the endowment. A key legislative committee, meanwhile, has recommended $5 million.

The Vallecitos Library and Community Center, and the other small libraries would receive as much $45,000 a year if the $50 million fund were set up.

Right now, if we had $3,000 to fix up some of the electricity, we would be thrilled, said Fahey. The librarys supporters would like to make the building more livable. A more efficient heating solution, fixing spots in the portal that have been boarded over, and finishing the bathroom are all on the short list.

If we had enough light, if we had heat, we could think more about programming, she said.

A way to sustain rural life

The Rural Library Initiative  the idea of a permanent fund for rural libraries  was spearheaded by Shel Neymark, who helped found Dixons Embudo Valley Community Library in 1992.

The Dixon facility has become a central location for educational and cultural activities, Newmark said. Many small libraries provide vital resources beyond books that residents otherwise dont have close access to, Neymark said, ranging from computers and internet to after-school programs.

With help from state lawmakers, hes pushing for the endowment that would support nonprofit, tribal and small municipal libraries located in communities with populations of 3,000 people or less. Recipient institutions would have to meet the state requirements for public libraries.

Neymark says many of the libraries face financial uncertainty. Rather than receiving tax dollars from cities or counties, most of them survive through individual donations, fundraisers, grant money and state aid, all of which can vary year to year.

And current public support or organizational grants can be tied to specific uses rather than for general operations, according to Lynett Gillette, the director of the El Rito Public Library, which serves another small community about 30 miles north of Espanola.

These are really threatened institutions, I would say, Neymark said.

The idea of a permanent fund for rural libraries has been on Neymarks mind for the past 25 years, but it wasnt until this past spring that he started putting the idea in motion. He teamed up with state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque. Ortiz y Pino has a second home in Dixon and has frequented the Embudo Valleys various programs.

Just experiencing that library and seeing the incredible way in which a library like that one can function as a community builder, as a hub, it really becomes the heart of the community, he said.

I think its a great way of sustaining rural life in our state, which is a really important value that we have, said Ortiz y Pino. On the House side, Neymark said Rep. Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, is the legislative proposals sponsor.

It includes two bills. One would establish the endowment. The second calls for a proposed constitutional amendment to go on the ballot in 2020. The amendment would list the 50 rural libraries as recipients of the funding.

If passed, the amendment would also create an exemption in the states constitutional anti-donation clause, which bars the use of public resources for private entities, like nonprofits. The prohibition is often effectively bypassed when dollars go to private groups that are under contract to provide services. Of the 50 rural libraries, 15 are nonprofits.

If the amendment passes, the money would be allowed to go directly to the libraries and could be used toward whatever they needs most, including capital improvements. If the endowment statute becomes law, but the constitutional amendment fails, the libraries would have to apply for funding as grants from the State Library.

According to John Sandstrom, president of the New Mexico Library Association, funding issues arent exclusive to small libraries. If they (lawmakers) support it, thats wonderful, but my stance and the stance of NMLA is what can we do to help all libraries in the state, said Sandstrom.

The organization is pushing for a higher budget for state aid to all libraries and money for a statewide broadband fund. It is also advocating for the Public Education Department to do an inventory of the current status of school libraries.

$5 million or $50 million?

Though the ask is for $50 million, the powerful Legislative Finance Committee set aside $5 million for this initiative when forming its proposed 2019 state budget. Ortiz y Pino said he hopes to convince lawmakers to provide more.

He noted that $50 million is less than 1 percent of the states $7.1 million budget. In billions of dollars, its a drop in the bucket, he said.

Neymark said $5 million would still provide each library with a couple of thousand dollars each year. Its better than nothing, he said, but he pointed out that the requested amount could help finance things like paid librarian positions, something several locations dont have.

Yes, wed be very thankful for anything, but $45,000 a year, it would create incredible things for these communities, said Neymark. It would be a game-changer.

The mention of the possible permanent fund brought an immediate smile to El Rito library director Gillettes face. The library has been around since the 1980s.

Over several rooms in the building, built under the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, the library houses 16,000 books and DVDs, and seven public computers. It also offers a full dinnerware set available for checkout.

In 2018, the nonprofit operated with a budget of around $87,000. Sixty percent of that came from more than 160 individual donations.

For a community as small as this and poor as this, Im actually quite astounded, said Gillette.

At the library last week, she pointed out two new sets of stairs. Decks on separate ends of the library were built last year, all through extra donations and patron volunteer work.

She thinks the community is sending a message about the librarys importance with their dollars.

Theyre pretty outspoken about wanting the library to continue and it has, through a lot of ups and downs, over 33 years, she said. I think theres more and more being asked of us.

Neymark stressed the wide-ranging offerings of rural libraries. In Taos Countys Talpa, he noted, the staff teaches ceramics and sewing. In Gila, in southwest New Mexico, the librarians give families free bags of groceries during the summer when kids arent getting school lunches. The Pueblo De Abiquiu Library & Cultural Center hosts the University of Californias archeology department to take teens on digs around the area.

The El Rito Public Library hosts regular movie nights, book talks, a weekly quilting group, literacy training for adults and a pre-literacy classes for toddlers. Last year, the library hosted a three-day archeological conference featuring scholars who have studied the nearby pueblo ruins and an 18th-century Spanish settlement.

We seem to stay pretty busy, I wish we could do more, said Gillette.

Christopher Foley, a 51-year-old retired restaurant manager who splits his time between El Rito and Albuquerque, views the library as a meeting place for the community. He visits the library several times a month, mainly to use the computers, check out DVDs or books on woodworking and furniture-making, and attend the movie nights and potlucks.

Its given him a chance to meet different groups of people. He said there arent many other chances to do that in El Rito besides at one restaurant and during the annual artists Studio Tour. This is it, said Foley.

New Mexico lawmakers want to support small towns and their residents, Neymark said, but they often dont know how. He said the libraries have direct knowledge of what their patrons could benefit from the most.

Because we can address those issues on the grassroots level, were such a great model for rural development, said Neymark........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

WASHINGTON  When Chinese police found them in the trunk of a smugglers car, 33 of the trafficked pangolins  endangered scaly mammals from southern China  were still alive, wrapped in plastic bags soaked with their own urine.

But the fate of the creatures  whose scales are worth nearly their weight in silver on the black market  was not a happy one. Every last pangolin died in government captivity within a few months of the August 2017 seizure.

A pioneering environmental nonprofit in Beijing has launched an investigation, called counting pangolins, to figure out what happens to such animals recovered from the illegal wildlife trade. Its findings so far highlight discrepancies between environmental laws and outcomes.

China is hardly unique. The number of environmental laws on the books worldwide has increased 38-fold since 1972, according to an exhaustive U.N. Environment report released Thursday. But the political will and capacity to enforce those laws often lags  undermining global efforts to curb issues like wildlife trafficking, air pollution and climate change, the report found.

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The law doesnt self-execute, said Carl Bruch, a study co-author and director of international programs at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C.

Each of the 33 pangolins transferred to the care of a government-run wildlife rescue center in Chinas Guangxi province died within three months  according to records obtained by the nonprofit China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation and shown to the Associated Press.

Whats still unclear is what happened to their bodies.

Pangolins are insect-eating, scaly mammals  playfully described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as resembling an artichoke with legs and a tail. Their scales  made of keratin, the same material in human finger nails  are in high demand for Chinese traditional medicine, to purportedly cure arthritis, promote breast-feeding for mothers, and boost male virility, although there is no scientific backing for these beliefs.

The price of pangolin scales in China has risen from $11 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) in the 1990s to $470 in 2014, according to researchers at Beijing Forestry University.

Scientists have designated all eight species of pangolins as being at risk of extinction  four species in Asia, and four in Africa. More than 1 million pangolins were trafficked between 2004 and 2014  for their scales, meat and blood  with China and Vietnam as the largest markets. In the last two decades, the number of pangolins worldwide has dropped by about 90 percent.

In 2016, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) adopted a worldwide ban on commercial trade in pangolins, and China later approved that ban. Pangolins are also listed as a protected species in China. While Chinese state-run media have publicized a few high-profile poacher busts, watchdogs say a thriving black market for endangered-animal parts persists.

In November 2017, customs officials in Shenzhen seized 13.1 tons (11.9 metric tonnes) of pangolin scales  reportedly the largest-ever seizure of scales from Africa  according to state media. The penalties offenders face are not always publicized, but in another case involving a smaller shipment of scales, two smugglers received prison sentences of five years, state media said.

Its significant that China has adopted laws against trade in many endangered species, but the law itself isnt enough to protect a species from extinction, said Jinfeng Zhou, director of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.

Zhou wants the government to issue public records tracking all living and dead pangolins seized by authorities  and to offer evidence that contraband, including pangolin scales, is destroyed before it enters black markets.

We are determined to know what happens to the pangolins, said Sophia Zhang, a researcher at the biodiversity group. After reading news reports about the August 2017 poaching bust, she filed information requests to government agencies and traveled to Guangxi to visit the wildlife rescue center.

The Guangxi Forestry Department, which manages the wildlife rescue center, declined APs requests for an interview and comment. Chinas state-run news service Xinhua reported in December 2018 that China remains committed to stopping pangolin trafficking, noting there were 209 pangolin smuggling busts from 2007 to 2016.

Less official attention has been paid to what happens after these busts.

In Guangxi, Zhang saw that pangolins were kept in small cages and fed cat food at the wildlife center, whereas wild pangolins eat termites. She said she had tried to coordinate with Save Vietnams Wildlife, a nonprofit, to bring shipments of termites to feed the pangolins, but the center declined the offer.

After the animals died, the center wouldnt reveal what happened to their scaly bodies. But in other instances, the same center has turned over live pangolins to industry groups  including a steel factory in Guangdong province and a farm associated with a Chinese traditional medicine center in Jiangxi province. The government released this information on its web site.

In response to an information request from Zhang, the Guangxi Forestry Department sent copies of the licenses held by these organizations for handling pangolins. The reason for transferring pangolins remains unclear.

We want the wildlife center to provide a full explanation, Zhang said. We know the trade in pangolins is very lucrative. The public should be able to know what happens.

The biodiversity nonprofit has filed information requests about trafficked wildlife in nearly 30 Chinese provinces and has attempted to verify what happens to pangolin scales seized by customs officials. Zhang said wildlife rescue centers need better training to properly handle live animals.

China has a rather complete set of environmental laws, said Barbara Finamore, the senior strategic director for Asia at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC. But environmental laws are not worth the paper theyre written on unless theres also strong enforcement and oversight.

Countries large and small, rich and poor, have passed extensive green legislation since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The world has made incredible progress in adopting environmental laws and environmental impact assessments, in creating environmental ministries and agencies, said Bruch, co-author of the U.N. report.

Now comes the hard part.

The legal framework is there in an enormous number of countries, said Deborah Seligsohn, a political scientist focusing on environmental policy at Villanova University. But once you have all these laws, you need trained and willing personnel to actually enforce them. You need boots on the ground.

Green mandates often go unfunded, said Barney Long, director of species conservation at Global Wildlife Conservation, a nonprofit group in Austin, Texas. Many countries have laws stating the minimum number of park rangers that should be patrolling per square mile in national parks and protected areas. But these arent implemented if sufficient money isnt appropriated.

Non-governmental groups  like the biodiversity nonprofit in Beijing  try to help close the gap between environmental laws and enforcement action. But in many countries, this is dangerous work. In 2017, at least 207 environmental defenders  including forest rangers, advocates, journalists, and inspectors  were murdered for performing such work, according to Global Witness, a research and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. and London.

There are some bright spots, experts say.

China is gradually releasing more environmental data to the public, especially on air pollution, even as the government clamps down on other forms of information. And more officials are being held accountable, said Jennifer Turner, director of the Woodrow Wilson Centers China Environment Forum in Washington, D.C. Before local officials were only evaluated on economic performance  but now its harder to hide from environmental sins.

Follow Christina Larson on Twitter at @larsonchristina

Larson reported from China and Washington, D.C. AP researcher Shanshan Wang in Beijing contributed reporting.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  The thousands of tourists who travel to a remote Native American reservation deep in the Grand Canyon each year to camp near a series of picturesque, blue-green waterfalls will have to do so without the benefit of professional guides.

The Havasupai Tribe has decided not to allow outfitters to escort visitors this year down the long, winding path that leads to its small, roadless reservation and on to its main tourist draw: towering waterfalls that cascade into swimming holes that are warm year-round.

Tourists can visit the waterfalls, either by reserving a room at the tribes only lodge or by snapping up a coveted permit for one of its hundreds of camping spots scattered amid a creek. But starting in February, theyll have to find their own way to the reservations waterfalls and caves, and carry their own food and gear.

Abbie Fink, a spokeswoman for the Havasupai Tribe, said the Tribal Councils decision isnt a reflection on the outfitters. Rather, she said the tribe wanted to manage all tourist traffic itself.

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Its not solving a problem. Its returning the enterprise to the control of the tribe, she told The Associated Press.

For years, the tribe has set aside spots for tour companies, which often bought permits in bulk. The outfitters paid a licensing fee of several thousand dollars, and some had elaborate setups with gourmet meals, inflatable couches and massage therapists. Most brought just the essentials.

Fink couldnt say exactly how much tour guides paid or how many licenses have been issued in the past. She said the Tribal Council would re-evaluate outfitter licenses for 2020.

The tribe relies heavily on tourism and estimates that between February and November, it gets 30,000 to 40,000 visitors per year to its reservation deep in a gorge west of Grand Canyon National Park thats accessible only by foot or helicopter, or by riding a horse or mule. The tribe does maintenance in the campground and on the trails in December and January.

The tribe doesnt allow day hikes, so visitors wanting to take in its waterfalls and other sights must reserve overnight trips in the campground or at the sole lodge.

Rooms in the lodge, which can be booked only by phone, are sold out for the rest of this year. Reservations for 2020 start June 1.

Permits for 2019 camping spots become available online Feb. 1 and are expected to sell out in minutes. People on social media have been strategizing for months about how to boost their chances, including by setting up an account early, recruiting friends and family to try to book a trip and repeatedly refreshing multiple internet browsers.

The permits are $100 per person per night Monday through Thursday, and $125 a night Friday through Sunday, slight increases over last year. The tribe grants about 300 camping permits a day, Fink has said.

Adam Henry, co-owner of Discovery Treks, books between 100 and 200 people on the Havasupai trip each year but has had to stick to offering trips in other spots of the Grand Canyon. He says thats not always welcome news for tourists intent on venturing to the waterfalls.

The hike takes tourists 8 miles (13 kilometers) down a winding trail through desert landscape before they reach the first waterfall. Then comes the village of Supai, where 600 tribal members live year-round. Another 2 miles (3 kilometers) down the trail is the campground with waterfalls on both ends.

The blue-green water is what people want to see, Henry said. Its certainly a significant bummer for people who arent going to be able to get out there on their own.

Christine Miller, who works with the tour guide company Wildland Trekking, said tourists can find packing lists online and videos on Havasupai to help plan their trip. The advantage to having a tour guide is knowing how to reach the sights off the main trail, including other waterfalls, caves and swimming pools.

There are not really any good maps out there to tell you when to cross, when not to cross the creek, she said.

The tribe temporarily suspended licenses for outfitters in 2016 in part to review the impact that supplies loaded onto pack animals had on the animals and the trail. Fink did not respond to questions about what came out of that review.We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jpownall@lufkindailynews.com, or submit a news tip online by visiting lufkindailynews.com/tips........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

PRIMGHAR, Iowa  Constituents applauded Republican Rep. Steve King on Saturday at the Iowa congressmans first public event since being rebuked by his House colleagues over racist comments he had made to a newspaper earlier this month.

King told the roughly 75 people who showed up for the first of 39 planned town hall meetings in his sprawling district that he doesnt adhere to a white supremacist ideology and he repeated his assertion that hes not racist.

The nine-term House member caused an uproar after he was quoted in a New York Times story saying, White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization  how did that language become offensive? King claimed his comments were taken out of context, but the House voted 424-1 to rebuke him, with King himself voting in favor of the resolution, and Republican leaders denied him any committee assignments.

Addressing what he called the elephant in the room in his opening remarks at Saturdays event, King expressed frustration that his comments about white nationalism and white supremacy in the New York Times interview led to even his fellow Republicans disowning him.

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It is stunning and astonishing to me that four words in a New York Times quote can outweigh 20-some years of public service, 20-some years of giving you my word every day, King said. And not one soul has stood up and said Ive ever lied to you or misrepresented anything. Not one soul has stood up and said Steve King has ever acted in a racist fashion, that he ever discriminated against anybody.

King has long been known for making caustic comments, especially on issues related to race and immigration. Shortly before the November election, the Washington Post reported that King met in Austria with the far-right Freedom Party, which has Nazi ties. King said the meeting was with business leaders, including one person from the Freedom Party, but the Post stood by its story.

Although Kings recent comments drew a relatively large media contingent to Saturdays meeting, none of the constituents who were on hand said anything critical about the controversy and a couple expressed their support, telling King they think hes doing a great job. In the few instances in which Kings history of insensitive comments and his most recent statements arose, the audience seemed supportive, and they stood twice during the gathering to applaud him.

Pamela Harrman criticized what she called a progressive movement to change our country and said liberals can say anything while conservatives are demonized when they speak out.

Harrman said she supported King and shook her head at other Republicans all bailing out on you.

Lori Scroggin added, We support you and support your conservatism.

People mostly wanted to talk about the issues of governing, asking King about efforts to allow more corn-based biofuels in gasoline, economic development and changes that would allow people to temporarily enter the country legally to work on cattle operations. King didnt take questions from reporters.

Such town hall meetings have been unusual for King, who for years declined to hold them. He argued that he could meet with constituents more effectively by speaking with them privately rather than at public gatherings, which he claims would be dominated by opponents from outside the district.

However, after his narrow victory over Democrat J. D. Scholten, who for months traveled in a motor home throughout the district, King announced that he would hold town hall meetings in all of the districts 39 counties.

Only two months after Kings narrow win, he drew a conservative and likely well-funded Republican primary challenger in state Sen. Randy Feenstra, an assistant Republican legislative leader known for pushing a large tax cut through the 2018 Legislature. Last week, Woodbury County supervisor Jeremy Taylor, a former state legislator, announced hed also seek the 4th District GOP nomination. At least two others have said they are considering running in the Republican primary.

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Follow Scott McFetridge on Twitter: https://twitter.com/smcfetridge.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

FORT HANCOCK, Texas  Donald Trump didnt carry many parts of Texas heavily Democratic areas along the border with Mexico, but he won remote Hudspeth County thanks to people like Terry Rose. And the 71-year-old mechanic saw the longest shutdown in U.S. history as a campaign promise kept.

I want less government. Thats what were getting, said Rose, who was having lunch with a group of friends in Fort Hancock, an enclave with fields of cotton, alfalfa and chili peppers just across the border from El Porvenir, Mexico. Im understanding about federal employees, but if youre non-essential its hard to feel too badly for you.

The shutdown  which lasted 35 days and ended Friday with Trump agreeing to fund the government for three weeks  did dramatically shrink the size of government at least temporarily. Funding was cut off for nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments and about 800,000 employees went without pay, nearly half of whom were deemed non-essential and told not to report to work.

Even as it eroded the presidents approval rating, the shutdown energized a segment of the Republican base that has for decades heard GOP presidential hopefuls vow to abolish the IRS and mothball the departments of Education, Energy or Interior or many other agencies, without actually accomplishing anything close. Its a reminder that should Trump choose a shutdown again, as he threatened Friday, he is likely to have some supporters cheering him on.

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But the shutdown didnt repair a decades-long schism within the Republican Party between conservatives, who would like to see some parts of government contract but dont mind creating deficits for things like tax cuts and defense spending, and libertarians, whose main goal is to get government out of peoples lives almost entirely.

Trump has backed increasing the size of the federal budget, whether to raise military spending or to spend billions walling off the entire U.S.-Mexico border, making him no true champion of small government. Libertarians and fiscal conservatives are also quick to point out that shuttering the government indiscriminately because of political squabbles did nothing to reduce long-term federal spending or have any lasting, meaningful impact on governments overall size and scope.

Jeffrey Miron, director of economic studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, noted that the shutdown continuing for so long likely will end up costing taxpayers more to make up for lost time as things begin returning to normal.

This just makes small-government people, and conservatives who claim to be small-government people, look like theyre angry, aggressive, willing to cause people to go without their paychecks, Miron said.

Rose considers himself a conservative and not a Republican, but concedes he almost always votes GOP. He said he feels for those who missed paychecks: I dont want to be mean to them, but its really a system thats overburdened, out of control.

Gene Henderson, a 69-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired Border Patrol agent, agreed that the shutdown was a positive example of small government and predicted it could cement Trumps 2020 re-election.

People sent him up there to stop all this stuff and to drain the swamp, Henderson said of Washington. And hell be sent up there again.

But Joe Brettell, a Republican strategist in Houston, said the shutdown taught the Trump administration how widespread and diverse the federal government is.

There isnt a single member of the House that doesnt have a federal agency in their district, Brettell said. As a result, youve got members of all stripes taking calls from people facing really dire financial situations.

Its hard to get farther away from Capitol Hill than Fort Hancock, a dusty desert town of about 1,800 that feels straight out of 1950s Hollywood Wild West central casting. Trump won the county that encompasses it, Hudspeth, by 179 votes out of fewer than 900 cast in 2016. But much of the rest of Texas heavily Hispanic border areas tend to favor Democrats.

Possible 2020 presidential candidate Beto ORourke hails from neighboring El Paso County, which went for Hillary Clinton by nearly 45 percentage points.

Still, locals have an unusual view of the issue at the center of the shutdown  the border wall  because they can see it literally from two sides. A barrier of towering steel runs through much of town, then stops, giving way to low barbed-wire or, eventually, nothing at all. That means some residents know life with a border wall and others know life without one.

Many Trump supporters here dismiss the notion of building a wall the length of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, but believe Trump was right to hold out for expanding it as much as possible.

Isela Duran, who was part of the construction crew that helped build the Fort Hancock wall about 10 years ago, said she feels for the federal workers who were furloughed so long. But I think about us over here, too, and keeping ourselves safe.

The shutdown damaged Trumps overall approval ratings, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which showed the number of Americans who approve of his performance dropping to 34 percent from 42 percent a month earlier. Among Republicans, however, Trumps approval rating remained close to 80 percent.

Sitting at Angies Restaurant, which specializes in Mexican and American food, including burritos and cheeseburgers, Rose said he still pins his hopes on Trump.

If Trump gets another four years and a Congress that can work with him, we can save the country, he said. If not, it will become like Europe. Out of control........... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Hacking seems to be the theme this week, with a couple of local organizations becoming the unfortunate targets.

CHI St. Josephs Children, which provides free services for pregnant women and families with young children, was identified as Department of Homeland Security-ICE on Caller IDs this month.

The hack affected 50 land-lines the organization uses from its Albuquerque office to contact families that have been referred for services, said president Allen Sanchez.

Because CHI St. Josephs supports immigrant children and their families regardless of status, an unknown number of people likely did not answer their phones when Homeland Security flashed on their caller IDs, Sanchez said.

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Staffers clued into the problem when they noticed a drop in people registering for the home-visiting program, he said.

The nonprofit is owned by the national Catholic Health Initiatives, but only the New Mexico phone lines were affected by the hack, Sanchez said. The FBI is investigating and the problem is now fixed, Sanchez said, but the nonprofit is concerned about families waiting for its help with home visits, medical needs, food and other kinds of help.

It is trying again to reach families now that the phones are fixed, but it wants you to know this: If you were expecting a phone call from CHI St. Josephs Children, you can reach them at 505-924-8000.

  

The other hack happened to Leadership New Mexico, which is warning that its email account  leader@leadershipnm.org  was compromised.

Bogus emails have been sent out regarding a fake invoice, warns the group, which provides programs to train future leaders in the state.

The bad emails start out with Dear Client and say, I have attached our invoice which requires payment prior to starting work. It then provides a link so the recipient can view the supposed invoice.

Dont click.

  

The Better Business Bureau is warning about a change-of-address scam in which fake companies have created websites mimicking the U.S. Postal Service.

Consumers have ended up on these sites after doing an online search for how to change an address. The process, really, is easy with a minimal charge and can be done online at the official Postal Service site at www.usps.com.

The fake sites are deceptively similar to the real one, the BBB says, but those who make a payment with their credit or debit card will find themselves with extra charges they didnt agree to.

In most cases, these fake companies get away with your money and your address is left unchanged, the BBB said.

Heres how to avoid being duped by an imitation website, according to the BBB:

 Double check the URL before you enter any personal or payment information. It can be easy to click on a sponsored ad or imposter website without noticing. Make sure the link is secure  if it is, it will start with https:// and will include a lock icon on the purchase page.

 Be cautious about third-party websites, no matter how much they look like the real thing. Those that have no working customer service number and no physical address should sound an alarm. Also, typos and grammatical errors are a very bad sign.

 Make online purchases with a credit card. Fraudulent charges on a credit card can usually be disputed, which is not always the case with other payment methods.

Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.Aberdeen News

Ellendale is interested in being a pilot school for a new effort in North Dakota that could add community services at schools.

The North Dakota Full-Service Community Schools Consortium received a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop full-service schools. The goal is to help students learn and succeed and strengthen families and communities.

Heather Simonich, operations director for PATH North Dakota, the group that got the grant, said hopes are to create partnerships at schools that allow families to connect to other services.

For example, she said, one school in Grand Rapids, Mich., has a Department of Health and Human Services office. Families are able to fill out paperwork for Medicaid or food stamps at the school.

Other benefits, she said, can include the creation of partnerships with which mental health or dental services are available to students.

Simonich said having the extra services at the school is especially helpful with rural areas.

According to ASCD, previously known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, full-service schools:

Provide after-school opportunities, early childhood education, real-world learning approaches, physical and mental health services for adults and youth, and services aimed at removing barriers to learning.

Build bridges among families, schools and communities.

Make community assets available to address the needs of students.

Three North Dakota schools were selected as demonstration sites. They are in Fargo, Mandan and Minot. Three additional schools can ask to be pilot schools, and Ellendale is interested.

Ellendale Superintendent Michael Kaiser said the district is still learning what it means to be a full-service community school, as the concept is new to North Dakota. But the Ellendale School Board approved a request to submit a letter of intent, which is due Feb. 1. Schools will be notified by Feb. 18 if they are selected to submit an application to be one of three pilot schools, which will be chosen in spring.

Kaiser said the Ellendale district has been learning about the benefits of early childhood education and has interest in expanding with a pre-kindergarten program.

Theres already a private preschool in Ellendale, he said, and conversations have started about making a transition from a private school to one affiliated with the district.

Other services that could be developed include after-school programs and programs that help with student transitions from, for instance, elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school.

Like South Dakota, North Dakota offers no state funding for developing preschool programs. As a pilot full-service school, Kaiser said, some initial funding could help with program development.

Simonich said the long-term hope is that the schools participating become a model for others interested in adding services.

Its really important to help them think about sustainability, and thats going to happen through partnerships, she said.

Other groups that are part of the North Dakota consortium include the Mid-Dakota Education Cooperative, South East Regional Education Cooperative and the Missouri River Education Cooperative.The number of suicides among active-duty Marines reached a ten-year high in 2018.

Marine Corps data obtained by CNN showed that there were 57 confirmed and suspected suicides among active duty troops last year.

Another 18 Marines in the Reserve Forces are either confirmed to have committed suicide or their deaths are being investigated as suspected suicides.

Officials are deeply concerned. Many of the cases were young Marines who had not deployed overseas and had not been in combat.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert Neller, recently released a message to the corps detailing that included a plea to troubled troops to reconsider any drastic actions.I've written about the habit in the United States of viewing U.S.-Latin American relations from a U.S.-centric perspective. It is bolstered by leftist Latin American governments, who find it convenient to blame their problems on someone else. This has come fully into view for the Venezuelan crisis so I wanted to respond to the types of arguments I've seen. I was reminded of this because of a letter being circulated by U.S. scholars criticizing the United States while removing all responsibility from Nicolas Maduro himself.



1. The Trump administration is orchestrating a coup. I will leave aside the "coup" concept, which would need more discussion. But this particular framing bothers me because in one fell swoop it relegates millions of Venezuelans, years of protests, countless opposition meetings, etc. into "passive puppets of a few individuals in the White House." I always discuss this with regard to the 1973 Chilean coup as well. The U.S. did not create the coup. Yes, it did everything it could to encourage it and made clear there was a green light of support, but the plans were Chilean. In Venezuela, what we're seeing unfold is Venezuelan.



2. This is all about the U.S. wanting Venezuelan oil. The U.S. already has Venezuelan oil and there is no threat of that changing. Period.



3. U.S. sanctions created the economic crisis. They certainly made it worse very recently by making it much harder for the government to move money internationally, but it was already really bad and had been that way for years because of mismanagement and rampant corruption/theft.



4. This is just like Panama in 1989, Chile in 1973, and Guatemala in 1954. Actually, even those were all different from each other. This is too different from a Central American invasion for those to make much sense. Chile is a better comparison, though Salvador Allende won a fully free and fair election, while Maduro did not (the Chilean opposition did, however, invoke the constitution to bring in the military to give it a veil of legality). Regardless, see #1 above. The critical point is about green lights, not control or imperial puppeteering.



This is a Venezuelan crisis in Venezuela. The U.S. is a powerful country that affects events on the ground, but it did not create them and is not controlling them.



In short, we can be highly critical of U.S. policy while simultaneously denouncing Nicolas Maduro for contributing to the destruction of his own country. Those two can (and in my mind should) co-exist.





Dill event

JIM VOLGARINO

CEDAR FALLS  On Friday veterans in the Black Hawk County area had the opportunity to give a personal thank you to Kevin Dill who is leaving his position as director of the Black Hawk County Veterans Affairs Office due to a serious health condition.

Kevins work over the past three years has been nothing short of exemplary, and anyone who has worked with him quickly appreciates his passion, energy and compassion for veterans needs.

When Kevin stepped into the role he inherited a task that in the past had been fraught with issues, but he didnt let any of those things stop him from having great successes. The staff of the office is also to be commended as they have stood at his side as he worked tirelessly through red tape, unreasonable odds and projects that many times simply were not do-able.

Kevin Dill has shown people who have the attitude of why not? help make our community better. As a veteran and community member I sincerely thank him for his service.

House 55 race

TODD SCHMIDTWaterloo leaders may be close to reversing a controversial fireworks ban.

As stated in Wednesdays Courier, the Waterloo City Council looks to have the support to reverse a fireworks ban as it comes to terms with the fact an outright ban simply isnt very effective.

Its a very difficult law to enforce, said police Maj. Joe Leibold. To know somebodys shooting them off and proving it are two very different standards.

Certainly, we empathize with our peace officers. The illegal use of fireworks is difficult to police whether there is a total ban or not.

A new ordinance now under discussion would open up legal fireworks usage in Waterloo for three days. The proposed change would allow fireworks from noon to 11 p.m. July 4 and from noon to 10 p.m. on both July 3 and July 5 each year.

The council could possibly be ready for a vote on the issue by Feb. 4.

That proposed ordinance would also increase the fine for illegal fireworks use from $250 to $375  also a move in the right direction, in our opinion.Garabedian said its his hope he and McCool can host a Q-and-A and screening of the documentary series during the annual Winter Dance Party tribute in Clear Lake once all the footage is released online.

During their quest for stories and photos from the 1959 tour, Garabedian and McCool located seven photos from the last performance of Holly, Valens and Richardson at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake.

It was like Christmas morning, Garabedian said. It was amazing.

Mary Gerber, of Walters, Minn., attended the Clear Lake show as a teenager with her brother and his girlfriend in 1959.

With her, although prohibited, was a pocket camera.

After the photos were developed and Gerber wed, the photos remained in storage at her parents home until she was told someone was interested in them.

I had no intention of doing anything with them because I didnt know anyone was interested in them, she said about holding onto the photos for 50 years.

After the photos were given to Garabedian and McCool, they were shared with the families of the Winter Dance Party musicians as well as the Surf Ballroom, where they can be found on the wall.WATERLOO  The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley needs help with the following:

Friends of the Family is looking for help with its Point in Time Count on Wednesday. Volunteers work in teams of two or three with staff and survey two to three counties in the nine-county area, traveling to parks, businesses and other identified areas to look for people experiencing homelessness. This count allows Friends of the Family to learn more about the need for housing programs in our area.

Waypoint Services is looking for volunteers to provide child care during weekly support groups for victims of domestic violence. Support groups offer a chance for survivors to connect with others and share their experiences in a safe, supportive space. Support groups are offered from 6 to 8 p.m. in Waterloo on Tuesdays.

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Cedar Valley is looking for volunteers to help out at Sacred Heart School from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Volunteers help children with homework or reading, assist groups like the Cub Scouts with fun activities or provide general supervision for the children.There have been federal cases where theres unimaginable control  youre unable to contact your family, theyre taking control of your money, said Karen Siler, human trafficking manager at Friends of the Family.

But even organizations like Friends of the Family  which has worked with domestic violence and sexual assault survivors for 25 years  dont know how entrenched human trafficking is in the area: Only in the last three years has there been a federal grant to assist survivors of trafficking.

Were just getting to a point when were starting to understand how big of an issue this is, said Friends of the Family executive director Ben Brustkern. This tells you this issue has not been at the forefront.

Friends of the Family was chosen in July 2016 to be one of a few Iowa regional organizations to receive a federal grant to help alleviate human trafficking.

In that time, Brustkern said, the number of people theyve served has increased every year. In just the first six months of last year, the state had 110 calls to the trafficking hotline and 38 confirmed cases of trafficking.

I think we still dont know the scope of the problem, he said.But Community Development Board member Don Share said hes heard from landlords not interested in getting involved.

We all know theres a lot of landlords that dont care, and they wouldnt take the time to ask for this, Share said. How do we make them ask for it?

I think it would behoove a landlord to keep his place fixed up  because he can get more money out of it, he added.

Landlords are not required to follow any rent controls to receive the assistance, but they are expected to give preference to tenants with children for three years after the work is complete.

Rental properties also must be constructed before 1978, when lead-based paint was outlawed, and have tenants with children under age 6. The tenants also must meet income guidelines, meaning they earn 80 percent or less of the median household income.

The qualifying maximum gross income for a family of four is $54,400, while a two-member household income cant exceed $43,550.

Once an applicant is qualified to receive the assistance, the Black Hawk County Health Department inspects the property to identify lead hazards. Community Development then hires a contractor to remove the hazard.CEDAR FALLS  The University of Northern Iowas department of communication studies, the student-led Film Appreciation Club and Cedar River Productions invite the public to The Film Lounge watch party at 7 p.m. Friday in Lang Hall Auditorium on the UNI campus.

The Film Lounge is a television series co-produced by IPTV with Produce Iowa and the Iowa Arts Council, both divisions of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. The series showcases short, independent films by Iowa artists.

The watch parties offer a sneak peek at the new season and opportunities to meet some of the filmmakers. UNI art department head Jeff Byrd and UNI digital media student Tarrell Christie will both have films featured at the event.

The Spaceman, by Christie, follows a young African-American astronaut into a wormhole and examines the challenges he faces back home.

Proving Ground, by Byrd, presents a surrealist dream, capturing an act of performance art on film.

For more information about The Film Lounge television series, visit thefilmlounge.org.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0WATERLOO  Hawkeye Community College on Friday began its first contract negotiations with faculty since limits to public employees collective bargaining rights were put in place two years ago.

You understand our concerns about the bargaining law change, Jane Wagner, president of Hawkeye Professional Educators Association, told administrators during the initial bargaining session. We dont believe our members should be shut out of the process.

She proposed a labor management committee to encourage more frequent collaboration and discussion between administrators and the colleges 110 full-time faculty members, who are represented by the association. She also asked to maintain items in the contract that are no longer required subjects of bargaining under Iowa law.

We would request that all provisions of our existing contract which pertain to permissive language would be maintained, said Wagner.

The changes in the law did cause us to step back and reflect, said John Clopton, Hawkeyes executive director of human resource services. He acknowledged that some community colleges had removed all contract language that no longer needs to be bargained. Thats not what we intend to do.River lines are exploring farther afield, stopping not just in Cairo and Luxor, but in archaeologically spectacular Aswan as well. Book a top suite on the 42-passenger Oberoi Philae, a steamwheeler replica thats chartered by companies such as Lindblad Expeditions, and you can lounge in your own open-air whirlpool while pretending youre Cleopatra on the Nile.

Passage through Egypt sailing with Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic on the Oberoi Philae, from $8,480 (top suites from $13,260) for 13 days

Greenland

One of the most remote places on Earth, Arctic Greenland will be a hot spot with cruisers in 2019. Until recently its only been possible to explore the areas untouched fjords, glaciers, colorful towns, and Viking sites on basic expedition ships. Now, new ships are being purpose-built to serve as base camps in icy waters. Among them, Norway-based Hurtigrutens hybrid electric, 500-passenger Roald Amundsen, has a nifty underwater drone delivering video from down below and an infinity pool up on top. From either of those vantages-or even closer-up on excursions-youll be able to spot humpbacks and other whales, or see the northern lights high above.

Viking Heritage Cruise, from $7,305 for 14 days

GalapagosThe student chapter is perhaps best known for its annual Halloween House, an event where UNI students perform Halloween-themed science demonstrations for all ages. Last year, the event was attended by about 1,200 students and community members.

Skilled trades workshop set

WATERLOO  The University of Northern Iowas Educational Opportunity Center will offer an Earn While You Learn skilled trade educational workshop.

The workshop is free and open to the public. The workshop is a one-hour session from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 21.

Monica Bass, an advocate and educator for trade careers in northeast and central Iowa and founder of Skilled Trade Education Network, will be the guest speaker. She will discuss what skilled trades are, why the demand is so great for work in these fields, and how to pursue an education and career with no student loans.

The EOC program provides educational assistance to adults ages 19 and older who have not already completed their HiSET and/or bachelors degree, and who reside in Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Buchanan, Chickasaw or Tama counties.

The workshop will be at UNI-CUE, 800 Sycamore St. For more information, call 273-4774.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Courtesy of belyay - Fotolia.com



Founded in 1984, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a public aquarium located on the site of a former sardine cannery on Cannery Row. The aquarium has many large tanks and pools that display the marine life of the California coast and features more than 600 species of plants and animals. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best things to do in Monterey, California.

The Ocean's Edge Wing boasts giant kelp forests which can be viewed at several levels throughout the building, while the Open Sea galleries teem with an array of sea creatures including jellyfish, stingrays and sea otters (the only sea mammal that the aquarium holds).

The Monterey Bay Aquarium remains one a few aquariums worldwide to exhibit certain species like the sunfish, as well as the huge Bluefin and yellowfin tuna. A special tank called the Kreisel tank was built to hold the jellyfish, creating a circular flow of water to suspend them.

886 Cannery Row, Monterey, California 93940, Phone: 831-648-4800



President Donald Trump finally agreed to end the 35-day US Shutdown, but with a condition. He said it is a temporary measure. His words were, I will sign a bill to open our government for three weeks, until February 15. He has also warned if Congress does not provide funding of the Mexico border wall, he could impose the government shutdown again or declare a national emergency.

News AU reports there will be no letup on negotiations over border security. Trump is insistent on a grant of $5.7 billion for the wall that will be made of either concrete or steel.

He went on to assure the 800,000 federal workers they will get their unpaid dues soon but the workers remain worried a lot, unsure of their future in case of a repeat shutdown

Donald Trump announces a deal to temporarily end the US government shutdown but fails to secure funding for a Mexico border wall. He is threatening another shutdown next month if he doesn't get his plan approved by Congress https://t.co/8NBh7NlZKc pic.twitter.com/CKmcgPLQ5l  ITV News (@itvnews) January 25, 2019

.

Trump faces criticism

The announcement of an end to the US shutdown appears to be a fallout of the grounding of flights at major airports with concerns of operational safety. The government employees would have missed their second pay cheque of the year if it had continued.

Already a section of FBI workers joined forces to arrange food banks for their colleagues who faced problems.

However, while the affected persons heaved a sigh of relief at the announcement, they were skeptical about getting their dues in time before another government shutdown happens. News AU goes on to add that this is because of the stand taken by Donald Trump.

He demands $5.7 billion for Mexico border wall but the decisions by the Democrats are unchanged. They will provide for a maximum of $1.3 billion for border security, including fencing and surveillance.

"Walls should not be controversial... walls work" - President Donald Trump lays out the case for his border wall as he announces deal to temporarily end US government shutdown



Latest on the continuing talks: https://t.co/fvJJFMJmSE pic.twitter.com/SeJUG2Iz3E  BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) January 25, 2019

Incidentally, the shutdown has not gone down well with the people.

In one of the polls this week, 54 percent of US voters blamed the president and his party while 35 percent blamed Democrats.

Longest US government shutdown finally ends

According to the BBC, President Donald Trump finally succumbed to political pressure and announced an end to the 35-day shutdown of the government. It was the longest in US history. His decision probably stemmed from the deteriorating condition of services at airports. There was the grounding of many flights and others were delayed because of a shortage of ATC unpaid air traffic controllers. Many of them reported sick. In the early stages of the unprecedented shutdown, ATC staff of Canada sent pizzas to their counterparts in America to show togetherness.

Describing the effects of the shutdown, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, "It's mind-boggling, it's short-sighted, and it's unfair."Andrew Kozlovski is a young entrepreneur who created Brainz Powera nonaddictive focus supplementwhen he was a student at USC. Having been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, the Business Insider and many other business-centered publications, Andrew is now actively raising awareness about the product he invented.

When he was a student, Andrew saw the harmful effects that drugs like Adderall had on his classmates. Brainz Power is a natural alternative that he created in conjunction with scientists and a lab that is FDA approved. In the span of a year, Andrew took a $500 investment and turned it into a six-figure revenue.

Andrew recently discussed his experience with Brainz Power via an exclusive interview.

Business, science and the creation process

Meagan Meehan (MM): How did you get interested in business and what were your experiences like with USC?

Andrew Kozlovski (AK): I grew up in a little city in Georgia and always dreamed of a life of more, and of impact, and doing something great, I just had absolutely no idea how I was going to do it. Then I got an opportunity to go to a top 5 entrepreneurship school that really cultivated my skills, ways of thinking, and surrounded me with people (professors and students) that opened my mind to think bigger, dream a little bigger, and make things happen regardless of your age, resources, or current situation.

I was in a situation where I had to pay for college myself, so USCs 69k per year tuition was one motivator to make things happen, but also, I knew that great entrepreneurs have experience so I knew the second I spotted an opportunity or a business idea I loved I would pursue it. In my head, I knew this way of thinking was a win-win scenario, because either my idea would work or I would gain experience which is just as valuable.

And that moment came my first semester of college, and before even graduating I was earning over 30k per month, and getting featured in Forbes, Los Angeles Business Journal, Business Insider and more. So, if anyone is interested in business you have to have courage and go for it, you never know what can happen. Everything I have done thus far was laughed at when I said it only 4 years ago, so prove everyone wrong.

MM: What prompted you to create Brainz Power?

AK: The idea for Brainz Power came about during my freshman year in college. Very quickly you begin to hear about a drug called Adderall and how it helps people study during finals week, or write an essay in one night, etc. Having heard about it multiple times my first semester I looked into and even went to a doctor to ask about the drug to see what it is. I found out it was a prescribed medication ONLY for people with ADHD, its also very harmful for the body, addictive, and is an amphetamine, all of which the people who use it to pass a class forget to look into. After learning how bad this drug is I looked for natural alternatives, there were none.

Immediately I found myself in a situation where there was a huge demand for a product like this and no one was executing on it. I quickly went to every single FDA approved laboratory in the US asking what kind of options there were for creating a product like this were, and ended up partnering with a lab to create a product with 8 ingredients that nourish the brain; all stimulant free. After that point, I knew where every single college students attention was, Instagram. So, I set out to figure the app out and learned how to grow and reach as many in-need college students as possible. Within 1 year I grew my business following to over 100k. I have since rebranded the company from just one single product, the original Brainz Power, to a full brain Health company where I again found the best ingredients possible and developed a subscription box that delivers the best possible brain nutrition every single month to your door.

We made an Organic Lions Mane product which is a hot nootropic mushroom, a Krill Oil which outperforms fish oil in regards to brain health, an Organic Coconut MCT Oil which is instant fuel for the brain, as well as our original Brainz Power that made us famous. So, four products, all the best individually on the market and when paired together I know I have just created the number one nootropic company on the market.

MM: How did you find the right ingredients and the scientists to work with? Did you have connections in the pharmaceutical industry?

AK: Right now, is the best time in history to become an entrepreneur because any and all information is out there and finding the right people or connecting with people you need is easier than ever before.

I contacted every single FDA approved lab in the US, gaining knowledge, insight, and mentorship from many. This would not have been able to be done without the help of experts not only in the laboratory but in business to support me along the way.

MM: What sorts of ill-effects do focus-drugs have on people and how is Brainz Power different?

AK: The side effects of using prescribed focus medications are well documented, but with Brainz Power all of our products are free from stimulant so every single ingredient supports your focus, memory, and stress levels without the side effects of jitters, sleeplessness, addiction, etc. Adderall however is an amphetamine, which is an addictive prescription medication with effects similar to meth according to the Delphi Behavioral Health group.

A majority of college students are taking the medications without a prescription and when taking unprescribed doses of a drug of this nature youre left at a high risk of becoming addicted. Adderall abuse and use on college campuses has been increasing every single year for the past 10 years, so my sole mission with the inception of the company was to 1 educate on the dangers of what they are doing and 2 provide a safe and natural alternative to still perform well in their studies but to not harm their body in the process. Ill leave this question with a study done by Recovery Brands, 2/3 of all young adults who tried prescription stimulants without a prescription are current or former college students.

Its a real problem and no one was addressing it, so I did.

Promotion, inventions and plans

MM: How have you gone about promoting the supplement and what kinds of responses have you gotten?

AK: Ive grown the business solely through social media. It was the perfect place to promote the product because I saw it as the only way of reaching the people that needed Brainz Power. The responses I get from the product are great, there is nothing more special to me when someone personally DMs me and says that they just bought the Brainz Box and theyre feeling results the same day. I am myself an extremely ambitious person, and to grow and develop a product that supports people like myself, those trying to do more and get more out of their lives, is extremely fulfilling.

This couldnt have happened anymore perfectly if I tried.

MM: Have you invented anything else, or have anything in mind, and what are your plans for the future?

AK: This new year January 1st, 2019 I dropped the Brainz Box which introduced 3 new products, and was a long process to develop everything and get all the pieces together, but this is what entrepreneurship is about constantly getting better, smarter, and overall executing at a much higher level. Having graduated just over half a year ago I found myself with so much more time so I focused all my attention on creating the number one nootropic brand, period. I know that having the best product is always the best business plan so thats what I spent 4 straight months on.

Outside of that one year ago I came out with my story as an entrepreneur and really started leaving my 2 cents on various topics, and my journey as an entrepreneur on Instagram which gave me more attention than probably the product itself. I have since grown my own personal brand to a following of over 125k (@andrewthekoz) and have been lucky enough to be featured in some of the most prestigious business outlets like Forbes, Business Insider, and over 20 more for the business I built while being a full-time college student. The next step is just to keep impacting lives with not only inspiration from my entrepreneurial story but also creating the best products possible to really impact peoples lives for the better.Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.At 12.30 p.m. local time, the first of three starting flights of the 2019 Aussie Millions A$10,600 Main Event kicks off in the biggest casino complex of the Southern hemisphere, the Crown Casino in Melbourne. One year ago, Toby Lewis defeated Stefan Huber heads-up and topped a massive field of 800 entries to score his biggest payday on the live circuit to date, taking home A$1,458,198 (almost $1.2 million) for his efforts.

The Brit has once again made the trip back to Australia and fell narrowly close of another victory at Crown, as he lost the blind flip against Rainer Kempe in the A$25,000 Challenge in the early morning hours. Lewis will certainly be back to try and defend his Main Event title, but perhaps he won't take a seat on Day 1a as the A$50,000 Challenge also kicks off today at around 1.10 p.m. local time in the main poker room.

Following into the footsteps of a very successful live satellite program since March for the previous year, which created a record field of 800 entries, the Aussie Millions continued the path. In 2018, more than 400 players won their entry to the Main Event and that number may be closer to 500 this time around to put the event on track for another incredible turnout.

Day 1 Level Structure

Level Small Blind Big Blind Ante 1 50 100 0 2 100 200 0 3 100 200 25 4 150 300 25 5 200 400 50 6 250 500 75 7 300 600 100

The first of three starting days kicks off today and on each Day 1, seven 90-minute levels are scheduled. There is a 15-minute break after each level with a 75-minute dinner break at the end of the fourth level of play. All players receive 30,000 in chips and the event is played as a freezeout, the registration remains open until the end of the first level of Day 2 on Wednesday, January 30th, 2019.

With Australia Day celebrations spreading over the entire weekend, the action is expected to heat up in the days to come for the biggest poker event of the region. The PokerNews team will be on the floor to cover all the action until a new Aussie Millions is champion is crowned on Sunday, February 3rd, 2019.Scores of protesters have gathered in the Greek city of Thessaloniki to protest the ratification of a deal aimed at normalising relations with neighboring Macedonia. The protest outside the Thessaloniki Concert Hall on Sunday evening (January 27) coincided with a visit by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who was attending a Holocaust Remembrance Day event. Video shows protesters trying to break through police lines and being pushed back. Tear gas and stun grenades were also used, according to the filmer. Protesters chant "traitors" while another man holding the Greece national flag blocks the road, telling drivers that if he can't enter the concert hall, then they can't move along the road. Several arrests were made, the filmer added.FILE PHOTO: Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani speaks to the media after arriving to register as a candidate for the upcoming presidential election at the Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) in Kabul, Afghanistan January 20, 2019.REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photo

DOHA (Reuters) - Another round of peace talks between Afghanistan's Taliban and the United States is tentatively set for Feb. 25, a Qatari foreign ministry official said on Sunday, after a draft pact was reached to potentially end the United States' longest war.

"Both parties agreed tentatively to reconvene on February 25th," the official told Reuters.

The draft deal, agreed after six days of talks last week, stipulates that U.S. troops would leave within 18 months of the agreement being signed, potentially ending the war more than 17 years after American-led forces invaded Afghanistan.

According to Taliban sources, the hardline Islamic group gave assurances that Afghanistan will not be allowed to be used by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants to attack the United States and its allies - a key early demand of Washington.

The reported progress comes as the Taliban continues to stage near-daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces.

Despite the presence of U.S.-led foreign forces training, advising and assisting their Afghan counterparts, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Eric Knecht; Editing by Catherine Evans and Mark Potter)A divided UN Security Council has met to discuss the situation in Venezuela, as a number of countries called for Caracas to hold new elections and for President Nicolas Maduro to step down, while ... Now it is time for every nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or youre in league with Maduro and his mayhem, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Council at the meeting. His words set the tone for the often verbally combative council meeting, after the US this week said it recognised the self-declared interim president, opposition leader Juan Guaido, and not the incumbent Maduro. Alongside the US, France, the UK, Germany and Spain have demanded new elections be called within eight days. Russia tried to prevent Saturday's UN Security Council meeting, saying it was tantamount to incitement. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said, The US is trying to affect regime change in Venezuela. Change of government 'unconstitutional' South African Ambassador to the UN Jerry Matjila said the Council was working counter to its mandate by ordering the meeting. The Security Council should never be an instrument that validates unconstitutional changes of any government, said Matjila. Instead, this Council should promote avenues that create environments conducive to dialogue and cooperation that would ease the challenges and hardships faced by the people of Venezuela, he added. Divide in Latin America, Caribbean The current Security Council President, Dominican Republic, represented by Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas said his country had tried to foster dialogue with all sides in Venezuela in 2017 and 2018, but dialogue did not achieve its desired goal". He also called for the need for new elections as soon as possible. The only possible dialogue is the one that will speed up the already ongoing process of democratic transition. It is the dialogue with Guaido and all those committed to democracy and with the interests of Venezuela and its people, said Brazilian Ambassador to the UN Mauro Viera. However representatives of Cuba, Bolivia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Nicaragua, among others, stood behind Venezuela, calling the demand for Maduro to step down imperialist and against the rule of law. "Where in our constitution is that allowed? Show me," said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, speaking to the Council on the eight-day ultimatum given by the US and the EU. Humanitarian crisis More than three million Venezuelans have left the country over the past three years as the country plunges deeper in to a humanitarian crisis. Lack of food and vital medicines has forced many to cross the border into neighbouring countries, including Colombia. The dictatorship in Venezuela has emerged as a threat to the peace, security and stability in the region," Columbias Foreign Minister Carlos Trujilo told the Security Council, while calling for humanitarian aid for the Venezuelan people. "Columbia, as a country that shares a border with Venezuela, is all too well aware and is directly suffering the consequences [...] of whats happening in Venezuela, he said, citing the more than one million Venezuelans that have crossed the border into his country. We will continue to participate actively in the finding and forging of a regional global response to adequately address this migration crisis." EU, US united Commending neighbouring countries who have taken on Venezuelans, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen reiterated the call with the UK and France for new elections: The National Assembly is the only democratically elected institution, whose constitutional power have to be respected. Heusgen and his Russian counterpart also had an exchange of words regarding the call for new elections. The use of preventative diplomacy is excellentputting forward an absurd eight-day ultimatum, retorted Nebenzya, after he had been given the floor again. The US was unwavering as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba has sent security and intelligence thugs to sustain Maduros illegitimate rule. Cuban ambassador to the UN Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo also took the floor again after her initial statement to categorically reject the US calls for fresh elections. [The US] is seeking to impose an illegitimate president on the Venezuelan people, she said. While EU members were speaking in the Security Council, EU diplomatic head Federica Mogherini said that the EU will act during the next few days if Maduro does not step down. "In the absence of an announcement on the organisation of fresh elections with the necessary guarantees over the next days, the EU will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership," she said, adding that the EU fully supports the National Assembly.

A divided UN Security Council has met to discuss the situation in Venezuela, as a number of countries called for Caracas to hold new elections and for President Nicolas Maduro to step down, while ...

Now it is time for every nation to pick a side. No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or youre in league with Maduro and his mayhem, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Council at the meeting.

His words set the tone for the often verbally combative council meeting, after the US this week said it recognised the self-declared interim president, opposition leader Juan Guaido, and not the incumbent Maduro.

Alongside the US, France, the UK, Germany and Spain have demanded new elections be called within eight days.

Russia tried to prevent Saturday's UN Security Council meeting, saying it was tantamount to incitement. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said, The US is trying to affect regime change in Venezuela.

Change of government 'unconstitutional'

South African Ambassador to the UN Jerry Matjila said the Council was working counter to its mandate by ordering the meeting.

The Security Council should never be an instrument that validates unconstitutional changes of any government, said Matjila.

Instead, this Council should promote avenues that create environments conducive to dialogue and cooperation that would ease the challenges and hardships faced by the people of Venezuela, he added.

Divide in Latin America, Caribbean

The current Security Council President, Dominican Republic, represented by Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas said his country had tried to foster dialogue with all sides in Venezuela in 2017 and 2018, but dialogue did not achieve its desired goal". He also called for the need for new elections as soon as possible.

The only possible dialogue is the one that will speed up the already ongoing process of democratic transition. It is the dialogue with Guaido and all those committed to democracy and with the interests of Venezuela and its people, said Brazilian Ambassador to the UN Mauro Viera.

Story continues

However representatives of Cuba, Bolivia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Nicaragua, among others, stood behind Venezuela, calling the demand for Maduro to step down imperialist and against the rule of law.

"Where in our constitution is that allowed? Show me," said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, speaking to the Council on the eight-day ultimatum given by the US and the EU.

Humanitarian crisis

More than three million Venezuelans have left the country over the past three years as the country plunges deeper in to a humanitarian crisis. Lack of food and vital medicines has forced many to cross the border into neighbouring countries, including Colombia.

The dictatorship in Venezuela has emerged as a threat to the peace, security and stability in the region," Columbias Foreign Minister Carlos Trujilo told the Security Council, while calling for humanitarian aid for the Venezuelan people.

"Columbia, as a country that shares a border with Venezuela, is all too well aware and is directly suffering the consequences [...] of whats happening in Venezuela, he said, citing the more than one million Venezuelans that have crossed the border into his country. We will continue to participate actively in the finding and forging of a regional global response to adequately address this migration crisis."

EU, US united

Commending neighbouring countries who have taken on Venezuelans, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen reiterated the call with the UK and France for new elections: The National Assembly is the only democratically elected institution, whose constitutional power have to be respected.

Heusgen and his Russian counterpart also had an exchange of words regarding the call for new elections.

The use of preventative diplomacy is excellentputting forward an absurd eight-day ultimatum, retorted Nebenzya, after he had been given the floor again.

The US was unwavering as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba has sent security and intelligence thugs to sustain Maduros illegitimate rule.

Cuban ambassador to the UN Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo also took the floor again after her initial statement to categorically reject the US calls for fresh elections.

[The US] is seeking to impose an illegitimate president on the Venezuelan people, she said.

While EU members were speaking in the Security Council, EU diplomatic head Federica Mogherini said that the EU will act during the next few days if Maduro does not step down.

"In the absence of an announcement on the organisation of fresh elections with the necessary guarantees over the next days, the EU will take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the country's leadership," she said, adding that the EU fully supports the National Assembly.TIRANA, Albania (AP)  Albania's interior minister says a well-known drug trafficker, who has been in hiding for three years, has surrendered to police.

Sander Lleshi said Tuesday that Kelmend Balili gave himself up following "a long and complicated operation." No further details were provided.

Balili, a former senior official at the local administration in southernmost city of Saranda, had been in hiding following an arrest warrant from neighboring Greece, which considers him the head of a drug trafficking ring.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said his arrest was "a big step in the fight organized crime."

Fighting organized crime, drug trafficking and corruption are top priorities for Albania, which is seeking to launch full membership negotiations with the European Union later this year.Nestled on the West Coast in the Western Cape, South Africa, Paternoster is a pretty, traditional fishing village, one of the oldest of its kind on the coast. Located on Cape Columbine, between St Helena Bay and Saldanha Bay, the village is a 1-hour 43-minute drive from Cape Town on the coastal road, with amazing scenery all the way.

Known for its pretty, white-washed homes, often with windows with a blue trim, the small coastal village has lots to offer in the way of attractions. The following are various places to go during your visit to Paternoster, South Africa.

1 The beaches of Paternoster The endless, almost deserted, white sand beaches are a pleasure to stroll, sunbathe or swim. They are often dotted with colourful, wooden fishing boats. Other more active things to do on the beach include fishing, sea kayaking, whale and dolphin watching, horse riding and windsurfing. This is also the spot to enjoy magnificent sunsets and sunrises. 2 Cape Columbine Nature Reserve & Lighthouse Cape Columbine features the only manned lighthouse remaining on the South African coast. The lighthouse was constructed in 1936. The area surrounding the lighthouse is a pretty nature reserve, ideal for a picnic or camping. 3 Stone Fish Studio and Gallery 4 Quaint shops 5 Panty Bar at the Paternoster Hotel

 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED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.The Cry is a duplicitous piece of work that messes with your mind, but will surely keep you guessing.

The UK-Australian drama (a minority co-production meaning limited local investment) reminded me of true life cases involving Azaria Chamberlin, Madeleine McCann and even hints of Sally Faulkner trying to get her children back

The universe is quite small in this four parter, ricocheting between Joanna (Jenna Coleman) and her husband Alistair (Ewen Leslie), who travel to Australia for a custody battle over teenager Chloe (Markella Kavenagh) with Alistairs ex-wife Alexandra (Asher Keddie).

Told largely from Joannas perspective, it transpires over several time periods, from early romance with Alistair to a courtcase in Scotland. Rippling through it all is the catastrophic incident during their visit to Australia.

Writer Jacquelin Perske masterfully connects the jigsaw pieces between mystery, emotion, and drama so that you are never quite sure if you are watching a whodunnit or a study in post natal depression.

Could you think of anything worse? There are none, Joanna reveals. Everyone wants to judge you.

With intrusive cameras and reporters, police interviews and psychologists it isnt hard to work out, something major has struck this couple and questions abound. Yet the narrative keeps the details at bay even though there is absolute dread in the back of your mind.

What is clear is that Alistairs work as a political spin-doctor in Scotland, and affair with Joanna, led to his marriage break-up with Alexandra, who fled back to the Bellarine Peninsula, west of Melbourne, with Chloe where she has attempted to rebuild her life.

But Alistair and Joanna, who now have their own baby Noah, are readying for a custody battle. At the same time Joanna is struggling with motherhood and the long flight to Australia with a crying baby who pushes her to breaking point.

In Australia the tug of war escalates, involving Alistairs mother (Stella Gonet), two detectives (Alex Dimitriades, Shareena Clanton) and a hungry press.

Alexandras determination to not lose Chloe also sees her cross the line and paints her as a potential suspect in the saga that will unfold. Writer Perske blurs the lines between virtuous and blemished figures artfully teased by director Glendyn Ivin in a backdrop of coastal hues.

The dynamic between the hypnotic Coleman, the driven Ewen Leslie and the pained Asher Keddie is what keeps this triangle turning, and at times the turning points are gripping.

Make no mistake this requires maximum attention. There are no helpers by way of time stamps to denote flashbacks. Yet for all its horrors and tragic outcomes it stands as a richly rewarding piece of drama.

The Cry airs 8:30pm Sunday on ABC.

Related10 has poached racing expert Francesca Cumani from Seven for its Melbourne Cup Carnival, screening later this year.

The daughter of English trainer Luca Cumani, she made her TV debut in 2009 and has co-hosted ITVs racing coverage in the UK and previously hosted Winning Post and Espanols Al Galope on CNN International.

The Melbourne Cup Carnival is one of the worlds great racing events and Im thrilled to be part of 10s broadcast team. It was the very first Carnival I worked on in my television career and it holds a very special place in my heart. Im really looking forward to continuing my association with the Carnival and to helping 10 take race day coverage to new heights, she said.

Matt White, Network 10 Head of Sport, said: Australian audiences love Francesca and we love the fact shes joined the 10 sport team. Francesca will be key to everything we do on-air across the four days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. She brings a unique blend of energy, experience and knowledge to our coverage. Its a fabulous fit.

10s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival covers Victoria Derby Day, Oaks Day, Stakes Day and Melbourne Cup Day.

RelatedAuthorities in the north-central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh confirmed on Saturday they had apprehended four people involved in the smuggling of 120 bricks of heroin from Laos into Vietnam.

Officers from the provincial Department of Police, Border Guard Office, and customs department previously formed a specialized team to deal with the crime.

According to the case file, the team of officers spotted an automobile, whose plate number was 29A-096.29, showing suspicious signs as it was traveling from Laos to Vietnam via the Cau Treo Border Gate on January 23.

Results of an inspection showed that the car was carrying a total of 120 bricks of heroin, of which 34 were hidden inside the shock absorbers in the rear of the vehicle, 31 kept inside an exhaust pipe under the automobile, and the other 55 stashed under passenger seats.

The driver was identified as Nguyen Van Anh, 28, who resides in the north-central province of Nghe An.

At the police station, Anh claimed he had been hired by a man named Nguyen Quoc Trung to drive the car from the Lao capital of Vientiane to Vietnam.

Anh added he was told to contact Trung 15 minutes after passing the Cau Treo Border Gate.

Officers later expanded their investigation and captured Trung, who is a 38-year-old Ha Tinh resident, along with his two accessories, Nguyen Duy Que, 31, and Le Thanh Tap, 28.

All of the four suspects have been charged for drug smuggling under Article 251 of the Penal Code.

Further investigation is ongoing.

In Vietnam, people who smuggle heroin weighing 100 grams and over face 20 years to life in prison, or even the death penalty.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A university in central Vietnam is enrolling students for the countrys first masters degree course in wildlife trafficking.

The short-term educational program, jointly run by Vinh University in Nghe An Province and Vietnam-based conservation charity WildAct, is offered on campus between February 18 and April 12.

WildAct director Nguyen Thi Thu Trang said the nongovernmental organization had nurtured the course over the past three years by laying its groundwork before working with the universitys School of Biochemical Technology-Environment to finally translate the intention into reality.

The interdisciplinary course aims to provide students with approaches and solutions to challenges posed by the illegal trade and use of wild animal products.

It is taught by lecturers from the universitys biology, economics and law departments, and includes talks by representatives from wildlife charities operating in Vietnam such as TRAFFIC, Fauna and Flora International  Vietnam Program, Free the Bears, Animals Asia Foundation, Save Vietnams Wildlife, Asian Turtle Program and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Vietnam ranks 16th globally in biodiversity but many experts say the Southeast Asian country is one of the worlds hot spots for wildlife trafficking.

It has an important position in the smuggling of wildlife products, including ivory, according to Environmental Investigation Agency  an NGO with undercover probes that expose transnational wildlife crime.

Since 2009, around 56 tonnes of ivory has been seized in Vietnam alone and more than 20 tonnes in countries related to it, the UK-based organization said.

The figures mean that around 11,414 elephants have been illegally killed during the period, the organization added.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Its a pretty normal evening in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, as my friend and I sit down to enjoy some ech va com (frog and rice), when suddenly the power goes out. Rather than flinch, I think, oh well, just another black out in the city. Earlier that evening, I got to my destination at around 9:00 pm. I was driving down Doan Van Bo in District 4 to meet a friend. This particular street was very narrow but still teeming with activity. People were eating on stools on non-existent paths. Babies with undies around their ankles urinated onto the road. Men drank beers jovially among friends and the air was alive with culinary smells.

Next second, the whole power went out on a section of the street. There was a large cheer and then life continued on. It is not uncommon to witness a blackout in Ho Chi Minh City. So common are they that families usually have backup generators, candles and even hand fans in case one should strike. Nor is it uncommon to drive down a road and see one side lit and the other in darkness if the opposing sides are in different wards.

Though no one really prefers power shortages, it has become somewhat part of the norm. Students even greet them with cheers at certain parts of the day as it would mean that a lesson would be cancelled much like how schools in England and Ireland might be cancelled on a heavy snow day. Myself, I have experienced maybe ten or more in the one and a half years I have been here. The first few may have surprised me, even scared me a little. Yet, I had always found them to be more mystical than terrifying.

Before my current home, I had been living on the 4th floor of an apartment in Binh Thanh District and it was quite amazing to look out the window and see a whole city block black in the darkness of night. Yet looking out from on high and eating on a packed street are two very different experiences. To get an idea of the frequency of blackouts in Ho Chi Minh City, one should look at something called SAIDI, or System Average Interruption Duration Index. Basically this is an estimation of how much a citizen in a country experiences an electricity interruption. For example, most European countries experience less than 200 minutes of interruptions per year (see CEER report 2016) in comparison to Sub-Saharan Africa who experienced over 750 hours on average over 2015 and 2016, (Electricity Tariffs, Power Outages and Firm Performance: A Comparative Analysis Jean Arlet Global Indicators Group, Development Economics. The World Bank).

According to a report done by EVN (Vietnam Electricity), Vietnam experienced around 543.28 minutes in 2018, making the country rank 64th in the world power interruption index, an increase of 32 notches from 2015. That roughly translates as nine hours of power interruption per person, per year. It may not seem like much and this figure does not represent the many people who live in villages with no power at all. Normally it may not have huge ramifications, unless one is in the middle of doing some sort of electronic business and suddenly the Internet cuts out.

There are many attributing factors to why the power shorts out. It has been said that the city could be described as the place of sun and dust. If one drives to any district of the city, construction can be seen there. From the numerous skyscrapers shooting up in District 1 or the high-rise apartments in District 2 to the factories being erected in District 9 or simply street maintenance that seems endless. If there is construction to be seen, then there are likely to be power cuts. This may be due in part to the operators of said work.

I am not so bold as to blame them as it is quite obvious that they are limited to the tools that they have which are quite outdated and run-down. And because Ho Chi Minh City never rests, these laymen are under orders to work fast, finish faster and get out. Unlike the West, they are given a shoestring budget to do all this. In hindsight, cutting corners and rushed work are inevitably going to lead to power shortages and other problems. But that is part and parcel of the city. Of course, we should strive to do things better and provide services to each as we would want the services provided to us.

Yet, accepting the inalienable truth that this is part of Ho Chi Minh City life will make living here less frustrating. To go even further, embracing it like the locals do might actually make you enjoy it that bit more. Doing exactly that, I embraced the power outage in District 4. Along with all the other restaurant patrons. Because when there is nothing that can be done about something, you can either complain or look on the bright side (pun intended). I am sure if I was unfortunate enough to live in regions with no power I would have a very different attitude. However, in the absence of such circumstances, in the romance of a meal in a dimly lit food stall, in the midst of people in joyous spirits, what's an hour or two in the dark?The U.S.-China trade war is going to affect all the world, especially trading nations. The fact is that these accumulating tensions would be a boon or bane for ASEAN countries which come into the spotlight as businesses are looking for their way out of the dilemma.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cuts its global growth forecast for 2019 to 3.5 percent from 3.7 percent.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the revision was made with the high level of accelerating economic risks being taken into account.

These tensions are ranging from the U.S.-China trade war, Brexit to Chinas slowing economy.

However, the situation is not a complete loss for every nation considering some may gain benefits from the flow of relocating investment.

Speaking of that, Southeast Asian countries should be poised to absorb the investment.

Substitute effects

On the sidelines of a breakfast meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on January 21, Malaysias former Secretary General of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri J Jayasiri told Tuoi Tre News that U.S. and Chinese businesses and those manufacturing in China in the past are seeking suitable alternative sources for products that are hindered by the tariffs.

There are many of these products in some of the commodity base areas, he said.

A case in point is soybean. When China imposed new tariffs on American soybean imports, that was expected to reduce the supply of edible oil to China.

Noting that China was Malaysias largest palm oil importer after India, this country had an opportunity to supply edible oil to China, according to Norazman Ayob, the deputy secretary-general of Malaysias international trade and industry ministry (Miti).

Jayasiri called this the substitute effects.

Moreover, he said ASEAN countries might gain benefits in investment.

If the trade war is going to prolong, there will be a lot of investors in either China or the U.S., who do not like it, want to move out and move to a safer destination and produce, he predicted.

This is where ASEAN can draw these investors into the bloc. There are some, I think, multinationals are already thinking of moving out of these countries, Jayasiri said.

In fact, maybe the trade war will accelerate the relocation of these investments, because there are reports that, in China, land and labor prices are already going up. So for investors, I think they are moving out.

Patrick Tay, an economic and policy partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, told Tuoi Tre News that legal firms, professional service providers, as well as inbound foreign investment advisors will benefit.

Bane in long term

While all the experts above agreed the trade war would be beneficial to ASEAN and some other countries in the short and medium term, they warned that its negative effects would be great in the long run.

Jayasiri was cautious about the probability that businesses might postpone their investments due to rising uncertainty caused by trade tensions.

This means no new trade and economic activities, which will result in a big gap in economic development, he argued.

Tay shared the same viewpoint as he named uncertainty as a factor leading to slightly lower investment in both Malaysia and Vietnam.

Speaking of challenges, the trade war will lead to a loss of confidence, create uncertainty, so then the peoplell have a question regarding where they want to invest, he said.

If there are more uncertainties, even if people think it is a good idea to invest, they will pause and think. Some of them may say Ill wait for one year, Ill wait for two years.

Even if the investment relocation does happen, Vietnam and other ASEAN countries need to be aware of the possibility of U.S. investigation into products origin.

Jayasiri claimed that the real issue is Chinese companies relocate to Vietnam and think of selling to the U.S.

Even though right now there is no tariff imposed on Vietnams exports to the U.S., he was sure the U.S. will monitor the situation.

The role of origin is very important. If the U.S. finds that products exported from Vietnam or any other ASEAN country do not originate from those ASEAN countries, but they are mainly sourced from China, then probably the U.S. will take some tariff measures, he said.

The U.S. wouldnt want to see companies circumventing its tariff imposition on China.

But there are high hopes that the trade war truce would hold and continue.

According to Tays personal analysis, some of the issues have too big differences so that might be quite hard to come about.

I think there is maybe a 60% chance that the trade war will continue. Then, the consequences on Malaysia and Vietnam are, in the short term if it continues, that we will have more divergent activities, but that is going to be balanced by uncertainty reducing investment, he concluded.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A village popular for raising red carp in northern Vietnam has entered its busiest season of the year as the type of fish is considered a fundamental part of an annual traditional ritual held to bid farewell to the Kitchen Gods.

The Thuy Tram Village, located in Cam Khe District, Phu Tho Province has become quite bustling, with many cars and motorbikes entering and exiting the place to transport the localitys famous red carp.

In Vietnam, the Lunar New Year (Tet) celebration often begins with the Ong Tao (Kitchen Gods) ceremony on the 23rd day of the last month in the lunar year, which falls on January 28 this year.

Local residents harvest red carp in Thuy Tram Village. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

Legend has it that the gods ride a common carp to heaven on this day in order to report to the heavenly emperor any of the familys problems or deeds, good or bad, from the current lunar year.

As part of the ritual, people often release carp to a local lake or river and prepare a variety of dishes, either sweet or savory, to say goodbye to the gods.

According to Bui Van Chu, director of the Thuy Tram red carp cooperative, about 250 households in the village are raising the fish, with a total area of 30 hectares.

Local residents harvest red carp in Thuy Tram Village. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

About 40 metric tons of carp are expected to be harvested this year, Chu continued.

Local farmers begin raising their carp every June, Nguyen Thi Minh, a local resident, said, adding that the fish are as big as three fingers but their reddish color is very bright and vibrant.

Minh runs a carp farm at her home, while each of her two sons also has their own farms.

The fish sell at approximately VND100,000 [US$4.3] per kilogram. I will earn about VND40 million [$1,720] worth of profit after all of them are sold, she added.

Local residents harvest red carp in Thuy Tram Village. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

Meanwhile, Tran Van Tiep, said he can pocket up VND200 million ($8,600) every year after selling three to four metric tons of carp.

Regular buyers of Thuy Tram Village are merchants from nearby provinces, namely Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Vinh Phuc, and others.

Local residents harvest red carp in Thuy Tram Village. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

According to Nguyen Tien Minh, a merchant from Vinh Phuc, red carp are highly preferred compared to other types of carp thanks to their beautiful color.

Minh added he often buys one to two metric tons of the fish in Thuy Tram Village each year and resells them to people in his hometown.

A farmer pours his carp into a tank to get them ready for buyers. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

Residents classify the carp before selling them. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

The carp are as big as three fingers and have a bright red color. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

The carp are as big as three fingers and have a bright red color. Photo: Chi Tue / Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!To set you up for ultimate relaxation, we have a few boring things you should think about now so that you can chill later (thanks to your fully-serviced AC, of course.)OPINION: "No, I am not and we are not 'over sensitive.' Anti-Semitism is real, hurtful and malicious. Sometimes it is subtle, sometimes flagrant. It affects more of us than anyone would want to admit," writes Rabbi Emeritus Robert Eisen.SCOTTSDALE  A 72-year-old man is accused of killing his wife by beating her with a hammer, Scottsdale police.

Jozef Miller was arrested after officers responding to a 911 call found 73-year-old Hanna Miller dead in their kitchen Friday evening, Sgt. Ben Hoster said Saturday.

According to Hoster, the 911 caller said "he had killed his wife" and Miller later "admitted to the killing to investigators" and that the couple had a history of domestic violence.

Hoster also provided timeline information indicating that the 911 call was made about three hours before the killing occurred.

Online court records don't list an attorney for Miler who could comment on the allegations.Early in her musical development, Victoria focused on what she called violent core rap. The subgenre is intense. Unapologetic about its lyrics. In Outta You, one of her videos on You Tube, Victoria stands in an empty bay at a self-service car wash and drops F-bombs, flips the finger, and raps about bringing the b---h outta you.

Victoria is clearly aware of the musics history and its critics. She herself is a critic. In the dawn of the #MeToo movement, Victoria has questioned herself, the aggressive oversexualization of women, and the harshness of some aspects of rap.

Thats not my life. It had me thinking about changing my image, she said.

And part of that change is the result of her 2017 baptism into her Christian faith. As her self-image has evolved, she is looking to project a different image by tapping into the vein of Christian rap. There is a growing audience for gospel rap, as it is also known, a music that carries uplifting messages of evangelization.

Victoria doesnt necessarily want to be labeled as a Christian rapper, but she wants to explore the music and generate a wider fan base. And as she continues to develop her music, Victoria wants to continue to deal with more realistic themes in her life.

Shes a rapper, yes, but shes also an artist. With her words and beats, Victoria intends to create a musical world that she can live in and share with others.

Ernesto Portillo Jr. is editor of La Estrella de Tucson. He can be reached at 573-4187 or netopjr@tucson.com.The showcase will allow prospective students to try out any of the 25 CTE programs JTED offers. These programs allow high school students to earn professional certificates in industries ranging from heavy construction, to medical to cosmetology, by the time they graduate.

The showcase starts at 10 a.m. at JTEDs central campus, 2855 W. Master Pieces Drive.

Pistor students spread positivity with project

Five Pistor Middle School eighth-graders teamed up with Goodwill of Southern Arizona to spread positivity throughout their campus.

The students painted empowering messages onto a set of campus bathroom stalls. The service project was part of their schools Goodwill mentoring program, according to a press release.

The Goodwill program at Pistor focuses on teaching students about empowering their peers, according to Goodwill spokesperson Judith Bucasas Simmons.

STEM leadership program kicks off at Flowing Wells

The Pima County School Superintendents Office is launching a new teacher leadership program at the Flowing Wells School District.Edward Keeylocko, the founder of Cowtown Keeylocko, a popular 80-acre ranch town about 40 miles southwest of Tucson, has died. He was 87.

Cowtown Keeylocko was established around 1974 or 1975 after Keeylocko dealt with racial discrimination from other ranchers during a cattle auction. When he showed up with cattle to sell, not one person would buy from him.

As Keeylocko was loading up his cattle, a Caucasian man from the auction told him, You ought to just build your own town and sell them there.

Thats a good idea  Ill do exactly that, said Keeylocko, according to Arizona Daily Star archives. That event started the journey of his town, which would become a staple for events such as raves and old-fashioned cook-offs.

The ranch was Keeylockos way of leaving my mark on the world, he told the Star in 1998. He accomplished that goal, according to Matt Wolf, whom Keeylocko befriended in the 1990s after receiving his help at the town.

I believe his greatest gift was his ability to make anyone he met feel good. You became a handsome fellow or a pretty lady when he greeted you. He was a legend of the Southwest, a mentor to me and a friend to all, Wolf said.A man killed in an apparent home invasion on Saturday morning in Sahuarita, Ariz., has been identified, police said.

Manuel Bojorquez, 59, of Eloy, Ariz., has been identified as the person who died in the 2200 block of East Sahuarita Road, west of South Nogales Highway, said Sgt. M. Falquez, a department spokesman in a news release.

A second victim was released from a hospital after receiving treatment.

Further details of the shooting and the two victims have not been released.

The investigation so far shows, "multiple Spanish-speaking males entered the home with multiple firearms and fired shots," the release said.

The gunmen had their faces covered.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 911 to speak with an on duty officer or 88-CRIME, an anonymous tipster line.Two years after his inauguration, President Trump still has not nominated anyone to fill the top federal law enforcement post in Arizona.

Trump has taken four times as long as the two previous presidents to nominate a U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, who oversees thousands of prosecutions every year along one of the busiest smuggling corridors on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Without a nomination, Arizona was left out of a wave of eight confirmations by the Senate in early January. Arizona and Western Oklahoma now are the only districts in the country without a U.S. attorney, according to records from the Department of Justice and the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The U.S. attorney position in Arizona has been vacant for far too long, Sen. Martha McSally said in a statement sent to the Arizona Daily Star.

Arizonas border with Mexico is ground zero for smuggling drugs and people, said McSally, a Republican who took office this month.

It is simply unacceptable that an office so critical to law enforcement and the administration of justice has been allowed to function for two years without a U.S. Attorney, she said.Boyer said hes not concerned that providing a list of chemicals in vaccines might work against what the health department is trying to accomplish.

I think we should trust parents, he said. I dont think anybody should be afraid of more information and whats in these vaccines were giving to our children.

State health officials would not comment about the legislation.

But former Arizona health director Will Humble said he worries it could lead to fewer parents agreeing to vaccinate their children.

He said parents already are provided with what the CDC has determined they need to know about the vaccines and the side effects, all in a form that is understandable.

Inundating parents with technical information that is not meaningful and potentially confusing wont help, said Humble, who is executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. Rather, he said, it will result in doctors having to spend valuable time explaining the technical information instead of talking to parents about things like keeping their children safe at home and in cars.

But Boyer said that, as far as hes concerned, parents are being denied information they need in a timely fashion.Editor:

My name is Nathon Taylor, a graduate from Mountain View High School (MVHS) in 2016. I want to say that I absolutely enjoyed my experience in Mountain View. I was supported in every effort I made. Without the experiences and educators I had in Mountain View, I wouldnt be where I am today  finishing my third year at Utah State.

While there are great things happening in Mountain View, there is room for improvement. This includes the addition of multicultural education in the classroom. Multicultural education discusses how diverse individuals may feel left behind in an environment that caters to only one type of individual. Unfortunately, I believe MVHS is one of these institutions.

One year after I graduated from Mountain View, I came out as gay to my friends and family. This is something that I knew throughout my time in Mountain View and struggled with immensely. I wondered how my family and friends would react but also how it would affect my experiences as a teenage boy. Mountain View fosters an environment that I felt unsafe in. I felt as though had my identity come forward, I would lose everything I had worked for. While I believe that the environment is not intentionally created by the faculty at MVHS, I do believe that they can play a role in fixing it.What youve heard from the community colleges and members of the community is they are looking for on-the-ground training in their communities, Nethercott said. Zoom Technology (video conferencing software used for remote learning) isnt the infrastructure we need for hands-on programming that is needed in our communities for economic development that only the community colleges can provide.

The bill passed 4-1, with Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, voting against it, arguing that though he supported the aim of the bill, the topic should be discussed in the interim.

It would be, as an interim topic, the highest priority of the committee to make sure the university and the colleges work together with us as a committee to come up with legislation that may be identical to this or somewhat different but produces a product that everyone is on board with, Rothfuss said.LOVELL (WNE)  The Lovell economic development organization Lovell Inc. got town council approval to take the next step toward bringing a year-round greenhouse to the town of Lovell and Big Horn County.

The Lovell Town Council on Jan. 8 approved Lovell Inc.s request to begin soliciting business proposals as they attempt to find an operator for a commercial greenhouse and food hub in the area.

Americorps VISTA Food Hub Coordinator Jeanine Swift said New Jersey consultant Greener By Design has supplied Lovell Inc. with a list of recommendations for greenhouse companies, hydroponic companies and other organizations which may be interested in running the greenhouse.

The greenhouse project is continuing on after Western Sugar pulled out of the project in mid-December. Western Sugar would have provided the land and also hot wastewater to aid in the operation of the greenhouse.

Finding an interested company would be a huge step forward for a project that has been in doubt by some in the community, Swift said.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0The letter does not specify what the company intends to do with the plant. However, multiple employees told the Star-Tribune production will be shut down while the warehouse  representing a couple dozen jobs  will remain open.

The three employees, who asked not to be named for this story so their future employment prospects would not be damaged, also confirmed Tharps account of Perrys visits. Although Perry had promised in person that workers who stayed on until the end of production would receive severance pay, its unclear if that money is still guaranteed, the employees said.

Although the layoffs are set to begin sometime between March 14-28, Tharp wont be around for them. She will retire instead. She wont get a severance payment. Because shes turning 65 soon, she will rely on social security to pay for her retirement. Shes one of the few the layoffs wont directly injure.

You know, Tharp said. Its really gonna hurt this town.

***

Twenty miles east of the Goshen County mill, a glimpse of what might come to Torrington has already materialized.The low-budget fashion chain Primark has been embroiled in yet another scandal as the news emerges that a human bone was found in a pair of socks.

Essex police has confirmed a ongoing investigation into the discovery of a human bone in a pair of socks purchased at the Colchester branch.

The customer in question purchased socks from the low-budget fashion shop, only to discover a fragment of a human bone in one of the socks. The incident was reported to the police on 2 January. The police have since confirmed that the bone had no signs of "recent trauma".

The police are liaising with the brand, which has suggested that someone placed the bone there for "unknown reasons". The brand has contacted its suppliers for further information.

Primark cited a number of previous incidents that it has described as hoaxes. In 2014, several customers discovered 'cry for help' labels sewn into the garments they purchased.

remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in or create an account to continue reading.Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.Many times you might have found the multiple casinos available in the online market but when you are going to...The proviso was a step forward but not enough. Without further legislative action, it will expire at the end of this fiscal year in June, leaving the future of the effort to consolidate services in limbo.

It is hard for many at the local level to look at giving up autonomy. Hired administrators and elected officials with school districts cannot be blamed for looking at how to protect what they have in the name of preserving local control.

But the decision should not be theirs, since all school districts are dependent upon state appropriations. With the money must come standards that apply statewide.

The objective of the Legislature should be creating a single countywide school district in each of South Carolinas 46 counties  including larger counties not affected by the budget proviso.

But the situation is most critical for small districts with shrinking student numbers and tax bases. There is simply no good reason to pay administrators and related personnel in multiple districts in counties with school districts with a student population smaller than many high schools in the state.

South Carolina has nearly double the number of school districts as it does counties -- 81 school districts, 46 counties. Eight school districts have less than 1,000 students.Toxic masculinity strikes again, this time in Provo, Utah, on the day of the 2019 Womens March. Police were alerted to the problem when Christopher Cleary posted on his Facebook page that "All I wanted was a girlfriend. All I wanted was to be loved, yet no one cares about me Im 27 years old and Ive never had a girlfriend before and Im still a virgin, this is why Im planning on shooting up a public place soon and being the next mass shooter cause Im ready to die and all the girls the turned me down is going to make it right by killing as many girls as I see.

Cleary was arrested on a charge of felony threat of terrorism. Although no official link has been made, it appears Cleary identifies with incel culture, which blames women for their lack of relationships. Cleary is already on probation for stalking and harassing a woman in Colorado.

This past week also saw heated discussion on what to do with racist, sexist, privileged white boys. Several boys from Covington Catholic School in Kentucky had what appeared to be a confrontation with Native American elder Nathan Phillips at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., whilst wearing Make America Great Again hats."I would hope that this forum will plant some very positive seeds, particularly in terms of our new board, of the possibilities of what can be done if we work together. And I hope that can walk away with a greater appreciation and sense of collaboration with regard to what we have at present here in Orangeburg County.

"Irregardless of where we stand, the bottom line is that we have a very viable public education system. We also have charter schools and we also have private schools in the area. So parents have access to all three of those venues in terms of trying to decide what's the best course in terms of education for their children," Govan said.

He added, "Based on the continuing competition for scant resources, whether it's on the federal or state level and based on what parents can afford, I think it's important that we try to build an educational model that meets the educational needs of all of our students and gives them the quality of education" to compete with any child in the world.

Govan said members of the existing boards in Orangeburg Consolidated School Districts 3,4 and 5 are invited, along with members of the new Orangeburg County School District board and "professional educators, board members and parents" from the public, private and charter school systems.An Orangeburg restaurant at the center of controversy surrounding its location near a Confederate flag and historical monument is up for sale.

The Edisto River Creamery at Russell Street and U.S. 301 is for sale through Charleston-based National Restaurant Properties brokerage firm.

"I am done," restaurant owner Tommy Daras said when asked about the sale. "I can't make a living there anymore with all the situations happening there. I can't get nothing going."

Daras purchased the building in February 2015. He says ever since his opening he and his family have gotten threats and business has suffered because the restaurant is located next to the Confederate flag and monument.

Hearing held in Confederate flag display dispute The dispute over the Confederate flag flying near a Russell Street restaurant continues, with the two sides arguing in front of a circuit cour

A small parcel of land at Russell Street and John C. Calhoun Drive and in front of the restaurant was given to the Sons of Confederate Veterans Rivers Bridge Camp 842 by the restaurants previous owner for a historical display including the flag.

Daras said when he opened the restaurant, "We were doing just fine." But he said the battle over the Confederate flag has gotten to be too much.

"I can't beat them guys," he said. "They destroyed the safety of the place and the enjoyment of the property. They killed me on the internet.""I would like to say I was impressed by the knowledge of the (public works) staff and the attention they have paid to the physical chores, routes, office paperwork and all the daily logs at all the facilities," Shugart told the council.

"I found all the facilities, both water and wastewater, to be in good condition. I would also like to thank the people of Denmark for the opportunity to serve the citizens and customers of the city's wastewater system," he added.

Robinson noted that Shugart has A-level certificates in water and sewer systems.

Police Chief Leroy Grimes introduced two new officers who will be attending the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy, Vincent Morris and Collin Ethridge. Morris previously worked with the S.C. Department of Corrections and has had some firearms training, Grimes said. Ethridge has had previous training with a fire department, the police chief noted.

School Resource Officers Robert McGinnis and Quentin Williams are currently being trained at the police academy, Grimes said.

Also, Al Jenkins, a representative from Sen. Tim Scotts office, asked the mayor and council members if they had any concerns to take back to the senator.NORTH  A special election will be held Tuesday, Jan. 29, to fill the seat that was vacated on North Town Council when Jeff Washington resigned last year.

Only one candidate, political newcomer Jennifer Williams, has filed as a candidate for that seat.

Voting will take place in the North 1 precinct at North Town Hall and the North 2 precinct at the Aiken Electric Cooperative building.

The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Aurora Smalls, Orangeburg County Voter Registration & Elections director, said in an email, "Results will be available after the precincts report to the Voter Registration Office and will also be posted at polling locations.

For more information about the special election, call 803-533-6213.

Contact the writer: rbaxley37@gmail.com.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0BAMBERG -- Bamberg School District 1's 2018 audit report was favorable overall, Neal Crider of McGregor & Co. LLP told the district's board of trustees at its Jan. 22 meeting.

I want to thank all staff for getting to me the necessary documents needed for this years audit. Bamberg School District 1 is classified as low risk, Crider reported.

Bamberg 1's General Fund ended with an increase, Food Service had its best year since 2011 and 2018 was an overall good year for the district financially, he said.

Also during the meeting, Richard Carroll Elementary Principal Stacey Walter said the school ranked sixth out of 31 schools and 12 districts on the 2018 S.C. School Report Card.

"As you can also see by the chart, no school received an Excellent rating. There are a couple of areas we need improvement on, and we are already in the process of working on those," Walter said.

She also reported that RCES students had completed the MAP and Developmental Reading testing for mid-year.

The school's current enrollment is 745, Walter reported.

"Our discipline goal for December was not met. Our goal was only 20, but we had 27 office referrals, she said.Janelle Green, a religion and philosophy major and a member of the Alice Carson Tisdale Honors College, has been selected as recipient of an English-Speaking Union Luard Morse Scholarship. Green will receive $25,000 toward a semester of study at any university of her choosing in the United Kingdom during the 2019-2020 academic year. Green has selected the University of Oxford.

"Janelle is the first Claflin University student to receive this prestigious scholarship award," said President Henry N. Tisdale. "Combined with her experiences at Claflin, Janelle will be able to utilize this new adventure to help prepare her to be a 21st century globally-engaged visionary leader."

Green is one of three students, all from a historically black college or university (HBCU), to receive this award for the 2019-2020.

"The English-Speaking Union Luard Morse Scholarship Committee is excited about these truly exceptional students," stated Duane Hughes, the chair of the Luard Morse Scholarship Committee. "Aristotle said, 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.' We, the Luard-Morse Scholarship Committee, are thrilled to reward these students for their habit of excellence."Claflin University is one of five historically black colleges/universities (HBCUs) that will receive $10,000 for student scholarships from the Toyota Financial Services and Toyota Motor North American. The Tom Joyner Foundation was also awarded $10,000 from Toyota's total contribution of $60,000 that will be used to help boost college retention and graduation rates for African-American students. Toyota's support is consistent with the company's deep commitment to diversity and inclusion.

"We greatly appreciate Toyota's support for scholarships at Claflin University," said Reverend Dr. Whittaker V. Middleton, vice president of institutional advancement. "We are also grateful to the Tom Joyner Foundation which named Claflin its "School of the Month" for January. All donations to Claflin in January will be used to support our FOCUS100 which provides financial support for students who experience an unexpected crisis which could prevent them from completing their degree requirements at Claflin."

Toyota launched its support of HBCUs five years ago to honor the life and vision of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Dr. King believed all young people should be given an opportunity to receive the best education possible, and yet, I have personally witnessed promising, young students forced to withdraw from school as a result of financial burdens," said John Ridgeway, general manager of Toyota Financial Services' Customer Service Center in Maryland. "Through its contributions, Toyota hopes to help ensure students achieve their dreams of higher education, while also contributing to the sustainment of these HBCUs and their ability to address retention issues."

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0The shutdown affected just part of the government, which is likely one reason it was allowed to go on for more than a month  the pain wasnt widespread enough to prod members of the House and Senate to act.

But, the reality is that federal workers missed two paychecks, something not many of us could afford to do. Federal employees will receive back pay, but contractors who are hired by the government do not have that luxury.

Federal employees were sleeping at work in an effort to save money on gas. Federal employees were forced to make no-win decisions  default on loan payments or put food on the table. Food banks were established to employees could eat. Locally, the Friends of Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge sponsored a potluck dinner to support refuge employees.

To make matters worse, the administration appeared to be totally tone deaf. There were suggestions that furloughed employees could have rummage sales or sell household items to make ends meet, or that federal employees could just convince the grocery store to allow them to run a tab.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This editorial appeared in Friday's Washington Post:

For the better part of two decades, Venezuelans have attempted through mass demonstrations, strikes, electoral mobilizations and negotiations to free themselves from the disastrous regime founded by Hugo Chavez. Nothing has worked, and the government has steadily grown more authoritarian and corrupt while subjecting the country's 32 million people to a humanitarian castatrophe. As tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas and other cities this week in yet one more rebellion, the great question was whether finally one could succeed. Though we don't know the answer, there are some encouraging signs.

The latest unrest was triggered by President Nicolas Maduro's assumption of a new six-year term earlier this month on the basis of an election condemned in and outside Venezuela as fraudulent. Days earlier, the National Assembly, which the opposition controls, chose a young and dynamic new leader, Juan Guaido, who has moved quickly to challenge Maduro. Because the president's reelection was found to be illegitimate, the assembly deemed the post vacant and Guaido declared himself interim president.What's deposited is called "clean construction or demolition debris." The idea is that harmless materials can be used to refill hollowed-out quarries, reclaiming land for development while sparing the cost in travel to and tipping fees at sanitary landfills, a more expensive option because of tougher environmental regulations.

The Pollution Control Board deemed groundwater monitoring unnecessary . The construction industry believes it to be cost-prohibitive , although the two sides differ greatly on the price tag for sinking wells and annual testing.

Dan Eichholz, president of the Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers, notes that perception is a problem. People don't understand that what's dumped primarily is soil, which in Illinois compacts quickly as clay, he said.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

"People picture these clean-fill sites as landfills and they're very, very different," Eichholz said. "The material coming in has to be limited to inert clean materials, and these sites, filled mostly with clay, repeatedly compacted by tractors, it's not permeable. Very little concrete or asphalt are going to these sites because it's economically feasible to recycle it and use it in other construction materials."The tale follows a familys migration from the south northward and then back to the south. A silver candelabra, a family heirloom, is symbolic of the generations within the family, as they move and endure, despite the struggles they encounter along the way.

A discussion will follow and refreshments will be served.

Keynote on Feb. 7

Haley, who also serves as president of the Springfield NAACP, will share her insights about black migration at 5 p.m. on Feb. 7. The keynote will be held in the Student Center Auditorium.

Refreshments follow.

It wasnt easy through the years for African Americans to leave their homes and migrate to other parts of the country and search for better opportunities. Tiffany Player, assistant professor in the history degree program, will highlight some of the personal and family stories of those who made tough choices in hopes of finding a better life for themselves and their families.

Her presentation, The Great Migration, will be at 5 p.m. Feb. 18 at the John C. Guyon Auditorium at Morris Library.

Black Business ExpoThe individual hired was not the first choice of the SCC faculty and the board knew of that during the search process, yet they believed they hired the right person to lead the college through the difficult but necessary changes, it reads. During meetings with the review team, she conveyed the sense of urgency and accountability the board established in her performance goals.

For her part, Bradford told The Southern in a recent interview that she has held listening sessions in various towns across the college's district, and remains open to feedback. Bradford said the college will begin working to address the commission's concerns in the months ahead.

Additionally, Bradford said she was pleased to see the review team recognize the colleges success in maintaining open access for all students of the district, which includes the counties of Alexander, Massac, Pulaski and Union, as well as parts of Jackson and Johnson counties. For many people in this region, she said, it can seem to them as though state leaders forget that Illinois extends south of Anna. The college must ensure it remains a viable resource to these communities, she said.In a paper titled "Lego  The Toy of Smart Investors," Dobrynskaya analyzed 2,300 sets sold from 1987 to 2015 to measure their price-return over time. She found that collections used for Hogwarts Castles and Jedi star fighters beat U.S. large-cap stocks and bonds, yielding 11 percent a year. Smaller kits rose more than medium-sized ones, similar to the size effect in the Fama-French model (though the relation isn't exact).

"The beta of the size factor is statistically significant and the dynamics of the Lego index we created for our research is similar to that of the size factor," Dobrynskaya said by phone from Moscow. "Lego sets don't show a significant correlation to the financial crises and can be seen as an attractive investment with a diversification potential."

Guess what? Not everyone loves the science. Trying to shoehorn Legos into model of factor returns strikes some people as a little silly and creates the potential for human judgment to distort findings. First among the hazards is the possibility that everything is explained by happenstance  a criticism that looms over many factor models.A place to exercise ideas before writing about them with greater discipline.Could This Be the Biggest US Gold Discovery in Years? (Ad)

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.

Details Here.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.

Bank of Hawaii Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Hawaii that provides various financial products and services in Hawaii, Guam, and other Pacific Islands. It operates in three segments: Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Treasury and Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers checking, savings, and time deposit accounts; residential mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, automobile loans and leases, personal lines of credit, installment loans, small business loans and leases, and credit cards; private and international client banking, and trust services to individuals and families, and high-net-worth individuals; investment management and institutional investment advisory services to corporations, government entities, and foundations; and brokerage offering equities, mutual funds, life insurance, and annuity products. This segment operates 65 branch locations and 357 ATMs throughout Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, as well as through a customer service center, and online and mobile banking. The Commercial Banking segment provides corporate banking, commercial real estate loans, commercial lease financing, auto dealer financing, and deposit products. It offers commercial lending and deposit products to middle-market and large companies, and government entities; commercial real estate mortgages to investors, developers, and builders; and international banking and merchant services. The Treasury and Other segment offers corporate asset and liability management services, including interest rate risk management and foreign exchange services. Bank of Hawaii Corporation was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Read MoreThe right stuff

Many Nepalis ask me what it takes to get into and succeed in American universities. Only the best students get accepted and, of these, only the cream of the crop win scholarships.1+ days ago

| June 18th | 2021 5:00 AM

Nio Stock is Revving Up, But Should You Jump on Board?

Its been a wild ride for electric vehicle (EV) stocks, and Nio (NYSE:NIO) has been no exception. At a quick glance, the 13% drop in NIO stock for 2021 doesnt look too bad. However, the stock is down approximately double that since reaching a high of over $60 in February. And without a rally of over 30% over theSouth Hills (15301)

Today

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low around 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low around 65F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.The Pentagon outreach was deliberately aimed at engineers who dont like the idea of working with the U.S. military. As the innovation boards statement announcing the ethics dialogue put it, We are taking care to include not only experts who often work with the [Department of Defense], but also AI skeptics, DoD critics and leading AI engineers who have never worked with DoD before.

If were going to be the arsenal of democracy in the 21st century, we have to show that we have ideals and are ready to stand up for them, says one senior Pentagon official involved in the program. It wasnt going to be enough to say, Hey, were the good guys, were Americans. We needed to be more introspective.

This bridge-building to the tech community follows a potentially disastrous rupture last year, when Google employees rebelled at a Pentagon AI effort called Project Maven. It was a relatively small, $9 million contract to write algorithms for nonlethal monitoring of surveillance videos to detect threatening movement. Neither the company nor the Pentagon foresaw the controversy that erupted when thousands of Google employees signed a protest petition; the company had to retreat and declined to renew the contract.I was just worried about what was going to happen next, Ryan said, mentioning that it was hard to walk.

Jamie Hansen also worried because her LifeWise Health Plan of Washington wasnt part of the Randall network. She was told it would be OK because Ryan would be an emergency admit. Ryan stayed there for about a week, saw a handful of doctors and specialists, and the family received around a $112,000 bill for the Legacy hospital stay a couple of months later. LifeWise paid about $15,000 of that, and the Hansens were left with nearly $97,000 to pay.

Hansen is a single mom who retired from a job in health insurance in 2004. Her husband and Ryans dad, Rob, died in 2015 from cancer at age 58. Rob worked as an emergency services dispatcher with the Portland Police Bureau, and they receive some Social Security survivor benefits now. But Hansens benefits run out when Ryan turns 16, which will be soon, and she likes to direct Ryans benefits toward his future opportunities, like his college fund.

I didnt want to tap into that, either, Hansen said. I didnt think that was right. That was for him.Jurvakainen said Thursday that its still to early to discuss what kind of sentence his office might seek against Williams, who had not yet been formally charged in Chapmans death.

Law enforcement locally, as well as (near Camas), theyve been working 24/7 for essentially the last 48 hours, Jurvakainen said. No doubt given the nature of this case, this investigations going to be going on for quite some time. ... Theres a lot of moving parts going on.

Documents entered into court Thursday morning report that the hooded gunman, carrying a backpack in one hand and a handgun in the other, exited from the front passenger side of a white sedan and entered the store at about 4:10 a.m.

Court documents based on surveillance footage said the man approached Chapman, pointed a gun at her and attempted to fire. He racked the gun and pointed it at her again, then handed her the backpack, which she began filling with cash from the register. The gunman also reached into and grabbed money from the till, police records said.Chapman then put cigarettes from the back wall into the backpack, and the gunman grabbed her cell phone and placed it in the backpack too. He then took the backpack, pointed the gun at Chapman, and fired a single shot at her upper torso, records said. He then fled the store into the sedan.The Longview School Board Monday will vote on whether to lower its goal for how much money the district should reserve in its operating budget, along with other guidelines to be used to create the 2019-2020 budget.

The boards policy requires the district to reserve at least 5 percent of its operating budget each year, but it aims for 6 percent to ensure a positive cash flow and provide for possible emergency situations, according to the current parameters. However, the board is considering setting a new minimum requirement of 3 percent reserve, with a goal of 4-6 percent.

This would allow the district to dip into its reserve to cover the $5 million gap its expecting between revenues and expenditures next year.

That gap is caused by increased operating costs, but a decrease in overall funding caused by a state-imposed cap on the districts local levy.

With the budget challenges the district has in the 2019-2020 school year, its likely that some reserves will need to be used, said district spokesman Rick Parrish.The power in Nenglish

There are roughly 6,500 languages spoken in the world today.The Kelso School Board Monday will vote on altering its $98.6 million bond program to build only two new elementary schools, instead of three. Subsequently, the board will vote to approve design plans for a 950-student elementary school in the Lexington neighborhood.

The district has been considering revisions to its bond plan since November, when new cost estimates revealed it would cost $20 million more than expected to build new elementary schools at Wallace, Beacon Hill and Lexington. The price hikes are caused by unprecedented rises in labor and material costs, as well as poor soil conditions that call for deep foundations.

The forerunning solution is to build only two schools  one at Wallace and one in Lexington  but make the second school large enough for 950 students. The students who would have attended the third new school would move to the bigger building.

Despite community concerns that a 950-student school is too big for Kelso and the size might hinder the students educational success, the districts Facility Improvement Team and the Citizens for Kelso Schools bond advocacy group both support the plans. These groups said it is the best option to keep the bond projects on budget, meet the needs of the district and follow through on the other projects promised by the bond.A spokeswoman for Inslee did not comment on whether he would consider raising private funds for nonstate travel security, but said we have operated just as other previous gubernatorial administrations have.

The Washington State Patrol is responsible for security of the governor regardless of where he is. Whether that is in Olympia or at his family home on Bainbridge Island or traveling, she said. We defer to WSP for the scope of that protection, they make those decisions.

Because he is a member of the minority party, Walsh said it could be a challenge to get the bill passed, but he said he would continue to run it until it is successful.

Its not merely a political statement, although theres certainly an element of that to it. I think its good policy. Ill run it again when there is a Republican governor, he said. If I were governor, I would get behind this bill because it would make him look great politically (and like a) good custodian of taxpayer funds. (Washington has not had a Republican governor since John Spellman served in the early 1980s.)

Rep. Brian Blake, an Aberdeen Democrat, said Walshs bill has some merit.Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now...This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

A federal grand jury has indicted Roger Stone for obstructing the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, making false statements to the federal government, and witness tampering. The details of Stones allegedly illegal activities laid out in the indictment implicate the Trump campaign, and perhaps President Donald Trump, in illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign nationalnamely, hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton, which were in the possession of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and originated with Russian military intelligence hackers.

Background on the law

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Federal campaign finance law prohibits foreign nationals from directly or indirectly making a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a U.S. electionand also prohibits any person from soliciting, accepting, or receiving such a contribution.

Federal law defines contribution as including any gift  of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office. And federal regulation defines solicit to mean to ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or implicitly, that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value.

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Whether violations of federal campaign finance are criminal violations or merely civil violations depends on whether the violator acted knowingly and willfully. As explained in the Department of Justice manual Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses, campaign finance law violations become potential crimes when they are committed knowingly and willfully, that is, by an offender who knew what the law forbade and violated it notwithstanding that knowledge.

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And the federal criminal code prohibits caus[ing] an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be a federal crime, as well as aiding, abetting, or commanding commission of a crime.

Relevant facts as stated in Stone indictment and reported elsewhere

The Stone indictment alleges that [a]fter the July 22, 2016 release of stolen DNC emails by Organization 1 [i.e. WikiLeaks], a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information [WikiLeaks] had regarding the Clinton Campaign.

Stone immediately acted on the Trump campaigns request for additional damaging information on Clinton, corresponding with associates about contacting [WikiLeaks] in order to obtain additional emails damaging to the Clinton Campaign. On or about July 25, 2016, Stone sent an email to one of his associates, Jerome Corsi (i.e., Person 1), with the subject line, Get to [Assange] and a message body that read, Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending [WikiLeaks] emails  they deal with Foundation, allegedly. Corsi then reportedly forwarded Stones email to an associate who lived in the United Kingdom and was a supporter of the Trump Campaign.

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The draft statement of offense for Corsi states that Corsi understood [Stone] to be in regular contact with senior members of the Trump Campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump when Stone asked Corsi to get in touch with [WikiLeaks] about materials it possessed relevant to the presidential campaign.

On or about Aug. 2, 2016, Corsi emailed Stone with details of Assanges plans for two more dumps of hacked DNC emails, one in August and one planned for October. Corsi told Stone it [w]ould not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation debacle.

If any Trump campaign official(s) or Donald Trump himself solicited a contribution from a foreign nationalor had someone else like Roger Stone solicit onethey violated federal law.

On or about Sept. 18, 2016, Stone sent a text message to Randy Credico (i.e. Person 2), that said, I am e-mailing u a request to pass on to [Assange]. Soon thereafter Stone emailed Credico an article with allegations against then-candidate Clinton related to her service as Secretary of State and the message: Please ask [Assange] for any State or HRC e-mail from August 10 to August 30particularly on August 20, 2011 that mention [allegations against Clinton related to her service as Secretary of State] or confirm this narrative. Credico initially responded to Stone that such emails would be on WikiLeaks website, according to emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal, and Stone replied: Why do we assume WikiLeaks has released everything they have ???

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When a senior Trump campaign official contacted Stone in late July 2016asking Stone to obtain information from Assange about emails stolen from the DNC that were damaging to Clinton and not yet publicly releasedTrump and his campaign team, along with the general public, knew that Russian intelligence officers had done the hacking to steal the DNC emails. This fact had been reported by the Washington Post on June 14, 2016, and several news stories in June and July continued to report on the Russian operation.

Stone also admitted to the Washington Times that in August 2016, he was communicating directly with Guccifer 2.0 via Twitter messages about the stolen DNC emails. Guccifer 2.0 was the fictitious online persona of Russian military intelligence officers who hacked the DNC and were indicted in July 2018 for conspiracy, identity theft, and money laundering. That same indictment included Stones communications with Guccifer 2.0. noting that, at the time, Stone was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

Applying the law to the alleged and otherwise reported facts

If one or more Trump campaign officials, or Donald Trump himself, solicited a contribution (i.e., something of value to influence the 2016 presidential election) from a foreign national, or caused or commanded someone else (e.g., Roger Stone) to solicit such a contribution, then they violated federal law.

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The Stone indictment states that a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information [WikiLeaks] had regarding the Clinton Campaign. Who would likely have been directing a senior campaign official? The candidate himselfDonald Trumpseems like an obvious possibility.

Information that is damaging to an opponent is known among political professionals as opposition research. Opposition research is of immense value to candidates; they regularly pay opposition research firms (like this one or this one) big money to produce opposition research. The Trump campaign asked Roger Stone to obtain opposition research on Hillary Clinton from foreign national WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and the campaign knew that research originated with Russian military intelligence officers.

If the facts alleged in the Stone indictment are true, it certainly appears Donald Trump or another high official in his campaign illegally solicited a campaign contribution from a foreign nationalin the form of requests that Stone obtain opposition research on Clinton for the Trump campaign. And Stone himself seems to have illegally solicited this foreign national contribution to the Trump campaign, though he was not indicted for this campaign finance crime.

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Alternatively, this same campaign individual may have violated the criminal law prohibition on causing or commanding Roger Stone to commit an act which, if directly performed by Trump or a campaign official, would be a federal crime.

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This is true even if the Trump campaign never received any hacked emails or other opposition research on Clinton privatelyand, instead, only saw the hacked emails when WikiLeaks released them to the public. Soliciting a contribution from a foreign national is illegal, even if no contribution is received in response to the solicitation.

Professor Rick Hasen has suggested that these activities may not constitute violations of campaign finance law, because WikiLeaks might count as a news organization exempt in certain ways from campaign finance laws. But the so-called press exemption from federal campaign finance laws applies only when news organizations are engaged in legitimate press functions: gathering and disseminating news.

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The July 2018 indictment of Russian intelligence officers related to hacking the DNC makes clear that WikiLeaks purpose in releasing the Russian-hacked DNC emails was to heighten the impact of Russias influence operation. For example, in June 2016, WikiLeaks instructed the Russian intelligence officers to [s]end any new material [stolen from the DNC] here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing. WikiLeaks was seemingly operating in these matters as part of the Russian influence operation, not as a news organization exempt from campaign finance laws. There are limits to the campaign finance law press exemption, and just as American Media Inc. exceeded those limits when it made a hush payment to Karen McDougal on behalf of Donald Trump, so too may WikiLeaks have exceeded those limits in this matter.

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The Stone indictment implicates the Trump campaignand perhaps President Trump himselfin violations of campaign finance laws. Campaign finance law violations by the Trump campaign are starting to pile up, with another illegal solicitation of a foreign national contribution possibly occurring in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between senior campaign officials and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, and Trumps involvement in illegal hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

More From Just Security

What Facts Would Deny the Trump Campaign First Amendment Protections in Colluding with Russia

Prosecuting WikiLeaks, Protecting Press Freedoms: Drawing the Line at Knowing Collaboration with a Foreign Intelligence AgencyRoger Stone continues to be defiant. But Donald Trumps longtime ally and adviser also seemed to leave the door open to striking a cooperation deal with the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Appearing on ABCs This Week, Stone gave a non-answer when asked whether he would consider cooperating with Muellers team after he was indicted on seven counts and was arrested Friday morning in Florida.

You say you wont bear false witness against President Trump, are you prepared to tell the truth about your dealings with him to the Special Counsel, the truth about your dealings with the campaign, any chance youll cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller if he asks? host George Stephanopoulos asked. Stone did not say no. You know, thats a question I would have toI have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is I would certainly testify honestly, Stone answered.

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JUST IN: @GStephanopoulos: "Any chance you'll cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller if he asks?"



Roger Stone: "That's a question I'll have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion ... I would certainly testify honestly" https://t.co/PAbc4RuByr pic.twitter.com/yTWpkkBq3F  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 27, 2019

Stone also vehemently denied he had discussed the possibility of a pardon with the president. Absolutely, positively not, Stone said. He also rejected suggestions that he could have discussed WikiLeaks or the Mueller probe with Trump. None whatsoever, he said.

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.@GStephanopoulos: "Have you ever had any conversations with the president during the campaign or since the campaign about Russia or the Mueller investigation?"



Roger Stone: "None whatsoever, categorically. Zero" https://t.co/8is05mw7w6 pic.twitter.com/ztG8of3SmT  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 27, 2019

Throughout the interview, Stonewho was indicted on five counts of making false statements to the FBI and congressional investigators, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of witness tamperingcharacterized the charges against him as ridiculous. In view of the fact that I expect to be acquitted and vindicated, and that my attorneys  believe that this indictment is indictment is thin as piss on a rock, so Im prepared to fight for my life. But Chris Christie, the former prosecutor and governor of New Jersey, disagreed with Stones characterization of his indictment as thin.

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On Roger Stone calling the special counsel's indictment "thin," Chris Christie says "it's not."



"The fact is that he's got a problem, because they've got all these e-mails and text messages that he created, that tell a pretty clear story." https://t.co/8is05mw7w6 pic.twitter.com/eTHnSgmg9G  This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 27, 2019

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The fact of the matter is that every white collar defendant in this circumstance, when theyre confronted with a bunch of documents of their own making try to say that theyre out of context, Christie said on ABCs This Week. If I had a nickel for every time I had a defendant tell me, when I was U.S. Attorney, it was out of context, Id be a rich guy and Im not. So the fact is that, you know, hes got a problem. Because theyve got all these e-mails and text messages that he created that tell a pretty clear story. Christie said that if Stone decides to go to trial, hes in very, very grave danger. At the end of the day, everyone is presumed innocent, Christie said, but the indictment, I think, is a pretty damning indictment.Megan Neely, an assistant professor at Duke University, stepped down from her role as director of graduate studies in the biostatistics department after sending an email that went viral over the weekend for all the wrong reasons. Under the subject line Something to think about, Neely sent an email to all first and second year biostatistics graduate students that essentially warned Chinese students against speaking Chinese to each other in public. This all started, according to Neely, because two faculty members came to her office to get help in identifying students who were speaking Chinese (in their words, VERY LOUDLY) while in student study and lounge areas. They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand, Neely wrote in the email, calling on students to keep these unintended consequences in mind.

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One professor from Duke University sent out an email asking Chinese students not to speak Chinese in school building. pic.twitter.com/6xGkIeScJo  Hua Sirui  (@siruihua) January 26, 2019

In the email, Neely said that she recognized how hard it has been and still is for you to come to the US and have to learn in a non-native language but she asked students to commit to using English 100% of the time when you are in Hock or any other professional setting. The department is located in Hock Plaza.

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After the screenshot of the emails went viral, it was revealed that this wasnt the first time that Neely had warned students against speaking foreign languages. In February 2018, Neely said she had received complaints from faculty members about international students not speaking English in break rooms. I dont like being the language police, but I have gotten these comments enough times in the past few weeks that I feel like I should share them with you, Neely wrote in the email she sent almost a year ago. Beyond the obvious opportunity to practice and perfect your English, speaking in your native language in the department may give faculty the impression that you are not trying to improve your English skills and that you are not taking this opportunity seriously.

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Okay theres another email sent in Feb 2018 https://t.co/gMtHESGrCy pic.twitter.com/kK6nidQAYY  Hua Sirui  (@siruihua) January 26, 2019

Neely stepped down following the uproar over her emails and the dean of Dukes medical school, Mary Klotman, has called on the Office of Institutional Equity to carry out a review of the program. I have asked the universitys Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) to conduct a thorough review of the Masters of Biostatistics Program and to recommend ways in which we can improve the learning environment for students from all backgrounds, Klotman wrote in an email to students. In addition, Dr. Neely has asked to step down as director of graduate studies for the masters program effective immediately and will be replaced by an interim DGS to be named shortly. In her email, Klotman made sure students know there is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other.Bishop Roger Joseph Foys of the Diocese of Covington is sorry he was so quick to condemn. After lots of pressure from the community, the bishop of the diocese in Kentucky said he was bullied and pressured into condemning a group of students following a video that went viral showing how they faced off with a Native American elder in Washington, D.C.

We are sorry that this situation has caused such disruption in the lives of so many. We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had, Foys wrote in the letter. We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it. Foys wrote that he wanted to especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann, who was featured most prominently in the video. I especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann and his family as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal, Foys wrote. Nicholas unfortunately has become the face of these allegations based on video clips. This is not fair. It is not just.

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The Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School joined forces and released a statement shortly after the video of the stand-off went viral saying the behavior that was on display was opposed to the Churchs teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person. But once additional video showed a more complicated picture and led many to claim the students werent at fault, the diocese released another statement saying it would launch a third-party investigation. But a campaign was launched online to call on the diocese to retract its earlier statement and apologize to the students.Its kind of weird that the United States has an entire television network dedicated to spreading white supremacist propaganda to its dumbest and oldest residents. But boy, do we ever! So once again, Saturday Night Live took their best shot at Fox News, in a segment featuring Alex Moffat as Tucker Carlson, Cecily Strong as Jeanine Pirro, Kate McKinnon as Wilbur Ross, and none other than Steve Martin as the newly-indicted Roger Stone. Check it out:

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As a long-time critic of SNLs reliance on celebrity cameos in their cold opens, I owe the show and everyone who works on it an apology. Cast Steve Martin in anything and everything! Have him play Michael Pence. Lets see his best Donald Trump. Ask him what he thinks it would look like if Emma Stone auditioned for Brandos part in The Godfather. He doesnt make movies that often any more, so put him on camera, keep him on camera, and help America heal.

As for the non-Steve-Martin related parts of this sketch, Strongs Pirro is spot on as always, and so is Moffats Carlson. But as per usual, the NBC version of the poison Fox News is pumping into peoples brains is watered down to homeopathic levels. For reference purposes only, heres Tucker Carlsons segment from Friday, in which he refers to the FBI Robert Muellers domestic army:

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And heres Stones actual interview:

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And, of course, heres Judge Jeanine Pirro on the end of the government shutdown, in a segment titledand Im not kidding about thisTrump tries to make decisions that are best for you and me.:

That pleasant sensation youre feeling is not optimism about the future of the country, delight at Saturday Night Lives wacky take on life in contemporary America, or even schadenfreude at the thought of the Fox News audience betting their kids inheritance on the Iraqi Dinar. Youre experiencing the telltale euphoria that accompanies cerebral hypoxia, so either look away from Fox News until the normal flow of oxygen to your brain resumes, or, you know, put down your computer, turn your TV to Fox News, and go with a smile.SIOUX CITY -- The development of Sunnybrook Village heated up last August with the opening of a new, 218,000-square-foot Fleet Farm store, complete with its own on-site gas station.

Wisconsin-based Fleet Farm opened its 39th store -- its first ever in Sioux City -- on Aug. 17. A month later, a new Hobby Lobby opened in the new retail center at the intersection of Sunnybrook Drive and Sergeant Road.

Fleet Farm, founded in 1955, specializes in a mix of outdoor, apparel, hardware, farm, automotive and yard goods, among other offerings. The Sioux City store was among the first to test a new store layout in which most of the store is visible from any point in the store, without the view being obstructed by tall shelving.

Fleet Farm CEO Derick Prelle called the Sioux City store "the flagship of the fleet."

"We spent a lot of time talking to our customers to generate a list of ideas about what a perfect Fleet Farm would look like," Prelle said. "The big changes in a store like this are, it's much more shoppable. Wider aisles, easier to move around."

Prelle was confident that Fleet Farm will thrive in Sioux City, despite competition from other big box stores that offer a similar assortment of goods.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}Iowa's Legislature opened on Jan. 14. Today, our editorial board offers, in no specific order, 10 wishes for this year's session.

In our view, lawmakers:

1) should leave Iowa's model for selection of judges alone.

Here's how the current process works: A 17-member commission composed of a chair, who is the senior justice of the Supreme Court other than the chief justice, eight lawyers elected by lawyers licensed to practice law in Iowa and eight non-lawyers appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate presents the governor with a list of names to consider for open positions on the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals and in district courts. Judges who are appointed by the governor then stand for periodic retention votes.

We have read of interest among some legislative Republicans in changing the process by giving more power to the governor in deciding who serves on the commission.

By opening the door to more political influence in decisions about judges, this solution in search of a problem would diminish the integrity of what today is a commendable system.

2) should extend the school infrastructure sales tax.Thats a wrap

Incessant and high use of plastic, resulting in millions of tonnes of the synthetic material swirling around the worlds oceans, has garnered a significant amount of media attention. Plastic pollution poses a huge threat.Ever since release of the movie "Bucket List" in 2008 with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, many people have made their own personal bucket lists of things to do in their lives. Fifty-two years later, I recently crossed one item off my list when I traveled to Egypt.

Our journey began in Cairo. I wasn't certain what to expect, but I was shocked to say the least by how dirty the air was, with pollution from thousands of motorized vehicles, as well as dirt and garbage. Traffic is terrible, although it does move at a decent rate, and people do not drive in marked lanes, and they make three lanes out of two. Oddly enough, drivers squeeze in and out of traffic with less than an inch to spare in any direction. Being a pedestrian is taking your life into your own hands. Pedestrians walk between moving vehicles to cross the street, they do not use crosswalks.

A trip to Giza was first (from our hotel, we could see the Pyramids about 40 miles away), with our guide stopping at an Egyptian school for carpet making along the way. Watching students of all ages, from 10 on up, learning at the school was fascinating. Even the very young students had tremendous hand dexterity and worked at lightning speed.Is America, 50 years after segregation was outlawed in our public life, really a land saturated with systemic racism?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also in D.C.

The mayor's problem with African-Americans is that he pursued a policy of stop-and-frisk with criminal suspects in New York. So, he sought to find common ground with his audience by relating "a series of events that had shaped his recent thinking about race."

The mayor said he had "recently learned about the deadly race riots in which white residents destroyed the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, and murdered several dozen black residents."

But why did his honor have to go all the way back to 1921 and Tulsa to find race riots, when Harlem, in the heart of the town he served as mayor for 12 years, exploded in a riot in 1964 that spread to Brooklyn and Queens and lasted six days?

Why did Bloomberg not bring up the worst riot in U.S. history, when Lincoln sent Union veterans of Gettysburg to shoot down Irish immigrants protesting the draft in New York?

"It's up to us to bring these stories out of the shadows so they never happen again," said the mayor.Editor's note: Every other Sunday through the conclusion of this year's session of the Iowa Legislature, our local lawmakers will share their Statehouse views.

Rep. Jacob Bossman, R-Sioux City

I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the people of House District 6 for another term. I have been elected by my colleagues to serve as an assistant majority leader and was appointed vice chairman of the Ways & Means Committee. I will also serve on the State Government, Local Government and Administration & Rules committees and the Justice System Appropriations subcommittee.

I expect many important issues to be discussed and debated this session, but, for me, everything will be viewed through the lens of workforce - and more specifically, the worker shortage created by record low unemployment.STILLWATER, Okla.  No. 15 Iowa State (7-2, 4-1 Big 12) fell to No. 3 Oklahoma State (10-0, 6-0 Big 12), 22-15. In the dual, redshirt senior Willie Miklus defeated No. 10 Dakota Geer for his 50th career dual victory.

The dual started at 157 pounds and a Cyclone victory. Chase Straw was pitted against Wyatt Sheets. Straw struck first, earning a first-period takedown off a single-leg attack. At the end of second period, they were tied at 2-2. Straw began the third with an escape and held off Sheets to win the match 3-2.

The Cyclones dropped matches at 165, 174 and 184 pounds before Willie Miklus got the Cardinal and Gold back on track.

At 197 pounds, No. 6 Willie Miklus jumped out to a 4-0 lead over No. 10 Dakota Geer after one period. The Cowboy chipped away at Miklus' lead, securing two takedowns to eventually tie the match at 6-6. Miklus started the third period with an escape and secured the 9-6 victory with a takedown at the end of the third period.Sioux City

Diane Dempster Gross, 58, of Sioux City, passed away Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, surrounded by family and friends and listening to her favorite flute sonata.

Memorial services will be 7 p.m. Wednesday at Augustana Lutheran Church in Sioux City. Graveside services will be held at a later date. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service Wednesday at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Meyer Brothers Morningside Chapel. Online condolences may be directed to www.meyerbrotherschapels.com.

Diane, the daughter of Kent and Verna (Lundquist) Dempster, was born on March 28, 1960, in Yankton, S.D. She attended Springfield High School in Springfield, S.D. She later graduated from the University of South Dakota, with a degree in music education.

Diane was a music teacher for the Le Mars (Iowa) Public School District for two years before starting her career with the Sioux City Public Schools, where she taught for 19 years, until her retirement. She was also an adjunct instructor of flute at Morningside College in Sioux City, and taught many private flute students.And what about book number two?

"Less than a year," Hunt said with a slight groan. "Publishers want thriller writers to release a new book once a year. Going from no deadline to one with little wiggle room was daunting but also creatively challenging."

I know you work in advertising and so did (the late Cedar Rapids-based mystery writer) Ed Gorman. Did having an advertising background help in the writing of a novel?

"I'm sure it did. When you're a copywriter creating an advertising campaign, every word counts. You have to capture somebody's attention right away and you need to keep it throughout. That's also a novelist because you're always pushing the narrative forward."

I know you're very methodical about outlining every story thread, right?

"Well, I do start with a synopsis which helps me to plan everything out. But most plans, things seldom go without a hitch. You discover a part where a story is dragging on a character who isn't quite working. If you know where the story's going, you can change things early on."

What advice would you give to an aspiring novelist?CHEROKEE, Iowa -- The former Tyson Foods meat plant in Cherokee, idle since 2014, has sprung back to life with a new owner and product line.

The Iowa Food Group plant, which employed 35 people, plans to begin production Monday, said Mack Zimmerman, one of the partners of the investor group formed last year.

"That's going to continue to grow over the next couple of month," Zimmerman said of the workforce. "We should be at 100 pretty quick this year."

Most of the Iowa Food Group leaders, which includes acting CEO Jeremy Robinson, come from Texas. The exception is director of sales Chad Vander Linden, a Muscatine, Iowa, native. The partners are veterans of the meat processing industry.

"We were looking for a plant like this -- this fit the bill," Zimmerman said. Most of the company's management has relocated to Cherokee or already lived there.

Iowa Food Group was able to negotiate "a really good deal that worked for everybody," Zimmerman said. The group paid $2.35 million for the multi-building plant in September, according to sale records.Tears and anger at a Lalitpur school after revelations about a teachers history of sexual abuse

Nearly a hundred parents and former students had gathered at the premises of Lalitpur Madhyamik in Lagankhel following the Kathmandu Posts investigation on how Tripathee had sexually molested children for decades while a teacher at the school.By Gram Slattery

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian firefighters on Sunday resumed searching for hundreds of missing people and called off an evacuation of nearby residents after a mining dam ruptured on Friday, triggering a deadly mudslide.

A remaining dam at a Vale SA iron ore mining complex in Brazil was no longer at risk of bursting, said Flavio Godinho, a spokesman for the Minas Gerais civil defense agency.

The dam burst at Vale's Corrego do Feijao mine in southeastern Brazil unleashed a torrent of mud on Friday, burying the mining facilities and nearby homes in the town of Brumadinho.

Nearly 300 people are still missing, with the list of those unaccounted for being constantly updated, Godinho told reporters. Most of those lost are presumed dead, officials said.

The figure could rise as authorities reconcile its list of missing residents with the tally of Vale employees who are not accounted for, he said. The confirmed death toll rose to 37 by Sunday morning, according to the fire department.

The death toll exceeded a 2015 tailings dam collapse at an iron ore mine less than 100 km (60 miles) to the east, belonging to Samarco Mineracao SA, a Vale joint venture with BHP Group.

The Samarco dam break spilled five times the mining waste into a more remote region, killing 19 people, burying a small village and contaminating a major river in Brazil's worst environmental disaster on record.

Fears about another dam burst in Brumadinho on Sunday triggered evacuation sirens in the town before dawn, but by afternoon officials said there was no risk and the evacuation was called off.

State fire department spokesman Pedro Aihara initially said 24,000 people would need to be evacuated, but later revised the number down to 3,000. In total, 24,000 people are affected in some way by the disaster, he said.

"FED UP"

Renato Maia, a 44-year-old salesman whose best friend's daughter remained missing, fled his home in panic early Sunday morning and they were stuck for hours at a police barricade on the outskirts of town, stewing at the situation.

Story continues

"We're all fed up with Vale ... and this is really adding to the tension," he said. "It was a huge tragedy and now we don't know what might come next."

The Brazilian government has ordered Vale to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mining complex. On Sunday, courts nearly doubled to 11 billion reais ($2.9 billion) the amount of Vale assets frozen in anticipation of damages and fines.

Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman apologized without taking responsibility in an television interview on Saturday.

"Apologies to society, apologies to you, apologies to the whole world for what has happened," he said. "I don't know who is responsible, but you can be sure we'll do our part."

The cause of the dam burst remained unclear. Recent inspections by a German auditor TUV SUD and Vale did not indicate any problems with the dam, the companies said.

Federal prosecutor Jose Adercio Sampaio told Reuters on Saturday that state and federal authorities have failed to apply more stringent regulation to the hundreds of tailings dams around the country.

Schvartsman said all of Vale's tailings dams were checked after the 2015 disaster and periodic reviews are carried out.

($1 = 3.7695 reais)

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Brad Haynes, Kirsten Donovan and Jeffrey Benkoe) "Limiting Retributivism and Individual Prevention" | Main | "Investing in Futures: Economic and Fiscal Benefits of Postsecondary Education in Prison" 

As noted in this post a couple of weeks ago, the expanded good time credits provision in the FIRST STEP Act, which many expected to be applied immediately, problematically got tucked within a section of the Act that is to become effective only when the Attorney General has created "a risk and needs assessment system" later this year. Now the Washington Examiner has this new article, headlined Drafting error stalls inmate release under Trump plan," about the problem and efforts afoot to address it. Here are excerpts:

Thousands of prisoners expecting to go home under the First Step Act are stuck behind bars indefinitely due to an apparent drafting error, frustrating families and leaving policy advocates pushing for a White House fix.

The bill, President Trumps biggest bipartisan policy achievement, passed in December, but a key provision retroactively expanding "good time" credit landed in a section that could delay implementation by seven months.

Three sources who work closely with lawmakers and administration officials say its their understanding that the White House is looking for an administrative fix.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone met with advocates in mid-January to discuss the issue, which is affecting roughly 4,000 people who expected to go home immediately. I think [Cipollone] really understood the intent, said a person with direct knowledge of the meeting. I think they understood this was a key provision.  This was a key part of [legislative] negotiations.

Present at the meeting were David Safavian of the American Conservative Union and Jessica Sloan of #Cut50, a bipartisan activist group that aims to lower incarceration levels in all 50 states....

The bill expands days off for good behavior from 47 to 54 for each year served. For people serving decades, seven additional days means release months early. Most provisions were not written to apply retroactively. The "good time" expansion was an exception, as was a provision allowing crack cocaine convicts to be resentenced. The crack change was implemented quickly.

It became clear, however, that an immediate good time expansion would not happen. The provision was placed in a part of the law that created earned time sentence reductions, allowing early transfer to a halfway house or home detention after anti-recidivism classes. The earned time provision allows the Justice Department up to 210 days to set up a risk assessment system, which will judge the requirements to participate.

I think it was just an oversight, said Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. People were focused on making sure the good time got increased and that it was retroactive. It ended up getting put in the section with earned time.

A few fixes are being discussed. The easiest would be for the White House to order the Justice Department to apply the 54 days of "good time" credit immediately. Other fixes would require legislation  either a unanimous consent motion or a spending bill provision  but legislative gridlock amid a partial government shutdown makes neither likely.

I dont think its something that gets cleared up quickly, said Sloan, who declined to comment on the White House meeting but said its her position that existing law allows 54 days of good time if the administration decides it does. Im hopeful the White House will issue some sort of directive to the DOJ, which will issue a directive to BOP, but there are a lot of administrative [steps] there, Sloan said....

For people in prison, the delay is a major blow. Hes ready to come home, said Veda Ajamu, whose brother Robert Shipp, 46, has served 25 years and expected near-immediate transfer to a halfway house or home confinement, as is typical toward the end of sentences. Were talking now 25 years, 4 months, and 10 days for him. It makes me really sad, because I cant do anything. For a person who's been in prison so long, thats a hard pill to swallow, Ajamu said.

Charles "Duke" Tanner, who has served 14 years of a 30-year sentence, does not expect to get out immediately but said other people are anxious to leave. My cellie was all excited because he was looking at an immediate release. Some men even gave away their property because they thought they were out the door, Turner said. I have faith President Trump will fix this, he added.Speaker in spotlight for failing to keep his word

A decade ago when Pushpa Kamal Dahal, then prime minister and chairman of the Maoist party, triggered a political crisis by asking then army chief to step down, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) was his coalition partner.Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist , specializing in International Relations , my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations . I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.

The federal government isnt working, so why should be paying them? Thats controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moores simple solution to the government shutdown. Its pure civil disobedience.

Moore urged federal workers to stop attending work in protest over the ongoing government shutdown that has left 800,000 people either furloughed or working without pay.

Appearing on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" on Thursday to promote his new documentary Fahrenheit 11/9, Moore said that this guy [Trump] doesnt want the government to be reopened. He certainly doesnt want the Department of Justice to be opened."

Any sane personeven if theyre for the wallknows this is crazy that were in month two of this. Nobody should be working without pay, he explained. Federal workers, dont go to work without pay.

Moore also called on rest of the American citizenry unaffected by the partial shutdown to show solidary with federal employees.

We, the people, we shouldn't be supporting anything that requires someone who's not paid working for us. We should not fly. You know, don't fill out your tax return for the IRS.

Moore also called on criminals not to commit crimes during the shutdown because the FBI is not being paid.

Federal employees arent walking out because they are prohibited from doing so by law. Legally, they cant strike in protest of the conditions of the government shutdown. If they do, they face criminal prosecution or can be barred from working for the government indefinitely.

Moore is also calling on everyone to halt air travel, which could force an end to the shutdown. Its also possibly unsafe at this point as increasing numbers of Transportation Security Agency (TSA) employees are calling in sick because theyve fallen on hard times. Related: How The M&A Trend In Gold Could Spark A Precious Metals Bull Run

Unions representing pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers warned Thursday that there is now an "unprecedented" level of risk in flying.

President Trump said Thursday that community businesses such as grocery stores and banks will likely "work along" with employees looking to make ends meet.

The remarks followed controversial comments made by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said that federal employees should take out a loan rather than using food banks to survive during the shutdown.

"Perhaps he should have said it differently. Local people know who they are when they go for groceries and everything else, and I think what Wilbur was probably trying to say is that they will work along," the president said adding that Ross has "done a great job."

Indeed, several banks have pledged to help federal workers whose pay has been impacted by the shutdown. Also, numerous other businesses have also offered various assistance programs to federal workers. Grocers, however, were hearing about their planned assistance for the first time from Trump.

Related: Is Gold Heading To $1,500?

In breaking news Friday afternoon, Trump announced a short-deal deal to temporarily reopen the government. Its a stop-gap deal that would last for three weeks, ending on February 15, while talks over border security continue. There was no mention of border wall funding.

So for now, thats possibly civil disobedience averted.

That announcement comes at the same time as the arrest by the FBI of longtime Trump friend and advisor Roger Stone on charges that he lied and attempted to interfere with a witness to gain access to Democrats hacked emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.

By Fred Dunkley for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.comThe UKs auto industry is worth over $100 billion, and things are about to get messy with a Brexit deal up in the air, and now Ford Motors is predicting that it could cost it up to $1 billion a year, Reuters reports.

Its time for a damage-control contingency plan, and fast because Britain is slated to exit the European Union in only 63.

Last week, British PM Theresa Mays Brexit deal lost by a huge margin and though her government survived a no-confidence vote, what comes next is the high seas of uncertaintybut still a glimmer of hope that may there wont be a Brexit at all.

But if it ends up being a no-deal Brexit, Ford is on the line. Its the top-selling car brand in Britain, and will face trade delays at the border, a weaker economic outlook and even tariffs on trade with the EU.

Fords CFO, Bob Shanks, told reporters last week that a no-deal Brexit was unlikely, but if it happened, it would be catastrophic.

We clearly have already started to work on the eventuality of there being a hard BrexitWe're actually incurring costs, doing things now to prepare for that, so there will be an impact, We're certainly hoping that does not happen, but we can't wait, Shanks said.

Ford employs 53,000 people in Europe, some 13,000 are in the UK. Earlier this month, Ford said it would cut thousands of jobs and was considering plant closures in Europe.

The rest of the auto industry isnt likely to slide by unharmed, either. A recent survey by the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders found that 74 percent of auto industry members said a no-deal Brexit would damage their business. Another 20 percent said they have already lost business because of the uncertainty. The industry employs over 1 million people in the UK. Related: Americans Are Not Ready For A Recession

Ford is already losing money in Europe. In fact, based on its Q4 results, its losing money in every overseas market. Ford posted a Q4 net loss of $116 million or 3 cents a share, down from a net profit of $2.5 billion or 63 cents a share in Q4 2017, which it attributed largely to one-time pension costs and other charges. Through the third quarter of 2018, Ford had lost $119 million in Europe.

Fords Brexit announcement came as Jaguar Land Rover informed its employees that it will shut down its four main factories for an extra week at the start of April on top of previously planned maintenance pause because of "potential Brexit disruption".

BMW is already planning to close its plant near Oxford for a month after Brexit, while Honda is planning a six-day closure saying that no-deal Brexit would cost it tens of millions of pounds in additional tariffs. Toyota waned that no deal scenario could cost it $13 million a day  and that it was shifting some work to Belgium.

Also, Airbus, which makes aircraft wings in the UK, warned it could shift manufacturing from the UK in the event of no deal.

In the meantime, the UK auto market lost 7 percent through 2018, and while Brexit isnt its only problem, the UK Spectator magazine raises the question: Will any foreign car maker build a new factory in the UK in the next 20 years? I very much doubt it.

By David Craggen for Safehaven.com

More Top Reads From Safehaven.comTrey Hill is painting the largest sculpture he's built in the United States.

In the studio, he's using unusual tools to transform the nude ceramic tree standing 8 feet tall. Disposable cups, one in each hand. Stepladders, one on each side of the sculpture.

The colors of the glaze are basic, white, jet black and medium blue. The process is mesmerizing.

For an hour and a half, Hill, a working artist and faculty member at the University of Montana, walks up and down the stepladders, cups in hand, pouring water, pouring glaze, more water, more glaze, stepping back for a wider look as colored lines emerge, refilling cups, stepping up for another pour.

The ceramic sculpture marks a milestone not only for Hill, but for the ceramics program at UM. It's the first firing that's filled the new kiln on campus, a kiln that may be one of the largest at any university in the region.

Hill works mostly in silence, the only sound the trickle of water and paint draining into the cut bottom of a plastic garbage can under the foot of the sculpture.

As the lines begin to give the piece dimension, Hill pauses to show the way the glazes split and flow and streak around the curves, the way gravity pulls some runs into thin wisps, the way the sculpture itself chooses the path of the glaze.

"See that nice long line? That starts to feel resolved in a different way."

At a certain point, Julia Galloway, another ceramic artist and faculty member, walks by and pauses to watch, a big smile on her face.

"Looking good," Galloway says to Hill, and she turns to the other observers. "It's pretty exciting, isn't it?"

Once Hill finishes glazing the tree, the sculpture will return to the monster kiln, where he hopes it won't crack from heat that will reach 2,250 degrees.

The scene underway is emblematic of the ceramics program at the School of Art and perhaps of Montana's place in the field. The kiln allows work at an ambitious scale. The faculty are collegial and work alongside their students, in the tradition of the program's founder, Rudy Autio.

Dean Leeper, in his third year studying ceramics in Missoula, said students at UM learn to consider their work within a larger context of the art scene, past and present. The directive isn't overt, he said, but students are led to think about how their art will add to the conversation.

"There's definitely a push to be a contributor in that dialogue," said Leeper, an MFA candidate.

Hill started building the kiln about five years ago.

He drove to Wyoming to buy bricks from a potter at one-fifth of the normal cost and brought them back to Missoula in a U-Haul. The kiln cost roughly $3,000 in brick, $1,000 in steel, and $6,000 in burners, a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new one.

The floor of the "car kiln" sits on a track that rolls out and allows access on all sides. The "stacking space," or the interior, measures 4 feet wide by 6 feet deep by just under 9 feet tall.

"Everybody always asks me, 'Is this the biggest kiln in the blank?'" Hill said. "I don't know. It's a very big kiln, and there are very few kilns like this in the country at universities."

The kiln is made out of soft brick 9 inches thick, and the material is so insulating, the brick remains cool to the touch on the outside even as the four gas burners push the inside temperature to 2,200 degrees.

At first, Hill planned to build the kiln at his home, but he later decided to move it to campus, partly so students could use it.

It's difficult to build a successful sculpture, and any limitation adds to the challenge, Hill said. The giant kiln removes scale as a limitation.

"It doesn't mean if you make an 8-foot-tall piece, it's going to be good," Hill said. "It might be terrible and huge."

But he said it opens new possibilities for students. "They don't have to get their tape measures out anymore. They can just build."

In "Persistence in Clay: Contemporary Ceramics in Montana," art historian H. Rafael Chacon wrote about the ceramics program at UM for the publication of the Missoula Art Museum.

From the start, faculty members were also notable artists, making marks outside the classroom and beyond Montana. In his piece, Chacon described Autio's verve, his "discipline, affability, and sense of humor." The UM faculty member noted another kiln and milestone, too.

"In 1984, UM ceramics was among the first academic programs in the nation to build an anagama (wood-fired) kiln," Chacon said.

In another piece in the 2011 publication, Stephen Glueckert noted a Missoula woman, Sister Trinitas, brought the first kiln to Montana for ceramic use in the 1930s. "Trinitas later worked with engineers from the Anaconda Copper Company to build a railcar walk-in kiln, which was significantly ahead of the times."

In an interview, Chacon said the field of ceramics is constantly changing, and Galloway and Hill are respected around the world for their dynamic work. He said Hill has pushed the ceramics program into a "much more robustly sculptural tradition," and a more abstract one, and Galloway has continued a painterly tradition, but with "radically different" themes, ones "rich with social content and political content."

Steven Young Lee, resident artist director of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, said the hires of Hill and Galloway at UM, along with Josh DeWeese and Jeremy Hatch at Montana State University, "raised the profile of ceramics in the state pretty significantly." Based in Helena, the Bray is an educational institution with a mission to stimulate creative work in ceramics.

The new kiln will make a mark because it will allow students to see the way Hill challenges himself, Lee said: "The classroom ends up becoming this window into his studio practice, which is incredibly important for them to see."

Hill first landed in Montana for an Archie Bray residency after working for a couple of years following his master's degree from San Jose State University.

A decade ago, a faculty post at UM opened, and Hill applied for the job; he was working at the University of South Carolina at the time, but he and his partner, Olivia Riutta, both wanted to return to the Treasure State.

He's been building tree sculptures for the last five or six years. Hill had been looking at the way the human form had been portrayed historically, looking at Greek and Roman stone figures that were seductive, beautiful and sexual.

The trees and branches supporting the body captured his attention. Many forms had trees with cut limbs that came halfway up the thigh, and those features, secondary to the human form but critical to its stability, reflected his interest in the unseen elements of life.

"It became a perfect way for me to talk about those things that we miss in life, but those things that are holding so much of what we do," Hill said.

First, he made trees in conjunction with other objects, like part of a horse. Then, he started to take away the other elements to see if the the trees could carry their own weight. He cut branches off, pruned them, eyeballed them from every angle.

In the studio, the shape of the tree informs the way it takes color. When it comes time to glaze, Hill lets go. He picks up a cup, fills it.

"I can decide where to pour it, but the form is dictating what happens. And I love that," Hill said.

The large work shows the communal nature of ceramics.

To be as efficient as possible with the kiln, Hill built two trees to be fired together. Before he could glaze them, he needed help rolling them out of the kiln after the first firing. The heaviest piece weighs some 600 pounds.

Three ceramics students helped him after the first firing, the bisque. Their objective was to slide the base out of the kiln while keeping the sculptures steady, inch the sculptures from the base onto a rolling cart, and wheel the pieces inside, where Hill would paint them.

The move required all eight hands, a pair to crank the winch, a couple of pairs to steady the enormous pieces and push, a pair to grab cinder blocks that will support the platform on the cart, and the same pair to scrape residue from the bottom of the sculpture.

They pushed the tree a sliver at a time toward the cart. "If it starts to really chatter, just stop."

Paris Summers, an undergraduate student from Billings, eyeballed the smooth sculpture. "Well, it looks great." She found no cracks. "The firing went well." She helped texturize the trees for Hill, her mentor, and she plans to meet the challenge of scope offered by the kiln in the future.

"It's an opportunity for me to build larger in scale, much like Trey," Summers said. "This is ginormous."

After he glazes them, Hill returns the sculptures to the kiln for a second firing lasting three days. He must wait one more day for them to slowly cool before he opens the kiln. On reckoning day, the culmination of years of practice and six months of labor, he's nervous until he opens the door.

Hill has built pieces as large as the one he just completed, but only in China. If the ones in the kiln pass muster, they might get sold to an interested buyer in China or one in Missoula, where he shows his work at the Radius Gallery.

"They look damned near ... ," he said, pausing for a moment. "They look great."

Maybe more important are the pieces the giant kiln will inspire and hold in the future. Summers wants to work toward a larger sculpture, and beginning ceramics students are building clay vessels 6 feet tall, pieces that won't be fired but might spark ideas.

Last week, Hill started building another large piece he anticipates will fire in the new kiln in six months.

Artwork doesn't have to be large to be good, Hill said, and the program at UM allows students to work at different scales, on different ideas. He tells them to work always at the edge of their ability, and he's just given them the chance with the new kiln to push that edge in Montana again.

"They may never have another chance to do something like this, but while they're here at the University of Montana, they can," Hill said. "And that's what we're here to do."

Please sign up here to subscribe to Under the M, the Missoulian's weekly email about the University of Montana and higher education news in Montana.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Six people electrocuted as moving bus comes in contact with live wire

Six people were electrocuted and nine others were injured when a moving bus came in contact with a live wire at Sabila Municipality-4 in Dhanusha district on Friday evening.The variances are supposed to be for hardship and for the public interest, the lawsuit said. These pertinent legal issues were ignored by the boardThere is no documented explanation for hardship and the public interest.

The lawsuits asks the court to either revoke and deny the boards decision to grant the permit and variances or require it to have a new hearing with a temporary injunction in place.

Nansu Roddy, one of 10 neighbors who filed the lawsuit, said the church has not listened to the neighbors' concerns.

It is dispiriting that we must file this appeal to protect our homes, property values and quality of life, Roddy said. We have not had a venue to express our concerns with the church. The leaders of the church have clearly expressed their disinterest in addressing any of our concerns.

Roddy said she doesnt believe that parishioners who support the demolition of the historic church in order to build a larger one are aware of the impact that it will have on the neighborhood.For Billings, it would be the One Big Sky District, which could receive up to $125 million of state money over two decades. In order for private developers to access that money, they would first have to invest $300 million in the district.

"This bill would add an extremely valuable tool to the State of Montana and our efforts in economic development and statewide growth," Easton said. "Billings is poised to become a regional destination and a city ready and able to attract much needed workforce and private investment."

The other big battle at the state Legislature that business groups will be closely watching is legislation that would give cities the option to seek local tax increases from their voters. Currently that's something only the state has authority to do.

"It's tough to tell if it's going to get legs," said Sam Loveridge, executive director of the newly formed Yellowstone Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Yellowstone Area Chamber opposes local option tax authority and will be pushing legislators on issues like economic growth, public safety and simplifying the tax code. It will also be "monitoring any bill on the One Big Sky District," Loveridge said.

Loveridge said his organization is in the process of hiring a lobbyist.Noem not only protects the modest wage increases Daugaard had planned for teachers and state workers but slightly augments them. That should help slow the flow of South Dakota employees to jobs elsewhere. Meanwhile, her budget would roll back Daugaards proposal to charge state workers health care premiums, which would be a true burden for low-wage earners.

Like Daugaard before her, Noem signaled caution with regard to using new revenue expected from the expanded collection of online sales taxes. While indicating support for a proposal to use that money to reduce the state sales tax rate, Noem told lawmakers to remain hands off until the true size of the online windfall is known. Thats prudent.

Noem also made a big statement with the absence of proposed spending for one item. Her budget lacks any necessary funding should the Legislature approve Senate Bill 19, repealing presumptive probation, a move that could fill state prisons quicker.

"The biggest question," Noem said, is the bill's fiscal ramifications if the state begins to incarcerate people who are now receiving probation. Noem seeks a nuanced solution that curtails crime without costing future taxpayers.

"I'm very interested in making sure we're doing this in a responsible way," Noem said.CROOKSTON, Minn. | When Temple Grandin was 14, her parents divorced and her mother remarried, leading Grandin from Boston to an Arizona ranch and her first exposure to cattle.

From that modest beginning, Grandin  who is autistic and as a child was written off by some as brain-damaged and destined to be institutionalized  has gone on to a remarkable career that includes revamping livestock handling facilities in North America and serving as a spokesperson for people with autism.

Shes gratified that her work has helped to improve how livestock is treated at handling facilities.

When I first started in the 70s, handling was awful. And it was awful throughout the 80s. (But) things have got a whole lot better, said Grandin, 71, a designer of livestock handling facilities, frequent public speaker, and part-time professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

Grandin spoke Jan. 14-15 at the University of Minnesota Crookston.

Three measures of Grandins impact on the world: her life was featured in an award-winning 2010 film; she was named to the 2010 Times 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world; and she has worked with a number of major companies, including McDonalds, to make livestock handling and slaughter more humane.Partly because of the programs controversial nature, the total number of H-2B workers admitted nationwide has been capped by law at 66,000 per fiscal year since 1990, although the federal government has often allowed the cap to be exceeded. Most recently, with authorization from Congress, the Trump administration allowed 15,000 additional H-2B workers into the country during the 2018 fiscal year.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who has advocated for reforms to help H-2B employers in South Dakota, said the congressional authorization allowed the Trump administration to increase visas by up to 69,000 for 2018, but the administration chose the lower number.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

"While we welcomed the increase, it was too little, too late for our states businesses who need workers for the busy summer tourism and construction seasons," Rounds wrote in his most recent weekly column. "A long-term solution is necessary."

Rounds said he recently joined a bipartisan group of senators to send a letter to congressional leadership urging them to provide a long-term solution for the H-2B visa program in any government funding bill agreed upon to end the partial government shutdown."I love her passion for law enforcement," Strand said. "She wants to make a difference and has chosen a path that gives her the ability to make a difference every day she is on the job.

"I think the Akicita program is important because this field can be rather intimidating, and there are so many differenct areas of law enforcement that a person might not know about," Strand said. "I would not have made it this far into my career without my mentors."

Heidi Mecham, support specialist for Akicita, said the main goal of the program is to create "a good support system for the Native American students who are in our program. Making sure that they have some hands-on experiences" and a network.

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Mentors benefit by learning about cultural sensitivity from the Native community, Mecham said. "These officers are learning as much from our students" as students learn from the officers, she said.

Of the 128 officers in the police department, just three are Native Americans, said Assistant Chief and Akicita mentor Don Hedrick. Out of 98 deputies, one is Native, said Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom. Both departments have other minority officers, and more Native employees who work in the jail, at the Care Campus, in juvenile services and in other more behind-the-scenes roles.Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Its really an advance of technology that has allowed them to extract more from the same process, more or less, Cutler said.

The process is in situ mining, which uses well fields to inject a solution deep underground, dissolve the uranium and bring it to the surface. Unlike traditional uranium mining from decades past  which left unreclaimed eyesores on the landscape in the Edgemont area  the in situ method does not involve open pits or tunnels.

Lilias Jarding, of the Clean Water Alliance in Rapid City, questioned the validity of Azarga's new estimates.

"Using smoke, mirrors and an inflated estimate of speculative uranium, they have again tried to draw investors to a project that has floundered for years  and for good reason," Jarding said in a written statement. "This is not a good place to mine uranium. The geology is wrong. Water resources could not be protected. Cultural resources would be destroyed. And the people of the Black Hills don't want to re-open the door to an industry that has done enough damage to our area already."In May, Taylor's column urged members to register to vote in the June election. Her column drew a distinction between legislators who are "normal" and "the wackies." Taylor said the "normal" legislators are "willing to look at issues one by one, listen to facts, and make rational decisions," while the "wackies" are "opposed to government in general and all forms of taxation." She also said the "wackies" think "facts they don't like are lies."

Taylor alleges in a lawsuit that Haugaard said her column made the Legislature look like "a bunch of buffoons." She accuses him of unlawful retaliation and violating her free-speech rights. The lawsuit contends that banning Taylor from the floor prevented her from being able to adequately represent her group's members.

"One important aspect of lobbying is circulating bill sponsor sheets and explaining to legislators the bill they are being asked to sponsor," the lawsuit states. "Legislators sign the bill sponsor sheet in order to become a sponsor of a bill. This activity occurs almost exclusively on the floors of the House and Senate."

The House floor is typically open to lobbyists, journalists and members of the public.

Taylor's attorney, David Lust, declined to comment on the case at this time.

The Journal left a message for Haugaard but he did not reply.

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Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0BISMARCK, N.D. | A North Dakota legislative committee has pressed for upgrades at the state Capitol to make the building more accessible to people with disabilities.

The members of the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee listened to testimony on a legislative measure that would mandate handicapped-accessible parking within 125 feet (40 meters) of the Capitol public entrance, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The Capitol has two handicapped-accessible parking spaces more than 350 feet (105 meters) from the south entrance, which is the door the public has been required to enter through since security measures were implemented two years ago.

Carel Two-Eagle, a community activist who uses crutches due to osteoarthritis, told legislators she had to contact Capitol security for assistance after the wind knocked her down.

"If I go down, I can't get up myself," Two-Eagle said. "To just get into the building is a major project."

Rep. Marvin Nelson, the bill's primary sponsor, told legislators about other accessibility concerns with the building, which include a narrow wheelchair ramp at the public entrance.THE CONVERSATION | Driving north of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, an extraordinary landscape comes into view. Trees disappear and an immense landscape of grass emerges, undulating in the wind like a great, green ocean.

This is the Flint Hills. For over a century it has been cattle country, a place where cows grow fat on nutritious grasses. More recently, a piece of this landscape was transformed in 1989 when the nonprofit Nature Conservancy bought the Barnard Ranch. It created a nature reserve there, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, which now covers nearly 40,000 acres.

A central element of the groups conservation strategy was reintroducing the American bison (Bison bison), which had been eradicated from the land in the mid-1800s. Releasing the first bison in 1993 was a step toward restoring part of an ecosystem that once stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

Today some 500,000 bison have been restored in more than 6,000 locations, including public lands, private ranches and Native American lands. As they return, researchers are gaining insights into their substantial ecological and conservation value.

Near extinctionPranaya SJB Rana is Features Editor for The Kathmandu Post. He was formerly Op-Ed Editor at the Post from 2012-2015. Rana is the author of a collection of short stories, City of Dreams: Stories, from Rupa Publications India.Exactly.

It would take a constitutional amendment to get rid of the judicial nominating commission, but an easier way to change it would be to pass legislation to alter the panel's makeup. The talk has been to give more power to the governor.

In other words, the ideas here is to subject the appointment of judges and justices to an even more politicized process. A process that Republicans now control.

Think that wont be the case? Look at the people Gov. Kim Reynolds and her predecessor, Terry Branstad, picked for the state nominating commission, as well as those for the states various judicial districts.

They were nearly all Republicans. In fact, we couldnt find a single Democrat.

We recall that their predecessors, Chet Culver and Tom Vilsack, also favored their party in picking people for the nominating panels. That seems to be a natural political instinct, regardless of party. But, we ask, why subject the appointment of judges to even more politics?Steyer, the California billionaire Democrat, earlier this month called a press conference in downtown Des Moines to announce he will not run for president and instead focus on his organization, which is drumming up support to impeach President Donald Trump.

Of course, Scholten also said he has not ruled out any future campaign. He insisted he is, for the time being, focused on his "Working Hero Iowa" campaign on the income tax credits; but he also said he is leaving the door open.

This is not to question Scholtens sincerity about the "Working Hero Iowa" campaign, but with everything like this -- especially in Iowa -- there is a political element. And the campaign could very much help Scholten if he does decide down the road to put his name on the ballot again.

Scholten said he will hold "Working Hero Iowa" events all across the state. He described it as similar to a campaign, in that hell be working to drum up grassroots support and volunteers to the cause. He wants to raise awareness through these public events and earned media.The genius of American political institutions is a system of representation that taps into local knowledge from across our expansive federal system and delivers it to a national legislature for use in deliberations about the common good. The foolishness of American politics is to forget this feature of our institutions. The solution to the border security debate lies here, in this mechanism of federalism.

The country as a whole can debate the kind and level of security it wants. Together we can settle on some general directions. According to a Hill-HarrisX Daily Poll conducted Jan. 12-13, most Americans - 87 percent - favor increasing border security.

But as to how to secure the border, in alignment with that vision, we ought to give special deference to representatives from border states.

People who live in and represent the border states know the terrain, the property claims that would be affected by eminent domain, the results of previous administrations' experiments with border security, the pressure points and concerns of local residents, the difference between what happens at ports of entry and what happens elsewhere, and the impact of the current situation on the populations most affected - their constituencies.I know Christmas is over, but here's a holiday story that still needs to be told.

At East Moline's Glenview Middle School, members of its Builder's Club, a student-led service organization sponsored world-wide by Kiwanis International, produced its 12th annual "gBay" sale.

This is a school-wide project in which donated gift-type items are laid out in a room and students are invited to bid on them at prices ranging from 25 cents to $1.

The idea was dreamed up as a fundraiser by club mentor and school counselor Gaye Dunn, but it also lets kids without a lot of money buy Christmas gifts they can afford.

"Our kids want what everybody else wants, to give gifts," Dunn said.

And, when all the receipts were tallied at the end of the purchase period, the sale had raised more than $700 that was spent, by a vote of the club, in three areas, she said.

A donation was made to St. Jude's Children's Hospital because a child in the school is a patient. Another $300 went to purchase gift cards for struggling families to buy food at WalMart and Hy-Vee. The final $150 bought fleece that Builder's Club members will use to make blankets that also will be donated.A 29-year-old Davenport man is facing charges after he was caught allegedly firing a pistol at someone early Saturday while standing in the parking lot of The Pour House, a Davenport tavern located at 1502 W. Locust St.

Kendrick Jamaal Jones, of 3103 W. 69th St., is charged with one count of intimidation with a dangerous weapon. The charge is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Jones also is charged with reckless use of a firearm, a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of up to five years, as well as one count each of carrying weapons and driving while barred, each of which is an aggravated misdemeanor that carry a prison sentence of up to two years.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Davenport Police officer Evan Obert, at 1:28 a.m. police were sent to The Pour House to investigate a report of a man with a gun in the parking lot.

Jones was seen on surveillance video firing the pistol at another person, and witnesses on the scene told police they saw Jones shoot at the victim.

During the incident, Jones and the victim got into a fight when the victim attempted to disarm Jones.It is a federal offense for a felon to be in possession of a firearm. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. There is no parole in the federal prison system.

Smith also is facing additional drugs and weapons charges unrelated to the Oct. 20 shooting incident after police searched the hotel room where he was found.

Police searched Smiths room at 8:10 a.m. Friday.

According to the arrest affidavit, officers seized found hidden inside a vent two glass jars that contained 128.2 grams of marijuana. There were also other jars in the room with marijuana residue, as well as multiple digital scales. Officers also seized $2,060 in cash.

Officers also seized a Ruger LCP .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol, a loaded Lorcin L380 semi-automatic handgun, and a Taurus PT1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

In that case, Smith is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and trafficking in stolen weapons, both of which are Class D felonies under Iowa law.

Smith also is charged with possession with the intent to distribute not more than 50 kilograms of marijuana and failing to affix an Iowa drug tax stamp to the drugs. Both of those charges also are Class D felonies.Kone, a global elevator and escalator manufacturer, has North American operations in Moline and a plant in Coal Valley.

Walmart raises Iowa driver wages

Walmart announced this past week it's raising wages for truck drivers in Iowa.

Beginning in February, drivers will receive a per mile increase of 1 cent and a 50-cent increase in activity pay, according to a news release. Walmart drivers will now be paid up to $1 every time they arrive at a destination or drop a trailer.

With the increase, Walmart drivers can earn an average of $87,500 in their first year of employment with a rate of nearly 89 cents per mile, according to the release.

"As our business continues to grow, we must recruit and retain the best, safest truck drivers in the industry," said Mike Billups, Walmart general transportation manager for Iowa, in the release. "Simply put, we would not be able to deliver every day low prices to Walmart shoppers without our first-class fleet of professional drivers. This wage increase demonstrates our commitment to one of the most critical parts of our team."President Donald Trump has vilified those traveling in the caravans marching toward the U.S. border, claiming, without proof, that they pose a threat to the United States.

But is this really the case? Who are the people involved in these mass movements?

The caravan Trump attacked in the run-up to the November election began in Honduras, as is another caravan that is reportedly forming.

Most of the people are from Honduras, with some Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans joining them. The vast majority are fleeing gang violence that threatens their lives and the appalling poverty to which they are subjected in their home countries. All are hoping for a better life.

According to statistics compiled by the World Bank, nearly two-thirds of the population of Honduras lives in poverty. In rural areas, one of every five Hondurans lives in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 per day.

And that is just part of the problem. Though in recent years, the rate has declined a bit, Honduras continues to have one of the highest homicide rates in the world (43.6 murders per 100,000 residents in 2017, according to statistics compiled by the Observatory of Violence at the National Autonomous University of Honduras).The 47th annual Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will take a southern route across the state that will begin in Council Bluffs and end in Keokuk, the southernmost city in the state.

The route was announced Saturday night during an announcement party in Des Moines.

The route is the sixth shortest at 427 miles. It also will be the eighth flattest with a climb of 14,735 feet. It is also the eighth easiest RAGBRAI.

Between Council Bluffs and Keokuk, riders will spend the week of July 21-27 passing through Atlantic, Winterset (the birthplace of John Wayne), Indianola, Centerville, Fairfield and Burlington.

That last day will truly be a ride along the mighty Mississippi that will cover the final 62 miles of the event.

This will be the seventh time that Council Bluffs has hosted the first day of the ride, with the last time being in 2013.

The last time Keokuk saw the RAGBRAI was in 1992.

Last year the ride began in Onawa and ended in Davenport.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2Rautahat police rescue abducted boy

Rautahat police rescued a five-year-old Indian boy, who was abducted fromhis house on Tuesday, from Maulapur Municipality-7, Rautahat, on Friday evening.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To begin, I am Welsh, French Canadian and part Indian because my grandmother had a little Indian in her. I was born outside of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. During growing up and living in many cities and states, I became friends with an Indian named Hiawatha. I, coming from a Williams/Rozelle heritage, loved to travel and meet people along the way, no passport needed. The last time I saw Hiawatha was in 1962/1963 in a house on Third Street in Glens Falls. A lady named Evelyn said she would care for her until I came back from California. Well, I am back and I would love to see that Indian maiden named Hiawatha once again. Hopefully, she hasn't been sent to Mexico or some other country.Queensbury is doing what Washington wont, and other local communities should follow the towns lead.

What Queensbury is doing, and Washington is not, is pursuing green energy and conservation policies in line with the Paris Agreement, in which countries around the world pledged to pursue policies that would reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

The goal is to slow the warming of the planet being caused by human activity. It seems futile when you think about the tininess of Queensbury and its population compared with the enormity of Earth and the billions of people who live on it.

But any successful effort to change the way we produce energy will have to, eventually, include the tens of thousands of small communities in the world and their inhabitants.

We need governments to sign on, and we need large corporations to take part. But we also need the hundreds of millions of people who fill up their cars and heat their houses and shop for household goods and make the everyday choices that determine how much carbon-based fuel we burn.

At least for now and at least in the United States, the green energy movement is not going to be led from the top, so it is going to have to be led from the bottom.+2 Resource officers work to create bonds as students return to school Zach Warriner didnt skip a beat when he started in his new role as a school resource office

Nelson said the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office approached all of the school districts in the county in the spring of 2018 with an offer to bring an officer into each district at the beginning of this school year. Every district decided in favor of the offer, and now there are 11 officers across the nine districts, according to a sheriffs office official.

Although superintendents expressed their enthusiasm for officers transcending the role of security guard, critics of school resource officers say they can make some students feel less safe and the counseling and mentoring work they do would be better left to someone who specializes in that area.

Marc Schindler, the director of the Justice Policy Institute, said officers are often more expensive than a social worker and a social worker is often more effective than an officer at being a resource students trust.

You talk to good school resource officers, and often what you hear is, Im really like a social worker, and thats great, Schindler said, but why dont I just pay for a social worker then?

Schindler also said there can be unintended consequences of having an officer in the school system, namely that students in those districts are often referred to the justice system rather than disciplinary issues being handled by the school.QUEENSBURY  Warren Countys plan to build new hangars to house 20 planes at Warren County Airport have been reworked thanks to high prices for the steel needed for the building.

The county had gotten a $993,000 grant for two 10-bay hangars, which would replace decades-old hangars that are in poor shape.

But steel prices surged more than 40 percent last year, attributed to new tariffs the federal government placed on steel imports.

That cost increase has pushed the project pricetag well over the funding that was available, which has prompted county supervisors to have to revisit the buildings design.

Warren County Airport Manager Don DeGraw said other airports in New York that had pending hangar projects are running into the same cost issue.

Kevin Hajos, the countys public works superintendent, said the money will not be enough to pay for the project as designed, but would fund one conventional 10-bay hangar, or county leaders could pursue an alternate design that would use less steel, but would include a heavy-duty canvas covering that would give space for storage of 20 planes. The grant funding would fully cover such a structure.GRANVILLE  A Syracuse woman was driving south on Route 22 near Granville when her vehicle skidded into the Indian River on Friday evening just before 5 p.m.

According to Granville police, Sara Goldfarb, 30, turned off Route 22 onto Mettowee Street and hit a patch of ice, causing her to go off the road and into the river.

As wind chills hovered in the single digits, Goldfard remained in the partially submerged vehicle while the river rushed past and over the small dam just ahead. The vehicle landed with the passenger side tilting downward into the river; the drivers side was partially on the river bank. But because it had wedged into a crevice, the vehicle did not continue floating with the current.

We got a call that there was a single-motor vehicle accident into the river and that someone was inside the vehicle, said Sgt. Ryan Pedone, Granville Police. When we arrived she was still in the vehicle.

Pedone said that Granville Police, Granville Volunteer Fire Department and Granville Rescue Squad assisted in getting Goldfarb out of the vehicle.

Goldfarb was not injured and she was the only person in the vehicle, Pedone said.Trombly receives new rank, duties

LATHAM  Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, the adjutant general for the state of New York, announces the recent promotion of members of the New York Army National Guard in recognition of their capability for additional responsibility and leadership.

Kolton Trombly of Cossayuna, assigned to the Company D, 3-142nd Aviation, received a promotion to the rank of specialist.

Goldenberg is a second lieutenant

LATHAM  A cadet received his commission as Army second lieutenant through the Mohawk Battalions Reserve Officer Training Corps program during a ceremony held at the New York National Guards Joint Forces Headquarters in Latham on Jan. 12.

Newly commissioned 2nd Lt. Samuel Goldenberg of Schuylerville began his military careers as an officer in the Army National Guard following the oath and pinning of new rank with family and friends in attendance.

The cadet, who completed undergraduate studies and received a degree in 2018, will go on to serve in the Army National Guard.Officials leave for Oman and the UAE to discuss labour issues

With an aim to secure Zero Cost jobs for Nepali migrant workers and protect their rights and safety, the government has prioritised signing of formal agreements with labour destination countries.ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. Bernie Sanders' visit to South Carolina - a state where African-Americans make up nearly 30 percent of the population - was a signal to some in the Palmetto State that he intends to target black voters.



In speeches at churches, community centers and colleges, Sanders reminded voters repeatedly about his civil rights upbringing, having marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington as a college student.



What hes doing in South Carolina points to what his strategy is in terms of he has to make inroads in the core Democratic constituency, said J. Michael Bitzer a professor of politics and history at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. Bitzer, who has studied southern politics extensively, said when it comes to race you cannot divorce race from politics in the South.



According to exit polls in the state, Sanders won roughly 14 percent of black voters in South Carolina. Hillary Clinton, however, won 86 percent of the black vote in the state.



Minority voters will play a significant role in determining the next Democratic nominee in 2020.



A recent report found African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics are expected to increase as individual voting blocks. Whereas "Whites without a college degree," a voting block that has leaned Republican, is expected to drop in 2020.



Unlike some of the earlier primary states, Bitzer said that Iowa and New Hampshire have their own political dynamics.



When it comes to states such as South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida the Democratic bases in those states are heavily reliant on African-American voters.



Bitzer said, for any Democrat that wants to be in the top tire of the field its going to be a requirement to secure the black vote.



Sanders, who hasnt announced that he is running for president, held several events around Martin Luther King Day including a private meal and meet and greet at Big Ts Barbecue, a popular black-owned and operated soul food restaurant with Our Revolution, a political non-profit formed by Sanders supporters following his 2016 campaign.



During his visit to Columbia, South Carolina, Sanders also ratcheted up his rhetoric during stops at Benedict College, a historically black college and Zion Baptist Church, a historic African-American church.



Faith Dupree, a student at Benedict College who supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 said: I feel as though hed be a great candidate but Id like to still know my options because that is my duty to be an informed citizen.



Dupree said her ideal candidate in 2020 is someone who doesnt just shout out ideas. But someone who actually puts weight behind them.



While at Benedict, Sanders told a standing room only crowd of over 250 African-American students on Tuesday that President Donald Trump was unamerican and absolutely disgraceful. Sanders also told the students that the Republican Party is a right-wing extremist party.



Sanders made headlines at the NAACP rally at the South Carolina State House by calling Trump a racist, an attack line that Sanders has used several times over the course of Trumps political career.



Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel tweeted that Sanders' "racist" comment was absolutely disgusting and wrong on Monday. While his remarks were not well received by Republicans, his rhetoric was met with applause from majority African-American audiences in South Carolina.



On Martin Luther King Day, the South Carolina NAACP held a town hall at Zion Baptist Church. The group reportedly invited Sanders and Booker but Sanders was the only 2020 potential candidate to attend the event.



Angela Douglas, a city councilwoman in Chester, South Carolina, moderated a town hall with the Vermont Senator. She told ABC News, I think it was an intentional push to come and meet with folks in South Carolina, particularly to participate in black activities. He has talked about his civil rights activities in the past as a strong suit. Douglas, like many South Carolina politicians ABC News spoke to, hasnt yet decided who they will be supporting in 2020.



Jaime Harrison said Sanders' remarks at the NAACP town hall are creating a synergy on racial equity issues and economic inequality issues. The former South Carolina Democratic Party chair said that he believes Sanders message "will be well received in a state like South Carolina." Harrison, who is associate chairman and counselor of the Democratic National Committee, said he will not endorse a candidate in the 2020 election. He said the party needs "a candidate that can inspire our base to go out and vote."



South Carolina Rep. Jerry Govan told ABC News that African-Americans will determine the nominee in South Carolina.



Nearly every Republican who has won the South Carolina primary since 1980 has won the nomination, the only exception being former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 2012. For Democrats in South Carolina, over the past three decades, nearly every person who won the state eventually won the Democratic nomination. The only exceptions were the 1988 South Carolina caucus, which was a game changer for then-candidate Jessie Jackson, and John Edwards in the 2004 presidential primary.



Govan who is the chair of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus extended an invitation to Sanders to speak to a nonpartisan group that supports black legislators in the state. African-Americans represent 44 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives and 13 members of the state Senate. Govan said his group is the second largest legislative black caucus in the country, only behind Georgia. Govan told ABC News that Sanders is the only potential 2020 contender to address the group, so far.



In addition to his remarks to the Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday, Sanders also spoke to the States Democratic caucus about the wealth gap, health care, taxes.



Govan, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, said he hasnt decided who he is supporting in the primary, but warns candidates "will have to put their best foot forward if they want to be successful."



Sanders isnt the only potential 2020 candidate who has eyes on the first-in-the-south primary. Several candidates have already booked venues for events at some of the most popular black-owned restaurants in the state.



Candidates, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren are personally calling local government officials in an attempt to court them for support. Sen. Kamala Harris, the only African-American who has announced a 2020 bid, traveled to South Carolina to address members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the oldest black sorority in the U.S., and an organization which Harris joined as a student at Howard University.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.FORT EDWARD  Board of elections commissioners reported last week that for the 2018 November general election, there was an overall 59 percent county turnout.

Cambridge was the highest at 71 percent, and Granville was the lowest at 54 percent, said Republican Commissioner Leslie Allen, during last weeks Board of Supervisors Government Operations Committee meeting.

Allen said that they are currently completing their annual report and that will have turnout numbers for every town when the annual report is completed.

There are seven election-related bills awaiting the governors signature, Allen said. These include creating a statewide database of registered voters; 16-year-old pre-registration; and the June versus September primary.

This (the primary change) pushes everything back three months, she said, adding that the Board of Elections draft political calendar lists the primary as June 26.

Those who caucus will have to be done by July 25, she said. Those who carry petitions will start at the end of February.

The rationale for moving the primary to June was to assure military and overseas ballots got out and returned in time, she said.

In what could be a big budget issue, Allen said the state may require electronic poll books, which could cost the county as much as $10,000 per district, and there are 50 districts in the county.

Kathleen Phalen-Tomaselli covers Washington County government and other county news and events.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.While the DEC continues to deflect with talking points when questioned about the appropriateness of the current number of forest rangers, New York states failure to provide aid to our western states beleaguered by fire speaks volumes, van Laer testified. As over 6 million acres burned in the western states  resources came from as far away as New Zealand and Australia, yet New York remained idle.

New Yorks failure to aid other states during an unparalleled fire year says something the DEC refuses to admit. It is a silent admission that we dont have enough forest rangers in New York.

DEC: record staffing

The DEC pushed back, saying in a statement that the ranger force is larger than it has ever been, even if the land patrolled is more substantial. The department also said it plans to add more rangers in the coming year, but the number of rangers budgeted for remains the same. Any new hires will replace those lost to attrition or fill currently empty positions.The electricity went out Tuesday afternoon. It was only out for about six hours. I didnt even light the kerosene heater down in the basement because the temperature was in the teens.

I dont have to worry about the pipes down there until were down in the single digits. If the power had gone out the night before  when it was well below zero  it might have been a little trickier.

After a few moments of flickering, the lights went out. I called National Grid and was treated to a dissertation on gas emergencies, what to do in snowstorms, what to do when lines are down, and then a series of obligatory recorded yes and no questions, and then a suggestion I go to the internet, which I did not have (no power to the satellite dish).

Finally, after almost losing my mind, I got a person.

She was very nice. I was the first to report what turned out to be a small outage.

We know, living out here, the power company has to be informed or we could be out for days.

I went out to start the generator, so I could keep things like the pump going, but the starter rope broke.

Oh, for crying out loud!A Louisiana man with no history of violent crimes went on a shooting rampage this weekend, killing five people, including his own parents, and setting off a day-long manhunt that spanned multiple states, authorities said.

Dakota Theriot, 21, shot and killed his girlfriend, her father and her brother Saturday before driving to a neighboring county, where he killed his parents, authorities said. Theriot then drove more than 1,000 miles northeast to Richmond County in Virginia, where he was arrested Sunday morning.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said the rampage began shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday, when authorities in Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge, received a 911 call about three victims who had been shot. Those victims were the suspect's girlfriend, Summer Ernest, 20; her father, Billy Ernest, 43; and her younger brother, Tanner Ernest, 17.

Ard said there were two children inside the home, ages 7 and 1. They were not harmed.

Theriot then stole Billy Ernest's 2004 Dodge pickup truck and drove to Ascension Parish, about 30 miles away, and shot his parents, Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 50, inside their trailer, authorities said.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said the suspect's father was still alive when officers arrived and was able to tell them that his son had shot him.

Dakota Theriot previously lived with his parents before they asked him to move out a couple of weeks ago, authorities said.

Investigators do not know why Dakota Theriot's parents told him to leave, or whether he was estranged from his family, said Allison Hudson, spokeswoman for the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office.

Theriot then moved in with his girlfriend and her family in the Livingston Parish home. Authorities said they had just started dating.

After the shooting, Theriot drove for 16 hours overnight to Warsaw, Virginia, where some of his relatives live, according to the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. Officials in Virginia had been warned of the slayings in Louisiana and that the suspect has family connections in the area.

Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith told the Advocate that Theriot drove to his grandmother's home in Warsaw. The grandmother and other family members had moved to a hotel in case Theriot tried to contact them.

When Theriot arrived early Sunday morning in the Dodge truck, a gun pointed out of the window, deputies were at the house, the sheriff's office said in a news release. Theriot later surrendered.

Smith told the Advocate that Theriot seemed tired and made statements about the slaying of his parents, his girlfriend, and her father and brother.

Authorities said they still do not have a motive in the killings. Theriot had been arrested once for minor drug possession, but he did not have previous encounters with police that would have hinted at the likelihood of violence.

"For someone to do that, someone so young, someone connected to his victims, the fact that the family took him in and this is the end result, it's kind of jarring for all of us," said Lori Steele, spokeswoman for the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office.

Theriot will face five counts of first-degree murder, among other charges.

Steele said officials have no information yet on what specific type of weapon Theriot used or how he obtained it.The Norfolk post office is using an automobile delivery wagon to deliver parcel post packages in Ghent and Brambleton areas of the city. It is the first vehicle of its kind for a Virginia post office and was secured because many of the packages are too large to be handled by the motorcycle vans and tri-wheel wagon now in use. The new machine has a speed of 40 mph and will be used to deliver packages eight hours a day.As traffic increased, Tillett progressed to a 45-foot self-propelled ferry he called the Oregon Inlet. Over the years, his toll rose to $1 and then $2. In 1932, a storm struck the Outer Banks and whisked away one of the ferries, never to be seen again. Luckily, the year before, Tillett had borrowed money and had a new one built in Elizabeth City that would carry 14 cars. A girl from Spain was there as the builder was finishing the vessel. She suggested he name it the Barcelona and Tillett agreed, Daniels said."If you have four police officers at an arrest, you have to look at all four body cameras; even if three of them have no relevant information, they still have to watch them," said Michael Jay, a House Appropriations committee legislative analyst.The typical service has songs, a healing service, a topical lecture on Spiritualism, and messages delivered at the end of the service. During the service there are two people on the podium  one to be the narrator and one to give the lecture and deliver the messages. At the Jan. 6 service attended by 22, the songs included "O Spirit Let Me Walk With Thee," "I'll walk with God," and "Let There be Peace on Earth.""That's a question that I'd have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion," the longtime Republican operative and friend of President Donald Trump told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "If there's wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I didn't know about  which I know of none  but if there is I would certainly testify honestly.""Age is no barrier," she said. "Think about what you are doing with your life and realize you can do more. If you are willing to work at it, you can do anything."No need to be concerned about KC: PM Oli

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that people need not be concerned over the issue of Dr Govinda KC.The grants were awarded to selected participants in the Community Business Launch "Pitch Night" competition on Jan. 15. Those finalists were chosen out of nine submitted business plans to present five-minute pitches to a judging panel.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday praised Saint Petersburg's "unbroken" spirit as Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the World War II siege of Leningrad, which claimed more than 800,000 lives. Earlier in the day tanks and air-defence missile systems rolled through the heart of Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, as crowds watched the performance in falling snow and temperatures of minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 Fahrenheit), some wrapped in blankets. The parade in Russia's second city was the first time war-era and modern heavy weaponry, including the famed T-34 battle tank and multiple-launch rocket systems, had trundled past the Hermitage Museum to mark the end of the siege of Leningrad. Plans to hold the ceremony have provoked an outcry, including among some survivors who criticised it as "militarism." President Vladimir Putin, a native of Saint Petersburg, skipped the show of force in the snow-covered Palace Square, instead visiting a memorial outside the city and laying flowers at a cemetery. - 'Crime against humanity' - Putin said that the Nazis, who had tried to starve "an impregnable city" to death and subjected residents of Leningrad to "horrendous suffering", would never be forgiven. "According to the enemy's plans, Leningrad should have disappeared from the face of the Earth," Putin said at a memorial concert later in the day. "This is what is called a crime against humanity." Clutching red roses, Putin earlier visited the famed Piskaryovskoe cemetery, where some Russians wished him good health. Putin, at 66, was born in Leningrad after the war. But his older brother died in childhood during the devastating siege and is buried in a mass grave at Piskaryovskoe. The Russian leader's mother nearly succumbed to hunger during the siege, while his father fought in the war and was wounded near Leningrad. More than 2,500 servicemen in modern and period uniforms including sheepskin coats and felt boots took part in the parade, which also included a military flyover. A moment of silence was observed to the ticking of a metronome, which was used to warn residents about air raids during the siege. Some clutched flowers and others could not hold back tears. - Parade divides opinion - Opinion over the appropriateness of the parade was divided. While some people criticised the authorities for holding a parade they denounced as misplaced sabre-rattling and militaristic propaganda, others praised it. Natalya Gerashchenko brought her 12-year-old son to see the parade. "A military parade is very beautiful," the 35-year-old said. "The lifting of the siege is very important for everyone." Ivan Kolokoltsev, a 45-year-old manager, said: "We have to remember, we have to commemorate it so that people remember." Others said one of the most horrific chapters of World War II should be remembered differently. "I am against militarism," Yakov Gilinsky, an 84-year-old siege survivor, told AFP ahead of the parade. Political commentator Anton Orekh suggested that the money spent on the parade should have been given to survivors instead. "Old people would buy some medicine and new clothes and for a time forget they have to count pennies," he wrote. But a defence ministry official insisted the event was not celebratory in nature, describing it as a "soldierly ritual". - Germany earmarks funds -- Encircled by the Nazi troops for 872 days between 1941 and 1944, the city of around 3 million people went through unspeakable horrors. With supplies to the city cut, bread rations plunged to 250 grammes (about half a pound) for manual workers and 125 grammes for other civilians. More than 800,000 people died from hunger, disease, or the shelling. Many historians say the true figure is even higher. Germany and Russia announced on Sunday Berlin had earmarked 12 million euros ($13.7 million) to help Russian war veterans and siege survivors as a "voluntary humanitarian gesture". But Moscow also stressed that Berlin should pay individual compensations to all victims of the blockade. Later Sunday authorities were set to hold a music and light show as well as a gun salute in memory of the gun fire that marked the end of the ordeal in 1944. The trauma from the war is deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the city. Russia's former imperial capital is home to some 108,000 war veterans and siege survivors.The Philippines has struggled for decades to end a Muslim separatist insurgency in its south, which has killed tens of thousands and left the region mired in poverty. The latest bloodshed came Sunday when a double bombing at a Catholic church on the southern island of Jolo killed at least 18 people, including soldiers rushing to aid the wounded. Here is a look at some of the nation's worst attacks: - Simultaneous blasts - On a holiday for the country's national hero, Jose Rizal, near-simultaneous bombings in December 2000 killed 22 people and injured more than 100 in Manila. One explosion rocked a plaza across from the US embassy. Blasts also tore through a train, a passenger bus and a cargo handling facility at the international airport. - Deadliest bombing - A February 2004 firebombing of a ferry in Manila Bay which killed 116 people is the country's deadliest terror attack. The ship was engulfed in flames as it sailed out of Manila Bay with 899 people on board, with many rescued by small vessels in the area. Notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group, which is suspected in Sunday's church bombing, claimed it planted an explosive onboard. - Market explosion - At least 15 people were killed and scores more wounded in December 2004 when a bomb blast tore through a public market in General Santos, one of the biggest Christian majority cities in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. - Killed while sleeping - Gunmen launched a raid that killed 11 people in February 2010, with many of the victims still sleeping when their homes were strafed by bullets and the buildings were later torched. The violence in the town of Maluso on the southern island of Basilan was also blamed on the Abu Sayyaf. - Attack in president's hometown - A September 2016 bombing that ripped through a bustling night market in President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown left 15 dead, and was blamed on the Maute gang of Islamist militants that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Authorities said the militants carried out the violence partly to raise its profile with IS. - Marawi siege - Marawi, the nation's principal Islamic city, was besieged from May to October 2017 by hundreds of heavily armed local and foreign gunmen who authorities said aimed to establish a Southeast Asian base for IS. Swathes of the southern city were destroyed in five months of house-to-house fighting between troops and the jihadists from the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups that killed nearly 1,200 people. Though ultimately dislodged, the attackers were behind some of the worst urban fighting the nation had seen since World War II. - Van bomb - Ten people, including troops and civilians, were killed when a bomb in a van blew up at an army checkpoint in Basilan in July 2018. The powerful explosion, claimed by IS, occurred after soldiers and pro-government militiamen stopped the vehicle just after dawn to search it. Authorities believed the attacker intended to target a children's event in a nearby town, but set off the bomb after being intercepted.Medical ethics experts are divided over an experiment in which Chinese scientists cloned gene-edited monkeys to induce mental illness in them.

The five cloned monkey embryos had been edited to remove the BMAL1 gene, leading the baby animals to display symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia as a result of disruption to their circadian rhythms, according to a study published in National Science Review on Thursday.

The findings by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience could help develop treatments for a range of human medical conditions including sleep disorders, diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, according to team member Chang Hung-Chun.

The study has drawn attention for its use of cloned animals, as well as the researchers use of the gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas 9.

That tool was also used by He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who recently created the worlds first genetically edited human babies as part of a controversial and unauthorised experiment.

But unlike Hes experiment, the cloned macaques study was authorised and funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai municipal government.

Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester in Britain, called it disturbing news.

Human mental illnesses are complex, and even harder to predict than purely physical diseases, he said. The likely benefit from harming animals in this way is extremely small. However, there is no doubt that these animals will suffer  and probably, very significantly. Primates are highly intelligent and social animals. It is not ethical to deliberately harm them, and especially when the chance of tangible benefit for human patients is so small. Such research is very irresponsible.

Story continues

China is the only country in the world that has the technology to clone primates bred in captivity, which are still widely used in scientific research globally due to their neurological similarities to humans over other common lab animals such as rodents. As such, primates can experience pain and psychological distress in similar ways to humans as a result of scientific experiments.

But there have been ethical concerns for decades over using a species with such remarkable similarities to humans when there have been significant advances in neural imaging and other digital brain modelling techniques.

Great apes such as orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas are banned or highly restricted from research uses in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and New Zealand, while Austria prohibits the use of all primates in lab experiments.

The United States is the worlds largest user of lab chimpanzees for scientific research, although hundreds have been retired in recent years after the National Institute of Health ended its chimpanzee biomedical research programme in 2015.

Chimpanzees are believed to share around 98 per cent of human DNA.

In Britain alone, around 3,000 monkeys such as macaques and marmosets are used in medical research annually, primarily for developing vaccines and studying the human nervous and reproduction systems, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Alan Bates, a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, said it was especially controversial to be conducting the research in the field of mental illness.

There are substantial differences between human and non-human primate cognition that make any non-human model of a specifically human disease problematic, he said. If monkeys mental processes were sufficiently close to humans to provide a valid model, then it would certainly be unethical to experiment on them.

Cloned animals are inherently unsuited for drug testing as they lack the genetic diversity sent in wild populations. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how laboratory-reared captive animals could fail to show symptoms akin to mental illness.

Other bioethics experts agreed there were ethical issues surrounding the use of animals similar to humans in nature, and that any animal experimentation must continue to be closely regulated.

I think its a very natural reaction to think that there is something rather perverse and horrible about intentionally inducing a disease in an animal for the purposes of studying it, said David Hunter, associate professor of medical ethics at Flinders University in Australia.

On the whole, harm to animals might be reduced by this kind of research, however is that worth the cost to us of instrumentalising those animals who are having harm induced in this way?

Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University, said the low success rates of cloning carried an ethical price due to the risk of creating malformed animals. But he believed that the use of animals for disease models was ultimately justified as a replacement for experimenting on humans.

I think if the scientists are competent, making disease models to study human diseases is ethical. You can try experimenting with drugs and gene editing to fix diseases that you could not ethically try first in humans, he said. All such research must be done with close supervision of animal experimentation committees and with full transparency.

But Terry Kaan Sheung-hung, co-director of the University of Hong Kongs Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, said he had no objection to the experiment.

Gene editing is not so different from the older gene knockout technique, which has been widely accepted in scientific circles for a long time. This new instance is a further development of the technique, he said, adding that the gene knockout technique was commonly used in lab mice.

The report says that the scientists were careful in carrying out the experiment in accordance with animal welfare regulations, and the findings are open and subject to peer scrutiny.

For Alexandre Erler, assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Centre for Bioethics, the findings represented a positive development for biomedical research.

Some use of animals, regrettable as this may be, is still unavoidable if such research is to make further progress, and monkeys provide helpful models for studying neurodegenerative diseases, Erler said.

The use of cloning might actually help us reduce the total number of animals used in such research  and thats a goal we are ethically required to pursue.

This article China has tweaked genes to create five mad monkeys. Is that ethical? first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2019.It is all very well Brexiteers arguing that we have to respect the outcome of the 2016 referendum because that is 'democracy'. but where are those so-called values when the rift with Europe they crave itself becomes an existential threat to our freedoms?Of course having a third plebiscite on the subject of Europe is in no way subverting the democratic process. People have a right to pass judgement on the changed circumstances between June 2016 and today, they should be able to decide whether the deal that Theresa May has cobbled together is acceptable to them, and they certainly should decide whether the consequences that have emerged in the last two years of us leaving Europe on any deal (or no deal) are worth it or not.That is democracy, not the sterilisation of a position taken on a series of vague promises that have proved to be undeliverable, or the ossification of an unformed proposition that has turned out to be unworkable. If there is one thing we have learned in the last two years, Brexit, indeed democracy itself, is a process not an event.The latest threat to our freedom comes from, plans drawn up by the UK Government to declare a state of emergency and even the introduction of martial law in the event of disorder after a no-deal Brexit. The Sunday Times reports that civil servants are considering how to use the sweeping powers available under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 to stop any civil disobedience resulting from the nation leaving the EU on March 29.Measures being considered include curfews, bans on travel, confiscation of property and, most drastic, the deployment of the armed forces to quell rioting are among the measures available to ministers under the legislation. They can also amend any act of parliament, except the Human Rights Act, for a maximum of 21 days.This legislation was introduced to deal with national emergencies such as acts of war and terrorism and now the government is considering using it to impose their will on the British people. In addition, the UK armed forces have begun stockpiling food, fuel, spare parts and ammunition at bases in the Falklands, Cyprus and Gibraltar in case of a no-deal Brexit. They are anxious that rations and other supplies are built up to ensure the military does not run short should a chaotic Brexit disrupt imports and exports.This is not a democratic process, this is a coup d'etat by the establishment. We really do have to call a halt to this nonsense as soon as possible.Colombia Hoy



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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



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Cerveza Polar



Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar



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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!

For many years Southeast Asia has been a cautionary tale for what not to do in terms of energy sector economics. Once one of the worlds most active energy markets, Southeast Asia was hit with wave after wave of economic and political hardships that arrested its energy growth, from political instability in Thailand to growing nationalization paired with devastating natural disasters in Indonesia, not to mention myriad offshore territorial disputes throughout the region. This all dovetailed with historically low oil prices around the globe, making Southeast Asia woefully undesirable to investors.

Now, as Southeast Asia continues to urbanize at a breakneck speed, the developing region is projected to see a massive growth in energy demand over the next 20 years. Demographic changes are to produce a staggering 100-150 million new middle-class consumers in the region. Vietnam will match China as a 50 percent urban country by 2030, with the Philippines and Indonesia, each home to mega-metropolises and massive populations, not far behind.

Expected to increase by a whopping two thirds by the year 2040, Southeast Asias energy demand will require enormous investment and infrastructure in the energy generation and transmission sectors. The surging demand begs the question: will Southeast Asia lean harder into coal and carbon or move ahead with more sustainable resources like renewables and natural gas?

By just 2030, it is anticipated that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region will become the fourth largest energy consumer in the world. The installed energy capacity in the region will more than double, from 240 gigawatts to 565 gigawatts, meaning that Southeast Asia will be adding a larger quantity of energy capacity in the next 20 years than the current capacity of entire nation of Japan. Related: The Most Important Oil Factor In 2019

ASEAN--which is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam--is home to a number of poor and developing countries that will be hit particularly hard by skyrocketing energy demand over the next two decades. Projections show that Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam will grow by 6-10 percent annually, while Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos will likely see growth in the double digits each year, meaning great economic pressure to come for these developing nations. The International Energy Agency has estimated that US$2.7 trillion will be necessary to meet the growing needs in Southeast Asia for energy supply, transmission and efficiency measures.

Currently, the Southeast Asian energy industry is dominated by coal. According to findings from a 2018 report published by CoalSwarm, a research institute based in San Francisco, California, ASEAN nations make up a quarter of the worlds top 20 investors in new coal capacity. Half of all the ASEAN nations made the top 20: Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia.

Vietnam alone is projected to increase their coal generation by nearly five times, increasing from a little more than 10 gigawatts in 2014 to an estimate of more than 55 gigawatts by 2030. For reference, this massive increase in coal generation equates to the 2017 electricity supply for the entirety of Thailand. While the rest of the world is moving away from coal, Southeast Asia has great access to coal supplies and China is notorious for domineering state-owned energy enterprises that push coal investment in neighboring countries. China is currently directly involved in funding or constructing a whopping quarter of all energy projects in the entire mainland region of Southeast Asia.

While coal still reigns supreme, however, liquid natural gas is a rising star in the ASEAN nations. While many of the Southeast Asian nations have been producing and exporting LNG for years, this trend is slowly but surely reversing as the countries reserve more and more of the resource for domestic use. Indonesia is on track to flip its traditional role as an exporter of LNG to become a net importer by 2022, Thailand is constructing a floating, offshore natural gas hub in a joint development area with Malaysia, and the Philippines is working on constructing a $2 billion LNG hub at Batangas Bay, the first in the nation.

Related: Russias Wealth Fund: Oil Price War With U.S. Would Hurt Russian Economy

China has its eye on this corner of the energy market as well, and is powering ahead with its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative through the construction of LNG pipelines from Central Asia and Myanmars Bay of Bengal that will adjoin to Chinas own national LNG distribution network. In fact, Asia already consumes half of the entire global natural gas supply, and that share will only continue to increase. The International Energy Agency projects that Asia will be responsible for a whopping two-thirds consumption of global natural gas supplies by 2040.

In addition to coal and LNG, ASEAN also has some lofty goals to incorporate more renewables into the regions energy mix, with an ambitious shared target of 23 percent by 2025. Most experts are in agreement that the goal is unrealistic , as the developing nations of ASEAN continue to fall behind the rest in terms of alternative energy initiatives. Even if the region is able to reach a fraction of the goal, however, it will be a step in the right direction for an energy-hungry block that could be consuming a lot more coal if they dont plan very carefully for an impending explosion of demand.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are trading higher on Friday, however, the market is still in a position to close lower for the week. The market opened on its high this week, but sellers came in quickly to stop the move, producing a potentially bearish closing price reversal top in the process.

The selling was primarily driven by two factors: worries over a global economic slowdown and renewed concerns over U.S.-China relations. Underpinning the market were the OPEC-led supply cuts and political turmoil in Venezuela, which could lead to a supply disruption.

Global Economic Slowdown Caps Gains

The wave of selling pressure shortly after the opening this week was fueled by Chinas weak GDP data and a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that forecast a slowdown in the global economy in 2019 and 2020.

The theme throughout the week was the weakening global economy which translates into lower demand for crude oil. Supporting this idea were remarks from a couple of central banks this week to go along with previous central bank concerns about an economic slowdown.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is already on record saying it would be willing to take a pause in rate hikes if the economy continues to sputter. On Wednesday, the Bank of Japan kept its ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged. It also cut its inflation forecasts and warned of growing risks to the economy from trade protectionism and slowing global demand.Multimedia Reporter

Staff writer Harry Funk, a professional journalist for three-plus decades, has been on the staff of The Almanac since 2015. He has a bachelors degree in journalism and master of business administration, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.Nepali Congress aligned student union burns PM Olis effigy in Capital (In photos)

Nepal Students Union, the student wing of main opposition Nepali Congress, on Sunday, protested against the government and burnt the effigy of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Thank you for Reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.Today well evaluate Air New Zealand Limited (NZSE:AIR) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. Specifically, well consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires.

First, well go over how we calculate ROCE. Next, well compare it to others in its industry. And finally, well look at how its current liabilities are impacting its ROCE.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What is it?

ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar.

How Do You Calculate Return On Capital Employed?

The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets  Current Liabilities)

Or for Air New Zealand:

0.11 = NZ$562m  (NZ$7.8b  NZ$2.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2018.)

Therefore, Air New Zealand has an ROCE of 11%.

View our latest analysis for Air New Zealand

Does Air New Zealand Have A Good ROCE?

ROCE can be useful when making comparisons, such as between similar companies. We can see Air New Zealands ROCE is around the 12% average reported by the Airlines industry. Separate from Air New Zealands performance relative to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms looks satisfactory, and it may be worth researching in more depth.

NZSE:AIR Last Perf January 25th 19

It is important to remember that ROCE shows past performance, and is not necessarily predictive. Companies in cyclical industries can be difficult to understand using ROCE, as returns typically look high during boom times, and low during busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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How Air New Zealands Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE

Short term (or current) liabilities, are things like supplier invoices, overdrafts, or tax bills that need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets.

Air New Zealand has total assets of NZ$7.8b and current liabilities of NZ$2.7b. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 34% of its total assets. With this level of current liabilities, Air New Zealands ROCE is boosted somewhat.

The Bottom Line On Air New Zealands ROCE

While its ROCE looks good, its worth remembering that the current liabilities are making the business look better. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Paris (AFP) - A prominent French anti-government "yellow vest" activist, badly injured in the eye at a protest, was struck with one of the controversial rubber bullets used by police, his lawyer said Sunday.

Jerome Rodrigues' lawyer fears he will be "handicapped for life" after he was injured in clashes with police in Paris on Saturday during an 11th straight weekend of protests against President Emmanuel Macron.

Rodrigues, a 40-year-old construction worker, was placed in an artificial coma overnight after the incident at the Bastille monument in central Paris.

"He is in shock. He will be handicapped for life. It is a tragedy for him and his family," lawyer Philippe de Veulle told BFM television, adding that he was lodging a complaint against police.

The bearded Rodrigues, who has become a well-known figure in the "yellow vest" movement with 50,000 followers on Facebook, was live-streaming the protest on the website when he was hit.

De Veulle said Rodrigues was struck with a "flashball", referring to the 40-mm (1.6-inch) rubber projectiles used by French riot police.

The devices -- which are not used in most European countries -- have become deeply controversial in France since the protests began in November, blamed for dozens of serious injuries.

On Saturday, police using the bullets were for the first time deployed wearing body cams in a bid to increase transparency.

Rodrigues, speaking to LCI television from hospital, said he was also hit by a stingball grenade, another controversial riot control device.

"Everything happened very quickly. They threw a grenade at me and I took a (rubber) bullet. I was attacked twice -- a grenade to the foot, and the bullet," Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues' lawyer insisted he was not one of the "hooligans" who have been joining the weekly protests to cause trouble for police.

In the video, Rodrigues can be heard several times warning protesters to leave the Bastille area because hard-left "black bloc" agitators were coming to attack the police.

Story continues

Witnesses picked up the projectile that struck Rodrigues and police are set to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

- Thousands join anti-violence demo -

Originally sparked by rises in fuel taxes, the "yellow vest" protests quickly snowballed into a widespread revolt over accusations that Macron, an ex-banker, is out of touch with rural and small-town France.

Named after the emblematic luminous road safety vests worn by protesters, the demonstrations have drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets.

But their numbers have eased in recent weeks after Macron announced a series of policy climbdowns and launched a two-month consultation to allow people to vent their anger.

The interior ministry estimated that 69,000 turned out across France on Saturday, compared with 84,000 a week earlier.

On Sunday, several thousand people turned out for a march through central Paris against violence at the "yellow vest" protests and in defence of French republican values.

Dubbed the "red scarf" movement, the initiative is the brainchild of an engineer from Toulouse horrified by attacks by "yellow vests" against police and journalists.

"Yes to democracy, no to revolution," the protesters chanted, some carrying French and European Union flags.A Wisconsin prosecutor says he has no plans to file charges against a man accused of kidnapping in connection with the 88 days Jayme Closs was held captive.

Mark Freuhauf, district attorney in Douglas County, said in a statement Friday afternoon that his decision not to file charges against Jake Patterson "involves the consideration of multiple factors, including the existence of other charges and victim-related concerns."

The announcement likely means authorities believe they have sufficient evidence to yield a conviction and a life sentence in Barron County, where Patterson is charged with kidnapping Jayme and killing her parents. It also means it's unlikely that details of what happened during the 13-year-old girl's captivity in Patterson's Douglas County home will be revealed in court.

Prosecutors have said little about Jayme's captivity. The girl told investigators that Patterson imprisoned her beneath a bed, threatened serious harm if she tried to escape, and once struck her with an object when she did something to anger him.

Barron County prosecutors earlier this month accused Patterson of breaking into the Closs home on U.S. 8 in Barron about 1 a.m. on Oct. 15 and killing her father and mother with blasts from a shotgun he'd brought to the scene.

They say he then put Jayme in the trunk of his car and drove her about 70 miles north to his house in rural Gordon. His family bought the house in 2006, but his parents no longer lived there.

Barron County has charged Patterson with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, a count of kidnapping and a count of armed burglary. He has been jailed in lieu of $5 million bond as he awaits a Feb. 6 court appearance.

Jayme escaped Patterson's house earlier this month, running to a neighbor who was walking a dog nearby. Another neighbor called 911. Patterson was arrested nearby, without incident, a short time later.

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Authorities said Patterson was driving to work at an Almena-area cheese factory one day in October, saw Jayme board a school bus near her house, and decided to kidnap her. He quit the job after two days, and made two visits to the house before the kidnapping.

Jayme has been living with an aunt in Barron since her escape.

Freuhauf said the Douglas County District Attorneys Office "retains the ability to charge Patterson at any time within the statute of limitations for any crime it determines Patterson has committed."

More: Jayme Closs captured nations attention. Why dont these other missing kids?

More: Jayme Closs to receive $25,000 reward after escaping captor

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin DA says he has no plans to file charges related to Jayme Closs' 88-day captivityToday well evaluate MACA Limited (ASX:MLD) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. In particular, well consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that can give us insight into how profitably the company is able to employ capital in its business.

First up, well look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Then well compare its ROCE to similar companies. Finally, well look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

ROCE is a measure of a companys yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar.

So, How Do We Calculate ROCE?

Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets  Current Liabilities)

Or for MACA:

0.08 = AU$28m  (AU$446m  AU$93m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2018.)

So, MACA has an ROCE of 8.0%.

Check out our latest analysis for MACA

Is MACAs ROCE Good?

When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. Using our data, MACAs ROCE appears to be significantly below the 12% average in the Metals and Mining industry. This could be seen as a negative, as it suggests some competitors may be employing their capital more efficiently. Separate from how MACA stacks up against its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is mediocre; relative to the returns on government bonds. It is possible that there are more rewarding investments out there.

MACAs current ROCE of 8.0% is lower than 3 years ago, when the company reported a 30% ROCE. So investors might consider if it has had issues recently.

Story continues

ASX:MLD Last Perf January 27th 19

Remember that this metric is backwards looking  it shows what has happened in the past, and does not accurately predict the future. Companies in cyclical industries can be difficult to understand using ROCE, as returns typically look high during boom times, and low during busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. We note MACA could be considered a cyclical business. What happens in the future is pretty important for investors, so we have prepared a free report on analyst forecasts for MACA.

How MACAs Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE

Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way the ROCE equation works, having large bills due in the near term can make it look as though a company has less capital employed, and thus a higher ROCE than usual. To counteract this, we check if a company has high current liabilities, relative to its total assets.

MACA has total assets of AU$446m and current liabilities of AU$93m. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 21% of its total assets. It is good to see a restrained amount of current liabilities, as this limits the effect on ROCE.

The Bottom Line On MACAs ROCE

That said, MACAs ROCE is mediocre, there may be more attractive investments around. But note: MACA may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20).

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Venezuela has dismissed a demand from UK and EU leaders for the country to hold a new presidential election within a week, after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president following a disputed vote last year.

The leaders of France and Britain joined Spain and Germany on Saturday to say they would recognise Mr Guadio as president, unless Nicolas Maduros government called a fresh vote in the next eight days.

The EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that if there was no announcement of a new election, the bloc would take further actions, including on the issue of recognition of the countrys leadership.

Europe is giving us eight days? Jorge Arreaza, Venezuelas foreign minister, said in response.

Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people? Its almost childlike.

Mr Maduro is under pressure from all sides, after a top military official also recognised Mr Guaido as president.

Jose Luis Silva, a military attache in Washington, defected from the government, declaring his support for the opposition leader in a video posted online.

Today I speak to the people of Venezuela, and especially to my brothers in the armed forces of the nation, to recognise President Juan Guaido as the only legitimate president, the official said, in a clip recorded in Washington.

He was filmed sitting at a desk, seated alongside the Venezuelan flag.

The armed forces have a fundamental role to play in the restoration of democracy, Mr Silva said.

His defection was triggered by the US recognition of Mr Guaido as Venezuelas interim president, with Washington, Canada and multiple Latin American countries declaring Mr Maduros second-term election win fraudulent.

The top brass of the military and the executive branch are holding the armed forces hostage. There are many, many who are unhappy, Mr Silva said.

My message to the armed forces is, Dont mistreat your people. We were given arms to defend the sovereignty of our nation.

Story continues

They never, never trained us to say, This is for you to attack your people, to defend the current government in power.

Small rebellions against the Maduro administration have broken out in Venezuelas armed forces in recent months.

But the embattled president has managed to prevent a full-scale military uprising.

Venezuelas commanders pledged their loyalty to Mr Maduro in the days after Mr Guadio declared himself leader.

The opposition claim the presidents re-election last year was fraudulent.

Mr Silva said that one consular official in Houston and one in another US city had also defected but that he was the only diplomat in Washington he knew of who had broken with the Maduro government.

We welcome him and everyone who with honesty want to follow the constitution and the will of the Venezuelan people, Mr Guaido said about the official, in a celebratory post on social media.

Venezuelas defence ministry called Mr Silva a coward and posted a picture of him online, emblazoned with the word traitor across it in red capital letters.

Additional reporting by agenciesCross-border Nepal-India petroleum pipeline project back on track

Nepal Oil Corporation has expedited construction of the cross-border Nepal-India petroleum pipeline project which had stalled due to a forest clearance issue.The United States and the Taliban said Saturday they had made substantial headway in negotiations to end the 17-year US war in Afghanistan, although sticking points remained.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who was named by President Donald Trump's administration to find a way out of the war, held an unusually long six days of talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar.

"Meetings here were more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues," Khalilzad wrote on Twitter.

Khalilzad -- who headed to Qatar after talks in Afghanistan and its key neighbors -- said he was returning to Kabul to discuss the negotiations.

"We will build on the momentum and resume talks shortly. We have a number of issues left to work out," he tweeted.

"Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and 'everything' must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire."

While he has not given details, floated proposals include a withdrawal by the United States of its troops in return for Taliban guarantees not to shelter foreign extremists -- the initial reason for the US intervention.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later tweeted he had heard "encouraging news" from Khalilzad.

"The U.S. is serious about pursuing peace, preventing #Afghanistan from continuing to be a space for international terrorism & bringing forces home," he added.

"Working with the Afghan govt & all interested parties, the U.S. seeks to strengthen Afghan sovereignty, independence & prosperity."

Trump has been eager to end America's longest war, which was launched shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Trump has already said he will pull half of the 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan.

- Dispute on Kabul's role -

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that while there was "progress" at the meetings, reports of an agreement on a ceasefire and talks with Kabul "are not true."

Story continues

"Since issues are of critical nature and need comprehensive discussions, therefore it was decided that talks about unresolved matters will resume in similar future meetings," he said in a statement.

But a senior Taliban commander sounded optimistic after the talks with the Afghan-born Khalilzad, who played key diplomatic roles in former president George W. Bush's administration.

"The US has accepted many of our demands and both sides are very much agreed on major points, but some points are still under discussion," the Taliban commander told AFP on condition of anonymity by phone from Pakistan.

"We are moving forward and a lot of progress has been made so far.

"Efforts are underway to find some middle ground to solve the remaining disputed issues. The Afghan government is one of them," he added.

Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani also hailed the dialogue, tweeting: "This progress marks a significant step in the history of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan."

The Taliban in the past have refused to deal with the internationally recognized government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Abdullah Abdullah, the de facto prime minister of Afghanistan, recently voiced frustration that the Taliban was excluding the Kabul government, warning that a peace process "cannot take place by proxy."

- Heavy toll by Taliban -

Afghan authorities have put a brave face on the negotiations, noting that Kabul has already taken charge of security.

Ghani said Thursday that 45,000 Afghan security forces have died since September 2014 -- a stunning casualty rate of more than 28 dead per day that analysts say has contributed to low morale.

Ghani is running for reelection in July, which could come at the height of the Taliban fighting season -- unless a ceasefire is reached.

The length and apparent breadth of the Taliban talks are unprecedented, signaling that both the United States and the Taliban see a path forward.

In a sign of the seriousness, the Taliban appointed a co-founder of the hardline Islamic movement as its Qatar-based negotiator with the United States -- Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

He was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 but released in October as the United States stepped up diplomacy. He was considered the number two to Taliban chief Mullah Omar, who died in 2013.

Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a US foundation that promotes peace, said that Baradar's return showed the hubris of war, recalling that he had offered to surrender soon after September 11.

"Bush administration refused. They wanted to defeat the Taliban, not negotiate. Now, he's back to make a deal, and he's going to get a lot more," Cirincione tweeted.

Khalilzad last met with the insurgents last month in the United Arab Emirates, which has jockeyed with Qatar for influence in Afghan diplomatic circles.With a month left in their truce, senior US and Chinese officials will meet in Washington this week, hoping to move toward a bargain to end their unprecedented trade war.

Beijing's trade envoy, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, will lead a 30-person delegation at the invitation of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who is heading up the American effort.

At a meeting in Argentina last month, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to bury the hatchet provisionally -- with Trump delaying a sharp increase on US duties for $200 billion in Chinese goods until March 1.

Washington has made its demands clear: China must agree to far-reaching "structural" reforms in its trade practices, curbing massive state intervention in markets and the alleged theft of American technological know-how, including through hacking and the forced transfer of intellectual property.

Trump also wants to cut the soaring US trade deficit with China, which in 2017 hit a record $375 billion, not including trade in services.

Since last year, the world's two largest economies have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade, with the largest amount, more than $250 billion, imposed by Washington.

The American president's protectionist moves have begun to weigh on the Chinese economy, which last year posted its slowest economic growth in nearly three decades, causing Trump to claim he has the upper hand in the talks.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday Washington and Beijing remained "miles and miles" from the finish line in their talks, cautioning against putting too much hope for a final resolution at this week's talks.

"I think next week's negotiations will be critical in determining whether the Chinese are willing to talk about any of the structural issues the United States is concerned about," Edward Alden, a trade expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

Story continues

- 'Made in China 2025' -

Early this month, Chinese officials signaled they were open to reducing the trade imbalance but there has been scant sign of movement on Washington's tougher demands.

A deal could be especially hard to reach should Beijing prove unwilling to cede any ground on the state subsidies at the heart of Xi's vision for industrial pre-eminence.

"It will be very difficult to reach an agreement unless the Chinese are willing to address some of those issues," said Alden.

The Chinese are likely to reject any US demand seen as an obstacle to the "Made in China 2025" strategic plan, according to Alden.

Launched in 2015, the plan aimed to achieve Chinese dominance in cutting-edge technologies likely critical to the future success of developed economies, including robotics, artificial intelligence, aerospace and electric autos.

Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ Banking Group, said Beijing was likely to hold steadfast to its industrial planning.

"'Made in China 2025' is a necessary strategy for China to achieve sustainable development," she said, adding that the general consensus held China could not continue being the world's factory floor in order to grow.

"China's transformation to high-end manufacturing and high value-added services is also a step China must go through for its domestic sustainable development," she said.

Nevertheless, Chinese officials could offer a show of good will. State media last month reported that lawmakers were considering new foreign investment regulations that would ban forced technological transfers -- or the requirement that foreign companies fork over intellectual property as a condition for access to the humongous Chinese market.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury on Friday signaled it was working to tighten the financial noose on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as it steps up efforts to transfer control of government assets to opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Treasury Department statement stopped short of announcing a freeze on Venezuela's U.S. assets and accounts, however. On Wednesday, Washington recognized National Assembly chief Guaido as Venezuela's interim president. "The United States will use its economic and diplomatic tools to ensure that commercial transactions by the Venezuelan government, including those involving its state-owned enterprises and international reserves, are consistent with this recognition," the U.S. Treasury said in a statement. The announcement came as Washington intensified its push to drive socialist Maduro from power. Maduro began a second term earlier this month after winning disputed elections last year, and is still supported by the Venezuelan military. Maduro said earlier he would defend Citgo, the U.S. refining subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, amid moves by Guaido to divert its revenues, sources close to the talks told Reuters. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)Donald Trump lost a high stakes game with Nancy Pelosi over the border wall, according to some of his own supporters - AFP

Donald Trump was licking his wounds in the White House this weekend after some of his most enthusiastic supporters turned on him, calling him a "wimp" for backing down over the US government shutdown.

In one of the biggest gambles of his presidency Mr Trump shut down large swathes of his own state apparatus for over a month in a high stakes game of poker with Democrats.

The president was seeking agreement for $5.7 billion in funding for his border wall, but he ended up with nothing after succumbing to pressure to reopen the government.

His opponent, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives, walked away with the plaudits. Her belief that voters would blame Mr Trump for the shutdown chaos was borne out in polls, some of which put Mr Trump's approval rating eight points down since government departments closed their doors.

While #TrumpCaved trended on Twitter, the New York Daily News called Mr Trump "Cave Man" on its front page.

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Watching cable news in the East Wing, Mr Trump's mood will have soured as some of his most fervent fans took him to task.

Lou Dobbs, a high profile Fox Business Network host, declared: "She [Mrs Pelosi] has just whipped the president of the United States. I'm an animated, energetic supporter of this president. But you've got to call it as it is."

Ann Coulter, the conservative author of the 2016 bestseller In Trump We Trust, was even more scathing.

She said: "Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States."

Ms Coulter added: Theres no question but that Nancy Pelosi got the better of Donald Trump."

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Mark Meckler, a California-based conservative leader who helped found the tea party movement, called the president's decision to sign off on a deal without wall funding "pathetic and disgusting."

Mr Trump badly damaged his credibility with grassroots conservatives across the country, Mr Meckler said. During the shutdown, he said he and other conservative leaders had been aggressively defending the president's hardline approach. At the request of the White House, he said they made repeated media appearances, but they got no warning he was about to "surrender."

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"No way would I go on the radio anytime again in the future and say 'The president' and 'I believe,'" Mr Meckler said. "Certainly, he did not fulfill his promise to the base and I'm appalled. More importantly than me is what I'm hearing from the grassroots. They're appalled."

"He brought his troops on the battlefield with an absolute promise. And then he walked away," he said.

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Breitbart, the conservative news website, showed a video of Mrs Pelosi dancing.

In general, Americans had become exasperated by the 35-day shutdown which had left 800,000 government workers unpaid, including Nasa scientists, employees at major museums, and even Secret Service agents guarding the White House.

Air traffic controllers stopped showing up for work, passengers were asking flight attendants if it was safe to fly, and the flight attendants said they weren't sure. With 150,000 people flying into Atlanta for the Super Bowl on Feb 3 there were fears of a major accident.

In Washington, the day before the shutdown ended, The Telegraph saw FBI employees arriving for free meals at a soup kitchen, not far from the White House. FBI agents said they were no longer able to pay confidential sources in terrorism and drug investigations.

Volunteers distribute food at World Central Kitchen, a food bank for government workers established by celebrity chef Jose Andres in Washington Credit: AFP

A lab technician from the Smithsonian was also at the soup kitchen, and warned about the effect of the shutdown on exhibits.

And a court clerk, at Washington Superior Court. told The Telegraph: "I'm relying on my mother for help. If this goes on any longer I'll lose my car. I've already missed a payment."

Mr Trump's decision to end the shutdown also followed telephone calls from several frustrated Republican senators on Thursday night.

Even as Mr Trump denied he had conceded White House officials admitted the president had been, at least temporarily, outfoxed by Mrs Pelosi, a wily Washington veteran.

"Perhaps he lost the short term battle," one official said. Another denied Mr Trump had "caved" and said he wanted to give negotiations another chance.

Nancy Pelosi, Mr Trump's nemesis, after signing the bill to reopen the government Credit: AP

The government is now funded until Feb 15 and a "conference committee" of Republicans and Democrats in Congress will try to reach a compromise before then.

If the stalemate continues until Feb 15 the government could shut down again. Mr Trump could also declare a national emergency, allowing him to use the Pentagon budget to build the wall. Democrats would immediately challenge that in court.

Mr Trump emerged from the shutdown standoff politically wounded. An Associated Press poll showed his approval rating falling to 34 per cent from 42 per cent a month earlier. But he vowed to continue fighting for the wall.

He wrote on Twitter: "21 days goes very quickly. Negotiations with Democrats will start immediately. Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in. The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border. We will build the Wall."

Mr Trump added that a new caravan of migrants, of "at least 8.000 people," was forming in Central America.

S&P Global Ratings said the economic cost of the shutdown was probably "worse than what we had previously expected".

It said: "The US economy lost at least $6 billion, larger than the $5.7 billion that the White House requested for the border wall."

Michael Bloomberg, widely seen as a potential Democrat 2020 candidate, said: Its like the government version of a bad horror movie. Instead of Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street, weve got Donald Trump and the Nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Donald Trump attacked the media and Hillary Clinton following the arrest of his former adviser Roger Stone, accusing the 2016 Democratic candidate of paying for the infamous dossier alleging ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The president sent out a series of angry tweets attempting to distance himself from his campaign ally and divert attention towards Ms Clinton late on Saturday.

The FBI arrested Mr Stone on seven charges in connection with Robert Muellers investigation into Russian election interference, including giving false statements and witness tampering.

CBS reports that in the Roger Stone indictment, data was released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump tweeted. Oh really! What about the Fake and Unverified Dossier, a total phony conjob, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign? What...

The Russia dossier, also known as the Steele dossier, refers to a private report compiled by former MI6 officer Christer Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS which came to the attention of US intelligence services, setting out allegations of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

In his following tweet, Mr Trump went on to accuse the fake media and crooked Hillary of being in cahoots in alleged attempts to damage him during the 2016 race.

...about all of the one sided Fake Media coverage (collusion with Crooked H?) that I had to endure during my very successful presidential campaign, he added on Twitter. What about the now revealed bias by Facebook and many others. Roger Stone didnt even work for me anywhere near the Election!

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Mr Stones arrest could have serious implications for the president. The charges reveal the special counsels intertest in how exactly the Trump campaign might have sought information about hacked emails related to Ms Clinton and the Democrats during the 2016 presidential election.

But Mr Stone told Fox News he plans on pleading not guilty, claiming several aspects of his indictment are simply not true. He also told CNN he has never contacted Mr Trump about a potential pardon.

Story continues

He is the sixth former Trump associate implicated in Mr Mueller's investigation into his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.

After leaving the courthouse on Friday, Mr Stone  who has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back  raised his arms in Mr Nixons infamous double V pose.

The Nixon Foundation attempted to distance itself from Mr Stone following his arrest, pointing out he was only a junior scheduler on the Nixon re-election committee.Proschim (Germany) (AFP) - Sybille Tetsch returned to the German village of Proschim to set up a restaurant four years ago, in an attempt to save her birthplace from mining excavators and heal a deep rift there over the future of coal.

Residents of Proschim have for years lived with the uncertainty of whether the Welzow-Sued mine at the edge of their village will be expanded, flattening their homes.

With Germany poised to end coal exploitation in the next two decades, Tetsch and other like-minded activists see only one answer: Proschim stays.

But in the village in the eastern Lausitz region where everyone has a miner in the family, the future of coal is an explosive topic that has soured relations and pushed friends apart.

"The division runs through the families. Neighbours don't greet each other. So we wanted to create a place where everyone can come together without abusing each other," said Tetsch, 48 -- admitting she has not yet quite succeeded in her bid to bridge the gap.

Leag, the owner of the surface lignite mine, is due to make a final decision in 2020.

But tensions have soared in recent months as Germany mulls whether to shutter all coal power plants as part of efforts to make the country carbon-neutral by 2050.

A government-appointed commission recommended on Saturday an exit from the fossil fuel by 2038. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz are due to meet Thursday (January 31) with regional leaders to discuss the plan.

Opinion polls show 59 percent of the public are in favour of ending coal exploitation swiftly.

But in mining states, 61 percent want Germany to hold on to it for longer.

Underlining the split, Proschim-born Karin Noack, 41, said: "There is no more village life here. If one side turns up at an event, the other side stays away."

In homes, coal is often the elephant in the room.

"I am the black sheep of the family. They don't say, she's pitting herself against our work. But that she's pitting herself against the family," said Noack, who has spent her life in the village.

Story continues

- 'Raw deal' -

The history of coal in the district of Welzow, which Proschim village is part of, goes back 150 years, when one of the then 260 residents picked a piece of lignite off the ground.

"It's very normal for us to always have lignite around and it is through brown coal that Welzow has found its meaning," said district mayor Birgit Zuchold in her office complete with a miniature coal-laden train wagon.

The attachment to the fuel is so strong that even though Zuchold's husband and son are both miners, there hasn't been any discussion about whether they should retrain, the mayor said.

"They are passionate in their jobs," she said.

Zuchold believes the miners often "get a raw deal -- people say lignite-power is dirty".

More people should come and meet the region's miners to understand what they go through on a daily basis, she said, describing the tough working conditions they endure in order to power up cities like Berlin.

She also voiced frustration that while the industry was often vilified as a climate-killer, other countries were opening up new mines.

"Are we not just displacing the damage to another country?" she said, adding that a shift to electric power also carries risks, as raw materials need to be extracted for key components like batteries.

- 'Broken heart' -

Tetsch and Noack said while credit is due to the miners, coal extraction is "today no longer a necessity" as renewables occupy an increasing chunk of the power mix.

"Previously they said we will extract coal to produce power, but today, we're extracting coal to have jobs," said Tetsch.

Dozens of villages around Proschim have been wiped off the map because of the fossil fuel, noted the restaurant-owner.

Walking through what remains of a neighbouring village, Haidemuehl, Tetsch pointed to an area where trees stand next to the carcass of a building, saying: "That's where my school was."

"Sure one can build new homes, but that's a new-build settlement. The older folk, they return to see their homes... but then they die from a broken heart," she said.

Zuchold, however, argues that some are happy to get a new house where they can start afresh.

The landscape changes in the region constantly because of the mining activity, the mayor said, adding that when the extraction is complete, residents and authorities will get to decide what they want to do with the exploited sites.

Zuchold and her team already have ideas of what the Welzow-Sued mine will look like post-exploitation -- new buildings and even a mountain-bike park could occupy what looks like moonscape today.Nepal Medical Association announces relay hunger strike from Monday

Nepal Medical Association, the professional organisation of Nepali doctors, has announced to stage relay hunger strike at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital starting Monday.British five pound banknotes are seen in this picture illustration. Photo: REUTERS/ Benoit Tessier/File Photo

The people who pay the most amount of tax in the UK span across finance, gambling, and manufacturing industries.

Newspaper, The Sunday Times, just released its first annual The Sunday Times Tax List for the year, where it crunches and collates all the data of Britains 50 most wealthy individuals or families and their tax bills. In total, they are all liable for around 2bn ($2.6bn) of UK tax in the last year.

The top 10 biggest taxpayers made for interesting reading and included Denise Coates, who came under fire for getting a 48m payrise, and billionaire James Dyson, who was one of the most vocal supporters for Brexit but has recently declared that his company Dyson will be moving its headquarters from the UK to Singapore.

10. Baroness Howard de Walden and family

Like with most of Britains aristocrats and the royals, the familys wealth centres around property and land that continually get handed down their bloodline for generations. For example, the Howard de Waldens 92 acres of prime real estate in Marylebone, central London, have been in the family since 1879.

They are worth 4bn and paid 44.1m for the 2017-2018 tax year.

9. James Benamor

He may be just the 337th richest person in Britain  with 380m in personal wealth  but he is the UKs 9th highest taxpayer by stumping up 52.2m over the last tax year.

He started his Richmond Group aged 21. Now 20 years later, its main operation Amigo Loans, a lender which offers credit to people turned down by high-street lenders if they provide a guarantor, made profits of 66.4m.

8. Sir Peter Wood

The insurance tycoon paid 52.7m in the last tax year and has a personal worth of 781m.

The 71-year-old is claimed to be owner of the worlds largest collection of Margaret Thatchers clothing, mostly from a 2015 Christies auction. His money comes from him creating seven insurance businesses, including Direct Line and Esure.

7. Sir Chris Hohn

Hohn is worth 1bn, thanks to hedge fund management career. In 2014, he was knighted for services to philanthropy and international development.

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He paid 64.8m in taxes last year.

6. The Weston family

The family paid 76m in tax but have a personal wealth of 10bn.

They have a food and retailing empire that owns brands such as Ryvita, Twinings, Primark, and Selfridges. The operations also span across Americas, Europe, Australia, China and southern Africa.

5. Jim Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe is the richest man in Britain  hes worth 21bn  but he only makes 5th in the list for the UKs biggest taxpayers. He paid 110.5m in tax for the last year.

Ratcliffes Ineos is the biggest privately owned company in the UK and sellsmore than 60m tons of chemicals each year. Those chemicals are used in the packaging, food, construction, textile, white goods and car manufacturing industries. The company employes more than 18,500 people.

4. Bruno Schroder and family

The 85-year-old billionaire has spent more than half a century on the board of his family business and has made a bulk of his 5.2bn fortune through fund management. His family has a number of other investments, including a 18,500-acre Dunlossit estate on the island of Islay, where they breed Middle White pigs. Hes the 24th richest person in Britain but is one of the UKs top taxpayers with 114.3m for the year.

3. Sir James Dyson and family

Dyson and his family paid 127.8m in tax but their personal wealth is 9.5bn.

Dyson is one of the worlds most prominent living inventors and his vacuum and hairdryer group  Dyson  is enormous. He also was one of Britains most prominent business people to support the UK leaving the European Union. He said that Brexit would enable Britain to benefit from setting its own trade policy. He even said that its worth UK politicians walking away from talks in a no-deal Brexit because theyll come to us.

However, earlier this week the company Dyson said it will be moving its headquarters from Britain to Singapore.

READ MORE: Brexit-supporter James Dyson to move Dyson HQ to Singapore

2. Denise, John, and Peter Coates

Denise Coates, the billionaire founder of the online company Bet365, came under fire for getting a 48m pay rise back in November 2018. Her salary rose to 265m including dividends, making her one of the worlds highest-paid business leaders, in the same period. The familys collective wealth is currently at 5.754bn.

But it looks like she and her family will be having to give a slice of that to the tax man  Her and her familys tax bill was at 156m.

READ MORE: UKs best-paid boss gets a 48m payrise

1. Stephen Rubin and family

Rubin is the co-owner of Pentland Group, the holding company for a number of sporting goods companies, including Speedo and Ellesse. The sportswear tycoon and his family paid a tax bill of 181.6m for 2017-2018. However, it will feel like a drop in the ocean considering their personal wealth is collectively 2.82bn for 2018.



The federal government is reopening for at least three weeks, but the prospect of a repeat looms. A second shutdown threatens to kick in Feb. 15 if Congress cant cut a deal on President Donald Trumps demand for money to build a border wall.

However, labor advocates think they have the answer on how to end government shutdowns.

During the final week of the shutdown, sickouts spiked among federal employees who refused to show up for work, leaving staffing shortages, triggering airport delays and raising concerns over whether tax refunds would be processed on time.

Meanwhile, there were indications of growing support for coordinated absences even as thousands of staffers were being encouraged to work without pay.

Last week, former Clinton-era Secretary of Labor Robert Reich who was also temporarily an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, publicly urged employees to stop showing up to their jobs in protest.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Joseph McCartin, a professor and director of Georgetown Universitys Kalmanovitz Institute for Labor and the Working Poor, told Voice of America, a government-financed news outlet, that the strategy could work.

It would be about getting public attention, and even more important, causing the government to focus on this problem, he said. And hopefully, to delink the payment of wages to federal workers from the dispute that exists over the border.

In an American Prospect Op-Ed published less than two weeks before, McCartin had pushed for workers to act, writing, A sickout by unpaid federal employees could bring the impasse  and their status as hostages to the presidents whim  to an end.

Documentarian Michael Moore promoted the tactic in his Friday appearance on Stephen Colberts Late Show.

Theres an easy way to end it, he said of the shutdown. Federal workers  dont go to work without pay.

Moore stressed that we shouldnt be supporting anything that requires someone whos not paid working for us, telling the audience to avoid flying and filing tax returns, suggesting they opt for extensions instead so as to avoid the need for workers.

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The day after Moores appearance, the agreement to reopen the government was announced.

While the future of government operations and Trumps border wall remain unclear, Democrats and Republicans have until Feb. 15 to find a solution before key parts of the government could again grind to a halt.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England, April 16, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo/File Photo

Britains biggest supermarket Tesco (TSCO.L) is reportedly about to axe 15,000 jobs, according to a report by the Mail on Sunday. One of the most jarring elements to this alleged 1.5bn ($1.98bn) cost-saving measure is that the grocer is removing most of the key moments of human interaction for customers and staff.

The job cut measures include axing positions where it would require a human being. Tesco is allegedly looking to:

Close its meat, fish and delicatessen counters  only major stores will have counters open Thursdays to Saturdays; Overhaul in-store bakeries and using frozen dough instead of fresh dough; Close staff canteens and replace them with vending machines.

Tesco has just celebrated its best Christmas sales since 2009. But ike the rest of the supermarket industry and other bellweather UK retailers, it is under enormous pressure to retain market share, let alone continue to expand.

READ MORE: Big Four supermarkets lose ground to discount rivals

At the beginning of this month, Yahoo Finance UKs Oscar Williams-Grut pointed out that Big Four supermarkets Tesco, Sainsburys (SBRY.L), Asda, and Morrisons (MRW.L) are all cutting prices to compete with upstart German discount grocers that are taking Britain by storm.

Aldi and Lidl enjoyed their highest ever Christmas market share in the 12 weeks to December 30, market research firm Kantar Worldpanel said on Tuesday.

Data shows that two-thirds of all British households went to one of the German discounters over the period, and they had a combined market share of 12.8%.

It is perhaps unsurprising that Tesco is taking further measures to cut costs, despite its stellar Christmas sales  it is losing marketshare.

This is the data from Kantar Worldpanel from 24 April 2016, versus 30 December 2018. It is the most comprehensive data gathering of its kind:

Source: Kantar Worldpanel

While the likes of Aldi and Lidl may seem like small players right now, its the rate of rapid growth that presents a long-term issue for incumbent supermarkets. The Co-op and Waitrose are long-standing UK high street brands, but now Aldi commands a greater share of the market after entering Britain in 1994.

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Meanwhile, all supermarkets face headwinds over what Brexit will mean for them. The UK government has told supermarkets to stockpile as much food as possible in warehouses around the country in case of a no-deal Brexit.

Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, and Morrisons have also been asking their main suppliers to ramp up stock over concerns. Aldi has already considered stockpiling food as part of its preparations for Brexit but CEO Giles Hurley added that Aldis increased fresh food range would make this more difficult.



Paris (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people marched across France and in Belgium on Sunday to protest the lack of state action to halt climate change.

Organisers said more than 80,000 people demonstrated in French towns and cities, while police in Brussels said 70,000 turned out in the Belgian capital.

The demonstrations were organised by an alliance of campaigning groups set up last year who have set a goal of monthly demonstrations on the issue.

Sunday's marches were smaller than previous rallies, which in the past three months have mustered 100,000 people across France.

But an online petition they set up on the issue -- at laffairedusiecle.net -- has already gathered more than 2.1 million signatures and organisers want to hit three million

"Onions, not concrete", "Less consumption, more butterflies" were among the messages on placards at a demonstration in central Paris.

"It's a movement that is taking root and diversifying," Francois Dubreuil of the United for the Climate collective told France Inter radio.

As well as individual campaigners, many families attended the marches, AFP journalists noted.

"I'm here to try to slow down climate warming and to ensure that my daughter and my baby have the best planet possible," said Charlotte, from the eastern city of Strasbourg.

"There's still time," she added, as she marched with her 15-month baby, while pregnant with her second child.

In Brussels, police estimated that around 70,000 people marched from the city's Gare du Nord to the European Parliament.

People from across Belgium braved cold, rainy conditions to attend the march in the capital, and extra trains had to be laid on to bring them in, the Belgian news agency reported.

So many people were arriving for the Brussels climate march Sunday that it had to start half an hour early

Sunday's turnout was larger than the 65,000 who attended the last such march in Brussels on December 2.

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On Thursday, a march by school and university students brought 35,000 people out on to the streets of the Belgian capital.

"All disaster movies start with the government ignoring a scientist" read one placard at the Brussels demonstration.

burs-lc-ram/jj/bocKoror (Palau) (AFP) - Swimming with the famous golden jellyfish in Palau can be put back on the bucket list following a two-year ban, but bathers may be stung with a hefty price increase for the pleasure.

The government ordered the famed Ongeim'l Tketau Jellyfish Lake closed to swimmers in 2016 because of dwindling numbers of the unique creature -- blamed on warming waters although with some suspicion sunscreen on bathers may also have contributed.

The conservation move proved costly for tour operators with the loss of Palau's most popular attraction contributing to a slump in tourism numbers.

But authorities in Koror State, which owns the resource, say stocks are now recovering and tourists are again being welcomed at Jellyfish Lake.

"The jellyfish are returning, tourists are visiting again," Dora Benhart, the outreach officer of Koror State's conservation department said.

Swimming with the jellyfish on Mecherchar island, about a 45-minute boat ride from Koror, is "one of the most unique attractions" Palau has to offer, according to the Visitors Authority chairman Ngirai Tmetuchl.

It is estimated to attract at least two-thirds of the annual visitors to the western Pacific archipelago which peaked at 160,000 in 2015.

The numbers slumped to 108,000 last year which Tmeuchl said was caused by a combination of factors, including restrictions on Jellyfish Lake.

The rare species of golden jellyfish, believed to exist only in this marine lake, does have a sting but it is mild and often undetectable making swimming among them a popular experience.

The jellyfish population, which once swelled to around 20 million, slumped in 2016 because of El Nino, a climate pattern linked to warming waters in the central and eastern areas of the equatorial Pacific.

Palau President Tommy Remenegsau called for the lake to be closed, and while it was never officially shut down by Koror State, the dwindling jellyfish numbers saw a self-imposed ban by tour operators who stopped taking visitors to the island rather than charge them US$100 to see nothing.

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- Numbers rising -

With the waters cooling over the past year the jellyfish have increased to numbers strong enough to invite tourists back but Sharon Patris, a research biologist at the Coral Reef Research Foundation said it would take some time to reach "normal numbers" of five to eight million.

A proposal to increase the visiting fee to US$150 is now before the Koror State legislature.

Authorities are also strictly enforcing rules about the use of sunscreen, saying it must be environmentally friendly and applied more than 30 minutes before entering the water.

Although a link between sunscreen and falling jellyfish numbers has been suggested and dismissed, authorities said they wanted to ensure the purity of the water.

Clothes worn by bathers must be thoroughly rinsed before swimming to eliminate the risk of taking "invasive species" into the lake.

Patris added there was a similar fall in jellyfish numbers in 1998 linked to an El Nino event and data showed "the jellyfish did not disappear because of the presence of sunscreen".

There are more than 50 marine lakes in Palau, five of them containing jellyfish but only the one Jellyfish Lake is open to visitors.

The Visitor Authority's Tmetuchl has called for a second lake containing the same golden species of jellyfish to be made available to the public.

This is opposed by conservationists who say it would expose another lake to the same risks as the first.Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese police fired tear gas at protestors in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Sunday, witnesses said, after organisers called for further demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's three decades of rule.

Bashir, on a visit to Cairo to meet his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said the media were exaggerating the size of the problems he faced at home.

Deadly protests sparked by a government decision to raise the price of bread have rocked the east African country for weeks.

The demonstrations have mushroomed into nationwide rallies against the government of Bashir, who swept to power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup.

Officials say 30 people have died in the violence since the protests first erupted on December 19 in the farming town of Atbara, before spreading to Khartoum and other regions.

Rights groups say more than 40 people have been killed.

On Sunday, protesters came onto the streets in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman to hold sit-ins in several squares, responding to a call by the Sudanese Professionals Association which is leading the protests.

But a massive deployment of riot police and security agents prevented them from gathering at several locations, witnesses said, and the protesters later began rallies in several residential areas of Khartoum and Omdurman.

"You're police, you have to protect us," demonstrators shouted as riot police cordoned off several squares in Khartoum and Omdurman, where they had planned to hold sit-ins.

- Clampdown on squares -

Police surrounded many squares and filled some with muddy water to prevent demonstrators from gathering, witnesses said.

The SPA backed by several opposition political parties said in a joint statement that despite the deployment of security forces, protesters managed to gather in 11 squares and also stage six rallies in residental areas of Khartoum and Omdurman during the day.

"When we came to the square for a sit-in, we saw security forces had surrounded it," said a female demonstrator, who did not identify herself for security reasons.

Story continues

"We then decided to hold a rally in a nearby neighbourhood, but there too the police hit us with tear gas."

Late on Sunday, eight more demonstrations were held in Khartoum and Omdurman but police confronted them with tear gas, witnesses said.

The SPA had called for sit-ins on Sunday in more than 20 squares in Khartoum and Omdurman.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, the SPA said rallies were also planned on Monday in Darfur, Nuba mountains, Blue Nile, in camps of internally displaced people and some other provinces "to show our people's rejection of the dictator".

Authorities led by the country's National Intelligence and Security Service have cracked down on protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists in a bid to prevent the spread of demonstrations.

On Sunday, security forces arrested four journalists, including one from the country's war-torn region of Darfur, the non-government Sudanese Journalists' Network said.

Sudan has ranked 174 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom index every year from 2015 to 2018.

- Media 'exaggerating' -

While bread price hikes sparked the first protests, anger has been mounting for years over growing economic hardship and deteriorating living conditions.

That ire has now spilt onto the streets, with protesters chanting their main slogan: "freedom, peace, justice!"

Bashir has remained steadfast in rejecting calls to resign.

On Sunday, he said the media were exaggerating the size of his problems.

"There is a problem (in Sudan), we are not claiming that there is not. But it's not of the size or extent raised in some media," Bashir said standing next to Sisi at a news conference after their meeting in Cairo.

The protests were "an attempt to clone the so-called Arab Spring in Sudan", he said, referring to similarities between the slogans and use of social media in uprisings that hit the region in 2010-2011.

Angry crowds of Sudanese protesters have been seen in videos posted online chanting "The people want the downfall of the regime," a signature slogan of the Arab Spring.

Bashir and other Sudanese officials have blamed the country's overall economic woes on the United States.

Washington lifted its trade embargo on Sudan in October 2017 after two decades of bruising economic punishment, but that has failed to fix the country's financial situation.

ab-mon-mz-jds/dvST. LOUIS (AP)  A male St. Louis police officer was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a female officer during what was described as a deadly game with a revolver.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner announced the charge against Nathaniel Hendren, 29, in the death of 24-year-old Katlyn Alix, as they allegedly played a game in which a revolver's cylinder was emptied, one bullet put back and the two colleagues took turns pointing at each other and pulling the trigger.

Alix was with two male officers at an apartment when she was killed just before 1 a.m. Thursday . A probable cause statement from police, provided by Gardner's office, offered a chilling account of the dangerous game that led to her death.

The probable cause statement said Alix and Hendren were playing with guns when Hendren produced a revolver.

"The defendant emptied the cylinder of the revolver and then put one cartridge back into the cylinder," the statement said. He allegedly spun the cylinder, pointed the gun away and pulled the trigger.

The gun did not fire. The statement said Alix took the gun, pointed it at Hendren and pulled the trigger. Again, it didn't fire.

Hendren "took the gun back and pointed it at the victim (and) pulled the trigger causing the gun to discharge," the statement said. "The victim was struck in the chest."

The other male officer told investigators he warned Hendren and Alix not to play with guns and reminded them they were police officers. He was about to leave when he heard the fatal shot, the statement said.

The male officers drove Alix to a hospital where she died. Hendren also is charged with armed criminal action.

The two men were on-duty at the time of the shooting. Police Chief John Hayden has declined to answer questions about why the officers had gathered at the apartment, which was home to one of the men.

St. Louis police said the charges were the result of a promise Hayden made to Alix's family to conduct a "thorough and competent investigation."

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Alix, a military veteran who was married, was not working but met the men at the apartment.

Police immediately launched an internal investigation and placed both officers on paid leave. Gardner also began her own investigation on Thursday and enlisted the Missouri State Highway Patrol to conduct it.

Alix was a patrol officer who had graduated from the St. Louis Police Academy in January 2017.Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday praised Saint Petersburg's "unbroken" spirit as Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the World War II siege of Leningrad, which claimed more than 800,000 lives.

Earlier in the day tanks and air-defence missile systems rolled through the heart of Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, as crowds watched the performance in falling snow and temperatures of minus 11 degrees Celsius (12 Fahrenheit), some wrapped in blankets.

The parade in Russia's second city was the first time war-era and modern heavy weaponry, including the famed T-34 battle tank and multiple-launch rocket systems, had trundled past the Hermitage Museum to mark the end of the siege of Leningrad.

Plans to hold the ceremony have provoked an outcry, including among some survivors who criticised it as "militarism."

President Vladimir Putin, a native of Saint Petersburg, skipped the show of force in the snow-covered Palace Square, instead visiting a memorial outside the city and laying flowers at a cemetery.

- 'Crime against humanity' -

Putin said that the Nazis, who had tried to starve "an impregnable city" to death and subjected residents of Leningrad to "horrendous suffering", would never be forgiven.

"According to the enemy's plans, Leningrad should have disappeared from the face of the Earth," Putin said at a memorial concert later in the day.

"This is what is called a crime against humanity."

Clutching red roses, Putin earlier visited the famed Piskaryovskoe cemetery, where some Russians wished him good health.

Putin, at 66, was born in Leningrad after the war. But his older brother died in childhood during the devastating siege and is buried in a mass grave at Piskaryovskoe.

The Russian leader's mother nearly succumbed to hunger during the siege, while his father fought in the war and was wounded near Leningrad.

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More than 2,500 servicemen in modern and period uniforms including sheepskin coats and felt boots took part in the parade, which also included a military flyover.

A moment of silence was observed to the ticking of a metronome, which was used to warn residents about air raids during the siege. Some clutched flowers and others could not hold back tears.

- Parade divides opinion -

Opinion over the appropriateness of the parade was divided.

While some people criticised the authorities for holding a parade they denounced as misplaced sabre-rattling and militaristic propaganda, others praised it.

Natalya Gerashchenko brought her 12-year-old son to see the parade.

"A military parade is very beautiful," the 35-year-old said. "The lifting of the siege is very important for everyone."

Ivan Kolokoltsev, a 45-year-old manager, said: "We have to remember, we have to commemorate it so that people remember."

Others said one of the most horrific chapters of World War II should be remembered differently.

"I am against militarism," Yakov Gilinsky, an 84-year-old siege survivor, told AFP ahead of the parade.

Political commentator Anton Orekh suggested that the money spent on the parade should have been given to survivors instead.

"Old people would buy some medicine and new clothes and for a time forget they have to count pennies," he wrote.

But a defence ministry official insisted the event was not celebratory in nature, describing it as a "soldierly ritual".

- Germany earmarks funds --

Encircled by the Nazi troops for 872 days between 1941 and 1944, the city of around 3 million people went through unspeakable horrors.

With supplies to the city cut, bread rations plunged to 250 grammes (about half a pound) for manual workers and 125 grammes for other civilians.

More than 800,000 people died from hunger, disease, or the shelling. Many historians say the true figure is even higher.

Germany and Russia announced on Sunday Berlin had earmarked 12 million euros ($13.7 million) to help Russian war veterans and siege survivors as a "voluntary humanitarian gesture".

But Moscow also stressed that Berlin should pay individual compensations to all victims of the blockade.

Later Sunday authorities were set to hold a music and light show as well as a gun salute in memory of the gun fire that marked the end of the ordeal in 1944.

The trauma from the war is deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of the city.

Russia's former imperial capital is home to some 108,000 war veterans and siege survivors.Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to President Donald Trump, was arrested by the FBI early Friday morning on criminal charges relating to Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

Stone was charged with seven counts, including one of obstructing an official proceeding, five of making false statements and one of witness tampering.

The indictment is the first in 2019 as Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trumps campaign colluded with Russians.

Stones arrest is a significant blow to the President, as the self-described dirty trickster has been in Trumps orbit for decades. He has been involved in many political controversies over the years and has worked for Republicans from Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to Senator Bob Dole and both Bushes.

But who exactly is Roger Stone?

A political operative steeped in Washingtons dark arts, Stone has known Trump since at least 1980, according to the New York Times. Stone was raised in Lewisboro, New York and moved to the nations capital to attend George Washington University. But the pull of politics was strong, and he was soon working for presidential campaigns and then starting his own political consulting business.

In the early 1970s, Stone played a small role in the Watergate scandal and tried to embarrass Pete McCloskey, a Republican challenging Nixon, by donating money in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance to McCloskeys campaign. After these details came out during the Watergate hearings in 1973, Stone left his job on Senator Bob Doles staff but soon went to work for Ronald Reagans failed campaign in 1976 and his successful ones in 1980 and 1984.

When Reagan won the presidency in 1980, Stone started a firm with Charlie Black and none other than Paul Manafort, who would later go on to become Trumps campaign chairman and also play a key role in the special counsels investigation.

The firm, originally called Black, Manafort, and Stone, performed a combination of lobbying, consulting and public relations for its clients. TIME called it the ultimate supermarket of influence peddling and the groups clients included both major corporations and foreign dictators such as Angolas Jonas Savimbi, according to The Atlantic.

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How did he get involved with Trump?

Stone did lobbying work for Trump in the 1980s and became a strategist and confidante as Trumps ambitions rose. When Trump was considering a third-party run for the presidency in the lead-up to the 2000 election, Stone directed the exploratory committee.

The two remained close, but they had similar brash manners of talking and sometimes clashed. A 2008 New Yorker profile of Stone, by Jeffrey Toobin, is perhaps most illustrative of this strange dynamic. At the time, Stone was an on-again-off-again adviser to Trump. But, asked about Stone, Trump wasnt exactly enthusiastic. Roger is a stone-cold loser, Trump told Toobin. He always tries taking credit for things he never did.

Still, Stone continued working with Trump and as the 2016 cycle drew closer, he was ready to jump in to help his friend start a presidential bid for real this time.

What did he do for the Trump campaign?

When Trump announced he would run for president in June of 2015, Roger Stone served as one of his top political strategists. But by early August, Stone was out. Trump initially announced he was firing Stone, but Stone soon disputed this, say he quit the campaign over controversial comments Trump made about Megyn Kelly.

This fight prompted Trump to lump his adviser in with publicity seekers who want to be on magazines or who are out for themselves.

But even though Stone no longer had an official role in campaign, his feud with Trump did not last long. He remained in contact with Trump and encouraged him to hire Paul Manafort in March of 2016.

What is his involvement in the Russia investigation?

In 2016, Stone was publicly supportive when WikiLeaks released hacked emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. He also claimed many times that he was in contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he had advance warning of the leaks.

In the following months, Stone frequently changed his story, saying he never spoke to Assange and said that he did not have any knowledge that Russians were involved in the hacking.

In February of 2017, Stone spoke to TIME and was asked whether he had been contacted as part of the Russia investigation. I have not been contacted by anybody in law enforcement. There is absolutely no foundation to this whatsoever, he said. The intelligence community could not have found email transmissions or financial transactions involving me and the Russians and the Trump campaign because there are none. I have no Russian clients. I have no Russian contacts. I have no Russian money. I have no Russian influences. I do like Russian vodka. This thing is a canard. Were the Russians hacking us? Maybe. But did they affect the election in any way? No.

He also told TIME about his seeming awareness of what Wikileaks was up to: I have a mutual friend whos a journalist and was in London and communicated with him. When he came back, he told me that Assange has devastating political dynamite on Hillary Clinton and hes going to begin releasing it. I asked when. He said as soon as Wednesday. So I posted that. That [Tuesday], Assange had a press thing where he announced they would have disclosures for the next 10 weeks. So everything I said was true.

In late May, however, the Wall Street Journal also reported that Stone actively reached out to attempt to get specific information from Assange.

The special counsels indictment released on Friday furthers this by accusing Stone of giving information about WikiLeaks to the Trump campaign. According to the indictment, Stone told senior Trump campaign officials about hacked emails that could hurt Clinton, and once emails were released on July 22, 2016, the Trump campaign wanted to know more.

A senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton campaign, the indictment says, referring to WikiLeaks. Stone thereafter told the Trump campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by Organization 1.

The indictment does not accuse Stone of colluding with Assange or Russian officials, but it does say that, after the election, Stone lied to Congress to try to cover his actions. It also says Stone tried to persuade another witness, identified as Person 2, to refuse to cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee.

As the investigation has continued in recent months, Stone said publicly he was prepared to be indicted but maintained he had not done anything illegal.A defiant Roger Stone denounced the "Gestapo tactics" of federal authorities Sunday and denied the allegations against him two days after being arrested by the FBI on seven felony charges, including witness tampering, obstruction and lying.

The charges against the longtime political operative and associate of President Donald Trump stem from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Stone is charged with lying about his role in the Trump campaign's attempts to communicate with WikiLeaks about Clinton campaign emails stolen by Russian agents.

Stone, 66, denied doing anything wrong, calling the indictment against him "thin as piss on a rock" during an interview on ABC's "This Week." He said his emails and texts that the special counsel used against him in the indictment were taken out of context.

He called the manner of his arrest  which took place in a pre-dawn raid at his Florida home Friday  "extraordinary." He said the number of agents who were involved was unnecessary because he does not own a firearm and does not pose a flight risk because his passport is expired.

Post-indictment: Stone mocks Mueller with doctored photo on Instagram

Russia investigation: Mueller pushes deeper into Trump campaign

Who is Stone? Longtime Republican operative worked on campaigns from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump

"I've been under investigation for two years. I have destroyed nothing. But if I were going to destroy evidence, wouldn't I have done it a long time ago?" he said. "They could simply have called my lawyers, and I would have turned myself in."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., did not share Stone's dismissive attitude of the indictment against him.

"Look, hes presumed innocent. But these are very specific allegations of lies and witness intimidation. Theyre matters that will be easily provable," said Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on "This Week" after Stone's interview. "And I think hes going to need a much better defense than the one you just heard."

Story continues

Schiff, a former prosecutor, said white-collar criminals often dismiss each individual piece of evidence as innocent and explainable while trying to get investigators to ignore the "totality" of the evidence.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also worked as a prosecutor, agreed.

"The fact of the matter is that every white-collar defendant in this circumstance, when theyre confronted with a bunch of documents of their own making, try to say that they're out of context," said Christie, who added that Stone faces a "pretty damning indictment."

After his arrest, Stone was released on $250,000 bail.

Stone claimed the FBI made "an expensive show of force to try to depict me as Public Enemy No. 1, the O.G.," he said, using the acronym for "original gangster."

"It's an attempt to poison the jury pool," he said. "These are Gestapo tactics."

Stone said that everything he said or wrote about the Clinton campaign emails in 2016 was based on what had been made public and that he had no advance knowledge about what WikiLeaks would publish.

In the indictment against Stone, Mueller's team alleges that "a senior Trump campaign official" was directed to talk with Stone about further WikiLeaks releases. Stone said he believes that official was Rick Gates, an associate of former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Stone said Gates is lying if he is the one claiming such a conversation took place.

"I never spoke about this matter with Rick Gates. But I'm mindful of the special counsel's ability to induce people to say things that are not true, particularly people who are seeking a reduction in their sentence," he said.

Gates pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy and lying to investigators. As part of his plea deal, he testified against his former business partner at Manafort's trial in August about helping file false tax returns, failing to disclose multiple foreign bank accounts and providing fake documents to banks to acquire millions of dollars in loans. Gates may have cooperated with Mueller in other parts of his investigation.

Mueller investigation: Key players in 2016 election inquiry

Stone implied former White House adviser Steve Bannon might be behind the claims in the indictment because he has an "ax to grind."

"I urged the president to fire Steve Bannon," Stone said. "I suspect that I am not his favorite person."

Stone said he "categorically" never spoke to Trump about WikiLeaks, Russia or the Mueller investigation.

He said the investigation into where the emails came from is "meant to distract from the content of those emails, which demonstrated the corruption and dirty tricks of the Clinton campaign."

Stone said it was an "unproven" claim that Russians stole those emails and he compared himself to Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed White House dishonesty about progress in the Vietnam War.

"I tried to do the same thing that Daniel Ellsberg did, for which The New York Times and The Washington Post called him a hero, although I never received any stolen or hacked material and handed it to anyone," he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., did not agree that there was anything heroic about WikiLeaks' publication of the stolen emails.

"I think it should have been clear to people a long time ago that WikiLeaks and others like that could have been tools of foreign intelligence used to divide America," Rubio said on "Meet The Press." "And so I do believe that anyone who is cooperating with them, wittingly or unwittingly, is doing the work of a foreign intelligence agency to harm us."

Stone vowed outside the federal courthouse Friday that he would "not bear false witness" against the president, but Sunday, he did not rule out the possibility of cooperating with Mueller.

He said that was something he would have to "determine after my attorneys have some discussion."

"If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is, I would certainly testify honestly," Stone said.

"Id also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president," he said. "Its true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, theyre benign, and there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia."

Contributing: Brad Heath, Bart Jansen, Kevin Johnson and Brett Molina

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roger Stone decries FBI's 'Gestapo tactics' but doesn't rule out cooperating with MuellerMinor girl found dead in Biratnagar

A child who had gone to her neighbours house to watch television has been found dead in Biratnagar. Her naked body was recovered from the bank of Singhya River in an isolated area at the bordering region of Biratnagar Metropolitan-8 and Katahari Rural Municipality on Sunday afternoon.One of the interesting consequences of the drip, drip release of information as political scandals slowly unfold is that political combatants often end up focusing on each new detail rather than placing it in the context of the larger whole. This is understandable, but it can sometimes cause us to miss the forest for the trees. So, on the day of the long-expected Roger Stone indictment, its worthwhile to back up just a bit and place the special counsels allegations against Stone in proper context.

First, what does the Stone indictment add to the story of Russia, the Trump campaign, and 2016? We already knew from Jerome Corsis draft statement of offense that the bumbling team of Corsi and Stone had worked diligently to get advance notice of WikiLeaks document dumps. Now we know (according to the indictment) that a senior Trump Campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information Organization 1 had regarding the Clinton Campaign.

Who directed the senior official (reportedly Steve Bannon) to contact Stone? We dont know.

Moreover (again, according to the indictment), on multiple occasions, Stone told senior Trump Campaign officials about materials possessed by Organization 1 and the timing of future releases. So, here we have a reciprocal relationship  the Trump campaign reached out to Stone for information about WikiLeaks, and Stone communicated back to the campaign.

If youll recall, from the inception of suspicions about Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, there have been competing partisan narratives. From parts of the left, the characters in the Trump drama are framed like James Bond villains, shadowy operatives in an international plot to hack an election. From the parts of the right, the FBI and CIA are the Bond villains, hatching their own conspiracy to entrap innocent Trump officials in an effort to take down a democratically elected president. But in November, after Corsi leaked his draft statement to the press, I posited a different theory: The Trump campaign wasnt a collection of criminal masterminds  would masterminds rely on the likes of Stone and Corsi to conduct international espionage?  but an ad-hoc mix of comically inept crooks and grifters who were seeking to gain any advantage they could and have spent the years since lying to cover their tracks.

Story continues

The Stone indictment advances my theory considerably. He is not alleged to have established any kind of ongoing, close working relationship with Julian Assange. Instead, he used intermediaries to squeeze out bits and pieces of information from WikiLeaks. He allegedly shared some of that information with the campaign, and then  when the special counsels investigation started  appears to have engaged in some of the most inept lying and witness intimidation Ive ever seen. He denied the existence of documents that he should have known investigators would possess, and his threats to witnesses were almost cartoonish. In one paragraph, the indictment alleges he referred to a plan inspired by the movie Godfather II. In another paragraph, the indictment alleges that he threatened a witnesss dog.

John Wick would like a word.

It would almost be funny if the stakes werent so high. A combination of special-counsel indictments, guilty pleas, and reproduced emails has now shown that, despite their insistent, repeated denials of contact with Russians, Trump-campaign officials (including the campaign chair and the candidates son and son-in-law) were eager to meet with Russians to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton, were asking Roger Stone to connect with WikiLeaks  a reputed Russian asset  for information about its data dumps, and shared polling data with another reputed Russian asset. Whats more, we now know that Trumps real-estate business continued to discuss a significant development deal in Moscow with Russians (including a Kremlin official) deep into the 2016 campaign.

Lest you think the repeated, criminal lies about many of those events are mere process crimes, or that lies to the public dont matter because they arent crimes at all, dont forget the counterintelligence aspect of this investigation. When a person lies publicly and under oath about contacts with a hostile foreign power  and the hostile foreign power knows that person lied  that provides the foreign power with potential leverage. It doesnt mean the liar will allow himself to be compromised. It doesnt mean that the foreign power will try to use its leverage. But it does mean that the lie was more significant than your average political lie.

All that said, now more than ever its imperative that Robert Mueller conclude his investigation with all prudent speed. The drip, drip process itself is tearing at the fabric of our political culture, and if it continues deep into the 2020 presidential cycle, I shudder to think of its impact on political discourse and national polarization. If at all possible, the Mueller investigation needs to reach its endgame, soon, and let the legal and political chips fall where they may.

More from National ReviewCaracas (AFP) - Venezuela's self-proclaimed acting president Juan Guaido said Monday he was taking control of the country's foreign assets as he piled pressure on leader Nicolas Maduro by calling for a new wave of protests against the embattled regime.

Guaido, the opposition leader who has declared himself the country's ruler amid violent anti-government protests, says "usurper" Maduro's rule is illegitimate and wants to set up a transitional government ahead of new elections.

In a statement published on social media, he said he was "beginning to take progressive and orderly control of our republic's assets abroad to prevent, during his exit... that the usurper and his band try to empty the coffers."

Guaido also called for a two-hour strike Wednesday "to demand that the armed forces side with the people," ahead of a "big national and international rally" on Saturday to acknowledge support from several European countries that have issued Maduro a deadline to hold new polls.

His remarks came as the death toll in last week's protests rose to 35, according to NGO workers, with the government security forces accused of killing another eight in "extra-judicial executions."

Pope Francis said Monday following a trip to Panama that he was afraid the escalating political crisis in Venezuela would descend into "a bloodbath."

The White House meanwhile urged Venezuela's military to accept a "peaceful, democratic and constitutional transfer of power."

National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters in Washington President Donald Trump was leaving "all options... on the table" when it came to considering getting the US military involved in the crisis.

- Hyperinflation -

Maduro, 56, has so far refused to budge, telling Turkish television station CNN Turk: "No one can give us an ultimatum."

Millions of Venezuelans have been left in poverty or fled the country due to an economic crisis, marked by hyperinflation and shortages of basic necessities, which began in 2014.

Story continues

Maduro devalued the currency by 35 percent on Monday, aligning it with the exchange rate for the dollar on the black market, but analysts said it would only "make things worse."

Guaido, the 35-year-old head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, says the election Maduro won in May wasn't fair as it was boycotted by the opposition, while many in the international community branded it a fraud.

Last Wednesday Guaido launched a power struggle with Maduro by declaring himself "acting president."

He has the been recognized as Venezuela's interim president by the United States and a dozen Latin American countries while Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands said they would follow suit unless Maduro calls elections by February 3.

The EU has so far held back from joining the ultimatum, saying it would take "further actions" if elections were not called in the coming days, including the issue of recognition of the country's "leadership."

Russia, China, Turkey and leftist regional allies Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico continue to back Maduro.

- Offers to host talks -

On Monday, the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Eduardo Ferrer, called for the leaders of both sides to meet "through peaceful channels" to find a way to "rebuild institutional democracy and full respect of human rights."

Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Mexico and Uruguay are to present offers to host talks on solving the political crisis to the United Nations.

Canada said it would host an "urgent meeting" of the Lima Group of 13 Latin American nations plus Canada on February 4 to "discuss the steps we can take to support Juan Guaido and the people of Venezuela."

That came as Rafael Uzcategui, director of the Venezuelan Program for Education-Action in Human Rights, accused the FAES police special forces unit of carrying out eight unlawful executions following last week's protests, which he said had proved more deadly than previously thought.

"We have the corroborated figure, with first name, surname, place and presumed guilty parties, of 35 people murdered in the context of the protests" since Monday last week, said Uzcategui.

Another NGO, Foro Penal, said 850 people, among them 77 children, have been arrested.

The US has warned there will be a "significant response" if US diplomats, Guaido or the opposition-controlled National Assembly are targeted with violence and intimidation.

- Military support key -

Encouraged by the international support for his cause, Guaido is on a mission to weaken the military's support of Maduro, which has been essential to keeping him in power since 2013.

His appeals have included promises of amnesty, and mass protests against Maduro, who has presided over the collapse of the economy and a severe humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food and medicine.

Venezuela Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Monday dismissed the amnesty offer as a "deception" and an "instrument of manipulation," insisting that "no-one in the armed forces believes it."

So far, the military has backed the leftist regime, which was ushered into power 20 years ago by the late Hugo Chavez, a former military officer.

But Venezuela's military attache in Washington, Army Colonel Jose Luis Silva, switched his support to Guaido while Washington also accepted exiled opposition leader Carlos Vecchio as Venezuela's new charge d'affaires to the United States.

Scarlet Salazar, a Venezuelan consular officer in Miami, said Monday she was also throwing her support behind Guaido in a videotaped statement.By Philip Pullella PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said an open-air Mass before a huge crowd on Sunday to wrap up a jamboree of Catholic youth, the last big event before he returns to Rome to prepare for a historic trip to the Arabian Peninsula in one week. Organizers said about 700,000 people attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day, which takes place in a different city every three years. The next jamboree, which has been dubbed the "Catholic Woodstock," will be in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2022. Many of the young people in the crowd spent the night on the fields of a park named after Pope John Paul, who was the last pontiff to visit Panama, in 1983. In his closing homily at the Mass, which started unusually early at 8 a.m., because of the sweltering tropical heat, Francis urged the young people to work against "fear and exclusion, speculation and manipulation." After a week at the Vatican, Francis leaves on Sunday for a three-day trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where he will become the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula and say the first Mass in a public venue there. There are about one million Roman Catholics in the UAE, all of them expatriate workers. The freedom to practice Christianity  or any religion other than Islam  is not a given in the Gulf and varies from country to country. In the UAE and Kuwait, Christians may worship in churches or church compounds and in other places with special licenses. Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, bans the practice of other religions. During the Panama trip, the themes of migration and the Church's sexual abuse crisis loomed large. Francis said at one event that it was "senseless and irresponsible" to stigmatize migrants and see all of them as threats to society, weighing in again on one of the most divisive issues in the United States. He spoke several times of the need for "bridges, not walls," again putting himself at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, who on Friday agreed under mounting pressure to end a 35-day partial U.S. government shutdown but without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has repeatedly warned about the dangers of illegal immigrants, and said the wall would help solve the problem. On Saturday, Francis said the Roman Catholic Church was weary and "wounded by her own sin," in an apparent reference to the global sexual abuse crisis. Later, at a lunch with a delegation of young people, he told the American representative that clergy sexual abuse was a "horrible crime" and that the Church should be united in fighting it. Francis has called a summit of the heads of national Catholic churches at the Vatican Feb. 21-24 to discuss what is now a global sexual abuse crisis. The February meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)That pet hedgehog might not be such a great idea after all.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a notice Friday about 11 Salmonella infections across eight states, and in all but one of the cases the people had been in contact with a pet hedgehog.

Only one person has gone to the hospital because of the outbreak, but health officials are concerned about the growing number of cases infecting people in Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Wyoming.

SEE ALSO: The internet is obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog's muscular, sculpted sex legs

Those infected are 2 to 28 years old and the infections started in October. The same Salmonella strain was found in three hedgehogs from two infected people's homes in Minnesota. It's not clear yet if a common hedgehog supplier can be traced back, but in the meantime hedgehog owners are advised to be careful.

The spiny animals carry Salmonella in their droppings  even though the animals appear fine and healthy. Then when humans touch the pets and their living areas the germs spread and people get sick, especially young children or those with already compromised health. Health officials recommend a lot of hand washing, cage cleaning, and keeping the hedgehogs out of the kitchen area.

For some people, the risk of infection might be too high, so maybe a hedgehog just isn't the right pet for you  no matter how cute the little guys are. As the CDC warns: "Dont kiss or snuggle hedgehogs."Oswiecim (Poland) (AFP) - Hitler's Germany was responsible for the Holocaust, not the Nazis, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Sunday, as Poland marked 74 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

"Hitler's Germany fed on fascist ideology... But all the evil came from this (German) state and we cannot forget that, because otherwise we relativise evil," said Morawiecki at an official ceremony at Auschwitz.

"The Polish state acts as the guardian of the truth, which must not be relativised in any way," he said.

"I want to make a promise here to (preserve) the complete truth about that era," he added, in a speech in the southern city of Oswiecim to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Sunday's ceremony at Auschwitz was attended by a number of former prisoners at the camp.

Morawiecki's speech comes after last year's row over a Polish law that made it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in Nazi German crimes.

After protests from Israel and the US, Poland amended the law to remove the possibility of fines or a prison sentence.

Morawiecki appeared to be responding to an idea often mentioned in Poland, which claims that historians try to attribute responsibility for the genocide of Jews exclusively to the Nazis, without recalling the role played by the German state and Germans as a nation.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. With one million Jews killed there between 1940 to 1945, the camp has become a symbol of Nazi Germany's genocide of the European Jews.

More than 100,000 other people including non-Jewish Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and anti-Nazi resistance fighters also perished there.

Last February, Morawiecki had to defend himself against criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who denounced "unacceptable" comments he made about the Holocaust.

Morawiecki's office insisted that he has repeatedly opposed Holocaust denial and anti-semitism in all its forms.A male St Louis police officer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly shooting a female college during a game of Russian roulette.

Nathaniel Hendren, 29, shot fellow officer Katlyn Alix, 24, at an apartment in the Missouri city in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to a St Louis Police Department statement.

A probable cause statement from the force, provided by St Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardners office, offered an account of the deadly game that allegedly led to her death.

Ms Alix and Mr Hendren were playing with guns when the male officer produced a revolver.

The defendant emptied the cylinder of the revolver and then put one cartridge back into the cylinder, the statement said. He allegedly spun the cylinder, pointed the gun away and pulled the trigger.

Police officer Katlyn Alix (AP)

The gun did not fire. The statement said Ms Alix took the gun, pointed it at Mr Hendren and pulled the trigger. Again, it didnt fire.

Mr Hendren took the gun back and pointed it at the victim (and) pulled the trigger causing the gun to discharge, according to a police statement. The victim was struck in the chest.

Another male officer present at the apartment told investigators he warned Mr Hendren and Ms Alix not to play with guns and reminded them they were police officers. He was about to leave when he heard the fatal shot.

The two male officers drove Ms Alix to a hospital where she died. Both men were on duty at the time of the shooting. Police Commissioner John Hayden has declined to answer questions about why the officers had gathered at the apartment, which was home to one of the men.

Ms Alix, a military veteran who was married, was a patrol officer who had graduated from the St Louis Police Academy in January 2017.

She was not working at the time of her death, but had gone to the apartment to meet the men.

Police immediately launched an internal investigation and placed both officers on paid leave. On Thursday the commissioner called it an accidental discharge of the weapon.

Story continues

St. Louis police said the charges announced on Friday were the result of a promise Mr Hayden made to Ms Alixs family to conduct a thorough and competent investigation.

Ms Gardner, the prosecutor for state-level criminal cases, began her own investigation on Thursday and enlisted the Missouri State Highway Patrol to conduct it.

Additional reporting by Associated PressDividends play an important role in compounding returns in the long run and end up forming a sizeable part of investment returns. Historically, Plastiques du Val de Loire (EPA:PVL) has paid a dividend to shareholders. It currently yields 2.3%. Should it have a place in your portfolio? Lets take a look at Plastiques du Val de Loire in more detail.

See our latest analysis for Plastiques du Val de Loire

5 questions I ask before picking a dividend stock

When assessing a stock as a potential addition to my dividend Portfolio, I look at these five areas:

Is it paying an annual yield above 75% of dividend payers?

Has it consistently paid a stable dividend without missing a payment or drastically cutting payout?

Has it increased its dividend per share amount over the past?

Can it afford to pay the current rate of dividends from its earnings?

Will it be able to continue to payout at the current rate in the future?

ENXTPA:PVL Historical Dividend Yield January 27th 19

Does Plastiques du Val de Loire pass our checks?

The company currently pays out 9.6% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, meaning the dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. In the near future, analysts are predicting a higher payout ratio of 15% which, assuming the share price stays the same, leads to a dividend yield of around 2.5%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to 1.66 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income.

When thinking about whether a dividend is sustainable, another factor to consider is the cash flow. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio.

If there is one thing that you want to be reliable in your life, its dividend stocks and their constant income stream. Whilst its per-share payments have increased during the past 10 years, there has been some hiccups. Investors have seen reductions in the dividend per share in the past, although, it has picked up again.

Story continues

Relative to peers, Plastiques du Val de Loire generates a yield of 2.3%, which is on the low-side for Chemicals stocks.

Next Steps:

With these dividend metrics in mind, I definitely rank Plastiques du Val de Loire as a strong income stock, and is worth further research for anyone who considers dividends an important part of their portfolio strategy. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I recommend taking sufficient time to understand its core business and determine whether the company and its investment properties suit your overall goals. Ive put together three pertinent factors you should further examine:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PVLs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for PVLs outlook. Valuation: What is PVL worth today? Even if the stock is a cash cow, its not worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether PVL is currently mispriced by the market. Other Dividend Rockstars: Are there better dividend payers with stronger fundamentals out there? Check out our free list of these great stocks here.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Law minister-led mechanism to decide future of transitional justice

With just two weeks remaining for the mandates of two transitional justice bodies to expire, confusion looms over Nepals transitional justice process, which has dragged on for more than a decade since the end of the civil war.He is a comedian known for his acidic put-downs and staunch anti-Trump views.

But when Patton Oswalt was trolled by a Republican on Twitter, the writer and actor came up with a response more suited to a saint than a stand-up.

Discovering his assailant was battling grave health problems, he donated $2,000 towards his unpaid medical bills  then urged his 4.5 million followers to follow suit.

The heartwarming exchange between Oswalt, an Emmy Award winner, and Michael Beatty - a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran from Huntsville, Alabama - was sparked on Thursday after the celebrity posted an unflattering poem about Donald Trump.

Mr Beatty, who had just 11 followers at the time, responded by saying: I just realized why I was so happy you died in Blade Trinity!"

And that would have been that. I expected a scathing retort or just to be ignored, Mr Beatty told the Washington Post on Friday.

Instead, Oswalt apparently read through his trolls feed, saw he needed $5,000 to cover the urgent medical costs of a recent stay in hospital for sepsis, and decided to donate.

"This dude just attacked me on Twitter and I joked back but then I looked at his timeline and he's in a LOT of trouble health-wise," the 49-year-old tweeted. "I'd be pissed off too. He's been dealt some s***** cards  let's deal him some good ones. Click and donate  just like I'm about to."

The result was that a GoFundMe page set up by Mr Beatty  a diabetic who had spent eight days in a coma with his illness  received $35,000 in just 24 hours.

"Patton, he wrote in response. You have humbled me to the point where I can barely compose my words. You have caused me to take pause and reflect on how harmful words from my mouth could result in such an outpouring. Thank you for this and I will pass this on to my cousin who needs help.

Describing the whole encounter in an interview on Friday, he added: After today, I tend to think Im a tempered Republican.

Im having to re-evaluate some of the things Ive gone along with. The biggest thing I learned about [Oswalt] is that he is a man of character.Mughayir (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Around 3,000 people attended the funeral Sunday of a Palestinian killed the day before in clashes with Israeli civilians near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Hamdi Nassan, 38, died after being shot in the back with live ammunition, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli army said clashes had erupted after a "physical confrontation" between residents of Mughayir village near Ramallah and a settler from nearby Adei Ad settlement.

The Israeli civilians opened fire with live rounds, wounding several Palestinians and killing Nassan, it said.

An Israeli army spokesperson did not respond to AFP's questions about the identity of the civilians who had opened fire, or the circumstances of the confrontation.

On Sunday, mourners called for vengeance as they carried Nassan's body, wrapped in the Palestinian flag and the yellow banner of the Fatah party of president Mahmud Abbas.

Mughayir, a village with around 4,000 residents, is surrounded by four Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

"About eight settlers, dressed in white and armed with rifles, arrived from the north of the village," said Ali Hassan, who witnessed Saturday's clashes.

"We didn't know what they wanted, we went to meet them and they started shooting."

He said Nassan was helping evacuate the wounded when he was himself hit, and that Israeli soldiers saw the incident but did not immediately intervene.

Tzuriel Amiur, a spokesman for Adei Ad settlement, said a 19-year-old settler had been "attacked by a group of Palestinians who stabbed him and threw stones at him".

In response, a group of settlers headed for Mughayir, the scene of several clashes in recent months.

According to Amiur, the group were then "ambushed" by as many as 200 Palestinians throwing rocks.

When the army arrived, "civilians and soldiers were afraid for their lives and opened fire", he said.

Story continues

Amin Abu Alya, head of the Mughayir village council, said Saturday that the settlers had opened fire before the army moved in.

"At the beginning it was settlers shooting, then the army came and fired tear gas," he told AFP by phone.

Asked who shot Nassan, he said it was settlers.

Witnesses said that earlier on Saturday, two settlers had attacked a group of Palestinian farmers who responded by hitting them.

Nearly 450,000 Jewish settlers live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is also home to more than 2.5 million Palestinians.

UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov called the killing "shocking and unacceptable!"

"Israel must put an end to settler violence and bring those responsible to justice," he wrote on Twitter.Mr Maduro has made a show of military control since the power struggle began - AFP

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Sunday rejected an ultimatum from the UK and four other European countries giving him eight days to call new elections, describing the move as "complete insolence".

On Saturday, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands said that if Mr Maduro did not call a vote within that time-frame, they would join others in formally recognising the head of Venezuela's parliament as the legitimate president.

In his first interview since the intense leadership struggle began last week, Mr Maduro branded the European countries' actions a "mistake".

"Venezuela is not tied to Europe. This is complete insolence," he told CNN's Turkish channel.

Regional powers such as the US, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Argentina announced last week that they officially would recognise Juan Guaido as legitimate president after the 35-year-old opposition leader swore himself in front of a Caracas rally.

But others, such as Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Turkey, have come out in support of Mr Maduro, accusing Washington of leading an imperialist intervention in the South American nation.

Opposition National Assembly President Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president of Venezuela, prays next to his wife Fabiana Rosales Credit: AP

On Saturday, Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, told the UN that countries must pick a side on Venezuela, urging them to also recognise Mr Guaido.

We call on all members of the Security Council to support Venezuelas democratic transition and interim President Guaidos role, he said.

The battle for international loyalties mirrors an arguably more crucial one within Venezuela's government and military ranks. Mr Guaido has been calling for the armed forces to come over to his side, and while the top brass has so far remained firm on Saturday, a top military envoy to the United States announced his defection from Mr Maduro's government.

"Today I speak to the people of Venezuela, and especially to my brothers in the armed forces of the nation, to recognise President Juan Guaido as the only legitimate president," Colonel Jose Luis Silva said in a video recorded at the embassy in Washington, seated at a desk alongside the Venezuelan flag.

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Col. Silva told Reuters that one consular official in Houston and one in another US city also recognised Mr Guaido, and the opposition leader himself said that many more Venezuelan diplomatic staff around the world have promised to shift allegiance to him. The Telegraph could not independently confirm those claims.

Mr Guaido says Mr Maduros May reelection was a sham, and that as he was not sworn in by the National Assembly, but instead the government-stacked Supreme Court, he does not have constitutional legitimacy as president. Instead, the constitution provides for the parliamentary head to fill a presidential vacancy and convene new elections, he argues - a view backed by many in the region.

According to sources, Mr Guaido plans to seek funding from the International Monetary Fund for his parallel government. But he will need more defections at home to ultimately move into the Miraflores presidential palace and organise elections.

Supporters of Mr Guaido took amnesty letters to military posts on Sunday in a bid to persuade soldiers to come over to his side Credit: Luis Robayo/AFP

On Sunday, opposition lawmakers led local communities in approaching military barracks and handing over a proposal for amnesty. According to the plan, military members who help in restoring democracy would be granted amnesty in a future government for crimes committed during the rule of Mr Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

This is how we will work together to achieve peace and freedom, opposition MP Ismael Leon shouted through a gate at around six military members, some holding long guns, others recording the ordeal. The soldiers didnt respond or accept the letter.

While small rebellions against Mr Maduro have broken out in Venezuela's armed forces in recent months, there has been no large scale military uprising against him.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro takes part in a military exercise in Valencia Credit: Reuters

Along with the promises of amnesty, Mr Guaido has announced plans for more mass protests. Nighttime clashes with authorities and bouts of looting have already led to roughly two dozen deaths, according to local NGOs. More than 400 have been arrested.

On Saturday, the Venezuelan foreign minister had agreed to postpone a 72 hour deadline given by Mr Maduro for US diplomats to leave the country, extending it for 30 days. The embassy had already been reduced to a skeleton staff over security concerns.

The US national security adviser, John Bolton, on Sunday issued a strong warning to Mr Maduro's regime.

"Any violence and intimidation against US diplomatic personnel, Venezuela's democratic leader, Juan Guaido, or the National Assembly itself would represent a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response," he said on Twitter.Washington (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday that US President Donald Trump's regular complaints about the alliance had not undermined it -- adding that his criticism on defense spending was having a positive impact.

Trump has frequently blasted members of the 29-nation western security partnership for not paying more into their national defense budgets.

Before taking office, he called NATO "obsolete" and recent media reports said he spoke to senior officials last year about pulling out.

"President Trump has been very clear, he is committed to NATO. He stated that clearly just a few days ago and also at the NATO summit in July," Stoltenberg said on "Fox News Sunday."

"But at the same time, he has clearly stated that NATO allies need to invest more. And therefore at the summit in July last year, we agreed to do more to step up -- and now we see the results."

NATO members agreed in 2014 to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024 but around half are not on course to make that target.

Stoltenberg said, however, that by the end of 2020, NATO allies would have added $100 billion extra toward defense spending.

"So we see some real money and some real results. And we see that the clear message from President Trump is having an impact," he added.

"NATO allies have heard the president loud and clear and now NATO allies are stepping up. So this is good news meaning that we actually see more fair burden sharing."

Earlier this month Trump repeated his view that close allies had been taking advantage of the US security umbrella for decades and that it was his mission to stop that.

"We cannot be the fools for others. We cannot be. We don't want to be called that. And I will tell you for many years behind your backs, that is what they were saying," he said during an address to the Pentagon.

The president acknowledged Stoltenberg's positive feedback soon after the interview aired, tweeting that sharing defense costs had made NATO "more united."

"Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!" he added.

Stoltenberg was in Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan and national security advisor John Bolton.Roger Stone, the longtime ally of President Donald Trump, said on Sunday he will not rule out potentially cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller over the ongoing investigation regarding possible links between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

Mr Stone told ABCs This Week he would have to consult with his lawyers before possibly cooperating with the special counsel team.

Thats a question Ill have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion, he said. If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about  which I know of none  but if there is I would certainly testify honestly. Id also testify honestly about any other matter including communications with the president.

Mr Trumps longtime confidant insisted he will not testify against the president, a promise he repeated on Friday morning after he was charged with witness tampering and for lying to Congress about communicating with WikiLeaks and seeking Russian-hacked emails involving Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Stone told Congress he had no contact with two accused intermediaries to WikiLeaks. Prosecutors, however, proved he was in frequent contact with both subjects with evidence including 30 text messages between the political consultant and one of the parties on the day Stone denied the allegations.

Stone also told ABC he has not destroyed any evidence related to Mr Mueller's investigation.

If convicted, Mr Stone could spend several years in prison. Such a sentence could be reduced if he chooses to cooperate with prosecutors, as it has been done with former national security adviser Michael Flynn and deputy campaign chair Rick Gates.

Mr Mueller and his team of prosecutors have charged or obtained guilty pleas from at least 34 individuals associated with the president, including prominent members of the Trump campaign and three companies.A 3-year-old boy who was found alive after having been missing for days told family members that he had spent the time with a bear.

Casey Hathaway had been playing with other children on Tuesday when he vanished from his grandmothers yard in a rural part of eastern North Carolina. He was found alive two days later after community search crews received a tip.

Caseys aunt, Breanna Hathaway, posted Friday on Facebook that her nephew was home, healthy and smiling  and had quite the tale to relate about his experience.

He said he hung out with a bear for two days, Hathaway said.

She was willing to roll with the story, saying, God sent him a friend to keep him safe.  Miracles do happen.

In another post, Hathaway said Casey likes to watch Masha and the Bear, a show about a girl who lives in the woods with a paternal bear who keeps her safe.

Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes said at a news conference Thursday that search crews found Casey wet, cold and tangled in vines, but not seriously injured.

He was a little lethargic, but warm, when he was found, Hughes told WCTI-TV in an interview. The sheriff said Casey wanted water and his mom when he was found.

The boy didnt really get into... how he was able to survive, though he did mention having a friend in the woods who was a bear, the sheriff added, without commenting further on that scenario.

There were no signs of abduction, Hughes said.

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Hes up and talking, Caseys mother, Brittany Hathaway, said at a news conference, after thanking search crews. Hes already asked to watch Netflix, so hes good, hes good.

The family is planning to set up a post office box to handle the huge wave of support, including from people who Hathaway said want to send stuffed teddy bears.

Breanna Hathaway posted on Facebook that the family appreciates the bear gifts but advises those sending them to remember that he can only [take] home so many.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.KCs supporters say medical bill doesnt speak to have-nots

Supporters of Dr Govinda KC on Saturday demanded that Nepal Communist Party lawmakers address the doctors demands as per an earlier agreement, when the revised National Medical Education Bill was tabled in the National Assembly last year.Meghan McCain says she has a hard time calling herself a Republican as long as Donald Trump is in the White House. However, the "View" co-host and daughter of the late Sen. John McCain stresses that doesn't mean she's abandoned conservatism.

In a Saturday interview on CNN's "The Van Jones Show," McCain, 34, said, "I'm still a member of the Republican party and I vote a Republican ticket. But Republicanism is so tied up with being for Trump."

At the same time, she said, "I'm not a 'Never Trumper.' Trump didnt melt my brain. I can still see the forest for the trees and it didn't expunge all my conservative principles out of me."

Conservative fans of "The View" don't need to worry about confusing McCain with Joy Behar or Whoopi Goldberg, though.

"I'm not a liberal and I think it would be intellectually dishonest for me to go on TV and start espousing beliefs I don't believe in."

But McCain isn't sure where she fits into the current GOP or if the Republican party she grew up in will still exist by the time Trump leaves office.

"We're so outnumbered," she said of mainstream Republicans. "I think something like 80 percent of Republicans support President Trump. Maybe they're doing it because they don't have another option but I think the populist Trump brand really has taken over, which is why there's this sort of no-mans-land that I'm in because I didn't become a Never Trump-er, either."

The Republican party under Trump, she said, is "not what I recognize anymore. Its character seems to be gone. Growing up, my father was, like, militant about character. Now it seems like lying is OK. Stealing, it's a little nebulous. I don't think those are American characteristics. And it scares me  a lot."

The debate over President Trump's proposed border wall has reinforced her sense of other-ness.

Story continues

"Sometimes I feel like when I hear, 'Anyone who supports the wall is racist,' it's a trigger for me because I know people who are not racist who support the wall," she said. She urged her liberal friends and co-workers to see the perspective of someone in Arizona "who has seen the impact of illegal immigration or who sees a liberal on TV talking about how great sanctuary cities are and thinks, 'That's crazy.' "

The notion that all Republicans are racist is especially rankling to McCain, whose adopted sister Bridget is from Bangladesh.

"Of all the things I've ever been accused of, (being called a racist) is the most deeply hurtful,' she told Jones. "There was a very famous political moment in 2000 when my father was running (for the Republican presidential nomination) when Karl Rove had a whisper campaign done saying my father had an illegitimate black child, who is my sister Bridget," she recounted. "So at a very young age, I had to reconcile (Republicanism and race)."

At the end of the day, she said, "I'm just here to ask questions, to represent where I come from, to represent my party. I'm here to represent my family. If people don't like it, they can replace me. 'The View' is a rotating seat  it's like having a residency in Vegas."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meghan McCain: 'View' co-host explains why she doesn't call herself a Republican anymoreA 21-year-old Louisiana man wanted in connection with the shooting deaths of his parents and three other people was arrested at gunpoint Sunday at his grandmother's home in Virginia, authorities said.

Dakota Theriot will be transported from Virginia's Richmond County to Ascension Parish in Louisiana and booked on two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion and illegal use of weapons, Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said.

Theriots grandmother had spent the night in a hotel because she feared her grandson might come to her home in Warsaw, Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith said. The woman asked authorities to check her home Sunday morning to make sure it was safe before she went home.

"While deputies were on site, Theriot arrived at the residence in a motor vehicle with a firearm pointed out of the window," Smith said in a statement. "The deputies sought cover and challenged Theriot, who then dropped the firearm upon their commands and was taken into custody without incident."

Theriot was held without bond at Northern Neck Regional Jail pending a court hearing, Smith said.

Authorities suspect Theriot fatally shot Billy Ernest, 43, his son Tanner, 17, and daughter Summer, 20, in their Livingston Parish home early Saturday before driving to his parents home. A short time later, Ascension Parish deputies were called to the couple's trailer in the city of Gonzales, where they found Dakota's parents, Elizabeth and Keith, both 51, with gunshot wounds.

"The father was gravely injured at the time we found him and has since passed away," Webre said. "We were able to get a dying declaration from him, only enough information to let us know it was his son that committed this act."

Elizabeth Theriot died from her wounds a short time later.

Webre said Dakota Theriot lived with his parents briefly but was asked to leave and not return. Kim Mincks, who lived with the couple, said the son had a loving relationship with his mother but engaged in sometimes violent arguments with his father.

Story continues

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said Theriot had recently been in a relationship with Summer Ernest. He said he had spoken with Summer's mother, and "there were no red flags, no sign of anything. We have no motive at this time."

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernests sister, told The Associated Press that she believes Theriot and Summer had just begun dating.

My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didnt get good vibes from him, DeYoung said. My mom is a good judge of character, and she just thought he was not good."

The Ernests' neighbor, Charlene Bordelon, told The Advocate the two youngest children in the Ernest family fled to her home after the shooting. Bordelon said the two children, both under 8 years old, were not wounded. Bordelon called 911 after the children told her their father, brother and sister were dead.

"She was terrified," Bordelon said of the little girl. "It's so heartbreaking."

Webre said Theriot did not have a police record in Ascension Parish, but he did have run-ins with law enforcement in St. John, St. Charles and Jefferson Parishes.

"He was not on our radar screen in Ascension Parish," Webre said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dakota Theriot, suspect in 5 killings in Louisiana, arrested at gunpoint in VirginiaUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro still hopes to establish communication and dialogue with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, Venezuela's foreign minister told the United Nations Security Council on Saturday. Washington has recognized the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the South American nation's interim president and has asked Maduro, a socialist in power since 2013, to step down. "It is our intention to establish communication and dialogue with the government of President Trump, that offer stands and is still on the table. That is what we have sought to do since the very first day of office," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said in a meeting on Venezuela requested by the United States. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Paul Simao)Cairo (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he would talk "more openly" to Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on human rights during his ongoing visit to the country.

"Things have got worse since October 2017" when Sisi came to Paris, said Macron, referring to the human rights situation in the North African country.

Macron said he would "have a confidential dialogue" with his Egyptian counterpart on "individual cases" of imprisoned opponents.

"I will speak in a more forthright manner, including openly... because I think that it is in the interests of President Sisi and Egyptian stability," the French head of state told reporters on the first day of his visit.

Egypt's government has "relatively authoritarian characteristics that are presented by leaders as necessary to avoid instability, in particular by the Muslim Brotherhood," Macron said.

"I hear that and I respect it," he said.

"Today, it is not simply political opponents who are imprisoned but also opponents who are in the traditional democratic camp, who do not threaten the stability of the regime.

"These are journalists, homosexuals, women and men who have convictions but who seem to pose absolutely no threat to the regime."

This government was perceived by Egyptian civil society as "more hardline than the regime of (former president Hosni) Mubarak," Macron said, referring to the former autocrat who was deposed in 2011.

"My line is -- stability and respect for sovereignty. But what is happening here threatens" Egypt's stability, Macron said.

But "deciding to end all forms of cooperation for these reasons would drive Egypt even more quickly towards Russia or other powers, who are just waiting for that", he said.

Macron is due to meet Sisi at Egypt's presidential palace on Monday morning.Cairo (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that France wants to maintain a "balance" in the alliance between automakers Renault and Nissan following the arrest in Japan of Carlos Ghosn.

"We are being vigilant to ensure the balances of the alliance are preserved," Macron said at a news conference on the first day of a visit to Egypt.

"I don't believe at all that what is happening, which is an individual case, is likely to reverse the balance of the alliance," which had shown "stability," the French president added.

Renault currently owns 43 percent of Japanese automaker Nissan, which itself has a 15 percent stake in the French company and 34 percent of Mitsubishi Motors.

An overhaul of the group following the arrest in November of its chief executive Ghosn in Japan, on charges of under-reporting his income, could harm Renault's influence.

Macron said he had discussed with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the situation surrounding the arrest of the Franco-Brazilian-Lebanese executive.

"I was simply concerned that the fate of a French compatriot respects the minimum decency that we are entitled to expect," he said.

Macron said he had told Abe on several occasions that he thought Ghosn's time in detention was "very long" and described the conditions he was being held in as "harsh".

Speaking Monday morning in Tokyo, Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga defended the country's judicial system, while declining to elaborate on the conversation between Abe and Macron.

"I'd like to refrain from disclosing details of exchanges between the two leaders," he told reporters.

"But, I understand that investigations into criminal cases are conducted by a highly independent investigation agency through appropriate procedures based on strict judicial judgements such as court orders," he said.

He added that Abe had said Japan wants to see the alliance between Nissan and Renault "maintained and enhanced".

Story continues

Ghosn's shock November 19 arrest exposed tensions in the alliance that groups Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors.

While the two Japanese firms swiftly replaced Ghosn, Renault waited until last week to appoint two experienced auto executives to replace the 64-year-old: Thierry Bollore as chief executive and Jean-Dominique Senard as chairman.

burs/sah/ric/kafAMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Pakistani lawyer Saiful Mulook, who fled to the Netherlands after receiving death threats for defending a Christian woman on blasphemy charges, is returning home, a Dutch politician said on Saturday.

Joel Voordewind, a member of the Dutch parliament, said in a tweet that Mulook planned to return to Pakistan to defend Asia Bibi in a new hearing in her case.

Voordewind posted a picture of himself and Mulook at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport adding that Mulook was "hopeful" this would be the last hearing in Bibi's case.

Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 over allegations that she made derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim.

She was initially sentenced to death but was acquitted by Pakistan's Supreme Court last October and freed.

The court is expected to hear a petition against that ruling next week.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Hugh Lawson)LaGuardia airport in New York City has been shut by federal authorities

One of New York City's main airports has been partially shut by federal authorities, owing to a lack of air traffic controllers during the government shutdown.

LaGuardia airport, which serves 30 million passengers a year, was ordered to reduce its service due to a lack of staff.

Authorities have implemented a "ground delay" programme, meaning that planes leaving the airport face serious delays of 60-90 minutes.

Flights which are yet to take off to the airport have been halted.

Flights mid-air were still able to land.

The federal aviation authority (FAA) says the delay is only temporary, to deal with the problem.

There is a traffic management programme in effect for traffic arriving LaGuardia Airport, the FAA said.

This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 41 minutes.

The stop was ordered shortly before 10 am as the partial government shutdown has entered its 35th day.

A shortage of workers at an air traffic control facility in the Washington DC area prompted the agency to order a ground stop at LaGuardia, one of the countrys busiest transportation hubs.

A day before, airline executives warned that the shutdown was pushing aviation to "tipping point".

Flights out of Philadelphia and Newark were also delayed owing to shortages.

The government shutdown, amid a row over funding for President Donald Trump's border wall, is now in its 35th day, with no end in sight.

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Airport security staff have been calling in sick to avoid working without pay.

Some employees have been asked to work overtime to make up for the staff shortages, but there are legal requirements for breaks and rest between shifts.

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, wrote to Mr Trump on Friday demanding that he reopen the government due to growing security risks at airports.

Mr Cuomo, a strong critic of the president, said that the reduction of services and personnel in airports, including the mass amount of TSA officers calling in absent from work, and the amount of unpaid traffic air traffic controllers, is jeopardizing safety.

Story continues

Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, has strongly criticised the shutdown

"As the home of the 9/11 attacks, New York knows all too well how important security is at our airports," Mr Cuomo wrote.

"Yet the government shutdown that you have created and are perpetuating is putting our travelers and public safety at risk.

"Because of the shutdown that has continued for 35 days, airport personnel dedicated to ensuring the safety of our airports and air travel are missing their second pay checks. As a result, airports across the country, including hubs like JFK and LaGuardia, have seen a rise in the number of personnel calling out of work because of financial limitations.

"These hard-working men and women play a critical role in keeping our communities safe, and they deserve the support of our federal government."Weve lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. On the other hand, wed be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So well take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in QinetiQ Group plc (LON:QQ.).

Do Insider Transactions Matter?

It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.

Check out our latest analysis for QinetiQ Group

QinetiQ Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when CEO & Executive Director Steve Wadey sold UK398k worth of shares at a price of UK2.68 per share. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of UK2.97, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. While sellers have a variety of reasons for selling, this isnt particularly great to see. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling on market, especially if they did so below the current price. Please note, however, that this single sale was just 35.5% of Steve Wadeys stake. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Steve Wadey.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK20k for 10.22k shares. But they sold 148.50k for UK398k. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Story continues

LSE:QQ. Insider Trading January 27th 19

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Our data suggests QinetiQ Group insiders own 0.1% of the company, worth about UK2.0m. We consider this fairly low insider ownership.

What Might The Insider Transactions At QinetiQ Group Tell Us?

There havent been any insider transactions in the last three months  that doesnt mean much. The insider transactions at QinetiQ Group are not inspiring us to buy. We also note that, as far as we can see, insider ownership is fairly low, compared to other companies. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

If you would prefer to check out another company  one with potentially superior financials  then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has fired his ambassador to China after the envoy said it would be great if the US dropped its extradition request for a Chinese tech executive arrested in Canada.

Mr Trudeau said on Saturday he had asked for and accepted John McCallums resignation on Friday night.

Mr McCallum made the remark to the Toronto Star on Friday. That came a day after he issued a statement saying he misspoke about the case earlier in the week and regretted saying Meng Wanzhou has a strong case against extradition.

The arrest of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies at Vancouvers airport on 1 December severely damaged relations between China and Canada.

The US wants her extradited to face charges she committed fraud by misleading banks about Huaweis business dealings in Iran.

Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallums resignation as Canadas ambassador to China, Mr Trudeau said in a statement.

Mr Trudeau said Jim Nickel, the deputy head of mission at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, would represent his government in China. He thanked Mr McCallum, a former minister in Mr Trudeaus Cabinet, for his 20 years of public service.

China detained two Canadians shortly after Ms Mengs arrest in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release her. A Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a sudden retrial of a drug case, overturning a 15-year prison term handed down earlier.

Mr McCallum told Chinese media in the Toronto area earlier in the week the extradition of Ms Meng to the United States would not be a happy outcome.

He suggested the case was politically motivated and said the US could make a trade deal with China in which it would no longer seek her extradition, and two Canadians detained in China could then be released.

But on Thursday Mr McCallum took back the remarks and said he misspoke.

Mr Trudeau had earlier dismissed calls to fire Mr McCallum, but he clearly had enough after the envoy spoke off script again. Mr Trudeau and foreign minister Chrystia Freeland have stressed that Canadas government can not interfere politically in the case.

Story continues

The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, said Mr McCallum should have been fired days ago because his remarks raised concerns about the politicisation of the Meng case.

Mr Scheer said Mr McCallum caused damage to Canadas reputation by delivering different messages through different media on different days.

Mr McCallums remarks surprised many and fuelled speculation Canada might be trying to send a signal to China to reduce tensions.

A year ago, Mr McCallum also made controversial comments about how Canada had more in common with China than the United States under Donald Trump. Mr McCallum has strong personal ties to China, and he pointed out to Chinese-language media this week that his wife is of Chinese ethnicity and his three sons have Chinese spouses.

Guy Saint-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said he felt bad for Mr McCallum but said it was the right thing to do.

What is worse is this is happening in the middle of the crisis when we need all-hands on deck, Mr Saint-Jacques said.

He said the Chinese will now know that Mr McCallum was not speaking for the Canadian government.

Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Mr Trudeau, said: Mr McCallums remarks were continuing to cause confusion about Canadas position. On a matter of this importance, the Canadian government has to speak with a single, clear voice.

Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto, said it is not an ambassadors job to speak out of turn.

Of course, McCallum can obviously take refuge in arguing that what he said was largely true, but he cant escape the fact that it wasnt his job to say it. It does underline the hazards of sending a politician to do a diplomats job, Mr Bothwell said.

Mr Saint-Jacques said he spoke to Chinas consul general in Montreal on Thursday who reported that China is furious at Canada for arresting Ms Meng on behalf of the US, which is involved in trade talks with China.

Mr Saint-Jacques said the consul general told him he thinks a Canadian delegation should visit Beijing for talks. Mr Saint-Jacques believes Canada should appoint a special envoy to try to resolve the crisis.

Mr Trudeau and Mr Freeland have stressed that Canada has an extradition treaty with the US that it must respect.

The White House National Security Council declined comment on Mr McCallum.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent Minds

Ms Meng is out on bail in Vancouver awaiting her extradition proceedings. The US has until Wednesday to submit paperwork for the extradition request.

Huawei has close ties to Chinas military and is considered one of the countrys most successful international enterprises.

APIPKat friend Rodolfo Bretscher reported on the case of the Swiss Federal Patent Court 2018/004 dated 22 October 2018.

The Swiss case

In the case of ViiV v. Sandoz, the Swiss Federal Patent Court ruled in favor of a request for a preliminary injunction,

prohibiting Sandoz from marketing a generic version of ViiV's Kivexa in Switzerland. The case concerned the combination product of abacavir and lamivudine for the treatment of HIV, Swiss SPC C00817637/01, based on EP 081 637 B1.

In its defense, Sandoz objected to the validity of the basic patent, but not to the question of infringement. It contested the validity of ViiVs patent on the basis that it was not entitled to the claimed priority date, arguing lack of novelty (prior art WO 96/06844) and lack of inventive step in light of prior publications in the scientific field.Rome (AFP) - Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday he was considering legal action against the crew of a Dutch-flagged rescue ship as calls grew for 47 migrants to be allowed to land.

"We have concrete elements to declare that the captain and crew of the Sea Watch 3 have put the lives of those on board at risk by disobeying precise directions days ago to disembark them in the nearest port, not Italy!" he said.

"The evidence will be handed to the judicial authorities," he added, accusing captain and crew of "a crime and a clear desire to use these immigrants in a political battle".

Salvini has refused to open the ports to the mainly sub-Saharan African migrants rescued in the Mediterranean over a week ago. He has argued the ship had a chance to make port as it sailed through Libyan, Tunisian and Maltese waters.

"The interior minister is gathering elements to evaluate whether to press charges against the entire Sea Watch crew for favouring illegal immigration," the ministry said.

Three members of parliament sympathetic to the migrants' plight were refused permission by the ministry to board the Sea Watch 3.

The delegation managed to get on board by hiring a boat privately and getting past the coast guard.

The MPs, one from the centre-right Forza Italia party and two from left-wing parties, boarded the boat off the coast of Sicily, where it has taken shelter from bad weather.

"The migrants are exhausted," said MP Riccardo Magi, of the centrist More Europe party.

"There are 50 people in a small room with just one bathroom. They are hostage to a pointless display of strength by the Italian government."

- Torture scars -

Fellow MP Nicola Fratoianni, of the left-wing Sinistra Italiana, asked "that those shipwrecked and the crew be allowed to disembark in line with international law".

"They have shown us their scars, the torture they have suffered. Their eyes say it all," Fratoianni said.

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Rights group Mediterranea said the members of parliament were "checking the psychological and physical state" of the rescued migrants, as well as gathering testimony of the violence they suffered in Libya.

While Salvini denounced them for disobeying the order not to board the Sea Watch 3, former prime minister Paolo Gentiloni thanked the MPs on Twitter for "simply doing their job".

UNICEF, the UN children's agency, Save the Children and other aid agencies have appealed to Italy to allow at least the 13 minors on board to land.

"Imagine being in the freezing cold on the bridge of a ship. After being beaten, threatened, tortured," UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami said on Twitter.

"Imagine seeing the land of freedom in front of you. Being all alone in the world. And asking yourself 'Why? Why does nobody want me?'" she said.

Salvini has insisted the Netherlands or Germany take responsibility for the vessel, which is run by the German NGO Sea Watch.

Dutch Migration Minister Mark Harbers said Saturday his country "was not obligated" to find a solution, because the Sea Watch 3 had acted "of its own initiative".

Migrants rescued by ships have frequently been left in limbo since Italy's anti-immigration government began turning them away last summer.Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel on Sunday officially recognised Venezuela's National Assembly chief Juan Guaido as president, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following close ally Washington in endorsing the opposition leader.

Netanyahu announced in an online video that Israel was joining the United States, Canada and a host of South American countries "in recognising the new leadership in Venezuela".

Guaido proclaimed himself acting president of Venezuela on Wednesday during a mass opposition rally against leader Nicolas Maduro.

Since then, the United States, Canada and many South American countries including Brazil and Colombia have backed his self-proclamation.

Maduro rejected demands by European countries to call elections within eight days in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Nations including France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany warned they would recognise Guaido as president unless there are snap polls.

The US has pressed all countries to "stand with the forces of freedom" in Venezuela, but key backers such as Russia have stuck with the embattled leader.

Desperate protesters have taken to the streets in Venezuela over a crisis that has seen two million flee shortages of basic food and medicine.

Some 26 people have been killed and more than 350 people have been detained in clashes this week between anti-Maduro activists and security forces, the UN said.By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland dealt a blow on Sunday to British Prime Minister Theresa May's attempts to break the deadlock over Brexit by saying it would not accept any changes to an agreement aimed at preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Just 61 days before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May is trying to revive a withdrawal deal she agreed with the European Union, but which was emphatically rejected by British lawmakers earlier this month.

Angering many lawmakers is a so-called backstop arrangement aimed at preventing a hard border between Ireland and the UK province of Northern Ireland that would see Britain keep some EU rules if it was unable to agree a trade deal with the bloc.

May is seeking new concessions from the EU on the matter, with the Sun newspaper reporting on Friday that the Northern Irish party which props up her minority government would back her new deal if it included a time limit to the backstop.

However, Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said on Sunday the backstop was already a compromise drawn up to meet May's negotiating red lines, and the EU and Ireland were united in the view it "was not going to change".

"There is no magic solution here for this problem," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

"That is why Ireland will insist on the United Kingdom keeping its word, both to Ireland and to the EU and to people in Northern Ireland in terms of protecting a fragile but hugely valuable peace process," he added, referring to a peace that has broadly held for two decades following years of conflict between pro-British and pro-Irish elements in Northern Ireland.

Coveney said British proposals to change the backstop, such as introducing a time limit or a unilateral escape clause, might command a majority among UK lawmakers, but would not be backed by the EU.

"The European Parliament will not ratify a withdrawal agreement that doesn't have a backstop in it, it's as simple as that," he said.

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British health minister Matt Hancock said on the same programme that Ireland was taking a "negotiating position", and it was clear Dublin did not want Britain to leave the EU without a withdrawal deal, which could cause huge disruptions to trade.

"We need to firstly assess what's going to get a majority in the (House of) Commons and then we need to take it to the EU and explain that this is the way to have the sort of strong positive relationship that (Coveney) was just talking about," he said.

Lawmakers have put forward other amendments to May's plan, which if selected will be subject to a vote in parliament on Tuesday. One of them seeks to remove the backstop entirely.

Hancock said he understood "the impulse" behind that proposal. "We have got to listen very carefully to people who are willing to vote for the deal subject to some amendments," he said. "We need to build that majority in the Commons."

Opposition British lawmaker Yvette Cooper has proposed an amendment requiring the government to ask the EU for a delay to the Brexit date if a deal isn't agreed by the end of February, as a way of avoiding the potential chaos of a no-deal Brexit.

"I hope that this does put pressure on the prime minister to sort things out by the end of February, but if we get to that point she should be ruling out no-deal," Cooper told Marr.

"She should be recognising that she cannot put families across the UK into a situation where there are tariffs on food, so food prices go up, where there are delays on medicines."

(Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Mark Potter)By John Davison BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq must wean itself off economic reliance on Iran and become more energy self-sufficient, Britain's foreign office minister for the Middle East said on Sunday. Alistair Burt visited Iraq after a flurry of high-profile diplomacy in Baghdad this month that followed U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement he was pulling American troops out of Syria. U.S. allies worry the withdrawal, even if it proceeds more slowly than initially planned, will embolden Iran, whose influence has grown in Iraq and Syria in recent years. Washington hopes to counter Iranian influence through renewed sanctions, and has pressured Iraq to halt imports of Iranian gas. "To expect Iran to have no influence in Iraq is fanciful," Burt said in an interview with Reuters at the British Embassy in Baghdad. "What is important is that Iraq finds the opportunity to follow its own future in terms of foreign relations and that its economy is strong, and isn't reliant on Iran." Burt said Iraq must convert oil resources to become more self-sufficient. "The sooner all its oil wealth can come on stream and can capture all the energy that is sometimes not used as effectively as possible ... the better," he said. Iraq's oil export capacity is nearly 5 million barrels per day, although it is pumping below capacity in line with an OPEC agreement to reduce production to stabilize prices. Washington hopes it can reduce its gas flaring to satisfy domestic energy needs and rely less on Iranian power imports. Burt said there were ideas for more power projects in Iraq, without elaborating. U.S.-IRAN TENSIONS MOUNT He doubted that a military escalation between the United States and Iran in Iraq or Syria was imminent, but warned of "confrontation which might occur should there be a miscalculation." Tension has ramped up between Washington's chief regional ally Israel, and Iran and its allies in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks. Israel struck what it said were Iranian targets near Damascus on Monday in an increasingly open assault on Iran's presence there. Burt said Britain remained concerned about the threat from Islamic State in the region especially after the U.S. decision to withdraw troops, and that London would continue to support Baghdad's efforts against remaining IS militants who have stepped up insurgent-style attacks in Iraq. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So before you buy or sell Reece Limited (ASX:REH), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Selling?

It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required.

Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.

View our latest analysis for Reece

Reece Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by John Wilson for AU$139m worth of shares, at about AU$9.30 per share. That implies that an insider found the current (approximate) price enticing. That means they have been optimistic about the company in the past, though they may have changed their mind. Nonetheless, we consider it positive if insiders want to buy at around the current share price.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders bought 17.23m shares for a total of AU$160m. In total, Reece insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. They paid about AU$9.30 on average. Its great to see insiders putting their own cash into the companys stock, albeit at below the recent share price (AU$10.16). You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

ASX:REH Insider Trading January 26th 19

If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

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Insider Ownership

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. I reckon its a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. Reece insiders own about AU$638m worth of shares (which is 11% of the company). I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

What Might The Insider Transactions At Reece Tell Us?

There havent been any insider transactions in the last three months  that doesnt mean much. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. With high insider ownership and encouraging transactions, it seems like Reece insiders think the business has merit. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at this FREE report showing analyst forecasts for Reece.

If you would prefer to check out another company  one with potentially superior financials  then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Employees stand around the Indian Navy's first Scorpene submarine before being undocked from Mazagon Docks Ltd, a naval vessel ship building yard, in Mumbai April 6, 2015. Irked by India's status as the world's biggest arms importer, Prime Minister Narend

Sebastien Roblin

Security, Asia

Pakistan's worst nightmare?

India is Building a Deadly Force of Nuclear-Missile Submarines

On November 4, 2018, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced that the Arihant, the Indian Navys first domestically-built nuclear-powered submarine, completed her first deterrence patrol. The Arihant, which means Slayer of Enemies in Sanskrit, uses a uranium-fueled pressurized light-water reactor to generate 83-megawatts of electricity, allowing the submarine to swim underwater for months at a time at speeds as high as twenty-four knots.

Even more important than the Arihants propulsion system, however, are the weapons presumably stowed in her four vertical launch tubes: up to a dozen K-15 Sagarika (Oceanic) nuclear-tipped missiles designed to launch from underwater to annihilate an adversarys cities and military bases. (Note that the warheads are usually stowed separately from the missiles per Indian doctrine.)

The Arihant is the lead-ship of Indias most expensive defense program ever, valued at $13 billion, with its origins in the secretive Advanced Tactical Vessel program in the 1990s. Indian engineers received substantial Russian assistance designing the Arihant, basing her in part on the Russian Akula-class attack submarine, one of the quietest types operated by the Russian Navy. The Indian Navys only other operational nuclear-submarine is the Akula-class Chakra II under lease from Russia through 2022.

However, instead of developing an attack sub for hunting enemy warships and submarines, Indias Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) wanted a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN or boomer) to complement Indias land- and air-based nuclear forces. Because nuclear-powered submarines can remain submerged for months at a time and deliver their weapons from underwater, they are considered the asset most likely to survive a nuclear first strike by an adversary, guaranteeing an apocalyptic second strike in retaliation.

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The Arihant was launched in 2009 but underwent seven years of testing and sea trials before finally being discreetly commissioned in August 2016. However, just four months later, a hatch left open in port caused the 6,500-ton submarine to flood with corrosive saltwater. Because of the bizarre mistake, the Indian Navy was forced to delay deployment for 10 months to replace the submarines pipes.

Even with completion of Arihants first patrol, however, Indias sea-based nuclear deterrence will require years more of work before it becomes fully credible.

To start with, the Arihants ten-meter long K-15 missiles have a range of only around 430 miles, meaning that they cannot strike inland Pakistani targets, including the capital Islamabad. Nor could K-15s hit Chinese cities when launched from the Indian Ocean.

The DRDO has developed a twelve-meter tall K-4 Shaurya SLBM with a range of 2,100 miles that is due to enter service in the early 2020s. Though the Arihant successfully test-fired a K-4 in 2016, technical problems reportedly scrubbed a later test in 2017.

Once the K-4 enters service, the Arihant will finally be able to serve as deterrence against both Pakistan and China. However, the Arihant, which remains in many respects a testbed, can only carry four K-4sa fraction of the payload carried by most SSBNs around the world.

The Indian Navy will also need more than one SSBN so that at least a few can rotate on patrols, while others undergo repairs or are used for training. Redundancy is also necessary so that the loss of a single boatwhether to enemy action, accidents at sea, or absent-minded maintenancedoesnt cripple Indias sea-based deterrence.

Towards this end, India has already launched a second Arihant-class submarine, the Arighat, which is expected to be commissioned between 2019-2021. The Arighat has a more powerful reactor and can carry twice the payload: twenty-four K-15 missiles or eight K-4s.

Additionally, the Indian Navy has already begun construction of two to four more Arihant-class boats of progressively larger configurationsdubbed the S4 and S4*and carry 3,000-mile-range K-5 missiles. By the mid-2020s, the DRDO then plans to begin construction of four larger and more advanced S5 ballistic missile submarines which displace 15,000 tons and are armed with twelve-sixteen launch tubes that can fire K-6 ballistic missiles. These will have a range of 3,700 miles and separate into multiple independent nuclear warheads (MIRVs) when reentering the atmosphere.

The DRDO also intends to apply experience developing the Arihant towards building six Chakra-III nuclear-powered attack submarines. Reportedly, New Delhis decision to pursue the 60,000 crore ($8.4 billion) program was prompted by the 2013 patrol of a Chinese Shang-class nuclear submarine in the Indian Ocean. With a speed of thirty knots and indefinite underwater endurance, the Shang-class could potentially hunt down the slower Arihant-class, which has torpedoes for self-defense but is not optimized for such a fight.

However, devising more powerful nuclear reactors remains a stumbling block impeding development of both the S5 SSBN and Chakra III. The former reportedly may require a 190-MW reactor.

By 2022, the Indian Navy will complete a nuclear submarine base called INS Varsha, located on the central-eastern coast of India, southwest of the shipyard at Visakhapatnam. Theoretically, Indias boomers will depart from there on long, quiet patrols within the bastion of the eastern Indian Ocean, with friendly air and naval forces close at hand to ward away hostile sub-hunters. The submerged subs would only launch their doomsday weapons upon receiving orders transmitted via extremely-high-frequency radio from a national command authority.

Despite the many milestones ahead for India to bring its SSBN force to maturity, the Indian Navy may possess the missiles and boats to maintain credible submarine nuclear-deterrence by the mid-2020s.

Does this make the world a more dangerous place? India, China and Pakistan between them have a population of 2.92 billion peoplenearly 39 percent of all human beings on the planet. A nuclear conflict could easily claim tens, or hundreds of millions of lives.

Fortunately, despite long-running tensions over their Himalayan borders, New Delhi and Beijing both maintain a No-First-Use policy. This means their militaries are authorized only employ their nuclear arsenals in retaliation for an adversarys nuclear strike. If both states stick to that policy, neither will deploy nuclear weapons against the other.

Of course, adherence to principle is hardly guaranteed in an anarchic international system, particularly if a country believes it is facing an existential threat. Nonetheless, the No-First-Use doctrine profoundly impacts how India and Chinas nuclear forces are equipped, trained and organizedas well as how their respective governments signal to each other internationally.

Pakistan, which is allied with China, is a destabilizing factor: it has dispersed dozens of lower-yield tactical nuclear weapons to its forward military units, and claims it is willing to employ them in response to a non-nuclear attack. Unfortunately, simulations suggested that tactical nuclear attacks on battlefield targets are likely to initiate a tit-for-tat exchanges escalating to horrifying strategic attacks targeting enemy populations. Pakistan is also developing a submarine-based nuclear deterrent using simpler diesel electric submarine that can launch nuclear-tipped Babar cruise missiles.

As China is also developing a nuclear-capable stealth bomber, the worlds two most populous nations will soon likely boast full nuclear deterrence triads on air, sea, and land. Hopefully, the destructiveness of those capabilities will serve to make resorting to nuclear arms an even more unattractive option for resolving disputes, because the outcome of a regional nuclear exchange is horrifying to contemplate.

Sebastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

Image: Reuters

Read full articleChina Taiping Insurance Holdings Company Limited (HKG:966), which is in the insurance business, and is based in Hong Kong, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the SEHK, rising to highs of HK$27.95 and falling to the lows of HK$19.08. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether China Taiping Insurance Holdingss current trading price of HK$20.95 reflective of the actual value of the mid-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at China Taiping Insurance Holdingss outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

Check out our latest analysis for China Taiping Insurance Holdings

Is China Taiping Insurance Holdings still cheap?

The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to my valuation model. Its trading around 14% below my intrinsic value, which means if you buy China Taiping Insurance Holdings today, youd be paying a fair price for it. And if you believe that the stock is really worth HK$24.22, then theres not much of an upside to gain from mispricing. Although, there may be an opportunity to buy in the future. This is because China Taiping Insurance Holdingss beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, the companys shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.

What kind of growth will China Taiping Insurance Holdings generate?

SEHK:966 Future Profit January 27th 19

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the companys future expectations. China Taiping Insurance Holdingss earnings over the next few years are expected to increase by 58%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value.

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What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? 966s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at the stock? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below its fair value?

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on 966, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic prospect is encouraging for the company, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on China Taiping Insurance Holdings. You can find everything you need to know about China Taiping Insurance Holdings in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in China Taiping Insurance Holdings, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.WORTHINGTON, Ohio (AP)  The recent videotaped encounter at the Lincoln Memorial left many wondering about the state of reasoned political discourse in the country, or if it exists at all in a hyperpartisan era of red "Make America Great Again" hats versus pink women's march caps.

In a video from Jan. 18, a group of boys from Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School, a Native American activist and a cluster of Black Hebrew Israelites faced off in an uncomfortable confrontation that spread online and in the media. It has prompted national debate about both civility in politics, the seeming lack of tolerance for those of differing political beliefs and how both are influencing the nation's youth.

Related Video: Teen from Confrontation with Native American Speaks Out

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That debate sounded all-too-familiar to Ohio social studies teacher Judi Galasso, who has taught a class on political radicalism for three decades now.

"If someone's yelling things at you, if you're presented with groups that you disagree with, my hope is that we train our kids well enough that they're not going to react," Galasso said.

Galasso and co-teacher Jonathan Duffy invite members of America's most extreme political groups including the National Socialist Movement, the Weather Underground and the Revolutionary Communists  into their classroom each semester. They teach students to engage respectfully with those of differing beliefs and to ask questions.

The Covington Catholic incident has seemed to further divide the nation. Parents, alumni and others have rallied to the white teenagers' defense and, in a tweet, President Donald Trump called the students "symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be." Others largely supported the Native American activist, describing him as a victim of racism and white entitlement.

In Galasso and Duffy's class, no one shies away from such political discomfort.

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"In 2019, our teachers generally are like, 'You know what? Let's redirect to a different topic, because that one sounds like it's loaded with land mines," said Pete Scully, principal of Thomas Worthington High School, where Galasso teaches. "The idea of poli-rad is, you know what, let's explore all those land mines and talk about them."

U.S. Political Thought and Radicalism, "poli-rad" for short, has been steadily offered as a social studies credit by the suburban Columbus district since the 1970s. Over the decades, its unconventional speaker series has generated excitement, sparked protests and left classrooms at turns emboldened, shaken or inspired.

"In 2019, no school board in America would approve a class like this, but in Worthington, there's no way you could get rid of it," Galasso said.

Speakers over the years have included former revolutionary Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground, Harry Hughes of the National Socialist Movement, Ramona Africa from the black liberation group MOVE, white supremacist Richard Spencer and Turner Diaries author William Pierce.

About half the district's seniors take the class each year. That's created a legion of alumni ready to defend it when a new crop of parents in the affluent, largely white district raise concerns about the potential dangers of the class.

Jen Miller, 26, a Nashville-based music producer and 2010 Thomas Worthington graduate, said poli-rad was one of the most valuable classes she took in high school.

"It opened meaningful dialogue and that, to me, is priceless," she said. "Sure, it might make some parents uncomfortable, but the class isn't radicalizing students; it's teaching students about radicalization, which is pretty important. I mean, look at the context that we're living in today."

Worthington School Board member Julie Keegan said she wishes more districts would offer such a course. She took poli-rad in 1984. Her husband and all four of her children are also alums.

"In 1984, Worthington was much more homogenous that it is right now," Keegan said. "So part of that class was just sort of pointing out, 'Hey, guess what? Not everybody thinks like you, looks like you, talks like you."

Retired teacher Tom Molnar said he created the course in 1975 with input from students. He had been given the course topic, but no guidance. When students said they wanted to learn about radical groups operating in America at the time, he had to tell them there was no source material to work from. One student suggested inviting the groups in.

"I told him it was completely nuts, but they encouraged me to take that message to the principal, and the principal said, 'It's brilliant,'" he said.

Poli-rad students study each speaker ahead of time, gathering background and preparing questions. Afterward, teachers help them think critically about how factors such as deceptive language or personal charisma were used.

The teachers attribute the course's success to a few key ground rules: Presenters must come from across the political spectrum, they can't be censored, students must remain respectful and instructors can't share their personal political beliefs.

Another key takeaway: Don't rush to judgment.

"One thing we teach kids when speakers come in is to truly listen to what they're saying," Duffy said, "and just because they think they know what this individual believes, you still have to listen and accurately reflect."

In the early 1990s, Ku Klux Klan members arrived for their presentation in full robes and hoods. Their silhouettes could be seen from the main road in front of the high school, spreading community alarm. To ease concerns, teachers agreed to a compromise: They would cease inviting active Klansmen as long as the district placed no further restrictions on their speakers.

Senior Tori Banks, 18, who took the course last semester, said it helped her expand her views and learn tolerance.

"If I weren't in the class and I saw some of these speakers or people of certain stances walking around, I may feel uncomfortable," she said. "But I think the way we do it in poli-rad is a very safe environment."

___

Follow Julie Carr Smyth at https://twitter.com/jcarrsmythBEIRUT (Reuters) - The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah said on Saturday that two obstacles remain before the formation of a new Lebanese government after months of political jostling, but there is "an extraordinary effort" to resolve them.

Lebanon's rival parties have been negotiating to form a new government since a May 6 election, adding to concerns of a looming crisis for the country's heavily indebted, stagnant economy.

"The two obstacles still exist, but during the past few days and last night and today an extraordinary effort was made and there is an effort to find a solution," said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an interview on al-Mayadeen TV.

"Will it reach a conclusion or not? This needs a prayer," he added.

This week Prime Minister designate Saad al-Hariri said after meeting other senior political figures that matters were "positively crystallizing" and he hoped to resolve the issue next week.

The heavily armed Hezbollah is Lebanon's most powerful political force. The most recent snag in government formation talks has been the difficulty of finding a Cabinet place for a group of six Sunni members of parliament who Hezbollah supports.

Hezbollah was part of the previous government under Hariri. He has been tasked with forming another coalition government and the existing Cabinet has continued to operate in a caretaker capacity.

The credit ratings agency Moody's this week downgraded Lebanon's sovereign debt, citing the uncertain movement toward forming a government, and Lebanese bonds have suffered in recent weeks.

Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted countries and its finance minister has warned it is already in an economic crisis, which has started to turn into a financial crisis and which he hopes will not become a monetary crisis.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall)



Once upon a time, though, there was but One Cat Photographer to Rule Them All. His name was Walter Chandoha.

Merpel says: If you have not read about Dewey, do so right after you finish the blog post

they needed cajoling to stay in place long enough to be captured sitting atop a pile of pillows, playing with a ball of yarn, staring plaintively into the lens, or appearing to chuckle or snarl.

[The photographs] bear examination not only for their singular charm, but also for the way Chandoha established a vocabulary of the studio animal portrait with his signature look, utilizing clean, brightly colored backdrops and high-key glamour backlighting of his tiny, fuzzy subjects.

As reported by(obituary of January 17th by Richard Sandomir), anyone who has an affection for felines, such as the IPKat, lost one of its most prominent chroniclers, when Walter Chandoha passed away on January 11th at the age of 98. In the words of Carey Dunne, in a 2016 article for Hyperallergic.comHis passing away gives the IPKat pause to recall his accomplishments and how they go to the heart of photographs as a special type of artistic work in the world of copyright. First, some numbers. Dunne recites a study that, in Britain alone, more than 3.8 million photos and clips are shared each day, twice as many as dogs (and selfies). Cats may be among the most venerated objects of picture-taking in our social-media times.But Chandoha was not of that world. He worked in an earlier time, as a professional photographer with his main interest being cats, so much so that his output is reported to have exceeded 90,000 photos of cats.It began with pictures of a cat that he called Loco, perhaps the best known of which captures Loco playing with its own image before a mirror. Loco was a stray cat that Chandoha found in the snow (recalling how Dewey, the library cat at the center of the Dewey Readmore series ] was found by library staff in the drop box in the heart of a cold Iowa winter night).If Richard Avedon was the photographer par excellence of portrait photography, especially of the fashion world, Chandoha was the same for cats (if you could get the cat to cooperate). Indeed, it was for Chandohas wife, Maria Chandoha, as the handler, to take on the task of preparing the cat(s) for the picture. As described inobituaryThis could take minutes or hours. Together with artistic patience, the key for Chandoha, in his own words, was that [t]he eye contact has to be just right. Given this challenge and the uncertainty, one might argue that photographing a supermodel is child's play by comparison. The result was a distinct Chandoha style, described by Dunne, quoting David La Spina and Brittainy Hudak, from the introduction to the book, Walter Chandoha: The Cat PhotographerChandohas output was reproduced in numerous media, from magazines to art books to greeting cards to advertisements (among them the iconic ads for Puss n Boots cat food) and product packaging, including for brassieres. This Kat wagers that many Kat readers have encountered a Chandoha photograph at some point.Considering Chandohas work takes this Kat back to the debate that has occupied the copyright world since the invention of the camera: to what extent should a photograph be given copyright protection. What has troubled copyright purists is that a photograph is created in part by use of a device capturing an existing object rather than the result of an artist applying the pigments on his or her palette to the canvass (although the technology of pigments has been a field of discovery and invention for thousands of years).The compromise reached has been to confer copyright protection to photographs on the basis that the photographer has made artistic decisions about subject, lighting, angles, spacing, location and the like. Especially in his studio work, Chandoha demonstrated the lofty potential for the photograph with respect to that most feisty of animals, the cat. That said, this Kat has one further thought. Should Maria Chandoha be considered a co-author of those photographs for which her handling was essential in enabling her husband to take the photograph? Or does all of the originality rest in his decision under what conditions to take the specific picture?There was only one Walter Chandoha. But IPKat believes that there are Kat readers who have had the pleasure of taking a photograph of their cat, which they would like to share.And soKat readers are invited to submit as an attachment to IPKat (theipkat@gmail.com) (subject line- "Katpics) their favorite cat photograph, together with an appropriate (aka witty) caption. As well, for more industrious Kat readers, you are invited to submit to the IPKat a full-fledged, Kat-reader created photo meme. The sender in either case should state in the email that he or she has full rights in the picture and is happy for the picture to be shared on IPKat and related social media.IPKat will select the most appealing submissions and share them with Kat readers.So lets start with this Kats own feline friend--Carmen.Beirut (AFP) - The chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has warned Israel against continuing strikes in Syria targeting mainly Iranian positions, saying it could fuel war in the region.

Israel's army has since 2013 claimed hundreds of attacks on what it says are Iranian military targets and arms deliveries to Tehran-backed Hezbollah, with the goal of stopping its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

In the latest strikes nearly a week ago 21 people were killed, the majority of them Iranians, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday in an interview with al-Mayadeen television: "Don't make an error of judgement and don't lead the region towards war or a major clash."

"At any moment the Syrian leadership and the axis of resistance can take a decision to deal with the Israeli aggression in a different manner," he said, referring to the alliance between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, Iran and its ally Hezbollah.

When asked whether a retaliation could take the form of air strikes on Tel Aviv, Nasrallah said "anything is possible", adding that Hezbollah possessed "high-precision missiles" capable of hitting anywhere in Israel.

The Israeli army announced the strikes against facilities it said belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force on Monday as they were occurring.

It said they were in response to a medium-range missile the Quds Force fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israeli air defences intercepted.

Israel has caried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and its warplanes have been targeted by anti-aircraft fire during such raids, but it has rarely faced surface-to-surface missile fire in response.

- Risk of escalation -

Israel has warned it will continue to target positions in Syria held by Iran and its ally Hezbollah.

Story continues

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have been speaking more openly about the country's strikes in Syria in recent days, which some analysts partly attribute to the premier wanting to burnish his security credentials ahead of April 9 elections.

Others say it carries a strategic military purpose as well by sending a stronger message.

But Israel also risks an escalation with Syria and Iran, as well as possibly further angering Russia at a time when the United States is seeking to withdraw its forces from Syria.

In Saturday's rare television interview -- which was more than three hours long -- Nasrallah also said that Israel took "years" to discover cross-border tunnels from Lebanon.

"The Israelis discovered a number of tunnels after many years, and it's not a surprise, the surprise is that these tunnels, they took some time to find," he said.

Earlier this month Israel concluded an operation to unearth and destroy tunnels which the army accused Hezbollah of digging across the border from Lebanon.

"Yes, there are tunnels in southern Lebanon," Nasrallah said, in his first comments on the issue since Israel announced the operation on December 4.

The Hezbollah leader refused to specify whether they were built before the 2006 war between the militia group and Israel, or who had constructed them.

The month-long war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.Beirut (AFP) - The chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on Saturday warned Israel against continuing strikes in Syria targeting mainly Iranian positions, saying it could fuel war in the region.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with al-Mayadeen television: "Don't make an error of judgement and don't lead the region towards war or a major clash."

"At any moment the Syrian leadership and the axis of resistance can take a decision to deal with the Israeli aggression in a different manner," Nasrallah said, referring to the alliance between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.

Israel has said the first strikes targeted mainly facilities it claimed belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force.

It said they were in response to a medium-range, surface-to-surface missile the Quds Force fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israeli air defences intercepted.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said 21 people had been killed in the strikes, the majority of them Iranians.

The Israeli army has since 2013 claimed hundreds of attacks on what it says are Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah, with the goal of stopping its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

Israel has warned it will continue to target positions in Syria held by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.Moscow (AFP) - Berlin and Moscow announced on Sunday that Germany had provided 12 million euros to help Russian World War II veterans and siege survivors but Moscow said it was not enough.

The announcement came as Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of a World War II siege of Leningrad that claimed more than 800,000 lives.

The initiative was billed as a "voluntary humanitarian gesture towards the surviving victims of the blockade".

Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, is home to around 86,000 siege survivors.

"We, foreign ministers of Germany and Russia, welcome the decision of the German government to provide 12 million euros ($13.7 million) for the modernisation of a hospital for war veterans and the establishment of a German-Russian meeting centre," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said.

"We are confident that this voluntary action will improve the quality of life of the surviving victims of the siege and serve in the historical reconciliation of the people of both countries as a basis for our bilateral relations in the future," the ministers said.

In a separate statement, Moscow said that while the initiative was "important", Germany should compensate all living survivors of the 1941-44 siege of Leningrad.

"The launch of this humanitarian initiative does not mean that the issue has been put to rest of the German government providing individual compensations to all living siege survivors irrespective of their nationality," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

She added that Germany had earlier paid siege survivors of Jewish origin compensation of 2,500 euros "within the framework of Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust".

Encircled by the Nazi troops for 872 days, the city of around three million people endured unspeakable horrors.

More than 800,000 people died from hunger or disease, or under shelling. Many historians say the true figures are higher.ROCKMART, Ga. (AP)  Authorities in Georgia are on the lookout for a gunman they say killed four people and wounded a man in a pair of shootings.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation tweeted early Friday that 27-year-old Daylon Delon Gamble is armed and dangerous and wanted on four charges of murder for the shootings Thursday night in Rockmart, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.

A GBI news release said 48-year-old Helen Rose Mitchell and 19-year-old Jaequnn Davis died at one home, and 24-year-old Arkeyla Perry and 26-year-old Dadrian Cummings died at another home several blocks away.

The GBI says 24-year-old Peerless Brown was injured at the home where Mitchell and Davis were killed. He was flown to an Atlanta hospital. His condition was unknown.

State police say Gamble fled in a stolen truck that has since been recovered.CAIRO (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed as insignificant the recent verbal attacks by Italy's two deputy prime ministers, saying his only counterpart was Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League and Luigi Di Maio of the populist, anti-establishment 5-Star movement, have sought to rile Macron on a host of inflammatory issues. "I won't answer, that's what they're waiting for. So good luck to them, enjoy the agitation, enjoy the ride, as far as I'm concerned, I speak to President Conte," Macron told reporters on on Sunday the sidelines of a trip to Egypt. Conte sought to ease an increasingly harsh war of words between Rome and Paris earlier this week by saying that relations between Italy and France remained strong. Di Maio accused Paris of creating poverty in Africa while Salvini accused France of doing nothing to bring peace to Libya. Asked about Salvini and Di Maio's remarks, Macron said: "All of this has frankly no importance." "Italy is a great people, the Italian people is our friend, and deserves leaders worthy of its history," Macron added. (Reporting by Marine Pennetier in Cairo, writing by Michel Rose in Paris, editing by Gus Trompiz)California Sen. Kamala Harris appears at a fundraiser for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., of which she is a member, Jan. 25, 2019 in Columbia, S.C.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown addressed his past relationship with Sen. Kamala Harris in a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday and acknowledged giving her appointments that furthered her career.

"Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago," wrote Brown, who said he had "been peppered with calls from the national media about my 'relationship' with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that she was going to run for president."

Harris' office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Brown's letter to the Chronicle.

Brown was married at the time he and Harris dated, but  because he had been "estranged from his wife" Blanche Brown since 1981, according to People magazine the relationship was not kept secret. A Sacramento Bee reporter told People that Brown "had a succession of girlfriends" and would "go to a party with his wife on one arm and his girlfriend on the other.

2020: Harris announces presidential bid on 'Good Morning America'

A 1994 Los Angeles Times report about then-California Assembly Speaker Brown's "rush to hand out patronage jobs" described Harris as Brown's "frequent companion" and said several people referred to her as Brown's girlfriend. That report also cited a column from the Chronicle's Herb Caen that called Harris "the Speaker's new steady." When they met, she was 29 and Brown was 60.

According to Caen, the couple split up in 1995, which "flabbergasted" those "who found Kamala the perfect antidote to whatever playboy tendencies still reside in the mayor-elect's jaunty persona."

Although Brown supported Harris in her successful 2003 run for San Francisco district attorney, she tried to distance herself from him in that race, telling SF Weekly that Brown  whose career was dogged by corruption allegations  was an "albatross hanging around my neck."

Story continues

"His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing," she told SF Weekly, vowing, "If there is corruption, it will be prosecuted."

Among the issues that followed Harris from her time with Brown was the allegation of cronyism in his appointment of her to two well-paying posts.

"Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker," Brown wrote Saturday. Brown was the speaker from 1980 to 1995, prior to his stint as San Francisco mayor.

Brown appointed Harris to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and then to the Medical Assistance Commission  positions that paid her more than $400,000 over five years, according to SF Weekly. Brown also gave Harris a BMW.

"And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco," he said in his Chronicle letter Saturday..

"I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians," he added.

"The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I 'so much as jaywalked' while she was D.A.," Brown wrote. "Thats politics for ya."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former S.F. Mayor Willie Brown writes about dating Kamala Harris, appointing her to postsPresident Donald Trump discusses plans for the border wall during a speech in the White house Rose Garden.

Its over for now. But economists say there could be a lasting impact on businesses and workers from the longest ever U.S. government shutdown, and it will only get worse if we find ourselves in the same boat on Feb. 15.

That's the looming deadline President Donald Trump and Congress face to hammer out a border security deal.

At the top of the list of concerns is what happens in mid-February? says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moodys Analytics, one of several economic experts who weighed in on the impact and what might come next.

Zandi believes another shutdown would metastasize throughout the economy and shatter the consumer confidence that he says mostly held up during the 35-day shutdown.

More: 'Alleluja! Time to go back to work': Federal employees return Monday, will get back pay

More: Wilbur Ross food bank: Most Americans can't pay $1,000 emergency expense

Of course, the confidence of most of the 800,000 government employees who didn't get paid was already shattered, as was that of people indirectly hurt by their financial hardships.

The "losers are those who service federal workers," among them contractors, small businesses and restaurants, says Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk.

Some losses in economic output will be recouped but others won't be.

If you're buying a coat, say, but hold off because you're not getting a paycheck, you can put off the purchase until you receive back wages. But if you dont buy a meal on a given day that sale is lost permanently.

"You're not going to go to the restaurant twice if you didn't go once," says Gregory Daco, the chief economist at Oxford Economics.

High Frequency Economics chief economist Jim OSullivan doesnt minimize the hardships faced by individual workers but he doesnt think the impact on the economy from a macro level will be very large.

Estimates vary quite a bit on what the hurt has been so far.

The Congressional Budget Office said Monday the shutdown reduced economic activity by about $11 billion, cutting economic growth by 0.2 percentage points at an annual rate in the fourth quarter and 0.4 percentage points in the first quarter.

Story continues

Many economists now estimate the economy grew about 2.5 percent at an annual rate in the fourth quarter and will expand at about a 2 percent pace in the current quarter.

The shutdown curtailed economic activity by erasing furloughed federal workers output, delaying federal spending on goods and services, and curbing the purchases of federal workers and contractors. The partial shutdown lasted from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25.

Other estimates of the hit to first-quarter growth range from a fairly modest 0.2 percentage points, to about half a percentage point.

Most of the losses are expected to be recouped, with a rebound from the shutdown adding a percentage point to growth in the second quarter, CBO says. But about $3 billion of the $11 billion in lost output will be permanently erased.

While economists generally agree a second shutdown would cause major damage and there is no telling what President Trump will do  OSullivan doesn't expect Shutdown 2.0.

Nor does Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at The Economic Outlook Group. Any threat by the president to shut down the government again is a hollow one, he says, because it would amount to political suicide. Instead, Baumohl thinks it is far more likely Trump would invoke an executive action and declare a national emergency.

But he is concerned that the "prospect of a thoroughly dysfunctional government right up to 2020 will hurt consumer and business confidence, and depress economic growth.

For the shutdown that just ended, a key question Zandi poses is how fast federal agencies can get their footing back?

The Small Business Administration probably has $3 billion worth of loans that havent been processed, he says. And how long that is going to take for the small businesses involved really matters, whether it is next week, next month or next quarter?

Do government workers look for jobs elsewhere?

One matter to watch is whether workers impacted by the recent shutdown look to bolt the federal system?

Already Glassdoor.com found that since January 11 when government employees missed their first paycheck, the number of workers from affected federal agencies seeking new positions via the job search site increased by 10 percent.

What's more, the number of applications on Glassdoor for jobs at such agencies dropped by a "staggering" 46 percent, a trend that continued to worsen the longer the shutdown lasted.

Many of these workers took these jobs because they thought (the government) was a stable employer, Zandi says. "All this calls into question how stable are those jobs?

Given the state of the labor market, some of these workers may have other options. I suspect theres going to be a bit of brain drain from government and that could have much longer term consequences, Zandi says.

Zandi also makes note of the regional impact of the shutdown, which not only hit the areas in and near Washington, D.C., but also places like Alaska and Wyoming. Really Trump country gets nailed harder than anywhere else in the country. Its not uniform from coast to coast, he says.

Daco at Oxford Economics says when Air Traffic Controllers didnt show up for work at La Guardia and other airports on Friday leading to significant delays, it really showed how essential some workers are to the well functioning of the entire economic system.

To Daco the shutdown came at the worst possible time, as the U.S. economy transitions from an accelerating environment to a slowing environment, due mostly to policy challenges but also because of less rosy global factors. In that environment, it was an inopportune time for the government to essentially shoot itself in the foot.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter

Contributing: Paul Davidson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What was the economic cost of the government shutdown and what comes next?Associated Press

Afghanistan's is racing to ramp up supplies of oxygen as a deadly third surge of COVID-19 worsens, a senior health official told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. The government is installing oxygen supply plants in 10 provinces where up to 65% of those tested in some areas are COVID positive, health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said. Afghanistan's 24-hour infection count has also continued its upward climb from 1,500 at the end of May when the health ministry was already calling the surge a crisis, to more than 2,300 this week.By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 35-day struggle between President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress to cut a deal to end the partial government shutdown finally ended on Friday. Now the hard part begins. Republican and Democratic lawmakers will have until Feb. 15 to craft a border security agreement satisfactory to both sides. Trump has threatened that if he doesn't like the outcome, he could throw the government right back into shutdown mode. Or, he also said, he might try declaring a "national emergency" which, he said, would get him the $5.7 billion he wants for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Such a step would also likely trigger a court battle with Democrats. While Trump did not get that money in Friday's deal, he won a promise that Congress will work on a Department of Homeland Security spending bill that contains border security funding for the rest of the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. Here is how the negotiations in Congress are expected to go: CONFERENCE COMMITTEE A "conference committee" will be appointed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the opposition to Trump's demand that his border wall money be part of any legislation to fully reopen the government. The committee will include members of the House and Senate appropriations panels. They will meet in public session and in private sessions to work on a "conference report." Trump will try to pressure fellow Republicans to insist on including $5.7 billion in the report for his wall, although a White House aide said on Friday a compromise for less would be acceptable. Democrats are likely to resist any wall funding. The committee will weigh different compromises, including possibly $1.6 billion in border security spending resembling a request Trump included in his budget proposals to Congress last year. Higher sums are likely to be debated too. A House Democratic aide said the committee also could consider major changes to U.S. immigration law, such as providing protection from deportation for "Dreamers," those undocumented immigrants who were brought into the United States when they were minors. The committee will specify uses for any border money. In the past, Congress has provided money for "physical barriers" along the border and for electronic sensors, drones and other tools. Once a deal is struck, the conference committee members will vote to send it to the House and Senate floor for passage. FLOOR ACTION Under the rules, lawmakers can try to remove provisions in the agreement seen as outside the scope of the conference committee. If the House and the Senate each pass the conference agreement, it will go to the president for signing into law. If at any point in the process there is a breakdown, there is the risk of government agencies being thrown back into partial shutdown after Feb. 15. Alternatively, Congress could pass another stopgap funding bill to give conferees a little more time to work out a deal. (Reporting by Richard Cowan and Ginger Gibson; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman)The Mongols logo

Can trade marks be subject to forfeiture orders? A recent case in the US gives the opportunity to Katfriend Chijioke Okorie (Penguide) to reflect on this issue from the perspective of Nigerian law.





Heres what Chijioke writes:





A few days ago, news spread that a jury in California convicted a popular motorcycle club  Mongols  of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy for the crimes of murder, attempted murder and drug dealing committed by individual members of the Mongols in the course of several years.





Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act). Under the RICO Act, property that may be subject to criminal forfeiture includes: real property, including things growing on, affixed to, and found in land; and tangible and intangible personal property, including rights, privileges, interests, claims, and securities. The jury also found that the clubs trade mark and various items bearing the sign (e.g. vests, clothing and the like) as well as documents such as the Mongols constitution were to be forfeited to the US Government under the(RICO Act). Under the RICO Act, property that may be subject to criminal forfeiture includes: real property, including things growing on, affixed to, and found in land; and tangible and intangible personal property, including rights, privileges, interests, claims, and securities.





Prosecutors sought a forfeiture of the Mongols trade mark as a way to cripple the organisation. The idea was that control of the trade marks would not only cut off the Mongols income stream (from selling patches and other merchandise to members) but would also empower Government officials to stop Mongols members from wearing any clothing item with the Mongol mark. Amongst motorcycle clubs, trade marks or insignia are at the heart of a certain clubs prestige and power.





The judge in the matter has scheduled a hearing in February regarding the issue of whether a trade mark forfeiture order in the case exceeded the Governments constitutional boundaries and offended the Mongols First Amendment rights.





This post looks at the issue of criminal forfeiture of a trade mark from a Nigerian perspective.





Are trade marks property that may be forfeited?









One of the consequences of being convicted for the offence of constituting an unlawful society is that the property of the society within Nigeria will be forfeited to the State: see section 67 of the Criminal Code Act. Such property includes the insignia, banners, arms, books, papers, documents and other property belonging to such unlawful society: see section 68.





A society is an unlawful society, if formed for any of the purposes listed in section 62(2) of the Criminal Code Act. These purposes include: killing or injuring or encouraging the killing or injuring of any person; destroying or injuring or encouraging the destruction or injuring of any property; and committing or inciting to acts of violence or intimidation. An unlawful society may also be one declared as such by an order of the President to be a society dangerous to the good government of Nigeria.





Section 19 of the EFCC Act and section 47 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act provide for the forfeiture of property obtained as a result of the commission of an offence. There is no definition of property or assets in these statutes. However, in the case of the Criminal Code Act, there is mention of insignia, other property and banners, which suggests that trade marks may be indeed forfeited if an organisation is found to constitute an unlawful society. Furthermore, it appears that the EFCC Act and the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act negate the inclusion of trade marks in criminal forfeiture. Both statutes stipulate that the property must have been realized as a result of the offence and it is unlikely that the trade mark of a convicted organisation might have been realized as proceeds of a crime.





Another factor is the question of what would become of such property (including trade marks) once forfeited to the State.





Assets forfeited under the EFCC Act are to be disposed of by the Secretary to the Commission and the proceeds paid to the federal government: see section 30(2). Under the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, forfeited properties are to be disposed of or the court may order the accused to pay the value of the property as a penalty: see section 47.





Under the Criminal Code Act, forfeited properties in the case of the offence of constituting an unlawful society are to be dealt with in such manner as the President may direct. It is opined that this discretion may be exercised by the President taking advice or suggestions from relevant experts on how best to deal with a forfeited insignia or trademark of an unlawful society.





The issue of whether IPRs (in that case, copyright) was moveable property within the contemplation of section 44 of the Nigerian Constitution came up as an issue in the case of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria Limited (MCSN) v. Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) discussed here . MCSN argued that insofar as Section 11 of the Copyright Act referred to copyright as a moveable property, copyright falls within the property referred to and protected by the Constitution. The NCC conceded that copyright was indeed moveable property but the assignee or licensee of copyright does not own property rights within the contemplation of Section 44 of the Constitution. However, the Court of Appeal decided the appeal on some technical issue and did not address the issue of whether copyright was a property right in that sense. Section 44 prohibits compulsory acquisition of property without due process but also provides that compulsory acquisition is permissible in the case of criminal forfeiture following conviction for an offence.





Criminal Kat

What of cancellation of trade mark on grounds of public interest?





Under the Trademarks Act , there is provision for the court to expunge or cancel a registered trade mark if the mark or the use of the mark would be contrary to the public interest. Trade marks are registered inter alia where the use of the mark would not be contrary to the public interest: see Section 34(2) of the Trademarks Act. Having been registered, an interested person may apply to court to have a registered mark expunged on the grounds that the registration was made wrongly  in this case, that the use of the mark would be contrary to public interest: see section 38(1).





Based on the foregoing, it may be possible for the Government to apply to court to expunge or cancel the registration of a mark used or owned by a convicted criminal organisation. In such case, the Government would need to prove that the continued use of such trade mark by the criminal organisation would be contrary to the public interest.





Proscription orders to the rescue?





There is also provision for the courts to approve proscription orders banning the continued existence and operation of criminal organisations. A case in point is that of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an organisation established to ensure the creation of an Igbo nation comprising of the citizens of Biafra. The establishment of Biafra led to a civil war in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970 and was voided by the Nigerian government at the end of that war. IPOB members use the then Biafran flag as insignia for the group.





2017, the Attorney General of the Federation, based on an executive order signed by the President, applied to the Federal High Court to outlaw the activities of IPOB in Nigeria as an act of terrorism. This followed several protests initiated by IPOB and the Operation Python Dance conducted by the Nigerian Army. The court granted the application based on section 2 of the In, the Attorney General of the Federation, based on an executive order signed by the President, applied to the Federal High Court to outlaw the activities of IPOB in Nigeria as an act of terrorism. This followed several protests initiated by IPOB and theconducted by the Nigerian Army. The court granted the application based on section 2 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011





The action attracted criticisms with the argument that due process was not followed before the declaration and proscription, making the order unconstitutional. Other critics pointed out that armed herdsmen terrorizing farmlands and local communities were yet to be proscribed despite the mayhem they have been alleged to cause in several instances. However, the organisation, IPOB remains outlawed as the proscription order has not been lifted.





Considering the above (unlawful society, cancellation of trade marks and proscription orders), this blogger is inclined to think that there are several avenues in Nigeria to procure criminal forfeiture of trademarks and cripple convicted criminal organisations.



ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Even as he has repeated pledges of loyalty to President Donald Trump, longtime political operative Roger Stone would not categorically rule out forging a cooperation agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, when asked about that possibility during an appearance Sunday on "This Week."



"You know, thats a question I would have to -- I have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion," Stone told ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on This Week Sunday.



"If theres wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is I would certainly testify honestly, Stone said. Id also testify honestly about any other matter, including any communications with the president. Its true that we spoke on the phone, but those communications are political in nature, theyre benign, and there is - there is certainly no conspiracy with Russia."



Stone, 66, President Donald Trumps longtime friend and a veteran political operative, was arrested in the predawn hours Friday after the special counsel filed a seven-count indictment against him as part of an ongoing probe into Russia interference during the 2016 election.



His remarks came in one of a series of interviews he has given ahead of his arraignment in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. In his typically combative and colorful fashion, he has maintained his innocence and vowed to fight the special counsels charges in court.



This indictment is thin as piss on a rock, Stone told Stephanopoulos.



Immediately following the interview, new House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and then former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an ABC News contributor and Republican who has advised Trump -- each described the charges against Stone as strong and persuasive. Both men are former prosecutors.



I think hes going to need a much better defense than you just heard, Schiff told Stephanopoulos.



And Christie said, "Well, listen, I think if he decides to go to trial, hes in very, very grave danger. Everyone is presumed innocent, George, and so is he. But the indictment, I think is a pretty damning indictment."



The special counsel leveled against Stone five counts of lying to Congress, one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, and one count of witness tampering. Within hours of the FBIs arrest, Stone made an initial court appearance Friday morning, where a federal judge set his bond at $250,000 and limited his travel to Florida, New York, Virginia and Washington, D.C.



Stone, a decades-long friend of Trump's who has taken credit for persuading the president to get into politics, served as an adviser to Trumps presidential campaign but left amid controversy in 2015.



Mueller's interest in Stone and WikiLeaks goes to the heart of the U.S. intelligence communitys conclusion, released in a report in January 2017, that the online organization weaponized and published damaging information provided to it by a hacker from the Russian government on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her campaign.



"Have you ever had any conversations with the president during the campaign or since the campaign about Russia or the Mueller investigation?" Stephanopoulos asked.



"None whatsoever," he said on "This Week" Sunday. "Categorically. ... Zero. Zero."



Stone confirmed his relationship with Trump during the campaign, despite a tweet Saturday from the president seeming to distance himself from Stone.



"I never discussed these matters with the president and everything that I did regarding trying to get as much public attention to the WikiLeaks disclosures among voters, among the media is -- is constitutionally protected free speech," he told Stephanopoulos. "That's what I engaged in. It's called politics and they havent criminalized it, at least not yet."



The charges brought by Muellers office largely revolve around false statements Stone is accused of making to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees regarding his communications with associates about WikiLeaks.



I am falsely accused of making false statements, he said Friday outside the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. I look forward to being fully and completely vindicated.



Stone also pledged on Friday to fight the charges and reiterated his support for Trump, a man who he supports politically and says he considers a close friend.



There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness against the president, he said Friday. I am one of his oldest friends. I am a fervent supporter of the president.



More than a dozen witnesses associated with Stone have been contacted by the special counsel's office, many of whom have appeared before the grand jury impaneled by Muellers team. The witnesses have told ABC News they were asked about Stones dealings during the 2016 election and what, if any, contact he may have had with WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange through an intermediary.



Among them include two who confirm to ABC News that they were specifically referred to in Stone's indictment.



Political humorist and radio show host Randy Credico, whom Stone claims to have asked to act as an intermediary for him to contact Assange to confirm that the Wikileaks founder had a cache of information on Clinton during the 2016 campaign, is "Person 2" in the indictment, who Stone exchanged text messages with about Assange and Clinton related leaks, and who Stone was charged with one count of witness tampering with over efforts to tamper with Credico's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.



Jerome Corsi, the former Washington bureau chief of the far right site, Infowars, who is known for his role in pushing political smear campaigns, confirms he is "Person 1" from the indictment, who emailed with Stone about efforts to "get to Assange" and seemed to relay information about material Wikileaks had in the summer of 2016.



Stephanopolous asked Stone what he hopes to gain by doing interviews after being indicted.



"I think the way I was treated on Thursday is extraordinary," he said. "I think the American people need to hear about it."



A swarm of FBI agents wielding long guns and tactical gear took Stone into custody at his Fort Lauderdale home on Friday and obtained search warrants for his homes in Florida and New York City. He continued to complain about the show of force Sunday.



"This was an attempt to poison the jury pool," he said.



Over the course of his nearly two-year-long probe, Mueller and his team of prosecutors have now indicted 34 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to conspiracy and financial crimes.



Those indictments have led to seven guilty pleas and three people sentenced to prison. Four former Trump campaign officials -- including his onetime national security adviser Michael Flynn and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, also a former associate of Stone -- are among those who have pleaded guilty.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Washington (AFP) - Veteran Republican consultant Roger Stone said Sunday his predawn arrest by US federal agents as part of the Russia collusion probe amounted to "Gestapo tactics" intended to prejudice a potential jury in his prosecution.

Stone was raided at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Friday, becoming the sixth campaign associate of President Donald Trump indicted in the investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion with Moscow in the 2016 election.

"I'm 66 years old. I don't own a firearm, I have no prior criminal record, my passport has expired," Stone told ABC's "This Week" news magazine program.

He complained that it was "extraordinary" for a 29-member SWAT team with numerous cars, amphibious vehicles and a helicopter to make the arrest, adding that he was forced to look "down the barrel of assault weapons" as he opened his front door in bare feet.

"They could have called my lawyers and I would have turned myself in," he said. "It was an expensive show of force to try to depict me as Public Enemy Number One... to poison the jury pool. These are Gestapo tactics."

Stone, a renowned political dirty trickster who has consulted with Trump for decades, is charged with lying to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 about his communications during the campaign with Julian Assange.

Assange's WikiLeaks published embarrassing Russian-hacked communications from Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, giving Trump's campaign a boost.

Stone is also accused of witness intimidation tactics to sway the testimony before Congress of radio host Randy Credico, who was in contact with Assange in 2016.

Stone denies all charges and says he has never spoken to Trump about WikiLeaks, Russia or the Mueller investigation.

"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos suggested that Stone's treatment was partly due to the fact that he was a flight risk who might wish to tamper with or destroy evidence.

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"I have been under surveillance for two years ... There is nothing to find. I have a million e-mails. They have been reported -- many of them taken out of context in this indictment -- but there is nothing to find," he hit back.

"Again, I think it is designed to intimidate me or perhaps seek personal information that can be used to embarrass me that has nothing to do with Wikileaks, Russia, the 2016 campaign or anything else."

Stone said he "categorically" had not destroyed or discarded communications devices, hard drives or other evidence.

"My lawyers have been insistent on this. We very early had a request from both the Senate and the House. We have destroyed nothing whatsoever," he added.NEW YORK  The trial that could send accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to prison for life is moving toward a conclusion: Closing arguments are expected as soon as next week.

But the timetable could be disrupted by a lingering question: Will Guzman speak in his own defense, to rebut the avalanche of testimony provided by Guzman's former associates?

The defense team raised the possibility when they included their client's name on the list of witnesses they might call. They're expected to make a final decision when the government rests its case, as early as Monday.

Defendants in high-profile criminal cases frequently opt not to testify, in part because taking the witness stand exposes them to potentially damaging cross-examination by prosecutors.

Ross Ulbricht, the suspect accused of founding and running the Silk Road drug-trafficking "darknet" website, didn't testify. Neither did so-called pharma bro Martin Shkreli, who was accused of scamming investors by violating securities laws.

Both were convicted.

Hermann Walz is a former New York City prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney.

For Guzman, he said, the risks of taking the stand could outweigh any benefits.

"What's he going to say  'It wasn't me?'" Walzasked. "If you get up on the stand and try that, it opens the door to a lot of questions about what you did do."

Guzman's legal team , aware of the risks, has focused largely on trying to undermine the credibility of the former members of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel who have depicted their allegedformer boss as a murderer who led a broad conspiracy to smuggle tons of cocaine, heroin and other narcotics into the United States.

A court filing shows the defense team has made tentative plans to call federal investigators in a bid to highlight apparent discrepancies between written summaries of interviews with a prosecution witness and the actual testimony the witness provided in court.

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But given the volume of evidence brought by the prosecution, at least one prominent defense attorney unconnected with the case feels Guzman might need something stronger  and has nothing to lose by testifying.

"If Mr. Guzman wants to tell his story, it would humanize him for the jury," said Bruce Cutler, the New York lawyer who won three acquittals for accused Gambino crime family bossJohn Gotti in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Dubbed the Teflon Don after those cases, Gotti eventually was convicted of racketeering and other crimes in 1992.

File photo taken in 1990 shows former Gambino crime family boss John Gotti. (AP Photo/File) [Via Merlin FTP Drop]

Guzman might need a legal Hail Mary  or what Cutler dubbed a "let it all hang out" strategy  to counter the prosecution evidence.

When his trial adjourned for the week on Thursday, the 12 jurors and six alternates had heard testimony from 54 government witnesses over 33 days over the last two months.

The most recent 10 days of testimony alone showed the legal mountain facing Guzman:

 Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, the defendant's alleged former mistress, divulged what prosecutors said were details of his drug trafficking. She also recounted how how she and her naked lover evaded a team of Mexican marines by running through a drainage tunnel accessed by a secret entrance under a bathtub in a Culiacan safehouse.

 Former top Guzman lieutenant Damaso Lopez Nunez didn't limit his testimony to his former compadre's alleged drug smuggling operation. He also implicated Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, in her husband's infamous 2015 tunnel escape from a Mexican prison.

 And Isaias Valdez Rios, a former security guard, personal aide and pilot for Guzman, testified that his ex-boss tortured and fatally shot enemies  and ordered one badly wounded man buried alive.

The wife of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Emma Coronel Aispuro, arrives at the US Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn on January 14, 2019 in New York. (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP)

The testimony, by turns lurid and grisly, appeared to have little impact on the relationship between Guzman and his wife. Days after after Sanchez told jurors she had been the "housewife" who shopped for Guzman's jeans, sneakers and underwear, Guzman and Coronelarrived in court wearing wine-red velvet jackets.

If Guzman opts to testify, the trial could be extended for days.

Already-scarce courtroom seats  roughly 35 available for news reporters and the general public  go quickly to those who join a line that typically forms outside the courthouse before 5:30 a.m.

Some disappointed visitors follow the trial in an overflow courtroom, where the proceedings are transmitted via a closed-circuit video feed.

Courthouse officials, trying to accommodate the interest in all things El Chapo, plan to transmit the video feed to a second courtroom for potential testimony from the alleged drug lord and closing statements by the prosecution and defense.

Markus Lotz, a New York attorney whose practice has focused on mergers and acquisitions  "far from all of these charges of violent crime"  arrived before dawn Thursday to snag a seat.

"It's a very interesting case, with a lot of national and international interest," he said. "I had some time, so I wanted to come down and hear some of the testimony."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc

Video: El Chapo Trial - Government Shows Escape Tunnel Video

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As El Chapo trial nears end, will the alleged Mexican drug lord testify in his own defense?Despite a conservative backlash that has seen him called a wimp and a broken man, Donald Trump is continuing to insist he did not cave to the Democrats by ending the government shutdown without funding for his border wall.

After ending the shutdown, Mr Trump tweeted that this was in no way a concession, signalling that if he didnt get a deal from Congress by February 15, he could shut the government down again or declare a national emergency to re-route federal money to fund the wall.

Mr Trump now appears to have doubled down on this argument with a series of tweets re-affirming his belief that a wall is needed, and he will get it. On Saturday evening he insisted: Only fools, or people with a political agenda, dont want a Wall or Steel Barrier to protect our Country from Crime, Drugs and Human Trafficking. It will happen  it always does!

The damage to some of his base support, however, appears to have already been done. On Sunday morning, the top two trending topics on Breitbart, once run by Trumps former strategist Steve Bannon, were [Democratic Speaker Nancy] Pelosi Trumps Trump and Govt open  Border too.

The website carried extensive coverage of how Trumps political opponents had mocked him for being dog walked by Pelosi and demonstrating the Art of the Cave.

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It comes after commentator Mike Cernovich, who has a large pro-Trump following, said that the president was now a broken man.

The influential conservative commentator Ann Coulter reacted to Mr Trump ending the shutdown by insultingly invoking the memory of recently deceased former US president George HW Bush and writing: Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.

Ms Coulter has previously said that Mr Trump would be dead in the water if he did not get his wall, saying if he couldnt build it, Trump will just have been a joke presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populists for a while, but hell have no legacy whatsoever.

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In another indication that the presidents base support might be wavering, conservative leader Mark Meckler, who helped found the Tea Party movement, accused Mr Trump of having brought his troops on the battlefield and then walked away.

Mr Meckler called the presidents decision to sign off on a deal without wall funding pathetic and disgusting.

He said that during the shutdown he and other conservative leaders had been aggressively defending the presidents hardline approach. At the request of the White House, he said they made repeated media appearances, but they got no warning he was about to surrender.

No way would I go on the radio anytime again in the future and say The president and I believe, Meckler said. Certainly, he did not fulfill his promise to the base and Im appalled. More importantly than me is what Im hearing from the grassroots. Theyre appalled.

He brought his troops on the battlefield with an absolute promise. And then he walked away.

Not all the presidents supporters were critical of him, however.

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Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right wing organisation Turning Point USA urged his twitter followers: Dont waver in your support of Donald Trump.

He is fighting , ALONE , daily to protect our country and to fulfill the promises from the campaign Im so sick of people from our side finding every excuse to attack the greatest president of our lifetime We must have his back.The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). Well show how you can use Harrisons Malayalam Limiteds (NSE:HARRMALAYA) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. Harrisons Malayalam has a price to earnings ratio of 32.39, based on the last twelve months. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 3.1%.

See our latest analysis for Harrisons Malayalam

How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?

The formula for P/E is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for Harrisons Malayalam:

P/E of 32.39 = 78.05  2.41 (Based on the year to March 2018.)

Is A High P/E Ratio Good?

A higher P/E ratio implies that investors pay a higher price for the earning power of the business. That is not a good or a bad thing per se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. Earnings growth means that in the future the E will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings.

Harrisons Malayalams earnings per share were pretty steady over the last year. But EPS is up 75% over the last 3 years.

How Does Harrisons Malayalams P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. As you can see below, Harrisons Malayalam has a higher P/E than the average company (17.4) in the food industry.

NSEI:HARRMALAYA PE PEG Gauge January 27th 19

Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Harrisons Malayalam shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.

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Remember: P/E Ratios Dont Consider The Balance Sheet

Its important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. That means it doesnt take debt or cash into account. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future), by taking on debt (or spending its remaining cash).

Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context.

Harrisons Malayalams Balance Sheet

Net debt totals 63% of Harrisons Malayalams market cap. This is enough debt that youd have to make some adjustments before using the P/E ratio to compare it to a company with net cash.

The Bottom Line On Harrisons Malayalams P/E Ratio

Harrisons Malayalams P/E is 32.4 which is above average (16.4) in the IN market. With meaningful debt and only modest recent earnings growth, the market is either expecting reliable long-term growth, or a near-term improvement.

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. Although we dont have analyst forecasts, shareholders might want to examine this detailed historical graph of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

But note: Harrisons Malayalam may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20).

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.Gemstones

Theres attention being drawn to an anomaly in Chinas trade data. Compared to imports of precious gemstones from Hong Kong, it could point to Chinas wealthy overpaying for said imports. A method of moving capital out of the country that bypasses Chinas capital controls.

An Outflow of Capital?

The first trigger is an increase in Chinas capital outflow at the end of 2018. It correlates with both a devaluation of the Chinese yuan and an increase in the value of imports from Hong Kong.

China Imports from Hong Kong Source: ZeroHedge

As noted by ZeroHedge and reported by the Financial Times, citing RBS strategist Elsa Lignos, there has been a recent rise in imports to China of precious stones from Hong Kong. That rise constitutes 53% of Chinas total imports from Hong Kong. A figure that was just 2.9% in February 2018.

Read the full story on CCN.com.Al-Gawalesh (Libya) (AFP) - "Our town has been looted, homes wrecked and olive trees torched," Moftah Mohammed said in dismay on returning home to Al-Gawalesh in western Libya after years wandering from place to place.

Al-Gawalesh, perched on the slopes of Jebel Nefussa, 120 kilometres (75 miles) west of Tripoli, paid the price for its support of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi during a 2011 NATO-backed revolt in which he was captured and killed.

Once home to close to 10,000 people, the town is a scene of desolation: wind- and dirt-swept, burnt-out homes, destroyed schools and other public buildings, devoid of any public services.

"It was July 6, 2011" when he and his family like all other residents had to flee Al-Gawalesh, Mohammed said. "To stay would have meant death," in the face of NATO air strikes on Kadhafi's forces.

Fear of reprisals by neighbouring communities which had sided with the victorious rebels kept it a ghost town for the past seven-and-a-half years.

In the face of often entrenched bitterness and a hunger for revenge, the United Nations mission in Libya has been working for reconciliation through the return of displaced communities to their pre-war homes.

The way was cleared for a return to Al-Gawalesh with a reconciliation deal signed back in 2015 between representatives of the towns of Jebel Nefussa that came along with promises of financial aid.

But Mohammed said the pledges have remained a dead letter due to inaction by successive government commissions.

Another recent returnee, Mohammed Bukraa, a man in his 70s who uses crutches, said he "broke down" when he saw his home and those of his two sons had been set ablaze.

- Health risks -

The town's mayor, Said Amer, said residents were still waiting for compensation payments to repair their homes.

"Some families have no choice but to live in these burnt-out homes, not realising the risks posed to their health and that of their children," the mayor said.

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The municipality says families have filed 1,600 compensation claims, none of which have been settled.

Libya's financial woes have blocked reconstruction in towns such as Al-Gawalesh, according to the internationally recognised Government of National Accord.

"We need a development plan and financing for reconstruction that we don't have," Yussef Jalala, minister for the displaced in the Tripoli-based GNA, told AFP.

He pinned the blame on the international community.

"On several occasions the international community has promised aid to help rebuild devastated towns but nothing has materialised," he said.

According to the latest figures published by the International Organization for Migration, Libya's displaced number around 187,000.

Human Rights Watch this week raised the alarm over the fate of Tawergha, a town in northeast Libya that also sided with Kadhafi during the revolt.

Most of its 48,000 inhabitants have still been unable to return, more than seven years on, it says.

"The Government of National Accord should urgently devise a strategy for Tawerghans' safe return, ensuring reconstruction and security," it said.

"While nothing can reverse seven years of forced displacement and dispersal, a measure of accountability for causing and preventing their return will not only bring justice to victims of serious violations and restore dignity, but it could serve as a deterrent for future crimes, HRW said.Was this the shutdown to end all shutdowns?

The answer could be yes. The toll exacted on government operations and federal employees by the record 35-day stalemate  not to mention the political costs to those in the White House and on Capitol Hill  was so punishing that it is giving momentum to a long-standing call to prohibit the government disruptions that have become a regular facet of Washington hardball.

Shutting down the government should be as off-limits in budget negotiations as chemical warfare is in real warfare, Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, said on Friday.

He was not alone in expressing those sentiments. Members of both parties said it was past time to enact legislation that would essentially mean the government would remain open at existing spending levels when an impasse such as the fight over the border wall was reached, rather than shuttering parts or all of the government. That is an outcome that virtually everyone agrees is costly, unnecessary and even embarrassing.

This never should have happened, said Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, speaking for many.

Veterans of past shutdowns have come to learn there are few, if any, winners in the end and closing the government has not proved effective as a negotiating strategy for those who use the government as a lever to press their case. It did not work for then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, for Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and House conservatives in 2013, or for Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and fellow Democrats in 2018.

Government workers are penalised through no fault of their own, constituents are inconvenienced, the nations image is hurt, and those responsible for running the government look inept, irresponsible and unwilling to reach an accommodation. The tension in this shutdown was evident in the internal finger-pointing that broke out among Republicans as workers missed two pay-checks and airports began to struggle with the absences of security workers and flight controllers.

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Ive said repeatedly throughout this process that government shutdowns are a bad idea, said Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio. They hurt federal employees and their families, disrupt critical government services and increase the cost to taxpayers. This shutdown confirmed what we already knew about shutdowns. Lets do something about it now while the pain and inefficiency of this moment is fresh on our minds.

Mr Portman has for years sponsored legislation to prevent shutdowns, and he introduced the measure again this month as the government limped along partly closed and federal employees lined up for food assistance and other aid.

Under his plan, which has 18 co-sponsors and rising, funding at existing levels would continue for agencies covered by an appropriations measure that was not signed into law by the beginning of the fiscal year on 1 October, preventing any lapse that incites a shutdown. To spur a resolution, funding would be reduced by 1 per cent after 120 days if no agreement is reached and by 1 per cent more every 90 days.

It is one of these moments where after many years of us trying to get something passed that ends the shutdown, I think there is support coalescing around a legislative response, Mr Portman said.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va, whose state is home to tens of thousands of federal employees and contractors, introduced his own proposal, partly with the idea of shaming his colleagues and the Trump administration into avoiding such confrontations.

Searching for a bill title that would deliver the message, he and his staff came up with Stop Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years, otherwise known as the Stop Stupidity Act. In the event of funding showdowns, his approach would be to maintain spending for all but the legislative branch and the White House.

More than a little bit of common sense tells me that we wouldnt be here 35 days into this shutdown if all our staffs were experiencing the same kind of shortfall and economic distress that 800,000 of our fellow federal workers experienced, he said on the Senate floor.

Mr Warner acknowledged his title was somewhat tongue in cheek, and he would be receptive to making changes in the interest of enacting a law that would prevent recurrences of the last weeks.

The final language in any deal that comes out three weeks from now should put strong provisions and strong penalties in place to prevent this tactic from being used by either party or any White House or Congress in the future, he said, a view shared by Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

The final package should also end government shutdowns once and for all, Mr Grassley said.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi also welcomed the idea on Friday, saying in a meeting with news columnists that she wanted to explore the possibility of legislation that would serve as a shutdown prevention act.

Despite widespread sentiment against shutdowns in Congress, there could be opposition. Some lawmakers might not want to surrender potential leverage in the spending wars. There could be resistance from others who do not like the concept of automatic spending authorisation, arguing that it gives up a fundamental power of Congress. Democrats have feared automatic spending cuts could be a backdoor way for Republicans to cut money for federal programs.

President Donald Trump might be reluctant to sign a bill that includes such provisions, though he has now experienced such backlash to the shutdown and might prefer another way to circumvent Congress, such as declaring a national emergency to build the wall if negotiations fall through.

Congress will still have its opportunities for brinkmanship such as the need to raise the debt limit, though House Democrats have already taken steps to make that more automatic as well, in an attempt to reduce the threat to economic stability  and eliminate a politically charged vote.

Whether they can succeed remains to be seen, but Mr Portman, Mr Alexander and others said they were determined over the next three weeks to press the case for permanent protection against shutdowns.

We accepted the idea that shutting down the government is an acceptable bargaining chip in a budget negotiation and it should never, ever be, and we should resolve that that should never, ever happen, Mr Alexander said.

The Washington PostThe final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, featured discussions on issues of equality, migration and climate change. Speakers included Executive Director of Oxfam, Winnie Banyema, anthropologist Jane Goodall, Executive Director of the International Energy Authority, Faith Birol, Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund and Brge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum.

A panel addressing inequality was moderated by Edward Felsenthal, TIME Editor-in-Chief and CEO, who said it is the issue that was most widely discussed during the Forum and asked panelists whether they are seeing any movements towards addressing it.

Winnie Byanyima, the Executive Director of Oxfam and former Director of Gender and Development at the United Nations Development Program said: Inequality is out of control so talking about it is not good enough. She discussed how top income rates have decreased and what the impact has been. A lot of the taxes on wealth have been abolished in many countries. Because they dont collect those taxes, they dont put enough money into health, education and social protection to their people so public services are crumbling, she said.

We want business to commit to good tax behavior. Not to dodge paying their fair share of taxes. We want governments to tax fairly.

Anthropologist Jane Goodall, considered the worlds foremost expert on chimpanzees, highlighted climate change and the damage humans have inflicted on the world. A lot of that is due to poverty, she said.

If you are living in a rural part of Africa and you are out near the environment, you are going to cut down the last trees on a steep slope even though you know its going to cause erosion because you have got to grow food to feed your family or make charcoal, she explained.

Unless we do something to alleviate poverty, then there is no way we can save chimpanzees or the forests.

Climate change was also discussed by Executive Director of the International Energy Authority, Faith Birol, who said the world must urgently reduce emissions in order to reach the 1.5 degree temperature increase goal outlined under the Paris climate agreement. The biggest problem today is coal, he said. The oil and gas industry cannot escape from the responsibility of fighting against climate change, he added.

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On migration, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund, Natalia Kanem, said that migration needs to be addressed by all sectors. It is not just an issue for a particular arm of a particular government.

The world needs to understand how to invest in young people, she added.

Among the final speakers of the day was Brge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, who discussed the goals of the World Economic Forum. We will be looking ahead to improve the state of the world for the next 50 years, he said.

We cannot solve the most pressing global challenges without a unique partnership between governments, business and civil society.If you own shares in Universal Corporation (NYSE:UVV) then its worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market.

Some stocks are more sensitive to general market forces than others. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stocks exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, its worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that volatility is far from synonymous with risk. Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one.

View our latest analysis for Universal

What UVVs beta value tells investors

With a beta of 0.91, (which is quite close to 1) the share price of Universal has historically been about as voltile as the broader market. While history does not always repeat, this may indicate that the stock price will continue to be exposed to market risk, albeit not overly so. Many would argue that beta is useful in position sizing, but fundamental metrics such as revenue and earnings are more important overall. You can see Universals revenue and earnings in the image below.

NYSE:UVV Income Statement Export January 27th 19

Does UVVs size influence the expected beta?

With a market capitalisation of US$1.4b, Universal is a small cap stock. However, it is big enough to catch the attention of professional investors. It takes less capital to move the share price of small companies, and they are also more impacted by company specific events, so its a bit of a surprise that the beta is so close to the overall market.

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What this means for you:

It is probable that there is a link between the share price of Universal and the broader market, since it has a beta value quite close to one. However, long term investors are generally well served by looking past market volatility and focussing on the underlying development of the business. If thats your game, metrics such as revenue, earnings and cash flow will be more useful. In order to fully understand whether UVV is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Universals financial health and performance track record. I urge you to continue your research by taking a look at the following:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for UVVs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for UVVs outlook. Past Track Record: Has UVV been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of UVVs historicals for more clarity. Other Interesting Stocks: Its worth checking to see how UVV measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.



The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's newly inaugurated right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro checked into a hospital in Sao Paulo on Sunday ahead of a surgery to remove his colostomy bag, scheduled for the next day. Bolsonaro had a colostomy bag inserted after surviving a near-fatal stabbing to the intestine on the campaign trail in September. The surgery is scheduled for 6 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on Monday at the Albert Einstein hospital. After the surgery, doctors recommend Bolsonaro rest for 48 hours. During this period, Vice President Hamilton Mourao will take over the presidency, according to a statement from spokesman Otavio Santana do Rego Barros' office. Bolsonaro is expected to stay in the hospital for 10 days and will establish contact with his advisers after the initial two-day recovery period, the statement said. The surgery was initially scheduled for December but was postponed after tests showed Bolsonaro's intestines were still inflamed. (Reporting by Alexandre Caverni; Writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)Hopes are fading for hundreds of people still missing after a dam collapse at an iron ore mine in Brazil, after officials suspended the search for survivors amid fears a nearby dam was at risk of breaking as well.

Authorities on Sunday are evacuating 24,000 people in several neighbourhoods within range of the B6 dam, owned by the same company as the dam that broke on Friday.

Anger erupted over the increasing likelihood many of the Vale company workers and residents living near the mining site are dead. The death toll stands at 34, but around 300 other people are estimated to be missing.

Rescue teams had been searching for survivors at the facility near the city of Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state following the collapse of a dam holding back mine waste, sending out waves of mud for several miles.

Throughout Saturday, scores of families awaited word on their loved ones as Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, admitted that most recovery efforts would entail pulling out bodies.

Im angry. There is no way I can stay calm, said Sonia Fatima da Silva, as she tried to get information about her son, who had worked for the mining company for 20 years. My hope is that they be honest. I want news, even if its bad.

Authorities with the Minas Gerais fire department said on Saturday that 23 people had been found and taken to hospital.

Vale said in a statement on Saturday that while 100 of its workers were accounted for, more than 200 workers were still missing. Local fire officials estimated the total number missing at close to 300.

Avimar de Melo Barcelas, the mayor of Brumadinho, said he also expected the death toll to rise as search and rescue operations continued.

Relatives of missing people wait for news after dam disaster (Reuters)

As Brazils attorney general promised an investigation into the cause of the disaster, many families expressed anger over Vales safety record.

Environmental groups blamed a lack of regulations and pledged to scrutinise the actions of new president Jair Bolsonaro  who promised to deregulate the industry during his election campaign.

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On Saturday, state courts and the Minas Gerais justice ministry froze around $1.5bn (around 1.2bn) from Vale assets to fund state emergency efforts and told the company to present a report detailing how they would help victims.

The companys CEO, Fabio Schvartsman, said he did not know what caused the collapse  but attorney general Raquel Dodge said someone is definitely at fault. She noted there were another 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone classified as being at risk of rupture.

Daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on Saturday that the dams mining complex was issued an expedited licence to expand in December due to decreased risk. Preservation groups in the area alleged that the approval was unlawful.

Sueli de Oliveira Costa, who has not heard from her husband since Friday, had harsh words for the mining company. Vale destroyed Mariana and now theyve destroyed Brumadinho, she said.

President Jair Bolsonaro surveys area buried by mud in Brumadinho (AP)

Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes. Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, it left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed countless fish.

The rivers of mining waste from the latest disaster also raised fears of widespread contamination. According to Vales website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a UN report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said a delegation of 130 specialists has left for Brazil to assist the search and rescue operation. Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said his delegation includes K-9 forces, firefighters and a special underwater unit.

The military is responding to an order from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who offered the aid to his close ally, Mr Bolsonaro.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe bishop who oversees Covington Catholic High School apologized Thursday for the school's and Diocese of Covington's reaction to the incident at the Lincoln Memorial.

An initial statement from officials condemned the students for their actions. A statement released Tuesday said the diocese would initiate a third-party investigation of the incident.

"We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had," wrote Bishop Roger Foys. "We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.

"I especially apologize to Nicholas Sandmann and his family as well as to all CovCath families who have felt abandoned during this ordeal."

Students at the private, all-boys school in Park Hills came under fire after a video showing CovCath students attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C., faced off Jan. 18 with Nathan Phillips, a Native American elder who was playing a drum in the footage.

Foys made his apology Thursday in a letter to Covington Catholic parents.

He wrote that after video surfaced Saturday "purportedly" showing CovCath students "being disrespectful to Native American Elder Nathan Phillips," and that after "being pressured from all sides to make a statement," the Diocese of Covington and the school did so.

"Based on what the video clip showed we condemned the actions of students who engaged in the alleged disrespect and promised to investigate the matter," he wrote.

When longer clips of the incident surfaced, "some of the very same people who had put tremendous pressure on us to condemn the actions of the students now wanted a retraction..." he wrote.

The second statement, about the third-party investigation, was made with the hope that it would "ameliorate some of the hate being spewed on the internet and other news media," Foys wrote. "Unfortunately, this did not happen and people are still lined up on either side."

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Foys vowed to make public the results of the investigation upon its completion.

"In the meantime, we call on all those who continue to spew venom and hate to desist and instead pray for a peaceful resolution to this tragic spectacle," he wrote.

Foys gave unequivocal support to CovCath Principal Robert Rowe, who has been urged to resign by some, according to Foys's letter.

He denounced the death threats to students and their families and made mention of a "bomb scare" at the Diocese of Covington building.

The full letter can be viewed at the end of this story.

Foys also delivered a speech Wednesday to the student body of CovCath. Details of the address were outlined in the Messenger, the diocese's own publication.

Foys told students: "I am on your side. I want you to come out of this in a positive light."

The article says Foys addressed a silent gym full of students and faculty.

"These last four days have been a living hell for many of you, for your parents, for your relatives, for your friends and it certainly has been for me," Foys reportedly said.

Foys said the Saturday following the March for Life was the last time he had "slept peacefully," because Sunday morning the Diocese of Covington was flooded with phones calls and emails about the incident.

This is a no-win situation. We are not going to win. No matter what we say, one way or another, there are going to be people who are going to argue about it," Foys is quoted as saying.

"The best we can do is, first of all, to find out the truth, to find out what really went on, what really happened. So we do have investigators who are here today, a third-party who is not associated with our diocese."

He urged students to cooperate with the investigators with the permission of their parents, and urged the chaperones who oversaw the students on the trip to do the same.

More: Chants, cheers and the question of insensitivity: The culture of CovCath

More: Fake News played a role in the CovCath story. But like the confrontation, it's not that simple

More: On the streets and among politicians, the CovCath controversy continues

"It is my fond hope, it is my prayer, that when the truth comes out you and I and the diocese will be exonerated," Foys said. "But I need something to present to Gods people and say, Look! Here are the objective facts. "

Foys urged students to stay off social media.

"Right now anything we say  you or I  anything we say is questioned," he said. "The devil is real; trust me. He has taken this good thing, this March for Life, and turned it into a media circus.

The day after the incident in Washington, the diocese issued a statement condemning the actions of the students. Foys reportedly addressed that as well, saying, "With what we saw and what we heard at the time, we had to say what we said and we meant it. If that behavior is genuine then we have to condemn it."

He added that these statements should not be interpreted as him not supporting the students. He assured them he was on their side.

"If there was some wrongdoing we have to own up to that," Foys said. "It is the truth that will set us free.

Covington Bishop Roger Foys... by on Scribd

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bishop apologizes to CovCath families: 'We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied'China dismissed remarks from George Soros as "meaningless" on Friday, after the billionaire investor called President Xi Jinping the "most dangerous opponent" of free societies and warned against Beijing's high-tech surveillance regime.

Soros "confused right and wrong in a meaningless statement, and it is not worth refuting", said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press briefing.

"In today's world, it is clear who is opening doors and building roads, and who is closing doors and building walls," she said.

"We hope that the relevant people on the US side can... take an objective, rational, and correct attitude towards China's development," she added.

On Thursday, the Hungarian-born US philanthropist stressed the threat posed by China's high-tech authoritarian regime while speaking to a dinner audience on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Communist China under Xi has been building a cutting-edge system including facial recognition to keep tabs on its citizens, and Soros said algorithms would calculate how dangerous a threat individuals might pose to the regime.

"The 'social credit' system, if it became operational, would give Xi total control over the people," he said Thursday.

"China is not the only authoritarian regime in the world but it is the wealthiest, strongest and technologically most advanced," he said, noting similar concerns about Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Soros also urged US President Donald Trump to crack down on Chinese tech giants ZTE and Huawei, as he believes their 5G technology would present an "unacceptable security risk for the rest of the world" if they dominated the market.By Zeba Siddiqui and Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - A top official at an observer group that monitored Bangladesh's election, as well as one of its foreign volunteers, have said they regretted participating. The election led to an overwhelming victory and a third successive term For Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling alliance, though western governments, including the United States, have called for reports of irregularities at the polls to be investigated. The president of the SAARC Human Rights Foundation told Reuters he now believed there should be a fresh vote after hearing first hand accounts from voters and some officials presiding over polling booths that activists from Hasina's Awami League stuffed ballot boxes the night before the poll and intimidated voters. Reuters was not able to independently verify those accounts. "Now I have come to know everything, and can say that the election was not free and fair," said Mohammad Abdus Salam, a 75-year-old former high court division justice. After Reuters published this story, the SAARC Human Rights Foundation issued a statement saying Salam had been misquoted. It quoted him as saying he told the reporters that "people in the mosque were saying the elections weren't conducted properly", but that he did not feel able to offer an opinion because he had not been an observer himself. "I have responsibly and judiciously discharged my duties," the statement quoted Salam as saying. "This incorrect news has hurt my prestige and standing, and I am distressed." Contacted again by Reuters, Salam declined to comment further. A Canadian observer who was brought in by the foundation, Tanya Foster, also told Reuters she regretted her involvement. But in a subsequent email and letter she said the regret concerned the hostility and harassment she faced from the media and others on her return to Canada and not her actual participation as an observer. A Reuters spokesman said: "We stand by our reporting on the views expressed by the election monitors." Several observers fielded by the foundation said they continued to endorse the vote. Gautam Ghosh, a Kolkata, India-based lawyer, and Hakimullah Muslim and Nazir Miya - members of Nepal's ruling Communist Party - said they stood by their initial statements that the polls were fair. "We heard of incidents of violence but never saw anything with our own eyes. We can't comment on what happened elsewhere," said Miya. Ghosh said he had never seen such a good election. Bangladesh, which is an important supplier of clothing to major Western High Street brands and is the second-biggest garments exporter in the world behind China, had already faced criticism from the European Union, United States, and British officials for irregularities observed during the polling. Transparency International last week said its investigation into the Dec. 30 election found irregularities at 47 of the 50 constituencies surveyed, including fake votes, ballot stuffing, and voters and opposition polling agents barred from entering polling centers. It found the ruling party was alone in actively campaigning at all areas surveyed, sometimes with help from local law enforcement officials and government resources. The government has dismissed the Transparency International investigation as lacking in credibility. Hasina's political adviser H.T. Imam called the group "a puppet" of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Imam did not respond to calls seeking further comment on Reuters' report about the monitors' misgivings. The BNP-led alliance has rejected the election, calling it rigged, after the Awami League and its allies swept more than 95 percent of the parliamentary seats. The United States, European Union and Britain have since called for allegations of ballot-rigging and intimidation to be investigated. Several U.S. groups, including the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), also monitored the voting but have not made their observations public. Ahead of the election, the U.S. State Department had expressed disappointment that some U.S.-funded observers had been forced to cancel plans to observe the polls as Bangladesh didn't issue visas "within the timeframe necessary". Bangladesh denied delaying visas and said it was following due process. Political experts said observers were key to establishing the credibility of the poll, which was Bangladesh's first fully participatory election in a decade. The BNP had boycotted the last vote in 2014. VICTORY ENDORSED The SAARC Human Rights Foundation brought in observers from Canada, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, who spoke to the press on election day and the day after, endorsing the fairness of the voting, often in glowing terms. On New Year's Eve, hours after being declared the winner of a contest that brought her a third straight term in power, Hasina sat on a white couch at her residence to address an audience of journalists and election observers. "They voted so enthusiastically, especially women and the young generation," Hasina said. "By coming to my country, you have also given us good opportunity to show how democracy is working." As a microphone was passed around the room, monitors from the SAARC Human Rights Foundation as well as other observers, including those from the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation - which endorsed the poll as fair - congratulated Hasina on the win. The first to speak was Foster, who called the election "very fair and democratic". "In Canada I feel that it is a similar type of process," Foster said, as Hasina smiled back. Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed, who is the government's information and communication technology adviser, repeatedly tweeted out statements made by the foundation's observers calling the election fair and peaceful. Though the initials and logo it uses closely resemble those of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an inter-governmental body that is well-known in the region, the Dhaka-based SAARC Human Rights Foundation has no affiliation with that organization. The foundation's Secretary General Abed Ali told Reuters the group had applied for approval from SAARC and was expecting it soon. A spokesman for the Kathmandu-based SAARC, though, told Reuters it had never heard of Ali or his group. Its advisory committee is chaired by a lawmaker from Hasina's Awami League, and includes a former lawmaker from the Jatiya Party, which has often been allied with the Awami League. A former minister in a previous BNP government is also listed on the panel, but no current opposition members. Ali said those current and former lawmakers "are just supporting our humanitarian activities". "I want to make it clear that we have no affiliation with any political party," he added. Awami League lawmaker Obaidul Muqtadir Chowdhury, who is listed on the foundation's website as chairman of its adviser panel, did not respond to calls seeking comment. Former Jatiya Party lawmaker Mohammad Ruhul Amin, who stood down at this election and is also a member of the adviser panel, did not respond to calls seeking comment. Party Chairman Anwar Hossain Manju said he had not heard of the foundation. The secretary of Bangladesh's Election Commission, Helal Uddin Ahmed, said it had no knowledge of links between the SAARC Human Rights Foundation and any political party. FOREIGN OBSERVERS In his original interview with Reuters Salam, the group's president, said the observers fielded by his organization had only monitored a few polling stations, so were in no position to make a clear assessment of the election's fairness. He said he was not directly involved in organizing the poll observers. He said some presiding officers had told him they had been forced to stuff ballot boxes. "I want to speak the truth," he told Reuters at the headquarters of the foundation, a dusty two-room ground floor apartment in the industrial town of Mirpur on the outskirts of Dhaka. "I am not doing this for any political gain." He did not identify the presiding officers, who he said spoke to him in confidence because they felt guilty at participating. Reuters could not independently verify the accusations. Ali dismissed the president's comments, saying: "Can you write something just based on someone saying something?" Foster, a policy analyst in the Saskatchewan provincial government, told Reuters she had heard from Bangladeshis in Canada that a group known as the SAARC Human Rights Foundation was looking for foreign election monitors. "I asked about the qualifications because I thought it would be an interesting experience. I applied to SAARC and to the Election Commission and they vetted me and offered me an invitation to be an observer," said Foster, whose daughter, Chloe Foster, also joined the observer's panel. They had never acted as international observers to a national election before. In hindsight, she said "I don't feel great about it. I feel like I was too naive". "I don't know that our reports are of that much value, considering we only visited nine polling centers and only in Dhaka," she added. "We didn't go to the more hostile areas. We didn't audit the election commission or conduct background checks of the presiding officers or poll agents." In her subsequent email and letter to Reuters, Foster said that she stands by her comments on election day: that she didn't witness any election irregularities. She also said she had left Bangladesh "feeling good about the role I had played in upholding democracy". Foster said her regrets concerned the pressure she faced from journalists and others on her return to Canada. "I had dozens of people harassing me about what I knew and didn't know," she said, adding that these people even contacted her government employer, putting her in a tenuous position at work. Chloe Foster was not available for comment. Ali, the foundation's secretary general, said the women had experience monitoring elections in Canada. He said it was not possible for any group to monitor all polling stations. (Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA and Gopal Sharma in KATHMANDU; Editing by Martin Howell and Alex Richardson)Baghdad (AFP) - Iraq on Sunday said it would summon the Turkish ambassador over the death of a Kurdish protester after Turkish troops opened fire on demonstrators in the country's northwest.

On Saturday night, Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region of northwestern Iraq to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment.

Witnesses said Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators, causing casualties and damage.

Iraq's foreign ministry on Sunday denounced the incident, saying one person was killed and several others wounded when Turkish forces "opened fire on citizens in the Shiladzeh area".

"The foreign ministry will summon the Turkish ambassador to hand a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated," it added.

Turkish forces are deployed in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region and often carry out raids and air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), seen as a "terrorist" group by Ankara.

On Saturday, the Kurdish regional government said it was "saddened" by the casualties and material damage at Shiladzeh but only referred to an "incident" without mentioning Turkey or the protest.

Footage distributed by activists appeared to show protesters setting Turkish military vehicles on fire.

Turkey's defence ministry said one of its bases was attacked after "provocation by a PKK terror group," resulting in some damage to vehicles and other equipment.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the PKK was "troubled" because Ankara was hitting its "terror nests".

"They are provoking the local community. And we know that the PKK is behind this (the attack)," he told reporters in the southern city of Antalya.

Cavusoglu said he had spoken to the prime minister of autonomous Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, who reportedly told him authorities would conduct a "comprehensive investigation".

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The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, but also operates bases in the Qandil mountain area of Iraq's Kurdish region.

In December, Baghdad summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest Ankara's "repeated" air strikes as a "violation of its sovereignty".

Turkey has pressed Iraq to play a bigger role in fighting the PKK, and last month announced deeper bilateral cooperation on the matter.President Donald Trump "is committed to NATO" and deserves credit in obtaining $100 billion more in defense spending for the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said Sunday.

"President Trump has been very clear: He is committed to NATO. He stated that clearly just a few days ago and also at the NATO summit in July," Stoltenberg said on "Fox News Sunday."

Stoltenberg's comment stands in contrast to Democrats who fear Trump wants to pull out of NATO, and some who have expressed concern he could be undermining the military alliance because it benefits Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A New York Times report earlier this month said Trump repeatedly told aides he wanted to pull out of the alliance. In response to the report, Democrats pushed for legislation requiring congressional approval of any move to leave NATO.

Trump has also been criticized for his aggressive his approach in insisting America's "delinquent" allies pay a greater share toward the collective defense agreement. At the summit in July, he demanded the other members "immediately" increase their contributions.

Stoltenberg said the tough approach paid off.

"We agreed to do more to step up  and now we see the results. By the end of next year, NATO allies will add $100 billion extra toward defense," he said. "So we see some real money and some real results. And we see that the clear message from President Donald Trump is having an impact."

The president took note of Stoltenberg's interview.

"Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline," Trump tweeted. "Its called burden sharing. Also, more united."

The president also said Stoltenberg's interview undermined the narrative from "Dems & Fake News" who "like to portray the opposite" of his relationship with NATO.

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When asked if he was concerned that Trump was "helping Putin splinter NATO," Stoltenberg said, "What I see is that actually NATO is united because we are able to adapt to deliver. North America and Europe are doing more together now than before."

Stoltenberg said Trump is helping "us adapt the alliance, which we need, because we live in a more unpredictable world."

"And you have to remember that the increase we now see in defense spending by European and NATO allies comes after years of decline. So before they were cutting billions. Now they're actually adding billions," he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Trump is having an impact': NATO head credits president's tough talk for $100B boostBritains Prince Philip has reportedly apologized to a woman injured in a Jan. 17 car crash involving the 97-year-old royal's Land Rover.

The Sunday Mirror published a photo of his letter to Emma Fairweather, whose wrist was broken in the crash near the Queen's Sandringham estate.

"I would like you to know how very sorry I am for my part in the accident at the Babingley cross-roads," said the letter, which was hand-signed "Philip," rather than "the Duke of Edinburgh."

Fairweather told the tabloid, I thought it was really nice that he signed off as Philip and not the formal title. I was pleasantly surprised because of the personalized nature. A lot of people said it was unrealistic that I wanted that human kindness from Prince Philip  which is what I saw this letter as.

In it, Philip noted that he had been through that intersection many times but that his vision was impacted by the low afternoon sun.

"In normal conditions, I would have no difficulty in seeing traffic coming from the Dersingham direction, but I can only imagine that I failed to see the car coming, and I am very contrite about the consequences. I was somewhat shaken after the accident, but I was greatly relieved that none of you were seriously injured."

Prince Philip also attended the May 19, 2018, wedding

He also seemed concerned Fairweather might think he fled the scene.

As a crowd was beginning to gather, I was advised to return to Sandringham House by a local Police Officer. I have since learned that you suffered a broken arm. I am deeply sorry about this injury. I wish you a speedy recovery from a very distressing experience.

Although his Land Rover was overturned in the accident, Philip was unhurt and was given the all-clear by local doctors the following day. He has not been charged and continues to be allowed to drive. (Drivers in the U.K. must renew their licenses every three years upon turning 70.)

USA TODAY has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

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Since the accident, there has been no word about whether Philip will voluntarily restrict his driving to the grounds of Sandringham and other royal properties.

Prince Philip crash: Being told to hang up keys could be 'major blow,' expert says

Aftermath: Parts of Prince Philip's wrecked car briefly on sale

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'I failed to see the car coming': Prince Philip apologizes to crash victim, reports sayJerusalem (AFP) - The number of Jews murdered in anti-Semitic attacks around the world in 2018 reached its "highest" level in decades after a mass shooting at a US synagogue, an Israeli government report said Sunday.

A total of 13 Jews were killed in three separate attacks over the year, according to the 2018 Global anti-Semitism Report released on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A gunman shot dead 11 people at a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh in October in America's deadliest ever anti-Semitic attack.

In January, a student was also murdered in California, and in March 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mirielle Knoll was killed in a brutal attack at her Paris home.

"This marks the highest number of Jews murdered in anti-Semitic attacks since the attacks on the Argentinian Jewish community in the 1990s," the report said.

For the second year running the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain reached a record high, the report said.

It cited British charity Community Security Trust which counted over 100 anti-Semitic episodes a month in 2018, a quarter of which ocurred on social media.

The report noted a 69 percent rise in reported anti-Semitic attacks and threats in France after a two-year decline.

Contrary to previous years, anti-Semitic violence in 2018 was "led by neo-Nazis and white supremacists", the report said.

It defined 70 percent of attacks as "anti-Israel in nature", noting a spike when the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem in May and violence flared on the Gaza border.

Diaspora Minister Naftali Bennett said it was Israel's "responsibility to help the millions of our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora who are facing more and more anti-Semitic crimes".

He called on governments around the world to "take a harsh stance against the hatred of Jews".

Despite the grim numbers, there were also "room for hope", the 113-page report said.

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"More and more governments are declaring their committment to fighting anti-Semitism, and appointing emissaries to that end," the report said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem on Sunday also released its annual report on the "Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals".

It said that between April 2017 and March 2018 one person was convicted for Nazi-era crimes, while three others were charged.GAZA, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in Gaza as thousands took part Friday in a protest along the border, fueled in part by Hamas' rejection of Qatari cash aid after what the militant group says were Israeli delays in transferring the funds.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teen and wounded another as a group of young men hurled stones at the troops.

The infusion of $15 million from Qatar would have been used to pay civil servants in the Hamas-ruled strip but the militant group on Thursday declined to accept the funds. In turn, Qatar said Friday it was redirecting the money to U.N. humanitarian projects in Gaza.

Hamas also vowed to escalate the weekly demonstrations, which it has organized since last March to highlight the strip's dire economic conditions, exacerbated by more than a decade of Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

Hamas opposes Israel's existence; Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from arming its fighters.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Ehab Abed, 25, was critically shot on Friday in the chest along the fence east of the town of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip and died soon afterward. At least 22 other Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, including 14 minors, at several locations along the fence, it said.

The protesters burned tires and threw rocks and firebombs toward the heavily guarded fence. Along with live fire, Israeli forces also fired tear gas.

The violence came despite calls by Qatari mediator Mohammed al-Emadi for "a quiet day" along the border.

Israel approved on Thursday the delivery of the third installment of Qatari cash infusion but only after two weeks of postponement, prompting an embarrassed and cash-strapped Hamas to reject the funds.

Qatar had pledged a $90-million package to help Hamas pay long overdue wages for its civils servants for six months. Israel hopes the money would ease the deadly demonstrations.

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Over 185 Palestinians have been killed in the marches, including two journalists and three medics, and thousands have been wounded.

Responding to international criticism for using lethal force, Israel says that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is using the protests as a cover to carry out cross-border attacks.

In the West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager near the city of Ramallah.

The Israeli military told The Associated Press that soldiers shot at a group of teenagers throwing rocks toward the troops, killing a 16-year-old boy and wounding another.

___

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed reporting from Jerusalem.Valletta (AFP) - A group of 69 migrants on a rickety wooden boat were rescued Sunday off Malta, the navy said, while 49 more were still at sea waiting for a country to allow them to dock.

The migrants sent out a distress call 117 nautical miles southwest of Malta and a Maltese navy vessel was sent to their aid, a statement said.

Meanwhile, the German NGO Sea-Eye said its rescue ship was responding to a report of another boat in difficulty with 24 migrants on board.

The German-flagged ship already has 17 migrants from West Africa on board who were rescued on Saturday in international waters off the coast of Libya.

At the same time, the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch said it already had 32 migrants rescued on December 22 including three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

While Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands have refused to accept the Sea-Watch 3 migrants, several German cities have offered to take them in.

On Saturday a government spokesman, however, said Germany would only accept some of the migrants if other European countries also agreed to do so.

Last week, a newborn baby and his mother were helicoptered from a boat to Malta

More than 1,300 migrants have perished trying to reach Italy or Malta since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Lots of sunshine. High 93F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low 73F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.Paris (AFP) - More than 10,000 people wearing red scarves marched through Paris on Sunday in protest at "yellow vest" violence during the anti-government demos that have drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets over the past 11 weeks.

Since mid-November President Emmanuel Macron has offered concessions and debates seeking to quell the weekly rallies that often end in violent clashes with police in the most serious challenge yet to his government.

In Sunday's rival protest, the crowds marched in rain from the Place de la Nation square to the Bastille monument, some chanting "Yes to democracy, no to revolution" as they waved French and European Union flags.

Dubbed the "red scarf" movement, the centrist initiative is the brainchild of an engineer from Toulouse who was horrified by the violence seen among more extremist "yellow vest" demonstrators.

Many protesters joining the rally said they were not against "yellow vest" demands for greater help for France's poor, but were sick of the clashes and destruction that have marked protests for 11 consecutive Saturdays since mid-November.

Laurent Soulie, an organiser of the march, said the protesters responded to a call to the "silent majority who have remained holed up at home for 10 weeks."

A nursing manager who gave her name as Marie-Line said she believed the yellow vests had just cause to "grumble", but came "to say that this verbal and physical violence must stop".

"It's not a protest against the yellow vests -- it's a protest to say, you've made your demands, we are listening to them," Francois Patriat, a senator from Macron's centrist party, told AFP at the demonstration.

"There are other places to discuss this than the street. You cannot block the country and economy because you consider the president to be illegitimate."

Sunday's protest was almost double the size of the "yellow vest" demonstration in Paris a day earlier, when some 4,000 people came out to rail against Macron.

Story continues

The protesters are named after the luminous road safety vests that they wear.

Originally sparked by rises in fuel taxes, the movement quickly snowballed into a widespread revolt over accusations the president, an ex-banker, is out of touch with rural and small-town France.

But their numbers have ebbed in recent weeks after Macron announced a series of policy climbdowns and launched a two-month consultation to allow people to vent their anger.

- Prominent 'yellow vest' hurt -

Saturday's protest in Paris saw a prominent "yellow vest" activist, Jerome Rodrigues, badly injured. Both Rodrigues and his lawyer Philippe de Veulle said he was hit in the eye by a police rubber bullet, an anti-riot weapon that has become highly controversial in France.

"He is in shock. He will be handicapped for life. It is a tragedy for him and his family," de Veulle told BFM television.

Rodrigues, a construction worker, was placed in an artificial coma overnight after the incident at the Bastille monument on Saturday afternoon.

The 40-year-old, who has 50,000 followers on Facebook, was live-streaming the protest on the website when he was hit.

De Veulle said Rodrigues was struck in the eye with a "flashball", referring to the 40-mm (1.6-inch) rubber projectiles used by French riot police.

Later Sunday Rodrigues told reporters he would remain in hospital for a further five days, adding that only time would tell if his vision had been damaged.

He said he had agreed with Eric Drouet, another leading figure in the movement, to launch a "call for calm" while at the same time pressing on and strengthening the protests "without violence".

"I will not stop, I will be back at the demonstrations as soon as my health permits me," he said.

Junior Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Sunday told LCI television there was "no evidence" to show Rodrigues was hit by a police rubber projectile. Investigations were still looking into the incident.

The devices -- which are not used in most European countries -- have been blamed for dozens of serious injuries at "yellow vest" protests, leading to calls for them to be banned.

On Saturday, police using the weapons were for the first time deployed wearing body cams in a bid to increase transparency.

Rodrigues' lawyer insisted his client was not one of the "hooligans" who have been joining the weekly protests to cause trouble for police.

In the video, Rodrigues can be heard several times warning protesters to leave the Bastille area because hard-left "black bloc" agitators were coming to attack the police.

Witnesses picked up the projectile that struck Rodrigues and police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.Jihadist News Articles Analysis Multimedia Social Network Jihad Western Jihadist Digest Free Articles Financial Jihad

Full Translation

Groups Afghan Taliban (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement Al-Nusra Front Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Ansar al-Islam Ansar al-Sunnah in Jerusalem Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Ansar Dine Ansar Jerusalem Hezbollah Islamic Jihad Union Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Islamic State Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) Jabha East Africa Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Jaish al-Fath Lashkar-e Toiba Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e Taliban) Shabaab al-Mujahideen (The Young Mujahideen Movement) Taifetul Mansura The Levantine Front Turkestan Islamic Party

Leaders Abu Musab Abd al-Wadud Abu Yahya al-Libi Adam Gadahn Anwar al-Awlaki Ayman al-Zawahiri Hakimullah Mehsud Mullah Omar Mustafa Abu al-Yazid Usama bin Laden Abu Baseer al-Wuhayshi

Countries Afghanistan Algeria Australia Austria Bangladesh Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Burma Burundi Canada Chechnya China Denmark Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Europe Finland France Germany India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Italy Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mali Mauritania Morocco Niger Nigeria Norway Pakistan Palestinian Territories Russia Saudi Arabia Somalia Spain Sweden Syria Tunisia Turkey Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uzbekistan Yemen Burkina Faso Philippines IrelandThe Bhutan Government on Saturday said that setting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target beyond eight per cent would rather widen the gap between the rich and poor.

Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said this at the Meet the Press session when queried whether the current GDP target set at six per cent would help realize the ruling partys vision of narrowing the gap, according to reports.

The Prime Minister was quoted as saying that 99 per cent of our pledges are within the middle and low-income group and that will not have substantial improvement on GDP.

The Economic Affairs Minister, Loknath Sharma, was also quoted as saying that the government is targeting a GDP good enough for a sustainable economy

The government has set the GDP target for the 12th plan at six per cent which was not well received by the Opposition Party and the National Council during the first session of the third Parliament, which ended recently.

Meanwhile, the government has announced to regularize the contract employees in all sectors and not just the education ministry.

However, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said this does not mean they will be regular civil servants.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister affirmed that contract employees cannot be regular civil servants as the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) works with their own set of rules.

He, however, added that the government has other ways of regularizing contract employees.

On the other hand, the government said it is keen to introduce breastfeeding allowance for those mothers who are not entitled to six months maternity leave despite not having any budget allocated in the 12th Five Year Plan.

At the meet the press session on Saturday, the Prime Minister Dr Tshering said this will be a wise investment given the enormous health benefit it has to both mothers and the newborns.

However, he clarified that mothers will also have to fulfill certain criteria such as ensuring 100 per cent antenatal check-up, hospital delivery and timely immunization of their newborns.The Napa County Reads committee invites you to join us for a special evening at The Lincoln Theater on Feb. 11 for a conversation with Alan Gratz, author of the novel "Refugee."

A reception in the lobby before the talk will feature book signing with the author, complimentary appetizers representing the countries in the book, information from local organizations that support immigrant and refugee populations, and book-inspired student art displays.

After an opening performance featuring the Napa High Choir, Gratz will take the stage for a conversation with local radio personality Barry Martin. Martin will speak with Gratz about his experience writing "Refugee," his journey to becoming an author and his life as a novelist. Retired Napa High teacher Henry Michalski will also be sharing his experience as a refugee at the end of World War II.

"Refugee" explores the stories of three different children from families with one mission in common, escape: a Jewish boy fleeing 1930s Germany, a girl escaping to America from 1990s Cuba, and a boy running from Syria in 2015. All three young people and their families go on harrowing journeys in search of safety and freedom.That's the opposite of what a mother says, the opposite of what we all tell each other about the latest worry - about the job interview in the morning, about the lump in your wife's breast, about a report in the newspaper screaming through a muffle of data that we need to stop everything we're doing and pull together in the same direction, or else everything we are building for our children may soon be overtaken by water or fire.

Everything will be OK. We say it even when we don't believe it.

Maybe we should stop saying it. There is opportunity in this acceptance. Marvel thinks we need courage, not hope. We must know what's coming, we must realize it will hurt, and we must be very strong together.

Hold the problem in your mind. Freak out, but don't put it down. Give it a quarter-turn. See it like a scientist, and as a poet. As a descendant. As an ancestor.

"It is an immense privilege to be alive at this time," Alice Major says from Edmonton. "We owe it to ourselves to try as hard as we can to understand what's going on. And to give meaning to it. . . . Only by understanding our lives as meaningful can we hope to create meaningful change."After all, talk is easy, but impeaching and convicting a president is sufficiently difficult that no American president in the countrys 230 years has been ousted that way.

Both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by a partisan House but acquitted by less partisan Senate, though Richard Nixon would almost certainly have been both impeached and convicted in 1974, had he not resigned.

Having lived through the 1974 Nixon impeachment hearings as a congressional reporter and the 1998 Clinton impeachment managing my papers Washington coverage, Im left with the recollection of how long the proceedings took and how not every initial presumption proved to be true.

Donald Trumps presidency will likely end one of three ways: At the ballot box, with Senate conviction following House impeachment, or in resignation, perhaps the way Vice President Spiro Agnew quit in 1974 with a deal barring further prosecution.

Until one of these occurs, everyone ought to relax, while reporters report what they can about the processes and developments, and the constitutional procedures play out, recognizing that the flood of daily coverage is but the first rough draft of history, not the conclusive version.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.A stretch of Dry Creek Road in rural Napa County was closed from early Sunday morning until afternoon after a house caught fire, authorities said.

The blaze was reported to dispatchers at 6:58 a.m. in the 4500 block of Dry Creek Road west of Yountville, according to Louis Karlow, spokesperson for the Cal Fire station in St. Helena. Cal Fire and Napa County Fire personnel arrived at 7:17 a.m. to find a single-family home in flames, he said.

One person who was inside the home escaped the fire, and no injuries were reported, according to Karlow. The extent of damage to the building was not immediately known Sunday afternoon, and the cause was still under investigation.

The Napa County Sheriff's Office shut down Dry Creek Road near the fire scene before reopening it shortly before 1:30 p.m., according to a Nixle alert from the agency.

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.I would consider it a solid year, city Water General Manager Joy Eldredge said.

She wants more. Another few inches of rainfall on a saturated watershed could fill Hennessey.

We do like it to spill because it helps for water quality, Eldredge said. It gives a little more flush through there.

Otherwise, the city faces more challenges with algae, odor and taste of the water, she said. Its the usual situation with lake water.

The city also has smaller Milliken Reservoir in the mountains near Silverado Resort. It is full and should be used this spring and summer for the first time since the October 2017 Atlas fire.

Flames burned wooden supports that held up the steel pipe that feeds the water treatment plant, causing the pipe to rupture in spots. The fire burned off some of the steel coating.

Besides damaging the pipe, the fires created a charred landscape that raised the specter of water quality-damaging organic carbons washing into Milliken Reservoir. Eldredge said the manzanita, scrub and other growth came back quickly.

I think we should be OK, she said.For 10 years, the worlds last known Sehuencas water frog, named Romeo, lived alone in captivity in a Bolivian museum. Repeated expeditions by biologists into the nations cloud forests, the only place the amphibians exist, had turned up no new specimens. The once-plentiful frogs had been all but wiped out by a killer fungus, widespread habitat loss and an invasive trout that dines on frog eggs.

Even Romeo seemed to have given up on ever finding a Juliet. Researchers last heard the frog perform his mating call at the end of 2017.

But this month, scientists with the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide dOrbigny and Global Wildlife Conservation announced a discovery that seemed to end this Shakespearean ecological tragedy. Five Sehuencas water frogsthree males and two femaleswere found at the foot of a small waterfall, offering the possibility that Romeo and his new crew would breed in captivity, and that one day Sehuencas water frogs might be released back into the wild.

And so the species has been saved, for now. But the development also raised a complicated question: If Romeos companions had not been found, at what point would we have declared the Sehuencas water frog extinct?

In some ways, this story played out recently with a Hawaiian tree snail species called Achatinella apexfulva. The snails have not been seen in the wild in decades, and on Jan. 2, the last one living in captivity slimed its way across the Rainbow Bridge. His name was George, in honor of the last known Pinta Island tortoise, Lonesome George, who died in 2012.

But Georges death does not necessarily mean the snails are extinct, said David Sischo, a wildlife biologist and coordinator of Hawaiis Snail Extinction Prevention Program. Scientists have been looking for them for more than 30 years and are still actively searching, he said. The snails can live only about 20 years, however.

Most known populations of closely related tree snails on the island are rapidly disappearing, Sischo said. So if there happen to be some out there somewhere hiding, we suspect they will also be gone very soon before anyone is able to find them.

Even so, when it comes to something as small as a snail, Sischo said, its nearly impossible to declare it gone for good.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world authority on species at the brink, an animal can be described as extinct only when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. Whats more, exhaustive surveys must have been carried out everywhere the species was known to exist, as well as places where it historically existed and might have survived unnoticed until the present day.

Official extinction happens with some regularity. Scientists declared a bat known as the Christmas Island pipistrelle extinct in 2017. In 2013, it was the Formosan clouded leopard. The Japanese river otter, the western black rhino and a bird called an Alaotra grebe have also been crossed off the list of the living over the last two decades.

But meeting the standard is a tall order and one that is not physically or fiscally possible for every species suspected of being extinct. That is why the IUCN tweaked its categorizations in 2008 to include a critically endangered (possibly extinct) designation. A species is given this label when there is a small chance that they may be [still living] and thus should not be listed as Extinct until adequate surveys have failed to find the species and local or unconfirmed reports have been discounted.

Such classifications may seem like semantics, but they have real-world consequences. Not listing a species as extinct could mean wasting resources on a lost causeresources that could be used to save something else. Likewise, listing a species as extinct before it truly is could discourage last-ditch attempts that might pull it back from the edge. Scientists call this the Romeo Error (a reference to Shakespeares young lovers and their avoidable demises, not the Bolivian frog).

Some conservationists argue that politics are also at play.

When organizations present evidence to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that a species is possibly extinct, it should be like a five-alarm fire, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). Their job is to prevent extinction, and they should go out and survey for it, and protect it, and figure out if its there and what it needs.

Instead, Curry said, the agency sometimes uses evidence of extinction as an excuse to delay even looking for certain species.

Take the Florida fairy shrimp. The small crustacean was discovered in a single pond south of Gainesville in 1939a pond that has since been obliterated by development. Other nearby bodies of water might serve as habitat for the species, but no one has seen a Florida fairy shrimp in a very long time.

In 2010, the CBD and other groups submitted a petition to Fish and Wildlife arguing that the shrimp was very close to extinction, if not already extinct, and deserving of protections under the Endangered Species Act. When the government denied the petition in 2011, it cited the fact that the species might already be gone.

Because the information presented by petitioners and in our files suggests the species is already extinct, it does not meet the definition of an endangered species or a threatened species under the Act, the denial read.

A Fish and Wildlife spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, citing the partial government shutdown. However, its worth noting that the agency has also drawn scrutiny in the past for doing the oppositeinvesting resources in a species without enough evidence it still exists.

In 2005, video emerged purporting to show an ivory-billed woodpecker, a species last seen in 1944, in Arkansas. This was not the first reported sighting, but it was convincing enough to spur Fish and Wildlife to create a recovery plan for the species. In the end, $14 million went into habitat preservation and searches, but no conclusive sign of the bird materialized.

H. Resit Akcakaya, chairman of the Red List Standards and Petitions Committee for the IUCN, and his colleagues have been studying the question of when to use the word extinct for more than a decade. Recently, they published three studies, called the Extinction Trilogy, in an attempt to standardize how such decisions are made.

By assigning scores to certain factors, such as how easy an animal is to observe and identify, how long its been since it was last seen, threats it faces, and how intensively it has been sought, Akcakaya said he can calculate the probability that the species is already extinct. The method is still being tested, he said.

Even after many fruitless searches, the scientists looking for Sehuencas water frogs were not ready to give up on the species. But in this animals case, it took a tragicomic stunt to prove they were right to persist.

Last Valentines Day, they created a Match.com dating profile for Romeo. It helped generate $25,000 in donationsmoney that was used to fund more expeditions to find the elusive critters.

We actually have to get into the water in these streams in the cloud forest and feel around the riverbed, lifting up rocks and looking beneath, said Teresa Camacho Badani, chief of herpetology at the museum and one of the scientists who found the new stash of amphibians. Its actually sometimes more difficult to see them than it is to feel them with your hands.

Now some of the focus will shift toward making baby frogs.

The first option is to test love-at-first-sight, said Camacho Badani. If that doesnt work, she said, the team is prepared to step in with various assisted reproductive technologies.

Its an incredible feeling to know that Romeo has been in our care for over 10 years, says Camacho Badani. And now he very much has a future, as a species.Gillian Der, another of Lisas followers, couldnt believe what she was hearing when she first came across a video of Lan and Lisa chattering in Taishanese as they shaped and fried sesame balls. It meant so much that when I was watching those videos and seeing her make this food with her mom, I was also hearing these familiar sounds that I grew up with, she said. Der, 22, was born and raised in Toronto, and only heard Taishanese spoken in her own home. Growing up, I didnt have access to amazing cooks like Lisas mom, or even my own grandmother, she says. Now I can go to Lisas account and watch these videos and see her learning, and it reflects my own learning. When I hear the language and when I see the beautiful food that those two make, it feels like home.Police must accept there is insecurity ...NetMarketShare data for December 2018 shows that Windows 10 has now overtaken Windows 7 in desktop operating system market share.

Whether this is due to Microsofts decision to drop extended support for the older OS in January 2020, or a natural progression towards the adoption of newer software, Windows 10 is now officially the most popular operating system in the world.

Many people are still using Windows 7 however, and will continue to use the operating system for many years to come if history is an indicator.

Windows XP

This is evidenced by Windows XP remaining a popular operating system today, even after reaching end of support in April 2014.

Reaching end of support makes the operating system far more vulnerable to new security flaws, as it does not receive security updates.

Despite this, Windows XP is still more popular than any version of Windows 8  showing exactly how resistant some users are to upgrading their systems.

It is unclear whether we will face the same issue with Windows 7, as the period where users could upgrade to Windows 10 for free is long over, and they will now need to purchase Windows 10 to retain support.

With the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft also changed its policy from what it calls Fixed Lifecycle Policy to a Modern Lifecycle Policy, which covers products and services that are supported continuously.

Windows 10 falls under the newer policy, and Microsoft said it is committed to supporting the software as along as customers maintain the system requirements published for the service, customers are licensed, and the service is offered by Microsoft.

Last year of Windows 7

For those using Windows 7, you will need to upgrade to Windows 10 by 14 January 2020 to avoid losing support for your operating system.

After this date, extended support for Windows 7 will be finished and users will no longer receive security updates, hotfixes, or new features.

Mainstream support for the original version of Windows 7 ended on 9 April 2013, while mainstream support for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 ended on 13 January 2015.

This category of support included the delivery of new features to consumers and allowed requests to product design  along with promptly-delivered quality-of-life updates.

Importantly, if you are still using Windows 7 when the softwares support ends in 2020, you will no longer receive security updates and will subsequently be more vulnerable to malicious software.

Additionally, you may encounter problems updating drivers for your hardware, as these may no longer be available for the operating system.

Microsoft therefore recommends updating to the latest version of Windows  Windows 10 version 1809.

Now read: Android Auto is awesome and I use it every dayShe believes Iowa law is clear that voters have 29 days to return their absentee ballots. The absentee ballot alerts you to the fact that you cant count on a postmark, so you need to get that in a timely fashion, she said.

Not only did the 29 disputed ballots not have postmarks, they didnt have whats called an intelligent bar code.

Thats a bar code applied by the county auditor to track the ballot through the mail. Only seven of Iowas county auditors use those bar codes  none of them in District 55, which includes all or parts of Winneshiek, Fayette and Clayton counties.

Republicans insist it is not the same as a bar code the postal service sometimes puts on mail.

But based on the postal bar code  not a bar code from the auditor  the postal service found the 29 disputed ballots were indeed in the mail before the deadline.

Thats good enough for House Democrats.

Rep. Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, who served on the House committee that heard Koethers challenge, called the process a kangaroo court  a total sham.Mohr said the medical marijuana legislation is "still a good bill ... but I think we need to watch it for a few years to see how it works."

Others said Iowa's list of conditions approved for medical marijuana is too limited. Some advocated for raising the THC cap on products. Dispensaries are allowed to sell products with up to 3 percent THC, or the component in marijuana that produces the "high."

"I think we're moving toward liberation in terms of marijuana laws," Rep. Monica Kurth, D-Davenport, said. "At the current time, I'm very concerned about medical marijuana and the number of conditions approved ... I am also concerned that it's difficult for people to get the card they need to participate in the medical marijuana program."

Kurth, Cournoyer and Rep. Phyllis Thede, D-Bettendorf, said they support raising the THC cap on medical marijuana products.

"We really do need to look at the higher THC levels. It doesn't do you very much good if you're taking 30 to 40 pills and barely get the minimum result," Thede said. "And with recreational marijuana, we're going to have to look at California and Colorado, who have done a good job, and look at how they're doing their sales. This could be a boom to Iowa financially."

MedicaidI am surprised and pleased with your vote to maintain sanctions on the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. I have not heard your reasoning for the vote, and I am curious about your thoughts on this issue and our overall relationship with Russia.

It is easy to find reasons to oppose Deipaska and his sponsor, Vladimir Putin. For instance, those Russians interfered with our election in order to elect Donald Trump  according to all U.S. intelligence agencies. When that beholden U.S. president inexplicably acts to relieve sanctions on those Russians, and works overtime to conceal the content of his meetings with Russians, and lied about ongoing business negotiations with those Russians during the campaign, and altered the Republican platform to favor Russian interests, and literally cannot utter a word critical of those Russians  well, it stinks to high heaven of working for those Russians in one way or another!At 11:10 p.m. Friday, Butte police released the name of a 29-year-old man they arrested after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash at the intersection of Montana and Galena streets. One woman was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries.

John Isaac Flinn has been charged with five felony counts of criminal endangerment along with possession of drug paraphernalia and obstructing a peace officer, according to a release from Sheriff Ed Lester. Flinn also has charges out of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County for felony possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute and felony theft, the release stated.

According to Lester, a Butte police officer attempted to stop a Chevy Impala on North Drive Friday night. Police had received information that a suspect in the vehicle was involved in a past shooting incident on Second Street where a couple of shots were fired  thought not at anyone  and which resulted in no injuries, Lester said. Police believed the suspect might have been armed.In Butte and beyond, the health of the local economy seems to be on everyones mind as 2019 gets underway.

In 2018 alone, the Mining City saw the announced departure of two retailers and one restaurant from the once bustling Butte Plaza Mall, echoing headlines from previous years, which have seen an onslaught of national brands go into bankruptcy.

The biggest blow came in April when Herbergers parent company, Bon-Ton Stores Inc., announced that it too would fold.

But as the holiday season drew to a close, good news came for local leaders and economic-development advocates.

Thats when FCR  formally First Call Resource, a company that provides call center support and other business services  announced it would be opening a facility in the former location of JC Penney in the Butte mall and bring 350 jobs to the Mining City and surrounding communities.

Economic-development advocates Julie Jaksha and Joe Willauer serve cities and towns throughout southwest Montana, and they say the communities in their region often have one thing in common: theyre looking for revitalization.

Jaksha and Willauer, who are currently leading a joint venture between their respective organizations, Headwaters RC&D and the Butte Local Development Corp., dont look back on 2018 as a time of doom and gloom. In fact, they and other economic development advocates in the region say a lot of good happened last year and theyre optimistic, even confident, about whats in store for 2019.

Highlights from 2018

2018 proved to be an eventful year in Butte.

The year saw the announcements of several new projects, including the proposed $35-million Praxis Center for Innovative Learning and Rural Health Care Simulation Training Center, along with not one but two cryptocurrency mining facilities.

One development from last year that Willauer and Jaksha seemed particularly excited about was the recent acquisition of a $600,000 Brownfields grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean contaminated sites in southwest Montana that do not fall under Superfund.

In the year ahead, the BLDC will administer the grant, which the two described as huge in terms of economic development.

In a nutshell, the funds help developers and other investors offset the costs of performing environmental assessments, which look for contamination from substances like petroleum, asbestos and lead paint. The money can also be used to pay for cleaning up contamination at development sites.

Its for redevelopment, Jaksha explained, noting that developers often steer clear of properties with suspected contamination because of the potential testing and cleanup costs.This will give them the funding to find out exactly whats there.

Jim Davison, executive director of the Anaconda Local Development Corp., also hopes the Brownfields funds will usher in new development.

Davison said the cost of environmental assessments and cleanup is often a barrier to development, so having access to Brownfields funds is a meaningful step forward.

Whats more, the funds can also indirectly help projects acquire financing, as investors and banks sometimes ask for environmental assessments.

Applying for the funds is a competitive process. The BLDC and Headwaters hope to start accepting applications for the funds in mid-February.

Opportunity Zones

The nomination of portions of Butte and Anaconda as Opportunity Zones by Gov. Steve Bullock in April was also a highlight from 2018.

The Opportunity Zone program came out of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and the idea behind the program is to encourage investment in low-income communities that might otherwise be overlooked by investors.

The incentives provided by the program are in the form of deferred taxes on capital gains.

Under normal circumstances, when someone makes a profit on an investment, they might reinvest their money in, for example, the stock market. But with the new program in place, investors can instead invest in a project in an Opportunity Zone and avoid getting hit, or get hit less severely, by taxes on capital gains.

Diving for economic development

For Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Dave Palmer, the opening of the $8.7 million Ridge Waters pool at Stodden Park was also a major highlight in 2018. According to previous news stories, the park far exceeded expectations in terms of attendance and revenue.

What also tops the chief executives list of highlights was the formation of Buttes economic-development team.

The team  an informal group led by Palmer and consisting of county officials, economic-development nonprofits and other organizations  started meeting over a year ago in an effort to work as a united front toward shared goals.

Together they organized a party of local officials who attended an annual convention of the Site Selectors Guild in Cincinnati last spring.

Site selectors are professionals who help companies find locations for an expansion or to set up a new business. According to Palmer, most large companies turn to site selectors when they want to make a major move, so getting on their radar is huge, he said.

In addition, the team invited four site selectors from the guild to attend a days-long tour of the Mining City during the summer.

The economic development group had to raise $24,000 to put on the tour, but for Palmer and others on the team, the site selectors visit was worth the investment

I think that went a long way in getting the word about Butte out there  I think were going to continue, were not going to let it drop, the chief executive said.

The team also facilitated a potential relationship with Texas-based analytics firm Buxton Co., which gave a public presentation in Butte in October.

The presentation was intended to gauge public sentiment toward a potential relationship with the company, which uses Big Data to help jurisdictions reach out to retailers and vice versa.

Palmer said he hopes that by the end of the month the team will have a proposal for Buxton, whose services cost $50,000 per year. The team is hoping to raise the money from grants and other sources.

Giving the presentation in October was Buxton Vice President of Sales Robb Miller.

Miller spoke with The Montana Standard earlier this month and noted that communities and companies have been increasingly turning to analytics, while retail recruitment has become more competitive than ever.

No longer can communities sit back and say retail follows rooftop, Miller said.

But all too often community leaders approach retail recruitment in what Miller calls a spray and pray approach.

After identifying retail as an important piece of economic development, community leaders in their enthusiasm often reach out to as many different retailers as possible with little strategy behind their approach.

What Buxton proposes to do is take the guesswork out of the equation by providing officials with information about which retailers would be a good fit for the consumers who live in their communities.

For Buxton, consumer profiles are composed of a lot more than age, sex and location.

The company makes use of around 300 different datasets, which contain detailed consumer information from a range of sources, including credit-card transactions, mobile-phone data, loyalty cards and more. The company uses this information to group consumers according to 71 different categories. Using this approach, the company helps officials identify which brands are a good match for their communities.

Weve got the ability to go down to the household level on over 115 million households across the country. It gives us the ability to understand how people behave as consumers and use that information to identify (whether there are) enough of those right types of customers in certain markets, Miller said.

Using Buxtons data shouldnt be about courting specific brands that leaders already have in mind, Miller says.

We want to let the data speak for itself and lead us to who truly are those best retailers for that community, said Miller. Because, at the end of the day, you want to ensure that youre bringing in sustainable retail concepts.

We see a lot of potential in the market and were excited about the potential of working with the community, said Miller of Butte.

In the region

Butte wasnt the only place with new developments in 2018.

Dillon saw a volunteer-driven effort to revamp Jaycee Park, which occupies one city block bordered by Idaho, Sebree, Washington, and Reeder streets in the heart of the citys downtown district.

In 2017, volunteers came together to form the Jaycee Park Renovation Project Committee and embarked on a $725,000 project to install a splash pad in the park along with a public restroom, pavilion, outdoor amphitheater, and $150,000 playground.

In August, volunteers built the playground during a days-long community build, and in September held a ribbon-cutting for the new splash pad.

Phillipsburg residents saw further renovation of Winninghoff Park with the construction of a new stage to host the Philipsburg Summer Concert and other events.

The stage is one among several ongoing improvements to the park, which functions as an amphitheater in the warm months and ice-skating rink in the cold.

In Deer Lodge, city officials have completed a downtown master plan, which outlines several goals and milestones, including improvements to downtown and outdoor amenities.

Brian Bender, chief administrative officer for the city of Deer Lodge, said the plan came out in 2017 and economic-development and government leaders have been working toward implementing some of the plans goals ever since.

Most recently, the Montana Department of Commerce awarded the city a $15,000 grant to install wayfinding signs to direct residence and visitors to various attractions and amenities. Similarly, the city received a more-than $790,000 grant in 2017 from the Montana Department of Commerce for sidewalk repairs on Main Street and to make the area more handicapped accessible.

In Anaconda

Jim Davison, ALDC executive director, said one 2018 highlight came in the form of a truck-body manufacturer setting up shop in the former Arbiter Building, located east of town off Montana Highway 1.

Intercontinental Truck Body Co. made substantial improvements to the 46,000-square foot building throughout the year, including installing a new roof on the property, upgrading the lighting and wiring, and constructing a 5,000-square-foot addition, not to mention clearing out debris from the building, which had been neglected from years of non-use.

Today more than 30 employees work at the facility as welders, machinists, engineers, electrical workers and more, nearly doubling ITBs workforce from what the company had in Conrad.

The company also works with students from the Anaconda Job Corps.

Davison said the company seemed to be outpacing itself in terms of hiring, noting that officials anticipated that the company would have around 25 employees by the end of the year.

Theyve been a big boost to the community, he said.

Another highlight for Davison includes the continued development in Anacondas downtown district along Park and Commercial avenues.

Anaconda established an Urban Revitalization Agency in the area in January 2014 and started funding projects in 2016. At the time, the URA was generating around $45,000 a year, Davison said. But flash forward to 2018, and the URA saw its budget go up to around $153,000.

In 2019, he believes the URA will have a budget of over $200,000.

This, Davison said, could indicate that downtown development is increasing property assessments in the area  which tells us that theres been significant investment in downtown, he said.

Anacondas downtown has seen the rehab of a handful of buildings in the past five years, including the redevelopment of the Electric Light Building into Smelter City Brewing, 101 Main St.; the remodel and revamp of Donivan's restaurant; 211 E. Park Ave.; and an ongoing project to revive the Montana Hotel at the corner of Park Avenue and Main Street. Smaller projects have taken place, too, like roof repairs, new signs for businesses and foundation upgrades, some of which have utilized URA funds.

Challenges

But 2018 hasnt been without its challenges.

Anaconda seemed especially hard-hit by state budget cuts that affected service providers  the organizations and nonprofits that serve populations such as people with mental-health, physical and intellectual disabilities, among others.

As a result of a 2017 state budget shortfall, $49 million in cuts went into effect for Montanas Department of Public Health and Human Services, causing the department to reduce funding and reimbursement rates to a range of organizations and service providers.

Pat Noonan, public policy officer for Anaconda-based service provider Aware Inc., told The Montana Standard in July that the nonprofit had lost approximately 100 jobs since the cuts went into effect Jan 1. Meanwhile, last year also saw Butte-based BSW, formally Butte Sheltered Workshop, pull its services from Anaconda.

Workforce challenges

In the years ahead, communities through the nation are likely to feel the burn from anticipated workforce shortages, especially in the healthcare and construction sectors.

During a 2016 economic lecture series, Patrick Barkey, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, said the share of the national workforce made up of construction workers has been low in comparison with historical norms since 2010.

To get back to normative levels, the nation will need about 550,000 more workers than it currently has. But theres a problem: there are only 500,000 unemployed men aged 55 and under in the United States.

Put simply, there arent enough workers to fill the positions.

For decades college was touted as the gateway to a middle-class lifestyle  noted Palmer, Buttes CEO  but for many learning a trade has offered a viable alternative to college.

In light of the anticipated workforce shortage, Palmer said hed like to see greater access to trade education in Butte, whether its in the form of apprenticeships, more programs like those offered at Highlands College or just education geared toward learning about trades as possible career options.

At the intersection of two major economic drivers for the region  healthcare and education  is a beefed-up nursing program at Montana Tech.

According to the Montana Hospital Association, in Montana alone there will be a shortage of more than 2,100 nurses by 2020.

Tech has responded with the introduction of a four-year baccalaureate nursing program.

Karen VanDaveer, the nursing departments director, said it was a fabulous year for the new degree option.

The first cohort of students all passed their licensure exam and had jobs lined up prior to graduation.

The department is now accepting 40 students per year in the program, and there are plans in the works to eventually increase enrollment among pre-licensure baccalaureate students by 15 to 20 percent.

To make room for their ambitions, the department has secured a new location for its simulation labs in the Science and Engineering Building and is currently fundraising to support the move and upgrade.

We know that the need is out there for nurses in Montana, VanDaveer said.

Goals for 2019

Leaders in multiple communities said they hope to tackle housing issues in their communities, while officials in Butte hope to land a flight to Denver for the Bert Mooney Airport.

Superfund continues to be an ongoing issue for Butte and Anaconda.

Both Davison and Palmer said finishing work on an agreement with Atlantic Richfield Co. is among their top priorities.

The Environmental Protection Agencys most recent plan is to have a consent decree  the legal document that will put Atlantic Richfield to work to finish the cleanup  signed and delivered by late spring or early summer for the Butte Hill. That time table was released before the shutdown.

Anaconda was already around a year behind schedule on its consent decree before the shutdown went into effect. But Doug Benevento, EPA Region 8 director, has previously said the agency will lift the Superfund stigma off Butte by 2024 and Anaconda by 2025. Its unclear if EPA will still be able to hold to those deadlines.

Nonetheless, Palmer and Davison said they hope these efforts will take Butte and Anaconda one step closer to getting delisted as Superfund sites.

Willauer, meanwhile, noted a never-give-up attitude in the Butte and Anaconda communities.

I think one of the coolest things about our community is the resiliency. The mines ebbs and flows over the years I think have created that in a lot of people, said Willauer. With things like we have seen with retail, where you see that need for transition, instead of just whining and complaining people step up and do it.

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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.There are few things more western than drinking whiskey or fighting over water.

More than one group has its eye on the right to use the water in Silver Lake, about 40 miles west of Butte. Although Buttes water rights, which include the Silver Lake system, are about as clear as mud, it appears that there is enough water for everyone at this stage.

Bryan Gartland, the state water bureau's water resource manager, says Butte is "very fortunate" because it has a lot of water to work with.

Even so, some want it all for Butte, and there are those who want at least some of it for Warm Springs Creek.

As far back as 2006, Butte-Silver Bow County filed with the state to alter the countys water right to allow 40 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water to flow from Silver Lake through Warm Springs Creek, hit the Clark Fork River, and wend its way to Gold Creek, between Garrison and Jens.

But putting the lake water into Warm Springs Creek for that flow never took place until 2017. Thats when NRD paid the county $20,466 for two weeks of pumping the nearly pristine, cold water down the hatch into Warm Springs Creek. Trout Unlimited provided technical assistance. The money came from the state's settlement with Atlantic Richfield Company over the lost resource.

The project sent 32 cfs or about 16 million gallons each day for two weeks. The water shot down from Myers Dam, off Montana Highway 1, into lower Warm Springs Creek and beyond into the thirsty Clark Fork River.

That year was a low water year, and Jason Lindstrom, Fish, Wildlife and Parks fish biologist, says the two-week project visibly improved flows in lower Warm Springs Creek and in the upper end of the river.

The water could have an impact on the upper Clark Fork for fish all the way to Gold Creek, since the water right extends that far, says Lindstrom.

Casey Hackathorn, Trout Unlimited program manager, said that due to irrigation, the upper Clark Fork is routinely dewatered.

Its a huge factor for the fishery, Hackathorn said. Its one of the main reasons, besides the contamination, that the fishery lags behind where it should be.

But at least some members of the Butte-based community group Restore Our Creek Coalition dont want water to go to Warm Springs Creek.

Ed Simonich, who unveiled Restore Our Creeks vision for the middle of town before the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2016, says he wants the water to go to Texas Avenue.

Thats where Restore Our Creek Coalition continues to push for a constructed upper Silver Bow Creek to begin. That spot would put it just south of the active mining operation and as close to the actual headwaters, on the East Ridge north of Montana Resources, as anyone can currently get.

So far, Atlantic Richfield Company has offered up a 120-acre park with a host of amenities from George to beyond South Montana streets. But no publicly disclosed plan includes such a creek.

Not everyone whos a part of Restore Our Creek agrees that Silver Lake water should land at Texas Avenue.

Joe Griffin, retired hydrogeologist and Restore Our Creek member, says sending that water back to Butte would be robbing a critical stream for an artificial one.

Why should it matter?

Bull trout are one reason. Upper Warm Springs Creek is one place where those fish, who must have cold, clean water, still live. According to an EPA study of the species, 81 percent of bull trout populations are in trouble.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife have listed bull trout as threatened, which is one step away from endangered.

The situation now

Harley Harris, NRD attorney, held a meeting with Dave Palmer, the countys chief executive on Jan. 18.

No definite plan has been made yet on even a short-term test run, much less a long-term contract, Harris says. The state and the county discussed the possibility of another test in the summer, Harris says. Palmer did not return a request for comment.

But if the NRD can make its longstanding wish come true on getting water into Warm Springs Creek, then the state would likely want water only during low flow periods. That could likely limit the months when the NRD wants the water possibly to three months out of the year, Harris says.

But Simonich says that is when everybody wants water, including ranchers. He also worries about the future needs for water.

Water is a prime commodity. I hate to see Butte-Silver Bow sell any water rights, he said.

There are also other users on the system: REC Silicon, the Copper Mountain Youth Park, and Montana Craft Malt, a project started by the late Ron Ueland. But the largest of them all is Montana Resources.

MRs current contract with the county states that MR pays $238,000 a year and can receive up to one million gallons a day. Right now, MR uses about 800,000 gallons of Silver Lake water a day, says Mark Thompson, MRs vice president for environmental affairs.

But MR is allowed seven million gallons of water a day for what Thompson calls a planned upset and 18 million gallons for an unplanned one.

Mollie Maffei, county attorney, said through email that Butte has the right to pipeline 27.9 cfs of Silver Lake water for all of those purposes, plus BSBs instream flow right for Silver Bow Creek.

Some flow rights were changed in 2006 to provide water to NorthWestern Energy and instream flow in Warm Springs Creek to the upper Clark Fork River, she said.

But Maffei says the 40 cfs made available through that change are not inviolate.

The water rights can also be used for other permitted purposes, such as delivering industrial water to users in Butte or instream flow in Silver Bow Creek, she said in her emailed message.

Westslope cutthroat trout

Bull trout arent the only fish in the river that need help. Native westslope cutthroat trout are impacted by the problems in the upper Clark Fork.

Warm temperatures also trouble the Clark Fork during the warm summer months, making it impossible for fish to travel.

Both westslope cutthroat and bull trout need the coldest of cold water  and the purest  to survive.

Simonich says water could be piped to Texas Avenue and the water would eventually make it to the Clark Fork River.

But Lindstrom says the quality of the water would be much worse by the time it got to the Clark Fork. The water would warm up if it ran through Silver Bow Creek and Warm Springs Ponds system. But not so if the water goes through Warm Springs Creek.

Warm Springs Creek is a big drainage with a lot of cold water. By adding more cold water, it gets you a lot colder water delivered to the Clark Fork, Lindstrom said.

What about Berkeley Pit water?

The coalition has long had an eye on Berkeley Pit water for the group's long-hoped-for creek.

But Thompson said last month MR will likely use much of the treated mine waste water for the mine workings. The impending pilot project is still expected to begin in just a few months.

That doesn't leave too many options for Restore Our Creek Coalition to have enough water to build an actual stream, if the group gets the creek at all.

As for the NRD, the agency must push on to seek Warm Springs Creek water. Identifying Silver Lake water for use to augment flow in Warm Springs Creek is in NRD's guiding documents signed by then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer in 2013.

Griffin, who has studied and worked on the entire upper Clark Fork watershed for a large portion of his career, says there is only one other stream, Rock Creek, on the upper Clark Fork where threatened bull trout live.

"It would be the best and highest use. Warm Springs Creek is a huge asset for the state. One of the last bull trout habitat in the state and a highly functional stream," he said.

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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.Care for your neighbor, lend a helping hand, do what's right. It seems so logical and should come naturally, both at home and at work, big or small.

Supporting local business has always been an important part of Missoula culture. Recently, Grounds and Grains, a very popular and successful local coffee shop within the St. Patrick Hospital Broadway Building, was told by far-removed Providence administrators from the Seattle area that they will be changing their coffee supplier from Black Coffee Roasting Co. (as well as goods and services from three other local vendors) to the java juggernaut, Starbucks Coffee.

It's too bad that saving a few pennies per pound trumps the voice of dedicated healthcare providers and the loyal businesses that made it the "nice to have, non-essential," albeit profitable, program that it is today.

Michael Godwin,

Missoula

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Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1The new, bipartisan House Resolution 2 has been six years in the making. It now presents a chance for Montana to show the country how trust can build and lead to a shared goal: to propose a Constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood and declaring that money is not free speech.

The hearing for HR2 will be on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 9 a.m. and needs your support in person, or by phone or messaging.

The voters of Montana reached across party lines six years ago, in 2012, when they supported Initiative 166 with a majority in every county and 74.67 percent of all voters, and called for the amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision that dismantled our election laws.

Voters have waited for the Legislature to become ready to join them. We share Montanas early heritage of overcoming corporate corruption by passing the 1912 Citizens Initiative, the Montana Corrupt Practices Act, which resulted in 100 years of protection for our citizen legislature.

Missoula has helped raise awareness of the need for the amendment. Each January, citizens stand in support of the mayors proclamation at City Council supporting amending the Constitution. They join in the free Chili Feed and Speak Out at the library sponsored by Montanans Move to Amend (see box for details).As in previous years, the classification was based on the information available to the department about the properties use at that time.

Rech found the departments decision lacking, noting that in their appeals, neither one of us said that all the buildings on the property were not going to be rented. With that said, why then did the DOR remove them all from commercial?

Either they made the mistake putting these into Commercial to begin with  or they made a mistake taking them out of commercial during the 2018 appeal process, she surmised.

But even if shes correct, the property cant receive a refund. To have been eligible for that, Talwani explained, they would have needed to pay the taxes under protest.

Taxes may potentially be paid under protest if there is a timely appeal at the time taxes are due. As the department stated in its email to the Lake County Commissioners, there were no AB-26s or other appeals, and the taxes were paid  not under protest  for the 2016 and 2017 tax years. Therefore, there was no justification for the department to perform a revised assessment for those years.

Under state law, he continued, the property owner is not entitled to a refund if they do not pay their taxes under protest.Thane said this boundary review will help the district for the next 10 to 15 years.

Within the past month, the district established an Elementary Boundary Advisory Committee composed of a parent representative from each of the nine elementary schools and some district personnel.

Next week, the committee will begin the process of looking at data and maps and developing guiding principles, which will direct decisions about boundaries. The committee will also discuss the idea of grandfathering in current students and siblings to allow families who have already started in a school to remain there until their child leaves the school.

There will also be a public open house at 6 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the Missoula Food Bank to inform parents and the community about how to be engaged in the process.

Following the open house, the committee will process feedback and look at updated demographic information in early February and begin crafting potential boundaries. The committee will hold a second open house in early March to take any additional feedback and tweak recommendations.

They will then hold a third open house in late March, before going to the school board with recommendations in April or early May, at which point theyll take any additional public commentHe was only thirteen when his first book, The Reason I Jump, became a bestseller  exploding common assumptions that people with severe autism could not have intelligent, thoughtful inner lives. He is now in his mid-twenties, and Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism explores all sorts of daily experiences from a unique perspective that neurotypicals would never have knowledge of  and that most people with autism are unable to communicate. Thats the startling gift here: he is communicating from inside an exterior that looks fairly impenetrable.

The book is composed of short, pithy chapters, some of which can seem close to platitudes, but most of which are genuinely moving and thought-provoking. Even as a child, Higashida always wanted to be a writer, and a short dreamlike tale included in this book illustrates his talents in fiction as well as nonfiction. Any doubts you might have about the writers authenticity can be assuaged by watching a YouTube clip of Higashida doing a question-and-answer session after a reading. His autistic behaviors are as striking as his cogent answers. If you appreciate having your assumptions overturned and your heart touched, this book will do it.New board members

The Jack Creek Preserve Foundation (Preserve) added five new board members to their Board of Directors during their Jan. 10, 2019 board meeting. New board members Dyrk Eddie , Bob Garrott, Kevin Hurley, Michael Schlegel , and Loren Tucker bring with them varying professional skills, backgrounds and knowledge. The Preserve is currently focused on three key activities; hosting and providing conservation-oriented curriculum to groups at the Jon Fossel Outdoor Education Center and on the 4,500-acre property, holding summer Outdoor Skills Camps for youth ages 12-18, and delivering multiple sessions of our Conservation Field School that is tailored toward Montana K-12 educators.

New employees

United Way of Missoula County announces the hiring of two employees: Dani Howlett is now the Office & Program Manager for United Way; and Grace Decker is the Coordinator, Zero-To-Five Early Childhood Collaboration. Howletts responsibilities at United Way include office administration and managing the newly formed Missoula Nonprofit Center, a merger of the Missoula Nonprofit Network and Volunteer Missoula. She previously worked for M+R Strategic Services, Helena and Missoula, and holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the University of Montana. Decker joins United Way this month, serving as the staff lead for Missoulas Zero-to-Five Early Childhood Collaboration, funded by the Headwaters Foundation. She previously worked at Child Care Resources, and is a School Board Trustee for Missoula County Public Schools. Decker holds a Bachelor degree from Brown University, and a Masters Degree from Milton Academy in Massachusetts. She brings with her years of community leadership experience, and will coordinate the work of the Collaborations Design and Leadership teams.Many who posted nasty tweets about the students from Kentuckys Covington Catholic High School deleted them. Some even apologized.

Alas, others argued that white Catholic teens were not entitled to the benefit of the doubt. When White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said shed never seen people so happy to destroy a kids life, an unrepentant Aslan tweeted, She means a white kid. Brown kids? Well, they belong in cages.

Actress Alyssa Milano refused to walk back the tweet she had posted on the standoff by the Lincoln Memorial: The red MAGA hat is the new white hood.

Noting that the students were on the Washington Mall waiting for a bus after participating in the anti-abortion March for Life, Milano argued, Lets not forget  the entire event happened because a group of boys went on a school-sanctioned trip to protest against a womans right to her own body and reproductive healthcare.

Translation: Conservatives are fair game.

Conservatives are fair game for virtue-signaling conservatives. Twitter has turned into a forum in which people prove their goodness by berating others as unworthy, and conservatives also trash-talked the students from Kentuckys Covington Catholic High School.But the new report reveals the administration actually began large-scale separation of families months before the formal announcement of its zero tolerance policy, and thousands of children may have been separated during an influx that began in 2017. Health and Human Services has faced challenges identifying separated children, the report adds.

NBC News obtained an early written draft of the zero tolerance policy, with margin notes showing that officials intentionally sought to target increased prosecutions on migrant parents  as opposed to childless migrants  so those family separations would be reported by the media and ... have a substantial deterrent effect on future border crossings, the network reported last week. All criminal prosecutions are, at least in part, designed to deter future lawbreakers. But a new level of cruelty is introduced when any administration designs a deterrence policy around intentionally subjecting children to severe emotional trauma by ripping them away from their parents. This policy will stand as one of the most morally repugnant actions this country has undertaken in modern times. Courts have ordered the administration to provide a full accounting of the numbers, whereabouts and conditions of these children.The dream world for Idahos ascendant far right is one where state lawmakers run a sovereign nation-state free of federal oversight. It would be a place where they can outlaw all abortions, dictate what is taught in schools, have complete say over public health rules and gun laws, and take control of federal public lands, which make up more than 60% of the state.Most Idahoans think its a good idea to base teacher and school effectiveness on student achievement.

A statewide survey, The Peoples Perspective, found a majority of Idahoans prefer the idea of rating the states public schools based on multiple achievement indicators.

More than seven in 10 of those polled said its generally a good idea to rate and publicize all of Idahos public schools based on multiple indicators, such as test scores, graduation rates and student growth. Twenty-six percent said its a bad idea.

More than three of four respondents thought its generally a good idea to measure teacher effectiveness by assessing students skills and knowledge when they first come to a teacher and to measure them again when students leave. Twenty percent said its a bad idea.

Approximately two in three said its generally a good idea to require students to pass a standardized test to show they have learned what they were supposed to before getting a high school diploma. Thirty-two percent said this is a bad idea.Volunteers  Idaho Home Health and Hospice is looking for volunteers who are willing to donate their time, to bring compassion, support and dignity to loving patients and their families. Volunteers can choose to read, sit with patients or write letters and help with a patients legacy. Volunteers can assist with crafts, office tasks and support community events. Volunteers can provide bereavement and help to appreciate and celebrate veterans. Information: Diana Lerh, 208-734-4061, or Diana.Lerh@LHCgroup.com.

Volunteers  Hospice Visions Inc. is looking for volunteers to spend an hour or two a week visiting and sharing time with patients and their families. Volunteers are also needed to help with crafts and activities with patients at assisted living centers. Hospice Visions is also looking for men and women to serve as Veteran-to-Veteran volunteers for veteran patients. All ages of veterans from all branches of service are welcome to join the volunteer forces as part of the We Honor Veterans program. Information: Nora Wells, volunteer coordinator at Hospice Visions, 208-735-0121, or nwells@hospicevisions.org.BOISE  Most independent filmmakers head to Utahs Sundance Film Festival hoping to make a name for themselves. But one Boisean wants the subject of his documentary to become a household name.

Matthew Podolsky, co-founder of Boise-based production company Wild Lens, said the Sundance premiere of Sea of Shadows could be key in raising awareness about the vaquita  a species of small whale whose population has dwindled to fewer than 20 animals.

In 2017, Wild Lens released a short film about the vaquita entitled Souls of the Vermilion Sea. Wild Lens teamed up with Austrian production company Terra Mater and a bevy of award-winning cinematographers and producers, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, for the upcoming full-length production.

One of the goals that we laid out was to make the vaquita a household name, Podolsky said.

While the subject of the two documentaries is the same, Podolsky said the whales plight became even more dire after the release of the short.

A lot of really dramatic, unexpected things happened over the past year, Podolsky told the Statesman in a phone interview. The way things played out, it ended up being kind of a worst-case scenario.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Thank you for your Monday's supportive editorial, "PSC should approve big solar farm." Reducing our state's and country's dependence on coal and other fossil fuels is key to addressing climate change.

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act has been introduced in the U.S. House. This is a nonpartisan bill, sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans.

It is effective by reducing emissions by 40 percent by 2030. It creates jobs, improves health and saves lives. It is revenue neutral, so it will not grow government while distributing fees to everyone equally.

I have asked my representative, Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, to support this bill. I have reached out to Wisconsin's two U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, to support proposals in the Senate that address climate change.

We have gone way beyond the question, "Is there manmade climate change?" The question now is, "What are we going to do about it and when?"

Deborah Zdinak, BellevilleVoters see the waste and want a nonpartisan process instead  one thats fair and inexpensive.

A statewide Marquette Law School poll last week found that 72 percent of 800 registered voters support a nonpartisan redistricting process to draw Wisconsins political maps. Only 18 percent were opposed.

Vos and Fitzgerald want to continue rigging voting districts after the 2020 census, when the lines must be redrawn to account for population changes. But most Republicans across Wisconsin favor an honorable process in which the politicians of both parties must earn their elected positions, rather than cheating.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Republican voters and those who lean Republican told the Marquette Law School pollsters they favor a nonpartisan commission for drawing new maps (as do 76 percent of independents, and 83 percent of Democrats and those who lean toward Democrats).The opening of a Mills Fleet Farm late last year hasnt helped. Schultz, who owns his building, had been trying to sell the business and the $220,000 in inventory for the past three years. He had contacted other local hardware company owners and thought he had a buyer just before Christmas but the deal fell through. Schultz, 64, eyeing retirement, is now liquidating and has the building listed at $320,000.

I cant complain about the business over the last 10 or 11 years but just this last year has been terrible, said Schultz, who was born on a farm in DeForest and graduated from Sun Prairie High School. Its been hard. But most of my customers work in Madison. But the businesses (in Poynette) are the ones that are going to feel it. Because theyre going to have to pay their employees to drive to Portage or to Lodi or DeForest to go get a nut and bolt.

Village has non-retail assets

What is now Poynette is where Wallis Rowan built a log cabin in 1833 in what is now Old Settlers Park. The creek that runs under South Main Street is named after Rowan but the village was supposed to be called Paquette in honor of Peter Paquette, a Native American trader and interpreter, but through a clerical error in the U.S. Post Office department, the post office there was called Poynette, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.Blowing in the wind

For decades, Tyco had been notifying the wastewater plant before it dumped the firefighting foam into the sewer line, not because of any hazards associated with PFAS, but just to give plant personnel a chance to prepare.

On the treatment plant grounds Tycos wastewater would churn up into so much foam that it could become a nuisance, blowing around in the wind, Howard said.

The company supplied a chemical agent to keep the foam down, and complied with requests from plant managers to reduce the rate at which they sent the material down the sewer pipe.

(It flows in at rates of) anything from a gallon to gallon and half per minute  they pump it for three or four days straight, Howard said Friday. They called it in every day this week.

Steps toward standards

In 2016, the EPA set a health advisory level for two PFAS compounds in drinking water, but advisories arent as easily enforceable as legal standards, and an advisory level doesnt open the door for several types of cleanup funding. The agency has said it will soon announce a national management plan for dealing with the compounds.A federal court will delay the date of the trial in Wisconsins partisan redistricting case until the U.S. Supreme Court decides two similar cases this summer, handing a partial legal victory to the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The decision by the court to push the trial back from April to at least July, after the issuance of a decision in the two similar cases, is meant to prevent Wisconsins case from being tried twice.

It is still possible Wisconsins political maps would be redrawn before the 2020 general election if the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the plaintiffs  several Democratic voters across the state along with the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee.

The case was remanded back to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin after the U.S. Supreme Court in June found the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing.

The court is allowing discovery in the case to proceed on its normal schedule, meaning its still possible the district court could provide a ruling in the case in time to allow the decision to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for potential resolution before the end of 2020.NOTE: There were no roll-call votes on the final version of the continuing resolution (HJ Res 28) that reopened the government through Feb. 15. The House and Senate approved the measure on non-record votes on Jan. 25 and President Donald Trump signed it into law the same day, ending a 35-day government shutdown.

HOUSE

CONTINUING U.S. SUPPORT OF NATO: Voting 357 for and 22 against, the House on Tuesday passed a measure (HR 676) declaring congressional support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and attempting to block any effort to withdraw the United States from the 70-year-old mutual defense pact. President Trump has criticized other NATO members for relying on the United States to protect them, and has reportedly discussed withdrawing from the alliance. The United States was a founding member of NATO, which includes 29 European and North American countries and was formed as a bulwark against the former Soviet Union. Today, it seeks to counter Russias military and cyber aggression, including electoral interference in Western democracies. But Trump has called NATO an obsolete drain on U.S. taxpayers and military resources. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.Optimal Protection owner Jess Randall told investigators that any training for his employees is the responsibility of the contractor  meaning Daehling, in the Chase Bank case  but that he hired only former members of the military or former police.

Conley said that while some police and military training can be transferable to private security work, private security really is its own separate and distinct domain.

Soldiers arent trained in Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures or other civil law matters, for example, and security guards can be faced with a range of office situations that police or military training doesnt cover, he said.

Conley recommends 40 to 50 hours of training to do unarmed security work, and 50 to 60 hours more if the guard is to be armed, including first-aid training. He blamed the low wages and lack of training often seen in private security largely on penny-pinching companies that dont take security seriously.

Daehling told DSPS that he asked Randall whether he needed a license, and Randall told him: You are covered by us and do not need to worry about getting licensed.All tenant JoAnn Ronning wanted was what she was owed under Wisconsin landlord-tenant law.

It took a two-month court battle and a final boost from SOS to get her that and more.

Ronning, 70, officially moved out of the Prairie Park senior apartments on Madisons Southwest Side on Aug. 28, three days before her lease expired and eight days after historic rains flooded the complexs garage and mechanical systems and forced tenants to evacuate.

Dissatisfied with a change in management the year before and a series of problems that she said included a $144 hike in her rent and managements inability to provide basic maintenance, she had given notice in June that she wouldnt be renewing her stay.

At the time she left, property manager Greystone Property Management of New York owed her $572  $250 for her security deposit and a $322 partial refund of Augusts rent to compensate her for the time she couldnt live there because the complex had been evacuated.Fitchburg life sciences company Promega Corp. will receive up to $1.5 million in tax credits over three years from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

Promega is building a $190 million, 270,000-square-foot research and development center on East Cheryl Parkway. The project is expected to add 100 jobs over the next five years. When it is done in 2020, it will be the 12th building in Promegas Fitchburg campus, and the most expensive one.

The project also could qualify for up to $14.8 million in tax incremental financing from the city of Fitchburg. TIF funding helps with construction costs and is repaid later through higher taxes collected when the structure is complete.

In 2018, the company received up to $185,000 in state tax credits for transferring some instrument manufacturing from California to Fitchburg in late 2017. The move was expected to create 25 jobs and to involve a $750,000 capital investment.When Rhonda Rushing goes on vacation, she often looks down at the ground rather than up at the sights.

Its a personal treasure hunt she is on, seeking out the round metal markers made by her company, Berntsen International, pressed through pavement, hammered into earth or affixed in buildings to set off property boundaries or denote historic sites.

And soon, Rushing will have some new sights to see, under her feet, thanks to a $5 million contract from the federal government for the small, family-owned Madison company.

We made the mile high marker ... in the steps of the Colorado State Capitol. We have gone there. We went on an Alaska vacation in August and found one. I, literally, almost stumbled over it in Skagway, Rushing said.

Almost anywhere we travel in the nation, we think: We should go see that marker. Its like visiting our baby, Rushing said.

Rushing is CEO of the business that her father, Philip Peterson, started with his friend and neighboring businessman Peter Berntsen. Peterson was selling heavy road equipment in a building next to Berntsen Brass and Aluminum Foundry, which is still in business on Pennsylvania Avenue.You may know Huma Abedin as Hillary Clinton's longtime close aide and a top advisor of her 2016 presidential campaign. You almost definitely know her as the ex-wife of Anthony Weiner, former congressman and currently registered sex offender, whose habit of sexting with minors may have indirectly sunk said presidential campaign. Abedin would like to reintroduce herself, in her own words. ..."The dog howled. It convulsed. It coughed blood. It screamed in pain. The animals in the truck heard its wailing. They beat against their cages and cried out.

'All right,' said Brown to his trappers. 'See, this stuff may be out of date, but it still works.' He opened a capsule of amyl nitrite under the collies nose. Amyl nitrite is an immediate antidote to cyanide poisoning.

"The collie heaved and wheezed. Brown then seized it and unleashed another M-44 dose. The dog screamed again. ... Brown kicked the collie into the garbage pit.

Shaddox, whose job is to trap and kill coyotes for ranchers, is quoted in the article as saying, 'He (Brown) and the other trappers thought it was funnyIts convulsing and dying, and hes laughing. And this is what hes teaching his men. That was just a hell of a way to die. No sympathy, no feeling, no nothing. Im no animal-rights guy. But heartless bastards is all they were. Right there, thats the culture. And these are federal employees. This is what your government is doing to animals.'Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has positioned himself as the leader of the opposition to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. And Vos certainly embraced the role with his response last week to the governors first State of the State address.

Evers went out of his way to strike bipartisan themes in his speech, promising that we will engage civilly. We will have discourse and dialogue, but it will not devolve into disrespect. And we will govern with a humble appreciation that the will of the people  our people  is the law of the land.

Vos set a very different tone, portraying the newly elected Democratic governor as a threat to all the accomplishments of Scott Walkers tenure.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that the voters had just rejected Walker and every Republican candidate for statewide office, Vos announced: Wisconsin is on a roll and Republicans will not allow it to slip backwards.Bob Bishop is a 61-year-old farmer living in dairy country in southwestern Wisconsin. Today he is helping his two sons pull a downed tree off of a fence line, stepping through piles of cow manure and corn stalks as he drags the branches into the big claw of a skid loader.

Soon, the family will stop raising dairy cows because the industry is in trouble. In 2018, Wisconsin lost 638 dairy farms because of falling milk prices. And the Bishops, who farm in Iowa County, still carry debt from when hog prices tanked in the 1990s.

Yet a rare opportunity has come the Bishops way. For at least a generation, the family would receive double or more the market rental rate on about 650 acres to be used for a giant solar power project. The Badger Hollow Solar Farm would be the largest such project in the Midwest.

This was a good answer for the lagging ag economy  This provides us an excellent looking future, a very bright future well say, Bishop said.

His son Andrew, 29, wants to raise a family here and have something to pass along. Renting out about one-third of their land for the project, most of it now used to grow corn and soybeans, will help the farm stay in business, Andrew Bishop says.

Id like my kids to take over running my farm someday, he said. I have to have the financial future in front of them to make it viable.

Invenergys Badger Hollow Solar Farm is one of the largest solar utility projects planned for cropland anywhere in the country. Most large-scale solar arrays have been built in the desert Southwest, where both land and sun are plentiful.

Here in Wisconsin, the 300-megawatt project, which the company says could power about 77,000 homes, is envisioned for 3,500 acres of prime agricultural land. It is dividing the areas farming community, pitting neighbor against neighbor in this county of about 24,000 people. The Bishops are among several local farmers who plan to lease a checkerboard of parcels between Cobb and Montfort to Invenergy.

Some residents who vocally oppose the project generally support renewable energy; some of them even have their own solar panels generating power for their rural homes. But because of the size of the project  nearly 5 square miles  they fear the area will become a solar wasteland.

Replacing corn and soy with sun

Invenergy is based in Illinois and has 135 wind, solar and natural gas projects around the United States, Europe, South America and Canada, with proposals to build elsewhere.

Badger Hollow is slated for completion in 2023, pending approval by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. It plans to use 2,200 acres of the site for up to 1.2 million solar panels.

The company was attracted to Iowa County because of the availability of flat, cleared lands, nearby transmission lines, low environmental risk and community support.

This is an opportunity to generate electricity locally, generate jobs locally, tax revenue locally, and support local farmers, said Invenergys renewable energy manager, Dan Litchfield, adding the project could bring $1.1 million in annual tax revenue to the county.

And the project would help Wisconsin  which is heavily reliant on coal and behind most states in solar power generation  to shift to cleaner energy.

Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Madison Gas & Electric plan to purchase interestsequivalent to half of the plants generating capacity. Public utilities cannot easily build such a project themselves. State law requires them to show a need for such development, whereas private companies are not obligated to meet this standard.

As the sun sets over recently harvested fields, Litchfield walks near a sample of the native grasses that would be used as ground cover. The plants would help replenish soils and provide habitat for birds and insects such as bees, around the solar panels.

The panels will face east in the morning and tilt throughout the day to catch the most sun. They will transfer power to machines called inverters. Underground power collection lines will carry the energy to an overhead line, which will send it to the power grid.

Litchfield points to a property on the horizon, about 4 miles from the Badger Hollow project office, where he hopes to place rows of dark glossy solar panels, 15-feet tall, in a spot where rows of corn and soybeans normally stand.

Litchfield says the project will be visually unobtrusive, and the farms inverters would make only a low humming noise.

As far as energy generation technologies go, I think its as low impact as it gets, he said. Were not burning anything, were not stockpiling ash, we dont create odors.

Ugly, ugly mark on the land

Alan Jewell and Richard Jinkins sit at a round table drinking tea in Jewells living room. Exposed stone lines the interior walls of his roughly 160-year-old farmhouse.

Both men are farmers who trace their heritage in this area back generations. Jinkins says his family purchased farmland before Wisconsin became a state in 1848, and his son hopes to become a fifth-generation farmer.

Jewell and Jinkins both have family land next to acres leased for the solar project. They have joined the formal process at the Public Service Commission to intervene in the Badger Hollow case.

They love this countryside for its scenic beauty and feel the solar project would change that.

This is an ugly, ugly mark on the land, Jewell said. Why am I having to have this thrust upon me?

They say too much high-quality farmland needed for food production would be tied up in energy generation, and they fear more of their neighbors will move away because of the projects unsightliness.

To Jinkins, utility-scale solar is a threat to Wisconsins farming legacy.

If I want to rent land, if my son wants to farm, theres just so much farm near our property, right? It doesnt turn over that often. It doesnt come up for sale, Jinkins said.

Jewell says he is for renewable energy, but he thinks it should happen on an individual scale. People like him, who are not a part of the project, will live with the downsides but no benefit, he says. Jewell and Jinkins are also among residents critical of the proposed Cardinal-Hickory Creek power line planned to run near the solar project.

Wisconsin has no siting rules specific to solar projects. And Jewell says the proposed local restrictions for the project are inadequate. An operating contract with Iowa County requires 50 feet between the project and property lines of non-participating owners or any public road. It also requires a 100-foot setback from any dwelling of a non-participating property owner.

Jewells attorney, Carol Overland, requested the Public Service Commission create solar siting rules that would include a required environmental review of large solar projects. After opting to conduct an initial environmental assessment, commission staff concluded that there would be a low probability of harm.

The proposed project is not expected to significantly affect historic resources, scenic or recreational resources, threatened or endangered species, or ecologically important areas, the assessment found.

Rates to go down  or up?

Tom Content, executive director of Citizens Utility Board, noted that MG&E and WPS also plan to buy a 1,300-acre solar project at Two Creeks in Manitowoc County.

Content said the commission should conduct a more holistic and thorough review of whether these projects are needed  and how much ratepayers should be required to pay for them. The utilities say acquisition of this solar capacity would lower rates. An expert for CUB, which intervenes in utility cases to protect ratepayers, says it is possible the cost of electricity could go up.

Weve had a concern that utility profits in Wisconsin have been too high for a long time, he said, noting that Wisconsin has the 13th highest electric rates in the country. Any time you build something, rates go up.

Jewell says he also wants more oversight, someone to further weigh the tradeoffs of such an unprecedented use of agricultural land for a solar utility.

To an accountant, its dirt, Jewell said. To somebody that works with land and feels its a partnership ... its not an element to buy or sell, its an element to respect.

Advocate: Solar all good

Michael Vickerman, policy director of the nonprofit Renew Wisconsin, which promotes renewable energy, says solar power has been slow to catch on here.

He hopes 2019 will be a breakout year for solar. In the unlikely scenario that all 15 of Wisconsins proposed solar projects are approved, along with several proposed wind projects, renewable energy would provide about 20 percent of the states power by 2025, Vickerman says.

As of October, renewable energy, including hydroelectric, provided about 8 percent of the states utility-scale electricity generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Coal-fired plants produced 51 percent of Wisconsins electricity, followed by natural gas at 29 percent, nuclear power at 11 percent, and other sources.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Wisconsin ranks 40th nationwide in the generation of solar energy. Currently, the state has about 100 megawatts of solar power generation. The proposed Badger Hollow project would provide three times that amount.

Solar power has finally become a low-cost option for replacing fossil fuels, Vickerman says; that is why large utilities are now investing in it.

Solar is homegrown. Solar is clean. Solar is dependable, and solar is economic, Vickerman said. When you add all those characteristics together, you have a pretty compelling argument for expanding our use of solar.

The Public Service Commission has scheduled March 6 oral arguments on whether the utilities should be allowed to purchase the extra solar capacity by investing $389.7 million in Badger Hollow and Two Creeks.

Said Vickerman: We embrace solar from a large installation in rural Wisconsin to rooftop solar, whether its a big box store or somebodys house  we think its all good.Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Atomic scientists say the world is closer to complete destruction than at any time since the Cold War. The reasons include a renewed nuclear arms race, man-made climate change and state-supported disinformation campaigns.

The scientists released the 2019 Doomsday Clock statement this week. They set the clock at two minutes to midnight  the same time as in 2018. They call the current international situation a new abnormal.

What is the Doomsday Clock?

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons for the United States. It is recognized as a sign of how close the world is to complete self-destruction. The clock was originally set at seven minutes to midnight.

Then, in 1953, the clock was set at two minutes to midnight. Scientists moved up the time in answer to the development of hydrogen bombs in the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

Later, in 1991, the clock was set to 17 minutes to midnight to celebrate the signing of arms reduction between the two superpowers.

Commenting on this years setting, the scientists said threats from nuclear weapons had sharply increased. They noted the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the U.S. plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, INF. The scientists also raised concerns about the unresolved nuclear situation in North Korea and programs of nuclear modernization in many nations, especially Russia.

On climate change, the scientists called attention to rising rates of greenhouse gases released in the past two years. The increase came as major oil-producing countries such the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait ignored scientific reports on the dangerous impact of greenhouse gases.

The scientists argued that threats to humanity  nuclear and climate change  worsened with disinformation from political leaders around the world. They said nationalist leaders and their supporters lied in many ways, but especially on social media. The leaders did not care they were lying, said the scientists, but insisted that their lies were truth, and the truth fake news.

To turn back the clock, the group called for several actions to make the world safer. Those include extending nuclear arms talks between the U.S. and Russia, adopting measures to prevent military events along the borders of NATO, demanding action to deal with climate change and discouraging the use of disinformation to decrease public trust.

Im Kelly Jean Kelly.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

doomsday - n. the day the world ends or is destroyed

stark - adj. very obvious : very plain and easily seen

hydrogen bomb - n. a bomb that produces an extremely powerful and destructive explosionBritish scientists are developing gene-edited chickens designed to be fully resistant to the influenza, or flu virus.

Wendy Barclay is one of the leaders of the gene-editing project. She is a professor of virology at Imperial College London. She said the first chickens will be born later this year at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

The scientists are using a new gene-editing technology known as CRISPR to change the birds DNA. The scientists removed parts of a protein on which the flu virus normally depends. That makes the chickens completely flu-resistant.

Barclay said the idea is to produce birds that cannot get the flu and would form, in her words, a buffer between wild birds and humans.

Health experts say the threat of a human flu pandemic is one of their biggest concerns.

About 500,000 people died worldwide in the last large flu outbreak in 2009 and 2010. The historic 1918 Spanish flu killed around 50 million people.

The greatest fear now is that a deadly form of flu could spread from wild birds into poultry and then into humans. The virus could then become an airborne form that can pass easily between people.

If we could prevent influenza virus crossing from wild birds into chickens, we would stop the next pandemic said Barclay.

Barclays team of scientists published their research in the journal Nature in 2016. They found that a gene present in chickens makes a protein that all flu viruses depend on to infect a host. Tests of cells created to not have the gene showed they cannot be infected with flu.

Barclay said the plan is to use CRISPR to edit the chickens DNA so that only one part of the protein is changed. The rest of the bird would be exactly the same as it was before.

Barclay said poultry producers may have concerns about the publics opinions of gene-edited food. She said that people have been eating food from farmed animals that have been changed over many years by traditional breeding.

But she added, They might be nervous about eating gene-edited food.

Im Jonathan Evans.

The Reuters news service reported this story. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in this Story

pandemic  n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people over a wide area or throughout the world

poultry  n. birds such as chickens and ducks that are raised on farms for their eggs or meat

buffer  n. something that gives protection by separating things; a protective barrier

journal  n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people

Unlike many other countries, the United States does not have one single governing body that sets education policy for the entire nation.

The Department of Education creates some rules. But the way in which schools operate is mostly decided by the individual states. Some say this gives schools more freedoms to serve the different needs of different populations.

Yet many experts argue there is a need for a more united effort for exploring ways to improve the education system. This argument is especially common within the American higher education community.

For example, the Institute for College Access and Success last month released a report calling for the federal government to improve data reporting. The organization asked the government to create a single measurement of job placements for college graduates.

But one organization has decided not to wait for the government to take action. Instead, it is aiming to create one of the largest joint efforts to gather information about the higher education experience in the nations history.

Filling the holes left by the Department of Education

Ricardo Torres is the president of the National Student Clearinghouse, an independent, non-profit education organization. He says higher education community members created the organization nearly 25 years ago because of a lack of data reporting on the part of the federal government.

The Department of Education does have a system for reporting information about colleges and universities. It is called the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDs.

But Torres argues that this system is lacking in several ways. For example, up until 2017, it only published data on first-time, full-time college students. Torres notes that, before 2017, the system did not look at part-time students and it did not publish the rate of college completion by low-income students receiving federal aid. Also, it still does not look at students who change schools.

Torres told VOA, The fact that you have all these ways to complete a journey creates a giant complexity, and thats called keeping track of who is actually completing and how institutions are able to help a learner along the way.

This kind of information is very important, Torres says. It can affect how soon college students must begin paying back their student loans. And it greatly affects an institutions understanding of how well it is serving its students.

The National Student Clearinghouse has worked with over 3,600 institutions to gather and share this kind of data. In 2017, it sought to expand these efforts by testing a new program: the Postsecondary Data Partnership, or PDP. As part of the testing, three state systems and several individual schools shared as much data as they could related to student access to higher education, their academic progress and, finally, their successful completion of college.

In 2018, the PDP expanded to include a larger number of the National Student Clearinghouses partner institutions. Torres says the aim is to gather more data from even more institutions this year. This includes information on the kinds of classes students take, their performance in those classes and even their parents education background.

Once this information is gathered, PDP researchers process the data and present it to the institutions and other organizations. They aim to present the results in a clear, easy-to-understand way. They also make sure the information schools are reporting is correct, which is important considering they identified 6.5 million errors in the data they gathered last year, Torres says.

How this data is used

Bruce Vandal says these are exactly the kinds of tools his organization needs to be successful. Vandal is the senior vice president of Complete College America, a partnership of 46 higher education systems and institutions. His group works to make sure that low-income, minority and first-generation students have the chance to attend and succeed in college.

Vandal calls the PDP the most centrally organized data collection effort yet. In the past, schools and education organizations were doing their own disconnected research, often repeating the work others had already done.

On some level  the field has matured and actually has clarity about the work that could be done, said Vandal. And so in that respect, it sort of represents progress in the field, whereas before, you can imagine, everybody sort of had their own take and were looking at different sets of data.

The Education Department may now be gathering more data, but they still have not decided what their goals for that data are or how to use it, Vandal adds. Having one central body gathering and processing all this data reduces work for the institutions and the organizations they work with.

Instead, the institutions and organizations can spend more time examining efforts to support students, he says. For example, in the past, many institutions placed students who performed poorly in high school into special lower-level math and English classes. This was seen as a chance for these students to prove they were, in fact, ready to perform at the college level in those subjects.

But Complete College America found that a large number of students put in these classes never complete their education. These classes add to the traditional amount of time it takes to complete a study program. So, they increased education costs.

Now, Vandal notes, some institutions have begun to place lower-performing students in normal classes, but with additional support services.

Ricardo Torres says the value of this data is so clear that other countries have asked his group for advice on how to gather information of their own.

Im Pete Musto.

And Im Dorothy Gundy.

Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. How does your access to, progress through and successful completion of higher education? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - College Group Works to Gather Data on Access, Completion Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

access  n. a way of being able to use or get something

placement(s)  n. the act of finding an appropriate place for someone to live, work, or learn

graduate(s)  n. a person who has earned a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university

income  n. money that is earned from work, investments, or business

journey  n. an act of traveling from one place to another

giant  adj. very large

keep(ing) track of  phrasal verb. to be aware of how something is changing, what someone is doing

institution(s)  n. an established organization

academic  adj. of or relating to schools and education

background  n. the events and conditions that help to explain why something happens

error(s)  n. something that is not correct

mature(d)  v. to continue developing to a desired level

clarity  n. the quality of being clearMichael Jacksons Estate Slams Abuse Documentary Debut at Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY, Utah (AP)  The Latest on the documentary Leaving Neverland which includes detailed allegations by two men that Michael Jackson sexually molested them when they were boys (all times local):

11:10 p.m.

Michael Jacksons estate is blasting a documentary that tells the stories of two men who accuse Michael Jackson of sexually molesting them when they were young boys, calling the film tabloid character assassination.

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A statement released by Jacksons estate late Friday calls the men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two perjurers  a reference to sworn statements the men gave when Jackson was alive that he had not abused them. The men leveled their abuse allegations after Jacksons death.

The pairs stories are the basis for Leaving Neverland, a four-hour documentary that will air later this year on HBO and Channel 4 in Britain. It earned a somber standing ovation after its premiere at Sundance on Friday.

The estate accuses the film of focusing too much on Robson and Safechuck and ignoring others who spent significant time with Jackson and stated that he treated children with respect and did nothing hurtful to them.

___

2:45 p.m.

Michael Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck have been greeted with a solemn standing ovation by a theater full of people at the Sundance Film Festival.

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The stories of the two men who allege Jackson sexually abused them as children are detailed in the documentary Leaving Neverland, which had its only screening Friday at the film festival.

In a Q&A, Robson said it has been an incredible experience being able to talk to Safechuck after feeling isolated for so long. Safechuck added that they were not offered any money to participate in the documentary, which will air on Britains Channel 4 and HBO this spring.

The Jackson estate denounced the documentary for rehashing discredited allegations. Jackson was acquitted of molestation charges in 2005.

For more on the documentary, click here .Former Councilwoman Jan Perry Declares Candidacy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Joins 2020 Race to Represent the Countys 2nd District

Jan Perry courtesy photo

Jan Perry, former Los Angeles City Councilwoman for the 9th District today declared her candidacy for Los Angeles County Supervisor. If elected she will fill the vacancy in 2020 due to term limits.

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I am running because I believe every family in the 2nd District should have a pathway to economic prosperity, said Councilwoman Perry. I see tremendous potential in our communities, if we are creative and tenacious, we can attract good-paying jobs, build affordable housing, ensure every child in the district receives a quality education and has access to social services that can help them meet their full potential, she continued.

The Councilwoman is known as one of the architects of the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles. Perry brought $15 billion in private investments, $52 million in net new tax revenue, 90,000 full-time jobs and 1,000 affordable housing units to the 9thCouncilmanic District of Los Angeles. She is viewed as one the most effective and visionary legislators in recent memory.

Jan Perry is innovative, compassionate and views public service as a calling. Her entrance into this race is timely, said former Councilmember and Chief of Police Bernard Parks. We desperately need Jans integrity to combat the criminal element that has undeniably permeated our public service community in local government. I was proud to stand by her side as we both attempted to cut out City Hall corruption at its root. And today, I am proud to support her bid to become our next county Supervisor.

From July 2013 to December 2018 Perry served as the general manager of the City of Los Angeles Economic Workforce Development Department (EWDD) where she oversaw a broad range of programs offering assistance to business, job seekers and disconnected youth. During her tenure, the department enrolled 91,000 people in its training and placement programs. Currently, she serves as the executive director of the Infrastructure Funding Alliance, a national initiative to meet future infrastructure, economic development, and environmental challenges. She lives in Ladera Heights with her daughter and her rescue dog Frank.

To find out more about Jan Perry visit www.janperry2020.com.Special counsel Robert Muellers probe is both a criminal and counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Its mandate includes both an examination of possible links or coordination between Donald Trumps campaign and the Russian government as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.

William Kiehls lament in last weeks Sunday LNP (FBIs probe of Trump seems un-American) misunderstands the extent of this mandate.

Kiehl claims that a rogue cabal of FBI agents launched a deep-state counterintelligence investigation of the president without authorization. That probe, based on a concern that the president might be a willing or duped agent working for a foreign country, he claims, was somehow an attempted un-American coup detat because some unnamed elected officials did not know about and consent to it.

The attorney general, under Title 28, U.S. Code, Section 533, is authorized to appoint officials to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States. This appointment does not require the approval of any elected official.

Kiehls perverse claim of an FBI coup detat would only work if there were to be a regime change through an illegal removal of the president. Should President Trump be found to have committed wrongdoing, and be removed from office, his successor likely would be his vice president. (After Watergate, remember, Vice President Gerald Ford became president when Richard Nixon resigned. )

Kiehls use of the inflammatory term coup detat seems aimed at muddying the investigative waters and causing readers to believe that members of the FBI are un-American.

It is true that we dont yet know what, specifically, the FBI counterintelligence investigation unearthed. But that investigation reportedly was rolled into the special counsels probe.

The special counsels investigation has led to 199 criminal counts lodged, some 34 people indicted  including Roger Stone, longtime informal adviser to President Trump, on Friday  and seven guilty pleas accepted, with four miscreants sentenced to prison. Fox News reports that the majority of the guilty pleas have come from highly placed members of the presidents election committee, who violated U.S. law by lying to FBI agents.

The term Individual-1 appears in legal filings related to Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, and is commonly believed to refer to President Trump. Another term commonly used to refer to Individual-1 is unindicted co-conspirator, which applies to a person who is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in a conspiracy, but who is not charged in the same indictment.

Kiehl wrongly tells us that because the FBI counterintelligence investigation has not named the president directly we can safely assume that there was nothing found by the investigation.

Many Americans do not safely assume that.

Kiehl also discredits the so-called Steele dossier, noting that its most controversial elements remain unproven.

However, a summary of the dossier by investigative journalist Michael Isikoff indicates that former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele was correct to suspect that there was a major Kremlin effort to interfere in our elections, that they were trying to help Trumps campaign, and that there were multiple contacts between various Russian figures close to the government and various people in the Trump campaign.

James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, has stated that more and more of the dossier has been validated over time.

Muellers sprawling investigation is only about 620 days old. The Iran-Contra investigation took six years and eight months, according to The Washington Post, as did the Clinton-Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation. By this measure, the Mueller investigation is still a youngster. Those who seek to discredit it, or call for its abrupt end, do so not to shed light on what happened but rather to impede the search for truth and dispirit the searchers.

We should not want the investigation to end without some fact-based determination that is accepted by rational people as a truly honest one. Ending it before it is complete would truly be un-American.

Jacques Gibble is a Lancaster Township resident and retired Penn State University professor.Fair funding advocates in Pennsylvania are tired of students missing out on educational opportunities simply because of their geographical location, their skin color or their economic status.

But a solution wont come overnight.

We better start doing something about this, state Rep. Mike Sturla, of Lancaster, said Thursday. Were killing our future, and were killing the future of kids if we dont do this.

This pertains to equitable school funding, which the House Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing on Wednesday at Eleanor C. Emlen School in Philadelphia. Sturla chairs the committee.

LNP on Thursday followed up with several who attended the hearing, including Sturla, School District of Lancaster Superintendent Damaris Rau and a representative of the Commonwealth Foundation to discuss what can be done to balance the scales of education funding in Pennsylvania.

The state Legislature implemented an equitable funding formula created by a bipartisan commission in 2014-15. But only new money since the 2013-14 school year has been distributed through the formula each year  and this year, its only 8.8 percent, or $538.7 million.

Wide funding disparities between the states 500 school districts, therefore, are not getting any smaller, advocates say.

Doing without

One of the school districts reeling from these disparities is School District of Lancaster, Rau said.

Rau said it will take decades for the school funding formula to make a substantial difference, and thats time students dont have.

The district  where 90 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and 17 percent are English language learners  struggles to offer improvements more affluent districts routinely provide, such as one-to-one programs and updated school buildings, instead making large investments in necessary services such as English as a Second Language programming and prekindergarten.

Rau said she would support a measure similar to what Sturla cosponsored last year that would redistribute $1.17 billion from 357 school districts to the 143 school districts with the most need. Ten Lancaster County school districts would benefit, while seven would be in danger of losing money.

We certainly do not want to see any child do without, Rau said. On the other hand, weve been doing without for a very long time, and its time to share that cost.

Finding a fair solution

Sturla said he hopes new legislation will be introduced and passed this year. Hed prefer legislation that includes full formula phase-in of five to 10 years, unlike last years proposal which would have shifted funding immediately, and one that would not take money from any school district.

I think thats a fairer way than saying were going to take money away from you, he said.

Elizabeth Stelle, director of policy analysis for the Commonwealth Foundation, said she agrees the phase-in should be accelerated, but the bottom line should be that money follows students.

That includes bolstering the states school choice programs: the educational improvement tax credit and opportunity scholarship tax credit.

More funding isnt always the answer, she said.Lisa Getz Bender is furious after learning recently that her daughter attended Akron Elementary School where lead-contaminated water was found in 2017 and she wasnt told about it by school district officials.

Thats not their decision to make. Even if it had been a minute level of lead, it can be detrimental to children. We should have at least been informed, she said.

Nobody was notified of any testing or any results of any pipe issues, says Benders equally angry husband, Brian. It was clearly swept under the carpet.

A drinking fountain in a classroom and eight classroom sinks have been shut down at the 65-year-old school because, even after attempted repairs and re-tests, water still contained unsafe levels of the toxic metal.

In the kindergarten classroom where Benders daughter attended, the sink was tested three times. It was shut down before the school year began, school officials say.

The first time lead levels were more than twice the action level in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires treatment in public water systems. The second time, after water pipes were flushed, it was lower but still at an unsafe level. But a third, follow-up test revealed the highest level yet.

However, an attached drinking fountain, called a bubbler, did not have elevated levels of lead.

Lead in the body is especially dangerous for young children. It can cause behavior problems, affect IQ and result in hearing problems and delayed puberty. In adults it can affect the heart, kidneys and nerves.

Akron Elementary, in the Ephrata Area School District, is one of 10 older schools in four Lancaster County districts that were found to have elevated lead levels in water fountains, classroom sinks and a kitchen as a result of voluntary testing in 2016 and 2017.

And, as in the Akron case, two of the other three districts that found lead contamination  School District of Lancaster and Solanco  did not directly notify parents of the potential danger. But officials in all three districts maintain they took ample steps to notify the public.

A fifth district, Pequea Valley, has used bottled-water coolers at Paradise Elementary ever since it opened in 2009, due to high levels of lead in school water. No students have been exposed, and parents were notified of the contamination.

Stephanie Wein The idea that were putting young minds at risk where they are spending a lot of their waking hours is real concerning." - Stephanie Wein

New law urges testing

And there could be more.

Five other school districts here are doing what is believed to be their first-ever testing for lead by the end of the current school year, as called for in a new state law.

Some of the lead levels already found here by the districts doing the earlier voluntary testing have been alarmingly high.

Toxic lead in Lancaster County schools: Did your district test? The following is a breakdown of how each of Lancaster County's 17 school districts fared in required testing for lead in the water for the 2018-19 school year.

At Akron Elementary, one classroom sink tested at 7,510 parts per billion, which is 500 times higher than the level at which state and federal governments recommend action be taken.

Even after flushing and remediation attempts, four of the nine outlets at the school had test results that were at least twice the action level of 15 parts per billion.

All the water sources at the 10 schools found to have lead in the voluntary testing have been shut down or equipment has been replaced.

The most likely source of lead getting into the water at the various schools is lead corroding in old fountains and fixtures, or lead solder that connects pipes, officials said. The use of lead in plumbing pipes, fixtures and solder has been banned by Congress since 1986.

First lead testing ever

The troubling findings would not have been discovered if some local school officials hadnt been unnerved by the discovery of widespread lead contamination in the public water in Flint, Michigan, in 2015.

There, public water no longer treated with an anti-corrosive agent began leaching dangerous levels of lead from old pipes into homes and schools. One study found 40 percent of Flint homes had elevated lead levels in their drinking water.

In the wake of the Flint crisis, six Lancaster County school districts wondered if they had toxic lead in any of their own schools .

Four of the six did. And as a result, 25 water sources were shut down in the 10 local schools.

In three of the four school districts, it was the first time drinking water had ever been tested for lead, raising questions about how long the health threat had existed.

In response to an LNP investigation into how long students and teachers may have been exposed to elevated levels of lead, school officials generally said they dont have records to determine how long fountains, sinks and pipes had been in place.

Some of the schools where lead was found were built in the 1950s.

Didnt have to test

Eight school districts did not test their water for lead and they didnt have to.

There was no law  until this current school year  requiring them to address the issue. (See sidebar).

Toxic lead in Lancaster County schools: Did your district test? The following is a breakdown of how each of Lancaster County's 17 school districts fared in required testing for lead in the water for the 2018-19 school year.

Under that new state law, six districts have completed water tests so far. None has found a lead problem.

Whether there are unsafe levels of lead in water in schools in seven other school districts and one charter school  especially in older schools  will be known over the next five months.

So far, three school districts  Manheim Central, Donegal and Eastern Lancaster County  have conducted tests under the new law and have found no problems. Donegal had tested its water for lead in the past, as well.

No letters home

In three of the four school districts where unsafe levels of lead were found from voluntary testing, no letters were sent home to parents notifying them of the problem.

Brian Bender Nobody was notified of any testing or any results of any pipe issues. It was clearly swept under the carpet. - Brian Bender

Water fountains were replaced or shut down. Sinks were posted with signs warning teachers, students and visitors not to drink the water. Bottled water was placed in hallways in some cases. But parents were not directly informed, LNP has learned.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys guidelines for schools is to share lead test results with parents, teachers and students.

Officials from each school district contend that they did take steps to notify the public of the lead problems.

Ephrata Area

The Ephrata Area School District initially found 69 high lead levels in all seven of its schools, but subsequent testing  after standing water had been flushed and plumbing repairs had been made  resulted in a smaller total of 17 high readings.

School district officials said they posted not for consumption signs at affected schools and said a detailed discussion of the lead-testing results was conducted at a public meeting of the school boards budget and finance committee in May 2017.

Minutes of the meeting show that all of those in attendance were board members, district officials or had business with the district.

No concerns were raised from parents or any board members that suggested additional communication should take place, district spokeswoman Sarah McBee said.

The locations of receptacles and levels of lead did not indicate any students were in danger and warrant additional communication, she said.

The district sent no letters home and made no phone calls to parents to notify them of the contamination or efforts to correct the problems.

Lancaster

The School District of Lancaster, which found elevated lead in three schools, said the public was adequately informed when LNP published a story about the lead problems in the schools in 2016.

Also, the results in question were barely over the action limit so it did not pose a serious health concern, said Kelly Burkholder, district spokeswoman.

According to the test results reviewed by LNP, one reading at Buchanan Elementary School was four times the action level for lead in water, one at Phoenix Academy was twice the action level and one at Wickersham Elementary was slightly above the action level.

The district replaced two old water fountains and shut down a sink in the affected schools.

Solanco, Penn Manor, Pequea Valley

Solanco officials also cited the 2016 LNP story about lead problems at two schools there, as well as notifications that were posted in two schools and on the districts website.

In contrast, both the Penn Manor and Pequea Valley school districts sent letters home to parents when they learned of lead in school water after voluntary testing.

From the 2016 archives:

In addition, Penn Manor officials considered testing all students at Martic Elementary School for lead levels in their bodies.

That was determined to be unnecessary after teachers said the sink fountains were rarely used and superintendent Mike Leichliter consulted a lead expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, who deemed the exposure to be minimal.

Giving adequate notice

What kinds of contacts should schools make to ensure parents and students are aware of lead dangers?

Relying on school board meetings and websites is not adequate, said Stephanie Wein, clean water and conservation advocate for the environmental group PennEnvironment.

The group supports a soon-to-be-introduced state bill that calls for direct disclosure to parents.

One means might be phone notices to parents, like the ones they get for weather delays and other important school events, she suggested.

Butler County criminal case

Not notifying the public of lead problems in schools became a criminal issue last year in Butler County.

According to news reports, a school district maintenance director was charged criminally with endangering the welfare of children for failing to notify the public within 60 days of learning of lead-contaminated water in an elementary school, as directed by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The man is awaiting trial in Butler County Court.

Like the six school districts here, Butler Area School District officials were nervous after reading of the widespread lead contamination in Flint, Michigan.

When the schools water supply was found to have high levels of lead, the district worked with DEP to remove the contamination.

But neither parents nor the districts school board were informed of the problem, even though DEP specifically told a district employee to notify parents.

In addition to the criminal charges, the resulting public backlash prompted the districts superintendent and assistant superintendent to resign.

And four families have sued the school district. One parent sued after her daughter tested positive for lead poisoning.

Testing not required

Nine school districts in Lancaster County did not voluntarily test for lead. And there was no law requiring them to do so.

But now, for the first time, a new state law urges  but does not require  all public schools in Pennsylvania to test for lead at all their drinking water sources by the end of the current school year.

Legislators were moved to act by the disturbing Flint, Michigan, scandal and studies done since then that have found that in the 25 states where schools are now required to test for lead, a disturbing 44 percent of schools found at least one water source with elevated lead levels.

All 17 local school districts are doing the testing this school year. Seven have done it so far and no lead problems were found at any school, according to water test results examined by LNP.

Those seven are Solanco, Elanco, Pequea Valley, Donegal, Penn Manor, Manheim Central and Lampeter-Strasburg.

None of the local school districts is choosing an option in the new law that allows districts to opt out of lead testing for financial reasons, as long as they hold a public meeting to discuss the lead issue.

Cause for concern

Lead in drinking water is of no small concern.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and health officials say any level of lead, a neurotoxin, in drinking water is unsafe. The toxic metal accumulates in the body over time, and its effects cannot be reversed.

Young children, infants and fetuses are particularly at risk. Low levels have been linked to damage to the nervous system, learning disabilities, behavior problems, lower IQ, inhibited growth, impaired hearing and anemia.

Of the 11 local schools where elevated lead was found in the earlier, voluntary testing, six were elementary schools.

Lancaster County is among the 20 U.S. counties with the highest levels of lead exposure, according to a 2016 study by the Journal of Pediatrics. Breathing in lead dust and children eating lead paint residue after touching carpets and window sills in old homes and buildings is by far the top sources.

But water also can be a source, and since the Flint scandal schools have become a concern because of how much time children spend there.

I would say any time a child is exposed to lead, its a concern, said Dr. Jeffrey Martin, a family doctor, chair of the Partnership for Public Health of Lancaster County and a member of the Lancaster Lead Coalition.

The issue is kids really shouldnt be exposed to lead at all.

Added Dr. Kevin C. Osterhoudt, a medical toxicologist and professor of pediatrics at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, We think about lead as something that has no reason to be in the body and is toxic in the body.

At the same time, Osterhoudt, who advised Penn Manor school officials when they found lead in Martic Elementary, said the majority of children the hospital treats for lead contamination are 9 months to 2 years old  an age range where children are most susceptible to damaging health effects.

Osterhoudt suggests that parents who are concerned about possible lead poisoning have their child tested for lead levels through a simple blood test. The procedure costs about $80 and can be done by most family physician practices.

Schools, day-care centers

In 2016, of the 112 community water systems around Pennsylvania that were found to have too-high lead levels, more than half were schools or day-care centers, according to DEP.

EPA estimates that drinking water can comprise 20 percent of a persons exposure to lead.

Though no amount of lead in water is considered safe, EPA uses an action level of 15 parts per billion in public drinking water. Above that level, public water systems that serve at least 25 people must take action to bring down lead levels.

Thats the level that local school districts used in deciding whether to take action.

However, except in the few cases where schools draw their own water supply through wells, public schools are not required to correct contaminated lead water  only the water companies that send water into the schools must do so.

However, the new state law that went into effect in June now requires any school with lead levels above 15 ppb to prevent exposure.

Its about time, said Wein, of PennEnvironment.

The idea that were putting young minds at risk where they are spending a lot of their waking hours is real concerning.

It can cost them IQ points.This week Lancaster Watchdog helps bring some clarity to a potentially confusing West Lampeter intersection and offers updates on signs that had been obscuring a Manheim Township traffic light, and a misspelled road name in West Hempfield.

Right of way on Morningside?

A reader who drives along Morningside Drive in West Lampeter told Watchdog about potential confusion at its intersection with Gypsy Hill Road.

Gypsy Hill Road and Morningside Drive meet next to Mill Creek, just southwest of Lampeter Road.

At the intersection, motorists traveling northeast on Gypsy Hill road dont have a stop sign. That means they can turn left without stopping  onto the bridge that crosses Mill Creek, a turn that continues them on Gypsy Hill Road.

There are stop signs for motorists coming to the intersection from the other two directions, including those coming southwest on Morningside Drive from Lampeter Road.

The problem, the reader says, is that some motorists coming from Morningside Drive think of the intersection as a three-way stop.

If they are at the intersection first, they assume they have the right-of-way and pull out in front of others turning left over the bridge, the reader told Watchdog.

Google Maps images of the intersection from October 2017 show the exact situation described by the reader. In the Google street view, a vehicle stopped at the Morningside Drive stop sign goes straight ahead just as a vehicle approaches from the other direction to turn left on the bridge.

Although the turning motorist didnt have a stop sign, he had to wait to avoid a potential collision.

The reader who contacted Watchdog said she suggested years ago to the township that they put up an opposing traffic does not stop sign on Morningside Drive.

Watchdog made a similar suggestion last week to Township Manager DeeDee McGuire, who responded the next day to say such a sign would be installed within two weeks.

Traffic light unblocked

Near Route 30 in Manheim Township, road signs that had been blocking a traffic light at the new lane of Chester Road have been removed.

The Dec. 30 Watchdog column detailed the problem with a bank of three route signs directly in front of the traffic light at Oregon Pike.

By the time the new turn lane opened Jan. 12, signs indicating how to continue onto routes 30 and 222 had been removed, making the traffic light visible.

Donnerville sign coming down

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will be replacing a sign on a Route 30 overpass in West Hempfield Township that has a common misspelling of a local road name.

A PennDOT spokeswoman says a Donerville Road sign has been received that will replace the Donnerville Road sign at the overpass.

As the Nov. 11 Watchdog column detailed, the road name is spelled as Donerville on Manor Township street signs and Donnerville in West Hempfield Township. The two spellings of the road have led to different pronunciations.

But the historical record shows that Donerville is correct and Donnerville is a misspelling.

The road refers to the village of Donerville, originally spelled Dohnerville, which extends along Columbia Pike from Leisure Lanes to East Hempfield Townships boundary with West Hempfield, according to the late Lancaster historian John W.W. Loose.

Dohner is a family name whose spelling was changed to Doner in the early 20th century.

West Hempfield Township officials say they don't plan to change the road signs because it would necessitate the change by some residents on a variety of legal documents.

Clarification: This story was updated to reflect the fact that most of the road goes through West Hempfield Township where officials say they don't plan to change its name.

Notice any problems?

Email the Lancaster Watchdog at watchdog@lnpnews.com or go to LancasterOnline.com/watchdog and tell us about it. You can also send mail to Lancaster Watchdog at P.O. Box 1328, Lancaster, PA 17608-1328.In the wake of the Flint, Michigan, lead contamination of drinking water in 2015, officials in six of Lancaster Countys 17 public school districts decided to see if there were lead concerns in their own schools.

There were.

Tests by registered consultants found 10 schools with unsafe lead levels in some water fountains, classrooms sinks and a cafeteria.

Students may have been consuming the toxin for years, decades even, in some of the schools, which addressed the problems after discovering them.

But the schools did not have to do the tests.

Except in the relatively few cases where a school runs its own water system and draws from on-site wells, no state or federal laws existed in Pennsylvania to make sure kids and teachers werent exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water.

Most parents would be shocked to learn that there are almost no standards for protecting our children from lead in their school drinking water, said Stephanie Wein of the PennEnvironment statewide environmental group.

But now there is a state law to get schools to test for lead. Kind of.

Urged, not required

The new law urges  but stops short of requiring  public and charter schools throughout Pennsylvania to test for lead in their drinking water during the 2018-19 school year.

Do you have concerns about your water? We use it to cook our food. We use it to bathe ourselves. We use it to quench our thirst. Water is essential to human life, yet many of us take for granted it will be pure and plentiful when we turn on the tap. With the extensive reporting by Ad Crable appearing in LNP and on LancasterOnline today, we begin a yearlong examination of drinking water in Lancaster County. If you have concerns about your water, or have a coverage suggestion, please send email to water@lnpnews.com or call (717) 291-8622. Send letters to P.O. Box 1328, Lancaster, PA 17608-1328.

The legislation was driven by the Flint scare and by new studies showing that more than one-third of schools that voluntarily test for lead in their water nationwide find it at concerning levels.

Pennsylvania becomes the 26th state to put in place some sort of initiative to get schools to test for lead in their water. Most of the efforts have happened since the discovery in Flint, where public water no longer treated with an anti-corrosive agent began leaching dangerous levels of lead from old pipes into homes and schools. One study found 40 percent of Flint homes had elevated lead levels in their drinking water.

State legislators amended the Pennsylvania Public School Code last June to get schools to test for lead by the end of the current school year.

All 17 school districts in Lancaster County are doing that. So is La Academia Partnership Charter School. Seven districts, not including the five that tested in Flints wake, have already tested for lead under the new law. The results of those, examined by LNP/LancasterOnline, show no elevated lead levels.

No districts here opted out

No local district will choose an option in the new law that allows it to forgo testing for financial reasons as long as a public meeting is set up to discuss the lead issue.

Environmental groups and some legislators are unhappy with the new law, saying it doesnt go far enough to protect students and the public.

For example, state Rep. Karen Boback, a Republican from Luzerne County and a former teacher, had introduced a bill to require schools to inform parents of lead-testing results.

That requirement was left out of the new law.

Of the five local school districts that have found lead in school water so far, only two sent letters directly to parents.

Also left out of the new law was Bobacks proposal to make schools take action if lead is found in water at 5 parts per billion.

Thats three times more stringent than the federal action level of 15 parts per billion for lead. But its the level at which the public is urged to boil water when various other contaminants are found in public drinking water sources and the limit allowed for bottled water to be sold.

It didnt go far enough, Boback said of the new state law. Everybody should be mandated to perform the tests in schools, she added, referring to the no-testing option for cash-strapped schools.

This is not frivolous. Lead poisoning, God forbid, would be tragic.

She plans to re-introduce her bill in the current legislative session.

New law a good step

Despite limitations, the states first semi-mandatory requirement to search for lead in Pennsylvania schools is a great idea, said Dr. Jeffrey Martin, a family doctor, chair of the Partnership for Public Health for Lancaster County and member of the Lancaster Lead Coalition.

It makes sense since lead can affect peoples educational process, and when a school is charged with educating our children, we should make sure they are not exposed to lead.

Martin would prefer to see the state pay for testing for lead in schools and for correcting any problems.

PennEnvironment also thinks the new law does not have enough teeth.

The group wants to see all public and charter schools be required to test, and a tougher action threshold of 5 parts per billion established. The group also wants it mandatory that schools fix lead problems, not just bring in bottled water.The many rains of 2018 were a mixed bag for Tents for Rent, a 47-year-old business based in Clay Township.

On one hand, sales manager Daryl Sensenig said, Lancaster Countys wettest year on record brought quite a bit of additional business which we were thankful for.

The upturn included last-minute calls from people who had been planning outdoor events and needed to order tents on short notice.

However, he said, it also created quite a bit of overhead with extra work required to dry out wet tents.

Started in 1972 by Paul and John Martin as part of an auction company, Tents for Rent today offers much bigger tents  as well as lighting, tables and chairs, linens, flooring, restrooms, generators and electrical setup, and heating and cooling.

Daryl Sensenig, 34, said hes been in the company his whole life; his father, Marlin Sensenig, bought it in 1984 and still owns it, although they are beginning the transition to some of the rest of the family owning the business as well.

The business growth happened gradually, Daryl Sensenig said, with customer demand the underlying push, although the company did make some big decisions in responding to them.

We kept getting the same requests, he said, citing linens and different chair styles as examples.

The company took that into consideration when deciding whether to expand the range of what it offered, he said, and also reviewed rentals each year to see which items have been renting well, purchasing more of those it has run out of numerous times.

The company started small, with tents initially stored in the front room of the historic Durlach Hotel, then in a three-car garage.

Its latest move was in 2015, to a newly constructed building of 56,000 square feet at 110 Wood Corner Road. The building provides room for the first showroom in the companys history, as well as an extensive warehouse and tent-washing area.

Today, he said, the company stands at about 10 to 12 year-round employees and about the same number of seasonal ones. He declined to disclose its annual revenue but said growth has been slow and steady since the company's beginning, with the last few years stronger than normal with increases averaging about 10 percent per year.

The logistics

Weddings are the biggest piece of what Tents for Rent does, Sensenig said, accounting for about 16 percent of its business.

That leaves a lot of room for a varied list of other uses, from small backyard gatherings using 10-foot-by-10-foot tents to corporate events and disaster relief projects for hundreds of people.

Construction is also in the mix, Sensenig said, citing a past project where tents allowed progress that had stalled because the weather was delaying the pouring of concrete.

The companys website also lists a project where it installed a tent, power and lighting to create a temporary repair shop following a hail storm that dented many vehicles.

A lot of people ask about how the tents fare in wind, Sensenig said.

His reassuring answer is that the company can provide tents engineered to withstand winds up to 90 miles per hour.

Many events are over the weekends, he said, so crews typically deliver and install them Thursday or Friday, then come back to pick them up Monday or Tuesday.

The tents dont need to go in the giant washer very often, Sensenig said, but if at all damp when taken down, need to be hung to dry back at the warehouse before being put away.

Rental rates depend on how far away the location is. In addition to Pennsylvania, Tents for Rent serves Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Virginia and West Virginia.

Planning ahead always makes our lives a lot easier, Sensenig said when asked about timing of rentals.

"A month is great; six months is amazing; even a week is better than two days. Usually a month is enough.

He recalled a time when a client ordered a tent for a wedding just two weeks before the date.

It does happen, he said.

The company also gives clients an incentive to make plans early, with an offer that generally requires a 25 percent deposit at reservation but then allows the client to cancel up until the day before delivery and not pay anything further.

Those who want even more time to make a decision, the website says, may pay 50 percent and cancel any time up until the arrival of the installation crew.

The website includes something else that Sensenig said draws a fair amount of questions.

The recount of company history concludes, God has blessed us and we are grateful to Him.

Our spiritual life is really important, he said. For an example of that, we give all of our crew off on Sunday. No matter how much you pay, we dont work on Sunday.

That lets the staff take a break, go to church or whatever they choose to do, he said. That has to come first, before money, for us.I am a furloughed federal worker. I moved to Wisconsin last June and bought a home. As of last week I am completely out of cash. Because of my new house, I have no cash reserves. I am stressed and terrified.

I do not support President Donald Trump's proposal of building a border wall. It is based on falsehoods and racist hype. I grew up in Arizona. My family home was on the southern border. I know the landscape; the Sonoran desert is home.

Terrorists are not crossing the borders in the desert. Drugs are not coming across the Sonoran desert; drugs come in by tractor-trailer and other means at the actual border crossings where there are gates, guards and inspections. Why tear up the desert to build a wall that will stop nothing but wildlife migrations?

This is a tempest in a teapot brought on by the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, two individuals far more interested in their own wealth than the welfare of Americans. The president got hijacked by their vitriol and as a result, the government is shut down and people like me are sincerely suffering.

Our senators must convince the president to reopen the government and then sit down with him and the Democrats in a bipartisan and sincere manner to negotiate real and effective means of border security.Collaboration has always worked better than isolation.

Henry Ford once said, Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.

I think we can see this wisdom in our personal and professional lives, and in what is going on in our state and country today. One of several examples in the School District of La Crosse will culminate with the 2019 Western Wisconsin Education Conference on Feb. 8.

The conference is not a new idea; its been an annual, regional convention for several decades. Until recently, however, the school district calendar rendered the day assigned to the annual WWEC conference as a non-duty day, leaving attendance at the conference optional.

Meaningful professional development relies on collaboration, so district leadership has worked closely with our local teachers union to ensure that the WWEC day is a scheduled staff development day for all teaching staff.

Together, experience has shown us that three broad areas are of major concern to teachers and districts across our state. Weve chosen these three general themes to drive the content of the conference: racial and social justice, trauma-informed teaching, and technology in the classroom.Weve seen this hollowing out of the middle- and lower-middle income kids, who arent interesting to anybody anymore, Hoxby said.

Popular economic opportunity measures can cause other distortions, too  especially if tied to public funding.

For instance, public flagships in states whose populations are relatively low-income would be rewarded for enrolling large numbers of poor kids, even though poor, academically qualified kids are still underrepresented on their campuses. The reverse is true for schools in states that are relatively affluent yet still manage to enroll a disproportionately high share of poor students.

Intergenerational mobility rankings can also penalize schools in states where theres a lot of income equality.

By national standards, for instance, Wisconsin has few people who are either very poor or very rich. As a result, the University of Wisconsin looks bad on national income mobility rankings, even though it enrolls a lot of students from the lower end of the states own income distribution.

Its easy to nitpick other peoples metrics, of course. Coming up with a better alternative is harder.Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Six in 10 Americans in an ABC News/Washington Post poll say the new Democratic majority in the House should make use of its authority to obtain and publicly release Donald Trumps tax returns, while about as many support other Democratic-led investigations of the president.



Beyond the tax issue, 57 to 61 percent back House investigations into three topics tested in the national survey: possible collusion between Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, Trumps relationship and communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin and possible financial ties between Trump and foreign governments.



See PDF for full results, charts and tables.



Fewer, 40 percent, support Congress beginning impeachment proceedings against Trump, with 55 percent opposed. That support is down 9 percentage points from August, in a survey conducted shortly after Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of fraud and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations at what he said was Trumps direction.



This survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, was completed Thursday, a day before special counsel Robert Mueller indicted former Trump adviser Roger Stone on charges of obstruction, false statements and witness tampering.



Another result shows the politicized nature of Muellers work. Just 43 percent of Americans express confidence that his eventual report will be fair and even-handed, while 50 percent doubt it. Trust in Mueller reach 62 percent among Democrats, but slide to 40 percent among political independents and just 22 percent among Republicans.



Theres also a warning about possible overreach in House Democratic investigations: Forty-six percent think the Democrats will go too far in investigating Trump. That said, 51 percent either think theyll handle this about right (34 percent) -- or will not go far enough, 17 percent.



Those expectations inform support for further investigation. Among those who think House Democrats will go too far, just 26 percent support their investigating possible collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia, for example. Among those unworried about overreach, support soars to 85 percent.



Groups



Majorities across most demographic groups support House Democrats obtaining and releasing Trumps tax returns; he broke with recent precedent and refused to do this in the 2016 campaign. While Trumps most supportive groups generally oppose the move, it wins over 39 percent of conservatives, a quarter of Republicans and 23 percent of those who approve of his work in office. That rises to 63 percent of political independents and 65 percent of moderates, and on to 86 percent of Democrats and 84 percent of liberals.



Political and ideological division are similar when it comes to House investigations of possible collusion, the Trump/Putin relationship and possible Trump financial ties to other governments. Republicans are most skeptical of a collusion investigation, with 74 percent opposed.



Support for initiating impeachment proceedings, for its part, peaks at 64 percent among Democrats (down from 75 percent in August), dropping to 42 percent of independents and 7 percent of Republicans. Its also backed by 61 percent of liberals, 42 percent of moderates and, notably, three in 10 of those who describe themselves as somewhat conservative.



Methodology



This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Jan. 21-24, 2019, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 32-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.



The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates of Rockville, Maryland. See details on the surveys methodology here.



Readers are welcome to subscribe to the Langer Research Associates email distribution list.



Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Since 2016, different municipalities have had different rules when it comes to hooking up to the same sewer system.

La Crosse has charged new users outside of the city a connection fee while letting new users in La Crosse hook up for free.

La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat called exempting the city from the sewer system connection fee a mistake, and said he supports expanding the fee to all new users.

The city uses a pay-as-you-go model for equipment costs, budgeting for replacement of big-ticket items in advance to avoid needing to borrow and pay debt service costs. As a result, users pay for those costs up front through their regular rates.

The connection fee, introduced in 2016 after a study prepared by Trilogy Consulting LLC, was designed to require new users to chip in $730 per hook-up for those equipment costs that ratepayers in La Crosse, Onalaska, Campbell, Shelby and Medary have been paying for already.

Its become an issue of contention as Onalaska and La Crescent work to create the La Crosse Area Metropolitan Sewerage District, which would take over the sanitary sewer utility for the municipalities who join.Rombalski said an informational meeting would bring together local residents, Babcock representatives and the DNR, and ensure that local voices are being heard, Rombalski said.

A meeting would also give the county an opportunity to discuss the possibility of reducing the amount of manure spread on fields where nutrient runoff to Black River is likely, identifying corrective measures for previous high nitrate levels and moving up deadlines outlined in the permit.

Babcock monitors groundwater for nitrates around its animal facility and waste storage lagoons through groundwater tests three times a year. The facility holds about 11,100 pigs, sows and boars that produce approximately 11.3 million gallons of manure and wastewater a year, according to Babcocks permit fact sheet. Hog waste moves along a chute underneath the livestock barn to two types of lagoons before the final waste is pumped out and applied to fields. Babcock has about 681 acres available to apply manure.

The company voluntarily added plastic liners to its lagoons 25 years ago to prevent wastewater from seeping into the ground, Babcock president Jim McPeak Jr. said.They are the first comprehensive textbooks developed in collaboration with the First Nations of Wisconsin, he said. Patty went to each of the first nations and consulted with elders and leaders. I think that is an amazing innovation  I think thats what makes them so special.

Loew, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, says her work as an author began because of the lack of histories of Native Americans written by Native people. The histories she found were written by explorers, traders and others who intersected with Native Americans and were more reflective of the histories of those groups, she adds.

Loews books share Native American history the way Native Americans share it. They rely on historical perspectives from Native people, and she reconstructs the past through pictographs, song, dance and stories. Instead of telling history based on time (from beginning to end), the stories she shares are based on place such as a sacred stone or a rice bed.

Loew has also increased awareness about Native American history, culture, treaty rights, values of environmental protection and more in ways beyond books. She had an extensive career as a host and anchor at Wisconsin Public Television and produced numerous documentaries, including the award-winning Way of the Warrior, which aired nationally on PBS in 2007 and 2011.Government shutdowns generally vindicate the necessity of government services, which is why Republicans always seem to lose these fights. But here at home, it exposed how the federal government can, in some instances, be ridiculously complex and overstaffed. How else to explain the existence of bond anticipation notes?

The new Tomah Health facility is funded in large part by a $35 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (no, they wont be milking cows in the new hospital). Even if you get past the potential conservative objection to the federal government asking urban and suburban taxpayers to subsidize a loan rate for a rural hospital, the structure of the loan is still mind-boggling. I assumed that USDA simply lent the money and gave the hospital immediate access to the funds.

Tells you how much I know about the federal government. The USDA doesnt deliver the $35 million until the end of the project.I provide styling, haircutting, perming, coloring and highlighting, Kinder said of her salon, which serves men, women and children.

Hours will be 9 a.m. to noon Monday and Wednesday, noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday and by appointment on Saturday. People can make an appointment but walk-ins are also welcome, Kinder said.

For more information, call or text the salon at 608-786-1619. The salon soon will have a Facebook page.

Brendan and Sarah Brooks have opened the Tomah Re-Source Resale Shop at 1104 Superior Ave. in downtown Tomah, where the Tomah Memorial Hospital Auxiliary closed its Auxiliary Bargain Corner resale store at the end of October.

Brendan said he and his wife opened their resale shop on Dec. 1, selling used items that have been donated and new merchandise that theyve purchased.

He said they plan to create a nonprofit corporation to operate the business and use the money it generates assist people in the community who need help. Theyve already given such things as clothing, furniture and bedding to people who needed help.- Manny Pacquiao met Alibaba chairman, Jack Ma in Hong Kong

- The People's champ was with his wife, Jinkee

- The netizens got amazed by their meeting

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Manny Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee gladly shared on their social media accounts that they have met Jack Ma in HongKong.

Jack is the co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba which is one of the world's largest e-commerce businesses.

"It was a pleasure meeting with Jack Ma, the co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba," Manny wrote.

While Jinkee has also expressed her happiness towards their encounter.

"We are happy to meet you Jack MA. The co-founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group. Continue to inspire people. God bless you!"

Furthermore, the netizens got inspired and amazed because two of the most influential men in their respective fields have met.

"People from humble beginnings "

"2 of my idols! So proud of you guys! Bravo! God bless you guys"

"Two dudes and a meal"... "Legends"... motivational Sunday...."

"Two of Asia's best! They both never quit."

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In a previous report by KAMI, Jinkee Pacquiao finally spoke up about the recent burglary at their LA mansion.

Born on December 17, 1978, Manny Pacquiao is a professional boxer who is also serving as one of the senators in the Philippines. He married Jinkee Pacquiao on May 10, 2000 and they are granted five children.

POPULAR: Read more news about Manny Pacquiao!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

How Many 'N' Letters Are There In 'Cinnamon'? Name the country starting with "Y". Who wrote bestseller The Da Vinci Code? Check out a series of new tricky questions!  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.ph- The representative of Vietnam in Miss Intercontinental is now the subject of public interest

- She was accused of copying the walk and gown of Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray

- A lot of netizens expressed their disappointment but other defended her

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The recently-concluded Miss Intercontinental pageant has been making rounds on social media after some netizens noticed something about the candidate from Vietnam.

KAMI learned that there were 85 participants in the said international beauty contest where Karen Gallman of the Philippines was crowned as the winner.

However, out of these ladies, Ngan Anh Le Au of Vietnam seemed to have caught a lot of attention from netizens as she was accused of copying Catriona Grays magma gown and lava walk.

The gown and walk of Catriona were said to be few of the biggest factors why she won the prestigious and highly-coveted Miss Universe crown.

Because of this, some people in the online world believed that Miss Vietnam wanted to win the crown just like how the Pinay beauty queen did more than a month ago.

According to netizens, Ngan Anh Le Au was successful in her attempt since she won the Peoples Choice Award and was recognized as the fourth runner-up in the pageant.

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Here are the mixed reactions from netizens:

Nice! But as Catriona said from her advice, you should have your own uniqueness. That's it!

Obvious naman na ginaya nya. Dapat kumuha sya ng magaling na designer.

Kaloka nga pati paghawi ng buhok. Ultimo Q&A na pagkahaba-haba din ng sagot. Talagang ginaya!

Nakakaloka naman kung sino ang glam team ni Vietnam. Hndi man lang binigyan ng pagkakataon si Vietnam bilang siya at hindi yung ginaya. Sayang! Sana nabigyan ng gown na tatatak sa kanya at hindi yung tumatak sa iba.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Isa pa, the whole universe knows who did it first. Cool lang tayo.

She's just trying to win the attention and the hearts of the host country. Sa pageantry may tinatawag na strategy, kahit mga pinay queens ginagawa din to sa mga events.

In a previous article by , the epic answer of Karen Gallman that sealed the first ever Miss Intercontinental crown for the Philippines was reported.

Miss Intercontinental 2018 is the 47th edition of the pageant and was held at the Mall of Asia Arena on January 26.

POPULAR: Read more news about Catriona Gray!

Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! Do you enjoy watching street interviews and listening to different opinions? Are you ready for the first 2019 edition of Tricky Questions? Let's get it started!  on HumanMeter!

Source: Kami.com.phWednesday, Jan. 23 through Friday, Jan. 25

This list is not comprehensive. Municipalities are listed as they appear on the criminal complaint. Suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. To see mugshots of the accused, visit www.journaltimes.com/gallery. Additional information about the complaints can be found at: journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts.

Jordan L. Collins, 1800 block of Roosevelt Avenue, Racine, strangulation and suffocation, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct.

Kenny M. Day, 1600 block of South Memorial Drive, Racine ,possession with intent to deliver between 5 and 15 grams of cocaine, second and subsequent offense, maintaining a drug trafficking place, second and subsequent offense.

Richard Hernandez, 1100 block of College Avenue, Racine, second-degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon, misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct.He acknowledged criminal prosecutions in most cases would be highly unlikely because victims or perpetrators may have died or the statute of limitations has run out.

I still think theres a value in looking at this systematically and assessing what happened, just to make sure it is transparent and theres an honest accounting of it, he told the Journal Sentinel.

We agree there is certainly still merit. It makes sense that an outside agency should investigate these serious crimes.

The Catholic Church has a shameful history of shielding pedophile priests, and of moving them to new parishes without disclosing the allegations against the pedophiles. There should be a reckoning, even if the pedophile priests are dead. Catholics should know if those who shielded the pedophiles are still active, and especially should know if they have moved up the church hierarchy and are thus in a position to further cover up or restrain such an investigation.

DA Chisholm is right to call for a statewide examination of the churchs abuse files. Its something Kaul should also support, as well as other state officials.

We all deserve to know what has been hidden.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.RACINE  Last year ended with the permanent closing of Copacetic, Downtown Racines hat shop, after 13 years in business.

But that space at 409 Main St. has already been secured for another type of apparel store: a womens plus-size clothing shop. Yolanda Coleman of Caledonia intends to open Plush Clothing there; shes shooting for early April.

Coleman said she has had more than 28 years of retail experience, starting at age 16, including managing stores. This will be her first business.

To prepare, Coleman took Wisconsin Womens Business Initiative Network Corp.s 12-week business start-up course and came out of it with her business plan written. She also obtained financing through WWBIC.

Coleman said she looked at various possible areas to open her business and then settled on Downtown. I picked Downtown because the Downtown area is the heart of the city, she said.

I want to sell emotion, Coleman said.  Plush signifies a woman who wants to be pretty, lovely, sexy and happy.Although Ryan has had her fair share of issues with Racine Unified, shes feeling much better about the education theyre receiving today. Ryans daughter was racking up suspensions at Goodland Elementary, so Ryan enrolled her at Bull Fine Arts through Unifieds school choice option. She began attending there in fall 2017 and this year is at Gilmore, the new home of Fine Arts. Ryan said her daughter made a complete turnaround at Fine Arts, with no suspensions or phone calls about behavior, as well as better grades.

I do have to say Gilmore Fine Arts is amazing, Ryan said.

She said the parent involvement at Gilmore makes a big difference. She encourages other public-school parents to advocate for their children and to make sure theyre at the school thats best for them. Her son had been moved through a string of Unified schools but now attends SC Johnson. Ryan called the teacher who deals with his and other students behaviors amazing.

Ill have to say not all RUSD schools are horrible as people make them seem like, Ryan said. It takes parents to come together and work with the school, teacher and your child.

Thankful for vouchersRACINE  Downtown Racine Corp. Thursday announced its five annual Downtown award winners for 2018.

This year we had an overwhelming response in nominations, over 40 in total, said DRC Executive Director Kelly Kruse. Each winning category had at least three nominations.

Downtown Showcase Award  Racine Art Museum

This award is for an event or organization that has helped attract visitors and/or residents and helped to improve the overall image of Downtown.

RAM has been an anchor in Downtown since 2003 and is the largest craft museum in the United States with over 9,000 objects of art in its collection from over 30 states. It attracts day-trippers and tourists from all around the world. RAM is a jewel in our Downtown, giving us the finest in a vast array of craft art, DRC stated.

Downtown Champion Award  Alderman Jeff Coe

The award is for a person, business or organization that is the ultimate citizen, supporting Downtown through employment, facilities and sponsorship.Going back in the history books, the measure was a late addition to an incentives package aimed at enticing ConAgra executives to keep their corporate headquarters in Omaha amid threats to relocate after InterNorth had decamped for Houston, where it would become Enron.

The move succeeded  until ConAgra left for Chicago a few years back. Though the company is gone, the tax exemption it inspired remains.

The only appearance of this provision in the legislative record came in 1987. It was a one-paragraph explanation of a committee amendment, with an Omaha senator outlining what he called a fairly technical notion on taxation.

Indeed, its deep into the weeds. But this lack of uniformity has cost the state a significant amount of money in its more than three decades of existence, including some not subjected to any state income tax when generated in states without income tax  two of which, South Dakota and Wyoming, border Nebraska.

Furthermore, only a few hundred Nebraskans  disproportionately, the states wealthiest residents  benefit from the present structure, at the expense of the remainder.It states that "as a result of these policies, ORR has held tens of thousands of children across the country in custody for excessive amounts of time and has illegally and improperly denied them the opportunity to reunite with their families." It also asks that no more children be separated from their families.

"We were all horrified last summer, watching babies being ripped from their mothers' arms, but we're seeing that the same thing is still happening," said Mary Bauer, the deputy legal director of the Immigrant Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "Despite what people think, [the Trump administration] didn't get rid of the most problematic parts of the policy.

"What's in place is still a quixotic system that isn't being transparent about why kids aren't being released to family members and, sometimes, to parents. They don't know what they're supposed to do, they're told the children will get out but then there's always something else [that prevents reunification]."

The Trump administration has always contended that its tough guidelines for releasing children are designed to ensure that kids don't end up in the hands of human traffickers and other nefarious predators.One difference is that with the data approach much larger samples of potential voters can be "microtargeted" in population clusters categorized by age, income, gender, race and other categories overlooked by traditional polling.

We see a campaign created to learn what clusters of the electorate think about different issues. Users are given a chance to win an online bet (with odds almost too high for anyone to win) that includes pages of questions that reveal attitudes and emotions toward EU issues, which helps the campaign push out better-targeted anti-EU ads.

Depending on the person at whom they are aimed, ads would play up or play down fears of immigrants, dwindling funds for national health and other controversies. Predictable complaints were lodged against such tactics. But about 7 million people were targeted in the final 10 days before the Brexit referendum, the real-life Cummings has said. And, although his allies' polls told them they were making gains, Cummings avoided publicizing their apparent gains, so as not to provoke a larger turnout by pro-EU voters.

Watching the drama unfold in the movie, I was reminded easily of the shock that followed Trump's Electoral College victory and the anguish of apathetic liberals and moderates who wished they'd had gone out and voted against Trump when they had the chance."Sheriff's deputies are special," he said, adding they aren't like other county or state employees, so such a finding wouldn't expand to them.

Attorney David Dudley, who was there on Colfax County's behalf, argued the three-judge panel didn't even need to get that far.

He said the question came down to this: Did being on the cellphone that day create any additional risk to Coughlin?

"And the answer is no," Dudley said. "There is zero evidence that would indicate that that particular risk increased the chance that Deputy Coughlin would be in an accident and ultimately lose his life."

Dudley argued that if the deputy on the other end of the line had called while off-duty and had an accident at home, he wouldn't be covered either.

"The fact that he's on the phone does not create any additional risk that he's going to sustain injury," he argued.

Dudley said they can't compare a deputy who is on duty and in a cruiser with Coughlin, who was not.

"The point is, in Nebraska, if the risk of the employer-created condition does not increase the risk that someone will sustain injury then the injury is not compensable. And there's a failure with the burden of proof," he said.

Court of Appeals Chief Judge Frankie J. Moore and Judges Michael W. Pirtle and David K. Arterburn took the case under advisement.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSpilger.

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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."I was very proud not only for the fact that she wanted to do this because it sounded like a fun opportunity and you get to try out a bunch of dresses, Kiersten Reed said. But also because she really wanted to do it because it benefited the Alzheimer's Association."

Natalie Reed said she knew she wanted to participate after learning about it at an Alzheimers Walk in Omaha in September, even though shed had no previous modeling experience.

"I was excited, because I've never done anything like this before, but I was also excited, because I knew it was going toward a good cause that would help people like my grandpa, she said.

Even if its a whole new experience for her, Reed said she isnt worried. She's been a dancer since she was 3 and is a member of the Shirettes dance team at Southeast, so she's used to performing in front of strangers.

And her grandparents will be there to cheer her on, just as they always have.

"They support her on pretty much everything she does, and my other kids, too, Kiersten Reed said.

Kiersten Reed said she hopes the runway show will encourage people with relatives who have Alzheimers to seek out information and get help from the Alzheimers Association.The Lincoln firefighters union has endorsed Leirion Gaylor Baird in the mayor's race.

Leirion has done a lot to educate herself about the challenges facing firefighters in Lincoln over the last several years," the union said in a news release.

"She advocated for the opening of two new stations and worked to find funding to replace apparatus that was obsolete and dangerous to the citizens and firefighters."

The firefighters endorsed just one candidate in the April primary, where there are two Democrats, a Republican and two independent candidates who have announced they are running.

It would be rare for the union to co-endorse, union President Adam Schrunk said about the two Democratic candidates in the mayor's race, Gaylor Baird and Jeff Kirkpatrick.

Firefighters have more personal experience and a relationship with Gaylor Baird, who is a City Council member, he said.

"We didnt have any ill will toward Jeff (Kirkpatrick). We just decided we wanted to get behind Leirion in this case," Schrunk said in a telephone interview.Shaiken said tensions may rise if auto plants continue to close and more jobs are lost to a shift away from sedans. In the past, union workers who were laid off were given most of their pay, indefinitely, until they retired or found a new position in a factory. That program, called the jobs bank, ended in 2009 when the government agreed to bail out GM and Chrysler.

The jobs bank was a cushion. You dont have that anymore  youre just out there, Shaiken said. When you start having a smaller pie, and people are losing homes and health care, that gets directed in all kinds of unfortunate ways.

Nooses

GM said the first official complaint came in 2017 and that the company responded vigorously. In April, a year before the first of the lawsuits, the automaker sent a notice to all employees saying offensive jokes, cartoons, pictures, language wouldnt be tolerated. As part of an action plan GM developed that year, the company interviewed employees who used lanyards as part of their trade and who worked in the area where nooses were turning up.

By then, one suit alleges, it was too late.

Hate-driven employees felt free to hang nooses, display racist graffiti and verbally attack and racially insult African-Americans, the suit claims.1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted.

2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks.

3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown".

4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam).

I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published.CHARLESTON -- After more than 30 years of work in Charleston, Roy Lanham thinks it's the only place for his endeavors.

That wasn't the original plan for the director and campus minister at the Newman Center in Charleston. But as the years went on, he found that it was a place where people care about their community, somewhere he could do his part.

"I could not imagine doing it anywhere else," Lanham said Saturday while accepting the Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year Award.

"I didn't imagine I'd stay in Charleston but now I can't imagine being planted anywhere else," he said.

Award presenter Matt Piescinski told the audience at the chamber's annual dinner that Lanham came to Charleston to build the Newman Center.

Work over the next three decades included opening the Hedwig Houses women's shelters, mission trips to Haiti and counseling "countless" students and others, Piescinski said.

"He cares too much, he does too much and he loves too much," Piescinski said. "It gives us all comfort to know someone has his eyes open."

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The awards presented during Saturday's dinner also included the chamber's Small Business of the Year Award, which went to Paap Printing.

In accepting the award, owner Terry Paap credited his family's work for making the business successful and ensuring it will continue.

"A business is only as good as its workers and I think I've got the best," he said.

Award presenter Gary Henigman said he's been a longtime customer of the printing business and has always been impressed by its "old school" approach.

"I'm proud to call this family friends because that is exactly how they treated me," he said.

Also, the chamber's Diplomat of the Year Award went to Chasity Parker, a vocational evaluator and program coordinator at CCAR Industries.

Chamber President Jessica Killough presented Parker with the award and said her "warmth and energy" exemplify what it recognizes.

The award goes to one of the chamber's "front line of volunteers" that make its events and activities possible, Killough said. She also thanked Parker for welcoming her to the president's position, which she began at the first of the year.

The chamber also recognized outgoing board of directors Chairwoman Tina Held and incoming Chairman Brett Bennett along with other directors changes.

Contact Dave Fopay at (217) 238-6858. Follow him on Twitter: @FopayDave

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Last year alone, a number of individuals were arrested in different European countries because of their links to the Iranian regime and their involvement in terrorist or assassinations plots. For example, a couple of individuals were arrested in Albania after an attack was planned on members of the opposition that reside there.

Then it was discovered by Belgian, German and French authorities that a bombing had been planned in June just outside Paris. The targets were attendees of the National Council of Resistance of Irans (NCRI) annual gathering. Only a few months later, authorities in Denmark uncovered a planned assassination of Iranian dissidents.

In response to these actions, the European Union announced earlier this month that it was imposing sanctions on individuals related to the Iranian regimes intelligence agency. This includes the freezing of assets of such individuals. Although any action is positive, the sanctions could have gone further. As they stand, they are hardly a deterrent to the regime.

Several EU countries are drawing up their own sanctions on Iran. Germany, for example, is banning an Iranian airline, Mahan Air, from entering German airspace following the confirmation that Iran has been sending personnel and weapons to Syria in efforts to support Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

It has also been mentioned by several European officials that the EU might not be present at the international summit next month. In fact, at the beginning of the week, European foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss trade with Iran and the U.S. sanctions on trade and investments.

The Iranian regime is guilty of numerous crimes and abuses at home and in other nations in the region. It has systematically denied its people the most basic of human rights and it is involved with some of the most horrifying atrocities in the region. It has plundered the nations wealth on fuelling foreign conflicts and spreading chaos across the region. Unresponsiveness in face of belligerences, terrorism and rocket launching and  of Iranian mullahs will only encourage them.

How Europe can ignore these major red flags is impossible to comprehend. How can the EU  that places so much value and importance on the respect of human rights  just ignore the suffering people of Iran?

Many do not like President Trump, but he should at least be commended for recognising that the Iranian regime is a dangerous regime that cannot be allowed to continue terrorising innocent people. He, and a number of officials in his administration, have acknowledged the people of Iran and recognised them as the first victims in this whole scenario.

Will the EU manage to recognise this?This latest report from the human rights watchdog explains that throughout the year, particularly during the high-volume protests that emerged in January, July, and August, Iranian authorities used live ammunition, teargas, and water cannons against unarmed protesters, often beating them as well.

Philip Luther, Amnestys Middle East research and advocacy director, said: The staggering scale of arrests, imprisonments and flogging sentences reveal the extreme lengths the authorities have gone to in order to suppress peaceful dissent.

As the economic crisis in Iran worsens and more people are being pushed into poverty, workers are often taking to the streets to protest non-payment of wages and skyrocketing living costs.

Amnesty says that at least 467 workers, including teachers, truck drivers and factory workers, have been arrested, with many subjected to torture and dozens given prison terms or flogging sentences.

At least 112 womens rights defenders were arrested for protesting the forced hijab law, with women silently waving their headscarves on sticks. The Regime reacted violently, often beating the women, before subjecting them to grossly unfair trials with harsh prison sentences of up to 20 years.

One protester, fled Iran whilst on bail, explaining that during her time in jail she had been tortured and placed in solitary confinement. Her lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested last June on vague national security charges for defending the protesters. Sotoudeh is already serving five years for campaigning against the death penalty.

Amnesty explains that other arbitrary arrestees include at least 91 students, 50 media workers, and 11 lawyers, with at least 20 media workers sentenced to long jail sentences or flogging after unfair trials.

This includes journalist Mohammad Hossein Sodagar, a member of the Azerbaijani Turkic ethnic minority, who was flogged 74 times after his conviction for spreading lies and Mostafa Abdi, who works for a website that reports on human rights abuses against the Gonabadi Dervish religious minority and was sentenced to 26 years and three months in jail and 148 lashes.

Environmental activists were another keen target of the Regimes abuse during 2018, with at least 63 of them being arrested on charges of spying for the West under the pretence of environmental and scientific projects, including monitoring endangered species with the full consent of the Regime. At least five environmentalists have been charged with corruption on earth, which is punishable by death.

Amnesty also noted that ethnic and religious minorities continue to be denied their most basic rights by the Iran Regime.

This violent crackdown is happening amidst incredible domestic and international pressure on the Regime. It is likely an attempt for the mullahs to retain control and project strength, neither of which is working.

Luther said: Governments which are engaged in dialogue with Iran must not stay silent while the net of repression rapidly widens. They must speak out in the strongest terms against the crackdown and forcefully call on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those jailed for peacefully expressing their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, including through their human rights activism.



Zimbabwe

27 Jan 2019: Zimbabwe's ex-President Robert Mugabe looted of Rs. 7cr in cash

Ousted Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, 94, lost nearly $1 million (Rs. 7 crore) in cash after it was stolen from his briefcase earlier this month.

On Thursday, four people faced trial in the court for the theft of $150,000 (Rs. 1 crore).

However, updated court documents released recently, and seen by the state-owned Herald newspaper revealed Mugabe has lost $922,000 (Rs. 6.5 crore).

Timeline: Current whereabouts of Mugabe is not known

Before going further, here's a brief history of Mugabe.

He lost power in 2017, after he was ousted for state corruption and economic collapse.

Emmerson Mnangagwa then became the President.

In 2018, President Mnangagwa revealed that Mugabe has been in Singapore since October 2018 for the treatment of an unknown disease and is unable to walk.

However, his current whereabouts are not known.

Safekeeping: Mugabe gave a relative the responsibility of the money-filled briefcase

In 2016, Mugabe had put in Rs. 7 crore in a black briefcase and had asked Constance Mugabe, 50, a relative and also the housekeeper of his country home in Zvimba, to take care of it.

He didn't tell her what the briefcase contained.

Last March, Mugabe asked Constance for the briefcase, but the latter allegedly said she did not know where it is.

Recovery: Mugabe sent an employee to bring his briefcase

In the meantime, Mugabe heard about the lavish lifestyle of the four suspects, including Constance and three other cleaners.

Smelling something fishy, on January 6, he asked one of his employees Edson Jemwa, group HR manager at Gushungo Holdings, to visit his house and look for the briefcase.

The briefcase was found in Mugabe's main bedroom but had only $78,000 (Rs. 55 lakh) inside.

Trial: The accused had spent money on cars, houses, farm animals

Thereafter, the four suspects- Constance, Johanne Mapurisa, 50, Saymore Nhetekwa, 47, Andrew Mahumbe, 37, were arrested.

Story continues

Investigation revealed that they had spent the money on cars, houses and animals.

State prosecutor, Tevaraishe Zinyemba told Chinhoyi magistrate court, "Johanne bought a Toyota Camry...and a house for $20,000 (Rs. 14 lakh)."

"Saymore bought a Honda...and also livestock...including pigs and cattle for an undisclosed amount," Zinyemba added.NEOGA  A 17-year-old female Neoga driver was injured in an accident Saturday and ticketed by police who said she pulled into the path of another vehicle, causing a collision and also injuring another driver.

 Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever.

The teenager was taken to HSHS St. Anthonys Memorial Hospital in Effingham following the crash, which happened about 11:16 a.m. on Center Line Road at County Road 200 East, about two miles southeast of Neoga. The other driver involved, a 66-year-old woman from Toledo, was treated at Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital in Mattoon.

An Illinois State Police statement said the accident happened when the 17-year-old, who was stopped on County Road 200 East, pulled out in front of the other driver as she was westbound on Center Line Road. The 17-year-olds vehicle was hit on the passenger side and pushed into a ditch, while the other driver left the road and plowed into a field.

The 17-year-old driver was cited for failure to yield at an intersection.

Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid

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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.It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved brother, Brother David Alexander MacIntyre, CFC, known as Bro Mac to his students and friends. He came into this world the first of seven children born to Bennett and Mary Catherine Kay MacIntyre. Raised in Anaconda, he often spoke of how much he loved his childhood there, as it was filled with freedom and adventure. He cherished time spent with both his McCarthy and MacIntyre grandparents.

The family moved to Butte in the summer of 1953. David attended Immaculate Conception Elementary School and graduated from Butte Central High School in 1958. He entered the Congregation of Christian Brothers and moved to New Rochelle, New York where he completed his Bachelors Degree at Iona College in 1962. He went on to receive his Masters in English from DePaul University in 1973. David began his teaching career at Brother Rice High School in Chicago, Illinois, where he taught from 1962-1967. From 1967-1980, he taught and later served as Principal of St. Laurence High School in Burbank, Illinois, where he was the youngest principal in the order. In 1980, he moved to Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan where he spent 38 years. He taught French and Latin and eventually became an academic advisor. David loved both his vocation and his students. He was entered into the Brother Rice Hall of Fame in 2001 for extraordinary dedication, love, concern, leadership and enthusiasm for Brother Rice High School. This year he celebrated his 60th anniversary as an Irish Christian Brother.Road access is another challenge, he said. For new developments, it has been hard to identify road ownership and responsibility. Projects are too easily stalled while this is determined.

I think there are bright stars on the horizon, he said. Its all about partnerships. My goal is to stop lawsuits and start partnerships.

Sitting on the panel representing the state, Steve Snezek, executive director of the Montana Building Industry Association, echoed the difficulties facing the industry as expressed by Pierce.

Helena is a microcosm of the state, Snezek said, Some of the challenges that are happening here are happening statewide.

Statewide, the BIA is focused on job-site safety and health insurance for members. While he made no promises for insurance availability this year, Snezek said he is looking into what needs to be done to bring options back.

Looking forward, he advised members to get involved and look for opportunities, including running for public and government offices so you can have a major impact on whats going on."Grand Old Partisan salutes Lorenzo Crounse, born this day of 1834. Outbreak of civil war, the young attorney recruited Battery K of the New York Light Artillery and enlisted as its captain. He was mustered out after being wounded sixteen months later.

In 1864, Crounse relocated to Nebraska. He soon won election to the territorial legislature and to the constitutional convention. Next, the Republican Governor named him to the territorial supreme court, to which he was elected upon statehood. In 1872, he won the first of two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

President Rutherford Hayes appointed him federal tax collector for the state. Crounse chaired Nebraska's delegation to the 1880 Republican National Convention. President Benjamin Harrison named him Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. In 1892, he was elected to the governorship. Reducing taxes and improving railroads were highlights of his administration.

Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gadDBtXO6AQ

Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.

Each day, his grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than sixteen decades of Republican heritage. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far.

He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.

Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.

Buy the book at Amazon

See www.youtube.com/q?v=IzxKCiXc5Qc for a brief video of a Texas Republican praising Back to Basics for the Republican Party.

"This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!"

"Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before."

and

"one of the best books I ever read"Summary Can a single public vote undermine a century of cooperation and friendly rivalry? Was the Brexit referendum indicative of a long-running shift in the United Kingdoms relationship with the Continent, and especially with allies like France? Britain and France were competitors, and even enemies, for almost a millennium before they allied, first to contain Russia in World War I and then to prevent German dominance of Europe in World War II. But now, France is taking the hardest line among European Union members in Brexit talks. French President Emmanuel Macron has called Brexiteers liars, while the British press has accused France of trying to inflict maximum pain on British citizens and trap the U.K. in its orbit.

Those in favor of Brexit saw the vote as an opportunity to escape what they perceived to be an increasingly authoritarian, German- and French-dominated bloc  one that they believe is determined to punish the U.K. for the trouble its caused on the way out. The pro-Europe French perspective, on the other hand, sees the British departure as opening avenues for deeper Continental integration, especially in foreign policy and defense, in which Paris will be the leading voice. But beneath the daily scuffles over the backstop or backdoors into the EU single market, France and the U.K. have remained close on foreign policy and defense. They have too much strategic overlap, and too few alternatives, to drift apart.

This Deep Dive will consider the forces that pushed the two nations together and kept them close. Despite the U.K.s effort to redefine its relationship with the Continent and secure its autonomy from Europe, and despite European efforts to deepen integration historically blocked by the U.K., Franco-British strategic cooperation will continue, mostly uninterrupted. British Solitude The United Kingdom is an archipelago of thousands of islands off the northeast coast of the European peninsula. It boasts an impressive population (66 million people in 2017), wealth (a gross national income of $2.58 trillion), nuclear weapons and one of the strongest armed forces in the region. These assets, paired with the advantage of physical separation from Continental challengers, once allowed the British Empire to rule the seas  and a quarter of the Earths land, too.

Yet, even at the height of its power, Britain had to stay abreast of developments across the narrow English Channel. It needed to maintain allies and a military able to prevent any single power from consolidating control of Europe and marshaling the Continents superior resources to threaten the British Isles. Its alliances shifted to balance whoever was most powerful, from Napoleon Bonapartes France to the Russian Empire. Containment of Germany has been the center of this balance of power strategy since 1870, when the German states unified (with a brief interlude during the Cold War). Germanys population was larger than those of France and Britain. Its economic capacity outstripped Frances. And its geographic insecurity pushed it to expansionism.

But in the days after World War II  in the beginnings of the Cold War  something interesting happened. The largest Western European powers, France and Germany, and four other states decided to experiment with pooling their resources. Though initially surprised, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee welcomed the news. He saw it as a way to solve the German problem and help Western Europes economies rebuild from years of war. But over the next few years, as the European project trudged along, Britains economic interests and its concerns that it was being left out of important decision-making in Europe prompted it to reconsider its relationship with the European bloc. The United Kingdom decided it needed a seat at the table.

French President Charles de Gaulle thought otherwise. In 1963, and again in 1967, de Gaulle blocked British accession to the newly formed European Economic Community. For the French president, the EEC was designed in part to liberate Europe from Atlanticist hegemony. He would not open the gates to an American Trojan horse draped in a Union Jack.

The U.K. would eventually get its seat in 1973  a few years after de Gaulles resignation. But the U.K. never fit comfortably at the table. And, realizing both de Gaulles fears and Britains grand strategy, the U.K. was able to disrupt European integration, to an extent. (A study by a group at Kings College London found that the U.K. voted against the majority on foreign and security policy more than any other member state. It blocked efforts to increase the European Defense Agencys Budget and, even after the Brexit vote, threatened to veto various initiatives.) The U.K. held a referendum on its European Community membership just two years after joining, and it always strove to keep one foot in and one foot out. The beginning of the end came in the early 1990s. The U.K. accepted an opt-out from the Economic and Monetary Union in exchange for signing the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union. Two decades later, London was left out of key decisions on the eurozone and Europes future. A major argument for British membership in the European project had evaporated; the union increasingly belonged to Berlin and Paris.

So, Prime Minister David Cameron called the vote, and a slight majority of voters expressed a desire to leave. Selling a vision of life after Brexit was easy. The U.K. would re-emphasize its special relationship with the United States, deepen ties with NATO and expand its global presence through new military bases and trade agreements with the worlds most dynamic economies. Besides, it wasnt certain that the EU would survive the U.K.s departure, especially once other euroskeptic countries saw what life could be like on the outside.

That post-Brexit vision was flawed for two reasons. First, the EU has maintained a more-or-less united front in the Brexit negotiations. And the EUs demise doesnt appear imminent, especially not as a result of Brexit: The blocs remaining euroskeptics have, at least for now, almost unanimously ditched the idea of leaving the EU in favor of trying to reform it from within. Second, and more important, complications arose in the special relationship. For example, the U.K., like the U.S., has an interest in fighting jihadist groups in the Middle East and Africa and maintaining Mideast stability. But as the U.S. is withdrawing from Syria and adopting a more hawkish policy toward Iran, the U.K. has special operations forces deployed in Syria, has said the fight against the Islamic State is not over and, along with the EU , is working to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive. And in some ways, the Iraq War altered the U.K.s ability to follow Americas lead in the Middle East. Afraid to repeat the mistakes of that war, and wary of being seen as too obedient and eager to do Washingtons bidding, the House of Commons in 2013 voted against joining U.S.-led strikes in Syria.

The more fundamental problem with Londons shift toward Washington is that the U.K. is seeking deeper ties with the U.S. just as the latter is urging Europe to take responsibility for its own defense so that the U.S. can turn its attention to Asia. NATO is losing its purpose , and just this week, The New York Times reported that U.S. President Donald Trump privately discussed withdrawing from the alliance several times in 2018. NATO or not, the U.K. and U.S. still share concerns over Russian revanchism, and the U.K. will be a vital American partner in the region. But what the U.S. really wants is to convince the rest of Europe, especially the Germans, to build up their defenses on the Continent so the U.S. can reduce its own contributions. Its doubtful whether the U.S. or U.K. could change minds in Berlin, but this painful separation between the U.K. and EU is unlikely to improve their prospects of doing so.

The U.K. also faces the challenge of being able to afford a military designed to fight Americas wars. When Cameron announced an 8 percent cut to the military budget in 2010, he described a force that was overstretched, under-equipped and deployed too often and ill-prepared for the challenges of the future. Its one thing for the U.K. to fight terrorism alongside the U.S. in the Middle East or Africa; its quite another to increase engagement in Pacific theaters, especially for a navy that went seven years without an aircraft carrier in service and that has only 19 destroyers and frigates in service, a historic low for the Royal Navy. (Budget aside, it would be awkward for a post-Brexit U.K. to seek a free trade agreement with China while the U.S. is ramping up its activity in the South China Sea.) The National Audit Office warned last year that the Defense Ministrys long-term spending plan was unaffordable and that the armed forces had serious personnel shortages. It also cautioned that the equipment program could face a 14.8 billion-pound ($19 billion) funding gap  roughly the cost of five Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. And the countrys former chief of defense staff said in June that the government had slightly deluded the public with a defense program it cant afford. Notably, the NAOs latest report makes no mention of Brexit or its potential effect on the U.K.s economic situation.PETERBOROUGH, Ontario, Jan. 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Health Coalition has been holding rallies outside of Pre-Budget Hearings across Ontario that have been attended by Members of Provincial Parliament on the Standing Committees on Finance and Economic Affairs. On Monday, January 28, the hearings are going to Peterborough and the Coalition will be there.



At the same time as promising to end "hallway medicine" and adequately fund health care in Ontario, Doug Ford's government has pledged to cut $22 billion in provincial revenues through axing cap-and-trade and through tax giveaways that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy and corporations. Cuts to health care, education, and social programs have already started. At the same time, the media has revealed that Ford is planning to privatize health care. We are organizing rallies outside of the Pre-Budget Hearings to send a clear message to the Ford government that the Ontario people did not give him any mandate for services cuts and privatization. What Ontario needs is expanded and improved health care services not cuts and privatization.

Monday, January 28

Peterborough Pre-Budget Hearing Rally at 12 noon, Holiday Inn, 150 George St N

Cosponsored by: CUPE Ontario/OCHU, OFL, OPSEU, UNIFOR

~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~

Ontario Health Coalition

15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201

Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8

ohc@sympatico.caNEW ORLEANS, Jan. 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind 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 Companys 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.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of XPO and would like to discuss your legal rights and how these cases 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-xpo/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in these class actions, you must petition the Courts by February 12, 2019.

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 XPOs shares plummeted $15.77 per share, or 26.17%.

The first case filed is Labul v. Xpo Logistics, Inc., 18-cv-02062.

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:NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until February 11, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Tenaris S.A. (NYSE: TS), if they purchased the Companys securities between May 1, 2014 and November 27, 2018, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Tenaris and would like to discuss your legal rights 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-ts/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by February 11, 2019.

About the Lawsuit

Tenaris and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On November 27, 2018, Bloomberg reported that Tenaris Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paolo Rocca was indicted for his role in a widespread bribery scandal in Argentina involving payments made to government officials in monthly installments from 2009 to 2012 to facilitate a $1.9B payment from Venezuela relating to its seizure of a related unit, Sidor, which was transformed into a Venezuelan state-owned enterprise.

On this news, the price of Tenaris shares plummeted.

The case is Atanasio v. Tenaris S.A. et al, 18-cv-7059.

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

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163JERSEY, Channel Islands, Jan. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serinus Energy plc (Serinus, SEN or the Company) (AIM:SENX, WSE:SEN), announces that the Company has confirmed that the Low Temperature Separation (LTS) unit and the Triethylene Glycol (TEG) unit (together, the Units) due for installation at its Moftinu gas plant in Romania have been loaded onto a freighter and have departed from Halifax, Canada, to Bremerhaven, Germany. Subject to weather in the Atlantic during shipment, the Units are expected to arrive in port approximately 6 to 10 days after departure. The Units will then be trucked to the Moftinu site in Romania for final assembly, testing and commissioning.



The Company has worked closely with Confind, the Romanian EPC contractor, to remedy the failure of both the engineering design contractor and the fabrication sub-contractor to honour their contractual obligations. It is the Companys focus to ensure that the final assembly, testing and commission is conducted as expeditiously as possible. The Company will inform the market of the production start-up date once the delivery, installation and commissioning of the units has been achieved.

About Serinus

Serinus is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company that owns and operates projects in Tunisia and Romania.

For further information, please refer to the Serinus website ( www.serinusenergy.com ) or contact the following:

Serinus Energy plc

Jeffrey Auld, Chief Executive Officer

Calvin Brackman, Vice President, External Relations & Strategy +1-403-264-8877 Numis Securities Limited

(Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)

John Prior

Paul Gillam

Ben Stoop +44 (0) 20 7260 1000 GMP FirstEnergy

(Joint Broker)

Hugh Sanderson

Jonathan Wright +44 (0) 20 7448 0200 Camarco

(Financial PR)

Billy Clegg

Owen Roberts +44 (0) 20 3781 8334 TBT i Wspolnicy

(Financial PR - Warsaw)

Piotr Talarek +48 22 487 53 02

Forward Looking Statement Disclaimer

This news release includes forward looking information and statements within the meaning of securities laws. Such statements relate to the Corporations or managements objectives, projections, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future and can be identified by words such as plans, assumes, will, anticipate and may or variations of such words. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses by the Corporation that reflect its experience and understanding of future developments. Such statements are subject to a number of uncertainties, including, but not limited to, continued listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and AIM, the Corporations ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the delisting and other factors identified in the Corporations filings with regulatory authorities in Canada. Many of these uncertainties are beyond the Corporations control and, therefore, may cause actual actions or results to differ from those expressed or implied herein. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by law.Colorados Constitution, adopted in 1876, directed the General Assembly to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state.

Ever since, policymakers, the courts and the Legislature have been wrestling with what those words mean  and how to live up to that mandate. It drives the public education debate in its many iterations to this very day.

With the 2019 legislative session underway  under new, theoretically unified, Democratic Party leadership in both chambers  lawmakers will grapple anew with how to fulfill their constitutional duty to the states more than 900,000 public school students scattered across 178 school districts.

This time, lawmakers find themselves at something of a crossroads after Novembers defeat of Amendment 73, a statewide ballot issue that would have raised taxes on higher-income families and businesses to pump more money into public schools. So now, senators and representatives are faced with squeezing the money out of current revenue.

There will be an effort to reassess the states School Finance Act  a hefty chunk of the state budget  in hopes of backfilling at least some of a shortfall dating to the Great Recession at the end of the last decade.

Its not clear where lawmakers will find the funds to address a range of concerns, from a chronic rural teacher shortage, to inadequate special-education programs, to lagging teacher pay in general.

And as if the money hunt werent headache enough in the wake of the rebuke by voters on Nov. 6  despite a blue-tide year that handed the reins to Democrats  theres also the continuing debate over what else needs to be done to improve educational outcomes.

Minority Republicans and GOP-leaning advocacy groups once again will be pressing the case that more money isnt the tonic for what ails public education. As ever, they want more structural reform, from expanding educational options for parents to directing more money to incentives like merit pay.

We sought the input of seven Colorado education policy leaders who toil in the midst of the states great education debate. They weigh in with a breadth of philosophies and proposals that defy easy resolution  and appear to reinforce long-standing battle lines.

The head of the states largest teachers union tells us at least part of the solution lies in putting classrooms above corporations  making those who have the means defer to the need for more school funding. A leading school-choice advocate says thats the wrong answer  as voters in November seemed to agree  because it would be throwing more money at a fundamentally flawed approach.

The chair of the pivotal House Education Committee says wherever more money comes from, and whatever other proposals are on the table, there will be more unity in sifting through the options than in the past, presumably now that both chambers are led by the same party. Thats assuming Colorados new governor  also a Democrat but a reform-minded one who supports the states proliferating charter-school movement  goes along.

The superintendent of the states second-largest school district, in Jefferson County, meanwhile believes the state has to move past the old, stalemated debates to a whole new paradigm that looks at what aspects of pre-K-through-12 education really make a difference in lifting kids upward and moving them onward.

Read on and see if you can find common threads in these and other divergent views. If theres one unifying theme, its probably the same one that informs so many other policy dust-ups  we cannot put off fixing the problem much longer.

Colorados schoolkids arent getting younger, and they need answers now.

Note to readers: Some of this weeks essays were edited for space. For longer versions, visit ColoradoPolitics.com.Pikes Peak Community College is undergoing its biggest expansion in more than two decades so that it can meet the needs of the 21st-century workforce.

Its a big deal, President Lance Bolton said. We have not expanded our footprint since 1998 when we opened the Rampart Range Campus.

PPCC is the states second-largest community college, serving about 20,000 students in 125 degree and certificate programs each year.

But it has been hearing about unmet needs, Bolton said, particularly in health care.

Hospital expansions for UCHealth and Penrose-St. Francis Health Services in Colorado Springs have increased the demand for specialized workers, he said, as has the changing nature of health care, with more technicians in the field.

As industry has grown in our community, we have not grown, Bolton said.

He said he expects an enrollment surge over the next few years as the cyclical economy likely will swing to a downturn, which historically produces more students.

So PPCC is renovating a nearly 70,000-square-foot building at 1850 Cypress Semi Drive, about a mile north of the Rampart Range Campus, to create the PPCC Health Education Center.

The center will house the regions first accredited, certified and interdisciplinary simulation lab, which Bolton said will greatly reduce training at hospitals and clinics.

We can do up to half of the real-world training in the simulation lab, he said, where you can create high-stakes, high-pressure, low-risk scenarios with sophisticated mannequins.

Theres only a handful of these kinds of labs in the country.

And this lab is the first in Colorado, he said.

Boost to health care industry

In addition to containing PPCCs two- and four-year nursing programs, the new Health Education Center will have surgical technology, pharmacy tech, surgical tech, EMS, dental assisting and medical assisting programs.

The expansion will benefit health care throughout El Paso County, said Joel Yuhas, president and CEO of UCHealth Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs.

No school in our area has surgical technology. The closest is in Pueblo, Yuhas said. With more operating rooms opening, were very excited to see this because we need those students to graduate and come work here.

The school closed on the former semiconductor research and development building in mid-December, at a cost of $5.5 million. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. acquired the building in 2012 as part of its $110 million purchase of Ramtron Corp., but didn't need the manufacturing space for the 90-person design and marketing operation, which it plans to move later this year to 536 Chapel Hills Drive, said Samer Bahou, a Cypress spokesman.

Renovations will run another $4.3 million, mainly from savings and grants from foundations and philanthropic organizations.

The buildings first phase, for nursing and surgical tech tracks, is to open in the fall. The remaining fields will come online in the fall of 2020.

UCHealth donated $250,000 last year to PPCCs Foundation to benefit its two-year nursing program, said Yuhas, who is on the foundations board.

The colleges expansion should help address the nursing shortage, Yuhas added.

The county has about 1,000 unfilled positions for registered nurses, he said.

This investment will help our entire community, Yuhas said.

Bolton expects the programs to be popular. PPCCs nursing degree program accepts only 10 percent of applicants, who have an average GPA of 3.99, and it has the highest nursing board pass rates in the state, he said.

What happens to those other 90 percent of applicants?

They go into surgical tech, medical office tech, phlebotomy or other health care areas, Bolton said. And right now, we have a tremendous supply-side issue and bottle-necking on getting into those programs.

New theater, arts facility

Another big project is the creation of Studio West, just west of PPCCs Downtown Studio Campus.

PPCC bought a 10,000-square-foot building, formerly Gowdy Printcraft, at 22 N. Sierra Madre St., and for three years leased it to Borealis Fat Bikes.

The historic building will undergo a $1 million transformation beginning in March into an arts complex with the Taffy and Steve Mulliken Black Box Theatre, the Kristen Kane Faricy Dance Studio and a large art gallery.

Bolton said Studio West will be part of the thriving downtown arts scene, now a designated Creative District, and will be only a couple of blocks north of the U.S. Olympic Museum now under construction.

We thought wed capitalize on the cool, gritty, old urban building with exposed bricks and beams, Bolton said. Its going to make a wonderful arts studio.

Other programs are being moved to accommodate more growth.

PPCC will increase the 3,000 square feet it has leased for three years for welding and construction training at 850 Aeroplaza Drive to 26,000 square feet to develop a new Technical Education Center. The building will house advanced manufacturing programs, including robotics, machining, 3-D printing, CAD and electronics, welding and construction.

Those programs have been full every semester, Bolton said of the latter two.

The center also is to be ready by the fall semester.

Moving those programs will allow PPCC to expand other career and technical programs at its main Centennial Campus on South Academy Boulevard, Bolton said.

PPCC also is leasing a classroom and computer lab at The Catalyst Campus, 555 E. Pikes Peak Ave., for its Cyber Range. In new secure labs, PPCC professors are teaching noncredit cybersecurity courses that prepare working professionals to take industry certification exams.

We needed a safe place to train because we bring in viruses and malware, Bolton said.

The classes are taught by advanced, certified and employed IT professionals, so students work alongside those in the know, he said.

Focus on needed skills

Finally, several grants are enabling PPCC to move some of its paramedic training, a substantial part of the Emergency Medical Technician program, as well as noncredit paramedic programs to the UCHealth Community Education Center at 175 S. Union Blvd.

Classes are being offered there this semester. Eventually, those programs will move to the new Health Education Center, Bolton said.

Health care, cyber and advanced manufacturing skills are really our focus areas now, he said. Thats where Colorado Springs is growing and where more workers are needed. Hence the investment in those areas.

Along with increasing enrollment, the reconfiguration and expansion of campuses are expected to help the school maintain its increasing student retention, which was at 43 percent eight years ago and is now at 55.5 percent. That means 55.5 percent of students enrolled in the fall of 2017 who didnt graduate or transfer were enrolled in the fall of 2018.

Its our eighth consecutive year of improving fall retention rates, Bolton said, which we view as our most critical indicator.

PPCC also has had record numbers of students graduating for five of the past six years, he said, ranking it tops in the state for number of graduates and retention rates.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656FREMONT COUNTY For $54,000 a year and good benefits for his wife and two kids, corrections officer Joe Hill spends up to 16 hours a day suited up and sequestered inside a concrete and razor-wire fortress with Americas most dangerous criminals.

 The nations only federal Supermax prison complex, just outside Florence, is end-of-the-line lockup for the worst of the worst  terrorists, mob bosses and violent inmates with a history of killing guards or escaping from other facilities. Prisoners in the highest-security ADX units are housed in single cells. For some, their only regular interactions are with guards such as Hill, who serve meals on trays and escort them, handcuffed and one by one, to and from scheduled appointments and outdoor cages for rec time.

This place was built for people who are never going to hit the street again, said Hill, a 41-year-old Army veteran who served three combat tours before starting at the prison seven years ago. These people arent like me and you. Some of them, theyve got nothing left to lose.

Hills line of work comes with death threats and constant risk  of having urine or feces flung at his face or getting kicked, punched, bitten, stabbed or worse.

What it stopped providing on Dec. 22, the start of the longest government shutdown in history, was a paycheck.

Personally, my family, were hanging in but I gotta say its miserable, Hill said Tuesday, Day 32. If this goes on much longer, I dont know what were going to do.

While a surge in unscheduled absences of air traffic controllers brought long waits on the East Coast, and absences at the IRS meant delayed returns, there were few callouts at Supermax during the 35 days officers and staff were required to work without pay.

And the prison and community stepped up to help during the lean weeks that began just before Christmas.

Those officers, theyre not getting paid and still going to work, at whats probably one of the toughest jobs in the country, and that is so admirable, said Florence Brewing owner Hans Prahl, who hosted a standing-room-only crowd at a community potluck and giveaway bash for federal employees last Sunday.

Prahl, like most who live and work in this railroad boom town by the Arkansas River, knows the prison guards and workers are what stands between them and an inmate population that includes 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, and murderer Richard McNair, who escaped from three prisons before being moved to the Alcatraz of the Rockies.

More than that, its just what neighbors do.

This is a small town. This is our family, said Prahl, who wasnt the only business owner, in Florence and beyond, offering to run tabs and work out handshake arrangements for those on furlough or working without pay.

On Friday, Hill and other affected federal workers got some long-awaited  albeit temporary  relief, when President Trump and congressional leaders reached a short-term agreement to fund the government. The deal runs through Feb. 15, while negotiations continue over border wall funding.

Its certainly good news for federal employees whove been burning through savings or had to tap credit to pay bills and feed their families, said corrections officer and local union president Richard Arko. It is not, however, the solution hed hoped it would be.

Im excited that were going to get at least the back pay, said Arko, who expects employees will start seeing checks arrive early this week. And I suspect well get our next check before they can shut down again.

As the deal reads now, however, hundreds of thousands of federal workers with jobs deemed too essential to furlough could easily wind up back in the same spot if Congress and Trump cant make a deal before the clock runs out.

Im kind of curious to see if Trump doesnt come up with some other way to fund it, like declaring an emergency or something, Arko said. But I guess only time will tell what theyre going to do.

However the next three weeks play out, the unprecedented partial government closure was a game-changer as well as a painful lesson, Arko said.

At first when this first happened, nobody really thought it was going to go very long. They didnt think it was a for real thing, he said.

As the shutdown approached Day 30 and federal employees were facing a second missed paycheck, attitudes turned a corner.

That was kind of the beginning of the end, the point people finally swallowed their pride and started accepting help, because I dont think most people can go past two paychecks, Arko said.

Around that time, Amanda Suddoth saw a huge jump in the number of people visiting her Penrose food pantry, My Neighbors Cupboard, which usually serves around 300 of the areas seniors and veterans and working poor families.

We had 550 federal employees in a single week, and thats on top of our usual numbers, said Suddoth, whose husband works at the prison and, late Tuesday afternoon, was close to wrapping up a second, 16-hour unpaid shift in two days. I just thank God were able to provide, because there is so much need.

Should federal workers find themselves back in the same shutdown spot, Arko said he hopes theyll be better prepared for such contingencies.

This has given us enough time to know what to do. We can get unemployment, we know that there are food banks, credit unions willing to loan people money, he said. Of course Im hopeful they dont do it again, but now we know what our options are moving forward.A new program will allow some El Paso County inmates addicted to opioids to receive an injection that could help keep them from relapsing once they are back on the street.

The jails health care provider, Armor Correctional Health Services, will begin offering a dose of Vivitrol to some inmates during their final month of incarceration. The drug helps people who struggle with addiction by blocking the receptors in the brain that allow them to experience the pleasure of a high from prescription painkillers or heroin.

Once released, the addict will be referred to a local health care provider to continue to get a monthly shot and counseling, with the goal of staying clean.

Vivitrol is used by many in the 4th Judicial District Recovery Court, which offers some felony offenders an alternative to incarceration if they agree to undergo substance abuse treatment for at least two years.

Officials say the program has the potential to help combat an epidemic of opioid dependence and overdoses while reducing recidivism among those who cycle in and out of jail due to addiction-driven crimes.

Of the 560 opioid-related deaths in Colorado in 2017, 92 were in El Paso County.

Typically, when you get out of custody, one of the first things you want to do as an addict is use, said Magistrate Daphne Burlingame, who overseas Recovery Court. This pilot project is, I think, going to be helpful to allow people who are just getting out of jail to have a little help in being able to stay clean, especially in that very difficult first few weeks or months.

Doses of Vivitrol retail for more than $1,000 each. But the drugs manufacturer, Dublin-based Alkermes, will provide injections to the jails health care provider for free, said Vickie Freeman, Armor senior vice president.

Alkermes supplies Vivitrol to hundreds of correctional facilities across the country, including other jails served by Armor.

Many of those who receive their first injection at the jail will not have to pay for follow-up injections, which are covered by Medicaid, Freeman said.

Officials are not sure exactly how many people the program will serve. The screening process for Recovery Court will identify some candidates, and Armor might find other inmates who struggle with opioid addiction and could benefit from the drug, she said.

The Recovery Court has about 180 participants, all of whom have criminal histories that are connected to their drug addiction, Burlingame said. She estimates that about half of those offenders have an opioid addiction.

However, upon their release, those with opioid dependence dont always choose to use Vivitrol or other drugs that can help them overcome their addiction. Such drugs, which fall under the umbrella of what practitioners refer to as medication-assisted treatment, also include buprenorphine and methadone.

There are some downsides to Vivitrol, which critics have dismissed as a Band-Aid thats not a true cure for addiction.

If someone whos received the shot tries to use large amounts of opioids to overcome the drugs effects and get high, serious injury, coma or death can result, according to Vivitrols website. Some common side effects include nausea, headache and vomiting. Patients can also experience depression and suicidal thoughts.

Those who wish to receive the injection will be required to sign a consent form outlining those risks, per an agreement establishing the program that was approved by county commissioners on Tuesday. Prospective participants will also undergo medical screening, which will involve lab work and a review of their health history, Freeman said.

Insurance coverage of Vivitrol can be spotty on private plans, so continuing treatment could be expensive for those who dont have Medicaid, said Dr. Kevin Snyder, co-founder of Achieve Whole Recovery, the Colorado Springs-based treatment provider that has signed on to administer follow-up injections to program participants.

Still, Snyder said that Vivitrol is a good option for inmates who are addicted to opioids and about to be released from jail.

A patient must have fully detoxed from opioids before they receive a Vivitrol injection  which makes the drug particularly useful in a jail setting, where people who struggle with addiction are forced to go without drugs and alcohol for extended periods. Plus, the medication isnt taken daily, like methadone, so theres less opportunity for a patient to miss a dose and fall off the wagon, he said.

With that shot right out that door  youre going to really empower that person to be able to make a lot better choices and resist some of the potential triggers and temptations, he said.

The new program is viewed as a positive step for Armor, which initially struggled to meet its contractual obligations when it began serving the county in 2017. The county threatened to fine the Miami-based company that fall after an audit found a backlog of inmate sick calls, lapses in documentation of staff training and other problems. But the Sheriffs Office and the health care provider have said that the issues were corrected in a timely manner.

Alkermes has been criticized in media reports for aggressively lobbying and efforts to market Vivitrol to criminal justice systems, while some medical experts have said that other drugs may be safer or more effective for those overcoming addiction.

But the manufacturer says Vivitrol is effective and has been used to treat more than 300,000 patients since it was approved. A 2016 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the injections helped prevent relapse among offenders, said Sherry Feldberg, Alkermes director of public affairs and product communications.

Our marketing practices are ethical, legal and appropriate. With the growing epidemic of opioid dependence, multiple stakeholders across public health and public safety are directly involved with individuals with opioid dependence and the treatment process, Feldberg said in an email.Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Mainly cloudy. A few peeks of sunshine possible. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 62F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.Schaller added: With that being said, we could take out a $3 million bond and we would still be on the hook for $18 million, and theres absolutely no way  thats my personal opinion  that there is room in our budget for that.

Citing cost, the council then voted unanimously to deny the request to construct the overpass.

The dramatic cost increase over the past decade wasn't the only factor as to why the project was held up.

One sticking point, according to Getzschman, is a railroad requirement that would cause the closing of the Linden Avenue crossing if the viaduct were to be built.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Because you are working with the railroad it actually required the closing of one crossing or you had to build a walkway over those tracks, he said. A walkway over the tracks is estimated at about $7 million of the overall project costand so that has added to some of the frustration.

Getzschman also said that a new wrinkle in the cost-benefit analysis of building the viaduct is the U.S. Highway 30 Schuyler to Fremont Expressway project.Southeast Community College

Southeast Community College in Nebraska has released its deans list for the quarter recently completed on the Beatrice, Lincoln and Milford campuses.

To be recognized on SCCs deans list, a student must complete at least six quarter credit hours of the term with a minimum grade-point average of 3.5. Classes with a grade of P (Pass) do not count toward the six-hour minimum.donald trump xi jinping us-china trade war

President Donald Trump and the US government are neck-deep in a trade war with China. Yet US businesses and investors pushed more venture capital investment into China in 2018 than ever before. Though Trump has added tariff after tariff on the country, Americas private sector doesnt appear to share the same urge to punish or restrict the growth of companies in China. Likewise, Chinas venture capital investment into the US continues, albeit at a somewhat slower pace.

US Investments Make up 35% of all VC Money in China

According to the South China Morning Post, USD-denominated capital raised for Chinese investment burst upwards by 125% last year, compared to 2017. The figure reached $15.5 billion and formed 35% of the market. In 2017, USD-denominated investments were lower at 28.7%, according to Zero2IPO.

Hui Wang, founder of Bolian Financial, says US investors have not been affected as much by the domestic Chinese environment compared to even Chinese venture capitalists themselves. He says:



The perfect price for oil right now is roughly around the range of $60 to $70 per barrel, according to Carlos Pascual, a senior vice president and energy expert at IHS Markit.

What the global economy is looking for is a price that is going to be able to sustain the energy sector, and which is affordable for consumers as well, Pascual told Yahoo Finance UK during a special one-to-one video interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

US crude oil prices are currently trading around $53 per barrel, while global Brent crude prices are trading around $61 per barrel.

Pascual predicts that prices will likely stay in the range of $60 to $80 in 2019.

Prices at the pump are known to jump when oil prices surge, putting a squeeze on consumers. Photo: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images

The US, Saudi Arabia, and Russia are currently three of the most influential oil producers in the world.

READ MORE: Coverage from the World Economic ForumCARACAS, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has proclaimed himself interim president with U.S. support, is considering a request for funds from international institutions including the IMF to finance his interim government, two sources said.

Guaido's team is planning to name a new board to state-run oil firm PDVSA's U.S. unit Citgo Petroleum and a new representative to the Inter-American Development Bank, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

Guaido does not yet have control of the state's functions, which remain loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (Reporting by Corina Pons and Brian Ellsworth Editing by Angus Berwick)Kik Kin ceo ted livingston

Canadian messaging app company Kik Interactive Inc. is planning to take the SEC to court over a potential enforcement action against Kiks 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) of the Waterloo, Ontario-based tech companys proprietary cryptocurrency, Kin.

A Kik representative told CCN the stakes are high for the entire cryptocurrency industry:

We are unsure of how the Commission will vote, but we believe that any enforcement action against Kik, Kin, and the foundation would be detrimental to the entire cryptocurrency industry.

Kik CEO Ted Livingston told the Wall Street Journal about his companys upcoming legal battle with the Washington D.C. regulatory giant, and wrote more about it on his Medium blog.

Read the full story on CCN.com.The Trump Administration plans to start returning some asylum-seeking migrants to Mexico while they await their U.S. immigration court hearings, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The program, announced on Friday, will start at the border in San Diego. There, some migrants seeking asylum will be turned away after being given a notice for an immigration court date, likely a month in the future.



The Trump Administration hasnt provided any specific numbers for how many asylum seekers will be admitted into the U.S. or how many will be sent back to Mexico while awaiting their hearings.



The migrants seeking asylum are primarily from Central America. In December, Mexico said it would offer them humanitarian visas that allow them to work and live in Mexico while awaiting their U.S. hearings.

Other than in San Diego, U.S. policy will be unchanged at other legal crossings, at least for now. It also wont impact those who enter the country illegally.

Previously, President Trump had wanted to automatically reject asylum claims from migrants that entered the country illegally. However, the Supreme Court blocked him from doing so.By Jibran Ahmad

KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan Jan 26 (Reuters) - The Taliban's new political leader is expected to join meetings with U.S. officials in Qatar imminently, Taliban sources said on Saturday as the latest round of talks to find ways to end the 17-year Afghan war entered a sixth day.

The peace talks, initially slated for two days, are continuing despite Taliban representatives staging a brief walkout on Friday over differences with U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.

Two senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan who are privy to the negotiations said momentum was building following Thursday's appointment of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as the political leader of the hardline Islamist group.

Baradar, released from a prison in Pakistan last year, is expected to fly to Qatar to join the session - a move they believe will be welcomed by a U.S. side keen to talk to senior Taliban figures.

"He is expected to join soon," one of the senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan said.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was not immediately available for comment.

Question marks remain over Baradar's health, with Taliban officials saying after his release in October that Baradar needed rest before joining the movement's leadership council. Baradar, who earlier led the insurgent group's military operations in southern Afghanistan, was arrested in 2010 by a team from Pakistan and U.S. intelligence agencies.

A co-founder of the movement, he was a close friend of the reclusive former Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who gave him his nom de guerre, Baradar or brother.

His appointment marks a new push to bring Taliban out of the political and diplomatic shadows, with several other officials being appointed to oversee education, mining and health issues.

Staging near daily attacks against the Western-backed Afghan government and its security forces, the Taliban controls nearly half of Afghanistan and are widely seen as more powerful than at any time since being toppled in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Story continues

Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, said last week that 45,000 members of the countrys security forces had been killed since he took office in the fall of 2014.

When he joins talks, Baradar will be faced with easing U.S. fears over the Taliban's refusal to cut ties with al-Qaeda - the issue at the core of Friday's walkout.

One of the key U.S. demands is a guarantees from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not be used as future base for terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

"The Taliban has assured the U.S. that they will oppose any attempt by militant groups to use Afghanistan to stage terrorist attacks on America or its allies," a senior Taliban leader told Reuters, adding that U.S. wants the Taliban to snap ties with Islamic State and al Qaeda.

"We are willing to denounce links with Islamic State but we refuse to disconnect ties with al-Qaeda because they accept Taliban supremo Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada as their leader too," the leader told Reuters, on condition of anonymity. (Additional reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Rupam Jain in Kabul, Writing by Greg Torode, Editing by)But while business owners remain optimistic going into 2019, investment intentions are flat compared to last year.

Canadian entrepreneurs expect revenues to increase in 2019, but many are growing concerned about uncertainty surrounding the economy and labour shortages, according to a new report by the Business Development Bank of Canada.

The report, Investment Intentions of Canadian Entrepreneurs, released Tuesday, looks at the 2019 investment outlook for small-to-medium sized businesses across the country. BDC interviewed more than 4,000 business owners about their investing intentions for the next year.

The report found that, with the economy expected to grow by 1.9 per cent in 2019, optimism regarding business prospects for the year is still high among businesses across Canada. According to the survey, 73 per cent of respondents expect an increase in revenue, a percentage point increase from 2018.

The level of confidence among businesses is the same as last year, and I think thats good news because there is a lot of uncertainty around the economy, Pierre Cleroux, the vice president and chief economist at BDC, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance Canada.

But while business owners remain optimistic going into 2019, investment intentions are flat compared to last year. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they would spend less than they did last year, while 31 per cent said they would spend more.

Businesses are feeling optimistic, they are still investing, but one of the reasons why they arent investing more is a shortage of labour, Cleroux said.

Its getting more and more difficult to recruit people. When we asked businesses, Why arent you investing more? the number one reason is because they have difficulties in recruiting people.

The labour shortage is an issue thats becoming increasingly acute, according to the report. As revenues grow, businesses are hitting capacity and struggling to find the qualified workers needed for continued growth.

The labour shortage that has plagued Canada for two years is holding back investment, the report said.

Story continues

This is the top-cited problem in all provinces except Alberta and Saskatchewan, where many business owners are losing faith in the economy.

Still, investment intentions are picking up in some provinces, including British Columbia, Manitoba and Alberta.

In Alberta, the ramped-up investment is focused in the services sector, while intentions remain weak in the natural resources and construction sectors.

Despite the boost to investment plans, Albertans remain the most pessimistic about the Canadian economy. Just 35 per cent of businesses surveyed reported having confidence in the economy.

Its not surprising that Albertans are pessimistic, because of the oil price drop and struggling economy over the last few years, Cleroux said.

Growth in Alberta is going to be around 1.5 and 1.7 per cent, when the growth used to be around 5 per cent. That is quite the difference.

Quebec is most optimistic going into 2019, with 78 per cent of respondents saying they are confident in the economy, followed by the Atlantic provinces (60 per cent), Ontario (58 per cent) and B.C. (56 per cent.)

Most companies that are investing plan on using revenues for new technology, a shift from last year, when the focus was largely on purchasing new manufacturing tools. According to the report, 43 per cent will invest in adopting new technologies.

The way businesses are investing is different, Cleroux said. They are not investing as much in buildings and equipment. They are investing more in technology, employee training, research and development. Its a new phenomenon.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.howard schultz bitcoin blockchain starbucks 2020 us presidential election

The Atlantic reported Sunday that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is giving serious consideration to a presidential run in 2020 as an independent candidate.

The revelation was made in a recently recorded 60 Minutes interview, The Atlantic said, in a report with a blistering editorial for a headline: ExStarbucks CEO Could Get Trump Re-elected.

Howard Schultz 2020 a Spoiler Campaign?

Other sources of news within the mainstream media echoed the sentiment from The Atlantic Sunday, casting an independent Schultz campaign as a potential spoiler for the 2020 Democratic candidates chances to beat Donald Trump.

Read the full story on CCN.com.FILE PHOTO: A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil production area near Wink, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo

By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices rose by 1 percent on Thursday, boosted by the U.S. threat of sanctions on Venezuela, but gains were capped by record high gasoline inventories and an unexpected big build in crude stocks in the United States.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CLc1) futures rose 51 cents to settle at $53.13 a barrel, a 0.97 percent gain. Brent crude (LCOc1) futures fell 5 cents to settle at $61.09 a barrel.

Washington signaled it could impose sanctions on Venezuela's crude exports as Caracas descends further into political and economic turmoil. The threat to reduce supplies supported futures prices.

The United States, the top importer of Venezuelan crude, is seeking to ensure that the OPEC member's oil revenue goes to opposition leader Juan Guaido, who swore himself in as interim president, and to cut off money from President Nicolas Maduro, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

"The breakdown in diplomatic relations was interpreted as upping the possibility of a U.S. sanction on Venezuelan oil that would likely force U.S. refiners to seek alternative supplies at higher prices, hence the WTI gains," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.

Venezuelan oil is predominantly heavy crude, which requires extensive refining. It is frequently blended with lighter crudes to give refiners higher-value products.

With Iran already crippled by U.S. sanctions, a drop in Venezuelan exports could squeeze global supply further.

Geneva-based Petro-Logistics said on its website that Iranian crude and condensate exports in December "fell steeply" from November to less than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) due to U.S. sanctions - lower than some other estimates.

Both Brent and WTI are both backed by light, sweet crudes, and are not directly linked to Venezuelan oil.

But concern about the supply of heavy crudes is apparent in the U.S. physical market, where the price for Mars Sour (WTC-MRS), a medium crude, shot to its highest since early 2011.

Story continues

Two of the world's biggest commodities trading houses, Glencore (GLEN.L) and Mercuria Energy Group, predict more oil price volatility in coming months due to concerns about supplies from Venezuela and Iran. For graphic on Venezuela's crude exports and US crude prices, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2S57l4p

ANEMIC U.S. GASOLINE DEMAND

Weighing on oil futures, U.S. crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) sharply rose by 8 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday, versus forecasts for a decline of 42,000 barrels.

Gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI) rose for the eighth straight week to a record 259.7 million barrels, as demand for the motor fuel over the past four weeks fell 0.1 percent from a year ago. [EIA/S]

"The report was rather bearish, punctuated by the large crude oil inventory increase," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital Management. "Gasoline demand remains anemic."

Worries about the longer-term outlook for global economic growth, and therefore demand for crude, has pressured oil prices. Persistent concerns about the U.S-China trade war as well as slower world growth forecasts have kept investors wary.

For graphic on World economic growth and oil demand, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2S3IC0h

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London and Koustav Samanta in Singapore and Colin Packham in Sydney; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Chizu Nomiyama)Israeli investment platform OurCrowd has partnered with the cannabis-focused early stage growth equity fund 7thirty to create a global cannabis technology venture capital fund.

What Happened

The new fund created by OurCrowd and 7thirty will be based in Boulder, Colorado with $30 million in assets under management. It will focus on cannabis technology companies in medtech, agtech, retail, e-commerce, marketplaces, SaaS solutions and deep-tech research. The fund aims to have a global presence and plans to invest in companies from Israel, Canada and the U.S.

Why It's Important

Cannabis is enjoying strong growth across the world, as more countries legalize medicinal or recreational use or allow cultivation and processing of industrial hemp.

Last year, Canada fully legalized cannabis.

In the US, 33 states, Washington, D.C. and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands have legalized medical weed. Ten states allow adult-use cannabis. The passage of the Farm Bill in December legalized industrial hemp on a federal level.

In Israel, medical weed and hemp are legal and the country is about to allow cannabis exports.

In this way, the three countries are well-positioned to be leaders in the cannabis space, which in turn creates a favorable environment for companies to invest in cannabis technologies  giving

investors have the opportunity to take advantage of the growth.

Related Links:

Cannabis-Focused Recruiting Company Vangst Closes M Series A Financing Round

Watch The Rejected Medical Marijuana Super Bowl Commercial: 'Cannabis Has Given Me My Life Back'

See more from Benzinga

 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.(Adds value of imports for calendar year 2018, quote from trader)

By Sudarshan Varadhan

NEW DELHI, Jan 25 (Reuters) - India's 2018 thermal coal imports rose at the fastest pace in four years, according to two industry sources, despite moves by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to cut imports in a bid to reduce its trade deficit.

Coal is among the top five commodities imported by India, one of the world's largest consumers of coal, and the rise in imports of the fuel after two consecutive years of decline adds to its trade deficit.

That trade gap has been hurting the valuation of the rupee, the worst performing major Asian currency in 2018.

Thermal coal imports jumped 19 percent to 171.85 million tonnes in 2018, the highest since 2014, according to data from American Fuels & Natural Resources, a Dubai-based trader of U.S. origin coal. Thermal coal is mainly used to produce electricity.

Imports of coking coal - which is mainly used in the manufacturing of steel - rose at the quickest rate since 2015, according to consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie and American Fuels & Natural Resources.

India imported 52.26 million tonnes of coking coal in 2018, up 14 percent from 45.93 million tonnes in 2017, the data showed.

The value of all coal imports for the year ended December 31, 2018 was 28.7 percent higher at 1.72 trillion Indian rupees ($24.25 billion) than it was a year earlier, according to government data from the coal and trade ministries reviewed by Reuters.

Traders say coal imports grew largely due to restrictions on consumption of petroleum coke, a dirtier alternative to coal, in some parts of the country.

"2018 was a booming year for coal imports in India, mostly on the back of demand from cement and small and medium-scale industries in India," said Puneet Gupta, founder of online coal and petcoke marketplace Coalshastra.

"Higher demand was also fuelled by restrictions on the use of petcoke," he said. Petcoke consumption dropped about 15 percent in 2018, according to government data.

Story continues

BOOST FOR INTERNATIONAL MINERS

While higher coal imports may be bad news for India's trade deficit, they are a boon for international miners such as Indonesia's Adaro Energy, Australia's Whitehaven Coal , U.S, coal miner Peabody Energy Corp and global commodity merchants such as Glencore.

Indonesia provided more than 61 percent of India's thermal coal imports, while South Africa accounted for 22 percent and the United States more than 7 percent.

Imports of U.S. thermal coal, which burns better compared with Indonesian coal, almost doubled to 12.46 million tonnes in 2018, according to American Fuels.

Cheaper coal from countries such as Indonesia are likely to be preferred by buyers in India in 2019, over better burning coal from the United States, due to lower freight costs, according to Ali Yasrab, director of Iman Resources, a UAE-based trader of U.S. origin coal.

"If coal prices reach 2018 peak levels, U.S. coal will become popular in India again," Yasrab said.

The ports of Mundra, Krishnapatnam and Kandla handled about 37.5 percent of all of the thermal coal imports, according to American Fuels.

The Adani Group, which handles about a third of India's imported coal, said last year it expects a "reasonable rise in imports" till fiscal year 2021 due to "rail transportation challenges" affecting India's domestic coal industry.

Analysts say they expect India to be a key market for global miners in 2019 as China's "war on pollution" will lead to lower demand from that country.

($1 = 70.9280 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan Editing by Martin Howell, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Andrew Cawthorne)By Marianna Parraga and Corina Pons

MEXICO CITY/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's most important foreign asset, its $10 billion U.S. refining arm Citgo Petroleum, is hunkering down to arm itself with a legal strategy to block efforts for its board to be removed and its revenues diverted to an opposition government, sources close to the talks said.

Juan Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled congress who proclaimed himself president this week, is considering naming a new team to lead Citgo, two sources told Reuters.

But President Nicolas Maduro said in Caracas on Friday that his government would seek to defend the refiner, raising the prospect that Citgo, run by Maduro appointees, could become a battleground between the two claimants to the leadership of Venezuela.

"Citgo is the property of the Venezuelan state," Maduro said, adding that the OPEC-member country plans to continue selling oil to the United States, its first destination for crude exports and state-run PDVSA's largest source of cash.

The United States led numerous other Western Hemisphere nations in recognising Guaido as president of Venezuela this week. The White House has been exploring ways to redirect oil revenues to the opposition, but the path to engineering such a move is unclear.

Citgo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, but it has not been able to send its revenues, in the form of dividends, to Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions.

Citgo's board earlier this week travelled to the Bahamas, where a company office was installed last year. It will seek legal avenues for the team to continue leading the firm, two company sources said.

Citgo President Asdrubal Chavez has been called to meetings in Caracas, according to those sources. He is the cousin of late President Hugo Chavez, who preceded Maduro.

A Citgo vice president separately travelled to Washington this week for talks on the company's future, the sources added.

Story continues

"Citgo is registered in Delaware. It belongs to Venezuela, which now has two presidents. The United States only recognises one, but that is not the one who appointed people at Citgo's board," one of the sources said, explaining the legal challenges.

The Houston company's 750,000-barrel-per-day refining network is the biggest U.S. importer of Venezuelan crude. A spokeswoman at Citgo said executives were not being made available for interviews at this time.

For the first nine months of 2018, Citgo posted net income of about $500 million from $23 billion in gross sales and had $3.4 billion in financial debt, according to a creditor with access to its balances, which are not public.

A Venezuelan opposition source familiar with Guaido's plans said the goal of the Citgo effort was to "raise funds."

But it is unclear whether any effort to divert funds from Maduro-controlled PDVSA or its subsidiaries would succeed.

"I don't think that the Trump administration has the right to tell anybody where the oil revenues are going to go  certainly not at this stage," said Michael Fitzgerald, a partner at Paul Hastings who focuses on Latin America.

EXTERNAL PRESSURE

Some creditors of Venezuela have engaged in the long legal process of trying to squeeze payments out of Caracas by pursuing Citgo. However, those creditors now run the risk of getting little in return for millions of dollars spent on legal fees if the United States moves against Venezuelan assets on its territory.

At the end of September, the company had almost $500 million in cash and an available $900 million credit line, the creditor said. The company is "building cash," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Stephen Goltz, because of the U.S. sanctions

The White House earlier this month resumed talks with U.S. oil firms to explore new sanctions on Venezuela, including an embargo on Venezuelan crude sales to the United States and a prohibition on U.S. firms exporting fuels to the South American country.

The White House has resisted imposing an embargo on imports from Venezuela, in part because of opposition from U.S. refiners strapped for supply of heavy crude oil.

U.S. refiners currently import about 500,000 barrels of oil daily from Venezuela. Much of the demand comes from complex refiners on the Gulf Coast that use the crude to make high-margin products like diesel.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City and Corina Pons in Caracas; additional reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, Gary McWilliams and Laila Kearney in Houston, Luc Cohen in Bogota, Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York, and Tom Hals in Wilmington; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)FILE PHOTO: People walk at a branch of Tsesnabank in Astana FILE PHOTO: People walk at a branch of Tsesnabank, Kazakhstan's second biggest lender by assets, in Astana, Kazakhstan September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Mariya Gordeyeva/File Photo

By Olzhas Auyezov and Mariya Gordeyeva

ALMATY (Reuters) - The Kazakh authorities are urgently looking for a bank to take over no. 2 lender Tsesnabank as they believe it needs new financing to prevent a collapse, three sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Officials from the government and central bank have approached at least three other Kazakh banks and hope to tie up a deal in February, the sources said. They are offering financial incentives for any bank prepared to take it over.

The authorities want to avoid liquidating the bank, which has over $1 billion in retail deposits and received a $1.8 billion state bailout in September, because of the impact on the wider economy, the sources said.

They want to move quickly to prevent a run on deposits. Also, some analysts say a presidential election could be called in the spring. A spokesman for the election commission could not be reached for comment. President Nursultan Nazarbayez would almost certainly be reelected but the authorities would be keen to tie up a takeover before any poll.

The state-owned "bad bank" said on Friday it planned to buy some of Tsesnabank's assets. One of the sources said this was part of the plan to make the troubled bank more attractive to another bank.

"The scheme is simple  an investor puts his own money into the bank and the state helps them clean up its loan book," one of the sources said.

Spokesmen for the central bank, the government, Tsesnabank, and its main shareholder, former Nazarbayev chief of staff Adilbek Zhaksybekov, did not reply to requests for comment.

The "bad bank", the Non-Performing Loan Fund (NPLF), said in a bourse announcement on Friday it planned to sell 604 billion tenge ($1.59 billion) in domestic bonds next week in order to finance asset purchases from Tsesnabank.

The approach raises more questions about the health of the oil exporter's banking system after Nazarbayev declared in April that bailouts worth nearly $10 billion for several banks in 2017 would be the last.

Story continues

Tsesnabank's September bailout came in spite of that promise. The authorities said it was a move to support indebted farmers, who are clients of the bank, and would help an otherwise healthy bank bridge a short-term liquidity gap.

BAD LOANS

But some bankers told Reuters that Tsesnabank's financial reports indicate that it is in distress due to bad loans.

The authorities have also now decided that the balance sheet is so unhealthy that it would be easier for another bank to take it over than to liquidate or bail it out, the sources say.

Chief executive Ulf Wokurka said the balance sheet problems were to do with "worsening asset quality". His deputy, Dmitry Li, said in a written reply to Reuters queries that it reflected "seasonal cash flows of borrowers in the agricultural sector".

The banking sector was hit hard by a fall in oil prices and subsequent tenge devaluation in 2015 because many banks lent in dollars. Customers then found it hard to repay the debts.

More than half of Tsesnabank's loan book was denominated in foreign currency, mostly dollars, at the end of 2017.

Although oil prices have recovered, economic growth has slowed and some non-oil sectors are in crisis, such as farming where several large companies have defaulted on their debt.

The central bank also says some banks have been poorly managed and large bailouts have already drained billions of dollars from state coffers.

The IMF said in December "the recent additional financial support for Tsesnabank raises concerns".

It said state support was justified only for "systemic, viable banks." The only bank considered by economists to be of systemic importance to the financial system in Kazakhstan is Halyk which is five times larger than Tsesnabank and accounts for a third of total banking sector assets.

Nevertheless, economists said a collapse of Tsesnabank could be a headache for the authorities if they were forced to compensate the large number of depositors from the deposit insurance fund.

DISTRESS

Tsesnabank showed first signs of distress when it reported a sharp liquidity drop in the second quarter last year. In September, the central bank provided a 150 billion tenge ($407 million) liquidity support loan, later increased to 200 billion tenge.

Shortly afterwards, the central bank and the government said Tsesnabank would sell agricultural loans worth 450 billion tenge ($1.2 billion) to the NPLF. The loans, a quarter of Tsesnabank's overall loan book, were sold at face value so it did not book a loss, the bank said.

While the bank reported either growing or stable total interest income in its income statements for 2016, 2017 and 2018, interest income in its cash flow report was declining, according to the publicly available accounts.

The discrepancy means that Tsesnabank either extended long-term loans that were not expected to generate cash flow for some time or booked interest income from loans even though that interest had not been paid by the borrower, bankers say.

The gap between Tsesnabank's accrued and received interest income grew from 12 percent in 2015 to 36 percent in the first half of 2018, the accounts show.

The central bank told Reuters in an email in November that "generally, a declining ratio of received interest to accrued interest is being observed at certain banks, which is linked to the worsening financial situation of borrowers whose loans are denominated in foreign currency".

($1 = 379.3700 tenge)

(Editing by Anna Willard)FILE PHOTO: China's Ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye delivers a speech during the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Conference at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo

By Dale Smith

OTTAWA (Reuters) - China's envoy to Canada on Thursday warned Ottawa there would be repercussions if it banned technology firm Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] from supplying equipment to Canadian 5G networks, the latest blast in a deepening bilateral dispute.

Ambassador Lu Shaye, speaking at a news conference, did not give details. Canada is currently studying the security implications of 5G networks, but unlike some allies has not announced Huawei equipment will be excluded.

"If the Canadian government does ban Huawei from participating in the 5G network, then as for what kind of repercussion there will be, Im not sure, but I believe there will be repercussions," Lu said through an interpreter, urging Ottawa to "make a wise decision on this issue".

Relations between China and Canada turned frosty last month after Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, on a U.S. extradition request.

China subsequently detained two Canadian citizens, and this month a court retried a Canadian man who previously had been found guilty of drug smuggling, and sentenced him to death.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Beijing of arbitrarily using the death penalty and called world leaders to solicit their support.

Lu said when Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland went to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week she should avoid "microphone diplomacy" and not try to rally support.

"If Canada has a sincerity of resolving these issues, then Canada will not do such things. We hope Canada thinks twice before making any actions," he said.

In response, Freeland said Canada had no intention of changing its approach.

"We will continue to speak every day with our allies about this situation," she told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet retreat in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

She declined to give details about the review into 5G technology. A Canadian source directly familiar with the case said the study would not be released in the immediate future.

Story continues

Huawei has a relatively small Canadian operation, employing just shy of 1,000 people. But the company said early this year it had become the 25th largest research and development funder in Canada, thanks to partnerships with local universities.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced bills that would ban the sale of U.S. chips or other components to Huawei, ZTE Corp or other Chinese firms that violate U.S. sanctions or export control laws.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren; writing by David Ljunggren; editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Leslie Adler and Tom Brown)(Bloomberg) -- Chinas foreign minister urged countries not to use fabricated excuses to block Huawei Technologies Co., as Vodafone Group Plc joined a list of companies that are shunning the telecommunications equipment supplier.

Using national power to tarnish and take measures against a certain company, without any evidence, is both unfair and immoral, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters late Friday as he wrapped up a trip to France and Italy.

While Wang said every nation was entitled to protect its information security, that approach shouldnt be abused, according to a statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. He didnt mention Huawei by name, or Vodafones announcement on Friday, but was responding to a question about the recent global crackdown on the Chinese supplier.

The move by Vodafone follows a decision by BT Group Plc to rip Huawei gear out of the backbone of its U.K. mobile network. Deutsche Telekom AG, Europes largest carrier and a major Huawei customer, is also reviewing its purchasing strategy.

U.S. President Donald Trumps administration has been pushing allies to block Huawei from fifth-generation wireless networks, citing fears that China could use its equipment for spying -- something the firms executives have denied. Chinas largest telecom-equipment supplier faces bans in the U.S., Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson, Stanley James

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

2019 Bloomberg L.P.(Adds reaction, detail, background)

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - In an unprecedented move, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who prompted a political furor with comments about Huawei's high-profile extradition case.

John McCallum had embarrassed Trudeau's Liberal government by saying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the United States.

Opposition legislators and former ambassadors accused McCallum of unacceptable political interference in an affair which has badly damaged relations between Canada and China.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in Vancouver last month over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

China subsequently detained two Canadian citizens on national security grounds. A Chinese court later retried a Canadian man who had been jailed for drugs smuggling and sentenced him to death.

"Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum's resignation as Canada's ambassador to China," Trudeau said in a statement that did not explain his reasons.

Veteran diplomats and experts told Reuters it was the first time a Canadian ambassador had ever been officially fired.

Trudeau said as recently as Thursday that he had no plans to replace McCallum, who apologized the same day for his remarks earlier in the week.

But the Toronto Star newspaper on Friday quoted the envoy as saying that if Washington dropped the extradition request "that would be great for Canada". McCallum, 68, a long-time former Liberal cabinet minister, is not a trained diplomat.

Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had served two postings in China, said McCallum's comments on Meng possibly avoiding extradition had signaled to Beijing that its hard line tactics were working.

"He really made it untenable for the prime minister to sustain him (in his post) for any length of time and he had to go," Burton said by telephone, suggesting Trudeau should quickly appoint a special envoy to handle the dispute.

Story continues

Spokespeople for Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland declined to comment when asked about the dismissal.

Andrew Scheer, leader of the official opposition Conservative Party, said in a tweet that Trudeau "should have fired his ambassador the moment he interfered in this case" and accused the prime minister of weakness and indecision.

Polls show the Liberals have a slender lead over the Conservatives ahead of a federal election this October. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)Taiwan,

More than a dozen suspects have been arrested in Taipei for their part in an alleged Taiwan cryptocurrency scam that is worth in the region of $8 million. The scam surrounds a cryptocurrency called IBCoin, which was supposedly used to part investors from their cash in Taiwan.

2018 was a bad year for the crypto industry in terms of scams with a supposed $3 billion in losses due to crypto crime. This alleged crypto fraud case is one of the largest so far this year in Asia and is currently big news in Taiwan.

The Unfolding Scam

Taiwans Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) made the announcement on Saturday that they had apprehended 15 suspects that are believed to be part of a scam that has defrauded over 30 investors out of more than NT$250 million, which breaks down as approximately $8.15 million US Dollars.

Although details are a bit thin on the ground at this moment, the Taiwan Focus news outlet reported on a press conference held by the CIBs Investigation Corps chief, Li Chi-hsun.

Read the full story on CCN.com.Over the past 40 years, there has been a dramatic decline in fishery landings of an iconic Baltic Sea fish: the flounder. In the 1980s, the landings of the flounder fishery in the Gulf of Finland dropped by 90 per cent, a trend that was later confirmed by fishery-independent surveys.

There are two cryptic (i.e. morphologically very similar) species of flounder in the Baltic Sea: the European flounder (Platichthys flesus), which spawn pelagic eggs in high-salinity offshore basins, and the recently described Baltic flounder (Platichthys solemdali), the only endemic fish of the Baltic Sea.

The latter lays demersal eggs and is well adapted to the low salinities of the coastal waters of the Gulf of Finland and northern Baltic Proper. It was long assumed that only the demersal-spawning species occurs in the Gulf of Finland, where salinity is too low for P. flesus's reproduction.

Researchers from the University of Helsinki developed a simple genetic test to distinguish the two species. By analyzing the DNA from flounders' ear bones collected over the past four decades, they discovered that European flounders were in fact once the most abundant species in the Gulf of Finland. However, they have almost completely disappeared.

"We discovered that the decline in fishery landings closely mirrors in time the near-complete disappearance of the pelagic-spawning European flounder - a species that was not supposed to occur here. This species - not the Baltic flounder - dominated local assemblages until three decades ago, but has since disappeared as a result of worsening environmental conditions," says researcher Paolo Momigliano from the University of Helsinki.

European flounders cannot reproduce in the Gulf of Finland; their northernmost spawning ground is east of Gotland, in the eastern Gotland Basin. However, larvae and juveniles can be transported to the Gulf of Finland by deep water currents.

Eutrophication and climate change have contributed to the worsening of environmental conditions in the eastern Gotland Basin. This, in turn, has likely greatly reduced the supply of larvae to the Gulf of Finland, explaining the near-complete disappearance of European flounders from the Finnish coast.

Revealing the contribution of each species to flounder stocks is essential for the appropriate management of this marine resource. The test developed by the authors also provides the means to monitor the contribution of each species to the local flounder assemblages in real-time, and for the first time will allow estimations of demographic changes, resilience to climate change and exploitation, as well as each species' response to management.

"But perhaps more importantly, our study demonstrates that cryptic species could become locally extinct before we even notice their presence," Momigliano points out.

DNA was extracted from 480 otoliths (ear bones), sampled from a collection containing over 29 000 flounder otoliths. These were collected annually from 1975 to 2011 as part of the routine sampling conducted by the Finnish Natural Resources Institute and its predecessor, Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute.

###iStock/Chalabala(NEW YORK) -- Two weeks into an expanding search for a missing 14-year old girl from Tennessee, federal and local authorities are seeking public assistance, and her devastated parents are using visceral metaphors to describe the depths of their agony and plead for the public's help as the days Savannah Leigh Pruitt has been gone accumulate.

"It's like having your soul ripped out of your body," Randall Pruitt said at a press conference with authorities on Friday. "You can't think, you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't rest -- life has just ceased for us since she left."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has joined the Monroe County Sheriffs Office (MCSO) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to search for the missing teen, who was last seen at her home in Madisonville, Tennessee on Jan. 13, according to the FBI and local authorities.

"At this point in time, we truly need the eyes and ears of the community," a MCSO detective said Friday, according to ABC Knoxville affiliate WATE-TV.

The Pruitt family had just moved back to Madisonville from Lawrenceville, Ga. in late December, according to Randall Pruitt, who opened up about his daughter alongside his wife, Savannah's mother, Christina Pruitt, on Friday, WATE reported.

Savannah loves horses, her pet raccoon and other family farm animals, her parents said on Friday, WATE reported, noting that the only time the girl's parents managed to crack a smile through tears was when they talked about their daughter's love for the family farm.

We're very heartbroken," Christina Pruitt said Friday of the oldest of her four children. "I miss her. I don't understand...none of us understand."

We love her dearly and we want her home -- I love you, and come home," the Pruitt parents said, finishing each other's sentences, according to WATE.

We are asking for public assistance in finding Savannah Leigh Pruitt, Sheriff Tommy Jones said in the post. "If anyone has information as to the whereabouts of Miss Pruitt, please contact the Sheriffs Office at 423-442-3911 (423-442-HELP) or the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

A dispatcher at the Monroe Sheriff's office told ABC News the detective was not immediately available to talk about the case, but the FBI confirmed the agency's involvement in the case in a press release this week.

Pruitt is white, 5 feet and 3 inches, 110 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes.

"She may have traveled to the Corbin KY area,' the MCSO's Facebook post said.

Copyright  2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.West Indies beat England in the first test match by a huge difference 381 runs in Barbados. Even after suffering this massive defeat Joe Root expressed confidence that his side can bounce back in the upcoming games and still make the most of the series. England have often been criticised for their selection and Root admitted that they got the selection wrong for the match

Commenting on the mistakes on the selection, Root said, "This winter, we've gone to Sri Lanka and done things very differently to how we've done in the past, and we've seen it work," he said. "We've been bold, we've made some strong selections, and we've reaped the rewards for that over there. We've done similar here and it's not paid off," he added, He also admitted that he should have opted for pacer Stuart Broad instead of two spinners.

The pitch wasn't offering much for the spinners but the English team opted for playing both Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. The pitch was tailor-made for fast bowlers and not playing veteran Broad cost England as the other bowlers failed to stop Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich by making a huge score. Holder went on to score a double ton (203) in the second innings. But England's worries are not restricted to selection as their batting performance was not also disaaponiting.Sister Library, a mobile library touring the nation with 100 books written only by women is the installation Aqui Thami has set up at the ongoing Kochi Muziris Biennale. This installation is a stance against gender inequality in India and across the globe. Sister Library is installed in Pepper House, Fort Kochi, which is one of the venues of the Biennale. These 100 books are stacked inside a pink coloured shelf kept in a corner of the library at Pepper House.

Most of the books in the collection have woman-oriented themes with historical relevance. Some of these are illustrated and have photoes while some others are of cheap printing with little circulation. All books are from the personal collection of Aqui Thami. Books by Sylvia Plath, Ursula Le Guin, Alyssa Beachdel, Naomi Wolf, Gloria Steinem, Susan Sontag, Bell Hooks etc. make up the collection.

Aqui Thami came out with this concept to capitalize on the residual reading habit among women. The books written by women should be taken seriously by the people. The readers should celebrate woman-oriented themes. The views of women should be debated. A future without prejudices against women will only emerge that way, points out Aqui Thami.

Thami wants to highlight the trouble women face for reading in comfort and privacy.

Thami (29) has already toured five Indian cities with the Sister Libray. She came to the Kochi Biennale after touring Goa, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Sister Libray is one of the four infra-projects in the 4th edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. Thami is currently working with Himanshu, the founder of Dharavi Art Room in Mumbai. It is an institution aiming to give solace to the marginalized women and children through the medium of art and to stimulate their personal growth.Kochi: UST Global's Network of Women Ussociates (NOWU), an internal volunteering team that facilitates the empowerment of the company's woman employees, recently organized its annual culinary festival cum fund raising event Yummy Aid 2019. UST Global Yummy Aid is an annual festival that aims to bring together all the employees to raise funds for the upliftment of women and children in our society.



This is the 8th year and the company has raised close to Rs 1,15,000, which will be used towards various CSR initiatives for the underprivileged women and education of children.

The food festival and culinary contest witnessed participation from 18 teams who cooked and brought lip-smacking food from home and sold them at UST Global office in Infopark. The 18 teams also competed for the 'best stall' and 'best signature dish' and 'best charity partner' title. 12 individuals competed for 'Master Chef' title.

The judge for the contest was Vivek Pillai, executive chef, Marriot Hotels. Sonia Thomas was chosen master chef; Ruchikoottu 2.0 got the prize for the best stall; Thodi's Mexicano and Varnaputtu (stall name: Ruchikoottu 2.0) were adjudged best signature dish; while Foodies Paradise was awarded the Best Charity Partner prize. The judge gave away the prizes to the winners. Around 2,000 employees participated from across the offices at Kochi.Meerut (UP): The official mobile phone of an inspector killed in the December mob violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district has been recovered from the residence of the man who allegedly shot him, officials said Sunday.

The recovery comes nearly two months after the incident in Bulandshahr's Siana area where on December 3 a mob fought pitched battles with police , apparently after right-wing activists were angered by the discovery of cow carcasses strewn outside a village.

Inspector Subodh Kumar's phone with a CUG (closed user group) number was recovered along with five more phones Saturday from the house of key accused Prashant Natt, a senior police officer said.

Natt, who had allegedly shot the inspector during the violence, was arrested on December 18 from Sikandrabad and is in jail.

We had got information from sources that inspector Subodh Kumar's mobile phone could be kept hidden at Natt's house and we procured a search warrant from the court to check his place, Additional Superintendent of Police, City, Atul Kumar Shrivastava, said.

The CUG mobile phone of the inspector was recovered from Natt's house during the search. Some other phones were also found and all the phones have been sent to a forensic lab for finding more details like their call records, he told reporters.

However, the pistol that was used to open fire on the inspector is still missing, and the ASP said a search is on for it.

Natt, 26, a resident of Chingrawathi village, would work part-time as a driver in Delhi and nearby areas, and other times worked locally as a labourer, according to the police.

During the violence, a 20-year-old Chingrawathi resident Sumit Kumar was also killed of gunshot.

An FIR was lodged at the Siyana police station against at least 80 people for murder, attempt to murder, rioting, sedition, damaging public property, among other charges.Twenty-seven were named.

So far, 38 accused have been arrested in connection with the violence case, Siyana Circle Officer Raghvendra Mishra told PTI Sunday. Those arrested include Bajrang Dal's Bulandshahr unit convenor Yogesh Raj, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Siyana unit head Shikhar Agarwal, Army jawan Jeetender Malik, and Kalua, who first attacked the inspector, surrounded by five to six men.

A separate FIR for cow slaughter was filed on December 3 in which six accused have been arrested.

Three of them, Azhar Khan, Mehboob Ali and Nadeem Khan, were on January 14 booked under the National Security Act (NSA) by the Bulandshahr administration, which said their release may disrupt public order.Patna: Independent legislator and criminal-turned-politician Anant Singh, popularly known as Bahubali, on Sunday joined the Congress road show here in support of party president Rahul Gandhi's rally in February.

Anant Singh, who is facing several criminal cases, was seen along with Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Minister Akhilesh Singh and hundreds of other party members in the road show to mobilise people for Gandhi's rally on February 3 here.

The Congress is busy organising an anti-BJP rally - 'Jan Aakansha' - at Gandhi Maidan here. This is the first time in 28 years that the Congress is holding a massive rally in the state on its own.

Confirming Anant Singh's presence at the road show, Akhilesh Singh told the media: "He is a strong and popular leader, it will help the party garner support for the rally."

Both Akhilesh Singh and Anant Singh belong to the Bhumihar caste, which is widely seen as the vote bank of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar for over two and a half decades.

Anant Singh, independent legislator from Mokama Assembly constituency of Bihar, is known for his muscle and money power. He said that he would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Munger parliamentary constituency as a Congress candidate.

Akhilesh Singh said it is not yet decided who will contest from where as talks are ongoing with allies regarding a Grand Alliance.

In 2015, Anant Singh resigned from the ruling Janata Dal-United and contested and won the Assembly polls from behind bars. In the past, he has been arrested several times for serious crimes like kidnapping and murder. At present, he is out on bail.Thrissur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday slammed the opposition Congress-led UDF in Kerala for implicating former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case, saying they did so "as some party leaders wanted to settle political scores."

The prime minister said it was an "honour" for his government to have got the opportunity to confer the Padma Bhushan to Nambi Narayanan,who was implicated in a false case.

Training his guns on the UDF, the prime minister said they had implicated Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case as some UDF leaders wanted to settle certain political scores.

"A few years ago, a hard working and patriotic ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case just because a few UDF leaders wanted to settle political scores", he said.

"Imagine, for their own politics,they damaged the national interest. It is an honour that our government had the opportunity of conferring the Padama award on Nambi Narayanan. We value each and every person who is working to make India stronger," Modi said.

"For them science is for spying, but for us science is a matter of pride. For them, solar was a matter of scam but for us it was a matter of development," he said.

The solar scam pertains to alleged duping of several people of crores of rupees by prime accused Saritha Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan by offering them solar panel solutions.

Nambi Narayanan was arrested on November 30, 1994 while working on cryogenic engine technology at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The espionage case, which hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transferring of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.

However, the Supreme Court on September 14 2018 ordered a high-level probe to put to task erring police personnel for arresting and causing 'tremendous harassment' and "immeasurable anguish" to the scientist in the case and asked the Kerala government to pay Rs 50 lakh to him as compensation for undergoing "immense humiliation".

The Supreme Court has set up a high-level commission in the ISRO spy case and his name should not have been considered now," Senkumar alleged.

Narayanan had moved the top court against the Kerala High Court order, which said no action was required to be taken against former DGP Siby Mathews and two retired Superintendents of police K K Joshua and S Vijayan, who were later held responsible by the CBI for the scientist's illegal arrest.Kottayam: Amid speculations over the likely candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the wife of Kerala Congress (M) parliamentarian Jose K Mani has ruled her out of any electoral contest.

There are no plans to enter politics now or in the future, Nisha Jose K Mani said, responding to rumours of her contesting Lok Sabha elections from the Kottayam seat. Participation in public events is not indicative of political aspirations, she clarified.

Nisha's name was doing the rounds among the probable UDF candidates for the Kottayam Lok Sabha seat. But the Kerala Congress (M) itself announced just before the start of Jose K Manis Kerala March that she wont contest, though party supporters saw it as a ploy. But Nisha has now confirmed it while also asserting that she is only interested in public service.

Nisha is the wife of Kerala Congress (M) parliamentarian Jose K Mani.

Speculation over her candidacy in future elections, if not in this year's general elections, arose as she started to participate in public events. It seems objections from within the party likely dented her electoral chances.

Jose K Mani, the son of KC(M) patriarch K M Mani, is a member of the Rajya Sabha. He had quit his Lok Sabha membership in June last year and contested the Rajya Sabha poll. He had represented the Kottayam constituency in the Lower House of the Parliament after electoral victories in 2009 and 2014.

Nisha has asserted that she was only interested in public service.

Read more: Latest Kerala newsKochi: Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam has defended the Padma honour accorded to ex-ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan after former Kerala police chief TP Senkumar questioned its basis.

"To talk against award winners is in the Malayali genes. The Padma Bhushan accorded to Nambi Narayanan should be seen as a recognition for all Keralites," Kannanthanam said in Kochi on Sunday.

However, Kannanthanam said that Senkumar had the freedom to express his comments, but was quick to clarify that the former top cop was not a BJP member.

Senkumar had earlier questioned the rationale behind picking the ex-scientist for the honour.

"What is Nambi Narayanan's contribution to the nation? He took voluntary retirement way back in 1995," Senkumar told reporters. "The Supreme Court is yet to completely acquit the former ISRO scientist in the espionage case. The case was not properly investigated," he alleged.

"Those who picked him for award should explain why he was picked. Now even Govindachamy (convicted in Soumya rape case) and Ameer-ul Islam (accused in Jisha rape-murder case) can be given the honour, he said.

Responding to Senkumar's allegations, Narayanan said that the former DGP was talking rubbish. Narayanan said he was unaware whether Senkumar had any vested interest in raking up the issue now. He reminded that Senkumar was an accused in his plea seeking damages over the ISRO espionage case which hit the headlines in 1994.

The sensational case pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women. Narayanan had to spend close to two months in jail before the CBI concluded the allegations against him were false. The apex court had on September 14, 2018, ordered a probe into the role of the Kerala Police in the case and awarded Rs 50 lakh as compensation to Narayanan.

Read more: Latest Kerala newsThrissur: IPS officer Chaitra Teresa John, who ruffled a few feathers within the ruling CPM by conducting a raid at the party's Thiruvananthapuram district committee office, is the daughter of senior bureaucrat Dr John Joseph, a 1983-batch IRS officer, who served in the Customs Department and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for several years. He was one of the most feared officers among gold smugglers then.

Dr Joseph, the honest and hardworking officer, who was also the Revenue Intelligence additional director, is credited with the busting of several gold smuggling syndicates based in Malabar. Currently posted in Delhi as a special secretary and a member of the Budget and Investigation committee under the Central Board of Excise and Customs, he has held pivotal posts in various departments under the Finance Ministry.

Chaitras mother Dr Mary Abraham was the additional director of the Animal Husbandry Department. Her only brother, George Allen John, is a PG student (orthopaedics) at the Thrissur Medical College. The family hails from East Hill in Kozhikode.

Chaitra belongs to the 2016 IPS batch.

Civil service entry

Chaitra, who studied at the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kozhikode, belongs to the 2016 IPS batch. She bagged the 111th rank in the civil services examinations in 2016 and emerged the topper in the probationary list. She underwent training in Wayanad before being appointed as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) at Thalassery.

Chaitra, who has an excellent track record in dealing with law and order issues, is known to be one of the most outstanding woman IPS officers of her generation.

Chaitra Teresa John at an event.

The controversial raid

Chaitra and other cops searched the party office at Mettukada on Thursday night in order to nab a group of DYFI activists who pelted stones at the Medical College police station the previous night following an altercation. The raid was carried out based on information provided by the City Special Branch that the key accused in the stone-pelting incident was hiding there.

The DYFI functionaries targeted the station after police denied them permission to meet the two CPM worker who were arrested in connection with a case registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences act (POCSO).

Within hours of the raid, the young officer was shunted out of the post she was holding, triggering a wave of anger and protest. Chaitra had been given temporary charge after DCP R Adithya went on leave. She was sent back to the Womens Cell. Also, the State Police Chief has reportedly sought an explanation from her with regard to the raid. The action was initiated as per the directions of the Chief Ministers Office, it was learnt.

Chaitra is known to be one of the most outstanding woman IPS officers of her generation.

Read more: Latest Kerala newsThiruvananthapuram: With barely three months to go for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M) is considering to stick to the traditional approach of picking winnable candidates in a bid to wrest UDFs traditional strongholds.

The political circles are abuzz with conjectures about possible candidates in each constituency. In segments where the CPI(M)s chances of winning are bleak, the party has an open mind to welcome winnable candidates from among the LDF constituents.

Party state secretariat member K N Balagopal is the frontrunner for the Kollam Lok Sabha constituency where politburo member M A Baby lost to RSPs N K Premachandran in the 2014 elections.

The CPI(M) had been planning to field another party secretariat member K J Thomas in Pathanamthitta, but now the party is looking to present a candidate who is acceptable to all sections of society taking into consideration the political impact of Sabarimala verdict. Although Kerala Congress (Democratic) chairman Francis George has evinced keenness to contest from Pathanamthitta, the LDF is also weighing the option of fielding K B Ganesh Kumar of Kerala Congress (B), one of the new front constituents, there.

The front is yet to finalise its candidate to take on Congresss sitting MP K V Thomas in Ernakulam. A traditional UDF bastion, the constituency has seen the LDF experimenting with non-party candidates in elections in the past in its efforts to make inroads into non-Left votes. Though state secretariat member P Rajeev figures as one of the possible choices, the party is learnt to be in touch with prominent left sympathisers in the constituency, keeping in mind caste and religious arithmetic.

Among the probable candidates for the Alappuzha parliamentary constituency are A M Arif MLA and C S Sujatha. However, a section of the CPI(M) leaders is of the opinion that fielding ministers Thomas Isaac or G Sudhakaran would boost partys chances there. If Baby decides to contest, there is a high possibility of him being fielded from Alappuzha.

The two names that have been doing the rounds as candidates for the Kozhikode seats are P A Muhammed Riyas and A Pradeep Kumar MLA. P Sathidevi would be the hot favourite for the Vadakara seat if P K Sreemathi opts out of poll fray.

JD(S) bargains hard

The Janata Dal (Secular), which was allotted the Kottayam Lok Sabha seat in 2014, is understood to have expressed disinterest in contesting from there once again. The party has staked claim for one of the following three seats: Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam.

Moreover, the CPI(M) Kottayam district committee has urged the state leadership to field own candidate in the constituency. If the CPI(M) takes over the seat, one among P K Harikumar, K J Thomas, V N Vasavan, Jaick C Thomas or Suja Soosan George may get the nod.

Banking on popularity

Will the CPM be able to mount an effective challenge to the Muslim League in the latters strongholds? In Ponnani, where the LDF fancies its chances, the front is contemplating on fielding a popular independent candidate to facilitate the flow of discontented UDF votes to its side.

The names of front-runners for the seat include Niyas Pulikkalakath, who came up with an impressive show against IUML strongman P K Abdu Rabb in in Tirurangadi in the last assembly elections. Another potential candidate is V Abdurahman MLA, who contested against E T Muhammed Basheer and brought down Muslim Leagues victory margin substantially.

Speculation was rife that K T Jaleel would contest from Ponnani, but the alleged charges of nepotism against him have marred his prospects.

Though the CPI(M) is desperate to field a strong candidate in Malappuram, the party is yet to zero in on one. According to speculation doing the rounds, former MLA V Sasikumar and SFI national president V P Sanu are being considered as LDFs candidate in the Malappuram constituency.Ernakulam: District Collector K Mohammed Y Safirulla. IAS, inaugurated the National Voters' Day celebrations at Maharajas College on Friday. This year's voters day is more significant as it comes a few months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Aptly, the theme for this year's event was "No Voter to be left behind."



National Voters' Day has been observed since 2011 on January 25, the foundation day of the Election Commission of India, in a bid to increase the participation of citizens in the electoral process by encouraging, facilitating and maximising the enrolment, especially for new voters. The Commission aims to increase the enrolment of voters, especially the eligible ones.

Safirulla, while interacting with the students briefed about the history of the voting system in India. He reminded the students that in the district lowest percentage of polling is recorded in the urban areas. The collector opined that even though people are well educated there is reluctance to take part in the election process. He urged the students to make use of their right to vote and be responsible citizens of the country.

At the event, Safirulla inaugurated the distribution of electoral identity cards by giving an Elector Photo Identity Card to a new voter from the college. Students also took the voter's day oath.

At the district-level function, the Commission made arrangements to enable students to explore the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine so that they can understand the latest developments in voting better.Kochi: Hundred and one elephants made of lantana branches will soon line up in Kochi to spread the message of eco-conservation and peaceful coexistence of man and animals. Co-Exist, an exhibition by The Real Elephants Collective, an international organisation working to protect wild animals especially elephants, will be held on February 7 at the South Beach, Fort Kochi.

The event will then head to Bangalore and New Delhi. In 2020, the elephant models will be taken to England where they will be displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Parks, both in London. The next year, the jumbos will travel in huge trucks across the United States of America, where they will finally be auctioned, the proceeds of which will go to preservation of wild animals.

Elephant Family, an NGO formed to preserve Asian elephant habitats, will also be part of the event.

Lantana is a plant species that first reached South America from British colonies and later spread around the world. Animals, including elephants, keep off the plant because of the presence of a poison in their leaves. The plants are quite invasive and destroy bio-diversity.

Sometime ago, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), an Indian non-profit conservation organisation, realised the potential of lantana in making

furniture and curios. This gave birth to the idea of making elephants with lantana branches to deliver the message of eco-conservation and meaningful coexistence of humans and animlas.

Tribals from Paniya, Betta Kurumba and Soliga communities have designed the elephants to be used in the expo. They have combined their knowledge of jumbos and artistry to make life-size Indian elephant models, including calves. All 101 lantana models were designed after individually studying the features of real elephants.Kerala, considered to be a place less prone to natural calamities, had not been keen on building houses which could resist natural disasters until the floods ravaged the state in August last year.

Experts say that the intensity of the calamity could have been lessened had proper precautions been taken. Lack of awareness among the people too played a major role deepening the catastrophe.

From rehabilitation, we have entered the rebuilding phase and this should be perceived as an opportunity to create a comprehensive development, keeping in mind the future as well. The government has allotted up to Rs 4 lakhs per 400 sq feet, for rebuilding houses which were destroyed in the floods. In this scenario, the Kerala state nirmithi kendra and the Floatel engineering private limited, which is based in Thiruvananthapuram, has jointly built a model house at PTP Nagar in the capital city.

The construction of the 400 sq ft house, which cost Rs 4 lakhs, was completed within two weeks. The Extruded Polystyrene (EPS) panel pre-fabricated technology has been adopted to build this model house.

Plain cement concreting, in a ratio of 1:5:10 has been done in 10 centimeters thickness, below the foundation. The foundation and the basement are built using cement blocks which are 20 centimeters thick. RCC plinth beams in 20 cms x 15 cms were installed continuously over the foundation.

The outer walls are made using pre-fabricated cement sandwich panels which have thickness of 1.20 centimeters. Meanwhile, the walls in the interiors are built using panels which have a thickness of 90 millimeters. Fiber netting is done over these walls and finished with putty.

The roof too is built with 120 millimeters thick cement sandwich panels. The door frames in the front and back of the house are made in concrete and the doors are wooden. The doors inside the house are done using WPVC. Similarly, wooden widows are attached on concrete panes. Ceramic tiles are paved on the floor and the walls are painted with emulsion paint.

The cement sandwich panels are 1.4 meters long and 90 centimeters wide. So, unlike other pre fabricated structures which are way too heavy, cranes are not required to arrange these panels over the foundation. The workers can carry these panels easily and finish the construction quickly by interlocking them. The electrification, plumbing and sanitary works too have been completed in this model house.

The advantages of building a low cost pre-fabricated house:

 Since the walls and the roof are built using cement sandwich panels, which are lighter, much weight wont be loaded upon the foundation. It helps to keep the cost of building the foundation at bay.

 Expert labourers are not required as the panels, which are interlocked, arent too heavy.

 This method of construction can withstand natural calamities.

 The temperature wont rise too much inside the house.

 The building materials are sound insulated.

 Plastering using cement can be completely avoided.

 The cost of construction is significantly less.

 This method of construction is environment friendly.

(Information courtesy: Robert V Thomas, regional engineer, Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra, Ernakulam)Kolkata: Humanity has always taken precedence over ideology for auteur Mrinal Sen, who did not deter to join the movement against Nandigram violence in 2007 despite his Left leanings, veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has said.

Sen was a rebel who believed in fighting for the cause of common people of and off the camera, he said during a session at Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet here on Thursday.

"For him (Sen), humanity was more important than his ideology. He had very high integrity. He joined a big procession in Kolkata in protest against the shootings in Nandigram despite his Leftwing ideology," said the 'Mukhamukham' (Face to Face) director, credited for pioneering a new wave of cinema in the early 70s.

Fourteen people were killed in alleged police firing in 2007, at the height of an anti-land acquisition agitation at Nandigram in Bengal's West Midnapore district.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front was at the helm of affairs in the state at that time.

Appreciating Sen's body of work, Gopalakrishnan said 'Ek Din Pratidin' (1979) by the auteur was among his all-time favourite films.

"That is one film where he says everything without saying anything. It stands out in the Indian cinema as a great example of a filmmaker's genius.

"Everyone who sees the film wonders what happens to the girl and where was she all night? As she quietly walks in the next day, neither she says anything, nor any family member asks her. That is a remarkable," Gopalakrishnan said.

Sen had won National Award for 'Ek Din Pratidin'

To a question by the audience, Gopalakrishnan said both Satyajit Ray and Sen have made films on Kolkata, but there was a difference in the way they approached the subject.

Asked about his approach to films, Gopalakrishnan said, "My subject is politics, but my films are not political. I only ask questions, never answer them. I am not sure about the answers, As an artist I keep searching."The suspect in deadly U.S. Louisiana shootings that left five people dead was caught on Sunday after a day-long manhunt, authorities confirmed, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana said that 21-year-old Dakota Theriot was arrested Sunday morning in Richmond County, Virginia.

Theriot is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, home invasion, and illegal use of weapons. According to investigators, he shot and killed his parents and three other people in Louisiana on Saturday.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said Saturday that deputies were called to a trailer in the city of Gonzales, about 40 kilometers southeast of Louisiana's capital Baton Rouge, for a "domestic incident" on Saturday morning. Upon arrival, deputies found Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 51, who had been shot but were still alive.

Webre said deputies were able to interview one of the victims before they were transported to a hospital in Baton Rouge, where they later died.

From that interview, authorities identified the couple's 21-year-old son, Dakota, as the "prime suspect in this case." He is being sought on first-degree murder and other charges.

The sheriff said three other shooting deaths occurred Saturday in neighboring Livingston parishes, about 50 kilometers east of Baton Rouge.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed on Facebook that three deaths happened in his parish and identified the victims as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20.

Authorities believed the shootings in the two parishes are connected, and investigators from both jurisdictions are working together.

The shootings prompted a multi-state manhunt for the suspect before he was located in Virginia.A collapse of a hotel wall in Peru's southern Apurimac region left 15 people killed and 29 others injured during a wedding celebration on Sunday, Trend reports citing Sputnik.

"Heavy rains have led to the collapse of a wall at a wedding ceremony in the Alhambra hotel [in the city of Abancay]," the Country's National Civil Defense Institute said on Twitter, adding that "the number of people killed has risen to 15, while the number of injured people has been updated to 29."

According to the agency, the Peruvian fire service and police continued the search and rescue operation at the site.The number of people killed in an oil pipeline blast in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo has risen to 114, the Mexican Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The previous death toll from the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline blast stood at 109.

The ministry added that 33 injured people remained in hospitals. While most of them are receiving medical assistance in Mexico City, three victims are undergoing treatment in the southern US state of Texas.

The blast occurred in Hidalgo's Tlahuelilpan municipality late on January 18 after the pipeline was ruptured in an attempt to steal gasoline. Local residents were filling canisters when the disaster happened.

Mexico is currently experiencing severe fuel shortages with people sometimes trying to steal gasoline from pipelines.Two men were killed in a shooting at a banquet hall north of Canada's Toronto on Saturday morning, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

The shooting, which happened at Dream Palace Restaurant and Banquets in Vaughan of Great Toronto Area, was reported to police around 4:15 a.m. local time.

One man was killed at the scene and the other died shortly after being taken to hospital.

No information about suspects has been released.A Brazilian judge in the state of Minas Gerais on Saturday froze 5 billion reais ($1.33 billion) in the accounts of miner Vale SA to pay for damages caused by a dam burst on Friday that has left hundreds missing, state prosecutors said, Trend reported citing Reuters.

The decision follows an earlier freeze of 1 billion reais that state courts placed on Vales accounts.Over 50 people were detained on Saturday during the Yellow Vest rally in Paris, Trend reported citing Sputnik.

According to BFM TV, as of 06:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) the police detained 52 protesters.

The protesters gathered at the Place de la Republique, where the Yellow Night action will take place. The police had to use tear gas as a result of clashes with activists.

France Info broadcaster reported that about 69,000 people took part in Yellow Vest rallies across France on Saturday, including 4,000 protesters in Paris alone. Last week, 84,000 protesters participated in the rallies in the country with 7,000 in the capital.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner condemned the violence in Paris.

"I resolutely condemn the violence and destruction conducted on Saturday both in Paris and in the province by hooligans in yellow vests," Castaner said on Twitter.Central Chinese cities hold the most promising prospects for growth and business thanks to quickening urbanization and industrial development, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

Central provinces of Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi dominated the top performers of the latest ranking of Chinese emerging cities by British think tank Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Suzhou City in eastern China's Anhui Province came first thanks to strong gains in urbanization and metropolitan population, followed by Yueyang City in central China's Hunan Province.

The two cities have made steady progress in developing industrial economies as the Chinese government's plan to promote city clusters has provided policy tailwinds, the report said.

"Beyond the traditional megacities along the coast, third- and fourth-tier cities in central China are rising in economic importance and should be on the radar of China-focused businesses," said Wang Dan, a China analyst at the EIU.

The EIU's China Emerging City Rankings are based on a variety of indicators to measure growth, including real GDP, metropolitan population, urban consumption expenditure, foreign direct investment, fixed-asset investment, the urban built area and policy support.China is willing to work with France and Italy and meet each other halfway, enhance strategic communication, and consolidate strategic mutual trust and cooperation, so as to inject new impetus to bilateral ties and positive energy into the international community, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said, Trend reported citing Xinhua.

Wang made the remarks during a press briefing on Friday night, right before concluding his visits to France and Italy.

The top Chinese diplomat termed as "very successful" the 18th consultation of the coordinators for the China-France Strategic Dialogue and the 9th joint meeting of the China-Italy Government Committee.

Against the backdrop of ongoing profound adjustment of relations and increased frictions among major powers, Wang said France and Italy, both major members of the European Union and countries with global influence, expressed their stance that they cherish the comprehensive strategic partnerships with China.

Wang believed that the China-France and China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnerships had been further enhanced.

Wang also told reporters that both France and Italy have clearly welcomed Chinese investment to their countries, promising not to adopt any restrictions on specific enterprises and discriminations against any enterprises.

He praised these statements as "not only timely but also necessary", adding that Chinese companies will increasingly turn their eyes to countries that are worth their trust.

Wang said he also had deep exchange of views with French and Italian officials on how to deal with various global challenges.

The tripartite partners, Wang said, have confirmed that they would firmly uphold the rule-based multilateralism and maintain the contemporary international system with the UN as the core.

He said all three countries completely disagreed with unilateralism and egoism, which actually represents the general perspective of the international community. It will be proved that any unilateralism and egoism are unpopular and doomed to be unsustainable, Wang added.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Elnur Baghishov  Trend:

This Iranian year (started on March 21, 2018) 5.5 million megawatts of electricity were generated at the thermal power plant in Shazand county of Iran's Markazi province, Executive Director of the Shazand Electric Power Company of Iran's Markazi province Alireza Sheikh Mehrabadi said.

Besides Markazi province, Hamadan and Lorestan provinces are also provided with electricity via the Shazand Thermal Power Plant, Mehrabadi added, Trend reports referring to IRNA.

He added that two of the four stations of the Shazand Thermal Power Plant operate.

The Shazand Thermal Power Plant was established in the Shazand district of the Markazi province in 2000. The station can produce up to 1,300 megawatts of electricity if all four blocks operate.Baku, Azerbaijan, January 27

Trend:

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a grant of $2 million for the development of railways in the countries of Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC).

ADB Senior Transport Specialist Jurgen Sluijter noted that rail transport should be the preferred mode of trade in the region, but it is still difficult for railways to compete with road transport.

This grant will support the research and development of a regional railway system that will be fast, efficient, accessible to users and easy to use throughout the region, Jurgen Sluijter added.

The project will explore the railway market and develop a regional model of railway traffic.

Earlier, countries of the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation adopted a strategy on railways until 2030.

The CAREC program brings together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Its work is supported by six large financial institutions, including the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank which serves as the CAREC secretariat.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

If government change actually happens in Venezuela, it will take time before a new government takes control, makes changes and reorganizes the oil sector to the extent that there is significant recovery in Venezuelan oil exports this year, Charles Ellinas, CEO of Cyprus-based energy consultancy e-CNHC told Trend.

He was commenting on the political crisis in Venezuela and its possible impact on the world oil market.

Venezuela is embroiled in fast-moving political crisis, after an opposition leader stood in the streets of Caracas on Jan.23 and declared himself as the rightful interim president.

A flurry of world powers, including the US, immediately backed Juan Guaido, prompting a furious response from President Nicolas Maduro.

The socialist leader broke diplomatic ties with President Donald Trump's administration on Jan.23, ordering all U.S. diplomatic personnel to leave the country within 72 hours.

He believes that anyway, the US will carry on with shale oil development irrespective. "The only factor that can slow this down is low oil prices, which, with OPEC+ cuts and Iran sanctions, as well as a slower growth in the Chinese and global economies, is not on the cards."

He went on to add that the impact of the ongoing developments in Venezuela on the oil market so far the impact has been small.

"There is some way to go yet before the political situation becomes clearer. The current President, Maduro, is not in a hurry to get out and the army is supporting him. Without army support Guaido cannot do much even after recognition from the west. Venezuela's oil production has been declining. It was 1.2 million b/d in December. The average in 2017 was over 1.9 million b/d. However, if the US proceeds and applies sanctions then the decline in oil exports may become more significant and may have an impact later in the year," said Ellinas.

He reiterated that there has not been government change yet and it may take time before this happens.

"Given the low and declining oil exports from Venezuela, the impact on OPEC is not major. This year the key developments to affect the oil price are: a) What happens with Iran sanctions and the wavers the US granted. If these are not renewed then it will impact the oil price. b) OPEC+ cuts. These seem to be effective so far and should keep the oil price above $60/d. d) US shale oil production. Indications are that this will increase further this years. In effect it counter-balances the decline in Venezuelan oil exports. Given the rate of decline during the last two years, the latter may decline by over 300,000 b/d in 2019, even without regime change and faster if US applies sanctions.

It appears that the oil market has been discounting the ups and downs of Libya and Venezuela."

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Taleh Mursagulov  Trend:

In February 2019, the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR intends to increase oil pumping through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline up to 85,000 tons, a source, having the corresponding information, told Trend.

"In January, 80,000 tons of oil are planned to be shipped in the northern direction, while in general, 320,000-325,000 tons of oil are planned to be pumped through this pipeline in the first quarter of 2019," the source said.

SOCAR pumped 170,000 tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in December.

SOCAR pumped 1.3 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2018 compared to 1.5 million tons in 2017.

It was earlier reported that Azerbaijan plans to export 1.5 million tons of oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in 2019.

The Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline transports oil extracted by SOCAR independently, as well as from onshore fields developed within joint ventures. SOCAR has been the operator of the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline since 2008.

The Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,147 kilometers long. The length of its Azerbaijani section is 231 kilometers and Russian section - 916 kilometers. The highest capacity of the pipeline stands at 105,000 barrels a day.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @TalehMursagulovBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 28

By Huseyn Valiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan will start the assembly of GAZ cars, Trend reports with reference to a source.

The source stated that the assembly enterprise will be based in an industrial quarter in the Hajigabul District.

The enterprise will assemble light commercial vehicles, GAZelle NEXT and GAZelle BUSINESS, as well as medium-duty trucks Gazon NEXT.

The enterprise will produce up to 1,000 commercial vehicles annually.

It was also reported that 14 million manats will be invested in the enterprise's construction.

A memorandum on assembling the GAZ vehicles in Azerbaijan was signed by the Gorky Automobile Plant and AzerMash in April 2018 in Baku.

AzEuroCar, a subsidiary of AzerMash, will deal with the distribution and maintenance of GAZ vehicles in Azerbaijan.

(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Jan. 26)

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Follow author on Twitter: @h_veliyevAshgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 27

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Creation of the Turkmen-Uzbek Business Council was announced at the government meeting in Ashgabat, Trend reports with reference to the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan (UIET).

This structure is being created in accordance with the agreement between the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries signed during the state visit of the Turkmen president to Uzbekistan in April 2018.

The main goals of the council include strengthening of fruitful cooperation between the business communities of the two countries, organization of joint conferences and exhibitions promoting the goods of Turkmen producers in the Uzbek market, as well as supporting development of entrepreneurship.

In April 2018, the two countries signed contracts and memorandums that envisage joint projects worth a total of over $250 million.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have impressive reserves of hydrocarbon resources, are in favor of diversification of energy flows. The implementation of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-KazakhstanChina gas pipeline project, which was put into operation in 2009, is a good example of this.

Ashgabat is ready to intensify cooperation in the framework of the project on the supply of electricity from Central to South Asia through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route.

At this stage, the two countries are also discussing a project to establish the UzbekistanTurkmenistanIran-Oman transport route. This will significantly increase international transit traffic and provide a new communication corridor to world markets.Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Rashid Shirinov  Trend:

The groundbreaking ceremony of a new plant for the production of energy-saving light bulbs was held in the industrial zone of the city of Turkistan, Kazakhstan, Trend reports referring to the Kazakh media.

The ceremony was attended by the Governor of the Turkistan region Zhanseit Tuymebayev, as well as representatives of Chinese company Tai Energy and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Source Energy company Oralbek Botbay.

The press service of the Turkistan region administration said that the project cost is estimated at $200 million. The construction of the plant began as part of a bilateral memorandum signed earlier at a meeting of the regions governor with the Chinese investor.

"Five hectares of land in the industrial zone has been allocated for the implementation of this project. The plant should be built in time and with high quality," Tuymebayev said.

It should be noted that Tai Energy's products are in high demand in the lighting of streets, highways and buildings. Turkistan is one of the first regions in Kazakhstan where the company invests its funds.

The construction of the plant is planned to be completed within 3 years, after which about 700 people will be provided with jobs. The plant's products are planned to be sold not only in Kazakhstan, but also in neighboring countries.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashidBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27

By Matanat Nasibova  Trend:

Haciqabul Qusculuq, a poultry factory in the Hajigabul District of Azerbaijan, may reduce egg production, Mikayil Salahov, a warehouse manager, told Trend.

This is due to the factory facing problems with product sale due to competition in the market.

"Sales of our products have deteriorated significantly because of the import of eggs from Ukraine to the local market. The factory produces over one million eggs daily, with an annual volume of about 300-320 million eggs. The company is capable of increasing production, but considering that this perishable product is delivered to shopping facilities inside the country, this issue is not on the agenda," Salahov said.

He mentioned that the company exported eggs in small volumes to Iraq last year.

"Last year, proposals about the export of eggs to Iraq were considered. We have already commenced exports to Iran, and, these deliveries will most likely be carried out throughout the year," said Salahov.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibovaBaku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 26

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 26 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Jan. 27, Trend reports.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Days after sustained Israeli attacks against Iranian targets in Syria, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Russia and Iran are not allies in Syria. He stressed that Russia is committed to Israel's security and Iran is aware of that.

Ryabkov added that Russia was against Iran's hostile acts against Israel.

During an interview with CNN on Friday January 25, when asked if Russia was Iran's ally on the ground in Syria, Ryabkov answered, "I wouldn't use this type of words to describe where we are with Iran," adding that "We in no way underestimate the importance of measures that would ensure very strong security of the state of Israel."

Ryabkov added that Iran was also aware of Russia's position. "The Israelis know this, the U.S. knows this, everyone else, including the Iranians, the Turks, the government in Damascus. This is one of the top priorities of Russia, The Times of Israel quoted him as having said.

Ryabkov's denial of Russia's alliance with Iran in Syria contradicted remarks by Russia's ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan, who in an interview with the state-owned Iran newspaper on 19 January repeatedly highlighted the two countries' alliance.

Dzhagaryan said, "the weakening of the Iran-Russia alliance is a myth. Those who, in the West, talk to Iran about these issues are the enemies of the alliance between Moscow and Tehran. Those who spread such things in Iran are the West's friends. The individuals who criticize Russia are not interested in the alliance between Iran and Russia and we know them very well."

Dzhagaryan added that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Putin's special representative for Syrian affairs Alexander Lavrentiev visit Iran regularly "once in a month or once every two months to report to [our] Iranian ally about Syria."

Russia is clearly sending contradictory messages here, but the ambassadors remarks could have been mainly directed at his Iranian audience, prior to Ryabkovs statements.

Ryabkov's statement on the denial of the Iran-Russia alliance was made one day after Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of the Iranian parliamentary committee for foreign relations and national security spoke about "serious criticism of Russia's behavior," adding that Russia de-activated the S-300 anti-missile systems when Israel attacked Syrian and Iranian targets.

Falahatpisheh told the Iranian press, "It appears there is some sort of coordination between Israeli strikes and the Russian air defense units based in Syria."

It is not clear why Iranian leaders seem to be so surprised at Russias decision not to confront the Israeli air force in Syria. It could mean they expected Moscow to issue different orders to its forces and now find themselves exposed to Israeli air attacks.

Air defenses under Russian control in Syria did react more aggressively in 2018 against Israeli sorties. But now it appears they leave the Syrians to use the less capable S200 system, withholding the more sophisticated S300s.

In his interview, Ryabkov said that Russia has been trying to limit Iranian military and political influence in Syria, and has been distancing Iranian forces from the Israeli borders with Syria by 85 kilometers. However, he said that "The re-imposition of sanctions against Iran by the Trump administration has stopped Russia's measures."

Iran and Syria have always said that their forces are in Syria to offer military advice and cooperation based on an invitation by the Assad government.

Israel is vehemently opposes the presence of Iranian military forces and their Shiite allies in Syria and started strikes on Iranian targets and those of Iran's allies three years ago.

While Israel previously refrained from assuming responsibility for the strikes, recently Tel Aviv changed its policy and acknowledged that its forces are directly confronting Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force in Syria.

Israel has acknowledged that its forces have carried out thousands of strikes against Iranian positions in Syria since 2017. The latest Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria took place on January 20 and 21, one day after Iran fired a missile at the Golan heights. The missile was destroyed in mid-air according to Israeli forces.More than 800 Iranian activists in Iran and abroad have issued a statement demanding the quick release of labor leader Esmail Bakhshi and civil activist Sepideh Qolian.

They have said that the arrest of the two activists is the latest example of Islamic Republics policy of suppression against workers who demand their rights.

Bakhshi and Qolian who spent more than three weeks in detention during November-December 2018 complained of torture by intelligence agents. Iranian state TV later broadcast a film showing their confessions. The two responded that the film in itself proves they were tortured.

Intelligence agents immediately arrested the two activists for a second time.

The statement adds that the signatories hold the intelligence ministry and President Hassan Rouhani personally responsible for the safety of Bakhshian and Qolian.

Irans intelligence ministry constitutionally is accountable to the president but often its actions seem to be in contradiction with Rouhani's official policies.

The Islamic Republic also has other intelligence organizations, the most powerful of which is the IRGC intelligence organization.Hezbollah's leader says his militant group could join with Iran and Syria to strike back at Tel Aviv if Israel continues to hit Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria.

Hassan Nasrallah on January 26 said that what he calls the axis of resistance is considering its response to Israeli strikes and warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to make an error of judgment and don't lead the region toward war or a major clash."

"At any moment, the Syrian leadership and the axis of resistance can take a decision to deal with the Israeli aggression in a different manner," Nasrallah said.

Israel has pledged to stop Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, carrying out hundreds of air strikes there against what it describes as Iranian targets in Syria and those of allied militia, including the Lebanon-based Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah.

Russia has also called on Israel to stop carrying out "arbitrary' air strikes on Syrian territory, days after the Israeli Air Force targeted what Israel said were Iranian forces in the war-torn country.

"The practice of arbitrary strikes on the territory of a sovereign state -- in this case, we are talking about Syria -- should be ruled out," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow on January 23.

Russia, along with Iran has provided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with crucial military support throughout the seven-year Syria civil war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and

displaced millions.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters"I don't think he is alive," said Joao Bosco, speaking of his cousin, Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. "Right now, I can only hope for a miracle."

Vanilza Sueli Oliveira described the wait for news of her nephew as "distressing, maddening."

"Time is passing," she said. "It's been 24 hours already. ... I just don't want to think that he is under the mud."

The rivers of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.

According to Vale's website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 "contained high levels of toxic heavy metals."

Over the weekend, state courts and the justice ministry in the state of Minas Gerais froze about $1.5 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims.

Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate it, saying "someone is definitely at fault." Dodge noted there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.Check out one way experts say you can cut your risk of depression, how you can start using cryptocurrency as rewards on your credit card, and This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings  though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.



Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Following the tripartite talks in Brussels on the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine, the parties identified their positions and set up a new meeting, while Ukraine sealed an FTA deal with Israel, and reached a number of agreements with investors at the annual economic forum in Davos  these are the key economic news of the outgoing week.

Tripartite Ukraine-EU-Russia consultations held in Brussels on the transit of Russian gas through the Ukrainian pipe after the existing contract with Gazprom expires on Jan 1, 2020, was the key economic event of the outgoing week. The Russian monopoly, fulfilling the Kremlin's will, has been leading an unannounced war with Ukraine for five years already, and now they don't hide intentions to first minimize and then completely halt Ukraine transit. Ukraine, for its part, seeks to preserve transit, but only in line with the EU rules.

Following the Brussels talks, the sides scheduled their next trilateral meeting for May 2019. The base for this meeting will be the proposal that the European Commission voiced on the conditions and volumes of Ukraine transit. No details of the offer have been released yet besides the provision that the new deal should be concluded for a period of more than ten years, while the volume of deliveries should be commercially viable, which will make it possible to attract a Western investor to the Ukrainian gas transmission system.

The Ukrainian side predicted that the January talks would not yield tangible results since Russia has in every way been trying to thwart them. In particular, Gazprom officials didn't bother to attend preliminary technical tripartite consultations ahead of the talks. The position of the Russian Federation is actually more like another attempt to drag time, said Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev. Apparently, Russians still harbor hope for a change in Ukraine's political elite following the upcoming elections.

Russians still refuse to comply with the award of the Stockholm Arbitration that obliged them to pay $2.6 billion to Ukraine. Moscow offers that Ukraine forgive their debt in exchange for the extension of the gas transit contract. However, in its current form, the deal does not meet the requirements of the Ukrainian and European legislation, and also blocks Ukraine's integration into the EU gas market. In particular, it hinders the completion of Naftogaz unbundling.

The European Commission remains united with Ukraine, once again confirming that the Stockholm Arbitration awards must be fulfilled in full, and gas transit via Ukraine  maintained.

Vice-president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, said after the talks that he hoped that by the end of the year a contract would be signed that would ensure long-term transit through Ukraine. We, too, will hope so, because it's not just commerce that is at stake, it's also energy security of Ukraine and EU countries.

Free Trade with Israel

Another important news of the outgoing week was the signing of an agreement on a free trade zone between Ukraine and Israel. The document was signed following a bilateral meeting between President Poroshenko and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The deal will promote the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two states. So far, the agreement concerns only marketable products, but it also spelled out the beginning of negotiations on the liberalization of trade in services.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the implementation of the agreement will take from three to seven years, which will enable businesses to get ready and make the most of the new free trade opportunities. Immediately after the ratification of the agreement, Israel will remove import duties for 9% of Ukraine-made agricultural products and 80% of industrial products. In turn, Ukraine will immediately remove import duties for 7% of agricultural products and 70% of industrial products made in Israel.

Without waiting for the deal to be ratified, Ukraine's defense giant Ukroboronprom has signed off a Memorandum of Cooperation with Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd, set to implement joint projects on military communications, surveillance and reconnaissance systems for the ground and air forces, air-rescue equipment, and radar stations, equipment for port protection, and armored vehicle upgrades.

The economy ministry says the FTA deal with Israel will allow increasing Ukrainian exports to this country by at least $63.5 million per year. Besides, experts predict a new wave of investment from Israel and other countries. The agreement will green-light cooperation of Ukrainian and Israeli enterprises in many areas: high-tech, engineering, and food processing equipment, said Natalia Mykolska, Ukraine's former trade envoy.

Good news from Davos

This week, the Ukrainian delegation led by President Petro Poroshenko visited the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, bringing home some good news.

In particular, following a meeting with Poroshenko, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, said that the Fund was ready to continue supporting Ukraine together with international partners, traditionally noting the need for higher reform pace to ensure a more rapid economic growth.

Also, in the president's presence, an agreement was signed between the Norwegian company NBT, the French Total Eren, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on the Syvash wind farm project. It provides EUR 150 million in financing for the construction of Ukraine's largest wind farm, which will also become one of the largest ones in Europe. The project's total cost is nearly EUR 400 million. Construction will begin within six to nine months.

In addition, during the forum, the founder of Horizon Capital investment fund, Olena Kosharna, announced the creation of a new fund for investment in Ukraine worth $200 million. The fund will support export-oriented Ukrainian companies operating in IT, agriculture, light industry, and food production. Investments will also be focused on such segments as e-commerce, health care, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and financial services.

The International Finance Corporation once again confirmed its readiness to enter the capital of the state-owned Ukrgasbank and, as part of the process, announced in Davos they would start a preliminary assessment in the coming months.

Summing up the Forum, President Poroshenko said that Ukraine is attractive for investors and has much to offer in agriculture, IT, engineering, and logistics. According to him, investors did not expect that changes in the country will occur so quickly. "I'd like to thank each of them. Thank you for your faith in Ukraine, for every dollar of investments that create jobs and budget revenues that support Ukraine," said Poroshenko.

Investor interest is supported by concrete moves. In the outgoing week, non-residents bought government bonds in hryvnias for the second time this year, this time worth almost UAH 1.8 billion  that's after the demand was resumed for Ukrainian bonds a week earlier, for the first time since March 2018.

As a result, the volume of non-residents' investments in Ukrainian government bonds has increased by UAH 3.3 billion, or by 1.5 times, since year-start.

The next week promises to be no less interesting. On Thursday, January 31, the National Bank of Ukraine will announce the key rate, which could be lowered for the first time after a nearly two-year break, as the central bank chief Yakiv Smolii announced during his parliament report. In addition, it is possible that the president will meet the expectations of investors and key creditors of Ukraine by vetoing the law on the extension of a ban on farmland sales. That's what the economy ministry this week advised that the president do.

Olha Hordienko

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterAerial view taken after the collapse of a dam which belonged to Brazil's giant mining company Vale, near the town of Brumadinho in southeastern Brazil. Photo by AFP/Douglas Magno

Hopes were fading Saturday that rescuers would find more survivors from at least 300 missing after a dam collapse at a mine in southeast Brazil, with nine bodies so far recovered.

Seven bodies were recovered Friday hours after the disaster, after a torrent of mud broke through the dam at the iron-ore mine close to the city of Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerias, around 1:00 pm.

By early Saturday the official death toll had risen to nine, local firefighters said, who also doubled the number of people presumed missing from the previous toll to nearly 300 people.

Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais, told reporters that while all was being done to find survivors, "from now, the odds are minimal and it is most likely we will recover only bodies".

Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro, who rushed home from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is scheduled to fly over the disaster zone Saturday along with his defense minister.

The mine is owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale. It was involved in a 2015 mine collapse in the same state that claimed 19 lives and is regarded as the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.

Vale shares plummeted on the new accident, losing eight percent in New York trading.

Minas Gerais officials obtained a court order blocking Vale's bank account in the state to the tune of $270 million, money that would used for victim relief, according to the G1 news website.

'Where are our relatives?'

The massive, muddy flow from the collapse barreled towards the nearby town of Brumadinho, population 39,000, but did not hit it directly.

Instead, it carved its way across roads, vegetation and farmland, taking down a bridge, and damaging or destroying homes.

Television images showed people being pulled out of waist-high mud into rescue helicopters, dozens of which were in use by late Friday because land access had been cut off.

Brazil's new government reacted to its first major emergency by launching disaster coordination between the defense, mining and environment ministries and the authorities in the affected state of Minas Gerais.

Bolsonaro's environment minister raced to the area late Friday.

"Where are our relatives?" wailed Raquel Cristina, one of several people demanding information about their missing kin in the mud-hit area.

"My five-year-old nephew is asking me if his dad died. What do I tell him?" asked another, Olivia Rios.

Some of the firefighters used earth-moving machinery to dig down to engulfed dwellings.

Would-be rescue volunteers were warned away because of the slippery, perilous piles of mud. Media were urged not to use drones to avoid collisions with the helicopters.

Up to 150 of those missing worked in the company's administrative offices which were closest to the dam break, the firefighters said.

Walter Morais, a member of the Red Cross team sent to the disaster zone, told AFP that his relief group "will begin humanitarian actions helping people who were rescued and are homeless".

'Human tragedy'

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman called the incident a "human tragedy" and was resigned to more deaths being confirmed at his company's mine.

"We're talking about probably a large number of victims -- we don't know how many but we know it will be a high number," he told a media conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Schvartsman, who had his two-year term renewed last month by Vale's board, said it was an "inactive dam" that was in the process of being decommissioned that burst apart "very violently, very suddenly".

Its contents -- tailings, or mining byproducts mixed with water -- cascaded into another dam, which overflowed, he said.

The disaster recalled trauma from the 2015 dam break near Mariana, in Minas Gerais. That accident released millions of tons of toxic iron waste along hundreds of kilometers (miles). Vale was joint operator of that dam, along with the Anglo-Australian group BHP.

The Brazil office of Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, said Friday's dam break was "a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies".

Such incidents "are not accidents but environmental crimes that must be investigated, punished and repaired", it added.A village in northern Vietnam has bred tons of red carps for the traditional ritual of releasing them a week ahead of Tet.

Thuy Tram Village in Phu Tho Province, two hours northwest of the capital city of Hanoi, is the biggest red carp breeder in the northern region.

Over the past few days, farmers have had their hands full, harvesting the fish for their eventual release into the nation's ponds, lakes and rivers on the 23rd day of the last lunar month, which falls on Monday, January 28, this year.

Legend has it that the Kitchen Gods, who are in charge of looking after Vietnamese families and recording their good and bad deeds, ride the fish back to heaven before Tet, or the Lunar New Year Festival, and submit reports to the Jade Emperor, before returning a day before the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 5.

Aside from raising the local breed, farmers at Thuy Tram also mate Vietnamese red carps with Indonesian and Japanese breeds to produce those with longer tails and stronger colors.

The fish are sorted according to their sizes, with bigger ones costing more.

Farmers pack the fish in plastic bags for sale.

"My family started harvesting the fish since the 17th day of the lunar month (last Tuesday). Over the last three days, we have sold around a ton of fish," said farmer Nguyen Huy Luan (L).

Oxygen is pumped into the bags to keep the fish alive during transportation.

Carps from Thuy Tram are distributed across the northern region. Thuy Tram farmers raise an average of 35-45 tons of red carps each year.

The wholesale price of Thuy Trams red carps this year has been around VND90,000 ($4) per kilo, says Truong Thi Mai (L), a trader from Lao Cai Province in the northern uplands.A straw wave of biblical proportions hits Saigon

An art installation with more than 168,000 used straws highlights the environmental apocalypse wrought by plastic.

A volunteer arranges plastic straws that are glued to large, thin used plastic bags in preparation for an art installation in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

"Parting of the Plastic Sea," held this week in Ho Chi Minh City's District 2, is an initiative of Benjamin Von Wong, a Canadian artist. His first social impact project in Vietnam is organized by Zero Waste Saigon.

Blue, green, and black straws are used for sea waves and the foam is made with white straws. Zero Waste Saigon (ZWS) was set up after "we saw baby monkeys eating plastic bags, which made us really sad. We decided to do something," Julia Burdge, from France, told VnExpress International.

She and her American husband, Michael Burdge, came across the plastic tragedy when they were hiking in the forest in Ho Tram town, 2.5 hours east of Saigon. The sight led the couple to found ZWS, which aims at reducing plastic waste and introducing eco-friendly solutions in Vietnam. The ZWS page has more than 10,000 followers.

Volunteers wash the plastic straws with water and soap before they are used for the installation. Photo by Anna Tenne

In order to collect enough used straws for the art work, ZWS organized big clean-up events in Hanoi, Saigon, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau at the end of last year. The clean-up attracted hundreds of volunteers, mostly 15 to 24 years old, who used sticks, pickers and bare hands, not only to collect straws, but also clear many different kinds of trash from streets, manholes, and rivers. The straws were collected over a period of two months.

Straw donors also included cafe and restaurant owners, and individuals who bought straws but never used them.

Benjamin Von Wong carries plastic straws for the installation. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

Benjamin Von Wong, who has acquired a name for himself for adventure travel and hyper-realistic photography, has been applying his creativity to implement conservation and social impact projects for about three years now. "It was my girlfriend who inspired me to be more mindful about the environment," he said. Australian Anna Tenne, who travels everywhere with a cloth bag full of reusable tupperware, utensils, water bottle and so on, has been committed to a no plastic lifestyle for a long time. The couple have been dating for four years and Anna, a professional photographer, is the main lenswoman behind this project and many others of Benjamin. "Most of his projects in general dont take place in the West. Ben is absolutely amazed by the support he's got in Vietnam," Anna told VnExpress International. ZWS' Julia is a big fan of Benjamin's work. She reached out to him last June to invite him to Vietnam to do an impact project to raise awareness about plastic use. "This is what the future is going to look like," Benjamin said, pointing to the huge pile of plastic straws that would be assembled to resemble sea waves. "We only need a plastic straw for like 10 minutes, but it would take about 400 years for it to decompose," he said as he instructed volunteers and glued straws to plastic bags himself.

Volunteers use contact spray adhesive to glue the straws on used plastic bags that the project organizers have managed to accumulate. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

More than 100 volunteers showed up at a palace in District 2 to help erect the sea waves on Friday. Benjamin instructed them to lay LED lights along the skeleton frame over which he and others could later attach the straws already glued to plastic bags creating the waves that would shine glow.

Some volunteers were Benjamins fans, many were followers of ZWS, and the rest responded to its shout-out for volunteers.

One volunteer installs straws on a framework for the installation. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

While straws might not be the biggest problem, they are ubiquitous and a daily use plastic item that people can easily relate to, Benjamin said. By 2050, it is predicted that there would be more plastic than fish by weight at sea, according to a 2016 report released by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Another 2016 study by these two entities and McKinsey Company shows that every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans. Since January 2018, ZWS has successfully convinced over 100 businesses to use sustainable alternatives to straws. Among them is Tran Danh, owner of Quan Bui, a chain of Vietnamese restaurants founded in 2009. Danh began to stop using plastic straws at his restaurants three years ago. Currently all Quan Bui branches use grass straws produced by ZWS and receive great feedback from restaurant goers. But behind it was an array of trials and errors. "We started off making our own citronella straws, but it was too time-consuming. We later switched to paper straws, but they soak in water. We even made straws out of morning glory, but it requires very strict sanitary techniques otherwise it's not safe for users. We began buying metal straws, but many customers like to bite straws and we received so many complaints from those with sensitive teeth. "I eventually found Zero Waste Saigon who offers grass straws certified by Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, under the Ministry of Health. It's been a hit!" Danh said. The cost of these straws are 20 times that of plastic ones, which is a serious concern for any business owner, but Danh thinks it's worth the investment in the long run.



(From L) Le Khanh, Phi Dan, Nha Uyen, Bao Han and Gia Han, a group of 11-year-old volunteers, speak to a reporter at the straw installation event. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

The Friday event drew many children. Some young kids were brought by their parents who hoped to plant early environment awareness. Others came as volunteers themselves. There were a group of avid environmentalists aged 11 who have their own plastic project at school.

Le Khanh, Phi Dan, Nha Uyen, Bao Han and Gia Han had been

engaged in eco-friendly activities for six months at the

American International School Vietnam, which sent them to the event. They run a club called 'Earth Day Community' and organize a competition called 'Zero Plastic Lunch' once a week at school. "Nobody has won so far, only us," one of them told VnExpress International, giggling.

The girls not only felt they were making a good impact at school, their parents also supported their efforts at home. Prior to the installation days, they had been working with Zero Waste Saigon, which co-sponsors the project with Starbucks Vietnam, to help with sorting and counting straws.

A kid captured by the waves of plastic straws. Photo by Thanh Nguyen

ZWS and Benjamin Von Wong believe the consequences of massive amounts of plastic used and dumped into landfills and oceans will be faced and felt by future generations.

"I have a son and I really want a better future for him," Julia said. "Parting of the Plastic Sea," which took two weeks to complete, was officially launched Friday and will be exhibited for two months at Estella Place, which has offered ZWS the space for free.

Benjamin said: "We hope some other organizations would like to adopt our art work so it can travel elsewhere in Vietnam. Ive also already received suggestions from colleagues and friends telling me to take this to other countries. Instead of lying around in the street where we found most of them, these plastic straws are here today, hoping to start a dialogue with people."

A group of boys play tag between the parted waves; behind them, on the wall, the projects tagline, #strawpocalypse, can be seen faintly. Photo by Thanh NguyenBottles of Sabeco's Saigon beer are seen at a restaurant bar in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo by Reuters/Kham

While Sabeco is still at loggerheads with the taxman over alleged back taxes of $135.73 million, it has not provisioned for it.

Its 2018 accounts make no mention of the amount in dispute though the HCMC Tax Department has claimed it owes that in taxes and fines and even tried to seize the money from the companys bank account.

Vietnams largest brewer, Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), claims it has accurately declared and paid taxes based on guidance from the Ministry of Finance and tax authorities.

A month ago the department said it would seize VND3.1 trillion ($135.73 million) from the brewerys bank account for overdue special consumption tax payable between 2007 and 2015 and penalties for administrative violations. But there was reportedly no money in the account.

Le Duy Minh, deputy head of the tax department, said the account has been temporarily blocked.

"We have asked Sabeco to provide details of other bank accounts, but it has not fulfilled that request."

Sabeco general director Neo Gim Siong Bennett said in a statement on December 30 that Sabeco had not violated any tax regulations.

Thus, the enforcement action by the tax department was a violation of Vietnamese laws since it was taken "without a valid administrative decision" and "contradicts the written guidance issued by the finance ministry, General Department of Taxation and the city department itself."

Speaking about the dispute, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier this month asked the tax authorities to desist from action and wait for related ministries and other agencies to come to a decision.

Mai Tien Dung, Chairman of the Prime Ministers Office, told VnExpress that government agencies are scrutinizing the case as it involves "foreign elements."

Sabecos revenues last year rose 5 percent to more than VND36 trillion ($1.56 billion) but higher expenses and falling profits at its joint venture and affiliate companies caused its profit after tax to fall by 11 percent to VND4.4 trillion ($191 million).

In December 2017 Thai Beverage acquired a 53.59 percent stake in Sabeco from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for $4.84 billion through a local entity, Viet Beverage (VietBev).

Sabeco now has a 42.8 percent of the beer market, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation. It produced nearly 1.85 billion liters of beer last year.Nguyen Xuan Binh hears his sentence at the HCMC People's Court Friday. Photo by VnExpress/Hai Duyen

The head of a Vietnamese coffee company who defrauded five banks of $21.6 million will be jailed for life.

The HCMC Peoples Court Friday sentenced Nguyen Xuan Binh, 59, former chairman of private company Truong Ngan to life imprisonment.

The firms director, Nguyen Dang Son, 37, was sentenced to 16 years in jail for obtaining property by fraud.

The indictment said that Binh had initially borrowed about $40 million from an unknown source to invest in his companys coffee business and construction of facilities.

However, with the company not doing well, he borrowed approximately $24.3 million from five banks in 2012 to service his debt.

The five lenders were Vietinbanks South Saigon branch, VIB's District 5 branch, OCB's District 4 branch, Techcombank's Saigon branch and Maritime Bank's Do Thanh branch.

Binh instructed Son to falsify the amount of coffee the company possessed, from about 8,600 tons to 20,800 tons, as collateral for the banks.

In 2013, the companys coffee inventory was seized by the banks because it could not service the loans. However, due to conflicts of interest between the banks, the seized coffee could not be liquidated.

By March 2017, due to the lengthy legal processes involved, most of the seized coffee had been damaged. Specifically, 5,000 tons of coffee was damaged, leaving just 1,299 tons usable.

The HCMC court also sentenced three former employees of Vietinbanks South Saigon branch to between 3 years in probation and 3 years in jail for negligence resulting in serious consequences.

Because they did not accurately assess the coffee inventory of the Truong Ngan Company used as collateral, the bank has lost over $5.2 million.

The Vietnamese government is currently the majority shareholder of Vietinbank, the countrys second largest lender by assets, and Japans Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) is its foreign strategic shareholder.North Albany Middle School Band Director Andy Nelson said when he started the schools annual jazz festival 13 years ago he thought about the contests and festivals that are all over the state.

I wanted to do something different, he said.

So the event is not structured as a competition, although professional clinicians evaluate each group. Nelson said this is so that each group can get constructive feedback on how to improve, with a focus on positive encouragement.

I want the kids and directors that visit here to walk away with some new ideas about how to be better, he said.

This years iteration of the festival was held Saturday and featured more than a dozen middle school jazz bands. Nelson said between students and parents around 2,000 people pass through the school during the festival.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Nelson, in his 28th year of teaching, said the festival is built on positivity and that middle school students in particular need a lot of encouragement to stick with something.

He added that he believes learning music, particularly instrumental music, is an important part of education and helps students grow and become better people.Lebanon Fire District crews battled to a fire in a vacant house Saturday morning.

According to a news release, firefighters were called out at 9:06 a.m. for a fire in a three-bedroom house at 221 Jennings Street. Personnel saw smoke coming from the building upon arrival and forced entry to put the fire out and search for potential victims.

They concluded the house was unoccupied.

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

Eight fire apparatus responded to the blaze and crews were on scene for about two hours working to control the fire as it burned through interior walls. No injuries were reported.

Neighbors told investigators that the house was recently under remodel and was listed for sale, with realtors showing the home to potential buyers as recently as Friday afternoon, the news release said.

The Lebanon Fire Investigation team is currently working to determine the cause of the fire.

Anyone with information about the fire is encouraged to contact Deputy Fire Marshal Ken Foster at 541-619-8746.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0The Criminal Court has handed down a death sentence to a Myanmar woman for laundering dirty money and her connection with the methamphetamine trade.





The court passed sentence on Myint Thein Aye, 43, after finding her guilty of several counts including laundering money from meth that she possessed, trafficked and financed.





She was arrested in November 2017 when Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers intercepted her van in Bangkok. Investigators had been tracking the gangs she led for years.





She claimed she had travelled from Myanmar for medical treatment in Bangkok and ran a foreign-exchange business in Thailand and her country.





However, police believed Myint Thein Aye was a key figure in a drug gang, handling the money from the meth trade.





Her name had been on the wanted list after NSB officers busted a gang in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai in 2016 by posing as drug buyers. They agreed on a price of 13.5 million baht and were told to transfer the money into a bank account under the womans name in Mae Sai.





The money was laundered to open jewellery and gold shops, as well as a hotel business in the 2 countries, according to the NSB.





Police also cracked down other members of the gang when they raided a house in Samut Prakan in December 2017.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!





"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Bangkok Post, January 26, 2019An Ohio governor delayed a man's execution next month to look at lethal injection alternatives





COLUMBUS, Ohio  Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday delayed next month's execution of a condemned Ohio man and ordered the prison system to look at alternative lethal injection drugs.





The announcement by the Republican governor followed a federal judge's ruling this month that said Ohio's current execution protocol could cause the inmate "severe pain and needless suffering."





Warren Keith Henness was scheduled to die by lethal injection Feb. 13 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.





Henness was convicted of killing 51-year-old Richard Myers in Columbus in 1992. Authorities say Myers had been helping Henness find a drug treatment for his wife.





DeWine's order raises new questions about Ohio's troubled death penalty system, including the possibility of an additional round of delays lasting months or years.





It took Ohio more than three years to establish its current three-drug lethal injection protocol, in part because of the difficulty many states have had finding drugs. The state carried out the first execution under the current system in 2017.









RELATED | Ohio opposes Warren Keith Henness' request to delay execution The drug scarcity occurred over the past decade as multiple manufacturers and distributors put their drugs off limits for executions.





The first drug in Ohio's system, the sedative midazolam, has also been subject to lawsuits that argue it exposes inmates to the possibility of severe pain because it doesn't render them deeply enough unconscious.





Because of Ohio's use of midazolam, federal Judge Michael Merz called the constitutionality of the state's system into question in a Jan. 14 ruling and said inmates could suffer an experience similar to waterboarding.





However, Merz did not stop the execution. Instead, he said that under a test created by a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Henness couldn't demonstrate that a feasible execution alternative exists, and thus the execution could proceed.





Merz's ruling is likely headed to a federal appeals court, which has previously upheld the use of midazolam in Ohio.





Three additional executions are scheduled before September. It's likely attorneys in all those cases will ask for similar delays.





Henness' lawyers, who had asked DeWine on Thursday for the delay, were pleased with the decision.





"We commend Governor DeWine for his leadership and for ensuring the justice system operates humanely in Ohio," said David Stebbins, a federal public defender, in an emailed statement.





The announcement was DeWine's first as governor regarding a death penalty case.





Myers was a lab technician at a veterans hospital in Chillicothe in southern Ohio and frequently volunteered with Alcoholics Anonymous.





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 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.





Prosecutors say Henness has a history of lying and refusing to take responsibility for the killing.





Myers' widow and son "are extremely disappointed that after almost 27 years from the vicious execution style murder of their loved one that there is further delay in carrying out the court's lawful sentence," Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said in an emailed statement.





The Ohio Parole Board unanimously rejected Henness' plea for mercy this month.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!





"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

The Associated Press, January 26, 2019It was almost exactly one year ago today that Chinese scientists revealedthat they had successfully cloned a monkey, resulting in the live births of two genetically identical babies. It was a monumental achievement that brought with it a whole minefield of ethical questions and very few answers, and now things are getting even more complicatedIn a new announcement, also out of China, researchers reveal that they've cloned a handful of new monkeys as well, but this time around the donor monkey was genetically modified to exhibit specific disorders associated with hormone imbalance and mental health.In a pairof new paperspublished by the scientists, the team describes the successful cloning effort using somatic cell nuclear transfer while also noting that the cloned monkey exhibited the same circadian-related symptoms as the donor monkey. The donor was engineered to be born with an altered gene that causes mental disorders and symptoms akin to anxiety and depression, and even schizophrenic habits.The research actually cloned over 300 embryos which were implanted into dozens of surrogate mothers to carry them. 16 pregnancies resulted but just five live births followed. The baby monkeys all exhibited the same symptoms as their predecessor, which is actually exactly what the researchers were hoping for.'We believe that this approach of cloning gene-edited monkeys could be used to generate a variety of monkey models for gene-based diseases, including many brain diseases, as well as immune and metabolic disorders and cancer,' Qiang Sun, senior author of the research, said in a statementThe team suggests that by cloning genetically modified animals for medical testing they can more quickly and easily see what kind of treatments work or don't work, and monitor for side effects with greater accuracy. However, as you might have already guessed, this news isn't sitting well with those who are trying to maintain ethical standards in research related to genetics and cloning.Genetically modifying monkey embryos so that the resulting animals suffer from various diseases is potentially troubling. Creating exact copies of those animals to effectively build a stock of suffering animals for testing is even more creepy. But do the potential benefits of being able to develop treatments for suffering humans outweigh the negatives? That's something that scientists are still debating, and will likely to continue to debate for a while.Although companies have used independent contractors for generations, many small businesses began using them for the first time during the Great Recession and its aftermath. Owners have become more cautious about hiring employees unless theyre certain that they have enough revenue to justify the added risk and expense. The growth of Uber and other ride-sharing services has encouraged owners in other industries to adopt a similar business model, hiring independents to do the work. That has created another potential legal issue  Uber drivers have sued the company in several federal courts, seeking to be declared employees. So far, theres been no definitive ruling.

The IRS has criteria to determine if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, including how much control a company has over a workers behavior and the financial aspects of the job. How long the relationship between company and worker is expected to continue, and whether the services a worker performs are a key aspect of the companys business are also factors.It gives the worker a chance to improve performance before that employee would be dismissed, and if it does not improve then there is a process for removing that employee, Lilienthal said. Whats really at the heart of all of this is due process.

That includes allowing employees to hear the charges against them, see the evidence and have an opportunity to respond and give their side of the story, he said.

We will always advocate for our members because, in the long run, we really do believe that by advocating for our members and creating an environment where they can do their job without fear of retaliation, thats in the best interests of students, Lilienthal said. Its in the best interests of our communities because thats how good public education happens  when we have educators who are not afraid to do their jobs and to do them well.

Solutions

Wendolowski said he thinks one problem with the system is that the criteria for meeting the definition of just cause for termination is really in the eye of the beholder.

While there have been discussions about giving school boards more discretion on disciplining employees, the union is powerful and fights such moves tooth and nail, he said.A school van driver with Greenwood School District in Perry County faces charges after police say he showed nude photographs of a woman to two teenage boys.

State Police at Newport Sunday reported that Jamie Graybill, 45, of Liverpool, was charged with two counts each of felony dissemination of sexually explicit material to minors, felony unlawful contact with minors and misdemeanor corruption of minors.

The charges stem from an incident between Jan. 3 and Jan. 18 when Graybill allegedly showed nude photographs of an adult woman to two 15-year-old boys.

Graybill was arraigned on Jan. 19 and waived the charges to higher court during a preliminary hearing on Friday.

Bail was set at $25,000 cash, which Graybill posted.



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.A new business development tax-incentive program designed to help attract and create more higher-paying jobs in the state will begin its journey through the 2019 Legislature propelled by a broad range of initial support.

Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward will guide the proposal (LB720) along its legislative path, but the bill already has attracted 21 co-signers that include conservative, moderate and progressive state senators who are members of both major political parties.

The current business tax-incentive program, which Kolterman described as "cumbersome and not working effectively," is set to expire next year.

"This is a work in progress," he said during an interview in his office at the Capitol.

"If we don't continue to grow our state, we can't get the property tax relief we need," Kolterman said. "They go hand-in-hand; this is the path to substantial property tax relief."

Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, suggested that "in many respects, we are at an economic crossroads."

"In a world that is growing ever smaller with technology, communication and transportation advances, competition between the states for talent and higher-paying jobs is at an all-time high," he said.The debate has been fierce and rigorous. Social media has lit up like a Sydney skyline on New Years Eve. Why? Gillette released an advertisement. It hit a nerve, and stirred a national discussion.

What is toxic masculinity and what can we do about it?

You can see the Gillette advertisement here.

The conversation blog says that the, Gillette ad isnt anti-men, its anti-toxic masculinity  and this should be welcomed.

Melinda Tankard Reist writes in the ABC Religion and Ethics column that some have assumed that toxic masculinity means, men are innately bad, defective and pathological. When really, what is intended is more, certain expressions of masculinity are problematic.

That might be where some of the backlash from this advertisement has come from. Who are you to say that Im violent? Who are you to say Im an angry man? Who are you to say Im a sexual predator? Its like some men have felt threatened or offended or condemned for their own behaviour, or lumped into a category not befitting of them.

Put aside the cognitive dissonance of a large conglomerate, Proctor and Gamble, financially benefitting from proactively engaging in a socially hot topic across the western world. That aside, surely the intent of the advert was to provoke, prod and wake up men just enough to have them consider the positives and negative expressions of their own masculinity?

Will boys just be boys?

One of the debates that rages since the Gillette advert is the question the sociologists wrestle with: To what degree is a boys masculinity a result of the culture in which that boy is brought up in?

The conservation blog opines, Critics ignore the explicit message of the advert, which is that gender is culturally constructed, and that we all have a responsibility to shape the future of our society. It isnt an attack on boys, or an attempt to stop them being boys. Its about letting boys be any kind of boy they want to be. More importantly, its about letting them care.

Dr. John Dickson, known for being a public advocate for the Christian faith, presents a different angle. He says, Because of the dramatic differences in male and female hormones and muscle mass, men do much more of the physically explosive stuff in our world, both good and bad. Men do more armed combat, break up more fights, and rescue more innocents, as well astragicallycommit more murders, crime, and domestic abuse. Virtually all men, in other words, have the capacity for toxic masculinity, even if we want to say that only a small minority of men exploit this capacity.

In theological terms, we talk about the human nature being corrupted by sin. We have a propensity to make choices that simply do not please God. I have young children and I see it all the time: how often do my children feel the desire to lie, and to get angry and to steal the other childs remote control (you may have different children to me).

Only by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ do we have the opportunity to turn from this sin and seek a new way to live.

Grab a new copy of my book called Jesus Christ! here.

We could debate gender stereotypes until the cows come home. Though, fundamentally we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans chapter 3, verse 23). And as Gillette clearly portrays, some men have a fair bit of redemption still to experience.

Deep, deep down, theres a reason

So, why, as Michael Frost (Christian author and missiologist) questions, do people seem to lack the ability to, applaud a commercial enterprise for intuiting the winds of social change and agree that men should be patient, kind, sensitive, respectful and composed?

Its because deep down were stubborn and deep down the advertisement hit a truth for many men, that they need to change. And Im yet to meet anyone who celebrates a kick in the guts when it comes to changing character flaws.

The boys of today

Theres more to be said, of course. I think we should celebrate the highlights of masculinity expressed in ways that is transformative to the broader culture. I love it when my 7-year-old boy gives a big hug to his two sisters and tells them he loves them.

I think we should on the other hand be able to rationally, respectfully and intellectually debate a topic such as masculinity without the twittersphere having a meltdown and social media feeds imploding across the Australian landscape.

As Gillette say, Men need to hold other men accountable. We should encourage each other, To say the right thing, to act the right way. I agree with Gillette that some men demanding a better way are not enough. Theres too many stories of women badly hurt by the selfish and violent acts of men.

Ultimately, we have an opportunity to model a way of living that will be an example worth emulating in younger generations.

Because

The boys of today will be the men of tomorrow.

Pete Brookshaw is the Senior Minister of The Salvation Army Craigieburn. He has a Bachelor of both Business and Theology and is passionate about the church being dynamic and effective in the world and creating communities of faith that are outward-focused, innovative, passionate about the lost and committed to societal change. He has been blogging since 2006 at http://www.petebrookshaw.com about leadership and faith and you can find him on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/petebrookshaw

Twitter: www.twitter.com/petebrookshaw

Peter Brookshaws previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/peter-brookshaw.htmlThe Church of England is to invest 35 million in new outreach and evangelism projects, it was announced today.

The move is part of the Church's Renewal and Reform programme and is intended to help it reach tens of thousands of people including in city centres, outer estates and rural areas.

The grants will pioneer new types of churches along with other projects, ranging from a social media pastor to work with school and community choirs.

The ancient city of Durham will see new investment in mission. (Facebook)

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: 'Hearing and responding to the good news of Jesus Christ unlocks new joy, new belonging, new purpose and new life.

'These projects show the dynamism and drive of the Church of England's mission to share this good news with people throughout our dioceses and parishes.

'We are committed to this work because we want everyone to know how much they are loved by God through Jesus Christ, and how they can find that love for themselves.'

The areas which will receive the funding boost include Birmingham, Bradford, Gateshead, Ipswich, Leeds, Portsmouth, Preston, Rotherham, Southend and Stockton-on-Tees.

In Bradford, a church with a planned gym and cafe on site is to be created in a nightclub area in the centre of the city as part of the Church of England's mission to students and young adults.

In Leeds, congregations that meet throughout the week rather than Sundays will be set up at Holy Trinity Church in the city centre aimed at attracting professionals working in the area.

In Suffolk, a grant has been made available to help create small worshipping communities meeting mainly in houses in rural areas with the aim of supporting new forms of church gatherings in the region.

Several of the grants will boost the Church of England's presence in areas with high student populations. In Durham, St Nic's Church, in the centre of the city, will seek to engage with the further education sector, building on existing work amongst university students.

Also in Durham, a new group will be established, The Community of St Cuthbert, inspired by the monastic tradition.

The Church will support mission work in the digital sphere with the appointment of a social media pastor  a lay or ordained role  based at Stockton Parish Church, in the Diocese of Durham, and a digital media post in Suffolk.

The spending round includes funding for mission work through the Church of England's Anglo-Catholic tradition. In Lancashire, the City of Preston Parish, of Preston Minster and the Anglo-Catholic St George's Church, is to expand its outreach, including to under-25s and students in the town. Churches in the Anglo Catholic tradition in east London and Essex, areas of rapid population growth, will be supported to create new congregations.

The grants from the Church of England's Strategic Development Fund have been awarded to the dioceses as part of the Renewal and Reform programme aimed at creating a growing church for all people and for all places.

Programme director Debbie Clinton said: 'From a church in a nightclub area to weekday congregations and a social media pastor, the Church of England is not afraid to try something new to ensure it continues to serve every community in the country.

'We believe that everyone should have a chance to experience the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of belonging to a Christian community wherever they live, whether in an urban city centre, an outer housing estate or in remote rural areas.'Sharing the Gospel

Using Jesus to Change the Fate of the Worlds Largest Nation

Over half the worlds population growth is expected to be in Africa between now and 2050. In the next few decades millions of people will build lives in countries marked by poverty, corruption and war.

Its an environment that could easily become hopeless, as survival and putting food on the table take top priority. A persons spiritual well-being seems insignificant, but for African Enterprise, its where their aid work begins.

Working on the continent for nearly 60 years, African Enterprise (AE) partner with local churches introducing African communities to the Bible, and teaching them about Jesus. Looking at His love for humanity and ability to cross racial divides, Jesus character frames AE programs on peace and reconciliation, leadership development, and youth empowerment.

Seeing the positive impact of Australias Christian heritage on our society and democracy, AE CEO Ben Campbell believes a spiritual approach to aid is what Africa needs to reap the same benefits.

The Australasian community makes an incredible contribution to the world stage on so many levels, Ben says, and in particular to Africa through the blessings the Lord has provided our societies.

It is possible to help change Africa for the better through Christ bringing unity to churches to engage in citywide urban mission and social action programs and strengthening theological education.

Children in class

AEs focus on holistic well-being has made it a leading force in Africa for reconciliation, mission and social transformation, coordinating thousands of volunteers to train pastors and leaders in their own language and culture and to engage on mission to all levels of society. Biblical scripture is preached by locals to locals, making AE one of the most effective agencies for transforming cities through evangelism in partnership with the church.

This year African Enterprise will go to approximately 15 African city regions in various countries including, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania, mobilising the church and thousands of volunteers to reach out to their local communities.

This change is only made possible through the support of people like you. You can partner with African Enterprise now on the Great Commission in Africa and continue to enable change via https://africanenterprise.com.au/get-involved/Conroy said of the 1.9 million people who have used the Cologuard home test kit since it went on the market four years ago, 8,700 early-stage cases of colorectal cancer have been found and 60,000 pre-cancerous polyps detected.

It will take up to two years to implement Exacts agreement to put its records onto the platform of Verona electronic health records provider Epic Systems Corp., Conroy said. But when that happens, physicians will be more likely to prescribe Cologuard because they will be able do it electronically instead of filling out a form and faxing it, he said. In addition, it will let Exact find out what happens down the road to a patient who has used Cologuard.

Exact Sciences now has 500 salespeople of its own  not counting the Pfizer contingent thats also marketing Cologuard. This makes us the largest commercial organization in advanced cancer diagnostics, and we intend to extend that capability, Conroy said.

About the prospects for an Exact Sciences blood test for colon cancer, Conroy said the data so far is better than anything that we have seen. But its not being released yet because the company is looking for additional biomarkers, he said.YANGON (Reuters) - Contestants ran a stiletto race and swirled hula hoops at a park in Myanmar's biggest city on Sunday in the Drag Olympics as a highlight of the Yangon Pride festival. The attendance of an estimated 2,000 people at the Thakin Mya Park was a sign of change in a predominantly Buddhist country where traditionalism is strong and homosexuality is a crime under a law inherited from British colonialists, organizers said. It was the fifth time that the festival has been held, but only the second year it has happened in a public place. "When we started this, people did not really dare to come to this kind of festival," said Hla Mat Tun, a co-director of the festival from the &Proud group. "Now you see a lot of young people. Young people are more proud and out and encouraged and empowered." But he said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people continued to face harassment and that social change was needed as well as changes to Myanmar's laws. Activists complain that progress has not been as swift as they would have hoped under Myanmar's transition to democracy. The government has also faced heavy international criticism after a 2017 army crackdown led hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Cheered on by the crowd, nine contestants took part in the Drag Olympics, which also involved a handbag flinging contest before the judges picked a winner. (Editing by Mark Potter)Merchants who lost money during the three days of the Group of Seven Summit in June, 2018 are getting paid back by the federal government.

More than 120 business owners in Quebec City and La Malbaie applied for compensation for lost revenue.

They said the G7 protests and increased police presence deterred their customers, as many avoided Quebec City's downtown altogether.

"People were definitely walking around town less," said Benoit Huot, the owner the CD Melomane record shop on St-Jean Street, who said he saw fewer customers as a result.

Global Affairs Canada will not say how much individual businesses are receiving.

One merchant in Quebec City's Petit-Champlain neighbourhood says his store's cheque amounted to thousands of dollars  however, it took an administrator 16 hours to do the necessary paperwork to get it.

Rebecca Martel/CBC

Some deterred by application process

While more than two-thirds of the business owners who applied have received a cheque from the government, many merchants, like Huot, didn't bother applying.

As a business in a designated area that stayed open during the G7, Huot was eligible for compensation  but only for revenue lost during the three days of the summit.

The government does not pay for emotional distress or other damage, like vandalism.

To be eligible for a compensation cheque, a merchant had to prove what their usual revenue is, based on monthly sales over a three-year period, provide an estimate of lost revenue for the three days of the summit, and mail in supporting documents.

For Huot, it simply wasn't worth the effort.

"I looked at the form, and I found it to be a lot to fill out," he said, calling it "a big job" for the money he'd get back.

Huot said small business owners are busy enough without having to carve out the time to fill out long compensation forms, and he said he'd already put in enough time before the summit, to protect the shop from vandalism and damage.

The head of the local merchants' assocation, the Societe de developpement commercial (SDC) Montcalm, Jean-Pierre Bedard, said he know of just three business owners who made the effort to apply for federal compensation.News

US president, first lady announce death of their first dog Champ

"In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion. We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always," the Bidens said in a statement.



Environment Canada

Northern Alberta residents can expect to see freezing rain Saturday, followed by heavy snowfall.

Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the Fort McMurray and Fort MacKay region, where freezing rain is forecast late this afternoon and tonight.

"The freezing rain will occur more in the north while the southern areas will see rain late this afternoon and early this evening," the Environment Canada website says.

Around 10 to 15 centimetres of heavy snow is expected to fall between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

"Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations," the weather warning reads. "Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become icy and slippery."

Roads and walkways could also become icy in the High Level, Rainbow Lake, Fort Vermilion and Mackenzie Highway region, where a freezing rain warning is in effect. The rain is expected to fall Saturday afternoon and evening.

Between five to 10 centimetres of snowfall is expected, ending early Sunday.A former mayor and forestry operator on the of the Northern Peninsula has big questions about the company involved in the timber rights deal in his backyard. And he's spending his own money to find the answers.

Leander Pilgrim, who served as the mayor of Main Brook for over 30 years, says the U.K. company Active Energy Company has no experience in forestry management and will ruin the traditional way of life in the area.

In late November, the province announced two five-year cutting permits for Timberlands International, a subsidiary of AEG.

Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press

"All they're thinking about was the few extra jobs for eight to 10 years or whatever it's going to create," said Pilgrim. "We just can't let it happen."

The deal gives the company rights to 500,000 cubic metres of forest in districts 17 and 18, which encompass the entire Northern Peninsula.

The company will also construct a wood pellet plant in Hawke's Bay.

AEG's past failures

But Pilgrim fears there will be no pellet plant and government didn't do its due diligence when researching the company's past.

Pilgrim hired a consultant to look into the company's history, sending his findings to key political figures.

In a letter written to government in December, he highlights AEG's failures in the forestry industry.

The company's interim financial results from the first six months of last year show the company hadn't generated any revenue in two financial quarters, after the failure of its wood fibre operations in Ukraine.

The company also had a failed timber deal in Northern Alberta.

In July 2014, the company formed a corporation with three Metis groups to commercialize 250,000 hectares of Metis land, but the Alberta government suspended that deal, when the groups were found to have violated the province's Metis Settlements Act by entering into a joint venture agreement with AEG without due diligence.

Pilgrim worries AEG is here just to line its pockets at the expense of nature.

Story continues

"The forest plays a part in everything within our environment, like the temperatures of the rivers. Everything will be affected by this, what I calls a mess," said Pilgrim.

Minister stands by deal

Fisheries and Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne couldn't disagree more.

He said the provincial government has done all it can to mitigate the risk to the public and to taxpayers.

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

"The company is regulated by the U.K. stock exchange and their securities exchange commission. We sought and received a verification from from the United Kingdom's stock exchange that the company was in good standing."

Byrne does acknowledge the deal isn't fail-proof, but says no government money went to the company. And the agreement puts pressure on AEG to produce in the province.

"If they fail to harvest 40 per cent of their existing allocation within the first 30 months, they start to lose access to forest resources.

CBC has requested an interview with Richard Spinks, managing director of Timberlands International, but has not received a response.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and LabradorJamaal Jackson Rogers is filled with pride at the thought of having his great-great-grandfather honoured with his very own stamp.

This week in Toronto, Canada Post unveiled a commemorative stamp featuring Albert Jackson  Canada's first black mail carrier  more than 100 years after his death.

"It's surreal," Jackson Rogers, a City of Ottawa poet laureate, told CBC Radio's All In A Day.

"The first thing I told myself, when I heard about him being put on a stamp, was they better do him justice," he said. "It's a beautiful stamp."

Toronto Public Library

Family fled slavery

Jackson was born in the state of Delaware during the 1850s. His two eldest brothers were sold as slaves, which is said to have triggered the death of Jackson's father.

His mother, Ann Maria, escaped from the United States to Canada with seven children on the Underground Railroad. Albert was the youngest and just a toddler at the time.

As an adult, Jackson ended up as a letter carrier for the post office in Toronto. He worked his first day on May 12, 1882.

It was a difficult beginning, as his white colleagues refused to train him.

Honoured with plaque, play, book

Jackson worked at the post office for 36 years until his death in 1918.

In 2017, Heritage Toronto honoured his memory by unveiling a commemorative plaque at the old Toronto General Post Office, near where Jackson used to pick up mail to deliver on his routes.

In addition to the commemorative stamp and the plaque, Jackson has also had a play and a book created in his name. A small street behind his former home in Toronto has also been named Albert Jackson Lane.

Jackson Rogers didn't make the trip down to Toronto for the ceremony, but many of his extended family members were there.

He also said he and his family only gradually learned about his ancestor's legacy.

Mario Carlucci/CBC

'I think I'm going to call myself a messenger'

"His story was discovered through a woman named Carolyn Frost. She was putting together a book of black slaves who came through the Underground Railroad to Canada," Jackson Rogers said

Story continues

"That's the first time I heard about Albert Jackson and [his] family."

It's only been recently that Jackson Rogers has come to appreciate a connection between his great-great-grandfather's job as a mail carrier and his own work as a performance poet.

"Someone asked me, 'Hey can you perform something?' And ... right on the spot I said, 'You know, I think I'm not going to call myself a performer anymore. I think I'm going to call myself a messenger, delivering messages.'"

"And I didn't know at the time, when I had said that, that Albert Jackson was my [relative]. So there is something serendipitous."One in five young people in Canada either hasn't heard of the Holocaust or isn't sure what it is.

That's the conclusion from a new survey released ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday.

Historians believe the new data should be a wake-up call on how the systematic murder of six million Jews in Europe is taught in Canadian schools  and remembered more broadly.

"One of the surprising things was the awareness gap between millennials and older respondents it's shocking," said historian Naomi Azrieli, CEO of the Azrieli Foundation, the charity behind the survey.

"I think older Canadians are more likely to have known a survivor or been around in World War Two," she told CBC News. "With each generation, it becomes less living history and more remote."

In Britain, a new survey by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place.

The survey of more than 2,000 people released Sunday also found that nearly two-thirds of respondents either did not know how many Jews had been murdered or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust.

Chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman described the results as "widespread ignorance and even denial."

While there are debates among historians about exactly when the Holocaust began, the mass killing of Jews in the Second World War started in 1941 with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, according to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, and continued until the Nazis were defeated in 1945.

Held on Jan. 27 annually following a United Nations resolution, International Holocaust Remembrance Day coincides with the day Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest complex of Nazi death camps, was liberated by Soviet forces in 1945.

Among other points, the Canadian survey found:

 Nearly six in 10 Canadians (57 per cent) said fewer people seem to care about the Holocaust than they used to.

Story continues

 15 per cent of Canadian adults and more than one fifth of Canadians under age 34 (22 per cent) haven't heard about or are not sure if they have heard about the Holocaust.

Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press

 Nearly half of Canadian respondents (49 per cent) couldn't name a single concentration camp. That's roughly equal to the U.S., where 45 per cent couldn't name one in a similar survey last year. There were over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos in Europe during the Holocaust.

 Nearly one quarter of all Canadians (23 per cent) believe substantially fewer than six million Jews were killed (two million or fewer) during the Holocaust, while another 24 per cent were unsure of how many were killed.

 Few Canadians believe there are many neo-Nazis in Canada today, while nearly half think there are many in the U.S. In fact, on a per capita basis, the two countries have roughly the same number of neo-Nazis, Azrieli said.

Reasons for optimism

With offices in Toronto, Montreal and Israel, the Azrieli Foundation commissioned Schoen Consulting to carry out the survey based on 1,100 interviews with Canadians over age 18 in September 2018. The margin of error was plus or minus three per cent.

While Azrieli was disappointed by the lack of knowledge about the Holocaust, especially among younger Canadians, she said the survey also offered plenty reasons for optimism.

More than 80 per cent of respondents believe all students should learn about the Holocaust in school and 85 per cent said it's crucial to keep teaching about the Holocaust so it doesn't happen again.

Azrieli wants to see a more comprehensive approach to how the Holocaust is taught in schools, potentially involving special professional development days for teachers to become more acquainted with its history.

Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

With only around 5,000 Holocaust survivors alive in Canada today to tell their own stories about the mass killings, she said it's more crucial than ever that schools and other institutions develop strong programs to teach the subject.

False beliefs

The need for better Holocaust education is especially intense due to rising anti-Semitic sentiment in much of the world, said Azrieli, whose family survived the Holocaust.

Since last year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that "today's threats do not come solely from the fringe."

"In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are travelling the road to authoritarianism," said Ira Forman, the group's senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. "As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust."

In Canada, hate crimes rose to an all-time high in 2017, according to a Statistics Canada report released in November. For hate crimes based on religion, Jews were the most targeted group in Canada, with more than 300 incidents reported to police.

Nearly one-third of survey respondents believed Canada had an open immigration policy for Jewish refugees fleeing Europe.

In fact, Canada had "one of the worst immigration records in the world" related to Jewish people, "worse than the U.S. or U.K.," Azrieli said.

Canada allowed only 5,000 Jewish refugees into the country while allowing nearly 2,000 Nazi war criminals to immigrate to Canada after the Second World War, the Azrieli Foundation reported.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Canadian border guards had a saying about Jewish refugees, she said: "None is too many."

Survey respondents thought Canada had been more welcoming toward Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, as they considered Canada to be generally more open toward immigrants than other nations, given the country's current policies.

"That was a very interesting finding of this survey," said Azrieli, "And an important indication that our own history is not well known to most Canadians."Despite gold firming since November 2018 to be trading at over US$1,280 an ounce, its poorer cousin silver continues to languish at under US$16 per ounce. This is weighing on silver miners particularly when the stagnant outlook for the white metal is accounted for. However, that shouldnt deter investors from buying Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (TSX:FVI)(NYSE:FSM).

Solid operational performance

The miner, which owns the San Jose mine in Mexico and Caylloma mine in Peru recently reported some solid 2018 operational results, underscoring the quality of its operations. Full-year silver and gold production exceeded the miners annual guidance by 7% and 12% respectively. Total 2018 silver output of 8.9 million ounces was 5% greater than a year earlier. This was driven by a notable increase in ore grades mined at Fortunas San Jose mine, which for the year averaged 260 grams of silver per tonne of ore extracted (g/t) compared to 238 g/t in 2017. That notable production growth will go some way to mitigating the impact of weaker silver on Fortunas earnings.

For 2019, the miner expects silver production from continuing operations to rise by just over 1% to 9 million ounces while gold output will remain essentially flat. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs (ASICs) are forecast to be US$9.90 to US$12.10 per silver equivalent ounce produced, indicating that even if silver remains weak Fortunas operations are profitable.

Growing gold production

What makes Fortuna a compelling and extremely attractive precious metals miner to acquire is its Lindero gold project in Argentina. The mine is expected to be commissioned and commence production during the third quarter 2018. Lindero is an open pit heap leach gold mine with reserves of 1.7 million gold ounces and forecast AISCs of US$802 per gold ounce produced. During its first year of operation, the mine is expected to add 137,000 ounces of gold to Fortunas total metals production. That will give the miners earnings a healthy boost, particularly with gold trading at over US$1,281 an ounce.

Story continues

There is every likelihood that the yellow metal will firm further, with analysts taking a bullish view on the outlook for gold for 2019. Commodities economists at Capital Economics predict that gold will finish the year at US$1,350 and silver will appreciate to US$17.50 per ounce. While I believe the forecast for silver appears overly optimistic because of weaker industrial demand for the white metal, US$1,350 an ounce gold is quite feasible, especially with many investors bolstering their exposure to the yellow metal to hedge against growing global uncertainty.

That would help to propel Fortunas earnings significantly higher. Even at current prices, 137,000 ounces of annual gold production would add anywhere up to US$66 million in mine operating income to Fortunas yearly earnings. This will act as a powerful tailwind for its stock, and there are signs that Fortuna will soar potentially doubling if Lindero delivers as forecast and gold firms further. Its existing gold and silver reserves alone, after allowing for costs and debt, have a net-present-value (NPV) of around $8 per share thats 1.7 times greater than Fortunas current price.

There is also considerable potential exploration upside at Lindero, where Fortuna has embarked on an extensive drilling program, having completed 2,178 metres during the third quarter 2018 alone.

Is it time to buy Fortuna?

On commissioning, Lindero will significantly boost Fortunas gold production, thereby reducing its dependence on silver and reducing the impact of the poor outlook for the white metal on its finances. When this is considered in conjunction with the quality of its San Jose silver mine and long-term debt totalling US$40 million (roughly a mere 0.5 times EBITDA), the miner is an appealing play on higher gold.

More reading

Fool contributor Matt Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2019Opinion / National

Possibly, the most well-known theory in this genre of work, Wolfgang and Ferracuti's Subculture of Violence attempted to outline a methodological framework for the empirical examination of violent subcultures. Central to their discussion was the idea that higher rates of violence amongst lower-class and racialised populations could be explained by the fact that these groups have embraced values and norms that are more permissive of violence.This theorisation assumes the existence of distinct subcultural, pro-violent values that develop in opposition to dominant or middle-class norms and values. (Singh, 2015, www.children.gov.on.ca)The subculture of violence discourse argues that once people begin to internalise or accept violence as a way of problem solving or a way of life, then violence becomes imbedded, rooted in society and passed from one generation to the next.This takes us to recent protests that degenerated into massive violence characterised by looting and burning of shops, harassing of people by protesters, attacks on police and killing of a police officer, burning of cars and destruction of property and loss of life in Bulawayo, Harare, Chitungwiza, Kadoma, Gweru and other places. The gory pictures of shops and cars burnt down are there for everyone to see, yet there is a section of the community that still seeks to sanitise the violent protests and seeks to blame the State for reacting to save property and lives of the innocent.As President Mnangagwa said, what happened was surely not a Zimbabwean way of doing things. And surely, the schizophrenic way of looking at the violent protests that bordered on terrorism should not be given room in a society that values the sanctity of life and the right to property. Moreover, the police and the army were not deployed on pilgrims going for early morning prayers but hordes of people working in common purpose to injure, loot, steal and cause unrest in the country.The selective framing of what transpired which condones what was done by protestors and is quick to blame the State for reacting to restore order should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Nonetheless, any misconduct by the security apparatus will be invistigated as Government respects human rights. The assurance was made by two Ministers on Friday.Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister Judith Ncube said a third force could not be ruled out in the protests because of the manner in which looting and destruction of property was systematically carried out, with schools forced to close, kombis forced off the road and those going to work manhandled and forced to go back home so as to "heed" the so called shut down.The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Hon Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu said the acts were preplanned and were terrorism."Looking at the nature of destruction, particularly at Choppies Supermarkets, it is quite clear that it was not random looting, but it was planned and we also noted that some chemicals were used to burn these shops and certainly this requires further investigations. Most of our people got into the bandwagon without knowing that this was planned arson and precisely this is terrorism," he said.What should also be criticised is the use of children in the protests. Young children were seen running around shops carrying looted goods being commandeered by their parents, even mothers with kids strapped on their backs were seen all over social media running around carrying looted goods. On Thursday, five minors, between the ages of six and 13, appeared in court facing charges of looting."I was driving home and I had managed to manoeuvre my way until I was at Mabutweni where I was stopped by young boys, roughly about 12 years old, who demanded that I pay a 'tollgate' of $2, so that I could pass. There were about three groups of such boys in the area and they all demanded toll gates from motorists and they threatened to stone and burn the vehicles if one tried to resist. Is this the culture we want to inculcate in our children?" said a Bulawayo resident from Pelandaba.Bulawayo Progressive Residents' Association acting coordinator Emmanuel Ndlovu said it was saddening to note that the skirmishes were mostly perpetrated by youths and children."It is saddening to note that the rampaging was mostly perpetrated by young children apparently with no ideology of the repercussions it has but unfortunately driven by excitement of the unfolding developmentsThe events were actually regrettable, devastating and disgusting and we have actually become our own worst enemies because we are now failing to get the goods, which we used to obtain from shops within our vicinities and to make matters worse even those that were not involved are now paying heavily," he said.Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Matabeleland chapter president Mr Joseph Gunda said the violent protests were a sign of the death of cultural and good morals at homes."Peace and security start in our homes. These people (rioters), whatever the cause might have been whether it was hunger or price hikes, we must exercise restraint because once you damage infrastructure, someone's investment or car that person will never be able to recover," he said.It is estimated that the economy suffered heavily 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. About 800 people have since been arrested for various offences emanating from the riots, with most of them found with looted goods.The protests were organised by the MDC Alliance and its partners, under the disguise of demonstrating against fuel prices, but it has since emerged that the riots were preplanned to cause an illegal regime change, as evidenced by the coordination of the looting of shops and closing of schools, as well as the setting up of "safe houses" where some organisers and participants in the riots were hiding from the police."There is a group that was also going around opening shops using an assortment of tools and after breaking down doors, the group would then invite people to loot. The group was seen in a number of suburbs in Bulawayo doing the same thing. This shows this was planned and coordinated," said a Bulawayo resident.In addition, Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba said the riots were not a local affair, but a way by Western countries to camouflage their goals on Zimbabwe and the African continent in general. It emerged that three African states namely Zimbabwe, Sudan and DRC were supposed to fall within a week as part of United States' aggressive plan against the continent. The US announced last year that it is instituting a new policy for Africa with an aim of checkmating Russia and China. Russia and China are using their investment and trade to forge strong ties with African governments.Mr Charamba, who is Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications), said the recent demonstrations which were instigated, organised and managed by MDC-Alliance and its affiliate non-governmental organisations should never be mistaken for local politics."Yes, the face was local, but the politics were external. Locally, it does not make sense let alone a coherent narrative to at one level suggest that Zimbabwe is over 80 percent unemployed while in the same vein creating a dummy called Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Surely 80 percent unemployment and you still have a labour movement, it just doesn't add up! This level of cheap propaganda is an insult to the intellect of Zimbabweans who know better. The thing belongs to the MDC and the MDC leadership, to the man and woman must pay the price for the dead, injured and all the looting that took place."Mr Charamba said the agenda for the demonstrations far exceeded bread and butter issues."That plan is continental and is predicated on reshaping the politics of the African continent to make them useful to Western imperial interests."Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister 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.President Mnangagwa has slammed the violence that occurred, and urged Zimbabweans to focus on reviving the economy."I invite leaders of all political parties as well as religious and civil leaders to set aside our differences and come together. What unites us is stronger than what could ever divide us. Let's begin a national dialogue. Let's put the economy first. Let's put the people first," he said.Opinion / Columnist

REFLECTING on the tumultuous events of the past week makes one realise how so much can go so wrong in a very short time. What was touted as a shutdown/stayaway to protest the surprise 150% hike in fuel prices turned out to be a nationwide orgy of violence, looting and arson. The police reported that in some instances they were overpowered by protesters who ran them down and burnt police stations and vehicles.In Bulawayo, one policeman was even killed by marauding protesters. The military swiftly moved-in in scenes reminiscent of the August 1 2018 political demonstrations that ended with the fatal shooting of six people. What do international laws prescribe about using live ammunition to control violent protesters? Are there situations when the law allows the shooting of protesters if their violence reaches crisis proportions as it did on Monday the 14th?Section 59 of the Zimbabwe Constitution guarantees the right to demonstrate and to present petitions. The only condition is that the right has to be exercised peacefully. The Public Order Security Act chapter amended in 2007 further qualifies that right. Having established the right, the question is, what happens when demonstrations turn violent and pose a danger to life and property?There was massive looting, arson, stoning and burning of cars and beating up of people who wanted to exercise their own freedoms. Violent criminal gangs took over most urban high-density areas looting, burning tyres, barricading roads and traumatising motorists. Some were forced to pay toll fees before they could be allowed to proceed.The right to life is also guaranteed but can it be taken away when people get out of control in the interests of restoring law and order? Chapter 37 of the Public Order & Security Act allows deployment of the military to augment the police when they are overwhelmed. The commissioner of police can request assistance from the defence forces if there is need such as when the police are overwhelmed and in danger themselves. When soldiers are so deployed they have to be under police direction. It is actually not a question of military involvement but the level of involvement and level of force that can be used on civilians.The ongoing violent protests in France between the Yellow Vests movement and police provide an instructive example of violent protests management. Ten people have died to date in associated accidents caused by the blockage of roads. There has been looting and vandalism of luxury shops and homes and burning of cars. Protesters largely refrained from looting and burning shops and homes in the poorer neighbourhoods where they live. This is quite different from what happened here because people destroyed their own shops and tuckshops where they expected to buy from the next day. In Bulawayo's western suburbs, the situation is so bad that people now have to travel to town and other areas to buy basic provisions and prices have even risen further.In 2006, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the use of live bullets on protesting Palestinian civilians. Shooting at civilians breaches international military law but the Israeli court still went on to rule in spite of great international condemnation that there are situations when it is justified to shoot civilians. Writing in The Jerusalem newspaper on May 30 2018, Jewish reporter Yifa Segal criticised what he called misinformed criticism by human rights practitioners.He said international law is not breached merely by soldiers shooting at civilians arguing that the Palestinians who were shot were to blame because many of them were terrorists and so they deserved it. He said every country has its own laws to deal with conflict and has the right to defend itself from internal and external threats.According to this thinking, civilians could be shot at if they were deemed to be a threat to national security. Even if that argument is taken it is far-fetched to suggest that the local demonstrators, even though they turned violent, could have intended to and managed to overthrow the government. While the security forces were justified to use force in some cases, the force used was excessive.Segal makes an important point that there is a distinction between combatants and citizens. He accused Palestinian protesters of being under cover terrorists who regularly sneak into Israel with weapons to cause instability.According to this view, civilians who turn rogue against the State should not expect to be treated with kid gloves because security forces have a duty to protect a country from both internal and external threats. For the longest time since the Robert Mugabe era government has always accused protesters of trying to overthrow it.In this country for as long as Zanu-PF is in power protesters are always going to be regarded as terrorists on a covert mission to overthrow it. It will be foolhardy for protesters to think otherwise although to its credit the government has allowed peaceful demonstrations against it the last being the MDC protest in November 2018. The prevailing political discontent and sustained grumblings about the government's legitimacy only makes the suspicion and paranoia worse.Segal refers to international guidelines which classify citizens and combatants. He argues that civilians lose the protection that is ordinarily accorded ordinary civilians if they turn themselves into combatants in disguise.When it has been established that civilians have turned into combatants, there is no obligation on the State to stave them off using live force. The military will be justified to react swiftly to defend the country in order to avoid endangering the whole population.There are international conventions on the use of force and firearms such as The Basic Principles on the use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Agencies adopted by the eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders in Havana, Cuba in 1990.It provides guidelines and general provisions aimed at safeguarding civilians and security forces themselves.Miriam Tose Majome is the legal officer for Veritas and she writes in her personal capacity. She can be contacted on mtmajome@gmail.com.Opinion / Columnist

The opposition parties in Zimbabwe, MDC in particular, civil society organisations and other Government detractors have been unreasonably claiming that there are no sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States of America (US) and their western allies, and automatically viewing everyone who called for the removal of these illegal sanctions either dull or a ZANU-PF sympathiser.Many voices have been raised against the economic sanctions that were imposed on Zimbabwe by western countries. No doubt, sanctions are a hindrance to any form of development in any given nation as the effects thereof are felt by the entire nation.While appearing at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Davos at the World Economic Forum, South African President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa joined other voices in denouncing the economic sanctions against Zimbabwe. President Ramaphosa was reportedly quoted saying, "It is no longer necessary to have sanctions against Zimbabwe right now, because they have embarked on democracy and a path of real recovery and we will help them best by lifting those sanctions."Among other voices who have been calling for the removal of the economic sanctions are, South Africa's Minister of Finance, Mr Tito Mboweni; South Africa's opposition leader of Economic Freedom Fighter party, Mr Julias Malema; the founder and executive chairman of Econet, Mr Strive Masiyiwa and a local businessman, and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Media Holdings, Mr Trevor Ncube.Since President Emmerson Mnangagwa took oath of office in November 2017, following the resignation of former President, Robert Mugabe, he has made it clear that Zimbabwe needs reforms if ever she was going to move forward. The socio-economic and political reforms that Zimbabwe is currently undergoing are necessary to redress the economic challenges borne out of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.If leaders of other nations have seen it necessary that sanctions are hampering economic progress in Zimbabwe, why then should some Zimbabweans and the West bury their heads in the sand to their existence. In fact, these illegal sanctions are abusing our human rights. The US sees itself as the champion of democracy and human rights. But then, how do they ignore the suffering these sanctions have wrought on ordinary Zimbabweans, whilst barely affecting the supposed targeted persons.Denying Zimbabwean businesses to trade with other nations as they fear the US's wrath is total economic abuse. Zimbabwe has industries that manufacture different products that can generate foreign currency for the nation. Also, the nation has vast natural resources such as minerals, timber, gas among others that can be exported to other nations, but this is not happening to full capacity because of the sanctions.It's unfortunate that the MDC leadership, who are friends with westerners have been inciting civilians to engage in acts of violence in the country and provoke the country's security forces during their so called national shutdown' last week to further justified the renewed sanctions. When all is said and done, the agenda of the opposition parties is nothing other than illegally removing the incumbent Government.President Mnangagwa has been calling for national dialogue to end the differences that exist between political parties in country. Opposition party leaders, church leaders and civil organisation leaders should put the interest of people at heart, and commit themselves to national dialogue.In the event that the national dialogue takes shape, leaders of civil organisations and opposition parties should be encouraged to also add their voices in denouncing the illegal economic sanctions for the nation to move on.News / Press Release

by Mkhululi Zulu, ZAPU Presidential Spokesperson

The Presidency of ZAPU unreservedly condemns the violence that has been going on in our country. It is an unacceptable abomination. We are dumfounded by the childish finger pointing and scapegoating. These have been concretized by wanton arrests, mass beatings and tortures by the army, the police and the ZanuPF armed militia. What has even shocked us as the leadership of our party is that there are reports of murder. So far 12 have been confirmed dead. Dozens are in hospitals. Many are said to be in safe houses separated from their families. Many more are nursing injuries from savage beatings from the government forces and ruling party armed members. Some people have been severely assaulted just for being brothers of some activist. There are reports of mass rapes allegedly by members of the security forces. Up to 23 women including under aged girls have reported sexual attacks such as rape by members of the security forces. As ZAPU we have experienced this type a military onslaught by the army and armed ZanuPF supporters before. It is obvious that the Gukurahundi demon has never been cast out hence it is appearing again.We find it even more dangerous that the army has issued a statement disassociating itself from some barbaric atrocities being perpetrated by some men in uniform. It has even gone on to urge the public to report these uniformed rapists. So is this ZanuPf government in control of the levers of power if the so-called rogue elements can use military uniforms and guns in broad daylight with brazen impunity? Can the SADC, AU and the UN tell us that we have a legitimate government which charges a looting unemployed youth with treason but fails to apprehend a single suspect in a live assassination attempt bombing of the state president, two vice presidents and the entire senior government ministers at a rally at White City Stadium during election campaigns. To think that this government can protect its poor citizens when they fail even to bring a single suspect to a court of law for an attempt on the lives of the state presidents is beyond imagination. Can we say there is rule of law? Soldiers in full army uniform shoot unarmed civilians protesting in Harare on the 1st of August 2018 but nobody is charged for the killings? Is this a government of the People By the People? Is our government a competent government? Can the SADC, AU and the UN tell us that indeed the citizens in Zimbabwe have a responsible government? So really what is going on we ask? Perhaps the only person who can give an answer is non-other than George Charamba who adamantly justified the carnage. The defenseless people of Zimbabwe are riling under a gruesome military subjugation.The actions of the ZanuPF military junta confirm arguments that the Mnangagwa regime is illegitimate. Mowing down civilian's willy nilly at any given time is a sign that the rulers have no confidence. They are ruling by the gun. We are convinced that the solution lies in the establishment of a Transitional Governing Authority. This is the only way to halt the carnage. The people will always resist any system of governance that they have not voted for. Arresting them, primitively beating them, raping their wives and daughters and even killing them will not forever silence them. It is only by engaging them that there can be a solution.We are astounded by George Charamba's rejection of any possible talks. Our President Doctor Dumiso Dabengwa has said it before that Zimbabwe will only move forward if there is a Transitional Governing Authority created as a result of a wide consultation. ZanuPF blames what they call "MDC Alliance affiliated groupings" for the massive anti-government protests that took place last week. This blind arrogance can be very dangerous. Civic society protested including thieves who looted and stole. It was not a political opinion but a protest against an increasingly vicious socio-economic situation that has become unbearable. People everywhere became restless and desperate. Even some ZanuPF members are reported to have been arrested for looting! It therefore goes without saying that there must be talks that include everyone, the churches, the civic society, representatives of the industry and commerce, labor representatives and all political parties. A bunch of greedy individuals cannot and will never end our economic crisis. They can and will kill more unarmed people but they will never solve the economic problems. The ZAPU leadership has been engaged in talks with fellow Zimbabweans and just as they overwhelmingly put the Devolution of Power in the Constitution, they now want peace, progress and development. This can only come with the immediate creation of a Transitional Governing Authority. No genuine investor wants to put his money in a country governed by men and women who have armed themselves against their people.Finally, the people of Zimbabwe need regional and international support. SADC, the African Union, the United Nations and other progressive forces must help the people of Zimbabwe. The evil giant apartheid regime of South Africa politically collapsed because it was internationally rejected and isolated for its racism. Even the Ian Smith racist government crumbled because progressive forces all over the world rejected it. The liberation movements got support from some democratic organizations. ZanuPF has been murdering people and there have been excuses and explanations from some places. We see that hypocrisy by some members of the international community is costing the lives of our people. We call upon those who love social justice to help the people of Zimbabwe create acceptable governance.English French

Rueil Malmaison, 28 January 2019

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This score recognises VINCIs environmental policy. The Groups full range of business activities, from building to energy and mobility, are at the heart of the ecological transition, which will be a major VINCI development focus in 2019. The Group has made a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 and is determined to do more. In 2019, it intends to finalise a series of commitments centred on three main issues  carbon footprint, water and the circular economy.

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AttachmentNews / National

by newzimbabwe

ZIMBABWE Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president, Peter Mutasa was finally arrested Friday following nearly two weeks of evading arrest by police.His lawyer, Alec Muchadehama confirmed his client handed himself to police CID Law and Order division Friday afternoon.This is after he went into hiding since the deadly shutdown 14 January last week.Mutasa was immediately charged and detained for allegedly subverting a constitutional government or inciting public violence."A warned and cautioned statement was recorded from him and thereafter he was detained at the police station. However, police have indicated that he will go to court this Saturday," Muchadehama said.Police say the firebrand trade union leader, together with Harare cleric and activist Evan Mawarire (now in custody), recorded and circulated on social media, a video calling on Zimbabweans to go on a three-day stay away last week.The call for a job boycott was in protest over government's failure to turn around the country's economic fortunes as well as the hiking of fuel prices.The stay away turned chaotic as angry citizens barricaded roads with burning tyres, damaged vehicles and looted businesses.There were also scenes of mob invasions on police stations.Mawarire's High Court bail application was turned down as Zimbabwean courts maintained a tough stance on alleged instigators and perpetrators of the violent job boycott.ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo was arrested this week and detained.His bail application will be heard in the High Court this coming Monday.The crackdown on those who allegedly masterminded the alleged violent acts of last week also targeted four opposition MDC MPs who also face charges of subversion.News / National

by Staff reporter

POLICE in Chitungwiza allegedly beat up and tortured a 12-year old boy in order to coerce him to become a State witness in a case involving three men accused of public violence and looting at Chitungwiza Vehicle Inspection Depot, the court heard on Wednesday.Steven Sango (24), Sandurai Nyatete (20) and Spencer Mudzingwa (22) are being charged with public violence.Their lawyer, Job Sikhala, on Wednesday told Chitungwiza magistrate Nyasha Vhitorini while making an application for discharge at the close of the State case that the evidence against his clients was "manifestly unreliable that no reasonable court should safely sit upon it."According to the State outline, the minor was seen coming out of the VID depot and was interrogated on why he had a VID stamp on his body.He revealed to the court that the stamp was put on him by a dreadlocked man in jeans. The gallery was cleared as he led evidence and at no time did he implicate the accused.According to court papers, on January 14, police officers and soldiers looking for suspects that had attacked ZRP Chitungwiza and VID Chitungwiza depot came across the minor who was exiting the depot in the company of Mudzingwa.After they stopped, they noticed some stampings from the VID's official stamp on the minor's face and arms and at that moment Mudzingwa bolted away.Police then interviewed the boy who said he was stamped by Mudzingwa, who was subsequently arrested, leading to the recovery of some of the looted property.Vhitorini dismissed the accused's application saying the trio had a case to answer.News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT will investigate allegations of misconduct by security forces, including abuse of citizens during demonstrations that rocked the country last week, two senior officials said yesterday.In separate statements yesterday, the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Ambassador Cain Mathema and his Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs counterpart Ziyambi Ziyambi, issued strong statements announcing that authorities took seriously reports of alleged rape, sexual abuse and assaults allegedly committed by uniformed forces.There have been a flurry of reports of the said abuses, with a British broadcaster showing images of women who were allegedly brutalised. Authorties are taking this seriously.Ambassador Mathema said police had received one report so far and more would be investigated."The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage wishes to acknowledge reports of alleged rape, sexual abuse and assaults that have been perpetrated by security forces during the recent operation. So far the police has received one such report from St Marys, Chitungwiza, and the case is already under investigations," he said.Referring to disturbing footage being circulated on social media, Ambassador Mathema said: "We have also noted with concern a video that is circulating on social media which was allegedly recorded by ITV, as seen on the logo. It depicts scenes of bruised women alleging rape and sexual abuse at the hands of security forces. We take these rape allegations very seriously and investigations will be instituted immediately once complainants file reports with the police."He said he had already communicated with Commissioner General Godwin Matanga over the matter."I have been briefed by the Commissioner General of Police, T G Matanga that he has checked with all the police stations to establish whether they have received this particular case or any other report of a similar nature and he confirmed that they have one case which was reported at St Marys, Chitungwiza."I wish to urge all Zimbabweans with information to report such cases to the police or anonymously send information on the following police WhatsApp number 0712800197 or telephone numbers 0242 703631, 0242 748836."We are therefore making a passionate appeal to all Citizens of Zimbabwe to come forward and report any cases of sexual abuse, rape or misconduct by the security forces to the police. All such cases will be investigated. Let me assure all Zimbabweans that Government respects the rights of its citizens, access to justice and the right to full protection of the law. I wish to stress that Government takes an exception to anyone who perpetrates any form of crime especially rape perpetrated against women and children," he added.Minister Mathema said President Mnangagwa was on record castigating any form of misconduct by security forces."His Excellency, the President E.D Mnangagwa is on record stating that any misconduct or insubordination by the security forces will not be tolerated and these will be dealt with severely. I wish to reiterate the same statement and in the same vein I urge all complainants or guardians to come forward and report. I wish to assure you that no one will be persecuted and maximum protection is guaranteed. We will leave no stone unturned," he said.Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi emphasised Government's uncompromising stance on the matter."...Government wishes to assure the public that all allegations of misconduct against any of our Security Services will be thoroughly investigated and the law will be allowed to take its course," he said."Those with complaints should report them to the police and they will be treated impartially and with sensitivity."He urged the media to be responsible."We call upon our media not to whip up emotions, but help bring people together as we hold hands one to another rebuilding our country," Minister Ziyambi said.News / National

by Staff reporter

Suspended chief magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe, who is facing criminal abuse of office charges, was yesterday further remanded to February 28.Guvamombe appeared before magistrate Mrs Rumbidzai Mugwagwa for routine remand.This was after prosecutor Mr Shepherd Makonde successfully sought for a postponement of the matter on the basis that there were some investigations which were still being conducted.Guvamombe allegedly offered work-related attachment to former Cabinet ministers Saviour Kasukuwere and Supa Mandiwanzira at the Harare Magistrates' Courts.Kasukuwere and Mandiwanzira are law students at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). They have pending criminal charges before the same court.It is the State's case that in November last year, Guvamombe received correspondence from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) seeking internship places for law students.On the list were Kasukuwere and Mandiwanzira.He allegedly authorised the attachment of the students by appending his signature and referred the correspondence to the deputy chief magistrate for action without any comments or reservations.Guvamombe was granted $3 000 bail coupled with stringent conditions when he initially appeared in court. He now awaits the High Court's decision following an appeal by the National Prosecuting Authority challenging the lower court's decision to grant him bail.Justice Tawanda Chitapi heard the application and reserved judgment to next week Tuesday.News / National

by Staff reporter

A CENTRAL Intelligence Organisation operative based in Gwanda has been arrested after he allegedly threatened to shoot and kill three police officers and a civilian with an AK47 rifle.Takura Mataruse was drinking at Cry Mantengwane Night Club at Phakama Business Centre when he allegedly approached Mr Mondliwethu Ndlovu, pulled him outside and threatened to shoot him with his service rifle.Mr Ndlovu fled and reported the matter to some police officers that were nearby. The cops confronted Mataruse who allegedly turned on them and threatened to shoot and kill them also.Mataruse was not asked to plead when he appeared briefly before Gwanda magistrate, Mrs Nomagugu Sibanda, facing three counts of threats to commit murder and one count of carrying a firearm under the influence of alcohol.He was remanded out of custody to February 18 on $300 bail. Mataruse was advised to report once a week at the Gwanda Urban Police CID office, not to interfere with State witnesses and not to carry a firearm. He was represented by Mr McAllister Ncube of Mabhikwa and Partners.The State did not oppose the bail application.Prosecuting, Mr Pernson Chekeya said Mataruse committed the offence on January 20 at around 2AM."On 20 January at around 2AM, Mataruse was at Cry Mantengwane Nightclub drinking beer when he saw Mr Ndlovu enter. Mataruse approached Mr Ndlovu, held him by the arm and pulled him out of the bar. When they were outside Mataruse held Mr Ndlovu by his T-shirt and threatened him saying he would shoot him in the head. Mataruse then lowered an AK 47 rifle which was on his back and while he tried to properly handle it, Mr Ndlovu fled."Mr Ndlovu saw some cops that were deployed in the area seated nearby and reported what had happened. The police officers then confronted Mataruse over the matter," he said.Mr Chekeya said Constables Clifford Moyo, Stephen Dadirai and Ackwell Chinyungurwa approached Mataruse who was holding an AK rifle in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other and they requested to talk to him in private. He said they moved away from a crowd that had now gathered at the scene.Mr Chekeya said before the cops could discuss the matter with Mataruse, he threatened to shoot them. Mataruse allegedly cocked his rifle and pointed it at the sky while making the threats. The police officers called for reinforcements resulting in Mataruse's arrest.News / National

by Staff reporter

A BULAWAYO man whose video went viral on social media after he was caught pushing a plough stolen from a shop at Entumbane Shopping Complex during violent protests has been sentenced to five years in jail.Polite Weza (35) of Emakhandeni suburb was part of a gang of hooligans that looted and burnt shops during last week's violent protests organised by the MDC Alliance and civil society groups aligned to it.Weza was convicted on his own plea of guilty to public violence and theft by Bulawayo magistrate Ms Sithembiso Ncube. Weza will serve an effective four years after one year was suspended for five years on condition that he does not within that period commit a similar offence.In passing sentence, Ms Ncube condemned Weza's conduct. She said perpetrators of violence deserve a custodial sentence to protect society from acts of terror and lawlessness. The magistrate said Weza's actions were uncalled for and he should therefore not expect mercy from the courts."The accused person engaged in acts of violence which should not be condoned. Sending such people to jail would deter would be offenders," said Ms Ncube.Prosecuting, Ms Tafadzwa Mutsambiwa said on January 14 at around 3.30PM, Weza was among a group of protesters who went to Entumbane Shopping Centre to loot. The protesters outnumbered law enforcement agents forcing them to retreat."The accused person and other protesters broke into OK Supermarket and other shops at Entumbane Shopping Complex and looted an assortment of goods," said Ms Mutsambiwa.She said Weza stole an ox-drawn plough at OK Supermarket and a 20kg bag of maize seed. He also proceeded to other shops where he stole a plasma television set, radio speakers and a generator all valued at $2 920. The total value of stolen goods and property that Weza and his accomplices damaged is $143 187.Some of the stolen goods worth $1 500 were recovered following the arrest of Weza and his accomplices. Weza was positively identified by police after he was captured on video, which has been circulating on social media.News / National

by newzimbabwe

A Bulawayo woman who once made headlines over a love relationship she allegedly enjoyed with late MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, has been slapped with a $150 000 civil suit for adultery.Aquiline Pamberi Mandeya was dragged to the High Court by Annamaria Dlamini, a South African-based woman, who is seeking damages.The matter was heard before Justice Alphas Chitakunye on 9 January this year.Dlamini and her husband are Zimbabwean nationals who acquired South African citizenship after moving to the neighbouring country where they got married in November 2015 in terms of South African laws.However, the couple maintained another matrimonial home at Rest Camp in Bulawayo.Dlamini told the court that Mandeya, on diverse occasions, committed acts of adultery with her husband at the couple's Bulawayo home and was seeking $150 000 in damages.However, Mandeya challenged the application arguing that Zimbabwe had no jurisdiction for hearing the matter as Dlamini had a South African marriage and under South African laws.She argued that adultery damages were nolonger claimable, hence her suit was null and void.However, this was trashed by the presiding judge who said that piece of argument was "without merit"."The argument raised by the defendant suggesting that this court has no jurisdiction because the plaintiff's marriage was solemnised in South Africa is without merit."That argument in my view is misplaced," Chitakunye said in his ruling.The High Court judge further said Zimbabwe had not reached a stage where claims for adultery can be abolished."Any attempt at abolishing the delict may be met with fierce resistance to an extent whereby court will be going diametrically opposed to the public policy and community's sense of justice in this regard."The Zimbabwean community still considers adultery as deserving of punishment to the paramour."The judge continued, "It is clear to me that the marriage institution in Zimbabwe is still held in sacrosanct and the need to provide some measure of protection is still considered necessary despite the high level of infidelity by those in such marriages; this being done for the sake of the innocent spouse."If such protection is removed, the innocent party would otherwise be tempted to take the law into his or her own hands as there would be no legal recourse to atone for the said loss of consortium and countemelia."Adultery is still prohibited by public opinion as an act of sexual incontinence."Justice Chitakunye also dismissed Mandeya's special plea with costs.In 2011, Mandeya made news headlines following her alleged love relationship with Zimbabwe's late former Prime Minister.The two denied they were in love.News / National

by Staff reporter

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga yesterday met leaders of the Roman Catholic Church as part of Government's efforts to establish rapport between the State and the Church on national issues.His visit follows President Mnangagwa's invite last week for national dialogue among heads of political parties, religious and civil leaders, whom he urged to set aside differences and come together in the furtherance of the national interest.The Head of State's call came on the back of deadly disturbances instigated by MDC-Alliance and its civil society partners that resulted in the loss of lives - six people died - and property.And VP Chiwenga told the clerics, who were led by Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference secretary-general Father Frederick Chiromba, that Government's doors were always open for engagement.Speaking after the meeting, VP Chiwenga - who was accompanied by Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and other officials, highlighted the importance of mutual understanding between the Church and Government.He said: "We were sharing our ideas on our country with the Church and the Church sharing its ideas with us. We need to give them what we are doing in the economy. We give them what we want to do about our relations between the Church and Government. We have always engaged and I am Catholic myself."Fr Chiromba said the meeting was at the request of the Vice President who wanted to brief bishops on the current affairs in the country."He wanted to brief them (bishops) on the current situation and that is what he did," he said. "The bishops also responded and asked for clarifications in some areas. The main outcome is that Government is keeping an open door for the church so that the church can go to Government and ask for information and other issues. It was simply to get an understanding of the current situation and what we have to do as a nation to bring national cohesion.""At the moment we do not want to go into details. Current affairs touch on everything in the country and the discussions were very broad, covering everything and anything that is of concern to Zimbabweans at the moment," he said.Father Chiromba confirmed they also discussed about the violent protests."Yes, we would not want to go into details at the moment but it was simply to get clarification and that was given. We will be engaging further on these issues. It is the beginning of a process and we would not want to pre-empt."We simply wanted to get an understanding of what provoked this situation, to get a common understanding in that area on why are we where we are at the moment and moving on how can the church and Government collaborate so that we move beyond this situation towards the Zimbabwe we want?"The violent demonstrations, which is part of the regime change agenda by opposition political parties and their foreign agents, saw at least 1 100 people being arrested. Some of the protestors have been jailed.News / National

by Staff reporter

Agricultural inputs under the Presidential Input Scheme are being distributed at Zanu-PF district offices in Zaka, with widespread conceptions that the move was meant to side-line non-ruling party supporters.At its national conference held in Matabeleland South recently, Zanu-PF adopted - as one of its resolutions - the fair and none partisan distribution of agricultural inputs.Zaka RDC Ward 19 councillor, Peter Imbayarwo, however, confirmed that the ruling party was not practicing what it preached but added that he was not shocked as that had always been the ruling party's approach in rural areas."I was not surprised when they started distributing inputs at their party offices because the programme is done by Zanu chairpersons since. Since the programme reached my ward, I was never consulted because I am from the opposition. Where the councillor's signature is required, Zanu-PF ward chairpersons sign on my behalf and do the rest," said Imbayarwo.Some people in Jerera accused Zanu-PF ward chairpersons, Milton Chikwenhere and Gladys Chari of politicising the distribution of inputs.Asked why the programme was being undertaken at ruling party offices, District Administrator (DA) Ndeya Nyede said he was not aware of it."When the programme started, we only gazetted the number of bags each ward was supposed to get and the rest is done at ward level. We don't know how they transport their allocations and from where they carry out the distribution," said Nyede.The matter was raised in the Zaka RDC full council meeting held on Tuesday, December 18, with the three MDC Alliance councillors complaining that they were being excluded from the programme.The DA and other councillors, however, remained silent and failed to give an answer.President Emmerson Mnangagwa has never missed an opportunity to emphasise his so-called 'new dispensation' as a reminder to his perceived departure from former president Robert Mugabe's approach, but this claim is proving to be largely hollow.News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC Masvingo Urban Ward 4 councillor, Godfrey Kurauone has reportedly fled his home fearing for his life after apparently receiving death threats from Zanu-PF activists and security forces at the height of the shutdown last week.Speaking via WhatsApp, Kurauone only said he was 'out of town', but refused to state his exact location although there are speculations that he is in South Africa."Some people with malicious motives made false accusations that I blocked roads and a nasty plot was being hatched against me. I could not ignore such threats in light of the terrible things happening in Harare and elsewhere," said Kurauone, referring to the brutal crackdown against perceived instigators of last week's violence.Several opposition MPs have been arrested in the crackdown that followed the violent stay-away and many activists across the country have been reported to have gone into hiding.On the second day of the shutdown, a group of Zanu-PF youths and National Youths Service members besieged the offices of the Community Tolerance, Reconciliation and Development (Cotrad) trust in Hughes Street and later brought in the police to arrest the organisation's staff members.Seven staff members were then taken by riot police at the supervision of the vigilante group which accused the community-based peace and rights organisation of inciting people to stay away from work and engage in violent activities.The group was led by Zanu-PF Masvingo Urban Ward 10 councillor Sengerai Manyanga, who is also the ruling party youth league provincial chairperson, and included other active ruling party youth league members like Tavara Mudukuti and Zimbabwe National Youth Service Graduates Association (ZNYSGA) public relations officer Tariro Bwerinofa.Cotrad programmes manager, Zivanai Muzorodzi said he was surprised by the raid as the group did not commit any illegal activity."They forcibly got into our premises and held us hostage for some time before Manyanga went out to bring riot police. Seven staff members were detained for hours before being set free at the intervention of lawyers Collen Maboke and Martin Mureri. They however held onto to our vehicle and only released it after three days," said Muzorodzi.He said Cotrad was a law-abiding organisation that has never done anything outside its mandate of promoting peace and reconciliation in communities."We are appalled by this kind of intimidation. There is no basis in all the allegations they are making against us and that is why the police have not laid any charge against us one week after the incident. We are ready to meet them in court," Muzorodzi said.When contacted for comment, Bwerinofa stuck to his guns saying Cotrad had been caught 'red-handed doing malign activities'."We are working to make sure that justice is delivered against the organisation which went around inciting people to barricade the roads and close schools. We have strong evidence against them and we urge the police to thoroughly do their job as we have done ours. As patriotic citizens, we could not just watch people disturbing the peace we are enjoying in the country. It is our duty to defend the country and its leadership," said Bwerinofa.He accused Cotrad staff members of 'driving around in a German embassy vehicle', apparently referring to the organisation's Toyota D4D double cab that the police detained for three days.He accused Cotrad of convening a meeting some few days before the shutdown to encourage people to engage in violent demonstrations and later going around intimidating schools from opening for classes.Masvingo was largely peaceful on the day of the shutdown with few incidences of road blockages being reported in some high density residential areas. No looting incident was reported during the three-day protests against the 150 percent hike in the fuel price.News / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT will be partnering leading Russian diamond producer Alrosa Diamond Company (Alrosa) in the extraction and processing of gemstones from numerous deposits which have been confirmed across the country, it has emerged.Diamond discoveries have been made in almost all the country's provinces, according to government officials.In terms of the indigenisation law, the government will have at least 51% shareholding in all diamond mining ventures.This comes after an announcement that Alrosa will partner Chinese diamond miner Anjin Investments in Chiadzwa, three years after the company was booted out in controversial circumstances.In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet responsible for presidential communications, George Charamba, said the decision to partner with Alrosa came after taking into consideration that the leading global gem producer was capable of handling the entire diamond value chain.The decision was made during President Emmerson Mnangagwa's state visit to the vast Eurasian country last week, where Charamba said the Zimbabwean delegation was left awestruck by Alrosa's impressive mining equipment and technology.Unlike the alluvial diamond deposits found in Chiadzwa, Charamba said, the fresh discoveries are kimberlites buried deep in hard rock and requiring advanced equipment to extract."Very soon, we are going to announce new diamond findings basically in every province with Masvingo in the lead," Charamba said."We chose Alrosa because it is now the biggest diamond company in the world. De Beers has now moved into second position. In fact, I am told they are now into diamond marketing while Alrosa goes beyond mining and is also into the whole value chain of diamonds, from mining to beneficiation. So that is the natural partner of choice," he said."To quote (Rhodesian prime minister) Ian Smith, Zimbabwe is a highly-mineralised country, but if we don't move into value addition and beneficiation, we will never be able to turn around this economy. We don't want to be stuck on rough diamonds. That's why we badly need a value chain summit as a country.These are kimberlite diamonds which are found deep in the rocks. Therefore, we are likely to get better quality. Now, the downside of it is that they are capital intensive, which is what we don't have," he added."So the issue now is that we need equipment to extract them and technology to process them because for as long as they are not processed, they remain a pie in the soil. You should see the monster machines which came from Belarus operating in Chiadzwa to realise that those countries are producing the biggest and most efficient earth-moving equipment in the world. Now we realise that beneath the clutter of Western propaganda, there is in fact a real technological breakthrough in the former Soviet Union states. The level of technological breakthrough by Russia in respect of mining is breathtaking," Charamba said."I will give you the value chain of those diamonds in Chiadzwa. Do you know that the Chiadzwa diamonds alone are worth about US$24 billion, straight from the ground, and if we polish them, we get about US$46 billion? If you turn them into finished products like rings, we jump to US$96 billion," he said.Contacted for comment yesterday, Mines minister Winston Chitando said while some areas have been proved to contain commercially exploitable gemstones, others still require thorough exploration."There are areas which are known to be very good diamond prospects, but some of those require exploration to confirm or otherwise," he said.Acting Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhao Boagang, who has been highly critical of the manner in which Anjin was displaced from Chiadzwa when government consolidated mining companies there, welcomed the decision to allow Anjin to partner with Alrosa.Anjin was looted and stripped of assets worth millions of dollars during the period it has not been operating after its mining licence was controversially terminated in 2016.The company had invested about US$225 million into the diamond mining venture before government terminated mining licences of several firms extracting gems in Chiadzwa for failure to remit taxes and royalties.Government announced on Wednesday that Anjin would now be allowed to return to Chiadzwa in partnership with Alrosa."If it is true, then we support the idea. It reflects the fact the Zimbabwean government is happy with the Chinese companies," Zhao said.He added that this meant government had realised its mistake."Everybody makes mistakes. After a mistake, we can learn from our lessons and move on. So I am glad that we are now moving on, if this information is true," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa, who won the disputed July 30 election last year, is amenable to national dialogue but warned the MDC and other opposition political parties not to come with preconditions to the negotiating table.This comes after calls from civil society for broad-based inclusive dialogue following last week's nationwide protests, during which 12 civilians were shot dead and over 70 others seriously injured in a brutal crackdown by security forces.Mnangagwa, whose legitimacy has been questioned by the opposition MDC since he was announced winner of the presidential election by a water-thin 50,6% , has indicated that an all-inclusive national dialogue was imperative in addressing Zimbabwe's unrelenting economic crisis.The protests were triggered by government's decision to increase fuel prices by 150%.Presidential spokesperson George Charamba yesterday said Mnangagwa was sincere in his invitation for dialogue with the opposition, among other stakeholders, but warned that organising violent protests could blight the prospects for dialogue to discuss the economic crisis gripping the country."President Mnangagwa's concept for dialogue is wider. Soon after elections he asked for dialogue," Charamba said."What Zanu-PF and this government will not countenance is someone who asks for dialogue while pointing a gun at the head of the government. And metaphorically the gun in this sense is queuing hooligans on the streets to terrorise and destroy property and cause mayhem."He said the onus was upon MDC leader Nelson Chamisa to formally engage Mnangagwa on the need for dialogue, while spelling out issues that needed to be thrashed out at the negotiating table."The first interlocutor for dialogue would have been Chamisa. For the first time we saw ED referring to Chamisa by his first name. So now Chamisa is now ripe for dialogue. For now he (Chamisa) is really pushing for it," Charamba said."He is the one who has the issues, so he must tell us about those issues. He is the one who is feeling discomfort so he is the one who has to tell us about why he wants us to dialogue."Chamisa this week indicated that talks between various stakeholders would only take off after the release of scores of his supporters who were arrested during last week's protests.MDC has since crafted a framework to guide the direction of the dialogue, if the talks ever materialise.The "five-point plan" spells out the need to address Mnangagwa's legitimacy, the unrelenting economic crisis, and atrocities committed in the past, nation building as well as crafting a shared common national vision.It also entails discussing a "comprehensive reform agenda and platform with a view to constructing both a sustainable state with a culture which serves the interests of the masses as opposed to serving a few presiding elites and those connected to them."MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said the five-point plan was endorsed by the party's national executive council last year.He, however, said the envisaged dialogue would not only be restricted to discussing the five points raised by the MDC."The national executive council resolved that MDC will explore dialogue to address Zimbabwe's problems," Mwonzora said."As MDC, we have raised five issues which should guide the dialogue which include legitimacy and national healing, among others. The dialogue must be genuine and unconditional. We are not saying these are the only issues to talk about."He said there was consensus within the MDC for the need to engage in dialogue, amid reports that some top party officials were opposed to unconditional talks with Mnangagwa."There is consensus on the need to engage in dialogue. No one has approached us for the need for dialogue," he said, noting that the talks should not exclusively feature MDC and Zanu-PF.Information reaching the Zimbabwe Independent is that businessman and clergyman Shingi Munyeza is trying to broker dialogue among various stakeholders, including Chamisa and Mnangagwa.In an interview with the Independent, Munyeza said it was imperative to address Mnangagwa's legitimacy issues arising from last year's contested elections."In my view the question of legitimacy emanating from a contested election result is the elephant in the room. Once this is not resolved through dialogue, I don't see us moving forward as one nation with a common vision and common values," he said.On his facilitation role, Munyeza said the religious community had capacity to broker talks, underwritten by the Southern African Development Community."In any multi-stakeholder dialogue there is need for a convener and an underwriter. In our case I believe the church can be the convener in a national multi-stakeholder dialogue, which will also bring together the two main political parties without excluding other political players. In the same breadth, I believe a non-partisan underwriter must be established first to make the dialogue sustainable and achieve its intended outcomes. In this I believe Sadc should be our first port of call for an underwriter to our national dialogue," he said.Munyeza said the religious groups could help broker talks among various stakeholders as part of a broad-based dialogue seen as key towards ending Zimbabwe's intractable economic crisis."It is in the mandate of the church to bring peace and harmony for sustainable development and a national dialogue falls in its mandate. I am reliably advised that the church has been readying itself for a national dialogue," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has lashed out at the Zanu-PF led government for deploying the army on civilians suggesting that it was barbaric and has made people lose hope for a new Zimbabwe.The South African opposition leader said he is disappointed in President Mnangagwa's leadership as there was anticipation for a better Zimbabwe when he took over from Robert Mugabe.More to follow.....News / National

by Staff reporter

China has lined-up several multi-sectoral billion-dollar investment projects for Zimbabwe for this year, covering mining, manufacturing, steel and hospitality sectors, senior diplomats from both countries said this week.In a joint interview with Zimbabwe Independent, the acting Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhao Baogang and Zimbabwe's ambassador to China Paul Chikawa said there was a boom in expressions of interest by top Chinese companies keen on investing in Zimbabwe.However, the diplomats warned that the civil unrest, which rocked the country last week, in which the army and the police violently quelled protests over economic hardships across major cities leading to 12 deaths, could scare away some investors.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

Update from Lawyer representing Zimbabwean activist pastor Evan Mawarire who was arrested on charges of subversion

Video credit @cyrus_nhara pic.twitter.com/rACuoKGekR  harumutasa/aljazeera (@harumutasa) January 25, 2019

The lawyer representing #ThisFlag Leader Pastor Evan Mawarire has announced that the State has consented to the granting of bail to his client.Said the lawyer, "The state was alleging that the Mawarire will either abscond, commit more crime or temper with the evidence. After our argument we agreed to a $1 000 bail condition. The only variance was that they want him to report three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The judge has reserved judgement till Tuesday next week."Mawarire is charge under s22 of the Criminal Law Act is accused of plotting to subvert a constitutionally elected Government. If found guilty he can be sentenced up to 20 years without the option of a fine.Watch is lawyer speaking below:Meanwhile in Harare, 13 Hatcliffe residents are currently detained for allegedly participating in shutdown protests and are being represented by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights . They will know of their freedom fate Monday, after the High Court postponed bail hearing as the State had not filed its response to their bail application.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

The umbrella body of Pentecostal churches the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe has announced that it has committed itself to and laid down a framework for a national dialogue that should lead toward the rebuilding on the nation."We have committed to a process of cohesive internal and external dialogue," EFZ said on Friday. "The dialogue will be guided by the principles of the Zimbabwe We Want Discussion Document as we work towards rebuilding our nation."The Zimbabwe We Want document is a product of the Zimbabwe Christian Heads of Denominations namely the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference.The statement by EFZ comes at a time when there is an increasing clarion call for political players in Zimbabwe to engage in a dialogue process so to find a permanent solution to the economic and socio-political upheaval that is bedevilling the country.On Tuesday the President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for an inclusive dialogue of all stakeholders towards finding each other as a nation.However the call was dismissed by Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba who said people must not read too much into what is posted on the President's Twitter account.Welcoming Mnangagwa when he came from his EuroAsia trip on Tuesday Businessman and EFZ President Shingi Munyeza said, "Welcome back to a wounded nation. At the prayer breakfast(held in August last year) you agreed to be like King David. The path we have taken is that of King Saul. Take us back to what you promised."Zimbabwe has been rocked by increasing prices of basic shortages and acute shortage of fuel.Last week the country was rocked by massive violent protests. The state responded by unleashing soldiers who fired live ammunition at citizens during a crackdown operation which started on Wednesday last week.News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu







The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has gained a boost from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) who have called for the immediate release the ZCTU leadership including Japhet Moyo.WFTU said in a statement on Friday, "We denounce the arrest of Japhet Moyo, leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and we demand his immediate release. We urge the competent authorities of Zimbabwe to immediate release the arrested trade unionist Japhet Moyo, and all the detained protesters, to stop the repression and to respect the trade union liberties."WFTU further condemned the acts of repression that the government is using to crackdown on suspected protestors who engaged in the January 14 violent protests."We strongly condemn the violent repression against the protesters, the killings of several people by the police and the imprisonment of more than 200 protesters" WFTU said.The World Federation of Trade Unions describes itself as a militant voice of 95 million workers in 130 countries all over the world.Find the Full statement below:News / National

by Staff reporter

Suspended chief magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe, who is facing abuse of office charges, will have to wait longer before the High Court decides his fate next Tuesday.Guvamombe was granted $3 000 bail coupled with stringent conditions when he appeared at the Harare Magistrates Courts last week on charges of criminal abuse of office.Aggrieved by the decision, the National Prosecuting Authority appealed to the High Court. It argued that Guvamombe was not a suitable candidate for bail saying he could interfere with witnesses.The appeal, however, was filed out of time. Yesterday Justice Tawanda Chitapi heard the application and reserved judgment to next week. Guvamombe, who is being represented by Mr Jonathan Samukange was arrested two weeks ago.The same day he was suspended from office by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on allegations of abuse of office. He was accused of approving the internship of former Cabinet ministers Saviour Kasukuwere and Supa Mandiwanzira at the magistrates' court at a time when they were facing criminal charges.In granting him bail, acting chief magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi ruled that the prosecution, which had opposed bail on the grounds that Guvamombe would interfere with witnesses or flee the country, had failed to present meaningful arguments that would warrant denial of bail.Charges against Guvamombe arose on November 27, last year, when he received correspondence from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) seeking internship places for law student.On the list were Kasukuwere and Mandiwanzira. Guvamombe allegedly authorised the attachment of the students by appending his signature and referred the correspondence to the deputy chief magistrate for action without any comments or reservations.News / National

by newzimbabwe

SOUTH African opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader has called on his government to bail-out stricken northern neighbour Zimbabwe.He was however, quick to slam the Harare government's heavy-handedness in dealing with dissent.Malema told a press briefing Wednesday that regional block SADC must set up a fund to help Zimbabwe turn around its economic fortunes, arguing the country's problems are a threat to regional stability."Zimbabwe must be helped. Anyone who refuses Zimbabwe a bailout is dumb," said the fiery politician."If we don't help Zimbabweans, the border is going to be flooded by them. Anyone who is going to block them from coming into South Africa, we are going to fight."You are always complaining about the presence of Zimbabweans, the only way not to have them is by helping them in their country."SADC countries must give a conditional grant dedicated to developmental programs which must not end up in the hands of Zanu-PF politicians."A weak Zimbabwe leads to a weak SADC. The little we have as Africans we need to share."Millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country's economic and political meltdown in the last two decades, many finding refuge in South Africa as well as other countries.Malema warned that, left alone, Zimbabwe would be at the mercy of international multi-lateral institutions as well as fast developing China."Otherwise we are setting up Zimbabwe for IMF and World Bank bailouts or even the hostile Chinese. You know what that means," he said."Let's not put Zimbabwe under that situation. We are Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans are us. Their problem is our problem."However, while joining South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent call for sanctions removal, Malema said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's decision to block the internet was unacceptable."Mnangagwa shutting down the internet, not allowing people to protest is barbaric," he said."It's backward. We don't care about Zanu-PF and Mnangagwa must know it's unacceptable."We want to help Zimbabwe and we will ant the sanctions gone."But we will not support the tyranny and brutalization of our people."The EFF leader has been consistent in his call for stability in Zimbabwe as well as the removal of sanctions.He insists that his party does not buy into local opposition calls for foreign assistance to force Zanu-PF out of power.News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe is under attack from "black propaganda" being peddled by Western forces and opposition political parties in a bid to weaken the cohesion in Government, Zanu-PF and the country's security establishment, Presidential spokesperson Mr George Charamba has said.He said fatuous reports of an ongoing coup d'etat and attempts to paint President Mnangagwa as an evil character were some of the psychological operations being employed by detractors with an aim of attacking the people's spirit and cohesion.To accompany this vilification process, Mr Charamba said, President Mnangagwa's Twitter account had been cloned for propaganda ends. This comes hardly a week after Government came under cyber-attack during last week's violent demonstrations by MDC Alliance and its affiliates.Government websites were brought down and there was also a threat to attack banks. Mr Charamba, who is also the Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, said the manoeuvres will fail."All this is coming against the background of what we have seen as a concerted attack on the President in his personal capacity as well as the institution of Government," he said."We are back to the days of black propaganda where falsehoods are peddled as news and fact but also an attempt to paint the President as an evil character. We saw how a picture of the President's visit to a museum of human history in Kazakhstan was turned around to suggest that he was dabbling in voodooism. That's typical black propaganda."Mr Charamba said reports of a coup d'etat were false and the country's leadership was at one in growing the economy."We also saw made up reports of a coup d'etat which were then unmade by the same voices so as to attack cohesion within Zanu-PF, the leadership and our security establishment," he said."I was not spared with a well-respected international news organisation claiming to have got a tweet from me. I have never tweeted and I will never tweet. It's not my style and platform of communication. That's part of rumour mongering meant to destabilise the State."Zimbabwe is working on a Cyber Bill, which has passed the Cabinet Committee on legislation and is about to be tabled in Parliament for adoption. The Bill seeks to guide the formulation of a Zimbabwe Cyber Policy that will ensure that internet and related technologies are used for the good of society, not to violate national security.The Bill, among other issues, provides for the harmonisation of computer-related crime laws in the Criminal Codification Act to the SADC Model Law on Computer Crime and Cybercrime and international best practice; broad and wide definitions covering both the traditional computer crimes as well as network crimes committed using computers and computer networks; the admissibility of electronic evidence; the development of effective and balanced procedural instruments which enable competent authorities to gather evidence and investigate cybercrime.South Africa: Voters rush on last day of registration

The second and last day of the Electoral Commissions (IEC) final voter registration weekend saw Soshanguve residents flood to their local voting stations to ensure that they will be able to participate in the upcoming national and provincial elections.

The township is located north of Tshwane.

Registration supervisor at Mafumbuka Primary School located in Block HH Soshanguve, Duduzile Hewu, told SAnews that numbers of those who came to register as well as update their details saw an increase on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday only 85 people registered to vote while 51 checked their details. Today it was very hectic with 160 people coming to register while 60 came to check their details, she said on the final day of registration.

As the clock raced to 5pm, the station saw a steady flow of people coming to register their names on the stations 2 617 voters roll.

Zandile Mayaba arrived at the station located in Makhosini Street, 15 minutes before it closed. The 20-year-old said its important to vote in the upcoming elections.

I think its important for the youth to vote and its important for everyone to take the responsibility to vote. So young people, its up to you to make a change. It will be my first time to vote, she said.

Half an hour after the voting station closed its doors, several people were still making their way to check their details to which officials at the station advised them to register at the local IEC offices in the nearby Block F.

At Tsaroga Phoka Primary School in Block BB, Dylo Nkosi, said its important to cast ones vote.

If you want change, you cant expect it to come from other people. Sometimes you have to do things yourself and the state in which the country is in now, everyone needs to vote, said Nkosi.

Babinaphuti Secondary School IEC official Katlego Disoloane said there has been an improvement in the number of people who verified their details.

Yesterday was a bit slow, but we have seen improved numbers today including the youth, she said.

Earlier in the day, the Commission urged eligible voters to take advantage of the remaining hours to register and update their address details as voting stations across the country opened their doors at 8am.

Following todays 5pm deadline, voters will only be able to register at their local IEC office during working hours  and only for a brief period until the elections are proclaimed.

Once proclaimed, the voters roll for the 2019 national and provincial elections will be closed.

In its statement issued shortly after midday on Sunday, the Commission stated that almost all voting stations across the country were reported open and operational at 11am today.

The Commission thanked community leaders, various local government representatives, traditional leaders and other stakeholders for their support in ensuring voter registration activities could continue unimpeded on Sunday.

The IEC also expressed its appreciation to the security agencies including the SAPS and various metropolitan police departments for their assistance in ensuring the safety of voters and electoral staff over the weekend.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.News / National

by ZimLive

Britain piled diplomatic pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt telling the Zimbabwean leader: "Don't turn back the clock."The Minister for Africa Harriet Balwin was also meeting with African Union officials to "underline our concern on issues in Zimbabwe where we have seen widespread unrest and a heavy security force response over the last week", Hunt said in a ministerial statement to the House of Commons."Yesterday, I called on President Mnangagwa not to turn back the clock. People must have the right to peaceful protest without fear of violence," Hunt told MPs.Mnangagwa decreed shock fuel price increases on January 12, raising the price of a litre of diesel to $3,11 and for petrol to $3,33  the most expensive in the world.Zimbabweans took to the streets on January 14, the first of three days of a job stay-away called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The government sent in the military and police, who are now accused of committing atrocities in trying to quell the protests. Human rights groups say at least 12 people were killed, and over 78 others treated for gunshot wounds.Over 600 people have been rounded up and accused of various crimes, including plotting to overthrow the government.Mnangagwa, facing international isolation, was forced to cancel a trip to Davos this week after 60,000 Zimbabwean signed an online petition asking organisers of the World Economic Forum to stop him from travelling to Switzerland.Petrol price fury  Zimbabweans staged nationwide protests on January 14 against the governmentIn Britain's House of Lords, an independent cross-bench peer asked a minister if he had considered invading Zimbabwe and recolonising it.Lord Palmer said: "Has the minister even considered the idea of recolonising Zimbabwe? It is tragic to see what is going on."Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said: "I have to be very honest as I always am, that is not an option I have personally considered."News / National

by Staff reporter

A government-appointed human rights group in Zimbabwe has accused soldiers of using "systematic torture" in a crackdown on protests.The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission strongly criticised authorities for using troops to quell demonstrations.Unrest broke out more than a week ago following a sharp rise in fuel prices.A government spokesman defended the crackdown, telling the BBC: "When things get out of hand, a bit of firmness is needed."Reports have emerged of assaults allegedly carried out by the military in various parts of the capital, Harare.Soldiers in Harare were seen beating a large group of minibus drivers on Tuesday.The BBC's Andrew Harding in Harare spoke to a man who said he and about 30 others had been rounded up and beaten by soldiers for "more than two hours".When you wait seven hours and still get no fuelThe most expensive fuel in the world?The continuing violence raises further questions about President Emmerson Mnangagwa's control over the military, which helped bring him to power 14 months ago, our correspondent adds.President Mnangagwa has promised that abuses against civilians will not be tolerated.What has been alleged?In a blunt statement, the commission said at least eight deaths had been reported since last week, "mostly attributed to use of live ammunition"."Armed and uniformed members of the Zimbabwe National Army and the Zimbabwe Republic Police instigated systematic torture."It said the torture was "organised" in that security forces targeted men close to where barricades had been erected, and near areas torched by protesters or looted.The commission detailed reports of security forces entering houses at night and making men, and even boys as young as 11, lie on the ground where they were then beaten."The deployment of the army in quelling civilian disturbances leads to loss of life and serious bodily injuries and other human rights violations, yet the government continues to make such deployments," the statement said.Other reports say at least 12 people have been killed and scores treated for gunshot injuries.What is President Mnangagwa doing?On Monday Mr Mnangagwa, 76, broke off a trip to Europe to deal with the continuing unrest.He had been due to attend the Davos economic summit where he was expected to seek investment for Zimbabwe.Back in Harare, he took to Twitter to urge all sides to work together to fix a broken economy."I invite leaders of all political parties as well as religious and civil leaders to set aside our differences and come together. What unites us is stronger than what could ever divide us. Let's begin a national dialogue. Let's put the economy first. Let's put the people first 4/4In a series of tweets, he said violence or misconduct by security forces was "unacceptable and a betrayal of the new Zimbabwe", adding: "If required, heads will roll."How did the protests start?Mr Mnangagwa announced a steep increase in the fuel price earlier this month.The price rises were meant to tackle fuel shortages, but mean that Zimbabwe now has the most expensive fuel in the world, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com.Many Zimbabweans, worn down by years of economic hardship, have suddenly found they cannot even afford the bus fare to work.This led to angry protests in Harare and the south-western city of Bulawayo.Ellen Ngwenia, a pre-school teacher in Epworth, told the BBC: "I'm not afraid to protest, because we are hungry."Her mother, the school's headteacher, was killed in last week's protests after being hit by an army truck.Ms Ngwenia, who blames the government for her mother's death, said "we will continue protesting until things [are] settled."Who does the government blame for the violence?It accuses the opposition MDC party of using the protests for political means.Presidential spokesman George Charamba said on Sunday: "The MDC leadership has been consistently pushing out the message that they will use violent street action to overturn the results of [last year's] ballot."The opposition rejected a court ruling in August 2018 that confirmed President Mnangagwa had defeated MDC leader Nelson ChamisaWhat has the opposition said?The MDC said on Tuesday that five of its MPs had been detained and refused bail.Party official Morgen Komichi dismissed Mr Mnangagwa's announcement of an investigation into security forces, saying: "We don't trust his word. We don't regard him as an honest leader."The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the umbrella group that called the protests, says its leader, Japhet Moyo, has also been arrested.Mr Chamisa told the BBC there was "no justification whatsoever of having soldiers with live ammunition, with guns, machine guns, AK47 on the streets, beating up citizens"."People are being approached in their homes, they are being taken out of their homes with their families even if they are sleeping a lot of people have been arrested for no apparent reason," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken the campaign against illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe to the 49th edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.WEF brings together governments, corporates, donors, the academia, labour and other high-level players who control the global socio-economic levers.Speaking at an International Labour Organisation (ILO) meeting in Switzerland yesterday ahead of the WEF, President Ramaphosa said the sanctions against Zimbabwe were stifling the country's economic growth."Zimbabwe has emerged from a very difficult political situation and they held recent elections which went well. But they still have sanctions that many countries around the world have imposed on them."We are some of those who have been calling on the world to relax the sanctions or lift the sanctions altogether so that Zimbabwe can begin to operate in an economic manner with the capabilities that it has . . .," he said.President Ramaphosa said Zimbabwe was facing economic challenges which the world can assist in addressing if the sanctions were lifted. Zimbabwe has been labouring under illegal Western sanctions which have hurt the economy for about 20 years.Last year, President Ramaphosa also called on the European Union (EU) to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe saying the country has turned a wonderful corner and needs support on its path to great reforms.Intended as a discussion group, the blog has evolved to be more of a reading list of current issues affecting our county, its government and people. All reasonable comments and submissions welcomed. Email us at: bill.pysson@gmail.com REMEMBER: To view our sister blog for education issues: www.district100watchdog.blogspot.com________________________________________________

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr1/text/ih

H. R. 1

A BILL

To expand Americans access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and for other purposes.

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(b)

Table of contents

The table of contents of this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.

Sec. 2. Organization of Act into divisions; table of contents

Division AVoting

Title IElection Access

Sec. 1000. Short title; statement of policy.

Subtitle AVoter Registration Modernization

Sec. 1000A. Short title.

Part 1Promoting Internet Registration

Sec. 1001. Requiring availability of internet for voter registration.

Sec. 1002. Use of internet to update registration information.

Sec. 1003. Provision of election information by electronic mail to individuals registered to vote.

Sec. 1004. Clarification of requirement regarding necessary information to show eligibility to vote.

Sec. 1005. Effective date.

Part 2Automatic Voter Registration

Sec. 1011. Short title; findings and purpose.

Sec. 1012. Automatic registration of eligible individuals.

Sec. 1013. Contributing agency assistance in registration.

Sec. 1014. One-time contributing agency assistance in registration of eligible voters in existing records.

Sec. 1015. Voter protection and security in automatic registration.

Sec. 1016. Registration portability and correction.

Sec. 1017. Payments and grants.

Sec. 1018. Treatment of exempt States.

Sec. 1019. Miscellaneous provisions.

Sec. 1020. Definitions.

Sec. 1021. Effective date.

Part 3Same-Day Voter Registration

Sec. 1031. Same-day registration.

Part 4Conditions on Removal on Basis of Interstate Cross-Checks

Sec. 1041. Conditions on removal of registrants from official list of eligible voters on basis of interstate cross-checks.

Part 5Other Initiatives To Promote Voter Registration

Sec. 1051. Annual reports on voter registration statistics.

Part 6Availability of HAVA Requirements Payments

Sec. 1061. Availability of requirements payments under HAVA to cover costs of compliance with new requirements.

Part 7Prohibiting Interference With Voter Registration

Sec. 1071. Prohibiting hindering, interfering with, or preventing voter registration.

Sec. 1072. Establishment of best practices.

Subtitle BAccess to Voting for Individuals With Disabilities

Sec. 1101. Requirements for States to promote access to voter registration and voting for individuals with disabilities.

Sec. 1102. Pilot programs for enabling individuals with disabilities to register to vote and vote privately and independently at residences.

Sec. 1103. Expansion and reauthorization of grant program to assure voting access for individuals with disabilities.

Subtitle CProhibiting Voter Caging

Sec. 1201. Voter caging and other questionable challenges prohibited.

Sec. 1202. Development and adoption of best practices for preventing voter caging.

Subtitle DProhibiting Deceptive Practices and Preventing Voter Intimidation

Sec. 1301. Short title.

Sec. 1302. Prohibition on deceptive practices in Federal elections.

Sec. 1303. Corrective action.

Sec. 1304. Reports to Congress.

Subtitle EDemocracy Restoration

Sec. 1401. Short title.

Sec. 1402. Rights of citizens.

Sec. 1403. Enforcement.

Sec. 1404. Notification of restoration of voting rights.

Sec. 1405. Definitions.

Sec. 1406. Relation to other laws.

Sec. 1407. Federal prison funds.

Sec. 1408. Effective date.

Subtitle FPromoting Accuracy, Integrity, and Security Through Voter-Verified Permanent Paper Ballot

Sec. 1501. Short title.

Sec. 1502. Paper ballot and manual counting requirements.

Sec. 1503. Accessibility and ballot verification for individuals with disabilities.

Sec. 1504. Durability and readability requirements for ballots.

Sec. 1505. Effective date for new requirements.

Subtitle GProvisional Ballots

Sec. 1601. Requirements for counting provisional ballots; establishment of uniform and nondiscriminatory standards.

Subtitle HEarly Voting

Sec. 1611. Early voting.

Subtitle IVoting by Mail

Sec. 1621. Voting by mail.

Subtitle JAbsent Uniformed Services Voters and Overseas Voters

Sec. 1701. Pre-election reports on availability and transmission of absentee ballots.

Sec. 1702. Enforcement.

Sec. 1703. Revisions to 45-day absentee ballot transmission rule.

Sec. 1704. Use of single absentee ballot application for subsequent elections.

Sec. 1705. Effective date.

Subtitle KPoll Worker Recruitment and Training

Sec. 1801. Leave to serve as a poll worker for Federal employees.

Sec. 1802. Grants to States for poll worker recruitment and training.

Sec. 1803. State defined.

Subtitle LEnhancement of Enforcement

Sec. 1811. Enhancement of enforcement of Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Subtitle MFederal Election Integrity

Sec. 1821. Prohibition on campaign activities by chief State election administration officials.

Subtitle NPromoting Voter Access Through Election Administration Improvements

Part 1Promoting Voter Access

Sec. 1901. Treatment of universities as voter registration agencies.

Sec. 1902. Minimum notification requirements for voters affected by polling place changes.

Sec. 1903. Election Day holiday.

Sec. 1904. Permitting use of sworn written statement to meet identification requirements for voting.

Sec. 1905. Postage-free ballots.

Sec. 1906. Reimbursement for costs incurred by States in establishing program to track and confirm receipt of absentee ballots.

Sec. 1907. Voter information response systems and hotline.

Part 2Improvements in Operation of Election Assistance Commission

Sec. 1911. Reauthorization of Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1913. Requiring States to participate in post-general election surveys.

Sec. 1914. Reports by National Institute of Standards and Technology on use of funds transferred from Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1915. Recommendations to improve operations of Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1916. Repeal of exemption of Election Assistance Commission from certain government contracting requirements.

Part 3Miscellaneous Provisions

Sec. 1921. Application of laws to Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

Sec. 1922. No effect on other laws.

Subtitle OSeverability

Sec. 1931. Severability.

Title IIElection Integrity

Subtitle AFindings Reaffirming Commitment of Congress To Restore the Voting Rights Act

Sec. 2001. Findings reaffirming commitment of Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act.

Subtitle BFindings Relating to Native American Voting Rights

Sec. 2101. Findings relating to Native American voting rights.

Subtitle CFindings Relating to District of Columbia Statehood

Sec. 2201. Findings relating to District of Columbia statehood.

Subtitle DFindings Relating to Territorial Voting Rights

Sec. 2301. Findings relating to territorial voting rights.

Subtitle ERedistricting Reform

Sec. 2400. Short title; finding of constitutional authority.

Part 1Requirements for Congressional Redistricting

Sec. 2401. Limit on congressional redistricting after an apportionment.

Sec. 2402. Requiring congressional redistricting to be conducted through plan of independent State commission.

Part 2Independent Redistricting Commissions

Sec. 2411. Independent redistricting commission.

Sec. 2412. Establishment of selection pool of individuals eligible to serve as members of commission.

Sec. 2413. Criteria for redistricting plan by independent commission; public notice and input.

Sec. 2414. Establishment of related entities.

Part 3Role of Courts in Development of Redistricting Plans

Sec. 2421. Enactment of plan developed by 3-judge court.

Sec. 2422. Special rule for redistricting conducted under order of Federal court.

Part 4Administrative and Miscellaneous Provisions

Sec. 2431. Payments to States for carrying out redistricting.

Sec. 2432. Civil enforcement.

Sec. 2433. State apportionment notice defined.

Sec. 2434. No effect on elections for State and local office.

Sec. 2435. Effective date.

Subtitle FSaving Voters From Voter Purging

Sec. 2501. Short title.

Sec. 2502. Conditions for removal of voters from list of registered voters.

Subtitle GSeverability

Sec. 2601. Severability.

Title IIIElection Security

Sec. 3000. Short title; sense of Congress.

Subtitle AFinancial Support for Election Infrastructure

Part 1Voting System Security Improvement Grants

Sec. 3001. Grants for obtaining compliant paper ballot voting systems and carrying out voting system security improvements.

Sec. 3002. Coordination of voting system security activities with use of requirements payments and election administration requirements under Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Sec. 3003. Incorporation of definitions.

Part 2Grants for Risk-Limiting Audits of Results of Elections

Sec. 3011. Grants to States for conducting risk-limiting audits of results of elections.

Sec. 3012. GAO analysis of effects of audits.

Part 3Election Infrastructure Innovation Grant Program

Sec. 3021. Election infrastructure innovation grant program.

Subtitle BSecurity Measures

Sec. 3101. Election infrastructure designation.

Sec. 3102. Timely threat information.

Sec. 3103. Security clearance assistance for election officials.

Sec. 3104. Security risk and vulnerability assessments.

Sec. 3105. Annual reports.

Subtitle CEnhancing Protections for United States Democratic Institutions

Sec. 3201. National strategy to protect United States democratic institutions.

Sec. 3202. National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions.

Subtitle DPromoting Cybersecurity Through Improvements in Election Administration

Sec. 3301. Testing of existing voting systems to ensure compliance with election cybersecurity guidelines and other guidelines.

Sec. 3302. Treatment of electronic poll books as part of voting systems.

Sec. 3303. Pre-election reports on voting system usage.

Sec. 3304. Streamlining collection of election information.

Subtitle EPreventing Election Hacking

Sec. 3401. Short title.

Sec. 3402. Election Security Bug Bounty Program.

Sec. 3403. Definitions.

Subtitle FMiscellaneous Provisions

Sec. 3501. Definitions.

Sec. 3502. Initial report on adequacy of resources available for implementation.

Subtitle GSeverability

Sec. 3601. Severability.

Division BCampaign Finance

Title IVCampaign Finance Transparency

Subtitle AFindings Relating to Illicit Money Undermining Our Democracy

Sec. 4001. Findings relating to illicit money undermining our democracy.

Subtitle BDISCLOSE Act

Sec. 4100. Short title.

Part 1Regulation of Certain Political Spending

Sec. 4101. Application of ban on contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals to domestic corporations, limited liability corporations, and partnerships that are foreign-controlled, foreign-influenced, and foreign-owned.

Sec. 4102. Clarification of application of foreign money ban to certain disbursements and activities.

Part 2Reporting of Campaign-Related Disbursements

Sec. 4111. Reporting of campaign-related disbursements.

Sec. 4112. Application of foreign money ban to disbursements for campaign-related disbursements consisting of covered transfers.

Sec. 4113. Effective date.

Part 3Other Administrative Reforms

Sec. 4121. Petition for certiorari.

Sec. 4122. Judicial review of actions related to campaign finance laws.

Subtitle CHonest Ads

Sec. 4201. Short title.

Sec. 4202. Purpose.

Sec. 4203. Findings.

Sec. 4204. Sense of Congress.

Sec. 4205. Expansion of definition of public communication.

Sec. 4206. Expansion of definition of electioneering communication.

Sec. 4207. Application of disclaimer statements to online communications.

Sec. 4208. Political record requirements for online platforms.

Sec. 4209. Preventing contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements for electioneering communications by foreign nationals in the form of online advertising.

Subtitle DStand By Every Ad

Sec. 4301. Short title.

Sec. 4302. Stand By Every Ad.

Sec. 4303. Disclaimer requirements for communications made through prerecorded telephone calls.

Sec. 4304. No expansion of persons subject to disclaimer requirements on internet communications.

Sec. 4305. Effective date.

Subtitle ESecret Money Transparency

Sec. 4401. Repeal of restriction of use of funds by Internal Revenue Service to bring transparency to political activity of certain nonprofit organizations.

Subtitle FShareholder Right-To-Know

Sec. 4501. Repeal of restriction on use of funds by Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure shareholders of corporations have knowledge of corporation political activity.

Subtitle GDisclosure of Political Spending by Government Contractors

Sec. 4601. Repeal of restriction on use of funds to require disclosure of political spending by government contractors.

Subtitle HLimitation and Disclosure Requirements for Presidential Inaugural Committees

Sec. 4701. Short title.

Sec. 4702. Limitations and disclosure of certain donations to, and disbursements by, inaugural committees.

Subtitle ISeverability

Sec. 4801. Severability.

Title VCampaign Finance Empowerment

Subtitle AFindings Relating to Citizens United Decision

Sec. 5001. Findings relating to Citizens United decision.

Subtitle BCongressional Elections

Sec. 5100. Short title.

Part 1My Voice Voucher Pilot Program

Sec. 5101. Establishment of pilot program.

Sec. 5102. Voucher program described.

Sec. 5103. Reports.

Sec. 5104. Definitions.

Part 2Small Dollar Financing of Congressional Election Campaigns

Sec. 5111. Benefits and eligibility requirements for candidates.

Title VSmall Dollar Financing of Congressional Election Campaigns

Subtitle ABenefits

Sec. 501. Benefits for participating candidates.

Sec. 502. Procedures for making payments.

Sec. 503. Use of funds.

Sec. 504. Qualified small dollar contributions described.

Subtitle BEligibility and Certification

Sec. 511. Eligibility.

Sec. 512. Qualifying requirements.

Sec. 513. Certification.

Subtitle CRequirements for Candidates Certified as Participating Candidates

Sec. 521. Contribution and expenditure requirements.

Sec. 522. Administration of campaign.

Sec. 523. Preventing unnecessary spending of public funds.

Sec. 524. Remitting unspent funds after election.

Subtitle DEnhanced Match Support

Sec. 531. Enhanced support for general election.

Sec. 532. Eligibility.

Sec. 533. Amount.

Sec. 534. Waiver of authority to retain portion of unspent funds after election.

Subtitle EAdministrative Provisions

Sec. 541. Freedom From Influence Fund.

Sec. 542. Reviews and reports by Government Accountability Office.

Sec. 543. Administration by Commission.

Sec. 544. Violations and penalties.

Sec. 545. Appeals process.

Sec. 546. Indexing of amounts.

Sec. 547. Election cycle defined.

Sec. 5112. Contributions and expenditures by multicandidate and political party committees on behalf of participating candidates.

Sec. 5113. Prohibiting use of contributions by participating candidates for purposes other than campaign for election.

Sec. 5114. Effective date.

Subtitle CPresidential Elections

Sec. 5200. Short title.

Part 1Primary Elections

Sec. 5201. Increase in and modifications to matching payments.

Sec. 5202. Eligibility requirements for matching payments.

Sec. 5203. Repeal of expenditure limitations.

Sec. 5204. Period of availability of matching payments.

Sec. 5205. Examination and audits of matchable contributions.

Sec. 5206. Modification to limitation on contributions for Presidential primary candidates.

Part 2General Elections

Sec. 5211. Modification of eligibility requirements for public financing.

Sec. 5212. Repeal of expenditure limitations and use of qualified campaign contributions.

Sec. 5213. Matching payments and other modifications to payment amounts.

Sec. 5214. Increase in limit on coordinated party expenditures.

Sec. 5215. Establishment of uniform date for release of payments.

Sec. 5216. Amounts in Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

Sec. 5217. Use of general election payments for general election legal and accounting compliance.

Part 3Effective Date

Sec. 5221. Effective date.

Subtitle DPersonal Use Services as Authorized Campaign Expenditures

Sec. 5301. Short title.

Sec. 5302. Treatment of payments for child care and other personal use services as authorized campaign expenditure.

Subtitle ESeverability

Sec. 5401. Severability.

Title VICampaign Finance Oversight

Subtitle ARestoring Integrity to Americas Elections

Sec. 6001. Short title.

Sec. 6002. Membership of Federal Election Commission.

Sec. 6003. Assignment of powers to Chair of Federal Election Commission.

Sec. 6004. Revision to enforcement process.

Sec. 6005. Permitting appearance at hearings on requests for advisory opinions by persons opposing the requests.

Sec. 6006. Permanent extension of administrative penalty authority.

Sec. 6007. Effective date; transition.

Subtitle BStopping Super PAC-Candidate Coordination

Sec. 6101. Short title.

Sec. 6102. Clarification of treatment of coordinated expenditures as contributions to candidates.

Sec. 6103. Clarification of ban on fundraising for super PACs by Federal candidates and officeholders.

Subtitle CSeverability

Sec. 6201. Severability.

Division CEthics

Title VIIEthical Standards

Subtitle ASupreme Court Ethics

Sec. 7001. Code of conduct for Federal judges.

Subtitle BForeign Agents Registration

Sec. 7101. Establishment of FARA investigation and enforcement unit within Department of Justice.

Sec. 7102. Authority to impose civil money penalties.

Sec. 7103. Disclosure of transactions involving things of financial value conferred on officeholders.

Subtitle CLobbying Disclosure Reform

Sec. 7201. Expanding scope of individuals and activities subject to requirements of Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.

Subtitle DRecusal of Presidential Appointees

Sec. 7301. Recusal of appointees.

Subtitle ESeverability

Sec. 7401. Severability.

Title VIIIEthics Reforms for the President, Vice President, and Federal Officers and Employees

Subtitle AExecutive Branch Conflict of Interest

Sec. 8001. Short title.

Sec. 8002. Restrictions on private sector payment for government service.

Sec. 8003. Requirements relating to slowing the revolving door.

Sec. 8004. Prohibition of procurement officers accepting employment from government contractors.

Sec. 8005. Revolving door restrictions on employees moving into the private sector.

Subtitle BPresidential Conflicts of Interest

Sec. 8011. Short title.

Sec. 8012. Divestiture of personal financial interests of the President and Vice President that pose a potential conflict of interest.

Sec. 8013. Initial financial disclosure.

Sec. 8014. Contracts by the President or Vice President.

Subtitle CWhite House Ethics Transparency

Sec. 8021. Short title.

Sec. 8022. Procedure for waivers and authorizations relating to ethics requirements.

Subtitle DExecutive Branch Ethics Enforcement

Sec. 8031. Short title.

Sec. 8032. Reauthorization of the Office of Government Ethics.

Sec. 8033. Tenure of the Director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Sec. 8034. Duties of Director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Sec. 8035. Agency ethics officials training and duties.

Subtitle EConflicts from Political Fundraising

Sec. 8041. Short title.

Sec. 8042. Disclosure of certain types of contributions.

Subtitle FTransition Team Ethics

Sec. 8051. Short title.

Sec. 8052. Presidential transition ethics programs.

Subtitle GEthics Pledge for Senior Executive Branch Employees

Sec. 8061. Short title.

Sec. 8062. Ethics pledge requirement for senior executive branch employees.

Subtitle HSeverability

Sec. 8071. Severability.

Title IXCongressional Ethics Reform

Subtitle ARequiring Members of Congress To reimburse Treasury for amounts paid as settlements and awards under Congressional Accountability Act of 1995

Sec. 9001. Requiring Members of Congress to reimburse Treasury for amounts paid as settlements and awards under Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 in all cases of employment discrimination acts by Members.

Subtitle BConflicts of Interests

Sec. 9101. Prohibiting Members of House of Representatives from serving on boards of for-profit entities.

Sec. 9102. Conflict of interest rules for Members of Congress and congressional staff.

Sec. 9103. Exercise of rulemaking powers.

Subtitle CCampaign Finance and Lobbying Disclosure

Sec. 9201. Short title.

Sec. 9202. Requiring disclosure in certain reports filed with Federal Election Commission of persons who are registered lobbyists.

Sec. 9203. Effective date.

Subtitle DAccess to Congressionally Mandated Reports

Sec. 9301. Short title.

Sec. 9302. Definitions.

Sec. 9303. Establishment of online portal for congressionally mandated reports.

Sec. 9304. Federal agency responsibilities.

Sec. 9305. Removing and altering reports.

Sec. 9306. Relationship to the Freedom of Information Act.

Sec. 9307. Implementation.

Subtitle ESeverability

Sec. 9401. Severability.

Title XPresidential and Vice Presidential Tax Transparency

Sec. 10001. Presidential and Vice Presidential tax transparency.

A

Voting

I

Election Access

Sec. 1000. Short title; statement of policy.

Subtitle AVoter Registration Modernization

Sec. 1000A. Short title.

Part 1Promoting Internet Registration

Sec. 1001. Requiring availability of internet for voter registration.

Sec. 1002. Use of internet to update registration information.

Sec. 1003. Provision of election information by electronic mail to individuals registered to vote.

Sec. 1004. Clarification of requirement regarding necessary information to show eligibility to vote.

Sec. 1005. Effective date.

Part 2Automatic Voter Registration

Sec. 1011. Short title; findings and purpose.

Sec. 1012. Automatic registration of eligible individuals.

Sec. 1013. Contributing agency assistance in registration.

Sec. 1014. One-time contributing agency assistance in registration of eligible voters in existing records.

Sec. 1015. Voter protection and security in automatic registration.

Sec. 1016. Registration portability and correction.

Sec. 1017. Payments and grants.

Sec. 1018. Treatment of exempt States.

Sec. 1019. Miscellaneous provisions.

Sec. 1020. Definitions.

Sec. 1021. Effective date.

Part 3Same-Day Voter Registration

Sec. 1031. Same-day registration.

Part 4Conditions on Removal on Basis of Interstate Cross-Checks

Sec. 1041. Conditions on removal of registrants from official list of eligible voters on basis of interstate cross-checks.

Part 5Other Initiatives To Promote Voter Registration

Sec. 1051. Annual reports on voter registration statistics.

Part 6Availability of HAVA Requirements Payments

Sec. 1061. Availability of requirements payments under HAVA to cover costs of compliance with new requirements.

Part 7Prohibiting Interference With Voter Registration

Sec. 1071. Prohibiting hindering, interfering with, or preventing voter registration.

Sec. 1072. Establishment of best practices.

Subtitle BAccess to Voting for Individuals With Disabilities

Sec. 1101. Requirements for States to promote access to voter registration and voting for individuals with disabilities.

Sec. 1102. Pilot programs for enabling individuals with disabilities to register to vote and vote privately and independently at residences.

Sec. 1103. Expansion and reauthorization of grant program to assure voting access for individuals with disabilities.

Subtitle CProhibiting Voter Caging

Sec. 1201. Voter caging and other questionable challenges prohibited.

Sec. 1202. Development and adoption of best practices for preventing voter caging.

Subtitle DProhibiting Deceptive Practices and Preventing Voter Intimidation

Sec. 1301. Short title.

Sec. 1302. Prohibition on deceptive practices in Federal elections.

Sec. 1303. Corrective action.

Sec. 1304. Reports to Congress.

Subtitle EDemocracy Restoration

Sec. 1401. Short title.

Sec. 1402. Rights of citizens.

Sec. 1403. Enforcement.

Sec. 1404. Notification of restoration of voting rights.

Sec. 1405. Definitions.

Sec. 1406. Relation to other laws.

Sec. 1407. Federal prison funds.

Sec. 1408. Effective date.

Subtitle FPromoting Accuracy, Integrity, and Security Through Voter-Verified Permanent Paper Ballot

Sec. 1501. Short title.

Sec. 1502. Paper ballot and manual counting requirements.

Sec. 1503. Accessibility and ballot verification for individuals with disabilities.

Sec. 1504. Durability and readability requirements for ballots.

Sec. 1505. Effective date for new requirements.

Subtitle GProvisional Ballots

Sec. 1601. Requirements for counting provisional ballots; establishment of uniform and nondiscriminatory standards.

Subtitle HEarly Voting

Sec. 1611. Early voting.

Subtitle IVoting by Mail

Sec. 1621. Voting by mail.

Subtitle JAbsent Uniformed Services Voters and Overseas Voters

Sec. 1701. Pre-election reports on availability and transmission of absentee ballots.

Sec. 1702. Enforcement.

Sec. 1703. Revisions to 45-day absentee ballot transmission rule.

Sec. 1704. Use of single absentee ballot application for subsequent elections.

Sec. 1705. Effective date.

Subtitle KPoll Worker Recruitment and Training

Sec. 1801. Leave to serve as a poll worker for Federal employees.

Sec. 1802. Grants to States for poll worker recruitment and training.

Sec. 1803. State defined.

Subtitle LEnhancement of Enforcement

Sec. 1811. Enhancement of enforcement of Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Subtitle MFederal Election Integrity

Sec. 1821. Prohibition on campaign activities by chief State election administration officials.

Subtitle NPromoting Voter Access Through Election Administration Improvements

Part 1Promoting Voter Access

Sec. 1901. Treatment of universities as voter registration agencies.

Sec. 1902. Minimum notification requirements for voters affected by polling place changes.

Sec. 1903. Election Day holiday.

Sec. 1904. Permitting use of sworn written statement to meet identification requirements for voting.

Sec. 1905. Postage-free ballots.

Sec. 1906. Reimbursement for costs incurred by States in establishing program to track and confirm receipt of absentee ballots.

Sec. 1907. Voter information response systems and hotline.

Part 2Improvements in Operation of Election Assistance Commission

Sec. 1911. Reauthorization of Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1913. Requiring States to participate in post-general election surveys.

Sec. 1914. Reports by National Institute of Standards and Technology on use of funds transferred from Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1915. Recommendations to improve operations of Election Assistance Commission.

Sec. 1916. Repeal of exemption of Election Assistance Commission from certain government contracting requirements.

Part 3Miscellaneous Provisions

Sec. 1921. Application of laws to Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

Sec. 1922. No effect on other laws.

Subtitle OSeverability

Sec. 1931. Severability.After four days of interviews, the Bismarck School Board on Friday narrowed its list of candidates for superintendent from four down to two: Jason Hornbacher and Joel Dvorak.

School board members interviewed all four candidates last week, which included Horizon Middle School principal Tabetha Rabenberg and Jeannette Myhre Elementary School principal Shawn Oban.

More than 70 community members, parents, students, teachers, staff, administrators and the board interviewed the four candidates. Both Dvorak and Hornbacher scored the highest, according to a news release from Bismarck Public Schools.

The board met Friday after interviewing Dvorak to discuss the candidates. After an hour, the board decided to hold off and selecting a new superintendent, the news release said.

School Board President Matt Sagsveen plans to meet with the consulting firm Olson Effertz, which led the superintendent search, to get additional information on the two candidates to move the board closer to a unanimous vote at Monday's board meeting.

Hornbacher, a Bismarck native, is the principal of Moses Elementary School. Dvorak, a native of Minto, is the former superintendent of Natrona County School District in Casper, Wyo., and a consultant for the Wyoming Department Education.

(Reach Blair Emerson at 701-250-8251 or Blair.Emerson@bismarcktribune.com)

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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.Hired, promoted

One person is a new employee and another has been promoted at KK BOLD.

Kaley Schwab has been hired as an account executive. Schwab has a digital media studies degree from Lee University and was a reporter for KX News and a communications specialist for United Tribes Technical College

Ashley Eggl has been promoted to account manager, based in the Minot office. Eggl double-majored in marketing and management.

Willey achieves

Don Willey, a field agent with Knights of Columbus Insurance, was recognized as the disability income insurance leader for 2018 in the Dolan Agency in North Dakota.

Willey has been an agent since 2006 and serves Knights of Columbus families in the Bismarck area.

Sease promoted

Eric Sease has been promoted to head chef for in-house conferences, large events, the Terrace Restaurant and Off Broadway Lounge at the Radisson Downtown, Bismarck.

A native of Bismarck, his experience includes working locally and in Minneapolis and studying at Le Cordon Bleu.In the 1700s, there was a French philosopher by the name of Denis Diderot who said, "Skepticism is the first step towards the truth." This where I'm at, skeptical of the One Big Sky District project because it stinks in my view and has little transparency by the developers and politicians. You may ask why I feel this way, so let me explain.

This past December I attended the Yellowstone Democratic Christmas dinner at the Elks Lodge. At the dinner I had the honor of sitting with Sen. Margie MacDonald, her husband and three others. While eating, a conversation came up regarding the project. I asked the senator if taxpayers would have to pay anything for the One Big Sky District? She stated yes, $75 million. I then asked if the Project would be on the ballot so we could vote on it, and she said no. I asked why and her answer was because we have an elected Legislature.

After the dinner, I went home and started thinking this project smells like a rat, I need to find a meeting to learn more.I would like to respond to a Jan. 22 letter to the editor by Pam Ellis. In the letter she stated, "To my knowledge there are no business owners from the Heights who are members of the Chamber of Commerce." I would like to correct that information. The Boothill Inn is a member of the Chamber and has been since we opened in 2000. In addition, I was curious so a simple phone call confirmed that there are over 70 other businesses in the Heights who are members. Clearly, the Billings Chamber has strong support in this part of town.This letter intends to clear up a few falsities published in Pam Ellis letter on Jan. 21. One Big Sky District is the most impactful development Billings has ever contemplated. It will significantly increase our local and state tax base while improving quality of life and workforce. Thus, it is imperative the discussion on this project is based in fact.

A bill will soon be introduced to the state legislature, offering communities the potential to attract significant private investment, similar to One Big Sky District. If the private sector can invest $300 million in an approved district, financial support from state and local government can be triggered to offset cost of building civic infrastructure. This support would be derived from the increases realized from the growth in state income taxes, lodging taxes, car rental taxes and other means that will not occur without this project. Any public money invested is money that would not exist except for the private investment. There are no new taxes or tax increases as part of the One Big Sky District plan, which is partly why our area legislators support it. When a bipartisan group of area legislators convened to discuss priority issues to collectively support, all but one attendee voted to include One Big Sky District on the list of issues.Amidst a statewide child welfare crisis, with an unprecedented number of children in foster care and a severe shortage of adequate foster homes, Montanas DPHHS has opted to delay implementation of new federal legislation designed to keep more children out of foster care.

In early 2018, Congress passed the Family First Prevention Services Act, which is the biggest change to child welfare funding in 40 years. It will provide services to families who are at risk of entering foster care and has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of child welfare.

This is much needed in Montana, where we rank second in the nation for the highest number of children in foster care (16.8/1,000 children in MT vs. 5.8/1,000 children in U.S.). Thats nearly three times the national average.

Montana has paid for several studies to attempt to improve our child welfare system (in 2015 and 2017) so it's not news that we are failing our children. Yet in a letter dated December 2018, DPHHS Director Sheila Hogan indicated that Montana has "decided not to rush into implementation" and plans to implement the new legislation as late as October 2021, even though FFPSA funding is available starting October 2019.Last week the Missoulian published a series of news stories about private residential treatment programs for children  mostly teenagers  in Montana.

As this series shows in tragic detail, it is long past time for the state to enact meaningful regulation of these programs. The experiment in which these programs were essentially allowed to regulate themselves has clearly failed.

Its important to note that some of these treatment programs have helped a lot of troubled kids turn their lives around. Over the past week, the Missoulian has heard from a handful of these former students and parents wanting to share their personal stories and emphasize their very positive experiences.

Undeniably, there is a place for these programs in Montana. Their good work should be encouraged. But it would be irresponsible to ignore that there have also been some troubling practices that have resulted in very negative outcomes as well, from suicide and sexual assault to post-traumatic stress disorder and lasting trauma. Regardless of the methods used by any program in Montana, they are all allowed to operate with little to no transparency to the public or even to parents. That has to change.

The current system allows problematic residential treatment facilities to shut down when complaints pour in, only to open again in a new place under a new name. It allows serious problems to slip through the cracks, with no accountability, and ultimately tarnishes the reputation of all private treatment programs in Montana. This must stop.

The Montana Legislature is faced with two bills this session that would address two gaping loopholes in the states ability to oversee these programs. Its up to Montana to tackle this issue on its own because there are virtually no federal regulations in place, despite repeated attempts to pass legislation through the U.S. Congress.

LC2664, requested by Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, is a draft bill aimed at protecting vulnerable people from sexual predators, specifically providing that participants in private alternative adolescent programs cannot consent to sex with program employees. This is important because under Montana law, the legal age of consent is 16. It should be against the law for any adult holding such a strong position of power and trust to have sex with a teen resident. Loges bill must advance through the Legislature and be signed into law. There is no good reason to oppose it.

Another proposal, House Bill 222, would eliminate the licensing exemptions for alternative adolescent treatment programs affiliated with religious organizations. The bill, requested by Rep. Shane Morigeau, D-Missoula, and sponsored by Rep. Zac Perry, D-Hungry Horse, is currently awaiting action in the House Judiciary Committee. Morigeau points out that his own grandmother was abused at a mission school in St. Ignatius where a lawsuit revealed clergy were routinely assigned after getting caught sexually abusing children.

The Montana Division of Child and Family Services has recorded multiple, ongoing, proven reports of abuse at religious treatment programs  but has no enforcement authority over them. In 2015, former CFS Director Sarah Corbally told state legislators the agency had tallied more than 30 reports of abuse and neglect at unlicensed facilities over the previous five years and could do nothing about it.

Despite this compelling testimony, Montanas lawmakers chose not to do anything about it, either. Montanans must demand they act on this legislation at last. They can remind their representatives and senators of specific cases, such as Pinehaven Christian Ranch for Kids, which has opposed state oversight in previous legislative sessions, and which itself saw a former teacher sentenced to prison for sexual intercourse without consent in 2005 after assaulting two teenage girls in the program.

Montana should be able to discipline programs with lax procedures or loose policies that allow this to happen. There should be a process for students in these programs and their parents to file credible complaints, and have those complaints thoroughly and publicly investigated.

Montana does not yet have such a system. Right now, complaints are fielded by a board that is, inexplicably, housed under the state Department of Labor and Industry, which oversees no other enterprises even remotely similar to alternative residential treatment programs for adolescents. Indeed, the department has supported bills to transfer oversight to another agency, and the Montanas Department of Public Health and Human Services has previously requested that it be given this responsibility.

Further, the board in charge of investigating any complaints is stacked with industry insiders  three of the five board members run treatment centers. Thus, the oversight board, called the Private Alternative Adolescent Residential or Outdoor Program (PAARP), has never meted out a sanction to any program throughout its dozen years of existence, despite having received nearly five dozen complaints.

Worse, every one of those complaints is kept a secret. They remain unavailable for public review unless the board takes disciplinary action  and it has never taken significant action.

The Montana Department of Labor and Industry is the wrong agency to oversee these programs. And the board that investigates complaints should not consist of a majority of members who run the very businesses they are supposed to investigate. It should be expanded to include members with expertise in child education, adolescent behavioral problems and treatment.

The board also should not grant licenses to any program that has not passed a thorough inspection. Parents who pay great sums of money to send their children to these facilities may be lulled into a false sense of security by these licenses, when in reality, inspections are few and far between  and all too often, entirely perfunctory.

At a minimum, treatment programs should be required to share the results of criminal background checks of workers with the public. And unlicensed employees with no training should not be allowed to care for teens with sometimes serious disorders.

Montana can no longer turn a blind eye to these lapses. Too many children already have paid the price. Its time, finally, to repair this troubled system for troubled kids.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0During those 14 months, 11 child fatality and near fatality cases were identified as being the result of maltreatment by a caregiver. Only two of those children had been the subject of previous abuse or neglect reports.

Yellowstone Deputy County Attorney Scott Pederson serves on the fatality review commission. His full-time job is handling civil child abuse and neglect cases and supervising the four other deputies who share this big job in Montanas most populous county.

510 new abuse cases

In 2018, for the first time in several years, Yellowstone County saw a decline in new child abuse and neglect cases filed. The 2018 total was 510 children, compared with 579 in 2017. However, more than 200 children have been in the system since before Jan. 1, 2018, some who were returned to parents came back with new reports of neglect and abuse, and more children have been found to be in need of care since the start of 2019.

Pederson commended the other members of the commission as committed, really smart people.

It is really hard subject matter, as hard as it gets, Pederson said.You need someone who knows the industry, is a mental health professional or an education professional who understands the needs of youth and whether or not a program is meeting the standards as set by the law. But that's not what happens when you put people in charge of an industry in charge of that oversight, Smith said in an interview with the Missoulian.

The connections between industry leaders and governing bodies arent clear to most people  or to parents sending their children to the programs. They may confuse program licensure with membership in trade associations, largely due to the ways programs use membership in such organizations in their marketing.

NATSAP is the most prominent association for the troubled teen industry, with 185 members, including therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs and young adult transition programs.

It was founded in part by John Santa, a cognitive psychologist with a doctorate from Purdue University, who opened the Montana Academy in 1997. He heads Montanas Board of Private Alternative Adolescent Residential or Outdoor Programs (PAARP), which is composed of three industry leaders and two members of the public, giving the industry a majority of decision-making power when it comes to things like substantiating complaints and delivering consequences.A contract for the work will be awarded on Feb. 4, Wilson said.

Theyll have to have the approach in, the new vaulted toilet and the parking lot and the boat access before high water, he said, with a spring opening date planned. Then closer to fall, in August, well have a grand opening.

Once the site is opened, FWP has agreed to maintain the bathrooms, empty the trash and do regular checks of the premises, Wilson said.

Our goal is developing picnic shelters, walking trails and lending a hand to them because theyre limited on what they can do, he said. So were going to add more amenities to the park as a partnership with them.

Wilson is hoping individuals and community groups will donate money to YRPA and Our Montana to help make those amenities a reality.

Dana Lariviere, executive director of Our Montana, said the location of the new fishing access site is perfect for canoeists, rafters and inner-tube riders.

Its nice because you can go from Laurel to Duck Creek and thats two hours, and Duck to here now and thats two hours, and here to Lockwood, she said. So you can plan your trip according to how long you want to be out on the river.Governor Roy Cooper (CJ photo by Kari Travis): Above.Read the Memorandum of Understanding between the utilities and the governor's office here The state Department of Environmental Quality issued a vital water permit Friday advancing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, but environmentalists immediately criticized Gov. Roy Cooper for signing off on the approval.The 604-mile pipeline and compressor stations will carry natural gas from West Virginia to southeastern regions of Virginia and eight counties in North Carolina, ending just shy of the South Carolina border. The 401 water quality certification is required because the project has the potential to impact wetlands, buffers, or waterways.said DEQ Secretary Michael Regan.Regan said.Advocates and adversaries of the pipeline have sought Cooper's support.said Michael Brune, executive director of the California-based Sierra Club.Brune warned in a news release that the environmental group has filed four lawsuits over the pipeline, including one against Virginia's approval of a similar 401 permit, and will continue its fight.Brune said.Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, lauded DEQ's action. "I've supported the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from the start, and while approval took longer than it should have, I appreciate [Governor] Cooper finally standing up to the far-left environmentalists and permitting this job-creating project," Berger said in a written statement.Berger said.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the lead regulatory agency for natural gas pipeline projects. It approved the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in October, but more state permits are needed before the pipeline construction can start.Those include an air quality permit for a compressor station in Northampton County; two general stormwater permits in Nash and Cumberland counties; an individual stormwater permit for a contractors' work yard in Cumberland County; and approval of the erosion and sediment control plan for the northern segment of the pipeline's North Carolina route. The erosion and sediment control plan for the southern segment was approved in December.The project also must obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for stream and wetland impacts.Gov. Roy Cooper's administration told legislative leaders investigating the Atlantic Coast Pipeline last week it won't allow private investigators hired by the General Assembly to interview state employees.The investigators are former federal agents who were hired in December by a special ACP subcommittee to look into the ACP permit process and the creation of a $57.8 million discretionary fund Cooper would control. The General Assembly created the subcommittee in September. The investigators' duties include reviewing documents and interviewing state employees and others associated with the project.Subcommittee chairmen Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, and Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union, responded today to Cooper. They plan to proceed with interviews, which could lead to a showdown between the legislature and the governor regarding the General Assembly's oversight authority.said Brown and Arp.The letter by Cooper's Chief of Staff Kristi Jones and by Brown and Arp were published earlier today by WRAL . They can be found here and here Jones' letter, dated Jan. 17, said the Department of Environmental Quality and Cooper's administration have been cooperative with the legislature and "produced tens of thousands of documents in response to public records requests on December 20, 2018.""However, we have directed Cabinet level agencies to respectfully decline these outside investigators' requests for interviews. There are no protections for state employees from inappropriate questions and no rules preventing these private contractors from using underhanded or even illegal methods to interrogate," she said.She characterized the interviews as an "extraordinary open-ended political fishing expedition conducted by Republican former federal investigators."Brown and Arp took exception to Jones' characterization. "We are deeply disappointed that you chose to impugn the character of career federal law enforcement officials as cover in your effort to shield the public from the truth of your administration's dealings," their letter said.The lawmakers also raised the issue of Cooper's business relationship with Strata Solar, a relationship started in 2012 and first reported by Carolina Journal last year. Cooper, while serving as state attorney general, agreed to lease a 40-acre Nash County property he and his brother owned to Strata for the construction and operation of a 4.9-megawatt solar facility.Brown and Arp said:These facts appear to be true: Your business partner asked you to personally intervene with Duke Energy on a matter impacting his solar company profits that is unrelated to the ACP. You then met one-on-one with Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good and discussed your business partner's request and the ACP permit. Several weeks later, when your General Counsel informed you that he intended to sign a critical document related to the ACP, you asked. 'where are the solar boys on their deal?' The deal with the solar boys was not yet complete. The critical ACP agreement and the permit were delayed for weeks until the solar deal providing your business partner with increased profits was on more certain footing because of your intervention.Governor's ACP discretionary fundCooper's office announced the $57.8 million discretionary fund immediately after the state Department of Environmental Quality announced it approved a critical water quality permit for the ACP. Both announcements were made Jan. 26, 2018. The Memorandum of Understanding between the governor's office and the four utilities building the pipeline (including Duke) said the money would be used to mitigate environmental impacts of the pipeline; for economic development projects in the affected counties; and for renewable energy projects in the affected counties.CJ was the first news organization to note the unusual arrangement. It was created outside normal legislative budgeting functions. Several legislators said Cooper violated the separation-of-powers doctrine in the state constitution, which says all state spending must be authorized by the General Assembly. (See CJ's series on the ACP at this link .)In February, the legislature voted to redirect the ACP discretionary fund to the school systems in the eight counties crossed by the pipeline. To date, the state has received no money.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..At the top of the list is health care. Polls show this is a top concern for voters. While the Affordable Care Act extended coverage to tens of millions of people, many are still not insured. Furthermore, premiums and co-pays often place an enormous burden on those with insurance.

Most of the Democrats considered leading contenders have proposed measures to extend coverage.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the way with his push for Medicare for All, although he knows this is not likely to be accomplished in a single step.

To get closer, he has proposed lowering the age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 55 or 60 and allowing people of all ages to buy into the program.

Sanders, along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has also pushed a variety of bills that would lower prescription drug costs.

Drugs are the most rapidly rising component of health care costs.

Other areas that will need to be addressed include the cost of college and child care. There have been a variety of proposals put forward by Democrats to make public colleges either free  or at least affordable, to the poor and middle-class. The same is true of plans to make daycare affordable for low and moderate-income families.The bridge, which sits on a floodplain, may have only lasted a year or so before it would have to be dismantled in order to meet the standards for the citys new flood control project, which should finish plans by August 2020.

While the bridge held more than 30 years of memories, according to Hagin it only took one morning in mid-December for her crew to take it apart.

In parallel with the city decision to remove the bridge, parks staff were tasked with creating a keepsake with any salvageable pieces after the December dismantling, Hagin said.

The older parts of the bridge were too far damaged to be salvageable for this purpose and will be mulched and reused, Hagin said. The bridge pieces the city was able to salvage were only around five years old, from when the city did some minor repairs, she added. These pieces were turned into one-foot and two-foot sections for residents who expressed interest in keeping part of the bridge.

Shortly after the safe demolition of the bridge, parks staff took the adage of I know its not much, but its the best I can do, and reached out to Flagstaff Stamp and Engraving with the knowledge of a city seal on-hand, Hagin said.Campus Advantage said they could not comment, but some of the concerns are touched on by the development summery.

The property is well situated for both Northern Arizona University and Coconino Community College students that utilize transit, the project summery states. Lone Tree provides direct access to both campuses for bikers and walkers; to supplement access to both CCC and NAU, Campus Advantage is currently evaluating inclusion of shuttle bus/van or other services to support student access to school as well as shopping and services in central Flagstaff to reduce automotive trips as well.

Pilcher said even if the issues of parking are fixed, he would prefer to see some other kind of development in the area. Pilcher said, having lived at Pinnacle Pines since 2007, he has always known Pine Canyon would likely develop the land.

Pilcher added he personally would be happier if, instead of purely student housing, the developer was looking to build a different kind of development such as apartments for families, condominiums or affordable housing.

And now, he and other residents may get a chance to make their concerns known to city council as the development is scheduled for discussion at the next meeting.The second suspect shot by Arizona Department of Public Safety officers Wednesday on West Topeka Avenue died from his wounds late Thursday night, family reported. DPS later released further information on the topic.

Preston Oszust, 20, died at 10 p.m. Thursday night in the Flagstaff Medical Center, according to Jennifer Timmons, who said she helped raise Oszust like a mother. Marcus Gishal, 20, was also shot by officers on Wednesday night and was pronounced dead by DPS at the scene.

The shooting erupted after the two men fled a traffic stop initiated by DPS officers at a Maverik gas station on the Historic Route 66, DPS reports. Once the two suspects were found, DPS alleges that Gishal shot at officers first, leading to the four officers shooting at the two now-deceased suspects.

Timmons said that Oszust and his friend had hard lives, but were not bad people.

"They were the sweetest young men you could imagine ever meeting," Timmons said. "They were the kind of people that went out of their way for everyone and lifted everyone up."

Timmons said she had taken Oszust into her home when he was 14 years old. Timmons' oldest son asked her to adopt Oszust into their family.After a record 35 days, it was announced Friday afternoon that the government will allow their offices to re-open, allowing federal workers in Flagstaff and all across the country to go back to work.

During the time off, local furloughed workers were able to get free or discounted food, goods, classes and services from more than 30 businesses in town.

One woman who was not working due to the shutdown told The Yoga Experience owner Erin Widman that she was going crazy without having something to keep her engaged.

I could tell there was a deep level of stress in her voice and body, these statements were not made in just, but from a true need for a sense of health and purpose, Widman said.

To help the customer, and others like her, Widman offered free yoga classes at her studio during the shutdown.

We provide classes that aim to help reduce stress, while staying active and engaged in positive thinking, she said.

Mechelle Felsted of Academy of the Martial Way knew she had a handful of federal workers that attended her taekwondo studio, and wanted to help them out. She stopped charging them for the time being, and opened up an offer for free classes to all federal furloughed employees.If you or someone you know is recovering from an illness, injury or surgery, incorporating at-home medical care and therapies such as physical therapy can decrease hospital time and increase recovery time.

For many people, in-home care can delay the transition to or even eliminate the need for an assisted living facility. Knowing the different aspects of home health and choosing the right agency can help make the transition from hospital to home smoother or staying home easier and more likely.

Ivy Stearman, R.N., F.N.P., CEO and co-founder of Nurses Network, Inc. Home Health Agency, explains the ins and outs of home health:

"Home health is a general term that represents a wide range of services for someone who needs short-term care for a condition such as a hip fracture or joint replacement, to long-term care for an ongoing chronic condition such as Alzheimers disease or cerebral palsy. Non-medical home care services assist with daily activities such as dressing, bathing and meal preparation.

"While the services and expertise (nursing, physical therapy, etc.) may vary from one agency to another, all have one thing in common: they help make it possible for a person to remain at home as long as possible or go home from the hospital or facility as soon as possible.Most folks will agree that words spoken by politicians can't always be believed and since "pictures are worth a thousand words" then perhaps it's time that we pay more attention to what we're actually hearing politicians say when speaking live at rallies or on TV.

For nearly a decade we've heard President Trump espouse/brag about Putin's views, praising him at political rallies and on television. On Dec. 17, 2015, we even heard him say on ABC that it is a great honor to get compliments from a highly respected person.

Putin is likewise praising Trump! In a Dec. 14, 2017, press conference on Russian TV he said, Because of Donald Trump, we have seen how the stock markets have grown; it attests to the trust investors are showing in the economy and trust in what Trump is doing. And, in July 2011, Putin also confirmed that he believed Trump's policies would be more favorable to the Kremlin. (Go to http:www.politico.com/story/2018/7/16/putin-trump-win-election-2016-722486 to read Putin's entire talk.)

After then Indiana Gov. Mike Pence dropped Vladimir Putins name more than 20 times in the Oct. 4, 2016 vice-presidential debate on NBC, Sen. Tim Kaine responded to his running mate, You and your running mate Donald Trump share an unseemly admiration for the Russian president. You guys must really love Russia!A common response emerging from President Donald Trump's decision Friday to agree to end  at least temporarily  the partial federal government shutdown, was that he caved in and lost spectacularly. People from both ends of the political spectrum were making this observation, with different emotions attached.

From a purely political horse-race point of view, that conclusion about caving has plenty of merit. But the reality is this was much bigger than a political game. It has damaged the lives of hundreds of thousands of American families.

And no matter what anyone else claims, the shutdown was not about Democrats failing to compromise (they did that with the the legislation approved unanimously in December by the Republican-controlled Senate). It wasn't even about the broader topic of border security (there's plenty of agreement on both sides about the need for funding measures such as updated technology and better staffing at the border).

This was about a single obsession of Trump's: his wall. And this obsession could soon bring us right back to where we've been for the past five weeks. So how can that be avoided?The village of Cato is under a boil water order, the Cayuga County Health Department announced Saturday.

Village residents and anyone else using the village's water supply are asked to boil their water before using it, according to a health department news release.

The release said the water system lost pressure due to a water repair line. The chance that harmful microbes and untreated water can a water supply increases once a water main loses pressure.

Once repairs are done, the village will take samples to confirm the distribution system is not contaminated. The order is expected to remain in effect for a few days. The health department will notify people in the village when they no longer to have to boil their water.

The release said people should bring tap water to a rolling boil, boil for one minute and cool before using, or use bottled water that was been certified by the New York State Department of Health. Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, food preparation, creating ice, brushing teeth and washing dishes until further notice, the release said.

Those with questions should contact the village of Cato at (315) 626-2397 or the health department at (315) 253-1560.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Timbs said these issues have lingered for years.

"We have growing frustration that actually nothing is being solved here," Timbs said after the forum. "It's same old, same old."

Helming noted this is her third time attending the forum.

"I've been hearing pretty much the same story now for three years with no real answers from Albany, so I'm a bit embarrassed by that," she said. "Rick always gives us an outline on what needs to be done. I feel like that falls on deaf ears, really."

Helming said she looks forward to "meeting with my individual school districts."

"I always find that very, very helpful, to sit down one-on-one, to hear what your specific needs are and to tackle those as best we can," she said.

May, the sole Democratic legislator in the room, said she learned a great deal from the event, even though Cayuga County is not within her district. May, of Syracuse, was elected to the newly Democrat-led state Senate in November.

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"I really want to learn more about what the issues are in all of central New York, because I really do feel like I'm the advocate for central New York in the new majority," she said.Jan. 27, 2004

AUBURN  The crow hunters shot the first volley over the weekend with the unveiling of their crow mobile. And now crow supporters want to be heard.

Rita Sarnicola, a member of the Auburn Crow Committee, wants crow supporters to gather for a peaceful protest Sunday, Feb. 8, at Memorial City Hall. The controversial crow hunt will be held outside the city and throughout rural areas of Cayuga County Feb. 7-8.

Activists from such state and national groups as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate New York, and The Fund for Animals may return to Auburn at this year's two-day event.

"I think about those poor creatures being hunted," Sarnicola said. "Hunters just come and blast away. I detest it. I think it's wrong."

 Compiled by David Wilcox

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Candidates and voters won't have to wait long to experience the election reforms passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The state Board of Elections released the 2019 political calendar and the primary election date will be Tuesday, June 25. This is a change from prior years when the state and local primary election was held in September. The election reform package included legislation to consolidate the federal primary election, which has been held in June, with the state and local primary.

With the change, the federal, state and local primary election will be held on the fourth Tuesday in June.

The new primary date not only alters when voters will go to the polls, but it will also change when candidates circulate petitions to qualify for the election. Under the new schedule, the petitioning period begins Feb. 26. The deadline to file petitions is April 4.

This is a significant change from past election cycles. Candidates for state and local offices didn't begin circulating petitions until June. The deadline to file petitions was in July.Sybille Tetsch returned to the German village of Proschim to set up a restaurant four years ago, in an attempt to save her birthplace from mining excavators and heal a deep rift there over the future of coal. Residents of Proschim have for years lived with the uncertainty of whether the Welzow-Sued mine at the edge of their village will be expanded, flattening their homes. With Germany poised to end coal exploitation in the next two decades, Tetsch and other like-minded activists see only one answer: Proschim stays. But in the village in the eastern Lausitz region where everyone has a miner in the family, the future of coal is an explosive topic that has soured relations and pushed friends apart. "The division runs through the families. Neighbours don't greet each other. So we wanted to create a place where everyone can come together without abusing each other," said Tetsch, 48 -- admitting she has not yet quite succeeded in her bid to bridge the gap. Leag, the owner of the surface lignite mine, is due to make a final decision in 2020. But tensions have soared in recent months as Germany mulls whether to shutter all coal power plants as part of efforts to make the country carbon-neutral by 2050. A government-appointed commission recommended on Saturday an exit from the fossil fuel by 2038. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz are due to meet Thursday (January 31) with regional leaders to discuss the plan. Opinion polls show 59 percent of the public are in favour of ending coal exploitation swiftly. But in mining states, 61 percent want Germany to hold on to it for longer. Underlining the split, Proschim-born Karin Noack, 41, said: "There is no more village life here. If one side turns up at an event, the other side stays away." In homes, coal is often the elephant in the room. "I am the black sheep of the family. They don't say, she's pitting herself against our work. But that she's pitting herself against the family," said Noack, who has spent her life in the village. - 'Raw deal' - The history of coal in the district of Welzow, which Proschim village is part of, goes back 150 years, when one of the then 260 residents picked a piece of lignite off the ground. "It's very normal for us to always have lignite around and it is through brown coal that Welzow has found its meaning," said district mayor Birgit Zuchold in her office complete with a miniature coal-laden train wagon. The attachment to the fuel is so strong that even though Zuchold's husband and son are both miners, there hasn't been any discussion about whether they should retrain, the mayor said. "They are passionate in their jobs," she said. Zuchold believes the miners often "get a raw deal -- people say lignite-power is dirty". More people should come and meet the region's miners to understand what they go through on a daily basis, she said, describing the tough working conditions they endure in order to power up cities like Berlin. She also voiced frustration that while the industry was often vilified as a climate-killer, other countries were opening up new mines. "Are we not just displacing the damage to another country?" she said, adding that a shift to electric power also carries risks, as raw materials need to be extracted for key components like batteries. - 'Broken heart' - Tetsch and Noack said while credit is due to the miners, coal extraction is "today no longer a necessity" as renewables occupy an increasing chunk of the power mix. "Previously they said we will extract coal to produce power, but today, we're extracting coal to have jobs," said Tetsch. Dozens of villages around Proschim have been wiped off the map because of the fossil fuel, noted the restaurant-owner. Walking through what remains of a neighbouring village, Haidemuehl, Tetsch pointed to an area where trees stand next to the carcass of a building, saying: "That's where my school was." "Sure one can build new homes, but that's a new-build settlement. The older folk, they return to see their homes... but then they die from a broken heart," she said. Zuchold, however, argues that some are happy to get a new house where they can start afresh. The landscape changes in the region constantly because of the mining activity, the mayor said, adding that when the extraction is complete, residents and authorities will get to decide what they want to do with the exploited sites. Zuchold and her team already have ideas of what the Welzow-Sued mine will look like post-exploitation -- new buildings and even a mountain-bike park could occupy what looks like moonscape today. Residents of Proschim have for years lived with the uncertainty of whether the Welzow-Sued mine at the edge of their village will be expanded, flattening their homes 'Neighbours don't greet each other," says Sybille Tetsch Dozens of villages in the region have fallen into decay Proschim residents are wondering whether their village will one day be struck off the mapSudanese police fired tear gas at protestors in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Sunday, witnesses said, after organisers called for further demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's three decades of rule. Bashir, on a visit to Cairo to meet his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said the media were exaggerating the size of the problems he faced at home. Deadly protests sparked by a government decision to raise the price of bread have rocked the east African country for weeks. The demonstrations have mushroomed into nationwide rallies against the government of Bashir, who swept to power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup. Officials say 30 people have died in the violence since the protests first erupted on December 19 in the farming town of Atbara, before spreading to Khartoum and other regions. Rights groups say more than 40 people have been killed. On Sunday, protesters came onto the streets in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman to hold sit-ins in several squares, responding to a call by the Sudanese Professionals Association which is leading the protests. But a massive deployment of riot police and security agents prevented them from gathering at several locations, witnesses said, and the protesters later began rallies in several residential areas of Khartoum and Omdurman. "You're police, you have to protect us," demonstrators shouted as riot police cordoned off several squares in Khartoum and Omdurman, where they had planned to hold sit-ins. - Clampdown on squares - Police surrounded many squares and filled some with muddy water to prevent demonstrators from gathering, witnesses said. The SPA backed by several opposition political parties said in a joint statement that despite the deployment of security forces, protesters managed to gather in 11 squares and also stage six rallies in residental areas of Khartoum and Omdurman during the day. "When we came to the square for a sit-in, we saw security forces had surrounded it," said a female demonstrator, who did not identify herself for security reasons. "We then decided to hold a rally in a nearby neighbourhood, but there too the police hit us with tear gas." Late on Sunday, eight more demonstrations were held in Khartoum and Omdurman but police confronted them with tear gas, witnesses said. The SPA had called for sit-ins on Sunday in more than 20 squares in Khartoum and Omdurman. In a statement issued late on Sunday, the SPA said rallies were also planned on Monday in Darfur, Nuba mountains, Blue Nile, in camps of internally displaced people and some other provinces "to show our people's rejection of the dictator". Authorities led by the country's National Intelligence and Security Service have cracked down on protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists in a bid to prevent the spread of demonstrations. On Sunday, security forces arrested four journalists, including one from the country's war-torn region of Darfur, the non-government Sudanese Journalists' Network said. Sudan has ranked 174 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom index every year from 2015 to 2018. - Media 'exaggerating' - While bread price hikes sparked the first protests, anger has been mounting for years over growing economic hardship and deteriorating living conditions. That ire has now spilt onto the streets, with protesters chanting their main slogan: "freedom, peace, justice!" Bashir has remained steadfast in rejecting calls to resign. On Sunday, he said the media were exaggerating the size of his problems. "There is a problem (in Sudan), we are not claiming that there is not. But it's not of the size or extent raised in some media," Bashir said standing next to Sisi at a news conference after their meeting in Cairo. The protests were "an attempt to clone the so-called Arab Spring in Sudan", he said, referring to similarities between the slogans and use of social media in uprisings that hit the region in 2010-2011. Angry crowds of Sudanese protesters have been seen in videos posted online chanting "The people want the downfall of the regime," a signature slogan of the Arab Spring. Bashir and other Sudanese officials have blamed the country's overall economic woes on the United States. Washington lifted its trade embargo on Sudan in October 2017 after two decades of bruising economic punishment, but that has failed to fix the country's financial situation. ab-mon-mz-jds/dv Sudanese protesters gather at a previous rally in the capital Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman on January 25, 2019 A handout picture released by the Egyptian presidency on January 27, 2019 shows Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) receiving his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in CairoPope Francis celebrated mass with hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims in Panama on Sunday, winding up a five-day visit during which he defended Central American migrants and acknowledged the Church had been hurt by sex abuse scandals. Before flying out of Panama, the first Latin American pope called for a "just and peaceful solution" to the crisis wracking Venezuela and made a plea for peace in neighboring Colombia hit by "terrorist hatred." Shortly before leaving for Rome after a five-day visit for World Youth Day celebrations, the pope said the people of Venezuela were facing "a serious situation" but that he was praying for an outcome "respecting human rights". Francis has been at pains not to take sides on the issue, even though the Church in Venezuela has been highly critical of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist regime amid the country's economic collapse. Speaking quietly during his weekly Angelus address, the pope also said he wanted to remember the "young students" killed by "terrorist hatred" in Colombia following the ELN rebel group's bombing of police cadets earlier this month. He reserved his "strongest reprobation" for the bombing of a Philippine church earlier Sunday, which killed at least 18 people. Once again, he said, "the Christian community has been plunged into mourning." Francis's Avianca flight took off for Rome at 6:30 pm (2330 GMT) after a farewell ceremony at Panama's Tocumen International Airport. -Giant mass - The pope, who on Saturday admitted the Church had been "wounded" by a deepening clergy sex abuse crisis, celebrated a giant mass to round off the World Youth Day celebrations at a park on the outskirts of Panama City. "I ask you not to let the fervor of these days grow cold," Francis said, looking out at the pilgrims who had turned the park into a colorful sea of flags, with the capital's towering skyline in the background. "Go back to your parishes and communities, to your families and your friends, and share this experience, so that others can resonate with the strength and enthusiasm that is yours." "And please, don't forget to pray for me," he said. After mass, held early in the morning to avoid Panama's high temperatures, the 82-year-old Argentine headed to meet a group of young people living with AIDS and HIV at the Good Samaritan home in the city. - Waiting in a wheelchair - Raul Miranda, 31, was waiting to meet the pope in a wheelchair. He said he had been living on the streets before being taken in by the home. "Very often we are rejected, discriminated against by society, so when the pope chose this place it motivates us to move forward against discrimination," he said. The pope greeted Miranda by putting a palm on his brow and then clasping his hand in both of his in a warm handshake. He said the Christian parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that our neighbor is first of all a person, "not something to avoid or ignore, whatever his or her situation may be." At the end of the morning mass, a Vatican official announced the next WYD would take place in Lisbon in 2022, sparking a burst of cheering and waving of Portuguese flags in the crowd. "The pope made a passionate exhortation for young people to put their Christian faith front and center in their daily lives and not in some distant future," said Andrew Chesnut, a religious studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US. "In the context of marked Catholic decline in Latin America, especially Central America, the Argentine pontiff understands that without its young people the Church has no future," he told AFP. On Saturday, at a mass in the landmark Cathedral of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City, Francis warned of the "weariness of hope that comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which has so often failed to hear all those cries." At a lunch meeting with 10 young pilgrims, Francis said sex abuse by the clergy was "a horrible crime," according to one of the guests. - Live offline - Later, at a vigil that the organizers said drew 600,000 pilgrims, the pope called on young people to reject the temptation to live their lives online and urged them to get involved in their communities. Life was not "in the cloud, waiting to be downloaded, a new app to be discovered, or a technique of mental self-improvement," the pontiff said during his grandfatherly discourse. The Argentine pope has used his encounter with young people in Central America to speak out repeatedly in defense of migrants, and address other problems affecting the region such as poverty, drug trafficking, violence and what he said was a regional "plague" of murders of women. In a swipe at US President Donald Trump's plans to build a border wall against migrants, the pope said at a giant prayer meeting on Saturday that it was "senseless" to condemn every immigrant "as a threat to society." World Youth Day volunteers gather at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium for a meeting with Pope Francis in his last public event before he left Panama City Pope Francis attends a gathering of World Youth Day volunteers, his last public event before leaving Panama City after the five-day World Youth Day celebration Pope Francis gets ready to board the plane to return to the Vatican after participating in World Youth Day celebrations in Panama City Young people are pictured in the morning before the arrival of Pope Francis to officiate at an open-air mass at the Campo San Juan Pablo II on the outskirts of Panama City, on January 27, 2019Twelve months after exiting the Australian Open with fitness, form and career doubts swirling, Novak Djokovic on Sunday struggled to keep his emotions from reducing him to tears. The Serb world number one had just lifted the Norman Brookes trophy for a record seventh time, after completing a Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows and Melbourne Park hat-trick that would have seemed scarcely possible this time last year. His 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 rout of Rafael Nadal saw him stretch his lead at the top of the world rankings, just a few months after he plummeted outside the top 20 for the first time in 12 years. "I'm just trying to contemplate on the journey in the last 12 months," said an emotional Djokovic, pausing for breath to compose himself and not become tearful. "To be standing now here in front of you today and managing to win this title and three out of four Slams, this is amazing. I am speechless." After missing the 2017 US Open with a bothersome elbow and losing in the last 16 at the Australian Open in January 2018, Djokovic underwent surgery to fix the nagging problem. His return was not smooth, his form tanked and when he lost in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in 2018 he slumped to 22nd in the rankings and even briefly threatened to pull out of Wimbledon. Now Djokovic heads to the next major, at Roland Garros, aiming to hold all four Grand Slam titles concurrently for a second time in his career -- he first achieved it when winning the French Open in 2016 -- despite only managing to be competitive for the second half of 2018. He opted to play on the grass after all and romped to a fourth Wimbledon crown, a 32nd Masters title in Cincinnati and then a third triumph at the US Open in September. Despite a 22-match winning streak ending with defeat to young tyro Karen Khachanov in Paris, followed by a loss to another NextGen force, Alexander Zverev, at the ATP Finals in London, he finished the year on top of the world. "Reflecting on what I've been through in the last year, it's quite a phenomenal achievement," said Djokovic after knocking Nadal from the top spot in November. "I'm very, very happy and proud about it. Five months ago, it was highly improbable considering my ranking and the way I played and felt on the court." - Heart-breaking - Djokovic is now just two behind Nadal's total of 17 Grand Slams and five shy of Roger Federer's record of 20. Djokovic's ability to thrive among the greats has never been in doubt, but the size of his heart often led to questions in his early days. At Wimbledon in 2007, he retired with a back injury in the third set of his semi-final against Nadal. He also quit at the 2006 and 2007 French Opens at the third round and quarter-final stages respectively, while at the 2009 Australian Open, where he was defending champion, he pulled out of his quarter-final with Andy Roddick citing heat exhaustion. But nobody could question his courage at the 2012 Australian Open, when he beat Nadal in the longest Grand Slam final of all time, a draining 5hr 53min epic. Djokovic captured the first of his majors in Melbourne in 2008, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but it was three years before he added his second. Two more Australian Opens followed in 2012 and 2013, although three heartbreaking final defeats kept the French Open frustratingly out of reach until 2016, when his breakthrough win at Roland Garros allowed him to complete a career and first calendar Slam. Off court, Djokovic married long-time girlfriend Jelena Ristic in July 2014. They have two children, a son Stefan and daughter Tara. Djokovic's ability to thrive among the greats has never been in doubt Novak Djokovic pictured after all seven of his Australian Open wins - in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019 Grand Slam titles won by Novak Djokovic.Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has challenged his in-form players to relish their demanding schedule as they continue to chase Premier League leaders Liverpool with a visit to Newcastle on Tuesday. Jurgen Klopp's side exited both domestic cup competitions at early stages this season, leaving them to concentrate on the Premier and Champions Leagues. In stark contrast, City remain active in four major competitions, having advanced to the League Cup final and the fifth round of the FA Cup, following Saturday's 5-0 fourth-round win over Burnley. It adds a fascinating angle to what is shaping up to be a memorable title race between the two north-west giants although there is no doubt Liverpool's players have the advantage in terms of rest and recovery. The Merseyside club spent four days in Dubai last week to avoid the harsh English winter weather, while Guardiola's team packed in a league visit to Huddersfield, a League Cup trip to Burton and that FA Cup clash with Burnley. - 'Big teams always there' - "It's important that in January we are there," said the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager after City's rout of Burnley. "The big clubs, that is the big difference, what are the best clubs in the last decade? Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, these are the best three teams in the last decade in Europe, why? "Because every season they win the league, every season they win the cups, every season they are there, because they are the best," he added in answer to his own question. "Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not but the most important thing is being there and that's what I want. "So I cannot give them (the players) days off. We have a lot of games here, so no way. But sometimes I tell them it's a privilege, if you believe it's a handicap, you are (making) a big mistake." Guardiola said there would come a time when his squad could have all the breaks they wanted. "When you are 35-years-old you can have long, long holidays, no problem. You will be retired and after that take one year for holidays, but in that moment, it's a privilege. Take it, enjoy it." City's scheduling problems, and the League Cup Final meeting with Chelsea, have seen them bring a league fixture with Everton forward to a week on Wednesday (February 6), a game which could allow Guardiola to cut Liverpool's advantage at the top. February also sees City face Arsenal and Chelsea in the league, as well as the cup final against the latter. Guardiola, however, is mindful of City's defeats by unfancied Crystal Palace and Leicester in December and is, therefore, unwilling to look beyond Newcastle. However, that dramatic loss of form around Christmas seems a thing of the distant past after City responded with eight consecutive victories in all competitions and the return of a number of injured players --- notably playmaker Kevin De Bruyne and French left-back Benjamin Mendy -- augurs well. "It gives us a lot of encouragement," said Guardiola of Belgian star De Bruyne's return to fitness. "But I repeat many times, this is the only way if you have four competitions, in this league, in this weather conditions, the physicality, you have competitions every three days, no rest, mentally and physically, we need them. So we needed Kevin back and Benjamin back and then after we decide." Pep Guardiola has told his Manchester City squad they cannot complain about a fixture pile-up The return of Kevin De Bruyne (L), pictured shooting as Jeff Hendrick tries to block during a 5-0 rout of Burnley in the FA Cup fourth round, has been a boost for Manchester CityItalian police were investigating a French pilot Sunday over the deaths of seven people in a collision between a helicopter and light aircraft in the Alps, according to media reports. The pilot, named as Philippe Michel and one of only two survivors of the deadly accident in the Aosta Valley near France late Friday, was questioned by police in hospital, the Messaggero daily and other outlets reported. The crash appeared to have happened just after the helicopter took off, unaware that the French Jodel plane was landing. "The collision happened in flight, probably at a few dozen metres above ground. The wreckage from the aircrafts was spread over an area of about 400 metres square," Alpine rescue group leader Paolo Comune told the media. The Italian helicopter pilot, a German alpine guide and three German heli-skiers were killed, along with a French national and a Belgian. Michel and an injured German were airlifted to hospital in Aosta. The deadly accident happened in the Aosta Valley near France late FridayKarl Marx Allee was the former East German government's showpiece -- a wide boulevard lined with Stalinist-style buildings housing the comrades. Today, the avenue is a front line in the battle against rampant gentrification in Berlin. A plan by a property management firm to offload 700 apartments on the boulevard to another company has raised the ire of tenants, who fear it could lead to rent hikes. A fight that erupted in November last year has culminated in what essentially is the re-nationalisation of the apartments -- ending a trend of privatisation of social housing and bringing the ownership of the blocks back to their socialist origins. The emblematic struggle has also sparked a debate in the German capital on whether authorities should be allowed to take the radical step of requisitioning apartment buildings. Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller said the fight against property speculation was only beginning and that the city would look to reclaim more apartments from private hands following the Karl Marx Allee example. "That means that privatisation, which has turned out to be a mess, will be halted and apartments will once again be the responsibility of Berlin city, through public housing administrators," said Anja Kaehler, a tenant at Karl Marx Allee. - Steep cost - But the move to re-nationalise the Karl Marx Allee buildings will come at a steep cost to the state, with estimates ranging at between 90 and 100 million euros ($100-115 million). Critics also charge that it will violate the principle of protection for private property rights. Nevertheless, some tenants' rights activists want to push authorities to go further, with a drive under way for a referendum allowing the government to requisition properties from big companies that own more than 3,000 apartments in the capital. If initiators of the proposed referendum petition manage to collect 170,000 signatures by April, Berliners would get to vote on the issue. Like in cities worldwide, property prices in Berlin have shot up as it has shed its Cold War divided past to establish its political might, and become a tourism and party hotspot as well as an investment magnet. Although there are still huge swathes of unbuilt land and new construction mushrooming across the city, many low-income locals are increasingly getting priced out of the market. The jump in property prices is all the more evident in places like Karl Marx Allee, which geographically sits close to the centre of a unified Berlin. A broad 90-metre (300-foot) wide boulevard lined with seven to nine-storey massive blocks in the classical socialist style of the 1950s, Karl Marx Allee was built by the GDR communist government to "impress the world" and "intimidate its own workers". Some in reunified Germany find the visual reminder of the communist years depressing, but many who call the street their home would not give it up for the world. "What makes our Karl Marx Allee special is the architecture. We can imagine that we're in Moscow or Warsaw," said Ruth Notowicz, standing on her balcony overlooking the avenue that tanks rolled down during celebratory military parades. Running 2.6 kilometres through the heart of east Berlin, the buildings lining the boulevard were also known as "wedding cake-style workers' palaces" for their decorative flourishes. - 'Housing security' - Anja Kaehler, who has lived in one of the blocks for 15 years, noted that, in the GDR era, residents from "factory workers to managers" lived next to each other in the flats. "I also came from East Germany, and in these buildings, I see something of what was positive about the regime -- housing security at a low price," said Kaehler, also a tenant representative. After reunification in 1990, the flats which were once owned by the communist state were entrusted to local authorities, who subsequently embarked on the path of partial privatisation from 1993. Although the 700 apartments in question were in private hands, rents held at around 10 euros a square metre -- the lower bracket of current market prices. But in November, tenants were informed that property owner Predac was selling the apartments in three blocks to real estate consortium Deutsche Wohnen. The news sparked an outcry, with tenants fearing that Deutsche Wohnen, which owns 115,000 flats across Berlin and its surrounding regions, could significantly raise rents. Residents, lawyers and politicians leapt into action, and managed to force a court order for a temporary halt to the sale as tenants mulled using their first right to buy under Berlin property rules. In an ironic nod to history, a sufficient quorum of tenants called for a re-nationalisation of the buildings. For the residents, their fight is not about "Ostalgie" -- a word play blending the German for nostalgia and the former East Germany. "Most tenants never knew the regime and they are the ones who are mobilised, they woke up through the communal action," Notowicz said. Karl Marx Allee, the former East German government's showpiece of Stalinist-style buildings, is a front line in a battle against Berlin's gentrification Residents of Berlin's Karl Marx Allee are fearful of rent hikes after 700 flats were offloaded by the property management firm to another company Karl Marx Allee is a broad 90-metre (300-foot) wide boulevard, lined with seven- to nine-storey massive blocks in the classical socialist style of the 1950s The dispute centred on the Karl Marx Allee apartments has culminated in what essentially is their re-nationalisation Although Berlin still has huge swathes of unbuilt land and much new construction, many low-income locals are increasingly getting priced out of the market

An Australian couple lost for seven hours in freezing conditions on a glacier during a snowmobile trip are suing the tour company.

Australian couple David and Gail Wilson became lost during a trip on the Langjokull Glacier in southern Iceland in 2017 and are now suing their tour company Mountaineers of Iceland.

The couple were separated from the rest of the group of 11 snowmobiles in worsening weather when their vehicle came to a sudden stop after Mr Wilson accidentally hit the off switch.

He claims the tour guide had not come to the back of the group where they were situated to check if they were okay before moving on.

The couple could not be seen and 180 members of a search and rescue team helped the tour company try to locate them.

David and Gail Wilson were stranded on the glacier for seven hours. Source: CEN/Australscope

The couple were eventually found seven hours later and taken to safety.

The couple are now suing Mountaineers of Iceland and are asking for $46,000 in damages.

The Wilsons claim they had dug a hole in the snow to provide them with warmth as they thought they were going to have spend the night on the glacier and the Australian couple say they had both suffered from frostbite during the ordeal.

The tour company rejects the Wilsons version of events, saying staff followed the appropriate security protocols.

Gail and David Wilson claim they buried themselves in the snow to stay warm. Source: CEN/Australscope

The company says the couple moved off the trail once they got lost, something they were told not to do, which made it much more difficult to find them.

Mountaineers of Iceland claim the couple rejected the medical assistance and counselling they were offered after the incident.

The court case is set to begin next week.

 AustralscopeWhen the Pentagon announced last November that it was ceasing aerial refueling of Saudi-led coalition aircraft operating in Yemen, the move appeared to be a major step back from U.S. support for the war there. But new documents obtained by Yahoo News reveal that the United States has been training coalition military personnel from the United Arab Emirates for the air war in Yemen.There are fire engines, buses, ambulances unaccounted for. You name it, finance secretary Ken Ngangan said in an interview.

Officials are pleading with their compatriots to track down the missing inventory, even offering an amnesty from arrest this month for anyone who returns the loot. A similar appeal in December turned up empty-handed.

Some 100 vehicles the government procured to ferry delegates around Port Moresby during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit have gone missing, officials say, along with computers, photocopiers and other office equipment.

PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea, an impoverished South Pacific nation known for jungles, crime and corruption, has a new problem since hosting world leaders in its ramshackle capital late last year.

Fortunately, the whereabouts of the Maseratis are known (Natalie Whiting, ABC)

At this stage we cannot say which ones are missing and which ones may be somewhere. The correct word I would say is unaccounted formissing only in the sense they have not been returned.

While the government hasnt said how much it paid for the vehicleswhich were used by APEC employees, contractors, police and security personnelit had planned to sell them to help recoup costs of hosting the November gathering.

The International Monetary Fund put the price of the event at around $1 billion over three years, not an unusual amount for a country that needs to build facilities that can later be reused.

The mystery offers a window into the difficulties of governing a tumultuous state where 40% of its eight million people live on less than $1.25 a day and many communities lack running water and electricity.

Growth has slowed in recent years and falling natural gas prices have crimped tax revenue, forcing the government to borrow more, especially from China. Beijing donated 50 large buses, 35 minibuses and nine fire engines ahead of the summit, some of which are among those lost.

Paul Barker, an economist and executive director of the Institute of National Affairs, an industry-funded think tank based in Port Moresby, said the missing vehicles underscored the countrys challenges with mismanagement.

The financial systems of the state are very weak, the asset registers are very weak, audits come out years late and are more a historic record than timely reports, and unfortunately there is no shortage of people willing to exploit that, said Mr. Barker, who is on the board of anticorruption watchdog Transparency International. The group ranks Papua New Guinea 135th out of 180 nations for graft.

Police are forced to hire cars because they dont even know how many cars they have, he added. The concept of public assets is pretty loosely interpreted, and disillusionment in politics is high.

Martyn Namorong, a political commentator and author on Papua New Guinea, said fire engines donated by Japan had found their way to a retail complex in the capital, where they were being used to ferry women and kids with the shopping.

The government doesnt even know where to send the cops to recover cars, he said. Police didnt return calls seeking comment.

Its the latest blow to a country that had hoped to use APEC, which US Vice President Mike Pence and Chinas Xi Jinping attended, as a diplomatic triumph and a springboard to draw in new investment.

Papua New Guinea took on hosting rights just as a $19 billion Exxon Mobil Corp. -led natural-gas project looked set to transform its economy.

But the gas project has proved lacklustre and APEC ended in acrimony as Chinese and US officials quarrelled over trade rivalries. Police rioted in Port Moresby as attendees jetted out, ransacking offices in a dispute over pay that spilled into looting in nearby suburbs.

Opposition lawmakers have said they plan to bring a no-confidence vote next month against the administration of prime minister Peter ONeill, citing the countrys economic predicament. Treasurer Charles Abel, delivering the budget in November, said the government was entering the year in an improved position as resource prices recovered, with the IMF predicting 3.8% growth.

The APEC pay dispute lingers in the mystery of the missing vehicles. Local newspapers reported some workers and police were refusing to give back their wheels while promised allowances went unpaid. The government said after the rampage that it was working to pay police the outstanding money.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers raised eyebrows over what they considered excessive spending for the summitnotably, the 40 Maseratis and three Bentley limousines the government procured, among 1,000 vehicles in total.

The bottom line is, we cannot afford to be this extravagant. Our country is broke, opposition lawmaker Bryan Kramer said.

APEC vehicles have become a common sight since the summit, said Port Moresby-based security consultant Jason Fisher, with Maseratis photographed in rural villages packed with joy-riding locals.

There were photos of two Maseratis in a village at the end of a big four-wheel drive track, so I dont know how the hell they got them there, said Mr Fisher, who provided security for Wall Street Journal staff covering the conference.

Mr Ngangan, the finance secretary, said the Maseratis and Bentleys had all been accounted for. We did a stocktake today and those are all in good shape, with batteries. Not even one is missing, he said.

He was confident that other missing equipment would be returned, including unmarked police SUVs and the fire engines.

Perhaps people are keeping computers to write APEC reports, Mr Ngangan said. I can see some of the firetrucks right across from my office, so Im keeping a close eye on those."That's what has to be done. The regime leaders' bank accounts have to be frozen, their entry into our countries has to be banned, and other types of economic measures need to be assessed to truly isolate the regime of Maduro, " he told RPP radio and TV news station.One Democratic State in Palestine/Israel: It Is...

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)Hear a panel speak on the case and what it means for our public schools with an opportunity to talk with other community members about this issue in small group conversations.

The next ABQ Forum on Faith & Politics is entitled "Martinez/Yazzie v. State of New Mexico: Transforming Public Education in NM." Free and open to the public.

Concerning this case, the Albuquerque Journal reported: New Mexico is violating the constitutional rights of at-risk students by failing to provide them with a sufficient education, a state judge ruled Friday in a blistering, landmark decision. (7/20/18)

And UNM Professor of Special Education has said: The Martinez/Yazzie decision could fundamentally change the state of public education in New Mexico.

A PANEL ON MARTINEZ/YAZZIE & WHAT IT MEANS FOR OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

Lauren Winkler, Staff Attorney  Education, Center on Law and Poverty

Dr. Diane Torres-Velasquez, Associate Professor, Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy Dept., UNM; and President, Latino Education Task Force

Javier Benavidez, Community Organizer, Albuquerque Interfaith; former Executive Director, SouthWest Organizing Project

Dr. Susan Copeland, Special Education Program Coordinator and Professor of Special Education, UNM College of Education (Moderator)

Following the panel, there will be an opportunity for you to talk with your neighbors about this issue in small group conversations.Engage in a conversation to increase awareness of death to make the most of our finite lives. Drink tea or coffee, eat cake or cookies and discuss mortality issues. RSVP requested.

The regular monthly Albuquerque Death Cafe will take place on Sunday, January 27, 2019 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. We meet in the Fifth Floor Lounge at Manzano del Sol Village, 5201 Roma NE, Albuquerque, NM. The building is located just south of Lomas Blvd. and just west of San Mateo Blvd.

The objective of the Death Cafe is To increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives. Its all about an interesting, unstructured conversation  open and free-flowing with no specific agenda. At these events, people come together in a relaxed, confidential and safe setting to discuss death, drink tea (or your favorite beverage) and eat delicious cake or cookies.

As always, refreshments will be provided. The event is free and donations are welcome. Send a note to Gail [at] AGoodGoodbye.com to RSVP.Reports of the withdrawal of U.S. troops took Afghans by surprise. And it gives the Taliban exactly what they want.





Fears that U.S. President Donald Trump would decide to reverse course and withdraw troops from Afghanistan are not new. But the latest reports of dramatic plans to bring back 7,000 troops has shocked several sources I have spoken to in the U.S. and Afghan governments. The withdrawal represents nearly half of all U.S. forces in Afghanistan, slashing its armed presence down to its lowest levels since 2002. The news broke a day after Trumps decision to pull forces from Syria and hours after the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis was made public.





It is not necessarily the announcement itself that caught many by surprise, but the timing. Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation in September, raising hopes that a peaceful settlement to Americas longest war was in sight. Khalilzada former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan under the George W. Bush administrationhas shuttled across the region with a relentless energy since then, and a U.S. delegation concluded three days of talks with the Taliban in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. There has been more momentum now for talks than ever before, which Trumps decision significantly undermines.





The reduction in troop numbers diminishes U.S. leverage over the Taliban in negotiations, given that the latters stated priority is the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan. While the United States has pummeled Taliban targets with airstrikes, now at an all-time high , this has not yet eroded their control or dented their military capacity. The U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction reported this fall that Afghan government control had fallen to 56 percent of the countrys districts, a record low, and that Afghan National Security Forces casualties had hit a record high. Exact casualty numbers are classified, but the New York Times estimates an average of 50 Afghan soldiers are killed each week. Afghan forces remain deeply reliant on U.S. support to maintain current levels of control and protect cities vulnerable to Taliban capture. New York Times





The Taliban refuse to meet directly with the Afghan government; at the recent talks in Abu Dhabi, a delegation from the Afghan government waited in vain at a nearby hotel in the hope of a face-to-face meeting with the Taliban. There are many within the Taliban who oppose negotiations and advocate waiting out Washingtons patience and money. As the old saying goes, the West may have the watches, but the Taliban have the time. The Taliban have little incentive to agree to any deal quickly, particularly now that Trump has clearly demonstrated a desire to get outregardless of the cost.





The situation on the ground in Afghanistan has only gotten worse in recent months, with escalating violence and an increasingly unstable government. The National Unity Government has been paralyzed by infighting and division ahead of presidential elections scheduled for April 2019. Results from parliamentary elections held in October have still not been announced. Given the level of disorganization, chaos, and violence that plagued those elections, presidential elections would be farcical if held as planned in the spring. Yet reports that the United States wanted the Afghan government to postpone elections and create an interim government to negotiate peace were met with defiance and outrage in Kabul.





A withdrawal of U.S. troops may force a reckoning within the Afghan government, which was reportedly caught unawares by the announcement. Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis most pressing concern to date has been re-election rather than peace, and his intransigence has increasingly frustrated the United States and its allies in the international community. At a donor conference in Geneva in late November, Ghani announced his peace plan with a five-year timeframe, conveniently tying peace talks to his next presidential term should he win in April. Ghanis plan is little more than a strategy to tighten his faltering grip on power, disguised as reconciliation.





The Afghan president is facing increasing discontent and open opposition from key political backers, many of whom oppose or have publicly expressed doubt about talks with the Taliban. This is not surprising. Many of these individuals have significantly benefited from the war and from U.S. support. They would lose considerable influence and power in any settlement with the Taliban. Some may dig in their heels or look for exit plans. Others, particularly within Jamiat-e-Islami or other old mujahideen factions, may accelerate efforts to re-arm their militias in anticipation of a full U.S. withdrawal.





If Trump were to rashly withdraw the remaining U.S. forces without a sound deal, a gradual decline into a new and more vicious phase of civil war is all but guaranteed. In the vacuum created by U.S. disengagement, regional actors such as Pakistan and Russia would throw their support behind Afghan proxies much as they did during the early 1990s. And while Afghanistan is no longer a major safe haven for international terrorist groups, that could quickly change.





It is clear that the current U.S. administration does not have the appetite or endurance to see through a political end to the war that would avoid this. Peace will take years of sustained effort. There is an alternative: handing the process over to a third party. The United States could back the establishment of an independent peace process focused on three core areas: Taliban-U.S. dialogue regarding an American drawdown of troops, intra-Afghan dialogue on a postwar political settlement, and shoring up support from regional actors.





This may be a pipe dream, as all parties still seem convinced they can secure the best deal themselves and are likely wary of handing over any part of the process to anyone else. However, it is the only responsible policy choice. It would tie the United States, the Taliban, and the Afghan government, along with regional actors, to a long-term process that would, hopefully, prioritize the stability of the country and preserve at least some of the gains made over the past 18 years. It is not only the future of Afghanistan at stake, but also the security of the region and the United States. - Read More



Coup d'etat in Venezuela, Kanuary 23, 2018 Reuters

The workers of the U.S. embassy in Venezuela left their diplomatic mission. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela reports this.

We report that yesterday, January 25, the U.S. envoys of the diplomatic mission in Caracas left the embassy due to deadlines, the report said.

The diplomats of the Venezuela embassy in Washington decided to return to Caracas on Saturday.

The negotiations on opening the offices on mutual benefits in Caracas and Washington, where the migration procedures and other mutual problems could be solved, should end over a month, in regards with "the strict abidance of the norms of international law in case of ending relations between the countries."

As we reported earlier, January 23, the opposition leader and the head of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, at a mass protest rally declared himself interim president of Venezuela and took the oath before thousands of opposition supporters.

The U.S. President Donald Trump has recognized Juan Guaido as a temporary leader of the country. Canada, EU, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Costa-Rika, Paraguay, and Guatemala did the same.

Mexico and Bolivia refused to recognize the coup detat.The last coal mine in Germany was closed in the Ruhr basin in December 2018

Germany should stop using coal in power generation by the end of 2038. This decision was made by a government commission, which includes 28 experts, as reported by Euronews. 27 experts voted "for" this decision. The meeting lasted for more than twenty hours.

One of the four leaders of the commission was Roland Pofalla, a Christian Democratic Union politician. "It's done!" he said. "96.4 percent of the members of the commission have approved this draft, which was finally discussed overnight.

"If we actually implement this - and we believe that it is possible - then we would be back in the top group of the few countries that will fulfill this international agreement of goals by 2030," the outlet wrote.

We reported that Ukraine imported 5.746 million tons of coal and anthracite (foreign business code 2701) between January and March of the current year. This demonstrates an increase of 57.6% in annual terms, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

According to the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, the imports of coal were accumulatively worth $760.468 million, which represents 33.5% over the same period in the previous year, when it stood at $569.63 million.

The Russian Federation supplied most of the imported coal (62.12%), worth $472.4 million. The rest of the imports originated from the United States (28.92%) and Canada (6.36%).

Nevertheless, in January-March 2018, Ukraine exported 43,338 tons of coal and anthracite, worth $7.8 million. Particularly, $4.6 million worth of coal were shipped to Russia, whereas $3.2 million worth of coal went to Slovakia.

Ukraine has earlier announced its plans to boost coal imports by 11.3% (or 573.9 tons) against the 2017 figure, up to 5,668,500 tons. This would include 4,881,500 tons from Russia, 664,000 from the United States, and 123,000 from South Africa.The officials of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine discussed cooperation with Facebook to prevent hostile interfering to the electoral process in Ukraine

Officials discuss cooperation to ensure security during elections Delo

Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine Yuriy Stets, Deputy Minister Dmytro Zolotukhin, and State Secretary of the Ministry Artem Bidenko met with Facebook's Public Policy Director for Central and Eastern Europe Gabriella Cseh and Facebooks Public Policy Lead for Elections Anika Geisel. The Ministrys press service reports.

We highly value cooperation with Facebook in the field of information security, in particular, verification of the Ukrainian authorities' pages, counteracting fake news and efforts to ensure non-interference in the coming Ukrainian elections, both presidential and parliamentary, the Minister said.

Gabriella Cseh has pointed out that Facebook is rather serious about violations of community standards and plans to strengthen security measures during the elections.

Anika Geisel told about one of the functions, which became available for the Ukrainian users the day before election race had started. Now Ukrainians can find out which country its administrator comes from and what active advertising the page is running in the information on the popular page.Turkish military base attacked in Northern Iraq voanews.com

Turkish army servicemen opened fire on the local protesters, as they attacked the military base in Al-Amadiya, Northern Iraq.

'Civilians near the city of Duhuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region protested in front of a Turkish military base to condemn Turkish airstrikes against civilians in the north, the source said' as CNN refers to a senior security official in Duhuk province.

300 protesters inflitrated the military object and set two tanks and several cars on fire. That resulted in a number of blasts. The Turks fired in response, which inflicted wounds on three people.

'Turkey has been bombing areas in Iraqi Kurdistan , claiming to target Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. Its airstrikes killed 36 people in the Kurdish region in 2018, according to official statistics released by local authorities in the Kurdish region. Turkey has long fought the PKK, an outlawed Kurdish group responsible for major terror attacks in Turkey as part of its bid for national ethnic autonomy. The European Union and the United States both have named the PKK a terrorist group', CNN concludes.



U.S. President and his close circle of supporters met with Russian influential representatives dozens of times, - NYT

Reuters

During the 2016 presidential race in the U.S., Donald Trump and his support team contacted the representatives of Russian government and Wikileaks (or their mediators) at least 100 times. The New York Times reported that, referring to the intensive correspondence between the two sides.

These contacts include over a hundred of personal meetings, phone converssations, emails, SMS and Twitter chats.

'The special counsel has also investigated connections between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which released thousands of Democratic emails that were hacked by Russia before the election,' the outlet wrote.

Specifically, when Trump announced he would run for the presidency, he received an invitation to the party organized by Russian bilionnaire Aras Agalarov, the ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

'Aras Agalarov, a Russian billionaire who hosted a Miss Universe pageant with Mr. Trump in Moscow, and the billionaires son, Emin, reached out to Mr. Trump several times. (Separately, both men helped arrange the now-famous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked attorney about getting information that could be damaging to Hillary Clinton.) Mr. Trump was also pursuing a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow', the NYT reported.

The list of Trump's associates includes his son Donald Trump, Jr., his former lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, ex-advisors Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.The rally participants fear ID checks and customs control on the border between the Republic of Ireland and the Northern Ireland

Brexit rally, Northern Ireland, January 2019 Associated Press

Hundreds of people gathered near the Irish border for a rally, standing against risks that they assumed Brexit would make for peace in the Northern Ireland.

According to AP, the protest took place near Newry, Northern Ireland 'to reject the possibility of a "hard" border with ID checks and customs controls going up between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit'.

'Some created a mock border checkpoint where actors dressed as soldiers and customs officers showed what such a protected boundary might look like. There is concern on both sides that a guarded border could jeopardize a hard-won coexistence since a 1998 agreement largely ended decades of sectarian and nationalist violence', reads the artice.

As we reported, the British Parliament rejected the agreement on the country's withdrawal from the EU. The deal offered by PM Theresa May failed to be promoted at the session hall, with 432 votes 'against' and 202 'for'. May previously stressed that in case the deal is rejected, there will not be a new one anymore.Open source

Ukraine has reduced the import of cigarettes. This is evidenced by the data of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, UNN reports.



Thus, in 2018, Ukraine imported cigarettes for 50 million USD, which is 7.5% less than in 2017.



Most of the cigarettes were supplied from Germany (in the amount of 19.6 million USD) and Switzerland (of 10.6 million USD).



At the same time, cigarette exports grew by 15.9%. In 2018, Ukraine exported cigarettes for 340 USD.



Ukraine exports cigarettes mostly to Georgia (for 130 million USD) and Japan (71 million USD), respectively.

The European Union urged Ukraine to lift the moratorium on the export of round logs, or roundwood. Interfax reported that, citing the results of the fifth session of the Ukraine-EU Association Council.

The EU urged Ukraine to continue the fight against the concealed interests for the improvement of the business and investment climate, to urgently eliminate the trade irritants, including the moratorium for the export of the round logs, the message said.

The sides urge to pay special attention to the efficient and timely implementation of the points of the free trade zone, further promotion of the trade and elimination of the technical trade barriers, including the spheres of the customs procedures, technical regulations, sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements and the reforms of the food products safety system, system of the state procurement and protection of intellectual property rights.

The Ukrainian side confirmed its commitments regarding the reform of the technical regulation system, particularly, the necessity to accelerate the adoption of the sectoral legislation, including in the market supervision sphere, the message said.Open source

During the day, January 26, the pro-Russian militants twice attacked the positions of Ukrainian troops in the Donbas conflict zone.



This was reported in the press service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine.



In the North operational group action zone, the Russian occupation troops fired at the positions of Ukrainian military near the village of Krymske from grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machine guns and small arms.

Related: UN Security Council conveys emergency session on Venezuela crisis



Also in the East operational group action zone, the enemy fired the positions of the Ukrainian defenders in the area of Vodyane settlement, using grenade launchers and small arms.

No losses among military personnel of the Joint Forces were reported over the day.



The situation in the area remains under control of the Ukrainian military.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-22 05:01:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Saipem, one of the world's top infrastructure development and oil and gas exploration companies, is placing a bet on renewable energy.

Saipem got its start 62 years ago as a subsidiary of Italian state oil and gas giant Eni, and since then it has evolved into one of the world leaders in terms of energy exploration and project development.

Saipem is one of the largest public companies in Italy in terms of market capitalization and revenue. But both indicators are slipping: the company's stock has lost 80 percent of its value in the last five years, while revenue slipped by nearly 1 billion euros (1.14 billion U.S. dollars) between 2016 and 2017 (the latest figures available).

Early guidance from the company predicts it will fall by at least that amount between 2017 and 2018. Those results will be released in March.

Rising expenses, lower prices for oil and gas, political instability in many parts of the world, and a slowdown in the global economy have all taken a toll, analysts told Xinhua.

Saipem's plan to confront the trend, at least in part, depends on switching focus toward renewable energy projects.

"Right now, the amount of revenue Saipem gets from renewable energy projects is small, maybe 100 million euros, compared to more than 7 billion euros for oil and gas projects," Luca Bergamaschi, an analyst specializing in energy and climate issues and a member of MondoDem, a think tank, told Xinhua. "But the company can see the future and the future involves renewable energy."

Most of Italy's most important industrial sectors should be making a similar shift.

Under the terms promised by the European Union as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Italy is required to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2013 compared to 1990 baseline levels. A shift that large will require a rapid move away from the traditional power sources Saipem's business is based on.

The company's newest contracts are dominated by traditional energy projects, often in harsh or otherwise difficult areas.

For example, last month Saipem signed a high-profile deal worth 2.2 billion euros as a co-developer for a liquid natural gas project in northern Russia, within the Arctic Circle. The company is also upping its involvement in the gas-rich country of Azerbaijan.

But the company is also boasting that it will "be at the forefront of the energy transition by delivering solutions and services for successful execution of projects in growing sectors of renewable energy and green technology."

Analysts said the emphasis is significant. "Environmentally friendly technology and energy are areas where Saipem is being proactive," Javier Noriega, chief economist with Hildebrandt and Ferrar, said in an interview.

"To a certain extent, they are betting future growth on renewable energy projects becoming bigger and more common and the company's expertise in developing projects in difficult circumstances paying dividends."

Officials from environmental groups told Xinhua they applauded Saipem's plans to develop renewable energy projects but said the company, as well as other major industrial entities in Italy, should move quicker to phase out projects in sectors that produced greenhouse gasses and pollution.Cate zile libere primesc angajatii in cazul unui deces in familie

Fiecare angajat primeste o serie de zile libere in cazul unor evenimente deosebite. Toate aceste zile libere sunt trecute in Codul Muncii. Fie ca este vorba despre casatorie, nasterea unui copil sau un deces in familie. Cate zile libere primesc insa angajatii in [citeste mai departe]Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 07:03:03|Editor: Yang Yi

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CAIRO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian army killed two major terrorist leaders in an airstrike in the country's North Sinai province, a statement by the army said Sunday.

Egyptian armed forces spokesman Tamer al-Refaie said the two men were killed in the airstrike that targeted a terrorist hideout.

According to the statement, the strike came upon confirmed intelligence of terrorist elements gathering in the hideout.

The spokesman did not mention the names of the terrorists.

Last week, Egyptian authorities announced the killing of 64 terrorists during anti-terror campaigns across the country.

Terrorism started to grow in Egypt following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Terror attacks gradually expanded from North Sinai to other provinces, including the capital Cairo, and started to target the Coptic minority via church bombings and shootings.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 06:58:02|Editor: Yang Yi

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HELSINKI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said on Sunday that he endorses arranging an entrance test to asylum seekers about Finnish social values.

Sipila said in his monthly radio encounter with journalists that the knowledge about the unconditional rule of the human physical inviolability in Finland should be verified particularly.

He said he had also heard that the information that asylum seekers have been given so far about Finnish values may not have been sufficient in all cases.

The remarks followed recent major national attention to sex crimes allegedly committed by people with refugee background.

Sipila commented on the decision by the cabinet to review international agreements Finland has signed related to refugees. Sipila said the idea is to find out if there would be space for changing the current interpretations and to find out what other countries are doing.

Sipila also recalled the decision by him and his wife in 2015 to place their private house in Kempele at the disposal of refugees. The announcement by Sipila at the height of the influx of asylum seekers got major international attention at the time.

Sipila now revealed that the offer had targeted one particular family in danger. "They were Christians from a muslim country, and were further endangered on account of assisting western aid organizations in their country of origin."

Sipila said the family had later found asylum in another country. Finnish officials had concluded they would not have been safe even in Finland.

The Sipilas later sold the house in Kempele, south of Oulu in northern Finland.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 06:07:56|Editor: yan

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ABU DHABI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- An agreement on strategic partnerships have been signed by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV in refining and establishing a new trading joint venture.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Austria's Minister of Finance Hartwig Loger, said the state-run news agency WAM.

According to the agreement, Eni and OMV will acquire 20 percent and 15 percent shares in ADNOC Refining respectively, with ADNOC owning the remaining 65 percent.

The agreement values ADNOC Refining, which has a total refining capacity of 922,000 barrels per day and operates the fourth largest single site refinery in the world, at an enterprise value of 19.3 billion U.S. dollars.

The transaction reflects the scale, quality and growth potential of ADNOC Refining's assets, coupled with an advantageous location from which to supply markets in Africa, Asia and Europe.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 04:57:45|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- About 70,000 people took part in the 2nd "Rise for Climate" march on the rainy streets of Brussels on Sunday to pressure the Belgian government and the European Union to increase their efforts to fight climate change.

The event was described as Belgium's biggest climate march ever, exceeding previous demonstrations held this month.

The protest march began at 1.30pm from the Gare du Nord and the crowds arrived shortly after 3pm at the Place du Luxembourg, at the headquarters of the European Parliament, where a series of speeches and concerts were performed until 6pm.

"Humanity is facing the greatest challenge it has ever faced on Earth, and it is imperative that we should make our politicians accountable!" cried the organizers in front of crowds of protesters.

"The fight looks long and difficult, but we will not let go," they added.

The protesters waved banners and placards smeared with all sorts of slogans, such as "No More Company Cars", "Act Now", "No time to waste".

While 30,000 people arrived by train, many others joined the gathering by bicycle and on foot.

This march follows an earlier demonstration of more than 65,000 people held in Brussels on Dec. 2, a date that coincided with the first day of the COP24 that opened in Poland, a major international meeting to discuss the fight against climate change.

Since the beginning of this year, Belgian school children and students have also taken matters into their own hands. So far, they have organized a number of spontaneous marches and announced plans to keep holding demonstrations every Thursday, at the risk of skipping classes if necessary.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 03:37:32|Editor: yan

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SARAJEVO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Personal belongings of Syrian children living as refugees in Lebanon were exhibited here on Sunday at War Childhood Museum in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, telling upsetting, and often sad stories.

Some 100 children, below 18 years of age, who are survivors of Syrian war, are not only emotionally attached to these objects, but also very keen on sharing with other people their memorabilia and life-stories of war experience, Almedina Lozic, collection and content manager, told Xinhua.

"The exhibition entitled 'Peace Belongs to Everyone' includes 36 items and their corresponding stories of childhoods that have been affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria. These items were collected across three refugee camps in Lebanon," Lozic explained.

Each of the 36 items exhibited has a different story. One of the most interesting and upsetting ones was named "My Father's Perfume", which tells a story of Yahya's father, who died of a shell while in his car, heading to work.

"He died before he could finish his bottle of perfume. One day, suddenly, the bottle slipped out of the hands and broke. Crying, I ran quickly to try my best to capture the rest of the perfume and move it to another bottle," reads the description next to the perfume bottle that belonged to the father of the small boy.

Aleksandra Ivicevic was a visitor at the museum. The 31-year-old said she especially liked the story of the hairclip that Inas' grandmother gave her when they left their house on their journey to Lebanon.

"What was particularly upset for me is that children used to collect the empty bullet shells. It is really a painful experience, especially for children. What's sad is that they did not have normal childhood with secure playground and different, colorful toys, but they played where shells were falling," Ivicevic said, adding that it is not only traumatizing for children, but dangerous as well.

Another sad story, "Keys to Our House", is about keys with different ornaments, which are the only things left after Marwa's house was burned in Syria.

"The keys opened the doors to the most beautiful house I have ever seen. My room had pink and green walls. Unfortunately, the house was burned during the war, so we don't have a house anymore."

"I took these keys, some toys that didn't burn, and some ash - the remains of our home," Marwa says in her story.

Jennifer Harvey, a visitor from Canada, told Xinhua that all the items are interesting, but the ones where children are missing their friends are the most impressive one.

"They talk so much about their best friends they left behind, or they have lost touch with. They are not connected anymore to the life that they had, they lost the stability," Harvey said, adding that it was also interesting how children took something bad, and created something beautiful out of it, just to move forward, and this can help other people experience war.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 02:57:25|Editor: Liangyu

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Xi Jinping (C), general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, and his wife Peng Liyuan meet with Ri Su Yong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the party's International Department, who led an art troupe from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, and his wife Peng Liyuan on Sunday met with Ri Su Yong, a senior official from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and watched a performance by DPRK artists.

Ri, a member of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee and director of the party's International Department, is leading an art troupe to visit China.

This visit, as an important cultural exchange activity for implementing the consensus reached by the two sides, as well as a significant event in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of China-DPRK diplomatic relationship, will be a great success to cement friendship between the two peoples, Xi said.

Ri extended to Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan warm greetings and good wishes from Kim Jong Un, chairman of the WPK and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, and his wife Ri Sol Ju.

Xi asked Ri to convey the cordial greetings and good wishes to Kim and his wife.

Xi said he and Kim had reached important consensus on the development of China-DPRK party-to-party and state-to-state relations in the new era during their four meetings since 2018.

China stands ready to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the two sides, so as to better benefit the two peoples and contribute to world peace, stability, development and prosperity, Xi said.

Art and cultural exchange is an important, unique and traditional component in bilateral ties, Xi said, calling for joint efforts in implementing the consensus on strengthening art and cultural exchanges and cooperation, so as to consolidate the foundation of good will of the people, carry forward traditional friendship, and promote the development of respective socialist cultures.

Ri expressed gratitude to Xi and his wife for watching the performance.

This visit and art performance represented Kim's deep feelings to Xi and the DPRK people's profound friendship with the Chinese people, Ri said.

The DPRK side will earnestly implement the important consensus reached by Kim and Xi, strengthen friendly cooperation and contribute to writing a new chapter in DPRK-China friendship, Ri added.

The performance featured famous and popular songs in both the DPRK and China.

The visit of the DPRK art troupe is at the invitation of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. .Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-28 00:07:05|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Upper Egypt's Aswan Province on Sunday before starting his three-day trip to the country with visiting the ancient Abu Simbel temples, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

Macron and his wife Brigitte were accompanied by Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anany during the tour in the three-millennia-old temples near the border with Sudan.

Macron's visit seeks to discuss means of cooperation between France and Egypt, particularly in investment, Al-Ahram said, noting that the French president is accompanied by chiefs of some 50 corporations.

The visit comes amid the two countries' celebration of the Egyptian-French cultural year.

It's Macron's first visit to Egypt and second meeting with Sisi, after their talks in Paris in October 2017.

Over the past couple of months, Macron has been facing domestic protests, mostly peaceful, held by demonstrators dressed in "yellow vests" against the French government's austerity measures including fuel price hikes.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:41:58|Editor: mmm

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MOSCOW, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the allocation of 150 million rubles (2.27 million U.S. dollars) to the Russian Culture Ministry from the presidential reserve fund, the Kremlin said Saturday.

According to the decree, the fund will be used as an inter-budgetary transfer to partially offset the costs of creating a new exposition in the St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of the Culture Museum of Defense and Siege of Leningrad.

The culture ministry will be in charge of ensuring the spending of the allocated funds and therefore will have to submit a report on the expenditures to the presidential administration, the Kremlin said.

The president's representative in the Northwestern Federal District will supervise the execution of the order, it added.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:41:58|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group may face Israel's "lethal force."

Speaking at his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu criticized Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, saying the Shiite leader was "very embarrassed" by the army's success in exposing cross-border "attack tunnels" in its recent Northern Shield operation.

"He (Nasrallah) and his men invested tremendous efforts in the surprise weapons of the cross-border tunnels. Within six weeks, we completely deprived him of this weapon," the Israeli leader said.

Nasrallah is in "financial distress" after U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, Hezbollah's main ally, in a policy "we have advocated," Netanyahu noted.

"President Trump adopted this policy in a clear and sharp manner, severely harming the funding sources of Iran and its proxies, mainly the Hezbollah," he explained.

"In front of Hezbollah is the lethal force of the Israel Defense Forces," the Israeli prime minister stressed.

Netanyahu's remarks came a day after an address by Nasrallah to him during a televised speech on the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV.

"Be cautious. Don't continue what you are doing in Syria. Don't miscalculate and drag the region into a war or a major confrontation," Nasrallah said.

"Israel will regret if it wages a war against Lebanon. Israelis should know that they should not attack us because the cost of this attack will be much bigger than they expect," the Hezbollah leader added.

Netanyahu announced the discovery of tunnels to cover his bribery and other corruption-related cases investigated by the police, he noted.

Israel considers Iran and Hezbollah its greatest enemies.

Israel has recently increased its attacks on Iranian sites in Syria, while claiming responsibility for the deadly airstrikes in a shift from its long-standing policy of not commenting on its activity in the war-torn country.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:31:55|Editor: mmm

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Soldiers are seen during the Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration service at the Ghetto Heroes Monument in Warsaw, Poland, Jan. 27, 2019. This Sunday marks the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in which over 1.1 million people were exterminated during the Nazi occupation of Poland. In 2005, the UN General Assembly designated January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.(Xinhua/Jaap Arriens)

WARSAW, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Commemorative events marking the 74th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp liberation were held in Oswiecim, southern Poland on Sunday, with the participation of state representatives and former prisoners.

In his speech, Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said that the Polish state was guarding the truth, which cannot be relativized in any way.

"We must look straight into the eyes, so that this terrible, cruel death, which would affect all those imprisoned here and in other (Nazi) German extermination camps, that they would not die again", Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki added.

Former prisoners of Auschwitz have placed flowers at an execution wall. The survivors wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter "P," the symbol the Nazis used to mark them as Poles.

The key commemorations were held at the central sauna, where prisoners were stripped of clothes and had numbers tattooed on their arms. Some survivors shared their testimonies and experiences.

Leon Weintraub, one of the former prisoners of the camp, emphasized the fact that hostility towards other inevitably led to dangerous ideologies such as Nazism, racism or antisemitism.

Director of the Auschwitz Museum, Piotr Cywinski said that "hate words poison the imagination and numb the conscience ... hate words create hate." He also warned against dehumanizing others by using certain words.

The Germans established the Auschwitz camp in 1940, initially for the imprisonment of Poles. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was established two years later. At least 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, including Poles, Romanians, Soviet captives and others.

The camp was liberated on Jan. 27, 1945 and declared a national memorial site in 1947.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:21:52|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said on Sunday that there are negative organizations working on undermining regional security and destabilizing Sudan.

"There are negative organizations working on undermining security in the region," al-Bashir said at a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

The Sudanese people are aware of the attempts to undermine the security and stability of their country, he added.

Al-Bashir's remarks came amid ongoing anti-government protests in Sudan which started in mid-December last year and have left at least 29 people dead, according to a recent statement from a Sudanese committee in charge of investigating the protests.

Cairo is al-Bashir's second destination abroad after his recent visit to Doha since the demonstrations erupted in various areas in Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, over deteriorating economic conditions and price hikes of basic commodities.

For his part, Sisi said his talks with Bashir addressed matters including bilateral ties, economic relations and regional issues of mutual concerns.

They also discussed the recent developments of the negotiations regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that Ethiopia is building on their shared Nile River, the Egyptian president added.

While Ethiopia and Sudan eye massive benefits from the GERD project, Egypt is concerned that its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the Nile water might be affected.

"We agreed on the necessity of working on reaching an agreement as soon as possible about filling and operating the dam," Sisi told reporters.

Egypt voiced support for the Sudanese government during the Egyptian foreign minister's visit to Sudan's capital Khartoum last December.

"Egypt is always ready to support Sudan," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during the visit, stressing his country's confidence in Sudan's ability to overcome the crisis.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:21:51|Editor: yan

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By Eric J. Lyman

ROME, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Even as a long list of multi-lateral groups, investment banks, ratings agencies, and economists sour on the economic growth prospects for the Italian economy this year, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte remains optimistic.

Over the last few weeks, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Italy's National Statistics Institute, ratings agency Standard & Poor's, the European Commission, and the Bank of Italy have all reduced their predictions for economic growth in 2019. The most ambitious among them predicts the economy will grow just 0.6 percent compared to 2018.

Among individual economists, several even believe the economy could shrink this year, something that has not happened in Italy since 2013.

But Conte said he believes the government's prediction of 1.0-percent growth this year will prove too timid.

"Our reform strategy will bloom in the spring," Conte told attendees at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, this week. "I am convinced that by the end of this year we will see an incredible acceleration of growth. You all will see that by the end of the year we will easily surpass, by a significant margin, the 1.0-percent growth target."

Conte went further, predicting that within "one or two years" the government he leads will completely reverse course for one of the slowest-growing economies in Europe.

Conte painted his strategy in broad strokes, stating that a thriving digital economy would convince many Italians who left their country in search work would return and help stimulate growth. He said a resolution of the long stand-off with the European Union over migrant policies would bolster confidence in the government, and that issues like the basic citizen's income and higher pension benefits -- seen as likely to increase the government's budget deficit in the short term -- would soon begin to spark economic growth.

Conte also said his government would empower citizens, improving consumer confidence.

"Financial stability is very important," Conte said, a reference to international markets unnerved by the policies of the prime minister's eight-month-old government. "But social stability and working for the needs of people" is even more important.

"We are radical, but that is because we want to bring power back to the people, where the constitution says it belongs," Conte said.

Analysts told Xinhua Conte's comments were at least as much of a public relations gesture as a strategy for an economic turnaround.

"Conte's main priority is probably to buy time with the public," Massimo Baldini, an economist and professor of finance at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, said in an interview. "The government has been in power since last June, and little has changed since then, at least in economic terms. He is basically saying, 'Don't give up on us.'"

Luca Verzichelli, a political scientist with the University of Siena, agreed.

"The two parties that support the government ran on the idea that they were not like normal politicians, that they would not do things in the normal way," Verzichelli told Xinhua, referring to the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement and the nationalist League. "So far, that plan isn't working too well. He needs to try to maintain public support."

In the near-term maintaining public support is essential ahead of the May 26 elections for European Parliament, Verzichelli said. If the Five-Star Movement and the League both face setbacks there, the Conte government would likely unravel.

Giampaolo Galli, a former member of parliament and vice-director of the Osservatorio dei Conti Pubblici (the Observatory of Public Accounts), a research institute, said that even if Conte's remarks help buy time for the government it would eventually have to produce concrete results.

"A government can promise big changes for a certain amount of time," Galli said in an interview. "After that time passes it is necessary to actually produce changes that leave people better off."Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 23:01:45|Editor: yan

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MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in the Philippines has fished out over 45 tons of garbage as authorities start a massive cleanup drive to rehabilitate the heavily-polluted and foul-smelling Manila Bay famous for a scenic sunset view.

Data released by the MMDA on Sunday said a total of 45.59 tons of garbage were hauled up by 11 garbage trucks on the first day of the cleanup campaign.

About 5,000 people joined the so-called solidarity walk along the Manila Baywalk to dramatize the start of the project dubbed "Battle of Manila Bay."

The project will cost the government 42.95 billion pesos (817.6 million U.S. dollars) in the next three years, according to government estimates.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it plans to restore the heavily-polluted bay to its "pristine" state. The bay, which runs in the strip of Roxas Boulevard, is contaminated with human feces and trash coming from sewage.

Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu expressed optimism that the cleanup campaign will "bring Manila Bay back to life."

"With the commitment and determination of every Filipino to do his share in this rehabilitation effort, we have already won the battle for Manila Bay," Cimatu said in a statement.

The DENR has prepared for an all-out strategy to bring the coliform concentration in Manila Bay to a safe level so that millions of people who reside in the bay region and neighboring areas will enjoy its waters and marine resources without fear of getting sick, Cimatu said earlier.

A report from the DENR Environmental Management Bureau said the current level of coliform bacteria have reached over 330 million most probable number (MPN) for each 100 ml or way above the safe coliform level of only 100 MPN/100ml. It means the bay's coliform level is over 3 million times higher than the safe level.

The rehabilitation will require the relocation of thousands of illegal settlers, whose household waste contribute to 70 percent of pollution in the area, DENR spokesperson Jonas Leones said earlier.

The Pasig River and Laguna Lake, which both flow into Manila Bay, will also have to be cleaned up, according to him.

Early this month, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to close down establishments, including hotels, that empty wastes into the bay.

The Duterte government also plans to relocate approximately 233,000 informal settlers living along the coast of the bay.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 22:56:44|Editor: mmm

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is encouraging its chambers of commerce to play a bigger role in resolving economic disputes in the private sector in a bid to promote healthy development.

It is necessary to cultivate mediation organizations of chambers of commerce and let the judiciary lead and support their dispute resolution process, said a guideline made public by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) Sunday.

Efforts should be made to establish a dispute settlement system that facilitates effective linking between the mediation mechanism of chambers of commerce with litigation procedures, according to the document.

The federations of industry and commerce at all levels should standardize the operation of mediation organizations and make this kind of mediation an important channel to resolve disputes in the private economy.

The courts should guide related parties to choose the mediation organizations of the chambers of commerce as their prioritized means to resolve disputes, it said, adding that litigation procedures should be introduced in a timely manner if mediation fails to safeguard the litigant's right of action.

In 2013, the SPC and the ACFIC launched a pilot mediation program for chambers of commerce in 21 units in 16 provinces across the country.

China has 47,000 chambers of commerce and about 1,520 mediation organizations affiliated to more than 3,400 federations of industry and commerce at all levels.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 22:21:32|Editor: ZX

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URUMQI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Urumqi Customs in northwest China said they handled the export of 3.89 billion yuan (558 million U.S. dollars) worth of agricultural products in 2018, up 4 percent year on year.

The agri-product export mainly to central Asian countries was 441,200 tonnes last year, according to Urumqi Customs, which administers customs affairs of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Since 2013, express clearance services have been offered to agricultural products through four ports on the border with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Urumqi Customs administers three aviation ports in Urumqi, Kashgar and Yining and 15 land ports along the border.

Boosted by the Belt and Road Initiative, import and export in Xinjiang has been increasing steadily.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 22:16:31|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran urged on Sunday the EU to implement their obligations within the framework of the Iranian international nuclear deal, official IRNA news agency reported.

"We hope the Europeans implement their promises before it is late," Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying.

The Iranian nuclear chief referred to a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which the European countries are devising for trade with Iran despite Washington's threats against engagement with Tehran.

"If the Europeans fail to enact pertaining to their promises, it is likely that the forthcoming developments would please neither Iran nor Europeans and other signatories to the nuclear deal," Salehi warned.

Following the U.S. exit from the deal last year, Iran has remained committed to its obligations under the deal, he said.

But the Europeans have been slow in implementing their months-long promises pertaining to the SPV, the Iranian official added.

After the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in May 2018, the remaining parties, including the EU, have been trying to keep the deal afloat.

U.S. President Donald Trump re-imposed oil and banking sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the 2015 international nuclear deal.

A clearing house, known as a SPV, is due to be set up by the EU within days, according to the Western media.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 22:05:37|Editor: ZX

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Aerial photo taken on Jan. 25, 2019 shows the Kuihua Village of Ganluo County, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Feng Wancai, 91, moved to an isolated area in the remote Daliang Mountain in Sichuan after his wife Yang Wenying was diagnosed with leprosy in 1958, only one year after they got married. The place was recognized as a "leprosy village", as leprosy patients gathered here to receive treatment. Years later, after most of the leprosy patients had been cured, the isolated land was renamed Kuihua Village, and geared up to battle poverty with targeted poverty alleviation measures unveiled. The couple have been living in the village for over 60 years without any other member of their big family's later generations contracted to the disease. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that can cause nerve damage, leading to muscle weakness and atrophying, and permanent disability. The disease is preventable, non-inheritable and with proper treatment, curable. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)Musician of Gansu Dance Troupe are performing during Chinese New Year's show at the Great Guild Hall in Riga, Latvia on Saturday night, on Jan. 26, 2019. The orchestra of the Gansu Dance Troupe introduced to the Latvian audience Chinese musical traditions by performing Chinese melodies, including Flying Apsaras and the Silk Road, a masterpiece reflecting the profound influences of Chinese dance traditions as well as the history of the region. (Xinhua/Janis Laizans)

RIGA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Artists of Gansu Dance Troupe visited the Latvian capital this weekend to present Chinse New Year's show to audience at the Great Guild Hall in Riga Old Town on Saturday night.

Opening the concert Happy Chinese New Year, Sun Yinglai, charge d'affaires a.i. of the Chinese embassy in Latvia, invited everybody to join in celebrating the Spring Festival and learn about its traditions and symbolism.

Musician of Gansu Dance Troupe are performing during Chinese New Year's show at the Great Guild Hall in Riga on Saturday night, on Jan. 26, 2019. The orchestra of the Gansu Dance Troupe introduced to the Latvian audience Chinese musical traditions by performing Chinese melodies, including Flying Apsaras and the Silk Road, a masterpiece reflecting the profound influences of Chinese dance traditions as well as the history of the region. (Xinhua/Janis Laizans)

Sun stressed the significance of the year 2018 for both China and Latvia, as China marked the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up and Latvia celebrated the centenary of his statehood last year. The diplomat praised the Chinese-Latvian relations, noting that the bilateral ties are at their "highest level ever".

The orchestra of the Gansu Dance Troupe, which has toured more than 30 countries and many regions for culture exchange programs, introduced to the Latvian audience Chinese musical traditions by performing Chinese melodies, including Flying Apsaras and the Silk Road, a masterpiece reflecting profound influences of Chinese dance traditions as well as the history of the region.

The program included not only Chinese music, but also Latvian folksongs like Bedu Manu Lielu Bedu and The River Daugava. The rendering of The River Daugava by the Chinese artists was met by a standing ovation.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 21:31:22|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and 10 others injured Sunday after a pick-up van skidded off a mountainous road in northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, police said.

The accident took place in Lohaghat area of Champawat district, about 421 km southeast of Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand.

According to officials the vehicle was carrying a body and mourners to cremation ground.

Following the accident locals and police rushed to the spot to carry out rescue work.

"The bodies have been retrieved from the gorge and injured taken to the nearest hospital for treatment," a police official posted at Lohaghat police station told Xinhua.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat expressed grief over the accident and announced financial assistance of 1,410 U.S. dollars for each family that lost member in the accident.

Deadly road accidents are common in India often caused by overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.

An average of over 400 deaths take place every day in India due to road accidents, officials said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 21:11:20|Editor: Li Xia

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BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Swimming Association (CSA) said Sunday Sun Yang had no wrongdoings and did not violate anti-doping rules when he took an out-of-competition urine test last September.

CSA cited a final decision from the FINA Doping Panel, saying "As a result, the sample collection session initiated by IDDM on September 4, 2018, is invalid and void," according to a statement released on Sunday.

Sun had rejected an out-of-competition doping test at his home in Zhejiang province on September 4, 2018, as doping testers from IDDM, the organisation then authorized by FINA to conduct such tests, had failed to show adequate proof of identification.

A dispute between Sun and the doping control team was later referred to world swimming governing body FINA, who ruled in favor of Sun after a 13-hour hearing on January 3.

In the report entitled "Olympic champion Sun Yang abuses drug testers", the Sunday Times reported that Sun "faces a lifetime ban after a clash with doping testers ended in him and his security guard using a hammer to smash a sealed vial containing the swimmer's blood."

It added that Sun "objected to the identification card of the chaperone, there to observe him passing urine, claiming it was insufficient proof he was an official member of the testing team."

The CSA quoted FINA's decision as saying, "Mr. Sun Yang did not commit an anti-doping rule violation under FINA DC 2.3 or FINA DC 2.5" in the statement.

"After FINA called up an investigation of the issue, CSA ordered Sun Yang to fully co-operate with FINA and truely report every details of the affair. According to the final decision of the FINA Doping Panel, FINA confirms the athlete did not commit an anti-doping rule violation," CSA announced in the statement.

Sun Yang, the world record holder of men's 1,500m freestyle and three-time Olympic champion, is considering filing a lawsuit against The Sunday Times, Sun's lawyer Zhang Qihuai said on Sunday.

Zhang said the newspaper reported the incident with "a malign intention" which "severely damaged Sun Yang's reputation and violated his privacy."

"We reserve the right to file a lawsuit against the relevant international media which reported the incident," according to a statement reached to Xinhua.

"The three IDDM staff members failed to produce IDDM authorization letters and were also unable to provide either a DCO certificate or a nursing license," Zhang said in the statement. "And they fabricated an untruthful report claiming Sun Yang broke anti-doping rules and sent it to FINA."

Zhang revealed in a later interview that the doping control team was composed of the chief DCO, her untrained schoolmate and a friend.

"As a matter of fact, the other two people lacked doping control training, DCO certificates and relevant authorization papers," Zhang explained.

According to Zhang, Sun immediately reported the problem to Zhejiang swimming authorities who "consulted with the national swimming team leader and decided to keep the DCOs from taking away the blood sample, since both their identifications and the doping test process were questionable."

Following the incident, Sun and Zhang attended a FINA hearing in November 2018 in Lausanne.

"We provided a great deal of evidence, including 58 video captures and surveillance footage which objectively reproduced the scene," Zhang said. "So FINA concluded that Sun did not commit any wrongdoing."

"Sun is entitled to reject any invalid doping test and safeguard the reputation and integrity of Chinese athletes," Zhang added in the interview.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 21:01:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JERUSALEM, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov on Sunday urged Israel to "put an end to settler violence," a day after settlers killed a Palestinian in the West Bank.

Mladenov condemned the violence in the village of al-Mughayer in the Ramallah district as "shocking" and "unacceptable."

"Israel must put an end to settler violence and bring those responsible to justice," he wrote on his Twitter account.

There was no official Israeli response to the envoy's call but police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Saturday that an investigation into the incident was launched and a military spokesperson said that the army will also review it.

According to the military, the killing came after "a physical confrontation" broke out between settlers and Palestinian villagers during which a settler was lightly injured.

"Initial details suggest that shortly thereafter, a conflict erupted between Israeli civilians and Palestinians in the area, in which live rounds were fired by the civilians," the army said in a statement.

"One Palestinian died and several others are injured," the statement added.

The military said that it dispersed the crowd with riot dispersal means.

The Palestinians said that the settlers had entered the village and the residents attempted to fend them off.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as Hamdi al-Nasan, 38, and said nine others were injured by the gunfire of the armed settlers.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing.

"The Israeli government is continuing its policy of escalation," the official Wafa news agency quoted Abbas as saying.

"This will lead to serious consequences, further tension and the creation of a dangerous and uncontrollable atmosphere," he added.

Palestinians frequently report violence by settlers, including uprooting and damaging olive trees, sabotaging property, and physical violence.In this photo provided on Jan. 25, 2019, by the Iranian Army, soldiers take position in an infantry drill in the central Isfahan province, Iran. (Iranian Army via AP)

TEHRAN, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran may adopt offensive military approaches to protect its interests, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Baqeri, said on Sunday.

While continuing to adhere to its broad doctrine of defense, the Iranian military forces would adopt offensive tactics when necessary, Baqeri was quoted as saying by Press TV.

"Among the country's broad strategies, there is a defensive strategy. We defend the independence and territorial integrity and national interests of the country," Baqeri said.

"However, this does not mean that we would be acting exclusively defensively and passively in our operational level and tactical approaches," he added.

Iran does not have any intention of seizing foreign territory or harming foreign interests, but "to protect our national achievements and interests, we may adopt an offensive approach," he stressed.

Besides, Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General, Kiomars Heidari, said his forces have turned into a "forward-moving and offensive" force.

"To protect Iran, the armed forces no longer need asymmetric approaches, and we are at a stage where we can defend our homeland ... by using good offensive approaches," the Iranian commander added.

On Saturday, Iranian Army Ground Force concluded a two-day large-scale military drills in the central country seeking to practice offensive tactics.South Africa: SA concerned at developments in Venezuela

South Africa has expressed concern at attempts to unconstitutional changes to the government of Venezuela.

I wish to stress that South Africa is firmly against any attempts at undue or unconstitutional change of government in Venezuela. The Security Council should never be an instrument that validates unconstitutional changes of any government, says Ambassador Jerry Mtjila.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Venezuela on Saturday, Matjila, who is the permanent representative of South Africa to the UN, said the country is deeply concerned by developments in the South American country.

We are therefore deeply concerned by what is a clear attempt, in Venezuela, to circumvent the countrys constitutional legal mechanisms which governs its elections, said the Ambassador.

Media reports emerged at the weekend stating that several European powers have warned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that he must call elections within eight days or they will officially recognise the opposition's claim of leadership.

Presidential elections took place in Venezuela in May last year subsequent to which South African President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated President Maduro following his inauguration for a second term as President.

President Maduro was sworn in for a second term earlier this month.

The Ambassador said any grievances or disputes should be resolved in a peaceful manner through the proper mechanisms and processes provided for in the constitution of Venezuela and its electoral laws, without external influence.

This is standard and indeed best practice, in all democracies that subscribe to the rule of law. South Africa echoes the statement made by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres in Davos on 24 January 2019, where he urged a de-escalation of tensions to prevent violence, said Matjila.

In addition, South Africa also supports the Secretary-Generals call for the urgent need for all relevant actors to commit to inclusive and credible political dialogue to address the protracted crisis in the country.

South Africa has called on all parties to participate in a national dialogue process to ensure unity and reconciliation, and in furtherance of a political solution to the situation.

We would like to reiterate that any further action or grievance by either party should be resolved through the due legal processes of the country, said Ambassador Matjila, adding that South Africa is concerned about the humanitarian situation in that country.

It called on the international community, as well as the relevant UN bodies to work with the Venezuela government and its neighbours to assist those in need.

Matjila called on the UNSC to promote avenues that create environments conducive to dialogue and cooperation that would ease the challenges and hardships faced by the people of Venezuela. - SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 20:26:09|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Military personnel look at debris from the explosion scene inside a church on the island of Jolo in Sulu Province, the Philippines, Jan. 27, 2019. Twenty people, including five army soldiers, were killed and 111 others wounded on Sunday as two blasts went off inside and near the entrance of a Roman Catholic church on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said. (Xinhua/Stringer)

MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Twenty people were killed and 111 others wounded on Sunday as two blasts went off inside and near the entrance of a Roman Catholic church on the island of Jolo in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said.

"Hopefully the number of those killed in the incident will stop at 20," Police Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, Philippine National Police (PNP) director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told Xinhua over phone.

Mijares said earlier that 27 were killed in the incident, which took place at around 8:28 a.m. (0028 GMT) on Sunday.

"As of this time, data (are) being reconciled and victims are being identified. There were double entries in the tally of the incident command post this morning regarding data of killed victims," Mijares said in a report.

Many of the injured were taken to local hospitals in Jolo. At least seven of the critically wounded were helicoptered to Zamboanga City, he said.

Among the 20 dead, 14 were civilians, five were members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and one was member of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), according to Mijares.

Among the 111 wounded, 90 were civilians, 17 were AFP members, two were PCG members and two were policemen.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said the bombs are believed to be an improvised explosive device (IED). He said one IED went off inside the church while the other went off outside, near the entrance of the church. "It went off one minute apart," he said.

Col. Gerry Besana, spokesman of the military's Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, said one IED exploded inside the church while a mass was underway. A couple of minutes later, another IED exploded in front of the church killing the soldiers who swiftly responded to the first blast, he said.

Besana said the IED was placed inside the utility box of a motorcycle parked outside the church.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The attack took place seven days after residents of predominantly-Muslim provinces ratified in a plebiscite the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

The law was expected to pave the way for the creation of a wider autonomous region for Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao called Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and usher in peace in the conflict-plagued southern region.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said authorities "will pursue to the ends of the earth the ruthless perpetrators behind this dastardly crime until every killer is brought to justice and put behind bars."

"The Armed Forces of the Philippines will rise to the challenge and crush the godless criminals," Panelo said.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez urged people in Mindanao "not to cower and be intimidated by such a selfish and cowardly deed."

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had directed troops to heighten alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans.

Lorenzana urged the public to be more vigilant and to be cooperative with the authorities in reporting any security related concerns.

"We also urge everyone to remain calm and avoid spreading panic in our respective communities to deny terrorism any victory," Lorenzana said.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said "security forces have tightened up the systems to secure Sulu and the rest of BARMM."

Jolo is the base for Abu Sayyaf militant group, which has recently become better known for criminal brutality, kidnaping-for-ransom activities, bombings, and beheadings in western Mindanao, particularly in their lair in the island provinces of Basilan and Sulu. The group is smallest but also the most radical of Islamist groups in the Philippines.

Last month the AFP created an Army infantry division that will mainly hunt down the elusive Abu Sayyaf terrorists in Sulu province.

The attack took place while Mindanao is under martial rule.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 19:05:54|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DHAKA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Himsagar, one of the best mango varieties found in Bangladesh in terms of sweetness and flavor, has been registered as the country's Geographical Indication (GI) product as per guidelines of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Bangladeshi Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun on Sunday handed over the GI certificate to the country's Horticulture Research Center.

In February 2017, Bangladesh applied for GI certification for the mango variety.

According to the WIPO, GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.

Himsagar is the third Bangladeshi product that got the GI tag after Hilsa fish and women wear "Jamdani" saree.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 19:00:54|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on Jan. 27, 2019 shows a burning market in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. A busy market caught fire in Kabul on Sunday and goods worth millions of U.S. dollars have turned to ashes, Najib Danish the spokesman for Interior Ministry said. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)

KABUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A busy market caught fire in Kabul of Afghanistan on Sunday and goods worth millions of U.S. dollars have turned to ashes, Najib Danish the spokesman for Interior Ministry said.

More than 50 shops have been damaged or utterly burned to ashes, the official said, adding that police have cordoned off the area to check theft and stealing from the damaged shops in the five-story market located in Police District 1.

The official also added that the firefighters are battling to extinguish the fire, started at 07:00 a.m. local time.

However, Danish could not give the reason for the fire, saying investigation is underway.

Meantime, eyewitnesses say that hundreds of shops had been burned to ashes or badly damaged in the busy market.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 17:55:39|Editor: Li Xia

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PARIS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of "yellow vest" protesters took to the streets in France on Saturday for the 11th weekend in a row.

Protesters in the high-visibility jackets gathered on and around the Champs Elysees, some of whom were waving banners denouncing the government.

Similar situations were reported in France's main cities where about 69,000 people took part in the fresh round of protests, the Interior Ministry estimated, down from last week's 84,000.

In Paris, 4,000 protesters had been counted, compared to the 7,000 on Jan. 19, signaling that the broader social movement appeared to be waning days after Macron launched a series of talks on Jan. 15 to address the protesters' demands.

In Evreux, northern France, demonstrators set vehicles on fire.

On the Bastille square in Paris, a group of hooded men in black used construction materials to form barricades and set them ablaze. Riot police fired water cannons and tear gas after being pelted with stones, with 52 people arrested.

"I condemn with the greatest firmness the violence and degradation made this Saturday, in Paris and the provinces, by thugs camouflaged in yellow vests," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted.

"The mobilization of the police, again this Saturday, was necessary to contain the excesses and to challenge the troublemakers," he added.

About 80,000 police were mobilized nationwide against protest violence, including 5,000 in Paris.

Officers equipped with armored vehicles secured the Arc de Triomphe in Paris after it had been vandalized on Dec. 1 as Paris saw its worst trouble in decades.

As darkness fell, hundreds of protesters converged to the Republic Square in Paris to take part in an evening gathering, dubbed "yellow night," proposed by Eric Drouet, one of the movement's representatives.

Scuffles flared once again when rioters torched many motorbikes and overturned several others. Officers fired tear gas to push back demonstrators and clear the square.

The "yellow vest" movement was triggered in November last year amid public discontent with a rise in fuel tax that French President Emmanuel Macron said is necessary to combat climate change.

The spontaneous movement remains amorphous with no leader and agenda. Some "yellow vests" have proposed a list of candidates to run in the election for the European Parliament next May, a move other supporters call a betrayal.

The division within the movement coincides with a boost in Macron's approval ratings. A BVA poll, carried out on Jan. 23-24 and released on Friday, found 31 percent of 1,023 interviewees were satisfied with Macron, up 4 percent from November.

After weeks of violent protests that plunged Paris into chaos, Macron on Dec. 10, 2018 announced "an economic and social emergency plan," including boosting the minimum wage and easing tax increases on pensioners.

To further defuse the anger, he launched a series of public debates that he promised would lead to concrete measures.

"I think we will come out of this debate only with very strong, powerful decisions, because we need them," Macron said during a recent exchange with a group of mayors and "yellow vests" in the southeastern commune of Bourg-de-Peage. "There must be very deep decisions about the state, about our institutions, about our collective organization."

"We must implement the decisions on the ground. We must get out of aberrant structures in which we have stayed ..." Macron said. "I'm ready to go that far."Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 17:15:32|Editor: Li Xia

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ISTANBUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A military operation against jihadists in the Syrian province of Idlib is all the more likely following Wednesday's meeting between Turkish and Russian presidents, analysts told Xinhua.

A joint Turkish and Russian offensive or a Syrian army operation with Russian backing should be expected probably following an upcoming trilateral summit, said Celalettin Yavuz, a security and policy analyst.

The Turkish, Russian and Iranian leaders will meet again next month in Russia in efforts to seek a political settlement of the Syrian conflict under the so-called Astana process.

Moscow is disturbed that the Sochi deal with Ankara has failed to produce the desired result in Idlib, said Yavuz who teaches at Istanbul Ayvansaray University.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaida-linked jihadist group, has now gained control of no less than two thirds of the Idlib province after clashes with Turkey-backed rebel groups earlier this month.

The HTS' increased control over Idlib meant the failure of the Sochi deal inked by Ankara and Moscow in September last year.

Under the deal, Turkey should have persuaded the radical Islamist groups by mid-October to withdraw into the inner parts of Idlib to create a 10-15-km-wide demilitarized zone around the province.

"Russia and Turkey may jointly carry out a limited operation to force a demilitarize zone on the jihadists," said Hasan Koni, a foreign policy analyst with Istanbul Kultur University.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over Syria, with the focus on Idlib.

Putin said more action by both Ankara and Moscow was needed to "liquidate the actions of the terrorist groups." He also underlined that both countries think terrorists must be jointly fought wherever they are, including in Idlib.

On his way back to Turkey, Erdogan told reporters that the radical rebels in Idlib is a source of discomfort for Moscow and that discomfort was communicated to Ankara. "We must overcome these annoyances as soon as possible," he added.

Moscow, a staunch supporter of Damascus, tacitly agreed to see the rebel groups patronized by Ankara as "moderate rebels" rather than as terrorists.

"It's vitally important for Russia that the rebels in Idlib pose no threat to its military bases in Syria," Koni said.

He feels, however, that Ankara may not get much involved in any military operation against the jihadists until the end of March when Turkey will have local elections.

Radical groups may well conduct terror attacks in Turkey if Ankara would get actively involved in the fighting, Koni said, maintaining that Putin would understand Ankara's position.

"Risks are getting bigger for Turkey," he cautioned.

Based on the Astana deal, the Turkish army has established 12 observation posts around Idlib, and the military posts were reinforced with armored vehicles and troops amid rising tension at the end of last year.

The Turkish army has also sent reinforcements along the Idlib border in recent weeks.

Ankara's involvement in the operation would be inevitable in case the HTS should attack Turkish observation posts, argued Yavuz.

"But Damascus would not like it should the Turkish military take control of Idlib," he added.

The Turkish military and its allied Syrian rebels have already taken control of a significant portion of the Syrian territory along its border in past two cross-border operations against the Islamic State and the Kurdish militia.

The Syrian government has denounced the Turkish military presence on its soil as occupation and violation of the international law.

Other than the HTS, most of the Islamist groups in Idlib are close to Turkey, which supported rebel groups to topple the Syrian government until it began to cooperate with Moscow in 2016.

Koni feels that Russia, backed by the Syrian army, may also conduct the operation without Ankara's involvement, though he expects the offensive to be limited due to Turkey's sensitivities.

The Sochi deal was signed as a result of Ankara's efforts to dissuade Moscow from launching an offensive against the jihadists in Idlib at the time.

Moscow and Damascus have long been vexed by occasional rebel attacks on their military positions and bases, which the Sochi deal also aims to prevent.

In case Russia and Syria would launch a major attack to kick the jihadists out of Idlib, they would attempt to flee to Turkey, a scenario Ankara cannot tolerate, remarked Koni.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 17:00:27|Editor: Li Xia

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and over two dozen others hospitalized after consuming food offering at a Hindu temple in southern Indian state of Karnataka, officials said on Sunday.

The devotees ate the offering (a sweet dish) at Ganga Bhavani Temple in Chinthamani of Chikkaballapur district, about 73 km north of Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka.

"On Friday evening, people ate an offering being distributed at the temple. However, late in the night some people complained of uneasiness and vomiting, following which locals and neighbours immediately shifted them to hospitals," a local government official at deputy commissioner's office said.

On Saturday morning, a 28-year-old woman died in hospital. Later on during the night another 59-year-old woman succumbed too, the official said.

Around two dozen people who had consumed the offering were hospitalized.

"Some of them were discharged immediately, while some are still inside hospital undergoing treatment," the official added.

Reports said that police are questioning two women, one who prepared the offering, and her domestic help who had distributed it among devotees at the temple.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:40:24|Editor: ZX

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KIGALI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in Rwanda held a food festival here on Saturday evening to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda, the event provided traditional Chinese dishes including dumplings and noodles, with several Chinese companies and restaurants in Rwanda sponsoring the event.

The foods at the festival have symbolic meanings that include luck, abundance, fortune and longevity, all of which express good wishes for the New Year, said Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda Rao Hongwei at the event.

China's sincerity and goodwill for strengthening common development with African countries remain unchanged, said Rao, adding that China's development will create more opportunities for Rwanda and Africa, while their growth is also good for China.

Rwanda values the existing "excellent" bilateral relations with China, and the two countries have enjoyed a long-standing relationship, said Soraya Hakuziyaremye, Rwanda's minister of trade and industry.

Trade between Rwanda and China has remained steady. Rwanda will continue to work towards diversifying its economy, sending more of its exports to China and increasing Chinese investments in the country, she added.

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday in China, and falls on Feb. 5 this year.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:35:23|Editor: ZX

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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A group of U.S. youth leaders on Saturday encouraged younger generations of overseas Chinese to display their individuality and be bold in realizing their self-value.

Speaking at the BRI Silicon Valley Youth Forum sponsored by the Bridge Road International (BRI) Foundation, Andrew Yang, founder of national enterpreneurship fellowship Venture for America, Sanjeev Saxena, CEO of POC Medical System, an Indo-U.S. company dedicated to finding a tool to fight cancer, and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs shared with a host of young students their respective experience in starting businesses or serving the American public.

Young said he was offered a "fancy job" as a corporate attorney after he completed law school. However, he wanted to be an entrepreneur and started a business at the age of 25. In April last year, he announced his intention to run in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Saxena encouraged young Chinese Americans to feel free to do what they think is meaningful to society.

"When you want to do something, you just go and look it up to see what you're doing and what can make a difference in this world and what you are excited about," he said.

"Don't worry about ... what the world is going to say ... when you have your own answer, you'll find your purpose right there and you'll be able to do a phenomenal job from that time on," he added.

A 14-year-old girl from American High School in Fremont in Northern California, who preferred to be identified as Maxine, said she felt very much inspired by the stories of the guest speakers.

She said she had thought that entrepreneurship was very "daunting," but realized now that to be an entrepreneur is just about mindset.

"When you have the mindset and know that you have to step up and have courage, you can make all this happen," said the freshman of the Fremont high school.

Lucas Liang, a 13-year-old student of Hopkins Junior School in Fremont, said he got much inspiration from the panel speakers about his future career.

"From the guest speakers, we learned a lot about entrepreneurship," he said.

He said he was very curious about how one of the speakers demonstrated entrepreneurship at such a young age of 14 or 15.

The forum was held to educate younger generations of Chinese Americans to be more aware of their sense of responsibility as a member of the Chinese community, said BRI Co-Chair Betty Yuan.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:30:20|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan security forces stormed a Taliban bastion in northern Kunduz province on Sunday, triggering heavy fighting, a security official said.

The official on the condition of anonymity said that the government forces attacked the bastion in Jangle Bashi area of Khan Abad district at 2:00 a.m. local time Sunday and so far four insurgents have been killed and five others arrested.

Confirming the report, Hayatullah Amiri, governor of Khan Abad district, told Xinhua that the strike had taken the Taliban fighters by surprise and the militants have suffered huge losses.

Taliban militants who are active in parts of the restive Kunduz province are yet to make comment on the offensive.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:30:17|Editor: ZX

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People select Spring Festival decorations at a market in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 26, 2019. The Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 5 this year, serves as an important occasion for family reunions and marks the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It is a Chinese tradition to buy goods ranging from food to home appliances to celebrate the festival. Suppliers and vendors around the country have prepared plenty of products to meet shopping demands during the holiday spending spree. (Xinhua/Wang Haibin)Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:10:16|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of four people were killed and eight others injured Sunday in two roadside bomb attacks in Iraq's central province of Salahuldin, a provincial police source said.

The first attack took place in the morning when a roadside bomb went off near a four-wheel drive vehicle, carrying passengers, on a main road near the town of al-Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving two policemen killed and six people wounded, including three policemen, Col. Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua.

About 30 minutes later, a second roadside bomb struck another vehicle when a police force arrived near the site of the first explosion, killing a policeman and a civilian and injuring two more policemen, al-Bazi said.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area and conducted a search operation looking for the attackers, he added.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, has been responsible for such attacks targeting security forces and areas where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques.

The security situation in Iraq has been dramatically improved after security forces fully defeated the extremist IS militants across the country late in 2017.

However, IS remnants have since regrouped in deserts and rugged areas, carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians despite the military operations from time to time to hunt them down.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:05:15|Editor: Li Xia

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By Sportswriter Zhou Xin, Ma Xiangfei, Li Jia

BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang is considering to file a lawsuit against British newspaper the Sunday Times over a report claiming the swimmer violated anti-doping rules.

In a statement sent to Xinhua by Sun's lawyer Zhang Qihuai on Sunday, Zhang said the newspaper reported the incident with "a malign intention" which "severely damaged Sun Yang's reputation and violated his privacy."

"We reserve the right to file a lawsuit against the relevant international media which reports the incident," the statement said.

Sun rejected an out-of-competition doping test at his home in Zhejiang on Sept. 4, 2018 as doping testers from IDTM, the organisation to conduct out-of-competition doping tests, failed to show adequate identification proofs, Zhang said.

Sun and the doping control team had a dispute which later was referred to world swimming governing body FINA who ruled in favor of Sun after a 13-hour hearing on Jan. 3, Zhang said.

In the report titled "Olympic champion Sun Yang abuses drug testers", the newspaper reported Sun "faces a lifetime ban after a clash with anti-doping testers ended in him and his security guard using a hammer to smash a sealed vial containing the swimmer's blood."

It said Sun "objected to the identification card of the chaperone, there to observe him passing urine, claiming it was insufficient proof he was an official member of the testing team."

Zhang denounced the report as "untruthful".

"FINA has ruled on Jan. 3, 2019 that Sun Yang did not violate the World Anti-Doping Code," Zhang said.

As for the dispute with the Doping Control Officers (DCO), Zhang said it was because the doping testers breached rules during the process.

"The three IDTM staff members failed to produce IDTM authorization letters and also could not provide either the DCO certificate or a nurse license," Zhang said.

"And they fabricated an untruthful report claiming Sun Yang broke anti-doping rules and sent it to FINA," Zhang said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 16:05:15|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Foreign Ministry Sunday condemned the opening fire of the Turkish forces on civilians during a protest by Kurdish people at a Turkish military base in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

"The Foreign Ministry condemns the Turkish forces opening fire on our citizens in the Shiladze area in Duhok province," which led to the death of a one person and the wounding of several others, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it "will summon the Turkish ambassador to Baghdad to hand him over a protest note about the incident and demand that it not be repeated."

The ministry statement came following a protest by dozens of angry Kurdish people who broke into a Turkish military base in Shiladze area in Iraq's northern province of Duhok, which reportedly killed three people and injured nine others.

Some protestors set fire to tents and military vehicles and clashed with the Turkish soldiers who fired bullets into the air to disperse the crowd, according to a Kurdish security source who spoke to Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Afterwards, the Turkish troops withdrew from the base to avoid casualties, leaving the Peshmerga troops to take control of the site to evacuate the protestors from the Turkish base peacefully, the source added.

The angry demonstrators were protesting the repeated airstrikes and artillery shelling on the Kurdish villages near the Iraqi-Turkish border.

Later on Saturday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) blamed "saboteurs" for being behind the protests at a Turkish military base in Kurdistan region.

"There are saboteurs behind these events, therefore, the concerned authorities are conducting a thorough investigation and those saboteurs behind the chaos will be punished," KRG said in a statement.

The demonstrators called on the federal and regional Kurdistan governments to intervene to stop the bombing, said the official website of PUK, a major Kurdish party in which the Iraqi President Barham Salih is a leading figure.

Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes and artillery bombardment against the positions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq, especially the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the PKK.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 15:45:11|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Navy on Saturday commissioned its newest Zumwalt-class destroyer U.S.S. Michael Monsoor, the second ship of a costly yet ill-designed project.

"USS Michael Monsoor is one of the most capable warfighting assets our nation has to offer," Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said in a statement prior to the commissioning ceremony, which took place in San Diego, California, the ship's home port.

The ship, hull numbered DDG 1001, is named after Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in Ramadi, Iraq on Sept. 29, 2006.

The DDG 1001 is about 185 meters in length and has a displacement of about 16,000 tons. It will be manned by about 148 sailors.

The Zumwalt-class destroyers were originally designed to replace the current Arleigh Burke-class destroyers as the U.S. Navy's most advanced battleship. Equipped with the most advanced weapons to date, the model boasted superiority in stealth and sea-to-land firing power.

However, soaring costs, fast development of missiles, and changes in the global security environment forced the U.S. Congress to cancel 29 of the 32 planned Zumwalt-class ships. Considering researching costs, the average cost per ship ran up to 7.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The first ship of the class, the U.S.S. Zumwalt, was commissioned in 2016. The third and last ship of the class, U.S.S. Lyndon B. Johnson, is under construction and is expected to be christened this spring.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 14:59:59|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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A soldier guards the explosion scene inside a church in Sulu Province, the Philippines, Jan. 27, 2019. The death toll climbed to 27 in the twin explosions at a church in the Sulu province of the southern Philippines, the police said. (Xinhua)

MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has climbed to 27 in the twin explosions at a church in the conflict-plagued Sulu province of the southern Philippines on Sunday, the police said.

Police Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, Philippine National Police (PNP) director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), told local media that so far his office has recorded 27 d ead, including seven army soldiers, and 77 injured in the blasts that hit the Jolo Cathedral at 8:15 a.m. local time on Sunday.

But Philippine military spokesman Edgard Arevalo said the military has so far tallied 12 dead and 42 wounded. Five of the dead were army soldiers, he added.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said the bombs are believed to be improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He said one IED went off inside the church while another outside near the entrance of the church. "It went off one minute apart, " he said.

Victims were rushed to the nearest hospitals in Sulu while those injured will be airlifted to Zamboanga City for further medical attention, an official military report said.

The victims are mostly Roman Catholic churchgoers attending the Sunday mass, local authorities said.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana strongly condemned the bombing in a statement released on Sunday.

He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines has immediately secured the explosion area and transported the casualties to the nearest medical facilities, including the air evacuation of some victims to Zamboanga City for further medication and evaluation.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," Lorenzana said.

"As we convey our sincerest condolences to the families and friends of the victims and offer our sympathy to the peace-loving people of Sulu who are severely affected by this dastardly act, we assure our people that we will use the full force of the law to bring to justice the perpetrators behind this incident," he added.

Lorenzana urged the public to be more vigilant and cooperative with the authorities in reporting any security-related concerns."

"We also urge everyone to remain calm and avoid spreading panic in our respective communities to deny terrorism any victory," Lorenzana said.

The Philippine Presidential spokesperson said on Sunday afternoon that "authorities are now investigating these brazen attacks, which includes identifying the group behind the blast."

No group claimed responsibility for the terror attack.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 15:06:14|Editor: Liu

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Aerial photo shows people attending a long-table banquet at Zhongcun Village of Yuyao, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 26, 2019. Tourists took part in folk activities together with local villagers in celebration of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 5 this year. (Xinhua/Zhang Hui)Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 14:34:56|Editor: zh

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CHONGQING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality set its economic growth for 2019 at a moderate rate of 6 percent, as it makes plans to foster high-quality growth.

Chongqing's GDP growth slowed to 6 percent in 2018 as traditional pillar industries like auto-making, electronics, engineering, pharmaceutical and energy sectors lost steam. Its GDP was 2.04 trillion yuan (299 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, according to the municipal statistics bureau.

Chongqing faced increasing downward pressure in economic growth last year, and its growth was slower than expected, mayor Tang Liangzhi said in the government work report at the annual session of the municipal people's congress on Sunday.

Tang said the decline of China's auto market in 2018 dealt a heavy blow to the auto industry in Chongqing, home to own-brand auto-maker Chang'an Auto.

China's passenger vehicles sales totaled 22.35 million in 2018, down 5.8 percent year on year, the first negative growth for the market in 28 years.

"The traditional sectors are in urgent need of upgrading, while the new industries are not yet strong enough," Tang said.

He said the 6-percent target for 2019 leaves enough room for deepening supply-side reform and advancing high-quality growth.

He highlighted the role of the private economy and innovation-driven strategy in this year's economic work. The government will promote the use of intelligent technologies in 1,250 companies this year.

The city is tapping into big data, artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles, the 5G network and smart hardware for new growth.

The sprawling metropolis along the Yangtze River, home to 32 million people, was one of China's fastest growing cities. Its economy was on a 15-year streak of double-digit growth before 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 14:34:55|Editor: zh

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SHANGHAI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai's industrial investment increased by 17.7 percent in 2018, the greatest growth rate the city has seen during the past decade.

According to the government work report delivered at the annual session of the municipal people's congress on Sunday, the city has been endeavoring to boost its real economy.

Last year, Shanghai recorded around a 10 percent growth rate in the output of emerging industries including new energy cars, high-end medical equipment, integrated circuits and biomedicine.

The city started construction of five industrial projects with an investment of over 10 billion yuan (1.48 billion U. S. dollars) each, and 15 projects with an investment of over 1 billion yuan each last year.

A total of 1,460 energy-intensive, high-pollution, highly dangerous and low-efficiency production projects and facilities were removed from the city.

In 2019, Shanghai will further upgrade its real economy and come up with supporting policies for industries including integrated circuits, artificial intelligence and biomedicine.

The city will push ahead with industrial innovation projects such as intelligent connected vehicles, and it expects to see the mass production of 14 nanometer-integrated circuits this year. Some biotechnology, robotics and semiconductor programs also will start construction.

A total of 1,000 outdated production projects and facilities will be eliminated.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 14:24:54|Editor: xuxin

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JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Eight militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group were confirmed dead in air raids in the eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, the Afghan army said on Sunday.

According to a statement released by the army, the sorties were conducted against IS hideouts in Shagai area of Achin district on Saturday afternoon, killing eight insurgents on the spot and destroying their trenches.

The hardliner IS outfit has yet to make comment on the report.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 13:24:42|Editor: xuxin

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Medical staff help a faint woman in a helping center near Brumadinho, the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on Jan. 26, 2019. At least 34 people were killed after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais. (Xinhua/Li Ming)

BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 34 people were killed, and hundreds remain missing after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the state fire department said.

Out of the 34 victims, eight were identified with two being confirmed as Vale workers.

A total of 46 people were rescued Saturday morning. And 23 of them were injured and taken to local hospitals.

It is estimated that there are at least 252 Vale workers unaccounted for, according to the company, while the number of local residents who have yet to be found remains unknown.

Civil defense officials said there is still hope to find survivors, as helicopters have found some places which were possibly used as shelters.

Search and rescue operations were suspended as night fell in Brumadinho Saturday at 8:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT).

Vale has received an initial fine of 250 million reals (66 million U.S. dollars) imposed by Brazil's environment protection agency Ibama. In addition, Brazilian courts have blocked 6 billion reals (1.59 billion dollars) in Vale assets in order to ensure payment of compensation.

The Brazilian government has promised a full investigation into the matter. President Jair Bolsonaro and Minas Gerais state Governor Romeu Zema flew over the destroyed region earlier in the day and promised manpower to aid the rescue, and resources to help the region recover.

In November 2015, a tailings dam collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, killing 19 people and causing substantial environmental and economic damage. It was considered the worst environmental disaster in the Brazilian history.

HOPE FOR BEST

Every two hours during the day, the operation center for families of the victims released new figures: how many have been rescued; how many families have been contacted but still waiting for transportation, and how many of the injured have been taken to hospital.

There were numbers but no names since the authorities need time for identification.

For relatives and friends waiting for news about their loved ones, it was a torture. Some were crying; some fainted in grief coupled with hot weather, and others began to resort to non-official information. They paced anxiously from one desk to another.

As hopes of finding survivors fades, dozens of people were echoing prayers in a facility served as recreational center for Vale workers, some hand in hand, some in small groups and many with crucifiexes in their hands.

Around 11 a.m. local time (1300 GMT), lieutenant Pedro Aihara, spokesperson of the fire department, announced that a bus carrying Vale workers were found partially covered in the sludge and there was no hope for survivors. He did not have any information about the number of the victims and their names to offer.

Condolences were expressed on social media to Estancia Inn, a small hotel close to the dam, which was buried by mudslide. According to local residents, there could be around 30 or 35 people, including its owners, employees and guests. There is still no official confirmation.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 13:09:39|Editor: xuxin

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Soldiers are deployed to secure the explosion scene outside a church where twin explosions occurred in Sulu Province, the Philippines, Jan. 27, 2019. The death toll climbed to 19 in the twin explosions, the Philippine National Police chief said. (Xinhua/STRINGER)

MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine National Police (PNP) chief said on Sunday that the death toll climbed to 19 in the twin explosions at a church in Sulu Province of the southern Philippines on Sunday morning.

The Philippine authorities said among the dead were army soldiers.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said 48 people were reported injured in the blasts.

The twin explosions happened after around the 8:15 a.m. mass at the Jolo Cathedral. Albayalde said one bomb went off inside the church while the other one outside of the church. "It went off one minute apart," he said.

The victims are mostly churchgoers.

"We strongly condemn the bombing at the Jolo Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu at 8:15 a.m. today just before the start of the holy mass that killed and wounded soldiers and civilians," Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

He said the Armed Forces of the Philippines has immediately secured the explosion area and transported the casualties to the nearest medical facilities, including air evacuation of some victims to Zamboanga City for further medication and evaluation.

"I have directed our troops to heighten their alert level, secure all places of worships and public places at once, and initiate pro-active security measures to thwart hostile plans," Lorenzana said.

"As we convey our sincerest condolences to the families and friends of the victims and offer our sympathy to the peace-loving people of Sulu who are severely affected by this dastardly act, we assure our people that we will use the full force of the law to bring to justice the perpetrators behind this incident," he added.

Lorenzana urged the public to be more vigilant and cooperative with the authorities in reporting any security-related concerns.

"We also urge everyone to remain calm and avoid spreading panic in our respective communities to deny terrorism any victory," Lorenzana said.

The bombings took place days after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), a new law that paves the way for the creation of a wider autonomous region for Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao.

Jolo rejected the BOL in a plebiscite on Monday but the law was ratified due to a landslide win in other predominantly Muslim provinces, including Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.

The Commission on Elections said on Friday that the BOL was "deemed ratified" after getting more than 1.5 million favorable votes.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 12:59:35|Editor: xuxin

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CANBERRA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has lost its third minister in a week with the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion, announcing he will quit politics at the next election.

Scullion made his announcement on Saturday, only days after Kelly O'Dwyer, the minister for women and minister for jobs and industrial relations, and Michael Keenan, the human services minister, announced they would not contest the general election, which is due in May.

However, Scullion refuted suggestions that the government's poor performance in the polls was the reason behind his decision.

"I wouldn't write the coalition government off, I tell you you'd be making a mistake," he told reporters in the Northern Territory, the region he has served as a senator since 2001.

"I believe they will be re-elected and I think it's a sensible decision of the Australian people," Scullion said.

"It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve the people of the Northern Territory for the last 17 years in the Australian Senate."

"I thank all Territorians for their support over this time," he added.

Scullion was sworn in as the Indigenous Affairs Minister in 2013, holding the position under three different leaders of the governing Liberal National Party (LNP).

O'Dwyer announced her decision to quit politics one week before Scullion, saying she was doing so for the "very personal reasons" of wanting to spend more time with her children.

Keenan cited similar reasons to O'Dwyer for his decision, saying he had become "an absent father" during his 15 years in politics.

"I have always worked hard as a member of parliament and as a minister, but after doing this for 15 years, I cannot commit to another term," Keenan said on Friday.

"Over the Christmas break, it became very clear to me personally that times have changed and that this decision was the right one for my family and myself," Keenan said.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 11:14:19|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed and seven others wounded in two improvised bomb explosions at a church in the southwestern Philippines on Sunday, the military said.

The twin explosions happened after an mass at 8:00 a.m. local time at the Jolo Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu. The victims are mostly churchgoers, according to initial reports.

Philippine security forces were investigating the incident. There is a possibility that the death toll may increase, reports said.

The military has yet to officially issue details of the deadly explosions.

The bombings took place days after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), a new law that paves the way for the creation of a wider autonomous region for Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao.

Jolo rejected the BOL in a plebiscite on Monday but the law was ratified due to a landslide win in other predominantly Muslim provinces, including Lanao del Sur and Magiuindanao.

The Commission on Elections said on Friday that the BOL was "deemed ratified" after getting more than 1.5 million favorable votes.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 11:09:19|Editor: xuxin

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Afghan Taliban made significant progress on vital issues after six days' consultations in Qatar, U.S. Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said Saturday.

The meetings were "more productive than they have been in the past. We made significant progress on vital issues," Khalilzad said on his Twitter account.

However, he also pointed out "a number of issues left to work out," saying that an agreement "must include an intra-Afghan dialogue and comprehensive ceasefire."

After the meetings with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, the U.S. envoy was heading to Kabul for consultation with the Afghan government.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Saturday that Washington is "serious about pursuing peace," reiterating objectives of preventing Afghanistan from being a space for international terrorism, as well as bringing U.S. military home.

There are about 14,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Afghanistan, and the Trump administration reportedly planned to bring half of them home.

The death toll of U.S. service members in Afghanistan has surpassed 2,400 since the United States invaded the country in 2001.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 11:04:17|Editor: xuxin

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People watch a rescue mission helicopter in a helping center near Brumadinho, the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on Jan. 26, 2019. At least 34 people were killed after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais. (Xinhua/Li Ming)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 34 people were killed, and hundreds remain missing after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais, the state fire department said.

A total of 46 people were rescued on Saturday morning. And 23 of them were injured and taken to local hospitals.

It is estimated that there are at least 252 Vale workers unaccounted for, according to the company, while the number of local residents who have yet to be found remains unknown.

Civil defense officials said there is still hope to find survivors, as helicopters have found some places which were possibly used as shelters.

However, rescue works may have to be temporarily suspended as it started to rain in Brumadinho, a municipality of Minas Gerais, diminishing chances of finding survivors.

Vale has received an initial fine of 250 million reals (66 million U.S. dollars) imposed by Brazil's environment protection agency Ibama.

The Brazilian government has promised a full investigation into the matter. President Jair Bolsonaro and Minas Gerais state Governor Romeu Zema flew over the destroyed region earlier in the day and promised manpower to aid the rescue, and resources to help the region recover.

In November 2015, a tailings dam collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, killing 19 people and causing substantial environmental and economic damage. It was considered the worst environmental disaster in the Brazilian history.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 11:04:16|Editor: xuxin

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YANGON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar forest authorities have seized 63 tons of illegally harvested timbers from a forest reserve in southern Bago region, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday, quoting the Forest Department.

The illegally harvested teak and hardwood were confiscated by a combined team of forest police from Phyukon Forest Reserve in three days from Wednesday to Friday.

Action is being taken against those involved in the illegal timber trade.

Illegal logging often occurs in the area although the authorities have outlawed all logging operation in Bago Yoma mountain range for a 10-year period starting from 2016.

In last December, some illegal teak logs, laden by 16 boats, were seized by local authorities in Singu township, Mandalay region when a regular search operation was conducted along the Ayeyawaddy River.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 11:04:15|Editor: xuxin

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UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A UN spokesman said Saturday that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply saddened" by the loss of life caused by Friday's dam collapse in Brazil's state of Minas Gerais.

The UN chief extended his condolences to the families of the victims, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary-general, in a statement.

"The United Nations system stands ready to support the Brazilian authorities in the search and emergency relief efforts," said Haq.

At least 34 people were killed after a tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed Friday afternoon in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais. The collapse had also caused significant damage to people's homes and the environment.

Rescue operations have been underway, but State Governor Romeu Zema said Saturday morning that there was little chance of finding people alive.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 10:54:12|Editor: xuxin

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YANGON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 18 people from villages and internal displaced persons camps in Sittway, Myanmar's Rakhine state, have been prevented from illegal immigration to Malaysia, Myanmar News Agency reported Sunday.

The 18 people including women were stopped from leaving their places of origin.

The detained 18 confessed that they paid 1.5 million kyats (1,000 U.S. dollars) each to a broker for the attempted immigration.

Local police have launched a case against the broker who recruited the people and the 18 detained are under investigation, the report added.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 07:08:36|Editor: Yurou

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HOUSTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A manhunt is underway in the southeastern U.S. state of Louisiana for a man suspected in shootings that have left five people dead, local authorities said Saturday.

Dakota Theriot, 21, is wanted in connection with the shootings, authorities said.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre told a news conference that deputies were called to a trailer in the city of Gonzales, about 40 kilometers southeast of Louisiana's capital Baton Rouge, for a "domestic incident" on Saturday morning. Upon arrival, deputies found Elizabeth and Keith Theriot, both 51, who had been shot but were still alive.

Webre said deputies were able to interview one of the victims before they were transported to a hospital in Baton Rouge, where they later died.

From that interview, authorities identified the couple's 21-year-old son, Dakota, as the "prime suspect in this case." He is being sought on first-degree murder and other charges.

The sheriff said three other shooting deaths occurred Saturday in neighboring Livingston parishes, about 50 kilometers east of Baton Rouge.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed on Facebook that three deaths happened in his parish and identified the victims as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20.

Authorities believed the shootings in the two parishes are connected, and investigators from both jurisdictions are working together.

Theriot is considered armed and dangerous, Ard said. He is believed to be driving a gray four-door 2004 Dodge pickup with a silver bottom.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 05:48:19|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sea Watch humanitarian vessel with 47 rescued migrants on board should head to "Amsterdam or Berlin", Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Saturday in reference to the ship anchored one nautical mile off the Sicilian port city of Siracusa.

The Dutch-flagged Sea Watch vessel run by a German aid group anchored near Sicily amid stormy seas on Friday, but has not been given the permission to dock anywhere since it rescued 47 shipwreck survivors off Libya last Saturday.

"They can investigate me and threaten me, but I won't change my mind," the minister tweeted Saturday afternoon in reference to the fact that a special tribunal is seeking an indictment against him on charges of kidnapping and abuse of power in reference to a stand-off over rescued migrants.

Last August, Salvini refused for a week to let over 100 migrants disembark from the Italian Coast Guard's Diciotti vessel after its crew had rescued them in the Mediterranean.

"Italy's ports remain closed to migrant smugglers and their accomplices. A Dutch ship belonging to a German NGO (non-governmental organization)? Amsterdam or Berlin are expecting you," tweeted Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister and whose rightwing, anti-immigrant League is currently the number one party in Italy.

However, not all Siracusa residents agree with Salvini, Mayor Francesco Italia told Sky TG24 private broadcaster in an interview earlier in the day.

"Civil organizations and citizens have written and called me, offering (the rescued migrants) places to stay in their own homes," said the mayor. "Certain values come before politics. If there are people in trouble, no matter their nationality, they must be welcomed and given assistance".

Also on Saturday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR issued a joint statement expressing "serious concern" over the 47 migrants and refugees aboard the Sea Watch vessel, which include 13 minors, saying they must be "immediately" granted the right to disembark in the nearest port.

In televised comments on Friday, Salvini said that he wrote the Dutch government requesting it "deal with" the vessel and its passengers.

The Dutch government replied that the Sea Watch is not its problem, and that the Netherlands won't step in unless long-term solutions are agreed upon at the European Union (EU) level, Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing Dutch media.

Almost 200 people have died in the Mediterranean since the start of the year, of whom at least 130 in the waters between Libya and Europe, according to the UNHCR.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 05:43:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ALGIERS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and France will sign an agreement for the extradition of criminals between the two countries, Algerian Justice Ministry and French embassy to Algeria said Saturday in two separate statements.

"This agreement will streamline our exchanges and facilitate the implementation of certain extradition requests while ensuring respect for fundamental values of our two countries", said the sources.

The agreement is part of the two countries' cooperation in the areas of mutual legal assistance, counter-terrorism and information exchange.

French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet will pay a two-day visit to Algeria and hold talks with "actors of the Algerian judicial system with the aim to better understand mutual challenges and expectations," the source added.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 05:03:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HOUSTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices fell slightly during the week ending Jan. 25, with the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery down by 0.2 percent and Brent crude for March delivery down by 1.7 percent.

In the previous week ending Jan. 18, oil prices extended increases. WTI increased by 4.3 percent, and Brent crude increased by 3.7 percent. At the end of the week, WTI settled at 53.80 U.S. dollars a barrel, while Brent crude closed at 62.70 dollars a barrel.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday revised its outlook for global economic growth in 2019 to 3.5 percent from its previous forecast of 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, a separate report by the United Nations on Monday cautioned that a worrisome combination of development challenges could further undermine global growth.

On Tuesday, oil prices dipped as signs of global economic slowdown stoked concerns about oil demand. WTI fell 1.23 dollars to settle at 52.57 dollars a barrel, while Brent crude slid 1.20 dollars to close at 61.50 dollars a barrel.

The clear global slowdown sparked concerns among traders about potential softening demand for oil, said experts.

On Thursday, oil prices were mixed as traders looked to the possibility of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil sector and a weekly surge in U.S. crude stockpiles. WTI climbed cents to settle at 53.13 dollars a barrel, while Brent crude declined 5 cents to close at 61.09 dollars a barrel.

On Friday, oil prices gained as concerns over tighter global supply amid the threat of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil sector outweighed surging U.S. stockpiles.

As tensions between the administration of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido continue, officials and experts worldwide have voiced their concerns over the situation, appealing for dialogue while calling for the issue to be resolved without outside influence.

In the coming weeks, traders are expected to pay a close eye on U.S. threat of sanctions on Venezuela, which would lead to a tighter market.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 04:22:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Apple's iPhone shipments in China plunged 22 percent in the final quarter of 2018 as the U.S.-based tech giant struggles in the world's largest smartphone market.

Market researcher Strategy Analytics released on Thursday a report on the smartphone shipment in China in the last quarter of 2018, saying Apple replaced Xiaomi and became the fourth largest smartphone maker in China with 10-percent market share. Nevertheless, iPhone shipments plunged 22 percent on a yearly basis, signifying its worst performance since early 2017.

Apple encountered headwinds in the Chinese market over the past few years as local smartphone markers, including Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi expanded vigorously with fine quality, reasonable prices and extensive retail channels.

Ongoing patent litigation between Apple and Qualcomm as well as criticism on Apple's increasingly high product price have been weakening the tech giant's competitiveness in China.

Meanwhile, "longer replacement cycles and weak consumer spending" are new norms confronting all smartphone makers in the country, according to Strategy Analytics.

Earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned investors that partially due to unexpected sales shortfall of product portfolio in the Chinese market, it had to adjust down revenue forecast for the three months ending December 2018.

Apple's open letter triggered U.S. equity market panic and pulled the Dow down by 2.8 percent, or 660.02 points, on the day's trading session.

Apple is to release the financial results for the quarter ending December 2018 next Tuesday. Over the past few weeks, analysts have cut their forecasts for iPhone sales, although Apple had said it would stop disclosing the number its iPhone sales and hoped investors to focus more on the revenue.

Apple shares closed at 157.76 U.S. dollars on Friday.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 04:12:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NAIROBI, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Two people were injured when a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) exploded at a busy street in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi Saturday evening, the police said.

Nairobi county police commander Philip Ndolo said a trolley pusher was hired by an unknown person to deliver a piece of luggage within the city but its contents exploded, seriously injuring him. A passerby was slightly injured in the street.

The police have rushed the injured to a hospital. "The bomb experts are at the scene," Ndolo said.

The trolley pusher said the package exploded barely 10 minutes after a man who had hired him went away to pick his identification card he had apparently "forgotten." He told journalists while he was being rushed to the hospital.

The police believed that the package which was inside the luggage to be IED which could have caused more damage had it reached its intended destination.

The incident came one day after the U.S. embassy in Nairobi issued a security alert, urging the public to sustain vigilance in wake of terror attacks in the east African nation.

Saturday's incident happened less than two weeks after Islamic militant group al-Shabab attacked a high-end business complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 03:47:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOSCOW, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A gas boiler exploded at a cafe in west Russia's Saratov Region on Saturday, injuring 22 out of 40 people there, the emergence situations ministry's local branch said.

It said that 14 of the injured have been hospitalized and six of them have severe injuries.

Two children received burns of mild severity in the explosion and their conditions are closely monitored.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 03:07:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ALGIERS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Islamist Movement for Society of Peace (MSP), the largest Islamist oriented party in Algeria, said on Saturday that it has chosen its leader Abderrazak Makri to run for the presidential election on April 18.

Such a decision was taken late on Friday during the party's Shura Council, the highest body of the party, said a short statement posted on the official website of the party.

This decision has been expected by observers regarding the recurrent statements of Makri who said several times that he is ready to race for presidential poll.

Makri noted that in case he is elected as president, he would work for "implementing consensus project aiming at getting the country out of lasting political and economic crisis."

The other opposition party, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), the oldest opposition party in the North African nation, said on Friday that it will not participate in the forthcoming election, calling on voters to boycott.

Last week, incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika officially summoned the electorate for the presidential elections scheduled for April 18.

According to the latest figures of the Interior Ministry, as many as 101 potential candidates submitted their applications, pending approval, to take part in the election, including leaders of 13 political parties.

Still, suspense is still reigning on whether Bouteflika would run for a fifth term, while deadline for candidacy submission is set for midnight of March 3.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-27 01:17:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian police on Saturday gunned down eight suspected armed robbers who were caught in a robbery attempt in the nation's northwest region of Mwanza.

Jonathan Shanna, Mwanza regional police commander, said the suspects were killed in an exchange of fire with the police, adding that two of the suspects managed to escape.

"The suspected criminals were gunned down in a joint raid by police who laid a trap," said Igala ward councilor Joshua Manumbu.

"There have been a series of criminal incidents in the ward located in Ukerewe district that involved armed robbery," added Manumbu.

On Nov. 29 last year, police killed six suspected bandits who were on an attempt to rob a businessman in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Lazaro Mambosasa, the Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander, said the suspected bandits were armed with an military firearm and 11 rounds of ammunition.

On Nov. 16 last year, police killed seven suspected armed robbers in Mwanza city on the southern shores of Lake Victoria.Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-26 23:52:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SANAA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's government announced on Saturday the death of eight people in a projectile attack by Houthi rebels that targeted a camp for displaced people in Yemen's northwestern province of Hajjah.

More than 27 others, mostly women and children, were wounded in the rebel attack, government-run Saba news agency reported, citing an unnamed local source.

It said the injured were transported to a al-Tiwal hospital in Saudi border city of Jizan.

The camp has been recently established for families from Shalilah and Bani al-Haddad village after they fled daily battles between the government forces and Houthi rebels in the Yemeni border district of Harad.

The displaced camp is located near Harad in a desert area controlled by the government forces, which also control the northern part of Harad, just a few kilometres away from Jizan. While the southern part of Harad is under the Houthis' control.

There was no comment yet by Houthis on Saturday's attack.

On Friday, the Houthi al-Masirah TV reported the death of four people in a Saudi-led airstrike that targeted a house in Mastaba district south of Harad. The coalition did not comment on the rebels' report.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa.

The United Nations has been trying to broker a peace deal between Yemeni rival parties to end four-year civil war that has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others and pushed the country on the brink of famine.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The longest government shutdown may be over for now, but that doesn't mean federal workers aren't still feeling the impacts from it.

On Saturday morning local full time and part time federal workers hosted a garage sale together to raise money for themselves and family members.

Gaile Fishman is a park ranger in St. Marks and part-time employee of the federal government.

Being a part-time employee means she was not able to work during the 5 week long shutdown so she won't receive a paycheck or back pay.

Fishman knew she had to do something for those who were most likely feeling a similar hardship.

"It was concerning to me to hear about even the people who will get paid like the TSA people, and the federal prison guards. They will get paid, but they are forced to work without pay, and I wanted to do something to help them get by, because this is a long period to go without income," said Gaile Fishman, St.Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

While the government is reopening at this moment federal employees I spoke to say they fear the government could close again in three weeks.

"It's really frustrating and you know people make decisions to stay open for three weeks at least maybe that is a good thing. It seems like they ought to just get it resolved and be done with it," said Stephen Hight a Research Scientist.

With confidence low that the government will stay open past three weeks federal workers say another shutdown might cause serious trouble for them financially.

"We are hoping they will come to their senses and make some kind of agreement that everyone can live with and we can stay at work," said Fishman.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man who is already facing charges for sex trafficking a child in 2014 is back in jail after police say he forced another child into prostitution.

According to court documents, sexual photos of a juvenile were discovered on a website known to be used for prostitution and sex trafficking in November.

In December, Tallahassee Police opened an additional case regarding the 14-year-old juvenile and possible sex trafficking.

During an interview the following month, documents say the victim told investigators that 36-year-old Tyron Watson had created an online advertisement and arranged for the victim to meet men.

According to court documents, the victim wasn't sure when the sex-trafficking began, but said it started before the victim turned 14.

The victim gave police the names of all the locations the trafficking occurred at and the different amounts of money the men paid for sexual acts. Documents say the evidence the victim provided dated back several months and continued up until the time the investigation was opened.

The victim said Watson threatened to kill the victim and her family if she didn't cooperate. Scared for her life, the victim complied.

The victim told police that there was also a time where Watson confined the victim to a hotel room for two weeks. During this time, the victim wasn't allowed to leave and Watson forced the victim to have sex with him multiple times.

The victim said she was allowed to call her mother "every now and then," but only to tell her she was okay. The victim also told police that she was afraid of Watson because she had seen him hit another girl that was working for him. Throughout this time, the victim said Watson threatened that he would kill the victim if she tried to leave.

Documents say the victim went on to further explain in detail how Watson would set up sexual meetings for the victim through cell phone apps. The victim said the agreed upon amounts ranged from $70 to $300. Along with handling all communication for the sexual meetings, the victim said Watson collected the money and would give her $10 to $20 of it.

Court documents didnt specify how the victim and Watson met.

Investigators say Watson had an ankle monitor on when the incidents took place. Court documents say the GPS monitor was placed on Watson after he bonded out on multiple charges related to sex trafficking a juvenile in 2014. According to court documents, the locations recorded by the ankle monitor were consistent with locations the victim described.

Based on the evidence, police found probable cause to charge Watson with commercial sex trafficking of a juvenile, prostitution of a juvenile, two counts of lewd/lascivious battery and false imprisonment.

Watson was arrested and transported to the Leon County Detention Center on Friday. He is being held in jail on a $85,000 bond on four of the five charges. There is no bond listed for the commercial sex trafficking of a juvenile charge.

According to Leon County court records, Watson is already facing multiple charges for a 2014 child trafficking case. He bonded out on the charges in March 2018. In that case, Watson is accused of working with a woman named Moriah Poole prostitute a 17-year-old missing juvenile from Hillsborough County. Documents say they trafficked the child throughout multiple cities in Florida as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Dustin Daniels is sharing his side of the story after The ethics commission found probable cause against him and former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum.

State ethics officials said they found probable cause that Florida ethics laws were violated.

Documents related to the ethics investigation raise questions about how Gillum paid in 2016 for a pricey ticket to the hit musical "Hamilton," a boat ride in New York City, and a Costa Rica vacation.

Public officials in Florida are prohibited from accepting gifts of $100 or more from lobbyists and others that work with the government.

The Florida Commission on Ethics isn't expected to announce the findings until next week.

However, Gillum's attorney, Barry Richard, and Erwin Jackson, a Tallahassee businessman who filed the complaint, said that the commission was unanimous in support of its staff's findings, and that the case is now headed to a hearing before an administrative law judge.

Daniels gave the following statement as a response to the situation,

"This issue has been investigated by the Leon County Sheriff's Office, the state attorney, a grand jury, as well as the Tallahassee Ethics Commission. Each and every review found no wrongdoing. It will now be reviewed through an open process and independent judge, a process that I believe will lead to the same resolution."Wrexham Glyndwr University to host stroke research event

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Jan 27th, 2019

Healthcare professionals from across Wales will meet at Wrexham Glyndwr University next month to discuss the latest innovations in stroke treatment and prevention.

The Stroke Research, Innovation, Education and Care Seminar will take place on Friday February 1 at the universitys Catrin Finch Centre and will bring together experts from across Wales.

With presentations from researchers across Wales, as well as from people affected by strokes the day will be looking at the latest developments in the field of stroke treatment, care and prevention.

Dr Joanne Pike, Programme Lead for MSc in Health Sciences at Wrexham Glyndwr University, said: One of the ideas behind the seminar  and behind Stroke Hub Wales is to bring together the expertise we have across Wales when it comes to strokes.





Caring for people with strokes is constantly adapting as new research is carried out. This seminar is aimed at helping to update those with an interest in the field.

Whether you are a healthcare professional, an academic, a student, or even a member of the public with an interest in the field, the day offers the chance to hear the latest developments from across the country.

The seminar runs between 9.30am and 3.30pm on February 1, with free parking available. Tickets are 10, 5 for students and unwaged, and free for service users.

For more information, please RSVP to strokehubwales@glyndwr.ac.ukBusiness Accelerator Programme looking to find North Wales most exciting new business ideas.

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Jan 27th, 2019

A fully-funded programme designed to support high-growth businesses in Wales is seeking applicants with innovative new business ideas.

The Accelerator programme runs across Wales and matches up-and-coming entrepreneurs with experienced business leaders and mentors to grow and develop their new enterprises.

The programme  which has already supported over thirty businesses in Wales and helped them raise millions of pounds in investment  is now inviting applications from people around North Wales.

Its latest programme will be held at the Wrexham Enterprise Hub and begins on Friday 31st January.





Those who are accepted on to the programme will receive a range of exclusive and bespoke support services, including access to a network of investors, trade missions, events across the UK and one-to-one support from some of the most experienced and successful business owners in Wales.

Mandy Weston, the co-founder of Town Square Spaces which hosts the Accelerator on behalf of Business Wales and in partnership with the Accelerated Growth programme (AGP), said: The Accelerator is designed for high-growth businesses, but that doesnt mean you have to have years of experience or a large team to apply.

On the contrary, some of our most successful businesses that have come through the programme are those that had an idea or a plan but needed the support to develop it and get it off the ground.

Id encourage anyone who has started a business or is looking to start to apply and see if the programme is right for them.

To be eligible businesses must:

Be based in Wales-

Be pre-revenue (not begun trading as a limited company)

Aim to grow quickly, increasing turnover year-on-year

Aim to create jobs in the next three years

Have the potential to export their product or service

Andrew Roberts is the founder of HR software platform Weekly 10. The business, which is based at the Hub, launched in 2018 and took part in the previous Accelerator programme.

He said: The staff at the Wrexham Enterprise Hub have been amazing. From arranging training sessions for us through to introducing us to partners and collaborators, the support has been second to none.

Without the Accelerator support, we would not have been able to get Weekly 10 so far so fast.

It has given us strong foundations for rapid growth into 2019, and with its continued support, we have everything we need to continue to scale.

For more information, or to apply you can call 01978 807 420 or go to www.accelerator.walesWoman Arrested After Child Found Walking in Street

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MAYFIELD - A Mayfield woman was arrested Friday morning for wanton endangerment of her child.According to the Mayfield Police Department, a citizen spotted a 3-year-old child walking in the middle of Pryor Street at 9:24 am, when the temperature was reportedly 19 degrees. Police say the child was not wearing shoes or winter clothing, and the caller was trying to keep it warm. Police investigation led them to determine that the child had been left at home alone, and went outside to try to find its mother.Police later found the mother, 33-year-old Tabitha Marie Mills, and arrested her for wanton endangerment 1st degree. She was taken to Graves County Jail.The child was checked by Mayfield EMS. Social Services was called to scene, and they released the child into the care of a family member.Organ Donors Increase in Kentucky, Graves County

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MAYFIELD - The Kentucky Circuit Clerks' Trust For Life has announced that last year was a record-setting year, both locally and nationally, for saving lives through organ donation and giving individuals a second chance at life."In Kentucky, more than 140,000 people joined the Registry for the first time, and 1,979,175 Kentuckians are now registered which is 60% of the adults in our Commonwealth," said Graves Co. Circuit Clerk Emily Buzanis.Nationally, the 36,527 organs transplanted set an annual record for the sixth straight year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Locally, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates cared for 134 organ donors, resulting in 423 organs transplanted. These were the highest numbers of organ donors and organs transplanted in the organization's 32-year history. Plus, more than 30,000 lives were enhanced by the generosity of the 367 tissue donors, and 1,000 patients have gained the gift of sight through from 824 cornea donors.Buzanis said, "I am honored to partner with the lifesaving mission in which donors and their families give others a second chance at life. I am proud of my deputies for asking each customer about joining the registry and donating $1 toward increasing education about organ donation. In 2018, 4,363 Graves County residents donated $1 for community education, and I am ecstatic to announce that 15,159 generous Graves County residents are now registered donors. Every registered donor is a bright symbol of hope for children and adults waiting on a lifesaving organ."One of those waiting is 23-year-old Courtney Thompson, who has lived in Murray her entire life, and is on the waiting list for a double lung transplant due to cystic fibrosis."Living in a small town you would never think that there is someone from your small town who needs a transplant or who suffers from such a horrible disease. However, that is the story here. Every day I strive to be an advocate for organ donation and an advocate for cystic fibrosis, which is a progressive genetic lung disease. For me to beat cystic fibrosis I will need a lifesaving double lung transplant. I was listed for a transplant on December 29, 2016."Courtney's lungs are currently functioning at 27 percent, so she survives on 3 liters of oxygen. She said she is thankful for her family, friends and her coworkers who provide her with an invaluable support system. She said that the best way to help anyone in her situation is simple."Be a registered organ donor. It's the simplest thing to do in your life. When you go up to your Circuit Court Clerk's office, say 'YES' when they ask you if you would like to be registered. That's all it takes. No testing, no blood work, nothing. Just a simple 'YES'," explains Courtney. "That way people like me, whether it be a lung transplant, heart transplant, kidney transplant, liver transplant - could get another chance at life. Give them the life they never had because of a chronic illness holding them back from life. Give them the normal life they deserve, the one that they strive for, the one that normal people get to live. Give them breath, give them a heartbeat, give them a functioning kidney, or liver, give them sight so that they may see the world."Courtney sends heartfelt thanks to all those who choose to donate life by joining the Kentucky Donor Registry at their local Circuit Court Clerk's office or online at www.donatelifeky.org (see link below). For more information about organ, tissue and cornea donation or to register as a donor, please visit www.trustforlife.org.The Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks' Trust for Life is a 501c(3) non-profit organization that informs, education and encourages Kentuckians to be registered organ and tissue donors to save lives. Formore information, call 1-866-945-5433, or email info@trustforlife.org.On the Net:PTHS Class of '69 Meets Today to Plan 50th Reunion

By WestKyStar Staff

PADUCAH - Paducah Tilghman High School Class of 1969 is planning its 50 year reunion. A group led by Jimmy Patterson and Tana (Brown) Foster will meet this afternoon (Sunday, Jan. 27th) at the McCracken County Public Library at 3:30. The group will gather on the second floor in the small meeting room. Anyone interested in being part of making the reunion happen is invited to attend this first planning meeting.The group is looking at the weekend of September 27-28 (during Paducah's BBQ on the River) to get together and celebrate 50 years! If you have questions, call Jimmy at 270-559-7271. If you can't make the meeting but are interested in being part of the planning, call 605-475-4729 and use access code 326992 to be part of the meeting via phone.No New Leads on Body Found in River or David Boggs

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - Two separate investigations that began months ago have made no progress, according to authorities.When asked for an update this week, a spokesperson for Paducah Police Department told West Kentucky Star Friday that there are no new leads into the disappearance of David Boggs, who worked for Barbecue on the River for several years. He was reported missing on November 5 by a friend, and later that day the Board of Barbecue on the River said they believed he had taken $20,000 from the organization's operating fund. Police began parallel investigations, but emphasized that their main concern was for Boggs' safety.Meanwhile, West Kentucky Star also asked McCracken County Sheriff Matt Carter if there were any leads in the investigation into a man's body found in the Ohio River on September 18, and he said there were none. The while male's body was spotted by someone who contacted Massac County Dispatch. In October, then-Coroner Dan Sims said an autopsy showed no foul play, and that the body could have floated to the area from upstream or downstream, considering recent water levels on area rivers.'Battle of the Badges' Blood Drive in Mayfield

January is National Blood Donor Month, and you may have recently heard that in Kentucky, the blood supply is at a dangerously low level. First responders in Mayfield and Graves County are helping by hosting a "Battle of the Badges" blood drive on Tuesday, January 29.The blood drive is from 7:45 until 4 pm at Mayfield City Hall. Anyone who comes to give blood can choose to represent the Graves County Sheriff's Department, Mayfield Police Department, or Mayfield Fire Department. The team with the most donors will receive the "Battle of the Badges" plaque for 2019.Anyone is invited to participate if you meet criteria for blood donation. To schedule a blood donation ahead of time, go to www.redcrossblood.org and search for Mayfield (see link below), download and use the Red Cross Blood Donor App, or call 1-800-733-2767.On the Net:Modern Veterinary Care of Pets 101 at McLib

Over the years much has changed when it comes to the care of our pets both at home and in the veterinary setting. Dr. Kerley will discuss modern veterinary medicine and the current standards of care. The presenter will also focus on the importance of dental care and oral health to your pets overall health. In addition, the presentation will cover the physiological benefits in controlling pain in animal patients.



Dr. Amy Kerley graduated from Clemson University in 2005 with a B.S. in Animal and Veterinary Sciences and then continued her veterinary studies at University of Georgia where she graduated in 2009 with her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM). After graduation she worked as a small animal veterinarian in both Lexington, KY and Charleston, SC before moving to Paducah, which is her husband's hometown. She has worked locally at multiple practices for several years before opening her own practice, Progressive Animal Healthcare, in May 2017.



The 101 series sparks interest in a wide range of unique topics. Programs are free and open to the public and are led by experts in their fields.



For more information, contact Bobbie Wrinkle by calling 270-442-2510 ext. 119 or by email: bwrinkle@mclib.net



PADUCAH - McCracken County Public Library will host Modern Veterinary Care of Pets 101 on Tuesday, Feb. 5 from 7-8 pm. The session will be led by Dr. Amy Kerley, Progressive Animal Healthcare.Normal, IL (61790)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph."That's a question that I'd have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion," the longtime Republican operative and friend of President Donald Trump told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "If there's wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I didn't know about - which I know of none - but if there is I would certainly testify honestly."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.Register for a FREE account to keep reading!

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Already registered? Click the log in link belowSuccess! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Gravity Indoor Skydiving in Bahrain has announced its participation in the fifth edition of Shop Bahrain, the largest event in the kingdom, as a prize partner.



As part of the collaboration, a booth has been set up for Gravity Indoor Skydiving at the Festival City where visitors can avail special offers on skydiving tickets. Gravity customers will also receive 4 points in Shop Bahrain loyalty system for every BD1 ($2.6) spent throughout the duration of the festival. This will entitle them to enter the weekly raffle draws that includes 11 cars. Shoppers who spend BD50 ($131.7) will also get a chance to win instant prizes that include discounted tickets from Gravity upon redeeming points during the course of the festival.



Gravity boasts one of the tallest air tunnels in the world. The centre at Zallaq employs a team of skilled and qualified instructors specialised in indoor skydiving, a sport that has gained popularity throughout the world and maintains a huge base of professionals and fans.



"We are delighted to join Shop Bahrain as one of the prize partners. This nationwide festival continues to attract many local residents and visitors from neighbouring countries, and it gives us great pleasure to be participating in Festival City," said Mariam Fathi, marketing director at Gravity.



I would like to extend my thanks to the organisers, and commend their efforts on presenting this wonderful festival at its best every year. We always look forward to participating in prominent national events that aim to strengthen the kingdoms position as an ideal tourist destination, and further support the local economy, she added.



The Festival City, Shop Bahrains main event, is located at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, the Festival City Partner. The event includes a number of family-oriented activities including a wide range of exciting activities, live performances and carnival games and an outdoor market and cinema. It also features a daily lineup of live musical local bands for visitors to enjoy. - TradeArabia News ServiceBahrain Airport Services Company (BAS), the sole provider of ground services at the kindom's airport, has embarked on a gradual transition to the Green Gate in support of the environment.



Continuing its role in the expansion of Bahrain International Airport, and in line with the company's corporate social responsibility strategy, BAS is set to adopt a multi-pronged approach to cut its impact on the environment, ahead of the new terminal launch later this year, aid a statement from the company.



It seeks to make progress in terms including reduced emissions and cleaner air, the use of solar energy, no fuel spills and the use of clean electric power  all combining to form a more hygienic environment, it stated.



CEO Salman Al Mahmeed said: BAS ground support equipment is one area in which significant strides are being made which we would like to reduce our fleet diesel and petrol-powered towing by 75 per cent ahead of the opening of the new terminal in 2019, and beyond over the next five years to see the replacement of all its diesel-fuelled towing tugs."



The company will need an investment of BD1 million ($2.63 million) for the purchase of these 'green' towing tugs, he noted.



The kingdom has renewed its contract with BAS as the ground handling service provider for Bahrain International Airport for the next 15 years, said Al Mameed.



The company is working hard to keep pace with the development of the Bahrain International Airport, which aims to attract 13 million passengers annually, he added.

Established in 1977, BAS has a 41-year long track record of continuous service and has been the sole operator of ground services at Bahrain International Airport since it was established as the first international airport in the Arabian Gulf region.



It is also a trusted name in the world of services as a company certified by the Air Transport Safety Audit Program of the International Air Transport Association.



BAS offers a number of commercial activities including: aircraft and passenger handling services, catering services, aircraft engineering services, BAS Engineering Training Centre as well as owning and managing airport lounges.-TradeArabia News ServiceCanada has confirmed its participation Expo 2020 Dubai with the aim of exploring trade opportunities and accessing new markets.



The G7 nations participation was sealed during two meetings between Jim Carr, Canadas Minister of International Trade Diversification, Mohammad Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future of the United Arab Emirates and Mohammed Al Shaibani, Director General of the Rulers Court, Government of Dubai, held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.



Al Gergawi welcomed the public confirmation of participation in Expo 2020 Dubai by Canada, one of 190 nations that have committed to taking part, reported Dubai Media Office.



He said: The UAE is a hub for important global events like the Expo that will help contribute to a brighter global future. We are working hard to ensure greater international cooperation to enhance the future of humanity, founded on the strong relationships that we enjoy with countries around the world, including Canada.



Al Shaibani, who is also the vice-chairman of the Expo 2020 Dubai Higher Committee, noted: It is welcome news that Canada is rejoining the Expo movement to participate at Expo 2020 Dubai. We are looking forward to leveraging the Expo platform to continue to build on investment ties with Canada, Canadian companies and the Canadian community here who call the UAE their home.



Expo 2020 Dubai will mark Canadas first participation in a World Expo since Expo 2010 Shanghai China, and will see the country showcase its economic, social and cultural contributions to a global audience of millions.



Carr said: With the eyes of the world on Dubai, our presence at Expo 2020 affirms the vitality of Canada-UAE relations, while showcasing the best Canada has to offer. We only need to look at the lasting effects that hosting two world fairs has had on the fabric of our own nation to understand the potential this represents for Canada and for Canadians.



As the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, Expo 2020 will enable countries and companies from around the world to build relationships and explore new avenues for trade.



Canada has a long history of participating in World Expos, and has hosted two previous editions: Expo 67 in Montreal and Expo 86 in Vancouver.



Canada and the UAE already enjoy strong bilateral relations and Expo 2020 Dubai will offer a unique opportunity to boost them further. The UAE is Canadas largest export market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with merchandise exports valued at $1.6 billion in 2017.



Both countries are committed to pursuing opportunities to further enhance bilateral relations, especially in areas such as trade, science and innovation, youth empowerment, tourism and infrastructure development.



Expo 2020 expects to attract 25 million visits between 20 October, 2020 and 10 April, 2021, and 70 per cent of its visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE  the largest proportion of international visitors in the 168-year history of World Expos.  TradeArabia News ServiceAl Dur Power & Water Company, the largest power generation and water desalination firm in Bahrain, has announced the successful closure of a $1.3 billion refinancing facility provided by a syndicate of 20 local, regional and international banks.



Banks participating in the transaction include: Ahli United Bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Arab Bank, Bank ABC, ABC Islamic Bank, Arab National Bank, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), Banque Saudi Fransi, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Export Development Canada, Gulf International Bank, KFW IPEX-Bank, Kuwait Finance House (Bahrain), Mashreqbank, MUFG, Riyad Bank, National Bank of Kuwait - Bahrain Branch, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered Bank and The Saudi National Commercial Bank.



The refinancing facilities extend up to 14 years and include $450 million of conventional facilities and $850 million of Islamic facilities, said a statement from the Bahraini company.



The new financing replaces the one originally provided in 2009, which amounted to $1.6 billion, it added.



The successfful financial closure was celebrated at a major ceremony which was attended by Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Minister of Oil, Cecile Longe, the French Ambassadress to Bahrain, representative from the German Ambassador to Bahrain and representatives from the company, shareholders, financing banks and other key stakeholders.



Al Dur accounts for one-third of the country's power and water production with a combined capacity of 1,234 MW of power and 48 MIGD of water.



The right to develop, finance and operate the project was awarded in 2008 by the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) of Bahrain to a consortium consisting of Engie and Gulf Investment Corporation.



Other shareholders including the Social Security Organisation, Bahrain Islamic Bank, Capital Management House, First Energy Bank, and Bunya Infrastructure Fund joined in 2009. The company benefits from a 25-year power and water purchase agreement entered into with EWA.



Commercial operations started in early 2012 and the plant was officially inaugurated in April by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.



The original financing won the 2009 Deal of the Year Award from Project Finance magazine and praise from various sources for being the first project finance deal to close after the onslaught of the 2008 financial crisis.



Similarly, the new financing has also won an award as the 2018 Refinancing Deal of the Year, said the statement from the Bahraini firm.



This is an award that Al Dur shares with its sister company Al Ezzel Power Company, which also undertook a successful refinancing in 2018 and is owned by Engie, Gulf Investment Corporation and the Social Insurance Organisation, it added.



This is another landmark achievement for 2018 in Bahrain, said Shafic Ali, Chairman of Al Dur.



We have substantial participation from Bahrain-based banks and from banks in Saudi Arabia. We also have seven international banks from diverse geographies, ranging from Canada to Europe and Japan, and a total of 14 banks from our original lenders have participated in the current refinancing underscoring their continued confidence and commitment to Al Dur and the Kingdom, he added.



This was a challenging transaction implemented in a volatile market environment, said Cedric Girod, the head of acquisitions, investments and financial advisory at Engie Middle East, South & Central Asia and Turkey.



This success demonstrates the strong support of Bahrain, Saudi and regional and international banks for a strategic asset of the Bahrain economy and for its lead sponsors Engie and Gulf Investment Corporation, he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceYou have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseMBABANE  Forewarned is forearmed. Government has decided to take a hard line approach against public servants in a move that seeks to counteract the proposed nationwide protest action scheduled for tomorrow.

Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini minced no words in stating that the government he leads, though new in office, will not be intimidated by the militant response from elements within union leadership.



The countrys public sector associations (PSAs) include the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), the Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP), the Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA as recognised by government) but called the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) by its members, and the National Public Services and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU).



The PM said this was not a war and they were not an enemy but were all colleagues doing everything in their power to preserve the public servants jobs. In an early evening press conference at Cabinet offices yesterday, he said members of the security forces were already on standby to ensure the safety of those who will be going to work and to school on Monday.

The PM said the strike action by the public servants was illegal because even those that were categorised as an essential service under the countrys industrial law were going to participate. Nobody has the right to threaten and intimidate employees into joining an unlawful strike, the PM said.



Dlamini, who sat between his deputy Themba Masuku and Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati, said government would do all in its powers to safeguard its people.

The usual will be performed by the law enforcement agents. The usual as it pertains to illegal strikes. The police will be doing their work to ensure that there is safety and security and that the people of this nation continue to enjoy peace and calmness, he said.



Strikers to be fired



He said therefore those government employees who wanted to take part in the unlawful strike action should consider a number of factors, including risking their jobs. Employment is not protected and employees who take part in unlawful strike action will face disciplinary proceedings and be liable on conviction to be dismissed, the PM said.

Secondly, he said the principle of no-work-no pay shall apply to any employee engaged in the strike action, including employees who will not report for work, employees who will report to work and fail to attend to their duties, and employees who will report to work and restrict the output of their work in any way.



Thirdly, the PM said no employee was obliged to participate in any strike action and every employee had the right to work.

The premier listed, as a fourth factor, that no union or employee was entitled to prevent any employee from going to work or to use intimidation, threats or violence to prevent an employee from going to work, or to suffer any harmful consequences for going to work. Any persons threatening violence or ill-treatment towards fellow employees will face disciplinary proceedings and be liable on conviction to be dismissed. This will apply, in particular, to the threats issued by SNAT secretary general in the circular dated 26th January, said the PM.



The fifth factor, as per the PM, to be considered by the public servants was that any loss attributable to unlawful strike action shall be subject to an order for just and equitable compensation in terms of section 88 (i)(b) of the Industrial Relations Act.

The sixth factor to be considered is that unions and employees who engage in unlawful strike action commit offences in terms of section 88(5) of the Industrial Relations Act and will be liable on conviction to pay fines up to E10 000 in terms of Section 110 of the Industrial Relations Act.



Section 88(5) states: If any strike action takes place otherwise than in conformity with this Part, a trade union for staff association engaging in such strike action commits an offence.

The PM said they expected schools, hospitals and clinics and all government services to open as usual tomorrow.



He urged any parent, student or other person experiencing any disruption at school to notify the authorities. Any patient experiencing any disruption at a clinic or hospital should notify the authorities. Any person experiencing any disruption in any other service from a government employee should notify the authorities. Any person experiencing any threats, intimidation, violence or action preventing that person from going to work should notify the authorities, said the premier, while stating that disruption of services would be kept to a minimum.



3% offer is minimum



On the other hand, the prime minister clarified that the three per cent cost of living adjustment (CoLA) that government has offered to public servants for the 2020/2021 financial year was the minimum amount. He said there was huge possibility that the offer would be higher than this when the financial year comes.

In the past two financial years; 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, government has been consistently tabling a zero per cent offer to the public servants, which is the main cause of the industrial action. The minimum of three per cent is an optimistic target that we will be working towards as the new government to ensure that this country comes back to track and that we start seeing meaningful growth in the economy, the PM said.



He continued: We are positive; that is why we say the three per cent is the minimum. We hope and pray that it will be higher. Thats the assurance we have given to the PSAs and the nation. We are putting our heads on the block and saying we will see meaningful growth in the economy in 14 months time looking at the plans and what we will be doing from now until end of March next year.

The premier said as government they were optimistic and positive about the outlook into the future when it comes to economic turnaround.



He said His Majesty the King gave government a huge assignment, but he assured the nation that they were going to work extremely hard to improve the economy.

He stated that they would soon be outlining to the nation the strategy and plan that would be employed to turnaround the economy.

So we are very optimistic that within a space of 14 months, we will see a turnaround and when that turnaround happens, we believe that the government will be in a position to start paying, said the PM.



strike motives questioned



Dlamini had earlier emphasised the feeling towards Fridays categorical rejection by unions of the proposals tabled by government, which include the timeframes suggesting that the CoLA issue would be resolved during the 2020/2021 financial year and the proposed joint quarterly review of the state of the economy with the public sector unions.

He said the rejection prompted a feeling of skepticism on government about the motive of the strike as they were aware that the union membership had not been consulted.

The PM said it was in this regard that they were coming back yesterday to share their thoughts and advise the entire nation, including the business community. We are aware of the challenges of the past and going forward we want to focus on the solutions for the future. In doing so, we the new government (in office less than three months) has committed to an Economic Recovery Strategy and Plan of Action to improve the quality of life for all emaSwati, he stated.



.        .      ,   ,      .       -         .  ,                  ,  ,     ...MOTSHANE  Why would Labadzala never want me? Outspoken member of the House of Assembly MP Robert Magongo yesterday seized the opportunity to dispel what he said was word doing the rounds that the countrys leaders do not want him to be part of mainstream politics.



NO SUBSTANCE TO TALK

Speaking in front of about 1 000 members of his constituency and close to 30 parliament colleagues, the Motshane MP said there was no substance to such talk but those that were spreading it were telling blatant lies.

There are people who were speaking badly saying Robert Magongo is not wanted by traditional authorities. But today is evidence that I am wanted down there. If you look at the number of members of Parliament who are here today, it shows that Magongo is loved. You then have an individual telling people that Labadzala do not want Robert Magongo; who does that person think he is? the candid MP said to a rapturous applause.



This was during the official opening of the Motshane Inkhundla offices, which the MP also used as a thanksgiving ceremony for his return to parliament.

During the build up to the 2018 National Elections, there was reportedly an exercise to decampaign Magongo in his constituency and the name of Labadzala was used to attempt to sway voters from him.

The MP, however, weathered the storm and emerged victorious, beating other well-known individuals to return to the position he occupied from 2008 to 2013.

Yesterday, Magongo walked with a bounce and couldnt appear happier with the huge support he received from his colleagues.



One would have been forgiven for thinking that there was a House of Assembly sitting at the Motshane Inkhundla as the close to 30 legislators, who included five cabinet ministers, came out to support MP Magongo.

Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza put aside the stress of tomorrows public servants strike that has been joined by teachers countrywide to celebrate with her colleagues.



Other ministers present were Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe, who is the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Peter Bhembe, Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati and Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development David Cruiser Ngcamphalala.



MP Magongos best friend in Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo was also present and he was the one to call all the other legislators onto the stage to offer words of support to their colleague.

When introducing him, Magongo told the constituents that he not only had respect for Khumalo, but also feared him in terms of winning an election.



HE ALWAYS WINS



If he were to come and contest elections here at Motshane, I wouldnt even bother to go up against him because he always wins. He has participated in five elections for the MP position and won on all occasions. I managed to win last years election because I took advice from him. This man has been my friend since 1984 and I like him so much that he will even be the one to distribute my estate after I have passed away, Magongo said as MP Khumalo went up the stage. Speaker Petros Mavimbela led the legislators to the podium where they took turns to congratulate the people of Motshane on having made a good choice in electing Magongo as their MP and urged them to do so again come 2023.



Each time the MPs said this, the people would react by stating that they would never repeat the mistake they made in 2013 when they did not vote Magongo into parliament.The flight restrictions come as the government shutdown enters its 35th day and a growing number of TSA officers arent showing up for work.

UPDATE 28 January: The US government shutdown has finally come to an end. USTA president and CEO Roger Dow welcomed the resumption, which will see federal employees back at work with pay  at least for the time being. A sigh of relief came from The U.S. Travel Association who has praised the ending of the government shutdown.



Its day 35 of the US government shutdown. It is the longest in history and an estimated 800,000 federal employees were told to work without pay during the shutdown.

It is causing disgruntled air traffic controllers to call in sick as two pay checks in a row have now been missed.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said Fridays worker absences were not part of any coordinated effort.

Over the last few weeks a growing number of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers werent showing up for work. This means there are security issues at airports prompting the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to halt all incoming flights to New York Citys LaGuardia Airport while there are air traffic controller shortages.

The unions representing aviation workers released a statement on Wednesday warning that the shutdown could pose serious safety risks for its members and travelers. In our risk-averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break, the statement read.

At one point, arrivals at LaGuardia were delayed for an average of nearly two hours. Departures were delayed by an average of 41 minutes. Delays were also reported at airports in Newark, Philadelphia and Atlanta. However, though the increasing shortages affected wait times at some airports, they didnt affect planes once in the air.

President of the Association of Flight Attendants, Sara Nelson, said aviation unions had warned of the shutdowns consequences.

They are fatigued, worried and distracted, but they wont risk our safety, she said of flight attendants. So the planes will stay on the ground. This is anything but a sickout  it is only about our safety and the air traffic controllers absolute commitment to it.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed President Donald Trump for the commuter chaos. He called for the historic government shutdown  in which Trump and congressional Democrats remain in a stalemate over border security  to come to an end.

Its another day of federal madness, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.5 Lowlands

Where: Biddinghuizen, Netherlands

Why: A mix of music, art and culture clash at the Dutch camping paradise

When: August 16-18 | lowlands.nl

Lowlands Paradise described by Nile Rodgers as Lowlands was fire! This was an amazing f-ing crowd! Truly insane, and thats how we like it! is the Netherlands most prestigious music festival thats been a rite of passage for the Dutch since 1993. It takes place in rural Biddinghuizen  only an hour away from Amsterdam, so you could stop off there for a night or two. Its idea for a weekend of music, arts and culture featuring the worlds biggest headliners on the circuit, as well as theatre, comedy, film, debates and even science workshops.

Each of the uniquely designed stages are covered so you can party rain or shine, and the iconic Armadillo area is the festivals power station, quirky bars, DJ booths and artisan restaurant areas that surpass regular festival food stalls. Lowlands is a bit of a smooth operator, from the intuitive layout to the lack of queues for bars, food and bathrooms  with the best campsite facilities of all the big European festivals. Theres no such thing as day tickets so its full on from Thursday until Sunday.The Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 27, 2019

Dear [Mr. Editor]:



The recent article by Mr. Karweaye contains several inaccurate factual statements and a clearly misleading statement.



First, the writer's statement of estimated production of fourteen trillion ounces of gold is simply ludicrous, as anyone can easily tell, and therefore is more likely to be a fabricated number than an honest mistake.

Why? Fourteen trillion ounces of gold, at US$1000 per ounce (about 20% less than the current market price), would be valued at 14 quadrillion US Dollars or US$14,000,000,000,000,000. This number is about 700 times ( Seven Hundred times, not merely seven times) bigger than the annual gross national product of the United States.



Second, the writer refers to Brent Oil having a current price of US$107 per barrel. Over the past year, as can be verified on the internet in about two minutes, Brent Oil has been as high as about US $85 per barrel to a low of around US$52 per barrel, and as of January 18 was about US$62 per barrel.



Finally, the writer complains that the royalty, at 3%, is an insignificant portion of Hummingbird revenues. He neglects to point out that royalties are effectively payable from gross revenues of Hummingbird, which means that Government receives 3% of revenues even in a year in which Hummingbird's cost of production exceeds its total revenues.



It may indeed be that the Hummingbird contract contains some unwise provisions. But a message that is so careless with facts cannot be trusted to be accurate in its more subjective conclusions, and an organization which does not check easily verifiable numerical statements makes everything it publishes suspect.



Yours faithfully



A friend of Liberia

Editors Repsonse:

Dear Mr/Ms. A Friend of Liberia:

You have argued, indirectly, that our Website should not have carried Karweaye Hummingbird article because the author did include erroneous statements, for example, his assertion that the goldmine field contains 14 trillion ounces of gold. In another example, you stated that Mr. Karweaye did include a wrong oil price. You also argued that the Company's three percent (3%) royalty payment is reasonable because the percentage is based on revenue.

Sir/madam, our website is pleased to comment on your view, however, it wishes to limit itself to relevant issues. In the view of the Managing Board members and Editors, the article met the most important criteria (substantive issues, including the subject matters, facts and the coherence of the arguments). In his article, the author focused on the idea of Liberia's benefits to be generated from its natural resources. And, yes, the author provided relevant information to support his assertions. He argued successfully that the country will not generate enough revenue if it does not play a role in the management of its natural resources. He gave many names of countries that are playing a significant role in the management of their lucrative assets and other countries that have begun to change their laws.

In essence, the focus of the article was to advocate for Liberia to gain higher benefits from its natural resources. In regard to obtaining a higher benefit, you have argued against the idea that Liberia should gain a higher benefit. For instance, you stated that the three percentage allocated for the country is reasonable since it is based on revenue.

Sir, royalty payment is usually based on revenue and not profit. That is how many industries determine royalty payments, and certainly, three percent is not a good number for Liberia. Interestingly, you did not say anything about the World Bank owning an interest in the gold minefield even though it serves as the principal economic adviser to the Liberian government.

Thanks.

The EditorThe Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 27, 2019

Representative Yekeh Kolubah

The head of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) and Founding Chair of the New DEAL Movement (Liberias social democratic party), Prof. Alaric Tokpa has strongly condemned the recent gun attack on the residence of Hon. Yekeh Kolubah, Representative of District # 10 in the national legislature of the Republic of Liberia and denounced the earlier violence carried out against innocent citizens who had been call together by Hon. Kolubah for a children party. Prof. Tokpa believes that the attack on Hon. Kolubah who is a lawmaker is not only sufficient evidence that a dangerous dictatorship has appeared in Liberia but also a clear sign that citizens of Liberia and opposition politicians have no protection under the George Weah dictatorship.



Prof. Tokpa therefore calls on all well-meaning Liberians, the leaders and members of political parties, civil society organizations, the ECOWAS Authority and other actors in the international community to conduct full independent investigation of the situation and put the Liberian government on notice that it will bear full responsibility for any breakdown of the peace process that will result from the unprofessional behavior of Liberian security forces and/or government officials.



The NDC Chairman is further concerned that the concentration of wealth and power at the center of the Weah administration as opposed to serious attempts at the implementation of the governments own agenda for transformation and development, in the midst of all the hardship and poverty, is an indication that the Weah government is acting in ways that invite dissatisfaction, disapproval, and condemnation. As such, critical attitude toward the excesses of the Weah dictatorship should not constitute the basis for violent attack on citizens who oppose bad government policies.



Prof. Tokpa who described the Weah administration as a dictatorship that is incurably and unrepentantly corrupt has also said that he sees the Weah dictatorship moving along the path of self-destruction, as breakdown from within and mass resistance from without are only a matter of time.



Recently, Prof. Alaric Tokpa condemned the ban on student politics at the University of Liberia and insisted that the attack on democratic practices in the student community was only the beginning of a wickedly motivated and calculated plan that is aimed at liquidating critical voices and opposition politicians in Liberia. He, therefore, calls on all concerned to come together and work hard to place George Weah in his proper lane in order to ensure the protection of the Constitution of Liberia and the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2003.

Signed: Alaric Tokpa

Alaric Tokpa

National Chairman, NDCThe Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

January 27, 2019

Over the past three decades I wrote more than two hundred articles about Israel, envisioning it to be a democratic state, independent and free, a champion of human rights, a force of unity for world Jewry, united in its citizenry, admired by its friends, envied by its detractors, and above all at peace with the Arab states and especially with the Palestinians. My vision about Israel was founded on my deep sense of the Jews turbulent and tragic history and their yearning for a home of their own in which to live in peace and security.



As the years went by, I became increasingly disillusioned with Israels endemic political disunity, its inability to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, the growing public complacency, the loss of the countrys unity of purpose, and the abandonment of its moral responsibility. Together, these factors pose an ominous danger to Israel as we know it, calling for new thinking and a recognition of what went astray and what can be done to rectify what has become the norm in order to save Israel from itself.



Israel was created to provide a new haven and refuge to any Jew who seeks to live in a free Jewish state without fear. This symbiotic relationship became increasingly stronger over the years, and Israel has been able to count on the unequivocal support of the American and European Jewish community. The nature of the relationship, however, began to change, especially during the past 10 years.



Given that the religious parties have joined nearly all coalition governments, they have accumulated political power far greater than their constituency warrants, giving them a monopoly on all religious affairs in Israel, and by extension on diaspora Jews. As a result, the gap between Israeli Jews (mostly the Orthodox community) and Western Conservative and Reform Jews living mainly in the US has become alarmingly wider.



The growing cleavage has further intensified because Netanyahu reneged, under the pressure of the Rabbinical institutions, on an agreement that would have allowed men and women to pray together at a designated section of the Western Wall.



Moreover, whereas American and European Jews are focused on liberalism, equality, and pursuing a more tolerant society, Israeli Jews remain occupied with the perceived threats to their security from Iran and Palestinian extremism. And while American Jews largely oppose the occupation and strongly bemoan the ill treatment of the Palestinians, the Israelis, especially from the right, view the Palestinians as a pestilential enemy and justify the occupation as necessary for national security.



These developments have dangerously exacerbated the religious and ideological differences between the two sides while eroding Israels role as a unifying force for world Jewry, forgetting that Jewish survival over the millennia is largely attributed to their affinity to each other, regardless of their religious denomination and social milieu. One of the more visible effects of this development is the diminishing number of Jews immigrating to Israel, as they no longer view the country as a safe haven and believe that it has failed to embrace the ideals for which they stood.



In Israel itself, the gap between secular and Orthodox Jews has also become increasingly unsettling. The rabbinical institutions have assumed the position of governing all aspects of religious life in Israel, including marriage, divorce, conversion, and prayer at the Wall. For example, Israelis who wish to have a non-Orthodox wedding must go outside the country to marry; otherwise, it is not recognized by the rabbinical authorities.



One other major controversial issue is the insistence of the Orthodox community not to induct their children to serve in the Israeli army and focus instead on the study of the Torah, when in fact military service is compulsory for all Israelis. Although legislation was passed to induct religious Jews into the army, it was subsequently rescinded under pressure from the religious political parties. This raises the ire of the security forces who are required to protect all Israelis, including Orthodox Jews who live in ideological settlements deep in the West Bank.



The opposition of the rabbinical authorities to the institutionalization of the Conservative or Reform movements created another conflicting issue that continued to sour the relationship between the two camps. That is, while a majority of Israelis are secular Jews, they reject any restriction by the Orthodox establishment on how to practice their religion as they see fit.



Finally, although antisemitism has existed from time immemorial, as the Jews have been blamed for all the ills and troubles that the Muslim and Christian world have endured, it has fluctuated only in intensity depending on the time and socio-political environment that exists in any given country. Israeli policies toward the Palestinians have without a doubt contributed to the rise of antisemitism in recent years. Successive Israeli governments dismiss the notion that the rise of antisemitism relates in any way to the continuing occupation.



Antisemitism is on the rise everywhere, including the United States  as we can see from Charlottesville, where young men with tiki torches chanted Jews will not replace us, and the slaughter at Pittsburghs Tree of Life Congregation in October. Even as hatred of Jews is growing on both sides of the Atlantic, radical Zionists claim that a multi-culturist Israel cannot thrive  some form of apartheid is the only viable alternative. But in the process, they effectively repeat the argument that was used in earlier European history against the Jews themselves. As the philosopher Slavoj Zizek pointed out, It is as if Israeli extremists on the right are ready to acknowledge Western European intolerance towards the influx of other cultures if their right not to tolerate Palestinians is respected.



This position serves to overlook the reality of the Palestinians in the occupied territories and the acuteness of their outcry, which resonates especially in democratic countries, who believe that the Palestinians have the right to a state of their own. They argue that Israel has neither the legal nor the moral ground to deny them their right, providing the rationale for the eager antisemites.



Additionally, the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are seen as the face of the occupation and of Israels determination to maintain it. This gave rise to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israeli goods produced or manufactured in the settlements. The problem with BDS is not the extent to which Israeli exports are adversely affected, but that it is used by others to incite antisemitism, making it increasingly more difficult to divorce it from mainstream antisemitism.



The fact that the Jews, who have been oppressed over the centuries, are now seen by its detractors as the oppressors draws particular attention because the world, regardless of merit, has come to expect a higher moral standard from Israel. The failure of the Israelis to live up to these expectations continues to feed into antisemitic sentiments, and the occupation serves as a constant reminder  and instigates  the less vociferous anti-Semites to become more vocal.



I do not believe that Israel faces an existential danger from any of its enemies, including Iran. The greatest threat to its future well-being and endurance emanates from within. Sadly, successive Israeli leaders lost their moral compass and failed to live up to the promise and the purpose of Israels creation.



The new generation of Israeli leaders have a solemn duty to seek the unification of world Jewry, end the conflict with Palestinians, and champion the causes of human rights and liberty. Unless Israel pursues these and other humanitarian causes, it will lose its very soul and forfeit its reason for beinga price that the Israelis cannot afford to pay.

About the Author: Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

[email protected] Web: www.alonben-meir.comThe Perspective

Atlanta, Georgia

Posted January 27, 2019

Cllr. Tiawan S. Gongloe

Senior Associate Justice Kabineh .M. Janeh and other associate justices of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Liberia, Associate Justices, and judges of subordinate courts



Ambassador Gang, Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Cameroon and Vice Doyen of the Diplomatic Corp.

Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps

Mr. Yacoub EL HILLO, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Liberia,

Our Guest speaker

Other HEADS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Retired Justice George E. Henries, our Installing Officer

Cllr. F. Musa Dean, Minister of Justice and Dean of the Supreme Court Bar

His Honor Roosevelt Willie, President of the Association of Trial Judges of Liberia

Cllr. G. Moses Paigar, Immediate Past President of the Liberia National Bar Association, and members of the LNBA

Cllr. Jamal Detho, Associate Dean of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, members of the faculty and students of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law

Representative of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia and members of AFELL

Heads and members of other Liberian Professional organizations

The Chairman and members of the Inter-religious Council of Liberia

The Chairman and members of the Traditional Council of Liberia

Chairpersons and members of political parties

Mr. Peter Kwekwe, President of the West African Journalist Association (WAJA)

Mr. Charles Cuffee, President of the Press Union of Liberia

The heads of Human Rights and other civil society organizations

Members of CENPID and other Hatai Shops across Liberia, the incubators of democratic debates

Heads of student and youth organizations

Mrs. Sonie Gongloe, my dear wife and other members of my family, and

Other distinguished ladies and gentlemen

Before proceeding any further, may I seek your indulgence to stand with me for a moment in memory of two former presidents of the Liberian National Bar Association, who made their compulsory transitions from temporary life to eternal life over the last two years, Cllrs. Theophilus C. Gould and David A. B. Jallah. Thank you and you may have your seats. These erudite lawyers will continue to be remembered for their services to the LNBA. Also, before proceeding any further, l wish to publicly acknowledge the efforts of those who made it possible for me to stand here today. Words are truly inadequate for the degree of gratitude that I want to express to my campaign team led by Cllr. Kuku Dorbor; the strong support shown by the local bars, led by the Nimba Bar, the prosecutors, the public defenders and lawyers serving in the judiciary, as well as non-lawyers all across Liberia and the diaspora, including students of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, my friends of CENPID Hatai shops and other hatai shops, who, although without the right to vote, displayed their rights of engagement with the electoral process by campaigning for the election of the leadership team of the LNBA that just took the oath of office a few minutes ago. On behalf of this team, I thank you for your overwhelming support. Further, I want thank Cllr. Bormah Varmah, Chairman of the Steering Committee for this installation program, and his team for the great preparatory work for this event. My final words of gratitude go to Cllr. G. Moses Paigar, who became former President, just a few minutes ago, for the enormous cooperation and support given our team for the holding of this event. Thank you, Mr. President Emeritus.



By the nearly unanimous support, evidenced by nearly eighty percent of the votes cast, members of the Liberian National Bar Association have given me a very strong mandate to serve the LNBA for the next three years. The question on everyones mind is what will the Gongloe administration do for the Bar. The answer is simple. I will do what I promised to do during the campaign because it was based on those promises that I was elected by my colleagues. During my campaign, I promised that in addition to continuing the current programs and projects of the LNBA, I will start a Bar Journal to serve as an avenue for lawyers to critically examine the opinions of the Supreme Court through scholarly articles, work on an insurance scheme for members of the LNBA, and to lead the Bar in serving as a general counsel for the Liberian society on all contentious legal issues. The bar cannot, must not and will not be silent on contentious legal issues that have the propensity to lead our country into confusion or chaos and reverse the gains made, collectively, in re-establishing a peaceful social order, within the framework of the law, with the support of the international community, following fourteen years of fratricidal civil conflict that caused the estimated deaths of more than 250,000 of our compatriots and the destruction of all of our basic infrastructure in our country.



For example, there is a current debate on whether the President of Liberia can appoint an ambassador while the Senate is on recess. The clear legal answer to this simple legal question is NO! There is no provision under our constitution for the appointment of an ambassador without the advice and consent of the Liberian Senate under any circumstance. Article 54 of the Constitution of Liberia which provides for the appointment of public official by the President states,  The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Senate, appoint and commission a) cabinet ministers, deputy and assistant cabinet ministers; b) ambassadors, ministers, consuls... amongst other officials of government. There is no exception to this mandatory constitutional procedure for the appointment of public officials by the President, even during a state of emergency. The constitution of other countries may have provisions for the appointment of an ambassador while the Senate is on recess. For instance, Article II section 2.3 of the United States Constitution provides The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. But the United States Constitution cannot form the basis of any appointment of a public official in Liberia. The Constitution of Liberia controls how Liberia should be governed.



The voice of the Bar will be heard loudly on all contentious legal issues. We owe a collective duty to our country as lawyers to provide clarifications on legal issues, as a way of sustaining the peace and preventing conflict. In fact, it is within our professional interest to do everything, legally possible, to sustain the peace. Lawyers are, perhaps, the only professionals, who cannot practice their profession in the absence of peace. As we experienced during our own civil conflict, the courts and law offices immediately shut down at the first gun sound, but preachers continued to preach at displaced centers and refugee camps, medical doctors and nurses were practicing their profession at the clinics, including mobile clinics providing services for combatants and their victims and journalists were practicing their profession by reporting on the conflict. Therefore, our recent national experience has shown us that it is impossible for us to perform our profession when our country descends into conflict. That is why it is not in our professional interest to remain silent when decisions and actions are taken by public officeholders in the three branches of government that we know to be in clear violation of our constitution, statute laws, and international treaties to which our country is a state party.



We must NOT and should NOT be silent individually and collectively as members of the legal profession and confine ourselves to only issues brought to us by those who are able to pay us for legal services. While the legal profession is the means by which we earn the means to sustain ourselves, like the bars of other countries, the Liberian people look up to us for giving them counsel when they are confused about whether the actions of government and its functionaries are within the framework of the law or not. When we fail to take a professional position on illegal decisions and actions of public officials that have the potential of undermining the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights, we must take the blame for any conflict that results from our silence. Sometimes public officials sincerely believe that their decisions and actions are supported by law, when in fact, those actions are illegal. In a highly illiterate society like ours, the educated segment of our population has the moral responsibility to guide against actions of the government and its functionaries that are illegal. Lawyers must take the lead in the performance of such patriotic duty. The physicist Albert Einstein, once said, The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. Because we lawyers have, largely, remained silent over the years on crucial national issues of governance that have negative legal implications, the general view of the people has been that we are part of the problem that has kept this country behind. We must change that perception by showing where we stand, as a professional body, on national issues that have negative legal implications. This is the best way to help our government and the people of Liberia.



My position on the new posture that lawyers in this country must collectively adopt is based on what bars of other countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and many other bars do in their countries. My position is also informed by the history of this country. It is not a secret and one does not need to do any great research to know that the civil conflict in Liberia was not rooted in religious or ethnic rivalries like Somalia or Rwanda. The Liberian civil conflict was the consequence of perennial bad governance by successive governments of Liberia based on corruption and wanton disregard for the Constitution and statutory laws of our country. Liberian history reveals that corruption and the lack of respect for the law were accentuated under the administration of three presidents of Liberia who were lawyers. Instead of using their knowledge of the law to lay a firm foundation for good governance, they used it for the purpose of perpetuating themselves in power and engaging in other forms of corruption. The three presidents that I have reference to are Edward James Roye, Charles D. B. King, and William V. S. Tubman. They left very bad impressions on the minds of the people of Liberia and have made it difficult for the people to trust lawyers to lead this country.



President Edward James Roye, a lawyer who had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice of the Supreme of Liberia before becoming President of Liberia, tried to manipulate the law in such a manner to allow him to stay in power longer than provided by the Constitution. In a special election held in May, 1870 for the amendment of the Constitution of Liberia to reflect a change in the term of office of the President from two years to four years, the members of the House of Representatives from two years to four years and the Senate from four years to eight years, President E. J. Roye took the following illegal actions: He announced the result of the special election and said that the amendment had been endorsed by the votes cast when it was not his place to do so, as the Constitution provided for the Speaker of the House to perform that role, and when the Speaker subsequently announced that the amendment was not carried, Roye stood his ground and said that his term of office had been extended by the votes cast in the special election and that he would remain in office. Therefore, he refused to hold a presidential election. Yet as a lawyer, Roye was aware that even, if the people had voted for the amendment, he could not have benefited from it as an incumbent President. Roye also obtained a loan from Britain in 1871 in the amount one hundred thousand pounds sterling. But before the legislature could approve the use of that money through the budgeting process, he took his share, gave some to others, and even purchased goods in London.



Delivering his annual message to the Legislature on December 4, 1871, Royes Vice President, James S. Smith, who succeeded him after he was forcibly removed from power for his unlawful actions, gave the following account of President Royes misconduct regarding the loan:



No sooner was it announced in Liberia that the loan had been secured, then President Roye -- before a single dollar been paid into the treasury of the Republic for any of the purposes specified in the loan act, and before the Legislature had either accepted the loan or taken any action in relation thereto -- commenced to draw drafts against it for account of himself and others All documents in our possession relative to the loan would be laid before you and as soon as others come to hand Permanent among the amounts drawn we discovered $30,819 in favor of President Roye and $4,376.02 for his Secretary of State.

Smith then expressed regret for the woeful conduct of President Roye, in the following words:



I exceedingly regret that the deposition of the President is connected to two very important and vital interests of our country, which are the introduction of money and the extension of the presidential term. From this account, it is clear that President Royes removal from power on October 26, 1871, was based on corruption and his disregard for the Constitution of Liberia.



Unfortunately, the removal of Roye, although for justifiable reasons, was also done without regard for the Constitution of Liberia. While the Constitution provided, as it does now, for the removal of the President of Liberia through the process of impeachment, some legislators met somewhere in Monrovia and issued a manifesto declaring the removal of President Roye. The process stimulated a constitutional crisis that ended with the detention, brutal treatment, and death of President Roye. The removal of Roye from office was the first brutal coup detat in Liberia. It was a clear example of how corruption and disregard for the law by public officials can stimulate national crisis and civil conflict.



As if the Roye affair was not lesson enough to prevent corruption and disregard for the law by those who occupy government positions, Liberia witnessed similar misconduct in public office by Presidents King and Tubman. President Charles D. B. King, who had served as Attorney General and Secretary State before becoming the President of Liberia, acted in reckless disregard for the Constitution of Liberia and governments obligation under international law. He rigged the presidential election held in 1927 in order to unlawfully remain in power. According to historical accounts of that election, in an election in which there were less than 15,000 registered voters, President King defeated his opponent T. J. R. Falkner by obtaining 243, 000 votes, which constituted 96.43% and his opponent obtained 9,000 votes. King also violated Liberias obligation under the League of Nations by selling slave labor to a Spanish plantation company located in Fernando Po, known today as Equatorial Guinea.



Similarly, President William V. S. Tubman, who had been a member of the Senate and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia before becoming President, used his legal knowledge to manipulate and control the other two branches of government, as well as, engage in massive violation of the fundamental rights of other Liberians, especially journalists and other politicians, as well as other Liberians, in order to perpetuate himself in power, in flagrant violation of the Constitution of Liberia and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.



I have accentuated the reckless disregard for the law and corruption under these three past presidents, in order to call the attention of my colleagues in the legal profession to the need for us to redeem the image of the legal profession in Liberia because it was wrongly used by past Liberian "leaders" who were members of our profession to violate the Constitution of Liberia and to hinder democratic governance and respect for human rights. While these lawyers were manipulating the law to perpetuate themselves in power, other lawyers were collaborating with them and except for a few, most lawyers remained silent.



Given this history of the legal profession in Liberia, we cannot remain silent and justify our silence with a narrow definition of our role as only providing legal services to our clients, in our offices and in the courtroom, and disregard current actions of government that could be inconsistent with governance by the rule of law.in government. To maintain such a posture and believe lawyers will be safe and live in comfort while the rest of our fellow citizens bear the brunt of corruption and disregard for the law, is to have a very myopic view of the legal profession. Our national experience has shown that lawyers, eventually, become victims of bad governance like the rest of the people. As I said earlier, at the sound of any gunfire, courts are the first public offices to be shut down and they remain closed until order is restored. Therefore, it is clear that lawyers can practice their profession only when there is peace. That is why we cannot pretend to not see the early warning signs of conflict, which is the violation of the Constitution and the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and international law.



We have an obligation to speak out about the actions of public officials that threaten the peace and hinder national progress. Article 15c of the Constitution of Liberia provides that the people have a right to know about their government and its functionaries. Interestingly, Liberian politicians only know the importance of this provision of the Constitution when they are not in power. When they get to power, and other Liberians begin to speak about their actions, then they change their emphasis from article 15c of the Constitution to article 15a which says Every person shall have the right to freedom of expression, being fully responsible for the abuse thereof Most often those in power tend to give a narrow definition of the word abuse, in the context of free speech, to suit their situation. Most often a demand for accountability is considered as an abuse of free speech by public officials.



It is our role, as a professional body, to educate the governors and the governed that the people have a right to speak truth to the governors, and the governors have a corresponding duty to speak truth to the people about their actions. Mutual trust and respect based on unlimited flow of information between the people and public servants is the way to build a free, democratic and open society. This is the only way that public trust is gained and maintained. It is important for officials of government to know that public trust is the only protection that any government has, as no army, no police or other armed security forces, no matter how large in number, is adequate to protect a government and its functionaries in an atmosphere of mass discontent. Liberian public officials, based on our recent history, should know this to be true better than anyone else.



Our history of misrule rooted in the lack of respect for the law and human rights by public officials, makes every government and its officials suspect until their record of performance proves otherwise. Liberians who are outspoken speak about our government the way they do because of the conduct of past governments and their functionaries. Those who lead today must understand that they are suspect until their records show a positive change in behavior or until their behavior and actions demonstrate transparency, accountability, and putting the security and welfare of the people above their personal interests Instead of getting angry for what their critics say, officials of government should demonstrate integrity by ensuring consistency between what they say and what they do. Over time, the people will change and begin to respect and honor them. I advise government officials to consider criticisms, no matter how brutal, as a stimulant to do better than previous public officials, and not as a display of hatred or envy. Respect, most often, is a response to honorable conduct and not just merely due to the office a person occupies. Officials of government who are honest and conduct themselves in a respectable manner will always be respected. On the other hand, a public official who is corrupt acts outside of the scope of the law, and violates the rights of others, should not expect anyone to respect him or her. The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, "Dont do unto others what you dont want done unto you. If you want to be respected as a public official, be respectful.



For a long time, government officials have relied on laws that criminalize so-called abuse of free speech as a protection from criticism. These laws are sedition, criminal malevolence and criminal libel against the President. When I served as Solicitor General of Liberia, I told President Sirleaf that she could not say she believes in freedom of expression and allow laws that criminalize speech to still be part of our Penal Law. Therefore, I submitted to her a draft act to repeal sedition, criminal malevolence and criminal libel against the President. I understand that the House of Representatives has passed the repeal act and it is now before the Senate. I call upon the Senate to concur with the House in repealing these anti-speech laws without further delay. Democracy is rooted in the freedom to disagree, especially with officials of government, and this cannot happen where speech is criminalized. Free speech and its corresponding freedom of the press are the most effective tools available to the people for evaluating their government and its functionaries.



The LNBA, under our administration, will promote a culture of peace in Liberia by making its position known on the violation of law by public officials in the three branches of our government. We will remind public officials that prior to the assumption of their offices they made a solemn promise to the Liberian people, through their oaths to support, uphold, protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Liberia, bear true faith and allegiance to the Republic, and that they will faithfully, conscientiously and impartially discharge the duties and functions of their offices to the best of their abilities. This is our way of keeping the peace, preventing conflict, and promoting sustained national progress and prosperity. My team is prepared to lead the LNBA in the performance of this role for our common good and in the interest of our collective security in Liberia, the Mano River Union, and ECOWAS. This is how we understand the mandate you gave us. Our team is committed to dialogue within the LNBA when there are differences of opinion or interpretation of the law, we will try to always be available to you, and I assure you that we value the ideas and contributions that each member can bring. We seek the full cooperation of the entire membership of the LNBA, the government, the civil society, the business community, our international partners, and the larger Liberian society in the execution of our mandate. I thank you.Sterling Heights, MI (48312)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mainly clear skies after midnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low around 60F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mainly clear skies after midnight. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. Low around 60F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

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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.Famous artist Henri Matisse once said, creativity takes courage, and this quote has driven one local artist to not only create her own works of art, but share them all over the United States.

Christina Wilson made a very special visit to the Wells Community Library recently to promote her new childrens book, Peek-a-boo Bear. The 2003 United South Central graduate, who now lives in Alaska with her husband Josh and son Jonah, visited the library on Jan. 22 for a special story time followed by a coloring session with local children.

My paintings have a piece of my vulnerability and hints of my courageous style that show bright color, intense texture, and lively movement, all of which leads me to think of myself as an artist who travels outside the boundaries of conventional painting, says Wilson. I travel outside the boundaries of my paintings both figuratively and literally as many of my works are inspired by foreign people, intriguing conversations, and vast landscapes in my journeys outside of the United States.

The Minnesota natives new book highlights the majestic creatures of Alaska. From brown bears to arctic puffins, jellyfish, ravens, and moose, Wilsons lively and colorful game of peek-a-boo had children of all ages fascinated, moving, and grooving like the animals of Alaska.

She is a professor of studio arts at Alaska Pacific University and a contemporary landscape artist in Anchorage, Alaska. Wilson has ventured to Africa, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia and Northern America to gather a multitude of inspirations for her works. The artist has a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Minnesota-Morris, and a Master of Science in counseling psychology at Alaska Pacific University, and is a licensed professional counselor who utilizes expressive arts therapy in her practice.

So how did a small town Minnesota girl wind up in the wilds of Alaska? Wilson says she originally went to Alaska following the love of her life whom she met in the Peace Corps in West Africa. Alaska is now the place that Wilson calls home, and enjoys exploring the world with her husband and son.

Wilsons family is from Wells, and has led painting classes at the Wells Public Library in the past. She says it was a joy to host a story time and share both her creativity and her courage with the next generation of potential artists in the area.Heres a bright idea @ucl - how about students dont fill in the NSS and you *still* give departments more funding. pic.twitter.com/SqpAAa4VNV  anarchonion (@MurrayShookchin) January 25, 2019

Heres a bright idea @ucl - how about students dont fill in the NSS and you *still* give departments more funding. pic.twitter.com/SqpAAa4VNV  anarchonion (@MurrayShookchin) January 25, 2019

In order to receive the money, 70% of the final-year students in each department must complete the National Student Survey.According to the NSS website , the NSS is "an influential source of public information about higher education and gives students a powerful collective voice to help shape the future of their course and their university/college for current and prospective students." However, the NSS is not without controversy.The National Union of Students previously called for students to boycott the NSS in 2017 as it is part of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), which would have allowed universities to raise their tuition fees. The resulting boycott meant 12 institutions , including Oxford and Cambridge, did not have a sufficient response rate to publish their NSS score.The University and College Union, which represents university and college staff, also supported the boycott , claiming that TEF would "accelerate the marketisation of our sector, entrench inequality and damage the UK's academic reputation". While the government subsequently backed down on its proposal to link the TEF to tuition fees, some student activists continue to oppose the NSS. Cambridge University Students' Union, for example, is calling for another boycott to make 'a clear statement against the direction of higher education which is becoming increasingly inaccessible and elitist.' CUSU also claim that there is 'no guarantee that the temporary freeze on tuition fees will continue or that the link between TEF and fees will be removed.' UCL's proposal has not avoided criticism either. A student and activist at UCL criticised its attempt to promote the NSS, suggesting that it should just spend the money on students without any conditions attached.

Sally Mackenzie, UCLs Head of Student Engagement, said:

"Higher response rates give us the best picture of our students experience of their UCL education, and help us prioritise areas for improvement.

"So departments that reach a 70 per cent response rate are recognised with an award. Students and department staff decide together how the money will be spent."Visits to YouPorn lasted approximately just under 9 minutes, with the average session lasting 8 minutes and 42 seconds. The most searched for adult performers from the UK were Kim Kardashian, Stormy Daniels and Mia Khalifa. The top searched terms in the UK were angled towards the Mature theme with 'Step Mom' and 'MILF' and 'British' leading the list. In comparison, 'Lesbian,' 'Massage' and 'Japanese' were the most searched global terms for YouPorn. 'Public' and 'Big Ass' also made the list.Majority of youPorn's traffic derives from the US, with Germany and India securing second and third place respectively. The UK ranked 6th in terms of traffic to the site with the gender breakdown comprising of a 22% female and 78% male audience.The top searched by YouPorn's female audiences included 'Lesbian' and 'Gangbang' compared with 'MILF' and 'Stepmom' by male users. 'Francaise' ranked as the 3rd most popular search by both male and female viewers.Tangs birth parents were Cantonese, but she was raised by a white British family. The play explores belonging to two cultures, and how this shapes who you are and how you view the world and yourself.

Image credit: Ikin YumThe Mexican artist was named the winner of the competition, run by the Saatchi Gallery and Huawei, from a pool of over 9,000 applicants in 2017. Her photograph Daydream in Blue, depicting a boy selling candyfloss on a beach in Tijuana, succeeded in transforming the introversion of the smartphone into a celebration of the natural world.

Paola Ismene, 'Daydream in Blue'.  Paola Ismene, 2017.

Encouraging

individuals to turn the camera away from themselves and to their surroundings, the competition highlighted the role of the mobile phone as a vessel for self-expression and artistic freedom. The Saatchi Gallerys From Selfie to Self-Expression show in association with Huawei ran concurrently to the competition. The appraised exhibition documented the history of the selfie from digital versions of Old Master portraits to interactive works from contemporary artists, along with selfies that have become iconic in the digital era.The exhibition placed the works of artists such as Rembrandt, Velasquez, Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman in conversation with each other, creating an amalgamation of the past and present in an exploration of the self. The corresponding competition encouraged the opposite, turning the camera away from the body and to the world around the artist.

A work from Ismene's Saatchi Gallery exhibition. Image: Saatchi Gallery,  Paola Ismene, 2018.

Her success in the competition triggered an exploration into the cultural phenomenon of the selfie in Ismenes work, and the consequent impact this has on society. Her current exhibition at the Saatchi, running until 22 February, consists of images taken on the Huawei P20 Pro of her local community. This smartphone is part of a series by Huawei and Leica that aims to reinvent mobile photography through the incorporation of a dual-lens camera. Justin Costello, head of UK marketing for Huawei, commends Ismenes use of the smartphone as an artistic tool: The images she has taken on theare a stunning view into life in her community and totally live up to the founding idea of the competition. Ismene succeeds in capturing her everyday life, injecting creativity into otherwise mundane activities. I construct narratives that negotiate the interaction between the real and the imaginary in pursuit of a collective identity, claims the, my work serves as a reminder of what unifies us as human beings: as complex individuals, connected by the same emotions and inhabitants of the same physical plane."

A piece from one of the #SelfExpression runners-up, Casey Hennessy. 'Green Waterfall',  Casey Hennessey, 2017.A large $6 million remodeling project at United Hospital District (UHD) hospital in Blue Earth is well underway.

The major portion of the remodeling involves the emergency room area. It will be expanded and updated.

But, there are also projects involving the in-hospital reception desk area, the chapel, restrooms and gift shop. Some of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) in the hospital is also going to be changed and updated, as well. In fact, the HVAC changes are some of the larger costs involved with the work being done.

The original ER (emergency room) was built in 1968, says Rick Ash, UHD chief executive officer. It was last updated in 1999.

Ash says the major reason for the remodeling is due to the way patients needs are changing. There are more cases of mental health issues being handled in the ER these days.

We need to be more aware of patient safety and security, Ash says. Not just for the patient being treated or held, but other patients in the emergency room area. Staff safety and security is also a concern.

Ash says it is not uncommon for a person to be brought into the ER who needs to be restrained. So, one of the new additions is a secure locked room where a patient cannot harm others or themselves.

And, Ash adds, sometimes this person needs to be held in the room for several days before being released or transported elsewhere.

The emergency room itself will be expanded. To the north it will move out into the hallway that served as an operation room waiting area. To the south a whole new outside brick wall will be built, to the east of the current emergency room entrance.

That entrance will eventually go away, and entrance to the new emergency room area will be in the main front door to the hospital itself.

While the construction is going on, entrance at the main front door into the hospital will be limited. They are still accessible for those who are going to physical therapy, but not much else.

The main entrance is temporarily moved to the UHD Clinic doors.

And, the emergency room area itself is being temporarily moved to just inside the northeast doors in the rear of the hospital area, at the intersection of 10th and Galbraith streets.

There are some other significant components to the project besides the emergency room. Both the hospitals gift shop and chapel areas will be upgraded and will actually swap places. The gift shop will be located just inside the main front doors, across from the reception/information desk.

The hospital reception/front desk will be moved to be very close to the front door, and will also serve as the entryway into the ER. It is currently located down a hallway from the front door. For the construction period, the reception desk will be by the nurses station, near the temporary ER on the northeast side of the building.

When in doubt, follow the signs, Ash points out.

A portion of the UHD Clinic is also a part of this project. An area on the far south side of the clinic will be finished off with more exam rooms and offices for medical staff.

We are growing, Ash explains. We have 17 medical persons and another one coming in June. Some of our doctors and other medical staff are sharing offices now.

Ash says that when the project was first proposed the initial cost projections were at $3.5 million. However, the current actual costs are expected to be $6 million.

We actually came in with almost $8 million in costs if we did everything that we first wanted to do, Ash explains. But now we have it at $6 million.

Ash added the project should be done by this fall, by the end of October.

UHD is one of the major employers in Blue Earth. They have 244 total employees, with 196 of them full time. Total payroll comes to $14.364 million per year, with another $4 million in employee benefits.

Overall, UHD has just over $33 million in expenses each year.

The hospital and clinic has 10 physicians on staff, another four specialist physicians and nine advanced practice providers, such as PA-Cs (physician assistants-certified) and CNPs (certified nurse practitioners).The West Industrial Park in Blue Earth will be receiving new street surfacing this summer, according to information presented during a public hearing at last Monday nights Blue Earth City Council meeting.

All three streets which comprise the area of the industrial area located along Highway 16 just west of Blue Earth will be resurfaced. Those include Welk, Industrial and Commerce drives.

The resurfacing is a joint project between Faribault County and the city of Blue Earth. Industrial and Commerce drives are also known as County State Aid Highway 63.

Blue Earth city engineer Wes Brown presented the information at the public hearing, which dealt with the streets receiving a mill and overlay of about three inches of bituminous. There will be no underground utility work involved in the project.

Total cost of the work is estimated to be $367,125. Of that amount, the city of Blue Earth will be responsible for $57,640 and the county and state will cover $309,485.

Local property owners in the project area will be responsible for $125,524 in assessments for the work. Blue Earths assessment policy calls for the city to fund 70 percent of the work while the property owners are assessed for 30 percent.

Brown said driveway access will be cutoff at times during the work and street parking will be restricted, but most restrictions will generally be for less than a day.

Bids for the work are expected to be received in April with the work to continue during the summer and be completed by October.

In other business at last nights meeting, the City Council:

Heard a presentation on how to make Blue Earth a Dementia Friendly Community.

Dan Woodring of Interfaith Caregivers met with the council during their 4:30 p.m. work session before their regular meeting Monday night to discuss things his group can do to help make Blue Earth an official Dementia Friendly Community.

The council discussed having city staff and police, ambulance and fire department personnel take the one-hour dementia friendly classes offered by Interfaith. Cindy Lyon of the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce also offered to host some of the Interfaith sessions that would be held for business owners in the city.

Heard annual reports covering 2018 from both the Blue Earth Fire Department and the Blue Earth Police Department. The fire department had 99 calls, while the police department had 3,460 calls for service.

Fire chief Roger Davis gave the report and said the department is down to 28 members with the recent resignations of a couple members. He added he has another resignation on his desk which would drop the total to 27.

We are planning a membership drive in April, Davis said. We would like to get back to between 30 and 32 members if we could.

Voted to accept a bid from Horizon Commercial Pool Supply for a new slide at the pool at a cost of $84,945.

The council had previously looked at the bids, but the low bid seemed too low and wanted it investigated further.

Pool manager Michele Hall reported there were some issues with that bid, and it would take time to get it corrected and would cause a delay in getting a slide for this year.

The council voted to accept the next lowest bid instead and have the slide installed for the pool season this year.

They also accepted a quote of $19,100 for repair of hail damage on the roof at the pool building. The quote was from Priority Construction Services and was the lowest of three received. All three bids were from out of town contractors which were in town to reshingle roofs.

Said OK to a request to hold a wedding in June at the Faribault County Fairgrounds, which is a Blue Earth City Park.

Joe Franta was present at the meeting to present his request to have his wedding on June 22 in the tent camping area of the city owned campground. The wedding reception is going to be held in the 4-H building at the fairgrounds.

Franta also wanted to have access to some of the other full campsites. After some discussion and some compromise, the council granted the request.

They allowed Franta to reserve several of the campsites while still keeping some open for other campers.

The council briefly discussed changes in the sales agreement for the sale of the Three Sisters buildings to Rural Renaissance Project but took no action. City attorney David Frundt did say he expected the closing to still happen in March.

Discussed a request from a citizen to have a water/sewer bill reduced, which had some very high usage for a period of time.

The council decided they did not have enough information as to the cause of the high bills and will take up the matter at the next meeting.

Learned the investigation into police officer Chad Bonin should be completed by the end of this week.

The council set a special closed meeting for this Monday, Jan. 28, to study the results of the investigation.South Africa: SA, Lesotho Ministers to discuss cooperation

Home Affairs Minister Siyabonga Cwele is set to meet with his Lesotho counterpart Tsukutlane Au at the Maseru Bridge border post on Monday.

The meeting is aimed at reviewing and taking forward the implementation of current areas of cooperation. These areas include the Lesotho Special Dispensation Project and the Intervention Plan on Traffic Congestion at Maseru Bridge border post, said the Department of Home Affairs on Sunday.

Minister Cweles meeting with Minister Au is in line with South Africas new approach to management of international migration and safe movement of people which is articulated in the 2017 White Paper on International Migration.

In terms of the new policy and approach, South Africa is prioritising cooperation with countries in the Southern Africa Development Community.

The meeting, which will include the two Ministers conducting a walk about at the border post to monitor operations, is set to get underway at the border post located in the Free State at 10:30am.

In December last year, Cabinet announced that it has approved the One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) National Framework for implementation.

This provides guidance towards the speedy establishment of OSBPs between South Africa and its neighbouring countries.

At the time, Cabinet said the OSBP will enhance trade facilitation without compromising national security or revenue collection through the efficient movement of goods, persons and services between South Africa and the adjoining states of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2019-01-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.Hong Kong: Nurturing HKs culinary talent

Hong Kong is home to more than 15,000 restaurants serving up cuisines from all corners of the globe, making it a world-renowned gourmet paradise. To nurture quality manpower in international cuisine, the Vocational Training Councils International Culinary Institute has been offering a variety of culinary arts training since 2014.

Its new campus was opened in Pok Fu Lam in September last year, where students are trained up for a career in the fast growing and internationalised catering industry.

Gastronomical inspiration

The buildings design concept was inspired by the shape of a salt crystal.

Salt is the universal ingredient of all cuisine types and it can also bring out the best flavours in our food. Just like vocational and professional education and training, we bring out the best in our students, International Culinary Institute Principal Winnie Ngan explained.

We aim to train up a new generation of chefs who are creative and passionate, and we hope to uphold Hong Kongs leadership position as Asias gourmet paradise.

The campus houses a comprehensive array of facilities including training kitchens, a training cafe, a wine forum, a hall of gastronomy for event training, a sensory lab for food science education and much more.

Students can choose from a range of programmes at different qualification levels, including the Higher Diploma in Baking & Pastry Arts which was introduced in the current academic year. While the Diploma in International Culinary Arts will be offered in the next academic year to provide training in different regional cuisines.

The institute provides world-class culinary training for more than 2,000 students covering European, Mediterranean, American, Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines.

In our Diploma programme, students will be able to learn cuisines from these different parts of the world, supporting the development of the catering industry in Hong Kong, added Ms Ngan.

Success story

Eva Chan is a culinary institute graduate. After finishing secondary school, the 20-year-old aspiring baker joined the Diploma in Bakery, Pastry & Confectionery programme.

When I was small, I often watched my mother making cakes at home. That sparked my interest and I began to learn how to cook. My brother and grandfather are also chefs, so my family background influenced me a lot. I love to cook, she said.

Miss Chan even won a prize in the patisserie and confectionery trade section at a regional competition last year. She will also represent Hong Kong at the WorldSkills Kazan in Russia this August.

She is now receiving intensive training for the competition at the institute while working part-time as a baker in a five-star hotel to gain more experience.

I treasure this opportunity to compete in an international competition. My target is to finish the tasks on time and achieve excellent results.

Her next goal is to secure full-time employment and to run a cafe in the future.

This story has been published on: 2019-01-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.